Parker's Partner

Chapter 2

The bell to end last period rang and Peter stood up, shoving his books in his backpack. He slung his backpack over one shoulder and walked out of class, Ned and MJ close behind, all three chattering like nothing weird had happened that day.
After Peter and Ned parted ways with MJ because she was going in the opposite direction to get home, Peter stopped walking and turned to look Ned straight in the eye. "Alright, what happened to you? You were going to explain this morning but you never got around to it, what's going on?"
"I was up all night at the hospital..." Ned trailed off like he was going to continue but he didn't want to.
"Why?" Peter asked gently, seeing that the subject was touchy for his best friend.
"Because my uncle, the one I'm closest with, has cancer."
"Oh, Ned I'm sorry," Peter didn't know what to say. In this kind of situation he new better than to press Ned, and instead offered for Ned to spend the night and build LEGOs.
Ned agreed and they both got on the subway back to Peter's apartment. When they got there, they both said hi to Aunt May, plopped their bags down in the living room, and went to Peter's room.
As they started on Ned's latest LEGO Star Wars creation, an Empire command ship, Ned began to realize something. "Hey Pete?"
"What?" Peter half mumbled as he put a couple pieces on the bridge of the ship.
"Don't you have rounds Spider-man?" Ned slightly grinned.
Peter's head snapped up to look at Ned in surprise and a look of 'oh crap' spread across his face.
"Ohhh, sh**!" Peter almost yelled. He jumped up and started stripping. He grabbed his suit from a special hiding place in his closet and slid it on, pressing the spider in the middle so it sucked onto his skin. He ran out his door and over to Aunt May yelling, "I have to go, I forgot I have to do my rounds! Bye, love you," he pecked her on the cheek before pulling his mask on, running back into his room and diving out the window.
Ned watched as Peter shot a web at a nearby building and took off into the big city.
"Hey Karen!" Peter said happily, swinging from building to building. "Any police reports tonight?"
"Hello Peter, according to my police scanners, there's been a break-in at 4th and Jefferson Avenue, the Star Memorial bank."
"Set a route," Peter smiled under his mask, loving being back out in the cool city air. Loving the feeling of being Spider-Man once again.
"Setting route, estimated arrival time: two minutes," said Karen.
"Great!" Peter said happily, swinging up to the corner of the top of a building overlooking the alley where the robbers were loading cash into a big black van. He watched them for a moment before jumping down and landing square on his feet in a crouch. He stood up and leaned against the brick building wall with his elbow, the robbers hadn't noticed him yet.
"Helloo!" he said cheerily, at the same time gaging how many of them there were.
They all froze and looked at him, one in the process of throwing a duffle bag of money in the back of the van dropped it on his foot. There was a moments pause then several of them pulled out guns and pointed them at Peter.
"L-look, w-we don't want a-any t-trouble!" The one closest to Peter said, his hands shaking. "We didn't have a choice."
"You should have thought of that before you decided to rob a bank in a city with Spider-Man in it," Peter said nonchalantly. A split second later he shot webs at them, knocking the guns out of their hands, then more, pinning several to the opposite wall, and some to the van, as well as the door they were moving money through.
"Karen, would you please call the cops and let them know that they're here," Peter gestured towards the robbers. "And make sure you tell them their Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man said hi!"
"Yes Peter," Karen got to work.
"Have a nice night," Peter nodded towards the robbers, then shot a web at a building about a hundred yards away and took off again.
"Hey Karen," Peter started.
"Yes Peter?"
"Do you- never mind..." He started, then stopped himself.
"What is it Peter?" Karen asked.
"Nothing," Peter tried avoiding her question.
"Alright. I just picked up a fire alert, downtown, twenty-eighth and boulevard."
"On my way," Peter replied, heading in the direction of the sirens.
As he landed on a building next to the building on fire he started looking around. "Karen how bad is it?"
"The fire has spread to the 23 floor, its origin appears to be the 11th floor," Karen scanned the building. "It appears most of the residents have gotten out safely, although I am detecting two life forms on the 12th floor."
"Great," Peter mumbled.
He shot a web at a beam on the outside of the burning building, taking a running leap he jumped, swinging himself over to the building and crashing through a window. Smoke filled the air and Peter could hardly breathe, his lungs stung with the heat and lack of oxygen.
"Where are they Karen?!" He shouted over the roaring of the fire.
"A hundred and twenty-four feet to your left, through there."
Peter turned and saw a wall with a door on one end. He ran for it, kicking it down and running into even thicker smoke and even bigger flames.
"Twenty two feet to your right, they are still alive, but heartbeat detection is weak. Oxygen intake at fourteen percent," Karen said, scanning the two life forms again.
"Karen I can't see anything!" Peter coughed loudly, not being able to breathe.
The vision in his suit turned to x-ray and he caught sight of two bodies over in the corner of the room.
"Wall stability at four percent," Karen said out of nowhere.
"What?! Why didn't you tell me before?!"
"Sorry Peter. You have forty three seconds until building collapse."
"Crap," Peter jumped over a pile of rubble to where the two people were and started to panic.
"Karen there's two of them, I can't get them both out in time!"
Peter picked one of them up, seeing it was a man, he slung him over his shoulder.
"27 seconds until building collapse."
Peter saw the other person was smaller, and having no other choice he picked up what he could see was a small almost teenage looking girl, and put her over his other shoulder. Already almost faint with lack of oxygen for himself, he struggled to carry both of them out of the way of crumbling rubble and into the open space of the room he was first in. He stopped for a second not knowing what to do next and stumbling under the weight of two people when he could hardly see.
"6 seconds until building collapse, Peter get out of there!" Karen sounded concerned.
"Oh eff it!" Peter yelled, running at an open window and crashing through it just as the building collapsed and blew up.
They were falling, the weight of both people disorienting him as he tried to aim his webs at another building while trying not to drop either of them.
The ground grew closer and closer as they fell and a couple yards before they hit it Peter got a grip on his webs and shot one, catching onto a nearby building and swinging all three to safety.
As he landed he set the people down on the ground and doubled over, resting his hands on his knees and coughing really hard as he tried to catch his breath. Some medics came rushing over as soon as he landed, checking the people over and administering oxygen while calling in more ambulances to get them to a hospital. One of the medics came over to Peter and put an oxygen mask on over his Spider-Man mask.
At once Peter started to breathe better and he looked up at the person who put it on him. She was tall and bright blonde, with crystal blue eyes.
"Are you alright Spider-Man?" She asked.
Peter answered by sitting on the ground, slumping his shoulders as he did so. And resting his arms on his slightly bent legs that were splayed out before him.
"Yeah, thanks," he replied to the nurse.
"No, thank you, you saved those people," she crouched down in front of him.
"Just doing my job," Peter gave a light chuckle although it hurt his lungs to do so.
"Lung oxygen levels returning to normal," Karen said, displaying his oxygen level on his mask screen.
He reached up and took the oxygen mask off of his face and handed it back to the nurse.
"Thanks, I'm fine now."
"You sure? Do you need a full check?" She asked politely.
"Nah, I'm okay. But thanks anyway, Lexi," he read her name tag that was pinned to her shirt.
"You're welcome, Spider-Man," she smiled as Peter stood up and shot a web at a building, yanking himself into the air again. He set off back to his home, ready for a good nights sleep.