Parker's Partner

Chapter 4

I got home early after doing my rounds because everything was quiet that night. When I crawled in through my window and landed on the floor I looked towards my bed to find Ned already there building LEGOs.
"He Ned," I said, slipping my suit off.
"Hey," he smiled at me, then held up the LEGO creation. "It's the Millennium Falcon! Or it will be when we're done with it."
"Awesome!" I grinned, pulling on a baggy t-shirt and a pair of sweatpants. "I'll be right back." I told him as I went out of my room into the kitchen where Aunt May was baking cookies.
"Hey Aunt May," I said, opening the fridge and seeing a plate of food probably from dinner, I grabbed it and put it in the microwave.
"Hey Peter, how was..." she trailed off, not knowing how to finish her sentence.
"Rounds were great, I helped a guy find his car in a gigantic parking lot, and an old man climbing up the stairs to his apartment because the elevator was broken, and I delivered some pizzas to a party because the delivery girls car broke down. Other than that, the city's quiet tonight," I finished, the microwave dinging.
I pulled out my food, kissed May on the cheek and went back into my room with Ned.
I heard Aunt May sigh as I left the kitchen. She was okay after our long talk the other night, but I knew she still worried about me, no matter how much I told her she didn't need to. We both loved each other way too much, and she used that as an excuse to worry even more.
I got back in my room and plopped down on the floor next to Ned who was putting pieces on his Millennium Falcon, and began munching on my food.
"So," I mumbled through a bite of food. "How's your uncle?"
"He's doing okay, he's not great obviously, but he's not terrible," Ned replied, adding more pieces.
I finished my food and, setting my plate aside, I reached for some of the lego pieces to start building. We spent the rest of the evening just building LEGOs and talking, then finally fell asleep; Ned asleep on the bottom bunk and me just splayed across the floor next to our finished Millennium Falcon.

--

The next morning was Saturday, so Aunt May let both of us sleep in, and I didn't wake up until almost 10:00, because I was so worn out from the week's rounds. When I finally woke up I shot bolt upright on the floor and looked around me confused for a moment. After I gathered my thoughts I remembered why I was on the floor and looked over to the bed. It was empty and I became confused again.
"Ned?" I called, getting up and rubbing my stiff, from the hard floor, butt.
I walked out into the kitchen and saw Ned sitting at the table eating cereal and watching TV. I sighed, chuckling a little to myself about how funny he looked. His hair was a disaster and he was sitting there in a very rumpled t-shirt and sweatpants.
"Morning," I said, opening the fridge and grabbing the orange juice.
"Morning," he mumbled through a mouth full of cereal.
"Where's May?" I asked, pouring myself a glass of juice.
"She went out grocery shopping, said she'd be back later," Ned replied, finishing his breakfast and still staring at the TV.
I hummed in reply and grabbed myself a bowl, sitting down at the table. For a few minutes there was only the sound of cartoons as I ate my cereal, when the channel suddenly changed to a news alert.
"ALL CITIZENS ARE WANRED TO STAY INDOORS FOR WHAT METEOROLOGISTS ARE SAYING IS A GIANT ICE STORM SPREADING OVER THE CITY. THE STORM IS SAID TO HAVE STARTED RIGHT IN THE MIDDLE OF THE CITY AND THE WARNING IS CITY WIDE. THE STORM WAS ALSO SAID TO HAVE COME OUT OF NOWHERE AND STARTED OUT AS JUST A MAJOR TEMPERATURE DROP RIGHT IN TIMES SQUARE, BUT NOW IS REPORTED TO BE STEADILY GROWING AND COULD COVER THE ENTIRE CITY, INCLUDING SURROUNDING AREAS."
"Uhhh, Peter?" Ned asked.
"What?" I looked up and saw the news cast.
"Do you think that's natural," Ned gulped. "Or something Spidy needs to go handle?"
"Uhhh, I have no idea, but an ice storm doesn't just start in the middle of a giant city, so I should probably go check it out," I stood up and ran to my room, pulling my suit on. "I'll be back," I called to Ned.
"Be careful, it looks really bad," he called back as I slid open my window.
"I always am!" I laughed as I dove out the window towards Times Square.
As I got closer to Times Square I saw a giant cloud of solid white and ice blue, and it was swirling around and growing fast.
"Great, I have to go through that," I muttered. "Karen use the heater if you have to."
"Yes Peter," she replied.
"Where's the center? Cause when I get in there I won't be able to see anything."
"The origin appears to coming from there," my target focused on a spot in the middle of the cloud.
"Alright, let's do this!" I took one last swing and the storm hit me like a hurricane. It was freezing and I could barely see my hands in front of me as I landed on the side of a building. It was so loud I couldn't hear anything.
"Karen!" I shouted, barely even hearing my own voice. "We have to get to the center!"
"Go left," she replied.
I jumped left and began falling, until another building appeared out of nowhere through the cloud. I slammed into it and barely caught myself from falling with one hand gripping onto the bricks.
"Karen, next time tell me there's a building there before I hit it!"
"Sorry Peter, go forward, the target is 90 feet away."
I crawled across the side of the building and grabbed the one next to it, moving closer and closer to the center of the storm, even though I could barely see three feet in front of me.
After several minutes of struggle across about four buildings Karen stopped me, "Your target is directly below you, in the center of Times Square."
I let go of the building and landed on the ground in a crouch. I stood and pushed against the wind, making my way towards the center of the Square.
As I got closer I could see the outline of a human figure.
"I knew it," I muttered as I got closer.
The person had a pitch black sweatshirt on with the hood pulled up, but I could tell that it was a girl. Her platinum blonde hair flipped around in the wind, and her arms were raised, looking like she was the one that caused and was controlling the storm.
I got closer and she turned around, dropping her hands to her side, but the storm kept up, although it was thinner the closer I got to her.
Her face was masked in ice and shadowed by her hood, but I could see her gleaming eyes, that I could have sworn we're white, staring at me.
"I've been expecting you,
Spider-Man," she said in an icy voice to go with the icy surroundings. It sent a chill down my spine, a chill that felt very familiar.
"Why me?" I asked, standing my ground.
"Because you're the only one that can get in my way in this city!" She shouted, then shot a fire ball from one of her hands. It was directed at my head.
I stepped out of the way as it zoomed past my head, blowing up the McDonalds that was behind me.
"Hey! I thought you had ice powers!" I yelled at her, not having a clue what to do about this new development.
"I do!" She chucked a spike of ice at me, but I dodged it easily.
"Why are you doing this? And who are you?!" I shot a couple webs at her, moving to offensive mode.
"I'm doing it because I want to! And if I wanted you to know who I was I wouldn't be wearing a mask now would I?!" She shot more ice at me and a couple fire balls, that I dodged.
"Right, that makes sense," I muttered to myself, shooting more webs and attempting to get closer to her. "Karen are you getting this?"
"Yes Peter, do you want me to try facial recognition?"
"Well yeah, although I doubt you'll get anything out of it because we literally can't see any of her face."
Suddenly, the girl just stopped moving, she looked like she had frozen herself in place from the inside out.
I stopped shooting webs at her and stood there for a moment, then I started carefully walking toward her. She still didn't move, but as I took another step, she dropped to one knee and clutched her head. In that instant the storm seemed to be vacuumed in toward her, and the suction was suffocating. In a split second the storm was gone and the girl's head snapped up to look at me. Her eyes had become a soft silver, instead of the previous piercing white, and the look in them had changed from anger to complete and utter terror. She jumped up and ran.
I was so shocked at what had happened I hesitated. So by the time I realized she was running she had disappeared around the corner of a building, and I ran after her. When I got around the corner she was gone.
"Da***t!"
I stood there looking around for a few minutes but I knew I wouldn't find her. So I walked back out into the center of the square as people began to come out of buildings and cars. I went over to where the girl had been standing and saw the outline of where her feet were planted in solid ice that had very slowly started to melt around the edges. Then I looked up at the now clear sky and felt the slightly cool breeze blowing against me.
"What the heck just happened?!"