Parker's Partner

Chapter 9

Peter's POV

My feet were swinging over open air as I sat at the edge of the roof of the Empire State Building, staring at my glowing phone screen. The sun had just dipped behind the horizon, I had just finished my rounds for the night, and I decided to take a break.
"C'mon Peter, just call her," I muttered to myself. "You need to stop being a coward when it comes to girls!"
I looked up from my phone and out over the glowing city again, still too scared to press the call button. I didn't know what I was going to say, and I definitely didn't want to make a fool of myself, but I wanted to do it so bad.
My phone started buzzing and I looked back down at it. It was Ned.
"Hey, what's up?" I answered the call.
"Where are you right now?" He asked, sounding a little strange.
"On top of a building, why? Is everything okay?" I became worried. "What happened? Is May okay?!"
"She's fine Peter, but, can you not see it from where you're at?!"
"See what?!" I looked at my mask and saw a little red signal light. "Crap, gotta go!"
"Be careful!"
I hung up and grabbed my mask, throwing it on as I shot a web at a nearby building, swinging off toward a glowing blue light on the other side of the city.
"I've been trying to get your attention for almost ten minutes! What on earth Peter?" Karen exclaimed when I put my mask on.
"Sorry, I was distracted. Anyway, what's happening?"
"Major temperature drop on the south side of the city, its the same readings as the ice storm. But, there isn't a storm, it's just cold."
I swung closer and I could feel the air getting colder as I got closer to the light. "So you're saying it's ice girl again? Wonderful."
"Yes."
"We need a better name for her than ice girl," Ned's voice suddenly came through my volume in the mask.
"Ned?! What the h***?! Karen, did you answer his phone call?"
"Yes Peter, you told me to answer if someone called more than ten times. So I did."
"Oh my gosh, Ned, what do you want? I'm a bit busy."
"Well, I talked to Karen for a moment and asked her to link my computer screen to what you can see. So, I can see what's going on, cuz I wanted to be a part of this, ya know, guy in the chair," his voice was rushed and hopeful.
"Ned I don't have time to talk, so if you're gonna stay on you have to be quiet, okay?"
"Sure!" He was excited now.
I finally reached the coldest part of the temperature drop and I could see an intersection a block away from me that had been almost completely destroyed. Ice was everywhere, and I could've sworn I saw snowflakes in the air.
I didn't see her or anyone really, so I swung down and landed in the middle of the intersection. I looked around for a moment but there was no sign of anyone. I tried my heat signature but nothing came up.
"She's already gone," I almost cursed as I muttered to myself, looking around trying to find some scrap of evidence so I could find this girl.
"So I was thinking Cryofreeze," Ned said out of nowhere.
"What?" I was only half listening to him.
"You know, a name. For ice girl, cuz we can't just keep calling her that. So I was thinking Cryofreeze, and Cryo for short," Ned was overenthusiastic about this.
"Fine, just be quiet, I'm trying to think," I was still searching when I heard heels behind me.
I whipped around and out of the cold fog walked the girl, she was wearing the same black hoodie, a pair of ice blue skinny jeans, and heeled boots. She walked toward me slowly, looking down at the ground until she lifted her head and those icey blue eyes seemed to pierce right through my mask and into my skull.
"Well, look who finally showed up," her voice was smooth, like ice, no pun intended. "I honestly thought you weren't going to show up and I was going to actually get the chance to destroy the whole city. Sadly, you're here."
"What do you want?" I demanded, following her with my gaze as she walked in slow circles around me.
"So you do come when you're called. Very convenient," she started getting closer to me with every word. Eventually she got close enough that she dragged one finger across my chest, around my shoulder and across my back and the other shoulder as she walked around me.
"I said, what. do. you. want?" I repeated, growing irritated.
"Be patient, Spider-Man. I'll get there eventually," she laughed a little through the ice mask she wore before. "Where did you get this fine suit? It looks like a Stark product. Did Tony finally decide to start doing something for other people instead of himself?"
I swatted her hand away from me as she came around to the front of me again. "That's none of your business," I snapped, keeping my guard up.
"Aw, is that a sensitive subject for you Spidey? Did I hit a nerve?" Her voice was babying at first, but at the last part she sounded like she gritted it through her teeth as she lunged at me, slamming me against a wrecked car, her hand gripped tightly around my throat.
I grabbed onto her arm and tried to pry it off of me as I began to loose oxygen, but she took her other hand and touched mine, it instantly frosting over with ice and the cold cut through my hand with searing pain.
"Peter!! You've gotta get out of there!" Ned panicked through the line.
"Ah ah ah, no more struggling. You move and I'll run you through," she produced a spike of ice from her hand and gripped it like a knife as she barely pressed it against my chest. "It's my turn to talk."
Her ice blue eyes seemed to slice through my skull as she stared into my mask eyes, almost like she could see behind it at my face.
"What do you want from me?" I gasped out, still struggling to breathe.
"I want you to tell your little city that there's a new person in charge, and their precious little hero can't protect them from me. Oh, and tell Mr. Stark to stay out of my way, or I'll end up hurting someone he cares about... he certainly has a soft spot for you," she came close to my face when she said the last and I flinched just a bit. "Good, you're scared of me, as you should be."
At this point I couldn't breathe at all and both Ned and Karen were panicking, trying to figure out how to get me out of there. The corners of my vision had started to go dark and everything except the masked girl in front of me had gone blurry.
"Oh don't worry, I'm not going to kill you... yet," she finally let go of me and I dropped to the ground, gasping and choking for air.
"I'll be back, Spider-boy," she laughed, walking away into the icey fog, but just before she completely disappeared I had gathered myself enough to call after her.
"Hey Cryofreeze!"
She stopped, turning back around on her heels and her gaze cut straight through me.
"What?!"
"I don't know why you're doing this but, think about all the people that you're hurting, killing even! Does that not mean anything to you? Because if it doesn't, then you're not even human."
"Of course I'm not human, have you not been paying attention? And for the record, no, it doesn't mean anything to me," she stood there picking at her nails with her thumb, her other hand on her hip like she was bored.
"Even mutants have a heart," I was still out of breath, and I was shocked by her reply.
"I'm not a mutant you idiot!" Her hands clenched into fists.
"Then what the h*** are you?"
"You have a brain, use it. In fact, ask your friend Tony, he might have a few answers for you," she turned back around and walked away into the fog, calling back over her shoulder. "Thanks for the name by the way! I think I'll use it!"
Then she was gone.
I collapsed back against the car, breathing heavily and trying to process what happened.
"Pete?" Ned's shaky voice came through the speakers. "A-are you okay?"
"No, Ned. No, I am not okay," I breathed.
"Come back and we can figure this out," Ned suggested, and I could hear the sound of a keyboard going a million miles an hour.
"I can't," I said, shaking the remaining fuzziness from my head and realizing what I had to do. "I have to talk to Mr. Stark."
"But Peter! He's upstate! It'll take you hours to get there like that, and plus you're hurt. You're suit is reading second degree frostbite on your hand, and that was just from her touching it. Also May will freak out, and I know when she freaks out-"
"Yes, I know, then I freak out and when I freak out you freak out and everything turns to crap. I know! But I have to do this! I can't let anyone else get hurt because of me. Not this time. Not again."
"But Pete-"
"No Ned! I have to go! Tell May I'll be back as soon as I can and not to worry too much."
"Fine, but be careful-"
"And not a word about any of what happened today! Okay?" I stood up from leaning against the car and shook my self off a bit, loosening my tight muscles from the tension they had gone through.
"Okay," Ned replied. "Come back soon."
"Bye," I hung up and looked up at the half destroyed buildings around me and sighed, the clean up crew had their work cut out for them. I shot a web at a stable spot on a building and swung myself into the air. On my way to find out everything that Tony knows.