Allies & Enemies // Spider-Man [Book 2]

four {Peter's POV}

"Weekend. Finally." I exaggeratedly blew out a breath. 

Arya giggled. "At least you actually have time off. I have to catch up on my schoolwork or else I'll get held back this year." 

"I can help you if you want," I offered. 

"That's really sweet, but I've got it," she said with a smile. "Anyway, we're not here to complain about school." 

The two of us were sitting in Subhaven, munching on two sandwiches. After what happened to Mr Delmar's deli, we couldn't get our favourite sandwiches there anymore, so we were kind of forced to go somewhere else. 

"Tony called to ask if I could come by later today. He said he had some stuff to talk to me about," Arya spoke up. "Happy offered to pick me up- Wait. No, actually, Tony ordered Happy to offer to pick me up, but I said I'd rather take the subway," she told me and I nodded before taking a bite of my sandwich. 

"I have a question for you," I stated after swallowing my food. She looked up from her sandwich. "Why don't you call him 'Dad'? I mean, he is your father," I asked softly, not sure what kind of answer to expect from her. 

She sighed, looking down again. "I grew up with no parents so I have no clue what a parent-daughter relationship is like. I guess I'm so used to calling him Tony that it's just weird to call him anything else," she said and shrugged lightly.  "And who knows, maybe it'll come over time. It still hasn't sunken in that he actually is my father. He's always been like a mentor to me, not a father." 

I nodded softly. "Yeah, I completely... understand..." My voice wore off at the end of my sentence as I spotted a man outside who briskly walked down the sidewalk on the other side of the road. The hood of his jacket covered his head as he cautiously looked around, a filled duffle bag swung over his shoulder. 

Arya looked at me in confusion before she followed my eyes. A frown appeared on her face and as our eyes locked, I knew we were thinking the exact same thing. Bad guy alert. 

We both rushed to our feet and saw SubHaven was mostly empty, except for an elderly man whose back faced us. We rushed to the bathroom and heaved ourselves in our suits. No matter where I went, I always brought my suit along with me in case something like this would happen. Arya clearly did too. 

The two of us ran outside and I swung us up onto the rooftops. I crouched down on the edge as I kept a close eye on the man with the duffle bag. He walked up to a white van and got in on the passenger's side. The windows were blinded, so it was impossible to see if there was someone sitting in the driver's seat. 

The van didn't leave, so it was likely that there was no driver present yet. And I turned out to be right. Another man approached the van minutes later and stepped in on the driver's side. The engine roared to life and the van left the parking spot.

I noticed they were heading in the direction of Queensboro Bridge. "We gotta go." I turned my back to Arya and she hopped on. I stuck a web to the building on the other side of the road and jumped down. Arya's arms and legs tightened around my body and I felt my cheeks heat up. 

I shook my head slightly and focused back on chasing the van. "Peter, I think they're tailing that truck. They transport high-value things in that," Arya called as she pointed at a truck that was driving a few cars in front of the white van. 

"Crap," I muttered and swung a little faster. The two trucks entered the bridge and as Arya had predicted, the van caught up with the truck and drove next to it. I swung us onto the bridge.

The window on the passenger's side rolled down and the next few seconds went by too fast for me to process. A loud blast of purple energy pierced the window of the truck with a high-value load and it swerved to the right. The front of the truck rammed into the side of a bus and the driver slammed the breaks as the vehicle was pushed to the side. It crashed into two other cars and all of the cars behind those two were forced to stop as well. In no time, a giant blockade had formed. 

The two men in the van jumped out and yanked open the doors of the truck with value. They ripped the driver from his seat and tossed him onto the asphalt, where he remained still. 

I dropped us down and we smoothly landed on the roof of a car. Arya jumped from my back. The truck began to move as they attempted to drive away. 

"I've got them!" Arya called but I stopped her by grabbing her wrist before she could run off.

"No, get those people from the bus! I'm faster." Without waiting for an answer, I swung after the truck. Right as they drove below me, I dropped myself on the hood of the vehicle. I tilted my head to the side and looked at the driver, whose eyes widened considerably, before I drove my fist through the windshield. 

I webbed the driver to his seat and he slammed the breaks, causing me to fly over the truck. I landed smoothly on the asphalt and stuck a web to the back of the truck that had stopped in the middle of the road. I swung back to the front and smashed the side window. I plucked the driver from his seat and webbed him to the side of the truck.

I swung myself into the driver's seat and knocked out the passenger. I webbed him to his seat before I used my webs to stick the wheels of the truck to the ground. I heard police sirens in the distance and I knew it wouldn't be long until they found the truck.

I rushed back to the bus to help Arya but right before I could come close, a blast of purple energy hit the vehicle and caused a loud explosion to erupt right in front of me, throwing me off my feet. I harshly landed on my back and the air was knocked out of my lungs. My ears weren't working properly as I sat up but then it dawned on me. 

Arya was still inside the bus. 

I stumbled to my feet and ignored the throbbing pain in my back. I rushed towards the burning bus. 

I noticed the people around me filming the scene with their phones but I didn't care. All I cared about was saving my girlfriend's life. The roof of the bus had come down because of the fire so I had to duck. I coughed as thick, black smoke poured into my lungs.

"Anyone here?!" I shouted, but I didn't receive an answer. The smoke caused my eyes to water and I could barely see, but when I saw something bright blue from the corner of my eye, I whipped around and let out a relieved sigh as I saw Arya slumped in one of the seats. Her body must've been slammed against the side of the bus. 

I squatted down and felt her pulse in her neck. It was very, very weak but it was there. "Arya, open your eyes, come on!" I said, taking her blackened face in my hands. Her eyes fluttered and slowly pulled apart. "Hey, it's me. You're gonna be okay. Don't worry," I told her and she nodded, her eyes falling shut again. 

I lifted her from the ground and quickly exited the still burning bus. It wouldn't be long until the fire reached the gasoline leaking from the engine. Most of the people outside were standing too close to my liking, so I shouted, "Get away! It's not safe!" 

I rushed to the side and placed Arya on the floor. I quickly scanned her body. I saw a large gash running down her arm and her face was bruised and blackened by the smoke. She opened her eyes again. "Are you okay? What are you feeling?" I asked. 

"Pain," she groaned, sitting up straight with my help. She winced, reaching for her side. "I think my ribs are broken."

"I'm taking you to the hospital," I decided. I knew I couldn't wait around for the ambulances to get here so I scooped my girlfriend up in my arms and told her to hold on tight as I swung us to the nearest hospital.