I Am Karen - Spider-Man / Peter Parker [1]

Chapter Nine - The Fallout

It hadn't taken long for them to reach dry land and Peter of course had removed his mask and began ranting about what had just happened. Maria didn't say a word as she let the boy speak. The Spider-Man suit was water logged and Peter had climbed his way up onto a climbing dome that was beside the river, where he now sat wringing his mask of all the water it had collected.

"...and then he just, like, swooped down like a monster an-and he picked me up, and took me up like a thousand feet and just dropped me" Peter explained. Maria was even more concerned by his words. This "Bird Man", as Peter was referring to him as, was serious trouble. "How'd you find me? Did you put a tracker in my suit or something?"

"I put everything in your suit" Maria finally spoke, though the voice that admitted from the suit was programmed to sound like her father. "Including this heater." Maria activated the heater in Spider-Man's suit and immediately Maria could see the steam coming off the suit as the excess water inside quickly heated up.

"That's better. Thanks" Peter remarked back as the heat sunk into his skin killing the chill that the freezing waters had left behind. Eventually, Maria's words caught up with the superhero. "Wait, you put everything in my suit? Maria?" Smiling, Maria deactivated the suit and Peter watched in utter shock as the suit scurried off her body and back into a small bulb like device that was attached to her bracelet.

"Guilty" Maria replied as she made her way over to Peter and climbed up the dome to sit beside him. Peter helped her up but was still awestruck by the technology he had just witnessed. He had never seen Iron Man's suits do that before. "Nano tech" Maria said providing Peter with the knowledge he didn't have, "My Dad and I have been working on it." Peter took Maria's wrist in his hands and studied the red metal ball that was magnetically attached to her bracelet. He had never seen anything like it.

"That is awesome" Peter finally remarked.

"It is but I'm telling you now Bug Boy, this is not becoming a regular occurrence, my Dad's suits were not designed for women" Maria commented with a laugh. Peter slowly let go of Maria's wrist and laughed with her before they fell into silence again. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah I'm fine" Peter said back with a reassuring smile. He could see the concern in Maria's eyes, he couldn't imagine what it felt like to watch him hit the water like that. He knew he owed her one big time and it bugged Peter that Maria had had to save him – he was supposed to save her. "Err, thanks for the save."

"Well you saved me it was only fair" Maria replied. Both their minds flashed back to the warehouse. It was insane to believe that the two events happened only a few hours apart. Maria watched Peter from her place beside him and noticed the bruises that were beginning to form across his face - he had been pretty beaten up tonight. Unconsciously, Maria had lifted her hand and ran her fingers across his bruising cheek, Peter made no move to stop her and once Maria realised what she was doing she made no attempt to stop either. "That's got to hurt."

"About as much as your abdomen" Peter softly whispered back. Maria smiled at that comment, she knew he had known about that injury – it was still bothering her but she was pushing passed the pain. Due to the adrenaline that had been pumping around her body before, she had not felt any pain when she had been running down the street but upon Peter's mention of it she felt it coming back. Maria cringed as her spare hand crept to her abdomen. "Sorry, I shouldn't have reminded you."

"No, its fine, I was just running before which hasn't helped" Maria explained as she lowered both her hands to her stomach and gently ran her fingers across. Peter wished he could take her pain but he couldn't. Out of nowhere, a pair of metal feet hit the ground hard. The sound of the metal feet hitting the ground caused both Peter and Maria to jump, the former placing his arm protectively in front of Maria. The pair snapped their heads around to see an Iron Man suit stood before them. That was certainly not Maria.