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

Chapter Seventeen - Staten Island Ferry Fiasco

This was insane. Maria wasn't really sure what she was thinking, she clearly hadn't thought this through. Maria was worried about Peter, about what he was going to do and since he hadn't listened to Karen, Maria was hoping he would listen to her (to Maria). But that involved talking to him and if she had called him, she knew he would not pick up so instead she was going to talk to him face-to-face. Which at first seemed like a good idea, but it wasn't until she was sat upon one of the many seats of the 11 o'clock ferry to Staten Island that she realised she may have just walked into a very dangerous situation. Not only that, she was skiving off lessons and she knew that was going to bite her in the ass too.

The young girl had sat in an empty area of the ferry and brought up her holographic computer from her watch, trying her hardest to ignore her gut feeling that something was going to go awfully wrong. Following his GPS, Maria watched as Peter swung through the city to catch the ferry, the carpark he had spoken to Aaron Davis in was some way away from the harbour so he was moving with some pace. Just as the Captain spoke on the intercom and the ferry began moving out of the dock, Peter launched himself towards the ferry and used his Web Wings to reach the side of the ship where he had been able to stick to. Peter crawled around on the side of the boat for a while before he suddenly stopped beside a window, having recognised the black man from the night under the bridge sitting on one of the many seats. Whilst the nameless man sat on one uncomfortable chair, there was another man who sat right behind him on the opposite side of the seats. Peter, and in turn Maria, couldn't see the other man's face.

"Okay, Karen, activate Enhanced Reconnaissance Mode" Peter ordered. Maria heard the order but hesitated upon completing it.

"Are you sure Peter? There's a lot of people on this boat that could get hurt. Do you really want to start a fight here?" Maria asked quietly before she began to worry her lip with her teeth.

"It will be fine Karen, just please, activate Enhanced Reconnaissance Mode" Peter repeated. Again, Maria hesitated before she sighed and hit the hologram to do as he asked. Immediately, the suit began to zone in on the black man and the words he was speaking. Through Peter's eyes Maria noticed that the man was talking to the man who was sat on the chair behind him - they weren't sitting together to keep their companionship quiet. The man behind the black man was a white older gentleman from what Maria could tell but she couldn't see his face at all. It was this man who spoke first.

"He's up front, main deck."

"I hate this guy" his companion commented. Maria assumed they were talking about their buyer onboard the ship but she wouldn't bet her life on it.

"It's the guy from the bridge, right? Who's that other guy?" Peter questioned.

"I'm not sure" Maria admitted. "I can't see his face so..." Suddenly, a chair squeaked to the side of her. Maria closed her watch and turned to see that a passenger had sat a few seats down from her. She was no longer alone which meant she couldn't really play the part of Karen. She needed to get to Peter and stop this insanity now. Maria heard Peter give his Reconnaissance drone an order to keep an eye on the guy she hadn't been able to identify which meant he was following the black man up to the main deck at the front. The drone was programmed to follow Peter's orders without her help and do the flying robotic spider did as it was told whilst Peter moved away.

With Peter having moved towards the front of the ferry, Maria thought that it was the best time to try and talk to him. Get to him before he got to the criminals. As Maria began to walk through the ship, she felt like she was being watched. Subtly scanning the area with her eyes, Maria noticed that there were dozens of people dotted about but what concerned her most was that some of them were clearly scanning the area in a similar way to herself. Something wasn't quite right. Grabbing her phone that was connected to all her devices (Peter's suit included), Maria ordered her computer watch to scan the boat and run facial recognition on the occupants – it was more common for a teenager to be on her phone then on a computer watch that was not for the public, she didn't like using her phone that much purely because it was a smaller screen but in this case she had to. Quickly, Maria was walking up the stairs of the slow-moving ferry.