Hang In There// P.P.

Chapter 25: Date.

 "Oh, my god. What do I do? Karen, uh, give me an X-ray of the boat and target all the strongest points."

" Web grenade. Web grenade."

Shooting webs, he leapt between the two sides of the ship as I cast 'coligo' to bind the ship back together. Peter tumbled back and forth on the upper part of the ferry, connecting the ship with strands of web. He dodged flames as he travelled down the length of the ferry. Peter fired several strands of web at once, and binded them together with another strand. Reaching the bow, he crouched on the edge of the roof. He eyed the two leaning halves of the ferry that were crisscrossed with spiderweb.

"Ninety-eight?"

I gave Peter a panicked look, still holding onto the two halves with my magic. The web strands began to snap.

" No, no, no, no!"

Water flooded the cargo hold, pushing the cars forward. People clung to posts as the stream rushed past them. On the upper level, passengers slid down the floor of the leaning ferry. The gap widened as the web strands continued to snap. Peter leapt into the air. He grabbed a thread and shot another. Arms outstretched, Peter hung between the two sides, trying to hold them together. I could feel my body weakening as I felt a warm liquid slide down onto my lip.
Suddenly, the two sides started to move toward each other.

"What the hell?"

Peter landed gently in the seating area and looked around as I joined him.

"What the hell-"

Iron Man raised into view.

"Hi, Spider-Man. Band practice, was it?"

Hovering outside, he held up one half of the boat. Drones arrives and attached themselves to the other half. Thrusters propelled the two halves of the ferry forward and joined them together. Iron Man looked at us through the window, then flew off.
Peter grabbed me and swung us into the cargo hold, where Iron Man was welding the ferry back together.

"Uh, Mr. Stark? Hey, Mr. Stark. Could I do anything? What do you want me to do?"

"I think you've done enough."

Iron Man flew away. Peter climbed to the top platform of a mast and looked around. Smoke was pouring out from the massive vessel. Rescue boats and helicopters approached from all directions.
_________________________

Helicopters were still flying around the ferry. Peter and I were perched on the edge of a building, sans masks, when Iron Man flew over to us.

"Previously on Peter Screws the Pooch: I tell you to stay away from this. Instead, you hacked a multimillion-dollar suit so you could sneak around behind my back doing the one thing I told you not to do."

"Is everyone okay?"

"No thanks to you."

" No thanks to me?"

Angered, Peter jumped off the edge and approached Tony.

"Pete."

"Those weapons were out there, and I tried to tell you about it. But you didn't listen. None of this would've happened if you had just listened to me. If you even cared, you'd actually be here."

The Iron Man suit opened, revealing Tony inside. He stepped down from the suit and marched toward Peter, who backed off.

" I did listen, kid. Who do you think called the FBI, huh? Do you know that I was the only one who believed in you? Everyone else said I was crazy to recruit 14-year-old kids."

"I'm fifteen."

"No, this is where you zip it, all right? The adult is talking. What if somebody had died tonight? Different story, right? 'Cause that's on you. And if you died, I feel like that's on me. I don't need that on my conscience."