Spider-Man: Home Sick

20 - Runaways

Peter's P.O.V

Silently, I slung my backpack over my shoulder and tiptoed out of the tunnel. I thought I had made it out without anyone noticing until I glanced backwards to make sure no one was following me and saw Pippa leaning against the tunnel wall by the entrance, her arms crossed and her face shrouded by shadows. Next to her, his arm slung over her shoulders, was Lucas, a scowl on his face.
"Going somewhere?" Pippa asked, stepping forwards, out of the shadows.
"I have to. It's the only way to protect you. All of you. Don't try and stop me."
"We're not here to stop you," Lucas said "We're here to help you."
"What?"
Pippa smirked, enjoying my obvious shock "Tony, Peter, whatever your name is, you're one of us now. You didn't think we'd let you run away without us?"
A small voice in the shadows called out "And you didn't think you could leave me behind, did you?" Anya skipped over to Pippa. "Let's go then."
"Anya!" Lucas groaned, rubbing his forehead in annoyance.
"You can't stop me." She folded her arms and raised her eyebrow, just liked I'd seen Pippa do dozens of times before.
"She's learning from you, y'know."
Pippa smiled sweetly "I know."
"Alright, alright, you can come too Anya."
"No, none of you can come."
All 3 of them turned to look at me and I realised I'd maybe said that a bit too loud, especially if we wanted to get away unnoticed.
"Look, I - I can't have any of you getting put in danger because of me. Look what happend to MJ."
"And what's so much more dangerous about your life than what we do every day?"
"I - "
"Am Spider-Man." Pippa finished.
"What?"
"You're Spider-Man."
I silently cursed. Maybe I'm not as good at keeping my identity a secret as I had once thought.
"But, the thing is Tony, we don't care. I meant what I said to Cade. Whether you're Peter Parker, Spider-Man, or Tony, you're our friend and nothing's gonna change that. So are you gonna let us help you or not?"
I sighed in defeat. I knew there was no way I would win this argument "MJ's going to be safe here?"
"Zara's a good person. She'll look after her." Lucas vouched "But what if she comes looking for you?"
"Oh, I don't doubt she will. I just hope I can get far enough away so she can't find me until it's safe for her."
"Well then my friends," Lucas grinned "Shall we to Boston?"
"Yeah, one problem with that; how are we gonna get there?" Pippa pointed out.
Lucas held up a set of car keys.
"Dibs shot gun!" Anya piped up.
Pippa seemed less than enthusiastic, skeptical even "Where did you get a car from?"
"I didn't steal it, if that's what you're thinking." Lucas rolled his eyes "Why are you always worrying about that?"
"Because you've done it before and I'm not going to let you get sent to prison." Pippa scowled.
"And why's that?" Lucas smirked "Something to do with your undying love for me?"
"Oh, shut up." She smacked him in the chest, which I think is equivalent to her hugging him.
"Don't worry, I'm not planning on getting arrested any time soon. Zephyr lent it to me."
"How does he have a car?" I asked "He's not even old enough to drive!"
Lucas shrugged "Don't know much about his life. Just that he used to live on the streets, and now has somewhere safe to stay that he can't tell us about, and he tries to help us out as much as he can without getting into trouble with whoever looks after him." Lucas tossed the keys into the air and caught them with one hand "Let's go."

The van was white, marked with a logo that said 'Delphi Strawberry Services'. Pippa turned to face Lucas, an expression on her face that said 'Seriously?'
Anya had already skittered over to the passenger side door and leapt in, strapping the seatbelt over her "Let's go, let's go, let's go!"
Lucas chuckled "What's got into you all of a sudden?"
"I wanna go to Boston!"
"That place doesn't really exist, you know, the magical one with teenagers frozen in time." Pippa said.
"We'll never know until we try." Lucas hopped up into the driver's seat and turned the key in the ignition.
I grabbed Pippa's arm as she started to walk towards the van "Are you sure you want to do this? Cade was working for someone, and I have a feeling that whoever it is, they're not finished with me yet."
"I told you Tony," Pippa strapped herself into one of the van's seats and I did the same "We're with you till the end of the line."