Chapter 32: A different kind of Homecoming

"From fighting with each other to fighting for each other... That is how we grew together"

Ember leaned against Flash's car for a couple of minutes after Peter left to go after Toomes. Her right arm still felt a little swollen and she was imaptiently waiting for it to heal but it was talking longer than she thought. The blonde knew her body was probably drained after everything that happened but she didnt have time to recharge she had a mission and she wasnt quitting unitl she died, as long as she was breathing she was going to push herself to the limits.

Crazy? Yes.
Could she get seriously hurt for pushing her powers so hard? Most definietly.
Was her father going to kill her once he found out about this? No doubt about it, so she may as well take the risk before he could kill her.

With a deep breath, Ember flicked her right hand slowly and let her eyes turn white as she activated her powers and without waisting any time she created her ice slide and went after Peter Parker and the Vulture. She moved as fast s she could, going to highest point she could reach with her slide but caught no sight of either Spider-Man or the Vulture.

"Damn it!" Ember cursed t the air as she realized she had no way of knowing were they went, she had no phone and no way of knowing where the Stark plane was going.

Just when she was about to head towards the Avengers tower to look for Happy Hogan, she could hear an engine from above the clouds. Ember made her ice slide go higher, and as she began to see less and less because of the clouds but she could hear she was getting closer to the plane, it was getting harder by the second to stay on her ice slide, she had never gone that far. Her slide was to slow for the jet and the clouds didn't let her see. An idea crossed her mind, something she had never tried before but she wondered if it could work, she raised both hands stopping the slide for a moment, she closed her eyes and tried to focus on the clouds around her then woth a hand movement she pushed them down, managing to get them out of her way and finally allowing her to catch a sight of a plane with a red figure clinging onto its surface. Smiling to herself feeling accomplished for catching up to her partner in crime, Ember thought maybe it was time to have a bit more fun with her powers and try another new thing.

❅

Peter was holding onto the side of the plane, with all his strength, the air threatening to send him flying off the thing making it way harder than his usual sticking to ceilings trick. Still, he managed to pull through and move forwards, and closer to the pair of wings Adrian Toomes left on the side of the plane while he went inside the plane . When he finally reached the wings, Peter starts tugging a the wings suit just as a drone breaks away from it and watches worriedly  as the jet begins to change course while the drone flies straight.
In more of a hurry now, Peter starts tugging with all his strength trying to pry the folded wings suit off the jet. The wing suit  doesn't move at all and he decides to try a new tactic, clinging to the jet on his back kicking the suit, finally managing to move it slightly. Before he could kick it more the wings detach themselves from the jet and fly away, Peter takes this as a sign that he need to hurry and starts climbing to the the side of the yet. As he is climbing he hear something coming from his left, he turns his head only to catch sight of Ice Sorceress flying towards him in a cloud with the top part frozen, standing on it like its some kind of surf board.

"How's it hangin?" Ember snickers as she stands next to Peter, who seems to be struggling to hold onto the jet.

"How are you doing that?" Peter yells at her over the sound of the wind.

Just as Ember is about to answer the boy seems to lose his grip on the surface and os thrown back by the wind where the blonde girl manages to catch him. Peter sits on her board and makes the mistake of looking at the ground. His eyes widen in panic and he clings onto Ember's leg, suddenly fearing the cloud board is to small for the both of them. Peter Parker had never been afraid of heights, he was Spider-Man he spent his days swinging over buildings without a car in the world, he trusted his spiderwebs. However, relaying on cloud to stop him from falling thousands of feet over the ground was a lot more scary than he thought.

"You alright tiger?" Ember chuckled feeling him cling into her leg, she then extended her hand towards him to help him stand up.

"S-sure" Peter gasped, taking her hand and shakily got to his feet, but he still stood very close to her ready to hang onto her if he suddenly fell off the tiny cloud. "You know, just a typical homecoming on the outside of an invisible jet fighting my friend's dad"

Suddenly, Toomes flies towards the, with his suit, the wings almost cutting their head off but Ice Sorceress managed to tilts the cloud out of the way just in time making the wings scratch the side of the jet.

As fast as lightning, Spider-Man catches the Vulture with one of his webs but before he can grab into Ember the man begins to fly away. Luckily with his other hand he is able to string himself to the jet before he gets to far. The vulture pulls harder and doesn't care for the boy, hanging for his life, then, the part of the jet Peter was holding onto breaks and send both Peter and Toomes flying back to opposite sides of the plane each on one engine. Ember, freezes the blades of the engine, making them stand still before Peter gets killed by them. On the  other side of the plane Toomes flies away for, the engine with his damaged wing.

"Come on!" Ember shouts at Peter, getting closer for him to get onto her board before the jet begins to fail due to the frozen engine. As the boy was about to go with her Toomes charges at him and tries to pry him of the jet by scrapping his wings and stopping his talons making it harder for the boy to hold on, he finally lets go of the jet, and once again Ember Snow is there to catch him before he falls.

"What would you do without me?" The blonde questions as the boy hold onto her, letting out a sigh of relief knowing he's safe at least for now.

Almost on cue the jet began to lose altitude, with the Vulture still clinging to its side, not willing to let his precious bounty behind. The two teenagers fly rapidly towards him watching as he starts trying to break the jet in desperation.

"Oh, my God" Peter exclaimed, horror in his eyes as he realized the jet was about to crash into the city.

His words catch Ember's attention, realizing the disaster that was about to happen a quick plan formed in her head "Hold tight!" She said to Peter, and the boy held onto her back, with one hand she continued to direct the cloud and with the other she began to send a blast of wind to the belly of the jet trying to make it turn to it's side. The jet moved a bit but if she wanted to direct it far enough from the buildings she was going to need more strength. Not giving herself a chance for second thoughts, the girl stopped controlling the cloud and focused all her energy on directing the jet away. A soon as she stopped controlling the board the two teenagers in it began to fall, but she still focused on the task at hand while Peter began to panic. It all happened in a second Peter kept holding onto her back and shot a web to cling onto the jet just as Ember managed to blast it away from the buildings , the jet going almost completely sideways.

"Are you insane?!" Peter shouted to the blonde, referring to the fact that she told him to hold on only to let them drop a few seconds later.

"Maybe" Ember shrugged it off, "I knew you'd catch me"

But it wasn't time to celebrate yet, cause just as things started to look up for the pair of heroes the engine near them began to catch on fire, breaking Ember's concentration on the yet as her powers began to falter as the fire grew closer to them. The jet nears an amusement park and the wing crashes against one of its towers, making the back end of the jet explode, sending the flaming aircraft to the ground, both Peter and Ember screaming all the way down. As the jet crashes, the teenagers are thrown off the jet, both rolling and tumbling hard into the ground.

❅

Ember groaned in pain, as she laid on the sand. her head throbbing and her entire right side aching from the landing, it didn't help that the fire around her was making her feel light headed and weak. She looked around tryin to catch a glance of Peter or Toomes but saw nothing but flames around her, with shaky legs she stood up and called out Peter's name, only for her to not be able to hear her own voice, her ears ringing worse and worse as she tried to move. Still feeling out of it the girl moved forward in the look for her friend, suddenly she sees a winged suit crash into another figure a few meter ahead of her knocking the boy off his feet and the winged creature landing harshly on the ground.

Pushing herself to use her powers ignoring the stinging that came from her head, she flew towards the scene just as Adrian Toomes began to stand on his feet ready to attack Peter again.

"Hey, Pedro" Ember heard the man's robotic boy taunting Peter and she flew faster to stand in front of the Parker boy just as the Vulture was about to crash into him.

Instead of knocking the two kids the Vulture crashed onto a barrier of solid ice, making his head spin for a second. Peter noticed the barrier of ice starting to crumble as the weakened blonde swayed on her feet, Toomes also noticed it and went to charge again, this time Peter grabbing onto the blonde and putting them out of harms way just as the Vulture flew past them, grabbing onto Peter's chest and throwing him to the side, away from the blonde girl. He began punching his face, he out all his strength and Ember watched in fear as Toomes beat him to the plum. With all the energy she had left the blonde, ran towards him turning her fist into ice and punching the man on the jaw as hard as she could, managing to knock  him off an unconscious Peter and onto the ground, where she was quick to start beating him up just like he did to the boy she liked a few seconds before.

This lasted for a few seconds, before Adrian managed to shake his head of the daze the girl's punches had caused him, with one of his claws he stopped her oncoming fist and punched her hard on the jaw with his other claw effectively knocking her out. He took this chance to grab onto her arm and began to carry her upwards with him.

"Stop!" Peter screamed, shooting a web to catch the man's leg before he could carry the girl any further.

Adrian grinned evilly as he turned to the teenage boy, "I told you I'd kill her first" just like that he used his wing to cut off the web and flew up ready to drop the girl to her dead.

"I'd like to see you try" a weak voice said below him and before he had a chance to do anything a blast of wind sent a few feet to the sky, Ember smiled and blasted gerself upwards to catch him mid air, there she grabbed onto his throat strong enough to hold him down and stop him from escaping but not enough to actually choking him. His eyes widened as he felt the air around him, the two fleeing at an alarming speed to the ground. Peter watched everything from the ground and just let out a sigh of relief as he watched the blonde take the upper hand and send the man crashing to the ground.

Ember lands next to him, freezing his wings to the ground before running towards Peter. The blonde girl jumped onto his rms and clinged onto his neck, Peter brought her closer by the waist as they both let a happy sigh to what seemed to be their victory.

"We did it" Peter smiled, leaning away from her but never letting her go form his arms.

"Yeah, we-" the blonde was cut off by a claw latching into her back before throwing her harshly to the side.
Adrian Toomes stood tall, in front of Peter Parker, the ice that once held him down melted away by the heat all around them. He grabbed the shocked teen with his talons and began pounding him onto the sand a few time, Peter rolled onto the ground falling limp as Toomes lifted him by his hoodie with his claw. Just as he was about to strike his final blow, something behind the boy caught his eyes, a box with glowing arc reactors, he wouldn't have to leave the place empty handed any more. He drops the kid next to the still unconscious girl and makes his way towards his treasure. He flies onto the air and lands on top of the box, latching onto it with his talons ready to take off.

Ember stirs awake, noticing a knocked out Peter next to her. She lets out a groan as she rolls onto her back, closer to the boy to shake him awake.

"Peter, come on" she shakes him a couple of times before the boy finally stirs awake.

He lifts his head just in time to catch the sparks coming of Toomes' suit

"The wing suit" he cries out, making the blonde turn to what had caught his attention. The wing suit looked like it was about to explode "Your wingsuit's going to explode!" Peter shouted the words before she could and ignoring the pain he felt over his entire body he raised his arm and shot a web onto the crate trying to hold the man down.  Ember jumps to her feet and focused in trying to cook the wings down to stop the, from exploding while Peter stood up to gold his ground.

Toomes turns to look at the kids and shakes his head, not listening to their warnings "Time to go home, kids"

"We're trying to save you!" Peter cried, still holding onto his web, but The Vulture was having none of it and with his wing he once again cuts his web off making the boy fall down, and distracting the girl next to him.

The two could only watch as the wing suit began to malfunction, Peter grabbing onto Ember and turning her around so that he could cover her from the explosion. Ember wathces as the man begins to fall several yards away, with a quick flick of her wrist she manages to create a small mountain of snow to soften the fall, but still the two stare in horror as the explosion takes place.
The young heroes look a t each other in terror for a slight second before they get to their feet and start sprinting towards the fallen villain.

"Stay here!" Peter tells her, knowing she wasn't good with fire, before going straight into the fire despite Ember's protests.

"Peter!" Ember screams in panic when she hears a pained scream from the boy, just as shes about to run into the flames herself she catches a glimpse of Peter's silhouette carrying Adrian Toomes on his back. He leaves him on the ground and relieved Ember jumps onto Spiderman's  un expecting   arms. Peter lets out a surprised groan, as she squeezes him tight both feeling completely drained, but neither care as they stay in each others arms, next to the unconscious villain.  They won.

❅

After bounding Toomes to the crime scene and leaving a note for the authorities to find, both teenagers decide to take a break on top of the Cyclone rollercoaster waiting for someone to come and take the Vulture away. They were both beat up and soar but despite that they still felt content that the whole guy with the wings things was done and in the past. Now, there was only one thing left to do.

"Hey, Ember" Peter said catching the girl's attention. Ember forces herself to open her eyes and look at him. Brown and green meet for a moment, Peter looking unsure while the blonde was harder to read. Still he decided to just continue before he chickened out "I'm sorry" he finally said it, after days of wanting to say it he finally did.

"I know" Ember smiled sweetly at him, even if they had spent the entire night together and this wasn't the first time he apologized  it still meant something to hear the words come out of his mouth. It felt different compered to the other times he apologized, now it felt more real or maybe it was that she was finally ready to forgive "I'm sorry too, Peter"

"Why would you be sorry?" Peter frowned, the blonde had done nothing wrong, their whole fight was because of his mistakes not hers "Im the one who acted like a total hypocrite and a jerk"

"Maybe" Ember shrugged it off, "but you know honesty goes both ways I could've told you who I was a long time ago, and besides you did apologize like a million times and I was a total bitch to you"

"You had every right to be mad at me, Ember, not to mention that I could've been honest with you too"

"Well then how about we start again?" Ember chuckled holding out her hand towards him with a bright smile on her face "Hi, I'm Ember Snow and I have powers like a real life Elsa"

Peter genuinely laughed at her introduction remembering the first time their alter egos met, he then shook her hand his eyes never leaving hers "And I'm Peter Parker, your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man"

"There, now you have to promise that we will always be honest with each other" Ember said, using his hand to get closer to him resting her head on his shoulder, not letting go of his hand.

Peter smiled looking down at her, grateful that things were better now, he then rested his head above her locking his pinky with hers "I promise"

"So, what an interesting homecoming right?" Ember said after a few seconds of silence the two still leaning against one and other.

"Speaking of homecoming, " Peter said raising to his feet offering his other hand "you still owe me a dance"

Ember grinned at him and gladly took his hand helping her to her feet. Peter held her close to him his hands resting, on her hips and she rested her head on his chest as they both swayed slowly. There was no music only the distant sound of New York traffic as they stood on top pf the Cyclone, they both looked their absolute worst covered in dirt and bruises but it didn't matter, to them it was perfect.

"Peter?" Ember called out to him softly, almost like a whisper but he still heard her. Peter hummed in response watching as she lofted her head to look at him "what was this plan Liz told me about"

"She told you?" Peter gaped at her, a little embarrassed that she knew about his Peter proof plan to win her back.

"Back at the school, when you ran away" Ember smiled amused when she noticed the tint of red that spread through his cheeks "what was it about"

"Just a plan to help me swoon this girl I really like" Peter said, raising one hand to caress her cheek, the two were so close that all he could think of was how much he wanted to kiss her right there and then.

"And did it work?" Ember questioned leaning closer to him to the point were their lips were almost brushing together. Just like on the bus on their way to DC, they could feel their hearts beat faster as their breaths mixed together.

"You tell me" Peter whispered, his eyes fluttering close as he was about to close that last inch that kept their lips apart. Before that could happen the sound sirens and cars pulled up to the crash scene ruined their moment. The two teenagers stepped away from each other, embarrassed by the interruption of their almost kiss. Happy Hogan definitely had terrible timing.

"I should head home" Ember said, awkwardly avoiding his eyes, not like it mattered cause he was also avoiding her as well "Goodnight, Peter" And with that she created a slide to take her home. The teenage boy cursing his bad luck and questioning why he let her go. Again.

❅

Ember wasn't that far away from the crash site when she decided to walk. She felt pretty drained from using her powers so much that evening and she just wanted to walk for a bit. Her mind kept wondering off to her almost kiss with Peter Parker, wishing she would've just ignored the interruption and gone for it. Now there was nothing but what seemed like a perfect scene ruined, she could'nt help but silently curse the security team and Happy Hogan for not taking just one more minute to arrive. The blonde was so lost in her thought that she failed to notice a familiar figure standing on a roof a couple feet ahead of her.

"You should really watch were you're going" Ember jumped a bit startled as she finally, looked up from the ground, noticing the owner of the voice, he was wearing his dirty mask again but she could still hear the smirk on his voice. "You're going the wrong way you know? Your house is that way" he said, pointing to the opposite direction to were she was headed. And he was right, Ember Snow was so distracted she was going the wrong way, still, she chuckled as she walked closer to were he was stopping just below the roof he was standing

"And how would you know were I live, Mr Spiderman?" Ember said his name teasingly.

"Just looking after pretty girls like you" Peter shrugged, chuckling to himself as he watched Ember gasping in surprise when he suddenly hanged upside down right in from of her, holding onto a web attached to a rusty drain on the deserted street.

Ember shook her head at his antics, but went along with his games "It sound like I have a superhero stalker" she walked closer to him, raising her hands to reach the hem of his old dirty mask and pulls it down slowly, leaving it just above his nose in case anyone happened to walk by.

"What are you doing?" Peter questioned, his voice so quiet he wasn't sure she ben heard him. He felt entranced by her delicate moves, when he went after her he was only going to offer her a ride home but as her tiny cold hands gently touched his face, he seemed to lose all trail of thought.

Ember rested her hands against his now uncovered cheeks leaning her face closer and closer to his, "I think you forgot something back there when we were dancing" she answered her voice as low as his was.

She caressed his cheeks and smiled in amusement as he seemed to followed her touch his lips dangerously close to hers . Deciding she wasn't about to let the time pass another time, she finally closed the distance between each other. Their lips crashing together in a lingering kiss that left them both feeling lightheaded, although, Peter wasn't sure if it was because of her soft lips pr all the blood rushing to his head for being upside down for so long. Either way he didn't care, this was easily the best night of his life and kissing Ember Snow was the best feeling in the entire world to him. Ember also felt over the moon, leaning closer to him nit wanting this moment to be over, his lips were soft against hers and she kept her fingers gently tracing the cuts on his face that he got that night but they had never felt such bliss. The fight that went down that night managed to escape her thoughts and so did the aching she felt in her sore body, all there was in the world was just her and Peter.

Suddenly their moment was cut short as the pipe Peter was hanging onto broke under his weight sending at he dazed boy crashing onto the ground and the shocked blonde laughing hard at his misfortune.

❅

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