series of unfortunate events
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The two arrived to catch the ferry a bit late, which left them gliding through the air in order to land safely among the craft. Once Andi successfully attached herself to the back of the ship, she began the crawl up and towards the passenger windows with Peter following her lead. She looked into one of the windows, careful not to be seen, searching around for one of her and Peter's men. Once she spotted one of them, she began her work. He was talking on the phone, but she could not make out what he was talking about, though she was quick to change that.
"Alright, Jace," Andi spoke to her AI. "Activate Enhanced Reconnaissance Mode."
"No problem, Andi."
"He's up front, main deck," Andi heard a man on the other line of the phone say.
"I hate this guy," Peter said, attracting Andi's attention. "It's the guy from the bridge, right? Who's the other guy?"
Andi shrugged and continued listening to the man from the bridge.
"Just keep me posted."
The man she'd been watching got up and walked away. Andi crawled away from the window and up towards the deck, while Peter lingered behind her. She crawled to the opposite side of the ship and looked down onto the lower deck. There were three men, one leaning nonchalantly against a pole, while the other two kept watch. Jace gave her the pole man's identity, while Karen provided it to Peter.
"He has an extensive criminal record, including homicide," Jace informed her.
Andi cringed and shook her head. She couldn't stand just how cruel people could be. These people were the reason she did what she did in the first place, and while she was thankful for the opportunity to defend people, she sometimes wished there weren't people in the world who fed her responsibility to do so.
The man from the window approached the group of men.
"White pickup truck."
"Dronie, scan the ship for a white pickup truck," Andi heard Peter say before turning to look at her. "We've got the weapons, buyers, and sellers in one place."
Andi smiled and opened up her mouth to respond until Peter began panicking. Her enhanced reconnaissance mode remained on, which gave her insight as to what was happening. Tony was calling him.
"Mr. Parker," Tony greeted the boy. "Got a sec?"
Peter looked to Andi for help, but Andi could only shrug. She couldn't help him. All she could do was be glad she was not in his position.
"Uh, actually I'm at school."
"No, you're not," Karen said, though Tony did not hear her.
"Nice work in DC."
"Okay."
"My dad never really gave me a lot of support, and I'm trying to break the cycle of shame," Tony told him. "I do it with Andi, too, so I'm sure she'll tell you about that now that you two are aware of who each other—"
"I'm in the middle of something," Peter cut him off.
"Don't cut me off when I'm complimenting you," Tony chastised him. "Anyway, great things are about to—"
The ferry horn cut Tony off, almost making Andi facepalm.
"What was that?" Tony questioned.
"It's Andi," Peter answered, his attention on the men, who were now exchanging keys. "She's practicing for the band concert on Saturday."
"Andi's not in band."
"Not that you know of."
"Dude," Andi said through her teeth. "Don't involve me in this."
Peter shot her a look. "Don't start with me," he said quietly.
"What's really going on, Peter?" Tony asked.
"I gotta go," Peter said quickly. "End call."
Peter dove down, snatching the keys from the hands of the men, while Andi followed reluctantly.
"Dammit, Peter!"
"Hey, guys," Peter said to the men while Andi swooped down beside him. "The illegal-weapons-deal ferry was at 10:30. You missed it."
The men immediately revealed their firearms, though Andi and Peter were quick to take care of them.
"Not today," Andi muttered as she shot a web towards one of the men. She flipped into the air and kicked him into the wall, while Peter dealt with the other two. He and his friend, who Peter knocked down, got up and grabbed their weapons once more in an attempt to stop the two, but Andi was quick on her feet. She shot two webs at the men's arms and yanked them toward her and into the wall on the opposite side of the ship.
"Jeez, not so hard, Andrews," Peter scolded her.
Andi only rolled her eyes at him and walked towards him, though she stopped when Jace's voice rang in her ear.
"You've got an incoming call from Tony Stark."
"Shit," she cursed.
"Andi," Tony exclaimed after Jace accepted the call. "What's up, sunshine?"
"Not much, just practicing for the band concert on Saturday," she lied and used one of Peter's web grenades to halt the man running after the two of them.
"Um, since when are you in band?"
"Since yesterday," she answered uneasily.
"You know it takes more than a week to learn how to play an instrument, right?" Tony questioned her.
Andi turned her head at the sound of something slamming against a hard surface to see a man, the man Peter had been trying to find. "Yep," she answered Tony, her focus on the man in front of her.
She started after him with Peter, but couldn't get too far before the FBI showed up, stopping both of them in their tracks.
"Freeze, FBI!"
Tony sighed on the other end of the call. "I thought I could trust you, Andi."
The line cut off rather abruptly, but Andi didn't care at the moment. Men began barreling through doors, their weapons pointed at the teenagers.
"What do you mean FBI?" Peter questioned, his hands raised in the air.
"What the hell do you think it means, idiot?" Andi exclaimed.
"I know what it means, I wanna know what they're doing here, thank you very much," Peter sassed.
Andi rolled her eyes, trying her best not to snap at the men. She was beginning to wish she had never agreed to this.
The tearing of metal could be heard, and the group of men and Peter and Andi turned to see large wings bursting from a white van. It was the man they'd been after, and he spared no time at all in flying towards them. Andi and Peter tried to usher the agents away, but they were adamant. Even after shooting at them and throwing a car at them, Andi and Peter were physically responsible for the safety of the stubborn agents, much to Andi's annoyance.
Andi landed on the ground after shoving an agent out of the way and watched as the man in the sky shot a bright purple beam towards his colleague, effectively breaking him free of his confines.
"Get to the top deck, we're getting out of here," the man called down to his colleague.
Peter shot a web at his retreating figure, only to have it destroyed by the man in the sky. Andi then shot a web into the sky, latching it onto the foot of the man she would now refer to as Vulture. Peter followed her lead seconds later. The two received help from the agents as they tried to take down the Vulture, but no amount of help was effective. Vulture was too strong and too determined, as were his weapons.
Andi jumped out of the way as he shot at her and Peter. She worried his stray shots were threatening the passengers on the ferry, but until she could worry about the passengers, she needed to eliminate the threat.
"Peter!" Andi called as she watched her best friend being drug into the air.
"I'm okay, I'm okay," he assured her.
He landed beside her on the deck, and the two of them swooped down to further deal with Vulture. Peter shot a web towards the weapon, while Andi shot a web at him, using as much of her strength as she could to keep him from getting away.
"Activate taser web!" Peter called.
Peter flew backwards the moment the weapon was released and on the ground, though Andi kept her hold on Vulture.
"You're messing with things you don't understand," he called to the teenagers.
In an instant, he cut himself free from Andi's hold, and she and Peter were stuck dealing with the very unstable weapon Peter buried in his webbing. Purple beams began to shoot up and and slice through the metal of the ferry, startling the teenagers. Andi could hear the passengers screaming, and she panicked.
"Oh my god, Peter, oh my god."
"Don't freak out, we got this, okay?" he assured her quickly, though his tone was not at all convincing. "We got this."
The ferry began to shutter beneath the two, and before they could think, the entire boat was splitting in two, shooting water through each opening and further threatening the lives on board. That was something Andi and Peter could not and would not allow to happen.
"Oh my god," Andi exclaimed as she watched the ferry split further down the middle. "X-Ray, Jace, I need an X-Ray. Target the strongest points."
After completing the X-Ray, both Andi and Peter took off through the boat, using as much webbing as they could to hold the boat together. Andi had never been so careless before. She'd never been so careless when there was so many lives at stake, but she let her feelings for the mission blind her to the point in which she was unable to think as Recluse, unable to think as the hero she pretended to be. It drove her absolutely insane.
Andi and Peter landed on either side of the ship, studying their work. It appeared to be holding, but a word from their AI's told them that was not at all what was going on.
"I mean, you both did well, but you were only 95% successful," Jace said to Andi.
"95?" both Peter and Andi exclaimed.
Suddenly, their webbing begin to snap and the screams of the passengers filled their ears once more. Andi's eyes widened with fear, and she dove down with Peter, using all of her strength to hold the ferry together. She couldn't let these people die because of their mistake, she refused to.
"No!" she screamed and grabbed onto a remaining web before shooting one to the opposite side of the ship and holding on as tightly as she could.
Moments passed and Andi, along with Peter were being lowered. She looked down and let go of her web before finding a place beside Peter, who was just as confused as she was. The ferry seemed to be holding itself together, and the two didn't have the time to wonder why, as the reason appeared in one of the passenger windows.
"Spider-Man and Recluse," Tony's voice could be heard. "Band practice, was it?"
Andi swallowed the lump in her throat and watched as Tony pushed the ferry back together. After doing so he flew away, leaving Peter to follow him. Andi couldn't face him, not yet, not after doing exactly what he told her not to do, so she sat and waited for Peter to come get her.
"C'mon," Peter urged her.
"He's gonna kill me."
Peter shook his head and pulled her up. "I won't let him, c'mon."
Andi only sighed and went with Peter.
The two ended up sitting together atop a building ledge, watching as the Coast Guard escorted those on the ferry to safety. Andi frowned and removed her mask, as did Peter. He looked over at her, the sight of her expression sending a dull ache into his body.
"It's gonna be okay," he assured her.
Andi shook her head. "I was supposed to look after you and make sure you didn't get yourself into this kind of trouble, yet here I am involved in it with you, all because..."
Andi trailed off, unable to provide Peter with the true reason behind her intentions.
"All because of what, Andi?"
Andi looked at him, ready to give him the answer he didn't want, until she caught sight of Tony's Iron Man armor flying towards them.
"Previously on Peter Screws the Pooch," Tony started. "I tell you to stay away from this—Andi tells you to stay away from this—instead, you hacked a multi-million dollar suit so you could sneak around behind my back doing the one thing I told you not to do."
"Is everyone okay?" Peter asked him.
"No thanks to you two."
Peter looked at him and hopped to the ground, followed closely by Andi. "No thanks to us? 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."
Tony emerged from the suit, shocking both of the teenagers.
"I did listen, kid," Tony told him. "Who do you think called the FBI, huh? Do you know I was the only one who believed in you? Everyone else said I was crazy to recruit a 14-year-old kid."
"I'm 15," Peter said as he backed into Andi.
"No, this is where you zip it, alright?" Tony snapped. "The adult is talking."
"Tony," Andi warned, but Tony was having none of it.
"You too, Andrews!" he exclaimed angrily. "What if someone had died tonight? Different story, because that's on you two, and if you died...well, I feel that's on me, and I don't need that on my conscience."
"We're sorry," Andi told him.
"Sorry doesn't cut it, Andromeda," Tony replied. He was using her full name, which meant he was being nothing more than serious with her. "I asked you to look after him. I asked you to keep him out of this, yet you go behind my back and join him because your little feelings for him told you to."
Andi swallowed and clamped her mouth shut.
"W-what?" Peter stammered.
"Not the issue here, Parker," Tony scolded him.
"S-sorry, sir."
Tony shook his head. "Just doesn't cut it."
"I just wanted to be like you."
"And I wanted you to be better," Tony replied. "It's not working out, so I'm gonna need the suit back."
"For how long?" Peter asked.
"Forever."
"Tony, don't do this to him," Andi begged him, but Tony had other plans.
"Yours too, Andrews."
"What? Why?" she exclaimed. "I've done everything you've asked me to do since I was 14 years old and because of one mistake you're going to take it away from me?"
"If you're so vulnerable that you allow your feelings for someone to sway your decisions as drastically as this, you're not cut out for the job," Tony remarked.
"Tony, please," Andi pleaded.
"I'm nothing without the suit," Peter added.
"If you're nothing without this suit you shouldn't have it."
Andi ran a hand through her hair and stepped back towards the ledge.
"We don't have any other clothes," Peter told Tony.
"Okay, we'll sort that out."
Andi shook her head at his words and put her mask back on. She couldn't wait to see what other unfortunate surprises the day had in store for her.
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