chapter eleven: disaster in london part one
Peter slept soundly, snoring gently until his head dropped off a stranger's shoulder. He felt the bruises on his cheek searing in pain as soon as he woke up. He looked around him till he realized he wasn't alone, and he was met by friendly faces painted in stripes of red, white, and blue.
"Hi." A man beside him greeted him.
"Where am I?" Peter asked, his eyes widening in shock.
"Municipal holding facility." The bald man replied.
Peter turned to the man next to him, the one who had greeted him, and who was wearing a cheerful orange hat, to explain. "They said they found you unconscious at the train yard. Very dangerous."
Peter flinched when the man, with whom he had laid his head on his shoulder, suddenly spoke up. "And we gave you the shirt because you seemed a bit cold."
Peter blinked in surprise before smiling. "Thanks. You guys are nice." The three men smiled kindly, except for the other man, who was sleeping on the floor. "You speak really good English."
"Welcome to the Netherlands." The three men greeted each other in unison.
As he took in what they had just stated, Peter let out a quiet gasp. "I'm in the Netherlands right now?"
"Yep."
"Bye." Peter quickly jumped out of his seat with the orange shirt in hand and approached the cell door. "Guard!"
"The guard is on a break. Probably talking to his wife." The man who first greeted him informed him.
"Yeah, she's pregnant." The bald man added.
"Oh, yeah?"
While Peter had no time to talk, the three men struck up a conversation, delighted to learn that the guard's wife was expecting. He effortlessly broke the lock by reaching out for it. Peter unlocked the door and started to leave the cell, but he stopped when he noticed the guard conversing on the phone while donning his mask. Not only did the guard put on the mask, but a suit as well.
Before turning to leave, Peter tipped his head in surprise and astonishment. Slowly, with disbelief, the bald man walked up to the door. The guard realized that the three men had not spoken since the phone call. "You guys okay?" The bald man silently closed the door again.
Peter reached a small town while sporting an orange shirt. He limped around, trying to seek assistance. He went up to a man who was on his phone. "Excuse me, sir?"
"Yeah?" The man asked.
"Could I borrow your phone?" Peter asked politely.
"Yeah." The man glanced up at Peter before handing him his phone. Peter blinked his eyes in surprise at the man's generosity. "Everyone is so nice here."
He was thinking of someone to call, so he excused himself. He wanted to give you a call, but he couldn't take the chance of endangering you further. He finally thought of one individual and decided to give him a call. He brushed back his hair and held the phone up to his ear. "Pick up, pick up, pick u—" Finally, the person answered. "Hey, hey... I messed up. I need a... I need a ride. Where am I?"
Peter turned to the man, who was looking worriedly for the boy. "Where am I, sir?" He asked the man politely.
"It's Broek op Langedijk."
Peter began to say where it was, but he hesitated because he wasn't sure how to say it nor did he quite understand. "Hang on." Peter brought the phone near to the man. "Could you say that into here?"
The man nodded as he leaned against the phone. "Hi, it's Broek op Langedijk here. Yeah, no problem."
Peter smiled in relief. "Thanks." He brought the phone up to his ear again. "Did you get that?"
A few minutes passed by, and Peter was walking across the flower field close to the small town. A jet came and landed on the field, causing the flowers' petals to fly around. The door opened, and it revealed Happy, looking concerned at the badly injured teenager. "Peter? Are you okay?"
Peter walked towards Happy and squinted his eyes to see him clearly. "H-Happy, is that you?" He was scared that Beck was probably using his tech again and Happy was just an illusion.
Happy was confused but continued to walk towards Peter. "Is it me? Yeah, of course, it's me!"
Peter stopped in his tracks and raised his hand, signaling for Happy to stop walking towards him. "Stop!" Happy did stop. "Tell me something only you would know."
Happy started thinking. "Only I would know..." Happy looked around to think until he remembered something. "Remember when we went to Germany? You pay-per-viewed a video in your room? They didn't list the titles, but I could tell by the price, it was an adult film at the front desk and you didn't know how I knew?"
Peter's eyes widened as he remembered that time. 'That was a long time ago. How the hell does he still remember that?' Peter waved his hand to Happy to stop. "Okay! Okay, fine. It's you. It's you, stop."
Happy continued to walk while Peter walked faster. Peter embraced Happy in relief. "It's so good to see you."
Happy hugged back. "Peter, you've got to tell me what the hell is going on here."
Happy and Peter entered the jet. Happy took the medical kit and carried it over to a nearby table where Peter was seated. Happy put on his glasses in order to enhance his vision.
Happy saw his cuts and started stitching them. "Okay. Hold still. Here we go."
Happy pushed the needle into Peter's fair skin, causing Peter to wince in pain. "Ouch," Peter muttered.
"I thought you had super strength?" Happy asked as he continued stitching.
"It still hurts," Peter responded.
Happy kept stitching, and Peter kept flinching and grumbling in discomfort each time the needle was lodged in his skin. "All right, relax. Just a few more... there we go."
When the needle was about to hit his skin, Peter couldn't take it anymore. "Oh, my God!" Peter exclaimed as he slammed his hand against the table.
"Relax!" Happy exclaimed back.
"Don't tell me to relax, Happy!" Peter stood up and faced Happy. Happy saw tears flowing in his eyes and how red his eyes were. "How can I relax when I messed up so bad?" Peter asked.
Happy took off his glasses and let out a sigh as he watched the boy go through an emotional breakdown in front of him. "I trusted Beck. Right?" Peter continued. "I thought he was my friend, so I gave him the only thing Mr. Stark left behind for me and now he's gonna kill my friends and half of Europe, so please, do not tell me to relax."
Peter sat on a chair where he could face Happy. "I'm going to lose (Y/n)..." Peter whispered as he ran his fingers through his messy, curly hair and sobbed when he lowered his head. "I'm sorry, Happy. I'm sorry. I shouldn't shout." Peter sighed and looked at Happy. "I-I messed up. I brought (Y/n) into this mess... I just really miss him."
Happy nodded. "Yeah, I miss him, too."
Peter sniffed as he wiped his tears away and lowered his head. "Everywhere I go... I see his face. And... the whole world is asking who is gonna be the next Iron Man?" Peter looked up and shrugged. "I don't know if that's me, Happy. I'm not Iron Man."
Happy stifled a laugh and shook his head. "You're not Iron Man. You're never gonna be Iron Man. Nobody could live up to Tony. Not even Tony." Peter stared at him. "Tony was my best friend. And he was a mess. He second-guessed everything he did. He was all over the place. The one thing that he did that he didn't second-guess was picking you. I don't think Tony would've done what he did... if he didn't know that you were gonna be here after he was gone."
Peter felt a little bit overwhelmed. Tony trusted him and believed in him. Peter has to do something. "I'm assuming (Y/n) is with your friends, right?"
"Yeah. She's with them." Peter inhaled sharply as he realized you were in danger too.
"Your friends are in trouble. You're all alone. The tech is missing. What are you gonna do about it?"
Peter stood up and took a deep breath. "I'm gonna kick his ass."
Happy blinked his eyes. "No, I mean, right now. Specifically, what are we gonna do? Because we've been hovering over a tulip field for the last fifteen minutes."
Peter started thinking. "Right. I can't call my friends because he's tracking their phones..." Peter walked towards Happy. "Give me your phone?"
"My cell phone?"
Peter nodded. "Yeah."
Happy took out his phone and gave it to Peter. "Okay. Here."
Peter swiped on the screen and showed numbers and letters, telling him to type the password. "What's your password?" He asked.
"Password." Happy replied simply.
Peter shook his head. "No, what is your password?"
"Password." Happy repeated. "The word. Spell that. Password."
Peter looked up from the phone and gave him a deadpan face. "You're the head of security, and your password is 'Password'?"
Happy sighed. "Hey, I don't feel good about it either."
Peter went to Instagram and looked up Flash's username. He knew he would be live-streaming right now. "'Ello, guv'nor! Cup o' tea for you? I'mma be in London." Flash said in his live stream.
Peter showed the screen to Happy and pointed at it. "They're in London."
"London?" Happy asked while standing up. "Okay."
"Yeah, I need a suit!"
"Suit?" Grinning broadly, Happy made his way to a button. A small lab where a suit could be built was revealed when he pressed it. Silently, Peter let out a gasp and turned to face Happy, smiling brightly.
Happy smiled back. Peter walked towards a container-like machine, and a board came out. He placed his hand there, and it turned out to be a scanning machine. "Okay... um... bring up everything you have on Spider-Man."
On the machine below him, multiple hologram suits were introduced to him. Peter started picking gadgets. "Yeah, open that. Okay. No, no, no." He picked a web-shooter, and he wore the hologram web-shooter. Peter turned to Happy with a puzzled look. "What?"
Happy was smiling at him solemnly and staring at him. In Peter, he recognizes Tony. The way Tony used to construct his suits. Like Peter, Tony was a brilliant man. Happy shook his head, pleased. "Nothing. You take care of the suit. I'll take care of the music."
Happy pushed a button, and music came on. It was Shoot to Thrill by AC/DC.
Peter grabbed a tool and grinned at Happy. "Oh! I love Led Zeppelin!"
Peter looked back at the screen. "Okay, can you pull up my web-shooters? Isolate the taser webs and reconfigure and boost the voltage to a factor of 25%, and with complete manual control over detonation."
As Peter started making his suit, you and your friends arrived in London safely. "Okay, guys. The company set up a city tour, and then we'll grab a bite, then head to the airport." Harrington informed everyone as you and your friends followed him.
Brad stopped and sighed. "Is no one else gonna acknowledge how crazy this is?"
You all turned around to look at Brad. "I get it. There's been nothing scientific about this science tour at all." Dell replied as he looked around.
Brad shook his head. "No, no, no. I'm talking about Peter. Has no one else here noticed how shady he is? Because I saw him in the bathroom of a rest stop with some woman in his underwear, which is true by the way, (Y/n), and he's always sneaking away. Like back at the opera? Huh? And now what, he's suddenly off the trip? With his family in Berlin? Is no one else here interested in the truth?"
You were going to say something because you were getting sick and weary of Brad's questioning when Michelle intervened. Michelle winked at you, cleared her throat, and looked at Brad while she grasped the straps of her backpack. "The very concept of objective truth is fading out of the world." She told Brad.
You noticed it was a quote, and Brad nodded as he smiled. "George Orwell. Thank you, MJ."
"Yeah, well." Michelle looked around, then at Brad. "I mean, since Peter's not really here to tell his truth, what about you, Brad? Why do you think it's cool to take pictures of people in the bathroom?"
"Yeah, dude," Flash spoke as he faced the camera of his phone to Brad, live streaming. "What's that about?"
Brad blinked before shaking his head. "No, no. It wasn't like that. It was... I was trying to take..."
He tried to make an excuse, but he failed to say one. Harrington saw his struggle. "Let's just put all this craziness behind us, and have a nice, peaceful afternoon."
"Sounds great, Mr. Harrington!" Said the class. You saw a red bus, and the driver was waiting for you and your friends.
"We got a bus all to ourselves!"
Michelle is right behind you on the bus, and all of your classmates have already boarded. Because the driver struck you as both familiar and suspicious, you cast him a skeptical glance. Once you passed him by, you suddenly heard him speak. "I have the kids."
Betty tugged you in her direction before you could address the driver. When you and the others boarded the bus and went to the upper level, you noticed that they were snapping selfies. Leaning against a rail, you surveyed your surroundings. Ned stood next to you, following you. "I don't like this. Something's definitely up." You told Ned.
"It's suspicious, I know," Michelle added as she stood beside you.
"You're an F.O.S. now, MJ," Ned said, causing you and Michelle to look at him with a confused look. "Friend of Spider-Man. And you have to remember, just stay calm."
There was the sound of thunder rumbling, and you whipped your head to the other side. "Well, that doesn't look good." You said as you looked at the big storm coming.
"But it's fake, so there's nothing to worry about," Ned said nervously, afraid that what he's seeing may be true and not an illusion anymore.
"Okay, Fury's got the coded message." Happy informed Peter who turned around to see him. "Your friends are at the Tower Bridge."
Peter nodded. "Okay."
"The boy called it the London Bridge, but I figured it out." Happy added, and Peter figured out who the boy was. "I'm gonna go scoop them up. How's the suit coming?"
Peter glanced at his suit. "Almost done."
Happy smiled. "Good." He was about to walk away, but Peter grabbed his arm. "Wait... before you go..."
Peter took out something from his back pocket and showed it to Happy. The lily necklace he bought for you. "If something happens to me, could you please give this to (Y/n)?"
Happy nodded and took the necklace. "You're gonna make it back. You'll give it to her yourself. Okay? You got this."
Peter nodded. "I got this."
"Now walk me through it."
Peter sighed deeply. "I know it's illusion tech, right? All I have to do is get on the inside of the illusion, then I can take it down. Find him, and he's just a guy, so I can take E.D.I.T.H. right back."
"Right. But last time, you got hit by a train."
Peter blinked and nodded slowly. "True. But, this time..." Peter lowered his head to think. "How do I explain this... uhh... I have like a sixth sense?"
"The Peter-Tingle."
Peter stared at him for a moment with a blank face. 'Did May tell him? Oh, my God.'
"That's what you're talking about, right?" Happy continued. "It's not working, though. I heard it wasn't working right now. Is it?"
Peter closed his eyes momentarily and shook his head. "It is working. Well, I don't... I don't know if it's working..."
"Okay. So your Peter-Tingle." Peter gave him a deadpan look when Happy repeated the word. "That's the plan. I'm gonna go get your friends. You get that Peter-Tingle back online."
Peter sighed when Happy left, so he turned around to see his suit, halfway done. "I got this. I got this."
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