I sat outside the vice principals’ office, sighing. Because of the whole mess with the guy during lunch, I’d shown up to class fifteen minutes late. Ms Jane – who also happened to be my physics teacher – had not liked that one bit. Completely unacceptable behaviour, she’d said. I wished I could’ve explained what had happened, but that would only cause more trouble. I leant my head against the wall, slouching in my seat. Hopefully the vice principal didn’t get my sister involved with this.
I felt my burner phone vibrate in my pocket. I glanced at the door and pulled it out. It was Chrysalis. I hesitated but answered.
“Hey Spider, I found another hideout. Can you meet me at the Flatiron building?” she asked.
“Uh… I don’t know. Maybe tomorrow?” I said.
“Why? What happened?” she asked, concerned.
“I was late for class. I’ll probably have detention” I replied. She laughed hard, before suddenly stopping.
“Wait how old are you?” she asked. I paused. Would she not bring me if I gave the wrong answer? I know I’d already made more than enough money, but the idea of another five grand was too tempting to let go.
“Uh… how old are you?” I replied.
“Just tell me how old you are. I asked first” she said. I paused.
“Eighteen”
“No way you’re eighteen”
“Ok, ok. I’m sixteen” I lied.
“Crap, you’re older. I thought I had a year on you” she said. “Anyway, just let me know if you’re free. See you around.”
“Ok. See you tomorrow, I guess.”
She hung up, and I slipped the phone back into my pocket. I sat still twiddling my thumbs for a few seconds before the sound of footsteps thundered down the hall. Maria came into view, and I felt my lungs collapse. I hid myself behind my bag, but she ripped it off of me dashing it to the floor. I stared at her feet.
“Uh… hi” I said. She grabbed me by the ear and shook my head violently.
“Are you stupid?! Fifteen minutes late?! What the hell were you even doing?!” she said harshly.
“Ow, ow. I’m sorry. I lost track of time” I replied. She let go of my ear and sat down next to me.
“Have you spoken to Mr Becker yet?” she said, cold.
“No.” I mumbled.
“Good. Tell him your sorry and that you’ll do anything. I don’t want you getting expelled” she said.
“I won’t get expelled. I was just late for class” I replied. Maria shot me a glare, and I sunk back in my chair.
The door creaked open, and a student stepped out followed by Mr Becker. He was a tall man in his late thirties or early forties with a clean-shaven face, and a strong jaw. He wore a thick pair of glasses, and his brown hair was slicked back with gel.
“Come in Lucas. We have a lot to talk about” he said. I stepped inside. His office was mostly empty. He didn’t have anything on the walls, and only had a few utensils on his desk, with a filing cabinet sat next to it. He only had two pictures on his desk. One of a college basketball team, and the other a picture of him, a blonde woman, and a girl that looked like both of them in a graduation gown.
“Lucas, I think you know why you’re here” he said. I nodded. “So what do you want me to do about it?” he said.
“Pardon?”
“What do you want me to do?”
“I- I don’t know”
“Well that’s a problem. You see I was wondering if you had any ideas because all of my suggestions feel a bit… unreasonable”
“Uh… what’re the suggestions?”
“I’m glad you asked. First we’ve got an extension of your mandatory community service. We’re looking at an extra two months there. Then we’ve got a suspension, though Mrs Kaede warned me you were pining for that. And then we have expulsion, which I think is far too unreasonable for your second week. I know you’ve caused a lot more trouble than we’re used to but it’s not that serious” he said. There was a small moment of silence, as I felt my heart thump in my chest.
“The extension. I’ll do the extension” I said. Mr Becker frowned and leaned back in his chair.
“Not the suspension? Interesting” he said. He scribbled down something on a sheet of paper.
“Just don’t do this again alright. Oh and you’ll be seeing a counsellor from now on. School mandated” he said looking up at me and smiling.
“Ok” I said.
“You can go” he said. I stood up, slightly confused, and stepped out of the office.
“What happened?” Maria asked curtly.
“I have to do extra community service or whatever” I said sighing.
“Be grateful you idiot. You’re getting off light” she said. I rolled my eyes and sighed.
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“I know, I know” I replied. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got to go to reception to help with some grunt work” I replied.
“Just don’t let this happen again” she said, storming off.
“It was nice to see you too” I called out to her.
-
I stood next to the photocopier as some of the teachers laughed in the lounge just beyond. I stared out the window my mind blank. I sighed hanging my head. Another two months and a stupid counsellor. Why did the school even have counsellors? Annoying. Why hadn’t I just taken the suspension? I mean it’s what I’d wanted in the first place. It must’ve been the way Mr Becker had asked me the questions. Where all the faculty here so good at catching students off guard, or was I just easy? Suddenly, my danger sense buzzed, and I instinctively ducked. The window smashed, and bits and pieces of shrapnel embedded themselves into the wall. I could hear a few panicked shouts from in the staff room, and outside. I jumped up looking out the window. A car had slammed into a building nearby, and it had exploded upon impact.
Holy shit. There was a crater in the side of the building. I could see someone dangling from the edge of it holding on for dear life. Then in the distance I heard a deep guttural roar. I turned to look down the road. A humanoid monster about fifteen feet tall made of a haphazard mishmash of animal body parts roared in the middle of the street. The blue and pink idiots ran around punching it randomly and throwing things at it. They must’ve thrown the car. Shit. Did I go and help? That thing, looked way too above my paygrade. Suddenly Chrysalis zipped down through the air towards the monster, slamming it to the ground. It recovered quickly, grabbing her and threw her into a building.
In an instant I leapt from the room bursting through the door and sprinted towards my dorm room. I needed to help. I booked it through the halls, dodging the few people that weren’t staring out of the classroom windows. I reached my dorm room to find the door wide open. Eric must’ve gone to check the commotion. I slammed the door, grabbed my balaclava, threw a hoodie on over my shirt, and swapped out my school trousers. If someone recognised those it’d be bad. I climbed out the window and paused. I was shaking. Badly. Did I really have to do this? The sound of another roar echoed through the air. Dammit, I didn’t have time to think. I leapt off the building and swung around the side of the building swinging faster than I ever had before.
I glanced back to see half the school staring at me as I swung towards the battle. I breathed deeply looking watching the fight as it happened. I was really doing this. I hadn’t had as much time to think about it with Panzer, it had just sort of happened, but this felt a lot more real. I ignored the gut wrenching fear and swung to a stop on a building nearby. I webbed the monster, but it yanked me towards in with a surprising amount of strength. I flew through the air and my danger sense buzzed. I dodged a swing that would’ve taken my head clean off and landed on the monster. It had multiple faces on its head, and all of their breath stunk.
All the faces roared at me and I leapt off of the monster as it brought it’s fists down on where I’d been, slamming them against itself. It stumbled and fell. Suddenly a car flew overhead, missing the monster and flying towards another building. I grabbed it with my webs and yanked it back away from the building, and directly at myself. Oh shit. I caught it with my hands, denting the surface but holding it easily. I dropped it to the ground, leaving it. I glanced behind me at the blue guy.
“STOP THROWING CARS!!” I screamed. I couldn’t see his face, but his body language told me enough. He didn’t seem to care. Suddenly I remembered the building the car had crashed into earlier. I’d completely forgotten about it when I’d seen the monster. Shit. Did I stay to fight the monster or go back and help? Shit. Shit!
The decision was made for me. The monster roared and my danger sense came to life. I flipped through the air dodging a punch from a fist the size of a tree trunk. I landed on the floor as a pink blur slammed the monster to the ground. I took my chance webbing it to the ground repeatedly until it couldn’t move. Chrysalis landed, covered in a bunch of scrapes, carrying two civilians.
“Chrysalis, the building back there!” I shouted pointing towards the building near the school. She nodded and zipped away at ridiculous speeds. I took to the air swinging towards the building. Chrysalis grabbed the person hanging on the edge and flew towards the ground.
I landed inside, looking around. Fortunately the building hadn’t caught fire, but the explosion could have definitely hurt someone.
“Hello?!” I shouted.
“Help!” I heard someone wheeze. I ran through the apartment before finally seeing the scene. A guy was trapped under a collapsed wall, and a woman lay on the floor unconscious shards of glass sticking out of her.
“Help her first” he said. I nodded. I walked over to the woman unsure of what to do.
“Screw it” I said. I picked up her holding her carefully and jogged back to the hole in the building.
“Chrysalis!” I shouted. She shot out from below. “Take her to the hospital, quick” I said. She nodded and took her shooting off without a word. I darted back inside and lifted the wall off the guy. He’d been trapped in a pocket so the damage wasn’t that bad, but one of his legs was broken. I laughed to myself, before quickly making a splint, and throwing him over my shoulder. He’d passed out already. I paused. Did I leave now, or check with the guy in tow? Crap.
A sudden roar from the street put the fear of God into me. The ground shook beneath my feet and I saw the girl in pink go careening through the air before slamming to the ground and not getting up. Shit. I raced to the makeshift exit, and looked down the street. Blue was getting manhandled by the monster as it pulled itself free from my web. I jumped down from the building landing amongst the crowds at the ends of the street. I handed the guy to them.
“Take him to a hospital. His leg’s broken” I said. I vaulted into the air and swung back towards the monster.
I needed to take him out before he caused anymore damage. It turned, somehow sensing me coming, and chucked Blue at me. I caught him and landed on a street light. I webbed Blue to the streetlight and hopped down darting towards the monster. My heart pounded in my chest as it roared. This was Athena level supervillainy. Where the hell was she?! The monster swung for me, but I dodged the punch landing on it’s arm. I crawled up it’s arm, avoiding damage as it tried to fling me around and slam me into the ground. Suddenly an idea came to me. I’d fight like a spider. I shot out webs, connecting them to it’s arm. I didn’t stop the stream, instead I continued crawling around it as it tried to attack me. Slowly but surely a blanket of web started to bind it’s limbs together limiting it’s movement. I was doing it!
Suddenly a burst of fire erupted from it’s mouth sending me flying. I patted myself out quickly, the face of my hoodie slightly burned. Shit. I looked up to see the monster struggle to move in it’s bound state. I felt a surge of anger burst through me, and I shot out a set of webs, yanking it over. It stumbled and I darted towards it, leaping up into the air and bringing my hands down on it’s head as hard as I could. The monster slammed through the ground, and we fell in a mess of asphalt and web, crashing into the sewer. I jumped up, pulling myself back to the surface as the monster was dragged away by the water. I didn’t follow, a sudden fatigue washing over me. My arms trembled from the blow I’d dealt the monster, and my hands shook. My feet were wet with sewage and my hoodie had been straight up burned. But I’d won.
I looked around at the collapsed section of the road. Damn I was strong. I fell to the floor, laying on my back, noticing the news helicopter from the air for the first time. Crap. I struggled to stand up.
“Hey! Get this stuff off me man. Not cool!” someone shouted behind me. I glanced up at Blue. His ski goggles had shattered partially, and there was some blood on his ski mask. I jumped up to him bringing my face close to his.
“If you ever pull shit like you did today again, I’ll do worse than just tie you up” I said, shaking with anger.
“Are you threatening me?!” he said angrily. I paused, before standing up.
“Yeah. Tell pink what I said too” I said, before webbing away. If the police found her unconscious and him tied up I wouldn’t mind if their identities got revealed.
“Idiots” I mumbled. I landed amongst the crowd who I’d given the guy with the broken leg.
“An ambulance is on it’s way” a lady said.
“It’s fine. I’m faster” I said, grabbing him and swinging away.