Shooters – Part 1
Peter was in his electromechanical engineering class, where the professor was focused on explaining the basics of alloys, along with components and hydrocarbons.
But Peter was far more focused on a different experiment he was hiding under his desk. He seemed to be improving his web-shooters, or at least that's what he thought. They were part of the suit Tony had given him, so they were probably already among the best out there. Still, as always, Peter's curiosity won.
When he suddenly loosened a screw, the web shot out in a compact ball at ridiculous power, straight toward the classroom window. It shattered on impact, startling everyone, while Peter froze for a second, watching the web ball vanish from sight at an absurd speed, almost like a bullet.
"What just happened?" the professor asked quickly, rushing to the window that had seemingly exploded out of nowhere, looking around at the nearby students. But none of them knew what had happened, since they had all been paying attention to the lesson.
Peter immediately played dumb, like he had nothing to do with it.
"Maybe… one of the sports guys. I think I saw something white hit the window. Not sure," Peter said quickly, slipping the shooter into his clothes.
"Haaa… again," the professor muttered in annoyance, before calling maintenance and continuing the class as if nothing had happened.
Peter let out a quiet sigh and lowered his gaze to pick up the screw from the shooter that had fallen to the floor, right next to his shoe. As he bent down to grab it, he noticed something stuck near it, faintly glowing with a green light, about the size of a thumb.
"And this… what is it?" Peter murmured as he picked it up carefully.
The moment he touched it, he felt a small shock in his hand and dropped it instantly. The little sphere released faint electrical sparks before sticking to his shoe.
It hadn't hurt, but it had definitely been interesting. So he picked it up again.
As soon as he grabbed it, it felt like every hair on his body stood on end, like when he touched those plasma globes and felt electricity run through him, except this time it didn't hurt. Still, he could feel a massive amount of energy flowing through his body, which was strange for something so small. The fact that it caused no damage made it even more impressive.
Peter placed it on his desk and stared at it with interest. But before he could think any further, the bell for the next class rang.
So he just packed everything into his backpack and, just in case, slipped the object into an anti-static bag before putting it away. Then he left the classroom with the rest of the students.
Once outside, he quickly joined his friend Ned, who immediately started talking again about building his Death Star and how doing it at Peter's house would be way more comfortable.
But for some reason, Peter began to feel his spider-sense faintly buzzing, making him glance around in every direction without really paying attention to Ned, just nodding along.
Then, suddenly, his gaze locked onto the far end of the hallway.
Two men were walking through the school corridors, carrying a strange device that looked like some kind of scanner. When they pointed it in his direction, it beeped. Both men met Peter's eyes, frowned, and slowly moved their hands toward their waists as they started walking toward him.
That was when his spider-sense spiked hard.
Ned glanced in the same direction, and the moment he saw the men reaching for their waists, he tensed up and shouted:
"Shooters!"
In an instant, every student in the hallway, as if some kind of alarm had been triggered, started screaming and running for their lives, chaos erupting all at once.
Meanwhile, the men froze for a second, clicking their tongues when they saw the chaos they had just caused. But more than anything, they didn't want to lose sight of Peter. So, to keep the crowd from getting in their way, one of them simply pulled out his gun and fired into the ceiling.
"Everybody stay exactly where you are!" the man shouted as he fired into the ceiling again, making the students who hadn't managed to escape duck down, trapped between panic and the fear of being murdered in their own school.
But the man ignored all of them and looked toward where he had seen Peter just moments ago.
He was already gone.
"Hurry up. That brat has it," he said quickly, urging his partner on, who looked just as shocked by the fact that he had somehow ended up becoming a shooter inside a high school.
"Hey… I think we overdid it," the other one muttered.
"Move," the first man snapped, clearly not caring.
Meanwhile, Ned and Peter were running toward the emergency exit, following the kind of drills every school in the U.S. had. But when they got there, Peter suddenly grabbed Ned by the arm and shoved him into a nearby bathroom to hide.
At that exact moment, the emergency exit door swung open and another man, probably from the same gang, stepped inside with a radio in his hand.
"I'm here. Find him fast before the cops show up. Are you out of your mind?" the man said, clearly furious about the situation.
"Shut up. And whose fault do you think this was?" said the one who had opened fire earlier.
"Fine, fine. Just get it back fast. V.I.T.A.E. is already on our heels… and if the boss finds out…"
"I know. That's exactly what I'm doing. Just make sure nobody gets out, just in case," the man on the other side said seriously. "And if the kid runs, shoot him in the leg. The object matters more."
So after hearing the orders, the guy stayed standing right by the emergency exit.
Peter, who had heard all of that, was hiding in the nearby bathroom with Ned, who was very clearly on the verge of losing it.
"Peter, what do we do? They're shooters. I don't want to die today. I still have too many things left to do while I'm alive. We still have to build the Death Star at your house, finish our D&D campaign… and that new game I bought… it cost fifty bucks," Ned said, looking like he was about to have a panic attack.
"Ned, relax. Lower your voice or he'll hear us," Peter whispered, calming his friend a little as he guided him toward one of the bathroom stalls and pushed him inside. "Just hide in there and everything will be fine. The police will be here any second," Peter said softly.
Ned nodded and quickly climbed onto the toilet while trying to steady his breathing.
"And you'll be in the one next to me, right?" Ned asked nervously.
"Yeah. Don't worry. And let's try not to talk too much, okay?" Peter told him, and Ned nodded again, still panicking.
Meanwhile, Peter opened the bathroom stall right next to his.
But he didn't go in to hide.
Instead, he started stripping down quickly. Not completely, because underneath his clothes he was already wearing his special blue and red suit. Then he touched his chest, and his mask activated, covering his head.
"Right… the instructor said they couldn't see me wearing the Spider-Man suit," Peter muttered before tapping the small spider symbol on his chest. As if he were scrolling through colors, the suit shifted through several options until it turned completely black.
"Peter…?" Ned asked, unnerved by the sudden silence.
"Ned, we need to stay quiet," Peter told his friend, before aiming his web-shooter at his backpack. A tiny spider came out of it and stuck itself there.
Then he lightly touched his mask.
"Don't worry. I'm here," Peter said.
But his voice came out of the tiny spider.
Then Peter turned around and walked toward the bathroom exit.