Paperwork.
Patrols.
Investigating crime scenes.
Training.
That's what my life consisted of for the past week. The Prowler was still, well, on the prowl, and Elecplant was running out of time to catch him. I learned a lot about the investigative side of being a hero, but it sucked watching the guy constantly slip through our fingers.
Every night, I would attach myself to a car battery using jumper cables and fire off as many electric blasts as I could. It got to the point where my arms felt as though they were perpetually on fire, but I didn't care. It's a common thing at this point for me to look at Midoriya fire myself up. He'd break his arms to master his Quirk; therefore, I could handle a little bit of pain.
Speaking of Midoriya, apparently, he, Iida, and Todoroki got into a fight with a villain who called himself Hero Killer Stain. Luckily, Endevour showed up just in time to save the day. If not for him, it sounds as though Stain would've killed all three of them. However, when I asked Midoriya about what happened, he seemed dismissive of the details. Considering he was never afraid to talk about our run-ins with villains in the past, this Stain guy must've been on a whole other level. Scary.
Meanwhile, Momo had the complete opposite problem. She told me over the phone that the hero she worked under was named Uwabami. Apparently, all she had Momo do was learn how to take care of her appearance (which Momo definitely did not need help with) and do commercials. Even when they did go on patrol, all Uwabami did was sign autographs... I suddenly appreciated working with Elecplant one thousand times more.
Despite appreciating Elecplant, I was a bit disappointed that nothing eventful happened during my internship. I know it's selfish to think, but I was willing to bet that after fighting Stain, Midoriya had gotten stronger. Yet, I was unable to learn anything in such a short amount of time.
I guess Elecplant could sense my disappointment. As I walked him to his airport terminal, he put a hand on my shoulder. "I know it might not seem like you've made a lot of progress, but what you've learned is still valuable. Don't sweat too much about growing up too fast, man."
"I know," I muttered. "It's just that I don't want to fall behind."
"Isn't that the beauty of having friends that you look up to? I bet that friend of yours, Midoriya, I think you said his name was, feels the same way. With a friendship like yours, you both will continue to grow stronger as you try to surpass each other. If you were ahead the whole time, I doubt you'd make much progress. So what if you fall behind? Surpass your friends again."
"I guess you're right... I just wanted to be ahead of the pack for a bit longer."
Elecplant chuckled. "I hear ya, kid. And listen, just because our internship is over, that doesn't mean I won't still mentor you. I can't be here for you physically, but you can call me anytime. Well, not anytime. Make sure you account for time zones before you call."
"Thank you-" A sting inside my skull cut off my words. It was my Spider-Sense. I looked around, and Elecplant immediately knew that something was amiss.
"What? Is it your Spider-Tingle thingy?"
"It's called Spider-Sense," I told him. "And yeah. Something bad is about to happen."
I found myself overwhelmed by a maddening dizziness, the world around me twisting and distorting alongside the sounds of muffled voices and street noise. Anxiety crushed me from within as my obliviousness of the situation swelled, my heart pounding. I started to panic. There were thousands of people in this airport; how could I possibly identify and stop what was about to happen on my own?
"Spider-Man." Elecplant saying my name pulled me from my anxiety-filled trance. "Calm down. You've already done a good job identifying that there is a threat. Before we take any further action, are you one hundred percent certain there's a threat here?"
"I am," I told him.
With that, the airport was put under lockdown. No one, and I mean no one, could leave or enter the building. People were pissed off that their flights were being delayed; however, Elecplant took the blame for me. Alongside airport security, we scoured the entire airport; alas, there was nothing out of the ordinary. At least, that was until my Spider-Sense pinged danger once more and I caught a glimpse of something on the runway.
"Uh, Elecplant. We're still on lockdown, right?" I said, pointing through a window at a plane that was preparing to take off.
"Hijackers," he said before taking off. "C'mon, let's go!"
He and I burst through one of the emergency exits and onto the runway. The plane was pulling away, and in mere moments, it would be out of reach. "Spider-Man, I need you to throw me onto the plane before it takes off. Can you do that?"
"Yes, sir. And what about me?"
"You stay here. I can't risk you getting hurt out there. Besides, you aren't licensed. I could get into serious trouble if I ask you to help me."
The plane started to pull forward, picking up speed as it went down the runway. Meanwhile, I fired two webs parallel to myself and began stepping backwards until they reached their maximum slack. Holding onto Elecplant, I slung us both forward, matching the speed of the plane. However, once we caught up, the plane started picking up more speed. Nonetheless, I was able to throw Elecplant onto the left wing.
When he landed, he looked back to see me dangling from the plane with one of my webs. Though his expression was hidden behind his mask, I knew he was pissed. However, he couldn't blow his own cover. Thus, he shook his head at me before his body turned into pure electricity and slipped into the plane.
"He can do that?" I muttered. I knew that I was definitely going to hassle him about how to do that later.
Slowly, fighting against the wind, I climbed up my web and pulled myself onto the plane. I peered inside the window, seeing Elecplant surrendering with his hands up. There were two hijackers, both concealed with ski-masks. The dark-skinned one was lean and lanky, while the other was bulky and could barely fit into the sweater he wore. The dark-skinned one held Elecplant at gunpoint while the other held the barrel of his gun to the temple of a little girl in the front row.
"So that's why he's not fighting..." I whispered. "Damn it, how am I supposed to get inside?"
I tried for a few seconds to turn my body into electricity and phase through the roof; however, I failed miserably.
I could have pried the door open with ease. But if I did that, I ran the risk of a civilian getting sucked out due to the pressure. There's also a chance that the hostage would be killed the moment I busted through the door.
As I weighed my options, I could feel the inside of my skull buzzing. Unlike before, it wasn't warning me of something brewing in the background; it was warning me of an attack. Without even thinking, I flipped forward, narrowly avoiding a couple of green and silver spikes that were aimed directly at my neck. When I landed, I found my attacker tailing the plane and catching up fast.
He was an old man, at least sixty years old. His costume was green and mechanical, sporting metal wings that he flapped up and down like a bird to propel himself forward. He flung his arm forward, again sending spikes in my direction. I dodged once more, landing toward the nose of the plane.
"Not only do you look like him, but you move like him too!" he said in English, landing at the opposite end of the plane.
An American? I thought. Could it be a coincidence that two American villains were in Japan at the same time? Maybe so, but I immediately considered that he could be working alongside the Prowler. In fact, part of me believed that one of the masked men was the Prowler without his usual costume to bypass airport security.
"Who are you talking about? And are you working with the Prowler?"
Before he could answer, my Spider-Sense blared once more. There was another villain, appearing behind me on some hovering metal board. His costume was skin-tight, at least, I think it was a costume. If it wasn't for the off-putting, green color, I'd think it was his skin. The way his mask, which was reminiscent of a goblin's face, moved as he spoke sent chills down my spine.
"Spider-Man!" he said, also in English. "Even Japan has its own pesky little wall crawler."
Before I knew it, I was sandwiched between the Green Goblin and the Vulture. Being hundreds of feet in the air, I had nowhere to go, and I had no choice but to fight.
As I got into a battle stance, the plane suddenly jolted downward. To my right, I could see the emergency exit door disappearing into the distance.
"That's our cue!" said the goblin before he threw a pumpkin-like gizmo at my feet. Before I could react, it blew up in my face, sending me flying off the plane. Dazed, I was able to fire a web at the plane's tail and hold on for dear life as the plane started to nosedive. As I hung onto the plane, the two hijackers hitched a ride onto their flying friends. Before they could fly away, I saw Elecplant leap out of the plane and grab the Vulture by the legs.
I watched as Elecplant held on tightly, managing to kick a gun out of the hands of one of the hijackers while dodging a bullet from the other. As he fended them off, I could only watch as they disappeared into the distance.
"Holy shit..." I whispered. The plane was still going down, and I was all on my own. From where I was hanging, I could hear screams coming from inside the plane's cabin. Luckily, no one was pulled out from the air pressure. I climbed onto the plane once more, blocking off the emergency exit with my webs, though I guess it didn't really matter since half the cockpit was blown off.
I peered my head inside and I could see one of the pilots was severely injured from the explosion, but was still alive. Other than that, there were no other serious injuries or casualties.
"Mommy, look! A hero!" a girl said in English. Everyone else was still panicking, screaming while holding onto their seats. However, this girl, this little girl with tears still flowing down her face, looked at me with eyes of esteem. In her mind, everything was alright. Why? Well, it's just as All Might always says.
"I am here!" I yelled. "I will land this plane."
In an instant, all fear that I had was washed away. I planted myself on the roof, fired a web at each of the wings, and began to steer the plane using my strength. My entire body trembled as I put everything into pulling the plane toward my left. I couldn't just land this thing on the streets; I needed some place completely flat and with very few people.
"Showa Kinen Park!" I said, seeing the beautiful bed of flowers in the distance. It was a popular tourist destination; still, they had plenty of time to get out of my way. I aimed the plane toward the park before letting the plane rapidly descend. Timing was the most important factor in landing this bird, and so, I waited until the last possible moment before pulling up on both wings with all of my might.
The plane hit the dirt, scraping the ground and kicking up the foliage as we drifted across the park. Though the plane had hit the ground, its momentum had hardly died. At this rate, the plane would go crashing into the oncoming street, resulting in god knows how many casualties. And so, I jumped in front of the plane, dug my heels into the ground, and pushed.
Thousands of pounds were pushed against me, but I still did everything in my power to push back. My muscles felt as if they were going to burst for a moment; however, I could feel the pressure starting to ease. Eventually, the plane came to a stop just before it reached the street.
One by one, I escorted everyone off the plane. A mixture of Japanese and English voices thanked me, but their thanks didn't quell this feeling of anxiety that was slowly building inside of me. There was still one person out there who needed saving, a man fighting four villains on his own.
"Elecplant..." I whispered. "Please be alright."