The Man with Metal Wings
Peter snuck out at night with his suit hidden under his jacket. Carefully, he managed to avoid being seen before making his way out through the roof. Once he was up there, he took off the jacket and pulled on the mask while stuffing his clothes into his backpack.
"Well, it's ti…"
Before he could say anything else, a voice suddenly came out of nowhere.
"Good evening, Peter. Congratulations on completing the rigorous Training Wheels Protocol and unlocking all the functions of your suit," the voice said as several screens suddenly appeared in his vision, displayed directly through the eyes of his mask, making it very clear that the voice was coming from the suit itself.
"Uh… thanks," Peter said, both confused and surprised.
"Where would you like to go tonight?" the suit's artificial intelligence asked him.
"Uh… well. Some bad guys took my tracker. So I'd like to go wherever they are," Peter said quickly.
"Target located. Planning route to intercept," the AI said at once, while a screen appeared in front of him showing the fastest route on a map.
…
Peter moved down the highway by jumping between trucks, following the directions the artificial intelligence fed him as if it somehow already knew every route they would take, making his progress much faster, smoother, and almost easy, without having to throw himself between buildings.
Even without buildings around, he could still keep moving without having to run on the ground.
"Jump now," the artificial intelligence told him.
Peter leaped off to the side of the road, landing near the edge just behind a few bushes.
And when he peeked his head out, he spotted a gas station a short distance away.
"You have arrived at your destination. Three individuals detected," the AI said quickly, while Peter moved through the darkness to avoid being seen.
"This is their evil lair? Wow. Cheap," Peter muttered when he saw the worn-down, almost abandoned gas station, with what looked like an RV-style truck parked there.
Which made it pretty obvious that the gas station itself wasn't the hideout.
The RV probably was.
"Suit lady, can I know what exactly they're talking about?" Peter asked.
"Connecting to tracker spider," the AI replied.
Meanwhile, the tiny spider, which looked more like a small button inside the backpack lying in a corner of the RV, suddenly seemed to wake up when a small light ran across it for a moment. Then its legs popped out, and it quickly began walking toward the three men who were talking.
Meanwhile, from where he was hiding, Peter could apparently see what the spider saw and hear everything too.
"Now that is cool," Peter muttered with excitement.
The voices of the three men quickly reached his ears.
"…and to think they keep destroying everything while we're the ones who get to walk away with the best stuff. That robot attack really got us some good gear. As always, Tony Stark really knows how to show off with his tech. Makes you wonder who's worse… the villains or them?" one of them said mockingly.
"Yeah. But it's getting more dangerous every time with those V.I.T.A.E. guys tearing apart whatever's left. They're idiots, seriously. They have no idea how far technology could advance if all of this ended up in the hands of people who actually know how to use it," another said with a hint of disdain.
"Maybe that's exactly what they want. Keep everyone too powerless to protect themselves so they can keep being the heroes who save the day," the third added.
"Either way, thanks to them, we're getting rich," the first one said with amusement.
Then he seemed to glance at a screen with a grin.
"The target's getting close," he said while speaking into a radio.
"Understood. Give me the signal," a voice answered from the other side.
Peter was just about to jump in and stop them immediately, but before he could, his suit spoke again.
"Convoy approaching," it said.
That made Peter stop.
He looked toward the road for a moment and saw three huge transport trucks.
And on the side of them, he could see a very familiar set of letters.
D.O.D.C.
"They're planning to hit that?" Peter said immediately, frowning.
And the man holding the radio seemed to confirm it when he raised it and said quickly:
"Green light. Green light."
Then Peter felt something overhead.
So when he looked up, he saw something flying fast in that direction.
So when he looked up, he saw something flying fast in that direction.
"What is that?" Peter said, staring at it seriously while the suit immediately zoomed in.
And then he could finally see it clearly.
It was a man in metallic armor with two massive metal wings, with turbines keeping him airborne. Around them, several small green glowing orbs shone intensely, feeding power into the whole setup.
And he quickly moved toward the last truck in the convoy with careful precision.
"That… that's the guy who attacked the school," Peter said, and for the first time all night, there wasn't even a little excitement left in his voice, before immediately changing plans and deciding not to go after the others, but him instead.
Peter ran forward just as the truck passed beside him and, with quick timing, jumped onto the last one, sticking himself to one of its sides.
The driver seemed to feel a small impact, so he checked the mirror for a moment. But when he looked, he didn't see anything on that side, so he turned his attention back to the road.
Meanwhile, Peter had moved toward the back and was clinging there while watching the road fly by at full speed right beneath him.
He shook his head, turned around, and carefully started climbing toward the roof of the truck while watching the wings floating above it, held in place by a metal cable connected to the vehicle.
But the man who had been using them earlier was no longer there.
So Peter carefully peeked over.
And he saw the man drop four glowing objects, which created what looked like some kind of luminous doorway.
Like a portal.
One that led directly into the truck.
And he jumped through it just as the truck hit a bump, hiding his movement within the natural shake of the vehicle.
As if every part of it had been calculated with precision.
"Wow… this looks like some kind of material transporter or something. That is actually pretty cool," Peter said while lightly touching the open portal.
Meanwhile, from where he was, Peter could see the man from before stuffing several objects that looked genuinely dangerous into a large bag.
"Alright. First load," the man said before jumping back out with ease thanks to his boots.
The man was just about to hang the bag on one of the wings and grab another one, but before he could, a web suddenly snatched the bag away from him and dropped it right into Peter's hands.
"Hey, Big Bird. That doesn't belong to you," Peter said immediately, trying to sound heroic.
While the man, wearing a glowing mask, stared at him for a moment.
Looking genuinely terrifying.
Which nearly made Peter forget the heroic pose he was trying to keep up.
"Spider-Man? Weren't you in prison?" the man said, raising one hand while the wings automatically locked into place on his back.
"Yeah. One of us will be there by the end of the night," Peter said before raising his hand and firing a web at the man.
Then, suddenly, several webs shot toward the man's chest.
But instead of hitting with force… they just stuck there.
"What was that?" Peter shouted immediately, while the enemy looked down at his chest for a moment and then took off again, spreading his wings like he was trying to cut Peter in half with them.
Peter jumped quickly to dodge, but one sweep of the right wing struck him, nearly knocking him off the truck.
Luckily, one of Peter's hands managed to catch hold in time, stopping him from falling.
"Web grenade. Normally aimed at the face. It is the default attack web," the artificial intelligence said, answering Peter's earlier question.
"And why would I want that!?" Peter shouted while dodging the man's leg, whose boot transformed into razor-sharp raven-like claws that tried to punch straight through his chest.
"To reap your enemies," the artificial intelligence replied.
"Yeah, I get how they'd be used. But this is not the moment for reaping webs," Peter said.
Though even as he said that, he aimed at the man's face, and the webs covered his eyes for a moment, causing him to veer off slightly.
"Or is it?" Peter muttered when he saw that it actually worked.
But the man quickly ripped the web off with his hands.
At least from one eye.
And then he attacked again with his wings, which released metallic feathers that shot straight toward Peter.
As he dodged them, he could hear them piercing straight through the concrete behind him.
"There are 556 web options available. Which would you like to set as your default?" the artificial intelligence asked at that exact moment.
"This is not the time to choose!" Peter shouted, now completely thrown off.
And the metal bird took advantage of that distraction.
He pulled out what looked like some kind of energy weapon, which charged for a brief second.
Peter moved to dodge, but it wasn't a laser weapon.
What it fired was a shockwave that blasted straight toward him.
And sent him flying directly toward the opening from earlier, throwing him back into the truck.
Peter got up quickly and jumped to get back out again.
But the doorway had already closed.
Which made his head slam hard into the metal.
And everything went black.