Mr. Parker & Ms. Shimmer's Project
Author's Note
Hope you enjoy this! Took weeks to perfect and edit. Watching Tom Holland's Spidey was the biggest inspiration for this one-shot, but there's tidbits of Spectacular Spider-man in it.
Any who, enjoy this and leave a comment to say if you liked it!
Mr. Parker & Ms. Shimmer's Project
"So...yeah. It basically just has a stylized strap, so it'll look good with anything green."
Scribble. The pen dashed lazily across the paper, marking up specific letters and numbers into the inked slots. Mr. Grift didn't look up once from his writings and hardly lent an ear to the report his pupil was giving on her project. If her partner wasn't out "sick", they'd be be feeling just as worried as most of the other students right now. The teacher knew that the partner would be coming back to school with a crude grade to explain; something that the lone student was suffering at the moment. How they had even managed to put together a report this long was beyond the teacher.
"And that's it." She finished, looking proud despite giving what she little effort she had put into the project. "Can I sit down now?"
Mr. Grift sighed. " Thank you for the unnecessary history report on fashion preceding your explanation of the project, Ms. Tano." He stated flatly, and finally set down the pen. "I'm also interested to see that there weren't any important changes to the backpack. No built-in first aid kits or emergency transmitters?"
"Um, couldn't buy it. Can I sit down now?"
Without much else to say to the teenage girl, he shooed her to her desk with a lazy wave of his hand and looked at the expanse of the half-asleep technology classroom. He glowered at their disinterested faces and then at the rubrics he'd been grading the whole class period. "I see that so far, you all have made very miniscule adjustments to your everyday objects, many of which aren't even homemade...except for Ms.Sparkle's...what is it again, Ms. Sparkle?"
"The garbage recharger!" The purple skinned student beamed all too excitedly, often glancing down at her small creation proudly as she spoke. "I took an old power bank charger and added in a smaller processor so that it can turn trash items into power for your phone! Gum wrappers, box pieces and plastic spoons are a thing of the past and you don't even have to plug anyth--"
"I only wanted the name. Any who, for future projects I expect you all to do better." The entire class groaned at the prospect of having to endure another project, but he ignored them. "Now, we have one last project to go before we move on. Hmmm...Ms.Shimmer and Mr. Parker?"
Twilight noticeably glanced at two empty desks in the room, and then at the teacher before timidly raising her hand. "Um...Sir? I got a text from Sunset at the beginning of class. She and Peter have run into some problems with their project, and they'll be here shortly..."
He snorted quietly. "Hmmph. It's almost the end of class, Ms.Sparkle. I highly doubt they'll make it here in--"
Wham!
The entire class flinched when the door opened up suddenly and slammed against the wall adjacent to it. In burst two familiar students covered in a fine layer of dirt and dust, as if they'd just run out of an earthquake in a park. Their hair seemed completely messy and wild, going perfectly with their frantic expressions and causing the class to give them comical bug eyed stares. The teacher blinked away his shock to deeply scrutinize the two. "Speak of the devil...nice of you two to suddenly barge in."
"Right! Sorry about that!" Sunset giggled too loudly and too nervously, handing the adult their permission slips from the front office. "We didn't interrupt anyone, did we?!"
"No. As a matter of fact, we just called you two up to present your project."
It was Peter's turn to chuckle worriedly now. "Oh right. About that...erm....our project is kinda destroyed." He unveiled the charred remains of leather that still smoked slightly and held a small pile of soot inside it. "...and I mean... really destroyed."
"What'd you and your girlfriend make, a portable grill?" A specific blonde in the back quipped, crossing his arms as his gang around him snorted.
"Girlfriend, ha. That never gets old, Flash." Sunset muttered under her breath.
Mr.Grift gave Flash a warning glance before turning back to the two before him and taking holding of the blackened leather. "I'd love to hear the explanation behind how your project just so happened to get this way."
They both seemed to turn white at once. "E-Explanation?"
He nodded. "Yes. How did it get like this--coincidentally on the day it's due?"
Sunset's eyes flickered to her partner for the briefest of seconds before she cleared her throat. "Well, it all started off okay this morning..."
Tap! Tap! Tap!
The frantic tapping fell on her deaf ears for a few seconds, but Sunset eventually shifted her body in response to the slightly annoying sound coming from her window. Her sleep- filled eyes cleared within a few blinks, taking in the sight of her usual bedroom surroundings, her backpack ready to go by her door and...her alarm clock showing 8:47. She swore under her breath when her mind registered that she'd actually missed the bus, and she lept out of bed to get her phone from her backpack.
TAP. TAP. TAP. TAP.
She froze in midstep and looked over her shoulder where her window presented a clear view of her technology partner, still tapping the window and frowning exasperatedly. He seemed to be dressed for school just as she was, and equally not on the bus. "Oh! Uh..." She awkardly crawled onto her bed and pushed the window up, letting in a draft of New York air that really woke her up. "Sorry. I must've fallen asleep after getting dressed...again."
"I could see that.I missed the bus too." He told her with sass, crawling onto the wall using his fingertips and avoiding her bed altogether. He hopped onto the floor with ease and set his huge backpack on her desk to root through it." Only I...was putting a few finishing touches on the magnetic stabilizer. It kept shifting out place so i pinned the casing with a thumbtack to keep it there."
Sunset pouted suspicously as he handed her the leather foldings and allowed her to inspect the flat black casing hiddien on the inside. "Hmm. Good thinking, I guess. You didn't move the cooling vent out of the way, did you?"
Peter rolled his eyes, rooting around deeper in his backpack for something else. "No, Sunset. I know you worked on that precious vent of yours for the entire weekend. You told me fifty times over the phone." He looked at her over his shoulder briefly. "And then another fifty times to talk about the color of the leather."
"So this project is going to be taken for a late grade, Right?" Sunset ignored his statements, her mind rushing with thoughts on how she was going to explain another tardy to her 'father'. "How much do you think that'll affect our GPA if it's a 70?"
"We're not going to be late to school, Sunset."
She scoffed. "Right, cuz we can just fly to school! Lemme just get my goggles."
"No..." He turned to face and held up silver wrist garments for her to see, the tiny nozzles glinting in the sunlight. The teen girl switched gazes from the 'watches' to the boy's mischievous grin. "...we're gonna swing there."
"I don't know about this, Peter." Sunset swallowed fretfully as she looked over the edge of the roof and noted the sheer height from up there to all the way down there. It wouldn't take but a few seconds for her to accelerate in her fall, and then the abrupt stop would happen. "Are you sure that you've done this before?"
"Huh? Yeah sure. Dozens of times." Peter finished reversing his backpack so that he was wearing it from the from the front, barely giving the red/blonde a glance. "I saved a few people from a fire once, and I carried like...fifteen people out of the building..." He paused in the middle of adjusting his webshooters to think about his bragging. "Well...actually it was two people...well, technically it was one person and a dog? Or maybe a cat? I forget--the point is that it doesn't matter! I've lifted cars with no sweat so you'll be fine. Just hold on tight and try not to choke me. C'mere."
The young girl hesitated for what felt like a few minutes before finally shuffling behind the boy and wrapping her arms in a secure fashion around the top of his shoulders. The contact did not go without Peter tensing up a bit, but he relaxed after some time. Sunset could already feel herself on her tiptoes thanks to his height; why'd he have to be so stupidly tall?!
"You ready?" Peter cast a glance back at his friend, an amused smirk failing to hide itself.
Sunset bit her bottom lip."No. I think I changed my mind. As a matter of fact--"
"Too late!"
"PETER, YOU SACK OF--!"
The boy already had a foot springing off the edge of the roof by the time she could even think about letting go of his shoulders, so by then she had to hang on even tighter. That horrific feeling of her stomach rising barged in with the sudden drop, and her heartrate seemed about as high up as she once was. She couldn't tell if she was screaming or not; the wind blasting past them was absolutely deafening and wouldn't have let her open her eyes if she wanted to. Even her backpack flapped despite being bound to her back, and her scarletish hair was even worse off. She felt one of Peter's arms move upward in an instant and after a wet slapping sound shattered the raging winds, she could feel their bodies curve back up into the air with the speed and movement of a rollercoaster. Heck,it even felt like a rollercoaster.
"In case you're wondering, we're not dead yet." If her eyes were open, Peter would've seen them roll snidely. "Open your eyes."
It took her a while to hesitantly do as he said, but her eyes managed to creak open to slits and give her a glimpse at what webslinging was like. Her eyes opened in shock as she took in the absolute masterpiece of everything below her; tiny cars, microscopic people and concrete walls that we're on either side of them while they made their swings over flat ground. Some citizens would glance up from way down below and try to make out the two swinging figures with expressions of amazement, and Sunset suddenly felt a bit prideful about her experience. She was up hundreds of feet in the air like a superhero, and no one else got to do this...well, no one but Peter. That thought made her envy his superhero life just the slightest, especially if he could enjoy the New York scenery like this everyday and feel the sense of adrenaline that came with webslinging. Was Peter still even excited about this? He'd been Spidey for months now, so perhaps the thrill had died for him by now?
"You like what you see?" Peter spoke up, but he didn't sound smug or amused. He sounded happy-- no, excited-- to be able to share this experience with someone, to have them know how it was like to websling firsthand. Sunset nodded eagerly in response, but soon recalled that he couldn't see her head at the moment and verbally responded.
"Uh, yeah! You have a view of everything up here!" She declared, fighting the urge to gesture to 'everything' with her arm. "No wonder you can find crime so easily! You could see a guy pickpocketing someone even from up here!"
"Heh. I-I'm really glad you like it!" Peter pointed at a rooftop setting on the top of a buildings where at least one man in a dark blue robe stood there with a mug of coffee to aid him in looking out over New York. "That's Mr.Dreeho, yknow? From Culinary arts?"
Sunset observed for a passing moment, and raised her eyebrows in amusement. "Oh yeah. He looks cool in a robe."
"Ha! I know, right?"
"She almost looks like Ms.Eberhart!" She pointed at a woman who was sitting in a convertible with top down, boredly waiting for traffic to clear up. Peter's body vibrated with a short laugh, before using a webline to make a sharp turn. "I'd get my phone if I could...but I think that we're making good time. "
"Seems like it. I'm surprised I even know the way to school like--"
"We're interrupting once more for another news report!" A somewhat metallic voice interrupted him and directed their attention to one of the giant digital billboards sitting on the side of a skyscraper. The usual guy that brought New York it's news seemed to be staring at them, even though there was no way for that to be possible. "We advise all citizens to remain on the lookout for the masked vigilante, last seen in New York city and Queens. If you spot him, immediately contact the police so that he can be captured. Do not try to engage him, as he is dangerous and unpredictable. Thank you, and enjoy your day."
Sunset couldn't help but glare after the screen as they passed it, her grip tightening on Peter. "Geez, they act like you're Frank Castle or something."
"Doesn't matter how they act." Peter reminded her, but there was a slight tone that indicated he didn't like the city's opinion of him. "It's how I act. If I do enough good for people and use my...powers responsibly, then Chucko back there will sound pretty stupid."
"I guess. I just don't know how you can stand all the bad stuff they say about you." The girl responded with a quiet sign lost in the wind. "They did that to me before you moved to my school...Didn't take it very well."
"Well, you..." Peter trailed off into silence, clearly looking down at the sea of cars below them. Sunset was about to get to continue, when he spoke up. "Traffic is a bit more...jammed than usual."
She studied the area below her boots, and nodded on instinct. "Yeah. A little."
"Maybe we just missed a car accident?"
"Maybe..." Sunset looked further down the street and gasped in surprise at something in the distance. "Hey...don't you know that guy?"
At the heart of the traffic, cars seemed to be flipping over from a specific force; a figure garbed in yellow and brown seemed to be deliberately tossing cars to and fro with some kind of power that made a high pitched whine. The closer they got, the more Sunset could see that this figure had bulky gauntlets that did the work for him.
"Well, I wouldn't say know...so much as fight regularly." Peter corrected, just as the figure's masked head shot up towards him. Seconds later, the figure bolted down an alley, in the direction of a park. Peter halted his swinging to land on the side of one the buildings making the alley and began crawling up to the roof. "Uh, how much longer 'til first period starts?"
"About ten minutes." Sunset immediately caught on to why he had asked, and hopped onto the roof to give him a stern expression. "Wait, are you seriously about to--"
"Well, I gotta get him! He just pummeled a few cars!" Peter argued, scanning their surrounding for possible cameras. Satisfied, he pulled his mask out of his backpack and pulled it down over his head and neck. "Besides, this won't take me long. Three minutes tops. I've handled this guy before, y'know! He's absolutely harmless!" He pulled his shirt over his head, revealing that he'd been wearing the suit underneath his clothes and started working with his pants--A slightly odd thing for Sunset to watch. "After I wrap this up--heh,get it?-- Ill get us to class in the remaining eight...I mean, three minutes."
"Well, is there anything I can do to help?" Sunset asked in defeat. "I've got powers too."
"You told me they don't work like mine--that you gotta focus first or say some magic words." He was adjusting his webshooters by now, making sure they were on tight enough. "That'll take too long for me. Its best if you just stay up here, where it's safe."
The girl crossed her arms in a critical fashion. "Didn't you just say he was, and I qoute: 'absolutely harmless' ?"
Spider-man chuckled slightly, and aimed a perfect webline at a lamppost. "Don't start quotin' me now!" The masked hero yanked himself away, leaving Sunset to watch as he leapt to face his for. From the farthest corner of the building, she had a perfect view of Spidey landing in front of the figure before he could fully run through the park.
"Okay, Peter. " She murmured to herself. "Let's see what you've got."
Spider-man didn't waste a second in slamming his feet into Shocker's back and forcing the bad guy into the grassy ground, before rolling into a position to face him just seconds later. He had the time to pit a stop to him, so long as he avoided the vibra-blasts of his gauntlets. " Yo, look who I just so happened to find out here! I'm practically giddy just seein you here!" His lenses mimicked a cocked eyebrow. "Though, I gotta say...you seem to be taking' a step down from your usual robbing shtick. Unless, there was cash in one'a those cars you trashed?"
"I don't care about cash right now, webhead." Shocker moved to his boots quickly; not getting himself upright could mean a quick problem for him. "Just needed to get your attention! And since you're right in front of me, I take it the plan worked!"
A vibrating jolt surged through Peter's skull and influenced a dodge that had him cling to the branch of a nearby tree. "Ah, a rematch,huh? I gotta warn ya, it'll be short!" Springing forward like a panther, Spidey avoided the tree-crunching aim of another vibra-blast and rolled forward onto the ground to dodge several other blasts. In turn, Shocker dodged the solid balls of webs that were squired at his mask or simply disintegrated them with the help of his gauntlets. With the gap closed between them due to their movements, Shocker threw a punch aimed for Spidey's abdomen as a decoy; his other fist managed to connect with the hero's mask.
"Okay, ow...You been practicing Ninjitsu or something?" His head didn't take another hit thanks to a gloved catching Shocker's next punch. Spidey twisted his arm downwards slow and the villain grunted in growing pain. "You know that's not fair, man! I've always been a street fight--UNGH!" Peter felt his body get thrown backwards from the sheer force of a vibra-blast to the chest, the brief lack of bodily control taking away his chance of landing the right way. Ow...Okay. C'mon, Peter. Let's cut the chit chat for a sec and wrap this up already! Every minute we take up is a lower grade after all! Spidey silently shot up from his distance and developed a webline at Shocker's chest, before yanking his foe's body towards him at the average speed of a car. That is, a car suddenly stopped by a punch to the face.
"RKO outta nowhere...kinda." Spider-man pulled Shocker up by the chest of his suit, his lenses narrowing down to slits that would've gone perfectly with his smirk, if it weren't hidden by the mask. "Got any last words, before you wake up in a prison bed?"
"...j-just that you should look behind you."
His lenses narrowed into a blank stare. "Seriously? Are you really trying to use that trick? I may look pretty stupid in this thing, but I..." Nearly cutting off the strong vibration in his skull, A pair of mechanical clasps latched on to Spidey's shoulders and in a millisecond the hero was yanked into the air. The same clasps slammed his upper body in the ground and plowed him through the tough soil without any effort. The clasps released him around the same time that mechanical flapping was heard, and then a safe landing where Spidey had originally been. "Oooookay, that smarts...I see you're outta jail too, huh Bald Eagle?"
"Vulture, boy. Vulture." A somewhat muffled voice escaped the green fiberglass helmet, whilst two glowing green dots stared beyond the darkest parts of the glass. The mechanical wings whirred restlessly while the villain himself rolled his shoulders in anticipation of the squabble. " I could've killed you just now, but I wanted you see who it was before I finally crushed your skull in my claws."
"Aw, thanks. I'll send you a cute little card once they lock you up..." Peter dusted his suit free of soil bits and balled his fists. "Also proud of you for making friends with new people! Builds character!"
Vulture's wings flared aggressively. "You know what they say. The enemy of my enemy..."
"We'll, Its gonna take a lot more than you and Ol' Shocky to...where is Shocker anyways?"
The Vulture tilted his head ever so slightly, his smirk hidden.
"Oh. Right behind me, huh?"
A vibra-blast slammed into Peter's spine and shortly after his body slammed into the trunk of a tree.
"WHATDOIDOWHATDOIDOWHATDOIDOWHATDOIDOWHATDOIDO?!"
Sunset felt as though she could only watch from the safety of the roof as one of her best friends got his butt handed to him, several times over since the guy with wings appeared. She didn't know Peter's energy that well, but the number of punches he took indicated that he wouldn't survive long with them. But what could she do about it? She couldn't call the police for certain, no one else could help on Spidey's level, and her powers..."Stupid, conveniently timed powers! What good are you if I can't activate you right away?!" Sunset was broken out of her thoughts by the sight Peter being forced through a concrete pathway through the park. Her worried expression melted away into determination. "...Powers or not, I gotta do something... Hopefully with powers, though."
After setting her backpack on the edge of the roof, she closed her eyes and tried concentrating as much as she could, straining the muscles of her body just to focus on her abilities. Try as she might, she didn't feel the slightest spark of energy. "Erngh...C'mon, Sunset...Hurry up!" She tried with a bit more impatient ferocity, until her heart felt the tiniest flicker of magic energy within. In just seconds, that magical flicker exploded within her.
"Ah, YEEEEAH!"
"When do we get to kill him,huh?" Shocker questioned, barely putting in the effort to hold up Spider-man by his neck. "We've been battin' him around for six minutes already! The cops could show up any minute now!"
It was difficult to tell with his helmet, but Vulture seemed to consider his words. "As nice as it would be to make him writhe in agony, I have to agree with you. It would be a shame to let him get away after we worked so hard to get him here to begin with. " The avian adversary gestured for Shocker to drop the hero as he spoke. "Got a coin on you? Maybe we can flip to see who finishes him."
"You two..." Spider-man wheezed. "...are so cute together... that its making...me sick."
Shocker growled in response and prepared his hand for a fist. "I say we break his jaw as an appetizer. At least he won't be babbling to his death, or telling some stupid joke....say, is that a giant--"
SHMACK!
Vulture was kicked by the force of a bulldozer, and his body was sent smashing into Shocker's. With them gone for the time being, Spidey sluggishly got to his knees and soon felt feminine arms trying to help him up. "Are you okay? Do you break anything?"
"Just my pride. Y'know Sunset, I....wait, SUNSET?!" Peter flinched and looked up in abrupt realization, his leaned widening cartoonishly when he took in her changed appearance. His female friend was in a short sleeved suit of some kind with ends that worked as a mini cape, all one blend of red and orange like that of her hair. While her stylish boots and expensive hairstyle went with her tight pants just fine, they were entirely black in contrast to the other colors. The most bizarre part about her now were the two giant hawk wings of glowing gold that flapped halfheartedly from her back and radiated waves of pure sprinkles and sparkles. The sight would make any young boy throw up. “Uh...what…?”
“Its part of the transformation and my powers!” Sunset practically bragged, and Peter finally noticed that she was wearing the sunglasses while the bandana from theater was tied over her lower face. She still seemed to have her backpack on as well. “It took a lot of concentration, but I finally got them to appear at will!”
“That's great. Good stuff. Go away now.” Peter shooed with a hand weakly, turning to catch of Vulture flapping his wings in an effort to get off of Shocker. “I gotta finish up with these guys.”
“They were beating tar out of you! Just let me help!” Sunset yelped in exasperation. “I even made myself a mask so they wouldn't see my face! See?”
Peter was about to retort, but the bruise at his side spiked with pain. He glanced down with a groan and then reluctantly looked back towards his hopeful friend. “...y’know...If you get killed, I'm gonna have to explain this to Twilight. She'll try to kill me.”
She rolled her eyes, a smirk appearing on her lips. “Better that than me trying to explain this to your Aun…Duck.” The teens ducked down in an instant and a lengthy ray of vibra-blast sliced through the spot where their heads were. Sunset was the first to stand back up, patting away a small fire that started on her head. “Uh...Who do you want to take? Birdman or Power Ranger?”
Spidey chuckled at her quip for the villains, and shot a web that splattered over Vulture’s mask, much to the criminal's displeasure. “I call dibs on Vulture. Just try to make Shocker angry! He can't focus that well!” With that, the webhead yanked himself forward with a leap onto Vulture, who shot up into the air while delivering punches and kicks.
“Right.” Sunset swallowed nervously as Shocker made a beeline for with confidence. “Make ‘em angry.”
…..
“Your little girlfriend back there won't be enough to keep us from killing you, boy!” Vulture insisted. They were both hundreds of feet in the air above the park by now, and Vulture only carried them further up. One of his mechanical talon latched onto Spidey’s arm again. “It's only a matter of time!”
“Why does everyone keep saying that? She is NOT my girlfriend, man!” Spidey strained for a moment, but he managed to break free of the grasp, which sent him into freefall for a brief moment. “Though it would be understandable in way. If the ladies could see what kind of ruggedly handsome face was under this mask, they'd all come a’runnin’!”
“Hey! What are you doing?!” His foe flinched as a webline helped Spidey yank himself onto Vulture's back, where he couldn't reach that well due to his wings. “Get off me!”
“But now that I think about it...she is kinda hot. Never really looked at her that way.” Spidey pretended to ponder and stroke his chin. His hands suddenly shot for Vulture's left wing, straining with all his might as he wrenched it. A signaled the tearing of the wing, which Spider-man examined. “Would you look at that! I gotta chicken wing! You think I should fry it, or bake it? I personally like--”
“YOU IDIOT!” Vulture screamed and spastically waved his arms and legs, at least as much as an old(ish) man can. “I CAN'T STEER THIS THING NOW!”
“and yet we're still in the air?” Peter asked in confusion, noting that they were only slowly hovering now. “How does that work?”
“The antigravity cube installed in my pack! It'll only keep us afloat for a few more hours and--” Vulture flinched when he felt the metal skin of his pack get punched in, and suddenly they were both in free fall. “WHAT'D YOU DO THAT FOR?! YOU'LL KILL US BOTH!”
“Well, ironically, I was curious. Nighty night.“ Spidey tossed the torn off wing to the wind and punched the back of Vulture's mask to knock him out. He waited patiently until the first rooftop came within his range, and a webline made quick work of connecting the roof to a wrapped up villain. The webhead sighed as he finally finished the task and landed on the side of the building to survey the park once more. “Now that this's all wrapped up, I wonder how Sunset is faring…?”
….
“Hold still, so I can put you out of your misery!” Shocker commanded, his beam of vibra-blasts coming dangerously close to scathing his teenage adversary. Sunset hadn't been so good at getting this guy angry, but her dodging hadn't failed her yet. She frowned as Shocker changed direction and she was almost hit directly in the face.
“Okay...Flying can't be my only super power...What else do I got?” She asked herself and tried aimed her hands at Shocker. Surprisingly, twin beams of red and orange encircled each other and struck Shocker right in the chest, causing him to tumble backwards. “Yeah! That's what I'm talking abo--WOAH!” Her sentence was cut off in her effort to lean forwards so that a vibra-blast didn't slam into her back.
She took off into the air again, taking this precious time to breathe and think of a way to finish off Shocker; she was late to class by who knows how many minutes now! She had to finish him off somehow, and fast...an idea popped up in her head as she noticed that her foe was standing right next to a tree that towered over him. She zoomed down as fast as possible before landing in front of the base of the tree, breathing heavily but still smirking. “You...call that aim?! You couldn't hit the ground if you fell out of the sky!”
With a low growl, Shocker concentrated his fire on Sunset...or at least where she used to be. The vibra-blasts caused the base of the giant tree to give way and lean towards him, but halt before it could lean over enough to actually fall on him. Shocker sighed in relief, before chuckling. “Nice try, but even your boyfriend would do a better job of--”
“He is not my boyfriend!” An exasperated yell was all the warning Shocker had before a kick to his back sent his body slamming into the tree. With this bit of extra force, the tree base snapped the rest of the way and slowly began to fall towards Shocker’s pained form. “Aw shi--”
SLAM!
Sunset’s wings sputtered into nothingness again and her clothes changed back to normal as well, just in time for her to see that her plan worked after all. And just in time for Peter to arrive and see it too. She smirked as his lenses widened comically at the groaning bad day. “Yep. That was all me.”
“Man, remind me not to get on your bad side.” Spidey offered nervously, though she could tell that he was definitely impressed by her feat. “I gotta say, I feel like a prick for doubting you.”
“Well, you can feel like a prick later. Right now, we gotta hustle to class before...before…” The girl had reached up to adjust her backpack’s straps on her shoulders...only, there were no straps to adjust. For that matter, there wasn't a backpack either. “Uh...where's my backpack?”
“I thought you were still wearing it?” Peter shrugged, before he gasped and pointed behind her. “Is that…?!”
Sunset whipped around and clutched her hair with a face of pure disbelief. “AW, COME OOON!!!”
"It took us a while to put out the fire, but we managed to salvage a little piece of our project as proof that we did it." Sunset finished and inhaled for another couple of sentences." We didn't have any backup plans, unfortunately. Oh, and it took us an extra eighteen minutes because the police wanted to talk with us. "
"An interesting story...perhaps too much so. " The teacher narrowed his eyes suspiciously and the two students shrank under his stare. "I've had students in the past go so far as to shred their own homework and blame it on their cat. You both could've been desperate enough to burn your project. "How do I know that this isn't something staged?"
Peter readily held up his phone, which displayed a newspage and their recounting of what went down. "They've got it all over the news, sir. If this was staged, we'd be getting at least fifty people to put their jobs on the line over a project. That's not even counting Spider-man or the other...er,freaks there."
"And it wasn't really that hard!" Sunset added hastily.
Mr. Grift's expression softened on them, though not enough to put them in the clear. "Hmm. I suppose it wasn't... Though your classmates act like it, with the exception of Ms.Sparkle. Since we have less than a minute left, perhaps you'd like to briefly tell me what your project was based on?"
"Definitely sir! It was based on a retractable wallet. Though not by any wires of course!" Sunset explained and patted her pocket. "In the event that you lose your wallet or it's stolen, a strong magnetic pull would connect the wallet and your pocket. The wallet would fly from wherever it was lost or stolen and then back to you without any problems."
Peter added something as well. "The same concept can work for phones too. Or anything around the size of a wallet for that matter."
Mr. Grift nodded in understanding and walked back to his desk, taking a comfortable seat and writing something down on a piece of paper. When he looked up and noticed the anxious expressions of the two students, he rolled his eyes and waved a hand dismissively. "85. I'll give you that. That's one point above Ms. Sparkle's grade. Get a new backpack, Ms. Shimmer...and both of you change your clothes. You'll set off a smoke alarm."
The bell rang, cutting off whatever Peter and Sunset would've said in response.
"Yeah, I've got a spare backpack. I'm just surprised you managed to take him out so quickly." Twilight told a beaming Sunset, then smirked at Peter. "Wouldn't you say so, Peter?"
"Beginner's luck." He quipped, earning a small punch from Sunset.
"Heh. Well, this my stop. I'll catch you guys after school. " Twilight told them, sharing a few waves fistbumps before wandering into her designated classroom.
"And this looks like my stop!" Sunset had her sights set on the classroom door a few steps before her. That is, until Peter gently stopped her with a hand and she offered a confused look. "Uh, I'd rather not be late to another class, thank you."
"Uh, I know. Listen...er...I guess I kinda owe you an apology...?" Peter began, his cheeks slightly flustering and causing Sunset's expression to fade away. "Even when you turned out to have some control over your powers, I still doubted you. I still thought you wouldn't be handle him on your own...I know now, of course but...yeah. Sorry."
"Its really not that big of a deal, Pete." She softly smiled. "I still lack experience and all that, so you were right to be worried. Heck, I was a little worried myself...You have to admit, aside from you almost getting killed...that was pretty fun." Sunset shrugged halfheartedly.
"Yeah. It never gets old for me..." After that stretch of awkward silence, Peter began to turn away. "Er, well...now that all is forgiven and all...I'll just get out of your hair."
Sunset coughed to stop him and tilted her head, speaking in a quieter tone. "You think we could go webslinging again soon?"
Peter softly grinned, winked, and walked off down the hall.
