Chaos Revisited
Part 2
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It was a bright summer day as mostly young people gathered in front of New York's City Hall for the rally. Peter was one of the few reporters present. He'd flown straight there and landed in the parking lot. A couple of young men who were getting out of a mini-van and carrying protest signs gaped at him, as though they'd never expected to see a mutant who wasn't part of their group.
"Hey, Parker," he was greeted by Sam Davis, a journalist from the New York Times. Sam was in his mid-fifties and mostly wrote human interest articles. Peter had met him at press conferences before. "How's life treating you? Haven't seen too many pictures of the bug these days."
"Spiders are arachnids, not insects," he replied out of habit. "Anyway, I've been busy doing other stuff."
"Yeah, I've read your stories. You're getting into some serious journalism now. If you ever decide to work for a real newspaper, give me a call."
Surprised at the compliment, Peter grinned. "Thanks."
He checked his camera to make sure the lens cap was off and that he had film loaded, and then headed across the parking lot to the building.
Most of the kids protesting looked fairly normal, though a couple of them were clearly mutants. One was a man in his twenties with blue skin and yellow eyes. Another was a teenage girl with several fingers on her hands that were slightly fused together. If Peter wasn't mistaken, she also had gills on her neck. Apparently breathing air wasn't a problem for her, though. He raised his mental shields just in case any of them were telepaths. No sense in letting them learn anything they weren't supposed to.
He glanced around before raising his camera to take a picture. Suddenly his spider-sense blared. Everyone looked afraid as he snapped the photo. The sound of something huge and metal clanking nearby sent shivers down his spine.
What the heck is that? Peter wondered.
He turned around and saw not one, but two Sentinels approaching steadily. They were very large, not to mention purple and silver. Who in their right mind had decided that purple was a great color to paint a robot? If they didn't have such a deadly arsenal, he'd have laughed at how ridiculous they looked. Unfortunately, Sentinels were no laughing matter, especially if you were a mutant. Quickly, he took another picture.
"Oh crap," one of the protesters standing very close to the microphone said.
That was an understatement. Sentinels were very large robots built for one purpose: destroying mutants. They were supposed to have been demolished by the X-Men, but for whatever reason, these two had not been.
Peter gaped at the robots. He hadn't thought that the Spidey suit would be necessary today. Apparently the universe had decided to prove him wrong. He wondered if he could get away with using his mutant abilities to stop the Sentinels without revealing his secret identity.
Then one of the Sentinels raised its arm. Peter realized what was happening and raised his voice. "Everyone, look out! They're going to open fire on us!"
"What the…?" someone remarked.
Just then, a crimson laser blast streaked through the air. People ran. It hit the ground right where Peter had been standing a moment ago. A giant scorch mark was in his place.
"My God, it shot Parker," Sam exclaimed, looking back as he ran.
"I'm not dead yet, Jim," Peter quipped. He was floating in the air about a dozen feet up and looking very annoyed.
The other reporter gaped at him. Then he grinned. "You've got to be the luckiest guy on the planet, you know that?"
"Yeah. Get out of here. I'm calling for help." Peter held up his cell phone. "Scotty, one to beam up," he cracked.
The reporter nodded before turning around and running.
Then the robot shot at Peter again. "Nice shooting, Tex," he shouted while dodging rapidly. The crimson laser blasts hit nothing but air as he flew past in a blur. "Try aiming next time!"
"What are you doing?" some guy yelled. "You're gonna get killed! Are you suicidal or something?"
As if to punctuate his remark, Dumber fired its laser cannon again. Meanwhile, Dumb headed for the escaping protesters.
It was going to be a massacre if Peter didn't do something. He felt mad. What good were super powers if he couldn't do what he needed to do the most? To hell with it, he decided. Those kids were going to die if he didn't stop the Sentinels.
"Over here," he yelled, hovering in mid-air and waving his arms.
Dumber turned around and loomed over him menacingly. Peter led the robot towards its twin while dodging laser blasts. Dumb aimed at the retreating kids. Some of them were frozen with fear. The girl with gills stood gaping in terror as the robot approached. She looked very pale.
"Hey, tin can," Peter yelled, trying to distract it. "Why don't you go back to the Battletech game you came from?" His spider-sense was going crazy.
Dumb craned its head around. "Weapons locked on target," it reported. "Fire!"
"Firing," Dumber agreed.
Both Sentinels fired simultaneously. As they launched plasma bursts, Peter waited until the last possible second before ascending higher into the air. He heard people on the ground yelling at him to watch out. While he skyrocketed, the plumes of plasma crossed paths and struck the robots. The Sentinels exploded into flaming chunks of metal. The teenage girl recovered her senses and ran.
"Woohoo," Peter shouted.
He was on cloud nine. He'd just taken down two Sentinels without using Spider-Man's abilities. With any luck, no one would connect him with Spider-Man. The crowd below erupted into applause as he landed nearby.
"Way to go," someone said.
"Man, that was amazing! When are you going to join the X-Men?" a teenager asked.
Peter shook his head as blood rushed into his cheeks. "I'm not."
"But you just took out two of those Sentinel things. That was way cool!"
"I just did what had to be done. That's all."
"But…"
A cop approached with a concerned look. "Mr. Parker," he said, "I'd like to ask you a few questions. Do you have a moment?"
Peter nodded, realizing that was going to be a very long day.
"So," the cop said, "why'd the Sentinels go after you?"
"Gee, I don't know. Maybe because I'm a mutant?" he suggested sarcastically.
The cop rolled his eyes. "You're about as funny as Spider-Man on a bad joke day, you know that?"
Peter shrugged. Uh oh, he thought. The cop had already made one connection between him and the web head. He needed to be extra careful.
The cop continued to press for answers. "Why did they target you first? There were more kids protesting, unless most of the reporters in this town are closet mutants." The cop's eyes narrowed. "You're a telepath too, right? That means you'd know something like that."
"Not necessarily," Peter replied. "If someone's in the closet, that means they're actively going to hide it. If they were concerned about other mutants who can read their mind, they'd be trying not to think about it. Believe it or not, having telepathy doesn't mean that you automatically know everything about everyone you meet. There are very few mutants on this planet who are that powerful. I'm not one of them."
The cop nodded. "Okay. If you're not that powerful, then why did you take on the Sentinels?"
"Because they shot at me, and I really didn't have much of a choice at that point. The other robot was going for the kids. I was the only one who could do anything to stop it. Really, I'm just lucky. If my powers didn't include flying, I'd have been crispy-fried."
Peter decided that it wouldn't be a good idea to tell the cop about the threatening phone call. His journalistic instincts told him that there was a story here. If whoever warned him knew about the Sentinels, perhaps they worked for the person or group behind the attack. If the caller caught wind of the cops sniffing around, he'd probably disappear. Parker didn't want to risk that.
"So there's no reason you can think of that the robots would go after you, other than the obvious?" the cop persisted.
"None," he replied.
"Okay." The cop snapped his notebook binder shut. "You know, what you did today was incredibly stupid. It was very brave, but stupid. If you made one mistake, we'd have been scraping your body off the ground right now. Most heroes die young. That's why they're called heroes."
"I'm aware of that," Peter responded.
The cop nodded. "Don't make the superhero thing a habit, okay? We've got enough vigilantes in this town - Spider-Man, Daredevil, the Fantastic Four, you name it. We don't need another one."
"Trust me, officer, I have no intention of being caught dead in spandex," Peter answered truthfully. A stray thought made him grin: that doesn't mean I won't wear it, though.
The cop managed a grim smile. "Good. Don't take this the wrong way, Mr. Parker, but I don't ever want to see you again."
Understanding his meaning, he nodded. "Same here."
Peter wondered just how much trouble he was going to get into at work. If his boss had seen him on TV, he was going to have a fit. Peter hoped that he would be able to avoid Jameson for a little while, at least.
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