#just venting to the great wide web because i vent to my friends all the time

[b00bstone]

i am not having a good day

[fatandnerdy30]

Screee!! You're story so far with the irondad g/t looks awesome! Can't wait for part two (No pressure, take your time). Thanks for writing it!

Well, it's been a while. I recently had my wisdom teeth removed, so I've been healing from that and my birthday passed, which I slept the day away xD. But, here's part two!

Tony Stark stood against the door frame, leaning his body against the door jamb. Peter panicked, shooting a web and swinging up into Doctor Banner's hair, hiding from his mentor. "I heard a big thud and a yell, decided to make sure no one was making you go all green, Brucie. Whatcha got there?" He took a step towards the doctor and looked into his now empty hand.

"Oh, that, I'm alright....but, um, there's something you need to know."

Tony's eyes finally settled on the webs all over the room, and his eyes went hard. "Where is he?" he asked angrily, pointing to the webs. "Peter?!" he called, his voice firm.

"Tony, calm down," Bruce placated, feeling the boy-Peter apparently- crawling around on the top of his head and tried not to scratch or wince. "It's not his fault. He's a kid who missed his mentor," he tried, which seemed to work, but not much. "Don't be angry with him...but, you have to know, something happened to him. He's alright," he said quickly when he saw the fear on his friend's face. "But...this is a kind of sit down and breathe talk."

Tony took a breath, staving off the fear of Peter hurt and sat down. "I think I'm gonna have a 'sit down on my boot so I can kick you back to Queens' kind of talk with that kid," he muttered, annoyed at the kid.

"Okay, before I say anything, I want you to know we're okay. I caught him sneaking into the lab tonight from the ceiling, of all places...but I think he should show you instead of me telling you."

Peter's hands tightened on the man's hair and he trembled. "No, Doctor Banner!" he whispered fearfully into the man's ear. "I can't!" Bruce sighed.

"Peter," he said in a firm voice. "Either come out on your own or I'm going to force you." He heard the boy let out a shaky sigh and felt him moving on his head before the feeling disappeared.

"Where is he?" Tony asked, looking around, eyes narrowing until he caught movement from Bruce's shoulder. It looked to be a spider coming down from the man's hair, but it was too big to be a regular spider, and it waved at him.

"H-hi Mr. Stark," Peter said, landing on Bruce's shoulder.

The billionaire sputtered for a moment, then took a deep breath, glaring at Bruce. "Explain," he demanded.

"I don't know exactly what happened, but, Peter here told me he met the giant guy from Germany. He'd sneaked into my lab and stole the disc you brought back, but Peter tried to stop him, and he wound up like this." He gestured to the shoulder he felt the boy on.

Tony frowned. "Great. Just great. I don't need this right now," he growled. Without warning, he reached forward, about the grab the now smaller boy, but stopped when he heard Peter cry out even before his fingers closed around the boy.

"Please, please Mr. Stark, don't grab me...I'm kind of sensitive right now. My senses keep screaming at me there's danger everywhere, causing me to be scared of everything."

"Oh, you should be scared right now," the man snapped. "Wait....what are you wearing?" He stood and got closer, cursing when he saw the red and blue suit covering the boy. "Where the hell did you get a suit?" he almost roared.

"It's my old suit, Mr. Stark..."

Tony's face started off shocked, then he rolled his eyes and let out an explosive breath. "I swear you're trying to kill me," he groaned. "How did the giant guy get in here, anyway?"

"I don't know," Bruce said with a groan. "He may have crawled through the vents, but he jumped out the window, which was open. I had stepped out of the room to get us a drink." This time, Tony's hard eyes landed on Peter, who took a step back and cried out when he lost his footing, falling off the man's shoulders, and if he weren't Spider-Man, he would have plummeted to his death. But he shot out a web that caught Bruce's shirt and hung there, shaking.

"Okay, that's it, I'm done," Tony stepped around his friend and grabbed Peter, ignoring his scream, but turned his hand so the boy rolled to the center of his palm.

"Mr. Stark! I told you not to grab me!" Peter ranted as he tried to stand, but Tony's footsteps kept shaking his hand too much.

"Watch the attitude, kid, or I will put you in a jar." He stared down at the boy, who paled and clamped his lips shut. Tony didn't say anything else, just closed his fist around the boy and walked out of the room. "I'll be in touch, Bruce."

Peter would have started to fall asleep, but the billionaire's hand was anything but comforting. He could feel Mr. Stark's anger in his pulse, which was racing. Suddenly he was dropped and cried out as he fell, falling into a world of dark grey, struggling to get out of the fabric. When he was able to turn over he saw Mr. Stark towering over him, his angry eyes locked on his small frame, making the boy terrified.

"Take off the suit," Tony said suddenly. He was too angry to even try and be nice to the stupid teenager who was staring up at him now the size of a damn Skipper doll. Peter gripped the suit in his hands.

"M-Mr. Stark, I don't have anything else to wear...and I'm only in my boxers under this!"

"Does it look like I give a shit, kid? Take. Off. The. Damn. Suit." Tony ground out, his angry eyes focused on Peter, who was shaking so bad he was struggling to stand up on the bed. He listened that time, quickly taking off the onesie looking suit and holding it in his hands.

"N-now what?" his voice was so tiny and pitiful that the billionaire forgot to be mad for a second.

"Hand it here," he told the kid, his hand shooting out, making the boy flinch, but he dropped the suit into Tony's hand. "Good. Now it's past your bed time." The man took a step, ignoring the kid's cry when he did, seeing him fall over as he walked into the bathroom to get dressed. He still held the now very tiny suit in his hand and he scowled, squinting at it. It really did look like underwear, especially compared to the one Tony had given him.

He left the suit on the counter and took his pants and shirt off, changing into a pair of clean pajama pants. When he came out, his eyes went to the bed and he saw Peter up by a pillow, his arm held straight out. "If you do what I think you're about to do, I'm getting that jar," the man warned, making the boy jump and spin around.

"I can't get up," Peter whined, wincing when he was supposed to sound like an adult around his mentor and that wasn't what an adult would do.

"Then ask for help." The man suddenly swooped down, scooping the kid up in one hand, then letting him go over the pillow, snorting when the boy just sunk down disappearing into the mass of fluff.

"Th-thanks," Peter stuttered, mentally yelling at his body to calm down. Mr. Stark wouldn't hurt him, no matter how angry he got, and he was pretty angry, which in turn made his senses scream, which made him feel anxious.

"What's wrong with you?" Tony sighed, laying down to stare at the ceiling.

"I-I don't know. It's been like this since that guy shrunk me. When Dr. Banner tried to grab me, my body reacted to his closeness and I threw him over the table."

At that the man's eyes went a little wide and turned his head to the talking pillow, which was now a little sad. "What do you mean you threw him? You mean before that guy came in?"

"I threw Dr. Banner over the table while I was this size! I mean, it was a little tough, like lifting a semi dead weight, but, I still did it."

Tony stared at the pillow, then rolled his eyes when he heard Peter grunt and saw the cloth moving, like the boy was trying to climb out. "Okay, I don't like talking to a pillow." He pressed on the pillow hard, seeing the boy roll down the side and land on the mattress with a small thud. "That's better, now I can see you. Tell me what you're experiencing."

Peter shook his head and got to a sitting position. He stared up at Mr. Stark with wide eyes. Sure the man seemed a lot closer than he did while the boy was in the man's hand. He could see everything from down here, including the expectant way the man stared at him, making him gulp. "W-well, it's like I'm feeling like everything is a threat to me and my skin is crawling, telling me that something is going to kill me, even the damn pillow!" He was now standing, pacing back and forth and kicked the large pile of fluff, feeling Tony's eyes on him.

"Okay, so because of your size now, your, what was it, spider-sense? It's going haywire telling you that everything is a threat, including me." Peter nodded, feeling tears in his eyes and the man sighed, ruffling the boy's hair with the blow. "Well, seeing as I've never been in your position, I can't tell you to calm down, but I think that once you get used to everything, your senses will calm down. Now, try and get some sleep, okay? Friday, turn the lights down seventy-five percent."

Suddenly, Tony shot up, scaring the boy so bad he screamed like a girl and fell back. "Easy, kid. I'm just going back to my lab. This room is yours for now." He began to walk out, but chose to look back at the now tiny boy. "Are you okay for the night?"

"Y-yeah, yeah, I'm fine," the boy replied, but his eyes were as large as saucers in the dim light.

"Don't lie to me, Underoos." Peter stared up at Mr. Stark with tear tracks going down his face and shook his head.

"I-I don't know, Mr. Stark....I'm terrified."

"Okay, and you were scared with me, so what's the difference?"

Peter shuffled his feet after standing. "Y-yeah, I was scared, but...I also felt...safe?" He chose to look back up at the man, who stared at him for a minute and then rolled his eyes with a groan.

Inside, Tony's heart sang from those words and he wanted to smile. "All right Spider-baby," he complained, this time when he got onto the bed and laid down. "You are such a child," he snapped playfully dropping his head on the pillow. "Pepper won't be here tonight, so stay on that side and get some sleep," Tony said pulling the covers over himself after telling Friday to lower the lights and burrowed into the blanket.

Peter, on the other hand, was wishing Tony would have given his suit back this way he would have something to wear. He was freezing! He knew mice and other small things had a fast heartbeat in order to keep warm, but Peter had no such thing because he wasn't supposed to be this size in the first place. So he just laid down in the middle of the side of the bed he'd been tossed on and shivered.

Until he felt a heat source. He lifted his head and his vision was drawn to Tony's body tucked under the blanket. Standing up, he began to move towards it, then his senses went wild and he stopped. What was he doing? It was dangerous to go near Tony while the man was sleeping. What if he rolled over and squished Peter?

Yeah, he threw Dr. Banner, but he was a twig compared to Mr. Stark. Maybe...maybe if he went up to the man's head? Yeah, it should be just as warm there, right? And he could probably lift his head off him if he did roll over. So that was decided. He would sleep by Tony's head.

Tentatively he made his way up the bed, stopping every time the man would make a noise, so it took him about twenty minutes to make it to the man's shoulder and that's where he stopped, because Tony started to wiggle, which scared Peter. So, he laid down next to the man's shoulder and sighed when he felt the billionaire's body heat envelope him, feeling himself start to doze off, a smile on his face.

[solalunar-eclipse]

Scars You Can’t See - Chapter 8

Chapter title: Countdown

Word count: about 3500 words

Author’s Note: I tried to make this one slightly more light-hearted, but we’ll see if that worked out! Also writing fight scenes is difficult.

First | Previous | Next

...

At this rate, it was honestly a miracle that Tails hadn’t had to buy a new carpet yet.

Thankfully for Sonic’s sanity, his little brother’s determination to preserve their house meant that he’d been given lots of free rein to run around outside whenever he felt like leaving. He’d also been given fewer chores lately, as Tails knew from experience that Sonic did not thrive on order and routine like he did.

It had been three days since their visit from G.U.N. and their last contact from Omega- and Team Dark in general. Though he never said as much, Sonic was really having an issue with the fact that Tails had gotten to contact his friend twice by now, while he hadn’t heard from Shadow in ages. He tried his best not to worry, but it had just been such a long time since he’d spoken with the other hedgehog.

And Omega had said that Shadow was struggling...had practically had to relive one of his most traumatic memories….

Sonic decided that he didn’t care about any of the hybrid’s usual thoughts about expressing emotions or vulnerability- the second he got to see Shadow for real, that guy wouldn’t be able to escape the hug he had coming. The hero was practically determined to drag his friend (because they were friends, no matter what Shadow might say) to a therapist, too, since Chaos knew the guy needed it.

The blue hedgehog slowed down considerably and began to stalk through the forest instead, trying to get the majority of his anger out through his legs and movement. It wouldn’t do for Tails to see him like this…

Sonic’s thoughts circled back to how his hands were tied by what he’d promised Shadow- the hybrid had been so insistent, but now Sonic regretted agreeing not to go after G.U.N. Truthfully, the only reason he hadn’t broken his promise already was because while Tails was an incredibly clever and talented person, he could never forgive himself if the young fox got hurt. Otherwise, he would absolutely have long since blasted into G.U.N.’s headquarters, grabbed the commander by the front of his military uniform and told him in no uncertain terms that he had better stop hunting Team Dark and he’d better do it immediately. The hero had had enough of his friends suffering while he was forced to sit safe at home and wait.

His phone buzzed then, pulling him out of his tangled web of thoughts. Tugging it out of his windswept mess of quills, he saw that it was Tails calling and of course picked up immediately.

“Yeah, lil’ bro, what’s up?” he asked, hoping that most of the frustration had left his voice by now.

“Uh, Sonic?” the fox said, sounding pretty tense himself. “Since those agents came to our house a couple of days ago, I managed to hack into G.U.N.’s main server and now I can see some of what they’re doing- mostly where the organisation's sending people and all that.”

“Epic!” Sonic cheered. He began to wonder- could they use this to help their fugitive friends?

“Well, yeah, it would be...except that they’re sending an entire squad to our house. Like, right now.”

His grin froze in place. A squad of soldiers? The hero almost felt a grim sort of delight in that- finally, he’d be able to vent some of his frustration on the organization that had caused this whole mess. He hoped the house would remain standing, though. Tails had built it around a tree from scratch and was really proud of it. 

Sonic decided he’d work that out once he got home, and just a moment later, a sonic boom exploded across the landscape as he took off. 

…

Once the hero arrived at home, the duo began to set up the house’s various defense mechanisms- since they were a) very famous, b) hated by one of the most powerful supervillains in the world and c) one of them was an engineer, it was only natural that the house would be at least as well defended as a high-security bank vault. Sonic practically bounced around the house as he helped activate certain parts of their machinery, nervous tension running high. G.U.N. wasn’t going to be pulling any punches this time, he was sure of it.

Tails, by contrast, was absolutely calm. The fox was ridiculously mature for his age, and Sonic suspected that he instinctively knew by now when he needed to counteract his elder brother’s wild energy. Once everything was set up, the two built a makeshift barricade as a last resort at the front door, and waited.

Thankfully for Tails’s sanity, it didn’t take long for the trucks to arrive. 

As the three trailer trucks parked outside his house, ten soldiers poured out of each one, while several technicians began to set up some sort of weird-looking prototype laser device. The fox laughed for a second at the sight of it in a way that sent a few chills down Sonic’s spine. His brother could be downright terrifying at times.

Tails scoffed. “Please. That laser doesn’t have the power output to break my shields….wait.

“What the heck?”

The four technicians had begun to hook up the laser to- of all things- one of Eggman’s old power cores that he usually used in his bases. 

The young engineer tugged at his tails in frustration. “That’s so dumb! Sure, it might boost the laser’s strength, but there’s at least a twenty percent chance it’ll blow up in their faces! A small machine like that wasn’t made to withstand the amount of power it takes to charge an entire Eggman base!”

Sonic blinked and looked at his brother. “Those aren’t bad odds….”

“They aren’t good ones, either! I’d never let someone use a creation of mine with a one in five chance of failure. It’s just embarrassing! And it shows how far behind their engineers are!” Tails’s fur was fluffed up in outrage and irritation.

The hero almost laughed. “That’s what you complain about first? Not the fact that they’re gonna try and blow up our house?” he asked, his tone light. He snatched up the fox and rushed them both away from the front door as a precaution- that was definitely going to be their first target.

Sonic pushed Tails into the highest room in the house, before launching himself out the window and curling up into a deadly sphere of razor-sharp spikes. He vaguely heard one soldier yell something in a panicked voice, but didn’t pay much attention to it. He slammed into the ground, still in a ball, and tore off towards the laser cannon at top speed, leaving a cloud of dust behind him as he went. 

Irritatingly, the soldiers’ gunfire spattered all around the cannon, making it impossible to tear the thing apart. Sparks flew across the ground as Sonic careened around it before jumping up into a running stance and taking off in their direction. The air snapped around him as he broke the sound barrier and landed a furious kick on one of the trucks, denting the heavy steel and flipping it onto its side.

Sonic stumbled as a loud explosion rocked the ground, but kept sprinting after a glance assured him that Tails’s shields had held against the blast. The hedgehog smacked one man’s rifle out of his hand, the sheer speed of the blow bending it in half (and was almost certain he heard a distinct ‘why do we keep fighting this guy with guns?’) before he moved on. 

A dozen soldiers were on the ground either unconscious or groaning in pain by the time someone thought to radio for reinforcements- which they’d apparently had on standby ready to be helicoptered in. The blue blur wasn’t sure whether this high estimation of his fighting skills was something he should be proud of...or not.

The fur prickled on the back of Sonic’s neck as a humming noise filled the air.

A moment later, he threw himself to the ground as a red-hot laser carved a wide arc above him, slicing through the area where his midriff was a few seconds ago. He heard a faint yell of outrage from inside the house above all the noise, and stuck out his arm for a quick thumbs-up to Tails. 

A couple of seconds later, one very familiar and well-used earpiece landed in the dirt next to him as the laser swung back across the battlefield to refocus on their shields. Sonic shoved it into one blue ear before running up the side of the second truck and backflipping to land behind several soldiers. “Miss me, guys?” he asked smugly, before smirking and delivering several well-placed blows to said soldiers’ kneecaps that left all three doubled over on the ground. None of them had even seen him as he moved, which was really a testament to Sonic’s skill.

Tails’s voice crackled to life in his ear as he sent another person flying. “Awesome job! By the way, they’ve already fired the cannon three times, so either their luck is going to be great with this next one, or else…”

The cannon’s shot breached the shields, but Sonic noticed as he ran that its casing was burning red-hot, and- 

A shockwave blasted out from the cannon, making all four of its attendants fly into the air, yet in the seconds before they hit the ground, Sonic had time to:

Heave a lengthy sigh at their overestimation of the cannon.

Decide that even if they were working for G.U.N., a life was still a life.

Run around and safely place all four of them inside of a truck...

And avoid the explosion as it tore up the ground within a ten-foot radius of the machine.

(The hero had known for quite some time that being the fastest thing alive meant that he could do some really cool tricks.)

Dirt exploded in all directions, leaving a crater and a smoking lump of metal on the ground. Unfortunately, though, the house’s main defenses were down, and any second now, the helicopter would be there with enough soldiers to take out the rest. And his little brother was still inside...

As though he’d heard the hedgehog’s thoughts, Tails’s voice crackled to life through the speaker. “Sonic! The reinforcements are almost here- we can’t take them all, even if I come out there!”

“Not happening, pal, not unless you’ve got your mech.” Sonic insisted, putting on his ‘big brother’ voice. “Hey, wait- where’re they going?” he asked suddenly, watching as the remaining soldiers retreated to take cover behind one of their trucks. That wouldn’t really help them, but Sonic knew that they knew he couldn’t take the whole organization on by himself.

“They’re waiting it out until the rest arrive...but we won’t be here by then.” Tails said, sounding confident.

“And why’s that, pal?” He folded his arms, keeping one eye on the soldiers.

“Because-” and here Sonic suddenly heard a loud roaring noise coming from the back of the house, “-we’re going to get out of here!”

That was when the Tornado soared directly over their heads.

The G.U.N. soldiers certainly tried to shoot the plane down, but of course, they couldn’t keep up with Tails’s expert flying. Bullets embedded themselves into nothing but trees as it flew away into the forest, a blue streak taking off after it at top speed. Sonic kept up with the red biplane easily, just waiting for the right moment to...there!

He launched himself off a particularly well-placed branch, flinging himself high into the air before landing perfectly on the wing of the plane. “Alright, Tails,” he yelled, trying to make himself heard over the roar of the engine, “where to now?”

The kitsune winced and tapped his ear. “Earpiece, remember?” he asked, and Sonic cringed, realizing that he had forgotten what it was like to wear the little speaker while on the Tornado.

“Ahah, gotcha.” he said sheepishly. “So?”

Tails sighed, but not in an irritated manner. “Angel Island- nobody can find it if Knuckles wants to stay hidden. I called him up while you were out front and he said we could crash there.”

“Oh, sweet!” Sonic said happily. “It’ll be like a sleep...over…”

He trailed off weakly, suddenly remembering their home. “Sorry about the house, pal...I know ya worked hard on it.” The hero ran a hand through his quills, unwilling to meet the other’s eyes.

“It’s okay.” Tails said bravely. “I brought a few things-” he gestured to the backseat- “including all my blueprints, so I can always build us another. And besides…” here he leaned forward, catching Sonic’s eye, “home is wherever we are, so long as we’re together.”

The blue blur quickly nodded before looking down pointedly at the biplane’s wing, hoping strongly that Tails didn’t notice that his eyes had begun to glisten just a little more than usual.

(He did, though.)

…

Knuckles was happy to see them, of course, if a little less obviously so than usual due to the circumstances that had forced the two into this situation. The guardian immediately began to move the island to a new area where it would be hidden from view, while Sonic and Tails just relaxed and looked through the various items that the latter had thought to bring: a spare pair of shoes for Sonic, a toolbox and the aforementioned blueprints for Tails, plenty of food for the three of them, and of course lots of important technology.

As Tails left to go check on Knuckles, the blue hedgehog stretched out on the grass and heaved a deep sigh. What he’d give to know how Team Dark was doing right now…

…

Two days later, he found out.

The very moment that the team released the video, all three inhabitants of Angel Island sat down to watch it on Tails’s screen. The fox had been constantly monitoring the Internet for anything about the other team, especially their social media, so of course he was alerted the second anything came up.

Before they started the video, the hero had been vibrating with energy. 

By the end of the section about the ARK, he was completely still, his eyes as wide as they could go.

Tails paused the video there, as the massive wave of responses was already starting to flow. Sonic blinked back to reality to discover that his nails had nearly torn holes through his gloves- that was how tightly he was clenching his fists. He rolled his shoulders, trying to get the tension to leave his body, but he couldn’t stop thinking.

How in the name of Chaos did Shadow watch that?

They agreed that Tails would watch the rest while the other two stepped up to support their friends, and support they certainly did. Both of their tempers were running hot, and more than once the fox, glancing over their shoulders, had to remind them that caps lock was not going to be helpful right now.

Not long after Team Dark had stopped responding to questions, Sonic and Knuckles sat back down to view the other part of the video. They watched in shock as the peace and power of that meeting was violated, people arrested just like that, and yet neither of them had heard anything about this event.

Immediately afterwards, the latter got right back onto his phone and started typing out absolutely vicious responses to some of the more ridiculous conspiracy theorists. His violet eyes were narrowed in anger as he tore into their ideas- while he might not be able to convince the people themselves, he could hopefully stop more from being sucked in.

Sonic, meanwhile, just lay half on his side in the grass for a minute, trying to restrain the urge to scream. Why hadn’t he done more damage to G.U.N. when he’d had the chance? Why hadn’t he been able to see that this ran so deep?

Sonic turned his head to the side to look at his brother. “Tails?” he asked, trying to keep his voice under control. “Where’s Team Dark gonna go next, d’ya think?”

The kitsune frowned. “I don’t know...but if I had to guess, they’re probably trying to figure out how deep this whole problem goes. That’s what I think we’d do if we were in that situation, at any rate. To find that kind of stuff, though, they’d have to head straight to Central City and hack directly into G.U.N.’s mainframe...which would be incredibly risky on a good day.”

Sonic shot upright. “What if they are gonna do that next?”

Tails shook his head vehemently. “After running away from the entire organization for so long? That’d practically be a suicide mission! Even if they somehow managed to escape with the information, G.U.N. would be able to hunt them down in no time!”

The two brothers stared at each other. “But that sounds like them….doesn’t it.” Tails sighed, looking down at the grass.

“Knux!” Sonic yelled, rushing over to where the guardian sat. “We have to hang around Central City, man. If the team’s gonna head anywhere, it’ll be there. And if they’ll be in that much trouble by the time they get out of there, we have to be there to pick them up.”

Knuckles leveled him with a stare so flat it put sheets of paper to shame. “Sonic. Literally three days ago, I helped you guys escape G.U.N. and we have been hiding ever since. And now you want me to move my island, with the last ruins of my tribe’s temple and my Master Emerald, within reach of an organization that would give anything to be able to take it all for their scientists to look at.

“No. Way.”

The hedgehog widened his stance. “Knuckles.” he began, stabbing a finger at the ground for emphasis. “Literally ten days ago, Team Dark escaped G.U.N. all by themselves and have been on their own ever since. And now you want us to leave our friends, and remember, your girlfriend at the mercy of that organization, for the sake of a giant rock.

“Yes way. Absolutely.”

Knuckles scowled and blushed, avoiding Sonic’s stare after that mention of Rouge. “I guess….if we stayed away from the city itself and out of sight….”

Tails decided that this was a slightly safer moment to chime in. “I’ll try and monitor the airwaves in the area- we can move away if we think they’ve noticed us!”

“All of this is assuming that they’re even actually there.” the echidna replied, seeming slightly irritated at being outnumbered. 

“It isn’t the most logical place for them to go.” Tails agreed. “It’s ridiculously dangerous, and G.U.N. probably knows that. But, it’s also their most powerful building, which means that it’s going to have all of the more recent files there.

“While this video is some damaging evidence, it’s not nearly enough to permanently damage their standing overall...they definitely have the cash to sneak out of this level of bad press. A bigger release- now that we know this isn’t a one-time event- is definitely the best way to deal with them. And what better way to do it than to find all their super-secret files at the source?”

Sonic sighed. “Plus, I’ve got a feeling G.U.N.’s gonna underestimate that team’s habit of suffering to save others.” His shoulders sagged slightly at the thought, but he felt a little bit of the weight lift off of them when Tails leaned against him slightly with an understanding look.

The echidna watched them sympathetically for a moment before remembering that he was supposed to be arguing against them. “Well, why don’t they just go back to whatever place they busted first? That sure wasn’t in Central City.”

Sonic rolled his eyes. “It’s ‘cause they’d be expecting them there, knucklehead. Never return to the scene of the crime. That’s what they say in all the TV shows, right, Tails?”

“Well, while this is not a TV show, Sonic, you’re right.” the kitsune said, sighing. “That’s another reason for them to go to Central City.

Knuckles gave a mixture of a sigh and a growl, stalking back to the altar where the Master Emerald floated. “Fine. But if this goes south, I am blaming your-” he pointed a vicious finger at Sonic- “spiky butt for all of it.”

The hero grinned at his friend in a way he knew got under his spines, and was rewarded with a huff and another grumble. Yet the island still began to move, shifting eastward from the center of the country towards Central City. 

Hold on, guys. Sonic thought, feeling properly hopeful for the first time in over a week. We’re on our way.

[tydy-the-megnet]

Five Times Michelle Jones Wasn’t Nervous When Meeting an Avenger (And One Time She Was)

What’s up?! merry christmas and felice anno nuovo! This is a gift for @megnetsworld (appropriately named) that was originally supposed to be a christmas gift but i’m a tardy hooligan so.

anyway, a month or two ago I was like “i know you like iron dad but if you had to choose between famvengers and peterchelle which would you choose?”

she chose famvengers, so i was like “but you like peterchelle, right?”

and she was like, “obviously” so i was like “:D”

anyway, little did she suspect I’d do ALL THREE!!!!

enjoy. I hope this puts a Meganwatt smile on your face

…..

The first time Michelle Jones met an actual Avenger was in school, when Dr. Bruce Banner came to give a speech about biochemistry. The speech itself was fine; Dr. Banner was mild-mannered and it got a little stale at points but all around made sense at least.

Really, it was pretty standard to have a scientist come talk at an assembly every now and then, though Dr. Banner was a rather high-profile case. He looked very much like a scientist with his pristine white labcoat and shiny green tie.

The weird part of the event came afterward, when Dr. Banner was leaving. The man dragged Peter – and by extension, Ned and Michelle – to the side. Just to say “Hi.”

“Hey, Mr. Doctor Professor Bruce Hulk Banner, sir.”

Bruce stopped awkwardly at the boy for just long enough for Michelle to roll her eyes at her friend.

“Oh my god, you’re Bruce Banner.”

And there was her other friend, just as awkward.

“Hey.” She shrugged, looking at the famed scientist with bored eyes.

Bruce shook his head, blinking, and looked at them, “I, uh, just wanted to ask how I did? It’s been a while since I’ve done a speech, let alone for teenagers. Did I do alright? This school is pretty up there with its education, so I don’t think I went over your heads, did I?”

“It was great��” “—The coolest thing to ever happen here—” “A little boring.”

Peter and Ned looked sharply at her and she smirked.

She almost felt bad when Dr. Banner actually deflated. As if there was an even smaller ego, like the Hulk but tiny and feeble. More so than Banner, anyway, who genuinely looked like he couldn’t hurt a fly.

“It was? I tried to make it interesting with the slideshow and demonstrations…”

“Don’t listen to her, Dr. Prof. Banner, she’s just not into biochem.”

She shrugged, “Not even becoming a hulk myself could make it interesting.”

He blinked, but Michelle didn’t say anything after that.

…

The second time Michelle met an Avenger happened one weekend when Peter brought Ned and Michelle to the Avenger’s Compound. She caught Clint Barton, more famously known as Hawkeye, snaking into an air vent.

“What’s going on?” She asked, peering curiously at the wriggling archer.

He paused, his body still half dangling from the vent, “Nothing. Who is this?”

“Michelle.” She answered. Swift as an arrow, Clint was on the floor again, staring at her with his arms crossed over his plain grey tee shirt.

She stared back unflinching, brows furrowing, “Are you shorter than me?”

“No,” He said without missing a beat. He was ignoring the fact that he had to stare up at her, even if only slightly, “Who are you? And what are you doing here?”

“I told you, I’m Michelle. I’m with Peter.” She replied lazily. Nodding to the vent, she added, “What were you doing in the vents?”

He paused, considering the question. “That’s official Avengers business. Classified. Top secret stuff. Parker or Quill?”

“Parker. Who’s Quill?”

“You ask a lot of questions.”

“Thank you.” She offered a half-smile.

Clint gave a sound that was equal parts scoff and laugh, or at least she thought it was. “I’m going to need to investigate this matter. Protocol, you understand. Come with me.” It was obvious he was going for intimidation, but Michelle knew she was allowed here; she’d been invited in, after all.

So she shrugged and followed.

She could also tell that Hawkeye was having fun, from the gleam in his eyes and relaxed posture. Knowing he was a spy made Michelle think he already knew a lot about her – likely more than she would be comfortable with, but it wasn’t like she could do anything about that.

“So,” He said, leading through the corridors toward where Michelle vaguely recalled the foyer being, “Our little Baby Avenger brought himself a girlfriend, huh?”

…

The third Avenger Michelle met was Natasha Romanoff, the Black Widow, and it was because Clint introduced her. Unsurprisingly to those who knew her, Natasha was more suspicious of Michelle’s presence at the compound than Clint seemed to be. It was fair, Michelle mused, since she probably shouldn’t have been wandering around the compound by herself.

But hey, she was curious, and Peter and Ned were nerding out over a plane, so here she was. She wondered if she was about to be arrested. She kept her bored stare on Natasha’s steely face, even as her stomach crawled toward her feet.

When Natasha failed to say anything after a few moments, Michelle started helpfully, “I’m with Peter.” She paused, waiting for any sort of reaction, but her poker face was unmalleable. “Parker.” She added for good measure.

Natasha nodded slowly, before speaking to nothing in particular, “FRIDAY, send for Peter and his other friend. And tell him not to leave his friends unsupervised in high-tech facilities.”

“Yes, Miss Romanoff.”

“I know who you are,” Natasha said. Even though Michelle already knew that Natasha knew who she was – and likely knew that Michelle knew that she knew – it was very weird to her those words spoken aloud.

It was also incredibly ominous. Very “Big Brother.” Though Michelle doubted Orwell knew about S.H.I.E.L.D. or what it would come to be when he wrote 1984.

It was at several minutes of awkward silence while Michelle waited for her friends under the watchful eyes of two former S.H.I.E.L.D. agents. And they were some of the top agents, too. Michelle had thoroughly scoured the data when Natasha had dumped that information into the public web several years ago. Hungry for information and curious of the shadow organization she’d only ever heard rumor of on the darkest parts of the world wide web had Michelle combing through file after file of everything she could find as soon as she could find it.

In fact, she probably knew more about these two agents than some of the other Avengers, though she’d never claim so.

It only made it funnier when Clint said, “You know, normally this is the part where you’d ask us questions? Is there anything you want to know?”

Michelle glanced thoughtfully at him, ignoring the sharp look Natasha gave him, “Yeah actually.” They tensed up, as if they hadn’t actually expected her to ask anything. If that was true, then they clearly didn’t know that much about her. She quirked an eyebrow at the pair, “Was George Orwell a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent?”

…

The fourth time Michelle met an Avenger, she should have been amazed at the fact that she now had met three of the original Avengers. The same team that had saved New York from a real life Alien Invasion. And yet, as she stared up at the god of thunder, there was no amazement to be felt. No, at that point she only felt weird, because she was staring at a myth, and that myth was staring back.

Except that myth was staring at her with a mouth full of poptarts, and a box in his arms.

With a mighty gulp, Thor Odinson finished his mouthful of poptarts, never ceasing his big, blue-eyed stare, and set the box on the table.

He stood to greet her, “Hello. I am Thor Odinson of Asgard. I do not believe we’ve met,” He stated kindly, “This leaves me concerned, for I thought only the Avengers and allies were allowed into this place.”

“Hey. I’m Michelle Jones of Queens.” She replied, debating whether to curtsy. She wasn’t wearing a skirt, so she decided against it. “I’m an ally. I’m Peter’s friend.”

“Ah! I see!” Thor stepped forward, and it seemed like he covered the entire kitchen in a single stride, “You are Young Parker’s companion.” The way he said it had her face heating up, like he was insinuating something, “Barton informed me that you were visiting with Parker and his other friend.” He cocked his head, “But I also understand that you and Young Leeds are not to wander the grounds unaccompanied.”

“I wasn’t wandering,” Michelle replied honestly, “I was just coming to get a snack.” And she found one, she thought, steadfastly keeping her eyes on Thor’s face.

“Ah! Of course! And how rude of me to interrupt!” He turned and leaned over the table, grabbing the box of poptarts he’d been devouring and offering it to her like a trophy of war, “Would you like one?”

Michelle stared at the box for all of two second before replying, “Sure. I love blueberry.”

Thor’s jovial laugh filled her ears and she soon found herself sitting with him, finishing the box and sharing stories. She quickly steered him from his tales of valor toward Asgardian politics and economics (he was a prince, after all) and found herself telling exciting stories of historic earth battles as best she could (history was one of her strong points).

The mythical man wasn’t all that strange, really, she mused as Thor spoke.

…

The fifth time Michelle met an Avenger, she met Captain America and the Falcon together. By now they had already heard of Peter’s two friends who were visiting for a weekend, so she didn’t get the skeptic treatment, but she did get treated to two soldiers in uniform. In his uniform, Steve Rogers looked almost exactly like the pictures from her history book – the costume was a bit different now. He did look exactly like he did in the PSAs though, right down to the look he gave her when he first saw her. So much was that obvious, that she couldn’t resist the temptation.

“Hey, I know you.” She said simply, pointing to the old soldier with a half-smile, “You’re the PSA guy.”

It was so satisfying to see the Captain America redden under her scrutiny. More satisfying than tricking Peter into admitting he was Spider-Man, more satisfying than acing her last French test, more satisfying even than beating Ned at Trivial Pursuit: Star Wars™ Edition.

Sam Wilson’s bewildered look made the comment all the sweeter, because enlightened Michelle to the fact the he did not know.

“PSA guy?” Sam turned to Steve, who was giving the floor an awkward-yet-still-award-winning smile, “What does that mean?”

Michelle replied before Steve could, bringing out her best Captain America voice, “Hey kids, I’m Captain America, and I’m here to talk to you about bullies. A bully is someone who regularly harms or intimidates those weaker than them. Maybe they think its cool, but take it from someone who was frozen for seventy years – it’s really cool to follow the rules—”

“Jeez, do you have the whole thing memorized?” the relic said through an embarrassed chuckle. He then straightened up, looking at her with a stern face that reminds her that she’s staring at a World War II captain, “Are you a bully? You know, the nazis were bullies, too. It’s why I had to beat them up. Don’t be a nazi – be cool, like me, Captain America.”

Michelle snickered at the line, which Steve had pulled directly from that same PSA. Sam looked back and forth between the two, bemusement slowly fading to amusement. “What are you two talking about?”

“I recorded some PSAs a few years ago.”

“They show them in schools. They’ve become a meme.”

Sam nodded, “I’ve got to see that.”

“They’re all on Youtube.”

Steve rolled his eyes.

…

“This is her?” Tony Stark queried, his eyes staring into Michelle’s eyes as if judging her every being. He was leaning on the counter of the Avengers’ kitchen, looking too casual in his jeans and a band tee, sipping coffee from a mug that says “#1 Avenger.”

“Yeah,” her boyfriend answered, licking his lips. Peter was standing beside Tony and doing that awkward shuffle that betrayed his nervousness. He kept glancing between Michelle and Tony as if one was going to combust at any moment.

She was stood across from Tony, her stomach flipping and flopping while the man calmly took another sip, so she figured it would probably be her in the flames.

The sixth time she met an honest-to-god Avenger was the time Peter Parker introduced her to Tony Stark; and seeing how the genius was basically her boyfriend’s father-figure these days, Michelle decided he was the most important, too.

She wished she could see her own face in that moment, so she could at least know what kind of expression she was making at Tony. From his solemn stare, she couldn’t be sure what he was feeling. Michelle prided herself on her observational skills, but there wasn’t much to observe other than the billionaire’s eyes that refused to blink.

“She’s cute. Good job.” He turned abruptly and clapped his free hand onto Peter’s shoulder.

Both teens practically exploded at the impact, from the way their held breaths left their bodies. Smiling tentatively at her, Peter moved closer, but was interrupted by Tony saying, “Hey, Pete. Why don’t you go get that other guy? I still wanna talk to him about how he hacked your suit.”

It seemed to Michelle that it was a subtle way of saying “Don’t make out in front of me, please.” But Peter didn’t seem to catch on when he obediently left without taking her.

Now she was alone with her boyfriend’s might-as-well-be father, who happened to be a famous billionaire philanthropist.

“I honestly didn’t think he could do romance. He seems too awkward.” He said suddenly.

Michelle replied honestly, glancing at the doorway Peter had used, “He’s still really bad at it, but I am too, so…” She trailed off.

“Ah, so you’re like that.” He laughed into the mug.

She looked to her feet and began scuffing her shoe against the linoleum tiles of the kitchen, “Yeah. I don’t mind it, though. And I don’t think he does either.”

“Oh, not at all.” He responded flippantly, and though she wasn’t looking at him she could tell he waved a hand, “He’s always talking about how cool you are. I thought you’d be out of his league.”

The words came out like a reflex, “Yeah, he’s lame like that.” And she almost jerked her head up to stare at him wide-eyed.

His laugh kept her eyes aimed down, though. “So,” He asks next, “Do you know about his internship?”

She did glance up at that, but her gaze only made it to his chest where an arc reactor clung to his shirt – Peter had said it housed nano-tech – and she answered with a question, “You mean the Spider-Man thing?”

“You do know. That’s good,” Tony decided, “It means he doesn’t have to make up dumb excuses when he’s late to dates.”

“Yeah, he’s really bad at that.” She managed a shaky laugh and finally met his eyes again only to see how amused he was. She blinked, and suddenly she was standing straighter, almost indignant.

“Oh?” He asked, noticing the change immediately, “Are you done being awkward now? Can we have an actual conversation? I heard from the others that you didn’t even react to them.” he smiled when she replied by flipping him off. “That’s it, relax, kid. I already gave you my blessing, not that he’d listen to me anyway. Why am I the one to get you all nervous? Thor’s an actual god, you know.” He said it mockingly, without any real reverence, as he takes a sip from his mug.

She almost said something about how much she liked Peter or something about how important Tony’s opinion of her was because Peter thought the world of him. Tony had said Peter wouldn’t listen, but she knew it would still make things weird.

But she said none of that. Instead she said, “It’s because rich white men are the scariest thing in the world.”

He choked.

[lothirielswanmarvel]

MISSION REPORT: Initiate operation “group hug”.

“This is nice,” I mused, blowing on a coffee cup as I stared across the table at Bucky. Morning light filled the tiny diner. It looked so calm, so quaint...it made last night’s light show seem like a dream.

He shrugged. My eyes narrowed. Something about his left arm...it rubbed me the wrong way.

“Mrow, ” Kramer’s paw escaped my old gym bag and rattled my plate. I shushed him, and slipped a small piece of bacon into the opening.

“You had to bring him in?” Bucky asked.

“It's too cold in the car,” I told him, resting my chin on my elevated fingers.

A shadow fell over me.

“Is everything okay over here?” The waiter glanced between the two of us.

I nodded and smiled, “It's great, thanks.”

He beamed at me. “Enjoy your date.”

Date? My head tilted to the side as he walked off. I looked back to Bucky. That's probably what it looked like. Everyone accepted things as they appeared. I envied their simplicity.

“So who’s this friend of yours?” I stared down at the caramel-colored liquid of my coffee.

“We’ve...run in the same circles. In the past.” Bucky’s eyes kept darting around the restaurant. He never seemed to relax.

“Do you mind putting this on? They’re looking for your face, too,” Bucky flipped off his plum-colored baseball cap and offered it to me.

I tacked it on. His small smile returned.

“What?”

“You look...like a fine dane.” He frowned at the words.

I bit my lip to silence any laughter. “A fine dane?”

Bucky shifted in the booth. “Sorry...it's been awhile since I've used that line. On anyone.”

“It's a good line.”

“You think so?”

“Yeah. A little cheesy, but girls like that,” I replied.

Suddenly the sound of heels carried on the tile. I spotted the pair of boots responsible for the noise. I froze when I saw her face.

“I wish Steve had your enthusiasm for the dating world,” Natasha Romanoff stood before our table, tossing a wink at Bucky.

I was speechless at first. Her skin was fine porcelain, like marble, or the fine white thread of a spider web. Her crimson curls clashed like blood in the snow. Everything about her was striking.

She motioned for Bucky to scoot and sat down with us. She smirked at me.

“I'm June,” I choked out the words as I coped with my awe. “I...already know who you are.”

“Hi, June. She’s pretty, where’d you find her?”

“She’s my neighbor.”

“Huh.” Natasha leaned back against the old fashioned white-blue design of the cushions. “So you need a place to crash. Avengers Tower is open.”

My eyes popped out of their sockets. The offer was so casual, so genuine. Bullets were easier to get used to than Bucky’s high-class friends.

“I don't really have a good reputation with Starks, Natasha.”

“He doesn't know. And it wasn't your fault.”

Bucky shook his head. “Doesn't change what happened.”

Natasha’s fingers tap-danced across the slightly sticky surface of the table as she thought. “Maybe S.H.I.E.L.D. could help you out.”

“You’re joking, right?”

“No. Your name is on the Wall of Valor at every S.H.I.E.L.D. facility.” Natasha said. “But Fury’s still upset that you blew up his car…”

I shot Bucky a confused look.

“It was an accident,” He mumbled. “Sort of.”

Natasha’s widened eyes said otherwise. “Let’s see...we have tons of safe houses all over New York. You could stay in one of those until you get a grip on things.”

Bucky contemplated. I watched unmoving his facial expression when he was silent; he always had a serious look on his face. I was shocked at how little his face revealed, like he was encased in plaster for years.

Eventually his gaze wandered to me. “What do you think?”

I froze. “You're asking me?”

“It's your decision, too,” He said.

I thought about it. I wasn't really the expert; the only time I tried to hide from somebody was when I moved away from my extremely manipulative mother. But hiding from agents of an evil nazi organization…that seemed slightly more intense than mom—well, that woman could be the scourge of Germany—okay, I didn't have the time for this debate.

Hmm...New York was notorious for its busy streets and traffic from hell. It was a hub of activity. Easy to blend in. But Hydra could be around every corner…

“Is it safe?” I asked, feeling dumb.

Natasha answered, “Bullet-proof windows. Steel locks...I wouldn't choose it as a long-term plan, but it's a start.”

“Pet friendly?”

“I think Bucky will be comfortable,” Natasha smirked.

“Nat, come on.”

“What kind of pet is it? Is it a dog—? Who’s the little cutie?”

I glanced around the diner to make sure the waiter was occupied, then I unzipped my bag and Kramer’s wide eyes fell on Natasha.

The deadly assassin gasped. “Aww, it's a kitty! Can I hold him?”

I hoisted Kramer over the counter and into the Avenger’s awaiting arms. Natasha squished him into a hug. “What's Mr. Kitty’s name?”

“Kramer.”

“Like Seinfeld? Aww, he is just the cutest—you can even see the insanity in his eyes. Just like the character, that is adorable.”

Bucky shook his head silently.

Natasha juggled the cat as she pulled out a key. “Here—oh, what if I joined you guys and we could have a big road trip? I'm not ready to part with Mr. Kramer.”

Bucky turned in his seat and squinted at Natasha, innocently cuddling with the cat. “What’s your angle?”

Natasha’s eyes widened like a doll’s, childlike and naive. “Angle? Why, whatever are you referring to, Mr. Barnes?”

“Why do you want to travel with us to New York?”

“Because I like this cat, and I want to make sure that he and his super nice owner make it to their destination safely.”

“Uhuh.”

“I miss our old adventures—this could be our way of catching up. Did I ever tell you about Budapest?”

“Budapest? What's Budapest?” I piped up.

Both glanced at me. “Don't ask,” Bucky said.

Natasha petted Kramer dramatically with an amused smile, looking like a villain who had outsmarted the hero. “You said you needed help. So, let me help you.”

“Yeah, the last time you tried to “help” someone, Barton ended up stuck in the vents or some weird crap.”

“This has nothing to do with Barton—well, not just Barton.”

“Just Barton?”

The little bell at the door rang. Three people in hoodies and baseball caps walked across the room and stopped before our table.

Sam Wilson. Steve Rogers. Some random person with resting murder face.

My head tilted to the side. “Why are all of you wearing caps and hoodies?”

Resting-Murder-Face shrugged. “Incognito.”

Steve was busy staring at Bucky, the way I usually stared at the ice cream in the freezer. “Hey, Buck.”

Bucky groaned and laid his head on the sticky table. Sam Wilson noticed me and winked. “Hey, how you doin’? I'm—”

“Sam Wilson.” I answered for him, shaking the hand he offered to me. “Sorry—I heard about you on the news, what you did at D.C. You’re amazing.”

Sam beamed, his pearl-white teeth flashing. “I'm nobody special. Well, he's special—” Sam nudged his chin at Bucky, “—if you know what I mean.”

Sam and I laughed. Bucky scowled at both of us. I looked over at the guy with the angry expression. “Who’s this?”

Resting-Murder-Face turned his glare upon me. “You're kidding.”

“Why would I be kidding?”

“Clint? Clint Barton? Hawkeye?” He threw unfamiliar names at me. I just stared blankly.

Clint’s expression became slightly more murderous. “Arrow-guy? Best archer ever? Am I ringing any bells?”

“No, sorry. I've never heard of you.”

“Well, I’ll have you know, missy, that I’m one of the founding members of the Avengers.”

“Okay…”

“Remember that New York invasion? The aliens? I killed twelve of ‘em. You're welcome.”

“Oh...thanks.”

“And you’re welcome.”

“...You said that.”

“Clint.” Steve silenced him with a look. I couldn't get over Steve’s blond hair. It was just so...perfect-looking. Like it was styled with buckets of gel, yet it looked completely natural.

Bucky sighed. “You shouldn't be here. None of you.”

I ignored how much it stung when he said that. I leaned back in my seat, crossing my arms.

“June, I am truly sorry for ruining your life. I can never make up for that,” He said. I was shaking my head throughout the entire speech.

“What life? I lived alone, with my crazy cat, and cut people open for a living.” I remarked.

“Excuse me for asking, but what’s your profession again?” Steve asked politely.

“Cardiologist,” Natasha answered for me.

I blinked, trying to remember when I told her. “I don't think I told you that.”

“No, you didn't. Also, you were born on Long Island. Adopted, right?”

My arms tightened around my chest. “We just met, like, five minutes ago.”

“And now she knows your life story. That's Nat,” Clint concluded.

“If your true objective is to keep June safe, it would be easier with us on board,” Steve replied, ducking his head as the waiter passed by. Natasha hid the cat inside her leather jacket whenever someone looked over.

Bucky looked over at me. This time, there was a change in his face. His eyes tightened. He bit down on his lip.

“Fine. We’re going to New York. All of us.”

“Yay! Can we stop by Pet Supermarket and get this little cutie a tie? Or one of those mini-sweaters!”

[itsqueencyrine]

I started web logging my thoughts and some bits and pieces of my life here on Tumblr in 2009. Ever since I discovered this place, I never want to leave. I mean, how could I? How could I leave the place where I feel safe? The place where I learned how to be honest with myself, how to get real with my own thoughts without feeling mortified about getting judged?

Even before coming upon the world of journalling, this platform has already been present in my life. The people that I followed back then were great at putting into words everything that’s on their mind. I thought that their blog contents were so good that I wanted so bad to emulate them. I loved how raw their narratives were. And I thought they were utterly brave for being shamelessly vulnerable on the world wide web and didn’t care if they’d get mocked or judged because of it.

Through Tumblr community, I learned how to be comfortable in expressing myself — in words and in photographs. Here also is where I discovered that I can be creative with words and writing simple anecdotes and essays has become one of my interests. I must acknowledge the fact that my writing skill is a huge bold, italized, and underlined bllltttthhh compared to those people who are truly gifted in this department but, I won’t allow that to stop me from doing what I love to do.

I began to get more comfortable in unloading my thoughts and feelings in this place that each time something good and amusing happened to me, I go straight to this place and babble about it as if talking to a friend about my day and/or experiences. Or if something or someone upsets me, I find my blog to be a convenient avenue where I can rant non-stop and freely vent out my anger. I thought nobody would ever care to read my blog so I didn’t feel the need to filter my cyber mouth. And even if they read about my rants, I thought they’d be more forgiving because it’s just the internet and hope that they would forget about what they read and move on with their lives.

I’ve been doing that for the last 10 years —broadcasting some parts of my life on the world wide web. And then an epiphany happened.

A few of my friends started to read my blog since I sometimes share my posts on Facebook. I notice that there are informations and details of my life that I only shared on my blog that were mentioned or brought up in our conversations. I’d be a little shock and sometimes panic internally whenever that happens and ask them how did they know about that piece of information. They’d then be surprised with my reactions and say, “you wrote that in your blog, right?”

I have come to a realisation that, for 10 years, I’ve been too comfortable and too confident in this place. I’ve been sharing too much of my life on the world wide web that the fine line that separates what and what not to share on the internet has become blur, almost blotted out. And even in the real world, or the world that’s outside the internet, I often find myself sharing too much to a lot of people.

I have never really told anyone everything about my life, yet. If you’ve been reading my posts since way back, all the things you know about me through my blog is just the tip of the iceberg. All of those things are only trivial compared to the stories that I would never ever tell.

But it still feels like I have given a huge chunk of myself already and I regret sharing some parts of me that I wish I shouldn’t have. And because some cold-hearted people used what they’ve read on my blog against me, I now care too much about how the world would perceive me with my content.

My draft folder is full of unfinished narratives and essays that I can’t get myself to finish because I now care too much and I want to be more careful as well. I have never told anyone everything about my life yet and I don’t want to reach to that point where even strangers know the number of freckles on my arms.

Right now, I want to deal with everything that’s going on in my daily life outside Tumblr. I confine my throughts and ideas in my journal nowadays. I’ve also been journalling for years now but I am spending more time unloading my baggages in my journal since I decided that blogging will have to take a back seat. For now. I want to bring the line that separates my reality from the internet world back to life. (Ka char ba sa back to life uy.) And this is why I am taking a break.

I’m giving myself at least 6 months to a year of hiatus (but I doubt I could last until next year. hahaha!) I made this new account in January to have a fresh start... I guess? My old blogs are still alive but I changed their URLs so none could read back my old posts (except for my followers in those blogs).

I’ll be back, I promise. I’m just taking a short break.

[avengeultrons]

Title: The Kids Are Alright (Reader x Peter Parker)

Summary: an intruder at Midtown High causes best friend duo Peter and the reader to team up to help save the school, even if that means the reader has to expose their secret to their best friend.

Word Count: 1977

A/N: Honestly I highkey love this and hope you do, too? I’m trying really hard to write a bunch of imagines to have as a stockpile for when I go on my birthday trip to disney world in two wks SO PLEASE bear with me, lol. I hope you guys enjoy! Also I’m obsessed with The Who please enjoy the title insp and this song. Song. 

--

It was nearly lunch time, nearly time for you to run off to your preferred table and regroup with your friends. All you had to do was get through five more minutes of your chemistry class with your best friend Peter as your lab partner, his safety goggles pushed up onto his forehead as the two of you wrote out the steps to your experiment. He looked all too cute sitting there next to you, the sleeves of his Midtown High sweatshirt rolled up past his elbows as he scribbled down equations in his perfect handwriting.

All was going well until a loud boom coming from the street across from you caused the glass windows of the classroom to shake like an earthquake was erupting.

“Alright, everyone stop what you're doing. It seems like there's been a sort of disruption on the street outside, I’ve been told to lock the doors and turn off the lights until we know more. Everybody stay calm; remember what you've practiced,” your chemistry teacher hustled to the door to lock it and draw the shades before switching off the lights and ushering all of you into one area of the room with a large utility closet and spacious corner out of sight.

You glanced over at Peter wearily, pulling the safety goggles off of your head. When you had drills for this sort of thing, no one took it seriously. They were always talking loudly and goofing off.

Now, you could practically hear a pin drop, “What's going on?” you whispered, your heart beating loudly in your ears. Another boom made you jump, followed by the sound of gunshots. You grabbed ahold of Peter’s hand, silently pulling him into the closet and shutting the door softly.

“Before you ask, my suit’s in my locker!” Peter whined helplessly. You clamped a hand on his mouth when you heard a group of kids whispering outside the door, suspicious of the noises coming from the closet.

You pulled up a chair and carefully stepped on top of it, using it as a ladder while you pushed a piece of the ceiling out of its matching spot, “Do you have your web shooters?” you asked, hoisting yourself up into the air duct. Of course he did; one thing Peter never left behind was web shooters.

“Y/N, what are you doing? You're going to get us killed. Or expelled!” he stared up after you, mind boggled that you had the kind of upper body strength to pull yourself up like that. Peter followed suit, joining you in the tight squeeze of a vent with nothing but the flashlight on your phone, “I’m not going to let you put yourself in danger over something that we don't even know of.”

A groan escaped your lips as you crawled along the cold metal vent, headed straight for the hallway. The flashlight sent eerie shadows up the wall, dancing along as the two of you moved slowly and quietly, “You have no idea what I can do, do you?” you laughed quietly to yourself, stopping in front of the vent in the hallway.

Weird things had been happening to you ever since you’d had a near death experience last winter. You'd somehow become stronger, faster, and more agile than you could have ever imagined. It was...freaky.

“Do you hear that?” Peter whispered,his breathing picking up. There was the sound of squeaking shoes on clean, freshly waxed tiles that you brushed off as just being made up in your head. You pried the vent out of its snug place in the ceiling and lowered yourself down, your breath catching in your throat.

You couldn't breathe. There was someone pacing the halls, someone you'd never seen before, “Pull me up,” you whispered as quietly as you could, clawing yourself back into the safety of the air duct, “There's someone there. Peter, someone is in this school that's not supposed to be!” You we're trying to refrain from freaking out, but you couldn't help it. You clutched your chest and tried to breathe slowly, but the walls of the vent were suddenly closing in on you. There was an actual intruder; this wasn't a drill. Peter took your hand and held your gaze, your heart seeming to stop completely as he did so.

“We’ll figure out what to do. It's okay,” he spoke quickly, peeking down at the hallway, “Hold my feet,” he said and, without warning, hung upside down from the vent to scope out the area. You held onto his ankles, flabbergasted as you watched him, “Coast is clear,” he announced.

Peter wriggled himself free from your grasp and somehow managed to flip right side up again during his fall to the ground. He landed on his feet, staring up at you while you looked in horror. You dangled your feet and carefully dropped from the vent, shooting him an annoyed glare, “This is how non spider humans get out of small spaces, you know,” you followed him through the long stretch of dark, barren hallway of metal lockers, keeping a close watch all around you.

“If we can just get to my locker, I can grab my suit and then we can-,” Peter was cut off by the sound of gunshots behind you. You pushed him forward and the two of you broke into a sprint, ducking behind a locker.

It was just then hitting you that it was naive of you to pull Peter out of the safety of the classroom to stop a bad guy, “Go, turn into Spider-Man or whatever. I'll hold them off,” you whispered. His eyes went wide and he shook his head fiercely, gaping at you. Peter couldn't believe the words that had just come out of your mouth.

“Are you crazy, Y/N? No way!” he spoke in a hasty whisper, raking a hand through his hair nervously.

You rolled your eyes, peeking around the metal locker to see if the coast was clear, “Peter, I can handle this,” you placed a hand on his shoulder, pleading him with your eyes, “Please, go.”

“I-,” there was no way Peter was going to let you take this on your own. Not without knowing what you really could do. With a sigh, you stood up and clapped your hands together to clear them of dust, Peter shushing you the whole time.

You tiptoed across the hall and glanced over at him nervously. The only way he would believe you is if you showed him, but you also didn't need him passing out, “You can't freak out. We kind of have a situation, so,” you took a deep breath and squeezed your eyes shut as you carefully lifted the whole row of lockers in front of you with complete ease. You heard Peter audibly gasp, your face burning red from embarrassment, “I said you can't freak out!” you ran back over to him after setting the locker back down carefully.

“Okay. I-I’m not freaking out. But, like, you lifted that whole row of lockers? I'm not freaking out here, I promise! I just...how long?” you yanked on his arm to pull him to his feet.

With a roll of your eyes, you dusted your jeans off and sighed, “Since last year when I almost died. Look, we don't have much time. Go, please. I can take him. Your identity can be kept a secret too if you hurry,” you smiled at him, pulling him back to the safety of your hiding spot once you heard footsteps.

“Oh, okay. I-okay,” he couldn't keep a smile off of his face as he turned to leave, looking back at you, “That was awesome, by the way!” you laughed lightly as you turned your attention to the hallway, pushing a row of lockers over to keep the intruder away.

The police were finally able to enter the school, after they'd figured out that all three of the intruders were now unconscious and stuffed into lockers in the gym’s locker room. You and Peter had worked well together, almost as well as you worked in chemistry class. Well, minus the fact that you were questioned and almost put in the back of an ambulance because you were found lying in an exhausted heap near the door.

Sirens blared outside the school, parents pulled up in their work clothes to pick up their children, teens called friends and family to let them know of two things. One; Spider-Man had saved the school and two; they were fine, no need to worry.

You sat on the front step of the school with Peter who had changed from his super suit and stuffed it in his backpack quickly. Both of you were waiting for rides home, ready to be rid of the commotion from the day, “We’re a pretty great team, I must say,” Peter said with a smile, checking his phone for a text message from his aunt.

“You can't tell anyone, you know that right?” Peter laughed as you said it, “Hey, I mean it!”

He nodded, rolling his eyes at you, “I promise I won't,” Peter said, a small smile flitting across your face as he did so.

“I… thank you for helping today. And not freaking out, you know. Just, thank you,” you busied yourself with stuffing things into your backpack, tapping your foot anxiously, “You mean a lot to me, so, yeah.”

You felt like you were going to suffocate on feelings, feelings that you never thought you'd come close to voicing. They made your face grow hot and Peter’s cheeks turn red in a blush. A smile made its way to his face and he looked down at his sneakers while you stared up at the sky, pretending you didn't say anything, “You mean a lot to me, too,” he said quietly.

A smile grew on your face as you looked over at him, your heart beating loudly in your ears. You had just practically helped save the school with your best friend, and now you were nearly close to confessing your feelings for him. It was all a lot for just one day.

“Peter, are you okay?” May Parker herself jumped out of her car and ran up the steps to where the two of you were sitting, your faces turning scarlet, “Hi, Y/N! Do you have a ride home? I can just shoot your dad a text and let him know I'll drop you off,” she was so warm and inviting, willing to go out of her way to help others. You could see where Peter got those attributes.

You smiled and shook your head, “He’s on his way, thank you,” you smiled, watching Peter jump to his feet and hastily grab his things. May glanced between the two of you wearily, her eyebrows furrowed in confusion as she suddenly put two and two together. Her face lit up and she threw an arm around Peter’s shoulders, waving at you.

“You wanna go out for some ice cream?” she asked, leading the way down the steps, “We can talk about your crush on Y/N.”

May laughed mischievously as she watched his face turn red once more, “What? I...what? A crush on Y/N! That's ridiculous. Gosh, you know that two people can be friends, right? Jesus, that's..no,” Peter laughed nervously, glancing at you as if you could hear the conversation happening inside the van. You waved gleefully as he drove away, “That's… that's totally absurd, May.”

“You're blushing! Besides; I was young once, too, Peter,” she glanced over at Peter, stifling her laughter as he turned away to look out the window.

Peter scoffed and turned up the radio so that neither of them could talk over the 2000’s pop music, “I am not blushing, Aunt May!”

[negasonicteenagemess]

Webs || Peter Parker Imagine

Pairing: Peter Parker x Reader

Word Count: 1,331 words

Request from @bbparker : Hey could you please do an imagine with Peter Parker where your cat (or your dog aha) runs away and you’re upset over it but Spider-Man brings it back (because you’re obvs friends with Peter) for you and the whole cheesy Spider-Man kiss happens? Thanks very much! :) (Also my @ is BBParker but my tumbles being a bitch aha so could you pls tag?)

No spoilers, fam. I didn’t edit it I’m sorry

Y/N strolled through her neighborhood with her new dog on his leash. As an early birthday gift, her family got her a new dog. She hadn’t decided on a name for the dog, but she thought it would be nice to take the pooch on his first walk around the neighborhood. The dog had been pulling on the leash hard for a while, but Y/N just thought he was excited. The dog suddenly got out of his collar and starting bolting down the street.

“Come back!” She shouted, running after the small creature, but he was too fast for her. Y/N stopped, resting against a lamp post while trying to regain her breath as she watched the dog flee from her sight. “Come back,” she whispered breathlessly, hoping the dog would miraculously stop, and run back to her.

Y/N slumped her shoulders, tears starting to build up in her eyes. She dragged her body back to her house. She saw her front door quickly approaching. What would she tell her family,she thought. Yeah, the new dog you just got me escaped from the collar cause it wasn’t tight enough, and ran away.

She opened the door solemnly and rushed to her room trying to avoid any confrontation. She jumped onto her bed, putting her head in her hands. The poor dog was probably all scared and alone. She looked up at the ceiling, trying to stop her tears. Y/N grabbed her phone from her pocket, wanting to vent to her best friend, Peter.

Y/N has had a crush on Peter since as long as she’s known him. She always thought that he was such a great person, who deserved the entire world. When he told her about the Stark Internship and going to Germany to fight Captain America as the friendly neighborhood Spider-Man she was shocked. She wouldn’t have ever thought that the man, or as she realized boy, swinging around the city was her best friend.

Peter also had a crush on her, he just never voiced his thoughts. If she didn’t like him once he told her, that would’ve ruined there entire friendship. Peter would rather have her as a friend than not have her at all. Telling her that he was Spider-Man was the first step to confessing his feelings because that meant he trusted her enough. One day he was going to tell her how he felt, one day. 

Hey Pete. She typed quickly on her phone.

Hola, Y/N. What’s up?

Y/N sighed, thank god he wasn’t busy.

Can I call you? She texted back, biting her lip. He didn’t reply, instead his contact name appeared on her screen with a green and red button. She pressed the green one, letting out a sigh. She press her phone to her ear.

“Y/N, is everything alright?” He asked in a worried tone. She heard shuffling through the phone.

“I lost my dog.” She sniffled, trying to sound somewhat normal. The shuffling in the background stopped, “You don’t have a dog.” He said slowly, not wanting to provoke his friend in any way.

“I just got him today as an early birthday gift. Look, I’ll text you a picture of him. If you see him while your fighting crime, can you like, get him. I don’t know what to do.” She said sadly, shaking her head.

“Of course,” he replied but paused, causing more shuffling, “Look, I gotta go.The whole superhero thing. I’ll talk to you later alright?” He stated, his voice now slightly muffled. Y/N raised an eyebrow but ignored the situation. “Alright, bye.” Peter ended the call, not replying.

It had been an hour since her dog escaped her grasp. She decided to go out looking for him again, hopping for the best.It was starting to get dark outside but Y/N wanted to make sure that the poor animal was okay. So she put her shoes back on and grabbed the leash, with the collar still attached, leaving the house.

She looked around a few blocks but sadly, came up empty handed. Y/N was ready to give up when she heard barking coming from the alleyway. “Just my luck, the scariest alley on the block.” She mumbled to herself, walking into the dark abyss.

“Hey, puppy, where are you?” Y/N said softly as if she was talking to a baby. She heard barking coming from above her. The dog was on the fire escape to one of the buildings. “What the fu-” Before she could answer,she heard footsteps behind her. Terrified, she slowly turned around.

Y/N was met with the red and blue tights of Spider-Man. The man stood, waving a hand towards her, “Hey, Y/N.” He said slightly confused.

“Oh thank god,” She said letting out a breath she didn’t know she was holding while placing her hand on her chest, “I thought it was someone that was going to kill me.” She let out a nervous chuckle.

“Are you still out here, looking for your dog?” He asked crossing his arms. Y/N brought a hand up to scratch the back of her neck.

“I found him actually. But he somehow managed to get stuck on the fire escape.” She stated, pointing to the adorable dog above her.

“Well,” Peter started dramatically, “I think I can help.” He cockily said, shooting his webs toward the dog’s direction. Spider-Man was hanging from his webs from a staircase that was above the dog. He spun himself upside down, now facing the panting dog. “Hey there little buddy.” He said, grabbing the dog with one hand, holding the web with the other.

He slide down the web, right in front of Y/N, handing her the dog. She grabbed the dog, “Awe, you’re okay.” She said, petting the dog, putting him down. She took the leash that she was holding, now putting it on the dog securely.Y/N stood up, holding the leash tightly in one hand, giving him a slight closed lip smile. She reached her hands up, right under the opening of his mask. She pulled it down, just under his nose. It’s now or never. She thought to herself

She leaned in, closing her eyes. Peter closed his eyes as well, not knowing what else to do. She put one hand on his masked cheek. She placed her lips upon his, in a short yet sweet passionate kiss. Y/N pulled away, opening her eyes slowly, with a smile on her face. “Thank you Peter.” Y/N beamed, walking out of the alley with her dog beside her.

Peter stayed where he was on his webs, unable to move from what just happened. He jumped down from his position, standing on the ground with his jaw slacked. He then smiled widely, pulling his mask down and swinging away.

Y/N slammed her from door shut, taking the leash off of the dog. She was so happy that she had found the dog and even happier that she saw Spider-Man. Kissed him even. She smiled, running to her room, giggling. 

A few weeks later, Peter decided to ask her out. She obviously said yes. The two where hanging out at Y/N house in her room. They heard footsteps coming towards her room, which turned out to be her dog. The dog walked up to Peter sniffing him, before starting to lick the teenage boy. The act made Peter laugh and pet the dog’s soft head.

“What did you name him?” Peter asked, turning to Y/N while still petting the dog. Y/N chuckled, “Umm, I named him Webs.”

His eyes widened, with a small smile evident on his face, “You didn’t.”

“I had to,” She said shrugging your shoulders, “You’re his savior after all.”

[rememberyou-rememberme]

Garden Furniture

Cedar Adirondack Chair In 1903 Thomas Lee was on vacation in Westport, New York, and need some outdoor chairs for his summer home.

His now famous design originally consisted of 11 pieces of wood, cut from one board. He showed to a carpenter friend, Harry Bunnell, who patented the design and made the chairs for next 20 years. This more modern chair is made from naturally weather resistant red cedar and features more of a curved back and contoured seat than the originals did.

Cedar makes a great wood for outdoor furniture and will turn silver over time with exposure to the weather (or optionally I suppose you could use a coat of clear over it to keep its original coloration. The Cedar Adirondack Chair is available from Clean Air Gardening for $169.99.

When I was a child I when most kids went to summer camp me and my sister would go to see my grandparents on their little farm up in Arkansas.

I did go to a summer camp one time and we were the lucky ones, I can assure you. Nights I would sit up and listen to hum of the antique oscillating fan in my room while I read Louis L’Amour novels and the only work I had to do in the morning was go out to the little chicken coop and get to get eggs for breakfast. I would open the door to the coop and once my eyes would adjust to the darkness I could make out which of the little compartments held chickens; and by extension the eggs.

It took a lot of guts for a city kid like me to evict the feathery tenant of each compartment; at my age the birds were about eye level and would peck right at your face. But the pay off was worth it…especially when you got that mystical double yoke egg and could be sure that Grandma would cook that one for you. Last time I was up there, just before we sold off the old family farm, the old chicken coop was no more.

They tell me it just plain fell down in a storm some years ago. I would have hauled it back home no matter what the neighbors said because in addition to the sentimentality I feel for such things in my ever so evident middle age it was just about the right size for a decent garden shed and all those compartments…well I guess I’m not the only one who thinks they could be put to less odorous uses.

Obviously whoever came up with this idea had a similar childhood to me. Available in two sizes each unit gives you rows of individual cubbies to put whatever you might need to stow. Each compartment features an upturned lip to keep the eggs items from sliding out onto the ground. They are made out of naturally weather resistant cedar rather than cheaper wood which would have to be either painted (painting over natural wood grain always makes me sad) or otherwise finished to protect it from the ravages of time. If only my grandmothers coop were made so well. The Small Chicken Coop Cubby measures 27 1/2″ W, 11″ D, 26″ H and the larger one is 34 1/2″ W, 15″ D, 30″ H. From Smith & Hawken

Garden Furniture, Garden Tools Mission Poly-Wood Sofa, Loveseat, Chair, Ottoman, and Coffee Table. To Gustav Stickley furniture was a movement; a philosophy of function over form and a celebration of design and engineering. He produced a periodical called The Craftsman that came filled with plans for everything from furniture to entire houses.

As an insult, his detractors referred to this furniture as mission furniture…implying that his designs were crude and unsophisticated; Stickley preferred the term craftsman, but Mission stuck and it is no longer considered an insult by any means. Craftsman furniture builders built this furniture out of the then-abundant quarter sawn white oak that they fumed with ammonia to naturally darken the wood from the reaction the fumes had with the natural tannins in the wood. They chose quarter sawn wood because of its inherent strength, and they chose white oak because it is strong, durable and resistant to weather. By design the furniture de-emphsized the grain of the wood and drew the eye instead to the strength and practicality. Well, that was then and this is now. Stop by any woodworking shop and you’ll find that quarter sawn white oak, if they even have it, is one of the more expensive hardwoods. There are only so many trees left of sufficient size.

But instead of depleting our dwindling white oak supply these pieces are made from poly-wood. It’s a material that is made from re-cycled plastics and although it can be worked like wood, and used like wood it is resistant to…well…just about everything. You can put this in your house, on your patio, wherever and it will stay pretty much like new forever. The Mission Poly-Wood Sofa, Mission Poly-Wood Love Seat, Mission Poly-Wood Chair, Mission Poly-Wood Coffee Table and the Mission Poly-Wood Ottoman all pay tribute to this great philosophy of practical design and they are available from Clean Air Gardening.

Garden Furniture, Garden Tools . Eucalyptus Outdoor Slat Bench It is a common misconception that simply reducing the amount of wood we use will actually save forests; I know it seems counter intuitive but often the opposite is true. Much of the wood we use for construction, furniture, and paper are grown just for that purpose. The harsh reality of this world is that people who own land intend to make money with it and if you can’t make money growing timber you turn that land into a pasture, or a parking lot. No, the answer is in forest management. The Forest Stewardship Council is a non-profit organization founded in Germany “to promote environmentally appropriate, socially beneficial and economically viable management of the world’s forests”. It’s a complicated process but basically it insures that trees that are cut are replanted and some thought is given as to which trees are cut and when. When you find the FSC logo on a piece of furniture, like this Eucalyptus Slat Bench, you can sleep easy knowing that the wood used came from responsibly managed forests. Many people only think of Eucalyptus as the trees those koala bears crawl around in for Australian air line commercials. But the true is that Eucalyptus is a great wood that is strong and resists rot.

In other words, it is an excellent material for use in outdoor furniture. Also, Eucalyptus trees are used as a natural means of soil conservation and malaria control due to their ability to draw excess water out of the ground. All of which brings us to this excellent Eucalyptus Slat Bench. It measures 49 inches wide, by 20 inches deep and 35 inches high; and of course it carries the FSC approval. It’s available for $279.99 from Clean Air Gardening.

Garden Furniture |  Farmhouse Ladder Stand I know what you’re thinking… Why not get an actual ladder from an actual farmhouse. I mean, authenticity is the hip way to go isn’t it? Well trust me on this; I’ve tried to balance even small stuff on real ladders and it’s always ended badly. Plus your average ladder is at least eight foot tall and you have to deal with the whole bad luck aspect. If you have pets and/or children how many times are they going to walk under the thing? No, this is absolutely the one you want. Built out of solid hardwood and five foot tall and with a manageable foot print of two and a half feet square it will fit in anywhere from a big city apartment to a farmhouse in the country. And forget balancing things on narrow little rungs.

You have three nice and wide steel trays; galvanized to resist rust and easily removable so you can keep things clean. My grandma’s farmhouse didn’t have anything this cool. The Farmhouse Ladder Stand is available from Smith & Hawken for $399.00

Garden Furniture |FSC certified Eucalyptus Outdoor Bench This wooden bench is outdoor furniture, but it’s nice enough to use inside too! Made of FSC certified Eucalyptus, so you know it’s forest friendly and made to last. The eucalyptus outdoor bench is available from Clean Air Gardening. $112. Learn more about buying outdoor furniture at the Outdoor Furniture Buyer’s Guide site.

Garden Furniture | Kickin’ It on Dad’s Day in a Hammock Father’s Day is coming up. What better gift to give your old man than the gift of relaxation! Try out this handy hammock with its own stand and set your pa up with a cold one. Then, when he dozes off, you can blast him with the hose! Hahahaha! Just kidding. Anyway, this hammock is ideal for those with limited places to hang one, or for those who like to take a hammock to the lake, beach, park, forest, or for those who like to sneak over to their neighbor’s house when they’re not home and hang out there. It weighs a mere 21 pounds so even the laziest Dad can haul it around. Available from Cabela’s stuff inc.

Garden Furniture |Cool Patio Furniture and Patio Furniture Accessories I was just fantasizing about spending more time outdoors in the backyard this summer and starting looking at some patio furniture on the web. I found a couple cool items to help protect your patio furniture set, plus some very nice wood furniture. For example, this Veranda Patio Table & Chair Set Cover cover your patio furniture to keep it clean and dry when you’re not using it. It has air vents as well so it won’t balloon out on windy days. Your patio furniture will last longer if you protect it! Cost of the cover is about $55.00. Also, here’s a chaise lounge cover with the same design.

It costs about $29.99. Finally, if you’re actually looking for patio furniture, try out this eco-friendly eucalyptus wood furniture/chaise lounge. It comes from sustainably forested wood!

Garden Furniture, Gardening Gifts for Women, Gardening Lifestyle | Cedar Storage Unit for Garden Tools and More If you want a sturdy and attractive place to store garden tools, a hose, etc., try out this excellent cedar garden storage box. It’s made from Western Red Cedar and measures: 20 1/2″H x 35″W x 19″D.

That’s plenty of room to store all kinds of stuff! Another nice feature is that it comes with a 1 Year Manufacturer Warranty from the Cedar Creek company that makes it. It can also double as a bench. It is made with slatted wood so your storage box won’t build up mold or mildew because it breaths. It’s also made in the U.S.A.! Offered by OutdoorDecor.com at a reasonable price ($152.00).

Garden Furniture, Gardening Gifts for Women, Gardening Lifestyle | Durable Outdoor Furniture It’s spring and time to hang out on the patio, sipping a margarita and just chillin’. That means it’s also time to get some new, durable outdoor furniture! Try out this cool chaise lounge made from recycled milk cartons. It’s eco-friendly and weather-resistant. This furniture also holds up very well to mildew, salt water, and pool water.

It’s a great alternative to wooden furniture that may fade and rot if you spend a lot of time at the pool or on the beach. Read the Outdoor Furniture Buyer’s Guide for some great tips for buying and taking care of outdoor furniture.

Garden Furniture | New England Arbors Vinyl Garden Arbors I just spotted a new line of premium “New England Arbors” vinyl garden arbors at the Garden Arbor Store. They’ve added a bunch of awesome new arbors to their collection. For example, the Ashbury model is made of premium vinyl. This makes for perfect assemble because each piece has no imperfection in it. It also means that the arbor will last for many years to come and still look gorgeous. New England Arbors are some of the best available on the market. Some also double as trellises for growing climbing roses, etc.

Garden Furniture, Garden Sculpture, Gardening Gifts for Women, Gardening Lifestyle |Solar LED Kettle II Garden Lantern The Solar LED Kettle II Garden Lantern has a great eco-friendly design. It combines the efficiency of LED technology with solar energy. You can hang these lights or place them on a table or on the ground. Made from steel with a frosted glass lens. A set of two lights costs $41.00 from Outdoordecor.com.

Garden Furniture, Garden Sculpture, Gardening Gifts for Women, Gardening Lifestyle |  Windowsill Plant Stand As we move our gardening activities and plants indoors, it’s a good idea to invest in an attractive plant stand to host our green friends. Check out this welded steel plant stand with a watertight copper tray. This plant stand makes a great gift for those who enjoy growing houseplants!

Garden Furniture, Gardening Gifts for Women, Gardening Lifestyle, Greenhouse Gardening, Houseplants | Modern Artisans Garden Art Modern Artisans is a company that specializes in hand made decorative items for the home and garden. They have some very cool things for sale on their on-line store, including these unusual birdfeeders, garden sculpture, address markers and more. This isn’t the mass produced garden décor you find at many stores. Modern Artisans pieces are truly works of art.

Garden Furniture, Gardening Gifts for Women, Gardening Lifestyle, Kids |  Alchemy Castings Garden Planters Alchemycastings.com is a great place to shop for custom-made garden planters made from lead like the one pictured above. They also have a number of other cool products for the home and garden, such as garden urns and garden sculptures.

Garden Furniture, Gardening Lifestyle, Houseplants | Garden Furniture My Family Harvest is a great place to look for teak and oak garden and patio furniture. They’ve got a great collection and some nice photos on their site. I really like their collection of teak patio tables. Their site also has tips on taking care of your teak furniture.

Garden Furniture | Arboria Casablanca Garden Arbor Check out this elegant and exotic Arboria Casablanca garden arbor. This is a really unique garden arbor that is made from durable hard wood and non-rusting hardware. Bring a touch of the far east to your garden with this beautiful garden arbor.

Garden Furniture, Gardening Lifestyle |Eco-Friendly Products for the Garden and Home I was doing some research on environmentally friendly companies and products last week and found the Green Home Environmental store. Green Home sells a ton of cool gifts, gadgets, and useful products for a more eco-friendly garden and home, including these low-flow hose attachments, natural and organic pesticides, etc.

Clothes for Gardening, Garden Furniture, Garden Tools, Gardening Lifestyle, Hard to Find Seeds, Kids, Natural Pesticides and Fertilizers, Organic Gardening, Vegetables |  Self Watering Planter This is a truly beautiful gift for any gardener! The 16″ Cortina Self-Watering Planter, Bronze will make a friend or relative very happy! Share This Tuesday ~ June 06, 2006 by kswanson56 Posted in Garden Furniture, Garden Tools, Gardening Lifestyle, Houseplants.

[aliciagaliano]

Tales of Spider-Jack Noir

Notes are at the foot of the page

...

Someday you might find your hero, Some say, you might lose your mind...

AKA... What a Life! - Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds

...

Ah, the city of San Franjosé. It's been a while since the gang's been there – well, everyone minus Flint... according to intelligence he's gathering, the disappeared inventor had to be somewhere in the city, most likely in what's now the old headquarters of the Live Corp. It wasn't just a mere assumption of his part, he knew that his vanished friend was in there kidnapped and he desperately needed to get him out because his life was in great danger. Nobody else knew anything about it more than himself, he was just vanished for four days and it was stressing as hell to not know where he could be, they weren't looking for money, no one contacted his father to ask for a ransom, "vendetta" was written all over the place...

Right now he was on the lane that belonged to his former apartment, it wasn't that late at night, but there was nobody on the streets either, he didn't care about it, he didn't need anyone to see him. He was using a hooded sweater as his hands were on the pockets, observing towards the lone isle with the giant light bulb which was off, as if there was not even a single soul inside... he had a tingle saying that was wrong, it wasn't empty, they were somewhere inside undercover, trying to not raise any sort of attention.

"There you have the Live Corp. headquarters, my dear friend!" He said out loud – even if he was alone, biting his lower lip, "I know Flint must be there."

"I have to put a question here, Seán." A voice said from his wristbands, "How are you so sure that Mr. Lockwood is here? I'm sorry if I sound rude with it–"

"It's fine!" He interrupted raising both hands, "You ain't being rude at all pal, it's just curiosity, isn't it?" There was a little pause, he sighed deeply trying to mentalize the possible dangers ahead. "Alright. Connor, scan the building, please."

The sides of both wristbands illuminated as what looked like light particles (that were actually nanobots) detached from them, forming a person: it was a tall young man appearing to be in his late twenties to mid thirties, with brown eyes and dark brown hair wearing a uniform of a semi-formal grey jacket, white shirt, dark tie, and dark jeans, a blue armband on the right arm, on the front a blue triangle on the left chest and what looked like the model and serial numbers on the right chest. The back of his jacket has across the shoulders the word ANDROID, a larger blue triangle, and his model number RK800, half a head taller than the Irishman. He looked towards the island as his eyes got this blue glow, Seán raised up his left arm to see what was Connor seeing in his scanners through a holographic screen.

"The highest point of the building is empty." He said, the Irishman was seeing how a map of the place was being built up too, "The lower floors from the office to the main floor are empty," He kept scanning, "Huh, Seán?" He said, "There is a huge concentration of people in the isle, underneath the building, I detect Mr. Lockwood in there too, but according to my scanners, his physical condition is deplorable. My diagnosis is physical burnout."

"Physical bu–" He hoped that what he thought was wrong, "Are they fucking beating him?!" The situation escalated, "We have to save him now!" The android nodded as he went back up to the wristbands, the Irishman cracked his knuckles, "Connor, suit me up!" The same nanobots got out from the wristbands going all over his body: it became a neoprene jumpsuit covering his entire body, of dark green around the zone of his front torso, the upper sides of his arms, his back to the height of the shoulder blade plus his waist to make it look like a belt and his shoes; dark blue tones under his arms, ending at the height of his elbow, the back side was the same color plus his trousers. It had designs in black of what looked like a spiderweb, logo of one was right in the middle of his chest as another similar logo, but bigger and quite sillier was on his back in the same dark green. "Woah, the fuck is this suit?!"

"It was an update sent before we ended up here," The AI explained, "it's called the Water Spider. It will let you dive."

"Why would I want to dive right now?"

"There is an underwater entrance where we can break in without being detected."

"Ohhh! I get it." A mask covered his head, following the same pattern of his clothes, "Spider-Jack is here bitches!" He quickly jumped to the water and started to dive, from his spider-insignia a bright light that crossed the dark waters towards the bottom popped, illuminating his way. He didn't feel like going any faster. "Connor, what can this suit else do?" He asked, he got indicated to stick his fingers together, when he separated them again, web-like fabrics knitted on the sides as webbed hands, "Ha! Cool!" He looked at his feet too, seeing frog legs, he was completely flipping the hell out of excitement, "But I don't entirely need them, do I?" There was no response, "Anyway, let's go!"

His feet got against the concrete surface of the safety wall of the lane, separating his legs and bending them, he took impulse. Water started to swirl around his legs, going up to his waist, then he took the leap: the water swirling became a whirlpool that gave him impulse like a torpedo, diving fast through the sea towards the isle. It was maybe an amazing sensation that made him feel free, the closest thing from flying – even if it wasn't flying at all... sometimes he wished he wasn't too fucking afraid of heights, he would be able to enjoy more his gifts in that way...

He was diving nearby the bottom, raising sand, avoiding rocks, seeing some awesome fish swimming around mindlessly of the world outside; he got upside down seeing the distant surface and the lights from stars reflected on the moon, it was mesmerizing to see the wavy surface of the water refracting the light and "eating" the rays a couple of meters after. Maybe, sometimes the sea was wide translucent at days, that wasn't the case at night, yet from the deep to the surface, so many people were missing a pretty view like that... then maybe, what he was seeing was what those people who died in open seas saw before they closed their eyes forever – he should stop thinking about it or he'd end up developing thalassophobia (1) like Mark. Maybe not, it was just a fun wonder to observe.

Oh yeah, it didn't take long (around three or four minutes) before they arrived to the feet of the isle, looking to his sides he started to swim in the search of an entrance using the light from his chest, Connor pointed out that there was a bigger facility underneath, the secret labs that Barb talked once upon a time and the reason of why the government didn't destroy the headquarters just yet.

"Seán, I detect an entrance under you." The AI said, he started to dive down, finding a hatch, "There is no one on the other side; if I am right, this is an exit for divers, we can make a plan when we're in."

He nodded in response as he started to go dive again, down below he found a hatch, his hands quickly drove there as he twisted it open... how fun, it was easier than he thought, maybe because it wasn't an old hatch from a sunk ship but anyway, he first looked to his sides as if it was a window where he was getting into, then sled his body in and closed the hatch.

There was no other way he could feel in that moment, and that was pure excitement.

His first solo mission.

When they reached the other side of the large pipeline, it seemed to end on a cubit, reaching a room a couple of meters up where some white-and-orange diving suits were hanging; his spider-themed suit vanished as he stretched out a bit trying to contain his excitement, what a nice way to prove himself a bit with a saving mission, right?

Right?

"Your neurotransmissors as showing a lot of activity, Seán. In the scale of 1 to 10, how excited are you?"

"20!" He exclaimed, "This is the first time I'm going like this and it's fucking alone, and I'm so excited that this is happening! It's perfect to prove myself that I'm actually good!" It's something his AI detected clearly even if he didn't sound really clear, the last sentence was carried with a little hint of anxiety and distress, "And Flint is my friend, he needs our help."

"Actually, Seán, you don't–" He was interrupted.

"Alright Connor, suit me up!"

Well, he didn't say a thing as he followed the command. This time his suit was pure black from heads to feet: black boots, black skin-tight trousers, a tool belt with a gun in its holster at his right side, a large black coat, underneath it he was wearing a turtleneck and what looked like a vest; then his hands were gloved, his head was covered in a mask with the spider web design, aviator-like google eyes and a large cowboy-looking hat with a sharp blade on its edges, which also had a green ribbon around it. On his back there was the spider logo too in a more stylized way. Underneath the mask he seemed genuinly impressed, looking to his hands and his general outfit, taking off the hat and looking at it.

"This is the stealth suit, Jack." Connor said, "The Spider-man Noir."

"With Kung Lao's hat?! Really?! This is fucking awesome! And I even have a gun – even if I actually have no fucking clue how to use it... Anyway! Can this be the default suit?" He got a positive answer that made him happier than before, putting his hat back up he got ready. Inside the mask he could see on his right eye the map of the entire underground lab and where his friend was, from the large paths of hallways that leads to a same giant underwater dome, the ventilation system. Of course he would – no, he had to take the hard way.

Slowly he got out from there throughout the vents (incredibly his hat did fit), unlike the quite dim room from before, looking out through the ventilation grill he could see that the hallways were as bright as the rest of the building with that titanium white, What the fuck with all the white– or light blue– whatever color I'm seeing anyway? He thought, At this point is obnoxious...

"Oh, I'm sorry Jack, I forgot to activate the colorblind lenses (2)."

"Wait a minute, what the– woah..." It took only a few seconds to notice how different (and brighter) the colors looked with the lenses on, adjusted perfectly to his visual graduation, "But I thought they take a while on getting adjusted!" The lack of answer actually made him realize what he just said, "Enchroma (3) didn't make them, right?" His mask retracted for a moment, leaving his hat on as he massaged his eyeballs, blinking twice and getting his mask back on, the lack of response answered his question, "Of course."

Going back to the fucking thing, he started to move through the ducts as careful as he could, kind of feeling inside a Metal Gear game because of all the secrecy he had to have to move around without being detected... it was time to put in march what video games taught him, and one of these was how to be Solid Snake. He let out a little "fuck yeah" with the thoughts.

Even behind the vents, his mask was showing him where the people were, and there were actually guards walking around the halls, he heard some of them complaining for needing to patrol a highly secured (ha! Surely secured) facility where not even a single soul from outside could enter – of course little they knew there was an intruder even if they seemed to have a thermal camera as an extra gadget to detect whatever that could move beneath the walls.

Surely that was (not) the case.

Connor explained him some of the advantages of the Noir suit: invisibility under the shadows like a ninja, designed to be undetectable on radars including those types of cameras because one never knows, silk steps if he wasn't running, bulletproof, a few hundreds of combinations of spider-webs that would make his mind blow away, and a guide's user in case he wanted to check later. The last feature brought a question: "Why didn't you tell me that before?" To then get the obvious realization that there wasn't actually a lot of time in hands, even less when he got an update of the condition of the distressed inventor, so he kept moving.

It could be the fact of being just crawling the reason of why he was having the feeling of going so slow, realizing how it was also easy to lose track of time in a secured facility where the only lights available to be seen was the annoying white lights (fuck, it was even worse with the lenses on), some of the guards he passed by were completely oblivious to his presence, passing undetected; at some point, tired of sneaking in the ventilation he decided to find an empty room and check on the user's guide to see if he could get to move forward faster outside, checking about the invisibility mode. It was a lot of a fun thing actually, when Connor mentioned the invisibility under the shadows he meant it literally, it was, according to the guide, to hide from cameras and other people at plain sight, mostly planned for dim places like underground facilities (of course, no one would've count in something like Live Corp ever).

On the other hand that little break gave him a point where he could take a look to the underground map with more calm to take shortcuts, still keeping track with the help of his AI of the people roaming around the area, it was possible to reach Flint's location safely, probably without getting into fights or anything. They could get out by the same way where he entered, he only needed get his friend dressed with the swimsuit, the oxygen tank and mask and they'd be able to swim away and eventually get back to the island; ten minutes later he was ready again to leave, stretching his arms and body, tapping his hat a bit...

Unexpectedly when he was right about to leave, one of the guards entered. Shit!

Before the guard could even have the time to react, the Irishman quickly extended his right arm upside down as a spider thread was shot from his wrist, sticking on the person's chest, then he quickly dragged him to his direction and with the other hand Jack got him stuck against the wall, just for in case he had to web up his mouth with a little bullet, "Sorry..." He whispered as he awkwardly left. He already used the shooters before, but he never reacted in that way... he blamed it to the panic. Even Connor was surprised for it; was it worth hiding again?

"Jack, my scanner indicates that Mr. Lockwood is moving."

"What? Where is he going?"

Instead of making it pop again on an eye, he made it pop again on his right hand and saw several dots moving towards the dome, he wondered what was that actual point, quickly he started to move again as fast as he could.

.

On the other hand, Flint Lockwood wondered what was going to happen now. He wondered how long he's been trapped down there, he did lose track of time since he arrived; his face showed several bruises, a swollen eye, the right side of his lower lip was cut, hands tied behind his back while his right arm seemed to be twisted in an uncomfortable position; he didn't seem to have had a real shower in days as his lab coat and blue shirt were dirty and stained with his own blood. They've been "playing" with him for days and all he hoped was just leave; his friends were sick worried for him...

And he missed to have Sam with him...

This was a random moment of introspection as he thought about the many times he fucked it up with her, yet they were still together. She knew that his stupidity wasn't intentional but because of his naivety leading his reasoning everywhere... he's been wanting everything to be a stupid, realistic nightmare, but it wasn't for his biggest dismay; was it the hell he had to be through for all his past mistakes? The food storm, the affair with the foodimals, Chester... he squinted feeling anger towards himself, again his current situation was his bad for not having been careful at the time of leaving the laboratory towards the woods.

And that's when he realized how he needed Seán by his other side, the man with the big dick energy (as Brent referred once) who often manages to flip the coin to a positive side and showed all the support of the world since their very first meeting. He could even consider him as his best friend... always there to help him out with his problems, whiling to listen and help out if it was necessary. No one actually ever cared for him that much, and if he was going to die there then, it was a real pleasure having met them. So, am I actually resigning myself? He thought, Meatballs... Whatever was going to happen, he should get ready.

The dome was different from the rest of the hallways: dimmer in dark tones (which was a relief for a lot of people from the obnoxious white), a lot of dangerous turned off inventions all around the place on different stands with their respective names plus some failed attempts of replicating his FLDSMDFR. The first day (?) some of them forced him to build one for them, he completely refused, he got a blow on his face in response; next they tried to force him to make some more weapons similar to the refreeze-a-fan, something better than that, again he refused, again they hit him harder than before to make him cooperate. He hated having done it; after that they wanted new armors in base of the Sentinels of Safety, something better, more dynamic, five fingers, stronger and faster, safer for them so nobody else but them would be able to use it (one of them was in the crazy food battle of the factory in Swallow Falls and remembers how Barry was able to use it without problems). Again he refused, but ended breaking when the hits became stronger and worse than before, actually, after he felt his arm snapping, swearing it was broken... for now, two out of three things were still blueprints, hopefully everything would explode in their faces like his usual stuff does.

Indeed, the most loyal people without Chester were nothing but idiots, and they clearly needed someone like him to help them get out from the shadows.

Then they tossed him to a chair, making him tumble backwards and roll once as he whimpered in pain, hissing in pain as he tried to at least sit down without his two hands as they laughed, putting the chair back on its place and grabbing him from under his armpit he sat looking down; if the room was silent, a soft wheeze would be heard from him.

"What the heck do you want now...?" He asked huskily, "Just leave me alone..."

They tied his arms around the chair and his ankles against the legs of the same. He realized how the sneaky assholes were aware of his crescent fear and how they were even enjoying it.

"Well, after everything you've done for us, there is someone who's been eager to see you again!"

Again?

He heard footsteps from behind, he tried to turn around but he was unavailable to do so. He was really scared now, trying to untie himself somehow and just run away as fast as his legs could, hide, find the exit, then who knows what'd happen? All he wanted was see his bed and cuddle his girlfriend, have long hours of sleep and pretend nothing ever happened.

"Goodnight, young Lockwood. We meet again."

No, nope, nope, nopity nope, NO! There was no way in the entire universe that voice belonged to who he thought, he saw how that Cheespider ate him before he could run away... the back of his head got smacked hard, making him hiss in pain once again, then there was a sharp pain on his left cheek that spread to the rest of his face, another at the right side of his face as the person was downloading its rage on his humanity, to then feel how there were two hands grabbing his shirt, and a horrible pain on his forehead that even created a bleeding wound. The strength used was such at the point he tumbled backwards again, his seat turned to a side as he could feel the blood slowly dripping from his forehead as he hissed in pain more than before; he was feeling dizzy now, feeling difficult to breath as probably his nose was now either dislocated or broken (all he knew was that it was burning).

"Chester..." He heavily said, "How...?"

He felt the older inventor kicking his stomach, taking away the air from his lungs.

"Yes, Lockwood, I'm still alive!" He kicked him again angrily, making him cough and gasp for air, "And not thanks to you!"

"Stop it!" He barely managed to say it, there was too little air in his lungs to say it louder, coughing heavily, to then feel him kicking his chest. "Please...!"

"You took away everything from me, little piece of shit!" He angrily replied, "My company!" He kicked his chest again, "My money!" The poor inventor wheezed harder than before as the pain intensified to an extent he couldn't handle, "And my reputation!"

It was a lie to say that no one in the underground heard the loud scream of pain of Flint plus the popping sound of a broken bone, and that was the case. That last kick was hard enough to break a couple of his ribs, making him wheeze and cough hard, already feeling the metallic flavor of blood escalating his throat; the former scientist placed him upon his back without straightening up the chair, having this psychotic smile on his face as a crazy bitch enjoying the moment so badly...

The screams that were heard all over the underground were painfully clear: it echoed in every single corner of the entire place, Chester was squashing his chest against the floor, crushing his hands and his injured arm at the same time, he felt how he was starting to choke in his own blood, his left lung was aching badly, swearing it was getting punched – or at least going in that way horribly. "Stop! Please! Please!" He begged with tears down his face, "Please!"

"You think I'll be merciful after all you've done to me, Flint?" He asked in the coldest way he could, squashing his chest more, "I know that Christian and Chelsea are by your side as well... you put them against me!"

"I didn't do anything!" He squealed, "They aren't kids neither stupid! Of course they know what you've– AHHHH!" Putting asides the pain, he actually couldn't believe how sadistic this man actually was, and he never realized either, he was enjoying with every single fiber of his being on torturing him, breaking every single bone he could under the weight of his foot. He's been waiting so long to put his hands on him, to beat him and break him down as much as he could. Why he waited to do it? He needed to see how actually far he could be got pushed to make everything he wanted, if under pressure he would do anything they wanted as long they stopped torturing him... sadly he was decided to not cooperate about making a new food machine, he didn't care, once he had everything settled up, he'd have his coveted revenge. He wanted to kill him right there, but he'd wait til all his friends were under his mercy and his island destroyed...

Retiring his feet from his chest, he saw him wheezing and coughing that crimson liquid he's been wanting to see so badly from him. Since he first got out from that damned cheespider he just pictured a thousands of ways of killing the stupid little shit of Flint Lockwood, he's been seeing it again and again for weeks the blood spilt from the goddamn piece of shit of the blue-eyed inventor, see him suffering one way or another... now it was physical damage, in some time his revenge would fall upon his precious home, and he couldn't wait for the day to come. The underground lab was the best place to hide because it was impossible for anyone to get in, even for the government. They'd never know he was alive until it was too late! At that point, world domination didn't seem as a bad idea... after all, everything he loved and had was gone, he would definitely look forward to kill Flint... for now... he had to keep him alive, then, bye bye!

"Take him back to his cell." He said, "And give him some medical attention, I don't want him to die yet."

Flint got untied, he didn't fight back, wheezing with every breath he took, the ones around him were checking him with portable X-ray scanners, retired the chair leaving him laying on the floor as Chester gave his back to him ready to leave.

"You haven't seen it... right...?" His former idol turned around to look at him, seeming curious, "You... you'll just add... another reason... for Chelsea and Christian to... to hate you..." He was having serious issues to breath, wheezing harder than before, "If I die... they won't ever... forgive you... even Barb won't forgive you..." His blue eyes were staring straight to his green eyes behind those green-tinted glasses, "Unless you stop this madness..."

He knew how angry Chester got by his words, he didn't care, actually he gave a little smile knowing that he dug his grave earlier than expected. In his opinion, even if he was about to join his mother in the other world, he said just the plain truth from his point of view in base of the opinion of his three friends: at a beginning he didn't entirely trust his offspring fearing that they'd do something to him, but showed him in many ways that they weren't spiteful but the opposite, being angry at their father for all he did to him and his friends; on the other hand Barb actually had hopes of him being alive and having realized all his mistakes, wishing for him to be the man he was before he turned into that greedy jerk... at least, he was alive, yet crazier than ever.

There was still time to change, but he wasn't going to take it...

"Say goodbye, Lockwood!"

The people who were around them looked to each other, with one glance they all stepped back in fear, Chester was being totally serious.

"Goodbye..." He closed his eyes and fell instantly unconscious, perfect enough to not feel pain ready to leave.

The old inventor raised his foot ready to squash him for once at all, ready to end with his goddamn life and make him pay for everything he took away, hating to see that fucking smile on Lockwood's face as if he was mocking him...

Suddenly something stuck at his side, and at the same time he lowered his leg to stomp on his chest, Flint's body was dragged to the darkness making him stomp the hard floor, by how hard he hit it, he felt a loud cramp escalating from the bottom of his bones to his skin, making him grab it from his knee and hiss in pain while trying to keep his balance. "What the fuck just happened?!"

"Me bitch!" A distorted voice said from behind, when he turned around he got punched right in the face, but it felt like a boulder hitting him, and it was that hard at the point he was sent flying backwards, rolling on his back leaving him dazed off for a moment, feeling the warm blood starting to get out of his nose. He couldn't see what the heck was that, but he saw his henchmen pointing everywhere trying to find who did it.

"Release the goddamn sentinel drones!"

Hidden somewhere around the dome, Jack was scanning Flint with the help of Connor next to him, having needed to take off his mask when the rage started to take over and he needed air: dislocated nose, arm fractured in four parts, his face was too bruised and stained in crimson at the point he couldn't take it, his rib cage was severely damaged with some bones broken in several parts causing him a type-3 pulmonar laceration that needed an urgent surgery, so at the time of carrying him he needed to be careful enough.

"Seán," Connor called out while he was closing some of the injures with a spray from his index finger, "Why don't you try to use the instant transmission? Even with my aid, Mr. Lockwood will need specialized care. Any sudden movement can worsen the condition of his inner injuries, our only way to get out and fast is with the instant transmission."

He looked to his sides checking that nobody was coming.

"Connor, you realize I haven't got the handle of a lot of aspects of my powers, right?" He stared at him serious, "Even if I already have like three years with it, I still haven't got the proper handle of being an energy sensor and even less about Chris' version of the instant transmission! The island is too far from here to feel their energy, and I don't know if I'll have enough time to concentrate and expand my ratio."

"Well, you'll have to try. There is no other way without risking his life more."

The Irishman sighed as he got his mask back up. Underneath he closed his eyes and placed his index and middle finger on his forehead trying to concentrate. In the darkness of his mind everything started to flicker: the presences of every single living being in a ratio of three miles, from the biggest whale swimming deep in the sea to the smallest bug, he could feel and see them... he tried to expand his ratio, go beyond and find the location of the island, try to feel the earth as part of him, its energy flowing inside him as one... then there was a thing he developed with his ability to sense energy, something called the "spider-sense" (or as a friend of his uses to say, the "Jack-a-boy tingle"), without hesitation one of his hands went to the gun and took it out, shooting a drone behind him about to shoot at him; it didn't just affect the bot, but it was that powerful that made its way out.

With a lot of ability he sheathed his gun again, carefully grabbed the inventor and placed him on his back, Connor strapped the inventor against the back of the Irishman by making an extension of the Noir suit, there he started to run faster than the drones that started to swarm could realize (and that maybe was the biggest dismay for Chester as he was seeing every single little thing with their cameras now). Jumping up and down and using the drones at platforms he was making his way to the big vault-like door at the same time they kept shooting and destroying each other in the attempt of getting Jack, who was smiling widely under the mask. Hell yeah! This is fucking awesome! he thought proudly, It's time showtime! Shooting a spider string towards a drone, he quickly twisted on his axis and tossed it towards another group making them explode, from behind the smoke wall more came, he jumped and started to stick as many as he could, to then use an electrified web that extended to a large and important group.

He had a feeling of more coming from up, that'd mean that the door was going to open. He got really ready for it, from back and front he was surrounded, but no one counted with his cowboy hat: he tossed it, it sliced one, two, five, six, ten, thirty before ricocheting back to him as he repeated, attacking as many as he could while they were trying to either deflect, evade or destroy the dangerous weapon disguised as something innocent as a hat... but he was everywhere! It was insane! There were shootings from his powerful gun, the sharp blade of the cowboy hat and the spider-man himself destroying them with pure brute force, it was like a carnage of metal and loads and loads of precious technology being put down by an army of fucking one! He couldn't let escape a potential specimen for research now...

On the other hand, with every leap, body twist and stunt he made, Seán was trying hard to be careful with his movements and not worsen the situation of his best friend, it was an entertaining activity in his honest opinion, but there was a life in danger so he had to go. He had all the fun his friends experiences sometimes, now it was time to go to the serious shit and flee; it wouldn't matter what'd happen later, the priority was Flint's life and nothing else. Quickly he trespassed the open vault-like door as more were coming, seeing a large spiral stairway that would be translated to at least three dozens of floors, Eugh, I'm not gonna run all the way up! Flexing his knees and going as down as he could, he gave a powerful jump that even broke the metallic floor leaving a mark of something taking off, reaching a quarter of the staircase he made a backflip before he could fall, landing on the handle and took another jump, breaking again whatever was down there (basically cutting an important part of the path) and finally used a drone that popped too close and exploded mid-air as he got to the door. He charged his fist as the air seemed to even compress there, breaking it and part of the wall with something he referred as the "Kilkenny Smash (4)".

The main floor was back to that obnoxious white, but with all the lights turned off which was better, he quickly started to run again towards an exit in the direction that Connor was indicating him. He was ready to smash the wall when a horde of drones popped again, How many fucking robots does this madman got? Gosh, how fucking annoying! He kept going to the wall of the entrance, then made a backflip and quickly started to jump upon them again. He only had one exit: go all the way up by using the outside of the hydraulic elevator. While he was avoiding, counterattacking and repeating he was looking up; at least no one would be telling that he was looking scared, because he fucking was.

"Uh... do I really have to go all the way up, Connor...?"

"There is no other way out, Seán. As an AI who carries their past experiences, trainings and personalities, you have to overcome your vertigo in order to be better."

He looked up again, it seemed so fucking high like a skyscrapper, it looked fucking scary (as if fighting killing drones wasn't), then there was resignation knowing that his AI was right about it... With a great power comes a great responsibility, he had power, he had a life walking and swinging violently on the tight rope on his back... three miles didn't sound too far away even if it meant not knowing where he teleported, he couldn't be going like that for too long, it was dangerous in some ways, so... taking a deep breath he separated his legs and charged towards the elevator, when he ran, the surface under him broke again leaving the mark of his foot and raising part of the hexagonal floor; he crossed his arms as a defense, clashing fully against the drones with something called "Brighton Smash" making them explode as well. When he reached the feet of the elevator he made a backflip, took impulse on a drone and jumped up...

"Oh boy, here we go... Naruto sprint, don't fail me now..."

One of his foot got the surface, then the other and he started to run the rest of the way with a ninja sprint, it was quite tiring defy the laws of gravity, Flint wasn't a problem as he felt like a feather. Up, and up, and up he got, reaching the top in no time; he did another super jump as he extended his arm in high with his fist closed, underneath the mask he closed his eyes, hearing the loud crack from the ceiling made of glass...

Everything went in slow motion...

He felt freedom.

When he dared to open up his eyes again he felt alive, almost feeling like his hands could graze the sky, the night sky was shinier than ever, full of stars salutating, it was even beautiful than looking from the bottom of the ocean... the world shut down in its entirety being overwhelmed by not just the view, but his actual position, as if he was floating in space drifting away letting it take him somewhere else. Amazing how those thoughts crossed his mind for only a couple of seconds before his body bent backwards landing on the translucent ceiling at the same time more drones popped from the hole he made and other many places; he ran a few metters before taking a leap from there, freefalling.

"You've gotten over your fear pretty fast, Seán." Connor said.

"It's the adrenaline doing everything, don't mention it again or I'll chicken out!"

Turning around to face the sky he shot a string against the translucent wall of the gigantic building, when it tensed he swung with body forward with the intention of turning towards the entrance, flying away when it got cut by a laser from one of the drones, so flipping to the front, he extended his legs with the intention of landing on the bridge that connected him to mainland. When his feet touched the ground he started to run away. Boss ass bitch isn't going to let me have another option if he keeps on like this... He thought.

A game of lasers then got all around him with the intentions of killing him and Flint in the process and destroy the bridge so they wouldn't get to a safer place, at that point he wasn't seeing the drones, just the lasers coming endlessly from everywhere as a cage from just one point on the other side looking at him: he saw her staring with a defying grin as energy beams were coming out from all her fingertips, moving them and making a full set of many ones going to him. He smiled back.

He took a leap reaching a falling piece of the bridge, running all the way up and keep going, making a side flip that made three longshots pass by almost grazing him, on a stable ground he kept running, leaping through an almost closed hole as if it was a ring... in a nutshell he was completely overcoming the biggest offensive Chester has ever made against anyone for his major dismay... it was impossible, right? It just had to be impossible and a stupid, crazy dream.

"You know what? Imma fuckin' do it," The Irishman said, "He's gonna fucking regret what he's done!"

"You mean..."

"Hell yeah! Connor, water spider suit!"

He ran behind a falling piece of falling debris as his suit was quickly switched back to the Water Spider, then took a powerful impulse towards the ocean as he flipped to the front and, for another major surprise of the oldest inventor, he actually landed on fucking water! "Beep beep motherfucker!" he heard him yell with the distorted voice again as the Irishman started to go away by actually skating. On. WATER! (Un)knowingly for Jack, he had the crazy feeling that maybe dear Chester was screaming and sending everything he got in a crazy attempt of either capturing or killing him – whatever the fuck happens first. With every mad laugh he was making he was losing a chunk of sanity, but it didn't matter as long as the nuisances were fucking gone, right? He wanted to stomp onto that fucking spider, kill it with fire or ice, it didn't matter! He wanted him to fucking vanish! He saw him leap and fall into the water, vanishing to the deep – why even?

One of the cameras turned off. "What the–?!" Then other and another, the water itself was raising into water stalagmites getting all of the drones in a shot, branching out in water arms creating a large set of technological fireworks... this was out of this world, the dude even had fucking hydrokinesis, he got into his element and had all the advantage of the fucking world... with one of the many cameras he saw the Irishman resurfacing, with his body surrounded by a green halo, he started to fly away as his hands touched the water, to then start to ascend...

"Oh shit..."

He couldn't believe it anymore, it was completely insane... he wondered how far his hydrokinesis could go because he just raised a gigantic wall of water that was of the size of a tsunami directly towards the isle, then the top started to get the shape of a water-y fist that raised up the middle finger as a clear "fuck you" from the Irishman, who still had his arm in high as a way to keep it up. Nothing from his arsenal would be able to stop the incoming destruction it'd cause when the fall comes. Of course there were a lot of people witnessing the frightening yet amazing event going on, while the police was trying to evacuate as much as they could before they could die...

"Behold my ultimate attack: United Kingdom of Smash! (5)" He swung his arm down, the middle finger started to fall right towards the headquarters. Many of the people inside were running in circles as the tsunami siren was flickering on and off, others were hiding under desks or even praying to God for mercy as the entrance of the place, destroyed by the Irishman in his way out was one of the hermetic doors in case of floods and it was unsure if the vault would handle the pressure, maybe yes, maybe not, but it was going to come with everything. "Fuck you dude!"

When the wave fell, it destroyed the building taking away everything in its wave, the water made its way towards the underground where (un)fortunately the secured door managed to keep them safe, trapped for some time as there wasn't a real way to get out asides of that little room with a limited stock of diving suits, the specialized machinery that builds anything they need was upstairs and destroyed as well, so... they wouldn't be a problem for some time (hopefully, forever), it'd mean peace for an undefined amount of time (months, or just mere weeks as there was no actual way to tell what was left) and it'd give time Flint to heal properly enough. Leftovers of technology were coming afloat as other parts sunk, parts of the drones scattered in the water mixed with the debris of the bridge and the building...

The Irishman landed on the wet lane happy that there wasn't a severe damage for the coast city than just water; his body was trembling now that all the shit was over, letting all the adrenaline flow and get a proper break... Flint was still on his back, breathing slow, steady and stable.

"You've done an amazing job, Jack." Connor said, popping next to him, "I'm sure he would be proud..."

His mask wore off as he looked at his friend with a glint in his blue eyes as if he was a child.

"You think so...?" His friend nodded in response with a smile, "I'll definitely gonna tell them when we're back, then!" There was a soft chuckle by the side of the android, "Alright, it's time to go I guess..." Again he placed his two fingers on his forehead and closed his eyes, popping his mask back on, facing to the east trying to focus. Come on... He thought, You can do it, just focus, try to do what he told you: visualize the place as much as you can...

"Uh, Seán...?" His friend ignored him as he was giving him his back, looking to catch the energy of the island and perform the instant transmission, "Jack, this is important." He got ignored again, he had to shake his shoulder to make him turn annoyed and point to a side above the ocean showing a damaged drone that was still working, aiming with pretty much every single weapon remaining.

"Fucking dumbass..."

Trapped down there in his underground, Chester was laughing like a madman ready to try to kill them once again by using the manual mode, losing chunks of sanity with every laugh, pretty much everyone behind him were just staring at their boss thinking that it'd been better to stay at home that night. A few holographic buttons were glowing on and off as a signal of be ready to be used: missiles, laser guns, needles, chainsaws, normal guns, tear gas, laughing gas, feathers (what the fuck?)... all of them pointing to his face. By one side there was the Irishman just staring, still with the fingers on his forehead as he amazingly didn't lose the entire focus, on the other side there was the mad scientist getting a microphone ready.

"Are you ready to die spider-bitch?!" He asked out of his mind, contrasting his usual chillness.

"Uh, yeah, maybe?"

"Then say goodbye you fucker!"

"Well, goodbye fucker!"

That's when all his arsenal was shot over and over again until he ran out of ammo, giving hysterical laughs and smashing mostly the missiles, creating a big explosion, a wall of dust and clearly bringing on the attention of the police force which sirens could be heard in the distance. Even with all the crazy amount of shit he shot, there still had to be a dismembered and barely recognizable body – three bodies counting the taller friend next to him, when the dust faded away there was nothing but a large crater and nothing else... did he actually disintegrate them?!

The camera bounced a bit, for a brief second his eyes could see a shadow onto the drone and he went bananas, sadly it was too late when he realized as the transmission cut short. It was game over for him.

At the same time the Irishman, with his hand trespassed the hard metal of the robot like paper and ripped off the core making it instantly fall at the same time he safely landed back, "Jackass." Now, where was he? Oh, right. He focused again, managing to get more of the handle of sensing the energy, going far to the east coast, crossing the ocean, until he finally reached the shore of the island, the town and finally Sparkswood... it was like in his mind he could see the shapes of all his friends in the darkness, pretty much everyone were awake minus Brent and Barb... he wondered if they realized he was gone, maybe not... he swiped his mind outside Sparkswood Labs, he would leave Flint at the entrance, they had medical support and he didn't trust in the security of the hospital so, it was for the best and to protect his best friend, right?

He didn't flinch at the sounds of sirens coming closer to his location, completely trying to keep his focus and his mind clear from external influences; for a moment his body seemed to flicker, then became blurry, and finally at the same time the patrols arrived he was gone...

When he appeared he was in front of the laboratories, jumping inside in joy as he managed to do it; carefully his suit released the straps that were holding the inventor on his back making his body fall, being held by the Irishman who carefully placed him down, happy that the madness was over for now, happy to know that his friend was going to get treated and could recover from all the damage... he stared to his friend for a while, then made the bell of the front door ring as he extended his arm up to a tree and stood there for a moment switching back to stealth mode. Sam was the one who came out curious to know who the hell was coming at fucking 2 A.M., when she saw her boyfriend lying on the ground motionless she drove her hands over her mouth with a muffled gasp and called out for help, it didn't take any long before all their friends arrived to check, with Earl quickly pulling Flint up and rushing inside yelling to Manny to get ready to do his job, before she rushed back inside she looked everywhere trying to see if there was anybody else around, as if someone was watching from the shadows. Even if their eyes connected, she didn't see him, as that happened, she rushed back inside, letting Jack take a deep sigh in response.

Without saying anything he swung his way back to his room in the second floor, feeling glad that he left the large awning window open as he slid under the glass; once his feet touched solid floor, without commands Connor unsuited him, showing a tired Seán that seemed to still being processing all that happened in the last thirty (yes) minutes of his life. He sat at the verge of his bed looking outside, his heart racing against his chest and his skin going paler than it already was. Even if he already did let all the adrenaline flow before, there were things that he still didn't process like having jumped from the roof of what'd be considered as a skyscrapper (as there wasn't a real definition of such in terms of height, it could be considered as one for standing out the rest of the buildings around the coast, and most of them were on hills so many buildings didn't count). The memories of that event were quite fuzzy, everything happened so fast, he reacted mostly by instinct, but the thing he remembered so clearly was that moment when he broke free.

In that moment everything went away, he was floating looking to the sky full of stars as they seemed to be flickering back at him as a salute, it felt like floating in outer space, it just felt crazily amazing, and he would like to repeat that feeling again...

"For a brief time you inhibited your vertigo and did awesome things, Jack." Connor said, snapping him back to reality, he looked at him, the AI started to walk around the room, "You'll have to work more to get over them for good, that's the only way you will be able to enjoy it to full." He took a coin that was on the computer desk, starting to pass it from hand to hand separated in a considerable distance really fast, "Is not just letting the thrill do all the job for you, but taming them as well, keep your head cool and improve your abilities." Then the AI caught the coin between his index and middle finger by its sides, showing the tail of the coin, "You might need a training plan." He pushed the coin out of between his fingers making it land on his knuckle, then started to flip it across the knuckles of his right hand.

"Heh, you really sounded like him this time..."

The soft clink of the coin was audible as he used his thumb to throw it in the air, then caught it back, flipping it a few more times.

"You know who programmed me. They didn't just make me the android sent by CyberLife, but also a bit of them. A bit of him..."

Knock, knock, knock!

"Seán! Wake up!" It was Sam, "Someone brought Flint back! Come soon!"

"Alright, I'm going in a while!" He replied, when he heard her going away he looked at Connor, "Well, get back into the wristbands. We gotta go."

Standing up he stretched up his body ready to leave, his AI followed the command as he returned to the wristbands and headed to the medical bay.

It didn't matter a lot what Chester V could be planning underwater right now, how he would come back with a sweeter revenge upon the island and everyone who turned their back to him; all that mattered was stick to the momentary peace that was peeking for an undefined amount of time. If he had to fool his plans back again he would do it gladly, but for now, now that everything was back to its place he just wanted to take a nap and sleep for hours, later they would see how to raise and improve the security around the area and around the island itself.

Dangers maybe were ahead, and he was going to be ready for it.

...

(1) Thalassophobia: Fear of the ocean.

(2): If someone doesn't about this, Jack said several times he's slightly colorblind. Even if I tried to figure out which kind of colorblindness he got (there are three, then a fourth, really odd one where you see in achromatic colors), I'm still not sure what is it actually so I found myself improvising some points. I'm sorry it is just silly me nitpicking with details (probably a lot) and stuff, that's why I'm pointing it out.

Seán if you ever see this, I really tried.

(3): Enchroma is a brand that sells glasses for colorblind people.

(4): Sorry for my laziness but I'll assume that the reference is quite obvious.

(5): I suddenly thought about this when I was going off to sleep and thought it was hilariously stupid and I feel it as something Jack would actually do (maybe not but it’s fair to dream). Maybe this isn't the ultimate attack and he said it to scare them, but who knows, maybe there is actually more... ... Author's Note: Some of you might be wondering "what the fuck is this shit here?!" Well this is maybe one of the randomnest ideas I've had in a very long while from a story I was writing, but as I had no idea how to tie-in everything to this point and two or three other parts that's been stuck in my head I decided to post it here because they needed to get OUT of my brain. That's why there are many losen points here. My actual intention was publish it this last week, but I found myself in troubles near the end because I was having issues in putting all of the ideas right which ended up leading me to laziness plus college sucks my creativity away plus I'm tired all the time <s>plus I've been slacking off by playing minecraft</s>, and it's a very common problem I face when I'm ending a chapter or story or whatever (and it's horrible). This weird-ass thing will have two or three more parts but I don't know if they're coming out anytime soon... if I don't die first maybe m8. There are things that probably didn't come as good as I expected them to be, but I get often confused when I try to change them as the ideas either swap, gets lost or just completely messes up so... sorry if there aren't good parts lmao. If there are typos I'm sorry, English is not my first language. ... Disclaimers: Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs 2 (c) Sony Pictures Animation Spiderman (c) Marvel Detroit: Become Human (c) Quantic Dream/Sony Interactive Entertainment JackSepticEye/Seán McLoughlin belongs to himself The only things I actually own is this weird-ass piece of fanfic and the Water Spider suit.