What's up, Danger? (Ota via comms or come vigilante with him!)

[the_arachnid]

With Dad back, Peter didn't exactly feel like being home. Or at work. He called out with family issues, and Doctor Otto was good with it. He understood that the Hargreeves household could, at the best of times, be complete chaos. With dad back, that was exactly what it was. Chaos. Everyone was upset, to some degree or another, and Peter couldn't help but feel the weight of the situation and what it meant for others. For Vanya and Klaus. Even with the revelation that dad was intangible, it still sucked.

Everyone had been happy. Mom had been learning and changing. It had been great.

Now? Now, though...it felt like every step forward they'd all made had been negated and then some.

So Peter, in a red and black Spider-suit, black domino mask and small communications device in his ear, was swinging through the city. Sticking to low rooftops, swinging through alleyways. Getting into a few fights with muggers and having his pictures taken with a few adoring fans, but none of it was really helping him feel better. All of it just felt empty.

Still, he persisted. There had to be something in this City worth doing that'd help him get his head on straight.

It's when he's passing an abandoned warehouse that Peter possibly finds his Thing.

There are people inside the warehouse and, after sticking to the outside wall and peeking in through a broken window, they're people with guns.

He sends a Spy-der drone inside for a closer look and gets a good view of a stash of drugs and some men that he was sure his brother was looking for. Pinging Diego, he sends him video feed and location and waits.


Later on, Peter is sitting on top of another building, a sandwich from his favorite corner bodega in one hand and a soda in the other. Bored silly, he sends a message home to everyone.

"I'm still out, if anyone wants me to pick up anything. Groceries. Movies. A shitload of ice cream and junk food. The City is quiet, for once. Or, for the newbies in the house, I can give you a livestream birds-eye view of New York at night. From my vantage point."

Yep. He's bored. Even after helping Diego.

It may be a while until he's feeling 100 percent.

Comments

[memetic_princess]

She quietly and calmly cursed not just Reginald, but two or three generations of his ancestry as well, turning her head to spit, as one did when delivering a proper curse.

Of course, the fact that she knew Peter could probably understand her even when she was speaking Xhosa was hardly a deterrent, mostly because she knew that if things had been different she'd have been in the same situation, "I could always come visit, call my mother. She may be older but her laugh is still the same and it was enough to scare him off once."

There was only a brief hesitation before she added: "And if he's just a ghost, I can understand how that would be trouble for Klaus, but is there really anything he can do to the rest of you other than hover ominously?"

[the_arachnid]

He understands every word of that curse, grinning and almost laughing but keeping his hand over his mouth so she doesn't hear it. And then, in Xhosa:

"And that, ladies and gentlemen, is why I've vowed to never piss Shuri off. Ever."

There's an actual laugh from him at the comment about her mother, remembering her telling the story of how Reginald tried to buy Shuri and how even a younger T'Challa had told him he couldn't have his sister because she smiled and laughed and she was his to protect. He kinda wants to know what the Black Panther would do now in this situation, other than terrify Peter just by being his best friend's brother.

"I think mom is afraid he'll erase what she's become with him gone. She's been fighting his programming for weeks, and suddenly he's back."

[memetic_princess]

For a brief, shining moment, Shuri had completely forgotten that Grace wasn't actually human, and the implications of that landed hard, and she was silent for a moment before she asked, "Peter, has anyone locked him out of admin privileges yet?"

Because if Peter was out and about, either he already had, or it hadn't yet occurred to him that doing so was even an option, and given the picture she'd put together about the house and everyone's upbringing in it from the bits and pieces Peter had told her as well as what she knew from other sources, she was guessing it was the latter, that he'd bolted to blow off some steam and hadn't really thought any further ahead than that yet.

[the_arachnid]

"...uh."

Yeah, she has it right. He threw on his gear and bolted to blow off steam. He needs to do that so he can think properly and focus on the problem and Shuri has a way of getting him to solve issues even while he's upset. For that, he appreciates her.

"...um..."

This is embarrassing. He doesn't want to admit to this. But...

"No...? No...not yet. I have to steal dads coding, first, and look over it to make sure I can do this without hurting mom."

[memetic_princess]

"Thought that might be the case. Go home, Peter. Once you have his codex in hand, let me know, you're going to need another pair of eyes if you want to get this done as quickly as possible."

Which she was fairly certain was the case, no one wanted to leave Grace at risk any longer than they had to.