37 || spider-man and breakout

"First team up in a long time, huh? I see you got your suit back."

Queens, New York, November 2016-

It had been a few weeks since defeating Vulture and turning down the offer to be an Avenger, and Alison was happy.

The device blocking her powers was gone, all of her injuries healed over. Alison was grateful to have her powers back (even if they were only gone for a day) and used them for the every day things she was too lazy to do, and hadn't been out fighting crime like Peter always was. She was finally sticking to her word that she had made with Scott, and it was turning out for her.

Ali's birthday had come and gone, and the ability to earn her driver's permit coming with her birthday. Her sweet sixteen was a silent one, with a dinner and a cake with Charles, Jackie, Peter, and Skylar in attendance. Peter had become a very close friend since the fight with Vulture, Alison realizing that he was a good friend to rely on.

Her presents from the "invitees" at her sweet sixteen were few and meaningful, with Charles and Jackie giving her multiple small gifts, and Skylar and Peter teaming up to give her a present that Alison would cherish and use every day.

It was a bracelet, with a Spider-Man logo charm that rested where her veins were on her wrist. A normal charm would be on display, but this one was different. The charm monitored Alison's vitals, and shed a small light at all times.

Peter had explained to Alison while wearing his own charm bracelet that the light on Alison's bracelet projected his heartbeat. If she double tapped the charm, Peter's complete vitals would show up in front of her, like a Tony Stark hologram. If Alison's bracelet ever beeped, Peter was in danger. If Peter's ever did, it meant the same.

And if the light cut out, well, Peter and Skylar didn't need to explain. Alison got all the answers she needed from the look on their faces.

Regardless of the negatives of the gift, Alison was grateful for her two friends and the gift they gave her. The bracelet was still resting on her hand, even as she was helping Jackie cook dinner the Wednesday before Thanksgiving break came around.

It was a nice night, with the moon shining down from the window and into the kitchen, with the savory smells of oregano and tomatoes drifting through the apartment, letting Charles know in his room that spaghetti was almost ready to be served.

Alison herself was starving, her mouth watering as she finished boiling the pasta. Pouring out the water, Alison called Charles out from his room, half certain that he was already bounding towards the kitchen for the meal.

Before she knew it, dinner was finished, and gone in an instant. Alison was relieved from clean up duty, instead going back to her room to go finish up the layouts for Yearbook that she had taken over after Liz left. The double duty work on the Yearbook was stressful, but also provided Alison with a distraction, as track season didn't start until spring and prep season wouldn't start until January.

As she was working away, something was itching at the back of her mind. It may have been the fact that the soft glow of her bracelet was peeking at her, or the familiar chime of the probably many unneeded texts that she was getting from Skylar, or the quiet noises of the rushing traffic below Alison's open window, but something was bothering her.

Giving up on the spreads for the Yearbook, Alison shut the laptop that the school had given her for the spreads and looked at her room. It was messy, yes, but that was the way she liked it. There was nothing off-putting about that. Was it the fact that she had written out many things to do in expo marker on her mirror? No, that just reminded her of everything to do.

If nothing was truly off, then why was she itching to go out and do something on the streets of Queens instead of being exhausted from the school day and homework she had completed? Alison's answer came from the ringtone of her phone to Left Hand Free, the ringtone that she had only assigned to one person, the only person she knew that liked alt j, Peter Parker.

Picking up her phone, Alison slid the answer button and placed the phone under her ear. "Yeah, what's up Peter? Do you need some help with homework from history?" She asked, sitting crisscrossed in her bed.

"Actually," Peter panted through the phone, sounding like he was under some sort of stress, "I need your help with the other thing that I do. Besides being a high school student, I mean. Karen, change my webs to shock webs!" He exclaimed after talking, clearly telling Alison that he was out fighting crime as Spider-Man.

"Peter, you know, I told you after we defeated Vulture that I would only help you if your really needed it. I haven't seen anything really big on the news, and Skylar hasn't heard anything really crazy on the police lines, otherwise she would have texted me." Alison protested, sighing as she did so.

"What do you think Skylar's been doing all night?!" Peter exclaimed, quickly resuming his fight against what could only be heard as some sort of robbers. "The crime level tonight's been off the charts! I really need your help out here. I know you're really stubborn about not coming out and fighting crime as much as I do, but I really do need your help tonight."

Alison gave a small huff, looking around her room for some kind of excuse or reason to not go out and fight crime with Peter. "Parker, you know that Absinthe hasn't been seen in over- what? three weeks? A month? Maybe the strategy of staying low has actually been working."

"Or maybe she's just gone!" Peter suggested hopefully, slinging his webs up onto a building as he did so. Alison didn't realize it, but he was on top of her building, the people he was fighting down the block from her apartment flat. Climbing up onto her fire escape, Peter tapped the window of Alison's bedroom, dressed in his Spider-Man suit.

Turning around, Alison sighed as Peter crept into her room, hanging up his "phone" from inside his mask by removing the headpiece. "Have a little hope, okay? Maybe Absinthe was just here to scare you, and when Vulture was defeated she realized she had no chance against us and left."

Alison gave a small shake of her head in disbelief. "So you've been fighting your way here to convince me to come out with you to fight crime for one night?" She asked the boy standing up from her position on the bed. "Because I can hardly believe that you would go through all of the theatrics to convince- well actually, I can. The whole way you did the proposition to ask Liz to Homecoming was something almost straight out of a rom com."

"Well, May likes to watch rom coms with me very once in a while. I will admit that I've caught onto some of the theatrics and cliches that are in them." Peter bashfully admitted, scratching the back of his head with his mask in hand.

"But that's beside the point! I'm here to convince you to help me back in the streets. For good. It doesn't have to be every day, but I don't understand why you wouldn't want to go out and use your superpowers every day, but I want to be out fighting crime again with my one and only partner." He finished, looking at the mess of Alison's room. "So are you going to find that briefcase with your suit or not?"

Alison smiled, making her decision. It was getting easier and easier for Peter to sway Alison to do things, as the girl was pretty good at doing anything and everything for her friends. Dropping her phone on her bed, Alison stretched out her arms, walking over to her closet, pulling out the briefcase. "After that very cliche talk, I thought you'd never ask."

"Meet me on the rooftop when you're done getting dressed." Peter finished, pulling his mask over his head once more. "I'll have Karen scan the police radios and the areas around us for crime as soon as you get up there."

Smiling, Alison watched Peter hop out of her window and back up to her fire escape and the roof above. Slamming the window shut and shutting the curtains for a moment, Alison got dressed in her super suit and slipped on her mask. She was ready for a night of crime, and to fall back into the regular routine of helping others.

When Ali had clamored up to the roof, Peter was there, looking rather cocky in his Spider-Man mask, leaning up against the door entrance to the roof. "Took you long enough, Breakout." He teased, keeping a casual look on his face as he did so.

"You try getting ready in less than five minutes the next time you come out here in a skin tight suit that doesn't deflate, and we'll see how long it takes you." Alison fired back, a small grin slipping onto her face. "You think you can keep up with me?"

"I can sure try." Peter smiled back, turning Karen back on in his mask. "You have your comms linked up with mine?" As his whole suit powered up, Alison double tapped her ear, activating her comm.

"Good to go." Alison replied, looking over at Peter. "Hey, I'll race you to the first location!" She laughed, taking off from her spot after Karen told the two about seconds before. Hearing protests from Peter, the two raced off towards the start of what certainly was the first of many nights of Spider-Man and Breakout working together again.

The night started out easy, with Karen reminding the two that there was a robbery of a local warehouse that was holding some money and technology for some companies nearby. The criminals were dumb enough to only wear ski masks and bring one handgun a piece. Within minutes, the three criminals were tied up and left in the warehouse unmasked so the cops could come by and arrest them.

Up next was helping out some elderly people play bingo and be the callers for the round. Alison and Peter almost wanted to question Karen for sending them over to the site, but once the two got there, it was actually rather enjoyable. As much as being a caller for bingo can be, at least.

Wrapping up the interesting pit stop of playing bingo, Peter and Alison jumped straight back into the rush of fighting crime by pursuing a car chase that the police was involved in. the chase ended quickly, with Alison setting up multiple road blockades and Peter webbing the tires.

The night was slowly coming to an end, with Karen informing the two that if they were to get back to their houses by an appropriate time of night, they would only have time for a few more things to do out on the streets of Queens.

Deciding to help a few more people, Peter and Alison split up for their last "missions" for the night. Peter went off to assist some cops in a standoff, and Alison heading off to rescue people in a hostile situation.

When the two had finished their last (and probably hardest tasks) of the night, Peter met up with Alison on top of the Parker's fire escape. Breathing out in relief, the boy took off his mask and looked over at Alison, who was sitting next to him on the edge of the fire escape.

"You want some food before you come back home?" Peter asked, getting up from his spot on the ledge to crawl back into his house for a midnight snack. "I'll grab up some stuff, and maybe some juice boxes?"

"Sounds great." Alison agreed, looking out at the twinkling lights and the cars racing down on the avenue below her. "And hey, Peter?" She called out, looking at her friend before he clamored back inside of his apartment. "Thank you for making me come out here tonight. This was really fun."

"Of course." Peter blushed a little, smiling faintly at the thank you. "I couldn't exactly fight crime without my partner. Besides, the headlines look better if both of our names our on them." He joked, turning his head to face away from Alison. "Now I'll go get those snacks."

Nodding, Ali turned back to the view of the neighborhood below, letting her eyes scan the city skyline around her. And out of the corner of her eye, in the alley just across from Peter's apartment across the street, Alison could have sworn she had seen the black woven mask and the coy smile of Absinthe peeking out of the shadows.

<~*~>

hey guys

I am so so sorry for not updating in forever

I was at summer camp and then I was on vacation so everything kinda spiraled into a bloody mess

anyways this chapter was more of a set up and a filler for what's going to be happening with Absinthe .but there is foreshadowing hidden somewhere within this chapter with some important information for other books

It's an okay chapter and I don't really like it atm so I'm very sorry, I'll probably edit it tomorrow

btw this is set the week before and the week of thanksgiving so yay holiday settings

OH YEAH

THANK YOU FOR 25K

MY NEW BOOK, ASH AND DUST IS OUT! (go ahead and check it out)

anyways I hope you guys enjoyed and I will see you guys in the next one!

bye

:))