oo. SEVEN

THEY ARRIVED AT NADINE'S APARTMENT QUICKLY, BUT GETTING HER UNCLE RAY TO LEAVE WAS TOOK THE LONGEST TIME. He was worried, and far too protective to leave the apartment without triple checking Nadine was and would continue to be okay.

But after Nadine's insistence, he finally left with the promise to return as soon as the situation was resolved.

    "How are we gonna get to OSCORP? We don't have much time!" said Gwen, and she was quick to catch on to the look Margot gave Nadine. "What?"

    "You gotta use your— your magic powers!" Margot said, their eyes trained on Nadine as she shook her head firmly, sitting down on her bed. "You've got to! What other choice do we have?"

    "We— we can walk!"

    "What about Peter?" asked Margot, eyebrow raised.

    "Listen, Peter is great, a smart, lovely and kinda cute guy, but he'll just have to... wait?"

    "We don't have time to unpack the kinda cute part, but Nadine! He needs that antidote, and we need to get to OSCORP." Margot told her, firm on their statement — and as much as Nadine hated it, they were right.

    "But the last time I tried to open a portal, my pop tarts got split in half!" said Nadine, as a last resort.

    "I don't care about your pop tarts right now!"

    "Guys!" yelled Gwen, catching both of their attention. "Somebody just— no, just do what Margot is telling you to do!"

Nadine pouted, glaring at Margot as they smirked victoriously.

    "Fine, but it's your funeral!"

Nadine pushed her hand-me-down sling ring onto her index and middle fingers. She spared one last glance to Margot and Gwen, seeing the former with their thumbs up encouragingly, and Gwen trying to match their energy whilst being confused and in the dark.

With a deep breath, and a second to steady her hands, Nadine took the stance that her mother had taught her.

She'd never been in the OSCORP building, but she did remember the picture that Margot had shown her from their internship, featuring them stood in front of a desk with an experiment ongoing behind them.

Keeping that in mind, she began the circle motion, eyes focused and brows furrowed in front of her, visualising the orange sparks making way to show the OSCORP lab.

Gwen watched in fascination as a circle of what seemed like pure energy formed in the middle of Nadine's room. It widened, getting bigger and bigger until it was finally large enough to fit a person through.

At that stage, Nadine turned back to the two of them, eyes slightly unfocused as she kept her concentration.

    "Go through, now!" ordered Nadine, keeping the portal open as Gwen and Margot hopped through. With a shaky breath, Nadine stopped moving her hands and jumped through the slowly closing portal.

She heaved a sigh of relief, and watched the sparks disappear.

    "Okay, that was awesome." said Gwen, "but we really need to get started on that antidote."

    "Right," agreed Margot, and the two got to work immediately — Nadine hung back, not wanting to get in between the two's very successful team work. Besides, she'd never been to OSCORP before, and had basically no clue where anything was. "What was the file?"

    "12389." answered Nadine, ignoring the surprised looks from both Gwen and Margot.

Nadine made her way around the lab, trying to keep her mind off of Peter. She didn't understand how this all happened — Peter Parker, the boy she'd known since she was little had become the amazing Spider-Man? This was the same kid who had been pushed into so many lockers that Nadine had lost count!

How did he even get those powers, anyway? Did he do what Nadine imagined Dr. Connors had done, inject himself with some spider DNA concoction? Was he born with his abilities? And where did the webs come from? Did he make them internally, or externally?

    "Nadine, shut up, you're thinking too loud." said Margot, glancing over to her from their place with Gwen across the lab.

Nadine spluttered, lost for words. She was just wondering about what happened!

    "They're right, Nadine, you do think really loudly." said Gwen, almost apologetically, as she patted Margot's back gently. "Okay, nine minutes left!"

Margot's phone suddenly started ringing, breaking through the gently disturbed quiet of the room. The three of them jumped, but Nadine grabbed the phone, reading the contact before deciding she could answer.

    "Peter!" Nadine spoke, quickly drawing the attention of the other two in the room, as they approached her slowly, questions in their gazes.

    "Mar— Nadine? Nadine, what are you— Are you at OSCORP?" asked Peter, stuttering over his words as he registered her voice.

    "Yeah, yeah we all are!" replied Nadine, eyebrows furrowed in concern.

    "You have to get out of there right now!"

    "The antidote is cooking," Nadine defended, eyes glancing over at the station where Gwen and Margot had been working, and although her heart thundered at why he wanted them to get out, she was fully aware that they needed that antidote.

    "No, no, Nadine, Connors is on his way. He's coming right now, he's after the dispersement device. He's going to infect the whole city!" Peter responded, voice slightly muffled by the mask Nadine knew he was wearing.

    "Dispersement device?" she repeated to the other two, watching them share a glance and then walk over to a glass door. "Pete, there's eight minutes left!"

    "You're not waiting for eight minutes after what I just told you." said Peter incredulously, and she could hear his frustration even through the phone. "People are gonna die! You guys leave, you leave right now. This is an order, okay?

    "Last I checked you weren't a captain, Pete. We're going to get everybody out." replied Nadine, hanging up the phone before he could say another word.

    "He's going to infect the whole city," realised Gwen, looking at the dispersement device. Nadine walked over, glancing at the clock on the antidote — seven minutes.

    "Yes, so you guys need to get everybody out! Right now, I'll wait here, with the antidote." demanded Nadine, confident and firm in her decision.

    "Absolutely not." denied Margot, because why wouldn't they take the high horse, and decide to be a hero.

Gwen walked over to a keypad on the side of the wall as Margot argued with Nadine, typing in a code and something pulling down on the screen.

    "You guys need to make sure everyone is out, and I'm the only one here who can literally create a portal to anywhere else with their hands!" reasoned Nadine, desperate to get her friends out as time ticked down.

    "Nadine's right," said Gwen, though it was regretfully — it's not as if she wanted her to be right, but logically, it made the most sense.

    "No, we— we can't just leave her behind!" argued Margot, looking at Gwen, who gently placed a hand on their cheek, looking into their eyes.

    "Believe me, I know, but we need to work together. We'll meet up with Nadine as soon as the antidotes done, right?" Gwen said, looking over to Nadine as Margot took the hand from their cheek, holding it tightly in their own.

    "Right," Nadine said, and had to suppress the urge to sigh with relief — thank god Gwen was reasonable, because Margot was the most stubborn person she knew. "I promise. I'll be okay."

    "Fine!" Margot agreed reluctantly, squishing Nadine in a hug somehow even tighter than the one outside of school.

    "Nadine, when the timer is over, use this and put it up to those on the ceiling," Gwen suggested, handing her a little blowtorch. Nadine nodded in understanding, ushering the two of them out of the lab as people ran past.

    "I got this." said Nadine, certain. "I love you, I'll see you in... five and a half minutes!"

Margot yelled an I love you as Gwen hurried her away, and Nadine shut the laboratory door behind them. With a sigh, Nadine realised she still held Margot's phone — at least she could call Peter, if worst came to worst.

The timer was on 1:12 when the building rumbled, lights flickering off and then back on as the floor shook beneath her. The Lizard, she quickly realised.

She looked back at the Ganali device, grabbing the only part of it she could lift, and pulled it over to a small closet in the back of the lab, before putting the blowtorch up to one of the devices in the ceiling. Nadine took a deep breath as the metal doors slammed shut, yellow lights waving over the room.

The sound of metal crunching was familiar, barely different to how it sounded back at Midtown High, but even then it caused anxiety to run down her spine, making her hands sweat and throat dry up.

If she created a portal, she'd be leaving the antidote behind — and even then, she was sure that the Lizard would see the bright orange sparkles it created.

So it wasn't an option, that much was sure.

All Nadine could do was stand slightly in front of the Ganali device and hold her breath as she heard the creature let out a low growl, not far from her little cupboard.

If she clutched Margot's phone tight in her hand, finger hovering over Peter's contact, well... nobody had to know.

Footsteps thudded around the lab, the low swish of a tail cutting through air just barely being heard as Nadine struggled to keep her eyes open, watching and waiting.

The scream she let out when reptilian eyes leaked through the slatted blinds was horrifying, and all she could think is how glad she was that Margot wasn't there to hear it — she'd never live it down, that was for sure.

The door was ripped from the hinged, the blind going with it, and leaving Nadine open to attack.

Blood rushing through her ears, her arms raised up to form some semblance of a shield — it was better than the one at school, but the way it flickered at the edges did not give Nadine much hope for how well it'd hold up.

Dr. Connors' eyes were drawn behind her, down to the Ganali device hiding behind her. With a hiss, he pressed his claws down against her shield, anticipating the way she stepped backwards, slightly away from the dispersement device the Lizard was seeking.

As the tips of his claws sunk through her shield, he took the opportunity and grabbed the device, stalking away from her as he ripped the claws out of her shield.

It flickered out of existence, and Nadine let out a breath she wasn't sure she even had in her — how she was even alive, at this point, she wasn't sure.

This had to give her an excuse to miss out on at least a couple math classes, though.

    "Antidote complete." The computer announced, and Nadine poked her head out to see no sign of Connors, nor the Ganali device. The most important thing still remained, a blue glow somehow emitting from a vial, the screen beside it displaying the words reptilian antidote.

With shaking hands, Nadine grabbed it, opting to take the flights of stairs rather than even think about creating more orange sparks.

She was alive, and she was sure that Peter was on his way. But she decided she didn't feel like sticking around to find out. She trusted him.

By the time she got to the doors of OSCORP, Nadine's whole body was trembling. She wasn't even sure she would've made it any further if it hadn't have been for Gwen and Margot immediately approaching her, both grabbing onto her and holding tight.

    "You got it," sighed Gwen, relief in her voice, and Nadine didn't miss the way Gwen's eyes scanned over her, looking for injuries that weren't there.

    "I got it." the way her voice shook didn't do much to help the worried looks Margot was giving her, but there was some kind of pride in there for having survived. "Never doing that again, though."

Gwen laughed, her voice almost as shaky as Nadine's as she grabbed the antidote, her father approaching.

    "Dad! We have to get this to Spider-Man!" said Gwen immediately, the tremble in her voice fading and being replaced with urgency.

    "Get in the car, let's go." said Captain Stacy, and looked at Nadine and Margot huddled together behind her, "All of you."

    "No, it can stop the Lizard!" Margot called, their voice scratchy and wet with tears from the whole situation. They weren't going to have their best friend go through all of that, just to be taken away by Gwen's dad, unable to actually use the thing they'd all fought to get.

    "They're right!" said Nadine, approaching the two Stacy's and grabbing a hold of Gwen's sleeve. "It's an antidote! Spider-Man needs this, you don't— you don't understand."

    "I do." said Captain Stacy, finality in his voice. "Peter is Spider-Man. I understand, now give me this, and get in the car." He took the antidote from Gwen, pushing her gently towards the car, and not even acknowledging the group's shock at how he knew about Peter.

An officer met Gwen, holding onto her arm as she shook her head.

    "You've gotta make sure he's alright, please," Nadine said to the Captain, "That thing... it's— it's dangerous."

He nodded, and Gwen took the queue to get in the car, Margot following not long after. Nadine paused, and watched as the Captain ran into the OSCORP building.

As he disappeared beyond the doors, Nadine couldn't help but wonder if she should've just taken the antidote up to the roof herself — she had abilities Captain Stacy didn't, after all. She tried not to think about it as she got in the police cruiser.

oo

NADINE WASN'T EXPECTING TO SEE PETER PARKER FOR THE FIRST TIME SINCE THE SCHOOL INCIDENT AT CAPTAIN STACY'S FUNERAL. She hadn't expected to see him for a while, in all fairness. Nadine wasn't even sure if she, herself, was going to attend George Stacy's funeral, especially considering she could've prevented his death.

But seeing Peter was always welcome, and she couldn't help but feel relief at his presence — as if some mysterious monster wasn't going to attack while he was there.

Knowing his secret made things... different between the two of them, even though they hadn't really spoken since Dr. Connors being returned to his human state. Even just seeing him from across the graveyard, Nadine could tell that it wasn't the same.

She wasn't the only one who felt that way, though. Nadine was sure that both Gwen and Margot had felt it, too, perhaps not quite in the same way, but the feeling was present, nonetheless.

Guilt was gnawing at Nadine's insides as she approached the remaining Stacy's, and seeing Gwen's face brighten the smallest bit as she approached only made her stomach sink lower, nausea tearing her apart.

    "Nadine," said Gwen, her voice different, scratchy from tears, "You're here."

Nadine only nodded as Gwen pulled her into a hug, her black umbrella falling to their sides and allowing the rain to soak her blonde hair.

Margot smiled tightly at Nadine, stood beside Gwen's mother and gently patting her arm for a moment, before they moved away to come and stand beside Gwen and Nadine. They grabbed onto Gwen's hand the moment she separated from the hug, and she clutched tightly as people with umbrellas bustled around them.

In the distance, Nadine saw her Uncle Ray in his uniform, speaking to another officer beside him.

    "I'll be just over there, if you need me." Nadine told them, smiling as best as she could, even as her heart tore itself apart, thinking about how this whole situation could've been avoided.

With a confirming nod from Gwen, Nadine made her way to the side, quickly joined by none other than Peter Parker.

    "Peter, hey." greeted Nadine, and she stood on her tiptoes to hug him. If the way he grasped her tightly told her anything, it was that he needed the hug just as much as she did.

    "Hi," said Peter in return, holding her closer for another second before he released her, letting her stand at her normal height again. "You alright?"

    "Yeah, yeah... you?" she responded, and she definitely wasn't alright.

    "Yeah, good." he replied, and he was lying, too.

They stood in silence until the funeral ended, and the forest of umbrellas finally fled, but during that time, Nadine's hand on his sleeve remained there. Steady, and grounding — a reminder that they both had someone, and they weren't alone.

With guilt weighing down the edges, Peter allowed himself this one smile.