Chapter 25 - Heights and Chaos (Part 2)

"No. It's hardly anything. I need more power, a completely unreasonable amount of power to fight extremely unfair opponents. There are many, many like us and many of them aren't friendly. You'll see soon enough." Several explosions go off in the distance, loud enough for the both of us to hear them, making us turn our heads.

"Or you can see right now…."

"What do you mean? Shouldn't we leave whatever it is to the police and firefighters?" Jess asks.

"No we should not." I answer her, grabbing her hand and pulling her to the warehouse's exit.

"That sounded pretty far. Even if we wanted to go, how would we make it jn time to help? We don't even know what's going on." She says, trying to yank herself back.

"We're flying of course. We can see what's going on when we get there. I'm sure there's people who need to be saved from a fire or something." I try to pull her again.

"I can't fly! I'm scared of heights." She says, succeeding in yanking her arm free, looking down at my feet.

"You don't have to fly. I'll carry you, Okay." I pull her chin up so she looks me in my eyes.

"Huh—"

"Do you trust me?" I ask, starting to form my suit around me.

"Y..yes." She answers. 

"Then just relax and don't put your hands on my back." I pick her up in a princess carry and form the covering around my face.

"Eep—" I walk out the warehouse and take off.

Fifty feet up in the air and I can finally see over the buildings. Fire and smoke rise from a skyscraper in downtown. That should be the Oscorp Headquarters. A few more explosions go off and three helicopters survey the scene. Something small seems to be flying around the Oscorp building but I can't tell from this distance. Wind starts to flap in my face and tustels our hair. Billowing against my ear drums as I pick up speed.

Jess trembles in my arms and her heart starts to beat heavily. She keeps glancing at the ground now a hundred feet below.

"Don't look down! Just take deep breaths and look at me!" I yell out against the wind. My mask is quite thin so it doesn't muffle my voice.

"Put me down! You're trying to kill me!" She screams, but she's smart enough not to struggle.

"I can't hear you!" Obviously I can hear her with my hearing.

"Don't you fucking lie to me Tyler! I'm about to Pee!"

"Calm down! We're almost there! I'll drop you off at that building over there!" I yell, taking one hand off and pointing at a tall red brick building with a flat roof close to the action. Aaand Jess falls out of my carry.

"Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!—" I swoop down to catch her.

"Sorry Jess. I didn't mean to do that." I continue moving slowly, keeping a tighter hold on Jess.

"You're so fucking dead Tyler! So fucking dead! I'm gonna kill you when you put me down!"

"How am I going to save people if I'm dead?"

"People are going to have to save you!"

"I'm sorry Jess. You can ask me for anything once I'm done okay." I apologise to her before dropping her off on the roof and dodging a punch to the face. I take off in the direction of the fire and explosions.

"Get back here!" Jess shouts at me. But I need to focus on the task ahead.

I can finally see the buzzing figure from earlier now that I'm much closer. Humanoid, green skinned, angled face, and some sort of black hoverboard with sharp edges. I'd bet a beanie baby that that's Green Goblin. His mad cackling almost drowns out the sirens from emergency personnel. Police personnel try to use their firearms to shoot him out of the sky, but they either miss him entirely, or their rounds bounce off some sort of modernized chainmail armor. It looks sleek.

"Ahahahahahaha….do you enjoy that board of directors? Firing me from my own company. I trusted you all. And you stab me in the back! Take that! And that! And that!" He says, throwing orange grenades at the building. A news helicopter gets a little close after Goblin reverses directions.

"Buzz off Bug! Here's some front line news for you!" He lobs a grenade at the helicopter, but I arrive just in time to position myself between it and the helicopter. My armor and carbon skin will protect me from the shrapnel and heat.

*BOOM*

Suddenly I'm flipping midair and—. Ughhh….fuck….why can't I hear anything. My eyes are swimming. A sharp pain goes across my spine. I blink a few times and start to recognize concrete, buildings and cars all around me. I'm on a street, cracked and slightly caved in, from an impact, my fall. I fell. 

Damn, I got knocked the fuck out. I really need to get used to taking hits more often. Still can't hear shit, I think my ears are blown out, but I don't have the time to heal them right now. Maybe I can manage with vibrations on my skin, probably not. I look up at the sky to find Goblin starting down at me.

"What..we have...re?" He asks. Yeah I can barely make out anything, but I get the gist. He's looking down at me both figuratively and literally.

I gather my bearings, make sure that my thrusters still work fine, then I take off to the little green man in the sky.

"So rough. Shouldn't you take me out to dinner first?" I crack a joke.

"You little...I'll…like a…" The way he angrily waves his arms is even funnier in person. He reaches into a satchel and throws a few metal objects at me, which I think are shurikens. Two bounce off my armor and the other bounces off my forehead. It doesn't break skin but it still hurts a little.

Once I'm about fifty feet away from the goblin, I make a magnetic field to propel us both towards each other. He tries to use the glider to avoid a collision, but I manage to grab his forearm. I ready my free arm for a punch.

"Let go of me!" He tries to shake me off.

*WHACK* I whollop him across the face.

"What was that? I couldn't hear you over the sound of me kicking your ass." I hook my leg around his, so he can't shake me off.

He punches me in the side, causing me to let out some air. We exchange a few punches, him still trying to detach me off of his leg, the hoverboard flying around all over the place, nobody realing dealing damage. He seems to be really resistant to blunt force, so let's try something different. 

I stop punching him, letting him get free reign while I focus on keeping us together and charging up electricity in my right hand. 

It only takes me a few punches to decide that enough is enough. I unhook my leg, catch his fist, and deliver a knuckle sandwich so juicy that has only existed in my dreams.

He goes flying to the ground meanwhile the hoverboard catches fire. An explosion occurs on impact in an empty street. I head down into the fire and smoke to check the scene out 

Goblin seems to be in relatively nice shape. I say he only fell about 60 feet. There are multiple scratches on his face and a little blood coming out his nose and mouth. I can see he may have a few broken bones and a punctured lung, but he'll live just fine. I pick him up, turn him face down, then I start making bindings for his hands and feet behind his back. I can't have more Adamantium out if my hands, so I make them out of solid metallic glass. No chains, no slack. I fuse his hand and feet bindings together and leave him for the authorities. The smoke from the hoverboard explosion starts to clear  and I can see thirty or forty cops encircling me, comprised of a mix between regular police officers and SWAT units, all their guns trained on me. 

"Hey guys, I just came here to help. Look I even bundled him up for you." I raise my hands in front of me in a casual surrender.

"Get….!" A female SWAT officer gestures down with her rifle.

"Hey now, I'm friendly."

"...down!" The officer gestures again. They don't seem to be very familiar with this type of situation. It figures, from what I can tell in my research, super-fights have been kept pretty much under wraps both publicly and privately. What rarely gets out seems to be denounced as malarky.

"Look donuts!" I point, only managing to distract two police officers. I'd laugh but I can't right now. I jump up ten feet and let my back thrusters take me straight up. They start trying to load me with lead, and damn does this all feel like a good, strong, full body massage. They eventually stop after a few rounds of being masseuses.

It's time to get out of here. I assume a T-pose with my chest out, head held high, and my toes curled down. I remain motionless as I let my back thrusters take me into one of the lower-reaching clouds. Then I go invisible, and slowly fly out of the cloud. My face is very cold and wet, like a dog's nose. The fresh air really feels good up here. I take a minute to fix whatever damage was done to my ear drums. Making sure that doesn't happen again is now on my list of priorities.

I start cruising back over to the rooftop I left Jess at and I lose the suit, forming some real clothes instead. 

Jess is standing in the middle of the roof, staring at the cloud I disappeared in. I step onto the roof and turn off my invisibility. She assumes a neutral-angry expression and starts walking towards me.

"Hey Jess, I'm—" she punches me in the gut.

"—sorry..." I wheeze out. She turns her back to me and walks a few feet away.

"Take me home. We're walking." She demands, still facing away from me.

"Are you sure? It's pretty far. It'll probably take an hour and a half if we walk. I bet you're pretty tired. How about I order us a taxi?" I suggest. She looks over her shoulder and glares at me.

"I'll order a taxi for you?" I try, but I only receive an even stronger glare in response.

"Yes ma'am." I acquiesce.

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