Jeff glanced back, making sure all the little kiddos he was in charge of were in front of him. Glass shattered far above, and he could hear the mechanical whirr of Vulture's wings. They were close, far too close for comfort.
One of the girls froze when Vulture flew towards them; her eyes widened as he got close enough for air around them to buzz from the energy of the wings.
“Keep going, Mellisa” Jeff nudged her forward, and they watched Spider-Man loop around, catching Vulture in a web to pull him away from the evacuating crowd Jeff silently cheered him on, hoping Spider-Man would be able to keep Vulture away from the evacuation efforts.
Spider-Man was talking, In that casual, nonchalant way that seemed to piss off the captain.
“Swooping down on a bunch of kids like a vulture? At least you're trying to live up to your name. I fought a guy last week calling himself-”
The sound of shattering glass reverberated between the buildings, and a few of the kids around him screamed. Jeff kept moving, herding a bunch of 2nd graders to the evacuation area. Miles was up in the front, leading everyone towards the officers behind a street barricade. They were almost there.
Of course, it's me that volunteered, Jeff grumbled internally, but was also very relieved that he was the one in charge of Miles’ class when a supervillain attacked. He was trained for evacuation and high-stress situations and was even familiar with memorizing faces and knew exactly which kids were supposed to be there with him. Even Miles had more training than an average kid. Jeff Had taught him how to react to danger and how to get himself and others to safety (as well as one could teach a kid that young)
They finally all got behind the barricade. It wasn't super far from the fight, but the building was offering a bit of shelter, and they couldn't just leave without meeting up with the other classes and volunteers. The last thing they needed was 28 missing kid reports from the school.
Jeff rounded up his group and quickly counted the kids before going back again to make sure they were all the right kids. Everyone was safe and accounted for. A few of them were crying, but there were no injuries.
“Ok, everyone just stay calm, it’s going to be okay”
“Dad!” Miles pushed through the crowd of kids towards him “Dad, Spider-Man needs help!”
Jeff looked to where Miles was pointing. Vulture had Spider-Man pinned to the ground, hands around his neck. The wings were still on, pointed down, exerting a tremendous amount of force onto his chest. The ground was cracked, and Jeff could only imagine how hard Spider-Man hit the concrete.
Jeff was at a loss for what to do. Spider-Man was desperately clawing at the hands, and while he was holding on for longer than most, the efforts were starting to slow down.
“Dad!” Miles shouted, looking between Jeff and Spider-Man desperately, relying on his dad to help, but what could he do?
“Everyone just stay here-” Jeff cut himself off when Miles slipped between the crowd and ran towards the fight.
“MILES” Jeff went to go after him, but as an adult, he was having a much harder time forcing himself through the crowd, and the officer had more time to hold him back.
“Let us handle this, sir”
“I'm an officer, and that's my son! Let me go,” Jeff fought, and a different officer started after Miles.
“You're with a school, which means you're not carrying. Leave this to us”
The kid was too fast and way too far away for anyone to stop him. Miles picked up a piece of rubble from the ground and threw it at Vulture.
Any prayers for it to miss went unanswered as it hit Vulture directly in the face, who barely seemed fazed. Jeffs's heart seemed to stop when Vulture turned to look at Miles, more confused than wounded.
“No… no, Miles” Jeff wouldn’t have been able to run even if the officers hadn’t been blocking him. His legs felt weak and shaky. His son was barely 8 years old, what chance did he have against someone like Vulture?
There was a shift, a sudden desperate, almost feral movement from Spider-Man. He hooked Vulture with his leg and flipped flipped them, baring over Vulture. While ignoring the hands still around his neck, he pulled on the frame of the wings until something snapped, and all sound coming from the wings stopped. A well-placed punch loosened Vulture's grip as the man lost consciousness, and Spider-Man was finally able to pull away.
Spider-Man gasped loudly, followed by a round of coughs.
—
Peter coughed, wheezed, and clung to consciousness with everything he had. The sudden access to air ironically made his head spin, and the black dots dancing around his vision were getting more aggressive, and before he knew it, he was back on the ground.
“Spider-Man?”
Peter heard a voice, a really young voice to his left. Why was there a kid here? So close to Vulture?
The kid gave him something to focus on, and Peter was able to shake the spots and most of the dizziness (totally not because he was trying to look cool) and moved to get up, but seeing what the kid had in his hand made him pause.
The kid had a rock.
The rock that had smacked Vulture in the face and gave him just enough of an opening to avoid being strangled to death. It hadn't fallen from the building; a kid threw it. This kid threw it. This kid saved his life.
“Are you okay?” The kid moved close, dropped the rock, and held out a hand to help him up. Peter took it to let the kid feel like he was helping, but Peter got to his feet with his own strength, knowing the kid wouldn’t be able to handle his full weight.
“Great teamwork! We should try that move on-” Peter cut himself off as the spider-sense went off. He grabbed the kid and webbed them into the air on instinct, clearing the area as part of the building collapsed, covering the area they had just been in rubble, metal, and shattered glass.
“MILES” a voice full of panic cut through the settling debris.
Peter landed on the side of the building across from the arena, the kid clinging to him was all smiles. Vulture probably got caught in the collapse; he’d have to go check on the guy.
“This is so cool! How do you just stick to the side of buildings? I’ve been reading about spiders and how they have a bunch of little hairs they use to stick to walls and stuff, what about you?”
“Uh, same thing, I guess, I hadn’t thought about it much.” Peter looked to the crowd, seeing a man desperately trying to get through the barricade, calling that same name over and over again.
“Is that your dad?”
The kid looked in the direction Peter was pointing and nodded. Peter noticed “Miles” hold on a little tighter when he realized how high up they were. Peter, in turn, held him a little closer to try to help him feel more secure.
“He’s a police officer, but today he’s with my school class”
“Okay, Miles, lets go let him know you’re safe.” Peter let go of the building and swung down towards the group of people; he noticed a lot more kids about the same age as Miles. A school field trip. Peter didn’t want to even think about how much of a mess this was going to cause the teachers and chaperones. Peter set the kid down, and the dad was finally let go to get to him.
“Safe and sound. We made a good team, didn’t we, Miles?” Peter held out a fist that Miles returned.