E. 7 0 5
neuphrates

Returning to the ship, Gema swung across the surface, her feet skiing against the waves every so often. Finding people scattering on each deck like a school of fish being separated in several directions. All running down the stairs to where 2 smaller escape transports would be able to rescue them from drowning. Attaching myself to the side of the boat on the main deck, now filled with people boarding on it in a rush.

She landed on the deck of the sinking ship. She noticed Jaxon assisting an elderly woman who appeared to be the wife of previous Chief Larson, crossing the threshold of the vehicle.

"Right this way!"

Gema's head snaps towards that voice whipping herself around to land in front of the brand-new Captain. His hat is no longer resting on his head while a strand of blond hair fell from it previous formal style.

"How's it going Chief?" Gema asked with a salute.

He shook his head as if he didn't expect her to return so soon. "What are you doing here?"

"Making sure everything is ship-shape," Gema stated while glancing around the busy crowd. "Bad news, this is all Goblin's doing."

Carter frowned in confusion. "Didn't we lock her up earlier this week?"

She shrugged. "She managed to escape. Spiderman is keeping her occupied. I came over here to see if you needed any help getting these people to safety."

"Maybe a hand in slowing down this sinking ship." He said with a shrug.

"On it, Captain!" Gema piped, getting straight to work.

"Spiderman! Come out, come out wherever you are." She hummed, dragging out with an eerie melody that echoed through the darkness. Scanning like she was on a hunt, thirsty for blood like a shark.

The haunting sound of her voice crept through the shadows of silence. Inside the cave with an underground lake, with bioluminescence emitting a glow that reflects with a teal hue. Providing some, if not much light. Not daring to reveal his spot, Nai catches his breath, trying to come up with a new plan.

Amid his thinking, his spider sense alerts him to a ticking bomb that landed in the water in front of him. Nai immediately crawled out of his hiding spot, barely reaching the other side of the boulder before being blasted into the air. The adrenaline in his veins activated with acceleration in both fight and flight. Shooting a web to the ceiling rapidly like it were the rafters in a concert venue and sticking to the top of the cave.

"Hmm. If Spiderman won't come out and play, then I'll have to send an invite to your little friend." Goblin hollered from below on her glider, waiting for me.

Anger tightened his jaw with another shiver running up his spine when hearing a perilous scream at the same time he sensed the click of a button.

"No," He whispered under his breath. 

His blood began to boil with fire raging. He grips the string of web that is anchored into the stone above him, swinging himself down until his knee slams into Goblin to knock her off the glider. She landed on the flat surface of a mound as Nai punched her straight in the cheek without any warning. Following her tumble, he grabbed her with his web, snatching her shirt.

"Throwing some harder punches than last time, aren't you Spiderman? Makes this more exciting with your girlfriend being a part of the puzzle." Goblin cackled in amusement.

"You keep your hands off of her!" Nai spat into her face, gritting his teeth.

Goblin chuckled with a mocking shake of her head. "Oh, I won't lay a finger on her."

Deep apprehension creeps in as the cave grows darker and the screams bounce off the wall into his ears. Catching the buzzing of a drone that follows.

"Thea!" Nai cried out to her, attempting to head in her direction. Then a hand clutches him by the neck, bringing him to face Goblin's ugly mug as she laughs.

Using all his strength, Nai grabbed onto Goblin's arm, then proceeded to wrap his legs around her shoulder to bring her down. Freeing himself from her grasp to chase after the bomb that whizzes behind Thea. He jumped off the ledge, focusing on his main priority in that moment.

He swings around until he spots her, still running along the stone path. Getting himself close enough to catch the back of Thea's shirt before the drone strikes a direct hit. Instead, it crashes into one of the falling rocks. While adjusting Thea's position, now secured up against Nai's side. Her legs wrapped around his waist and her arms clinging onto his neck.

"You need to be more careful!" She screamed, as Nai barely dodged a rock collapsing right beside them, burying her face in the crook of his neck.

Nai scoffed with the frown of the eyes on his mask. "I am careful!" He said in defense.

A tingle triggered as a bomb came flying towards them and he pulled them out of harms way as it landed in the lake. The explosion causing a crack in the walls of limestone and shaking stalactites as they crumbled.

Not missing a beat, Nai pulls himself out right as the columns smashed into the water. Followed by dodging past two large boulder shaped rocks before Thea and him could be smushed like pancakes.

Thea gripped his suit with a harsh pull in a scold. "How is that careful!?"

"I've had worse!" He clarified.

She frowned at him with an eye roll. "Just be extra careful then!"

"I am," Nai stated with a grin on his lips as they landed on top of a ledge that lead to unknown paths in the cave. "We are still alive, aren't we?"

Jinxing that luck, another bomb went off. The eerie villainous laughter reappeared without revealing any trace of Goblin. "Trying to get away now? Our game hasn't even started. We are just warming up!" Her voice echoed.

With a shake from the ground under their feet, part of the rock crumbles. Nai reached for Thea's hand as she slipped on the falling stone beneath her.

"Thea!" Nai screamed, leaping forward while catching himself before sliding off the ledge himself. Flicking one hand out for his web to wrap around her wrist and the other sticking to the cliff he was hanging from. His grip squeezing hard enough to make his knuckles turn white. Thea looked up at Nai, her eyes were stricken with fear. Panic came out in heavy pants as her legs dangled in the air. Glancing down at the crashing waves, she only held onto the web as if it were a rope.

"Uh? Nai!" She quivered.

"Hey, hey!" Nai said with a strain in his voice, finding Thea's eye again. "Don't focus on that! Only focus on me!"

Thea became steady as a small smile etched on her lips with hope. Knowing she could trust him more than anyone in the world. Motivating Nai as he began to pull her up. A moment of silence. The only sound of the water brushing the rocks and a few smaller rocks plopping in the large pool below.

"The itsy-bitsy spider came into the underwater lake." Goblin sang the familiar nursery rhyme with a spin and still didn't show herself. Stealing another moment. "Then came in the ocean...and washed the spider out!"

His head sprang up as he heard the last part of the song, trying to pull Thea up faster. Nai then looked back down right before hearing a snap, as Goblin flew by. The glider came in, swooshing in with a snap of the web. The one attached to Thea.

Terror plaguing inside of his chest. He lets go of the other cable above him while he attempts to shorten the distance of their hands with the outstretch of his hand as she falls. Nai noticed the new high tide that had come rushing in with raging waters waiting to below. He shoots out a web to grab Thea before the ocean does. Then all he remembered was being engulfed in a flood and buried in saltwater. 

After being tossed around like a sailboat in a storm, the water grew tame. Nai broke the surface, not seeing any sign of Goblin. But that didn't matter. He pulled his fist out of the water with the string of web in his hand but didn't feel the weight he was expecting when he tugged it.

"Thea?" He whispered as his heart stopped for a beat. 

Nai spun his head in all directions before diving underwater, anticipating with the hope of finding any trace of her. 

Nothing. 

He came up for air when his limit was surpassed while cupping his hands near his mouth. "Thea!" 

Only to hear echoes came back in reply.

And then he spotted something floating near the rocks by the small beach. Nai instantly makes his way over as he attempts to shoot another web, only to discover his fluid ran out. Instead, Nai tore through the currents until she was in his arms and he brought her to the shore, gently laying her on the cold sand. The tide flowed in and out, brushing against them.

"No, no, no, no."" Nai spoke softly. 

He hovered over her with his mask vanishing with wet strands of hair dangled and dripped drops water on her face. He wiped them off while brushing her own hair out of her face, finding a scar on her forehead. Yet her eyes remained closed without any sign of breathing. He pressed his ear to her chest. A shuddering fear spread throughout his veins while shaking his head as he pushed his hands over where her heart was, performing CPR. After 30 compressions, Nai put his mouth onto her lips. Still nothing.

"Please, please!" The words barely came off his tongue as he repeated the process while he shook in anguish. "Listen to me Thea, you have to wake up!"

Minutes past, 10 at maximum until Nai finally abandoned the procedures that were failing him. The drops on her face were not just from the seawater now.

"C-come back," Nai cried while caressing her in his arms. "I never got to tell you, but if you can hear me, I love-"

A crack was enough for him to collapse until his head touched hers with sobs.

"I love you, Thea Sawyer." He said with broken hope. "Maybe you can wake up and tell me what you think about that."

But all he got was nothing.

All he wanted was to begin a new adventure with her. To not only be her best friend. To be something more. But that adventure doesn't exist.

Knowing it never will.

Water continued to rise from below as Gema carried a young girl no older than 14 out of the path of raging waves.

"That should be everyone Captain," Gema said setting the teenager down who took off towards the evacuation pods where her parents waited for her. 

Carter finished escorting the last few passengers with a nod of approval. "Nice work, Spiderwoman." He responded.

She sighed with a proud smile and was about to thank him. That was interrupted a familiar pinch of her spider sense, but also the additional hunch of her twin in danger. The feeling almost stabbed into her skull, causing her to fall to the wooden deck. Breathing heavily, her senses notifying her of more than just a warning, but the devastation and grief for...

No. That can't be true. Thea can't be gone.

Thea who was there for Gema's first and only prom night with a random boy who asked her. Regardless of it being one of Gema's worst dates, Thea used her fairy godmother touch of fashion. Making Gema feel like the princess at the night of a Ball. 

Thea promised that she'd design the best wedding dress for Gema that day she heard the news of the engagement. Now a promise that could never be fulfilled.

"Miss Spiderwoman! Coming back out to play!"

She was responsible for Thea. Gema thought as anger boiled in her blood. The reason her everything that had gone wrong tonight. She shared a look with her fiancé, staring at him through her masked eyes. 

"Get everyone out of here." She instructed before returning her glare in the direction of Goblin's haunting echo.

Gema stuck a web to the wall of the boat and flung herself upwards. Ready to do whatever it took to stop Goblin as she perched on the top deck, balancing with her fingertips. 

"My, my. Someone isn't happy." Goblin pouted with a tilted head of pity as she levitated on the glider. "Luckily this can cheer you up!"

In no delay to her senses, Gema moved out of the way swiftly before any of Goblins' mini blades could pierce her skin to the deck. Sticking a web to her target's chest and yanking with full force as Goblin tumbled off the glider that smacked against the silver railing. Gema charged towards her and tackled her off the edge of the top level of the ship. Sending them to break through the ceiling of the deck below. Finding themselves in the empty banquet room.

After being kicked in the ribs by Goblin, Gema tumbled on the floor in a large puddle of water. Reminding Gema of the sinking ship, knowing there wasn't much time until it would submerge under the surface.

Marching through the rising barrier, sloshing onto her calves Gema successfully pinned one of Goblin's hands to an ionic designed pillar. She activated the stinger-web with the other wrist, sticking on to the exposed neck, near Goblin's collar.

"You're not being fair Spiderwoman." She hissed from the discomfort in a menacing breath. Loose strands of dirty blonde hair fell out of her tied back hair with a venomous sneer as spit to the floor. "You have to play the game fair, like your brother and his little girlfriend."

The mention of her brother and Thea provoked Gema's nostrils to flare with a fuming hatred growing larger.

"Sadly, she didn't seem to last very long." Goblin said with each step she advanced.

Failing to hold them back, no matter how hard she bit her lip, a tear slipped out the corner of both creases of her eyes. Gema let of the rage bottled up inside through a cry, shooting another web to prick another subjugation in Goblin's skin, causing her to stumble in a limp.

"And you," Goblin continued to speak in a grumbling utterance. "We will see how long you can last."

A shiver crawled up to her skull right as Goblin moved her arm. Gema shot another web at her torso to pin her against the wall right behind the pillar. The sensation went off once more. Happening in a blink of an eye, Gema dodged but failed to catch the flashing bomb that was tossed in her direction.

PYROVOLISMOS!

Furrowing her eyebrows, glancing over her arms that shielded her from the explosion.

The explosion never went off. The beeping of the bomb was still ticking. Gema spotted the device in the rubble.

She looked up to detect the source of the loud blare, but gaining a sharp pinch in her chest in what she saw.

A pistol being held by two hands, knuckles whitening around the handle, accompanied by a torn and tattered navy-blue uniform.

Attacking her mind once more, the warning signal was yelling with startle. Then she realized the danger.

"Captain watch out!" Gema screamed in peril as she immediately pounced in Carter's direction. Her fiancé standing firm to shoot another bullet at the enemy and to defend her with every fiber of his being.

Gema leaping through the flooding to shove Carter out of the way. She sends a web out to defy the timing of the bomb.

ÉXRIXI!

The deafening alarming blast of the bomb blows, and Gema is trampled on by the collapsing ceiling coming from above her.

A minute or two passes when the lids of her eyes begin to open slowly and the blurred vision becomes clearer. It didn't seem to solve the lack of visuals in front of her. Broken flickering bulbs from the decorations shining in weakness and casting a dimming light. Almost as if they were candles that would go out in the most subtle breeze.

Letting out a grunt, using all her willpower with her eyes squeezed shut, Gema managed to lift the heavy rubble off her. In doing so, pieces crumbled into the water where pieces of planks floated like wood chips. The air now mixed with the dust of the debris and a mist of salt from the ocean as Gema fans the invisible cloud with her hand.

Goblin is nowhere to be found and anxiety of the escape boat's fate should have been her focus, but neither mattered.

"Captain!" She called out, careful not to breathe in the musky scent. "Captain Bane, can you hear me!?"

Right as she was about to lose hope, a weak and heavy cough meets her ear, and she whips her head around. Using her webs to swing over broken structures. Turning in circles until she sees a hand peaking through the cracks, and a head of strawberry blond hair covered in dust.

"Carter!" Gema cries, dashing over to tear through the pile that keeps him restricted.

Once uncovered, she gently secures him in her lap and she frantically scans him for any major injury. Part of her wanted to scold him for getting involved, but held her tongue as she just him to walk away from this like he had before.

"What were you doing here? I thought you were-"

His chuckle intervenes. "I couldn't let the Spider-twins have all the fun." Carter says while his hand reaches for her face, his fingers shaking.

Noticing his trembling, Gema aids him, grabbing his hand to her cheek. His finger extends to barely press the gadget behind her ear. Letting the material of the mask to vanish.

Then his smile grows. "There's my strong girl." He sighed, his eyelids fluttering in awe.

Pressing her lips, Gema shakes her head before putting it down in shame as tears fell onto his face with her eyes shut. "I'm so sorry! This wasn't how this night was supposed to go at all! Our date night was ruined and-"

She opened her eyes. Followed by a haunting gasp. The light blue fabric had been drenched in a staining ink of scarlet. Peering under the tear of the shirt reveled a large gash across his stomach.

"This wasn't supposed to happen!" Gema panicked as if this were a bad dream, hoping to prevent anything worse. Her hand stroked through his hair to comfort him when it was an attempt to assure herself. "But we are going to get you out of here and we'll get you to the hospital."

"Gema," He muttered, still carrying conviction his faintness, brushing his thumb to wipe away the tears slipping on her cheeks. "It's okay."

A sob broke through, seeping through Gema's teeth. His voice being an antidote for the corners of her mouth to stretch. He copied her expression, knowing he could always make her smile when she was sad.

"I'm fine." Carter hushed with a nod. "I have my girl. Always fighting for what's right."

Gema tightens her grip on his hand that rests on her face as she keep her eyes on him. "Stay awake, Carter." She urged, hoping that would make it all better.

But then his eyes flickered shut. The hand on her cheek faltering under it fell to the floor. Hashing out a long decaying breath.

"No," Gema said when his chest didn't come back to rise. "Don't you dare leave me!" She shook his shoulders, patted his face, splashed water on him she tried everything she could think of.

"Please wake up so we can-" Gema's choked, her bottom lip trembling while tracing her finger his pale forehead. Mumbling quietly while staring at his lifeless face. "So we can get married, have a family of our own. Watch them grow up. Maybe grow up until we are old and wrinkly?"

There was nothing more to do with a daunting emptiness killing those dreams. Realizing Goblins game now, Gema knew she lost. So did Nai. They both did. It's not the first time they lost.

But it didn't hurt like this.

ꕀꕀꕀꕀꕀꕀꕀꕀꕀꕀꕀꕀꕀꕀꕀꕀꕀꕀꕀꕀꕀ

Sorry for this! But more fun stuff is coming to make up for it! I just feel so bad for my twins. :(

-marie xoxo