"I don't know how I feel about this." Dad asks from the doorway as I secure my mask and belt on my suit. "The DEA and FBI are perfectly capable of handling this. It's why I called them, and if things go south, you could really get hurt."

A frown pulls at the edges of my lips as I turn to him. "Or if I'm not there, innocent people could. Those agents might not be prepared to face off with high tech weapons, and if they aren't, it will be a disaster." His face turns serious as I approach, "At least if I'm there, I can help them stop it before something happens or contain it if it does. The mere fact that I'm willingly going on a boat should show you how serious I am about this. Not to mention, the sooner they're in custody, the sooner I can sleep knowing that the REM Trials won't be getting their hands on alien tech any time soon."

"Fine, but if there's even a whiff of trouble, ARTI is going to call me." He pulls me tight into his chest with a heavy sigh, "Just be careful and make sure you come home."

"Don't I always?" I half smile at him, "Stark family trait, I suppose, we always find our way back eventually, but I promise, I'll let ARTI call you at the first sign of trouble. I have to get going. I need to make sure Peter is gonna stay out of this."

"Has he still been investigating?"

I feel my chest constrict as I force out the lie, "No, but I'd rather be sure. I'll talk to him and make sure my contacts keep an eye out if he goes searching for any information."

Dad nods, and I tug my hood up as I head out. Still, I can feel his worry following me through the streets as I head towards Peter's location. It's busy on every street today, which leaves me navigating rooftops and shadowy alleyways to get to his apartment.

"Hey there, hot stuff." I call as I land in front of him. "We need to talk."

"Ph-Phantom, um, hi. We need to talk? About what?" He stutters, and I can see the heat rushing to his cheeks, which makes me bite my cheek to keep from smiling at the thought of how easily I can make him blush like this.

Luckily, the moment I remember why I'm here makes all warmth fade in an instant. "About your meddling." I cross my arms over my chest and glare at him, "Stop investigating and chasing Vulture. This is my investigation, and the more you meddle, the harder it gets for me to stop them. So here's a word of advice, stay out of my way or else you'll see what I'm really capable of."

I turn on my heel to walk away from him, but Peter's voice rings out making me stop. "Is that a threat?"

"Depends on you. If you let this one go, it won't be. I make no promises if you decide otherwise." I pause on the ledge of the roof, "Don't take any of this the wrong way, I really believe you're exceptional and that we'll work together soon. Right now though, my focus is on stopping these guys and keeping those weapons off the streets. I hope you can respect that. See you around, Spandex."

Anything else he's about to say is drowned out by the breeze blowing by my ears as I move to the window and head out to meet the agents. I utilize the time to think about everything.

This is it, I finally have a chance to do something good. If I stop Vulture and his crew, then it could prevent mass amounts of damage like what happened at Delmar's or if the REM Trials go a hold of them. Then maybe I can start balancing the scales.

"Phantom," Agent Darnell calls when he spots me, "nice of you to show up."

I bristle at the blatant disdain in his voice but brush it off. "I appreciate you agreeing to let me lend a hand. Don't worry though, I'll only step in if things start to go south."

"Good." He nods and turns back to the other agents without so much as a second glance my way.

ARTI sets up a display of the ferry with the prime spot for me to scout the situation from. I offer the agents an update on my plan, but as expected, I'm brushed off with cold shoulders and angry looks. They follow me as we join the crowd to board the ferry, and I blend into the shadows near the vehicles. "Incoming call from Aaron Davis." ARTI chimes, "Would you like me to answer?"

"Yeah, if he's calling, it's got to be important." I tell him with a heavy sigh. "This better be good, Davis."

"It is, seeing as how I'm tied to my car with ice cream in my trunk." He counters, and I roll my eyes waiting for the point. "You know, you really should teach your partner how to interrogate someone. He kind of sucks at it."

"Spiderman," I sigh and grit my teeth, "First, he's not my partner. Second, what did you tell him?"

"Nothing much, just what I know about the meet on the ferry."

"Seriously? You told him?!" I rub my temples in frustration, "Thanks for the heads up at least, but I have a lot of things to deal with now."

"I'm being serious though. Teach that guy how to question someone; I only told him 'cause he seemed desperate."

"I'll add it to my list. Keep me in the loop if you hear anything." He agrees and says something about ice cream that I don't pay much attention to as I hang up and send a message to Dad with an update on the situation.

"Weapons located. They appear to be in back of a white pick-up truck." ARTI tells me as he highlights in on my lenses. "Would you like me to initiate a drone to maintain visual."

"Yes, we've got to find our buyers and sellers before the deal happens." I whisper and navigate myself around to the end of the ferry. "Deploy the second drone, run facial rec on everyone, and notify me if anything shows up—Spiderman included."

"The latter has already arrived." ARTI tells me, and it makes my head pound knowing how much more dangerous this just became. "Five passengers identified. One we have previously encountered as part of Vulture's crew. The rest are part of a street gang rumored to be purchasing the weapons."

"Perfect, let's find a good vantage point. Notify the agents and track any movement of our targets." I tell him as I climb up the second level's platform and overlook the ship's deck where Garan, our key player and buyer, is leaning on a support.

ARTI keeps an updated map of the ship in the corner of my lenses, which is why I'm surprised to see a man approaching Garan that we didn't have tagged. "No identification found."

"Keep looking. I feel like I've seen him somewhere before." I whisper to myself and listen to their conversation through the drone's microphone before focusing on Garan and his men as the 'Shocker' approaches him. He tells him the location of the weapons, and I spare a glance toward one of the undercover agents across the platform.

"Money is in the back of the blue sedan." Garan replies after receiving the signal, and I wait patiently for the signal as Shocker holds out the keys to the truck for the final trade off.

Except, before the deal is finished, a flash of blue and red goes by me as the keys are taken away before the pass can be made. "I'll take those!" Spiderman shouts as he lands and makes a comment about the 'criminal ferry.'

I watch as the FBI agents start to reach for their guns, and I hop down to help Spiderman with the thugs. A chorus of "FBI, freeze," "put down the weapons," and "get on the ground" echo around me as I knock one of Garan's men out.

"What? What do you mean the FBI?" Spiderman questions with a shrill voice, "FBI, who called them?"

It's only now that he turns around and notices me with my arm wrapped around a thug's neck. "I did." I snap at him and let the man fall down limp on the floor. "Why do you think I told you to stay away?"

He doesn't get to say anything else as the Vulture rips through the back of a van and starts flying towards us with a weapon ready to go. "Get out of the way. Get out of the way!" Spidey screams at the agents who are trying to get off a few rounds at Vulture, and we have to physically knock them out of Vulture's path as he come barreling through.

He picks up a car at the last second, which knocks me and Spiderman into pillars, and Garan gets knocked off the ferry. I push myself to my feet as Vulture shoots and frees Shocker, who promptly follows his boss's instructions and runs for the upper deck before I can catch him.

Half of me wants to follow him, but the rest needs to be here to make sure Peter doesn't get killed. Yet, I can't bring myself to stay back. "Stop him. I'm going after the other guy." I shout to him, and he offers me a quick nod as he shoots webs toward Vulture while I chase Shocker.

He shoves civilians out of the way and fires a few blasts back towards me that I have to knock people out of the way from as I continue chase. The shadows drift from out of the corners at my call and shoot out to trip up the Shocker, who tumbles to the floor in surprise.

"Don't make this worse." I tell him through gritted teeth as I stand over him. "It's over."

The man just smiles villainously at me. "Not yet."

I move to tangle the shadows around him and hold him down, but something happens. A bright purple light like from the elevator flashes through the center of the ferry and makes the whole thing tremble.

My heart lurches in my chest as my thoughts split between utter terror over the what just happened and wonder if Peter is safe.

Except, that split second of distraction is just enough for the Shocker to escape, and I quickly run after him. He runs out onto the deck and launches off without a second thought and is easily caught by the Vulture, who flies off.

With the adrenaline still rushing, I run back to find Peter as the water starts to shoot up like a geyser in the crack of the ship and the two halves start to separate. The sight of it makes fear bubble up in my chest as my nightmare comes to life.

I try to keep my focus as the ship starts to sink. "A-ARTI, call Dad." My voice is a faint whisper as I struggle to move with the energy bubbling beneath my skin. Spiderman rushes by me, which gives me a slight bit of relief knowing he's okay—for now. "Give me all the strongest points and highlights any of his webs. I'll see what I can do to strengthen them."

The array pulls up on my lenses, and I do my best to keep the boat together. My head pounds and muscles ache as I struggle to maintain my hold. The whole boat goes quiet for a moment as the webs and shadows keep everything in place.

A lone cheer echoes from the crowd as a man happily claps and shouts, "Yeah, Spiderman and Phantom!"

It doesn't last long though as the first web snaps, which makes me lose my grip as the ship shifts. Water rushes by on the lowest platform and slowly rises as the ferry sinks. Agents and passengers all hold on to anything they can as the water tries to drag them away.

Another tremor hits, which nearly knocks me over the edge and into the water. I grip on to the broken metal that nearly burns my hands even though my gloves. "Phantom!" Spiderman shouts, and I feel something attach to my back that keeps me from falling as he webs each side and strains to keep the two halves together.

My feet dangle over the rushing water, and I'm suddenly back in that car as it falls off the bridge. I can't breathe. I can't think. I can't stop the energy billowing underneath my skin threatening to make me explode.

Everything is hazy, but I manage to notice the ship being pieced together. An Iron Man suit drops down in front of me and opens up. I let out a sigh of relief as I climb inside. Because, if the suit is here, it means Dad is too, and I know he can do what I can't at the moment.

So I let the suit carry me home as the tears start to fall and the Supernova is contained by the armor. "Hey, bug. I have to take care of something, but I'll meet you back home soon." Dad's voice rings through the system, and I can hear the edge of anger and frustration in his voice.

"Okay," I whisper and let myself basically collapse in the suit as the tower comes into sight. It lands on the platform and opens up. My knees hit the ground as I lack the energy to even stand. It feels like I just sit there for hours, too exhausted to even move.

"Hey, you're okay." Dad whispers as he wraps his arms around me and brushes a hand over my hair. "I promise you. It's okay, and you're safe now."

"I know. It was just—it all went wrong so quickly. I couldn't stop him, Dad. He's still out there." I cry into his shoulder. "And then when the water started coming, I—I just panicked. I froze, and those people could have died because of me."

"Hey, it's not your fault. None of this was, and we will stop him." Dad tells me as he makes me look him the eye. "In fact, you've done a great job. I need you to know that. Okay? You're doing everything right."

"It doesn't feel like it."

"But that doesn't mean you're not, and I'm not just telling you all this because you're my kid. It's just, my dad was always hard on me, and I want to be better than that, which means I'll tell you when you screw up and when you do things right." His thumb brushes the tears from my cheeks. "Are you going to be okay?"

I nod, "Yeah. I'll be fine. Go take care of whatever you need to."

"I'll be back soon, and then we can watch Downton Abbey together?" He questions, and I let out a meek laugh as I chuckle and nod. "Alright, I'll be back soon, bug."

"Hey, Dad?" I call as he walks away. He hums in acknowledgement, and I pull the blanket tighter around me. "Thanks—for everything. I love you, and—you're a great Dad, in case you didn't know."

His expression goes blank for a moment before his eyes soften with tears and a beaming smile breaks across his face. "I do now."

"Good, and you better not forget it." I call with a soft smile as he leaves to do his mysterious task, which I have a sinking feeling has to do with Peter. The thought makes me feel a little worse. This means so much to him and was only trying to help, but at the same time, things went south because he got involved, which could have gotten him or a lot of other people hurt.

I just push the thought aside and promise to deal with it later. We have school again on Monday, which means I can talk to him and figure it all out then. Right now, my head is still throbbing from earlier. So I lay down on the back of the couch until Dad gets home for our Downton Abbey marathon.

I close my eyes and remind myself that it's all okay. This isn't the end, and we will get the Vulture and stop the REM Trials.