st_hotflashes | Dreams of Normalacy

Dreams of Normalacy

Ned was excited. He could not believe that he and Peter got into the same university and had some of the same classes together! This was going to be the best and so far on campus neither of them had run into Flash, so he was sort of hoping Flash got into some other university other than MIT and neither of them would have to worry about the bully ever again. Of course, Ned sometimes thought about how if Flash wasn't there to bully them, who would take his place? Like Flash was some sort of Hydra creature and they were two nerdy versions of Hercules... well, Peter was definitely like Hercules. Ned just held the equipment or something.

"Dude, do you think the professor's going to be hard?" Ned slipped into a seat in the big lecture hall. They were early, but it felt safer than being late on your first day to theoretical physics class.

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"It'll be a fun challenge," Peter says encouragingly, though he has to admit, for one of the basic required courses for nearly all majors, the class definitely appears to be more work than Peter thought there would be.

A lot of essay-writing, too.

"Are you living in the dorms, too?" he asks for Liz. "Ned and I are roommates."

She closed the book, her mind already whirling about essay topics she wanted to explore. Maria always told her she got ahead of herself, but she couldn't help it. Liz liked having lists in her head.

She blinked as if hearing the question on delay. "Oh, um. Yeah. I have a roommate too. She's nice. I'm on the fifth floor of Baker house."

"Yeah?" Peter asks, his smile broadening. "That's where Ned and I live, too." A beat, and then: "You have any classes right now? We can walk back to the dorm together, if you want to."

For a moment the image of her being Peter's room flashed in her mind and she had no idea why. She looked down to hide most of the soft blush that temporarily graced her cheeks. She managed a nod that way too. "Yeah. That sounds like fun, actually."

Ned put away his laptop. "You'll have to go without me. I have that club meeting with the, uh - those guys." He didn't want to say 'hackers,' but there was an unofficial group and Ned had been invited. It was supposed to be low-key, though he definitely told Peter all about it already.

Oh no.

Going with Ned back to the dorm with Liz was one thing. Going back with just Liz was another. Peter swallows. Hard.

"Oh, yeah," he says, rubbing the back of his neck. "You'll be back for dinner, right?"

Ned seemed a little oblivious to Peter's panic. "Yeah. I mean, probably?" Ned looked up and made eye contact with his best friend. He didn't read the entire expression correctly, but he got the plead. Ned blinked. "Actually, yeah. 100 percent." He smiled and nodded.

Liz stood and slung her backpack over one shoulder. "It's nice you've found a club to join already. I haven't even thought of which ones I might want to join. Are you in any, Peter?"

"Not yet," Peter answers, standing up. "I'm uh, a little busy with my internship right now." He gives Ned a smile and a wave. "See you!"

"Internship?" She wondered why that sounded familiar. Liz started to dwell on the feeling, but then told herself lots of people here had internships so it wasn't anything super unique, right?

"Yeah, the, uh, the Stark Internship," he says, feeling embarrassed. He heads towards the door. "I got the internship back when I was in high school and I've been doing it ever since."

"Wow, that must be - I mean, that sounds like a great opportunity. Mr. Stark seems like he has a big personality." Of course, Liz figured there was more to him, but his public persona was quite big. She wondered if that was all a show or grounded in some truth.

She followed him through the door, falling into step beside him in the hallway. His strides felt weirdly familiar. "That must keep you really busy."

"Yeah," Peter agrees. "I mean, yeah, it's really great. Mr. Stark and I have been working together for a couple of years now, so he's really flexible about my whole class schedule thing. I don't know, he's kind of almost become a father to me."

Peter pushes open the doors out of the building and holds them open for Liz.

She smiled in thank you as she headed out of the building. It was nice out and for a second she closed her eyes and took in the air before opening them again and kept walking. "He sounds like a nice man." Liz almost agreed that he was a nice man, but that was silly since she had never met him. She also noted that Peter said 'like a father' which probably meant Peter's dad wasn't around.

"What do you do for the internship? I once had a job for a congresswoman... but i mostly answered phones. It wasn't a very hard or exciting job."

"It's kinda secret," Peter says apologetically. "NDA-type stuff, so I can't really talk about it. But when I graduate, I'll hopefully start working for him for real."

Peter's sure that he'd have a job at Stark Industries even before he asked.

She nodded, accepting his explanation. It felt like she knew that was going to be the answer before she even asked and she didn't know why. Liz gave him a nod and a serious expression. "I'm originally from Roswell, so I get the need for secrets."

She paused, then sent him a playful smile, her eyes sparkling. "Just kidding."

"Really?" Peter says, but he quickly tones down the excitement. "Ned and I -- we're both big into aliens. Not like, the aliens that attacked New York, but... alien-aliens."

"There's at least two alien museums there, if you're ever around Roswell."

She wondered just how excited Peter and Ned would be to meet the real aliens of Roswell who didn't look like the grey men in movies, but she paused as she thought. For some reason she was pretty sure Peter wouldn't be interested in them.

"Peter?" Liz paused after her eyes surveying the ground before looking back to Peter. "Do you -"

Liz was cut off by a scream. She turned from Peter in the direction of the commotion and her eyes widened. Off in the near distance Longfellow Bridge over the water was an accident. There was a school bus dangling off the side of the bridge and on the other side was a jack-knifed semi-truck. There were cars that had crashed as well, but what exactly was happening up there was hard to tell. Without really thinking about it, Liz began to run toward the problem.

Peter only allows himself a second to watch as Liz runs off; if he hadn't been Spider-Man, he might have followed after her, but he is -- and he's got to find some place to put on the outfit.

And so he does. He scrambles behind a dumpster and strips down quicker than he can ever remember doing so in his life, puts on the suit, and shoots a spray of web-fluid at his backpack, sealing it to the dumpster.

And then without hesitation, he springs towards the danger. "Karen, how many people in the schoolbus?

"28, including the driver."

"Okay, we'll focus on them first."

Peter lands atop one of the cars trapped in the accident and surveys the damage; there's no place for him to pull the bus onto. Instead, he positions himself behind the bus, then sprays his web-fluid to either side of the vehicle, then pulls it up to steady it. It's heavy -- really heavy, and he's not sure how long he can hold it like this, let alone communicate to the people inside that they need to hurry up and get out.

And then he sees her. Liz.

"Hey--" And he almost slips up and calls her by name. "Uh, you!" Peter swallows. "Open the back exit and get everyone out as quickly as possible!"

Getting there felt like she was slow, but thankfully she had enough experience with life or death situations that she got there and didn't keel over from being out of breath. She was trying to comfort a woman who had a pretty bad head cut when she heard -- Spider-Man? She blinked, but that was the only hesitation because something felt weirdly familiar.

She hurried over to the bus and it took several big pulls to get the door open. There were a lot of young, scared kids inside and the bus driver was in a daze. "Come on, hurry." She helped some of the kids off, but there were definitely some kids who were too scared to move, not that Liz blamed them. Hanging off the side of a bridge was terrifying to an adult. She was able to coax a few more kids out, but there were four stragglers and the bus driver who apparently had something wrong with his seatbelt.

She glanced over to Spider-Man. "One sec." Somehow she trusted him, and not just because he was Spider-Man. It was a very strange feeling, but she didn't have time to dwell. Liz disappeared into the bus.

Peter strains, his arms burning with pain from the weight of the bus. "Okay, but try to be quick!"

She could feel the bus strain as she walked to the front and she instantly felt bad for Spider-Man. He might be a superhero, but it had to be hard to hold onto a bus this long and she knew her moving around wasn't helping. She held out her hands to the kids and ushered them up halfway before they left the rest of the way on their own accord. The bus driver was a different story. The belt was caught and he was panicking. She felt the bus move again and looked around.

Her eyes went to the side door and she reach over and opened it. Then she went to help the man. Thankfully there was enough slack that she pulled from the top and the man was able to wriggle out.

The bus dipped again. Liz eyed the back of the bus and then the man who was already limping. Her eyes went to the side door. It wouldn't be the best choice, but there was little guarantee they'd make it through the bus before it fell.

Liz and the bus driver disappeared out the side door and only a very small, precarious ledge. Maybe the man should have been holding onto her protectively, but it was the other way around as the clung to the ledge which probably looked comical if it wasn't for the imminent fall under them.

Shit.

Peter's web-lines are already on the verge of snapping when Liz and the bus driver make their way out onto the ledge. He allows himself a single breath of relief before he shouts out:

"Everyone out?"

Then: "Are you guys okay?"

He clings to the lines for the time being, the groaning under its own weight.

"Fine!" She shouted so she could be heard. Technically, they could fall easily at any minute, but they were technically fine. From up above, she heard an explosion as the semi-truck caught on fire. Her lips pressed together for a moment, her eyes searching the area. A little ways away, it looked like they could probably climb up from the ledge.

"We're fine. Go help whatever that was!"

Liz coaxed the man to shuffle along the ledge and to metal fench that had big enough holds to be used almost like a ladder. She let the guy start climbing first and then she'd follow.

Peter nods, then attempts to gently edge the bus off the side of the bridge. "Okay!" He's not entirely unworried, but he's gotten better over the years at gauging what problems require him most urgently. Liz and the bus driver are more okay than the people by the explosion, but they're definitely not out of the water.

The same can not be said for the bus; one line snaps, and despite Peter's best efforts, the second one does too, and the bus plummets down to the water with a crash. Peter can't be worried about that now; he has the semi to worry about.

The driver of the semi is stuck just as the bus driver had been before, but the growing flames are so hot that even Peter recoils at his approach. He pushes through and dislodges the door straight from its frame, the metal piercing-hot. The driver, obviously disoriented, leans on Peter he helps her down and they just manage to clear the area before another explosion sets the cab completely aflame.

The paramedics and the police final showed up after what seemed like forever. There wasn't enough to help everyone at once and Liz found herself kneeling by an old woman as she lay there with a broken leg. No one else seemed to know the woman so Liz had decided to stay until the woman got help.

"It's my first day of college, actually." The old woman smiled wearily, but she asked Liz if she liked it so far. Liz smiled back. "It's been .. really interesting."

The both laughed, though the woman winced. Liz leaned in a little. "Already met a cute boy."

Peter is still dressed in his Spider-Man costume when he approaches. "Hey, are you guys all right?"

It had taken awhile for Peter to get everything under control. After emergency services showed up, things had gotten considerably easier.

It was not the first day of college that Peter Parker was counting on.

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