[color=darkgray][color=dodgerblue]"Owwww!"[/color]  I whined, rubbing the back of my head and untangling myself from my chair.

[color=khaki]"Heh-HA!  Whadda spaz!"[/color]  Flash guffaws in that instantly identifiable and irritating manner he has.

[color=dodgerblue]"Sir, could I go to--"[/color]

[color=bisque]"Absolutely, Mister Parker."[/color]  Came the instant reply, before I could even finish the sentence.  He scrawled on a Hall Pass and handed it to me, with the intent I go to sick bay.

[color=khaki]"Oh, whatta rip!  How come Parker gets to cut out while the rest of us have to--"[/color]

[color=bisque]"Chalk it up to a four year unblemished record of honesty, good grades and stalwart effort, Eugene."[/color]

[color=khaki]"Ehhhh... not worth it."[/color]

[color=bisque]"And since Mister Thompson seems to have such eagerness to have the opportunity to turn those grades around to earn the same goodwill...  Surprise quiz."[/color]  Papers began to fall to desks.

[color=khaki]"Oh, Come On!"[/color]

As I open the door and turn back to look at the class, rubbing my head and the phantom pain it should presumably hold, I briefly hold Flash's eyes for a fraction of a second.

But it was more than enough.

[color=khaki]"Thanks a lot, Parker.  You're dead meat."[/color]

Great.  So I guess I've got that to look forward to.

Minutes later I'm swinging down towards the Financial District and the Battery, trying to put all of this behind me.

I've got to come up with better excuses than pratfalls.  My dignity's not going to be able to take much more.
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[sup][h1][b][center][color=darkblue] S P I D E R - M A N[/color]
[color=crimson]S P I D E R - M A N[/color][/center][/b][/h1][/sup][hr]

[color=darkgray]Oh, I should probably give you the hows, whats and whys.  Bigshot journalist that I'm trying to be now...

...alright.  Bigshot newsmedia website administrator who they presumably let me write the occasional thing, because they actually want me for the other things I can do.

Don't know the Hows and Whys.  About to find that out, I guess.

But the what?

Extreme flood warning.  Swells over twenty feet coming from Manhattan, bearing down on Liberty and Ellis Islands.  Liberty Island apparently taking the brunt.

Only thing is... I'm looking at a bright, sunny day.

So those hows and whys.  They've got me peaked.  Piqued?

They've got my interest piqued.  And me swinging for the peak of a stupidly high building to do something less than sensible.  That's it.  That's the way that goes.

[color=dodgerblue][b]"Pe-- Spider-Man, Spider-Man, Spider-Man...  This is a reeeeally bad idea."[/b][/color]

As I lean back in the saddle, every wall-crawling fibre of my being stretching the full tension of the webs, that are about to slingshot me across the water, my gums flap as they do when the tension of the moment isn't lost on me.

Two miles.  It's two miles from The Battery to Liberty Island.

I've had Spider powers for-- less than two weeks, in some capacity?  There's no chance that this ends well.

[color=dodgerblue][b]"This looks like a job for-- well, if I'm being honest, Superman.  But since this isn't his city, I guess we'll see what the resident web-slinging representative can do about this."[/b][/color]

I release and the webs fire me across the water.

[color=dodgerblue][b]"Oh...  I am...  I am going very fast.  And down.  Too down.  Too much down!"[/b][/color]

I see a ferry beneath me, and manage to tag it with a webline, and with a hard yank using my other arm as leverage, I give myself a little more loft just before I would have splashed down into the Hudson.

[color=dodgerblue][b]"Probably should have tried to land on that ferry..."[/b][/color]

Whizzing by at a flat trajectory, my eyes almost pop out of my head as I see a woman run past me on my right.

[color=dodgerblue][b]"Overtake on the left!  Tourists!  Not gonna... try and catch me?  Well, alright then, I'll figure out the water landing by myself..."[/b][/color]

This is not going to be fun.

Then I see it.  Ahead, small at first, but growing fast with the speed I'm moving at.  A tugboat.  Small, and looking even smaller from how low and heavy it was sitting in the water.

I'd like to say I aimed, but physics wouldn't be that complimentary to me.

I manage to raise my hands in front of my face, just before I slam into the side of the tugboat.

Shocked people turn and stare.

[color=dodgerblue][b]"Now..."[/b][/color]  I say, panting heavily in shock.  Both hands and feet pressed firmly against the hull.  Almost too stunned by what happened to move.

[color=dodgerblue][b]"Did anybody see how I just did that?  Because I'm gonna want to know how I just did that."[/b][/color]

I jumped off to solid ground and started lending assistance to soaked tourists, who were being rescued by the two women already there.  Directing them to the higher ground that Lanterns were providing.

[color=dodgerblue][b]"Also, I'm pretty sure I--"[/b][/color]  I pat around my hips.  [color=dodgerblue][b]"--I did.  I'm gonna need for some of you to spring for the ferry the other way, because I'm pretty sure that won't work on the way back, and I left my wallet in my other pants.  Cabcharge?  Somebody spot a Spider-Man an Uber?  If we all just throw in a buck this should work out easy..."[/b][/color]

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