Chapter 87: Derailed IV

His spider-sense buzzed, making him side step Mirko flying in and kicking the door down again.

Man, he kinda wished he had her eagerness for hero things.

Ugh, that made him sound old.

...

They continued going through the train car by car, taking down everyone they came across along the way until they reached what he guessed was the 9th car

"Hope you ain't getting tired, Spider-Boy." Mirko stepped over the webbed up body of an unconscious porcupine guy, Peter rolled his eyes as she got ready to kick the door down.

"Me? Why, I have boundless amounts of youthful energy! I don't know about you, though."

The woman took a second to flip him off before finally kicking the door down and dashing in.

Leaping through the door after her, Peter was immediately greeted with the sight of 2 metal poles telekinetically flying at him along with a deafening buzzing in his head.

Thinking quickly, he pulled himself out of the way of one of the poles with a web.

One of the poles.

His lenses cracked as the metal object hit him in the face, Mirko somehow managed to look back at him while still actively fighting some bear lady.

Fucking ow!

He should've just dropped to the floor! Why couldn't his spider-sense dodge for him that time?

"Shit, kid! You alright?!" She yelled over the sounds of the train, grabbing the bear lady by the wrist and throwing her across the train car with ease.

Y'know, somehow.

With a groan, Peter shook his head and webbed the pole into his hands, quickly chucking it at the telekinesis guy and knocking him out.

"Dandy!" The words didn't sound right to him for some reason, he guessed the pole hit him in the word-making part of his brain.

Peter would've rathered it hit him nowhere at all but whatever.

Picking himself off the ground, he webbed both the bear lady and the telekinesis guy to the wall, making sure to web the guy to the ceiling out of spite.

"Gonna guess cloth ain't too good for getting hit in the head, huh?" She chuckled, already walking over to the next door.

"Can you just… not? Make fun of me after this whole thing." Seriously, it felt like Mirko snarking at him right now would make the throbbing in his head worse.

"Sure, yeah whatever. Next door!" With a kick, the door went down and his spider-sense ring immediately.

Mirko immediately jumped back to avoid a blast of sand coming from 2 train cars down. Peter jumped away as well, only for the sand circled back and formed a fist to grab him.

The sand-fist tightened around him, Peter found it difficult fighting without being able to use his arms.

Guess getting hit in the head real hard messed with his spider-sense, huh? Cause of course he did.

"Fuck, kid!" Mirko cursed, lunging toward him just as the sand pulled Peter out of the train car and deeper into the train.

On his way, he could see a few people that looked just as confused as to why he was getting pulled through the train as he was.

Next thing Peter knew he was slammed against a window, the glass cracking as the sand pushed him against it.

"Y'know, my boss really ain't gonna appreciate you heroes coming in here and messing up our operation." Someone said, Peter let his eyes follow the sand grabbing him to see it attached to a man taking off his white mask and throwing a duffel bag of money on the floor.

He looked American, wearing black boots, brown cargo pants, and sleeveless black hooded jacket over a worn-down shirt with black and bright green strips.

Oh, and did he mention this guy's arm was sand ?

"Oh, I bet someone like The Big Man will be too happy about this! Seems like the type of guy to like his heists going off without a hitch." Peter shot back. watching the man's eyes widen at the fact that Peter knew who The Big Man was.

"You think you know about The Big Man, huh? You don't know shit!" He yelled, throwing him across the train car.

Must've touched a nerve there! His boss must've been a scary guy to make him let Peter go like that.

As the boy hit the floor, the man grew out a sand appendage from his back and used it to block the door.

Huh, smarter than he looks.

"So, how about we get to know each other if you just blocked my way out? Let's start with our names and one fun fact!" He joked, jumping off of the floor and shooting a web at the man.

"You wanna know me, kid? They call me the Sandman!" Forming one hand into a whip with a mace on the end, Sandman began swinging his makeshift weapon at Peter.

Peter immediately let go of the web in his hands before shooting one at the ceiling and pulling himself out of harm's way.

"Seriously? No offense, but don't you think 'The Sandman' sounds pretentious? Like, why add the 'The' to it? You don't see me going around calling myself 'The Spider-Man', do you?" Peter placed both feet on the ceiling and launched himself at the villain, crashing into him and making the man lose form for a few seconds.

Regaining his form again, Sandman formed his other hand into a long blade and took a few swipes at Peter's head, the boy blocking it with his arm guards.

Jumping back onto the ceiling, he looked at his arm guards only to see deep gashes on them.

So he could make the sand he used as hard as he wanted? It'd be cool if he wasn't going against it.

Wait, or was he the sand?

He'd think about that later, he had a guy to fight and jokes to make right now.

"Also, 'Sandman'? You just got that from that 1950s song! Do you really wanna add plagiarism to your criminal record, man?" At this point of being Spider-Man, the jokes just came out of his mouth on autopilot.

Sandman stabbed his blade hand upward, Peter skittered onto a window just as the sand construct cut through the metal ceiling.

"Wow, now you're damaging public property? So not cool. The charges keep on piling up, man!" Sticking to the window with his hands, Peter kicked the man in the face hard enough to send him across the room.

Except… that didn't happen.

What did happen was that Sandman's head just… collapsed into sand.

For a second, Peter panicked at the idea he just killed this guy. That was until Sandman's head reformed around his foot.

"Neat trick, huh, brat?" He asked, his head turning into more sand that wrapped around his leg and slammed him into another window.

What happened next is kind of a blur.

He felt the glass window shatter at the impact, sending him out of the speeding train with shards of glass stuck to his vest.

Thinking quickly, Peter shot a web back into the window to keep him tethered to the train. Looking into one of the windows, he could see Mirko rampaging through whoever stood in her way to try and get back to him.

He'd be touched if he wasn't hanging out of a train that looked like it would collapse if he breathed on it too hard.

Her eyes met his while she kicked a guy in the face, her own face showing an insane amount of relief before switching to plain confusion.

Still holding onto his webline, Peter gave a small wave and a thumbs up, before motioning that he was just up ahead.

She mouthed if he was fighting someone, he nodded. She nodded back and went back to fighting in a less frantic manner.

Ignoring the throbbing in his head, Peter took a deep breath before beginning to skitter toward the window he had just gotten thrown out.

Inside, he could see Sandman simply sitting down on one of the seats quietly as the train ride continued.

"Uh, dude? You know defenestrating people is kinda rude, right? Oh, and thanks for giving me the once in a lifetime opportunity to use the word 'Defenestrate'!"

Alright, he's been able to use 'Defenestrate' a bunch of times before this but the joke was still funny.

Sandman did a double take when his eyes landed on the masked boy, the man standing up and forming both his hands into hammers.

"I ain't getting paid enough to deal with you…"

Peter ignored the comment, crawling into the train car and sticking to the ceiling.

"Alright, round 2!" He kicked off the roof, doing a sweeping kick in midair that took out Sandman's entire midsection while moving his head out of the way of a sand hammer.

Landing on his hands, Peter pushed off the floor and kicked the man in the jaw, shooting a web at his arm and making him hit himself in the face with one of his hammers.

For a second, Peter thought he had this in the bag.

And then this guy just got tired of keeping a human form and turned into a shifting mass of sand with a gauge humanoid outline.

It'd be cool if it wasn't aimed at him.

"Kid, you think you can hurt me? I can literally reform from anything you do! I ain't scared of a brat in spandex!" He slammed a giant fist on the ground, Peter jumped away and hung on a metal pole.

As Peter grabbed the pole, he shot web after web at the shifting mass only for them to go through him.

Figures.

"Are we sure there's not a more constructive way for us to settle our differences, buddy ol' pal? Outside of bodily harm to the one guy who can't control his molecules or whatever you do?"

A buzzing sensation in his head made him jump onto a window, just before a giant sand fist slammed into the pole he was just on.

Again, Peter jumped up and kicked him across the face, not expecting much of a result.

Did this guy even feel pain? At all? No matter what, Peter was at a bit of a dissatavange.

Following up with a right hook that went through the man's side, he made him stagger a small bit before landing a knee to his chest.

What was that thing Mirko said? Throwing stuff makes fights better?

Shooting a web behind him, he chucked the money-filled duffel bag through the man to little effect outside of a small chuckle.

"Wow, you sure showed me! Are you done?" The man asked with a flat expression, already reforming the bag-sized hole in his chest.

With a sigh, Peter dropped into a crouch and got ready to spring up.

Where was Mirko when you needed h-

At that moment, his spider-sense rang.

On instinct, he jumped onto the roof just as the metal door flew off it's hinges and right through the villain.

"Kid! Shit, are you alright?! Who the hell threw you out the train?!" She asked/yelled, all Peter could do was point at the scattered sand on the ground.

"Uh, him."

Just then, the grains began to shift toward the other end of the train car before quickly reforming into a man once again.

A man who looked at Mirko for a second, and then at Peter and then back at Mirko.

"I did not agree to fighting one of the top 10."

With that, he turned into sand again and flew out the broken window into the echoing tunnels.

Huh.

Seemingly ignoring what just happened, Mirko looked up at him again and nodded toward the door in front of them.

"Wanna stop this train and get something to eat?"

He landed on the floor with a flip, giving her a small shrug.

"Honestly? I kinda just wanna lay down after this."

She rolled her eyes, muttering something along the lines of 'Whatever' before going to kick the next door down.

Looking at the glass covered ground again, Peter chuckled a bit at the fact that the Sandman forgot his money before he left.

...

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