Tumultuous Raid

Ned rushed inside of his best friend's home, May rushing in behind him as helicopters landed on the distant skyscrapers. Engines roared as screams rolled through the streets of New York, stern voices shouting out to maintain control.

"What is going on!?" May was flustered, her purse dropping to a nearby couch as several thuds echoed through the house from the second floor, Peter's voice crying out in pain somewhat. The beautiful woman paled and quickly ran up the stairs, Ned following close behind.

Stepping into the room the two watched Peter roll around on the ground with a bright red-blue suit on and a shoddy mask. He was grasping his right foot and hissing out curses as his closest friend and aunt watched on from the doorway. 

This hubbub continued until he eventually sat up, adjusting his suit, and turned to the door where they continued to watch him. Ned was practically dreading every moment of silence from May, whilst the woman in question had slowly positioned her hands along her hips, her expression twisting into confusion and misunderstanding.

"A-O-H-Hi there...!" Stutters helped his situation none as May loomed over the entire room with her scrutiny. 

"Why are you putting on your PJs when we are going to have dinner?" Peter and Ned were both stunned into immobility as they glanced to one another, the bespangled teen sitting on the floor rubbing the back of his head and grimacing as he came up with an answer.

His eyes panned to May and he smiled widely, non-confident but still a smile. "Sorry Aunt May, I was just testing out whether or not their were too small for me... You guys were taking a little bit so I thought I'd try them on while waiting..." Ned felt like facepalming at the stupidity of that answer, his eyes flicking between his best friend and his aunt.

Her eyes narrowed as she looked him up and down. "Mmm, fine, but next time you should just test it out after dinner." Ned opened his mouth like a guppy fish, his shock was so immense. How she had believed the deception was beyond him.

"Sure Aunt May! I'll make sure I do that next time." She nodded and stepped back, forgetting the situation outside for a minute. 

"Hey Ned, could you help me with my... PJs?" Ned stepped in and began helping him with his clothing, the stretchy material protesting at the manhandling of it's seams. 

"Okay, well, I am going to go get dinn-" Knocking noises exploded from downstairs as lights began shining up through the nearby windows. Male voices chittered from the street level as a distant reverberating voice carried itself through the household. 

"FBI! OPEN UP!" May instantly began panicking and started to dance on her feet in nervousness. The two teens looked at one another, Ned quickly switching to helping Peter put his suit on, leaving his friend after a little to do it on his own.

"Wh-what, what do we do...? We haven't done anything wrong...!" The voice resounded again, the cadence much more hostile now as more car doors opened out the front of the building. 

Looking outside there were multiple APCs and a slough of Police cars blocking each end of the street. Ned's mind instantly recalled the message, the mention of the force and the idea that both he and Peter had been streaming the game openly. This wasn't a peaceful house call, this was an invasion to bring in assets that could help the Government understand the threats and dangers of the force.

May continued to panic as he stepped back from the window, his mind swirling. 

'What if this is all a prelude to attacking the God Empress of Yggdrasil Interactive...?' The thought was insidious but the more he stewed in it, in these brief moments of clarity, he felt it was the right take on what was happening.

'If that is the case... This is like the mission where we found Peter in SWTOR. We have someone to save, an entire army to get through and a large distance between us and our goal.'

He walked through the hallway of the second floor and looked out a side window, noting that there was zero activity in the alley below... They needed to escape and that would be their exit, but, they couldn't flee through the streets as that would be too obvious.

"May, calm down. We need to go." She stared at him as if he was speaking nonsense.

"We should just go greet them and acquiesce to their questions."

Peter frowned as he stood up, his Spiderman suit fully equipped now as he stretched his limbs.

"No, we aren't doing that... I have experienced this same, sort of, situation within SWTOR. They will storm the house soon and try to capture me and Peter for our understanding of the force, the power they are declaring martial law over." He swallowed back some growing saliva as the FBI agents below shouted one final time.

"If we want to still have a chance of freedom we have to go now!" May looked confused but was essentially picked up by Peter, his superhuman strength being showcased for the first time to his single remaining family member as he ran up to Ned, nodding to him.

"Ned, I can only take one person at a time..."

Peter looked conflicted, his face skewing in frustration as May squirmed in his arms.

"Go. I can save myself Pete, just make your way to Yggdrasil Interactive... I think that is the only safe place we can go currently." His friend looked at him strangely but nodded nonetheless, firmly holding his aunt to his chest before opening the window and jumping out, a single arm whipping out and shooting a sticky substance not too unlike a spider's webbing. The two swung away as May screamed out, her shouts interweaving with the rampant chaos in the streets.

*BCHUNK-BANG*

The front door was shunted open as Ned rushed out the window and started to scale down the side with the aid of the metallic maintenance stairs that ran along the outside of the brick apartment complex. 

His feet stumbled a couple times but he was able to stabilize himself, making it down to the alleyway and halfway down its length before the first shouts began. The jittering clanks of military weapons against uniforms and body armour soon met his ear as he panicked and looked around, finding a very small gap between buildings. He could not see any soldiers yet, but he knew they weren't far.

Breath buckling under physical exercise that he wasn't used to, Ned squeezed his way into the narrow gap, disregarding physical pain as brick scraped against bare skin and hair. Soot and dust accumulated on his clothes, pressing against his backpack that held much of his night-clothes and his laptop. 

Pressing out of the narrow gap's other side he scanned his surroundings, finding a much larger gap that seemed to end directly onto a main road. Running up that path he stopped just before the sidewalk, peeking around the corner, noticing the police blockade of his friend's street.

'Okay Ned, remember combat on Nar Shaddar... When a blockade is present there are two methods to breaking them or cloaking yourself from them. Breaking them isn't my goal, so the second method would be finding some way to cloak myself from their methods of discovering me...' 

He took out his smartphone and dropped it to the ground, gritting his teeth as he stomped on it multiple times, the noise smothered by the distinct whipping of helicopter blades. Glaring at the remnants of his phone he glanced back, noting no movement behind him. It seemed that for now he was mildly safe... For how long was the true question. 

'Second step is to either blend into my surroundings, jam their communications some way, or simply stick to using side-alleys and possibly sewer entrances.' Looking to his left he noted an abandoned subway entryway, chains tied around the gates and a 'Do Not Enter' sign hanging diagonally from a broken lamp pole. 

With relief welling inside of him he cautiously looked around before slinking out of the alleyway, mixing in with the shocked citizenry that gazed horrified at the sound of Military choppers and vehicles. He spared some quick stops to make his movements more natural, the manoeuvres learnt from his time working for some crime gangs on Nar Shaddar against other gangs. Hairs stood on end as he reached the subway, a homeless man laying off to the side apparently unconscious .

'Good, now I just need to find somewhere safe to rest for a minute and I can log into SWTOR and let Yuna know... Hell, let the world know.'

Analysing the chains he quickly made a judgement as to his ability to get over the top... Which resulted in a positive, he could do it, but he would probably groan in pain the next day.

With that intent he began vaulting over the gateway, his legs straining to hold the rest of his weight as his upper arms strained in effort. The situation became even more straining for him as he glanced over and watched FBI agents and military personnel securing a perimeter around the alleyway he had exited from.

'C'mon Ned!' Clenching his teeth he pulled himself over the edge of the gateway, crashing hard onto his side and sliding down the stairs as he watched FBI agents reach the top of the stairs.

"There he is! Catch him!" The FBI agents pulled out their pistols and began making a hubbub... Until Ned saw three flashes followed by gunshots, the agents slumping onto the ground as the homeless man vaulted over the gateway with much greater proficiency than he ever had.

"Get up Chung Li! We gotta split real quick before those pigs understand what has been done!" 

Ned gawked at the man but was quickly interrupted from his befuddlement as the ebony skinned homeless man yanked him up off of his feet and sprinted down the stairs with him, guiding him to a certain segment of the subway. 

Footsteps and screams pounded up above as normal people realised what had happened, the national guard coming to the same discovery soon after. The homeless man was ignoring it all however as he stood before a segment of subway wall and pressed several dirty tiles, which soon pealed back and revealed a claustrophobic series of tunnels which he proceeded to push him through.

The wall lurched back into place behind them as faint fairy lights painted the tunnels in their hues, masculine voices calling out from behind the wall as they faded into the depths of New York.

"Where are you taking me, Mr?"

"The Bowery King, Ned... He has been interested in you for a while."

Ned gulped at the intimidating title, his mind trying to call upon his experiences in SWTOR for some form of comfort. It seemed however that this grasp for comfort was doomed to failure as he crossed several armed 'homeless' people. 

'Pete, please come save me... They stink so bad and are kinda scary...'

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