"Wow! That's high!" Emma Stone said, looking from another rooftop.
Her and two of her co-stars, Denis Leary who was playing the role of her father in the movie and Martin Sheen who was playing the role of the uncle of Peter Parker also came to watch. They were curious to see their younger co-stars doing his first movie stunt ever. Standing behind Marc Webb, the director of the movie, they had a very good view where Nathaniel was.
"You know, I used to do my own stunt when I was a youngster." Martin Sheen said offhandedly.
"Seriously? You did something like that?" Denis asked, pointing at Nathaniel on top of the pole.
"What!? Are you crazy? No, I'm not a moron. I was doing just little things like jumping or falling to the ground."
"And why did you stop?" Emma inquired.
"Getting older did not help for sure but I learn that this is a job best done by professionals, and that even the little things hurt when you screw up."
"At least, he has a net to catch him if he fall." Emma adds, to reassure herself.
Even if they had known each other juste recently, she could tell that Nathaniel was a good person and did not want him getting hurt. Even Martin and Denis had come for that despite what they were saying.
"A net is good only if you know how to fall on it. If you fall on your head, you are going to break your neck and if it legs first,well, let's just say that you will not have children any time soon." A voice chuckled darkly, enjoying the effect of her words on the two male actors. .
A serrated tongue like that could belong only to one person.
"Come on Maggie, you are his agent, shouldn't you support him?" Emma asked, looking at her sideways.
"Don't worry blondie, I did my homework. I was there at the rehearsal, he succeeded ten times out of ten. If he didn't, I would never have allowed him to do it."
"Oh. So you are just a big softy inside then.��� Dennis snicker.
"No, I just like money and he's the one who is paying me. No mentioning the fact that I hate looking for work." Maggie harrumph.
"Well, if you are looking for work, I would be happy to work with you Maggie." Martin offered.
"Ha ha ha! And to do what? Sending you to a retirement home in Florida? The only thing that I see in your future is you sexually disappointing twenty years old bimbo to prove to yourself that you still got it and wearing a diaper when you go to bed." Maggie sneer, Emma and Denis losing it when they saw the flummox expression on Martin's face.
"Ok shut up everyone! We are ready to roll!" One of Marc's assistants shouted to quiet everyone.
"Nathaniel, you have a go." Marc said in the radio once everyone had evacuated the camera line of sight.
Starting his slide around the pole, Nathaniel made a turnaround like it was planned before doing his backflip. Seeing him made a perfect landing, Maggie let a faint smile out while Marc let out the breath that he was holding.
That's when the guardrail broke.
Seeing it, Marc's face turns ghastly white. Luckily, Nathaniel reacted instantly, twisting his body to the right, he managed to angle his body away from the fall. His right feet touch the concrete and he made another flip forward to distance himself away from the edge. Stopping, he looks at the guardrail and smiles silly before running not far away and stopping again.
Only silence greeted Nathaniel once it was done, it seemed that seeing him almost fall had shocked them still. The one who finally broke it was Marc.
"Please, Please… tell me that we got that." He asked, seemingly still out of it.
"Yeah, we got it. Everything." His head cameraman answers.
"Oh my god, thanks. Now, can someone tell me WHAT THE HELL JUST HAPPENED?" Marc yells the last part in his radio.
The question was exactly what Nathaniel was wondering. Walking back to where he almost fell, he knew that he did not make any sense, it should never have broken. The stunt crew was very professional and they had tested everything before allowing Nathaniel to do the stunt. Seeing the guardrail, Nathaniel was once again surprised. The steel was totally corroded where it was previously embedded in the concrete and there was a pungent smell in the air. There was only one thing that could cause something like that.
"Acid." He whispers to himself.
Turning around, he started locking eyes with the people that were running in his direction, trying to know what happened. They were after all the last who were here before he did the stunt and so the only people that could have done it without getting spotted. That's when he found something. Among those that were running, there was one who was slower than the rest, he was 5"8 with short black hair and of average build. When they locked eyes, Nathaniel could see malice, glee and a hint of craziness in it.
"Stop that man!" Nathaniel shouted, pointing at him.
Realizing that he was made, the man pushed the person that was in front of him and wiped a knife from beneath his shirt.
"DIE SPIDER MAN!" He yelled, launching himself in Nathaniel's direction.
He was ten feet away from Nathaniel when he was roughly tackled to the ground by Kyle Minoda, the head of the stunt crew. He was quickly followed by two of his people who helped him pin the man to the ground and disarm him.
"Can someone call Security for god sake!?" Kyle yells.
****
One hour later, the set was entirely closed by the Police. Officers were busy taking depositions and Nathaniel was interviewed by two detectives. Maggie was furious and after blowing off the officer in charge of taking her statement, she took upon herself to go to every executives of the studio that had come here after hearing what happened and yell at them. That was so entertaining that Nathaniel had to forcefully stop listening to her or he would be laughing his head off, which would not really square with the stern face present on the detectives faces. One was a grizzled man in his mid forties with short peper hair and black eyes while the other was a surprisingly muscular woman in her thirties with short brown hair.
"So you never met that person before?" The male detective named Morrison asked again.
"For the fourth time, no. I don't know and I never met that person before. I think I saw him one time two days ago on the set but we never interact."
"Pardon me to say this but you don't seem overly hit by the fact that someone just tried to kill you." The detective Ortiz remarked. The kid was too calm and that made her feel a little uneasy inside.
"You are talking to someone who passed a quarter of his life in a deep coma, then when I came out of it, a mob boss tried to kidnap me to force my mother to drop her case against him so yeah… I think I made my peace with the fact that the universe is having fun launching curve balls at me." Nathaniel shrugged.
"I see… So you think that it's plan was to sabote the guardrail to make you fall on the concrete and then kill you when you are injured?"
"No, I don't think that was it. Follow me."
Picking up a weight who serves to prop lighting, Nathaniel walks to the edge where he almost falls down. Looking downward to make sure that no one was there, he turned back to the detectives.
"Fire in the hole!" He said before dropping the weight.
"No! Stop!" They shout at the same time.
Nathaniel heard the sound of a tearing net and then the weight smash to the ground.
"And that was his plan." He said, looking at the two detectives who were looking down to the destroyed net with gaping expressions. "He poured acid on the guardrail for me to fall and then die."
He was going to say something else when he saw an old lady coming his way followed by two security agents.
"Grandma?" Nathaniel asked, surprised.