Chapter 8
A short while later, most of the students, including the group of interns, had finished looking at all the exhibits and were gathered around and sitting in soft seating the middle of the room, taking a short break for themselves before it was time to move on. Many of the teens were in their usual social cliques and chatting amongst themselves, before Betty and Abe made their way over to Peter’s group.
“Hey Peter” Betty began tentatively “we just wanted to see if you were doing okay?” Although the Spider kid had never really spoken to the girl in a friend capacity, he knew by his time with her at academic decathlon that she had a kind heart that almost matched his own. The question however, did take him by surprise as he was expecting to be asked about his internship, the company, or The Avengers.
“Uh… yeah I’m good I guess, just not used to dealing with Mr Turner for more than one period at a time, let alone the whole day.” He rubbed the back of his neck, starting to ache from the kid in his hold, whilst Betty just gave a solemn smile and nod
“Yeah, about that…” Abe spoke up “What he and Flash are doing is not okay by any means, and we know that the principle won’t do anything, between Mr Turner’s long service and Flash’s parents money” the group just gave him an odd look, wondering where he was going with stating the obvious “but look, my aunt is on the school board, so we were thinking maybe we could use her as a connection to take it straight to them? We’d have the statements of at least all 5 of us…” (Harley not included, due to not being a student at the school) “…and I’m sure after all of today we could get more people on board. The thing is though, on top of that, we were wondering if, with your internship and all, WhichWeKnowIsTotallyRealAndAwesome, if you would be able to get any security footage from in here today? Like I get it might be a bit of a hassle and all, but given that we’d be using it for evidence of an official complaint and that’s kinda what security footage is for and stuff….” He began trailing off to the end. Ned became visibly excited at the idea of finally getting the issue sorted, it had been a major part of their life for years after all.
“Look guys, as much as…” as Peter began speaking, Abe’s phone gave a ding. He began to pull it out and click around the screen a few times “I appreciate it, I really do, you don’t have to go to that effort. I don’t want to cause trouble with the whole thing”
“Holy shit” Abe breathed out as Peter finished his awkward spiel. His eyes grew wide and he quickly turned his phone around to show the group the screen. Displayed upon which, was an array of video files, audio files, and written transcripts of speech, for each of the times Mr Turner and Flash had interacted with Peter throughout the day. All evidence of the harassment and abuse.
“How the…What?” were the only words Betty was able to get out in her utter bewilderment of the situation.
“F.R.I.D.A.Y. you traitor” Peter exasperated towards one of the cameras in the corner, knowing full well she could see and hear him, before looking back to the still highly confused AcaDeca team mates and giving a sigh.
“Are you connected to the Wi-Fi in here?”
“Uh-Hu” Abe gave a slight nod.
“Yeah, the AI is runs through every network in the building and company, including your cell when you use the Wi-Fi”
“Creepy…” Betty interjected
“Kind of, but not really.” Peter continued his explanation. “She has billions of lines of code, algorithms, protocols, etc. that means that she can use it to check you’re not a terrorist or spy making bomb threats or anything, but without actually being able to go through your data. So like, she knows you’re a safe person, but it’s not like she can read through your texts or look at your memes.” The explanation definitely calmed and intrigued the pair that were guests in the building.
“It also means she can send you things that you need, usually it’s like legal documents of schematics that she has a digital copy of, but in this case…” MJ detailed further, but trailed off as she just loosely waved towards Abe’s phone
“Awesome” Betty gave, before being interrupted by once again, another loud, attention grabbing clap from Emily.