Chapter 6
“Mr. Stark, ” Ned said disbelievingly, “let you go after these guys?” He looked worried.
“As a test,” Peter said with a tiny smile. He hit the glowing object one more time, revealing a small blue… it looked like a stone?
“What is that?” Ned asked.
“I don’t know,” Peter replied, “some guy tried to vaporize me with it.” He struggled with the object, trying to get the blue thing out.
“What?” Ned hissed in alarm. “Peter-”
“I think it’s a power source,” Peter said.
Ned’s eyes lit up. “Yeah, but it’s connected to all these neuro-processors.” He pointed at the cords. “That’s an inductive charging plate. That’s what I use to charge my toothbrush.”
“Whoever’s making these weapons is obviously combining alien tech with ours,” Peter said slowly.
“That is literally the coolest sentence anyone has ever said,” Ned said dazedly.
Peter picked up the hammer again and banged it against the weapon. The blue thing flew out of it and landed on the floor with a loud noise.
Both of them froze and stared at the teacher.
“Keep your fingers clear of the blades,” Mr. Hapwell said sharply without looking up from his book. They both relaxed.
Peter picked up the blue thing and put it on the table. “We gotta figure out what this thing is and who makes it.”
“We’ll run to the lab after class and run some tests,” Ned decided.
“Thanks,” Peter smiled.
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“First,” said Ned, “we’ll put the glowy thingy in the mass spectrometer.”
“We gotta come up with a better name than glowy thingy,” Peter sighed.
His spider senses flared just as two men turned the corner. Peter dragged Ned behind the the room for the chess club, having recognized one of the men from the night before.
“That’s one of the guys who tried to kill me last night!” Peter whispered, watching them around the corner. Ned blanched.
“We gotta get out of here,” Ned whispered.
“No, I have to follow them,” Peter retorted. “They might be working for the guy who trapped me in the lake.”
Ned paled further. “Be careful.”
Peter smiled fondly at Ned and turned to watch the two men again. They were heading to the basement. He snuck after them.
“Can you imagine what the boss would say if he knew where we were right now?” the shorter man snorted. The taller one, the one who had attacked Peter the night before, was passing some sort of tech over the chairs.
“It’s saying there’s an energy pulse right here,” the taller one sighed.
“There’s no sign of the weapon.”
Peter’s eyes widened; that was where he’d stored the glowy thingy earlier. Thank goodness it wasn’t there anymore!
Carefully, he put down his backpack and slipped under the table, clinging to the underside.
“Even if it was here, it’s not now,” the shorter one pointed out.
“Well…” the taller one paused, and Peter watched his feet turn towards the table.
The two walked by him, and Peter shot a tracker spider at the taller one. It landed on his shoe and crawled up his leg.
Peter counted to fifty, then left the basement.
“Petey!”
Peter jumped, blushing, as Wade ran up to him, beaming.
“I can’t tell you how happy I am that Mr. Stark made that tech and you’re not hurt anymore,” he said, pulling Peter into a hug. Peter blushed horribly.
“Hi, Wade,” Peter stammered, telling his heart to stop hammering so quickly.
Wade pulled back, eyes sparkling. “Hey, I was wondering,” he said, “are you free Friday?”
Peter blinked. “What about Decathlon?”
“Shoot,” Wade said irritably. “Wednesday, then? I promise to have you home by seven,” he said suavely.
Peter swallowed. “Um, yeah, sure… why?”
“I want to take you on a date!” Wade said brightly.
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“You have a tracker?” Ned whispered eagerly. “Cool!”
“We’re waiting for them to stop,” Peter said. “We’re going to follow them and find out what they’re up to and who the vulture guy is.”
“Vulture!” Ned exclaimed.
“Shh!” Peter hissed. “Mr. Stark thinks we’re doing homework!”
Ned gave him an embarrassed look and lowered his voice. “That is the coolest villain name ever. This is the coolest thing ever.” He stared at Peter’s tracker with awe.
Peter giggled.
A few hours later, Ned’s voice brought Peter away from his Spanish homework.
“Maryland?” Peter said in surprise.
“What’s there?” Ned mused.
“I don’t know, an evil lair?” Peter suggested.
“A lair?” Ned asked disbelievingly.
“Dude,” Peter said, “guys with a bunch of weapons run by a guy with wings? Yeah, they have a lair.”
“Awesome,” Ned said with a grin. “But how are you gonna get there? It’s like three thousand miles away.”
Peter pointed at the Decathlon poster. “It’s not too far from DC.”
“I thought you weren’t going to go?” Ned frowned.
“Because of patrol,” Peter pointed out, “but I never actually told Wade I couldn’t go.” He hadn’t worked up the nerve to tell his crush he couldn’t attend an event that Wade had been planning for for months. “This is more important,” he said quietly, his voice cracking. He could just see Wade’s face if he missed the Decathlon.
Ned gave him a sympathetic look and handed him the tracker.
“So,” Peter said, changing the subject, “speaking of Wade… he asked me on a date.”
Ned squealed. “Really? That’s awesome! When? What are you doing? Did you say yes?”
“Calm down, Ned,” Peter giggled. “I said yes-” after he’d gotten over his shock “-and we’re going out to dinner on Wednesday.”
Ned squealed again, and Peter giggled harder.
He was going on a date with his crush, he was doing really well on his Avengers ‘test,’ and he had awesome friends.
What could go wrong?