#26--May 9, 2019
Tony Mirror Kidnapping--Pt. 1
"Hey, Happy, do you think Mr. Stark is feeling alright?" Peter asks suddenly, looking up at Happy. The two are currently on their way to the Compound when the thought to ask Happy about Mr. Stark struck him. Mr. Stark's been acting a little weird the past few days and he's even canceled a few of their lab days.
"Why do you say that, kid?" Happy asks, looking back at him through the mirror. Peter just shrugs and looks out the window. They're on a long road that leads to the Compound. It has no cars on it other than the one that Peter sits in currently.
"It's just he's canceled a few of our lab days, that's all," Peter says, looking back at the man. "He usually doesn't do that without telling me or shooting me a message, you know? I think something's goi--" Peter's voice cuts off when the back of his neck tingles and flares in warning, making him immediately tense and look around him.
"Kid, what's--?" Happy's voice is cut off by the car suddenly flying through the air and rolling. Peter grunts as he's thrown into the door and grabs the handle on the roof of the car as it rocks back and forth dangerously before stopping upright. Immediately Peter pulls off the seatbelt, absentmindedly noticing that he just broke it instead of unbuckling it. He's about to get out of the car when Happy's voice stops him.
"Kid, stay in the car--I mean it!" Without another word, Happy jumps out of the car, gun at the ready. Peter flinches as an explosion goes off nearby, it making his ears ring even more. Peter shakes his head and rips his seatbelt off. He's Spider-Man. He should be able to protect himself. Another explosion goes off but it's much closer to him and throws Peter off his feet.
He rolls around onto his stomach before pushing himself up, looking over sharply as Happy groans. The man's on the ground, half conscious with metal shards piercing his body. Now that he thinks about it, Peter can feel blood pouring out of his body. He looks down at his arms and hands. Small pieces of shrapnel are covering his chest, arms, and hands with blood pouring out of him at an unhealthy rate.
Through the ringing in his ears, Peter can hear footsteps approach him, but before he can do anything, something strikes his head.
When he awakens, Peter can hear the mutterings of people talking and he knows that he should be able to understand them but he can't. He can barely hear them as it is. It sounds like they're whispering. When he opens his eyes, he sees a black cloth before the bag is wrenched over his head, making him flinch at the bright lights.
He's kneeling on the ground and men are holding weapons all around him. All he can think is, This is bad. This is very very bad.
Midtown Tech, 36 Hours Earlier
"You losers better not screw this up," MJ says, glaring at the team. The team, as in Midtown's Academic Decathlon Team. "We're on our own turf so we better not lose. We need this one to get into regionals, so answer as quickly as possible with the correct answer." Everyone's eyes flit over to Flash, who balks at all of the attention on him.
"What?" he asks, looking at everyone. Ned snickers from beside a smirking Peter. Everyone knows who Eugene 'Flash' Thompson loves to answer questions as quickly as possible and almost always ends up getting the questions wrong. And since Betty Brant is at home with the flu, Flash, their normal alternate, has to participate.
MJ continues without acknowledging Flash. "We have three teams going up there that will rotate. Peter, Ned, Cindy, you three are on the Test of Knowledge round for science, math, and economics. Sally, Abe, and I will do literature, art, music, and social sciences. Flash, me, and Charles are doing the speech category while Cindy, Abe, and Sally are on the multiple choice questions. Me, Peter, Sally, and Ned are on sudden death. Everyone know where they're going?" Everyone nods their heads and Mr. Harrington walks up to them from the side of the stage.
"Okay, everyone!" he says loudly, gathering everyone's attention. "Who's ready to win?" They all cheer before the first teams are called out onto the stage.
Peter follows behind Ned and Cindy, his eyes shifting over the sea of people. He smiles as he sees his Aunt and grins when he sees Mr. Stark. He hasn't seen the man in a few days since he canceled a few of their lab days but he's glad he's there. He's wearing an MIT sweatshirt, jeans, and of course, sunglasses. Peter refocuses his attention and takes his seat.
"Welcome Midtown Tech and Staten Island Tech!" the announcer of the competition says, gaining a lot of cheers and applause from the sea of parents and scouts. "This is competition will determine which of the two schools go onto regionals, so without further ado, begin!"
Questions fly out of the judge's mouth at rapid speeds, the ringing of bells filling the air. The two teams seem matched and Peter pushes himself to ring the bell as quickly as possible. "Vibranium!" "Polychlorinated diphenyl!" "Deoxyribonucleic acid!"
The room gets tenser and tenser as kids get the questions right and wrong and soon enough it's down to sudden death.
"This question will determine which school goes onto regionals," the judge says, making the room deadly silent and has the kids on the edge of their seats. "What is the iron man suit made out of?" the judge asks the group. Peter grins and rings the bell with lightning fast reflexes. Peter had been the one to help Mr. Stark write the magazine article on the man's suits, so of course he knows the answer to this question.
"Nitinol!" The whole room is silent for a second before the judge confirms the answer as correct. Midtown's side erupts in cheers as Ned shakes Peter, yelling in his ear. Peter's eyes are on Mr. Stark and May who have the largest grins on their faces. They're waving at Peter and cheering and Peter waves back as the rest of the team run out on stage, all of them crowding around Peter, except Flash of course.
"I guess your Stark Internship is worth something, isn't it?" Ned says, elbowing Peter and making Flash glare at them. The guy still refuses to believe that Peter has an internship with Mr. Stark. Peter just rolls his eyes and shoves Ned back as their trophy is handed to Peter. The whole group crowds together around Peter who grins at the camera. There are a few flashes until the parents of the kids come up to get their own pictures.
Peter ends up with the trophy again as his Aunt May and Mr. Stark come up to him. "I'll get a picture of you two!" May says, nudging Tony forward. "Say cheese!" The two roll their eyes as Tony throws an arm over Peter's shoulders, throwing a thumb up as they grin.
"Good job, kiddo," Mr. Stark says with a proud smile, making Peter look over him with an awed grin. The flashing of Tony's phone, which May grabbed, breaks them out of their little circle. The woman has the decency to grin at their deadpanned expression. Mr. Stark just rolls his eyes and pulls May over to Peter, grabbing her phone off her and taking a picture of the two. The two adults switch phones as Mr. Harrington drops by to grab the trophy.
"Good job out there, Peter," the man says, taking the trophy from him. "I hope we'll be seeing you at regionals." Peter ducks his head down sheepishly. He's had to skip out on a few meets in the past year because he was either in the medbay at the Compound or because Mr. Stark needed him for a mission.
"I'll be there," Peter says, grinning at the teacher. The man walks away, leaving Peter with May and Mr. Stark.
"C'mon, kid," Mr. Stark says, throwing an arm over Peter's shoulder, "let's go get some ice cream." Peter cheers as May follows after them with the shake of her head.
Peter wakes up to the sound of his alarm ringing beside his head. Slapping the button, he takes a few minutes to get out of bed and throws on a random pair of jeans and a t-shirt. Yawning, he makes his way into the bathroom. He had to wake up early yesterday since the decathlon match started at seven in the morning. The match had lasted more or less five hours and had taken up most of the day. And since the match was yesterday, Peter didn't have to go to school. Though, he has to go today. The only relief is that it's Friday which means that he's going over to the Compound.
Peter grabs his backpack and heads out into the living room, looking at the note that May left for him: 'I got called into work early. I left a few protein bars on the counter for you to eat. See you on Monday. -May'
Peter grabs the protein bars and tears the first one open as he heads out of the apartment, locking the door behind him. He sends a text to May, telling her that he's on his way to school as he munches on the protein bars. The walk to the subway seems to take a little longer than normal, but Peter makes it onto the train on time.
"Hey, Ned!" Peter calls out as he approaches his locker.
"Peter!" Ned yells out. "Guess what I got yesterday?" Peter raises an eyebrow at him as he grabs his chemistry book out of his locker. "The new Droid Gunship lego set! My parents got it for me since we won the match yesterday. You wanna come over and build it?"
"That's so cool!" Peter says, ignoring the mutterings of the people calling him and Ned a loser. "I can't go, though, sorry. It's Friday. I--"
"'Go over to the Compound on Fridays.' Yeah, I know, I know," Ned says, sounding disappointed. "What about on Monday, then?" Peter nods his head.
"I'm not doing anything on Monday. Wanna come over after school?" Peter asks as the two of them make their way to chemistry. Ned nods his head and confirms the date. "So, what did you do yesterday after the match? May and Mr. Stark took me out for ice cream and we watched a movie and got some Thai to congratulate the win."
"My parents and I went out to dinner," Ned says as they take their seats next to each other. "Other than that I kinda just spent the day building one of the lego sets I got and watching Star Wars again. Did Mr. Stark--?" Ned's cut off by the first bell and Peter gives him a glance before paying attention to the teacher. They've been given a lot of warnings and the teacher told them that if she caught them speaking in class again, that they'd both get detention.
The day flies by quickly and Peter meets the rest of the decathlon team in the auxiliary gym when the final bell rings. "Okay, guys," Mr. Harrington says. "This meet shouldn't take long. I would like to congratulate all of you for winning yesterday's match. Staten Island is a hard school to go against, especially since their another tech school." Mr. Harrington looks over at MJ. "Michelle, would you like to take over?" MJ stands up from where she was sitting.
"Okay, dweebs, congratulations, we won. But now we're going to regionals," MJ starts, glaring at everyone. "That means more meeting and longer meetings if we want to win. We barely won yesterday, so we have got to study harder. That means no skipping out on meetings," Peter shrinks down as everyone turns to him, "and pay attention during the meetings," everyone turns to Flash who also shrinks down. "Regionals are our key to winning state. So, I've compiled a list of topics that we're going to study in the next few months."
MJ grabs a stack of papers, takes one for herself, and passes it to Mr. Harrington. He grabs one and the stack circles around the room until everyone has a list. The list is double sided and has three columns.
"Wait, you expect us to know all of this?" Flash asks, disbelief coloring his voice. MJ just glares at him.
"Of course, I do," she says. "Regionals are no joke. You saw how hard they were last year. And the list isn't just for regionals, either. These are some of the topics that we'll need to know for state." Flash shrinks away from MJ's glare and she goes over the list.
"Okay, losers," MJ says, looking up from the list. "That just about covers it for today." Everyone lets out sighs of relief and Peter sends a text to Happy. The man responds saying that he'll be at the school in ten minutes. Peter shoulders his backpack as everyone heads outside. Some of their parents are already waiting for them, but most people are either walking home, driving, or calling their parents to come pick them up.
"Peter!" Peter stops walking as MJ grabs his arm. "You're not going to miss any meetings, right? We can't afford to let your internship get in the way of us winning regionals." MJ had let Peter know not too long ago that she knew all along that he is Spider-Man. Like she said last year, she's observant.
"Don't worry, MJ," Peter assures her as he catches sight of Happy's black SUV. "I don't plan on skipping out on meetings if I can help it." MJ stares into his eyes for a few moments before letting go of his arm and nodding her head.
"Okay, loser, see you on Monday." Peter nods his head, flashes a peace sign, before jumping into the back of the SUV.
"Hey, Happy!" Peter says, tossing his backpack to the side and buckling in. Happy just grunts as he pulls away from the curb. "Thanks for coming to pick me up." Peter goes on to describe his day to the man before eventually letting the conversation--if you could call it that--drop.
After a few hours, Peter brings up the topic of Mr. Stark, but before he can continue it properly, the car is rolling, explosions are happening, and he's knocked out.