The Hidden Lair

~*~

Monday came around with school starting again, thinking about these weapons used to attack him on Friday night. Ned and Peter were in the engineering class at school with the weapon Jackson had lost while he had been trying to track them back to their lair.

"What is that?" asked Ned, looking over the weapon with Peter since he didn't have a clue about what he was looking at exactly.

Peter looked over at his friend, "This one of the weapons they tried to use to hurt me with on Friday night. Though it's nothing like I've ever seen before, to be honest."

"That's really awesome, but not about you were getting hurt just the part about this thing right in front of us," Ned said though they were whispering to prevent others around them from finding out what they were talking about.

Peter took a hammer smashing at it before one of the glowing things popped out with the teacher who had been reading this whole time.

"Keep your fingers away from the blades," he said without lifting his head from his book.

Peter quickly grabbing it, looking over at Ned, "Apparently, they are combining alien tech with our own."

"That is literally the coolish sentence anyone has ever said. I want to thank you for allowing me to be a part of this journey," Ned said with excitement, his nerd side coming out.

Peter nodded in agreement, knowing it was totally awesome, "Yeah, we should run some tests on this to get a better understanding of how this works."

Ned nodded in agreement while they kept their focus on this weapon while doing their secret handshake, thinking this would be really awesome. Walking down the hallway, not sure what to call the glowy thing, they really needed a better name for it, honestly. Peter looked up, noticing the two of the guys from the stick up on Friday night selling the weapons who tried to kill him. Trying to get Ned to following him since he didn't want to be noticed by the people currently looking for him.

"What's wrong," asked Ned confused about it.

Peter looked around the corner, noticing they were heading into the class they just came from currently.

"I think those were the guys trying to kill me the Friday," Peter said to Ned, who was shocked by his comment.

"Seriously!?" Ned asked him, still not sure what to think about this.

Peter started to head away from Ned with him standing there to try and stop from going anywhere since he didn't want Peter to get hurt. Heading into the engineering class stealthy going down the stairs listening to them talking about how strange they were getting the signature readings coming from a school. Peter hid underneath one of the tables as the bad guys were leaving the school though he made sure to put a tracker on one of the guys. Wanting to know where they were headed since he would have to be at home once back at Peter's apartment. Ned and Peter were currently watching the tracker with them, waiting to see where they were headed too.

Waiting, Peter adjusted his web-shooters as Ned messed around with his mask at the same time watching the tracker moving. Peter ended up getting up off the chair, walking over to the window seeing Jess was in her room studying, knowing he wanted to ask her to the dance. At the same time, he wanted to ask Liz, knowing this would be a difficult choice for him than anything else. Ned noticed Peter had been focused on something since he ignored what he said. Getting up off Peter's bed, wondering what he was looking at, seeing Jess was across from them though they didn't notice they were looking at her.

"Peter, why don't you just ask Jess to the dance before someone else asks her," Ned suggested because he knew there was tension between them even if Jess hid it better than Peter.

Ned knew they both respected each other in their own way without the person knowing anything about their intentions.

"Ned, I don't want to ruin our friendship since she might not want to go with me anyway. Besides, I don't want her to know about me being Spider-Man," Peter explained to his friend, "Because I don't want her to get hurt, and I didn't even want you to know about this part of me either."

Ned listened to him talking about how he felt and knew he wanted to be with Jess more than Liz since he would talk about her a lot.

Sighing lightly, Ned nodded, "Yeah, I get that, but you can't let that stop you from asking her to the dance. I mean, you can ask her as a friend? Right? Plus, Peter, you stare at Jess all the time, and you haven't taken your eyes off of her once since you've been talking to me."

Peter listened to Ned before breaking from his stare, closing his curtain, thinking he needed to take her to dance as friends. Peter still wasn't sure exactly thankfully; he could talk about something else when the tracker beeped upon them, stopping finally.

"Maryland?" Peter said, looking at the tracker's location, wondering what could be in that state.

Ned tilted his head to the side, "Well, what's out there?"

"An evil lair," Peter said, thinking it was the only thing that would make sense.

Ned didn't think it would make sense, "An evil lair?"

"Dude, guys creating alien tech weapons, they are going to have a lair," Peter said, thinking about how he was going to get out there.

Ned nodded, "Badass, though, how are you going to be heading out there?"

Peter looked over to the poster on his billboard on his wall, seeing they would be going to Washington, D.C., for the decathlon.

"Well, it's not far away from D.C.," Peter suggested knowing it would be a good idea.

Ned agreed to leave, knowing it was getting late knowing they would need their sleep since it would be a long day tomorrow.

~*~

The next morning everyone was waiting by the bus, noticing Jess wondering what she was doing here since she wasn't apart of the decathlon? Jess looking over at Peter, smiling at him, having her brown hair into a double french fishtail braid ponytail. Wearing her Hermione's time turner, Gryffindor t-shirt, faded jean skirt, red wine tights, and Gryffindor sneakers.

Noticing Peter walking over to her, "Hey Jessie, what are you doing here?"

Jess tilted her head to the side upon Peter, asking her this, "Well, I'm apart of the school newspaper, and I was asked to join you guys for this assignment."

Peter nodded, thinking this would be awkward since both of his crushes were going there on this trip with him.

"Hey, it's Peter," Abraham said with Flash and everyone else noticing him.

Flash shook his head, "No, you can't just come back, expecting to be welcomed back."

The teacher came off the bus smiling at seeing Parker was back, "Welcome back, Peter, Flash, Peter will be the first alternate."

Flash tossing the jacket aggressively at Peter, who caught it while Jess started to chuckle upon Flash getting ticked off. Knowing he was losing his touch with trying to make fun of Peter before getting onto the bus sitting in the seat behind Ned. Listening to her music while looking out the window, thinking this would be cool to see Washington D.C. with her friends. Peter was practicing with his classmates for the decathlon before receiving a phone call from Happy, realizing it was a tracker in his suit. Walking over to the seat, Jess was in sitting down next to her, seeing she was distracted, still talking with him. Happy telling Peter it doesn't appear to be a big deal before hanging up the phone with Peter looking at Ned holding up the tracker. Peter thinking this was going to be different now with Jess being here since he wasn't hoping to have her come along with them. Just in case something bad happened to know Liz was on his mind too though she wouldn't want to miss this.

Realizing Jess happened to be the same way since she wanted to become a journalist when she was older. Sighing lightly about this since it would be difficult for him to chose which girl he wanted to go with to the dance since his mind wouldn't stick to one girl. Since he happened to be torn, though, he felt like he was leaning more towards Jessie. His reason for this was that she happened to be his best friend, though there was more than just her and him being friends. She was someone who he could talk to about anything without getting judged or mocked, and that's not to say he couldn't do this with Ned.

Jess being someone who would stick up for him when he needed Flash off of his back, thinking she was an amazing person. Being kind, compassionate, smart, funny, being herself despite what others thought about her being a nerd. The things she would say would be wise and good advice that would make someone's day honest. Jess ended up falling asleep in the seat, her head leaning against the window sill had her headphones in with it humming in her ears. Not realizing the bus had stopped since she was completely asleep, dreaming at this point about homecoming and dancing with Peter. Having a good time with Peter, about to say something to her when she felt herself getting woken up. Looking over tiredly at Peter, who was waking her up before taking her headphones out of her ears.

Putting her phone into her bag, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes, "Did we make it to the hotel yet?"

"Yeah, we did come on, Jessie, we're getting ready to check-in," Peter said softly to her, thinking he felt bad for waking her up, but he didn't want her to wake up without seeing anyone.

Plus, he found her peaceful when she slept since he never got to see her go to sleep when they would stop talking to each other. Jess nodded before grabbing her bags, placing them over her shoulder, and walking inside the hotel. Thinking about how everything was going today, they would probably go out the set, seeing though she wasn't sure about it. Wondering about her dream, she just had since she never thought she would have something like that, but she hoped she would get to go to the dance with Peter.

Jess and Michelle would be bunking in the same room together, and Peter and Ned would be in the same room together. Once settled into their rooms, some of the kids went to the pool while Jess chilled in her room to get some sleep. Michelle and Liz, Cindy, and a few other kids went to see some of the sets with the teacher while Peter and Ned were in their room. Peter removed his tracker from his suit while Ned had hacked into the suit's systems, wondering if this was even a good idea. Since he didn't feel like this would be a good idea, he was not sure what to do honestly because it felt like Peter was lying to Iron Man.

"Training wheels portal call," Ned chuckled upon reading this while Peter didn't like this.

Peter stared at the screen, "Disable it."

"Peter, I don't think this is a good idea since they are on here for a reason," Ned said, trying to not liking that idea.

Peter jumped up onto his bed, "Come on, Ned. Please, I'm sick and tired of him treating me like a kid all the time."

"But you are a kid, plus I don't think this is a good idea," Ned said, telling him still not like this.

Jumping down off his bed, kneeling at the edge of the bed, Peter looked up at Ned with wide eyes.

"Come on, Ned, please the guy in the chair," Peter said, smiling, hoping Ned would disable the systems.

Ned sighed, doing it, then Peter changed into his Spider-Man suit before putting on his jeans and a blue zip-up hoodie. Heading out of the room, getting ready to leave until he saw Liz in her swimsuit, thinking she looked great in it. After talking with her for a bit before leaving and taking off to head in the direction of the tracker, though, get startled upon hearing a female voice. Wondering who she was though she was helping him track down the bad guys to take them down.

"Their lair is at an abandoned gas station that is so lame," Peter said to himself, having trouble with hearing what the bad guys were saying.

The suit lady talked to him, "Would you like to hear what they are saying."

She asked, with Peter agreeing with her adjusting it to where he could hear them talking about how they would have a heist. Peter was glad that he would take them down this time with them altogether, noticing that he needed the systems to be a normal setting. The suit lady activating all systems in the suit while he was swinging after the white van when they were on the move.

Noticing the winged suit guy landed on one of the Damage Control vehicles thinking about this would be the perfect chance to stop him. Peter's plan didn't pan out that way since he ended up getting trapped in the vehicle they were robbing from. Trying to get out of the vehicle the same way he came in only to get knocked out while suffering from a mild concussion. While the truck continued on it's way to the Damage Control storage bunker for all the alien tech and other Avengers fights.