Peter woke up feeling utterly exhausted. Another late night fighting criminals and then the small amount of sleep he had managed to get seemed nonexistent. His mind wouldn't stop racing as he tried to figure out how to get out of this dead end that he had hit.

First off, he really didn't understand the device Tony had left him at all. He's spent most of the afternoon and evening yesterday trying to figure the damn thing out, but he was one hundred percent positive that he was damn lost.

As for who took Tony or why they took him in the first place, Peter had no clue. He tried doing some research, seeing if Tony had made any recent enemies, but that man has made so many enemies that Peter lost count.

He got ahold of Pepper the previous night and she was just as frantic as he was. Pepper reassured him that he did the right thing by calling the authorities into this and that she's glad he did. She told him that a fifteen year old shouldn't have that much burden on his shoulders, especially if he decided to take it on alone. The conversation didn't last very long. Pepper ended the call by saying that she promised to keep him in the loop if she found anything out from the authorities and Peter promised to do the same thing.

Happy wasn't much better, in fact he was highly against Peter doing this alone, insisting that he didn't want Peter to do something stupid. The last thing Happy needed was to have that on his head as well. Peter knew he meant well, he could tell that Happy was worried for his friend, but that man can be an utter ass sometimes. Then again, it might just be his personality.

After those two phone calls, Peter spent the rest of his free time staring at the message that was left for him. He felt like there was supposed to be something else there that he was missing. It wasn't exactly because he assumed there had to be something there, but there was that familiar tingle in the back of his head. It wasn't exactly his Spidey Sense, but it was more of a natural instinct. That feeling of knowing there's more to the puzzle than you originally thought.

"I want you to be better."

The words ring true at KAREN's assumption of the paper being some sort of goodbye message, but Peter really didn't want to give up that easily. There had to be some kind of code or something. Tony did those things, he's was genius. He couldn't have given up that easily. Right?

Then again, Peter has been worried about Tony's mental health ever since the Vulture accident. Often times when Peter arrived at the Tower, Tony had locked down all of the entrances to his lab. Instead of deciding to bother the man, he would usually do some training in the gym. Some days Tony would eventually join him and Peter loved those days. Not only because he's looked up to Tony as a father figure, but Tony always gave him tips to improve and sometimes help him discover what his new suit was capable of. However, there were the days that Tony wouldn't emerge at all and Peter couldn't help but wonder if the genius was hiding from Peter or just that he didn't feel like teaching a kid.

Although, Peter now wondered why Tony left him this strange device and the message. Why him? Why not someone else? Why not the Avengers or S.H.I.E.L.D? Or even Pepper?

Did Tony really have that much faith in him?

Needless to say, Peter's day at school went terribly. He fell asleep in both of his first two periods of the day and that earned him detention. Also, he didn't do any of his homework, so now he had to explain to Aunt May that his grades are once again slipping. The thought of that alone sent shivers down his spine.

By the time lunch came around, Peter was ecstatic. He skipped breakfast that morning and he was starving.

He quickly grabbed a tray full of food and sat down at his usual table. Ned joined him soon after, with a look of suspicion on his face.

"What's on your mind, Ned?" Peter asked curiously.

"Something's going on. You know more about the Stark case than you're letting on and I want to know about it," Ned crossed his arms.

Peter froze. Shit. How the hell did he know that?

Ned stayed serious for a moment before he began to laugh. "Dude, relax, I was joking. You should've seen your face though, it was priceless!"

Peter felt his cheeks burn and he looked down, "Not cool, man."

"I was just trying to cheer you up," Ned took a bite of his lunch. "You looked like you needed it."

"Joking about something like that isn't going to improve my mood," Peter sighed before yawning.

Ned looked at him in concern, "Pete, you feeling okay? You look exhausted."

"I'm fine, just another late night," Peter dismissed his comment.

"Are you sure?" Ned gently prodded.

Peter stayed quiet for a moment, debating with himself before slumping his shoulders in defeat. "It's about Mr. Stark."

"Look, Pete, I know you're worried, but they'll find him," Ned tried to reassure his friend.

"That's the thing, Ned. I don't know if they'd be able to find him," Peter admitted.

"What do you mean by that?" Ned frowned.

"I mean that I think we're dealing with something bigger here. Not just a usual kidnapping case," Peter explained.

"Do you have anything to go off of?"

"For one, he left me a few things," Peter came clean. He needed help, he wasn't going to lie. Pepper was right, this one is too big to go alone and Ned had helped him greatly in the past.

"As in what?" Ned urged him to continue.

Peter lowered his voice. "He left me a device. I don't really know how to explain it or how it really works, though. It has keyboard that's in morse code, though and also, it needs a password."

"So, what's the password?" Ned asked.

"Keep your voice down," Peter reminded him.

Ned looked sheepish as he whispered, "Sorry."

"Look, I don't know what the password is yet, but I've been trying to figure it out. There was a message that was printed from that device though," Peter reached into his pocket and handed it to his friend.

"'I want you to be better.' What does that mean?" Ned looked confused.

"To be honest, I don't think it means anything," Peter scratched the back of his head.

"And what do you mean by that?"

Peter hesitated before he replied, "I think it's a goodbye message."

"But that doesn't make sense," Ned became more confused. "If these were goodbye messages then did he know someone was after him?"

Peter nodded. "That's why I think this is a force bigger than the authorities think."

Ned handed him the message, which Peter stashed away. "Shit, dude, how do you even respond to that?"

"I refuse to believe that this was just a coincidence," Peter continued. "That device was hidden behind a wall that I wouldn't have even found if it weren't for my enhanced senses. Also, why did Mr. Stark even hide it in the first place? Who or what was he hiding it from?"

"That's a lot of crazy crap you're assuming, Peter," Ned said.

"Look at it from my point of view, man. I come over to the Tower, find it trashed and I happen to be down in his lab. There's a hidden compartment behind the wall that opened after a retinal scan was used. Mr. Stark went through some hard work to put that all together. Why me?"

Ned's eyes widened. "Maybe because he'd knew you'd find it?"

That actually didn't occur to Peter. Could that be true? Did Tony put the device where he knew Peter would find it? If he did, then why? He had a good hunch that it wasn't because he wanted to say goodbye.

"If that's true, then what the hell do I do from here?" Peter sighed in frustration. "I've hit a complete dead end!"

"Isn't it obvious?" Ned asked.

Peter looked at his friend in disbelief. "No, not really. I'm pretty sure you're gonna have to spell it out for me."

"When you hit a dead end in a maze, what do you do?" Ned smirked.

The answer slammed into Peter's face and he felt like an idiot. "You go back and look for some other way out of the maze."

"So, in order to move forward in your case..." Ned began.

"I've got to go back to the scene of the crime," Peter finished. "Damn, that really sounded like a cheesy cop show."

"Hey, don't diss on cop shows, man. Hawaii Five-O is the beast," Ned laughed.

"Yeah, you keep telling yourself that," Peter chuckled.

When the bell rang to end lunch, Peter had his plan set in motion. After getting out of school, he's going back to the Tower. There's got to be something there that he hasn't seen before. Something that just might lead him where he needed to go next.

Until then, Peter just had to make sure he survived the rest of his classes without getting another detention.


Yeah, this chapter was a little slow because it's a filler chapter, but I felt like it was needed. Don't worry, the action's coming very soon! I'll probably end up posting another chapter sometime tomorrow or Saturday cause I kind feel bad for posting a filler chapter where nothing really happens. Anyways, I'll stop there before I start to ramble too much.

Was it good? Was it bad? Let me know! Also, do you think Peter will find anything when he goes back to the Tower?

See you next time!

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