AN: Here is Day 1 of the Webpril 2021 Challenge: Field Trip! I plan to make this part one out of 2 or 3 (prompts be willing) that follow this plot-line that I have in mind *steeples fingers*. I have plans ;)

This collection of short one-shots will be Peter Parker-centric but, of course, because I love Tony Stark being a 10/10 parental figure and I need to get over Endgame somehow, there will be a lot of IronDad in this collection as well. While being crazy busy at university, I've managed to whip this one out, so apologies for any roughness around the edges, but I hope you enjoy nonetheless and that you are intrigued enough to come back for more as I update xx

The bus came to a jerking halt in a cloud of grey, tires grinding on gravel. As far as bus trips went, this one had been short and sweet. Only an hour and a half away from NYC, upstate New Jersey was a nice change from the concrete jungle. There were actually trees, and the colour green had been making a welcomed more regular appearance. Without looking at Ned, Peter elbowed him awake (not-ungently) from his position in the aisle seat, while Peter's gaze roamed over to what he could see from his window seat view of the parking lot.

The building before him was underwhelming. It was an odd mix of brick, stone, and some sort of wood that was trying to be wood but just…somehow wasn't? Peter couldn't quite wrap his head around it and he wished he wasn't stuck focusing on if the wood on the building was wood or not. Tearing his eyes away from the enigmatic material, his eyes rapidly scanned the rest of the outside: metal statues of miners, wielding tools ranging from pickaxes, guns, and shovels… and rocks. There were a lot of rocks. At last, in large letters on a sign that was nowhere near his favourite colour (muddy swamp brown didn't even crack his top 30), there it was, pasted in sunshine yellow:

THE STERLING HILL MINING MUSEUM.

He groaned internally. How could he have missed where they were going? Between asking May to sign his ambiguous field trip slip and drifting off into another Stark-tech based reverie during this quarter's geology unit, he must have overlooked "mining trip". Specifically, "underground mining trip."

It had only been a few months since his encounter with Vultu – No…Adrian Toomes, he reminded himself. He had to remember the man behind the villainous veil, the evil façade. Toomes wasn't just a freakishly competent antagonist from a blockbuster sci-fi action film. He was real. And Peter was still reeling from the realisation that the types of bad guys he'd seen in all those cult classics growing up weren't just the stuff of fiction anymore.

Following the rest of his classmates, they arrived inside the main lobby of the museum. Ned had begun recounting his thoughts on the latest Mortal Kombat release, which Peter had yet to try (and Ned insisted that he just "had to, I mean have you seen the new finishing moves?), but Peter had zoned out soon after, his eyes glued to the back of MJ's head and the way her curls fell haphazardly yet deliberately over her backpack and around her shoulders, creating a striking imitation of a lion's mane.

"Hey man, are you even listening to me?" Ned tapped Peter's shoulder, finally realising that his friend had long since checked out from the conversation.

"Yeah, yeah, new finishing moves. By the way, did you know we were coming to a mine today?" Peter hated this way his voice almost broke on the word 'mine', his memory of being trapped under a building way too fresh and started to make his brain way too liable to dredge up an unwelcome amount of panic.

"Did you even read the slip? Do you ever read the slip?" Ned's voice was slowly fading out again as Peter felt dread bubble up. He couldn't quite tell if it was his 'Spidey-Sense' going off or just good old fashioned anxiety, but he just couldn't quite shake the feeling that something was going to go terribly wrong.

"If I could have everybody's attention!" Peter winced at the echo of Mr Harrington's claps as he transformed the class' murmuring to silence. "Now I'm hoping none of you are claustrophobic, because we've paid for 24 admissions tickets and to be honest, I didn't really think of a Plan B. Just take a few deep breaths and you'll be fine," Mr Harrington trailed off and Peter was sure he was the only one who heard the muttered "at least that's what my therapist keeps telling me."

During that brief period of silence, a young man in his twenties emerged donning a scuffed white helmet with an LED-light attached, stool on one arm and a corded microphone (the cord was so long it just disappeared somewhere, and Peter had to resist the sudden and powerful urge to follow it) hanging over the other.

"Anyways, I'm just going to hand the floor over to our guide, Sam," Mr Harrington passed the conversational baton on to the staff, relief taking over his features. No need to stumble his way through another speech.

Sam proceeded to elaborate on the history of the mine and the types of rocks that can be found (there was something about rocks that glowed that made Peter's unease almost turn into excitement). Peter caught Ned repeatedly sending concerned glances his way, obviously waiting for a moment to press Peter on his uncharacteristic silence since the beginning of the bus trip.

Anticipating the end of the induction, seeing as they were now talking about evacuation and safety procedures, Peter bent over to grab his backpack from where he'd set it at his ankles when Sam said something that made Peter's blood turn to ice.

"A fact that some of you may find interesting, is that the Ramapo Fault System runs through parts of northern New Jersey, and it's actually not too far south from where we are. It's one of the oldest and longest fault lines in America's Northeast, and while an earthquake is unlikely, they are unpredictable, and New Jersey is long overdue."