As always, please review :)
"Hey, that's one of the guys that tried to kill me." Peter said.
Well, shit. Kate thought as she watched them descend the staircase.
"What?" Ned asked in a loud whisper.
"Yeah." Peter said not looking back.
Ned was definitely not as calm as Peter or Kate. "We gotta get out of here." He said to the two.
"No, no, no. I gotta follow them." Peter said. "They can lead me to the guy that dropped me in the lake."
Kate made a mental note to get into Tony's tracking system tonight to find out if that was the incident in Queens that he didn't want to tell her about.
"Someone dropped you in a lake?" Ned asked continuing the conversation.
"Yeah, it was not good." Peter said with a little bit of a clouded look in his eyes. He eased around the corner to follow the two trespassers.
"Peter—Kate!" Ned whisper called as Kate eased around the corner to follow Peter towards the stairs.
"No." Peter said. "Stay there, Ned."
His voice faded as they moved down the hallway and quietly moved down the stairs.
"Man, can you imagine what the boss would say if he knew where we were?" One of the guys was saying as they got closer.
"It's saying there was an energy pulse here." The other, more serious looking one, said.
Peter and Kate split up to move out of sight before they were discovered. There was a tone of piping running along the ceiling that provided a good cover for Kate while Peter used his powers to actually stick under one of the tables.
"There's no sign of the weapon." The first one said. "And even if it was here, now it's gone."
"So are we." The serious one said as they moved to the stairs again but not before Peter connected a tracking spider to one of their boots and Kate got a good snapshot of their faces.
Once they were gone, Kate jumped down from her spot and Peter got up.
"We better get back to Ned." Kate said. "He's probably freaking out."
At the end of school Peter walked Kate outside and they quickly spotted the SUV that was waiting for her. She turned to Peter and quickly wrapped her arms around him in a hug. She felt his shock as he stiffened before he wound his arms around her back. Moving her head slightly, she put her mouth close to his ear.
"I'll call you tonight about those guys." She said. "We'll talk tomorrow about DC."
He nodded and they separated so she could head to the car.
Climbing in, she looked at Clint. "Uneventful day." She said.
"Good." He replied. "What was with the hug?"
Kate shrugged. "If we have to leave, I may not see him again." She replied looking out the window as they drove away.
…
"This is so awesome." Ned commented as he sat on Peter's bedroom floor, leaning against the bed.
"I know, right?" Peter said dropping onto the bed.
Ned was holding the tracking monitor as he and Peter followed the movements of the guys from the school. Kate was on video chat with them while she worked on something in her room at the Tower. As much as he wanted to talk to her about what happened, or what was going to happen, he knew that he couldn't talk about it in front of Ned, so he tried to focus on this problem.
Ned touched the holographic map and it changed into a more expanded view.
"They're in Brooklyn." Peter commented.
Time passed slowly as they watched the tracker. Peter discovered that Kate had been able to pull up the tracker as well, so she was following along on her end. At one point she vanished off screen but came back a few minutes later.
"Staten Island." Ned said.
"Leaving Jersey." Kate commented, staring curiously at something on her screen.
After a little while, they were all starting to doze off when the tracer beeped.
Ned jumped, sitting up. "They stopped." Somehow, he had ended up wearing Peter's mask.
"Maryland?" Peter said looking at the map.
"What's there?" Ned asked.
Peter shook his head. "I don't know." He said. "Evil lair?"
"They have a lair?" Ned said.
"A gang with alien guns…run by a guy with wings?" Peter said like it was obvious. "Yeah."
"Badass." Ned said. Peter heard Kate's quiet laugh. "But how are you gonna get there if it's, like, 300 miles away?"
"It's not too far from D.C." Peter turned, hearing Kate's comment and saw she was watching them from the screen.
Peter and Ned both turned to look at the poster that Peter still had of the Decathlon Nationals Competition.
…
Once Kate got back to the Tower, she hurried through dinner so she could get to her room. The adults were all working on their parts of the plan upstairs, but Kate needed to work on hers. It took a lot of convincing, but she had gotten Clint to agree to let her stay with Peter tomorrow after school before they got on the bus to DC.
She had established a secure link that she could video chat with Peter tonight. Unsurprising, Ned was there as well spending the night while they tracked the guys that had shown up at the school.
While they followed the tracker, she had it pulled up on one of her displays, but she was also looking at the schematics of Peter's suit as well as the data from what happened the previous night.
She winced as Peter was scooped up by the Vulture guy, but she kept rewinding it, looking at the details of the wings and the mask that the guy was wearing, looking for some signature but committing details to memory for later.
A knock on her door made her jump and she killed the screen for a moment, looking up. Clint opened the door and leaned against the doorframe.
"What are you working on?" He asked curiously.
"Just hacking into Tony's designs." She replied with a smile.
Clint laughed lightly and shook his head. "I would say that he's going to be mad, but I think he finds it funny." He commented.
"That's cause I'm adorable." She replied.
Clint smiled but it faded after a second. "About tomorrow…" He started.
Kate chewed on her lower lip. "I'll be fine." She said. "Besides, I'm sure you'll be watching."
"We have one shot at this." He said.
"I know." She said somberly.
Clint walked over and placed a kiss on her forehead. "Don't stay up too late." He said.
"Good night." She said squeezing his hand before he walked out closing the door. She turned the screen back on and watched the tracker while Peter and Ned talked. One shot.
…
"Hey, it's Peter." Abraham called out.
Peter watched everyone look up at his call. He and Kate were walking together up to the bus and he found himself nervous. What if this didn't work? "Guys." He said with a nervous smile.
"Peter?" Liz said in surprise.
"Hey, buddy." Ned said actually acting naturally for the moment.
Peter glanced at Kate and she was watching him, her gold jacket draped over her crossed arms. "I was hoping I could rejoin the team." He said.
"No, no way." Flash said standing up. "You can't quit on us..." He moved around the other kids. "...stroll up and be welcomed back by everyone."
Before anyone could say anything, Mr. Harrington walked off the bus. "Hey, welcome back!" He said instantly. "Flash, you're back to first alternate."
"What?" Flash cried.
Peter heard Kate choke down a laugh at his side and he had to contain his smile.
"He's taking your place." Abraham said mockingly.
"Excuse me, can we go already?" Michelle asked, ever one to move things along. "I was hoping to get in some protesting in front of an embassy before dinner."
"Protesting is patriotic." Mr. Harrington said. "Let's get on the bus."
Flash tossed Peter his jacket angrily and they all boarded the bus.
Peter took a seat near the back behind Ned, but Kate slid in next to him and his stomach flipped. His mind was racing over their discussion earlier, but he was determined for this to work.
He looked over at her and she met his gaze, blue-grey eyes wide.
I'm scared. Her words echoing in his head, he reached over subtly, taking her hand that was obscured from the others by her jacket and lacing their fingers together. She gripped his hand back.
What would be the fun if I revealed the plan ahead of time ;) let's see how things play out.