"This is so awesome." Ned's voice dripped in awe as he watched a holographic image of a busy street materialize from the tracker's companion that he held in his hands. The three of them had headed back to Peter's apartment afterwards, empty at the moment save for themselves, and holed up in Peter's room for some reconnaissance. Peter flung himself onto his bed so his head was next to Ned's.

"I know, right?" He touched the hologram and it grew in size and radius, giving them a clearer picture. "They're in Brooklyn."

Katya'd perched herself on the floor next to the edge of the bed, at Ned's feet, so she could see the hologram too. She heaved out her history book from her school bag to prop open on her lap. Something told her this was going to take a while, so she might as well take advantage of the time they had.

Katya'd thought schoolwork was going to be the first and last of her worries when she'd first moved here, as it had been stressed by Natasha that that's how most 'normal' lives 'd already been armed with a fake address in case anyone asked where she lived, as it was unorthodox for a non-avenger to live in Avenger's Tower, but even with the rift- whatever had happened between the team, which Katya was still trying to piece together with context clues since none of them would openly talk about it- Natasha said that Tony was the safest place for her right now, even though Tony'd practically begged Natasha to let him train her. He'd dropped it, as far as she could tell, with the contingency that she at least help Peter with his hand to hand, and after their conversation about the suit…Katya wondered mildly if he was going to notice when they didn't show up that day.

But after meeting Peter, and getting sucked into all this- this felt more normal for her than joining afterschool clubs where she would learn an instrument (besides,the Academy had already taught them piano and violin), or how to hold herself back from obliterating the rest of the students at chess club. It felt much more….like a purpose, than just the routine of homework, school, eat and sleep that she thought she'd longed for, but she tried not to think too hard about it. Besides, as far as Tony was concerned, she hoped with baited breath that he had believed her and Peter when they said they'd leave it alone.

And anyways, her wrist gauntlet, which she'd kept for some reason, was still hidden deep in the back of her closet, and she didn't plan on pulling it out anytime soon. As long as Peter kept his promise, that they were helping and not hurting, she felt comfortable enough to go along with it for now.

An hour passed as they continued to watch the tracker, each of them occupying themselves with little things to do. Katya was trying to write an essay, whilst Peter had taken to adhering himself to multiple surfaces of the room for fun, it seemed. Soon she'd engaged him in a game of slaps, where to her delight they finally seemed evenly matched- his reflexes were almost as quick as hers and, considering his were superpowers, were only going to get better as they went along.

"Staten Island." Ned announced, and Peter cried out after Katya's slap had met the back of his hand. She hadn't meant it to be particularly hard, but his hand flamed red.

"Jesus!"

"Sorry." She muttered,not sorry at all - that's how the game was played- but got back into position. She'd also heard the game called Red Hands, and it was called that for a reason.

After a few more rounds, where Peter'd gotten in three (to her four, but still, improvement) they'd moved back into their own activities, Peter adhering himself to the ceiling and grabbing chips out of the bag that lay splayed between the three of them.

"Leaving Jersey." Ned announced. By that time, Peter'd moved onto his desk, examining what was left of the weapon's chassis, and Katya had moved on to Chemistry homework.

Still, it took long hours before the device began beeping. Ned, who'd laid back on Peter's bed and was wearing the spiderman hood for god knows why, sat up first, grabbing the hologram. "They stopped."

Peter, who was back on the ceiling by now, let his body dangle. "Maryland?"

"What's there?" Katya had no clue where Maryland was, and whether it was a far away destination or not. Her grasp on American geography outside of New York and the bigger states was still a little fuzzy.

"Aunnoe, and evil lair?" Peter suggested. Ned bristled with excitement.

"You think they have an evil lair?!"

Peter gave him a funny look. "Dude, a gang with alien guns run by a guy with mechanical wings? They gotta have an evil lair."

"But how are you going to get there if it's like three hundred miles away?"

Katya quickly did the math in her head- 300 miles was 500 kilometers- not close. Peter glanced at a poster on his wall, his eyes calculating. "It's not too far from DC."

"What's in DC?" Katya closed the book, leaving her unfinished homework as the bookmark for now.

"Academic Decathalon." Ned answered, "But Peter quit the team."

Peter unstuck himself from the roof and flipped into a standing position. "I"m sure they'd let me back on, I just gotta talk to Mr. Wilson first."

"Is this like a.." Katya searched for the word, she knew she knew it from all the movies she'd watched and the fliers she'd seen around the school. "Field trip?"

Ned and Peter both nodded. "It's an academic competition, and the team goes to DC to compete with students from around the country."

Katya narrowed her eyes. "Okay, and we just let you go on your own?"

Peter clasped Ned's shoulder. "Ned's on the team, he can help."

Katya stopped it, but her face wanted to fall. "But I'm not." she muttered, more to her knees than the room.

"Yeah, I know," Peter's voice was similarly preoccupied as he sat down to complete their triangle. "I'm sure we could figure out something. Maybe I can convince Mr. Wilson to take a second alternate."

"Dude, with you on the team we barely need one, and the tickets are already bought- I don't think that's going to work."

Peter sighed heavily. "Well we're not just going to go without you."

"Maybe I can convince Happy that it's just a regular field trip and find my own way down there."

"Find your own way down?" Katya was struggling to tell if Ned sounded skeptical or worried.,

"Yes- I'm not on the team, so it's not like I could take the bus or stay in the hotel with you guys. But I can figure something out."

"You could say you're visiting family-" Peter's voice quickened, like it always did when he was excited. "And we can just ask if we can give you a ride!"

"Do you really think that'll work?" Katya didn't know any of the school's policies, but she knew there were a lot.

"I'm honestly not sure if Mr. Wilson knows how many kids are on the team to begin with."

"But Liz definitely does." Ned pointed out

Peter shrugged. "I"ll handle Liz."

Katya burst out laughing, but was met only by stares from the other two boys. She reigned it in as best she could. "Sure, Peter, you handle Liz."

Peter scowled. "What's that supposed to mean?"

Katya kicked at his knee lightly. "You almost exposed yourself to the entire school so that she'd look at you, Peter." Katya managed to quiet her laughs into sporadic snickers. "I've seen the way you look at her in the halls." Katya didn't know much about personal relationships in general, much less all of this high-school 'dating' scene, but she knew how people worked and was pretty sure she had a good idea of who Peter was. " has crashed."

Ned laughed at that, leaving Peter to splutter, "That's not true! I can talk to Liz- and I can make a case for you." He began to pick at his carpet. "Though it'd be nice to have some back up, so maybe if you were there-"

Katya let herself laugh again, Ned joining her "There it is!"

"-I just mean that it's harder to say no to someone when they're standing right in front of you. So if you're there, it'll be harder for her to disagree."

Katya was still sniggering, and she took a chip, the cheese powder sticking to her fingers annoyingly. He had a point. "And you don't think that's a little manipulative?"

Peter'd managed to pull a full thread from his carpet entirely, and was now messing with it between web string. "I don't know, it's not like it's going to hurt anybody-"

"You'd be lying to her face." Ned said, taking a chip for himself and still watching the hologram. Peter shrugged.

"We've got to find out who this winged man is. And it'll be making the world a safer place for her- for everyone."

"Okay, Sir Lancelot," Katya referenced the only well known knight name she knew, "What's the plan, then?"

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