Chapter 11: The Mission
Peter was running late for math after Mr. Ross lectured nearly three minutes over time. His shins hurt from the frenetic speed of his walking, and he could feel an impending asthma attack in the tightening of his lungs. He didn't worry too much about it, though, because he was almost there. Peter rounded the corner and something grabbed him by the shirt, yanking him into the janitor's closet. The door slammed shut behind him.
"What the heck?" he panted. He turned around to see who had kidnapped him and found Wanda staring back at him, an expression of grim urgency on her face.
"We have a problem," she said.
"What's happening?"
"I…I…I glitched."
"What does that mean?"
"I went to the bathroom during class, and on my way back I sneezed."
Peter failed to see how this was a problem. "And…?"
"I sneezed red."
"So you had a nosebleed."
"No! Not blood red." She glanced around, as if to check nobody was listening. "Magic red."
"You sneezed and it activated your powers?"
"Yes. It happens sometimes. As you know, I'm still…not great at controlling them."
Peter was all too familiar. He'd nearly been struck by countless projectiles. "But if you were alone in the hallway, what does it matter? Did anyone see you?"
"No, but the school has security cameras."
"Oh shit. Do they have audio too?" he asked, now concerned that this very conversation would be the thing to seal their dooms.
"No, just video, according to Mr. Stark. He hacked into the system before sending us here."
"Why can't we just have him hack in again and wipe the footage?"
"We can't tell him! He'll pull us out of school immediately."
"True, true." Peter scrambled to think of another plan. He was better at hacking than the average person, but definitely nowhere near Mr. Stark. The school's security system was probably above his skill level. If it was his old school, he could've done it, but Stan Lee had actual money to spend on these sorts of things.
"Peter, come on. I need your help."
"I'm trying!" Nobody had ever come to him for help with anything but homework before.
"We have to wipe that footage soon, before somebody sees it."
"I know, I know. I'll think of something. We have a free period in engineering today. I'll be able to really brainstorm then, and we can execute the plan after school today."
"Okay, okay."
She was still visibly rattled.
"It's gonna be fine. Even if we can't wipe it, what are the odds someone sees it? I'm pretty sure they only review security footage if there was a burglary or a fistfight or something."
"I can't take that chance."
Peter was moments from telling her to stop overreacting, but then he paused to really think about why this incident scared her so badly. There were people out there who would literally kill to get their hands on powered individuals. He took a deep breath, and encouraged her to do the same. "We're gonna fix this. I promise."
"I'll hold you to that." She said it like a threat.
"You'd better."
She suddenly wrapped him up in a fierce hug. "Thanks Peter."
"You—you're welcome," he stammered.
"I'm late for class," she said as she released him.
"Yeah, me too."
"Hopefully we don't get detention."
"Yeah, that would suck."
"Okay. See you after school."
"See you."
Wanda left the closet first, and then Peter left a few moments later. They ought to wipe the footage of this hallway too in case anybody saw them leave the same closet and spun any…theories. He did not receive detention for being late to math, fortunately. Ms. Hill accepted his excuse: "Mr. Ross didn't let me use the bathroom during class, and then he went over time, so I had to go between classes."
Peter could barely focus on the lesson, already considering how to get that security footage. He didn't know where it would be stored, or whose password he would need to access it, or if it was even possible to manually delete footage. There was so much he needed to find out within the next few hours if he wanted to execute this plan today.
When he walked into sixth period, Ms. Goodner reminded them it was a free period to work on their projects and then promptly put on massive headphones. Peter bet they were noise canceling and decided to ask for help from his friends. An excuse for why he asked about deleting security footage, he could come up with later, if they asked.
"You're gonna need Fury's password," Scott answered immediately, without even looking up from the electrical circuit he was tinkering with. "There's no way to get in otherwise without setting off an alarm."
"Do I even want to know why you know that?" Bucky asked.
"Probably not," Scott said. "Why do you need to know, Peter?"
"I was just curious." He tried desperately to sound nonchalant, but nobody bought it.
"People don't just get curious about erasing video evidence," Shuri said. "Come on, what happened? Your embarrassing secret is safe with us."
His actual secret definitely wasn't safe with anybody—it probably wasn't even safe with him—but he had to come up with something worth deleting that was a lesser caliber than exposing Wanda as an enhanced human. "I was…slammed against a locker. By Frank," he explained. "I don't want anyone to see that because they'll report it and make a big deal out of nothing."
Bucky shook his head. "That asshole."
"Don't delete that, use it as evidence to get him suspended," Scott suggested.
"I don't want that. I just want to pretend it never happened." Peter didn't have to pretend—because it never actually happened. Frank talked big, but Peter had never seen him physically violent with anyone but his football buddies, and that was all in good fun.
"You'll need Fury's password," Scott repeated.
"Do you know it?"
"No, but I know someone who does."
"Who?"
"Natasha Romanoff."
"How does she know it?"
"I have no idea. But she definitely knows. Admin never proved it, but everybody knows she's the one who leaked a bunch of his personal files last year."
"What kind of personal files?"
"Just pictures and emails. Nothing incriminating, just mildly embarrassing."
Shuri cut in, "Apparently he takes quite the selfie."
Peter made a mental note to get his hands on these pictures after the whole security footage debacle was resolved.
"Do you know where the files are saved?" he asked Scott. "Do they go to an SD card or a DVR?"
"I'm not sure."
"Okay." Ever so slowly, a plan began to form in Peter's mind. He sat down at one of the computers in the shop and printed out several copies of the school's floor plan. The rest of the class was too busy working on their own stuff to question him, although he did earn one suspicious and somewhat disapproving glare from Alex. Halfway through the class, Peter asked Ms. Goodner to go to the bathroom. She waved him out without even looking up, which reinforced his confidence that she wouldn't even notice how long he was gone. He walked through the entire school, marking on the maps where all the security cameras were and estimating their recording range. It seemed the only blind spots were bathrooms and closets, but that's what he expected to find. He also checked the bulletin board where all the clubs and teams posted their schedules to confirm another aspect of the plan. By the time he made it back to class, twenty minutes had passed, but Ms. Goodner didn't even look up from her computer when he walked back into the room. When the final bell rang, he met Steve, Wanda, and Pietro at their usual spot. Wanda was mindlessly twisting her rings.
"I have a plan," Peter whispered. "Does everyone know the situation?"
Steve and Pietro nodded.
"Okay, step one: tell Happy we're staying after school. And step two: find somewhere unsupervised where we can discuss steps three through four-hundred-ninety-seven."
"Are there really that many steps?" Steve asked skeptically.
"Probably not. I've only thought this through maybe halfway and I haven't been counting. We'll figure it out together. Wanda, you're in charge of telling Happy not to come and get us until later. Pietro, you scout around and find an empty classroom, as far removed as you can. And Steve, you're gathering intel."
"What kind of intel?"
"Principal Fury's password. I've been assured that Natasha Romanoff is privy to this information. Nobody knows how, but she has it. I need you to get it out of her. Dance team has practice today at three-thirty, and they always hang out in the courtyard until then," Peter explained. Shuri told him that's where her brother always was after school.
"Before we continue, I need to know a few things. If this is gonna work, we might have to break some rules."
The trio nodded.
"Wanda, can you pick a lock?"
"It might take me a few tries, but yes," she confirmed.
"Great."
"Pietro, are you fast enough that a camera won't catch you?"
He looked downright offended that Peter would even ask. "Are these cameras high-speed?"
Peter shook his head.
"Then they won't ever know I was there."
"Perfect. Operation Gesundheit is a go."
They all immediately chuckled. "Is that what you're calling it?" Pietro asked.
"Yeah." Peter felt his face turn hot. "Because we're, you know…undoing the sneeze."
"No, I get it, it's just a bit…ridiculous," Wanda said.
"Fine. Operation as-yet-unnamed-because-my-step-siblings-are-no-fun is a go."
Steve clapped him on the shoulder. "We'll workshop it."
Steve and Pietro set off down the hallway. Wanda pulled out her phone to call Happy. Peter went to his locker and thought through the rest of the plan. Everything would have to go perfectly for this to work, and in his experience things rarely went perfectly. Then again, he'd never worked with such a highly trained team before. He returned to their meeting place to wait for his teammates to return. Wanda finished her call with Happy within five minutes.
"What did he say?"
"He asked what time we'll need a ride."
For this to work, they'd have to stay until all the admin went home. Peter didn't know exactly when they clocked out, but he guessed around five. "Do you think he'll be suspicious if we say six thirty?"
Wanda bit her lip. "That might be pushing it."
"Six?"
"Maybe."
"What did you tell him? About why we're staying?"
"I told him we were staying to help build sets for the theater department."
Peter ran a hand over his face. "Wanda, that's not exactly a believable excuse. Since when are we involved at all in the theater department?"
"It was the first thing I could think of! Agatha was saying in math today how they need a bunch of volunteers to build sets. Apparently the play has a really elaborate setup."
"What even is the play this year?"
"Macbeth."
"Who's Agatha playing?"
"All three witches."
"How does that work?"
Wanda shrugged. "Ask her."
Pietro returned from his reconnaissance mission. "Hayward's room is empty, and so's the room next to it."
"Great. Let's head there and text Steve to let him know."
"Just how elaborate is this plan of yours?" Pietro asked.
"Not too bad. I'll explain when we get there."
They entered the empty classroom and closed and locked the door. Peter immediately got to work copying the relevant parts of the school floor plan onto the whiteboard.
"Are we going to have to wipe this footage too?" Pietro asked.
"There's no camera in here." Peter gestured to the ceiling, which contained nothing but speakers and fire sprinklers.
"Why?" Wanda asked.
"I heard that Hayward specifically requested a classroom without it."
"Weird."
"No, that checks out," Pietro said.
Someone knocked on the door. Pietro pulled the curtain back just enough to see who it was, and let Steve into the classroom. "Did you get the password?" Peter asked.
"Affirmative."
"How'd you do it?" Wanda asked.
Steve blushed. "That's classified."
"Is that lipstick on your cheek?" Pietro asked.
"What?"
He and Wanda both started laughing, which only made Steve blush harder. "I'm just messing with you. That's not Natasha's color."
"How would you know what color lipstick she wears?" Wanda questioned.
"She's in our math class. And I…noticed."
"You were staring at her."
"How can you not?" He asked. Wanda didn't react. "Steve knows what I'm talking about."
"Guys, focus." Peter drew their attention to his map on the board. "Fury's office is here." He added a big red X inside it. "We will need to enter the office, unnoticed, with my laptop, and enter his password to access the security system."
Pietro raised his hand. "Why do we need your laptop?"
"It has an SD card reader. I'm getting to that."
"Once in the computer, we will identify where the security camera files are saved. They're either on the SD card in the camera itself, or on a DVR or NVR. If it's an SD card, Pietro will need to speed down the hallway and remove it from the camera. We will then plug it into my computer and remove the clip that has Wanda's magical sneeze. If it's on a DVR or NVR, we will have to locate that device, connect it to a monitor, login to the settings, and delete the footage.
"So, Wanda and I will enter the office. Pietro, you will stay here on standby, and we'll call you with further instructions once we know where the footage is stored. Steve, you're on guard duty, but you need a reasonable excuse to stand in one spot in the middle of the school. There's a mural right here." He drew a thick line on the map: the wall opposite the main entrance, right next to the administrative offices. "You will sketch the mural. If anyone asks, you're working on your art skills.
"Once we have deleted the file, we'll return the SD card and leave. Mission accomplished."
"Won't the cameras see us leaving the office?" Steve asked.
"Good point; I almost forgot." Peter opened his backpack and pulled out three small boxes with suction cups. "Pietro, before we begin, you will place these over the cameras that look over the main hallway." He circled those three cameras on the map. "And before we leave, you will remove them."
"Sounds like a plan. But we can't start until the admin leave, so what do we do in the meantime?"
"We can wash this whiteboard really well so they can't see this highly suspicious map of the school."
"Doesn't it seem a little…actually a lot…like a bad idea to use our powers?" Steve asked. "Isn't the whole point of this to erase evidence of Wanda using hers?"
"I don't see any other way," Wanda said.
"I won't get caught," Pietro avowed.
"But what if you do?"
"Steve, I can run two thousand miles per second. Nobody can catch me."
"Mr. Stark said we can use our powers in life-threatening situations. That camera footage, if anyone sees it, is threatening my life," Wanda explained.
Steve crossed his arms and leaned against the wall with a forlorn sigh. "I guess we have no other choice."
"Are you in or are you out? You won't be using any of your powers, so you're off the hook," Peter reminded him.
"I'm in."
"Operation Gesundheit is a go."
"Still not calling it that."
~0~
The clock struck five. Peter walked a casual lap of the school, pausing by the admin offices to see if they were all vacant. He saw one person packing up to leave. Another lap made ten minutes later, and the offices were deserted. "Pietro, you're up." Peter handed off the camera covers. Pietro barely even moved, and then he reported they were up.
"Okay, we have to move fast now, so anybody reviewing the footage will believe this period of black is just a minor glitch." He, Wanda, and Steve set off for the office. Peter found his eyes scanning back and for more often than usual. He'd never done anything like this before. It was simultaneously terrifying and invigorating.
They reached the door. Steve took up his post on a bench across from the mural. Peter stood beside Wanda as she focused her attention on the door knob. She raised a hand, little wisps of red dancing about her fingertips. He took a step to the side to shield it from the view of anyone who might walk by. Suddenly, Steve's head perked up. Peter was seconds away from asking what he heard, when he heard it too. A distant clamor of shouting. Soon after, he heard footsteps. Running footsteps. And a lot of them.
"Wanda, stop," he urged. She immediately dropped her hand, just as a horde of people rounded the corner, carrying fake swords and shouting. Loki led the charge, followed by the other Peter from homeroom, Mobius, Katy, Kingo, and Agatha. She wasn't running like the rest of them, but crawling like Gollum. The sight was so bewildering that he forgot he was currently involved in breaking and entering.
"What are you guys doing?" he asked, raising his voice to be heard above them.
"Getting into character," Kingo shouted back at him. They continued their charge onwards, completely ignoring Peter and his siblings. That's right; they had rehearsal for Macbeth today.
"That…happened," Steve uttered.
"That did happen."
"Got it," Wanda announced.
"Great. Let's go, let's go."
They had to get through another locked door to enter the principal's office, and this one took Wanda even longer. Once inside, Peter immediately sat down at the computer. It had to be turned on, which fortunately didn't take very long, but once he was in, he flew through to find the security camera software. He entered Fury's password—Natasha's intel turned out to be correct, thankfully—and scanned through the info. "It's on an SD card," he told Wanda. He clicked the option to reject the card from the camera. She relayed that information to Pietro, who appeared approximately one second later with an SD card in his hand.
Peter plugged it into his laptop, found the files from today, and deleted them. He handed it back to Pietro, logged out and shut down Fury's computer. They exited the office, Wanda relocking doors behind them, and walked calmly back to Mr. Hayward's classroom. Pietro removed the covers from the security cameras, and they all regrouped.
"Did that really just go off without a hitch?" Peter asked. Considering he planned this in half a day, he expected more things to go wrong than just an encounter with the theater kids.
"I think it did," Wanda agreed.
"Alright." Pietro held out his hands for high fives. After Steve slapped him, he winced and shook out his hand.
Peter glanced at his phone for the time. "And with half an hour to spare. Wow, that was awesome."
"Thank you so much for your help," Wanda said
"You're welcome."
"We make a pretty good team," Steve announced.
Peter wholeheartedly agreed. This was a rush like no other. Their first 'mission', and it was one hundred percent successful. Well, almost. On their way out, he noticed that Pietro's superspeed had left a trail of tile noticeably more polished than the area around it. He glanced at his siblings, but none of them seemed to notice. Hopefully, that meant nobody else would either.