Peter eyed the F.E.A.S.T. center from a neighboring rooftop, surveying the scene in a crouched position. M.J. had talked about how stuff was always going on at F.E.A.S.T, even at night, but from what he could tell that activity still seemed very little. The outside of the building was quiet as well, with not a soul to be soon. Even so, Peter still felt it was better safe than sorry, and he scanned the area looking for another point of entry. Sure enough, there was a ventilation shaft on the outside of one of the higher levels, just as he thought. It looked just big enough for him to sneak his way into Martin's office, look through the man's computer, and get out.

The whole idea still made Peter feel rotten, but his mind was made up. He reached onto his jacket pocket, pulling out the old mask and goggles that he used to before Mr. Stark had given him the suit he'd grown used to. It wasn't the same, but it still gave him pause as he glanced down at it. If his plan were to go as he hoped, he might not even actually need it, but he figured it was better safe than sorry. Besides, if M.J. was right and Martin Li really was behind them almost getting killed, he was more than willing to play it safe for both their sakes.

Finally throwing on the mask and goggles, Peter drew in and let out a deep breath.

"Okay, here we go," he said, checking one last time before leaping across the street and onto the wall of F.E.A.S.T. He landed right next to the vent opening, tearing off the barrier to it easily and swiftly crawling inside headfirst. From there, Peter navigated around as best he could. He had a general idea of how to get from place to place based off which side and level of the building he entered from, but it was still a bit of a guessing game at first. It didn't take long for him to fully catch on though, and before he knew it, he had arrived at the spot just above Martin's office.

Now all that was left to deal with was the security camera in the office. It was located on the corner next to the door, just below the ceiling. Peter reached into his pocket, pulling out a small device Ned had developed last year. It had the capacity to lock onto the camera and essentially cause it to "pause," freezing with whatever footage was being shown at the time. Ned had always said that Peter should be prepared for a situation just like the one he was in now; he had said he would never do such a thing at the time.

For just a moment, he imagined what Ned would say if he knew what he was doing right now.

Unfortunately, the device had never been tested on a security system like this one. Peter had faith in his best bud's talents though, so he cracked open the vent entrance to the room just enough to lower the device to a position where it was facing the camera, pressing the button in the center to activate it. After a few seconds, the device beeped and the light on the camera blinked, indicating that the work had been done.

With the room now secure for him to enter, Peter dropped down from the ventilation shaft, landing right in front of the office's desk. He quickly got in the seat and activated the computer. It flickered to life, the light almost blinding Peter at first in the otherwise pitch-black room. It only took a moment for his vision to settle though, and soon he went to work. Using some hacker's tricks that he had learned from his days digging up and getting into old computers in the garbage, he managed to bypass the password request, and soon he had access to everything on Martin Li's computer.

But where to start? None of the file names themselves seemed suspicious at first glance, but he had to start somewhere. Moving the mouse over, Peter selected the business-related section first. He scanned quickly though the files, but not so fast that he couldn't get a good idea of what each one was about. After a little while, he could tell this area was a dead end, so he moved on.

Peter went through another series of files relating to plans of expanding the building, but there was nothing suspicious there either. He went through more files, but still found nothing. He went through file after file after file but found absolutely nothing to cause suspicion. This lack of success was actually starting to make Peter feel a little better. Sure, it was looking like he would be back at square one as to who came after him and M.J, but at least his faith in Martin Li would remain.

Just as he was finally letting himself believe all of this, Peter caught sight of a file buried deep within various subsections of the other files. He tried to access it but found it to be encrypted. What on earth would Martin Li need to keep on hand in his computer that required an encryption? He leaned back in the chair for a moment, pondering what to do next. This file could simply be something of a very private and personal nature... but what if it wasn't?

Peter pulled out a thumb drive from his pocket, playing with it in his fingers as he pondered what to do. He knew he would hate himself if he saved a copy of the file, cracked the encryption and discovered something that wasn't nefarious or illegal, but simply none of his business. Still, he had come all this way, not just for himself, but for M.J. It was her belief about Martin not being what he seemed that drove him to come here as it ate him up inside.

He had to know. He had to try.

Inserting the thumb drive into the computer, Peter managed to upload a saved copy of the file onto it. Once he had what he needed, he took the thumb drive out and logged off the computer. He then exited the room the same way he entered it by jumping into the ventilation duct, restarting the security camera and resealing the way into the room so that all would be exactly as he left it.

"Peter?"

Slowly pulling his head out from his arms, Peter turned his head, glancing up at Happy.

"Happy?"

"Were you working on something last night?" the man asked.

Peter sat up more fully, glancing at his surroundings. He was still sitting on his chair in front of the desk in his room. It was the same place he had been most of the night since returning through his window with the flash drive.

"Yeah, yeah sorry," Peter said, rubbing his eyes. "Yeah, I guess you could say that."

"Well, I've got breakfast ready," Happy said, pointing behind himself, "if you want."

"Sure," Peter said, "Just give me a minute." Happy nodded, seeing himself out of the room. Peter's eyes returned to the flash drive in his hand. He rotated it side to side, as if somehow seeing every angle of it would suddenly give him the courage to actually try and decrypt it. That was how he'd fallen asleep the night before, now that he thought about it: just sitting there and staring at the darn thing. Sleep had apparently done nothing for his resolve in the matter, so he got up, slipped the drive into his pocket and walked out of the room.

If sleep wouldn't help, maybe some food would.

"Hey," Happy greeted him as he entered the room. "Glad you could join us."

Peter nodded, taking a seat at what had become his usual spot at the table. Happy and M.J. both were already chowing down on breakfast. Peter made eye contact with M.J. for a moment, but tore himself away, her gaze only reminding him of his present predicament. He sat down and dug into his food.

For a time, there was silence around the table as everyone ate. Happy finished first and was thus the first one to speak.

"So, I know we agreed a good night's rest would do us some good," he began. "Now that we've had that, I say we try and figure out what's going on around here."

Peter still refused to look at either of them, but he could feel M.J. looking at him particularly.

"Anyway," Happy continued, seeing as no one else seemed to have anything to say, "I think we need to see if this has happened to anyone else or not. Maybe someone reported something to the police, or on the news or something."

"Yeah, that sounds good," M.J. finally spoke up. "Peter, what do you think?"

Peter finally looked up, glancing at M.J, then Happy, then M.J. again.

"Actually," he started nervously, "I think I might have a better idea." He slowly reached into his pocket, pulling out the thumb drive and holding it up for the other two to see.

"What's that?" M.J. asked.

Peter sighed. "This drive contains a file I saved from Martin Li's computer last night."

"Wait, from his computer?" Happy said. "When did you get into his computer?"

"Last night," Peter confessed.

"So, you broke into his office?" Happy asked.

Peter slowly nodded. He glanced to M.J, who had a look on her face that he couldn't decipher. It seemed to be a mix of happiness, since he had shown a willingness to investigate her suspicions, but also guilt, because he took such a big risk for her.

"Well," Happy said, still seemingly a bit flabbergasted, "have you looked at it yet?"

Peter shook his head.

"The file I pulled was encrypted, which was why I chose to pull it," he said. "I meant to run a decryption program on it last night, but... I couldn't do it."

"What do you mean?" Happy asked. "Was something wrong with your encryption program?"

"No, it's not that, it's just..." Peter began. "I just want to believe in something to believe in. Martin Li gave me that. He just seemed like such a beacon of hope that, if I've been wrong about him this whole time, I don't know if I could handle that."

Peter slumped his arms on the table in a frustrated exhaustion. He was angry with himself that he couldn't just put aside his issues and do this one simple thing for them, the two people that have done the most for him since the snap. They were the two people that he had come to care about the most, after all.

He then felt a hand squeeze his own. Peter glanced up to see M.J, who was offering a gentle, compassionate smile his way. A moment later, Happy was by his side, with his hand on Peter's shoulder.

"Peter, I know how much this means to you," he began, "and I know this must be hard, but we have to do this. If nothing else, we'll at least know."

Peter nodded his head. "I know," he said, before letting out a deep sigh. Happy was right. They had to know the truth; they deserved to know the truth.

He needed it too.

"Alright," he said. "Let's do it."

They all went upstairs to Peter's room (after he made sure his Spider-Man stuff was put away), and he pulled out the decryption program, inserting the drive into the computer.

"This might take a little while," he said, "it seems very heavily protected."

"What on earth would a man like him need a such a heavily protected file for?" Happy wondered out loud.

"No idea," Peter said. Right now, he was trying to avoid thinking of the possibilities.

"So, how did you get into his office anyway?" M.J. asked.

"Oh, I... picked the lock," Peter said, realizing how poorly prepared he was for such questioning.

"But his office has a security camera, right?" M.J. asked. "Did it see you?"

"No," Peter said. "I, uh, found a way to cover it up. I was in and out."

"But people could still identify you, since you came in," M.J. said.

"There weren't many people there," Peter stated, growing more worried each second that his lie was falling apart. "I wouldn't worry about that. I was careful."

"Well," M.J. replied, herself seemingly at a loss for words in the moment, "that's... very lucky. I can't believe you walked out the door without me waking up though. I'm a very light sleeper."

Since that last part was a statement and not a question, Peter only shrugged to acknowledge it. M.J. smiled lightly in return, but something about it seemed very forced to him.

"Anyway," she said, slowly backing towards the door, "I guess I'll just, you know, get a snack of something, if we're going to be here a while." She then exited the room, and Peter buried his face in his hands.

"So," Happy said, "are you, uh, planning on telling her?"

Peter dropped his hands, glancing up at the man.

"I don't know Happy," he said, slumping in his seat.

"Well, the way things are going, you might want to think about it," Happy said.

"What do you mean?" Peter asked.

"Well, I mean, she's staying with us indefinitely for one," Happy said, "so if you ever do suit up again, it might be hard to keep it under wraps."

"I could handle it," Peter said.

"Okay," Happy said, throwing up his hands defensively, "I'm sure, you know, given how well it worked out with your best friend."

"Is there a point to this?" Peter asked as he began to get a little stressed out from all this questioning.

"Look," Happy said, "I just don't think it's such a bad idea to tell her. She seems like she could handle it."

Peter's eyes drifted away from Happy's as he tried to sort his thoughts. He had previously tried to avoid letting his brain to take him to a place where he considered telling M.J. that he was Spider-Man for a myriad of reasons. Now though, with how close they were getting, plus everything that was happening...

"So, did I miss anything?" M.J. announced as she came back into the room with a small bowl of blueberries. Peter glanced at Happy before answering.

"No, not really."

Almost an hour later, the decryption was finally complete, and soon, Peter and the group finally had access to what was on the drive. Peter opened the file, and inside schematics and blueprints for a large device of some kind.

"What is that?" M.J. asked.

"I'm not entirely sure," Peter replied. He was perhaps the biggest nerd he knew outside of maybe Ned when it came to science and technology, but he had never seen anything like this machine before. He scanned through the layout, reading the different notes around each component.

"It looks like one device made out of multiple parts," he said. "It looks like its main purpose is to draw out quantum energy."

"What would Martin Li need quantum energy for?" M.J. said. "To power something?"

"Maybe it's for another one of his humanitarian projects," Happy suggested.

Peter was about to say something, but then a troubling thought came to him.

"Happy," Peter said, "do you have records of what was stolen from Stark Industries recently?"

"Yeah," Happy said. His and M.J.'s eyes then widened as they both caught onto what Peter was suggesting. Happy then left the room for a moment before coming back with a tablet he was frantically mashing.

"Here we go," he said, handing the tablet to Peter. He examined it, holding it up next to his own computer, the schematic for the device still on display.

"Oh man," Peter said, turning to M.J. "Are you seeing this too?"

M.J. nodded, and the air felt like it had been sucked out of the room.

"Okay, I guess we can rule out this thing being used for a good purpose," Happy finally said.

"The good news though is that it doesn't look like he has everything he needs yet," Peter said, pointing back and forth between the images. "There's still a couple of components missing."

"Okay," Happy said, taking his tablet back, "I'm going to head into Stark Industries right now, and hopefully come up with a plan to protect the remaining pieces." The man didn't even wait for a response, darting out of the room before he knew it. Peter got up to follow him, but the man quickly slipped his shoes on and disappeared out the door, focused on his new task.

"Well, there he goes," Peter said, smacking his hands together. He turned to face M.J.

"So, what now?" she asked.

"I guess we see how it goes with Happy," Peter said, shrugging. "I'm sure he'll pass what we found onto the police too, though I guess he'd have to answer how he got that file..."

"Okay," M.J. replied. "What are YOU going to do?"

Peter looked at her, puzzled.

"What do you mean?" he asked.

M.J. hesitated in her response, like she was pondering whether to say something or not. When she did say something, it was the last thing Peter expected.

"I mean, you are Spider-Man after all."

Oh my…..

Hope you all are still enjoying it!

Praying for you all; stay safe and healthy!

"He says, 'Be still, and know that I am God.'" Psalm 46:10