A/N: Did I just finish another chapter? I think I did. Oh thank goodness. I forgot that this scene even existed in the movie and then, by the time I found out, I couldn't think of a way to ignore it without ruining the original plot and just ended up avoided writing the chapter for a month, so sorry about that. If the time line seems a bit off, that's why.
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The ringing in my head wakes me up. At least I hope it's in my head, the other option is that someone's actually calling the land line Hades made me get for the apartment and that's not something I want to deal with right now. The pitter patter of feet on the kitchen tile cuts through the ringing until they both suddenly stop.
"Hello?" I can hear Ashely ask. Poseidon's trident, it was the phone. I throw my arm over my eyes in an attempt to block everything else out while trying to figure out why one of the few people with my number would call instead of me. None of reason I can think of work in my favor. I'm shaken out of my thoughts by the phone being shoved towards me. "It's for you," Ashely explains, turning away to grab the T.V. remote as soon as the phone is out of her hand.
Even without putting the phone to my ear, I can hear the usual recording informing me that I didn't show up for school. Great, because that's exactly what I need right now. I hang up. Isn't it supposed to be Saturday already?
"What?" I groan when I notice Ashely staring at me.
"Are you going?"
"No," I tell the daughter of Hecate.
"Why?"
"Because," I huff, hoping to end the conversation.
"Because why?" she smiles.
No such luck. "Because I can't leave you here alone."
There's a beat of silence the, "Why?"
"Fine, I'll go," I relent just to make her stop. "But I'm leaving Jules Albert to watch over you," I warn.
-Time Skip-
Why did I come? I think as the person signing me in glares at me like I'm some kind of hooligan. It's offensive. I'm a public menace at best.
The day is already half way over, so I decide that I can probably get away with skipping class instead of risking death by boredom. I wonder the halls, trying to figure out the lay out of the school so that I don't have to rely on Michelle to get from class to class. It's my third time circling the school when I run into Ned and Peter. I didn't actually run into them, but it was 're peering around the conner of the hall and whispering to each other. Could they get any more suspicious?
"Why are we whispering?" I say, startling the two friends. I have to clamp my hand over my mouth to keep from laughing evilly as they jump a foot into the air.
"Nico," Peter tries to cover up his surprise, "I thought you weren't here today."
Shrugging, I smirk. "Just came in,"I switch to a normal speaking volume only to get shushed. "What? Worried the chess club's going to hear?" I point through the window to the group of kid that are starting to give us weird looks.
"Uh," Ned hesitates.
Slightly curious about why they're hiding and knowing that I won't be getting a decent answer from these two anytime soon, I round the corner to get a look for myself. I can't see what the big deal is. It's just a hallway. There aren't even any kids, just two men, oh. Abort, abort! One of those men is the crafty driver from last night, and as much as I would like to pay him back for getting me thrown out of a moving van and making me lose my sword, now really isn't the time or place. Peter grabs me and pulls me back behind the wall right before the thugs can turn and see me standing there like an angry deer in headlights. I try to not visibly cringe at the human contact.
"Did they see you?" Peter panics.
"Uh, I don't think so." I move his hand off of my arm.
He slumps against the wall in relief.
"They left," Ned reports. He doesn't seem confused by Peter's worrying which makes me think that he must also know Peter's secret. That or he just has a lot of faith in his very weird friend. "They went into the shop room."
Great, now we can leave without them recognizing me or connecting me and Peter. His secret is safe and I don't have to worry about getting expelled for fighting criminals on school property. It's easy, only an idiot ruin this opportunity.
"I'm going to follow them." And Peter is that idiot. Before I can tell him how stupid he's being, he already runs after the people that want to kill him. No wonder Stark thought he needs a babysitter.
Cursing the Fates for never letting my job be easy, I try to go after him when Ned grabs my arm. Okay, people really need to stop touching me without my consent. "What do you think you're doing?" he whisper shouts at me which really ruins the scolding tone he's trying to use.
"Going after Parker; he might need help," I tell him like it's obvious, because it is.
"You can't do that," Ned starts to panic. He lets go to physically block me from going the same way Peter went.
"Oh really," I challenge. If I didn't already know about Peter being Spider-Man, Ned's resistance to helping his friend would be really suspicious. He needs to get better at the whole secret identity thing. "And why not?" I push.
"They might recognize you," he suggests. He would only know that if Spider-Man told him about last night. Seriously, S.H.E.I.L.D needs to have a junior class on keeping identities a secret.
"How would you know that?" I toy with him. "the only other person there was Spider-Man." Ned's face goes white as he realizes his mistake. "Is there something you're not telling me?" I mean to be fair, I've only know these two for about two days so it's no surprise that I haven't been let in on the super hero secret, but that doesn't mean I can't use it to my advantage. Now he's too busy trying to come up with some kind of excuse that he doesn't stop me when I slip past him.
I'm already barging through the door to the school's workshop by the time Ned even realizes what I did. It looks like I've come just in time too, Peter is bent down behind a table and the dealers are dangerously close to seeing him when I arrive. "Hello boys," I channel my inner Crowley to draw their attention towards me and away from the boy hiding three feet from them. Everyone's head whip towards me so I guess it worked.
"You," the guy from last night recognizes me.
"Me." I smile.
"Who's this kid?" The criminal that I don't remember from last night asks his friend.
"The one with the sword that I told you about," thug number one explains.
Peter gives me a curious look at the mention of my sword, but I pretend I don't see it. I'll answer his questions later, maybe.
"Speaking of which, I really liked that sword, would I be able to get it back?" I ramble, giving the men time to stalk past Peter and closer to me.
Thug two sneers at me. "Sure, we'll take you to it. While we're there you can explain to our boss how you ruined last nights deal and what type of metal makes anyone that touches it feel like their soul's being sucked out of their body." He reaches up the steps, trying to grab my ankle and forcing me to take a step back. I think they're close enough now.
"You know what, never mind, you can keep the sword. It's obvious you can't use it anyways, but keep trying. If you end up killing yourselves that's less work for me," I tell them before turning tail and running. I have to lead them away from Parker somehow and it's not like I want them taking me to their boss either.
I don't really know where I'm going. I take one random turn after another, gaining the attention of the students in the classes along the way, but thankfully the teachers quickly shut and lock their doors instead of coming to investigate. Looks like school lock down protocols are working in my favor.
At one point I have a great enough lead on the criminals, that clearly aren't used to running so quickly, that I can step into a shadow and travel outside of the school without them being any the wiser.
I step out of the shadows beside the front stairs with no thugs in sight. In fact, the only people I can see are Ned and Peter hurrying down the steps. "Where are you two going in such a hurry?" I step out into the sunlight so that they can see me clearly.
"Stop doing that!" Ned scolds once he regains his balance enough that he doesn't fall down the steps.
I hold my hands up in surrender and laugh. I don't mean to always scare people, but it's kinda funny when I do.
While Ned catches his breath, Peter stares at me weirdly. "How did you get away from the guys that were chasing you?" he asks. Well not by getting any help from you.
"Simple, I gained a great enough lead that I was able to duck into a class room without them noticing. Once they went past I made my way out here to hind until the police can be called or something." Now that's how to lie properly.
Parker doesn't even get a chance to try and poke holes in my story when his wrist starts beeping and a holographic map with a glowing red dot moving across it expands from his bracelet.
"What's that?" I try not to smirk at the look of horror on Peter's face.
"Uh," he stutters. He looks to Ned for help who only shrugs. There's a silent argument between them before they both turn back to me and with perfect certainty says, "a game," at the exact same time Ned tells me it's "his new maps app."
"What are you doing?" Peter whisper yells at Ned.
"I don't know, I panicked." Ned apologizes.
"Look," I interrupt them, "you don't have to tell me what it is, but correct me if I'm wrong, the red dot getting closer to us is a bad thing right?" Neither of them say anything so I'm going to assume that I'm right. "Okay, then instead of standing here, waiting for the man with the super weapon to come find us, how about we finish this conversation somewhere else?" I suggest.
They waste time thinking it over.
"Well, I rather Aunt May didn't figure out about this, so we can't go to my place," Peter explains.
"And my parent really hate unexpected visitor," Ned adds.
There's only one other place left. "Looks like we'll have to use my apartment," I sigh, "Come on, lets get this over with," I mumble the last part. What I do to keep my promises.
