Chapter 6-Ned

His mom made snacks. His mom made snacks that he'd been working his way through all evening. So Peter was an hour late, right? No need to panic. He'd just work on homework and pretend that nothing was wrong. He'd pretend that it didn't feel like he was losing his best friend. He didn't even mind that Peter was late because Peter was Spiderman, and Spiderman had a lot of stuff to do. A lot of people to save. So he cut Peter some slack at ten. And then it was 11, and that was pretty late, so Peter probably wasn't coming, and Ned was just going to tidy up his homework and go to bed.

But he'd only been lying down for thirty minutes when he began to panic. Why was he lying down when his best friend was unaccounted for? Probably Peter had gone home because it was late but why hadn't he said anything? Ned checked his texts, checked Snapchat, Instagram, Facebook messages, even his email. Even his old alternate emails that he had made for free Netflix trials and Pottermore sorting quizzes. He was pretty consistently a Hufflepuff. But there were no messages from Peter anywhere.

So Ned did the reverse and began to message every account he knew Peter had. But there were no responses. He called Peter seventeen times. It was getting close to one now, he'd been going for so long. He didn't know how to track Peter's suit without direct access to it, and so he had no idea where that web-slinger was. If Peter had just gone home, he would have messaged or called.

And if Peter had gone home, his Aunt May wouldn't have called Ned at 1:35.

"Ned, where's Peter?"

"He's not at home?" Ned felt like he couldn't breathe when she asked that.

"No, I know he mentioned he'd be going over to your place, is he not there?"

"No, he never came over. I thought patrol might've gone a little longer and then he went home. But he hasn't been answering any messages or calls…" Maybe he was passed out somewhere, maybe he was seriously injured, or worse…

"There was an explosion downtown…" May said nervously.

"What?" Why did he never check his news apps? What was the purpose of a news app if you personally refused to stay well informed? Ned was horrified. His friend could be in serious danger.

"We need to call the Avengers!" Ned shouted, probably waking up the rest of his family. Didn't matter, they'd probably think he was sleep talking.

"We can't just call the Avengers! Do you have their phone numbers?" Ned thought for a second.

"I don't have their numbers, but I might know someone who can help. Hold on May, I'll call you back if I know anything more, don't freak out, the best thing you can do is wait and see if Peter comes home on his own or calls you. It's actually more likely that he'll call you, or email you from his seventh-grade email account, or whatever."

"Seventh-grade email account? That thing still works?"

"Well, I don't know because he didn't respond. But I think he probably still gets spam emails on that email. I hope he didn't put me in the spam folder as a joke. That would be really inconvenient right now…"

"Ned! Focus! Call your person. I'll wait here and let you know if anything changes on the home front."

"Okay, thanks." He called Shuri, knowing it was like 11 there and she might be asleep, but it was two here and Peter might be dead. He liked Shuri and didn't want to mess up her day, but he decided that for this one time, this was more important.

"Hey, what's going on, what's up?" She had clearly just woken up.

"Shuri, I'm sorry to wake you, but Peter is in danger."

"What?! What can I do to help?"

"Can you come here?" He blurted, knowing it was a long shot, but absolutely desperate.

"Yes! Of course I can, immediately. Well, in like thirty minutes."

"You can be across the country in thirty minutes?"

"Yes, I just have to sneak away from my guard."

"Maybe you shouldn't do this. Maybe I can find Peter on my own, I'll hit the streets."

"No no no, you're not doing that. You are very unarmed. I will be there in thirty minutes, forty five tops."

"Okay, okay. Should I stay on the line?"

"Yes, but be quiet for ten minutes while I sneak past my guard." Ned was as quiet as he could be, penning the draft of where he and Shuri would meet when she got to New York so that he could brief her and make sure they could continue to communicate. He also had to figure out how he was sneaking out of the house, or maybe how he was sneaking Shuri into the house. This was more sneaking than he was used to.

"Okay, talk."

"Our lead is an explosion in," he opened up his news app and put her on speaker phone, "Oscorp's main building. This is great. This is just fantastic, my friend is probably trapped in a fire somewhere."

"Ned, calm down, we will get Peter back safely. I will scour the city and you will be my backup, my guy in the chair."

"I'm good at that, I can do that…"

"I know you can."

"We'll meet in half an hour to exchange a game plan, okay?"

"Yes, stay on the line though. I'm a little nervous, it would help. Unless you get a call from Peter and then absolutely take the call from Peter." Ned got this weird feeling all of a sudden. A very out of place feeling, given the situation. This would be the first time he and Shuri would be meeting.

"There's a little convenience store near my house. It'll definitely be open we can meet there," he told her, glancing at his window. He could totally climb out of that. Definitely. Or he could attempt walking out the front door… Yeah, he was going to do that one. That would be easier. And safer.

"I will see you soon."