Katya spent the remainder of the evening parked by the television, translating the local news for their classmates as it played back footage of what had happened that afternoon, not that it was saying anything much- just that they didn't know who it was, or what 'natural disaster' the water had come from, and lots of speculation from people who, frankly, didn't have enough knowledge to speculate with.

"It's aliens, it has to be." Ned said, more to his laptop than anyone else in the room. Betty bent down next to him to see the screen for herself.

"Buzzfeed says there's a sailor named Morris Bench who was exposed to an experimental underwater generator and got hydro-powers." Flash announced to the class, reading off of his phone, as if this was the clearly correct answer.

"Yeah, you should definitely believe everything you read on the internet." Michelle said from her spot on the stairs. Peter was around the corner, on the phone, with his Aunt.

"Who is that guy?" Betty had straightened up from reading Ned's laptop with him.

"I don't know, but he's like Iron Man and Thor rolled into one." Brad replied. Katya scoffed inwardly-

-but Flash scoffed outwardly. "He's all right. He's no Spiderman."

"What is it with you and Spiderman?" Michelle asked, letting out half a laugh.

"What?" Flash bit back defensively. "He's just awesome, okay? He protects the neighborhood and, you know, he's inspiring." Katya never thought she'd ever agree on anything that came out of Flash's mouth, but she had to concur.

"He inspires me to be a better man." Flash finished. Peter, looking exhausted, came around the corner, apparently done with the phone for now. "What's up, dickwad?" Flash goaded, "We thought you'd drowned."

"It sounds like his name's Mysterio." Brad said seriously, as if he'd truly uncovered something useful.

"'L'uomo del mysterio' just means 'a mysterious man', that's not his name-" Katya interrupted.

"Mysterio…." Ned repeated thoughtfully. "Cool name-" This last part was said by both Ned and Betty at the same time, and they turned to each other. "Babe!"

Eventually enough conversation broke out that it was clear no one was paying attention to the news anymore, so Katya got up from her spot by the TV and gravitated over to where Peter was leaning against the stairwell. She grabbed his hand and leaned against him. "You okay?"

"As okay as I can be, I guess." He sounded both tired and confused. Katya wondered what he and his Aunt had talked about.

After a bit, people began to wander back to their respective rooms, Peter and Ned turning into theirs, talking in hushed voices. Peter was probably regaling what had really happened that afternoon, but Katya wasn't sure. Besides, she wanted to change.

When Katya got to her room- which she shared with Michelle, or MJ as she apparently liked to be called- she peeled off her soaking socks, careful to keep her knife hidden in the foot part of her boot.

"So, Paris tomorrow," Katya said, just to make conversation, as she stripped off her damp jeans.

"Yeah," MJ replied, having already changed and was now sprawled across her bed with a book. "I'm stoked for the Eiffel tower- I read it was initially built as a mind control antennae to create an army of the insane." Though the way she put it sounded ridiculous, an army of mentally controlled soldiers was essentially what the Red Room was. MJ'd have a blast learning about that. "It's my favorite spot on the trip."

Katya nodded as she pulled a hoodie over her sleep shorts, something she'd grabbed from Peter's room last minute. It had some type of joke on it ; If you believe in telekenesis, raise your right hand. Stupid, but it smelled like him, so. "Doesn't sound too unrealistic."

"Kinda glad they failed, with all this weird shit that's been happening,"

"Yeah, that's the last thing we need," Katya laughed, though if it was due to the irony or her fronting she wasn't sure.

She slipped out of her room just in time to nearly run into Betty, who was looking concernedly down at her phone. She glanced up. "Oh, Ned just wasn't answering any of my texts, but apparently he's asleep. Peter's still awake though."

Katya hadn't asked, but okay. As she neared the door to Peter and Ned's room, though, it sounded like she heard a voice- that definitely wasn't Peter or Ned.

She opened the door without knocking, just managing to hear the faint whistling in time to catch the tranquilizer dart on its way to her neck before it hit her. She whirled in the direction of who'd shot at her and instinctively fell into a stance, but Peter held a hand out. He opened his mouth to speak, but was interrupted by the figure in the corner who'd tried to shoot her- a larger black man, dressed in black, with an eyepatch. Ironically this helped Katya to relax- he seemed almost…familiar? Where had she seen him before?

"Shit, bitch, I've been trying to get a hold of you too! And to think I almost shot you- close the door."

Katya grumbled that he had shot her, just failed, but did as he said. So this must be Nick Fury.

On the table between Peter and Fury was an orange translucent holographic projection of a city, probably somewhere in Morroco judging by the architecture, that had been all but leveled by what must have been a catastrophic earthquake. She knelt down next to it. "What's this?"

Fury sighed. "As I was saying, a few days after the tornado sighting- there was one in Mexico, and reports say it had a face-" he recapped for Katya's benefit, "two weeks later, a village was destroyed by what may well be another world-ending-"

They were interrupted by a knock on the door, and Mr. Dell yelled through the wood. "So boys, the water from today could have had some dangerous bacteria, so let me know if either of you-"

The rest of his sentence was drowned out by Fury. "Another person touches that door and we're all gonna have another funeral to go to." He collapsed the image into the disk it had been projecting from with a swipe of his hand. "Suit up."

—- —-

A bit later- just long enough for Peter to change and Katya to go grab her nanotech necklace from the underbelly of her suitcase- the three of them left the hotel the 'back way', which was no more than an open, ungaurded door that led directly into the alleyway behind it. They found themselves on a small, sleek boat, most likely Fury's personal travel method around here. As they slid through the water- leaving barely a ripple, somehow- Fury handed Peter a marbled leather glasses case. "Stark left these for you." For a second Katya's heart leapt, but by the way it looked and sounded it seemed like Fury was speaking directly-and only- to Peter.

Peter held it in both hands like it might break, before popping it open- Craning to look over his shoulder, Katya could see it was a pair of blue-tinted aviators, very much like the orange ones for FRIDAY or her green Sacha-as she'd named her own AI, not that she'd gotten to use him much- glasses.

"Uneasy lies the head that wears the crown." Fury quoted, and barked half a hollow laugh. "Stark said you wouldn't get that reference because it's not Star Wars."

"It's Shakespeare." Katya piped up, but when no one acknowledged her, she grumbled, "Henry IV."