And it all did, exactly the way Peter was hoping it wouldn't.
"Hey man, are you sure you're good?" Peter asked Ned as he rounded out the doors of the hotel with his suitcase.
"Oh dude, I'm fine. Seriously, getting tranq'd in the neck by Nick Fury is probably the coolest thing that's ever happened to me anyway."
Peter laughed. "Yeah, it's pretty cool-" they began their long handshake. "I'm just happy I don't have to go to Prague anymore, like-"
"Good News!" Mr. Harrington's voice rounded the corner shortly before he did. "We're going to Prague!" He announced to the class.
"What?"
"Huh?"
"Where?"
From her place amongst the other students, Katya shoved her face into her hand.
"Yeah!" Mr Harrington continued, breathless, "Tour company called, they upgraded us." The entire class was looking at each other in befuddlement. "You should've heard me on the phone with them. Really gave them hell."
"All I heard was crying." Said Mr. Dell from the back of the group.
Mutters broke out as people began to recollect the luggage they'd set down and work through this new information, following Mr. Harrington down the sidewalk to turn the corner where the bus was supposed to be waiting. Mutters of confusion turned into murmurs of awe as the sleek, black tour bus came fully into view. . "Look at our upgraded ride! Pretty sweet, huh?"
Katya stopped walking momentarily so Ned and Peter could catch up to her. She looked about as annoyed as Peter felt.
Ned glanced between the both of them. "Guys, what- what's going on?"
Peter and Katya glanced at eachother and Katya just shook her head in frustration.
"I think Nick Fury just hijacked our summer vacation." He answered sullenly.
Ned laughed. "Awesome."
"Yeah," Katya grumbled sarcastically, "awesome."
They all loaded onto the bus, stowing the luggage underneath and finding seats up top. Ned went to go sit next to Betty, and Katya nestled herself in the very back, next to Peter, who'd begun googling botanical gardens in Prague now that he had to reconfigure his entire plan, trying to keep his phone tilted far enough away from her that she couldn't see- even though she was occupied with her own at the moment- without it looking suspicious. He'd had one picked out in Paris already to take her to, but now that they were getting rerouted he had to figure something else out. Her screen was in full view on her lap- she was playing chess against herself again.
He couldn't find any good places off the first three lists he'd looked at, and it's not like he knew where in Prague they'd be going- or if they'd have time to actually do anything there other than deal with the Elemental. He caught sight of the glasses case Fury had given him last night, and leant down to open it again. This piqued Katya's interest, and she tore her face away from her phone screen.
He opened it again- same glasses- but this time he noticed a note, on a small piece of paper, almost like a business card. For the next Tony Stark, I trust you. He handed it over to Katya wordlesley so she could read it, her eyes widening.
"For the 'Next Tony Stark'?" She elbowed him in the arm excitedly, though she
kept her voice hushed. "Pauchok, this is so cool-"
The note had said to say "Edith" so he did so, and immediately the glasses began a retinal and biometric scan. Once it was complete, he chanced, "Hello?"
Hello, Peter. I am Tony Stark's augmented reality security and defense system
"So he made you for me?" He knew Katya knew he was talking to the glasses, as she'd gone back to her chess game until he could tell her what he'd learned.
No. But you have access to all of Tony's protocols. Would you like to see what I can do?
The interface changed slightly as Edith continued. EDITH stands for "Even Dead, I'm The Hero.' He did love his acronyms.
"Yeah," Peter chuckled, "He did."
I have access to the entire Stark Global Security network, including multiple defense satellites, and backdoors to all major telecommunication networks.
The interface changed again, now showing the faces and ID information of anyone he pointed his gaze to and what they were doing on their phones. Most were texting, some were playing games- "Whoa."
"Whoa what?" Katya teased from his side, impatient. He took the glasses off.
"This thing has access to all of Stark Industries' Global Security systems, which means I can probably control defense drones, and I can see what everyone's doing on their phones- Look-"
He handed them over to her and it took a moment for her retinal and biometric scan to finish, but it was accepted as well, which implied….. Was it for both of them? But the letter had said 'for the Next Tony Stark', which sounded like it was meant for a single person…but they did operate as a single person in a number of ways, and Mr. Stark knew that better than anybody.
MIschief played off Katya's face as she listened to whatever EDITH was telling her, and she was clearly reading text messages. She laughed. "Why is Brad googling 'Prague Romantic'-"
Peter instinctively shoved his phone under his thigh just in case and took the glasses off of her. "Aren't they awesome?" He tried to play off the momentary panic.
"Yeah- give'em back, I think Flash is having a family crisis-" She reached over to grab them from him but he held them in his far hand, out of her reach, and pressed a kiss to her mouth to distract her as he folded them up and put them away.
"Hey!" She complained when she caught on to what he was doing.
"They're not just for reading text messages-"
"-I know that, I'm kidding-"
The bus slowed, pulling into the weirdest rest stop Peter had ever seen. Three rather large, pretty cabins, but barely a soul around. What the-
"Where are we?" Katya voiced what he was thinking, as the rest of the students seemed to get the message that a stopped bus meant bathroom break. Mr. Harrington made that exceedingly clear when he stood up and called to them,
"Petrol and toilets, ten minutes! Meet back at the bus in ten minutes!"
Katya glanced at Peter and shrugged, and they got up with the rest of the class, filing out of the bus.
"I"m gonna go find the women's." Katya told him, running to catch up with Betty and Ned. Peter was stopped by Dmitri, who had been their driver this entire time. He pointed wordlessly to the last cabin in line, where the door was open.
Peter glanced over to where Katya had disappeared, and debated for a second whether he should go get her or not. Whatever was waiting through that door was definitely mission related, so he should-
"Go!" Dmitri prompted.
Peter raised his hands up in defense. "Okay, okay, I"m going."
He entered the cabin warily, which looked like an empty bar save for a tall, blonde Austrian woman clad in a black leather suit who stood in the middle of the room. What -
"Hey," He chanced, stepping into the room like it was filled with landmines. He had no idea what was going on.
"Close the door." The woman said in a heavy Austrian accent.
He did so, and then walked forward with his hand out to shake. "Hi, I"m Peter Par-"
"Take off your clothes."
….What? He gripped the strap of his backpack harder, his face flushing. "Excuse me?"
"You told Nick Fury Spiderman cannot be seen in Europe. So I made you this-" She handed him a folded, all black suit that had been sitting on what Peter realized was a foosball table beside them.
"Oh, er, thank you. I'm sure it fits fine, I don't really need to-"
"Take off your clothes! Now! Hurry up!"
Peter's body stalled, like he didn't know what to do with it. He started to unbuckle his belt. "This is….weird.." He pulled down his pants awkwardly, the denim pooling around his ankles. "So embarrassing…"
Suddenly there was a rattle behind them and the door opened, revealing Brad Davis. "Whoa!"
"No no no no-" Peter panicked, trying to cover himself whilst simultaneously trying to wedge himself behind the Austrian woman, who hadn't moved this entire time. She was almost robotic.
"Sorry?" Brad said, sounding not sorry at all. "I thought this was the bathroom."
"This is not what it looks like-" Peter blubbered- "Just-"
"Er…yeah." Brad mumbled, clearly not buying it, and snapping a picture with his phone. Shit.
"What are you doing?!" Peter scrabbled for his pants, "Oh my god, Brad, no-"
"I'll leave you two alone." Brad left, glancing down at his phone. The Austrian woman pulled out a gun.