The Stark Internship // Spider-Man [Book 1]

ten {Peter's POV}

"Thanks for bailing on me," Ned huffed as he plopped down on the stool next to mine in the workshop at school. 

I stood hunched over something and he frowned. "Yeah, well, something came up," I told him. 

"Woah, what is that?" he asked in awe. On the table lay a piece of the weapon I had found on my way home after the car chase on the night of Liz's party. Part of the weapon was emitting a purple glow and I had been trying for fifteen minutes to get it out.

"I don't know, some guy tried to vaporize me with it," I replied, continuing to shove a screwdriver in between the metal, but it wouldn't budge. 

"Awesome," Ned breathed. I raised an eyebrow at him. "I mean, not awesome," he quickly said. "Totally uncool, that guy." 

I couldn't help but smile at his enthusiasm. I said, "Well, I think it's a power source." 

"Yeah, but it's connected to all of these microprocessors. That's a charging plate. It's what I use to charge my toothbrush," Ned told me while pointing out a few things. 

I shrugged. "Whoever is making all these high-tech weapons is obviously combining the alien tech with ours."

Ned stared at me for a second, his mouth slightly agape. "That is literally the coolest sentence anyone has ever said," he said. "I just wanna thank you for letting me be part of your journey into this amazing-" 

I cut him off as I slammed a hammer against the weapon. The purple object, which resembled a gem of sorts, jumped out of its housing, sending a power surge through the workshop.

Ned and I glanced fearfully at the teacher, but he just said, "Keep your fingers clear off the blades," while he continued scribbling in his crossword puzzle. 

I turned back to Ned. "I have to figure out what this thing is and who makes it." 

He nodded. "We'll go to the lab after class and run some tests," he replied. 

"Hey, guys," a voice sounded and we looked up, finding Arya walking toward our workstation. She stopped in her tracks when she spotted the object on the table. "What is that?" she asked sceptically. 

"That is something I found on my way home Friday night," I said casually, holding it up between two fingers. "Ned and I are gonna run some tests after school, wanna come?" 

"Is that from those guys we chased?" Arya asked, raising a brow at me.

I shrugged. "Probably. If we can find out what it is, maybe we can find out who's making those weapons." 

"That sounds like a terrible idea. What if those guys come after this thing? We should just put it back where you found it." She reached out and tried to grab the purple gem, but I was quicker and shoved it in my backpack. 

"We're running tests after school. You're welcome to come," I said, heaving my backpack on my shoulder and heading out of the workshop with Ned. Arya followed not long after.

"First, I say we put the glowy thingy in the mass spectrometer," Ned said. 

"First, we gotta come up with a better name than glowy thingy," I told him. 

He nodded. "Yeah, you're right." 

"What about 'Ned and Peter are gonna get themselves killed because they stole something from a guy with wings'?" Arya chimed, grinning sarcastically. "I seriously think this is a bad id-"

"Crap," I said while pulling both Ned and Arya with me into the hallway to our right. 

"What the hell was that?" Arya asked, but I held her back by holding out an arm in front of her. I carefully glanced around the corner to see the two guys that Arya and I chased the other night. They talked softly to each other and when they looked in my direction, I quickly hid around the corner again, praying they hadn't seen me. "The guys that tried to kill us are here," I told Arya.