Prodigal Son's Prayer

09

Wearing his suit without the mask, Peter watched Liz through a window on the roof. Liz playfully chatted with her teammates. Peter sighed and Margot rolled her eyes, glancing at her sister. Stepping back from the window, he tightened the straps on his backpack. Peter put on the mask. A brief glow expanded from the spider emblem on his chest.

"Good evening, Peter. Good evening, Margot," Suit Lady said.

"Hello? Hello?" Peter and Margot asked, sharing a confused look.

"Congratulations on completing the rigorous Training Wheels Protocol and gaining access to your suit's full capabilities."

Margot laughed. "Training Wheels Protocol! Oh, Tony has it in for you! And before you ask a stupid question, I can hear her. And I like her already."

Peter shot her a look then replied, "Ah, thank you."

"So where would you like to take me tonight?" Suit Lady asked.

Peter stuttered, "S, I, I, put a tracker on someone. He's a bad guy."

"Tracker located." The spider suit tracked down the path that led to the guy Peter and Margot were after. "Plotting course to intercept target."

"Okay, well, as long as Margot and I make it back in time for Decathlon, it's fine."

Margot scoffed lightly. "Oh, yeah, I'm sure we will. Not!"

"Can you try not to be negative for once?"

"Nope. You want positivity, you need Sarah."

Peter sighed and picked Margot up and swung from a web and landed on a truck. As the truck ran past, they passed a banner that said "United States Academic Decathlon."

Peter and Margot rode on a different truck, raging down the road. They were in his spider suit and her dark outfit crouching on top of the truck, with the dark night sky in the background.

"One hundred meters from destination and closing." The truck roared past a patch of grass. "Jump now."

Peter and Margot leapt off the truck and rolled down a grassy bank. They ran across the bank through the tall grass, approaching an abandoned gas station.

"Detecting three individuals."

Peter and Margot observed the gas station from behind their backs. The station was dark, with a couple of trucks in its driveway. They stopped and crouched to observe the gas station.

Peter whispered, "Why is their secret lair in a gas station? That's so lame."

Margot shrugged and whispered back, "Gas is flammable. Pretty logical to me." She took a moment to breathe slowly, hoping she wouldn't have an asthma attack.

Peter stared at her a moment, then jumped, and climbed on top of the empty gas price sign.

"Hey, suit lady, what are they doing?" Peter asked.

"Do you want to hear what they're saying?" Suit Lady replied.

"I can hear what they're saying? Uh, yeah." He pulled Margot, who'd climbed part of the way up, next to him.

"Activating Enhanced Reconnaissance Mode."

The spider suit display closed in on the van and showed Peter the heat signals emitted from the men inside. There were three people in the van who were quietly speaking.

"I got the gauntlet from the Lagos cleanup," Mason said. "The rest is all my design."

"Whoa, that's so cool," Peter commented.