𝐀𝐋𝐋 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐑𝐒 | parker²

viii. curiosity killed the cat

Aster was sitting on the stool next to Peter's, resting her chin on her fist as she watched him with a concerned eyebrow raised. He had a hammer in his hand, repeatedly hitting the weapon core casing with the tool. The core was still emitting purple light as he attempted to break the metal apart.

One final hit made the edges break. Aster sat up a bit and Peter let out a hum of satisfaction, taking the core in his hands to pull the casing apart.

Walking into the class, Ned loudly cleared his throat. "Hey, thanks for bailing on me, guys."

Barely paying attention to his friend, Peter kept his eyes on the core. "Yeah, well, something came up."

It seemed that his grudge was forgotten when Ned spotted the glowing core on the shop table. He let out a noise of interest and sat next to Aster, leaning closer to the purple light. "Oh, what is that?"

While struggling to take it apart, Peter told him, "I don't know. Some guy tried to vaporize me with it."

"Seriously?"

"Yeah."

"...Awesome."

Both Aster and Peter pulled their attention away from the core to stare at Ned. Aster raised an eyebrow, amused. "Awesome?"

"I mean," Ned stuttered. "Not awesome. Totally uncool of that guy. So scary."

Peter gave Ned a look before continuing to work at the casing. "Well, Aster figured out it's a power source."

Ned tilted his head and inspected it. "Yeah, but it's connected to all these microprocessors. That's an inductive charging plate." He pointed at the complex charging mechanism connected to various wires. "That's what I use to charge my toothbrush."

"Whoever's making these weapons is obviously combining alien tech with ours," Peter mentioned.

Agreeing, Aster added, "And who knows what else they have. Now we just have to figure out who and why."

Staring between Aster and Peter for a long moment, a genuine grin broke out on Ned's face. "That is literally the coolest sentence anyone has ever said." Aster snorted as Ned placed both hands together and told Peter, "I just want to thank you for letting us be part of your journey into this amazing—"

Not listening to a word Ned was saying, Peter brought the hammer up and hit the core hard, finally popping it out of the casing. It rolled across the table, glowing even brighter now. Because of how loud the noise of it breaking was, the three teenagers turned to glance at the teacher, who was sitting at his desk, still distracted by his book.

"Keep your fingers clear of the blades," he mumbled, not paying attention to what they were doing.

The three of them slowly turned back around. "We gotta figure out who makes these," Peter whispered.

"We could go to the lab after class and run some tests," Ned proposed.

Aster shrugged at the idea. "Couldn't hurt."

"Let's do it." Peter and Ned turned to each other, sharing a complicated secret handshake. Aster smiled at how they didn't even need to concentrate to pull it off.

Even though Peter had just gotten a new backpack, Aster opted to keep the core in her bag. Especially with how lucky they were to find it in the first place, they couldn't risk losing it.

Slipping out of shop class a little early, the three of them strode down the empty hallway together. Rounding the corner, Ned frowned and glanced over at Aster. "Hey, you never said where you went at the party after you asked me where Peter was. I was looking for you."