london, england
Shuri and Iduna were at the group's back as they walked to the international train station's exit. "You got a signal yet?"
"No. Something is blocking it, and I can't get past it." Shuri mutters. "I can't relay anything out of London."
"That's not good." Iduna grimaces. "Something's gone wrong."
MJ and Ned twist around at the mention of something terrible. "What's happened?" Ned asks quietly.
The group slowed down for them to catch up. "Nothing. I'll figure it out."
"Okay, guys, the company set a city tour, and then we'll grab a bite and head to the airport." Mr Harrington reveals.
The four friends share wary looks. "I retract what I said." Shuri murmurs. Fury did the company upgrades. If everything went to plan, Fury's meddling would be non-existent.
"Is no one else gonna acknowledge how crazy this is?" The group slows down as Brad decides to spout his nonsense.
"Oh, yeah, I get it. There's been nothing scientific about this science tour at all." Mr Dell says, shuffling through the group with a coffee in one hand.
Brad sticks out his hand. "No, no, I'm talking about Peter and Iduna. Has no one noticed how shady they've been? I saw him in the backroom of a rest stop with some woman in his underwear, and he always sneaking away with Iduna, like back at the opera, huh? And now he's suddenly off the trip with family in Berlin? While she's still here after being inseparable the entire time? And why is Shuri here?" The squad were stunned. "Is no one else here interested in the truth?"
All eyes were on Iduna, and she didn't know what to say.
MJ holds out a steady hand. "' The very concept of objective truth is fading out of the world'."
"George Orwell," Shuri adds.
MJ looks side to side. "And since Peter's not really here to tell his truth, what about you, Brad? Why don't you just ask Iduna why she's here by herself? Why do you think it's cool to take pictures of people in the bathroom?"
"Yeah, dude, what's that about?" Flash interjects with his live stream on.
Brad's face falters. "No, no, no, it wasn't like that. It was ... I was trying to take- "His stutter was astonishing to witness.
"Let's put all this craziness behind us and have a nice, peaceful afternoon." Their teacher shuts Brad down. "' Sounds excellent, Mr Harrington,' said the class. Okay." With that, the students followed Harrington out from the station.
Iduna, however, swoops in and catches Mr Dell's attention. "Hi, sir, can you please tell Brad that what he said was an invasion of my privacy and that he obviously wasn't paying attention when the school announced Shuri would join us because of her involvement in STEM achievements in high school. Thank you."
"Of course, Miss Krast. We will be just a minute." As she slips away, Iduna gives Shuri a high five. Before they left Prague, Shuri hacked into the school's system about this trip and just added the minor detail of her placement with them in Prague that everyone must've not read clearly.
They finally reached the outside, only to discover a bright red double-decker bus parked to their right. A man in formal clothes with a sign with the school's name on it called Mr Harrington.
"We got a bus all to ourselves, guys." Harrington hollers as the group waddles to the tour bus with their luggage.
The students politely greeted the driver and made their way to the bus doors.
When everyone had found their seat on the second level, the doors were closed, and the bus pulled off onto London street. Betty and Ned sat at the bus with Iduna while MJ and Shuri sat behind her.
They were all a bit angsty as a feeling of dread started to develop in their stomachs. But, on the other hand, London was very active, and people were on about their lives like there weren't two fake monster attacks in Europe.
The driver was speeding a bit, and the turns he made weren't the safest. "I thought a bus tour was meant to be safe," Betty says. Ned turns to console her for some reason.
Iduna twists in her seat. "You got through yet?"
MJ and Shuri don't look up from Shuri's phone. "She's nearly there," MJ replies as the bus turns onto the London Bridge.
Shuri sticks up a hand. "Wait... I don't understand... why would Tony's man be calling someone in Europe?" Shuri hands over her phone to Iduna. She was right; someone made a call to Happy Hogan in the Netherlands.
Iduna's brow furrowed. "When did this happen?"
Shuri shakes her head. "A few hours ago. Whatever was disrupting the signal got a lot stronger in the last twenty minutes, though."
Ned turned to the girls as MJ looked out from the bus. "Something's definitely up."
"You're an FOS now – 'Friend of Spider-Man.' And you have to remember, just stay calm." Cue the sunglasses on his face. The girls shared a puzzled look.
To Iduna's left, a cackle of lightning booms across the sky. They watch as a murky cloudy appears from the sky and dwindles over a building.
"That doesn't look good," MJ whispered just so that they could hear.
Ned chuckles lightly. "But it's fake, nothing to worry about." The teens observed how the cloud soon starting to malformed and become more prominent. The sound of thunder and lightning became more apparent.
Then a lightning strike hit the bridge. The group all let out a cry of surprise. Soon enough, the brewing storm becomes more aggressive with its wind and lightning. Finally, other people on the bridge begin to climb out of their cars and make their way over the bridge.
"Uh oh," Shuri says as Mr Harrington gets up from his seat and walks down to the first level.
When he comes back up, Mr Dell gets to his feet. "What did the bus driver say?" The wind strength starts to become unbearable.
"Bus driver's gone," Harrington calls out, earning a group of shocked replies, asking where the bus driver went. "It's okay. Mr Dell and I have it under control."
Dell points both hands at his chaperone partner. "No, no, no. Don't drag me into this, Roger!" He yelled.
"I'm doing my best, Julius!" Harrington shouted back. This was not what the kids needed.
An upward stream of water shoots up on the left side of the bridge, freaking everyone out. "Oh, the witches are back," Dell yells, still pointing his fingers.
Harrington dawdles a bit as he looks behind and gets the fright of his life. "Oh, my god! Get off the bus!" He yells just as the stream goes up higher. At that moment, Iduna pulled out her web-shooters and activated them to her wrists.
There was not a second spared as everyone shot up from their seats and scrambled down the bus's stairs. Between the screaming and external storm sounds, no one could process a single thought.
As they squirmed to get out on the ground level, Shuri grabs hold of MJ's hand and leans over Iduna's shoulder. "Look!" The three girls stop for a second to watch as another tornado of water rises from below.
The group fell out from the bus, with Harrington leading them. "Okay. Okay, follow me, kids!" The teacher sticks up his hand and waves to follow him.
As they run across the bridge, more and more lightning and thunder booms across the London sky. Bolts strike down at the bridge and begin to cause fires.
Betty grabs Ned's hand and yanks him after everyone else. Iduna darts after them as MJ and Shuri follow right behind her. Suddenly a bolt of lightning hits the bus, shaking the bridge. MJ drops to her knees, and Shuri pulls her back up.
Iduna looks back to see the red bus swallowed by one of the tornados and combusts into flames. "Holy shit." The fire gets swallowed up by the neighbouring tornados, and the intensity of the situation increases dramatically. "Is this still an illusion?"
"It has to be!" MJ yells over the noise just as a hollow face appears out from the clouds.
"That's scary as hell, man." Shuri squawks as the group navigates to the bridge railing. They run as fast as they can. Ned notices three water stream across the surface before they explode against the riverbank, shaking the ground yet again. The walls are destroyed, and dirt and debris fall into the water.
When they manage to get off the bridge, they almost lose sight of Harrington. If it weren't for his constant hand waving, the squad would run straight past the turn he took.
While dodging other civilians, Iduna almost crashed into Flash, who stopped to live stream. "Not the time!" She hooks her arm around his and tows along as Harrington makes the student take an exit that takes them to the path along the river.
"This way, kids! Follow me!" Harrington yells at the front of the pack. Dell picks up the slackers.
"It's not real. It's not real!" Ned exclaims, pointing lividly at the sky. His classmates give him bewildered looks.
"It looks pretty real to me!" MJ yells back.
"Iduna, look!" Shuri calls out from behind, which makes Iduna take a double-take to her left. She had to blink multiple times to comprehend the mass of dirt, water and fire in front of her. It was taller than the London bridge.
The group come to a standstill as their minds become frozen with fear. "earth, wind, fire, water." Next to Shuri, Ned whispers something about an avatar. "Oh, no. They joined forces like the Power Rangers."
At the back of the group, Iduna turns to her friends. "Peter didn't stop Beck. He must be using EDITH to do this."
The realisation that Peter wasn't able to stop Beck put a sour taste in Iduna's mouth. "Hey, look, it's Mysterio!" Brad shouts and points at the sky. All eyes trail up to see a stream of green clouds zoom towards the gigantic elemental monster. "He's gonna save us!" The students cry cheerfully as the fake hero shoots a green blast at the monster's face.
"Wait, this means Mysterio actually knows we know...." MJ says.
Ned turns to her, "Which means we're in danger."
She looks from Iduna and Shuri to her classmates. "And so are they."
The squad spare their classmates a glance before taking off. They knew that EDITH would be able to track them no matter what. So they should separate to remove the threat from their friends.
The group somehow elects Ned as the leader. "I don't know where I'm going!" He yelps as more and more people flux the pathway alongside the river
"The monster was full of drones! It's crazy!" hearing Flash's voice made them all slow down. "Why are we stopping?"
The group share a collective look before looking up at the sky full of drones, and the monster had totally vanished. "We need to run away from the river." Iduna decides. The other teens nod and follow her lead away from the drones. They hear the swoosh of a plane fly over them and presume it's a drone. The bridge pathway leads them away from the bridge and towards an open park area, now swarmed by people and a plane.
"Iduna!" The sound of Happy's voice was uplifting. Iduna spots the man in the suit rushing towards them. "Ned!"
"Happy!" The two teens shout back as Happy comes up to them with open palms.
"Where's Peter?" Iduna asks instantly.
Happy tilts his head. "Gimme a second. I gotta get you out of here! Get on the jet!" He points back to the parked plane.
"Who are you?" MJ questions as more people run past them.
"I work with Spider-Man. Get on that jet." He repeats.
Flash's eyes sparkle. "You work for Spider-Man?"
Happy rolls his eyes. "I work with Spider-Man, not for Spider-Man!" Iduna knew that rubbed him the wrong way.
No one saw the incoming missile that turned the plane into flames. Happy turned around and then back with a blank expression. "New plan. Into the Tower." Happy points towards a nearby museum, and the kids follow his instructions. "Yeah, we're okay. Just get Beck." Happy looks down to find Iduna staring at him. "Peter knows he messed up, and he'll apologise later."
Iduna looks back to see Happy with his hand to his ear. Her stomach flips upside down. "Is that Peter?" Happy nods. "Can I talk to him?" Happy shakes his head. "Is he okay?" Happy nods for the second time. For now, that's all she wanted to know.
In the meantime, Happy took control and led the kids through the tourist attraction made up of cobbled streets and cobble buildings. "Dune, look out!" Betty shrieks just as four drones descend towards them and unleash a hail of blasts.
Iduna looks up in time to take her special pen out of her jacket pocket and clicks it. Then, lifting her arm to block, the pen morphs into the small blade, and the bullets ricochet off it. She continues to block the drones' attack as her friend reach the arch of a passage.
Her friends wait by the entrance and scream at her to hurry. Mustering up her courage, Iduna leaves her position and sprints towards her friends while also deflect incoming bullets. But, unfortunately, she only manages to take one drone out.
"Into the Crown Jewels vault!" Happy yells from the front as they go through the underground passage. Two of the Queen's armed guard appear from the vault entrance and beginning shooting at the drones.
One of the drones makes a fatal shot, and one of the soldiers drops to the floor. Without hesitation, Iduna puts away her sword and picks up the rifle to spin around with her finger on the trigger. The drones seemed to act like they had superior reflex because each shot she took she missed.
Then Iduna eliminated the second soldier, and it became her against three. Focusing her aim, Iduna takes two direct shots and eliminates two drones. Finally, the last drone takes its shot and blasts the rifle out from her hands. She looks up in surprise as the drone seems to narrow its lenses on her. "Oh shit!"