In shop class, Peter hits the weapon core with a hammer. The core emits purple light as it is partially freed from the metal casing. He starts to pull it apart. Ned joins him, "Hey, thanks for bailing on me."
"Yeah, well, something came up" Peter tells him.
Ned spots the glowing core, "Oh, what is that?"
Peter struggles to take the machine apart, "I don't know. Some guy tried to vaporize me with it."
"Seriously?" Ned questions.
"Yeah" Peter sighs.
"Awesome" Peter looks at Ned at the absurd reaction, "I mean, not awesome. Totally uncool of that guy. So scary."
Peter gives Ned a look and continues to work at the casing, "Well, Olivia thinks it's a power source."
"Olivia" Ned mutters with a eye roll, "it's connected to all these microprocessors. That's an inductive charging plate. That's what I use to charge my toothbrush."
Ned points at a complex-looking charging mechanism connected to various wires, "Whoever's making these weapons is obviously combining alien tech with ours" Olivia tells them as she appears on the other side of the table.
The two boys jump when realising that the girl was there but invisible, "How long have you been stood there?"
"I don't know" she shrugs, "you do know that you won't be able to break that thing."
Peter rolls his eyes, He brings up a hammer and hits the core really hard. The core pops out from its place, glowing, "broke it."
Peter and Ned immediately look at the teacher, while Olivia examines the core. The teacher is reading a book, sitting in his chair. He does not even spare a glance at the commotion they are causing, "Keep your fingers clear of the blades."
Peter and Ned turn back and look at the girl who is staring at the core intensely, "what is it?" Peter asks, the girl doesn't answer, "Olivia?" She still ignores him, "Olivia?" Olivia places the core in her left hand and places two fingers on top of it, the core starts to glow brighter as Olivia's fingertips start to glow, "Olivia!"
The girl breaks out of her trance and places the rock down on the table rubbing her eyes before looking at the two boys who are looking back at her, "this thing has to go."
"We gotta figure out what this thing is and who makes it" Peter states.
"We'll go to the lab after class and run some tests" Ned plans.
"Let's do it" Peter says, Him and Ned share a complicated handshake.
"Let's not do that" Olivia says, the two look at her like she has three heads, "that thing is dangerous, okay? I can feel the power radiating off it and I'm resisting the urge to just grab it and consume all the power from it. It has to go."
"Wait that's what you were doing?" Ned asks, "taking its power?"
"Well what did it look like to you" Olivia shrugs.
•
Peter and Ned walk down the hallway, "First, I say we put the glowy thing in the mass spectrometer."
"First, we gotta come up with a better name than glowy thingy" Peter says.
"You're right" Ned sighs.
The two men from the night before walk in. Peter spots them and freezes instantly, "Crap" He throws himself behind a wall, "Come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on."
Ned looks around, then shuffles across the corridor to join Peter by a classroom window.
Peter peers around the corner, "High schools creep me out. They got this funny smell, you know?"
Peter and Ned hide behind the wall again. They carry out a whispered conversation, "Hey, that's one of the guys that tried to kill me."
"What?" Ned questions.
"Yeah" Peter replies.
"We gotta get out of here" Ned states.
"No, no, no, no, no. I gotta follow them" Peter urges, "Maybe they can lead me to the guy that dropped me in the lake."
"Someone dropped you in a lake?" Ned asks.
"Yeah, it was not good" Peter sighs.
The two men enter a classroom, "Peter."
"No. Stay there, Ned" Peter whispers. Peter raises an arm to stop Ned and sneaks away.
Peter sneaks down a staircase into the classroom. The two men are rummaging through the room, "Can you imagine what the boss would say if he knew where we were?"
"It's saying there was an energy pulse right here" one states.
Peter slowly walks down the stairs and takes off his bag, "There's no sign of the weapon" The other says, "And even if it was here, now it's gone."
"So are we" one looks in Peter's direction. We're no one is. An upside-down chair standing on the table shakes a little. Spotting the anomaly, he gets closer, putting his hand on his gun. He crosses the room and pauses by the worktable, scanning the area. As the men head out.
Peter shoots a tiny robotic spider at one of the men's shoes from under the desk he was hiding under. It stealthily climbs up the man's leg.
•
Sitting in Peter's room, Ned holds the web-shooter. It projects a hologram model of the city. Peter hops onto the bed next to Ned, "This is so awesome."
"I know, right?" Peter smiles. Ned pokes it and the model becomes more defined, "They're in Brooklyn."
•
Olivia knocks on the door to peters apartment and May answers the door, "hi is Peter here?"
"Yes he is" may smiles, "you're Olivia right?"
"That's me" Olivia says.
"Peters room is the first door on the left" May tells her.
"Thank you" Olivia says before walking down the hall to peters room. She opens the door and sees Ned holding the web shooter, "what the hell did you do?"
"What are you doing here?" Peter asks, "does May know you're here?"
"You think I just invisibly snuck in" Olivia scoffs.
"You did that last time" Peter states.
"Well this time i used the front door" Olivia tells him, "what are you doing with that?"
"The two guys from last night they showed up at school" Peter explains to her, "and I'm tracking them."
"You can't keep away from this can you" Olivia scoffs, "you're just begging to have some avenger experience."
"That's what I want" Peter smiles, "you in?"
"No" Olivia says, she turns to leave but stops herself before she grabs the door handle, "fuck. Fine" Peters face lights up, "if I don't help I'll get killed because I didn't stop you may swell be apart of the fun."
•
Ned is still studying the hologram and Peter is hanging upside down, eating chips, while Olivia is sat on the floor throwing a magic pink ball between her fingers, "Staten Island."
•
Night has fallen. Ned lies on the floor while Peter works at his desk and Olivia is eating some popcorn. Ned glances at the hologram, "Leaving Jersey." With a shooter, Peter projects a characterized image of his mask on the wall.
•
Ned now lies on the bed. The hologram model starts to beep. Startled, he sits up, wearing the Spider-Man mask. He grabs the hologram model next to him, "They stopped."
Olivia wakes up from her nap on the floor while Peter wakes up from hanging from the ceiling. He turns around, a little groggy, and eyes the model, "Maryland?"
"What's there?" Olivia asks.
"I don't know" Peter shrugs, "Evil lair?"
"They have a lair?" Ned questions.
"Dude. A gang with alien guns run by a guy with wings?" Peter scoffs, "Yeah, they have a lair."
"Badass" Ned mutters, "But how are you gonna get there if it's, like, 300 miles away?"
Peter turns to face the Academic Decathlon poster, "It's not too far from D.C."
"How am I going to get there?" Olivia asks, "I'm not smart enough for decathlon and can't tell happy to get a ride."
"I've got an idea" Peter smiles.
•
Midtown High students are waiting by a yellow bus, dressed in their yellow uniform jackets. Peter runs toward them, "Hey, it's Peter."
"Peter?" Liz questions.
"Hey, buddy."
"Yeah, I was hoping maybe I could rejoin the team" Peter says.
Flash, standing in the back, walks forward to face Peter, "No, no way. You can't just quit on us, stroll up, and be welcomed back by everyone."
The teacher walks out of the bus, "Hey, welcome back, Peter. Flash, you're back to first alternate."
"What?" Flash questions.
"He's taking your place" Abraham states.
Michelle appears behind them, "Excuse me, can we go already? 'Cause I was hoping to get in some light protesting in front of one of the embassies before dinner, so."
"Protesting is patriotic" the teacher shrugs, "Let's get on the bus."
Flash shrugs off his jacket and sullenly thrusts it into Peter's arms, "Mr Harrington. Is there anyway Olivia stark could tag along? She wants to join the team but doesn't know what to expect, so can she come along to watch?"
"More the merrier" Mr Harrington smiles, Olivia stands in the distance with her backpack over her shoulder, "Olivia get on board" Olivia walks over and her and Peter do a fist bump as the walk onto the bus.
•
The bus is travelling through the highway. "Focus up, everyone" Liz says, "Our next topic is the moons of Saturn."
The students are holding bells, focusing on Liz's quiz. Olivia is sat at the back of the bus with a book in her hands reading. They ring their bells before answering, "The second law of thermodynamics."
"Frank Sinatra."
"Fort Sumter" flash answers.
"Flash is wrong" Abraham states.
"Okay, guys, let's focus" Liz says, "Next one."
"Liz, don't overwork them" Mr Harrington tells her.
"Strontium, barium, vibranium" Peter answers.
"Very good, Peter" Liz smiles, "Glad to have you back."
"Glad to be back" Peter smiles.
Peter's phone vibrates. He takes it out to see that Happy is calling him, "What is the current standard unit of radioactive-"
"Can I take this real quick?" Peter interrupts, "I'll only be a sec."
"Yeah, fine" Liz says.
Peter answers his call, moving to the back seats. As he passes by, Michelle stares at him curiously, looking up from her book, "Hello?"
Happy is talking on the phone in the Avengers Tower. Behind him, workers are carrying things, "Got a blip on my screen here. You left New York?"
"Tracker" Peter holds the phone away from his mouth and mutters, "yeah. No, it's just a school trip. It's, it's nothing" Peter sits in the back of the bus, next row to Ned and in front of Olivia who has put her book down and is intrigued on happy and peters conversation, "Look, Happy, I gotta say, you tracking me without my permission is a complete violation of my privacy" Ned points at the hologram model, "That's different."
Happy looks suspicious, "What's different?"
"Nothing" peter replies, "Look, it's just the Academic Decathlon. It's no big deal."
"Hey, hey. I'll decide if it's no big deal" happy says, Peter looks annoyed, "Sounds like it's no big deal, but remember, I'm watching you."
The call ends and seconds later Olivia is getting a call from happy, "Harold. What can I do for you on this fine day?"
"Are you on your way to DC?" Happy asks her, "are you on your way to the decathlon thing?"
"Yep" Olivia smiles, "they think I want to join the team so they let me come but in reality I'm only doing it so you guys don't drag me here yourselves and I look like a complete stalker."
"Does Peter know that you're there to watch him" happy questions.
"No" Olivia answers, "he thinks dad just wanted me to get a real education" Olivia looks at Peter who is rolling his eyes, "well we're arriving bye now" she quickly hangs up the phone and shoves it in her pocket, "told you I lie better in the moment."
•
The bus approaches Washington D.C. Above the hotel entrance, a banner announcing the United States Academic Decathlon is hung up.
The Decathlon team arrives in the check-in area. The interior of the hotel is filled with preparations for the Decathlon. The students and teacher look on in awe as they walk in. Liz is at their front, leading everyone, "Everyone stick together."
"This place is huge."
"I've seen bigger" Olivia mutters and Peter chuckles beside her.
"There's a bird in here."
"Hey, you brought your laptop, right?" Peter asks Ned.
"Why?" Ned asks.
•
Peter and Ned unpack, shaking various belongings like wires, the purple weapon core, toothpaste, and braces out of their backpacks, Peter connects a wire to the suit. Ned is using his laptop, complicated lines of codes flashing through the screen. "Do you know what any of this is?" Peter holds a flashlight with his mouth, working on his suit. "Peter, why are we removing the tracker from your suit?"
"because we gotta follow these guys to their boss before they move again and I don't really want Mr. Stark to know about it" Peter answers.
"So you're lying to Iron Man now?" Ned questions.
"No, I'm not lying" Peter tells him, "He just doesn't really get what I can do yet." Ned warily eyes his friend. Peter removes the tracking device from the suit, "Gotcha" He takes the flashlight out of his mouth, "All right, Happy. Enjoy tracking this lamp."
Peter sticks the device on a lamp, then gets back to the suit. Ned is still working on the laptop, "There's a ton of other subsystems in here but they're all disabled by the Training Wheels Protocol."
Peter hops up next to Ned and looks at the screen. The words Training Wheels Protocol are written in red. The codes declare that the protocol is currently active and that Stark Industry Key Identifier should be entered to disable it.
"Training Wheels Protocol?" Peter questions, "Turn it off."
"I don't think that's a good idea" Ned states.
"I don't need training wheels" Peter scoffs, Peter steps onto his bed and jumps up and down, "I'm sick of him treating me like a kid all the time. It's not cool."
"But you are a kid" Ned states.
"Yeah, a kid who can stop a bus with his bare hands" Peter states.
"Peter, I just don't think this is a great idea" Ned says, "I mean, what if this is illegal?"
Peter jumps down to kneel beside Ned, "Look, please. This is my chance to prove myself. I can handle it. Ned, come on."
"I really don't think this is a good idea" Ned tells him.
"The guy in the chair" Peter whispers.
"Don't do that" Ned begs.
"Come on" Ned sighs and types reluctantly. A blue flash of light briefly pulses through the suit. Peter and Ned look at it.
•