› CHAPTER THIRTEEN ‹
Raleigh considered the possibility of smashing his head through the side of the school bus, thanks to Flash talking obnoxiously about how he was going to win the Nationals cup, but he knew that wouldn't fix his current annoyance and in the end, would only give him a splitting headache. Cindy Moon was standing in front of Raleigh and attempting to talk to him, but with her much softer voice compared to Flash's rough one, he was having a hard time focusing on her questions. It didn't help that Raleigh's mind was bogged down with other problems.
Peter messaged Raleigh around ten last night explaining that the men had stopped somewhere in Maryland and when Raleigh text him back asking for more details and what the plan was, he didn't receive anything back. He had even pulled out Ned's number and asked him what was happening—but to no surprise, he received nothing back. Even now, with Ned only a few steps away from Raleigh, the boy was making it clear he wasn't going to say anything to him.
"Hey, it's Peter." Abe suddenly said and Raleigh's attention left Cindy as his head snapped in the direction of where Abe was looking. Just as the boy said, Peter was right in front of them.
"Guys..." He stopped in front of Liz. "Yeah, I was hoping maybe I could rejoin the team."
Suddenly Raleigh was pushed to the side as Flash marched up towards Peter. "No, no way. You can't quit on us, stroll up and be welcomed back by everyone."
"Normally I would agree," Raleigh spoke up, "but only because you've been annoying me for the last fifteen minutes, I want to disagree with you." Flash turned to him with narrowed eyes. "So I don't agree with you."
Mr. Harrington walked off the bus and smiled when he saw Peter. "Hey, welcome back, Peter!" He looked to Flash. "Flash, you're back to first alternate."
"What?"
Abe and the others laughed. "He's taking your place."
"Ooh," Raleigh rounded around Flash, "don't worry, I'm sure we'll win the cup without you."
Just when Raleigh was sure Flash was going to take his aggravation out on him, Michelle walked forward. "Excuse me, can we go already, because I was hoping to get in some light protesting in front of one of the embassies before dinner."
"Protesting in patriotic. Let's get on the bus."
Raleigh moved out of the way before Flash could throw his school Decathlon jacket at him. It was meant for Peter anyway, and Raleigh wasn't in any mood to protect the spider-boy. He heard the sound of material slapping against skin and a smirk covered his lips as he hopped onto the school bus. He was quickly followed by Liz and the others.
While Liz had made it clear that they were going to practice for a big portion of the bus ride to D.C., Raleigh had opted out of the practice, explaining he wasn't feeling good and wanted to rest. Liz had sympathized with him and allowed him to wallow in the back of the bus. He had ignored Peter's gaze on him as he sunk into the bus seat. He even ignored Ned, who cautiously took the seat in front of him.
He knew Peter was going to have to tell him what he was up to soon, and if he didn't, he was going to force the answers out of him.
› › › ›
Raleigh was staring out of the window, listening to the light background noise of the team answering Liz's questions. He could also faintly hear Mr. Herrington speaking to the driver about his ex-wife, but his voice was drowned out by the ring bells, pages turning, and people talking. He was beginning to get lost in his thoughts when Peter suddenly appeared in the seat Raleigh was in. He pushed Raleigh's feet to the ground and took the spot where they were.
The raven-haired boy shot his eyes to Peter, glaring at him when he saw how unbothered he was in irritating Raleigh. He wanted to say something snappy to the boy, but he noticed him holding his phone against his ear.
"Yeah, it's just a school trip," Peter said, sending Raleigh a slightly annoyed glance. "It's nothing."
"Is that Happy?" Raleigh asked. Peter nodded and Raleigh scoffed. "Why did he call you first?"
Peter rolled his eyes and switched the phone to his other ear. "Yeah, Raleigh is here too. But you know, Happy, you tracking us without permission is a complete violation of our privacy." Ned pointed at something on the tracker and Peter shook his head. "That's different." Happy replied and Peter let out a breath. "Nothing. Look, it's just the Academic Decathlon. It's no big deal."
Peter gave Raleigh another expression that just explained how irked he was at the moment and Raleigh refrained from dispatching his own. Instead, he took the phone from Peter, ignoring the anxious hey, that came from the boy as he lifted the phone to his ear.
"Happy!" Raleigh forced his tone to raise as he feigned excitement about talking to the cranky man. He enjoyed messing with him, Raleigh learned quickly. "How are you? You better be rooting for us, we're going to Nationals!"
He could hear the pained sigh that came from Happy, only making Raleigh's lips pull into a smirk. "You and Peter better stay out of trouble, don't forget I'm watching both of you. Any wrong move from either of you and I'll report it to Tony Stark."
"Yeah, yeah," Raleigh waved off the warning, "you know what, I'll make sure to win just for you!"
The call clicked off and Raleigh handed it back to Peter. The boy took it and fumbled around with it as he watched Raleigh shift his attention to the team quizzing each other. He understood he had a lot to say to Raleigh, but he wasn't exactly sure where he should begin since Raleigh was upset with him. An explanation on why he didn't explain the plan would be a good start, though.
"Raleigh—"
Peter was cut off by Ned gaping out of his window. "Whoa... what is going on?"
Raleigh turned to the window, seeing a partially destroyed building with a large helicarrier crashed right beside it. Trucks and people surrounded the area and tents were blocking off a large section of an area, which Raleigh could only assume either another carrier was or they were hiding something else behind it.
"Damage control." Raleigh jumped as Michelle's voice suddenly sounded behind him. He returned to see the girl staring out the same window Raleigh was. She gave each boy a short glance before looking back at the scene, Raleigh followed. "They're still cleaning up from when Captain America took down those skycraft carriers."
Raleigh furrowed his brows. He remembered seeing this on the news a few weeks after he was sent to first live with Trystan. "That was, like, two years ago, though." He gave his two friends and Michelle a look. "I would have thought they'd been done with it by now."
Michelle shrugged her shoulder, giving Raleigh and the destruction behind him one last glance, before leaving to go back to her seat. All three boy watched her leave and Peter turned to Raleigh again. Yet, once again, Peter was stopped from explaining anything to Raleigh, but this time it was from Raleigh himself.
"Before you say anything, just tell me you're not using the Decathlon team just to get to Maryland."
Peter fumbled with his hands and Raleigh's gaze shifted to them. Peter stopped. "I'm going to the tournament if that's what you mean." Nothing was said afterward, and Peter didn't know if that was a good sign or not, so he carefully continued speaking.
"I didn't want to put all this over text," this caught Raleigh's attention as his eyebrows raised, "but when I learned the men stopped in Maryland, I knew we needed to get there and so yes, I rejoined the team to get close to them, but I know how much this means to Liz, so I don't want to let her down." Both Raleigh and Ned rolled their eyes and Peter let out a nervous chuckle. "Anyway, I was thinking we could head to their hideout tonight and make it back in time for the tournament."
Raleigh didn't have to think before he butts into Peter's rambling. "Why not tomorrow night?"
"If they move we have no chance of getting them," Peter said and Raleigh already knew it was the better option when it came to stopping the bad guys. "Ned's been keeping an eye on them and so far they've moved a couple of times, but they're still in Maryland. I don't know how much longer that could last."
Raleigh let out a breath. "Okay, tonight's fine. I want to stop these guys as soon as we can."
"First thing we need to do it get rid of our trackers."
› › › ›
Raleigh didn't really agree with the plan of removing the trackers from their suits, considering that was what saved them after their first introduction to the weapon guys and the mechanical vulture man. Yet Tony had told them to forget about the weapons and the guys, and with Happy watching their every move with the trackers, he knew getting around and fighting the weapon-people was going to be impossible without getting in trouble. He was all for avoiding a tense confrontation with Tony Stark, of all people.
When they arrived at the United States Academic Decathlon building, they got signed in for their hotel rooms, where Raleigh was fortunate he didn't get a paired room with Flash and instead with Abe Brown. The boy was equally relieved. However, with Peter and Ned sharing a room, that left Charles Murphy to be paired with Flash. Abe had patted his friend on the back in solidarity before he went up to his and Raleigh's shared room. Raleigh followed Peter and Ned to theirs.
Peter had connected the suit to Ned's personal computer, giving his friend the go-to, to hack into it while Peter searched for the tiny tracker. Raleigh was unfolding his suit, ignoring the awed stares Ned was sending its way. He had almost forgotten Ned hadn't seen Raleigh's suit, while he had been playing with Peters since he had learned of their secondary identities.
"Peter," Ned was uncertain about what his friend was making him do, "why are we removing the tracker from yours and Raleigh's suits?"
Peter glanced at Ned. With the flashlight in his mouth, his voice came out a little muffled. "Uh, because I gotta follow these guys to their boss before they move again—" he took the flashlight from his mouth and gave Ned a look. "—and I don't really want Mr. Stark to know about it."
"So you're lying to Iron Man now?"
Raleigh set down his gold and black suit beside Peters and laid his stomach across the bed. "Not lying... we just don't want to get in trouble for doing this."
"Why would you be in trouble?"
Peter put the flashlight back between his teeth. "Because he just doesn't get what I can do yet." He pulled at the tracker. "Gotcha. All right, Happy, enjoy tracking this lamp." He stuck the small contraption to the lampshade.
Ned continued typing on the computer. "There's a ton of other subsystems in here. But they're all disabled by the Training Wheels Protocol."
Both Peter and Raleigh moved to look at Ned's laptop. An amused smile filled Raleigh's face at the locked program. The sight didn't bring Peter any amusement, especially with Ned laughing and Raleigh holding back his own giggles.
"Turn it off."
"I don't think that's a good idea. They're probably blocked for a reason."
Raleigh nodded but knew his input would go unlistened so he opted for just remaining quiet while Peter complained about not being a kid while jumping on the bed. Ned and Peter went back and forth until Ned finally caved in and unlocked the program. Raleigh watched as the wiring in Peter's suit lit up blue, before fading away again. Peter unhooked his suit from the computer and Raleigh began hooking his up.
"Does his have the same thing?" Peter asked, moving to his friend's side to examine the computer. Raleigh remained quiet as he took the tweezers from Peter's bedside table and flashlight and begun searching for the small tracker.
Ned chuckled lightly, though not as amused as he was at first. "Yeah."
"Turn his off."
Raleigh jaw went slack and the flashlight fell from his mouth. He turned to Peter and Ned.
"Um, excuse me, no, that's my suit."
He wasn't about to have his suit messed with, because he had just gotten comfortable with it. He had no idea what the Training Wheels Protocol was, but he assumed if that was switched off, his suit would be more advanced and he wasn't in the mood to learn around that while also fighting their enemies. Peter could do what he wants, because Raleigh didn't have much say in what he does, but he wasn't about to do the same to himself.
Peter, on the other hand, wanted them both to fight at their best and didn't have the same train of thought as Raleigh.
"Do it."
"Ned, don't."
"Ned."
Raleigh turned all his attention onto the tech boy. "Do it, Ned, and I'll throw you out of this window."
Peter shook his head. "No, he won't."
"You wouldn't be so sure since I threw you out of a window," Raleigh glared at Peter, reminding him of the time they first met in their suits.
Ned took his fingers off the keyboard and gave his friend an apologetic look. "I'm sorry, Peter, I don't want to be thrown out of a window."
Raleigh put the flashlight back in his mouth as he moved the tweezers around his suit once more. "Smart." He found the same tiny black tracker amongst the other wiring and carefully pulled the small object off of his suit and setting it on the bedside table along with the flashlight and tweezers.
He unhooked his suit and closed it back up and shoved it back inside his suitcase. He was going to head back to his and Abe's hotel room, when Peter explained they would be leaving as soon as it was dark and to meet him in his and Ned's room beforehand. Raleigh waved his hand over his shoulder to let him know he understood, before leaving them.