by Jim McCann
“There!” I yelped. My hopes were dashed a little when I saw that the weapon had been smashed to bits. But what was this? A purple glowy egg thing? Bingo.
Hey, I thought as I swung back to grab my clothes from Liz’s and head home, it was on the ground when I found it. Just following orders.
“Thanks for bailing on me. Didn’t you get my messages?” Ned’s voice startled me.
“Sorry; I got carried away,” I replied, half smiling at my own joke. Before he could respond, I moved aside and showed him what I was working on.
Bam! Bam! I’d finally found a use for shop class. I banged on the egg thing in the back of the room, trying to crack it open.
“Whoa,” Ned said, his eyes nearly popping out of his head. “What is it?”
“Dunno.” I shrugged. “But some guy tried to vaporize me with it last night.”
“Seriously? That’s so awesome,” Ned said before seeing the look on my face. “I mean, not awesome in the almost-dying way, but awesome in the whole blaster way. It is a blaster, right?”
“Yeah, I think this is the energy source. It looks alien. Chitauri probably.”
Ned looked closer. “Almost like a battery,” he muttered. “But it’s attached to microprocessors. And look, that’s a solid-state relay like I use for internal computer fans.”
Ned was way better than me when it came to computer stuff. I knew one thing, though: “Someone built this weapon combining alien tech with ours.”
“That is literally the coolest sentence anyone has ever said!” Ned yelled, his mind officially blown.
For the rest of class, we tried everything possible to crack open the battery, but it wouldn’t give. Finally, I tried brute force to pull it apart. At first, it wouldn’t budge. Then, with a POP, it came loose. Score!
Next thing I knew, a flare of purple energy nearly singed my eyebrows! Ned looked around while I checked to make sure all my face was still in its proper place.
“Clear,” he whispered.
I shoved the battery and the rest of the tech into my backpack as the bell rang. “I gotta figure out what this thing is and who made it,” I said. Ned cleared his throat. “Right, we gotta do it. Meet me after school?”
“Duh,” Ned replied. Obviously, he would never miss out on something like this.
We made our way to the physics lab after everyone had cleared out. The battery was still glowing slightly, but there were no more purple bursts. If we could just figure out what made it tick…
“First, I say we put that glowy thing in the mass spectrometer,” Ned said, thinking out loud.
“Before that, let’s come up with a better name for it than ‘glowy thing,’” I suggested.
We were trying to think of a slightly cooler name when I realized we weren’t alone. Peering down the hall, I noticed something moving. Two big somethings—somebodies, actually. One of the two men looked familiar: He was one of the goons from last night! Schultz, I think they called him. Some other flunky was following him. Schultz was looking intently at some gizmo in his hands. My stomach sank, and I shoved Ned back into the classroom.
“That’s one of the guys who tried to kill me,” I said, looking at Ned.
Ned paled. “What?!” he whispered loudly. “We should leave. Like, leave the state! Or, at least, the school!” He started hyperventilating.
“Wait.” I stopped him. “Maybe they can lead me to the guy who dropped me in the lake.”
“Someone dropped you in a lake? Ohhh, so that’s how you got ‘carried away.’” he said, putting everything together. He looked at me nervously. “Y’know, that’s the kind of detail you shouldn’t leave out.”
I could hear Schultz’s voice getting closer: “This thing says it was some kind of energy pulse.”
“Whatever it is, it’s gone now, Schultz,” replied the lowlife who was with him.
Schultz’s voice became deadly serious. “The name’s Shocker now, remember?”
Well, that was new.
“Whatever it was, it’s gone now, Shocker,” the other goon said.
“Yeah. So are we,” I whispered to Ned as we both turned to escape in the other direction. A loud clang sounded as Ned tripped on one of the chairs in the room. I turned to see Shocker and his accomplice heading right for us.
Great. Trapped in school with a super villain and my best friend. I braced myself for Round Three.
CHAPTER 7
I shoved Ned under the teacher’s desk and leaped onto the ceiling just as the door opened and Shocker entered. He looked around, but not up, thankfully.
“Whatever. Let’s get outta here. The boss’ll be wanting a report,” he said.
As Shocker turned to leave, I managed to fire a Spidey tracer from my wrist cartridge onto his pants. The nanobug scurried down his pants and into a seam. Two could play at the secret tracking game.
“What was that?!” Ned whispered after they left.
“Come over to my place and I’ll show you,” I replied.
Later, back in my room, I showed Ned a holographic projection of the city beaming from my web shooter. A bright-red dot was moving across the map.
“You’re tracking him?” Ned asked. “Ha! The hunter becomes the hunted, sucker.” He couldn’t take his eyes off the map. “Look, they’re leaving Brooklyn.”
We waited and watched.
“Now Staten Island,” Ned observed.
More time crawled by, and the map moved with it. My butt was getting numb sitting there watching, but Ned couldn’t get enough. “Leaving Jersey!” he continued.
Jersey? Where were these guys going? And how was I supposed to catch them if they were in—
“There, they stopped,” Ned said suddenly.
“Culpeper, Virginia?” I was stumped. “How the heck am I supposed to track them down to their—”
“Evil lair. Just say it… for me.” Ned was far more excited than I was as I raced through ways to follow them.
“Fine.” I relented. “How am I supposed to get to their evil lair three hundred miles away?” I flopped onto the bed. Virginia. I looked at the map again, an idea forming. “Hey, Ned, Culpeper doesn’t look too far from DC, does it?”
Ned smiled, and I knew he was thinking the same thing. “Oh man. Liz is gonna kill you.”
The entire decathlon team was filing onto the bus the next morning as I raced up to hand my permission slip to Mr. Harrington, the team’s coach.
Liz was standing outside the bus, clipboard in hand, double-checking that everyone was there. She looked at me, puzzled. “Peter?”
Aboard the bus, Ned waved, probably a little too enthusiastically. “Hey, buddy!” he called out.
I stuttered and fumbled my way back on the decathlon team—which ended up not being too hard since they still needed me for the physics portion—much to Flash’s aggravation.
“No way!” he objected. “You can’t just quit on us and then turn around and stroll up here and—”
“Flash,” Liz cut him off, her voice leaving no doubt as to who the captain was.
A bored voice came from the back of the bus. “Can we leave already?” Michelle asked. “I was hoping to get in some light protesting outside one of the embassies before dinner.”
Liz smiled at me as I took my seat.
Don’t blush. Don’t blush.
I blushed and gave a small smile back as I settled in next to Ned for the trip to Washington, DC.
As we approached our nation’s capital, Liz led the team in a lightning round of quiz questions. But my mind was elsewhere. Culpeper, Virginia, to be exact. I didn’t know what I would find there, but it probably wasn’t going to be good. My phone buzzed, breaking my thoughts. Blocked number? That could mean only one thing.
“Hello?” I knew who was on the other end before he even spoke.
“Got a little blip on my screen here.” Happy Hogan was fishing for information, and he didn’t sound amused. “You left New York?”
Huh? How did he—the tracker! “It�
�s just a school trip,” I said, whispering. “And I gotta say, Happy, tracking me without my permission? Not cool. It’s a complete violation of my privacy. Is this the kind of world you want to live in?” Ned glanced at me, and I remembered that we were doing the same thing. This is different, I mouthed to Ned.
“What was that?” Happy asked. I forgot he was still on the line.
“Uh, nothing. Just some kid on the bus.” I covered. “Look, we’re just going to DC for the Academic Decathlon. No big deal.”
Happy grunted. “I’ll decide if it’s a big deal.” Long pause. Really long pause. Finally, his internal deliberation concluded, Happy gave his verdict. “It seems like no big deal. Just be careful. Someone once stole my sister’s camera in DC.”
“Okay, got it. Eyes on my camera-that-I-didn’t-bring at all times.” We hung up, and I mentally kicked myself. Stupid tracker.
I was still trying to figure out how to get around the tracker in my suit when we pulled up to the hotel.
The rest of the team enthusiastically pointed out how amazing the place was as we checked in.
“It’s, like, where God would stay if he were in town!” Ned exclaimed.
I looked at him, gazing in wonder, and got an idea. It was time to improvise.
“Ned, I’m gonna need your help,” I whispered. In an instant, Ned’s fascination with the hotel faded as he saw me pat the bag holding my Spidey suit.
“Best. Field. Trip. Ever.” Ned grinned.
With the DO NOT DISTURB sign hanging on our door, I unpacked the suit and turned it inside out. It was tricked out with electronic wiring, circuit boards, armor—probably your average, run-of-the-mill fare for Tony Stark. I unpacked the glowy thing (still needed a better name) and put it on the bed, too, as Ned fiddled with the wires until he found a way to plug it into his laptop.
I brought the hologram map back up. Shocker hadn’t left Culpeper. Good.
“Sooooo why are we removing the tracker from your suit?” Ned asked.
“Because I need to follow these guys to their boss before they move again,” I explained for the hundredth time. “And I don’t want Mr. Stark to know.”
Ned looked nervous. “So we’re lying to Iron Man?!”
“We’re not lying,” I said. “We’re just not telling him. He doesn’t know what I can do yet.”
Ned found the tracker in my suit and pulled it out. I set it on the nightstand and watched the flashing red dot on his laptop monitor. Looked like “Spider-Man” wouldn’t be leaving the hotel room for some time.
Ned whistled in awe as he continued to fiddle with the suit. “Whoa. Did you know there’s a ton of other subsystems in this thing? But they’re disabled by the…” He pointed at the monitor and chuckled.
I read the file name and groaned. “Training Wheels Protocol? Seriously?” They aren’t taking me seriously, I thought. Only one way to prove them wrong. “Ned, can you turn the protocol off?”
“Yeahhhh,” Ned said, hesitantly. “But I don’t think it’s a good idea. They’re probably blocked for a good reason.”
I didn’t have time to argue. “I can handle it, Ned. Just trust me.”
With a heavy sigh, Ned typed in code for what seemed like an eternity, and suddenly the diagnostics of the suit started to light up in green.
A BEEP came from the computer. The screen flashed PROTOCOL DISABLED. I smiled. Suddenly, the suit twitched on the bed, and I nearly jumped onto the ceiling.
“Ummm, when I put it on, it’s not going to explode or anything, will it?” I asked.
Ned shrugged. “Training Wheels are off, Spidey. My job here is finished.”
“Actually, not yet,” I said, turning to the other object on the bed. “Glowy thing. It’s evidence. Keep it safe.”
Ned stuffed it into his backpack. “As long as you keep yourself safe.”
I sneaked out of the room and checked the holographic map. Still no movement. Good. I was about to open the exit door when a voice stopped me.
“Sneaking out?” Busted.
It was Liz. I turned, expecting to see a disapproving look. Instead, she was smiling. “Don’t worry; we all are. Shhhh—I arranged with the hotel for a little night swimming in the pool. Everyone else thinks I swiped the card from housekeeping.”
“Going for the good-girl-gone-bad trophy?” I joked.
She blushed. “A stress-relieving team activity is beneficial before competition, and teenagers respond to things they perceive as breaking the rules,” she said, sounding as though she was reciting. “I read a coaching book.”
“Sounds like fun,” I said, looking toward the pool longingly, “but I was just gonna get some air. The bus wiped me out.” I hated lying—and missing out on swimming with Liz—but Shocker and his goons might not be in Culpeper much longer.
“As team captain, I order you to have fun,” Liz said in a playfully commanding voice. Any other day, I would have obeyed.
Dumb bad guys.
BEEP. Crap. The baddies were on the move! “Liz, I would love to—”
“Then do,” she said, grabbing my hand. “Just for a bit.”
Another BEEP. “I… I can’t.” I pulled my hand away, anxious to catch the villains before they vanished, but I think I pulled too hard, judging by the look on Liz’s face.
Just great.
“Fine,” she said. “You’re not the only one who’s stressed, Peter. You don’t have to be weird.” She turned toward the pool door. “Team breakfast at seven. Don’t be late,” she stated, not looking back.
If only I could tell her…
Up on the roof, I glanced down at the team having fun in the pool while I changed into my suit. I pulled on the mask, and suddenly it sparked to life. There were crazy readouts, biometrics, maps. I wondered if this was what it was like being inside Iron Man’s head.
“Good evening, Peter,” a female voice came from inside my mask. I almost fell back. “Where would you like to take me tonight?”
My suit was asking me out? No, idiot. It was probably a guidance program. Training Wheels were off, remember. “Uh, well, I was gonna go here.” I pointed at the moving tracker.
“It would be my pleasure to direct you, Peter,” said my suit (this would take getting used to).
“Ummmm, thank you, uh… ma’am,” I said, hoping my suit didn’t think I was a complete dork.
The display in my mask lit up and zoomed in on a truck. “That vehicle is projected to go in the direction you have requested.”
That was all I needed to hear. Swinging from the hotel marquee, I flipped onto the rumbling semitruck. May always warned me never to hitchhike. I bet she never pictured something like this. Heck, I never imagined I’d be doing anything like this! I was in unchartered waters now. Anything could happen.
CHAPTER 8
One hundred meters from target and closing, Peter.”
I didn’t know if I would ever get used to my suit talking to me. And it was a she?! Anyway, whatever. Finally, after being on top of this truck for almost an hour, it was showtime.
“Okay,” I said, leaping off the truck. I tucked and rolled as I hit the ground. According to the hologram map, the bad guys were just over the hill in front of me.
As I crested the hill, I saw a rusted, abandoned gas station. A beat-up van was parked alongside it. The lackey I’d seen at school was behind the wheel, and Shocker was on watch next to him with night-vision binoculars. Some guy I had never seen before was messing with some equipment, and I could hear random radio chatter coming from whatever he was working on.
“Mason,” Shocker said to the man. “Tinkerer, anything?” The man looked up and shook his head no.
Huh. Curiouser and curiouser. “What are they doing?” I wondered aloud.
I jumped a little when my suit answered. “I do not know. Should I engage Enhanced Combat Mode?”
“Um, sure. Sounds cool.” I was a fan of anything my suit could do that was “enhanced.” I started to make my way closer to the gas station when�
�� Yikes! My mask lit up like Christmas! Things started zooming in and out, magnifying and converting to infrared.
I started to stumble around blindly. “Whoa, whoa, whoa!” Suddenly, I was tripping over rusted pipes and smacking into a gas pump. “Not so bright!” I said in a hushed voice. My vision went back to normal.
I waited for a long moment, convinced everyone from here to DC had heard me. Nothing.
CREAK. The sound of the van’s door opening made me wonder if my cover had been blown. Peering around the pump, I saw Shocker heading in my direction. Yup, cover blown. He pulled out a crazy gun that looked as if it had been modified with alien technology. No telling what that thing could do. I knew I had to swing away fast. I shot a web from my left hand to the top of the gas station and…
It split in two?!
“Enhanced Combat Mode. Your left shooter fires splitter webs,” my suit explained. Now she tells me. Shocker was unfazed. If anything, it made him start to charge faster. Okay, right hand, same spot. BINGO! But then…
ZAP! Electricity ran through the webbing! The old, abandoned station glowed for a moment, as if I had lit it up for the Fourth of July. Then everything went dark again.
“What the—?!”
My ever helpful suit belatedly told me, “And your right fires taser webs.”
Maybe I did need some Training Wheels after all. “Just… un-enhance! De-hance!” I wished I knew the magic word to make the suit go less crazy.
“Terminating Enhanced Combat Mode,” the suit announced. Huh, well that worked.
I saw Shocker coming closer, so I swung behind a busted-up car, fired a web at a hanging sign, and started pulling. It swung noisily back and forth. Distracted by it, Shocker changed direction. Ha! Sucker. He lit the area with a flashlight, but all he saw was a rusty, old sign swaying in the wind. He went back to the van.
I had to get closer to hear what they were saying. The guy he called Tinkerer perked up and spoke into a microphone hooked around his ear. “Bogey inbound.”