Venice

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The next morning, we loaded onto a school bus, and drove to the airport, We were rushed through customs, and boarded the plane with about 20 minutes before we had to take off.
Flash, annoying as ever, was holding a drink, and yelled across the aisle, "Yo, Parker! This, is called an aeroplane. It's like the buses you're used to, except it flies over the poor neighbourhoods instead of driving through them."
Michelle walked by him, followed by Brad, she turned to the flight attendant and said, "Ma'am, He blipped, so technically, he's 16, not 21."
"I'll take that," the flight attendant said, taking the drink out of Flash's hand.
"She's lying! I don't even know this girl!" Flash stammered, following the flight attendant.
Michelle and Brad stopped by Peter and Ned's row, the one in front of me. Michelle gave them a little nod, and Brad smiled, saying, "Classic MJ, right?"
"Did you know Brad was coming?" Peter asked Ned.
"It-It's so weird. Like, one day, he's that kid who cried and got nosebleeds all the time, and suddenly, we blip back, and he's totally ripped and super nice and all these girls are after him," Ned answered.
"Not all the girls are after him," I said, leaning into their row.
"No, all the girls, except, like, you, I guess."
We turned and watch Michelle laugh as Brad helped her put her carry-on in the overhead compartment.
Peter turned to Ned, a determined look on his face, "I need your help to sit next to MJ."
Ned rolled his eyes and he sighed as Peter looked back at Michelle.
"Seriously?"
"Yes, seriously."
"What about all our plan? American bachelors in Europe!"
"That's your plan! That's a solo plan. Come on, this is my plan. Please."
Ned rolled his eyes again, but walked over to where Michelle and Betty were sitting. "Hey, guys. Uh, there's an old lady in front of us wearing a crazy amount of perfume, and it's kind of setting off Peter's allergies. Uh, Betty, if you could switch seats with him, that would be-"
"He's allergic to perfume?"
Ned shook his head, "Yeah, yeah, because it-it makes his eyes water, and he can't really-"
Mr. Harrington turned around, "Peter has a perfume allergy?"
"Oh...uh..."
"From experience, perfume allergies are no joke. I can feel hives breaking out already. MJ, stand up."
Mr. Harrington, Michelle, and Peter all stood up, as Mr. Harrington directed us around the plane. "Ned, take MJ's spot. MJ, you take my spot. Peter, let's get you out of there."
"Sorry," Michelle apologized.
"That's all right," Brad said.
"Zach and Sebastian, you take Ned and Peter's seats. Matthew, you take Gwen's seat. Gwen, go sit by Mr. Dell. Ned, thanks for bringing this to my attention. Your safety is my responsibility and Mr. Dell's, but he's...I got it for now. Let's go, Peter!"
Peter picked up his bag and followed Mr. Harrington as I plopped down next to a sleeping Mr. Dell.
"Let's go!"
Ned sat down next to Betty, and Peter squeezed past Mr. Harrington and sat in the seat next to his.
"Yeah, I have a small bladder, so I take the aisle," Mr. Harrington shared.
"Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen, this is your Captain speaking. Flight time today will be eight hours and forty-nine minutes to Venice, Italy."
I scrolled through the movies provided on the in-flight entertainment, and chose one called 'The Red Room.' It was about Black Widow [fill in plot summary of black widow here if its out]. Most of our flight was during the night, so I tried to sleep, but ended up getting only about two hours.
We landed in Italy, checked out through customs again, then walked over to the luggage carousel to grab our bags. Peter joined Ned, and they grabbed their luggage and started talking. Betty went up to them, and grabbed Ned's hand. I spotted my suitcase coming around the loop, so I ran forward to grab it. Another hand reached for it at the same time. I turned, and saw Brad holding my suitcase.
"Hey, Gwen, do you need any help?"
"I got this."
"Are you sure? It looks pretty heavy. I can help, no worries."
"I'm good. And also, if you want a better chance with Michelle, you should probably pay attention to her, not switch who you like in the blink of an eye." I hoisted my suitcase off the belt, and carried it off toward the rest of the group. It was heavy, but my super-strength handled it. Brad looked shocked, but grabbed his bag and ran off toward Michelle. I caught up to Peter where he was talking to Ned and Betty.
"Whatever happened to being an American bachelor in Europe?"
"Peter... those were the words of a boy. That boy met a woman. A very strong and powerful woman. And now, that boy's a man."
"It's sweet you two are dating, I hope it turns out good," I told them.
"Thanks," they responded at the same time.
Betty said, "Aw babe, you know me so well!"
"It feels like I've known you my whole life," Ned booped Betty's nose. Peter and I looked at each other awkwardly as they walked off, hand in hand.
"How's everything with you?"
"Well, Brad just tried to flirt with me."
"What? Doesn't he like MJ?"
"Yep, I told him to focus his efforts on one of us, and I think he chose Michelle," I gestured to where he was standing by her.
At that moment, Mr. Harrington yelled, "Come on everyone, shuttle buses are here to pick us up and take us to the docks."
"I thought we were going to the hotel," someone called.
"Yes, we are, but we need to take the canals to the hotel."
A five-minute van ride later, followed by a ten-minute boat ride, we had made it to our hotel, a wooden building that looked like it was about to fall apart.
"Looks like we're here. They're doing some renovations to the place. Getting some upgrades."
"This place is trash."
"That must be the concierge. Everyone, here we are!"
"Oh whoa... whoa, whoa," said Mr. Dell.
"Tell me we're not staying here."
"This place is sinking."
"I think you mean charming!"
"OK everybody. Drop your bags off, and we're gonna meet at the Da Vinci museum at 3. Let's go!"
"Vamanos!"
"It's andiamo."
"Andiamo!"
"When in Rome, you do as Romans do. When you're in Venice, your socks get wet," Mr. Dell grumbled, and sent us to our rooms.
I was staying in the same room as Michelle, like we had in DC. The boys were staying on the left side, and the girls were staying on the right of the hotel. When we reached our room, we could see over the canals and the [bridge name], along with the cathedrals off in the distance. I pulled my camera out, and snapped a picture out our window. Michelle entered the room, asking, "Were you able to get a good VPN? Mine just cut out, and I can't figure why."
"Yeah, I got the Stark one, do you want to mooch off my account? Additional devices don't cost any extra."
"Sure," she handed me her phone, and I entered my information and set it up for her. We started unpacking, and Betty walked in, she was staying right next to us, "I'm doing a piece on the trip for the school newspaper, do you guys want to say anything for it?"
"We just got here, we haven't done anything yet."
"I'm just anxious to get it done, I want to spend more time with Ned on this trip," she then saw my camera on my bed, "Are you a photographer?"
"I'm learning, I'm hoping to get an internship or job shadowing at a newspaper this summer, but I need to practice taking pictures."
"Would you be willing to take pictures for the article?"
"Yeah, I'll email you all the pictures at the end of the trip."
"Thanks!"
"No problem."
We went out into the city to go sightseeing until 3. Ned and Betty went for a gondola ride, Peter went to check out some of the stores along the canals, Brad took MJ to the square, and Flash ran off somewhere to livestream. I wandered around aimlessly, taking pictures of everything, the places, tourists, animals. I got a good one of Michelle being flooded by pigeons. We then headed to the market to find some other people from our group. Brad followed us, but we slipped away while he was using the bathroom, and ran up to Peter when we spotted him.
"Boh," we greeted.
"What?"
"Boh," Michelle explained, "It's the most perfect word in the world. Italians created it, and we just discovered it."
"What does it mean?"
"That's the thing, it can mean a million things. It can mean 'I don't know', 'get out of my face', 'I don't know and get out of my face'. It's the best thing Italy ever created, except for maybe espresso."
"Oh, so you've been drinking espresso."
I drifted off, taking another picture of the water, and an Italian man came up to Peter and Michelle, holding a rose, and gesturing between them, "German? American?"
"Boh," Michelle said, holding her hand up, causing the man to frown and walk off.
"Whoa."
"Boh is my new superpower. It's like the anti aloha. I was born to say this word. So, what's in the bag?"
"Oh, uh...boh."
"Nice." Michelle crouched down, recording the bank as a mass of crabs came flooding out onto the land."Whoa, cool."
I snapped a picture, and was about to take another when my skull buzzed. I whirled around, and saw the water draining out of the street.
"That's...not normal."
The waves in the canals grew larger, then grew still, then a giant whirlpool of water came bursting out of the canal. I handed my camera to Michelle, "Get out of here!"
"What about you?"
"I'm going to help evacuate everyone, my dad taught me the protocols!" She didn't look convinced, but ran back to the hotel anyway. Ned and Betty came flying up in a gondola a few metres away from me, Peter helped them out of the boat, and they ran away from the canal. I didn't bring my full nanite suit, and my Stark suit was back in the hotel. I only had my web shooters, and no way to conceal my identity.
I activated the web shooters ass the water monster turned to a bridge full of civilians. Peter leaped across the poles set upright in the water, vaulted onto the bridge, and helped the people off. The water monster swung its fist into the bridge, sending Peter flying backwards.
A man in a space-like helmet came flying in on a cloud of green smoke. He was blasting the monster with more of his green magic, but it didn't look hurt, only aggravated. I turned invisible, and swung up to the bridge to make sure the last of the civilians got out safely.
"Excuse me, sir!" a voice yelled, "I c-I can help!" The green man turned to the voice, but I recognized it. "Let me help! I'm really strong, and I'm...sticky!" I swung up to by Peter, he was wearing a carnival mask to hide his face to the best of his ability.
I whispered to him, "I'm here, too!"
"And I've got an invisible friend!"
The green man looked at him suspiciously, and told him to double-check all the civilians were evacuated up to three streets away. "Have your...invisible friend stay here, he can help me defeat this elemental! I need you to lead it away from the canals!"
I swung up next to him, and swung through the monster, trying to dislodge what ever made up the core. The man flew off as the monster smashes into the building Peter was stuck on. Peter flipped away, landing on a nearby roof. As the monster smashed through a building. Peter swung around it, attaching webs to keep the building together.
Peter and I saw the falling bell tower at the same time. He said, "Oh, come on!" And swung up to it, using his webs to keep it together. He landed in the top of the bell tower, and took off his mask to better watch the fight between the strange man and the water monster.
The bell tower started to fall again, he shot a web, attaching it to two buildings across from him. The monster hit the tower again as we tried to distract it. Peter fell, his head hitting the bell, making it ring. He groaned, but the tower cracked again, pulling Peter across it by his webs. His head hit the bell again and the webs fall from the tower. He shot new webs, trying to hold the tower up as the green guy and I kept fighting the monster.
Finally, the monster exploded, briefly flooding the streets, and everybody on the ground cheered. The new guy saluted, and shot up into the air. I swung away, toward the hotel.
I made it back to the hotel, dripping wet and exhausted. I could see Peter down the block, and I waited for him, then we entered the hotel together. Our class was wandering around the lobby, spouting theories about the green man, and the water monster.
"It's aliens. It has to be."
"BuzzFeed says there's a sailor named Morris Bench who was exposed to an experimental underwater generator and got hydro powers."
"Yeah, you should definitely believe everything you read on the internet."
"Spider-Man could take him."
"What do you think it is?"
"You know, being a man of science...witches."
"Who is that guy?"
"He's like Iron Man and Thor rolled into one."
"He's all right," Flash scoffed, "He's no Spider-Man."
"What is it with you and Spider-Man?"
"What? He's just awesome, okay? He protects the neighbourhood, and you know, he's inspiring. He inspires me to be a better man."
Peter rejoined the group as Flash insulted him and Michelle returned my camera.
The news host was speaking in Italian about the attack that we had witnessed earlier.
"Sounds like his name's Mysterio."
"L'uomo del Misterio is Italian for man of mystery. They don't actually know who he is."
"Mysterio..."
"Cool name," Ned and Betty said at the same time, then looked at each other and said, "Babe!"
"So, how much did you actually see?" Peter asked Michelle.
"Not much...I was running."
"Right. Me too. I was also running...away. So, Paris tomorrow. Go to the Eiffel Tower. Should be great."
"Yeah, I read it was secretly built as a mind-control antenna to create an army of the insane."
"Oh..."
"Which is why it's my favourite destination on the whole trip."

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