Going Through Changes -> Peter Parker

8.

Much to Peter's liking, the first class of the day happened to be shop class.  He had impatiently waited for this opportunity to get to the glowy core's secrets for as long as the idea had formed in his mind to just take it apart. And there was no better place for it than Midtown high's workshop with all its tools and safety precautions. Picking a hammer as the weapon of his choice, Peter started working on the weapon core casing with the pure force of his superstrength. Again and again, the hammer hit the casing's rim, deforming it more and more with every impact. Until it was partially freed. Under the spider-man eyes, the core emitted a bright beam of purple light as if it was an act of protest. "Oh", Peter breathed out perplexed. That had been way easier than expected. Carefully he started to peel the metal away like the peel of an orange exposing more of the intricate electronics it contains. 

"Hey, thanks for bailing on me.", a familiar voice from behind him made Peter jump. Ned had silently approached his highly focused best friend. After all that had happened, Peter had totally forgotten to call him to explain all that had been going on while Ned has waited for him at that awful party. Without any information, Nad was simply disappointed in his friend. After all, he had been the one who had to pay for Peter's disappearance and the lack of spider-man as a party guest. "Yeah, well, something came up.", Peter apologetically smiled at him. Ned's gaze wandered from his face to the glowing thing in his friend's hands. "Oh, what is that?" His interest was immediately peaked and he watched fascinated Peter struggling to take the machine apart further apart. "I don't know. Some guy tried to vaporize me with it though.", Peter shrugged, pulling a bit harder at one of the pieces. "Seriously?", Ned asked wide-eyed with a huge grin appearing on his face."Awesome."  To him, Peter's adventures were the best stories and he loved to hear all of them in every gruesome detail because Peter was his personal hero. Not that he hadn't been before he knew of his secret. But know he really was the most awesome friend he could ask for. This was why he occasionally forgot to control his facial expressions causing Peter to look at him weirdly due to the absurd reaction. 

"I mean, not awesome. Totally uncool of that guy. So scary.", he quickly corrected himself. Peter sent him another look, then continued to work on the casing. There had to be a way to get it fully apart without destroying its functions. He wanted to inspect, to learn from it. Maybe it could tell him important information about its origin or the whole weapon sale. He wished Liam could be here. The teen grew up with two geniuses, he had to have picked up something from them. Perhaps something helpful to his problem. But until they could meet up again at lunch, he was desperate for some fresh ideas. So he had to kickstart Ned's thinking. "I think it's a power source.", he shared his only theory so far that was kind of obvious to spot. But they had to start from somewhere. And as usual, he could rely on Ned, who quickly hurled closer to get a better look himself. "Yeah, but it's connected to all these microprocessors. That's an inductive charging plate. That's what I use to charge my toothbrush." He pointed at the complex-looking charging mechanism connected to various of the thin wires.

Peter stared at his best friend as realization hit him right in the face: "Whoever is making these weapons is obviously combining alien tech with ours." Ned met his gaze, the stupid grin on his lips reappearing: " That is literally the coolest sentence anyone has ever said. " He put one hand on his chest where his heart was located "I just want to thank you for letting me be part of your journey into this amazing-" At this point, Peter was completely blanking out his best friend. Determined he brought up the hammer and smashed it down at the core as hard as he could. The core finally popped out from its case, glowing as bright as ever. Peter and Ned immediately started to look around for any witnesses. But there was only the teacher who was deeply invested in the book he was currently reading and paying zero attention to the teens. Not really surprised, both of them turned around again focusing on the now naked core again. "We gotta find out what this thing is and who makes it.", Peter spoke up again. "We'll go to the lab after class and run some tests.", Ned nodded as invested in the operation as his friend. " We get Liam and do this.", Peter concluded, holding up his fist for Ned to bump against. The two of them solemnly shared their secret handshake.

Sometime later,  the two of them were walking down the hall on their way to the junior locker in order to catch the young agents between classes so they could continue their investigation.  "First, I say we put the glowy thing in the mass spectrometer.", Ned suggested while practically bouncing in delight with every step. He was still so happy he was included. "First, we need to come up with a better name than Glowy Thing.", Peter said, his eyes roaming the students passing by for Liam's face. "You're right.", Ned agreed with a nod. Suddenly someone grabbed them by their shirts and pulled them behind a wall. "What the.." Ned started but was hushed by Liam who had been made his own interesting discovery. He nodded towards the hallway, where two familiar broad figures made their way around the school. "Crap.", Peter stated, immediately recognizing the two as the men shooting at him. Being in their element, Spider-Man and Liam peered around the corner observing, while Ned was standing behind them clueless.

 "What's going on?" he whispered, standing on his tippy toes to see over the other boys' shoulders. "That's one of the guys that tried to kill me.", Peter explained briefly while ears dropping on the two dealers discussing how they hated school. "What?" Ned briefed out, shocked. " "Not the right time." Liam hushed him again. "We need to get out of here!" Ned panicked. "No,no,no,no,no. I gotta follow them. Maybe they can lead me to the guy that dropped me in the lake.", Peter contradicted eagerly. "Someone dropped you in a lake?", Ned asked even more shocked. Liam rolled his eyes at the boy. This was really not the time to share that information. "Yeah, it was not good." Peter shivered at the memory while briefly looking at the older boy beside him, who smirked at the thankfulness in the boy's eyes. They followed the men back to the workshops and the two dealers entered.  Peter and Liam followed the two as quietly as possible, ignoring Ned's protest and leaving him by himself in the hallway. They exchanged a knowing look. The men must have tracked the core here at least that would explain why they started rummaging through the room, clearly looking for something. "I freed the core here.", Peter mouthed and Liam rose an eyebrow at him, clearly impressed. He had witnessed how hard it could be to take Ultron's weapons apart. Cleaning up the tower had cost them way longer than any avenger had liked. 

 " Can you imagine what the boss would say if he knew where we were?" one man asked the other. " It's saying there was an energy pulse right here.", the other said looking down at a tiny tracking device in his big hand. "There's no sign of the weapon. And even if it was here, now it's gone.", the other shrugged, way less invested in the search than his colleague. Peter looked at Liam again pointing at the electronic wristband underneath his shirt that belonged to the spider-suit. Liam nodded, understanding the plan of the other boy. The two parted, Peter slowly sneaking closer while rummaging through his backpack for what he was needing.  "So are we.", the second dealer said, looking in Peter's direction but not spotting the boy who had jumped out of the way and was now clinging under a table, shooting a tiny robotic spider at one of the man's shoes. It stealthily climbed up the man's leg.