Chemistry

12

Wearing his suit without the mask, Peter watched Liz through a window on the roof. Liz playfully chatted with her teammates. Peter sighed and Alessa quietly huffed. Stepping back from the window, he tightened the straps on his backpack. Peter put on the mask. A brief glow expanded from the spider emblem on his chest.

"Good evening, Peter. Good evening, Alessa," Suit Lady said.

"Hello? Hello?" Peter and Alessa asked, sharing a confused look.

"Congratulations on completing the rigorous Training Wheels Protocol and gaining access to your suit's full capabilities."

Alessa laughed and grinned. "Training Wheels Protocol! Yeah, I can hear her. I like her already."

Peter shot her a look then replied, "Ah, thank you."

"So where would you like to take me tonight?" Suit Lady asked.

Peter stuttered, "S, I, I, put a tracker on someone. He's a bad guy."

"Tracker located." The spider suit tracked down the path that led to the guy Peter and Alessa were after. "Plotting course to intercept target."

"Okay, well, as long as Lessa and I make it back in time for Decathlon, it's fine."

"Oh sure, fine," Alessa muttered.

Peter picked Alessa up and swung from a web and landed on a truck. As the truck ran past, they passed a banner that says "United States Academic Decathlon."

Peter and Alessa rode on a different truck, raging down the road. They were in his spider suit and her Shadow Raven suit crouching on top of the truck, with the dark night sky in the background.

"One hundred meters from destination and closing." The truck roared past a patch of grass. "Jump now."

Peter and Alessa leapt off the truck and rolled down a grassy bank. They ran across the bank through the tall grass, approaching an abandoned gas station.

"Detecting three individuals."

Peter and Alessa observed the gas station from behind their backs. The station was dark, with a couple of trucks in its driveway. They stopped and crouched to observe the gas station.

Peter whispered, "Why is their secret lair in a gas station? That's so lame."

Alessa shrugged and whispered back, "They have easy flames. Gas equals flammable."

Peter stared at her a moment, then jumped, and climbed on top of the empty gas price sign.

"Hey, suit lady, what are they doing?" Peter asked.

"Do you want to hear what they're saying?" Suit Lady replied.

"I can hear what they're saying? Uh, yeah." He pulled Alessa, who'd climbed most of the way up, next to him.

"Activating Enhanced Reconnaissance Mode."

The spider suit display closed in on the van and showed Peter the heat signals emitted from the men inside. There were three people in the van who were quietly speaking.

"I got the gauntlet from the Lagos cleanup," Mason said. "The rest is all my design."

"Whoa, that's so cool," Peter commented.

"Can't believe they're still cleaning up that Triskelion mess," Randy stated.

Alessa, who was also listening in, mumbled, "I can. Mr. Winter Soldier and evil S.H.I.E.L.D. did a lot of damage."