The Spider, The Night's Wave, The Tempest, The Archer

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 Grace 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, Natha. Good evening, Grace," Suit Lady said.

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

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

Grace laughed and grinned. "Training Wheels Protocol! I can hear her. I like her a lot."

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, Nathan and Grace were after. "Plotting course to intercept target."

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

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

Peter, Nathan and Grace rode on a different truck, raging down the road. They were in his spider suit, Nathan's Nightwave suit and her Artemis 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 Grace leapt off the truck and rolled down a grassy bank. Nathan flew down and landed on his feet. They ran across the bank through the tall grass, approaching an abandoned gas station.

"Detecting three individuals."

Peter, Nathan and Grace 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."

Grace shrugged and whispered back, "They have easy access to 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 Grace, who'd climbed most of the way up, next to him. Nathan joined them.

"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.

"I love it," Schultz said. "They keep making messes, we keep getting rich."