Always Silent, Peter Darling

Chapter 11

Looking around the large hotel the school booked for them, had left most of the students in awe. The large layout of the main entrance along with the booths and banners set out for the academic decathlon was nothing Peter had ever seen before.

Their rooms were clustered together on the 5th floor with Peter and Ned sharing a room.

"Why are we removing a tracker from your suit?" Ned asked as he typed on his computer. Lines of code scattered the screen.

'Because I have to follow these guys to their boss before they move again, but I don't want Mr. Stark to know about it,' Peter signed before going back to work on the suit.

"So... your lying to Iron Man now?"

'No, not lying... he just doesn't get what I can do yet,' Peter looked back at the Spider-Man suit. A part of him felt really guilty about tampering with the suit and disobeying Mr. Stark but another part was determined to show the man that he was capable of being a hero.

He slowly pulled the tracker off after Ned did his work before placing it on the hotel lamp, he'd need to put it back once he finished his mission.

"You know there's a ton of other subsystems in here but they're all disabled by the... training wheels protocol." Ned gave a small laugh. Of course Mr. Stark would give something a name like that.

Peter just rolled his eyes. 'Turn it off'

"I really don't think we should, it's blocked for a reason."

'I don't need training wheels, I'm sick of being treated like a kid all the time,' Peter huffed in annoyance.

"Peter, you are a kid," Ned protested.

'A kid who can stop a buss with his bear hands!' He signed quickly.

"I don't know, what if this is illegal?" Ned said nervously.

'Come on, please.'

"I really don't think we should do this.."

'I can handle it I swear... you're the only one that can, you're my guy in the chair.'

"Don't do that," Ned said almost desperately. After a moment of starring from Peter, he gave in, disabling the training wheels protocols.

'Thank you so much,' Peter said as he waited for the code to kick in. After Ned said it was done, Peter took the suit and changed into it. He hid it under sweats and an hoodie.

'The glowing thing, it's evidence. Keep it safe ok?' Peter signed to Ned. Ned just nodded as Peter closed the door.

"Peter!" Liz said in a loud whisper. Peter whirled around to face her. He was a little confused to see her in a swimsuit, soon the others in their group passed her with giddy expressions and swimwear. Except for Flash, he scowled at Peter before shoulder checking him.

Peter pulled out his phone.

<What's going on?>

"We're going swimming, I heard in a TED talk that a little rebellious activity is good before competition, you're just in time, come on," she waved for him to follow.

<I can't I was going to the business center to study.> Peter pointed in a off handed direction.

"Peter you're like the smartest guy I know, you don't need to study, now come on," she tossed a candy bar at him, which he caught. She smiled at him before running off the meet with the others.

Peter just watched for a moment, he could so easily join Liz and the others but that would involve ignoring what he needed to do as Spider-Man. He let out a small sigh as he went the opposite direction.