Tick Tock

Chapter Fifteen

Monday.

Field trip day.

A school bus with the words "QUEENS COUNTY SCHOOLS" on the sides sped down the roadway on the way to the Museum of Modern Art in Midtown Manhattan. The majority of the teens on the uncomfortable seats were either listening to music or gossiping with friends. Ned Leeds was reading an article on his phone about how screwed Lucasfilm was with their Star Wars universe and how it was shaky at best. Behind him sat Peter and Charlie. The two were comfortably seated together, with Peter closest to the window and Charlie relaxing against him. Peter had an arm wrapped around Charlie, and his hand was lightly rubbing her shoulder.

Breaking the news to Ned was tricky. Since Peter knew Ned better, he was the one to tell, and that had only been this morning. He was a little weirded out by it, since he'd never taken Peter for being someone whose first girlfriend was the adopted daughter of a extremely famous person, but he was happy for the pair. MJ was pretty chill about it, and her response to this news was a 'not bad' look. 

Charlie had told Laura, and the girl had almost screamed had it not been for the panicked look on Charlie's face. When she realized that screaming wasn't a good option, she settled for a hug. 

The bus approached the Queensboro Bridge, and that's when the day went from 'good' to 'foreboding' in a second. Both Charlie and Peter swiveled their heads towards the city, and saw it. 

A giant alien spaceship was hovering above the skyscrapers. 

Peter felt his girlfriend's voice enter his mind. We're getting outta here. Now.

Still staring at the window, he reached over and patted Ned's face. It took a couple of these face pats to get his attention. Charlie, meanwhile, was fiddling with her watch until a disc full of nanites popped out, ready to deploy. 

"I need you to cause a distraction." Peter said.

Ned turned around. "You guys are enough of a dis-" at this point Ned saw the giant spaceship. "Holy shit. We're all gonna die! There's a spaceship!" he yelled, causing a stampede of students to get up from their seats and move to one side of the bus.

Peter smirked. "Come on." he said, holding a hand to his girlfriend. She took it, but not before releasing the disc onto the seat she had been previously occupying. When she moved, a copy of herself appeared. 

The two vigilantes slipped out a window, the bus driver not noticing because of the horde of teenagers piling at the back of the bus. "What's the matter with you kids? You've never seen a spaceship before?"

By the time he finished the sentence, the spiders were gone. 

"What is it with New York and spaceships?" Charlie asked, her voice conveying her mild irritation. 

"Maybe it's like bug zappers and bugs. The bugs are attracted to the bug zapper, but instead of bugs, aliens, and instead of a giant bug zapper, there's New York and her fine superheroes!" Peter explain happily. 

"This is one heck of a day. We get on the Magic School Bus with Miss Frizzle's great grandpa to go to an art museum, but instead we get off the Magic School Bus because a giant Cheerio is about to land in New York City." Charlie said flatly. She activated her Web Wings to get across a body of water, grabbing Peter's hand and swinging him forward.

"Thanks." Peter said as he fired another web line, then removed his clothes to reveal the suit underneath. "At least we're still with each other!"

"Yeah. There's no one else I'd rather be swinging through the air with than," Charlie paused to choke on a laugh, "Underoos!"