Ambition {𝟙𝟛} | Marvel √

chapter nineteen

Eventually, the bus arrived in Washington, d.c., and above the hotel they were staying at, there was a banner announcing the United States Academic Decathlon.

The interior of the hotel was filled with preparations for the Decathlon, which caused the Midtown High students to stare in awe with Liz leading everyone forward. "Woah," Emma murmured, her arm linked with Michelle, who tried to suppress how impressed she actually was.

"Everyone stick together."

"Yeah."

"You kidding me? This place is huge."

"I've seen bigger."

"Yeah, right," Emma murmured.

"Okay, everyone, listen up," Mr. Harrington spoke up, pulling everyone's attention to him while Liz checked them in, "These will be your roommates for the night so listen carefully, okay..."

"Abe and Flash."

"Betty and Liz."

"Charles and Haz."

"Sally and Cindy."

"Peter and Ned."

"Emma and Michelle."

Emma and Michelle grinned at each other as Mr. Harrington began to hand out everyone's hotel key cards. "Everyone enjoy their evening and make sure to go to bed early," he continued before everyone began to scatter off to find their hotel rooms.

Emma attempted to approach Peter to ask him what the plan was regarding finding the men in Maryland, but Michelle pulled her away towards the elevators, with Emma frowning to herself. Peter watched her go with a conflicted look before looking at Ned.

"Hey, you brought your laptop, right?" Peter asked and Ned looked at him.

"Why?" he asked.

———

That night, the hotel room of Peter Parker and Ned Leeds was slammed shut with a DO NOT DISTURB sign dangling on its handle. Peter and Ned quickly unpack, shaking various belongings like wires, the purple weapon core, toothpaste, and braces out of their backpacks.

Peter connected a wire to the suit while Ned was sitting on his bed with his laptop with complicated lines of codes flashing through the screen. Peter held a small flashlight in his mouth while working on his suit.

"Peter, why are we removing the tracker from your suit?" Ned asked.

"Uh, because Emma and I have to follow these guys to their boss before they move again and I don't really want Mr. Stark to know about it," Peter awkwardly told him.

"So you're lying to Iron Man now?" Ned asked.

"No, I'm not lying," Peter said, "He just doesn't really get what I can do yet."

Ned warily eyed his friend as Peter removed the tracking device from his suit. "Ah... Gotcha," he murmured before he took the flashlight out from his mouth, "Alright, Happy. Enjoy tracking this lamp."

Peter stuck the tracker on a nearby lamp before getting back to the suit while Ned continued to look over the laptop. "There's a ton of other subsystems in here," Ned said and Peter looked at him before Ned began snickering, "...but they're all disabled by the Training Wheels Protocol."

"What?" Peter asked before he hopped up next to Ned and looked at the screen. The words Training Wheels Protocol were written in red and the codes declared that the protocol is currently active and that Stark Industry Key Identifier should be entered to disable it.