Doesn't Seem Very Important
"I know everyone's still a little nervous because of the last attack. And believe me, I am too. But we worked really hard to prepare for this decathlon. And even if, for now, we don't exactly have a school to represent… at least not physically," the teacher said while standing in front of the students on a school bus that had gone around picking up each decathlon participant from their homes, since they couldn't gather at the school like originally planned, considering it had exploded a few days ago and was still being rebuilt.
"But that won't be for long, thanks to Tony Stark and his generous investment in rebuilding it. So… what better than making our trophy the very first one to arrive at our new school? Which, as you all know, lost all of its old trophies in the explosion, right?" the teacher added, trying to cheer them up.
But judging by the students' faces, they didn't look all that encouraged, even if they had prepared a lot for this.
Then the bus suddenly came to a stop.
As the door opened, Peter peeked in slightly, with Ned right behind him.
"Oh, Peter. I'm so glad you're ready. I was really happy to get your call saying you'd be joining the others for the decathlon," the teacher said quickly, sounding genuinely pleased. "Everyone, give Peter a warm welcome," he added right after.
Peter shifted a little awkwardly when he noticed several pairs of eyes turning toward him, especially Liz's, though the rest of the students greeted him normally enough.
"What?" one of them said. "He can't just leave, come back, and have everyone welcome him like nothing happened. I took your spot, and that's not changing at all," he said quickly, with obvious complaint and annoyance in his voice.
"Flash, you're back to first alternate," the teacher said calmly almost immediately.
"Looks like it," one of the other students said with amusement, while the rest couldn't help letting out a few laughs.
Flash took off the jacket each competitor was supposed to wear, which was gold with the school's logo on the chest.
"Then let's get moving. Our destination: Washington, D.C., and the national competition," the teacher said with renewed enthusiasm.
As the bus kept moving, the group slowly started getting into the mood while they practiced, doing quiz questions and a small competition to see who could answer the most correctly.
While Peter was answering several of the questions with ease, his phone suddenly started ringing, cutting him off.
So he moved to the seat behind Ned to answer it.
"Hello?" Peter asked, not recognizing the number.
"Hello. This is Happy Hogan, Mr. Stark's bodyguard and assistant. He left me in charge of keeping an eye on the two trainees under his responsibility. I'm calling because I got an alert that you're leaving New York. Could you tell me why and where you're headed?" Happy said in a serious, professional tone.
"What?" Peter was surprised for a moment before quickly thinking things through. Obviously, Tony had put a tracker on him. "Oh, right. Well… it's a school trip," Peter said, lowering his voice a little and turning slightly so no one else could hear. "And I didn't know I wasn't allowed to leave New York or anything. So technically I haven't done anything wrong. Also, I'm pretty sure tracking me without my permission is illegal or something," Peter said quickly. "Besides, it's just the academic decathlon. It's not a big deal."
"I'm just doing my job, kid. I'll decide whether it's a big deal or not," Happy said immediately in an authoritative tone, before going quiet for a moment. "Still, you're right. It's not a big deal. I'll just keep it in mind. Be careful on your trip," he added right after.
"Oh. Right. Thanks," Peter said before hanging up.
On the other end of the call, Happy was standing inside Stark Tower looking at his screen, watching the dot tracking Peter move farther away in the direction of Washington, D.C., and he let out a long sigh, like he already knew that kid was going to cause him problems.
But it wasn't like he could exactly complain to his own boss.
Then he looked at the other marked dot on the map, which showed that it still hadn't moved from its house.
So Happy gave a small nod.
"Good. At least the little one is staying home and actually behaving. Otherwise, she'd make my job a lot harder," Happy said before setting the tablet aside and going back to the other work that was keeping him busy.
Because right in front of him was a massive scale model of a gigantic building, even more glamorous than Stark Tower itself, with the words:
Hero Association.
…
Meanwhile, on Peter's side, the bus arrived at the hotel where they would be staying during the decathlon. A huge four-star hotel stood in front of them, and everyone couldn't help looking up at it with interest and excitement.
Honestly, even more than they were excited for the competition itself.
Each room housed two students at a time. Naturally, Peter ended up rooming with Ned. And the moment they stepped inside, Peter turned around and looked at his friend.
"You brought your laptop, right?"
"...Yeah?" Ned said, looking at him strangely.
"Good," Peter said as he opened his backpack and pulled out the red-and-blue suit from inside like it was just a normal piece of clothing.
Except it was actually a high-tech suit built by none other than Tony Stark.
A few minutes later, Ned was sitting on his bed typing code at ridiculous speed, like he was fighting some kind of final boss or something.
Though in reality, when Peter leaned over slightly, all he could see was Ned casually typing away while looking way too serious, like he was imagining some massive hacker war against the suit's defenses.
So Peter simply turned back around and kept using the pliers, being careful not to damage anything important while trying to remove the tracker from the suit.
"I did it. I got into the suit's system by breaking through Tony Stark's defenses," Ned said with so much pride that he looked like he was about to run out and tell the whole world.
And honestly, that was something worth being proud of.
Because there probably weren't many people on Earth who could say they had done something like that.
As he looked through the suit's programming, Ned couldn't stop reading everything with growing excitement and amazement.
"Wow… this is beautiful," he said while clicking through several tabs. "So many subsystems. He really is a genius," Ned said, getting more and more intrigued. "Oh… but they're all locked. By something called… the Training Wheels Protocol," Ned said before letting out a small laugh at the name.
"What?" Peter said immediately, standing up and walking over.
The moment he saw the name in big letters, it seemed to irritate him right away.
"Turn it off," he said instantly.
"I really don't think that's a good idea. There's probably a reason all of this is locked," Ned said at once.
"No way. I can't believe they're still treating me like a kid… after everything I've already done. That is seriously not cool," Peter said angrily as he climbed onto his bed and started bouncing on it out of frustration, which really didn't help make him look any more mature.
"Well… technically, you are a kid," Ned added calmly while watching his friend's little tantrum.
"A kid can't stop a bus with his hands. Or punch through a wall," Peter shot back immediately, annoyed.
"You can do that?" Ned asked. "Still, I really don't think this is a good idea. What if Mr. Stark finds out? What if this is illegal or something?" Ned added uncertainly.
"Come on, Ned, please. I can control it, I'm sure of it. I train every single day without stopping. I'm ready," Peter said quickly as he moved closer to his friend, almost pleading.
"I really don't think this is a good idea," Ned repeated, still trying to refuse.
"Come on. You'll be the guy in the chair. The one who helps the hero from some place full of screens," Peter said again.
Ned looked at him as a flicker of excitement passed through his eyes, before he made a terrible face and let out a sigh.
But his fingers seemed to answer for him.
And they pressed two keys.
Then, suddenly, a current ran through Peter's suit, showing that Ned had changed the settings.
"You're a genius, Ned," Peter told him with a grin.
While Ned had the kind of face that said he was really hoping he hadn't just made a huge mistake.
And for some reason… Peter wasn't all that sure either.