"Fia?" Becca hears Peter call to her, her mind was slipping in and out of consciousness and everything goes black again.

"Come on, Reebs." She hears another voice when she wakes up, her brother's. She realizes who is holding her, and it's not Peter, but Tony in his Iron Man suit as she fully regains consciousness. Her brother flies to two of them away to a safe location. She's shaking in her brother's metal arms as Peter sits on top of a playset recounting their night with the winged man and the dealers.

"And then he just, like, swooped down like a monster and he picked us up, and took us up a thousand feet and just dropped us." Peter rambles as he rings out his mask that was soaking in water.

"Buddy.." Becca mumbles which draws their attention to her. Tony wasn't letting her go from his arms which made Peter feel even worse than he already felt. Becca had relived a memory from her days, decades, in the Red Room and it was his fault.

She hears them both sigh in relief, "Thank God you're okay." Tony mutters. She smiles weakly at the clear concern her brother shows for her. But when her eyes focus on Peter, the look on her boyfriend's face is mixed with a wave of emotions. Fear, panic, regret, relief and love are the emotions swirling inside him.

"How did you find us?" Becca asks softly, her voice hoarse from screaming as they were falling in the air.

"Did you put a tracker in our suits or something?" Peter asks curiously.

"I put everything in your suits. Including this heater." Tony replies and all of a sudden Peter and Becca both groan from the heat warming them up, the steam coming from their suits as they were finally not cold anymore.

"Whooaa. That's better, thanks." Peter mutters, appreciating Tony for thinking about every solution.

"What were you two thinking?" Tony snaps, his fear of losing his sister was overpowering right now and he couldn't bear the thought of losing Peter either. This was too dangerous for them.

"The guy with the wings is obviously the source of the weapons." Peter says, trying to plead with Tony to let them continue trying to track the weapon manufacturers

"We gotta take him down, Buddy.." Becca mumbles as she blows warm air into her hands as she continues to shiver. She feels Tony tighten his grip around her protectively. But something was ringing in the back of her mind, how was Tony here? He had left for Mumbai hours ago.

"Take him down? Reebs, there are people who handle this sort of thing." Tony reminds Becca and then his masked face looks at Peter.

"The Avengers?" Peter asks with a hopeful smile.

"No, no, no. This is a little below their paygrade." Tony replies as his masked face looks over Becca again.

"Mr Stark, you didn't have to come out here. We had that. We were fine." Peter says and Becca's chest tightens in disbelief. They were fine? If Tony wasn't there with them, Becca and Peter both would have drowned. She never learned how to swim, and what they had done to her in the Red Room made her never want to be in a large body of water. And Peter was tangled in his parachute from what she saw briefly, that didn't look fine to her.

"Oh, i'm not.. here." Tony says as his mask lifts to reveal an empty Iron Man suit.

"Buddy? Are you in Mumbai?" Becca asks curiously.

"I landed two hours ago." He replies to his sister, "Thank God this place has Wi-Fi or you two would be toast right now." He states to the both of them and Becca curls herself slightly in the suit's arms that still hold her. "Look, forget the flying vulture guy, please."

"Why?" Peter yells in frustration, clearly pissed off he wasn't being able to take down a clear threat.

"Why? Because i said so!" Tony shouts back, "Reebs almost died tonight, you almost died." He snaps, "Stay close to the ground. Build up your guys's game helping the little people, like that lady who bought Reebs and you churros." Tony says, trying to get them to back off from the danger. "Can't you just be a friendly neighborhood Spider-Man and Crystal?" He asks.

"But i'm ready for more than that now." Peter comments, still clearly frustrated. He was upset but he thought Becca would speak up. But she never did.

"No, you're not." Tony says and Becca knew this was a conversation between her brother and her boyfriend. She didn't want to get in the middle of this.

"This is not what you thought when I took on Captain America and Mary." Peter quips and Becca's eyes widen in shock when he mentions her family.

"Trust me, kid. If Cap wanted to lay you out, he would've. And our Mom wouldn't ever hurt you." Tony responds, Becca smiles for a brief moment when Tony says 'our mom'. "Listen to me. If you two come across these weapons again, call Happy." He says and Becca and Peter both hear a car engine revving in the background.

"Are you driving?" Becca asks softly.

Tony ignores the question, leaving Becca sighing in his suit's arms, "You know, it's never too early to start thinking about college, you two. I got some pull at MIT. End call." He says and the suit of armor soon sets Becca down beside Peter who pulls her onto his lap for warmth.

"No, I don't need to go-"

"Mr Stark is no longer connected." Friday responds in place of Tony, "Goodbye Tiny Boss." The AI says to Becca before flying off. The young girl hesitated, being taken aback by the AI's formality with her. She knew Friday called Tony 'boss', but she never heard the AI call her 'tiny boss'. It made her feel special in her brother's eyes.

"Awesome.." Peter mumbles frustratedly. His mind is running a million miles a second after his talk with Tony. But the person that should've been on his mind was his girlfriend who was still shaking despite not being cold. She was shaking in fear.

The couple knows they need to get back to the party or go home. Either way they were walking to someplace because Becca and Peter both were exhausted from the chase. The water had taken everything from Becca and she had nothing left to give.

"'Stay close to the ground'? What is he talking about?" Peter questions as he and Becca trudge their way back until they come across the weapon that had fallen out of the van.

"Benji, i don't think we should mess with that. You saw what it did to the van." Becca says as she wraps her arms around herself more. But Peter shakes his head as he crouches down and flips the piece of the weapon over, revealing a purple, glowing power core inside wrapped in wires. They're both entranced by the core until Peter's phone begins to yodel once again, signalling that Ned was calling him again.

"Hey man, what's up? We're on our way back." Peter mutters into the phone.

"Actually, I was calling to say maybe you guys shouldn't come. Listen to this." Ned replies and Becca assumes he holds his phone out away from his ear to pick up what he wanted them to hear. Becca can hear Flash encouraging the crowd to shout Penis Parker and it makes her furious. Clearly he was never talked to by Principal Morita like he said. "Sorry, Peter. I guess we're still losers. Tell Becca the same. I'll see you guys tomorrow."

Peter huffs in defeat and frustration as he hangs his head, Becca still standing beside him, "We'll see you tomorrow in school." He replies and hangs up. He stares at the power core and hesitantly lifts it into his hands, causing Becca to take a step backwards.

"Benji.. please don't tell me you want to keep that." Becca mumbles in fear. She just wanted to get home to the apartment, call her parents maybe to get through the fear that was slowly crippling her but Peter wasn't noticing.

"We have to, I have to." Peter says as he stands up, "Don't you see? This is the proof I need for Happy to get him to listen, to figure out what those thugs are doing, how they're doing it." He tells her. "We need this.. I need this."

Becca shakes her head, "We almost died tonight, Peter.." She mumbles, trying to control her shaking as memories of spiders, ballerinas and guns flashed through her mind repeatedly. "If Buddy hadn't come, we wouldn't have made it out of the water." She whimpers, clutching onto herself tightly, "Don't you get that?" She questions as she turns away from Peter, her blue eyes burning with tears. It hurt her to speak her mind to him, but in this moment, he was putting something else before her for the first time she could remember. Her safety wasn't his top priority like it had been before. Impressing her brother and Happy now was his top priority.

"Fia- wait. I didn't mean-" Peter rambles as he starts to follow her. "I'm sorry." He states and he notices her stop walking, turning her head slightly to look behind her shoulder at him. He finally was taking in her constant shaking, how every step she took looked like she was walking on thin ice. The russian slipping from under her breath. He was finally noticing it all, and he felt guilty. "I'm sorry." He says, setting down the power core slowly and then holds out his arms as he walks closer to her. "I never want you to feel like you did in the water again." He tells her, "I'm so sorry i didn't notice earlier.. how i put Mr Stark in front of you.."

Becca doesn't wrap her arms around him, instead she only tightens her arms around herself as she leans into his embrace, the shaking still not letting up. "I know you want to impress him and Happy, and I want to help you do that.." She mumbles, she wants to say more, and he knows it too.

"What did you see?" Peter asks softly, wanting to know what Becca saw when she was in the water and even after that. He wanted to know more about her past in the Red Room but there was never a time to bring it up.

"The Madam.. yelling at me as my head was being dunked repeatedly in freezing cold water." Becca replies. She feels Peter's arms tense around her, how his breathing caught in his throat for a moment. "Scolding me for disobeying." Peter shushes her before she says anymore and Becca's grateful. Because just like her father, if she started speaking about her past, the horrors might never stop.

"That's the past, you're not there anymore, okay?" He says, lifting her head and their eyes connect. He gives her a warm smile as he kisses her forehead softly and tenderly, wanting to show he was sorry for neglecting her trauma and proving he still was going to stay with her through everything. "You're here, with me." He says, "And i won't ever let anything bad like that happen to you again." He vows and Becca knows he means it.

The next day in school, Becca is sitting at a distance in the school's mechanics and woodshop as Peter repeatedly strikes the wires around the power core with a hammer. She was still uneasy with him having kept it, but she knew he wouldn't let it go. Not until he could prove everything he was trying to tell Happy was true.

"Hey, thanks for bailing on us." Ned comments harshly as he and Harry walk into the corner the couple is in.

"He means him." Harry states, crossing his arms, then looks over at Becca. She was still shaking ever so slightly here and there but she tried her best to control it. To control her fear. "Hey, you alright?" He asks and Becca nods, plastering on a fake smile which Peter saw straight through when he looked over at his girlfriend and best friend talking.

"We had a rough night last night.. she's still recovering." Peter mutters and Becca nods slowly, pushing a strand of hair away from her face and behind her ear.

"I'd like to not talk about it." Becca says softly and Harry nods slowly. He respected her space and he wasn't going to pry anymore, but he knew MJ needed to know. She was in class right now but he'd tell her later that Becca needed girl time to decompress hopefully.

"Something came up, Ned. Fia texted the group." Peter says, going back to Ned's initial statement.

Ned raises his eyebrows, completely ignoring Peter's reply as he stares at the power core, "Oh, what is that?" Ned asks, completely entranced by the purple light the power core gives off.

"I don't know, neither does, Fia. Some guy tried to vaporize us with it." Peter replies.

Harry's eyes widen in shock as Peter dismantles the wires and metal plates around the power core, "Seriously?"

"Yeah." Peter mumbles.

"Awesome." Ned comments and all three of them look at Ned with upset/confused expressions. "I mean, not awesome. Totally uncool of that guy. So scary." Ned rambles trying to save himself.

"Well, look, Fia thinks it's a power source, and i've been thinking that too." Peter says as he clips off another piece of metal surrounding the core.

"Yeah, but connected to all these microprocessors. That's an inductive charging plate. That's what I use to charge my toothbrush." Ned comments and Becca looks over, her interest being peaked as Ned helps unravel the mystery of the power core.

"Whoever's making these weapons is combining alien tech with ours." Becca speaks up quietly. Peter and Ned look over, the boyfriend nodding in agreement as Ned gapes at Becca then at the core.

"That's literally the coolest sentence anyone has ever said." Ned states in awe. "I just want to thank you for letting me be a part of your journey into this amazing-" As Ned rambles, Peter hits the open power source with another hammer and the core flies from the piece of weapon it was connected to previously, causing the table to shake violently briefly. The four friends turn around to look at the woodshop/mechanics teacher who is sitting in a chair in the back of the classroom who's doing a crossword puzzle.

"Keep your fingers clear of the blades." The teacher states absentmindedly and the four friends turn back to the table Peter was working at with the core.

"We gotta figure out what this is and who makes it." Peter says, 'we' referring to himself and Becca.

"We'll go to the labs after class and run some tests." Harry suggests and Peter nods, the three boys then make Becca giggle for the first time since the early school day yesterday by doing their special handshake.

After school ends, the five friends walk down the empty halls towards the labs. MJ having been brought up to speed by her boyfriend earlier and Becca was now staying close with MJ rather than Peter. It made him nervous but he wanted Becca to feel comfortable, and right now, her comfort lied with her only girl friend.

"Frist, we put the glowy thing in the mass spectrometer." Ned states, getting their game plan set up.

"We gotta come up with a better name than 'glowy thingy'." MJ comments to the boys and Becca nods in agreement.

"It's an alien power source." Becca mutters.

"You're right." Ned states simply in agreement.

Just as they walk past the chess club, two thugs turn the corner of the same hallway. Becca and Peter gasp quietly in shock, recognizing one of the thugs as the dealer that Becca had faced off with the previous night. "Crap." Peter says, then leaps behind the wall of the chess club's meeting room. Becca dashes quickly after, Ned, Harry and MJ glance around each other then shuffle to where the couple is.

The superpowered couple can hear the two thugs talking about how high schools smell funny. Becca could feel herself begin to shake more but MJ holds the brunette close to herself as Peter speaks, "That's one of the guys that tried to kill us." He mutters and the three friends's eyes go wide in shock.

"What?" MJ, Ned and Harry ask in usison.

"Yeah." Peter replies as he pokes his head slightly out from behind the wall to keep his eyes on the thugs.

"We gotta get out of here." MJ mutters, becoming panicked quickly.

"Wait, wait, wait. We need to follow them." Peter whispers quietly and Becca's eyes widen in fear. "They can lead us to the guy who dropped us in the lake." Peter says. Becca can see more emotions behind Peter's words more than just determination to figure out the plot of the thugs. It had become personal to him when Becca was nearly killed in the lake. He wasn't going to ever let her feel like that again.

"Someone dropped you two in a lake?" Ned questions and Peter nods.

"Yeah, it was not good." Peter replies for himself and Becca, "Fia more so than me, she has dark memories about being submerged in water." He says, his voice laced with concern as his eyes turned briefly to see his girlfriend huddled within the arms of MJ.

"Dark memories?" MJ mumbles and Becca simply nods.

Peter begins to leave the huddled group when Becca calls to him, "Benji-"

"Stay here." He tells them, but more specifically, Becca. He was going to keep his promise about protecting her from those memories. No matter the cost.

A knock on the window jolts the group out of their worry for Peter as one of the chess club members questions them, "What are you guys doing?" He asks.

"Nothing." Harry comments rather quickly.

"Oh." The student mutters.

"Yeah. You good?" Ned asks the student.

The student motions behind him with an awkward smile, "Chess."

Back in Becca and Peter's room, MJ and Becca sit on her bed while Harry and Peter chill on Peter's top bunk and Ned sits on the floor, his back resting against Becca's nightstand. The friend on the floor holds up one of Peter's web shooters as a holographic image appears. Peter had placed a tracker on one of the thugs and the group of five were currently watching the hologram of where the thug was moving.

"This is so awesome." Ned mumbles in awe.

Peter chuckles, "I know, right?" He comments as Becca lays her head on MJ's shoulder, taking comfort in her girl friend as her boyfriend was busy with the tracker. Ned boops the tracker and it reveals the thug's location, "They're in Brooklyn." Peter says as he hops down from his top bunk and sits on the foot of Becca's bed.

Becca's blue eyes snap up to look at Peter. He extends his hand to her and she accepts, sliding her own hand into his. He tightens his grip on her hand and pulls her out of MJ's arms and into his on his lap. "Don't let me go." Becca mumbles softly. Peter hesitates, his arms tightening around her shaking frame ever so slightly as he nods. Her words held more meaning than just what had happened with the winged villain. Her words meant to not let her slip from his grasp in his efforts to impress Tony. To let his life be consumed with the need and want to be a superhero more than a friend, a boyfriend.

As hours pass, the location moves. Peter is hanging upside down with his knees on his top bunk railing as he pulls chips out of the bag Ned had opened for the group. "Staten Island." MJ mutters, it was her turn to hold the tracking device currently and she enjoyed being useful in the group.

Night rolls around when the location changes again. Harry sitting on Peter's bed holding the device with MJ asleep on his chest mutters to the team, "Leaving Jersey." Peter nods, indicating to Harry that he heard him as he tinkers with something on his web shooter. He flicks a spider-man symbol on the wall of the bedroom before turning it off.

It's three in the morning when the tracker begins to beep. Ned was passed out on Becca's bed wearing Peter's spider-man mask when he sits upright along with the others. Becca rubs her eyes to get the sleepiness to leave her as she grabs the tracker. Peter lowers himself from where he was hanging upside down on the ceiling as she finds the new location on the tracker. "They stopped." Becca mutters.

Peter looks over the tracker and raises an eyebrow, "Maryland?" He questions.

"What's there?" Ned asks groggily.

"I don't know." Peter replies.

"Evil lair?" Harry questions from Peter's bunk.

"They have a lair?" MJ asks.

"A gang with alien guns run by a guy with wings? Yeah, they have a lair." Peter comments in reply to MJ and Harry.

Ned smirks, still wearing Peter's mask, "Badass." He states approvingly.

Becca shakes her head, "But how are we gonna get there if it's three hundred miles away?" She asks and all of the eyes in the room of the group turn to look at the Academic Decathlon poster Peter had hung in their room months ago.

"It's not too far from D.C." Peter comments and Becca knows instantly what his plan is.

They were rejoining the school's decathlon for the championship.