Peter hides the piece of tech before going to bed, then puts it in his backpack the next morning, deciding to try to figure out what the heck it is in shop class; he'll have tools in there.

So, now, here he is, hitting the purple, glowing, metal-encased core with a hammer when Ned walks over, not paying any attention to what Peter's working on. Peter starts pulling apart the now-broken casing as Ned irritatedly says, "Hey, thanks for bailing on me."

"Yeah, well, something came up," Peter replies.

Ned looks down, forgetting his grievance. "Whoa, what is that?"

Peter continues to pull it apart, trying to get to the glowing center. "I don't know. Some guy tried to vaporize me with it."

"Seriously?"

"Yeah."

"Awesome," Ned says. Peter gives him a look, and he corrects himself. "I mean, not awesome. Totally uncool of that guy. So scary."

Peter looks back down and starts trying to pry off the metal with a screwdriver. "I think it's a... a power source."

"Yeah, but it's connected to all these microprocessors." Ned points to something on the metal. "That's an inductive charging plate. That's what I use to charge my toothbrush."

"Whoever's making these weapons is obviously combining alien tech with ours," Peter replies.

"That is literally the coolest sentence anyone has ever said. I just want to thank you for letting me be a part of your journey into this amazing-"

Then, Peter practically slams the hammer down on the core, finally getting it to pop out of the metal. The loud noise causes him and Ned to turn to their teacher nervously. But Mr. Hapgood is reading a book and not paying attention. "Keep your fingers clear of the blades," he says.

Peter and Ned turn back around. "I gotta figure out what this thing is and who makes it," Peter says.

"We'll go to the lab after class and run some tests," Ned replies.

"Let's do it."

Still looking at the core, they do their secret handshake.

~~~~

After class is lunch, so they take the glowy thingy in Peter's backpack and start heading down the empty halls to the lab.

"First, I say we put the glowy thingy in the mass spectrometer," Ned says.

"First, we gotta come up with a better name than 'glowy thingy,'" Peter replies.

"You're right."

Peter is about to say something else when he spots two men at the end of the hall — one of whom he remembers from the night of Liz's party.

"Crap," he says, darting to hide behind a corner, made by a hall perpendicular to the one they'd been walking down.

Ned, meanwhile, just stands there, confused.

"Come on, come on, come on," Peter quickly urges.

Ned ungracefully shuffles over to hide with Peter, who takes a peak around the corner. Ned joins him as the men begin talking.

"High schools creep me out," the man who Peter remembers says. The both of them are walking down the hall, towards Peter and Ned. "They got this funny smell, you know?"

Peter and Ned duck back behind the wall. Peter looks at Ned. "That's one of the guys who tried to kill me."

Ned's eyes widen. "What?"

"Yeah."

"We gotta get out of here."

Peter starts to agree, but stops. He knows Mr. Stark isn't going to do anything about this, and he's already picked up the tech. He might as well go all out and stop this guy. Both Grace and Mr. Stark will understand.

He hopes.

"No, no, no, no, no, I gotta follow them," he says to Ned. "Maybe they can lead me to the guy that dropped me in the lake."

Ned, surprised, asks, "Someone dropped you in a lake?"

"Yeah, it was not good."

The men turn into a classroom, and Peter walks out into the hallway, pressing himself against the wall.

"Peter-" Ned starts.

"No. Stay there, Ned," Peter whispers back, continuing on to follow the men.

They're in the shop room, their backs to him. Peter creeps down the stairs, listening in on their conversation.

"Can you imagine what the boss would say if he knew where we were?" the guy Peter doesn't knows asks as they search through the equipment.

"It's saying there was an energy pulse right here," the other guy replies, looking down at some device.

Peter slips off his backpack.

"There's no sign of the weapon," the first guy says. "And even if it was here, now it's gone."

"So are we."

Peter quickly crawls under the table and sticks to the bottom of it in one fluid motion as the men turn around.

The second guy walks closer, his gun in his hand, but, thankfully, he sees nothing. The men move on, heading up the stairs. And, as they do, Peter shoots a spider tracker onto one of the men's shoes.

~~~~

That afternoon, Ned and Peter sit in the latter's room, with a map of the city projected from Peter's web shooter. There's a small moving dot in the middle of it — the tracker that Peter planted.

"This is so awesome," Ned says.

"I know, right?" Peter replies, eating chips with one hand and texting with the other.

'Hey. So I've decided to take a break from Spider-Man today,' he types. He rereads it, deems it okay to send, then sends it. To Grace, of course.

Ned zooms in on the projection, making the location more exact.

Peter looks at it. "They're in Brooklyn."

His phone buzzes, and his attention is stolen by it.

'Can't say I'm not disappointed that I won't be hearing you recount your heroic battles today.' Then, 'But you do need a break. So I guess it was a smart decision on your part.'

'I always make smart decisions,' Peter replies.

'Are you sure about that?'

Peter chuckles, and Ned looks over at him. "What's so funny?"

"Grace," Peter replies as he types back, 'Of course I'm sure. I'm the hero, and heroes always make smart decisions.'

"You really like her, huh?" Ned says, smiling.

Peter smiles too. "Yeah... Yeah, I really do."

"I can't believe my best friend is actually in a position to date Grace Stark," Ned says, amazed. "The Grace Stark."

Peter shrugs, though the smile is still on his face as he watches his screen, waiting for her message to come through. "I mean, she is pretty amazing."

Ned looks at him for a moment, during which Grace finally replies, 'I think Romeo and Juliet, Oedipus, Edmund Pevensie, Orpheus, and literally all of the Avengers would disagree with that statement.'

Peter laughs again, then types, 'Would Romeo and Juliet even be considered heroes in this case?'

'I don't know, but they definitely made, like, the WORST decision ever.'

Then, Ned hits Peter's shoulder. "Staten Island," he says.

"They're on a boat?" Peter replies.

Ned shrugs. "I guess so." Then, he sighs, "So, what are you and Grace talking about now? Your wedding?"

Peter blushes, shaking his head. "Heroes who made bad decisions. And I think she's roped me into that category." At that last statement, he frowns, remembering what he's doing right now versus what he told her last night.

He promised.

"What's wrong? Is she talking crap about one of your favorite characters?"

Peter shakes his head, still thinking about it, guilt settling on his chest. Finally, he says, "I kinda... lied to her, I guess."

Ned stops. "You what?"

"Last night, after the party... Mr. Stark had to send one of his suits to come save me, and he told Grace about it, and she made me promise not to go after the vulture guy."

"And now you are."

"Yeah. But... what choice do I have? Mr. Stark isn't going to do anything about it, and I can't just let this guy keep doing all this super illegal stuff he's doing. I mean, people could get hurt."

"If you already knew you were gonna go after him, why would you promise?"

Peter sighs. "I don't know, she just sounded so... sad. She just didn't want me to get hurt, and I didn't want her to worry..."

Ned shakes his head. "You better hope you don't get hurt, then. Because if you do-"

"I know," Peter replies. "I know."

He looks back at his phone and sends, 'I know. If he had just waited, like, five more minutes, it would've been fine.'

'Patience is a virtue and all that,' she replies.

Then, Ned asks, "So have you told her about me?"

"What?" Peter says. "Oh, yeah, of course I have. I told her all about you."

"Then tell her I said hi."

So, he does. 'So Ned's with me right now and he wanted me to tell you he said hi.'

'Tell him I said hi back.'

"She said hi back."

"Wow."

'He's pretty stoked,' Peter sends.

'Well, that makes sense. I am something of myth, aren't I?' she replies. 'Wait, no, a legend.' Then, she corrects herself again. 'The offspring of a legend, actually.'

'A regular modern-day demigod.'

'While that sounds incredibly cool, that would be a myth, Parker. And we've just established that my dad is not a myth but a legend. Keep up.'

'Well, then, what's a legend?'

'Think, like, King Arthur.'

'So then what you're saying is, you're royalty?'

'Precisely.'

Peter chuckles at that. He first wonders at her wit, but then at the softer side of her. The one who asked him, a boy she didn't know, to help her fix her family. The one he heard last night over the phone, influenced by everything that's happened to her up to now. And then the one he saw on her balcony, when she looked at him — like really looked at him — and got so caught up in the moment she told him he had perfect lips, but later was so casual about it that it was like she'd never said anything at all. And he's closer to her now, closer than he ever thought he would be, but there's still so much about her that he doesn't know.

'I think you're an enigma,' he sends.

'How so?' she asks.

'You're mysterious.'

'To you or to the rest of the world?'

'Both.'

She doesn't type for a few moments, but then she sends, 'What's so mysterious about me to you?'

'I don't know,' Peter replies. 'I just feel like there's a lot about you I haven't figured out yet.'

'Well, I'm an open book, Parker. Ask away.'

"Leaving Jersey," Ned suddenly says. Peter hums in response.

'Where's the fun in that?' he sends to Grace. 'I'll figure it out as we go.'

'You're becoming more of an enigma yourself, you know. Or at least a contradiction.'

He uses her words from before. 'How so?'

'One moment you're blushing like crazy because I said something remotely flirty to you, and the next you're flirting right back like some smooth love interest in a YA novel.'

'Which one, specifically?' Peter asks. 'Like am I more Augustus Waters or Quentin Jacobsen?'

'Those are both John Green characters.'

'I can't think of any other ones off the top of my head. And I only know those because I saw the movies.'

'I'm disappointed in you.'

'For watching the movies without reading the books?'

'Yes.'

"You've been quiet for a while, so I'm going to assume you're still talking to the love of your life?" Ned says suddenly.

Peter looks up. "I never said she was the love of my life."

Ned gives him a look. "Peter, you're looking at your phone with a dreamy look in your eyes that almost makes me want to puke."

Peter shifts, not meeting Ned's eyes. "No, I'm not."

"Yes, you are." Ned sighs. "So, are you still talking about books or have you moved on to something more interesting?"

"We moved away from books for a bit, but... yeah, we're talking about books again."

"You guys are nerds."

"So are you."

"Touché."

Peter looks back at his phone, but Grace hasn't sent anything else. He's waiting for her to further explain why she's disappointed in him — possibly in a rant — or a change in topic. Probably still about books but about a different genre. Maybe the book she was reading before the party; she's definitely finished it by now.

However, for a while, there's nothing. Peter contemplates texting her for a moment; would it look too desperate? Clingy? Something else that he doesn't want to look like?

"Ned, she hasn't said anything for a while. Should I?" Peter asks.

Ned holds his hand out wordlessly, so Peter hands him the phone. He reads the last few texts, then gives it back to Peter. "Go for it."

Peter sends, 'Are you giving me the silent treatment right now because you're that mad, or are you just waiting for me to continue the conversation?'

'A little bit of both,' she replies.

"She responded," Peter says to Ned.

"How am I so good at giving relationship advice to other people when I'm not in a relationship myself?" Ned asks wonderingly.

"You could be if you would just ask Liz out," Peter replies as he types, 'Ned said we were nerds for talking about books for this long, so give me a minute to think of something else to talk about.'

'So you're telling your best friend all about our conversation?' Grace replies. Peter panics, ignoring Ned's list of reasons Why He Can't Ask Out Liz as he tries to figure out what tone he's supposed read Grace's text in. He starts to type, but then she says, 'Don't worry about it, though. I tell Harley everything too.'

Peter stops and backspaces what he was originally going to say. 'Who's Harley?'

'That was quick.'

His brows furrow. 'What was quick?'

'Your reply. You sent it almost immediately.' Then, she adds, 'If I didn't know any better, I would say you sound jealous.'

'I don't sound like anything. We're texting. You can't hear me.'

'Why don't you call me, then?'

Before Peter can reply one way or the other, Ned says, "They stopped."

Peter looks at the projection, leaning toward it. "Maryland?"

"What's there?" Ned asks.

Peter shrugs. "I don't know. Evil lair?"

Ned looks at him in surprise. "They have a lair?"

"Dude," Peter says. "A gang with alien guns run by a guy with wings? Yeah, they have a lair."

Ned nods, then asks, "But how are you gonna get there if it's, like, three hundred miles away?"

And then Peter gets an idea. "It's not too far from D.C."

Ned realizes what he's thinking. "You think they'll let you rejoin this late?"

"They better."