So, not everything went exactly as planned.

Okay, nothing went exactly as planned. But at least he didn't get hurt...

Too bad.

First, he hitched a ride on the back of a truck, then ended up at an abandoned gas station, where the weapon guys' van was parked. They were in the middle of a heist, and Peter had... a time trying to figure out all the suit's new features.

(Who needs an Instant Kill Mode? Honestly?)

Then, three big semis came driving by, and the vulture guy swooped down and made a hole in the top of one with a matter phase shifter. Of course, Peter followed, and when the vulture came out of the hole, Peter webbed the bag that he'd been trying to steal. The new web shooter combinations, then, failed him again. He fell into the hole, and then, suddenly, the hole was gone and he was stuck in the truck.

And now he has a mild concussion and he's stuck in the Damage Control deep storage vault — at least, until morning, when somebody should come along and open the door for him. Because neither he nor the suit lady can.

So, Peter makes a web hammock in between shipping containers to wait it out on.

"Hey, suit lady, I kind of feel bad calling you 'suit lady,' you know? I think I should probably give you a name..." he thinks for a moment "... like Grace." He immediately regrets that decision. "No, no, no. Gosh, that's-that's weird."

He starts cycling through names, just listing them off until he hears something he likes while he become restless, moving around the space. Finally, while swinging from a web with one hand, he says, "What about Karen?" Really, it seems obvious once he's said it.

"You can call me Karen if you would like," the suit lady replies.

"Okay, cool," Peter replies. "So, Karen, what else can this suit do?" Suddenly, wings pop out from under his arms, resembling a flying squirrel's, only cooler. "What? Maybe we should run that refresher course."

He stands in front of the large door, his arm extended towards it. "Ricochet web," Karen says.

Peter repeats, "Ricochet web." A web shoots out, then bounces back, forcing Peter to duck. "Cool!"

"Splitter web." Two webs shoot out at once.

"Web grenade."

"Web grenade!" Peter shouts, throwing a ball of webs at the wall, which it explodes on, covering it. He and Karen continue to go through the other web combinations — except for Instant Kill Mode — but it doesn't last very long. He makes a jump rope out of webs, but even that gets boring after a while.

Then, he shoots a web at the ceiling and flips over, hanging from it upside down. After a few moments of this, he decides to pull a book out of his backpack — The Fault in Our Stars. He checked it out of the library at school a few days ago, almost on a whim, since he and Grace had talked about it.

"Guess I could start this..." he trails off, even though he doesn't really feel like it right now. He reads a few sentences, then sighs. "I just- I can't do this right now. I can't focus."

"I could read you a synopsis?" Karen suggests.

"No, no, I'll read it. Eventually. It's just... I've seen the movie, so I pretty much know what happens."

"Then don't read it."

"But it's one of Grace's favorites," Peter replies.

"She's the one you helped in Berlin, right?" Karen asks. "The one you snuck over to see?"

Peter's eyes widen as he flips back over and breaks the web. "How did you know about that?"

"You had the suit on."

"Does Mr. Stark know?" Peter asks.

"No."

He calms. "Oh, okay. Good. I don't want him to be mad at me or anything. 'Cause then I might not get to talk to her again..."

"She is very important to you, isn't she?"

Peter smiles almost dreamily, sitting down and laying back on the floor. "Yeah. She's just... She's the best. She's so awesome. And she loves art and reading, and she's super funny and cool. And I... well, I really like her. An-And I really want to tell her that, but it's kind of weird, you know? 'Hey, by the way, I have a huge crush on you.'"

"What's weird about that?" Karen asks.

"Well, what if she doesn't like me back? Like, what if she likes Harley or some other cool teenage hero her dad knows? Or she just only sees me as a friend, you know?"

"I think she likes you," Karen replies. "You're very likable, Peter."

He smiles. "You know, Karen, that really helps. Thanks."

"You're welcome."

But then he sighs. "I just... I wish I knew more about her. Like... personal stuff, I guess. The stuff you know about somebody when you're really close to them, you know? I feel like I've only scratched the surface."

"Most of what I know is only from your interactions with her." Then, links to articles pop up, Karen scrolling through them. "On the web, there's just her name, her speculated age, and this picture."

She's in Tony's arms, looking at the camera with scared, yet tired eyes. It's slightly blurry, as she was moving to hide her face, her messy hair coming forward as she turned her head. It makes Peter's heart ache.

"There's also some articles about her mother, but they're all speculation," Karen adds as the picture disappears.

"Her mom?" Peter asks. She's never mentioned her mom, and he's never really thought about it. Of course, there's Pepper, whom he's never met. Grace mentioned her once but in an offhanded way. "It's not Pepper... is it?"

"No, I don't believe so. Pepper Potts was first employed at Stark Industries after Grace was born, so it's unlikely," Karen replies.

Peter sighs again, thinking for a moment. But, she doesn't know about his parents, either, so it's even. Sort of. He decides to change the subject. "Hey, how long we been here anyways?"

"Thirty seven minutes."

Peter sits up. "What? Thirty seven minutes? That's insane." He stands. "I cannot take this anymore. I gotta- I gotta get out of here." He goes back to the container he ran out of and walks inside, searching it. "There's got to be something in here I can use."

He opens the bag the vulture was trying to steal and searches through it. He pulls out a round piece of metal and tosses it aside, then an Ultron head, which is honestly pretty cool. Then, he finds something more interesting.

"Hey, it's like the glow-y thing."

"That glow-y thing is an explosive Chitauri energy core," Karen says urgently.

Peter stands, his eyes widening. "Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa! You mean we've been carrying around a bomb?"

"It would require radiation to transform it into an explosive state."

Peter hurriedly grabs his phone and tried to call Ned, but there's no service. "Karen, try to contact Ned."

"There's no cell service, Peter."

"But you could get on the Internet!"

"That requires an entirely different connection in this case, Peter. I'm sorry."

"No, no, no, no, no." He runs to the door, shooting every web he can think of at it, trying to pull it open. He eventually resorts to shouting. "Hey! Please! Please, somebody, let me out! Hey! Karen, you have to help me override that time lock."

He grabs supplies from his backpack as Karen explains the technology to him. He shoots a web up and hangs upside down again, right in front of the keypad. He hooks things up to it, then gets out his notebook and pencil and starts writing down combinations. "Okay, Karen, lower the voltage and run it."

"Trial unsuccessful."

"Okay, we're just gonna have to try every sequence."

Hours and hours pass, Peter rapidly typing in numbers, writing things down. Eventually, Karen says, "Initiating trial 247."

And then the door starts to open.

"It worked! It works!" Peter shouts. He swings out of the vault, eventually making it outside and onto the back of a truck. Once he hits the highway, he tells Karen to get him to the Capital and calls Ned.

There's no answer. The tournament must've started.

Finally, though, when he makes it closer to the capital, riding on top of a bus, Ned calls him back.

"Oh, Ned, you're alive!" Peter says, relieved.

"Peter, are you okay?" Ned whispers back.

Peter doesn't answer the question. "Ned, Ned, where's the glow-y thing?

"Don't worry, it's safe," Ned replies. "It's in my backpack."

"No, Ned, listen!" Peter shouts, panicked. "No, no, Ned, the glow-y thing is dangerous."

Ned doesn't seem to hear him. "You missed the Decathlon. I covered for you-"

"Ned, listen to me!"

"We're at the Washington Monument now. You gotta-" And then he heard Liz's voice.

"Is that Peter?" she asks.

"Yeah," Ned says. A few moments later, Liz is on the phone.

"Peter, where have you been?" she asks. "You can't just-"

He jumps off the bus and starts running for the Washington Monument. "Please put Ned back on the phone."

But Liz doesn't seem to hear him, either. "You are so lucky we won. You know, I want to be mad, but I'm more worried. Like, what is going on with you?"

"Liz, I have to talk to Ned. It's really important!"

He hears another voice — an unfamiliar one. "Miss, all items on the belt, please."

Peter's eyes widen. "Liz, there's something in Ned's backpack! It's really dangerous. Don't let it go through an X-ray!" But there's no reply. "Liz? Liz! Crap."

Peter lowers the phone as he sprints towards the monument, which is in sight. It's less than a mile away now, for sure. As he passes a tree, he webs his bag to it and continues on, hoping he's not too late.

But then some bricks fall down from the top of the monument. Peter jumps over the benches around it and looks up at it. "No, no, no, no, no, no. Karen, what's going on up there?"

Karen scans the monument, showing damage on the top of the elevator and people inside it. "The Chitauri core has detonated and caused severe structural damage to the elevator."

"Oh, no."

"My friends are up there!" someone shouts behind him.

"What?" Peter turns and sees MJ, then makes his voice sound deeper. "Uh, don't worry, ma'am. Everything's gonna be okay." He runs off, pushing past people. "Excuse me, excuse me. Oh, wow, that's tall." He jumps up onto the side of the monument, quickly climbing up it and looking for an opening.

"Estimating ten minutes before catastrophic failure," Karen says. "The safety systems are completely failing. The occupants are in imminent mortal danger."

"I'm going as fast as I can!"

"You now have 125 seconds until catastrophic failure."

Peter's eyes widen. "What? Why?"

Karen shows him the inside of the monument — the people, the damage, and the core in Ned's backpack. There's people on top of the elevator, pulling the occupants out. "Unexpected motion has caused the deterioration to escalate."

"How do I get in there?" Peter asks, panicked.

"Activating reconnaissance drone."

The spider on Peter's chest detaches and flies up. Peter is briefly amazed. "Whoa, has that been there the whole time? That's awesome."

"Locating optimal entry point." A few seconds later, Karen shows him what the drone sees. "Proceed to southwest window."

"I'm on my way."

Peter moves around to the other side of the monument, then climbs up, reaching the point where it starts to come in in a pyramidal shape. Breathing heavily, he turns around, his back to the wall. He tries to stand, but he looks over the edge in the process and freaks himself out. "Oh, wow, okay."

"What's wrong?" Karen asks. "You've reached the southwest window. Why are you hesitating?"

"It's fine. It's just, I've never been this high before." He looks over at the window, which birds are sitting on top of. He tries to shoo them away.

"You have also not reinstalled your parachute," Karen says, "so a fall from this height would most likely be lethal."

"Perfect." The birds fly away, so he moves over on the sill and faces the wall again. "Oh, gosh..." He kicks the window with one foot, but nothing happens. His foot just bounces off. "Why is it not breaking?"

"It's a four-inch ballistic glass. You'll have to create more momentum," Karen replies.

Peter sighs, then shoots a web at the wall. He grabs it with both hands, then stands on the window itself, swinging back and landing on the window multiple times. The glass starts to crack, but then a police helicopter flies up. A voice out of a megaphone says, "This is D.C. Metro police. Identify yourself."

"My friends are in there, my friends are in there, stop!" Peter hurriedly says. If they don't get out of his way, he can't get in.

"Return to the ground immediately," the megaphone voice says.

Peter looks in the window and sees his friends standing on the elevator, fighting for balance and shouting.

"Stand down! Return to the ground immediately!" the megaphone voice shouts. Peter climbs up the monument, then, trying to ignore the voice. "Return to the ground or we will open fire!"

Peter climbs over to the other side of the monument, then stops at the very top. "I got this, I got this," he says quietly.

"This is your last chance!" the megaphone voice shouts.

Peter sighs. "Oh, I'm gonna die."

He launches off the monument backwards, then flips to his stomach mid-air, his wings deploying as he goes over the helicopter, which he shoots a web at. He swings back around and uses the momentum to crash straight the window, shouting, "Break!"

He skids on the floor, rolling on his side as he passes the falling elevator. He shoots a web to stop himself, then webs the top of the elevator, the weight of it dragging him down. He braces himself with his feet on either side of the opening.

"I did it!" he shouts.

Then, the opening breaks, and he falls right into the elevator, which is now racing towards the ground again.

He quickly shoots a web through the hole in the ceiling, connecting to the very top of the elevator shaft. He braces himself with his feet again, though this time he's upside down. He looks around at who's left to be saved: Mr. Harrington, Liz, and Ned. In his deep voice again, Peter says, "Hey, how you doing? Don't worry about it. I got you."

"Yes!" Ned shouts excitedly, jumping. "Yes!"

The elevator starts moving, and Peter says, "Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, big guy, quit moving around."

Ned stops, eyes wide. "Sorry, sir. So sorry."

Then, Peter starts pulling the elevator up using the web. After what feels like an hour at least, they reach the next floor up. "This is your stop!" Peter says.

Two park rangers pull the shattered doors open, and they help Mr. Harrington out. Ned pushes Liz in front of him, helping her get out as best he can.

Meanwhile, the elevator is getting much harder to hold. "Go, go, go! Everybody out! Move it, people. Move it, move it!"

Ned moves towards the doors, Mr. Harrington holding out his hand to help him.

But then the portion of the elevator Peter's standing on breaks and the elevator falls, Ned falling with it. Peter's heart drops into his stomach as he hangs onto his web by his feet and shoots another web down at Ned, thankfully catching him by the hand.

"Ned!" Peter shouts, completely forgetting about keeping his identity a secret. Ned is shouting, so freaked out that everything he says is unintelligible. Peter frantically pulls him by the web until he can grab his hand. He continues pulling him up to get him level with the floor, then Mr. Harrington and the rangers grab him, thankfully getting him onto solid ground.

Liz pushes through everyone then, practically latching onto Ned. "Are you okay? Oh, my gosh, Ned, are you okay?"

"I'm okay," Ned assures her. "I'm okay."

Peter smiles at that, though they can't see it through his mask. He almost makes a comment about them dating in his deep voice, but he can't. His web snaps, and he goes tumbling down the elevator shaft.

"Thank you!" Mr. Harrington shouts.

Then, he hears Flash as he catches himself on the wall. "Are you really friends with Peter Parker?!"