Ned and I ran down the school hallways toward the computer class. I've been trying to call Happy but he wouldn't answer his phone. It kept going to voicemail. In the mean time, Ned caught me up with the whole evil dude being Liz's dad. Alien technology turned weapons and the Avenger's weapons were the bad guy's main goal tonight. It was the basic villain mission.

The music from the dance was quieter as we drew further away from the gym area. I slowed down and tried to open the door. It was locked. Ned slid to a stop behind me, almost passing by. I heaved a sigh and opened my purse.

"Uh, what are you doing?" Ned was eyeing me curiously. I dug through my purse, unzipping the small compartment to get out my lock picking tools. Ned's eyes widened when he saw what was in my bag. "Are-are those more weapons!?"

"Yeah. Never leave the house without them. I just carried more tonight. Call it a gut feeling." I hummed out, inserting the lock pick into the keyway of the handle. I turned the pick to the side and a soft click escaped the door handle. A grin spread across my lips. "There we go."

"I have so many questions for you right now." Ned told me as I opened the door.

"I know. I'll answer them when Peter gets back." I took out the lock pick and placed it back into my purse.

We jogged over to two random computers beside each other. We turned on the monitors. Then we quickly entered the schools login. Ned started to pull up the Apple website to start tracking Peter's phone. He also pulled out his personal laptop from his computer class. Ned quickly logged in and started to pull things up. Soon, Ned's phone rang. He quickly took it out and answered the call, putting it on speaker.

"Hello, Ned? Hey, hey, can you hear me?" Peter's voiced came through the speaker phone.

"Go for Ned." Ned typed away at the keyboard.

"And Paulina!" I chipped in, pulling up the Google search engine.

"Ned, or Paulina, I need you to track my phone." Peter said.

"Yeah, but where is it?" Ned was finally at the webpage where you put in the phone information to start tracking it.

"I left it in Liz's dad's car." Peter informed us.

"Genius move." Ned hit the enter key and the webpage showed a blue circle moving down a street. "Okay, he just passed the GameStop on Jackson Avenue."

"Hey, where are the headlights on this thing? I'm in Flash's car." Peter panicked.

"You stole Flash's car. Awesome." Ned nodded. "Hey Lina, pull up the specs."

"Got it. What's the model?" I asked, typing away on the keyboard.

"Okay, you're on speakerphone." Peter told us.

"2017 Audi TTS Roadster." Ned informed me as he started to go into coding to hack into Happy's phone.

I let out a hum of acknowledgment and looked up the manual. I hit the link and it led me to a new window that was a PDF. Not wanting to waste time, I hit ctrl + F to search for the headlights section. Blue highlighted words popped up throughout the PDF showing where headlights was mentioned. I scrolled until I find the area that described how to turn them on and off.

"Yeah, it's awesome. It's-Get out of the way, get out of the way! Move!" Peter yelled through the phone.

"Are you okay?" Ned and I exchanged a glance.

"I've never driven before only with May in parking lots. This is a huge step up." Peter admitted before he let out a scream.

"I so should have gone with you." I face palmed. "I could've been your getaway driver."

"Maybe next time after you tell us about the whole fighting and knives thing." Peter responded.

"And she had more in her purse!" Ned added.

"The amount of questions I have for you Lina..."

"Yeah, yeah, I know." I grumbled.

"Hey, have you gotten through to Happy yet?" Peter questioned.

"I've tried but it keeps going to voicemail. I can try again. Ned tell him how to turn on the headlights." I pulled out my phone again.

"Yeah I can do that." Ned started to inform Peter how to turn the lights to the car on.

I quickly dialed Happy once again. The phone rang for a bit as I anxiously tapped my fingers on the desk.

"Hello?" Happy finally answered.

"About time! Do you know how many times I have called you?" I told him.

"What do you want kid? And did Tony give you my number?" Happy sighed.

"Yup. He did. I would have called him first but since he is kinda not in the country at the moment, so you are my other option tonight. Anyway, there is this evil bird guy -"

"Not you too." Happy groaned out.

"Look, Peter was not kidding!" I defended my friend.

"Oh, even better. You're friends with him!" Happy exasperated.

"Happy! We are telling the truth." I told him, there were muffled voices on the other end of the phone.

"Look, I gotta go kid. Enjoy Homecoming. Bye." Happy hung up the phone.

I grumbled curses in Russian. Peter hung up the phone. I decided to send a quick text to Tony about what is going on and that he had to tell Happy to listen to us. When I finished with my text and had sent it, a notification appeared at the top of my phone. Mufan had text to check up on me. Biting my lip, I sent a quick response that I was having fun and planned to stay the full time.

"Guy in the chair." Ned spun in his chair, throwing his hands up with a grin.

"I'm calling Happy again." I told Ned.

"Go for it. If he doesn't answer we can just go through the computer program I'm using to hack his phone to video call him just in case." Ned said. I nodded and dialed Happy again. It rang a few times before I was sent to voicemail. I let out a groan. Ned typed a few things and then hit enter. "It's okay. I got this."

"Takeoff in nine minutes." Happy's face popped onto the screen. "Hello? Hello? Who is this?"

"Uh..." Ned glanced at me. I motioned for him to introduce himself. "Mr. Happy, it's Ned."

"Who?" Happy stared confused.

"I'm an associate of Peter Parker and Paulina Ortiz." Ned introduced himself.

"Hi, Happy." I popped my face into view and waved happily.

"Got something very important to tell you-"

"You gotta be shitting me." Happy ended the call.

"Damn." Ned muttered under his breath.

"Okay, I'm going over to help him. It's driving me insane just sitting here." I pushed myself off the chair. I grabbed my things and quickly handed Ned my phone. "Ned, type in both yours and Peter's phone numbers. Hand me your phone so I can type mine in."

"Uh, okay." We quickly exchanged numbers. I started to head out the door. "Um, Lina? How exactly are you going to get there?"

"I'm hijacking a ride." I sent a mischievous grin over my shoulder. "Text me the coordinates or address of Bird Man."

I ran out of the building and toward the parked cars. A black mustang caught my eye. A smirk grew on my lips as I quickly got my lock pick out. Discreetly unlocking the car, I got in and closed the door behind me. I hot wired the car, the engine purring to life.

"Oh this is going to be sweeet!" I giggled, pulling the clutch into drive and hitting the gas.

🕷️

I  was a few blocks away from the location Bird Man was at. The stoplight ahead of me turned yellow. My foot pressed harder on the gas, zooming by a few cars. I barely made it to avoid a red light. My phone rang and I quickly answered it, putting it on speaker.

"Paulina?" Ned's voice came through the phone.

"Yeah, I'm almost to the location. Anything from Peter or Happy?" I asked, turning down a street.

"Pretty sure Happy keeps screening my calls now. But nothing from Peter. I got kicked out of the computer lab. I got after school detention for all of next week. You lucked out in leaving when you did." Ned said.

"Okay, I'm almost to the location. Keep trying to get through to Happy. Use someone else's phone if you need to." I slowed down as I neared the last street to turn at. An abandoned industrial building was further ahead of me. I drove by an Audi and winced when I saw the side of the car. It was all scraped up. "I'm here. Peter did not leave Flash's car in good condition. Poor car is all banged up."

"Be safe and keep me updated if you can. I'll keep trying with Happy." Ned hung up.

I exited the mustang and jogged toward the industrial building. As I drew near, I noticed that a part of it looked destroyed. It was clear a fight had happened. My heart beat faster in my chest at the thought of arriving too late. I picked up my pace and tightened the strap of my purse.

I took a ring dagger out and slowly walked into the building. It appeared that the ceiling had caved in during the fight. A voice cry out from inside the collapsed area. It sounded like Peter. I ran faster and entered the area. Rubble was scattered throughout the room with a busted pipe dripping water. Dust lingered in the air.

"Peter?!" I called out, desperately looking for him.

"Lina?" I heard him yell.

"Where are you? Are you okay?" I climbed over some rubble.

"What are you doing here? Are you crazy?" Peter's figure broke through the heavy cloud of dust. He was limping toward me. His suit was dirtied and his face mask was clutched in his hand. "Why are you here? Why aren't you back at school?"

"I came to help you." I told him. "I couldn't just stay back there when I could help you fight. Now where is Liz's dad?"

"He left." Peter gritted out, looking over his shoulder where the dark sky bled through the open ceiling.

"Then let's go get him." I placed my ring dagger back into my thigh holster.

"What? No. I can go get him. You need to go back to the school." Peter shook his head.

"Peter, I'm more experience in this than you are, trust me. I can really help you. Please." I stared him down.

It was quiet for a moment. Peter studied my face, thinking over what I said. He bit his lower lip in concentration. Peter glanced over his shoulder to look at the sky again before staring at me. Brown met green and I could see his gaze soften.

"Don't make me regret this." Peter ran a hand through his hair.

"You won't." I quickly shook my head. "And I promise to tell you and Ned everything later."

"Okay. Okay, so here's the plan." Peter licked his lips. "I'm going have to web our way to the Avenger Tower to try and stop that plane. You're going to have to hold on to me. Okay?"

"Sounds like a plan. Let's go." I stepped closer to him.

"You sure you're okay with this? You're-you're not afraid of heights or anything?" Peter asked, hesitantly placing an arm around my waist.

"I'm positive. Now let's go. We're wasting time and I want to rub this into Happy's face when he finds out we've been telling the truth." I wrapped my arms around his neck.

"Of course you do." A smile tugged at the corner of Peter's mouth. He tightened his hold around me and held up his free hand. He shook out his mask. Peter glanced at me as he fought a smile. "Hold on tight."

I nodded and wrapped my legs around his waist. Peter pulled his mask on. He started to run and then shot a web towards a secure beam in the ceiling. We flung into the air and I couldn't be more thankful to have my hair up in a bun. Peter shot another web, aiming higher to a telephone tower nearby.

"This is so much fun!" I yelled in glee.

"Don't tell me you're some type of adrenaline junkie, too." Peter said, the white of his goggles enlarging.

"I think I am actually." I beamed in response.

"You're surprising me more and more, Lina." Peter chuckled out, swinging toward the inner city.

"I'm full of surprises. You'll see."

They're precious 🥹