'We are the champions,
my friends
And we'll keep on fighting till the end' -
Queen

IT WAS THE morning of the tournament, and Gwen was prepared. After her late night swim, her and MJ ran by a few extra topics, just in case Liz's excessive training forgot to cover everything. However, both were pretty confident in their skills and went to sleep knowing it would be a tough challenge for both sides. But now, it was a matter of time until they found out who was to win.

They both selected their outfits and wore their signature, yet kind of tacky, blazers. At first, Gwen was skeptical about packing her suit, but soon thought it was better to be safe than sorry, so she placed it subtly in her backpack. Right on schedule, Liz knocked on their door. "Gwen, Michelle, come on we're gonna be late." She alerted and the two girls nodded their heads and followed Liz to gather the rest of the team.

"Ned, Peter, we're gonna be late." She said, repeating her previous line in fear of it being true.

"Okay, uh, hold on, hold on." Ned said before opening the door without Peter Parker.

"Where's Peter?" Liz asked instantly.

"The thing is..." Ned tried to lie, but when he saw Liz in anger, he avoided her wrath. "I don't know." He gave in.

"You don't know?" Gwen repeated.

"He isn't here." Ned confirmed, resulting in their current conundrum.

Everyone was gathered at the entrance of the main hall, cellphones weren't permitted beyond the doors, so the group had very little time to spam Peter and finding out where he was, even Mr Harrington joined in. However, every call went straight to voicemail, and their attempt was soon cut short when they were informed it was time to enter.

Gwen was angrier than she wanted to be, she'd grown her hopes up when she asked Peter to rejoin, and had even allowed herself to do a small victory dance when Mr Harrington put him back on the team. However, she never expected him to pull one of his disappearing acts in an important situation like this.

With haste, she walked into the hall and began writing her notes and equations down on paper. The questionnaire had begun and everyone had to prepare, regardless of Peter's absence or possible abduction.

"Our first topic is the human body." The announcer stated. "What is the function of the cerebellum?"

Gwen was quick to ring her bell, she knew the answer, however, someone beat her to it. "Movement and Coordination." A boy answered from the opposite team, sending a sneer towards Gwen for being too slow. From that moment, she swore to annihilate that boy and his team.

"Correct." The instructor complimented before moving onto the next question. "Which muscle is our fastest?"

Gwen rang the bell, using her quick reflexes to her advantage. "Midtown high?

"The eye." She answered, sending a similar smirk to the boy.

"Correct."

The competition continued for a while, everyone chipped in, apart from Flash, but the team was grateful. Gwen's small rivalry didn't stand down, every opportunity she got to humiliate the boy who once tried to upstage her, she took and the team were quite impressed that the usually inactive girl was so helpful. In spite of their valiant efforts, it all came down to a tie, meaning there was one question left.

"We have now entered sudden death. The next correct answer wins the championship." The announcer informed, quickly striking everyone with nerves as she read the next question. "How many carbon atoms are there in a water molecule?" Everyone was too slow, they were either nervous, or didn't acknowledge the easy question, however, MJ did.

She rung her bell. "Yes midtown tech?

"Zero." MJ answered nonchalantly.

"That is correct." The referee applauded as the crowd went wild.

The team was astounded and instantly surrounded Michelle, giving her a group hug while she sat and smiled. "Whooooooooooo."

"We won!"

"You guys, I am so proud of you." Liz said as they made their way outside with the trophy.

"Told you we didn't need Peter." Flash stated, hugging the trophy.

"Flash, you didn't answer a single question." Ned argued while Gwen trailed behind and stood by MJ. She didn't want to admit it, but she wasn't a fan of elevators. Even if she was a superhero who swung through the city on webs, being trapped inside a falling metal box was a vision that haunted her.

"Taking it all in, girls?" Mr Harrington asked.

"Oh yeah, I just, um. I don't really want to celebrate something that was built by slaves." MJ answered honesty.

"Im sure the Washington monument wasn't built by-" The educator countered as he slowly turned around and saw the look on the security guards face. "Ok." He finished before looking at Gwen.

"Oh, I'm just afraid of elevators." She said.

"All good, enjoy your book." Mr Harrington waved and went inside the monument.

After a brief moment of silence, Gwen's phone began to vibrate and she quickly answered when she saw Peter's ID light up the screen. "Peter?"

"Listen Gwen, your have to tell Ned something it's really important!" He yelled into the phone. "He has something really dangerous in his backpack and he can't expose it to radiation." He rushed out.

"Radiation like an X-ray?" She quickly replied, sensing the urgency.

"Oh my god."

"He's probably half way up the tower by now." Gwen informed as she snuck away from MJ. Peter didn't waste any time before hanging up, Gwen had no idea what was going on, but she had a bad feeling about their interaction. So she found a safe place to suit up and ran back towards the tower. As she approached it, she began to hear the screams of panic from the civilians and saw a red figure climbing up its side. Spider-man.

Gwen didn't have time to be suspicious or fit the pieces of the puzzle together, she needed to save her friends. "Here goes nothing." She muttered as she swung two of her webs onto some flagpoles and propelled herself like a slingshot in order to lose some distance between her and Spidey. It worked like a charm, but she still had a long way to go so she quickly crawled up the side of the tower.

"Ashla, stats." Gwen demanded.

"A Chitauri core has detonated and caused severe structural damage to the elevator." The AI informed.

"A chitauri core? Why does Ned have that?" She asked herself as she began to climb. "And why is Spider-Man here? He was supposed to be covering for me in queens?" She continued to ask.

"Estimating ten minutes before catastrophic failure." Ashla added. "The safety systems are completely failing. The occupants are in imminent mortal danger."

"Ok I get it!" Ghost-Spider snapped at the AI. She didn't have time to worry about that, she just needed to save them.

"You now have 125 seconds before catastrophic failure." Ashla continued her warnings.

"Has it already been 8 minutes?!" Gwen panicked, at this rate, she'd never make it.

"No, unexpected motion has caused the deterioration to escalate." Ghost-Spider groaned, they were only making her job more difficult, granted if she was in the same situation, she have probably panicked and shook the elevator with her nervous shaking.

Suddenly, she saw Spider-Man change direction and followed him to the west side of the building. "Ashla! Is there anyway we can contact Spider-Man, like call him or something?" Gwen asked, she hoped spidey took her advice and turned off his training wheels program.

"Calling Spider-Man." She said as the suit left a small Spider-Man symbol in Gwen's puerperal vision.

"Hey Karen what is that thing?" Peter asked his AI.

"Receiving call from Ghost-Spider. Would you like me to answer?" She asked.

"Not now Karen!" Peter denied, he didn't have time for a catch-up with his new partner, his friends were in danger.

"Declined." Ashla reported to Gwen.

"Is he serious?" Gwen sighed, but continued to climb up the building regardless. She was about three-quarters of the way when she saw the other hero reach the top of the tower, and even then, she realised the chances of her making it on time were slim. That was until she saw a helicopter approach nearby and took her opportunity to hijack it.

Gwen shot her webs to the side of the machine, and used it so she could swing high and higher to propel herself to the top. Spider-Man had a similar idea from his point, using the helicopter to gain his momentum and smash the south-west window, Ghost-Spider had to admit it was a little impressive. So she swiftly followed and used her momentum to follow him through the window.

She arrived just in time, seeing Spider-Man fall down the hole and following the elevator on its descent. Gwen dived down after it and aimed her web onto the cube, when it attached, she shot another web to the roof and held each webs with a hand each. Next, she held on with all her might, yelling in pain and determination. Finally managing to hold the machine in place for a short while.

"Secure it!" She shouted to Spider-Man, who followed orders and shot webs all around him, letting Gwen relax slightly.

"Yes! Yes!" Ned began jumping around.

"Hey, hey hey hey hey! Big guy, quit moving around!" Peter yelled as Gwen began to pull the elevator back up the shaft.

"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry." He apologised.

After pulling the elevator up with little help from security or emergency services, it was finally in a position to allow the doors to open. Officers waited on the other side, helping everyone free.

"Let's go let's go! Move it people, move it." Spider-Man rushed, changing his voice and adding to Gwen's suspicions.

"The webs!" Gwen shouted in shock when the lift began to creek.

Liz screamed in fear as she, the last one, began to fall. Peter thought fast and shot his web, catching Liz before she got the chance to make it a distance away from him. "You're ok. You're ok." Spider-Man assured.

Gwen crawled down besides the girl and carried her up to the doors where she was greeted and hugged by the academic decathlon team, each of them sharing a similar experience of the unexpected event. Gwen sighed in relief when her team was saved.

"So, uh, is everyone okay?" Spider-Man asked in a strange deep accent.

"That's gonna put you all off elevators for a while, huh." The blonde asked, also deepening her own voice to avoid recognition. "Certainly puts me off." She muttered.

"Huh!?" Peter quickly gasped when his web also decided to break.

"It's been a pleasure." Gwen bowed before jumping down the shaft to chase her partner.

But she didn't miss the horrific sound of Flash Thompson's voice. "Are you really friends with Peter Parker?" He yelled.

"Shut it dickwad." Gwen yelled back.