𝐏𝐀𝐖𝐍 𝐓𝐎 𝐅𝟔

—♟—

"𝐇𝐄𝐘!"

Kara walked up to Peter with a small grin and leaned against the locker next to his.

"Hey," he mumbled as he twisted the combination on the dial and opened the locker. He quickly slipped his jacket off and shoved it in.

She frowned, noticing his unsettled expression. "You okay?"

"Yeah, I just . . ." He sighed once more as he placed his backpack inside and zipped it open before beginning to pull out his books. "Happy isn't answering my calls."

"He's not?" Kara questioned, her eyebrows furrowing. "How many times have you called? Maybe he was busy."

"Like every morning for the past two weeks," he told her, zipping his backpack closed and slinging it onto his shoulder. "And I've texted him too!"

"It's probably because moving day's coming; he hasn't shut up about it," Kara sighed. "I'll talk to him later."

He gave her a grateful smile while he closed his locker with one hand, the other holding his books close to his chest. "Thanks. Also . . ."

She raised her eyebrows. "Also?"

"I've been thinking about the Decathlon team," he started, his voice growing a little nervous as he shifted his weight from one foot to the other. "I'm going to quit."

"You are?" she asked in surprise, her eyes widening. "Why? We had so much fun last year!"

"I know, I know, it's just . . ." He gave a small exhale, his head dropping a little. "I don't want to waste time there when I could be helping people, y'know? And when the team goes to nationals—what if Mr. Stark needs me?"

Kara stared at him for a moment before pointing out, "You do know that I can teleport, right?"

"Still!" he insisted as he leaned against his locker. "I need to be ready. I wanna impress him."

"Who, Uncle Tony? Him?" She scrunched her nose. "Why?"

"What do you mean 'why'? It's Tony Stark!"

"I don't know how many times I gotta tell you, babe," she sighed, shaking her head.
"Tony Stark literally sucks."

"You don't have to quit if you don't want to," Peter reassured her with a small smile.

"Peter, if you're quitting, I'm quitting. I don't want to leave you to fight crime alone. Or worse" —she shuddered— "be in the presence of Uncle Tony alone."

"Are you sure?" he asked with furrowed eyebrows. "I know you love it. And Liz is there."

She shrugged. "I'll survive."

Suddenly, a terrible impression of Emperor Palpatine came from behind Peter as the Lego character propped up onto his shoulder. "Join me, and together . . . we'll build my new Lego Death Star."

"What?!" Peter exclaimed excitedly as they turned to face Ned. "That's awesome! How many pieces?"

Ned resumed his normal voice as he answered, "Three thousand, eight hundred and three."

"That's insane!"

"I know!" Ned grinned. "You want to build it tonight?"

"No, I can't tonight." Peter sighed. "I've got the Stark—"

"Mhm. Stark internship." Ned gave a knowing nod as the three of them began to head toward their first class.

Peter nodded. "Yeah, exactly."

"Always got that internship," Ned remarked with a small frown.

"Yeah, well, hopefully, soon," Peter said with a shrug, "it'll lead to a real job with them."

Ned peered past Peter and towards Kara before raising his eyebrows. "Can't Kara just get you a job?"

He shook his head. "Nah, nah, I wanna earn it."

"It'd be so sweet if you got a job there," Ned sighed dreamily. "He'd be all, 'Good job on those spreadsheets, Peter. Here's a gold coin.'"

Peter and Kara stared at him as they continued walking, their expressions baffled.

Ned shrugged. "I don't know how jobs work."

Peter shook his head and grinned. "That's exactly how they work."

"Oh," Ned giggled before he continued, "I'll knock out the bones of the Death Star at my place, and then I'll come by afterwards. For the most part, the difficult thing is the base of it. The top half we can knock out in two hours, tops."

Peter shrugged, clearly only half-listening as he said, "That'd be great."

Ned looked over towards Kara again and grinned. "Wanna help?"

Kara's lips pursed as she tried to think of an excuse. "Uh . . . I have to . . . help Uncle Tony with something today after school. Sorry."

"Damn, Tony Stark is taking away both of my best friends?" Ned grumbled. "What about me? Take me, too!"

They stepped inside their physics classroom and sat down in their usual spots, with Kara sitting in between the two boys.

The class started with the ring of the school bell, and it wasn't long until their teacher was droning on about linear acceleration as the class furiously scribbled their notes down.

"Okay, so how do we calculate linear acceleration between points A and B? Flash?"

Flash lowered the hand that he had raised as he looked down at his notes and confidently answered, "It's the product of sine of the angle and gravity divided by mass."

Kara rolled her eyes; she wasn't surprised Flash had gotten the answer wrong—he never got it right.

"Nope," Mrs. Warren replied with a small shake of the head. "Peter, you still with us?"

Peter, who had been invested in watching a video of himself as Spider-Man on YouTube, quickly nodded and closed the laptop as he stammered, "Uh, yeah, yeah. Uh . . . Mass cancels out, so it's just gravity times sine."

"Right." Mrs. Warren shot him a smile before looking towards Flash, whose shoulders had slumped. "See, Flash, being the fastest isn't always the best if you are wrong."

Flash turned around to face Peter and whispered, "You're dead."

"Piss off," Kara whispered back, causing Flash to scrunch his nose and turn to face the front.

Peter opened his laptop once more and peered at the video as it resumed, then beginning to ignore the teacher once again.

Kara leaned towards him, her eyes glued to the teacher. "You okay?"

He gave a quick nod and smile before he returned his attention to the video, his eyes squinting as he watched his superhero self flip over a car.

She shrugged before scribbling down the note that her teacher had just written down on the chalkboard. Her gaze unconsciously drifted from the board and up towards the line of scientists that were taped up, fixating on the picture on the very end—Bruce.

She sighed, her mind roaming far away from linear acceleration and towards her Uncle Bruce, whose whereabouts she had no clue of. She missed him, and, because of her newfound powers, she was sure that whenever he returned (assuming he hadn't been killed by zombies or aliens), they'd have a lot more to talk about than Harry Potter (which he'd definitely be grateful for).

She missed him. He always helped her out with her homework whenever she needed it, and not that she needed homework help anymore, but he was one of the Avengers she could actually hold an intelligible conversation with (Tony, too, but that usually ended in making fun of each other).

"Kara?" Mrs. Warren called, snapping her out of her thoughts. "Can you tell us the answer?"

Flash gave a small snort as she straightened up and turned her gaze to the equation on the board. Quickly, she calculated the answer in her head, and, after swiftly shooting Flash a glare, she answered, "Seven meters per second."

Mrs. Warren gave her an approving smile. "Good. Now, for the next . . ."

—♟—

Half the school day was already over, and it was time for Kara and Peter to break the news to Mr. Harrington that they were quitting the Decathlon team. She knew it was going to be hard; they were the best of the team (not to toot her own horn or anything), and he would probably try anything to keep them on the team.

Liz was standing at the podium, cue cards with questions scribbled onto them in her hands as she spoke into the microphone. "Let's move on to the next question. What is the heaviest naturally-occurring element?"

The members of the Decathlon team, who were all sitting in pairs of two on top of the stage, pondered for a moment before Charles rang his silver bell and answered, "Hydrogen's the lightest. That's not the question," he sighed as he looked down to his paper, a look of defeat settling on his face. "Okay."

Abraham pressed his bell and loudly answered, "Uranium."

"That is correct," Liz confirmed with a smile. "Thank you, Abraham. Please open your books to page ten."

"Kara, Peter, it's nationals," Mr. Harrington pleaded with them as soon as they finished letting him know of the situation. "Is there no way you guys could take one weekend off?"

"I can't go to Washington." Peter shook his head, earning a soft groan from the teacher. "If Mr. Stark needs me, I have to make sure I'm here."

Flash, who was lounging in the chairs of the cafeteria tables, looked up from the book he was reading and loudly commented, "You've never been in the same room as Tony Stark."

"Wait," Cindy called out from her table on the stage, her eyebrows furrowed as she leaned forward, "what's happening?"

"Peter and Kara aren't going to Washington," casually replied Sally, who was doing her homework on the ground.

Abraham rang his bell. "Why not?"

"Really?" Liz asked with a wrinkled nose as she looked over at them. "Right before nationals?"

Kara only gave a small shrug in response, an apologetic smile on her face.

Liz sighed and turned her head towards Flash. "Flash, you're in. We'll have to find someone else too."

"Oof, I don't know. I gotta check my calendar first," Flash remarked as he glanced up at them. "I got a hot date with Black Widow coming up."

Kara swallowed, trying her best not to react to the namedrop. She had been avoiding thinking about the two who had been suddenly pulled from her life, and she wasn't ready to get all emotional over it again—especially not here, and especially not in front of Flash.

"Shut up, Flash," she said through gritted teeth, her fingers tightly grasping each other from under the table.

She felt a warm hand gently pry her hands apart and interlace its fingers with hers, and she looked up to see Peter giving her a small smile.

Not being able to accept anything except for defeat, Mr. Harrington gave them a nod and allowed them to leave.

They quickly headed towards their next class—English—and continued with their day.

Kara could tell that Peter was itching to patrol, judging by his constantly tapping fingers and feet, and how he kept glancing toward the clock.

His itch was finally satisfied as the clock struck quarter to three, and the bell rang.

After giving a rushed goodbye to Ned, who reminded them of their plan to build the Death Star before beginning his journey home, Kara and Peter headed out of the school, where, luckily, no one was out yet.

After checking that no one was around to see them, Peter gave Kara a grin as they approached the tall gates, and he swiftly jumped over them while she teleported to the other side.

"Hungry?" he asked as he took her hand.

She grinned as she shook her head. "I packed enough cookies for myself, don't worry."

The two of them then swiftly made their way over to Peter's favourite sandwich place: Delmar's. Kara had visited a few times—Peter loved to go there before patrolling to pick up a snack—and she had to admit, the sandwiches were pretty good. But nothing could beat Sam's sandwiches, those were delicious (though he never gave Kara nor Amelia the recipe, much to their displeasure).

The two of them entered the store. It had a few customers roaming around, and, while grabbing two small bags of sour gummy worms, Peter greeted, "What's up, Mr. Delmar?"

"Hey, Mr. Parker and his girlfriend," Mr. Delmar greeted as he rested his elbows down on the counter, glancing down at the candy that Peter had set on the table. "Number five, right?"

"Yeah, um, and with pickles, and can you smush it down real flat?" Peter called to the deli clerk that was getting started on his order. "Thanks."

"You got it, boss."

A small smirk appeared on Mr. Delmar's face as he shifted his gaze to Peter. "How's your aunt?"

Peter folded his arms, nodding quickly. "Yeah, she's all right."

Mr. Delmar turned to the deli clerk behind him, switching to Spanish as he told him, "La tía de é les una italiana muy bellissima. (His aunt is a very hot Italian woman.)"

"¿Ah, sí? (Oh, yeah?)" the deli clerk replied humorously.

Peter raised his eyebrows, an amused smirk playing on his face as he replied in Spanish, "¿Cómo está tu hija, eh? (How is your daughter, huh?)"

Mr. Delmar's playful expression soon dropped as the deli clerk gave a small hoot of amusement, his eyes hardening as he stared at Peter. He stood up straight, shifting his gaze to the cash register as he gestured towards Peter and said, "Ten dollars."

"It's five dollars," Peter pointed out as he gestured up at the prices.

"For that comment," Mr. Delmar rebutted, "ten dollars."

"Hey, come on. I'm joking, I'm joking." Peter reassured him with a smile. He pulled out his wallet and took out a five-dollar bill before holding it towards the man with a pleading smile. "Here's five dollars."

Mr. Delmar gave him a weary smile as he took the money from him and put it in the cash register.

Peter turned his attention to the cat that was lounging on top of the display case, smiling as he pet him. "What's up, Murph? How you doing, buddy?"

Kara grinned, elbowing his side. "So . . . his daughter, huh?"

His eyes immediately widened as he turned to her and shook his head. "Wh—no, no, I—I was just—"

"I'm kidding," she laughed, quickly kissing his cheek in reassurance.

Peter gave her a nervous grin before giving a final pet to the cat, and the two of them walked back over to Mr. Delmar as Peter grabbed the bags of candy and placed them inside his bag.

"So, how's school?" Mr. Delmar asked with raised eyebrows as he leaned his elbows against the countertop.

"Ah, you know, it's boring," Peter said dismissively with a small smile. "Got better things to do."

"Stay in school, kid. Stay in school," Mr. Delmar advised humorously as he straightened up and gestured around the room. "Otherwise, you're gonna end up like me."

Peter shrugged as he looked around and pointed out, "This is great."

Mr. Delmar grinned as he handed Peter his sandwich. "Best sandwiches in Queens."

After bidding a quick goodbye to Mr. Delmar, the deli clerk, and Murph, who meowed in response, Kara and Peter left the store and converged onto the busy sidewalk.

Glancing around her, Kara grabbed Peter's hand and pulled him towards a dark corner, making sure no one was watching before teleporting the both of them into the usual alleyway they visited.

As Peter took his shoes off and pulled his Spider-Man suit from his backpack, Kara grabbed her suit from her bag and quickly turned invisible. She turned around to face the other direction as she changed clothes, ignoring as Peter knocked over a metal trash can.

She turned visible again and hooked her face mask on, then called, "You done yet?"

"Uh . . ." he paused for a moment before continuing, "yeah!"

She turned around to see him slip his mask on before grabbing his backpack, his suit still loose as he pulled the sandwich out and webbed the bag to a dumpster.

Kara sighed and shook her head. Peter pressed the spider emblem that decorated the chest, which controlled the suit to then shrink and fit him snugly.

"Peter," she pointed out with raised eyebrows, "you realize that our backpacks are gonna get stolen."

"It'll be fine," he reassured her, his grin evident in his voice as he grabbed her backpack and stuck it right next to his.

He then pressed a button on his web shooter that activated his hologram display, and Kara watched with amusement as he adjusted the white lenses of his mask. He then gave her a nod and gestured to a rooftop not too far away.

As Peter swung his way there, Kara teleported onto it. She leaned against the ledge while she watched him jump his way to her with his sandwich in hand.

"Hey, Hermione," Kara sighed as she looked down onto the busy street, "got anything?"

"Nothing currently."

"Okay, thanks." Kara folded her arms as she leaned even further to look down at the street, her eyes narrowing as she watched the individuals passing by.

It wasn't long after that she saw a man with a beanie take a pair of bolt cutters from his satchel and break the chain lock of a bike. Hastily, he shoved the bolt cutters back into his bag and hopped onto the bike, pushing people out of the way as he sped down the sidewalk.

"You wanna take this one?" Kara nudged Peter, who nodded.

She smiled as she watched Peter sling a web to a nearby building and swing his way over the thief.

He landed right in front of the thief, forcing him to come to a stop, and offered the end of his web to him before webbing the string to the guy's chest. The thief's eyes widened as he was sprung upwards, and he clutched onto the string as he dangled in the air.

Peter grabbed onto the handles of the bike that had fallen over, swinging his head around as he called for the owner.

After a few good minutes of searching, it seemed as though he had given up, and he quickly wrote a note, attaching it to the handles before leaning the bike against the wall.

It wasn't long until he was back by Kara's side. "I tried, but I couldn't find the owner."

"I'm sure they'll turn up." Kara grinned even though he wasn't able to see it. "You did a good job."

—♟—

"You have reached the voicemail box of . . ." The automated woman's voice turned into the voice that Kara was so used to hearing ramble about the importance of security. "Happy Hogan."

Kara rolled her eyes as she shifted in her spot on the fire exit that she and Peter were perched upon. Of course he didn't pick up; he never did whenever Peter called.

"Hey, Happy!" Peter greeted, his mask lifted to reveal his mouth, and his voice a little muffled by the churro he was eating. "Um, here's my and Kara's report for tonight. I stopped a grand theft bicycle. Couldn't find the owner, so I just left a note. Um . . . we helped this lost, old Dominican lady. She was really nice and bought us churros." He sighed as he glanced over at Kara and continued, "So I just, um, feel like I could be doing more. You know? Just curious when the next real mission is gonna be. So, yeah, just call me back. It's Peter. Parker."

He hung up the phone, letting out a long exhale before pouting. "Why would I tell him about the churros?"

"It's fine. I'm sure he's invested in the churros," Kara reassured him with a small giggle, patting him on the back.

He gave her a half-hearted smile before looking down at his web shooter. He pressed a button, and suddenly, the cartridge ejected and flew through the air.

Peter scrambled to his feet, his eyes wildly following the cartridge as he reached up to grab it. Eventually, he caught it, now standing sideways off the fire escape.

"You better not fall," Kara warned as she watched him tuck the cartridge into his belt.

"Yeah. Hey, uh, Kara?" Peter called, his head facing toward the street ahead of them.

"Yeah?"

He pointed towards the bank that stood at the corner of a street with one hand as he used the other to pull down the mask. "I think that bank is about to be robbed."

"Oh, that's not good," Kara sighed as she fixed her mask. "Okay. Meet you there."

She teleported right in front of Queens Community Bank, only having to wait a few seconds for Peter to arrive by her side.

She peered into the glass doors to see that there were four robbers in action. One of them was on the lookout, a gun clutched tightly in his hands as the three behind him grabbed cash from the ATMs that they had somehow removed and shoved the wads into their duffle bags.

"Ready to go?" Peter whispered to her, to which she nodded.

He carefully opened the door, keeping his fingers on it as he made sure it closed quietly after they entered.

Awkwardly, Peter leaned a hand against the wall as he put the other hand on his hip, glancing down at his position before clearing his throat. "What's up, guys? You forgot your PIN number?"

The four of them immediately whipped their heads around to face them, revealing the cheap, plastic masks of the Avengers that they had on—Iron Man, Captain America, Thor, and The Hulk.

"Hey, look!" Kara said mockingly as she nudged Peter's side. "It's our friends, the Avengers! What are you guys doing here?"

'Iron Man' cocked his gun as he stepped towards them, but Peter quickly slung a web at its end and pulled it, knocking both 'Iron Man' and 'Thor' down with it.

"Thor! I've been wondering what you've been up to!" Kara greeted brightly as she formed a club out of her energy and whacked him to the side with it. She did the same to 'Hulk' as she exclaimed, "You too, Hulk! I've missed you!"

She turned around to see Peter hanging upside down, moving his head to dodge the punches that 'Iron Man' was throwing at him.

"Iron Man," he said with feigned surprise. "Hey, what are you doing robbing a bank? You're a billionaire."

'Hulk' picked up a weapon with a glowing purple core and jumped to his feet, marching towards Peter. He was quickly knocked down as Kara shot a blast of energy at him before doing the same to 'Iron Man,' who then fell backward.

While she did that, 'Captain America' picked up a much larger weapon that had four small arms protruding from it with ends glowing a bright blue that didn't differ too much from Kara's energy.

Before Kara could either move out of the way or attack him, the man fired up the gun, which then immediately encased Kara in a blue glow and lifted her into the air.

She wriggled in her spot with a few groans, not at all liking the tingling sensation that was burning her body as she was suspended in the air.

It didn't last long, however, as the man redirected her and threw her against the wall. She could hear the glass of the framed poster crack as she smashed against it, and she gave a groan of pain as the tingling sensation was replaced by agony.

"Whoa, what is that thing?" Peter shouted before 'Captain America' used the weapon on him.

Shrouded in blue just as Kara had been, Peter was thrown back and forth between the ceiling and the floor as he exclaimed, "I'm starting—to think—you're not—the Avengers!"

Groaning and clutching onto the back of her head, Kara lifted her eyes to watch as Peter used his sticky fingers to ground himself. He used his other hand to shoot his webs at a desk behind the attacker and quickly tugged on it, then knocking 'Captain America' down.

"All right guys, let's wrap this up," Peter told them as he jumped to the wall and kicked 'Thor' into the glass wall. "It's a school night."

Kara, ignoring the pain that was filling her head, jumped to her feet and blasted 'Iron Man' with her energy just as he lifted the blue device. She felt her head grow dizzy; the amount of energy she was using was not only preventing her self-healing from enacting but also was too much for her body to currently handle.

"So," Peter said as he jumped towards 'Iron Man' and checked under the mask, "how do jerks like you get tech like this?"

'Hulk' revived and grabbed the device with the purple core, firing it up as he pointed towards Peter and 'Iron Man.'

"No. Wait, wait, wait!" Peter shouted as he grabbed 'Iron Man''s collar and dove out of the way.

Kara watched in a stupor as the blast somehow cut through the walls, then struck through Mr. Delmar's store just across the street, causing it to burst into flames.

"Mr. Delmar," Peter breathed out, his lenses widening before he sprinted out of the bank.

"Yeah, you just . . ." Kara murmured, feeling herself grow woozier. Her knees buckled as the pain overrode her head, and soon, everything was black.

—♟—

"Kara?"

Kara slowly opened her eyes, squinting as she felt her head pound with pain. "Hi."

"Hi," Peter murmured, his eyebrows furrowed and his hand tenderly placed itself upon her cheek.

She slowly sat up on the rooftop that Peter had brought them both to, then realizing that both her and Peter's masks were off; no one could see them up there anyway.

"Are you okay?"

Kara nodded slowly, lifting her hand to her forehead and sighing. "I'm fine. Or I will be, soon enough. What happened to those guys?"

"They were gone by the time I got Mr. Delmar and his cat out," Peter explained with a small sigh. "And you were . . ."

She shut her eyes as she leaned forward and embraced him, resting her forehead on his shoulder as she exhaled. Poor Mr. Delmar. If only she had been a little quicker. . . .

"Should we call Happy?" Peter murmured as he stroked her hair with his gloved hand. "Update him?"

"Mhm." She nodded as she separated from him and got to her feet.

He pulled out his phone as he got up, pursing his lips as he found Happy's contact and ringing him.

This time, Happy picked up.

"Yeah?"

Peter looked surprised for a moment before he quickly elaborated, "Happy, the craziest thing just happened to us. These guys were robbing an ATM with these high-tech weapons—"

"Hey, take a breath, okay?" Happy said impatiently as Peter put him on speakerphone. "I don't have time for ATM robberies—"

"Yeah, but—"

"—or the thoughtful notes you leave behind. I have moving day to worry about. Everything's gotta be out of here by next week."

Kara rolled her eyes before taking the phone from Peter, turning the speakerphone off as she lifted the phone to her ear. She mouthed that she'd meet Peter back in the alleyway before teleporting back and leaning against the brick wall.

"Uncle Happy?"

"Hey, Kara," Happy greeted, his tone slightly warmer now. "Listen, is this important? You know how moving day—"

"I know, Uncle Happy, I know it's coming," she sighed. "I just . . . These bank robbers had super high-tech weapons—different than anything Uncle Tony has ever made."

Happy paused for a moment before asking, "What do you mean 'different'?"

"I don't know. . . ." She shrugged. "One of them was like . . . Ow," she groaned as she felt a pang of pain go through her head.

"'Ow'?" Happy echoed incredulously. "What do you mean, 'Ow'? Are you hurt?"

"Psh. No," Kara lied before quickly continuing, "But one was a force-field weapon, and the other one was like a really big laser."

"Kara . . ." Happy sighed, and she could practically see the disappointed look on his face. "Look, just stay away from anything too dangerous. I'm responsible for making sure you and Parker are responsible, okay?"

"We are responsible," she insisted before her eyes drifted over to the dumpster, which was lacking the presence of their bags. "I—oh, crap. My backpack's gone. Aw . . . my cookies."

"That doesn't sound responsible."

"I'll talk to you later, Uncle Happy. And stop ignoring Peter's calls," she added with a frown.

"Moving—"

"—day is coming, I know." She sighed before giving a quick goodbye and hanging up.

Peter jumped down to her side, his mask now on again as he nodded towards her. "How did—" His eyes moved to the dumpster, and he groaned. "Aw, man. Again?"

"I did warn you," she pointed out as she handed him his phone back. "And Uncle Happy . . . Well, he acted as he usually does."

"Man . . ." Peter exhaled before tilting his head. "Wanna go back to my place? I wanna make sure you're okay."

Kara smiled and nodded, quickly hooking her face mask onto her face and following him out of the alleyway.

They arrived just outside of his apartment building after a good ten minutes of speed-walking, and Kara offered a hand.

"Want me to teleport us to your room?"

Peter shook his head. "You can teleport, I wanna practice my climbing."

"Okay." Kara shrugged, rubbing the side of her head before teleporting into Peter's room.

She peered out the slightly opened door to see that May was busied in the kitchen—which wasn't exactly a good thing for their stomachs, but for the sake of their identities, it absolutely was—and she let out a sigh of relief. May hadn't seen her, so she could take off her mask.

That relief was short-lived, however, as she turned towards the back of the room and saw Ned sitting on the edge of Peter's bed, his eyes wide and his mouth agape. In his hands was a nearly finished Lego Death Star, and Kara silently cursed; she had forgotten that Peter had promised him that they'd build it.

Her eyes widened as she saw the red and blue of Spiderman's suit as he approached the window, and she quickly shook her head, slashing her hand across her neck as she mouthed for him to not come in.

Somehow not seeing any of her signals, Peter pushed the window down and climbed in, his hands and feet sticking to the ceiling as he crawled over.

"No—get out—don't—Ned—stop—" Kara whispered before sighing as he took his mask off and threw it to the side.

The jig was up.

Peter dropped to the ground and looked at Kara with a grin before noticing that she was glaring at him.

"Oh, were you saying something?"

Kara didn't respond, instead gesturing towards Ned, whose enlarged eyes flicked between the two. Suddenly, he dropped the Death Star as he stood up, causing it to shatter into a million pieces on the ground.

"What was that?" May called, causing Peter to whip around and hold a hand out towards the door.

"Uh, it's nothing," he exclaimed quickly. "It's nothing!"

"You're the Spider-Man. And you're Psionic," Ned breathed out in amazement. "From YouTube."

"I'm not, we're not!" Peter insisted with a shake of the head as he pressed the spider emblem, the suit becoming baggy and falling to the floor.

As Kara covered her eyes (what could she say, she's a respectful girl), then realized that she had no change of clothes. As a solution, she quickly climbed onto the bottom bunk, leaning back against the wall as she wrapped the blanket around her to cover her suit, just in case May came in.

"You were on the ceiling," Ned pointed out.

"No, I wasn't!" Peter's expression became pained as he exclaimed, "Ned, what are you doing in my room?"

"May let me in," Ned answered with a small shrug. "You said we were gonna finish the Death Star."

"You can't just bust into my room!" Peter rebutted.

Peter then whipped around and backed up as the door opened to reveal May, who was using a rag to wave away some of the smoke that was wafting in while using her other hand to set her hair free from a low bun.

"The turkey meatloaf recipe is a disaster," she chuckled as the smoke cleared. "Let's go to dinner. Thai? Ned, Kara, you want Thai?

A grin came onto Ned's face. "Yes."

"No," Peter quickly cut in, shaking his head. "He's got a thing."

"A thing to do after," Ned agreed with a nervous chuckle.

May gave the pair a strange look as she slowly nodded. "Okay." She grabbed the door handle with one hand while using the other to point at Peter, who was only in his boxers. "Maybe put on some clothes. There's a girl in here."

Peter gave her a quick nod as he grabbed the grey sweater that was draped over the back of his chair, and May shut the door behind her.

"Oh, she doesn't know?" Ned breathed out as Peter turned around to face him.

"Nobody knows!" Peter told him frantically as he began to slip his sweater on. "I mean, Mr. Stark knows because he made my suit, and Kara knows because she's Psionic, and her mom knows, and also Orchid and Quicksilver and Black Widow and—well, just anyone who works for Mr. Stark, but that's it!"

"Tony Stark made you that?" Ned whispered incredulously, his eyes widening as he gestured to the suit. "Are you an Avenger?"

Peter paused for a moment before shrugging. "Yeah, basically."

"Whoa . . ." Ned breathed out with a grin as he stumbled backwards and grabbed onto the railing of the top bunk.

"You can't tell anybody about this," Peter said hurriedly as he came to Ned's side. "You gotta keep it a secret."

"A secret?" Ned repeated with furrowed eyebrows. "Why?"

"You know what she's like!" Peter exclaimed quietly as he gestured towards the door. "If she finds out people try and kill me every single night, she's not going to let me do this anymore. Come on, Ned, please."

"Okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay. I'll level with you." Ned paused for a moment before shaking his head. "I don't think I can keep this a secret. This is the greatest thing that's ever happened to me, Peter!"

"Ned, May cannot know. I cannot do that to her right now, you know?" Peter pleaded. "I mean, everything that's happened with her, I . . . Please."

Ned stared at him for a moment before giving a small nod. "Okay."

"Just swear it," Peter insisted, "okay?"

Ned gave a slow nod. "I swear."

"Thank you," Peter sighed. He turned around and began to pace around his room, running his fingers through his hair as he muttered, "I can't believe this is happening right now."

"Can I try the suit on?" Ned asked, a grin coming onto his face.

"No."

"How does it work?" he continued. "Is it magnets? How do you shoot the strings?"

Peter rushed back over to him and grabbed his shoulder as he led him toward the door. "I'm gonna tell you about this at school tomorrow, okay?"

"Great. Okay, well, wait, then," he suddenly said, causing him and Peter to pause as Peter opened the door. "How do you do this and the Stark internship?"

Peter stared at him for a moment, a look of incredulity on his face. "This is the Stark internship."

A look of realization dawned on Ned's face as he slowly nodded and breathed out, "Oh."

"Just get out of here," Peter whispered as he pushed Ned out.

As soon as Ned was gone from the room, Peter shut the door and leaned back on it, shoving his hands onto his face.

"Kara," he murmured as he sat down on the edge of the bottom bunk, his hands still on his face, "everyone's gonna find out that I'm Spider-Man and you're Psionic. Everyone."

"Hey," she comforted as she crawled next to him and lowered his hands, "he swore he wouldn't."

"Yeah, but he's Ned," Peter mumbled, his eyes turning downwards as Kara clasped his hands tightly. "He'll say something by accident."

"Even if he does, why would anyone even believe him?" she pointed out with a small chuckle. "He has no proof."

He let out a sigh, slowly nodding before turning to her and giving her a small smile. "I guess."

"Mhm. Now" —she stood up— "I'm gonna teleport to my room real quick and change. Be back in a second."

After Peter gave her a nod of understanding, Kara quickly teleported to her room, where she then slipped her suit off and swiftly changed into a grey t-shirt with a science pun ('Never trust an atom; they make up everything!') and tucked that into a pair of jeans before teleporting back to Peter's room.

"Ready to go?" Peter questioned as he stood up.

"All set," Kara confirmed.

"Wait," he suddenly said before they could head out the door, causing her to turn to him in confusion. "How's your head?"

"It's fine, don't worry," she reassured him, a smile coming onto her face as he kissed the side of her head. "Let's go."

The two of them headed out to the kitchen which was still a little smokey, though May told them to ignore it and that, sure, it was a little bit of a breathing hazard, but it added a little spice to the home.

They headed to May's favourite Thai place—Prachya Thai—and it wasn't long until they had the plates they ordered in front of them.

Though Kara and May chatted easily about school, May's job, setting kitchens on fire, and such, Peter seemed a little distraught; his eyebrows were furrowed deeply, and he poked around at his food with his chopsticks rather than eating it.

"What's the matter? Thought you loved larb," May pointed out, though Peter ignored her. "It's too larb-y? Not larb-y enough." She paused, an exasperated expression coming upon her face before she sighed. "How many times do I have to say 'larb' before you talk to me?"

At this, Peter looked up at her with a small grin, though he still remained quiet.

"You know I larb you," May added on with a serious face, and she bit her lip for extra emphasis.

"I'm just stressed." Peter sighed, continuing to poke at his food. "The internship, and I'm tired. A lot of work."

"The Stark internship." May nodded. She turned her gaze to Kara as she sent a small smile and shrugged. "No offence, but . . . not a fan of that Tony Stark."

"Oh, me too," agreed Kara with a grin. "That man is annoying."

"You're distracted all the time . . ." mused May as she looked back to Peter, "he's got you in your head."

Peter, however, wasn't listening, his eyes now set on the television behind May.

Kara's eyebrows furrowed, and she followed his gaze to see that the news was reporting on the ATM robbery, along with the destruction that had occurred to Mr. Delmar's sandwich shop.

"The beloved Queens' institution, Delmar's Sandwiches, was destroyed in an explosion—"

May seemed to have noticed their distraction, and she turned around to watch.

"—earlier tonight after an ATM robbery was thwarted by Queens' own crime-stopping duo, the Spider-Man and Psionic. As the two heroes attempted to foil their heist, a powerful blast was set off, slicing through the bodega across the street. Miraculously, no one was harmed."

May turned back towards them, her expression now more than serious as she instructed, "If either of you spots something like that happening, you turn and you run the other way."

"Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah," Peter agreed as Kara held back a giggle. "Of course."

"Six blocks away from us," May exclaimed as she returned to her food.

Quickly changing the topic, Peter gave May an apologetic smile. "I, uh, I need a new backpack."

A look of disbelief settled on May's face as she brought a finger to her ear. "What?"

Peter's smile broadened as he repeated, "I need a new backpack."

"That's five," May said incredulously.

Just then, the waiter brought another dish to the table, a large smile on his face as he kept his eyes glued to May.

"Sticky rice pudding," he told them as he laid the dish next to her.

"Oh, we didn't order that," May said quickly as she turned to the waiter.

"It's on the house," he informed her with a wink.

"Oh! Thanks," May said with a smile before he turned to head back to the kitchen. She returned to her food as she murmured, "That's nice of him."

A grin appeared on Peter's face. "I think he larbs you."