Little Spy
Ned decided to stay over at Peter's house just so they could keep watching the hologram from the tracker, which kept moving along the roads, showing that it was leaving the nearby area and heading farther down the highway.
The two of them had told each other they would keep watching until they saw where it finally ended up, but as more time passed, it only seemed to be getting farther and farther away, making two teenagers start wondering how the hell they were supposed to get there if they actually wanted to catch them.
Or more importantly… when they were finally going to stop.
"So… do you know Soldier? What about Captain America? Or War Machine? People say all three of them are soldiers. And that they're really serious, especially Soldier… and tough," Ned asked, trying to kill the boredom, while Peter's room was an absolute mess around them, full of snack wrappers and soda cans they were using to stay awake.
"Well… it's not like I know Cap that well. Technically, he's with the other group. And Rhodey is actually pretty friendly. And Owen isn't as serious as people say. He's actually pretty approachable. He's my instructor," Peter said calmly, though there was a little pride in his voice.
"Soldier is your instructor!?" Ned asked, jumping up a little too excitedly and raising his voice too much, making Peter immediately motion for him to keep it down.
"Yeah. Mine and another hero trainee's," Peter said in a low voice after noticing his aunt still hadn't woken up in the room next door.
"That's awesome. People say even before he became a supersoldier, he was already a killing machine. Did he teach you how to use weapons? Like… a knife?" Ned asked, getting more and more interested.
"Well, yeah, a little. But mostly he teaches us martial arts… and how to control our powers. Stuff like our senses too," Peter said calmly.
"That's amazing. So basically, you're training under one of the strongest heroes around to inherit his mantle, right?" Ned said excitedly.
For a moment, Peter looked a little prouder.
"Well… yeah. Something like that," he added.
"Of course not. I'm the one who's going to inherit Owen's mantle," a little voice suddenly said, making both Peter and Ned jolt and turn around to look where it had come from.
And it had come from Peter's open window.
There didn't seem to be anyone there.
But then, in the next instant, a small glowing golden platform appeared.
"Hop," came the sound, as someone jumped up from the side onto the platform before poking a small head over the window.
"Kam! What are you doing here? And at this hour?" Peter said immediately when he saw who it was.
"You left your window open again. And I could hear your whole conversation from mine," little Kam said calmly, though with a slight annoyance. "You two sure talk a lot about that girl named Liz. Are you the kind of degenerates they warn people about on TV?" she asked lightly, almost innocently.
"Kam, I told you to stop spying on my conversations last time," Peter said immediately, embarrassed and annoyed at the same time.
"No. You told me to stop spying when you do that weird show in front of the mirror while wearing your mask, trying to sound cool while introducing yourself as Spider-Man," Kamala said quickly.
That made Peter go red with embarrassment.
Meanwhile, Ned had absolutely no idea what exactly was happening right now.
More than anything, he was staring fixedly at the glowing platform under the little girl's feet outside the window, which was very obviously floating with her on it… when she should have fallen a long time ago.
"Who is she?" Ned asked with interest.
"She's an overly precocious kid who needs to go to sleep because it's late and she has school tomorrow," Peter said quickly, trying to shoo Kamala away.
"That's not true. I don't have classes for at least a week. The windows at my school literally exploded," Kamala said calmly.
And for some reason, she even sounded a little proud of that.
Then her gaze landed for a moment on the hologram showing a map with a moving red dot.
Peter immediately noticed where she was looking and widened his eyes, stepping right in front of it to block her view.
"What are you planning? Owen said we're not supposed to get into trouble while he's recovering. And Tony… hmph. That annoying old man said we're supposed to behave," Kamala added, though she looked especially annoyed when she mentioned Tony.
"No. We're not planning anything. And Mr. Stark would be really upset if he heard you call him that," Peter said immediately.
"You're really bad at lying. I don't know how Aunt May still hasn't figured out that you're Spider-Man," Kamala said while shaking her head and putting her hands on her hips, making it look a little ridiculous for Peter to be getting scolded by a little girl.
"That's enough, Kam. Go back to your room or I'll tell your mom you're still awake this late at night," Peter threatened.
Instantly, he earned a murderous glare from the little girl.
But apparently, that threat worked pretty well, because if there was one thing Kam feared the most right now… it was her own mother.
So she lightly waved her hand, and several more platforms appeared, forming a staircase upward, which she climbed until she disappeared from Peter's window, while the platforms vanished one by one along with her.
Peter let out a sigh once he saw that he had actually managed to make her leave.
For a moment, the room fell quiet again, except for the faint blue glow of the hologram floating in front of them.
Meanwhile, Ned was still staring in disbelief at the fact that those platforms were actually the little girl's powers.
Well… that part was pretty obvious.
"Wait. You said there was another hero trainee with you. So… that little girl is your partner?" Ned asked, looking at his friend.
"Well… she's not that little. She turned ten," Peter added, trying not to make it sound too embarrassing that he was training to be a superhero alongside a little girl.
Ned was about to say something, but before he could, he noticed that the dot on the holographic map had stopped moving.
"Peter, look. It stopped," he said immediately, grabbing the watch and staring at it carefully while Peter hurried over.
"Maryland," Peter said when he saw how far they had gone.
For a moment, his expression shifted slightly.
That was a lot farther than he had expected.
Then he looked toward Ned, who seemed a little excited.
But neither of them noticed that a small lock of hair slightly peeked out from the top of the window… before vanishing again in a flash of golden light.
And even though Peter didn't understand why, a faint uneasy feeling ran down his spine for a second.