The Spider and His Tribrid

Chapter 15: Washington, D.C.

Hope's POV:

That weekend finally comes around and Ned, MJ, and I are waiting outside the decathlon when Peter finally runs up right before we board the bus. "Hey guys." Peter says. "Peter?" Liz asks, confused as to why he's there. "Yeah, I was hoping I could rejoin the team." Peter tries. 

Flash step forward. "No, no way. You can't quit on us, stroll up, and be welcomed back by everyone." Flash tries. "Hey, welcome back, Peter!" Mr. Harrington calls as he exits the bus. He then turns to me and Flash. 

"Flash you're back to second alternate and Hope you're back to first." Flash's eyes widen. "What?" "He's taking Hope's place and she's taking yours." Abraham calls out. Everyone laughs at this while Flash goes straight to sulking. 

"Excuse me, can we go already? I was hoping to get in some light protesting in front of one of the embassies before dinner." MJ calls out from the back of the group. "Protesting is patriotic. Let's get on the bus." Mr. Harrington calls. Peter jogs up to me, a grin on his face. 

"Wanna sit together?" He asks in a hopeful ton. I give him a sad smile. "Sorry, I promised MJ I'd sit with her. Maybe on the way back though. Oh, here's your jacket for tomorrow." I say, handing him my gold blazer. He nods, his smile falling as he takes the jacket. 

I climb on the bus ahead of him, quickly finding MJ and plopping into the seat beside her. "What did he want?" "Nothing. Don't worry about it." She raises her eyebrows, but doesn't say anything else about it. 

One of the main reasons I like MJ is that she's smart and she can figure things out on her own, but she knows when not to ask. On the ride up to Washington Liz puts us through the ringer with questions. Surprisingly, I'm on a roll with them. 

Seeing as I didn't get into Midtown purely based on academic achievement at the Salvatore School, I think I'm doing pretty well here. I have all As and I'm taking some pretty complicated classes. About halfway through Peter goes to the back of the bus to take a phone call. 

It's probably from Happy, wondering why he's leaving town. Soon we're arriving at the hotel where all the teams are staying and inevitably competing tomorrow morning. "Everyone stay together!" Liz calls out to us as she leads the way.

Her instructions are followed by a resounding 'yeah' from Mr. Harrington. "You kidding me, this place is huge." One kid says. "I've seen bigger.' Flash boasts. You know what, I think it's time to knock Flash down a peg on his 'I'm the richest kid at the school' pedestal. 

I walk up to him so no one can hear me. "Yeah, reminds me of my family's compound." I smirk when he whips around, eyes wide. "You serious Mikaelson?" I smirk. "Old money. Look of Mikaelson Compound in New Orleans." With that I walk back to MJ's side. She's smirking. 

"I heard that, and I'm impressed. I was wondering when you would bring something like that up." I roll my eyes. "It's not gonna do much, but it's shut him up for now." I say, nodding to him as he proceeds to whip out his phone and, I'm sure, google my family's compound.

"Still, you've saved us all." She teases. I laugh at this. That's when I hear Peter's voice behind me. "You brought your laptop, right?" He asks. "Why?" Ned questions. He doesn't answer after that. Finally Mr. Harrington hands us all our room cards for the night. 

I'm staying with MJ right next to Ned and Peter's room. "Hey, I'm gonna go talk to Ned and Peter, but I'll be back in a little bit." She just shoos me away with one hand and continues packing her bag that she's taking with her for her protest. I exit my room and knock on the neighboring one. 

I'm quickly pulled into the room by Peter, only to be greeted by Ned hunched over his laptop on his bed. He has a chord connected to Peter's suit. "What is he doing?" I whisper to Peter. "He's taking the hacking my suit so that Mr. Stark and Happy don't know where I'm going 24/7." 

I sigh. "You sure that's a good idea? Won't they know that you're doing this?" He shakes his head. "It'll be fine" He assures, walking over the kneel beside the bed, hunting for the tracker. "Peter, why are we removing the tracker from your suit?" Ned asks from his spot on the bed. 

"Uh, because I've gotta follow these guys to their boss before they move again and I don't really want Mr. Stark to know about it." I raise my eyebrows. "You seriously think you can trick Tony Stark?" I ask. "No, but I can sure delay the lecture I'm gonna get for this." I sigh, shrugging. 

"Fine, just please tell me you know what you're doing." He nods. "I know what I'm doing. I'll be fine Hope." I eye him wearily before nodding. "So you're lying to Iron Man now?" Ned asks. "No, I'm not lying. He just doesn't really get what I can do yet. Finally Peter finds the tracker. 

"Gotcha. Alright, Happy, enjoy tracking this lamp." Peter says, placing the tracker on the lamp. Ned is typing away on his computer when he speaks up. "There's a ton of other subsystems in here." He calls out. "Hm?" Peter asks. "But they're all disabled by the Training Wheels Protocol." 

Both Ned and I grin at this as Peter's head snaps to look at him in horror. "What?" He asks, going over to look over Ned's shoulder. "Training Wheels Protocol?" I can tell Ned is holding back laughter. I just grin at the situation. "Turn it off." Peter instructs. 

"I don't think that's a good idea." Ned advised. "He's right, they're probably blocked for a reason." I add. "Come on guys, I don't need training wheels. I'm sick of him treating me like a kid all the time. It's not cool." He says while proceeding to jump onto his bed. 

I cross my arms and raise my eyebrows at this. "Peter, you are a kid." I remind him. "Yeah, a kid who can stop a bus with his bare hands." Fair enough. "Peter, I just don't think this is a great idea. I mean, what if this is illegal?" Ned asks. Finally Peter climbs off the bed. 

"Look, please. This is my chance to prove myself. I can handle it. Ned, come on." "I really don't think this is a good idea." "The guy in the chair." Peter fires back. I furrow  my brows at this. He's gonna use that against him? 

He knows how bad Ned wants to be his 'guy in the chair' and I know he's already turned him down once. That's stooping kinda low. "Don't do that." Ned tells him. "Come on." Peter urges. Ned just sighs before tapping a few buttons. The suit has a shudder run through it before stilling.

"Is it done?" Peter asks. "Yep, all done." Ned answers. "Perfect. Thank you Ned." With that he rushes into the bathroom to change into the suit. When he comes out he slips his hoodie on and zips it all the way up while putting his hood on. 

"Wish me luck. I'll be back by morning for the meet." He tells us before heading towards the door. "Peter wait." I call out, a bad feeling settling in my stomach about tonight. He turns to me, confused. Ned sees what's about to happen. 

"I'm gonna go check out the lobby or pool or something." With that he gets up and leaves the room. "What's up?" He asks, confused about why I stopped him. I take a deep breath before speaking, knowing he's not gonna like me asking this. 

"You're really sure about this? I mean, going off without any back up or way for Tony to find you if everything goes to hell?" He rolls his eyes. "I'll be fine Hope. God, you're just like Mr. Stark." I raise my eyebrows at this. "Excuse me?" 

"Seriously. You never want me to do anything when it comes to these guys. It's my job. I have to do this and I can do this. I'll be fine." I scoff. "I'm just worried about you. These guys, despite you being stronger than them, have already tried to vaporize you once." Once again he rolls his eyes. 

If he rolls them again I might just punch him in the face. "You don't get it. I can do this. You just don't trust me. I just wish you didn't care so much about this and had a little faith in me. "I do trust you and I do have faith in you." "Not enough." I glare, anger filling my veins at his words.

"Fine, if you don't want me to care, then I won't, but don't come crying to me if you get your ass handed to you." With that I storm out of the room.