Spider-man: Alone in New York

~ Chapter 21 ~

My head banged hard on the wooden table. "It's hopeless! Completely hopeless!"

"Shh!" I peaked up and saw a passing librarian motioning me to lower my voice. She pushed her glasses up her nose and then turned away from us, going back to her desk.

"Come on, Peter," Ned whispered since the librarian was still keeping an eye on us from her desk, "It's got to be here somewhere. Try this one." I turned my attention to him. We were trying to find out what that substance was during lunch in the school library, leafing through the eight books Ned had reserved for us, but we weren't very lucky. We still had yet to encounter some worthy information that would help us with our research.

He handed me a heavy book, but I gave it back to him. "I went through that one already. What about that one?" I pointed to a thin yellow book on the side of the table.

Ned lifted it up and raised an eyebrow at me before flipping the book so I could see the title: The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh. A drawing of Winnie the Pooh was on the front with his paw dipped in honey.

"Okay, so maybe not that one." Despite the situation we were in, I couldn't help but smile. He placed it back down, and I said, "Any other book we haven't gone through yet?"

"Uh, no. We went through all of them." The sides of his mouth dipped down as he delivered the bad news.

I drew in a long breath, and asked the obvious next question, "So the only way we could ever find out what it really is, is through Mr. Stark's lab then?"

He nodded. "Looks like it." Great. That would mean I would have to find a way to sneak into the lab and then perform several tests on it. Good luck to me.

MJ plopped down in the seat next to mine. "What's up, losers?"

"Oh, hey MJ," Ned greeted her, and I gave her a small smile before letting my head hit the table with a loud thump once more. In the distance, I could hear the librarian shushing me again. However, the only thing I could think of was how I would be able to find out what that substance really is. I needed more than just a name. I wanted to know what it did to a person, and the only way I could do that was apparently through Mr. Stark's lab. That would be difficult to do, though. Mr. Stark was usually in the lab with me. The one time he left me was to go to Mr. Fury's meeting, and I doubt that was a common occurrence. Even if I did find out a way to distract him for a couple of moments, how would I test the substance?

MJ snorted at my not so great mood, breaking me from my thoughts. "You okay there, Peter?"

I hummed in response but didn't bother looking up.

Ned supplied a real answer for me, "We are just looking for something, but we can't find it. Don't worry about him. He's just a bit upset about it."

"Oh, what are you trying to find?" MJ dropped her backpack onto the floor and pulled out her laptop.

"Um...nothing that's um really important, you know?" Ned stammered.

I lifted my head, leaned down, and dug through my backpack with a hand before pulling out the package of the ashy substance. Ned's eyebrows jumped in surprise when realizing I was about to show her it.

I pushed the package to her. "We're trying to figure out what this is. Any ideas?"

She tilted her head and took it in her hands, flipping it over. "Can I smell it?"

"Oh no. Do not sniff that," I warned, shaking my head.

Her forehead creased at my quick answer, and her eyes met mine. "Why not?"