A/N: soo i actually went outside today. rode my bike, sunbathed, pretty chill day.

kinda wanna get a dog. name it parker or something. you know, something subtle

anyway, sorry the chapter's a couple hours late. i actually just finished it like 15 minutes ago so it's fresh like freshly squeezed oj

also i really wanna hug spidey like that^ 🥺
(just pretend that's adie or liz lol)

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"This is your chance, Peter.

Kiss her."
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"There's got to be something in here we can use," Peter mumbled, emptying the duffel bag he had taken from the sand dude.

"Okay, let's see," he muttered, crouching down. The Blue Phantom crouched onto the floor on the other side of him. She reached inside, taking out a wheel-shaped metal piece.

"Nope," Peter said and Adelaide tossed it aside. He reached into the bag, pulling out an Ultron head. Adelaide winced at the sight of it. It brought back bad memories.

"That's awesome," he said before tossing it aside. Adelaide disagreed.

She reached into the bag, pulling out a strange purple glowing object. Its glow was similar to the one the sandman had used on the roof of the trailer.

"Ah, hey, it's like the glowy thing," he said.

"That glowy thing is an explosive Chitauri energy core," Karen said.

Peter's eyes widened on his mask.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa!" he said, stumbling onto his feet, "You mean, we've been carrying around a bomb!"

Adelaide looked up in surprise. Ned was carrying explosive alien tech?! What the hell was wrong with these two idiots!

"It would require radiation to transform it into an explosive state," TADASHI said. Peter frantically pulled out his phone out and tried to call Ned. But he didn't have any reception in this stupid warehouse.

"No, no, no, no, no," he grumbled, beginning to pace back and forth. Adelaide stood up, watching him worriedly.

"What happened?" she asked. Peter glanced at her.

"My friend," he said, "He has this in his backpack and they're all in DC right now. And there's no reception in this stupid place!"

"How could you be so careless!" she said, beginning to get worried about Ned. What if he got himself hurt?

"I didn't know it exploded!" he shouted back.

"Of course it explodes!" she shouted like it was obvious, throwing her hands up in the air, "It's alien tech!"

Completely ignoring her, Peter pushed past her, running towards the massive doors of the warehouse. He stuck himself onto the doors and began banging it with his fists as loudly as he could.

"Hey! Please! Please, somebody, let me out!" he shouted and then something caught his eye. A lock panel. "Hey! Karen, you have to help me override that time lock."

He swung over the lock and popped open the panel. He studied it for a second and then pushed a couple numbers into it.

"Okay Karen. Lower the voltage and run it," he mumbled and then looked over his shoulder at the other superhero in the warehouse, "Throw me a notepad!"

Adelaide searched through his backpack for a notepad and a pencil. She tossed it to him and he snatched it with his webs.

"Trial unsuccessful," Karen said.

"Okay, we're just gonna have to try every sequence," he mumbled to himself, writing it down into his notepad.

—————

Some couple hundred sequences later, Peter was still trying to override the lock.

Adelaide had found a tennis ball in his backpack and had decided to occupy her time throwing it against the door under him. He was so focused on the trials, he didn't make much of a good conversationalist. For example, when she had asked him what his favorite color was out of sheer boredom, he just told her to look at his suit. She had decided it was blue, but there was a fifty-fifty chance between blue and red.

"So how long have you known Tony?" she asked.

"Initiating trial 247," Karen said.

Suddenly, the massive warehouse doors began groaning and slowly opening.

Adelaide sat up quickly, catching the ball.

"It worked! It works!" Peter exclaimed, throwing his hands up in the air.

Adelaide pushed herself off the ground, pulling out her hoverboard. Without even looking back at her to make sure she was following him, he swung out of the warehouse on his webs.

She followed him out through the exit on her hoverboard until she finally saw the light of day. Peter was crawling on the ceiling of the exit outside. She was right behind him. Suddenly, he spotted a departing truck coming out from under him and he jumped off the ceiling and onto the top of the trailer.

Adelaide landed beside him on the trailer and she made both of them invisible as the trailer drove past an armed guard. Peter nearly screamed when he saw his body was missing until he realized that it was the Blue Phantom's powers at work.

He clutched his arm even though it looked like he was clutching thin air. He stared down at it in awe. She was the real deal.

Once they were past the guard, she made them visible again.

"Karen, you have to get me to Decathlon as fast as possible," Peter said, the panic and worry in his voice clearly evident.

"Sure thing. Just tell me where it is," she said.

"Right across the street from the Washington Monument," he said, pulling out his phone again. He urgently tried to call Ned.

"Hey, it's Ned. Leave a message."

"Ned, call me back! The glowy thing is a bomb!" he shouted.

Adelaide was beginning to get worried as well. What if they didn't make it in time and it exploded? What if Ned or someone else got hurt? How could the guys have been so careless!

"There's a vehicle approaching on your right," Karen said.

Peter glanced over his shoulder at the Blue Phantom and then looked over to the cargo truck coming by on their right. She nodded, preparing her hoverboard.

Peter effortlessly jumped onto the truck and she floated onto it beside him. Peter just then realized she was using a hoverboard. He squinted at it. It didn't look a whole lot like the one they had made but—

"We're not going to make it in time," she told him, worried. He glanced at her then swallowed, thinking back to the current situation at hand.

"We will," he said, not sounding sure of it himself.

—————

"We won!"

"You guys, I am so proud of you," Liz said as they approached the Washington Monument. They had won the decathlon and were going to the Monument to celebrate before going home.

"Told you we didn't need Peter," Flash laughed. Nearly everyone rolled their eyes.

"Flash, you didn't answer a single question," Ned said.

Normally, Flash would have snapped back, except he was so happy about his — their — win that he let it go. Everyone was happy, especially Liz. She couldn't believe that they had won! Well, of course she could. She had never doubted her team.

"We won because of Vivian!" Abe said, patting her shoulder happily. Vivian laughed.

"That's not true," she said modestly, "It was a team effort."

"But you answered the death question," Ned said, "It got us the win." Liz smiled, agreeing with Ned.

"You should be proud of yourself, Vivian. You were amazing," Liz said. Vivian beamed, turning slightly red in the face from the attention.

Meanwhile, Michelle was standing by a bench, a little distance away from the group.

"Taking it all in, Michelle?" Mr. Harrington asked her.

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

"Oh, I'm sure the Washington Monument wasn't built by—" He looked up at the monument, squinting and then saw a park ranger standing a few feet from him, shaking his head. Mr. Harrington pursed his lips, turning back to Michelle. She smiled knowingly.

"Okay," he said awkwardly, "Enjoy your book."

"Thanks."

—————

They were on top of a bus now.

Peter had still been trying to reach Ned. Adelaide nearly called Ned on her phone, but then she realized it would bust her cover. So she hoped that Ned would pick up Peter's call. Besides, it would be useless if they both called him at once. She didn't have Vivian's number or even Liz's.

But what if they were already too late?

"Oh, Ned, you're alive!" Peter gasped. Adelaide looked at him in surprise.

"Peter, are you okay?" Ned whispered. They were inside the Monument now and he was about to walk through security.

"Ned, Ned," Peter breathed urgently, "where's the glowy thing, the glowy thing?!"

"Don't worry, it's safe. It's in my backpack," Ned whispered, taking his backpack off and placing it on the conveyer belt for the X-ray security scan.

"No, Ned, listen! No, no, Ned, the glowy thing is dangerous," Peter tried explaining. The panic had swelled up in his throat.

"You missed the Decathlon. I covered for you," Ned said, obviously not hearing.

"Ned, listen to me!" Peter shouted.

"We're at the Washington Monument now. You gotta—"

Suddenly, Liz snatched the phone from Ned's hand.

"Peter, is that you?" she said. Peter paused.

"Oh, hey, Liz," he breathed.

"Is that Liz?" Karen asked in his ear. He ignored her.

Adelaide flew off the bus they were on and began flying towards the Monument over the sidewalk. Peter jumped off the bus after her, rolling onto his back before kicking up and starting to run.

"Please put Ned back on the phone," he panted.

"You should tell her how you feel," Karen said.

"You freak!" Liz scolded him, completely ignoring his request, "You are so lucky we won. You know, I want to be mad, but I'm more worried. Like, what is going on with you?"

They were at the Lincoln Memorial, almost at the monument. Adelaide pressed for her hoverboard to go faster.

"Liz, I have to talk to Ned. It's really important!" he shouted over the crowd as they were running through.

"Miss, all items on the belt, please," Peter heard the security officer saying.

"Liz, there's something in Ned's backpack! It's really dangerous. Don't let it go through an X-ray!" he shouted desperately. There was no reply.

"Liz? Liz! Damn it," he cursed, pocketing his phone and beginning to run at full speed. They were almost there.

Meanwhile, inside the monument, they were boarding the elevator.

"Hey, Mr. Harrington," Flash asked sweetly, "can I be the one to tell Peter he's expelled?"

The elevator doors closed and a moment later, it was steadily climbing upwards. Unknown to everyone else in the elevator, something inside Ned's backpack was glowing.

"The Washington Monument is 555 feet, 5 and 1/8 inches tall. Notice how the marble and granite are cut around the stone," the tour guide recited.

Suddenly, the core exploded.

Peter and Adelaide, who had both just come to a stop at the base of the monument stood there, frozen.

The tip of the Washington Monument had cracked.

"No, no, no, no, no, no. Karen, what's going on up there?" he breathed.

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

"Oh, no," he whispered to himself.

TADASHI had shown her a visual of inside the monument. Several people were gathered inside the elevator where it had detonated.

"My friends are up there!" someone suddenly said. They both turned around to find Michelle sitting there with a book. What the hell was she doing down here! Reading a book instead of touring the city? The girl was insane. 

"What? Uh... Don't worry, ma'am. Everything's gonna be okay," Peter said, lowering his voice and then he turned around and ran towards the monument. Adelaide ran after him, the hoverboard now hooked on behind her back.

"Oh, my god, that's tall," Peter breathed, looking up at it. His head nearly began to spin at the sight of its height. He was okay with heights when he was swinging into skyscrapers, but this? This was another level.

Almost...Avengers level.

He immediately began climbing up the side but Adelaide stopped him, reaching out to touch his arm. He looked down at her.

"...Be careful," she said and they held a look for a moment before Peter nodded and began to climb up as fast as he physically could.

Adelaide didn't think her hoverboard would go that high and she had never actually tested it before. Now would definitely not have been a good time to try it.

Meanwhile, inside the elevator, the small space was becoming filled with thick smoke. Ned coughed, waving his hand around his face.

"Oh, my god. Look at the ceiling," Charles said, pointing up and everyone looked up. A glowing, red crack had cut across the elevator ceiling.

"Just stay calm, everyone," Liz said, her voice slightly panicking. She was absolutely terrified herself.

"Oh, we are all going to die here," Abe said, still looking up at the huge, glowing crack in the ceiling.

Outside, Peter was a good ways up the monument. From the base, Adelaide could only see a red dot on the wall. TADASHI zoomed in with the lens and then she could see him, scaling the wall determinedly and quickly. She swallowed nervously.

If he were to fall from there...

Even a tiny misstep. She reached out, connecting her comms system with his.

"Hey Spider-Man, you're doing great, keep going, okay?" she said.

"Yeah," he grunted.

"Estimating 10 minutes before catastrophic failure," Karen said in his ear. He pushed himself faster.

"Nice suit," Michelle said and Adelaide abruptly turned around in surprise.

"Um, thanks," she said, slightly confused.

"I'm Michelle," the curly-haired girl said, awkwardly waving. Adelaide awkwardly waved back.

"Blue Phantom."

"The Washington Monument was built by slaves," Michelle blurted. Adelaide tried to come up with an answer, she really did.

"...Cool," she said. Michelle nodded, pursing her lips. Adelaide nodded once and then looked away, glancing over her shoulder in confusion.

The situation inside the elevator wasn't any less confusing.

"We're freakin' screwed," Charles said.

"Okay guys, I know that was scary," the tour guide started, in an attempt to calm them down, "but our safety systems are working."

"The safety systems are completely failing," Karen said in his ear. Peter was nearly at the top and he was starting to get out of breath.

"We're very safe in here," the tour guide said calmly.

"The occupants are in imminent mortal danger."

"I'm going as fast as I can!" Peter panted, beginning to slowly panic. He was very high up. He pulled himself a small distance up using double strands of his web, trying to go faster.

Adelaide was currently racing up the stairs of the monument to reach her friends, feeling completely useless but hoping they would make their way out of this without casualties.

Back inside, the tour guide had carefully opened a hatch in the ceiling, looking up the elevator shaft. The park rangers had opened the doors to the elevator shaft and were holding out their hands to help. Cindy began to slowly climb out.

"Let's go. Give me your hand," one of the rangers told Cindy, holding out his own hand.

"You now have 125 seconds until catastrophic failure," Karen said. Peter's hand slipped a little.

"What? Why!" he breathed, frantic.

Adelaide heard her through their connected intercoms and her stomach dropped. That was only two minutes!

"Unexpected motion has caused the deterioration to escalate."

She flipped her hoverboard off her back and slammed her foot on it urgently. It immediately began to race her up the stairs faster. She was almost there.

"How do I get in there?" Peter said, breathless.

"Activating reconnaissance drone."

The spider on his chest suddenly detached from the suit and the little drone flew up, over the monument.

"Whoa, has that been there the whole time?" he breathed in awe, "That's awesome."

"Locating optimal entry point...Proceed to southwest window."

"Karen, I'm on my way," he said, quickly moving along the side.

A moment later, Peter had finally reached the top of the monument. He paused and turned onto his back, cautiously peering down the edge.

"Okay. Oh, my god. Okay," he breathed, his throat suddenly dry. His hands began sweating like crazy. He began taking deeper breaths.

"What's wrong? You've reached the southwest window. Why are you hesitating?"

"Don't go acrophobic on me now, Spider-Man," Adelaide breathed as she raced up the flights of stairs.

"It's fine. It's just, I've just never been this high before," he squeaked.

"You have also not reinstalled your parachute, so a fall from this height would most likely be lethal," Karen said calmly.

"Perfect. Oh, my god," he breathed. Swallowing, he feebly kicked at the window.

"Why is it not breaking?" he said.

"It's a four-inch ballistic glass. You'll have to create more momentum."

Peter shot a web against the monument wall and rappelled down the strand until his feet were lying flat against the glass. Jumping off the wall, he swung against the window. The glass cracked very slightly.

Suddenly, police helicopters approached, guns ready. Speakers boomed as a police officer spoke out.

"This is D.C. Metro police. Identify yourself."

"My friends are in there!" he shouted, "My friends are in there! Stop!"

"Return to the ground immediately."

Inside the elevator, they were still slowly moving students out one at a time.

"Okay, who's next?" Mr. Harrington asked. Liz grabbed his shoulder, preparing to climb up.

"Me, it's my turn!" Flash suddenly said, shoving Liz aside to get out first. He wouldn't let go of the trophy, either.

"Flash, seriously? What are you doing?" Ned sighed.

"Come on," he said to Mr. Harrington who sighed and helped him through the hatch.

"Don't worry about the trophy," Cindy said. He ignored her. He didn't come all this way and win just to have his trophy fall down an elevator shaft. He climbed through the hatch, still hanging onto the trophy. The elevator shook a little with the uneven weight distribution.

"Take my trophy!" he said, holding it out.

The elevator shook again.

Everyone screamed.

Through the window, Peter could see them panicking which intensified his own panicking.

Adelaide was at the top floor now, urgently pushing and shoving her way through the crowd to get to the elevator.

An officer aimed his gun at Peter.

"Stand down! Return to the ground immediately!" he warned. Peter ignored him and climbed the last distance to the tip of the monument.

"Return to the ground or we will open fire!"

Panting, he nodded to himself, "I got this."

"This is your last chance!"

"Oh, I'm gonna die," he breathed to himself. Adelaide paused.

"What are you going to do?" she asked worriedly.

"I'm going to fly," he said. Before she could ask him what that meant, Peter flipped himself backwards off the monument and then