Chapter One Hundred Thirty-Seven

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A/N: helloo

it has been a long week and i am soo ready for the weekend already. my allergies had been acting up all week long and they finally calmed down, thank goodness.

anyway, not so fluffy, kind of confusing chapter so have fun!

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"Stop lying to me, Peter."

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"Adelaide! Come on in!" Lukov greeted her.

He stepped aside so she could walk into his lab. Adelaide nodded, smiling hesitatingly.

It had taken some deceit for her to end up here on a Sunday night. She had to tell Happy she was going to Ned's house for a project and after he had driven her up there and seen her go inside the house, she told Ned to cover for her in case Happy called. Ned, of course, had plenty of questions but she told him this was just going to have to be one of those no questions asked kind of situation and that he needed to blindly trust her. Ned reluctantly agreed and helped her slip out from his backdoor where she turned herself invisible until she was out on the main road from where she hailed a cab to Brooklyn college.

Slowly, she stepped into the lab which was on the small side. The more she looked around, the more she realized how much of a mess it was.

"Are you...the only one who works here?" she asked, stopping to turn around and face him. He chuckled.

"No, no. Many students also come here for their research projects. My station is set up towards the back, come on," he said and began walking towards the back of the lab. She followed him, still looking around unsurely. There were various contraptions and half-built projects by students lying on the tabletops as they walked toward the back of the lab.

Finally, they arrived at a rather small table tucked away in the back corner of the lab. There wasn't much on it besides some vials of a clearish, blueish liquid and something that almost looked like a microscope.

"This is it," Lukov smiled proudly, gesturing to the table. Adelaide looked around wearily. In all honesty, she had been expecting a particle accelerator or even at least a MRI machine. This was...underwhelming at best. How much research could he really do with this little equipment? And, more importantly, how was she going to help him with this?

"I know what you're thinking," Lukov said, almost reading her mind. She glanced at him wearily. "This is all pretty quaint."

"Um...yeah," she mumbled, looking around again, "How much research can you get done here?"

Lukov sighed, "Not much, I'm afraid. Without funding, the school can't get me the proper equipment. And even if I did have the proper equipment, it would be useless without a sample of Luxium to test it on."

At the sound of the name, Adelaide looked up at him.

"You mean...there's still samples of Luxium out there?" she asked. Lukov pursed his lips.

"Yes," he said, "But it's all property of SHIELD. And I...of course, can't access it anymore. My research is ultimately a hopeless cause."

The gears in her mind were spinning. Property of SHIELD? If Lukov couldn't get it, what if...? Besides, this was pretty important research, after all. With her powers of light and Lukov's knowledge of Luxium, they might really be able to make something. And if her parents had believed in this project years ago, she had faith that it would lead to somewhere.

They had to get that sample of Luxium from SHIELD.

"Where do they keep it?" she asked him. Lukov hesitated briefly.

"Adelaide, if you're thinking what I think you're thinking, I don't think it's a very good idea..."

"Trust me on this one," she said confidently. If anyone knew how to get around unnoticed, it was the Blue Phantom.

"Fine. They keep it in their storing facility up in Long Island. SHIELD has a giant warehouse there where they keep various materials and weaponry. Most of it is stored in a lower floor like the basement, which is where the Luxium should be. But their security is ridiculously tight and only authorized SHIELD personnel are allowed inside. You would never be able to get through the front door."

Adelaide knew he was only saying that because he had no idea about her abilities. With her powers, she could get in easy.

"Leave that up to me. I'll get you that Luxium and meet you here Tuesday night," she said.

Lukov looked extremely hesitant to make the deal but what other choice did he have? So he held his breath and nodded.

"Tuesday night," he nodded.

—————

The next day, Adelaide was feeling much better about herself.

After making that deal with Lukov, she felt confident that they were going to be successful with this project. And if her parents had been here right now, they would be proud that their daughter was filling in their shoes. She was more determined than ever to successfully execute this project. Her parents had spent almost their entire lives researching light to make a change in the world and although they had never had a chance to do so, she would make sure that she would do it for them.

"Adelaide?"

"Here," she replied to the roll call her English teacher was calling. Their English teacher wasn't terrible this year, but, regardless, it wasn't exactly her favorite class. It was more bearable with Vivian and MJ, however. The boys had this same class, but right after the girls did.

As she continued to call roll, Vivian showed her and MJ pictures of the decorations that she and Betty had bought over the weekend for the dance. The dance was next week but they still had a lot of preparations to do. The decathlon team was going to get together next Monday evening and decorate the entire gym. Then, the next night, they would all go to the dance and raise money for their team.

Adelaide figured she would go to Long Island tomorrow and hand over the Luxium to Lukov and then she would tell him the truth about her powers so he would let her help him with his research. With the amount of research he had already done on the element, it might not be very long before they came up with a successful solution. Maybe even before the dance next week.

Then she wouldn't have to sneak around the Tower and she would finally be able to tell Tony the truth about what she had been doing this whole time.

"Everyone, please direct your attention up front," their teacher announced and everyone looked up at the projector screen to find a slideshow about some new project they had to do. Adelaide pouted. As if writing essays wasn't bad enough, now they had to work on a project?

"Next week, after our unit test this Friday, we will be starting our new chapter about poems," she said, "I want all of you to be acquainted with the anatomy of a poem so I want you all to pick a published anthology of poems of your choosing and use that anthology to come up with your own poem. There are no restrictions, you are free to write a poem about whatever you want, just make sure that there is some kind of cohesive theme that binds your poem to the anthology that you picked. Any questions?"

Adelaide sighed. Poems? The only thing she was worse at than math was poem writing. Sure, the thoughts and feelings of a poem were all up in her head, but she had next to no clue about how to put them down on paper.

She figured she could probably bribe MJ into writing something for her.

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Adelaide didn't see Peter that day until it was lunchtime.

But when she did, she immediately became worried.

Peter looked like a mess. She had no idea what had happened to him. He had seemed perfectly fine when she saw him last time. Admittedly, a few days had passed since then, but she had no idea what could have happened in those days. He went from looking perfectly fine to...this. His hair looked uncombed and tangled as if he hadn't even bothered to style it. And when she looked at his face, all she could see were the heavy dark circles beneath his eyes and the blotches of red on his hollowed cheeks.

He was sitting at his usual seat at their lunch table, staring off into space. Adelaide glanced at Ned who was sitting beside him. Ned looked worried too, but when she asked him with her eyes what was wrong, he merely shrugged, just as clueless as her.

Carefully, Adelaide sat down across from him. He didn't even notice her.

"Pete?" she asked quietly. He didn't respond. He looked so lost in his thoughts. Slowly, she reached out to touch his hand. He flinched and then looked down at his hand before seeing her. In his usually bright eyes, she saw pain.

"Hey," he croaked. Adelaide frowned worriedly.

"What's going on?" she asked. Peter glanced around himself, looking like he was just remembering where he was. He blinked, shaking his head.

"Nothing," he mumbled, pulling his hand away from hers, "I'm fine. Just drop it."

Adelaide bit her tongue.

She wanted to ask him what was really going on, but he didn't look like he wanted to share it here, in the middle of everyone. So she sat back, deciding she would ask him again later when they were alone. There were better chances of him telling her then.

She caught Ned's eye and subtly shook her head, telling him to not ask. Ned glanced at his best friend and sighed.

He nodded, agreeing to not ask.

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For the rest of lunch, they ate in silence.

Vivian and Ned tried to make small talk, but Peter never said a word. In fact, he didn't even touch his food. He ate nothing. And with each passing minute, Adelaide grew more worried. She couldn't help her mind from wondering what had happened to him. She wondered what had sucked the life out of him like this.

Soon, the bell rang, signaling the end of their lunch period.

It happened when Peter stood up to throw his plate in the trash.

Everything seemed to move in slow motion.

He took just one step towards the trash cans and suddenly, the entire lunchroom spun around him until it started blackening at the edges. Before Peter knew it, the lunch tray fell from his hands and clattered to the floor, the noise echoing in his ears. And then, his eyes rolled into the back of his head and he was unconscious long before his legs gave away and he was falling towards the floor.

"Peter!" Adelaide shouted.

She dropped her own plate and jumped forward to grab him before his head hit the floor and she did, just in time. She tried to hold his limp body up with hers, but his dead weight was pulling them both down. In those moments, all Adelaide could feel was sheer panic and fear. She had no idea what was happening. She choked back tears, trying to keep herself together long enough to help Peter. She took his arm and threw it around her shoulders to keep them both from falling.

She was barely aware of Ned doing the same with his other arm. She couldn't take her eyes off of Peter. With one hand, she tried pushing his hair away from his face and touching his cold cheek, trying to wake him up.

"H-Hey Pete," she begged desperately, "Come on. W-Wake up."

"Nurse, take him to the nurse!" Vivian said in panic, "I-I'll call May."

Somehow the words managed to reach Adelaide's ears and she and Ned began taking him towards the nurse's office, which, thankfully, was right outside the cafeteria. Peter repeatedly slipped between them, but Adelaide desperately clung onto anything — his arm, his sleeve, his shirt — she could long enough to get him to the nurse.

"He's gonna be okay," Ned grunted. Adelaide barely heard him.

She felt terrible. Who knew how long he had been suffering through something and she hadn't been there for him? And now she was trying to get him to the nurse after he had passed out. She should have paid attention to him earlier. Before it had gotten this far, whatever 'it' was.

Somehow, someway, they made it to the nurse's office where Mrs. Prichett was there and ordered them to help Peter onto the couch. Adelaide gently laid his head on the armrest and Ned pulled his feet up onto the couch.

"What happened to him?" Mrs. Prichett asked and Adelaide crouched down beside Peter, taking his hand tightly and squeezing it as Ned answered to the nurse.

"W-We were just having lunch and then h-he passed out when he s-stood up," Ned managed to say.

"Okay, let me have a look," she said, hovering over him. She opened his eyes one at a time and shone a light into them. She grabbed his wrist, checking for his pulse. Adelaide watched the woman as she did various checks on him, never once letting go of his hand.

"What is it?" she asked the nurse, "What happened to him?"

"There's nothing to worry about," Mrs. Prichett said, turning around and writing something down onto a clipboard, "Peter's just suffering from exhaustion. His blood sugar was too low and that's why he passed out. Do either of you know if he's been sleeping and eating properly?"

Adelaide and Ned both glanced at each other with guilty eyes. Neither of them had a clue. They hadn't talked with Peter in the past couple days.

"H-He didn't eat anything a-at lunch today," Adelaide answered the nurse. Her voice was shaky.

"Mhm," Mrs. Prichett answered, scribbling something else down onto the clipboard. Then, she put her clipboard down and reached into the cabinets for something. She pulled out a small needle and filled it with something from a small bottle. When she brought it near Peter's arm, Adelaide stopped her, covering his arm with her hand.

"What is that? What are you giving him?" she asked worriedly. Mrs. Prichett smiled.

"Don't worry, Adelaide. I'm just giving Peter a very low dose of a glucagon shot and he'll be awake in no time," she said gently. Adelaide moved her hand away and let her give the shot to Peter. She squeezed his hand, rubbing the back of it gently. "There you go. Peter should wake up in a couple minutes now."

She stared at his face, wondering what had caused him to drive himself to exhaustion. She thought hard, but she couldn't think of anything. He was completely fine when she saw him last. There was no telling what had happened in those days she hadn't talked with him.

Ned left the room to go find Vivian and see if she had gotten through to May and the nurse left her office to get write Peter a pass to take the rest of the day off from school, leaving them alone in the room.

As she was lost in her thoughts, Adelaide felt his hand slowly stir in hers.

She immediately looked up at him, seeing his eyes flutter as he slowly opened them. He winced under the fluorescent overhead lights. His head ached, but when he tried to move his hand up to touch it, he realized that someone was holding his hand.

He glanced down and when his blurry vision finally settled, he saw Ada sitting there, holding her breath.

"Ada?" he mumbled quietly, "What...What happened?" The last thing he remembered was the cafeteria. He had no idea where he was right now or even how he had gotten here.

"You passed out," she said quietly. Her voice was much steadier now. Peter sighed, closing his eyes in annoyance. "You wanna tell me what happened?"

He didn't reply to her for a while and Adelaide studied his tired face as if the answer was written somewhere on there. The more she looked at him, the more worried it made her. When he said nothing, Adelaide let go of his hand and moved up from the floor to sit on the couch, beside his legs. She leaned forward, resting her elbows on her knees and pressing her hands together to keep them from shaking.

He opened his eyes when he felt the absence of the warmth of her hand in his. And that was when he really saw her. The worried look on her face. The hurt. He glanced at her hands which she had folded together and pressed between her knees. They were shaking. He looked up at her. She clenched her jaw, staring back at him, unblinking.

"I...I just haven't been sleeping properly," he mumbled, reaching up to press the spot on his forehead where he could feel the throbbing pain.

"Bullshit," she said brusquely, "Stop lying to me, Peter."

"I'm not lying," he sighed. He was. But he could have at least tried to make it sound convincing.

"Why do you not want me to know?" she pressed, "Just tell me. Maybe I can help."

He didn't want to get Ada involved. She had enough on her plate as it was. This was his own, personal issue. She had already done enough for him, he couldn't ask this of her again.

Before he could make another excuse again, May walked in through the door, worried beyond belief.

"Peter? Oh, my god," the woman said, "What happened? Vivian told me you passed out. Are you okay?"

Peter slowly sat up on the couch, wincing when his head throbbed more. May sat down beside him, touching his head to check for a fever. To her relief, he didn't have a fever.

"I'm fine, May," he said, "Just a little tired." May glanced at Adelaide and she just shook her head slightly.

"Come on, let's get you home," the woman sighed, helping him stand up from the couch. Adelaide watched them as Peter leaned on his aunt's shoulder to steady himself. He looked far from 'fine'. But he wasn't telling her why. She thought things had changed between them. Weren't they supposed to be a team? Did he not trust her with something?

When Peter paused at the door to look over his shoulder at Ada, she stared at her shoes, refusing to look at him. Peter sighed, turning away after a moment.

"Ned, can you please help Peter to the car? I need to talk with Mrs. Prichett," Adelaide heard May saying just outside the office.

"I can walk, May," Peter mumbled.

"That's not walking, that's stumbling," she heard Ned say and then their footsteps slowly faded away into the hall. Adelaide looked around the office before she sighed heavily and dropped her head between her hands for a moment. Then she sat up again and ran her hands down her face and through her hair tiredly. She stood up. When she walked out of the office, May had just finished talking with Mrs. Prichett.

"May?" Adelaide said quietly, stuffing her hands in the back pockets of her jeans. She tensed her shoulders. The woman turned around and Adelaide looked around nervously, not sure how she should say it exactly. "Um...can you just...just let me know when he's okay?"

May studied her face for a moment, wondering why she didn't just call the boy herself. But instead of asking, the woman just nodded.

"Of course I can," she said.

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A/N: yikes, things just got a lot more tense around here

things are gonna get more tense for those of you who love agnst ;)

as for a little foreshadowing...remember how i told you to pay attention to how adie stopped speaking russian altogether? wellll you'll see why during the winter dance and it ain't pretty. i think i've already said too much, oops

question: what do you think is wrong with peter?

see ya next week!

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