Peter made it to DC without any problems. Mr. Harrington had let him on the bus eagerly, much to Flash's chagrin. Happy had called him briefly as they were exiting the state to see where he was going but was assuaged by the lie that Peter had made. It wasn't really a lie but his focus was on finding the Vulture -guy, not winning the Decathlon. He was also still upset about the tracker in his suit. Peter had privately freaked out about earlier. He had thought of all the times that he had taken the suit to the New York Sanctum. He didn't like the thought of Stark becoming suspicious with his weekly and sometimes hours-long visits to a seemingly random building in New York. It was these thoughts that prompted him to have Ned disable the tracker in his suit as soon as they entered the hotel room.

Once the tracker was turned off and stowed safely on the lampshade, Ned informed him of the Training Wheels Protocol on the suit. Percy felt his blood boil. He was not a child and refused to be treated like one. He immediately had Ned disable the program, even if it took some convincing. He needed all of the advantages he could get to take down the man with wings. He watched with satisfaction as the suit lit up for a moment. He quickly got dressed, making sure he had his phone and the things needed for an Iris Message in the backpack he was taking with him.

He said goodbye to his friend before quietly making his way down the hallway. He had barely made it five feet before he saw Liz rushing towards him in a swimsuit. His cheeks took on an interesting new hue that matched the color of his suit as the girl got closer.

"Hey, Liz," he greeted.

"Hey, Peter. Perfect timing. We're going to go swimming. I read in a Ted Talk that a rebellious group activity the day before a competition is good for morale. Well, I heard it in a TED Talk. And I read a coaching book," the girl stuttered out. She seemed unnecessarily nervous talking to him when she was normally confident.

His reply wasn't much better. He could feel the blush on his cheeks move towards his ears as he made up an excuse for his late-night excursion. "I was-- I was gonna go study in the business center."

She gave him a look that he couldn't decipher. "You don't need to. You're, like, the smartest guy I've ever met. Besides, we raided the minibar and these candy bars were, like, eleven dollars. So, get your trunks on and come on."

He watched longingly as she continued down the hallway, clutching the candy bar she had thrown at him to his chest. He shook his head to shake himself out of his reverie. He had a job to do, and that came before his own desires.

He was standing on the roof when he finally put the mask on his head. He jumped when a female voice started talking directly in his ear.

"Hello, Peter. Congratulations on completing the Training Wheels Protocol and unlocking all of your suits features."

Peter decided to just roll with it before asking the suit lady to plot a course to where tracker currently was. He quickly hopped on top of a truck that was headed in the direction he needed to go before settling in. Rather than just sit there the whole time Peter decided to go through some of the suit's new capabilities.

His eyes widened comically when he saw that he saw over five hundred web-shooter combinations available. He also made the executive decision to stay away from Instant Kill Mode.

"Hey, suit-lady, can you decide which webs would be the best choice depending on the situation I'm in?" He asked. He felt silly talking to air but there was nothing he could do about it.

"Certainly, Peter," the suit responded kindly. Percy was unsettled by the amount of emotion the seemed to be able to display.

"Can you change the type of web-shooters as the situation changes?"

"Of course. Are there any programs that you prefer?" she asked.

"Not really," Percy replied. "Just, don't activate Instant Kill Mode without my explicit permission."

"Okay. You might want to jump here, though," the suit quickly said.

Peter scrambled up and jumped off of the side of the truck. He quickly scanned his surroundings. He was a bit disappointed that the evil lair was located in a gas station but it made sense. No one would suspect a random gas station as the location of a criminal's hideout. He climbed up the sign of the gas station. His visor zoomed in on the truck that was across the parking lot from him.

"Activating Enhanced Reconnaissance Mode," the suit said abruptly.

Peter quietly thanked the suit, which was weird when he thought about it for more than a few seconds. He focused on what the men in the truck were saying. His eyes widened and he grinned when he realized that he had caught them in the middle of a heist. He stealthily made his way closer to the truck by webbing to the roof of the gas station.

Peter watched as three trucks pulled past the gas station. He gasped as the man with wings circled above the last truck, like a real vulture, before shooting something at it. Peter realized that he needed to act quickly if not the man would get away again.

He shot a web towards the truck and landed towards the front of the vehicle. He approached the weird translucent thing that allowed him to see into the truck. He put one hand in and quickly took it out. It seemed like some sort of matter phase-shifter.

Peter abruptly backed away as the Vulture jumped out of the hole in the truck, carrying a bag of stolen items. He shot a web at the bag and brought it towards him. The man whipped around to face Peter a moment later. His wings, which were hovering in the air, attached to his back and Peter had to dodge an incoming attack from the razor-sharp wings.

He shot a web at the man and watched in horror as it went uselessly past him. Well, so much for that he thought. He would have to go through the webs later rather than rely on the suit. The Vulture took the moment to knock Peter into the truck with the bag of stolen goods.

Peter slammed down painfully onto the bottom of the truck. He jumped up to get out of the truck but his head collided with something hard. A sharp flash of pain reverberated through his skull and then everything went black.

Enjoy the new chapter! There will be another update next week, either on Sunday or Monday. Let me know what you think about the chapter.

<3 S