"You guys, I am so proud of you." Mr. Harrison said as they got closer to the Washington Monument. Everybody was laughing and smiling from excitement. They had won the decathlon thanks to Michelle's last answer. Jessica, though, had been silent almost all day, still touched by what had happened the night before. She and Flash were the only ones who didn't answer a single question in the decathlon, just that, unlike his case, Jessica chose to say nothing even though she knew the correct answer. 

"Told you we didn't need Peter." Flash said with a grin on his face as they stood before the tall monument. It was Liz who replied to his comment.

"Flash, you didn't answer a question."

But he was telling the truth. They had won without Peter because he had disappeared right before the decathlon started. Ned covered for him, saying that he was sick and couldn't get out of bed, but something made Jessica believe he was lying. By what she knew about the boy, she was almost certain that he had left to be Spider-Man for the night. 

Either way, she didn't have the strength to argue with him and interrogate him about where he had been. She was more than fed up and she decided to just focus of something else. So that's why, even though she was tempted to stay with Michelle outside of the structure, she walked inside with her classmates. 

"Taking it all in, Michelle?" The teacher asked her as he saw she wasn't following the rest of the group inside of the building.

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

"I'm sure the Washington Monument wasn't built by..." A guard standing by the building waved his hand resembling that it might have been, indeed, build out of slavery. "Okay." He quietly said, defeated by the guard's gesture. "Enjoy your book."

"Thanks."

They were in the queue for the security check when, suddenly, Ned's phone rang and it caught Jessica's attention. Looking at him from the side of her eye, she stood silent to listen.

"Oh, Ned, you're alive." She could hear someone say through the phone.

"Peter, are you okay?"

Her eyes widened in alert. Even though she had promised to herself she wasn't going to get involved in his little hide-and-seek game, she could not keep the silence anymore.

"The glowy thing?" She heard Ned say in a lower voice. "It's safe. It's in my backpack. You missed the decathlon. I covered for you. We're at the Washington Monument."

Jessica took the phone out of the boy's hand and wasted no time on interrogating the missing member.

"Peter, is that you?"

"Hey, Jess." His voice was in a higher pitch than what she was used to. "Put Ned back on the phone."

"You flake. Where the heck are you. I want to be mad, but I'm more worried. Like, what is going on with you?"

"I have to talk to Ned. It's important."

"All items on the belt, please." Jessica had to hang up in order to go through the security scan at the entry of the monument. She took of her belt and left it on a tray along with her phone and backpack. She was about to walk through the scan but was stopped by a security guard. "Miss, you need to take off those gloves."

Still reluctant, she gave in and left the gloves so that they would go through the x-rays. When she was waiting for her tray to come out, the same guard that had earlier talked to her approached her.

"We need to confiscate the gloves. We know it's not a threat, we've detected a Stark Industries logo in one of the internal chips. Still, we will keep them in case they end up in the wrong hands. You can get them once your visit is over."

She walked away in panic. She looked down at her hands: the tip of her fingers and her veins were pitch black. She hid them in her pockets and ran next to Ned to reach out for help. Her mind wasn't focused on Peter anymore but on trying not to poison anybody.

"Ned, we've got a little problem."

"What happened-" His hand was about to rest on her forearm and Jessica backed away.

"Don't! Don't touch me, I will poison you. They took my gloves away. I need your help. I can't touch anything, understand?"

"Understood." He nodded and then both of them followed the rest of the group into an elevator to get in top of the monument.

"The Washington Monument is 555 feet, five and one-eighth inches tall. Notice how the marble and granite are cut around the stone." As the elevator when up, a guide explained in a really plain tone. The lack of excitement of the lady did not make the situation better for Jessica.

Then, abruptly, something started irradiating light from Ned's backpack. It was purple and it was intensifying with every second that passed. Rays of the purple light were shoot out of the backpack, destroying it. Fortunately, Ned didn't get hurt, as well as the rest of the people in the elevator. Jessica brought her arms up to cover her face and when the elevator stopped she look back to see that the rays had cut through the walls of the elevator. Even though, there was a space without any damage right behind her, like she had held a shield.

Everybody was on the ground, gasping for air and trying to contain their panic, although their facial expressions reflected it anyways. Jessica observed the scene in fear.

"It's okay, we've been told the security system is working just fine." The guide tried to comfort everybody but Jessica couldn't stop feeling like they were hanging from a threat.

A few moments later the guide picked up her walkie and listened to it carefully. With the help of Mr. Harrison, they removed the elevator ceiling to reveal a fireman who offered his help to get them out.

One by one, they started to get out. There was only Ned, Liz, Mr. Harrison and Jessica left when she started thinking that they may make it out alive. That thought only lasted for a few seconds, though. When it was Liz's turn to climb out the exit, the wire holding the elevator snapped and they started falling.

Jessica was petrified. She remembered that time when she was falling from a building and could manage to levitate before hitting the ground. She wanted to try that in that moment, but she couldn't. She was so afraid, she just closed her eyes as she heard her friends scream.

Suddenly, they stopped falling. Jessica opened her eyes, her vision blurred with tears. She looked up for a second, disoriented. Was she the one preventing the elevator to hit the ground?

The question was answered when Spider-Man fell from the exit gap in the ceiling. It looked like the structure was going to start falling again, but before it could the hero shoot some of his webs that subjected them. Pulling the webs, the elevator started going up.

"Is..." The boy in the red and blue suit asked. Ned started jumping in excitement. They were going to be saved. "Hey, big guy! Stop moving around!"

"I'm sorry, sir."

They reached the top floor and again, one by one, started to get out. Liz was the last to leave the structure before it was Jessica's turn. She stared at the gap in the ceiling and tried to figure out how she was going to get out without touching anybody. She decided it was best to jump, but as soon as she impulsed herself from the ground the elevator shook and began falling again.

She had no time to react to what happened, she only knew that she wasn't falling. Attached to her hand was a spider web. She felt relief as she saw how she was hanging from the thing string.

The spiderling stretched out his arm, offering his hand so Jessica could reach it, but she wasn't willing to do it.

"Take my hand!" The hero told her. He was also clinging onto some webbing and it didn't look like it was going to last out with both of them.

"I-I'm not wearing my gloves!"

The hero ignored her comment and grabbed her by the hand, making it easy to pull her up. She also ignored the fact that her hands were bare and held onto him, shaking.

The spider boy hugged her back with his free arm, the other clutching the thin string that was preventing them from dropping. He leaned in,,close to her ear, and whispered some comforting words. "Hey, Jessica, it's alright. You're safe."

He left her on the ground with the rest of their classmates. The hero was still hanging from a web. Jessica turned once more to look at him. "Thank you."

They stared at each other before the webbing snapped and the crime-fighting spider slid down the elevator opening.