NATALIE WAS IN HER SWIMSUIT, smiling at MJ who was sitting on a chair still reading the same book that she was reading from the hotel room. "C'mon, MJ come in the pool with me," Natalie begged softly.

"You told me to come to the pool, Natalie. You never told me to get in it." MJ retorted back.

"Please?"

MJ took her gaze off of her book, glancing up at Natalie for a brief second. "I'll think about it... No."

"Fine," Natalie mumbled, leaving MJ alone by herself with her book. She sat on the edge of the wall between the pool and jacuzzi, her legs dangling in the water. She watched her teammates playfully splash each other as Liz and Cindy were having a conversation. Natalie felt a small splash hit her way catching her off guard as she laughed, looking to see the splash came from MJ. "I thought you were more interested in your book." Natalie teases playfully.

"Shut up." MJ laughed lightly as she shook her head. "Just be glad I'm sitting next to you."

Natalie smiled as she softly nudged MJ on the elbow. A little thing they did to show some sort of affection even though they seemed, to some people, to not like each other's presence or don't even get along. They were an odd pairing of friends, but they work.

Natalie's smile faltered once she noticed Ned wasn't with the group. She had a feeling Peter was going to go rogue and have his own way to prove what he's worth to Tony. Natalie also knew that Juanita and Raven have it handled. Right now, it was about her teammates and the competition. At this moment, if she were to focus on the mission and something were to happen, she can kiss her bed goodbye.

Sure, she didn't want to let Juanita and Raven down, but she doesn't want to worry them either. She'd rather wait for the right moment to tell them what's going on. She just hopes that they'll understand. All she can do right now is hope that Peter isn't doing anything too chaotic for the Angels to clean up his mess afterward.

"Whatcha thinking about?"

"Hmm?" Natalie raised her brows together in confusion.

"You're thinking too much over there." MJ rephrased her sentence.

"Oh, uh... I was thinking about tomorrow. If we lose, Liz busting our asses over this competition would've been for nothing. Y'know?" Natalie stated quietly. "And... If we win, we're still gonna have to bust our asses even harder to be better." She thought aloud, letting out an airy chuckle.

MJ nodded in agreement, "Either way, we're busting our ass." She finished Natalie's sentence, chuckling along with Natalie.

"Exactly." Natalie sighed, calming her laughter down.

Liz checked the time on her phone, "Hey, guys! It's time to get to bed." She called out quietly to her teammates.

Everyone got out of the pool, gathering their things together. They all followed Liz out of the indoor pool and then went their separate ways to their rooms to go to bed.

MEANWHILE, Peter lied on the floor of the trailer, motionless. The truck shook to a stop as it woke up Peter. "My head."

"You appear to have a mild concussion." The lady in his suit spoke up.

He groaned, placing a hand on top of his as he stood up, "Hey, so where am I right now?" He asked, taking a look at his surroundings.

"I'm not sure. The container walls are hindering my sensors."

"Wait a minute." He breathed out, "They must've hijacked the truck and taken me to their evil lair." He jumped on his toes, trying to prepare himself for what's coming next. "Okay, suit lady. We're gonna have to fight our way out of this one." He shook his nerves off, counting down from three as he ran straight through the truck's metal doors. He took in his surroundings, completely on guard and aware. "What is this place?" He asked, noticing that he was in a huge warehouse full of containers. "Suit lady, where am I?"

"You're in the most secure facility on the Eastern Seaboard. The Damage Control Deep Storage Vault." She answered.

"You're kidding." He said in shock as he saw 'DODC-V05' written in big bold letters on the wall. Peter sighed, looking around the area to find any sort of exit. He climbed up the wall, noticing a crack between the wall as he tried to pry it open.

"The door will most likely remain closed until morning." The suit lady pointed out.

Peter fell onto his feet, "Morning?" He whined. "I'm gonna be in the deepest trouble." He mumbled to himself.

"Why is that?"

"I, uh, was told to stay on the ground for a while, but I can do much more than that." He strolled through the warehouse, trying to pass some time. He cleared his throat as he shook his head at himself. "It's whatever, I guess." He said whilst making a hammock out of his webs. Peter got in the webbed hammock, laying down as it swayed lightly due to him getting in it.

"Hey, suit lady," He spoke up, breaking the silence, "I kind of feel bad calling you 'suit lady,' y'know?" He pointed out in thought. "I think I should probably give you a name... like Angel. Wait- No. No, that'd be weird." He sat up, shooting out a web to swing down from the hammock. He hummed in thought, "What about Karen?" He asked.

"You can call me Karen if you would like." She answered.

"Cool." He said softly, "Karen it is." He smiled to himself. He blew a raspberry once he found his backpack, pulling out a book to continue studying for the decathlon even though he already knew he was going to miss it. He paced back and forth whilst reading the book, climbing up the wall and ceiling. He started to hang upside down from the ceiling, his feet holding onto the web with his book still in his hands. "Hey, Karen, what else can this suit do?" He asked as wings expanded from under his arms causing Peter to gasp in surprise. He propped down to the floor, looking down at his suit in awe, "Maybe we should run that refresher course."

As time passed, Peter was getting a better feel on the other types of webs his suit came with. The wall was now all covered with patches of spiderwebs and got even messier as time went.

Peter was now lying face up on one of the trailers in deep thought, he sighed contemplating if he should even ask Karen about what he was struggling with.

"What's the matter?"

"It's nothing." He shook his head, "It's probably stupid anyway." He waved it off. "Hey, how long we been here anyways?"

"Thirty-seven minutes."

Peter sat up quickly, "What?" He exasperated as he shook his head, "Thirty-seven minutes?" He jumped down from the trailer. "That's insane. I can't take this anymore." He shook his head once more as he walked into the container he came in from, taking off his yellow blazer and blue-grayish hoodie. "I gotta get out of here." He took a breath in, looking at the items in the container, "There's gotta be something in here I can use." He mumbled to himself as dogged through the Vulture's duffel bag. He pulled out a few items that seemed to not be useful to him. He then pulled out a purple glowing object that he was all so familiar with, "Hey, it's like the glowy thing."

"That glowy thing is an explosive Chitauri energy core," Karen stated which caused Peter to frantically drop the purple glowing object.

"You mean, we've been carrying around a bomb?" He exasperated.

"It would require radiation to transform it into an explosive state." Karen pointed out

"No, no, no, no." He rushed to find his phone to call Ned only to find out he has no reception. Peter swung towards the warehouse doors, trying anything to get them open as he shouted for anyone to help him out. "Wait a minute." He looks at his web-shooters, remembering one of the Angels setting up a little device for him to call for help. He quickly pushed the button as it started blinking.

He looked around the warehouse, noticing a time lock close to the doors. "Karen, you have to help me override that time lock while the Angels are on their way." He said, opening the lock panel as he pushed in a set of numbers in.

THE ANGELS FELT THEIR BRACELETS BUZZ AGAINST THEIR SKIN, realizing it was a signal from Peter. Juanita and Raven, who were already in their disguises and was close enough to catch the Vulture, had to make the toughest decision and let him go in order to save Peter. "How is he all the way in the Eastern Seaboard?" Raven asked as they both hopped on to their motorcycles as they drove off.

"He must've snuck out with Natalie not knowing," Juanita answered, shaking her head at Peter.

"We're not gonna be able to make it until sunrise." Raven pointed out. "I'll call Natalie-"

"No, don't." Juanita shook her head, "She's already stressing over the competition. I don't want to add Peter's mess on top of that."

Raven sighed, "Alright."

BACK AT THE HOTEL, Natalie woke up from her bracelet, trying her best to leave her hotel room without waking up MJ. Once she shut the door gently, she whipped out her phone once she made it to a secure area. She looked at the 3D digital map in front of her, noticing that Ned was still in his room whilst Peter was not. "Damn it." She muttered. She noticed the time, seeing that it was almost time for her to get up and get ready so she went to a vending machine to buy a snack and some drinks for her and MJ to not cause any suspicion as to why she snuck out of the room. When she went back to her room silently, placing the snack down at the small table and decided to get ready for the competition.

"You wake up really early." MJ pointed out while Natalie put her hair up in a pony.

"Yeah, sorry if I woke you up." Natalie smiled apologetically as MJ started to get ready, "Got you a drink and a snack if you want it." She stated as MJ nodded in response.

The sun started rising as Liz knocked on the students' doors to remind them that had to go. "Guess that's our cue," MJ said softly as they both headed out of the rooms to go where they were supposed to go.

Once everyone made it down to the lobby, Liz did a headcount. "Where's Peter?"

"Uh, he, uh, doesn't feel good. He said he had too much candy last night and now he has a, uh, tummy issue." Ned told Liz as his hands fiddled with the strings of his backpack.

"Great. Flash, you're back in." Liz said in disappointment. "Let's go." She called out, leading the team towards the Decathlon venue.

"Please be sure that all cell phones are turned off." A lady said through the speakers of the venue as the students of Midtown High gave the security their phones.

Peter stood on the back of a trailer truck, "Karen, you have to get me to Decathlon as fast as possible." He panted.

"Sure thing. Just tell me where it is."

"Right across the street from the Washington Monument." He said as held his phone to his ear, hearing Ned's voicemail once again. "Ned, call me back! The glowy thing is a bomb!"

"There's a vehicle approaching on your right." Karen pointed out as Peter climbed on top of the cargo and leaped over onto an SUV.

"Hey bug-boy, missed us?" Peter heard through his suit.

He turned around to see the Angels on their motorcycles, "Angels! Thank heavens, you're here." He said in relief. "The glowy thing is a bomb and Ned isn't picking up his phone!"

"Shit," Raven muttered.

"How do you feel about motorcycles?" Juanita asked rhetorically, getting close enough to SUV's blind spot as she sent Raven a signal to move forward.

"What?"

"Now."

Raven pulled out a make-shift little lasso, making sure it connected to Peter as she pulled him onto the back of Juanita's motorcycle. Raven sped up in front of Juanita as she tried to get a hold of Natalie.

"You could've given me a heads up." Peter's eyes narrowed at Juanita.

"I did." She said simply. "Listen, here's the plan. She's going to try to get ahold of anyone who can pull Ned to the side before he could put the glow thing into anything that can trigger it to go off. If anything happens, we're gonna handle it okay?"

Peter nodded, "Got it."

The Midtown High students walked towards the Washington Monument all happily, "We won!" Sally cheered.

"You guys, I am so proud of you," Liz stated with a huge grin.

Flash shrugged, "Told you guys we didn't need Peter."

"You didn't answer a single question." Ned pointed out.

Natalie scoffed as Flash glared at her, "Every question you said, 'I got this in the bag' and then chickened out afterward." She shook her head at him as she chuckled. Her phone started buzzing in her pocket as they entered the Washington Monument. "He-"

"Is Ned with you?" Raven asked, straight to the point. 

"Ye-"

"Okay, listen to me. Peter found out that the purple glowy device is actually a bomb only when it's activated by radiation. I need you to stall Ned from putting it through anything to trigger the device." Raven ordered.

Natalie nodded, "On it." She said before hanging up the phone. Catching up with the group, finding Ned with Liz. "Shit." She muttered to herself. "Ned, hey! Can I put my stuff with yours?"

"My backpack is already on the conveyor belt." He answered.

"Miss, all items on the belt, please."

"Shit, shit, shit." She muttered to herself as she saw Liz put Ned's phone down on the belt next to Ned's backpack. They walked through the scanner and collected their belongings. She watched Ned put on his backpack as they entered the elevator. Natalie took a deep breath, her gaze locked onto Ned's backpack.

Natalie moved her hands behind her back, fidgeting with her bracelet until she pressed a certain button for the Angels in morse code. She noticed the purple device in Ned's backpack began to glow a little brighter. "Please hurry." She whispered to herself.

The tour guide goes on about the many facts behind the Washington Monument as the energy core erupted with light as it broke the glass.

The Angels and Peter arrived at the base of the monument, the Angels walked in the building calmly and went their separate ways. Juanita went to the security room, ordering everyone to safely evacuate due to an accident that happened. Luckily enough, they listened as she waited for everyone to leave before entering the room herself.

Juanita locked the door behind her, "Alright, I'm in." She started as she looked over each camera angle on the screens.

Raven walked past the same security guards Juanita ushered out as a diversion for her to pass through the scanner without being noticed. "Same here. Looks like both elevators are down." She pointed out, heading towards the stairway.

"Wait, there's someone exiting the stairway. Wait a few seconds and then go in after they come out." Juanita told her. "Hey, spider, how's it going on your end?"

Peter let out a shaky breath as he's crawling up the monument, "My friends are in the elevator." His head hung low as took a peek below him.

Back on the elevator, Ned dropped his backpack as the small space is filled with smoke. "Guys, look at the ceiling." Charles pointed out in fear as everyone looked up to see a glowing, red crack cutting across the elevator ceiling.

"Everyone, just stay calm," Liz said softly, trying to reassure everyone.

"We're all going to die!" Abe is the first one to panic, obviously not helping out anyone's nerves.

"We're freaking screwed," Charles whined.

"Everyone just shut up!" Natalie spat, keeping her eyes shut as she clung onto the metal bar of the elevator.

"Okay guys, I know that was scary, but our safety systems are working. We're very safe in here." The tour guide reassured the students.

"Hey, uh, Angels? The safety systems aren't working and everyone in the elevator is in extreme danger." Peter stated, repeating what Karen had told him.

"I know, I'm working on it."

"What? Why?" Juanita and Raven heard Peter say through their earpiece.

"Is everything okay," Raven asked, trying to keep her focus on getting everyone out safely and nothing else happens.

"We have 125 seconds until catastrophic failure because of unexpected movement," Peter answered. "How do I get in there?" He asked Karen as she activated his reconnaissance drone causing the emblem on his suit to detach whilst the spider-shaped drone flew up and over the monument as it located an entrance. "Woah, has that been there the whole time? That's awesome."

"Hey, bug-boy. Focus." Raven reminded.

"Sorry." He said softly as Karen pointed out a window for him to enter through. Peter moved around the monument and continued climbing. He cautiously peered over the edge, "Okay. Oh, my god. Okay." He let out a panicky breath, his back facing the wall as he kept his head up.

"Spider, what's wrong?" Juanita asked noticing the shortness of breath from Peter. "You okay?"

"It's fine. It's just, I've never been this high before."  He answered, trying to shoo away the seagulls that sat on top of the windowsill.

"You have also not reinstalled your parachute, so a fall from this height would most likely be lethal." Karen tried to point out nice and calmly, keyword being tried.

Peter nodded, "That's just perfect." He sucked in a breath as he moved on top of the windowsill whilst the seagulls flew away.

Juanita took a deep breath in, "Peter, listen to me. You're going to be fine, alright. The windows are a four-inch ballistic glass, so you'll need to create more momentum in order for it to break." She pointed out. "You've got this. I believe in you, buddy." She encouraged softly.

Peter nodded once more, encouraging himself that he got this. He shot a web against the monument wall as he descended from the windowsill until his feet were flat against the glass. He jumped, swinging towards the glass as it cracked slightly.

Back in the elevator, some students were already escorted out safely. Mr. Harrington looked at the students that were left in the elevator, "Okay, who's next?" He asked as Natalie grabbed onto his shoulder.

"Me, it's my turn!" Flash called put, shoving Natalie out of the way and into Ned as they stumbled a bit.

"Flash, seriously? What are you doing?" Ned spoke up, disappointed with Flash's actions as he held onto Natalie in a comforting manner.

"Just leave the trophy." Natalie spat.

"Hell no!" Flash exasperated as he climbed through the hatch in the ceiling of the elevator, causing it to shake. "Take my trophy. Take my trophy!" He yelled at the security guards as the elevator shook once again.

Once Flash was completely out, the roof of the elevator ripped off as it started to fall. Ned and Natalie screamed out their lungs, completely terrified for their lives. A strand of web fell onto the falling elevator, stopping it from falling momentarily. The door broke loose as Peter fell after the plummeting elevator, catching onto a beam causing Peter to fall in through the ceiling on his back. The elevator started to fall once again due to Peter's impact as he quickly shot out a web through the hole in the ceiling, stopping the elevator from falling completely.

Peter hung upside down with his feet against the ceiling of the elevator as he held onto the strand of web, clearing his throat. "Hey, how you doing?" He asked rhetorically, trying to disguise his voice. "Don't worry about it. I got you."

"Yes! Yes!" Ned said in relief, swinging his fist in joy causing the elevator to wobble.

"Hey, hey, hey, big guy, quite moving around."

"Sorry, sir. So sorry."

Peter slowly pulled the elevator up the shaft, reaching them to an upper floor. "Alright, this is your stop."

"Okay, okay. Come on." The Park Ranger motioned them to climb u, getting ready to help pull them up to safety.

"Mr. Harrington, go. Ned, come on." Liz tried to encourage them to climb up.

"Go, go, go. Everybody out! Move it, people. Move it, move it!" Peter rushed them as he tried to keep a hold of the elevator.

"Come on, Natalie." Ned held out his hand for her to grab.

"Are you sure it's safe?" She asked a little hesitant as she reached out for Ned's hand.

The ceiling snapped as Mr. Harrington called out for her. Peter quickly webbed Natalie's wrist as the elevator fell, "You're okay. You're okay." Peter reassured her softly as he pulled her up by the web before grabbing onto her hand. "Okay." He breathed out, trying to remain calm as he felt his web slightly starting to snap.

Peter helped Natalie up to safety as the students sighed in relief to see that she was okay. "So, uh, is everyone okay?" He asked as Natalie slowly nodded in shock.

They hold a gaze at each other as Peter heard one of the Angels clear their throats, forgetting that they were here as well. The web snapped causing Peter to drop as everyone looked down the elevator shaft, "Thank you, kind sir!" Mr. Harrington called out.

Flash then peered down the shaft, "Are really friends with Peter Parker?" He asked earning a smack to his shoulder from Natalie. "Ouch."

"Not really the best time." She noted, clearly infuriated with him.

"Okay, uh, I'm sure he'll be fine... and I know we all experienced something very traumatic." Mr. Harrington nodded to himself, " Let's just call it a day and cut the trip short and go home." He said a little spaced out, still in shock as the students agreed.

"Bug-boy? Earth to bug-boy?" Raven called out, waving her hand in front of his face.

He groaned in pain as his eyes blinked a few times, "I'm okay, I'm okay." He sat up, taking in his surroundings, noticing his mask was off but still in his suit.

"We put you back in your hotel room before your friends from school came back," Juanita spoke up as Peter nodded.

"Thanks."

"You took a big fall. How's your head?" Juanita asked, handing him a bag of ice.

" It's fine. Just a headache." He answered, taking the ice as he placed it on his head gently. "Really, I'm okay." He reassured them.

"Wanna tell us how you got locked in a Damage Control Deep Storage Vault?" Raven asked with her arms crossed.

"I, uh, was going after the bird guy?" He sheepishly stated more like a question. "Look, I thought I had it handled."

"Clearly you didn't."

"Hey-"

"We're not doing this right now." Juanita jumped in, stopping the two from arguing. "If it wasn't for him getting trapped in that storage vault, we would've never found out that the purple glowing device was a bomb. Yes, he messed up on bringing it with him to the trip, but how was he supposed to know." Juanita defended him. " Let's just be glad that no one in that elevator got injured." She reminded them.

They both nodded as the room fell silent. Peter's eyebrows furrowed as he remembered something, "Isn't there usually three of you?"

"She's out on another mission," Raven said simply. "Which reminds me, We need to go." She said to Juanita. "If I were you, I would hurry up and change." Raven nodded towards Peter.

"Right." Juanita nodded, turning to Peter, "Til we meet again, Spider." She waved goodbye as the Angels left his room without anyone noticing.

THE DRIVE BACK HOME WAS COMPLETELY SILENT, except for the sound of Flash's voice constantly ringing through everyone's ears as he spoke highly of Spider-Man. Everyone was tired and just wanted to go home after today's events.

Flash would irritatingly ask Natalie how it felt to be saved by New York's finest heroes which she answered with a 'shut the hell up, Eugene.'

Natalie, of course, was still shaken up from almost falling to her death as was everyone else. MJ wasn't normally affectionate, but she tried to comfort Natalie the best that she could which Natalie was grateful for.

Once the bus came to a halt and they arrived at school, the students climbed out of the bus as they waited for the families to meet them by the school bus. Liz was the first one to leave, followed by Cindy, then Abe and Sally.

Natalie looked through the crowd to see if her guardian came to pick her up. Her arms crossed against her chest as she became a little cold.

"Hey... You okay?" Natalie jumped, a bit startled as she turned to face Peter. "Ned told me what happened."

"Oh, uh, yeah." She answered still keeping her eye out for her guardian. "All thanks to the spider guy." She said softly.

"Yeah-"

"Peter?" A lady ran up to Peter and pulled him in for an embrace.

Natalie glanced at the two in somewhat of envy before turning her gaze away.

Peter and his aunt start to leave as Peter gives Natalie a small smile goodbye. "I'll see you tomorrow, Natalie."

"See ya, Parker." Natalie nodded at him, giving him a small smile as she watched him leave and then lastly MJ. She sighed as she figured it was too good to be true to think that her guardian was coming to pick her up.

"Nat!"

She looked up to see Juanita and Raven running towards her with their arms open. They wrapped their arms around Natalie pulling her in for a group hug as she let the tears fall down her face. "I think I got kicked out- I don't- I don't have a place to stay." Natalie's voice was muffled as she cried into Juanita's shoulder.

Raven and Juanita both shared a look, Raven being the first one to speak up. "You know my dads won't mind if you stay the night or forever." She suggested with a little joking manner. "They love having you over. I sometimes feel like they love you more than me." She chuckled which caused Natalie to smile lightly.

"There's that beautiful smile of yours," Juanita said softly, pushing Natalie's hair out of her face. "Hey, it's their loss. They're missing out on the most amazing, bad-ass Angel ever." She reassured. "We're family, Nat. You'll always have us."

Natalie sniffled, "I love you guys." She smiled softly as they started to walk home.

"What was it like being saved by bug-boy?" Raven teased.

"Oh my god." Natalie groaned.

"We wanna know." Juanita chimed in.

"Shut up." Natalie laughed.

『 LILLS SPEAKS! 』

i normally don't ask for this and i do really,
really, REALLY hate asking, but can y'all stop
ghost reading and ACTUALLY vote please

i love all the comments- i really do but can y'all
also vote please? it's literally all i ask for. okay?
that's all, thank you xx.