I don't own anything except any original character and/or any original plot

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Chapter Six: Maryland (Pt. 1)

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The next morning you woke up desiring nothing more than to stay in bed and sleep all day, but Peter's freshly washed and folded clothes taunted you from the top of your dresser. You didn't understand why you told Peter what you did yesterday. You wanted to blame it on your exhaustion, but your mind told you that you were just desperate for someone to talk to who wouldn't judge you.

You got out of bed and carefully put Peter's clothes in a drawstring bag. Pulling an outfit from your closet, you pulled it on and moved on to the bathroom. After washing your face you put some concealer over a small bruise forming on your cheek. Having some skill in makeup was a requirement when you were a hero with a secret identity.

I found the core of that gun in someone's yard yesterday

I'm going to break it open in woodshop and see what I find out

With a sigh, you set your phone face down on the kitchen table as you sat down for breakfast. Your mom passed you a plate while you were distracted. It was a switched schedule today, so instead of Decathlon, you had your other elective. It seemed Peter had woodshop.

Meet me by my locker

"How was the party?"

"Huh?" You looked up from your phone, "Oh, it was fine until Peter and I had to go stop an illegal weapons deal and got yelled at by Iron Man."

"High school," your dad chuckled.

You nodded, swallowing the rest of your food and grabbing the two bags you had to bring to school. Taking a small moment to gather yourself before you stepped out the door, you put on a smile and waved to your parents.

"Bye, I'll see you later."

You took your usual route to school, walking to the subway and taking that almost all the way there. When you got inside, you stopped at your locker and anxiously waited for Peter to meet you.

"Hey (Y/n)."

"Hey, Liz," you greeted with a smile. It was hard to find genuinely nice people out in the world, and Liz was one of those people. She had a kind heart and wasn't afraid to show it.

"So I was thinking that after we get back from the tournament we can go homecoming shopping together- after you have some time to unpack and whatnot. I've been so busy planning the dance that I haven't had the chance to buy my dress yet."

"Yeah sure," you replied absently, not processing what Liz was saying.

"Perfect! We can plan the details later. See you!"

"Peter!" You called out, spotting a familiar head of brown hair down the hall, "Where is it?"

"In my bag. I'm going to break into it with Ned in woodshop, then we can go to the lab and run some tests during free periods," Peter offered.

"Perfect. Oh!" You held out the drawstring bag you were carrying, "Here. I was them too so they're clean. You can keep the bag, it's just a freebie from the hospital that my mom works at."

"Thanks!" Peter beamed, "I'll see you in free period?"

You nodded and headed off to your first class of the day, eager for the day to go quickly so you could meet with Peter during free period and figure out what the core was and how it worked.

The beginning of the school day was terrible. Not in the normal "high school sucks" type of way, but in the "something important is happening and I can't do anything about it" type of way. You had little patience for lessons when you had a chance to unlock the secrets to the weapons on the streets.

Ding. Ding. Ding.

You jumped from your seat, rushing to your locker and spending your small break time there. When the halls cleared out you hurried to get to the woodshop, nearly running into Ned on your way there. Peter was just behind him, as one of them couldn't be found without the other nearby.

"Where is it?" You asked.

Peter tapped his bag a few times, "It's in here. We need to get to the lab."

Peter tapped his bag a few times, "We need to get to the lab."

"First, I say we put the glowy thing in the mass spectrometer," Ned seemed to be in a constant state of fanboy.

"First, we gotta come up with a better name than 'glowy thingy'."

"You're right."

You turned into the next hall and reached out for Peter's backpack, getting a tight grip on it and pulling him back.

"Ned get over here," you hissed, waving him over.

Ned looked around in confusion but shuffled over anyway.

"What's going on?"

"Those guys down the hallway are the ones we fought yesterday. I think they're looking for the glowy thingy."

"What? We gotta get out of here!"

"No, no, no. Maybe we can follow them," Peter suggested, "They'll lead us to the guy who dropped us."

"Someone dropped you?"

"Over water," you rolled your eyes. The situation was serious at the time but clearly, both of you were fine, "How did those two get in? Honestly, normal school security sucks."

"Let's go," Peter grabbed your hand, pulling you along.

"Guys-"

"Wait here Ned," you instructed. If things went south you didn't need him getting hurt.

"Guys-"

The two of you tried to move silently down the hall, following the two arms dealers as they entered the now empty woodshop classroom.

"It's saying there was an energy pulse right here."

"There's no sign of the weapon. And even if it was here, now it's gone."

Peter wrapped an arm around your waist, rolling under the table and sticking to the top. You held your breath as the men slowly walked past the table. Peter stuck out his hand and shot out a tiny tracker.

When the pair of criminals left the classroom Peter dropped from the table and the two of you rolled out to stand up.

"Want to come over later to track it?" Peter asked.

"Sure. My mom gets out of work at six, though, so I'll have to leave by then."

"Yeah, yeah. I'll text you when they stop."

"I should probably go find Michelle so we can study for the rest of free period," you sighed, not wanting to leave this situation as it was, but there wasn't much you could do, "Text me your apartment number and I'll head over after school."

~*~

You looked up at the chipped paint of Peter's front door. Your dad had happily given you permission to go to Peter's when you asked. Whether it was because he understood it was for hero business or because he shipped you and Peter you weren't sure.

"Better you go hang out with Peter then go out and risk your life on patrol," was what he said.

Hesitantly, you raised your hand and knocked on the door. After a few seconds of silence, a middle-aged woman opened the door. She used her arm to lean against the frame and gave you a polite smile in greeting.

"Can I help you?"

"Is Peter Parker here? We're supposed to work on a project for school together?"

The woman's eyes lit up. She stepped aside and ushered you in excitedly. Taking your shoes off at the door you followed her hand as she pointed to Peter's room.

"I'm May, Peter's aunt. Let me know if you need anything while you're here."

"I'm (Y/n)," you introduced yourself.

"I haven't heard of you from Peter before."

"Oh, I'm new to school. I just moved here from upstate," you explained, jumping through a loophole in the truth.

May nodded understandingly, "Well, you're welcome here anytime," May knocked on Peter's door, "Peter, (Y/n)'s here for your school project."

Peter thrust open his door, thanking Aunt May before pulling you inside. You greeted Ned with a wave, sitting on Peter's floor in front of the hologram showing the weapons dealer's location. Peter jumped onto the bed next to Ned. You pulled some homework out of the bag you brought and got to work.

"Where are they now?" You asked.

"Looks like they're going to Staten Island," Ned reported, eyes never straying from the hologram.

"Yeah, but they're still moving," you pointed out, "So we'll probably be stuck here for a while."

Over the course of the next few hours, you watched the small dot move from New York farther south. You took the chance to finish all the homework you had for the day and texted the X-Men about how New York had been.

"They stopped," Ned announced, pulling your attention away from your phone.

"Maryland," Peter huffed in frustration when he saw where they'd stopped, "How are we gonna get to Maryland?"

"Peter, the Decathlon team has their national competition in D.C," you smirked, "Maybe you quit the team a bit too soon.

"I'll check and see if I can rejoin the team tomorrow," Peter got a determined look on his face and you knew he'd be getting back on that team.

Checking the time on your phone, you shoved your laptop back into your bag and swung it over your shoulder, "I'll see you two tomorrow then. Well, hopefully, I'll see both of you tomorrow."

You waved goodbye to both of them and stepped out of Peter's room. Aunt May was making food in the kitchen, rushing around and putting large amounts of different ingredients into a large mixing bowl.

"Do you need me to drive you home?" May asked, poking her head out of the kitchen, "It's getting dark and I don't want anything to happen."

"I live just down the road, I'll be okay," you waved your hand dismissively.

"Alright, well I hope you can come over again soon. Be safe!"

Shivering when you stepped out of the warm apartment building, you zipped up your jacket entirely. Your hands gripped the straps of your backpack tightly while you walked down the sidewalk. The hairs stood up on the back of your neck when you felt eyes on you.

Scanning your surroundings, you saw nothing and shook your head. Hero paranoia was getting to you. Sighing in relief when you reached the crosswalk, you sucked in a sharp breath when someone grabbed and yanked on your arm to pull you into the nearest alleyway.

You groaned in frustration, more annoyed than scared. You were going to be late for dinner and your parents were going to freak out when they heard what happened to you.

"You'll get me a nice buck on the market but that doesn't mean I can't sample a pretty thing like you," the man's voice indicated he was a smoker, and it stank of alcohol.

This was when your hand-to-hand training kicked in. You didn't need Riptide to be revealed because of a drunk asshole.

You threw your head back and heard a satisfying crunch from the man's nose. He let you go and clutched his nose, which was now gushing blood. You punched him soundly in the throat for good measure and then delivered a swift kick to his kneecap- breaking that as well.

"Think twice before trying to kidnap and sell civilians," you hissed, turning away from the man to get to the crosswalk again.

Click

Your blood ran cold. Hand swinging up of its own accord, you collected water particles from the air. Spinning back around to face the man, you used the water gathered to slam him into the alley wall.

Letting out a huff you kicked the unconscious criminal. You heard a camera going off. Cursing under your breath, you turned your head slightly and spotted a crowd gathering at the mouth of the alley. Cursing under your breath, you sprinted to the nearest fire escape and jumped up, climbing up to the roof to get away.

Would all of them have just passed by if I hadn't used my mutation? You asked yourself, already knowing the dark answer. That was why women were trained to shout "Fire" instead of "Help". People didn't like getting involved.

A few buildings away from your own you climbed down and crossed the street. Dragging your feet into the building you waved at the night secretary politely. You stepped into the elevator and took it up to your apartment, dropping your bag off in your room before meeting your parents at the kitchen table.

"You're late," your mom stated, motioning to your empty seat, "Normally we wouldn't mind you being out late, but-"

"I got mugged," you took a bite of your cooling food.

"Oh my god, are you okay?" Dad questioned, far less concerned than the normal parent would be but concerned all the same, "I mean, we all know you can handle yourself but still, that's serious."

"You should see the other guy. I beat the crap out of him," you chuckled, "He tried to pull a gun on me and it didn't end well for him. That drew a crowd. I don't think that drew a crowd but they know Riptide did it."

"As long as they didn't see your face it should be fine."

Your small family continued to eat dinner in peace now that you were there to enjoy it. Small conversations popped up here and there, and eventually, the Decathlon competition in D.C. was brought up.

"I packed you a bag. Enough clothes to last the trip and a swimsuit. The hotel you're staying in has a pool, did you know this building has a pool too? I was talking to the young lady at the front desk and she said it wasn't on the website when we were looking at the apartment because they were still building it."

Nodding to show we were listening, you stood and dropped your plate off in the sink. Promising to double-check everything before you left, you gave each of your parents a hug goodnight.

You shuffled to the bathroom, taking your time to pull off your clothes. You winced when you pulled your right sleeve over your arm. The skin was tender where the man had grabbed you, and it seemed as though bruises were beginning to form.

You stepped into the shower and stood under the warm spray of water for a few moments before getting to work. Hovering water over your arm, the forming bruises slowly faded away and the tenderness spread further up. There would be no evidence of what happened, but more of your arm would be sore - as was the exchange of healing yourself.

~*~

Tugging the sleeves of your jacket down, you searched for Peter. The team was boarding the bus and there was no sign of him. However, just as you were about to give up hope and accept that he wouldn't be able to make it, he ran up.

"Hey, I was hoping I could rejoin the team."

"Su-" Liz began but was cut off by Flash.

"No, no way. You can't just quit on us, stroll up, and be welcomed back by everyone."

Mr. Harrington stepped off the bus, "Hey, welcome back Peter. Flash, you're back to first alternate."

"What?"

"He's taking your place," Abe laughed, and you couldn't hold back a small chuckle either.

"Excuse me, can we go already? 'Cause I was hoping to get in some light protesting in front of one of the embassies before dinner, so..."

"Protesting is patriotic. Let's get on the bus!"

All of us loaded onto the bus, leaving for D.C. Throughout most of the drive, we were practicing for the competition. You were sitting across from Michelle, scrolling through Instagram. On the explore page was an article linked to a website with the civilian pictures taken of Riptide yesterday.

Riptide is a high schooler? Yesterday photos and videos were posted of a young teen fighting a common criminal in an alley with the same powers as New York's newest heroes. They were wearing a full backpack and according to witnesses seemed "younger out of the uniform than in". This has led many to believe that Riptide is still in school.

"Shit," you swore quietly, catching Michelle's attention, "Sorry. Politics, you know?"

"Happy's calling," Peter muttered from behind you, "Hey, can I take this?"

"Sure."

You followed Peter to the back of the bus. Ned was already there keeping an eye on the tracker screen. Leaning in closer to Peter, you listened to Happy as he spoke.

"Got a blip on my screen here. You left New York?"

"Tracker," Peter mouthed, "Yeah, no, it's just a school trip. It's nothing. Happy, I gotta say, you tracking me without my consent completely violates my privacy."Ned pointed at the tracker screen, "That's different."

"What's different?"

"Nothing. Hey, it's just an Academic Decathlon competition. No big deal."

"I'll decide if it's no big deal... sounds like it's no big deal. But remember, I'm watching you. Give the phone to (Y/n), who I know is there and is probably listening." Peter took the phone off speaker and handed it to you, "Got a ping online. Someone saw you?"

"Not my face, just using my powers in civilian clothes. I was protecting myself, I didn't have a choice."

"I understand, kid. Be more careful, alright? The PR team is taking care of it as we speak. Now both of you are under my watch and I don't want anything happening to either of you."

It seemed as though Happy secretly cared, even if he went out of his way to pretend he didn't. It was sweet, "I'll be more careful, Happy. Bye-bye."

Ending the call, you handed the phone back to Peter, whose head was tilted in curiosity, "Someone saw you?"

"Someone tried to assault me yesterday and I defended myself. I wouldn't have had to use my powers if the guy didn't pull out a gun," you explained, holding back a shudder at the memory.

"You're okay though, right?" Peter was clearly worried and you found it endearing. Your partnership was still new, and as such, the two of you were still getting to know each other and building trust. To see that he was worried for you - though you were sure he would be worried for anyone - made you feel a bit warm and fuzzy.

"Yeah, I'm fine. I beat the shit out of him and made it home alright," you waved your hand dismissively, "I should move back up to Michelle before she thinks we're plotting someone's murder."

You walked through the aisle to your former seat. As soon as you sat down MJ turned to you, "Why'd you really curse before, newbie?"

"It was really just politics. I hate them sometimes," you lied easily, "Nothing to worry about, Michelle."

"MJ."

"Huh?"

"You can call me MJ, I prefer it. I'm not super fond of the feminine stereotypes that follow me around with a name like mine, plus MJ is more original."

You nodded in understanding as a smile stretched across your face. The X-Men had codenames for obvious reasons, but this was the first time you had a normal everyday nickname to call your normal everyday friend.

~*~

"Everyone stick together," Liz implored as the group entered the hotel all of you would stay in during the tournament.

Liz checked in with Mr. Harrington and received the room keys to hand out. All of you had the chance to choose who to room with and you and MJ had picked each other which was a request obviously granted.

The two of you brought your bags up to your room and unpacked the essentials before settling down on the two beds to relax for a while. You pulled out your laptop and also checked your phone for any updates from Peter.

"I know you're Riptide," MJ flipped from her back to her stomach.

You scoffed, attempting to play the accusation off, "Just because I'm the new kid? Come on, MJ, this isn't just another conspiracy theory. Do I really look like the type of person who could be a superhero?"

"I understand why you didn't tell me," MJ continued as if she hadn't heard you, "I know a lot of people are anti-mutant these days - which is bigoted bullshit - but I'm not like that. If we're going to say we need to accept everyone that includes mutants. It's not like you could control being born with a mutation or not."

"Thanks," you looked away, your eyes burning. What had you done in a past life to deserve someone as kind and accepting as MJ in this one? You lived every day in fear of accidentally revealing yourself and subsequently being hated or harmed. It was a giant relief to know you didn't have to worry about that with MJ. "I'm um, I'm glad you aren't mad or anything."

"Are you kidding me? I've got a mutant as my best friend! If anyone is going to help me protest against how awful our government is right now it would be you!" The two of you exchanged small laughs at her uncharacteristic excitement, "Peter is probably Spider-Man too. He can wear a mask and lie all he wants but it explains why he quit all his extracurriculars, and why you and Peter are suddenly friends after Spider-Man and Riptide teamed up."

"You're incredibly MJ," you marveled. You didn't deny Peter's identity, there was no point when MJ already knew the answer.

"I had an obsession with Sherlock when I was young and read up on deduction," MJ shrugged.

"I love Sherlock!"

The two of you sat up and were prepared to debate the best Sherlock variations when your phone buzzed. You pounced, knowing who it was immediately.

Five minutes.

Rolling off the bed, you dug through your bag until you reached the bottom where your uniform was hiding. MJ's phone rang as well for a completely different reason than yours.

"Liz wants us to meet at the pool," MJ reported, "Something about team bonding."

"Tell her I got food poisoning from the restaurant we stopped at on the way here."

MJ nodded, typing away on her phone to set up an excuse for your absence. Pulling on your uniform, you put your jeans and sweatshirt back on over it to cover it up. You slung your backpack over your shoulders so you'd have something to keep your clothes in.

"I should be back before the competition tomorrow, and if that's the case then the reason I got better was because I took meds my parents made me pack because they're paranoid. If I'm not back then I'm still sick from the food poisoning."

"Got it. Go do hero stuff."

Slowly opening the door, you stepped out into the hallway when you saw it was clear. Cheering was coming from the pool, the source being the rest of the team. You resisted the urge to join them and instead took the stairs up to the roof.

"Peter," you whisper shouted when you saw him in the stairwell.

"(Y/n)," Peter turned to face you, ushering you to hurry, "Come on."

You took the stairs two at a time to the roof. Once up there the two of you took off your over clothes and shoved them into your backpacks.

"Hello? Hello?" Peter panicked suddenly as he pulled on his mask.

"What's wrong?"

"There's a voice in my suit. She says that she's here because I passed the training wheels protocol. I really just asked Ned to hack the suit," Peter paused, listening, "I put a tracker on someone. He's a bad guy."

Peter turned to you and held out his hand. You took it and followed his lead as he pulled you close and guided your arms around his waist. You held on tightly as he jumped off the roof and toward the street, where he landed lightly on a truck. The two of you stayed on top until you were out of the city in a rural area that only had a lone gas station in sight.

"Jump," Peter ordered.

Leaping off the truck, you somersaulted in a field of grass to protect your joints and pushed yourself to your feet. Peter was standing next to you, having to put no effort into his jumps or landings thanks to his powers. Asshole.

The two of you snuck through the tall grass toward the gas station. Peter wrapped an arm around you and brought the two of you on top of the building sign.

"I can hear what they're saying? Yeah!"

"What are they talking about?" You asked, wanting to be in the loop.

"They're in the middle of a heist. We can practically catch them all red-handed! This is awesome!" Peter was practically vibrating with excitement, "Karen can we move closer? Advanced combat mode? Yeah!"

The eye lenses on Peter's suit turned black with a red light at the center of each one, immediately creating a much more intimidating look.

"No, no, no! I don't want to kill anybody!" Peter wrapped an arm around your waist and jumped off the sign.

Peter shot out a web. The two of you landed face-first on the ground. Groaning in pain, you rolled over and smacked Peter's arm, "What the hell was that?"

Shooting out a few more webs at the gas station sign revealed that they were in a different setting. They were more like shots than strings and were useless for travel.

"Suit lady, what was that? What's wrong with my shooters?" Peter asked in a panic. You wished you could hear what his AI was saying. It would make things a lot easier, "Why would I need rapid fire? Mr. Stark really overdid it."

"Peter you could not have picked a worse time to turn off the training wheels settings in your suit," you hissed, pulling Peter behind one of the gas pumps when the criminals seemed to take notice of something going on.

"That one," Peter shot webs at the top of the station. They were like tasers, "What was that? I don't need taser webs! Not now, you choose."

Two large shipment trucks drove past the station. A whooshing sound came from above, too loud to be a bird. A quick glance revealed that it was the Vulture, flying toward the trucks as if they were his prey.

"Vulture," you whispered to yourself, "You got those webs figured out yet?"

"I have no idea."

That wasn't exactly comforting, "Well we don't have time to wait. I'll transport us this time. Come on," you reached for Peter's hand and pulled him behind you through the short stretch of woods leading to the next street,

"We're never going to catch up this way."

"No, but we will like this," you summoned the water from your stores and enveloped you and Peter inside. It was easy to catch up with the truck after that and drop you and Peter off on top.

There was a large section of the top of the truck that was see-through, with a purple haze hinting toward some type of device allowing Vulture access. Peter knelt down and hesitantly put his hand through the haze.

"Whoa, cool! It's like some kind of phase matter shifter."

The two of you jumped back when the Vulture jumped out of the truck. Peter shot out a - now normal - web and pulled the duffle bag out of Vulture's hands.

"They Big Bird, that doesn't belong to you!" He quipped.

Vulture's wings dropped down from where they were hovering above the truck and connected to the back of his suit. The bright green eye lights of his goggles landed on the two of you, and he attacked. You activated your dispenser and Peter shot out two webs that flew past Vulture on either side.

"Suit lady, what was that?"

Realizing that Peter was going to be little to no help at the moment, you took the initiative and attacked first. The Vulture was clearly inexperienced, but his suit made up for it. You felt as though you were gaining the upper hand when something flashed in your periphery, and one of Vulture's wings slammed into you.

You were knocked back into the hole created by the phase matter shifted, and hit your head on the corner of one of the boxes on the way down. Hitting the bottom of the truck with a solid thump, you attempted to push yourself up despite the growing spots in the corners of your eyes. Eventually, they overtook your vision entirely, and you fell to the ground unconscious.