Homecoming: The Junior Novel Read online

  Finally, we’d gotten back to eye level with the other students on the landing. Mr. Harrington climbed out onto the observation deck and joined the others. Ned was right behind him.

  “I knew you’d make it,” he whispered as he climbed past me.

  “That makes one of us,” I muttered back.

  I still needed to get Liz out, but she seemed paralyzed, too afraid to move. The roof started to groan, and I felt it give under my feet as I reached toward her.

  “Take my hand!” I yelled to her.

  Too late. The roof snapped off and the elevator began a free fall to the bottom, five hundred feet below.

  “No!” I yelled again, finally jolting Liz out of her trance.

  She reached out and almost reached my hand, but gravity won out and she started falling faster.

  Bracing my feet for stability, I immediately shot a strand of webbing toward Liz’s hands. Yes! The web caught and she hovered in midair as the elevator dropped down under her.

  Seconds later a loud BOOM rang up through the shaft. The elevator had smashed into the ground. Liz, still connected to me by web, met my look. I wished I could tell her, At least I wasn’t late this time. But I couldn’t. The most important thing was, she was safe. I pulled us back up to the observation deck.

  I swung her to the platform, and for a moment, it seemed as if it were just the two of us up there.

  “You okay?” I asked. She seemed to have lost language and could only nod. I took that as a positive sign. “Good.”

  Looking around, everyone was staring at me in shock (except Ned, who was fist-pumping and grinning from ear to ear). Unsure of what to do, I stammered out, “I guess I should… I’m gonna go… now.”

  I shot a web at the ceiling and gave a slight, awkward wave as I slowly descended into the elevator shaft. As I got farther down, the faces of my friends looking down at me started to fade in the darkness.

  Tony Stark’s words echoed in my head: Keep doing what you’re doing, saving the little people.… Except these weren’t just “the little people”—they were my friends. As long as they were safe, everything would be okay.

  I didn’t need to wait for that call to be an Avenger. I was already Spider-Man.

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  Peter is pretty much an ordinary high-school student who loves science and is really good at it.

  He hangs out with his best friend, Ned, and daydreams about asking out his crush, Liz.

  Liz is a straight-A student, who also happens to be the captain of the Midtown School of Science and Technology Academic Decathlon team. She’s way out of Peter’s league.

  There’s also Michelle, the artsy kid at his school full of science and math whizzes. She’s on the decathlon team, too, and loves to give Peter a hard time—but it’s all in good fun.

  Oh, and he hangs out with Tony Stark, aka the world-famous Super Hero Iron Man, and just had the most extreme experience of his life, helping Iron Man in the Super Hero Civil War as…

  …Spider-Man!

  Wait, that’s not right.…

  There it is! Armed with the high-tech suit Tony made him—based on his own goggle and webshooter designs—Spider-Man is on a mission to save the day and prove himself worthy of joining the Avengers.

  But unbeknownst to Spidey, Adrian Toomes, aka the Vulture, is stealing dangerous technology, and he has no intention of playing nice with it.

  The tech is way more advanced than anything Spider-Man has had to deal with. Normally, he sticks to stopping muggers and bike thieves.

  As Spider-Man, Peter’s determined to figure out who is behind the recent influx of high-tech weapons—and a little detective work goes a long way. He finally finds the perps…

  …and is lucky enough to grab some of the stolen tech. He has to work with Ned to figure out what it is—and where it’s coming from—even if Ned has to be a little sneakier than he’s used to.

  Fortunately for him, the decathlon team is taking a trip to Washington, DC, the same city where his tracking device says Toomes is. So Spider-Man is getting his gear together and taking a little trip…

  …all the way to the Washington Monument. When disaster strikes, Peter’s friends and teacher find themselves caught in the middle of a deadly fight.

  It’s up to Spider-Man to swing into action—can he make it in time to save the people he cares about most?