Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Chapter 1

The first time he woke up, it was in a dark room, and it smelled like antiseptic.

He half remembered everything that went down since he fell asleep, but he couldn’t process or connect them. It was just knowledge that he couldn’t process fully right now.

He could see blurry black silhouettes of furniture in the darkness but the only thing actually animated was the distantly consistent beeping of a heart monitor but he couldn’t see it. From whatever set him off, he could probably accurately guess that it was sometime in the middle of the night or early morning, and he was the only other person (or being in this case he’s met a lot of not humans the last time he was awake) in the room. This again was information he semi-processed but seemed unimportant right now.

He was alone. By himself. He didn’t remember what exactly happened, just that he was tired. But he needed something to keep him from floating away, and he couldn’t help but reach out, desperate for anything to hold on to - something to ground him to make sure this all wasn’t a dream, or nightmare, or whatever his mind had created because it didn’t feel like the first two options. It felt like a daze, or an illusion, something not real . His hand came to his little black cracked phone on the table and he brought it up to his face and turned it on, immediately recoiling at the light even if it was at its lowest brightness.

So he was awake. Processing information better; not fully but better. He was alone and he was awake somewhere but he didn’t feel unsafe, he didn’t feel safe either though.

He slowly looked at the screen, cracked half lidded eyes squinting to semi-read the print. He couldn’t read it all the way, but he didn’t have to. He knew what they said.

His eyes watered and he three things finally processed fully:

Two Unread Messages.

One Missed Call.

No one next to him.

Peter let himself cry a bit before going back to sleep.

OoOoO

‘ Avengers: Post War Clean Up’ : ‘Avengers help DODC with post battle clean up. The, what people have now dubbed, ‘infinity war’, has left most of the world’s greatest cities in shambles. The dead have revived and medical evac has been sweeping every nation internationally...’

Defeating Thanos was like a breath of relief.

Everyone who hadn’t died was safe, and there. The universe was just narrowly protected and the world was barely holding. Half the population still gone. But no more could die. It really couldn’t be any worse and at the time it couldn’t be any better. There was a moment of contentedness where everyone knew the world wasn’t safe but it felt safe. That was honestly enough and the sound of the infinity stones exploding was the most satisfying thing in the universe just about then.

But once the soul stone was destroyed it seemed like everything came back at once. All the chaos and bad memories returned as the dust came back. But then the dust and ashes were working in reverse to menuvor and reshape the thought to be dead from their prisons of sleep. They were alive but unconscious. And there was a moment of disbelief as they were just holding the people who were cremated right before their eyes not but a few days ago. The people they didn't even have time to mourn.

Everything seemed to happen at once again. Medevacs (or what was left of them) were rushing to get reformed people to hospitals and beds and just anything .

The fight was over now time to deal with the aftermath. None of them had time to breathe before taking their formerly dead allies back to the compound, and leaving them there with Banner and the princess of Wakanda to take care of their injuries. Everyone else helped with anything else they could. First aid, medical care, transportation, anything .

That was hours ago, and no body had time to even say hi to or hug or just look at one another until this mess was cleaned up, or at least partially cleaned up. Anything to pretend this didn’t happen . They all pretended that they didn’t see each other's tears as they worked, or that they could feel their hearts clenching in absolute remorse. Or that they were all thinking unspoken apologies.

They’d go back to the compound and wait for the people they thought they’d lost to be awake again in silence. And they’d all split off into weird sections that none of the rest of them would understand the relationship between, but they really didn’t know themselves and none of them really cared right now cause they were alive. But it did leave the loved ones who didn’t fight a bit worried.

They all barely ate and never slept. Barley remembering to shower or even thinking about personal hygiene. Personal anything really, cause this entire situation was personal and heroes didn’t do well with emotions, but it seemed attached to every situation they were in. And they all just wanted to forget.

Forget the war. Because they had lost too much already.

Forget there were people they needed to help. Because they couldn’t stand to see the people they couldn’t save.

Forget pain. Because it hurt everywhere.

Forget that they’d laid down their lives in what was basically considered suicide. Because it made the people they love hurt worse than any physical wound.

Forget what being strong was like. Because they wanted to feel weak and cry.

Forget that they were the heroes . Because their own minds were their worst villains.

Forget everything.

Steve was in Bucky’s room and that made sense they’d been best friends since forever. Over 100 years, so no one could really question why he was waiting for him to wake up. God knows how many times they’ve done this in the past century. Steve would dully note in his head it was always reverse positions, and he hated when it was like this. Where Bucky was the one in bed and he was the protector. Bucky probably felt the same. It seemed that they were always fighting one war or another.

Shuri was lingering around her brother, they couldn’t give him proper medical treatment in Wakanda because even there the people were trying to get themselves back together. Albeit faster, they were still struggling. But the girl had to check on the others every other hour, because she and Banner had split the schedule up like that until they showed no critical seriousness. She’d let tear track down her face every time she’d pull up the stats and it said he was fine but he wasn’t because he’d died . Her older brother, the one she looked up to in a weird way. His compassion and his kindness and his will. He worked hard to make everyone happy, he didn’t deserve to die the way he did. And she’d cry because eventually he was going have to die again , before her.

Wong had come in and was with Dr. Strange. That wasn’t so weird either, they seemed like good friends if any indication at the beginning of the battle was anything to go by. He’d been in and out but was given permission to teleport to Strange’s room and was promised to be updated if his condition was critical. He would’ve joked that it was ironic that the neuro doctor had head trauma, but that was a joke no one here would understand, so he’d wait until Strange woke up and try to fix the temple and put reality back from it semi distorted path or whatever that meant.

Rocket the Racoon and Thor had been in the room with Quill and the tree, Groot. Groot and Thor seemed to know each other and Thor was mumbling gratitude for the handle to stormbreaker, or whatever. Rocket and Groot’s relationship was pretty clear that they’d known each other for awhile, but Rocket was also at the bedside of Quill, mumbling about Gamora and Nebula. Their bond seemed more complicated then Thor had originally thought.

Nebula, whom hasn’t spoken a word since the battle, was with Drax and Mantis girl. They didn’t seem to have any sort of relationship or anything, but that also seemed a bit more complicated. Damn aliens were weird. But she seemed almost like a silent protector.

Rhody had sifted in and out of Sam’s room. He was trying to get the government under control and to calm down as well as recovering from the war. It was obvious the guy had a sort of protective brother kind of thing going on with him. Rhody had watched Sam’s back the most during the fight and Sam the same.

Widow was strangely with Wanda. And that was a bit off putting, but no one really questioned it and the only ones who would’ve were wither preoccupied or didn’t really care either way. Vision was dead and once that hit Wanda, Natasha was probably the best one to be with her. So it sort of made sense but that was a stretch.

The one that made the least sense to almost everyone there was Tony and the teenager he’d been sitting with. It was a little off putting when Tony had laid down a kid with an oversized hoodie that was definitely Tony’s on the bed and then left to do the work everyone was doing. Bruce wasn’t going to question it, but then Happy seemed to linger too muttering to himself or to Pepper about how he couldn’t believe the kid had gone too. Pepper looked off set and Happy said a few words he couldn’t hear but it must have done the trick because Pepper was cupping her hands over her mouth and there were tears in her eyes and Happy just hugged her and they held each other.

Tony had also sifted through other people’s rooms, like Drax and Mantis and Quill’s and Strange’s, but he mostly stayed with, what people were now calling ‘the kid’. Even Shuri called him ‘the boy’ even if he was technically one year younger - and the only reason they knew that was so they wouldn’t overdose him on any pain meds. But no one knew the kid’s name. Tony never told them and no one ever pushed him, because he called him kid too.

Then other people started to come in. People who didn’t fight but still had connections to one of the Avengers. And their reunions were tearful and happy and relieved and sad, because they were alive but they could never be the same. No one was after a war.

Jane and Darcy had come for Thor and Thor had wrapped them up in a big hug that he didn’t let go of for a long while. Jane had kissed Thor and said he was an idiot and to never worry her like that. Thor responded with a small smile and a promise to always keep her safe.

Nakia and Okoye had come in for a little, and while Nakia had wrapped her arms around Shuri saying he was going to be okay - and Shuri knew that but she was still crying because they didn’t have to go through this . Okoye had stayed by the kings side and saluted an apology before Shuri and Nakia looked at her and they’d all let the tears fall. They had to leave to help the Wakandans but muttered that they’d return.

Some SHIELD agents came by but were immediately escorted off the premises as well as reporters and government officials. No press conferences. No meetings. No one could handle those right now. Not when they couldn’t even find it in themselves to quip or make hasty remarks at their unconscious friends for being so stupid as to get themselves killed. They knew the people that had died over the snap had absolutely no control. It was random and it took out half their army and most if not all of their supports. It had shaken them, and the Avengers couldn’t mourn them. Not when they still had to Avenge .

No one had come for the kid.

It was about a week later before anything even started to look remotely normal. People had gone from conscious to unconscious and were awake for 5 minutes or less. Then they started to sit up and talk and even joke a bit, but it was mostly crying. Or pretending not to notice and still continuing the conversations anyway. That rarely never happened.

By a week, Bucky was walking around again but lingering near Steve. As soon as Strange could get up he’d left with Wong to help with the clean up reality. Sam had woken to Rhody chastising him for not using his comms, albeit he was smiling and hugging him while he was doing it.  And Wanda woke up and cried silently with shuddering breathes as Natasha held her close and whispered nothing to comfort her, but it seemed to do the trick. She didn’t need to hear anything, she felt nothing .

Mantis and Drax had woken up and were pestering a bedridden Quill and Groot seemed to be playing some sort of space game that no one had the heart to take away right now. Music played softly in that room, but they needed something normal . Apparently aliens were really good at that. But they’d never mention Gamora and everytime Rocket shifted to get up from Groot’s bedside, the young tree would tense up and subtly make sure to catch a piece of Rocket’s clothing.

T’challa had woken up, and had stayed a day or two for recovery but had to go back to Wakanda. He’d ordered Shuri to stay there and Steve reassured him she’d be safe with him. It was the least he could do, and Steve knew he didn’t want his little sister to see her country in more ruin than when she’d left. It surprised them both when she’d agreed but she passed it off because these people need a major upgrade brother . Tony didn’t take much offense to that, and that was worrying.

The only reason they knew the kid woke up was because the bathroom door was slightly ajar, and the food that was left next to him was barley picked at but no one had seen him awake yet.

Then the coping mechanisms started to pick up. Steve would punch sand bags dry. Bruce would enthrall himself into his work. Natasha would be god knows where. Thor would also be wondering somewhere, albeit more noticeably. And Tony would drink himself to an early grave.

But even those weren’t the same. Unlike the rest of them Tony seemed to cut himself off, while the rest of them allowed, no needed , some sort of interaction. He only let Happy and Pepper consol him, even shutting Rhody out. It got worrisome.

Until the kid woke up.

OoOoO

‘Post battle clean-up operations are picking up as heros slowly add in numbers to help with collateral. The Avengers are mostly cleaning up in New York, as no other place beside DC had been severely damaged. The DODC is hashing out collateral aid across the globe.’

Peter woke to a bright light. Well bright compared to the darkness that surrounded him when he woke up all the other times. It was pretty dim by most standards. Silhouettes weren’t just black and blurry but now coloured and blurry although a bit sharper then they were in the darker, also most of it was white or blue or a variation of grey. And someone was there this time.

“Hello” said a feminine voice that sounded too cheery for his mood, but he accepted it anyway. He looked over to see a girl about his age smiling snarkily down at him and he couldn’t help but smile back. He couldn’t speak, his throat was too dry. “ Finally awake for us?” it wasn’t asked as a question so much as phrased as one. She handed him some water and he drank it gratefully.

“Thanks.” his voice was raspy, and dry and the girl laughed a bit.

“You sound like you ate sandpaper.” he felt like it too. Just when he was about to asked her who she was, someone came in, he looked up to see Dr.Banner. He nearly died right there, because Dr.Bruce Banner was right there . Wow. Every science nerds dream. He could’ve happily died now. Wow Parker you just got resurrected.

“D-Dr.Banner?” he asked, and Bruce didn’t seem to notice he was awake until now because he was startled and jumped a little.

“Wow. You’re awake.” he said nearly breathlessly and the girl sent out a quick snarky laugh again. “I mean I’m sorry, how are you feeling?” Peter shrugged. “Do you remember anything?” He remembered everything and gave a hesitant nod. “Great. Well you seem to be healing well.” He looked over his clipboard and the girl looked at a panel on the wall.

“You actually are healing faster than a normal human, you had a broken bone when you came out of resurrection but it was completely healed in two days.” the girl said and looked at him skeptical, like he was a some sort of experiment. You sort of are Parker .

“Oh I should get Tony. He brought you here.” Bruce said getting up to leave “Oh yeah. Before I forget, what’s your name?” he said turning around. He thought about it for a minute, but the drugs he’s been pumped with must be getting to him because he just gave a lopsided smile and said.

“I’m Spiderman.” and that must of threw Banner in for a loop because he nearly tripped and the girl started to laugh again.

“I’ve seen your fail compilation.”

OoOoO

‘Boss, Mr.Parker has woken up.’

When Tony had walked in Peter was still a bit drugged up.  Sitting in his bed looking embarrassed as Shuri - he got her name - started talking about his fail compilations and picking her favorite ones. But nonetheless had a small smile on his face. He hadn’t touched his phone though, Tony noticed.

“Hey kid what’s up?” Dr. Banner wasn’t with him. He hadn’t even opened his mouth when Happy and Rhody came rushing in. Well Rhody did, Happy walked briskly behind him.

“Glad to see you’re awake.” Happy had said and stood near the corner, and Peter smiled to him.

“Oh my god, Tony you did not .” Rhody said and Tony sighed, like one of those ‘here we go again’ sighs. Peter decided to let it play out. “Please tell me that’s a random kid you picked up off the street or something.” It was more directed toward Peter.

“Or something.” Tony said casually.

“Nonono no . Tony don’t tell me that’s actually Spiderman. The kid’s kidding right?” he said and looked to Happy “ Right? ” Happy’s turn to sigh. “Shit.”

“Rhody there are kids in the facility.” Tony gestured over to Peter and Shuri, and Peter felt a little offended for some reason he couldn’t place.

“Tony. Shut up. Right now. God dammit.” Rhody said and he looked a little like he was panicking “Of all the things in the world… why a kid… come on man! This is a new kind of messed up. So messed up that-”

“Rhody, calm down. It’s fine.” Tony placated and Peter had to agree, if it wasn’t for the IV he’d be walking out of here.

“It’s not fine .” Tony looked at him and Peter knew what was coming before it came out “He died .” There was silence and that’s when it really clicked for Peter. He died . Turned into dust, he remembered it just never clicked.

“Oh yeah. That makes sense.” It came out even if he didn’t want it to, in a soft form with no hesitation and a distant look in his eye. He should’ve been more panicked, but he wasn’t cause it did. The last thing he remembered was feeling like he was burning and gonna throw up. Like he had a fever, but 100 times worse.

Tony looked at him a bit more concerned then need be, and Rhody looked at Tony with a disbelieving expression, and Peter looked up with a smile because well it was weird having someone worry about you being so cool with death. And he could understand why someone would worry, he knew he should be too. But he wasn’t, so no one else should be. And even if he was, no one else should be, because there was supposed to be no one there .

You’re not an Avenger. You’re not part of the team.

“I’m fine.”

Tony sighed “Okay, now we’re not fine.” he said mostly under his breath “Because everytime you say you’re fine or good or any other variation of that: you’re not.” Peter found that a bit unjustified, and wanted to say so, but all that came out was:

“Even peachy?”

“Especially peachy.” Okay, fair enough, but before he could speak again, someone else came in. It was Captain Rodgers. He took one look at Peter and then to Rhody who nodded and then to Tony who nodded and then said.

“Tony, I need to speak with you.” He motioned Rhody out too and they both obliged, and Cap looked back and said a gruff “Good work soldier” before closing the soundproof glass door. Well you couldn’t hear what was coming from the outside but you could here the inside if you wanted to. It was supposed to be an isolation room, but they’d never work for Peter after the bite.

Or at least it was supposed to be soundproof. Peter was enhanced and with the way Happy and Shuri were looking out  of the window in attempt to decipher what was going on, he knew exactly what was going on.

“When I get a call from Banner saying that the kid woke up, I didn’t get why he’d tell me until after he told me he was Spiderman.” Tony let out a sigh and Steve let a little sympathy come into his chastising expression.

“He told you to tell me I screwed up?” Tony asked and Tony looked at him for a second “Damn, Banner tell me that to my face, you big tattletail.”

“No one said you screwed up. He told me that a kid shouldn’t be fighting in a war, and I kind of agree with him. But can you blame us. He’s a kid , Tony.” Steve had started off and Peter wanted to sigh. Why did it matter if he was a kid. So was Shuri, and she was still here. Albeit he didn’t know whether or not Shuri went into battle but still. And plus shouldn’t they be scolding him not Tony. Tony did nothing wrong. He would be doing this in a hoodie if it wasn’t for Tony. In a weird way Tony's saved him. Then again he also pulled Peter into the Avenger’s mess in the first place… but he’d be here eventually, or at least cleaning up some part of it.

Tony let out another sigh, he seemed to be doing that a lot. “Look Cap, if you didn’t want him to hear you, you should moved away from the door.” Steve seemed to tense up in confusion and so did Rhody. “He’s not just an ordinary kid . He has super stuff.” Tony said and called out to him “You good kid.” Peter lifted two thumbs up and Shuri made an indigent noise and said.

“Enhanced senses?” it was Peter’s turn to laugh at the fact that Shuri was mumbling about how her scanners didn’t pick that up and she walked out of the room to work on the scanners. Steve let out a exasperated noise and placed his head in his hand, but he didn’t seem very surprised. Well then again what can surprise a 100 year old super soldier who fought in WW2 and a bunch of aliens a few times.

“That’s beside the point. You can’t just recruit a 12 year-old Tony for a war.” Steve said frustratingly, before Tony could say anything Peter said.

“I’m 15” Peter said but mumbled a “I can still hear you.”

“Zip it the adults are talking you little stowaway.” Tony said and Peter let out a little whine and fell back against his pillow. And Tony looked at him for a minute before “Actually, we can talk about this later.” Tony said and opened the door again.

“No Tony, we can’t.” Steve said stopping him for a minute.

“Yes we can . The kid just woke up and Rhody opened with ‘you died’, for once I don’t think I screwed up.” Rhody and Steve went rigged for a minute and Peter’s mind was still too slow to process anything more advanced then what he’d already been hearing. Then Pepper walked in too.

“Hey Peter.” Pepper said and smiled. Pepper was always nice to him and polite and respectful, he smiled.

“Hello Ms.Potts.” they weren’t married yet is all Peter could think and Pepper smiled at the formality, she stood next to Happy, as Tony came up next to him.

“Hey, kid.” Tony said and looked down at Peter who was slumping against his pillows “How are you doing?” Tony said “ Like not I’m fine or a shrug , like how are you actually doing, cause you have a tendency to keep those kinds of things to yourself and that’s not healthy.” Rhody snorted and Pepper mumbled about him not telling her he was dying and almost dying for that.

Yeah Tony would know.

“Did I do something wrong?” Peter said up to him instead of answering, “Like I think I remember everything, but I don’t remember doing anything wrong. Well except for going to Titan when you told me not to, but that was your fault cause you gave me the other suit.” he rambled and Tony massaged his temples with one hand and he looked tired .

“Wait so you gave him a suit to go to outerspace? You took a kid to outer space?!” Rhody nearly yelled and Pepper was looking straight up animalistic.

“Tony…” Steve sounded exasperated and Happy rolled his eyes. And mumbled a ‘he probably told him to go home and the kid didn’t listen.. again .’

“I gave you that suit so you didn’t fall from lack of oxygen, not to go to space. But yeah other then not doing what you’re told, you did well.” Tony said and Happy muttered ‘it wouldn’t be the first time.’ The rest of them didn’t know wether to be relieved or more scared for the kid. Was he suicidal?

“You should’ve listened to orders.” Steve furrowed his brow, and Peter had some decency to look a little ashamed.

“Yeah, the kid doesn’t do orders.” Happy said monotony and Tony had to agree.

“Yep.” Tony said nodding wisly “Tell him to go for the legs, he webs up the hands. Tell him to keep his distance, he goes for close combat. Tell him to stay on the ground, he climbs the Washington Monument. He’s like an anti-soldier, you have to tell him what not  to do and he’ll do it.” Peter ducked down.

“Well at least no beaches got torched.” Peter mumbled happily, he seemed almost in his own world. Happy snorted.

“Tell him to forget the monster vulture, he chases the guy all the way to coney island.” Happy grumbled and Peter gave him an unamused look.

“Wait that was you?” Rhody asked and groaned “I had to fill out paperwork for days, because a 15 year-old kid decided to take a joyride on an invisible jet?”

“If it’s any help wasn’t nearly as fun as that.” Peter offered and Rhody groaned again, and Steve couldn’t help but smile a little.

“You know he’s very sweet when he’s not crashing planes.” Pepper said wistfully.

“Or getting buildings collapsed.” Happy had put in and Peter tensed, he didn’t tell them about the warehouse part of that night.  Happy scoffed noticing his posture “I don’t think it’s a coincidence that a warehouse 3 miles from that beach just magically collapsed on it’s own, kid.” Happy said with a little smirk and Peter looked indigent again.

“Yeah well magic exists.” He knew that now. He fought with a freaking wizard . “And for the record the other guy collapsed on me , so yeah not my fault.” he said and everyone went tense, because the beach part Happy, Tony and Peter had gotten over but the rest didn’t even know what they were talking about. They just knew a torched beach and a kid under 25 tons of rubble were bad . Tony and Happy however didn’t know that the warehouse collapsed on top of Peter, and Peter seemed to realize what he said before he let out a small “oops.”

“Yeah, ‘oops’. Mind telling me why you had 25 tons of rubble on you and decidedly not tell me.” Tony crossed his arms and Rhody, Steve and Pepper weren’t really sure what to say. They’d never thought they see Tony Stark telling a 15 year old to be responsible .

“I was but then I had to crash your plane and I told Ned to just keep trying to get to you, but you were busy and then he got caught by an administrator, so he couldn’t do it anymore and I didn’t have my phone so I couldn’t. And even if I did, I couldn’t hold on to a plane and call you simultaneously. And then he threw me into the engine and then the engine broke and then he fell in the other engine and the plane was going down so yeah, sorry if that wasn’t the first thing on my mind.” Everyone looked on with mounting horror as Peter explained in a ramble not really noticing the air of the room, and Tony finally let out a groan.”Next time I’ll go to a pay phone after I get out.” Peter offered sheepishly. God this kid was ridiculous .

“You know wanna know why I recruited him Cap? Because he does crazy shit like this when I’m not watching him. And he does it in a onesie, like who in their right mind would let a kid fight in a onesie.” Tony said in a bit of a ramble.

“For the record I do this when you are watching me too.” Peter reminded, he probably shouldn’t have but you know living on the edge. He was already doped up on drugs. Not the time now Parker!

“Yeah but at least I have a medical team on standby.” Tony said “How else are you gonna live till’ 18?”

“Don’t let him fight at all.” Steve put in, and that was the easiest solution, if Peter let it be. Tony scoffed.

“Tried that. But I’m not his parent, he’d do it anyway.” Tony said and then his expression morphed a bit and he looked at the kid concerned “A building?” he whispered and bit his nails there was a bit of silence where Tony as mumbling about how he hadn’t noticed a freaking building had collapsed and Peter let out an annoyed groan. Which surprised the hell out of everyone there, because so far Peter had been polite and Happy and Tony only knew the kid as overly polite. Peter wasn’t the type to get angry or annoyed easily.

“Just shut up, Tony.” There were better ways to stop your mentor from hating himself, but to Peter’s credit, he was tired and a bit downed by pain meds. His brain was fuzzy and he couldn’t think straight or form coherent ideas. He just knew he had to stop Tony before he did something stupid.

“What?” Tony let out a laugh of disbelief, after a long disbelieving silence that Peter Parker just told Tony Stark to shut up. Instead of answering Peter’s enhanced sense of smell picked up on something that he should’ve picked up when Tony walked in. This is why he hated getting drugged.

“Vodka?” he said under his breath but it was so quiet everyone could hear him. Tony seemed confused.

“Kid no alcohol for you, you’re already hyped up on enough pain meds to kill an elephant.” Peter shook his head. Usually Tony smelt like dry colgen and expensive new cars with a touch of alcohol. Now he just smelt like strong alcohol. Not as strong as Jessica, but getting there.

“And Beer. You must’ve thrown up last night.” Peter probably shouldn’t have said that out loud when there was a lot of people here, but he didn’t know what he was saying. “You did. Twice.” he said and he seemed in a daze.

“How did-”

“Don’t do that.” Peter said he could feel himself falling asleep. He still had the IV in.

“Kid, how’d you even know I-”

“Sorry, I didn’t pick up on it earlier.” Peter let out a humorless laugh “ But I come from Queens, even without all the enhanced shit, I could tell you got plastered last night.” Peter said and furrowed his brow “Without a reason.”

“How would you know? You were asleep.”

“So that’s why you did it. Well I guess that counts a reason, but not as a good one.” Peter said, he was being painfully honest he knew. He looked at Tony who seemed speechless and Peter sighed his voice going softer  “I know I can’t really stop you, cause your an adult. But please don’t tell me my coping mechanisms are bad when yours are worse, cause then I won’t know what to do.” His voice was fading off and that last part didn’t make much sense, but he closed his eyes and let himself be dead to the world.

“Well shit”

Only Tony noticed how he never once asked about May.

And only Peter knew about the last text message from May.

I love you <3

Chapter Text

Chapter 2

@DailyBugel

The Avengers cleanup, but local menace is nowhere to be found. (See full article below)

There was silence in the room. Everyone slowly shifted out and closed the door and they split off each to think on their own. But Tony just stood there.

“What’s his name?” it wasn’t someone that was in the room who asked, breaking the silence and Tony duly noted, no one but Strange knew  Peter, just Spiderman. He looked up to see Quill.

“Peter Parker.” Tony said detachedly.

“So he’s not yours?”  Tony shook his head. That’d be a disaster if he was. He can’t believe that he was begging Pepper for kids a few weeks ago, he couldn’t even take care of one teenager, who had a sense of responsibility that was off the charts.

“Teenagers sure do have a mouth on them. God he must be as old as Groot, maybe even younger.” Said Quill running a hand through a his hair.

“He’s only being so blunt because he’s drugged up. He wouldn’t have said those things if he could think clearly. He’s usually more polite.” Tony gave a dry laugh and Quill quirked his mouth up a bit.

“Yeah? And he’s smart, or at least clever. From what I saw.” he meant back on Titan, Peter was a good kid anyone could see it. Even demigod alien things apparently. “He called me Captain Lord.” And then he laughed humorlessly “I pointed a gun to his head and he still addressed me formally.” Tony couldn’t help but smirk because yeah he did. “I forgot  what kids on Terrain sound like, or how their build was, but it wasn’t until he spoke that I knew I couldn’t shot him.”

“Earth.” Tony duly corrected as they went to sit and Tony raised an eyebrow. “So why couldn’t you.” he meant shoot Peter. He didn’t know how old he was until after he’d woken up.

“Cause.” Quill said with a small smile “He sounded too young, there was no way he could be faking it.” Quill looked into the room where Peter was “When you’re that young, you’ve only got a one track mind. Like innocent you know? He seemed so confused, like if we were fighting Thanos and you are fighting Thanos why are we fighting each other if we want the same thing. And you know it might be a childish way of thinking, but it’s so…”

“True.” Tony finished “That honesty and innocence that’s the truth and nothing else.” he said.

“Yeah.” Quill looked at him again “That kid’s probably the embodiment of honesty though.”

“Eh.” Tony had to smirk “Not literally, but yeah innocence wise, he’s got you there. In the end he just wants to help, no ulterior motive. He’s a crappy liar though.” Tony put his hands in front of his mouth and leaned forward so his elbows were on his knees. “Don’t know how long that’ll last.” Quill looked at him for a second.

“You know if I’ve learned anything from raising a rapidly growing tree alien these past few years, is that they have to grow up sometime. I remember when Groot used to sit on our shoulders as we flew the ship into battle. And now he’s some angsty teenageer who likes to play video games all the time. He slowly loses innocence as he grows up, but  he still loves to listen to the same music, and he’s still clingy of Rocket. So yeah, they change but at the same time they really don’t, if you know what I mean.” Quill seemed a bit awkward but yeah he was right. Peter really wouldn’t change his motives. He’d always help the little guy, suit or not. He’d proven that to him multiple times.

Thing is: he’s never actually gotten to know Peter. The last time he’d seen him before the war was when he declined the Avengers. Then he came and saved his ass and went to space with him. Tony knew about most of Peter’s abilities, but nothing about the boy himself. His favorite music? His favorite food? His favorite Star Wars movie? He knew none of that. None of the little things parents knew about thier kids. He wasn’t Peter’s parent though. He didn’t raise him, but god is he sure glad May had. She raised him well.

“Thanks Quill.” was all Tony said and Quill got up and patted Tony on the back as he left.

OoOoO

‘Foreign Collateral Damage operations are being overseen by the DODC, who have hired smaller companies into their works as subunits. Any alien or otherworldly items are being investigated personally by Dr.Banner and the Princess of Wakanda, as well as Tony Stark.

The next time Peter got up he wasn’t on any pain meds and Doctor Banner was there. He didn’t say anything just looked up at the Doctor in silent awe because again the Bruce freaking Banner was his doctor!! It wasn’t for a while until Bruce noticed him awake.

“Oh my god!” he said and jumped a bit “You’ve gotta stop doin’ that.” his voice went a little softer and he smiled. “Well I was gonna wait for you to wake up to tell you you’re good to go. Your vitals check out, and that officially makes you my last patient for the next month, Mr.Parker.” That made him choke a bit “Just get plenty of rest.” Bruce smiled at  him again.

“You know my name?” Peter sat up and wow he did feel  better. Yep, Dr.Banner was right. He was god to go and swing around and help again. But that only processed for a second before his mind was back to: Bruce Banner knows my firetrucking name!!

“Well yeah, everyone in the compound does now.” Peter blanched at that, no longer as excited as he was terrified that people knew his identity. But Bruce was quick to fix his mistake “I mean like only the Avengers and Shuri and you know the people we fight with.” Bruce said frantically and Peter looked at him again and started to laugh and Bruce looked confused.

“Sorry, I just.” Peter looked at him again “I just always looked up to you… you know as a scientist your work is awesome . I read your Gamma theory papers like 4 years ago and I had so many questions, like if the differences between the Gamma radiation you referred to and normal gamma rays was based on the frequency of the specific type, because the gamma rays in the frequency range below 10 to the 20th Hertz didn't show the results in my school labs, though we barely got over 120 keV out of the micro-accelerator?” Peter said and Bruce looked at him in a weird way “Sorry, those were dumb questions.” He ducked his head with a tinge of a blush“You probably get sick of that sort of thing.” Bruce’s face lit up.

“No, not at all. Oh my god, I thought- no way, you read my papers and you’re a kid, like that’s impressive that you understood. Yeah no, you can come by anytime, I forgot Tony told me you created your webs. Maybe we can work in the lab together? I would really like to take a little look into the formula” Bruce said and Peter was awestruck. Was he just invited to Science with the Bruce Banner . He was gonna cry. This was the greatest day of his life. He didn’t trust himself to speak so he nodded frantically with a goofy grin and Bruce chuckled.

Bruce was doing a few more things to clean up as Peter looked down at his shoes and something about the silence of the room just hit him. He remembered the last time he woke up, well not entirely but there was something there besides blurry visions.

“Where’s Mr.Stark?” Bruce tensed a bit, but then relaxed. Not in time, Peter knew something happened.

“Well, I think he’s... working? Like he’s not helping clean up right now, like everyone else, but like in his lab. He’s been in there since the last time you woke up.” Peter’s turn to tense.

“Is he..” Peter swallowed his mouth suddenly dry. “Is he okay?”

“Well,” Bruce sighed, snapping the box he was putting stuff into closed. “He’s not drinking, and FRIDAY says he’s okay physical wise. So that’s an improvement from like last week.” Bruce said and looked at Peter and smiled a little. “Everyone else has either been helping with clean-up or something, but they should be wrapping it up for today. It’s almost dinner in like 1-2 hours.” Peter smiled back and got up.

“You said I was your last patient, so that means you can take it easy right?” Bruce nodded and Peter followed him out.

“You do too.” Bruce said almost automatically and turned to face Peter after locking up the room “Tony said you could stay here with the rest of the team, so you can take it easy too.” Peter didn’t respond for a bit but then smiled.

“Nah, I think I’ve rested enough. Thanks for taking care of me, Dr.Banner” Peter said happily and Bruce couldn’t help but smile again. That kid was infectious with his smiles, he didn’t remember smiling this much since well ever. Especially in the past two weeks.

“I wasn’t the only one.” Bruce said and then Peter remembered the girl that was with him. He somehow could also remember her name. His brain wasn’t so fuzzy and it felt good to be able to think again.

“Oh yeah! Shuri! That’s her name right?” Bruce nodded and pointed down the hall.

“Lab Three. And don’t be late for dinner.”

OoOoO

@NewportNews

Avengers are in the process of rebuilding New York, but other heros are helping around the globe too. (See article below)

“Hello?” Peter said as he walked into the lab. It wasn’t the first time he’d been to one of Tony Stark’s labs. He’d been in one once before, to look at his Iron Spider suit the first time. Well that wasn’t really a lab, but still it was cool.

Being in a real lab was almost surreal. It was like Peter’s nerdy science dreams were coming to life all at once. There were parts and pieces scattered all over the tables. When Peter looked closer they seemed to be observation tools and alien tech that must been from crashed ships and abandoned weapons. They were probably analyzing them, well who ever was working here. He gently touched a spear used by the other army.

“Hello.” A voice said more confidently, and he somehow kind of recognized it. He turned around with wide eyes.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to disrupt your work or anything I just-” the girl started to laugh and he stopped a bit miffed. “Uhh” the girl wasn’t giving him an explanation and he mumbled a “Thanks for taking care of me.” under his breath and with that out of the way he was about to leave, no matter how much he wanted to stay and look at those cool spears,  when she said.

“Hold it. You are not leaving here without telling me what’s up with your DNA.” Peter stiffened and froze and he slowly looked back to see the girl- Shuri -had her arms crossed but still a happy expression. A bit too happy if he looked at it closely. One thing was for sure, she got straight to the point.

“Uhm, well Spider merging and stuff.” he mumbled, he actually didn’t know what was up with his DNA entirely. He knew what it looked like and what it did. There were no breaks in it after the bite, so he didn’t mutate appearance wise. It had mixed perfectly and Peter just thought it was the venom that was acting as a buffer. That’s what he told himself at least. No one had ever really asked.

“Yeah but that perfectly, you didn’t experience any bodily changes? Because even Cap’s serum had some bodily changes. You didn’t. So did you really have a lab accident like it says or were you actually born this way?” Peter furrowed his brows.

“I was definitely normal before the bite. Like I was 100% a loser.” he didn’t know if that was the best thing to say, especially to her. Because if she was working on this stuff that must mean she’s smart. And the name Shuri rang a few bells in his head, he just couldn’t figure out where.

Shuri however smiled a bit, but it was different and for some reason her laugh sounded more real instead of her short snickers. Peter couldn’t help but smile. So she was faking it .

Peter then stood at a lab table across from where Shuri was. “Anyways, I’m Peter. I don’t think I told you that.” Shuri smiled and shook his hand.

“I know.” she said and he wasn’t surprised because yeah figures . “I also know your webs don’t come out of you , now.” she said and his face crinkled in disgust. She laughed again. “You are interesting.”

“Gross where would they even- No you know what no, I don’t want to know.” Peter said crossing his arms and Shuri sat at the bench and picked up her tools.

“Yes but you are smart. How did you make your webs?” she asked and Peter sat down and touched a tool and she nodded. Great so he could help today. He almost broke out into the biggest dopiest grins ever, he managed to keep it at a happy smile though.

“Wait hey no it’s my turn to ask a question.” Peter said and Shuri gave out a noise of confirmation and Peter smiled and proceeded to ask his question. “So who exactly are you?” he asked as he picked up some tools to disassemble a spear.

“Princess of Wakanda.” And Peter nearly dropped his tools. What?

“Silicon Hydroxide mixed with some Calcium Nitrate.” Peter said answering Shuri’s earlier question which got him a hum of understanding and then he asked “I thought all Wakandans were to go and help Wakanda?” Shuri tensed a little but kept working and Peter regretted ever living. Did he honestly just insult royalty with his insensitive question? Was is insensitive? He wanted to face palm himself because of course it was. Her home was probably wrecked. “Sorry you don’t have to-”

“My brother asked me to stay here and help with the post battle investigations of these weapons.” Shuri said cutting him off “I couldn’t do it in Wakanda, it was a battlefield and my lab is in ruins.” Peter winced, her words didn’t sound sad like they should though. The girl had lost her home. She must  have been a little sad. You probably missed it, Parker. While you were sleeping.

“You don’t want to go back?” Shuri scoffed.

“Your technology is so primitive. Someone needed to speed things up.” So she was smart. Well duh, she was from Wakanda, and if those few articles were anything to go by, she was probably one of the smartest minds in the world. Peter wanted to tense up a bit, because he was literally working with the smartest minds in the world if he included Mr.Stark and Dr.Banner. This is my life now.

But still, there was something off about what Shuri had said. Almost like she was making an excuse to not go back and see her home wrecked. He honestly wasn’t gonna say anything, but she looked like she’d been bottling up for so long and that’s not healthy. Still she’s a princess, he shouldn’t say anything. She could probably have his ass sent to prison with less than a thought. Nope he wasn’t saying anything.

“That what you’ve been telling yourself the past 2 weeks.” Peter regretted every choice he’s ever made ever. To cover up his embarrassment he looked down unscrewing the metal plating, if Ned were here he’d be freaking out. He could feel Shuri’s gaze of disbelief and sadness as well as some anger mixed in. And yeah he would be too, they technically only met twice. God he was such an idiot. I’m screwed .

“I barely even know you.” she seemed to sputter, but it didn’t really sound like it and Peter set down his tools and looked up. Oh well, he was going to hell, might as well roll with it, right?

“It was a war you know. It’s okay to be sad, in fact you’re expected to not be okay.” Peter said and yeah he knew it was hypocritical. He wasn’t expected to be okay over half the thing that's happened to him even before the war. But Shuri didn’t need to know that now, or preferably ever. Because if Peter were honest, Shuri was a lot cooler than he expected a princess to be. A lot more independent. Like MJ, and May.

“Yeah well, I don’t follow your white boy guidelines. I’m from Wakanda.” Shuri said with a huff and crossed her arms.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to overstep.” Peter smiled, not wanting to actually make her more upset then she probably already was. “Hey isn’t it Wednesday?” Shuri then looked at him as he smiled a goofy grin and she huffed out a laugh with her own.

“My god…” she shook her head in disbelief.

“What? I’m the real thing aren’t I? That’s gotta be worth something.” Peter said and Shuri laughed. They kept working and Shuri played vine compilations in the background and cracking a few science puns toward each other and said a few actually sciencey things informing one another of something they had discovered. They just laughed and Scienced, like the serious conversation earlier never happened. Two hours seemed to fly by. Peter just enjoyed something that wasn’t completely normal or at all, but he didn’t think about the war or turning into dust or May or any of it. And yeah, he felt guilty for using Shuri as a distraction, but in his defense he only came here to say thank you, and it just happened to escalate. He also wouldn’t admit that he was glad other people weren’t totally recovered from the war too. What he said earlier made sense.

“Shuri?” a voice said from the doorway and they both turned around. Peter’s jaw almost dropped, it was the Black Panther . He looked at him up and down with a furrowed brow and was starting towards him in the kind of ferocity one would use in battle. “Who are you? Shuri wasn’t assigned any partners as far as I know?” he said with an intimidating aura that worked because Peter was scared shitless. Peter started to mumble a broken explanation, when Shuri saved him.

“Brother.” Shuri rolled her eyes and sounded exasperated. “He’s a boy, and I allowed him to work with me because he is smart enough to actually understand , unlike anyone else here.” That took both of them back a step, T’challa seemed to change intensities but Peter wasn’t sure it was that good of an omen or not, because it was still the same type of aura of intimidation.

“S-sorry. I-I didn’t mean to. Honestly, I’m not that smart. Shuri took care of me while I was out and I wanted to say thank you and she was working on this stuff and it was so cool and like vines and..memes… and science and.. Uhm.” he was mumbling by the end of his rapid semi-broken explanation and looked down and Shuri was laughing. T’challa seemed a bit surprised.

“Who are you?” T’challa asked lowly, in a tone that Peter couldn’t tell if he was mad or not.

“P-Peter Parker, sir.”

“No, you wouldn’t be here if you weren’t either a warrior or a scientist. I ask again. Who are you?” T’challa said raising his voice and Peter could answer this one a little more confidently.

“Spiderman” he mumbled, and that’s not how he wanted it to come out. Peter was a loser, Spiderman wasn’t. He cleared his throat a bit. “I’m Spiderman” he said a little louder. T’challa looked affronted a bit “We uhm, I think we fought together. On the same side? In Germany?”

“You are a child.” it was a statement. Peter wanted to groan cause, yeah he knew that. Why was it such a big deal? He already fought in the war, it wasn’t gonna change anything. He wasn’t gonna stop, so everyone should just calm down.

“No older than Shuri?” that really didn’t seem like a question either and Peter didn’t want to see the what the odds are if he could lie.

“I’m 15” there was silence and then Shuri laughed. T’challa just looked at him, with something he couldn’t quite figure out.

“Why are you here brother?” she said amusedly, and T’challa was snapped out of whatever he was in.

“Dinner is ready, I will be joining you.” T’challa said and Shuri nodded and got up to leave. Peter got up to follow her after a minute, but he was stopped by T’challa’s voice.

“Thank you.” he said and Peter didn’t know what for but never got to ask as T’challa smoothly left and grunted a “Come you were most likly expected to be there.” And Peter had never thought about it but yeah he probably was.

That’s what Dr.Banner said at least.

OoOoO

Avengers Cleared the Streets ‘ All foreign objects have been 79% eliminated from the streets of New York. People have started to go back to work, and have some semblance of a normalcy return to the city.’

His first dinner in two weeks and he wasn’t starving. That was weird, he knew logically he should’ve been. He hadn’t eaten anything probably without a tube for two weeks. But if anyone asks he’d just say he ate something earlier. Dr.Banner or Shuri wouldn’t know if he ate something before or after respectively they’d talked to him.

It was also less and more awkward than he’d thought it’d be. The first thing he didn’t think of and probably should’ve been worried about was a seat. But Shuri had solved that problem by yanking him down next to her and showing him another meme, which he happily got dragged into. She was next to her brother and a tree sat on his other side playing a video game could be heard. Something like Galaga? He looked next to him. A tree … for some reason he wasn’t completely surprised. In fact, it startled him of how natural it seemed. This is my life, isn’t it?

“I am Groot.” he mumbled and Peter smiled awkwardly. Must be apart of Mr.Quill’s crew. He guessed. Across from him sat Thor and that was awesome, he had the Racoon thing next to him as well as a blonde lady and he recognized her as Jane Foster. The Jane Foster . She was like the best astronomer ever . He had to refrain from geeking out, but that was hard because he was sitting at a table with the freaking Avengers right now. Oh my god, what even is his life anymore?

Dinner wasn’t exactly served yet so he looked to the side to see what the tree - he said his name was Groot - was playing. He almost scoffed because that looked like Galaga, and did anything in space follow through with modern tech. Although he had to admit, he loved to play old school games too, so he really couldn’t blame him.  But he seemed to be stuck on one level. He grunted as he died again. Peter smiled a bit softly.

“I am Groot.” Groot seemed to complain quietly to himself. Peter couldn’t help but relate. It absolutely sucked when he died in those games.

“Here can I see it.” Peter asked and Groot looked at him oddly for a minute, and Peter thought he might not give it to him. He ducked and mumbled an apology before Groot gave it to him swiftly. The raccoon almost choked. Peter raised a brow in concern.

“That’s all? You never give that thing to anyone!” he said incredulously. Peter ignored him, but noticed how T’challa was smirking. He would’ve been confused if the game hadn’t started. He beat the next few levels before dying and he smiled softly. The controls were different, but he got a hold of them quickly. It was actually pretty cool. He looked at the place where the game cartridge was. Huh, a DS cartridge. It was made out of old parts. Cool. Space parts. What Peter wouldn’t give to go space dumpster diving.

“Hey,” he looked at Groot who was watching in awe at the beaten hard levels. Peter handed back the game. “If you want I could give you some of my old games. I don’t play them anymore, and I’m guessing you don’t really have any other game.” he said and Groot slowly nodded. But then he heard someone groan behind Groot.

Mr.Quill, who sat next to Groot, said “No, NO! He already plays that thing too much. He doesn’t need anymore.” Mr.Quill almost sounded like a parent. It was kind of funny.

“I am Groot.” Groot said going back to playing his game, and Shuri laughed at another meme on her phone. Peter felt like he was left out of something. But he really didn’t want to bring out his phone that he’d set on the table to play Groot’s game. But he seemed saved from embarrassment, or what he thought would be, by the food being placed in front of them. Groot and Shuri were still on their phones, and Peter put his away to make room for the food. No phones at the table. May’s voice sounded in his head, and Peter almost winced.

“Groot put that away.” Mr.Quill sounded exasperated.

“Shuri turn it off.” T’challa seemed to say almost automatically. They sounded so much like parents it was laughable. And a good distraction. No May. Just a Princess and a Tree obsessed with memes and games, totally normal.

“I am Groot .” Peter didn’t understand, but by the way he was talking, Peter could guess it was sass.

“Brother, please.” Shuri barley held back from scoffing

“Hey! Watch you language.” the Racoon stood up in his chair and glared at Groot who barely looked up, but managed to spare an eye roll, as he continued to disobey.

“This is disrespectful.” T’challa insisted patiently, but he could tell he was close to impatient. Shuri didn’t really listen. It was kinda weird, having other people at the table. Still, even if they were royalty and alien, they should at least listen to their parents. Or sort of parents. Whatever they were.

“C’mon, you guys really shouldn’t do that all the time. I mean I get it memes are awesome and games can totally be addictive, trust me I this Overwatch phase once when I played on my friends account and didn’t sleep for like two weeks.” He heard a scoff, but still continued “But come on it’ll still be there when your done.” Peter said with a small smile when they put them down and started to eat. He didn’t even notice that the entire table was silent, until a minute later.

“What?” he asked at the Racoon who was looking at him weird. Well everyone was, but the raccoon was right in front of him. He felt a little self-conscious, had he done something wrong? He looked to his side at T’challa who was also staring at him the same way he did in the lab and Mr.Quill who just looked amused, but he didn’t laugh.

“Tony, your kid is a god.” he said after a minute with a huff of disbelieving laughter.

“He’s not my kid!” “I’m not his kid!” he and Mr.Stark said at the same time. They all seemed to ignore that.

“We can’t get him to put that thing down since he got it.” said a big blue man as he was laughing. He was a bit scary.

“And Shuri doesn’t get off technology ever .” said a Wakandan lady who was sitting next to T’challa. The bald one with a spear seemed to laugh. But he knew better, she had a scary aura around her too.

“I am Groot.”

“Hmf, whatever.”

“Sorry.” he apologized to Groot and Shuri.

“Oh my god Tony! Where did you get him!?” Mr.Quill asked. “He obviously wasn’t raised by you!” Peter tensed a bit and so did Tony. He probably knew about May too. Great.

“Queens.” said a new voice and he recognized it from Germany. Captain America knew who he was. He snapped his towards him and stared for a bit. He freaking remembered that?

“Wow you sound different in your PSAs.” Peter was all breathed and that’s definitely not what he wanted to say. Kill him now, he sound just web his mouth shut and save himself from all the embarrassing shit that came out of it. But Cap seemed to blush a bit.

“PSAs?” Tony asked.

“Yeah we watch them in ...school!” Peter snapped his head up “I missed school!” he was gonna get up but then he heard Tony laughing, as well as a few chuckles of ‘seriously where did you get this kid from.’

“Cool it Underoos. You’re good.” Tony said as he bit into something.

“No, I’ve got a test and a report I have to half-ass on nuclear energy, that I didn’t learn about because I wasn’t there .” Peter said sulking in his chair and Tony let out a bark of laughter.

“Kid, you fight with nuclear energy on multiple occasions. You don’t need notes to know it. And even if you did you probably already know. Plus school’s canceled for the rest of the year, so chill.” Tony said and Peter couldn’t help but think that this is the reverse of what happened with Shuri and Groot, and it was laughable that a grownup was telling a child to just not do their work. “And even if school was open, you wouldn’t go so yeah.”

“Seriously Tony? Like are you chastising him for school ? I would kill to have Groot want  to go to school or do anything besides video games.” Mr.Quill asked with a laugh and the racoon agreed.

“I don’t want to go to school.” Peter mumbled. He nibbled on his bread.

“Man that kid has more responsibility than you Stark.” said Bucky.And the conversation went on. Leaving Peter behind to listen and it split into different sections.

It was actually going well, but Peter knew he something would go wrong.

“ What?! ”

It always did.

He looked over to see Rhody and Pepper looking in disbelief as Tony took water from the waiter.

“What? Am I not allowed to hydrate anymore?” Tony asked.

“No! You usually order, I don’t know alcohol.”Rhody said “Who are you and what have you done to Tony Stark.”

“Cool it Rhodes.” Tony said “I just had a meeting with a moral compass that’s all.” Tony gesturing over to Peter and he was confused as Mr.Rhodes and Ms.Potts looked between them in disbelief but Peter was confused.

“What?” Peter wanted to hide under the table where no one could look at him anymore. He hated this kind of attention on him seriously.

Steve looked a little concerned “You don’t remember?” he mumbled and Peter looked at him and shook his head. What were they even talking about. The room was silent, as if they all forgot who he was for a second. Mr.Quill coughed. And Mr.Stark let out a snort.

“Let’s just say, you’re brutally honest when your hyped up on pain meds.” Peter didn’t know why he felt like blushing. “And don’t say sorry, because when even Peter Parker says you’re doing something wrong, then you might want to rethink your life choices.” Peter didn’t know why but he really couldn’t be in the room with everyone’s eyes on him. He felt like crying or screaming. He knew it would solve nothing, but it might make him feel better. It also might make him feel worse, or guilty.

Things didn’t seem to hit him until then. He’d died. The world is in ruins. May was dead. He had an English final that wasn’t going to happen . He fought in a war. Like a soldier. He was 15. He had a building dropped on him. He had a moon crashing into him. He was in a coma for two weeks. He fought a monster vulture on an invisible jet. Ben was dead. He fought half the Avengers in Germany. His city was in literal ruins . May was dead . He was Spiderman.

That’s right he was Spiderman. He couldn’t look weak now, especially when he’d just gotten up. Not here. Not now. He’d do it later. He could break and cry and scream later. Not now. He wanted to leave, but he wanted to be okay. If he left it would mean he wasn’t okay. It meant he couldn’t deal with this on his own like everyone else. They were probably getting better and recovering from the war themselves. He had to pull his own weight now. He couldn’t leave that to them.

So he laughed and apologized anyway. No one seemed to not believe it. He picked at his food not really eating it so much as push it around and stared off into things when no one was watching. He spoke with Groot a bit. Not really understanding what he was saying, but rambling about a game that he’d give him. He looked at Shuri, who was rambling a few science things and joined in at some points.

He was a damn hypocrite.

Chapter Text

Chapter 3

‘New York has been in and out of collateral before, but nothing like this. It seems normalcy is coming back slower than ever before. But the Avengers and the DODC as well as other SHIELD operated superhero teams have taken to cleaning and caring for the world. Any help would greatly be appreciated.’

After dinner, which Peter had thankfully gotten through, everyone went to their own rooms or quarters for the night. Peter had been lead to his room by FRIDAY. Tony had offered to take him himself, but he said he’d figure it out. So he did, but when Peter actually got to his room door, he couldn’t open it. He knew what it was going to look like. Big. Everything would be 10 times larger than normal. The desk, and bed, and chairs. There would be a TV and a couch and a bunch of shelves and an oversized closet that could probably fit all his belongings and still have room to live in it. Tony said they’d get his stuff tomorrow before they helped clean up.

Peter couldn’t open his room though. It felt like everything wouldn’t be in his head, even if he knew they were reality. It would be like accepting that this happened, and Peter didn’t know why he wanted to deny it. It happened he should just get it over with. He could open that door, and disable all monitoring protocols. He could cry in the shower and whimper to himself in his sleep. But he didn’t. He didn’t want to. And he felt like a child for running away from the truth. But that’s what he was right? A child. Everyone called him a child or a kid.

So instead he just skipped over his room to find a couch or somewhere else to sleep. He’d shower in one of Tony’s many extra bathrooms, and put on the oversized shirt that didn’t smell too bad right now. He then found a secluded couch near a big window that took up a wall in a hallway that was probably important when everyone was awake. Right now it resides in an abandoned hallway, that was only illuminated by the city lights outside. The window looked off into the city not but 30 minutes walk. Probably a 5 minute swing.It was slightly lighted up and Peter couldn’t hear anything even if he was outside, but it all seemed too quiet to be his city. It was too damaged to be distinguishable. Usually New York bounced back quicker then most cities. Alien invasion only took about a week before people were yelling at each other to move their cars or start taking their night shifts again. Where being late for work was normal but pissed off their coworkers and bosses. New York was never meant to be quiet. It seemed wrong when it was. The city that never sleeps shouldn’t be so ... tired. If it was quiet it wasn’t his city anymore. Just a hollow shell until the sea came back to claim it.

He’d protect it until then, and even after. He’d always protect it. It’s his home, and he wasn’t here for more than 15 minutes before leaving for space. In his mind he knew he couldn’t do anything to prevent it, but he still felt somewhat responsible. Tomorrow he’d rebuild his city. Today he was too tired to think about any of it. But his mind still ran places where it shouldn’t have. His eyes slipped closed and when he opened them it was morning. The sun was rising and the city seemed even quieter. He wanted to yell. It shouldn’t be that quiet.

New York was the city that never sleeps! It shouldn’t be quiet. It was funny, no one could sleep well knowing it was quiet. They’d just phase through cycles until it was back to normal. When everyone was screaming and  honking at each other at 2am, that was normal. When he could here the police towing away a screaming person’s car, that was normal. When he could hear people coming back from work and going to work at 12, that was normal. Noise was a constant thing in his life. It made him feel grounded and reminded him that there were still other people. He wasn’t alone when it’s loud.

But now it was quiet.

OoOoO

@DailyBugel

Avenger letting other worldly people help! Friend or Foes? (See article below)

He came out of his daze about an hour later when something red was thrown in his face. It was soft but stiff. He blankly realized it was an upgraded spider suit. Not the Iron Spider . He sighed in relief or disbelief he wasn’t too sure. Maybe it was both. He peaked around it and saw Shuri smirking down at him.

“Rise and Shine Spider-boy. After you’re done with collateral I want you in my lab. 4 sound good?” she said and walked away saying “Don’t forget breakfast.” Did I really have a choice in that one? He looked for anything that indicated time. He found his phone in his back pocket and took it out.

‘32%. I need a charger.’ He looked at the time 7:45. He really only had to go eat breakfast with everyone else and change for his now dubbed ‘work’. After he finished helping out he’d go and get a backpack and fill it with cloths for the week and anything else he might need. He got up and went to the kitchen, putting his suit down on his chair across from where the Racoon was eating. He went to get a banana and then change, he wasn’t hungry again, but he knew he had to eat something. The lack of hunger was slightly worrying because he was always hungry ever since the bite. He figured it had something to do with his metabolism.

“What the hell is that ?” said the racoon.Peter raised a brow.

“A banana.” he said gesturing to the banana, the racoon seemed unimpressed. “Do they even have bananas in space?” he wondered out loud. The racoon seemed a bit offended by the noise he made. Peter smiled.

“Of course I know what a banana is. I meant those things on your arm?” Peter looked at his wrists, he had forgotten they were exposed with the oversized T shirt only going down to his elbows and not his wrists. It wasn’t often that he wore T-shirts without a jacket. He always had his web shooters on though. Call it paranoia, but he just felt wrong with out them on. Peter shot out a web in demonstration and the racoon looked in slight awe but mostly amusement.

“How much for it?” he asked and Peter looked confused for a minute and shook his head.

“Sorry Mr.Racoon sir, I don’t think they’re for sale.” Peter rubbed his shoulders as if he was cold, he felt exposed when his shooters were exposed. The racoon made an indigent noise.

“Okay, I’m not a racoon.” he growled out with a snap of his teeth that made Peter flinch away a bit, but he mostly was confused “Or a trash panda.”

“Those are the same things though.” Peter mused slightly and the racoon looked at him oddly “Oh, I mean I’m sorry. You just looked like a racoon, and I don’t know your name. I didn’t mean any disrespect.” he said and waved his arms in front of him as if to wipe away any of the rudeness he might of said. You really couldn’t tell what aliens were offended by. Aliens and space raccoons. The not raccoons look softened.

“Nah, it’s fine kid. People call me Rocket, you should too.” Rocket said and Peter smiled.

“Okay, Rocket. Hey are you helping out around town too?” and Rocket looked amused.

“Ha! Yeah right kid. Even if I wanted to help, people wouldn’t appreciate a cybernetic hybrid helping clean their city while also simultaneously stealing.” Rocket scoffed and crossed his arms “Well at least that’s what Quill said. Damn Starass, can’t have any fun.”

“Well, I’m sure New York has seen way weirder things then a not raccoon with awesome guns helping. Trust me.” Peter smiled and got up to throw away his banana peel and get changed. He stopped when Rocket said. After a couple of alien invasions a talking raccoon would seem like a normal dog on the street. God he loved his city. Never a dull moment.

“Hey webs, you didn’t give me your name.” he stated blandly, and Peter turned around.

“Sorry, I thought- well I guess it really isn’t that important.” Peter mumbled, after yesterday he’d think everyone here knew his name. Not to be arrogant but they did seem surprised by his age. “My name’s Peter.” and Rocket hummed as if it was accepting and mumbled how not all Peters are assholes. Peter smiled as he left.

OoOoO

@SpideySpotter

From anonymous (8:15am)

OMG I JUST SAW SPIDEY!!! HE’S BACK!!!

The return of Spidey was a bigger deal then he’d ever thought it would be. People were calling out to him and he’d tentatively wave as he swung carefully over to the totaled buildings and helped remove rubble. The DODC was actually doing a fantastic job, they seemed to be almost done clearing the streets and next week cars could maybe drive on them. Buses were almost going to every stop and subways only had a few blocks in the way.

He helped with little things. Moving a bit of a building that was damaged beyond repair. Helping children find their mothers in indistinguishable streets. Help an old lady cross crosswalks that weren’t there.  Little things seemed bigger now, there were no muggers or robbers wandering the streets. Well not that many at least.

Time went a little faster and before he knew it it was 3:15. He’d have to get back to Queens and into his apartment that he didn’t even know if it was standing or not. He hadn’t been home since the morning he left. Since May had died. Could he even handle going back in?

Peter figured he’d have to suck it up as he walked up the stairs and went to the door and grabbed his key he didn’t know how the hell it survived space but it worked. He worked quickly, switching out his spider suit for street clothes and shoving some more into his bag. He shoved cloths and a toothbrush and some video games and comics for Groot in his bag. Some homework too, and his book for decathlon that he studied 70 times over. And a charger. He left the apartment and locked the door when he heard a noise. He nearly jumped when he saw Captain America standing behind him.

“Not swinging back?” he asked. He looked at his phone 3:25. He had time to get back on foot. He wanted to walk in the city again. Something normal . It seemed to be a rarity.

“Nah,” Peter smiled and headed down stairs. The captain followed him down and he was dressed in his casual clothes too, he noted.

“Hey, Peter?” he said after a while of them walking side by side in silence. “Why do you do this?” He was referring to Spiderman. He watched as smoke came out from a pothole. The sky seemed darker, but it always did in New York. A constant of pollution. Good he thought We are getting back to normal . The question, however, he couldn’t answer starightly. There were so many reasons. He decided one seemed relevant. Something Captain could relate to, Tony couldn’t though.

“You know a day or two after the bite I heard this girl from 4 blocks down in my room.” he said in a tone even he couldn’t distinguish “I didn’t know what to do, she was calling for help and she kept calling and no one was helping her. I couldn’t call the police cause I didn’t know where she was, and eventually her calls died off and all I heard was crying until even that stopped.” Steve looked at him as he stared at the ground when they walked. “The next day there was a article in the paper that said a 12 year-old girl was raped last night 4 blocks away from my house.” Peter sighed “I could’ve helped but I didn’t. I stood by-” Peter had to restrain himself from saying again . “And did nothing.”

“That wasn’t your fault.” Steve said and that seemed to be all he got.

“Nah, but it felt like it was. It still does.”Peter said and gave a small smile as he was reminded of his first conversation with Mr.Stark. “You know before I was recruited to go to Germany, Mr.Stark asked me what my MO was.” he said and he had thought about Ben. It all seemed to come back Ben, his greatest regret was not saving him, but his life seemed to be trying to top that. Nothing ever will though.  “ When you could do the things that I can do, but you don’t and then the bad things happen… they happen because of you.” he had quoted himself “If I can stop something and I don’t who’s fault is it then? Still the bad guys, but I still feel like it's on me.” Peter said and looked at the collateral street damage. There were big craters in the middle of the street. Demolished buildings on the sidewalks and collapsed in on themselves and he sighed. “But now, I feel like I created more enemies then stopped.” He whispered to himself. Steve looked at the kid for a minute not sure what to make of him, before he smiled down at him.

“Queens, huh?”  Steve smiled down on him and ruffled his hair.

“ Mr.Rogers, is it biased if I said I knew where the best sandwiches in all of New York are?” Peter smiled up at him brightly, as if he wasn’t about to go all depressing just a minute ago. “Cause I think Queens probably has the best Sandwiches.” Steve smiled again.

“No way, Brooklyn does. Or at least it did. It had pretty good pizza.” Steve thought about the last time he actually went out and explored the city.

“No that’s Manhattan, and Hell’s Kitchen has the best pubs… or so I’ve heard… well that’s what Jess said anyway.” Peter said not realizing who he was talking about.

“Jess? That like your girlfriend?” Steve asked confused but mostly concerned he hoped Peter didn’t know why the pubs were popular first hand. And he sure to god hoped he wasn’t getting involved with the wrong people. Peter was too good a kid to be caught with shit like that.

“No way. She’s like 30 and she drinks her coffee with beer. But she’s cool. Her name is Jessica Jones, she’s one of the Defenders. I think their on some super top secret mission dealing with the Hand right now, but that’s all I really know. I let them handel it, I mean they wouldn’t let me come anyway and it’s pretty out of state when they’d left and I had school.” He rambles on about school and the Defenders - who sound like they were either very busy or very uncaring of what happens to the world- He doesn’t talk about them as much as his friends and school. It’s meaningless, but it distracts Steve from everything else that so wrong about this entire thing.  Peter seems like he had a pretty good life going for him. Steve noticed though, and what tipped him off was not what he was saying, more so about the things Peter didn’t  say. He didn’t mention a parent or guardian, Steve figured not to bring it up. He didn’t mention any of the big Spidery things that made the news. He didn’t mention big accomplishments, and Steve was sure this kid had at least 5 academic awards. But Steve never brought it up, choosing to let himself and Peter be lost in mindless nonsense.

They get their food from Delmers, which Peter is happy it's not destroyed again, and walk back to the compound. Peter was right these are good, but Steve notices how slowly Peter is eating his, and yeah, he’s not one to question someone’s eating habits, but the kid had barley eaten anything since he woke up, and he’s Spiderman . Steve has seen the kid lift up buildings that a normal teenager muchless person shouldn’t  have. But in due time they arrived at the tower, Peter just barley finishing off his sandwich, and saying a quick ‘see you later’ before heading to the labs where Shuri is. Steve watched him go.

Yeah, Peter was a good kid. He could see why Tony liked him.

OoOoO

@NewportNews

New Technological Advancements can be Created Out of Alien Tech? Bad situation turned to good. (See article below)

Peter and Shuri had skipped dinner that night. They were too into a technological artifact to be bothered with trivial things such as hunger. They were cool with it, Shuri didn’t seem like she was unused to skipping a meal and Peter wasn’t particularly hungry...again. But when T’challa caught them locking up the lab for the night they sure did get an earful, and Shuri rolled her eyes in response while Peter stuttered an apology. T’challa sighed but it didn’t sound like he was mad at that point.

“Everyone's upstairs, would you like to join us?” he had asked sounding exasperated.

They agreed that some social interaction was acceptable. So that was how he found himself split off from Shuri and sitting in the corner with Groot with his bag. Shuri went to talk to Jane, and she did it so easily. She didn’t embarrass herself and Peter was a bit envious of that. A lot of smart people could be smart and not embarrass themselves, but did it have to be every single one that Peter knew?

Peter sighed and turned to Groot, smiling a bit at his lanky friend.

“Here.” he said as he took out a ziplock of games to show Groot a few cartridges. Groot looked up and took them with a little surreal look on his face. “It’s called Fire Emblem. It’s a series and follows a story, so yeah. I thought it was OK but you know, if you don’t like it then you don’t have to play the other ones, but this does require some strategy. Uhm and the other one is Mario Kart. Just a driving game, pretty pointless but no less addicting.” He handed Groot the zip lock bag of games and Groot took them gently, almost as if he was being handed a holy object and didn’t want to break them. “There are also other games if you like story plot games and stuff I can give you something like Zelda or Pokemon, although those two are just as mindless and addicting as Mario Kart. There’s also Mario and Kirby games, although I don’t have much of those, or the Pokemon and Zelda games for that matter, I don’t have many games, I usually just borrow them the  ones I do have are gifts.” Peter rambled on about strategy or game quality and Groot listened intently without his games. He was on explaining Multiplayer games when Groot spoke up.

“I am Groot?”

“Well Multiplayer games are when you play with other people.”

“I am... Groot?”

“Sure, but I have to dig up my DS from somewhere.”

“I am Groot?”

“A DS? Well that is the consol I play on, albeit it’s not nearly as cool as yours. It took me forever to save up for it.”

“I am Groot.”

“Wha?! I don’t need a-”

“I am Groot.”

“No no, I can just find my old-”

“I am Groot.”

Groot got up and went out of the room for a minute leaving Peter where he was and then he came back with some parts and pieces that he put together like his consul and shoved it to Peter and looked at him expectantly.

“I am Groot.”

“Wha-? I can’t take this Gro-”

“I. Am. Groot.” he said it with such finality that Peter sighed and took the consul muttering a fine. He paused for a minute. Did he just argue with a tree? And lose? Oh well. But as they played Mario Kart he couldn’t stop the small smile as he threw the shell on the transparent screen.

He ended up sleeping on the window sill that night curled up with an alien tree.

OoOoO

‘ Schools in New York would’ve had their last day of school today, if the year hadn’t come to an early end. Any students who were passing their year have been promoted to the next level since schools only closed down two weeks early.’

The next day was Friday. Peter helped til’ 12 pretty well until he was interrupted. He was just swinging around the corner, having being done with a building blockage on 23rd.

“I told you to stay at the compound, Rocket.” it was unmistakably Mr.Quill’s voice.

“Yeah well, I was gettin’ cramped. An’ I’m bored.” came the reply and Peter recognized that voice too. It was Rocket’s. Peter couldn’t help but smile a bit and swung over to them just out of sight. Was Rocket helping out too? That would be so fun!

“What if someone sees you?” Quill hissed in a tight voice and Peter couldn’t help but recognize it as condesening voice Tony gave him every time he was about to screw up. “They wouldn’t-”

“H-hey guys!” Peter decided to interject now it seemed right but when their eyes were on him he had only a sheepish smile.

“Hey webs. Just the person I need to talk some reason into this asshole. Tell him that it’s fine if I stay out.” Rocket said with a smug voice, crossing his arms over his furry chest.

“No. That’s unreasonable, this isn’t like any other place we’ve been Rocket. Right kid?” the both were looking at him now, and Peter was now regretting interjecting, Tony said he was bad a thinking things through, right now he could see why he’d say that. But he had told Rocket that New York had seen stranger things. And things did seem calmer now that some of the shock had worn off. But Peter also liked Mr.Quill, he didn’t want to upset him.

“Okay, how ‘about this. I’ll take Rocket sightseeing for an hour or two, there’s no harm in that. But for only a few hours and then back to the compound. I have work to do.” Peter said with a cross of his arms and looked at Quill’s weary look, even if Rocket’s was triumphant. He was worried. “Hey Mr.Quill,” Peter said and took off his mask, there was no one there anyway. “Don’t worry, New York has seen a lot of strange things, I mean we have wizards and guys that turn green and big. An awesome robo-raccoon is nothing compared to all that. He’ll be fine, trust me.” Rocket had heard, but he didn’t say anything about the raccoon comment. Awesome had never been associated with that, and the way the kid said it didn’t seem like an insult. Peter had said it so innocently it almost sounded like a compliment, Rocket was happy to take it that way to. For some reason he didn’t think this kid had a single hurtful bone in his body, and he’d like to keep that thought. It was nice to know someone who had been through a war could stay so damn innocent. Quill scoffed and waved them away absently. Peter smiled and told them he’d be right back while he changed.

“He’s a good kid.” Quill said when he was out of earshot. Rocket couldn’t say anything back. Cause yeah, he agreed.

OoOoO

‘Public Property Damage is up by nearly 74%. The Infinity War has not only cause major collateral damage to the buildings of the city, but also people’s personal possessions. Vandalizing and affecting almost everyone in New York.’

When Peter returned he and Rocket waved back to Quill and started walking. They walked in relative silence next to each other, and may have gotten a few odd stares but nothing too big.

“I think they think your a dog.” Peter snickered, it was just a comment and he seemed so innocently happy about it that Rocket couldn’t get mad. It wasn’t an insult. Anything associating him with anything feral related was usually an insult, but not from this kid. Never from Peter.

“So kid, could I ask you somethin’?” Rocket asked in a way that seemed like he didn’t care for the answer.

“You don’t seem like the type to ask permission but go ahead.” Peter replied. Rocket actually wasn’t sure what he was gonna ask. He just wanted to know the kid’s motives but at the same time he didn’t want to ruin the innocent picture he had whenever he associated anything with Peter. It was an odd feeling, he only got it with Groot, but this felt different.

“Why do you not like being called a raccoon?” the question came from Peter instead of him, the raccoon looked up. At least he didn’t have to embarass himself. And if Peter knew how that felt like, he never said anything about it.

“Because their disgusting trash eating rodents.” he said “I am way smarter than them.”

“Well yeah, you could look at it that way, or you could look at it like this,” Peter kept walking forward not really looking at Rocket as the rodent looked up at him. “They are scavengers making do with what they got and adapting and living with it. That’s pretty cool if you ask me. And you make stuff out of them. You’re so cool.” Peter smiled down at him and Rocket looked at him a bit speechless.

“Okay, my turn. Why do ya seem so chill with all this.” Rocket gestured around him and to himself and Peter seemed to look like he was thinking.

“Hmm, good question. I should be pretty weirded out right now, but I guess I’m sort of used to it. My city getting wrecked and all. It happens more often than you think.” Just not this bad . Peter said in a thoughtful tone, but ended in a semi-humorous laugh.

“Yeah, but all of us space things coming to live with you?” Rocket pressed, trying to sound offended but making it sound like he was trying not to be. He wouldn’t admit that he still had social insecurities.

“No that,” Peter said in a firm, reassuring tone “Is awesome. You guys know like so many more cool things about alien tech and other world tech. Hell even your old consoles for video games are cooler.” he said and Peter seemed distracted for a minute looking at a few shops “Hey.” he said after a minute of silence “I told you I’d show you around, well how ‘bout we do some scavenging for parts. I know a bunch of cool places that have cheap stuff, so let’s do it.” Rocket looked up at the kid who was smiling brightly down at him. God this kid smiled a lot.

“Yeah.” he managed to say. “Let’s get some guns.” Peter’s face scrunched up a bit.

“Actually, you need to be over 18 to get a gun here I think. Or you have to have a license, I’m not sure. Plus I don’t think any of the ones we got are as cool as your space guns. But we could get parts to build one or something.” Peter said with a wistful smile.

“Hmm you don’t seem like the type to use guns.” Rocket said thoughtfully.

“Well, I really don’t need to know how to use them, doesn’t mean I don’t know how to defend against them.” Peter said stopping at a semi destroyed shop that had a red open sign flashing and walked in, Rocket followed. The shop looked like a garage, with cages of spare parts everywhere. There were actually 1 or 2 cars and a few motorcycles. There were also some gadgets and broken parts on some of the long industrial tables. And tools were on the walls and scattered between projects.

“Hey, Mr.Jones!” he greeted cheerily and Mr.Jones looked up. MJ’s dad was cool, he hadn’t talked to MJ since before he’d left. He already made sure Ned was okay, by kind of spying on him, but he wanted to make sure MJ was too. She wasn’t here though and Peter was fine with that, but he could probably get some info from her dad.

“Mr.Parker. Good to see you didn’t turn to dust.” He and Rocket tensed a bit at that, but Mr.Jones had on a smile as he welcomed them into the empty shop. Mr.Jones looked at Rocket “ Who’s the uhm Raccoon?” Rocket wanted to rampage at him but something stopped him. What would Peter say without giving his identity away.

“Oh he’s a friend. He’s pretty good with parts, and I heard you were doing a lot of repairs.” Mr.Jones sighed and Rocket looked up at Peter curiosity etched in his furry features.

“Yeah, good for business, lots of technical repairs. Would you like to help? I could use your brain to get some of  these ones done.” Peter smiled and led Rocket to the desk that had a bunch of gizmos and gadgets.

“Hey Rocket, you mind helping a little? I mean I know Quill won’t let you help with industrial stuff, but Mr.Jones is pretty cool. Just try it out for  a bit please.” Rocket didn’t know what to say. Was this a ruse to make him help out or something? Is that why the kid agreed to this? Was he using him? Was he only being nice and innocent to use him? Was it all an act? He knew this was too good to be true.

“Oh that’d be so much of a help. And if Peter says your good, then I trust his opinion.” Mr.Jones said and Rocket could only dully nod and he and Peter got to work.

It was actually pretty fun and interesting. Terran stuff was interesting, not high tech but still interesting. It was nice getting small repairs done and Peter wasn’t so bad at the things he was doing himself. Mr.Jones, Chris as he had told Rocket to call him, called Rocket by his name after finding it out. They listened to music similar to Quill’s but slightly different. They rebuilt computers and did some mechanics on the cars. Rocket even improved some.

He only admit it to himself, but it was fun, even if it was a trick. But as Rocket looked at Peter, bopping his head slightly to the music, and having a smile on his face as he screwed some parts together, he couldn’t help but think that the kid just wanted to do that. Have fun. With Rocket. He wouldn’t ever admit he had a smile on his face.

But soon Quill came in with Thor. Mr.Jones was in the back making a call to a customer that their car was repaired and was going to make a call to another one on the waitlist to bring theirs in. Quill seemed a bit frazzled.

“Rocket! You were supposed to be at the compound 3 hours ago!” Quill said and Rocket rolled his eyes as he turned around to face Quill.

“We were here the whole time!” Rocket growled out.

“Captain Rabbit, it is important to inform us if of where you are, as to insure safety.” Thor said more gentle than Quill, still a look of worry etched on his face.

“S-sorry.” Peter stuttered into the conversation. “That’s- That’s my fault, we were here. I figured Rocket would wanna help with some of the smaller repairs, he seemed good at that. This was a bad idea, sorry.” Peter looked to the side and down and the room was silent for a while.

“You’ve been helping out?” Quill asked, his voice lower and calmer than before.

“I guess so.” Rocket said, and he would of normally been mad about being used too, but he wasn’t. It was nice to get away from the hell that seemed to revolve around him everyday. Doing repairs with Peter made him feel wanted. Like it mattered what he did, and affected people in a positive way. It was a nice feeling he could get used to.

“And you’re not getting paid?” Quill said more bluntly and Rocket seemed a bit on edge at that last one. He could at least get paid. He wouldn’t mind that.

“No but he can be.” said a voice behind them it was Mr.Jones with a smile “You did good on those last orders, how ‘bout I hire you and you can come back later on?” Rocket seemed to freeze at that and so did Quill. Peter smiled triumphantly, as if he accomplished a goal. Rocket looked at him with some awe and more amusement. That sneaky little shit.

“Yeah, see Quill I can be responsible.” Rocket said and Peter couldn’t help but laugh a little as Quill rolled his eyes and grumbled something about leaving and so they did Peter was the last one out.

“Thank you, Mr.Jones.” he said and Mr.Jones smiled at him.

“Hey, Peter. I don’t know what’s up with you knowing those guys, but they seem nice so I’m not gonna question it.” Peter seemed to tense and relax at the same time “But MJ is fine, a bit worried about you but fine.” MJ was worried about him? Why? Well he’d be worried if she or Ned hadn’t contacted him in two weeks. Was Ned worried too? Oh god. He should really talk to them. He’d hate it if they’d left him hanging for 2 weeks, not knowing if he was dead or alive. They must have thought the former, he wasn’t getting any messages.

He didn’t have anymore time to think about it as he was pushed out of shop, and into the sidewalk by Mr.Jones who adorned a amused smile on his face. Quill and Rocket had gone ahead, but Thor stood there. It was nearing night, and Peter realized he hadn’t done much to help out like he was supposed to today. He sighed at that. He’d probably get chewed out for it later.

“The compound is the other way Son of Parker.” and Peter bristled at the title. He knew Thor was trying to be polite, but the name really didn’t sit well with him. It made him think about the fathers - and yes plurals cause he lost 2 - that had died. He was their son and he could do nothing to help them. He relied on them, and they couldn’t rely on him, and for some reason that hurt .

“You can call me Peter, Mr.Thor.” he said shyly turning around and facing him tentatively with a sheepish look on his face. “And I said I’d help out today, and I only did half my job. I’m not planning to leave it unfinished- oh wait! I was supposed to meet with Shuri in the lab an hour ago to run those tests  on the spears radiation too! Ugh! I screwed up!” Peter said in a frantic voice that made Thor smile in amusement.

“Well you certainly do have a strong sense of responsibility.” Peter gave him a doubtful glance, didn’t he just list what he was supposed to do but didn’t . God Parker get it together. “I’m sure it will be of no difference though, as you have helped with a greater cause.” Now Peter was just confused but more curious, he hadn’t done anything today. Thor seemed to pick up on it because he continued “You see, Rocket is my good friend. As well as Groot. They both have accompanied me to Nelvedmeir to retrieve my axe. And you see they have been… out of touch as of resent. You have helped them both in seemingly trivial ways, but I believe they are starting to recover because of them.” Thor said and seemed to think for a second and laughed “In fact,” he spoke “I believe you are helping nearly everyone in minor, seemingly meaningless ways. But nonetheless since you have awoken, out comrades are in higher spirits than before.” What was that supposed to mean?

“T-Thankyou?” Peter asked because he really didn’t know how to respond.  He just gave Groot some games and Rocket something to do. He didn’t actually try to help them in anyway, maybe Thor was just imagining things. It’s just he could relate. He’d hate being stuck in a giant ass - no matter how cool it was, and it was pretty damn awesome - compound all day with nothing to do, but play Galaga on repeat and sulk. Especially after a war. He didn’t know alot about PTSD and after war turmoil - he was just learning himself too, and he hated it - but he knew he enjoyed a distraction, weather it be a video game with Groot  or Scienceing and looking at memes with Shuri, or going over chemical compounds with Bruce, or building things with Rocket. It gave them all something to do, in order not to think about the war or any of its effects. Have they not been doing this for 2 weeks?

“Yes! Now my comrade, we shall go back to the compound and feast.” Thor started to walk and Peter felt a surreal wave of unfocus for a second as he was walking alongside a literal god .

“Hey Thor.” he said “Can I ask something?”

“Ask away my friend.” he said with a happy smile on his face. It looked so hopeful, that Peter was almost afraid to ask the question as it would probably ruin his mood.

“Before I woke up…” he said a bit slowly and more quieter then he should, but he knew Thor could hear him “I just- ...well... was there- ...what-what happened ?” Thor seemed to think for an answer to the question, the smile gone in its place a contemplative look.

“Well...everyone was trying to clean up. Wounds, buildings, weapons. Those were all distractions. We all had lost something in the war. Homes, loved ones, friends, family… I believe we were all in shock.” Thor said and Peter kind of regretted the question as he heard the sadness seeping in the god’s tone. Thor always seemed so carefree, it was wrong when he was so.. not .

“Hmm, yeah.” Peter said and looked up at the god who had gotten quiet. God he felt guilty for putting him like this, he just said they were all in shock, which is a stage of grief. He was trying to move on and all Peter could do was be an insensitive jerk. Come on the guy’s been through enough already. Peter was going to fix this.

“So.. uhm you know Ms.Foster?” Thor gave him a questioning look and a curt nod before he continued “Her papers on astronomy and theory galactic and dimensional variation were so interesting. It was so cool all about the 9 realms and the theory of the Bifrost and it’s catalyst energy. All the results sounded made up but the theories and science made so much sense. One of her primary sources was you actually!” Thor seemed to smile at that. He knew Jane had wrote papers on the subject, but he hadn’t known that Jane had credited it to him. “You know,” Peter continued to ramble because it seemed to be working to cheer the God up and he was just a motor mouth. More of the latter though. “Science is all about angles, you can’t do it and get the best results if you don’t have different ones. You brought a new angle to science when you came.” Peter smiled a bit it was working. “Actually I used some of Jane’s methods to make some of the things that help me in battle. And I know others have used something in her research to make knew medical and technological discoveries and breakthroughs, so it’s not just me. Actually Shuri and I used them in the lab when we were analyzing and it made everything so much easier.” Peter said and looked at the god with a smile “You have helped so many people, and you didn’t have to even save earth to do so! That’s so cool!” Thor couldn’t help but have a matching smile at that. Jane and his collaborative effort had helped so many. So he wasn’t just making a mess as he was trying to clean up after all.

“You are very intuitive young Peter.” Thor commented and Peter looked bashful before Thor continued. “You have helped many as well. With your Spidermanning and what not. Helping petty crimes, Stark had said that crime rate have been down in Midgard, or at least in New York. I always thought trivial things didn’t matter, before I met you. I see they do, and wish to use the concept.” Thor said and Peter nodded rapidly and Thor’s smile grew

“Wow, this is literally  the coolest thing that’s ever happened.” Peter said breathlessly and Thor couldn’t help but smile at his childish antics.

“So cool.”

OoOoO

‘Spider man is back and seems to be helping out with things, but less so than expected. Today around noon he had dropped off early. Is something wrong with our friendly neighborhood Spider man?’

“Son of Stark, I’d like you to elaborate on young Peter’s journeys if you do not mind?” Thor had said near dinner’s end. He was slightly upset at the fact Peter was not here to indulge such tales of his battles in person, but Thor had a feeling he wouldn’t say much anyway.

“What?” Tony said in confusion, it was just him Thor, Cap, T’challa and Quill sitting at the table currently, or at least listening to the story.

“Well, yeah we don’t know much about him. Like we know what his name is, how old he is and where he’s from. But other then that…” Steve said looking at Tony leaning forward and Tony looked up at the ceiling and sighed. After a beat he huffed out a laugh.

“Yeah, I guess so. But I don’t know much more than that either. Now that I think about I probably know only one more thing then you guys do. But I don’t think I’m allowed to say.” May was dead . Everyone looked at him, a bit of an unimpressed look crossed T’challa’s face.

“You have created his suit and you are telling me you don’t monitor him?” T’challa said with a raised brow.

“Touche” Tony said back. T’challa rolled his eyes.

“Well Peter seems like a good kid, I’m sure you don’t need to monitor him..” Quill thought about what he’d said in the hospital room. “Much.” he added.

“You’d be surprised.” Tony huffed out with a smile. Steve and Quill only knew the half of it. He actually didn’t need to monitor Peter Parker so much as Spider man. Peter always did the politically right thing, Spider man always did the righteously right thing. Sometimes he didn’t know which was better, but if Tony had to choose between the two, he’d pick Peter Parker without a second thought.

“You’re not telling me that kid actually has a rebellious streak.” Apparently Sam was here too. Everybody looked at him in shock for a minute.

“Yes, Young Peter seems too innocent for adolescent midgardian rebellion.” Thor furrowed his brows in disappointment.

“I wish he’d rebel like a normal teenager.” Tony said and sighed “Instead he goes and nearly gets himself killed. It’s like one of the only rules he has and he breaks it. It’s gotten to a point where I wish  he’d just go to parties and drink alcohol. Maybe take the suit out for a joy ride, like a normal teenager would.” Tony almost whined. Almost. Sam furrowed his brows in confusion.

“Wait he’s never actually done those things. Isn’t he like 15?” Sam asked in pure confusion. T’challa leaned forward as Tony seemed to smile almost wistfully.

“Well he tried once.” Tony said with a small smile. “I did monitor him and he took the suit to a party.” he looked at T’challa who seemed more interested in the story then being right. “He was going to show it off. Not himself, I guess he had to cover for himself since he has an identity to keep, so he must of said that him and Spiderman were friends or something, because he’d never out himself like that. And yeah, he’s kind of a nerd, so he might’ve wanted to be popular or at least stop bullying. Having a superhero vigilante as a pal might help with that.  But the way he went about it… he seemed like he really didn’t want to do it.” Tony paused and almost laughed “In fact, I think he almost backed out before he got into the house.” Steve smiled a bit at that. “But when they did get in, and he and his friend were coming up with a plan to show off Spiderman, he did back out. He said Spiderman wasn’t a party trick and was just gonna be himself.” Tony was laughing now “And then- then this kid taunted him over the microphone and he went up to the roof to change, but instead of going in he went and got himself dropped in a lake trying to stop a flying demon instead.”Tony said in between laughs. Cause of course the one time Peter Parker would try to be anything like a normal teenager, he’d get dropped in a lake and get side tracked with his self sacrificial nature that always gave Tony a heart attack. Thor boomed with laughter as well and Steve smiled. T’challa seemed pleased as well as Sam. Quill hadn’t said anything.

“He certainly has his priorities. I can tell you that Stark.”

OoOoO

@DailyBugel

Spiderman abandoning us? Menace leaves when we need him the most. (See article below)

Peter decided to skip out on dinner. Nevermind the fact he didn’t have lunch, or even much of a breakfast. He made a beeline for that couch he had claimed and dropped his backpack down on the floor beside him and pulled out a few small tools and started to tinker with his web shooters.

That’s how Mr.Quill found him an hour later. He sat down and placed a plate of food on the table in front of him, he didn’t say anything for a while and Peter eyed the food wearily. There wasn’t much on the plate, and Peter was grateful that Mr.Quill had thought of the fact that he wasn’t hungry but still cared enough to give him something so he could at least eat .

“You know.” he finally said “He seemed pretty happy when he was coming back.” they were talking about Rocket. And Peter smiled to himself, a bit because honestly he had noticed that Rocket seemed a bit lighter than he was when Peter had first seen him. Peter took the loaf of bread on the plate and started to nibble at it. “Thank you for that.” Mr.Quill continued “I wasn’t sure how people on Terran reacted to aliens, well I had some semblance from when I was a kid, but last I remembered they weren’t normal.”

“Missouri.” Peter said a bit wistfully, remembering ‘ I come from Missouri’ and Mr.Stark’s exasperated look was almost comical as he said ‘Yeah that’s on earth dipshit.’ if he didn’t have a gun pointed to his head, he’d have laughed then.

“Yeah! Well anyway… I guess things have changed since I left, or…”

“New York is different. Yeah the rest of the world isn’t used to this, well most of the rest. But New York, this kind of thing happens every few years.” Peter said detachedly as he gestured to the damage outside. Mr.Quill looked at it for a while, and Peter thought the conversation was over. But then Mr.Quill said.

“Is this why you don’t sleep in your room?” he said it quietly, but Peter heard it and smiled a little. “You know I think I mentioned Stark saying something once about you being a crimefighter. But like from small things, like robberies and stuff. That’s cool, I guess.” Oh Mr.Quill was trying to get him to talk. Okay. Peter huffed out a laugh. Mr.Quill seemed to smile and huffed out one of his own.

“You like 80s music right?” Peter asked conversationally.

“Well I’m more into 90s now.” Quill replied after a beat and he had a big grin on his face. Peter breathed another laugh.

“Man, your so lame.” Peter choked out laughing but it had no merth in it. Why was his voice so raw?

“Hey! I’m badass! I mean it’s obvious anyone with the name Peter is badass. We’re badasses together. Badass Peters. We should form a club.” Peter laughed a bit longer this time, cause yeah they both were badass legends named Peter.

“I think I heard Rocket tell me about the dance battle that saved the galaxy.” Peter smiled at Quill’s indigent noise.

OoOoO

That night Peter had a sensory overload. He didn’t know what triggered it but he didn’t care right now. The overload made it hard to think. It was too loud, and when he opened his eyes it felt too bright even if it was the middle of the night. His head pounded with a hard beat and too many thoughts. His throat was raw, but he wasn’t screaming. His stomach was turning with food he barely ate. He needed to throw up.

He vaguely remembers stumbling to the bathroom and not turning to lights on before he threw up. The acidic taste was doubled on his taste buds and he wanted to cry. He’s actually pretty sure he is. It all hurt. His head was too full and his stomach too empty and his throat too scratchy and his ears too ringy. It was all dulling when he heard his phone go off.

He looked at the contact. Ned . He picked up.

“Hey.” he croaked in the strongest voice he could. If he sounded weak than he’d blame it on tiredness. He and Ned haven’t really talked, but he did say that he was going to be busy the next few days, and that if there was an emergency to call him but other then that not to and he’d call him when this all settled - in a text message at least. So if Ned was calling this had to be an emergency.

“P-Peter… I… there is… you need… Electric man !” the phone sizzled out and Peter shot upright. Alert and ready.

“Ned? Hey! NED! You there?” Peter barley registering that he was scrambling back out and got to his backpack for his suit and quickly changed to swing out.

Overload be damned someone needed him.

Chapter Text

Chapter 4

@SpideySpotter

From anonymous at 3:57pm

Spidey seems to have gone off the grid. No reports seen him for two days!!

So apparently when Ned said ‘electric man’ he meant a man made out of pure electricity and not a man who just called himself electric man (pretty lame name if you weren’t made out of electricity). And Electric man kicked, or fried his ass into next week. The first time at least.

Ned was doing some grocery shopping, and was passing by the bank, when an electric man came to rob the bank. To be honest, Peter would’ve thought a man made out of electricity had more important things to do then rob a bank. It seemed kind of lame.

Peter had been unprepared. He didn’t think these kinds of things would start up so soon. And no one knew, because Electric man couldn’t really be seen. The only reason Ned even knew, was because he had heard the distinct wirring of a ATM being robbed, and being Peter’s official guy in the chair, he’d know what the sound of a robbery was like. Ned had panicked and called him, but he was in no real danger. Thank god.

They couldn’t put a normal tracker on him, because it short circuited when it even got near him. Usually if a bigger kind of bad guy would come up, and Peter would  lose the first fight, which rarely ever happened, they’d at least be able to put a workable tracker on them within 24 hours. So they spent the rest of the night and most of the next day trying to make a tracker that adapted to the electromagnetic pulses, while checking recon drones they’d built out of scrap metal to keep an eye out for Electro (took them an hour but it was cooler and easier to say than electric man, that made it sound like they were getting beat up by a utility guy). They also were figuring out ways to beat the guy.

That night Electro was robbing a bank again. Peter placed the tracker on him.

It’d be a whole nother day before he actually caught the guy with an electromagnetic canceling field barrier and electric proof webs. Turns out the guy was just a chip . They’d put him in another container that was made out of scrap parts, but was affective and gave it to the police, making sure to put a note as a kind of report of sorts. Lucky for him by then people knew of Electro’s existence, since their final battle was on top of the old Avengers’ tower. The media had caught like half of it and by the time the fight was live, it was practically over. Typical . Electro was apparently trying to use the old natural energy field that Mr.Stark had built in 2012 to fuel him even more, and make him stronger. For what? Bank robberies? Peter thought there was more to what was going on then that. He was a smart kid, but he just captured Electro and put him away. He had a lot to figure out now, and Electro’s timing couldn’t have been worse.

Yeah, he still had to figure out his emancipation. May’s burial rights. Getting Spidey back on the radar. He needed a job to pay rent, if he was going to live alone. He also needed a way to acquire food. And eve if he was on a scholarship, Junior year was next year; he’d need money for the SAT and he needed to do some college applications. He also needed to fill out course selection sheets and club applications. Not to mention upgrading Spidey tech, if he wanted to avoid incidents like this in the future he’d have to up his game and be more vigilant.

So excuse him if he was a bit busy.

Peter hadn’t shown up for his lab time with Shuri. And this time he didn’t have an excuse.

He hadn’t shown up at dinner. He hadn’t shown up when FRIDAY called him. He didn’t answer anyone’s calls or texts. The last known thing anyone in Avengers compound knew about Peter Parker’s whereabouts, was when he left at 2:39 am on Saturday morning.

OoOoO

FRIDAY~ Mr.Parker seemed to be exhibiting signs of extreme distress before receiving a call from an unknown source. He seemed to identify the individual, as he jumped into action rather suddenly, sir

No note.

No callbacks.

No Parker.

Spidey had been off the grid too. He hadn’t shown up for his usual clean up route. He hadn’t been spotted by any civilians swinging around. He’d ripped out his tracker again . He disabled all the monitoring protocols in the suit. He hadn’t answered his comm, which was also disabled.

Now the Avengers were busy people, especially with their post-war clean up. Small time criminals were popping up, but Vigilantes such as the Defenders were on the case. Usually they worked on more permanent missions more undercover, it was Spidey’s job to do all the little things such as muggings and ATM robberies. But with all the clean up and the sheer amount of damage that had been done to the city, a temporary exception had to be made. Spidey had other things to do, clearly.

The thing is Spidey hadn’t even been found doing his job. Which led to some suspicions and worrying throughout the Avengers. It wasn’t like Spiderman to just drop off the grid for no reason, and he didn’t do it on accident either.

It was in the middle of Sunday that Tony left clean-up duty and dinner early to go and find him.

“He could just be finishing up some personal business.” Steve walked in on him in his dark personal lab where the only light was the glow of his holoscreen. “He didn’t do that when he woke up, so maybe he just has to do it now.”

“The last time Spider Man dropped off the grid like this, my plane crashed.” Tony said, because Peter only hid from him if he wanted to hide something from him. Steve didn’t say anything for a minute and Tony kept looking. “Dammit Parker. I forget that he’s actually decent at playing Hide and go Seek.” Steve smiled a little. But it was also a bit worrying how Peter could just disappear .

“We’re going to dinner. Want me to ask Nat to help?” Steve asked knowing Tony wouldn’t give up his search and sighed as he left.

When Steve got up to the common room some head in the room turned. Not everyone was there yet, just Thor, T’challa, Natasha and Bruce.

“Did Son of Stark find anything on Young Peter’s where abouts?” Thor asked standing up. He looked probably the most worried out of all of them. Whatever Peter said to him, must have really gotten under his skin.

“No.” Steve sighed “The kid is unnaturally good at hiding from even Tony Stark.” he gave a small smile, which quickly disappeared and he turned to Natasha “Hey Nat you wanna help him later.” Natasha gave a curt nod and sat down on the sofa and everyone followed suit and Bruce let out a sigh.

“He’s not a bad kid, but I wonder if he’s gotten himself into some trouble.” Bruce said. He liked Peter. The boy was clever and creative and smarter than anyone - including Peter himself - gave him credit for. And he was just so nice to be around, his ideal chatter and rambling was so calming. It surprised Bruce though, how normal Peter could be.

“Yes, but he woke up not but 5 days ago. And war affects are still in. If he wanted to see someone the ideal time would be to go the day after he woke up. Peter knows this. It is too early for there to be any threats that include Spider man, no?” T’challa said with a contemplative look.

“Well actually..” Natasha said “Spider Man deals with a variety of bad things. The scale goes from small crimes like muggings or street fights all the way to saving the universe from a Titan. He isn’t picky, but we understand that. There is no reason for him to drop off the grid without any of us knowing.” That kept the room in silence for a while, everyone else soon filtered in. They all didn’t really leave the common room or anything. Chatting in small groups about this and that while the news played in the background. Some people went to sleep, but Tony came in around 11:45 looking defeated. He still hadn’t found anything on Peter.

Dammit Parker.

“ In further news, we just got a report that Spiderman is fighting what looks to be a man made out of electricity at the top of the Empire State building. Police are closing down the roads in a 3 block radius, but no

casualties have been reported...”

Tony and the rest of anybody that was there looked at the News Anchor in some what disbelief and a bit of relief. If Tony hadn’t known better he could’ve sworn he saw T’challa smirking and Natasha too.

“That little shit! ”

OoOoO

@SpideySpotter

From anonymous at 12:14am

Oh good. Spidey’s back. Looks like he was a bit busy though.

@DefenderHub

From SpideySpotter at 12:39am

Heard the Defenders were back in town.

@SpideySpotter

From DefenderHub at 12:39am

Yeah, they’ve been doing little things.

Peter didn’t came back to the compound until three days after he’d left.

Bruised and zapped and electrocuted, and exhausted to hell. He trudged into the compound on Monday evening when it was near the end of dinnertime. He had barely any food the past three days, due to lack of resources and hunger. He had stayed with Ned for the most part, he needed some back up after all and Ned was his guy-in-the-chair, but he was acutely aware never called Tony or the Avengers. He was gonna get hell for that probably. They take care of him for two weeks and he goes and ditches them without even a note. But he was just so busy and wired he couldn’t find the time to even think about them.

Oh well. If worse comes to worst, he could always hit up Daredevil. Defenders finally came back, as he got a text from Danny - who always liked to keep him in some sort of loop. Matt was always in for a good vigilante escapade with him. But Peter managed alone, and nobody knew about Electro’s existence until the last day when he was confiscated after their big fight at the top of the Empire State building at  near midnight. He’d spent the remainder of the next day sleeping at Ned’s house.

He actually didn’t know what to expect when he walked into the dining room/kitchen/common room. His mind was too sluggish to process anything like that right now. If it was fast enough to, he’d go to his couch and sleep. But here he was standing in front of the Avengers, and Guardians and Wakandans, and other miscellaneous groups, with his suit in near rags and his body bruised and burned to hell. His mind had just processed that he needed to get out a second too late.

“What the actual living hell, kid?!” Tony was the first to get up from his seat but he didn’t come over but did give that disappointed worried glare that made Peter shrink. “You drop off the grid for 2 days and then beat up a man made out of pure electricity with no back up and then drop off the grid for another 17 hours! Without even a note or text or back up or anything . What the hell were you thinking?” And it was loud. Peter winced. Tony was mad. It was like the Vulture thing all over again. He was gonna take away the suit again, but the difference is, Peter knew he didn’t actually need this suit. But it made things a hell of a lot easier. Peter sighed to himself.

“Sorry?” Peter offered meekly and gave a sheepish grin. Tony got up and briskly walked over to him, grabbed him by the arm and dragged him out of the room so he could talk to him in private. Peter was kind of relieved that not everyone would be watching.

“But I did have the Defenders on standby…” he offered meekly as Tony threw him in front of him and he stumbled looking up at his mentor of sorts.

He did have the Defenders, he just didn’t use them, but he’d never tell the Avengers about Ned, it could get the poor guy in trouble and Peter already had enough of that after him as is. He and Matt were working on getting him emancipated before legal and CPS got their shit together post-war. Matt was on instant dial right now, not that he’d ever tell Tony that either. He also wouldn’t tell Tony that he only thought about calling Matt once and that was only when thinking of a last contingency. He actually wouldn’t tell Tony or anyone a lot of things, it was actually quite laughable if he could find it in himself not to take this seriously. But he did so they were gonna have to deal.

Overall he thought he did a good job cleaning up this one by himself - with Ned’s help, but if he said that he’d put Ned at risk. He wasn’t completely alone, but it was better if the world thought he was so he could keep his friend safe.

“Oh you did, did you?” Tony asked disbelievingly, with his arms crossed over his chest. “That’s why they didn’t show up and you are obviously not hurt because of it.” Peter winced

“I didn’t call them.” Peter mumbled.

“Of course you didn’t” Tony said in exasperation, putting his hand on his temple and rubbing it.

“You guys are too busy right now, someone had to help though.” Peter insisted and Tony only looked at him warily, cause yeah, they were that deep into this shit and they did need help with stuff like this. With all the political stuff post-war, the Avengers had their hands tied. Vigilantes now had their job for a short time, cause they needed to get their shit together. Didn’t stop him from being mad though.

“How do you even know them?” Tony could only ask.

“They owe me a few favors.” Peter said nonchalantly and quiet and then he snapped after the long silence and Tony’s incredulas look that followed. “What? You’re not the only superheroes that I’ve worked with.” He didn’t say it with any mirth or aggression like eh should have. He was defending himself. Tony sighed.

“God dammit, not even the Avengers could get the Defenders to help with the war, and here you have them on immediate standby? We should have just asked you .” Tony grumbled and Peter smiled a little. Maybe he wasn’t in as much trouble as he thought.

Normally Tony couldn’t get mad at Peter for not checking in. Ever since Vulture he’d died down on attempts to contact him. But Tony Stark did not own Spiderman, Peter never signed the accords, meaning that what he was doing was illegal, but no one really cared because he never did anything wrong, despite what the Bugle said. What Peter did was his own business and Tony wouldn’t normally butt in. But with all this Infinity War crap and the clean up. Spiderman was involved and helped the Avengers, meaning until this was all settled, he had to be treated like part of the team. It wasn’t accurate and Tony and Peter needed to have a discussion about this, but it sure as hell made explaining it to the media and government easier if Spiderman was put down as an asset than a stowaway.

“To their credit, they had just come back a a few days ago from an interdimensional plain in Kun-lun. About a day before Electro attacked. So they were a bit busy.” Peter informed and then  thought about it a bit more “So were X-force too. Mission in Antarctica. I think they are still there. I don’t think they’d help anyway. Helping isn’t really their thing.” Peter got a picture of Deadpool playing with cute penguins in his mind and almost blanched. Those poor penguins.

“You know Deadpool too?” Tony asked sarcastically. Peter nodded absently.

“He’s a pain in the ass but yeah, I know Deadpool.” And if he were to be honest he didn’t want Deadpool here now.. Or ever if he could help it. He’d just make this whole clean up worse, and Spidey would be on babysitting duty until he got a mission or Kate dragged his ass back to wherever they come from. He’s terrorized New York with his antics enough to give Peter a headache on a constant basis.

“It’s nice to know you can make friends with just about everyone you probably shouldn’t. Any other Superhero/Mercenary buddies I should know about?” Peter gave a small smile.

“X-men and Fantastic Four” Peter grinned cheekily. “Although Logan’s salty about me not joining and The Thing thinks I’m too young for this.” How was it that nearly all the Superhero teams knew he was not an adult. Albeit they didn’t know his age, and only the Defenders - and now the Avengers - knew his name. Everyone else just called him Spiderman, or Spidey or Webhead or Kid some weird name - usually Deadpool - they’d come up with when they were working together on the fly. Or Peter was scolding - read:Deadpool - them on wrecking his city for no good reason . God Superheros can be maniacs sometimes.

Peter sighed. The amount of times he had to make Deadpool clean his graffiti off of an important building is too much for one 15 year old spider soldier to handle. Just thinking about it gives him a headache.

“So do you always just like casually have connections to all of the superheroes?” Tony asked disbelievingly and a little sarcastically, actually it was mostly sarcasm. Peter probably should’ve said something smart back but all he did was look way too innocent for him to be not compared to a confused puppy as he cocked his head.

“Well yeah, they wanted to me to join their groups at one point or another. You know so they could keep an eye on me, but I rejected cause I got things I don’t want them to know, and they respect that. I team up with them on a whim if they are doing something in town though. But we’re not best friends or anything.” Peter said conversationally and Tony looked like he was gonna have a heart attack.

“Is that why you rejected the Avengers too?” Tony asked this time, and as much as he’d like to know the things Peter is hiding, he somehow knows its something he’ll keep as close to his chest as possible. It doesn’t mean it’ll not worry the crap out of him though. “Because it was just another offer?” Peter thought he was mad and he quickly placated by waving his hands in front of him.

“No, No . I just- I’m a kid , I don’t need this high level mission go to Siberia for 2 months in the middle of midterms, so yeah I just… I can work with people … I’m just not… good at really… following orders?” He said in a question, because yeah. He didn’t do it purposefully, it’s just he always got side tracked. At the wrong place at the wrong time kind of thing. There was always a falling building or a kid that was getting hurt or a stray drone that just so happened to be an important drone. It really wasn’t his fault, he was just trying to help people.

“Damn straight.” Tony barked out in a laugh. Peter smiled a bit sheepishly and moved to leave, but Tony caught him.

“Nope. Wait. You can’t leave just yet. You’re still in trouble.” Tony stopped him and he turned around a bit to look at him with a wary look.

“But I-”

“You had to tell us where you’re going. Or at least what your doing. But you didn’t even say you were leaving or for how long. We have too much post-war clean up, to be dealing with Spiderman’s whereabouts.” Tony said and before he could continue Peter cut him off.

“Yeah. And crime isn’t stopping  because of that. Vigilantes have to be on high alert after something like this because people are taking advantage of the weak state the world is in. The Defenders are on over time and even Logan texted saying that they were busy in… wherever they are, probably in South America. Torch said they’re cleaning up parts of Asia and Europe. I haven’t gotten any messages from Ms.Bishop but I’m guessing she’s freezing her ass off with penguins somewhere. They all said the same things. Avengers have to deal with all that legal stuff, don’t worry about the bad guys right now. I’m a Vigilante too, I’m not an Avenger. I may have fought in the war with you guys, but I still need to do my job.” Peter smiled a little and then continued “But you guys do have the weird ass, sadistic, and really twisted support of everyone else. They might not say it, but since Avengers have been formed, it’s been a lot easier for them to get around and avoid media. Avengers Initiative may piss them off to some extents, but you guys are still the number one impacting hero league right now. And plus Vigilantes are good at cleaning up messes. It’s what we do. Our own and otherwise.” Peter said and didn’t really wanna stay any longer so he did walk out in their silence heading toward the other hallway where his couch was.

“Damn.” Tony spoke and a couldn’t quite stop a smile creeping on his face.

OoOoO

@DefenderHub

From SpideySpotter at 12:40am

I ’ve got an idea. A contest, you game.

@SpideySpotter

From DefenderHub at 12:40am

>:)

@SpideySpotter & @DefenderHub have created a new account: @VigilantePoll.

“You know you do have a room here right.” Tony said a few hours later sitting down next to Peter who was lazily pushing buttons on his computer on the couch where he always sat. Peter made a noise of acknowledgement, but proceeded to lazily type something on his keyboard. Tony sighed.

“Hey kid.” he sounded tired “We need to talk. Like seriously.” Peter looked up at him, a little worry in those mostly curious eyes. Was he still in trouble. He kind of avoided punishment earlier. He closed his laptop and sat up. Might as well get it over with.

“Okay.” he said folding his legs in a criss cross applesauce. “Am I in trouble?” he asked a bit like a child would, and Tony sometimes has to remind himself that Peter is a child.

“No. And yes. It’s just I never…” Tony sighed “I never told you what your.. Position is on a stand point bases.” Tony said and Peter cocked his head.

“I’m a vigilante.”

“Yes, but you also helped in the war. I can’t say you were a stowaway on Titan, you legit helped  the Avengers with this war, and from an outside view, you are an Avenger. To make things less complicated I put you down as an asset, but not an official member of the team, but until this all dies down, you need to be treated like a member of the team.” Peter opened his mouth to say something, but Tony held up a hand to stop him “I know. I’m sorry I didn’t consult you for this. But the Government wanted an immediate answer in everyone that was involved roles. You included. So yes, you are a temporary member of the Avengers until all clean up operations and legal papers are dealt with.” There was a pause.

“What does that exactly mean?” Peter said, he got it. He was filed down as an ally, but if Tony was telling him this, then it must have some other effects. Not just an ally, it isn’t like teaming up with the X-men on the fly to stop a giant squid.

“It means you have to follow orders, and stay on the grid until we can get this settled kid.” Tony looked nearly apologetic and that was as good as Peter was gonna get. Peter couldn’t act out of line when the world was already in ruins. He sighed.

“Okay, Mr.Stark. No more dropping off the grid for a while. I can do that, maybe… but no promises. I’m not so sure about the orders part though.” Peter said and looked out the window that he’d gotten used to seeing his city be rebuilt slowly the past few days. He saw Tony smile a little out of the corner of his eye.

“We’ll work on it kid. And hey, it won’t be all boring, you get to work in the lab with a princess and Doctor Banner. So there’s that .” Peter laughed at that, because since he woke up his life had been anything but boring and it hasn’t even been a week.

The laughter quieted down a bit and they were left in silence until Tony spoke again. This time seeming a bit unsure. “You know, I tracked you before you left. FRIDAY scans everyone all the time. Safety precautions you know. I don’t check them often, but I checked yours an hour before you left.” Peter tensed up and Tony saw “Yeah. Look kid, you fought in a war. No one’s expecting you to be okay. I know you told Shuri that, take your own advice.”

“She lost her home.” Peter said meekly as if that made his reasoning justified. “I didn’t-...I don’t think I lost…” He couldn’t complete the sentence cause they both know it wasn’t true. “I didn’t lose something that… big… I’m fine.”Tony raised an eyebrow at him and Peter fidgeted with his hands.

“ You don’t think we notice you’ve been avoiding your room and not eating? We do, no one has the  heart to call you out on it though. When we try to talk one on one with you, you always end up solving our problems instead of yours. You know that makes you a little shit, right?” Peter briefly smiled “Especially after the whole Electro thing. You can talk to us Peter. We are here to help. You gotta know that. You might be a solo act but you are clearly not alone.” Peter looked briefly at Tony who was looking out the window same as him. Peter sighed.

“I’m trying to. I mean I get sleep, it’s not really affected yet. It will be. And I know my body will be too. But it’s not too bad now.” Peter paused, and Tony looked like he wanted to say something but Peter cut him off before he could speak. “Mr.Stark let’s make a deal.” he said “If it gets worse, and it will get worse, I don’t doubt that, you can help. I mean if it gets really bad. I won’t know or I’ll ignore it. It’s what I do. But could you please step in when you think it gets that bad?” This was the closest thing to asking for help Peter would get. Tony was grateful for that. He smiled a bit and Peter smiled back.

“Sure thing kid.”

Chapter Text

“Thanks a ton Matt.”

“No problem, Peter. It’s the least I could do for fixing the AC a million times for dirt cheap.”

“How much time until Foggy notices I’m scamming him? I could just update it and he’d not have to pay me again.”

Matt smirked.

OoOoO

@SocialServicesNYC

CPS has an abundance of orphaned kids. (See article below).

It got worse a lot quicker than Tony expected.

There were a few days after Electro where Peter was fine. He smiled. His appetite seemed to come back a bit, not all the way though. He worked in the lab. Made jokes with Shuri- mostly cracking vine phrases as they worked. Played Mario Cart with Groot- sometimes Sam or Scott would join in. He was formal and polite toward Thor and T’challa- to their utter amusement. He spared a bit with Steve and Nat- to which they didn’t expect to get their asses handed to them the first time. He geeked out over alien tech with Bruce- and Bruce seemed to enjoy having tea with him too. He taught some modern day stuff to Mantis and Drax- like a high five and Shuri even tried to help him teach them how to dab. He tinkered with Rocket at that place he’d taken him to- The raccoon seemed happier around him. He chatted with Rhody as they were picking up parts of building- Rhody didn’t mind his chatting as much anymore. He talked about books with Wanda- they had their own little book club and stuff. He either stopped or helped Clint with pranks- it really depended, but when you got a guy who can climb on the ceiling to be your prank partner it was a nightmare. He traded music with Quill- Quill discovering heavy metal was the funniest thing Tony’s ever seen. He even talked mechanics with Bucky- who knew the Winter Soldier knew so much about motorcycles. And of course, he kept calling him Mr.Stark and making a few cracks at him too.

Everyone developed a sort of fondness for him. Shuri and him were basically like the new Science bros, you could barely get them apart sometimes. Groot stuck close to him when Rocket wasn’t around, they were official gaming bros. Sam had took on a role of slight big brother, patting him on the back and making quips about his age. Scott had become his official fan bro, they geeked out over Avengers things and it was weird when Scott did it alone. Thor took on a protective role, and smiled and liked to talk to Peter often. T’challa… well he wasn’t sure, he just seemed amused with whatever Peter did. Steve had developed a mother hen role, making sure Peter was eating and sleeping and resting enough. Nat took on a wierd protective from a distance roll, making sure he wasn’t getting hurt while on his clean-up route or slight patrol- didn’t stop her from kicking his ass in training though. Bruce seemed like a good science geek/co-mentor along with Tony, Peter soaked up the information like a sponge and got so happy when he and Bruce made a small breakthrough. Mantis had taken a liking to him, and after the initial weirdness of her antennas wared off he got curious enough to ask. Drax still scared him a little though, but the big man had laughed anyway at something that he did with his ‘puny body’. Rocket didn’t like a lot of the other people, mostly everyone, but he did like to ask Peter what he thought about a few things - Tony couldn’t blame him the kid had some good ideas. Rhody had teamed with Cap and decided that mother hen when he wasn’t Spidey was a good role to take on, Peter seemed almost overwhelmed sometimes, but laughed it off nonetheless. Wanda had taken the big sister role, and also encouraged the eating. Clint and him were Prank buddies sometimes, and at others he’d be a voice of reason - thank god for whenever he decided they wouldn’t do a prank. Quill and him got along splendidly, their main factor that they were both named Peter and loved old movies and music. Bucky also adopted the same protective from a distance thing like Natasha.

Peter’s presence literally was a coping mechanism, Tony observed. The room always had a little less tension when he walked in and everything seemed brighter when he was around. Tony wasn’t even sure if Peter knew his effect on the Avengers. Before he woke up everything was so...dull. It seemed like a far away memory that no one would want to access.

Peter was vital to their coping, so it was obvious to all of them when things started to go downhill.

His loss of appetite came back slowly, Tony barely noticed at first. Skip one meal for lab time here, forget lunch a few times there. But then came the bags, light at first and then darker in about three days. His lack of talking came gradually too, and his movements seemed slower. He was quick to end conversations too, and the lack of Peter was obvious.

Then it came on full force one day. He didn’t eat. He didn’t speak. He didn’t look anywhere but the ground. He had massive bags under his eyes, and his cloths hung off him and it was painfully obvious how small he was- to skinny . He was pale and he looked too small and scared.

“Tony.” Steve said that night when Peter didn’t even bother showing up for Dinner that they’d settled into. It was routine: no matter what you did, they’d always group up at dinner. Unspoken necessity.

Tony knew that now was the time Peter had been referring to. He wasn’t so sure at first, but if this wasn’t it, then he didn’t know what was.  Now was the ‘worse’ Peter had been referring to. But no amount of preparation could’ve had any of them ready though, no matter how much they anticipated. It put most of them in shock for the day, and it just seemed so wrong for a kid that happy and innocent to look so broken and just... sick . Tony had ever seen him that pale on...Titan. It made him have a sinking feeling in his stomach.

Tony went to the couch Peter seemed to always come back to and he was just there hugging his knees looking at the city again. Tony sat down next to him.

“Is it worse?” Peter choked out quietly and Tony wanted to deny all to hell that that was Peter Parker. He sounded so sad and broken and accepting . Accepting that he was most certainly not okay . But Tony knew it was vital in the process to recovery.

“Yeah, kiddo. Sorry.” Tony said in a gentle voice, not even he knew he could do.

“I got emancipated yesterday.” Peter said and that threw Tony in for a loop. He didn’t even know Peter was seeing a lawyer. ‘ Daredevil’s my lawsuit.’ “I can live on my own until I get adopted or turn 18. That was the best Matt could do.” Peter let out a broken humorless laugh“Looks like the government recovered faster than we expected.” And yeah, if there wasn’t so many orphaned kids right now because of the war, it’d be nearly impossible for Peter to get emancipated. CPS was probably glad they had to take care of one less child. Who ever this Matt guy was, he must’ve been good. Tong didn’t ask though. “It didn’t hit me til’ last night though.” Peter said quietly. There was pause and Tony was dreading on what to say next.

“May’s dead.”

he said even quieter and that shocked Tony into silence. Neither him nor Peter brought up May’s death, they both knew she was gone. But neither of them wanted to break the illusion that she just wasn’t there . If they said she was dead, then it made it true. Tony honestly thought he’d be the one to slip up first. Turns out Peter bit his tongue before him.

Peter choked on a sob. Tony felt his heart break as tears came down Peter’s face and his breathes became shorter.

“Mr.Stark, I-I don’t want to be alone. She’s not- She’s not here anymore. And- and she’s was the- the last constant I-I had!” Peter said in a nearly hysterical voice and Tony was frozen. He didn’t know what to do. Was it a risk to hug the poor boy? Peter continued. “ I didn’t even tell her about-about Spider man. I was going to tell her when she got b-better. But she didn’t get better, Mr.Stark. She was going to get better. She was in an operation and they were in the- the vital stages when the- when the Doctor turned into- into dust! He turned into dust and she- she flatlined. And I was- and I was Dust too. I was dust on Titan. We both died .” Peter said and Tony wanted to cry too, cause yeah they did. She was in a heart surgery and then Thanos snapped his fingers and the head doctor had turned into dust. Everyone was so shocked they were paralyzed and  the patient flatlined. The patient was May Parker.

“And it’s not fair that- that I came back, and she didn’t . She didn’t deserve to die , Mr.Stark.” Peter said quieter and buried his head in his knees and Tony was at a loss for words, cause yeah he’d read the files about May Parker’s death.

But hearing it from her kid. Her kid that got emancipated yesterday. Her kid that was in space when she died. Her kid that was Spiderman . It was too much. Tony scooted closer and put an arm around the small boy, and damn was he always this skinny . How’d Tony ever let it get this bad? He should’ve done something sooner. Peter shouldn’t be this broken.

Peter whimpered a bit and Tony squeezed his arm. It stayed like that for a while, he’d occasionally quietly sniff or whimper, but they were in relative silence. Then Peter groaned and Tony looked down. The kid had peeked up a little, but just enough for Tony to see. He looked sick. His arms had migrated to his stomach and Tony knew Peter couldn’t speak right now and wisked the kid off to the bathroom, where he promptly deposited all the food he never ate and bile into the toilet. Tony rubbed circles into his back saying nothing and Peter reached over to flush the toilet and slumped against the glass window pane of the shower. Tony sat next to him and Peter closed his eyes as he sat there. He was going to be sick again, not now but probably later.

Tony was a bit surprised when Peter’s head dropped on his chest and the kid promptly went to a fitful sleep. It was better than the heartbreaking scene he just had to witness. Tony took him to his room and deposited him on the couch. He figured Peter wouldn’t want to go to his room, there was a reason why he slept on that couch. So Tony took him to his room and placed him somewhere that was familiar so he could keep an eye on the kid tonight. He draped a soft blanket over the boy and quietly asked FRIDAY to inform him when he woke.

Tony sighed and went back to the common room, where everyone seemed tense and waiting.

“Is he okay?” Steve asked after a long silence.

“No.”

OoOoO

@VigilantePoll

From anonymous at 9:17am

Luke Cage just helped me with a car in a pot hole. Does that count?

@VigilantePoll

From anonymous at 10:15am

Danny Rand just stopped a store robbery.

@VigilantePoll

From anonymous at 10:25am

Spidey stopped a GTB again.

“You up for this, kid?” Dare Devil said the next morning on the rooftop.

“Yeah, definitely. Gotta make sure your team knows what they’re doing.” Spidey said fake cheer in his voice. They both ignored it.

“Yeah, okay.” Devil smirked. Spidey was about to jump off the roof. “It’s okay to take a break though. You fought in that... thing with the Avengers.” Spidey paused but didn’t look at him.

“What was so important that you guys couldn’t?” Spider man said in a low voice, no anger in it though. Daredevil sighed.

“Inter dimensional shit kid.” He responded shortly.

“Again?” Spiderman asked and it sounded like he was raising a brow.

“Yeah…” there was a pause.

“There’s more to that story. You’d drop your usual dimension hopping for a war, I’d think.” Spiderman said. He wasn’t wrong. They’d at least be in New York fighting off giant space doughnuts. “And you sure as hell wouldn’t be talking to me about it. What really happened?” Daredevil paused and then smirked. Sometimes he forgot Spidey was as smart as he was.

“Yeah, well it wasn’t our ‘usual shit’ I guess.” Dare Devil said and Spidey shifted in a way so he was looking over his shoulder. “Ever hear of Thaddeus Ross.”

“He made Sokovia Accords. But government stuff isn’t the Defenders style.” Spiderman furrowed his brow under his mask.

“Remember when Fisk infiltrated the NYPD?” Yeah he did but he saw no correlation, he let Daredevil continue. “Ross is sorta doing that with the Hand. It was a ruse to capture us.”

“What?” Spider Man asked a bit shell shocked. Ross was trusted among the Avengers. He’d helped the Wakandans before the war, and helped the Avengers during the war. “Why did he want you?”

“Something about controlling heroes and what not.” Daredevil seemed to look at him for a minute, Spiderman knew better. “I don’t know half the crap he was talking about down there. But he made it a point to get us injured and under close supervision.”

“It had to be someone else, Ross is too high profile to be doing that sort of thing himself, even if he was the one behind the strings. He’s not as stupid as to let you see him torture you and then let you go.” Spiderman said in a tone that spoke of truth. And it did.  He didn’t trust Ross at all, not as much as he trusted Daredevil at least. But it seemed too sketchy for Ross to out himself.

“That was defiantly Ross.” Daredevil said. “It wasn’t a clone or a copy or fake. I’d know.” there was a beat before he spoke again.

“So what do you want me to do?” Spidey said already knowing the answer. He’d do something even if Daredevil told him not to anyway. Call it teenage rebellion but no one tells him what to do.

“You have connections to the Avengers… You fought with them in the war and in their civil war. I don’t know your motive behind what you did, but you fought for the Accords and on Ross’ side. Those Accords would’ve put half of those Avengers in jail.”

“That’s why he suggested the Accords. It’d put heroes in jail time?” Spiderman said bluntly, fitting the pieces together. “But it didn’t work. Did it? The avengers split up and the Accords went to shit.”

“Half the Avengers went into hiding.” Daredevil said. “His plan A was foiled and they didn’t even know what they did.”

“They still trust him.” Spiderman mumbled frustrated.

“You can expose him. Ross is coming to a meeting tomorrow. Everyone knows.” Daredevil stepped up to him a little. “You can tell everyone what they’re up to.”

“With what proof?” Spider Man sighed.

“You don’t believe me?” Dare Devil questioned.

“I do.” Spiderman Said “it’s not that simple any more though. Ross helped in Wakanda and in the war. Saying that kind of thing would only make me into a bad guy.”

“So now you care about rep?” He sounded disappointed.

“You know that’s BS. Spidey rep ain't ever gonna be good with the Bugel out there.” Spiderman said “but no one would believe me. I have no proof and I’m a vigilante. Not the best formula if you wanna expose someone. You’re a lawyer by day, you should know we don’t have anything to go on if we wanna handle this in a more civilized way. And I’m on the Avengers’ good side, rather keep it that way. Thank you.”

“Since when has anything we’ve ever done been the legal way? We’re vigilantes. Don’t tell me you’re just gonna drop this.” Daredevil asked.

“I never said I’d pick it up.” Daredevil gave him a questioning glance. Spidey sighed “Let me take the lead. I have connections inside Avengers Initiative. Let me see what I can do.” Spiderman grumbled and pauses for a minute and looked at Daredevil. “Did he hurt you?”

“Tortured is a little, nothing too big. We got out in one piece.” Dare Devil said and then continued “if you can’t use our words for it, don’t mention us. We don’t need a bad rep with the NYPD either. We just got in their good graces, if we go around talking shit about a government official with actual influence, it wouldn’t be good. It doesn’t matter who gets the credit so long as the guy is in jail.”

“That’s more like it. See no one appreciates the things that matter.” Spidey said with a bit of cheerfulness. “Funny how it all comes back to reputations though. It really shouldn’t matter. Their hardly ever true.” Spiderman Said stubbornly like a child.

“But they do. We can change a lot of things, we can’t change the way they think.” Dare Devil Said wisely. “You really are too young for this.”

“That shouldn’t matter either.” Spiderman grumbled. Daredevil smirked.

Chapter Text

@SpideySpotter

From X-forceAgenda at 3:12pm

They’re back .

@X-forceAgenda

From SpideySpotter at 3:15pm

Oh great.

When Deadpool came back it all went to shit.

Honestly, taking down the Rhino with him - more like him getting trampled on while he was trying to work - was probably not the best way to meet again.

“Hey! Baby Boy!” He said as Peter finished up, because all Deadpool seemed to want to do was annoy him.

“The city can’t take your BS right now Wade. Go back to the hole you crawled from.” Peter usually wasn’t rude to people, except Deadpool. Peter was pretty sure he had a master degree in annoying people - namely Spidey. Peter didn’t mind flipping off Wade.

“You here a lot of news lately? There’s a contest going on between the Defenders and you to see who can round up the most villains on their own in the news right now.” Wade said and Peter sighed. He already knew that, it was just New York’s way of coping. He was in first place but DareDevil was slowly catching up. It was no surprise though, they’ve been doing this kind of thing longer than Jess, Luke and Danny. Rookies.

“Yes I know. What do you want? I’m kinda busy with...” he gestured all around him and Wade made a complaining noise.

“Awww!! You’re no fun! Hey is it true though? Are you with the Avengers?” Wade asked nearly jumping up and down and Spidey swung to the roof of a building, resetting his web shooters. “Aww baby boy! I thought you’d join X force!! But at least you’ve got a team. I just never expected you to actually sign those accords.” Accords? The Sokovia Accords? He’d met Agent Ross last night, but something in the back of his mind didn’t like him. It wasn’t just Dare Devils warning. He trusted his Spidey Sense, so he stayed away. There was just something about him. Other then everything telling him to deck him in the head and out him, he couldn’t do it though. When Ross slipped up, then he would. But not now. Villains like him, who think they have everyone under his finger, would slip up eventually. Happened with Vulture and it’d happen with Ross. He just had to be patient. Not that it was his strong suit, but he couldn’t handle this like he did Vulture. Ross was more well known than Toomes. And more trusted.still he kept his word the Dare Devil, there must have been some other reason deadpool was warning him, specifically against the Accords. There was no way he knew about the super hero kidnapping.

“ what are you even talking about? And I’m not on any team. It’s just legal matters. I’m an asset to the Avengers like I’m an asset to X force and the Defenders and anyone else who needs my help. I didn’t sign anything and I don’t plan to.” Peter said curtly. He didn’t need to get too involved in the confusing stuff. The Accords were just apart of Ross’ plan to capture the Avengers.

“But you fought for the accords half a year ago.” Deadpool spoke lowly. Peter has only ever heard Deadpool get like that a few times and that meant it was serious he went on “you better pick your fights better Spidey. You were in something personal 9 months ago, and you were fighting with the Avengers in a war. You wear Starks suit. You may not have signed anything, but everyone else thinks you’re an avenger. Stark basically branded you. You may not think this kind of thing matters, but it does. Watch your back.” Deadpool was ridiculous but the more Peter thought about it the more sense that made. He didn’t know what he was getting into when he went to Germany, he didn’t even know what the Accords were. He only knew he had to sign them to be an Avenger and the Ross had created them. He fought in the war with the Avengers. He kept fighting in the Avengers battles these past few months. Personal and otherwise.

He didn’t say anything more to Wade as he swung away.

OoOoO

@SpideySpotter

From anonymous at 4:15pm

I’m confused. Did Deadpool and Spidey team up??

No Deadpool didn’t do anything.

Dinner was a bit more quiet than usual. He was currently sitting at the table with Cap and Tony in front or to the side of him. He twirled his pasta and kept glancing up at them subtly. He would have to talk soon if the air was anything to go by. Ross had joined them too.

“What are the Accords?” He asked in a bit of a demanding and yet tentative voice. Steve and Tony stiffened and Ross looked indifferent.

“Not important. The Accords went to shit a while ago kid.” Tony said in a terse voice. Like he didn’t want to talk about it.

“Wait aren't you fighting for the Accords? Tony did you not tell him?” Steve asked in a bit of a worried voice. Peter shook his head and Tony seemed to get more tense. Peter leaned forward.

“They were a means to get hero’s to face the consequences for their actions.” Ross said and Peter furrowed his brows.

“But they help people.” Peter said.

“By breaking some laws.” Ross countered “the Accords was a means to have them face the consequences of the damage they do and the laws they break.” Ross looked at him “further not it is also a means to keep enhanced or magical beings in custody and under watch so they do not hurt people accidentally.” It was silent for a little while and Peter looked a little lost. Not a look Tony saw too often.

“Peter?” Tony leaned toward the kid.

“I’m a vigilante.” He said quietly and Tony stiffened again and Peter snapped his head up. “I’m a vigilante and enhanced!” He said loudly and got up “I was fighting for- to go to jail?! If I had said yes to you when you asked me to be an Avenger I would have to stay here . Away from my Aunt. Away from my friends. Away from my entire life! There is a reason I wear that mask and nearly nobody knows my identity. I don’t want Spiderman screwing with the people I care about or my personal life! Those Accords would have taken them all away! Did you even think that part through?!” Peter said angrily, and Tony was nearly shocked into speechlessness Peter never got angry with him. Scratch that Peter never got angry period. The kid just didn’t have it in him. But here they were, and Tony stood up to defend himself.

“I was trying to   fix the Accords.” He said tersely “I don’t want anyone to go to jail but we do have to clean up our messes. I did think it through, kid. You didn’t. You came to Germany of your own will.” Tony said and Peter boiled up a little.

“You threatened to tell May! She didn’t need that!” Peter said back shaking his head.  Tony used him. He used him for a fight bigger then he could see, and now they had a mess on their hands. It would’ve been easier if Peter didn’t care, and he normally wouldn’t. But Ross was still trusted. Ross was still there . Using the Avengers and the Wakandans and the Government. They didn’t suspect a thing. It would’ve been so much easier if he wasn’t there .

“You seemed pretty happy to do it anyway.” Tony said agarly.

“I had homework!” He said back in an incredulous tone. “and yeah because I thought about it in an optimistic light. That’s the only thing I’ve got to keep me from freaking out and feel like I’m doing something wrong when I’m told it’s right by iron man !” Peter said angrily.

“You know your acting like a bit of a brat right now.” He said “ and your not listening again. How many times have you nearly gotten yourself killed. You don’t think and you don’t have a plan. You keep hopping around to different teams even when I told you we had a temporary agreement. We made a deal. You teamed up with Deadpool today. Don’t think we don’t know.” Peter could hardly believe it, but at the same time he could. The only reason that Tony talked to him and comforted him the other night was because of this. If he behaved, then he got someone there to pretend to care about him. Tony was using him again, or at least his insecurities. It may not have actually been that way, but that’s the only way Peter thought it could be right now.

“I didn’t team up with him, and he has nothing to do with this.” Peter said tightly. “ and the last time I listened to you, I got hit by a plane.” He ask again and yeah sure it was a low blow, but Peter didn’t care right now.

“And the last time you didn’t, you died. ” Tony said before he could stop himself and Peter looked at him with an angry flare that was getting dimmer but never really died.

“I would’ve died anyway!” He shouted and made to go out of the room.

“Stop acting like a child!” Tony said in vain to get him to turn around.

“I am a child!” Peter said and there was a long silence. “ You And everyone else keeps telling me that like I don’t know! Stop- ... look it doesn’t matter if I was spiderman or signed the Accords or listened to you! It doesn’t matter if you branded or used me or not. It doesn’t matter that I’m 15 or a vigilante. I would’ve still died. It was random. So don’t use it as an excuse.” He left and left the room in silence. “And it wasn’t the point anyway.”

“Brand you?” Tony muttered to himself.

They didn’t see the way Ross smirked.

As Peter walked out he left the suit on his couch.

OoOoO

@VigilantePoll

From anonymous at 2:32pm

Spidey stopped a mugging on 104th.

@VigilantePoll

From anonymous at 2:45pm

Spider boy helped me with directions. How nice.

@VigilantePoll

From anonymous at 2:56pm

Spidey stopped ANOTHER GTB!!

@VigilantePoll

From anonymous at 3:34pm

Spidey actually stopped a GTA!!

Finally

Peter wasn’t seen for a week at Avengers compound. He didn’t come back, but that didn’t mean the Avengers didn’t know he was okay. He was catching crime left and right, soaring way above DareDevil who’d been crawling at the same pace as him. They didn’t see him in damage clean up, not even casually swinging by. It was like he avoided them on purpose. And it wasn’t like he wasn’t on the grid. There was still Twitter feed about him.

The webs were his own creation and he had his own homemade suit. He’d caught criminals in it before, and he could do it again. He could make his own drones and trackers and web-shooters out of ordinary scraps and make his own webs like he used to. He didn’t need Tony’s help.

Mr.Stark.

He didn’t need his help. He had Ned and he had the Defenders and X force and hell he even had Deadpool. But Peter couldn’t help but feel guilty for what he said. He could’ve at least let Tony give him an explanation. But that wasn’t what Peter was looking for. He was looking for an answer and he got it. And he responded to it. In the most childishly bratty way possible.

God he was an idiot.

“Hey dude. You’re off the charts these past few weeks. Like Luke and Danny are trying to step up their game because it’s just embarrassing how ahead you are!” Ned said. He’d been helping him fix up his old suit the past few days, when Ned said he looked like a web version of Deadpool he opted to change his outfit a bit. Still a hoodie and high tops and web shooters and blue pants, but his mask changed a bit, now covering his lower half of his face and he wore goggles that have been improvised for his dialed up senses. Some hair stuck out, but it kept his identity a secret.

Peter groaned and put down a drone he’d been fixing up from his last recon. “Hey dude, you okay? Maybe you can take a break. I mean even Jessica looks like she’s trying harder.” That made Peter smile a little. Jessica never tries. But Peter could care less about the poll or contest or any of the things like that. He just needed a distraction from everything going on in his messed up life.

“It’s not that Ned. I mean yeah maybe I do, but like it’s not the crime I’m worried about.” It’s everything else. Ned got it and understood, he told Ned about that fight he had with Mr.Stark and Ned agreed that the billionaire should’ve at least told him what the Accords were about. He didn’t tell him about Ross.

“Well you got a robber near the peer. Looks like he’s got more advanced tech. You think he’s gonna steal from one of those warehouses?” bless the Holy Spirit that was Ned Leeds.

“Thanks Ned! And hey after I catch this guy maybe I will take a day to just sleep .” He saluted and jumped out the window hearing Neds ‘be careful’ as he did so.

OoO

It was an octopus guy.

A mechanical big octopus with a bunch of fancy gadgets and something that was not uncommon and a bit shocking. And an abandoned peer. And no one to get hurt. Perfect.

“Spider comes crawling out of the cracks.” said the man. It was weird and creepy and sent chills up Peter’s spine. The guy hadn’t stolen anything.

“So you gonna try to take anything, or you just wanna fight man? Cause I got other things to do then destroy your ego.” Peter snarked as he crouched on a lamp post looking at the Octopus.. Thing. God he looked so creepy .

“I want to know how you tick.” The man let an arm thrust toward him and ewwww creepy old man .

“Gross. Like seriously dude. You sound like a disgusting pervert.” Peter flipped to dodge another arm and shot a web. “ I mean I know I look good in the spandex, but come on man.” He swung around and kicked the Octo-guy in the back. The man stumbled forward.

“You are chatty. We’ll do something to remedy that.” A hand claw thingy shot out and grabbed him and squeezed tight. Peter grabbed the arm as it lifted him into the air. “But I think you will make an exceptional experiment.” Peter’s eyes went wide a little.

Experiment? No. No way. This guy wanted to experiment on him. Why? The arm squeezed tighter and Peter huffed out a breathe, it was getting hard to breath. He stuck his hand on the arm and pushed as much as he could. The arm bent a bit and he wiggled out.

“My, my aren’t you smart.. And strong . No wonder Ross picked you.” Wait, did he just say Ross? Peter knew there was something about the guy that wasn’t right, everything told him that. He should've said something earlier. He and this creepy Octopus probably had the same intentions. Peter flung around him again, but a hand just maneuvered back and he dodged, but he had to find another way. He flung some webs at the base of his arms and crossed his hands over his chest and yanked at the central processors. Octo-creep went down, but then he felt something stick in his neck. His eyes went blurry and his stomach cramped

He barely registered he’d been drafted to the neck before everything was fuzzy and distant. He couldn’t think, or move much. Paralysis? Maybe they were trying to knock him out. His metabolism doesn’t allow for that. Just makes him sick.

OoOoO

When Peter could think again, it was on a tilted up table and he was in strong restraints. When he pulled at it, they didn’t move. He fuzzily recognized them as-

“Vibranium. Straight from Wakanda.” said a familiar voice. A voice he was wary to hear before and now he was seathing to. Ross stepped out from his blindspot and looked him over like he was a fresh piece of meat.

“What do you want?” he growled out, voice thick with something . Ross paced around before looking at him again.

“What do you think I want Peter?” he asked in a question much like a teacher would to student. Peter had associated that voice to learning, and he loved learning. He hated the voice now. He didn’t think he’d be able to hear that voice in a teachers mouth again. “You’re a smart kid. How about you guess why you’re here.”

Peter looked around. Lab equipment and computers and papers and charts and vitals. He was in a Lab. You’ll make an exceptional experiment. Peter’s eyes widened, Ross had a sick smile. “You see Peter,” he hated how he spoke to him, like he didn’t know better. He probably didn’t, but maybe that’s why he hated it so much right now. “I want to help our country. We have solid rules, and people need to obey them in order to keep a balanced society. When people act out of line, we have others to handle that sort of thing.” He sounded like every other adult, he said the same things, and Peter hated it. “But Heroes? They don’t need to follow the rules. As long as their getting rid of the bad guy who cares right? They are powerful, and no one can control them. You for example, you do whatever you want. Albeit with less collateral, but you can still get people hurt.” Ross said and Peter gripped the straps of his restraints. “But you are smart, powerful, strong. You are resourceful, and you have every capability of a perfect soldier . “ Ross said and then looked him in the eye “Your only problem? You can’t take orders, your a solo act. You don’t play well with others, no matter how much you pretend. The only reason you’re not on a team is because of that.” he said and Peter couldn’t find any flaw in it right now, but he was sure something was wrong with that statement. “So I want to take the best aspects of you, and put them into something else. Something that can beat heroes and make them powerless .” Ross said and took a step back. Then Peter realized something.

“The Accords. You wanted them to sign the Accords so you could experiment on them.” Peter said and Ross looked at him like he said something good.

“You are very smart young boy.” Ross said wistfully. It made Peter sick.

“ But it didn’t work.” at the contort of Ross’s face he went on “Tony and Rhodey busted that shit to hell. No one wanted to sign, because you wouldn’t be lenient on what and what not the precautions were.”

“It would’ve worked if Stark hadn’t been so keen on making sure everyone was treated fair. That’s the only reason I used him in the first place. Cause he makes mistakes and he knows it.” Ross snarled and something mean sat in Peter’s gut. How dare he .

“He wanted to fix his mistakes, and you were going to use that? You’re sick!” Peter said and something dawned on him, it seemed Ross knew what he was thinking cause an evilly sick smile grew on his face. “They trust you. You-you helped us- them. They trust you now. You-you’re gonna use me to… Wakanda, the War. You helped us and they…” Peter looked down at his restraints with wide eyes.

“They’re supplying me without question. That’ll make this a lot more easier. But don’t worry. We’ll only take the best parts of you.”

A strong current of electricity shot through Peter’s body. It was white hot and burned all over. It made electro seem like static. It was like they were taking something out of every cell. It wasn’t short either. It went on for what seemed like centuries. He couldn’t hear anything, and could feel nothing but pain. It was making his head hurt and mouth dry and his senses were everywhere. Like the worst sensory overload ever.

When the pain finally settled Peter breathed for a few minutes. He was tired, he wanted to sleep. But he couldn’t. He felt so...empty. Like he was supposed to feel something but he couldn’t. He only duly registered numbing pain.

Then he felt cold.

Then it was black.

OoOoO

The next parts were all in a frantic blur that he could only remember pieces of. Doc Oc - he named him that - was typing at his computer with his back to him. He could remember fading in and out. Hot white shots of pain. The menacing smile on Ross’ and Oc’s face. The whispered nothings about ‘ perfect soldiers’ and ‘counter attack’ and ‘finally putting heroes in their place.’  

He had no idea how much time had past, nor did he particularly care right now cause everything hurt hurt hurt. He wanted to go home. He wanted to see Ned and build Legos like he was supposed to do this summer. Wanted to build drones and watch movies past 2 in morning. Wanted to have game night with Aunt May and eat pizza in their little kitchen. Wanted to build his computers and do technical work in his building for 100$ per repair. But that all couldn’t happen now. His life would never be normal again. Not after this, or the war, or Vulture or the Accords or Germany or the fucking Spider bite . Nothing would ever be the same cause of that stupid spider.

Someone would surely come for him. Or he could get out himself. Matt had done it after all. But Matt had the Defenders with him when they were capture them, he had no one. And he wasn’t all that reliable so Ned wouldn’t be more worried then he already was. His stupid tendency for going off grid didn’t help his case either. But he’d promised Mr.Stark that he wouldn’t, so if he did something was surly wrong. But he’d gotten into a fight with Mr.Stark. He wouldn’t save him after Peter had acted like a brat.

“You’re solo, no one will come looking for you. Therein lies your flaw, you don’t have a team to fall back on.”

Even so, he was a Superhero, he should be able to get out of this by himself.

Except...He wasn’t really a hero was he? Sure he helped people...A LOT, but he wasn’t a hero. He was a vigilante.

“Kids are good at playing pretend. You’re not really a hero, you never classified as one. Everyone sees you more as a cop wannabe than a hero. Heroes deal with big things, Spidey deals with the small stuff.” Ross whispered into his ear, and he couldn’t remember when.

He only played hero with the Avengers. He was an asset not apart of their team. Ross didn’t account for the Infinity War, that’s why the Accords went to shit. But he wasn’t a hero. Iron Man was a hero. Captain America was a hero. Luke Cage was a hero. Wolverine was a hero. He was not a hero. He was a vigilante. He was like the janitor for all things evil.

Vigilantes clean up messes .

And this was a mess.

Time for work Peter.

“The symbiote. It is your pure aggression.” So that’s what Ross meant by the ‘best parts of him’. “It is magnificent.” He didn’t fully register Oc’s words after that.

Oc rambled on and Peter vauguly had a plan in mind. Or not plan. He kinda made it up during bouts of silence and consciousness, he couldn't think clearly though. So it kind of just hit him, when he finally woke up and had enough energy to half think. 38% brain capacity was working, at most. That was the best he was gonna get.

He pushed with all his will and might and it hurt . He remembers grabbing something and sticking Oc with it. Then punching somebody else, he thinks it’s Ross, and he’s thinking why didn’t he do this before? As he grabs his web shooters on the table, and puts them on as if muscle memory, and webs the two unconscious creeps. How did they get unconscious again?

He doesn’t remember, so he just grabs some hard drives he hopes will be enough evidence and starts to leave. He doesn’t remember how he got out ,or the swing the the police station very much ,or dropping them off, with a hastily scrawled out note. He doesn’t think he spelled half the words right but he doesn’t care at this point he just wants them to go away away away .

He wants this all to be another bad dream and doesn’t wanna relive it in real life again. No more white hot pains shooting through his body. No more syringes sticking into him. No more creeps that strap him to a table. No more lying Agents.

He was done.

He just knows his muscles hurt, there is a deep ache in his stomach and he needs sleep. Option 3 first.

He’s out like a light as soon as he touches the bed.

OoOoO

@SpideySpotter

From DefenderHub at 12:54pm

Where’s your boy?

I don’t know

@X-ForceAgenda

Is he okay??

I hope so.

Spiderman has been gone for 5 days. No news reports about him, and his crime rate was the same as 5 days ago. There were no stown webs around the city or no sightings of him just chilling on roofs. And Tony couldn’t care less right now.

The team actually actively tried to avoid anything concerning the web slinger. There was no way he was coming back anytime soon, so they’d need a different coping mechanism for it all. He probably was out on a mission with another hero group anyway. If he was in trouble, he surly had enough help right?

‘Choose a group already Parker, you are such a try hard.’ Shuri was upset of course, everyone was. But Shuri and Groot were kids, and the best friend they had even close to their age was Peter. Of course they were outwardly salty when Peter ditched to go play full time hero with other hero groups. It wasn’t long before everyone’s avoidance turned into anger or annoyance too. Everyone was a little pissed at Peter for leaving. Not that he wasn’t justified, it’s just he was a pillar for their sanity and now that he left, they had nothing to lean on. He walked out on them, and in Tony’s opinion was acting like an absolute brat . What had even triggered that sort of reaction out of him?

“Honestly, we help him out for weeks and then he has the nerve to question our life choices? Honestly Parker, maybe next time he turns into ash and reincarnates we shouldn’t help him. Ungrateful little shit.”

And yeah, they knew they shouldn’t have depended so emotionally on an unstable 15 year-old vigilante - honestly what did they expect - but the kid didn’t show any signs that he didn’t enjoy the company. They knew he was going through something, but they couldn’t even get close enough to help. So by the time he went missing, they just looked at the screen and scoffed. Typical. You depend on him, and then he just leaves. It must be a trend with the Spiderbrat. So unreliable.

They had no idea.

It wasn’t until Daredevil actually came up to Sam and Nat during a cleaning route that they knew something was remotely wrong.

“He doesn’t just drop off the grid for no reason. Not like this. And if he does, it’s usually 3 days at most. Something is not right.” Devil had said, and they were a bit shocked, because no indication that he was even there he was just there . After the shock wore off somewhat Sam had said.

“So? He’s got other Superhero teams he fights with. Ask one of them.” He sounded a bit to salty and Devil smirked a little.

“He’s not flaky, and he’s dependable. He likes to help everyone . It’s just how he is. If he signed on with one of us, he would be limited in that factor.” Devil said and Nat looked at him. “That being said, he doesn’t just disappear like this. Not when their a city to protect.”

“He could be on an underground mission, or it might be taking longer.” Natasha reasoned and was about to turn around when Devil said.

“Deadpool couldn’t find him. Neither can Bishop or Jess.” Devil said, when he was met with silence he sighed “It’s good he’s not on a team, he can be a voice of reason and comfort and keep a level head. But sometimes, we have to remember he’s just a kid. We make mistakes, he doesn’t judge us for them. Why is it every time he makes a little one, or big one, we have to jump all over him? I’m not saying the rest reacted any better than you guys did at first, but remember he is a just a kid. No matter how many times we call him that, we seem to forget.” then sighed and left.

Sam thought they would leave it, but Natasha reciprocated the information anyway. It must have been a big deal if Nat was saying something about it. But they all nervously chuckled it off. He’s been through worse.

2 days later they heard a news report.

“Spiderman makes a big return. Stopping Doctor Octavius and Thaddeus Ross from doing illegal human experimentation, to conspire against the Avengers. Ross conveyed after he woke up that he was going to do so in order to protect the city. Ross had said that “Heros are making more of a mess, then they’re cleaning up”. Officials believe that Ross was planning to use the Sokovia Accords to put  his plan into action. Luckily all of the plotting has hopefully come to a stop, thanks to Spiderman, who is now back on the grid.”

The room was silent.

Chapter Text

Chapter 7

@VigilantePoll

From anonymous at 12:34am

Shouldn’t Spidey get like extra credit for the Ross thing? Like that’s a big deal.

“Peter, Peter, Peter.” Ned said rapidly as Peter was trekking his way down the sidewalk. “Are you sure this is a good idea. I mean, the Avengers are still cleaning up, they could see you.” Ned said worriedly.

“It’s not like they were even trying to look for me Ned. And besides they wouldn’t care even if I did see them.” He wasn’t going to say his odds of seeing them, because he just knew that they’d pop out somewhere.

“Why wouldn’t they? You did them a huge favor, I mean Agent Ross had been conspiring to take them out and you stopped him.” Peter looked at Ned and Ned sighed as he continued. “Don’t they like owe you now or something. Like DareDevil or The X-Men when you helped them with their problems?” Peter shook his head.

“Doesn’t work that way Ned. They don’t come to me. I have to go to them for help. And so far, I don’t see any point in doing so.” Peter said in a slight huff of embarrassment and pride.

He and Ned were going to pick up some spare parts for Peter’s mangled gear. Ross had trashed it, and now Peter had to fix it again. Ned had said they could go to MJ’s dad’s and get some things he wasn’t using anymore, because Peter didn’t have time to pick up pieces of metal off the ground and go scavenging.

Peter wouldn’t tell Ned, no matter how good a bro he was - and he was like the best bro out there - about what had happened in that lab. He only told Ned that they had kidnapped him, not what they did to him. Ned didn’t need that kind of scarring and Peter wasn’t gonna give it to him. Beside even Peter didn’t know what went on down there. He was kind of afraid of it too.

They were just about a block there when he heard loud yells of Police officers. He and Ned looked down the road to see what was going on, they sounded almost scared. Peter looked at Ned apologetically and Ned gave a smile and patted him on the back.

“Don’t leave a single detail out. I want written results.” Ned said with a smile but in all the seriousness he could, and Peter didn’t know what holy spirit was kind enough to give him such a great friend. He went into an alley to change with his half cocked supplies.

ooo

@DeadpoolCameo

Deadpool, spray painting self portrait.

Shuri and Groot often went out together after Peter had ditched them. Mostly just to bitch about random stuff together. They used to rant and Peter would let them rant about whatever, and sometimes put in his helpful, level headed input, but he was never a petty person, so he didn’t really focus on trivial things like Shuri and Groot did. They started wandering the city after Peter had left, to just do and see random things because they didn’t know this place. Although Peter would’ve been ideal to come with them since he knew the city better than anyone at the compound.

Today they were just wandering around, but Clint had decided to take a break and follow them to where ever they were going until Nat smacked him upside the head and he had to get back to work. They didn’t expect to see a few police cars parked outside of Time Square’s main screen, nor did they expect to see Deadpool graffiting his symbol of his mask up there. Clint wasn’t really sure what to do, the cops could handle a bit of graffiti but then again, this was Deadpool . They were shakily holding their guns to his head as he screamed to lyrics to an old 80’s song.

They also didn’t expect Spidey to swing by and land a few feet in front of them. He was in a hoodie and blue sweats, and red hi-tops and black arm guards with fingerless gloves. He had a half mask and orange tinted goggles. No wonder Stark gave him an upgrade, the kid basically had nothing. It didn’t change the fact that he made it look totally badass though.

“Oh you’ve gotta be kidding me. Again?” Peter said exasperatedly. Like he was so done. “I leave for a week and he decides to do this the day I get back? He couldn’t have left it for DareDevil or Jess? He’d listen to Jess in a heartbeat, but no. He just annoys me, because hey he has a certification in Pissing off Spidey.” Peter grumbled and Shuri would’ve laughed out loud, because she didn’t think anything could’ve annoyed Peter ‘I’m-a-fucking-Saint’ Parker, but the shock of Peter being there in front of her after not was too much.

Peter walked in between the officers who seemed happy enough to let him take over. “Excuse me I’m gonna borrow this.” He took a gun off the officer and shot Deadpool in the head. He handed it back kindly. “Thank you so much.” he said patiently and turned back to Deadpool, who just casually turned around with a bullet in his head.

“Hah, nice shot.” Clint said in disbelief and hysteria. Peter never resorted to violence first. That was a shock that Spiderman shot somebody. With a blow that could kill anyone else. Who knew he had it in him? And he looked like a total badass while doing it. In red and blue pajamas . Clint didn’t think even Tony or Natasha could pull that off... Well maybe Natasha could..nope she most certainly 2000 percent could, Clint had no doubt.

“BABY BOY! You’re still alive!” Deadpool shrieked and sounded so happy . It was almost psychotic.

“And you’re still a pain in the ass. I was supposed to have a nice relaxing day, but no. You have to show up and do this crap, can’t you just... fall off a building a few times or something.” he said the last part like it was lame, and yeah it probably was on their terms at least. To anyone else it seemed legit.

“I’m glad you’re okay! I couldn’t find you anywhere! Nor could Katey! Where did you goooo~!?!” Deadpool whined, but before Peter could answer Deadpool sat on the edge of the metal poll and swung his legs off the 50 meter drop. “But anywaysies, you’re here! Alive! I’m not sure if that’s good, you gonna ruin my fun? If you are then I wish you died but if you aren’t then I’m glad your okay!!” He jumped down and was about to skip away before Sidey shot a web and turned him around.

“Nope. This is a public offense. You’re the first crime I am stopping when I get back. Clean it up. Now. ” He saw the scaffold had some water and soap. Deadpool groaned.

“You’re such a killjoy. Aren’t young people supposed to have fun and rebel? Like you never have any fun do you? Break a few rules, kill a few people.” Deadpool said like it was the most tempting offer in the world, and Clint thought Peter rolled his eyes behind the mask.

“Yeah you’re right. Clean this up, and I can get back to my fun. And plus, I break plenty of rules. Written and otherwise.” Peter said in a matter of fact tone, and Clint was impressed. Especially when Deadpool held a gun to his head and he didn’t even flinch as he turned the safety on and off teasingly.

“Please.” Deadpool scoffed “I bet you are one of those people who go to school sick. You’ve probably never broken a law in your life. Dont! Lie to me!” Peter raised a brow and Deadpool looked at him for a minute “The vigilante thing doesn’t count.” Peter scoffed. Wade pulled the trigger, but safety was on. “Lucky.” he grumbled.

“Whatever.” he grumbled and turned as he was walking out he said “If this isn’t clean by 4, I am calling Jess.” Peter smirked as he heard Deadpool panic a  little, and laugh when he screamed a bit. Deadpool watched him go and called back in a hostile tone.

“Only a baby would cry to his.. Erm business partner?”

“Yeah and only a wimp would be afraid of an uncoordinated drunk who has more alcohol than blood in her system.” Peter shot back and Deadpool tried to protest that she was scary , but that didn’t help his case. “Besides, she’s more of a drunk aunt.”

“You know you looked sexier when you’re clothes actually fit!” it was a weak jab and obvious last ditch effort, more concerning than anything. Peter just threw back the middle finger and continued. Shuri was actually impressed. Groot was just staring in awe at the whole thing. So cool.

Peter was about to shoot off when Groot reached out a tree branch and caught him by the leg and he stumbled in the air, letting out a noise of shock. He landed on the ground in front of them and Shuri looked down at him amused with hands on her hips.

“Who knew you could be such a badass, Spider boy?” Peter looked up at her and blinked. Once. Twice. He jumped up.

“Wha- What the heck!” Peter groaned and slid a hand down his face mumbling of course I’d run into them. I’m Peter Parker.  Clint, however, narrowed his eyes.

Peter was skinnier. And he was skinny before. Whatever happened to him over the week, he either didn’t get much food or he purposely didn’t eat much. He looked like an abandoned puppy. Not that media was anything to go off of, but that was the only thing he had.

“I am Groot.” Peter looked at Groot for a minute.

“No. I’m fine. I just-”

“I am Groot.”

“I’m not mad at you guys.”

“I am Groot.”

“I-”

“Groot is right. If you are not mad why don’t you come back?” Shuri sounded a little more on edge then Groot, but Peter looked at her helplessly anyway.

“I just- I have some things I need to deal with. And yeah, this” he gestured to a rapidly cleaning Deadpool, “Stuff comes up. And robberies and ATM and GTB and other things.”

“And the Ross incident.” Shuri supplied, Peter bit his lip, not that they could tell, but he was silent.

“Yeah you really blew us out of the park with that one.” Clint said finally “No one believed it until we actually went to see him.” Clint narrowed his eyes on Peter’s shrinking form. So different then the one that shot Deadpool in the head with a gun.

“ I’m so sorry guys. I just- I couldn’t let him hurt you .” he sounded too genuine for it not to be true. “He just- I just- He was going to use-” Peter immediately shut himself up. Shuri was about to ask what happened. “I gotta go.” he said before any of them could speak or ask him what he was gonna say and swung away.

OoOoO

@VigilantePoll

From anonymous at 3:16pm

Spidey helped me get out of my collapsing apartment today. Have you ever seen the view from his angle?

Rent was a literal monster. Most vicious villain he’d ever faced alone.

The first few months after the war when no one had their shit together, trivial things such as rent and bills were excused. It was a time where New Yorkers, for once, cared about what happened in long term.

But now that spell wore off a bit, and Peter had a week to acquire 2000 dollars to meet his monthly quota.

Oh yeah… May wasn’t there. He had to support himself. Food, shelter, bills and rent, he had to pay all of those now. Like an adult. Alone.

He could always move to a cheaper apartment, but moving meant packing. Packing meant going through May’s stuff and selling it, and he wasn’t sure he wanted to do that right now. Or ever .

He was smart though. He could figure this out, like he did other problems in his life.

Clean up your mess, Parker.

He’d never been rich growing up, but not dirt poor either. He’s always lived moderately stable, financially wise.That didn’t mean they’ve never scraped by before, in fact they did it more often than not, but they managed. However, when they did need to Peter always wanted to help. He never liked sitting by and letting others carry the burden alone. He enjoyed helping, and fixing things. He was good at fixing things, so he made a little job of it. He fixed anything from a laptop to a camera to an air vent to an engine. He added spare parts and made them better, and longer lasting. And he did it at dirt cheap prices anyone could afford. He was cheaper than a shop or brand names. Despite that, he never got much publicity. He was a kid after all. But the work he did do was good.

Things were broken now, but barely anyone called. Old clients, a few new ones. Air conditioners, lawn mowers, bikes. The usual, a little more than the usual actually. Still not enough to get from 0-2000 bucks, but maybe half way there. A little less then half way.

Peter sighed as he looked through spare parts in an old box. He moved a few things out of the way and found a camera. He looked at it for a minute, and then something red caught his eye. His suit. Then drony.

He smiled.

OoOoO

@DailyBugle

Photographer needed! Spider-menace shots and otherwise.

He fixed the camera. He also tuned up drony’s HD so it wasn’t pixelated, grainy images anymore.

He breathed in. He could do this. He’s worked as a vigilante for long enough, and everytime the newspaper or someone catches him, it’s too blurry. Especially action shots. They get them at weird awkward angles that don’t make him look good.

A part of him felt embarrassed. He was taking pictures of himself in his pajamas basically. Then sending them to a news paper he hates. At least it’ll make the articles more flattering .

Another part of him felt ashamed, or guilty. He didn’t do this for money. He did it to help people. Yeah sure, it was Peter Parker who was taking the pictures. But people worked long hard hours to get money, and all he had to do was take a selfie. How unfair was that?

His stomach growled and all those thoughts washed away. Well mostly.

He wasn’t losing sight of his goal. He just had drony record this stuff and he’d go through the footage and find frames he likes and send them to the Bugle.

Besides this was working. He needed food to have the energy to work and he needed money for that. Especially when his job relied on his work. Or other work.

Here goes.

The Daily Bugle took one look and Peter Parker was hired as ‘Spider-man’s official photographer. He had to send at least 4 good and usable photos a week, but he could send more and still be paid.

He would’ve laughed, but then they told him he’d get paid 200-500 dollars per photo depending on the quality and when and where they used it.

Damn he was set.

OoOoO

@VigilantePoll

From anonymous at 1:59am

Spidey just took down a mugger on 23rd

@VigilantePoll

From anonymous at 2:25am

Daredevil turned in three robbers at an ATM on Queens blv.

@VigilantePoll

From anonymous at 2:34am

Spidey webbed two muggers just off of 32

@VigilantePoll

From anonymous at 2:46am

Luke Cage just stopped a few muggers in the subway near Harlem #HarlemsHero

@VigilantePoll

From anonymous at 2:56am

Jessica Jones stopped a GTA in my neighborhood. Awesome.

@VigilantePoll

From anonymous at 3:12am

Spidey just stopped a car chase! (3 people)

@VigilantePoll

From anonymous at 3:23am

Danny Rand just saved me from some muggers.

@VigilantePoll

From anonymous at 3:43am

OMG! Spider-man got my purse back from a pickpocket. Thank you!!

“Yo Ned got anything else with that new recon drone?” Peter asked in his comm. It may have been past 3 in the morning, but it was Saturday (well technically Sunday now). He and Ned had upgraded the recon drones and they were testing them out tonight. Besides they were too excited.

“Yeah. These new drones are awesome by the way! Wow this is so cool. You’ve got robbers three blocks down.” Peter didn’t need to be told twice. He jumped over there. “By the way Peter.” Ned said as he was kicking some baddy’s ass “The polls seem to be going higher and higher.”

“Polls?” Peter said as he did a flip to avoid a punch and punched the guy right back.

“Yeah. You know the one that gauges how many bad guys the vigilantes of New York can take down. You’re winning.” Ned informed him cause of course Peter was more interested in testing the recon drone then the actual contest. He had to resist the urge to roll his eyes.

“Well that’s cool I guess.” Peter said and webbed up the criminals.

“Yeah, there seems to be a frenzy tonight. You guys seem to be taking down criminals left and right.” Ned said and Peter smirked a bit under his mask.

“Well I’d hate to disappoint anyone.” Peter took out his phone and took a selfie with the robbers. “Send that to Matt, Luke, Danny and Jess. I want them to believe I am a cheeky bastard.”

“Oh my god! That is literally the coolest job anyone has ever given to me. I just wanna thank you. Thank you so so much.” Ned said and Peter chuckled softly and crouched on the top of the roof, as he watched the police come and get the bad guys.

“You really are one you know that?” Peter went slack and mumbled a quick ‘give me a sec’ to Ned before cutting off his signal. Drony flew down and hovered next to him. Peter turned a little as DareDevil sat next to him.

“I can be as annoying as I want to be. No one really seems to care.”

“As long as you get the job done.” Devil seemed to finish. Spiderman shrugged. “How you been Pete?”

“I’m f-”

“Don’t even try that. I know you’re lying.” Devil cut off quickly and sighed as Peter seemed to shut up more “Look I’m not one to lecture on emotions, I think all heroes suck at them personally. But like, even Danny can tell there is something off with you.”

“So the Defenders nominated you to set me straight?” Peter raised a brow behind his mask.

“Yeah, it was either me or Luke and I don’t think you need a lecture so much as someone telling you that you need help.”

“What’s the difference.” it wasn’t a question. Matt’s silence seemed to break him a bit though and he sighed “I’m working on it.” he didn’t turn to face him, even if they bother were wearing masks and Matt was blind .

“Really? Because I don’t think you really wanna win that poll as much as Danny says you do.”

“I-” Peter cut himself off “I’m dealing with it.”

“Alone?”

“Well who else do I have to talk to?” Peter snapped in frustration. He felt like he should be angry, but even thinking of anger made him feel… empty. It would’ve scared him if he wasn’t so annoyed.

“Are you okay?”

“Yeah sorry. I’m just… a bit …” Peter couldn’t place the word, it made him feel a little self conscious because Matt was leaning in a bit and he didn’t have an answer. He finally knows what it’s like when the teacher calls on you and you don’t know the answer. Anxiety rolled in his empty stomach and he felt sick. “Uhm I don’t…” he wrapped his arms around his midsection. Why did it hurt so bad all of a sudden?

“Hey.. uhm why don’t you call it quits for tonight? You stopped twice as many of these crimes as all of the rest of us. Let us handel Queens tomorrow and you get rest, okay Pete?” Matt awkwardly put a hand on his back and Peter was too sick to do anything but nod and walk away, trying not to test his now seemingly testy stomach with web swinging.

When he got home he threw up. A lot.

OoOoO

He called Ned saying he was sick the next day. Ned was understanding and said feel better and to call if he needed anything...after motherhenning for like 30 minutes. He felt a bit nauseous all morning, but it calmed down by noon and he was just reading. He’d even eaten a few granola bars. It was about 4 later when he got a text from Jessica.

Alley

23

He sighed. He got up from his bed and made his way over to the door, grabbing his backpack and now oversized grey hoodie jacket along the way.  He was getting too small, he needed to eat more. He ignored the slight ache in his stomach at the thought.

He made his way to 23rd street and started to glance down allies until he found Jessica puking over a trash can. The trashcan fell as she stumbled away into a wall.

“Come on Jess. Last night wasn’t that bad was it?” he said jokingly.

“Yes. You lil’ shit.” she mumbled as Peter hoisted her up and they made a trek back to Hell’s Kitchen. ‘ How’d she even get this far out?’ “all your fault *hic* you jus’ had to be ex- *hic* -tra. Didn’ ya, lil’ shhhit.” she hiccuped and something about her breathe made Peter’s stomach flip. Probably the pungent odor of alcohol, but Peter couldn’t help but smile. Jessica was helping people to show him up, but at least she was helping.

“When’d you even start to drink last night?” Peter asked, he skipped over the subway. Not a good idea when you have a drunk and a kid who’s probably about to toss his cookies anyway.

“‘tarted round *hic* like ssssssixxx?” Jessica said and huffed out a burp, Peter held his breath. He could practically feel that granola bar he ate 4 hours ago bubbling in his stomach. “Vod-*hic*-ka” smelt that, it made his stomach bubble a bit more “and *hic* beer” definitely smelt that, it made his mouth taste weird ”and whiskey.*hic* ughh” ohh yeah, that probably did the most on his own stomach, he swallowed a think clump in his throat. It only seemed to make his poor abdomen sore. He really shouldn’t have eaten those granola bars today, they felt so heavy. It made him feel bloated. He rubbed his stomach a little.

“ No Sake?” he asked in a vein attempt to get some distraction over his roiling and frankly disgusting stomach.

“Not strong ‘nough. Nice liquor *burp*ughh real nice wine *hic* red and white” She burped louder this time and Peter had to wrap his other hand around his midsection again. His stomach was churning, and it concerned him as to why. He never got sick easily, not with his metabolism. Maybe it was just the smell of alcohol. But he never got this way when he’s picked up Jess before. It honestly wasn’t her fault, because she’d asked someone to get her when she could barely stand on her own. Albeit that was alcohol induced, but frankly she’d earned it. This wasn’t her fault, it was Peter’s stupid digestive system’s.

“Heeey, kid. You don’ loooook soooo goooood *hic*.” Jessica put her face right next to his and was breathing heavily. With every huff of alcohol sent his stomach on a frenzy and it hurt . Soon enough Peter had to turn his head and throw up a bit. Or alot. Or at least everything he’d eaten that day, which was 5 granola bars and some water.

Somehow they stumbled into an ally and Jessica was placed on a wall while Peter stumbled over and sat the wall opposite, pulling up his legs and wrapping his arms around his midsection.

“Ssssssoory.” Jessica didn’t sound sorry, but she was also drunk. That was as good as he was gonna get. It wasn’t even her fault anyway, Peter shook his head to convey that message. He groaned and squeezed his stomach tighter. Why was it hurting so much?

Peter looked at Jessica, he was supposed to take her home. Jessica seemed to be inspecting him now.

“You know Petey, you should go *hic* go to a *hic* go to a doc- *hic* a doctor. You don’t look to *hic* good.” She hiccuped, Peter groaned again, but not because of his stomach. He didn’t know any doctors that could actually take care of him besides Dr.Banner. Ms.Temple could try, she has, but the medicine she uses never work. Dr.Banner and Mr.Stark were the only ones who have the equipment advanced enough to keep up with his enhanced body and he couldn’t speak to them now.

“Come on Jess. Let’s get you home so Ms.Trish can yell at you.” Peter said getting up despite his angry organs. He walked over, but Jessica wouldn’t move, she just glared up at him in the closest thing to concern Peter has ever seen on her face. “Jess I’m fine.” he sighed and bent down to pick her up and start their trek back to the Kitchen. “Just a bug. Sure it’ll be gone by tomorrow. Probably ate something bad.” You haven’t eaten at all.

There was a bit of silence for a few blocks and then Jessica spoke quietly. “You know kid, you don’t get sick.” She sounded awfully sober, but her face was red from liquor. “Not easily. Go see someone ‘bout that. Pretty sure Matt said you were sick last night too. Told you the same things I should tell you now, I’m not. It’s dumb and repetitive.” she said and then sighed “God I’m a bit sober again. Quick get me a flask.” Peter laughed a little, it was breathless and a bit pained, but a laugh nonetheless.

“You’re right Jess. I’m not feeling too great.” Jessica raised a brow at him and Peter continued to breathe harder until he turned again and a little bile came out. Jessica held her arm around him a little tighter. Peter groaned. Soon enough they made it to Jessica’s apartment. By then Peter’s stomach was finally calm enough to actually go home alone.

The lack of alcohol helped too.

OoOoO

@SpideySpotter

Looks like Spidey took a day off. I hope he’s not going off the grid again.

It was dark when he got the call.

He was on his way home from Jessica’s. Her apartment was a long way from his and he’d just passed 5th avenue. Prompting not to take any sort of vehicle, in case his stomach decided to take a joy ride again. Besides he had nowhere to be.

“Hey Miles. What’s up?” Peter said after checking the caller ID. Miles was Luke’s cousin, but it seemed like he was more of a nephew then a cousin. Luke was taking care of Miles while his mom goes on her three month business trips. They don’t see her often. Miles and Peter had met when Peter had found him in an ally because he was trying to save a cat from some guys who thought it’d funny to shoot at it. Miles was about two years younger to Peter, and when Peter took him to Luke and explained the situation, Luke had been understanding. They talked comic books sometimes, but Miles didn’t know he was Spider-man. He was a big fan though.

“Yeah I got mugged on 7th Avenue...again…” Peter wanted to sigh cause yeah of course he did. Miles had a knack for getting into trouble, and Peter honestly couldn’t get mad at him because same . Luke did though, and Claire was a nurse, but even Peter had to admit she was a bit much sometimes, especially when it came to Miles. Peter knew how to patch people up, so after that first time, Miles had tentatively asked him to sometimes pick him up after a fight and patch him up somewhat so Luke wouldn’t get that mad. Peter always promised not to say anything, but when he did drop him off or see Luke next, he’d tell him to keep an eye on him. Luke would nod understanding and he couldn’t get upset either, because Miles had called for help. Sure it was in the form of a scrawny 15 year old boy, but still help. And honestly Peter did a way better job then some nurses and doctors with stitches it was almost concerning.

“Yeah I’m on my way.” he said shortly and turned to run two blocks down. Honestly today he was supposed to rest. Not run around lugging his immobilized friends from allies to their home because they were too drunk or probably got stabbed. Yep this was his life. And they were superheros. He could never forget that.

“Miles?” he said when he got to the corner of the ally and turned to see a guy knocked out and Miles with a cut across his shirt. Peter shook his head. “Gonna be hard to hide that one.” he said with a playful smile and plopped down and opened his bag “Call the police?” he asked as he took out his self made stitches and dabbed the wound with disinfectant. Miles hissed a little. He made his stitches from a chemical compound similar to his webs, but they had more healing properties then his webs, and they were flimsier but more flexible. Just as strong too. They dissolved once the cut healed, but it was a nightmare to take them out anyway so yeah.

Miles shook his head. “Gotta get a block away at least before we call. Or they’ll take me to medical.” Miles said as Peter lined up the stitcher he made, it didn’t hurt or pierce the skin and it was faster than regular stitching and hurt less. Miles said it was a miracle worker. Peter smiled a little. When he was older he wanted to get this stuff on the market for hospitals and people, it was harmless, but people could really use it. Claire said she’d help when he was 18 and old enough.

“No Luke?” Peter asked as he finished the stitchings.

“No Luke.” Miles confirmed and Peter eyed him for anymore injuries.

“Can you stand?” Peter asked zipping his backpack and standing easily. He held out a hand and Miles took it with a big grin. Peter returned a small smile.

“Nah. Thanks Parker, I owe you one.” Peter scoffed.

“You owe me more than one, but okay.” They said as they began the trek to Luke’s apartment in Harlem. At least it was closer than Jess’s.

They talked a bit about meaningless things that teenagers enjoy, and Peter couldn’t help but appreciate the normalcy of it. Then half way through Danny was running down the street. Miles audibly groaned. Danny looked over to them and both smiled and seemed worried all at once as he bounded to them.

“Miles! Luke has been looking for you. I believe you have skipped curfew.” Danny said a bit calmly, he was calm or excitable. No in between. He had no reason to be excited right now, so he was calm as he pulled out his phone to text the location.

“Oh no. Please don’t text Luke. He’ll kill me.” Miles complained, but it was too late. Peter laughed a little.

“You know he worries about you.” Peter said and couldn’t help but think what a hypocrite he was. Well sort of. Not anymore. You don’t have grownups like that in your life. You lost them all.

When Danny looked up again he looked at Peter and smiled, Peter smiled right back. “Hello Peter. I’m glad you found him before someone else did.” Someone else had.

“Nah just heading home and bumped into him.” he said smoothly and Danny laughed a little. Before they could say anything else Luke had barreled by and took Miles by his shoulders.

“Oh my god Miles. You’re like twenty minutes late.” Luke said in a stern tone.

“I was on my way back. Got held up.” Miles said with a shrug and looked at Peter who shook his head. Miles wasn’t okay, but he’d live. Luke gave a curt nod and pushed Miles towards Danny.

“I’ll be right with you. Gotta talk to Pete about some air conditioning back at N&M. Matt said he needed another tune up.” Luke said and took Peter by the shoulder. “Danny, stay with him till’ I come back would ya.” Danny gave a big smile.

“Of course.” Miles groaned.

“I don’t need a babysitter.” he complained and Luke shook his head.

“You do when you have agash that big in your stomach.” Luke said gesturing and then waving leading Peter away while he gave his own small salutations. Luke let go when they turned the street corner and they were walking side by side in the distantly quiet street.

“Thanks for that.” Luke sighed “It’s good knowing he has someone he’s willing to call for help.”

“It’s really no problem. I was close by anyway.” Peter said

Luke gave out a bit of a laugh when Peter shrugged. “I’m actually glad its you . God you’re a smart kid.” Luke said with faint awe as Peter ducked his head in embarrassment. Luke then looked at him a bit more closely “Sorry for taking you out today. We wanted to give you a break, you’ve been going non-stop since the whole Octopus Ross thing.” Luke said and paused before saying “Everything okay?” Peter couldn’t help but sigh.

“Everyone keeps asking me that.” Peter said with a slight grimace “I keep saying I’m fine.” Luke looked at him. He didn’t sound mad.

“Are you?” he said after a beat. Peter took a while to think. He’d been unnaturally sick. He’d been getting weird headaches. And these random bouts of emptiness when he’s supposed to be mad.

“I- I really don’t know actually.” Peter said “It’s hard to explain. I just know I’m not not okay. I’m not exactly okay either though.” Luke studied him a bit and Peter looked up at him with a smile “I’m figuring it out though.” Luke raised an eyebrow.

“You are?” he asked shortly. Peter gave himself a bit more time, as look continued “You were working with the Avengers. What happened to that?”

“It’s complicated. That whole Ross thing… it’s… Ross helped during the war and in Wakanda. He earned trust. Their trust. He was going to hurt them. I stopped him. Things got messy.” Peter said and then said “Messier.” Because it really wasn’t all good before that either.

“Was he going to hurt you?” of all the things he expected Luke to say. Ross was going to hurt him. Ross had hurt him. Ross did something to him in that lab. “Why’d it really take a week for you to take them down.” it was a statement, Peter didn’t answer and it dawned on Luke. Peter sort of watched out of the corner of his eye as Luke’s face fabricated into one of horror. He looked at his shoes before he could see the whole thing. “They… hurt you.” Luke “They hurt you. Didn’t they?” at this point it was a known fact and not a question. Peter ducked in more on himself. “Those little- I’m gonna-”

“Luke. I’m fine. They didn’t get me good.” Lies . “They just cut me up a bit. Nothing serious.” Too many lies . “I’m fine.”  The god damn lies.

He went in front of Luke and turned the last corner to his apartment. This is where they parted. 4 blocks away from his apartment. Luke waved back, worry still etched on his face.

Oh well. It’s not like it matter too much to anyone else anyway.

Lies.

OoOoO

@AvengersTrackers

I think I see the king of Wakanda crossing the street!?

You couldn’t say Peter hadn’t tried.

He had tried, he really did. He wanted to go home and go to sleep. He wanted to just kick this illness or stress induced sickness as he had come to call it in his mind, to the curb. He did try to get home. No could say otherwise.

But that wasn’t going to happen because he was Peter Parker . Of course he’d get distracted or set off course. It’s literally the main thing he does. It’s also that main asset when he’s chasing a lead, finding something out of essentially nothing. But he had no way to turn that skill off. So it was also his main downfall when it came to his real life as Peter Parker.

Plus, Parker Luck ™ .

So of course the king of Wakanda was standing in front of his building looking as casual as ever. Peter was 64 percent sure he was waiting for him too.

“Hello, Mr.Parker.” T’challa said cooly. Like it was normal for a goddamn king to be in the bad part of Queens.

Now, Peter, in his full opinion, felt that he should not be held accountable for his actions when he was tired and sick and needed sleep and some food.

“You’ve gotta be fucking kidding me?!” he nearly yelled in exasperation as he wiped his face with both hands and slid them down his face slowly. T’challa raised a brow.

“That’s one way to greet someone.” T’challa said and Peter honestly wanted to punch him. He sounded so chill with him. Peter, in his spite, didn’t answer and folded his arms against his chest. “We have somethings to discuss in the compound.” he said and Peter sighed again. He saw this one coming. The arms shifted and wrapped around his frame, making him look a little smaller. He didn’t see the flash of sympathy T’challa gave him.

“Of course. Why not? I don’t need sleep. I’m a nocturnal Spider.” Peter said in a low mumble, T’challa wasn’t sure whether to laugh or to be concerned.

“Shall we go?” he asked casually. Peter was honestly content staying out here all night if it meant not going back. Sleep or no. He didn’t care, as long as he could push back the inevitable for as long as he could.

“Yeah, sorry. I got work tomorrow, can we reschedule?” it wasn’t a question and Peter was going to walk right past the king. But T’challa put his hand out to stop him right in his chest. Peter looked at him with a bit of a hopeful glance, and he saw some sympathy in T’challa’s eyes this time, but it was quickly washed away.

“Stark, the Captain and I need to discuss Ross’s arrangement.” T’challa didn’t beat around the bush much, Peter was still confused. Why would anything that had to do with Ross have any relation to him? Well, from the Avenger’s stand point.

“Then discuss it. I’m not stopping you.” Peter retorted.

“You put him in jail.” T’challa said calmly.

“Yeah, and you interrogated him.” Peter responded just as calmly.

“We need to discuss this with you.” And Peter visibly deflated and they started to walk, T’challa never took his arm off of Peter’s shoulder. Peter wanted to look back at his apartment, wanting nothing more then to lay down on his lumpy uncomfortable bed. “Where did you find that information to use against him?” T’challa asked and Peter  paused and bit his lip.

“It was a complete accident. I walked in on him while following Doc Oc.” Now that takes the cake for his lies. He just lied to the king of Wakanda. Man, his life was so messed up. But honestly what was he supposed to say? That the Doctor and the crazy agent experimented on him so they could make an army of spider soldiers. Nope. He was trying to forget that thank you.

“I have trouble believing that.” Of course T’challa would pick up on him lying. He was, in fact, a terrible liar. Peter sighed.

“Sorry.” he mumbled, and T’challa let him go. God dammit, he felt like when Tony was scolding him.

“Peter, what happened?” T’challa pressed. If Peter hadn’t known better, he’d say he heard some concern in the voice.

“Did they send you to interrogate me or something? I’m a one hit job man, I have a lot of bad guys to catch. I can’t be hung up on a closed case.” Except he was. He was experimented on. He was violated. And he had a sinking feeling that he was just beginning to see those affects. There was no way he wouldn’t be affected by it, and he was childishly ignoring that fact.

“They did in a way. I’m supposed to bring you back.” T’challa said, Peter shrunk more in on himself. “I won’t. Not if you don’t want me to. We can just talk here if you’d wish.” Even if they were already halfway there. Peter knew he was going to have to talk about this eventually. With Cap and Mr.Stark, and not just T’challa. They were the types to need primary resources, and Peter was the only primary they didn’t have yet. Main word being yet cause they wouldn’t stop until they talked to him and Peter knew it.

Peter sighed “ I’ll go.” he might as well get it over with. He’d have to talk to them eventually. He didn’t really have a choice. When do you ever, Parker.

“You know Shuri and Groot miss you.” T’challa said and Peter didn’t look up from the ground, but he did shrink more in on himself. Great. More things that made him feel guilty.

“I kinda miss em too.” he admitted quietly. He honestly did. Ned still freaks out a little at his superhero life. It was nice to have someone not freak out over that stuff. Shuri and Groot didn’t treat him like he was a higher being, and he never thought himself to be one. Plus he’d never had many friends, so losing them was quite them impact on his social security. T’challa smiled a bit at that.

“I think you were a good influence on Shuri.” T’challa said and Peter listened with his head down, but it did peak his interest. “When the war had ended, she had taken care of me. I died too. She lost her home and her brother. For a short time, she had nothing. She’s never really had any friends, much less friends her age. She’s always stuck herself in her lab. She is not one for social interaction.” he didn’t see T’challa look at him intently for a minute. “But then I saw her laughing and talking with you. Genuinely enjoying herself, with other people for once. She seemed happy.” Peter ducked, because all he could think about is how he totally ditched her. He betrayed her. He was such an asshole.

“Then I left.” he said quietly. T’challa looked at him, he looked up and saw a small tinge of rage in his eyes. “I- I didn’t even… she seemed like she was the type to make friends easily, you know? I just- oh god I’m so stupid and… selfish . Why- I just wanted to- I was so mad about the accords and I didn’t even think- Oh man.” Peter stumbled over his words missing T’challa’s look of understanding coming back into his eyes.

“She doesn’t have friends, because no one can keep up with her. Not like you. The people who can are too old to be her friends like on a relatable level. You were the first.” T’challa said a bit more quietly.

“Is she mad?” T’challa nodded a bit “Good. I’m such an asshole.” Peter mumbled and T’challa wanted to tell him that, no in fact that was a natural reaction what he did a few weeks ago in the compound. Especially for a teenager. He shouldn’t be held accountable for the emotional states of everyone but himself. He was just a kid. So he switched the topic.

“Have you always known?” T’challa asked and when Peter gave him a curious glance he elaborated “About Ross.” Peter didn’t answer for a minute, thinking in his own world. He had. Daredevil had told him a good few days in advance. It was like ironic foreshadowing. Now that he thought about it, he wasn’t all that surprised Ross had kidnapped him.

“You really trusted him.” It was a statement, he was avoiding the question. But he actually did want conformation. He just assumed everyone had trusted him, due to his positions he was holding before he was turned in. “You, the Avengers. Everyone trusted him.”

“And you didn’t.” also a statement. Peter didn’t wanna talk about this right now. Or ever. Ever worked too.

“What makes you say that?” Peter humored him, hoping he could delay this conversation.

“You were wary of him since you first saw him.” T’challa pointed out. He hadn’t even noticed that anyone was on to him.

“Call it childish stupidity. That’s what everyone else calls it.” Peter said in a matter of fact tone. That wasn’t it at all, he was just paranoid. “It was dumb to not trust him. I had no reason to trust him, but I had no reason not to either. I was just being a teenager. That’s all.” he shrugged and T’challa looked at him again. He could feel it this time.

“It saved us.” Peter honestly did not know how to respond to that. He just looked distantly forward.

“You know I don’t mean to disobey anyone, right?” T’challa raised a brow “I listen to you guys. I hear what you’re saying, despite what Mr.Stark says. I just don’t… I don’t agree.”

“You’ve  never been one to take orders.” T’challa said wistfully. He’s been notorious for that, as Stark had pointed out on several occasions and he had witnessed on others.

“I don’t have to. I’m a vigilante and a solo act technically. I can play nice, but I’m not inclined to listen to anyone really.” he defended “And before Mr.Stark found me, I was just swinging around, doing my own thing. No rules. No protocols. No orders. Just me my webs, drony and the stupid people who decided mugging an old woman would be a good idea.” There was a beat and T’challa let out an amused chuckle, Peter was surprised and turned his head toward him.

“Teenage rebellion indeed.” Peter blushed a little and looked down again.

OoOoO

When they had gotten to the compound, Peter immediately regretted ever saying yes. In fact he regretted every life decision he made since the bite. T’challa lead him into the common room first, where everyone was. They all stared at him, but he just kept staring at the ground. God this was embarrassing. He yells like a brat and storms out like a child and someone had to drag him back, like a kid running away from home. Well the superhero equivalent to that.

Steve and Tony get up and make their way over to him and he follows them out quietly. He can feel their stares on his back. They stop in a corridor somewhere. The compound is too huge and too repetitive for him to know where exactly.

“So here’s how this is gonna go.” Mr.Stark started with a sigh, “We’ll ask you questions everyone told us to ask Spiderman, to preserve your identity. You tell us as much as we want you to about this.” huh, not infantilized? Nice Stark, we’re getting somewhere. Peter nodded. He could do it right. He had all of half an hour to prepare.

“Ross was an important part of the superhero branch of the government.He was basically a representative. He had say in most protocols and orders. He was very important.” Steve started , that sinking feeling returned to Peter’s stomach and made him nauseous and tired all over again.“You had no reason not to trust him. How did you find the information to use against him?” It felt like one of those long short answers at the end of a test. He really didn’t want to answer this one though, but it was the most points. What made him think he was ready for this? Oh yeah, adrenaline. And maybe a little bit of insomnia insanity. He really needed to quit hanging around Deadpool. Oh well there was always extra credit. He could always pass. Yep.

“Pass.” Peter said before he knew he was saying. Tony raised a brow. Peter wanted to dig himself a hole and just die.

“Excuse me?”

“Pass.” No getting out of it now.

“I thought I told you to answer honestly.”

“I honestly don’t want to answer. I’ll go for extra credit.” Peter said in defense. He didn’t mean to be so snarky, he didn’t even say it in a snarky manner. He said it sheepishly, like he did everything else. He could always blame it on the sleepless nights. He was trying to actually get sleep tonight. This was really screwing that up. Tony let out a laugh.

“This isn’t preschool . There is no extra credit kid.” Tony said and Peter bit his lip. There was always extra credit though.

“Mr. Stark. I’m really sorry. I just- It’s not that simple to explain.” Peter said and looked at his shoes. He’s basically an expert on shoes and everything ground related with how much he looked at it.

“Well, it was never going to be simple, son.” Captain said in a way that was not totally professional but not totally sympathetic. “That’s why we are here.” Peter bit his lip.

“I didn’t mean to get involved.” he said quietly. There was a beat of silence.

“Well you are. Sorry, kid.” Tony said. And that’s hwat he was. A kid. A god damn kid. He didn’t know what this was or how to handle it.

“I...I’ve never done this before.” he mumbled to himself. When did doing the right thing become so complicated? What people did it was right or wrong and he knew the world wasn’t black and white, but when it came down to it, at the end of the day, that’s all it was. A bunch of tones mixed with pigment. Black and white. It shouldn’t be this hard, and Peter for the life of him, couldn’t understand why it was.

“Okay, well we’re doing it now.” Tony said and Peter wanted to stomp his foot and scream like a child, cause no he didn’t want to do this now. He was tired, he wanted to sleep. But he didn’t.

“I don’t know how to do this Mr.Stark.” And that threw everyone in for a loop. Peter was a kid. A child. Who got caught up in something he couldn’t avoid. He shouldn’t be a part of this but he was. They all shared glaces and looked to the teen who was staring at his shoes.

“Okay. Well could we make it easier?” Cap said, for once, his concern overriding his professionalism. It was still there though. They all knew they had to handle this one differently.

“Were there multiple sources? T’challa asked.

“No.” Peter replied easily. Yes or no questions were easier.

“Any other allies he had?” Cap this time.

“No.” He could do this. It was much easier.

“Then what?” He stopped. Fill in the blank? Okay, no word bank, he’s got this.

“One source.” was all he could get out without sounding like choking.

“Short answer kid. You gotta explain.” Tony was waiting. Peter swallowed.

“Me.” Tony gave a long suffering sigh.

“Okay, pass . We’ll come back to it. What was he even doing?”

“Pass” there was no hesitation.

“Do you know?” They all knew that answer. No one wanted to say it though. He really shouldn’t know.

“Pass.” he said quietly.

“Where did he take you?” He really didn’t know that one. Somewhere… underwater? He wanted to say a cave. It was a laboratory. Maybe in the sewer systems. But it was a laboratory . Where was experimented on and ohgodohgod ohgod . They knew who he was-

“Pass.” he said quickly

“What did he do to you?” Experimented. Hurt. Pain . Insulted. Taunted. Tortured . Waitingwaiting waiting for something . Black. Cold. Needles. Goo. Black moving. Cold freezing. Trapped. Cantbreathecantbreathe cantbreathe.

“I don’t know!” He nearly screamed in a panic. He wanted to cry. There was more silence and he was sick of it. Or maybe that was the nausea.

There was silence after that. It was choked and Peter looked like he was so done . He looked so tired. He was so tired . He wanted to sleep and forget anything ever happened to him. But something did and he didn’t know. He had no one to talk to, because they either couldn’t help, or he couldn’t talk to the ones that maybe could. His breathing became a bit labored.

“Christ.” it was Tony and he looked up. “You- you’re exhausted .” Peter only nodded. That was the first time he’s seen Tony so… concerned? Shocked? This was a bit much. He’s seen him concerned before but never like this.

“Seriously, what happened?” Captain said gentler. This was obviously more than just a case at this point.

“Pass.” he mumbled. He was so tired. No more questions please. Sleep. Sleep was good. But he wasn’t even sure he wanted it now. He just wanted thins infinite feeling of tired to be gone.

“No fail. You passed every question. Wanna take a retake?”

“No.” Peter said and thought for a minute “This isn’t a required class. I already have all my required classes. I can fail this one.” Tony gave Peter an apologetic look.

“No you can’t” and they both knew it.

Chapter Text

Chapter 8

The walk back home was insufferable and long. He was tired and cold. He felt sick and a headache was pounding on the inside of his skull. It seemed to take forever before he was home.Or maybe it wasn’t. For the love of him, he could remember turning on his street, or opening the doors to the building or the tiresome walk up the stairs to the seventh floor because the elevator was broken. Or crashing in bed to go to sleep. All he knew was that he was asleep. Or was he? He wasn’t sure. He didn’t feel very asleep, but it was pitch black as if his eyes were closed.

It was black and dark and cold . Something was moving along his skin, but he couldn’t open his eyes to see what it was. Once he was aware of it something finally registered fully to him:

It hurt .

It hurt so much. He thought it was seeping into his skin, the cold ingraining itself into his bones. Stabbing into his skin one sell at a time, going between small crevices he couldn’t and didn’t want to see. It was so goopy and slimy and gross. It made him feels gross. The movement was all over his skin. Every inch violated.

That’s when the flashes came. Flashes back to the lab. Flashes back to when he woke up. Flashes back to Titan. Flashes back to before he left. Flashes back to the Vulture. The ferry. The elevator. Getting dropped into a lake. Getting hit by a plane.

Ignored calls. Disappointed heroes. Failure to protect.

Ignored. Disappoint. Fail .

It was like a routine, that never ended. How did he even do it? He hated it more than anything.

He always failed. He was a stupid kid who couldn’t protect himself. That’s what Tony was always thinking. That’s what everyone was always thinking. Even him.

He didn’t even know how to answer those questions.

He didn’t even know if he made it home. He just wanted to sleep.

He could never know, that he wouldn’t be getting any rest for a long time.

OoOoO

When Peter left, it was in a run.

The kid had literally ran out of there. And fast. Like his life depended on it. He probably thought it did. And now, Tony and the rest of the Avengers were trying to find him.

They back tracked all the way to Queens, but none of them actually found anything.

“Seriously, he had only a 15 minute head start! Where is he?” Sam complained through the comms. And he was right. This was frustrating because the kid hadn’t even been gone that long. And he was tired.

“I don’t know Wilson. Just find him. I don’t think he’s in his right mind right now.” Tony snapped with gritted teeth. He was frustrated too.

That’s when it happened. A large black something shot out at his flying suit and dragged him down harshly.

“What the-”

“Ironman down!” the black goo was latched tightly to his leg and he knew every time he shake it, it would just readjust. He had to get it off before it got into his suit. He heard falcon fly up behind him.

“What the hell even is that thing?!”

“I don’t know. Get it off.” Falcon fired a at the thing and it shrieked and came off his leg. It dropped to the ground and seemed to disperse for a moment, but it was enough to see.

Peter breathed in for a moment and then coughed as it reformed back around his body.

“Is that…?”

“ Peter ?” Tony said and over the comms he could hear Captain demanding what was happening.

“There’s this ... substance,” Falcon said as he and Ironman surrounded the  thing. It had long gruesome teeth and a wet disgusting tongue. “It seems to be controlling Parker.”

“What?” he heard Cap over the comms.

“Well not so much as controlling then using his body to form a shape.” The thing lurched at him “We gotta get him out.”

“But what if this is one of those things like, ‘if you hurt the me, you hurt the boy’. You know?” Quill said over the comms and Tony stopped for a second.

“Did you just quote Pirates of the Caribbean?” he asked. There was silence.

“Oh shit! The kid freaking rubbing off on me!” Quill shouted through the comms and Tony wanted to laugh, but it was just sad to think of that kind of stuff when Peter was hurt or controlled...brainwashed? Whatever the situation was, it wasn’t good. Tony had a feeling more so for Peter then anyone else.

“Well someone has to.” Natasha came through over the comms. “What’s the plan.” she said as she fired and it absorbed the bullets and fired them back .

“It didn’t react well to the blaster, though.” Tony mumbled to himself.

“Well, if you fire a beam of energy nothing would react well.” came the sarcastic comment.

“No like, it absorbs bullets. Fires them back. Why didn’t it do that with the blaster.” Natasha was catching on. He wondered if all Spiders were smart.

“It doesn’t react well to heat. Energy.” Tony said, it wasn’t even a plan, but it was the best they got. “So heat it up, just be careful. We don’t know what it’ll do to the Spider-brat.” he said trying to keep the mood a bit lighter. It didn’t really work, especially on himself.

“OK. Team you have your orders.”

OoOoO

When he woke up, it was blurry. To bright and blurry. He noticed slight movement, but the only thing he truly processed was that he couldn’t move.

He couldn’t move .

He was strapped down. Why was he strapped down? Did Oc have him again? Were he and Ross gonna torture him again? Experiment on him? No but they were in jail! They were gone. How did they get out? Nononono no. He couldn’t be back here.

He felt trapped.

He started to tug on the restraints but they wouldn’t move. He tugged harder and harder and harder. They wouldn’t move. He couldn’t move.

Then he heard voices. Voices that sounded vaguely familiar.

“What the hell?!”

“He’s awake!”

“Hold him down!”

“Peter calm down!”

Then stop yelling. Is what he wanted to say. God everything felt so loud and bright. Senses dialed. It was funny cause he couldn’t comprehend anything a second ago. He would have laughed if he wasn’t panicking. It was too much, he still couldn’t put together what they were saying, or make out who they were he was in so much pain.

He wanted it to stop. For them to let go. Mr.Stark had once told him that if ever he needed something to just ask . He didn’t know if it would work, or why he was even thinking about what Mr.Stark had told him to do. He just did.

“No, no! Lemme go! I don’t wanna do this! Leave me alone!” He said back, and he was pretty sure he was screaming. He just wanted to go home. He wanted to cocoon in his covers and listen to music to drown everything out. He wanted a hug. He wanted May . But he knew none of that was gonna happen here.

The noises increased and he whimper and started to tug again.

“He’s bending the rail.”

“Parker! Calm down!” Said a stern voice that cut through the noises surrounding him. He actually recognized this one.

Mr.Stark.

Mr.Stark was here? Why isn’t he releasing him? Was he on Ross’ side? If so, he must be more pissed off at him then he had realized. Had he fucked up that bad . Mr.Stark was a scientist after all, he was qualified to do experiments. And they had Dr.Banner and Shuri to help them. With all that science power they’d be able to dissect Peter easily. Peter let out a soft cry at the thought. He was gonna be sick.

“Please...please no.” He stopped struggling. If Shuri was here then it would be made of vibranium. It’s useless to try to escape. He was trapped.

“Parker! Stay with us, don’t fall asl...“ he drifted out then.

OoOoO

Shuri, Bruce and him were working non stop. They weren’t tired though. How could they be when a 15 year old kid was in the other room strapped to a bed with Vibranium heaters.

Shuri had made them on the spot to contain the symbiote, as they were now calling it, inside Peter’s body. They couldn’t extract it from him without knowing what it’d do to him.

He could understand why Peter would be freaking out though. Having your body not under your control. And then finding yourself strapped to a bed, unable to move and confused. He could help but remember something.

“Hey kid, where you been?” Tony said leaning against the counter top, sip a coffee casually.

“Uhhh Mr-Mr.Stark! What are you- What are you doin’ here?” he tried to act casual, as  if he didn’t sneak in at 4 in the morning.

“Well I live here. What’s up?” looked pointly at the boy who looked down and scuffed his foot.

“Nothin” he mumbled.

“What were you doing?” tried again, he sounded a bit more stern.

“Uhh, drinking?” Peter asked, and it was way to unbelievable cause the kid didn’t look drunk at all, and even if he did, it would probably be from blood loss then a drink.

“Drinking? I have trouble believing that, surprisingly.” he said blandly.

“Fine, I was in a car chase that went out of city. But I couldn’t just stop and -” Peter was cut off.

“Why didn’t you lead with that?” Tony asked.

“Oh uhm…” Peter rubbed the back of his neck nervously.

“It’s hell of a lot easier then drinking” Tony pointed out.

“Yeah… yeah I’m sorry.” Peter looked down.

“Okay, well just tell me next time. I could’ve picked you up.” Tony said casually.

“Okay.” Tony sighed.

“I kinda wish you were drinking. It’d make you a normal teenager.” Tony mumbled almost to himself.

“Well I like having control over my body..Like it’s ...stronger...I could hurt someone if I don’t” Peter said, and Tony didn’t think Peter knew what he was saying cause he looked exhausted.

“You really should have fun more often.”

“Stark, we found something.”

OoOoO

It was the second time he woke up in that room. It was only 30 minutes later. This time he wasn't freaking out.

It seemed different from last time. The lights were on. There was no human noises. Only the machines around him and their soft whirring sound. And there was only one other person in there.

Mr.Stark.

He was leaning against the tinted windows, crossing his arms and looking directly at him with a look that made him want to shrink.

“What was that, Parker?” straight to the point. Not even gonna ask if he was okay. Well I guess he could see if he wasn’t, due to the projecting monitors, that showed his vitals. Oh and he started freaking out last time he was awake. He didn’t want to answer why he freaked out. He thought he was completely justified in freaking out if they were experimenting on him.

“Pa-”

“No. You’re not allowed to pass. You’re going tell me now . Because it’s me . An absolute douchebag who has no sympathy for other people’s emotions and gets whatever the hell I want because I can .” Mr.Stark said, and Peter couldn’t help but notice, Mr.Stark only used that voice once, in the time that he knew him. The first time he fought with him. In Germany. To Cap. Peter looked at him sadly for a little bit.

“But Mr.Stark,” He said in a whimper, and he didn’t know why it came out that way, he wasn’t even that scared of him. He didn’t know what he was feeling, he was vaguely aware now would be the perfect time to be mad, but he just wasn’t . That’s what scared him. “It’s so obvious .” He said shyly. Mr.Stark stared at the boy, still strapped to the bed. He looked so small.

“What’s wrong with you?” Was all that came out of Mr.Stark’s mouth.

“ I don’t know.” Peter said panic rising again.

“Okay, easier question. What is that... thing that was attached to you?” Is?

“Why are you asking me?” Didn’t he know? If he was working with Ross then should let he get the information that was already collected.

“Okay, easier question: why does it match your DNA perfectly.” Peter suddenly felt ashamed and ducked his head. “Peter, I’m only asking you once, what is that thing?”

“Stop please, you already know. You know… I don’t… I get it…” Peter ducked his head and he still couldn’t move his arms. He tugged a little, he knew it was useless.

“Stop that.” Tony chastised and Peter’s head snapped up.

“Can you even blame me. Their heavy. I can’t move.” He said quietly. And Tony let out an unexpected noise of anger.

“What is wrong with you?!” He said angerly and Peter couldn’t help but seem more confused instead of self conscious. Although he felt that too. “You’re supposed to be mad!” He continued and Peter stiffened “you’re saying things you say when you’re mad. But you don’t seem mad. You have every right to be, yet you’re not!”

“Why do you care?” He choked out sad now. Tears pricked his eyes.

“See!” Tony gestured ans Peter stiffened and looked more alert. “Ever since you’ve stormed out and disappeared you’ve acted different!”

“Well you try being experimented on and then acting like-like everything is okay, cause there are-there are bigger problems then yourself right now.” Peter mumbled in a sad tone. Man he wanted to be angry, but he couldn’t. He didn’t know why but he just couldn’t. Tony blinked at him. “What?” He said in a thick watery voice. Something seemed to click for Tony.

“Shit.” He said and walked out as Peter whimpered and heard him start running and calling Bruce. He didn’t want to be experimented on again. Bruce was gonna experiment on him and Tony was gonna watch. Like Oc and Ross. It made him want to throw up.

Bruce came in with Tony hit on his heels. He looked worried and frantic as he was checking monitors. It was five agonizing minutes of silence and beeping and whirring and franic tapping. Bruce then crouched near his head and he whimper a little more.

“Peter I’m sorry, can we explain why you’re in restraints.” Bruce said gently, like he did when he was taking care of him. Peter wanted to cry, because he’d actually looked up to him. Saw him as a comrade. A friend . And he just goes and back stabs him. He trusted Bruce and now he feels the pain of the betrayal full force. Like Ross .

“We aren’t trying to hurt you. I guess we never really explained. There’s this... thing . In your system. We think it’s a symbiote, that’s what it seems like at least. It takes over your body, but it’s weakness is heat. Or any form of concentrated energy. So those arm holders are restraining it not you.”

“It takes over?”

“Yeah.”

“It’s hurting you Peter. Until we figure out how we’re gonna deal with it you gotta have those on.”

“Does it hurt you too?” Peter asked in a small voice. “God, please tell me I didn’t hurt anyone.” He felt a little relieved though. They weren’t gonna experiment on him.

“No kid, as long as you stay until we figure this out.”

“Are you gonna experiment on me?” He couldn’t help but ask.

“Gods no Peter! We already got the sample. And we aren’t letting you get taken over by that thing again just so we can test you. We are going to figure this out, and you are safe . We won’t ever hurt you promise.”

“But I acted like...such a brat .”

“You acted according to your instincts. Trust me, everyone is more worried then mad at you right now kid.”

“I’m sorry.” Peter said quietly.

“It’s not your fault. How ‘bout you just tell us what happened. Then we can figure this out.” Peter nodded and was about to open his mouth to speak when Tony interrupted. He hadn’t even started yet.

“Wait. Just like that? T’challa had been talking to you for 30 minutes and then another 30 minutes with me and Cap and you wouldn’t say a thing?!”

“Tony, shut up.” Bruce said exasperated and gestured for Peter to continue. Peter smiled a little despite himself.

“Well, I guess it started a few days before, when the Defenders came back. Uhm, Daredevil said that Ross had captured them with a fake mission to stop the Hand. He told me cause, you know, I might be able to tell you guys. But I… I couldn’t” Peter sighed “I’m an unregistered teenage mutant. No one would take me seriously or believe me politically.” Tony was about to protest, but Peter cut him off “And don’t say that you would, because trust me you wouldn’t back then.” Peter said and continued “Anyway, he hired this Octopus creep to kidnap me, and he darted me and I passed out. I woke up in a lab, on a table...made of Vibranium.” he said quietly. There was a bit of silence. “Anyway, he said things, I don’t think they really matter though, I can barely remember anyway. He injected me with stuff and took my blood. For the most part, I just remember this… pain. Like he was extracting something from me. I didn’t know what. I got out though, and yeah I guess you know the rest. But I guess I was getting really sick after that. I didn’t know why, it was on and off.” he said “I wanted to come to you, I just didn’t know if I was ...allowed?”

“What is that supposed to mean?” Tony asked, sounding offended.

“I mean, I’m not apart of your team. Or any team. You aren’t obliged to take care of me, and you aren’t obliged to rescue or protect me. Even if I am a kid, I can handle myself...I just didn’t feel to well for a while. I actually tried to take a day off.”

“Key word being:tried. Cause you didn’t. You were out, not resting.”

“I was resting, and then something came up. It wasn’t dangerous, a friend just needed help. And then another one did too.” Peter said sheepishly. Tugging absently at the restraints. Bruce looked on sadly in sympathy. Tony groaned. Of course.

“Peter, please stop. We know you don’t like them, we don’t want you in them, but they are the only thing keeping you from freaking out.” Bruce said gently and Peter nodded. Tony looked on.

“You said Oc was the one experimenting on you.” Peter flinched. That was enough answer for Tony. He walked out “FRIDAY get Romanov and Barnes down here, now . And tell Wilson to find the Defenders, take whoever he wants that’s available.”

Chapter Text

Chapter 9

There was knocking on Luke’s door in the middle of the night.

Now usually this wouldn’t be so strange. He lived in a complex that wasn’t known to be very ‘family friendly’. He most certainly wouldn’t put it in that category, especially when Miles was here with him, but the kid adapted, and Luke was tough enough to deal with some curses and faint sounds of drunk- well you get it.

He doesn’t usually answer the door, but usually the people knocking aren’t so persistent. He looked through the tiny hole to see the one and only, Captain freaking America!! His eyes widened and he opened the door. Holy shit.

He furrowed his brows. This could only mean Defenders business. It usually didn’t follow him home though, unless it was important. He opened the door with a steeled expression.

“Hello sir.” he said in a serious tone. It was not everyday one of the original Avengers came to your door, but then again he was known to be a Defender and Harlem’s Hero. He would’ve counted Spidey, if he’d hadn’t known the kid so well. He would admit he and the kid didn’t go out every other night, but he knew enough to say that the kid answered to no one. Not the avengers or the Defenders or X force not even SHIELD. He thought it was good for the kid, to not be tied to anything now it didn’t mean it got him out of trouble though.

Whatever Cap had to say, it must've been official. He seemed official enough. Or was that just a Captain America thing.

“Hello, are you Luke Cage?” it wasn’t much of a question, he was well aware Claire was standing sleepily behind him in the entryway between the kitchen. Listening in. She didn’t like to left out.

“Yes, is there something you-”

“Do you know Peter Parker?” another not question, but Luke didn’t really care. He was standing straighter more awake. Luke liked Peter. Not just because he was Spiderman, because he’d been patching up Miles too. He knew of Miles wanna be on the spot hero excretions. It was good he’d call Parker to patch him up instead of bleed out in an ally. Parker was smart and a good kid and was great at being on the spot doctor. All Claire had to do was monitor Miles and he never got in trouble. Luke didn’t like to raise his voice anyway.

He was well aware his temporary ward got into trouble. He wouldn’t tell him or Claire or any adult he was ever hurt, because he knew he’d get in trouble. Thing was, Miles isn’t impenetrable. He’s not enhanced. He doesn’t have a healing factor. He’s a normal human boy. A boy who can get infected easy. Just like everyone else. He doesn’t have the luxury to wait until Luke finds him bleeding half to death in his bedroom. And if he won’t tell anyone sooner, then it’d be too late. The only person he’d ever call for help was Peter Parker, and thank god the kid knew his medical stuff or else Miles probably would’ve died in an alley somewhere.

The kid was smart and resourceful. Made a great vigilante and didn’t think he was above helping an old lady cross the street. Spiderman was an enigma, but he wasn’t picky about what he did with his powers, as long as it helped someone. He was so black and white, yet so complicated. Luke could never figure him out, and usually that would frustrate him, but with Parker, it didn’t. He was just a good kid. He deserved to keep his secrets. He certainly proved himself to Luke on numerous occasions. He owed that kid.

“Is he hurt?” Luke asked.

“Yes, he’d been kidnapped by Ross. I’ll explain more later, for now you need to come with me.” Luke was confused. Parker would never out them, or the fact that they were too captured by Ross. Matt had told him not to, and he was good at keeping secrets. He wouldn’t do it, unless he had to. So this must be serious.

He looked back to Claire and she gave a nod and he smiled a bit and left behind Captain America.

OoOoO

Shuri was tapping on a tablet next to him and Groot was on his other side playing Fire Emblem. It seemed like forever ago that he’d given it to him, back when they were still on speaking terms. Shuri was looking at vines or something important, but not sharing. Not like she used to. He’d messed everything up.

They had bonded, the three of them together, and he went and ruined that. He’d ruined he and Groot playing multiplayer and working in the lab with Shuri. Going non-stop and rambling for hours about games and tech. Never once being told to shut up, or being interrupted to explain himself because they didn’t understand or were bored. It had been nice and he ruined it all.

He couldn’t go to sleep to escape the massive boredom or thick tension or heavy awkwardness. He was too awake by it all, and he hated that. So he just waited patiently, he was good at doing that, for something to happen. For one of them to speak or someone to come in. But none of those things happened.

He wanted to focus on something else. So he did. He looked around the room to the monitors displaying his vitals. The metal on his wrists became more noticable now and he started to think about things that he knew he shouldn’t think about.

Trapped. Hurt. Betrayed. Cantmovecantmovecantmove. Violated. Pain. Tortured. Cantbreathecantbreathecantbreathe. He’s under the building again. He’s tumbling off the plane again. Tony trusted Ross. Nonononono. Ross took his DNA. Something else got taken with it. The cold black inky thing crushed his bone. So cold. So dark. So-

“Peter!” he came back to he looked as Shuri’s face was right in front of him and he tugged weakly. “Are you okay?” she looked worried, he wanted to say yes, but he knew that’d be a lie. She knew too.

“No, not really. But it’s fine, right?” he said quietly. He was safe. He could let his guard down. They were here and watching him. They weren’t gonna hurt him. Logically he knew that was the case, so why wouldn’t his nerves calm down. He wasn’t back in that laboratory.

“I am Groot.”

“I’m gonna be fine. Don’t worry.” that even felt like a lie too. He couldn’t see himself ever being fine again.

“You are a hypocrite you know.” Shuri said in a matter of fact tone, defensive Peter noticed, something she never did before. And he looked at her with a cocked head and sighed.

“Yeah, I know.” he gave in, “I’m sorry… for leaving again.”

“We know.” Shuri said, “You are safe now.” It sounded to generic. So fake. That was just her saying they weren’t gonna hurt him. That he was in a different place. He knew that. That wasn’t her saying that he could trust them, or that they even trusted him. They didn’t.

Peter Parker knew who he was. A flake. A person who ditches others for something else. He wasn’t reliable. He wasn’t stable. He was all over the place. People had to constantly cover for his absence. People he constantly ditched and didn’t deserve. He could save people, but he wasn’t reliable as a person. He tried to be, but he just couldn’t. No situation would allow him to be.

“God, I gotta get better at this.” he mumbled to himself, and he knew they were both sporting curious glances at him now. Fire Emblem battle music playing softly in the background. “I’m never where I’m supposed to be .” he said softly.

“I am Groot.” He looked up suddenly. Oh they had heard that.

“That’s not what I meant. I mean, I don’t like this situation at all . But I...I ditched you guys. I didn’t even think… I just went off without any thing and you guys were my friends . Friends don’t do that, in case you don’t know. I’m a terrible example of one.” Peter stuttered out quietly. He felt like he was gonna cry. His friends were always there for him, why the fuck couldn’t he be there for them just once . “I’m so messed up.”

Shuri and Groot looked at each other briefly before moving toward the bed. “It must be a reoccurring thing.” Shuri said as if it was an off handed comment “with heroes that is. Brother is never in Wakanda as much as he should be.”

“I am Groot.” Peter smiled a little.

“No, but you can depend on them. You know where their going and when. I just do things on the fly, I mean I would contact someone but their kinda sudden and it keeps going and I never have time and and-“ Peter breathing pitched and he squeezed his eyes shut. “I’m just making excuses now! I can’t even give you a proper answer and- and you deserve a proper answer. You-“

“Peter calm down.” Shuri said in a calming voice. “It’s okay, really. Brother and all those other heroes aren’t as stable as you think. We were acting like children too, we should’ve noticed something sooner.” Shuri said and started to adjust the vibration hand cuffs “and you paid for it.” She whispered.

“I am Groot.”Peter laughed a little.

“So we good?”

Shuri responded with a meme

OoOoO

Sam had been to many places he didn’t like. He’d been in many situations he didn’t like. He made many choices he didn’t like. He’s done a lot of things he didn’t like to do. But this is probably nothing compared to the places, situation or decisions the kid strapped to that hospital bed had been put through. Peter had less control over everything he’d been put through. Because he was a kid.

Still it didn’t stop him from not liking having to go up dingy creaky stairs in the barley lit hallway of the near demolished apartment building. It looked like something out of a horror movie, but what did he expect when he went to a place called ‘Hell’s Kitchen’.

He knocked on the door with peeling paint at the end of the hall. There was nothing at first and then he knocked again louder. Then there was a pause and stumble and crash. The door finally opened with a click and a drunk woman was there.

“What?” she barked. “I don’ take girl scouts.” she slurred.

“Jessica Jones?” Sam asked, keep it professional, that always worked when Tony was drunk.

“Yeah.” she said leaning against the door frame. She  seemed oddly amused.

“I’m here because of a matter you were directly involved in.” Sam said seriously and she started to laugh.

“I’m involved in a lot of things. Directly, might I add. Gonna have to be more specific.” she said with a smug smirk.

“Peter Parker.” Sam said blandly and it interested him how she seemed to immediately sober up and look more alert then she did before.

“Parker?” she asked. “What happened to him?” she was still leaning against the doorframe. Still sounding and acting bored, but he could tell by the tenseness in her shoulders that she cared what happened to the kid.

“He was captured and experimented on.” Sam informed and Jessica sighed.

“Again? That happens like every six months or something. Parker handles it. I don’t see why you need me.” Jessica waved off, but there was a flash of concern in her eyes.

“He was captured by Ross.” there was a pause and then.

“One second.” she was back out with a bottle of vodka “Let’s go.” she said popping it open and chugging. Sam sighed.

OoOoO

Tony, Bucky and Natasha have been to a high security government issued prison before. And since they were Avengers, they didn’t need much convincing to get in and to Oc and Ross’s vaults. They’d split up to cover more ground. Ross was covered by Nat and Tony and he had Oc to himself.

Perfect.

The guards didn’t care about what went on in prison just so long as no one got out . And Bucky wasn’t gonna let this psycho out.

“Hydra’s asset.” a creepy voice greeted first. He was chained and hanging from a wall as Bucky slid in and locked the door behind him. Peter had to deal with this creep pumping him full of drugs that probably made him sick as all hell. He was starting to think it might have been more torture to the kid then they realized. “To what do I owe the pleasure.” he said like he already knew. Bucky wanted to sigh in frustration, he was gonna have to say it.

“What’s that thing you put on the kid.” he said like it was a statement in a monotone. The doctor chuckled. He didn’t want to dance around the issue, he just wanted to get to the part where he punched the creep into next week. But Bucky had to find out what that thing was first, and Nat and Tony were finding any other information as to why Ross would want that thing on Peter.

“I never put anything on  him per say.” the doctor said and Bucky hated his scaly voice. “That was already in him, I just...awakened it.” the doctor’s smile was even creepier and Bucky wanted to leave. At least you have a choice, stick this out for the kid. You owe him as much.

“What the hell do you even mean.” Bucky nearly snarled. The doctor seemed to be enjoying this, he just had to stick it out until he found what he wanted to know.

“You want to know how you can save him. But you can’t. Not from this. I made his aggression, his anger, his very annoyance into a symbiote. Siphoned it out of every last cell in his body and put it back on to use for my bidding. Pure Venom.” the creepo said and that was enough for Bucky to punch him like a punching bag.

How dare they. They took that kids anger, something they’ve never seen and made it into that . Used his emotions against him literally. But Bucky couldn’t help but be awed. Who knew the lovable little shy kid who stumbled and always got up. Never got mad no matter how annoying you were. Never got frustrated at all no matter how tedious the task. Didn’t hurt a soul, even the ones that destroyed him. That messed him up in ways there was no coming back from. Ripped him piece from piece and betrayed him a million fine. The kid who always got back up with a smile and no complaint. Had that pure aggression in side of him.

Pure Venom .

And for the first time in his life James Barnes was scared of Peter Parker.

OoOoO

Thor walked into to the Dojo. He heard solid smacking and two voices chattering in low murmurs. One female and one male. From what Stark had told him, he’d need the male voice, and the male voice alone.

He waited until the female had left the room and the male continued to smack what he presumed was a punching bag. Great invention, in Thor’s opinion.

He walked into the Dojo and the blonde male was alone just like he had guessed. The other blonde was smaller than him, but still impressive muscular.

“Sir Rand?” Thor asked and the Blonde stood board straight, Thor continued. “I have a proposition for you.” he said seriously and the male rolled his eyes.

“I don’t do business.” Rand said punching the bag again and Thor smiled. He liked this one.

“Nor do I honestly. But what I have is more of a request. Concerning the young Spider.” Rand looked over to him a bit worriedly.

“Spiderman doesn’t do business.” And Thor already knew that. He was but a mere child he shouldn’t be doing business.

“No business. He is in...poor health. General Ross had captured him sometime ago, but he came back-”

“Sick.” Rand finished and sighed. “He is often sick. Unfortunately, but he’s never quite healthy enough to ever be okay .” Was this recurring, Thor thought. Maybe it was. In that case, young Parker would need more help then they initially thought.

“You misunderstand. We need you and your teammate’s cooperation, he seems to be taken over by something . He is currently residing in out medical wing.” Rand finally turned full body toward him.

“You actually got him in a hospital?” Thor nodded “Peter. Peter Parker?” he seemed shocked when Thor nodded again. He then steeled himself and grabbed a jacket and they were out the door.

Thor decided he liked Mr.Rand, they should spar sometime.

OoOoO

Tony and Natasha sat in front of Ross in a Straight Jacket.

Ironic.

Tony thought he deserved that. A straight jacket, just like he was planning on putting Wanda in. Just like he put Peter in at one point. A point Tony was insanely mad at him for no reason. Peter hadn’t trusted Ross, and he was right for doing so. Tony didn’t trust Peter and Peter had ultimately paid for that in the end. The rest of the Avengers were deeply embarrassed but they weren’t the ones strapped to a bed in vibranium restraints.

Just like Ross wants . His mind supplied, but what other choice did they have? Peter couldn’t take another round with that thing on him. This was all to protect him, but no matter how much Tony told himself that. They were still forced to test on him, to figure out what that thing was. To contain it inside Peter until the experiments were done.

He couldn’t let guilt get to him now. He and Nat had to beat the everloving shit out of this guy first. Yes, beating and then guilt. Tony didn’t mind that plan.

“You’re an asshole.” Tony said blandly first. Nat was there to back him up and make sure Ross wasn’t lying. She was better at that then him, and Ross was a lying master.

“That’s why I’m the only one to see the damage you are doing to our nation.” Ross bit back. Tony didn’t even flinch.

“So that’s why you experimented on a teenager.” Tony said “To ‘make us see what we were doing’? Sorry, I only see the emotional mess you made of an already scared Kid. ”

“He was experimented on before I even got to him. He’s a mess up though. Oscorp had thrown out the Spider army idea. Little did they know they already made the perfect soldier.” Ross smirked. Natasha beat him the punch. Literally. Right Tony does the talking and Nat does the punching. It was more effective that way. But Tony really wanted to punch him, just once. Hard.

“He’s a fucking kid .” Tony growled.

“So was Rodgers.” Ross mused.

“He’s younger than Rodgers. And Rodgers actually had training before getting kidnapped.” Tony said with venom. “He didn’t ask to be a soldier. Rodgers was prepared, he wasn’t.”

“He aslo had training before fighting in a war. One of which, you threw him in. He has no obligation to, but he did anyway. It was his choice. He doesn’t answer to anyone, therefore no one to take orders from. Can you imagine a perfect soldier running around stopping parking meters from being stolen?” Ross asked without really asking and Tony slammed his hand down on the table in front of him. Ross continued. “He didn’t have a choice in the powers. Oscorp didn’t even know that he had them before they noticed their little experiment was missing and fired Connors for losing the Spider. He took down an entire corporation within a week, yet he still doesn’t get acknowledged? He has  twice as many enemies as you and do you know why?” Ross asked. Tony was silently fuming, crescents forming in his palms and white knuckles. “Because he’s different. Because he doesn’t answer to anyone. And it puts everyone in danger. He’s a kid, and he doesn’t know right form wrong.” That wasn’t true at all. He was a kid, that’s why he knew what was right and wrong. It was so black and white to him that he got it right everytime. The adults got it confused and it was like shooting at grey to find what was right and wrong. Peter understood better than all of them. Because he had better ideals then all of them.

What saves the person in the end?

That’s all it came down to, but factors came into play. Complicated factors. Factors like the government and Ross. Who was trying to screw them up. It was good Peter didn’t answer to anyone of them. But he was too nice to fucking turn down Tony’s offer a year ago. Tony never should’ve asked in the first place. He’d dragged him into the civil war with no information or regard to Peters opinion. He took advantage of a starry eyed kid who was too innocent and naive to turn down his idol. He should never bothered him. Just let him stay on the ground and monitor him without ever intervening. It didn’t matter if he had the suit that Tony made for him or not, Peter would never use it again and cut his ties to Tony. Peter didn’t need Tony, but Tony needed Peter. Peter was too freaking nice and innocent to leave him alone. Even if it was killing him.

And then Peter tried, he tried to cut his ties to the billionaire. But it was in vain. He kept getting dragged back in. Everything kept screwing him up. Pulling back into the mess that was the government and the Accords and the wars and he was just a kid who wanted to help out and look out for the little guy.

Peter got it before any of them had. In the end that was what being a real hero was all about.

“You should’ve left him alone Stark.”

Looking out for the little guy.

OoOoO

Bruce showed up to the door of the supposed Daredevil. It was a beast finding this guy.

Like Peter, the Devil of Hell’s Kitchen had an identity he’d rather be kept under wraps. So it took going through the information SHIELD had collected on the Defenders and then he had to go to the Police department, then he had to call a person named Jessica Jones so he called Sam and he put a drunk woman on the phone who took 15 whole minutes to explain where he lived. Finally he got there.

He was there, with his temper in check. Quite surprising actually, but he was proud he kept it together with everything he was put through. He’d think the tedious process of hunting this guy down and the dirty neighborhood he had to walk through, almost getting mugged twice and that annoying neon billboard - seriously how did that guy put up with it- he’d be pretty temperamental. He wasn’t. For Peter .

He was about to knock on the door when it opened and he was met with a blind man . Bruce was so shocked he could only say.

“H-Hi, I’m Bruce Banner.” he hadn’t even knocked yet and this man was blind .

“I assume your here for Daredevil.” Bruce nodded dumbly and the man leaned against the doorframe and sighed. “Jessica said that someone would be coming for me. So why are you guys gathering us? We’re not the hero type so we won’t fight in one of your post-war stuff.” Matt wanted to say neither would Spidey, but he didn’t speak for the webhead. Spidey spoke for himself and no one else was gonna tell him otherwise. Spiderman was his own entity, No strings attached helping hand. He worked with everyone and no one. Bruce sighed.

“Yeah, well I wont’ beat around the bush. Ross capture Spiderman and experimented on him-” Bruce said and was cut off. He was starting to get a little orated. Here he was tracking an impossible man to find for about 6 hours, he could at least hear him out even if he already knew. For Peter. Do it for Peter.

“Peter is sick. Yeah I’ve noticed. Pretty hard not to notice. But he’s acting different from when he’s usually sick. He’s not getting a frustrated or annoyed as he should be. It’s kind of creepy.” Says the blind man who notices things and spotlights as Hell’s Kitchen’s personal red devil themed vigilante. What was up with vigilantes and the colour red anyway? Is it like a trend? Like some sort of agreement that all vigilantes who protect the six boroughs of New York City have to wear red spandex. Was there a dress code?

“Yeah, it’s about that and well...we just need you to help us understand a few things. Peter’s currently in a our medbay and he’s not doing so well.” Daredevil looked at him for a second.

“You’re trying to tell me you got that kid in a bed and actually kept him there?” Daredevil asked.

“Not willingly.” Bruce admitted bashfully.

“Obviously. But he’s in place, didn’t escape yet?” Daredevil asked Bruce furrowed his eyes.

“He can’t escape.” the devil smirked.

“He can, and he will.” the devil grabbed a jacket and went in front of him “I’m Matt Murdock by the way.” Bruce stopped for a minute.

“You mean the same Matt Murdock that was Peter’s lawyer in the emancipation?” Matt nodded.

Dare Devil was Spidey’s lawsuit. Who would’ve thought?

Chapter Text

Chapter 10

Tony and Natasha exchanged information with Bucky on the way back to the compound.

“He did what?! ” Tony nearly yelled fuming with so much anger that he was almost turning red. How dare they.

“Maybe we should wait til we see what Bruce thinks.” Natasha said gripping her seat in a white knuckles grip “He should be back with the others soon and the Defenders hopefully.”

After about 15 minutes they were getting out of the car making a beeline to Peter’s room. Logically they knew the kid was okay, why wouldn’t he be? He was protected by the smartest person in the world and a tree. But after that interrogation, there was no way they couldn’t  see the kid.

They wouldn’t tell him anything. Peter only knew so much, and Bruce was his official doctor. So Bruce would decide if Peter should know the information. They wouldn’t tell anyone else yet.

Tony was the first to enter the room and was immediately adulterous by the states of two very aware teens. Shuri was the one he was really worried about, but if she hadn’t already hadn’t figured it it, which he highly doubted given what actually happened, she would soon. In any other situation he was sure she’d be leagues ahead.

“What happened?” She immediately asked and Tony didn’t answer looking at Peter who looked scared and confused.

“We talked to Ross and Oc.” He informed Peter, he wasn’t sure if Peter actually knew that, but by the way his eyes widened in near fear that was taking up the confusion.

Bucky and Natasha pushed past him, Natasha slapping him on the shoulder hard and Bucky giving a slight glare. Peters breathing picked up. Okay maybe that wasn’t the best way to break that news. Shuri facepalmed.

“It’s fine, they’re okay.” She murmured to Peter but Peter didn’t seem to relax. Shuri went back to monitor his vitals.

“I am Groot.” Tony sighed. He never understood the tree, Shuri and Peter did and seemed to maintain a full conversation with him. How they did it, he didn’t know and he didn’t think he wanted to. Must’ve been a teen superhero/sidekick thing.

“We figured out some what happened with you, but I’m gonna have to talk to Bruce.” Tony mumbled a bit, it wasn’t really meant for Peter so much as it was for Shuri and Groot. They gave curt nods.

“Wait. What do you mean some of it. You don’t know what happened? And where is Bruce? What’s going on?” Peter asked frantically tugging against his restraints a bit more, but before anyone could answer the door slid open again. Groot got up as Bruce walked in and Shuri moved to the side as Groot, Bucky and Natasha went outside the door and Tony moved near the computers as more people rushed in.

The first was a big muscular man, who frantically went to Peters bedside and Peter looked confused.

“Luke? What are-“

“Oh my god, Peter! You were sick again and didn’t tell us and you could’ve died . You lied. You said you were okay and you weren’t and-“ Luke was cut off by a snarky but calm voice.

“He always says he’s okay. I’m surprised you believe him.” He said with a smirk.

“Danny?” Peter rasped and Danny have a small smile.

“Hello Peter.” He said with a nod.

“God you’re too saintly blondie.” Said a slurred exasperated voice. A girl with a thick grey scarf and black hair walked in.

“Parker, you’re a little shit.” She said as she stood on the opposite end of the bed and put a palm across Peters forehead. Peter smiled a little and closed his eyes.

“Watch it Jess. You owe me~” he hummed and the woman, Jessica Jones Tony presumed, groaned.

“Hey where’s Matt?” Peter asked and Luke rolled his eyes.

“What he’s your favorite now?” Peter furrowed his brow.

“Course not. Coleen’s my favorite.” Danny smiled Proudly and then Peter gave a shiteating grin “she lets me play with her swords.”

“I’d let you play with my batons if you asked.” Said a voice right next to Jessica. It made nearly everyone hump at the blind man's’ sudden presence. He smirked a bit as he sipped some coffee.

“Gods don’t do that.” Luke said and Danny chuckled a bit.

“You’re so extra Murdock.” Jessica said and drank some more of her vodka. Luke rolled his eyes.

“So you’re the Defenders?” Tony asked from his computer station. Clicking a few buttons and some articles came on the holo screen. Peter rolled his eyes. Here we go.

“Harlem’s hero. The mistik iron fist. Jessica Jones genius PI. And the Devil of Hell’s Kitchen himself.” He said blandly crossing his arms. They all looked at him for a minute and he sighed “okay, princess. We need to discuss some things.”

“You are not kicking me out Stark.” Shuri crosses her arms in a confident gesture“I probably know more about Peters condition the. You or Banner by a physical perspective so-“

“I like her.” Jessica interrupted and Shuri smirked “she stays.” Tony huffed but placated.

“Fine. Let’s begin shall we.” Tony clicked a few more buttons and more articles about the Defenders disappearance during the war and Spider-Man’s disappearance and Ross and Ocs arrest. “So what’s that about. I know you guys aren’t really known to be he-“

“Nope. Don’t say that word.” Luke cut him off. Tony raised a brow.

“It’s a thing.” Peter answered “Vigilantes aren’t really considered heroes more so as a nuisance and we all have our deep dark secrets for why we do this. But it’s the same for all of us, It’s not to be heroic.” He said.

“Except you Spidey.” Danny said “you’re the wild card.” Peter smiled proudly.

“I’m flexible.” He answered with a shrug. ” I have secrets.”

“Okay...well that being said, makes you perfect for people like Ross to take and not get that bad of PR as he would’ve taking an Avenger.” Tony said and it had literally just hit him. “Anyways, why don’t we talk about what Ross wanted you guys for.”

“Well,” Luke said after a while “I guess he just told me that he needed soldiers but only mumbled about that and it was like he had said other things before that I didn’t understand it.” Luke said “something about perfect soldiers with invulnerability, but he underestimated my skin so he wasn’t able to experiment on me as much as he’d like.”Luke shrugged.

“He said something about syphaning my power. That he make an iron fist.”

“He fucking thought my intelligence was inhuman. That little shit.” Jessica said “Or maybe he wanted codes for the PI office, but that’s dumb he has better codes in the government. I dunno, I fell asleep.”

“I don’t think he wanted anything out of me, just information. And sensory stuff.” Mat said curtly and he then gained a slightly dark air around him. “And he knew our identities.” he said, and Peter stiffened at that.

“Anything you guys can think of to get that thing off him?” Bruce asked and gestured to Peter.

“What thing?”

“This thing.” And Tony pulled up more hollow footages from every angle. It was of Peter being Venom and although Matt couldn’t see he was flinching at the loud bangs and sounds. Danny looked to Peter.

“This was you?” Peter nodded and Danny inhaled sharply. “The malice you possesed...how do you even…”

“Control it? I might have a way actually.” Peter said and sighed. Everyone looked to him. “But it’s going to be painful.”

Painful indeed.

Chapter Text

The anger inside of him had always been a constant, boiling beneath his skin and seering through his veins as it pumped through him. His anger motivated him as much as his hope did. 

Peter had clung to the hope. He clung to the goodness and the light and the belief that there could be goodness in the world. 

But even hidden and concealed by all of the good intentions, there would always be a part of him that was motivated by that anger. 

It’s a righteous kind of anger. A kind of anger only forged by loss and pain that repeated and compounded. 

He suppressed that anger for so long and didn’t want it to consume him, to become him, and that was how Venom had been able to cling onto.

He hadn’t been infected or changed or warped. This was what he kept pushed down and hidden away so far within himself that he forgot it’s there too. 

And it felt wrong to admit, wrong to even feel, but embracing the anger felt good. It felt too good. It felt too right.

It was easy to give into the anger. It had been festering for too long, boiling over and finally being set loose. It was easy to be angry. It was easier to be angry than to…

Than to acknowledge that…

Than to think about…

But there’s a difference between giving into the anger and embracing it.

Giving in meant being blinded by it just like he was blinded by the slivers of hope. Giving in meant shoving something else down to repress and ignore. 

But embracing meant realizing why it was there in the first place. Embracing it meant accepting it and accepting what came with it. 

It’s a kind of pain even more torturous than being strapped down and electrocuted.

It’s facing all of the pain he didn’t let himself before.

And the thing is, when you finally let yourself face years of trauma and loss and pain, it’s gonna hurt. Anger compounds but trauma builds. It branches and it evolves and it twists into something new while all being rooted in something almost as old as you.

Losing his parents, losing Ben, losing May—

Everyone leaving, everyone dying, everyone gone because of him—

Not being allowed to care, not being allowed to let someone else care about him, not being allowed to let them in because if he let them in then he’d lose them and it’d be his fault again—

Realizing that it’s not the team who doesn’t want him but it’s Peter not letting himself be part of a team. Realizing that some things were his fault and some things weren’t and some things were out of his control and some things weren’t and sometimes when things were in his control they still went wrong but that didn’t mean they were his fault—

It was your fault, it wasn’t your fault, it couldn’t have been your fault but you still feel like it was your fault, it was no one’s fault, it was everyone’s fault.

But placing the blame didn’t make it easier. It didn’t solve anything. Because what happened had still happened and the only thing shifting the blame did was avoid what was there.

It hurt. 

It hurt so much that he didn’t know how he’d lived this long without it completely consuming him.

Everyone he loved died and it hurt, it hurt so much, and he used it to inspire his heroism, but that’s not… that’s not what they wanted. 

He didn’t know what they wanted.

He didn’t know what he wanted.

Did he want to be an Avenger or Defender or X-Forcer?

Did he want to succumb to the venom clouding his mind and give into his anger for good?

No…

He just wanted…

He just wanted a break.

He tried. He tried. He tried to take a break but New York needed him. Someone, somewhere, always needed him and he needed to help them because if he didn’t…

Because if he couldn’t save them, then he would lose them. And if he couldn’t help them, he’d lose them too. And he had to be enough. He had to be ready. He had to…

He couldn’t lose them. 

He couldn’t.

They didn’t know him. Not really. They didn’t because he didn’t let them because if they saw how weak he really was, they would leave—

But would they?

Would they leave him? 

They stayed even when he didn’t listen to a single order they gave. They stayed even when he was captured by Ross. They stayed even when he failed to save himself. 

And maybe…

Maybe he had to be saved this time.

Maybe he had to be saved so he could keep saving them.

OoOoO

They all waited with bated breath for Peter’s response, all at a loss and in dire need of answers.

What they weren’t expecting were for tears to pool in his eyes.

Peter’s breath hitches, his arms wrapping around himself in a poor attempt of a hug, and the tears come faster, sobs torn from his throat.

For a long few moments, they all watch in confused horror.

It’s Shuri who moves first, pushing through the crowd surrounding Peter to get to him. Some try to hold her back both with worry for her safety and trepidation that this was all an act.

Shuri knew Peter. She knew him and she knew that he needed her.

She wrapped her arms around him and he broke, sobs growing louder as his body sagged against hers, clinging to her.

Luke and Danny start at that, ready to pull him back if he hurt her, but Shuri shook her head tersely.

He wasn’t hurting her. No. He was gentle. Gentle even as he gripped at her shoulder and back and any place he could clutch in reassurance that she was there and not going anywhere.

Natasha was the next to join them, telegraphing her movements as she pulled the two into her embrace.

Everyone was soon to follow, some joining the embrace and some showing their consolation with a squeeze to Peter's shoulder or a soft pat to his back.

As the sobs quieted to gasps and the tears finally dried, the symbiote leaked out from him. Everyone quickly pulled away and Peter looked down at the symbiote. "I'm tired of being angry. I'm tired of shoving my anger down. And I'm... I'm just tired. And I'm tired of being tired."

"Sometimes I am angry, though." Peter looked up at everyone in the room, who were staring at him warily. "Angry that you don't trust me." Some flinch at the words. "Angry that you don't respect me." Another flinch. "Angry that you don't listen to me or pretend you do. And angry that you don't try to really hear me." Eyes drifted away from his glare. "But I'm not angry that you care. And I'm not angry that you do it because you're trying to protect me. And yeah, the way you try to protect me can make me angry, but I... I know why you do it, even if I don't like it. And I know that I do it right back to you. But I'm sick of people doing what they think is best for me without actually asking if it is. And I'm sick of trying to guess what will be enough for you."

"I know I'm a kid." Peter chuckled slightly hysterically. "I know I am. But I'm a kid that has been through too much to be treated like one. I lost my family and then I lost them again. Everyone I loved has died and that's... I feel like that's on me. And you all get it. I know you do. But I'm not you. And I'm not going to be you. And you have to accept that you can't control that. And I have to accept that I can't control that either."

Peter sighed. "I'm tired. I'm so tired of all of this. So I'm finally listening to you. I'm going to rest. I'm going to rest and I'm going to have twelve years worth of breakdowns and I'm going to feel guilty for every second I take to rest but I'm going to do it and you're going to let me and you're not going to guilt me when I can't do it. Because it's not just me who is pointing fingers and placing blame. Take a second and realize what actually happened. I was tortured. Do you get that? I was tortured. I was strapped down to a table and tortured and you strapped me up again and I lost it and you said you were doing it for my own good and you, what? You thought that was going to help stop the thing literally feeding off my anger?"

Peter took a deep breath. "But I... I don't want to be angry. I just want to be done with it. I want to stop being angry. And I can't do that if you don't... if you keep doing this. If we keep going on like this. I'm not going to choose between all of you because I don't know how. And I don't know how to be part of team. I've never... I've never really been in one before. It's easier when I'm alone because when I'm alone, I'm the only one getting hurt, and when I'm part of a team that means that, yeah, you all can get hurt because of me, but it also means it matters when I get hurt too. I don't know how to handle meaning something to someone. I don't know how to make my own life matter something. But I'll figure it out.”

Black leaks out from Peter’s skin.

“Half the universe died and half the universe got to come back but May didn’t. And I think I didn’t really come back either. And I haven’t let myself take a long enough break to be alone with my own thoughts because if I stayed busy enough and if I saved enough people it would make up for not saving— but it won’t. Becasue I could save the whole universe and it wouldn’t bring her back.”

More black drips out, engulfing his limbs trying to go back in to no avail.

“There’s a girl who I really like who doesn’t know how much I like her. And I think she likes me too. And I’ve got a best friend who has stuck with me since we were just two kids geeking out about LEGO Star Wars sets. And I’ve got a family who used to love me but I’ll never see again. And I’ve got you. And I don’t… I don’t know what that means. I don’t know what you all mean to me and what I mean to you but I want to. And if you do too then… then prove it. Or do something. Anything. ‘Cause I don’t know what you want and I— what do you want from me?”

“We just want you to be you,” Tony said. “And I can’t speak for them, but I… I fucked up. I fucked up with you and I have since the beginning and I… I’m not going to keep fucking it up with you because you…”

“You deserve better,” Bruce said. “You deserve better than what you’ve got and what we’ve been giving you.”

“You can let go, Peter,” Bucky said. “Whatever you’re holding onto, whatever it is that you have to let out, just… let it out.”

Peter has cried all the tears he needed to cry. He let out all the anger that had been bubbling inside. 

“I’m tired.”

“We know,” Jessica said. “And that’s okay.”

“It’s okay to be tired,” Danny added. 

“And I’m sorry you’re tired,” Luke said. “And I’m sorry we didn’t see it.”

“And don’t make excuses for us,” Matt said. “This isn’t on you anymore. Because we’re here for you. You’re not alone. It’s not just you anymore. It hasn’t been but we haven’t shown you that it hasn’t.”

“I am Groot.”

Peter laughed tearily. “Yeah. Thank you.”

Wade scooped the Symbiote into a jar and tossed it into another fic. “That’s someone else’s problem now! Peter learned everything he needed to.”

“I can’t believe this is how I got rid of a literal alien parasite,” Peter said with a soft chuckle.

Wade hmphs. “Probably because this fic was abandoned by StarryKitty013 in 2018 and this last chapter was written six years later by impravidus who is known to solve everything with sappy monologues and trauma recovery.”

Tony rolled his eyes. “It’s because when you’re so used to punching out your problems, you forget that some problems can’t be punched. No matter how hard you try to.”

And sometimes the enemies you can’t punch are the ones that hurt the most. The enemies that are inside of you, the ones that are a part of you, the ones you don’t even realize are hurting you.

And one conversation wasn’t going to solve Peter’s over a decade’s worth of trauma, of course not.

But… he’s not as angry anymore. And he’s not as alone anymore either, even though he wasn’t as alone as he thought he was to begin with.