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It was painfully obvious that Peter was a shy kid, never one to speak what was on his mind. That was just how his life is and always will be, poor shy Peter who couldn’t answer a question or speak in general without his face turning red and stuttering through his answer.
What wasn’t so obvious was that Peter was Spider-Man, or well, if you asked someone who already knew (like Ned for example), Peter’s behavior and manners made much more sense. Spider-Man was like a breath of fresh air, Spider-Man was able to do all these quips to everyone he fought. Spider-Man had a mask so no one could see how scared he was. Scared that he wasn’t going to make it home to his Aunt May who had no clue what her nephew was doing at night while she was asleep. Scared that he would get killed in an alleyway and no one would find him again.
One day Peter was approached by Nick Fury, the Nick Fury, the head of SHIELD which was wild on its own. Apparently being a vigilante was illegal which shocked Peter and he had to bite his tongue before he mentioned how people were doing much more illegal things than him. But because Peter was supposedly doing something right and having the lowest kill count (despite having a high cost of fines due to the damage he has done across the city), so in order to ‘train’ him more, Fury had told him that he was going to be ‘joining’ the Avengers as a shadow, a tag-a-long essentially.
Great…
Don’t get him wrong, working alongside the Avengers was pretty cool but Peter always imagined it as the Avengers, coming down to Queens to meet him and ask him personally to join the Avengers. But that would never happen so working with them against his will would probably be the best he could get.
Turns out that the Avengers were massive dickheads.
That was rude but very much true. Peter could totally understand why they were hesitant to let a totally new person to their team, thank God that Fury hadn’t told the Avengers told who Spider-Man exactly was and thank God that it was summer and Peter had told May that he received an internship from Stark Industries and was going to be gone for most of the summer.
Peter really started to notice how the Avengers personally hated him in training. Steve Rogers, Captain America, the man who was a ‘do good’ type of person was the man who started it all. Now Peter had nothing against him, he actually looked up to him to some degree. A once sickly boy who was now a buff dorito (Ned’s words, not his), which sounded exactly like Peter. Or well, minus the buff dorito part, Peter liked to think of himself as a slightly buff pretzel stick.
“How are you still alive Spider-Man, you don’t know anything about hand-to-hand combat.” Rogers stood above of Peter who was laying on the floor, panting behind his mask.
“It’s called good luck Sir,” Peter quipped behind is mask, visibly out of breath.
Steve Rogers was apparently not the biggest fan of quipps or lightheartedness. “You should be dead by now with the way you’re acting.”
Peter turned his head to look around to the others (sans Mr. Stark and Dr. Banner) who were training and completely ignoring what was going on. This couldn’t be common for their training?
Rogers stepped away from Peter’s laying down body who was still trying to catch is breath. “Again,”
Training, if you could even call that, when on for hours and every time Peter was knocked down by Rogers. At one point Peter was sure that he had cracked a rib and at worse broken it. “You’ll never be a superhero if you fight like this.”
“Well,” Peter coughed lightly, “No need to fight with fists when you fight with words. Pacifism all the way!”
Rogers only scoffed but visibly didn’t find Peter’s small quip funny and then left the training room leaving Peter in silence. Everyone must have already left, who knew how late it was.
“Spider-Man,” FRIDAY said after minutes of Peter just laying on the ground trying to catch his breath without hurting his ribs anymore. “Boss is requesting you to the common dining room. It’s dinner time,”
Peter groaned, food was the last thing on his mind to be honest if you ignore the fact he had an enhanced metabolism. “I-uh, I’ll be there in a couple of minutes, I just gotta shower and get changed.” He got up and brushed himself off of any invisible dust that was sitting on his clothes. “They don’t need to wait for me to finish,”
“Of course, Spider-Man. Boss has been notified.”
Peter walked to the room he was staying in for the three months. He couldn’t call it his room considering how he barely connected with anyone and how everyone (sans Ms. Potts, bless her soul) didn’t trust him or even talk to him. Anyways, Peter walked into the bedroom and into the bathroom to look at himself in the mirror after removing his mask and shirt to stare at the new bruises, possibly broken nose and split lip he had got from training. Needless to say, it wasn’t pretty.
Jumping into the shower, Peter turned the water on the warmest setting, hoping that the warm water would loosen up all of his tense muscles. It was hard to believe it’s only been a few days since Peter had unofficially ‘joined’ the Avengers when it felt like years.
When Peter said that they could start eating before Peter arrived, he hadn’t expected for most of the food, minus the scraps and the food that was thrown about, to be gone. But what can you do? Peter told them that they could start eating and in a tower full of superheroes who burned much more energy than the average person, dinner wouldn’t last that long.
Peter didn’t necessarily need a big dinner, he could always make himself a sandwich or two.
Grabbing the bread out of the fridge, Peter rummaged around the cabinets to look for some peanut butter when the alarm went off and the room was plunged into a flashing red light. ‘Great,’ Peter thought as he groaned and put the bread away. So much for having something to eat.
“Spider-Man, everyone is gathered in Hanger Delta and is waiting for you.” FRIDAY spoke up over the alarm. “Captain Rogers would like to debrief before the mission starts.”
Throwing his head into the air, Peter jogged out of the kitchen and to Hanger Delta.
Turns out that the mission was ground control. Or at least for Peter it was, the others were off fighting a giant slime monster. Which sounds so badass, pity that he couldn’t be right in the action too.
“What’s going on Spider-Man?” A woman asked as he handed over her child he had grabbed from the middle of the street that was dangerously close to the slime monsters (he should find a better name for it) path.
He hesitated as he risked a glance back to the street now covered in its slime that was disintegrating everything? What the fuck? “Ma’am, to be honest, I don’t know myself. But you don’t worry about it, right now all you need to worry about is getting you and your daughter to safety.” Not the best words of advice but it was the best that he could do in a moment of his own panic. “Once everyone is safe we’ll finish.”
The woman nodded and ran off to the safe zone that Romanov pointed to half heartedly before she ran off into the battle.
Webbing away after checking if anyone was left wandering the streets, Peter connected to the main comm channel. “Hey, uh, I finished evacuating everyone and uh when the slime moves, it’s disintegrating everything.”
No one answered him as Peter stood on a rooftop, watching the other Avengers fight. They must of muted themselves. “Is there anything that I need to do? To make this fight end faster?”
Once again no one answered his question Peter decided to give up on trying to make conversation and begin to focus on the slime monster.
As he watched, Peter noticed how the slime was avoiding the fire hydrants it had broken with it’s rampage and river which sucks for it considering it was on an island, Staten Island to be exact.
“Alright you big green bastard, let’s see if you’ll dissolve in water. If not, I’m screwed.” Peter said to himself as he swung himself to the lamp post trying to get the slimes attention. Another note to add to Peter’s growing, ‘So the Slime Bastard can do This’ list, was the fact that the slime can fucking spit slime at him. Fucking great.
The slime that was being spat at him was easy enough to dodge but as Peter kept swinging along, the slime seemed me to calculating where Peter was going to be next mid-air. The aim of it was still absolutely horrid but every so often if Peter slipped up the slime would hit Peter’s legs. Got to say, it hurt like a bitch and if Peter listened close enough he could hear his new suit and eventually flesh disintegrating away.
Great, what was he going to tell Mr. Stark now? He just got this new suit a few days ago and now that new car smell was replaced with burning flesh. And yes, he was very much aware that the ‘new car smell’ was actually just chemicals.
“What the hell are you doing Spider-Man?” Stark said over the comms after being muted since Peter finished ground control. “I thought you were on the ground control and seeing that you are in the air swinging without a care in the world, you’re not on the ground.”
“Finish ground control,” Peter grunted as he got hit with another splat of slime on his left foot. “Testing out a theory now,”
“We’ll talk when we get back to the Tower.” Great, Peter was screwed if this up. He’s already screwed considering he’s testing this out.
“Could, uh, could I have some help though?” Peter asked as he shot a web at the slime which did not except anger it. Which was fine, Peter just needed the slime to stay focused on him. “I just need you guys to keep the slime going towards the river.”
Stark was quiet for a moment, hopefully telling the others (who were still muted) Peter’s plan. “Alright Spider-Man. We’ll keep the monster trained on you.”
Despite Peter knowing that the Avengers still very much hated him, he couldn’t help the giddy smile that appeared on his face.
Peter didn’t wait until he heard Stark’s repulsors or anyone else following behind him as he kept thwipping away and shooting his webs until he was met with the end of the island. Shit, Peter had two options now, somehow maneuver his body so that he could fool the slime. Or option two, which seems like the most plausible one, Peter could just jump into the river and hope that the slime follows him.
While Peter was thinking, the slime seem to catch on that he was currently staying still which was the perfect opportunity to hit him dead center of his chest. “Oh mother fu-” Peter yelled as he was thrown back with the force into the water.
“Language,” Was the last thing Peter heard before he hit the cold water and the air was snatchted out of his lungs.
Being underwater wasn’t on his top 10 places to be at the moment, too cold and dark for Peter’s tastes. Fuck, Peter really didn’t have that much chance of surviving this if Peter didn’t start swimming.
When he broke the surface, Peter looked around and saw no slime monster. Holy hell, his theory actually worked!
“Now, where the Avengers?” Peter asked himself out loud once he got out of the water and getting the water out of his suit the best he could without actually take his suit off. Looking around he noticed that the Quinjet was already gone, no way, they actually left without him? “Fuck!” Peter yelled as he webbed at a taller building, great, time to swing all the way back to the Tower.
By the time Peter got back from Staten Island, it was already dark and Peter, despite swinging in the warm wind, was still very much damp and still very much hurting from the slime spit (once again, Peter really needs to think of a better name).
“Where have you been?” Romanov said with a cold edge to her voice when Peter entered the Tower through the window. “You missed the debriefing.”
Peter looked up tiredly, all he wanted to do was taking a warm shower to shake off the cold air and finally have that sandwich he was going to make hours ago. “I swung all the way back. The Quinjet was already gone when-”
Romanov cut him off with a wave of her hand. “I don’t want to hear it. Go to the Medbay if you’re hurt.” She gave him a cold look that made Peter afraid to actually tell her that he had got third degree burns all over his body.
“No ma’am,” Peter said, his shoulders brought up to his ears as he looked down at his feet and the puddle he was standing in. “Have a good night ma’am,”
“Breakfast is at 7, don’t be late.” Was all she said before she left Peter in the common living room shaking with his arms around his torso, trying to preserve any heat that was left in him.
“You’re welcome by the way,” Peter mumbled softly once Romanov turned the corner.
When Pepper entered the common floor to see everyone gathered around the kitchen island eating and laughing at something that Sam had said but the smallest red-masked hero was missing, “Where’s Spider-Man?”
The joyous air of the room quickly went cold at the mention of the younger superhero. “Not up yet.” Came Steve’s short, clipped answer. “Doubt he ever came back from the mission.”
“Came back late, complained about how we left without him and how he didn’t eat anything.” Natasha explained with an equally cold voice.
Pepper furrowed her brows at how the others were talking about the youngest. Pepper didn’t talk to the vigilante often but when she did have the pleasure to talk to him she found that he was extremely sweet and extremely worried about how the Avengers saw him. It seemed out of character for Spider-Man to complain about something like that.
“Morning,” A tired Spider-Man wandered into the common floor rubbing the eyes on his mask like he was rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. “What’s for breakfast?”
“You’re late,” Natasha said without looking up from her breakfast. “Training is in half an hour.”
Spider-Man walked into the kitchen fiddling with the hoodie sleeves. “I doubt that I can eat training. Do I just have to find my own food?”
No one answered him but Pepper got up, “I made a few slices of toast. I’d be more than happy to share them with you.”
If Spider-Man didn’t have his mask on, he would have been completely red if Pepper had to guess by the boy stuttering at her offer. “Y-You don’t need to ma’am! I was just going to have an apple. I’m n-never really hungry in the morning,”
“Nonsense, I insist.” Pepper felt everyone’s eyes on her. Was it this out of worldly for people (or at least the Avengers) to be nice to him. “I heard that you didn’t eat last night.”
Spider-Man looked somewhat sheepish at being caught for missing a meal. “I guess a slice wouldn’t hurt,” He said hesitantly as he raised the mask just above his mouth showing off his pale neck and of course his mouth. “Uh, thank you Ms. Potts,”
Pepper just gave a smile to the youngest who hesitantly returned it. “It’s my pleasure,”
“We’re testing your endurance today Spider-Man,” Dr. Banner said holding a clipboard when Peter entered the training room. If he wasn’t so tired, Peter would probably be freaking out right now. “There is no set goal, all we want is for you to run until you can’t run anymore.”
This was going to be a long day or an incredibly short depending how long Peter could run. “So, I just run?” Peter asked as he got on the treadmill looking confusedly at Dr. Banner.
“Correct, I’ll slowly up the speed as time goes by. If you decide to stop just yell it out and FRIDAY will automatically stop everything.” Dr. Banner explained as Peter stretched out his legs before getting on. “On three, FRIDAY please count down.”
“Of course Dr. Banner. Are you ready Spider-Man?” Peter nodded, taking a deep breath as he stepped up onto the treadmill. “Starting the testing in three, two, one.”
The beginning of the test was an easy jog but as time went on the speed went up higher and higher and Peter obviously began to get tired but because of Dr. Banner taking notes and the other Avengers who decided to stay after they finished training and watch Peter run.
A few times during him running, Peter did want to stop but every time he stumbled he heard the crude comments from the others who were watching. If Peter couldn’t fight to Rogers liking, he could at least show them that he was okay at other things.
“Dr. Banner, Boss would like me to inform you that dinner has arrived.” FRIDAY said, interrupting the test. “My timer says that you have been testing Spider-Man’s endurance for 9 hours.”
Jesus Christ, nine hours and without any breaks? No wonder he was feeling light headed and his limbs feeling like someone injected them with lead. “Alright, thank you FRIDAY. Good job Spider-Man, our training is done today.” Peter smiled under his mask at the slight praise.
Peter coughed harshly as everyone began to file out of the training room. God he fucking hated this room so much.
Still coughing, Peter shambled into the common floor and promptly flopped down onto the large armchair that could probably fit him and his friends if they didn’t mind being squished together. But for now, with his legs and arms dangling over the arm rests.
“Aren’t you hungry Spider-Man?” A friendly female voice broke through Peter’s harsh coughing.
God, food didn’t sound appetizing right now when Peter could barely breathe. “I’m just gonna go to bed I think,”
Another day without food. Maybe that’s why his burns from the other day weren’t healing.
It was currently July now and Peter felt like one big bleeding bruise. That sounded gross now that Peter actually gave it more thought but that’s how he really felt.
The training, tests and the missions were non-stop and Peter was tired of it. The shiny newness of living with the Avengers (even if it was only for a few months during summer break).
Training was paying off to be honest but totally not worth it for Peter to be walking out of each training with new bruises and a broken nose every time. It was a miracle for Peters nose to not be a crooked mess by now. Anyway, Peter mainly trained with Rogers and Romanov, the very people who didn’t go easy on him, constantly forcing Peter to go pass his limit and even go pass those limits.
Testing was also not worth it. He knew his strengths, his weaknesses and what his powers were. Why Dr. Banner and Stark needed to know everything about his spider powers were beyond him. Peter didn’t get hurt in the tests that much as the training. Sure he always felt sore when they were testing how much Peter could actually lift up (turns out it was more than Rogers so that felt nice to see his shocked face), how long he could exactly lift up said weight. They of course tested how far, long and fast he could run. They only testing that Peter would gladly do under better circumstances was testing his ‘spidey senses’ as he dubbed, all Dr. Banner did to him was tie a blindfold over his eyes and threw balls at him for a couple of hours, sure it made him overly jumpy for a while but nothing that he couldn’t handle. Peter counted his blesses every day when he heard that Dr. Banner decided to not test his heightened senses, maybe the scientist wasn’t that bad
Missions were bad though. Those were the ones where Peter got hurt the most and those injuries were the ones that were more life threatening. The missions themselves were usually easy and quite repetitive after a while.
You must be asking ‘Peter! Why don’t you tell the Avengers that you’re getting hurt all the time!’, well, Peter thought about that when he first got hurt all those weeks ago during that first training with Rogers. But once the others started to show their true colors on how much they didn’t really care about him, Peter was quick to keep his injuries to himself. Was it unhealthy? Quite so but Peter rather keep those to himself and have the Avengers keep thinking that Peter wasn’t weak. They probably did anyway but as Peter liked to call it, ‘fake it until you make it or until you’re on your deathbed’.
Now, let’s take a catalog of all of Peter’s injures. A nose broken multiple times, ribs that could be cracked but hopefully just bruised (at worse one or two were broken), burns that still haven’t healed, a couple of minor lacerations that weren’t deep enough for stitches but too deep for just a band-aid to slapped on. And of course quite possibly malnourishment, probably because Peter skipped so many meals.
And Peter was doing good on being the ‘little shit of the Avengers’ as the others so eloquently called him that wasn’t exactly a way of showing concern or love.
“Pay attention Spider-Man,” Rogers interrupted Peter’s monologue about how much it sucked living in the tower which was honestly rude. “This mission is important.”
Peter crossed his arms as the eyes of his mask narrowed. “You say that about every mission and every time I’m put on ground control.”
“If you were paying attention to what I was saying you would’ve heard me say that you’re on the front lines. You will be going in alone to get the information we need.”
Peter almost fell out of his chair in shock. Him, Peter Parker aka Spider-Man. The same superhero (vigilante?) that the Avengers hated. He had an important job for once!
“Oh uh,” Peter stuttered slightly, still getting attempted to get over the fact that Peter had an important job. “What kind of information do I need to get?”
“Dump it all on this flash drive. Tony will go over it once we get back.” Rogers handed Peter a flash drive. “Head out to Hanger Delta.”
Peter nodded and let the meeting room.
Turns out this mission, besides the fact that Peter was the one who needed to get the information, was at a HYDRA base that was still very much active. The more that Peter thought about it, if Rogers was still alive since World War 2 then why couldn’t HYDRA?
Alright, now that Peter really gave it an extra moment of thought, that was a horrible way to explain something like HYDRA.
“T-minus two minutes until touchdown.” Rogers spoke up after a silent Quinjet ride. “Spider-Man you will head into the facility before us and set off the alarms.”
“I thought that I was just getting information,”
Rogers glared at him. “If you want to fight off multiple guards to get information be my guest.”
“Jesus, guess I’ll pull the alarm.” Peter grumbled as he posed himself to jump off the the Quinjet. “Later fuckers!” And then Peter jumped off the Quinjet and onto the roof, alright then, guess he was on his own.
He was most definitely going to get yelled at during the debrief.
As Peter crawled through the vents for the past 10 minutes, he was covered in cobwebs and dust and not the best of moods. 'But at least I'm almost out.' Peter mused as he kicked the venting door in and silently jumped onto the cold concrete floor.
“Oh hello!” Peter popped right next to the scientists who were staring intently at the screen with the information that Peter probably needed to get. “I’m really sorry to do this but I really do need this information that you two are looking at.” The two didn’t even get a chance to react before Peter knocked them out and set them against the cold grey wall.
Peter barely got to the computer to plug the flash drive in when the room was plunged into a flashing red light and a loud siren. Shit, did he trigger something? “Hey uh, did you guys trigger something or is that all on me?” He asked into his comms hoping that someone would answer while he waited for things to get downloaded. Unlike how he hoped, Peter didn’t receive an answer.
“Come on, come on,” Peter worried at his bottom lip as his eyes darted from looking at the progress of downloading the information and the door where he heard footsteps of more guards running towards the room. “Just a few more minutes. Come on, I just need a few more minutes.” Apparently Peter did not have a few more minutes considering how the guards swarmed the room. Fucking great.
“Listen guys, I’m really busy right now so I can’t really play so if we could reschedule this playdate that would really help with me.” Peter rambled as he kept looking at how far the downloading progress was going. 45% Jesus Christ, what kind of technology did Rogers and HYDRA have? Something from the early 90s?
The guards didn’t say anything except from raise their guns to Peter who put his hands up. “Y’all are gonna have to call your moms cause I really do need to leave.” 67%, more than half-way there.
A beat of silence went through the room before the guards opened fire. Oh for fucks sake.
Surprisingly the bullets were easy to dodge, was it because he was Spider-Man and had a ‘Spidey Sense’ or was it because these guards just had the worse aim he had ever seen and he had Star Wars more time than he has hands!
82%, just have to hold them off for a few more minutes. “Hey! My mom doesn’t like it when we play with guns!” Peter began to web up the guards, making sure that their guns were in a pile far away. “If you can’t play nice you can’t play at all!” Peter turned to leave once the flash drive progress was at 100%. “So uh, sit here and think about what you did.”
The halls were strangely quiet with the lack of guards but if Peter was going by the noises of fighting in the comms, he would say that every guard and their mother was fighting out there. “Got the information, heading outside on the roof-” Peter turned the corner quickly to find a congregation of guards just around it. “Oh for fucks sake. I, uh, might be a few minutes.”
Once again, these guards had horrible aim. Of course Peter got nicked every so often (by nicked he meant that he most definitely got shot) but most of the bullets went into the pipes that were lined against the walls.
“Alright, then.” Peter faked wiped his suit off of any dust. “I guess I’ll see you later.”
“Spider-Man, where are you?” His comm crackled to life with Stark’s voice. “We’re all done here and just waiting on you to hurry up.”
“Uh, got a little tied up with some guards. Just looking for a vent now.”
“You have five minutes,” Stark said and the comms went silent again and the building let out a foreboding creak as small hairline cracks formed on the walls.
Alright then, five minutes to get out and not die.
As Peter ran down the halls, the building let out another groan as chunks of concrete from the ceiling and onto the ground, creating dust around. “Where the hell are some vents?” Peter threw his hands up into the air.
“Where is he?” Clint said as he leaned up against the wall of the Quinjet. “We said five minutes and it’s been five minutes already.”
“Are you suggesting that we just leave?” Wanda asked Clint who nodded.
“Of course I’m suggesting that we-” Clint start to speak before a large rumbling cut him off. “What the hell was that?”
Tony looked outside to see where the rumbling was only to see the warehouse where they just where fall to the ground. “Just the building falling down. Must have had bad structural integrity. Spider-Man you seeing this?” Tony was met with silence from the other superhero. “Spider-Man you better get your ass out here.”
Silence again and Tony furrowed his brows. “FRIDAY, pull up Spider-Man’s vitals.”
“Of course boss, one moment please.” FRIDAY said. “Sir I have some bad news, I can not seem to find Spider-Man’s vitals, what would you like me to do?”
Tony felt his blood run cold. “Can you find the tracker?”
“Of course sir, according to my trackers Spider-Man is still in the building.”
“What do you mean still in the building? The building fucking collasped! There is no way he is still in there!”
“I’m sorry sir but that’s what the tracker is telling me.” FRIDAY sounded remorseful to break Tony the news.
“Could he under the ruble?” Natasha asked after a moment of painful silence.
Ton shook his head, “No that’s not possible. He wouldn’t be able to survive.”
“FRIDAY never mentioned he was alive.” Clint brought down the hammer that Tony was fearing. “Shit, what are we gonna tell Fury if Spider-Man is dead?”
Tony felt his blood run cold. “I guess we just break the news to him and see what happens then. But who's going to be the one to tell him?”
When Peter woke up he immediately regretted it, everything hurt like someone had just thrown him into a fire pit. Of course, fire would probably close his wounds but considering how his wounds were still very much open and bleeding.
The last thing that Peter remembered was that he was walking through the HYDRA facility that was making a lot of noise every so often that made Peter fear for his life. Then a piece of concrete must have fallen on his head and then Peter woke up here.
Did the building collapse after he was knocked out?
Fuck, this was just like Homecoming night. Except this time he had an actual suit that wasn’t just clothes he found in the thrift store. And no, his old suit wasn’t pajamas despite what Stark said.
Shit Stark, did the others make it out okay? Well they should’ve made it out considering how they were already on the Quinjet when the building supposedly collapsed.
First things first, gotta get out of this mess. ‘Easier said than done,’ Peter mused to himself as he started to stand up but that was quickly stopped when a sharp pain went through his side. Fuck that didn’t feel good at all, looking down Peter notice that a metal pole was drived into his side, well that was not good at all.
Peter was certain for two things, one was that having a metal pole in your side that could technically be a lumbar puncture was definitely not a good thing, something that could definitely kill you if you didn’t get the correct medical help. And two, Peter needed to get out of here quickly without dying. But on how things were going with the Avengers and his already low self-esteem, just sitting here until he eventually bled out seemed like a good idea. But was totally out of the picture.
“Okay, you got this Peter. You’ve done this before and you can do this again,” Peter wheezed out, trying to stave off any panic that was creeping up his throat as he got on his hands and knees, testing the concrete on his back. “Come on Peter, come on Spider-Man!”
He looked like someone has thrown him in a bag of flour when he was standing on top of the rubble holding on his wounds. “Hey uh, Ms. AI lady?” Peter spoke out hesitantly, hoping that the AI Stark had put in his suit which he never used. He was too afraid that Stark would be listening in to what he was saying.
“How can I help you Spider-Man?” The soft voice of the AI broke the silence of the rubble.
“Could you, uh, scan the area to see if anyone is still alive?”
“Of course, please wait a moment.” A moment passed when the AI spoke again. Peter should really get around to name her but forming connections like this was never a good idea. “My scans can not find any signs of life.”
Peter felt is blood run cold at the words. He never wished for anyone to die because of them. Peter knew that it wasn’t his fault, he knew that he couldn’t help the people inside when he himself was trapped. Still Peter still couldn’t shake the fact that these people died on his watch, sure they were apart of HYDRA but they all could of had a family who could be waiting for them to come home. Goddamnit, Peter was fucking Spider-Man, people weren’t supposed to die while he was here!
“Spider-Man I recommend you take a deep breath. You are starting to show signs of an anxiety attack.” His AI spoke up, breaking Peter out of his whirlwind of thoughts. “Would you like me to connect your suit to FRIDAY so that the others can come and pick you up?”
Peter shook his head, he didn’t want the others to see him and make fun of him for not being strong enough to handle the fact that people died while he was there. “No, no, I’m good. I might just swing back, don’t want to cause the others any hassle to come fetch me.”
“I recommend that you do call the Avengers soon Spider-Man, you are experiencing signs of blood loss.”
Peter just shot up a thumbs-up, hoping that the AI would be able process it. “I’ll be fine Ms. AI, I’ve done this before and I can do this again. I just gotta make sure that I don’t pass out or die but that seems nice.”
The AI was silent and so was Peter as he stood on top of the rubble. “Alright, I’m about to head back,”
“I’m sorry you what?” Fury slammed his hands down on the table once Rogers had told him about what happened to Spider-Man. “You’re telling me, the kid that I trusted you all with training, died?”
No one spoke up and Fury’s questioning.
“We don’t know if he’s dead Nick, it’s only a theory.” Romanoff spoke up after a moment of tense silence.
“You didn’t even bother to check to find his body?” Fury massaged the bridge of his nose between his pointer finger and thumb. Then, he spoke in a soft voice. “God, what am I supposed to say to his family now?”
That made Tony’s blood run cold. Spider-Man had a family?
“Boss,” FRIDAY spoke up, interrupting Fury even before he could speak. “Spider-Man has been spotted swinging across New York.” Tony’s head shot up, oh thank God, the vigilante wasn’t dead.
“Patch us through.” Fury said quickly, even before anyone could get a word out. Judging by the way some people were glaring at the screen that had just gone up, they weren’t happy about Spider-Man skipping out on debrief to go on patrol.
“-ren, I told you not to patch me through!” Spider-Man’s voice came out muffled as wind and people chattering belong went past the mic. Instead of the camera being on Spider-Man’s mystery face, the camera was instead facing outward to what Spider-Man was seeing. God how could he even stomach that with swinging around so much, Tony even saw Wanda turn a little green on how the spider-themed vigilante was coming close to the ground before slingshotting himself up into the air to repeat. Even worse, Spider-Man threw a few flips in. “H-Hey guys.”
“Spidey I do not recommend you to do flips right now,” The female voice came from his suit but Spider-Man waved off the concern.
“I’ll be fine Karen, now, uh, is everything okay?”
Rogers crossed his arms, “Where are you Spider-Man?”
“Uh, Manhattan I guess? I can see the tower from here so maybe a little bit, it all depends if anyone needs my help.”
Fury pushed past Rogers, ignoring the squawk he got. “Are you okay Spider-Man?”
Air filled the room as Spider-Man hesitated. “Y-Yea I’m totally fine. Just feeling bone-tired so I could go for a nap.” Spider-Man fell silent as he perched on top of a lampost. “Listen I got to go, fire on 26th road. Late,” Then the call cut out and Fury turned to the Avengers.
“You sons of bitches are so lucky that Spider-Man isn’t dead.”
Peter wasn’t lying when he said that he was bone-tired. Lifting up a HYDRA facility off your back with a pole stuck in your then going to go save people from a building that just happened to be on fire.
Either way, Peter’s night was going great.
“Spider-Man, I recommend you go back to the Tower now, you are experiencing hypovolemic shock,” Karen spoke up over the wind. Oh, did he mention how he named the AI in his suit Karen? So much for not getting attached.
“H-hypo- what?” Peter slurred as he stumbled across the rooftop of an apartment building.
“Hypovolemic shock,” Karen repeated, “It happens after sudden blood loss, you need to get to the Avengers tower before you organs begin to shut down.”
“‘Kay, ‘m goin’.” Peter mumbled and sloppily a power line jumped off in the direction of the tower. Thankfully, he was only a few minutes away.
Peter seemed to have a bad habit of arriving at the tower when it was late at night but that was perfectly fine with him. The later it was, the less people were out and about.
Crashing onto the couch, Peter groaned when his wounds were jostled. God let’s hope he didn’t bleed out on Stark’s extremely expensive and not to mention white couch.
“Spider-Man, I extremely recommend you head down to the Med Bay before your body gives out.” Karen spoke up, her soft voice filling the quiet common living room and Peter just groaned at her voice. “I can call someone to help you if you can not walk.”
Jus’ lemme sleep please,” He slurred, his face smooshed down into a pillow. “If ‘m no’ dead tomorrow then I’ll go,”
Karen was silent at his words, hopefully that meant that she would allow him to sleep.
“Boss, Spider-Man has returned.” FRIDAY turned down his music to talk to him.
Tony looked up at the ceiling. “What time is it?”
“It is currently 4:23 am Boss.”
“You’re telling me that Spider-Man just got back from the stupid mission? The mission was hours ago!”
“That is correct Boss,”
Tony ran his hands through his hair. “Baby girl could you pull up the feed in the common room?” Tony found himself asking. God why was he worried about this brat?
Looking at the hologram screen that appeared over his work. If one didn’t know what they were looking for, one would just think the floor was empty but the closer you look you’d see a small body curled up against the armrest of the couch. The boy seemed to be sleeping, might as well just let him.
“Boss Spider-Man has-” FRIDAY started to speak but Tony waved her off. He wasn’t in the mood to talk about Spider-Man anymore.
“Anyone seen the insect?” Clint entered the common floor in the middle of a late breakfast. “He was supposed to be training with me this morning”
Everyone shook their heads and Clint crossed his arms as he sat down on the breakfast bar stool.
“Mr. Barton, Spider-Man is currently asleep on the sofa. But I do not recommend you wake him up.” FRIDAY spoke up, answering Clint’s question who jumped off the stool. “Spider-Man barely has had four hours of sleep.”
Clint scoffed, who cares if the insect didn’t get a good nights sleep, Fury wanted them to train the bug so Clint was going to train him. “Wake up Spider-Man, you missed training,” Clint nudged Spider-Man’s shoulder with his foot.
Spider-Man didn’t even move at Clint nudging him. “Come on Spider-Man wake up,” Clint nudged the vigilante a little harder so that he rolled over, face up and his limbs limp. Clint was about to nudge Spider-Man again when he noticed a dark red stain on his side. “Shit,”
“What’s wrong Clint?” Steve asked, hearing Clint’s muttered curse.
Clint pressed his fingers to a pulse point on Spider-Man’s neck and he felt his blood run cold. “Someone get Bruce.”
No one moved for a moment, they all just stared at Clint who was bent over Spider-Man. “Unless you want Fury on our asses about Spider-Man dying, then you don’t need to. Because I for one do not want Fury on my ass.”
“Mr. Barton, I have notified Dr. Banner on Spider-Man’s condition and he is preparing the Med Bay for his arrival.” FRIDAY spoke up when no one would help. “Dr. Banner is saying that you need to bring Spider-Man down now.”
Clint stayed frozen, even after Steve had hustled past him with Spider-Man laying limply in Steve’s arms, God he looked so small in Steve’s arms (everyone looked small compared to Steve but this was ridiculous).
It really hit Clint as they were running down to the Med Bay that Spider-Man had a chance of dying.
“-trition. Broken bones that seemed to heal wrong and broken again multiple times, mainly the ribs and nose. Multiple burn wounds that have yet to heal and there seem to be a few more that seem fresh. A few gunshot wounds that thankfully didn’t hit any vital organs,” The voice paused and there was a rustling of papers. “There was an 11 inch rod in his side, about 2 millimeters away from his lumbar.”
Another voice spoke up, “I-Is he paralyzed?”
“No,” The soft voice who was telling the other how Peter was doing. “Well, it’s hard to say. He hasn’t woken up yet, at best he’d only need a few appointments of physical therapy to gain back any movement that he lost because of his injuries.”
“God,” The second voice sounded stressed. “How didn’t we notice this Bruce? The kid was practically at the brink of death! You heard Fury yesterday, he has a family!”
The first voice was silent for a while, taking in what the second voice had told him.
Peter groaned as he opened his eyes only to close them again when he is bombarded by a painful bright light. God, usually his mask was good to filter out all of the light to more manageable levels for him. Wait is mask!
He sat up quickly (which he would regret later) and touched his face and instead of the mesh of his mask he was met with his skin. Shit, did the Avengers see what he looked like and then know who he was? Where the hell was he anyway?
“Spider-Man, you’re still injured so I recommend you lay down-” Banner starts to speak but Peter is already pulling at the I.V that was injected into the back of his hands into his veins. “Spider-Man please,”
“Why are you still calling me that?” Peter’s voice came back full of venom, God he was so tired he just wanted to go home. “You took off my mask so you must know my name so why are you calling me by my vigilante name?”
Banner looked uncomfortable at the boy who was glaring knives at the scientist. “Spider-Man, listen-”
“Who else knows?”
“Knows what?”
“Knows who I am.” Peter explained as if Banner was a child. “Am I going to walk out of this tower and see my face plastered over the news with the headings in bold black ink ‘Spider-Man unmasked!’?”
Banner averted his gaze from him before speaking. “No one knows who you are Spider-Man.”
“Then why am I unmasked?”
“You weren’t breathing properly with your mask on so I needed to take it off to make sure you were breathing properly.”
Peter sat up again, his left hand going to clutch at his side. “I want my mask. Barton is probably pissed that I’m missing training.” Peter ran his fingers through his hair, making to stick up at the ends. “Fuck, I’m so screwed. Goddammit! Barton’s gonna whoop my ass today. Goddammit, look, Dr. Banner I really got to go.”
Banner looked at Peter with worried eyes and quickly went to push him back down on the medic bed after he tried to get up. “I don’t recommend that Spider-man, you’re still healing.”
“Did you not hear what I just said? You’re a scientist for God’s sake Banner, put two and two together!” Peter kept pushing back at Banners hands. “I don’t know how many hours I’ve missed training but I know that Barton is going to be pissed at me.”
“Spider-Man, Clint isn’t going to be mad.”
Peter stopped struggling again for a moment, giving Banner a glare before pushing him away. “Look, I know that you hide yourself away in your lab and Stark does too! But you can not tell me that someone who’ve I spent the majority of my summer getting my ass kicked by people who are supposed to be training me!” Peter took a deep breath, wincing slightly. “I think the only thing that I’ve learned these past few months was how to properly wrap my ribs so that I don’t get punctured in the lungs!”
While Banner was in shocked silence, Peter pushed past him and off the bed and grabbed his mask that was laying on the table that was pressed against the wall.
“Don’t put your mask on, you have to let your wounds heal properly and wearing your mask will only hinder the healing process.” Banner said when he looked over to see Peter start to put on his mask. He had obviously given up on attempting to keep Peter laying in bed.
“And risk being ridiculed by your friends for not only being a ‘horrible superhero’,” Peter used quotation marks around being called a horrible superhero. “But be ridiculed for being someone who is much younger, I’m talking decades younger than the rest of you!”
Banner was in shocked silence at how the Avengers were treating him but found his words right before Peter left the room, his hand posed on the doorknob. “They’re all worried about you.”
Peter let out a snort of laughter as he rolled his eyes. “That’s rich.” With those words, Peter was out of the room, throwing on his mask as soon as he left the room.
Walking down the towers extensive was proved to be a difficult task with still raw stitches that practically covered his body but Peter powered through. Showing weakness in the Avengers tower was practically a death wish for him.
“Ready for training,” He said when he walked into the common room, looking around at everyone who was sitting around on the couches. No one was missing (expect Banner who was still in the Medbay).
The Avengers looked at him in shock like they had just seen a ghost.
“Spider-Man? What are you doing up, I thought Banner wasn’t letting you out until you’ve healed completely.” Stark worked up the courage to talk after they had just stared at him.
“Well I have training.” Peter said as if it was the easiest thing in the world. As if it was 2+2. “Just because I’m injured doesn’t mean that I can’t train. You guys said so.”
No one said a word out loud but they all seemed to be sharing a silent conversation with body language and motion of their hands from what Peter could see.
“See you at training Mr. Barton,” Peter turned around, lifting his hand as a goodbye. The boy barely made it out of the room before he collapsed onto the ground.
Fuck, he would never live this down with the others wouldn’t he?
“How is he Tony?” Steve asked once he came back down to the common floor after getting word on how Spider-Man was doing.
Tony picked at the skin around his thumb nail as he took a deep breath. “Not good, never seen someone hooked up to so many wires.”
“What did Bruce tell you?” Natasha, ever the cool asked in a steady voice. Both her tone of voice and body language.
“Bruce said that he’ll make it even though he might need a few appointments of physical therapy.” Tony flopped down next to Rhodey on the loveseat. “Jesus we really failed him didn’t we?”
“What do you mean?” Clint piped up from the bean bag chair that was pressed into the corner of the room.
“Did you not just hear me? Spider-Man had an eleven inch pole in his side, two inches from his lumbar. The damn kid could be paralyzed for the rest of his life because we didn’t even check the god damn rubble of that stupid base!”
A beat of silence fell through the team before Tony spoke up again. “God, Fury trusted us to train the kid and all we’ve done is push the kid to his limits without break, probably a point to his brink of death. Some mighty Avengers we are.”
Steve looked ready to say something but quickly cut off when Spider-Man walked in, the skin that Tony could see (which was really only his skinny arms and legs considering he was still dressed in a hospital gown) was pale almost like Spider-Man was a ghost. If the pale skin wasn’t being covered in the gown, it was covered in stark white bandages that seemed to blend into his skin.
Jesus what the fuck was this kid doing up already? Banner shouldn’t have let him out yet!
“-at training Mr. Barton,” Tony snapped back into reality when Spider-Man said his goodbyes, started to turn around and promptly passed out on the floor.
When Peter woke back up (he didn’t recall falling asleep), he was back in the Medbay with the lights at a much lower level than the were the first time when he woke up.
He didn’t have his mask on either which wasn’t ideal considering there was a very blurry figure sitting next to his bed.
“Ah you’re awake.” The figure said, standing up when they noticed Peter’s turned head that was looking at them. “Are you in any pain?”
“No,” Peter said quietly. Fear ran through his body, fuck, he was so sure about keeping his idenity safe but here he was, unmasked laying in bed being asked if he was pain by an Avenger. “Why are you here?”
“To make sure that you don’t run off again, it’s my turn for a shift. You’re still injured and malnourished.” The Avenger said that Peter would later identify as Steve Rogers.
“So you all know who I am then?”
Rogers looked everywhere else that wasn’t him. The way that Rogers was ignoring his gaze, he most definitely knew who he was. “Tony looked you up when it was his turn for a shift.”
“Who else knows about who I am?”
“Everyone knows your name but not everyone has seen your face, you can do that on your own time whenever you’re ready.”
Peter ran his hands over his face, wincing slighting when his I.V was tugged. “Well then, it was lovely talking to you Mr. Rogers but I have go to training.”
Rogers looked at him with a look in his eye that Peter couldn’t quite place. “Spider-Man, you don’t have training today.”
Peter’s head whipped up to look at Rogers with confusion. “But Mr. Barton said that I had training at 7 am today and it has to be much later than that.”
“Clint will understand that you couldn’t make it to training today. In fact, Clint doesn’t want you training today.”
A beat of silence fell through the room before Rogers spoke again in a quiet voice like he was talking to a child (which he was not). “You know you’re allowed to take breaks?”
“Y-yea, I know,” Peter was quick to reassure the other even though he didn’t know. “I just didn’t want anyone to get mad at me for skipping.” Rogers gave Peter the same look from before and this time Peter was able to place this as pity. God he hated to be pitied by others. “You said that the other wanted to talk to me?” Rogers nodded and Peter swung his legs over the side of the bed. “Could I have my mask before we leave?”
Rogers looked like he was going to give into Peter’s questioning but shook his head, his eyes steeling up. “Sorry Spider-Man, Bruce’s orders.”
Peter’s face turned into a scowl at being denied his mask but got over it quickly. “Fine, let’s go.”
Once Peter’s feet touched the ground his knees buckled under his weight having Rogers catch him before Peter’s head met the cold ground. “How about we get you a wheelchair?” Rogers asked (Peter didn’t take it as a question) with a calming smile.
Peter nodded and allowed for Rogers to help him into the wheelchair and push him down the halls and to the common floor where everyone whipped their heads at the two people entering.
“What the fuck!” Barton yelled out when Peter entered the room and everyone got a good look at his face. “Oh my God, we’re cradle robbers!”
“Not a baby,” Was all that Peter mumbled.
Romanov leaned down on her knees so that Peter was looking at her in the eyes, her usually stony face was soft. “Would you like something to eat? There’s leftover pancakes from this morning but I could make you something smaller than that.”
Pancakes didn’t sound appealing to him. Yes he was hungry but he doubted that he would be able to handle something that big. So in a shy voice, Peter spoke up. “Could I have some toast instead please? J-Just half a slice please,”
Romanov gave him a soft smile before patting his knee and getting up, her kindness confused him. Every interaction he had with the woman was cold and quick, their interactions were more physical than verbal because of the training.
The room was silent once Romanov left the room before Peter broke it with a hesitant laugh. “You uh, you said that you guys needed to talk to me?”
Stark was the first one to speak up. “Why didn’t you tell us that you were hurt? You could of died Peter.”
It was a shock to hear his name when for the past two months when all he was called was Spider-Man. “Didn’t want to bother you guys, being under a building is nothing to me, it’s happened to me before so why should it matter now? I got out didn’t I?”
“I’m not just talking about what happened at the HYDRA facility Peter. I’m talking about all the missions we’ve been on, these injuries that you’ve gotten are months old God! How many missions have we’ve been on since you’ve arrived here? Why haven’t you told us?”
Peter furrowed his eyebrows in anger, so now they care? “The first mission that we went on as a team, I nearly died in the fucking river with burns that still haven’t healed! You left me in the river! Now let’s think of what happened yesterday, instead of actually checking if I was under the rubble, you all just said ‘fuck it!’ and decided to tell the person who recruited me that I was dead.” Peter took a deep breath as he vigorously scrubbed his face. “Instead of teaching me how to be a better fighter so that I can protect everyone in New York, the only thing that I learned from you guys was how to properly wrap my ribs and set broken bones.”
Silence filled the room when Peter finished his rant.
“Fuck,” Peter buried his hands, pressing the heel of his hands into his eyes to stem off any tears that threatened to fall. “I just want to go home,”
“You can go home as soon as you heal,” Romanov said, setting down a plate of toast next to Peter. “Bruce’s orders.”
“Why are you being nice to me now? You all have been mean to me this whole summer. What changed it? Is it because I almost died or is it because I'm a minor?”
“I know that we’ve all wronged you and we want to make it up to you.”
Peter only nodded at Romanov’s words but if anyone asked that he trusted, Peter would say that he didn’t believe it.
A couple of days had passed since that interaction and the Avengers tried their best to include Peter into their more laid back activities such as watching movies on a late Friday night or the jovial breakfasts that happened in the late morning after a small mission.
No matter how often the Avengers ask him what movie he would want to watch that night but Peter always just shrug and say that someone else could pick the movie. And no matter how many times the Avengers opened up their conversations and jokes up to Peter during the late breakfasts, the boy never allowed himself to enter.
Peter’s wounds healed quickly now that he had food in his stomach and he threw himself back into training though Peter was happy to note that the others went much easier on him and actually took the time to teach him some new fighting styles and techniques.
Even with the change in attitude, Peter still couldn’t find himself to relax. He often found himself pushing himself far past his limits during training though the others were there to remind him that he was doing well for his age and that he needed to take often breaks.
Though ever so slowly as summer drew to a close with only four weeks left, Peter found himself joining in the conversations, now often putting in his two cents on the small disputes that just needed a second opinion.
As August came and a week before Peter left to head back to his small Queens apartment, he needed to talk to the Avengers. Despite them not apologizing verbally, they showed Peter how sorry they were by their actions. May always did say that actions speak louder than words.
“I forgive you all,” Peter said suddenly at breakfast, ultimately shutting down the conversation that was happening moments before. “My friend would probably slap me over my head for forgiving you guys so easily but uh, I’m not her so I’m letting myself forgive you all instead of holding a grudge for the rest of time.”
Silence went through the kitchen once Peter finished speaking though Stark was quick to pick it up before things got a little bit too awkward. “I was going to say sorry for us all before you could but I guess you beat us to it.” Peter gave Stark a sheepish smile. “You’re a good kid Peter, you have a good head on your shoulders unlike these lugnuts.” Barton let out a squeak of protest at the olders words. “Never lose that.”
Peter gave Stark a smile as a silent thank you, not knowing how to find the words.
Conversation quickly picked up again after that quick heart-to-heart. Clint was quick to bring up the debate on which was better movie series was better. Of course Peter said Star Wars.
Around 1 pm, Peter had got a text from May saying that she was outside of the Tower, ready to take him back home to their small Queens apartment.
“How was it Pete?” May asked once Peter was buckled into the car. He was gone for almost three months, he had a lot to catch up with her but of course, leaving out all the Spider-Man business.
Peter looked up at the Tower where he knew the Avengers would be hanging out. “A little rough in the beginning but it was good.”