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Peter's spidersense went crazy and he sat up. Something was going to happen. Then he heard mechanical whirring and what sounded like a battle echoing through the city. He scrambled and got out of bed, searching for his suit. He put it on and had Karen turn on the heaters before he jumped out his bedroom window. He began to swing toward the disturbance. "Karen! What's happening?"
"The Avengers seem to be facing a legion of Doom Bots."
"Doom Bots?" Peter asked, still swinging.
"I believe it is a moniker Mr. Barton gave them." Karen answered.
"I'll help...if I can." Peter swung up to the top of a building and watched the fight below. His dad, Cap, Thor, Hawkeye, Black Widow, War Machine, Vision, and Wanda were all fighting the bots. "Woah. Hey, Karen, can you connect me to Friday?"
"Sure thing, Peter." Karen answered.
"Peter, can you tell me what the hell you're doing in the middle of a battle on a school night?"
"It woke me up. I want to help."
"I want you low to the ground, kid. This is Avenger stuff, please go somewhere safe."
"But I can help." Peter looked around. "There are civilians trapped down there. I can work the perimeter and get people to safety."
Tony let out a heavy sigh. "Fine. Stay out of the fight. I'll loo p you into the comms, underoos. Keep your identity in mind."
"Yes, Iron Man." Peter nodded.
"Avengers, we've got some help. Spiderman just volunteered to help with crowed control." Iron Man said.
"Awesome! We could use the hands, especially ones that can stop a fucking bus, impressive work I've seen, by the way." Clint snorted. "Hey, there's an apartment building to the northeast. It's taken some damage. Think you can get the people out?"
"Yes, sir, Hawkeye. I'm on it." Peter jumped off the building and swung toward the appartments.
"Sir? How young are you, squeeky?" Nat asked with a grunt.
"I didn't carbon date him, but he's cool, guys, usually sticks to lower level stuff, but he's very good at it." Tony defended...sort of.
Peter was a little upset that he was 'lower tier' but then again, he'd seen the Avengers in action and...yeah, he was a little lower tier.
"Tony! I could use some backup down here!" Cap called.
"On my way."
The battle raged on and Peter got the civilians out of the way. "I've got a pretty solid perimeter. I'll grab the stragglers."
"No, Spiderman, you just make sure no one wanders into danger. We've got this."
Peter felt his spidersense go off and he turned. There was one of the bots coming up behind Black Widow and she hadn't noticed it.
"Widow, duck!" Peter called out. She dropped and the bot flew just over her head. He shot webs at it and launched forward. He kicked the bot in the chest and slammed it into the ground. The thing shattered under his strength.
"Thank you, Spiderman." Widow nodded.
"Any time." Peter smiled and looked up. "Hey, Iron Man. I got a plan. They seem to like chasing you, but my webs are strong enough to stop them."
Tony sighed and Peter knew he was going to be in trouble later. "What's the plan, Spiderman?"
"I can make a net. You lure them and we can take them out easy."
Tony zoomed past him and fired at the bots behind him. "Go set your trap. I'll wait for your signal."
Peter nodded and looked at Widow. "You okay?"
"I can handle this down here, kid." She responded with narrowed eyes.
Peter webbed himself upward and stood on a roof. He fired several webs across the gap to another building and held on tight. "Fly through the middle, Iron Man." Peter knew how precise Tony's suit was, but he could also tell the Doom Bots weren't nearly as dexterous.
"Incoming, hold on tight." Tony slipped through the trap easy, as he was supposed to. The two dozen Bots following him though, ran right into the webs. Some of them were torn apart instantly. The others fell from the sky, weakened and struggling to move. Cap, Thor, and Widow made quick work of them, while Vision and Wanda cleared up the rest that hadn't followed Tony.
"Quick thinking, Spiderman. Solid plan." Captain America said when Peter landed on the ground and helped finish one last Bot.
"Thanks." Peter said. "Is everyone okay?"
"Yeah, thanks." Clint said. "I'm still sexy as ever, not even a bruise to add to my rugged charms. Thanks for the help."
"No problem."
"You should stray away from Queens more often. You're wasted on kittens. I don't think even Cap had the strength to shatter those things like that." Nat said, her eyes still narrowed on Peter.
"Nah... I'm flattered, I mean, but...no." He just about leapt out of his skin when Thor landed next to him.
"You're a talented man of spiders. Any relation to our Black Widow?" Thor asked.
"No, she's like a spider queen, I'm just, you know...a random arachnid." Peter chuckled.
Nat smiled. "Spider queen...I like it."
"Time for clean up...and sleep." Tony huffed. "Thanks for the help, Queens, but you can head out, we'll handle clean up."
"Okay." Peter shivered a bit. He heard the 'we're talking about this later' tone. "See ya!"
-
After the clean up, Clint got a shower and headed to bed, but found Nat sitting on his bed, fresh from a shower of her own. "Jesus, Nat." He frowned. "What's up?" He signed as he spoke, to let her know he couldn't actually hear her, even if he could read her lips.
"Spiderman, was he familiar to you? He was familiar to me. I wanted a second opinion." Nat signed as she spoke.
Clint itched his face and thought on it. Oh...shit. He had known that voice. Spiderman had the same voice as Peter...the same voice as Tony's son. But Nat didn't know that Peter was Tony's son...only that Peter was Tony's intern. "Sorta."
Nat nodded. "See, the thing is that I've heard his voice before."
"Come to think of it, me too." Clint couldn't lie to her outright or she'd catch him, besides, he didn't like lying to her. "That kid, uh... Tony's intern?"
"That makes sense. He did seem to know Tony and Tony seemed protective of him, not wanting him in the fight. Tony said his intern was brilliant and he was quick on his feet. Tony's mentoring a young hero. He's seemed softer lately. It's a good look on him. He's different." Nat nodded and stood up. "Sorry for bothering you. We could all use some rest."
"You're not going to question why Tony allows a teenage kid to run around in glorified spandex?" Being a parent himself, Clint wasn't sure he could ever let his kids go out into danger like that.
"No. I don't need to question that. I see the answer in Tony plain as day. Tony fights to right wrongs, to make up for his guilt and shame...he sees himself in the kid. Whatever made that kid a hero has to be scary shit, because Tony would otherwise keep him in a box. Peter must be similar to him in that way...weighed down by guilt or fear, but still standing up to it. No... I don't need to ask that question. Besides, it seems like Tony was more than a little pissed at the kid's involvement, judging by his tone." Nat shrugged.
Clint thought about it and it made sense, in a way. Still, he wanted to ask Tony what the hell he was thinking. Parenting 101 should cover the fact that kids shouldn't be swinging from the buildings of Queens fighting bad guys and...well stopping busses with his bare hands. Jesus, the kid was strong, strong like Cap.
"Goodnight, Clint."
"Goodnight, Nat." Clint nodded.
-
"What the hell were you thinking?" Tony demanded. "I thought we agreed that you stay low to the ground, help the little people."
"Yeah, well I did. The 'little people' live in New York and need homes and-"
"Nope, zip it. It is three in the fucking morning. You have tests tomorrow and you climbed out of bed and thought it would be awesome to head to a warzone when the Avengers clearly had it handled." Tony snapped at him.
"Sure, you had it handled, but I helped keep people safe while ya'll did your crazy shit. And I helped. I stuck pretty far from the danger, dad."
Tony took a deep breath. "I grounded you for Thanksgiving, don't think I won't for Christmas. You're wreckless! I told you to take it slow and what did you do?!"
"I couldn't just let people get hurt!" Peter snapped.
"You're just a kid, Peter. MY kid! I make the rules!"
"You don't understand! I've froze before. I froze the night Uncle Ben was shot and I didn't save him. I had all the power and I could have done it, but I froze because I was afraid. There were people pinned under debris tonight and if I wasn't there to find them or if I sat in my comfy bed because 'it was too big for me,' then they could have died."
"We would have gotten them out."
"I don't know that and I can't ever live with myself if I'm not doing the best I can!" Peter snapped. "You don't know...you can't understand." Peter looked away, partly because he was angry, partly because the tears of sorrow were welling up and the pain of failing Ben was as fresh as when he'd held his uncle's bleeding body. Had the air gotten thin? It was getting hard to breathe. His chest hurt. Bad.
"Peter?" Tony stepped forward and quickly wrapped his arms around Peter. "Hey, breathe, underoos. You're okay. Just breathe, with me, okay?"
Peter clung to his dad as he realized what was happening. He felt like he couldn't breathe and the tears wouldn't stop. It hurt, just like it hurt that night.
"Sh, I'm sorry. I didn't mean... Please breathe, Peter." Tony sounded panicked too.
"He-help." Peter hated it, but as angry as he was and as sad as he was he was terrified and he needed help. His mind wasn't in his control and it was dragging him down. He needed something, someone to pull him back up.
"Okay." Tony said, sounding calmer. "Breathe with me, Peter." He grabbed Peter's hand and pressed it to his chest. "Come on. You can do it."
Peter felt his dad's chest rise and fall and tried to make his lungs work the same way. It took several long minutes, but his breath became easier. He leaned forward and cried, too tired to care that he'd been trying to prove he could help the Avengers.
"I'm here, bambino." He kissed his cheek. "I'm here."
Peter didn't know how long he was there, crying into Tony's shoulder, but eventually, the weight lifted off his chest and the tears slowed. "I'm sorry."
"Never be sorry, Peter. I understand." Tony promised.
Peter believed him. Superheroes tended to carry a lot of baggage if Peter's experience was anything to go by. Plus, he couldn't imagine that someone who was tortured for months came out unscathed. He leaned back and wiped his eyes.
"Are you alright, underoos?"
Peter shrugged. "I'm better."
Tony sighed in a bit of relief. "Can I try to explain, calmer?"
Peter nodded.
"I can understand the guilt and the fear and the need to be out there. I understand that, just as you do, Peter." Tony said. "But what you don't understand is that I have nightmares about YOU going out there and getting in over your head and then I can't get to you fast enough. Because I'm your dad, Peter. You're my responsibility and if you're out there over your head and I can’t get to you if you get into trouble...whatever happens is on me, Peter."
Peter froze. He'd never thought of it that way. "Oh."
"Yeah, kid. Oh." Tony nodded. "Listen, you're strong, very strong and I'll never deny that...but you're also young and inexperienced. The last thing I want is you getting in over your head and then...then what if I can't save YOU? Do you think I could live with that, Peter?"
Peter sagged a little. No one deserved that feeling...he had that with Ben, with everyone he wasn't able to help. "But I CAN help."
"But you overstepped this time. You need to stay low to the ground, Peter. You're not ready and...frankly I need you to be safe. The Avengers have enemies that don't play with kid gloves, Peter. The monsters we fight don't care that you're a kid and they're stronger than regular street thugs and bike thieves. Peter I know you can stop a car with your bare hands. I know you can probably bench press Steve Rogers on top of whatever he's carrying...but at the end of the day, Steve is a soldier, he's trained for this. Rhodey is a soldier. Thor is a god. Hulk can't be stopped. Nat and Clint are super spies.
"One day, I know you'll outshine every last one of us, Peter. You'll be the best of us. You are stronger than most, if not all of us, smarter than most, if not all of us, and you definitely have the biggest and kindest heart out of any of us. One day, they'll wonder why the world needed six Avengers when they had the whole package in Spiderman, but Peter, you need to walk before you run. Can you...try to stay safe, for me?"
Peter thought about it. "I understand. I'll try to do better, but I'm not sure I can promise. Sometimes I'm running before I even realize it."
Tony rubbed his face, tiredly. "Okay, but when I say you need to go, I need you to go. I'm pulling rank on you, kid."
Peter nodded. "I'm sorry for worrying you, but I'm not fully sorry for helping."
"You really are my kid." Tony snorted. "Okay. I know you got school in a few hours. How about you take a nap and I can drive you tomorrow?"
"I can stay?"
"Always." Tony promised. "I'm not making you swing home this late. You need rest." He ruffled Peter's hair. "Are you okay to sleep?"
Peter blinked and thought about it. "Not sure." He was wired and exhausted and upset and confused all at the same time and he wasn't sure he could sleep.
"Alright. Go get on the couch, we'll watch a movie." Tony got up and left the room. Tony came back with a blanket. He turned on A New Hope and the pair cuddled on the couch.
Peter sighed in relief as fingers ran through his hair. It was soothing, calming and he felt safe. No one could get to him with Tony there, Iron Man would totally kick any baddies ass. His paranoid side seemed to recognize that and his body began to relax. Luke hadn't even purchased the droids by the time Peter fell asleep.
"I've got you, kid... Sleep tight."