Archive of Our Own

“I'm up, I'm up,” Peter told the AI as he got up and crossed the room, stubbing his toe on a pile of books on the way.

Within a few minutes, he was out in the commons/kitchen area.

Almost all of the Avengers, who were currently in the Tower, were already awake: Steve and Bucky were preparing breakfast, both Eden and Pepper were on the phone with people, Clint and Natasha were arguing about something once again, Bruce away for a few days, Thor and Loki were back on Asguard, and Tony wasn't up as of currently.

Peter left his bag on a chair and went to help the two supersoldiers serve the food (typical breakfast stuff: pancakes, waffles, bagels, eggs, bacon, and Eden’s mantou), which was more enough to feed a decent-sized army.

Once the table had been set, they all took a seat. It wasn’t often that they weren’t just grabbing something to eat on the go.

"Sorry, I have to leave for a last-minute meeting," Pepper apologized as she swung past the table and grabbed a bagel and wished Peter a good day at school before leaving for the elevator.

After Pepper had left, they all finally took a seat at the table, starting the meal in comfortable silence, that was until Eden spoke.

"I've got guard duty today and there's a chance I'll be assigned to your class," Eden told him between her bites of Mantou (Asian breakfast bread).

Midtown Tech had started requesting security guards for the Junior- and Senior- year classes, no one knew why.

"Please no. Do you know what would happen if they found out that the security guard was an Avenger?" he asked a rhetorical question.

"Or that you’re Stark's biological son?" Clint chimed in from across the table.

Someone threw a waffle-cake at the archer which hit him square on the face. 

"Speaking of the man, where is he?" Steve asked, taking a bite of his pancake. 

In a few minutes, they were almost all finished so one by one they started to get up to go start their day.

Tony had yet to make an entrance, which was unusual for him.

It was Eden’s turn to take Peter to school that day. So that meant he got to school in the most fun way, or so he had decided.

That way was travelling with Eden through the only method of transportation her powers allowed: travelling through and across beams of light.

When they finally got to Midtown, having exited a beam of light in a side alleyway to avoid being seen, they went their separate ways once they were through the doors, Eden to her supervisor for her assignment while Peter went to his locker to both get his stuff for his first two period classes and where Ned (and most likely MJ) were waiting for him.

Their first-period class was shared Chemistry with Mr Harrington.

“Do you want to come over on the weekend?” Peter asked as he got out his chemistry textbook.

“Sure,” Ned agreed.

“I’m coming too, losers,” MJ told them as she drew something of someone in her sketchbook.

“Of course,”

Mr Harrington's Chemistry class.

After the bell rang, they and the others in that class entered the classroom to find the over-enthusiastic teacher with a stack of permission forms on his desk in front of him.

Peter caught sight of a certain purple-haired lady standing at the back.

'Told you so,' Eden's voice 'said' in Peter's head.

He didn't answer her back as it took too much effort. They eventually all took their seats, either continuing their conversations or starting a new one.

"Settle down, everyone," Mr Harrison called, the chatter eventually dyed off. "Students, I’m happy to announce that our class is extremely lucky to be granted the opportunity to take a field trip to Avengers Tower," he announced as most of the class cheered.

Peter banged his head hard on the desk which he regretted a few moments later, MJ was reading a book and apparently not caring and Ned was cheering with the rest.

Just great, a field trip to his house.

After the cheering had died off, Mr Harrington got Betty to hand out the permission forms, which were due back by the end next day at the latest.

“I know it’s short notice but the trip is two days from now,” he told them. "And if you don't get this form signed and returned by then, you can’t come," he warned before starting the lesson.

'You need permission to go to your house?!' Eden 'said' to him, her tone almost laughing.

‘Kindly shut up’ Peter grumbled mentally.

Upon walking in the doors of the Tower after school that day, Peter realized that even though he was literally going on a field trip to his house, he still needed a signature on the permission form.

“You know that when Tony finds out about this and he will find out about it, it’s not gonna be an easy day for you,” Pepper told him.

When he had gotten home from school that afternoon and no one was within possible earshot, Pepper asked for the permission form. How she knew about its existence, he didn’t know.

“I know but I’m going to try and avoid the topic until the last minute if possible,” he answered as she handed him back the form with her signature on it.

“You’ll have until the end of dinner,” she decided before her phone rang. “I need to take this - don’t forget that Loki and Thor are coming for dinner,”

The next day was thankfully uneventful, Chemistry and homeroom were unproductive as everyone was fully distracted talking about the trip coming up the next day. Ned was ecstatically talking his ear off about how cool the trip was going to be.

When lunch rolled around, Peter plonked himself down at his and Ned and now was also Mj’s table.

He really shouldn’t have stayed up until four AM last night when he had to be at school before seven for morning decathlon practice.

Flash, being Flash, decided that now was the best time to be irritating as ever after not speaking to him all day.

"Hey Penis, you ready to have your lies exposed tomorrow?!" Flash yelled from the other side of the cafeteria.

Peter ignored him, he didn’t have the energy to be bothered nor did he care. Plus, he was focused on the fact that hopefully, Eden hadn't been within hearing range just then because when something pissed her off, she could do some real damage.

"What is he trying to accomplish?" MJ asked rhetorically, not taking her eyes off her book.

"Popularity or something," Ned answered, not realizing it was a rhetorical question.

After roughly twenty minutes of eating lunch, weird conversations and MJ reading her book, the bell for the end of lunch rang.

So they got for their last few classes, not before MJ could remind them both that the field trip was tomorrow and a warning of “even if it is to your house, you better not skip out, Parker,” for Peter.

The field trip.

“See you soon, Pete,” Tony had said to him as Peter had run out the door, being late once again.

That made him think, Crap, he knows doesn’t he?

Peter had had to walk to school as Eden was assigned 'somewhere else' and everyone else was busy.

It wasn’t looking good.

When he eventually did get to Midtown, with minutes to spare which wasn’t unusual, the bus was already there and students were already boarding. Ms Chi was marking attendance as students passed her to get on while Mr Harrington was trying (and failing) to keep those aboard quiet.

Ms Chi glared at him for being late as Peter walked past her to board. Ned had saved him a seat with them at the back of the vehicle.

"Didn't think you were going to come," Ned said as the spiderling took a seat, he had been the last one to get aboard.

"Well, here I am,"

Fifteen-minute time skip.

Sooner rather than later, the bus pulled up to Avengers Tower.

When it fully pulled to a stop and the doors opened, the students poured out and both teachers managed to shepherd them into the lobby where a certain telepathic Elementalist was waiting for them

"Hello Midtown! the name’s Eden and I’m your tour guide for today," Eden called out, drawing all their attention to her.

"Now, these are your ID badges, which you'll need to have visible on your person at all times during this tour otherwise the head of security won't be very happy about it," Eden told them, gently shaking the box she held while she smirked at Peter.

From there, they lined up to receive their IDs, Flash looked particularly smug when he received his.

"Scan your ID on the scanner and step through the body scanner," Eden instructed before she scanned hers and stepped through first.

"Eden Hunter. Red: Paradox. Temporary tour guide. Authorized weapons. Threat level: 57%," FRIDAY announced as shocked expressions appeared on the class' faces and questions were rapid fired at her.

"No way, you're Paradox?"

"Aren't you part of the school’s security?"

"No way, an Avenger has been guarding our classes!"

She didn't answer any of the questions, as expected.

"Cindy Moon, White: Midtown Tech tour. No weapons. Threat level: 0%," FRIDAY announced, rather robotically.

"Eugene Thompson. White: Midtown Tech tour. No weapons, threat level: 2%," the AI continued.

MJ scanned her ID which she already had on her and stepped through, "Michelle 'MJ' Jones. Black: classified. Authorized weapons. Threat level: 46%," FRIDAY's tone was more human this time around.

“Why did FRIDAY say Black for MJ while ours all say White?" Cindy asked when MJ had walked through.

"We have a range of different clearance levels depending on what floors people need to access. White is the lowest and is for visitors.

Blue is the press and tour groups when we have them.

Green is janitors, food staff, delivery people.

Orange is entry-level interns and the Fire Labs.

Blue is more experienced interns who are authorized to work on bigger projects.

Cyan is interns who can work on sensitive projects, Black is the associates or friends of the Avengers.

Yellow is the medical floor which you won’t see on this tour.

Red is the Avengers.

And only three people have a Gold-level ID: Tony Stark, Pepper Potts and one other person that I won't name," Eden explained before Ned scanned his.

"Edward 'Ned' Leeds. Black: classified. No weapons. Threat level: 30%," FRIDAY announced when Ned had stepped through the scanner.

After he was through, it was Peter's turn and only then did he remember that he hadn't changed it not to say his clearance and surname like he was planning to.

"Peter Stark. Red-Gold: classified. Authorized weapons, threat level: 88%," FRIDAY's voice was more human than it had been for those before.

Some of the class made sounds of amazement when the A.I. announced his threat level and comments about his surname also started.

"Why do you have a Red-Gold ID, Penis

"I don't know what game you're playing, Mr Parker but you better stop it or you're getting detention," Ms Chi demanded before turning on her heel and retreating to her previous spot.

'Really?' Eden 'said' to him. 'I'm gonna deal with her later,' she added as an afterthought.

‘Please don’t’ he tried to convince her otherwise.

He couldn’t.

"Something I should have mentioned earlier is that, here we have a strict policy about disrespectful and insulting behaviour which now applies to you all too: if I or another employee or anyone else involved here hears you doing anything that is disrespectful, even slightly, you will be asked to hand your ID back and leave the building immediately," Eden told them, looking pointedly at Flash.

Peter was the last person to go through the scanners so once Eden was done with the introduction stuff they boarded the lift.

"First stop is Orange labs," she announced as they stepped into the lift. “Which, on paper are mostly entry-level interns’ labs but is really mostly Fire labs,”

A brown-haired man who had been working on a prosthetic arm put his tools down when he heard the doors opening, and came over to them.

"Everyone, this is Nelson, he's the main head of these labs," she introduced him.

"Welcome to the Fire labs, which if you were wondering why it's called that, there’s always something on fire," Nelson told them, getting a few laughs.

To prove him right, "FRIDAY, activate protocol FIRE!" was yelled and fire-suppression foam descended onto the flames, putting it out. "Number eight!" the same person added as a new tally was added to the chalk counter board bolted on the wall.

Soon, the owner of the voice joined them.

"Name's Echo. I'm mostly in charge of keeping track of fires and how many we have per day," Echo introduced himself.

(Orange-level has four heads: Nelson, Echo, one who was sick, one who was hadn’t been into work for weeks).

For the next two and a half hours, they were taken through the labs in the orange classifications, showing them the various projects which weren't burnt up yet and two more fires were put out during their time there.

“Okay! Before we head up to the Blue labs and part of the Cyan labs, we’re stopping at the food court,” Eden announced as they entered the lift once again. “You twenty dollars charged to your IDs to buy lunch from any of the places in the food court during the hour-long lunch break,” she explained as the doors opened.

There was a decent-sized range of food establishments: Macdonalds, Subway, Japanese place, and so on.  Interestingly, the Macdonalds seemed to be the most popular.

When Peter finally registered the idea of food, he remembered that he had planned to get away to the residential floors for lunch.

“I’m going to get my lunch upstairs, come with?” he asked Ned (and MJ who was now drawing something).

“Sure,” Ned answered, he had somehow managed to go, get sushi and get back without Peter noticing.

And with that, the three of them returned to the lift, fortunately, they were unseen by their classmates and teachers, and headed up to the residential floors.