Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Standing on the deck of the helicarrier landing pad to greet his team, Nova could hear his friends complaining about their 11 hour flight. 

Leg stretches were a pretty good way to get the blood flow circulating after being shoved in the cockpit of a standard-issue Shield fighter jet, but honestly, it was kind of arrogant of them to complain when he had to fly alongside the jet in the same position for the last 9 hours

Nova sat next to a suspiciously well-rested Danny (or as they had to refer to each other while on the hellicarrier, Iron Fist) watching his friends do various stretches to alleviate the tension they had developed from the long flight– White Tiger with lunges, and Luke (who just got to be Luke Cage as his hero name for some reason) stretching arms over his head. 

Though, leadership did come with its perks sometimes. He was faster than the jet so he’d gotten to the helicarrier first and picked out his bunk. 

It had been boring (lonely) without the team, but whatever. He could manage without them if he needed (not that he would ever want to) but now that they were here he led them to their area, explaining what he had already scoped out. Loading bays, weapon stores, training areas, showers, monitor rooms, and most important of all–cafeteria locations and their menus. 

The helicarrier currently hovered above New York, though the team had no clue why. It was usually over at a Shield base (in a secret undisclosable location) where they had originally trained. But now they were one step closer to being real heroes. 

They arrived at their resting quarters, a gray metal room with bunk bed indents for them to sleep in. Other than the personality they brought themselves in the form of decorations, sparse as it was, the room had no personality. But it wasn't anything a few posters and some tape wouldn't fix. The real concern would be having enough blankets to ward off the chill. The team was chatting as they settled into their room when suddenly a red flashing alarm started blaring. 

“Hey, how do you think they bring up water?” Nova, now sam as they were in their room, asked as he continued to lounge on his top bunk. 

White Tiger, Ava, looked up, alert. “Not now Sam.”

Sam pouted. “It's a valid question! People have to shower, I know we do. Do they recycle it? That's kinda gross to think about actually. How much power do you think is diverted to just the water?”

Luke grimaced. “I'm not sure I want to know the answer. I think I'm happy not knowing.”

Just then a Shield agent walked in, “Agents, good afternoon. I hope you’re settling in well as this will be your home for the foreseeable future. Allow me to explain what is expected of you. This alarm is an audio and visual indication, a distress signal, from down in the city. Anytime this alarm goes off, you are to report down to the monitor room to receive your orders. Follow me.” 

Sam asked about the water but was ignored. “Lame.”

“Is there an emergency?” Ava asked.

The agent didn’t turn to them as she continued, “No emergency, but director Fury decided this drill may as well serve a dual purpose.

Sam smiled. “Finally a real chance to get the blood pumping. Let's go!”

They arrived at the monitor room, defined by its wall covered in monitors and a clear view of the entire city down below. Nova was pretty sure he saw someone playing Galaga on one of the monitors. Standing at the command center was the director of Shield, Nick Fury, talking to secret agent Phil Coulson. 

As the team walked in, Agent Coulson seemed strangely resigned but he greeted them warmly. “Good afternoon, agents. I trust your journey was well?”

Nova stood at attention. “Yes sir, it was fine. An agent said you had a mission for us?”

At that comment, Nick Fury looked at them. “Eager now, are we? Maybe we can expend some of that energy.” Suddenly the monitors changed images from various images of the city to one giant image of a man with a thin black point mustache, dressed like Waluigi, jumping all over the place. It looked like he was monologuing, but thankfully the shield agents were not sharing the audio. Though Nova could see one miserable-looking agent with headphones grimacing. 

“Batroc the Leaper is causing a ruckus downtown, interrupting traffic and destroying property. He's also annoying. Your transport is waiting for you in loading bay 4. Find and capture him.” 

“Are there any files on him that we could use?” White Tiger asked. 

“He's French and he leaps.”

“Right… ” White Tiger rolled her eyes, though not exactly visible due to the positioning of her head. “How is this not an emergency?”

Fury ominously nodded his head to a new agent, a younger looking man, who arrived to lead them, “You’ll see”. 

As the team headed down to the city, back up on the monitor a blur of red and blue took over. 

Coulson looked closely at the screen. “This is the guy?”

Nick smirked. 

Coulson simply sighed, ”Well, this should be interesting.”

oOOo   

Nova had been practically vibrating in his seat (he was afforded a seat this time) at the prospect of a fight, but it seemed someone else had beaten them to the punch. By the time they got down there, the Waluigi man was tied up and hanging from a lamppost like a pinata wrapped in… sticky white silk? What was this? Even the man's mouth was covered in it, as if taped shut. Thankfully his nose was uncovered. It was unclear if this stuff was breathable or not. 

Nova flew up to the man, and gingerly placed a hand on the material before recoiling when he felt the silk begin to stick to him. “Eww gross! Who did this?” The webs were strong, and sticky, almost like a cocoon of some sort. Whatever made this was large. 

Their pilot Rodriguez, a self-proclaimed New York native, spoke up from the jet. Smiling, he excitedly yelled down at them, “Likely one of the local vigilantes. I’ve got a guess as to who.” He then pulled out his phone and started taking pictures of the scene and himself. “Oh man, Evelyn's gonna love this.”

Too confused by the situation, Nova didn’t bother asking. Agents were allowed their eccentricities, he guessed. It's not exactly against protocol, but it is kinda unprofessional. He wasn’t exactly better. 

“Let's get this guy into custody and return to the helicarrier, report what we found,” Iron Fist said. 

Unnoticed, a figure stuck to the wall faded back into the shadows. 

oOOo

They got back to the helicarrier about an hour or so later. While the investigation itself hadn't taken too long due to their surprisingly informative pilot (it turned out many New Yorkers felt indebted to the mysterious vigilante), the man tied up like a pinata had been a hassle. 

It was simple enough to get him down. It seemed Nova’s laser was capable of cutting through the white material. But when it came to putting the man in handcuffs, that was another matter entirely. The strange material he was tied in was hard to pull off without stuff getting stuck to it. 

It was a delicate balance between getting the man out of the web to properly handcuff him, and keeping him perfectly restrained so as to not risk him getting loose. They also made the mistake of taking the material off his mouth. 

Nova pouted. “How was I supposed to know he was annoying.”

Iron Fist chuckled at his misery. “It's one of the few things Directory Fury mentioned about him, Nova.”

Watching White Tiger scold (read terrify) the man into submission, Nova's brow furrowed. “Think it was another hero?” 

“Or maybe another villain getting revenge, you know how those kinds of people are,” Luke said. 

“We can't assume, we’ve never dealt with the criminals here. Assuming rather than investigating could be our downfall if we aren't careful.” Nova scoffed, but Danny had a point. 

Currently, they were trying to figure out how to handcuff him without giving him the chance to escape. Batroc's insults were very unhelpful. They couldn’t laser him out, as that could injure the man, and Luke’s strength had nearly gotten him glued to the man when he tried to tear it off. 

They were about to try furious White Tigers' claws when a cop car drove by and noticed their struggle. Two officers stepped out and the younger handed them a bottle. “Looks like he left us another present huh? Here, try this.” Having no real better option, they squirted it at the estimation of where the man's hands were. To their surprise, the fluid easily dissolved the silk. 

They leapt back in surprise, nearly letting the man escape before the younger cop jumped in and handcuffed the man with surprising efficiency. It seemed almost routine, despite Batroc being much more powerful than the average New Yorker. 

Nova watched Ava turn to the officers with suspicion. “What’s in that liquid?”

The older officer merely grumbled, “You fancy younger heroes, no appreciation. All that fancy military training and no sense of manners. Figures.”

Before things could escalate, the younger officer jumped in, having handed Batroc over to the Shield vehicle that arrived to help Luke and Iron Fist. “It's web dissolvent, got it from Spidey himself.”

“Spidey?”

The younger officer stilled, looking at them, back to the shield vehicle, before landing back on them. “Oh, you're not from around here are ya? Figures.” It seemed this vigilante was a common enough occurrence that some random cops had a system figured out for arresting his ‘presents’ without having to wait. 

The team watched the officers begin to grab the stray silk with their batons, sticking it to walls wherever they could to get it off the street. After a moment of just watching, Nova joined in. It wasn't like he could help with Batroc, and Ava had the whole menacing aura down. The officers seemed to soften up towards him because of it, sharing tips on how to handle the material and explaining more about it. 

According to the officers, the material dissolved on its own in about an hour or two either way. “Not sure about your league, but for thieves and muggers it works fine. As long as they don't have a knife under there. But Spidey usually does a good job of getting that away from them before webbing them up.”

Again, ‘Spidey’? What kind of name is that? Nova was suspicious of how such a potentially dangerous vigilante could have such a cutesy name, and of how familiar the cops seemed with the concept of his ‘presents’. Because however casually or familiarly the cops treated this capture, the bruises on Batroc indicated someone dangerous. Who had the power to take him down, the strength to tie and hoist him up, and remain unheard of by shield?

It was equally strange to note that while the younger cop freely gave this information, the older one remained staunchly silent, refusing to say anything. He only glared at everyone and everything, his gaze fixed on the tied-up criminal and the white binding holding him. Sheesh, someone had an issue with them, huh?

They finished cleaning when – “So are you guys going after him?” the younger officer asked. “Because this is the first time I’ve seen Shield getting involved. I mean you guys were kinda absent for the last couple of big things, like that whole Lizard incident, but you're alright I guess. Y’know the Bugle says he’s a menace to public safety. It's probably for the best I mean-”

The older cop finally intervened, “Stop bothering the agents, Rook” before dragging his partner away. As they finish loading their stolen capture, Nova by complete and total accident eavesdropped on the officers' conversation as they climbed back into their cop car. 

“You shouldn't be giving away so much information to Shield agents Rook, who knows what they want with him”

“But he's dangerous, right? What about Captain Stacy? The Bugle said-”

“Spiderman is a hero. Don't believe everything you read,” the older one said, “If you wanna last long in this city then you take care of him like he takes care of us.” With that, they drove away.

oOOo

On the flight back, completely unprompted, Shield pilot Rodriguez (if his name tag was correct and he wasn't one of those secret identity types) filled them in on some basics. It seemed that the vigilante named “Spidey” had been around for a bit already. 

He was a surprisingly common sight. There were a plethora of stationary pictures of him online, even posing for natives and tourists alike, though it was notoriously hard to get a picture of him in action. This was actually an issue as the only major news outlet with pictures of his vigilante action was a gossip rag that often spread misinformation about him. The city seemed pretty divided on him, but according to the pilot he was “a pretty good guy”. 

But now, back on the ship, they had to report their findings on this “Spidey” character. As they waited on the bridge for Fury, Iron Fist spoke up. “If I didn’t know any better, I would almost think Fury sent us to an already handled crime on purpose.”

Ava snorted. “Yeah, he definitely knew that vigilante would have had it handled by the time we got there.”

Luke crossed his arms, “Question is why.”

When Fury and Coulson arrived to ask their opinions, sensing some kind of test, the team gave their best analysis of the situation. “Whoever did it was strong, and that material was near impossible to tear through even for me. Iron Fists punches were similarly ineffective," Luke stated. 

Ava shifted her weight, thinking out loud. “The only things that ended up working were Nova’s lasers and my claws. Destruction of the silk seems to be possible, but only under certain kinds of force is it easy.”

“Whoever this is, they seem to know what they're doing when it comes to the criminals of this area and caliber, ” Iron Fist noted. 

Fury nearly smiled, “Good work team. Your reports could use more analysis but that's something we can work on. As you have concluded, there's a certain wall-crawling ‘menace’ that has yet to be caught in our net, so to speak. The vigilante known as Spiderman is behind the apprehension of not only robbers and muggers, but has dealt with higher-risk crimes such as coordinated bank robberies, gang activity, and low-level supervillains on the rise. As such, they have caught shields' attention. You will be tasked with uncovering the identity of Spiderman. Congratulations.”

“Spiderman?”

“Yes, it seems ‘spidey’ is the colloquial version of his name from people who regard him positively.”

The team was stunned. “Sir,” Ava said, “not that we’re not honored, but we barely know anything about him. We don't know the area at all.”

“Avaaa, stop talking,” Sam hissed, as he poked her in the side.

“Exactly,” said Agent Coulson, “you are new. So your target won’t know your strengths and weaknesses either.”

Coulson turned towards the crew. “Someone throw up a picture of Spiderman on the monitors please, preferably a Daily Bugle image.” On the screen, an article of a man clad in red and blue crawling up a wall appeared on one of the large monitors, making outrageous claims. Called him a menace even after stating he had potentially disarmed a bomb, and even accusing him of causing the recent meteor strike to the moon. Which was bullshit, and Nova would know. There had been no meteors headed to earth, he had just checked.

Danny hummed “That’s the guy? The dude looks scrawny.”

“I don't know, he seems pretty muscular under that suit,” Sam said.

Coulson ignored them. “We have a suspicion it's someone around Midtown High, seeing the frequency of criminal catches from the area and the recent attack by the Frightful Four claiming so. But due to Spiderman's secretive nature, we are unsure of who he is, or even what age he is. That's why your team and myself will be infiltrating Midtown High.”

“Many have tried and failed to uncover his identity. Arrest has proven both futile and ineffective, as he seems to get smarter and more cunning with each attempt.” Fury tells them.

Coulson chuckled, “Ineffective is one word for it. He once gave himself up to test a prison's infrastructure to help them build a prison for supers. He escaped and then gave the prison notes. Additionally, every time he has been captured he either doesn't talk or chatters incessantly to the point of frustrating his captors. We’d assign Deadpool, but they can't seem to stand each other.”

Fury cut back in, “As such, you will be infiltrating. Coulson will be heading your mission. Think of it as a group effort.” Fury then turned, taking a step towards the monitor stoically. Sam wondered how he did that while talking about a clown.

Sam, however, could see the mission for what it was. “Sir, this sounds impossible. How do we know you're not just getting us out of the way? We’re ready for actual missions, not a goose chase.”

“Shield is sending you in because of your potential ability to infiltrate a high school and blend in as students. Trust me, if we had wanted to keep you busy, the training room is always in need of test subjects.” 

“But how can you be sure he goes to this high school? He could just be a local and have nothing to do with it.”

“Recently there was an attack by the Frightful Four, who made claims that Spiderman was a student at the school. One student was injured. This is an investigation into whether the claims are true. Should they be false, it is still beneficial to post agents at the school to prevent a situation like this from happening again.” With that, they were dismissed. 

Back in their room, the team began preparing for their mission. It seemed that they were to be introduced as semester transfer students from California. They decided to divide the work– Sam and Ava reading up on coursework, while Luke and Danny looked through information about Spiderman.

“Is it weird I'm kind of excited about this?” Ava asked.

Sam chuckled, “Which part Ava, the mission or school? Because personally, I could cut the school part out.”

“Not just anyone can say they get good grades while juggling a superhero career, Sam.”

“At least this cover is going to be easy, Danny has the perfect accent for it already. Hey Danny," Sam called out, "What are California schools like?”

Looking up from the articles he and Luke were combing over, Danny said “I don't know dude, I haven't been.”

Luke looked startled. “You've never been to school in California? Then what's with the accent?”

Danny stared Luke in the eyes, simply stating “I've never been to public school. I was raised in K’un-Lun.”

Luke stared back at him for a moment, before panic began to overtake his voice. “Guys, I can't tell if he’s lying or not.”

Ava threw a shoe at them to break up the weird tension that had been created by finding out Danny had never been to school before. “We can figure that out later, what have you got on Spiderman?”

Of course, their only source of information on the guy was the Daily Bugle. “Robbing banks, throwing cats into trees, pushing old ladies into traffic, burning our crops, and poisoning the water supply, I mean, come on! He’s got a cool name but who does this stuff?” 

Danny rolled his eyes at Luke. “You made those last two up. I’ve seen Spongebob.”

“Yeah, but next to the other stuff he's been accused of, it sounds just as plausible. Also, when?”

“During a layover for a different mission.”

“Ok, at least you're not going to be one of those weird homeschooled kids.”

Some digging revealed that a majority of the accusations were made by the Daily Bugle’s misreporting. Or rather, his biased first account witnesses, who mainly consisted of the criminals Spiderman stopped and got arrested. There were a few out-of-context quotes from the people Spiderman had saved, but it seemed that criminal accounts were always much more interesting to the media than the old lady he helped cross the street or the kid he saved from bullies or tourists he gave directions to. 

Nova flopped onto his bed. “Ugh, this is going nowhere! We’re gonna have to dig deeper.”

Ava sighed. “Agreed. But our first day is tomorrow. We’d better get some rest.”

Spiderman was somewhere at Midtown High, and they were going to find him. 

“... Can I change my name to 'Powerman'?”

This was going to be interesting.

Chapter Text

The night passed dreadfully slowly, Ava tossed and turned until morning came to the helicarrier once more.

Ava watched the hours tick by but couldn't bring herself to put the phone down and try to sleep for more than a few minutes before her nerves got her again and she began to scroll for a distraction. When sleep did not come to her, she instead directed her energy towards something more productive. Might as well put that energy to use. So, under the cover of darkness, she had done some more digging into who Spiderman was. 

Just when she was about to finally turn off her phone and go to sleep, her morning alarm went off. Oops, looks like she had stayed up all night instead. Oh well, nothing she couldn’t handle of course. 

As the team grumbled through their morning, getting ready for school, (some were more awake than others) Ava made sure nothing was forgotten. Nice first day clothes to hopefully make a good first impression and get intel quickly? Check. Making sure the guys had their notebooks, pencil cases, and student and lunch cards packed? Check. Brushing her teeth? Check.

“I do not miss waking up early for school,” Sam said as she stepped out of the bathroom to let the next person in. 

Ava shot him a knowing look, “Me neither, but do you prefer waking up early for training?”

Sam angrily shoved his gym clothes into his bag, grumbling “No, but at least then I'm usually not jet lagged.”

“Cheer up, at least you're used to this.” She placed a hand on his shoulder, “Don't think of it as school. This is a mission after all.” 

Fixing her hair, Ava wondered what the other students would be like. It had been a while since Ava had attended a regular public school, and she wasn't one to waste an opportunity to look presentable both to classmates and teachers alike. The faster they integrated into the school, the easier it would be to find sources who knew something about Spiderman. 

And sure, maybe making sure everyone liked her might be a bit excessive, but Ava was nothing if not a perfectionist. Sue her. Better to be over prepared than under. It couldn't be that hard anyway, these were regular teenagers– no superpowers, no training, and few responsibilities beyond getting good grades, clubs, and hanging out with friends.

Not like her and the team. Ava had this in the bag. She would bet a week of cleaning duty on it. 

Once ready, they were led to the loading bay, flown down to a shield base, and loaded onto a beat up little mini-van that would drop them off at school. She fiddled with her amulet as she looked out the window. Suddenly Luke yelled, startling Ava. “Hey wait a minute, I know you,” he said, pointing at the driver. “You're that shield pilot from the other day! Agent Rodriguez!”

Staring back at them through the rearview mirror, Ava and Agent Rodriguez laughed. “Oh god, you're only just noticing? Man, I always said school was way too early. Yeah, it's me,” he said, turning around and giving a little wave, forcing Ava to grab onto the steering wheel for a moment. “Guess who gets to be your transfer guardian for the mission!”

“Sir, eyes on the road!”

Danny, disregarding their mortal peril, made a face. “Transfer guardian? I did not believe we needed a babysitter for this mission.” 

Finally putting both hands on the wheel and looking ahead, the agent also made a face. “Gross, don’t call me sir, I'm not that old yet. Just call me Rodriguez. And yes, you do need a guardian, you're still kids. Besides, I doubt shield would let you drive, even for the mission. Do any of you have a driver's license? A permit?” At their silence, Rodriguez laughed again “I didn't think so.” 

They carried on in silence for a few minutes, pulling into the drop-off zone, before Agent Rodriguez spoke up again. “Hey cheer up, it's not like you need to drive in New York. One of you can fly! Your safe house for the semester is yours, it's not like I'm living with you guys. Fury said it was just most convenient to have me play the role and chauffeur you to school for a bit since I actually live in the area.”

Danny gave him a contemplating look. “Fury, huh?”

Before any other comment could be made it was their turn to step out. As chauffeur/guardian Agent Rodriguez dropped them off, he reminded them he would be back to pick them up after school to take them to the safe house. With that, he wished them a great first day and drove off to do… whatever it was shield pilots did. 

Stepping away from the line and into the school itself, the boys and Ava took in the scene. Midtown High seemed pretty average, apart from the construction going on near one of the outer walls facing the street. 

Students were hanging out outside, greeting friends, complaining about classes, fixing their appearance, or heading wherever they needed to go. The team only stopped once to ask for directions to the front office. Success. If it were graded, Ava would be getting such a good grade in finding the office. 

An elderly secretary made them sign in before getting up to inform the principal of their presence. Taking a seat in the lobby, Ava scanned her surroundings for threats. A student with a tissue pressed up against their nose scrolled on their phone, while a parent spoke with the secretary about picking up her daughter for a doctor's appointment later in the day. Presumably, typical school stuff. 

After a few minutes, they were called in. 

The secretary led them to the principal's door and knocked. “Alright dears, here you are. The principal should have your schedules. Once you're done with him, come find me and I'll write you a pass in case you can't find the room in time, but don't be afraid to ask for directions.” With that, she walked back to her computer. 

Ava internally scoffed, as if she would need help with directions. She had already studied the layout of the school the night before and had found every single blueprint since the school’s construction. Ava was prepared. 

Opening the door, the group saw a tall chair facing the window that looked out towards a football field, behind a desk cluttered with papers and little else. The office was somewhat bare, the only personal decorations being a Captain America bobblehead holding up its shield and a potted plant in a cardboard box with more papers. 

Ava straightened up. This was her chance. If she made a good impression on the principal, she could make it with nearly everyone. Bracing herself, she spoke. 

“Good morning sir, we’re the new transfer students from the exchange program,” she said. At their entrance, the man sitting in the chair turned to face them. 

“Agent Coulson?”

“It’s Principal Coulson, actually.” He smiled, then handed each of them a sheet of paper with their class schedules and room numbers printed on them, a school map on the back. “Alright team, you know your mission. Here are your schedules. I've spread some of your classes out to make sure you have a varied range of both teachers and classmates, and one class with all of you together for intel and morale purposes.”

Ava felt the tension in her shoulders release. Perfect, one less person to impress. Coulson’s approval was easy, they just needed to complete the mission flawlessly. No problem. 

Sensing Ava's thoughts, Coulson let out a soft smile. “Do your best, and don't worry too much. I have faith in your team. Who knows, maybe we’ll catch a break here. A bit of normalcy can be beneficial.”  

oOOo

Overall, the first day of classes was a bore. 

The lockers were from the 70s, the teachers from the 60s, and there was a huge hole in the cafeteria, and Ava couldn't tell if it was a recent addition or older damage that the school had never quite had the budget to fix. The bathrooms smelled like cotton candy and weed, the hallways squeaked with every step taken, and the classroom lights slightly hummed. 

She would have focused on pursuing social relationships, but interest in her quickly died off when the other students realized she would only talk about what they were learning. Sue her, the only interesting things she could talk about were shield operations and that was classified! Why couldn't they talk about something other than her hobbies or taste in music? She could be interesting! It was fine, her goal would just have to be the teachers for now. She could get close to her classmates another time.

In class, Ava did her best to remain focused. But for a majority of her classes, she was either on par or advanced by a section or two thanks to her studying efforts. 

It was hard to stay engaged with material she already knew, especially with so little sleep, but she figured that she could afford to slack off for now. Having nothing better to do in class, Ava spent the majority of her day analyzing a little notebook that Luke and Danny had compiled on what they had found yesterday. 

The most interesting part of this new mission so far had been what the early stages of their research had uncovered. It seemed Spiderman had been doing his stuff for a while. While Shield’s file on him was full of police reports, victim accounts, news articles, and photographs, there was very little actual information about him in their database. 

She reviewed what the team knew about Spiderman– Male, present at Midtown high, possibly a student (though not definitively), a muscular build, estimated weight, and a deep voice. Not a great start, but something they could definitely work with. 

While there were few good pictures of Spiderman in action (and those that did exist were very good), plenty of pictures existed of him online posing with tourists and New Yorkers alike. Sightings ranged all over New York, but the most prominent ones came from the heart of the city itself where crime was more common. 

There was even a dedicated hashtag where people would often take short videos of him passing by or messing around, narrating his actions as if he were the subject of some nature documentary (she may have gotten distracted by those last night for longer than she had intended). 

Most interesting though were the shaky videos of him fighting supervillains that people would upload as praise for his heroism, damnation of the destruction he was involved in, or a warning to others that a fight was going on, urging them to avoid certain parts of the city for a while. 

Whatever wider media attention he achieved– both positive and negative– was quickly lost, being brushed off by both public and shield alike in the face of wherever the news cycle had next (save for the source of a lot of the more outrageous claims and the best pictures, The Daily Bugle). 

His presence hadn’t really concerned Shield until the Frightful Four attacked a school. Vigilantes were common, normal even. 

(One day super powered individuals in funny suits just showed up and started fighting crime in New York City. Unfortunately, super powered criminals in funny suits had too. And honestly, people just rolled with it. “Is that a man in a rhino suit running down 5th avenue? ‘Ain't got nothing to do with me,” they said. “That's the motto of New York City: mind your damn business.” The city seemed to trust them more than the cops anyway.)

But villains claiming to have clues on their secret identities, and attacking children in a place of safety and learning? One student being sent to the hospital for injuries? That couldn't be ignored 

While no one was sure how credible the Frightful Four’s claim actually was, everyone eventually lost interest about whether or not Spiderman was at the high school. There was no evidence to support it anyway, he never showed up. There was a debate on whether he was a coward or simply not at the school when it happened, but regardless, shield couldn't let this go anymore. 

His early days were so quiet and unobtrusive that it almost seemed as if he would either slowly fade as time and responsibilities consumed him, or burn himself out and return to a normal life. 

When he hadn’t, shield had expected Spidey to let his identity slip somehow. It was rare for vigilantes to maintain their secret identities for so long and not be either exposed or absorbed into organizations on either side of the law. To remain independent made them an unstable variable in fights, leaving heroes unsure whether the next time they appeared would be on friendly terms or not. 

Ava struggled to understand how he had remained undetected and kept his identity a secret for so long. No one knew who he was: from the public to powerful organizations such as shield, to various villainous groups and foes. The only other vigilante having kept a similar, if not longer, record of anonymity was the Devil of Hell's Kitchen.

Spiderman was still considered a low level threat. Just dangerous or skilled enough to become a greater risk, but having shown no interest or effort to actually do so. Alarmingly though, if he ever did decide to pose a risk to New York, they would not have any recourse against him. It was hard to design a formal strategy against an opponent they knew little about. It spoke to an unusual degree of competence. Was he thinking ahead? Did he just not care about shield? Could he afford not to care about shield?

The biggest concern shield had, however, was the fact that he had been involved in one too many “Major” classification supervillain events to be allowed to go on alone any longer. Especially after his significant involvement in stopping a certain lizard scientist. 

Defeating the lizard and saving the affected genius was commendable, but had proven to shield just how competent, and dangerous, Spiderman could be. How dangerously intelligent he was. 

As the bell rang to signal the end of the period, Ava jotted down some notes and put away the notebook. Hopefully, her remaining classes would be more interesting. 

oOOo

As Ava went about her day, she continued to be bored by her classes and failed at making connections beyond acquaintances. There was only one class she struggled in– advanced biochemistry. 

Seated at the edge of a three person desk, she faced the board with despair. This was one class she had not prepared for. While she understood some of the concepts, science wasn't exactly her passion. She managed to catch on fast, but without proper context she easily became lost. This must be what Sam felt every day. 

To make matters worse, some brown-haired nerd kept showing her up. Seated on the other end of the desk, the only barrier between them was a sleeping kid with black hair (apparently some sort of prodigy). During the lecture, the guy raised his hand enthusiastically to share the answer whenever the teacher so much as looked at her, asked all the right questions, and he even went up to the board to solve an equation Ava couldn't make heads or tails of yet. When the teacher had assigned them to work in groups,  he even went out of his way to pick up his chair and sit next to Ava, just to be able to point out her mistakes easier. 

Ava was only able to bottle her frustration for so long. When she returned from handing in her worksheets she shut down all further attempts at communication. Seemingly taking the hint, the kid left her alone for the rest of the class, focusing instead on flipping through his notes and writing something on a new sheet. 

Ava wasn't bothered again until after class when the guy came to her offering notes on stuff she missed from not being there earlier in the year. That asshole was totally trying to show her up! She's supposed to be the top nerd! This was so frustrating. (Never would Ava admit that the notes were incredibly helpful and well done.)

By lunchtime, Ava entered the cafeteria alone. Her eyes scanned over the loud and chaotic environment, taking note of all possible threats. She cataloged the intended entrances and exits, the windows, and the construction on the opening in the wall being guarded by teachers and a single security guard. The poor man didn't look like he'd be able to do much in a real emergency though, or if more than four students decided to rush him. 

She felt a tap on her shoulder and whirled around to face the potential threat that had caught her off guard, only to feel comforted by Danny’s presence. It had been a long day. “Hey Ava, the others already found a table. They said for us to get our lunch and join them.”

“Sure thing, let's go line up,” Ava said, waving him over to the line. “How’s your day been so far?”

“Can’t complain. Every time they hear me talk, they ask the same ‘Where are you from? What's school like in California?’ before asking me if I've seen Spongebob when I tell them that I don't know. Then they nod in approval as if I've passed some sort of test and ask me about martial arts.”

As they loaded up their plates, Ava gave Danny a reproachful look. “You told them you do martial arts? I thought we weren't supposed to talk about– that .”

Danny only shrugged. “Well, they ask me about surfing and I say I don't surf, but I do other things. They are hungry for gossip dude.”

They swiped their cards to pay for their lunch As they walked over to their friends, Ava noted that Danny seemed fascinated by the mystery meat and lukewarm tater tots. The rest of the team was seated between a stereotypical jock table and a slightly more intense girl's lacrosse team. Luke seemed to be listening to some huge blonde guy, while Sam was resting his head on the table. 

As Danny and Ava arrived, they noticed that Luke was using their arrival as an opportunity to escape, promising the jock that they’d catch up soon. 

Danny grinned as he sat down. “Making new friends?” 

Luke explained that one of the varsity football guys, Flash, had gotten the two groups that they were currently seated between to give them the table. Something about helping out his new buddy Luke and his friends. 

Ava took a seat next to Luke and started poking at her food. While she ate, Ava reflected on where they stood as a team. Her teammates, while all strong in different ways, were still new. Ava had trained with them but so far, being in the field was nothing like training. She believed in them and knew that they believed in her, but they needed to trust each other to be a team if they were ever going to become an ultimate team. 

That trust would only come with experience. It was crucial to fight against evil together. However new they were to fighting crime, they had great potential and they were willing to go the distance to protect others. So entering Midtown High to act as normal teenagers? Piece of cake. It would be good to get something normal in their lives, to help them connect to real life. 

They sat together and talked about their day. 

oOOo

They were doing a really poor job. 

Danny had several people crushing on him and had no idea what to do. Several girls had already come up to him asking to exchange phone numbers and social media accounts under the guise of helping him ‘adjust’. He’d only been able to escape these situations due to the fact that he didn't have a phone to begin with. He’d only realized when Sam started laughing at his situation. 

Ava sulkily relayed her tale of boredom and woe. Sam had remained uninterested until she got to the part about the kid in her advanced biochemistry class. His face soured at the mention of him being a nerd, before scowling at the insult he had shown her with the notes. Ava was glad she wasn't the only one upset by this behavior. 

Finally, Luke had a jock interested in him, who wanted him to join the football team next season. It was only the first day, and he already seemed to have caught the coach's attention during his world history course. Luke’s story was told in hushed whispers since they were right next to the guy's table, but Ava personally thought it was overkill when the jocks were being so obnoxiously loud. She glanced over at them to see one of them chugging several small milk cartons of different flavors in succession. Yeah, that was gonna go well.  

Having to act like regular teenagers seemed to be more than they could handle. Except for Sam, interestingly enough. He’d been getting along just fine with his classmates, which according to him was because “I mind my own business and I'm not a jerk.”

 “You mean you haven’t been doing the mission.”

They all stare at him for a beat before he throws his hands up in frustration. “Ok, so I forgot! Excuse me for actually integrating instead of flashing a neon sign that said ‘Look at me! I stand out! Spiderman, tell me your secrets!’. It's not like this mission is actually going anywhere. This school had one interesting thing happen and now shield thinks Spiderman is here? I think shield is just being paranoid. Nothing interesting is here. Spiderman isn't here.”

“It doesn't matter if you think shield is paranoid, it could still be true. Let's go over suspects, I'm tired of talking about today.” 

“Today’s not even over.” 

“Exactly.” 

Ava listed out the general characteristics of Spiderman, and together they pointed out potential suspects. Boys who looked fit, of a certain height, and muscular enough to be swinging across the city. 

Girls had been an early elimination as it had been confirmed that Spiderman was male. (There were the rare confusing reports about a female Spiderman, or rather Spiderwoman, but those were easily dismissed as poor lighting and concussions.) 

Ava glanced at Sam to ask for his input and instead came face to face with Coulson- or rather a potato sculpture of Coulson. “Sam! You’re supposed to at least pretend to care.”

Sam rolled his eyes, “Oh I care! In fact, we'll have to keep an eye out, that scrawny kid in my Spanish class might know something” he whispers conspiratorially.  

Ava let her head fall forward to rest on her arms. Hopefully, they would be able to find evidence of Spiderman fast. 

oOOo

They spent the rest of the week getting settled into their classes, keeping track of potential suspects, and keeping their own grades up, all while keeping patrolling and checking out Spiderman sightings. They only had until the end of the semester to figure out his identity before their ‘transfer’ was over. And failure was not in Ava’s vocabulary. 

While their first day had not been the greatest, Ava's hard work was paying off. Being recognized in all her classes for her intelligence opened the doors to being part of study groups. Being looked up to in class made her someone to be sought out. She didn't need to prove her brilliance to anyone, but acknowledgement was still nice. This gave her status, and more importantly, access to information in all her classes. Well, almost all her classes. 

She wasn’t failing biochemistry, but she wasn’t breezing through it like she had expected either. That guy always came out on top or tied with her. She very much didn't like this, but it wasn't like she was holding a grudge.

...Okay, so maybe she'd formed a sort of rivalry with him in her head. Big deal, it wasn’t as if he noticed, the way he continued business as usual. Unless he had noticed and was secretly rubbing it in her face by not even caring enough to gloat. He probably thought she wasn’t even worth gloating to. Evil. 

It's not made any easier by the fact that Ava was competitive. Being at the top of her classes as well as doing her job as a superhero filled her with pride. So to have her ambition blocked by one puny nerd, while not quite devastating, was certainly not pleasant. 

At least the nerd had taken the hint and kept to himself for now. (Ava felt a little bad, but after such a harsh rejection, she honestly didn’t blame him. She also didn't know how to undo that). 

She’d try to fix it if she could. But as it stood, she couldn’t even talk to him without waking up the kid sleeping in between them. Ava had had an exhausting week, so she got it. She might have even considered adopting her younger tablemate’s habit of napping in some of her easier classes. 

The nerd, whose name she recently learned was Parker thanks to overhearing the teacher call on him, never let her wake him up. Something about the kid being insufferable and that they were both better off without the little know-it-all. Sweet of him to look out for the kid. Kind of a weird way to show he cared but whatever, she showed affection gruffly too. 

Ava really doubted that this Amadeus kid was anything more than adorable, but Parker was insistent. (That said, genius or not, how that kid was not only passing the class but getting some of the highest grades while sleeping the entire time was beyond her.) But because of Parker, she couldn’t really lean over and whisper to him. 

Oh well, win some, lose some. She’d just have to live with not being able to talk to or make friends with him. In the end, it didn't really matter to her, all she cared about was achieving the ultimate goal of the mission. 

It doesn't become a problem until they are passing through the halls. 

It's only because of Coulson that the team shared a sixth period study hall. As such, they usually met up in the hallways and went there together. That Friday, as they were walking down the hall to get the last class over with, Ava noticed Parker walking toward them. He was walking next to a guy who looked like he should have been on the cover of some teen magazine. 

Ava leaned over to her friends. “That's the guy I was telling you about, the one from my biochem class.”

This immediately caught Sam’s attention. “The one you said thinks he's better than you? Showed you up?”

Ava scowled at the reminder. Something like recognition flashed on Sam's face, as he realized that the student was also in his Spanish class. He had an interesting accent, a sort of hybrid pronunciation, almost like he picked it up from older ladies on the bus when he wasn’t messing around with the most American accent imaginable. 

Sam hadn’t had a chance to talk with the guy, but from what he'd heard from Ava he sounded like bad news. He looked exactly like the type of guy to hate school, the perfect target of bullying who would then take it out on others with his stuck-upness.

For all that Sam messed with Ava, she was still his teammate, his friend. He’d even go so far as to call the entire team his family. And no one messed with his family and got away with it. 

So if he ‘accidentally’ crashed into the guy and knocked him against the lockers hard enough to give him a bruise, well, that's only karma. Unfortunately, the guy’s model friend didn't take it so lightly. “Hey, what's the big idea!?” 

Sam still had his eyes on the nerd when he felt a hard shove to his shoulders. He whirled around ready to start something, only to be stunned when he finally got a good look at the friend. Standing chest to chest, Sam is surprised by how fast the guy was able to get to him. ‘How the hell is this Parker guy friends with someone so intimidatingly hot- I mean intimidating?’

“Whoops, my bad. Maybe he should be looking where he's going if he doesn't want to crash into other people.” 

Danny grabbed Sam by his shoulder, and hissed “What are you doing?” but Sam easily shrugged him off. 

The friend scowled. “Sure, as if we didn't all watch you cross to the other side of the hall just to hit him.”

“As if I would bother going out of my way just to sweep trash like him.”

“What did you just say?” Teen Vogue growled. 

“Harry, it's fine, let's just go.” Parker grabbed his friend's forearm to drag him away. But the friend barely took a step away before Sam let out a “Yeah Harry , you got a problem? Let's go!” and began to pull. 

“Sam, knock it off. We’re gonna be late for class.” Luke tried to grab Sam but was evaded when Sam ducked to take a step closer to Harry. 

“No, he wants to go? We can go right now.” Harry, as Parker called him, easily pulled his arm away and swung off his backpack. 

Sam threw his satchel off as well, catching the team's confused expression and Ava’s exasperated face. Sam knew he had the advantage, being an actual superhero and all. It wasn’t even a fair fight. This was defending his friend though, so it was justified. Totally not an abuse of power. 

Sam wasn't really aiming to hurt him, just scare him off from messing with his friend. So when Harry stepped in, Sam felt the need to make the point to both of them. Harry had been the one to escalate, Sam had only returned in kind. As such, he didn't actually want to hurt the guy, more of a controlled feint that would be easy for even a non-superhero to dodge. But, just as he started the swing, Parker stepped in.

Then the strangest thing happened. As if in slow motion, Sam watched as a punch Parker could have easily avoided connected. Almost as if he had walked into it.

Because he could have dodged it. It was almost as if he had sensed it coming, the way his head had been turned to face his friend before suddenly becoming alert and whipping around to face Sam instead. 

The punch connected and all three boys sprang back. 

"Oh my god, Peter!"

"Sam, you just hit that boy twice!" Oops. 

This obviously upset Harry even more, and he came charging angrily enough at Sam that Luke and Ava stepped in. 

Danny watched the scene devolve into chaos. Harry was yelling at Sam, who was being blockaded by his other teammates. Danny noted that the kid recovering from the punch suddenly straightened up as if a shiver had run up his spine. Barely noteworthy on such a scrawny guy like him, with his build and complexion he probably had anemia or something. Danny almost wanted to offer him a jacket. 

He watched as the fighters prepared to throw fists again, both guys struggling against his friends (as much protection as they were de-escalation), and was thinking of ways to stop them when Danny got hit in the head. Stunned by the fact that he has been bested by a shoe, he looked up to find its owner. 

Parker, another shoe in hand, paused mid-throw to wave his hands and point down the hallway. Turning, Danny realized that Principal Coulson was making his way over. Without waiting for a response, Parker went and grabbed Harry around the waist and pulled him away. Danny did the same for Sam. 

"Harry, the new principal is coming, don't make this bigger than it already is."

"Sam, I suggest you calm down, Coulson is coming."

Harry glared at Sam but made no move to attack again. Parker's hold combined with Sam's silence seemed to be enough. Coulson barely managed to ask if everything was alright, before getting a call on his walkie-talkie that one of the football players had thrown up. 

Pulling a face, he excused himself, giving the team a look that let them know they were in for a ‘talk’ later. Looked like they wouldn’t be getting away with this one. Parker and Harry took that as their cue to slink away to class, and the team rounded on Sam. 

Danny pushed his finger into Sam's chest. “Dude. What the hell.”

Sam ignored them. Despite being lanky, crashing into Parker had been like crashing into a wall. Suspicious. “Did you see that? He totally knew my punch was coming. He's hiding something! No one just takes a hit and walks away so casually if they aren’t trying to hide something." Sam collected his bag and led the team to their last class. “I can feel it.”

“That feeling is called humiliation because you got the eye from Coulson,” Danny said sharply.

Sam turned around to face him. “Think about it: That guy is constantly being picked on, I've seen it. The only break he gets is from Heroic Harold over here defending him. Wouldn't he want to get back at everyone for it?”

Luke scoffed. “Then why did you think you needed to add to the issue? Doesn't the guy have enough problems at school?”

“You're missing the point!” Sam said, turning around to keep walking. He would just have to spell it out for them. “Look, villains randomly show up out of nowhere and attack his school, and his friend just so happens to heroically defend him but gets knocked out in the fight where Spiderman was supposed to show up. The bad guys wreak havoc until they get bored, while Parker is seen dragging his friend away to safety. It all seems a little too convenient. Why didn't Spiderman show up?” 

Ava was startled “Wait, Harry was the kid who tried to fight the Frightful Four?” Ugh, so much for recon. Honestly, if the team couldn't pick up on something so obvious, they had no right to get on his case for actually making friends in class. 

“Are you trying to say that… Harry is Spiderman?” Luke asked. 

Danny nodded as if in understanding. “It would make sense, he fits a lot of the criteria. Plus if Spiderman were knocked out, that could explain why he never showed up.”

Sam opened the door to their class and walked in, “No, you guys are thinking too small! It's all too coincidental, too convenient. Causing property damage and scaring the guys who pick on him? Too enticing. Plus it has the added bonus of making his buddy more protective. I’ve seen how people don’t mess with Harry Osborn, and it's not just the money talking. Parker masterminded everything to get villains to attack his school!”

The team was startled. “ OSBORN ?” they cried in unison. So much for recon.

“What have you guys been doing? Face it, Peter Parker… is a villain in the making.” Sam paused for dramatic effect. “I didn't connect it until just now, but it all makes sense. Parker baited them into coming. Apparently, when the Frightful Four broke in, though it was only three of them that day, he bragged to them saying he knew that Spiderman goes here to distract them from attacking his friend." 

They all took their seats, listening to Sam explain his theory. “It probably isn't true, the guy has no idea who Spiderman is, but they never got confirmation one way or another.” Sam grinned smugly at his own genius. Goodbye pre-calc classes, it was terrible knowing you. “I bet Harry doesn’t even know, the poor guy.”

The team looks at each other for a moment, before bursting out in laughter. Danny pounded his chest trying to get his lungs to work properly again as Luke doubled over in laughter. “Dude, that guy? A villain? Next, you’re going to say he's Spiderman .”

Ava wiped a tear from her eye. “Yeah Sam, I don't like the guy but even I don't think he’s evil .”

Sam felt his face heat up. “Revenge on the school that dunks on him daily, all while keeping the actual secret identity of Spiderman safe! It's almost genius.”

As the others kept laughing, Sam felt his face flush further. “I know what I'm talking about. I'll prove it! You’ll see…” As he angrily got a notebook out, he let his final words carry his conviction, darkly muttering “ you’ll all see .”

His team just laughed.

Chapter Text

While Sam was still convinced that the boy he had punched was ‘a supervillain who was trying to take over the planet or blow it up’, Luke grew more and more convinced of Harry Osborn's potential vigilantism. It made perfect sense- good physique, correct height, fast reflexes, and a father who didn't seem to be paying attention and showed his love through a credit card. What better person to risk their life unnecessarily than a rich boy with nothing else to do? A future iron man in the making. 

And taking into account last Friday's ‘incident’ in the hallway, it was pretty clear Osborn had a heroic instinct. (Thankfully Coulson hadn’t done anything about it yet, a pretty good Monday so far).

They didn’t know how to prove it yet (as they couldn't just bring any accusations to Coulson without evidence lest they get themselves into more trouble) but with each new thread added to their conspiracy board back at their shield safe house apartment, the picture became more and more clear. 

Sam, meanwhile, continued to argue his case. “If the scientists at shield taught us anything, it's that anyone too interested in biochemistry is either a risk or at risk themselves.” Credit where credit was due, Sam wasn't wrong here. The whole of New York had learned this lesson during the whole lizard fiasco. A genius scientist became a little too interested in lizards and some wacky science, and suddenly everyone in the city was turning into lizards. They were lucky Spiderman had been on scene to stop him. 

What Luke staunchly disagreed with, however, was that Sam had begun to stalk the nerd. 

And if the scientists at shield had taught the team two things, the second was that any obsession (especially one regarding a singular person) could have dangerous consequences. For example, literally every supervillain with a vendetta. It was only natural for the others to have their concerns. 

Perhaps it was our fault , Luke thought. Maybe they had laughed at Sam too hard, and now Sam felt he had something to prove. By stalking Harry's friend. Ok, so maybe not entirely their fault, but a contributing factor in not dissuading this behavior. 

Hence the intervention they were currently staging. 

Luke spread his hands out in a pacifying manner, hoping to put Sam at ease after they had essentially cornered him during their shared sixth period study hall. “Sam, this is a safe environment, and we’re here for you, whatever you're going through.” It was incredibly fortunate that their classmates were either asleep, studying with headphones on, or straight up didn't care. The teacher, an ancient woman rumored to be older than the school, always slept through the entire period. 

“I'm not insane! I know what I'm talking about!” Uh oh, Sam was getting defensive. Damn, the gentle approach wasn’t working, time for a more direct route. 

Luke straightened up, putting as much authority into his voice as he could. He just had to imitate one of shield’s lectures. “Sam, you have a problem. This isn't normal-”

Danny cut in, “This isn't healthy , Luke. Remember that normal is subjective.” 

Sam wasn't having either version. “I know I'm right! Don't patronize me!” Luke winced. He should have guessed that an authoritative approach wasn't going to work either. Sam was difficult at the best of times. 

Ava, who was in charge of guarding the door to prevent any escape attempts, ran her hand through her hair. “Ok, but explain why Parker is totally a candidate for villainy intervention, but can't be Spiderman? I mean, he's close enough in height too, right? At least find a more plausible excuse to stalk him.” 

Sam leaned forward on his desk. "Pfft! As if, the guy’s too puny! He can't stand up to Flash. How is he gonna stand up to the lizard? No way is he capable of being Spiderman.”

“Yet you seem intent on following Parker, learning his schedule, and identifying his friends,” Danny pointed out. 

“That's different!” Sam said with a huff. 

Danny, carefully so as to not upset Sam further, managed to somehow scoot his desk closer to him without making a sound. “Listen Sam, this whole guy obsession of yours has been incredibly helpful in keeping an eye on Harry. But you’re going a little too far, dude. Are you sure it's the villainy you are concerned about?”

Sam flushed red. “Don't call it a guy obsession!”  

Danny persisted. “No, because I think this is an obsession. Look man, we’re here for you whatever the case may be. You're our friend and nothing can change that, alright? But could your sudden and intense interest be motivated by something else?

Luke thought Danny made a good point. Perhaps Sam needed to reconcile seeing himself as a good person and attacking a civilian by doubling down on there being something wrong with Parker. Because he obviously wouldn't just attack a civilian (unless they were like, mind-controlled. Or generally attacking him. Which Parker wasn’t).

Suddenly it all clicked. Sam's immense guilt over attacking Parker, in addition to his suspicion of an actual threat, had led him to this insane built-up image of Parker as a supervillain. Poor Sam, suffering through this confusion all by himself. Luke had to let Sam know he was understood, that he wasn't alone. 

Luke reached out to clasp his friend firmly on the shoulder. “Sam, I understand now. This guy obsession of yours–”

“Stop calling it that!”

“–Is a manifestation of your guilt. I think that apologizing might help. Clear your conscience and all that.”

In the corner of the room, Ava laughed at them. Sensing that Luke had them covered, she made her way back over to sit with them. 

Sam tried to shrug Luke off. “That's not true! I've been watching him, at lunch, in class, and after school. I'm not a stalker, but- 

Ava startled, nearly slipping out of her chair, “THAT'S NOT A DEFENSIBLE POSITION, SAM. THERE SHOULDN'T BE A BUT–”

“I've stolen his trash-” he continued. 

“THAT'S SO MUCH WORSE–” 

“He barely has any social media presence, few pictures, but he does get tagged in a lot of things by that redhead friend of his. It's so hard to find things on him. No teenager is like this! It's almost like he's hiding by being the most boring person imaginable.”

Luke had to fix this. He couldn't let this happen to his friend and teammate. Stalking was wrong. “Sam, please, you're making it hard to love and accept you for who you are.” 

Sam pulled out a notebook none of them had ever seen before. Ava crossed her arms while Danny leaned in curiously. “Look, I made this to get as much information on Parker as I could.” Quickly opening it up to a section marked with a green tab, he started listing off observations he’d made about Parker. “He’s smart but he’s a massive little shit. I've seen him provoke actual bullies, while no true dweeb would invite more anger. He’s even stepped in for other people and pulled attention onto himself! That's masochistic!”

Luke sighed. They weren't getting through to Sam. They might need adult help here. 

Sam continued undeterred. “Melissa from first period told me he's best friends with Flash's mom for god's sake! He has to be an evil mastermind to be able to play those fools so easily.” 

Ava seemed to be getting annoyed. “Dude, anyone can play those meatheads. We’re playing those meatheads.”

“But we’re trained heroes!”

It seemed she'd had enough. “Exactly. We’re trained heroes on a mission to uncover the identity of Spiderman, not stalk some poor loser who keeps disrespecting my academic superiority in science. I'm willing to let it go to focus on the mission, for now. You should too.”

This gave Sam pause. Luke watched the struggle play out on Sam's face. 

Luke knew it was hard for Sam sometimes. He was always so emotional and it made him that much more motivated, passionate, and caring for those around him. It was part of what made the team what it was. Sam always went out of his way to make sure they were alright, that they felt like actual friends rather than a bunch of soldiers put together. He was a hot head but he used that fire to fuel his love for his friends. 

But that same passion could backfire. When Sam genuinely perceived a threat, he again went out of his way to protect them. He would rather go off on his own than inform the team about it. 

But in this case, there was no danger, no crazy high school supervillain, and no looming menace. There was nothing special about Parker. He was just a nerd with above-average intelligence, a potential friend to Spiderman, but nothing else. They needed to focus their limited time and energy on candidates like Harry, Flash, or any other teenage boy that was actually capable of fighting. There was nothing special about Parker. 

Ava softened her tone. “Forget about Parker, he's not our concern. Our concern is Spiderman's identity. Let's focus on the mission. Let's do good.”

Finally, Sam sagged. “Fine. I'll cool it with the stalking. But I'm not fully convinced he's just nothing.”

Ava leaned over to give Sam a side hug, “Thank you. I know it's better to keep your guard up, but you shouldn't go crazy over it. Also please act better, you’re too obvious.”

Sam let out a chuckle, looking down at his notebook, before putting it back safely in his bag. Ava was right, he was being too obvious. 

As he pulled out something else to work on, a girl with blonde hair, glasses, and a black headband entered the classroom. She froze for a moment, not knowing what to do about the fact that the teacher was asleep, and sent the other students a panicked glance. One student in the back mimed for her to shake the teacher, but she frantically shook her head. 

All of a sudden, almost imperceptibly, she shivered. Danny felt bad for her, she could probably use a sweater. 

Her gaze swept over the classroom, and her striking blue eyes landed on Sam for a second, before darting down to look at his galaxy print messenger bag with an intense frigid gaze. Wow, guess not everyone was a fan of galaxy print bags. 

Sensing the class's attention, however, the girl quickly darted down to squint at her note. Not knowing what else to do, she read the note aloud herself. 

“For Luke, Ava, Daniel, and Samuel. Principal Coulson is asking for you guys in the office. It says to bring your backpacks.” 

It seemed like Sam's yelling and their conversation weren't enough to get their classmates' attention, but being called into the office was, as a chorus of “Oooo’s” rang out. 

Packing their bags, they followed the blonde office aide to Coulson’s. Several times on the way there, she looked back to make sure they were following. She really didn't like that galaxy print bag. 

oOOo

Coulson stared down at the four teenagers currently standing in front of his desk. 

“So which part of 'stealth mission’ implies that you should pick fights with civilian teenagers? Was it the ‘stealth’ or the ‘mission’. I would really like to know, seeing as this is not only an abuse of power but a seriously compromising incident. If this had escalated, I would have had to suspend people. That's a minimum week suspension, a week off the mission. And one that draws unnecessary attention to yourselves.” 

One of the best insights into an individual's character was how they expressed themselves. It was only natural, as human psychology had a myriad of responses to admonishment and authority. Part of what made Coulson such a successful spy was understanding human behavior and reading the clues so many people gave out for free. 

The kids in front of him were no different, all expressing themselves in different ways. 

Ava (Codename: White Tiger) hung her head, a sign of submission and guilt. But her clenched fists signaled strong resolve, a willingness to do better in the future. Coulson thought she was too hard on herself, but he wouldn't exactly say he was any better. If he said anything, she would only take it as criticism and strive to do better- the opposite of what she needed. 

Luke (Codename: Powerman) on the other hand, standing in the back almost as if trying to hide, rubbed the back of his neck, trying to appear less intimidating and less of a target. He was a good kid who rarely got in trouble, so it was an anticipated response for him to be severely uncomfortable with this talk. 

In contrast, Sam (Codename: Nova) stood tall in the front, directing Coulson's natural line of sight to himself and away from his teammates. Nova had a track record of conflict, but he wasn't a bad kid either. He was just young, the youngest on the team. 

Similar to Sam, Danny (Codename: Iron Fist) stood at attention, but where Sam was defensive of himself and others, Danny stood alone. His martial arts training gave him incredible skill, but he continued to stand apart in many ways. Still, he was much better than when the team started. 

“I've already received a few complaints against you, Ava and Sam.”

Ava flexed her hands when mad, Coulson had noticed. Likely to do with her claws. Even with her overwhelming desire and dedication to please (or perhaps because of it), she had a lot of pride in herself. Any perceived threat to that could make her act irrationally. An easy trigger to destabilize her, and goad her into an unfavorable situation in a fight. Something to watch out for. 

Displeasure colored her voice. “Was it Parker? Because–”

“It was actually your other science table mate, Mr. Cho, who came forth on the behalf of Parker, who was reportedly asking him not to do so. Something about you being disproportionately hostile. To give you an idea of the severity of the situation.” At that, Ava settled, contemplative.  

Sam was much simpler to handle. Perhaps the team had already spoken to him about it. “Was mine for the fight?” 

“Yes.” 

Coulson grabbed a stack of papers and tapped them on his desk, both to defuse the tension and organize them into a neat stack. “I’m letting you all off with a warning, both as your shield supervisor and acting principal. Don’t let the situation escalate, we don’t need civilian adolescents with phones gossiping about this and blowing our cover.”

Hopefully, this scare would be the proper incentive to act more covertly. He had planned on giving them one anyway, but chances not taken were opportunities wasted. And this one had landed perfectly into his hands. 

“Now, I'm going to release you early from school as I have a meeting to attend. I suggest you explore and observe the city. Chat with the locals, make some new friends. Or more directly, find Spiderman.”

With that, he let the kids out of his office. Hopefully, they would behave themselves and establish a positive first contact with the local vigilante population. While lots of them were territorial, they were usually pretty tolerant of kids, if a bit discouraging. With any luck, the trail would lead them back to Spiderman.

Chapter Text

So far the team had stopped seven muggings, given directions (even though the streets were literally numbered), reunited a parent with their children, been asked for pictures by a group of teenagers, saved one pedestrian from getting run over, and totaled one car. So not too bad for a first day. 

But if the team wasn't capable of at least that level of competence, then Shield would never have let them into the field, Spiderman-driven mission or not. Shield was too careful with younger heroes, preferring to keep them safe and prepared for any potential fight they might face, rather than risk losing them. 

And all things considered, Shield had done an excellent job preparing the team for any combat a city as wild as New York and its villains had to offer. As a team, they were well coordinated in their training- scoring high in speed, accuracy, and strength. 

Individually, however, they struggled to get around. It turned out that running across rooftops was more taxing than their Shield training had prepared them for. Shield had focused on conflict, where victory was measured by winning the fight, but nothing seemed to prepare them for the suffering that was parkour. For a city with as much public transportation as New York had, there certainly was no accessibility when it came to running across rooftops. 

Nothing they couldn't handle, of course. Ava, Luke, and Danny had different methods of scaling buildings. Luke just put more effort into his muscles to clear jumps, and Danny would use his mystic fists to create momentum that would help propel him upwards. Ava would simply scale brick walls, reasoning, in her own words, that "Cats always seem to claw their way up curtains just fine."

On the complete opposite side of the spectrum, Nova had no struggle navigating the city. All he had to do was fly higher. The real struggle came from having to slow down, wait, or stop for his companions. 

As he waited, in the distance he could hear J Jonah Jameson rant from televisions and radios. 

While movement was an issue, rooftops had their advantages as well. Bird’s-eye view, an escape from the public, and a whole new set of obstacles they were getting better at overcoming. Plus it was fun. 

They were finishing the pre-planned circuit, a route they had decided to investigate due to the consistent Spiderman sightings in the area when Ava noticed something. As she scanned her surroundings, the only thing that she could hear was the whining and complaining Nova made every time he had to wait for them. It was as if all other noise had stopped. 

From where the team had come, kids who had been playing basketball were starting to go home. Shops started to close in a several block radius. It seemed that no one wanted to turn down the street. 

Something was wrong, and New York sensed it. 

Ava raised a hand to silence the rest of the team. “Iron fist, do you hear that?” Up above, Powerman cut off Nova’s complaining. 

Iron Fist tensed. “Indeed, or rather, what is missing.”

Then, suddenly, a crash rang out. The clatter of trash cans broke the silence as a man carrying groceries fled from the alley across the street. “There! Follow the sound!” Wasting no time, the heroes leap into action, pouring into the small alley. 

What they found was something they had seen before- a mugger tied up in those “webs”, and a weapon lying on the floor. 

“He’s here, he couldn't have gone far.”

“Up there!” Iron Fist pointed to a red figure scaling the walls. 

“After him!”

oOOo 

Chasing after Spiderman turned out to be really hard. While the team was confident that they could beat him in a straight fight, getting him to actually turn around and face them was kind of impossible. Per Shield mandate, they were not allowed to split the team. So every time Nova was close enough to engage, the team called for him to pull back. Endurance seemed to be the real battle. 

They struggled to stick together. Every time they lost Spiderman, they would get a short reprieve and become frustrated with each other, before spotting him and beginning their chase again. 

The worst part was, it felt like he was leading them along. Luring them further away from areas they knew from patrol into unfamiliar and more chaotic New York. Spiderman could have escaped at any time and had already lost them at multiple points. He could end this chase simply by climbing to a higher altitude where only Nova could follow. 

But instead, he stuck close to accessible rooftops where the rest of the team could pursue him, choosing easier terrain the further they went along. It was an uneasy realization, to play his game so willingly. Was he playing with them? Testing them? For what?

As they made their way closer to the center of the city, the game started to get more difficult as their target raced faster and faster, climbing higher and higher until they completely lost sight of him again. 

“Where did he go?” Ava panted. They now stood atop an older brick building. Blocked in by two taller buildings on both sides, it was several stories tall, although not the tallest in the area. Nearby, a water tower groaned ominously.  

Sam flew high in the air to gain a vantage, zipping up and down the street and scanning pedestrians down below but returned frustratingly empty-handed. “We wouldn't have lost him if you’d let me go after him on my own!” 

“He was trying to split us up, and it's dangerous to go alone!” 

Danny sighed, “My friends, we shouldn't be so loud. We lost him just as he has lost us. Giving our position away would only be a hindrance.” 

He continued watching Sam and Ava's bickering only to stumble at Luke’s friendly pat on the shoulder. “He’s gone. We lost him. I doubt he's coming back just to mess with us. Just let them wear themselves out and we’ll head back.” 

From behind them, a new voice said “Peeky-boo”. 

Iron Fist startled and threw the first punch at full force. Powerman jumped back to create distance between himself and his enemy. 

Before Iron Fist could even think to pull his punches, what could have been a dangerous hit was swiftly dodged, Spiderman swerving to the right almost as if he knew it was coming before it connected. 

“Woah! That was close, you should be careful though- this is a no carry state.” The videos and reports they had studied could not have prepared them for how fast Spiderman moved. Almost immediately, he began shooting that thin white silk at Danny to stick him to the wall. 

In an instant, the others jumped in to face this new threat, coming at him from all sides. Together as a team, they put up a decent attack- one which normally would have worked, but Spiderman just webbed them to the walls in quick succession. Only Nova managed to strike him- a stray blast to the side of his head which forced him to stagger and clutch his face for a moment, before he whipped back and webbed Nova’s hands together, throwing him to the wall. 

The team struggled to free themselves, arms pinned to their sides, but to no avail. They quickly became exhausted as the adrenaline from the surprise attack left them. From a distance, Spiderman simply tilted his head. Hands on his hips, he seemed to defy gravity while standing horizontally on the water tower, watching them with those horrific, unblinking white lenses.

Seeing as they had just chased him through the city to no success, it was clear who had the upper hand here. This was bad, and they all knew it.

“Hey, you're new– ” Spiderman startled, cutting himself off. The team was horrified by what they heard. The voice was wrong, so utterly and terrifyingly wrong. Garbled, as though it had emerged from the depths of hell. Cold and sharp, like the remains of a building in the wake of a disaster, reaching out to scratch passersby and draw the blood all disasters craved. 

It was easy to understand the fear New York felt for him at that moment, trapped like flies at the mercy of this creature. 

“Wait, hold on.” Spiderman proceeded to tap the side of his jaw with his wrist a few times before speaking again. 

“Testing, testing. 123?” This new voice was much friendlier. Still deep, still strange, but much closer to normal. It matched with the few speaking clips they’d seen of him, rare and unintelligible as they were. There was still a slight mechanical tinge to his accented tone- a voice modulator. It would have been nearly impossible to detect if not for the earlier malfunction.

What had they been so scared about? Where had that come from? Could he have some psychic fear-inducing powers as well? The mystery of Spiderman only grew. And nothing could have prepared them for how insufferable he was. 

“There we go, we should be fine now. I'll make this quick– so, you were chasing me around. Any reason? Because I'm all for hanging out, y’know? Just write me in the newspaper. I'm available for birthday parties, bar mitzvahs, crime takedowns, archnemesis fights, and bowling. I just need some advance warning. Plus-" Spiderman continued talking. Unfortunately, no one was listening at that point, since they were too distracted by the loose and exaggerated nature of his body language. 

He spoke like a New Yorker, hands flying everywhere and fast. It was hard to follow what he was saying, so instead White Tiger took stock of their situation. It seemed they wouldn't be able to track him down by voice. Their lives just became that much harder. (But like, it wasn't like they could have used his accent anyway, they were not exactly well-versed in ‘New Yorkian’. Was that offensive?) 

Spiderman continued, unhindered. “And like, I’m not a cop–”

“Prove it!” Nova shouted. 

Spiderman spluttered. “What do you mean prove it? What, you want me to pull out my ‘Not A Cop’ badge?”

“Well if you’re not a cop, you’ve got nothing to hide!”

Spiderman paused. “You think that cops have nothing to hide?”

 "...Yeah?"

Spiderman cooed, clasped his hands close to his heart, and in a parody of a person looking at something with affection said, “Oh, sweet bucket head, tender and mild, the things you've yet to learn.”

Powerman quickly joined in, realizing what Nova was doing (whether it was intentional or not). “Hey, let us go, we’re the good guys.”

Spiderman, however, was not convinced. ”Mmm, that depends, define good.” 

Iron Fist, still recovering from having been startled, joined in. “Good is relative to those in the majority of power. That is what the monks have taught me.”

All of them looked at Iron Fist. Spiderman started nodding his head, “Ok, that's kinda true. I like that one. But wouldn’t the monks have been the majority there?” Iron Fist was stunned again, forced to think deeply about his teachings. “Umm, is he gonna be okay?”

White Tiger had had enough of this. She directly faced Spiderman. “Who are you?”

“Very forward. I appreciate the energy, but I think the better question is: Who are you ?” He jumped down from the water tower and made his way toward them. “Because you guys clearly know I'm Spiderman, having stalked me already. Which, let me just say, stop that. But I haven’t had the pleasure of your introductions. So start talking .” 

Nova argued. “It’s four against one–”

“You seem to forget who’s got who here–”

“We don't have to answer your questions. We're not budging on that.”

Spiderman took a moment to look them over before he made his decision. “Then I don't have to either. Goodbye!” With that, he spun on his heel and made his way to the edge of the rooftop. 

“No, wait, don't leave! We’ll talk!” Nova yelled as he struggled against his constraints. 

Spiderman shot a web from his wrist, then tested it to make sure it was secured to the side of the building. “Talk about what? I said what I needed, there's really not much else to say unless you want to tell me what you're doing here.”

Ava realized that this was their chance. “Listen, we both want answers, so how about a trade? We’ll answer questions if you answer questions, deal?” That certainly got his attention. 

But Luke was playing it safe and wasn't convinced. He turned his head and whispered to her, “What are you doing? We can't be giving away information to a potential enemy. We were asked to bring him in.”

She hissed, “Listen, you're right, but right now our best bet is to stall. These webs disintegrate, remember? Let's distract him, and try to escape. Our ultimate goal isn't to arrest Spiderman, it’s information. Identity. We won't go up against him if we don't have to, and we’re clearly not in a position to do that right now. Better to get something we can use later, and focus on escape and potential capture for now.”

“But what if he notices?”

“Let's not think about that right now. Make Distraction, Information, and Capture our priority.”

Luke quickly thought this over. They couldn’t lose him again, not after he'd shown how capable he was of ditching them by climbing to higher ground and disappearing into the shadows (despite being dressed in colors brighter than a clown). He nodded to her. “Alright, commence operation D.I.C.”

Ava grimaced but decided she had more important matters at hand than trying to come up with a new acronym. “Hey Spiderman, can we refuse to answer questions?”

Spiderman, having been distracted by arguing with Nova and making sure that he hadn't pushed Iron Fist into an existential spiral, seemed oblivious to the conversation that had just gone on between White Tiger and Powerman. “Sure, that works for me. We can veto four questions, one for each of you and I get an equal amount. It’s over as soon as we use up our vetoes. First question, who do you work for?”

Nova immediately ruined it. “Veto!”

Spiderman sagged. “Well, that's not fair.”

“My turn, who are you?”

“Spiderman.”

“No, what's your identity?” 

Spiderman dramatically adopted a scandalized pose. “Novathy, asking for so much on our first date! What kind of person do you think I am?” 

“What!”

White Tiger hit the back of her head against the wall in agony. 

“Listen, you’re new out here, but asking for someone's identity is a big deal. You don't just hand that out. You guys seem alright but what if you’re not?” At their blank looks, he continued. “I'm a lone vigilante, which means I'm not exactly a favorite with the police. It also means I don't have the kind of backup you all have with each other. If the wrong person finds out who I am, my people are in serious danger. So if you're going to stay in New York, don't ask that question. It leaves a bad taste. And I know the other vigilantes aren't as nice as me.”

There was a sobering kind of realization that Spiderman so casually revealed the existence of a whole other vigilante community, one whose customs they were unfamiliar with. “Wow this is fun, I feel kinda like a big brother. Is this how Daredevil felt when he started beating me up for asking that?” Was Daredevil real?

They continued like this, exchanging basic information. Spiderman asked them who they were, what areas they had been to, how they had been liking the city, what their hobbies were, and what kind of stuff they’d been doing so far. As they each answered questions, White Tiger and Powerman worked on getting into position to free themselves. 

At one point or another, each of them eventually used up their veto to get out of answering a question. Danny vetoed a question regarding his accent, tired of answering whether or not he was from California. Ava denied a question aimed at understanding what their powers were, something too personal to tell a stranger. Similarly, Luke refused to answer a question that was clearly fishing to see how long they’d been active. He was too embarrassed to say they were not only new to the area but new to being superheroes. 

All the while, Spiderman answered their questions evasively. Everything he gave about his powers was things they had already picked up on. The length of his ‘career’ could have been traced through the Bugle, and it was obvious he was a proud New Yorker. The only new information they gained had been confusing. (“Are you a mutant?” “Mutant is a loaded term but no, not technically .”)

Their deeply probing questions seemed to put him on edge, and he finally asked them again, “Who are you working for? No more vetoes, you're all out.”

“Wait, you already asked that.”

“There's no rule against asking the same question again.”

The team shifted uncomfortably. Iron Fist was the one to answer him. “We are special agents of Shield.”

Spiderman tensed, suddenly looking uncomfortable. “Under the Avengers branch, or Nick Fury?” Clearly, the guy didn’t want to be here anymore, or associate with them at all.

“Does it matter?”

“Veto.”  

“Why are you trying to keep your identity? It's suspicious. We wouldn't be out here if Shield knew who you were.”

“Shield doesn't know? Are you sure?”

“We wouldn't be talking if they knew.”

Ava tried asking a different question. “Do you know Nick Fury?”

“Veto.”  

That was suspicious. Why would Spiderman know Nick Fury? No regular Joe should know about Nick Fury. Not unless… 

Taking great care not to alert their captor, Iron Fist renewed his struggle against his webbing.

Nova, bored of the questions, began to struggle more overtly against his binding. “Why won’t you tell us who you are? It’s not even a big deal.” 

"What do you mean ‘not a big deal’? This is a huge deal! We have strengths and abilities, something villains want and even have. The only difference is how we use our gifts and talents. And when we use it to stop them, it makes us targets. Who do you think a villain is going after if they can't come for you?”

The team felt uncomfortable. He made a very obvious point, but one that hadn't really occurred to them. How could it? They were fortunate enough to not have any loved ones within reach of villains, or unfortunate enough to no longer have someone to protect. They were lucky that Shield made such an effort to protect them, but a lone vigilante like Spiderman? He was probably doing all of that himself. 

All the more reason to understand him. A dedicated man like that was a ticking time bomb, one slip up away from losing everything and going to the dark side. At the very least, if they knew who he was and what he was after, maybe they could help him. 

Spiderman continued, “Consequences are real. I know the rocket man over here gets that, he knows better than to take his bucket off. Very little face, absolutely no hair color to get identified with.” Nova was slightly flattered, despite the insult to his helmet. “I have a responsibility to those close to me and a responsibility to the other people in this city who can't protect themselves. That's why I helped when the Lizard attacked the city. That's why I have to protect my identity."

This was their chance. “You helped with the Lizard incident?”

“Helped?” Spiderman exclaimed, “I was the only one there that day!”

Powerman rolled his eyes. “The only one? It must not have been that bad if you managed it alone.” 

Spiderman plopped down on the ledge. “I’m starting to think you Shield guys only hear what you want to hear.”

White Tiger kicked at his still-trapped leg. “Don't underestimate him, Powerman.”

“Tiger, he was insane. What can one guy do?”

Spiderman whipped around. "Curt Connors is a brilliant scientist and geneticist. Don't underestimate anyone just because they went a little nuts. They are still people. Dr. Connors only wanted to help others by creating a serum that could regrow limbs using lizard DNA. It's genius when you think of the applications.” Spiderman deflated. “But he lost it all, because Oscorp gave him a vial of my blood and he refused to analyze it. He knew me, and how important my identity was. How dangerous it was.” Underneath the ledge he was seated on, looking out over the city, the concrete he was gripping cracked. “He destroyed it. And they cut his funding in retaliation.” 

The team was stunned. Spiderman continued, unaware of this major revelation. “It's my fault he rampaged across the city. It's my fault he killed Police Captain Stacy. I warned him about taking that serum, but it wasn't enough. Now I have to make up for it, and keep my promise to protect her.”

“Who?”

“The Captain's daughter. Madmen are after me, brilliant ones. And anyone who knows who I am is in danger. You only underestimate them once.”

None of them had known the circumstances behind the incident. They had reports that something went wrong after Oscorp had cut funding right on the verge of Dr. Connors’ breakthrough, and that Connors had done what so many villainous and desperate scientists did- he tested the unstable and incomplete serum on himself in a fit of desperation. The serum had driven him mad. He disappeared and nearly succeeded in turning all of New York into dangerous reptilian monsters, which led to the death of New York's chief of police. 

But reports never told the full story. 

Had a cut in funding really been the cause of all of this? How had Oscorp gotten a sample of Spiderman's blood? For what purpose? Was any of this even true? Maybe Spiderman was covering for his criminal friend just like the Bugle claimed. (Luke thought this was insane, Danny wondered if the real villain was capitalism all along.) 

And besides being a criminal genius, Curt Connors had the key to Spiderman's true identity. Though Connors had rejected Spiderman's blood, most of Shields' analytical data about him came from a recovered diary containing depictions of his descent into madness and his growing obsession with Spiderman. It really seemed that Connors (the sane version of him, the brilliant scientist who had created that spectacular failure of a serum) was quite fond of him. 

Notes before his descent painted Spiderman as a genuinely kind young man, even willing to help Connors in the lab. There were mentions of him seeing his face, but he would refrain from documenting identifying or personal information out of fear that it would fall into the wrong hands. In his paranoia, most of his research had been destroyed, making the search for a cure for his condition much harder. (There was a debate on whether it was Connors, Spiderman, or some intern who had destroyed his research at his deranged request.)

Currently, the Lizard was under Shield supervision, either in jail or a hospital. It was also possible that he had escaped but Shield had covered it up. They weren't exactly sure. Very few people knew what had become of him, and that's probably how Shield wanted it. 

(Ava personally thought he was under Shield supervision in some capacity, either undergoing therapy or permanent serum reversal or sharing his work with other scientists.)

(Danny had a grimmer theory, believing him to be deep in the Helicarrier, hidden away in some cell for what he had done and for what he was.)

(Sam had been a little surprised and horrified at the bleakness of this perspective, and Luke had laughed at Sam.)

Worst of all, Spiderman had done something perhaps even more dangerous. He had been monologuing. 

“Hey man, Shield has licensed therapists, do you maybe wanna talk to someone?”

Spiderman whipped his head over to them as if he had forgotten who he was talking to. White Tiger winced, that was a really bad sign. Classic villain behavior number one. Spiderman popped back up, swinging his arms around as if waving away the aura he had created. “Nah bucket head, I'm good. Insurance won't cover that, I think. Also, I like not being jailed.”

“You can call me Nova you know-”

“So yeah, you can't just know who I am. Just believe that I'm a menace to good people everywhere like The Bugle claims. It's easier on your conscience that way. The less you know, the easier it is for all of us.”

His flippant behavior and careless manner set off alarm bells in the team's heads. Who else but an overly confident psycho would be so bold as to give a vague enough threat and provocation like that? They couldn't let this go on any longer. They had to grab him.  

During his entirely long-winded, boring speech about some random scientist, Luke had been messing with the webs. But the more he struggled, the more new material got stuck to him and tightened around him. He just hoped Ava, Danny, and Sam could get themselves out. 

“Well, this has been fun and all, but I’ve had my fill of Fury’s meddling. Peace out.” 

“Wait, you haven't answered all our questions.”

“And I don't have to.”

“No fair, at least use up your vetoes!”

Spiderman ignored them as he walked away, but unfortunately for him, his monologue and strange comments had given them enough time to escape. 

“You're not getting away that easily!” With that, the action returns. 

Iron Fist summoned all his remaining strength and snapped the threads with a single and dramatic’ Kyaa!’ Quickly engaging Spiderman, he threw punch after punch in a fight that seemed more dancey as Spiderman kept stepping away and hopping onto walls. 

At the same time, Nova used impressive speed and precision to blast the webs into a pile of dust and flew high to gain an advantage. He took aim at Spiderman, hoping to knock him out quickly. He fired many shots aimed both at him and where he was going, but Spiderman managed to dodge each one. His only success was in helping Danny by keeping Spiderman from going too high. 

“Woah, and here I thought we were all having a nice time together! You know I almost took karate as a kid, I wonder what a whole ninja fight between us would look like. Probably more actual hitting.”

From the wall, White Tiger grew agitated. “Nova! Free us!” she called. While sharp and effective at tearing through nearly any material, her claws were not so useful when tangled up. 

“In a second, I've almost got him,” Nova returned. Just then, Spiderman managed to shoot him in the face. Blinded, he tore at the material. But with one hand stuck to his helmet and pointing directly to his face, it was unlikely that he was getting it off anytime soon. Taking his helmet off and risking being depowered in this situation was also not an option. In a panic, he started shooting off randomly. 

Spiderman gracefully flipped out of the way of one of Iron Fist’s punches, only to nearly be hit by a stray blast. “Hey, watch it! You might hit an influencer!”

“Nova stop,” called White Tiger, “you might hit a civilian.” Though the implied 'and us’ was clear in her voice. Upon hearing her voice, Nova aimed his remaining hand at her and shot. Ava closed her eyes on instinct, but the only thing that hit her was the burnt tangy smell of smoke. The idiot had somehow managed to free her. 

“Tiger, where are you? It's so dark.”

“Power down, I’ll free you when I can.”

White Tiger ran to Powerman and sliced him free. The two of them joined the fight just as Spiderman baited Iron Fist to punch a hole in the wall and webbed him again. 

Seeing their imminent attack, he seemed to change his approach. “Hey hey hey, come on guys, can't we all get along? I’m a little guy, aren't we all little guys?”

Unfortunately for him, the two people coming at him were not ‘little guys’. Powerman charged at him, followed closely by White Tiger. Spiderman tried to bait Powerman the same way he had Iron Fist, but between him and White Tiger, wasn’t able to evade as much as before. Sticking close to Spiderman, they worked in tandem to distract him as they landed hit after hit. If Spiderman tried to stop White Tiger, Powerman would charge and force him to move back. And if he tried to stop Powerman’s advances or jump back, White Tiger would just push him forward with her claws. 

“Great teamwork, guys. If I had crime fighting friends, I’d want them to be just like you. But how about not using me as the punching bag? ”

Powerman managed to land a solid hit to Spiderman’s chest, something that was definitely going to leave a mark. Clearly winded, Spiderman choked out, “Well this doesn't seem very fair, why not pick on someone your own size?” Even in his injured state, he finally managed to bait Powerman into charging White Tiger into the wall. 

It was all over from there. Scaling the wall in a super freakish way, Spiderman took advantage of White Tiger’s dazed state and concerned teammate to secure her to the wall. From up high, just as the Powerman was preparing himself to jump up after him, Spiderman finally landed a shot that stuck Powerman’s feet to the floor. 

Nova never became a problem, since the moment he touched the ground Spiderman just webbed his feet to the floor. And with his hands now stuck to the webbing (one pointing directly to his face), he was unable to use his energy blasts to safely free them. 

They all took a moment to breathe. 

“Cool, so that was fun. I have some notes, but I'm not telling you since that would make my life harder. And you were mean to me. And the whole trying to capture me thing. The one thing I will say is that ponytail was right, no matter how serious you think your goal is, never ever risk civilians like that. Alright, peace out!” With that, Spiderman swung away. 

As the team sat there waiting for the webs to weaken, they pondered over those words. They discussed what had happened, and came up with the beginning of a profile. Essentially, the guy had a guilt complex the size of the Grand Canyon. He also seemed to be a very devoted individual, to his friends, loved ones, and city. 

But, that dedication was truly dangerous. Spiderman was smart, physically powerful, and agile, throwing a decent punch even if untrained. His ability to hold his own in a 1 on 4 fight was a pretty big indicator of a dangerous intuition and intelligence when it came to combat.  Additionally, he seemed to already have contact, however indirectly, with Shield. He was also annoying. God, he was annoying. 

They scoured the city for hours, looking for any lead, but found nothing. 

It wasn’t until later that they realized– he had just given them their first lead. 

(It's not until later later, after they were denied access and information to the Lizard's case due to security clearance levels (and they were caught trying to sneak around to find him) that they realized he had given them two leads. And the second one was blonde and went to their school.)

oOOo

Getting off the last bus from Midtown to Queens, a figure carrying a backpack walks down the street. A boy, 16, opens the door to his aunt's home. He takes his shoes off and heads into the kitchen. He knows she isn’t home, currently out with some girlfriends playing bingo, and isn't due back until 11 pm. But that is no excuse to be lazy. 

On the fridge, there’s a sticky note with instructions to reheat a large portion of chicken and rice that the aunt had lovingly made for her nephew. He heats up his dinner and sits down to do his schoolwork. A regular routine. He’s got brains, but that will only take him so far. The boy knows the rest is up to him. 

Later, when the aunt gets home and asks the boy how his day went, he will tell her all about his most recent exams, his struggles with a certain new classmate of his, his friends, and the fact that there seem to be new heroes in town so she should be careful. 

He won’t tell her about his bullies, or his extracurriculars. He won’t tell about the fact that he’s met the newest heroes in town and beat them in a fight. 

The boy, 16, will kiss his aunt goodnight and go to his bedroom. He will peel off the red and blue suit underneath his clothes, put away the voice modulator that keeps him safe, hide them, and go to bed.  

Later, when that boy lies in bed going over the events of his day, he will make the connection between the sudden arrival of a hero team near his age, and a large group of transfer students with the same voices as the ones who caused a memorable scene in the hall. 

For now, he spends his time studying, thinking up new quips to say to would-be muggers as he webs them to the wall.  

For now, he eats the chicken and rice his aunt so lovingly made for him, out of concern that he seems so thin these days. It wasn't healthy for a growing boy to be so thin.  

For now, he anxiously waits for her to get home. 

Chapter Text

Sitting in his office, Coulson looked over pages and pages of expense reports from previous years– numbers that should have made sense but didn’t add up quite right. 

Anyone casually glancing would see nothing wrong, but every once in a while a graduating class’s plaque cost a bit too much, the budget for that week's vegetable portion was a bit too high for the quality of the produce, a new teacher's salary was just a hair above the rest for a few years before they were suddenly fired. All those little “mistakes” cost pennies on their own, but always added up to very big dollar signs. Money unaccounted for in the school’s budget. 

Setting down the papers, Coulson took a moment to straighten his back and wonder how he had gotten himself into this position. When the general public thought about spies, there was this underlying assumption that it was all "cool missions" and action shots. Coulson wouldn't exactly blame them, since that was the most popular representation of his career in the (controlled narrative) media. 

Hollywood tended to gloss over the fact that a majority of his work was truly and extraordinarily boring. Paperwork, making friends, gathering information, keeping up relationships and appearances was always much less thrilling, but this was an area in which he excelled. The boring parts of being a spy for the boring-looking man. 

He considered himself to be a little dull compared to other agents, and it was because of that that Coulson had lasted so long– no one suspected the guy who looked like he enjoyed expense reports. One had to be a “jack of all trades” to survive missions in which any and all knowledge could mean the difference between life and death. 

It was perhaps because of this that he had been assigned to the high school mission. It really was a surprise, considering he had no experience in the American public education system. (Though, did he really need experience with the way things were currently being run? Plus it's not like he didn't belong here, he was advancing an agenda for the United States government in a branch of the military.)

Was it wrong to place someone so inexperienced in the affairs of teaching in charge of the people who made the greatest impact on these children's lives? Wrong to intrude on a place that should be dedicating its energy and resources to bettering young minds for the future, for the sake of the collective societal good, for the sake of accomplishing such a shortsighted and short-term goal? Was it wrong to use his position to target a population of vulnerable youth in the search for Spiderman?  … Ethical dilemmas aside, being offered this mission had been memorable to say the least. 

oOOo

“Are there any files on him that we could use?” Ava asked. 

“He's French and he leaps.”

“Right…” Coulson stifled a chuckle as Ava attempted to subtly roll her eyes. Clearly she didn't think too highly of this criminal. “How is this not an emergency?” 

With a nod of his head Fury signaled for a younger pilot, Rodriguez, to enter the room. Odd choice, though not too odd if he was simply escorting them down to the scene. “You’ll see”.  

The team was dismissed and Coulson noticed a blur of red and blue flash across the monitor. He turned to face Fury. Coulson looked closely at the screen. “This is the guy?” 

Nick smirked. Suddenly the pilot made sense. “Well, this should be interesting.”  

As the two leaders monitored the team's investigation, many questions ran through Coulson's mind. Coulson believed in Fury, trusted in the decisions his director made knowing that they were always in the best interest of the majority. Fury was secretive and perhaps even manipulative, but he never did it for personal gain. A lesser man would have caved long ago, using their position for profit, selling their men or even their country out for wealth, power, or even petty revenge.   

That didn’t mean he wasn't a tricky bastard to deal with though. Fully aware of the weight of Fury’s eye on him, he sipped the tea he had brought up from one of the many mysterious and often hidden cafeterias on the helicarrier. 

Whatever Fury had planned promised to be interesting, and the best way to participate was to play along. “Director, I will not cave first this time”, Coulson said, caving first and initiating the conversation. The first step to being dealt in.

Fury stared straight ahead at the monitor. “Agent Coulson, what is your analysis of the team?”

Coulson sipped his tea. “In this field being prepared is a matter of life or death. They have great potential and skill, but they lack practical experience. The only way for them to gain that is to let them loose in the field, though unfortunately with how young they are it could be a double-edged blade.” Coulson watched as the kids struggled to cut down the criminal from the lamp post, and slowly set down his tea. “The problem with youth is that until shown otherwise, they feel invincible.”

Fury tilted his head forward, allowing Coulson a better view.  “Any suggestions?”

Coulson thought back to what worked best in his field. “I would rather we avoid teaching them that lesson as long as we can, but we need them to be careful either way. Having a strong mentor figure is usually beneficial. Though at their age, unless it's someone of great caliber and prestige –meaning someone we can't afford on babysitting duty– at best they are unlikely to heed their direction. At worst, they will resist and rebel, putting themselves in danger.”

Fury watched as a figure who was stuck to the wall faded back into the shadows and disappeared, then reappeared on a different monitor swinging through the city.

Coulson glanced at the screen, then back at Fury. Furk smirked. “No, him? But he’s got no discipline. He’s a complete wild card! The Bugle calls him a ‘threat to public safety’ for god's sake. It would be a PR disaster." At Fury's lack of reaction, Coulson kept going. “We can't trust him with our kids like this. You’ve seen what happened with Deadpool–” 

“And we learned from it. He would not be allowed to remain independent.”

“Shield doesn't know who he is. Any efforts we’ve made have failed for one reason or another. He certainly is cautious.”

Fury nodded. “It's only natural. He's gotten the exact kind of real world experience we want our team to develop, and survived. He personally knows the cost of failures, and does his best to prevent that from happening to others. This is a positive in my book. This team, inexperienced as it is, is our best shot at Spiderman”

Coulson gestured to the screen at the team talking with the police. “Because they’re inexperienced?”

“Because they’re high schoolers. They pose no threat, and he is our most skittish target.” 

On the screen, they watched as Spiderman conversed with a pigeon. “Still, him?” He was attempting to negotiate for a bracelet that was around its neck using a piece of hotdog.  “He's not exactly going to instill respect from them. It seems he could use guidance as well.”

“Why, Agent Coulson, I'm so glad you agree. You're right– we should take him under our wing.”

Coulson frowned. “Director, why are you so interested in Spiderman?”

“The kid’s got heart.” Hold on a second, kid?

Coulson pinched the bridge of his nose “You already know who he is, don't you?”

“His background has been cleared. It will be a good exercise for the team. You’ll see their improvement from the moment they meet him.”

Coulson figured he was meant to deduce Spiderman’s identity based on that. 

“All you need to do is watch over them. Very simple. Might as well have some fun with it while you can.”

oOOo

So despite not having a single clue about the educational system, now that he had the opportunity, he was going to make the most of it. His second, secret mission. To education, equality, and America. Captain America specifically. 

He could leave them to their own devices, apart from monitoring their residence occasionally and checking in with the pilot-turned-chauffeur about their habits.. Because the team, while inexperienced, were far from incompetent. As handler on their mission, he had a responsibility to be there for them while maintaining cover. And if that meant signing papers, dealing with students, gossiping with the office aides, and doing his job as a principal, then that was a sacrifice he was willing to make. Can’t maintain a good cover if he wasn't at least a little involved in the school, after all. 

And if he found something else to do, say, uncover a corruption scandal by the previous principal, then it was only right he do something about it. Because really, who could afford such an expensive shiny new car on his way out with a public school salary, even if he was the principal? 

The school clearly didn't have enough money to properly support and retain their own teachers. Nor could they afford to fund their own programs, aside from the bloated sports department, which was their cash cow. (Not really the kids’ fault. After all, more awards, more prizes, more students, more district funding.) 

And when the money very clearly didn't go into funding their teachers, departments, equipment, or repairs, one had to wonder where it did go. It only took a little gossip, a couple dinners, and a few minutes with Stan the janitor to realize the problem was far more serious. What little funding did go into the school was inadequate at best, such as poor repairs that would impede the students’ abilities to learn. 

Take the heating, for example. When he had first accepted his role as principal, one interesting bit of research he had come across was that people do in fact have weakened immune systems in colder weather. Coulson was reminded of this fact every time he came across one brown haired student that always had the shivers whenever he passed by. Couldn’t have that. He almost wanted to go dig through the lost and found and offer the student a jacket. 

But finding any solutions for the school required extensive and in-depth knowledge, and at the moment he simply did not know enough. As a result, rather than blunder around, wasting time and energy, Coulson figured his best option was to go to the most obvious solution– asking the teachers themselves. They knew best when it came to what their students needed. It was a no brainer, really. 

So now he planned dinner with coworkers. All for the mission of course, dinner doubled as a cover for investigating Spiderman. He would need a safehouse to be arranged and decorated for this. Because he definitely hadn't already eliminated all the adults as Spiderman candidates. He definitely wasn't just stalling with the adults instead of assisting the team. After all, his main objective as principal was to simply help the team in areas they could not breach, such as adult circles. Talented though they were, they were still children. 

It would be wrong of him to leave the team to their own devices when he could be helping them instead. If he had already proven that none of the adults were Spiderman, then he was obligated to begin investigating alongside the team, taking focus away from his most bare minimum responsibilities as a principal. 

As Coulson discussed the options of having a potluck with the other employees of the school– the secretary had a nut allergy, two of his coworkers were vegan, someone was watching their diet, someone hated spices of any kind– Stan the janitor casually mentioned having to fish some kid out of his own locker. It seemed like a regular occurrence. 

Coulson thought back to the reports he had been reviewing earlier. Mentions of bullying were largely ignored by the previous administration. Perhaps after fixing the heating and acknowledging what was missing from the curriculum, that was Coulson's next mission. After all, Captain America didn't like bullies, and neither did he.  

Chapter Text

These were the facts: Spiderman was male. Spiderman must be in peak physical condition to be swinging around the city. He stuck to walls and was stronger than any average human, so he was clearly enhanced in some way. 

On that rooftop where he had trapped Ava and her team into listening to his weird little monologue before escaping, he had practically admitted that Gwen Stacy knew his identity and that he looked out for her safety. Seeing as Spiderman had spoken with an intense emotional charge in his voice about her (according to Sam), it was likely that the spandex clad weirdo would be in close proximity to Stacy.

Shield had told them that Spiderman attended Midtown High in some capacity. This, combined with the promise to protect the police captain's daughter, further narrowed down the list of Spiderman candidates. All further Spiderman candidates in the student range had to be close to Gwen. 

Ava knew that Gwen had two friends that fit the description of protective, male, and omnipresent– and one of them was Harry Osborn. Harry Osborn who had already been on the list of potential candidates. Spiderman had his suit torn in nearly every big fight, yet often reappeared in a repaired suit. Owning multiple suits didn't come cheap and Harry had money, enough to afford a million suits. 

Coincidence? Unlikely. This was Shield business after all. There was no such thing as coincidences in their line of work. All they had to do was confront him about it. Could he beat the Spiderman allegations? 

Harry slammed his locker shut. “Not you guys again– I'm not Spiderman. What kind of question is that?" 

Ok so maybe he could beat the Spiderman allegations. ‘God’, Ava thought, ‘of course Spiderman wouldn't just admit to being Spiderman to a group of strangers. Idiot.’

They could reveal themselves, let him know they were on his side, but he didn't seem to like them in costume either. Plus if he wasn't Spiderman they’d just blow their cover. There were consequences to blowing their cover. Like disappointing Coulson, or having to start over. Or worse, no longer haveing a mission to complete. This was their chance to prove that they were capable of being sent out on real missions. 

Exposing themselves here meant that they’d no longer be capable of completing their undercover mission, and would be stuck attending high school as the worst thing of all— social outcasts. 

(Luke added something about how they would be putting civilians in danger. Sam mentioned likely having to move safe houses, seeing as the attention probably wouldn't stop at school. Danny shuddered at the thought of more attention.)

Ava was willing to bet it was Harry though. Together with her friends, they could try to hint at the truth, but either Spiderman was playing hard to get, or he wasn't Spiderman, which wasn't an option they could discard just yet. 

“Why are you making those faces at me, just leave me alone you weirdos!” Harry said as he stormed off with his weirdly invested red-headed friend. Was she holding a notepad? 

While current results were inconclusive, with all the current evidence they had amassed, Harry Osborn was their most likely candidate for the identity of Spiderman. And while they couldn't get a confession, that was alright for now. They didn't need a confession. They just needed to gather enough evidence– actual physical proof, not just circumstantial– to either make him confess, or deliver him straight to Fury.  

Standing in front of the lockers in-between classes, Ava, Sam, Luke, and Danny discussed their options. 

Leaning against the lockers, Ava watched as Sam paced the hallway in frustration. “What are we waiting for? We know it’s him. Let’s just go tell Fury and get this whole mission over with. Just because he won’t admit to it-”

Ava gently raised a hand to stop him. “Well we’re not totally sure of that yet-”

“How can it not be him? He fits the criteria perfectly! Just look at him!” 

He had a point. Of everyone on the team, Ava trusted his judgment the most (sorry Luke and Danny). 

But this was because after the ‘incident’, the one where he nearly got beat up by Harry, Sam had kept a very close eye on him and his friend. Close enough that they had to stage an intervention. 

Later, after Ava had picked through Sam's weird stalker notebook, she discovered an entire section dedicated to how heroically built Harry was. How he was the fastest in their class, able to keep up with them. He even paid special attention to how strong his arms looked, perfect for swinging and holding enemies.

Sam understood the potential he had and was rightfully wary. 

(When confronted about the hearts drawn all over the page, Sam had snatched the notebook from her and explained that they were to throw off suspicion in case other students found the book. Very clever, in Ava’s sleep-deprived opinion.) 

Still, there was a process. “I'm just being cautious. I really do think it is him, and you know I believe you. But we have to be prepared. What if it's not him? We can't embarrass ourselves in front of Fury.” 

Hopefully she could calm Sam down and prevent him from making another mistake. They’d already filled their quota of Sam impulsivity for the month, Shield wouldn’t be so lenient so soon. 

Thankfully Luke had her back. “She’s got a point. Fury is going to want solid proof.” 

“But what kind of evidence would we even use to prove it?” Danny asked. 

Thankfully seeming to understand, Sam put on a thinking face. “Can we get pictures of him?” 

Pictures weren’t a bad idea, but they were too obvious. Ava sighed, “He’s been avoiding us in and out of costume. Besides, we’ve all seen how you take pictures, we'd have a better chance of taping a camera to a pigeon.”

Sam grimaced. “Eww gross I don’t want to touch a pigeon.”

“Yeah Ava, that sounds kind of cruel to the animal.” Danny chimed in. 

Ava spluttered. “I'm not suggesting that!” 

“Good because we're supposed to be heroes.” 

“Ok then geniuses, what do you suggest then?”

“I say we ask Gwen directly. What’s the worst that could happen, she says no?”

“That’s a terrible idea.”

“Oh so it’s terrible when I suggest it but when you saw we ask Harry, you all think it’s going to work! I think this is our best option. Anything else is going to be a waste of time.”

“It's a terrible idea because that one already failed. We need a better plan than that!” 

Ava hears the warning bell ring. Glancing around the hallway, Ava noted that it was weirdly empty for the warning bell. But then again this was an isolated hallway, hence having a meeting here. This would be fine. They still had another five minutes before they had to head to class.  

Danny leaned in towards Sam, a calculating look in his eyes. “...Well, Sam’s kind of like a pigeon.”

“I am not!” Sam yelled. 

Luke chuckled. “That's animal cruelty either way.” 

“We’re not getting pictures! It's not gonna happen.” 

Suddenly a voice startled them. “Umm, can you guys move? I need to get something from my locker.” From behind the group, a student stood awkwardly, gesturing to the locker Ava was leaning on. Not paying the other student any mind, she shifted to allow the kid access.  

“What if we hide in a locker and see what happens?” Luke suggested, jokingly. 

Ava watched Luke’s face fall as Danny actually considered this plan, eyeing the lockers. “I don't think any of us can fit. Maybe Nova?”

Sam simply huffed. “Ava already checked, my shoulders are too broad.”

Luke seemed perturbed, Ava noted. Probably because he hadn’t thought to check the possibility of hiding places already and had been beaten to it. 

“... Alright, moving on. We could put a tracker on him?”

“Already denied.” Ava had just looked into getting a tracker for Parker after their last exam to see if he was receiving outside tutoring but had been denied on the basis of ‘sleep-deprived mental impairment’ and had been ordered to rest that coming weekend. 

“Ok but did you ask for mission purposes or– ”

“Are you guys trying to get blackmail?” The team was startled, having forgotten about the random student. How long had he been standing there? 

Sam crossed his arms and squinted at the kid. “What's it to you?”

“Well, nothing I guess. Are you guys trying to get the story straight then? Because whenever I want to get to the bottom of things I just ask anyone who was there for their version. I ask them to tell other people the truth. Usually works.”

Ava turned to face the guy. Maybe he had a point. “Kind of. You mean like eyewitness testimony?” 

“Sure.” The random guy said. 

Ava was ecstatic. Let’s see Harry wiggle his way out of those allegations. And it looked like this plan could keep Sam from doing something insane soon. Keep him entertained for a bit. 

“That could work. Thanks, whoever you are.” Sam smiled. 

The kid gave him a flat stare. “No problem Sam Alexander, from history class.” The stranger then seemed to pause, debating with himself on something, before finding the courage to lay a gentle hand and sympathetic gaze on Sam's shoulder. “And hey, don't let what other people are saying get you down. I personally never believed the rumors. You're a real stand up guy, don't ever let them tell you otherwise.”

“WHAT RUMORS?”

“Whoops gotta run, good luck!” The kid yelled as he sprinted to class. 

Before he could yell out anything else, the tardy bell rang, identifiable by its terrifying shrill tone. Ava winced at the harsh noise. Even without the powers from her amulet, it was as if that bell was designed to deafen those still out in the halls. An effective method of encouraging students to get to class on time, but terrible nonetheless. 

Wait tardy bell? Like the fifteen minute late bell? Like the previous bell wasn't the warning bell but the class bell? “We’re late! Run!”

One desperate sprint later, Ava was sitting in class after getting lectured by the teacher for her tardiness (though not too bad as she was a model student, she could take two more tardies before her status took a hit). Ava knew what she and her friends had to do. 

Rather than trying to get a direct confession, they could gather evidence from reliable eyewitness testimony on the identity of Spiderman. A reliable person's word carried a lot of weight (it was why when Ava had claimed she was assisting a fellow student in the halls to explain her tardiness, the teacher had let her off with a warning. Never mind that she was helping her own team.) 

And who did they know that had reliable eyewitness testimony? Harry’s very close friend, Gwen Stacy. Fuck. 

oOOo

Sitting in English class, Ava felt like they had a real catch-22 situation– Harry was Spiderman but wouldn't say because it ‘would put those close to him in danger’, and even though Gwen knew she wouldn't tell because Harry was Spiderman and it would put him in danger. Allegedly. 

Trying to talk to Gwen had been harder than any of them had anticipated. Anytime they were close enough to approach, anytime they even made any sort of plan to talk to any of them– poof! Gone. It was almost as if she could sense them coming. 

The times she hadn’t been able to escape them, she was never alone. And while they had her right there, they couldn't exactly reveal themselves to Gwen and gain her trust through their hero status with her little friends around. 

The only person they ever saw alone was the Parker kid. Though perhaps alone wasn’t the right word, seeing as he was surrounded by Flash and his buddies. 

However, they would quickly lose interest in him the moment they saw Luke, and somewhere between the start of their conversation (typical teen boy nonsense Ava would never understand) and trying to get Luke to agree to join football, Parker would always slip away unnoticed (despite usually being pinned underneath Flash’s arm). 

(Ava could never tell if he was getting bullied or not. Un-heroically she hoped he wasn’t, because if he was and still got those grades? She was doomed) (Sam added the potential bullying as a potential motive in his new secret evidence journal for Parker villainy.) 

oOOo

Now here's the thing about gossip. As a hero, gossip isn't cool. Gossip was actually uncool, or at least that's what the newly implemented mandatory Captain America anti-bullying campaign the administration had enforced said.

As teenagers, gossip was the foundation of their society. Because while gossip was widely exaggerated, it never came from nowhere. There's always a kernel of truth in there somewhere. Should they have maybe done some gossip/research before interrogating people? Probably. Why didn't they do it? Because they are heroes and heroes don't gossip. 

Except Sam who didn't call it gossip but rather “talking to other people like a normal person and being well-informed about normal people things”. So far he had been the only one to have spoken to anyone from the group aside from Harry. 

He’d been caught digging for information and had been sentenced to detention with the red-headed journalist chick and they seemed to get along, but none of his information was relevant or useful. When he reported back, Ava and the group realized that he hadn't found anything of note since all he talked about was ‘feeling underappreciated, accepting his truth, and being true to himself’.

The gossip- sorry, research - didn't really yield much in the end, but they did learn a few key things through the grapevine. 

First off, they couldn't really be called ‘Harry’s friend group’ since all four of them were almost like their own well-balanced team. A suspiciously gorgeous red-headed girl named “MJ” and equally handsome Harry stood front and center, taking on the brunt of the interactions. It seemed that Harry was absent quite often despite being so protective over his friends (frequently swooping in to save their evil pet nerd), claiming study habits and extracurriculars. Handsome and smart. 

Parker seemed to fill the role of mascot, being someone that made everyone happy. He was mostly seen following them around, joking with them. (“Perfect for villainy,” Sam claimed, “hiding in plain sight and manipulating things behind the scenes. One has to be socially smart to be funny, and to manipulate people. Coincidence? I think not!”)

(Ava started to wonder if they had made a mistake in asking an obviously biased Sam to compile this information, but figured that if she ignored the weird parts hard enough then there shouldn't be an issue.)

Gwen and Parker made up the academic pair of the group, though Gwen had a much more noticeable presence due to who her dad was. She was maybe the only person smarter than Parker, a fact that Ava would not take lightly.  

This was especially convenient since Spiderman would need another tutor with how often Parker just fell off the radar. Nerd things, Ava guessed. Who knew what civilians got up to in their spare time without crime fighting to fill their day.  

On the topic of missing nerds, Parker (whose first name they just now realized was actually Peter) was often seen in his friend’s sweaters. If it wasn’t for all of them doing this, the team would have thought one of them was dating him. As it stood though, it seemed that they all just gave in to the urge to give this guy a sweater. 

Harry’s unexpectedly expensive designer sweaters were expected, but MJ’s ultra comfortable and stylish Juicy™ zip-up jacket were a surprise. As was Gwen’s vast collection of oversized college sweatshirts. Good for him? (Sam called it blatant manipulation and control tactics, showing everyone at the school who was really in charge.)

Okay, maybe Ava should address this. 

“Sam, the nerd kid is clumsy and frequently gets himself into trouble. That’s beyond basic.”

“Then why is he always disappearing with Harry?”

“Harry might just be keeping him away because he's protecting him from the universe at large!” Ava said.

“He’s always getting shoved into lockers by that Flash! No offense dude.” 

Flash, who was sitting with them at lunch today for some reason, just nodded. “None taken.”

Luke clapped Flash on the shoulder. “But that’s the thing, it’s sorta stopped. Which I’m proud of you for, man.”

Flash grinned a blinding smile at his new buddy. “Thanks, man. It’s been a struggle, but I’ve really been trying since… well you weren’t here for that.” He dimmed for a brief second, a subdued and nearly pained expression on his face. “Ah don’t mind me, just painful memories y'know?” 

Sam immediately picked up on the potential of this conversation. “Here for what?” He asked sympathetically, cadence just enough to be interested without appearing hungry, predatory. 

It turned out they had wasted their time asking the other students. 

In an attempt to appear unaffected by what were some genuine tragedies, heartbreaks, loneliness, self-worth, and toxic masculinity issues, Flash Thompson overshared in an attempt to self-justify. In one way or another, he was involved with that group without ever being a part of it. 

Throughout public education, Flash had continuously courted the enigma that was the “Webheads”. 

("'Webheads?’ You're making them sound like groupies for a rock band."

"What about MS, for Main Suspects?"

"No, I'm pretty sure that's multiple sclerosis."

"What about the Superfriends?"

"Sounds like a cheesy Sunday kids show, but it's better than the other options.")

OK fine, he continuously courted the “Superfriends”. Literally. He dated MJ in middle school, grew up with Parker, was constantly butting heads with Harry, and… ok maybe he didn’t have anything to do with Gwen, but three out of four was pretty damn useful! 

“It’s a little weird that Gwen just arrived one day and fit in so well with them, I don’t really remember where she came from. Just kind of appeared one day. But she’s pretty hot so I don’t question it.”

By the end of it they had learned just as much about Gwen and her friends as they had learned about Flash. (They did not want to know this much about Flash.)

The way they were described, it sounded as if Gwen and Harry were common sense and brain cell holders. Of course Spiderman had to be level-headed. And if anyone ever insulted the group, Harry and Parker were the ones to speak up first (one with brawn, the other as bait). Though they weren't exactly needed, as the team had once seen Flash carry MJ away to save one of the jocks from her retaliation. He had been crying. 

But it was the thought that counts. 

Armed with new information, the team considered their next move.

It was hard holding onto secrets alone. All of the Superfriends were very close. One of them must have slipped up at some point. And if they had, the team’s best shot was to go through the weakest link. 

oOOo

Peter Parker seemed like an easy mark. Always with the girls, widely considered Harry’s best friend, and known for running his mouth. 

Though the team didn't see him often, they did see him the most thanks to Ava sharing a class with him and the fact that he was most likely to hang around during lunch waiting for his friends. His appearance was consistent enough to track. It should have been easy. 

Except Ava had tried asking her third period tablemate, the kid genius who slept the entirety of class, about Parker once when he had been out sick. She had been once again coldly and rudely rebuffed by the genius twerp. It seemed the kid had some strange loyalty to the teenager who wouldn't give him the time of day. Kids, huh?

Except they couldn’t even get to the nerd because as soon as it became obvious they were trying to get near him, he was spirited away by the presumed Spiderman under the guise of “tutoring”. 

It was smart, pretending to be tutored by Parker to escape interaction with them. It seemed that Harry sheltered Parker from them, conveniently hiding himself too. (Sam protested that it was the other way around- that Parker (villain) was doing a big effort to keep them away from Harry and their secret). 

Sam insisted that Parker and Harry's relationship was suspicious. 

They had even tried to ambush Parker after school, only to be foiled by the most expensive-looking black car they had ever seen. They would have thought he was getting kidnapped by someone else had they not seen Harry climb in 30 seconds later. 

Defeatedly, they walked to lunch. 

“This is getting ridiculous. Just how badly does Peter control Harry?” Sam groused.

“Dude, I think you have it the other way around. Harry is the one with Peter under his thumb.” Luke responded. “Always keeping him close, protecting him, buying him lunch. Dude definitely knows if Harry is keeping such a close eye on him. Right, Danny?”   

Danny however looked pensive. After another moment of stoic ninja silence, he asked a question that had been burning in his mind for a while. “Why are we trying to get Parker? This kind of secret is too much strain for such a normal civilian. He would have told everyone at this point in order to gain social prestige. He would have at least bragged about knowing, wouldn't he?”

Ava sighed. “We’re going after Peter Parker because he is closest to Harry. You can't spend that much time with someone without learning their secrets.”

“But then if we want someone with information wouldn’t Mary Jane be the better option? Out of all of them, the future investigative journalism is most likely to know.” Danny explained.

“Yeah but-”

Danny persisted. “And she’s spent an equal amount of time with Harry. Discounting that, she knows Parker as well. If he’s holding onto a secret as poorly as you guys are saying, she would have found out. Likely without anyone else’s knowledge, leaving her without Harry’s watchful eye.”

Ava stopped and slowly covered her face with her hands. Danny had a point. 

Sam angrily threw his head back. “Ugh, so we’re switching targets again ? But she's hard to get a hold of! Harry is always hanging around, she wouldn't feel comfortable exposing his secret in front of him.” 

Luke nodded in agreement. “Plus she always escapes the moment it's deemed socially acceptable.” 

“Plus she hates Ava.” 

“Plus she hates me.”

Ava watched as Danny struggled to word his next thoughts carefully. “Whether Harry is present or not, we use the social setting of the cafeteria to pressure him into at least talking to us. Something we should have done with Gwen Stacey from the start. Though I doubt he’ll be much of a problem right now as I just saw him walking the other way.”

At that the group stopped walking. They stared at each other for a couple of moments before sprinting through the crowded halls on their way to the lunch room, dodging and weaving through the other students. 

“Why didn't you say so sooner!?”

“I thought it was obvious!”

Sam nearly face planted while somehow managing to send an exasperated expression towards his friends. “So we’re back to square one? Just asking Gwen Stacey directly? What was the point of all this!” 

“Shut up Sam!” He miraculously managed to remain silent the rest of the way, probably because he was heaving due to his lack of cardio (flying everywhere would do that to you), but his expression was annoyed enough to make up for his volume. 

Chapter Text

Because he was the first one to burst through the doors of the cafeteria, Luke got a spectacular view of Gwen’s smile sliding off her face and into a scowl as they approached her table. 

Always the first to spot them, Gwen quickly alerted her friends at the table– a beautiful red headed girl who looked like she belonged on the cover of a teen magazine and Parker, who was holding a camera. As soon as the words left her lips, both friends immediately and violently whipped around to face them, causing Gwen to wince. Using his superior detective skills and past experience with his own friends, Luke assumed she had probably just said something along the lines of ‘Don’t look too obviously, but…’

Ava walked right up to the table. “We need to talk.”

Gwen stared Ava down. “No, we don’t.”

Ava had not prepared for this outcome. Seeing this, Luke quickly jumped in. “Ava needs to talk to you, alone.”

“And what part of that made you think my answer would change? Was it the ‘Ava’ or the ‘alone’, because I refuse both.” Gwen huffed.

At this point, Gwen's other friend (who Luke now remembered to be Mary Jane Watson, A.K.A. ‘MJ’) jumped in as well. “What's so important that Gwen needs to be alone to hear it anyway?”

“Yeah, anything you need to say can be said in front of my friends.”

Ava finally regained her composure. “This is sensitive information. Let’s just have this chat girl to girl. You understand, right?”

“You guys really aren't giving up, are you? Fine. I'll hear you out if it’ll get you to leave us alone. But I might need emotional support. You know, dead father and all." Gwen replied, sickly sweet. “ You understand, don't you? ” 

As Gwen innocently batted her eyes at them, Luke doubted that she needed any kind of support. But with time running out before Harry got here, he knew better than to look a gift horse in the mouth. If she was finally willing to talk to Ava, they had to make the most of this opportunity. 

Although MJ seemed a bit too interested in what was going on. She had this dangerous look in her eyes. Had she pulled out a notebook? 

“Awesome,” Ava said through gritted teeth. “If the boys could leave us alone for a bit?”

At least now, Luke hoped, it would be smooth sailing and they’d get their key witness and uncover the identity of Spiderman and leave high school forever. 

“Peter stays.”

Luke frowned. Why couldn't things just go their way? For once ? Was that too much to ask for? They were good people. Heroes, even! 

“Um, Peter would rather not get involved in girl talk, actually,” Parker said, with a slight nudge and a pointed look at the boys. 

Oh. This probably looked like they were trying to hold Parker hostage. Luke suddenly felt a bit shy about the entire situation. 

“Fine,” Gwen relented. “But Peter stays within eyesight. No roughhousing.”

“Can Peter not make his own decisions?” Parker asked, grabbing his things. 

“Peter cannot be trusted to stay out of trouble and keep himself safe,” Gwen replied, passing him her plastic-wrapped dessert cake. 

With that, he stood up and followed the rest of the team away from his friends, muttering something under his breath. 

Oh man, this looked really bad. 

“So I don’t know about you guys, but I think I left something in my locker. So if I could just…” As Parker trailed off he began to slink off towards the exit. 

Luke was inclined to let him go, but before he could even say so Sam grabbed Parker by the shoulders and dragged him back. 

“No way you scoundrel. Can't be alone for five minutes, can you? You’re not getting out of my sight for even a second.”  

Peter huffed, but with the situation three against one, even Luke wouldn’t try his luck. 

Sam had a point. If Peter were to get away, he would most likely get Harry. They couldn’t have him alerting the suspect. 

As they guided what was essentially their hostage (this looked really really bad) a good distance away from the doors of the cafeteria, Luke practiced one of the tricks Danny had taught him for whenever he felt bad about a situation. 

‘Think on the bright side.’

Sure the conversation wasn’t going the way they had planned, but on the bright side interrogating two people at once would be faster. They could contradict each other in real time and then the team would only have to do this once. 

(Somewhere, in that very same building, Coulson sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose.)

And obviously, keeping watch for Harry was really suspenseful when he could pop out at any moment, but on the bright side at least he could slack a little. He trusted his friends to keep an eye on Parker.

And sure, they had wasted a lot of valuable limited time they could have spent eating or actually asking questions, but on the bright side they had Ava on the case. Ava was a girl. Girls liked girls. 

(On their way over, Luke caught Flash giving them a thumbs up and encouraging him to give Parker a noogie.) 

Deep breaths. Girls trusted other girls. Especially girls their own age. Piece of cake. Luke had the utmost faith in her. 

oOOo

Ava had not slept in a very long time. But if Ava knew anything about how the brain worked, it was that she could definitely overcome sleep deprivation with sheer force of will. 

As the boys escorted Parker to the edge of the cafeteria and out of earshot, Ava managed to catch him muttering something under his breath. “No yeah, good idea, we'll just wait for Harry together.”

Did Spiderman have telepathic communication with people? Was Parker sending brain waves as a cry for help? Was Harry receptive to signals of distress like that? 

It could explain why Spiderman was always right where the crime was happening. No person could truly be that lucky (or unlucky) to be right at the center of all that crime. Sure, it was statistically less impressive if one was a crime-fighting hero looking for crime, but it was still like rolling a die and asking it to be all ones the entire game. 

If Harry, Spiderman, could receive telepathic calls of distress from those in danger, it would explain why he was always there to save Parker. 

But, Ava was getting off topic. She needed to focus and hurry because currently, the team was straddling the line of legal kidnapping. 

Ava had to get this done swiftly and delicately to not endanger her team's operation. She had never felt more confident in her ability in her life. 

So with the grace of a rhinoceros, Ava immediately threw the first accusation. “You know who Spiderman is. In fact, I'd wager both of you do.”

Gwen seemed taken aback. “Wow, okay, we’re not gonna be subtle at all with it. Alright. Let me readjust my strategy real quick.” 

MJ remained silent but poised to intervene at any moment. 

It was very interesting to see how their dynamic functioned. Ava had assumed that MJ would immediately and loudly raise a fuss. So to see her so subdued nearly threw her off. But no, subdued wasn't the right word. Her eyes just looked hungry. Intelligent. Dangerous. 

A prickle of primal fear engulfed her, a cold chill running down her spine raising the hairs on her neck. Ava dug her nails into her arms, grounding herself. She felt as if something was watching her. Everyone was watching her. The students from surrounding tables, the lunch ladies with nothing better to do, the lone security guard close to the nearly patched-up hole in the wall. 

Risking a glance back, she noticed her team looking all over the cafeteria for signs of Harry. The only eyes on her in that corner of the room were Parker’s. Maybe Sam was right about Parker somehow. Maybe she was right about Parker having it out for her somehow. 

“Alright then, let’s skip the pleasantries. What do you want?” Tearing her eyes away from her team, Ava cleared her throat. 

“You know who Spiderman is. We need to find him. Tell me everything you know and everything will turn out alright.”

“And if I don't?” She wasn’t trying to deny it anymore. It seemed this would be a contest of wills.

“Then we get others involved.” Ava said, nodding her head to the entrance of the cafeteria. 

Holy smokes, that was an intense death glare. Oh, she thought… Ava had meant getting her team involved to do more persuasive convincing, but she could see how it might seem as if she was threatening Parker. She should probably clear that up. 

“Alright. But I have some things I want to make clear first.”

Well if Gwen wanted to take it as a threat and talk, then who was Ava to tell her otherwise. Wouldn't want to embarrass her after all. From the side, MJ pulled out her phone. 

Gwen took a deep breath. “I don’t like you very much. Actually at all. None of us do. You’re rude and demanding, think you’re better than you are, and honestly it’s embarrassing. I don’t care whatever you think you’ve got going on, who you’re trying to impress, or what you think you’ll get out of this that makes you think that if you find Spiderman all your problems will be solved, but I am never telling anyone who Spiderman is, much less someone as crazy as you. You’re rude to Peter who has only ever tried helping you and spends his time defending you , and you could benefit from some sleep. Maybe then you’ll think clearly and knock it off, but knowing your ego you won’t take any advice. So go ahead. Threaten us. I don’t care .” Gwen emphasized each statement with a poke to the chest. 

Ava was shocked. She had never understood the idea of steam coming out of someone’s ears from anger until now. She hadn’t known it was an actual feeling. 

Talking to people her own age was difficult. Even more so after she had come into possession of her amulet. Back then Ava was hurting, and Ava was alone. 

So when Shield came and offered her a place and support, a way to avenge her father and take down Kraven in exchange for helping others, Ava knew what her answer would be. Being a hero gave her strength not only to help others but to help herself. 

Gone was the sad girl she once was, now a more competent and driven girl set on the mission. Having a mission kept her focused, and more importantly, distracted. It was one of the reasons she was a better hero than a teenager. 

Her team had her back. And she was not about to take Gwen’s attack lying down. 

Unfortunately, Ava was not aware that Gwen was more than enough to match her without the amulet.

“Alright listen here you-“ Ava had barely managed to lift her finger at Gwen (she was pretty sure Gwen was about to lunge and bite her finger off) when she heard a crash and yelling. 

oOOo

Danny watched on as Ava struggled to communicate with girls her own age. 

And as entertaining as the rare spectacle of Ava failing was, he had to focus on the rarer spectacle of Peter Parker alone. Well, not alone but without one of his more graceful friends. 

Every time his name came up in conversation, one of his friends was always attached. Or Flash. No one was really sure whether Flash was his friend now or not. Not even Flash. 

“If you could have a superpower what would it be?” Parker asked. “I’ll go first- you would get magic punching fists strong enough to knock me out and end my misery. ” 

Although Danny could sort of understand why Flash would hesitate to label him a friend– he was kind of annoying. Was he literally inviting someone to hit him? He was almost as bad as Spiderman. 

Despite that, Danny couldn’t help but feel nervous. As a warrior of Kun Lun and a student of Midtown High, he knew better than to dismiss peculiar behavior. 

Despite him still spewing out nonsense, Parker’s sharp gaze never left that table. He looked almost predatory in a way Ava would approve of, ready to pounce. If this was how he acted when he thought no one was paying attention, no wonder Sam believed he was evil. 

Danny couldn’t hear anything over the buzz of the cafeteria, but at least this was the longest interrogation that the team had conducted. He thought Parker might have miraculously overheard something nasty by the wince on his face, though it could just be the aggressive pointing the girls were doing. 

Maybe they should break that up soon. 

Finally breaking his gaze from the table, Parker shuffled a bit, nervously lifting his foot to mess with his laces. Well, he wasn't doing anything suspicious. No need to keep such a close eye on him when they just had to keep an eye out for Harry. 

“Hey Sam, since I have you here right now, I just wanted to say I did not start that rumor about you, and even if I did it wouldn't be true.” 

“WHAT RUMOR?!”

Yeah, Sam could handle it. Hopefully, Ava would manage to pull through, and fast. This was getting tiresome.

oOOo 

If Sam hadn't been watching Parker while he taunted him about the rumor, no one would have paid much mind to how he casually lifted his foot and tugged his laces loose. No one would have noticed his little shuffle that let him kick his laces forward and step on them. 

As Danny and Luke kept a close eye on the table and winced at the increase in hostility, Parker quickly scanned the cafeteria before locking on to someone else entirely. 

Parker shoved his camera into his bag and took a single step forward. Sam could only watch in horror as Parker put his plan into action. If only he had been quicker, he might have been able to do something more than watch the nerd’s master plan unfold. 

Backing up and still sputtering nonsense apologies and reassurances, almost in slow motion he watched Parker trip on the laces of the shoe he had lifted and tugged loose just moments before. Sam watched him trip backward into a jock and splatter that disgusting school lunch all over them, causing an incident and getting himself held up by the collar. 

As Parker was suspended by the collar, Sam noticed his shirt ride up only to reveal some horrifying yellowish-green bruising on his ribs.  

(The kind of injury he recognized. One that came from fighting something strong . Gotcha, idiot.)

As the situation escalated, the team was unable to settle the startled and angry jock. Parker only made it worse by constantly putting his foot in his mouth. It was almost artistic how well he did it. 

By the time the girls arrived, Harry was already shoving the poor jock and yelling at the team, demanding to know what they were doing.

MJ sealed their fate when she told Harry why Parker was away from her and Gwen. Harry (previously cradling Parker as if he were fragile) passed his friend over to the jock, and swung at Danny. 

By the time Coulson arrived, Harry was pinned to the ground, and Parker and the jock were struggling to pull Danny off. 

As they were led to Coulson's office, Sam began thinking. This should have gone perfectly. They had the perfect set up- Gwen and the other potential witness isolated, Ava talking to them, and no Harry. And yet they still blew it. 

It didn't make sense. What factor kept getting the girls away from his team? Away from the truth? What was the one variable in every situation that led to a failed mission? What obstacle kept standing in their way to help their targets escape their heroic clutches? How could they get information on anyone in that group to ask about Spiderman, if they were being foiled at every turn? And then it hit him.

Parker. 

Parker, who was supposedly deemed insignificant to the investigation, enough that the team forced him to drop his suspicions. 

Looking back on it, Sam recalled multiple instances of them trying to get close to the Superfriends only for Parker to cause a scene. Sudden headaches, dizziness, and fainting spells from lack of food forcing Harry to take him to the nurse’s office. Getting himself shoved into lockers and needing rescue. Even putting himself in between them during that first meeting with Harry, requiring Harry to rescue him. And now the same tactic with Gwen– causing a scene that got them all in trouble with Coulson. It was clear.

Harry wasn’t sheltering Peter away from them. Peter was the one keeping them away. 

Now the question was: why? 

Chapter Text

Sitting in the office after being assaulted in the cafeteria, and currently being assaulted by the voice of J. Jonah Jameson playing from the receptionist's radio two offices away (something about power poses and never taking no for an answer, yikes), Peter wondered how he got to where he was. 

Jameson that was, not him. Peter knew exactly how he got the unfortunate ability to hear the picklepuss nearly everywhere he went. But as for how the guy himself rose to such prominence? It was still a mystery. 

Waiting to be called into the office, Peter thought about his own situation. Very few people had gotten into any real trouble. The girls had nothing to do with the physical altercation, Peter was the victim, and the jock had been dragged into it (and, being a football player, was basically untouchable at this school to begin with). It shouldn't be too hard to get Harry cleared too as he was acting in self defense.

As for ‘ The Amazing Teen Team’ (name courtesy of Gwen), Peter didn't exactly care what happened to them after everything they’d done. He could hear them through the office glass getting chewed out by the new principal for almost blowing cover again. 

“Act more like teenagers in a healthy way, rather than starting fights. This is unacceptable behavior, you could have hurt someone. Join a club or something!”

From the window he could see Iron Fist hunched over, stewing in guilt. Ah. The Shinji in a chair pose. Classic. 

“Coulson… As a warrior of K’un-Lun I should never use my powers on those weaker than myself. But I panicked. I just reacted. I don't know what happened. Principal Coulson, I don't want to do that again. It wasn't right. ”

“Thank you for your honesty, Danny. It is very honorable of you to recognize such actions and seek help. I understand situations such as these can be stressful, but you need to learn to deal with it in a different way. I'm scheduling you in with the school counselor.”

Like all adults at the school, the principal was a government plant. Which wasn’t that crazy of a statement since all teachers were, technically, government employees. But this one especially was, being from Shield and all. Shield couldn't seem to take the hint that Spiderman wasn't interested. Just his luck that these guys were government pawns and annoying. 

Peter had his work cut out for him. Why couldn't Shield be interested in someone else? Like Daredevil. Or some other red vigilante. Actually, were there other red evil-fighters out there? Did a firetruck count as one? They were red. But they weren't sentient… Peter would need to ask Harry to check him for a concussion later. 

Honestly, Peter had half a mind to pull them aside and scold them himself. These guys were terrible at maintaining a secret identity. But no! Bad Peter! He wasn't going to get involved. He was pretty sure the weirdo squad was onto him. 

Besides, nobody had really gotten hurt, at least not more than they had been before this incident. Incident #2? Had they gotten to the point of numbering incidents? He might have to ask MJ to keep a record of them. Maybe she’d want picture evidence. 

Wait, his camera! 

Peter quickly pulled out his camera, wincing as he rubbed the spot where Powerman had grabbed a particularly painful bruise on his arm while trying to pull him off of Iron Fist. The poor guy had looked so guilty when Peter had yelped in surprise. 

Hopefully no one asked him to undress. He still had some horrifying yellowish-green bruising on his ribs from their last encounter, or their first superhero encounter, depending on how you looked at it. At least the scratches from White Tiger had long since gone. Nothing too bad, but they were the kind of injury that the other teenage superheroes would recognize. Seeing as they were the ones who caused them. 

Maybe he should let Powerman stew a little bit. It would serve him right. (Who was he kidding, he wasn't going to do that. It wasn't his fault Spiderman had been thrown through a wall that morning on top of his older injuries.)

As he turned his camera over and found no signs of damage, Peter let out a sigh. Good. He had important photos for the yearbook on that, as well as investigative photos for MJ.

Throwing his head back in relief, Peter Peter made a mental note to let Powerman know he hadn't really hurt him. He knew first hand how stressful controlling super strength could be, especially when first starting out. 

Being one of the few superheroes with more than 6 months of experience under his belt, Peter knew that the first few months were hard. He wasn’t exactly the beacon of wisdom Shield wanted him to be (really, what could an almost 17 year old offer?), but knew a few tricks here and there.

Powerman was lucky Peter was so resistant, he could have seriously hurt someone. Maybe he should recommend some strength control training exercises? But if he did then the new guys might actually catch him, and Peter wasn't exactly chomping at the bit to become a superhero tutor. 

So as much as he wanted to help, he couldn't. Not when he didn’t trust Shield to protect him. They were big and shiny alright, but if the amazing teen team was anything to go by, their program wasn’t actually that good. 

Sure, having someone to relate to would be kinda nice, and he saw great room for improvement. For example, he felt that they were underutilizing Nova’s ability to pursue long distance when his friends couldn't keep up. Or Iron Fist’s potential for deescalation. There was room for not having to fight at all, and the best fights were the ones avoided. It was better to not get hurt if he could help it. 

But no! He must remain strong! Thanks but no thanks! He didn’t want to be in charge of them. Better he not be involved at all. Remain strong. 

Peter knew he didn't have the kind of money or resources Iron Man had: he couldn’t rebuild a house if it got blown up, and he definitely couldn't risk an identity leak. He didn't know what he would do if he wasn't able to walk down the street as himself anymore. He wouldn't be able to forgive himself if anything happened to anyone he loved. 

So yeah, don't get involved. Guilt-free solution all around! 

Tuning back to JJJ, or rather, being forced to recognize his loud obnoxious voice again against his will, Peter listened to his boss ramble on about more nonsense, for once not about him. Times like these, he wished he could just turn off his powers. 

“... And I believe it is my duty to the people of New York to speak the truth…”

Yeah, sure buddy. While he enjoyed the break in Spiderman slander, Peter was starting to get worried. Should someone check on this guy? As much as he disliked the jabs at his superhero persona, he still needed a job. 

Maybe his usual energy was being directed elsewhere? Ol’ picklepuss could be gearing up to publish a self-help book whose main strategy was hating Spiderman. 

Heh, J. Jonah Jameson would be the man to insist he could fight a bear and win. J. Jonah Jameson would think he could dodge an oncoming car. J. Jonah Jameson would fully believe he could live off an all-carnivore diet. 

“Folks, I’ve recently downloaded TikTok”

Wait what. 

“And it has come to my attention that there are some disturbing theories out there regarding the moon. The integrity of the moon is not something to insult. ”

Huh?

“My son is one of the bravest men, not on this planet, but in this galaxy. Far braver than the so-called ‘Fantastic Four’, as he is a United States astronaut.”

Oh god please no.

“I’ve seen insane crack pot conspiracies that we did not make it to the moon. That people believe the government made a second moon and did the moon landing on that. That we went to the original moon and replaced it. That we only see one side of the moon because it’s a cardboard cutout.”

Why was this his life? Oh god, was he responsible for this? 

“Well I've come to say it's a load of nonsense. So I’ve come to set the record straight. We did land on the moon. We did not make a second moon out of cardboard and land on that. ”

He’d set up the account! He didn't actually think Jameson would use it! Why the heck was his boss on Moontok ? He didn't want to be responsible for this! 

Peter hunched over, stewing in guilt. “Oh god, what do I do?” He felt sick. 

Peter was abruptly dragged out of his thoughts as ‘team teen’ walked out. He was being called into the office. 

He took a moment to take them all in before stepping into the meeting. White Tiger looked like a zombie. Nova was lost in thought, barely sparing him a glance. Not a good sign, he was probably planning something. Powerman was looking him over for injuries, and Iron Fist wouldn’t look at him at all.

As he sat in Principal-Agent Coulson's office and contemplated what he should do, letting the new principal spiel about how bullying would not be tolerated and to come to him if anything else happened, Peter came to one conclusion. 

He had to find a way to get his boss off TikTok. 

oOOo 

As he watched junior Peter Parker zone out from the trauma, Coulson was feeling pretty optimistic. He was a Mom Making a Difference. 

While he was informing the student of his options and how the students involved in the altercation would not go unpunished as they had in previous administrations, he was also making plans for his agents. 

Coulson was concerned about Danny and Luke’s behavior, both as their superior and their principal.

Iron Fist had attacked a civilian in broad daylight, a clear abuse of his abilities. But it wasn’t entirely his fault. Iron Fist was quick to react. This was a reaction they had instilled in him for his own safety, and by Shield standards he had done well. Better in trouble than dead. 

Powerman, thankfully, had managed to restrain his own quick impulses, but he had still hurt the student Coulson was currently speaking to. The poor boy lacked control. It was hard to teach something they couldn’t exactly demonstrate. Such a rare ability, even rarer in the use of non-criminals who weren’t aiming to break everything around them. 

Coulson, shamefully, did his best to ignore the bruise on the young Peter's arm. 

All he could offer were options and hope that the student didn't raise a fuss. 

As much as he loved his role as principal, making a difference, in the end he was the same as all before him. He had a mission to protect his agents. Forgive him, miscellaneous student. 

Thankfully (or not) this particular student seemed all too used to platitudes and didn't seem like he was in a rush to let his guardian (singular, older working female, a nurse working late shifts) know. 

Coulson needed to look into hiring a counselor. 

The student in front of him had an intense look of concentration. He seemed to be mulling over some serious information. Yes! Coulson was getting through to him. There was still a chance he could fix this. 

He sure hoped whatever Fury had planned was worth it. 

oOOo 

Harry, being the main aggressor in the entire scuffle, had been seated in a conference room apart from the rest of them. And was currently bored out of his mind. Twirling a pencil he had found on the floor during the scuffle, he was waiting for the office to give up on getting a guardian to pick up the phone and talk with them regarding his punishment. 

Harry wouldn’t hold his breath. His father was too preoccupied working on a super important science project (something about a serum) to worry over such “childish matters”. What else was new? 

So he was stuck waiting for a replacement to show up instead. Probably another lawyer that would make the school hush up and get him off scot free. Usually he would detest having such special treatment, treatment he didn't want or really deserve. But today he was kind of glad for this privilege. Because he couldn't afford to be absent from school right now. Not with more people paying attention to his friend.

Harry had seen the way Sam had been eyeing Peter.

At first, Harry had been confused. This wasn't the first time someone had shown interest in his friend. Harry had seen people chase after Peter for his intellect, girls chase after the love he gave so freely and wholeheartedly. Each time he managed to swallow his frustration, secure in the knowledge that they wouldn't last. That Peter would be his again. 

What was so different this time?

A white hot burning anger set in. His fist tightened and the pencil snapped. 

Sam wasn't some girl trying to steal a little attention from him, a fleeting relationship that wouldn't last more than a month. Sam wasn't coming for Peter at all. He was coming for him. 

Harry’s place. As a best friend. 

Why else had Sam become so defensive that one day Harry cornered him while he (also) secretly followed Peter (for his own safety) and told him to back off? Harry had pinned Sam to the wall and looked down on him, promising to make him and his friends' lives impossible. Every time he caught Sam staring from across the room, he refused to look away until Sam broke first. Harry didn't care how red in the face Sam got. Peter was his. 

He was fine sharing with the girls. Realistically, they shared Peter with him, but he loved the girls just as much as he loved Pete. They all sort of clicked in a way he never felt with anyone else before. But he just couldn't share Pete any more than he had to. He’d already lost enough time a while back when he’d started ditching them. They’d only just gotten him back from all that craziness. 

And these new guys smelled like trouble. Because unfortunately for him, Pete had some sort of charm on pretty people that Harry didn't quite understand. He was irresistible, and he’d seen it before. It happened to Flash, Gwen, and Mary Jane. He was pretty sure it was even happening with Liz Allen, though he was going to do his best to dispel Peter's unwitting trance on her soon enough. 

That ‘Amazing Teen Team’ (thanks Gwen) was nothing but trouble, and Pete– sweet, innocent, kind, easily influenced Pete, the kind of guy you want to bring to your father’s weird science galas to let him have his fill of hors d'oeuvres and canapes and scientist handshakes –  would only follow them down some dark twisted path. 

Especially that Ava girl. Something was especially wrong with her. 

Add the fact that recently, Harry had to start sharing Peter with Flash of all people, and he had reached his sharing limit long ago. Totally unexpected, but they seemed to have had a moment, and Harry couldn't exactly deprive his friend of this. Sure Flash still shoved Pete into lockers, but his friend deserved that sometimes. And there was always a chance that Flash would irrevocably damage the trust that Pete had placed in him. Then maybe Pete would learn his lesson and stop being so forgiving.

Regardless, Harry had to keep these new people away from his friend. Luckily, his plan of revenge was already in action. A while back he had started spreading false sympathy for Sam, declaring the “nasty rumor he had heard about him” to be wholly false and untrue. It was sure to catch people's attention.

The thing is, there was no rumor. Harry had made the whole thing up. 

With no original rumor to feast on, people could only speculate on what it could have been. People who insisted on having heard the original rumor, only to be given neither denial nor satisfaction, were quickly outdone by wilder theories. Each iteration given neither correction nor confirmation led to newer and stranger versions. And with each denial to confirm or deny, his position as good guy only strengthened. 

‘Harry Osborn hates Sam and is constantly fighting with him. If he believes the rumor to be false and cruel, even refusing to repeat it, then it mustn't be true!’

Digging pencil splinters out of his hand, Harry soothed himself with the memory of seeing those fools go up to Sam insisting they didn't believe the rumor they hadn't even heard, and that he was a truly good guy, only to leave Sam angry and slightly paranoid about the amount of people coming up to him. 

Whatever he missed was gleefully relayed to him by his special and most trusted informant. It warmed Harry's evil little heart. 

Four hours later, the weary-looking secretary walked in to inform him that he could go home. When Harry asked about his father, she only shrugged and told him to behave or next time there would be consequences. Sure. 

As he stepped out of the office he saw his friends sitting on a bench outside, Gwen and MJ chastising Peter. Making his way over, Harry joined in while checking them all over. 

Peter's greatest flaw, in Harry’s mind, was that he was greatly kind. So Harry must be equally cruel in turn, so that together they could achieve equilibrium. 

Never mind that Harry could just be kind too, and learn to stand on his own, away from his father’s influence. As long as he had Peter, nothing could get in their way. 

Chapter Text

This was the most important break-in of Mary Jane’s young life. 

As she carefully picked the first of many locks on the new principal’s drawer, she was careful to time it with the outbursts of moon rage that had recently possessed the Daily Bugle radio talk show playing from the receptionist's radio in the background.

In between bouts of moon madness, he seemed to be promoting some sort of…powder workout supplement endorsed by Oscorp? Huh, MJ didn't know Oscorp did that. She made a mental note to keep an eye on her father’s Facebook ads so he wasn’t turned into some weird monster of the week by this. 

MJ silently cursed when her grip nearly slipped. She should have practiced her lock picking skills a bit more. She couldn't afford to fumble right now, she had very limited time before someone noticed something was amiss. 

Thankfully, she hadn't lost her place with the first lock. As she held her breath waiting for another outburst in 30 seconds, she froze as she heard a clatter from outside the door. MJ quickly turned her head. 

There was a shadow by the door. 

Had the secretary gotten wind of her presence? Not likely, as she was usually too distracted with criticizing the receptionist's radio show to care about anything else. It couldn’t be Coulson, because she had cashed in a favor so Flash was helping Peter distract him. 

Only 10 seconds away, should she hide? But if she did she would lose her place in the lock picking process. 

9… 8… 

The shadow moved closer to the door. She couldn't make out who it was thanks to the frosted glass. But MJ couldn’t risk getting caught. Not this soon. She abandoned her work and hid behind the desk. 

7… 6…

Someone was messing with the lock on the door. Had they found a spare key? 

5…4…3…

MJ quickly ducker behind the desk. 

2…1… 

The door quickly opened and shut as a figure quietly slipped in, their entrance covered by the sound of JJJ losing his mind over someone calling in to claim that the moon was “actually made out of rock candy, not cheese. That's how it can support alien life. What's that? Why can't we see them? Because they're on the other side of the moon, obviously.”

As the small shadow loomed over the office, MJ knew she had a choice to make. If it was a friend, she would have nothing to fear. If it was a snitch, she might have to deal with them. Unbearable silence gripped the office, and the shadow crouched so it remained hidden as well. 

Her friends would forgive her if she tackled them. MJ tensed as she prepared to lunge. She had the element of surprise. 

A soft male voice whispered, “Who’s there?”  

Unless they noticed her first. Best to just take control of the situation. MJ lunged anyway. 

She collided with and pinned… Sam Alexander. MJ sagged in relief. 

“Oh my god, Sam, don’t scare me like that.”

She knew him. They shared first and fifth period classes, and they had recently worked on a group project together. MJ hadn’t been too keen at the start since he was never really awake in the morning, but Sam proved himself to be a dependable partner (unlike the others). It was helpful that during fifth period she sat right behind him, and while before he had been too busy scribbling in his notebook to pay her much mind, after they had reason to talk they realized they got along really well. 

She also knew that he was down for a little rule breaking. 

“MJ? What are you doing here?” he asked. 

“Breaking and entering, obviously. Wanna help?” She gestured to the desk. 

Sam tilted his head. “I mean I think you already got that covered.” 

“The drawer, Sam. I can’t pick the lock. But you got into the office in no time flat.” 

Sam seemed hesitant. MJ understood. He seemed the type to avoid authority simply because it was annoying and caused too much trouble. Getting caught would be a headache. 

“MJ, what are you even doing?” He began to wiggle to get out from under her, and she let him up. 

Sitting against the desk, she explained “I’m writing an article about the school lunch. Have you noticed the change in quality in all the meats the cafeteria serves? Like the fact that it’s actual meat now? Don’t you think that’s strange? That it’s gotten better?”

Sam made a face. “Wouldn’t that be a good thing?”

“I know you and your friends are from some weird foreign boarding school, but funding does not simply go up like this at a public school. Not when the football team is doing so poorly this year. Who serves steak to high schoolers? These are the kinds of meals they serve at West Point. Something fishy is going on and I’m gonna get to the bottom of it.” 

Moving to sit with his back against the desk next to her, Sam scoffed. “I went to public school in Arizona before.” He cast a suspicious look at the door. Jameson was still yelling about moon creatures that absolutely did not exist. He glanced down at his hands, fiddling with his thumb, before looking back at her. “So… you could say you have a steak in this?”

MJ smiled. And wasn’t he just the sweetest? 

MJ could admit she had a soft spot for Sam. He reminded her so much of Peter. Shy, respectful, and protective in his own strange ways. It was just unfortunate that his friends didn’t seem to take him very seriously. She knew Harry had some issue with him, but then again, Harry had issues with Peter when he first arrived. If he could ever manage to get along with Peter she knew she would have a hard time keeping Harry from monopolizing them both. 

“You could say so. Help me pick the lock?”

Sam cast one last look out the frosted window before scooting closer. “You’re lucky I’m after the same drawer. Move over.” Interesting. Had he gotten something confiscated after that nonsense in the cafeteria? As she moved out of the way, he made a grabbing motion and MJ handed him her tools. 

“What did Coulson take?” 

“Agen- Principal Coulson took my notebook. It’s got crucial information about-“ he glanced at her, “I’m not sure I should tell you.”

MJ tilted her head. “Is it important to you?” 

“I wouldn’t risk coming in here otherwise, now would I?”

“I guess not. But it must be important if you’re trying to get it back.”

Sam didn't even look at her as he concentrated on the first lock. “Let’s just say I’m looking into someone at the moment, for the sake of everyone involved.”

MJ watched Sam break the first lock before moving on to the second. “Maybe you should look into a career in journalism with that dedication Sam, I know talent when I see it”. 

Sam just chuckled. “High praise, but I know I can’t compete. You’re going to be such a problem when you become a reporter.” 

MJ didn’t know how to respond. Not because of his jab, but because of his casual, unfettered belief that she was going to make it. Not if, when she became a reporter. Of course her friends believed in her, and Aunt May never discouraged her dreams, but to hear it from someone entirely uninvolved? 

MJ couldn’t stop smiling. “I’m gonna be the biggest thorn in your side, Sam!” 

Sam groaned. “Oh c'mon no! I haven’t done anything!” The second lock clicked and fell. 

“I’m here for something very important for someone else too y'know?” MJ said. “I got someone in trouble for helping me take pictures for my article. Had us sneak into the cafeteria and we got caught almost immediately. Some journalist I am, huh?” 

“It happens. Missions go astray, plans fall through. It’s tough being a leader and having others pay the price. But at least you’re trying to fix it, right?” 

Sam had a point. But MJ would never forgive herself if she couldn’t get the camera back. “When we got caught it was kinda funny. Peter and I were trying to shove the other out the door only to slip on the wet floor sign.” MJ laughed. 

Sam stilled for a moment, before continuing to pick the lock. 

Leaning against the desk, she tilted her head and considered Sam. Sam, who hated school but loved his friends. He was so gentle and protective and caring of them and all they did was poke fun at him and ignore his theories. 

MJ knew what was in that journal. 

Finally getting the third lock done, Sam moved on to the fourth and final lock. 

“Is it wrong to say I’m glad you’re here?”

Sam again paused, this time in concentration, and MJ decided to stay quiet so he could focus on the clicking of the lock. 

As the last lock fell and he triumphantly pulled the drawer out, the door suddenly burst open. It seemed JJJ was also loud enough to cover up the sound of the receptionist coming in to catch them.

MJ pushed Sam out of the way and quickly managed to shove an old beat up camera and a notebook with Sam’s name on it into her bag. 

Coulson walked in with the secretary who had kicked up a fuss. MJ saw the hesitation in Coulson's eyes be replaced with calculation and knew it was over for them. Over the sound of the Jameson yelling that the moon was 3475 kilometers, not miles, one word doomed them both. The old woman won in the end. 

“Detention.” 

oOOo

He was unsure of how this situation came to be. He stared down at Sam, who was crouched next to a redheaded girl he was sure he had seen before. As Sam was shielding her with his body against the drawer to his desk (a drawer that was supposed to be locked, with four separate locks ), Coulson could make an educated guess. 

Coulson would have to keep an eye on her. Anyone capable of sneaking into his office and undoing his locks was uniquely interesting to him. 

“And what exactly do we have here?” Ah, his secretary. Lovely old woman. Nut allergy. Insisted on working on a typewriter. Very useful in his line of work, preventing information from being stolen online. Formidable ally in all school-related endeavors. Had she not been so old or dedicated to the school he would have pleaded with her to join Shield and train their first year recruits. 

“Miss Mary Jane! It's not second period yet and you're already up to your shenanigans. I told you I'd talk to the principal soon enough, you can't just…” The secretary who had warned him about this girl. 

The infamous reporter girl. A capable ally, or a formidable foe. 

The girl must have snuck in and undone the locks somehow, only to be caught at the end by Sam. Seeing as there was little he could do without exposing himself, and the lack of visible hostility between them, there must be some other angle Sam was going for than protecting Coulson's office. 

Now he was forced into a position where he might have to discredit her, but that just might trigger retaliation. He vaguely knew she was friends with the son of Norman Osborn. 

Formidable foe indeed. 

Regardless, he was proud of Sam for intercepting the other student and taking the risk to protect their secret. Who knows what the aspiring reporter could have discovered? 

Putting all the pieces together, Coulson gathered that Sam must have seen her sneaking in and followed, having seen an opportunity to try and get along with someone so influential and laden with intel of all sorts. 

A useful strategy, seeing as the rest of his team was having trouble incorporating themselves into the school at large. Each of his agents had strengths to play, some of them already sought after by other cliques with great influence and viable Spiderman candidates. They should have splintered as soon as they arrived. Instead, their insistence on remaining as a group simply created another faction and hindered their flexibility. 

Unfortunately, he could not give them advice. Interfering in their evaluation could jeopardize their independence score. (He would have to mention to their handler and chauffeur Rodriguez to encourage them to make friends outside their group instead.) 

The only one trying to create lasting ties outside the group was Sam, even if his attempts so far had been slightly misguided. 

A useful strategy if the escapade was a success. Coulson would applaud him on his tactics– had they not gotten caught. Well, he might as well help him out by getting him more alone time with her, and a shared sense of camaraderie. Coulson was willing to play villain for them. 

He hesitated as Sam pled with his eyes, but with such important witnesses as his secretary and the school reporter, Coulson had no choice. A capable ally, or formidable foe. Hopefully, Sam had chosen well. 

Oh well, good enough lesson opportunity for Sam. Better caught in his office than dead out in the field. 

Also he trained Sam better than this.

“Detention.” 

oOOo

It was a few hours later and the final hour of their detention. They’d mostly shared gossip because there was nothing to do and the monitor was an old woman tired after a long day of school. As long as they didn’t disturb her nap, she didn't make them do anything. 

“And another thing! Why are all his friends hot? What the hell, attractive people seem to gravitate towards him! This can't be normal.”

MJ had originally been putting her investigative skills as a budding reporter to use but it had quickly devolved as Sam explained how he believed Peter was hiding something. MJ had a good laugh at that. 

So far MJ had learned a lot about Sam and his friends. A lot of them didn't have parents or normal childhoods. They were all staying together in an apartment through their school and it sucked because Danny always took too long in the shower. Their chauffeur and guardian Mr. Rodriguez was very nice and had been encouraging them to join school activities. He had been captain of the aviation club when he was younger, which surprisingly hadn't been that long ago. 

The most interesting things she had learned about them, however, were always about Sam himself. He had a sister, a meteor had crashed into his shed once, he knew Rocket Raccoon and no one was supposed to know that, so could she please just keep this between the two of them? 

She barely had to put any effort in, he was quite the chatterbox. 

MJ, in turn, would share about her friends. How Gwen didn't like to talk about Spiderman, unlike Flash who was his number one fan. Flash probably knew more about Spiderman than anyone else. 

This had gotten Sam’s attention, but before he could ask MJ laughed and said the only person Flash knew more about than Spiderman was probably Peter, and the situation devolved from there. 

“And it’s not that Peter isn’t good looking himself,” Sam continued to ramble. “He's got those doe eyes, and that hair like what you’d picture a chipmunk would feel like, but all his friends are absolutely stunning! Way out of his league.” 

“Sam, I don't know if I should thank you or smack you.” Of course, this wasn't news to MJ. She had made the same observation years ago but preferred to think of it as them being attracted to his honesty despite being the biggest and worst liar she’d ever met.

Because he wasn't friends with them because of their looks, or their money, or whatever else they could offer. Peter didn't care about any of that, only what kind of person you were. That was special. 

Sam sulked. “Is being gorgeous a requirement of being around Parker? Totally unfair.”

“Don’t say that Sam, you're plenty gorgeous! Ugh, why don't we hang out more? You're really fun. We need to hang out more. I wish we could hang out all the time without this weird group tension.” Suddenly, MJ had a great idea. “I know! Why don't we get the groups to hang out?”

Sam frowned. “Uhhh, because Ava doesn't like Parker, and he might be a supervillain?”

MJ slumped back in her chair. “True, and Gwen doesn't like Ava.”

“I still need to apologize to him,” he muttered. 

“That's perfect. We can use this as the first step to clear the air between our friends, just be casual about it. He’s weird about apologies.” Poor beautiful fool, so forgiving to everyone but himself. Hopefully Sam could figure out a way to be subtle or graceful, enough so as to not startle her friend. “This is going to be amazing. Operation: ‘Get our friends to like each other' is underway.” 

Time to cause mayhem. Because if their plan failed, then at least MJ could poach him from his friends.  

Soon after, the teacher woke up and dismissed them from detention. As they packed up, MJ handed Sam his notebook back. 

Sam looked surprised. “You got my journal?”

“Of course. You helped me, and it was important to you. I can't say I agree with what's inside, but I know it really matters to you.”

Sam hugged the notebook tight and smiled. “Thanks, MJ. We’re going to get everyone to be friends. I promise.”

MJ smiled back. “Good. You can't be weird about Peter though. If he is a villain as you say, what he needs is an intervention- not more violence.”

As they stepped outside the classroom, MJ was greeted by the sight of her friend waiting for her. Peter sat outside the room doing homework. A few feet away, Ava awkwardly stood to greet Sam. 

oOOo

Today was interesting. 

At least he could say that detention with MJ had been nice. Sam really enjoyed her sense of humor and even if she didn't agree with him, she didn't call him crazy or ‘guy obsessed’ like his friends did for being cautious about Parker. She took him seriously, if a bit skeptically. 

The moment Sam opened the door, he immediately caught sight of Ava. It was interesting to see how drastically her eyebags had disappeared. Ava seemed to have been sticking to her promise of sleeping better. It really was incredible to see how serious she could become about the most mundane things. Sam internally chuckled, she probably had alarms set up so she would remember to go to sleep at a certain time.  

It had been soothing to see he wasn't the only one to get an intervention, seeing as her sleep deprivation had cost them the interrogation. Maybe it was because they were all used to shorter missions, where stunts like the no sleep routine would actually be effective. But on a longer deep cover mission such as this, it was practically useless. 

Besides, why did they trust her judgment and not his? He was right about Parker! And no one believed him. So he’d act the part of having given up his ideas. Couldn't have his target getting suspicious. 

There's no way someone as good-natured, helpful, and caring as Spiderman, as Harry Osborn , would knowingly keep someone as dangerous as Parker around. He was too good of a guy. He’d even been trying to squash whatever rumor was going around about him! (Not that he knew what the rumor was exactly). 

He was right, damn it. And he wasn't going to rest until he’d uncovered every last secret Parker was hiding. 

Anyway, Parker and Ava were outside waiting for their friends awkwardly. Looking at how quickly Ava had stood up to greet him, it was obvious Parker had tried to start some small talk. Ava being terrible at socializing had clearly shot it down.

“Hey Tiger!” MJ called out, startling both Sam and Ava. Parker, still distracted by whatever he was writing, looked up and beamed. Sam and Ava look at each other tensely, unsure of what to do next and preparing for the worst, only for MJ to walk past them and sling an arm around Parker. 

“You get my camera?” he asked. It took a moment after the cold rush of fear passed before it settled in that MJ had been referring to Parker.  

MJ shifted her backpack to rest on her front as she dug out a camera. It was an old beat up thing that somehow looked like it had been in more fights than he had. Hmm. Suspicious. But Sam had promised, and he kept his word (as much as he could.)

So he stood straight, cleared his throat, and spoke. “Hey, Parker.” The guy startled at being addressed and turned apprehensively. 

Sam took a deep breath and spoke. Sincerity. “I'm sorry for being a douche, let's hang out sometime.” Blunt apologies and clear intentions were best when it came to apologies. MJ facepalmed behind Parker. 

Peter seemed surprised at the apology, only brought back into motion by MJ jabbing him with her elbow. After a significant look, all he responded with was a soft but confused “Thank you?” before MJ bade Sam goodbye, barely acknowledging Ava. 

As they walked away Sam felt oddly bereft. Had he done it wrong? Geez, maybe whatever had made him into a supervillain also made him weird about apologies. It would make sense. Peter may be an up-and-coming villain, if he hadn't started already, but he was also MJ’s friend. MJ deserved to have someone looking out for him, as did Harry. If he could be saved, then Sam would have to be the change he needed.

He just had to have faith in MJ that it was possible. She had given him a vital new lead, in more ways than one. 

Sam turned to Ava. “You should apologize to Gwen and MJ.”

Ava looked at him with unwarranted suspicion. “You're up to something.”

Sam sighed. “Yeah.” 

Chapter Text

Under principal Coulson's suggestion (read: order), Luke and his friends had taken the initiative to “Act more like teenagers in a healthy way, rather than starting fights”. They had all looked into normal civilian clubs and extracurricular activities. And to their collective surprise, they were enjoying it. 

Ava was enjoying the improved social interactions with other students that came from maintaining a consistent sleep schedule. She had even joined a club during lunch, helping tutor classmates in Spanish. 

Danny had become a good friend to people in his class after finally making it clear he had no interest in dating. Though mostly content to observe those around him, he’d even been invited to play in the football team's fantasy football league with Luke, furthering his normal people education. 

Sam, who denied having any interest in things other than superhero stuff, surprised everyone by joining not one, but TWO clubs– the esports club and the comics club. The esports club made sense. When not jumping to prove himself to Fury he spent most of his time gaming on his Switch. The comic club hadn’t made as much sense until Luke had gone with him and was bombarded by the group's red-string theories. Definitely a Sam interest. 

As for Luke himself - who had finally been worn down by Flash’s persistent and unending companionship, constant social favors, and genuinely friendly interactions (and had also just run out of excuses to say no) - he had joined the football team. 

It turned out to be a blessing in disguise, as the football players were stronger than the average student, giving him an easier time hiding his strength and giving him a space to practice what he was currently lacking the most in– strength control. 

Luke had feared what would happen if he were to go against other teams in a real match, worried about his strength being an unfair advantage. Thankfully, because of his transfer status and having joined the team so late in the year, he was put in reserve. Though, with the way the coach was training him, he might be moved up. Luke wasn’t about to tell him he hopefully wouldn’t be around that long. 

Especially with the recent incident that had occurred in the cafeteria. He wasn’t sure he wanted to stay if he couldn’t control his strength. It was one thing to go toe to toe against superpowered criminals and the like– those crazy freaks had signed up for getting decked in the face. Why else get all those enhancements and dedicate themselves to a life of crime? 

What had happened that day with Parker was completely different. He had hurt a civilian. 

While helping Parker up during the incident he only managed to make the guy gasp in obvious pain. It was only after he let go that he noticed a bruise on Parker. He was no medic, but a bruise of that size and color didn’t appear so fast naturally. He must have hurt the poor guy. 

Parker had found and later reassured him, insisting vehemently that the bruising was not his fault, yet the guilt would not go away. What else could it have been? When asked Parker looked conflicted yet offered no alternatives. 

And so Luke was outside during his study hall period tackling football dummies. And being tackled by a football dummy, who wouldn’t leave him alone. Not that he minded. It was his last class of the day so he didn’t particularly have anywhere to be after. Flash was, again, surprisingly good company when not being influenced by his fellow meatheads.

“I don’t know man, I feel like I can just talk to you,” said Flash, “Like you’re just so above all the gossip and drama. You’re cool.”

Luke very carefully charged at the dummy being held by Flash and several sandbags. Any excessive strength could hurt him. “Flash, not to be rude to the other guys, but I think you need better friends. Or a hobby. One that doesn’t involve thinking about what other people think. Or an encyclopedic knowledge of what they’re doing.”

“Hey, do you think- oof!” Flash never got to finish his thought, as Luke tackled the dummy and sent him flying. Flash landed with a harsh thud several yards away and didn’t get up.

Luke panicked. “Flash?!” He quickly ran over to him and began to shake him. He never should have let Flash stay. He was just about to ask someone to call the nurse when Flash got up, luckily no worse for wear. 

Flash just beamed at him. “That was amazing! Nice tackle dude! With that kind of strength you could…” As Flash continued to compliment him, all Luke could feel was disappointment. Still too strong. 

Flash wasn’t the strongest on the team, but he was thankfully tough enough to withstand his lightest hits. It was funny, at one point he and his friends had thought he might have been Spiderman. 

His general personality quickly instilled doubts, but when they asked his opinion on Spiderman, Flash started going on about how much he admired his ‘heroics’. Going so far as to produce a video of a fight he had been witness to. There was even a moment where he got carried away by the vigilante. 

He turned out to be an excellent source of Spiderman sightings. Definitely the biggest fan they had met so far. 

Flash got up, dusted himself off, reset the dummy, and called out to him again. “Alright dude, hit me with another!” They’d done this whole song and dance too many times for Luke to keep track. 

But hey, Luke had to get better. And if Flash still wanted to keep going, Luke didn’t mind the extra company. The cycle continued. 

As Luke focused on controlling his strength without looking like he was pulling his punches, Flash continued to talk. Today he seemed to be worried about some project he needed at least a C on or else he wouldn’t pass the semester, but had managed to get a good partner this time. Practically snatched them up before anyone else got any ideas. For the sake of Flash’s partner, Luke would have to convince Flash to do his part for the project later. 

Luke was about to run another tackle when he spotted something strange in the distance. From under the bleachers, a Sam-shaped trouble approached.

oOOo 

Sam had been following Peter again. This wasn’t news to Flash, he’d been seeing it happen for the last week and a half as he and Peter left their shared English class, watching Sam trail after Parker daily on his way to lunch. After the incident in the cafeteria where Sam's friends and Luke had startled the team's 2nd runnerback, Peter and his little group practically disappeared from the cafeteria. 

It was clear that Sam was trying to find out where they had gone. But despite his supreme lack of athletic abilities, Parker was adept at losing people he didn't want following him. Flash was very familiar with this tendency of his, having lost him a couple of times… before. 

The only consistent sighting of them was during the weekly yearbook club meetings during lunch, where Flash was official quality assurance. 

The first time he noticed Sam watching outside the classroom door, Flash was considering trying to break some weird gadget Parker was making, hidden in the back of the room. It was probably for the upcoming science fair. No fair to get a head start!

As Parker spoke into the little microphone and adjusted his device to change the voice output, Sam pulled out a notebook and began writing something down. Parker was strange, but not that strange. That seemed excessive. 

Though he had seen Sam and MJ hanging out more often without the group. Could they be star-crossed lovers?… Unlikely. Sam didn’t seem MJ’s type. 

Flash never figured out where the group disappeared to those other days. 

Thankfully, there was nowhere for Parker to run in their English class, so he had been able to scoop him up as his project partner (much to the wiggly nerd’s dismay). He was smart. Hopefully, his science smarts transferred over to English.

So it wasn't a surprise when Sam finally came up to him. Only a problem. 

“Flash! What do you know about Parker?” 

“Flash, you don't have to answer him.” Luke immediately began running interference. They’d make him a great offense yet. He just needed to get over his timidness. 

Usually, Flash would have no problem answering Sam. Flash was what people would call an ‘extremely knowledgeable and intelligent guy’. He had been told so on many occasions, all of which had definitely been sincere. He had to be if he wanted to stay at the top of the food chain. No, he was not a ‘huge gossip’, thank you, Mary Jane. 

Because staying at the top required an extensive network and a lot of hard work. Hard work that had become too visible to his new, cool friend Luke. Who was now concerned for him because he said it made him look like he cared what others thought about him. Like he had to rely on others. Eww. 

Which couldn't be further from the truth! He was cool! And effortless! Luke did him a solid for telling him when he started to slip like that, what a great guy. Flash almost wished they had met before. Almost, because he was sure Luke was too much of a good guy to have ever wanted to talk to the guy he used to be. But who knows, maybe if he had known Luke sooner, he would have cut that shit out before… before. 

At first, Flash had tried to befriend Luke as a power grab. A new group meant a new threat, one he had to destroy. He also saw great football potential in the broad and powerful Luke, their next star linebacker. The perfect defense, someone who could have his back. And as they started to grow closer, Flash could see how Luke genuinely cared about those around him. It made Flash feel weird, knowing that there were people just naturally that good. Realizing that he couldn't be one of them. 

At least when Luke showed how much he cared for Flash, it made him feel good. Luke had put in a lot of effort to help Flash’s status. Ever since the school’s newly implemented no tolerance policy, Flash had to be more careful of how he stayed on top. He couldn't exactly rule through fear like he used to, and some people had accused him of going soft. But Luke was different. Luke was kind, and gentle, and had shown him a way to be powerful that went beyond the violence of men.

Just the other day he had helped settle a quarrel between Flash and the team. It gave him hope that he wasn't such a hopeless high school tyrant. But now he was faced with another problem. On the one hand, if he just told Sam what he wanted to know he’d look weak. He’d disappoint his buddy. 

Luke looked at him encouragingly. “C’mon Flash, you’re better than this.”

“Flash, come on man tell me what you know! You know you want to!” 

On the other hand though, Sam was temptation incarnate. And Flash loved talking. His biggest problem really, talking without thinking ahead. Plus this was a golden opportunity. Sam wanted something he had. He could use this to finally get the answers to some of his most burning questions (since he couldn't default to violence anymore). 

Flash knew what the right thing to do was. He just didn't know what he wanted to do. 

The voice of Luke’s wisdom rang in his head. ‘When in doubt turn to your friends’. That was right! Luke was here! To his right! Flash just had to put all his faith in his right side standing right-hand man. Flash turned to face him. Luke shook his head. 

“Why do you think I know anything about him? He’s a nerd, I don't bother with nerds.” There, that should stop him in his tracks. 

“That is so not true. You mess with him the most!” Sam bit his lip. “Come on, admit he acts strange.” 

Luke interfered again. ”Sam we’ve talked about this you can't just-”

Flash cleared his throat. If Luke believed he could handle this in a professional manner, he was going to prove it.  “Well, I mean…” he hedged.  

He cast a look at Luke. He had this handled. Luke was only looking out for him, from one cool leader guy to another. But Flash had learned from their time together. He was ready to take charge. 

He could make it look cool, for Luke. 

Sam whined at his buddy and shot him a pleading look. “Come on Luke, let him answer. If there’s nothing weird about him then I’ll finally drop it once and for all.”

Luke sighed dramatically. “Fine. If Sam will finally calm down, tell him how not weird Parker is.”  

It was nice of Luke to try and help Sam in this situation as well. Luke might have considered Sam a threat since he had such an easy time making friends with others, if not for the nerd clubs. On the flip side, he was just nerd enough to pester really, if not for Luke. What a weirdo. 

Sam was delighted. He turned to Flash. “Alright, tell me everything you know about Parker.”

Flash smiled. “Alright, but it's gonna cost ya.”

Got him. 

Luke may have said yes, but that didn’t mean Flash was just going to give it to him. 

“What? No fair!”

“I want info in return.” Flash was in control here, he didn't need physical violence to be the best. 

Sam crossed his arms and grumbled. “Fine, we’ll trade questions. How about that? And we get to veto, deal?”

“Pfft no? What kind of nerd comes up with that system? We answer, no take-backs or it's over.” Flash stretched out his hand.

“Fucking fine!” Sam slapped his hand away. “What are we, businessmen? First question: what's up with Parker?”

Flash pulled a shit-eating grin. “Nothing much, what's up with you?” Too easy. 

“THAT'S NOT AN ANSWER!”

“My turn: what's the deal with Ava?”

Sam immediately became defensive. “The hell do you want with Ava?”

“Not much, she's just kinda weird. Hard to read. What's her deal?” He’s not about to admit that MJ had banned him and his buddies from talking to her. 

“Don't call her that. Ava is… complicated. Perfectionist. Cares too much.”

“Like how?”

Sam scowled. “My turn.”

At this point, Luke had sat down on the field, so Flash waited for Sam to take his lead before sitting too. 

“Where is Parker eating lunch?”

Flash thought about this for a second. While he genuinely didn’t care about the nerd's whereabouts unless he wanted something from him, it would be important to know later on for their group project. Plus he still wanted MJ around. 

“Honestly? Aside from yearbook club meetings, I’ve got no clue.” 

Sam was visually disappointed by his answer. It was kinda funny. “No fair! You’re garbage at this!”

Luke seemed tired from all that tackling if the way he laid back and pressed his hands over his eyes was any indication. 

Flash got a sudden bout of curiosity. “So where are you guys from? Because your buddy Danny is a California man and Ava won’t say anything about herself. Yet you all knew each other from before. And also, hey, we didn’t lose any students to be a part of this.”  

Plus none of them seemed to handle public high school very well. Were they part of some rich kid exchange program? Children of diplomats or something? 

“Are your parents in the government or something?”

Luke quickly raised his hand. “I can answer that one. Our parents work with cities installing some kind of business plans for commerce, so we move around a lot. Because they work together we’ve all been traveling together for a while.”

Boring. 

Luke looked at Flash. “I’m originally from Harlem.”

“No kidding?” Flash asked. Luke smiled. Finally, someone normal. He knew there was a reason he liked him. 

Sam jumped in. “I’m from Arizona.”

Flash grabbed a water bottle and threw it at him in pity. It nearly hit him in the head. 

“What the hell!”

“Just ask your next question already, I'm getting bored.”

“You’re so bad at answering questions dude. Just tell me everything you know about Peter Parker already.”

“You know what? Sure why not, I’ve had my fun. He’s always been a little weird, I've known him since we were little so I can say that confidently-“ Did he say that right? No weird looks. Awesome. “ -but he changed a lot during his sophomore year.” 

Flash stared at the ground. “But it would make sense, he did watch his uncle die from a gunshot wound.” 

Flash heard a sharp intake of breath and glanced up. Sam looked uncomfortable while Luke sat up and alert. “Flash dude, should you be telling us this?”

“I thought everyone knew.” Ever since Peter's Uncle Ben died, a lot of things had changed. It was impossible to miss that. 

“Flash, I'm new.” Oh right.  

“Anyway, after that, it was just him and his aunt, right? They had to make money somehow.”

As Flash finished talking, the bell signaling that school was over rang. 

“You know what, sure let’s move past that inescapable trauma. Tell me about the bruises Flash. I know they’re not from you, MJ says she's proud of you?” Flash saw Luke turn his head, he must have found something interesting in the grass.

Flash scratched his eyes. No, he was not tearing up. “Whatever man, I wouldn’t worry about that. He stopped after getting that nerd internship with the lizard guy before he went nuts.” Flash scratched his head. “Wait, now that I think about it, the internship probably ended when his boss got arrested and turned into a giant lizard huh? Ok maybe worry about it. But it’s fine, probably.”

“You cannot be serious.” 

“Listen I can’t tell you, it’s kind of a secret, but if you want to know where the bruises come from follow him home Friday. It’ll all make sense then.”

Sam didn’t speak anymore, instead getting up and sprinting away. Today was Friday. 

Luke sighed and got up. 

“Going to keep an eye on him?” Flash asked. 

Luke let out a weary sigh. “Yeah.” It was hard being the boss everywhere, it seemed. 

Flash chuckled. “Oh yeah, I noticed he was kinda fixated on Parker. Can’t be easy seeing someone you like with bruises on them I guess.” Flash stretched. “Yep, just another one of Peter’s victims. Poor Sam. Got a case of the Guy Obsession. I wouldn’t worry about it though, we all get those sometimes.” 

With that they wrapped up practice, Flash insisting that Luke go ahead. He could get some of his teammates to help him clean up. 

He hesitated for a moment before his responsibility to his friend won. 

“Hey, Luke. Just a heads up man. Parker's weird, no doubt. But he's protective about the people he cares about.”

With that Flash waved him ahead. 

“See ya next week!”

oOOo

Danny was a stranger in this foreign land. Every day brought new challenges. 

Danny had been relying on his proverbs as the school year progressed, and everything around him began making less sense. He’d been bewildered by this strange new world called ‘public high school’, no matter how calm and collected he presented himself. 

Having to sit behind a classmate who had a terrible infatuation with the girl who sat behind him was one such challenge. Every day he asked Danny to pass a note to her, and every day he distracted him from the lesson. The only reason he still ‘helped’ was that whenever he had declined, the classmate found increasingly unsubtle manners to pass his note or get her attention. When he had offered to trade places with the student he had been swiftly denied because he was ‘too shy’. But not shy enough to bother him?

This girl didn't even read the notes. She was a lesbian. 

‘A fool loves to talk but hates to listen.’

That was one of the proverbs taught to him by the monks on the mountains of Kun-Lun. When Danny first studied this proverb, it was in the context of the man who wanted to rule at all costs, the Scorpion. 

Currently, he was applying it to a much more mundane but no less interesting individual- his friend and teammate Sam. 

While he loved to spout wild theories about certain students and teachers being supervillains, he refused to listen about the one person they had all agreed was nothing more than a civilian. 

Perhaps it was their fault for enabling his habit, asking about his suspicions each time. ‘He who asks is a fool for five minutes, but he who does not ask is a fool forever.’ 

Walking out of the front building, Danny spotted another strange occurrence. Parker exited the school, followed stealthily by Sam, who was in turn followed casually by Luke. 

Making his way over to Luke, he was quickly informed of the situation and invited to come along. 

After sending a quick text to their… (Handler? Legal guardian? Driver?) Shield pilot Rodriguez telling him they planned to be out a bit late, Danny agreed. 

Agent Rodriguez simply shot back two thumbs up, a smiling emoji face, and a message to let him know when and where they wanted to be picked up. 

On their way out, they didn’t manage to spot Ava. But they soon received a photo of her already in the car with an accompanying frowny face. Luke and Danny chuckled as they sent her frowny faces in return. Ava was only placated when the boys promised to bring back food from her favorite bagel place.

And so Danny followed Luke following Sam following Parker deeper into the city. Danny himself was not particularly familiar with modern architecture or zoning laws, so he trusted that Parker knew his way around.

Danny watched as Luke began to raise his arm to grab the metal pole, before hesitating and bringing his arm back down to his side, opting instead to simply balance on the bus. Looping his arm around his friend's arm, he did his best to provide Luke with some stability. 

Danny wanted to ask about it but the fear of offending his friend prevented him from doing so. Certainly ‘he who asks is a fool for five minutes’, but he would rather remain a fool forever than lose his best friend. 

On the bus ride to wherever Sam was taking them, Danny happily listened as Luke shared the events of his day with him. 

After almost an hour of public transit, Parker got off at a stop and Sam followed. Luke and Danny grabbed their bags and exited after him. After walking an additional ten minutes, Sam halted suddenly. 

Parker had entered a dark alley. Sam followed. 

Hopefully, they weren’t about to burst in on something important. 

oOOo

Luke could only feel dread at whatever fresh hell Sam had brought them to. 

Here in the depths of Hell’s Kitchen was an assortment of shady-looking characters crowded around a caged boxing ring, ready to watch the fighters beat each other to a pulp. 

Going by the dinky chairs and indoor smoking, this was almost certainly an illegal fight club. He couldn’t help but be intrigued though. Maybe he could learn something about controlling his strength here. 

The announcer walked on stage. “Alright everyone, give it up for our final match of the night! The amazing, the spectacular, the ultimate! Spider-Man!” 

Luke was surprised. Did Spiderman attend these fights? They knew so little about his strength and fighting style beyond his acrobatic and athletic ability. “Psst, Danny. If Spiderman is here, we might not be able to go after him as civilians. We can’t expose our secret identities. We need to focus on surveillance instead.” Danny nodded. 

The spotlight was clumsily swiveled around by the stagehand hiding on the balcony. It danced around the room before landing on a stage door. Luke found himself holding his breath in anticipation of who might step out. Could this be the end of the search? A brown-haired young man slipped out and made his way into the ring. Luke's heart fell. It was just Parker.

“Ugh never mind,” Luke said. “This dude stole the name.”

Danny laid a hand on his shoulder. 

“All is not lost,” he whispered. “Whatever fighting ability he has was likely gained from his heroic friend. There might be something here yet.”

The announcer put on a big show despite the stature of his participant. “This is also his final match with us. Seems like poor little Parker doesn’t need us now that he’s got his fancy new job at the Bugle.” He frowned exaggeratedly. 

At the word ‘Bugle’ the crowd booed. 

Still, the announcer wasn’t deterred. “Let’s give him something to remember us by!” At his signal, a giant muscled man entered the stage. Dressed in a cheap rhino costume, with its sleeves torn off and suspiciously stained, he pounded his fists together and let out a ‘fearsome’ cry. 

He looked ridiculous. 

After a short boxing match in which Parker got knocked around, Luke discovered that he was not going to find a mentor for strength control here. Much like the film, this club had no rules and thus the members simply let loose. To wail on Parker. 

“Strangely, they share the same name,” Danny commented. “Perhaps a way of throwing off suspicion.” 

“I mean Spiderman is strong enough to join this club, but who would invite a superhero to an illegal fighting ring?”

“But perhaps he is too strong even for this ‘Rhino’. You saw what he did to that ledge without even thinking.”

Danny had a point. Luke remembered that once they had been freed from Spiderman's webbing, Ava had inspected the ledge Spiderman had been sitting on. The stone had been crushed.

That’s it! Spiderman had been documented lifting multiple people with ease, having no trouble losing grip yet never bruising them. Whatever his strength, Spiderman was very adept at controlling it! Luke had a new plan. 

His friends might not like it, but maybe he could ask Spiderman to help him learn how to control his strength. He could even justify it as getting Spiderman to trust him enough to just give him his identity! Genius.

Maybe this trip hadn’t been a total waste after all. 

… Where did Sam go? 

oOOo

As Sam watched Parker get beat up for money, it became abundantly clear why MJ had wanted him to intervene. 

If he could get their friend groups to combine, he could keep a closer eye on Parker. He definitely needed some good influences in his life, because some of the people in this place were downright heinous. He’s pretty sure he saw a mugger from last week there. On the other side of the room was a woman with two eyepatches. Was that man covered in blood? 

Maybe he’d even get the chance to hang out with Harry. For Spiderman reasons. Of course. 

With every punch landed on the living hot-people magnet, Sam’s resolve to save him (for MJ's sake) increased. At least he knew where the bruises were coming from. And while Parker dodged a few of the more dangerous hits, he had yet to lash out. 

Parker must have not turned to villainy yet. There was still time. 

Time to split up, look for clues, and grab his friends on the way out. Couldn’t let Parker know they were onto him. 

Sam was sure his friends thought he hadn’t even noticed them. Amateurs. 

oOOo 

The match ended quickly, and Danny found it appalling how many times Parker had gotten hit. Parker must be extremely coddled. It made sense since Spiderman was the one protecting him. He didn't even block a single punch. At best he only attempted to dive out of the way. 

But perhaps that was too much to expect of the average civilian– a man who never needs warmth creates no blanket of his own, after all. Civilians did not need to live in the world of violence that they did. Danny had no clue what was considered ‘normal’. 

Regardless, Danny and Luke were searching for Sam. At some point during the final match, they had lost sight of him. 

A sudden force tackled him from behind. Startled, Danny reacted once more without thinking. With ease, he flipped his attacker onto the floor in front of him. 

“Boo- Ahh!” Thud. 

Lying on the floor in front of him, groaning in pain, was his dear friend Sam. 

“Dude, don’t scare me like that,” Danny said. 

A few of the patrons still milling about had a good chuckle at their expense. 

Sam stared up at Danny with the most guilt-inducing stare. “Ouch!” 

“Forgive me Sam,” Danny was completely unaffected. “But you snuck up on me.” 

“Oh after you two were sneaking up on me all afternoon? Why were you spying on me? So not cool, man.”

Hypocrite.

Sam picked himself up and dusted himself off. “Whatever. Let’s get outta here.”

Luke readily agreed. “Yeah, let’s go get Ava her bagels.”

As they were exiting, Danny noticed Parker having a conversation with one of the patrons. He was holding cash he had been given by the announcer after his fight. They were coming down the hall. 

He quickly pulled his friends aside. 

Cramped in the small storage closet, his friends complained as Danny attempted to listen through the door. 

“Quiet, Parker is coming.” 

Parker and the strange man stopped just a bit after passing the door. Taking a risk, Danny shushed his friends and cracked the door open just enough to see what was going on. 

The stranger was holding a long black camera lens, cylindrical and in relatively good shape. 

“Here you go Pete, one long-range camera lens. This one here is between 200 and 600 milligrams, good for getting a picture of something further away.” 

Parker gratefully took the lens and handed over the money, taking the time to inspect it and wipe any smudges off the glass. Once he was satisfied he wrapped it in a cloth and placed it in his bag. 

The man continued. “I’m only helping because it’s you Pete. You’ve been a big help. Don't forget us out there, ya hear?”

“I won’t,” he said, a bittersweet smile on his face. “This’ll be great for the Spiderman pictures Jameson wanted.”

The man shook his head. “Always on the job, eh? Enough about that, tell me about how your school is going, kid. Any ideas for the science fair?”

With that, the conversation drifted away as they continued down the hall into an office. The boys quickly escaped and took the opportunity to sneak out of the building without raising any more suspicion. 

As the door closed behind them and they piled into the alley, Luke spoke excitedly. “Did you hear that? The Bugle! That’s where the amazing Spiderman photographer works.”

“That’s where the only Spiderman photographer works,” Sam returned. “He might have pictures of Spiderman without the mask.”

“He might give us pictures of Spiderman without the mask,” Luke added hopefully. 

“We might have to take those pictures from him,” Danny warned them. 

The door beside them opened with a squeak, and the team scurried behind a dumpster.

Parker came out, the bag with the camera lens secured tightly to his back. Parker tensed. “Oh boy, I sure hope no one is waiting in those shadows there to try and rob me.” After a few seconds of waiting, as if he were listening for something, he turned his head to where they were hiding. Parker would have to come through that side if he wanted to make it to the street. 

He walked the other way. 

oOOo

As they waited inside the shop for their bagels to be bagged, Luke pondered how best to use their next lead. If they could get in contact with Spiderman’s photographer, not only could they obtain solid proof that he was Harry Osborn, but maybe he could discover a way to get some advice on his strength. 

Looking at the store entrance, he cringed at the slightly dented handle. 

Chapter Text

Spiderman had been around for a while. In the beginning, people weren't sure he even existed. A myth. A shadow in the dark. 

Criminals began sharing their experiences, their families overheard, and stories made their way to barbershops, schools, and work. Neighbors talked until the stories made their way to the media, and so New York gradually got to know him. 

When The Bugle picked up their crusade against him, New York was divided on whether to buy the newspapers or not. While the stories themselves were sensationally exaggerated and often false, no one could argue that their latest photographer (an anonymous genius whose identity remained a mystery) was something else. 

There was something extraordinary about this photographer's style. Setting up the camera to take incredible shots, they knew exactly how to draw the reader's eye to the trajectory of Spiderman's parabolic movement whenever he swung around the city. The photographs' angles captured the almost vertigo-inducing terror of such a height. Each picture had a way of striking readers with a sense of energy that came from each dynamic shot. The lighting of each image gave readers a glimpse into a world only few would ever access– or want to. Beckoning the eye closer against all logic and common sense. Inviting the reader to get just close enough to the action to get a good glimpse at all the colors, textures, and violence.

Though to say the photographer captured an image would be a lie, each snapshot was as weightless and free as Spiderman himself. Not just everyone could do backflips at the drop of a hat. 

It was up to speculation as to whether the photographer’s anonymity was for their safety, or if Jameson just wanted to prevent them from being poached. 

oOOo

At first, Ava wasn’t sure if finding the photographer would do much good. One guy in a city of nearly eight and a half million and no leads? They had a better shot of finding Spiderman. 

But after seeing how excited Luke had gotten about the idea, she was willing to at least hear him out. Especially since he and the boys had brought her her favorite type of bagel- the complex and overwhelmingly sweet flavors of the cinnamon raisin bagel. (Her favorite used to be garlic bagels, but ever since she inherited the amulet they made her somewhat sick.) 

The team was seated around the dining room table of their safe house, aka the apartment Shield had given them as part of their cover. Luke had created a powerpoint presentation listing out all his arguments for their next plan. 

Personally, Ava was a fan of powerpoint presentations and was going to do her best to keep them as part of their superhero repertoire. It was one of the many good things she had learned at the school. 

As Ava munched on her bagel, Luke began his speech. “Here’s why I think we need to go to The Bugle and find out who the photographer is.” Luke was using a trackpad to advance from his intro slide (From Great Photos To Great Leads) to his main points. “Number 1. We can’t get through to Gwen. The Gwen lead has become a dead end. She is avoiding us and making everything harder than it needs to be.” 

It was true. Despite their best efforts to persuade her, any time Ava’s friends tried asking her anything (because Gwen refused to speak to Ava), Gwen became especially tight-lipped. Who is Spiderman? Nothing. Where can we find Harry? Nada. Do you want some gum? Silence. Hey, can I borrow a pencil? Please, this test is 30% of our grade. Crickets. 

In fact, any time she did speak to them, she had started to argue with them that Spiderman didn’t even exist. This inevitably led to the complete derailment of every conversation. 

Luke pressed the trackpad once more to advance to the third slide. “Number 2. Harry won’t admit to being Spiderman. I don’t think it was ever going to work, I mean we’d be the same way if someone accused us. We also can never find him,” he said as he waved around his everything bagel. 

Raising his hand to be polite, Danny asked, “Why don't we ask Parker again? Would he not know his best friend's greatest secret?” He took another bite of his egg wash bagel. 

Luke winced. “Because we've caused him enough trouble. Besides, the reason we can't find Harry is because he's always hiding Parker.” 

“Or Parker is the one hiding Harry from us. He seems like the possessive type.” Sam said. 

Ignoring Sam, Ava raised her hand too. “He's got to have some sort of superpower that lets him know when we're close. There’s no other explanation for us being unable to find them. We’re masters of stealth.”

Sam made a horribly offended noise but before he was able to say anything else, Danny shoved another bagel in his mouth. Clearing his throat, he placidly raised his hand again. “But if this is true, should we not then be able to find the girls, Gwen and Mary Jane? Is Spiderman not also protecting them as well?”  

Luke rested his head against his arm on the table. “Harry is protecting Parker from us, those girls can protect themselves.”

“We might actually need protection from them,” Sam said with a mouthful of delicious bagel, wiping the crumbs off his face. 

“Then if we cannot find Spiderman, and cannot corner his best friend, and Gwen gives us no useful information, why not focus on the last friend in the group?” Danny asked. 

“That leads me to point number 3,” Luke clicked on the next slide. It was a picture stolen from MJ’s instagram, depicting her and Sam making silly faces at the camera with superhero stickers in the background. “MJ is too smart to be tricked, and a credible threat to our secret identities. With how perceptive she is, it’s best we avoid her as long as possible. It wouldn't be too far of a leap for her to connect our secret identities to our civilian covers.”

Sam sat up. “Hey! Where the hell did you get that picture!”

“I followed her back on instagram.” Luke said before clicking onto more slides MJ had posted of her flaunting her friendship with Sam. 

Ava nodded her head. Out of their entire group, MJ was the only one who pushed when asking why they wanted to know. It wasn't like they could just tell a civilian that Shield wanted to know without exposing themselves. 

“Also someone , not naming names,” The group turned to stare at Sam, who continued eating his chocolate chip bagel with no remorse, “is protecting her.” 

“I have a plan,” the guilty party stated with his mouth full of bagel. 

“Uh-huh.”

Defensively, Sam started ranting. “You literally just said not to approach her, I just don't want you guys to get eviscerated by her! I'm protecting you, like a team leader should.”

“Definitely has nothing to do with your ‘Stop Parker from going full villain’ plan, right?”

Sam slammed his hands on the table. “The one time I'm being proactive and thinking ahead, you guys tell me to stop? You should be happy!”

“You're being proactive in the wrong direction .”

“I just want everyone to get along!”

Ava sighed. They had lost Sam. She needed a second bagel. 

“Moving on,” Luke clicked to the next slide. “We have no current leads in the school. But after following Sam yesterday, we noticed Parker picking up a camera for someone. The Bugle photographer. That gave me an idea.” Luke clicked to the next slide. Ava could immediately tell out of all the slides, this was the one he had spent the most time on. 

There were incredible shots of Spiderman, all at various angles plastered atop a beautiful shot of the city. The pictures were breathtaking. That night Ava had spent lying awake, before they were set to start school, hours were spent scrolling The Bugle looking at pictures of Spiderman. None of those pictures compared to these, unmarred by Jameson’s absurd accusations. 

“Where did you get these pictures?” 

Luke rubbed his eyes, and Ava finally noticed how deep his eye bags were. Had he stayed up all night after getting back with the bagels? What a familiar story. 

“I found an instagram page that MJ followed. It's an entire collection of these New York shots, but the main pictures are of Spiderman. I assume it’s the photographer’s.” 

Pressing the left mouse button, Luke moved on to a slide solely populated with ‘Harry≠Spiderman’. 

“Harry firmly denies being Spiderman no matter how much speculation we throw at him. We need a different angle. Irrefutable evidence to get his confession. Or to just skip the confession all together.” 

“And why haven't we just tailed him?” Sam asked. 

Luke pinched the bridge of his nose. “We just went over this, he’s hiding from us.”

“I thought he was hiding Parker from us.”

“It's basically the same thing if we can't find him,” Ava said. 

“Anyway, irrefutable evidence. If anyone is going to have an incriminating photo, it's going to be the guy– or gal, who always gets such good pictures of Spiderman. The only pictures really, because they seem to be the only person who can either keep up with, or sneak up on, Spiderman. And if either is true they must have at least seen his face at one point.”

Luke clicked over to the next slide, a grayed out icon of a headshot while a bold white question mark over the face. “In conclusion, we have to find the photographer so we can uncover Spiderman's identity for Shield.”

Before they could applaud, a sudden clatter from the kitchen had all the kids jumping to their feet. Before they could go over to investigate, they heard a voice call out. “All good! Just a klutz!” 

Ava could hear Shield agent and pilot Rodriguez, their transfer guardian, begin picking up whatever items he had dropped before and continuing a conversation. It seemed he was talking on the phone with his wife again. He must have tripped while putting away the groceries he had brought them. 

Despite him having promised he wasn't going to be living with them, he might as well have been. Bringing them groceries, snacks, and movie recommendations, he sure liked to hang out with them a lot. And yet despite him being essentially their babysitter, they actually enjoyed his company. Ava personally saw him as an older brother who had just come back from college. She hadn't exactly wanted one, but now she had now. 

Relaxing back into her seat, she waved for Luke to continue his presentation. “It seems like these Bugle pics are really the only consistent and high quality pictures of Spiderman. And only Jameson seems to know the photographer's identity. So our best bet is The Bugle.”

“You said only someone incredibly talented could sneak up on Spiderman. Have we considered the possibility that the photographer could be close to him?” Ava asked. 

Danny nodded his head. “It is entirely possible that they could have built up some sort of friendship.” 

From the kitchen, Ava could hear Agent Rodriguez ending the call with his wife before bursting through the archway. “What's this I hear about The Bugle?” 

Picking up a plain bagel and slathering it with the strawberry jam he had brought with him from the kitchen, Agent Rodriguez sat at the table with them. 

He barely glanced at Luke's masterfully crafted powerpoint presentation before plowing through the rest of his idea. “Because I mean, I know you're not locals but you've definitely been here long enough to get a good picture of what Jameson is like.”

Ava grimaced. It was true. It was impossible to escape The Bugle and their opinions of Spiderman, shouted 24/7 through various media sources. But even at their most libelous, there must still be a kernel of truth in there. Somewhere. (Hidden deep, deep down (Probably)).

Luke suddenly looked doubtful. “You think we shouldn’t?”

Rodriguez’s eyes widened, before he frantically waved his hands, as if to dispel the idea. “No no, I meant that– It's just that– My job is to chauffeur you guys. The entirety of the mission is on you. You've got a good head on your shoulders, it's just that Jameson’s got an even bigger ego.” Agent Rodriguez took a bite of his bagel, thinking his words over before speaking again. “Just, I'll admit, I actually had no idea what your mission was. To be honest I thought Shield was just putting you through highschool so you'd at least get your GED and they could avoid legal trouble.”

It should have been a little troubling that Rodriguez actually had no clue what their mission was, but all Ava could feel was relief. This really was their mission. They really were being trusted to handle this all on their own. 

“But are you sure this is what you want to do?” 

Ava responded before Luke had further opportunity to doubt himself. She had been convinced. “Absolutely.”

“Alrighty then. Do you guys want a ride?”

“This is probably something we should do in costume.”

“I mean I can still give you a ride.”

“No Agent, really it's fine.” 

“I’ve told you to just call me Rodriguez. It’ll only take a second I'll get my keys–”

In the end they managed to convince him they did not need a ride, and simply asked him for directions. 

oOOo

As they made their way over to The Bugle, the sound of Jameson’s voice was audible all across New York as it played from homes and vehicles. 

Pedestrians watching TikTok live streams with the volume just way too loud for public spaces, elderly people sitting on their porches listening to the radio from the steps of their neighborhoods, that one big flat screen in the middle of Times Square that Jameson somehow inexplicably had enough money to buy advertisements for- it was inescapable. 

Sam was high in the sky, with the wind whipping against his face as he flew. Despite having the luxury of not having to hear Jameson, he decided to inflict it upon himself anyway. With his phone in his pocket and earbuds plugged in, he could hear just as well as his friends down below hopping from building to building. 

“Folks, I’ve seen some disturbing theories out there just in the last week. Theories that the moon has drastically changed orbit because it has been seen during the day. That the so-called ‘Cardboard Moon’ is bigger now than it was last week, because it's hiding a supposed second moon behind the larger one. That there’s always been a second moon.”

There was a pause. Sam could imagine Jameson letting out a weary sigh. “Well I'm here to set the record straight. One quick google search will tell you bozos that the moon can be seen during the day because it’s bright enough to compete with the sun. One clear look at the night sky will tell you there is no second moon. And an ounce of common sense will get you morons to quit this slanderous campaign against the moon!”

From where he was, Sam watched as his team spotted a guy lurking around the corner of the deli shop. He was staring across the street at the bank. Were they finally going to be able to stop a bank robbery?

“While I'm at it, I might as well explain some other basic facts about the moon. No, the moon is not cardboard, nor any other construction material. The moon’s phases are not someone having to paint it each time. People have not been brainwashed into believing they were on the moon.”

The man, seemingly after hyping himself up, casually made his way across the street over to another guy. Unfortunately for the team, it seemed that it was just to give a stranger his phone number. Ugh. Nothing interesting happened in this city! 

As they jumped from building to building. New York continued its daily life. “Now, I have also seen suggestions on TikTok that perhaps Spiderman is the culprit behind the moon chicanery. That he is commanding an army of angry anti-lunar soldiers through the dark web. And as much as it pains me to say this, I must disagree. Spiderman is not the original author of these theories.”

Sam nearly flew into a building. Jameson admitting something wasn't Spiderman's fault? There had to be a catch. “He is not smart enough to mastermind such a conspiracy. Believe in them? Perhaps. But author them? I doubt it.” There it was. 

From down below Sam noticed an elderly man waving him down. 

“Speaking of TikTok, I do, however, posit a theory of my own. Whether or not he is on the side of truth, Spiderman continues to be a menace dedicated to hindering the work of good and honest people such as myself. I have reason to believe Spiderman is trying to steal my phone to prevent me from defending the moon. But have no fear, good people, no one is taking this from me.” 

As Sam got another cat down from a tree (his fifth one this trip), he rolled his eyes. 

“I’ve also seen people grant me the title of the moon's staunchest defender, to which I can only thank you good people. I have also been told of people making so-called ‘Edits’ of which I am somewhat confused about but appreciative nonetheless.” 

Giving the elderly cat owner a high five, Sam repressed the urge to gag at Jameson’s comment. (He was the only one listening to the broadcast at the moment, it would look really weird). Sam looked around and realized he had lost track of his friends. Bidding the old man farewell, he flew up high to get a better view and realized they had all been distracted by other problems. 

Danny was guiding a little boy who had nearly run into the street after a ball back to his parents, Luke was helping a teen who just ate dirt on a skateboard to her parents’ house, and Ava was in the final stages of assisting someone– paralyzed by the praise they all received. The people they helped were always so grateful for such simple acts, but they could never get used to it.

“But, New York, what do you think of this whole situation? Let’s get some callers and see what the people think. Caller number one, you’re on the air.”

Sam took the opportunity to pull his phone out and scroll while he waited for his friends to catch up again. Honestly, he didn’t see why he couldn't just go ahead without them. (Checking Google Maps to see how far they were, Sam failed to realize he was the only one with a phone and directions.) 

The first caller began speaking in a frantic voice. Its voice was like nothing he had ever heard before, raspy and metallic and loud. He had almost yanked off his helmet to take the earbuds out from how startled he had been. “Greetings, I am a rebel who escaped from the moon invaders coming for your planet. Please, you must take me seriously time is running out-” 

Jameson angrily cut them off. “Yeah? Go bother the Avengers bucko.” 

He hung up. “I know some of you have time on your hands but this is journalism. This is serious business. Next caller.”

During that whole interaction, Sam had taken the opportunity to stop a street food vendor from being harassed and had gotten free food in the process. His friends showed up afterwards and were given some incredible breakfast burritos. 

Sam fully believed the street food had to be the best part of this whole mission. 

The vendor asked if they were with Spiderman, which they had to politely deny. It was always a risk being associated with Spiderman. Some people loved him and others hated him. Telling someone that they wanted to find out his identity was also a gamble.

Because somehow everything they did always got back to Spiderman, if the way he seemed to avoid them was any clue. Spiderman would be in an area, clear it of crime merely with his presence (and, you know, actual crime fighting), and before they even had a chance to find him in the area he was reported in, he had already moved on. 

It was as if he knew he was being tracked! Did he have some sort of spy network? Informants that spent their entire day just watching the city, communicating with him on what Sam and his team's activities were? All they were left with were the “crime fighting scraps” such as helping the elderly and the stupidest of muggers. 

(The team didn’t know that their public perception was currently on the rise because of this. Since the public saw them around it was safe, they attributed their safety to their presence. They helped wherever they could.  And the people remembered that.)

A second caller came on the air, with a very familiar mature voice. “Jameson, get off TikTok.” Speak of the devil. Thanking the vendor, the team set off again. 

Jameson slammed his desk. “I should have known you would find a way to pollute this radio broadcast. What the hell are you doing calling into my show ya punk?” 

Sam’s phone let out a notification. Taking off ahead to give himself some extra wait time while his friends caught up, Sam pulled out his phone. Had his guild invite notification from the game club finally come in? The guild leader said it would be sent by today once their mom had ungrounded them. 

Jameson and Spiderman continued to bicker. “You think this is a joke, Spiderman? You’re so childish.”

“No trust me I am taking this very seriously. Get off TikTok.”

Checking his phone, Sam was met with something much funnier than a guild invite- a shared tweet from a different guild member. His friend knew he was interested in Spiderman, so they often sent him memes, updates, and sightings of Spiderman. 

“Jameson, why would I want to trick you into thinking the moon isn’t real. Stop going on TikTok, the algorithm is messing with you,” Spiderman begged. 

“Try and evade the truth as much as you can, I know your ruse,” Jameson insisted. 

Opening the notification, he saw a post from “Spidey_SightingS”, an instagram account where users anonymously submitted Spiderman sightings. While many of the supposed sightings were jokes or hoaxes, the occasional photo was the genuine guy. It had proven to be an invaluable resource, even if they didnt often make it in time to nab him. This time seemed to be one such genuine case. It was just a picture of Spiderman angrily talking into a pay phone. Inside the subway station. He hadn’t thought pay phones still existed. 

“Jameson, you can’t fight the algorithm. Get off TikTok,” Spiderman said. 

“So you can hide the truth from me? So I can stop defending the moon? Ha, you’d wish.” 

“What truth! You’re just arguing to argue at this point! You know I’m right!” In the background of the call, subway announcements could be heard announcing what train was coming. 

As his friends caught up, Sam weighed his options before he decided against telling them. By the time the radio call ended, Spiderman would be long gone. Best to focus on Jameson. 

“I’m sending my photographer there right now to get incriminating photos of you! Betty, call the photographer.”

“U-uh right now? Surely the guy is busy, it’s Saturday!”

Over the call a male voice could be heard saying Stand Clear Of The Closing Do- before being abruptly cut off. 

“Of course not, he’s at my beck and call.” If nothing else, this confirmed that Jameson was the next best lead on finding their photographer. 

As Jameson continued ranting at Spiderman, the ringing of a phone was heard over the radio. Spiderman asked Jameson to “hold on ” , before a mechanical click was heard and the ringing stopped. Over the hum of people, Sam could faintly hear a different male voice answering the phone. “ Hey Betty,” it said. 

In the background of Jamesons call, a female voice could be heard informing Jameson that the photographer had picked up the call. Jameson exploded. “You menace, isn’t it enough that you harass New York, now you go after my photographer?” 

The clicking sound was heard again. “Hey, your photographer is after me!”

“Quit harassing my employees!” 

“The only one harassing them is you!” 

The sound of the New York subway automated announcements could still be heard over the clacking of the train tracks. The Next Stop Is– 

Spiderman sighed before asking Jameson to “Hold on again,” and the click was heard once more as the photographer spoke to the receptionist. “Betty, do I have to come? What is he even trying to prove?”

Jameson kept going. “And how would you know that? You have him held hostage don’t you! Where are you, I’m calling the police. And what is that clicking noise?”

The Electronic Strip Maps Are Not Available– The strange click was heard again “Uh I’m in the tunnels! Goodbye!” Spiderman hung up. 

“Spiderman! Spiderman! Betty, make sure the photographer is able to get some pictures while kidnapped. I apologize dear listeners, it seems the masked menace has cowardly fled the conversation. But have no fear for the photographer's safety dear citizens, my assistant still has him on the line and will deliver this urgent message. If he fails to show up within the next hour, he’s fired .” 

Fucking yikes. 

“Let's get another caller.”

A young voice, a boy who could be around the age of 13, came through. 

“Hello Mr. Jameson, I hope your photographer is alright. I’m sorry to be the one to tell you this, but I've done some research with my neighbor's telescope and it seems that the moon does seem to be getting closer. Not simply bigger, but brighter as well. In a way not natural to its location in space by virtue of solar reflection.” 

Sam saw Ava twitch in recognition of the young voice. Sam had no idea how she could know a voice that young, but figured it didn't really matter. “It is a natural phenomenon I haven’t seen anyone else discuss on such a broad platform so I was hoping to convince you to contact actual scientists to look into. I believe the moon invasion theory is real.”

Jameson let out a weary sigh. “Listen here son, I don't know what friends of yours put you up to this, but it's very disrespectful to waste air time.”

“But I’m not-”

“Thank you for calling in son, but please leave these conversations to the grown up’s huh?” With that, Jameson hung up the call. “Whatever happened to today's youth? We are taking one final caller. Don’t waste it.”

Jameson got his fourth caller just as they arrived at The Bugle headquarters. “You still are brainwashed by the American media.” 

“Watch it buster,” Jameson growled. “I am American media.”

“It’s just that it’s preposterous you believe the moon landing was anything but faked. I mean I fully believe in the moon's existence, but there’s absolutely no way the moon landing happened anywhere else but Earth. The astronauts would have just fallen off.” 

“Why you—“

The broadcast immediately went to commercial break. The team headed in. 

oOOo

Walking up to a receptionist, Ava and her friends were guided to a desk right outside Jameson’s office. Sitting there was a woman with black bowl cut hair and… interesting bangs. 

“Do you guys have an appointment?”

“Umm, no.”

The woman gave an unsettling smile. “Good, we need someone to distract him. The more unexpected the better. You heroes, or vigilantes?”

Ava let Luke take the lead. “We’re with Shield.”

“Ok, Baby Avengers. Excellent. Sit tight, I'll get his attention.”

Before they could even protest that they were not Baby Avengers, the woman had left. 

“Dude we’re future Avenger members, what’s with all this baby nonsense?” Sam said. 

“Oh yeah, we’re practically adults.” Ave responded sarcastically. While she knew her team could handle the responsibility, she couldn't fully fault the adults for thinking this way. Other kids their age were not as driven, trained, or capable as they were. It was the unfortunate reality that they always had to show what they were capable of. 

Spiderman didn't have to go through half as much nonsense seeing as he had ‘Man’ in his name, but the team knew he was probably around the same age as them.  

When the woman came back, she ushered them in. “Alright, in you go.”

When they finally walked in, Jameson barely glanced at them as he read an issue of his own newspaper. The cover was an incredible image of Spiderman swinging away from a burning building carrying an elderly woman on his back, titled SPIDERMAN KIDNAPS ELDERLY FROM HOME IN DEAD OF NIGHT. “Betty, I thought we had a no trick-or-treaters policy! You kids, scram.”

“They’re supers, boss,” she said, then promptly abandoned them. 

That finally got Jameson to look up. The team got the feeling that he was not impressed. “Alright, what do you want?” 

“We want the identity of your photographer.”

He chuckled. “And I want Spiderman’s, but neither of us are gonna get it.” He went back to his newspaper. 

Ava figured being direct would be the best approach, she didn't know if she had the patience to deal with this guy otherwise. “Sir, we’re on an important mission from Shield. We will uncover his identity. It’s of mutual benefit.”

But Jameson had seemingly decided to be difficult. “Who’s to say you will share this information with me once it’s uncovered? Do you know how many people have tried this gimmick to get my photographer from me? Go on, guess.”

Ava was flabbergasted. “Zero, because that’s insane.”

“My point exactly, insane.” What? “The common man cannot trust you, Shield . In fact, you can give that trench coat guy my middle finger because I’m not selling.” Trench coat? Was he talking about Fury ? Had Fury tried to buy The Bugle just to get to Spiderman? 

Jameson scoffed. “Don’t act as if you weren’t sent by that bozo, coming in and offering to buy my whole company out from under me. The paper is about free speech, having it become just another tool of the government is the antithesis of it.”

Sam chimed in. “Dude, no one wants The Bugle.”

“Oh yeah? Tell that to the millions of listeners, readers, and all-around decent people of New York. I provide an invaluable service. I am a purveyor of the truth and free speech.”

“Your main focus is dragging Spiderman through the mud,” Sam said, getting increasingly defensive over Spiderman. Ava and the team might have to reign him in soon if this kept escalating. 

“And defending America's right to free speech. When I’m silenced, America is silenced.”

Ava didn’t have time for this. “We don’t care, just give us the identity of the photographer and we’ll get out of your way.” 

“Too bad. I don’t even know who he is. Always get his stuff by mail.” Gotcha. It was a man. 

Sam immediately called bullshit. “Wait a second, you just threatened your photographer on air to show up or he’d be fired.”

Jameson frowned. “Let me put it to you this way. Show me your identity.”

“Absolutely not,” Ava growled. 

“And why not?” Jameson pushed. 

This time Danny responded. “For safety reasons. Our identities being public knowledge could make us the target of retaliation. Shield does this to protect us.”

“From who? Accountability! That’s who. You bozos at Shield think you’re so untouchable, but the media touches everything.” Jameson leaned back in his chair like he’d just won. “On the individual level, then we are in agreement. I’m protecting my photographer for investment safety reasons. You protect yourself from maniacs who would hunt you down.”

He leaned in. “But make no mistake. Even if I did help you find Spiderman’s identity through my photographer, then Shield would still not hold him accountable. Shield only wants him in their pocket. Well no sir, I want that information, and the profits of such an exclusive story, in mine .” 

Sam gave an angry huff. “We don’t hide from accountability. We’re with the government.”

“The cloth on your face isn’t the only mask Shield wears, son.” Jameson folded his newspaper and sat up properly for the first time. “It breaks my heart to see you so young and already wrapped up in trying to solve the problems adults have created.” 

He looked somber for a moment. “But don’t think that just because you’re children I’ll go easy on you! I’m a reporter and I have a duty to the American people! And if he does know I’m getting the first scoop, not some after-school hero club.” 

Okay, moment gone. His refusal to sell him out was admirable, if a little morally questionable.

“Sir,” Betty interrupted, “Peter is here.”

“Excellent, send him in.” He looked at the group. “Alright, skedaddle you.” 

The visit had been a waste of time. Maybe they could just stake the place out until the photographer showed up. Ava could hear Luke asking Betty if her boss was always like this. 

As they walked out, she noticed Parker, who looked as if he had just run a marathon across the city. Always the overachiever. It hadn’t even hit the hour yet. He probably wanted to be early for his intern shift. Ava withheld the urge to scoff. 

Seeing their classmate in public, at his place of work, made Ava feel weird. As if they had coincidentally met at the store while in pajamas. It made her feel silly for being in costume when everyone else in the office was dressed like a normal person. Relatively. Sam was in the same boat as her at least. 

Ava spotted Parker walking in with a camera in hand. That must be the camera the boys had seen him purchase for the photographer. 

She stopped him, making her voice slightly different as she spoke. “Uh hey, citizen.” Her friends snickered behind her. ”Do you know who takes the pictures of Spiderman?”

Ava had a small staring contest with Parker, before he eventually replied, “Who?” and walked in. 

As the team made their way over to the elevator, Jameson’s voice boomed through the office talking about some ‘green weirdo in a Halloween costume zipping through Midtown again’. 

Jameson caught them eavesdropping from the elevator. “Well are you kids just gonna stand there or are you gonna get out and make me some headlines?”

This was absurd. Why did the man even have a receptionist if he always kept the door open and could easily see all the way to the elevator? Sam gave a deadpan expression. “You make me want to not even try.”

“Here's a free lesson kiddo: be careful what you say in front of reporters. That could have just cost you your reputation. Next time I won't be so nice. And get yourselves some actual PR managers. I've already noticed several weak spots true heroes like me can exploit.”

The elevator doors shut. 

Chapter Text

That had… certainly been an experience. 

As the elevator doors closed on the scene that had just occurred, Danny was hit with the strangest sense of deja vu. The last time he had felt so off-kilter and fundamentally stunned had been his first and only conversation with Spiderman. 

It had made him feel as though everything he knew had been turned upside down. It felt comparable to the twist at the end of the first season in The Good Place. (He had been watching it at the insistence of the Sitcom club, an organization created just for him apparently after some of his classmates learned he hadn’t watched much TV growing up. He couldn’t wait to see the rest of the series). 

The conversation had him re-evaluating the teachings bestowed upon him by the monks, and how he applied them. Up on the mountains all he really had to do was learn the stories and proverbs that guided life. Purely theoretical. Here in New York, their application had a lasting impact, whether he applied them in his classes or his superheroing. 

Now Jameson had thrown them all a curveball. 'Good is relative to those in power' was simple enough when it was regarding authorities and politics, but at least politicians could be held responsible by the people. As masked heroes, their anonymity protected them from their enemies as much as it did the public. But what body of people could truly hold someone accountable if they didn't know who they were? What if one of them went rogue? Could Shield really hold them accountable? Would Shield want to hold them accountable if a mission went wrong, or worse, in their favor?

Yet mob mentality thrown entirely onto one person was also incredibly dangerous. ‘There are some secrets we have to keep for ourselves’, as another one of Iron Fist’s mentors and friends had once said. (Well, specifically Deadpool said that he was “butt ugly” so he needed the mask, Luke just said he was too hard on himself). 

Danny wondered if the adults had already considered the pros and cons of anonymity like he was doing now. He’d have to ask them for guidance later. Surely a mature solution to all of this existed, and no such question would start something as ridiculous as a civil war. That would be ridiculous. 

Back on the mountains of his monastery, he had been told the story of a king with absolute power. A man who had been the greatest incorruptible force of good. But one day his son, sick with jealousy, murdered his father to take the throne. With the good king gone, the son now held the power and used it to command his soldiers. The soldiers, having only known a noble king, followed with little hesitation. By the time people realized that the new king was terrible, it had been too late.

Could Jameson have a point? Not likely, Shield was incorruptible. It was run by adults whose entire job was to do good. Everyone knew adults did jobs they liked. Why else would they then stay?

… Shield would definitely hold them accountable. 

Regardless, the conversation with Jameson had left him with many questions, and a slight irritation. Moral quandaries aside, he didn't understand why Jameson couldn't just give them a straight answer about the identity of the photographer when it was clearly Parker. He had just happened to show up, out of breath and with a camera, within an hour of Jameson threatening the photographer to show up or be fired. 

Danny knew better than to believe in coincidences. He wasn’t stupid. 

Now that he thought about it, it made sense that the photographer was one of Harry’s friends. Few would be able to keep up with Spiderman unless he himself allowed it. 

("Wow this is a really long elevator ride,” Nova noted. It did seem long but it wasn't like Iron Fist had a lot to compare it to. At least it gave him time to put his thoughts in order.)

The only thing Danny and the team had to do now was discuss their next steps. Because while his intense training at Kun-Lun had given him an incredible ability to look inward, Iron Fist could recognize that he was perhaps too intrinsically inclined. 

The monks had focused on the betterment of the self, at the expense of the external world. Their meditation was all about living in the moment. As such, he somewhat lacked in the ‘thinking ahead department’ as Fury put it. 

Danny felt like he lacked in a lot of departments sometimes. Being the youngest monk in their monastery, he knew he struggled to “hang out” with his peers. Nova had called it ‘only child syndrome’, as Danny was often seen as incredibly mature for his age. Ava had smacked Nova on the head and said ‘that wasn't what the word meant’, but agreed that Danny was very mature. 

But that still didn't mean he was as versed in ‘thinking ahead’ as he would have liked. Thus he relied on his friends, their mentors, and all the deep and profound life lessons he learned from the greatest source of information in the modern world- TV. Sitcoms, specifically. 

He learned from their mistakes, so that he would not be doomed to repeat them. 

For example, through extensive research, Danny understood why confronting Parker in a public space about being the photographer wasn't a good idea. He had seen many episodes where one character confronted another about a secret or suspicion in public, only to be denied and in fact have the conversation turned on them. 

(Iron Fist looked at the panels to see what floor they were on, before he realized no one had pressed the button. He pressed the button for the first floor. Everyone pointedly avoided looking at each other in clear embarrassment.)

Other times he had seen the accusations turn out to be completely wrong. While Danny knew they were not wrong, having Peter be surrounded by his work allies would certainly make the confrontation more difficult. 

So despite his disadvantage in planning ahead, he was thankful that he and his friends were at least all on the same page. That same page being to get out of the building as soon as possible to discuss their plan without Jameson present. 

As they stepped out of the building lobby and into the sun, Iron Fist exhaled at the freedom he had taken for granted before. As he opened his mouth to start discussing next steps, he was interrupted by an alert from Shield. Nova read it aloud for the team. It seemed the ‘green weirdo in a Halloween costume zipping through Midtown again’ that Jameson had just mentioned was a genuine threat. 

"Is he really a threat though?” Nova asked, “Because Jameson seems like the kind of guy to yell at clouds.” 

"Maybe a threat to us individually, but four on one? That seems a little extreme," Luke said. 

White Tiger shrugged. "Well according to Shield he is. Give me that," she said before swiping the communicator from him to give the team the actual rundown.

The more details the team heard, the more exciting the villain seemed. 

Alias unknown, The Cackling Maniac of Sickly Green Complexion had been spotted. According to Ava’s knowledge of other classified Shield files (that she had stolen and read through the night before the first day of school), there had been multiple failed attempts to capture him before. He was currently labeled as an extreme risk by Shield, due to his tendency to fly around at high velocities and launch pumpkin grenades at anything and everything. His reckless disregard for civilians made him a serious threat. Marked as highly unpredictable, few other details about him were known, but he was dangerously single-minded about his goal to hunt down Spiderman for reasons unknown. 

Currently there were no fully-fledged heroes around to protect the team should they engage. As such, they had been instructed to stay away. Iron Fist watched as Nova snatched the communicator away from White Tiger again, though not without a brief struggle. 

“So do not attempt to engage this villain, or you’ll be in big trouble. No you cannot stall them. I’m talking to you Nova. Love, Fury.” Nova finished reading. “This sucks!” He whined, doing his best to keep White Tiger away with his short arms. 

“Did it actually say ‘Love, Fury’?” Danny questioned. 

“No, I just thought it would be funny. But this is still terrible! How are we supposed to prove ourselves if they won’t let us try!” Nova responded, before yelling in surprise when White Tiger gave in to her frustration and pinned him to the floor. Powerman, ever helpful, stood to the side and laughed.

From the floor, Ava sighed. “I agree. We don’t need babysitters, we're fully capable. We should be able to beat this guy up. What are a few smoke grenades and flash bangs going to do against Powerman?” She asked. 

“I know, right? I mean, Nova can fly and shoot energy blasts! What can this Green Guy do that he can’t? He has to be able to help, even if we can’t,” Powerman pointed out. 

Nova, still pinned but comfortable on the floor, nodded his head. “I wouldn't want to do anything without you guys. We're a team, it's all or nothing.” 

Danny felt touched. As much as Nova was prone to getting ahead of the team, at his core they all knew he cared. He was technically team leader (because no one else wanted to be) but even so, he took his position seriously. 

Iron Fist watched as Nova pushed for White Tiger to get up before sharing a look with his team. “... are you guys thinking what I'm thinking?” He asked. 

Danny smiled. Classic Sam. “Well, it would certainly be quite unfortunate if we had not seen the message, and on our way back from this interview we just so happened to cross paths with this Green Guy.” Time to be an accomplice. 

“Certainly not our fault we just so happened to rescue a few civilians on the way.” Ava jumped in. 

Luke pumped his fists. “Let’s show Shield what we’re made of!” 

With that, the team set off. Aided by sightings on Nova’s social media accounts, they started to make their way downtown. Iron Fist figured that the team would have to discuss their plans regarding Parker later. 

oOOo

As Sam led his team to the location of this Gnome dude with the help of Twitter– sorry, “X”- updates, one line from Shield’s warning stuck out to him. ‘Should you come across Spiderman, you are to ignore him. Do not let him distract you from your mission to return to base.’ 

Did Shield think Spiderman would use their fleeing as an opportunity for something? Because if so, Shield didn't seem to know their target as well as they thought they did. Spiderman had proven himself to be a hero. How many times had he saved kittens from trees, helped old people from getting mugged, given tourists directions, or even stopped superpowered criminals from turning the entire city into lizards? At least one time! He’d seen people get applauded for less.  

A better question would be would Spiderman even appear today? Because last they had heard, he was in the tunnels. There was no way he knew about The Goblin, not unless he had an inside source at the Bugle. 

Jameson hadn’t seen his photographer, only they knew about this so far. They had a head start on him, and the issue would probably be gone by the time it reached his spidery ears. Wait- Parker. Parker was in the office when Jameson had told them about it. He would definitely call and inform Spiderman. 

There was no time to think about that though. Whether or not Spiderman showed up didn’t affect them. They were on a (self-assigned) mission. 

Dodging the occasional pigeon, Nova followed the trail of posts online and eventually reached the most recent update. Hovering around the 26th floor of some office building, he had a decent view of the street below. Matching the last photo uploaded 30 seconds ago, Nova knew The Gremlin should be around here somewhere. 

“Where to next, Nova?” They asked him, their brave and courageous leader. So humble and wise. 

Before he could say anything, a green shadow zipped past, knocking into him and throwing him into a tailspin. 

When Nova regained his balance midair, he could see The Guy launching what looked like bright orange flash bangs at cars. They barely made a dent, at best they were just eye-catching. This is what Shield was worried about? 

The Elf man looked as skinny as a twig, was dressed like a jester, and had switched to throwing smoke pumpkins. The man slowed down, casting his creepy gaze at him and his team. 

He stared. Nova felt a chill run down his spine, suddenly feeling hunted. Scared. Frozen. 

But the moment passed when the man scoffed at them. “You’re not who I want. Go home while you still can,” he said before going on his merry little way. With that he began to call out in a crazed, lilting voice. “Come out, come out, wherever you are, Spiderman .” 

Ah. That explained it. This was some Spiderman villain of the week. They were all weirdos. They could catch him, no sweat. Spiderman villains were known for being harmless. How else was he able to catch them every week, all on his own? 

Nova floated down to get close to his teammates. “New York really brings out the freaks,” he said. 

From the window of one of the apartments a man closing his blinds called out, “That's the NYC vibe.”

“Thank you, random citizen.” 

“No problem, government plants.” 

oOOo

Despite their best efforts to work as a team, The Weirdo kept outpacing. ‘A warm-up’ The Jester had called it. As if knocking them around was just a game. As if he wasn’t running laps around them. As if this wasn't humiliating. The Guy was just toying with them. 

Nova was getting tired of having to slow down for his teammates. How were they supposed to catch the bad guy if he had to wait for everyone to keep up? Plus, The Ogre was just too good at dodging any time Nova got close. He could see why the guy had never been caught. But ‘dangerous’ was a bit much, Sam would die of embarrassment and exhaustion way before those little smoke toys dented his armor.

As Nova made another grab, his team called out for him to stop going ahead and wait for them. Distracted, Nova's energy beam blast hit the edge of the glider instead of the center, messing with The Boogie-Man's balance. While regaining control, The Ghoul clipped Nova, sending him into a rapid tailspin. The Gargoyle recovered quickly afterwards as Nova crashed into the side of a building. It seemed that the incident had soured Greenie's mood.

“Enough of this! Say goodnight, Pipsqueak!” The Goblin pulled out another pumpkin grenade from his pack, pulled the pin with his teeth with a manic glee and wound up his pitch. He threw the projectile straight at Nova’s face with immense speed.  

Sam, still sticking to the building as he tried not to throw up from such a spin out, knew he wouldn’t have enough time to get out of the way. At such close range even those little smoke grenades would cause serious damage. This was it. This was how he finally broke his nose. Nova braced for impact. 

A familiar synthesized voice rang out. 

“Oh my god! Gobbie, watch out!” The voice cried hysterically, before slamming feet first into The Leprechaun, kicking ‘Gobbie’ to the ground with great force and saving Sam from getting pelted with one of those goofy pumpkins.

Instead, the pumpkin fell harmlessly onto the street below, where it peacefully detonated with a powerful explosion that totaled two cars. 

.. Wait. 

Nova turned towards his savior. Hanging off the side of a nearby building, Spiderman sat in a horizontal crouch, staring hatefully at the crater he had just created with his enemy's body. Spiderman had just saved him. Harry Osborn was amazing . 

As if feeling his eyes on him, Spiderman broke his glare from The Creature Guy to look at him. Framed by the setting sun reflecting from the back of the glass building he was on, Spiderman was radiant. “He didn’t get you anywhere did he?” Spiderman asked, looking Sam over in concern. 

Sam tried to stutter out an answer, before giving up as he dazedly just shook his head. Spiderman’s gaze lingered on him for a few more seconds before he seemed to be satisfied by the answer. He gave a little wave to the rest of the arriving team. 

“Hey guys, have you met The Goblin before?” He asked. 

Sam shook his head again. 

“Ok cool, here’s the rundown. Avoid getting hit by those bombs at all times. You never know what’s in them. Too many people could make this difficult with how fast he travels, so I’m gonna play bait and hopefully he’ll leave the city center.” 

Spiderman sheepishly rubbed his neck. “You guys are good at what you do, and I work alone. But…” he trailed off, conflicted. “But I can’t do this alone.” He stared into Nova's eyes. “Can I get your help?”

It was strange knowing Spiderman was Harry, but not having Harry share that same level of knowledge. 

Sam sometimes got the sinking feeling that Harry didn’t like them as civilians- didn’t like him . Despite trying to keep a low profile, when Harry wasn’t picking fights with them to divert attention from Parker, he gave them the cold shoulder. He avoided them, doing his best to not cross paths. 

But when they’d met him as Spiderman it was as if he was a completely different person. He’d shared with them his pains, his tragedy, but most significant of all his overwhelming skill during that first fateful encounter when he webbed them to the building before launching into his tragic tale. He was bright, intelligent, deeply caring, and compassionate even to them as enemies. 

He was so good that it hurt. He blamed himself for The Lizard, a conflict in which he had saved all of New York, but had experienced a great loss alongside his friend in the death of the Police Captain and Gwen's father. He fully believed confirming his identity would be catastrophic not just for himself, but for the captain's daughter as she could be used against him.  

How could Nova compare? Sam wanted to be a hero to help, but he didn’t feel anywhere near as noble and selfless as Spiderman was. To him, being a hero was fun. 

At least Ava knew why she was doing this, even if she wouldn’t share. Danny had a mission to grow stronger as a person. Luke was already so good he didn’t need to get better. It was almost annoying how good he was. 

Sam was still just wearing his father’s helmet. 

… Woof, that was depressing. Maybe Spiderman was just Harry’s outlet for being a good person. Not everything had to be some tragic backstory. Maybe being ‘kind of a jerk’ was Harry’s method of deflecting suspicion. 

If only the team and Spiderman could swap secret identities. Sam knew both Shield and his team were against it. But if they could share this knowledge with him maybe he would just share his back. It must be lonely not being able to rely on another hero. 

Maybe he needed a friend. Maybe he- sorry, the team- could be that friend. So Nova, being team leader, made an important judgment call. 

Sam knew what he had to say. “Absolutely.” 

White Tiger interrupted. “Woah, wait a second, we don’t know this guy. He could be working with this man!” 

“It is unwise to make rash decisions. Even the best intentions can lead astray,” Iron Fist agreed.  

Nova frowned. “But we don’t have time to think this through, that man nearly killed me and I’m only okay thanks to Spiderman.” Spiderman gave him a thumbs up. 

White Tiger gestured at Spiderman. “We never think things through, but this is different. This is the guy whose identity we’re trying to uncover. Are we sure this is a good idea? What is Shield gonna say?”

Spiderman watched them go back and forth, still keeping an eye on The Goblin, but mostly enraptured by the scene in front of him. “I feel like I shouldn’t be here for this conversation,” he said, his artificially deep but friendly voice sounding a little distracted. 

Nova put his hand up to silence him. “Not now Spiderman, I’m defending you. Guys we don’t have time to argue. Every second we argue is another second that guy-“ he pointed to The Goblin who was now groaning and clutching his head, “can get up and attack again.” 

Nova then threw a pleading look at Powerman. Powerman sighed. “He’s right. We can worry about Spiderman later. What matters most is that we do something now.” Powerman turned to Spiderman. “Can we trust you?”

Spiderman’s white lenses scrunched together in something reminiscent of a smile. Putting up a hand as if taking an oath, he solemnly swore, “Absolutely.” 

“Then I say we work with him,” Powerman decided. 

Sam smiled. It was all coming together. Because Sam had a plan. After the first week of trying to find Spiderman, Sam realized it wouldn’t be that easy. There were only so many people you could throw at a problem before they just created twelve more. 

Whoever leaked Spiderman's identity had something to gain from endangering them all. Someone who was weak and wanted to show their control over the school, someone who in normal circumstances would not be able to do this on their own. Someone who jumped at the opportunity to get revenge on their classmates by bringing crazed criminals onto their turf. The most likely candidate was someone who was close enough to Spiderman to know their secret, but seemingly innocent enough to get away with it after the fact, as no one had been punished.  

Once he figured out who the ‘friend’ could be, they could trace the friend circle back to anyone who matched the Spiderman description. Like doing a maze in reverse. 

A certain brown haired nerd fit the bill perfectly and poor Harry was none the wiser. He still defended the little guy. Well if that was the case, then Nova would have to defend Spiderman. If they confirmed his identity to Shield and could prove he would be a valuable asset to the team, maybe he could even join their team! Sam needed to prove his identity asap. 

Putting those thoughts aside for later, Sam asked his team to believe in him now. “Trust me. Please?” 

Ava finally caved, “Ok fine. Why not? Spiderman hasn’t proven dangerous to us yet, he can be a later problem I guess.” Powerman and Nova’s cheering was cut off when she threw in “But I'm not the one explaining this to Fury!”

Spiderman did a little fist pump. “Ok I feel like I should be considered with some caution but oh well! Here’s what I’m thinking: The Goblin has something against me, so we’ll get his focus entirely on me. I’ll run to the docks to reduce damage. We need a ground team to evacuate the remaining civilians and help before I get knocked around too much. Any suggestions?”

As they planned, it seemed like Spiderman took special care to make sure he listened to everyone. Totally different from when Harry would snub them in the hallway by pretending he had suddenly gone blind and deaf and needed to rely on Parker to get him to the nurse’s office immediately or he would die. 

“Nova, I’m going to need you tailing him to make sure he doesn’t stray. I need someone on him at all times in case he tries to run away.”

Powerman raised his hand. “Why not just take him out here, there’s less room for him to outmaneuver us.”

Ava nodded. “We’ll waste time making him move the fight.” Looking down onto the streets below, a few people were stuck hiding but were otherwise decently safe.

Spiderman shook his head, gesturing to the city below. “Look around you. He wasn’t taking you guys seriously and he already destroyed multiple businesses. Once he sees me he’s going to go bananas. Not all of them can afford the insurance. Not everyone can afford the medical costs. Nobody down there can do anything but hide.” Spiderman stood parallel to the floor as he continued. “We have a responsibility to help them, not because we’re heroes, but because we can. We can protect ourselves, they can’t.”

Nova felt a rush of warmth run through him. Harry was so good . Nova was so happy he was Spiderman. 

Spiderman, still sideways because he was a freak, tapped the ground (window?) with his foot. “His obsession with me is his bait. We get him out of the most densely populated part of the city and drive him towards a warehouse I know is a cover for Fisk’s gun smuggling.” 

White Tiger frowned. “Fisk?”

“One bad guy at a time please.”

Nova noted White Tigers furrowed brow, casting a look at the slowly stirring Goblin. He was clutching his head in pain as he struggled to stand up. “Wait, but why didn't we arrest him just now?”

The group looked down as The Goblin finally gained his bearings. The Goblin jumped back onto his glider before rising menacingly into the air again. 

“...Huh. I guess we could just have arrested him.” Spiderman squinted his big creepy eyes at The Goblin. The Goblin yelled in rage. “I’ve never actually seen him knocked out this long.” 

But it was too late now. 

“Whoops.” Spiderman said. 

“Whoops? Whoops? Spiderman you’re an-“ Ava was unable to finish her insult when The Goblin shot straight at them. 

The teens scattered, Spiderman’s only defense being “Listen, you guys are very distracting. I'm getting mixed signals! Like do you guys want me or not? A girl can’t wait on a ‘maybe’ forever, you know.” 

With that, Nova and Spiderman did their best to lead The Goblin out of the city while the rest of the team helped guide civilians below. Both The Goblin and Spiderman were too fast to keep up with on foot. What had before been a simple game of chase had now evolved into The Goblin hunting Spiderman down at frightening speed. 

The hardest thing about keeping up with them wasn’t the speed though. It was how suddenly they changed directions. Spiderman relied on his webs to serve as anchor points in a pendulum and The Goblin was doing honestly sick barrel rolls. It was nerve-wracking how close both of them constantly came to wiping out. Was he expected to do the same?

The closest Sam ever got to catching up to either of them had been when The Goblin finally noticed Nova on his tail and launched a bomb at him. Unable to dodge, he was only saved when Spiderman slingshot himself back to tackle Nova out of the way, pressing him close to a building before running after The Goblin again, who had taken the opportunity to blow up more cars. 

He had never worked with someone as agile as Spiderman (White Tiger came close- not that she could defy gravity like that). But with every arc, pivot, and swing, Nova became more familiar with Spiderman’s movements until he was able to predict where Spiderman was going next. Slowly, Nova was getting better at keeping up. 

oOOo 

The fight had been dragging on for far too long.

Despite their best efforts, Spiderman and the team were unable to get The Goblin out of the city. Turned out that the madman was dead set on making an example of Spiderman and as such wanted an audience. While they still managed to get him out of the city center and into a less densely populated area, there were still too many people around for Nova’s taste. 

Whenever Spiderman strayed too far, The Goblin would just catch up and knock him back where he wanted. The team eventually realized they were going to have to face him head on, and prepared themselves to fight. Most of the immediate area was clear, as long as they kept Spiderman in the vicinity of the wide empty street it should be easier to contain The Goblin. 

But the team had already been at this for an hour before Spiderman had shown up. Spiderman himself, their best shot at keeping The Goblin close to the ground, was losing steam. He was littered with cuts from being rammed with The Goblin's glider (an incredibly risky move seeing as The Goblin didn’t have a recovery system) and several burns from intercepting bombs the team had missed. 

There was one cool moment where Nova was about to be pelted with another bomb, before it suddenly froze in midair, its momentum abruptly reversing and swinging in an arc upwards into the sky. It took a moment for him to realize that the white string connected to the departing projectile was the strange white silk Spiderman used. 

“Physics, man!” Spiderman then went on a little side tangent about imparting velocity into his web throws, something about an axis of rotation and using it like a seesaw to increase torque, and something something about kinetic energy release. 

‘Oh my god, Spiderman is such a nerd,’ Nova realized. It probably came from being tutored by Peter Parker so often. 

Thankfully, he barely got three sentences into what was surely about to be a long winded explanation before being pelted in the face with another explosive. Well, that wasn't true. Sam saw Spiderman about to be pelted in the face by an angry Goblin when out of nowhere, before he could even warn him, Spiderman caught the explosive with his hand before his eyes opened comically wide and it exploded in his face. (How did he catch that? He wasn’t even looking! … Was he okay?) 

But in the end, The Goblin got away. Just as they were about to throw themselves at him, Spiderman turned his head as if heard something. They had feared a new enemy, but the team sagged in relief at the approaching Shield vehicles. Upset at not getting his way, The Goblin called them a nuisance and swore his revenge. “I’ll get you next time, Spiderman. Your little friends won't always be around to protect you,” he threatened before zipping away. 

As Shield landed and started to secure the area, Spiderman began inching away. “Well, this sure has been fun, but I think I'm gonna go get a celebratory hotdog.” 

Sam pretended not to notice Spiderman’s labored breathing, squinted eyes, and slight limp as he held onto his torn suit. 

(If he reached out an arm, unsure of what was about to come out of his mouth, to help steady him, it’s just as well that Spiderman quickly shot out a line and swung off before Sam could get them both in trouble.)

oOOo

Despite their amazing contributions to keeping New York safe, Shield put the team to work on cleanup duty. Coulson had been very upset with them for disobeying orders and keeping people safe. Despite that, throughout the day (and their punishment), multiple people had come up to thank them, ask for their help, and take pictures. Nova spotted one such photographer helping push rubble away from the street, with a familiar head of brown hair. Nova frowned. What was he doing here? 

Nova kept a careful eye on him until they finally got dismissed by the Shield adults, before making a direct beeline for Parker. (His friends noticed too late, his only indicator that they were even aware being a faint “Where is Nova goin- oh not this again.”) 

As he got closer, he engaged in stealth mode, techniques taught to him by Coulson personally after his detention with MJ. Hiding behind Agent Rodriguez (who had arrived to take them home), he watched Parker. 

He was covered in dust, his shoes scuffed and torn. Had he been caught in the attack? Why was he still here, taking pictures of the cleanup efforts with the camera he had carried into Jameson’s office? That was strange, had the photographer not made it to the office in time? Poor sucker just lost his job to a kid. 

Nova watched as Parker scanned the skies, taking pictures of the heroes who had come out to help move heavy debris. Flash had mentioned he took pictures for the yearbook, but that was still no excuse to be superhero watching. It was dangerous… unless he wasn't doing it for the Bugle. Nova felt dread pool in his stomach. Was Parker collecting information on other heroes… for himself?

As he got closer, Nova noticed him shiver again. All the panic, fear, and stress must have wreaked havoc on his body. And all those bruises he must have gotten while hiding probably weren’t good for someone who most likely had some kind of hypoglycemia. Low blood sugar would explain why he was always eating, shivering, and had constant headaches and trips out of the classroom. It was hard to not notice. 

Despite intentionally keeping an eye on him, Nova somehow still lost him in the crowd. 

Luckily for him, he got a tap on the shoulder. Nova turned around, ready to be berated by his friends for absolutely no reason when he realized it was just Parker. He quickly put up his dukes. 

Noticing the hostility, Parker backed up and raised a fist as well, clutching a brick phone. “Watch it, I've got a Nokia and I'm not afraid to use it!” 

“No, you watch it! I’ve got lasers!” Sam threatened. 

Parker huffed. “No way a laser beats a brick phone!”

“I’ve got ten bucks that say otherwise!” He countered. 

“Okay, I toss it in the air and you shoot!” Parker smiled. Dear god, New Yorkers were insane. “One, two-“ but this was too interesting to pass up. Nova prepared to fire. 

Sadly, before they could go any further, the rest of the team finally made their way over. Parker mellowed out and gave them a little wave, similar to the one Spiderman had given earlier. 

Sam thought it was kinda cute- sorry, cool he meant cool - how Parker had picked up little habits from his friend. Both he and Harry had moments where they resembled each other in their own little ways. The way they smiled, the furrow in their brows at particularly stupid comments, the lightness in their movements. 

It was like when Danny learned to peel oranges the same way Luke did, how Ava crossed her arms the same way Danny did when listening to an absurd story, or how he started studying because of Ava. 

“Hey you guys did really great out there!” Parker exclaimed, raising a hand out for a high five. 

Nova wasn’t sure if he was comfortable with Parker complimenting them, seeing as that meant he had probably been watching the fight for Spiderman, incidentally studying them. That was knowledge he could use against them.

Not able to leave him hanging though, Nova begrudgingly gave him a fist bump instead, just to be difficult. Parker made a bemused expression. 

He had to play this cool. “So, Citizen, what's up with the camera?” he questioned. 

Parker looked surprised at being asked. “Oh this? It's my uncle's old camera. Digital, but I have a film camera at home too. I got the lens from a buddy of mine. It's got really good quality actually. Do you like cameras?” he asked. “My friend MJ actually had to steal this back for me after the principal at my school confiscated it while I was helping her investigate the cafeteria’s sudden increase in budget. She thinks it's a whole conspiracy, but I say why mess with a good thing, y’know?”

This was strange. Why was Parker trying to find out his interests if not to use them against him? Civilians were usually either too high energy or shy when interacting with them in costume. Parker was the complete opposite though. He treated them as equals, peers. Though seeing as his best friend was Spiderman, it wasn’t too strange.

“So why take pictures of heroes then?” Nova pressed. 

But Parker simply chuckled. “Dude this is New York. Taking pictures of heroes is about the same as taking a picture of a pigeon. Who knows, maybe if I get a good enough picture of a pigeon Jameson will post it on the next cover. Sorry about that by the way, don't take him too seriously. He thinks the moon is real,” he joked, before making a somber expression. “I regret giving him TikTok,” he confessed. 

Parker smiled again. “But hey why be depressed. You guys did an amazing job today from what I saw! Celebratory picture?” He shook his camera enticingly and pulled up some photos. 

As the team looked at Parker's pictures in awe, marveling at the some of the action shots he’d gotten of them and Spiderman during their fight, Nova's mind was racing. They looked a little beat up, but that was expected in a major crisis like this. Parker had a startling eye for detail. How had he managed to get so many shots, in so many different locations and angles? Had he been following them in the middle of such danger? 

“Yeah, I can't imagine being a superhero is easy. You know, it’s been a while since the last major earth-ending event, we better get ready for something to pop up, huh?” Was that a threat? Was Parker planning something? Why did he say we ? Was he planning something? 

Nova had seen him fiddle around with his little devices during their shared Spanish class. Parker was fully capable of arming some kind of doomsday device, after Flash had revealed that Parker had been one of Connors interns. 

Nova remembered Flash telling them that Parker's fighting career had stopped after his internship had begun, but that position no longer existed since The Lizard's disappearance, so what was Parker doing now? Being able to roll with the punches and the ability to create crazy gadgets were like the top two transferable skills into villainy. As Flash had said, “Maybe worry about it. ”

Oh god, was his descent into villainy accelerating? He must have gotten jealous of The Goblin taking Spiderman’s attention away from him. Sam was running out of time; he had to do something about this fast. Could he expose him and merge their friend groups faster? 

Before Nova could spiral any further, Parker excused himself to go home after such a long day. He wished them a nice weekend, and told them that if they're looking for Spiderman, the webslinger was usually out early on Sundays. 

The team resigned themselves to continue the hunt for Spiderman the next day. 

Chapter Text

It was the next fucking day and their pictures were all over New York. 

Ava smacked Sam over the head for swearing so loudly at 8am on a Sunday, but Sam simply couldn't care less. Their pictures were all over New York! Ava smacked him over the head again. 

Ok, technically the pictures were not plastered all over New York. They were only on the newsstands that sold copies of The Bugle. They knew because their guardian, Shield Pilot Rodriguez, had proudly held up a print copy for them to see after his morning jog. 

And technically they weren't even on the front page. That prize went to The Goblin because someone had gotten a really good shot of him getting punched in the face by Spiderman. No, Sam and his friends were featured on page three, under “Rookie Heroes Valiantly Defend City from Spiderman and Goblin Mayhem- Spiderman and Goblin plotting together?” Sam threw the issue onto the table in disbelief. It was ridiculous, half the article was taken up by the title! 

And ok, technically it wasn't like it mattered since barely anyone read print anymore. Most people just skimmed the titles. 

As his friends studied the newspaper over their (bagel-less, sigh) breakfast, the team was once again in awe of the pictures littering the article. Their mysterious photographer had knocked it out of the park once again with the amazing shots of the fight. 

Sam thoughtfully chewed his breakfast burrito as Danny and Luke shared the newspaper. How had no one spotted the photographer in the middle of the fight, especially when it seemed they were able to keep up with them? The only other person capable of keeping up during that fight was punching The Goblin. Only an especially fanatic individual would be crazy enough to try it. But no one was that obsessive. No one except… 

Sam stopped mid bite. No way, it couldn’t be. Sam could feel the dots connecting. Parker being spotted after The Goblin attack, camera in hand. Jameson demanded that his photographer show up in person or risk getting fired, and Parker showed up soon after. Following Parker to that weird fight club where he received a long range camera lens. Dread, horror, and fear pooled deep into his gut, as if someone had doused him in cold water, lead sunk into the pit of his stomach, other metaphors to signify what essentially a big fat ‘Uh Oh’. He hadn't been running an errand for the photographer as an intern, was Parker— 

“Oh right.” Danny interrupted Sam’s horrifying revelation, “So when are we going to talk about Parker being the photographer?” 

The table exploded. 

“WHAT THE FU–” Sam’s very reasonable reaction was cut off when Luke shoved his face away from Danny to insert his own bewildered comments. 

“Ok? Thanks for that? Great teamwork everybody?” Luke pulled his hand away in disgust when Sam began licking it. 

Sam couldn't believe Danny would withhold such vital information from them. From him. 

“I thought we all knew!” Danny defended. “I was going to ask about it, I swear, but then the whole Goblin thing happened, and we were hanging out with Spiderman—“

“We were not hanging out with Spiderman, we were saving New York. He just happened to be there,” Sam refuted, shoving Luke's hand away when he started wiping his hand on the back of his sweater to get rid of the saliva. 

Danny rolled his eyes. “Oh yeah, and he just happened to tell us what to do. Great going team leader, you let someone else take over.” 

“It’s called teamwork! It’s called collaboration! A leader makes tough choices in the heat of battle and I stand by our collective decision to trust in Harry,” Sam insisted. 

Danny raised his hand. “Technically, we don’t know for sure yet that Spiderman is Harry Osborn.” 

Sam stared at him in shock. “Are you kidding me? Who else could it be?” He turned towards Luke in confusion. After all this how could Danny even doubt? 

Luke was confused as well. Harry not being Spiderman? Unlikely. They'd gotten into so many fights with him out of costume already. There was no doubting he had a heroic spirit. He was running them off on a near daily basis. Plus, of the few glimpses they had gotten of Parker before Harry ran them off, his altruistic nature shone through every time he gave Parker another one of his absurdly expensive sweaters with little to no regard. Not to mention the Spiderman suits that had to be eating up his allowance. The only other alternative would be making them by hand. And there was no one insane enough to subject themselves to continuously hand repair them between all the schoolwork and Spidermanning. Luke would say that was a pretty strong argument for what he had essentially come to think of as the future Iron Man. And all that without mentioning his “heroic build”, as Sam loved to point out.

“I just fell for the most common trope in all sitcoms—miscommunication,” Danny said solemnly. “I refuse to fall for another. So until we get solid confirmation, Spiderman's identity is a complete mystery to me. I cannot rely on assumptions, I still have much to learn.”

Sam put his head in his hands. “You’ve got to be kidding me. Ok, as your brave and confident leader I’m going to ignore that right now, because that still doesn’t solve our problem. We still need proof.” 

“You’re just mad we’re not on the front page,” Luke teased. “And that Spiderman gave you a raincheck.”

Sam shot up in his chair. “He’s a very busy guy, and so are we! It was mutual!” 

(From her chair, Ava yawned. She had been there the whole time, just resting her eyes. And her head. She wasn’t even sure what they were arguing about anymore, just that they were being too loud.)

Luke raised his hands in a placating gesture, much like one did to settle a startled horse, that Sam did not much appreciate. He was not a jock. “Look, we have the photographer's identity, let’s just ask Parker if he’s got photos of Harry with the mask off,” he offered. 

“If it’s Harry,” Danny reminded them.

“It’s Harry,” Sam insisted. It was Harry. Danny simply gave him a noncommittal hum.  

Luke interjected before the situation could escalate again. “Guys there’s a simple solution here, we just talk to Parker and ask him for Spiderman pictures. Surely he can give us something.” 

Sam rubbed his eyes. “Ok yeah sure, let’s try and grab the guy Osborn is resource guarding, no biggie. Oh wait, we’re back at square one because the reason we went after the photographer was because we couldn’t get to Harry or Parker to ask questions.” This was ridiculous. Why couldn’t they remember that? These guys were so lucky to have him as leader. 

“Then what now, fearless leader?” Luke asked, exasperated. 

Sam became flustered. He hadn’t thought this far ahead. “What else do you want me to do? It’s Sunday, I can’t magically make either of them appear.” Sam didn't actually want to confront them at all, not yet. He had a plan, something he had been cooking up with MJ, just not one that was ready to be revealed yet. Not until he had laid the groundwork. Work that would be trampled by his team if they went after Parker. 

“We need a plan Sam, we can’t just wait until Monday to confront either of them,” Luke pushed. Sam would need to distract them, and throw the focus back onto Spiderman. 

(As the boys continued to argue, Ava, still half asleep, squinted her eyes in displeasure. Hopefully they’d remember the plan to go out sooner rather than later. Parker had told them Spiderman would be out today. For now she would continue trying to get a bit more rest. And a sip of that coffee Shield Pilot Rodriguez had just slipped her.) 

oOOo

Peter was having a good day for once. 

When he had originally gone out bright and early to try and catch The Amazing Teen Team in action, he hadn't remembered until he was already downtown that they had never actually agreed on any sort of location or time. He could have gone back home. But Peter didn’t like the idea of going home right now. The house just felt empty when May wasn't around. 

Peter figured he might as well take this opportunity to get something very important done. Something that had been weighing heavily on his mind. Something that he should have done a long time ago. 

Peter crouched patiently atop a streetlight, waiting for Jameson to walk out of the subway exit closest to The Bugle. After weeks of meticulous planning and extensive research of his target's patterns, Spiderman set his plan into motion. 

He heard his target long before he saw him, and with the perfect angling of his wrist, he quickly shot out a web and snatched the phone from out of his hands. 

After borrowing Jameson’s phone, he skedaddled his way out of reach. Still in plain sight of his boss, he paced horizontally across a billboard advertising that their lemon lime toothpaste was the best and got to work. Through great effort, dedication, sweat, tears, and a couple of memorized tutorials on blocking apps from phones, he finally deactivated Jameson’s TikTok account and deleted the app from his phone. 

Destroyed. Deleted. Gone. He even installed a child lock on the phone that prevented the download of the app entirely, as one could never be too safe. This was it. The end of that nightmare. And if God was real it would stay that way.

Turning his attention back to Jameson (who was causing a scene on the street below), Peter could feel the metaphorical weight of his sins lift off of his shoulders. He had done it. He had saved the city. Was this what it felt like to be relieved of crushing guilt? Peter felt like he should do this more often, it felt fantastic. 

With this good deed out of the way, Spiderman returned the phone to his angry boss by tossing it into the air and shooting a web that essentially glued it to Jameson’s hand before he swung off to the melodic tones of angry shouting and threats of exposing him for hacking his phone. 

“This is for your own good! You’ll thank me one day Mr. Jameson!” He called out before he got too far. Spiderman felt great. 

After that, he spent the rest of his morning doing other regular Spiderman stuff. Just the usual: helped old ladies cross the street, helped a woman recover a wedding ring from a drain, directed a tourist to the nearest subway station to get where he wanted to go, stopped a car theft in progress with one of the Avengers, talked the Hulk down from smashing another car, had a nice chat with Dr. Banner about the paper world-renowned biochemist Dr. Curt Connors had co-authored titled ‘The Effects of Radiation on Biochemistry and their Consequences on Mood’, and escorted a nearly naked Dr. Banner home—all before noon. Ok, so maybe he had been fishing for compliments from one of his remaining idols about that paper, but Peter felt he deserved a little praise for something outside of his afterschool activities every now and then. 

Especially since that paper had finally been published after being stuck in editing and peer review hell. There had been some controversy on publishing one of the (late? Hmm, Peter didn’t want to think about that right now) doctor’s papers, but since it was ultimately his students' research it had eventually been given the go-ahead. 

But now, he had nothing left to do. Crime never rested, but it sure took lunch. As he waited for the new heroes to show up, Peter sat down on the top of a nearby building. He was a good distance from the street, high enough that no normal person would be able to see or hear him, but not far enough that his advanced hearing wouldn’t be able to pick up on what was happening below. Pulling out the peanut butter sandwich Aunt May had made him, he ripped off a piece to feed to the pigeons that had gathered as he read a billboard advertising that actually, their all-natural lemon lime toothpaste was the best. 

Peter didn't think he would be trying either of them. He already had to switch to non-mint flavored toothpaste because of the smell. 

As he fed the pigeons, Peter lamented out loud about how his powers sometimes made life hard. The human mind wasn’t built to withstand the strength of such enhanced senses on a daily basis. Between the heightened sense of smell and improved eyesight, every day could be a battle. His audience of only birds cooed in sympathy. 

Sometimes wearing sunglasses worked well enough. But he wasn't exactly a sunglasses kind of guy before the spider bite, and he wasn't about to become one now. He wished he could use the Spiderman lenses from his mask at school to avoid the occasional migraine, but while it was definitely the less embarrassing option for him, showing up to school in Spiderman's mask would be too risky. And with the way the Teen Team kept looking at him, he wanted to create the least amount of association between himself and Spiderman. (A bit hard with what had happened yesterday, but he needed those pictures.) 

Aside from his sight, his hearing could also be a problem. After a classmate had shown him their pair of noise-cancelling headphones one day, it had changed his life for the brief few seconds he was trying them on. He hadn't really expected them to work as well as they did, but now he felt like couldn't live without them. He was currently saving up to buy a pair of his own for when he was off-duty. (Harry had offered to buy him the headphones, but he wasn't going to take advantage of his friend like that). 

Tearing off another piece of his sandwich, he tempted the pigeons to come closer. His headphone savings were fairly small because a majority of his income went to feeding himself so that May wouldn’t notice. He should probably be eating the sandwich himself, since this was one of the few meals his job earnings didn’t pay for. He should be taking advantage of every meal he could get. A nutritionist he had saved had given him some diet tips after she found out how much he was eating–not enough. Whatever money he had would typically go towards pasta, milk, and peanut butter. Pasta was his favorite of her recommendations. 

It was bad enough that his friends had noticed his increased hunger–they all carried snacks for him now despite his protests. But Peter had to admit it had saved him more than a couple times. Any time his blood sugar got too low he would start to feel weak and lightheaded. 

Thankfully that wasn't too different from his previous health conditions, so he already knew how to handle it and avoid being sent to the nurse’s office where they’d call May. At least he didn't suffer from asthma anymore. That had been annoying. 

He wondered if the other superpowered teens had to deal with this kind of stuff. He had seen hints of Powerman’s strength in his day to day life, but at least he wasn't sticking to doors and ripping the handles off. Nova didn't seem like he had to worry about his powers at all. From what Peter understood he could just take the helmet off and be a regular person if he wanted. (Did that vulnerability scare him?) 

The pigeons around him fluttered about trying to get whatever treats he gifted them. It was funny watching them whistle and coo everytime they flapped their wings. 

White Tiger… he had no idea how her powers worked. She definitely had greater stamina than the average person, jumped faster, farther, and higher, and had some serious power behind those claws, since he’d seen her decimate the guys in P.E. (Peter was pretty sure she wasn’t even aware they shared the same P.E.). Her head turned whenever Gwen whispered anything to him, but he couldn't tell if it was because of any enchanted hearing, or if it was because Gwen was making sure she could hear her comments. 

Ava also growled at him during class that first week. But that could be nothing. 

She definitely wasn’t a mutant either, the X-Men wouldn’t have let her join Shield. So yeah, probably enhanced. Maybe she had been bitten by a radioactive tiger. 

As he chewed, one of the pigeons got close enough to hop up onto the ledge, bobbing its head back and forth. Its beautiful amber eyes started deep into his soul. This pigeon… it understood him.

Out of all of them, Iron Fist seemed to be the most in control of his abilities. Unfortunately, that was about all Peter could tell about him, since he seemed to be a very strong silent type. He couldn’t remember him talking more than a few sentences while in costume, and he usually had this really far away look to him, almost like his universe was exploding. But even without knowing exactly how strong he was, spidey sense was the loudest when the Iron Fist was about to strike. Easier to just avoid getting hit. 

Pigeons could keep secrets, right? He tossed a piece of ham to his companions with a sigh. He held out a smaller piece on his finger, tempting any of them to come closer. One of them hopped closer to him as it pecked at its gift. It was his favorite. The bravest. The most intelligent. The one. 

Peter didn’t get it. Sure Shield wanted his identity, and they wanted him to train their baby heroes, but why were these teens being so aggressive about it? It almost felt like they wanted to bring him in! 

He reached out to pet his pigeon. It came closer until it hopped up onto his lap. 

Maybe being part of Shield wouldn’t be so bad though. If he joined Shield he wouldn’t have to worry about food as much, he’d have someone looking out for him in fights, and they would provide him with resources like the headphones he was saving up for. 

He gently began to pet the fragile bird. Not too hard, he had to be very careful right now. The pigeon just squinted its eyes and began to coo. This was awesome. 

Fury couldn’t get him to join his little after school club and now he wanted him to agree to be their mentor. It might even be a good deal, he already did tutoring. 

…Who was he kidding, he knew better than to trust that. He wasn’t that lucky. Especially when he knew Fury was behind everything. Just another ploy from someone who wanted his secret identity. 

“Well tough luck pal, so does half of New York. Get in line. Connors knew, and just look where it got him!” (Actually, it was better not to think about that. Yeah, repression for the win.) 

Peter gave the rest of his sandwich to his pigeon. “Am I right or am I right, huh Gustave?” Pigeons could probably keep secrets, right? Patient confidentiality? 

The pigeon he was sharing his woes with cooed in sympathy as it nibbled on his fingers for the remaining pieces of bread. He loved bird therapy. The one true completely judgment-free zone. Airing out all of these concerns to the pigeons always made him feel better. Some of his villains could probably use bird therapy. He certainly wasn’t good enough at convincing people to not be criminals. 

(And he was starting to believe someone thought Peter Parker was a criminal, which, why?) 

But surely it couldn’t be that hard to convince his fellow heroes to leave him alone. Not that he was a hero–superheroing was their job. Spiderman was his escape from his trash fire life. 

A superhero was good and shiny, assisted by government funding and agencies and money. If anything he felt closer to a human trash bag, with how many times he had been thrown in a dumpster. He was sure the nepo-babies weren’t thrown in dumpsters. Actually, why did he stand for being thrown in dumpsters? This was ridiculous! That was the kind of stuff that made people become supervillains. 

To heck with it! Maybe he should become evil for a day, see how they liked it. Jameson would try to make a big deal out of it of course, but without TikTok to spread his nonsense, and a conveniently sick photographer, the story wouldn’t get much traction. He could totally be a good bad guy, and who would stop him? It wasn’t like the super squad was on time. This was what they got for being late. 

Peter jerked his finger back when Gustave bit him particularly hard. Gustave was right, that wasn’t the best idea. Those poor kids, they probably didn’t even have a police communicator. He felt bad for them, how were they going to keep up with crime if they didn’t know what was happening? Did they aimlessly scour the city like he did back when he first started? 

Spiderman scratched the top of Gustave’s head. He really seemed to like that. 

The Teen Team probably didn’t get as beat up as he did back then. And then thrown in a dumpster. They had each other's back, and four against one was hardly fair. All Peter usually had was the element of surprise. Plus they weren’t complete rookies like he had been. Peter was thankful he didn’t end up in a dumpster during his first encounter with them. That would have been embarrassing. 

Those guys actually worked pretty well as a team… Almost as if they only knew how to work well as a team. Like something was making them work as a team, instead of letting them embrace their individual strengths in a fight. (Though too much individuality often led to friendly fire. The Frightful Four were far more independent, but that meant they didn’t care what their teammates were doing, or what happened to them.)

But that’s what happened when you were funded by the government. All those rules and regulations, thinking about how they wanted you to do things. Gustave cooed in agreement, as Peter continued narrating his thoughts and scratching the little guy on the head pensively. Sometimes less oversight was better. 

… Wait, was he starting to sound like one of his criminals? Hopefully this wouldn’t leak into his science brain. 

Either way, he’d had enough trouble with them at school. Those kids were nothing but trouble. Gwen had already called Peter out on his having to ditch them more often, all because he was dealing with the team's nonsense. They were terrible at trying to keep their secret identities a secret. He’d already had to dissuade, convince, and otherwise redirect other people’s suspicions away from new heroes. 

And after everything Peter was doing to help them, they were still harassing Harry in a clear attempt to get through to him. 

The worst part was that Harry seemed more worried about Peter than himself! Peter hated making Harry worry so much. At least his grades had never been better. Mr. Osborn had been proud of him. Peter was really proud of him, even if they did see less of the general populace these days. And they had finally convinced the girls to join their lunch study. So actually maybe them harassing his friends as a form of intimidation was a good thing?

But maybe it wasn’t such a good thing since MJ was getting close to Nova, or rather Sam, and Peter was worried she was up to something. 

Who was he kidding? She was definitely up to something. But she seemed to have everything handled, and he knew better than to get in her way. Sam… There was just too much going on with that guy. Peter knew everyone was a little in love with MJ, so they approached him. To get close to her. Peter just prayed he would make it out unscathed. 

Gustave began to wiggle in his grasp, so Peter let go. His little therapist fluttered up to his shoulder, and perched himself there. 

And then there was White Tiger, who seemed to have a hard time with her classmates and was maybe about to be killed by his girl friends. But hey, maybe not? Maybe Gwen would have mercy on her. Gustave let out a little yawn. It was the cutest thing he had ever seen, Peter didn’t know that pigeons could yawn. Best of luck Ava, Peter couldn’t even begin to imagine what she was up to. 

Danny just seemed completely lost, as expected of someone who was homeschooled. Some TV would do him some good. 

Finally, Luke. He seemed to struggle the most with his powers. From what Peter could tell, it seemed like nothing could hurt him. Punching him was like hitting an adamantine wall, and his strength was incredible. But he seemed so scared to even move sometimes. It was only when he seemingly forgot to be scared that he acted like a normal person, and thus regained full control of his strength. Still, Peter understood the feeling. He remembered when he first got his powers, how scared he had been to even hold his friends. 

But Peter eventually got over that. Certain exercises helped him with his strength control until he was able to juggle eggs without leaving so much as a crack. Ok that was a lie. Peter couldn’t juggle but he would catch a few of them and not crush them in his fists. Luke probably had it easy with all that fancy Shield training, surely they were helping him adjust his strength. Strength training was more than just trying to be stronger. It was about knowing when to be gentle, too. 

At the very least he had Flash with him. He was doing just fine! Yep! So they didn't need him! It’s not like he could do much for them anyway  

“Isn’t that right Gustave?” Peter asked Gustave, his therapist. The pigeon only cooed at him to ask for more scratches. Peter sighed. 

Maybe all of this would blow over. Maybe all he really had to worry about would be the real life-threatening emergency he had on his hands—his next group project, of which he had gotten partnered with Flash. Usually this would be no big deal. He would do all the work, Flash would leave him alone and go hang out with his cronies during their work period, and they both got a good grade. 

But for some reason, Flash was really insistent on being ‘helpful’ this time around. Which would have been fine, if this project wasn’t worth half their grade . Now Peter had to keep an eye on him. Whoever had convinced Flash to try and do his share of the project was now Peter’s number one enemy. 

Why must his life be so hard? Was there something especially tragic about his childhood that led to the circumstances of today? Maybe it was simply the fact that his parents were scientists, that the universe loved to test him like a little lab rat. Didn't he deserve a break? Or at least a little treat? 

Usually, Peter liked to avoid thinking too hard about certain complicated topics, but having someone to open up to who wouldn’t judge him helped. Maybe it was finally time to really analyze the impact his male role models had on him and his development, especially when they kept getting violently ripped away from him.   

But just as Peter was about to finally open up about his issues regarding finding father figures in the grown men around him, only for them to turn into lizard men who try to take over New York, the Teen Team swooped by. They seemed to be chasing some bank robber, who at this point was probably running for his life. Those kids were scary. 

He would have to consider finding a more stable adult figure in his life, like Norman Osborn, later. Grabbing his therapist, because he had already paid good bread for this session, he swung away. 

oOOo

Ava was having a bad day. 

Ok, so maybe she was exaggerating. She and her team were tying up the bank robbers that they had just caught for the police. But they could have done so much more by now if they hadn't been arguing all morning.

Now that she was sticking to a healthier sleep schedule rather than practically staying awake all night, she had a much easier time corralling the boys in the morning. The boys encouraged her to not stay up late, and Rodriguez had even implemented a no phone past 9 pm policy unless it was a weekend. She was grateful for their support in encouraging healthy sleeping habits. That was good. 

What was not so good was discovering that Ava was actually a very heavy sleeper. Zombie in the morning heavy sleeper. It almost felt as if her body was trying to catch up on years of sleep now that it felt safe, now that Ava allowed herself this rest. Which she thought was weird. It had never been an issue before, but apparently this was because she never slept long or deeply enough to fall into REM sleep. But her zombie state was only for the first hour! Ava knew this was a problem, and she wouldn't let herself be caught unaware and risk her team's safety like that. She needed to fix that. 

So for the last two weeks she had been waking up early every day taking her zombie hour into consideration so that when her team needed her she would always be ready. She could never let herself be caught unprepared again. 

Every morning now consisted of getting up at 4 am, getting ready in fifteen minutes, and then spending the rest of her time studying in her room. This was a great use of her time before school. She was getting the most sleep she had in a long time and earning good grades! What was that term Sam used the other day? Minmaxing? 

Today hadn't been one of those days that she had set an alarm for, though, so when the boys had gone to wake her up for Spiderman hunting, she wasn't mentally prepared. She used to handle sleep deprivation much better, maybe she should go back to that. Ava was really tired and it wasn’t even lunch yet. 

As if reading her mind, Sam’s stomach growled. “Hey, is it lunch yet?” He asked.  

Wait a minute, maybe it was lunch. Was it noon? Only one way to tell. Ava stared at the sun. 

Luke quickly put a hand over her eyes before answering. “Ok lunch. Let's go get a sandwich.” 

Following Luke’s lead, they took a break above a nearby apartment complex from the bodega where they bought their sandwiches in full costume, an occurrence not that uncommon with the frequency of heroes and crackheads. Ava got herself a tripleta sandwich- delicious steak, pork and ham. Luke’s chopped cheese looked pretty good, but if she had to steal a bite from someone it would definitely have been Sam’s pastrami on rye. Danny, sadly, got a salad on bread. Not even any condiments or salami on it. 

Bodegas were one of the things that Ava had really enjoyed since coming to New York. While Shield had an amazing cafeteria, she didn’t think it compared to being able to walk up to a new restaurant and try something she’d never even heard of. 

Nor could it beat the strange sights one would witness in the city on a daily basis. For example, Ava could enjoy reading the strange advertisements all over the city, from dating sites to musicals. There was even a billboard for all-natural lemon lime toothpaste! Who was paying for this kind of stuff? 

As Ava and the team discussed their plans for the future of their investigation, the sounds of the city and the neighborhood kids hanging out continued unbothered on the steps below. 

“Ok. After this morning it’s been made pretty clear we need to communicate better as a team,” Luke said, taking a final bite of his sandwich. 

“Again, I assumed it was very obvious that Peter Parker was the photographer and that we were on the same page about confronting him later,” Danny defended. 

Luke nodded his head. “Which is part of the issue. The original reason we were looking for the photographer was because it was impossible to get to either Harry or Parker to question them.”

Ava tilted her head curiously. “Why don’t we just go after them?” Surely at this point, they could just brute force an answer out of them. It was getting ridiculous how many convoluted plans they had to come up with just to have one guy admit he was Spiderman. 

“Because every time we do, it’s like Harry has some sort of sixth sense that alerts him. We can never get close to them,” Luke reminded her. 

“I don’t think it’s a good idea,” Sam said, through a bite of his sandwich. He was always a slow eater. “I actually have a plan.”

Luke seemed to think about that for a moment, before he decided to ignore Sam. “At this point, this is our last resort. There has to be some other way in.” 

“The girls?” Danny offered.  

“Stop ignoring me!” Sam yelled. Even if it was a little mean, Ava couldn’t help but chuckle. She almost wanted to ask what his plan was, but knowing him it probably had something to do with Parker again. They had to focus on Spiderman. 

Luke glanced at Ava. “Never mind, that’s our last resort.”

“Well, maybe our best source is someone more local. Kids love Spiderman, and Spiderman loves kids. Who knows, maybe these kids know something,” Luke said as he pointed to the scene below. Several neighborhood kids congregated around the steps of the old apartment building, laughing and playing. The bodega worker watched through the service window to make sure they weren’t getting into too much trouble. 

Luke had a point, Ava thought. Sometimes your best sources were those with too much time on their hands and connections to the local scene. Looking down, Ava noticed one of the kids even had a Spiderman backpack. 

“Oh yeah, I’m so down to spy on children, why not,” Sam said sarcastically. “I’m telling you I have a plan, we don't need to get these kids involved.” 

“Shush, they're talking about Spiderman.” 

Straining her ears, Ava heard the tallest child brag about his knowledge to his friends. 

“I heard he has spider powers. That's why he's called Spiderman.” 

Next to him, the slightly smaller kid with the Spiderman backpack scoffed. “No duh, he sticks to walls and has webs.” 

The first kid, now dubbed Tall Child, crossed his arms. “So? Geckos stick to walls too and you don't see him calling himself Geckoman. Nah man, Spiderman? My uncle got caught by him, and Spiderman said he was gonna summon a thousand spiders,” Tall Child claimed proudly. Ava wasn’t sure that was something to be proud of. 

Backpack Kid made a face. “No way?“

“Way,” Said Tall Child. 

The youngest child, holding a basketball, looked surprised. “And did your uncle die?”

“No idiot, how would he have been born then?” Said the final kid, in light-up tennis shoes. 

Backpack Kid laughed. 

Ok, so maybe gullible children fed information by their equally gullible relatives weren’t actually the best source of information. 

oOOo 

Across the street, Spiderman was clutching his sides trying his hardest not to cry. 

He knew exactly which criminal the tall kid on the brownstone steps was talking about. That had been hilarious , how was he supposed to know the man was afraid of spiders? He should start using the spider summoning lie more often. But with his luck, he would inspire some arachnologists. He had enough spider nonsense in this life, thank you. 

The children continued their conversation blissfully unaware of the psychic damage they were inflicting on their listeners. 

Peter watched the child with the light-up sketchers look at the kid with the backpack dubiously. “… I don’t think that’s how that works,” he said. 

“Of course that's not how genetics work,” the oldest kid retorted. 

The poor innocent youngest sibling stamped his foot. “Yeah! Our uncle ran away before the spiders could eat him.” It was cute that he would back up their older sibling like that. 

“But that's how Kenny’s family works.” Sketchers kid said, confused. 

The youngest kid nodded solemnly, still clutching his ball. “Yeah. That's because his mom cheated on his dad.”

Peter lost it. 

oOOo

Mechanical laughter startled Ava. 

“Spiderman!” The children shouted in delight. 

From the opposite building, Spiderman startled and whipped his head around. “Where!?” 

Despite herself, Ava snorted. The kids began waving their arms at their neighborhood hero, all clamoring for his attention. 

“You wanna play basketball with us?” 

“Can you really summon spiders?”

“Can you tell him that he’s being stupid?” 

“I don’t have a question but hi Spiderman!” 

Spiderman gestured for them to settle. “Friends, please, one at a time. We have guests today.” He turned his head to where Ava and her team were very secretly doing their reconnaissance mission. 

Shit, they had been spotted. Before she could even lunge at him, Spiderman had already pinned their feet to the floor. Nova, who had been in the middle of taking off, comically windmilled his arms, barely catching himself in time before face planting anyway. As he lifted himself back up, his hands were immediately webbed to the floor as well. Ava would have laughed if it weren't for the fact that his lasers would now be useless.

She struggled against the webs, clawing at them fiercely but to no avail. That was ok though, Powerman could probably break himself out of those webs anytime now. 

“What?” exclaimed Powerman. While he had been able to stand up, his feet were glued up to his calves. He tugged at the webbing with his hands but it was no use, “I can’t break myself out of these webs!” 

“Do you like the new webs? Custom formula for stronger foes,” Spiderman bragged before making a heart shape with his hands. They were doomed.  

Sam went still. “Parker,” he muttered under his breath. Spiderman went still for a split second. “He must have made them.” Ava was glad for her enhanced hearing, with him being facedown she would have otherwise missed it as the words were muffled by the rooftop gravel. 

Thanks to the adrenaline from the scare, she was feeling much more awake. Maybe she could wear down the material. Sure, her claws kept bouncing off of it instead of doing any significant damage, but quitters never prospered. 

She had hoped that her teammates were on the same page, but was disappointed to see that all three of the boys had simply given up. Typical. As the kids distracted Spiderman with their continued requests for him to show off his powers, Ava kept clawing. 

“Guys, do something,” Ava hissed at her teammates, as Spiderman did a backflip despite the gray lump he was holding in his hand… Was that a pigeon? 

Spiderman seemed completely unbothered by her attempts to get free. Ava wasn't sure if this was a good thing, but if he was taking the villain-like overconfidence route then maybe things were looking up. He even started monologuing. Probably not a good sign, Ava thought. 

“Y’know, for New York’s ‘newest heroes’ I really don’t see you as often as I should. It makes me feel like a terrible friend,” he lamented. “Then I did find you and immediately wished I hadn’t." Well, that was rude. 

Iron Fist, who had never gotten a chance to fully stand up and thus had his hands webbed to the floor, trapping him and his sandwich in a sitting position, spoke up. “Aha, Spiderman, we have found you. We must talk.” 

Spiderman spluttered. “ You found me ? Are you sure?”

Iron Fist continued unbothered. “It is a matter of great importance, to us and to Shield.”

Spiderman sighed. “You only ever talk to me when you want something. Whatever happened to ‘Hello Spiderman, how was your day?’”

Iron Fist persisted. “As has been the case since we entered the city, we once again require knowledge of your secret identity.” Ava wanted to bang her head against a wall. It was almost as if Iron Fist wanted Spiderman to reject them. To fail in their mission. To stay the rest of the year in school. 

“Wow, you're shameless. That’s very interesting. It's almost like you want me to say no. Honestly, you guys only ever want to punch me in the face and take my mask off luchador- style. What happened to please ?”

Ava glared at him. She would try anything at this point for the nightmare to end. “ Please take off your mask.”

“What, so I can join your little boy band?” He said, making a spinny hand gesture at them, before recoiling dramatically. “No thanks. I have all I need,” he said before proudly holding up his pigeon. 

Wait. It actually was a pigeon? Why the fuck did he just have a pigeon? Who just has a pigeon? How had she not noticed that? That was too much for Ava, she just wanted to sleep. 

Ava exploded. “We don't want you!”

“Then why are you chasing me?” Spiderman asked. 

(Luke was too stunned to answer. Here was Spiderman, strong enough to catch buses, break through concrete, stop moving trains, and with an unmistakable force behind every punch. Spiderman was holding a pigeon and waving it around like it was nothing. Such a delicate creature and it was remarkably calm throughout all this.) 

“For Shield,” Iron Fist insisted. Ava couldn’t see what Iron Fist was getting at. It was as if he was trying to provoke a specific response out of Spiderman. 

“Yes but why ? You know that whoever wants me never has good intentions right? Why are Fury and Shield after me?” he questioned. How did he know about Fury, the secretest secret spy in the world? 

Ava didn't know how to respond, though luckily Nova answered for her. “Someone needs to know your identity to hold you accountable. To keep us in check.” 

Spiderman grimaced. “And Shield should be the one to do it? Because that has historically gone well.”

Ava watched Iron Fist's entire demeanor change as he sat up in attention. Was he…

“Yes,” Nova said. Ava suddenly realized what Danny was doing. She redoubled her efforts to claw away at the webbing while Spiderman was distracted. 

Spiderman seemed to react strongly to Nova’s words. “How many people have died because the police were waiting for approval from some guy in an office? How easily has the blame been passed to someone else because of a chain of command? Because of miscommunications? How many leaders were given a pass because they took too long to respond when their inaction had consequences? I’m not gonna stand in line and wait for some guy in a business suit to tell me who I can and can’t save. No thanks, I work better alone.”

Danny was a genius. Getting him to monologue was the perfect distraction, and if they could get Sam to start arguing with him then they would have a greater window of opportunity. Ava thanked the monks at Danny’s homeschool for teaching him to argue with idiots. 

Despite her best efforts, Ava didn't feel that she had made much of a dent with her clawing. Fortunately, it seemed that Iron Fist's brilliant plan was working. Though perhaps a bit too well. 

“That’s the thing though, you’re going to make a mistake someday. And when you do, who's going to make sure justice is served?” Nova countered. 

“Tell me then- what is justice? Tell me what Shield's definition of justice is. Tell me that the definition of it won’t change in one generation, in one election cycle, in one catastrophe. Why does Shield get to decide what part of what I do is wrong or right? Justice is not for just one body of government, let alone Shield, to decide.” 

Wait a second, hadn’t they already had this conversation? Her clawing slowed. Who did he remind her of… the realization struck her. 

“Just like Jameson…” she gasped.

“YOU TAKE THAT BACK!” Spiderman staggered, before collapsing onto the floor. He clutched one hand to his chest as if he had been shot. “Oh god no please, anything but that,” he moaned dramatically. He brought the pigeon up to his face. “Quick! Gustave, my pigeon therapist, what coping strategy do I use?”

On the street below, the kids were still watching their interaction and laughing. It was a good thing Spiderman was distracted by his own dramatics, as the team… didn’t have an answer for him. After a few more seconds of this, Spiderman shot back up with a spin. “Alright, quick poll. Who says all heroes' identities should be revealed to the public, raise your hands.” 

Timidly, Luke raised his hand. Huh. That was slightly surprising. He was interestingly quiet during the entire conversation with Jameson. 

Spiderman nodded. “Who says secret identities should be known to the government?” 

Danny attempted to raise his hand, but seeing as his hands were actually webbed to the floor simply stated, “I raise my hand.”

“And finally, who says no one but the people who have been told should know?”

As much as she didn't want to side with the enemy, Ava found herself raising a hand with Spiderman. Ava knew the dangers of having the wrong person know your secret identity. And while she trusted Fury and Shield, who was to say the information couldn’t be leaked? It was the one thing that kept her up at night, the fear of what happened to her father happening to her before she got her revenge. 

All in all, everyone's vote made sense- wait a second. Ava turned to her favorite teammate. “Sa- I mean Nova.” Saved. “What did you vote for? I didn't see.”

“I didn’t vote.”

“What, why?”  Luke asked. 

“Because my freaking hands are webbed to the floor. Plus this is dumb. What difference does it make?”

“Uh oh, that’s the indecision talking,” Spiderman said. 

“It’s just- we’re all heroes and if we all joined Shield then we’d all be doing good! What does it matter if they know or not?”

“It matters that you had a choice, Tin Can Jr. Plus, technically I’m not a hero. I’m a vigilante,” Spiderman said, almost proudly. 

Nova scoffed. “That’s the same thing.” 

“You’d think so,” Spiderman said, with a wag of his finger. 

Nova frowned. “Well, then what’s the difference.”

“Government funding. And dumpsters.” 

“Dumpsters?” Ava asked. What the hell did dumpsters have to do with heroics?

“Exactly. You don't know so you're not a vigilante," Spiderman stated. Why did Ava feel like she was getting looked down on for this? “But could you imagine Daredevil getting thrown in dumpsters in his daily life? Or Deadpool for that matter. But I mean, Deadpool is a mercenary so he actually doesn't count." Spiderman said in disgust. Wait, Daredevil was real?

Powerman looked confused. “Deadpool is a good guy.”

Spiderman froze, before slowly turning to Powerman with a delicate tone of voice. “Oh, buddy…” he gently raised his pigeon, sandwiched between his hands as if it were a burger he was about to take a bite out of, towards Luke. Wait… didn’t some spiders eat birds? “I think you're going to need to hold Gustave for this. Ava watched Luke recoil. 

Sam seemed to have had enough. “Fuck man, just join our boyband!” 

Spiderman quickly webbed his eyes, blinding him. “Novathaniel! Please, there are children present!” 

The kids below were relaxed, if a bit bored-looking. “Don't worry Spiderman, we already know those swear words.”

The youngest kid raised his hand. “I didn't!”  

oOOo

Spiderman placed Gustave on his head. 

“Anyway, you guys did a great job yesterday. I don’t think I could have done it so fast without you. You had no clue what you were up against and still managed to hold The Goblin off until I got there.” He felt a warm rush of pride at the team. “I think you guys should split up more, and play to your strengths. Like Nova here definitely gives a good chase, but having to wait for everyone is a bit of a drag. White Tiger is great for foot chases as it’s easier for her to make tight turns,” he rambled. 

Was it wrong to give his enemies, pursuers, and greatest annoyances tips on how to fight? Maybe. “Why not corral criminals to your heavy hitters? Iron Fist and Powerman here can keep up, sure, but why exhaust them before the fight? It takes time to wind up a punch, or a strong stance to tackle someone to the ground. You need to know who you’re up against or else you’ll get another situation like yesterday. You can’t take on everyone.”  But better to hunt him and still be alive than dead, even if he was giving his enemies ammunition against him. It was worth keeping them all safe. 

“Just some thoughts. But I'm not joining your little club. I'm just trying to make sure nothing like yesterday happens again. You already have enough trouble tackling me. The very least we can do is make sure you can keep up with the guys who lose to me.” Despite everything, Peter was glad for that short team up. Certainly the only one he'd ever do with them, and they had meshed so well. They listened to him as an equal, unlike the other superheroes and Shield. Which was weird because he was pretty sure they all thought he was an adult. 

“Dude we could totally take you ,” Nova argued. Ok, moment gone. 

“We have more than proven that’s not true,” he said, gesturing to the everything about them currently. 

One of the kids began chanting. “Do it, do it, do it!” The other children soon joined in. 

Now there was an idea… They did say that nature was the best therapy. That’s why he had the pigeon. But the other great form of healing was revenge. Revenge was pretty up there too. 

Spiderman puffed up his chest. “Alright, you wanna prove that? Right here, right now. Let’s run a little test.” It would be fun to mess with them. Peter could act a little evil, as a treat. This would be a fun game, because what are games if not lessons? 

(Not that he’s their mentor.)

“Alright, I have decided to turn evil. Just for you guys.” The kids below began to cheer. (Ava was horrified. Oh god. She hadn't meant for Spiderman to actually turn into a villain!)

First, Peter had to get into character. 

Peter collapsed to the ground, startling Gustave who fluttered away as he emulated every adult mentor he had seen transform. He clutched his head, and began growling as if transforming into a crazed creature. He could tell the baby heroes were a bit startled by his incredible acting skills (courtesy of MJ) while the kids below started shouting suggestions. 

“Spiderman, you should take us hostage!”

“You should start a turf war!” 

“Rob the bank! Or graffiti the police station!” 

“Unleash your spiders on the city!” 

Those were all terrible suggestions, but those were the children of actual criminals for you. Spiderman interrupted his performance out of concern. “Woah, I think you kids are more dangerous than me. Don’t do any of that ok?” 

Risking a glance at the webbed up heroes, they no longer looked so surprised and were now looking confused. Peter followed his performance by fiddling with his voice modulator, jumping back up, and spreading his arms out in a menacing and dastardly display.  

Time to use his greatest superpower–  being annoying. 

Channeling his best Saturday morning cartoon villain, he let out a nasally, evil laughter. “Muahaha! It is I, the nefarious Dr. Spyder! My gimmick is spiders, and I am going to blow up the world.” 

White Tiger looked exasperatedly at him. “You’ve got to be kidding me. That doesn’t even make sense!” Peter tossed a vial of web solvent to her seeing as her hands were free. She freed herself before dissolving the webs trapping Nova's hands. Nova took a piece of the dissolving webbing and fired a laser at it, watching it disintegrate. Guess durable didn’t mean fireproof. Good to know. 

Hopping down onto the street, he gestured for the kids to hand him anything, the youngest kid giving him his precious basketball. After a round of high-fives, he gestured to the ball. “This is the key to the doomsday device I have created, a machine that will blow up the world and these kids if you cannot get it back from me!”

“You cannot be serious,” Powerman said. 

Spiderman frowned. Where was the whimsy? He tried again. “Go ahead, try and take it from me,” he teased before switching the cartridges in his web shooters back to his regular webbing (the new recipe would be too strong, and was expensive and hard to make). The kids, familiar with the concept of play and fun, immediately fell into their roles as hostages. 

“Save us! He’s gonna destroy the world!” 

“I have to be home before sundown!” 

“Aaaaaaahhhhhhh!” 

Spiderman turned to the kids. “Ok guys, be good little hostages and sit on the steps.” 

The Amazing Teen Team, having freed themselves, created a huddle. Despite their whispering, Peter was able to hear everything, though he pretended not to as he got the kids settled for their game. 

“We’re not seriously gonna do this are we?” Ava asked. 

“He’s offering us a chance to fight him. He’s not running away. I would call this progress. I say we take it,” Sam whispered. 

Luke agreed. “I second that. There’s something I need to test out.” 

“I got what I wanted out of the experience. I am fine either way.” Danny said. 

oOOo

“Here are the rules,” the team heard Spiderman call out. “We’re playing in the street today since there aren’t many cars. The game immediately takes a timeout if a car is coming through. You’re out if you’re knocked to the ground or sidewalk.”

It looked like Spiderman was serious about this being a game. Those rules were so childish. But looking at the kids, the team knew they had to set a good example. 

“3… 2…1… go!”

The team jumped down. 

Spiderman seemed to have learned from their last fight. Once they made it down to the street their self-proclaimed ‘Dastardly Foe’ quickly shot out a web at them, trying his best to pin Powerman and Nova again. 

But he wasn’t the only one to have learned. Ava quickly called out a warning. “Guys, dodge!” 

Aware of his tactics, Luke was quick to sidestep the webs aimed at him, while Nova shot straight up into the sky. They both knew they had to be careful where they placed their feet. If Spiderman- sorry, Dr. Spyder , webbed Nova's arm in any way that stopped him from blasting, they would have no other method of freeing themselves. But in such a densely populated area, Nova knew he had to be careful where he pointed them, the webs as much a physical restraint as the civilians were a societal one.

Powerman similarly was wary of his surroundings since one wrong step could mean the end of someone’s car. Or the hostages. 

From the research on field samples collected and analyzed before they completely disintegrated, and the team's own observations, the material coming from Spiderman’s wrists contained no genetic component. The webs were inorganic. Shield theorized that Spiderman synthesized the webbing from organic chemical compounds they were yet unable to replicate, though they had a world-renowned biochemist working on it. 

This meant he could run out. 

Since the border of their impromptu arena was the actual street, there were no surfaces for Dr. Spyder to climb and no objects he could use to effectively anchor himself with. So they had to get him to run out of webbing some other way. High in the air, Nova began blasting, forcing Dr. Spyder to move in the direction of his teammates, and the border. 

Dr. Spyder shot balls of webbing at the blasts to absorb their impact and neutralize their burn effects. If the team could get him to focus his webs on attacking rather than trapping them, then maybe they would have a better shot at knocking him out of the border. 

Unfortunately, it seemed Dr. Spyder was also aware that he could run out. Using the last of his webbing he shot a line into the air— directly at Nova. 

He managed to snag Nova's leg, causing him to flail about. Just as Nova was about to blast the web, the nefarious Dr Spyder rapidly began spinning him. He spun and spun him like a balloon in a tornado before tugging and slamming him down onto the sidewalk. Out.

“Fuck!”

“Language!” The villain exclaimed. But as he made to shoot webbing at the rude guy's mouth, they finally heard the telltale clicking of an empty cartridge. 

They had to act fast. Already, Dr. Spyder was switching out the cartridges. They couldn’t let him. Knowing that they were safe to approach, Iron Fist charged. 

Unfortunately for him, Dr. Spyder was able to easily predict his opponent’s next move. As if bracing for impact, Dr. Spyder waited for Iron Fist to raise his fist, pull back, and release. Only to use his momentum against him by pulling on his fist, leading him to topple over the border as well. 

White Tiger and Powerman shared a look. They were the team's final hope, or else the city would blow up. Together they begin to circle Dr. Spyder on opposite sides. They needed to corral him. 

It was two against one. Trusting that Powerman would have her back, White Tiger made her move. She charged, claw poised to strike. Unfortunately for White Tiger, the tactic that didn’t work for Iron Fist did not magically work for her. Dr. Spyder lifted her up and she was hefted out of the ring with a surprised yelp. 

It had come down to Powerman, their final final hope. He took a deep breath. Powerman knew he was too large to lift easily, not without significant momentum to use against him. And with all the training Flash had put him through for football, he was much more than a mere powerhouse. That’s right. How could he have forgotten? Now he was nimble on his feet. He wouldn't fall for the same tricks he had just witnessed. Dr. Spyder couldn’t do anything but confront him head on. 

Dr. Spyder squared up. 

Dr. Spyder was a slippery foe, capable of evading Powerman to the point of frustration. Several minutes of dodging went by, Powerman becoming more and more desperate to land a hit. His teammates, the hostages, the city even, were depending on him! But for every hit Powerman was able to land, Dr. Spyder was able to take it and give it back twice as hard. It wasn’t enough to knock him down or out. 

It would make most people wish for the annoying and inconvenient webs back. Was this why his enemies had so many gadgets or powers to fight him? To avoid taking his hits? 

Dr. Spyder continued to roll with the punches. Powerman needed to land one solid push. Too bad Dr. Spyder was a slippery freak. 

“Oop, so close! You’re never gonna save the world if you can't move me,” Dr. Spyder taunted. 

Getting frustrated, Powerman began to lose control, and he knew it. Through gritted teeth, he hissed, “This is stupid. Stop dodging!” 

Dr. Spyder just cackled in a way that he probably thought sounded villainous, but to everyone watching from hostage jail (his team went to sit with the kids) just sounded ridiculous. The children continued cheering for the end of the world. 

“I can’t. I’ll break your hand if I stand still.” 

Luke froze in his tracks. “There’s no way that’s possible.”

Dr Spyder stopped his fighting as well. “It’s possible.” 

“Absolutely no way that's true,” Powerman said skeptically. He guessed they were done fighting now. “Let me punch you once.” 

Spiderman relented, possibly because he felt bad for him. “Ok, you get one free punch.” 

Walking towards each other, both parties regarded each other suspiciously, but Spiderman braced himself for impact as he allowed Powerman to wind up his one free punch. Powerman hit him square in the chest.

“See,” Spiderman wheezed. “Didn’t feel a thing.” With a punch like that, he probably did. But the wall-crawler had not budged. 

Luke was impressed. “I bet I can shove you out of the ring,” he claimed. 

“I bet you can’t.” 

Taking a moment to adjust their grips, the two fighters grappled each other like sumo wrestlers and began pushing against one another. The team and kids cheered them on. But with their incredible strength, neither was able to gain much of an upper hand. 

Maybe Luke could use one of Spiderman’s tactics against him. It was risky, and perhaps underhanded, but if it worked then they could save the city. Lifting one of the hands gripping Spiderman’s shoulders, he raised it to point behind Spiderman. With as much horror as he could muster, he said “Oh my god, what is that!?”  

Spiderman, somehow not expecting anything for once, was startled. “Where?”

Got him. Luke took the opportunity to whack Spiderman with his bicep, causing him to stagger. There was a small, barely noticeable crunch as Spiderman clutched his face. Ignoring his fears that he had broken his jaw, Luke took the moment of distraction to shove Spiderman out of the ring. 

Luke froze. Oh god. Had he just killed Spiderman?

“You’re out!” Nova shouted in oblivious glee. While Powerman continued to experience his first moral panic, the team and children continued to cheer. They got the ball! They had won. He had saved the city. 

Still on the floor, Spiderman laughed before letting out a surprised squeak as Powerman picked him up around the waist. Oh thank god he was alive. 

“Easy there bi-“ Spiderman suddenly went wide-eyed and lifted a hand to cover the side of his face where the voice modulator was. That hadn’t sounded filtered. 

“Uh oh. That’s broken.” As he spoke, his voice came out double-layered, with the artificial layer occasionally cutting out. It was very brief, but absolutely distinct from the artificially deep voice the team was used to hearing. Despite knowing what Harry’s voice sounded like, it sounded strange.  

Powerman loosened the grip around Spiderman’s waist enough that it allowed him to scramble up and rest on Luke’s shoulders like a parrot. Powerman did his best to balance the additional weight, not even thinking about restraining him. Thankfully, Spiderman was able to stay stuck to him with what he assumed were his spider abilities.  

Up on his shoulders, Spiderman began fiddling with his mask. 

“Testing, testing, 123?” he said. All that came out was Harry’s unfiltered voice.

Spiderman sighed and stood up, still on Powerman’s shoulders. Bracing himself, Powerman allowed Spiderman to use him as a springboard to backflip off of. Walking back up to him, Spiderman held out his hand. 

Spiderman, with his strangely double layered voice, said “Congratulations hero, you saved the city. Till next time.” With that, he swung off into the sunset. As the team and the kids celebrated around him, Powerman waved Spiderman goodbye. 

oOOo

It was now late afternoon. After getting over the crushing disappointment of completely forgetting what their actual mission was in the face of a little play with another superhero their age, the team had sulked home, showered, eaten the dinner prepared by their pilot’s spouse, and sat down to do the homework that they had put off until the very last minute. 

They were all sitting in Ava’s room- Ava laying on her bed, Luke and Danny on the floor using her bed as a desk, and Sam sitting on a chair at the actual desk- working and not saying a word.

They had blown it. Spiderman had been right there. Luke had bested him. They could have asked him more questions, gathered crucial evidence- just about anything. 

It would have been so easy, especially with his voice modulator broken. 

The silence was suffocating. They tried to alleviate the burden of that silence with the scratching of pencils on paper, but it wasn’t enough. Sam even tried sharpening some pencils they didn’t use to overcome the overwhelming nothing. 

Finally, Luke had had enough. “Alright. I’ll say it. We blew it.”

Danny pondered a moment before responding. “At least his mechanical voice box thing is broken. We could try and use that to find out who he is?” 

“You’re right. If we can’t get to them through school interrogations or the photographer angle, maybe we can get him through whoever supplies him with that voice modulator! It’s busted. He has to have it sent to be repaired!” Luke said. He noted that despite this great new plan, Sam was suspiciously quiet. “You know who made it, don’t you?” Luke asked. Silence. “It’s Parker isn’t it,” Luke said. A guilty silence. 

Through the telepathic communication of a single glance, Luke, Ava, and Danny ganged up on Sam by staring him down. After a solid minute of this tactic, Sam groaned, defeated. He turned around in his chair. “Fuck, fine. Yes, it’s Parker, too.” 

“How do you know that!”

“Because I have a fucking journal about him!” 

“Are you sure? The guy is a nerd- I’ll give him that- but gadgets? I thought he was only school smart,” said Luke. 

Sam scoffed. “You need to be more than school smart to work for Dr. Connors as an assistant. The guy can make a simple gadget.”

“Hold on, he was Dr. Connor’s intern?” Ava asked. She raised herself up onto her elbows. “Why didn’t I know that? When did you find out?” 

“This is exactly what I mean when I say communication is key,” Danny said. 

Sam rolled his eyes. “Ava, we got you bagels as an apology, please move on.” 

“No Sam, this is important. Your little ‘guy obsession’ is finally gaining ground and you didn’t think to let us know? I thought you’d be thrilled to have your point proven!” Ava said incredulously. 

“Don’t worry about it!” 

Sam was given a dubious look. “Dude, even Flash said to maybe worry about it.”

Ava switched her glare to Luke. “You knew too and didn’t think to tell me?” 

Luke put his hands out in a placating manner. “Listen, we were dealing with a lot-“ 

“Perhaps we should use our group chat more often,” Danny pondered out loud. 

Sam jumped back into the conversation. “Ok fine, I’m sorry about not telling you Ava, but I’ve got it all under control. You guys just focus on Harry and I’ll handle Parker.” 

Ava wasn’t happy though. She sat up. “We can’t let you do that because he’s our next lead. Why does it all keep coming back to Parker!” It wasn’t very heroic of her, but perhaps it was very teenage girl of her to hate how it all came back to Parker. She would much rather forget all about him. And her own failings. 

Danny steepled his fingers. “He must be so much more involved than we ever dreamed.” Fury had not taught them to believe in coincidences. 

Sam sighed and gave them the Connors rundown from the beginning. From Connors’ mad ramblings in the last moments of his sanity, documented in the journal he kept of his research progress, it was heavily implied– if not outright stated– that not only did Connors know who Spiderman was, but he supplied him with equipment as well. Before he went fully mad, Spiderman sightings had increased. Spiderman was Spidermanning for longer periods of time and against much stronger foes than before because he was much better equipped to do so successfully.

But despite the (presumed) late Dr. Connors’ brilliance, Shield knew it couldn't have been done alone. The journal, half destroyed due to the doctor’s paranoia and fear, never identified individuals beyond monikers.. While there was a good chance the doctor knew Spiderman’s face, he never so much as mentioned the color of his hair, height, or any other identifying features, much to Shield’s displeasure. 

The only other individual properly mentioned was the intern (whose name was not released to the public, but certainly to Flash). An intern who was speculated to have helped in the destruction of the journal, possibly on behalf of the doctor and Spiderman. An intern who had a hand in co-authoring Dr. Connors' last published article, and had access to his lab and research.

This was the sort of revelation that would have likely blown their minds and cracked their case wide open if they hadn’t already known thanks to Flash telling them and their own deductive reasoning. It was likely- no, certain - that Parker knew Harry was Spiderman. The evidence and testimony only kept growing. 

Luke couldn’t believe it. “It’s almost as if he’s pulling all the strings, except for the ones attached to Harry’s wrists.” Was Sam right? Was there something more to Parker than they were seeing? 

Or had they just fallen so far that they were now getting leads from Peter Parker? As nice as that narrative was, despite their best efforts, not only was their entire story still circumstantial, it still didn’t help them prove that Harry was Spiderman. Only that Parker may have helped Spiderman. Who, in court and to Fury, could still be anyone. 

“What do we do?” Danny asked. 

“We interrogate Parker. He’s our only option at this point,” Luke said. 

Sam unexpectedly interjected. “Guys, you can’t.” 

The team turned to him bewildered. “Why not!” They had just solved a large part of their mystery, and their next lead was someone Sam had had a grudge against from the start. 

Why the sudden change of heart? 

Because all his work was about to go down the drain. Because he was so close to a breakthrough. Because he was tired of everyone doubting him only for his moment of victory to be snatched from him. He had to tread carefully. 

“Because the situation is delicate,” he said. Would that be enough? 

Sam knew he was close, but he was afraid that any hint of them knowing Spiderman’s identity could set Parker off the deep end. 

All his secret plotting with MJ would go to waste. (He wasn’t sure that MJ fully believed him that Peter was at risk of becoming a supervillain, but his display of concern had been enough to get her to cooperate). Both of them agreed that Parker was obsessed with his friends, to an unhealthy degree. So surely giving him more friends would spread the crazy out so that it reached normal distribution levels. 

Spiderman alone wouldn’t be enough. It already wasn’t. With multiple heroic friends (this part they would have to keep secret) maybe their combined heroic nature would rub off on him. Sam would be able to talk shit with MJ, finally get to know Gwen, and even become friends with Harry. Be able to work alongside Spiderman again. Sam would get to have part of a normal life again, he could socialize Ava, keep going to his clubs with his other friends, and actually have something to write home to his mom and his sister about. 

But he couldn’t do that if his friends wrecked the plan by confirming Spiderman’s identity and making Parker go nuts. Knowing his friends, they were probably about to kidnap him again, in broad daylight no less. He hadn’t even had a chance to talk to Parker yet. 

Sam knew what he had to do but he didn’t know if he had the strength to do it. But he had to try. 

Hesitantly, he asked the question that had been nagging at him for months now. “Hey guys, are we maybe… wrong trying to get Spiderman’s identity?”

Silence. 

Ok that’s fine he just had to explain his entire thought process to them no biggie. Surely that would clear everything up. 

“It’s just that Parker is gonna go crazy when we out Harry because he was the Lizard's intern. We need to become best friends and not kidnap him so that Spiderman won’t be his only friend. What I’m saying is, we need to rub off on him!” 

Silence. 

Luke couldn’t believe this. “Right, so, we’re ignoring you.” 

“Sam brought up a good idea, though,” Ava said. Success! Thank goodness for Ava! “It's going to be hard to ask questions knowing that Spiderman is going to have his eye on him at all times. We need Parker alone, and that never happens. So we have to make it happen. Knowing that, our best shot at interrogating Parker is kidnapping him when he least expects it.” Ava no! “But you can’t! Spiderman’s identity needs to stay secret for the greater good,” Sam protested. He could argue the morality of kidnapping and introduce the concept of false confessions to her later. 

Ava looked down at him. “Sam, we need to know Spiderman’s identity.”

“You don’t understand—“ Sam sprung up from his chair. 

Ava had had enough. “We have a mission, Sam.”

“And we have to consider what’s best for the team. If we want to have Spiderman join the team—“ 

“Who said we want Spiderman on the team? Who wants Spiderman on the team?” Ava snapped. Fury hadn’t sent them after Spiderman for just a simple identity, Ava knew better. She could read between the lines. 

“ I want Spiderman on the team. Why else would we be hunting him down like this but not be tasked with taking him into custody? We can do it through friendship. Why do we have to force him to trust us? That’s wrong!” Why couldn’t Ava understand? How could this be such a difficult concept for her to grasp? 

“It’s not wrong, because we don’t need his trust. This is a recon mission, and he is a threat.” 

Danny tried to interject. “Friends, let us not argue—“ 

Sam huffed. “He didn’t seem like much of a threat when you were laughing at all his jokes earlier.” 

Ava flushed in embarrassment. “There’s no other way about it. There are no more alternatives. All roads lead back to Parker.”

“At the expense of a brilliant mind!” Sam yelled. 

“We have to interrogate one of them. And of the two? One is a nerd with no superpowers.” It was their best option. Ava couldn’t let this go. She was done with school. She wanted out. 

“Of the two, one is still a regular person. We can’t be the reason that ends. Don’t you miss being a person?” Sam asked. 

Ava didn’t know what to say. 

There was a knock at the door. Luke was glad for the interruption. “Come in, please.” 

Shield Pilot Rodriguez slowly opened the door, holding his aviation helmet under his arm with a serious look on his face. 

“Fury wants to speak with you kids.”

Chapter Text

Oh shit, the kids are fighting.

That was the exact thought that went through Emilio Sebastian Rodríguez’s head as he stood outside his charges’ door, hand poised to knock. 

How had this come to be? 

That morning he had sent them off in high, if sleepy, spirits (though it had taken them some arguing). But those were the growing pains of being a teenage superhero team, he supposed. He wouldn’t know, he had never been in that kind of situation before. 

But just one hour ago the little heroes he was legally responsible for (no big deal, just in charge of some superpowered teenagers, casually) had come home a bit gloomy. That wasn’t good. 

Teenagers in a bad mood were bad enough, but teenagers with superpowers in a bad mood? He simply did his best to make sure they had a good serving of Evelyn’s cooking before asking any questions. As he had scraped the last of Evelyn’s walnut linguini onto Luke’s plate, and calmed his fear of setting off some superpowered hormonal teenagers, he asked about their day. 

Apparently, they had had a great day: training what they called ‘combo moves’ against bank robbers, saving some kids from a supervillain he’d never heard of before (does he need to tell Shield about that?), and even beating Spiderman! It wasn’t until the vigilante left that they had the crushing realization that they probably should have used that to their advantage for their mission... whatever it was. And by the time that they had sat down at the dinner table and finished eating, Emilio could tell they were kicking themselves for their mistake. 

(Emilio Rodriguez, chaperone extraordinaire, was going to be honest. He wasn’t exactly sure what Director Fury had told them to do. He had thought they were supposed to just uncover Spiderman's identity. Were they supposed to capture him too? Whenever he asked them he kept getting mixed signals. That was probably not a good sign. But he had also been forbidden from directly helping them out since this was some sort of test. Asking them to clarify with each other what the goal was apparently counted as helping.)

But Emilio was sure it couldn’t be that bad. From what he had seen online, it seemed that Spiderman was actually pretty open to hanging out with them. Anyone Spiderman didn’t want to talk to, he would simply avoid- and quite well. 

After they had finished their meal, the kids went off to Ava’s room to do some homework together. If Emilio was lucky, this was just one of those phases teens went through and everything would be fine. He really hoped everything would be fine. 

Emilio had left the kids to their own devices. He remembered his siblings getting home from school tired. Locking themselves in his room to take a nap. Why they had always taken his room when they had a perfectly good bed of their own, he would never understand. Not that it bothered him too much. Emilio didn’t sleep during the day anyway, preferring to make himself useful instead. 

Perhaps the problem really started when Emilio had finished putting away the dishes. As he put the last of the Tupperware onto a high shelf, sorta shoving it into the cabinet because it was simply too much effort to organize it any further, he received a message from his Shield communicator. 

‘Agent: Emilio Rodriguez’

‘Mission: Escort the Shield Operatives to base.’

Oh no. Did Shield have cameras in his kitchen? Had they been watching him sing along to the radio as he heated up their meals for the last couple months? How considerate and totally not dystopian of them to have waited for him to be done with the dishes. What, did the person assigned to the kitchen monitor somehow know he would be too tired after getting back to finish cleaning? How thoughtful, it was almost as if they knew his habits from the excessive spying they had probably already done. 

His communicator beeped again. 

‘Agent: Emilio Rodriguez’

‘Mission: Escort the Shield Operatives to base.’

Right, he had a job to do. Couldn’t earn those army benefits by standing around. 

After snagging a bag of baby carrots (suggested to him by his beloved Evelyn) for the bottomless pits to snack on so they wouldn’t bite his head off, he grabbed his aviation helmet from the table and headed towards Ava's room, where he could hear the team discussing something. 

In the end, it probably didn’t matter how he had gotten here. Only that he was now standing outside their door, his fist still frozen in the air. Should he step in? They probably needed a responsible older adult to step in. 

…Too bad Emilio Rodriguez had designated himself the older brother instead of the parental figure or wise old mentor. Much less likely to suffer a tragic fate that way. He was practically big brother-coded anyway.  

Wait, Big Brother had negative connotations. Emilio internally screamed. He needed to think of something else. His communicator beeped at him again. Right, actual Big Brother was still waiting on him. Kind of annoying, didn’t the person assigned to watch over them at all hours of the day have anything better to do? 

Emilio was getting sidetracked. Shifting his weight, he adjusted his grip on the helmet. It seemed that the conversation inside was tense. He should probably step in and break that up. Fuck. 

At least they had eaten before arguing. Emilio didn’t know what he was supposed to do if he had to deliver teenagers upset by perceived personal failures as well as low blood sugar. What did Shield expect, that he sit them down at the table for a little snackie? ‘Hey kids, I know you’re about to tear my throat out, but does anyone want a little treat before reporting to Shield on your mission?’ Yeah right. 

… Not that Emilio actually believed they would harm him. These were good kids. They were actually very polite and respectful. They just happened to also be cranky adolescent toddlers who had superpowers! He really couldn’t make them do anything if they didn’t want to! 

He was lucky he was able to sit them down for dinners at all— Evelyn would kill him if they didn’t. It was essential they got certain key nutrients. Athletes had certain needs, especially when they had growing bodies. He should know, Evelyn (his Pookie Bear) was completing her residency right now. He’d stayed through enough manic midnight study sessions with her to pick some stuff up. 

He shifted his helmet under his arm and opened the bag of baby carrots he had brought with him. Maybe he could bribe them onto the plane? 

God he missed Evelyn. At least he got to see her during her day off. She helped him meal prep for the kids, he couldn’t do it without her. Mostly because he loved her, but her being a pediatric nutritionist didn’t hurt one bit. She would probably be telling him to eat his carrots right now. 

Even through the crisp crunch of his baby carrots, he could still hear the kids arguing amongst themselves. Fuck, there went his plan of hoping the kids settled it themselves. If anything it was probably getting worse. All the fiber in the world couldn’t save him from the shit he had to put up with from Shield. 

It was kind of hard to hear their exact words through the door, but the tone remained consistent over the sound of his chewing. 

But still, Emilio hesitated. As much as he wanted to go in there and help them out, he knew he had to give them a chance to sort this out themselves. They weren't going to learn to resolve intra-team conflict if adults (who were definitely of the older brother variety) kept stepping in and holding their hands.

Popping the last of the baby carrots into his mouth (ok so he finished the kids’ snacks, sue him this was stressful), Emilio pressed his ear against the door. Maybe if he actually listened to what the kids were saying, he could find the right time to interrupt. He closed his eyes and listened intently. 

Ohhhhh crap, were the kids were deserting? What should he do? He could probably help them run away right? Who needed Shield anyway? All he had to do was text Evelyn to meet them in half an hour. She loved vacations. He could get a job as a taxi driver, and the kids could get a decent education elsewhere. 

Emilio let his head thud against the door. Ok, the joke's over. It didn’t actually sound like that’s what they were talking about, even though he really could do with a vacation. He had to be serious right now. They needed some stability. He needed to step in. He took a deep breath. For the army benefits. 

He mustered up all the skill in his 27 plus years of life to knock the best knock he had ever knocked upon that door. 

Luke responded from inside. “Come in, please.” 

Emilio slowly opened the door. If he went too fast they might startle. 

With the aviation helmet tucked under his arm and the empty plastic bag clenched tightly in his fist so they wouldn’t notice he ate all their carrots, he delivered his message. He tried to mimic the way his dad would speak whenever he and his brother were in trouble, while also doing his best not to scare them in case they decided to bolt. 

“Fury wants to speak with you kids.” There, he did it. No fuss, no other options. Their eyes widened with dread. So this was the Shield version of saying ‘Mom wants to talk to you’ . 

Did that make Fury Mom? 

No, that was way too weird to think about, never again, scrub that from his memory. 

oOOo 

The car ride to the airstrip was awkward. The only sounds were the kids shifting in their seats and Sam fiddling with his book bag, the one that carried his stalker notebook and phone. 

None of the kids would talk to each other, so Emilio was left in the awkward silence. They loaded onto the jet, but even after takeoff Sam just silently thumbed through his notebook in the co-pilot seat next to him. 

This was too intense! He hated this! Emilio wasn’t sure he should have let the kids change into their costumes, because now he couldn’t read their faces! It would be an advantage against Fury, but now he couldn’t tell what they were feeling either! 

He should say something. The entire plane was sitting in awkward silence and he couldn't take any more of this and Emilio should say something. The team was really interested in Spiderman, he could probably talk about that, right? It only counted as helping if he gave them useful information. Emilio didn’t think that telling them about Spiderman swinging through New York using a pigeon as a pointer, getting motion sickness from spinning upside down on a light pole, or defeating a villain by hitting him with his Nokia brick phone (only to accidentally get a crowdfund started for a new phone) counted as help. 

It's not like they would even listen to him anyway. And Big Brother wouldn’t find out, since Emilio had chucked his communicator into the harbor after the 50th message from them. (If Shield asked, he was going to blame one of the kids. He was supposed to be getting that communicator upgraded anyway.) Sheesh, Shield people had no patience. He was going! 

“Uhhh so you guys met Spiderman, right?” Dear god this was so awkward! Emilio had to power through. It was too late to take it back. “Not sure what exactly you guys want from him but he’s pretty cool. Pretty much everyone has a story about him. Everyone knows someone who's been saved by Spiderman, directly or indirectly. Especially after almost being turned into lizards. New York was really grateful for that one. It gets so cold here.”

One of the kids started to turn to him. Success! He had their attention! Now if any of them could please say something! 

“Agent Rodriguez, have you met Spiderman? You’re speaking pretty fondly about him,” Ava inquired, expression unreadable. 

“Yeah, I have. But, again, just call me Emilio. It can be pretty hit or miss with him. I’ve seen as many people defend him as loathe him. He’s done so much good yet receives hate in equal measure.” Emilio paused. Vulnerability. It was probably something these kids had never been taught how to do. “Gotta admit, I used to be one of them. I think the divide boils down to the media. But honestly, it's nice that a hero is looking out for the little guys out there. I trust him.” Thank goodness they were responding to him. 

”Agent-“

“Emilio.” 

“Emilio then,” Ava said hesitantly, looking down at her hands. “How are you sure Spiderman can be trusted?”

He knew Ava was having a hard time in school lately. Sometimes the two of them talked when the boys were watching TV. She confided that she didn’t know how to make friends outside of her team. He couldn’t call himself the responsible older brother if he didn’t at least try to give her advice. Emilio knew he remembered the struggles of being a teenager more keenly than any of the other adults involved in this mission. 

Ava was so bright, so talented, and yet took so much upon herself for her age. It was a miserable existence for someone so young, but then what happy child would step up to do an adult’s job if they had any other choice? What happy child knew the weight of a life? Shield had failed them. 

There was good in the world around them. They were doing good work- even though they shouldn’t have to- but they weren’t alone. 

Why did Emilio trust Spiderman? 

He needed to reward Ava for allowing herself to be vulnerable, for asking him a question he knew had been burning within her from the start, but hadn’t voiced out of fear of seeming disloyal to the mission. She had taken a leap of faith by asking him. 

So he told her. 

“Easy. Because he saved my wife.” 

The silence that followed was entirely different. Instead of not wanting to talk, now it seemed like they didn't know what to say. Or, like the kids were afraid that they might say the wrong thing. Well, he couldn’t have that. 

Emilio went to scratch his neck, but put his hand back on the plane's yoke after hitting the back of his helmet instead. 

“I think I’ve mentioned my wife, Evelyn. She’s incredible. She’s the one who plans your meals to make sure you’re all eating what you need. Evelyn is currently completing her residency at a local hospital. She’s so passionate, sometimes a little too giving though.” Emilio’s grip on the controls tightened. “One night, back when we had first decided to move in together, she stayed at the hospital way too late. She does that sometimes, ‘just one more person’. She had to be shoved out the door by one of the older nurses, and since our apartment isn’t too far from her work she didn’t feel the need to take a cab home.” 

Money had been tight back when they had first moved in together, ready to take their relationship to the next step. Back when all they had were plastic cups and napkins from fast food chains, furniture scavenged from garage sales, and bread from the expiration sales rack. But he had always told her that no matter the cost, he wanted her to take that cab if she felt the need to. It wasn’t that their area wasn’t safe, but you never knew. 

“On her walk home, some drunk guy pulled out a knife and yelled at her to give him her purse. She was only a few buildings away, but it was too far for me to have heard her if she had called out.” He breathed tightly through his nose. “Thankfully he didn’t get very far before Spiderman knocked him out cold. Just as he was checking to make sure she was okay, the punk got up and took a cheap shot. He managed to stab Spiderman before being knocked out for real. And then Spiderman still insisted on escorting her home.” Emilio laughed, hand hitting his visor as he reached to wipe away a tear. Right, the helmet. 

“And then when they got home, Evelyn dragged him inside and fixed the stab wound meant for her.” 

When Emilio had seen the headstrong love of his life drag that lanky red and blue figure through the door, instructing Spiderman to sit on their couch while she told Emilio to get their med kit and gauze, he hadn't really known what to think. 

As she kept a hand on the so-called ‘menace’ so he would quit trying to leave, and explained what had happened, Emilio could barely breathe. 

“I knew at that moment that I was going to marry Evelyn. The terror I felt when thinking about what could have happened, I knew I couldn’t live without her.”

Ava had taken her mask off and looked like she was about to cry. 

“I don't know what I would have done without her. I owe Spiderman both her life and mine. I should have thanked him more, but I was honestly in too much shock back then.” It was so stupid of him to have acted that way. He wasn’t some helpless civilian. He had trained for more intense situations, and yet back then he had felt frozen. Flashes of what could have happened had raced through his mind, each more horrible than the last. 

It had taken Evelyn kissing him to startle him back into action as he went to go get the medical supplies she had asked for. 

“I'm not naive. He’s a superpowered guy able to bench press buses who regularly swings around beating up criminals the police can't touch, and he got dragged inside by a little 140-pound woman.” Emilio laughed, thinking back on how shy and resigned Spiderman had seemed to be. That probably wasn't the first time something like that had happened to him.  “He stayed for dinner, then helped with the dishes.”

“Is that why you got this assignment?” Ava asked, her voice tight and harsh. “Because you have a connection to Spiderman?” 

“I’m not sure why I’m your agent. Probably because I was your ride from the start way back when Shield first called you in, before the mission even became a thing. But I don’t regret it. I’m so proud of you guys. Getting your high school diploma is not easy, and it’s a very serious accomplishment. Not everyone can do it. What Spiderman does is important, but not as important as your education.”

Emilio let go of the controls and turned to face the team. (Sam scrambled to find the autopilot button. When he couldn’t find anything he simply held the yoke steady.)

“You think Spiderman doesn’t have his GED? There’s no way he made all those gadgets and suits without basic geometry. The way I see it, you'll still have your powers whether you finish high school or not. So why not enjoy this now? You don't get to do this kind of thing ever again. Not in the same way. Not with the same people. The person you are now will never exist again, so why not be kind to them today?” The kids looked stunned. Ah, crap. He had just told them to neglect their mission, hadn’t he. “… Just don’t tell mom I said that.”

“Mom?” Sam asked, confused. 

“I said Fury.”

“… No you didn’t,” said Sam. 

Emilio collapsed into himself. “Oh man, don’t tell Fury I called him mom he’ll kill me. Big Brother isn’t real, I threw the communicator in the ocean.”

“Uh-“

One of the sensors beeped. Was that the missile monitor!? He really hoped not, he didn’t want the teens to throw up from evasive maneuvers. 

Emilio looked up in panic, but soon heaved a sigh of relief to see that it was only the radar sensing the helicarrier. Just because he could understand why the helicarrier was invisible from the bottom didn't mean he had to like it. “Oh look, we’re here! I’ll be waiting right out here for you so we can hop off this prison and get you guys some sleep for tomorrow.”

The teens thanked him and settled in for the landing, very obviously digesting what he had said. Just in time, since Emilio needed to concentrate on the landing or else he was going to hit the Big Brother standing on deck, holding up a water-logged communicator with a scowl.

Chapter Text

Take a deep breath. Everything is going to be fine.

From the moment they had arrived, his team had been separated from Mr. Emilio. They had been instructed to follow a new agent as they made their way up towards the same monitor room where they had first received their mission. Luke took a deep breath but could only taste the cold metallic air of the helicarrier. He did not feel that everything was going to be fine.

None of the whispers that followed them were the familiar voices of the agents who controlled their training simulation technology. None of them had the smiles of the agents who shared snacks with them during their exercises. None of them were the agents that delivered upgraded tech from the Shield scientists they weren’t allowed to meet. 

The burning gaze of every person they passed weighed heavily on Luke’s nerves. Faces he could not place, eyes he could not meet, memories he did not have of people he did not know from the few days they had slept on the helicarrier before the start of their mission. They all watched as Luke trekked onwards. 

Did they know why Fury had summoned them? Was that why they stared? 

The only one who would not look at them was the agent leading them to Fury, the one who had instructed Mr. Emilio to stay with the plane, since ‘this wouldn't take long’ and that ‘his presence was not required’. (Despite Mr. Emilio's protests, the orders were firm. In the end, there was nothing he could do to accompany them. No matter how much Luke had wanted him to.)

Luke knew they could do nothing else but surrender to their fate. 

So he might as well play his favorite game, “Think on the bright side!” It had been a while since he had played the oh so helpful game his best friend Danny had taught him, for when things got too stressful. 

Sure, everyone stared at them as if they were walking to the gallows, but on the bright side, the fact that he didn’t recognize anyone therefore meant that they didn't recognize him either. His logic was definitely sound. 

The whole thing reminded Luke of the last time he had messed up in front of someone important on the helicarrier– on his fourth day up here, he had tripped in the training room and fallen face first when some (mysterious bigshot) scientist had come in person to observe behind the mirrored glass. He was still ashamed of that. From what he had heard and the gadgets they had tested, the guy was some kind of genius. He had never had much time on the helicarrier to become invested in the gossip before the team had been sent down, but he would hate to look that bad in front of the guy in charge of their equipment. He didn't want the scientists to think they needed to build some ‘anti tripping and falling’ device just for him. That would mean that was the only thing they remembered about him. Luke would rather aliens kidnap and hold him hostage than be remembered as ‘the kid who tripped and fell’ by some super mega genius. 

Luke started paying more attention to where he was stepping as they continued to march through the halls. He absolutely could not have a repeat incident.

As Luke and the team continued to follow the agent up through the twists and turns of the structure, the hallways got smaller and narrower. This was getting slightly claustrophobic. But on the bright side, it meant he was able to defend himself and his team more effectively. In such an enclosed area, he could act as the perfect human shield. One of the perks of his impenetrable skin was the ability to take blows for his friends while he held down his foes and allowed his team to capture them. The only thing villains could really hurt were his feelings.

 Finally, they made it to the bridge. The agent they had been following pulled out her badge and pressed it to the room's scanner, and the door opened for them. The whoosh of the metallic door was distinct against the noise of the Shield agents currently working on deck. But it was deafening when it closed behind them and locked Luke and his team in. Everyone stopped to look at them. It seemed that Fury was not here yet.

Take a deep breath. Everything is still okay. 

Luke took a moment to collect his thoughts and allowed himself to observe his situation. The view of the city below was still just as breathtaking as the first time he had seen it. He could think positively about this. 

Many of the agents supposedly working on their feeds were instead staring, and Luke could only stand there awkwardly, too nervous to touch anything for fear of breaking stuff. But on the bright side, most of them returned to their work soon enough, or at least milled around since their boss wasn’t there. 

Many of the agents wore headsets, reporting on what was present on their monitors. Others seemed busy doing paperwork, or speaking to the person seated next to them. One agent seemed to be struggling with a printer. Oh, you shouldn’t be hitting a printer like that. That wasn't very nice. 

Luke turned towards his teammates. Part of his stress came from the fact that no one had spoken yet, too afraid to break the silence lest it reignite their previous argument. 

On his left, Sam fiddled with his bookbag, or at least the strap. Sure, Sam was probably still upset about what had happened. Maybe he was even angry at Luke, and maybe he was right to be. But on the bright side, he seemed entertained! Sam seemed to be thinking really hard about something for once. Luke should be thankful that he didn't need to worry about him for now. Something really helpful might even come out of whatever had him so focused! 

Over to his right, Luke couldn't as easily make out what Danny was thinking. His best friend had his back turned to him. But on the bright side , Luke didn’t necessarily need to see his face to know he was keeping an eye on Ava. Although, Luke still would have liked to know how he was feeling about the whole situation.

As for Ava herself, she still looked tired and upset, almost dead on her feet. She needed sleep. But on the bright side ... Okay, Luke couldn't come up with anything. It was pretty bad. He thought she had been getting her sleep! What happened?

Luke wished he could just fix everything. He hated to see his friends stressed and in disarray like this when they were all he had.

He looked at the large monitors hanging in front of the glass that looked out over the city. Images of New York were being displayed– streets, parks, traffic, banks, museums, and a lone train station. In the upper right hand corner was the mugshot of what he assumed was a supervillain, a male of huge stature in a battle armor that made him look like a red bullet– if bullets were lame and on steroids. Under the image was the name “Juggernaut”. 

Fury sure was taking a while. No matter how many positives Luke came up with, he still couldn't settle his nerves… But on the bright side , that meant that he had more time to watch the dude from last time play on his computer. Only this time, instead of Galaga, he was playing Tetris. 

(Oh shit he was really good. How much work was he not doing to be that good?)

As he became mesmerized by the falling blocks and their perfect placement, he let his mind drift for a moment. A lot had happened to get him here the first time around. The first few days after he gained his powers may have still been a blur, but the months afterwards were hard to forget. Crushing doorknobs, trying to hide from the villain that had attacked him and his parents while they were on vacation, helping out the old woman who had taken him in for a bit (before she realized what he was (or what she thought he was)). He should probably be thankful she had contacted Shield for him. 

He still remembered the cloying sweetness of the serum his mom had forced him to drink, right before shoving him out of the aircraft into the endless sea below. (She had always had a sweet tooth. Luke wasn’t as much of a fan. Luckily, the salt water he had been forced to tread helped fix that.) Worst vacation ever. 

And sure, maybe this counted as a traumatic backstory, but on the bright side, he no longer broke handles (as often), didn’t have to drink any more disgustingly sweet stuff unprompted (unless Sam shoved it at him), and he wasn’t putting an innocent old woman at risk (that one was just true). Even if none of that had been his choice. Ha ha.

… Luke missed his parents. 

“I apologize for not keeping a closer eye on your team.” Luke startled as the door behind them finally opened again. “We seem to have our hands full with a… situation, at the moment.” Fury walked in, but his eye seemed distant. Luke followed his gaze to glance out the window. Huh. The moon was out today. It was weird how the moon was out during the day sometimes. Luke wondered why that was. It looked so full today. He had never noticed how close the moon looked from the helicarrier. Was it bigger than yesterday?

“Let me get straight to the point: you're grounded,” Fury said. 

The team around him exploded. 

“What! Why?”

“This is ridiculous!

“You can't ground us!”

Fury was unfazed. “Yes, I can. I just did. Out of everyone here, I am the only one who can ground you. That means I’m also the only one who can unground you. So tread lightly.” 

Luke watched his teammates as he struggled to contain his own shock and outrage. This was ridiculous! They were too big to be grounded! 

Ava seemed to recover first as she raised her hand. “Is this because we haven’t captured Spiderman?”

“Who said anything about capturing?” Fury asked. 

“Uhh… you did?” Luke said, now unsure. Hadn’t Fury said to capture Spiderman? He must have. Why else would they be hunting him down every patrol?

“I did not,” Fury insisted. “Do you even know why I've called you here? Can anyone guess?” 

Nobody said anything, unsure until Sam took a stab at answering the question. “…Because we haven’t captured Spiderman?” 

Luke wanted to hit himself. Ava had just said that!

Fury looked at them in bafflement. “You are here because you disregarded a direct order.” 

“Huh?”

“I said, ‘Do not attempt to engage The Goblin, or you'll be in big trouble’. Guess what you did? Engaged The Goblin.”

Luke watched Sam’s grip on his book bag tighten. “Oh. I completely forgot about that.”

Fury pressed his knuckles into his brow. “Of course you did,” he muttered. 

Luke tried to wave off his concern. “But it was, like, no big deal! We got him to stop attacking. That’s a win, right?”

Unfortunately, Fury didn’t seem so keen on taking this lightly. “Samuel almost got a grenade directly to the face. The Goblin is on Shield’s watchlist. Your team is not authorized to take on such threats for a reason.” 

Luke grimaced. How had he forgotten how close Sam had been to being hit by those pumpkin grenades? The ones powerful enough to take out several cars in such a horrific and fiery explosion? 

They were heroes, superpowered and strong. But that bomb had been directly launched at the only unarmored part of his friend's face. (A flight suit that was already, at times, incredibly thin.) Luke was invulnerable. Sam was not. 

“But we were fine?” Ava weakly interjected. 

“You were lucky ,” Fury hissed at them. “Lucky that he didn’t care about you , that you had backup that day, that your backup was someone with experience, and that he pitied you enough not to abandon you.” 

Luke didn’t know how to feel about the fact that their insignificance was the only thing that had saved them that day. 

“It seems this team needs a few refreshers. Your mission to uncover Spiderman's identity is second to your safety. That means obeying orders. We are all very fortunate that The Goblin was distracted by Spiderman, and that none of you came off worse for wear. Whatever training you have been given has not been enough.” 

Fury gestured to an agent, who began to pull up images on the largest monitor. “Not to mention, I saw your little match with Spiderman.” Fury laughed. “Man, that was awful. I've never seen a group fight so badly against one man.” 

Okay, rude. Luke had won that fight. And it had been really hard to punch Spiderman! But… as he thought about it, he realized that his victory had really come down to luck. He had taken advantage of a distraction and simply pushed Spiderman out of the ring. 

They watched the largest monitor replay their fight. The way that Spiderman dodged their hits looked strange, as if he knew they were coming before they landed. (It was especially weird because Luke had thought that Spiderman was constantly getting knocked around by his villains into buildings and cars, since Jameson was always complaining about “unsightly Spiderman-shaped dents”.)

Was Spiderman some kind of telepath? Could that be how he always knew to show up at crimes? People were thinking really hard at Spiderman, saying “Dear Spiderman, please save me!”?  

Wait, was that how Harry was avoiding them? Was he some sort of low-level telepath? Or did he only predict punches? Oh no, but if Harry was a telepath, that meant he might catch on to their plan of cornering Parker! 

Surely there was some way of preventing Harry from reading their minds. Was being a telepath something that could be learned? Or was it something natural? Luke liked to think he and Danny had some form of telepathic communication going on. Because how else could his best friend read his mind so clearly at times? Maybe they could figure out some sort of anti-mind reading barriers and teach the rest of the team. 

But Luke wasn't sure he himself actually was a telepath. Hmm, he should start doing some investigating of his own to test out this theory. Until then, they would have to be very careful about what they thought around Harry. 

… Wait, if telepaths were a thing that meant other people out there could read his mind. Oh god, it was bad enough to trip in front of some scientist but to think stupid thoughts and have strangers see?! What if his boss could see? What if he said something about it! Oh god, please don't let Fury be able to read his mind!

As Luke begged a higher power for mental shields against telepathy attacks from his boss, his victory came up on screen. Unaware of the breakthroughs Luke was currently making, Fury commented, “Good work, Luke. Spiderman never gets hit as often as he deserves. Little sucker deserved that one.” Nevermind, Fury could say whatever he wanted forever. 

They finished watching the fight, and Fury thoughtfully pinched the bridge of his nose as he let out a sigh of disappointment. 

“Your punishment is suspension from patrols indefinitely.” Scratch the free speech thing, Luke had spoken too soon.

Ava choked down what suspiciously sounded like the beginning of a whimper. “But sir, how are we supposed to find Spiderman if we can’t go out?” 

“I didn't put you into high school on an undercover mission so you could run around in costume. A spy is a master of using social tactics to uncover information. Focus on your environment and use it to your advantage,” Fury responded. Uh oh. 

Luke reached out to steady Ava, mentally urging her to be strong. He didn’t know if Ava had any latent telepathic ability like he and Danny did, but he could at least offer her this small comfort. But Fury was far from done. 

“Use this time to your advantage. Hone your investigative skills. Talk to high schoolers,” he continued. 

Ava looked as if she would rather die. Luke knew Ava had never really liked the infiltration part of their mission. Her stealth and keen ability to keep her mouth shut were invaluable for reconnaissance missions. Ava was at her best when all she had to do was listen, sneak through hallways, and dispatch foes. 

But whenever she had to talk to people? To act? Well, there was a reason she preferred stealth. 

Fury pressed on, “In addition, you will be running safety drills all week. How well you perform will determine when you will be let back out on patrol.”

It was moments like these that Luke was glad they had let Sam be the leader, because if Ava had won that coin toss, she would be pushing them to their limit and then some. All they had to worry about now was making sure she didn’t overdo it herself. 

“You will be expected to keep completing your schoolwork–” The boys groaned. “–And Agent Rodriguez will continue to supervise and transport you. Am I understood?”

The group chorused that yes, they had understood, before having to do it again louder and in unison when their response wasn't deemed acceptable.

“Alright, with that out of the way, let's move on to more relevant matters,” Fury said. “What is your mission status?”

Since it had been Luke himself who was leading their investigation and Ava still seemed to be recovering from the shock of being grounded (and he had won their fight with Spiderman), it seemed that Luke would be reporting to Fury this time. 

At least, Luke was about to lay out everything they knew. All their theories, their suspicions, every piece of insight they had gained into the ever-evolving mystery of ‘Who was Spiderman?’ — 

But then Fury said, “What do you know to be certain?”

It suddenly hit him. Nothing they had was concrete proof that Harry was their guy. Luke froze. Holy shit, all of their evidence was not only circumstantial, but was not actually directly linked to Harry at all. 

Luke glanced at Danny, sending a panicked ‘Oh no, what do we do?’ look, begging that his best friend would receive his message. Please, Danny, be able to read his mind! Best friend telepathy, activate! Activate!

Danny spoke up. “Well, sir—” 

Oh, thank god. Luke knew he could always rely on his best friend. He would let Danny take the lead here. Now all he had to do was make sure neither Sam nor Ava did anything rash. 

Because as much as she liked to rib Sam, Ava was equally as impulsive. 

oOOo 

Danny liked to think he and Luke had some form of best friend telepathy going on. As such, when Luke gave him a panicked look, he immediately felt the urge to take control of the conversation and continue their report to Fury. 

“Well, sir, we know Spiderman is a student of Midtown High. And that The Bugle does not know Spiderman's identity. But we have reason to believe their photographer, whose identity we have uncovered to be a fellow student—” and was apparently the only person Spiderman allowed to photograph him, “—likely does.” 

Danny had never considered himself to be someone easily affected by the events that transpired in his life. If the inner calm that centered him relied upon external forces instead of internal strength, then he would not be able to call himself a pupil of the monks that had raised him.

But every moment of this mission so far had shaped and reshaped his very concept of existence. It had been an enlightening journey into the world of New York and a startling new insight into his mind. 

He learned so much with his friends, trying to solve the mystery of Spiderman’s identity. He couldn’t be happier. Really. 

He could even say he liked school, even if his classmates kept calling him “The Cowabunga Dude” and doing strange hand configurations at him. He was not sure where that had come from, but the school's rumor mill worked in fast and mysterious ways.  

“If your best lead is this photographer, all the more reason to remain in school.” 

“If we could get out of school—“ Ava rushed out. 

“—And I’m very impressed with your grades. So keep it up,” Fury cut off loudly. 

It looked like Fury had been ready. Danny bet he was not going to be letting them out of school so easily, much to his friends' dismay.

“Unfortunately, soon your stay in school might be longer than our initial projection.” Danny stiffened. 

“You kids are approaching your deadline,” Fury continued. “You have two options. Your first option: Uncover Spiderman’s secret identity, report it to Shield, and wash your hands of the whole situation. No more high school, and no more shared apartment. I will authorize you for full-time heroism and you will be recognized as full agents of Shield. In fact, you kids have done a great job so far from the evidence presented. You could give me your suspicions now, if you'd like.”

Danny narrowed his eyes. This was too good to be true. There would have been no need to send them in if it was as easy as pointing their finger at someone, or Shield would have already gone after their list of suspects. 

But not everyone on his team was as hesitant. Ava inhaled beside him, ready to provide a name. Instead, Fury once again beat her to speaking. 

“But know this, you will only get one chance, so you must be sure. Any incorrect assumptions could prompt an investigation into an innocent person's life. We will scrutinize their every waking moment until we find our answer. They will never know peace again.” Fury pinned them with a look. “We wouldn't want to put an innocent through all that, now would we?” 

Danny watched as Sam froze, before dropping his hands away from his bag to clench his fists. Sam had been the most certain amongst them that Harry was Spiderman. 

But Sam surprised him when he asked, “What- what happens if we have no names to give?”

Danny exchanged a look with Luke, who seemed equally as confused as to where this was going. 

Fury smiled as he answered Sam’s question. “Your second option, should you not manage to provide a name within the allotted time frame, is to fail.” Light as air. As if it did not matter to him whether they passed or failed. 

“Why is that a failure? Couldn’t we get them next year?” Ava asked. 

“Because it's possible that Spiderman, if they are a student, is a senior and will be gone with the wind come next year. Or he could transfer out during the summer. That would be the most sensible opportunity and raise the least suspicion. It's not like he isn't aware of our intentions.”

As much as Danny disliked it, Fury was right. They had not exactly been subtle in their attempts. 

But they still had time left! There was no reason to believe they could not still gather the evidence needed to uncover Spiderman’s identity and complete their mission. At worst, even if they failed the mission to capture Spiderman, the mission would be over and they could just leave the school. There was no reason to keep them there at school. None at all!  

“The end of the school year is also your last chance of exiting the school naturally without raising suspicion,” Fury said. “After that point of no return, you must remain in school—“

Please, no! 

“—as you would not be certified Shield operatives, and there are certain legal requirements we must complete. But more than that, a failure of this mission is evidence that you need more practice fitting in with civilians. It is a skill that you need to develop, as this will not be the last mission where you need to gather information through social means.”

Danny’s chest suddenly felt tight. The reality that he would have to stay in school was finally setting in. 

No, this was a test. It had to be. Just like the trolley problem in his philosophy club. The trolley barrelling down the tracks was the wrath of Shield, the people in the way of the tracks were the team, and the person who could stop the trolley from running them over was Harry. All Danny had to do was push him into the trolley’s path. Because in this scenario Danny was both tied to the tracks and a bystander somehow. Maybe he had not thought this through.

Remember your training , the voice of reason within him whispered. Except the voice of reason was being stupid, because his club had not gotten to an answer yet. They were supposed to go over that ethical dilemma next week! 

Danny took a breath, just like the monks had taught him. It was okay, he just had to figure this out before any of his friends noticed his hesitation. If he was fast enough, this blip would go unnoticed.

He just had to make a very simple choice: tell Fury their suspicion without solid evidence, or not tell. 

To tell or not to tell?

If he and the team talked, then that was good. It was what they had been instructed to do. Who were they to question Shield? They had been taught to simply follow orders. He should tell, because it was what was asked of them.

Except they had no evidence. They had no indisputable proof that this was their guy. They might ruin an innocent person’s life. Danny would never be able to call himself a hero if he was willing to so carelessly hurt a civilian like this.

But then again, Harry was the only one that made sense. And every day in school was a day they were prevented from making an actual difference. Giving him up would let them leave school and become full-time agents of Shield, dedicated to saving people's lives.

But without evidence, how could Danny be sure that it was Harry? He could not allow himself to jump to conclusions. That was the sitcom character's greatest folly. Even if waiting until they were sure meant... they might have to stay in school.

Danny was only sort of serious when he said he liked school. The kids made strange symbols and assumed he was from some strange land called Malibu. He was not a Barbie! He was just blonde!

But Danny knew that orders were a selfish excuse to throw someone to the Shield wolves, innocent of being Spiderman or not. He remembered what Spiderman had said about The Man , one of those times he had webbed them to the wall. Surely, Danny's own potential suffering was not worth inflicting upon another.

Even if turning in Harry would make them heroes, Danny was not sure if he would feel like a hero. Did heroes turn rat against one another, like the criminals they trapped? Was it right to turn on your buddies for the possibility of a slightly lesser punishment?

But the net good of his selfish motives would produce a positive net gain. Turning in one experienced hero in exchange for four newbies, that was fair, right?

But who was he to make such a choice? What right did he have to make such a choice? Maybe it was better not to make any choice at all. 

But how was being a bystander any better than pulling the trigger? What would Captain America from the anti-bullying PSA think? 

Danny could feel reality collapsing around him. Everything he thought he knew felt foreign and strange. How did Shield's plumbing work when they had no access to a sewer system? Why were his punches magic? How did that make any sense? Who was he anymore? He had changed so much from his time in the mountains, who was to say he could trust himself to make such heavy decisions? Was Shield really his friend?

Next to him, Ava raised her hand. “What happens to Spiderman after we discover his identity?”

It felt like he died every day and was replaced with an identical clone complete with all his previous memories, but it was a cheap copy. Worse in every way and more anxious. It felt like the more he learned, the more he understood he knew nothing at all! 

“You have your mission. You don’t need to know more. You don’t need to ask anymore. You just need to ask yourself: Am I going to complete it?” Fury said. 

Danny cursed his desire to understand, the mission's necessity that he fit in with the other students, and his inability to know it all. Throughout this ordeal, Danny had learned the joys of sponges that lived in pineapples under the sea and the wisdom of sitcoms. But were those masterpieces worth coming out of the cave and knowing the full brutality of the sun? 

It took a moment, but Danny heard Ava respond with an affirmative. “Yes, sir, absolutely.” 

Danny wished he felt the same way as Ava about the mission. 

But did it really matter? Whether or not he knew what was right did not affect the fact that they had a job to do. Danny may not know the answers to all his questions, and he might never. But Danny knew deep down in his heart that despite it all, he just had to keep on living. If only for his friends who he loved dearly, and who loved him back. Life was beautiful when you had your friends. 

Fury stared them down. “So tell me: Are you children any closer to finding Spiderman’s identity than when I first sent you down?

The coil around Danny's chest tightened again. He could not do it. He knew not to speak with half-formed ideas he was not sure of. But with all the doubt recently cast, he knew Luke would not say anything either, at least not today. 

Would Ava? Just to get it out and over with? 

Danny could not breathe. He needed more time. Universe, infinite and large, mysterious, cosmic, all-knowing and chaotic, please, give him more time. 

Or, he thought, cowardly, at least take the decision out of his hands. 

He watched as Ava opened her mouth. It seemed Danny would be taking the coward's way out, and simply not make any decision after all. 

Danny closed his eyes–

“No, sir,” Sam said, “We haven't found anything.”

Chapter Text

“No sir. We haven't found anything.”

Sam supposed he had always been a little reckless. 

“Are you sure?” Fury asked. 

Not really, but then again he always acted on impulse without thinking of the consequences. After all, it took a certain lack of self-preservation to put on a strange space helmet and started shooting through the sky. At least his reflexes usually saved him from the worst of the physical consequences.

He wanted to prove himself to Shield, get his team approved as agents, and grow stronger. He wanted to stop bad guys from winning, from separating families, and to defend those who couldn't defend themselves. It was their responsibility to do so, a goal they all shared with Spiderman. Spiderman had said so to him– to them. 

But he wasn’t an idiot. 

“Positive,” Sam said. 

So then why was everyone staring at him like that? 

If they turned Spiderman in just to pass this mission test, or shared his suspicions with Fury that Parker– that Peter might know something, Shield would take both Peter and Harry away. If that happened, who would protect Gwen, MJ, Peter, or even Harry himself? 

What if they were wrong about the evidence?

If Sam said anything to Shield, he would risk having Harry taken away from his friends, and leaving Peter to fend for himself at school. The bullying he would suffer from not having Harry to defend him, the betrayal of feeling abandoned could become Peter's breaking point. There was no way he wouldn’t go mad and ruin his own life in a fit of revenge. Would he swear his revenge against Shield? Or them? Would he get himself killed? 

Every action had its consequence and created a ripple effect that would leave his friends and family devastated, and it all led back to them and their carelessness. Sam couldn’t let that boy become a villain. 

But Sam really was on his own. His team only cared about the mission, not the people this mission affected. How was Sam the only one that could see the normal teenage life that would be taken away from Peter, Harry, and the girls? Sam couldn't allow this. 

So he did his best to not waver when Fury turned to face him. 

“Is there anyone you're suspicious of?” Fury asked him. 

Sam clenched the strap of his bag tightly, the weight of the singular notebook within much too light for its contents. Out of the corner of his eye Ava stood eerily still. He couldn't help but worry. What face could she be making? Would she be angry? Shocked? Confused? 

(She shouldn’t be. She had always been the smart one. She should have seen this coming.)

But he couldn't face her right now. Not when his resolve was still so fragile in the face of what he was about to do, and not when it took everything within him not to flinch from Fury’s gaze. 

“No sir.”

Fury arched an eyebrow over his one visible eye. “You understand the consequences of not finding his identity? You would be staying in that school until you graduate, another full year.”

Sam hated the fact that there was no easy way out. He knew how much Ava and the guys– but Ava especially– wanted to get out of school. He understood how badly they all wanted to pass and become heroes, do missions for Shield, and make Fury proud. 

But it was wrong. 

Sam knew intimately the consequences of impulse all too well. The miserable regret of an action taken without understanding why, the guilt and shame of having to ask himself ‘why couldn’t I just have thought this through?’ after an action or message had been received poorly.

But while the moment to implement this decision was sudden, this was the first decision he felt he had full clarity on. 

“Yes sir. I fully understand the weight of it all.”

“You comprehend that as this team's leader, you take full responsibility for this team's actions and results?”

“Yes sir.”

Fury narrowed his eye. “So I ask again, do you have any inkling or noteworthy lead to present regarding who Spiderman is?”

He would not let Ava be the reason someone lost their whole life, and he would not let her bear the consequences for making this decision. 

Sam stared at Fury head on. “No sir. I do not.”

He was going to save all of them. All of them. 

Fury remained silent for a moment. Sam held his breath as Fury’s discerning eye dissected him. 

Sam wondered what Fury saw in him. A scrawny teenager? Was he a good leader, or bad one? Did he see someone trying his best and failing, or was he still just a boy in his father’s helmet?

After a long and agonizing minute, Fury seemed to have found whatever he was looking for. “I trust this team to make the best possible choice. You are to return to your mission until you have updates for me. You are not to report to me until you have collectively agreed that you have definitive proof of Spiderman's identity.” He smirked. “Figure out your priorities. You are dismissed.” 

With that, the scariest man Sam knew turned around and left the team on their own. 

oOOo

Interesting. 

Fury knew Spiderman was good. Good enough to unite a multitude of heroes in a way that Shield had been unable to replicate. Good enough to, even as an outsider, build the camaraderie among this brand new team to the point that they were finally acting like a solid unit, following each other's lead in the field rather than unconsciously waiting for a handler to feed them instructions. 

The team had improved dramatically since the start of their mission, if the reports from Coulson and Agent Rodriguez were to be believed. They solved their interpersonal conflicts diplomatically, built upon their espionage skills, refined their investigative skills, collected evidence under adverse and unique circumstances (like when they went to visit that bastard JJJ), and even started learning how to prioritize their personal growth and health. 

Even when they failed, they still learned from their mistakes and improved. Every defeat had them adapting to their enemies’ movements. They were now more aware of their teammates' limitations and how to cover for those weaknesses. 

In Fury’s opinion, Sam was of particular interest. Certain skills he had recently demonstrated, such as infiltration and his ability to integrate into the school, had developed much faster than that of his teammates. Perhaps too fast for his teammates. 

Yes, Spiderman had been very good for this team. 

Fury just hadn’t known that Spiderman was also good enough to have them follow his lead so willingly without him even being on the team (Fury was not happy about the fact that this team had attempted to take on The Goblin without the proper backup), and then divide them so fervently on a topic he hadn't even introduced directly, that they just fractured right in front of him. And all of that without even trying. (He was positive Spiderman had no idea.)

What was it about this guy that had this team both improving and misbehaving? Fury felt like it almost wasn't worth the trouble of getting him onboard. 

There was also the matter of preparing the team for integration into civilian society. As a precaution. Shield had learned the lessons of the entertainment industry. They couldn't have the equivalent of its burned out child actors spilling government secrets and seeking revenge, that was too dangerous.  

Besides, it was just generally important they care for and protect the younger generation. Especially when said younger generation could become loose cannons and kill everyone. Not that Fury was particularly worried about this group. They were nice kids. 

Fury seriously wondered if the kids had understood what he was saying, but a test was a test. Their misunderstanding of the actual mission up to this point aside, he figured they were smart enough to figure it out with minimal guidance. 

Fury knew that they would be fine. They kind of had to be, as he wouldn’t be able to keep as close an eye on them at the moment. What with the situation that had recently popped up. (He still had to make some phone calls and get certain key players like the Fantastic Four up to date. Hopefully he wouldn’t have to talk to Stark—) 

He just sincerely hoped the team would be able to sort themselves out in time for the party that was about to go down. He would hate for them to miss out on such a great learning opportunity. 

oOOo

Sam had just done the one thing no one thought he was capable of– he had kept his mouth shut.

Ava knew there must be a good reason for this, at least to him. He wouldn't have had such control otherwise. So, for the moment, Ava had decided to trust him and kept her mouth shut too. 

As the door shut behind Fury, she felt as though she should have been able to finally breathe. Instead, Ava just felt like an idiot. 

Danny and Luke immediately turned around and started giving each other looks. They always did that, somehow communicating with each other as if it were telepathy. At least, Ava assumed that's what was happening. She never really understood them whenever they tried it out with her. It just made her feel weird for not ‘getting it’. 

That's what she liked about Sam though, he never really bothered with that kind of stuff. He just told her straight to her face what he was thinking. Until now. He hadn't told any of them–especially her– what he had been thinking. 

But it was cool. It was fine, Ava thought to herself, as she clenched and unclenched her fists. Everything was still fine! Sam had only just thrown away their best chance to leave school, no biggie! 

Looking at Sam, who was just standing there, it was hard for her to tell what he was thinking right now. That just made her angrier. Ava raised her hands to grip at her forearms. It was a little cold on the helicarrier, so she started rubbing her arms. She could handle this, what was that thing Danny had taught her? ‘Think Positive’ or something? She could do this. All she had to do was–

Sam turned to leave. Ok, screw this, Ava had been lying. Big biggie, she needed answers. Now. 

Frantically, Ava lunged and grabbed her friend by the wrist. “Sam, what the hell was that?” she hissed.

Sam quickly raised one finger to shush her, pointing his head to the nosy Shield agents eavesdropping all around them. “Not here,” he whispered.

Ava's grip on Sam's wrist tightened, but ultimately she knew he was right. Whatever they said in here would eventually reach Fury’s ears. They couldn't afford to look weak and divided, not after having been punished and banned from patrol. Despite the logic of it all though, it burned all the same to be denied. 

She couldn't help the way her claws dug into his skin, upset that he wouldn’t answer here and now. This had been their chance to get out of school. Why hadn’t he taken it? 

But in spite of her harsh hold on him, Sam hadn’t winced. He didn’t move his other arm to pry her off or ask her to let go. Instead, he adjusted himself so that he was able to gently hold her wrist back with his other hand. Just enough to envelop his hand around hers and let her know he was there. 

He should be upset at her. She was hurting him. (He was being too soft again. Just like when he had encouraged them to indulge Spiderman's little game. Or how he kept indulging Spiderman’s opinions whenever they got trapped by his webs and he gave them lectures on being heroes, or how he wanted to protect that stupid Parker boy for Spiderman's sake. Sam insisted she should apologize to Gwen and MJ, insisted but never demanded they not stalk Gwen, insisted MJ was his friend, insisted that he enjoyed his clubs, insisted that he would fly all the way to New York the day they arrived just so they could all have seats on the plane, insisted that they start this stupid mission as soon as possible–)

Ava looked at where her claws were breaking skin. (Soft people got hurt.) 

Sam held on. 

Ava watched Sam, took a deep breath and centered herself, and let him go. She watched him scan their surroundings for a second and then indicated for the team to follow him. 

But, just as he made it to the door, Sam seemed to pause. He glanced in the direction Fury had gone and clutched the strap of his galaxy print messenger bag tightly, before sharply turning his head forward with a shuddered inhale and continuing through the door. 

Ava, Luke, and Danny shared questioning glances with each other (not that Ava really understood), and followed. 

It was hard to tell whether the walk to or from the observation deck was worse, when both journeys had been terribly silent in different ways. Whatever harebrained scheme Sam had come up with now was not something any of them wanted Fury to hear, so it had to be had outside. They couldn't have him thinking their team was any more incompetent than he already thought they were for fighting The Goblin and not having completed the mission yet. 

But it was hard to hold in her frustration when all she could do was stew in her thoughts. She had been so sure he would break and spill the beans as soon as they left the room, but it seemed Sam understood that the walls had ears and was intent on taking them all the way to the flight deck. 

That was alright. She just had to be patient. He had to have done this for some reason, one she couldn't see yet and he wouldn't say in front of Fury, but would make sense once he explained! A reason good enough that they hadn't completed their mission yet. 

Lost in her thoughts, and despite his short legs, Sam outpaced them all. As Ava and the boys struggled to catch up to him, Sam was pulling farther and farther ahead of them as he powerwalked the whole way. 

By the time they made it outside he was already pacing close to the jet. Emilio, their pilot, seemed concerned that Sam was alone and was about to hop down to talk to him, but when he saw the rest of them coming, instead seemed to flag in relief. As the team approached Sam, Emilio began prepping his plane for take off, something Ava appreciated immensely. The sooner they got home the better. 

As soon as they reached him, Ava couldn't hold it in any longer. “Sam, what's going on? Why didn't you tell Fury about our lead?”

Sam fidgeted, “I’ve been having thoughts–”   

Ava laughed. “Already off to a bad start,” she joked. But instead of his usual exaggerated displays of anger, Sam just hunched his shoulders. Had she said something wrong? 

Nevertheless, Sam continued. “Something's not right about this mission. We’re not even sure about our lead here. Let's just stay in school a little longer, until we’re sure.”

Ava stared in disbelief. “Sorry, did you just say you want to stay in school? The whole point is to resolve this mission as fast as possible to get out and into the field! There's no point in delaying it! We know who has the evidence. You don't even like it here, you were the most against this from the start! What could possibly be so important that we need to stick around–” as she spoke, Ava's eye caught onto the galaxy print bag her friend had been clutching so tightly. 

No way. 

Through clenched teeth she asked, “Sam, what's in the bag?”  

Sam gripped his bag tighter and turned away. 

Ava felt a sudden weightlessness in her stomach. It was one thing for them to name Parker as a suspect in their case, a potential source of information that could finally trap Spiderman. 

It was another thing entirely to have a completed catalog of evidence carefully logged in Sam's stalker notebook– recorded interactions, Sam's early suspicions of Parker's involvement, and notes collected about everything they had uncovered so far– on hand and ready to turn in, and not give it to the man that could set them free from this terrible mission. 

“You've been carrying that book this whole time? You brought your book, and you didn't show it to Fury? I would have thought you'd want Fury to see. I thought you wanted to prove yourself?” 

Sam had been prepared. And he hadn't given his notebook over to Fury. Why? How could he not want to show Fury his creepy little stalker notebook to get out of school as soon as possible? She had never taken Sam for being a perfectionist. She always had to edit his essays, or else he would turn in the very first draft he came up with. 

Instead of explaining himself though, Sam shook his head. “Because we're not even sure yet. Turning it in now puts them at risk when we’re not even sure they’re the ones.”

“An entire notebook of why Parker and his friends are weird, days of spying and trying to interrogate them, impossible escapes from what are supposed to be average teenagers, and you’re still not convinced? Sam, we’re specially trained agents, no one is supposed to be able to avoid us, not unless they’re special somehow too.”

Sam sighed. “You don't understand- they’re not hurting anyone. If they catch Shield’s attention it could ruin their lives. Even if he might be Spiderman, Spiderman doesn't hurt people, he saves them. Spiderman told us he keeps his face a secret because if he gets in trouble it's going to hurt the people around him. Look, we just need a little more time.” 

Oh, but Ava understood. The only question was, why would he try to hurt her like this! 

Sam's little obsession with Spiderman's pet nerd was getting in the way. She couldn't believe it. Somehow Sam had convinced himself that he actually liked school now, all in the name of keeping up his delusional stalking of some pointless obsession. 

What was so great about school anyway? Wasn’t he just as miserable? She hated it there! All school did was pit you against 500 other sweaty teens who all hated you. It made you feel dumb in the face of deteriorating grades. Just last week Ava had hit her newest low– her grade in advanced biochemistry had fallen to a (disgusting/disgraceful/ horrifying /literal nausea-inducing) B+. That alone would have been enough to ruin her day, but it was Parker’s humiliation tactics upon seeing her test result that made her want to claw his face off. 

She knew he just wanted to provoke her, offering to be her study buddy as a way to rub the recent cascade of failures in her face, all under the convenient guise of pretending to be the one in need of her help. But no matter how much he claimed his grades were slipping because of ‘extracurricular activities’, he knew she wasn't doing the best right now. He saw an opportunity to strike when she was at her lowest, to gloat when he was winning. High school was terrible. 

She’d rather study with the 13-year-old genius that sat between them sleeping all day that no one really knew anything about. That Amadeus kid should probably fix his sleep schedule, it wasn't healthy for him to not be sleeping. What the hell was he doing to be so tired, staring at the moon all night? At least he was less annoying unconscious than Parker and the rest of his-

Then it clicked. 

“I can’t believe this,” Ava exhaled in disbelief, “You’re protecting Ha-”

Sam panicked. “Shut up not here!”

“Fine, you’re protecting Spiderman,” she hissed.

 “I’m protecting innocent people.” Sam defended. 

Ava couldn't believe this. “But they’re not innocent. Shield is after Spiderman, and the subject of your ‘little diary’ is an accomplice.” Ava knew Sam had only even looked at Parker because it was Ava who had gotten mad when he offered her his notes on their first day. If it hadn't been for that, he might have never given him a second glance. This was her fault. 

Sam winced. “You don't know that Ava–” 

“But you do! Isn't that the whole point?” Ava rebuked. “How much information do you have in there that says just that?”

Sam had been so confident Parker knew more than he was letting on about something. He had dedicated months to his hunch and written a whole book about it. He would constantly share his ‘findings’ no matter how much they had begged him not to. So how could he suddenly turn around and claim otherwise? 

“You guys are acting like we should be turning him over on a suspicion we haven't proven, when he hasn't done anything wrong,” he argued, hitting his oh-so-precious journal in his bag to emphasize his point.

Ava could appreciate that Sam had never truly been a quitter, but right now his determined expression only served to rile her up further. 

“Sam, your whole notebook is dedicated to why you think he will,” Ava countered angrily. Was he holding back because he simply wanted to be friends with Spiderman, or was there something more?

Sam shook his head. “And you said it yourself, that I was blowing these observations way out of proportion. That it was probably nothing. So why, now that I'm saying that you’re right, are you changing your mind? Nothing in here proves our suspect is Spiderman. It's not even worth turning in.” 

Sure, her friend might have been a little off-base in claiming Parker was a villain in the making. But Parker still had access to potentially important and perhaps even dangerous information simply by being Spiderman's friend. 

They all knew how extensively Sam had written out every habit and mannerism. With the amount of evidence Sam had collected already, Shield would have no trouble apprehending Harry's little group. There would be no escape for them. Ava wasn't about to let the team waste any more time investigating this themselves when they could just give Shield the notebook and be done with it. 

So for Sam to try and claim that the notebook he had spent so long compiling for the express purpose of identifying that threat had little in terms of evidence? Was irrelevant to the mission and no longer worth submitting? All to protect Spiderman's little accomplice and Spiderman himself from being held accountable?

It left her with a very bad feeling. 

"I've seen how hard you've worked on it, Sam! You're lying to yourself if you think it isn't relevant,” Ava accused “You're being dumb, just give them the book!"

Ava wasn't about to let the team waste any more time investigating this themselves when they could just give Shield the notebook and let them handle it. Either Harry's group would eventually be deemed innocent and it would all get cleared up, or Shield would get the information they needed and uncover Spiderman's identity. 

Sam threw his hands up in exasperation. “How many times do I have to explain this, if we do that we’re gonna push an at-risk guy into a corner! He might do something, and we can't let it come to that!”

“Then shouldn't you want to let Shield know? You're being dumb, Sam! Just give them the book!” Ava growled. She was getting pretty sick of this dumb argument. 

“I’m not doing anything wrong, I don't get why you’re so upset about this!” Sam exclaimed.  

Ava had had enough. “Because you lied to us! You lied to Fury! You don't want to end the mission, you just want to goof off and play with your stupid nerd club and be buddies with Spiderman! You don't care about anyone but yourself! You’re being selfish!”

Sam might have his little mission to save Parker from himself or whatever, but that didn't mean he had to be his friend over hers. Sam was her best friend, and that weird little bully nerd was corrupting him. Sure, Parker was her personal enemy at school, but outside of that she didn't care what happened to him. This wasn't personal.

Behind her she could tell Luke and Danny were trying to calm them down, but she could hardly hear them over the blood rushing through her ears. Their frantic flailing and placating gestures would not stop her. She wasn't going to let Sam get away with this. She needed that book to get all of this over with once and for all. 

“I’m not being selfish Ava, we can't just give them over to Shield. Danny has a point, we could be wrong,” Sam insisted, not backing down. 

But Ava was too upset to let that sway her. “You don’t believe that in the slightest, you’re protecting him!” 

Sam lost his composure and exploded right back at her. “No! Ava just listen to me, what you're saying we should do is wrong! You don't listen! You never do!” he yelled. By now everyone on deck had caught wind of their little argument and was watching. “This is stupid. This is dangerous. We can't play with people's lives like this.”

Ava scoffed. “We're not playing with people's lives. Shield needs to know about him so just hand over the book, Sam. We’re giving it to Fury.” If Parker was the key to getting what she wanted, then let Shield have him.  

Sam's face grew into an ugly scowl as he tugged the bag closer to his body again. “That’s not a decision you get to make, Ava. I’m the team leader.” 

Ava waved a dismissive hand at him. “You’re only the team leader because no one else wanted to be.” 

“Oh yeah? I distinctly remember you losing a certain coin flip.” Sam's smirk at her just pissed her off. No way was she letting him get away with that one. 

Ava laughed in his face. “You say that like it even helps your case. No one wanted you as the leader, you just got lucky.” Sam's face under his helmet flushed red, and his fists clenched. 

Behind her, Luke’s voice finally broke through. “Hey guys, let’s calm down–” 

Danny stepped in right behind him. “Let us take a moment to breathe. As the monks said, ‘If you are patient in one moment of anger, you will escape a–”

But Ava was done. “You’re only the team leader because we let you be. We only let you boss us around because otherwise?” Ava couldn't stop herself. This was so unfair. That he would undermine them for his own obsession. He was their leader, why wouldn't he do what was best for them? Really, she would have made a better team leader than he had. If it was up to her they would probably already be finished with their mission and out of school by now. “Otherwise, we wouldn't be able to get anything done. You’d be too annoying.” 

Luke sharply inhaled beside her. “Woah, too far Ava.” 

Sam tensed his shoulders and scowled. “You never respected me as this team's leader. You don't even respect me as your friend. You guys don't even care what happens to anyone but yourselves.” He looked at her pleadingly. “Don't you miss being simple?”   

But Ava only glared. “I will never be simple again. And neither will you. Not while we have these powers, and not while we have an obligation to Shield.” Sam should know better. She stomped her way over to him and reached out her hand again. “Sam, hand over the book.”

Sam bit his lip and slowly pulled out the book. Finally, it seemed like Ava had gotten through to him. 

By this point, the notebook was quite beat up from the months of wear and tear. The spiral metal binding was sliding out and the edges of the paper curled from how often Sam just shoved it into his bag. Pages had been torn out and loose paper glued in along with other pieces of ‘evidence’ Sam had collected over the months. 

This really was the longest Sam had ever worked on a project. 

When Sam just kept holding the book tightly to his chest, Ava went to take it from him. She knew what was best for them.

But he sidestepped her lunge, launching himself slightly into the air, just out of reach. Sam looked down at his book. “You know what?”

He held the book in his hands, and gazed at it longingly. 

“I'm sorry guys. I'm done.” 

Ava watched in horror as Sam raised his hand to fire at the book, too shocked to stop him before he flung the flaming pages into the ocean. Sam turned to face them, but would not look her in the eyes. 

“As of this moment, I am stepping down as your leader. Not that I have to, since you guys obviously don’t respect me. Good luck finishing the mission.” With that, he flew off the helicarrier and back towards the city below. Without them.

Ava felt frozen as she watched him get smaller and smaller. The full moon hung heavy in the sky as Sam flew away, making him look even smallerIt wasn't until Emilio the pilot started shouting for Sam to come back that she snapped out of her daze. She ran to the edge of the helicarrier, fighting Luke and Danny's grip as she shouted for her best friend. “Sam, Sam! Come back, I'm sorry, I didn't mean it! Sam!”

But by now he was too far away.

Ava tugged her wrists free, taking the chance to finally pull her mask off to wipe her eyes. How could she have said those things? 

Luke carefully placed a hand on her shoulder. She didn't really feel like shrugging him off. “Ava, you okay?” 

Ava felt perfectly fine. Her friend had betrayed their entire team and hurt those closest to him for his selfish desire under the guise of greater good. But Ava didn't care, Sam only just hated her personally. She gave another stuttering inhale. 

“Ava,” Danny gently said, "do not feel too bad. It was not your fault. We are all going through a lot of things right now, I am sure he is just going to cool off. Everything is going to be fine. Deep breaths. That's it, keep going.” After a few minutes of them just standing around, she scrubbed her face harder and let the boys guide her to the plane. 

Ava sniffled. Danny was right. It wasn't her fault. It was that damn notebook. Or rather, the subject of that notebook. 

It was Parker who had caused Sam to turn his back on his friends. It was Parker who was responsible for everything falling apart. If it wasn't for him, all four of them would be in the helicopter, mission successfully completed and her best friend by her side.

…Maybe Sam was right. Maybe Parker was a villain.