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There was a long moment of stunned silence as Peter finished his explanation. Ned was the first to find his voice "Um… you don't… Uh, you don't sparkle, do you?"
MJ groaned.
"Hey, it's a reasonable question!" Ned protested.
"So these guys are… They are all undead?" MJ ignored Ned. "Like, all of them?"
Peter nodded "I know it sounds nuts, but…"
"Huh. Well, at least explains why Stark still manages to look twenty years younger than he is"
"And Captain America?" Ned cut in "Captain America is actually alive? Or, uh, undead alive, or whatever it is you guys are? You saw Captain America?"
"Yeah" Peter couldn't suppress a grin from spreading across his face "And he's gonna be training me"
Ned almost fell out of his chair "He WHAT? You WHAT?"
"Captain America is going to be training me" Peter stressed every word, beaming.
MJ looked far from impressed. "They're gonna be training you"
"Um, yeah, that's kinda the point!"
"This Fury guy and his Men in Black guys are going to be training you"
"Er, MJ…"
"What happens if you say no? What happens if you decide you want to walk away?"
"Who would say no?" Ned demanded, as if offended by the very possibility "Captain America! Tony Stark! The Tony Stark!"
“What if you say no?” MJ repeated “What happens if you decide you don’t want it? That you’re gonna just… I dunno, go to college, get a job…Just live your life? Or take off somewhere and start a startup or something?”
Peter frowned “You mean…”
“Can you say no? Will they let you go if you want to?”
“I…”
He didn’t want to, that was the whole point. Who would let go of something like that?
“They’ll let me go” he said finally “They said they’ll let me go. Even that Fury guy said they will.”
“Oh, that reminds me!” Ned dived for his phone “You said Fury, right? Yesterday? I kinda looked him up”
“Looked him up?” Peter leant over to get a look “Guy’s like MIB type, you can’t just google him!”
“I mean, I don’t think I got the upto date info” Ned slid the phone over to the other two “You said black, bald guy, eyepatch, looks a bit like Samuel L Jackson?”
Peter nodded. The image on the screen was a really old, grainy black and white photo, but the man in it was unmistakable.
“Wow.”
“It’s him?”
“Yeah, but…”
“Nicholas J Fury” MJ read from the screen “Sergeant Fury. World War Two veteran. Worked with the Howling Commandos.”
“Cap’s Howling Commandos?”
MJ nodded, continuing “Briefly took over leadership of the squad after the Captain’s ‘death’. Died in an explosion a couple of days before the end of the war.”
“Couple of days?” Peter winced at the level of bad luck that must have involved.
“Well, looks like he went undead instead of dead” MJ frowned at the screen. “And he didn’t let anyone know? He let the Commandos go on thinking they’d lost two commanding officers in the space of weeks?”
‘Three commanding officers” Peter corrected “Sergeant Barnes - Cap’s Bucky - he died a couple of weeks before Cap”
“Ouch” Ned winced in sympathy “I really hope Fury let those guys know. I mean, they didn’t need another notch like that”
“He did let them know” All three almost leaped out of their skins at the voice behind them.
“What the F-” MJ’s indignant shriek was cut short when she got a look at the interrupter.
Peter almost fell off his chair. “Cap?”
Captain America stood beside their table, looking half amused, half apologetic, and fully movie star awesome, even in casual wear. “Sorry, didn’t mean to startle you. I thought you had seen me already.”
“Um” MJ took another look at him “You’ve been standing here for a while, haven’t you.”
“Only two minutes” Cap pulled up a chair and sat down next to the trio. He didn’t look all that much older than them. Had anyone been paying attention, he’d probably have looked like an older brother dropping in to annoy and check on the kid brother. “You guys were really engrossed.”
“Just…Uh, looking up stuff”
“That part of google is accurate, as far as it goes” Cap confirmed “Except, of course, Fury didn’t really die. I don’t know the details, not sure even Coulson does. He let the team know, though. Fury can be a bit of a jerk, but not that much of a jerk”
“Oh.”
Ned was still fumbling to reboot his mouth, and not having much success at it. Peter was pretty sure the second he succeeded, he’d be asking for an autograph. Or telling Cap about the Historical RPF project they had going, starring Cap, Bucky and the Howling Commandos.
“I was looking for Peter, actually” Cap commented “ Didn’t Tony text you?”
Peter fumbled for his phone. Damn, that’s the last thing he needed, show up late for his first ever training session with Captain America.
The message notifications weren’t showing. Again. Ugh. He definitely needed a new phone - this one used to be Aunt May’s, and way past the age of honorable retirement.
A bit of coaxing finally had the text show up - “Hi, Spider-Kid. Training starts today, with our Mr Red-White-and-Blue. 9.00 A M, meet at Central Park”
“Spider-Kid?” MJ snorted.
Cap, looking over his shoulder to read the text, rolled his eyes “Tony can be a bit…juvenile at times.”
“Guy showed up at his own company’s expo wearing Mickey Mouse pants” MJ pointed out “We could already guess.”
Cap shrugged “Never mind Tony. Peter, we should get going.”
“Yeah, sure, coming, in a minute, the phone was…Uh, kind of, I mean, I really didn’t see the message. I swear I’d have been ready!”
“He’d have been there at 6.00 A M at the latest” MJ offered confirmation.
“You got the spider suit with you?”
“Yeah!”
“He sleeps in it” MJ added.
Peter shot her a look that telegraphed ‘Can-You-Quit-Making-Me-Look-Even-More-of-a-Dork-Than-I-Do’.An eye-roll and a thumbs up was the only response he got. Cap politely pretended not to notice.
“‘Kay, Peter. Race you to Central Park. Let’s see who gets there first”
……………………………………
Peter had absolutely no idea just how he managed to lose this race. After all, he had taken the skyscraper route, Cap had said he’d be on foot, and he was pretty sure Cap couldn’t fly anyway, could he?
“Hello, Peter”
“Uh…I’m usually faster…”
“I know some shortcuts”
“Are we gonna be…training here?” Peter glanced around. The park wasn’t crowded, not at this time of the day, but he was pretty sure any of the Spidey stuff would definitely attract attention.
“Not here” Cap gestured at what looked like a shimmer in the air.
Oh. Portal. Of course.
………………….
Peter’s first thought was - Damn, the portal malfunctioned
His second thought was - there's a really good reason I never got in with the Goth crowd
The cemetery was huge, sprawling. Far bigger than the Calvary Hills cemetery where Uncle Ben was. And far more…ornate, as far as headstones and tombs were concerned.
Peter found himself face-to-snout with a gargoyle perched on the nearest tomb, and staggered back into Cap who had just stepped in through the portal.
“Sorry!”
Cap caught and steadied him wordlessly, motioning him to look around. Peter did, wondering what he was missing. The place looked quiet, Spidey Sense reported no threats, nothing more than the expected creepiness factor of a cemetery.
“Wow. We’ll…be training here?”
“Um, there aren’t…Uh, there aren’t any, um, zombies or I dunno, vampires?”
“Not this time” Not
time? “We don’t have much time for the regular training today. Given you-”
“I really didn’t see the message, I swear it won’t happen again, I was-”
Cap held up a hand for silence “Never mind that. I’ll have Coulson get you a new phone anyway. Can’t have you missing contacts again.”
Peter didn’t get more than a couple of syllables into a stuttered thanks before Cap interrupted again “That is not really the point.”
“Um, then…”
“You have decided to join the initiative?’
“Yes!”
It was only about this point that Peter caught up to Cap’s distinct lack of enthusiasm about this. Which, of course,was to be expected, given he basically got stuck with babysitting duty and everything, but…
“Fury asked us for our opinion on recruiting you. The response was, obviously, mixed.”
Oh. They’d actually put it to vote? Which did kinda make sense, when you came to think of it, but still…
“I voted against. Unfortunately, I was outvoted.”
Wait. What?
Cap caught his expression, and nodded. “No offense, but I still stand by it. I don’t believe you should be involved at this point.”
“But…But I am… I have…I’ve been…You said you saw the videos…”
“I did. And that is part of the reason I voted to bench you.”
“It…It was that bad?”
Cap met his eyes, expression calm, hundred percent certain. “I’m sorry, but it was.”
“But I…” Peter wasn’t sure he was more ashamed or angry. He had been fighting, he had been out there, maybe he wasn’t the best there was or anything, but…
Cap nodded as if he could guess his train of thought.
“You have skill. And you’ve certainly got heart ” he acknowledged. “But you don’t fight smart. You don’t fight like you know it is real.”
“I know it is real” Peter’s voice dropped lower. That was one thing no one - not even Captain America - was going to get to accuse him of.
He knew it was real. He knew what happened if you screwed up. There were times he could still smell Uncle Ben’s blood, times when a particular shade of red would make his hands shake. He knew it was real.
“Maybe you know” Cap continued “But only on a certain level. Not deep enough, not in your bones. You don’t fight like lives depend on it. Like your life depends on it.”
“I…I’m careful…”
“Not careful enough. I spent the last week going over your videos, trying to get a hang of your style. You fight like you believe you’re immortal.”
“I don’t…”
“It’s normal” Cap cut short his protests “You’re fifteen. No healthy fifteen year old thinks of death as something that might apply to them. Most fifteen year olds don’t think of death as something that might affect them at all - but unfortunately, you know better in that respect.”
Peter winced, despite his best efforts. Cap nodded, expression sympathetic.
“I’m not a kid” Peter already knew the protest only made him sound even more like a kid, but he couldn’t help it.
“You have been through more than most adults have” Cap admitted “But that doesn’t make you an adult. That just makes you a kid who has had to deal with stuff no kid should.”
“And you think I shouldn’t be in the team.”
“Yes.”
“Even if I want to? Even if Fury and Mr Coulson and everyone thinks I’m ready?”
“Fury and Coulson are not ‘everyone’”
“But still…”
“I’ve seen kids like you, okay? In the War. People were all… eager to sign up, to do their part. To go fight the bad guys. There were plenty kids who signed up. Sixteen and seventeen year olds - and I guess there were more than a few fifteen year olds as well - who gave false birth dates. Kids who were big for their age, already doing adults’ work, who were convinced they were grown up enough to decide.”
Cap shook his head, a disturbingly faraway expression coming into his eyes for a moment “I’m not saying eighteen is some magic age when you’ll be perfectly mature or anything, but… Don’t be in too much of a hurry to grow up.”
“You don’t want me in the team.”
“I don’t.”
“Then why are you…You agreed to train me, didn’t you?”
Or did you just get outvoted there too?
“You got recruited, anyway. I’ve got some pull, but not enough to overrule something Director Fury is intent on. Given you are in, all I can do is to make sure you are as ready for this as you can be.”
Which is not very ready at all, his expression said plainly enough. Peter wanted to be offended, wanted to be angry. But a not-so-small part of him was echoing Cap. The part that remembered the smell of blood best.
“And you brought me here because…”
“This is where SHIELD buries its fallen” Cap indicated the graves.
Peter felt the breath catch in his throat as he followed Cap’s gaze. So many of them. So many.
“Most of them are regular agents. But there are a lot of us too - people like us. We cheated death once. And once is all you can hope for.”
Peter couldn’t help but wonder how many people Cap knew - how many of his colleagues, teammates, friends - were there beneath the tombs.
“A lot of the people here, they died as heroes. Died doing what had to be done.” Cap continued. “A few, they were just plain unlucky. Life happens. You can’t plan for everything, and sometimes…sometimes that is enough to end it.”
He shrugged.
“But some…they died because they got careless. Because they did something stupid, because they messed up. Or worse, because someone else got careless, messed up, and they paid the price.”
Peter wanted to say something, answer, promise he wouldn’t be one of those, but somehow the words remained out of reach. There was nothing he could say that wouldn’t come out tasting of childishness, or worse, bravado.
Cap put a firm hand on his shoulder. “This place - this is something you have to keep in mind. Something you need to always keep in the back of your mind. Something to remind you what the stakes are.”
Peter nodded. He didn’t really trust himself to speak.
“This is where we are all going to end up, eventually. All the training, the practice, techniques…they are supposed to delay that eventuality as long as possible. And to make sure that, when it finally comes, it will be worth it.”