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Chapter Text

It was a simple family road trip. At least, it was supposed to be. Richard had insisted they visit his brother and his wife this Christmas. They hadn’t seen them since they got married. The Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division had an assignment nearby, and figured they’d drop by. That assignment had led to the discovery of Venom, who had bonded with her… much to the displeasure of basically everyone there. Director Fury had managed to shut everyone up, and covered up mostly everything. Then Peter was born, and Ben and his wife, May had sent gifts. Fury had dropped by, to welcome the possibly future spy. Which is where she had told him that he was to be left out of this life, no matter what. He understood, and even offered to let her retire early. With some additional benefits, of course. She couldn’t say no to that, and he had kept in touch occasionally. Random check-ins, mostly by email (he refused to visit to meet his “god-grandson” as she had jokingly referred to Peter as one time.) And when she had told him on the last one, which was thanksgiving, she mentioned she was visiting her Brother-In-Law and Fury had offered to fly them.

She should have said yes, looking back. He had insisted, and she ignored that. Wanting to spend a nice family road trip. Of course it’d all gone to shit. (don’t tell Peter she said that! With her luck, it’d become his favorite word!) There was black ice on the road, and Richard was rounding the corner, and they lost control. Off into the side of the road she went. Of course, Venom had acted instantly, but only he could so much. He had saved Peter, like he always did before he fell. Whether it was off his hair chair, or off the couch. If Mary was nearby, Venom would catch him. He had shielded Peter from the crash… but he couldn’t shield both him and her. 

We will not leave you! He screamed, in the back of her mind. 

“You have to protect Peter.” She whispers. She knows this is it. 

No! We will all make it out of this! And your family! He’s in denial. 

“Venom, promise me you’ll protect him, okay?” She says as she drifts off. Hearing Venom’s pleas, and her son’s cries. “Protect him, and eat all the bad men who’ll harm him.” She whispers.

—

Peter had woken up in the hospital, his voice hoarse and his body aches. His parents died last night. And the state of New York had found his only living relatives, his Uncle Ben and his Aunt May. He was basically tossed into their care. He felt bad. His parents died, and they barely knew him. They probably didn’t want anything to do with him. And a voice in his mind had told him that no, they do want you, they are just grieving. He didn’t know whose voice that was, but it didn’t sound like his. It sounded like Mom’s other voice. He didn’t understand what that was, but he liked to think that voice was protecting him, like it did her.

It wasn’t until March of next year, he found out that the voice wasn’t just real, but had a source. Peter was walking with Ben and May back home, when someone had tried to rob the three. He doesn’t remember much, just that one moment he was scared of the robber, and the next the robber had been… mauled like an animal had gotten him, and was promptly dumped in a dumpster. Then he fell asleep.

When he woke up, May and Ben told him about what really happened. And that’s when he met him. An alien symbiote, he called himself, named Venom. He had originally been with Mary, and before she died she had ordered him to stick with Peter. And as per her quote “Eat all the bad men who’ll harm him.” Which… had he just eaten someone? Which then led to Venom explaining that no, he did not. Rather Venom had eaten him, or parts of him since he couldn’t grow to full size currently. Peter didn’t even taste him! Which apparently only Venom did, and the man tasted like <Bad decisions for messing with us!>

Peter had suddenly gained a friend, and a guardian angel (if you could call it that)…. And also he had to eat a lot more, because he’s eating for him, and for his symbiote. That had unfortunately been harder to do. And he was thankful that his parents supposedly had a super cool job. Not even Ben or May knew what it was! They earned a lot, and it was mostly put to help Peter and Venom eat. It was also the perfect for emergencies spending, which is what they had basically done with it.

He had gone to school, a new school, because he couldn’t go back to Montana anymore. That’s where his parents lived, and now he lives here. May and Ben had promised his home was being taken care of. But he never learned what became of it years later.

He met a new friend, his name was Harry. They met in elementary school in New York, and had attempted to keep in touch. Harry had moved, he thinks, and wasn’t at the same middle school. Harry had given him an email, and they tried keeping in touch. But Harry said he was moving to California for his dad’s work, and they hadn’t spoken since. Venom suggested finding him and eating him, but Peter said no, that they can’t eat his only friend! He swore he felt Venom roll his eyes from wherever it is when he’s inside.

—

It was the last year of freshman year, and Peter managed to get into Midtown High School of Science and Technology. His best friend, Harry, had joined him again that year. Returning from California. And turns out his dad was Norman Osborn. Which Peter thought was cool. Harry didn’t really like his dad, but was glad he was going to the same school as his lost childhood friend. They also gained a new one, Ned Leeds. He was a new student in the last year of middle school and was bullied a lot. He was worried they wouldn’t get along. We could always eat one so we wouldn't have to worry. And Peter said, again, that he can’t be eating his only friends.

Either way, Harry’s dad had let the school take a field trip to Oscorp Tower. Which Peter was so excited about! He knew his parents were respectable scientists, and was hoping that maybe they worked there before. (Or maybe at Stark Industries?) Anyway, Peter was regretting conversing with Venom about Harry, because he had been forgotten. He was in a random lab, and Venom had the brilliant idea that he should just wander around till he finds them again.

“Last time I listened to you!” He hisses, staring at the current room in horror. It was filled with webs. A lot of spider webs. There were cocoons that were vaguely rat sized and it was very disturbing. To me!? You wanted to stay put! We will be here till this place closes! If we hadn’t left we would be starving to death! Venom hisses in his mind. “Well, May always said to stay put if we got lost! We did that at the Expo, and it was Ben who found us there, remember!?” He  counters. Didn’t that robot almost blow up on us?

“No.”

You and I remember the Expo very differently.

“Shut u- OW!” He slaps his hand where a sharp pain had suddenly flared, he glances down, and spots a spider on the hand he just slapped. “Uhm…”

We should’ve stayed put.

“Now you tell me!” He shouts in a whisper, and they quickly leave the room, and manage to find the group again. Harry is the one that spots him. “Hey, Harry.” He smiles, and he feels exhausted. 

“Hey, Peter.” He smiles back. “I thought you weren’t with us the whole time.”

“I was, maybe you just didn’t see me, trying to avoid all your dad’s employees.” He lies. What a terrible lie!

“Maybe.” He shrugs. I can’t believe he bought that!

—

It was when he got home that he started to feel really awful. Maybe you’re dying. “Wouldn’t you know if I was?” Good point, you aren’t dying. “Feels like it.” He remembers throwing up, and Venom complaining about that, because he was hoping for more tater tots. But he also finds that sleep sounds really good now.

When he wakes up, Venom has made something to cover his ears for him, because everything is so loud! Then he made something to cover his eyes because everything was also so bright! And his glasses hurt to wear, and everything was too much. He doesn’t even know what’s happening. And he vaguely hears May and Ben talking to Venom. Before he can decipher what they are saying, he falls asleep again.

Chapter Text

It was 6 months after that field trip to Oscorp. He had gained superpowers. The spider that had bitten him had given him the ability to climb walls, heightened senses and most importantly, sick abs. (Super strength) Peter had made a suit, a really bad one to be frank. It was a red hoodie that he had cut off the sleeves, and stitched a pale blue shirt into it. He made a mask and stuck some goggles into it as well. The look was completed with his clunky webshooters, a customized red and black fingerless gloves (He had sown a web pattern on the red part) and blue sweatpants. Along with a long pair of red socks that he had padded the soles of. 

Venom had provided a suit as well. It was a glossy black suit, with a white spider logo on his chest and back. His eyes were white as well. Venom would only be worn at night time, and for emergencies when he can’t wear the other one.. Venom could swing him around him too. But it was easier to use the webshooters. When May and Ben found out he snuck out to fight crime, they had scolded not only Peter, but Venom as well.

Only for them to be somewhat okay with it after Venom had ensured that he’d keep  him safe. And take over to take him out of any dangerous situations. Ben had appreciated that he was helping with his job. And May provided after patrol checkups…. And that was a lot better than having to fish out bullets still lodged in him. Venom had insisted he could help but often made it worse. When Ben died, Venom had taken over and chased the killer across the city and chomped his head off. Now it was just them and May.

—

During the new school year, Peter had quit most of his extracurriculars . And Peter may have developed a crush on Harry. Speaking of, he was currently staring at as he put up a homecoming poster. “He does have a nice as-” Shut up! I thought quickly, not yelling it out loud. He had slammed his fist down, and he was thankful that he didn’t break the table. It did startle Ned who was talking about something. “Peter?”

“Sorry!” He said embarrassed. “What did you say? I zoned out.”

“It’s okay, I was just asking if Liz got a new top?” He nodded at her. Liz was with Harry, handing him the thumbtack to push into the wall to hold up the poster. 

He glanced at her and frowned. “I don’t think so?”

“The loser wasn’t looking at her, Ned.” Michelle had oh so helpfully pointed out, not looking up from her book. “You’re both losers.”

“Then why sit with us?” I frowned at her.

“Who was he looking at?” Ned asked at the same time.

“Doesn’t matter.” She answered Ned first. “And because I don’t have any friends.”

Venom had made me speak; “So you’re a loser too?” and I quickly covered my mouth. You cannot say that!!!

She chuckled. “I guess so.”

—

In chemistry, Ned had gotten sick. And Harry was helping him with sit-ups and was holding his feet in place. “So obviously my dad had put me up to the task of helping with homecoming. Saying it’d help me in the future.” He rolled his eyes. “And I’m convinced he thinks it’s all planning, but really the school plans most of it. I just put up the stuff.. And Liz plans most of it anyway, being Student Council President and all.” 

I nod, in agreement. I know my face is red, because I know I have an issue in a certain region. “I think he is just hoping you’ll learn something, Harry.”

He rolls his eyes. “I guess. Anyway, Liz is having a party, and I think we should go.” 

“I dunno Harry. I don’t think I’d like parties to be honest.” I say with a frown.

“Yeah, Penis Parker is way too busy for parties.” Flash says walking past us. Harry glares at Flash. We should eat Flash.

“Ignore him, Peter.” Harry turns back to me, a small smile on his face. “Anyway, don’t forget AcaDec after school today.” He reminds me. I nod and we continue the routine that Couch Wilson had set up. After that, we headed to the Auditorium where the meeting was today.

The team consisted of; Liz Allen as team captain. Abraham Brown, Ned Leeds, Sally Avril, Cindy Moon, Michelle Jones, Harry and Himself (Ourselves! Is what Venom would say.) as the team. Charles Murphey and Flash Thompson were the alternates.

Nationals were soon, and Charles had informed us he had to get his wisdom teeth removed that day, and Flash was taking his place as First Alternate. (He was very sorry about it) And we were currently in a practice. “What is the heaviest natural occurring element?”

Charles rings his bell. “Hydrogen is the lightest… and that wasn’t the question.” he sighs. 

I ring my bell, “Uranium?” I answer, like a question, but I know it’s right.

“That is correct, Peter.” Liz smiles, "Next, what is the strongest metal on Earth?”

Cindy rings her bell. “Vibranium.” 

“Correct. Good job Cindy.” Liz nods at her. “Please open your books to page 10.” She instructs and as we do she asks the next question. “What is the popular nickname for Beethoven's 9th symphony?”

Cindy rings her bell quicker this time. “Ode to Joy, or the Choral Symphony." 

—

I had rushed out of school, and out toward the back gate. It was closed, of course, because students used it to sneak out of school during the day. I just use it to sneak out after school, though. I remember the one time I did sneak out, and Harry had somehow convinced me in the second week of school last year. May was very upset about that. She had not only scolded me and Harry, but after Harry was taken home by his dad, she proceeded to scold Venom too. She is scary! He tells me.

“I forget you can hear my thoughts.” I complain in a whisper, as I step into Delmar’s. 

“Mr. Parker!” He greets you with a smile and a wave. “The usual?” He quickly prompts.

“Yes. With extra pickles, can you smush it down real flat?” I ask too, and walk over to grab some Candies. Gummybears this time! Venom demands in my head, I smirk and grab the sour ones, knowing he doesn’t like them. Not those! They are disgusting! He cries, and I ignore him. “Sup, Murph?” I ask petting the cat. He rolls a bit so I can scratch his belly.

“How’s your aunt?” Mr. Delmar asks as he places my sandwich in front of me.

“She’s good.” I nod, and start fishing out my wallet.

“She’s a very hot Italian woman.” He tells his co-worker in Spanish.

“How’s your daughter?” I ask in kind. 

“$10.” He turns to stare at us.

“What? C’mon, it says $5 right there!” I say exasperated. I take out a 5 dollar bill and hand it to him. “C’mon. Here's $5.” he sighs and takes it.

“How’s school, kid?” He asks as he rings it up.

“It’s boring. Got better things to do.” I shrug. No, it’s boring because you know everything already!  Venom helpfully reminds me.

“Stay in school, Peter. Otherwise you’ll end up like me.” He says with a frown, sliding my stuff over.

“This is the dream.” I say sarcastically. If May heard that she’d- Smack us up the side of the head! Venom finishes that thought. I head out and toward an alley. I take off my backpack and put on the suit in my backpack. Venom could cover me in him later. I figured we’d stay out later today. We climb up onto a roof and leave the backpack in a corner of it for safe keeping. And we start swinging around Queens.

—

It was almost 8:00PM when we started to head back. May had given the curfew after Venom had to swing me home when I fell asleep. We were almost back to the roof where we stashed my backpack when I saw people breaking into ATMs. “Sup guys? You forgot your pin number?” I asked as I opened the door. They all turned around, and they were wearing Avengers masks. “Woah! You're the avengers! That’s so cool!” I say sarcastically as I web one toward me. I leap over him and kick him into the wall, securing him with a web. 

They used this freaky weapon to hold us in the air. “This feels really weird!” I shouted as he slammed me up and down. Venom had grown tired of that, and as I stuck to the floor, he shot out toward the weapon and started mimicking what he had just done to me. “How’s it feel?!” He yells, and I realize he’s upset… and that’s not really a good thing. He doesn’t completely take over, but he gets the job done… I guess. I look around to see what exactly he’s done, and am satisfied to see not much damage… besides the tile and a broken window. One of the weapons starts glowing. “Uh oh!” I yelp as I am dragged by Venom away from it. It fires a bit randomly before it shoots a giant beam that slices across the street! “Mr. Delmar!” I shouted, seeing what was across the street. 

We rush across and help him and Murph out of the shop. We hand Murph back over toward him. “I’m so sorry, are you okay!?” I asked, worried. He nods yes. I turn to look back across the street. “Oh man.” I groaned, seeing that a few of the robbers had escaped. “I gotta go.” I tell him and he nods as we swing off. I grab my phone out of my pocket and dial May. “Pick up, pick up!” I whisper to myself.

“Hey, Peter! How’s it going?” She asked, sounding relieved. “I just heard an explosion, are you okay? You’d normally be back by now.” 

“We’re okay. These guys had these crazy weapons!” I explained. “Venom saved me, one of them malfunctioned, I think. It blew up Delmar’s bodega across the street!” I landed on the roof where my backpack was. “We saved him, don’t worry. But some of them got away.” I frowned. I picked up my backpack and started swinging over toward the apartment.

“Okay. That sounds.. Dangerous. Pro-”

“Dangerous? What’s dangerous?” I heard a voice over the phone, it sounded like Harry? What?

“May? Who’s-”

“Don’t worry about it, Harry. Peter! Harry’s here. You said you’d study together today, remember?” She has a teasing voice and it’s not funny.

“We did?” I say. “I mean- I did?” 

“Yes. At school. You don’t remember that?” Her tone is a little more worried.

“I do! Mhm. I do!” I nod, even if she can’t see me right now. We land in the alley behind the apartment and Venom disappears. “We’re almost home.” I tell her as I open the door, rushing toward the elevator. “Be up soon!” I say and hang up. I call the elevator down and wait. My leg was bouncing nervously. Calm down. You’re making me nervous with your nervousness! Venom whispers in my ear. “Shush. I don’t want to say anything stupid to him!” I hiss at him in a whisper.

The elevator opens and I press the button for my floor. “How do I not remember asking him to come over to study?” I frown. You were busy fantasizing about taking him to Coney Island. I had to accept when he asked!

“What? Really?” I say embarrassed. The elevator opens. A person was outside it.

“Going up or down?” They ask, looking at me.

I glance at the current floor, one floor below mine. “Up, sorry!” 

“It’s fine.” They wave me off. But something is off about them. Like they're dangerous if they want to be. The door closes as I stare at them, a puzzled look on my face. The door opens to my floor and I hear them still, through the floor. “Made brief contact with Mike. He looked at me like I’m suspicious.” They were talking to someone.. But who? “Don’t give him any reason to think you are. Just keep your distance, and give me updates on him.” A voice came over a radio. It sounded like an older man. Instead of going back to the apartment I rush toward a window that overlooks the exit of the building. I spotted him leaving and headed toward a car parked in the street. 

He gets in and I spot his license plate. “Remember that plate, V..” I say as I rush toward our apartment door. I quickly unlocked it. You know I don’t like being called that! he yells at me. I step inside and quickly lock the door and do the bolt as well. Then I peak through the peephole.

“Peter?” May sounds worried. I turn to look at her and quickly shush her, then go back looking through the peak hole. If someone is following me, they aren't doing a good job. “Peter?” May asks in a whisper. “You’re scaring me, what’s going on?”

I Ignore her and rush toward the window, closing the blinds. “Someone- I dunno- Someone followed me?” I explained, “And I don’t really know if that’s true, but they left and-” I stopped talking, realizing Harry was there too. 

“Someone was following you?” He demands, worried. “Who?”

“I don’t really think they are following, more like.. Keeping an eye on me.” I say, rushing past him to my bedroom. I close the blinds there as well. Same with May’s, and all the others in the apartment. “They just- I don’t know they- I had a bad feeling about them.” I explain again, and I hope May catches on.

She does, cause her eyes go wide before she cools her expression. “Well, we’ll just be careful then. Go and study with Harry.” She instructs, and shoos us into my room. She leaves the door open and walks toward the kitchen.

Chapter Text

When Agent Parker had retired, Fury promised himself he’d keep an eye on them. Just in case. In retrospect, he should’ve been more adamant that they take the private plan to her brother-in-law’s. Of course, in the end it might have not mattered. She was a well respected scientist turned agent, and that had painted a target on her back. When her shadow had reported the car crash, Fury was there within the hour. Unfortunately, there was no tampering to find. The car had lost control on a patch of black ice and the crash had killed them both. Even the security footage of the road proved it. No one else was around, save for a car that stopped and had gotten the kid out.

The kid has had a shadow ever since.

Of course, when SHIELD collapsed, he still had his most trusted agent shadow him. He’d protect this kid to honor her. Mary wanted to retire, and had wanted him to be left out of this life. Though the kid had found this life anyway. He recognized the symbiote suit, and had told himself he was just like her. Always helping others, always without a real care for his own safety. He had yet to get hurt badly, and of course he was lucky his Aunt was a nurse. He had never met her, but the shadow had reported she was a doting guardian with an over protectiveness when it came to the kid.

Speaking of the kid, he knew he developed an additional set of abilities. Something had happened at Oscorp, and Fury had added a mental note to investigate it more. Of course that was on a giant back burner of a large to-do list he had. Right now he was coordinating with the Avengers to help with the aftermath of Sokovia. They had returned to the compound for a brief rest, and would return tomorrow to help. Stark had started to prepare moving everything out of the tower and return it to being an SI building. In about a week they would fly a plane off the giant landing platform and move everything to the newly constructed compound. Fury only hoped that it would go smoothly.

—

Harry had pestered him with a lot of questions. Why did he think someone was following him? Who was following him. And so on. He had explained that he didn’t exactly know per se, but it was just a feeling. (Venom had suggested to just tell the truth and Peter had declined that, saying he didn’t need more of a reason to hate his dad.) So after all those questions, they got around to studying. Peter knew that Harry did not need to study. He was tied with him in being the smartest kid in school, so why did he come over for a study session?

Peter never realized that this was Harry’s attempt at spending time with him.

“Okay, so obviously the second law of thermodynamics would be the right answer, if the question was phrased differently.” He explained (and if he was excited about explaining one of his favorite subjects, he’d simply deny that.) “But it isn’t.”

Harry still looked confused. (On purpose, in an attempt to stay longer. But don’t tell Peter that.) “Well why not?”

“Because the mention of Entropy is meant to trick you. The entire question is talking about a crystalline state. I think Ned had texted me about it earlier.” I shrug. 

“Did you even tell him about it?” Harry smirks. 

“No. He should’ve been paying attention in class.” I rolled my eyes. “He was busy trying to ask me about the Sokovia thing that happened last year.”

Harry snickered. “My dad used the opportunity to bash Stark on the news again.”

I sigh dramatically. “Mr. Stark could make a cure for cancer and your dad would somehow twist it to say he’s killing people with cancer.”

“So true.” He agrees. We should eat his father so we can end his stupidity. Venom whispers in my mind. We CANNOT eat Mr. Osborn! I think back to him. Pussy. 

“So, anyway. Homecoming is next week. You going?” Harry asks, a light blush on his face. 

“Oh- Uhm I- I dunno-” I stammer out. “I haven’t asked- uh anyone.” Ask him yourself! Venom screams at me.

“Oh, well… uh would you like to go with me?” He asked, a flush spreading to his ears.

“Yeah, sure!” I say… or rather, Venom says for me. Whenever he does speak for me my voice is just slightly a little raspy. It’s unnoticeable to everyone, except May, who has known me for so long. 

“Okay. Great.” He says, after he lets go of a breath he was holding. “Oh and you’re still going to D.C For AcaDec, right?” He changes  the topic quickly.

“Oh. Yeah.” I nod. Standing up to stretch. Harry has to leave soon. “May took extra long shifts those days.”

He frowns. “You know we- I mean- My dad can help with stuff.”

“May doesn’t like feeling in debt to people.” I mumble. I start leaving my room. “I don’t either.”

He grabs my wrist. “My dad has always said you’d repay us by being my home away from home.” He insists. “He knows he’s… difficult. When we moved to San Francisco he had asked May if you’d move with us. She never explained why she declined, but I missed you both all those years.”

“I’m sorry, Harry.” I frowned. 

“It’s okay.” He smiles. “So don’t ever think you guys owe us.”

“I’ll try.” I nod, and I lead him into the kitchen, where May was waving something at what was supposed to be dinner. It had burnt though. “Is everything okay?” I ask, worried. 

“Just burnt dinner, that's all.” She coughs. “How about we get Thai? Harry, you up for some Thai?” 

“Sure.” He shrugs. “Ned talked about a place he enjoyed, we could try that.”

“Yeah. Why not.” May agrees easily. “Are you up for walking?” 

—

Liz’s party was loud. Ned had begged me to go with him. May had basically forced me to go there after she heard from Harry that he was contemplating on going. When May had questioned if I was going, and finding out I wasn’t really interested in parties she had basically forced me to go. To try and have some kind of teenager life. Which was a bit insulting that she thought I didn’t have one.

I was contemplating on leaving as it got more loud. Venom already hates how loud it is. Harry was here somewhere, if my senses had pointed out somewhere was safe. I was about to go there when I heard an explosion. Which, to be honest, was a bit impressive that I had picked up on that. Venom had quickly insisted we investigate. We had left that party, feeling 2 different sets of eyes on us as we left. 

We had found out that these two idiots were selling someone these high tech weapons. Our tech was mixed with alien tech. We had tried following them, but as they drove away they attempted to blast us away with those weapons.

They had almost lost us, but we had gone through a bunch of backyards. As we leapt to try and web onto the driver’s side of the car, someone had grabbed us. Mid air and had started flying up. They had clamped their boots onto my leg and it hurt. <Let us go!> Venom yells as he punches the guy. In the mask, repeatedly. It breaks apart and his face is terrified. He lets us go, and we plummet into a lake. Venom screeches at the cold, knowing I can’t thermoregulate. He attempts to swim for us, but my body cramps up. 

Someone grabs us, and they swim up. Venom wraps around them as he helps us to the surface. When we breach the surface I gasp for air. I hear a voice, “Stay with me!” someone yells, as we swim to shore. I can’t recognize the voice. He pulls us onto the beach as he drags us up and away from the water. “Peter?! Wake up!” The person begs, he slaps me and I open my eyes and Venom uncovers my mouth as I cough up water. “Peter?” The person says worried, he moves my face to look at him.

“Mom?” I say, upon seeing their face.

“I’m afraid not.” They frown, as I regain my focus I realize it’s Harry. “Are you okay?” 

“Can’t handle cold well.” Venom whispers for us. “We can’t thermoregulate well.” Venom takes over. “We warm up slowly.” He explains. Harry has a confused face on him. “Hello, Harry. Questions later.” He insists. He nods and we start heading back toward my apartment. Venom disappears away, but you can tell he’s still in control because my eyes are all white. I don’t remember much after that.

Chapter Text

A few days earlier…

“Something is wrong with Parker.” Michelle said, rather suddenly as she sat next to him. 

“I was starting to think I was going crazy.” I frowned. 

She raised an eyebrow at him. “So you’ve noticed it too?” 

“Yeah. It’s not just quitting all his extracurriculars, it’s just… him in general. He’s more closed off. Quieter. He used to ramble about stuff. Especially when we were younger.”

“Hm. I didn’t really notice that part.” She looked rather deep in thought. “How long have you known him?”

“We’ve been friends since 2nd grade. Why?”

“Just curious.” She shrugged. “So, any idea what’s wrong?” 

I shake my head. “I’ve got no idea. And that’s what worries me the most.”

“It all makes sense now.” I muttered to myself, staring at a glowy thing that Peter- Venom had insisted we grab. He broke it apart leaving this purple egg-looking thing in my hand. May had been warming him up in a lukewarm bath. She had explained a somewhat brief summary of what exactly has been going on with Peter. Venom was an alien symbiote, and had apparently been with him ever since he’s been living with May and Ben. Then there was the fact that Peter was goddamn Spider-Man on top of that. 

“Peter had been wanting to tell you for a while.” May says, sitting next to me.

“How is he? Wait- is it like- how are they?” 

“They are both fine.” May smirks a little. “They’re multiple people, Harry.”

“Yeah, I- I’m still wrapping my head around that part.”

“I am too.” She sighs, rubbing the exhaustion off her face.

“What? Really?”

“Mhm. We-” she stops herself for a moment. “We didn’t know about Venom till very recently. Apparently he was bonded, whatever that means, to his Mother before him. When she died, he went to Peter. And that’s all we know. Venom doesn’t talk about it, like, ever. So basically it’s all assumptions right now.”

“Right… So it’s before I met him…”

“That’s correct.” She nods. She takes my face in her hands. “He’s different now because of his powers, he’s still trying to gain an understanding of them.” 

“Okay.” I sigh in relief. “Okay. That’s good, I guess.”

“I’m worried too, but Venom is a bit of a tattle tale.” She admits. “He ratted out Peter’s powers right away. Ben and I have been just- trying to keep him safe. It’s a lot harder without him now.”

“I’m sorry.” I frowned. 

“It’s fine, Harry. They should wake up soon, so if you want you can stay the night. I’ll just call Norman for you.”

“That’d be great, Thank you.”

-

“The cold is a me thing, I think.” I answered. When I had woken up in the tub, May had explained what happened. What she explained to Harry.  After I got dressed, he asked questions. A lot of questions. “Venom doesn’t like extremely loud sounds. Think… metal pipes falling on each other. Or being clanged together or whatever. It’s why I never joined the Marching Band.”

“Interesting. Okay, and how does eating work?”

“Technically I eat for both of us, but he can eat on his own. When he actually comes all the way out.”  I did not really want to explain that part. But the look on his face would be funny! 

“What does that even mean?”

“I need to eat more. Not like a pregnant person, mind you, just like more in general. Then when I got bitten by the spider, I needed to eat even more. It’s very expensive.” 

“What do you mean he can eat on his own?” He asks loudly.

“He’s bitten off a criminal’s head before.” May calls out from the kitchen.

Told you his face would be funny. “Venom did! Not me!” I exclaim quickly. “And when he does that, I don’t even like- remember- or even taste it!”

“That’s really creepy… but okay.”

<He tasted like bad life choices.> I say, my voice gravely. “You only say that because he tried killing our family.” I frown. <Exactly! Bad life choices.>

“That’s so cool.” Harry whispers, staring at us.

<This is why we don’t eat you.> “Venom, stop scaring him please.” <You’re no fun>

“That’s gotta be the coolest thing you’ve done so far.” Harry snorts. Venom covers me, and he must have decided to show off, because the mouth opens and his weird Don’t call it weird! Tongue sticks out at him. “Nevermind, that’s way cooler.” 

Venom disappears, and I smile at him. My face warm. We should kiss him. NO! We should NOT. “So, are you excited for Nationals?” I ask, changing the subject.

Harry smiles and nods. “Yeah. A chance to get away from Norman? Sign me up.”

“Wish we could stay in DC longer, I was hoping to look around at least.”

“We’re leaving on Thursday, right? Staying the night, and heading back after Nationals on Friday?”

“Didn’t you read the permission slip?” I frowned at him.

“Uh, no. I was too busy begging Norman to let me go.” He rolled his eyes.

“Well, wouldn’t it be easier to convince him if you read it? Know how long you’ll be gone and what not?” I point out.

He’s silent for a few seconds before muttering; “Shut up.”

-

The bus ride over was relatively boring. The only entertaining thing was that Flash had kept getting the answers wrong, or complaining that he’d always get the hardest questions. Saying there is no way anyone knows the answer to that! Only to be proven wrong when Harry or I answer the question with ease. When we arrived at the hotel, Harry had bunked with me. With us! Ned was with Abe, Liz was with Sally, Cindy with Michelle, and Flash got to stay with Mr. Harrington. He would’ve been with Charles, but since he was getting his wisdom teeth removed tomorrow, the school had refunded the room to get money back. Flash had complained at the news, saying he could’ve gotten a room all to himself. We were all grateful he didn’t because his ego didn’t need to be any larger than it already was. 

It was in the hotel lobby when I felt off. There are people watching us. What? Who? One only has eyes for us, the other two have eyes for the group. I frowned, and looked around. I spotted our neighbor from downstairs, who was suddenly conveniently on a phone call staring out a window. The other two were- The people from under the bridge that night at Liz’s party. They were staring at the group, and upon seeing us had started leaving. What the hell?

They don’t know. Watching for the group, not us. Still weird. We should follow them, I can track them easily. Tonight, we can. 

When I explained the situation with Harry, he looked even more worried. Chasing a lead like this is dangerous, but right now it’s our only option. He kept the glow thing Venom had gotten in his backpack. It’s familiar… but I’m not sure why yet. We had snuck out, saying I was going to study in the business center when I was caught by everyone running past. Liz had rolled her eyes, saying I didn’t need to study. But she let me go anyway.

When I was out of eyelines of everyone from the team, I ran for the lobby. I scaled a wall up a nearby alley and Venom enveloped me. He had been able to track them to a gas station. “What are they doing?” I whispered, mostly to myself. We should move in so we can hear better. Venom suggests, and we had gotten on top of the roof that was over all the pumps. Target inbound. One of them says, “They’re in the middle of a heist. We can catch ‘em redhanded.” 

We spot the flying vulture guy that had dropped us in a lake flying down toward a military-looking convoy. “Okay, Venom don’t kill this guy, please.” I plead. No promises. He had attached some lines onto the roof of the truck in the back, then tossed something down on it. After he dropped whatever it was, he dropped off his wings and just- went through the truck? We had landed on top of the roof quietly, and snuck up on him. “Whoa, cool. It’s like some kind of matter phase shifter.” I whispered, sticking my hand through it. 

Birdman spoke up. “All right, coming up.” then leaped onto the roof. He moved to pick up one of his little cubes that connected with 4 others which made the ‘hole’ in the roof. 

I had webbed his bag away from him. “Hey, Big Bird. This doesn’t belong to you.” I called out. Why would you say that!? He turned around toward us. “Oh god.” He tried charging at us, but I jumped over him. When he turned back around Venom had shot out part of him going for the head, but I had quickly turned my arm so it’d scrape by his mask. He stumbled back a bit, then charged for the bag. He had clamped on it with some weird boots and started yanking it away. Venom had quickly shot down onto the roof of the truck and held on. <Let go, birdman!> Venom growled. He had then shot outward and had smacked his mask again, it had fallen loose and the man underneath looked terrified. He let go of the bag, and we stumbled backwards falling through the roof.

<It’s on now!> Venom hissed, and jumped up. 

-

“Ugh, my head.” I groaned, sitting up. I stumbled a bit as I stood up, holding a hand toward my head. Venom was still covering me, at least. “Venom?” I muttered. That hurt. He complained. “Well don’t go for kill shots like that!” I wasn’t going to kill him! “That’s a lie.” Okay, I WAS contemplating on biting his face off and spitting it out. “Where even are we?” I ask, ignoring his comment. Not sure. Maybe they hijacked the truck and brought us to their evil lair! He growls, and then we charge out the door of the container. We find ourselves in a warehouse? What?

“What is this place?” I look around, before spotting more containers like the one we’re in. I walk up to one and read: Damage Control Container #44025 “Oh shit…” What? What’s Damage Control? “They clean up after Avengers missions- They first appeared after New York. We must be in one of their vaults.” I glance toward the giant concrete doors. Next to it reads DODC-VO5 “We’re probably stuck in here till morning.” I say, spotting the timelock. Until morning!?! No! You’re smart! You can probably find something we can use in the container we came in. We walk over toward the container, and I start rummaging through the bag the birdman had lost. A weird gear piece, a robot head, and- “Oh, it’s like the glowy thing!” I say, spotting another one. Wait- I remember! That is an explosive Chitauri energy core! “Whoa. Wait- You mean we’ve been carrying around a bomb?!” I say dropping it, like it was on fire. It would require radiation to transform into an explosive state, but yes. I fish out my phone from my AcaDec team jacket. So thankful we brought our backpack.

I dial Harry’s phone, but the call fails. The concrete around us is blocking the signal. “Yeah, I know!” I web up toward the door, and bang on it. “Hey! Please somebody let us out! Please!” I glance back at the timelock. “We have got to override that timelock!” We had spent the next- however long overriding the timelock. After about 247 tries- Venom kept count- it opened. I swung out, and onto the ceiling. Crawling along till I spotted a truck leaving. I landed on the roof, and laid flat on it till we were out of the area.

We had hopped several cars- mostly when they were in the middle of taking an exit that lead us to D.C I had kept calling Harry along the way, but nothing. We were on top of a bus when Harry’s ring tone had finally rang out - the instrumental of Ancient Aliens - Venom I had gotten the phone out of a pocket from my clothes “Oh, Har, you’re alive!” I sighed in relief.

“Peter, are you okay?” He asked, worried. 

“Har, where’s the glowy thing? The glowy thing!” I said quickly, ignoring his question. 

“Don’t worry, it’s safe. It’s in my backpack.” I could hear his eyeroll.

“Har, listen, the glowy thing is dangerous!”

“You missed the decathlon. I covered for you.” Is he even listening?

<Harry. Where is the-> 

“We’re in the Washington Monument-”

“Peter, is that you?”

“Hey, Liz!” Goddamnit Liz! “Please, put Harry back on the phone!”

“You flaked. You are so lucky we won. You know, I wanna be mad, but I’m more worried. Like, what is going on with you?”

“Liz, I have to talk with Harry, it's really important. Liz, there's something in Harry’s backpack it’s really dangerous! Don’t let it go through an X-Ray!” I hear the call disconnect. “Liz? Liz!? Damn it!” I grunt and just start sprinting for the monument. I tossed my backpack onto a tree, and webbed it in place as we got closer. By the time I had reached the base, something happened. “What’s going on up there?” I ask myself. The core must have detonated. The elevator was probably severely damaged. 

“My friends are up there!” a girl says, behind us. 

I turn around, and spot Michelle. “What?! Uh- Don’t worry, Ma’am everything's gonna be alright!” and start running closer. I run through the crowd and jump up the monument. I start crawling up the side. Going as fast as I can. “Venom, how are we even gonna get in there!?” I shout as we continue crawling up. If we work together, your tingle and I could find a way. Place your hand flatly against the wall. I do, and I close my eyes. I feel- sense? - the occupants moving inside. Leaving the elevator to get up. People helping them up, the quickest way in is- “The southwest window!” I say, and start crawling over toward it. When we reach it, I take a moment to calm myself. Then I start tapping on the glass with my leg. “Damn it.. It must be ballistic glass… We’ll need more momentum.” I web above one of the signal lights, and stop jump back, and slamming down on the window.

A helicopter approaches us. “This is D.C metro police! Return to the ground immediately!” One of them yells out over a megaphone.

“My friends are in there, stop!” I yell back, but they must have not heard me. They are still yelling. I glance through the window and some of my teammates freaking out, staring down. If we go to the top, and leap over the helicopter, we might be able to break it. “Better than nothing.” I muttered, and started climbing up toward the very top. I can make us glide. I have my back toward the helicopter, they are still yelling at us. “We’re gonna die.” I say, not at all confident with us. I leap off the top, and Venom makes a black and red glider in between my arms as I- as we leap over the helicopter. Once we are over the legs, we web onto the bars, and swing toward the helicopter. “BREAK!!!” We yell, and crash through the window. As we break through, we use our tentacles to pull us into the shaft as it’s falling. He latches on to the ceiling as I web the top of the elevator. I managed to stop it from falling, and the brakes for the elevator kicked in. “We did it.” I say, relieved. Then the part where venom had latched on came lose and we fell down the shaft into the elevator. I land on the floor, and the metal piece that fell with us was about to crash into us, before we shot out a tentacle that had launched it back upwards. It was then impaled into the ceiling. I web next to it as the elevator falls again, then we land on the roof upside down.

“Hey, how you doing? Don’t worry. We got you.” We say, our voice distorted. We look around, spotting Ned, Liz, Harry and Mr. Harrinton inside. We start pulling everyone up.

“Yes! Yes!” Ned does a fist pump with his whole body. 

“Hey, hey, hey! Big guy quit moving around!” We say quickly.

“I’m sorry, Sir. So sorry.” He apologies quickly.

We approach the top at a slow steady pace. Some people pull the doors open “All right, this is your stop. Everyone out! Move it people! Move it!” and Liz, Ned and Mr. Harrington get out quickly. The roof beneath us starts bending, and before Harry can step out, the roof breaks off. “Harry!” We latch onto the roof with tentacles from our legs, as another pair from our arm reaches out and latches onto him. It slithers down his arm to get a firm grip. “You’re okay! You’re okay!” We tell him, and pull him back up. A few people grab him and pull him back up. “So, is everyone okay?” We ask as he’s finally back on safe ground. Harry nods, catching his breath. This is our chance. Kiss him. We think. We don’t, and instead just drop down the shaft. 

“Thank you!” We hear Mr. Harrington yelled down toward us.

We managed to get away from the monument easily, the fire & rescue team yelling out a thank you as we ran past them. We grab our backpack, and make for the hotel the team was staying at. 

Chapter Text

We were just standing nearby the bus, waiting for May to come and pick us up. I was contemplating on just sitting to wait, but the decision was made for me when Harry had suddenly hugged me from behind, startling me. “Shi- Oh it’s just you.” I sighed. 

“Thanks, by the way.” He whispers. 

“I don’t know what you mean.” I say, looking away from him.

“Sure.” He rolled his eyes. “I’m going home with you, just to let you know.”

“What? Why?”

“Trying to get rid of me?” 

“No. Just- I thought your da- I thought Norman was coming.” 

“He made May my emergency contact last year, remember? Besides, he’s out of the country anyway. He’s already on a flight home. Won’t be here till morning.”

“Right, sorry.” Then what he said hits me like a truck. “Wait- May’s your emergency contact?” How did you forget that?

“Peter… You’ve known this.” He frowned.

“I- I forgot, genuinely. I’m sorry.”

“It’s fine. Just kinda funny.” He laughs.

“Laugh it up. I’ll convince her to leave you behind.”

Like you could convince her to do that “Like you could convince her to do that.” He says the same time Venom does.

“You both are the worst.” I groan, but I spot May as she closes her car door speed walking over to us. She had wrapped us both in a tight hug.

“All right, let’s go.” She says, leading us away. 

-

We weren’t even a minute in the drive before she scolds us. “I honestly can not believe you two! When I saw the news at work- I thought the one rule we had when you go on field trips was No Spider-Maning!” She’s gripping the steering wheel tight. Venom had appeared at my side, as per her rule when she’s yelling at us both. “Then you go and- and disobey that anyway! When Mr. Harrington had called last night saying you ditched, I was beyond pissed! Then the next day I spot you two on the news! What the hell even happened to warrant you climbing up the side of a national monument!?” 

<There were people watching us!> Venom protests, and the car skids to a stop as she suddenly slammed the brakes. 

“What?!” Harry and May yell at the same time.

“Our neighbor, from downstairs!” I rush to explain.

<Along with the two men from the night Harry brought us back!>

“Wait wait wait, your neighbor?” Harry says incredulously “And two men from- What?”

I nod. “The night you found us- during Liz’s party? We heard an explosion in the distance.”

<So naturally we went to investigate.>

“And these two guys were selling these weird high tech weapons to some guy! Then you called us-”

<Which totally blew our cover!> He glared at Harry, then I smacked him.

Ignoring his glare, I continued “And then we chased them around that neighborhood for a bit!”

<Before being snatched midair by some pussy in a bird costume!> He growled out. <He flew up a few thousand feet, then we punched him and he dropped us!>

“Which is when we ended up in the lake!” I nod, “And then Harry rescued us. Then the neighbor-”

<He’s suspicious! We heard him talking to someone! What did he say again?> He looks at me.

“Something about- about making contact with us. They called us Mike.” I say quickly. “Then over a radio he was instructed to keep their distance! And just keep whoever was on the radio updated.”

“Okay. Okay. So one- the men who made alien weapons were at the hotel we stayed at? That can’t be confidence.” Harry frowned.

“It is though.” I protest, “They were there to make sure we arrived. They left immediately after. We tracked them later that night.”

“But that doesn’t explain our neighbor.” May’s frown deepened. 

<He was there for us.> 

“Mhm! He was conveniently on a phone call when we spotted him. Expect no one was on the other end.”

“So the alien weapon people were there for our team and not you specifically? Why though?”

“That’s what worries me the most.” I sighed.

-

I spent the next few days in detention at school. Bored, and with nothing much to do. Typically people spend it catching up on homework, but I’ve been caught up on it the entire year. I tended to finish it in class. Ned and Harry asked if they could hang out with me for the afterschool ones, and Mr. Morita was fine with that. He was also fine with Ned bringing his lego deathstar set for us to build surprisingly. 

“When did you even get that again?” I frowned, trying to remember it.

“I told you in the second week of school, remember?” He said with a frown on his face. You were too busy admiring Harry from a far.

“Oh, that’s right.” I say, ignoring what Venom had just said.

A few days later, I was leaving the bathroom and spotted Liz walking toward me. She noticeably perked up upon seeing me. “Hey.”

“Hey. I thought you had calculus fifth period?”

“Yeah, I’m just doing some homecoming stuff.” She shrugged.

“Hey, look, I, uh- I just wanted to apologize about the whole decathlon thing.”

“It’s fine.” She shakes her head. “Last week, decathlon was the most important thing, but then I almost died.”

“No I’m- I just mean that- It was not cool, especially ‘cause-” I stopped myself, trying to think of what to say. “-because you’re a good friend, and I know how much it means to you.”

“Oh.” She had a frown on her face.

“Oh?” I looked up toward her.

“Nothing. I just thought you liked me, that's all.” She shrugged. 

“Oh… Oh!” I realized what she meant. “No. No. Sorry- I mean- I- I’m… nevermind.” 

“You like Harry, don’t you?” She accuses.

“Har- What? Why wou-”

“You don’t have to be embarrassed.” She snickered. “It’s kind of sweet. You both are totally head over heels for each other.”

“I- Uh, we’re going to Homecoming, together.” I say, my face warm.

“That’s good.” She glances at a clock behind me. “Well, I’ve got to go. More stuff to do, see you there, Peter.” She starts walking away.

“Wait!” I say suddenly. “We- We kind of need a ride. My aunt is working, and Harry’s dad is going out of the country again soon so-”

“We can carpool. My dad is going to drive me. He was going to catch a flight that night anyway.” She smiles. “Just come to my house, and we’ll all go.”

“Great. Thanks.”

-

It was thanks to Liz that I remembered I was going to Homecoming with Harry. When I got home, I had rushed home asking May for help. I had gotten one of Ben’s old suits to wear, May had bought a boutonniere, and had taught me how to style my hair. She had suggested cologne as well, and had laughed at my disgusted face upon smelling it. She learned with me on how to tie a tie.

May had offered to drop me off at Liz’s place during her break at work. Harry had already walked over, and apparently asked to get ready there. May had stopped on the side of the road just a bit away from their driveway. “It’s game day. So, what's the plan?” 

“Open the door for him.” I say, and Venom appears at my side.

<Tell him he looks nice->

“-but not too much because that’s creepy.”

“Mhm. Don’t be creepy.”

“When I dance with him, I put my hands on his hips.”

<even if his as-> He caught himself off when May glared at him. <Hips only.> He grumbled.

“I got this.”

“Venom? Don’t get him in trouble.” She pointed at him. “No Spider-Manning.” She also declares. “Or you’ll both be grounded for a month.”

“Yes, May.” We both say, and get out of the car, Venom disappears and we walk up toward the house. When I ring the doorbell, I have a smile on my face. When the door opens, it drops immediately. Oh shit! Liz’s dad is the pussy-birdman!? 

“You must be Peter.” He smiles. “I’m Liz’s dad. Put her there.” he extends his hand, we shake reluctantly, and a bit strongly. “Hell of a grip. Come on, come on.” He says, stepping aside and letting us into the house. “Harry is already waiting for ya.” He says.

We follow him slowly. Still coming to terms with him being Liz’s freaking dad. “Hey Peter!” Liz’s mom greets us. “You look very handsome.” She smiles. I mumble a thank you, and go sit by Harry.

“Hey.” He smiles upon seeing us. “You okay?”

“Yeah.” I croak out. “Just- uhm nervous.” 

“You do look pale.” Mr. Toomes says. “Want something to drink? A bourbon or a Scotch or something like that?”

“I’m not old enough to drink.” I say, he nods. satisfied.

“Same.” Harry replies when he glanced at him.

“That’s the right answer.” He said, point the knife he was holding. “Wow. Wow wow wow. You look beautiful.” He says, I turn around and spot Liz. “Doesn’t she, Pete?”

“Please don’t embarrass me, Dad.”

“You look very nice.” I say.

“Very nice.” Harry nods.

“Once again, that’s the right answer.”  

“Is that a boutonniere?” Harry asked as he walked up to me. I unceremoniously shove it into his hands. “Uhm, thanks..”

“Well, hey, I’m your chauffeur, so, uh let’s get this show on the road.”  

“No, no, no. We have to take some pictures babe!” Mrs. Toomes says quickly. She finds her camera. “Come on you guys.” She gestures at us. Liz stands to my left, and Harry on my right. “Smile!” She grins at us. “Okay, now Peter and just Harry.” Liz steps out of the shot. 

“Sir, you don’t have to drive us-”

“Nah, nah, nah. It’s no big deal.” He waves me off. “I’m going out of town. It’s right on my way.” 

“He’s always coming and going.” Mrs. Toomes says.

“Last time, promise.” 

We walked out to his car, and Liz sat in the front seat, while Harry and I sat in the back seats. It was a quiet ride. Harry had taken one of my hands, and Venom had suddenly latched on as well. He looked up at me, about to ask something, but Mr. Toomes had beaten him to it. “What are you gonna do, Pete?”

“What?” I ask, ignoring the way Harry glared at him.

“When you graduate, what do you think you’ll do?” He clarifies. 

“Oh, um, I don’t know.”

“Don’t grill him, Dad.” Liz complained.

“Just saying, you know. All you guys who go to that school you pretty much have your life planned out, right?”

“No, I’m just a sophomore.” I say, shaking my head.

Liz glances back at us, then turns to her dad. “Peter is best friends with Harry Osborn, I guarantee he doesn’t have to worry about his future.” Harry had glared at her.

“Ah, that’s where I recognize you from.” He said. “You look just like your Father, Harry.” Which is weird to say. Everyone always said he looked like his mother. The only thing that matches his dad is his hair.

“You work with my father?”

“Worked.” He corrected, “Past tense. We had a falling out a few years ago.”

“Oh. I didn’t recognize you, sorry.”

“It’s fine, don’t worry about it. All in the past now.” He shrugged. “So, possibly working at Oscorp for you then?”

“Oh- Uh only if Harry does too.” I say.

“Doubtful.” Harry grumbled. “Dad is making me want to do everything but not work there.”

“I’m sorry to hear that.” Mr. Toomes said, he glanced in the rearview mirror at me. “I’ve seen you around, right? I mean- somewhere.. ‘Cause even the voice.”

“He’s in the Academic Decathlon with me.” Liz answered easily. “And he was at my party.”

“It was a great party. Really good.  Beautiful house, a lot of windows.” This is bad. He’s catching onto us!

“You were there for like- two seconds.” Liz accused.

“That was- I was there longer than two seconds.” Lying will not help us now!

“You disappeared.” Shut the hell up, Liz!

“No. No, I did not disappear.”

“Uh, yeah you did. You disappeared like you always do, like you did in DC too.”

“Whew. That’s terrible what happened down there in DC. Were you scared? I bet you were glad when Spider-Man showed up in the elevator, huh?” He knows!

“No, I uh- saw it from on the ground. Very lucky he was there that day.” I say, and Harry looks between me and him. confused.

“Good old, Spider-Man.”

“Dad? The light.” 

When we pulled into the school, and we park in front of the steps. “Here we are, end of the line.”

“Thanks dad.”

“You had on in there, gumdrop. I’m gonna give Peter th, uh, dad talk. For Harry.”

“Don’t let him intimidate you.” She rolled her eyes. “Have a safe flight. Love you.”

Harry had gotten out too, and followed Liz up the steps. “Love you, gumdrop.” He said as she left. He reached down below the passenger seat, and pulled out a handgun. “Does she know? Harry?”

“Know what?” I ask, innocently.

“So they don’t. Good. Close to the vest, I admire that. I’ve got a few secrets of my own. Peter. Nothing is more important than family. You saved my daughter’s life. And I can never forget something like that, so I’m gonna give you one chance. Are you ready? You walk through those doors, you forget any of this happened, and don’t you ever, ever interfere with my business again. Because if you do, I’ll kill you-” Good luck with that!  “-and everybody you love. I’ll kill you dead. That’s what I'll do to protect my family, Pete. You understand?” And WE will bite off your head, and spit it onto your corpse. “Hey. I just saved your life. Now, what do you say?”

“Thank you.” We are totally going to kick his ass, right?

“You're welcome. Now, you go on in there, and you show that boy a good time, okay? Just not too good.” 

I don’t say anything, and get out. I had left my phone in his car, and started walking toward the gym. We are going to go kick his ass, don’t worry. When we entered, I spotted Michelle wave at us, and flip us off. Harry was standing next to Liz, but he was quiet. Liz was talking to a friend, before spotting us. She had walked over, and Harry trailed after her. “Hey.” She greeted. “What did he say to you?”

When I didn’t respond, just my terrified face, she looked more worried. “Gotta go… I’m sorry, you don’t deserve this.” I say run out of the gym. I grab the backup web shooters out of a locker, and tear off my tie. I toss the suit jacket away, along with my shoes, and then venom suits up. As I burst out the door, about to put my web-shooters on I get punched away, and drop them.

“He gave you a choice. You chose wrong.” Some guy says. I glance toward my web-shooters, and start running for them. Only to get smacked by the back end of a bus. “I wasn’t sure about this thing at first, but damn.” he said proudly, before smacking us again. We went through the back of the bus and landed on the floor. 

“Ugh, gross.” I groan, spotting a bunch of gum stuck to the bottom of the seats. The guy punched the bus, and it rolled a few times, before landing upside down. I fall out the door, and crawl away. “Why did he send you here? Who even are you?”

“Guess you’ll never know.” He charged up his gauntlet thing again, before it was caught by- wait by my webbing?

I look over and spot Harry, who had shot him with my webshooter. I also spot Ned, who was right behind him, his mouth hung wide open. “Nice shot!” I yell out, and kick the guy away, and fling the web shooter toward me. Venom slams him into the bus, and I stick him to it, covering his face. I run over toward them both. “Harry! The guy with the wings is Liz’s dad!” 

“What?”

“I know! I gotta go!” I point at Ned, “Track my phone for me! I need to find out where he’s going!” and start running off. I hear Harry tell Ned that he’ll explain later, but to just go. Then I hear him trying to catch up to me.

I swing away, looking for a car to steal. Before spotting Flash’s car. He was talking about some weird dinner he had, and I landed on the hood of his car as he screamed. “Flash. We need your car and your phone.” 

“Uh, sir, technically, this is my dad’s car, sir. So I can’t exactly-”

“We don’t care.” He quickly gets out, and so does his date. We drive off onto a road, hitting bicycles on the way out of the school area. We stop as we spot Harry, who was out of breath. “Get in.” I yell at him, and he nods. 

“Nice ride.” He said as he starts driving. I dial Ned’s number on Flash’s phone, but Harry had suddenly served and I dropped it. It went on the tire of a bus Harry was dodging.  I reach into his pocket, and pull out his phone. “Hey! Don’t drop that!”

“Ned?” I ask hurriedly, ignoring his comment.

“Go for Ned.”

“Ned, We need you to track our phone!”

“Okay, but where is it?”

“It’s in the back of his car!”

“Genius move. He just passed the gamestop on Jackson Ave.”

-

We jumped off the car as Harry sped past the warehouse. Yelling at him to get somewhere safe. We climbed on the roof, and went in through a skylight. Lowering slowly down a webline. We looked around, spotting cameras, and a lot of tech, including the wings. On the monitors, was schematics for an airplane. What? We eventually found him in a large open room of the warehouse. “Hey!” We yelled out. “Suprised?”

“Oh, hey, Pete. I didn’t hear ya come in.”

<“It’s over. We’ve got you.”>

“You know, I’ve gotta tell you, Pete. I really, really admire your grit. I Gotta admit, this whole WE thing is odd. Who else is here?”

<“You don’t need to worry about that.”> 

“I see why Liz liked you. When you first showed up at the house, I thought really? But I get it now.”

“How could you do this to her?”

“To her? I’m not doing anything to her, Pete.

<“Don’t call us that.”>

“I’m doing this for her.”

<“Mhm, sure.”> We say, and web one of his hands to the table.

“Peter, you don’t understand how the world works.”

<“Yeah, but we understand that selling weapons to criminals is wrong!”>

“How the hell do you think people like Stark got their money? Same thing with Osborn. Those people, Pete the rich and powerful, can do whatever the hell they want. Guys like us? Like you and me? They don’t care about us. We build their roads, fight their wars. But they don’t care about us. We have to pick up after them. We have to eat their table scraps. That’s how it is. I know you know what I’m talking about, Peter.”

<“Why are you telling us this?”> 

“Because I want you to understand… And I needed a little time to get her in the air.” He flicked up a knife, and his wing suit bursted through the wall behind us. We jump over it, and dodge all its attacks. “I’m sorry, Peter.”

<”What are you talking about? That thing hasn’t even touched us yet!”>

“True. Then again- wasn’t really trying to.” He said, and it hit another support beam before the roof started collapsing around us.

We were crushed under all the concrete of the build. We tried to catch our breath, but we were being crushed! <“We can do this.”> we tell ourselves. We stretch our reach outward, and begin lifting. The words of Ben echoed in our mind: Remember boys, with great power, comes great responsibility. His dying declaration. We lifted the concrete off us, and quickly caught our breath. When we got out of the rubble, we spotted him perched on a sign post. We quickly ran and webbed up onto the sign post, then webbed onto the back of his suit. He was headed for a plane that could turn invisible? What the hell?

He got on the underside of the plane, and his suit had latched onto the bottom of it. We crawled along the bottom, and reached his suit. When we started trying to pry it off, a drone had popped out, and started flying away. Then the plane had turned away. We started kicking the suit, eventually knocking it loose.

He had popped down, and into his suit. Then he started circling us. <”Just a typical Homecoming. On the outside of an invisible jet, fighting our team captain’s dad!”> we dodged him as he tried slicing us with his wing. We webbed onto the jet and him, and he yanked us forward. We had started flying toward one of the turbines. <”Oh god!”> we yell as we spray a webfluid at the turbine, we had crashed into it. <”We can’t believe that worked!”> we exclaim, then the turbine fell out of where it was being held, we grabbed onto it. And then kicked it off. He kept trying to stab us with his wings, eventually landing in front of us, the massive turbine on the back behind us.

Every time he lunged forward, the closer we got to the turbine. He kept going for our hands, Eventually we lost our grip before slamming the edge of the turbine and falling away from it. We webbed onto it as we started a descent. We spotted the city in front of us. We webbed onto one of the wings at the back, and pulled on it. We turned and missed the city before crashing through a giant tower for the Coney Island fairground. 

We had fallen off the plane, and ragdolled across the ground, Venom took away the mask, and my ears were ringing. As I stood up, I spotted through the smoke, bird guy charging at me. He had smacked me and we rolled across the sand more.  “Hey Pedro.” He said, and charged at us again. I rolled under him, and tried to shoot a web at him, but missed. He slammed his boot down onto me, and then clamped on. I screamed out in pain, and he started beating us down. We blocked one punch, before he lifted us into the air. I broke apart the clamp and fell, webbing onto him up toward him, giving him an uppercut on the way. I went over his head, and punched his back. Before he spun around and tossed us away. We landed on our stomach, where he latched onto our back before lifting us up, then slamming us back down. Repeating once, before I kicked him away and he dropped us.

“Leave him alone!” I hear someone yell out. 

“Should’ve stayed out of this, Osborn!” He yells. He starts charging at him, and that puts me into an adrenaline rush.

Venom fully takes over, as he’s mid charge. He had latched onto his wing, <Don’t even think about it!> We roar, and tosses him away. He had crashed into a crate, and small arc reactors had split out. Toomes notices them, tosses his helmet away, and then flies up., latching onto the crate with his remaining clamp and starts to try to fly away. His wing suit is going to explode! I think as I spot it’s back. Good riddance. Venom! We have to save him. Remember what Ben said!? I hate it when you’re right. He latched onto the back of his suit. <Your wing suit is going to explode!> We pulls toward him.

“Time to go home, Pete.” He says and stabs at Venom who roared as he let go. He started to try to fly away, before he could get far his suit malfunctioned, and he fell down. It exploded as he hit the ground. 

<No!> We leap over toward him, and tosses the debris aside, pulling him out of the fire quickly and onto the sand, away from the wreckage. He places him on the ground, before putting a foot down on him <We should kill you for your threats… But we are better then you.> He growls.

“What-” He’s interrupted by a cough. “What even are you?”

<”We are Spider-Man. We are VENOM.”> We say together, showing half of my face and he leaves the other half of his face.

Chapter Text

We had gone up on some of a nearby rollercoaster's scaffolding, waiting for whoever's plane it was people to come and investigate. Harry sat up with us, as we waited. He had threatened Toomes that if he said anything about me, to anyone, to expect no mercy. He was silent as we gathered the boxes up, webbed him up with them, and a note from paper Harry had gotten us. 

It read:

 Caught Flying-Vulture-Guy! 

- Spider-Man

P.S: Sorry about your plane!

Some guy in a suit, along with a bunch of cars had found it. After we realized it was safe to leave, we had Harry drive Flash’s car back toward the apartment. He may have crashed it intentionally accidentally after we were a few blocks away. We had swung up, holding onto him to my bedroom window, and stumbled inside. Venom disappeared, and showed how badly I messed up Ben’s old suit. Harry had found some swim trunks for us, and said to change into that. He left the bedroom, and into the bathroom.

When I stumbled inside, I noticed he was in swim trunks too. He sat me on the edge of the tub. “How hot did you want it?” He asks, as he starts the bathtub.

“Just uh, lukewarm, please.” I say, sleepy. He sits down, and maneuvers us to sit in front of him. He had washed me with a loofah while I drifted off and on.

He kept splashing my face with water to keep me awake. “You’ve got to stay awake, please.” He says, his voice soft, and soothing. So I do. We do, I guess. For him.

-

I had managed to get into underwear and pajama bottoms before having to ask Harry for help. He had dressed in some of my stuff in the bathroom beforehand and helped me into a shirt after listening to my instructions on how to bandage me up. “Where is Venom?”

“Asleep. I think.”

“You guys sleep separately too?” He asked as he put socks on my feet. They were very fuzzy socks.

“Yeah, kinda.” 

“I don’t know why I asked that. You fell asleep while I helped you back here after you got dropped in a lake. He spoke mostly during that time.

“What did he say?”

“Not much really, just said what he is, and that May could explain more.” He shrugged, and leaned me down onto the mattress. “Sleep, Peter.” he pleads.

“Stay.” I mumbled, sticking to his arm as he started leaving.

“Okay. I’ll stay.” He smiles, and lays down too. We fall asleep in each other's arms.

-

We started dating after that night. Harry had watched May yell at us. Venom and I were grounded for a month, and it was mostly quiet for a long time. Things only got real hectic around Christmas time. Ned found out about me being Spider-Man, MJ, who was the new team captain did too. She was a lot calmer about it then Ned, who had asked a bunch of questions that didn’t even make any sense. 

Of course, there is right now.. Where we’ve been shot. A few times, maybe. Only 3 times. And I was dialing May, to let her know, but Ned had been recently challenging me to break through firewalls he’s put on our phones as a test and unfortunately that’s a lot harder to do when you’re bleeding out from gunshot wounds. He really picked the worst time didn’t he? I did manage to get through it, and text May.

Hey May! Ik youre at work rn, but

if you could come home early…

I may have gotten hurt and it’s totally fine I promise!

???

Who are you and how did you hack through my firewalls?

Are you still mad about the last time?

It wasnt that bad!

OKAY well maybe when you had to stitch up

 my shoulder was bad but how was

I suppose to know you leave the knife in?

Knife??

What is the problem you have now?!

Oh uh you know..

Bullet holes.

3 of them to be exact.

…

Where are you?

I can get an ambulance to you in under a minute.

???

May we can NOT take me to a hospital!

Remember?

Uh, I do not.

Because I’m not whoever this ‘may’ is.

Oh

OH!

Um

I never texted you

Goodbye stranger!

What?

Hey!

Don’t ignore me!

Hello?

“Let’s head back, Venom.” I gritted out, ignoring the pain. Well, that would be a bad idea. You already lost a lot of blood, how are we going to get home?! “Easy, you swing us there.” I can’t do that! That’s not how this works! “Sure- sure. Let’s just-”

~

When the mystery person had stopped texting me, I had demanded FRIDAY to attempt to track them. That had proved to be more difficult than I had thought. Meaning if FRIDAY was having trouble tracking them, this person was obviously smart. Whoever it was, he was a little intrigued; he managed to break through his firewalls, and prevent FRIDAY from tracking them. He hadn't decided to just leave this person in his phone, and see if they ever message back. He had changed the contact name to just ‘Bob’ because he didn’t have a name to give him. Something tells him he’d doubt ‘bob’ would answer the question with his actual name. He had added a note to the contact, describing who it was then ignored it for a few days.

It was only 3 days until he got messaged again.

Hello

Stranger

Uh

Sorry about texting you randomly

Kindly delete me from your phone

Thx

No.

I don't think I will delete you from my phone.

What

Why

Please?

Hm.

No.

My life is boring right now.

And you are a new form of entertainment.

Oh

Ok

I guess

Im gonna call you

Wait

Are you a ‘mr’ or a ‘ms’

Or neither

This is very important

I’m a Mister

Why is that important?

Cause

Okay your name is Mr Boring

LOL

Why?

Cause you said your life is boring.

Rn its your only description of yourself

Okay

Not the worst I’ve been called

You are currently bob

Thats the WORST

Gross

All bobs I know are ANCIENT

Plz call me something else!

Like what?

And Ancient??

How old are you?

Call me

ParasiteHaver

Why

Because itll make my friend upset

Hes already upset about it

Its hilarious

Do you actually have a parasite???

What

No

Well

That ‘well’ is not helping your case.

Not the way you think

I just call my friend a parasite cause it makes him mad

So

Yeah

Thats all ur getting out of me

Is it my new name yet??

I’ll consider it.

You type like an old man

Maybe Ill change ur name to Mr Oldman

Thats waaay better

Call me whatever you want.

What even counts as old to you?

Anyone over the age of like

30

But Im not good at guessing ages

So everyone is old to me

How old are you anyway?

Im 46

OH GOD

You are old

Im friends with an old man!!!

Yeah whatever.

You’re probably 12.

Thats when everyone becomes ‘old’ to you.

I am not 12!

Im still calling you Mr Oldman

So

I gtg

Text you some other time Mr Oldman!

Chapter Text

He was perfectly fine working in close proximity with the Avengers.

Is what he tells himself as he swings after that armored car. It had crashed through a wall of a small Oscorp building, some armored thugs hopped out, stole something, got back in and made a getaway. Colliding with cars left and right as it speeds down the streets of Queens. He had  been keeping a steady pace, following it just a block over. Together, He and Venom had a mental map of all of Queens and this gang, or whatever they are,  are clearly trying to make a getaway by leaving the city. 

Instead of heading for the mainland, they went further out, likely wanting to catch a boat or something somewhere on Long Island. So he had kept a pace, waiting for the perfect opportunity to cut them off.

They had gone down the Union Turnpike, and went up the wrong way to get on the Grand Central Park Way. Near Alley Pond Park, slamming through multiple cars and the like. Instead of keeping pace along a road adjunct to them, he had to follow them directly. They then took a hard turn and went through a wooded area the separated the LI Expy. Going through the small road between it, and onto LI Expy.

It was during that insane, and illegal, transition that he caught up to that armored car. He landed on the roof, and used Venom to pull the back off. The thugs inside opened fired, and missed everything. 

He leapt onto the hood of the truck, where he spotted a man with a ski mask on his face. Scratched up to look like a skull. He stopped the truck by slamming his fist, enveloped by Venom, through the engine block and yanked it out. Tossing it in the air. 

The following crash was almost bad, as the skimaskface guy had been carrying a biohazardous object. He was so glad it didn’t break. Skimaskface started a brawl with him while the other thugs attempted to steal another car. “You’re messing with things you don’t understand!” he yells.

<So are you!> They growled. He watched the skimaskface guy’s eyes widen in a bit of shock as Venom overlapped his suit. Which was easily the indicator he was about to win this fight. He had managed to get the hazardous object out of his reach, and was held up by one of Venom’s tentacles. This pissed of skimaskface guy, as with his next punch he had extended a blade on his gauntlet. The blade went through his stomach. <You’ll pay for that!> We shriek. Latching onto that blade to hold him in place. 

We got hit by a car, and his gauntlet remained stuck, his arm bleeding, having that thing ripped off so violently. He climbs into the car and they drive off. We spot Iron Man, and Falcon flying after them. We stumble around frustrated, and collapse on the ground holding our stomach. <He will pay for that…> We growl.

“Spider-Man!” A voice calls to him. But they don’t hear it, they yank out the blade and gauntlet tossing it away with a pained screech. They hold their stomach again, the wound already closing with Venom’s help. A hand on their shoulder freaks them out, and they act on pure instinct as they lash out quickly. They get up, and spring away. Using Venom as a springboard. Ignoring the shouts of the people behind them. They continue leaping and swinging away toward somewhere safe. 

~

Tony had and Sam had chased that stolen car along the express way before he heard Steve say the vigilante that had helped them just yanked out the blade-gauntlet Rumlow had stabbed him with. Knowing they can just catch him later, they both turn around to go in the direction where the bug ran off too.

Spider-Man was a relatively new vigilante. They seemingly had two suits. This shitty onesie looking thing, and this… organic tech suit. At least, they think it’s organic tech… Rather, Tony thinks it's organic tech, because no one else knows what it is. And currently its his best guess. The guy is smart enough to make tech like that, where it seamlessly goes over his onesie and helps him in fights. Like going over his arm and punching through an armored truck’s hood to yank out the engine block. Tossing it a couple feet in the air. 

It also caught the biohazard thing, which Steve said was left behind after they got stabbed. Wanda had snatched it with her powers, before it shattered on the ground. Pietro had sped by and grabbed it, already heading back to the tower so they could analyze it later.

When the car with Rumlow’s gang smashed into the spider, he just went flying into that concrete barrier between the traffic. Rumlow escaped, and Steve was worried about the vigilante. He wanted to recruit him hopefully.

So of course he apparently just fucked off like he wasn’t even stabbed. Steve had placed his hand on his shoulder, only to be knocked away by… well a burst of his suit shooting at quickly. Like some sort of defense measure. Weird.

The bug is quick. Because they lost him as he just kept leaping away. Using his suit to get bonus air and momentum like a springboard. Plus he obviously knows his way around Queens, because he had followed the truck from the Oscorp building so easily, even as they rounded corners to try and lose Sam and I. 

They were lucky they got the vial back at least.

When he returned to the tower, no spider-kid with him, Steve frowned. “Anything?”

“Lost him.” He shrugs. “He’s pretty quick. And he definitely knows the area way better than we do.”

“Redwing tried tagging him, but he smacked him away. When I tried following a heat signature, I got none.” Sam said, sounding upset about his gadget he has too many feelings for got smacked.

Steve glanced at him “What?”  

“Guy’s cold. Literally.” 

“Maybe his suit uses his body heat to power it?” I mutter out loud. “There’s no way of knowing without asking him… I doubt we will be able to anytime soon, though. Or ever again. Could be dead.”

“Not dead.” Clint says, sipping a cup of coffee. “His wound closed after yanking out that blade. No blood spilled out. Only blood was on the blade anyway.”

“Maybe we can use his blood to find out who he is?” Steve asks, skeptical. “But that would invade his privacy…”

“We could just keep it on file, and only let Helen review it. In case he does join.” I point out. Steve accepts that, and Helen is given the blade. She doesn’t tell us anything about the bug. But every time I spot her in her lab, she is looking over something with a worried expression on her face. Which only makes me worry more.

~

They had made it back to their apartment, collapsed on their bed and fell asleep. 

The wound healed overnight. And May had scolded the both of them about wearing bloody clothes to bed. She had to wash the bedding by hand… and they had to toss the mattress because the wound had broken open when he shifted around in his sleep. But it was fully closed now, and the scar would start to fade tomorrow. 

This also meant they had to eat extra. I mean, they already eat a lot. But eating while nursing a wound tends to be more demanding. They also had to make another suit, because this one had ripped open while they tossed around in his sleep.

May had long established the rule that if the suit is ruined, he must take a break from Spider-Man. He had gone through only 3 ‘suits’ now. But the rule was established when he made the second one after the first one had split open from a cut on his back. 

He had a required one week break from Spider-Man. So he spent that by hanging out with his friends, and helping Ned with homework. It was a quiet week at school, and when there was an announcement for a nationwide competition, he did get excited. Apparently, Stark Industries was having a science competition for all the STEM schools across America. 

The competition would select the top 10 of the state, and if you get to the next stage, you’d go up against the other top 10 of the other states. After that, you would make it to the finals. Where it was the 1st place of all 50 states against each other. The top 5 would win, and get an exclusive internship at one of the various SI buildings across the country. 

Apparently they even offered to relocate people if they needed it, paid for by SI. As there weren't many buildings in the midwest. Naturally, Harry joked saying he’d join the competition. Which the class had found funny. Like Tony Stark would accept the son of his rival as a winner. Instead, Harry just helped Peter on his project. Promising he’d let him get all the credit.

He was so excited he texted his mystery old friend about it. They talked about a lot of weird things together. Apparently oldman’s friend group had even older people in it, and they didn’t understand some of the things oldman said. So he complained about it to him. He was still skeptical about him actually having friends though.

OMG

MR OLDMAN!!

UR NEVER GONNA BELIEVE WHAT HAPPENED!

Did you get stabbed again?

What?

No!

Well…

What do you mean, ‘well…’!?!

My school just told me that Stark Industries is

 hosting a competition for an internship slot!! 

Ignoring the fact you probably got stabbed again

Yes, I heard about that.

Made a lot of waves around here.

Do you work at SI?

👀

You could say that, yeah.

That’s so cool!!!

What do you do?

Can I even know?!

Will you get fired if you tell me??

I work at R&D.

Yes, you can know.

No, I won’t get fired.

That’s sick!

Ur pretty cool for an old guy

And you're very rude.

Didnt your parents teach you 

to respect your elders?

Nah

They died

When I was like

2

Or something

Oh

I’m sorry

Its w/e.

I like

Barely remember them

So

You know

I am one of the people that overviews the

Competition results

I work… close with the head of R&D

Thats so cool!

Yeah, I guess it would be for you

If you tell me your name maybe I can guarantee you get it

Thats cheating!

I have to win it fair and square!

I mean

 theres no guarantee u even live

 in the same state as me anyway

WAIT

Is that why you had firewalls on ur phone???

Yes

It is why I had firewalls on my phone

Sick

I broke through SI firewalls

Thats pretty awesome

It is pretty impressive.

My… boss was impressed when he heard it

Wait

Do

You

Mean

TONY STARK

As your boss?

I impressed him!?

Yes

You did

Ok

Just ‘ok’?

No

Im totally freaking out rn

My friend is glaring at me

We were gonna work on the project together

So

Joint projects are only acceptable for 

the individual states aren't they?

Yes

They r

But my friend doesnt want to work at SI

His dad works at Oscorp

So he is gonna go there

Gross

Oscorp

Why are you friends with this guy?

SI is way better.

We have been friends for ever

And besides

He doesnt

Nvm

Ignore that

I gtg

By Mr oldman

Bye ParasiteHaver

OMG

THATS SO FUNNY

TYSM

With new found excitement, Peter had gone on a spiel about what project he could do. The competition requires 3 projects, to show off your creativity. So he had decided on 3 things. Number 1 was a drone to help search and rescue teams looking for people. The rough sketch of the idea was so it would be small, and could easily squeeze through cracks or rubble. 

Number 2 was going to be an emergency quick apply bandage. Based on his web-fluid, but with out the tensile strength or the extreme stickiness of it. Easily pulled off, and applied over wounds to hopefully replace standard bandages used today. Of course he had been using his own web-fluid for this exact purpose… until he could get to May who would patch him up. But May isn’t as strong as he is, so she can’t tear off that stuff. Harry had thought this idea was risky, and could out his identity as Spider-Man.

Venom had voiced that opinion too, but he knew he wanted to try it still. Number 3 was a combination of the other 2. A larger drone that could apply this bandage to people under debris, if need be.

They had gotten to work one the first drone. The rough sketch had transformed into several blueprints. Each detailing different parts, the legs, the carapace, and abdomen. The eyes would be camera lenses, and they opted for 2 in hopes it would be less scary. A colored sketch of the ‘finished’ product had chosen a light blue color scheme. 

This draft had also helped with the design of the 3rd project. Basing off the first design, except adding the ‘fangs’ as points to dispense the ER-QAB, which was the acronym they chose for the second project. They had chosen the same light blue color scheme. 

After the draft for the 3rd project was done, they had gone to Oscorp Tower where Harry had dragged him up to a lab. They had started drafting ideas for this ER-QAB, and would return every other day. This was also where they could work on the drones. Spdr-SRD, or the Spider-Search and Rescue Drone, along with Spdr-SRMD (Spider- Search, Rescue and Medical Drone)

Norman stops by occasionally. He was disappointed that Peter was participating in the competition, but had accepted it eventually. Saying that if he does get the slot, he is always welcome to Oscorp as a fall back.

Harry had muttered he wouldn’t even come here as a first choice, let alone a last one. Which was true. All of his dislike of the company was because of Norman. Harry hadn’t exactly ever described his father as anything but a business man. “I’m so glad mom isn’t here to hear this.” He grumbled after one of Norman’s visits. “She wouldn’t have put up with this.”

“I know. I wish she was still here.”

“Me too.”

Chapter Text

Monday, November 14th was the date our school was going to have the SI judges visit for the competition. 

The announcement had made the students believe that maybe Tony Stark would show up personally as a judge. That rumor was shot down when the judges visited for an assembly the Friday before. Tony Stark wasn’t among them. A bit disappointing, to be honest. Though he wondered if maybe one of the judges was ‘mr. oldman’ or not. All of them look old. Yeah, but we aren’t very good at guessing ages. They could be like.. 20 or something. Gross. That's still old! Don’t let May hear you say that. 

Over that weekend, Harry and I had worked on the Spdr-SRD. Finishing it, and its code that Saturday. We even managed to test it out in a simulated environment. It works well, especially the adhesion parts for the legs. Harry had brought it over to my apartment, and we kept the more detailed blueprints there. AKA, the blueprints with all our notes rather than the basics. But, something had inclined me to bring it today.

All the large spaces in the school were packed today with projects. I had been in the theatre room, with the rest of the decathlon team. As it was typically used for the meeting place, unless it was in use for a club, where we would go to the library instead. I glanced around at the others in the room.

Not everyone in the team had opted to participate. Of the members, it was only Me, MJ, Ned Flash and Cindy that had made something. Ned had coded an app that tracks superhero movement/sightings. MJ had made a more realistic invitation, a small device that could link with others and lead you to them. A ‘compass’ that would point toward the others linked with it. Intended to help find your friends in a crowded place. Cindy wasn’t all that good with technology, but she did make something that impressed me. A tarp that could go taught, making it more suitable for temporary shelter. Lightweight, and durable. Flash had… made something. From the board he drew up, it looked like an attempt at some sort of robot. He wasn’t really sure what it was, to be honest.

He had been setting up his display area, and he heard a commotion behind him. Harry had been sitting on a chair next to him, leaning back. Almost falling over a few times, but he had stopped him every time. Turn around! I want to see what’s happening! No, I’m almost done. You’re boring. Thanks. That wasn’t a complement! Trust me, I know. Pussy. Ignoring his insult, he stood up and turned around. Spotting… well…

Tony Stark himself. Just looking around the room at all the inventions. The other judges were with him, also observing the room. Mr. Harrington had been exclaiming his gratitude that Tony Stark visited the school… wait.

You know, I am one of the people that overviews the competition results. I work… close with the head of R&D

Yes it’s why I had firewalls on my phone.

My boss was impressed when he heard about it

There’s no guarantee you even live in my state anyway…

Holy shit. We broke into Tony Stark’s phone!!!! WE WHAT?!? “Why else would he be here….” I muttered. Harry stopped rocking on the back legs of the chair to look over at us. He had been reading a book while he waited for the judges to come over.

“Why else would who be here, Pete?” He whispered, knowing we’d pick it up. He sat up straighter before spotting him. “Oh boy.” He stood up and put a hand on my shoulder. “Don’t fanboy over him now. You’ve got a project to pitch.” 

“Right.” I nod, and I take a deep breath. Calming myself, and going back to working on the display. Harry had sat back down and continued his book. The whispers of the room had gone up, and the squeals of Tony Stark were said often. About every 2 minutes. Meaning he was  a judge, but didn’t want to freak the schools out by showing up the day before. Venom had been quiet, except to say if we messed something up on the display.

We ran one quick test on the drone, which we made it crawl up our leg. We wanted to have it crawl up Harry’s, but he protested it a lot. It did tickle him a lot. Plus he had almost smashed it one time thinking it was a real spider. Yeah, not ideal. Hopefully we can fix that.

We had it perched on our shoulder while we waited. The squeals of Tony Stark had gotten louder. And we knew when Ned had been visited. Meaning he will meet MJ next. We had finished the display, and had just been running different programs. We overheard MJ’s small conversation. “My project is, at the insistence of my friends, called the Friend Finder. But I’ve been calling it the Group Tracker. You can pair it with any number you want.” She explained monotone. She just went straight to the point, and was completely indifferent to the fact Tony Stark was standing before her. Ironically, she didn’t care about that all that much. 

“That’s a pretty clever idea. What brought it on?” Mr. Stark asked her.

“My friends always lose each other at events. So I made something that would make it easier to find eachother.” She shrugged. “Right now it has a limited range, along with a limited number of pairings.”

“It is very impressive. Ms Jones-Watson.” Another judge said.

“It’s Jones. I don’t go by Watson.” She corrected immediately.

“Duely noted, Ms Jones.” Mr. Stark said, sounding a bit amused. He had walked over toward the other stands. He didn’t seem as impressed by the others. If anything, he had sounded only impressed by Cindy or MJ's inventions. When he had stopped at mine, the last in this area of the school, he had been looking over the blueprints. The many, many notes scribbled on them. If you really inspected it, you could tell the blueprints had evolved with every note. 

“Hello, I am Doctor Clair Welton. Head of the Biogenetics Department." One of the Judges greeted me. I don’t like her. Why?? I refuse to be an experiment. We won’t wind up an experiment. I don’t believe you. 

“Mr. Oliver Hannagan, Head of the marketing Department.” The other judge greets. Marketing is boring. Why is he here? Probably contemplate the marketability of the inventions. Gross. Capitalism. You sound like MJ. She has a point!

“You know who I am.” Mr. Stark greets. Mr. Oldman. Yup. Wonder if he knows. I hope not.

“Peter Parker.” I say nervously. And Venom! Yeah? How am I gonna explain that? You just don’t. Like that’d go over well.

“And your friend?” He glanced at Harry. Who was still reading his book. Boyfriend. Shush!

“Harold.” I reply easily, a light teasing tone. His real name is Harold?! You didn’t know that? … You forgot. No! Harry glared at me, but kept to his book. “He helped, but he didn’t um… want to participate.” I explained. Isn’t that what we told Mr. Oldman? Yes. Then why did you say that? Cause I’m not smart when I’m stressed!! Obviously. Hey! “This-” I start, picking the drone off my shoulder and placing it on the table. “-is my invention. I call it the Spider-Search and Rescue Drone. Or Spdr-SRD. It’s designed to be compact, and it can squeeze into tight spaces. I made it in hopes of helping people search for survivors of disasters.” I messed with the controller, and it moved to crawl across the table. “It’s quick, and the lighter color can hopefully make it look less scary looking.”

“Why a spider?” Dr. Welton asks. If they read the blueprint they’d know why. Quiet.

“Spiders like tight spaces. They can flatten themselves out to crawl into places where you normally wouldn’t be able to. It’s why in Australia they are always under paintings, or wall decor. That, and because they like the dark. So, I made it by studying spider anatomy. And applied it to my robot.” 

“If you read the blueprint on the wall you would’ve noticed that.” Harry points out, still reading his book. Thank you, Harry!

“Harry!” I exclaim.

“He’s right.” Mr. Stark says. I like the tinman. Do not eat Iron Man! I doubt metal tastes good anyway. And the human inside? Depends if he wrongs us or not. Venom!  Both of us look up at him. He points behind us. “In the top left, you had drawn the anatomy out, adding a note about how you were worried it would be difficult it could be to make the legs.” We do not eat superheroes. Pussy.

“You are right, Mr Stark. Forgive me.” Dr. Welton apologies. The Tinman won’t be eaten. Thank you. Can’t say the same about her. I hate you. 

“It’s… fine.” I say. It is not fine! Not really appreciative that the judge didn’t even bother to look the blueprints over. Exactly! Not fine. Shush. “But the legs turned out to be relatively easy to make. The hard part was condensing all the wiring inside the abdomen and carapace.”

“The hard part was actually ensuring the camera worked.” Harry points out. I hated every second of that. I know.

“That was annoying.” I frown. Not annoying. No. It was frustrating! I know! “Mostly because cameras that small are fragile.. Not to mention finding cameras that small.”

“I’m impressed.” Mr. Stark says, looking it all over again. “That in of itself is a great complement. Have a good day, Mr. Parker… and.. Harold?" He said a bit skeptical, but they all made their leave of the room. Hilarious. I like the tinman. Please don’t eat the SI judges. Fine. Thank you. When this is over then its fair game! No!!

“Harold.” Harry scoffed. “Traitor.”

“You betrayed me.” I shrug. 

“When exactly did I betray you?” He frowns.

“When you left for Cali.” I joked.

“It wasn’t like I had a choice!” He says frustrated.

“I know.” I rolled my eyes, and started packing away my stuff. “I’m glad I brought this blueprint instead.”

“I despise that. My handwriting is terrible.” He says, helping me gather everything.

“I think it’s lovely.” I tease.

“Peter. In the nicest way possible, shut up.” 

“Nah.”

“Worth a shot.” He sighed.

~

Tony Stark doesn’t get impressed very often. Let alone in such a short span of time. He had made notes by using FRIDAY to make a note of whatever invention or project he had actually liked. All he had to do was tap his watch twice, and FRIDAY would record the conversation. So far, at Midtown Highschool of Science and Technology. He had been impressed 4 times. One was with Cindy Moon’s Disaster Relief Tarp was mighty impressive. Another with Michelle Jones, and her ‘Friend Finder’ device. The invention was practical. But what really impressed him was her indifference toward him. She hadn’t freaked out at all when he approached her. After the brief introductions, she introduced herself and then proceeded to explain her project.

The other two times were the ‘Harold’ kid and Peter Parker. He had already recognized Harry Osborn, and Parker had said he didn’t want to participate…

He had deduced then and there, it was Peter Parker who was his… ParasiteHaver contact. His friend’s dad worked at Oscorp, aka owned it. And from the implications over the texts, his friend didn’t really want to work at Oscorp. That was only one thing that impressed him. The other was Parker’s invention. The blueprints, the notes. Not to mention the way the notes were written out.

He had gone back to add onto them, correcting himself. Themselves. He realized, because he was working with Harry on this project. There were two different writing styles up there. But they both had gone back to their notes, correcting themselves, and adding theories on what they could try instead. He was impressed because he does that himself. Except, FRIDAY is his way of making those notes. She also had removed the time consumption of trial and error. Running simulations instead.

It was no wonder the kid broke his firewall, because he is smart. They both are. He had his reservations about Osborn. But the kid was just like the Michelle girl. Indifferent toward him. Whereas Norman had always greeted him with hate or disgust. The kid probably didn’t even care about their rivalry. But didn’t join the competition because he would get in trouble.

When the judges convened in the principal's office, along with the principal himself. They discussed. Mr. Morita had answered questions they had about certain students. When Dr. Welton asked about how well Parker does in school, he had anticipated the answer. What he did not anticipate was the follow up of it. “Mister Parker is one of our brightest students. He is in the 99th percentile of the school.” They all looked pleased with that answer. “However-” Their expressions turned from pleased to concerned very quickly. “-His grades have been dipping due to a multitude of un-excused absences. Earlier just this year he disappeared when the decathlon team went to D.C for nationals.”

“What?” Mr. Hannagan asked, sounding very concerned. Gears began turning in Tony’s head though.

“The previous captain had claimed to see him the night before, heading to the business center. In the morning his assigned roommate had claimed he had returned. Suggested he might’ve fallen asleep there… Upon investigation, he wasn’t there. The staff said they never saw anyone enter.”

“He ran away?” I asked, concerned.

“When the team returned, he was already at the hotel.”

Because he’s Spider-Man, the realization came to him. He saved the team’s lives, and acted like nothing happened.

“This behavior will dock his points for sure.” Doctor Welton says with a frown.

“No.” I speak up quickly. “Teenagers all have a rebellious phase. We knew this when we discussed this competition.” 

“But Mr. Stark-”

“Don’t tell me you wouldn’t do the same, at his age?” I interrupted. “How long was this visit to D.C?”

“Two days.”

“Exactly.” I snapped and pointed at him. “He probably wanted to see the city on his own. And he’s already, I assume, paid the consequences of his actions by now?”

“Yes.”

“There you have it.” I say. “We can’t dock points because of something he’s already paid for. If we did it for him, we’d have to do it with every student we come across. Besides, his work is impressive.”

“You’re right about that.” Mr. Hannagan nods. “That drone is very complex for a highschooler.”

“Like I’ve said, Mr. Parker is one of our brightest students.” Mr. Morita praises again.

“Well, that’s the last kid I wanted to ask about.” Dr. Welton says. “This was our last stop in the state. We’ll return to Stark Tower and discuss with the rest of the judges.”

“Of course.” Mr. Morita nods. “Have a good day. It was nice to meet you all.” 

-

After the meeting with the other department heads, we had compiled the votes for the state. 1st place was Peter Parker. Along with one of his classmates. Cindy Moon, who had gotten 6th. He did note that Michelle Jones had gotten 11th place in the votes. He had hoped she’d just continue making her project on her own anyway. That would’ve wasted the potential. 

When he returned to the compound for the monthly team dinner, he had apologized for his tardiness. The meeting had gone on way longer than he’d thought it would. Mostly because everyone had come up with so many different thoughts and opinions on them all. There were a bunch of impressive ideas, but the only one that had a unanimous 10/10 marks was Peter Parker. Every other department head was impressed.

He had displayed a hologram of every project they observed. The demonstration, the explanation of it. All set to delete after the meeting was over. He didn’t want one of his people going off and copying a student. So he had forbidden recording or notes on the inventions and students. Just in case.

Everyone was impressed by the kid, and the perfect score had solidified that.

“So, anyone stand out to you Tony?” Steve asked, pulling out a casserole. Wanda had cooked tonight, which meant comfort food.

“Yes.” He answered simply. He had his suspicions though. He hadn’t confirmed the kid was Spider-Man yet. Hell, he could just be making the tech for it for all he knew. 

“Do we get to know who it is?” Sam asked, passing out silverware.

“No. Cause there are a bunch of children who will go off and try and find them, plus a superspy who will.” I retort. 

“He’s got a point.” Natasha says, not looking up from her book. “Besides, I doubt he’d even notice me.” 

“I’d rather not, to be honest. I don’t need a teenager freaking out if they do.” I say. He probably will notice her. IF he is Spider-Man. He eyed the book she was reading more… The one Harry Osborn was reading. “You already found them.” I say, appalled. She looks up, actually looking surprised. But not at all guilty. “I can’t- Nevermind, this is totally you.” I sighed, pinching my nose. “How.”

“I won’t be sharing my secrets.” is all she says. “Triple Imposter hacked into the security footage of the meeting, sir.” FRIDAY Tattles. “Hey!” 

“Wow.”

“That is kind of invasive, Nat.” Steve frowns. 

“I don’t regret my actions.” she shrugged. “Besides, that kid is impressive. Gotta agree with you there, Tony.”

They ate relatively peacefully, Sam, Wanda and Pietro had asked about this kid a few times. Neither Nat nor I ever said anything about it. Just that we liked the work. When I was down in the lab, Nat had confronted me. “You know something else.” She says, cutting right to the chase.

“I do.” I answered. There are two things she’s thinking. He’s his mysterious friend, ParasiteHaver, who still had no idea how that name came about. Or he’s Spider-Man. “I want to ask you, what do you think it is?”

She wasn’t as caught off guard this time. “He’s either your weird friend, or he’s Spider-Man.” bingo. “Which is it?”

“You won’t believe me.”

“I’ve seen a lot, Tony. Just-”

“He’s both.” 

She is caught off guard by that statement. She mutters something in Russian, leaning her head back. “No.”

“Yes.”

“No.”

“Yes.”

“How?”

“No idea.” I shrug. “Okay, actually. I have two theories. He’s Spider-Man. Or he’s the guy who makes his tech.”

“You mean that weird suit?”

“Yes.”

“That’s somehow worse.”

“Tell me about it.” 

“What are you going to do?”

“Nothing.”

“Tony!”

“Nope. Not happening. I refuse to expose his identity. And you won’t say jack to the team. We have to earn his trust. Just like he would have to earn ours.” I shout, a bit determined. “He has every right to his privacy, Nat.”

“I hate that you’re right.” She sighs. “Fine. I won’t say anything.”

“And don’t stalk him, please!”

“No promises!”

“If he pummels you I won’t be sorry!”