Chapter Text
The Daily Bugle
Yesterday Natasha Romanoff got her official pardon by the UN. As of now, the Avengers have been cleared of all charges and are set to resume their work today.
In other news, rumors have continued to spiral, saying ex hydra assassin James ‘Bucky’ Barnes, otherwise known as the Winter Soldier is set to join the crime fighting group. Tony Stark has yet to confirm or deny this.
“Hey look at this the Avengers could be recruiting! You should ask them about joining too.”
May slid the newspaper over to Peter, who put his breakfast bar down to look at it for a few seconds before sighing
“I’ve told you, they're not gonna hire me, plus there's probably some weird ‘must be a legal adult’ clause or something.”
“Yeah, yeah, anywho, do you wanna go to that science museum tomorrow? I have the day off from work and I figured since it’s gonna be a Friday, Ned and MJ could come and sleep over after.”
“The New York Hall of Science? Uhh, duhh! I’ll ask Ned and MJ at school today but I'm almost positive it’ll be a yes from them too.”
“Perfect, that's the last day I'll have off from the hospital for a week or two. Can you believe that Dolores refused to schedule me unless I took a break?”
That made sense, Peter loved his aunt with all his heart, but the woman did not know how to take breaks. Ever since the heater in their apartment broke last winter, she had been working nonstop, saving up for a small house in the suburbs.
“Remember that museum we’ve been talking about visiting for a few weeks, well May offered to take us and said you and MJ could sleep over tomorrow if you’re interested.”
“Really? The one that reopened like seven months ago? Cuz if so that's a yes from me!”
Ned was practically jumping in his seat as Peter invited him, since it was before lunch, MJ wasn’t in their class so he’d have to ask her then.
“Peter, can you redirect your talking and tell me the chemical equation for sodium hydroxide?”
“NaOH”
Mr. Harrington looked almost upset that Peter knew this off the top of his head for some reason as he nodded and moved on.
When lunch rolled around Peter more than happily took his stuff and ran to snag the table he and his friends normally sat at. As per usual he was the first of the trio to get there so he took out his phone, hoping people wouldn’t think of him as even more of a friendless loser while waiting alone for Ned and MJ.
MJ got there a minute or so after Peter, and he had to catch his breath for a second as that familiar feeling he learned was a crush showed up in his chest.
“Hey uhm, I was wondering if you wanted to come with May, Ned and me to the NYSCI museum tomorrow. May said you and Ned could spend the night too if you guys wanted to.”
“Sure, both sound great.” She says with a shrug.
“Am I interrupting something?”
Peter and MJ groan as Ned sits down, smiling like a kid in a candy store. Ned, of course, knew all about Peter's crush, as he was the one who listened to him giggle and talk about their every encounter even before MJ became one with the friend group.
“Also, a little birdy told me that some big weapons deal was being planned under that bridge we dropped your phone down last week. If Spiderman stops the deal, The Daily Bugle may appreciate him a little, maybe even throw out a compliment just saying.”
“Ned you promised to stay off the black market.”
“But they’ve got these green metal bomb thingies, I'm sure you would be so loved if you brought them to the police before something gets blown uppp.”
Ned dragged the word out and gave his best puppy dog eyes before Peter agreed.
“The fact that nobody here knows you’re Spiderman but us shocks me a little more every day.”
“And why’s that MJ?”
“I’ll let your genius brain figure it out.”
“Let’s be real, nobody's listening to a bunch of nerds talking about Spiderman.” Ned chimes in.
The three talked and ate until the lunch bell rang out, causing a chorus of groans as everyone scurried off to third period.
That night, Spiderman set off, webbing his way to the bridge in hopes of catching the dealers, and finding his old phone. He listened as Ned rambled on in his earbud while watching the bridge, and waiting for action.
“Are you sure the goblin’s gonna show, or is this another one of Tony’s pointless stakeouts.”
Peter quickly hid as he heard Black Widow speaking, by the sounds of it, her and The Falcon were there.
“Hey Ned?” Peter whispered, “Who was that guy we’re after and why are The Avengers after them too?”
“Oh sweet! The Avengers are there?! Can you get me Iron Man’s autograph?!”
“Only Black Widow and Falcon are here, now focus. Who exactly is selling and buying these bombs?”
The line was silent for a few minutes, a tingle ran up his spine as he turned and found Black Widow herself pointing some weapon on her wrist at him.
“Why are you here and how much do you know about this guy?”
“I’m… looking for my phone, I dropped it around here last week.”
Peter mentally kicked himself, while that wasn’t exactly a lie, there was no reason to not say the full truth. That truth being he really had no clue who he was after because the only information Ned had given him was about green metal bombs.
“Listen, this is Avengers business. Why don’t you go somewhere else as we both know you aren't looking for that phone of yours.”
The Falcon had joined the conversation, clearly whoever they were after was important with how the two were acting so Peter got up, he had just about left when he turned around.
“For the record, I really did lose my phone here last week.”
And at that, Peter left and went out on a normal patrol. However he couldn’t shake the feeling that Ned had stumbled upon something much worse than the group had originally thought.
Peter woke up at around three in the morning to the sound of his alarm. He would never usually wake up that early but he had a mission. He had been planning to get tickets to a horror movie convention for the past two weeks. MJ had been wanting to go so tonight Peter was planning on surprising her with the tickets and maybe asking her out. Even if he couldn’t ask her out tonight, there was always next Friday, when the convention was.
He had gotten into the queue earlier than he expected and ended up being the four hundredth something person in line. Three hours later the tickets officially went on sale and Peter had just barely snagged two. He breathed a sigh of relief, laying back down just as his normal alarm went off. The lack of sleep was well worth it though, because he was officially one step closer to going on a date with MJ.
It was light outside by the time Peter finished brushing his teeth and tugging on a shirt that read ‘I would tell you a chemistry joke, but all the good ones argon’.
The weather was perfect as Peter left the apartment and started walking towards school. It was getting warmer and all the flowers growing to the side of the sidewalks were blooming.
“Hey nerd, you’re not late today.”
Peter smiled as MJ caught up to him outside school. “Nope, May said she’ll gut me if I get another tardy.”
They both laughed and made their way inside, where they went their own ways to class.
“Did you get the tickets?” Ned asked as soon as Peter sat down.
“Yep there printed out and sitting on my dresser as we speak!”
“Perfect!”
Peter could hardly focus in class all day. By fifth period he had to do everything in his power not to fall asleep.
After what felt like hours the bell rang and everyone ran out of class like a pack of wild animals. Peter waited by his locker as MJ then Ned showed up and the three walked out together.
“So where are you most excited to visit?” Peter stuttered for a minute as MJ asked him.
“Well, there's this one room on the third floor that lets you fake combine elements to see what happens, Imma see if I can recreate my webs just for fun!”
MJ snorted, “Again, the fact that your identity is a secret should be the eighth wonder.”
The three walked across the street to a small cafe May was in. They barreled in, and ran to her ignoring the stares from everyone else.
“Are you ready Ms. Parker? We should go asap, so are you ready?
“Hold your horses Ned, all of you sit down and eat first.”
May gestured at three plates with perfect little sandwiches and they practically inhaled the food before borderline dragging her out.
“I think this is the most beautiful architecture I've ever seen, and I’ve been to Rome.”
The others laughed at Ned’s gawking as they set off into the circular entrance. Once inside, May showed the worker the tickets on her phone, the worker let them through security and they started exploring.
After three hours of exploring, they finally got to the room Peter had been waiting for and he set off to try and duplicate his web formula.
“Peter honey, are you sure replicating that in a public museum is a good idea?”
“Please it’ll be fine, trust.”
He spent around ten minutes playing around with the screen before replicating it, and showing his friends who by now had found three different elemental combinations that started fires. It was all going so perfect until Peter felt that familiar sensation going up his spine. He paused mid sentence, looking around.
“Peter? Is everything alright?”
“GET DOWN”
They listened and not a second after there was an explosion outside. From the sounds of it some sort of bomb had gone off a floor or two above them. Peter recognized the sounds of the Avengers and realized their current fight had made its way into the museum.
People were flooding out of the building as pieces fell down, Peter ran with his aunt and friends before he remembered his backpack.
“Shit… I’ll be right back, my webshooters and suit are in there, don’t wait up!”
He ran back to the room and grabbed his backpack, turning around only to find May.
“You can’t be here the buildings actively falling May, where’s Ned and MJ!?
“And you can’t run away as the building falls, what were you thinking Pete? Your friends are probably outside by now, we should follow suit, let's go.”
Before they could exit, a man on a hovering board appeared. He was wearing this smiling green mask and humming some weird tune before tossing a green metal ball into the room. Peter’s senses were screaming as he tried to grab May, there wasn’t enough time though as the explosion rang out.
The sound was deafening as he and May blew backwards. The room seemed to spin as the mask guy hovered away, laughing like a maniac.
There was a groan a few feet away, May’s voice. Peter shook his head out hard, trying to stop his ringing ears, and crawled over to her.
“Peter…”
“Shh, May you're gonna be ok, you just have to wait for a minute, we’ll both be fine I promise.”
He held May’s head in his lap, and she reached out with shaky hands and cupped his face. The ceiling was actively falling down in front of the two but Peter didn’t care at the moment as tears fell down his face.
“Peter, listen to me.” She choked out a bloody cough before continuing. “With great power comes great responsibility. You have to be good, when I’m… when I’m gone you have to be the good guy Peter.”
“No, no no no no May you’re gonna be fine.”
She shook her head softly.
“I love you Peter, so… so much.”
“I love you too May.”
Thump
Thump
Thump
Silence
Peter’s tears turned to sobs as he could hear her heart stop. He cried like a baby as the walls crumbled. He didn’t even notice the footsteps running towards him.
“Kid, this building's collapsing, come with me, now.”
Peter turned around and saw Iron Man, his voice broke as he spoke to him.
“Save my aunt, you have to… my aunt… please.”
“She’s gone, kid, you can’t save the dead. You have to leave her, she would’ve wanted you to get out of this alive.”
“No.” Iron Man took Peter’s arm and started to pull him away.
“NO. You have to save my aunt. You have to, it's your FUCKING job to save people you have to help her.”
Peter was screaming at the man as he was dragged away. He screamed for Iron Man to let him go, to let him die. He screamed as he was put on a patch of grass outside, as a paramedic ran over to check on him. He screamed until he couldn’t anymore.
Peter should’ve known the day was going too perfect, he should’ve known his luck would never last.