Chapter Text
It didn’t take long for Peter to arrive at the Avengers tower. Normally, he would have been out patrolling all night, but with the Avengers and SHIELD looking for him, he didn’t want to be out too long.
“Hey, Fri,” he greeted as he stepped into the elevator.
“Hello, Peter.” Her calming lilt carried through the elevator. “Would you like to be sent up to Tony’s lab?”
“Yes please, Fri.”
The elevator took him straight up, taking only a minute or two before he reached the penthouse. He paced through the place before heading into Tony’s lab.
“Hey, Mr. Stark.” He said, tossing his bag down into its usual spot. Tony was tweaking the chestplate of a suit, muttering to himself. Though, once Peter had announced his presence, he pulled away from it.
“Hey, kid. Been busy swinging all day?” He asked, gesturing for Peter to pick something for them to work on.
“Yeah. Helping old ladies cross the street, stopping muggers from mugging, saving cats from trees. Just the usual.” he murmured, pulling his hero suit from his bag and placing it on the bench.
He had graduated early from Midtown roughly six months ago. He was mostly focused on his Spider-man duties now that he’s graduated. May had died a little over five months ago, so Peter spent most of his time as Spider-man or in the tower with Tony.
“The usual,” Tony echoed, pulling tools from his tool box.
Peter watched him as he turned his suit inside out to reveal all the wiring and mechanics hidden inside it. “Is there no updates on why SHIELD wants to capture me?” He asked quietly, feeling at a small, broken seam.
Tony paused for a quick moment, but that small moment was pretty noticeable with Peter’s superhuman abilities.
“No,” the avenger admitted, soldering some wires together that had been loose. “Fury won’t tell us anything. But no matter what, I’ll make sure they can’t capture you, kid. That’s why I’m going to install a new, prototype tracker in your suit. It will let Karen know when I am nearby, as Ironman, and you can flee the scene.”
He pulled a micro device from his own lab bench with tweezers. Carefully enough, he attached it to the same wires that Peter’s normal tracker was attached to.
“Do you think I can’t beat the other Avengers?” the mutant questioned, that familiar feeling of being treated like a child welling in his chest.
“I know you can beat them. That’s not what this is about. Every time you encounter the Avengers, you get seriously hurt and I’m the one to patch you up. I also don’t want to have to fight you to save face and pretend like I’m not protecting you under SHIELD’s nose.”
Peter frowned, but didn’t say anything more. If anything, Tony sounded slightly worried. He’s spent enough time around him to know when he was feeling worried.
“I understand. I’ve been trying to remain on the downlow for now. Daredevil and Deadpool have been carrying out most of my usual nightly missions that involve bad guys in New York.”
“You’re still hanging around those weirdos? They haven’t even picked good reds for their hero suits.” Tony scoffed, shaking his head fondly.
“Only you would nitpick the tone of red on a superhero costume.”
“Of course I would. I am a genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist. You don’t have this attitude with nothing.”
–
Harley would be arriving soon. It was a thought that pleased Tony.
He had sent Peter down one level into his own penthouse after finishing tinkering with his suit. He had been able to successfully avoid them meeting. Harley was Iron Lad, a part of the Avengers’ team in capturing Spider-man and he has been for the past four months.
The kid had been happy to move to New York and become another superhero that protected the city, if the Avengers were ever not available. He was doing mostly lighter work, not taking any heavy loaded missions they did, but he’d been trusted to help with kidnapping the spider-like hero and bringing him to SHIELD.
The billionaire looked over some videos recorded of the interactions with Peter and the Avengers. His spider sense was able to protect him from most of the attacks, but Natasha was able to land a few hits or slashes. At least the training with Daredevil had improved his fighting style and he wasn’t so sloppy and reckless.
“Hey, Tony.”
Speak of the first devil.
“Hey, Harley. How was Midtown? Does it still suck?”
Harley snorted in response, rolling his eyes and heading over to his bench. “You bet. That Flash kid is pissing me off like crazy. He’s such a dickhead, I don’t understand how he has friends.”
The avenger shared the sentiment. He recalled Peter complaining about him before he graduated, about how he just let Flash target him because he could handle it and take the attention off of other kids. It was a ridiculous thought, but Peter was a self-sacrificing idiot because he thought he was invincible.
“He probably just pays them to spend time with him. See, I’m rich but I’m just so awesome to be around that I don’t have to pay money grabbing losers to act like my friends.”
“Sure, old man.” Quipped the teenager, placing safety goggles over his eyes and soldering pieces of scrap metal together.
Tony huffed, changing the screen from the fights with Spider-man to the latest news channel.
“Sources say the Avengers are still looking into detaining Spider-man for reasons still unknown to the public. The constant question is, what do they want with our friendly neighborhood hero?”
“Do you reckon we’ll catch him soon?”
Harley asked as he played around with bits of scrap metal, seemingly trying to build a mini robot.
“Maybe,” the older hero supplied unhelpfully, turning the news off. He felt weirdly defensive, but he knew Harley was just trusting the older heroes in doing what was right. “If he stopped being so slippery, maybe.”
He repeated the word a bit quieter, a small hope ignited in his chest that wondered what SHIELD would do if Peter continued to get away.
“Maybe,” echoed Harley, mulling it over. He nodded and went back to his work after a moment of thinking.
“Do you think he’s a good guy?” He then inquired, as if his brain was merely too curious to just stay quiet and work on experiments like Tony wished him to.
He remained silent for a while, trying to conjure up an answer that won’t jeopardize his plan of helping the hero they needed to capture.
“He helps old ladies cross the street and saves cats from trees. He seems good enough. However, SHIELD needs him for something and we don’t know what. Whether you think he’s a good guy or not, that’s entirely up to you.”
Tony let the teenager sit with that answer for the rest of the night.
—
Spider-man somehow got away. Again. He had managed to flee the scene before any of the Avengers had arrived. How did he know they were coming?
“I’m getting really sick of chasing this guy around.” Sam grumbled as he landed on a roof of an apartment complex, most of the avengers following after him.
“He really is stealthy,” Wanda noted softly. She was one of the only ones not trying to detain Spider-man since she didn’t think it was a good idea to give a living person to SHIELD. Therefore, she only joined them for clean up crew after any dangerous villains, or in case they needed her.
Harley couldn’t help but agree. From the few times he’s seen the vigilante in action, his fighting style was insanely unique. It relied on many different techniques depending on the Avenger he was fighting against.
His mentor stood by him, mask raised as he checked some readings projected from his forearm.
During the duration of their many searches and battles, Tony appeared completely uninterested in catching Spider-man.
“He’s still out here somewhere. We’ll find him. Barton, you got an eye on him?” Natasha muttered, pressing a hand to her earpiece.
“Yeah, web-brain is heading south towards Madison Square Park.”
“You heard the man. Let’s move.”
Sam declared with a shrug, taking off into the skies again. The rest of the avengers followed with their own means of transport.
Most of the heroes were quick to catch up to where the vigilante was swinging away, but still lagged behind him.
–
Tony hovered behind Harley, switching comms to his private link with Peter.
“Kid, Falcon’s coming up on your left. Hawkeye’s watching from a rooftop at your six. Iron Lad and I aren’t far behind. If you play your cards right, you’ll be able to get away without being injured.”
“You sure they won’t find me, Mr. Stark? You do have two ex-assassins, two super soldiers, Iron man and Iron Junior, the falcon, and a magic user currently tailing me.”
He couldn’t believe this kid, questioning him now? But that was just what he always did, challenging and questioning his every order.
“Just do as I say and they won’t be able to get their grubby hands on you.” he grumbled with a huff, rolling his eyes.
“I can feel you rolling your eyes at me from here,” quipped Peter snarkily, webbing from a crane and shooting himself forward.
“Oh, web it shut. Take a harsh left.”
The vigilante immediately did as he was asked, swinging left with the speed of a rocket and turned onto a busy street.
In response to his quick escape, Tony switched his comms from Peter back to the Avengers. “I’ll take Underoos out with a relay of small rockets. Stand clear.”
As he said it, small rockets dispersed from his shoulders following the heat signature of Peter’s swinging body. He knew he could hear him with his superhuman hearing ability so he wasn’t worried about the kid getting hit. As long as he listened to that stupid sixth sense.
“Underoos?” Harley repeated curiously at Tony. He could sense the raised brow from where he was traveling ahead.
“Old nickname. He’s a kid like you. Gets a kiddy nickname.”
As expected, Spider-man dodges each rocket gracefully as he flips and swings through the streets of New York. His grace had increased only in the recent months of training with Daredevil. Before that, the vigilante was rather clumsy and reckless.
It didn’t take long for him to keep swinging around the busy city until he was completely out of sight, and no longer tailed by the group of heroes.
–
Peter landed on the window of the Avenger’s tower, silent and discreet as he pulled his mask off.
“Hey FRIDAY, open the window, please.”
The tall window mechanically pulls itself open, the glass frame pointing inside the lab. He hoisted himself into the room, the lights flickering on thanks to FRIDAY acknowledging his presence.
“Would you like the lights dimmed, Peter?” The AI inquired, her voice just a bit louder than earlier that day. He was still feeling the adrenaline from being chased just minutes before.
“Yes. Thanks, Fri.”
The lights dimmed slowly, adjusting to Peter’s preferred level of brightness. It cleared the pressure in his head and made it easier to think.
He stripped down, reaching for his backpack as he stepped out of the suit. Peter dressed quickly whilst getting rid of his web slingers at the same time, shoving his suit into his bag and zipping it shut.
He was decent just in time for Tony to walk into the lab… with Harley Keener in tow. “Oh, Mr. Stark! I’m sorry I stayed so long, I didn’t know when you’d be back.”
Peter exclaimed, hoping he was good enough at faking the ‘innocent, clueless intern’ act. It must’ve sold because his mentor smirked and gestured to Harley.
“No worries, kid. I didn’t think I’d be introducing you two today, but this ‘lad’ here is Harley Keener. Harley, introduce yourself.”
The other boy stumbled forward, not taking his eyes off of Peter. He was aware this same kid was Iron Lad, unfortunately no one ever told Peter that he was way more attractive in person.
“How’s it going? I’m Harley. Harley Keener.” He greeted, offering a hand for him to shake.
Peter smiled and took his hand, giving it a light shake. “It’s nice to officially meet you, Harley. I’m Peter Parker.”
“Peter Parker…” hummed Harley curiously as he took his hand back.
Tony cleared his throat quite loudly, the grin on his face rivaling the devil himself.
“It’s getting late, Pete. You’ve got lots on tomorrow, like school, for example. Better head home.” Peter glared at him and nodded.
“I’ll see you tomorrow, Mr. Stark!” He called over his shoulder as he grabbed his backpack and left, heading for the elevator.
He stepped inside, leaning against the backwall. “To my penthouse, Fri.” He huffed.
“Of course, Peter.” She replied, taking him down two floors.
-
Harley whirled around on Tony, sending him a look of disbelief. “You didn’t tell me your other intern was bloody attractive!”
Tony met his look with one of shared disbelief, raising a brow. “I’d be pretty concerned if I found a 17 year old attractive.”
“Well, yeah. But you should’ve warned me! I thought he wouldn’t be nice and friendly! Maybe then I’d feel less bad about sizing him up before I even met him!”
“I should’ve known you were sizing him up.” He muttered with an exasperated eyeroll. “You weren’t even supposed to meet him. It was entirely accidental that he still happened to be in the lab when we arrived back.”
Harley scoffed loudly, returning the eyeroll with one of his own. “Fine, fine. Don’t tell me more about that mystery intern, keep him all to yourself.”
The avenger shook his head with a fond sigh, placing a hand under his chin. He wondered if he could orchestrate a little matchmaking without Harley finding out Peter is Spider-man.