The Scaly Green Freak
See https://www.wattpad.com/1527426052-avengers-oneshots-the-scaly-green-freak to see the picture
The Source of the idea:I found the above picture on Pinterest it is like a comic thingamajig (idk how you call these things)
Canon Compliancy: Civil War has happened, but everyone is buddies now again, except for Steve and Peter, because Steve seems to hate the aforementioned. Don't worry: they sort it out in the end.
Set: After Civil war, before Infinity war, but after Spider-Man: Homecoming
The Ships one should be aware of for this oneshot: Clintasha
Short Summary to catch your attention, or so that you can -as I do often- skip this oneshot to the next because the idea of it bores you: The Avengers go on a mission with Peter for the first time, searching for a fabled Swamp Monster. Not believing the Swamp Monster part but believing that people are in fact going missing, the Avengers fly to the swamp and split up in three teams to find the killer/Swamp Monster. Naturally, since this is me who is writing this, chaos ensues.
Includes but is not limited to: Hurt Peter Parker, Protective Irondad, Spiderson, A fed up Steve who just wants Peter and Tony to act like adults, a stressed Tony, an angry Steve and a mental attack from a monster :) Cool amiright?!
Trigger Warning(s): mentions of a serial killer (there never is one but y'know), mentions of a monster, self-blaming and an attack of the mental which is described quite scarily and freaks people in the story out. If you are sensitive to any of these things, maybe consider skipping to my next oneshot
Amount of Words in the story: 3523
(The actual Story LOL)
Peter was the most exited he might have ever been in his entire life: he was going on a mission with the Avengers!
After turning down Tony's initial Invitation to join the Avengers' Team, Peter had continued fighting as your friendly neighbourhood Spiderman. That was until Natasha, Clint, Sam and Bucky decided to kidnap him out of boredom. He was forced to participate in a movie night with them, and that was that. He was now deemed an Avenger, whether Peter admitted it or not.
And for the first time in forever, (lol I can't help myself guyz), he was going on a mission with them. There had been rumours about a swamp monster in Southern Louisiana. (idk I just googled states with large swamps :) Don't hate me Lousianians! Okay, after calling y'all Lousianians ur allowed to prob hate me now hihi) Even though none of the Avengers took these rumours seriously, they went out to check it anyway. Simply because they were bored, and the fact remained that people were disappearing in the swamp, and never returning.
Be it the Swamp Monster or a random serial killer: it was worth looking into.
Peter bobbed up and down in his eat on the Quinjet in excitement as the swamp came into view. Across from him Natasha was smirking at his behaviour, saying stuff to Clint and Bucky in Russian, making both of the men giggle at what she was saying.
Peter felt like rolling his eyes at whatever she had said, but why should he? He was in such a good mood!
'Okay everyone!' Steve announced, standing up, 'Listen up, pay attention and stop hacking into government databases.'
'I wasn't even doing that?!' Peter exclaimed in an annoyed tone.
'I was talking to Tony,' Steve clarified, 'Wait, you do that as well?!'
Peter smiled cheekily: 'Who do you think he learned it from Mr America?' he questioned, eliciting a laugh from Sam, who was sitting next to him.
Steve rolled his eyes and glared at Tony, who guilty put away the laptop he had been using to try to hack into SHIELD. 'The password's Jabberwhocky3000.' Peter told him helpfully, making Nat and Clint choke out surprised laughs and making Steve glare at him:
'Might I remind everyone: hacking into SHIELD is illegal and should not be done.' he announced, then cleared his throat: 'Okay: the plan is simple: we go off into groups of three, staying in contact every 10 minutes. The groups are as follows:
Clint, Natasha and Bucky;
Sam, Wanda and Thor;
Tony, Peter and myself.
Bruce will stay here to patch up anyone who decides they want to die at the hands of a swamp monster and Stephen will fly over it to see if he can spot anything.'
Tony chuckled besides Peter: 'He once told us that if we were killed ,we should walk it off.' he told him silently, but loud enough for Steve to hear, who rolled his eyes:
'Dude, it was mid-battle, I wasn't paying that much attention to my speech, okay?'
'Whatever you say, Capsicle.' Tony responded, leaning back in his chair.
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(Peter POV)
The team had struck ground 5 minutes after Steve had given the orders. An hour later, Steve, Tony and Peter were still traipsing through the swamp with no sign of life except for the insistant hordes of misquitos and the occasional frog or toad.
Peter was beginning to get bored when his comn-link crackled and Clint's voice came over it: 'All clear for now on our side.'
Wanda's voice came on the comns as well: 'Same here.'
'Ditto.' I responded quickly, before Steve got the chance to - just because I knew it would annoy him. I flashed him a grin as he scowled.
I knew it was a dumb idea to make jokes at Steve, what with him disliking me and all, but I couldn't help it: this was me and he just had to deal with it. I don't know why he hated me so much, he just did, and whatever I tried to do to win his heart over - crack jokes, pull pranks on Tony and talk about old people stuff- je just continued hating me. I guessed we would forever be stuck like this, but, at least the other Avengers liked me and viewed me as one of their own.
Steve spoke up into the comns: 'Yeah, so everything's clear here...' he started, soon cut off by Nat:
'Ooh, did the spider-baby beat you to telling us the all clear?' she taunted, 'Is someone upswet?' she added in a baby tone, making Steve grumble even more and Tony snicker. I wisely decided to keep my face straight, eliciting a questioning look from Tony.
'Natasha, no he did not, I gave him the clear to do so.' Steve answered curtly, once again about to continue talking.
'For everyone's information,' Tony spoke over the comns: 'Steve did not. Spidey did actually beat him to it, and he seems none to happy about it. Also he doesn't need permission to talk on the comns Steve.' he added aside to Steve, who just rolled his eyes.
'Everyone, listen up: we have a mission, I suggest we focus on it.' Steve stated grumpily.
'Oh my goodness gramps, lighten up!' Bucky spoke through the comns: 'You've been hella grumpy for months now: would it hurt to smile a bit.'
Steve just groaned, deciding to ignore Bucky: 'Carefully continue to search for the perpetrator: we don't know what he is capable of.' Steve said, droning on into one of his monologues as I zoned out: I had heard them so many times I could already guess how they were going to end: yada, yada, yada, do good work, we are heroes, the world is counting on us, blah,blah,blah.
If it had been Tony or anyone else for that matter, I might have actually payed attention: I respected them. Steve however did nothing but disrespect him, so why would I listen to his yabbering?
The others seemed to think the same about it as I heard them grown and grumble over the comns. I heard Clint and Natasha starting to whisper about a movie they had watched the other day. Only being able to hear that conversation because of my superhearing.
Suddenly, I heard footsteps, I quickly pressed my comns: 'Hey guys, are any of your teams moving?'
'Nope.' Clint replied, sighing as he had to stop talking about some broadway show he had bought tickets to for Nat and him.
'Us neither.' Thor boomed into his comns.
'Peter, I was talking.' Steve said into the comns, his mouth a thin line, Tony however picked up on what was happening:
'Everyone turn to open comns.' he demanded quickly, grabbing everyone's attention, then he turned to me: 'Did you hear something? Your senses go off? The ones for danger y'know, Spider-thingy?'
'Spidersense. And no: I hear someone walking.' I answered softly, glancing around as I tried to pinpoint the sound.
'I don't hear anything.' Steve said, doubt written all over his face, 'Where do you hear it from?'
'I don't know...' I answered, looking around more and more as the footsteps grew louder and louder, whoever it was had to be pretty closeby. 'But they're really close: you guys should be able to hear them.'
Steve scoffed: 'It's probably in your imagination son.' he stated, about to command the teams to go off of open comns.
Tony however, had other plans: 'Everyone please come to our coordinates, I already sent them to each of you.' Affirmitaves and positives came over the coms as the two other teams sped off to meet with ours.
'Tony,' Steve hissed, trying to not let his voice go over the open comns or travel to me: 'That's not neccesary, the child is paranoid: he's imagining things.'
Tony huffed: 'Rogers, if there is one thing I have learned in my life, it is to always, and I repeat always trust Peter Parker's instincts and always trust him when he says something is going on. Last time I didn't trust him and told him he was imagining things: a building fell on top of him because he was protecting my company!'
'Okay, so you feel guilty Tony, I get it, but you have to admit that it is pretty stupid that...' Steve started, but I cut him off:
'He's right there, Mr Stark. He's right there.' I said, pointing in front of me, the huge monster bearing down on us. Note to self: the Swamp Monster existed, and he was indeed a monster, not a serial killer.
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(Steve POV)
To say that I felt guilty, was to make the biggest understatement in my entire life. I didn't hate Peter, heck: I loved the kid. He was always so full of energy, joking about whenever he could, but serious when the moment called for it. Yet, I pushed him away as much I possibly could.
Why?
Because I was a horrible, horrible person. No: I didn't regret I did during the now-so-called Civil War. What I did however regret, was fighting the kid. I had thrown a container on him. A container! I could have killed him! I then proceded to have a casual conversation with him about from where he was.
All while he was holding up a container. I was talking to a 15-year-old kid holding up a container, thinking he was at least 25. I had thrown a container on him and at some point he had been smashed so hard into the ground, I was sure he might've died.
I fought a 15-year-old, and I would never forgive myself for that. Which is why I always pushed him away: I knew he was only being kind to me as a formality, he didn't actually like me. I didn't blame him, since well, y'know, I fought with him. So I kept my distance: why would I befriend someone who 100 % hated me for what I did?
So when Peter claimed to hear something, and I didn't. I assumed he was pranking me. I assumed he wanted to get back at me for being such a horrible person. I knew I deserved it, but jeopardizing the mission over it was another thing. I tried to tell Tony to stop calling the others: I made up a lie and told him the kid was paranoid. The least I oculd do for the kid was not tell the truth and tell the others he was pranking me. But then he took it so far that even I started to doubt my own thoughts, my own sanity.
'He's right there, Mr Stark. He's right there.' he said, his breath hitching as he pointed... at nothing. There was nothing there.
I rolled my eyes: 'There's nothing there child, stop it.'
Peter turned to me, his skin a sicky shade of green, he just whispered softly: 'He's right there.'
Just then, Stephen landed next to us, his face pale, he slowly turned to Tony and I: 'Step back right this instant.' he ordered, making us both backstep out of shock.
'Stephen,' I said, collecting myself, 'There's nothing there!'
Suddenly, out of the woods, the rest appeared: Bucky, Nat, Clint, Sam, Thor and Wanda all out of breath from running. Wanda looked up and paled: 'Oh.' was all she said. Peter just chuckled:
'Yep, this sure isn't going to haunt our nightmares.' he said with a forced grin, turning to Wanda, whom was now gripping Thor's hand, trying to ground herself. Thor however, seemed to be in much need as grounding as her, as his face -was that even possible?- had also paled:
'Soooo, why is he just standing there?' Thor asked softly, contrary to his usual booming voice.
'Don't know.' Peter replied softly, slowly edging away, but then stopping with a yelp as Stephen, Wanda and Thor, silmulataneously gasped.
'Peter,' Stephen breathed, 'Whatever you do: do not move.'
'Working on it.' Peter squeeked softly, his eyes wide as saucers as he stared up at nothing.
'This is getting slightly weird.' Tony noted next to me, there's nothing there.
Stephen turned to us, his hands quickly moving, casting a spell over us.
'Hey!' Clint whined, 'Ask a guy for permission next time before you....' he trailed off as he paled, staring at Peter. I slowly turned my head to see what apparently everyone else could see. And wow, did I wish I didn't see that.
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(Tony POV)
I think there is nothing more frightening than seeing your kid face to face with a monster. For that was what we were looking at:
It was green and had scales like fish. It stood like a man. Had limbs like a man but was faceless. No eyes,no ears, no nose, no mouth, no nothing. Just a voidless expanse of green scaly slippery skin. What frightened me the most however, were its hands: for right now they were gripping Peter tightly by the shoulders.
'Stephen, what do we do.' I whispered towards the wizard.
'I don't know,' he whispered back, 'Just make sure you don't move Peter.'
'Right, cool cool cool cool cool cool cool.' Peter breathed, the most stressed I had ever seen him, 'Please know soon though: I am very uncomfortable here.' (Please tell me at least one of y'all got that refference)
'Working on it.' Stephen mumbled, then started chanting in an ancient language, golden mist surrounding his fingers. He quickly turned to Wanda, asking for her help with his eyes, as her red mist intertwined with his, creating a glowing orange light.
'Ready?' Stephen asked in a strained tone, turning to Wanda. Who nodded. 'On three. One, two, three!' he shouted, moving his hands in front of him at blinding speed, aided by Wanda, throwing their spell at the hideous monster, who recoiled in shock, leting Peter go, who scampered towards Tony quickly.
Cap ran forward, only fury in his eyes as he raised his shield and plunged it at the monster, beating him in the chest with it. Crying out a word with every punch of his shield, his other fist, a kick from his legs: 'You.Scaly.Green.Freak!You.Messed.With.The.Wrong.Family!' he cried out, anger seeping out through his words.
The monster roared and slashes Steve to the side, making him colide with a tree. Anger overtook me as I surged forward, my repulsors firing at the monster. Stephen, meanwhile, was forming a new spell together with Wanda, calling for us to keep it busy. Which we did.
(3rd Person POV bcs I can lol)
Sam rushed forward, a knife in his hand -one Natasha had let him borrow. The assasin in question was already delivering a round-house kick to the freaks face as Clint shot explosive arrow after explosive arrow onto it's skin. Peter swung through the trees, webbing the monster up as much as he could, blinding and gagging him whenever possible. Thor was busy hammering in the monster's head with his hammer and Bucky was shooting lasers from his iron arm - a feature Peter had added, much to everyone's dismay, not counting Bucky or himself, who both found the new feature awesome.
The monster however, seemed undefeatable as he struck down attacker after attacker, finally pulling Peter down by one of the webs he had shot at the brute's head. Peter landed with a loud groan on the ground, the wind temporarily knocked out of him, which was when the monster struck, shooting forward, pressing his scaly fingers to Peter's forehead.
Then, he was gone, one moment there ,the next crumbeling into sickly green dust all around Peter. Peter, who wasn't moving.
(Tony POV)
I saw Peter fall to the ground. I saw the monster press his fingers against Peter's forehead and then become dust.
I rushed forward, scooping the boy up. He was breathing. Thank goodness he was breathing. His heart was going as well at its normal rate. He was okay.
But he wasn't. His eyes were wide open as he stared at me: 'Peter, can you hear me?!' I demanded to know, getting no response from the boy. Strange rushed forward with Wanda, both kneeling down next to Peter.
Stephen paled significantly as he tentavily pressed his fingers to Peter's head: 'Peter, can you hear me?' he asked slowly, his voice soft but deep and I was pretty sure he put some magic into it as well. Peter slowly turned his head towards him:
'Yes.' he rasped.
'What do you see?' Strange asked, in the same kind of tone, pressing his fingers more firmly onto Peter's temples. What on earth was going on?! What was wrong with Peter.
'I see them, Mr Strange Sir. I see them.' he whispered softly, his eyes shining out happiness as Stephen gasped:
'No, no, Peter, don't go towards them, come on, focus on my voice okay? Stay with my voice.'
'I hear voices.' Peter confirmed murmering softly to himself, his eylids fluttered, then closed.
'Peter! Peter keep your eyes open! Focus on me!' I cried loudly, shaking the boy's shoulders roughly. But no answer came. No heartbeat was heard. No breath was taken in. All I could hear in the cool still air were the sounds of Steve's sobs and of mine: he was gone, he was really gone?!
(216 hours later, Peter POV)
I woke up slowly to the infuriating noise of monitors beeping around me. I fervently kept my eyes shut as the bright light was already filtering through them, making my eyes water at the prospect of even opening them.
I instead listened, and heard two people talking in the room in which I was: 'But I don't understand Rogers,' I heard Nat's annoyed voice, 'why won't you sit guard with the kid? Everyone else does it as well?!'
I cringed internally: they had been sitting watch over me, but Cap didn't want to, because he hated me, which was why the next few words shocked me even more:
'Because he hates me, Nat! He hates me! I know he acts liek he cares about me and stuff, but I threw a freaking container on him. He got slammed around a lot because of me. He hates me. Imagine him waking up and the first thing he sees is my face. Heck, he'll go into cardiac arrest out of shock and fear. He's proabably mortally afraid I'll throw another container on him!' Steve cried out.
'So that's why you keep pushing him way, Steve?' Nat's voice asked, drifting over to my bed.
'Well yeah... I don't want him to have to hang out with someone he doesn't care about.' Steve huffed angrily.
'So you care about him.' the bemused voice of Nat now came.
'Of course I do: the kid's a complete idiotic loveable genius!' Steve cried out.
'And,' Nat asked, her tone even more amused, 'Did you ever consider asking him whether he actually hates you or that you made that up in your mind?'
'Well... I... Well, naturally...I' Steve sputtered.
'So the answer is no.' Natasha said, walking over to the bed on which I was lying, 'FRIDAY, dim the lights please.' Natasha spoke to the ceiling, then turned back to the bed: 'So mister Parker, do you hate him?'
I opened one of my eyes: 'How kind of you to consider ask me, Miss Romanoff. The answer is of course not you flipping idiot!' I exclaimed, for the last part turning to Steve with a grin, who just turned beet red. I giggled lightheartedly as Steve's eyes watered up and Natasha laughed outright:
'I'm going to notify the rest that Sleeping Beauty is up.' she called cheerily as she walked out of the medbay room we were.
I grinned up at Steve: 'Are you going to stop acting like a 5-year-old now and actually give me a hug?' I whined, pouring some puppy-dog magic effect into my eyes, making Steve laugh and cry at the same time as he engulfed me in a hug:
'I'm so sorry.' he whispered into my ear as he continued to hug me. I laughed:
'It's fine.'
'For the record: you're the five year old for ordering me to give a hug.' Steve moped. I just laughed: finally, all of the Avengers and I were family, which is all I really wanted to have in the end.
A/N: 3526 words, yay! Anyway: I had this planned out but it didn't come up in the story so here is an explanation:
The monster was a mindless drone-assassin sent to kill people by making telepathic contact. Only the person they were sent to kill and magically minded people could see them. He killed the other people to get Peter to come to the swamp, where the monster fought the best.
Stephen managed to bring Peter back to life using magic. Bcs with magic, anything is possible lol. Anyway, sorry for not including this in the story: it was getting a bit too long to add all of that lol.