... uhhh cup.
The Avengers are in a meeting about their last mission, when Tony’s Personal Intern (PI) walks in nonchalantly, with a cup of coffee that Tony asked him to get half an hour ago, in his hands:
‘Here you go, sir, a nice hot cup of coffee.’ Peter says, handing the cup over to Tony.
‘It’s cold.’ Tony notes when taking it in his hands.
‘Nice cup of coffee.’ Peter corrects himself with a smile.
‘It tastes horrible.’
‘Cup of coffee.’
‘I’m not sure if this is even coffee.’
‘Cup.’ Peter offers, shrugging as Tony smirks and gives it back to him:
‘What took you so long to come anyway bud?’
‘Oh, bumped into a nosy paparazzi guy, sent him packing though.’ Peter answers with a shrug, emptying the cup into a nearby waste-bin, and then turning to the bemused Avengers:
‘Anyone else want something to drink?’
‘Depends, how long will it take you to get it to us?’ Clint asks, his eyebrows raised.
‘I’ll get it to you within the day!’ Peter declares proudly. Natasha smiles:
‘I’d like some tea then, please.’ she tells the boy, who nods and runs off down the hall. Slamming the door behind him loudly.
Fury sighs as he turns to Tony: ‘Why did you hire that guy?’
‘He’s smart.’
‘In what way exactly.’ Fury remarks with a huff, getting a glare from Natasha, which he pointedly ignores. ‘Now, your former employee, Quentin Beck: have you had any news of the guy yet?’
‘No, he has stayed quiet, though, knowing him, he’ll try something soon.’ Tony remarks, intertwining his fingers as Steve leans back thoughtfully:
‘Why wait for him, why not go looking for him ourselves?’ he offers, but Tony shakes his head:
‘He stole some of the BARF technology, he could warp reality with that and people could get seriously hurt.’
‘We’ll just wait the guy out.’ Nick Fury decides, ‘Make sure to inform your security guards about him: we don’t want them letting him himminy-pimminy.’
‘Happy knows.’ Tony informs the others, just as Peter walks in again, slightly out of breathe:
‘Sorry it took me so long: that paparazzi guy came back and started asking annoying questions so I did the logical thing and ran.’
Thor shook his head: ‘A warrior never runs away from a fight.’
‘Wait,’ Peter perks up: ‘Those this mean I’m allowed to punch him next time?’
‘NO!’ Pepper and Nat shout at the same time, both glaring at Thor. ‘You did the right thing by avoiding him, Peter.’ Pepper continues in a normal tone.
Peter smiles and walks over to Natasha, offering her her tea: ‘Nice cup of tea.’
She laughs as she looks into it, eliciting shocked expressions from everyone but Peter: Romanoff just laughed! ‘There’s nothing left!’ she chokes out, and Peter turns beet red.
‘Oh yeah, some of it might have spilled while running so, uhh… cup?’ Peter offers with a rueful grin, scratching the back of his head as Natasha chuckles some more and ruffles his hair.
‘Well,’ Peter announces, ‘I have to go, my time is up on this part of the planet.’ he adds dramatically, bowing like an actor as he scoots backwards towards the door, ‘Don’t forget me in my inattentiveness.’
‘That’s not even how you use the word!’ Fury grumbles, Peter sticks out his tongue at him, causing Nat to fall into another fit of giggles. Peter quickly runs out of the door.
***main lobby***
Peter whistles a happy tune as he walks into the main lobby of SI. He waves to the the front desk lady as he makes his way out of the revolving door, looking forward to another evening of Spider-manning.
He turns the corner and grumbles internally as he, once again, spots the paparazzi guy. ‘Hey man, seriously, you need to leave.’ Peter informs the reporter, or whatever the guy is. Cameraman maybe? Story collector?
The Cameraman – he strikes Peter as a cameraman, so until further notice, he will refer to him as such – smiles: ‘Yeah, you told me twice already.’ he notes. ‘Just seriously wanted to talk to Tony Stark, y’know? I wanted to ask him about the rumours of him taking Spiderman under his wings.’
Peter scoffs: ‘I can assure you that those rumours are incorrect.’ he notes, walking past the cameraman guy, who puts a hand on Peter’s shoulders. Peter’s spider-senses flare up significantly, but he shoves it off: he’s just nervous, that’s all.
‘Sorry, I should have introduced myself earlier. My name is Quentin Beck.’ the man offers, waiting for Peter to reciprocate.
Peter rolls his eyes internally, but decides to do the polite thing, sticking out his hand: ‘Peter Parker.’ he introduces himself. Beck grabs his hand, and Peter feels a needle prick his palm. He jerks his hand back, only now noticing the ring with a small needle attached to it on Beck’s middle finger. ‘What?’ he demands, stepping back.
Beck just smiles: ‘Tony needs to pay, Peter. And what better way by taking away his prized employee, or might I say kid. Heard the illegitimate kid theories yet? There’s a lot circulating the web you know.’
Peter open his mouth to scream, but finds that he can’t. He gasps as he tries to force any kind of noise through his mouth, but nothing comes.
Beck laughs: ‘Cool little trick huh, leaves the person who is injected with the serum speechless for a full week!’ Peter’s eyes widen as he hears this. Then, he does the thing Thor has told him not to do: he runs.
He was not about to actually face down some weird guy in the middle of public. No, he would face the guy in a deserted alley, where he could use all of his powers with no witnesses.
Peter speeds into the nearest alley, turning around to face Beck, who comes panting around the corner, his dumb grin still plastered on his face: ‘Your parents never teach you manners? It’s rude to run away from a conversation!’
Peter readies himself to fight, smirking to himself: this guy would not know what was heading his way. Only problem was, Peter didn’t know either. Peter had only recently become Spiderman he wasn’t used to his spider-sense yet. It was screaming at him, but Peter assumed it was because he was about to fight.
Ruefully he comes to the realisation that it was because of the tranq dart that has just been shot into his neck. Pain sears up harshly as the needle pricks in the back of his neck, and Peter stumbles, the drugs immediately starting to do their work. He stumbles forward, but falls, only catching himself with his hands just in time. His vision dances as he looks up at Beck, who advances on him with a wicked smile: ‘Sweet dreams.’ the man says with a smirk, then kicks Peter full on in the face, immediately knocking him out.
***
The meeting had been adjourned half an hour ago and everyone who had been present, were currently enjoying a hearty dinner in the living room.
Tony's phone rang and he grumbled, determined to let it go to voicemail, until FRIDAY informed hm that it was Peter. Nat immediately paused the movie they were watching and everyone stopped their bickering, waiting for Tony to pick up the phone:
'Hey kiddo, what's up?' Tony said, picking up the phone.
A gravelly voice came from the other end: 'Well, right now he's okay, as okay as someone with a concussion can be.'
Tony gasped: he knew that voice. Nat grabbed a nearby knife and silmultaneously started tracking the call.
'Beck.' Tony hissed.
Beck laughed: 'Still recognise my voice do you Tony?' he chuckled.
'What do you want? Money? I'll give it to you!' Tony stated quickly, his hand brushing over his temples in anguish.
'I want you to suffer. I want you to feel the hurt I did: losing that which you hold most dear. I held BARF, as you unceremoniously called it, very dear. You hold your PI very dear.'
'Are you seriously comparing Peter to a computer program?!' Tony hissed angrily, his eyes ablaze.
Beck chuckled: 'Both are a means to an end: money. We all know you only hired him for your PR rep.' he told Tony, who turned red in anger, 'In one hour you'll get a video. You get a front row seat to your PI's death. Till then, Stark.' A click sounded as Beck hung up the phone.
Tony turned to Nat: 'Please tell me...' he started, his eyes pleading, but Nat cut him off:
'I have the location, let's go.'
***30 minutes later***
The Avengers crouched outside an abandoned warehouse. Tony spoke up: 'FRIDAY can see ten heat signatures in one room underground.'
'Roger that.' Steve answered, 'Everyone move in.'
'Roger that Rogers.' Clint spoke, eliciting a giggle from Nat and Tony.
Steve rushed forward, striking down the door in one hit. 'You know it wasn't even locked right?' Clint mentioned, trying to lighten the mood by joking: a nervous habit of his.
The Avengers rushed down the staircase to the lower level, kicking down the door and were met with as sight they had never dreamed of. There was Quentin Beck, unconscious against the far wall. Sprawled around him were 8 of his henchmen, all unconscious, and, sitting casually on a chair, sat Peter, eating cereal.
'Hi guys!' he called over casually, 'Anyone want some cereal?'
Tony just gaped and Nat pointed an accusatory finger: 'I knew it!' she cried out, confusing everyone except Clint and Bucky, who also had had their suspicions.
Peter smiled: 'I know you did: those suspicious looks were very funny.' he added with a grin, hopping off of the chair as Tony rushed forward, being pulled from his stunend silence, engulfing the kid in a hug, then held him at arms' length:
'You okay, kiddo? Are you hurt? Injured?'
Peter shook his head: 'Nah, I'm good: they stood no match against me!'
'But how...?' Sam wondered out loud.
Peter smiled up at him and winked: 'I have my ways.' he answered cryptically as Nat just grinned, then turned serious:
'Okay, so now that we know for sure: you will be training with me to get better at hand to hand combat. You're already good, but you could become better.'
Peter shrugged and grinned: 'Not gonna argue on that, I'd love to!'
'What on earth is going on?!' Tony demanded, turning from the 3 superspies to his PI, who were all grinning wildly and Bucky spoke up:
'Aren't you supposed to be, like the smartest person on this earth?'
'Uh...'
Peter grinend from ear to ear: 'Mr Stark, don't freak out.'
Tony started breathing loudly and freaking out.
Peter shot a web from his wrist, pinning Thor's hammer to a nearby wall. Tony gaped. Thor grumbled. Nat, Clint and Bucky laughed. Peter grinned and Sam stared. Nat made FRIDAY secretely take a picture of everyone's expressions.
And if that picture appeared on the avengers fridge a week later, no one commented on it, even after it was pulled down several times, another one always appeared, until Tony, Sam and Steve gave up trying to remove it, and came to turns with their fate.