And they nicknamed her "The Bolter"
The idea of fighting alongside the Avengers was so cool. It was every kid’s dream, and Peter was no different. Which is why, when Spider-Man was nearby during a battle, Peter couldn’t help himself from joining.
His plan was simple. Help some civilians, then get out of there. Mr. Stark would be at his neck if Peter truly got into harm’s way, and being grounded from patrolling for a week wasn’t an enticing idea.
Mr. Stark wouldn’t even know he was here!
However, Parker Luck struck again, just as he was precariously moving part of a broken fountain away from civilians.
Out of what seemed like nowhere Iron Man’s voice was speaking to him through his mask.
“I'm going to give you a minute to think long and hard and then answer my questions… What the fuck are you doing here, in this very dangerous battle? And what happened to being ‘a friendly, neighbourhood Spider-Man?’” His voice sounded short and snappy, but Peter knew it was just because he was worried about the teenager and preoccupied with the robots currently trying to destroy New York City.
“Well, I was in the area, and the civilians count on me for keeping them safe, so I thought I’d lend a helping hand. It’s really no probl-oh shit-“ and that was the moment Peter, lost in his talking, didn’t realize a seemingly blind civilian had run into the path of the very dangerous and sharp piping/concrete of the fountain Peter was currently throwing around. (What? It was faster to throw than picking it up and walking over there to set it in the pile.)
“Watch your language, Spidey, you’re too young to be talking like that.”
“Hey! Don’t run over there! God, does no one heed warnings these days? Sorry for swearing, Mr. Stark! Also, sorry again, but I’m going to have to get back to you. Karen, disconnect the call.”
“What? No, Pet-“
“Call disconnected. Although it seems that Mr. Stark is trying to call you again, and may forc-“
“Yeah, yeah, thank you, Karen, but I’m kind of busy so unfortunately Mr. Stark needs to take a back seat for a minute.”
Peter shot a web to a nearby light pole, and swung himself over, barely making it in time to stop the person from getting stabbed by a large amount of debris. Who left this poor person alone? That was just so cruel.
“Hello, what’s your name? My name is Spider-Man, and I’m gonna make sure you don’t get hurt! You’re kinda in the middle of a big Avengers battle right now, and I assume you don’t want to be.”
“The name’s Stan. Now get me out of here, Spider-Boy.” The man had dark sunglasses, a cane, and looked to be at least 80 years old. What was he doing in this park by himself if he could hardly walk? Peter had no idea.
Slowly, the duo made their way through the chaos and towards safety. It wasn’t until Peter had safely deposited the civilian with a group of other people and was running back onto the battlefield that a robot got close to him.
Peter’s Spidey Sense went off and he ducked just in time to avoid a chunk of building a robot threw at him. He hadn’t really gotten a good look at the robots beforehand, but now he was almost glad he hadn’t. They were an ugly mess of wires and metal, clearly a job done shoddily with minimum experience and limited time. The mechanic in him wanted to cry, but the superhero in him wanted to cheer. The lack of expertise meant an easy battle. The robots were stuck walking, for crying out loud. There didn’t seem to be any way for them to climb and/or fly. Worse comes to worst, Peter could just swing out of there!
See? Easy peasy.
Well, it should've been an easy fight. It was just his luck that out of nowhere five more robots joined their friend. Peter quickly looked around for backup, only to realize everyone else was preoccupied, which meant he was on his own. And that was fine! He could handle himself against six measly robots.
Peter was somewhat aware of Karen saying something about Mr. Stark and force and call, but he didn’t really pay attention. There were bigger fish to fry than Mr. Stark being upset at a missed call.
As quickly as possible, Peter began webbing up the joints of the robots, making it virtually impossible for the robots’ joints to bend/straighten depending on how they got stuck. After rendering each robot useless, Peter webbed them together and hung them up on a light pole to become one ugly looking piñata. Satisfied with his work, Peter began walking away, just in time to hear his webbing being cut through, and the unpleasant piñata began falling above him.
In the back of his mind he wondered what the hell managed to cut through his insanely strong webs, but he was too preoccupied with other things to really care.
His Spidey Sense screamed at him, but even his inhuman speed couldn’t save himself from being crushed by the robots.
Realistically, Peter knew that the robots were more likely to start baking a cake than escape his webs, but unfortunately the possibility of the robots escaping wasn't the thing he was panicking about. The thing Peter was panicking about was the fact that his lower half was stuck under the robots.
With an anxiety raddled brain, his super strength seemed to have left him and he was no match for the weight holding down his legs. The rational part of his brain told Peter to stop being stupid and lift the darn robots, but it wasn’t his rational thoughts that were the loudest.
Toomes is going to find you here. He’s gonna kill you, “Peter.”
“No, no. Please.”
What were you thinking? “Spider-Man, you gotta” be better. There’s a reason you were left to die. There’s a reason Stark took the suit.
“No! Vulture, I can’t-I can’t die, please.”
“Can you hear-“ that? Exactly, no one is coming to save you.
“It hurts, please. Not again.”
You’re just a “kid, how are you” ever going to prove yourself? You’re nothing without the suit.
“I-I can’t. I’m sorry but please it just hurts so much, I don’t wanna die.”
“Peter!”
As though Peter had been splashed with water, Tony’s voice suddenly shook out the voice in his head. “Mr. Stark? When did you get past Karen?”
”Welcome to the land of the living. I’ve been talking to you for five minutes now. Wanna tell me who this ‘Vulture’ guy is? ‘Cause I feel like I’ve heard the name before, but I can’t really place it.” Peter looked up and saw Tony flying above him, then looking down at Peter’s situation.
Well… shit.
“Uh, just a guy I fought. It’s fine.”
“You were begging for your life, I’m not sure that counts as ‘fine.’ Besides, the battle’s over. I’ve been calling you to try and ask you where you’re at. FRIDAY was down for maintenance before the fight and wasn’t able to get everything online, including the exact location of your suit tracker.”
Peter sighed a breath of relief at having Tony near him.
“Uh, yeah, just, um-could you, uh, take the robot piñata off?” He felt his face grow hot, knowing he’s lifted at least 20 times as much weight in front of Tony, let alone on his own.
“Pete…I know for a fact you can lift that. What’s going on?” Even as he said it, he began moving the robots. Tony’s face mask lifted, and Peter could see the concern on his face.
When his legs were free, he shakily breathed in and had to choke back a sob.
He wasn’t even crying before, what the hell?
“Can we talk about it back at the tower? Pretty please?”
It was clear Tony wanted to argue, but with a sigh he agreed. “We will be talking about this.”
“Yeah, yeah, thanks.”
The silence on the way back was deafening.
While Peter knew that this conversation was inevitable, he couldn’t help but desperately want to avoid it. He could think of like, a million and one better things to do then talk about his…mild trauma. Peter could be talking about Star Wars, or nucleic acids, or quantum mechanics, or literally anything else on the planet. (Except maybe airplanes. He liked avoiding that topic.)
That’s why when it came time for a mission debrief, Peter practically sprinted to the board room. If the others noticed him being unusually eager about it, no one said anything. The thing was, he was usually the last to get to the debrief, getting pulled by the back of his suit by Tony. It was just so boring. Peter could be tinkering in the lab, but no he had to talk about the newest baddie of the week at a stupid meeting. He knew that these meetings were important for future battle strategies, but it didn’t change the fact that it seemed to drag on and on.
Most of this debrief he zoned out, giving his perspective on what happened and then keeping quiet. Peter had much bigger fish to fry. (Read: Tony Stark wanting to talk about feelings after the debrief.) It was nice that Tony really took on this whole mentor thing, but Peter was beginning to miss the days where he could easily lie and escape his problems. Well, until he woke up screaming but that was truly besides the point.
At one point during the meeting Tony locked eyes with him and gave him a look that said “don’t think I forgot about what we’re talking about later.” And well, that really wouldn’t do. Peter then decided to avoid eye contact with Tony the rest of the time, even though he could feel his mentor staring at him.
The ending of the mission debrief came too soon and not soon enough. The minute Captain America called the meeting to a close, Peter was up and running towards the nearest window.
“Hey guys, great mission—truly astonishing work out there on the field. Unfortunately, I gotta run; prior commitments and all that. So, yeah. Bye! Sorry I couldn’t stay and chat!” With that he asked FRIDAY to open the window and jumped out, beginning to swing through the city.
It took less than a minute for Karen to tell him about a text message from Tony.
Sighing, he sat on the edge of the nearest building.
Obi-Wan: Kid, that wasn’t quite talking back at the tower, FYI.
Anakin (but not evil): well you see Mr. Stark, i said we’d talk back at the tower, but not necessarily like RIGHT when we got back, so now i actually have whenever!!!! and anyway i DO have to be home for dinner soon sooooo
Obi-Wan:Have you ever been told you’d be a good lawyer? Don’t go into it ‘cause the STEM world needs you, but you could be good. Either way, this conversation isn’t over, and I hope you know that. Letting this trouble only you is bad enough, but it can get in the way of safety on the field. Just know I’m only letting you go because Aunt Hottie scares me.
Anakin (but not evil): yep totally we will talk about it yep
If Peter had anything to say about it, this conversation was 100% over.
Standing up once more, Peter finally swung all the way home.