Iron Call

“Incoming call from President Ellis” Karen, his personal AI blared. Karen usually didn’t read out loud unless asked to, or if it was something really important. Why was the president calling him?! He didn’t even know how Ellis got his number. It must be something really important, perhaps something Spider-Man related?

Oh no. Spider-Man stuff! In school. Maybe Mr. Harrington will let him answer it outside, because it’s the President of America?

“Oh fuck,” he breathed. Peter slowly raised a questioning eye at Mr. Harrington, silently pleading he would be able to take the call outside. “Mr. Harrington? May I take this outside please? This is super confidential.” Peter paused, looking expectantly at Mr. Harrington for an answer. However, he stared back blankly, seemingly in shock.

Mr. Harrington opened and closed his mouth a few times, looking sick. Maybe even a little green in the face.

Suddenly, the call picked up by itself, likely because of Karen. Besideswho was Peter to hang up on the president? The president's office blared to life on a hologram projector, letting the entire class see that it was, in fact, the President of the United States.

“Mr. Parker! We’re having a crisis, and we need your extraskills. You are the only avenger available right now; the rest are off planet or on missions. You are to be here by 6:00 this evening.”

They had met once before, when Peter was accompanying Tony at the White House. There had been an assassination attempt, and both Peter and Tony jumped in the way. Peter had pulled out his web shooters during the rescue, and Ellis had seen everything. He was one of the three people who knew his secret identity, but if he didn’t shut up, his class would quickly be added to that list.

Someone behind him snickered, “What, his skills as a male escort?”

Ignoring the comment behind him, he kept his eyes on Ellis. “ Mr. President, as I explained before, I am not an avenger, sir. I uh- am in class right now, so if you could please not expose any of my secrets, that would be really awesome?” Peter said. He hadn’t meant it to come out a question, but sue him, he felt a little awkward asking anything of Ellis.

“Oh goodness! Thank Thor I didn’t spill more secrets this time. You know what a nightmare that was last time.” Ellis said, his tone cheerful as ever.

‘Oh thank god’ Peter thought. He was glad that he hadn’t offended the president by correcting him.

“Oh Peter, you’re not an avenger? You certainly act like one. Tony said you were his favorite avenger?” President Ellis said, rather confused.

“Wait he really said that? That’s awesome!” Peter exclaimed, shocked by Tony’s words. Did he really think of him as his favorite?

Wait, favorite avenger? Was he an avenger? Where did he miss that tiny detail?

“Oh wait. Emergency. What’s the threat?” Peter questioned, forgetting all about ‘not spilling secrets.’

“Level 5 crisis. Our space force has already been breached. The sooner you can get here the better. our men are not physically strong enough to take them down, and most of our firepower seems to make them stronger. This may be an old fashioned fight, without the use of technology. Can I count on you?” President Ellis said, voice transitioning into ‘official mode.’

“Yes Mr. President Ellis sir!” Peter said, thrilled at the idea of getting some real, actual action. These last few weeks, besides the Mysterio, had been painfully slow. And plus, fighting aliens? For the president? So cool.

“Thank you Peter. I will see you at 6:00 pm.”

“I can be there sooner than that. Permission to ditch class to save the world, Mr. President sir?” Peter questioned. If he could get the president to sign off on letting him skip school, there’s no way the principal wouldn’t let him leave. Especially not when talking about a letter as big as a level 5 crisis.

“I appreciate it. Call me Mathew, Peter. You already saved my life once, I think we’re at the point of first names. And I think the end of the world is a plenty good excuse to miss school.” Ellis said, speaking through a smile.

“Oh wow. It’s an honor, Mathew, sir!” Peter squeaked, rubbing his palms together nervously. He was on first name basis with the president. He was on first name basis with the president?!

Ellis just nodded, flicked his hand to the side, and the projection ended.

Peter sighed, setting his phone down and muting his phone, so it wouldn’t ring again. Level 5 crisis? What if he wasn’t enough to handle it? What if he failed the world, and then aliens took over and made all the people do their bidding? What if he was gonna fight a Darth Vader-like enemy? His worries crashed together in his mind, and a headache threatened to form.

‘Oh god. No pressure, just have to save the world. By myself. I can do it, no problem.’ Peter thought, despite the fact that his lunch was definitely trying to come back up. His stomach twisted into knots, and it made his hair stand on end. Peter Tingle.

What was happening?

Time seemed to slow down. He whirled his head around, determined to find the source. He couldn’t tell if the sense was coming from the evening he had ahead, or a threat in here with him. He wishes it was a little bit more specific, because sometimes he would panic over the danger of a flying water bottle.

In the back of his mind, his class came back into focus.

In the back of his mind, he realized that it was a bad situation.

In the back of his mind, he knew the risk of pulling Spider-Man into the classroom.

But, Peter was too focused on finding the source of danger. His ears began to ring, and his chest tightened. His vision came into sharper focus, everything so sharp it hurt. His body screamed at him to duck to the left. He duck and rolled to the left, and he heard glass shatter. His hand flew up of its own accord, and caught the launched object in his hand.

After a short moment, he stood back up and observed the offending object in hand. He paused, when he realized that his big danger was a stupid baseball. It probably went through the window during practice. ‘Thanks Peter Tingle. Couldn’t have warned me that it was just a baseball?’ Peter thought miserably. He had made a big deal of nothing.

He spun on his heel to face the class, and yet again, their mouths were on the floor.

Ned, however, was shaking his fit and shouting “Yes! Yes! That was awesome Peter!” Ned grinned reassuringly, looking at Peter with awe.

Peter quickly mocked his classmates' expressions, jaw on the floor. They had seen, and heard, all of that! They had just watched him get on call with President Ellis! They had heard he was a sort of honorary avenger! His identity! Oh god. This was bad. He was going to have to call Tony, and get him to bring some NDA’s. He was going to be so pissed! What if he took the suit away again because he couldn’t preserve something so simple as his identity!

“How did you do that.” Betty asked, but her tone didn’t make it seem much like a question.

“Do what?” Peter asked dumbly.

“You know, the whole duck, roll, and catch thing?”

“Oh-huh-mm. Uh. Ermm. I just have good…reflexes?” Peter said, trying his best to cover up the obvious failure.

Peter sighed with relief, releasing the breath he didn’t know he was holding. They didn’t know which avenger he was, not yet at least.

Then, Flash had hit his limit. First, Iron man called Peter Parker, and asked for a sleepover. Then, the President of the United States asked for Peter’s help on some Level 5 crisis? He must be dreaming. There was no freakin way that this was happening.

“Did we just have a collective hallucination or did that really happen?” Abe enquired.

“Peter.” Flash growled in a dangerous tone.

“Uh, yes?” Peter squeaked.

“What. The. Fuck. Was. That.” Flash demanded.

“Ah, haha, err- a call from the president? I really can’t stay and chat, I have to go! Remember, the crisis? I’ll be sending Tony over with some NDA’s. If anything leaves this room, I bet you he’ll sue. Mr. Harrington, I gotta go.” Peter retorted quickly. He grabbed his backpack, about to leave, before he noticed he had never gotten a response.

“Mr. Harrington?”

Peter looked over and saw him lying unconscious again, right where he had left him. At least he was still in his chair. Peter turned to the class.

“I am sure you guys have a lot of questions but I really, really have to leave! Pepper Potts or Tony will be here soon. Bye!” Peter said, dashing out the door.

Moments later, the door opened again and Peter came running through, and locked the door behind him.

“Not that way! I can’t get detention again.”

The class watched in amused confusion as Peter stumbled over to the window and opened it. They were on the third floor, and it was quite the drop down. The amused confusion quickly disappeared and turned into shocked horror as Peter kept out the open window, onto the ground below.

Betty screamed, and there were collective gasps of surprise. Flash ran up to the window and looked down, expecting to see Peter with a broken limb or two. However, Peter was nowhere to be found.

Flash whirled towards Ned. “You. You’re his best friend. What’s all this about? What are you hiding? Tell me or I’ll beat you.” Flash spat.

Ned just looked up with confidence, a smirk tugging at his lips. “You can’t touch me. Peter is an avenger, remember? Beating his best friend isn’t in your best interest. Plus, everything is confidential. And I wouldn’t tell you anyways,” Ned said, turning his chin up.

“Tch. Fine.” Flash said clearly displeased, but not in a position to argue.

—-/—————————————————————/—

Peter was flying through the air.

He began to kick violently at the weird, squishy orange being below him, trying to get its grip on his leg to release. They were weirdly cute, and Peter felt awful about hurting them. But boy, for how cute they were, they were so mean. Just as he kicked the cute little alien between the eyes, it occurred to him that he was forgetting something. He couldn’t figure out what.

“Oh crap!”

-/——————————————————————/—-

Later that evening, Spider-Man was rewarded for single handedly saving the world that evening, and was seen shaking hands with President Ellis.

The entirety of Mr. Harrington's class watched it on the projector, unable to leave the classroom.