Chapter 4
“What the fuck?”
In any other circumstance, Tony would have made fun of Steve’s choice of words and laughed at the way America’s Boy Scout held his hand over his heart, however he was in no place to do either when the same thought was running through his head and his own hand was hovering over his chest.
A werewolf. A fucking werewolf.
Tony honestly thought he’d seen it all, yet here he was, staring at a red-eyed, claw bearing teenage boy. Stiles sat beside him, looking utterly unphased by the whole ordeal and Scott somehow managed to look like a kicked puppy over their reactions. Ha.
“Look,” The boy started and Tony was even more startled when he noticed the sharp fangs in the kid’s mouth. “It’s not that we purposely kept this from you! There didn’t seem to be a good time to bring it up!”
“Mmm, I don’t know, I think it’s kind of poetic this way,” Stiles shrugged, “I mean, look at their faces.” Tony could tell that he was trying to provide the comedic relief, but every now and then he could see the faraway look that clouded the kid’s eyes.
Truth be told, he hadn’t meant to be so aggressive with the kids. He tried to keep in mind that they were just that; kids. But when he had seen Peter lying in that hospital bed, it was like all the panic and worry that he had been bottling up at the day’s events had been unleashed. Peter was fine and he was healing nicely, but the matter of the fact was that he had effectively scared the shit out of Tony.
“Alright, I think that’s enough, buddy.” Stiles waved his hand in Scott’s face, obviously referring to the, ya know, wolf thing .
Tony blinked and suddenly Scott was…well, human again. Gone were the claws and fangs, his eyes brown once more. “So,” He said slowly, “Are you house trained?”
This particular question caused Stiles to laugh incredibly loud, the young man falling against Scott’s shoulder, “Awe man,” He snickered, miming brushing away a tear. “He got you with that one.”
“Alright, alright,” Steve gave Tony a pointed look. “I appreciate your, um, your honesty. However, that doesn’t explain why you have a deadpool.”
Right, the deadpool. It didn’t so much as slip his mind, more so that he was distracted by the werewolf in the room. He looked at the two curiously, they didn’t seem like contract killers.
“Wait, do you think that’s ours?” Stiles asked defensively, “Like that we made it?”
This seemed to spark something in Scott, the kid’s facing morphing into something unreadable. “Why would we have a deadpool with my name on it?”
“I’m gonna be honest, I didn’t think you two could pass for mercenaries,” Tony said, “But then again, that was before I found out about Jacob Black over here.”
Stiles scoffed, “Really. I can promise you that we are not responsible for the deadpool.”
“Then who is?”
He wasn’t expecting for Stiles’ shoulders to droop at this question, his face falling, “Yeah,” His voice was softer. ”That’s what we’re trying to figure out.”
Steve was looking at the two in alarm, his eyes glancing between them and the list, “Wait, Scott, your name’s on here.” When Tony had first looked at the deadpool, he had been more consumed with stress about Peter and the body that was found at the scene of the explosion, so while he did see Scott’s name on the paper, it didn’t really register what that truly meant until now. “For, um, twenty five dollars?” Steve sounded unsure.
“Twenty five million,” Scott whispered after a moment and Tony was genuinely taken aback. 25 million dollars for a seventeen year old boy? Jesus. “It’s not just me on there either.”
At this, Stiles looked at his friend, alarmed, “Scott, I-”
But Scott just shook his head, “All of our friends are on there.”
“You’re all…?” Steve trailed off.
“Something, we’re all something.” He nodded.
“Um, except me.” Stiles put his hand halfway into the air, “I’m not really anything.”
Tony gave him an up and down, raising an eyebrow. “Right.” He said slowly. The troubled look that Scott sent in Stiles' direction did not go unnoticed. “There’s quite a few people on this list.”
“Yup, thirty-six names. And they all add up to 117 million dollars.”
“Dude, you memorized that?” Scott asked.
An annoyingly shocked look crossed over Stiles’ face, “It’s two numbers, bro. Two.” Despite the fact that they were talking about a literal deadpool and that they were sitting in a hospital room recovering from an explosion, the two boys seemed as if they were arguing over a sports team. It was truly a marvel to Tony the way that teenagers seemed to deflect their traumatic events with humor. (As if he’s one to talk.)
“Could this have anything to do with how you guys got here?” Steve asked, “Maybe someone trying to get their pay-out got you here.”
“Mmmm,” Scott pondered the idea. “I don’t think so, I mean, this isn’t necessarily killing me. I’m pretty sure it wouldn’t count. Wait, what did it say on the tape, Stiles?” A tape? What the hell?
“Visual confirmation is needed,” Stiles said slowly, his face morphing into a calculated expression as if he were having an epiphany.
Scott turned toward him, the boy obviously studying his friend’s actions, “Wait, what is it?”
Stiles stayed silent, clearly thinking over what was on his mind. Tony honestly didn’t like the look on his face, but more so because it was a look of pain that no child should know. He looked haunted. “When…when we were in the rubble, I thought we were alone.” He explained softly and there was something in his tone that had Tony dreading his next words. “Scott, you saw the body?”
Scott’s face went white at the mention and he nodded slowly. Right, Scott had seen the body in the rubble of the coffee shop. Steve had informed him of how he had to pull the kid away as he was understandably shell-shocked and dissociating. God, why did every kid that came in Tony’s life go through such traumatizing events?
“I thought someone was coming to help us but…but I think whoever was there was the one who planned the explosion. The body…” Stiles took a deep breath, his voice shaking. “That was the guy who set it off.”
Scott blinked, staring straight ahead, “That doesn’t mean th-”
“He said…he said that the explosion was too big, that they would never find “them” in the rubble. Scott, I think he was talking about us.”
-
To be honest, these aren't the worst injuries that Peter has dealt with. Sure, his shoulder was dislocated and he had gotten a concussion but now, several hours after he and Stiles were rescued, it was as if nothing had even happened to his arm and his head injury was now considered fairly mild. Thank god for his accelerated healing.
It wasn’t that he regretted saving Stiles, he would do it again in a heartbeat if he had to. But when his head cleared up and he could see a little straighter, he was utterly horrified to realize that he was buried under a building. Again. Except this time he could barely move without his head spinning and there was no way he could get out. No way he could save them, the building was going to come down on them. They were going to be crushed because he wasn’t fas-
“Peter, honey,” A hand caressed his forehead, running into his hair. “What’s going on in that head of yours?” He blinked, coming out of his daze.
“Just…just thinking about the explosion. That’s all, May.” He shrugged, offering her a small smile. He was stuck sitting in the med bay until Mr. Stark stopped freaking out about his injuries. Peter could appreciate his worry, but only to a certain extent before he felt the need to inform the man that he was a literal, honest-to-god, enhanced human-being. He could’ve been out of here hours ago.
“You sure, sweetheart?” May was just as bad. The excessive use of pet names was definitely her tell.
“Promise,” He nodded. “I mostly just want to leave. Mr. Stark said he’d come back in a bit.”
“Yeah, where did he go off into anyways?” She questioned.
“Uhhhh,” He fiddled with the threads of the blanket, contemplating giving her the honest answer. It wouldn’t be the end of the world if he did, especially because he and May had this new policy of honesty that he was trying to do his share of. Plus, she’d just find out at some point, right? “Okay but you can’t tell anyone-”
“Peter.” She said carefully, eyeing him suspiciously. The last time he had said those words to her, she had accidentally found out about Spider-Man.
“It’s not really anything that I did! It’s more so what I found, if that makes sense but it wasn’t like it was on purpose! Plus, I called Mr. Stark right away. So basically I was on patrol a-” He didn’t have a chance to tell May the story before a knock sounded at the door.
“Huh.” He mumbled as Tony walked through the door, Scott and Stiles following behind him. “Well, this is what I was trying to tell you.” He said, gesturing to the other two boys.
May turned in her chair, crossing her legs as she took in the presence of the two unknown (to her) boys. “I see your playboy days have finally caught up with you.”
“May!” Peter groaned, dropping his head back against his pillows.
“Hilarious.” Mr. Stark deadpanned, rolling his eyes. “Haven’t heard that one before.”
“Right.” She looked expectantly towards Scott and Stiles. Now, May was a very nice and personable woman, any friend that Peter brought home, she treated them as if she had known them their whole life. However this time, he supposed, he wasn’t bringing them to their apartment. She was meeting two random boys in the hospital room of her nephew, who was injured in a literal explosion.
“Hi,” Scott gave a sheepish wave paired with a soft smile, “I’m Scott.”
Even Stiles seemed intimidated by the Italian woman, the boy bypassing any and all sarcastic remarks with a simple, “I’m Stiles.”
“I’m May, Peter’s aunt.” She smiled at them even though she was obviously curious as to why they were in the Avengers Compound of all things. “Tony?”
The billionaire in question sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. “Would you believe me if I told you that they are from a different universe?”
Both Scott and Stiles looked shocked at the man’s openness on their origins, identical incredulous looks crossing their faces, “I thought you said we were supposed to keep that a secret?”
“Tony isn’t allowed to keep secrets from me anymore.” May said with a tight-lipped smile.
Peter watched as Stiles’ eyes flickered between him and his aunt before the teen nodded knowingly, “Oh yah, that’ll do it.”
May ignored him, turning towards Peter, “A different universe, really?”
“Again, this is what I was trying to tell you.” He shrugged.
May nodded curtly, “Tony,” She cleared her throat, “A word?” Peter watched as she led him into the hallway, giving his mentor what he hoped was a supportive look.
“How’re you doing, man?” Scott asked, the two of them taking the vacant chairs.
“Oh, yeah, I’m fine.” Peter gestured to his arm, “Good as new. You guys?”
From the looks of it, Scott seemed uninjured. He wasn’t 100% sure what had happened to the other teen when the explosive went off but it comforted Peter that at least one of them was unharmed. Stiles, on the other hand, had his wrist wrapped and stitches on his head. If he was faster then maybe they would have made it out of the building befor-
“Just wonderful.” Stiles held up a thumbs up but honestly, Peter wasn’t convinced. “Hey, thank you. You know, for saving me. I…you didn’t…just, thank you.”
Honestly, Peter was a little taken aback. He wasn’t expecting gratitude for that, he just did what anyone else would do. “You don’t have to thank me.” He said, eyebrows furrowed. “Seriously.”
Stiles only laughed, slouching in his seat as he mumbled something about “boy scouts with powers”, looking between him and Scott.
“Your aunt seems nice.” Scott commented.
“Oh she is!” Peter was quick to exclaim. May was the best. “I think she’s just a little…overwhelmed by everything. Y’know,” He mimed an explosion.
“Makes sense. My mom freaks out about anything I get into.” His curiosity peaked at Scott’s words. It was no surprise that Scott had some form of abilities, the way that Stiles was so adamant that he would hear them was a dead giveaway. Peter found it fascinating that superpowers seemed to extend further than just his own universe.
“You’re telling me,” Stiles groaned, “I’m pretty sure I'm still grounded from the whole Mexico thing.”
“Mexico thing?” He asked.
“Long story.” However, the kid continued as if it wasn’t. “So basically, our friend got kidnapped and we thought he was at this place in Mexico so of course we went there. Except he where we thought he was and things got a little fucked up, to be honest. Anyways, I kind of lied to my dad and said we went on a camping trip which you know, technically wasn’t a lie because I never said where we were going camping so…” Stiles trailed off with a shrug.
He was about to respond when an exasperated, “My god.” came from the doorway and they all turned their attention to find May and Tony watching them. “Trouble always seems to find you, huh, Peter?” He figured she was talking about more than just Scott and Stiles’ Mexico escapade.
“Things were just going so well too.” His tone was a little sarcastic because honestly, things have been shit since he returned from Titan. But he didn’t let anyone know that, did he?
“Regression to the mean.” Scott whispered.
“What was that?” Tony asked.
“Uh, nothing. Just something I’ve heard.” He shrugged it off. Hmm, he would have to ask about that later.
“Hey,” Stiles spoke up, cutting off any further questions that Tony seemed to have, “did the wizard have any good news about getting us back home?”
They all looked turned Tony expectantly, although the look on the man’s face made the answer obvious. They didn’t have a breakthrough. “Not yet,” He responded, his voice measured. “There’s some unknown variables that we’re trying to work out. Hopefully, when we do, that’ll tell us how we can get you home.”
Scott and Stiles stayed silent, obviously unhappy at this response. Peter couldn’t blame them, he could only imagine the way they must feel at being displaced in a universe other than their own. If he were in their position, his anxiety would be at an all time high.
“You have enhanced hearing?” Peter asked, attempting to change the subject, his gaze set on Scott.
“Of course he does,” May sighed and now she was the one pinching the bridge of her nose. Sometimes he wondered why these things still seemed to surprise her, he figured that after finding out that her nephew was a literal vigilante, these things would just roll off her back.
Scott laughed nervously, “I do.” He said slowly, looking towards Tony.
“He’s not all spidery like you, Underoos.” Mr. Stark said. “A little more Cujo than spider bite.” His words only confused Peter instead of giving him insight as to Scott’s abilities.
“He’s a werewolf.” Stiles explained cheerily, obviously feeling immense joy at the expressions that came over both Peter and May’s faces.
“Are you fucking with me, Stark?” May questioned, her voice rising slightly in pitch.
“Oh how I wish I was, Mrs. Parker.” She was silent at this affirmation, her gaze stuck on Scott. The boy in question had a timid smile on his face.
“Fucking Parker Luck.”
-
Peter became more familiar with the layout of the Avengers Compound in the last two months following the return of the Avengers Initiative. He supposed he should be grateful for this privilege, regardless if the reasoning behind it included a world-ending threat. After he turned down the offer to join the Avengers, he had assumed that things were going to go back to normal. Normal meaning Spider-Man looked out for the little guy and Mr. Stark kept an eye on things from afar.
It didn’t.
Much to his surprise, Mr. Stark had offered him a real, honest-to-god internship. It was no longer a ruse to disguise his patrols, every Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday, he worked at the Avengers Tower in Tony Stark ’s lab. And it was paid! It was life-changing.
It’s a shame that anything good in his life is only temporary. Just as he was falling into a comfortable position in life, Thanos had to ruin it all. May was right, fucking Parker Luck. Every time.
Anyways, now he hung out here at the Compound with the Avengers. (Since they all knew his identity now, great .)
Peter sighed, following along behind Scott and Stiles as Tony showed the other boys where they would be staying and he could practically feel the admiration rolling off of them as they looked around the Compound. Honestly, he had done the same thing too.
Both May and Tony had decided that Peter would be staying at the Compound for the next couple of days as May had back to back shifts at the hospital and it seemed like neither adult trusted him on his own. Rationally, he knew that it was because he had been injured in a non-Spider-Man situation. However sometimes Peter wasn’t rational and their distrust made him feel like a failure.
“Holy fuck.” He looked up, watching as Stiles walked into one of the guest rooms. “You are so rich, oh my god.”
Both Tony and Peter laughed, Tony because well, yeah, he was rich, and Peter was laughing at the fact that he had thought the same thing. The features and amenities included in the rooms at both the Tower and the Compound were absolutely insane. If he really thought about it, his own room was the size of his and May’s apartment.
“It has its perks.” Mr. Stark shrugged, “There should be clothes in there, we usually keep it stocked in most sizes but let me know if you need anything and we’ll get it for you.” Peter noticed the way he was being a lot more gentler with his wording when he spoke to the boys, especially after they found out that Doctor Strange didn’t have a way to get them home. Yet, Peter hoped.
If you were smarter, you’d be able to figure it out. He blinked away the thought, that voice in his head was becoming a little too frequent.
“Thank you,” Scott smiled towards both of them, Stiles having already disappeared into his room. “We appreciate it, really.”
“Don’t worry about it, kid.” Tony nodded, clapping a hand onto Peter’s back. “Ask Fri to lead you to the common room when you’re done. We’ll see you there.” And with that, he led Peter away, his hand never moving from his back. “How’re you doing kid?”
“Huh? Oh, good. I’m good.” He glanced over at Tony when he didn’t receive a response and was uncomfortable to find the man looking at him with a raised eyebrow. He didn’t believe him. “Really, Mr. Stark, all good.”
He was relieved when all his mentor did was sigh. At least he wasn’t asking anymore questions. Besides, Peter was honestly good. He was still alive, they beat Thanos. Everything was good. Good. Good. Good.
The savory smell of pizza provided a distraction from both his thoughts and his conversation with Mr. Stark as well as it reminded Peter of just how hungry he was. “Oh thank god,” He mumbled, practically running to the table. He could eat a whole box on his own.
“Hey, save some for the rest of us.” He glanced over, spotting Sam and Bucky across the room.
“Be quicker.”
“You little shit.” He rolled his eyes at Sam’s response, continuing to load up his plate. It wasn’t like there wasn’t enough food, at least two other people in this building besides him had an enhanced metabolism. There was enough food to feed all of Midtown and then some.
“I do not know how you can eat all that.” Peter smiled at the voice. Getting to know Wanda was one of the few brighter moments of the past two months. He wasn’t sure why so many people were scared of her, she was incredibly timid and kind.
“I could eat much more if I wanted to.” He shrugged, eyeing the ten slices he had picked out.
“Maybe you should,” She suggested as if she wasn’t just commenting on the amount. “You got hurt, yes?”
Peter furrowed his eyebrows with a groan, “It’s basically already healed.”
“But eating more can make it heal faster, right?” She smirked at him, adding a few pieces of pizza onto her own plate.
With an exaggerated sigh, he grabbed two more Hawaiian slices, “There.” He shoved a bite in his mouth, making a face at his friend.
Wanda just smirked smugly at him.
Right, she was only incredibly timid before you got to know her.
“Scott, Stiles, great to have you join us!” They both turned Clint’s words, spotting said boys standing at the entrance of the common room. They both looked a lot livelier, the grime from the incident washed away and replaced with fresh, comfortable looking clothes.
“Holy shit.” Stiles whispered, his eyes darting around the room. It was pretty impressive, Peter would be the first to agree. The kitchenette, the impressively large table, the den area. It was awesome.
“Please help yourself to some pizza.” Steve said and there was something in his voice that told Peter that he knew their secret. (He still hadn’t wrapped his head around the fact that werewolves actually existed somewhere.)
“Hell yes.” They said at the same time, rushing forward to the array of food, not really acknowledging the other people in the room that were watching them intently.
“Let’s see if New York pizza is everything Kira says it is.” Stiles said, nudging Scott with his elbow. “If it’s even the same in this universe. Oh my god, those words just came out of my mouth.”
“I think New York pizza is probably the best in every universe.” Peter grinned.
Scott inspected his slice, “You’re eating pineapple on pizza, I’m not really sure we can trust your opinion.”
Peter’s jaw dropped as Stiles cackled, he was about to defend his choice when another voice spoke up.
“Actually, in a recent study, nearly half of the population has admitted to enjoying pineapple on pizza.”
He smiled at the revelation, sticking his tongue out at the boys, “Ha. I win.”
Unfortunately, they were no longer paying attention to him, the two teenagers were staring starstruck at the newest inhabitant. Ah, right, they didn’t know about Vision.
Peter turned, smiling at the synthezoid. He forgot just how shocking Vision could be to someone who has never seen him. The world had been mind blown when he had made it on the news during the battle with Ultron.
“Is that a fucking robot?” Stiles deadpanned. “Dude, where the fuck are we?”
“My name is Vision,” The android said. “I am, what they call, a synthezoid.”
They blinked at him, “What is that?” Scott asked.
Vision cocked his head in curiosity, “A synthetic humanoid.”
Peter glanced over towards Wanda, who had stayed silent during the ordeal. Now that he thought about it, he didn’t even really hear her greet Vision. She was standing still, holding her pizza with both hands however it went untouched. She was staring intently at Scott and Stiles, her face contorted into something that he couldn't decipher. She seemed to be entirely disconnected from the conversation. This was weird.
“Wanda, are you okay?” He asked softly.
Instead of responding to him, she looked sharply towards Scott and before he could say anything more, she spoke, “Who is Allison?”
At what seemed like an innocent question, Scott and Stiles went dead silent, their amused expressions disappearing. “What?” Stiles questioned and Peter was taken back by the ferocity in his voice. It didn’t seem to go unnoticed by everyone else either and he saw the way Bucky and Steve inched towards them.
“Who is Allison?” Wanda asked again, although there was something about the way she said it that was so…not Wanda.
The repetition of the particular question seemed to break something in Scott as he started to hyperventilate. “What did you just say?” He asked and if they were shocked by the tone of Stiles’ voice, they were not expecting for the animosity that was in Scott’s.
“Scott,” Steve spoke up, raising one hand as he stepped towards the teen.
“How do you know that name?!” He demanded, his breathing becoming more and more shallow. He was clutching his chest and the way he was gasping for air reminded Peter of the asthma attacks he would have before the spider bite.
Wanda didn’t seem perturbed by his reaction, still unmoved from her stance. “Tell me who she is.”
“Wanda, that’s enough.” Vision said firmly, grabbing the woman’s arm.
At his touch, she blinked before dropping her plate. “Oh my,” She breathed. “I’m…I’m so sorry, I don’t…” She was shaking her head, tears pricking her eyes. Peter let out the breath he didn’t realize he was holding. “I just…I heard the name in my head-” She tried to explain.
Their attention wasn’t on her though, instead everyone in the room was standing in shock.
“Scott, buddy,” Stiles said slowly, grabbing Scott’s shoulder, “Your eyes.”
Peter’s eyes flickered towards Scott and he was floored by the sight of his blood red eyes. Holy shit.
As if sensing everyone’s attention, Scott froze, his gasps becoming quieter. He unraveled his clenched fists and Peter was amazed at the claws that seemed to sink back into his nail beds as his breaths evened out.
“I think we’re gonna go,” Stiles said quickly, wrapping his arm around his shoulders. Before anybody could protest, they were fleeing the common room, plates of pizza forgotten on the table.
In their absence, two things happened; Wanda fell into Vision’s arms, the young woman stumbling through a tearful explanation of how she didn’t know what came over her and a golden orange portal sparked open in the center of the room.
Peter was uncomfortably reminded of his concussion as both the visual and auditory stimulation became slightly overwhelming. He cupped his head, groaning softly as he watched Doctor Strange step out of the portal, an intense look on the sorcerer’s face.
“Vision, why don’t you and Wanda go into the other room? We can talk about what happened in a moment,” Steve directed. Wanda’s face fell even further at the insinuation that she wasn’t needed and he couldn’t help but feel sympathy for her. What the hell even just happened?
He had so many questions and he was sure that he wasn’t alone in that.
“Doc, I’m hoping you have some good news for us.” Mr. Stark said. It was fairly obvious that the man was equally concerned about Scott.
“It depends on what you mean by good news, Stark.”
“Great, that never means anything good.” He could hear Bucky mumble from across the room.
Doctor Strange sighed, crossing his arms, “Wong and I were able to identify the other substance that your AI detected where Scott and Stiles appeared.” He explained.
This seemed to peak everyone’s interest, at least enough for them to deter them momentarily by Scott’s accidental reveal. “I think it would be easier if you were out with it.” Natasha said.
Stephen stayed silent for a moment and Peter realized that the man looked nervous. What could he possibly have to share that was so bad? Were they not going to be able to find Scott and Stiles a way home?
“Your sensors weren’t able to pick it up because it wasn’t a tangible substance, it was magic. Chaos magic.”