New York's very own Avengers visit Midtown
Chapter 2: New York's very own Avengers visit Midtown
"Dude, that's sick! You got chased by the Avengers! AND BRUCE BANNER WANTED TO DRUG YOU! Your so lucky - I would kill to have the Avengers after me! It means they acknowledged you!"
"Yeah, well, them acknowledging me led to them having my identity, Ned!"
MJ just rolled her eyes on the video call. "Ned, shut up and stop fanboying. Peter, Spider-man should lay low for a bit. And so should Peter Parker. Running away from the orphanage has made this no easier for you, either. You're probably going to get called to the Principals office at school."
"I'm the guy in the chair. I can just hack into all that school stuff and make it so Pete's not in today. The only down side is that his Spanish test will be put as ungraded 'cause he 'missed it'. So you'll still go to all your classes but online and to the teachers, you skipped. They won't notice you in class when you supposedly 'skipped' 'cause, well, they don't care. All they want is a pay-raise."
"Way to keep my grades high, Ned."
"It works though!"
"That's sorted. By the way, there is actually a good thing in this situation. You haven't been officially stated as a runaway 'cause you literally only left like three hours ago. In three days though, if you don't come back, you'll officially be a runaway. And if you need somewhere to stay, you can always come to my place. Whilst my parents are gone, obviously." MJ waved to the camera and ended the call.
"Bye, Ned. I'm off to MJ's house." Peter pulled back on his mask and jumped out the window.
"COME AFTER SCHOOL TO BUILD THE DEATHSTAR ON SATURDAY!" Screeched Ned through the open window, making his cheeks flush when the neighbours started hushing him through their windows.
Peter chuckled and continue to swing through the glowing city.
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"So, you're saying, even through I told you to, you didn't use the Stark Tech I gave you to scan his face?"
"No, I was kinda, frozen in the moment. You ever get that?"
"Meh," said Clint, eyes squinting in thought. Natasha just nodded, looking bored, whilst Bruce was standing their awkwardly looking between Steve and Tony.
"I'm sure you've had enough time to be frozen when you was a capsticle, but now is no time to go back to past activities. How old did he look?"
Steve's eyes widened in horror at the memory. "He looked like... thirteen..." Everyone stared at Steve, unblinking. "Put in 13-16, I guess. I dunno, man he looked young though."
At Steve's words, a hologram showed up showing all of the males in New York before it was limited to only 13-16 year olds."
"He had a slight Queens accent and mainly helps around Queens. So I think he most likely lives in Queens."
The hologram showed all 13-16 year old boys in Queens.
"Brown, curly hair," added Natasha. The hologram changed again.
"Brown eyes, light skin." finished Steve. There were around 16250 teenagers to choose from.
"Wanna narrow it down a little, Cap?" Asked Tony, looking doubtfully at the amount of options.
"Uh... No visible birthmarks on his face...?" 9500 kids.
"I dunno... still got a little baby fat on his face?" 8643 kids. Clint suddenly threw his head face and full on cackled at the observation, earning a slap from Natasha.
Finally, after 20 minutes of straining to remember all the little details, there were only 43 options. Tony stepped to the side. "Which one is it?"
Steve began to swipe the hologram with his index finger until he came across Peter. "It's him. Thats the boy I saw." He double clicked on the picture to show the boy's details.
Tony stepped back in front of the hologram and read the data aloud.
"Peter Benjamin Parker, 15 years old, oh! look at that! He's in that orphanage we always go past to get shawarma! Let's see, what school... He's a little nerd too. Tomorrow, how about we visit Midtown?"
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Peter, Ned and MJ were talking after Science outside of the classroom when the speakers came to life.
"Students, please make your way to the main hall for assembly. Thank you."
The trio exchanged confused glances. They never had assembly. And principal Morita never sounded this excited. Ever.
They took their seats on the metal, uncomfortable chairs when Principal Morita took the microphone.
"Thank you for coming, I am pleased to inform you that we have been given a rather... surprise visit! New York's very own Avengers have offered to give the students Midtown a short speech." Students began to cheer whilst Peters blood ran cold. Principal Morita left the stage and marvelled at the people from the side as Steve Rogers, Tony Stark and Bruce Banner took the spotlight off of him.
They were all paying too much attention to each student's face for Peter's liking, looking directly at the person, much to the excitement of a group of giggling girls. Peter tried to keep his head down. Captain America's 'speech' was practically a live PSA, Tony Stark just waffling about his inventions and how they can help people (which was supposed to be motivational) whilst Bruce Banner went full-on science mode.
The fact that Peter looked like the only person who just wanted out wasn't doing any good as it seemed to draw Bruce's attention. Trust the best scientist (in Peter's opinion) to spot the needle in a haystack. He nudged Tony, who nudged Steve and soon they all had their eyes on the same kid.
Peter was panicking now and asked Ned to say, if anyone asked, that Peter went to the bathroom. Slipping out of the packed hall, he ran for it, sprinting to the back-door. Meanwhile, the three Avengers claimed they were short on time before following the kid out.
Peter jumped over the gate, his spider-sense going mad out here, and when his enhanced hearing heard no footsteps, he stopped to check behind him.
"Nice jump," said a voice to Peters left, making him flinch violently. He looked there to see Natasha Romanoff leaning against a tree, arms crossed.
"uhhh..."
"It's easier if you just come with us willingly, y'know. They'll make sure you come either way."
"I... don't know what you're talking about."
Natasha scoffed. "You're spider-man."
"No I'm not."
She pushed herself off the tree and took a few steps forwards as Steve, Tony and Bruce began to get closer through another door so that they had no gate in their way. Peter's face fell. "You were stalling, weren't you?"
She smirked and just shrugged. "I don't know. What do you think, детеныш паука (baby spider)?"
The avengers's footsteps were getting closer and Peter backed away towards the gate. "Hey, spiderman," greeted Tony.
"Again, I'm not spider-man."
"I saw your face. Don't deny it," added Captain America. Peter continued to back away.
"That... could've been my... twin brother...? Damn, Tom is Spider-man?!"
"We don't have time for games. Come with us or we'll have to use force."
"Thats kidnapping!" Exclaimed Peter, faking disbelief.
"Not for us," said Tony as the Iron Man suit began to form around him. "Nanotechnology, like it?"
"I'm just gonna..." Peter began to go towards the wall, ready to climb it.
They got closer and suddenly Cap lunged at him. Instinctually, Peter webbed them in the face, doing a flip over them. Now that he was in the open, Peter ran towards the open space, climbing on the wall when he felt something latch onto his ankle. Heart hammering and eyes wide, he looked down to see iron man's metal hand gripping him. He repeatedly webbed whatever part of Iron Man he could find but it wasn't working. Before Iron Man could pull the leg which would send Peter hard on the floor, Peter tugged his leg out of the billionaire's grasp and did a backflip off the wall back onto the ground.
What he didn't see was Black Widow throw a blunt blade (which wouldn't cut him) towards his feet, making Peter stumble and fall backwards into Steve's arms.
Peter immediately began to squirm but Cap kept his grip tight this time. The Avengers began to approach with triumph radiating off them. "Let's get back to the tower." Said Tony, eyes not leaving Peter's.
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The avengers all sat opposite the sulking teenager. They had brought him in for the interrogation but Natasha had used her deathly glare to force them to do it in the most comfortable room available. That's how they ended up in the room the avengers usually chilled in.
"We saw your record so we already know about your name, age, all that good stuff." started Tony. "So don't try to hide anything. We want to know about spider-man. So, when did you start?" Natasha rolled her eyes. Tony really wasn't good at this interrogation stuff. That's why Natasha took over.
"Let's start again, shall we? Your suit. Who made it, where did it come from?" Natasha started off. Her voice was soft to lull the boy into a false sense of security yet firm enough to demand an answer. The questions that seemed innocent and harmless were always the best ways to start.
"Uh.. I found it out of the trash when I decided to be spider-man, a few things I made myself though..." He admitted.
"Your a dumpster diver," accused Tony, earning a glare from Natasha as if to say 'let me handle this'.
"What did you make yourself?"
"The web-shooters and the goggles," Peter replied, warily.
"So the webs don't come out of you?"
"Ew, no, that would be disgusting. Web-block and running out of webs would be on a whole new level." He answered, wrinkling his nose.
"Running out of webs? That must've been a hassle. Especially since you've been doing this since..." Natasha raised her eyebrows for exaggeration. This statement was to answer Tony's original question of 'when did you start', but less directly which was the trick when you wanted answers.
"Since I thirteen," he shrugged. "The job has gotten a lot harder now. Before it was just helping cats out of trees and helping old ladies cross roads. I still do that but now it's also car thiefs, bank robbers, and more I don't even want to think about."
"Wow, all that stress when your age are supposed to be playing video games at your friend's house! I wouldn't even bother at that age. So why do you do it?"
Peters entire form tense as he sat up straighter.
"Uh..."
"It's fine if you don't want to answer," she said. Again, it was to lull him into a false sense of security whilst her tone expected an answer, probably trying to make him reply out of guilt.
"It's just..." The boy hesitated. "When you can do the things I can, but you don't, then the bad things happen... and they happen because of you."
Everyone fell into a silence before Natasha pushed deeper in. "'when you can do the things I can'? what do you mean?"
"Enhanced." the boy shrugged. Natasha smiled at him smugly. Peter's eyes widened in realisation. He had just answered each one of the spy's questions clearly in this interrogation and-
"Oh crap." The words slipped out from between Peter's lip.
Natasha stood up. "Thank you for your cooperation." and with that she left, still smiling to herself. Peter slumped in his chair and mentally-kicked himself.
Tony stood up. "Let me show you where you'll be staying."
"Oka- wait... what do you mean?"
"You are staying at the tower with us, aren't you?"
"No!?"
"Oh, well, I don't care. You're staying here. Who doesn't want to stay in avengers tower anyway?"
"But- but-"
"I know you ran away from the orphanage and I doubt you plan to go back. Before you ask how I know, I own the best technology in the world. You have nowhere to stay, so your staying here." Tony said in a tone that said his decision was final.
"We didn't know that," muttered Bruce under his breathe, exchanging glances with Clint, who just shrugged in response. Peter just groaned and got up to follow the billionaire. You would've expected him to put up a fight, but to this point he just didn't care. For all he knew Iron Man's bodyguard could be adopting him and for all he knew, Tony had more information on Peter's life than he did himself.
Peter trudged down the pristine, white hallway until they got to a door. Tony willed his A.I, Friday, to unlock the door.
"Goodnight," he said, opening the door, shoving Peter in and locking it again.
Looking at his surroundings, Peter could only think one thought.
Ned's gonna freak.