Chapter 5
Aunt May was not impressed when Peter got back home late, but he managed to get off the hook by telling her that where exactly where he had been. He grabbed dinner and worked on some homework before donning his suit and swinging out towards Harlem.
"So, Murdock," Jessica drawled. "Want to tell us exactly why we're all here?"
"Is this about Spider-Man?" Claire asked.
"Wait, Spider-Man?" Danny repeated. "What about him?"
Matt sighed. "Yes, this is about Spider-Man. Basically, I got injured-"
"And ended up in Spidey's dumpster," Claire interrupted, and Jessica and Danny snickered.
Matt scowled at Claire, who remained unfazed. "Just making sure you got your facts straight, Murdock."
" Anyways, he brought me to Claire's and after she patched me up, he told us that he needed our help.
"Hold on," Luke said, frowning. "Why would he need our help? I thought he was with Stark or something."
"He was," Matt admitted, "until yesterday, when they argued and he ended up yelling at him and storming out of the Avengers Compound."
Jessica snorted. "He's got guts, I'll give him that. Not many people can stand up to Stark."
"That's why you brought us here?" Danny asked. "To tell us that Spider-Man needs our help?"
"No, that's not all. Spider-Man's also coming here, and I wanted you all to meet him." Matt cocked his head and heard a faint thwipping, and a rush of air every few seconds. "In fact, I think that he might already be here."
"Stupid Parker luck," Peter muttered as he got up from where he had fallen.
Instead of landing in front of the door like he had meant to, he had overshot and ended up crashing on the roof. He started to climb down the wall, trying to remember where Claire's window was.
It turned out he didn't need to because his enhanced hearing picked up Claire saying, "Did he just crash onto the roof?"
"Looks like he did," another woman replied.
"Vigilantes," Claire grumbled. "When it's not dumpsters, it's roofs. When it's not roofs, it's-"
She cut off her sentence with a scream.
In hindsight, popping his head in front of the window while he was literally upside-down may not have been the best idea, but it was too late for that.
While nobody else screamed, there was a fair amount of cursing. Peter quickly crawled through the window onto the roof of the apartment and then flipped onto the ground.
Act cool, Parker.
"Hey," he said in what he hoped was a deep voice, leaning against a wall in an effort to appear cool, calm, and collected. Unfortunately, he missed the wall.
His cheeks burned and he quickly popped back up to face the snickering vigilantes.
Matt's lips were twitching as he said, "Hello, Spider-Man. I'd like you to meet Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, and Danny Rand."
"Murdock, you didn't tell me that Spider-Man was a kid," Jessica said.
"Wait, how'd you know that?" Peter asked. "We just met!"
Jessica snorted. "Please, kid. Leaning against a wall to impress someone? No adult would do that."
Peter flushed in embarrassment underneath the mask.
"So, how old are you?" Luke Cage asked.
"Um, fifteen, Mr. Cage. I gotta ask, how does your bulletproof thing work? Does it only allow you to not be harmed within a certain radius? Do you feel anything? If you can't be shot, can you still be injured? Like, by burning or something? Does-"
"Hold on, kid," Mr. Cage interrupted, rubbing his temples. "That is a lot to unpack. First of all, call me Luke. I'm pretty sure everybody else would also be preferred to be called by their first name."
"Yep," Jessica agreed. "I think I might have to strangle someone if you call me Ms. Jones."
"As for Danny," Luke said, pointing to the guy dressed in green, "he's way too immature to be called Mr. Rand."
"Hey!" Danny protested, but Luke had turned back to Peter. "Also, you're fifteen?! "
Peter nodded. "Almost sixteen."
Luke cursed. "Kid, I-"
"If you're about to try and tell me that I shouldn't be in this life, then you shouldn't waste your breath, Mr. C- I mean Luke. I know that I'm young, but it doesn't change the fact that I have these abilities. Whatever happened to me happened, and now I have a duty to the people, no matter my age. Because if you can do the things that I can do, but you don't, and then the bad things happen? They happen because of you."
Everybody had gone quiet, and Peter saw the understanding in their eyes. And he realized that these people, they really, truly get him. Mr. Stark might understand a little bit, but he wouldn't ever really understand Peter or his motivation behind Spider-Man.
Peter knew that he was young, and he shouldn't be here. But he is.
Children should never have to lose their parents.
14-year olds shouldn't witness murders.
Shouldn't hear their uncle's heartbeat slowing.
Shouldn't feel the blood beneath their hands.
Shouldn't watch eyes go blank and body go limp.
15-year olds shouldn't don a mask and fight crime.
They shouldn't be staring down the barrel of guns.
Shouldn't be shot at.
They shouldn't have to see the horrid, gritty, grisly part that every city has.
The killers who are out for blood.
The muggers who weren't afraid to put lives at risk to get some money.
The rapists who couldn't take no for an answer.
And a thousand other unnamed, but no lesser evils.
No teenager should have to see that.
But he was Peter Parker, and he had seen all those things.
Peter Parker's uncle Ben had died when he could have done something about it.
Peter Parker had sat there as his uncle Ben died in his arms.
Peter Parker donned a mask and was Spider-Man.
He had seen things that would scar most people.
He was Spider-Man, because he had to be.
He had to make sure that there would be no more Bens.
No more children that grew up with the same haunted look in his eyes that he did.
He wasn't a hero.
Just a person doing what he needed to do.
"Kid? Hello?"
Peter blinked and smiled sheepishly at Luke. "Sorry. I just zoned out."
Luke raised his eyebrows but didn't comment on it further, which Peter was grateful for. "I was saying that we're here to help you, but the question is, what do you need help with?"
"And also, what's with the wrecked suit?" Danny chimed in.
"Oh yeah, that reminds me! Matt, you said you could help me with the suit thing!"
"Yes, I can. I'll take you to my suit guy tomorrow and we can have a new suit made."
"A new suit!" Peter said excitedly. "That's awesome! And really necessary, cause this one is falling to pieces." He spread his arms to prove his point and as if one cue, his suit tore apart at the seams, the top half dropping to the ground.
Jessica and Danny started to laugh and Claire, Matt, and Luke had amused smiles on their faces.
"Well, this is embarrassing," Peter muttered. "And I don't have anything else to wear."
That only made Jessica and Danny laugh harder and Claire shook her head in amusement and said, "Come on, Peter, I'll lend you something to wear."
"Thanks, Ms. Claire," Peter said gratefully. "You're a lifesaver."
He followed her to a bedroom where she tossed him a pair of jeans and shirt.
"They're Luke's," she warned him, "so they'll probably be about five sizes too big, but . . ."
"It's okay, Claire," he said quickly. "It doesn't really matter."
He came out 2 minutes later and he had to admit, he looked ridiculous. The shirt came down to his knees and he'd had to cuff the pants 5 times so they wouldn't trip him up.
He walked back out to a dead silence, and he assumed it was because of his clothes. But then he realized he'd forgotten his mask back in the bedroom.
Well, too late to do anything about that now.
"Um, hi. I'm Peter Parker," he said a little shyly. He gave a small wave.
They all kind of stared at each other before Danny said, "I never did get an answer for the suit."
"Oh yeah," Peter said, grateful for the change in subject. "That's kind of a long story. So this is the suit that I made for myself when I started, but then Mr. Stark, which is another long story, and then I got involved with the Vulture-"
"Who's the Vulture?" Jessica asked.
"Oh, that's this guy with the wingsuit. I mean, he's not really a guy, but he also is, like he's not enhanced or anything, but he is a supervillain, and he was my date's dad." Peter felt like he was doing a poor job explaining the Vulture. "Basically, he was the head honcho of these Chitauri weaponry deals that were going on-"
"Chitauri weaponry deals?" Luke asked, looking concerned.
"Yeah, they would get alien parts and stuff and then weaponize them doing-well, I don't know what process they were using, but it was some shady stuff that was going on. So, I saw the Vulture, and I was like Woah! There's a guy with a wingsuit! So I chased after him, but he didn't seem to like me very much, and he dropped me into a river-"
"What?" Claire snapped. "He dropped you into a river? "
Peter chuckled. "Yeah, crazy right? I mean, that's a pretty extreme way to deal with stalkers. So I decided that I didn't like this guy-"
"Can't imagine why," Matt muttered sarcastically.
"And I managed to track down some other dudes that were part of his gang, but they got away, and I got locked up the Damage Control warehouse, and then I escaped, but then I knew this other guy, so I interrogated him, and then left him webbed up to his car, because dude, I don't care if you have ice-cream in your trunk-"
"Ice cream?" Claire asked, looking confused.
"You're still a bad guy! You know what I mean?"
"I guess so," Luke said, sounding lost.
"So we met on the ferry, and then the FBI showed up, but they started shooting at me! Like, can you believe the nerve of them. There's a shady alien weaponry deal going on, and they choose to shoot me, the guy that's trying to help. I guess it was because they could see me the easiest, you know, with my bright suit and all."
"Right," Jessica muttered. "And this is relevant to the story how, exactly?"
Peter glared at her. "I'm getting there, Ms. Jones. It's rude to interrupt people, you know that?"
Danny snickered, and Jessica scowled, opening her mouth, but Peter barrelled on.
"So after that, Mr. Stark shows up out of nowhere and took my suit, which was just plain mean. I mean, he didn't even get involved and then chose to take away the suit of the guy who was actually trying to help. He helped about as much as the FBI, which is to say, exactly zero help. And guess what? The Vulture guy turns out to be my date's dad. I mean, even I was surprised. That was a plot twist that no one saw coming."
"Plot twist?" Danny repeated faintly.
"So I had to ditch her, which really sucked, cause I had a crush on her, but that's not relevant, and then I grabbed my suit, but the guys met me in the parking lot of the school and blasted me into a school bus-"
"What?!" Claire asked loudly. "He blasted you into a-"
"Don't worry, Ms. Claire, I was fine, but then I had to steal this guy's car to chase the Vulture, and I have no driving experience, so there were a few minor, uh, setbacks. So then I had my huge brainwave moment and I realized that the Vulture was going after Avengers tech-"
"Avengers tech?" Matt asked sharply.
"Yeah, basically, the night of homecoming was the same night that all the Avengers equipment was scheduled to be moved from Stark Tower to the Avengers Compound. I tracked down the Vulture to a warehouse, but it was really a distraction, and he dropped the warehouse on me-"
"He dropped a warehouse on you? " Claire shrieked.
"Yeah, but I managed to lift it off me and I chased him. We ended up fighting on the plane, which was invisible, so yeah, that was weird, and then we ended up crashing the plane on Coney Island. We fought, and I defeated him, but I couldn't swing because you know, supervillain fights are brutal. Who knew talons were so sharp? "
Claire made some sort of choking sound and Danny looked mildly disturbed.
"So anyway, I got treated at the Compound, yelled at Mr. Stark, and now I'm here."
Jessica groaned. "I need a drink. That is way too much to process."
"But I didn't even tell you the full story," Peter protested. "I skipped out the bank robbery, the guys that showed up at my school, my other fight with Vulture, and DC."
Jessica buried her head in her hands. "I don't even want to know. Where's my drink?"
"It's not nice to drink in front of children, Ms. Jones," Peter said cheekily.
Without looking up, Jessica flipped him off.
"All of that," Danny said faintly, "and all I asked was what happened to your suit."
Peter shrugged. "In my defense, I told you it was a long story."
Luke apparently decided to be the sensible one and asked Peter, "What exactly are your abilities?"
"Enhanced metabolism, enhanced healing and senses, enhanced strength, super flexibility, sticking to walls, and this precognitive thingy that I call my spider-sense."
"Okay," Luke said slowly, "and what exactly do you need our help with?"
"Well, nothing specific. I'm new to the scene, and I just wanted to get a feel of it, know the ropes, that sort of thing," Peter said, shrugging.
"I guess I can teach him combat and hand-to-hand," Matt said. "And also how to utilize enhanced senses."
"I can help with the super-strength and like, interrogating people," Jessica said, shrugging. "But I can't guarantee that I won't drink."
"Doesn't matter to me," Peter said nonchalantly.
Jessica gaped at him. "But you said literally a minute ago-"
Peter smirked. "And?"
Jessica grumbled and put her head back in her hands while Matt and Luke smirked.
"I'm going to teach him first aid, since you idiots get injured all of the time," Claire said.
"I guess I can introduce you to the scene, and what to expect and stuff," Luke said.
"And what are you going to do, Danny?" Matt asked.
"I can teach him meditation and control!" Danny said excitedly.
Luke groaned. "You say that every time -"
"But it's my thing!" Danny protested.
"Anyways, " Jessica interrupted, "are we done here?"
"Yeah, I believe so," Matt said.
"Can I hitch a ride with someone?" Peter asked. "Cause I don't feel like swinging back home in an oversized pair of jeans and shirt."
Jessica snorted. "I like you, kid. You can come with me. Let's go."
"No alcohol!" Matt said sternly. "Not until you drop Peter off. Peter, don't drink anything she gives you."
"Okay, dad ," Peter replied, smirking, and everybody snickered.
"I mean it!" Matt shouted as they left the apartment.
"No promises!" Peter and Jessica yelled simultaneously, and then grinned at each other before setting off into the night.