Chapter 2 - Stronger
"Pete!" There was a banging on his door. He groaned in answer. "Peter, I know you're angry with Tony and Ben, but you still have to go to school today."
Another groan and an "Leave me alone." When he didn't hear anything for all of three minutes, he thought May had already left for work and closed his eyes once again. Alas, the door opened, and he was dragged out of bed, falling on his ass.
"Uncle Ben, leave me alone! I'm tired. Let me sleep"
"Pete, I know you're angry with me and your...Tony about our decision, but..." His Uncle started, the grimace was very present on his face, due to the fact that Petey-Pie had fought with him and Tony for the first time in their lives. Peter had been such a good kid, didn't complain too much (he probably got that on Pepper's side of the family, because God knows how much Tony complains about everything), but he was stubborn as hell (the combined quality both of his parents had).
"Pep and May also made a decision. Theirs was good, yours wasn't. Just because OsCorp is Uncle Tony's rival company, it doesn't mean they are bad." Peter stated, rolling his eyes at Ben's attempted apology. Ben could do a lot better, and so could Tony. "If you want to apologise, allow me to go to the field trip on Friday." Peter looked at him with puppy eyes, without missing a beat.
"Fine. I will talk to Tony today, even though he might be right. I have never said that before in my life." Ben sighed. "OsCorp is a strange place, they have had so many weird experiments, their safety isn't on the SI level, and don't even get me started on the director of the company..."
"Uncle Ben, please, that trip means a lot to me. I want to learn more about the biochemistry, and SI doesn't have that department."
Ben was certain if he had mentioned this bit of information to Tony, he would make sure that a Biochem lab and researchers were employed, effective immediately.
"We will talk about it tonight." Ben mumbled, before leaving. Peter smirked, he knew that Aunt May had signed the form, after Aunt Pep insisted.
The real reason Peter wanted to go to this field trip was to ask around about his deceased parents...
The whole night before Peter's field trip neither Tony, nor Pepper could sleep. They both had a strange feeling in their guts, neither of them was able to explain it, until a few days later, at least partially...
Peter's class had walked into the last lab which they were allowed to visit, one which contained Oscorp's Robotics department, their tour guide asked if anyone had any questions, before they were finally allowed to go home.
Peter, as the mischievous child that he was, raised his hand and asked if he could go to the bathroom. He ignored the murmuring of Flash and his croonies who mumbled something about 'Penis Parker', and headed off in the direction of the BioChem lab they had passed on the way. Somehow he ended up in a room, which was the spider exibit. They looked strange, and Peter made a face at the strange creatures. One of them somehow ended up on his arm and bit him. Peter didn't feel the bite, but he noticed his arm began swelling. He ignored it, looked around, making sure no one was able to see him and the spider.
He continued toward the other BioChem lab, where he saw one of the older scientists, making up the excuse of getting lost while looking for the bathroom. The man told him he would show him the way, and they headed off. Glancing at the man's name tag, DrRajit Ratha, it wrote, Peter remembered reading somewhere about him working with his deceased parents, and he pretended to gush at the thought of meeting the man he's read about.
"Your work about the genetics of lizards is unparalleled." Peter gushed.
"I am actually pretty surprised someone as young as you can understand my work, Mr."
"Marco Richards." If Aunt Nat had taught him something, it was about the necessity of making up an identity on the spot, when you are asking around about the matters long resolved. "One of my Aunts used to work here, Mary Fitzpatrick."
"Oh, yeah, I remember her." Dr. Ratha said. "She was such a beautiful woman. She had been married to one of my friends, Richard Parker."
"I remember the stories, they died before I could meet them." It was partially honest, Peter was three when they died. "My Mum says their death was a tragedy to the whole scientific community."
"Yes, it was, but 1999 was, actually, a pretty sad year, so much war, so many deaths, and all of those people were there when their plane crashed..."
'Wait, 1999? I was born in 2001' Peter thought. "It was fifteen years anniversary a few months ago" Peter mumbled, as he did the Math.
"Yeah, I've seen his brother, Ben, at the grave when I went to pay my respects. Where do you live, son? "
"I'm from California. We are on a school trip with Atlas Academy, currently, and one of our destinations was here." Peter remembered hearing a boy, Marco Richards, from the Atlas Academy earlier, the boy was talking to Flash.
"It was nice meeting you, Mr. Richards." Dr. Ratha said when they arrived to the bathroom, he shook Peter's right hand (thank God the spider bit him on the left one), and said goodbye. Peter left to the bathroom, spent about 3 minutes there, before he returned back to the tour groups, who were all leaving together. As he got onto the bus,he started feeling his body beginning to ache, while his head started hurting as soon as he had made it to his seat. Ned gave him a few worried glances, after seeing the small beads of sweat rolling down Peter's, now pale face. He hurried to Delmar's, worrying the man who saw him, and even gave him an extra sandwich, free of charge. Peter stopped by the pharmacy, buying some pain medications and something, in case a fever arose, and one EpiPen, just in case. He walked slowly to the apartment, thankful for the existence of the elevator.
As soon as he got into the apartment, he was greeted by JARVIS, Tony made a separate housing for the program for Peter, and when Vision had been created, Peter still had JARVIS.
"Young Sir, are you alright?"
"Yes, J, I just feel a bit under the weather." Peter mumbled. "When do May and Ben get back?"
"They don't know, there was a robbery and a mass shooting, so they are both working overtime. Would you like me to call Boss or Lady Boss?" JARVIS asked, the program had felt worry for the young child's predicament.
"It's not necessary, J." Peter smiled, biting into his sandwich. He was so hungry all of a sudden. Before he could blink, he had eaten both of the sandwiches from Delmar's, two bananas and a handful of blueberries. He went into his room, and was out like a light.
Pepper had been worried sick. She was in California, when FRIDAY notified her that JARVIS contacted her to say how Peter was asleep and at the apartment, but was feeling a bit under the weather.
She called May and Ben, who were stuck at work, called Tony, who was on a wedding ceremony in the UK. None of them could get to Peter in time, so she did what a Mother should do, asked Hill to get her a quinjet with a driver, who could get her from Malibu to New York in three hours. And, just like it always is, what Pepper wants, Pepper gets.
She burst through the door of Peter's room. He was sweating so much. She knew she needed to check his temperature, so she touched his forehead, which was way too hot for her liking. She went to get the thermometer from the bathroom. 102.2 degrees Fahrenheit (39 degrees Celsius) it said. Pepper started panicking. May said he was all right this morning. She didn't understand how a bug could get to him so soon..
Pepper took in a sharp breath, before calling Dr. Helen Cho. She explained the situation, and requested that the medical wing in the Tower must be ready for her arrival. Happy helped her get Peter to the car, and then to the Tower's medical wing.
Helen checked the boy's temperature, and it kept growing. No matter what they did, they couldn't find a reason. Peter didn't wake up even once, only groaned in pain. Pepper sat by his side the whole time, holding his hand with one of hers, while the other caressed the mop of curls on his head. Her eyes were red, from all the crying. She sat there, alone, until four in the morning, when May and Ben finally burst into the room. Tony had to use his Iron Man suit to get back to New York, to be there for his son and wife.
They sat there until five p.m. When Peter finally woke up. There was no fever anymore, no headaches, no pain. Zero. Zip. Nada. He was healthier than ever. He didn't need his glasses, there was no asthma, no allergies, nothing. The boy even seem to have more muscle mass after this. Helen couldn't explain what was going on, and neither could Tony, but Peter knew it had something to do with the spider that bit him.
Everyone was walking around him on eggshells for the next week, as if they were scared he would fall sick again, but nothing happened. After a week, everything went back to normal and he was free to go back to his routine, with the occasional testing of his power, when no one was around.
About two weeks, after the incident, Peter had, finally, managed to convince Ned to help him in finding out more about Richard and Mary Parker. That night, Peter went to a sleepover at Ned's, under the pretext of building LEGOs. Uncle Tony got Ned an Imperial Star Destroyer, which had almost 5000 pieces, so no one thought twice about it.
After the dinner, Peter and Ned had watched the first Star Wars film. It ended around midnight, and everyone bid one another 'Good night', as Ned's parents both left to work their night shifts. Ned's Mum was a surgeon, on call that night, while Ned' s Dad was an engineer in the SI, who had to go to work late, since one of his interns' inventions blew up. When Peter and Ned were certain they were alone, they turned on the computer and slowly started breaking the firewalls of the Government's database. It took them about an hour and a half to break through all of the security and get to the information they (mostly Peter) were interested in.
"Richard and Mary Parker, genetic scientists who used to work for Oscorp were killed in a plane accident on June 1st, 1999. On that accident 11 people died, including the flight captain. Mary and Richard had left behind their research, which is the bases of Oscorp's work. They had no children and rarely spoke to the members of their families."
"Peter, are you..."
"Ned, find me in the program." Peter said, his eyes were narrowed, brows furrowed, and his nose flared. He pulled his lips into a thin line, as he waited for Ned to say something.
"Peter, maybe their database is wrong." Ned mumbled, after seeing the information about Peter.
"What does it say, Ned?"
"There are only two people named Peter Benjamin Parker in Queens. One of them died twenty years ago and the other one..."
"The other one?"
"He turned sixty five days ago. I'm sorry, Peter!" Ned looked down into the ground.
Peter, on the other hand, wanted to punch something really, really bad. His whole life was a lie. Who was he? Who were his parents? How were May and Ben, Tony and Pepper related to him? Were they even related? Before he could even try to get the answers to those questions, the house was filled with twenty people in SWAT uniforms.
"Get down on your knees and put your hands behind your heads!" Someone ordered. The voice had seemed very familiar to Peter, his eyes widened in realization.
"Uncle Clint? Aunt Nat?" Peter breathed out in wonder.
"Hello, Mr. Barton, Mrs. Black Widow!" Ned greeted
"Peter? Ned?" Clint's jaw dropped. He shared a look with Natasha, who face-palmed as soon as she understood the predicament they were in. She didn't know whether to laugh or be annoyed with the situation, although she did want to see the looks on everyone's faces once they realized that it wasn't an enemy looking into Peter, but Peter himself.
"Team, let the children go. You are all dismissed. Fury's orders." Natasha started barking orders at everyone. She then turned to Peter and Ned. "Which one of you two idiots hacked into the Government database?" Both of the kids raised their hands, which made her pinch the bridge of her nose in frustration. If she doesn't kill Stark, no one ever will. "I haven't told anyone anything yet." She looked at Clint, who nodded his head, as wicked grins overtook their faces.
"Kiddies, you are both coming with us. I'm certain you both realize the situation you brought yourself into will bring you a lot of trouble, as Fury and the Team are interested in knowing who was digging into the information about Peter. Let's go give them heart attacks." Clint laughed, as he saw the kids didn't know whether they should be thrilled about getting to, sort of, prank the Avengers, or terrified about the consequences of their actions. Peter also had another feeling bubbling inside of him - anger, and the ones who hid the truth about him should really watch their backs.