Before everything went to hell, Peter was actually having a good day. He had nailed his biology test, he stopped a few thugs from robbing civilians, and he was going to the school dance with his best friends, Ned Leeds and Michele Jones.
Things were beginning to look up for him.
Michele Jones thought she finally had her life together. She was doing good at school, she had great friends, but then of course her hearth had to betray her.
She had a crush on Peter Parker, her best friend, and now she was going to the dance with him and Ned as friends.
What possibly could go wrong?
Ned knew his friends were crushing on each other, but didn't think it was his place to tell them. Instead he kept his mouth shut. He also kept his mouth shut about all those times Peter mysteriously disappeared, but that was not what this night was about.
They walked in to the gym together and immediately saw aunt May helping the other teachers.
Why was aunt May helping in a school dance? She was aunt May, that's why.
The three friends had a lot of fun that night. Laughing, dancing, singing, eating. What they didn't know was that close by the Avengers were fighting a gang with alien weapons. The gang fled towards their school and when they entered the gym, Peter's festive mood was suddenly gone. The students, teachers and parents moved to the walls as the thugs shot a few bullets in the air.
Peter knew he had to get out and change in his suit. "Stay here." he told his friends and aunt. Peter then wanted to slip away but May stopped him.
"Where are you going?"
"I'm going to call mister Stark." he explained, and it wasn't a lie. He hid in the bathroom and called him.
Outside not only Tony Stark and the rest of the Avengers stood (Black Widow, Hawkeye, Captain America, Scarlet Witch, Vision, Black Panter and Ant-man.) but the FBI was also there.
"We need to go in. Those kids are in danger." Captain America told the agent in charge.
The rest of the Avengers agreed.
"We can't let you. What if you destroy the building? You have a reputation." the agent replied.
They were cut off by Tony's ringtone.
"Mister Stark? There are man in our school taking hostages." Peter urgently said.
"I know, we're standing outside the building. Just don't do anything stupid, okay kid?" Tony ordered, terrified of what could happen to the kid if he got caught in crossfire.
The television turned on and the thugs appeared on the screen with a girl in their arms and a gun to her head. Tony recognized the girl from Peter's picture's on his phone.
Michelle Jones. One of Peter's friends.
"Michelle..." Tony heard Peter mutter before he disconnected.
"Peter, no! Do not do anything stupid." he tried but the young hero couldn't hear him anymore.
"Oh god, who's that?" Wanda asked when she saw the girl on the screen.
"We want a problem-less exit and all the cash we stole, or everyone in this room will die." One thief said.
Peter knew he shouldn't go after them, but he did. He changed into his suit and busted through the door, startling a lot of students.
"Let them go!"
Tony saw what happened and cursed. "We have to go in." he ordered.
"We have to help Spider-man." Wanda agreed.
The rest of the Avengers all knew Spider-man of course and they absolutely adored him, even though they didn't know who he really was or how old.
"Spider-man is a grown up superhero. He can take care of himself." The agent answered before the other Avengers could say something.
'He isn't a grown up.' Tony thought, but he knew he couldn't tell anyone about it. Instead he just watched as Peter tried to fight off all the criminals.
Key word: Tried.
Of course, Peter could easily handle normal criminals, but these weren't normal criminals. These guys had weapons you couldn't even dream about, and Peter took a few hard blows. Nothing that would kill him, but it did seriously hurt him.
The other Avengers knew how much Spider-man meant to Tony and wanted to cheer him up.
"Come on, Tony. He's right. Spider-man can handle it." Natasha said.
"I get that you're trying to cheer me up, Natasha. But it's not really helping." he answered nervously.
He looked back at the screen, the young boy was still fighting the criminals while trying to get the others to safety.
Then suddenly, everything slowed down. As one guy punched Peter in the face, the other kicked him in the stomach, making him stumble back into another one who ripped of his mask.
"No!" Tony exclaimed.
Luckily Peter moved quick enough with his head down, so that nobody could see his face, including the students and adults there.
"We have to go in, now! He's not going to hold out much longer." Tony fumed.
He turned back to the tv seeing that the boy was still trying to fight off the criminals with his head down.
Inside the building it was a chaos. Michelle thought that this was the day that she was going to die, but then Spider-man showed up, just like he had in DC, and as they let her go, she ran back to Ned and May who made sure she was okay.
The New York hero took a lot of hits, and then his mask was pulled off.
On one side, she always wanted to know who he was, but on the other side, she respected the secret identity thing.
Spider-man kept fighting, head down so no one could see it. One of the criminals saw May, grabbed her by her neck and shoved a gun to her head.
Michelle screamed and kicked in protest, but she was held back by another guy.
"Stop, or this woman gets a bullet in her head."
Spider-man stopped fighting the thugs as he was crouching and head down. The camera was turned on him as he slowly looked up and everyone saw the terrified and angry face of...
Peter Parker!
"PETER?" May shrieked.
"Oh my god!" Ned incredulously said.
"Peter?" MJ whispered.
"Parker?" Flash asked incredulously.
All at the same time.
Outside, Tony was still trying to convince them to let them in. When he looked back at the screen, he saw May being captured.
"No, no, no, no, no." he muttered.
Peter stopped fighting and looked up to the criminal.
"Oh. My. God. That's Spider-man?" Natasha whispered.
The Avengers were horrified. The hero who all of them asked to fight next to them, the one they all adored so much. It was a 15 year old kid...
For some, it was still too much to wrap their minds around.
"Spider-man is just a 15 year old kid?" Steve cautiously asks. They knew Peter because Tony had introduced them to his intern.
"Yes, he is, and we have to help him!" Tony said while his suit powered up. The agent that held the Avengers from going inside, was staring at the screen with his mouth wide open.
Tony didn't care what the agents wanted and just ran in with the rest of the Avengers behind him. They jumped through the doors as Peter attacked the man who was holding May. The team got all the criminals in custody.
Tony went to see how the young hero was doing. He had some bruised ribs, a broken arm, maybe a mild concussion, but he was going to be fine. Even though the world knew, he needed to hold on to that little voice in his head.
Everything was going to be fine.