The Trick
The next day, although the Tower was only a few blocks away from Midtown Tech, Peter’s class took the bus. Peter supposed this was for the best; with his luck, they’d get mugged halfway there. Excited chatter filled the bus.
“Hey, Penis!” Flash called from the back of the bus. Peter ignored him from where he sat next to Ned. “We’ve been taking bets on whether or not your internship is real. There’s only, like, 2 people who believe you.” Flash pointed at Ned. “3 if you count your fat boyfriend, but he’s not taking bets.”
MJ called across the bus from where she was seated at the front, “Shut up, Eugene! You wish you could be Peter’s boyfriend.” There were giggles from a few of Peter’s classmates. Flash fumed.
Ned chatted excitedly into Peter’s ear the rest of the way there, undeterred by Flash’s comments. Peter mentally face-palmed. Why was this happening? All too soon, Peter found himself in the very familiar lobby of the Avengers Tower.
“Hello,” Mr Harrington said, approaching the reception. “I have a labs tour? For my Biochemistry class. Should be under Midtown Tech? 10 o’clock?”
The receptionist- Christine, if Peter remembered correctly- scanned the computer in front of her. “Ah, yes,” She replied after clicking her mouse a few times (Probably clicking away from the Tetris game she was playing. It was oddly popular among the staff). “Your tour guide will be here shortly. In the meantime, I hope you don’t mind, but we must run a compulsory security check.”
“What would that entail exactly?” Mr Harrington asked.
“Oh, nothing out of the ordinary. Just checking for weapons or cameras. Phones are fine, as long as they remain turned off.”
Mr Harrington agreed, and moved his class over to the decidedly airport-looking security scanners. Not that seeing these was anything new to Peter, he just rarely had to enter the tower through the main lobby. He usually entered… well, through the window, scaring the crap out of Hawkeye if he was ever unfortunate to be in the same room. Which was kind of ironic, Peter thought, seeing as he spent half his life scaring people by jumping out of the vents behind them. Peter smiled smugly as Flash was forced to hand over his camera to one of the security guards. As each student passed through security, Jarvis would call, “Visitor, Clearance Pass: Omega”. Peter balked just as he was about to pass through security.
“Move it!” Someone called behind him.
Peter sighed and walked through the Security gate.
“Peter Stark, Clearance Level: Alpha.”
“Hey, Jarvis!” Peter called towards the ceiling.
“Good morning, Peter. I will say, it is unusual to see you pass through this entrance. Is there a problem?”
“No problem,” Peter informed the AI, “I’m just on a Field Trip with my class.”
“In that case, have fun. I have been told to inform you upon your arrival that Mr Barnes has managed to beat your high score.”
“What? Gramps? He didn’t know how to take a photo on an iPhone yesterday, and now he can beat my high score?” Peter gasped.
“It seems that Mr Barnes would like me to tell you:” A voice recording of Bucky played over the speakers: “HA! IN YOUR FACE PETER!”
Peter laughed, “It’s those insane reflexes, Jarv. if he was normal he wouldn’t stand a chance against me.”
“To be fair, Peter, you have-”
“Up-ba-ba-ba!” Peter stumbled, looking around his class. “JARV!”
“Apologies, Peter.”
Peter laughed, “All’s good Jarvis.”
Peter closed his eyes as he walked towards Ned. He could feel many pairs of eyes burning into his back in shock, and Peter slumped. Oh well, he thought, not really any point in hiding it anymore.
A woman in a navy suit stalked towards them, her heels clicking on the tiled floor, her posture impeccable, and the clipboard she held so tightly to her chest somehow failed to crease her uniform.
“Good morning,” she said, addressing the class. “You must be Mr Harrington’s class. My name is Jen, and I will be your tour guide for the-” Jen’s usually strict demeanour fractured when she saw Peter attempting to hide behind Ned. Apparently, she didn’t get the message that he was trying to be inconspicuous, because she addressed Peter, “Hey kid! I didn’t know you were coming in today! Would you like me to inform the others of your arrival?”
She started tapping on her clipboard, which, like all Stark tech, electronic, and probably able to communicate to Asgard or something.
“No!” Peter all but shouted. “I mean, I’m sure Tony and Cap are doing something really important.”
Peter looked to the ground, hoping Jen wouldn’t call his bluff. But of course, she did. Jen snorted. “Do you honestly think that the Avengers would be doing something productive?”
She looked to the ceiling. “Hey, Jarvis, what are Mr Stark and Captain America doing at this moment?”
Jarvis’ voice played over the loudspeaker, “It would seem that Mr Rogers is currently discussing the best condiment with Mr Barton, and Mr Stark is whacking Wade out the window with a broomstick.”
Peter balked. “What?”
There was a scream from one of the higher levels, and out of the corner of his eye, Peter saw a red streak fall from the sky.
Peter (along with the Jen, Mr Harrison and Peter’s class) whirled around to see a very real smudge of red on the sidewalk outside the tower. A very Deadpool-looking smudge. A broomstick clattered to the pavement outside after Wade, and shattered upon contact.
“DAD!?” Peter fumed to the ceiling. He knew Jarvis would play an audio recording to Tony, so it didn’t bother him that Tony was in the penthouse and Peter was in the lobby. What did bother him was that Tony had pushed Wade out of the penthouse window!
“Sorry, kid, but you know I banned him after that oven incident,” Tony’s voice came over the loudspeaker.
“But you didn’t need to chuck him out the window!”
“Would anything else have worked?”
Peter ignored Tony’s loudspeaker voice as he saw Wade begin to peel himself off the sidewalk. God, he healed fast.
Mr Harrison cleared his throat. He looked pale. Peter shuffled awkwardly.
“Well,” Mr Harrison began. “Shall we begin the tour?”
Jen nodded her head, and Peter was dragged to the front of the class by a very over-excited Ned. Flash stayed unusually quiet.
The next five minutes passed in peace. They toured a few labs (boring) with no interruptions, Jen waffling on about some award Mr Stark had one that Peter was sure Tony didn’t know he had won. Peter was honestly surprised. He had expected at least Clint to-
“AAAAA!”
Peter jumped as he felt a hand on his shoulder. It was lucky that this was a regular occurrence, otherwise he would have surely been on the ceiling or something, exposing his secret identity to everyone.
He didn’t need to turn to know who was behind him.
“Hi, Clint!”
“Hey, kiddo!”
“How’s it going?” Peter asked innocently.
“boooorrriiiinnngg,” Clint replied. “I came to give you this.” Clint held out a cookie to Peter.
Peter eyed it suspiciously.
“Relax, kid,” Clint said. “Bucky’s started baking again-”
“That doesn’t sound good.”
“-and wanted you to try one.”
Peter thought back to the last cookie Peter had tried that Bucky had made: Spinach and carrot. In a cookie. No thanks.
“I think I’m good, Clint.”
“Trust me, Pete, they’re good.”
“No thanks!”
“For the love of-” Clint grabbed Peter and forcefully shoved the cookie into Peter’s mouth. It actually tasted…good!
“Bucky made this?”
“I know right! They’re delicious!”
Peter grabbed for Clint’s pockets where he knew the archer would have stolen some to save for later. He ignored Clint’s stutters of protest as he eyed a cookie. And snorted.
“Ha! Bucky didn’t make these!”
“Yes, he did! I saw him making them!”
“Nah, Clint these are shop-bought!” Peter paused. “Did you see Bucky take them out of the oven?”
“Well, no,” Clint replied.
Peter sighed. “Try looking in the kitchen bin, Clint.”
Peter left Clint to squawk in disbelief as he ran to catch up with Jen, who had left the class behind as they gaped at what, for Peter, was a daily occurrence.