Chapter 2
Queens
‘Beep-beep-beep-beep-beep’
Peter groaned and buried his face into his pillow.
‘Beep-beep-beep’
Peter groaned into his pillow before turning to glare at the source of the offending noise that had dared disturb his wonderful sleep.
His clock took no notice of the look and continued its high pitched beeping. Peter sighed and turned it off, being careful not to crush it, his current one was the fourth this month and he couldn't afford to keep buying new ones.
“Peter? Are you up?” Peter could hear Aunt May’s muffled voice through the door (although for him it was like she was right next to him).
Peter stretched his tired muscles, making sure his dislocated shoulder had healed properly before answering, “Yeah May, I'm up, I'm up.” Although Peter would have preferred that he wasn't.
“Good, breakfast is ready. Hurry up you don’t want to be late.” Peter heard Aunt May move away from his door and into their small kitchen, humming to the radio as she went.
Peter let out a final groan before getting up.
While digging through his wardrobe for something clean to wear, Peter thought about the events of last night.
He hadn’t arrived home until around 4am, even then he couldn’t sleep, but how was he supposed to sleep after everything that had happened?
Peter let a huge smile take over his face as he dressed for school.
Peter was going to be trained by Daredevil!
His life was officially awesome.
After checking his appearance in his mirror, Peter grabbed his backpack and stuffed his suit and books he needed for today on top.
Peter left his room and entered the kitchen to eat his breakfast. Peter continued to mull over the events of last night at Matt’s apartment. They had talked more about the internship and what they had to do.
Matt had to convince his friends Foggy and Karen to agree to the internship while Peter had to convince his Aunt to let him take another internship.
Easy.
At least for Matt it was.
Peter had to convince Aunt May to let him take an internship in Hell’s Kitchen.
Peter was still unsure how to even broach the topic, ‘Oh hi Aunt May, listen I was offered an internship by this guy I met last night who is secretly Daredevil so that he can train me in Hell’s Kitchen, y’know the place in New York that has the highest crime rates and a guy called the Punisher that runs around killing criminals. So what do you say?’
Like that would go down well.
Peter had no idea how he was going to do this, maybe Ned could help?
“Sweetie, you’re going to be late.” Aunt May tapped his shoulder to stir him from his thoughts.
Peter froze, whipping his head round to check the time.
“Shit.”
After inhaling the last of his breakfast, Peter grabbed his backpack and headed for the door.
“Have a good day and be careful.” Aunt May called in amusement as she headed off to her bedroom to get ready for her shift at the hospital.
Throwing a quick goodbye over his shoulder, Peter bolted down the corridor and down the several flights of stairs to reach the bottom. The buildings elevator had been out of order for two weeks now despite the several hundred complaints from all the residence.
Thank God for spider powers.
As Peter pushed his way out the door and onto the busy streets of Queens, he had to decide, web-swing to school and be on time or run and get coffee – which he desperately needed if he ever hoped to stay awake during class.
Peter remembered Decathlon practice after school.
‘Definitely ganna need coffee.’
Decision made, Peter bolted down the busy street, dodging the many people heading out to start their day.
40 minutes later
Midtown Science and Technology
Peter dashed through the school doors just as the first bell rang.
Sighing in relief, Peter manoeuvred his way to his locker to grab his books for his first lessons.
Balancing his coffee and books, Peter took a look around the halls, looking to see if Ned had appeared yet.
Unable to see his friend in the crowded halls, Peter slammed his locker shut before heading for his first period, Math.
Great.
To say it was a long day was an understatement, Peter ended up downing his coffee during first period after nodding off a second time and the caffeine/sugar rush (he’d added about twelve packets of sugar) had worn off after an hour.
To be honest Peter was surprise it had lasted that long with his super metabolism.
By lunch Peter was exhausted.
When the bell went Peter headed to the counselling office.
Knocking on the door, Peter waited for the ‘Come in’ before entering. Looking around the small office, Peter spotted one of the school counsellors Miss Danffer.
Peter had met Miss Danffer before when he had set up the fake SI internship, she was kind and always seemed to have some kind of a smile on her face no matter the situation. “Hello Peter, how can I help?”
“Hey Miss Danffer, I umm….got a new internship offer the other day.”
Miss D beamed, “That’s fantastic Peter, I know how upset you were after your SI one ended. What is it this time?”
Peter shifted from foot to foot trying not to yawn, “Err….it’s at a law firm in Hell’s Kitchen.” Peter really didn’t know that much about Nelson and Murdock apart from what Matt had told him last night.
Miss Danffer lifted an eyebrow, smile still in place, “Well it’s different but if you want to try it out, go for it. I’m guessing you’re after the internship forms.”
“Yes please.” he yawned. As Miss Danffer started rummaging through a box of forms, a thought occurred to Peter.
“Actually Miss D, is it possible to get a form in brail?” Peter figured Matt would prefer that to having to get someone to read it out to him.
Miss Danffer looked back up to Peter, a small smile still on her face, “Brail?” Peter nodded, “One of the owners is blind so I figured I should ask if you had one.”
“Hmmm, I think I might, if not I can get one for you. Can you pop by at the end of the day?”
“Yeah, sure, no problem. Thanks Miss D, see you later then.”
“Goodbye Peter.”
Peter nodded before leaving the office, closing the door behind him, Peter headed to the cafeteria.
10 minutes later
He had his head pillowed in his arms on a lunch table when Ned found him.
“Dude, you okay?”
“Mmhhmm” was Peter’s muffled reply, not having the energy to raise his head.
Ned shook his friends shoulder to try and rouse a real answer.
Peter lifted his head with a pained whine. Turing to his friend, Peter gave Ned a tired look (which Ned thought resembled a kicked puppy).
“I’m dying.”
Ned snorted, “That’s not going to get you out of practice you know.”
Peter let out a huff, “I know, I know…….I had a really long night.”
Ned perked up at that, “You found the weapons? What did they do? Did they shoot lighting? Oh, oh, was it like one of those guns from portal? Cause that would be awesome.”
“What? No Ned. There wasn’t any alien weapons.”
Ned let out a breath, “Another bust.”
Peter lifted his head more, rubbing a hand over his face, “Not….not exactly.”
Ned’s brows furrowed in confusion, “But……you just said there weren’t any weapons, what happened?”
“Well, I went to check the docks for the weapons but I found a gang of drug dealers instead. No sign of and weird weapons, no alien tech.”
“So you beat them up?”
“Well….”
Ned let out a groan at his friends answer, “Dude, come on, what happened?”
Peter stabbed his uneaten lunch as he answered, “The beam I was hiding on collapsed and I landed right in the middle of their hideout. I tried to fight but I’d dislocated my shoulder when I fell so…..it was more dodging them trying to hit me but then Daredevil showed up and he beat…..”
“WHAT!” Ned interrupted, Peter turned to face his now gaping friend.
“Ned,” Peter tried to shush his friend, “shhhh, people are looking.”
Ned made an odd chocked noise before speaking again, “You met Daredevil?”
“Yes but keep your voice down.” Peter scanned the lunchroom to see if anyone was listening. To his relief, their conversation was only gaining a few odd looks and several muttered ‘losers’, which Peter could hear rather clearly.
Peter turned back to Ned who was giving him a half amazed, half expectant look.
“And? What was he like? Do you know who he is? Is he as scary in person as on the news? Did he beat you up? Did he threaten you? Did you have an epic fight? Can I meet him?.......Did you get his autograph?”
Peter let out a small huff of laughter. When Daredevil first leaped into the warehouse Peter had thought the Devil of Hell’s Kitchen was scary, but….after meeting Matt and talking with him, Peter was kinda awestruck by the older vigilante.
Peter took one last look around the cafeteria before leaning in closer to Ned, “He is so cool.” Peter let a huge smile cover his face, “He knocked out all the bad guys by himself in the dark, then he saved me cause I kinda got knocked out by a crowbar to the head. Oh, he also…maybe….kinda figured out that I’m a teenager.”
Ned had gone back to gaping at him.
“I tried to tell him I was older but he has like, this built in lie detector thing,” Peter wasn’t going to tell Ned how Matt did it since it was sort of part of his secret identity, “he ended up questioning me about, y’know, why I became Spider-man and stuff and why I was fighting Captain American and………I’m pretty sure he wants to beat up Mr Stark now, he wasn’t too happy that I got taken to fight the Avengers.”
Thinking about it Peter was going to have to make sure the two didn’t cross paths, he was pretty sure Matt would win even if Mr Stark was in the Iron Man armour.
“Anyway, he said since he couldn’t stop me he was going to train me.”
Ned’s expressing had turned awestruck, “You’re going to be trained by Daredevil.” He spoke in a breathless whisper. “This, this is awesome, is he gonna like teach you how to be all badass and stuff?”
Peter was a little offended, “Hey, Spider-man is badass.”
Ned only lifted an eyebrow in response.
Peter scowled, “He said he could help with my senses and teach me how to fight and stuff.” Then Peter remembered the problem of Aunt May and the internship.
“Hey, listen, so I needed an excuse to go to Hell’s Kitchen and Daredevil had this idea to do another fake internship.”
Ned’s expression turned confused, “How are you going to do another fake internship? Mr Stark covered you before.”
Peter pursed his lip, “Well I, sorta, learned Daredevils identity and he said I could get one where he works.”
“You….you know who the Devil of Hell’s Kitchen is.” A nod, “Dude……this is insane. What’s he like? Did you have to swear to secrecy? Is he still scary without the mask on? Can I meet him?”
“I don’t know what I can tell you, but listen, I need to convince Aunt May to agree to the internship but you know how protective she is and…..I don’t even know how to bring it up.”
Ned turned his gaze to the ceiling, “Well….you could….ummm…what if…….errrr….maybe…?”
Peter huffed and took a few bites of his lunch, “I know it’s a long shot, but I think if M-Daredevil talked to Aunt May himself she might agree.” Matt was a lawyer, Peter was sure he could win an argument with Aunt May……maybe.
After school
“PETER!”
Said boys head shot up, blinking several times to focus on the room, Peter blushed, he had only meant to close his eyes for a moment but he had ended up with his head on the table with a small line of drool leaking out the corner of his mouth.
Peter faced the rest of the Decathlon team who were now all looking at him, several were amused while the rest looked concerned, except for Flash who was glaring at him.
His blush intensified, “S-sorry, what was the q-question?”
MJ opened her mouth to speak before Flash interrupted, “The question, loser, is when you’re going to be kicked off the team.” He had a smug look on his face now, almost like he knew the team would agree with him. Luckily MJ came to the rescue, “Shut it Flash or I’ll kick you of first alternate.’ MJ’s look softened when she turned to Peter, “Peter, are you okay? You’ve been nodding off all day.”
Peter yawned and rubbed his hands over his face “I….”
Again, Flash decided his word was more important than everyone else’s, “And don’t use you whole fake ‘Stark Internship’ excuse, all the ‘real’ internships ended when SI moved.”
Peter took a deep breath, “There was a party going on all night in the apartment above us, they didn’t shut up until, like, four in the morning.”
MJ didn’t look fully convinced, “Its fine Peter, go home, sleep, I’ll text you what we go over later.”
“But…..”
“Pete, you look half dead. Go. Sleep.”
Peter let out a breath before collecting his stuff and the brail forms he’d picked up from Miss Danffer before practice had started. Calling a quiet goodbye to the rest of the team and receiving several responses he left the room and started down the corridor.
Peter sighed as he listened to his team’s conversation, thinking that Peter could no longer hear.
“You think he’s okay?”
“He looks exhausted.”
“Ned you got any idea what’s going on with him?”
“Ummm……”
“Who cares, kick him out he’s slowing us down!”
“Shut it Flash.”
Peter sighed.
Leaving the school, Peter was about to duck into an alleyway to change when he paused. Peter had to swing his way over to Matt’s apartment later to give him the forms, he was already exhausted. Letting out a breath Peter headed for home, he could sleep for a few hours before going on patrol tonight.
The next day
Hell’s Kitchen
Matt’s P.O.V.
“What the hell Matt.” Matt could feel the look Foggy was giving him.
“It might be helpful to have an extra pair of hands.” As Matt had thought, Karen was on his side concerning hiring an intern.
Last night, Peter had come back to Matt’s apartment. The wound on the kid’s head had healed completely along with his shoulder, Matt was not envious of the kids healing factor, he did fine with his Catholicism.
Despite it being past midnight Peter had been a vibrating ball of energy. Again, Matt had been impressed with how much the kid could say in one breath.
Peter’s body was in near constant movement which helped Matt track him. Matt was almost positive that it was all linked to Peter’s powers, no one should be able to be that hyperactive and talkative at that time of night without coffee.
Peter had brought the paperwork for the internship (thankfully Peter had managed to obtain a copy in brail), for Matt to read through.
Everything was straightforward, all Peter had to do was convince his Aunt to let him intern, which Matt was going to help with. Peter was going to introduce him to his Aunt to hopefully ease her worries of Peter coming to Hell’s Kitchen. Matt also had to convince Foggy and Karen that this was a good idea and that no, Matt was not insane.
Easy.
After Matt had explained that Foggy and Karen both knew that he was Daredevil, Peter agreed that Matt could tell them he was Spider-man. Matt hoped it would help convince his two friends to agree.
Before leaving, Matt had asked Peter what he had been doing in Hell’s Kitchen the night before. Apparently the kid and his friend had been tracking down the Vultures left over weapons.
Peter had also told Matt that he’d been trying to contact Stark and a guy called Happy about the weapons but neither was responding to the poor kid. Peter said that Stark had reset his suit so that he no longer had the suit’s AI to help him anymore.
Matt was furious, the devil wanted to punch someone, Stark had basically left the kid to fend for himself with no training and no way to call for help if he got in trouble or hurt.
What had Stark expected Peter to do? And, well, Matt may or may not be planning a meeting between Stark and Daredevil.
Matt was currently sat at his desk explaining to his two friends why having an intern was a good idea.
“No, no way in hell are we getting an intern. Are you insane?” Matt could practically feel the accusing look Foggy was giving him now.
Matt was prepared, he had planned his case after Peter had left for home.
Karen spoke up, “Why are you suddenly so intent on getting an intern? You guys are barely paying me, how would you pay an intern?”
Matt sighed and leaned back in his chair, “We won’t be paying him. This is a special case, he’s a friend of mine.” Matt wasn’t lying, he liked the kid.
Foggy frowned, “You know a kid? Since when do you a kid?” His voice was getting higher pitched as he questioned Matt, “Since when are you friends with a kid?”
“Since two nights ago.”
Matt could tell Foggy was gaping.
“Wait.”
Both Matt and Foggy turned to face Karen, well Matt turned to her general direction.
“Two nights ago,” Matt could hear the note of realisation in her voice, “that was the night you took down the group of drug dealers who were selling to kids.”
Foggy turned an accusing gaze to Matt, “Explain Murdock.” Foggy demanded.
Matt decided it would be best to explain.
“His name in Peter Benjamin Parker, he’s fifteen and lives in Queens. Yes I did meet him at the docks and this internship is more of a cover while I train him.”
The room was silent.
Foggy was the first to break it, “What the fuck Matt!”
Karen was remaining silent.
“Please”, Foggy rubbed his face with both hands, “please, for the love of God, please don’t tell me you’re training a kid to be your little sidekick or something.” Foggy sounded utterly and completely done.
“No.” Matt answered simply, as his face gained an innocent expression.
Foggy sighed in relief, and begun “Then wha…….”
“I’m training Spider-man.” The innocent expression morphed into a devilish smile.
Foggy made a choking noise.
Karen decided to speak up then, “Spider-man is a fifteen year old.”
“Yep.” Matt described his encounter with the wall-crawling vigilante. Explained that Peter had been searching for alien tech but ended up in the warehouse Matt had been investigating and got himself knocked out by a crowbar to the head. Matt explained how he had patched the kid up and there conversation which had led Matt to offer to train the kid.
Matt decided end his plea with something he knew would win Foggy over.
“The kid has no one to train him, no one to look out for him, no one he can call for help. Stark was supposed to but the kid hasn’t even heard from him for over a month now. Peter’s smart, he can help here during the day and i can train with him after.” Matt’s look turned pleading.
Karen shifted, “Well…..like I said, it would be good to have an extra pair of hands and we can’t just leave the poor kid on his own.”
One down.
Matt turned in Foggy’s direction, who let out a loud huff.
“…..What do I need to sign?”
Matt beamed.
Case Closed