Chapter Six
Disclaimer: Nah, darling Peter is not my character. As much fun as he is make stories with. Nor do I own any other of these Marvel properties.
CHAPTER SIX
DECEMBER 2016
Peter Parker was far from okay. He was the furthest thing from it. In fact, Peter hadn't felt this out of control since he was fourteen.
He had woken up that morning without a clue on what was to come. He got up and jumped in the shower for fifteen minutes, got dressed, gelled his hair, made himself breakfast and all-over prepared himself for a normal day.
It was not a normal day.
Peter walked to the steps of his school to find a hoard of reporters. "Mr. Parker, what do you have to say about the accusations of you being Spider-man?" one of them called out. Another said, "Peter, Peter, how do you do it? It it genetics? Mutations? Are you human?"
Peter was not prepared for it. His eyes grew wide and he started to take micro steps backwards. Should he run? Should he try and force his way into school?
Peter had no idea. He was not prepared for this.
Then from behind him, a familiar voice called out, "Who would have thought that the itsy bitsy spider would be an itsy bitsy baby."
Peter felt his entire world shift around him. Nothing would be the same anymore. Peter's normal was fucked.
Should he try and deny it? Vulture was here and he need to protect the citizens even if they were being annoying. Peter himself had been part of the press at one point. The people were just doing their jobs.
"Well," Peter's voice took on the sharper lit that he used in the mask compared to his meeker Peter Parker voice. He was Spider-man in that moment, "If anything, I think my age should be a testament of how terrible you are as a villain."
The vulture looked furious. "I'm going to kill you Parker."
Peter rolled his eyes. "Oh, and what have you been trying to do for year?" Peter turned to the group of reporters. "Now would be a good time to disperse."
Some nodded and ran, but the majority stood there looking at them wide eyed. Idiots, the lot of them.
"How about you just go away and we can forget about this whole thing," Peter told the Vulture.
The Vulture growled at him- a grown ass man in a vulture suit growled at him. "How about you just give up?" the man said.
Peter snorted. He thought not. "I tired right?" he asked the reporters, "You will attest to the fact that I tried to talk him down first." They gave him blank stares again.
The Vulture decided he had enough of this banter and decided to attack the reporter of course. Because the inalienable laws of karma say: if civilians are in the line of fire, they themselves will be attacked.
So Peter jumped in front of the Vulture, his webslingers coming out from under his shirt, and attaching to the side of his suit.
Yanking the Vulture towards Peter, Peter used the kinetic energy of the man to springboard towards him knock into him with his feet. Now literally being on top of the Vulture, straddling his head, Peter reached down into the control panel of the Vulture and punched. They both started to fall out of the air.
They were maybe ten feet, but seeing how Peter did not want to slam into the ground, or even have the vulture slam into the ground, he threw out a web towards the school building. It attached and Peter swung them both to the ground.
The Vulture tried to shake him off, and Peter went "Woah boy. Do you think I can make it the eight seconds?"
He then flipped backwards off the the man. The Vulture turned lumbering and swung a punch at his head. Peter ducked away from that as his Spider-sense went off. Then he did it again and again.
"I can do this all day," Peter said, "but seeing as I don't have all day…" Peter went ducked underneath the next punch, kneed the man in the side and as he reacted to the hit, used his webbing to bind the man's hands and body.
The Vulture fell to to ground wrapped like a Spider's meal.
"Well, that was just sad," Peter said, looking down at the man. "My first fight after coming out has to be with someone this incompetent."
"Well," Peter grinned at the reporters, "You got your story, and it seems like I need to bail. Chao."
Swinging away from the reporters, Peter felt so out of place in his plain clothes. He swung onto a rooftop, and changed out of his pants and top revealing his suit underneath. He added his gloves and boot socks. Both were incredibly thin seeing as Peter's sticking ability couldn't work through something like rubber.
He couldn't go back to his place. Although it was registered under an alias of his, the Avengers had already found it and would probably be waiting for him.
He needed to lie low until the world made a decision on whether or not his actions were legal. Peter did not want to get arrested. Him in the prison system was terrifying. The second he went to sleep he would die.
Peter swung down to street level after twenty or so blocks and shifted back into his plain clothes. He threw up the sweatshirt hood. He needed a hat and glasses. He ducked into the first touristy store.
They were playing his "breaking news" on the TV in the shop. The reporter said, "It has broken that Peter Parker is identified to be Spider-man. What do we know about this kid?" She enunciated kid as if it was something unbelievable.
"He's brilliant that's for sure," the other reporter said, "He is shown to be in line for valedictorian of his school and doesn't go there but for one class every other day. Not much is known about his family. His parents are missing and have been for twelve years. He went and lived with his aunt and uncle. His uncle died in a convenience store robbery gone wrong and his aunt died of cancer less than a year later. He's lost two sets of parents. A complete orphan. After that, we lose trace of his living conditions. This kid literally has no one."
"Crazy isn't it?" the man behind the counter said. "Spider-man being underage. Just thinking about how he popped up three years ago and how young he must have been." Peter ducked his head.
"Yeah," he said gruffly.
He placed a hat and a pair of glasses on the counter. They were touristy, but that was fine. Then he also placed a twenty dollar bill on the counter that would cover it all. "Keep the change." Peter told him and hightailed it out of the shop.
He had a storage until in Long Island that had everything he would need to disappear for a couple of days until he could make a plan of action.
Wearing the disguise, nothing of his face was really visible. He jumped on the subway going out. He still had his school bag which was just a plain black Jansport, so not too recognizable. He took out of pair of headphones, and started to put them in his phone.
Fuck, Peter through. His phone. He would need to ditch his phone.
At the next shop Peter got out, threw it on the trash, and got back on the next subway. Soon, he was gone and he hoped he would be hard to find.
….
The Avengers were gathered for a morning meeting. Even Fury was supposed to be there.
"So," Tony said, "We're all idiots and Spider-man was under our noses."
"The boy moved like a warrior. I should have known," Natasha commented.
"I am saddened I did not get to meet this Man of Spiders. He is young to be such a prolific warrior." Thor voice boomed around the room. Tony rolled his eyes.
The meeting room was stark white and the chair were uncomfortable. Tony had a suspicion that those things were done on purpose. To make them more bored that was.
Fury entered the room with his long trench coat trailing behind him. Tony thought that was his super power; his magnificent expressive trench coat.
"Peter Parker has gone off grid. Have you covered his background?" Fury asked.
They shook their head. What did expect them to do, actually get things done without them. Even spangles didn't really have energy to do things without Fury. Fury was like their school teacher.
"Fine. Peter Parker is seventeen years old. He is a senior at Midtown High. He is slated to be valedictorian. He owns three different business endeavors: Pete May Designs, The Benjamin Richards Corporation, and the Uncle Ben Foundation. All of his relatives are dead."
Fury paused to look at them intently with his eye. "His parents, Richard and May Parker's, are listed as missing. I do not believe that Peter know this, but they were shield agents who were killed on a mission. His uncle and aunt took him in at five years old and raised him as their own. His uncle dies at a convenience store robbery right before he becomes spider-man. Less than six months later his aunt dies of cancer. At fourteen, Peter drops off grid, only showing up to school until Pete May Designs comes into business. Only through looking into his financials did we even figure out the connection."
Tony whistled, "Wow, good on the kid. Even I don't think I would have done this well alone. Mind you at fourteen I was at MIT."
Spangles rolled his eyes at Tony. "Yeah, Tony we all know. So, Furt, should we be worried about Peter as a threat."
Fury shook his head, "I don't believe so. He has a death count, but it is extremely low for being active for as long as he has been. He seems to show a wisdom beyond his years when fighting and has an extremely idealistic take on the world. Peter Parker is not a threat, but Peter Parker might be in danger."
"What do you mean?" Clint asked, sitting back in his chair.
"The newspaper have been smearing him for years. Right now, they are calling for his arrest. We need to turn to media against that- use Peter's age as a tool. He's not a legal adult. Tony, I would like you to put in a request to become his temporary guardian. Make up some bullshit about knowing his father and wanting to help him continue to develop his science talents. We can't have him legally under the control of someone nefarious. If not only for Peter's sake, but BRC is one of the biggest medical donors in the world and its think tank could easily be used for less clean and positive purposes."
Tony nodded, as long as he didn't have to take care of the child he would.
"We need to find Peter before other sources do," Steve said.
Tony nodded. He agreed with that.
"Last known whereabouts?" Natasha asked.
….
Miles and miles away, Peter entered a storage unit. It was paid for every month in cash and registered under a false name. This was Peter's safety net.
He closed it behind him. He had been careful to have his face down when he passed by any cameras on the way over. Who knows how powerful Stark's technology was as far as facial recognition went. Peter was not leaving it to chance. There was a briefcase full of a hundred thousand dollars cash, a couple sets of clothes, and a fake identity set.
He had digitally altered his picture on Photoshop to show him with black hair. It said: Caleb Ray Keenan. 18-year-old male. Peter grabbed the black die, the suitcase, the clip on earring, the clothes and headed out to find a hotel for the night.
After he died his hair, he would log onto to wifi at a Starbucks and try to piece together what had happened and make a plan what to do. Inside the bag he grabbed there was also a fake passport, but Peter wasn't that desperate yet.
He was Peter Parker. He was Spider-man. He had battled villains. He defeated the Goblin. He had watched Gwen almost die, get addicted to prescribed drugs, and cheat on him.
He had been low himself. There had been times in his life when he didn't know if he had money to eat another meal. He had gotten through two sets of parents dying and being bullied and having all the power in the world to stop it. He never got enough sleep and his head was perpetually pounding.
He survived all that and he could survive this.
This was just another challenge he had to face, and he would. Because he was fucking Spider-man.