Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Peter wasn’t exactly prepared for when the Ironman and Captain America feud came into Queens; honestly, how cool was this?!?!? He got to see his heroes up close and personal! Even if it was because said heroes were dragging their fight, as in war, across Queens. And Peter was about thirty seconds away from jumping into the middle. And he would most likely die from doing so.

Systematics, really.

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“Earth to web head, focus.” Came MJ’s cool voice to his earpiece. “Guy in the Chair, how long for audio feed?”

“ohmygoshohmygoshohmygosh- IT’S IRONMAN AND CAPTAIN AMERICA!” Ned’s voice squealed from the radio piece. “IT’S OFFICIAL, I DIED AND WENT TO HEAVEN. I’M LITERALLY DEAD.”

“Yeah, and unless you want Web head to actually die and for me to bury you alongside him, set up the audio feed.”

“Buzz kill,” both boys murmured under their breaths without any actually heat behind it. Leave it to MJ to make sure they kept alive. 

“From here on out, we will use our code names, stay as professional as possible- leave nothing that can be traced backed to us; interests, tidbits, any particular references either. Once we’re able to listen to them, they can listen back. Guy in the Chair, how much longer until we’re live?” MJ's voice came out crystal clear over their radios.

“T minus 15 seconds.”

“Oh, and Web head? Make sure you ask Ironman if he believes in climate change when you get close enough.”

“We are going live in 3…2…1”

Peter couldn’t help but feel giddy at how cool everyone sounded. Ned's aka, Guy in Chair, voice was cool and calm; MJ, aka Black Dahlia (the joke came after she told them that she didn’t care if Star Wars made a remake or not. They has cried tears as if their hopes and dreams were murdered. [Nothing at all to do with the fact they find her as mysterious, and lethal as the case itself]) had Spiderman’s back- his back.

It was like having his very own super team.

HOW FREAKING COOL WAS THAT!   

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Tony hated that they were fighting over civilian territory, but he only had sixteen hours to bring the Rogue Avengers back. He doubted that Steve would just give in anytime soon.

‘Sir, your suit has been infiltrated by an unknown source’. Chimed Jarvis.

Are you kidding me? Tony just couldn’t get a break. How the heck did anyone on Caps team hack his AI?

Humming to himself, he instructed the AI to do a thorough back door check on the intrusion and to seal the break in. Tony wasn’t prepared for his AI to come back empty handed, stating there wasn’t any back doors to trace, but they could hack back into the intruder’s system.

This couldn’t be Cap, could it? Maybe Sam or Clint? Sam has the experience, and Clint is smart and easy to underestimate.

“Hey, honey bear, do an algorithm diagnostic for back door entry.” Tony hoped that whatever they did, it didn’t affect Rhodes. He didn’t think he could handle having him injured because of him. He wouldn’t be able to bare it.

“The suit has been compromised, Tones. What do you think we should do?” the Colonel's voice filtered through the line.

They only had sixteen hours to bring the Rogues in, but to war with Cap with compromised suits? That would be suicide, but he doubts that Ross would care to listen to that. “We’ll proceed for now. The moment the suits aren’t functioning optimally, we stand down.”

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“Hey, my suits been jacked!” Sam called over the communications line. “How the heck did Stark manage to do that?”

Cap knew that fighting Stark was going to be difficult, but the last time he met the man he didn’t think he would be able to hack in Sam's suit. Scott was also probably ‘jacked’ as well. This wasn’t going to end well if both Scott and Sam were down. He needed to save Bucky, but how could he sacrifice the others for this? There had to be a way to save his team and not compromise Bucky. Maybe if he just took Stark out for a bit and then they could get away. It was worth a try.

“Stand down until further notice, Sam- you, too, Scott. I’ll go after Tony. Once he’s down, then you can enter the battle only after that. Try to figure out what’s wrong, okay?”

Both men affirmed the new plan as they landed and promptly turned their suits offline and on to battery mode. They could never be too careful.

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Tony knew something was probably wrong when both Sam and Scott went down. Something was definitely wrong when Cap turned his full attention to him and charged.

Well, well. Tony would be lying to say he wasn’t itching for a rematch from Serbia.

He activated his turbos and jets as he charged forward. He wasn’t going to lose to a frozen grandpa. This time, he didn’t have his murderous fugitive friend to help him.

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Cap and Tony were just about to enter a ten feet radius of each other when a new voice squealed on their head coms.

“This is so freaking cool! Tell me you’re seeing this! This is freaking Ironman and Captain America! I’m literally dead!”

The voice sound young and unfamiliar as another joined them.

“Dude get me an autograph. I don’t even care who. Or like a shoe- even a rock someone touch. Then I can die with you!”

What. The. Heck. Who were these children that they kept hearing? The voices were definitely male and young. Maybe twenty five? Twenty? Oh God, please don’t be any younger than that. The one thing worse then having a citizen near by was having underaged civilians.

“Spiderman, stop the altercation, now, and you not a word from here on out.”

That voice was definitely female- a girl, woman? It was hard to decide an age for her. What was even happening at this point?

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“I’m going to take a wild guess right now, and say you were not the one that compromised my suit,” Tony stated as he saw that Cap's face was just as confused as his own.

“No, I thought you jacked Sam's suit…?”

Well, I’ll be darned.

Suddenly both Tony and Steve felt something attach to their backs and something pulled them back towards two pillars.

“Good afternoon, gentlemen!” chirped one of the voices they heard over their line. Soon enough a…skinny twig (?) in red and blue pajamas came swinging into view, and it was clear to see that whatever attached to them came from his arms. As he landed he pulled both his arms back, both Ironman and Captain propelled towards the pajama clad man. Eventually the newcomer had them stuck to one of the beams. “Hello everyone, big fan here.”

“Fan, huh? Well, I’m getting mixed signals here. Gotta name small, tiny and in an underoos onsie?” Tony hissed from his beam. The string he was wrapped around was heck of a lot stronger than it looked, and they weren’t anywhere close to his lasers, so he couldn’t even melt them. Turning to the side, it looked like Cap wasn’t any better.

“Just your everyday friendly neighbourhood Spiderman and Co,” Apparently Spiderman chirped. “You’re kind of maybe on our turf- not that we’re some sort of gang or anything, honest- but you’re dragging your war to Queens and we can’t let you do that. So, um, please…um …don’t?”

“Is that stuff coming out of you?” Sam called out. “That’s just nasty, Bug Boy.”

“Hey! It’s Spiderman, Mr. Falcon, Sir!” Peter called out. This wasn’t how he had planned meeting his heroes, not that he was complaining. “And I’ll have you kno-”

“Incoming, Black Widow and Hawkeye, at 7 o’clock and 10 o’clock, respectively. Get off the ground Spiderman.”

“On it, thanks Dahlia!” Peter smiled as he barely missed the both the spy and the assassin as he pulled himself up to the roof of the warehouse. Now to follow with the plan; set up his web bombs and MJ will set them off when the time was right, while webbing up the others and not dying. Ned already had the police on speed dial (he hacked their system to get straight to the big guns) and was waiting for it to be safe enough for them to deal with the aftermath.  

Not expecting Spiderman to miss both of them, they weren’t prepared for when the man webbed them up as well. Neither seemed too pleased to be attached the wall beside Stark and Steve.

Sam and Rhodes tried to make their way to their comrades when suddenly their suits shut off.

“I am so sorry Falcon, Colonel Rhodes, Ant Man. But I can’t have you going after Spidey! I still love you guys, though. Please touch a rock that I can take as a souvenir.”

“Thanks Guy in Chair!” Spiderman smiled. Ah yes, maybe he won’t be dying today after all with both MJ and Ned looking out for him.

Sure enough, after he dropped the bombs and was chased- nearly caught and killed several times- he finally got the Scarlet Witch, Vision and the Winter Soldier right where he wanted them. Sure enough, MJ set off the bombs, and they were trapped in a tangle of webs. That left who now…- and down Peter went.

Suddenly Black Panther was dragging him down. “Your highness! This is such an honour!” Well MJ always did say he didn’t have the best timings, but when’s the next time he’ll ever get that close to an actual king and a superhero king at that?!?

“SPIDERMAN/SPIDEY!” Both MJ and Ned called over the web com.

Peter would have loved to respond to them, but it seems that T’Challa clawed at his web cylinders. Well, colour him kind of sad for the loss of his only weapon, but also kind of honoured too. He was good at multitasking.

“Guy in Chair, call the authorities, I’m going to ground zero to get him back.” The female’s- Dahlia’s voice came.

“OooooOoooo, you did it now! I’m not supposed to help you, but freaking run man. Dahlia doesn’t take prisoners, man!”

True to word the sound of engines approaching them came louder until a motorcycle came crashing down from a nearby rooftop. The rider was covered in a black cloak that hid everything about them. All the Avengers could make out was that they were holding a gun of some sort and had it pointed at T’Challa, never losing speed.

On instinct, the Black Panther moved to get a cover, but it seemed to be for not. As soon as Spiderman left the king move away from him,  he rushed forward, jumping on the back of the motorcycle. Taking the gun like object from the driver. He smiled at the others as he switched his damaged web shooters with the news ones. He had to admit that they looked pretty freaking scary the way MJ was holding them, but that was probably the point.

Realizing that he has be fooled T'Challa went after the duo only for the blacked cloaked figure to also pull out a gun from their other arm. With quick shots towards the Wakanda royalty proved that this time it was truly a gun. It wasn’t sure what type it was since it made electrical sparks as it collided with the ground, barely missing him.

 Within minutes, Peter and MJ were on their way out; Ned having blocked all the street camera from a four-mile radius.

“Hey, listen, I hope this doesn’t change anything, we still all love every single one of you, but please don’t hurt Queens! Thank you all, and I hope you get home safely! Oh! And Mr. Ironman sir, do you believe in Climate change? Goodbye!”

T’Challa could accept a losing battle when he saw one. There wasn’t a chance he would catch up to them now. Besides, he came for the Winter Soldier, not a boy in pajamas.

As T'Challa watched the duo leave, he made sure to imprint the image to the back of his mind for a later time. Just because he could accept a loss today doesn’t mean he was willing to leave it as it was. Another day perhaps. 

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After the embarrassing incident in Queens, the two opposing sides quickly made amends. Some more forcefully then others (Tony and Steve with Bucky), but an agreement was made and the Accords were modified to be agreeable.

After all, now they all had a some kind of common ground. They needed to know more who this ‘Spiderman’, ‘Guy in Chair’ and ‘Dahlia’ were.

As they soon found out that a split effort wasn’t going to faze the mismatched team; well, maybe a joint effort would? It was easier to make amends when they needed each other to find the vigilant and company.

They would uncover this…this… ‘Team Spiderman’. There would be nowhere to hide.

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MJ rolled her eyes as she watched her idiots work each other up into hyperventilating.

Her boys were being idiots. Peter and Ned might as well have been bottling up their excitement from the days prior with how much they have been squealing about the Avengers with all the fangirling dramatics they have been doing. And it was dangerous. She didn’t need the elite heroes coming after them. The less the would have talked the less they would know about them, and the safer for them.

“I can’t believe you breathed the same air as them! How does it feel to be around such greatness!” Ned gushed as they were over at his house (his laptop and mother board were already set up there, which made his house sort of like their base hideout).

“If you think that’s cool (MJ rolled her eyes at that. Seriously, boys) I got you something!” The other watched as Peter shuffled through his pockets, eventually pulling something out. He reached out to put it in Ned’s hand.

It was a rock. An ordinary rock.

“So, no one touch that rock, but it was from the same place from a couple of weeks ago! I went back and got it for you!” Peter gushed as he looked like he just presented the sun and the moons to Ned.

And Ned? He actually fainted (to which Peter responded with ‘I KNOW RIGHT!’).

Dorks. MJ raised her can of ginger ale to cover her smile.

Soon afterwards Ned woke up and he and Peter talked about the rock, or their now mascot apparently, so it was pretty safe for MJ to be scrolling on her phone without offending them.  

Suddenly a title caught her interest, “Guys, look here. The Avengers released a video.”

“I, Tony Stark, Ironman, officially declare the media dubbed ‘Civil War' to be ended upon peaceful terms. The Avengers have all come together to agree on more wholesome Accords with the public’s interest at heart.

Please welcome, Captain America.”

The trio watched as the video played nothing too anxious about this (though MJ's instinct never let her down before).

“That being said, we have found that it is in the Avengers’ best interest to come into contact with the vigilant, Spiderman and his associates. We urge them to respond to our plea for communication. We also ask anyone with information to come forward.”

“What does this means?” Ned asked as he felt like something was going horribly wrong.

“The Avengers said my name! OW- HEY!” Peter cried out.

“They want to public to turn you in. Have some common sense,” MJ hissed though her eyes never left the screen.

“Look, I have spider sense, not common sense. There is a difference, MJ.” Peter huffed.

MJ pulled her hand back from where she had smacked Parker. “It means we’re in trouble." No one spoke as the weight of what just happened settled between them, until MJ spoke up again while she got comfortable in her sleeping bag. “Two can play at this game. Team Spidey isn’t going anywhere. We can dodge them until they loose interest. Goodnight, guys.” They'll have to go through me before they'd ever be able to touch them, MJ nodded to herself. 

The remaining two friends looked at each other as they got in their sleeping bags as well.

I sure hope she’s right.

Chapter Text

It was six thirty in the morning. Six- I- should- still- be- sleeping- o’clock. It didn’t help that Tony went to bed at four something, but apparently it was an emergency meeting.

He may have made up with Rogers over the Winter Soldier ordeal, but if he acts like his chirpy self even once, Tony was going to blast him off the roof of the tower, human morals be darned.

“Is this how you plan to get back at us, Stark?” Sam came in dragging his tired limbs to the meeting room.

“Shut up.” Though it did seem strange that Sam wouldn’t be on board with Cap. Cap was the one to do this, right?

Entering the meeting room, Tony saw the other Avengers sitting around their table, Natasha, happy as she can be, sharpening her knives. Strangely, Cap was missing.

“Where is the Cap?” I need to blast him off the roof, Tony thought to himself.

“He was on his five am run when the alarm went off,” Natasha stated, eyeing Tony. Did he really not know who called the meeting?

“Sorry to make you wait,” Rogers called as he lightly jogged into the room. “What’s going on, Tony, are you alright?”

“I’m always fabulous, Sprangles,” came the short reply. “If you didn’t call the meeting, who did?”

“I did.” The answer of high pitched clicking making it way over to the person who radiated power, cold hard facts, and intelligence. A force that even Tony feared.

The woman of the hour, every hour of every day.

The unyielding Pepper Potts.

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When Peter and Ned work up it was to MJ scribbling in her notebook with a fierce look on her face. Both boys stretched before they peeked over her shoulder.

“REALLY?! I THOUGHT YOU SAID WE WEREN’T ALLOWED TO DO THIS! THIS IS SOOOO COOL!” Peter gushed. He couldn’t believe this was finally happening!

“What’s going on?” Ned asked as he craned his neck more to peeked over MJ's shoulder, his eyes widening as he read over her handwriting. “…no…”, the disbelief palpable in his voice.

“Well, it would be rude not to reply to the Avengers. So, let’s get this going. Ned go off the grid and hack into the system to verify this.” MJ said as she thought over the next couple of moves.

“This is soo cool!” Peter smiled. “So can I know the password?”

“Of course not.” MJ hummed. She couldn’t risk this, not when they were going to face the most lethal (unofficial) Avenger yet.

Pepper Potts.

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“We made contact with Spiderman  and his associates,” Pepper started, only Tony, after knowing her for years could see that this wasn’t happy news. “Publicly.”

“What does that even mean?” Clint groaned as he let his shoulders sag. It didn’t seem like they were getting any closer to finding the strangely polite, overly joyful and downright scary anytime soon. He was too old to be dealing with well mannered delinquent and posse.

Pepper sighed as she turned to the screen beside her, pulling up Twitter, of all things. “’Team Spidey' formally known as ‘Team Petunia' for briefly three minutes, has made a public Twitter account to address our announcement.”

“Wait, wait, wait. Who is this ‘Petunia'?”  Natasha demanded. There was three. There has to be only three on that team. It doesn’t make any sense for ‘Dahlia’ to leave her post to save Spiderman if there were extra bodies available.

“We don’t know. For now we assume it is a highly dangerous and seasoned female. Skills are unknown. This could be the person behind everything. We will proceed with caution.”

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MJ glared at Ned. He has one simple job, create a Twitter account called Team Spidey. But Apparently the boys had a different idea. “Ned, who is Petunia?”

“Oh, Petunia? The fourth member of our team, duh.” Ned said as he stared at his friend. “You know, Petunia…?”

“No, Ned, I do not know. Who. Is. Petunia?”

“Lady and gentleman, if I can have your attention, please,” Peter waltzed in, holding his hands behind his back. “I would like to formally initiate our fourth member to the team- Petunia!”

On cue, Ned starts singing some random opera song while clapping simultaneously. And Peter pulls his hands in front of him revealing… their mascot, the rock with a napkin wrapped around it and an infinity sign drawn on the front. “With great honour: I’d like to formally welcome Petunia into the ranks!”

“Oooo is that a cape and a mask! She’s so cool, Peter!” Ned gushed.

MJ just rolled her eyes. If nothing else, then she could say they were messing with the Avengers. “Welcome to the ranks, Petunia.”

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Team_Spidey@TeamSpidey

Hey, everyone! It’s your favourite neighbourhood Spiderman! Hi Ironman! @TonyStark, Huge fan!

Team_Spidey@TeamSpidey

But we wholeheartedly love all of you, and can you tell Captain America that he is amazing? He is so epic! So are the rest of you guys. The rest of you guys should also make a Twitter account- I’d definitely follow you :) 

Team_Spidey@TeamSpidey

We are writing in response to your public call for aide on trying to catch our team, but we just cannot accept the notion, because we both know that what’ll mean. We belong and are loyal to Queens. This is our home. And though we regret having our first encounter being us fighting against you, we never meant any ill intent. We were saving Queens. And that day, we were saving Queens from you. @AvengersOfficial @PepperPotts @TonyStark 

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(“Give me the phone back,” MJ hissed as she stared her boys down. “We are Team Spidey. We do not gush about the people trying to arrest us. No buts!”)

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“The problem we have now is that Queens have sided with Team Spidey. They have won over Queens, started a fan base ranging from adolescents to the elderly. No one is willing to come forward with any information.” Pepper stated as she brought up another screen on Twitter.

Trending:

TEAMSPIDEY

QUEENSSPIDERMAN

SPIDEYFORLIFE

OURSPIDEYOURQUEENS

CAT

“You mean that Spiderman out trended cats?” Clint whistled. “That’s really something.”

“They have very few followers,” Natasha stated as she looks onto the screen, only about a hundred, though the numbers seem to be rising. “They must have hacked the server to verify the account. Can’t we trace that?”

“Nope. Nu-huh. Doing that would open Jarvis up for hacking. Absolutely not risking it.” Tony sighed.

Before anyone could argue the pros and cons over Tony refusing, Pepper raised her hand to silence them. “No, the digital network isn’t a safe place. Whoever is Team Spidey were able to hack into multiple SI suits at the same time that weren’t detected until breached. It’s not a risk we can take.”

“We’ll just have to track them down the old fashion way.” Steve concluded. “We’ll need to patrol Queens for a bit until we can catch them or find something we can link to them. They are probably plotting against us right this moment.”

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(“Hey, Petunia, look!” Peter gushed as he brought the rock closer to the screen. “We have 7.4 thousand followers on Twitter! Isn’t that cool!”)

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“I’ll handle PR. We’ll use the Avengers official account of Twitter to respond, since they seem fond of the app.” Pepper sighed. “This is where we’ll branch off to different groups. Whoever goes to Queens: be safe. Meeting adjourned.”

Tony and Steve thought it would in their best interests to head to Queens right away. Hopefully to surprise Spiderman and his company. If they could catch them off guard then maybe they would slip up  even a little. They needed to figure who was behind the masks.

The overall drive wasn’t very long with how tense the Avengers were. The anticipation of the chase had everyone’s blood pumping. As soon as they arrived to Queens, they has split into two groups; the stealth group consisting of Natasha and, Clint. Everyone else was on direct look out. Find where ever there is trouble, and they’ll find Spiderman.

What they didn’t expect to find was a sea of “#TeamSpidey" shirts everywhere [business tycoons work fast], though some look hand made. Needless to say, after about eight wild goose chases they came to the agreement that the public wasn’t going to help them capture Spiderman any time soon. That and there wasn’t a whole lot of crime happening, so no leads there.

“I don’t understand what we’re doing wrong!” Sam whined. “The guy runs around in all red all the time, we should be able to spot him.” He stretched his back as he sat down a bench looking across some tech high school. “Clint-why do you have Team Spiderman merch?”

“….It isn’t what it looks like, Sam.” Clint sighed. What was he supposed to say? That his kids found out and wanted Team Spidey shirts? The little traitors, he doesn’t know why he loves them so much.

“Brilliant, if we wear more Spiderman friendly clothes, maybe we’ll get a better response from the public.” Natasha called out as she started to walk away from the group to the nearest store selling Spiderman merchandise.

“You’re lucky you have Nat,” grumbled the cranky Avenger.

“Absolutely not. I refuse to buy those hideous shirts,” Tony huffed. “I bet that Spiderman doesn’t even get to have a share in the profits. Disgusting. What he needs is a good lawyer.”

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PFFFFT, do they really think we’ll fall for something like that? How dumb. MJ thought to herself as she watched the Avengers from the window putting pro Spidey stuff on from her World's Religions class. That being said, Spidey is trademarked. If money is being made off of them, then they want a cut.

As MJ watched the Avengers from the corner of her eye she noticed that the boys PE class were jogging outside. The same class that had Peter and Ned. She would be lying if she wasn’t looking forward to them meeting their heroes.

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“Ned, is that really the Avengers in front of our school? Ned, Ned, Ned, Ned, dude, look!” Peter breathed as he stared straight ahead  no longer jogging. No one seemed to be jogging as they all stopped to stare at the Avengers, so it seemed pretty fair.

“Peter, my friend, my dude, listen. I’m dying and not the good kind of dying.” Ned wheezed as he gasped for air, his hands on his knees. Why did the coach hate them enough to make them run in 27 degrees? That should be against the law.

“Well maybe if you looked up you could die a happy death. Like, look!”

Ned’s eyes widened as he took in the figures in front of him. Instead of answering Peter he forced himself to limp over to the Avengers. “Must have meaningful death, must have meaningful death,” the boy muttered.

The Avengers must have noticed Ned as well as they watched on with various levels of concern for the teenager, growing even worse as they were able to make out what he was saying.

Once Ned was close enough to the heroes he looked up to each of them. “Hi, I’m Ned and you’re amazing.” Then the boy promptly collapsed  which snapped everyone else out of whatever dazed they have been.

Peter came rushing to side. “Ned, buddy. Talk to me. You have to say something. Anything. NED!”

“Move it losers,” Flash snapped as he walked over Ned's body. “Hi, I’m Flash Thompson. So I see that you’ve come to ask me to join your group. But listen here, punks. You better not be threatening my pal Spiderman. We go way back, you hear?”

“Now, son, I think you misunderstood- " Steve tried to say, but was quickly caught off again.

“Listen here, don’t mess with my boy. I’m more than just a pretty face. I’m warning you.” And with that, Flash walked away with his head held high. “SPIDERMAN FOREVER!”

“SPIDERMAN FOREVER!” Flash’s friends screamed in response, as the ran to catch up their leader.

The Avengers were would be lying if they said that they weren’t a little but afraid. What was wrong with children these days? (“No, no, Tony. That’s what normal teenagers are like nowadays,” Pepper would explain to him much later. “You’ll get used it eventually.”)

“Oh. My. God. Spiderman is so popular here he started a cult! Ironman never started cult,” Sam whispered as he side eyed Tony.

“That’s because Ironman doesn’t start cults!” Tony spluttered in response. Who starts cults anyways? “Should we be worried about the two boys laying on the floor?”

“Oh no, sir! Don’t worry about us! We’re a-okay! Right Ned?” the curly haired boy smiled with his strangely adorable dimples at this friend who has finally gotten his breath back.

“Right! I got some Deadbeat in the my bag. I’ll be fine. Said boy smiled as he got up with the help of his friend and they waved goodbye to the Avengers.

Once they made it a few paces away, Steve could still hear their conversations. “Dude, the Avengers were worried about me. I should nearly die in front of them more often! Only that be kind of rude, huh?”

“Hmmm, how about around the corner? That way it’ll be up to them if they want to deal with it or not!”

None of the Avengers knew how to respond to the any of the children they had encounter, thus they decided that not responding was the best course of action. Hopefully.

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After another six hours of combing Queens they came out empty handed. They tried to find crime, knowing that they’ll find Spiderman there, not there wasn’t any crime. (Somewhere MJ was rolling her eyes, of course there wasn’t any crime. The whole freaking Avengers were combing their streets. They’re criminals not idiots, for the most part.)

On their way back to the Avengers Tower, their alarm went off, indicating that there was a threat near Manhattan. With forcing Team Spidey to the back of their minds they made record time to the tower and headed out. There would be another time where they could find Spiderman. They had a city to save.

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“Hey, Ned. Where Petunia? It’s my turn to watch over her,” MJ called out as she met the boys over at lunch.

“Oh! She’s  right hereeeeee….. she’s not here. I know for a fact I put her in my pocket during gym class!” Ned got up as he began to pace back and forth.

“You took Petunia to gym class? NED!”

“Don’t worry, I put a tracker on Petunia, we’re good!” Peter chirped as he brought his phone up. “Let’s see, Petunia is…..heading to Manhattan at 571.3 miles per hour speed….NED! What did you do?”

“She much have fallen out near the Avengers,” MJ hummed, there can only be so many ways for a rock to get to Manhattan at over 570 miles an hour.

“Do you know what this means? Our first kidnap-rescue mission!” Ned cheered. They had early dismissal so they could probably make it to Manhattan in half an hour (less then if MJ is driving). “It’ll be so much fun!”

“You dorks don’t understand; with the tracker and our fingerprints on Petunia the Avengers will be able to track us down and identify us. Peter, if you get caught you know what’ll happen.” MJ whispered, watching as both their eyes were now downcasted. “Queens will lose Spiderman and we’ll lose Peter Parker.” She hated raining on their parade, but someone needed to keep them grounded. “We need to get Petunia back, no matter the cost. We need to head out right away. But we’re Team Spidey. We made it this far, we can make it anywhere.”

Both boys grinned at MJ, no, she was Dahlia right now. Yeah, they could make it anywhere as long as they stick together. “So, Team Spidey, ready to crash a  party?”

Chapter Text

“TONY THERE IS TOO MANY OF THEM!” Sam called out as he watched another around of gigantic robotic wasps headed towards them. “Is there a way we can contain them?”

“We need to locate where the central control is and shut it down!” Tony screamed over the radio com. It’s been an hour and there was no sign of where the off switch was. The Avengers were growing tired. The wasps kept lifting up Clint and throwing him towards the others. There was only so many arrows the Archer had on him.

‘Sir we have another issue, we have a projectile unidentified person approaching at 105.6 miles an hour and another arriving at 94.6 miles an hour by land.’ Jarvis chimed. ‘One has been identified as Spiderman.’

“What? But this isn’t Queens.” Tony knew Spiderman rarely ever left Queens. “It can’t be hi-"

“Hello, everyone!” chirped a ridiculously happy voice. “Don’t mind me. Just an average spider on his merry way around the neighbourhood,” It was a few seconds afterwards when he finally came into view- meaning they hacked their suits, again. One of these days Tony was going to capture him and force them all to tell him how they did that.

“If it isn’t our favourite Underoos.” Tony quipped. Great, after spending a whole day combing Queens, look who shows up in Manhattan.

 “We’re a little too busy to play with you right now. Go away pip squeak.” Sam called over the radio. Freaking brats.

“It’s him.” The undeniably blank voice of ‘Dahlia’ came through on the radio coms.

“Him? Him, who?” Sam had a bad feeling about exactly who they were talking about.

“Understood.” Came an equaling empty voice of ‘The Guy in Chair’.

“Sorry Mr. Falcon, Sir! It isn’t anything personal!” Spiderman called as he changed his direction towards him.

“It’ll be easier if you just followed Spiderman's lead. It will hurt a lot less.” Guy in Chair explain a little too calmly.

“As if, you psychopaths. Stay the blood hell away from me.” Sam hissed. The heck did he do to get on their bad side.

“I warned you.”

.

.

What was wrong with these people? The first time they met the Guy in Chair appeared to be the Avengers number one fan, now the computer geek seems to hate them all. Or more or less just him. It just didn’t make any sense to the Avenger. But the confusion didn’t last long, and he was going down, and he was going down fast. He had no control over his suit anymore. “Heck! Tony, get them out of my suit, darn it!”

“Jarvis, block out all influxes to the suit and blow every back-alley door wide open!” Tony called as he blasted another three wasps out of the sky. This was ridiculous. Why now? What were they trying to prove by chasing Sam.

“Sorry, Ironman. No can do. If you put Jarvis on the crossfire, I’ll take him.” The Guy in Chair called out, his voice completely devoid of emotion.

Tony cursed under his breath. He was about to lose Jarvis right now. But he’ll have Sam. The choice didn’t even take twenty seconds. “I know. Jarvis, proceed.”

“I’ve been denied, sir. I am currently locked to your suit, unable to connect to broader servers.”

GOD, NO! Tony should have known that it was a trick. All the Guy in Chair needed was a moment before Tony opened up his lines to trap Jarvis. “SAM, CAN YOU HEAR ME, SHUT THE SUIT OFF, RHODEY WILL GET YOU! SAM, DO YOU COPY!”.

War Machine pulled back to the front lines as he drove for Sam to break his fall. Just as he was passing a tall building, he heard the sound of engines roaring as it approached him. He moved too slow to avoid when a motorcycle suddenly came crashing on his back, forcing him to take a nosedive down, but he was easily able to catch himself. Before he could even react, Dahlia used his back as a sort of runway to pick up speed as she drove towards Sam, who had shut his suit down completely.

Sam cursed under his breath as he watched the motorcycle approach him mid air. Just who was this? Helpless to stop Dahlia, he braced himself for impact. To his surprise, it didn’t really hurt all that much when she did land on him. What were the tires made out of, a soft cushion?

There was a sudden pull dragging the Falcon suit up, Sam belatedly realized that it was a spider web that was pulling him and the girl with the motorcycle up. Just how strong was this guy if he was dragging both of them up to a roof top, and he wasn’t even out of breath (considering he kept up his witty comebacks to the other Avengers).

“Listen, this isn’t personal, but you got something that belongs to us, and letting you go means the death of Spiderman. I can’t let you do that. It’s for the best that you let us go.” The hooded figure sighed as she got off her motorcycle. Sam couldn’t get a good read on her with the large cloak that covered her body and the obvious voice charger. “I wish you never noticed us.”

There were spider webs shooting out behind her, landing on his arms, effectively pinning him. Spiderman soon joined them on the rooftops, a step away from Dahlia. The female figure reached over, her gloved hand was reaching into the power source, forcing the suit to retract, leaving Sam wide open in his civilian clothes. She reached over his sweater pocket, and Sam felt her remove something out of it. He didn’t get a chance to see what it was, but soon enough, Dahlia moved away from him, back towards her motorcycle without looking back at the lone Avenger. “We never intended to make any wars the Avengers, but we can if you don’t leave us alone. Don’t make us your enemy.” Spiderman watched guard as she left on her motorcycle, webbing up any and all of the trackers the other Avengers tried to get on her. Sam held his breath. He wasn’t sure why but there was a strong sense of finality in her voice.

It didn’t take a genius to know that all security systems were down- the moment Dahlia disappeared from their sight; she’ll practically have vanished into dust.

“Hey, Mr. Falcon, Sir-" Spiderman stuttered, wringing his hands nervously together, clearly the moot atmosphere left with the motorcyclist.

“Kid, don’t. Just don’t.”

“Okay.” Without saying anything else’s Spiderman let himself swing away from the Avenger and, surprisingly towards the heart of the battle.

Once he was far away from him, Sam reactivated his suit. Immediately he heard the voice of the Guy in Chair. “Your suit should be completely back to normal within the minute. Goodbye, Falcon.” The line went dead afterwards.

“Tony? Can you get Jarvis out and do a quick once over?” Sam called out.

“Copy that. There isn’t anything compromising the suit. You should be good to go.”

.

.

Peter didn’t know what he felt worse about: the fact that MJ scared the Falcon terribly and left an ultimatum for war between the Avengers or that the fact he thinks he loves her more because she did.

Either way, he didn’t actually want to start a war with the Avengers so he the best way he could have shown that was to fight alongside of them. Hopefully it would do a little bit of damage control.

As Peter swung across the buildings, webbing up Clint and pulling him away from harm’s way he began to make large spider webs to trap any of the wondering wasps. Kind of ironic and very much hilarious, if you asked him.

He had Ned try and figure out where the source was controlling them, but he didn’t have much of a solution as of yet. To be fair he was more focused on making sure MJ made a clean getaway. It’s not like he needed Ned’s help this time, it looked like the Avengers were getting the upper hand anyway. The battle would be over soon enough. Peter was just focusing on keeping damages to a minimum as he made webs to catch the falling machines and keeping the building structures safe.

 “Oh, so now you’re on our side?” Tony spat as he came within hearing range of the valiant. “This doesn’t change a thing, you hear me. We will figure out who’s behind the mask and we will put an end to whatever it is you’re doing.” Did they honestly think that they would just forgive and forget?

It hurt a little to hear Ironman, the hero he had always idolized, practically foam at the mouth in his apparently hatred for him. But Peter couldn’t fault the man, since it did look like they were going to kill Sam and Rhodes. “There aren’t any sides, Ironman, Sir. Just a bunch of people who just want to survive.”

Shooting out another web to pull himself away, he was more then a little shocked to have a bullet aimed at his wrist. “паук, if you truly don’t mean us any harm, then answer me this what did you take from Sam?”

“I can’t say exactly, but it was the key to the death of me. I couldn’t let him know what it was, and I don’t know how he got it- but he did. I am so sorry for dragging you into this.”

“Something to do with Petunia?” Natasha pressed, there needed to be something that linked them to Petunia. What exactly was Petunia.

“I have to go.” And then, Spiderman was gone.

.

.

“Sam must have had Petunia on him. That’s the only explanation I can conclude to. Petunia isn’t a person either. Petunia must be a code of some sort. It had to be something small. A system? A key?” Natasha paced the common room.

“SAM, YOU IDIOT! YOU HAD THE KEY TO UNRAVEL THE TRUTH BEHIND PETUNIA ON YOU AND YOU DIDN’T EVEN KNOW?!?!” Clint screamed as he nearly pulled his hair out as he kept on tugging the roots.

“Sam could have died, give him some slack.” Steve cut in, leaning against the wall.

“So what? I nearly died! Last week when someone let Bucky cook, we ALL nearly died. Nearly dying isn’t special around these parts, Cap!”

“Clint, you need to calm down,” Rhodes tried to put his hand on his shoulder, but Clint just shoved it off.

“Some wacko in underwear has some freaky spy- Nat-like spy- and some computer whiz on his side. If he wanted to destroy us from the inside out, he could. They all could. And, you know what? They could have today. They just didn’t want to kill Sam today, because if they wanted to, they could have downed him and me, and you, Colonel. So, for God’s sake, don’t tell me to calm down.” Clint had to sit himself down after his rant, the breath leaving him as he slid on to one of the sofa seats. “They could have gotten away with it, too. The Guy in Chair would have made sure of it.”

“Say that again, Clint.” Natasha was up on her feet again in an instant. There was something really odd about Team Spiderman. They were just too good to not have a trace. After all, no trace is a trace. “A spy like me, and a guy whose computer intellect makes Tony’s look like child’s play. All three of them seem young, like early twenties.”

With all the Avengers watched with raptured attention as the spy pieces together a theory. Could the Black Widow, be the one to finally solve the mystery of Team Spiderman?

Before Natasha could continue, Pepper waltzed into the room with a folder in her hand. “We got trouble. Public opinion is swayed into Spiderman’s favour with the media outcry that he had helped the Avengers and that he solely minimized damages by catching the debris and protected the city structure. There was been multiple videos to further prove this claim.”

“So, what?” Tony hissed, “The public thinks that we can’t handle these kind of situations and that we need Underoos? Are you kidding me! They can’t be serious- there’s more isn’t there?”

“Afraid so. Spiderman already to Twitter to address the media.”

.

Team_Spidey@TeamSpidey

It’s really nice to have all the love and support from the public. It really means a lot. But you can’t take the hard work, loyalty and the love the Avenger have for the city. If it wasn’t for them, then we wouldn’t be possible. So, thank you Avengers! I’m really sorry for our fight earlier! I never wanted to fight against you. I only have respect and admiration for everyone of you guys. @TonyStark @AvengersOffical @PepperPotts

“We can’t speak out against them, considering they spoke in our favour; if we do, we’ll come across as ungrateful, arrogant and we will lose even more support then we already have. I have already drafted a response to them.” Pepper continued.

AvengersOffical@It'sReallyUs

Reply to @TeamSpidey

We are very thankful for your aide given in Manhattan. Our only objective is and always will be to keep the world safe. It is clear from today’s ordeal, that there is something missing on the Avengers team. We could use someone with your capabilities and skills set to improve the security of those around us. Even if you don’t want to join the team, perhaps having a way to communicate with you will benefit everyone. Please DM your opinion to us.

“Did they response to us?” Sam asked, leaning forward in his seat.

Pepper frowned. “Yes, they said they would have to consider it, and were grateful for the offer. So, essentially a glorified no.”

The room erupted into chatter in outrage, but Natasha leaned over the wall as she went over everything that was said.

1. Dahlia was a spy like her
2. Guy in Chair was more advanced than Tony
3. Spiderman is enhanced- there isn’t a possibility that it’s the suit that gives him super strength.
4. Spiderman said if it wasn’t for the Avengers, then they wouldn’t be possible.
5. They did come out a few years around, after that major attack on New York.

Was Team Spiderman made as a counter weapon to the Avengers?

Chapter Text

“We need is better PR, Tony.” Pepper called towards the man as said man downed another cup of coffee. “You need to seem more approachable to Spiderman’s fan base, he is completely sweeping up the public interest here. Now Manhattan is trending Team Spidey.”

“Oh, great, now what? Some sort of Gala? A charity events? Come on, Pep.” How many times was he going to have to do this, this try to be a nice guy thing? He was a grinch. That was a brilliant idea. He’ll be the grinch for the next Christmas party. Now he just needs to find good quality temporary hair dye.

“This isn’t a joke, Tones.” Rhodey signed as he rewatched the films from the confrontation from Manhattan. “We’re in trouble.”

“Honey Bear, come on,” Tony tried to reason. But of course, the others walked in on them on that time, and Pepper, the ever opportunistic, decided to cut him off.

“Tony is doing some PR right now. To show the public what a teen-oriented person he is, right Tony?” Pepper made sure to plaster on her award-winning smile his way. “And he just agreed to my current idea, right Tony?”

“I plead the fifth.”

.

.

“Listen up, losers far and wide!” Flash announced as he stood in front of the student body, on top of a lunch table. “I have PSA, so shut up!”

“Eugene! Get off the table,” one of the lunch ladies called out.

“Its Flash, and not right now.” Flash made a show of putting his hands on his hips and rolling his eyes. “Alright, and if anyone else has something to say, tough. I don’t care. I got news. Tony Stark is going to be taking in a high school intern. From Queens. And I just wanted to let you know that it is going to be me, so don’t bother applying.  That means you, puny Parker. That’s it. Go on with your meaningless lives.”

“Wow,” Ned whistled. “He called you out by name, Peter.”

“An internship, Ned, at SI?” Peter gasped. “I can’t believe it! That would be so cool! Right, MJ?”

MJ raised an eyebrow in response. “There are going to be interviews for the position. I’m not so sure it would be a good idea for us to apply.”

Peter’s face fell as he thought it over. Maybe coming face to face with the Avengers wasn’t the best idea. He bit his lip before smiling at MJ, “Yeah, I guess you’re right.”

Ned shot her an angry glare before he reached over wrapping an arm around Peter's shoulders, pulling him close. “Nope! If Peter wants to apply, he can apply. Keeping him locked up isn’t good for his developing mind.”

“It’s okay, Ned, she’s right-"

“I’m just saying it might not be the best idea for him; it may be dangerous to meet with the Avengers face to face daily.”

“It’ll be even worse if we don’t apply when everyone else is practically foaming at the mouth about this. It'll make us stand out. Besides, my Peter here is so smart, he might just get it!”

“But the risks of doing so are high. And Peter is smart- he’ll probably get it, too.” MJ tried to reason.

“Yeah, well, you made him sad.” Neither spoke as they stared each other down. MJ glanced at Peter and Ned was right: Peter did look a little sad about not even being able to apply. Dang it.

“Fine. He has my blessings.” The loss wasn’t too bad when Peter beamed at Ned; what MJ wouldn’t do to keep him smiling like that.

.

.

“Pep, we have a problem.” Tony called out. Once he received a hum in respond he spoke again. “There has been over 1926 applicants and apparently I have to personally sort through them and actually meet with a bunch of gremlins.”

“Well, we can rule out you being unable to read as the problem,” Pepper teased. “It won’t be that bad, love. You need to get out there is all. And they are teenagers, not gremlins.”

“Why can’t Sprangles do it again?” Tony groaned. At he liked the little monsters, what was Tony supposed to say to them? Ask if they got their rabies shot (they better have. He wasn’t taking any chances with the kids these days)?

“His situation is a bit different,” Pepper winced. Of course, she thought of getting the Captain America to help out, but he doesn’t have a relatable job, and well, the school PSAs. No teen would take him seriously.

Tony responded by banging his head on his workstation. Wait, that’s a great idea! He’ll get Jarvis to help sort through the applicants for not annoying teens! How hard could it? Tony smiled as he began setting up the interview dates.

.

.

“Excuse me, did you really just walk in a Team Cap shirt into my office? Yeah, no. NEXT!”

.

“Are you drooling on my carpet? NEXT!”

.

“Look, you seem like a nice person, but I don’t care for what parties you were invited to. NEXT!”

.

“No, you cannot meet Ms. Potts. She’s busy.”

.

“Why are you wearing all green- did you really paint your face green? You know what? I don’t want to know. NEXT!”

.

“FOR THE LAST TIME, BLACK WIDOW IS NOT GOING TO MAGICALLY APPEAR AND KILL YOU! Well, unless you deserve it. NEXT!”.

.

“Look, I don’t understand. You just said that your car crashed in the morning and you were mugged on the way here. What do you mean “it be like that sometime"? Are you okay? Go to a hospital. NEXT!”

.

.

“You know what, Rhodey Bear? I hate children. They are a different species, the little gremlins. You got to find a way to get me out of this.” Tony complain over a glass of scotch (making sure that Pepper was in a different state before he tried to recruit help).

“Look, Tones, just pick someone you think you can stand and that would be helpful to us in getting a fan base.” The colonel smiled. “Then you can just breeze through the rest of the interviews. Easy.”

.

“You want me to do what, now?”

Pepper smiled the patients of a saint as always. “Eugene ‘Flash’ Thompson is the head of the Spiderman Fan Club. He even copy righted it. No one argues that he has a lot of teen idle sway as a digital influencer or that he is Spiderman's number one fan. He applied to be your intern. You should take him. Maybe someone else to balance them out.”

“Really, Pep? Flash- I- Lead- A- Cult- Thompson as my intern? The kid is the most gremlin like kid I ever met! There’s to be someone else! Anyone else!”

.

.

“Now Petunia, I hope you learned about running off. We can’t be doing that even if Mr. Falcon, sir is really cool.” Peter explained sweetly to the rock in its box. “This is for the best. I hope this teaches you something.”

“You’re grounded Petunia, you hear me? A strict bedtime at two pm.” Ned scolded. The honest audacity to runaway from them. Didn’t they give her a place to stay? Food? Water, company? And she still left. “I’m so disappointed in you.”

MJ pointed did not look at the boys as they ‘parented’ Petunia, their mascot. But who was she to deny them that (that being parents to a rock and within the first day having said rock sneak away from them into a battlefield. They grow up so fast). If anyone could have managed that fret it would have to be those boys.

“Have you applied for the internship yet, Parker?”

“Not yet! Are you guys going to apply as well?” Tearing his gaze away from Petunia, Peter smiled at MJ.

“Nope, don’t want Stark to know about my adoptive father. Which reminds me, I need to have him look into the Spiderman merchandise. Those are copyrighted and I intend to collect. Ned here needs a new computer.” (Ned loudly whooped in response. He’s been eyeing this new model for months.)

“Fair enough, you Ned?” Peter asked as he turned his attention back to Ned.

“Naw, you and I both know I wouldn’t get it.” Ned smirked trying to brighten up the mood. “Better get on that application, wouldn’t want him to take a shining to someone else before he got the chance to see you.”

They all laughed as Peter went to finish his application before he submitted later that night. He got Ned to take his picture with his hair all gelled properly (MJ took one look before she washed it off; insisted on one of his math T-shirts, leaving his with a bare face and tousled curls). He looked pretty nice. He looked like Peter.

.

.

“Alright, so you’re Flash Thompson, right?” Tony said as nicely as he could. The kid walked in with a Spiderman backpack and hoodie over a formal shirt and pants. With a Spiderman tie. It didn’t help that the first question Flash asked was that if Tony hated Spiderman.

“Yes, that is in fact my name. Don’t call me Eugene. I don’t like it.” Flash responded after he was sure that Tony wasn’t conspiring against his boi, Spiderman. “So, for this internship, what does it all include? It was pretty vague on the application.”

“The intern will be shadowing me around for the first few weeks to see where they would fit better into SI. The goal is to help bridge the gap from us currently to the new generation. They’ll be expected to attend some meeting and provide some input.” Tony explained, well lied a bit because the intern was supposed to be his personal intern, but systemic really.

“I see, I’ll take the job. Have you considered selling Spiderman merch? Everybody loves Spiderman. It’ll be a good business prospect, really.” Flash stated as he gave himself a quick spin on his chair before he spun a little about the chair he was in, until his phone went off. “Sorry, got to take this, it’s Spidey Business.”

“Excuse me?” Tony wanted to be offended, he really did, but pass up on Spiderman updated? When is came so readily, Tony could have a 24-hour Spiderman update and do PR at the same time, well, who was he to refuse? Pepper must have known, that’s probably why she had been vying for this guy.

“Spiderman might be getting lawyer! I wonder who he got; ohhhh. Nice.” Flash said as he put his phone away. “Sorry, where were we?” Tony sent a message to Jarvis to look into it as well.  

“Spiderman’s lawyer; what do you know it?” Jarvis came back negative; he didn’t know but this kid did. What was this world coming to?

“It’s just a rumour but I think it’s Matt Murdock, high profile lawyer. Father of a kid that goes to my school; don’t know who, but he just showed up to tell officials that he won’t be coming down anymore- emails only. My boi did good, though!” Flash gushed excited, as he misunderstood Stark’s enthusiasm to him wanted to gossip about Spidey (only positive things, of course. Loyalty was important to him, thank you very much).

“You know what? You’re hired. You start now.” Tony said as he giddily texted Pepper that she was right, and this ‘Flash’ was a great leverage to their spider problem. Of course, he was reminded how ridiculous the boy was when he whipped out his phone to let his ‘flash mob’ that he got the job. Yeah, Tony really needed to take that phone away from him.

.

.

“Oh drats,” Ned said as it was everywhere that Flash got the internship. “Awe, Pete, it’s okay. You probably just applied late.”

Peter just laughed though the smile never reached his eyes. It still worried both MJ and Ned that he never expressed being upset or disappointed, even if he was pretty awful at hiding it. “That’s okay, I probably wouldn’t have gotten it anyways. That reminds me, what did your dad say about the Spiderman merch?”

Accepting the conversation change, MJ shrugged. “We need Spiderman to address the public and let the public know that you are allowing him to represent you in court. Afterwards, we should be getting a good profit for merchandise that’s already being sold.”

Neither of them admitted it, but it was nice to have a steadier income than tutoring. Of course, since MJ’s father was a lawyer and would be willing to pay for everything, by MJ wanted to separate Spiderman stuff with other stuff, (she also didn’t to make it like she only asked him for help for finances, it seemed rude even to her). “Well, let’s plan a cameo so my dad can work,” MJ smiled.

.

“So, your internship would be every Tuesday and Thursday after school. You’ll be expected to-” Tony stopped when Flash’s Spiderman’s themed ringtone went off. Honestly, how could Tony get into whatever social group that was.

“Hold on, there’s a Spidey Shout Out.” Flash said as he automatically whipped his phone out, angling it so Tony could see as well.

(“Hi guys! This is your friendly neighborhood Spiderman! I just wanted to let the world know that I have legal people!” Spiderman practically gushed as the camera focused on his face as he swung across the buildings. “So, the good news is that the I got a lawyer! Which is super cool! The bad news is the Spiderman stuff is about to copy righted! By the way, thank you! They were really nice!”

Eventually the vigilant arrived in front of prestigious law firm. “So, world, meet my lawyer: Matt Murdock!” The camera showed the man leaning back on his chair. His eyebrows raised, silently asking what Spiderman was doing here. “He’s a little shy.” Again, the man-made judgemental eyes at the hero. “Well, that’s all for today folks! Stay safe!” The camera feed went dead after that.)

“I totally called it, man. That is so cool! Isn’t Stark?!” Flash was practically vibrating in his spot as he typed into his phone at a speed that honestly impressed the billionaire. “I am totally getting the first of every item made.”

“Yeah, you do that.”

.

.

Tony had to admit that Flash was a good candidate for keeping up with the whole Spiderman thing, Good God was he annoying. If he put his feet up one time in the car, Tony was going to leave him stranded on the street.

The kid had a way with people, and he was really good at it. Almost as good at it as he was terrible at math and science and things Tony loves.

“Okay, Pep, how do I get rid of him?” Tony demanded as he stomped into her office. “He set my kettle on fire. My kettle, Pep.”

Pepper for her part looked like she knew he was coming and was waiting for him. He lasted longer then she thought he would; Tony hated kids in general and Flash was a mini Tony during his worst teen years. Sweet kid, but she could definitely see how he would get on Tony’s nerves. “Can’t happen, Tony. We can't hire a new intern and fire him in less than three weeks.”

Tony made a dying sound as he grabbed his phone off the table. “I’m calling Honey Bear.” Two rings later, Rhodey picked up. “Save me, Platypus.” Pepper rolled her eyes at the vague explanation.

Of course, Rhodey understood what Tony was trying to say the first time. “Well, why not get another intern and split the tasks based on their strengths and weaknesses?”

“Two little gremlins in my lab, Rhodey, how could you ever suggest such a thing?” Tony placed his hands on his heart.

“That’s not a bad idea. And I’ll pick this one out.” Pepper smiled. She would pick an easy going, smart little genius for Tony. That should keep him sane for a bit. She noticed one in particular that stood out to her.

.

.

Peter smiled awkwardly as MJ and Ned waved him goodbye as he left for his interview that both Mr. Stark and Pepper Potts would be hosting. There would be five other people There also applying.

MJ picked out his outfit and he was dressed semi formal. A dress shirt and pant with a cardigan. He thought he looked pretty good until he saw that the other five candidates were wearing formal suits.

Well, he got the call back, so that was an achievement, right?

.

Tony sat tiredly at the table as he waited for the last candidate to come in. The others were nice but boring. He heard the door open and as he looked up he saw the most adorable kid walk into his office.

Tousled curly hair, big Bambi eyes, and oh. He just gave him a small little smile and he has dimples. Dimples. The kid was the cutest gremlin Tony had ever seen.

“You, small, awkward with adorable dimples. You’re hired.” Tony said as he took one good look at the curly haired boy in front of him. Peter (wasn’t that his name?) tilted his head as he looked so confused. Yup. He was the one alright.

Chapter Text

Peter was not ready for this. He just got hired SI, by Ironman himself and he didn’t even say anything in the interview. He wasn’t even sure that this was real. So, Naturally, Peter turned to look behind himself before looking back at the Ironman, tilting his head so that it was obvious what he was thinking. Could he even hire people just like that? Ms. Potts doesn’t seem to happy about him doing that.

.

“…Sorry?” Came an equally soft voice. Tony wouldn’t mind hearing his voice ask questions, even a third time. (He didn’t hate Flash so much, but once Tony stopped liking someone, it was hard for him to tolerate them. The kid was overall okay.) “Don’t you want to see my resume? I, um, even brought letters of recommendations and, and stuff in general…sorry.” The little gremlin raised his one hand to rub the back of his neck, biting his lips nervously as he eyed his shoes.

“No need, Mr. Parker. I’ve already went through them,” Pepper smiled at the shy child (he honestly looked twelve standing in front of them). “You’re more then qualified for the position that you will be sharing with another student who goes to your school as well. Any objections, Mr. Stark?”

Tony for his part of staring at Peter like he was some logarithm waiting to be solved. “When can you start?” (Of course, the little gremlin just nodded in response.)

.

The very first thing Peter did when he walk out of that conference room was send a message in his group chat. It was crazy. HE GOT THE POSITION.

Wait.

He got the position with Flash.

Well, how bad could it be? Who was he kidding, he didn’t care. He got to be close to IRONMAN. This was far more than he knew he deserved. He would do his absolute best (and avoid Flash as much as he could). It’ll be fun, right?

Right.

.

“Listen here, Puny Parker. Don’t you dare try to ruin this internship for me, you hear?” Flash sneered when Peter came in. “I know you only went for this because I got it. Couldn’t stop yourself from being jealous, could you?” Flash carded a hand through his hair. “Not that I blame you.”

Peter for his part didn’t say anything. It was easier to just let him talk things out. Besides, MJ promised Flash wouldn’t cause him any trouble.

(“Listen here, you insufferable pinhead. Peter got the internship as well.” MJ stated blankly as she cornered the obnoxious boy.

“WHAT! THAT PUNY-" Flash hissed.

“Don’t interrupt me.” MJ cut in. “Don’t make it hard for him. You don’t want me to come after you. Understood?”

Flash gulped as he stared into her dead eyes, as he nodded.)

“Alright, fine. I'll take you under my wing. But if you mess this up for me, I’m going to get Ironman to fire you.”

Peter wasn’t actually convinced that Flash could get Ironman to do anything, but since he really wanted to avoid making a scene here, he decided that agreeing what the easier route overall. Besides he brought the prefect backup just in case he felt that he needed the extra support. In his pocket lay Petunia as he ran his fingers on the smooth surface. He had to be careful not to get her lost or else the Avengers might find her (and MJ would absolutely kill him if that ever happened).

.

Amelia was really excited to meet with the two new interns her boss hired. Apparently they were like day and night which made for a good laugh. Being the main receptionist meant she would get to meet them first.

Working at Starks Industries sure has its perks. Just on schedule, two teenage boys walked in; one with a Spiderman suit with a pair of black reflective sunglasses, and the other in a dress shirt and black pants.

“The Flash has arrived!” the black-haired boy announced as soon as he was close enough for majority of the employees to hear him. “Oh. And Puny is here, too.” The other boy, who did look very much puny for fifteen, gave a slight wave before turning back to his phone.

As Flash practically shimmied to the elevator, Peter walked at a slower pace as he noticed one of the lab interns struggling to carry two boxes up. The “Little Gremlin" (as her bossed decided to call him) smiled as he took a box off the other’s load, quietly helping to carry it to the elevator.

Flash, for all his worth, doesn’t actually go up the elevators; instead he sighs and quips at Peter to hurry up ‘please and thank you'.

Honestly. Kids these days.

.

“Alright team, gather around.” Tony called he sat at his bar stool, sipping on something he knew Pepper and Rhodey wouldn’t like. “So, I’m updating Jarvis' security today. The camera will be iffy at best and the over security of Tower will be compromised for twelve hours. I need you all to make sure nothing bad happens meanwhile.”

The rest of the Avengers just shrugged. How hard could that be, right?

.

“Alright Petunia, time to shine,” Peter smiled at the rock he placed in front of him- he made sure to take the tracker off and put away her superhero costume (though he left the mask. There’s no reason to leave her completely exposed, thank you very much).

The task was simple enough. Peter and Flash were meant to make a new prototype type for a robot that was able to respond to basic commands and to present it at the next broad meeting. Simple, right?

Well, no. Peter absolutely hated presentations for one and one of the actual employees apparently hated him for some odd reason. It started out the afternoon when Peter got the internship. For whatever reason, Mr. Stark had him introduced to a lot of employees (which made Peter almost as happy as it did shy) and had rubbed one of the head inventors the wrong way. Afterwards the man just completely hated him.

Quentin Beck. He didn’t even do anything, but Beck just sneered and picked on him every time he saw him. It was actually one of the worst feeling he felt in a long time. Was so much a freak that even the adults hated him?

Flash he could handle, but he still felt pretty miserable that an adult hated him so much. Maybe he did something to deserve it. Knowing how bad he messes up, he probably did.

It was one of those moments when Peter went on his coffee break to call about Aunt May and see how she was doing when he ran into Beck.

“Well, if it wasn’t for the little boy that Stark took a shining to.” Came the overly sweet voice of the young adult. “Well, it’s a good thing to! How else would you have gotten up the latter, boy? It’s not like he can appreciate true genius anyways.”

Before Peter could manage to respond, a cup of cold water was being splashed all over Beck's no doubt designer shirt. “Hey, Loser. I’m the only one that gets to pick on Puny over here, understood?” Flash growled. “Besides, aren’t you a little old to be picking on twelve-year-olds?”

Peter pointedly didn’t say anything, but his hand slipped back into his pocket to feel for Petunia. Beck swore a bit at Flash where Peter was slightly upset by it (some of the stuff he said was just so awful to say to anyone), but Flash didn’t seem to care in the slightest and then the worker was gone.

“Listen, here, Puny. Next time something like this happens, you punch first. Think second. Got it? Take another five, I’ve got you covered. Next time someone picks on you, remember punch first.” And just like that Flash turned the corner and was gone.

Deciding that a change in scenery would be nice, Peter decided to go for a walk. Silently going over what just happened. Apparently, Flash stood up for him. FLASH! What was the world coming to? Peter wasn’t exactly brought on that advice, but it made him smile that Flash stood up for him, even if he did say he would continue to pick on him and called him twelve.

Without meaning to Peter ended up wondering off to the edge of the unrestricted area. With his head up in the clouds, he ended up bumping into a one of the other employees, spilling all the papers in their hands (of course he did since one employee hating him wasn’t enough) and he looked to be a high clearance scientist considering he wasn’t exactly wearing a uniform. “I am so sorry. I wasn’t watching where I was going!” Immediately Peter leaned down to help pick up all the scattered papers.

“That’s alright, son. That makes the two of us.” The scientist smiled, his dark hair and tan skin only complimented his soft smile. “I was just wondering about hoping for a miracle.”

As Peter was collecting all of the papers he couldn’t help himself from peaking at them. It was some sort of bio-chemical equation about radiation, but he could just tell that something was missing from it. A quiet cough brought Peter back to where the man was watching him. “I am sorry! I didn’t mean to sneak or be nosy. Gosh, that was so rude of me!”

Before Peter could continue onward with his monologue, the man laughed a second time. “Son, it’s perfectly alright. It’s just a really wrong equation that all wrong. There isn’t anything there to get worked over. You’ll be okay.”

“But, all the equation needs is a bit of tweaking and it should be alright, I think.” Peter mumbled quietly. Yes, he was shy, but he couldn’t stand the thought of the man throwing his work away- it was brilliant! “Um, maybe look over the reaction over here,” Peter shyly pointed to one of the pages he was looking at. “It doesn’t seem to add up to me. To get this reaction, you would to use a radium catalyst that would slightly alter the absorption rate here. I think.” Peter felt so stupid after he ran out of steam. Who was he to correct a highly intelligent scientist? Oh gosh. He could be so dumb sometimes. “Sorry.”

The man watched Peter with a hyper awareness as he listened to him, his eyes immediately falling to the sheet that Peter was pointing out. Once he thought about it, it made complete sense what the boy was saying. It was such a simple mistake. “You’re right.” The words came out as an awe. Just who was that boy. Just as he was about to ask for his name an alarm went off on the boy’s phone.

“Oh! Sorry my break is over! I’m really sorry for bothering you! I hope you have a really nice rest of your day!” And just like that, the small twelve-year-old was gone.

“Friday, who was that boy?”

“Good afternoon. That was Tony's new intern, Peter.” Friday responded. “Would you like to know more about him, Dr. Banner?”

 .

When Peter came back to his office area, he was less shocked to find that Flash had deliberately took all the lead out of his mechanical pencils, claiming that he was “keeping it fresh" since only he can “make fun of" him. Honestly, what breed was Flash? Though he found it hilarious that he adored his alter ego so much.

 .

“Hey, Tony.” Bruce called as he walked into his personal lab. “I wanted to ask you about your intern-”

“He signed a liability agreement: what he breaks he pays.” Tony responded without looking up from his screen.

“I was wondering if I could borrow him for a week. He has a really extensive background in biochemistry, and I could really use another set of eyes.” Bruce said slowly. Peter didn’t seem like the type to break things, though he did bump into him.

“Flash did what?” Tony asked as he turned to face Bruce. “He set my lab on fire. And my TOASTER- THE TOASTER! What do you mean he has ‘expensive background'? It’s called pyromania, Brucie Bear.”

“I thought FIRDAY said his name was Peter…?” Bruce explained slowly. Didn’t Tony remember his other intern. “Can I borrow Peter for a week?”

“…no.”

.

.

The next day started off as every other day, Amelia smiled as she tried hold back her laugh as Flash shimmied to the elevator and held the door open for Peter. Then he purposefully made sure that Peter lost his balance when he stepped inside. Then he helped him up again. Oh, to be young, strange and incredibly odd again.

.

Today was a pretty big day for the intern duo since they would be presenting a prototype of a new phone to Tony. Flash for his annoying glory, knew exactly what the general public wanted and knew Peter how to build it. But this was Tony Stark here. They had to impress the man of the century.

So, of course Peter was nervous. Not so much Flash. Apparently, Tony should pay them for even giving them a presentation of the millennium- however that worked out in his head. But Peter didn’t mind too much since he made sure to bring Petunia with him (APPARENTLY MJ and Ned were ‘busy').  But trusty old Petunia was here, and she only really stayed with him. Of course, Peter being Peter forgot her at times, but he was sure to get her back within a few minutes. No biggie.

By now they had their prototype up and were preparing their presentation for the billionaire. Everything seemed to be going alright until the man of the hour walked in… with The Captain America.

Oh gosh. Oh heck, was he ever good looking! Peter’s man crush just increase quite a bit there. He even smells crazy good from this side of the room!

“Good evening, Mr. Stark, Mr. Rogers,” Flash effortlessly started in a very inviting tone. “My associate, Peter, and I have developed a prototype for the new line of StarkLines Mobile: The Bridge.”

As Flash was doing most of the marketing, Peter would demonstrate the systematics occasionally. Once that was done, Peter would do a close up on the explain of how their new designed worked.

Flash gave him the stink eye since he shuffled over to the two men in meek shyness (Hello! Ironman and Captain America!) before he started to explain the coding and the logic behind it.

It had some good points like a monitor for activity that would reset every couple of days so that the phone can still be in tune with the user, but they won’t feel like their privacy was being comprised. There were different kinds of settings that would enable older users to mobile just as easily as the younger generation. The apps could be formatted differently to make it easier as well.

.

Steve had no idea how Tony roped him into coming to this meeting (something about how he can’t handle being in the presence of two gremlins at the same time). He was literally the worst person to bring to this- for God’s sake! He was frozen for seventy years in ice. What did he know about technology? He just knew he would feel like an idiot.

Only he didn’t. One of Tony’s interns was a very polite boy who made sure to guide him gently and quietly. Once the child (how old was he again, twelve?) became comfortable his brilliance really shined through. He never felt like he didn’t know what was happening, and gosh. He thinks he might be sold on getting this new phone. It even has a setting to make the lettering look like a typewriter he used to own. By the look on Tony’s face, he was equally impressed with what they had done.

By the time the presentation was done, both were congratulated on a good prototype and given a very impressed smile from Tony. As they were cleaning up Tony and he left to talk about the presentation in more detail afterwards. Of course, with his super hearing he could make out the conversation the two boys were having.

“Okay, so we did okay. But you can’t be all shy all the time. We’ve met Mr. Stark a lot of times. You got to act all, well. Not like you. You got to impress people, Puny! And you’re not going to do that if you’re too quiet and people can’t hear you. Like legit, no offense.”

Steve could see how Peter deflated after hearing the criticism. “Oh. Okay, I’ll, um, work on that.” Steve frowned as he the heard the other boy shuffle around to get the last of the presentation packed up and Peter was moving at a slower pace than before (clearly a little upset from the comment).

Steve could definitely see Flash’s point of view, but at the same time, he didn’t think this was the time to be bringing it up. Peter did amazing regardless. It kind of made Steve sad to hear such a resigned sign come from Peter (the kid looked like a baby! And he likes babies, okay.)

Deciding he would treat the boys out to a job well done because he was a great at adulting, and adults encouraged children's achievements- he would do just that. Ice cream was a good choice. A great choice.

With that in mind, Steve went in search of the two boys. Unfortunately, Flash had already left since he as was being picked up at this time, while Peter was waiting for the bus to come at one of the tables.

Strangely enough, he found Bruce coming down to the main foyer as well. Once Bruce laid eyes on Peter his face lit up as he made to power walk towards him.

“Peter!” Bruce smiled triumphantly as he got his attention. “Are you just about to leave?”

“I’m just waiting for the bus. It’ll be here in a while, Mister.” Peter smiled. “Is there anything I could help you with?”

Bruce smiled even wider as he settled himself in the seat beside Peter. “I actually wanted your opinion on these theories.”

Peter looks surprised before he shyly asked if Bruce was sure (and he was), taking the StarkPad from the scientist. Soon the two were talking in a different language as far as Steve was concerned.

Never one to shy away, he made his way over to Peter as well, taking the seat opposite of Peter. Peter looked up shyly before he tried to include Steve in their conversations as well.

Soon Peter was getting up to head out to the bus stop when Steve remembered why he even came down in the first place. “Say, Peter. I was thinking about taking you and your partner out for some ice cream, as a job well done. Do you think you’d be up for something like that?”

“Also, I was wondering if you’d be interested with working with me on a weekend, if you could spare the time?” Bruce asked at the same time, smiling apologetically at Steve.

“UMH, EXCUSE ME!” a familiar and very dramatic voice called out. Tony stood in front of the elevators with his hand so his hips as he glared at two other Avengers. “THAT IS MY GREMLIN. QUIT TRYING TO STEAL MY INTERN!”

“Don’t you mean ‘interns'?” Steve asked, because Tony did have two interns, after all.

“…no.” Tony huffed. “That right there is MY gremlin, so Avengers or not: you can’t just kidnap him!” with a few quick strides, Tony crossed the foyer and wrapped his arms around the boy’s tiny framed shoulders. “This little gremlin is off limits, even for you, Banner!”

.

Peter for the life of himself, stopped breathing. He was in the presence of Banner. BRUCE BANNER.  ALL THIS TIME HE WAS SPEAKING TO BRUCE BANNER. THIS WAS TOO MUCH TO TAKE. Of course, he missed the conversation as he had been preoccupied. And of course, with his Parker luck mixed with his hero worship of Banner, Stark and Rogers Peter stopped breathing.

And passed out.

.

MJ hissed when she noticed that Peter was late coming home. Never missing an opportunity to get ahead of the competition, MJ got Ned to see where Peter was. Apparently, he never left the building. Upon further investigation, it became apparent from one of the street cameras, Peter passed out in Stark Towers. It didn’t take a genius to know that Peter got overwhelmed (since Ned was currently hyperventilating beside her).

And they were most likely going to take him to Medbay.

Where they were going to discover that he’s Spiderman.

MJ just knew that this was a bad idea. She knew it. Stupid perfected parker puppy- dog eyes. Now they had to get Peter out ASAP.  

Chapter Text

MJ had never been so peeved before in her life (okay, that was a lie, but still. She wasn’t happy either). Peter was once again in a dangerous place and she was half across the city from him. Why was it always Peter? Not that it mattered really; if Peter was hurt she’d save him as many times as needed.

But she wouldn’t happy about it.

There wasn’t any time to make for a stealth approach but she wasn’t exactly in the mood to play nice. Besides, they needed to hack into Jarvis anyways to know any updates they have of Spiderman. “Guy in Chair, let’s move. Web heads in trouble again.”

.

“Do you know why this happened? Because you guys tried to steal my intern! My only intern!” Tony snapped as he tried to take the poor child out of Cap's arms, but American icon silently refused.

“You have two interns, Tony.” Steve sighed, lifting Peter out of Tony's reach, the boy was surprisingly lightweight.  Maybe they should feed him more. “You shouldn’t be so mean to Eugene.”

Bruce smiled as he went over what they should do for the boy. He wasn’t that sort of doctor, but it doesn’t seem like that big of a deal. He was pretty sure a quick check up would be easy enough.

Until the computer screens started glitching until a familiar little rock came on to the screen with a very distorted voice calling about to it, “here we are Petunia.”  

The three Avengers nearly had a heart attack as they were left in awe as the little rock appeared on the screen. Was that Petunia. HOW DID PETUNIA GET INTO THE TOWER?!

The familiar voice of The-Guy-in-Chair, or TGC, came through. “Hello, just checking in, Avengers, it’s nothing personal.”

“Oh, it’s personal.” Dahlia’s voice came through. Her voice was still cold but there was an edge to it. “I told you to leave us alone.” Suddenly there were files spilling onto the screen of the updated Team Spidermence. “You should have listened.”

Suddenly the files started deleting in front of them. File after file, profile after profile- all gone.

(MJ knew it was mean, that would rub the Avengers the wrong way, she was entering a power struggle- but she didn’t care. They were coming after her team, her boys. How dare they.)

Slowly Peter came to as he heard the commotion online, he recognized Ned’s and MJ’s voice anywhere. It drew on him that it was Dahlia and his Guy in Chair. Within a second he wasn’t Peter anymore, he was Spiderman and he was trapped in the Avengers Tower with Ironman, the Hulk and Captain America.

That and MJ just went for the jugular.

“Umm… what is happening…?” Peter asked, trying to seem as groggy as he could when he was running high on adrenaline, hoping to grab their attention for a bit.

Three heads snapped back at him with various emotions -fear, confusion and frustration. “Listen son, you need to leave now and not get involved,” Captain America said, attention already back to the screen.

“Kid, walk with me.” Tony got up as he began to escort Peter out. “I need to get Jarvis running. Hold on while I reboot him.” Peter felt cold that Jarvis would be running again. “They should know better than to underestimate me and Jarvis.” The last part wasn’t meant to be heard, but with super hearing, it Widow would be s hard not to.

There was a silent buzz before Jarvis took control again. “Sir, I am tracing the breach.” Peter could practically hear his heart thumping. “Team Spidermence location was locked before signal canceled.”

Tony's head snapped up as he called his suit to him. “Alright, kid, you need to head off home on your own here. Don’t worry about whatever you saw here tonight.” Captain America and Bruce was behind him shortly, all geared up.

Peter just nodded as he worked on how to reach his team before the Avengers did. Black Widow would be close to follow. That doesn’t need to happen. He doesn’t think that he can get by her the second time up close. As he made his way out- waiting to be a few blocks away, he was quick to tap on his watch that had undisturbed connection to the others.

Immediately, Ned’s voice came through. “Hey, Peter! You okay?”

Peter laughed as relief flooded in; if Ned was joking (and MJ was cool with it) than it wasn’t as serious as he thought. “I’m fine, but they got a lock on your location. Is everything okay?”

“Oh yeah, MJ did that connection thing on purpose; she’s calling them out to Queens. She figured that if we could wake you up and get their attention elsewise, you’d be in the clear to get out alright.” Ned chirped excitedly. There were some typing sounds on the background, before Ned spoke again, only his voice wasn’t as carefree as it was before. “How fast do you think you can make it over to us? I’m sending over the coordination. We need you here in five minutes.”

“All I need is one.”

.

.

“Where is Natasha and Clint?” Tony called out as he flew over to a deserted park, Captain America close behind on his motorcycle.

Bruce was a behind the scenes trying to get everyone to where they needed to be. “Natasha is two minutes out; Clint and Sam are above. Do we have a visual?”

“Yeah. Up ahead, there is Dahlia; she’s just on the edge of the building. No one else is around.” Steve wasn’t about to let his guard down, TGC could be anywhere, but he definitely doesn’t need to be here. “Looks like she’s been waiting for us. Alone.”

“I am never alone.” A female, but computerized voice intervenes whatever response Tony was about to give. “Hurry up so we can talk.”

None of the Avengers respond after that. Within five minutes they have the whole park secured down so there wasn’t an exit should they try to flee.

Steve and Tony came out in the front to confront the enigma that was Dahlia. “You see, I don’t like it when someone breaks into my tower and steals my files.” Tony started in his billionaire voice. “Think you can figure out why?”

Before Tony could continue, Clint and Sam were suddenly webbed up to the closest tree under a lamp. Natasha’s spot had been compromised so there was webbing to cage her to her spot. Dahlia hadn’t moved an inch. “We’re in a public place, I don’t suppose the Hulk would appreciate the scenery, but the press would have a field day. Think you can figure out why?”

“Listen, we didn’t call you out to fight,” Spiderman called as he flipped over to drop by Dahlia. “We wanted to call a truce. We aren’t your enemies.”

“AREN’T OUR ENEMIES?! YOU COULD HAVE KILLED SAM AND RHODEY!” Tony snapped. How could they think that they weren’t a threat to his team. They are currently the main focus of their team.

“It's not like that,” Spiderman started only for Dahlia to raise her hand to silence him.

“It is like that. We could have killed them, we could have destroyed Jarvis. But we did not.” Dahlia stated. “I never said we weren’t dangerous. I said that we are not a threat to you unless you make us one.”

“Are you threatening us?” Tony hissed. “You called us over to threat us-"

“Do you feel threatened?” Dahlia finally stood from her perch as she strode in front of Tony. “Because I do. But you won’t stop, will you?” Dahlia stood toe to toe with Tony (she had height adjustments with her suit so it would be harder for anyone to profile her correctly).

Spiderman slightly panicked as he went to stand beside Dahlia. Steve noted absently that he seemed more worried for Tony even though he was standing protectively by her side. “This is my family, Ironman, Captain America. I have been through Hell, I have paid every price with my blood and buried more loved ones than I ever had living. I have learned every learned every lesson no one should have to. And still I couldn’t save them from what life had in store for them. So, let’s be clear on this. I will keep them safe this time. I might fight on the side of the Angel’s but never forget that the devil was an angel as well.”

There was shift in the atmosphere, since no one knew what to responded with that declaration. Spiderman shifted slightly in his spot as he never took his eyes off Steve.

They must have entry to the Ironman suit, Steve thought to himself. He was starting to think that maybe they weren’t as in control of the matter as they thought.

“Look, we just want you to not hunt us down,” Spiderman said quietly, a slight shade of pleading in his voice. “We get it, if you don’t to associate yourself with us, but you need to let us go.” Neither Tony or Steve said anything, so Peter just sighed. “My Guy, take us out of here.”

“Wait! No, don’t leave yet,” Bruce called out as he ran from his spot to where the confrontation was taking place. He knew he should have been there; both Tony and Steve had a thing with their pride. If a compromise was going to come through, then they would only accept it if they were the ones to propose it in the first place. “I’m sorry. Just, give me two seconds of your time. I promise we’ll let you go afterwards,” Bruce prayed they listened.

Dahlia didn’t seem too interested in what he had to say, but Spiderman seemed to give him a  few minutes. “We’re just afraid-” there was a large protect from both of the other Avengers, not that Bruce paid them any attention. “We never meant to hunt you down- even if we did, it wasn’t intentional. But there are politics to being what we are. We have laws and regulations that bund us and keep us safe in the long run. We just want to know more about you.”

It was true. Senator Ross might have eased off the Avengers, but these guys are just waiting for things to get messy. Something in Bruce wanted- needed- for them to be safe. Something was telling him they needed someone to look after them.

“He’s not wrong.” TGC said, finally rejoining the conversation. “Also, T minus 15 seconds.”

Dahlia didn’t bother to respond to the scientist before she high tailed it out of the park. No one daring to give her chance, not after Bruce’s attempt to call a peace between them. Spiderman watched her go, until TGC confirmed she was out of range.

“Here,” Spiderman handed a business card over to the scientist before he turned around to follow after Dahlia. (Internally, he prayed that they were willing to speak to their representative. It would make things much easier if they did.)

Bruce took the card, but kept his eyes watching the vigilant disappear into the trees.

“I can’t believe that you were fraternizing with the enemy!” Tony exclaimed as he stood by his friend.

“You made it seem like we needed their help, that isn’t wise in a negotiation,” Steve cut in, making sure to use his disappointed face.

Bruce just looks at the card; Matt Murdock, Independent Lawyer. “Perhaps, but maybe we can make an ally instead.”

Without fail all the lights lit up the park, gaining attention from the surrounding neighbourhood.

“Hey, look! It’s the Avengers!”

“Is that Tony Stark? In his suit? Sweet!”

“Think they’ll sign an autograph?”

There was a silent buzz as a bullet was aimed at all of the spider webs, exploding a liquid over them. The webbing dissolved quickly enough after that. As soon as the Avengers were freed, they made their way back to tower and away from the gremlins.

(Trapping Team Spidermenace was never the issue. They didn’t need to be trapped because this was their turf. They only needed to stall the Avengers long enough to get out themselves. They were counting on the human aspect of it to outsmart the Avengers. Well played.)

.

.

MJ didn’t seem to be in the mood to speak as they got back to their base (Ned’s house). She seemed angry and worried with a side of paranoia. Without a word Peter sat down and let her do with mini checkup while Ned went to get him his nutrient enriched shake. Other than a lower than what MJ would have liked blood sugar, Peter was perfectly fine.

After MJ went to call Matt to get whatever there was about Senate Ross (there was no secret that he went after the Avengers) the two boys were left.

“YOU MET BRUCE BANNER!” Ned practically cried. “Tell me EVERYTHING, don’t leave out any details- just how smart is he? Does he have nice hair?”

“Oh, his hair is nicer than man himself; and he is a very nice man!”

.

.

Once back in the tower the Avengers sat down to think over what had happened. What exactly did Dahlia mean by what she said? She sounded angry, but more than that, she seemed overprotective.

A part of Tony was upset to hear what they supposedly went through. It seemed like a cruel fate. But he needed to know more about them. It was an itch he couldn’t get.

“Jarvis, can you bring up all the video footage of Petunia, oh, by the way, Nat, Petunia is a rock type thing and apparently she got into my tower.” Thank goodness she responded just how he hoped her would- she geared up and went about to analyze whatever footage she could find.

.

Natasha wasn’t sure what to expect but she was able to trace the movement of the rock and strangely enough, with all the factors put together, Petunia seemed to stick around the intern section exclusively.

So either Petunia was attached to either Eugene- Flash- Thompson or Peter Parker. Given Tony's opinion on Flash and that Petunia’s time frame, it didn’t seem to make sense for it to be him.

Facing the rest of the Avengers, Natasha squared her shoulders. She was sure about this.

“The only explanation I can think of, is that maybe Spiderman has taken an interest in recruiting Parker.” Natasha said slowly, trying to fit the pieces together. She knew there had to be some sort of connection. “Spiderman is after Peter Parker.”

Chapter Text

“Umm, guys?” Peter whispered in his phone as he was walking home a few days after the incident. He just got off his bus with about two blocks worth of distance left. At this point he knew he was being followed. There was no two cents about it. Even if his Spidey Sense didn’t give it away, Bucky and Sam’s bickering did. Were they always like that when Cap wasn’t around?

(Two days earlier.

Peter was happily minding his own business in his happy little corner with Flash talking about something or another, but he was pretty cool. It was a good day.

A really good day in fact, until his super hearing picked up Tony and Black Widow arguing among each other- if you could call Tony's “I called dibs on him! Leave him alone!” an argument. Without a doubt he knew very well that they were talking about him.

Pretending he didn’t hear a thing [if he can keep a straight face whenever Flash is muttering to himself, he can definitely act surprised that they were visiting], waiting for them to come into the room. Only they didn’t actually enter the shared workspace. In fact, they were hovering by the door and hiding from them. Peter could feel his Spidey sense screaming that he was in danger.

They never did enter the room and they didn’t say anything afterwards, so maybe it was the end of it?

.

It was, in fact, not the end of it.

.

The stalking followed him at breaks and lunch and even home. Peter wasn’t sure that he was supposed to do anymore. He had at least four Avengers trailing him at all times.

And what was worse was that Tony was hell bent on proving his innocence and was watching him closer than the other three Avengers combined.

But hey, at least Tony thinks he’s innocent. He’s wrong, but it still makes Peter feel all warm and gooey inside. But it really cut down on his Spidey time. Luckily MJ was covering for him.)

“I know.” MJ hissed. When she said she wanted the Avengers to stay away from Spiderman she didn’t mean for them to go after Peter. That was worse. And on top of that she wasn’t Dahlia here. She was just MJ and she can’t do a flipping thing about it. And Ned was of absolutely no help. He hacked back into Jarvis and could find anything! How did the Avengers manage to keep Ned out? They got a new system? Is it the firewalls? Ned can’t find a trace of anything different.

How the heck did the Avengers do it?

.

.

“This is archaic! Someone call my lawyers! She cannot do this!” Tony wailed. “I have rights!”

“The right to remain silent, yes,” Pepper answered with an eye roll. Why she loved him, she can never remember. “And after last confrontation with Team Spidey, changes will need to be made and quite frankly, we cannot let enhanced individuals go unchecked.” Pepper made sure to keep eye contact with all of the Avengers, and only Captain seemed to be happy with the idea.

“Until further notice, the Team Spidey case is strictly on paper copy only.”

.

.

Ned was not having a good day. He was the Guy in Chair and he got nothing done. The Avengers were stalking his Peter and if they caught him, they would take him away.

He needed to figure something out and fast. Queens still needed Spiderman, and MJ and Matt could only cover so much before people got suspicious. Stupid Spidey and his wonderfully distinctive personality.

Wait. That’s it! Man! Sometimes Ned shocks himself with how brilliant he can be. He just had a stroke of genius!

(Somewhere, MJ felt a shiver run down her back. She just knew either Peter or Ned were going to do something really dumb. Dumb even for them.)

.

.

“Nat, how long do you plan to follow my Gremlin around, huh?” Tony “not whined”. Sheesh. He finds one good kid and all of the sudden everyone wants him. Like, can they be any more rude? Tony already called dibs on the kid!

“Did that other intern of yours have any updates on Spiderman?” Nat asked as if Tony hadn’t spoken at all.

“Ummm, I don’t know?”

With a pointed silent glance, Tony was out the heading to wherever Flash was. Ridiculous was this was. He should not have to worry about his own safety in his own home! (Not that he would ever say that to Nat's face.) If anyone had Spiderman updates, it’s that kid.

Of course, nothing is ever easy for Tony and he just walked in Flash having a ridiculous conversation on his phone.

“That is some dumb stuff right there, idiot.” Flash hissed as he practically spat into his phone. (Good grief, the kid looked a lot those mafia bosses in the movies, holy.) Of course, the kid was leaning on his chair with his feet propped up in the table; when he looked up and saw his boss with his eyebrows raised at him Flash was quick to finish the call. “Never say such lies to me again- yeah, you better get it straight next time. Yeah, bye.”

“Rough day?” Tony asked, knowing he had too much pride to ask outright what that conversation was about.

“Ugh, don’t remind me,” waving his arms around he completely missed Peter coming to sit at his seat as well. “The Spidey Shout Outs are really messed up.”

Now this was something Tony didn’t hear about just yet. Was there something wrong with the little menace and co? Dang, he really needed in on that group. Peter, who was politely pretending that he couldn’t hear their conversation before turned to look at Flash with wide eyes.

“What’s wrong with Spidey?”

“Oh! Hey Puny!” Flash laughed to cover up the surprise of finally noticing Peter. “Nothing much. Just reports of Spidey falling out mid swing in the park earlier. I’m telling you, there is absolutely no way Spidey could just fall!”

For a second, Peter’s heart stopped. Spidey? At the park? But he hasn’t been anywhere but their home and SI for the past two days. He would definitely know if he went to the park. “Spiderman fell? When?” Peter could practically hear his heart beating past his chest.

“That’s what I’m saying!” Flash exclaimed, finally someone gets him. But too bad it was only Puny, but whatever.

“But, when?” Peter was curious, he needed to know what was happening. Of course, Flash chose than to be difficult and ignore Peter to continue on his monologue.

“I mean, really! SPIDEY. MY GOOD PAL, SPIDEY?” Oh, how Peter wanted to smack him and force him to talk. What exactly did he- well not him Spidey- Spiderman do?

“Flash! What happened to Spidey?” Peter hoped he didn’t sounds half as desperate as he felt. Of course, Flash wouldn’t make it easy and tell him. No, he just looked at Peter like he was considering something. Hopefully, answering.

“So, you’re a Spidey fan, too, huh? Maybe I could let you in on the Shout Outs, have you on shift as well.”

That was not what he was expecting. Good grief. “Umm, sure Flash. But I’m just really worried, you know?”

“Fair enough, I’ll tell you.”

(Meanwhile, Tony was freaking out- THIS WAS HOW PEOPLE GOT IN ON SPIDEY SHOUT OUTS? This mafia of an intern let’s only those he deems necessary into this super secret club. And of course, he sees Tony as a threat to Spidey, so he’ll never let him join. How dumb! Tony was hip! The hippest dude on the block!)

.

Peter was in mild panic all throughout the day. Apparently, there was a Spiderman roaming around Queens but there was something really off about this imposter.

It was difficult getting Flash to open up considering that he refused to do so in front on Tony because Tony was “butting heads with his pal" and Tony wasn’t too pleased about that.

Oh boy, when Peter saw the recording. It wasn’t him. It clearly wasn’t him. There was no way it could be him. But at the same time it was. Kind of like, it was Peter Benjamin Parker, but not Peter. The personal touches of him weren’t there, but it was close. Close enough to fool those who didn’t know who Spidey really was. That only team Spidey would know who this was.

Well at least it meant he had Ned tracing this identity thief down. But that also meant…

Oh God. MJ.

Peter spent all morning mulling over this. Who was this dude? Why was he after Spidey? Has he made any demands? Of course Tony was looking into him as well. What the heck? Peter was going to die.

.

Tony made sure to enter lab quietly, hoping to avoid the others. He knew he had to go back and speak to Natasha, but he couldn’t help but worry about Spiderman, the guy was like mold and he grew on you. Plus, he was an Ironman fan. He may he all kinds of awful, but he doesn’t hate his fans. Especially when they have such good tastes in heroes.

Of course, Tony couldn’t get his way- not when Nat wanted something else. She found him in less than a minute.

“Going for a walk?”

“Yep, away from you.” Tony replied easily, moving to walk past her. But she was right behind him. “I couldn’t help but notice that you’re still here.”

“He checks out, btw.” Nat said instead. “That kid of yours. His respond to the new Spiderman is just too real, besides that Spiderman might be off, but he is definitely genuine.”

“I know. Now let’s go visit Spidey at Queens, see what that menace is up to.”

.

It was past two thirty in the afternoon when Peter was going over the video in his head again.

Not-Spiderman was mechanically like Spidey, but was lacking his normal grace and fluidity.

Kind of like an algorithm.

An algorithm.

Ned.

.

Ned was feeling pretty good with his new Spiderman prototype. Of course, it wasn’t nearly in the same league as Spidey; I mean, under Spidey is Peter. But this was pretty genius.

Now MJ and Matt can take a break, the people still see a Spiderman out there. And Boom! Peter is free from the Avengers. Man, Ned was the man!

Of course, he was. He even made a way to control it through wireless- wasn’t it super cool that he was in the shop getting from bread while he was also looking over Spiderman?

He wasn’t doing the algorithm stuff, just adding a bit of human touch and boom! Good as new- or um, the original, only not.

And- oh. Oh wait. The Avengers are already here? How?

.

Steve watched as Spiderman was perched upside down on the side of the building watching them. As soon as they got close enough, he could hear the familiar voice saying “Hi guys! What’s hanging?”

(When Peter later saw the clip, he made sure to take notes. That’s comedy gold.)

But Steve wasn’t interesting in playing nice. He just wants to get this whole altercation over with on GOOD TERMS.

“Look son, we need to talk some things out okay?” Hoping to keep his authoritative voice steady, Steve looked straight at Spidey. “You don’t seem okay. You fell off a tree. You need to communicate with us.”

(Umm, ouch okay. Ned thought to himself. He just trying a test run. Stupid Flash and his stupid Shout outs.)

“I know you’re not happy with the whole team being here while you’re alone, but-"

“Don’t worry too much about that.” A cool voice sounded behind the Avengers, only they couldn’t really pinpoint where that sound was coming from. But none of them would have forgotten Dahlia’s voice.

.

(MJ has learned early in that once her intuition sets off about something dumb her boys are doing- it’s probably right. It didn’t take a genius to figure out what it was considering the news feeds were blowing up about Spidey.

One look and it became so obvious that the new Spidey was being monitored by Ned. It was so close to the original and she was sure that the Avengers would realize something was slightly off about Spidey.

And there was. It was simple. That was because it was Ned and not Peter. The two are similar enough to be considered two halves of the same idiot. Similar, but not quite.)

.

“Look, my idiot of a partner here was just trying out a new mechanism- and no. Don’t even bother asking, I’m not going to tell you.” MJ swore Stark never learns. She could practically read him like a book. “Just go home.”

“Excuse me, young lady,” Steve started, only to stop because though he couldn’t see Dahlia, he could practically feel her raise her eyebrows. “We're only here to help.”

“Uh-huh.”

Tony was about to mention something, but before he ever could, he got a message from Pepper. Darn it. Of course, she was calling. Judging by the small blue dot that kept coming closer to their location, she was probably tracking them and half way to already reaching them.

True to reason, Pepper had arrived close to a minute later. Though the rest of the Avengers didn’t seem so shocked, only Tony felt somewhat nervous.

Pepper immediately took off her iron suit and stepped out of it. Raising her head held high as gracefully as Tony never had, she approached Spiderman. “The neighborhood Spiderman, Pepper Potts. Pleasure is all mine.”

“That’s it, I’m officially dead and bless my soul I went to heaven.” Spiderman whispered before he seemed to short-circuit. There was a rustle as a dark shadow shot out to catch him before he fell.

“Idiot. Honestly, what am I going to do with you?” Dahlia muttered fondly, though she would deny it if ever asked. After Spiderman was gently laid to the ground, Dahlia turned to face Ms. Potts. “So, the Avengers are finally sending out their best, huh?” Despite her words, Dahlia offered her hand forwards the CEO. It was Pepper Potts. If Peter and Ned could break rules as easy as breathing than so could she if the price was right. And heck yeah, was it right right now.

“Figured that it was about time we met. I apologize for my colleague’s behavior. They went no harm, I assure you.” Pepper smiled as took the offered hand in a firm handshake. She just knew the boys wouldn’t be able to solve this. At least not with their bruised egos. Men, honestly.

“Cool. Hey, Spidey?” Dahlia called out once he started to move again. “Get out of here.”

Need sighed as he did what was asked *ordered* of him. As a backward glance, he noticed as MJ and Pepper both disappeared.

.

When the news feeds came back of how the Avengers and Team Spidey made friends, it was a welcomed breath of relief for Peter. Now he could finally geek out in peace.

Of course, that didn’t mean that he wasn’t curious as to what exactly MJ and Ms. Potts talked about, but that was for another day.

Tonight, they celebrate the little victories. Matt even got them non-alcoholic alcohol!

.

Maybe Peter celebrated too much the night before considering how he had slept in for the first time in five years. He was in so much trouble.

Catching the next available bus, Peter anxiously texted his supervisor that he was running really late and how sorry he was, he would have called but he left like throwing up.

Looking out the window, he noticed that skies were becoming cloudy and air began to drizzle. Shaking his, Peter decided he was being ridiculous. Nothing was wrong.

The moment when Peter arrived to the front gates, the atmosphere was a bit different as everyone turned to look at him. Flash was even there as well as Tony and Bruce. Captain America looked like he wanted to hug him or something.

The only familiar thing about it was the way Quentin Beck was glaring at him. “Look for finally decided to show up! It’s Boy Wonder!” Tony turned to look at him with wide eyes, but Flash snapped first. “Listen, you idiot. I get it, Peter’s gone further than you have in a decade in three months, but really? You deserve it. You ain’t nothing special okay? Yeah, you’re just being humoured, but guess what?” Peter raised his eyebrows at how harsh Flash was being. That’s your problem. Stop trying to make it ours. So shut up.”

For a moment all eyes where on Flash and Beck as Beck looked like he just got slapped before his face took an impressive shade of red. “Why you little-”

“I said, shut up.” Flash interrupted, coolly. Beck made his towards to dark skinned boy, but Steve finally snapped out of it and intercepted the younger man.

“Alright, I think it’s time you leave.” Steve tried to be nice about it, but was this adult really going after children? “Can I get security here?”

“Listen, Tony. Let me handle this one,” Flash stated looking Tony straight in the eyes, as if daring for him to go against him. After a moment, it became that Tony wasn’t going to agree with Flash but he also wouldn’t stand in his way, Flash wrapped an arm around Peter’s shoulders practically shoving Beck backwards as they left the corridor.

Something was off the moment Peter came back to his office, Flash was looking at him with something he couldn’t quite place. But he wasn’t being the goofy bully Peter always knew him to be at the moment and for some reason, that scared Peter even more.

“Hey, Peter,” Flash said softly as to not startle him. You might want to sit down for this.” Flash was completely uncharacteristically patient as Peter stared at him for a full minute before taking a seat. “I’m just going to come out a say it, okay? I already called MJ to come get you. Your aunt called.”

Peter swore his heart stopped at that very moment and suddenly, he was a lot younger and was terrified all over again.

May, his May.

His lifeline.

Chapter Text

May called.

Peter couldn’t believe this. May hadn’t spoken in years- she had to stay under the radar for years as she healed. But she called him. And MJ was coming to pick him up- which mean it had to be real, right?

Peter didn’t even realise that he had stopped breathing as Flash put one of his hands on his chest as he began taking deep breaths. “Listen, Puny. You have to stay conscious enough until I can hand you off to MJ. She’ll skin me alive if you got hurt. Think about me for once.”

Peter smiled to himself. He knew Flash was just trying to make a show, but he was really doing this for him. “Did you really tell Mr. Quentin to shut up?” Peter tried to smile, anything to get his mind off his anxiety attack.

“I never really liked the punk, so,” Peter laughed when Flash just shrugged his shoulders. Suddenly, Peter’s phone was ringing. He looked at the caller ID to see Ned’s name flashing.

“Hey, buddy,” Peter smiled, Ned was a cool dude. He always has something calming to say.

“We’ve been compromised,” Ned said in him mission voice. “MJ is coming to get you out of there.”

Darn it, Ned. So much for calming, but he was used to it now. “Alrighty. And May?” Peter waited about three seconds before calling out to Ned again.

“Moved. Can’t say where over the phone.” Ned replied easily. “Pete? She’s safe. I swear my life on it.” Ned gave a few colourful curses before he stated he needed to go and hung up the phone without another word.

Peter looked wide eyed at Flash, who had turned around and distracted himself to offer Peter some privacy. Suddenly he was sitting on the floor looking up at Flash. It didn’t matter that he was Spiderman, or MJ was Dahlia, or Ned practically was a supercomputer or even how many years have passed. When it came to May they would always be just children.

.

The heck was going here, Flash cursed the day. He was just trying to be the cool dude he was in not letting some grown dude bully on his Puny Parker, and now he was trying to comfort his supposedly archnemesis on the floor. But Flash could do this. How hard could comforting some distraught kid be? Easy. “Um, dude, you wanna sit on a chair or something? I bet the floors are nasty.”

No response. Sheesh. Tough crowd. “I ain’t sitting on the floor. This is custom made Spidey suit and the floor is nasty.”

Fifteen minutes later, Flash found himself sitting on the chair as Peter sat curled up on another chair, barely stopping himself from rocking in his panic.  Flashed considered them not sitting on the floor a win. Something was crazy weird with Puny Parker and he didn’t know what was happening.

If Flash knew anything of himself, was that he hated not knowing. And clearly Peter wasn’t going to talk. Thinking to himself, Flash figured he could help by sharing how he handled rough situations.

“Alright, Parker. I know exactly what would help.” Flash announced, squaring up his shoulders when he noticed Peter hadn’t reacted. “C’mon Parker, it’s just a game, alright?”

Peter looked up as if just noticing Flash there (which, Flash would like to add, is kind of highly offensive, thank you very much). “Um, yeah. What is it called?”

“What would Spidey do!”

(Peter's groan and head drop that followed both worried and offended Flash in equal parts. Excuse you, Spidey is the perfect role model and he knows what’s what.)

.

 MJ was weaving through the downtown traffic on her motorcycle; there wasn’t anything hiding her identity anymore. They have been compromised and someone was trying to hurt Peter- her Peter; the choice was between keep herself a little bit safer and letting go of the comfort of hiding her alias gave her more time. It was an easy enough choice to make.

Especially when she knew it was coming the moment she got Pepper Potts alone. But she was tired of trying to help from the sidelines. She knew very well that if she had to choose between her boys and others it wouldn’t even be a decision. The people deserved better. That’s why she tried to lead Pepper into this mess because it wasn’t so simple that Team Petunia could save everyone. It was never that easy. After all, this wasn’t a fairy-tale, and even if it was, she was the dragon.  Always the dragon. She was only ever able to set the world on fire.

She started this. She got Pepper Potts entangled in their mess, left her to look into these matters herself. Actions have consequences and she wield hers like she has always done.

.

Ned was not having a good day. First MJ scolds him for his brilliant idea of a fake Spidey (at least Peter thought he was hilarious, and Petunia was clearly on his side here).

Then this happened. Someone went after May. Of course, she was getting better now- just a bit of a limp when she walked and kind of paranoid- and doesn’t like to talk much. But if May ever gets targeted ever, it would be too soon.

Plus, Ned would like to state that the assailants are dumb. Ned doesn’t do field work. Ned is always off somewhere else. Somewhere near May or close enough to get to her. Also, he wasn’t shy about hijacking a few Ironman suits for a while to keep her safe.

Therefore, overall, very stupid.

But he digresses, he was a man in a mission and he wouldn’t fail. He has May and they need to go underground.

.

MJ couldn’t track Ned anymore after the first half hour. Where ever he was, he was off the grid. Usually that would give her a sign on comfort- something that let her know that he in his element. But she had a bad feeling about this.

Usually, Ned would check in with Matt (Ned appointment Matt their means of communication years ago and Matt never disagreed). He always sends some sort of sign or code that he’s safe. But it’s been almost two hours and nothing.

When her phone went off, she picked up without looking at who was calling. “Talk to me,”

“I have May, but Ned isn’t here.” There was rustling as Matt was clearly on the move. “He dropped her off in Hell’s Kitchen, I moved May somewhere safe. I’ll take the west side; Jones is on the south.”

For a moment MJ felt herself go cold. No one knew where the third member went. Ned wasn’t a fighter- he was supposed to the safe point at all times. And he clearly wasn’t if he thought to just leave May alone until Matt came to get her. “Stay in touch.”

.

“Alright Parker, listen here.” Flash started as he held on to Peter's arm, dragging him out of the room. Something was wrong with Peter, and now it was up to Flash to save the day. After talking about Spidey (Peter listened as Flash talked about all the good reasons Peter should do what Spidey would do; Flash talked a lot), Peter started acting weird. Really weird. Like he was too tired to even sit up in his chair. “I’m going to take you to see Tony because he’s rich and probably has a live-in doctor or something else only dumb rich people would have.”

There was a small smell in the room. It kind of gave Flash a headache, but it seemed to really be beating on Puny, who was surprisingly lightweight. “Also, like dude. Eat a cheese burger or something.” Peter only rolled his head over and away from the noise that was grating on his ears.

Little did Flash know that he was closely being followed.

.

Beck cracked his neck as he watched the two young teens leave the safety of the well documented room to somewhere else to find a doctor. It wasn’t all that hard to add a bit of insecticide into the vents in low concentrations, enough to stay undetected until he could increase the concentration until it was enough to impair the mutant.

Using his invention- how dare Stark call it BARF- to alter the lay out of the hallways, making Flash believe he was leading Spiderman to the medical room when he was taking him farther away from the front entrance.

Beck smiled as he picked at the dirt under his nails as he leaned on the far wall, killing time beside the exit door in the parking lot. He counted down from three until five explosions could have been heard from miles away. Bombing five prominent building in separate districts in the heart of civilian populations.

That should be enough to keep the Avengers out of his hair for a while.

True to thought, the sound of Ironman assembling drowned by the ‘superheroes’ leaving hit his ears like music.  

.

Flash wasn’t sure what was happening, but it was taking a lot longer to get to the medical area than he remembered. Or it could be because Peter was completely out forcing him to carry all of his horribly underweight self. “Puny, look, I’m trying to be nice, but help a brother out here,” There was a bit of rustling from behind them and something heavy settled deep in his gut. “Pete, c’mon, please wake up.” Deciding against his better judgement, Flash have up trying to get to medical professional, and tried to find a way outside. Soon Peter was on his back, Flash leading them to the stairs.

Flash wasn’t sure what was happening, but he was scared. Something just wasn’t right.  He just needed to find someone who could help, and fast.

Flash wished he slept in today, maybe he would have been safer that way. Remembering of the unconscious boy he was now carrying his back, he wished Peter just called in instead of coming in to work. It was weird but Flash knew whatever was happening was connected with Puny.

Pulling every bit of survival information he had gathered (he watched A LOT of the Die Hard movies, though he really didn’t want to die, hard or elsewise, if he could), and avoided the elevators and took the stairs, hoping to reach the outside faster. When the building shook- was there bombings- Flash nearly cried when the emergency lights came on. Through the windows by the stairwells showed Ironman blasting off to who knows where, he kind of wished he stayed.

Flash didn’t know why he did it, maybe he was scared of being alone- of no one knowing what was happening. Maybe of being here without any help, but he pulled out his phone. He knew he couldn’t call the police- they’d be too busy. There was no one on his phone list that could help. So, he took Peter’s phone. He started scrolling for someone he recognized.

The only one that made sense was MJ. He wasn’t sure what she could do, but she was calming. He could use some of that. So, he called, holding his breath as the dial tone went through. Finally, she picked up (it only rang one and a half times). “Peter-”

“Michelle, it’s Flash.” Flash cut through, his panic finally setting in now that he tried to piece together what was happening to explain it to her. “Listen, I’m scared. Peter won’t wake up and I have a really bad feeling. I didn’t know who else to call. What I am supposed to-”

“What do you mean ‘Peter won’t wake up’?” MJ hissed, changing her route to get to Peter before she went looking for Ned. A quick text to Matt let him know, knowing he was probably busy trying to deal with the bombings. “Where are you?”

“SI, Pete isn’t looking so good. He got tired and started nodding off. He was panicking and I was with him and than he just passed out!” Flash could feel the bile rise as he started trembling. “Michelle, something’s wrong. I can feel it. I’ve been walking for while and I still couldn’t find a way out! He’s burning right now, but he’s shivering. What am I supposed to do?!” Flash was yelling at this point.

(MJ knew asking Flash to stay with Peter was a risk to him. That by telling him not to leave Peter could mean that Flash could get involved. But leaving Peter alone could be enough to kill him. Biting her lip, she made a quick decision that she knew she would always make.)

 “Listen, I know it sounds weird,” MJ said slowly as she thought over what was happening, a million thoughts running through her mind. “But I’m glad Peter has you with him right now. Thank you. I’m coming to get you guys. Just get outside, somewhere with a lot of people, okay? Stay on the line. I’ll get to you as soon as I can.” She was two hours away, but she’d be there in less than one.

.

Tony had the Avengers working in pairs as they tried to contain the fires and the falling buildings long enough to get the civilians to safety. But there wasn’t an easy MO to why these areas seem to be targeted. Steve was on another site with Nat leading the third team. The other two bombs were smaller, and the city was able to handle those without the Avengers stepping in. Besides Daredevil took one of them and he was pretty close to another.

Tony went through the makes of an evacuation as he had done so much times, but nothing was making sense. This seemed like a divergent but at the same time, from where? Where was he not supposed to be?

Receiving a call from Pepper, (which was quite odd, considering he was sure she knew that he was on the field right now) he picked up.

“Hello, love of my life, answer to my prayers, the butter to my toast-”

“Tony listen. I need you to investigate a nearby building.” Pepper snapped. “When I spoke with Dahlia, she mentioned us wanting to have a better look at it. It’s Hydra, Tony. It’s an elementary school that’s a Hydra base.”

Of course, it was, Tony sneered to himself. Looking around it became obvious that clean up was pretty much over. It clearly wasn’t meant to be an attack on its own. “Alright, I’ll let Cap and Tin Arm know we’ll be needing their expertise here.” Hydra and a bunch of little kids? That’s sounds really off, even to his ears. He really hoped it wasn’t going where he thought it was going.

“I’m going to find Peter,” Pepper stated, Tony forgot she was still online. “Listen, when I met with Dahlia, she said to watch him whenever we raid that school. I’ll call you when I get there.” Tony could hear her Iron suit start to assemble as the line went dead.

What did his Gremlin have to do with Hydra and elementary school?

.

Flash was finally on the ground floor, leaning heavily as he caught his breath- stupid Peter. Peter was just dumb enough to weight low enough to cause worry, but heavy to leave him winded. Finally feeling up to it, he pushed the fire exit door open, finally letting the claustrophobic feeling fade as the cool air hit his face. It would be okay. MJ was coming. Sure, she wasn’t Spidey, but she was someone and he wouldn’t be alone.

The relief was short lived; as soon as the door closed, Flash found himself being grabbed by the front of his shirt. Looking straight into Beck’s eyes. Before Flash could open his mouth, he was quickly punched on his jaw. Several times.

“Hey, brat.” Beck said in a sickly concerned voiced. “Where did all your bravado go?” Letting the boy fall on the ground, Beck gave him a swift kick to his temple, forcing him to drop Spiderman as he reached to hold his bleeding head.

Walking towards Spiderman with his gun out, pointing towards the flushed boy’s forehead. “Hey, Peter. You know, I’ve been thinking about how you miss your parents so much. Why not see how they’re doing?”

Beck wasn’t expecting the other brat to grab his arm- of course he wasn’t strong enough to wrestle it out of his hand, but Flash knew that as well, and bit his arm. Biting back a scream Beck kept punching the kid until his grip on the gun loosened enough that Flash got a hold of it.

Point the gun at Beck, Flash wasn’t sure what he was doing. He barely understood that he had a gun in his hand, pointing it at Beck. “Stop. You need to leave.” Flash tried to hold his hand steady but it hard. “Just leave us alone.”

Beck laughed. Was this kid serious? “Listen, brat, you don’t know a thing about that gun. Put it down before you hurt yourself.” As Beck made to take a step closer, Flash shot at his feet. Jumping back, he could see the boy shaking heavily. The boy was clearly out of it- barely aware of what was happening. The ground where he shot was tranquilizer dart cracked. There was another dart in the gun before it was empty. “Seriously? You think I’m scared of you?”

Beck made to rush at Flash, knowing he was so whined up that he would pull the trigger as soon as he scared. Flash fell for it and pulled the last bullet, hitting a stray pole. Knowing that the boy was defenseless Beck charged, a sick joy in his face as Flash tried to shoot again, slowly realizing that the gun was useless.

Flash barely got a chance to look up before Beck was on him. He didn’t feel where it hurt anymore. Just everything. The moment when Beck finally let him go, Flash just dropped. He wished he could of have been a bit cooler- lasted a bit longer. Long enough for someone to noticed. He wasn’t meant for this. That was fine. He could sleep now.

But something kept him from drifting. All he could see was Beck’s feet walking towards Peter, laying on the pavement where he first dropped him. Flash just doesn’t get it. Why he can’t let this go. He tried, okay? He really did try to save Peter. So, why can’t he just let it go. But he couldn’t. Because he didn’t want to. Peter was Puny. If Beck hit Peter as hard he hit did him, he wasn’t sure Peter could handle it. With the last bit of adrenaline in his veins, Flash forced his legs to Peter, where he threw his body over Peter’s, covering his head and torso. Beck cursed his name before he started to beat him off of the smaller body.

Through his spotting vision, Flash watched as three more figures approached. A part of him wished they were there to stop Beck. When he felt another pair of shoes nudge his sore ribs, he curled a little tighter around Peter. He didn’t know why he was trying to save Puny but knowing that someone was there that needed him made it a lot easier- he didn’t know anymore. Maybe it was because everything felt surreal at this point, he couldn’t feel the kicks or the punches anymore. But he felt that he was floating, letting go was easy. Holding on was the only think he focused on. It’s always easier being strong for someone else.

.

Peter found it much easier to breath and slowly regained his consciousness as his body kept jerking. The scent blood filled entered his nose as he become aware of the body on top of his. He knew it was Flash before he even saw his face.

Everything about being here, and in this position was far too familiar to stop the rage that went through Peter. Within seconds he flipped over, gently setting his classmate on the pavement. With the next second he grabbed first leg that was just about to make contact; pulling it out under the nameless man.

“Oh look, Spiderman’s awake!” Beck laughed as he finally reset the tranquilizer gun with another round. “Before we end this, I have to ask: how many people died for you with that Parker curse?”

Peter’s senses flared as he moved away from the metal pole that was aimed to the back of his head, and away from Flash. Landing on his feet, he was quick to call on his suit. He shot a web to hit the two Hydra agents before aiming for the third. His movements far quicker as he didn’t care how or where it hit them. Peter launched himself to the wall, facing Beck who was more preoccupied with the gun in his hands until it was ready and facing Peter.

“You know, I really don’t want to kill this moron.” Beck said casually as he had another gun pointing towards Flash. “You know, I’d still get what I want, but him? He could still walk away from this easy enough, what do you think?”

Peter knew, he knew, okay, that Beck was lying. He knew that Beck wouldn’t allow for any witnesses to survive and if he let himself get caught than there was nothing he could do to save Flash if anything went south.

“No?” Beck asked, sounding slightly disappointed. “Suit yourself.” Before Peter could web Flash away from Beck, he knew he’d be too slow.  There was a sound of metal hitting metal before the sound of an engine came roaring from the roof. Peter was shocked as MJ came as herself instead of her alias.

She didn’t bother asking questions before she opened fire on Beck. The madman laughed the bullets ricocheted off. Clearly he was wearing armor underneath, but it didn’t matter as Peter got Flash out of harm’s away. Somewhere after Peter woke up, Flash had finally passed out.

Meanwhile MJ aimed on the three down agents, shooting them in the foot. It wouldn’t kill them, but it would stop them from escaping. Beck raised his eyebrows, letting out a low whistle. She was everything the report he got said she would be. But really. Two itty bitty brats weren’t going to stop him.

He aimed his gun as MJ, knowing that if she wasn’t enhanced it would be enough to stop her heart instantly. Spiderboy jumped to intervene but was clearly made busy with the backup that just arrived. Ten more enhanced Hydra soldiers came flooding in, the other three pulled themselves up.

Beck shot at the girl’s motorcycle, hitting one of the wheels; she was quick to leap towards him. On her was projectile he aimed his gun at her. After all he didn’t need to kill Spiderman, just any one them would do.

Unfortunately, of course, something just had to happen. Something came in the form of a female Iron suit. The user continued open fire at them from the air. In the corner of his eye he could make out the silhouette of Daredevil and Jessica Jones approaching quickly.

Laughing as his pager went off, letting him know that they had succeeded in their mission. All they needed was one member of ‘Team Spidey’ afterall. Releasing the Binarily Augmented Retro-Framing he was quick to get away from everything.

Nine of the soldiers followed as the three injured and two stayed behind to but them time.

.

It didn’t take them very long to have the whole building surrounded. Nat went ahead and blocked all the exits. Clint being as impatient as he was (he did seem a bit more weary than the rest) fired his first arrow into the teachers lounge. The bullets to quickly follow didn’t surprise anymore.

Raiding the building and finding actual children in the building during the raid was far more daunting than they though it would be. They seemed like they were actual children. With nothing happening. The teachers were a different story. Eleven of them pulled guns on themselves as soon as they heard the Avengers come by.

Tony cursed as he was quick to get the kids out of those classrooms. By the time they were done, they had almost two hundred kids being taken into custody, worried parents flooding to the scene.  

Tony already informed shield who took over the investigation of what had happened. As he took one last look around the building, something caught his eye. There was a class picture from years ago. Reading the engraving “Eugene ‘Flash’ Thompson”. That couldn’t be good.

.

MJ whirled to the new additions as soon as they arrived. “Where’s Ned?” Only knowing her for so long, did Peter hear the dread in her voice.

Neither Matt nor Jones said anything. But silence was an answer all the same. Pepper Potts landed after she tried to track Beck and the escaped Hydra soldiers. “Dahlia?” She voice quiet as she looked at the teenaged girl staring the other two down, her blue hoodie covered in dirt and torn at the edges.

“We know he knew he was being followed and he went to one of the building that were bombed, down in Manhattan.” Matt stated his voice calm as he looked at the girl in front of him. He knew she didn’t want nice. Michelle always wanted to cold facts. “We couldn’t find him.”

Peter was under water. They couldn’t find Ned, but Ned was always secure… He heard the voices call him name as he took off, Karen directing him to the bombing in Manhattan. Karen searching for anything to indicate where Ned was.

.

The Avengers came back to the Avenger’s tower, Pepper pacing back and forth as he arrived. She wrapped her arms around his neck as she pulled him as close as possible. He noticed that Daredevil and Jones were just leaving as the others filed in. “What did I miss?”

Pepper looked at Tony like he raised the moon and set the sun. “They’re children, Tony. Team Spidey are just babies,” Pepper couldn’t help but cry on his shoulder. She cried for the teenagers with the world on their shoulders. For the child in the medical wing, trying to assess the damage.

(She demanded to know why Daredevil and Jones weren’t stopping them. Jones’ just rolled her eyes as she got ready to leave. Daredevil took his time before answering. “Because we can’t. I can try to make them safer.” She was going to snap at what poor excuse for an answer when MJ interrupted.

“Because this isn’t a fairy tale. You may be superheroes, but we aren’t yours to save. We never were.”

Pepper didn’t know what to say to that, what to do to easy that expression off the young face. The child left soon after Flash was admitted, being told that they wouldn’t know about him until a few hours later.)

Steve watched as the proud CEO collected herself before facing the rest of the Avengers, grateful that most tried to give them some privacy. “Black Dahlia asked me to look into the school, and I did. I didn’t find anything wrong at first. I promised when I did, I’d be close to Peter whenever I did. Peter- he’s Spiderman, his friend has to be Dahlia.”

Nat looked solemn as she sat down, pulling out a file she had been keeping on Spidey and his crew. “Explain from the beginning.”  

.

Peter blinked back his fears as he went driving through the rubble and the building debris; praying for anything. There wasn’t single trace where Ned could be. His designated room was completely buried at the bottom. His mind screamed that there was no way Ned could possibly have survived the bombing.

But everything else kept the thought that Ned being under there, waiting for him in the front of his mind. His suit was torn into pieces, the clothe worn off his hands and his fingers bled as he used raw strength to pick up what used to be a ceiling and tossed it aside. Karen gave the last known location of the missing team member to here. He’d find Ned, he had to.

He felt a hand land on his shoulder, hoping it could be Ironman or even Captain America telling him they got a lead. But it wasn’t. It was MJ. MJ who looked so out of place in her casual hoodie and jeans. Dirt and blood on her face as she levelled him with a cold look (but it wasn’t really, Peter thought to himself. It was closed off; she was scared). “I’ll take the other side. We’d cover more ground that way.” And with that, her hand was gone but not before she tossed him an extra pair of her gloves at him. Then she was gone just as suddenly.  

.

No one spoke for a while as they look everything in. Jarvis had brought up the school photos of Michelle Jones, Peter Parker and Edward Leeds, aka, Ned. It was like a strange dream to think that Team Spidey were so young.

But the Twitter account made sense now. Just as they were ready to leave, Pepper got a notification that Flash was awake now. Making quick work to get to the boy, the rest of the team soon followed. As they approached the wing they could clearly voices- both were exasperated and exhausted.

As soon as Tony walked in, Flash turned towards him, “See! He is dumb rich. I knew you’d have a live-in doctor somewhere!” Flash happily leaned back in his bed as he proved how right he was.

Dr. Cho was clearly having a hard time trying to get answers from the boy who went on his phone, looking up his Spidey Shoutouts. “Flash, please,”

“Don’t.”

Sam came up to the front and watched the boy as he mindlessly kept looking up what Spiderman was up to. He was clearly afraid, and it was hiding it in his obsession to know exactly what Spidey was doing. “What’s Spidey been up to?” He asked casually, siting himself on the bed.

“Dunno. Nothing on him for it bit.” Flash answered, still not making any eye contact, but had stopped typing. “He must have been busy or else he would have stopped that jerk, ya know?”

“I bet he was,” Sam soothed the ruffle feathers as Flash was wondering why Spidey didn’t come to rescue him. “So, you saved yourself?”

Flash threw his phone across the room, “Like Hell I did!” No one said a word as Sam hummed to himself. “They still took that stupid Puny!”

He must not know that Peter was Spiderman or that Spidey was safe. His avoidance of his situation made a lot more sense now. “You know, Peter is safe, right? Just at the different hospital,” Sam really didn’t want to give away secrets. “Can you tell us what happened? We got to let the doctors and nurses know, right?”

“But I don’t know what happened! That jerk sneers at Pete- we leave. Then Peter starts panicking and than passes out. I try to get to someone, you know, can actually do something but it was taking too long. So instead I took him outside where I got beaten up!” Flash was panting by the time he was finished but refused to let the doctor near him. Taking all his anger out on her.

“Why’d you do it?” Nat asked, watching the boy closely.

“Because that’s what Spidey would do, duh.” Flash must really be out of it if he was sassing the Black Widow.

“So, you all mind? Can I get to my intern here, or nah?” Tony asked as he pushed himself to stand in front of Flash. “I got questions. Your elementary school, what was it like?”

“…like school. I don’t know, hard?” Flash wondered what was wrong with these people to be asking dumb questions. “Look, I don’t know, it was a hard school to get into and stay in. If you started falling being in your class work they’d kick you out. Then we would go on like normal. Why are you so curious? It was a dumb school.”

“Do you know what happened to the kids that got kicked out?” Nat asked, hoping it would lead to something.

“I don’t think so. I mean Peter, Ned and MJ got kicked out, but they still got into Midtown? Ask them.” The Avengers looked at each other before letting Flash rest some more.

“Wait before you go, since my Spidey suit got ruined on SI property, is it covered?” Flash screamed at the retreated backs of the world’s mightiest heroes.

“Sure, kid,” Tony laughed. “As many as you’d like!”

.

Somewhere afterwards, the Avengers slowly joined the search party, looking for the third member of Team Spidey. No one spoke. No one tried to approach either of the teens, both looked a moment away from snapping.

Eventually MJ pushed the last piece of rumble away and found the computer Ned always carried on him. The computer was swiped clean and it was broken so deliberately that nothing could be recovered from it. It could only mean that Ned knew that someone was coming for him. And he chose to stay to cover his tracks. He chose to stay to try and save them one more time.

They say that you would feel numb or hallow in the times that frightened you, but Peter didn’t; felt everything. The pounding of his heart, the pounding of MJ’s heart a few meters away from him. More profound is the lack of Ned’s heart rate. He knew Ned wasn’t there as soon as he saw the computer. But that didn’t stop him from tearing the entire room apart praying to find him. He screamed into the evening as he couldn’t find anything else leading them to Ned.

Eventually both teens agreed to take it back to the Avenger’s tower to have it better analyzed.

“It’s you…?” Tony watched as Peter swung to the top of the SI roof top, carrying MJ with him. His shoulders tight enough that Tony thought the wind would be enough to snap his back. No one that young should have to carry the world on their shoulders at sixteen- not even they were enhanced or whatever MJ was. But it was too rehearsed to be new. “Hey, Gremlin,” Let it never be said that Tony Stark didn’t have tact as he soft approached the teen. “What to fill the rest of us in?”

“They took Ned.” Peter whispered as he stared into the evening sky, but the sky was already covered in light grey clouds. It didn’t rain, but for all Peter could care about, it might as well poured. Someone went after them in broad daylight with the Avengers right by them. They weren’t safe. But again, were they ever?

But what they didn’t understand, was that they took Ned.

No one, not the Avengers, not Hell's Kitchen – no one messes with Ned. Not if MJ or Peter had anything to say about it.

Chapter Text

Peter felt the tremors into his core; he couldn’t do this again. Not after barely making it out the first time. When will they finally be safe? He could feel MJ’s hand rub his shoulders as she came to stand behind him; Ned's laptop in her hands.   

“Hey, guys?” Tony ventured as apparently no one else was going to bother the two teenagers. “What’s going on? Think you could explain it to us?”  

MJ gave a hollow laugh. “Sure, hey, Barns,” turning to face the man in question. “Remember seven and half years ago, you were in a hydra base. Something was going down, but there was an interference?”  

Bucky stared at them as memories came rushing back in flashbacks; small hands telling him he would be alright. That he didn’t need to worry; because he was strong but so were they. That he could rest assured that they would help fight for him. He could never remember the faces or voices. Just little hands. “But you would have been ten at the time or something…?”   

“And since when did anyone care about that?” MJ hissed. “You can take a guess what that means for us and who we are.”  

“No, actually, I can’t,” Tony happily interrupted. He wanted an explanation, not a horrified Barns. “What is happening here? Someone went missing; and we need to know what we’re up against if we want to get him back faster.”  

“I’m a mutant, MJ is a trained assassin, and Ned is our digital database. We are Team Spidey.” Peter cut in before MJ could bother with a sarcastic retort. “We have been on the run for years from the Hydra copies for years. They don’t need Ned, just want him gone, they won’t even hesitate to-but, if you’re here…?”  

Peter turned to look at Tony; this is Ironman. He could help them, this time he was right here. MJ turned away, just because she didn’t want to break Peter’s faith in Stark didn’t mean she held even a candle of faith in the Avengers.   

“Alright, Gremlin.” Tony started, not actually sure how to get by everything without asking too many questions- clearly there was a mood teenage girl (who has a A LOT of sway in the decision making area) that he didn’t want to set off. “We can make it work. Yeah okay. Just stay stationed-”  

“Like, heck we will.” MJ stretched her neck, sighing as it cracked. “This is our operation, our guy. We go.” Tony winced at the tone: she genuinely did not care for his opinion, which- rude.  

Steve looked at the kids in front on him. “Now, little miss,” (Peter had never seen MJ raise her eyebrows so high, so fast.) “Maybe we should let the adults take care of this.”  

MJ didn’t answer, clearly done with this conversation. Ned was still missing and she wasn’t going to verbally go toe to toe with the gentleman of the century. Turning towards the door while fixing her jacket collar, without turning to face the others, she called, “We have others we can reply on, without being sidelined.”  

Peter moved automatically. As mush as he would love to stick around, Team Spidey (MJ) had his loyalty first- always. His phone already unlocked in his hand, scrolling down his contacts.  

Tony looked three seconds away from strangling Rogers- could he not get on the girl’s bad side for one afternoon (never mind him saying the exact thing a minute earlier) ? “Listen. The more the merrier! We can work with anybody! The more people the better! We’d be a big happy team, family, family- team together. I don’t discrimin-"   

“Mr. Deadpool? It’s Peter,” Peter called softly to the mercenary; the room going dead in disbelief. “They came back, and took Ned.” There was some response on the other side of the line (in the form of profanity so sever  Clint  was attempted to cover the children’s ears).   

“…excuse me?” Tony clearly spoke too soon in his tirade. WADE WILSON. Great. Of all the people to associate with. “Oh, no…did you guys get mixed up in the wrong crowd?” Tony could feel the anxiety build up. Was this what his parents felt like when he mixed in “cooler kids” in college when he was a kid? Peter didn’t seem to notice Tony's panic while MJ scoffed.   

“Can you come get us?” Peter continued on without concern. “Thanks! We’ll be waiting by the front lobby. Is Dare Devil going to be there as well?” (Tony clutched his heart as he couldn’t believe who his gremlin was friends with. Whatever happened to making nice friends?)  

Peter and MJ were well out of the room before the Avengers seemed to snap back into motion. “Now wait a second! Let’s not be rash here!” Tony called out, already worrying for their safety. “I’ll come with you!”  

(The others rolled their eyes at Tony's antics, but slowly moved to follow the teens as well).   

.  

.  

Ned couldn’t believe this. He had tried to call Deadpool from TWO different safe phone booths FIVE times and he kept going into voice mail. Did the man not understand that carrying quarters isn’t a thing anymore?! That Ned is a modern man with a debit card?! (Ned was definitely going to ‘fix’ Deadpool’s phone after this so this phone would have to pick up his calls. He wasn’t sure how but he would so do it.)  

Ned sighed as he looked at May in the driver’s seat. She wasn’t for talking a whole lot these days more so when things got bad. She would have her fake smiles and conversations time to time but was always genuine when she was with her family, hence she spoken less, but this scenario was something different. He could only imagine the flashbacks from what he heard from Peter the last time while on the run.   

Either way, it was time to move before they found them again. There was another safe phone booth around here somewhere.   

Ned had to admit that without his tech, he felt kind of naked. (Ned considered it a win when he told May and she chuckled at him.)  

.  

.  

“Oh, heck!” Tony groaned as the teens didn’t stop on their way to the lobby. At least Peter would interact with him in between his phone call unlike another moody teen who certainly was not preoccupied, Tony sulked as he side eyed MJ. “Pepper, help me here!”.   

Too bad, Pepper wasn’t listening as she walked by, placing a gentle hand on MJ’s shoulders as she grabbed a file. “Good thinking, we’ll need every man on board.” MJ smirked at her.  OH, so she’ll acknowledge Pepper but not him?!?! .   

Tony would feel bitter that Pepper was the favourite if she wasn’t his favourite, too.   

Right before Pepper turned to another corner, she turned towards the teenagers. “I know this is your war, but I started this.” Catching everyone’s attention as they stopped to watch her turn to leave.   

“Miss. Pepper, it’s okay!” Peter rushed in, he couldn’t stand the thought of Pepper feeling guilty. That’s the last thing he wanted. Besides, this started way before Pepper.  

“Oh sweetheart, but I’m not sorry- I’m just taking responsibility,” Pepper  gave a hollow laugh, a clear iron resolve carrying into the open space. She didn’t bother to turn around as she left them. “Also, make no mistake.” At this point, Pepper turned the corner and only her voice carried.   “This isn’t about Spiderman, Daliah or The Guy in Chair. This is about Peter, MJ, Ned and your Aunt- you’re more than just an entity. You’re people, just like me. Just like everyone before you. And I’ll fight for that; for you, for them.”  

The room stayed quiet as Peter and MJ looked at one another, a sense of warmth finally breaking the cold that had engulfed them. That maybe, they were more than semi Avengers (MJ would argue they were something else, better but hey).  

“Dayum! Is she head of your PR team, Stark?” A very distinctly annoying voice that Tony never needs to hear again called out. Deadpool was leaning on the wall by the entrance. “No wonder the public kind of likes you, and haven’t chased you all out yet!”   

Excuse him,  Tony was VERY likeable without Pepper. In fact he made  her  look good. (Majority would agree, if she can handle Stark, she was heaven sent.)  

“Enough.” Dare Devil called as he strode into the open space as well. “We’re missing two people, no casualties, some with minor injuries and a few destruction of properties.” He made his way over to MJ, without asking he began wrapping her hands with bandages. (Sue him, he has a soft spot for the girl-  she is his legal charge. ) “Remind me to get you better gloves so your hands don’t get too raw.” He added on in a hushed voice. Sometimes, they forget that MJ doesn’t have super healing like Peter.  

At the addition of the vigilant, the room sobered again. Two people were missing, one a minor that Hydra wanted dead. “The police are looking into this as a separate terrorist attack, but the public is still on a riot. Ms. Potts already put out a statement and has reached out to Shield on behalf of Ironman; banning all talks including Ross and the likes.”  

(Dayum, Pepper was clearly on top of things.)  

.  

Ned cursed his inability to remember Matt’s or Jessica’s numbers, which were told to him like normal people tell their numbers to others. All he could remember was Wade’s stupid happy dance/ song consisting of his new phone when they wanted to add him as an emergency contact.   

(Yes, he got a new phone for this, Wade was committed to this new parenthood gig. And no, no one would leave the kiddies alone with him.  Rude, btw .)   

THINK Ned, think!  Ned paced. This should not be so hard. What was Matt’s phone number?   

It was… XXX-X-   

‘REMEMBER KIDS, WHEN IN TROUBLE CALL THE MERCENARY! I even made a jingle to make sure you remember! ~WHEN IN DOUBT CALL THE MERCENARY! HE CAN SOLVE YOUR PROBLEMS, PERMANTLY! JUST CALL XXX-XXX-XX-’  NO !  Not now Wade. What was MATT’S number?   

Shoot, he was out of time, May didn’t have her phone on her and she never really thought she would need to remember them like they did. But he felt a sinking feeling coming back up and he knew that if they stayed, then they would be corned. May seemed to agree as she took the safety out of her gun.   

Ned hates that for years May never needed to bring it out, but now she had it out.   

(May was going through the memories. Almost a decade go, driving as fast as she could manage in a car, Peter, the panic. Oh, how she wished she could change the past, but this was now.   

Now here she was in the passenger seat, Ned beside her and her gun at the ready. This time, they’ll both come out safe. She’ll make sure of it.  

.  

“So,” Tony drawled as he sat in one of his cars with Deadpool and Peter; MJ and Daredevil in another. “How did ya two meet?”  

Was Tony paranoid? Absolutely. Did he shoulder check Deadpool out of the way so he could sit by Peter? Who knows? Maybe he just like the seat? (Though Wade wasn’t very convinced as Peter had finally fallen into a light sleep, leaning on Tony’s shoulder. And if Tony wrapped an arm around him, carding his through his hair. Well  what was he supposed to do? Clearly cuddling Peter closer to him, it was science. Also, that kids hair is like spirals of silky soft hair.)    

Tony was clearly unbiased here.   

“Hmmm! That’s right! He was curled up, crying on the top right corner in a dusty old cellar! Cried his heart out for his uncle. He sure was cute back then!” Deadpool smiled at the memory (of how much Peter has grown since those days from that little boy. Not the actually anguish the kid felt. That was not very cute AT ALL). “You know, he was on his own, waiting for a certain superhero even back then.”  

“Wrong,” Tony  couldn’t help but snide, just to argue. “The kid’s still the walking definition of adorable. Second, he has the Avengers, Shield and whatever you guys call yourselves this time. And we’re not going anywhere.”   

If Tony cuddled a little closer to Peter afterwards, well Deadpool didn’t say anything   

And if Peter was awake and hid a smile from Tony, well, Deadpool doesn’t give his kid away.   

.  

MJ was never more thankful that she was in the car with Barns (instead of Captain America) and Black Widow (and not Clint). She learned earlier on that she wasn’t meant for loud personalities. She got enough of that from Deadpool and whenever dumb and dumber (Peter and Ned) got together.   

Also, she didn’t like Captain America. Stupid Steve. Treating her like a child after everything. Besides how does he stay for opportunistic? MJ could never. She would rather sell a piece of her soul and end things quickly.   

Stupid Steve.  

Apparently, Ross found out that the Avengers have Spidey and got his eyes on them. So now the Avengers are trying to keep him on the low. ( Thanks, Steve.  

Ross better start praying he doesn’t actually get anywhere near team Spidey. MJ would take this fight personally and she’ll make sure he does as well when she takes it to his doorstep. Peter might not use lethal force, but she would. Happily.   

Let them all know that this is her family. And she won’t stand for anyone putting them in harm. Never again.   

On that note; they were headed to the last area of activity at a suspicious location from Pepper. It was only a matter of a few hours until they arrived. And MJ would tear the world apart to find Ned.   

.  

Reaching the warehouse, there wasn’t anything left living. Captain America and the others had already gone through it with their fancy transport gadgets (okay, MJ was offered but she didn’t want to ride with Clint the dad or Mr. American dream, knowing they’ll probably try to send her home or elsewhere.  God, seriously at a time like this Steve? )   

“Check the laundry rooms,” MJ called as she parted away from.  

MJ felt the emotions drain from her body, it was almost like clockwork how easily she slipped into her role as a Nightmare even now. Oh, how she wished to set the world on fire until Ned was found. Only Matt’s silence presence kept her from spiraling.  

She tore the place apart from with her bare hands, having ingrained the layout from each base she has ever been to as a potential blueprint for this one.   

Ignoring the calls behind her of telling her to wait for them, she slipped into the shadows of her mind, focus narrowing strictly to finding Ned (Stark better keep Peter safe).   

Gliding into the air vents to slip into the laundry room, MJ tried to gather as much as she could figure- the dust imprints, how the machines were shifted, how the people were handling the room, how many people were there.   

Breathing in what was most likely a plot to capture Spiderman and finish her off, she couldn’t fantom what they had in mind for Ned.   

Running passed the newly arrived Avengers ( Steve.) , MJ made her way deeper into the tunnels; memories of a little girl wondering late at night alone, unable to comprehend the world as it was.   

The further she ran the more the history of the building came to full focus, nearly blinding.  

Rage was a powerful thing.   

.  

MJ almost wished she didn’t stumble across Ned’s file.  Almost . She always did wonder what happened to Ned all those years ago, and she searched every corner but Ned got there first.  

But this file, more like a photo album.  

Pictures of a terrified Ned, Ned in his room, looking like he hadn’t slept in weeks. His cheeks sunken, arms scratched raw, and his eyes. His eyes was betrayal, terror, and a drive that MJ never understood. She read the time stamp in it. She was still there.    

Oh, Ned.  

A few photo after she had been abducted of Ned being followed by some kind of shadow. But the shadow was massive. There’s no way it would have been a person.   

Hearing foot steps MJ was quick to slip all the photos into her inner jacket pocket.   

“FIND anything?” Nat called, eyeing the girl from the doorway.   

“No.” MJ slipped passed the Avengers. This was Ned’s history that he fought tooth and nail to keep hidden. She wouldn’t give this up because they asked.  

Steve eyed the girl. How were they supposed to help when she kept trying to keep them in the dark? Before he could speak, he felt a hand on his shoulder. Bucky just shook his head.   

Despite his better judgment, Steve watched the teen leave, following her at a safe distance. He watched as she tightened her fists. He watched her force herself to breath. He watched as she broke and punched the wall before rebuilding her façade.   

.  

With nothing left to find they decided to rendezvous with Tony and figure everything out again.  

 .  

“BTW, how to do I check voice mails? I got a few of them?” Deadpool asked, trying to work out his flip phone.    

“THOSE ARE SAFE PHONE BOOTH NUMBERS! WADE, YOU IDIOT!” MJ snapped. Ned’s been trying to contact Deadpool for a while now. But why didn’t he call Matt or Jones? Where was he now? It’s been an hour since the last call. Anything could have happened. And it’s “COME FIND ME” Ned.  Hopefully, Ned and Aunt May are safe, MJ quietly begged.   

.  

“And why, again, did we stop for cheesecake?” May asked as she watched Ned happily lick his spoon. Oh, how she adored Ned, even when he made absolutely no sense.   

“ Because,  Aunt May. It’s been a long day and everyone knows buying cheesecake is the best way to break a twenty. And we’re going to need the quarters, you know.” Ned smiled as he took another bite.   

They would start their trip to their safe house on their own, praying that somewhere they’d be able to make communication with the others but with general panic it didn’t look like it.   

Ned watched the small TV in the corner as Ross went to blame Spiderman for the recent attacks on the city.   

He watched as Ross made a big claim of demanding Ironman to hand over the menace.   

He knew Peter would be exhausted, emotionally and elsewise. He knew MJ would be drowning trying to keep everyone afloat.   

Maybe he could help? Ned toyed with the controls for his pseudo Spiderman. He would be putting himself at risk  but if he put distance between  him and Aunt May, she’d be safe as well.   

Would he be helping though…?  

Chapter Text

Hey, so I have tried for so long to update this fic. I fell in love with the idea of super heros, and the Marvel family AUs- everything.

This was meant to be a light hearted fic just to be goofy.

But this all that is happening in the world, I just dont believe in heroes anymore. It comes to the point of feeling utter resentment towards these propagandist ideas. My heart has broken one too many times over the last 4 months.

So with this, I offer one last good bye. ❤️