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Spider-Man recently started working with the Avengers. It was a big deal when it happened. All over the news.
Yeah, he didn’t go on top-secret, government-issued missions across the globe as they did, but it was no secret that they fought crime together. It didn’t need to be made official, it just kind of happened one day, and then whenever there was a local threat great enough for the Avengers to be involved, Spider-Man was always there by their side.
They’d become casual with one another. It was the little things that did it. Battlefields filled with banter, teamwork in taking down the bad guys. Everyone was growing fond of the guy. He brought a sort of comic relief to serious moments. The team loved him.
Once again, to the surprise of no one, Spider-Man was working with the Avengers to tackle another group of aliens set on destroying human civilization and taking the planet for themselves. Basic.
The six heroes had been fighting for about a half-hour before Spider-Man showed up. Given that the battle was more evenly spread throughout the city than usual, Spider-Man had been given a comm to keep in touch with the others while fighting in case he was in danger or someone required assistance.
When Cap had given it to him, he had explicitly stated that you should only call for backup if you desperately need it, and that comms were used strictly for business purposes, though he heard a laugh from both Tony and Clint at that statement, and concluded that neither of them felt that rule was true.
They fought hard for what seemed like hours. Everyone was busy. Whether they were fighting aliens, saving civilians, or working on a way to take down them all, there wasn’t much time to bant whilst in the midst of a battle.
That’s a lie. There was plenty of banter.
“Ok, would you rather always smell fish, or always taste fish?” Clint asks, readying another arrow set to explode on impact.
Spider-Man dodges a blast from an alien gun, quickly webbing up the alien who fired at him and throwing him into another group of aliens charging his way. “Well… what kind of fish is it?”
Clint ducks as a blast flies over his head, spins, and fires at a ship zooming past. He rises with a thoughtful look as it burst into flames. “Um…” he scratches his head, “I don’t know. Cod?”
Spider-Man nods. “Oh, in that case,” he punches an alien, “definitely smell.” He picks up a car and throws it at a rather large alien pointing a rather large gun their way.
Cap, for what seemed like the hundredth time, cut in. Spider-Man hears his voice through the small radio within his ear.
“Spider-Man, Clint, please focus. Please.” He sounded tired, whether it be from the battle or the continuous ramblings of Hawkeye and Spider-Man, they didn’t know.
“You got it, Cap.” Peter was still in awe of the fact that he was fighting with the Avengers. He couldn’t wait to tell Ned all about this battle, and how casually he and Hawkeye were chatting. He didn’t know how it happened, but he actually considered these Avengers to be his friends. Even the Hulk. He chuckled thinking about it.
He ducks under a punch thrown at him, only to take a blast from behind knocking him back into a building that couldn’t have been more than 20 yards away. “Man these weapons sure are out of this world,” he says, pulling himself up, clutching his back.
A series of groans could be heard through his earpiece. Peter took this as an absolute win.
“I’ve got a bomb in a building on Fulton,” Cap said, “who’s got it?”
“Kinda busy at the moment,” Nat’s voice crackles through Peter’s earpiece.
“Not a problem, Nat,” Cap replies, “Tony, status?”
“In a relationship. Sorry Cap you should’ve made a move sooner. Still, though, if you really put an effort in you may be able to win me over-”
“Tony. This is serious. People could die.”
Tony sighs, exasperated. “Well you’re gonna have to find someone else I’m busy saving a school bus full of poor, innocent children. Probably gonna inspire them and have a lifelong impact on them in the process. No big deal though.”
Peter’s eyes widen. This would make a great opportunity to show the rest of the group how mature and capable he is.
“Well then I guess-” Cap was cut off.
“I’ve got it!”
Tony let out a little cheer through the mic. “There you go! Way to step up underoos! Now excuse me while I go kick some-”
“Language!”
“I didn’t even say anything come one man.”
Peter smiles as he swings toward the street Cap had shared. It isn’t hard for him to find the building. There are cops circling the building below, who Peter doesn’t hesitate to approach.
“Hey,” he says, dropping down next to a few who were pushing against the door and not getting too far. “What’s going on?”
They regard him cautiously until one speaks up. “We’ve got reports of multiple bombs within the building, all set to go off in,” he quickly checks his watch, “ten minutes. A woman inside called us. There are over a hundred people trapped in there.”
“And the doors?”
“All barricaded,” another cop says. “We’ve tried everything, even crashing one of the patrol cars into the door. Somethings going on in there that’s keeping those doors sealed tight.”
“I’ve got it, officers, don’t worry.” He webs the side of the building before he pulls himself up to one of the windows. He uses his elbow to break the glass and climbs inside.
“Hello?” A voice echoes through the building. “Is someone there?”
“Yes!” Peter shouts back, “I’m coming, stay there.”
He picks his way through the building. It looked like some sort of office building, but everyone left in a hurry.
He eventually found the man who had been shouting for him.
“Spider-Man? Oh thank god, we’re saved.”
“Come on, there’s not much time.” He quickly pulls the man up from where he was hiding.
“These aliens came and started yelling at everybody. There are bombs in the building. They set one off a few floors down. Everyone was running for the exits. I guess they didn’t like that.” They make their way back to the window as he speaks. “Once we figured out there was no getting out, everyone just kind of spread out. I think I’m the only one that came up this far, everyone wanted to be ready to leave in case the doors opened. I just wanted to be far, far away in case those aliens came back.”
They reach the window. “You ready?” Peter asks.
“To get out of here? Definitely.”
After making sure the man was left in the safe hands of the police officers, Peter sets out again. He spent the remainder of the quickly ticking away ten minutes finding and rescuing people hiding throughout the building. The third floor was the worst. That must have been where the bomb went off. It was clear some people hadn’t made it out of the blast range. Once he had determined there was no one on that floor, he got out of there real fast.
When he was nearly positive there was no one left in the building, there wasn’t much time left. He decides, of course, to do one final check. He searches everywhere thoroughly, calling out as he goes. Everything seemed to be clear, but as he makes his way back up to his escape window, the third floor begins to creak. Peter looks up to see a giant air conditioning duct hanging from the ceiling above him. He doesn’t have much time to think before his Spidey Sense rings out, and it comes crashing down. He tries to dive out of the way, but the duct crashes on top of his leg, pulling him to the ground with a thud. His head strikes the ground. Hard. He curses quietly.
“Everything alright underoos?” Tony asks.
Peter jumps. When his teammates go quiet, it’s easy to forget they’re there on the other end of the line.
Peter coughs. “Yeah.” He looks over the monstrosity atop of his leg. He should be able to lift it.
He pushes himself up, turning to get a better look at his dilemma. He cracks his knuckles, then places his hands under the ac unit. He mumbles a countdown under his breath before pushing up with a grunt. Realizing he won’t be able to push it all the way off, he quickly pulls his leg out from under it. With a relieved sigh, he drops it with a crash.
Standing up, he leans most of his weight onto his left leg, before slowly shifting some to his right. He winces but is able to stand normally with only some difficulty.
He shuffles towards the stairs, but after one step, he falls. Now panic begins to kick in. He had to get out of there. He stands again, but the room begins to spin. Everything goes black and then his back hurts. He opens his eyes and sees the ceiling above him. He stands again, gripping a nearby desk. Pulling himself towards the stairway, he breathes in the smell of smoke on this level. He catches sight of Iron Man flying by through the window. He considers calling out, but he looked busy. Wait what was he thinking, he needed help.
Boom.
What was that noise?
Boom.
Oh god, it’s getting closer.
Boom.
Ten minutes. Ten minutes was up.
Boom.
The floor gives out beneath him. Once again, everything turns dark.
He falls for a while, but then he stops. He feels pain, but he doesn’t register it.
He sits there for a while. What’s that weight pushing down on his chest? What’s that noise? Was that Captain America? Wait was he dead? No everything hurt too much for him to be dead.
“Spider-Man…. Spide…. Come in…”
Peter slowly regains consciousness.
“Spider-Man come in. Come in. Spider-man.” Cap sounds concerned. Oh wait, he was Spider-Man. He needed to respond.
“Cap? Yeah, it’s Spider-Man.” His voice sounded scratchy. Probably the smoke. Or the dust. Or the exhaustion.
“What happened? Are the civilians ok? We heard the building explode.”
“Oh. Yeah, I was able to evacuate everyone from the building.”
“Good.. good.”
Heavy breathing could be heard through Peter’s earpiece. The others seemed pretty busy.
“What about you underoos? You good?” Tony says.
Peter winced, looking around. It was dark, so it took a minute for Peter’s eyes to adjust. Something was dripping somewhere. It was the only thing louder than Peter’s heartbeat and shallow breaths. That was weird. It was as if all the fighting had miraculously gone away. He couldn’t hear any gunfire or explosions. Pretty weird.
He tried to get up, but something was pushing down on him. He tried again, this time using his super strength to push whatever was on top of him off. A large groaning was heard. Peter freezes on the spot. This is not good. He slowly begins to lower himself back down before something hard falls onto the rubble covering him. He is slammed into the ground, smacking his head against a piece of cement. Peter also notices a sharp pain in his leg. He tries to move it. He gasps. Something is sticking his leg to the spot he was in, and something tells Peter that it’s going straight through him.
“Underoos?”
Peter realizes he hasn’t yet answered Tony’s question.
“Uh… yeah, I’m okay I guess.” He pants heavily, trying to pull his arm out from under himself where it had gotten crushed when he fell.
“What do you mean you guess?” Natasha speaks up now. Peter begins to freak out, realizing just how many of his idols were listening to him at the moment.
‘Well, you see… when I was evacuating the building-”
“Nat!” Spider-Man was cut off by Clint, who was now breathing heavily and unevenly as if he was sprinting towards something. “Nat, Nat are you okay? Come one get up.”
He hears coughing through his earpiece. Oh God, Peter thinks, Did something happen to Nat?
The coughing stopped, and Nat’s voice was heard again, “I’m fine, jeez.” Her voice sounded shaky, and Peter realizes just how bad whatever may have happened scared her.
Peter takes a deep breath, only to wince and let out a small cry as doing so proves difficult, not to mention causes his stomach to twist and ache. A broken rib maybe? He coughs and blood falls to the cement below him. Oh yeah, definitely.
“Woah woah woah. Spidey, what’s wrong?” Tony sounded concerned now, and the silence from the others seemed to say enough.
“I’m just kinda… stuck.” He says. Well, that’s an understatement.
“What do you mean stuck?” Some heavy breathing and grunts began, meaning someone had returned to the fight.
“Well, when the building went down, the pieces flew everywhere. I had the misfortune of getting a bit, well, caught under the rubble.”
“Okay… well we’re a bit busy out here, so do you think you’ll be okay just hanging out there for a while until we finish up?”
No.
No. No. No.
He is about to come clean about his disaster of a rescue attempt when his mind flashes to Natasha. He knows the danger the city is in right now. Aunt May, Ned, MJ… all in danger. The Avengers needed to stay out there and fight. The civilians needed rescuing, not him.
“Well?”
No!
“Yeah,” Peter says, “I’ll be alright.”
A pause.
“Good.”
…
It’s hard to keep track of time when you’re too busy staying focused on not dying. As far as Peter was concerned, he had passed out a total of 8 times, and a total of three hours had passed, but that was just an estimate.
Every once in a while, an Avenger would check up on him, asking if he was alright. Every single time it would take all of his willpower to keep from shouting and screaming at them to come get him. The pain in his leg had gotten worse, and the throbbing in his head was louder than the shouting coming from his earpiece. Every single time, however, he said he was fine.
He hadn’t received a check-in for a while, however. He was beginning to think they had forgotten about him. While he was happy they had stopped worrying about him, the lack of communication made him grow tired. He knew he shouldn’t fall asleep, because he knew there was a chance he wouldn’t wake up.
He was beginning to drift off when he heard a noise that caught his attention. It was a little muffled, for reasons Peter doesn’t understand why. I mean, his earpiece was working just fine before. Weird.
“That should be the last of them.”
Peter sighs in relief. It appears after hours of fighting, the alien had surrendered, and negotiations were being made. They had arrested them all, making sure each was securely in the hands of S.H.I.E.L.D.. Peter couldn’t wait to get out of there. He was a little worried about the bright lights dancing across his vision and the tingles running up and down his arm. Not to mention the countless other pains he had taken note of while he lay, buried in rubble, for hours.
“Alright nice work team.” Peter is barely able to make out Cap’s words, which for some reason make his head spin.
“Yeah, yeah. I just wish I got to take a little break like Webhead over there,” Hawkeye cut in.
“Shut up Clint,” says Black Widow. “We all know you’d rather be at home napping right now. Spider-Man would’ve killed to have the opportunity to help the people of New York, right Spider-Man?”
“Well, we can’t all have hearts of gold, huh Nat?” Tony says, stating his own opinion.
“Come on you guys we don’t have time for this.” Steve bring the group back to the present issue. “Nat, I need you to take Clint and deal with damage control. Just give them a rundown of what needs to be done and keep Clint away from any newscasters.” Nat nods. Clint looks offended. “I’m gonna go address the situation with S.H.I.E.L.D., make sure they know what they’re dealing with. Tony, I need you to fetch Spider-Man. I want him with me when you are done. After, you’ll be handling press. Everyone got it?” A series of nods met the Captain, and they all headed in their separate directions.
“Alright kid,” Tony says. Peter is relieved at finally being addressed. “Where are you at?”
“Well,” he says, pausing in confusion at the waver in his voice, “You know where that building collapsed?”
Tony gives a small “mhm” and says “I’m looking at it right now.”
“Well I’m under there.”
Silence.
Peter coughs, less to clear the air, more to draw the attention of his heightened senses away from the ringing in his ears. Blood comes out. He coughs again, this time without choice.
Above him, about a hundred meters away, the Avengers freeze. A shiver runs down Steve Rogers’s spine. No way.
Tony lets out a forced laugh, though it sounds more like he’s choking. “You’re what?” His voice is quiet, shaking, and terrifying.
“I’m, um, under the building.”
“No Spider-Man. There is no building.” Tony’s voice grows louder. “Now stop messing around and tell me where you are so I can get you out of there.”
Natasha and Clint turn around, looking back at where Tony is perched, unmoving in the sky.
Peter laughs, sounding a little woozy. “I- I told you, Mr. Stark. You know where I am.”
Next thing Nat knows, Tony is nose-diving towards the rubble, his thrusters at their full capacity, ensuring he gets there as soon as he can.
Nat breaks out into a run, Clint not far behind her. She notices Steve as well, sprinting towards the rubble of the building. When they reach it, Tony is already tossing random pieces of the building here and there, struggling to get deeper.
Peter coughs again, more blood comes out this time, which Peter spits to the side. It hurts. His throat is on fire. He can’t breathe. What’s going on. Why can’t he breathe?
“Mr. Stark? Please help I can’t get out. I can’t..” Panic is growing in his voice. He sounds like he’s about to cry. Tears form in Tony’s eyes.
All the Avengers now are furiously digging through the rubble, shouting for Spider-Man as they go.
“Hey, Spidey just keep talking, stay with me you’ll be alright.” Tony can’t express his panic. He’s worried. He’s so, so freaking worried. This stupid kid. This stupid, stupid kid.
“I’m sorry… I’m sorry, please just get me out of here. I can’t breathe. I...”
It takes too long for them to find him. Way too long. Clint is the first one to spot him, but it is Cap that pulls all the rubble off of him. Even after doing so, he just lays there like a rag doll. He looks awful. His suit is torn, there is a pole protruding from his leg, and he is laying in a pool of his own blood.
Tony approaches him, carefully lifting him as to not jar any of his injuries. This proves difficult as the pole sticking out of his leg is attached to the cement below him. When they lift him, Cap holds his leg to make sure the removal of the pole is clean. When he is safely free of the rubble and in the arms of Tony, Peter looks up at his hero. There is a hole in his mask right where is right eyes is, and Tony finds dark brown eyes staring up at him. He swallows deeply. The brown eyes close. He casts a look at Steve, who nods. Without another word, he takes off, flying him to his own personal doctor at Avengers Tower.
Tony notices a few things as flies across New York. One, Spider-Man is extremely light. No doubt the man was in shape, he wasn’t overweight or anything, but he was muscular. A man in what Tony assumed would be his mid-twenties should not be this light. Maybe he wasn’t eating enough? No… he was a great person and a genius. He probably wouldn’t have any trouble finding a job. Two, his mask was ripped. He could see his eyes. He could see his hair. Tony was curious by nature, but he knew how insistent Spider-Man was about keeping his identity. No way was he leaving his side and letting some doctors take off his mask while he was unconscious. This was bad enough already. Three, he was extremely pale. How much blood had he lost? His leg was practically coated in it, and there was a pool of it where they found him. If it weren’t for his healing factor, well, he decides not to think about it.
He enters Avengers tower through the main doors, figuring he would have an easier time finding a doctor there as opposed to the Avengers common room. When he landed and burst open the doors, fully decked out in his Iron Man suit, he didn’t know what to expect, but for some reason, screaming wasn’t at the top of his list. So he might as well start screaming as well, right?
“I need a doctor! Quick!”
Everyone looks up, a few people jumping to their feet with adrenaline.
“Someone please help, he needs help!”
The receptionist is talking frantically through her phone, most likely to the medical wing.
“I can’t, he’s hurt bad I just need someone to help him please!”
JARVIS is telling him to stay calm over the speakers. There’s no time. There’s no time to stay calm.
“Someone help! Someone do something!”
Just then, the elevator chimes. A herd of people in white rush out with a stretcher. They’re sprinting towards Tony. The doctors, he thinks, oh god okay, it’s fine, he’ll be fine, everything is fine. But as the doctors came and took Spider-Man away, he didn’t feel fine. There was something about the way he sounded when he was calling out to the Avengers merely a few minutes ago. He sounded so, so young. So helpless. So alone. Tony’s heart aches just thinking about it. The pleading in his voice, the fear. He was calling out to him, to Tony. What if they hadn’t made it to him on time. What if he was dead by the time they… by the time they… oh god. Tony’s thoughts had gotten to him. What if he was dying right now?
Tony, to the shock of those who happened to be in the lobby of the Avengers Tower on that day at that time, sprints to the elevator. “JARVIS you know what to do!” he shouts. The elevator doors slam shut the instant he enters, and he is being shot up into the building.
The day passes in a woozy blur. The rest of the Avengers show up, Tony never leaves his seat in the waiting room, where he and the rest of them had been confined, and occasionally, Spider-Man's screams could be heard from the next room over. Doctors of all shapes and sizes had been filtering in and out of the room all day. Some were calm, maintaining their composure, others were pale and frantic, avoiding eye contact with the Avengers at all costs.
Despite all of the doctors running around on the case, no one bothered to share what was actually wrong with him. Hours passed before they were actually acknowledged sitting silently in the waiting room.
Nat and Clint sat together in the corner, on the ground leaning up against the wall. Steve was pacing in the far corner of the room, his arms crossed and head down. Tony sat close to the door on the edge of his seat, head resting on his grasped hands, a blank look on his face. They were covered in blood and dirt, but no one dare leave the room. When a doctor enters the room, they all jump up, staring at him for news. He clears his throat to speak.
“Spider-Man will be fine.”
All at once, the tension leaves the air. Steve finally drops his hands to his side, Clint and Nat grasp each other’s hands and Tony visibly loosens what seems to be every muscle in his body. “You are welcome to go see him, but please remember,” the doctor looks up at them. “He has done so much for this city. He is a human being with a family. Treat Spider-Man, or Peter, with the respect he deserves.”
Tony inhales sharply. Of course. They are walked towards his room. The mask was ripped, his head was injured, they would need to take it off. His name. His name was Peter. He had a family. Peter. They step into his room. Oh god, his family. He had been here all day. They would be so worried. His wife. His kids.
The then they see him.
Oh my freaking god.
Peter lay atop the bed. His injuries had been cleaned and the dirt in his hair washed away. Cuts and bruises littered his body, and the hospital gown they had given him was lumpy in a few places where bandages had been wrapped around his torso. His leg was in a brace, which, for anyone else, would have been a cast. What drew their attention, however, wasn’t the physical harm done to him (though that was quite a sight as well). It was the kid’s face. The kid. He was so young, couldn’t have been more than sixteen by the looks of it.
All the air leaves Tony’s lungs as he takes in his face. They should have known, they all should have. It was the little things, really. The movie references, the high pitched voice, Tony shudders, the small figure. He should’ve known. He should’ve known. He should’ve known. The thought echoed across the minds of each member of the team as they stood staring at the near-dead teenager before them. I should’ve known. I should’ve known. I should’ve-
A cough cuts into the eerie silence of the room. It was Peter. He was waking up.
The Avengers rush to the side of his bed, which they will probably look back and view as a bad idea. Imagine the poor boy’s surprise when he wakes up face to face with four people with extraterrestrial body counts.
Peter opens his eyes and looks around. He doesn’t speak as his eyes dart across the room, taking in everything from the bruises on Cap’s face to the city skyline stretching across the window on the far side of the room. His expression goes from worried and guarded to calm and collected as he seems satisfied he is in a safe, secure location. Then, however, his hand reaches up to his face, where he finds there is no mask shielding his identity from the world. He sees the Avengers wince, and once again, a look of terror makes its way onto his face.
He’s breathing hard, and Tony is the first to speak.
“Hey, kid. Don’t worry it’s okay. You’re fine. You’re fine.”
Peter pushes the blankets of his body, sitting upright in bed. Nat cuts in, reaching out towards the boy.
“Woah, you’re fine. Just breathe. Stay calm. Everything’s alright.”
He swings his legs off the bed, clutching the bed frame with white knuckles. His breath is still uneven, and he’s gasping for air. Cap jumps up from where he was crouching at the bedside.
“No, no, no. You need to stay in bed Pete. You aren’t fully healed yet. It’s okay, you’re fine.”
Peter tries to stand up, only to crumble to the ground with a cry. Clint lunges forward, catching his head before it can be slammed against the unforgiving tile. When he is safely back in bed, the Avengers huddle around him, silently checking him over.
“What’s your name, son?” Cap says, breaking the silence that settled over the room.
When Peter speaks, his voice is dry. “Peter, sir. Peter Parker.”
“How old are you Peter Parker?”
Peter coughs, looking down at his hands settled in his lap. “I-” he coughs again, “I’m fifteen, sir.”
The atmosphere is heavy, guilt hanging over the shoulders of everyone in the room. Most surprising, however, was the guilt hanging over Peter.
“I’m sorry,” Peter says after a minute, causing everyone who wasn’t looking at him before to sharply turn their attention to the frail boy in the bed. “I’m sorry I worried you all so much. I’m sorry I took up so much of your time.” Now everyone was just confused. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you guys how old I was. I was worried you wouldn’t want me to fight with you guys anymore when really it’s all I want to do! I mean without you guys, without Spider-Man I’d just be lost.” It was clear he wouldn’t be stopping anytime soon, and it was getting a bit sad as his voice slowly became more and more hoarse with every breath.”I couldn’t tell you who I was. I was worried because then the bad guys would find out, or worse, Aunt May. And-”
“Hey, Peter.” Nat is actually the first one to speak. “Everything is fine. No one is going to find out who you are, okay? We’re going to protect you.”
Peter took a deep breath before nodding slowly.
“Good,” Nat smiles, “Now do you have anyone we can call? Your mom or dad maybe?” Peter clenched his teeth, and Nat winced realizing her mistake.
“Actually, it’s just me and my Aunt.”
Tony jumps in, taking the reins of the situation before things get too deep. “That’s not a problem. Do you have her number? This should be relatively easy to explain, right? She’ll understand if we just tell her you got injured on duty. I mean it must happen all the time with all that’s been going on recently-”
“No!”
Tony closes his mouth abruptly, shocked at the teen’s outburst.
“No you can’t tell May she doesn't,” he coughs, “she doesn’t know.”
This kid sure was full of surprises.
“Okay…” Tony, not quite knowing what to do next, looks to his fellow Avengers for assistance.
“We’ll figure something out,” Steve says.
“We always do,” adds Clint, placing a hand on the boy’s shoulder.
“What matters,” Nat says, “is that you’re safe.”
Peter, looking around the room, nods. There is, however, one question itching at the back of his mind.
“Does this change anything?” Peter asks. He rephrases his question when met with the confused looks of the others. “I mean, will you guys treat me differently now? Now that you know who I am?”
Tony smiles, exchanging looks with the others. “Sure we will kid.”
Peter looks crestfallen.
“But that doesn’t mean things have to change.”
Peter’s look is replaced with one of confusion, looking to the others for some sort of explanation.
“Maybe less cussing on the battlefield,” Steve says, glancing at the others. “We have to protect those innocent ears.”
“And I’ll stop nagging you about getting a drink after battles,” chuckles Clint. “Maybe we can go to Chuck E. Cheese together instead.
“You’ll obviously be coming in once or twice a month for some training sessions,” says Nat. “Can’t have you getting hurt out there.”
“And obviously you’ll be needing an excuse as to where you’re spending all your time, so an internship here at Stark INdustries would have to be issued,” Tony says nonchalantly, causing Peter to gasp and ergo cough profusely. “I mean, I’d personally love to hear more about how you crafted those webs of yours. Not to mention the suit which I feel could use an upgrade or two. And an internship at your age would look phenomenal on college applications, plus an added recommendation from me, personally.”
“Mr. Stark I couldn’t.”
“Oh but you must. I’ll discuss it with your aunt over the phone. Oh, and now that I know who you are, I can finally direct all the income I’ve received from the copyrighted Spiderman merchandise to a bank account of your own. There’s got to be millions of dollars in there, and of course, more to come.” Peter is speechless, simply sitting on the bed in shock.
Tony, spotting him, crouches down at his eye level. “Look, Peter, you’re a great kid. You save people on the daily. And today, we almost lost New York’s greatest ally because of our failure to act.”
It had been a long day for all of them, one they wouldn’t soon forget. For Peter, however, today was life-changing.
“You deserve everything that’s coming your way.”