Hawkeye watched from his perch in the air vent as hundreds of people in uniform walked around busily beneath him. Located at one end of the warehouse was a large collect of artillery and the other hosted a plethora of barrels full of lethal-looking contents. There was no way that any of this was a good sign. A large, familiar insignia was displayed on the wall opposite from his perch. A very not good sign. He glanced back at the Black Widow, who was behind him in the vent. She raised her eyebrow in question and he shook his head slightly.

They both backed up up into the air vents where they could sit in relative comfort. Hawkeye touched the radio in his ear. "Cap? This is Hawkeye."

A pause.

"Yes, Hawkeye?"

"This base definitely isn't abandoned; and you're not gonna like what we found."

Before

Tony looked up from his cards as Hawkeye walked into the room.

"How'd the mission go, Barton?" Tony called out, Clint sighing as he collapsed on the couch.

"Can't talk about it, Stark." Clint called back exasperatedly, turning on the television.

"Where's Natasha? She left when you did." He shifted his cards around and then added the remaining stack of his chips to the pile in the center of the table, smirking at Steve, "All in."

"Can't talk about that either."

Tony turned in his chair to face Clint, and Steve shook his head at their almost ritual of a conversation.

"How come you and Natasha get to go on all the missions? I think that I should be sent on some too, I am a valuable member of this team."

Clint held up a finger, answering Tony without looking at him.

"One, Tasha and I are S.H.I.E.L.D. agents, missions kinda go with the job. And two-" he held up a second finger, "I wouldn't send you on a solo mission to retrieve my dead cat."

Tony scoffed at this, turning back to the poker game; where Steve had laid out a full house.

Tony threw his cards on the table as Steve pulled all of the chips towards himself. "Ah, come on, Cap! Since when are you so good at poker?"

Steve shrugged, "Since about eighty years ago, I guess."

Clint laughed at this, whereas Tony just stood from the table in the kitchen that they had been playing at and went to sit on a sofa chair across from the couch in the living room.

Clint shook his head, still chuckling to himself, "I told you Stark, never play poker against the Captain."

"Well you had to have known that would have only made me want to play against him more, right?"

Hawkeye raised an eyebrow, looking completely serious for a second, before grinning. "Yeah, I did."

Tony scoffed at this, while the Captain came and sat down on the couch, having cleaned up the card game.

Clint started flipping through the channels as Tony messed around with his phone.

He looked up suddenly.

"So I've been thinking, wouldn't it be cool if all the Avengers moved into the Stark Tower? I mean, most of you guys spend all your time here anyway... Except for Web-Head, who I haven't gotten around to inviting over, and Thor, who spends half his time in Asgard doing who knows what. What the heck does he do up there anyway?"

Steve shrugged. "He is the prince of Asgard. I'm sure that comes with some form of responsibility."

Tony nodded, "Very true."

Hawkeye interrupted, eyes still focused on the television. "Correct me if I'm wrong but, isn't that Spider-Man?"

Tony and Steve both peered over at the television, a live news broadcast being shown. The reporter stood among a crowd of people being held back by the police. In the background was the flashing of the sun off of what appeared to be four metal tentacles with claws on the end viciously attacking something that was quickly weaving in between them. Closer inspection revealed that the weaving object was in fact a red and blue clad person; none other than Spider-Man.

Even as they watched, one of the tentacles managed to slip past his defenses and take a stab at him, causing Spider-Man to fall to the ground. Though he did get back up, he began moving noticeably slower than before.

Tony slowly looked over at the Captain and Hawkeye, who were both looking over at him. They all three nodded at once in agreement and stood, getting ready for action. Clint grabbed his bow from where he had placed it on the coffee table, and easily swung his quiver over his shoulders. The Captain grabbed his shield from the kitchen and headed for the elevator where Clint stood waiting to go down.

"JARVIS, have a suit for me on the roof when I get there."

"Yes, sir."

"Meet you there, Tony." Tony gave a slight salute to the Captain as the elevator doors closed.

Tony then got into the second elevator, riding it to the top floor and landing pad.

"Tell Bruce that we all went out and will be back later."

"Yes, sir."

"Oh, and tell him to clear off one of the lab tables. We might need it."

"Shall I give him a reason, sir? That message is rather cryptic."

Tony thought for a moment.

"Nope."

The elevator doors opened and Tony stepped out as the AI replied, "Very good, sir."

Tony stepped in to the set of Iron Man boots on the dock and the arming process began automatically; completing in 7 seconds. The moment it was finished, he fired his repulsors and blasted into the sky.

For being a part of Earth's Mightiest Heroes, he hadn't really seemed to do much, Peter thought dryly. No cryptic missions, fate of humanity on the line, or even a press conference. Mostly, all that he had done with his job was research in the SHIELD labs, sometimes working on stuff so top secret he didn't even have the clearance to know what he was researching, and occasionally train with the Avengers. It all seemed really rather informal, though he knew that it was anything but. They were just waiting for the opportune moment. Currently he still had time for his customary brand of crime fighting, which was nice, but he'd been hoping that-

His thoughts were interrupted by the fact that one of Doctor Octopus' mechanical arms had broken free of the webbing he had trapped it in and was now hurtling straight towards him. Peter glanced at the bomb he had been trying to disable. It had about thirty seconds before it blew up, releasing some sort of evil havoc; though he didn't really know for sure, because he had sort of tuned out the Doc's monologue about it. Really, once you've heard one, you've heard them all.

He jumped up and over, landing on a nearby wall and narrowly missing the knife-like claw that had embedded itself where his head had been but a few moments before.

He held on to the wall with one hand, the other clutching his bleeding side. So far, the blood loss hadn't gotten to him, but he could tell that he would definitely be hurting once this adrenaline rush wore off.

Doctor Octopus cackled from where he was strung upside down in webbing, his four extraneous appendages breaking their bonds one by one.

"Face it, Spider-Man! You're done for! Already you grow weak, but I am as strong as ever-"

A familiar looking red, white, and blue shield struck Octavian in the head, immediately rendering him and his metal arms unconscious. Spider-Man looked over and saw Captain America catching the shield out of mid-air, giving him a nod.

Over where the bomb was attached, Hawkeye was quickly and efficiently pulling out and cutting wires. The count down, now on 5, disappeared.

"Hey guys! Thanks for coming to the party! I hope...you like...the...decorations..." His head started spinning and Peter belatedly realized that perhaps he had lost more blood than he originally supposed.

He lost his grip on the wall and started falling into unconsciousness, dimly hearing an electronic voice speak as if from a distance.

"Whoa there, Web-head!"

Then everything went black.

The elevator dinged as it reached the 56th floor and Iron Man stepped through, carrying an unconscious Spider-Man, followed by Hawkeye. Captain America had stayed behind to handle the press; one of the 'perks' of being the leader.

Tony heard Bruce talking before he saw him.

"Alright, Tony. I cleared a table like you asked me. But what I want to know is why you couldn't just-"

Bruce walked into view and stopped mid-sentence.

"Well I need somewhere to put your new patient, Doctor." Tony said brightly.

Bruce shook his head. "I know you guys think that because I'm a doctor, you can bring all your problems to me. But I'm not that kind of doctor."

Tony stared innocently.

Bruce sighed. "Fine, go set him on the table. I'll see what I can do."

"Thank you, Doctor." Tony quickly made his way to the lab, careful not to jostle Spider-Man and cause him to further injure himself, with Bruce following close behind.

Peter woke up with a slight headache and ringing in his ears. He stared at the white ceiling and then sighed, rubbing his face with his hands, wondering if he could get a few more minutes of sleep. But sleep disappeared from his mind when he realized that he wasn't at home; the bed he was laying on was way too comfortable to be his bed. Upon realizing this, he tried to sit up quickly, but was stopped by a searing pain on his side and along his ribs. He glanced down. His chest was neatly wrapped in bandages and felt as though there were some stitches there as well.

Suddenly, his fight with Doctor Octopus came rushing back to him, along with his injury and the assist by the Avengers. Or, well, some of them.

He got up slowly this time, gingerly holding his side.

He looked around the room.

The only light in the room came from the giant bayside window overlooking New York from what looked about fifty stories. It seemed to be early in the evening; so hopefully that meant he'd only been out for a few hours, and not 24+. On the opposite wall was a plasma screen television, under which was an antique looking dresser. The door to the room was wooden and normal looking, except it had a high tech keypad and scanner to the side of it. The room had an overall smell of fresh and innovative; like the interior of a new car, with a slight hint of... Coffee, maybe?

All of this told him that he wasn't in a hospital, to his immense relief. Him, without a mask, in a building full of curious personal would not be good for the health of his secret identity. But that still left him with a question.

"Where the heck am I?" he wondered to himself.

"Stark Tower, Level 56, guestroom B. Allow me to be the first to welcome you, Mr. Parker."

"Holy shi-" as the voice came from the ceiling; Peter almost fell over in surprise of his question being answered.

Peter glanced up. There wasn't anyone in the room with him. And his Spider-sense wasn't going off. His panic eased slightly.

"Who are y- wait. Did you say Stark Tower?" That answered a lot of questions. And also explained who, or what, the voice was.

"I did indeed, Mr. Parker. Mr. Stark and Dr. Banner can be found in the Delta Lab straight down the hallway to your right."

"Oh. Thanks, JARVIS."

"Not at all, sir."

Peter slowly made his way to the door and peeked down the hall. It carried on in either direction for quite a ways, with doorways opening up at various intervals on either side. From the end of the hall he could hear Tony excitedly talking about something, probably to Bruce, whose replies were too quiet for him to hear. Or, he wasn't getting a word in edgewise, which was also entirely possible.

Peter quietly padded down the hall, trying to make sure not to touch any of the extremely expensive looking artwork that could be found on either of the walls beside him. He heard one of the doors along the hall opening and looked up to see Tony's former secretary, now CEO, walking briskly his way, focused on writing something on the tablet she was holding. She looked and smiled when she saw him.

"Oh! Peter, you're awake. That's wonderful."

She stuck out her hand.

"Pepper Potts. So glad to finally meet you in person. How are you feeling?"

"Uh, I'm sure I'll be right as rain in no time." He shook her hand. She nodded knowingly, having had much experience with superheroes in the past couple of months.

"Well, if you need anything, just ask JARVIS. And Bruce and Tony are just in that room there." She pointed down the hallway.

"Sure, thanks," he said as her phone began ringing and she answered it.

She covered the mouthpiece with one hand. "Bye, Peter. Nice meeting you."

He gave a slight wave as she continued down the hall to an elevator, talking on the phone as she went.

Peter resumed his journey to the lab, hoping that there were some stools there to sit on. Getting your side sliced open wasn't as fun as it looked, and he was getting a little tired just from walking. He entered the lab, which was full of Stark tech, and also a couple of ongoing experiments that looked slightly dangerous. Tony and Bruce were on each side of a counter debating some form of lab results on the table in front of them.

"I'm telling you Bruce, making it hot rod red will solve about 80% of your problems."

"I really don't think changing the color is going to have effect on it's performance..."

Tony lifted up his hands.

"I'm just saying; it'll look a lot cooler."

Tony looked up as Peter sat on the stool next to the table.

"Hey look, it's sleeping beauty! See Bruce, I told you he'd be fine."

Bruce just rolled his eyes and turned to Peter.

"How're you feeling? The stitches feel okay?"

Peter nodded. His head was already cleared and he felt more stable than when he woke up. Spider strength and healing powers to the rescue!

"Feels great, Bruce. Best stitches I've ever gotten."

Bruce nodded. "Well, make sure to not overextend yourself for the next week. You don't want to reopen the wound."

"Sure thing, doc." Peter agreed, though mentally he gave himself a day or two before he was out web swinging again. He glanced down at the results that Tony and Bruce had been discussing before.

"Are you guys working with Alpha particles here?" He leaned forward to get a better look.

Bruce answered, "Yes, actually. We were looking at the combined effect of isolating them and speeding their frequency to see if we could match the force of the..." Bruce continued explaining the experiment while Tony looked on in boredom.

JARVIS' voice filled the room.

"Excuse me,sir, you have call from S.H.I.E.L.D. coming in on your cell phone."

"Thank goodness. I need to get away from these radiation buffs."

Tony walked away answering his phone while Bruce and Peter, after briefly glancing up at Tony, continued their discussion.

"Yo."

"Stark; you, and Banner are going to be picked up at 0730 to have a briefing in the helicarrier tomorrow at 0800. We have a mission for you."

"Aw, Fury. 8 o'clock is really early. Can't we do something reasonable, say like, one?"

"No, Stark. And do not be late." And he hung up.

Tony turned around, throwing his fists in the air.

"Bruce, we got a mission!"

A/N: So here it is! The thrilling sequel to my first story; written by popular demand!

I hope you enjoy it, hopefully this one will be longer and a little less open ended. ;)

I want you to excuse me any scientific blunders in this chapter and in any of the following;

I really don't know what I'm talking about and am totally bluffing.

Thanks for reading! Reviews are always appreciated.