AVENGERS ANONYMOUS

ONE: RECRUITED

**Wow, now that I look at that title it sounds terrible...got any better ideas? I'm not very good with titles. Anyway, here's the sequel! I posted the first chapter here and I'll create a new story when the second chapter comes around. I hope you like it!***

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Chills went down my spine again. I tucked my arms tighter around my middle, staring dreadfully at the beacon that was the Stark Tower. It practically emitted its own glow that extended for miles and miles, illuminating half the city.

Tony Stark was waiting for us to visit. He invited us himself and in person, something he wasn't generally known for. And we still didn't know how he found out Peter's secret identity, but we assumed he was still safe from any harm...for now, anyway.

Peter was sitting on the ledge of the roof to our building, wearing the Spider suit. He tilted his head back at me. "You ready?"

I walked over to the ledge, a frown of fear on my face. "Why do I keep agreeing to do this?"

"Because you love me." Peter said, simple as anything. He briskly jumped to his feet and helped me up on the ledge.

"Yes, I agree to leap off of ten story buildings because I love you." I secured myself in a grip around his side, waiting for his arm to act as my seatbelt.

"Nah, I think deep down inside you're a thrill-seeking adrenaline junkie that lives for this stuff." His arm fit perfectly around me, like it was molded to do so.

"Or maybe I'm just Spiderman's girlfriend." I countered, taking another deep breath in preparation.

"Exactly." He chuckled.

The anticipation was terrible. I looked over at the tower again. "What do you think he wants?"

He spoke low in his chest. "I might have a good guess, but..."

"Huh?" I gasped as we suddenly dipped very low, off the ledge, and swung up again with the help of Peter's web shooters. My eyes automatically squinted shut.

"Open your eyes!" He encouraged me as my stomach felt another dip.

I shook my head, hiding my face in his shoulder and clawing into his suit. Did he want me to throw up?

"Come on, you'll love it!"

"No!"

"It's like a roller coaster! You like roller coasters, don't you?"

"Shut up, Peter!"

He kept hooting and hollering like a kid at an amusement park. Honestly, it was embarrassing.

It almost wasn't worth taming the haystack on my head when we landed on Stark's balcony - if you could call it that. It was more like a giant patio, suspended a hundred feet from the ground.

Peter held my face in his hands to make sure I was still breathing. "How's my adrenaline junkie?"

"I'll let you know when my stomach gets here." I said.

He tugged off his mask just to show me his smile and kiss me like he knew it made it all better. I would never let him know it did.

"Uh, ew."

We stumbled apart at the voice. Tony Stark strolled out onto the patio with a drink in his hand, the glowing circle of light shining through his shirt.

"Sorry we're late, Mr. Stark." Peter took the few steps up to the man and offered his hand.

"Well we all know why you're late now, don't we?" Tony peered at me teasingly. "All I ask is you keep it classy, but just while you're here. You can do whatever you want on your own time."

After Tony started leading the way, Peter turned to raise his eyebrows at me. What did we just walk into?

I caught up to him before we went inside. "Why do you think he wants to talk to you?" I whispered.

Peter looked down at me with a blank expression, his jaw set a little funny but otherwise just in thought. "I don't know, we'll see." The lie was so obvious, but I let it go.

"Welcome to my humble abode." Tony extended his arm in admiration of his own penthouse suite. It was really incredible, entirely modern and high-tech.

"Wow." I voiced my opinion. I also shed my jacket, unintentionally revealing the bandage still taped to my arm.

"Battle wound?" Tony guessed, gesturing toward my shoulder.

It still unsettled me to recall the memories from that day. "I, uh..."

"She was grazed by a bullet." Peter finished, with the intention of changing the subject. It unsettled him as well.

"Can't say I'm not impressed. Oh, did you want a drink, or something?" Tony stepped in the direction of his bar.

"No, thank you." Peter and I said in synchronization. We glanced at each other at the coincidence.

"God, that's disgusting. It's that bad? Don't tell me you finish each other's sentences, too?"

We didn't get a chance to respond. A woman with pretty orange hair appeared at the head of the curved staircase. "Tony, Nick wants to know when you would like everyone in town."

Tony scoffed. "I told him I'd get back to him when I figured it out. I'm still recruiting here." He jerked his chin towards Peter and I, standing awkwardly off to the side.

The woman followed Tony's gesture and brightened up right away. "Oh, you must be Peter Parker! I'm sorry to interrupt, I didn't know you were coming so soon!" She scurried over to the two of us, offering her hand to him. "I'm Pepper Potts, Tony's -"

"Pepper, we talked about this, didn't we?" Tony tapped her shoulder. "No mushy stuff until we got him hooked in."

Pepper controlled her kind smile and nodded at us. "Pleasure to meet you, Mr. Parker." She flashed me an extra smile and made her way back up the staircase to return that phone call. She paused halfway up. "Nice spider suit." She said.

Peter smiled down at the ground. Tony rolled his eyes. I already knew his spider suit was nice.

I flinched at some sort of metal claw that was peeking over my shoulder. It seemed to flinch as well. In stepping back I realized it had a large arm, and wheels. A robot that responded like a human.

Peter's eyes widened. "Incredible!"

"Cute, isn't he? Made him myself. He's programmed to cater to my house guests, and me too." Tony stood like a proud papa.

Peter bent down to get a closer look. He reached out to touch the crazy little robot. "The wiring is so tight and precise. How'd you manage to hide the mother board inside such a sleek design?"

"Easy. Just rearrange the hard drives and battery units to rest in the base of the lower platform and save the flexible cords and motion sensors for the jointed arm piece."

Peter nodded because, unlike me, he understood every word Tony had just said like it was plain English. "Genius." He breathed.

To prevent my brain from melting from their tech talk, I wandered in the direction of a glass case that preserved the legendary iron suit. The gold and red pieces were bold and intimidating. I'd never seen anything like it.

"Excuse me, sir?" A voice with a funny accent echoed through the room.

"Yes, Jarvis?" Tony vaguely answered it back.

"Director Fury would like to speak with you about the -"

"You tell Fury to keep his eyepatch on and that I'll get back to him really soon, okay?" Tony clapped his hands together, a motion that meant getting down to business. "Alright, Parker. We obviously need to talk about a few things here."

Peter straightened up slowly, his attention still occupied by Tony's robot. I had to physically drag him away from it.

Tony looked at me, snapping his fingers after forgetting my name.

"Olivia." I reminded him.

"Right, right. You obviously know about his super bug powers?"

"Yes." I said warily, unsure of how blunt I was allowed to be. "But if you don't mind me asking...how do you know?"

"How do I know?" Tony smiled at both of us. "You really have no idea why you're here, do you?"

I looked at Peter again, that same thoughtful expression on his face. He definitely knew, or at least had a good guess. Why wouldn't he tell me?

Tony spoke matter-of-factly. "You see, we have this team, a team put together by Nick Fury and S.H.I.E.L.D. Apparently we're calling ourselves the Avengers."

"Earth's mightiest heroes." Peter agreed.

"Right, so we'd all love for you to bring your nifty little Spidey powers into the mix, if you're interested. Actually, I don't think you really have a choice."

"The Avengers?" I couldn't seem to keep my jaw from dropping. "You mean like Thor and Captain America and the Hulk and Hawkeye and Black Widow?"

Peter stared at me again.

"And me." Tony added.

"You want him to - to join the Avengers?" I pointed to Peter with my jaw still hanging open.

"Well it wasn't my idea." Tony shrugged it off. "Fury mentioned something about it and since you're in the neighborhood I figured I'd let you know he's willing to go to hell and back to get you to join so you might as well say yes now because he'll probably be here in a little under 48 hours with the rest of our super freaks."

Peter blinked. "They want me that badly?"

"We do, yes. And I'm sure it wouldn't hurt to boost some of your publicity, considering what's been going on with you in the past few weeks." Tony means the anti-Spiderman gangs that we've come across and the citizens that the hatred has rubbed off on. "Not that I've been stalking you or anything...okay, maybe I have, but that's beside the point."

It was great news! I was prepared to start jumping up and down. I was really excited enough for the both of us, but Peter didn't seem to react much at all. He kept his composure like he always did, but this time I couldn't even see the excitement glowing in his eyes.

I took hold of Peter's hand but spoke to Tony. "Do you mind if we talk about this for a minute?"

Tony nodded like he expected a delay in our answer. He occupied himself with that crazy little robot, talking to it like a human being.

I ran my fingers up Peter's arm to catch his attention again. "What are you thinking?"

He opened his mouth, ready to speak, but shut his lips again just as fast.

"What's wrong?"

"I don't know, I..." He lost his words.

"He's right, you know. Joining them will totally boost your publicity. You kind of need that right now."

Peter nodded. "I know."

"It'll give you something to do, distract you from everything that's been going on, since you have to lie low anyway." I added.

Peter watched Tony play with his cool toys. "I know."

"And it's an honor! I always knew you were one of Earth's mightiest heroes, but now you can make it official."

He half rolled his eyes at me, but I could tell he completely agreed.

"Tell you what," Tony approached us again. "I'll let you sleep on it, and then you can -"

"It's alright." Peter interrupted him, squeezing my hand in support of himself. He didn't hesitate a bit. "I'm in."