I didn't proof-read this, which is terrible of me. Sorry in advance for fuck ups. I'm posting this under Avengers, but if anybody thinks I should have made this a crossover between Avengers and Spider-Man, give me a comment and I'll change that

Spider-Man shouldn't have even been there. It hadn't been planned, but nobody was going to stop his arrival or send him away because, honestly, they were in need of an extra man. They had worked together before when he would stumble into one of their battles unknowingly or they would arrive to one of his major ones that would save the entire city as opposed to an old lady with a mugger issue. This guy, who was possibly a civilian like the one and only Tony Stark, would risk his life to keep each individual in New York City alive. He would go above and beyond for the humans without expecting anything in return. The Avengers didn't know who the guy was, what he was, or why he was a vigilante, but they knew he had their back and that they would have his. Superheroes need to stick together.

The arrival of Spider-Man couldn't have happened at a more convenient time. Black Widow was amazing at fighting. Most people couldn't stand a chance at beating her at combat, especially hand-to-hand combat, but gravity was another story altogether. She could keep her balance, but sometimes buildings would just give out during large battles and she couldn't always make the jump to safety. Hawkeye had given the warning, but there was just no time to get away. During moments like these, Iron Man would come to her rescue to make sure she never crashed to the ground or landed inside a burning building like she had been about to at that moment. If she landed in those flames, the likelihood of survival plummeted to zero. Iron Man, however, had been too far away. He started the fly back to where he knew Black Widow was, but he was actual miles away trying to fight a rogue robot who had escaped the main battle and was wrecking havoc on civilians who thought they were far enough away from danger. The robot was defeated around the time Hawkeye yelled, but Iron Man's suit had major damage and his boosters weren't functioning properly. There was no way he'd make it in time. That wasn't to say he didn't try, though.

Black Widow scanned her surroundings to find anything to grab on to so she could protect herself from the flames, but there was no ledge out of the line of danger she could jump to. Just as she began to accept her fate, she suddenly felt a foreign item wrap completely around her torso and she was yanked from the building. Her instincts caused her to raise her gun and shoot at the first unfamiliar thing she saw to save herself from this next possible danger, but then she saw the red and blue suit she knew to be Spider-Man. He had maneuvered the web to carry her to the ground and from there she had been able to save herself from a harsh landing. Nodding her thanks to the superhero, she returned to battle.

So, yeah, Spider-Man was an asset, even if he wasn't an Avenger.

The rest of the giant, creepy looking robots were defeated shortly after. "Seriously, thirty foot tall, give or a take, robots. Who wakes up one morning and decides they want to build eight giant robots just for the hell of it?" Iron Man, now Tony, was complaining after the hour long battle ended. He was sitting on top of an already destroyed car and was already on the process of fixing his damaged suit. He was reattaching some broken wires on the head of his suit while he wore the rest of it. Thor and Captain America took this moment of serenity to catch a breather. "Some of these bad guys are ridiculous. Someone get Banner down here. If he's gonna choose to sit this battle out, I'm going to choose to make him do all the clean up work by himself."

"Just imagine all the clean up work we'd be doing right now if I had let Hulk run loose around New York City. Again," Bruce Banner said, having arrived in time to hear his best friend's complaints.

Black Widow was supporting Hawkeye as the two of them joined the rest of the Avengers. Hawkeye was certain he sprained his ankle for the fourth time since the start of the Avengers, and he couldn't say he was overcome with joy at the revelation. He didn't need the help Black Widow had offered, but he took it nonetheless in the hopes of protecting his ankle from further damage. "That was almost a nasty fall, Natasha," Tony observed, not raising his eyes to see the pair. He felt guilty knowing that if she hadn't made it, it would have been his fault. That had been the only time during a battle where he hadn't been able to prevent a casualty of a teammate, but thankfully someone else had covered him in that area. "Sorry about that, by the way. Damn robots tore my suit to shreds."

"I saw how slow you were flying out there," Steve observed, dropping the commanding attitude of Captain America and relaxing. "I figured one of those machines had something to do with that."

"I don't blame you, Tony, so don't blame yourself," Natasha said, recognizing the look on his face and understanding that an apology from Tony Stark was hard to come by.

"Where is our friend, the Man of Spiders? We must thank him for his aid in battle," Thor declared. Normally after a mission that Spider-Man happened to join them on, he would stay after the battle ended to help with clean up and looking after civilians. He had yet to be seen since a few moments before the battle ended. He had been the one to take out the last robot, but he had disappeared from their sight as the battle came to an end.

The rest of the team noticed his absence, as well, but chose to stay silent on the matter. They didn't know the vigilante, and he hadn't been asked to join the battle. The fact that Spider-Man wasn't an Avenger meant they couldn't expect him to remain at the site of the battle to help the rest of them complete their duties. Perhaps he had something to take care of, or maybe he had stayed but was caught up helping a civilian. Whatever the case, they wouldn't go searching for the hero. Sometimes, the man just didn't want to be found.

Tony and Steve were called away from clean-up in order to talk to the news and address the citizens of New York City. Tony was always called away to talk to the public. Steve, being the leader, would be called out occasionally. He tended to avoid those situations because Tony was much better at it than he was. Steve was more useful helping civilians and starting clean-up. The news reporter had started in on them immediately, asking what the machines were, who created them, and what everybody should expect for the near future. Then the questions took a different turn when Spider-Man was brought up. "Captain, Spider-Man hasn't had the best track record with the police department. Why do you trust this masked vigilante to do The Avenger's job?"

"I may not know who Spider-Man is, but he's out there everyday doing what we do: saving lives. If that's not enough reason to trust him, then what is?" Steve said, answering the question with a question of his own.

"Spider-Man took a hard hit back there. Any word yet on his injuries?" the reporter asked, catching the full attention of Steve and Tony. Tony had been having a side conversation with another smaller reporter while Steve was trying to search for civilians in case they needed help, but now both were staring intently at the news reporter.

"Injuries?" Steve repeated, dumbfounded. He hadn't seen Spider-Man take any hit harder than the hits they all had to take. He had watched Spider-Man recover from a building collapsing on top of him a couple of months before, climbing out of the rubble without so much as a limp. Tony, on his part, put on his helmet and flew away without a moment of hesitation in the direction he last saw Spider-Man. He may not have been an official member of their team but if he was injured they would be there to help. "Excuse me," Steve said, leaving the interview in a rush to help Tony, now Iron Man, find their missing partner.

"Be on the look out for Spider-Man," Iron Man said through the coms. "Possible injury."

The atmosphere amongst the Avengers changed in an instant. There hadn't been many civilian injuries so Hawkeye, Thor, Bruce, and Black Widow were working on the initial clean-up of the battle and discussing the events and accomplishments of the day. Hearing Iron Man's report, the four of them ran in different directions in order to search the rubble for their fallen comrade.

The search went on longer than the battle itself did. Thor was the one who spotted the missing soldier almost two hours after the search began. He found him a few blocks away from where the majority of the battle had taken place, so Thor had to assume Spider-Man had been thrown roughly by their opponent. It had been the blue and red that caught Thor's eye as he ran through the streets. Spider-Man was laying face down inside of a building that had a giant hole in the ceiling, probably caused by the force of him landing on the roof which caused him to crash to the floor. Thor had saw the color in the rubble, and soon the color had a foot so Thor knew he had found him. "Friends, I have found the Man of Spiders," he informed the rest of the Avengers. "I will bring him to the site of the battle. It appears he is unconscious."

Spider-Man remained unresponsive as unusually careful hands picked him up and ran. In record time, Thor arrived to the other Avengers and Banner demanded him to be brought to Avengers tower. "He needs a hospital," Clint argued, following Thor as he ran to the tower anyways.

"He wants to remain anonymous," Natasha said, understanding exactly why Bruce wanted to treat him in secret. "His identity will be discovered at the hospital. At the tower, we can at least keep his mask on."

Nobody was out of breath when they finally reached the tower and there was no question on where to bring the injured man. Thor rested the man on a bed in the Avengers own personal hospital room and Bruce took over. "Does anybody have any details on Spider-Man?" he asked, searching over the body for an injury. "I need to know if he's full human or not."

"I can't imagine him being full human," Steve said, remembering the collapsed building. "You guys see what he can do, and I'm sorry, Clint and Natasha, but even you guys can just walk out of a collapsed building. Heck, he climbed out of there. That's not normal strength." Nobody could argue with that logic.

Natasha helped Bruce cut the suit off of Spider-Man, all of them silently promising to help him acquire a new one, and they couldn't find any injury. There were broken bones or any blood. There were some nasty bruises but that was to be expected. "It must be a head injury," Tony mumbled, coming to the conclusion at the same time Bruce did.

Immediately, all of the group realized the problem. "What do we do?" Clint asked, allowing a moment for the reality to sink in. "Do we destroy his privacy and unmask him or do we hope the injury isn't all that bad?"

Steve saw only one possible solution. "Get out," he said, staring between Clint and Natasha. Seeing the betrayed looks, he explained himself. "You work for S.H.I.E.L.D. This is too big of a secret to keep from Fury. I know he's searching to find out who Spider-Man is, and it's your job to report back to him. I can't ask you to go against him, even thought I know in your hearts you want to keep Spider-Man's identity a secret. Go wait outside so you can tell Fury you don't know who he is."

However, Natasha and Clint remained where they were standing. "I know you're just looking out for us, Captain," Natasha began, "but I'll stand with my team. I can keep a secret from Fury."

"Yeah, there's no way I can report this kind of thing to Fury," Clint agreed. "I'm loyal to him, but I'm more loyal to the Avengers. Anything about Spider-Man will remain in this room."

Tony Stark couldn't help but swell up with pride at being in the team with the people he was with. With all that being said, he carefully pulled at the mask. Exposing the face of the masked hero felt like the biggest invasion of privacy, but it was necessary and it wasn't like they were even finding out a name. It was just going to be a glimpse at his face. Once the mask was off, though, everybody froze and Tony dropped the mask in shock. "Oh no," Steve whispered. "This can't be..."

There were no visible injuries to the head of Spider-Man. That's not what had the team of heroes distressed. Beneath the mask was a face too young to be a soldier. Too young to be an adult. The boy obviously had to be in high school, either as a freshman or a sophomore. He couldn't have even been sixteen. Spider-Man was only just a kid. There was no way he should have been fighting all the battles he had been fighting, even if he wasn't fully human which still had yet to be confirmed. Everybody in that room had seen child soldiers before and everybody had seen child casualties. It made each of them, Natasha especially, sick to their stomachs. Thor, still not an expert on humans from midgard, recognized the issue. Even he, the great and powerful Thor, hadn't been in battles as dangerous as Spider-Man had when he was only a child.

Bruce snapped out of his shock first. He was in doctor mode which made it easier to manage his emotions, although he had to fight back the anger inside of him at the thought that somebody had created a child soldier. Looking into the kid's eyes, he came to the conclusion that he had been suffering a nasty concussion. "Jarvis, scan for any other injuries," Bruce said after relaying his diagnoses to the rest of the team. He had preferred his own scans over a computers since he only had his own scans to go off of for years. He knew Jarvis would have been quicker and more accurate, but it worried him to trust a computer one hundred percent, even if Tony Stark had created it.

"Dr. Banner, he is suffering from a grade 3 concussion. It seems as if he has enhanced healing. My scans show that many broken bones were acquired and are being healed as we speak," Jarvis explained.

The fact that Spider-Man was healing so rapidly made the Avengers less tense when considering the man's youth. While they still didn't agree and couldn't understand why a child was fighting in battles such as the one they all just participated in, they felt they had less reason to worry. Of course they were still worried, more worried about him than they were worried about each other, but easing some of the worry was better than nothing.

Steve took it upon himself to grab one of the many pairs of sweatpants out of one of the drawers and leave it out for whenever Spider-Man woke up. Since this was their own personal medical vicinity they had many spare items such as clothes waiting for them in case they ended up injured. Steve figured that whoever Spider-Man was wouldn't appreciate waking up with nothing on except for boxers so leaving the sweatpants out for the kid to wear seemed like the best he could do. Tony set the mask down on top of the pants before instructing Jarvis to call them whenever the kid woke up. Everybody but Bruce would go to debriefing and then back to helping clean-up while Bruce would keep an eye on Spider-Man.

The rest of the Avengers were gone only half an hour before Bruce heard a groan from behind him. Turning, he saw the kid who was Spider-Man waking up and holding his head. Bruce knew he must have had one hell of a headache even with the speedy recovery he was making. "Who's there?" the kid had asked, voice hoarse but alert.

"It's Bruce," he answered in a slow, calming voice. "Hulk," he added. "You got injured pretty badly in that battle, but it seems like you're healing pretty fast. You did get a nasty concussion. That's why you were knocked unconscious."

"And the rest of the Avengers? Where are they? Is the battle over?"

"You ended it," Bruce said, coming closer to the bed. "You must have taken a hard hit as you did, though. The rest of the Avengers are out doing clean up. They're all okay."

"Black Widow? I hadn't seen her after I got there. She's okay?"

"She's fine," the doctor confirmed. "Everybody is okay."

Spider-Man let out a long, slow breath before whispering, "good."

Bruce wasn't good with confrontations, good or bad. He wasn't good with people in general, and he was awful at words despite how smart he was. But he needed to ask something no matter how difficult it was. "We don't know who you are, Spider-Man," he said, causing the kid to remove his hand from his head and look over at him. "The mask only came off so we can look for injuries. Nobody outside of the Avengers saw you. We're the only ones. You don't have to answer if you don't want to, but I need to ask. How old are you, Spider-Man?"

Sighing, Spider-Man sat up and ran a hand down his face tiredly. The action was too old for a man who looked so young. "How old do you think I am?"

"I don't think you're an adult. Sixteen, maybe, but I think that's pushing it."

"I'm fifteen," Spider-Man said with a sigh, reaching to grab his mask. When he saw the sweatpants underneath, he grabbed those and stood up to pull them on. He left the mask off his face. "I know what you're thinking. You don't need to say it. I know I'm young, but I'm able to help people, same as all of you. Even if I am just a teenager, I'm not normal. Why waste the powers I have just because I'm fifteen?"

Bruce could tell that the kid was nervous. The shaking of his hands were not the only sign. He kept running his hand through his hair, glancing anywhere but at the doctor, and he was speaking a little too fast. "Calm down, okay? It's not my place to lecture you," Bruce said. After a moment, he went to sit next to Spider-Man on the bed. "You've made it this far. I don't know who you are, what you are, or how you are, but you've been doing this for a long time. It'd be pointless to try and stop you now."

"Then what are you gonna say?"

"I don't actually know," Bruce admitted. "I can give you a heads up that the rest of the Avengers are probably on their way here now. They were alerted when you woke up by Stark's AI. I can also tell you that you should take it easy with the concussion. Other than that, there's not much I can say without overstepping."

Spider-Man was fidgeting beside him, clenching and unclenching his fists and Bruce understood that the man was working up the courage to say something. He waited, and then, "My name is Peter."

The admission shocked Bruce, but he didn't let it show on his face. "Why are you telling me?"

Shrugging, Peter began to mess with the web shooters on his wrists. "I don't know," he admitted. "I've fought with Hulk as Spider-Man. Guess I can sit down and talk to Bruce as Peter."

"Am I keeping your name a secret from the other Avengers?"

"There's no point to, is there? You guys always have my back. If I'm gonna fight with you, you should know who I am. I've been trying to figure out how to tell you guys anyways."

"Why haven't you?"

"I'm fifteen," Peter said as if that answered the question. Somehow, it did. He was a teenager, basically a child. He shouldn't be out there risking his life to protect an entire city at only fifteen years old. He should be focusing on school, making friends, falling in love, and just be a typical angsty teenager. Be focused on himself, thinking he's invincible, and rebelling against anybody in charge. He should be taking risks like sneaking out at two in the morning just because he could. Peter didn't want the Avengers to realize how young he was. It's easier when they thought he was an adult.

It was around then that the rest of the Avengers returned to the tower and made their way to the medical room. "Hey, Spider-Man," Clint greeted, being the first one to walk in the room.

"Man of Spiders, I am delighted to see you awake and coherent once again," Thor boomed, clapping the kid on his shoulder proudly. "You were an asset to our team today as well as in our many other battles together."

"Hey, kid," Tony exclaimed happily. "I just gotta know something. How did you get this super strength and enhanced healing?"

Steve glared over at Tony. "Let's not get too personal with him just yet, Tony," he reprimanded. "Sorry about Tony. He's just curious."

Bruce can tell Peter was starting to feel overwhelmed even if he was grinning and doing his best to look relaxed. "Guys, this is Peter," Bruce said, deciding to introduce him formally before the conversation got out of hand.

"Nice to meet you, Peter," Steve said, holding out his hand. Peter accepted his handshake and both marveled at the other's strength.

"I appreciate all that you guys have done for me," Peter said and they all recognized his statement as the beginning of a goodbye. "I got to get back home, though."

"Your parents must be worried," Clint commented, using this as a way to try to figure out more about the kid subtly. "Do they know you're Spider-Man?"

The hesitation told the two spies in the room that whatever he was about to say wasn't going to be completely truthful. "No, they don't know," he answered, "so I gotta get back to them. I'm sure they're freaking out right now. So, uh, where's my suit?"

"We had to cut it off of you," Natasha said, sounding as apologetic as Natasha could.

"I'll make you a new one," Tony said, having been uncharacteristically quiet throughout the meeting. He was normally speaking a mile and minute and preventing anybody from getting a word in. "I'll make it more high-tech than just spandex. Hope you don't mind. If you're going to be out there, you need more protection than just spandex, even if you have healing powers. Cap over here has super strength and enhanced healing, too, but even he has a shield for protection."

Peter noticeably perked up at the mention of a new suit, but he deflated that energy just a bit. "I can't ask you to do that, Mr. Stark," he said, shaking his head. "I can always get a new suit. You don't need to take all that time to make me one."

"Nonsense," Tony said, disregarding Peter's hesitance. "If you're going to fight alongside the Avengers, I'm going to make sure you're treated like an Avenger, and all these Avengers get Tony Stark approved suits and weapons. You won't be any different."

"Can I give you a ride home?" Steve offered, stepping in before Peter can refuse the new suit Tony was going to make whether Peter agreed or not. "You're injured and probably shouldn't be walking, or swinging, just yet."

"No, I'll be fine. I already feel good as new."

"If you're sure..."

"I am," Peter said, reassuring Steve by standing up and making no face that would imply pain. He felt sore, sure, but not in an extremely painful way. Instead, it felt more like he had slept wrong instead of having been knocked out by a giant robot. "So I guess I'll, uh, get going then. Thanks again for all you're help. If you ever need any help, I'll be there."

"I guess I'll show you out then," Tony said, not hiding his disappointment at Peter's departure.

Later that night, when the Avengers had cleaned themselves up and sat down for dinner, the conversation went straight to Spider-Man. "He's fifteen," Bruce informed the rest of them. "That's why he wanted his identity hidden. He didn't want us to know he was just a kid."

"I was really worried he didn't trust us to keep his secret," Steve admitted, feeling ashamed for not placing any faith in their teammate who wasn't technically their teammate.

"The Man of Spiders, will he be okay?" Thor inquired. "His unconsciousness earlier has me worried."

"He'll be fine. The concussion is probably only a minor one by now with the healing," Bruce said with a sigh.

"I don't like this," Natasha said. "I've seen child soldiers." Nobody mentioned that she was likely one of those child soldiers. "What if he was created to fight? What if he's only acting on orders?"

"Orders to keep the city safe? Listen, Tasha, maybe it's not that deep. Maybe this was just an accident like Hulk - sorry, Bruce - and he decided to use his powers for good," Clint argued. "Who would order him to fight both giant robots and muggers? He's a local crime fighter. I don't know who would want him to fight that crime and Avenger-level crime."

"Natasha has a point, though," Steve said, agreeing more with her than he did Clint. "He's only fifteen. How could he have created himself so young? I doubt even Tony would have been able to."

"Hey, leave my genius out of it," Tony said, coming to his own defense. "I don't know what to think about this situation. I know that fifteen is too young to be all that he is, but we can't change that. Speculating on the cause of this will only end up with us losing our trust in him. While I'm dying to know all there is to know about Spider-Man, I know that I trust him and I have to assume he's acting on his own. I don't think there's any superpower behind him and giving him orders."

Thor raised his glass to what Tony said. "I agree with Man of Iron and the Eye of Hawk. Perhaps the Man of Spiders simply wants to protect the city on his own accords. Who are we to think otherwise?" That was the end of the conversation.