Commission for Mentoria - a kind-of sequel to Helicarrier Infestation and Four Little Problems. You don't have to read them to understand what's going on here, even though they have similar storylines with the same characters.
Anyways, hope you enjoy. Please read and review!
1/30/2014 EDIT: Made some minor changes as to the ages of the tourist group at the center of the trouble. Mostly because of the future trouble they'll be getting into and killing off twelve-year-olds is a bit much to ask for in a Spider-Man humor fanfic.
World's Smallest Fan Club
Chapter One
SHIELD HELICARRIER
9:04 AM
There were only a few occasions when the SHIELD Helicarrier allowed guests on board.
Usually that was only when there were a few superheroes around in need of a hide-out. Others were villains to be temporarily detained until they were shipped off to a more secure prison facility. The only other time was for school field trips.
Surprisingly, it was not Spider-Man's idea.
After New York City discovered that there was a giant floating ship flying around their city, SHIELD's PR department thought it best to hold regular 'open house' sessions that allowed civilians to see certain (approved) parts of the ship, in order to make the public more comfortable with the aircraft and help SHIELD seem more friendly. Because they would look a lot more trustworthy if they gave a bunch of stupid tourists a good time.
One particular field trip in early May nearly ended this tradition of field trips. It was a class of college kids from Brooklyn, all hyped up on the complimentary nachos and soda, who were finally allowed to see the inside of the Helicarrier. Nick Fury assigned his teenaged team of superheroes to the job – punishment after a certain Buckethead decided to blow up the kitchen with his cosmic powers trying to bake a soufflé and no one trying to stop him.
No one was more excited about their new tour guides than the college kids themselves. There was some infighting as to who got to be with whom. Power Man was heavily sought after, as was Spider-Man. While Power Man was cool with having a load of kids on his back (quite literally; they actually started climbing all over him when they realized it was impossible to hurt the guy), Spider-Man was less enthused.
The five idiots he got were loud and obnoxious. It was his job to explain how important SHIELD was to protecting the city and the nation's interests – but all the kids wanted to know was what his costume was made out of, if he fought any bad guys recently, if he was dating White Tiger and what that was about.
Spider-Man, under normal circumstances, would have been more than happy to answer all these questions (and crush any gross ideas of him and Ava being together), but he knew he was being supervised by Fury through the security cameras. If he didn't do his job right, Spider-Man would be made to do toilet scrubbing for a whole month. So he was determined to get this done right, and fast.
The students' names were Jake, Billy, Sarah, Trish, and Mo. Jake wore a red baseball cap and wouldn't shut up about who was Spider-Man's greatest foe, and frequently adding that Spider-Man would have gotten creamed if it wasn't for his team's help. Sarah was a fan of Ava and liked to spout of statistics and facts about the heroes, some of which Spider-Man wasn't even sure was true. Trish was too busy texting on her phone to do much, but she kept asking Spider-Man if he'd take a selfie with her. And Mo...well, Mo didn't say much. In fact, he didn't say anything at all. He just walked at the back of the group, hood up and head down.
Spider-Man was taking them through Level 4 of the Helicarrier, known to those there as the Science and Tech floor. He took them around the main part of the lab, where scientists were currently working on projects.
"Oh, what's that?" Jake would point.
"That's a nuclear particle ray, duh!" Sarah said, rolling her eyes.
"No, it's clearly a thermo-chemical gene cleanser," Billy shouted.
"It's neither!" Spider-Man said over them, before a fight could break out. "It's just a really big electromagnet. Really, that's it."
"Oh." The kids sounded incredibly disappointed.
Well, Spider-Man thought it was over from then on. But little did he know, these guys had more trouble up their sleeves than ants in a picnic basket.
They were passing some rooms full of unused or abandoned machinery when Spider-Man turned a corner, still talking about their top-of-the-line science officers and how they had a great health plan (that did not include getting turned into a giant green lizard), Jake turned around and darted into an open door.
Sarah and Billy watched him go, surprised. Sarah hissed, "Jake, what are you doing? We're supposed to stick with Spider-Man!"
"Come look at this, guys!" Jake stuck his head out the doorframe, waving them over. He seemed completely unconcerned that he was breaking at least dozen school rules, coupled with however many were on the Helicarrier.
"Ugh!" Sarah knew that there was no convincing Jake out of something once he had an idea. She rolled her eyes and grumbled, "Come on, before he does something really stupid."
Billy just rolled up his sleeves. He was on the college football team and was prepared to haul Jake back with them if he had to – although he wasn't that much bigger than Jake, he at least knew how to tackle someone. He went first, and Sarah followed. She went back and grabbed Trisha's arm.
"Wait, you messed up my sentence!" Trisha complained as Sarah started to drag her.
"Just come on!" Sarah grunted, refusing to lighten her grip.
In turn, Trisha grabbed onto Mo, taking the boy by surprise when his hood was snatched and his collar dug into his throat. He let out a strangled yelp as he was pulled unwillingly with the rest of the kids.
All five of them ducked into the room with the open door. It was unusual in the fact that it was the only door in that hall to even be open, much less unlocked. Why was it like that? Who knows. The only thing that mattered was that Jake saw it and the rest were helpless but to follow him. It would take all of them to keep Jake from accidentally killing himself.
"What are you doing, Jake?" Sarah whined, hooking a thumb over her shoulder. "We have to get back before Spider-Man notices!"
"Forget Spider-Man!" Jake hissed, throwing his arms to the strange object behind. "Check this thing out!"
All five kids stared at the machine propped up against the wall. It was shaped like a mushroom with a set of buttons on its columns. The buttons were unmarked, giving no clue as to what it did. There was no accompanying booklet or owner's manual either, and the room was completely empty besides the machine.
"What is it?" Billy asked.
"I have no idea!" Jake said, grinning from ear to ear.
"You look way too happy for this," Trisha said, scowling and tucking a dark hair behind her ear. "What are you going to do?"
"I'm just gonna touch it..." Jake said, stepping forward and reaching out with a finger.
"No way!" Sarah said, grabbing onto Jake's shoulder and pulling him back. Billy came to her aid when Jake started to struggle, managing to hold on to the boy and keep him from doing something potentially lethal. "You don't know what that is, and neither do we! Come on, let's go back to Spider-Man before you do something else stupid."
"Yeah, you're gonna get us all expelled." Billy said.
"I still have to get a selfie from Spider-Man!" Trisha added.
Mo just stood there, not saying anything.
"Get off of me!" Jake cried, stomping on Sarah's foot and elbowing Billy in the gut. Sarah yelped and let go, while Billy keeled over with a groan. Jake threw himself at the machine, palms outstretched. "Must touch!"
"Jake!" Trish called. "Stop!"
"Yeah!" Jake cried.
"NO!" everyone else cried, throwing themselves after him.
Jake's palm slammed into the keyboard on the machine, hitting all the buttons at once. A split-second later, four kids slammed into him. Another second later, the room exploded with a bright white light.
It was loud enough to make Spider-Man turn around and realize he no longer had an audience. He looked around, bewildered. "Guys? Where did you go?"