In my defense, this story was a oneshot. Given that I'm a sucker for my readers, though, it would appear you guys are getting the whole thing now. And, by the whole thing, I mean the barebones beggining of the whole thing. Then again, that's for me to know, and you to eventually read *cackles madly* - Darthkvzn
I would not meet S.H.I.E.L.D. again for a very long time, thankfully. Given that their organization seemingly collapsed into the Triskelion in D.C. (and various other super secret spy places around the world, apparently), I thought myself freed from their influence. With what Gwen and I had managed to piece together about the shadowy agency, plus the, admittedly, heavily redacted files that were disseminated all throughout the Internet (which trended on social media within three seconds of the upload), I felt pretty vindicated about my decision to ignore the big, bad, pirate man. I almost convinced myself that I had imagined that last line Fury uttered, and that my identity was still, mostly, a secret, known only to a very traumatized (and incarcerated) Doctor Connors, and my darling girlfriend. Even if the Director had known who I was, my name was nowhere to be seen in any of the files Natasha Romanoff uploaded that fateful day.
That the Black Widow would be the heroine of 'hacktivist' groups all around the world, was just one of the many marvels I would experience in my lifetime.
In any given case, I'd dodged a bullet with Fury. I tried to lay low after it, I really did. And though my luck held for a while (by which I mean I was still mostly unscathed and/or healed really fast), I should've known it wouldn't last, because then the Avengers started showing up.
Even through my useless grudge, I knew I admired them. They weren't called Earth's Mightiest Heroes for no reason, after all. Tony Stark was, of course, the most recognizable of them all. For a while, before the hundreds of blurry videos of the Battle of Manhattan made their way to the Web (tee hee), his "I am Iron Man" speech was the most viewed non-music video of all time. The sheer audacity, fame, and wealth of the man was enough to make him noticeable; the insane, flying, powered armor was just the icing on the cake. The man was a master engineer, a shrewd businessman, and according to every person who had met him, the wittiest man on Earth. A man after my own heart, really.
While Steve Rogers' face might not have been as recognizable, the star spangled shield and flag-themed costume he wore as Captain America was, along with the hero himself, quite literally the stuff of legends. All of us learned about the Captain's fight against the Nazis in World War II due in no small part to the History courses in middle school, and the tales any american grandparent would spin, if you gave them the chance. As american as apple pie and baseball, the good Captain remained a staple in pop culture even in my childhood, seventy-odd years later. It would only intensify with his seemingly inexplicable reappearance.
Robert Bruce Banner had been on mine, and much more notoriously, Gwen's radar for quite some time. We were, after all, top of our classes, and Dr. Banner was likely one of the, if not the most intelligent man on Earth. His areas of expertise may have been a little out of my league at the time, but Gwen basically idolized the man. It got worse after the Chitauri came, and almost everyone just 'went with it' when he took a level in badass in the revelation that he was, in fact, the Hulk. My girlfriend may or may not have taken a level in fangirl, as well.
The mythology defying Norse God of Thunder was, clearly, a fan favorite. Given that I was pretty scrawny (though not at all weak), the whole muscley armored-type image he gave off wasn't exactly my cup of tea, but no one could argue with his results. No one really knew if Thor Odinson was a veritable god, but, carrying that monstrously powerful mallet (every Home Depot basically salivated over it), no one was likely to ask.
Little was known of the mysterious Black Widow other than the testimonials from survivors of the alien attack, and a fairly large amount of, frankly, extremely ridiculous urban legends from all over the world. While the survivors tended to stick to the version of a fierce, strong, and dangerous woman with incredible acrobatic skills, the urban legends went a little off the deep end with tales of a half human, half spider woman (HEY) that had been sent from Russia (with love) to mate with one president or other, then allow the Kremlin to rule us with an iron fist. Gwen especially got a kick out of another that placed her as Spider-Man's mother; I just shuddered.
Equally unknown, and, thankfully, with little to no urban legends to his name, Hawkeye rounded out the Avengers' roster. Blessed with incredibly good vision, yet a poor common sense for weapon choosing, the modern day archer had a cult following in the form of outdoorsy women, guys and gals with a thing for broad-shouldered, narrow waisted men, and the entire roster of the World Federation of Archery. I, for one, appreciated at least his insane courage in fighting deadly aliens brandishing energy weapons with trick arrows.
And yes, ladies and gentlemen, I did meet them all.
It wasn't one by one, either. I just wanted to let you know how the public (aka younglings like Gwen and I) viewed them. I didn't meet them all at once, either; after the conflict in New York, and at least until after the debacle at the Triskelion, they were never seen all together at once again. Hell, for a couple of disconcerting weeks after his mansion on Malibu was destroyed, we all thought Tony Stark was dead, but then he turned up somewhere in the Middle East, busting up the Mandarin's operation, and coming back with two armored buddies to boot. Lieutenant Colonel James Rhodes was somewhat known by the public due to being the only U.S. sponsored hero War Machine, sure, but the woman in armor was a total unknown for a while. When she introduced herself as Rescue a month later, Gwen totally went gaga for her. She was very vocal (y'know, in her room, with a sum audience of me) about there being more female heroes, and I totally agreed with her. It helped, admittedly, that she looked badass as hell, with that deep red, gleaming silver color scheme.
My girlfriend was actually the first of us to meet an Avenger in person. It wasn't exactly glamorous either, but we both agreed it made it all the more special.
Gwen met Thor at Target.
I was, sadly, fighting petty street thugs, the likes of which, I'm happy to say, had diminished substantially since I'd started my career as the Web-Slinger. Gwen was well aware of my cravings after a long night, so she was used to stocking some of my favorite snacks (Spider-Man would endorse Cool Ranch Doritos in a heartbeat, given the chance) in her apartment. That night, her mother and brothers had been away at Gwen's grandmother's house for the weekend, so we'd arranged for me to stay over at her place (to cuddle and play videogames, of course, dear readers). In a fit of brilliance that seriously made me think Flash had been cloned and replaced, the bully-turned-friend had offered to cover for me with my aunt, letting her think I'd gone away with him to some three day long geek convention a couple of hours away. I don't think Aunt May bought it for a second, but she accepted the explanation as ambiguous enough, and let me go anyway. I still owe Flash big-time, but he's never cashed in. He's unlikely to for a few, very awesome, very classified reasons.
In any case, as Gwen tells it, she was checking out the snack aisle when she spotted some insane sale that combined my Doritos, and any flavor of Pop Tarts for a lower price. Knowing her mother indulged her brothers with the sugary treats anyway, she headed to the pastry section, only to find the Mighty Thor pushing a tiny cart with every single box of Pop Tarts in the store. Mind you, this was the graveyard shift, so no one else was really there. Gwen just stared in amazement at the freak phenomenon, until Thor spotted her.
She said (more like giggle-spoke), and I quote: "He gave me this thousand-watt smile *insert snort*, with a mouth full of frosting and crumbs, before bowing over his arm and mumbling something along the lines of 'Evening, fair lady'."
The Thunderer then left towards the cash register, leaving behind a mostly empty aisle, a few fallen boxes of unhealthy pastries, and my thunderstruck girlfriend (not literally, or I would have a bit of an issue with Thor, for sure).
In the end, I guess I ended up the winner of the situation. Because, while we didn't do anything rated R that weekend (obviously), my extremely excited significant other was happy about everything those three days. I didn't even have to hide the stab wound in my leg, she was so jolly.
I would never not be grateful about my tendency towards bad luck, instead of it befalling Gwen, but even she had to admit I really had it bad. The first Avenger I met, unfortunately, played on that. Oh, not the hero himself, but rather the situation.
Stay awhile and listen, because I'm gonna tell you the tale of when I teamed up with the Captain against HYDRA.
Alright, if you've made it this far, I owe you some plot explanations, I suppose. Every film from the Marvel Cinematic Universe is (head)canon until Iron Man 3, which takes a drastic deviation, but still more or less the same end result. Captain America 2 happens as is, too. This story takes place all along the way. Amazing Spider-Man and Amazing Spider-Man 2 are canon, until the Clocktower scene, after which it's AU territory, baby. If you have any doubts, don't you dare leave them unvoiced! Ask of me and you shall receive, spoiler-free.
I would ask, however, that you shoot a review this way if you were so inclined. This is my first time actually writing Spidey, and I'd hate not to portray him acceptably. I would love to know your thoughts on this story! Until next time - Darthkvzn
