Author's Notes: I'm blown away by the incredible feedback I've received! Thank you all so much! As I've mentioned, this fic treats blends the MCU Sokovia Accords with the Superhero/Superhuman Registration Act(s) that caused the comics Civil War storyline. They did indeed require registration of all superpowered humans and nonhumans, including aliens, enhanced humans, inhumans, mutants, and anybody else they dang well decided fit the bill.

Also, it's worth noting that Peter isn't always a reliable narrator, particularly on people's motives and attitudes. He's a naive 15-year-old who still has a lot to learn about the world and now has a double-dose of trauma (the death of a parent figure and the battle with Vulture) on top of it.

Chapter Two

MJ was really quiet and sad in class the Monday after the art festival. "It wasn't your fault," Peter insisted. "Those guys had already decided Madison was a mutant."

"Why should that matter? He wasn't doing anything wrong!" She turned the little ornament that Peter and Ned had bought for her around and around in her hands.

"Yeah, he wasn't. It sucks."

MJ looked annoyed that Peter and Ned weren't as angry as she was. "Have you seen what the police reports and the news said? 'Unregistered mutants attacked the art festival!' That's complete bullshit! They were protecting him from a bunch of assholes!"

"Michelle, watch you language, please!" said one of the cafeteria monitors.

Ned leaned forward. "You still talk to Tony Stark about your old internship sometimes, right, Peter? Maybe you oughtta say something. Maybe he can use his influence, y'know?"

But that just got MJ's hackles up again. "Tony Stark is one of the people who got the Sokovia Accords and that registration stuff passed in the first place!"

Peter sighed. "It's not like Mr. Stark and I chat about law enforcement." Not exactly, anyway. "But I'll…I dunno, I'll write a witness statement or something for him. I doubt it's anything he doesn't already know."


To Peter's surprise, he heard from Happy before he even got around to it. What were you doing at that mutant incident at the Utopia Art Festival on Saturday? Happy messaged him.

"I was there with my aunt and my friends! And, hey, I saw the whole thing. That guy, the artist, Madison Jeffries, he was totally not the one who started it! A bunch of 'make America great' jerks started calling him mutie and started a fight. Well, there was this guy with this thing on his face that shot some kind of lasers."

Stand by, kid, Tony wants to talk to you.

Peter's phone rang, and there was Mr. Stark on Facetime. "Kid, listen up. The mutants you saw on Saturday are called the X-Men, and they are way outside friendly neighborhood Spider-Man league, you understand?"

"I…yeah, okay, but Mr. Stark, here's the thing – they didn't hurt anybody! They could've, but the only guys they messed with were the ones who messed with Madison first!"

Mr. Stark frowned. "How long have you known Madison Jeffries?"

"I met him at the festival, he was just…making cool sculptures!" Peter insisted, bewildered by Mr. Stark's suspicious tone. "C'mon, that's not a crime, and the jerks were trying to start something! He was nice, not doing anything, and those 'X-Men,' they didn't do anything either until those jerks started throwing punches!"

"Okay. I'll make a note of it, kid, but the point stands: you run into the X-Men again or ANY mutants with powers, you back off and call me directly. Some mutants are just trying to get by and do cool tricks for the YouTube hits, but some are doing a lot more, and they're incredibly dangerous – even to people like me, even, to say nothing of people like you and Aunt May. Most of them don't go for petty theft, or if they do, it's just circumstance, but the X-Men are powerful, dangerous, and some of America's most wanted."

"I…look, Mr. Stark…" What MJ had said echoed in Peter's memory. "I'm not…trying to make things complicated or anything…I heard some things in school about the Sokovia Accords, that registering people because of their DNA or even their powers is a human rights violation."

Mr. Stark snorted, but at least he didn't get insulted. "Yeah, kid, in a perfect world, it would be. But you've already seen the world's not perfect, and we have to start somewhere. That means knowing what the threats are and where they are, so yeah, if someone has the power to level a building with his eyes like the guy you saw on Saturday – he's called Cyclops – we need them under control. I know, this makes a great subject for a Western Civ essay, but the real world's a lot more messy. I'm still dealing with the fallout from Germany, and Cap and all his supporters are on the lam, and on top of that I have the X-Men to deal with."

"Cap's from Brooklyn, you know – I promise," Peter said hastily as Mr. Stark bristled. "I won't go hunting for him. Just saying, maybe he'd be hiding out on familiar turf, with the Winter Soldier, since they're from here."

Mr. Stark's eyes hardened. "That thought's occurred to me. You see them, or anybody else we fought in Germany, you call me too, understand?"

"Yessir," Peter mock-saluted, hoping to lighten the mood. "It's good to talk to you."

Mr. Stark eyed him then pointed at his phone. "I mean it, kid! This better not be a 'yes, Mr. Stark, I'll do what you say' then running off to do the opposite moment!"

"I promise!" Peter laughed. "Seriously, I'm fine just making Queens a little safer from muggers and not giving May heartburn!"

"Good boy. Behave, and I'll invite you to the Tower for Stark Industries' Oscar Night reception."

"Will I get stuck on snacks detail again?"

"Not this time, I thought you could serve drinks – oh, wait, you're too young to serve alcohol. Snack detail it is! G'night!" The screen went dark. Call ended.


MJ did her semester presentation for European History about the Sokovia Accords, comparing them to the internment of the Japanese in the US and the Holocaust and a bunch of other genocides.

Peter and Ned shot each other uncomfortable looks through the whole thing, especially seeing how passionate MJ was. Now neither of them could help thinking of Madison, just making X-Wings and pretty abstract sculptures out of glass and metal and stone, with people yelling "mutie"…but then, there was Cyclops with that crazy laser on his head that Mr. Stark said could level a building…except he'd only used it to stop those deplorables. And he hadn't killed anyone, even though he probably could have.

Peter asked MJ how many mutants there might be in the metro New York area, and she trotted out some statistics that made him and Ned really tense. "As many as a million. Though, you see, that doesn't always mean powers like," she lowered her voice to a whisper, "Madison and his friends. Those are called alpha mutants. Mutants are just people who have the X-gene, and most of the time, it's either inactive or doesn't cause powers. I read a paper by Dr. Jean Grey. She's a geneticist and an alpha mutant. She testified to Congress when they were trying to just register mutants. Those bills failed, but now the Sokovia Accords did it."

"But the Sokovia Accords are just for enhancements like Iron Man and the Avengers," protested Peter. And…me?

MJ huffed and pulled up a page from her presentation notes. "Here, these are the definitions of enhancement in that Sokovia Accords."

An "enhanced individual" shall be defined as any person, human or otherwise, with superhuman capabilities. This includes individuals whose powers are an innate function of their biology as well as individuals who utilize highly advanced technology to grant themselves superhuman capabilities.

"Superhuman capabilities" shall be defined as physical or psionic powers, whether by natural or artificial causes, which are outside the scope of these Accords' definition of "human capabilities", or genetic variations which may result in manifestation of such superhuman capabilities.

"What does that even mean?" demanded Ned. "Why can't Congress write laws in English?"

"They write stuff this way so it can be interpreted as broadly as possible to serve any agenda they want," MJ replied. "Just being a mutant or having enhanced powers is against the law unless you register!" She could be really, kind of…pompous about stuff, but today, the subject matter was so unnerving that Peter wasn't looking for opportunities to exit the discussion.

Instead, he just kept wondering. Does that mean me? "So what are the odds that we run into more mutants like Madison and the X-Men?"

"The what?"

"The, uh, that guy with the red laser, there's stuff about him online," Peter hedged. "He's part of some mutant terrorist group called the X-Men."

MJ frowned and promptly googled the X-Men (which Peter actually hadn't done). Some results did talk about them like terrorists, but there was also a fansite that said, Before there were the Avengers, there were the X-Men, fighting crime and saving lives! Support the superheroes who didn't sell out!

"So, you know Spider-Man, people say," said MJ. "How do you know he's not a mutant? I mean, he's done some crazy stuff, and the police have a reward for him. Is he a terrorist or a hero? Doesn't that all depend on who's in charge and what they want from him?"

Ned hastily argued, "Aw, come on, Spider-Man's never hurt anybody, and he only goes after criminals!"

"How do you know?" MJ countered. "Just because that's all you've seen him do – well, all we've seen these 'X-Men' do is stop a bunch of deplorables who were trying to beat up some artist at a festival!" MJ folded her arms and leaned back from her laptop. "I'm not gonna let Breitbart and Bill O'Reilly or President Bunt's tweets tell me who I'm supposed to be scared of. And you shouldn't believe everything Tony Stark says even if he did give you an internship for a few weeks." She eyed Peter. "What'd you do on that internship anyway? You never said."

"It was…kinda…not what I hoped, I guess," Peter stammered, scrambling to recall the cover story he'd come up with for May. "A lot of…getting snacks, making…reports, stuff that nobody actually read. I didn't see much of Mr. Stark. He talked to me on the phone a couple times."

Ned returned to poking around Google on MJ's laptop. "I'd bet Mr. Stark knows more about who's dangerous and who isn't than anybody in President Bunt's cabinet or Fox News. I mean, come on, he's been living on the front lines since 2008!"

"Maybe. Still, now 'Mr. Stark' tells us Captain America's a terrorist, but we still watch his motivational speeches," MJ retorted. "And Captain America had to leave the Avengers because he thought the Sokovia Accords were wrong."

"Nuh-uh, Captain America bailed on the Avengers because he was trying to protect the Winter Soldier," Peter shot back. "And, man, talk about Exhibit A, that guy! You know what he did to Tony Stark's parents!"

Mr. Stark had all but sworn out a blood oath of vengeance after returning from chasing the Soldier and Captain America to Siberia. He didn't talk much publicly about Captain America, but the world knew that the Winter Soldier had murdered Mr. Stark's parents in 1991 in cold blood, and that he'd assassinated hundreds of people including possibly JFK.

MJ was unconvinced. "Before he was the Winter Soldier, he was a prisoner of war for decades. So whatever enhancements he got were probably against his will. I'm not going to just assume he's an evil bond villain after serving alongside Captain America in World War II!" She blinked at something behind them, and Peter and Ned turned to see Principal Morita watching them with a…funny expression.

Peter and Ned looked around, wondering what they'd done, but Principal Morita walked away without saying anything. The three of them shrugged. When the bell rang, Ned whispered, "Maybe you oughtta ask Mr. Stark - "

"Whoa, Ned, I am not asking Mr. Stark about whether he should really want to arrest the guy who murdered his parents!" Peter hissed.


Peter thought maybe he would ask Mr. Stark more about mutants and the X-Men, especially after he was out on patrol and saw a little girl making lights that didn't look like they came from anywhere. "That's really cool!" he said as Spider-Man, swinging down to watch her on her fire escape. "How're you doing that?"

She giggled. "Magic!"

"Oooh, magic! Show me!"

Up closer – yeah, this was no sleight of hand. This kid, maybe eight years old, really was making a little laser show with her hands, or maybe with her head. As he applauded, she asked, "Are you magic too, Spider-Man?"

"Me? Nahh, not like that. I'm just a spider-man. I can do whatever a spider can do." More or less.

She started singing, "Spider-Man, Spider-Man, does whatever a spider can!"

"Woooo, I've got a theme song now!" he exclaimed, charmed even more. "What's your name?"

"Alison Blaire - "

"Ali!" A woman came sprinting out of the upper floor door and rushed down the stairs. "What're you – who're you talking to?"

Peter quickly stepped back. "Just your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man, ma'am, no worries! She was showing me her light magic!"

Far from being reassured, the mom turned dead white. "Ali," she croaked, scooping the girl into her arms. "I told you not to do that in front of people…"

"But he's Spider-Man! He's nice!"

The mom gulped. "It's – it's, not what it looks like, she's just really good with tricks." She held out a laser pen frantically. "See? She's got them in lots of colors - "

" – it's okay," Peter said, even though they both knew she was lying. "I'm worried about protecting people from muggers and giving directions and stuff. It's not against the law to make laser shows." But it is against the law to be a mutant if you're not registered… That couldn't apply to Ali. Lights weren't dangerous. Well… he pointed at Ali. "You remember never to shine your lights in people's faces or point them at helicopters and airplanes, right?"

"Yes, Spider-Man," she chirped.

"Okay. Then we're cool. You have a nice night." He flipped off the balcony to the sound of Ali's squeal of delight.

Was he supposed to report that? Call up Mr. Stark or Happy? "Hey, Karen, tell me, am I really supposed to priority call Mr. Stark about a little kid who makes light shows for fun?"

"Well, technically, yes, Peter, if you follow his orders about mutants and enhanced people to the letter, you need to report any that you see. But there's room for your own judgment just the same as Mr. Stark when he's Iron Man."

"So I think I'm judging it not worth bothering him about that there's a little girl who makes lights who might be a mutant."

"No, I don't think he'll be too annoyed. Maybe mention it next time you talk."


Peter never got a chance. Only a few days after Peter met Ali, Principal Morita came into European History looking very anxious, flanked by two uniformed men. "Peter Parker? Come with us, please?"

"Whoooa, man, what'd you do now, Parker?" demanded Flash.

"Hey, shut up!" snapped Ned.

Half the class looked excited, the other half scared, and Ned and MJ – and Mr. Carpenter and Principal Morita, were all in the scared category. Peter's skin started to crawl, his senses started to tingle…but he slowly started putting his stuff into his bag in a very heavy silence.

The two men – shit, they had guns! – came in to stand on either side of his row of desks, like there was anywhere he was going to run other than the door. There were a lot of kids now breathing a lot faster.

MJ jumped up. "Hey! You know that if you want to question a minor, you have to do it with his guardian present, and he has a right to a lawyer!"

The uniformed guys blinked at her, then they both grinned, and one even laughed. That was the most reassuring sign so far. Breathe, Spider-Man, they're not going to stick a bag over your head and beat you up in the back of a truck…probably.

"Peter," Ned croaked as Peter got up. "Should I call…Mr. Stark?"

Everyone including the two suits looked at Ned, and he cringed. Well, now it was out there, so Peter forced a casual shrug. "Can't hurt."

"Relax, son, we just have some questions. Come on." One of the suits took Peter's arm, and he scanned the uniform up and down. There weren't any badges or IDs that said "police" or "FBI" or what kind of agents they actually were.

"Hey." He stopped. Both lost their smiles. "What…who're you with? Like FBI or police?"

That got MJ riled up again. "Yeah, they have to identify themselves!"

One of the suits rolled his eyes. "We're ICE, technically, special assigned forces on enhanced and mutant activities."

The room exploded into whispers. "Mutant?"

"Enhanced…"

MJ started shaking her head desperately at Mr. Carpenter, who looked as paralyzed as Principal Morita. "Honey, sit down, and stop reading Huffington Post," said one of the suits, and this time they both took Peter's arms.

"Peter! Hey, Peter, don't go with them! Don't let them – don't let them leave the school with you, don't!" she yelled, ignoring Mr. Carpenter hissing at her to be quiet.

The door swung closed, and Peter could still hear her and Ned and several of the other kids arguing with Mr. Carpenter. "Where are you taking me?"

"To answer some questions, that's all, son, relax. It's about some incidents you've been involved in recently."

Principal Morita said, "That young lady had a point. You're not entitled to interrogate a student or remove him from this campus without authorization from his guardian."

One of the men raised a hand in Principal Morita's face. "Okay, listen, a couple of jumpy kids can shoot their mouths off at us, Teach, but you can't. You've seen the warrant; we've got jurisdiction. You got a problem with it, file a complaint!"

"Now, hang on!" Principal Morita grabbed Peter's shoulder and yanked him back. If Peter'd been, well, normal, that really would've hurt, because the two suits tried to hold on. "You are in my jurisdiction, gentlemen, and something about this seems very shady. I am entitled to know exactly where a student is going who's being removed from this campus, and if I'm not satisfied with your answer, then he doesn't leave!"

"Oh, for Christ's sake, it's just police headquarters downtown!" one of the suits tried to pull Peter back, but when Principal Morita didn't let go, the other one shoved him! "Back off!"

"Jim!" demanded a teacher in her classroom doorway. "What the hell's going on?"

"Stay in your classrooms," Principal Morita ordered. He stalked after the suits as they started leading Peter towards the doors. "Peter, listen to me. Do not answer their questions until you either get your guardian or a lawyer in the room with you, no matter what you've done, you hear me?"

"Y-yes," Peter stammered. This was insane. He could break these guys' grips and dodge them without a problem – but that'd just prove that he was enhanced. "Mr. Morita, hey, I did an internship with Tony Stark, can someone call him too?"

"I will!" Principal Morita followed them out the doors to their car, pointing at them. "If this student has so much as a paper cut when he gets back, Corporal Creed, I'm warning you, you'll both make the front page of the Daily Bugle and the New York Times!"

"See, this is why the president doesn't let reporters into the White House anymore," huffed the other suit. "You can't even pull a kid out of class for a chat without everyone calling the ACLU."

"Where're you taking me?" Peter asked once they were in the car.

"Downtown to police headquarters like we said, that's all. Look, son, you be straight with us, you'll be back in class before the bell rings! God, the way people freak out when we're just trying to do our jobs!"

Peter's senses were starting to calm down a little. "So what do you want to know that you can't just ask me at school? Why's it gotta be downtown?"

"Because it's gotta be made into an official record," huffed Creed. He turned around in his seat, looking Peter in the eyes. "Seriously, we've all got stuff we'd rather be doing. I can see you're not America's Most Wanted, I doubt you're running guns for terrorists, and you don't look like you've been radicalized or anything, so I'll be just as glad as you to get your file closed and move on to people we actually need to worry about."

What Peter wouldn't have given for his suit…except if he had it, they'd find it. So it was probably lucky…oh shit, what if they're searching the apartment? Please, please let Ned and Principal Morita have called Mr. Stark – and let Mr. Stark have actually answered for once!

It wasn't even that he was scared they were going to do anything to do him – whatever MJ thought about mutants and enhanced people (like me?) being registered, Peter was pretty sure that didn't involve actual internment camps or mass murder, however nasty history could look. So what was the worst that could happen?

The worst that happens is they find out I'm Spider-Man, and Mr. Stark has to do damage control. I have to get registered…aw, man, May is gonna KILL me…but maybe I'll still get to stay in school since I'm underage. Hell, at worst, I have to join the Avengers after all, then Mr. Stark's got no excuse not to train me. It'll be cool. I'll get to actually talk to the other Avengers, like Vision and War Machine and Black Panther, and they won't all be going, "Hey, how old's this guy?"

But yeah, his heart was slowing down, and his senses were easing up too. A couple of federal agents being rude and pushy was unpleasant, but it wasn't a threat.

After all, Peter was American, he was a citizen, he wasn't a terrorist or anything. (It probably didn't hurt that he was white, though he felt really dirty for thinking that way.) He'd messed up a few times, like with the Staten Island Ferry, but nobody'd died, and the few times he'd seen mutants, he hadn't even gotten involved.

He had nothing to worry about.

To Be Continued...

Coming Soon: Peter Parker hasn't been seen since being removed from class. Word reaches Tony Stark more than a day later, who now launches on a desperate race to track Peter down... and comes to some painful revelations about what Peter means to him in the process.

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