In the coming days Peter had memorised his new identity and familiarised himself with the Mustang which was fun to the point where he was considering actually becoming interested in cars…almost. But for now he was just touring Paris taking in the sights and brushing up on his French. He was slowly getting used to addressing black Widow as his mom but it still felt weird but the topper for Peter was once again he was in a situation where he was isolated from his friends and worse yet his new girlfriend but school was coming up and Peter needed to refocus on his mission, a teacher was constructing weapons for a terrorist group to use in an assassination attempt on the president to serve as a demonstration of their new strangle hold over the free world and he had to find the who, why and how of it all in order to stop them. "Life was so much simpler when I wore the tights wasn't it"
The weeks passed by and it was finally time for Peter to go to school. It was a fairly nice place but the parking lot was quickly filling up so he took the first spot he found which happened to be next to an Aston Martian and made his way to class physics 101 taught by Phineas Mason. The walls of the halls were painted with school colors and lined with trophy cases a lot more then Midtown had that was for sure. Finally he found his classroom to what might have resembled heaven by his first impression there was 12 women and including himself 4 guys "ohhh if there was ever a time to be single" gasped while maybe also crying.
"if you're quite through young man, the bell is about ring so find a seat" ordered a woman sitting at desk in front of the classroom "the one beside Mr. Cross should suffice" she said pointing Peter towards a teenager no older than himself. Cross was roughly the same height and build as Peter but his hair was darker with silver tips
"Way to make a lasting impression" Cross chuckled as he extended his hand "William Cross I'm from Virginia and you are?"
"Ben Reilly, New York" Peter replied shaking Cross's hand "and yeah I know right way to get noticed" he chuckled glancing over his shoulder to see a group of girls giggling at him "still not as bad as my first meeting with Ava"
As they shook hands Peter took notice of the unique looking gauntlet on Cross's wrist but didn't question them since a short older looking man stormed across the floor towards the office space on the other side of the room "good morning, pipe down. Ms. Fitzpatrick pass out the entry test to see whom here is worth my time!" he barked before slamming the door shut on the class. The students all sat and just stared in utter shock "well, he seemed like a good guy"
"Well…he's an ass" Cross blatantly stated.
Ms. Fitzpatrick began passing out papers when she finally got to Peter and Cross she stopped dead in her tracks and just stared at Peter, almost as if she was trying to remember his face "Mr. Reilly wasn't it?" she asked. Peter nodded "whereabouts from New York did you say you're from?" she asked almost like she was politely interrogating him.
"Queens" Peter hesitantly replied shifting nervously in seat he was starting to get very uncomfortable now. But Ms. Fitzpatrick simply handed him and Cross their papers and quickly retreated to her desk.
"Reilly from Queens New York, but they never had children and he's the spitting image… he can't be not Peter" she thought to herself as she sat at her desk.
Peter turned his attention to his test but even to him it didn't make a lot of sense trajectory analysis, gas to air expansion ratios and a small conductivity charge equation. "What the hell is this? It makes no sense these are all separate divisions of physics" he inaudibly mumbled. Cross however had started working away on the trajectory section and he was moving through it pretty quickly.
"My dad was a sniper for the marines and he taught me a few things so this stuff is easy" he explained catching Peter's surprised expression.
"You're a sharp shooter, kind of cool" Peter replied as he himself turned back to his test and began working away. He Cross were quickly skimming through their tests far ahead of their classmates simultaneously finishing and handing in their work unaware of watching eyes from between the blinds of his office window Mr. Mason was impressed with what he saw and if they answered correctly he would have two fresh minds to help assist on his project.
The boys turned in their papers to Ms. Fitzpatrick who took them with a slight surprise "you two seem to be a good fit for each other" she smirked "you can wait in the library until the others are done" she finished waving them out.
Mr. Mason however was now browsing through Peter's and Cross's files "Ben Reilly: straight A student from Midtown high school New York, here on science scholarship one prior for…I'll be damned hacking into Hammer industries when he was 14 smart and not exactly a boy scout.
And Mr. William Cross: Langley Falls Virginia, highest marks in phys. ED and mathematics, sniper school for Marine reserves 6 time national marksmanship champion very impressive. Both bright and both have talents I could use might be worth a trial run" he mischievously grinned.
Peter and Cross sat in the library on the couches leisurely killing time with Peter using his phone to hack into the school server and download the files on all the teachers and students and send them back to shield while Cross lied on the other couch throwing pencils into the roof in tightly formed circles within circles "you realise if you miss and knock those down you'll more than likely get two in the eyes" Peter laughed.
Cross threw his last pencil into the middle of the smaller circle like a perfect bull's eye "I never miss"
"That was a little dramatic wasn't it?" Peter laughed.
It took their classmates the duration of class time to complete their tests it was now the end of the day and Peter returned to the penthouse only to find Widow outfitted the place Shield grade security features "Peter good you're home anything to report?" Widow asked almost immediately.
"Hi mom school was good we did finger painting, I made a new friend but my teacher was an ass" Peter sarcastically replied which only prompted Widow to narrow her eyes at him
"Care to try that again without the attitude?" she coldly asked.
"Nope" replied a nonchalant Peter "ow!" he yelped after Widows right hand smacked him in the back of the head
"Don't be an ass Peter you have rules to abide by now this isn't like what you did in Brazil" Widow scolded.
There it was, Brazil she had to mention Brazil despite the fact that Peter not only already felt terrible about what he did but it also made him question continuing on "we're past Brazil this is Paris and here's the files on everyone at school. Did you get your job done?"
After deep calming breath Widow handed Peter a flash drive "I've found a little bit of Intel on the group that's suspected of the threat, they're called the dark hand. Rogues from C.I.A, S.H.I.E.L.D, N.S.A, I.R.A and the S.A.S all conjoined to serve one purpose which only those inside the organization known"
"so good spies trying to catch evil spies who know how the good spies think so they can make themselves not look like spies meanwhile they're spying on us while we try to spy on them. I already hate the spy game it's not like I spy at all" Peter exasperated "plus I got home work!"
Meanwhile in New York Ava was scheming her way to Paris. She had already convinced M.J to let her tag along now she just had to convince Coulson and Fury.
"No Ms. Ayala! For the last time you have a responsibility here with your team" Fury asserted.
"Sir it would only be for a week surely the guys can handle a week without me" Ava pleaded
"My answer is final Ms. Ayala"
"Director…"
"Why is this particular trip so important to you Ms. Ayala? Is there something in Paris you wish to see?" asked the now suspicious Fury, for the past few weeks Ava's been harassing him about letting her go to Paris and he was sure it was because of Peter but as far as he knew Ava didn't know Peter was in Paris…or at least she wasn't supposed to.
"I just need some time to myself sir considering what I've been through namely a mutated Kraven nearly slashing me in half, my boyfriend masquerading as a villain then he was nearly killed just so a lunatic could unleash an army of genetic soldiers and before we could get any real time to ourselves a clone of my boyfriend's evil alter ego shows up and hits him with a truck! And then you shipped him off to god knows where! And I think after all that a week to in the right head space is fair to ask for" Ava snapped. Her feisty tone caused Fury to not only soften his hard faced expression but even lightly laughed until he was interrupted by Coulson's ringing phone.
"Excuse me, hello. Jones good you called is my package here yet?..What do you mean it's gone…how do you lose a car Jones?...a kid took it what kid?" Coulson screamed rubbing his eyes and aggressively hit the end button on his phone "Director Fury we have a problem that gift we ordered was just stolen by some kid named special agent Reilly"
Fury looked from Coulson to Ava with his all-knowing smirk he knew who took the car maybe just maybe he knew how to make the thief atone for it "a week in France with the school theatre club does sound reasonable after all Ms. Ayala. Pack your bag the plane leaves tomorrow" he reluctantly agreed sending a smirking Ava from his office.
"Sir is that a good idea sending Ava to Paris? What if she runs into Parker?" Coulson worriedly asked.
"I'm counting on that agent Coulson, maybe having Ava on his back will kick Parkers ass into high gear and resolve this without too much of an in depth look into the finer details"
"Sir if Ayala finds Parker she'll have him on his back" Coulson said.
"That's disgusting Coulson, they're still minors those jokes aren't allowed".
"Sorry sir. But having agent Romanov as his handler given their history?"
"Parker was just a toddler when agent Romanov was a part of his family life by now he's long repressed it"
"And if he hasn't, if he remembers?"
"Then all we can do at that point is hope Widow can keep him calm another reason Ms. Ayala could be useful" Fury finished "as for the car the original is in my personal storage container here in the city. Parker got a shield developed replica with functioning defense options. You had to have known he would've taken it you are sleeping with his Aunt"
Ava ran to her bedroom and started packing her bag for Paris, she knew what hotel Peter was at so tracking him down was going to be easy enough.
"clothes, swimsuit, handcuffs, dress for romantic dinner, corset " Ava listed off what she was packing eagerly anticipating her departure tomorrow morning "a penthouse hotel, dinner at the Eiffel tower should make up for his disappearing trick" Ava happily listed off before humming to herself.
