I will make it up to all of you, I love every single one of my readers and I'm so sorry to have made you wait so long for this update.
Peter made his way through the many corridors that led to the lab where Tony had shown the new suit to him earlier. He walked in to see various machines working on what appeared to be Iron Man suits. Peter briefly watched the machines work, before starting on the task at hand.
He walked around, looking on every desk in the lab for his suit, without success.
"Jarvis?" Peter asked.
"Yes, sir?" As Jarvis replied, Peter stopped his search to look up at the ceiling.
"Do you know where Mr. Stark has put my Spiderman suit?" Peter asked hopefully. "Jarvis?" Peter asked again as the AI didn't reply. Peter sighed and turned toward the door to find Tony, when he heard movement behind him. He turned to see the wall slide open, revealing his Spiderman suit surrounded by fog.
"Wow," Peter whispered to himself.
"Mr. Stark insisted on a dramatic flair," Jarvis said, and Peter chuckled as he stepped closer to his new and improved suit.
Peter rubbed the material between two fingers, before grabbing it and taking it down from its place.
When the suit was removed, the wall closed up again, making it appear as it had when Peter had walked in. He quickly made his way to the nearest bathroom to change.
Peter looked over himself in the mirror. The suit looked good and it felt a lot sturdier, but was still flexible. Peter attached the web shooters and went out to the balcony. Before stepping outside, he pulled his mask on over his head, and taking a running leap, he jumped from the terrace and began free-falling to the streets below.
He enjoyed the feeling of adrenaline shooting through his body as the wind bit at him and made his suit ripple. He let his body fall closer to the ground then he normally would, hoping that his improved web shooters would work and attach to the target before he became a very large splotch on the sidewalk below.
As Tony had promised, the upgraded web shooters did their job splendidly. They fired with perfect accuracy and at an accelerated speed, making him think he should have asked for help from Tony or the others a long time ago. The lives that could have been spared weren't stayed embedded at the back of his mind. Peter sighed glumly, no longer feeling the usual happiness he did when slinging his webs.
Peter flipped and turned in mid-air, trying to get more of a thrill. He thought about The Avengers and how they needed him, how they needed him to be strong. How could he be as strong as them and help them defeat Hydra? He definitely was not an Avenger; he wasn't even in the same league as them.
Peter swung past Times Square and landed on a rooftop that close enough to look down on the streets, but out of the way of the public's eye. Glancing down, he could see the clean-up crews, tourists and the local New Yorkers, all just getting on with their normal routines, as if the last couple of days never happened. He had always admired their ability to carry on.
He stared at the damage that he had caused, what the sinister six were capable of. Looking down at all the people, he thought of Aunt May, and everyone else who needed him. It gave him the strength he required. He could not absolutely could not let Aunt May or the Avengers down. He would prove himself and fight until the last enemy had fallen.
As he was reminded of Aunt May, he jumped from the ledge he was resting on and began to swing toward his residence in Queens.
He was distracted once again by the sounds of sirens and flashing lights from the ground below.
He fired a web, taking a sharp turn to catch up with the speeding vehicles. As he swung closer, he could see the source of the lights. They were coming from a few police cars and a lot of fire engines.
"A fire?" Peter thought. "Bruce did say I could do some light exercise." Peter saw the chaos ahead of him. A three-story brownstone house was ablaze and the fire was swiftly spreading to the adjacent housing.
He rapidly fired web lines and increased his speed to get there faster; every second mattered in cases such as this.
Spiderman abruptly let go of the string of web he was holding and let his momentum carry him the rest of the way. He briefly landed on a streetlamp near the house before jumping, next to a fire crew which had already arrived on scene. He could hear the hushed whispers and gasps from the people who surrounded him. It certainly was not the worst reaction he had ever received. He made his way to the fire-fighter in charge.
"Is there anybody in there?" Spidey had to yell in order to be heard over the noise of the sirens and the panicked shouts of the bystanders.
"Spiderman?" The fire chief shouted back, shocked and confused to see the hero standing in front of her. Spiderman stared at the chief expecting an answer. She suddenly seemed to realize that Spiderman had asked her a question. "Um... The buildings on either side have all been evacuated on this side. We're working on the other side in case of the worst," She said.
As back up arrived and they began to work on putting out the flames, but the fire seemed to fight back, refusing to be put out and continuing to grow larger. Loud creaks and groans could be heard from the building. The sounds of a weakening structure ready to give in.
"What about the family in the main house?" Spiderman asked when they weren't mentioned. He turned to the building, which was quickly being devoured by the flames. Huge black clouds of smoke rose into the sky.
"We haven't been able to search the entire the house. Right now our priority is evacuation and containing the fire."
Spiderman didn't wait for the woman to finish before he leaped through the air and into the burning building. He could tell he didn't have much time before the building collapsed or exploded, so he needed to work quickly. Spiderman entered through a window on the second floor and began his search for survivors there.
"Is there anybody in here?" He shouted, trying to look through the black smoke and flames that filled the apartment space. It was impossible to tell what room this had been, a kitchen, living room or someone's bedroom. The fire had completely destroyed this floor. He could tell that the fire had somehow started on this floor. The heat was intense and hard to bear but he wouldn't give up on anyone possibly be trapped in there. He ran into the next room scanning it carefully. Taking a cautious step inside, he heard the squeaking of the feeble and burning floorboards. His time was ticking away.
His advanced hearing could pick up the sounds of the crackling fire around him as it split the wood. Trusting his hearing, he used it to pick up the faint coughs of someone on the floor. He moved down the hall, trying to move closer to the sound. The fire seemed to lick and snap at his feet as he moved and every breath became harder to take in.
Spiderman crouched down low to avoid breathing the smoke as much as possible. The violent coughing became louder as he made his way to a closed door.
"Can you hear me?" he asked as he banged on the door. He wiggled the handle side to side trying to open it, but it was jammed. He heard a soft whimper followed by louder coughs. Without hesitation he broke the door down and followed the smoke that rushed inside.
He saw a woman huddled by the sink in a windowless bathroom. As he moved towards her, she tried to speak.
"My c-children," She coughed.
"It's alright. I'll get you all out of here," Spiderman said, as he scooped her into his arms and made his way to the window where he had entered.
He jumped and landed next to a waiting ambulance and carefully placed her on a stretcher.
As the paramedics rushed in, the woman grabbed the hero, who was moving back towards the burning inferno and tried to speak through the oxygen mask and her raspy coughs. He was able to understand that her two children were in their bedrooms upstairs, but she had been unable to get to them because the stairs had collapsed.
Knowing where the children were gave him an advantage, he gave the woman's hand a tight squeeze as a silent promise that he would bring her children back to her. Then he turned and jumped, scaling the wall of the house to the third floor and gaining entry through another window.
The heat was unimaginable and his lungs burned with pain as he swapped the fresh clean air for the black smog. Wasting no time, he ran into every room he passed, his weight was making the floor creak with every step he took. He could hear quiet cries on the other side of the door he was standing next to. Bursting through the door he did not immediately see anyone, so he moved around the room looking.
"Hello? Can you hear me?" Spidey called, looking under the bed and anywhere else small, scared children might think to hide during a fire. Peter moved his body and looked around the room from his position on the floor and spotted a large closet. He jumped to his feet and opened it up. He moved piles of clothes to the side, revealing the form of two children; a boy and a girl, huddled together. They had been protected from the flames inside the trunk.
"Spiderman!?" The small boy looked up with his soot covered face to look at the hero.
"Hey kids! Let's get out of here," he said softly. He picked them up in his arms. He was struggling to hide the panic in his voice. "Your mom's waiting for you," he said, trying to remain calm.
As he returned to his escape option he noticed that the only window was now covered by the fallen beams from the ceiling. He had no choice but to make his way to the second floor.
He held the children tighter as he ran towards the broken stairs. He had to find a way to get them all down safely. Spiderman decided to hold the children with one arm and use the other to lower them with a web. The children clasped onto him as they were all slowly being lowered to the second floor. The fire spread across the ceiling and found the web that Spiderman had attached there. The flames began to lick at the web cable.
The children and Spiderman were nearing the ground when suddenly, the web line snapped. They let out startled cries. Spidey maneuvered himself and the children so that he would take the brunt of the short fall. The wooden floorboards groaned under the sudden weight but Spiderman quickly recovered. He picked himself up and continued to the window he was searching for. Reaching it, he did what he had done before held both children in one arm, and jumped from the window, firing another web line so that they would not have too rough of a landing.
Peter coughed as fireman came in to rush the children to the paramedics.
The crowd that had begun gathering at the scene cheered, ecstatic that the hero had rescued the occupants of the house in time. The fire chief that he had first spoken to approached him as he slowly stood up.
"That was really gutsy what you just did," she said as she patted him on the back. "I know men who've worked in this field for twenty years that aren't able to do what you've done today." She continued to praise his actions. "I hope one day we can do for you what you've done for this family."
"Thank you for saying that," Peter said, blushing under his mask.
"I'm sure everyone here will agree with me. It's good to have you back," she said, looking over at the crowd, all of which were craning to get a better look at the hero.
It was then that Spiderman noticed the news cameras and reporters covering the event.
"Oh man," Peter whispered under his breath. "Bruce is going to kill me," Peter thought as he remembered what he had said to him before he had left the tower.
"I'll see you around fire-fighter..." Spidey trailed off as he began to head away.
"Kelly!" She shouted, as he jumped on top of a street lamp.
"See you around, Kelly!" he called as he swung off in the direction of Queens.
Kelly got straight back to work, directing her team and helping contain the fire, which was slowly being suffocated by the force of the water.
Tony coughed. "Urgh, I need a drink," he moaned. Training with master assassins and super soldiers was draining to say the least.
"There is water here, Tony," Steve said, gesturing to the sink.
"I'll re-phrase; I need a proper drink," Tony sighed, Steve rolled his eyes with disapproval, Clint snorted, and Natasha said nothing as she continued sharpening her knifes, which were rather dull after the session of training.
"Hey, where'd did Bruce and Spidey go?" Clint noticed that they were no longer where he had last seen them. Natasha stopped what she was doing. She looked around, confirming that they indeed, disappeared.
"We've been training for hours. Bruce probably got bored and went to the lab," Tony mused.
"And what about Peter?" Steve asked, concern tingeing.
"Peter is our new science-bro," Tony gloated. "He's probably with Bruce in the lab. I'll check when I'm getting my drink." Tony walked out of the gym.
Bruce was concentrating so hard on retrieving the correct measurement of a beaker of liquid that he didn't realize Tony had entered the lab until he spoke.
"Hey, science-bro 1, where's science-bro 2?" He asked, casually sipping his drink.
"Oh. Evening Tony," Bruce replied, setting down his materials. "Peter asked to test his new web-shooters. He should be back by now. You're all done training?" Bruce looked at his watch. He was beginning to feel concerned that Peter had not returned to the lab or the gym.
"I'm done training, but the others have decided to go for round two," Tony scoffed. "I wouldn't worry about Peter too much. He's more than likely loving the new tech and he's lost track of time. Besides, he has that Stark phone I gave him." Tony was trying, in his way, to ease his and Bruce's nerves.
Tony went to his own section of the lab, opened the area where he kept the Spiderman suit. It was gone.
Peter snuck in his own bedroom window and stuffed the new suit into his closet, and got changed. He also shoved a few extra clothes and essentials into his backpack, before back crawling through the window and making his way to the front of the small house.
"Aunt May?" Peter called, wiping dirt off of his shoes and stepping into the house.
"Peter, you're home." Aunt May came from around the kitchen corner and hugged her nephew tightly. "Dinner's almost ready. Go wash up, please."
"Sure thing, Aunt May." Peter smiled. It was just nice to be back where he knew he could protect her. He knew he needed to leave again, but the thought was killing him. But he wanted so badly to spend some more time with her. Who knew how long it would be until this mess was finally over with.
"Did you have fun at your friend's house?" Aunt May asked as she dished out the food. The question made Peter laugh and feel guilty. It made him feel like he was five years-old again, playing with the kids next door. It was making him feel guilty, because he had been out cold in the Avenger's Tower while she was here alone with a maniac on the loose.
"Yeah, I did," Peter answered as he took a seat.
"Did you get any good pictures of Spiderman?" Aunt May asked as she sat down, putting the plates on the table in front of them.
"Uh, most of them were blurry," Peter lied. "I guess I'm a bit out of practice." Peter was referring to how long it had been since Spiderman had been seen.
"It has been a long time, but it looks like he's here to stay again," Aunt May smiled as she switched the TV on, showing the news footage of the fire. "That's all that's been on all day. Everyone is celebrating his return."
"Aunt May," Peter tried to catch her attention. "I… I, um..." Peter tried to think of an excuse as to why he would be gone most of the time. "I got a job. A real job," Peter smiled, watching as Aunt May's face brightened at the news.
"Oh, sweetie! That's great news! Why didn't you tell me sooner?" she gushed.
"Uh, I wanted it to be a surprise. And I didn't want you to be disappointed if I didn't get it," Peter explained.
"I would never be disappointed of you! You know that I would support everything you do." Aunt May leaned over the table and kissed his cheek "Where?"
"What?" Peter asked.
"Where did you get a job?" Aunt May smiled.
"Oh, um, at..." Peter searched his mind for an appropriate answer. "Um, Avengers Tower. In the labs." Peter blurted out. Aunt May's smile widened.
"You're going to be a scientist! I wish your Uncle Ben could be here to see this! He always knew you'd be just like your father."
"I start tomorrow, but it could be really late nights, Aunt May, and early mornings, so I should probably get to bed soon," Peter said.
"I understand sweetheart. I'm just so proud of you," May said as she took the plates to the sink and began washing up.
Peter left, hoping Aunt May wouldn't go into his room that night and see that he wasn't there.
He made his way to his room, and changed back into the new Spiderman suit. Putting the web shooters on, he hopped from rooftop to rooftop until he was able to swing higher above the streets. He swung towards the Tower. He had been gone for a few hours. Hopefully the Avengers would understand that he had needed to check up on his aunt.
Steve, Clint, Thor and Natasha walked out of the elevator to the main floor of the Avenger's Tower to see Tony flicking through channels on the large TV, and Bruce standing by the window as if he was watching the sunset. His back was turned to them, so they didn't see the worried look on his face.
Tony was trying to distract himself by watching TV until the others showed up.
"Hey, where's Peter?" Steve asked, looking around the room to make sure he had not missed him.
Tony and Bruce looked at each other with the same worried expression, which everyone noticed.
"He… he went out," Bruce said.
"He's gone?" Natasha asked. She didn't believe that Pete would just leave.
"He's coming back. He went out to test his web shooters," Tony explained for Bruce.
"How long ago was this?" Clint asked.
"Couple of hours," Tony muttered, going back to skipping through the TV channels.
"What if something happened to him?" Steve asked.
"I thought he would be gone ten minutes, tops, but I-" Bruce was cut off when Tony stopped on a news report.
"Today, in downtown Manhattan, a fire in a three-story house trapped a family, a mother and her two children inside. Fire-fighters were unable to reach them, due the intensity of the flames. The fire-fighters used their greatest efforts to try and control the blaze, but they still could not evacuate the family inside. Spiderman showed up on the scene, and did not hesitate to rescue the family." The news anchor disappeared from the screen as news camera footage started showing. Spiderman showed up and jumped in and out of the building with the mother, and later on the two children. The footage also showed Spiderman struggling to get up after nearly coughing his lungs out on his hands and knees, when he came out of the fire. "Kelly Anderson, head of the Manhattan Fire Department had this to say-"
"Well, at least we know that he's okay," Clint said quietly. He could feel the tension in the air. However, Thor was clearly oblivious.
"Excellent! Young Peter is a true hero!" Thor boomed and smiled at the others.
Bruce did not look happy. "You're looking a little green," Tony joked.
"Call him, Tony," Bruce said, as he paced the floor, worried, concerned, and annoyed.
"Oh, he's in for it when he gets back. Breaking doctor's orders is a big no-no," Clint joked.
Tony took out his cell phone and searched through the contacts for Peter's name.
Peter decided to go straight back to the tower. Another stop like the fire, and Bruce would kill him.
Peter noticed the sun was setting so he decided to speed up. Suddenly, he heard a sound coming from the phone Tony gave him. He stopped on the rooftop of a building on the outskirts of Hell's Kitchen and took the phone from a hidden part of the costume to listen to the tune coming from the phone.
Peter rolled his eyes; he recognized the song that was playing. The Spiderman Theme Song. Peter wasted no more time and answered the call.
"Hello?" Peter answered.
"Peter? Where the hell are you?" Tony asked in a hushed tone.
Peter could hear noises and people talking in the background.
"I'm in Hell's Kitchen; I'm on my way back. I didn't mean to be so long I just had some stuff to do," Peter explained. Peter could hear Tony chuckle.
"You're not in trouble for being out past curfew." Tony laughed a little louder. "Although Bruce is pretty pissed about the fire," Tony admitted.
"He saw that?" Peter asked, hoping that Tony was joking.
"Yeah. We all saw it," Tony said.
"I'm on my way to the tower now and I promise no side tours..." Peter stopped what he was saying when he heard a noise behind him.
"Peter?"
Peter walked to the edge of the rooftop and looked down into the ally. He couldn't see anything in the darkness. Hell's Kitchen wasn't exactly the safest place to be in New York at night, but Peter could sense something wasn't right.
"Spidey, you still there?" Tony asked but Peter didn't respond.
Peter looked up to see someone watching him from a rooftop above him.
"There's someone here," Peter whispered
"Kid, stop freaking us out-"
"I'm serious, I'll be back soon. I promise," Peter said, hanging up the phone.
Peter turned to the figure and spoke. "Who are you and what do you want?"
The dark figure said nothing but turned and jumped to the next rooftop, running to the edge and jumping off to the ground below.
Peter did not linger. He ran after whoever it was. He didn't know who they were, but if they worked for Hydra he could get information from them, figure out their plans, and prove to the Avengers that he wasn't useless.
I'd love to see how many people can guess who the mysterious figure that Peter is now following is... tell me who you think it is in a review.
Shout out to my new Beta Reader who fixed minor problems with the story here and there, the last book keeper Thank you!
Also to the last guess who reviewed my story and motivated me to start writing again despite all the college work.
I will try my best to keep the updates constant, but I assure you that they will keep on coming!
and lastly a huge thank you to everyone who reviews the story, you keep me writing! XX