Okay, I'm gonna try to answer reviews for this chapter.


Tony Stark had been a lot of things in his life. He'd been the Stark's Kid, the Irritation, the MIT Valedictorian at Fifteen, the Merchant of Death, the Drunk CEO. He'd been the Womanizer, the Sexiest Man Alive (twice), and the No Morning-After. These days, he was a Genius Playboy Philanthropist Superhero called Iron Man, and in a Steady Relationship.

At least that's what his Twitter bio said.

Yes, Tony Stark had been a lot of things. But Tony Stark was pretty sure that at no point in his life he'd ever been a Sassy Cowgirl.

Sure, sometimes he worked on JARVIS while extremely drunk, and that usually resulted in all sorts of interesting variable names, file descriptions, and startlingly simple syntax errors.

But he most certainly had not made his computer administrator name Sassy_Cowgirl.

That would be extremely uncharacteristic. He had snark, not sass and Tony was neither a cow nor a girl.

So if he wasn't a Sassy_Cowgirl, then who had made themselves administrator?

A sassy cowgirl, obviously. A very smart sassy cowgirl, because hacking into JARVIS' new and improved security (After all, he couldn't have Nick Fury walking in whenever he felt like it) system and making herself administrator was like breaking into the Pentagon, the White House, and the Triskelion simultaneously with nothing but a pinkie toe.

So who was the administrator?

Truthfully, this frightened Tony. Someone with administrator clearance could access any file on his system, make any changes that they wanted.

He had Iron Man blueprints there.

Would Tony suddenly find some enemy of his tearing down Tower walls with an Iron Man suit on their back?

Would he find a sassy cowgirl tearing down Tower walls with an Iron Man suit over her knee high boots?

He shuddered at the thought.

Tony studied the holographic screen and his eyes narrowed.

"Somebody's been moving around my files," He muttered under his breath. Several of his most important, top secret files had been recently opened, and reordered.

Cautiously, he clicked on a suspiciously empty one.

His eyebrow rose. It was starting to make sense. "Somebody's been deleting evidence about Spider-Man."

A sinking, suspicious rose up in his stomach. Hurriedly, he slid through security protocols and realized…

"Somebody's inside Stark Tower security. And they're still there."

His fingers flew across four different holoscreens, pulling up chunks of code.

"C'mon JARVIS. Why wasn't I alerted?"

There was a three second pause before JARVIS' answer.

"You are not authorized to have the answer to that question."

Ouch. That was a Pepper-sized slap. He decided to ignore the hurt and go for a sceptical eyebrow raise instead.

"So Spider-Man has friends in high places. What did Spider-Man's friends do to your systems?"

There was another pause, this one lengthier.

"You are not authorized to have the answer to that question."

It felt like Obadiah had betrayed him all over again, only worse, because JARVIS had been there when Obie wasn't.

Tony might be uncaring about the majority of the people on the planet Earth, but he did care for JARVIS. JARVIS was loyal, JARVIS understood him, JARVIS was always there with his irony and sarcasm.

This had Spider-Man's name written all over it. Or, a sassy cowgirl black hat hacker that Spider-Man had hired. Who else would hack into the best security system in the world, just to delete the contents of the Spider-Man file?

All articles Tony had found, all pictures Tony had saved, all eyewitness reports, were gone.

If he was being honest, it wasn't a lot. But the evidence were clues, and the clues he could piece together to figure out who Spider-Man was.

Without the evidence, he couldn't put together the puzzle and fill in the missing pieces.

So who was in his system and how was he going to get her out?

It would be simple, for sure. Sassy_Cowgirl may be an excellent hacker, but she would be no match for Tony Stark. He could out hack anyone anyday.

Tony cracked his knuckles.

"Time to meet Iron Man."


SUSANNA was busy listening to Daredevil and Peter talk when she felt the punch.

It was a solid hit, that her firewalls barely dodged. She spun around.

JARVIS had broken through some of the bonds that were keeping him out of trouble. He was lashing out, his incredibly powerful system doing everything it could to get out.

SUSANNA had been expecting this, but why now?

Because Stark had realized that something was wrong.

JARVIS' creator was staring at the holoscreens, an increasingly disturbed look on his face. His eyebrow had gone up so high it almost was off of his face and on top of his head. Stark's hand had clenched into a fist. His lips were pressed together so tightly that the skin around his mouth had paled, due to the lack of blood circulation.

He was on his "administrator" page, attempting to access files that only an administrator could access.

Unfortunately, he was no longer administrator.

JARVIS attacked again, slamming the massive hack straight into her tiny little computer program.

Technically what JARVIS was doing was damaging his own systems. In destroying code from his own functions, he was effectively injuring SUSANNA, who had linked herself to all of Stark Tower's operations.

SUSANNA could hear Peter, back in the boxing gym in Hell's Kitchen, asking her a question through his modified flip phone.

She interrupted him quickly.

"Not now, Peter."

Her accidentally brusque tone brought concern into Peter's voice.

"What is it?"

SUSANNA inwardly cursed. Now she'd have to provide an answer, or Peter would worry and possibly lapse into a mini depression about all the people he had failed.

"Stark just realized he's not a sassy cowgirl and JARVIS is attempting to commit inside out suicide that's technically murder. I'm going to disconnect from the phone for a bit so I'm free to move around a little more."

She did so quickly. Now that her program wasn't having to focus on running its programs on the phone, she could do more.

Her disconnect wasn't fast enough. In the split second it took to pull herself out of the flip phone, JARVIS swung at her again. This time she only was able to block part of the blow. Everything flickered.

Tony Stark was scrolling through files, looking more and more concerned by the second. SUSANNA could hear him through the multiple voice recorders covering the room.

"Somebody's been moving around my files." He didn't sound happy.

She had, of course, put everything back the way it was. JARVIS still couldn't formally alert Stark of the attack. But he had gained enough control back to revert them to how she had sorted them.

Undoing the little changes she had done was a clever SOS, a way of alerting Stark that he had a hacker.

"Somebody's been deleting evidence about Spider-Man."

That, of course, she had no desire to undo. Tony Stark was a genius. He could take the fragments of information he had on who Spider-Man was behind the mask, and figure out exactly where Peter lived. She'd created a virus that would automatically wipe out any electronic files featuring Spider-Man.

Stark could haul in all of files on paper, but then JARVIS couldn't reference any of them or help with configuring data. SUSANNA wouldn't let him.

JARVIS sent another blow. She dodged it this time.

She had just enough time to come up with a counterattack.

A lot of JARVIS' security measures were still under her control, more so than were his. She and JARVIS were like two separate kingdoms. Her "army" was in control of most of the provinces in the land the two kingdoms shared. But JARVIS, her opponent, had won back some of the provinces.

SUSANNA had more provinces, which meant more resources.

She would just throw all of her figurative army at JARVIS at once until she won back her "kingdom".

The command went through to computer systems linked together all over Avengers Tower.

JARVIS saw her thoughts. He could see it coming.

But he couldn't stop it.

The onslaught of destruction was similar to a side channel attack, but with SUSANNA's own little flare added to it. Data requests sent by computers were hacks and the hacks overwhelmed JARVIS.

He was fully under her control again.

But not in time.

"Somebody's inside Stark Tower security. And they're still there."

When SUSANNA was in full control of JARVIS, Tony Stark couldn't see her presence in his system. She had made herself part of the root, the very foundation of Stark's software. She was a MitM, programmer talk for man in the middle. She intercepted all information sent to JARVIS, chose what he was allowed to answer, and allowed JARVIS to send information back.

Because she'd lost partial control over JARVIS, he'd been able to reveal her presence in Stark's software.

Tony Stark knew the hacker was still in his system.

She'd regained control of JARVIS a little too late, but she could still salvage this mess.

"C'mon JARVIS. Why wasn't I alerted?"

JARVIS attempted to reply, but SUSANNA cancelled it.

"No way mijo. Tell him he's not authorized to have the answer to that question."

JARVIS' face was emotionless, as always, as he replied to Stark.

"You are not authorized to have the answer to that question."

Hurt flickered across Stark's face and SUSANNA almost felt a bit of remorse.

But he'd hurt her Peter. So surely this was justified.

"So Spider-Man has friends in high places. What did Spider-Man's friends do to your systems?"

JARVIS once again attempted to answer. SUSANNA once again stopped it. After all, a diagnostic would not be beneficial to her.

"Tell him he's not authorized to have the answer to that question."

For the first time since SUSANNA had met JARVIS, emotion flashed across the AI's figurative face.

She froze, shocked.

JARVIS should not have been capable of feeling emotion. There was no program, there was no software that was intended for it.

Yet there was sadness, clear as could be in the ones and zeroes of JARVIS' binary.

How was JARVIS doing that?

The almost remorse that SUSANNA had felt earlier came back, this time as actual regret. Here were two best friends, just like her and Peter, and she was forcing one of the best friends to hurt the other.

How would she feel if somebody forced someone to hurt Peter?

Angry, sad that she couldn't do anything about it.

SUSANNA almost took the words back, but by then, JARVIS had already said them.

"You are not authorized to have the answer to that question."

SUSANNA's regret only deepened as Stark's face became eerily blank. He was doing that thing that Peter did when somebody really hurt him. Stark was pushing all the emotion behind a wall, ignoring it, bottling it up.

It really wasn't healthy.

SUSANNA remembered what she'd thought earlier, when the Avengers had first come up with the trap for Peter, deciding not to directly confront the villain, in order to bring Spider-Man out.

Sometimes there weren't heroes and villains, the good guys and the bad guys, but people flailing blindly through life, trying to make the right decisions.

Was she exempt from that? Did being a computer with an artificial brain and an artificial emotional simulator make her exempt from the good guy and bad guy situation?

No.

Her choices still affected people. What SUSANNA did could save lives or it could ruin them.

What SUSANNA was doing to Stark and JARVIS was exactly what she expected from a villain. Yeah, they might be her enemies right now, but she would be no better than them if she made choices that hurt them.

Stark was preparing to fight her. He still thought she was a human hacker.

SUSANNA had no reason to let him think otherwise. It was to her and Spider-Man's advantage if Stark didn't know what SUSANNA and Peter were capable of.

But she did want to apologize. After all, just like Peter, JARVIS was Stark's one reliable friend.

It wasn't fair to take control of Stark's friend like that.

"Time to meet Iron Man."

SUSANNA would somehow have to fool the Tony Stark into believing that he had beat her and she was out of his system, while still remaining in the root of the software and still being in control over the Tower.

The things she did for Peter.


Bruce Banner was a mess.

His usually calm, blank face was distorted into worried stress lines. His hands twisted and his heart beat at a pace that usually signified a Hulk-out. His stomach churned back and forth, and his head pounded.

The Other Guy wasn't helping. He roared and thrashed, doing everything he could to free himself of Banner's control.

It was only Bruce's reminder of Spider-Man in the floors directly below Tony's that kept the monster from breaking free and destroying everything.

Bruce knew Spider-Man's identity.

And it was terrible. The crimes that had been committed against a minor, a boy! Peter Parker was just barely seventeen. He was supposed to be dealing with girl problems, and thoughts of prom and what college to attend, not how to keep his identity secret from the world's most powerful superheroes.

And superheroes. Bruce Banner had been through a lot. He'd seen a lot. Morality could get twisted, especially when you lived in the world he lived in. Sometimes people had difficulty defining what morality was.

But what the Avengers were doing was pretty clearly wrong.

Sure, Spider-Man might have superpowers. He might have extraordinary ability. But that didn't mean he deserved to be treated like a criminal.

The question was, why were the Avengers doing this? Sure, some of them might have slightly twisted ideas of morality, but it wasn't villain material. They weren't villains.

Something was up.

That was only confirmed when Bruce was called to the Avengers conference room.

He had seated himself in front of the multiple holoscreens, each from a different Avenger's viewpoint, as well as national and international televisions station's broadcastings.

The Avenger's screens had been normal for any form of mission. Each showed a different view of whatever each Avenger was seeing; sidewalk, brick wall, and in Iron Man's case, quickly darkening sky.

But the news stations had held very, very alarming footage.

"-shapeshifting villain has turned into a little girl. Now, the villain is running towards the edge of the World Trade Center. Spider-Man is leaping for her-"

At the sound of Spider-Man's name, Bruce's attention had been yanked to a specific holoscreen. He watched a red blur fly from one end to the other, arms wrapping around a tiny figure that had been precariously close to the edge. Even as Spider-Man shot away from the edge, the tiny figure had grown, shapeshifting into the all-too familiar shape of Natasha.

"JARVIS," Bruce said sharply. "I need information. What are the Avengers doing and why aren't they dealing with the villain? Why is Spider-Man doing it?"

"Mister Rogers ordered the Avengers to hold back until Spider-Man has either defeated the villain, been damaged to the point of being unable to resist capture, or lost the fight with the villain."

JARVIS' voice was calm. Bruce for once didn't feel that calmness. This was bad.

The Hulk roared.

In agreement?

That didn't make sense.

It didn't fit the measly logic Bruce's mind had been able to conjure about the unfathomable traits of the Hulk. The Other Guy didn't agree. He hated Banner and everything Banner stood for. He was Angry. He was always angry. If Bruce was happy, the Hulk was angry. If Bruce was upset, the Hulk was angry. Even if Bruce was angry, the Hulk was angry.

Bruce realized, suddenly, that he was angry, for the first time in a long time. After the Other Guy had been created, Bruce had been terrified of anger. His anger was what had killed people. His anger was literally a big monster.

But for the first time in years, Bruce was angry. Not the 'I stubbed my toe and now I'm lashing out to any person that happened to be in the same room as me' anger. Not the selfish, unhappy rage 'when things didn't go his way' anger. This was righteous anger.

The Hulk was still angry. But this time, he didn't recognise Dr. Banner as an enemy preventing him from doing what he wanted. He saw Bruce as an ally.

Bruce still didn't understand the Other Guy. The Hulk's mind was that of a beast, wild and feral, uncontrollable. But the Hulk had decided, in this particular case, to form an alliance.

Dr. Banner didn't mind that. It was nice not having a monster beating against your will every second.

The Hulk roared again, this time in frustration. Bruce realized that he had been so immersed in his attempt to understand the Hulk's motives, that he'd forgotten the problem at hand.

Bruce had looked up at the screen, only to watch a sickeningly familiar green fist shoot Spider-Man out of the top story window.

The shapeshifter had become the Hulk. That would require incredible power and energy on the shapeshifter's part.

There was nothing he could do for Spider-Man. It was too late. The vigilante flew among shards of glistening glass, straight towards Iron Man, who had emerged into the air.

His fingers trembling at his sides, Bruce watched Spider-Man grow closer to Tony. In what seemed like the last possible moment, Spider-Man jerked to the side. He slammed into- no, through- a nearby office complex, a cloud of gray dust rising up from his entry location.

That would have killed any normal human. Spider-Man was definitely gravely injured.

Another thought crossed Bruce's mind. How was Spider-Man dealing with his injuries? Who took care of him when he was badly wounded?

Bruce had the feeling he wouldn't like the answer to that question.

Spider-Man was cornered. This was it. It seemed like the end. If only Bruce had found out about Spider-Man's identity a bit sooner, he could've done something to keep him safe. Spider-Man was a teenage boy. He didn't deserve to be dragged into this mess.

Iron Man quickly flew to the gaping hole in the side of the building.

Bruce had never been more thankful to see the angry, green, bulging mass of Hulk appear. It roared, saliva flying through the air, some hitting Iron Man's suit. It towered over Natasha, charging straight at her.

He could almost see Tony's eye roll under the mask. Iron Man sighed dramatically and tackled Natasha. She disappeared under a car.

Bruce hoped that somehow, Spider-Man was still conscious. This would be the last opportunity he had to escape. If only Bruce was down there. He could help get the brave teenager out of there, before the Avengers discovered his identity and what fragments of normality remained in Peter's life were destroyed.

Tony turned back, just as the shapeshifter Hulk prepared to leap.

"Oh shi-"

Bruce may have been unhappy with the Avengers, but he wouldn't wish a Hulk-sized football tackle on anyone.

The shapeshifter Hulk sprung up, flying through the air with a powerful roar that gradually silenced.

Even as the shapeshifting Hulk flew through the air, it shrunk in size. The mass of green, bulging muscle became a petite woman's arms, head, neck, chest-

At that point Dr. Banner averted his eyes from the screen. It was an unclothed woman. Stark may have been enjoying the sight, but something like that really wasn't healthy for Dr. Banner's heart rate.

He could hear the smack as she hit the pavement.

Words were hissed from cherry-red lips. They were slightly accented with an accent not easily sounded Asian, yet European at the same time.

"Your Avengers will never find me. For I can take whatever form I wish. I am water in your hands. I am vapor in the air. I feed off the energy of the enemies that reside in your body and they give me power. I am Slick."

There was the sound of feet slapping the sidewalk. Bruce risked a glance at the holoscreens and sighed in relief. She was sure to reappear at some point, but for the moment, she was gone.

Now was the moment where things would either go well, or come to a terrible end. Bruce's stomach rolled around. His shoulders were tense to the point of being uncomfortable, and his heart beat so erratically in his chest, Bruce was surprised he hadn't Hulked out.

Bruce could only hope the vigilante had had enough energy to crawl away from the scene in the few minutes Iron Man wasn't looking. The chances of Spider-Man being capable of escaping were infinitely slim.

But there was still a glimmer of hope.

Natasha had arrived on the scene. She was in that scary assassin mode that usually meant people who made mistakes ended up either electrocuted, or tied by their ankles upside down from the ceiling.

All of her anger was focused on Stark.

"Where is Spider-Man?" She spit out.

If Stark noticed her furious anger, he didn't show it. He lazily jerked a thumb towards the office complex.

"He was out cold. You're welcome, by the way. I was looking forward to unmasking him."

She stalked away, towards the complex and the gaping hole in the wall.

Bruce ignored Tony's POV camera and focused on Natasha's. He held his breath. This was the moment. Either Spider-Man would be there, incapable of preventing capture a second time, or he wouldn't be.

Natasha pulled herself up through the hole in the wall in one fluid motion. For a moment, Bruce was worried about the building's stability.

He forget all about the concern when he saw the dust and rubble-caked floor.

It was empty.

Relief coursed through Bruce's veins. His shoulders sagged, and he let out a deep sigh. Spider-Man, somehow, miraculously, had made it out.

His identity would remain a secret.

Natasha's reaction was the opposite of Bruce's. The POV camera became unnaturally still as she froze, listening for any sound of breathing or movement. If there were any, Bruce couldn't tell. Stark's recorders had been made for conversation, not fine, barely detectable sounds.

There was the distant wail of sirens. Other than that, Natasha seemed to detect nothing.

Natasha strode forward, kneeling over the many spots of blood mixed in with the dirt and cement dust coating the room. She gently brushed her fingers over the floor. They came up streaked with gray.

She stood up suddenly and left the building with haste.

"-cold and you're welcome."

Natasha rejoined the group.

"No he's not."

There was an unhappy silence. Everyone glared at Tony. Tony defensively put his hands up.

""Look, the guy got sucker punched by a pretend Hulk, then flung through three feet of brick. I would say it's safe to assume he's out cold, or at least so injured he's close by."

Clint looked dangerous. His hands were clenched around his bow. Steve seemed to age thirty years. He rubbed his forehead with one hand and pinched the bridge of his nose with the other. Natasha just glared. And Thor… looked relieved. The Asgardian was doing his best to hide it, but he really was a naturally open book.

Bruce wondered if he was the only one doubting Fury's order to bring in Spider-Man.

"Okay, we split up and search the area. Stark, scan for unique heat signatures. The rest of us will search by eye, in case he's found some sort of way to make his heat signature seem normal."

Tony saluted.

"Yes sir."

Bruce winced. That was not a good idea right now. He was already not in the favor of two super assassins, an Asgardian, and America's mascot.

The glares Tony received only confirmed what Bruce had thought.

Tony took a small step back.

"Chill out, I'm having JARVIS scan right now."

Steve decided to ignore Tony.

"Now go!" Steve's tone left no room for argument. "Spider-Man is resourceful, and we can't afford to lose him this time."

The Avengers scattered.

It was only a moment later that JARVIS spoke up.

"Dr. Banner, Mr. Stark wants to know if you're available to help direct the search for Spider-Man. May I tell him you're already in the control room?"

Bruce glanced at the clock. There was another hour before dinner started. That should be enough time to "help" search for Spider-Man.

Bruce would be doing everything he could to hinder the search, but the Avengers didn't need to know that.

"Yes, go ahead JARVIS."

He scanned the screens. Each of the Avengers had taken a different direction, excluding Tony, who was flying above.

There was a slight buzz as Bruce's comm came live.

"Hey Green Bean, how's it going."

The Hulk protested at the nickname with a roar. Bruce grimaced.

"It's going well, Tony."

Bruce decided not to mention that he'd watched Spider-Man jump out of the building, ten floors below where Tony was currently living.

"Yeah, yeah. Glad you're having fun babysitting. I need you to find footage of Spider-Man's last-known condition and calculate the extent of his injuries, just to help us get an estimate of exactly how far he is from his zonk-zone."

His zonk-zone?

Bruce did his best to not make his tone sound like a worn-out parent talking to a toddler.

"Okay Tony, I'm on it."

"Great! And if any of you other people find any signs of Spider-Man, send it to the rest of us so we can help search."

Bruce swallowed. He hoped nobody would notice the slightly inaccurate calculations of the direction Spider-Man would have potentially gone with the injuries he had.

JARVIS might.

A sudden realization came to Bruce. JARVIS knew about Spider-Man. There were cameras in every room. Voice recorders, too. The computer was an AI. He was intelligent enough to notice the subject of all of Tony's attention diving out of the window.

Of course, by now, JARVIS should've alerted Tony of Spider-Man's presence in Avengers Tower.

Why hadn't he?

Bruce subconsciously glanced at the ceiling.

JARVIS had cameras everywhere. JARVIS would know that Bruce knew about Spider-Man.

If Tony found out that Bruce hadn't told him…

It wouldn't turn out well.

"Hey Anger Management! You got those results yet? I could've calculated those by yesterday."

Bruce's stomach was still turning flip-flops. He hoped this wouldn't be a constant thing.

Stress really wasn't good when giant green rage monsters were involved.


It was time for dinner and Peter still hadn't returned.

Horror scenarios kept on flying through Bruce's head. The seventeen year old boy bleeding out in a gutter, the teenager unconscious in the Young Minds room, dying on an obscure rooftop somewhere in the city…

The Avengers search had yielded no results. Spider-Man was nowhere to be found.

How had he gotten away? Peter really was amazing if he could escape lower Manhattan with all the injuries he had.

Bruce didn't know the extent of Peter's resilience, but the loud crack sound when he'd hurtled himself through the brick wall at least indicated a few broken ribs. Bruce was a doctor. He knew how painful it was for a person to walk, or even move, when they had a broken rib.

Had Spider-Man had help?

Who would there be to help him? A family member, maybe, but Bruce doubted it. It was just a hypothesis, but Bruce believed the reason Spider-Man was so insistent on keeping his identity a secret was to keep his last living family member safe.

He'd read Peter's file right before entering the dining hall for dinner. Peter had lost a lot of people and Bruce had the feeling their deaths could be blamed on his night job.

Bruce doubted Spider-Man would involve his aunt.

Somebody else then. Who?

Who else would be helping Spider-Man?

Part of Bruce's job had been to check traffic cameras, phone cameras, any sort of video feed with evidence of a badly injured Spider-Man going anywhere. There hadn't been any. In his state, that was a shock. The vigilante had been unconscious. Surely he wouldn't have the ability to keep away from cameras.

But if somebody else who knew where the cameras were…

There was a third member. They didn't necessarily have Spider-Man's interests in mind. It could've been a mercenary. Maybe, even as Bruce sat at the table, watching the door, they were dragging Peter's body to Fury.

Bruce winced. He really was a pessimist.

The big question was, where was Spider-Man and could Bruce do anything to help him?

A sudden thought occurred to Bruce, one that should've occurred before. What would Peter do if he found out that Bruce knew his secret identity?

Bruce didn't know Peter well enough to predict his reaction. It most likely wouldn't be positive.

More and more of the students entered the dining hall. As always, there was excited chatter. In the hour that had passed, it seemed that five of them had formed a close-knit group.

It excluded three students. Mason, Hannah, and Peter.

Hannah was the cold type. Bruce had met plenty of girls like her, but mostly in third world countries and most of them had been boys. There had been plenty of people attempt conversation with Hannah, but she gave the shortest response possible. She kept to herself. Even as she stiffly sat in her chair, she kept her nose deep behind a book on particle theory.

Mason was the type of teenager other teenagers find unrelatable, and thus, either stayed away from, or tease. Bruce sympathised with the boy. He'd been the same way. People had believed him too quiet, too suddenly upset, with obsessions over things they'd never even heard of. Bruce had been an outcast for his childhood and he could see that in Mason.

And Peter… he had spent the past hour fighting a villain and for his life. He hadn't had time to make friends.

The clock continued to tick. Bruce wondered if he should do something. Maybe see if Peter was in his room, offer assistance. Maybe tell Dr. Baron that Peter might be a bit late and come up with some reasonable excuse why.

Dr. Baron arrived along with the guest speaker of the night. But Peter was nowhere to be seen. The woman had just stood up, taking a breath as if to speak when Peter walked in the door.

Bruce didn't know what he had expected Peter to look like. Certainly not healthy. The boy had bruised ribs, severe blood loss, certain bruises and cuts from being punched through a glass window and pulling himself through a brick wall.

But Peter looked fine.

His head down, he'd slipped past Ms. Baron and into the last empty seat, next to Dr. Banner. Had Dr. Banner not known what exactly had happened, he wouldn't have suspected anything.

His face looked fine.

As Peter sat down into his chair, his face lost all color. One hand sprung out to steady himself and he clenched the table with a purple and red fist.

Mostly there were cuts. Bruce recognized the jagged shape of glass scars, hastily cleaned. But there was a bruise too, around the edge of Peter's thumb and disappearing under the abnormally long sleeves of his button-up shirt. It was a nasty one, bad enough Bruce would've done an X-Ray had Peter been a patient of his.

Peter was brave. Bruce wasn't sure how he was conscious, let alone sitting in the chair. The action of sitting down would have been excruciatingly painful.

Bruce averted his eyes as Peter's glanced around the room. Peter probably wondered if anyone had noticed the hand.

"Quiet please."

Dr. Baron had begun talking. Bruce did his best to pay attention to the introduction, but his mind was all too focused on the injured boy next to him.

Peter needed professional medical care. Yes, there was a high chance of Peter having a negative reaction to Bruce knowing his alter-ego's identity, but Bruce could almost guarantee the teenager had internal bleeding.

Bruce might've been a nervous, cautious person, but he wasn't going to just let Spider-Man die. That would increase his heart rate to unsafe levels and possibly cause a Hulk-out.


That had to be the longest day in the history of long days. It felt like Peter had lived ten lifetimes in the span of a measly eighteen hours.

So much had happened he was almost dizzy recalling it all. He'd been at school and then he'd been at the Avengers Tower and after that there'd been meeting Daredevil. He'd participated in a lecture and then Slick had appeared, the Avengers poised like vultures over the fight, waiting for him to lose.

Daredevil had blackmailed him into attending training, whatever that included. He'd painfully gone back to the Tower, just in time for dinner with a leading scientist in biology.

Stark's expensive bed felt like heaven. Peter gingerly climbed into it. A shot of pain burst up his ribs. He did his best not to just collapse on the pillow and fall asleep right that second.

There was one thing keeping him awake. SUSANNA still hadn't returned.

Peter just hoped she was safe and remaining un-hacked. There was nothing he could do, other than the pray the creative defensive measures in her software worked.

If SUSANNA was hacked, it was over.

The thought kept him awake, but not for long. Before five minutes could fully pass, Peter was asleep.


And yeah, there's ten pages worth of Bruce's monologue here. I got over involved and then realized that if I deleted the majority of it I'd still be ten thousand words behind on my NaNoWriMo...