"Do I need to be worried about the C on your Organic Chemistry test? I've really never had to deal with grades with you so I'm not sure how this is supposed to work." Tony looked at Peter's face on the screen in front of him. He hadn't seen that much anxiety etched on his face in a while. He was purposely trying to make a joke out of it, but he was more than a little worried.

"Dad, it was just an off day." Peter leaned back against the headboard of his bed. "All it did was drop my average from something like a 99.2 to a 97."

"You know I'm not really worried about the grade, right?"

Peter sighed, "I know. I'm just on edge. It's starting to get to me."

Tony scrubbed a hand over his face, "Then come home. Spend a couple days up at the lake and unwind."

"Dad, there's only 4 weeks left of school. I have zero free weekends. Plus, I'm not wild about splitting up the team. Not with everything that's going on." Peter looked at his dad on the screen in front of him. He recognized the worry on his face. "Anything new on the Ross front?"

"Not since Wyatt talked to Nat 2 hours ago. You know all of you are stressing too much about this." Tony started working on his argument in his head for all of them to head out to the lake this weekend. He wasn't sure if any of them were handling the stress.

Peter sighed. "I know. We're trying to force each other to stop obsessing. As their leader I should be the one making sure they're handling this ok, not the opposite way around."

"Pete, stop. You may be the leader but you're missing a big part of being a team. You watch each other's backs...always." Tony paused. He had debated about just taking the armor and having this conversation in person but he was trying to avoid being a helicopter parent. Right now he was regretting that decision. "Do they know you're going out every night?" Tony watched Peter look away from the screen which answered the question for him. "You should tell them."

Peter looked back at the screen. "Dad, it's what's allowing me to unwind even if it is just a little."

"I didn't tell you to stop, just to tell them. It's not like any of them can come with you without creating a scene." Tony watched Peter process what he was saying. One of his favorite things about Peter would always be that he could see the wheels turning in his head. "Kid, I'm ok with you going out because I know swinging and going high helps. I just want to make sure you're not falling back into bad habits. You have a team. Trust them with this."

Peter sighed, "Ok." Wanting to switch subjects away from his spiraling anxiety, he asked "How's Morgan?"

"That wasn't smooth at all." Tony smirked at Peter. "She's fine. An over achiever like the rest of the family. She's not even two but she's acting like every description of 'the terrible twos'." Tony made a last ditch effort, "You know if you came out to the lake for a couple days you could see her. She misses her big brother."

"My deflection may not have been smooth but that was mean to try to use Morgan." Peter smiled at his dad.

"Hey, whatever works. Use the tools at your disposal." Tony wiped the grin from his face, "Seriously kid, if you keep spiraling I'll pull in the even bigger guns and force all of you to the lake for the weekend. Davis can even portal you there."

"Dad..." Peter started to protest but saw the worry on his dad's face again. "We'll think about it. And, I'll tell them I'm going out. Happy?"

"No, but it'll do for now. Pete, I know I don't need to tell you to be careful, but be careful. And don't hesitate to call if you need help. And, realize that I'm going to be the overly obsessive dad until you're home for the summer."

"You mean worse than normal?" Peter asked in mock horror.

"I love you kid."

"Love you too dad." Peter disconnected the call and pushed up off the bed. Tell the team his way of coping with stress was sneaking out at night and free falling off the tall buildings in downtown Boston...this should go great. It doesn't sound crazy at all.

xxxxxxxxxx

Peter chuckled to himself as he swung across the bridge to make his way into downtown Boston. When he had told the other four, the responses had been 'cool', 'do you want company?', 'call if you run into anything', and 'yeah, I know...my bedroom is next to the roof entrance'. It was a lesson learned...he should have trusted them to begin with.

Peter made his way to the tallest building. It was fun to climb, it was almost 100% glass and steel which meant the walls were completely smooth. He scampered to the top and leaned off the antenna holding it with one hand. He looked out over the city. He was starting to get used to the view, even appreciate it. It still wasn't New York but it would do for now. There was a building he had discovered he could web to about 200' down. He knew his dad hated it when he did a free fall and he knew it was because there had been more than a couple times his dad had been forced into a free fall during battles where he hadn't been able to reengage the thrusters until the last minute. Peter wasn't reliant on technology to stop his descent. Just himself. After the web-shooters had failed a couple times they had put in a manual low tech default that Peter could use to get safely to the ground. He launched himself off and enjoyed the feeling of falling. He flung his arm out and fired a web to catch the side of the building and swung around to land on the roof of the building next to it.

He felt his stress levels start drop after about the fifth time. He switched to swinging between the lower buildings. It was pretty late and the streets were far more deserted than New York's ever were. Not completely empty but empty enough that he caught some movement out of the corner of his eye right as his Spidey sense went off. Clinging to the side of a building he focused in the movement in the shadows of an alley. The figure that came out of the shadows was green with pointy ears and it caused his heart rate to skyrocket.

"Peter, what's wrong." Karen asked in his ear.

"Scan the alley and tell me what's there." He didn't trust his eyes at the moment because what he was seeing shouldn't be there.

"One individual. Facial recognition is a 70% match to Norman Osborn's alter ego." Karen paused. "Peter, Norman Osborn is dead."

Peter was reminded in the moment that Karen was an AI and was having trouble interpreting what she was seeing with her sensors. Despite how human the AI's were they still saw everything as 0's and 1's. "But it's actually there right?" Peter was stressed enough that he wouldn't have been surprised if he was hallucinating at this point. He almost wished he were.

"Peter I can confirm that they're is a flesh and blood individual in the alley who is very similar to Norman Osborn's alter ego."

Crap. Peter thought to himself. If he had been in New York he would have engaged and had Karen call for backup. The problem was he wasn't in New York and Spider-Man wasn't supposed to be in Boston. He had gone to extreme measures to make sure the webs were cleaned up before anyone saw them and he had Karen help him avoid all cameras. Engaging now would definitely blow his identity. He opted to stay frozen to the side of the building and observe. He watched the creature dodge in and out of the shadows of the alley. "Karen, switch to night vision."

The figure came into focus on his HUD, the soft green glow illuminating him in the dark. It took Peter a few minutes of watching to figure out what it was doing. "It's testing itself. Seeing what it can do." He murmured to Karen.

"I believe you are correct Peter."

Peter watched until the figure retreated back inside one of he buildings. "Karen, plot the quickest course back to the house."