Chapter 23: Peer Review

Less words do equal less time! The math works out!

Okay, so the AO3 thing isn't working out yet. I waited a week for the invitation, but when I made my log-in info I never got the confirmation email, so . . . I'll redo it . . . eventually . . . There's a lot going on right now, and so long as FFN is still working fine for me, I'm not rushing it.

Also, I'm not making fun of Fury's one-eyed-ness in this chapter. I just couldn't write his part without using those phrases. Sorry Director Fur, sir!

Pink Lemonade: Yup, May angst. I noticed kind of late that it will be in the next few chapters. Luke gets parent angst too, because I'm a fair torturer ;D. Nah, I just feel like the show completely missed the mark in terms of personal drama. The team will deal with what they can, and their integrity will remain intact. For now.

AvidWriter14: Thank you! From what I've heard, I'm gonna need all the luck I can get!

Ava wasn't sure if she should be angry or worried as she peeked down another corridor. On one hand, Peter seemed to have disappeared the moment training ended, successfully avoiding the conversation the team wanted to have regarding what he'd said earlier. On the other, he probably wasn't running away from the team, but from what was bothering him.

At the very least, Ava felt like she should have the right to be annoyed. She'd had a feeling that there was something wrong between Peter and his aunt lately. But the moment she knew she was right, Peter left before she could figure out what was actually wrong.

Well, maybe she could still figure it out. She had her suspicions. And, judging from the pensive look on his face, so did Danny. She tapped him on the shoulder.

"Hey, I think Pete's long gone. Maybe we should talk about this amongst ourselves first."

Danny frowned. "This feels like something Peter should be involved in."

"I beg to differ. He doesn't seem ready yet. So we should discuss how to approach him. Remember the last few times he avoided us?"

There honestly weren't too many times Peter had avoided them. The first had been when the team first formed and he hadn't trusted them. Then it was because he felt guilty about Norman Osborn being turned into the Goblin. And then it was the Carnage incident when he'd hurt the team. And the Savage Lands thing with all his spidery stuff.

Hm, maybe Pete was prone to hiding from his fears. At least when they were more personal. He had no issues diving into dangerous situations headfirst.

Why could the best heroes deal with the end of the world, but not with the slightest bit of normal life drama?

"Are you sure this is the best way?" Danny asked. "I feel like we should wait for Peter to approach us again."

Ava threw her hands up. "That could take ages! Besides, what if this is like—" she cut herself off there, debating how to phrase this. "I know we all know and love Aunt May, and we know she loves Pete. But what if she's telling him things that . . . aren't helpful? What if she's making him feel bad without realizing it? You know how Pete accepts all sorts of criticism. Just look at how he still listens to Harry," she added bitterly.

That gave Danny pause. "All right, but we will not jump to any conclusions or to action without talking to Peter or his aunt first."

Partially satisfied, Ava called Luke and Sam to join them. They met up in Danny's room, which was always the tidiest and best-smelling of all their rooms.

Yes, Ava was known to be organized, but that didn't mean she had to be completely tidy.

Danny sat down on his bed cross-legged. Luke sat on a small wicker chair nearby. Sam threw himself onto a beanbag chair. Ava grabbed an exercise ball, balancing on it expertly, but only after she deactivated her Tiger amulet. She had learned her lesson the first time she accidentally popped one.

"I spoke to the people in one of the supply rooms," Sam spoke up once they were all settled. "They said Pete stopped in and grabbed some tools and stuff."

"He's burying himself under a project already?" Ava asked exasperatedly. "Typical."

Luke cleared his throat. "So I'm not the only one who feels worried about what Pete said about Aunt May?"

"No, although Peter is not the only one I am worried about," Danny said. "You have not told us much about any problems with your parents."

"It's not really a problem." Luke rubbed the back of his neck. "We're all fine. Well, as fine as we can be when they spent the last few years held against their will." He shrugged. "It's been an adjustment."

Ava frowned. She had never really considered the implications of the Cage's years of imprisonment. "Why didn't you say anything before?"

"Because it's personal." Luke blinked, then sighed. "And now I understand why Pete probably didn't want to talk before."

"Then shouldn't we be worried about you too?" Sam said. "Pete's not the only one who can have family drama."

"I'm fine though! The only thing is that it's hard to explain some things to my parents. They're researchers after all. They've been looking through the news and Shield files to catch up on everything I've been up to. But then they'll ask me to elaborate about some stuff and . . ."

"What?"

"It's hard reliving some of the stuff we've done," Luke replied quietly. "And then my parents worry about me. But we haven't been together in ages so . . . it can get kind of awkward. They try to, like, give me advice. I know a lot of it already from other Shield agents though. Except, whenever I say that, my parents look sad that they can't help. But if I stay quiet and listen anyway . . ." He leaned forward, clasping his hands together and resting his chin on them. "I'm happy to hear their stories. They're probably two of the most exciting parents in the world. But I guess my life is just crazier and . . . I've gotten bored a few times and kind of brushed them off. I feel bad though. It almost feels like it's my fault that we've grown apart."

There was a brief moment of stunned silence as the others absorbed that. It had been quite a while since Luke had spoken about something so personal. The last time had probably been when he first told the team the details of when he lost his parents. Although . . . Ava had a feeling that, if the focus hadn't been on Pete this past week, then Luke might have admitted to having nightmares about Kraven's attack. Ava didn't have proof, but she suspected it.

Luke usually had nightmares around the same nights that Ava did. They agreed that they had similar thresholds for nightmares.

"It is no one's fault, Luke," Danny said. "You have all been through very different experiences the past few years. At least they are trying to help you. That is a very good sign."

"I know, but . . ." Luke grimaced. "I really don't want to sound ungrateful here. It's just that their help doesn't always help. In fact, there've been, like, a couple times where their help kind of . . . I don't want to say it makes me feel worse, but . . ." He hung his head.

"Tell us," Ava said before hurriedly adding, "If you don't mind sharing."

"Well, they like to tell anecdotes and stuff to tell me how they did things when they were younger. They've done so much, they probably have an anecdote for everything. And I love to hear it all. Except for when I don't really need to." Luke began cracking his knuckles nervously. "Whenever I try to talk to them about anything, even when I don't have any questions at all, they'll just start saying one of their long stories. I try to stop them, to get the conversation back on track. Honestly, sometimes I'm just trying to make one quick point and they turn it into a lecture! It—I know this probably isn't what they actually feel, but to me it seems like they don't trust me. Like they feel that, despite everything I've done, I'm just not capable of doing it right. Like they feel the need to help me do better when I thought I was already doing great."

Ava mulled that over. She had never felt like that with her own parents, even though her dad had been kind of strict with her White Tiger training. But she understood that he had been pushing her to do her best. And now she was getting the closest to her best than ever. Her dad would be proud. Hopefully. He had known almost everything about the amulet. If he were here today, he probably would find a few things to nitpick.

Would he criticize her outright, if he were right here, right now? If Ava could have more time with him, further lessons wouldn't exactly be on the top be of her to-do list . . .

Okay, maybe Luke had a point. Family reunions ought to focus on positive things. Not all the ways everyone was imperfect.

"That sort of sucks," Sam said bluntly. "You think Pete's having the same issue?"

"I don't know. He's got other things going on." Luke looked at them. "Which I'm still surprised about. Mrs. P's always been so supportive."

"She can only be supportive of what she is aware of," Danny said. "And Peter admitted there have been . . . communication issues, perhaps?"

"Probably," Ava agreed. "You saw how hesitant he's been with us."

"Did he act the same when it was only you he was telling?" Sam asked.

"Pretty much. Maybe he was a little more forthcoming, but I might have pushed him along." The guys all smirked in a knowing way. Ava narrowed her eyes, but mostly took it as a compliment. "Anyway, there was something I noticed that first night." Ava paused there, thinking through her hypothesis. It felt weird to accuse May of anything worse than baking too many cookies. "Well, Pete was hanging in the doorway—I mean literally hanging sideways from it—and Aunt May saw him, and . . . there was something I didn't like about the way she looked at him. She looked surprised and sad. And that's all he was doing, just hanging there with his sticky fingers. Pete does that all the time! So why'd she look so surprised?"

Sam's eyebrows creased. "That is sort of strange. May's usually cool about a lot of stuff."

"Exactly!"

"Are you sure you're not reading too much into one moment though?" Luke asked.

"It's a woman's intuition, Luke. Trust me."

"I noticed something as well," Danny spoke up. "Yesterday, Aunt May was asking Peter some questions about his silk. They were kind and caring questions, and yet Peter's Chi was troubled when he answered."

"What do you mean 'troubled'?" Ava asked.

"I am not sure. That is not how Chi reading works. All I can tell is that Peter was unsettled by the questions."

"What sort of questions was May asking?" Luke wondered.

"If his spinnerets had given him any trouble while he was out. Peter answered honestly. Of course, he did have trouble with his spinnerets, so perhaps he was agitated at that? I would say he was frustrated by something."

"Maybe Mrs. P likes to talk about his spider stuff when he doesn't?" Sam suggested.

"Maybe," Ava conceded. Then a thought occurred to hurt. "There's something else I remember. Pete feels bad that his aunt is usually the last to know about his most recent spider stuff. And us too, but since we're usually at Shield anyway we tend to hear about it before her."

"Then, using Sam's idea, maybe May is upset about that, and she's been pestering him ever since?" Luke offered.

Danny shook his head. "Mrs. Parker has never been vindictive like that."

Ava raised an eyebrow. "Have you seen her with Fury yet? She can be vindictive, all right."

"I suppose that is true. But let us not become too attached to these ideas. At this point, we are all aware that a rift may exist between Peter and his aunt. We should now hear their views before we make too many assumptions."

The others nodded silently. Ava did so a little begrudgingly. She would have preferred to continue speculating, but she supposed it was a little rude to go too far. Real friends didn't spend hours trying to deduce things about each other. Right? It seemed like a very error-prone method.

Hey, maybe she was getting better at this social friend stuff.

Luke cleared his throat in the silence. "So," he said. "Are we going to interrogate Pete tomorrow after training?"

"Sounds good to me," Ava said.

"Interrogate sounds a bit harsh, but I suppose," Danny said.

"I'm in," Sam said.

"Good. And are you going to force me to have an in-depth conversation with my parents one of these days?"

"Yes."

"It is to benefit you."

"You're not getting off easy."

Luke nodded and heaved a great sigh. "I guess it's only fair."

After rushing through dinner and telling his aunt he was so tired he would be spending the rest of the night in his room, Peter set the box of supplies down on his desk. It was almost heavy with all of the wood, metal, and wires he had taken. Or rather, it probably was heavy to a normal person, but not for him.

Speter? Phoebe's voice was quiet and slightly undefined, the way it sounded when she was just waking up. Peter took out her Jungle Box to find her curled up beneath some dried leaves. Maybe he ought to buy her a few living plants to freshen things up.

"I'm here. You can stay sleeping if you want, but I'm going to start working on your bed."

Phoebe darted out of the leaves in a flash, pressing her face against the glass so she faced Peter directly. Phoebe bed? Speter make it?

"I'm about to." Peter opened the hatch. "I would really appreciate some input so I can make it personalized for you."

Yay! Phoebe climbed out, pausing at the top to stare at the box he had brought. That bed stuff?

"Not yet, but it will be. I'm debating if it should have a wooden frame like mine, or a metal one. I can design them both whichever way you like. It just changes the process I use." He held up a stick of wood and a sheet of metal. "You won't be sleeping directly on either of these, but they change the look. Which do you like best?"

Phoebe not sure. What differences?

"Aside from aesthetics, not much. I guess metal is colder than wood though. How about I show you some examples? That helped you decide on a name last time." Peter brought out his phone. "Oh, and I had another idea! Give me a second to find it." He pulled some things out of the box, finding the bag of rubber tips he was looking for. "Can you hold one of these?"

Phoebe accepted the little rubber half circle. It fit right on the tip of her leg. What this?

"That should let you use the touchscreen on my phone. Here, swipe left and right to go through these pictures." He propped the phone up on some textbooks. Phoebe went over to it and tried swiping. The picture changed accordingly. "Yes! Now you'll be able to use touchscreens! Phones and tablets are so powerful nowadays. This opens up a whole new world for you. Trust me."

Okay. Phoebe sounded a little dubious. Ooh, Phoebe like this bed.

Peter leaned down to look over her . . . shoulder? It was close enough to a shoulder. In any case, the picture was of a four-poster bed with curtains. "You like the fancy things in life, don't you? I can work with that though. Press here and here to save the picture. Keep looking for more inspiration and save those pics too. I'm going to grab some tools."

In the few minutes it took Peter to arrange the tools he, Phoebe had saved another ten images. When she got to twenty, Peter stopped her so they could review her favorites. Her top three included a frame with metal curved into a design, the four-poster bed, and one that had natural looking wood as if it had been carved straight out of a tree.

Three very different designs to be honest. Peter wasn't entirely sure how to combine them. He grabbed a pencil and paper and began sketching. Phoebe watched.

Not like that, she said, pointing at one end. She sent him an image of her preference.

"Ah, that makes this so much easier! You know exactly what you want!" Peter snorted. "I should have thought of the telekinesis thing from the beginning. I'm still not entirely used to it yet."

Phoebe forgot too. She tapped at another portion. Bigger here.

From that point, it only took a few more minutes to design Phoebe's dream bed. Peter added some notes on the engineering details and got to work on it.

It felt good to have his hands busy. It distracted him from how tired he was from training. And how unexpectedly difficult that conversation had been with the team. And how he'd rather be using his hands to make a new web. Except he was so tired and sore that even his spinnerets hurt. And it felt like he was running on empty in terms of webbing.

It was so weird and made his arms ache twice over.

Speter okay?

Peter looked up at her, realizing that he wasn't just thinking about the soreness; he was massaging his arms too. "Oh, um, I'm a little tired. It's been a busy day."

Speter can't make web?

He bit his lip. "I don't think so. I think this is what my limit feels like. Two days full of web-making is too many."

A wave of empathy came from Phoebe as she jumped onto his right arm. She took over massaging it, although she couldn't apply as much pressure.

"Thanks, but you don't have to do that. I'll be fine." He paused. "Do you think I'll recover enough by tomorrow?"

Don't know.

He sighed. "Great, so I really have to either be more frugal with my silk, or recycle it more. Except I can't eat silk I use on patrol. Imagine when I wrap up Doc Ock. Gross." He glanced around the room, trying to ignore the ghost of regret. "I wonder if I would've felt better if I'd eaten everything from yesterday."

Maybe? Phoebe try to eat everything.

"Yeah, that's probably a good thing." Peter set her back onto the desk so he could continue working on her bed. He was almost done making the bottom frame, which was the most generic and simplest part.

Speter make web when feel better?

Peter had to stop himself from accidentally bending the screw driver he was holding. "Um, I don't know. Are you really that upset about May taking it down?"

No, but Speter upset.

"I—yeah, maybe—but—wait—" He looked at her again. "You're not upset about it?"

Phoebe shook her head.

"But this morning, didn't you say you were sad about it?"

Phoebe . . . disa—disap—

"Disappointed."

Yup, disappointed no more web for sleep tonight. But Phoebe know Speter make new web.

"Oh. That's good, I guess. But then why am I still so—" He swallowed. "I'm sad about it. Why?"

Phoebe shrugged helplessly.

Peter ran his hands through his hair. This was officially weird now. If this was a spider thing, then why didn't Phoebe understand? Wouldn't only other spiders feel the same way? But the only ones who'd understood him today had been the team.

Huh, the only ones who'd understood with him had been the team.

Other humans agreed with him.

Did that make this a human thing? Since it all revolved around a web, Peter had kind of assumed it had to be something entirely spidery. But he wasn't entirely spidery. Maybe Sam was right and he really was simply upset that he had lost something he'd worked hard on. Phoebe didn't seem to see it the same way because it wasn't her hard work, and she understood he could do it again. Peter knew that too, but . . . it was one of those things where the first one kind of felt special.

So what did that mean? That his desire to make webs was spidery, but his desire to keep them up for as long as possible was human? Did that make it okay to have a web in his room? Probably not, since most teenagers didn't have webs in their rooms. But it made Peter feel a little better about it.

He kept feeling better about everything. Was that even good? Or did it just mean that he was letting his guard down too much?

No, not too much. The team hadn't called him out for being too spidery yet, so he was in the clear. Better was simply . . . better.

So . . . Phoebe said hesitantly and hopefully. Speter make web tonight?

He smiled. "My spinnerets are really tired, and I'm not even sure if I'm ready for something like that, so not tonight. We'll see though. We'll see. Come over here so I can check if you fit on the framework."

Phoebe jumped onto the empty rectangle. She fit neatly inside. Peter tested it inside her Jungle Box, and it fit in there too.

"Looks like we're in good shape! Now I'll start on your designs."

Yay! Phoebe did a little dance which looked like a complicated wave of her legs. It reminded Peter of a sine wave, which was such a nerdy thought that it made him laugh.

Out in the hallway, footsteps passed by. "Lights out, Peter," May said through the door.

"I'm kind of busy," Peter called back.

"You said you were tired after training. And you have more to look forward to tomorrow. Get some sleep, all right?"

Peter bit his lip again. "I'm tired, not necessarily sleepy."

"You still need your sleep," May replied firmly. "Good night."

"Night, May." Peter obligingly turned off the lights, but, once May walked away, he returned to the desk rather than his bed. He really wasn't sleepy. It was way too early to go to bed.

Wow, that was such a blatant lie. It was already past 11 PM, and he needed to be up by 6 AM. If he stayed up to finish the bed, he would only get about four hours of sleep.

But for him, it really wasn't that late. He'd told May about his nocturnal tendencies. Not that she seemed to remember . . .

Well, he had promised Phoebe he'd make her a bed, and that was what he was going to do. Plus he had technically turned off the lights like May asked. He was satisfying everyone. Including himself for once. (Was this little rebellion in retaliation for May's actions this morning? Peter tried not to think about that.)

Phoebe like dark. Dark is calm.

Peter surveyed the room. With his curtains drawn, there wasn't much light for even him to see by. The deep shadows made the room look smaller, more enclosed, enveloping. Like a safety blanket of shadows. "Yeah, it kind of is. But I need just a little more light in order to work on your bed."

Opening his curtains for sufficient moonlight to light up the room, he got to work on the headboard while Phoebe supervised him.

Director Fury closed his eye for a moment, allowing the darkness to soothe his raging headache.

Working with teenagers was definitely bad for his health. He could see why Coulson had chosen such a risky mission as a 'vacation' away from his principal duties.

When Fury opened his eye again, he finally opened the report he'd been putting off all day.

It wasn't exactly that he'd been avoiding it. He wasn't that sort of person. The issue here was that it was more sensitive material. Something he didn't want many other agents seeing.

First, the analysis from the training session. Aside from a learning curve for Spider-Man's new natural web shooters, it was one of the team's best records for least collateral damage. Of course, Fury contributed that to the fact that the LMDs had been programmed to focus all attacks on the team.

Now for a comparison analysis of some pieces of footage. Technically, he could leave that work to the computer. It did well enough. But if there was anything you could accuse Fury of being old fashioned about, it was his preference for analyzing people with his own eye.

He watched the training recording at double speed, slowing it down once or twice. It was almost identical to all the other training recordings. The kids were still a bit rough around the edges despite their months of training, but no one ever said superheroing was easy.

The next video he also watched at double speed. He had seen the team handle Electro before. Spider-Man's alternate use of a web was new though. Fury wished the kid had thought of it ages ago.

The last video he watched at regular speed, because, unlike the first two, he hadn't seen anything like it before. At least, not with Spider-Man.

The cameras Kraven had set up had been motion activated, so the footage started the moment Spider-Man fell from the hole in the ceiling. Before he even had a chance to stand up, something came up from the floor and clamped around his arms. Fury had to briefly lower the volume so the scream wouldn't worsen his headache. He could tell when Kraven walked into the room before he entered the camera's view, because Spider-Man's fear was evident even through his mask. A few moments later, his stance changed and he began pulling at the cuffs. Kraven started rushing towards him then, but Spider-Man broke free.

After that, it almost looked like a game of tag. Spider-Man would kick Kraven away, and Kraven would run after him with the needle in his hand held high. Fury raised the volume a bit so he could hear the hissing and Kraven's excited comments. Fury hadn't seen him that happy since he'd succeeded in killing the previous White Tiger.

The bite was a little more dramatic. Spider-Man was cornered, struggling to keep the needle from closing the two-inch gap and piercing his neck. From what Fury could see, it was the defining moment of the battle, the moment where the victor was decided. Kraven attempted to take control by adjusting his position into a chokehold. But a second later he was screaming out. He backed away, dropping the needle.

Kraven's arm wasn't bleeding much. The wound hardly looked serious at all. And when he pulled out some daggers to continue the chase, one might have thought that the bite had only given Spider-Man a brief advantage. It wasn't until a few minutes later that Kraven began to wobble on his feet, slurring some words. Fury couldn't see how the effects progressed further because White Tiger came in and knocked Kraven unconscious. He let the video play a little longer to see Spider-Man hyperventilate and Kraven begin seizing.

Fury stopped the video with a sigh, leaning back in his chair. The difference in Spider-Man between the first two videos and the third was astounding. The transition from a helpful team player to desperate lone wolf was not a subtle one. It was almost difficult to believe that Spider-Man was back to his helpful team player ways now. Except Fury knew him, had spoken to him.

But 'knowing' a person only went so far. Fury's job was to look at the facts, not his own opinions.

Shield was responsible for all of its agents. When someone went rogue, it was on Shield to keep things from going south. When a super-powered agent went rogue, things could get even worse. When a super-intelligent went rogue, worse again.

If Spider-Man couldn't be trusted, Shield would have a field day trying to rein him in.

Spider-Man wasn't rogue though. Not yet. One frantic incident with venom wasn't enough to counteract months' worth of evidence proving what a loyal and hard-working agent he was.

However, it did mean the possibility was real now. Something that Fury had to keep his eye on, no matter how unlikely he personally thought it was.

For the kid's sake, he hoped his gut feeling was right again. Heck, Fury hoped for his own sake. May Parker had promised to give Shield hell if anything happened to her nephew. And although many agents had dealt with literal demons, Fury never wished such encounters on anyone.

Fun Facts:

- How many of you forgot there were cameras in the room when Kraven set his trap? If you doubt that it was mentioned, check out chapter 15 again. I added that one sentence for a reason. Or reasons . . .

- I haven't had the chance to talk to a real spider, but I've witnessed how they can rebuild webs overnight after I take them down. So I imagine that spiders see rebuilding as annoying, but just another part of life. Peter is figuring out that he doesn't quite agree with that view.

- And spiders like to be in the dark because they depend more on their senses of touch and smell more than anything else.