Chapter 3. Be Proud
The wasted years, the wasted youth
The pretty lies, the ugly truth
Peter
When Peter finally came to, he was cold and more than a little annoyed. His annoyance only increased when he saw that it was 3:30 am. Peter still had a math assignment to do and those took forever! There was no way he was going to get any sleep tonight.
Cursing the name Black Cat, Peter hurried home and got started on his homework.
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Peter woke up the next morning with a piece of paper stuck to his cheek. Without giving himself a moment to wake up, Peter jumped up and started to get ready. He shoved on whatever clothes smelled clean and rushed out the door.
As he made his way to school, Peter couldn't help but replay the events of last night in his head. In the short period of time he had been Spider-man, he had never had a conversation with a thief. Sure Vulture had had more than a few words with Peter, but that was villain stuff. Long monologues were kind of a staple, it was certainly not something a common criminal would do. Black Cat had taunted him, she had flirted with him which is definitely something Peter had never had to deal with before. No thief had ever tried to justify what they were doing or tried to persuade him into doing it too. No, regular thieves had just tried to run or fight him. Granted, she did run and she did knock Peter out with some gas, but the whole thing had left Peter curious the more he thought about it.
Why did she stick around long enough to actually have a conversation with him? Why did she try to reason with him?
As soon as Peter walked into the school he was immediately spotted by Ned.
"Peter!"
Ned was already waiting by Peter's locker, so Peter walked over.
"Hey man," he greeted.
Ned looked around, before lowering his voice. "Did you find out what was messing with your senses?"
Honestly, Peter had completely forgotten about that since meeting Black Cat. "No, but something interesting did happen."
Ned raised his eyebrows, "Well don't leave me in suspense! What happened?"
Peter shoved his backpack into his locker and grabbed his AP Chem textbook for first period. "I see this figure crouched on the top of some building right? It's kind of weird but I mean it's Queens so it's not that weird. Anyway, something in my gut tells me to stick around so I do and then this wealthy guy comes around the corner and the figure that's on the roof shifts-"
"As much as I love the lead up to whatever you're about to tell me, but can you just cut to the chase?"
"For what? What are you guys talking about?"
Peter and Ned turned to see MJ, who was looking at the two with a curious look on her face. Ned elbowed Peter.
Holding his side, Peter said, "Last night I found a black cat. It's a stray. I was going to ask Ned if he knew anyone who would take her in." Smooth.
MJ narrowed her eyes, "That conversation seemed a little serious."
Ned cleared his throat, "I really like cats."
The boys fell silent after that, leaving them to the mercy of MJ's calculating stare. Someone caught Peter's eye.
"As much as I want to continue this conversation, I want to introduce you guys to someone," Peter said. "Follow me."
He slowly made his way to Felicia, who was standing nervously by her locker. When she spotted Peter she seemed to relax, but Peter could still see her twisting the ring on her finger.
"Hey Peter," she mumbled, giving him a weak smile. "Who are your friends?"
Peter grinned. "Felicia this is Ned," the other boy gave Felicia a wide smile. "And this is MJ," MJ's mouth twisted into what Peter could only assume was a smile.
Ned stuck his hand out for Felicia to shake it and his hand remained in the air long enough to make it awkward before Felicia took it.
"I'm Felicia," she said. Her voice was a little louder this time.
"Obviously," MJ said. When Felicia paled a little, MJ tried for that weird smile thing before saying, "I'm joking."
Felicia only mumbled in response.
Clearing his throat, Peter changed the subject, "What's your first period? One of us can take you."
Felicia held up her AP Chem textbook in response, "Chemistry."
Ned grinned, "What a coincidence! That's what Peter and I have for first period too! Too bad MJ has debate or we could really have some fun."
"Well I'll leave you guys to your fun, I have a Flash Thompson to make cry." With that MJ left the trio to their own devices.
"We should get going too, Mr. Brock is notorious for giving Pop Quizzes whether you're new or not. Ned and I can let you see our notes," Peter said.
They made their way thankfully before Mr. Brock so Felicia had enough time to copy this Units notes. Peter was just about to suggest the two come over later for a catch-up session for Felicia but his phone vibrated, cutting him off. Unlocking his phone, Peter checked the message.
Happy: I'll be picking you up after school. Mr. Stark has something to show you.
Exhaling loudly, Peter responded with a quick "Okay" before shutting off his phone.
Peter turned to check on Felicia's progress. "You misspelled 'Iodine'," he said. Felicia paused in her scribbling to check. "Made you look," he said, grinning.
Felicia rolled her eyes, but Peter noticed the corners of her lips tilting upwards. "Real mature. Now shush. I'm trying not to fail this class."
"You won't fail this class if you do poorly on one Pop Quiz. That's even if we have one," Peter reasoned.
Still looking at her notes, Felicia said, "That's quitters talk."
Smiling Peter left Felicia to finish her notes. He watched her blow her bangs out of her face when they obscured her vision and the way she seemed to be talking to herself as she flipped from Ned's notes to Peter's. Just finished she finished Mr. Brock stepped in.
The older man looked at his class for a moment before letting his gaze fall on Felicia. He smiled, "Welcome Miss Hardy, I hope they taught you well at your last school because today we'll be having a Pop Quiz."
Everyone in the room groaned, despite expecting nothing less from the teacher.
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The rest of the day went by without incident. Flash stayed away from Peter (Flash was probably recovering for yesterdays lunch time embarrassment), and to Peter's surprise, he and Felicia had every class together. This was something that seemed to have pleasantly surprised Felicia when the two compared class schedules after having three classes together. In a way, so was Peter. He liked being around the girl, and she was quick to make him laugh.
"C' mon Peter, I don't have all day!"
Peter looked up to see Happy waiting in the carpool lane. The older gentleman had his usual scowl and looked very close to just leaving Peter to find his own way to the compound.
Peter lightly jogged over to the vehicle. The second Peter's body was in the car, Happy shot out of the parking lot. He only cursed once when a group of teens walked out in front of him. When they didn't pick up the pace, Happy honked at them.
"So what does Mr. Stark need to show me?"
"Something about adding upgrades to your suit," Happy said.
Peter frowned, "I told Mr. Stark I could handle my own upgrades when I thought I needed them."
Happy drummed his fingers on the steering wheel as a green light turned red. He met Peter's eyes in the rearview mirror. "He saw a video of your fight the other night with Kingpins goons. He definitely, saw when two of them had you down and started hitting you."
"They only hit me a couple of times before I could get back up. I'm fine," Peter countered. "The bruises don't even hurt now." That much anyway. He wasn't going to say that when he woke up that morning he could barely move. Or that early when Ned elbowed him Peter nearly cried out from the pain. He had still been pretty sore when he met Black Cat, so he had almost been thankful when their interaction hadn't turned violent.
The light turned green again, and Happy hit the gas. "You still got hurt. Tony wants to add something he's been working on for his own suit to help with injuries. You should be lucky he didn't tell your Aunt just how bad your injuries were."
Again, Peter was thankful that Aunt May hadn't seen any clips from the fight. She knew Peter had been sore, but he told her he pulled something. He also made sure to keep doors locked when changed so she didn't accidentally see any injuries. After what had happened with Uncle Ben, Peter didn't want to do anything that would make Aunt May worry too much.
"Is that all Mr. Stark wants to talk with me about?" A small part of Peter had hoped that Mr. Stark wanted to talk with Peter about what a good job he had done with taking down so many of Kingpins men over the past few months. Organized crime in New York was going down because of him and Peter was proud of that.
But he wanted Mr. Stark to be proud too.
"Not that I'm aware of," was all Happy said.
Since that seemed to be all the conversation Happy was going to offer for the rest of the ride, Peter closed his eyes to catch up on some sleep.
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"Wake up, we're here," a voice said. Happy.
Slowly, Peter opened his eyes and was met with the sight that was the Avenger's Compound. He unbuckled his seatbelt and hopped out of the car, stumbling a bit when he realized his right foot had fallen asleep.
After he recovered, Peter hurried after Happy into the compound. He stopped at the locked door.
"Please state your name and security code," a voice sounded from the door. Peter sighed, he hated his security code.
"Peter Parker and Spiderling," he mumbled that last part. Mr. Stark had put Peter in the system and Peter could only assume that making Spiderling his security code had to have been some sort of punishment.
"Access granted. Welcome, Peter Parker."
Peter pushed open the door and was immediately greeted by Pepper Potts, Mr. Starks fiance. She smiled at him. "Tony is in the Development Room waiting for you. Do you remember how to get there or do you want me to escort you?"
Peter knew better than to accept that offer. Miss Potts was usually really busy and her offering to take Peter was more of a formality. She was nice, don't get Peter wrong, it's just Peter didn't want to interrupt her workflow.
Peter shook his head, "No thank you, Miss Potts. I remember how to get there." Besides, if he did get lost he could just ask F.R.I.D.A.Y, the A.I. was connected with the Avenger Compounds security system, making her a valuable asset when Peter got lost.
Miss Potts looked a little relieved, "Good. I'll be on my way then, it was nice seeing you, Peter."
Peter said goodbye and started on his way to the Development Room. With that Miss Potts put her phone to her ear and started on something about "screening new interns".
Despite Peters slight annoyance with Mr. Stark, he hurried to the Development Room. Every time he visited it was different. People were always inventing and reinventing tech that fascinated Peter. After Peter was done with whatever Mr. Stark had sent Peter to do, he would wander around the lab to see what everyone was working on. Sometimes Peter would get to help, or sometimes Peter would get to work on some personal projects.
When he finally made it to the entrance, Peter paused and took a deep breath before pushing the door open. Almost immediately he was spotted by Mr. Stark.
"Great you're here! Follow me." Mr. Stark spun on his heal and made his way towards the other end of the lab. Peter hurried after.
"Good job by the way taking down some of Kingpin's men. Too bad more of them weren't arrested, but small victories and all that."
Peter rolled his eyes, he could never just say good job and leave it at that. "Look, Mr. Stark, Happy told me what this was all about and I really don't think-"
"I've been working on some tech for a new suit-still working on some of the kinks, the suit doesn't really form right-anyway it gave me this idea." The two stopped at a large screen with blueprints for an Iron Man suit. Peter noticed that Mr. Stark was doing something with nanotech.
"F.R.I.D.A.Y. replay test ML SS7."
"Replaying Mark L Suture Spray test 7," F.R.I.D.A.Y.'s voice responded. A video appeared onscreen and began to play. Peter watched as Mr. Stark appeared onscreen.
"Is it recording? Yes? Great. Okay so here is a little something I've been working on as a side project for my current project. It's finally at a stage that's safe for human contact. Well, it appears safe for human contact. If this works it will revolutionize the medical world and be an incredible asset while on the field."
Peter noticed Mr. Stark's gaze turn a little distracted for a moment, but he quickly recovered. He held up a bandaged finger. "I cut myself this morning while trying to make breakfast. I've had to change bandaids three times since so while I should probably go to the hospital to get stitches I thought this was a good time to test the spray out."
Mr. Stark revealed a see-through spray bottle that held a clear liquid inside. Then, he took the bandaid off to reveal the open and bloody wound. "Alright here goes nothing," he muttered. He sprayed the wound. At first, it didn't do anything. Mr. Stark looked from the camera to the wound and sighed. Then, the wound started to bubble and in a matter of seconds the bubbles disappeared and the wound was gone. The screen turned black.
Mr. Stark turned to Peter. "It's like 87% complete, I would like for the reaction to be a little faster, but it leaves no scar and is totally painless. I could add it to both of your suits no problem."
Peter knew he wasn't really asking. Mr. Stark more than likely had already added it to the Iron Spider suit. Which since Peter didn't plan on using it anytime soon he was fine with. However, Mr. Stark wanted to add it to Peter's everyday suit.
Peter took a step back. "Thanks, Mr. Stark, but I don't really need that. The suit is fine the way it is."
"Look kid I saw the fight with Kingpins men. They had you down for a moment. I guarantee you're still feeling those bruises whether you want to admit it or not. You've been lucky that the worst has only been bruises. What if one day you get stabbed or shot?"
"That won't happen. My spidey sense would pick it up," Peter argued.
Mr. Stark crossed his arms, "It's too risky. They didn't seem to pick anything up when those goons had you on the ground."
Peter opened his mouth to argue, but Mr. Stark's phone started to ring. Mr. Stark looked at the phone, sighed, and then looked at Peter. "I have to take this, but this conversation is not over."
"Yes, it is," Peter mumbled.
Mr. Stark acted as though he hadn't heard Peter before walking off to talk on his phone. Peter turned back to the screen and moved all of Mr. Stark's things off of it. Peter needed to run some tests of his own.
"Hey F.R.I.D.A.Y. can you do a search for anything related to a thief called Black Cat?"
"Sure Peter, give me a moment please."
Peter watched as various types of information appeared on the screen including several imagines and news articles.
"Peter there are over 200,00,000 results for Black Cat. Maybe if you give me more details I could lower the results."
Peter thought for a moment. "She doesn't seem to be that old so maybe only give me searches for a female from the last three years."
Information started to disappear from the screen. "Great. That lessened the results, would you like me to send you the relevant articles?"
What was another sleepless night? "Sure just go ahead and email them to me."
"Do you need anything else, Peter?"
"Actually yes. Yesterday something minor triggered my spidey sense. I was wondering if I might have breathed in something. I want to see if there are any traces of it left in my bloodstream and lungs. Do you think anything would still be in there?"
"Perhaps, though since it happened yesterday the tests might come back inconclusive. However, we could try a blood test now and I could email you the results as soon as they come in. Since it happened yesterday it will be harder to find what you're looking for so the results won't be instantaneous," F.R.I.D.A.Y. offered.
"Alright, we'll do the test now and hopefully something will come in. If it happens again, I'll come in immediately so we can get better results," Peter responded.
"The taking the test itself won't take long. Just prick your finger on the device to your left and the device will gather the needed sample. It's painless," in response a device appeared out of the wall to Peter's left.
Of course, the A.I. would think something like pricking your finger was painless. Peter lifted his left index finger to the device and without giving it too much thought he pressed down on the needle. He winced as it broke the skin, producing a small drop of blood. The device deposited a small bandaid before retracting back into the wall.
Putting on the bandaid Peter said, "Please tell me that sample went through?"
"Yes, Peter the sample went through. Is that all?" Peter could have sworn that the A.I.'s voice was tinged with amusement.
"No that's it, thank you F.R.I.D.A.Y. I'll be going home now."
"Should I tell Happy to take you home?"
"No, it's fine, I still have a patrol to do." Even if this afternoon had almost exhausted all of Peter's energy. He had a duty.
"Very well. Be careful Spider-Man."
Ten points to your Hogwarts house if you can spot the little easter eggs I put in this chapter. Hint: there are two and they are both a Marvel related. Anyway I hope you enjoyed this chapter of Amaryllis. I'll see you next chapter!