By the time Peter arrived at the scene, the industrial site the explosion had come from was almost completely ablaze. He landed on a nearby rooftop, firing up the system in his mask to tap into the coms of the first responders. Almost immediately, he overheard discussion of workers unaccounted for, which meant that people needed his help. All it took was a quick glance at the building to know that there was no "good" entry point, so he fired a web, deciding on a top floor window. Jumping off his perch point, Peter swung into, smashing through the window with ease.
Almost as soon as he entered the building, he could feel the smoke trying to enter his lungs. Landing on a wall within the room he entered, Peter looked out, giving his spider sense a chance to kick in. The smoke was so thick that even his enhanced eyesight couldn't make out much, so he was going to have to trust his sixth sense to guide him to where others were. After a moment, he got a hit, and made his way over to a room across the hall. There he found someone pinned underneath a chunk of the roof that had already collapsed. The person was barely conscious.
"Hold on," Peter said, running over to the man and tossing the debris keeping him pinned away like it was a paperweight. "I'm going to get you out of here." He scooped up the man, who started coughing up a storm as he did so. Smashing a nearby window, Peter jumped out with the man, firing a web at the top of the building to slow his descent. Landing on his feet, he passed off the man to the EMTs on site.
"Thanks Spidey," they said. "We've heard there's likely five to ten more people that still aren't accounted for."
"I'll find them," Peter assured the responder. Without hesitation, he turned and fired a web, launching himself back up to the floor just below the top one. Once again, he looked around while the area, trusting his spider sense to alert of both people in danger or hazardous areas, such as a structurally damaged floor or wall. Eventually, he found another worker, getting them out in a similar manner to the first one.
Peter continued this routine, systematically working his way down the floors of the building. He had dealt with fires many times over the years, but this had to be the most intense one by far. After a while, he started to struggle as smoke seemed to fight its way into his lungs like a thief breaking into a store. Even as he continued rescuing people, Peter was fighting off a cough. Still, despite this, his concern remained more for the people who needed his help.
If anything, he was only thinking of how he was going to WREAK of smoke when he met up with M.J. later.
Eventually, Peter made it to where there were only a couple of people left. By now, the fire was so thick that he was relying almost entirely on his spider-sense to guide him. Despite the cooling system he had put into his suit, he could feel his body was almost completely covered in sweat, and he was pretty sure he was going to have some light burns he would have to take care of. He would worry about that later though; right now, his focus needed to be on getting the last remaining building workers out of danger.
Peter finally found them after some extensive searching. The two were trapped, pinned underneath a significant chunk of debris that had fallen on them.
"Spider-Man!" they called out.
"Hold on!" Peter shouted, "I'm going to get out of here." He slid into a small crevice in between them, fighting off a cough as the smoke threatened to overwhelm his lungs. He couldn't falter now though; he had to get these people to safety. He squatted down to fit properly underneath the debris, putting his hands up against it. He had no idea how much was on top of this, but it was likely quite a bit.
Gathering himself, Peter started to push, lifting with all the strength he could muster. The debris slowly started to lift with him, and for a moment, he let himself believe that it was almost over. He then heard a crack, glancing up to watch as more debris fell on top of what he was already lifting. The weight crashed against his arms and shoulders, and his knees threatened to buckle under the pressure.
"C'mon," Peter said under his breath. He fought against the strain in his muscles and the smoke in his lungs, regathering himself to push once again. The progress was slower this time, but the debris soon started rising again. He was almost in the clear, and he was about to tell those under him to try and get out from under the stuff if they were able, when his spider sense rang out.
"Now what?" Peter thought to himself.
He looked ahead and saw exactly what: a wall nearby was slowly tilting their way, getting ready to collapse straight onto them. Straining harder, Peter fought to raise the debris, but he was going to have to get these people out himself now. He didn't have time to think about it though as the wall finally broke its connection to the rest of the building, tumbling towards them.
Peter braced himself, hoping that the debris he was already holding would be enough to at least act as a temporary brace, but that felt unlikely.
Was this how he was going to go?
He turned his head, bracing for the worst. A moment passed though, but he felt nothing hit him or collide with the debris he was holding. In fact, he thought he heard something that sounded like a machine running. He opened his eyes and looked up and saw someone in what appeared to be... an Iron Man suit?
"Hey Spidey!" called a voice from within the suit. "Sorry we're late, but we've come to help!"
"We?" Peter questioned.
Suddenly, the weight was quite literally lifted off his shoulders, and Peter glanced up to see what looked like the Hulk holding that debris like it was nothing. He couldn't believe what he was seeing; had he died, or gone to wherever all the Vanished had?
"Get them out of here!" the Hulk-like figure said, snapping Peter back to the moment as he realized he still needed to get the two workers to safety. Snapping himself out of the trance his unexpected allies had put him in, he scooped up the two workers who'd been trapped under the debris, trying to be both quick but careful. He didn't know how injured they were, so he had to be mindful.
Working his way out of the chaos, Peter made his way out of the building where he was almost immediately met by more EMTs, who took the injured workers into their care. He then sank down to one knee, letting his lungs take in as much smoke-free air as they wanted. Once he was able to breathe again, he stood back to his feet.
"Nice job!"
Peter looked up to see the figure in the Iron Man armor slowly descending towards him on his right side. A second later, the new Hulk emerged from the building as well, coming up on his other side. He looked back and forth between the two of them, trying to wrap his mind around what just happened.
"Spider-Man!" came repeated shouts as a bunch of reporters and cameras suddenly surrounded him. They were all asking who his "new friends" were, and soon it was all starting to feel overwhelming.
After all, he had no idea himself.
"We're his new partners!" the Iron suited figure said at one point. Peter turned to her, registering for the first time that it was indeed a HER in the suit (alleviating his concerns that he was seeing things), and questioned her.
"Wait, what?" he said.
"Yeah man," said the Hulk-figure on his other side, putting his hand over Peter's shoulder, pulling him to his side. "We're like... the New Avengers or something!"
Peter forced himself out of the side hug he was being given, turning to address the media, who was still asking a million questions at once.
"Eh heh," Peter choked out nervously, "sorry guys, I need to have a talk with me, uh, friends here in private, so if you will excuse us, please."
Peter then webbed himself skyward, up and away from the crowd. Sure enough, his new allies followed him, and he kept going until he found an old building scheduled for demolition in a few days that seemed like the best possible place to avoid drawing another crowd... hopefully. The other two entered the building, landing in front of him.
"Okay," Peter breathed out, "first things first, thank you both for saving my life and the lives of those civilians back there."
"Oh, not a problem," the Hulk-like figure said. Peter found it so eerie how... NORMAL his voice sounded.
"Yeah, anyway," Peter continued, "I have some questions, mainly... WHO IN THE WORLD ARE YOU GUYS!?"
"Oh, right!" the one in the Iron Man suit said. She then retracted her helmet, and soon Peter was staring at a girl that might actually be even younger than he was. She then turned to the Hulk-like figure, who seemed to pick up on something. He then turned and appeared to stare at nothing in particular; Peter followed his line of sight, but there appeared to be nothing interesting about the far wall. However, he soon realized what he was doing: he was returning to his normal size (and color), and another young person soon appeared in front of him.
"So, I'm Amadeus," the boy said, "Amadeus Cho, and this is my friend, Riri Williams."
"Also, can we just say that it is such an honor to meet you?" Riri added, stepping closer to Peter.
"Yeah, we're kind of like, really, really big fans of yours," Amadeus said.
"Okay, uhm, thanks," Peter said, head still overwhelmed as he tried to process what was happening. "So, like, how did you guys become, you know, superheroes?"
"I found this old Iron Man suit in the aftermath of one of the Avengers' battles," Riri explained. "It's pretty old compared to the nanotech he started using before... anyway, I made some of my own modifications and reformatted it so it would fit me. I never realized how much shorter I was than him!"
"Got it," Peter said, even though he was still thinking through what she'd just shared. Mainly, it was just hard to see someone else in an Iron Man suit, even if there were obvious ways the design was adjusted from Tony's. Peter knew it wasn't fair to Riri or anyone else who would try and carry on the Iron Man legacy, but it didn't make the feeling go away.
"Okay, so my turn, I guess," Amadeus said, stepping up. "So, unlike Riri here, I didn't just have something lying around to go off, so I had to dig a little deeper. I studied how Bruce Banner turned into the Hulk, figuring out exactly how he came to be, and eventually I was able to come up with a way to produce a similar result, minus the anger issues, of course."
"So, you can just change back and forth at will?" Peter asked.
"Yep!" Amadeus said proudly.
"Wow, that's... impressive," Peter said. For all his brain was trying to wrap itself around right now, he had to admit he was impressed. He was standing in the presence of two very bright young minds like his own, who were able to crack the secrets to an Iron Man suit and the Hulk's gamma centric transformation.
"Alright, next question," Peter continued, "why were you guys telling the press back there that the three of us were partners?"
"Yeah, sorry about the presumptuousness," Riri said, turning to Amadeus, gesturing for him to speak.
"But," Amadeus added, "we were thinking that maybe we could, you know, work together on stuff, you know? Like, saving the world and all that?"
"Oh," Peter said, taken aback by their offer. "I, uhm, I mean, I'd kind of have to think on it a little."
"Right, of course," Riri said.
"Yeah, absolutely," Amadeus added.
"It's just that, you know, I wasn't specifically looking to put together a new team, so I'd have to sit down and really think about logistics and what this would look like and stuff," Peter said, just kind of bumbling it all out.
"Makes sense," Amadeus said. "So, is there a way we can, like, contact you?"
"Uhm..." Peter stammered, "how about I reach out to you guys?"
"Oh yeah, for sure," Riri said. The girl's enthusiasm had not dwindled AT ALL over the course of the conversation.
"Okay, great!" Peter said, trying to at least sound a little enthusiastic instead of completely overwhelmed. "Anyway, I kind of have somewhere to be, so I'll see you guys around or something?"
"Of course," Amadeus replied. "Just, you know, get back with us when you can."
"Cool," Peter replied. He turned and fired a web, launching himself out of the building.
He couldn't get out of there fast enough.
For a few moments, there was silence between the two as they stared at the window that Spider-Man had taken his exit from.
"We came on too strong, didn't we?" Riri spoke up.
"Yeah," Amadeus replied, letting out a breath. "Yeah, we did." Granted neither of them necessarily had a plan when they came to the city for the day, just waiting for an emergency to help Spider-Man out with and introduce themselves to him, as well as the world. They were basically just going to see how it went, but now that Amadeus thought back on it, they definitely should have rehearsed what they were going to say to him, and they DEFINITELY should have anticipated some press arriving on the scene. After all, two people showing up who looked like a couple deceased Avengers in Manhattan were bound to draw some eyes.
"So, what do we do now?" Riri asked, turning so she was properly facing him.
Amadeus shrugged.
"I guess we just go back for now."
"Go back?" Riri said. "You're not saying we should just give up, are you?"
"Of course not," Amadeus replied, "but there will be other opportunities for us to prove to him what we can do."
"Amadeus, we've both worked so hard for this," Riri said. "All the time I spent repairing and modifying the suit, all the stuff I had to make just to get the money for what I needed, not to mention the literal YEARS of research and stuff you did..."
"Riri," Amadeus said, grabbing the shoulders of her armor, "it's going to work out. He hasn't worked with anybody in a while, so maybe he just needs time."
Riri sighed.
"I guess you're right," she said.
"Of course I am," Amadeus said, giving a teasing wink. "I'm always right, remember?"
"Okay mister eidetic memory," Riri replied sarcastically. "Don't forget, you were the one who called us the 'New Avengers.'"
"Yeah, after you announced us to the world as Spider-Man's partners. I was just following your lead. I guess that was my mistake," retorted teasingly.
"Whatever," Riri said, rolling her eyes. "Well, you going to Hulk out again to get back, or you want a ride?"
Amadeus looked up, contemplating her question.
"Oh, I guess a ride would be fine this time," he said. "Two Avengers would draw more attention than just one."
"We're not Avengers yet, remember?" Riri teased. "Also, how is Spider-Man supposed to get in contact with us? It's not like we exchanged numbers."
"He is an Avenger," Amadeus said. "I'm sure he has his ways."
"I guess you're right," Riri said. "Still, you think that maybe..."
"Riri," Amadeus said, giving her a knowing look.
"I know, I know," Riri said, throwing her hands up. "Patience; trust the process."
"Exactly," Amadeus replied. "Now, you ready to get out of here?"
Riri reapplied her helmet over her head, coming up behind Amadeus, grabbing underneath his arms with her own.
"Hold on," she said before rocketing them both out of the building.
Hope you are enjoying it!
Continuing to pray for you all; stay safe and healthy!
"For we are God's handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do." Ephesians 2:10