Chapter 17: Webshooter

Peter did not ultimately have to tell May. That night, she came downstairs for dinner and found him on the ceiling.

"Tony, what the fuck did you do to my nephew?!" was her immediate reaction.

Mr. Stark was affronted. "Why do you assume this is my fault?"

"It wasn't Mr. Stark's fault." Peter dropped down from the ceiling. "It was an accident."

She crossed her arms and glared at her husband. "Did your buddy's sci-fi spider do this?"

"Um…yes."

"You are never allowed to pet sit for anyone ever again."

"Told you it was pet sitting," Pietro muttered.

"That's fair," Mr. Stark conceded.

"Peter, tell me what that creature did to you."

"It just bit me. I was sick for a few hours, but now I'm enhanced. It fixed my eyes, I'm like way stronger now, my senses are keener, and I can stick to walls and stuff."

"Is that all?"

"Yeah."

"No…adverse effects?"

"No. I feel better than I have my entire life."

"Well, that's…good, I suppose. Come here."

Peter reluctantly approached, not eager to be smothered in front of his siblings. May wrapped him up in a bone-crushing hug and whispered in his ear, "You'd better stay safe out there. You know how dangerous it is for supers."

"I know, May. I'll be careful, I promise."

"Good. I'm glad you finally have some meat on your bones." She squeezed his shoulder and released him. "Now let's eat, I'm starving."

Peter was starving too. He was pretty sure the spider bite had also enhanced his metabolism. He couldn't pack it away like Steve, but he definitely noticed a difference. Luckily, Mr. Stark could afford to feed superhumans. He couldn't imagine what would've happened if he got bit when it was just him and May.

~0~

Peter took extra care not to touch the walls or other people at school, afraid he'd get stuck and accidentally out himself. The incessant noise and the fluorescent lights still bothered him, but as time wore on he got used to tuning them out. Besides, he had more important things to worry about. He had a brand new idea for his engineering midterm project. Peter revisited the formula for the adhesive he'd been trying to invent all those months ago. While he never perfected it for its intended use, he now had an idea to repurpose it. Instead of a long-lasting adhesive, the substance could be used as a sort of sticky rope. If it worked, it would allow him to travel long distances relatively quickly and immobilize potential threats. The working title was "Web Fluid."

Early tensile strength tests were incredibly promising.

While the fluid itself was coming along nicely, Peter would also need a method of propelling it to stick to objects from which he could swing. His mechanical engineering skills weren't quite as strong as his chemical engineering, and his early prototypes failed miserably. If they managed to launch the fluid at all, it merely spilled out of the opening and gravity immediately took it down. No matter what he tried, he couldn't get it to properly shoot.

After much frustration and deliberation, Peter decided to bring his prototype to Mr. Stark. If anyone could crack this puzzle, it was him. Peter hoped he'd be impressed that he made it this far and not disappointed that he got stuck. What Peter did not expect was for the billionaire to be amused. As soon as Peter finished explaining what he wanted the design to achieve, Mr. Stark started laughing.

"Why is this funny?" Peter asked. He was both confused and a bit offended by the man's reaction.

"You don't think you're taking this too far?"

"What do you mean?"

"You got bit by a spider. Now you can crawl up the walls like a spider. And you want to build something that would allow you to shoot strings of sticky fluid with high tensile strength. You're really going all the way with this spider thing, huh?"

Peter shrugged. He hadn't planned it like that. The first versions of the web fluid had existed long before the spider bite, and revisiting the formula was just something he did on a whim. "You don't think it's kinda fitting?" he asked.

"I guess so. I'll see what I can do with these and report back to you tomorrow morning."

"It's eight o'clock at night, how much can you possibly get done before then?"

Mr. Stark poked him in the shoulder with the vial of fluid. "You're assuming I'm going to sleep tonight."

"You're…not?"

"Not now that you've given me something cool to work on!"

"I didn't mean for you to give up your night like that. You don't have to."

"It's fine, I want to. Besides, I doubt I'd be able to sleep now that my head's full of ideas for this bad boy." He held up the prototype.

"Okay. If you say so." Peter was pretty sure Mr. Stark slept only two or three full nights a week. That certainly didn't seem healthy, but he was in no position to confront the man about it. "Thank you!"

"No problem, kiddo. I love a challenge."

Peter left the lab trying to remember if Mr. Stark had ever called him "kiddo" before. The version of Peter from a few months ago would've hated it, but now he found he didn't mind. In fact, a warm and fuzzy feeling lingered in his gut. Mr. Stark clearly tried so hard to get Peter to like him. Maybe being the man's adopted son wouldn't be so bad after all.

~0~

Wanda was late to Happy's car after school. She was smiling and pink in the face, twisting a ring around her finger. Peter took a closer look and realized it wasn't one of the many she usually wore. "Did Alex ask you to the dance?" Pietro asked.

She nodded, her smile growing even bigger.

"Congratulations!" Steve said.

Wanda slid into the backseat, pushing Pietro to the middle. "Thanks. I'm excited."

"Steve also has news to share." Pietro elbowed his brother.

Steve flushed deep red. "Peggy said yes," he said shyly.

Wanda reached across the car to high five him.

"Peter, have you decided if you're going yet?" Pietro asked.

"I don't really have a choice, do I?" Between Shuri and his siblings, someone would drag him there by force if he chose not to go.

"No you do not."

"But I actually have a legitimate excuse now! The loud music and lights will probably give me a sensory overload headache."

"I thought your senses were adjusting?" Steve asked.

"They are, but the conditions at a dance are different than a normal school day."

"If that happens, you can let me know and I'll pick you up," Happy offered. "But you can't skip out on the dance because you're worried that might happen."

"See? Even the boring bodyguard thinks you should go," Pietro said.

"I am not boring."

"We have to go clothes shopping," Wanda said. "What's the dress code for Winter Formal?"

"I don't know, probably formal?"

Wanda rolled her eyes.

"Don't blow off your training for online shopping," Happy warned.

"I won't."

When they got home, they went straight for the lab and agreed to do their training together first, then homework, meaning alternating between homework and online shopping. While Peter was eager to get to train alongside his siblings, he was also embarrassed because he was so far behind them. He'd had his powers barely a week, and they were so different from any of his siblings' that he had a hard time thinking he could ever be as useful as them in a fight. As soon as Peter set foot in the lab, something came sailing towards his head. He caught it before even consciously lifting his arm.

"That spidey sense is impressive," Mr. Stark remarked.

"Is that what you're calling it?"

"Would you prefer May's suggestion of 'Peter Tingle'?"

"No, that's so much worse. Spider sense is fine." Peter looked at the object Mr. Stark had thrown at him. "Is this the prototype I gave you?"

"No, it's a completely new design. You had the right idea, I just refined it. Try it out."

Peter slid the device onto his wrist and aimed it at a distant corner of the lab. With a flick of his wrist, he sent a string of webbing shooting towards the wall. He grabbed the strand now resting in the palm of his hand and tugged. It stuck. "Whoa, this is so cool!"

"I'm glad you like it. Why don't you put on both and take them for a spin during training today?"

"Yeah!" Peter was so excited to try them out. Mr. Stark set him up with the same target practice module that Steve used for his shield. While Peter played web-em-up-whack-a-mole, his siblings punched, kicked, and dodged in an intricate dance with Mr. Stark's martial-arts-programmed holograms. The Peter of a month ago would've taken ages to master the hand-eye coordination required for this task, but his enhancements seemed to include improved muscle memory and coordination. In fact, he finished up before any of his siblings and got a head start on homework. By the time Steve, Wanda, and Pietro started theirs, Peter had nearly finished. "What are you thinking you'll wear to formal?" Steve asked him.

"I was just going to wear the one suit and tie that I have."

"Does it still fit you?" Wanda asked matter-of-factly.

Now that she mentioned it, Peter wasn't sure it would. He finished up his last few math problems and dashed upstairs to his closet. Sure enough, the suit jacket was tight enough around his shoulders that he couldn't move his arms properly. His first instinct was to just deal with it, not wanting May to stress over having to find the money to get him a new one, but then he remembered who she'd married. Frugality was a hard habit to break.

Peter returned downstairs. "You were right, it's too tight," he sighed.

Wanda levitated a tape measure from the other room and took Peter's measurements with practiced efficiency. "You're like one of those fairies from Sleeping Beauty," he said.

"Make it blue!" Pietro shouted.

"Make it pink!" Steve retorted.

"Oh please. You all know red is my color."

"I like red," Peter offered.

Wanda read off his measurements to Pietro, who typed something into his laptop at breakneck speed. Before Peter could even think to voice an opinion on the matter, Pietro turned the computer around to show him ten different tabs with suits in his size. "You guys are pretty good at that."

"You get good at online shopping when it's the only kind you can do," Wanda said.

"That's also how you get good at shop-lifting," Pietro added.

Peter looked through the different tabs and selected the plainest of the suits. He didn't want to wear something too attention-grabbing. "You decide fast," Steve remarked. "For these two, picking an outfit usually takes a week's worth of deliberation."

"That's because some of us aren't content to wear the same exact thing in slightly different colors every day," Wanda said.

Steve shrugged. "It saves me time. Since I already know what I'm wearing, I can now go sketch instead of scrolling through twenty different stores' websites."

"Maybe scrolling is our hobby," Pietro countered.

Steve put his hand up in surrender. "More power to you."

The twins continued to shop for three more hours, only stopping when May called them to dinner.