Chapter Two

"Door!" billionaire, ex-playboy, philanthropist Tony Stark snapped his instructions to Friday. Friday did as she was told and opened the door of the empty Avengers tower. He slowed down in his suit and entered through the opened double doors.

Tony had sold the Avengers tower six months ago in order to replaced it with the higher tech, impressive, and very expensive Avengers Headquarters in the outskirts of New York City.

Six months ago, Tony thought everything was finally calming down after the endless amount of disasters that had transpired in the past few years. Loki was safely locked up in the psych ward on Thor's planet or at the very least something similar. Ultron, Tony's unfortunate toy had been destroyed, and Vision and Wanda Maximoff the Avenger's latest addition were being kept on a very tight leash.

Everything was slowing down, at least that was what Tony thought. He had been looking forward to a quiet, boring life with longtime girlfriend Pepper Potts. Then he had happened.

The he Tony was referring to was the earth's latest superhuman, though he still didn't know if they were friend or foe. Human or creature. Pure of heart or diabolical. He had a lot of unanswered questions and if there was something Tony didn't like it was to be kept in the dark.

At first Tony hadn't paid too much attention to the circus performer figuring that NYPD could do their job at least once. Then came the YouTube videos, the news segments, pictures of the dweeb dressed in pajamas saving kittens from trees or whatever, and people chanting "Spider Monkey" and "Tarantula Man."

Then Tony saw the video that made him stop cold in his tracks. Pajama man had stopped two entire subway trains from crashing on to each other. Yes, he had struggled, but who wouldn't? Still, it was two subway trains, he wasn't sure even him or Thor could have pulled it off. Then Mr. Pajama Pants had disappeared into the night.

When Tony saw the video that's when he knew he was in trouble. Whoever this red and blue Captain America wannabee was, he wasn't human, at least not fully and he was dangerous in Tony's head even if his actions were good.

He was determined to find out the truth, the rest of the Avengers thought he was insane and that whoever the flying monkey was probably just wanted his fifteen minutes of fame. But after Loki and Ultron Tony wasn't so easily persuaded and he wouldn't be content until he had Spider Monkey or whatever his name was in front of him so he could squeeze the information out of him.

"Incoming call from Steve Rogers." Friday chirped.

"Send him straight to voicemail," Tony instructed as he headed toward the drink cart, one of the few pieces remaining in Avengers Tower. The last thing he wanted was to hear Steve's holier than thou speech. The man had a superiority complex even when he didn't want to.

"Hey, Stark, it's me, uh. Steve. Rogers. Anyway, I was just checking to see if you caught the man you're chasing down. You mentioned he seems to hang around Queens a lot. I'm from Brooklyn, but I'm familiar with Queens. I can help you look for him. Let me know if you need help, bye."

Tony sighed as he poured himself a drink. He appreciate the good intentions, but he was at his wits ends and irritable at best. He was Iron Man. Him and his team had stopped a literal god and a killer robot, but he couldn't deal with one person? Maybe Pep was right, and he should retire.

"Friday?"

"Yes, sir?"

"I need you to track down every surveillance camera that captures this Spider Monkey's movement. We are going to watch every single one until we can track down who he is and then we're going to finish him."

"Thank you for coming to Marty's Fabrics, please come again." The bored college aged girl handed Peter a plastic bag containing new pieces of blue and red fabric. Since Peter didn't want anyone to know his true identity as a fourteen-year-old superhero he had resorted to making his own costume.

Unfortunately, May and her new husband Jake were living paycheck to paycheck which meant cheap fabric and a needle and thread to sew his costume. Peter got into enough scrapes which meant he had to replace the material on his Spiderman suit every couple of days.

He stuffed the bag inside his backpack. The last thing he needed was for Jake to question why he was buying fabric. Especially since Jake already hated Peter for being such a shy, brainiac loser. Peter often thought that Jake would have been happier with having someone as Flash for a stepson instead of him.

He made it to his apartment in Queens twenty minutes later and he was immediately greeted with the smell of burnt curry. He grimaced, it seemed May was attempting to cook. Again.

Jake, Peter's new "step-uncle" or "step-father" or whatever he was called now was sitting on the living room couch flipping through a magazine, oblivious to his new wife's cooking. How he managed to swallow the food without dry heaving was still a surprise to Peter.

"Petey, honey! You're back!" May kissed him on the cheek. "You're just in time, the curry is about done. I can serve you a plate."

"Um, I'm not really hungry." He missed the days when he and May would survive on Chinese take out and pizza, but ever since she married Jake he had insisted on "tightening" their budget and cooking at home. Of course, he didn't lift a finger and at the rate things were going Peter was going to be a whopping 100 pounds by the time he finished his freshman year of high school.

"Where have you been, Pete?" Jake closed the magazine as he narrowed his eyes suspiciously at Peter as if he were secretly involved in a drug cartel. "You don't usually take this long after school and there are no decathlon practice on Mondays. Only Tuesdays and Thursdays."

"I had to stay behind," Peter lied. Damn, why was Jake monitoring his schedule so closely? He had never cared about Peter before and now he felt he couldn't take a piss without "letting him know." He also hated how he called him Pete. He should say something, but he was never one for rocking the boat. "I had to get some extra material from my math teacher to study. We have a big test next week."

"Oh, no." May frowned as she served two big bowls of curry. "You should ask Jake, he's an engineer. He knows all of that complicated math stuff."

"No," both Peter and Jake answered at the same time.

"I can handle it, May." He gripped his backpack. "I'm going into my room to study."

"All right, sweetie. I'll save you a big bowl of curry just in case you get hungry later on."

"Don't forget you have to wash the dishes tonight even if you don't eat."

"I won't," Peter answered curtly as he closed his tiny bedroom door and closed his eyes.

He might be just Peter Parker at home, but he was starting to feel like a stranger.

-End of Chapter Two-