It was the second time in as many days that the Avengers were assembled to talk about the individual Spiderman however the atmosphere now was so very different from the day before.
The Avengers were stunned, certainly, they had known about Tony's missing child, the whole world knew. Tony and Pepper Stark were famous; Tony as Iron man and his advanced technology and Pepper being one of the best and most famous CEO and businesswoman in the world. Their child going missing was one of the most talked-about events in the news from the 21st century.
There was still news and tapes played on the television about the investigation and although the rest of the world presumed Pete Stark to be dead, with some even believing that Pepper and Tony themselves had killed Pete. Pepper and Tony publicly announced they still believed their son to still be alive and held a conference each year giving charity to research into missing persons and asking publicly for any person with information to come forward.
Yes, Tony could be an annoying asshole and it was surprising when they found out he was a father but they all remembered the first time they witnessed an anniversary of Pete's birthday or the day he was taken, the drunken anguish in Tony's face was so raw and wounded they knew he and Pepper loved the child so much that they never even tried for another.
They were so hurt by the disappearance of Pete however his Birthday was an odd yet special occasion, every year the couple sat down with his favorite snacks, watched Robots and redecorated his room to everything a child of that age would want, the fact they would never give up, were always prepared with sets of clothes and food and toys for a boy of his age spoke to how much they wanted and believed their son to be alive. No one who had met Pepper and Tony could say they were better, more loving parents than themselves.
It was knowing this, knowing the years and hurt and pain the parents had suffered through looking for their son that Tony and Pepper sat curled up, the Avengers sat on the couches, gobsmacked to have realized they had fought and spoken with Tony's child.
They sat looking at a projected image of spiderman from one of his rescues, even concealed in suit Tony and Pepper were blown away to know they were looking at an image of their son.
The Avengers were similarly pleased and stunned, however wary of how they had treated the vigilante.
"Tony" Steve began, choking "I'm so sorry I had no idea".
Tony nodded morosely, he wanted to be angry, to rage at S.H.I.E.L.D and Fury. At Clint who had shot arrows towards his son and everyone who chased him through the alley. Even moral fiber Rogers who caused the boy to cut up his arm in the first place however he couldn't, he too had been the one to chase the child.
He couldn't believe spiderman was his kid, his 14-year-old kid! They watched him stop muggings on the screen. He had apparently been stabbed at one point!
He was so angry at himself. He knew when he was there something felt right, how he softened at the end and that great weight of disappointment when spiderman had managed to get away. He couldn't believe it; he'd let his son just walk right out of his hands. Oh god he thought , groaning.
What if that's the last time they saw him? Where does he even live? What kind of life has he had?
Pepper was beside herself, the only information they had on him was his age and the fact he was an enhanced superhuman. The thoughts raced through their heads of where he had been taken when he was kidnapped. Has he been experimented on? Does he work for Hydra?
Tony felt nauseous knowing he was that close to touching his son, taking his hand. He was a failure as a father, he couldn't even recognize his own child!
"I should've known," he said, interrupting the painstaking silence in the room. "How couldn't I have known?"
Fury looked uncomfortable at this, even if he didn't particularly like the annoying man, he knew enough to care for the man's obvious pain and believe he was a good father.
"It's just perception" he reassured, "you thought you were fighting a man, maybe a young one but an adult of full age at least. The boy doesn't have any idea I would assume?" Fury questioned, the other avengers nodding in response.
Natasha nodded. "I didn't talk to him but he seemed genuine, if slightly naive. I don't think he could have hidden it if he knew you were his father." Tony nodded, sighing, Pepper curled into his side as she listened.
"But" Steve said, trying to lighten the mood slightly, "I guess we should have known he was your son, calling me Grandpa, stealing my shield. Even flipping you off Tony, you Stark's really do have attitude problems huh?" He questioned. Pepper laughed shakily at this.
She looked around, "do-do we know who he is in real life? Do you think he did escape a facility? Or is there any way he could be identified?"
Fury cleared his throat, "well the database has no other register apart from Pete Stark, obviously, he's never had his blood taken somewhere officially, while that is slightly abnormal, it doesn't mean he was kept captive all his life, there is a possibility it simply isn't on file because he hasn't had any medical emergencies or arrests. Bucky also mentioned he never heard of Pete Stark at Hydra or someone named Spiderman so it is unlikely he was there, however not impossible."
"We can tell you we assume he lives somewhere though or has a home, his hours of activity suggest he has some job, maybe even school or something he does in the day, normal working hours and the activity-based around queens means he is likely to live there."
"So close", Pepper whispered "all this time."
Fury nodded, "we will find him". He told the despondent mother.
"Now" he began hesitantly expecting the impending outburst that would occur once he announced this. "Of course, we must be more cautious knowing he is your son Mr Stark,'' Fury said, eyeing up the emotional couple, ''However our mission has not changed from before, we still need to bring him in." The other avengers immediately protested. Tony's face was enraged at the statement.
"We are not locking him up in a cell at S.H.I.E.L.D Sir'' Steve shouted.
Fury sighed, "look we can keep him here, with some staff, under surveillance," he said, he would allow the Stark's to hold their son in their home but he needed them to be aware. "But we still have no idea of his motives, he could have been kept in captivity, brainwashed, he may even have people he believes as his parents. Of course with the boy being underage and your son we will not be hostile however we do not know if he will trust you and we need to make sure he isn't a threat to others."
Tony nodded in reluctant appeasement. "I want to bring him in."
Fury groaned, "Stark you know I can't let you do that."
"I bring him in or no one does," Stark said. The other avengers nodded hesitantly at Stark's expression. None of them thought it was a good idea however no one would argue with the father for a chance to rescue his son.
Great Fury thought, sighing."Fine, fine." He said. "But you've got to be prepared Stark even if it means knocking him out, we need him here."
"I understand," Tony said through gritted teeth. Fury sighed in resignation as he left.
The remaining Avengers in the room looked at each other, they needed to come up with a plan to rescue Spiderman aka Pete Stark.
…
Peter Parker was back in school the next day, tired, his head hung low as he walked through the halls trying to ignore the loud voices and the overstimulation of his senses.
He had chosen to wear dark shades and headphones which muffled a lot of the sounds around him today. School was ridiculously easy for Peter and although many teachers had been miffed with his overall tired appearance and lackluster presence in class recently he always answered questions and was one of the top students in the school.
He and his friend Ned arrived at the lunch hall and chose to sit at their usual lonely table nerding out about building their lego they had saved up to buy later this week and he could feel all that tension from the fight the night before ease as he relaxed in his friend's presence.
Ned had known about Peter being Spiderman for a while now. He had been stabbed and turned up at his friends house at 2 AM with his suit ripped and Ned helped bandage and wrap him up. Ned was his guy in the chair and he helped hack into cameras and conceal Peter's identity when he had to change in alleyways. They worked together to get him access into police radio scanners and hear news early and Ned helped him with his routes. They were even working on an AI together to gather information for Peter.
"Hey" Ned said suddenly "You know you're little run-in with the Avengers?" he whispered loudly.
Peter looked around seeing if anyone was in hearing range before turning. "Yeah? What about it?"
Ned turned on the bench next to him to show him the news on his Ipad. "It says here that Tony Stark put out a reward of $500,000 for any information on Spiderman," he said, nudging Peter "do you know how many star wars merch we could buy with this man?"
Peter laughed comfortably, he knew Ned would never betray him, they were close since preschool and even closer now they held this secret, Ned would support him all the way.
"Wonder why they said S.H.I.E.L.D was after me?"
"Huh," Ned gasped looking up. "Maybe they were recruiting you?! You could be an Avenger man!" Ned exclaimed, "that would be so cool."
Ned had also shared that the Avengers had announced they were moving all operations back to New York Stark tower permanently which Peter found intimidating, yes he loved and admired them but he felt uneasy about the interest they had shown in him previously something irked at him about the whole situation, ever since his Uncle Ben died he was determined to help people, even if he had to go against the Avengers he wouldn't stop what he was doing, he wouldn't let another person under his watch be harmed like Ben.
"Maybe'' Peter huffed, he didn't know, he felt weird around Stark especially, there was something about him that played with Peter's consciousness like a memory he forgot, déjà vu.
He thought to ask Ned about it. "Hey Man did you notice anything weird about Tony St-"
"What about Tony Stark?" His friend MJ interrupted sitting at their table.
"Uh -uh nothing, we were just talking about uh" He stumbled looking to Ned for help
Ned looked back at him just as speechless.
MJ looked between them suspiciously, "Were you geeking out about Iron Man again?"
"Yes!" Peter cried standing up, suddenly hundreds of students around him looked up at him from the sudden loud noise, he blushed, hand rubbing the back of his neck in embarrassment and sat back down. He cleared his throat. "Uh yes, that's it."
MJ nodded casually ignoring the awkwardness and pulled out a book to read.
MJ was a peculiar girl; she was blunt, beautiful and an odd mixture of acquaintance slash friend.
She had first started sitting at their table only to read however over time she seemed to relax around them and actually talked to them. She was intimidating but for some reason seemed to like Peter even though for the whole first 2 months of knowing her he could only barely stutter out responses. He was better now but he even now flushed sometimes when she surprised him, he felt particularly odd around her, his heart always beating slightly too fast in her presence.
She, despite going to Midtown, was an English and theatre nerd but was smart in class and always said he should stand up for himself with Flash more. Although she didn't know about Spiderman he knew she at least liked him as a sort of friend.
He put the Avengers out of his mind as they finished lunch and went to their next class, Ned sat holding his textbook out to block the view of Peter at the back of the class while Peter made his web fluid covertly and the class watched a video, falling asleep.
He returned home knowing that although he would take a break, for now, to avoid the avengers again, there had been some suspicious activities with a gang recently that he knew he needed to check out.
…
It was only two days later he felt the calling and knew he needed to go out, after getting dinner with May he made the excuse of going to bed early to get up and complete a project in the morning with Ned which he had completed in class earlier, and took his backpack with his suit sneaking out of the window.
Slinging up to the roof he loved to watch the sunset on, he left his bag there and headed out. Ned rang to show him reports of a mugging near the city of Queens
At headquarters, FRIDAY alerted the Avengers to news footage of a Spiderman ambush in Queens