Chapter 82

Toni groaned to herself as she got the email about the meeting. Pepper had set it up, knowing the business would be good for the company but she couldn't help but feel a bit resentful at the thought of having to go so far overseas.

Peter was just starting to settle into the school year and while he wasn't explicitly talking about it, she knew he was still having a hard time balancing being both Spider-Man and a normal teenager. And she wanted to be there for him to help him adapt. But she also knew she needed to go to India to meet with the Rajput Group.

There was talk of a potential expansion into the South Asian country, and she knew that the business would be good for Stark Industries, given both the talent and market in the country. But that involved going there and setting up talks with both the government and some of their business partners in the country to see it was indeed viable to set up operations.

That, and she'd received a tip of a potential Hulk sighting in the country. She knew it was a longshot. Bruce wouldn't return to the country he'd been in when SHIELD found him initially. There was no way he'd be back there now. But at the same time, if there was even a chance he was there, she owed it to him to at least check, didn't she?

She knew she could have asked Natasha or Harry to check for her, and it wasn't reason to go all the way to another country across the ocean. However at the same time she was also aware that Bruce and Natasha had left their friendship on rocky terms when they parted. And well, she wasn't sure how eager he'd be to see any other SHIELD agents, even if it was Harry and she trusted the man more than anyone else in the entire organization.

Then there was also a wedding she'd been invited to out of courtesy as well, given the daughter of the Rajput Group CEO was getting married, and the CEO had invited her along for the celebration.

She sighed to herself once more as she went over the itinerary that Pepper had pulled together for the both of them, filled with meetings with the government and other prominent business members whom they'd be working with if the expansion occurred.

"For a person about to go on a trip, you don't look very excited, Darling," Steve said, giving her an amused look.

"I'm not excited," she said pointedly, "If it were up to me, I'd stay here with you and Peter. I don't really want to go."

"Why not?" Peter asked, sitting up from the couch he was sprawled over, "India's supposed to be really nice! I've always wanted to go."

"Because if I went, I'd miss the two of you," she told them both, and Steve pressed a tender kiss to her lips while Peter commented on how gross it was.

"It's not like you're gone for very long," Steve told her gently, "It'll just be a week. You'll be back before you know it and be home again."

"I just don't want to leave you both for that long," she confessed. "Peter just started back at school. I wanted to be here for him in case he needed anything. And well, I know I'm hardly in fighting condition right now, but what if something happens that needs the Avengers?"

"Peter will be just fine," Steve promised her.

"I will!" Peter confirmed, "Dad's gonna be here still, and if I need anything, I can just talk to him. Don't worry about me, Mom. I'll be fine, I promise."

"See?" Steve said, wrapping an arm around her shoulders, "Your son will survive a week without you. It'll be just fine."

"And you?" she countered, knowing he'd dodged answering that question.

"I'm going to miss you every day you're gone," he admitted to her freely, "But if you're worried about the Avengers, we got it handled. Besides, you'd be piloting your suit remotely, right? You could do the same from India in case of an emergency. So you'd still be right there by our side fighting even if you were all the way across an ocean."

"You have a point," she sighed, and he kissed her forehead gently. "Fine, clearly you'll all be fine without me."

She said the last part in a joking tone, knowing that they'd both miss her, but it didn't stop the sadness from filling her.

She'd gone on business trips before. Many, many times. It was nothing new to her. However it was the first trip she'd taken since getting married and adopting Peter. So she couldn't help but have a sinking feeling that if she left something would happen to them. It didn't stop the reluctance she felt about having to leave them both behind go to another country.

Steve clearly sensed the hesitation she felt still and tilted her head up, so she was looking directly into his blue eyes. She could see the earnestness in them as he brushed aside a strand of her hair and spoke.

"Why don't we have a movie night, tonight?" he asked her gently. "The three of us could watch one of those movies you insist that I watch and that I'm missing out on without. We could order in food and watch a few perhaps. We have a couple of hours before we need to head to bed, so we could make an entire night of it."

She glanced over at her son.

"I finished my homework already," Peter said, getting excited, "Can we make popcorn too?"

"Sounds like a plan," she said with a laugh, as Peter started thinking about which movie they could watch. Despite proposing Star Wars quite a few times, he'd eventually settled on Back to the Future, saying it was a classic.

Even if she disagreed with the concept of time travel, she knew Steve would enjoy the movie. She settled in on the couch between her husband and son as the movie began playing.

It would only be a few days, right? What was the worst that could happen?


Peter was going to kill Ned Leeds.

He knew it was probably for the best that his best friend had found out that he was Spider-Man. After all, he hadn't ever kept any secrets that large from his best friend before. Well, other than the fact that he'd had a secret Stark Internship for years. But that was a confidentiality thing. This was a Peter Parker thing.

And yet, Ned made it exactly one week before he'd blurted it out to Liz that Peter had known Spider-Man in the middle of gym class while some of the girls were talking about their favourite superheroes.

Peter had tried to play it off, saying that 'Spider-Man' had hung around the Tower from time to time, and given that both of his parents were Avengers, it wasn't that far of a reach that they'd know Spider-Man.

Then Liz invited Peter to a party. Contingent on the fact that they also invited Spider-Man. Because Liz would love the person Spider-Man was on the inside.

Because Liz would love him, if she knew the truth.

His cheeks burned with that knowledge, knowing that if he ever bothered telling her the truth that he'd be able to date the most beautiful, smartest girl in the school. Because she'd love him for who he was.

"You okay, kid?" Happy said, as he glanced over at Peter. He'd convinced his dad to let him go to the party, saying it was really only a small get together for a few kids from Academic Decathlon and that they wouldn't really get up to anything other than perhaps eating too much pizza. Steve had been reluctant to let him go, but he'd had an hour-long conversation with his Mom on the phone and both agreed if someone dropped off and picked up Peter to make sure he was okay, and he came home at a reasonable time. And that he called them if he felt like anything unsavoury was happening.

Darwin, his parents were so old fashioned.

"Just excited," Peter said, trying to play off how nervous he was. It was his first real high school party. If you discounted all the times he and Ned hung out, played video games and ate way too much pizza, but for real. This on the other hand. This was a real party. With alcohol and girls. With Liz. And he had to pull off being Spider-Man for part of it.

He felt his suit under his clothes, and he knew it would be effort changing into it, but if he managed to pull it off, it would be so worth it.

"It's okay to be nervous," Happy commented, "This is your first party, right?"

"Mm hm," he said, not wanting to give away just how nervous he was.

"I know Steve didn't really talk to you and Toni's a bit far away right now, but be careful, okay Kid? I know how these things go. I've seen Toni at things like this far too many times. And teenagers aren't too much better than adults at party. There's alcohol and drugs everywhere and kids are having sex, and you can feel pressured to do things you don't want to do. And you're a Stark-Rogers now. Kids are going to be trying to get to you for your money and your connections. You gotta be careful, okay?"

"Happy," he protested, trying to stop the man from giving him too much of a lecture.

"No, I gotta say this," Happy said firmly, "I've known you since you were a little kid, Peter, and you're a good one. I don't want to see anything happen to you because of some other asshole kid. Don't let anyone pressure you into doing anything you don't want to do, okay? If you don't want to do something, you say no. You tell those kids where they can shove it. And if you want to leave earlier than 10 p.m. give me a call and I'll be here in less than twenty. Hell, maybe I should just stay in the area in case you need something. There's some stuff I've been wanting to do anyways."

"In Queens?" Peter asked, looking highly sceptical. "Happy, it's gonna be fine, I promise. Nothing's going to happen to me. It's just a party with a bunch of teenagers. We're gonna be in and out and just have fun."

"Teenagers can be assholes," Happy reiterated. "And you, Peter Parker, are one hell of an amazing kid. I don't want anything to happen to you because of one of them, okay? You parents care about you, but they're not the only ones. Any one of the people in the Tower would do anything to protect you and keep you safe, you know that right? Toni may have been who adopted you, but we all care about you."

He felt his throat close as Happy pulled over by Liz's house.

"Thanks Happy," he said, as he smiled at the normally stoic man. He felt a sense of guilt, knowing he was lying to the man as he was lying to his parents. That there would most likely be at least alcohol at the party, and that his reasons for going to the party were to try and convince everyone that he was in fact, friends with Spider-Man. Maybe if he did, Flash would ease up on some of the bullying. And Liz would notice him

But really, he wouldn't have to do any of this if it weren't for Ned. If Ned hadn't gone and told everyone that he was friends with Spider-Man he wouldn't have to do any of this.

"Have a good time, Kid," Happy told him gruffly, as Peter exited the car.

It was just a high school party, right? How bad could it be?


Peter sat perched on the roof of Liz's house, wearing his suit, as he wondered for the billionth time, what was he even doing?

There was no way this was going to work. There was no way he would be able to pull this off without someone getting suspicious.

Was fame really worth more than keeping his secret? Was winning Liz over more important than that? Surely, she'd fall for him for his personality too, and not just because of the red suit he wore, right?

He sighed to himself as he looked out the window, looking at all his classmates below him having the time of their lives at the party. Why couldn't he just do that? Instead of worrying about what everyone thought about him. Even Michelle seemed to be enjoying the party, despite eating toast and well, being Michelle.

"Faraday, this is stupid," Peter sighed to himself, "What am I doing?"

He looked down and saw Ned glance around, looking for Peter, and knew how much this meant to his friend. But at the same time, he knew what it meant for him. Did he really want to achieve popularity like this?

Did he want popularity?

He saw the way people flocked to him because of his adoptive parents. Did he really want to add them flocking as well because of Spider-Man?

Still, Toni and Steve's accomplishments were their own, and Peter didn't feel entitled to those. But Spider-Man? Spider-Man was all him.

He was startled from his thoughts by a startling blue explosion going off in the distance.

"What the hell?" he wondered to himself. He quickly pulled on his mask, as he began swinging down the suburban streets.

He swung into a golf course, and aimed his web shooters up, only to be met with nothing for them to attach to. He was so used to the city with buildings everywhere, and as he ran through the golf course with sprinklers being activated, he felt himself groan, "This sucks."

He made it over to a bridge, as he crawled down it, seeing two men, the first shooting a gun that totalled a car.

The first man laughed to himself, "Now, this is crafted from a reclaimed sub-Ultron arm straight from Sokovia. Here. You try."

He grimaced to himself. He may not have been involved in the fight against Ultron, but he knew enough to know that an arm from one of the Ultron bots could not have been a good thing.

"Man, I wanted something low-key. Why are you trying to upsell me, man?" The second said, sounding unimpressed.

"Okay, okay, okay. I got what you need, all right? I got tons of great stuff here. One sec," the man said as he looked in his van and began prattling off, "Okay, I got, uh, black hole grenades, Chitauri railguns."

A third man appeared then, "You letting off shots in public now? Hurry up. Look, times are changing. We're the only ones selling these high-tech weapons."

"Oh, this must be where the ATM robbers got their stuff," Peter realized as his eyes narrowed. So there was an alien arms dealer. And he was equipping the criminals in the city. That could not be good.

"I need something to stick up somebody. I'm not trying to shoot them back in time," The second man said, exasperated.

"I got anti-grav climbers," The first man said, as he looked in the car.

"Yo, climbers?" the buyer said, sounding impressed.

And of course, at that moment his phone went off. He picked it out of his suit and saw Ned dialing him. Oh shit, Ned!

"Okay, what the hell was that?" The first man asked.

The third man drew their guns out and pointed it at the buyer, "Did you set us up?"

And there was his cue to enter. He swung down to the ground, and said, "Hey! Hey, come on. You gonna shoot at somebody, shoot at me."

"All right," the man with the gun said, and Peter shot out a web at the gun and pulled it away from him. He charged at the man, but the dude who was in the van sent a punch of energy towards him, knocking him into the side of the bridge as he landed on the ground.

Both groups of men quickly began to drive away, and he sent a web towards the weapon dealer's van as he was dragged on the ground.

The van drove through a neighbourhood, and Peter was sent knocking into a trash can. This wasn't good, he was going to lose them. He shot out a second web to help attach himself to the van.

"We gotta call him," the first man said, as Peter listened to their conversation.

"No, no, no, no," the first man said, as he took out a high-tech weapon, aiming it towards Peter. He dodged, and the blast broke off the van door.

"Ow, my butt!" Peter groaned, as he continued to be dragged along. The man shot another blast of energy at him, and he dropped one of the webs he was holding. The van went over a pothole then, and the man lost grip of the gun and sent it straight into a yard. Shit, that wouldn't be good.

The driver took a sharp turn, and he groaned as he was slammed into a parked car, then through a line of garbage bins, then through a solid brick pillar. His web broke off then, and he fell to the ground. He aimed off a web at the car, and as it hit the car door, the entire hinge broke off, as the door fell to the ground.

He threw his arms up, exasperated.

"Great," he sighed, "Guess I'm gonna have to take a shortcut."

He jogged down the sidewalk and ran through a garage where two men were playing ping pong.

"Hey, guys. Good game. Have fun," he tried to say without drawing too much attention to himself. The men looked at him in surprise, as he caught the attention of a dog, running after him. He sighed and grabbed a ball and threw it hoping the dog would run to it.

The dog ran off, and he shot off a web as began to swing unhindered through the neighbourhood,

"Woohoo! Now, this is more like it," Peter exclaimed, as he then accidentally knocked a treehouse out of a tree and landed on a shed that collapsed.

Okay so maybe not as smooth sailing as he would have liked.

He crashed through the yard, as he leapt onto a small toy car, and he lost his balance as he fell into a soccer net.

He stumbled through a hedge then as he saw a man barbecuing and nodded, "Smells really good!" he commented and ran off before the man understood what had happened.

He was not doing well at all.

He sighed; this had gone on long enough. He climbed onto the roof and saw the white van a few streets over, and he ran across the rooftops, swinging over to the nearby streets.

"Almost got you," he said, as he tried to keep the van in sights. "Thought you got away from me, didn't you? I got you right where I want you!" he exclaimed.

He leapt off the roof and onto the van.

Only to be snatched up by what seemed to be a giant bird.

Was Falcon onto him?

He screamed out, "What the hell!" as he looked down below to see himself flying through the air. He struggled to break free from the bird's grasp, but the creature simply flew them up higher, as Peter continued to dangle upside down.

The creature's eyes glowed green, and Peter noticed his spider logo light up as he knew one of his mother's features must have been triggered.

A parachute broke out of the back and all but ripped Peter away from the creature. He descended downwards, only to get caught up in the fabric of it, and he began to plummet into the water below him.

He tried to untangle himself from the parachute but felt himself get dragged down deeper and deeper.

His eyes widened as Iron Woman shot through the water and carried Peter upwards.

"Mom?" he asked, as he looked at her, "I thought you were in India?"

"I am in India," she said, as the suit mask lifted up to show him that it wasn't indeed her in the suit. "I got a distress signal from your suit. What happened? Are you okay?"

He prattled off the story to her, about everything. The weapons, the dealers, and the Bird man. She listened to him tell the story, as his suit began to warm up and dry him off. He smiled at her gratefully.

"Thank you," he said, as she gently sat him down.

"Steve's on his way to pick you up," she told him. "What were you thinking? What if you'd gotten hurt?"

"The guy with the wings is obviously the source of the weapons. I gotta take him down," Peter said, trying to explain to her.

"Honey, there are people who handle this sort of thing," she said gently.

"Like you?" he asked in surprise. He didn't know the Avengers were looking into it.

"No, like law enforcement," she commented, "The FBI. This is right up their alley."

"But-" he started to protest.

"No but's," she shook her head, "We'll talk more about it when I get home, okay? But for now, please, try and stay away?"

He saw a car pull up then, and Toni nodded, "Looks like Steve's here. Ask him to call me when you get home okay?"

"Okay," he said sullenly, as the suit took off.

"Rough day, Bud?" his dad said, as he got out of the car.

"You could say that," Peter sighed, as Steve pulled him into a hug.

"You had us so worried," he said, and Peter felt guilt rush over him, "Your mother called me in a panic. I'm glad she was able to get here in time."

"I would have been fine," he tried to reassure the man, and Steve (rightfully) didn't look like he believed him.

"Let's get you in the car, okay?" Steve said, as he opened the door for Peter and the teenager sat in the car.

Steve started it up and began driving it home. He glanced over at Peter, "So do you want to tell me why you brought your suit to a party?"

"It was stupid," Peter said, growing red.

"Probably," Steve conceded, "But I'm still curious."

"Ned accidentally told everyone I knew Spider-Man. Not on purpose or anything, but there's this girl at school who said she'd wanted to meet him and that she knew he was probably an amazing person on the inside, and I guess I just got caught up in the idea that maybe she'd be interested in me if she knew the truth," Peter said, looking down.

"So this is about a girl, huh?" his Dad said, sounding more amused over anything else.

"Yeah, pretty dumb right?" Peter said, embarrassed.

"Sweetheart, I told the entire world I liked your mother before I told her," Steve said to him, "I know all about stupid gestures to impress someone."

"But it worked out pretty well for you," Peter protested, knowing how much it had meant to his Mom that his Dad had told all those reporters where they could shove it.

"It did," his Dad admitted, "But it could have also backfired. But either way, it was a gesture of the heart. I didn't do it because I wanted just to impress her. I did it because I believed in it. Because none of those vultures deserved to print the things they were saying about her. So I wanted to defend her. If you do the same, if you tell this girl how you feel, no matter how scary, if you do it from the heart, well then maybe things will work out for you too."

"Thanks, Dad," Peter said, as Steve parked the car in the Tower's parking garage.

They headed up to their floor, as Steve kept his hand on Peter's shoulder.

"Get some rest, okay, Kiddo?" Steve told him, and Peter sighed as he went into his room and checked his voicemail.

Oh shit, Ned!


A/N: It was really important to me to give Happy and Peter a chance to bond in this chapter, given in canon homecoming they didn't have the best relationship. Hopefully you guys enjoyed the chapter and I'll see you next week!