Chapter 5-Peter

When Ned told him that Shuri couldn't do sightseeing today Peter had two thoughts. The first was that he had time to do patrol as Spiderman, the second was that it was a good sign that Shuri was texting Ned instead of him. He smiled slightly and nodded.

"That's fine."

"You want to work on homework later at my place?" Ned offered.

"My mom kinda wants to know that you're okay and she'll make all kinds of snacks if you come over." As tempting as that offer was, Peter knew he had to get back into the swing of things… Literally.

"Nah, man, I think I'm going to go on patrol after school."

"Oh, cool. I can be your guy in the chair." Peter kind of laughed.

"Thanks for the offer, but I have Karen, you know, the suit lady? I don't really need a guy in the chair today." Ned's face seemed to fall for a second. He regained his composure quickly, but Peter had definitely noticed.

"Hey, but I'll totally come over later. Nine O'clock, homework, I promise!" Ned smiled shakily and nodded and they headed to class.

Peter was kind of happy to be back at school. Considering one of the last things he remembered before the snap was being on an alien planet fighting a crazy titan, this little bit of normal was refreshing and good for him. But as much as he enjoyed the normalcy, he couldn't ignore his pull towards being Spiderman again. It would be his first time suiting up since Mr. Stark's funeral. That put a bit of a damper on his enthusiasm. It would be hard to be Spiderman without Mr. Stark as his mentor, but the world needed a Spiderman more than ever, didn't it?

Didn't it? Because patrol started out pretty slow. He half regretted bailing on Ned to do this. Ned's mom made awesome, awesome snacks. But he had to do this, had to keep going even when the going got boring. Because if someone didn't do it, something could go wrong. He didn't know if he had to be more than the friendly neighborhood Spiderman now that Mr. Stark was dead, but he was willing to do whatever it takes to fill those shoes. Would be nice though, if the Avengers had given him a heads up on what that meant, and what districts he covered now that everything was different.

"A sign, please." He muttered to himself. He hadn't meant literally, and was about to head to Ned's place early for homework and snacks and other normal teen stuff, when he got his sign. Except it was more like an explosion than a sign. Actually, it was exactly an explosion. He heard it before he saw it, and swung towards the commotion.

Except the sign that was an explosion was actually a trap for the Spiderman. Well, for any little Avenger that sprung the trap. And it was the newest little Avenger that took the bait. Of course. Because to live up to his mentor, Peter couldn't leave well enough alone. And it landed him right in the middle of disaster.

"Karen what are we looking at?" He asked his super intuitive suit.

"An explosion, Peter," Karen said.

"Okay, yeah, I know, but do we know what happened here?"

"Yes, there was an explosion."

"I get it, it's been a bit since we were on patrol and nothing has happened yet and so we're a little bit off. It's not your fault, I don't blame you. I don't blame you," Peter was a little annoyed with his AI, but Mr. Stark made him that suit. So it was perfect. Telling Shuri that he needed to think about whether or not he wanted upgrades on his suit was basically like leaving her on read. He should probably get back to her on that. He actually regretted not spending time with her today, even though that hadn't been up to him. He kind of regretted not spending time with Ned today, since that had been up to him, and Ned had seemed disappointed. Even though he hadn't physically registered the time difference during the snap, he still felt like he had missed out on five years of life experience and was coming back less of himself because of it. He hated to admit it, but he didn't just feel out of his element with Spiderman stuff, he felt out of his element with friendship, and, in general, with normal teen stuff.

Maybe it was just because his friend circle was expanding. Adding in Shuri was certainly going to change things… Who was he kidding? He couldn't pin this one on Shuri! She wasn't the one who had snubbed Ned and gone on patrol instead of eating snacks and solving math problems with his best friend. Shuri hadn't done anything wrong.

"I'm the worst," he muttered to himself as he approached the site of the explosion, about to swing inside and investigate.

"That's not true, Peter. You're about to enter the debris. There is a lot of smoke, so I will be monitoring your breathing." Peter paused.

"Are you not always monitoring my breathing?"

"Mr. Stark designed me to look after you in every way possible. But he added a feature where I could do so without sounding like I was babying you. So I am permitted to not tell you what I am monitoring."

"Uh, thanks, Karen…" With that in mind he psyched himself up and swung in, searching for the source of the smoke.

"Careful, Peter," Karen warned unhelpfully, distracting him long enough from the tingling DANGER feeling he got from his spidersense. And then, before he could notice the attacker, the trap was sprung and he was captured.

"I should be doing homework," he realized as he was flung by a robotic tentacle into a metal room.

"I am monitoring your heart rate and it is indicating that you are feeling claustrophobic in this room."

"Thanks, Karen."