Peter's life was getting pretty complicated and he didn't like it.
His new suit had brought him a bit of prestige in New York's under belly and the criminals were finally taking him seriously. What sucked about that was it wasn't just the criminals that were starting to take notice.
The more videos and eye witness testimonies that made their way out, the more men in black suits were seen on the roof tops. Men in black, armed with tranquilizer darts and stun guns. Spider-man had attempted to find out what the men actually wanted but it turned out they weren't much for talking.
Somebody wanted him brought in alive and that was almost as scary as thugs trying to kill him. He had an image of himself strapped to some examination table with doctors in long white lab coats standing around him with needles and scalpels.
Being dissected like some frog in science class was just not very appealing.
And if Spider-man's government wack-jobs weren't enough to deal with Peter Parker's new self-imposed BFF Deadpool wasn't making things any easier.
Peter glanced around nervously as he entered his apartment building. Satisfied no one was following him he pulled out his key and his door.
"Hey May," Peter called as he came in.
"Hi hun, how was school?"
"Ok. Do we have anything to eat?"
May came around the corner smoothing out her work shirt.
"Of course, hun. Lasagnas in the oven. Are you sure you will be ok to spend the night by yourself? I don't want to pull a double shift, but Marlene was in such a bind!" May sighed.
"It's alright May," He said as he wrapped his Aunt in a hug the she so sorely needed. May sucked up the physical affection with a huge smile. "Have a good night May, I will be fine, love you!"
"Alright sweetie, love you too!" She gave him a kiss on the cheek and headed out.
Peter didn't wait to grab a plate, he simply sat at the kitchen table with the casserole dish of cheesy noodle greatness and stuffed his face until every last bite was gone and his stomach was happily full.
Once the dishes were put away he flopped on the sofa and chose a movie to be lazy to. He was taking the night off, even though it was causing him anxiety to do so, it seemed like the logical thing seeing as the hit teams were out and about in force.
His leg tapped rhythmically on the couch arm as he half watched the movie, half swiped though his phone.
Ned texted him a few times but mostly just to send him inappropriate memes. The kind people usually felt bad for laughing at but laughed all the same.
"What are we watching?" Deadpool asked as he materialized out of nowhere to lift Peter's legs so he could sit down, making sure to plop said legs into his lap once he was situated.
It took a moment for Peter to come out of his shock. The Merc with a mouth continued to scare the hell out of him on a regular basis. His spidey-sense didn't register him and even his super-human hearing never caught a sound when the man was sneaking around.
"Shaun of the dead," Peter answered slowly, "How the hell did you get in here Wade?"
Deadpool gave him a look that clearly said the teen asked a stupid question.
"How does anyone enter an apartment?" The man asked seriously, "Through the locked and bolted window, that is no longer locker nor bolted! You need a new lock by the way, that one is WAY to easy to jimmy!"
Of course he broke in. What other answer did Peter expect to get?
Peter sighed but did not move from his spot. He had become way to used to Wade just appearing.
As much as Peter knew the man was dangerous, he couldn't help but feel the Merc needed a friend and to have a little more human contact with people that weren't killers. Besides, if Deadpool was sitting with him on the sofa watching movies he wasn't out killing people.
Peter snickered at a meme on his phone and promptly showed Wade, who also laughed out loud.
When Peter woke up the next day Wade was gone but had left him a picture drawn in crayon of the two of them watching tv together.
Breakfast was short affair seeing as Peter was in rush to pull his suit on and go out for a day time patrol.
His anxiety from the night before disappeared as he swung across the city and webbed up bad guys.
Sticking carefully to the wall, Spider-man reached out and gently plucked the frightened kitten from the window ledge. Tucking the cute bundle of fur under his chin he made his way back up to the next floor.
"Here ya go, safe and sound!" He stated holding the kitten out to a scared eight-year-old. She broke into a huge grin and hugged her kitten tight.
"Oh, thank you Spider-man! Thank you so much!" She squealed.
"Happy to help!" He commented then shot a web and swung out over the street backwards giving her a salute before turning to snag his next target. A moment later he landed lightly on a high-rise roof with good feeling in his chest.
Muscles tensed, and he dove off to the side before jumping to perch on a chimney. Two darts skipped away after hitting the metal roof. From his perch he could hear the men yell into their comms.
"Suspect sighted at 77th and Elliot Ave. All units converge! Non-lethals only!"
"Ah come on guys! What the hell? Where were you five minutes ago when I rescued a kitten? Doesn't that at least give me a good deed pass for the day?"
The closest men refused to answer him and instead fired at him again. Spider-man did a pretty side aerial with a twist to avoid the projectiles. In mid air he shot both men with webs, effectively gluing their hands and weapons into one sticky ball.
"As such as I want to sit and talk about this, I don't think you guys are ready for a heart to heart. See ya!"
"Target on the move. Heading north. Call in the big guns!"
Big guns? Spider-man was just contemplating who or what was the big guns when cold metal hands snagged him out of the air and started to lift him even higher.
"What the hell?!" He screamed seeing the ground fall away. He twisted enough to see the shiny red and gold of Ironman. "Dude! I'd love to properly fanboy at this moment, but I am pretty sure you have the wrong guy!"
"Sorry Spiderling, the bosses have some questions for you and weren't to happy when you made their agents look like untrained fools last week!"
"It's Spider-man! And sense when," he twisted in the grip, so he faced his captor properly, "Do you take orders from anyone?" He emphasized his question but tucking his knees into his chest and kicking out with both feet into the Ironman chin.
The force behind the kick snapped the suits head back and knocked Ironman off course slightly. It also loosened his grip enough that Spider-man pushed off him and broke his hold. Of course, that meant the super teen was now free falling from several storeys up.
"Shit! Shit! Shit! Shit! Shit!" He chanted like a mantra before his web caught a building, unfortunately the angle was all wrong and his arms seared in pain as he jerked to a sudden stop. The momentum snapped his hold and he slammed into a roof.
One leg twisted underneath of him send out a whole new level of pain.
"Mother fu.." Spider-man whimpered into his hand.
"Language!"
Ah-no, really? What the hell did he do to deserve having both Captain America and Ironman coming after him!?
Spider-man looked up at the national icon with a mixture of awe, confusion and fear.
Ironman landed on the other side of the roof.
"Alright Fury, he is grounded. Hurry up, I am missing one hell of a party in my tower to do you this little favor!"
Spider-man attempted to stand so that he could make a break away, but his leg seared in pain as soon as he put any weight on it. Too stubborn for his own good though, he remained upright.
"So, what's this then? Intervention? Did I save one too many kittens? Is there a cap on how many thieves I can wed up? Ohhhh did I accidently leave foot prints up your building and you need me to wipe them off?"
The Ironman helmet lifted, and Tony Stark looked back at him with a superior smirk.
"Can it, web-head. You have some explaining to do to SHIELD."
Spider-man was clearly confused at this statement. He looked over at Captain America, specifically his shield.
"It talks? Did you put an AI in it or something? What does it need to know?" He slapped his hands to his face in mock horror, "What does it already know!?" Obviously he had spent way too much time with Wade, the man's sense of humor was wearing off on him.
Both men stopped, looked at each other then back to the vigilante. Before they could comment on the obvious ridiculousness of the entire conversation a third man joined them on the roof.
"Nice eye patch," Spider-man found himself saying before thinking. "Very pirate-esk."
The man's steps faltered just a little before regaining his demanding presence.
"Spider-man, it is a pleasure to finally meet you!" the man said, "I am Nick Fury of SHIELD."
"And?" Spider-man urged when there was a dramatic pause at the end of this statement. "If that is supposed to mean something to me, I'm sorry, I have no idea. Want to just give me the short notes so we can get on with this? I gotta get home!"
"We make it a point to have all enhanced human on our radar and your little star is just shining so bright these days. I want to make sure you aren't going to be a threat." The man stated bluntly. "I am going to need you to come with me so we can clear your identification and make sure there is nothing hidden in your life that is going to come back and bite us in the ass!"
Spider-man stiffened. He didn't want to give his identity to anyone, and he certainly didn't want to go with this man, even if he had Ironman and Captain America backing him.
"Ummm, I feel like I should be allowed to confer with my lawyer on that." He blurted out.
The three adults shared a look of confusion.
Spider-man decided that maybe his stall to give him more time to think wasn't such a bad idea. He reached inside his suit to a convenient little cell pouch that Matt had been smart enough to have put in and called the man.
Spider-man held a finger up to Fury, telling him to wait a minute before he could interrupt him.
Thankfully Matt picked up.
"Hey, Mr. Murdock, sir," Spider-man whispered into the phone, knowing Matt would be able to hear him but Captain America's enhanced hearing couldn't.
"Peter, what's wrong?" Matt demanded hearing the stress behind the words.
"Um, I was out patrolling and those guys with the sedatives started chasing me again. I avoided them easy enough but apparently, they work for some organization called SHIELD? Long story short, I am standing on a roof top with Director Nick Fury, Ironman and Captain America and they are telling me I need to go with them and give up my identity 'cause national security or some shit."
There was a long pause in which Spider-man glanced at the three men to make sure they didn't move. Finally, Matt spoke.
"OK, Peter. Put me on speaker phone please," Matt instructed.
Spider-man clicked the speaker phone and limped close enough for Fury to hear what Matt had to say. Ironman snickered at the out of date, severely beaten phone, the teen tried to ignore him.
"Mr. Fury is it?" Matt demanded.
"Yes," Fury drawled, clearly annoyed by this turn of events. "My name is Matthew Murdock, perhaps you have heard of me? I represent Frank Castle."
Fury perked up a bit at that.
"Yes, I know who you are Mr. Murdock. Care to tell me why I cam talking to you now?"
"You have essentially violated every human right of my client as a US citizen!"
"How do I know he is a US citizen?" Fury countered, "For all I know he is a Russian sleeper agent playing the good guy before he strikes. I have seen his skills Mr. Murdock and I can not let him swing around this city without having reassurances."
"I understand your predicament Mr. Fury, but I will not allow you to make an example out of my client. He hides his identity in order to protect the ones he loves."
"There is no legal path for you to take on this Matthew. You can't take an agency to court when they out rank the court." Fury smiled at this and took a step towards Spider-man.
"I don't need a legal avenue on this one Nick." Matt said, his voice deadly calm, "I will simple expose you for the heartless organization that you are. The average American family will shake when they hear about SHIELD, they will wonder if these men in black are going to show up in their neighbor hood and kidnap their children."
There was silence after that. A deep silence.
Spider-man could follow Matt's reasoning, but he wasn't fond of the current parties knowing he was a kid.
Finally, Captain America spoke.
"How old are you?" He asked Spider-man in a voice that clearly showed he was not happy with cornering a child.
Spider-man shrugged nervously.
"Answer him," Matt urged softly.
"Fifteen." He finally admitted. Captain America threw his hands up and turned away from the scene.
"Fifteen?! Geeze Fury, we are up here harassing a kid!" He growled.
"That bit of information, although concerning, doesn't change the fact I need an ID." Fury sighed after a moment.
"I understand. Here is what we are going to do." Matt said in a tone that clearly held no room for arguing. "You are going to let my client go. He is going to come to me. Together we will meet you at, let's say STARK tower, in two hours and we will discuss options then. Does that suit you Mr. Fury?"
Fury didn't answer because it was obvious Matt didn't care if that suited him or not, that was how this was going to be.
"Spider-man, take me off speaker phone," Came the next demand from the lawyer.
Spider-man did as he asked and held the phone to his ear as all three adults stared at him with a range of emotions.
"Did that work?" Matt asked.
"Uh-huh," Spider-man answered, not breaking eye contact.
"Good. Can you get here?"
"I think I messed my leg up," the teen confessed. Both Ironman and Captain America looked up in concern.
"Shit. Ok Pete, swing as far away from that roof top as you can get then call me back. I will come get you."
"Alright Mr. Murdock, thanks."
Spider-man hung up the phone and tucked it away in the pouch. Eyeing the men wearily he took a step towards the edge of the building. No body moved so Spider-man threw himself over the side and swung away quickly.
Two hours later Peter found himself limping, sans suit, into STARK tower with Matthew Murdock by his side.