Chapter 8
Once in the gym, the Avengers spread out to different areas, Peter moving off to the side with Harley, both boys arguing over whether or not Peter should just take a hit in the ring and pretend to be knocked out (Peter's idea) or whether he should show off his skills to the class (obviously this was Harley's suggestion). Peter was worried that if he kept up with Nat then he wouldn't be able to avoid questions about it all, and he was worried that his secret identity wouldn't remain a secret. Harley argued that maybe if they saw that Peter could stand up for himself then maybe they would all stop treating him so poorly. Before their debate could go any further, the other elevator arrived, spilling his classmates out onto the training floor.
"Right everyone, since originally, the plan was just for me and Peter to come down here to spar for a bit, you guys will get to see that demonstration before we possibly move onto some simple techniques for you guys to try out." Natasha called everyone's attention to her.
"Why is Peter going to spar against you, isn't that a little unfair on him? Won't he get hurt?" Betty was the one addressing the super spy, bless her with her concern for Peter's safety, at least that was one more person that was working their way into the Avengers' good books.
Before Nat could answer, Flash once again had to butt in. "Who cares, Parker's gonna get his ass handed to him. It's gonna be awesome!" Several of the class laughed at the prospect, making multiple Avengers very unhappy.
Natasha looked at Flash with disdain, whilst replying "Peter will be absolutely fine, there's no need to worry about him. Perhaps afterwards we should open the floor up to let a few of you spar with different Avengers, I'm sure several are more than happy to volunteer." The Avengers all nodded, all happy at the thought of knocking the smug kid on his ass.
"Natasha, no!" Peter warned, shaking his head.
"Peter don't tell the Black Widow what to do!" Oh look, Mr Harrington just added himself onto the Avengers hit list. One grudging point goes to him for not being sexist towards Natasha and respecting/ being afraid of her, but also how did he not manage to take her warning seriously earlier about not talking to Peter like that?
"Come on Peter, let's go," was all Natasha said in reply. She walked over towards the boxing ring that was in the middle of the room.
Peter made to follow, but was stopped by Harley shouting "Take off your shirt!" This was met by laughs from both the Avengers and the class, although not for the same reasons. The Avengers found it funny that Harley would look for any opportunity to see Peter shirtless, whilst the class for some strange reason thought that Harley was making fun of Peter, after all, who would want to see scrawny Parker without a top on.
The whole class (bar Ned and MJ) were shocked when Peter simply shrugged off his top, balled it up and threw it in Harley's face, walking backwards with a smile on his face, giving his boyfriend plenty of time to take it all in, before he turned around and strolled over to where Nat was waiting, exuding confidence that they had never seen from the boy before. There were several gasps when the class actually took in his appearance, looking at his surprisingly muscled chest and arms, several of the girls drooling over his six pack.
Harley smirked when he spotted several of the class taking in the mark on Peter's hip that was only half hidden by the band of his sweat pants. He'd enjoyed making that mark.
In the ring Nat was mocking Peter, who was calmly stretching and warming up slightly.
"давай маленький паук, покажи им, что у тебя есть. (Come on Little Spider, show them what you've got.)" Peter just stretched his neck from side to side, shaking his arms out.
"Не сдерживаться, (Don't hold back,)" was all the warning Peter got before Nat was lunging across the mat at him and their fight began.
When most people mention training or sparring, they normally mean a nice warm up and a session that starts out easy and progressively gets more intense. Sparring with Natasha means going all out; full strength, full speed, no holds bared, the whole time. This meant that Peter had no chance of hiding his abilities, or pretending to be the weak kid who couldn't look after himself. This was all part of Nat's plan of course; sparring would cheer Peter up, as it was an activity he enjoyed, and it would also show his class that he wasn't the easy pushover that they had all marked him down as, which would hopefully result in the kid getting picked on less.
The class could hardly distinguish one move from another. They weren't just punching and dodging hits, but rather using their whole bodies as weapons. Every now and then the blur would slow down just enough for an attack to be visible. Natasha tried to do her infamous thigh chokehold, from a running leap, but Peter somehow managed to pull a move out of the matrix, bending over backwards at the last second, so that she flew straight over his head, landing behind him. Peter attempted to elbow Nat in the face, but she dodged and pushed him forwards, off balance.
The next time the fight slowed enough to be visible to the untrained eye, was when Natasha went to kick Peter in the stomach, but he caught her leg and yanked her towards him, managed to wedge his shoulder under her mass so that she flipped over him and then did some backflip/twist thing that ended with him hovering over Nat, pinning her to the mat. Admittedly, some moves were still fast enough to be incomprehensible, but even those that weren't performed at super speed were so complicated that only the most skilled in the room could follow what had happened.
Peter leaned in just slightly to the arm that was pinning Natasha from shoulder to shoulder, asking quietly "Вы уступаете? (Do you yield?)" The Russian making his voice sound more dangerous, especially when it had dropped down an octave form the exertion of the fight.
"Отличная работа, мой маленький паук, да, я уступаю. (Great job, my Little Spider, yes, I yield.)"
With that, Peter leapt back to his feet, a huge smile on his face, holding his hand out to pull Natasha up next to him. They began to walk back towards the group, (many of whom were whispering about how they didn't know that Peter could speak Russian and some the girls saying about how he seemed a lot hotter now!) analysing their fight and Natasha congratulating Peter for besting her and praising how much he had improved.
"Спасибо тетя Нат. Я не был бы так хорош без твоей подготовки. (Thanks Auntie Nat. I wouldn't be anywhere near as good without your training.)"
They then reached Harley (who gave Peter a congratulatory kiss), Ned and MJ. Ned was chatting at a hundred miles a minute about how he couldn't believe that Peter actually managed to beat the Black Widow and even MJ looked impressed. "You'll have to teach me how to fight like that Peter, that was bad ass!"
"I'm sure Aunt Tasha wouldn't mind teaching you. I think she likes watching us mere mortals writhe around in pain. Pretty sure thats the only reason she agreed to teach me." The second half of that statement was stage whispered and caused Nat to smile slightly before she quickly became serious once more.
"Your friends should be learning some self defence Peter. You're more than capable of teaching them yourself, but I would be happy to help. I'm sure the team would all pitch in when needed."
Cue Ned freaking out over the fact that the Black Widow and the rest of the Avengers were going to teach himself defence.
Meanwhile, Flash had decided to once again make a nuisance of himself, because of course he couldn't go more than half an hour without insulting someone. "I don't know why everyone's so impressed with Parker. It's not like he went up against any of the proper Avengers. What, he has to be paired up with a tiny woman just to stand any chance of victory?"
"Gods, he's lucky Jess isn't here! That woman scares the crap out of me, and I've known Nat half my life." Clint half-whispered to Tony, off to the side of the group. Tony simply nodded in reply.
Luckily, the display from Peter had made the rest of the class if not more respectful, then at least more wary of Peter, so none of them were really willing to side with Flash anymore. Peter just rolled his eyes before face palming. Anyone with half a brain cell wouldn't dare insult Natasha, especially after watching her fight, but Flash just had to open his mouth. It was like watching a train wreck in slow motion; Peter knew exactly what Nat was going to do, and what the outcome would be, yet he was powerless to stop it.
"If I am so easy to take down, I'm sure it will be no problem to do the same, Eugene, was it?" Natasha replied, a terrifying (to anyone who truly knew her), sweet smile on her face.
"Sure, I can take you!" Flash's cockiness truly knew no bounds.
"Ms Romanov, I'm not sure that this is such a great idea," Mr Harrington half-heartedly tried to step in.
"Nonsense, the kid wants to prove his stuff, let him." With that Nat beckoned Flash to follow her over to the sparring area with the instruction to "Stretch, warm up and let me know when you're ready."
"Fri, make sure you record this, I want to be able to watch this back anytime one of us gets sick, or sad." Harley requested of the AI.
"Of course, Mini Mechanic."
The whole team were excited to watch the little punk get knocked on his ass, they had all edged closer to where the fight was happening.
Flash gave the all clear to start the fight and Nat even told him she would let him make the first move. He leaned in, throwing a sloppy punch towards her arm and Nat quickly grabbed hold of his hand, spun him around, pinned his arm to his back and pushed him, face first, down to the floor. The fight didn't even last 3 seconds! Then Natasha bent down to hiss something that was almost certainly menacing and threatening into the boy's ear, waiting until she got a nod of confirmation before backing off of him completely.
Flash got slowly to his feet, wincing in pain and rising to find that not only were the Avengers family laughing at him, but so were a good deal of his classmates. He felt humiliation flood through him and a blush rise on his cheeks. Harley and many of the others hoped that that would be enough to keep him in his place, although many of them doubted it. Although they did get great enjoyment out of watching him shuffle back over to the class quietly, with his head down.
Now that the action was over, everyone started questioning Peter about his ability and how was he able to hold his own against an Avenger? At this point Brad (who had been relatively quiet all day, but was one of Flash's lackeys) decided to step up to try and fill Flash's shoes, who had finally been scared into keeping his trap shut, at least for now. "Well obviously it was planned! She let him win to try to stop everyone from thinking he's a loser. Too bad we all know him too well for that to work."
"If only you knew him at all," Harley muttered darkly.
"Oh I'm sure Peter here would be more than happy to demonstrate his skills against someone else. We are all always happy for a good spar, or perhaps you yourself could step into the ring?" Loki slipped up to the group, tone seeming all polite and soft to the class, but for those who knew the God of Mischief best, they could hear the danger and threat laced under his words. His smile showed that he was happy to encourage another boy into a fight where he would get injured. After all, he wasn't causing any direct harm, which meant he wasn't, strictly speaking, going against any of the rules laid out in his pardon. You cant blame the Trickster God for enjoying a little trickery after all.
Peter was shaking his head, which Brad of course had to jump on as proof that the fight wasn't real and it had all been planned out. Really, Peter was just getting fed up with everyone's behaviour.
"Fine, Brad, who do you want me to Spar now?"
"That big scary guy over there, with the metal arm." Brad replied, looking excited for the carnage that was to come.
"Dude, you do realise that's the Winter Soldier, right?" One of Brad's friends asked.
"Even better! Parker doesn't stand a chance against him."
Bucky smiled at Peter and led him back over to the ring and prepared to spar. " дай мне свой лучший выстрел! (Give me your best shot kid!)" He taunted.
Then once again the blur of fighting picked up, lasting even longer than Nat and Peter's fight had. They parried back and forth, trading blows. There was no clear winner for a long time, the lead passing back and forth between them. Finally Peter managed to use Bucky's weight against him, using his flexibility to twist around the man, trip him off balance and then throw him over his shoulder, to land him on his back on the mat, hard.
Once they had both caught their breath, Bucky congratulated Peter on his win. "I've only managed to beat you once before, are you sure you didn't let me win?" Peter asked uncertainly.
"Don't let their comments knock your confidence punk. That was all you. You took me down fair and square. Your training with all of us has really paid off."
"Thanks Uncle Bucky." Peter once again came back to the group with a big smile on his face. Unfortunately that quickly fell when Brad once again opened his big mouth.
"See that was fixed too, no way he could ever beat the Winter Soldier!"
By this point Peter had finally decided that enough was enough, and he wasn't going to keep putting up with everything that he got from his classmates. So he just turned to Brad and said, "Come on then Brad. Just you and me, in the ring. That way you know it's not been staged or whatever you've been thinking. Beat me and prove that it's all fake. But if I win, all your comments, all the bullying stops. Deal?"
"Yeah, whatever Parker. I can beat you with my eyes closed. Lets go."
"Good bit of training, sparring without vision, I should remember to make you all train like that more often," Natasha mused, over by the other Avengers.
"10 on Peter!" Harley shouted out.
"I'll take that action." Another student replied. Soon most of the class and the Avengers were all joining in.
"I can't believe you're betting on me." Peter complained to Harley.
"That's because I know you'll win, Sugar. We can make a good bit of money off of them and use it to go out on a nice date somewhere. Now, go kick his ass!" Harley sent Peter off with a kiss and a smirk.
In the ring Peter was hesitant. "I don't want to hurt you Brad!"
"Shut up and get on with it Parker."
The two boys circled around each other, neither making the first move. Peter was concentrating on not using his powers on the guy. One punch and he could be pancaked on the floor, after all, Brad wasn't enhanced like Nat and Bucky, nor was he even used to fighting, unlike the others Peter normally sparred with. Eventually, Brad made the first move, which Peter slowly dodged out of the way of. He stuck to defensive moves, merely dodging or blocking strikes. At one point he gave Brad a gentle tap on the arm when blocking a punch and the groan the other boy let out was like he'd just been KO'd by a heavyweight champion.
So Peter let him keep going for a couple of minutes until Harley called out to him to "Stop playing with your food Peter, just knock him out. I'm bored!"
"But look at him, he's so fragile. If I punch him I'm gonna like break his face!" Peter replied, no longer even playing attention to the 'fight'. His spidey-senses went off, telling him to dodge, so he casually just stepped to the side and grabbed Brad's arm on it's way past him. He gave a slight tug and had the boy on the ground without once punching him. Then he walked out of the ring.
"Well, I hope everyone's satisfied. I'm done being your trick pony for the day. If you want to fight then ask one of the other Avengers to kick your ass instead. Fair warning, they wont go as easy on you as me."
Peter ignored the mixed looks of shock, disbelief and even a little bit of awe and respect on his classmates' faces and wandered off to a bench with Harley, where he shrugged his shirt back on and allowed Harley to once more clasp his necklace around his neck. They sat quietly chatting between themselves as the rest of the class went through a few easy self defence moves with the Avengers, with even Mr Harrington joining in.
Eventually Emma had to cut in and warn everyone in the room that if they were to make it to the next part of the tour on time then they would have to wrap it up here and start heading down several floors.