Author's Note: Yes I'm evil but I'm still kinda following the story flow of the show. But there may be more to the 'Spider-Man' portion of this story than there was in the show. I own nothing.

33. The Trip

Piper frowned at her computer one ear bud in her ear as she watched the video someone had uploaded to Youtube of the mysterious Spider-Man. The suit bothered her, it was pitch black and reminded her of the symbiote, but that shouldn't be possible. She'd fried it. The teacher, Miss Quinn, cleared her throat.

"Are you still with us Miss Parker?" Piper paused the video and looked up.

"Yes Miss Quinn." The teacher rolled her eyes.

"Then would you kindly explain the point of the field trip this afternoon." Piper sighed.

"We're going to Stark Tower to see the arc reactor, and tour the research and development levels." Piper was not excited for this trip. Her dad had set it up. The school knew whose kid she was, they had to, and they would on occasion milk the crap out of it for educational purposes. Admittedly this was the first time Piper was on one of these field trips but she was not looking forward to it. Miss Quinn nodded and continued in her explanation. Piper put her headphone back in and turned the video back on. Pausing it again as Spider-man began to swing away she zoomed in on his wrist. He didn't appear to have any kind of web shooter, instead the web seemed to be coming directly from his wrist. Harry leaned over and grinned slightly at the video.

"Having fun Piper?" Piper rolled her eyes at him.

"I can't help being curious Harry. He looks different than Spider-girl." Harry grinned then frowned.

"You sure you're ok Piper? You've been off since yesterday." Piper sighed. Yesterday she'd gone to both of her childhood homes and found that she hadn't really known much about her parents at all. Sam's call had interrupted her before she could open the box and she'd headed home from there. The mysterious box that had been hidden in the safe behind a false wall was now hidden under Piper's bed. She hadn't had the courage to open it last night. She wasn't sure what might be on the flash drive she was nearly one hundred percent positive was inside the box for it to need to be hidden so thoroughly. She wasn't sure she really wanted to know.

"Just dealing with some things Har I'll be ok." Harry squeezed her shoulder and leaned back into his seat. Piper glanced at him, something seemed off. It was almost like his eyes were darker than normal. Piper shook her head, maybe it was just her imagination. Far too soon for her tastes they were loading onto the bus to head to Stark Tower. She snagged the seat next to Sam missing his smirk at Harry who was sitting behind them with Ava. Ava leaned forwards and grinned.

"I'm so excited, you know we're the only school he actually lets into the research and development levels?" Piper raised an eyebrow and grinned slightly.

"Yeah Ava, I wonder why that is?" Ava blushed darkly and laughed.

"Oh yeah I forgot." Piper laughed. Harry glanced at her.

"You told them?" Piper nodded.

"Yeah I did." Harry frowned but said no more instead looking out the window. MJ turned in her seat to glance at them and shook her head. Piper was honestly kinda clueless for the smartest person she knew. The bus pulled up in front of Stark Tower and they disembarked. Pepper was waiting for them in the lobby with one of the receptionists, Trisha.

"Welcome, students of Midtown High. To your left you will find a table with badges on it. Please find your name and pin the badge to the front of your shirt. Your badge must be visible at all times. If your badge is lost, you will be escorted out of the tour, there are no exceptions." Pepper said her eyes lingering on Piper for a moment as the students milled about the table grabbing their badges.

"Please stay with the tour group at all times. We'll head to the elevators in just a moment." Piper was expecting this to go much much worse than it had so far. She pinned the badge to her shirt and turned freezing as she spotted someone coming out of the elevator. Someone who shouldn't be out of bed yet. She swore and ducked behind Harry as Tony Stark himself sauntered over to the tour group. He never led tour groups, but Piper had a sinking feeling she knew why he was here.

"Pepper! Is this the group of bright young high schoolers we're showing around today?" Pepper nodded barely hiding a smile. Piper glared between them from behind Harry. He and MJ were trying not to snicker and failing miserably, and Pepper was apparently in on this. The whole world seemed against her these days.

"Great, would you mind making sure Clint and Natasha don't kill each other for me sweetie." He pecked Pepper on the cheek and took the tablet from her hands. Piper rolled her eyes but she grinned. It wasn't so rare these days to see Tony being openly affectionate with his girlfriend/co-CEO but it still made Piper grin every time. She was good for him. Several flashes from phone camera's went off as Tony smiles brightly.

"Alright kiddies. Welcome to Stark Tower! Most of you probably know it better as Avengers Tower but it's still my name on the lease so for today at least we'll call it Stark Tower." That got a few laughs and a few more camera flashes. The tour wasn't half bad in all honesty. At least until they reached the research and development floors. They were about halfway through that section of the tour when the whole building shook violently. Piper just managed to keep her feet as dust rained from the ceiling and the alarm started blaring. JARVIS piped up as the building shook again.

'Mister Stark, the tower is coming under attack by a small group of AIM scientists. The other Avengers are already moving.' Tony swore.

"Evacuate the building JARVIS. Activate the Armory!" The floor split open around Tony as the Armory, built throughout the tower, reached out and covered him in the armor that had saved so many. Piper began to help Miss Quinn escort the other students to the stairs, there was no way she could slip out, even in this confusion, not with her dad here. She counted heads and frowned they were missing someone. She looked around and realized who it was. The building shook again as Piper called out. Her spidey sense went crazy as she stumbled backward when the building gave another mighty shake. Her eyes met Sam's as the floor gave out and she screamed as she fell.