The Final Decision

So sorry it took forever to upload. Stuff came up. But after about 4 months, here's chapter 5.

Another week later

9:30 p.m.

Peter was secretly swinging to the address that Black Widow has texted to his phone. He didn't wear his costume this time because he didn't feel it was necessary. Instead he wore casual jeans with a navy blue hoodie. The address he was sent to be was a dark alley that was hidden behind buildings, and had only one lamppost illuminated in the area. It wasn't the best place to be alone unless you had some serious self-defense combat skills, and fortunately Peter did, but it really didn't matter because Black Widow was going to be there as well, and the last time they got ganged up on, it didn't end well for the attackers.

When Peter got to the area, he landed on the building that the alley way was behind. He stood at the edge of the building and looked down to see that Black Widow was already there waiting for him. She just stood there as she usually looked, and stood against the lamppost with her legs and arms crossed. Peter decided to see if he could try to sneak up on her this time, and not always the other way around. So he ran along the other side of the building and jumped across as silently as he could over behind a garbage bin, where he hoped she wouldn't see him. He was about 20 feet away from her, and she didn't appear to show any signs that she knew he was there. So Peter then jumped around the bins that were in the alley way, and silently crawled behind them. When he finally got behind the bin that Black Widow was standing in front of, while still leaning against the lamppost, Peter then quietly flipped over the box, and slowly approached her from behind.

Suddenly, her voice caught him by surprise.

"It took you long enough," Black Widow said unamused.

"Man, I thought I really got you this time," Peter said embarrassingly. Black Widow then turned around to face him.

"Better luck next time then," she said as she slowly approached him.

"So, are you gonna take me to Director Fury?" Peter asked.

"That was part of the deal wasn't it?"

"Yeah, just making sure."

"Well, I need to make sure you're truly considering this?"

"Yeah, I said I would."

"Actually, you never gave me a straight answer. All you said was that you would talk to Fury and that's it. You never said you would want to partake in his initiative."

"Well, you see, I was hoping that maybe things could be straightened out more if I met with Director Fury in person, and maybe he could further explain it more."

"What do you mean? Didn't I explain it enough?"

"No, it's not that, it's…

Black Widow's face then began to shift from friendly to more grim. It wasn't that she was mad that she didn't explain the initiative to Peter thoroughly enough, but because she was still feeling some of her anger that she had felt last week about his life being manipulated by SHIELD. Peter also began to notice the look on her face, and was starting to feel a little uncomfortable on the inside. She wasn't that same beautiful and angelic woman he remembered from before. She looked cold. She looked as deadly as a black widow could be. He wasn't sure if it was something he had said or not, which it was, but he surely wasn't going to risk his ass at this point.

"I'm sorry if I offended you or anything," said Peter trying to sound as apologetic and merciful as possible.

"It's not that," said Black Widow trying to assure him that she wasn't angry towards him, "it's just that I need for you to absolutely positive that this is what you want for yourself. Because if once you dive into this lifestyle there's no coming back."

"My decision is yes."

"Have you seriously thought about it that much these past two weeks since I last met with you?"

"Of course. It's a huge life-changing decision to make. Why wouldn't I be thinking about it?"

"Because maybe you don't realize how serious this is."

"What are you saying?"

Black Widow paused, and took in a deep breath. She then closed her eyes and exhaled nice and slow and then opened her eyes again.

"Joining SHIELD isn't going to make your life any easier," she spoke. "It's not a big stress reliever of any sort. If anything, it only gives even more stress than it has to offer. I can already tell that you're struggling right now, and from that I'm not sure if you're ready to take this next big step in your life."

For the first time, Peter was starting to understand and get a clear view of what he was about to step into. He never thought about such things as stress and how it would make his life even harder than it is now. He still never stopped thinking about his loved ones though. That was most important.

Black Widow was then talking in a calmer and gentler voice.

"I'm not saying that you can't ever join, but I'm not sure that you're ready now. I understand why Fury had the idea of recruiting you for the Avengers Initiative, but maybe he didn't realize that now isn't the time. I know that if it were you out there fighting with us the day of the attack on Manhattan, you could take out as many of those Chitauri forces as the rest of us could, and probably even more than me. You have potential, Peter, I know that."

That was the first time she ever called him Peter. After hearing her say that, Peter knew that she was telling the truth and was speaking from her heart, which was something Black Widow normally didn't do. Black Widow was a good actress in reality and was trained to use her acting skills on various occasions including on missions, but now she seemed to be most honest. He was a teenage kid, what purpose did she have to lie to him? It wasn't going to do him or her any good either way.

"I understand, and I appreciate that you care about my future… but if it's okay with you, I would still like to speak with Director Fury face to face," Peter spoke ever so gentle.

When Peter said that he appreciated her for caring about his future, Black Widow almost didn't want to admit it, but it was true deep down inside that she did care. She wanted to deny the fact that she cared about someone as simple as a teenage boy, but she could never fool herself no matter how hard she faked it.

While still disagreeing with the fact that Peter wanted to still meet with Director Fury, Black Widow went ahead and took him there anyway.

"Very well," she said in a neutral tone.

She then walked off deeper into the alleyway, and led the way to whatever path that would take them to SHIELD headquarters. Peter still didn't have any idea that SHIELD's headquarters was a giant floating helicarrier base in the sky. That was just going to have to be a surprise.

After minutes of walking, the two of them had reached a shore by the Hudson River. It was still dark outside, and all that could be seen in the distance was dark blue water.

"What are we doing here?" asked Peter out of curiosity. "Is this where the headquarters are?"

"Good guess, but this is where we're going to be taken to the headquarters," Black Widow replied.

Suddenly, a small Quinjet rose from out of the river and solidly floated above the water like a boat. The cockpit then opened and inside was a SHIELD pilot who was awaiting their arrival. Black Widow then turned to Peter.

"You getting in?" she said as she climbed over the rail along the river's shore and into the co-pilot's seat.

Peter then snapped out of his state of astonishment and climbed inside.

"This is new," said Peter.

"It's called a Quinjet," said Black Widow. "It's a specially designed vehicle for SHIELD purposes only. No one else in the world has any technology like this."

The pilot then closed the cockpit and brought the Quinjet back down into the water. The pilot then took them through the undersea view of the Hudson River at a very high speed.