Ah it's been so nice! So many people have been saying please don't let this be the end! But don't worry, you have 3 more chapters to look forward to before this story is over. Thank you for the reviews!

Chapter 6

After an extensive check-up that consisted of wrapping his torso to keep what turned out to be not one broken rib but three in place, and digging the bullet out of his arm and stitching up the hole it left, Peter found himself sitting in the common room with ice on his face and his whole family sitting around him. There was a movie playing but he wasn't paying much attention. He was sandwiched between his dad and his pops, with his dad glaring at the screen, arms crossed in front of his chest and his pops with his arm slung across the back of the couch behind him. He was in direct line of sight of his aunt Tasha who sat on the other end of the semi-circle shaped couch, her legs thrown over uncle Clint's lap. Bruce was sitting right in the middle of the couch, a computer on his lap as he checked through Peter's vitals, clearly just making sure everything was okay. He'd already received the lecture on why not to be the hero by his pops, though it was somewhat gentler than he'd expected it to be, and his dad had mumbled something about giving him something to defend himself with if anything like this ever happened again. He leaned back, comfortable with his family surrounding him, but that didn't get rid of the little suspicion that was forming in the back of his mind. That day had been a whirlwind of pain and surprises, but even still, it hadn't seemed to really lead anywhere. Well, except lend him to the comfort that his family would always find him if he was ever in trouble, but that didn't get rid of the worries that were beginning to fester in the back of his mind. He realized he was frowning when he felt his aunts gaze on him, and then that her attention had drawn that of everyone else.

"Something on your mind, Peter?" his aunt asked, and he shrugged, wincing at the motion, and he didn't miss how both his parents stiffened at his show of pain.

"Yeah, we're missing something about today." he finally said, and even Bruce's attention was now zeroed in on him. "Two bases, one of which you'd think S.H.I.E.L.D. would be all over considering it's location, and yet you didn't know they existed." he said, speaking directly to his aunt and uncle. They'd discussed it briefly, that it was thanks to Peter that they'd been able to find him so quickly, and it had bothered them as well. "Then there's the fact that the leader guy was from S.H.I.E.L.D., and he seemed to be working for someone much more powerful. In fact, he didn't seem to hold any power over the overall mission, except for you know, hostage control." he carefully ignored everyone's reaction to that. "So for one, how did nobody know that he and a bunch of other agents were rogue? Especially considering what he told me."

"He gave you information?" his aunt asked, surprised, and he nodded.

"I think he was trying to taunt me with it. He should've known better." Peter said with a shrug of his uninjured side. "Anyways, he said that they only needed some of pops blood to finish their research." he shifted uncomfortably then, knowing he was going to have to bring up what the rogue agent had said about his biological father. "He said he'd already collected uncle Bruce's blood from S.H.I.E.L.D.," he gave his uncle an apologetic look but his uncle shrugged, knowing it couldn't be helped. "And well, I kinda bled all over the place so." he changed the subject quickly when his dads' jaw tensed, his hands in fists. "So anyways, they said they were using my biological father's cross-species research and they were going to use my blood as the base DNA to build on then compare it to pops and cross reference with uncle Bruce's so that they could work on recreating the serum that made pops, all Captain America." he waved his hands uselessly. "Point is, didn't it seem kinda easy?" his dad was on his feet now and Peter froze mid-motion. Watching his dad carefully. "Dad I didn't mean-" he tried to say, but Tony shook his head.

"It's fine." he said sharply, and Peter shrank back, gaining a huff from his dad. "That wasn't easy, Peter. Look at you, you're a mess." he snapped, and Peter felt himself frowning.

"It could've been worse." his dad's eyes narrowed and he rolled his own eyes. "You know I'm right. They could've shot up the school and injured a whole bunch of innocents. I'd like to think I gave at least double what I received. They really don't expect teenagers to fight back. Plus, I'm fine. I'll heal. It's a lot more important to figure out who these guys were working for and what they actually hope to accomplish, because if that guy really did work for S.H.I.E.L.D. then whoever he works for knows that nothing in Uncle Bruce's DNA or pops can give them anything they need which kind of means that was most likely a convenient lie to cover up what they really wanted." he let out a breath, cutting off his rambling sentence, but his dad was scowling at him.

"No, we will be figuring out who they were working for and what they really want. You will be under house arrest until we catch the bastards because we do not need a repeat of today. They now know just what you're capable of and what we're willing to do to get you back."

"Dad-" Peter tried to cut in, but Tony slashed a hand through the air cutting him off.

"This isn't an argument. You'll be here and you won't be leaving. Clearly the school isn't safe and the only place we know for sure you'll be safe is here. So this is where you'll be staying." Peter was on his feet now too, glaring back at his dad.

"That's completely unfair! Why am I the one being punished when I'm the victim here?"

"That's exactly the point!" Tony shouted back, and Peter blinked in surprise. Tony dragged a hand over his face before reaching for his son, grasping his shoulders carefully to avoid irritating any of his injuries. "That's exactly my point. You were a victim today, and it's not going to happen again. I won't let it." then he let go, and turned, heading for his lab.

"I've got something I want to work on before we start tracking these bastards down. You should give Coulson a call. See if he knows anything." he disappeared and left Peter staring after him.

"Pops, come on, you can't think this is fair." he pleaded, turning to face his other father, but the blonde was frowning.

"I don't think it's necessarily a bad idea, you can't honestly say you want something like today to happen again."

"Of course not, but Pops-"

"I'll speak with your dad, house arrest seems a bit... harsh. But for now, just try and get better, okay?" Steve moved to follow his dad into the workshop, and his uncles and aunt avoided his gaze. With a sigh of annoyance, Peter stormed off to his room.

"I give him an hour before he breaks out." Bruce murmured softly, drawing the gaze of the other two occupants, and Clint laughed.

"Nah, I think he'll give it at least a day. He has to know Tony and Steve will probably be checking in on him hourly." Bruce shrugged and Clint looked to Natasha.

"Tasha?"

She stood fluidly, pulling out her phone.

"I give it twenty minutes." then she was dialling a number, phone to her ear. "Agent Coulson, I have something I need to discuss with you." she was walking towards the elevator and disappeared soon after, leaving the two men alone. Clint turned back to the movie, but Bruce was frowning down at the screen he held. The readings he was getting were extremely improbable – Peter's genes weren't fully human, they'd been modified somehow, the question was, by what?

As soon as he reached his room, he pulled his phone out of his pocket, grateful that his dad had returned it to him as soon as they were back at Stark tower. He called Gwen immediately, and was warmed by the relief in the blonde's voice when she answered the phone.

"Peter! I'm so glad you're alright. It was all over the news that you'd been rescued from a kidnapping, but they didn't say anything about how you were." she paused, then almost embarrassed, "How are you?"

"Oh you know, same old same old." he told her, and it wasn't a lie. He'd been shot before, and he'd also broken bones before. This was just the first time his parents had actually known about his serious injuries. "Did you by chance...?" he trailed off and she gave an affirmative.

"I went by your locker before anyone else could. I have your backpack here." he let out a breath of relief. Gwen was the only one who knew about his superhero side job (besides her father, which was a whole other issue), and he was glad she'd reached the evidence of his dubious evening life before his parents could've.

"Thank god. I'm going to head over and pick it up." he said, and before she could argue, "See you soon." he hung up and glanced around the room. Heading first for the door, he locked it and pushed his dresser in front of it, just in case. Then he moved to the window, sliding it open. It was pitch black out and he moved to the floor next, hitting the loose floorboard and pulling his spare (and not nearly as awesome) set of webshooters out. Carefully so that he wouldn't be seen, Peter snuck out onto the outside surface of the tower, and within seconds he was off.

He arrived at Gwen's shortly after, going in through her window, and she was waiting for him, worried but glad to see him. She hugged him and he was careful not to wince at the touch but she noticed anyways.

"What happened to you?" she asked, feeling the seam of the bandages under his shirt, and without even asking she was pulling at the hem, taking in all the bandaging. She frowned at him but he just kissed her, giving her an easy smile.

"Don't worry. I'm already starting to heal! I have super fast healing properties, remember?" he reminded her, and though she clearly wasn't convinced, she let it go, moving to get his backpack.

"I'm surprised your parents let you out of their sight." she said, sitting next to him on the bed as he opened the bag and pulled his stuff out. Peter gave an awkward laugh.

"They didn't exactly let me."

"Peter," Gwen reprimanded, but he just put up his hands in surrender.

"Hey! Just wait a sec. Dad put me under house arrest. He isn't even planning on letting me go to school or anything. He doesn't want me leaving Stark Tower. How exactly am I supposed to agree with that? And Pops even seemed to think it was a good idea. As if."

"You know, you could try telling them of your, extracurricular activities." Gwen ventured, and Peter rolled his eyes.

"Can you imagine their reactions? They'd probably get me one of those ankle tracker things that alerts security every time I tried to leave the premises." Gwen giggled at the idea and Peter found himself smiling even as he pulled on the costume.

"That's a bit ridiculous." Gwen admonished, looking back when he was dressed in all but the mask.

"Come on, you've met them, you know it's not." then all humour left his eyes, his grip tightening on his mask. "Unless of course they decided I was just somehow wrong. After all, Pops was changed by a whole load of doctors, and the only other mutation they know is uncle Bruce's. What if they think my changes are just as bad as the hulk? Not that I think it's that bad, but you know what I mean." Realizing what her boyfriend was really afraid of, Gwen moved forward, hand gently rubbing his back.

"Hey, you know they wouldn't react like that. They're your family. They love you. No matter what kind of changes your body goes through, you're still their family. You know that." Peter didn't respond other than by leaning into her. He didn't want to think about that right now. Instead, he turned his thoughts back to his kidnappers.

"The people from today, they're planning something bad. This wasn't just about me, this was about my family. They want to hurt all of us. I can't let that happen without at least trying to stop it. As Spider-man I can at least try."

"Hey," she soothed, moving forward to put a hand on his chest. "You don't have to convince me. You just have to be careful, okay?" he nodded, impish grin back in place.

"I'm always careful." he kissed her quickly before pulling on the mask, shouldering his backpack. "I'll call you later." she nodded, watching until he was out of sight before her smile fell. She knew Peter wanted to do the right thing, but these people seemed more like enemies of the Avengers than just Spider-man by himself and she hoped he really did try and keep himself safe.