AN: Sorry for the wait, everyone. Here is Chapter 2!
Chapter 2
The Avengers Initiative was a puzzle. Literally, Fury had pieced the whole thing together like pieces of a puzzle, but even as I looked at the evidence that it would, I saw how it wouldn't work. The gaps in between the puzzle pieces were too wide; there was some kind of glue needed to push them together and keep them there. I saw that Fury hadn't found the glue.
A knock at the door interrupted my musing, and I swiped the files I had hacked from the system away and pulled up designs for an unlimited power source that would rival even Stark's. "Come in." I called to the person, probably Tony that stood on the other side of the door.
Tony walked in quickly, keen eyes scanning the whole room for threats and then assessing me for injuries out of pure habit. I gave him a smile, and he gave me a worried frown. I furrowed my eyebrows and just like that we had a silent conversation. I gave him a nod, "Good luck."
He smirked at me, the worry gone from his eyes. "I won't need it."
He left the way he had come, closing the door firmly behind him, and I shook my head. He certainly did need it.
The pint house was quiet without him. Pepper didn't really stay around that much as Tony and she argued so much. That was alright, though, because between Tony, Jarvis' home school, and finding time to still go out on patrols, my life was pretty busy.
But it was times like this that I missed having friends my age. I refused to speak to Harry and MJ after… I quickly left my room and walked quietly down to the lab, shaking off my memories. The last two weeks had been great.
After I got over the fact that I had been adopted completely without y permission, I realized that I was living with Tony Stark. I started to sit with him in his lab and watch what he did. The man was a true genius, but soon I was pointing out things he could do better or answers to problems he had run into. We started to work together on different things, keeping up late hours to collapse in the morning and sometimes not eating for days. But I was used to that.
It was nice to be treated on the same level as someone else. To be treated well without the knowledge that I was Spiderman in that person's mind. The nightmares only came now when I was alone in the pint house, but when they came they were awful. I shuddered and typed in the code to the lab door with quick fingers. I got into science mode.
The doors swished open silently, the air around them causing the only disturbance, and revealed the lab in all its high tech glory. Everything either shined or was covered in grit and grime, no in between. The rest of the lights came on at my entrance, and I smiled. It was time to get to work.
I lost myself in the work, occasionally thinking of Tony and wondering why he had been gone for two whole days. He had been careful to stay close these past few weeks, and it honestly surprised me how much he had tried to make me feel comfortable. The press had the playboy millionaire pinned completely wrong.
It was harder to be Spiderman than it had been in the orphanage, but I tried to go out when Tony did and I had long since hacked Jarvis' systems so he couldn't tell that I had been out. Sometimes I went when I knew Tony would be wrapped up in his work for a day or two and if I wasn't right there with him. That reminded me… I had promised Tony I wouldn't starve myself while he was gone.
My feet padded quietly into the kitchen, my attention still entirely focused on the design I was manipulating in the air. I stopped, though, when I saw the rather out of date man sitting in my kitchen, staring in surprise at me. I quickly called tony on video chat, and started talking as soon as he answered.
"I don't suppose you know the guy sitting in your kitchen." I backed away as the man swiftly stood. I didn't have my mask with me, and I couldn't risk revealing my identity to one of my dad's enemies. Dammit!
"Run, Peter." I ran.
The lab door shut quickly behind me and with a swipe of my fingers I had locked it down. There were no exits aside from that door, but I knew he wouldn't be able to get in. I looked at Tony's angry face with raised eyebrows. "So are you on your way?"
"It might take me a few minutes, kiddo."
"No worries here, just take your time." I walked over to the desk that I had been working on and cleared a space off for the tablet.
"Who's that?" A voice filtered through the speakers.
"My adopted son, Peter." Tony said proudly. The screen was enlarged to include the faces of several different people. My eyes skipped over them and I frowned, "I thought the Avengers Initiative was cancelled…"
"It was, "Tony said, distracted with piloting the jet they were in, "Wait a minute how did you know that?"
I redirected the conversation, "I don't suppose you'd like to tell me about the guy beating on the door, would you?" It was true; the man was beating the door with what sounded like his staff.
"He is my brother, Stark-son." The blond-haired man boomed at me.
I rolled my eyes at Thor. "Because that is so informative."
"It is." He nodded proudly.
The door was banged again with more force. "Stark has a son."
This came from a man currently strapped into the seat opposite Bruce Banner, Hawkeye, "When did that happen?"
"Three weeks ago."
"Two weeks ago" Tony and I spoke at the same time.
"It was definitely two weeks ago." Tony said.
"I think I would remember when my own adoption took place, despite how involuntary it was."
"Apparently you don't."
"Yes I do."
"No you don't."
"Yes I do."
"No you-"
Tony was cut off by The Black Widow, "Both of you stop, now. Tony, explain."
"I adopted Peter here sometime in the last month, and now he is my prodigy."
"That would imply you taught me what I know." I smirked, even as the door began to crack.
"I have."
I shot him a look.
"Well, most of it, "Tony conceded.
I snorted, purposely not looking at the door so the others wouldn't have their attention drawn to it. I wasn't scared of the man wearing his mother's curtains, but I certainly didn't want my identity revealed to the whole Avengers Initiative and, let's not forget, my adoptive father.
"Why?" Captain America said, aghast.
"I was a lonely old man and he a young orphaned boy-" Tony began.
"The press." I smirked.
Cap glared at Tony, and I took a second to revel in the fact that I was speaking to some of the most awesome people in the world. ; The most successful superheroes ever. Then I looked at all their flaws; Banner, currently plane sick and always unstable, never to be fully trusted by the public. Widow and Hawkeye; distant, secret- always just doing their jobs.
Then there was Stark, one of the more public faces, the one everyone fawned over, and yet he too was distant. He was rich and it's not like he spent his days stopping muggings on the street. No, Stark was a selfish man in many ways and he too had his troubled past to make up for.
Captain America was an American icon. He represented the old America, the one that even the hardiest criminal was tempted to nod their heads at in a show of respect, and yet… he was out of date. He was yearning always for the days that were his darkest, because they were also his best.
None of these heroes were perfect, and yet that was what made them heroes in some ways.
"But why him," Banner mumbled, staring curiously at me. I looked at him curiously, too.
"He had nightmares." Tony said seriously, staring at me.
I blanched, my eyes squinting briefly as the memories, nightmares, flooded back.
"Don't we all." Banner muttered, and that's when I began to truly like him. None of us were perfect, but to admit you had fears that haunted you at night, especially when you were a superhero, took a kind of bravery that Tony didn't have.
"Nightmares," Clint scoffed," What do you have to be afraid of? What have you seen to have nightmares about?"
I let all the memories that haunted me and all of my fears that had been played out flood to my eyes. Then I turned my eyes on Clint and watched as his back straightened and he came to attention. "You'd be surprised."
The door broke, and the furious god stepped through the hole left. "Shit."
I stood casually, sweeping the projector off the desk and behind my back. "Sorry I didn't answer the door, I was a little preoccupied."
Loki snarled and stalked across the room towards me. I backed up to the desk and gave him another charming smile. "Love the cape. My aunt's curtains were colored the same way."
He grabbed a handful of my shirt and pulled me close. "Who are you?" He hissed. I kept my usual friendly neighborhood Spiderman tucked tight inside my mouth and rolled my eyes.
"I thought you knew everything about the Avengers?" I scoffed, receiving a jerk to the shirt as reward for my impudence.
"Who are you?"
"Is that all you know how to say?" He punched me in the stomach with all his godly strength and I curled in on myself.
When the air reached my lungs again, I spoke. "Is that all you've got?"
He stared at me in astonishment, and in the silence I heard Tony's angry breaths. "What are you?"
I gave him a look, "What are you?"
He bristled, "A God."
"Congratulations-"I was cut off by Loki jabbing his staff in my chest. It didn't hurt, but he was looking at me as if I should have had a reaction. Then… there… something was in my head… someone…
I dropped the projector to the floor and watched as it cracked and broke. My hands snapped up to my head with inhuman speed and I shook it ferociously. It wouldn't come out! The needle that was driving its way into my skull wouldn't stop, and I let out a soft whine.
"Do you feel that?" Loki's voice was deadly soft, the grip on my shirt tight, "That's me, digging into your head and discovering your secrets. Soon you will be mine to control and to use, no matter how insignificant you might be."
Despite the pain, I managed to throw him one of my famous never-shut-up comments, "I take offence to that!"
"If I cared I wouldn't have said it."
Loki kicked my legs out from beneath me and I fell toward the ground. His hand grabbed the back of my shirt and he dragged me out of the lab. I felt my vision going out as whatever Loki did to me stilled my limbs and numbed my mind.
I knew the Avengers were coming, but when? How close to the truth would Loki get before they got here? I was helpless, locked in my own mind and being dragged to the living room as if I weighed no more than a sack of potatoes. I could no longer speak when Loki threw me face up onto the couch, my jaw locked shut.
Then he started shifting through my memories, and I started to struggle. My parents leaving me flashed in front of my eyes. Tony, please! I called out silently, Hurry!