A/N. Hola :) I present to you, the triumphant return of Peter Parker! As promised. Enjoy :D
CHAPTER XXIII
Peter Parker strolled around the helicarrier with a skip in his step and a whistling tune on his lips. You could still see the lipstick smear just under the collar of his hoodie.
After joining SHIELD in late September, Peter had become an immediate trainee and began training to become a full-fledged agent on the helicarrier after school on weekdays. Suffice to say, he was enjoying himself and showing up the other trainees.
He had a math quiz that "wasn't worth any marks" that morning so he just decided to skip it and get in some more training. But then his girlfriend Gwen caught him ditching and they had an argument before they ended up making out in the janitor's closet. And now he didn't really feel up to training anymore. But he was already here, so he just wandered around aimlessly, bizarrely cheery.
He passed by the door to the meeting room without a care.
"… get Tania and Steve back…"
He paused. What? He backtracked and pressed his ear to the door. He didn't hear anything. Had he just imagined it? Only one way to find out. He opened the door and peeked his head inside. "What is this I hear about Tania and the Captain being gone?"
Director Fury stood at the head of the table while Tony, Clint, Natasha (who had her arm in a sling), Bruce, and Thor all sat around it looking at projections.
"Mr. Parker,-" Fury started.
"Not you." The teenager interrupted. "You won't tell me. Someone else."
"Tania and Steve-"Clint began before he was interrupted.
"-were kidnapped by HYDRA," Bruce continued, ignoring Fury and Clint's glares in his direction. He shrugged at the archer. "In being a SHIELD agent and all, you would get in trouble by revealing this 'secret'. Me, not so much."
Clint nodded his thanks.
Peter's eyes widened. "Woah! Rewind! My boss and her boyfriend were kidnapped?"
"Yeah," Tony responded dryly, taking another sip from his water bottle which probably didn't have water in it, but rather alcohol.
"Excuse me," Fury intercepted, a vain practically throbbing out of his forehead, "but the only boss you have is me. Now I would appreciate it if you would go back to wherever you just came from so that we can continue."
Peter rolled his eyes and stepped fully into the room, closing the door behind him. "Whatever. Old boss. Happy now?" Without waiting for Fury's answer, he continued. "I want to help."
"No."
"Marvelous!" Thor cheered.
"Absolutely not. 'Spider-man' is NOT a part of the Avengers Initiative."
"But we could use all the help we could get," Bruce pointed out.
Fury grumbled a reply that no one could understand.
"I don't like the kid either Jack Sparrow, but Bruce is right. He could be useful," Tony conceded.
"Thank you!" Peter exclaimed, walking closer. "I think…" He plopped down in the one empty seat left, the one usually reserved for Steve. No one mentioned it.
"Okay, catch me up."
Twenty minutes later, Peter was caught up and the Avengers were back to square one. The only thing they had accomplished that morning was figure out that Tania and Steve's faces had last been seen at the Tower before they went to the theatre. Not helpful.
"Jarvis, I know this is a long shot, but I need you to tell me about any suspicious activity that you think I should know about since Tania and Steve announced their relationship to the public," Tony tried, running out of ideas
The AI hesitated. "Well… there is this." JARVIS activated the holographic projection screens built into the table the Avengers sat around to bring up the surveillance feed of September fifth.
"What is this?" Tony asked, eyebrows furrowed.
"This is the security footage at your mansion on the fifth of September, two thousand and twelve."
"Why are you-?"
"Please Sir, just watch." JARVIS played the video.
The footage was of the secluded room in Tony's basement opposite his workshop and underneath the stairwell. It was a room none of the Avengers had seen. They watched in interest as Tania entered the room.
She appeared to be lost and looked around, touching some things here and there before she stepped on a tarp and revealed a very large contraption. Tony's eyebrows rose but he didn't comment. He watched as she touched the machine and it activated.
All of the Avengers sat at full attention when a tornado began to form in the room and the machine started glowing blue. Tania fell to the floor and grabbed hold of a book shelf to stop herself from being pulled toward the contraption.
Just then, Steve entered the room only to be pulled down as well. They watched as they reached toward each other, fingers just barely brushing when a bright blue light engulfed them both. When it disappeared, so had they.
Everyone gasped. "But how-?!" Clint started.
"Keep watching," JARVIS interrupted. He continued playing the video.
For several seconds, nothing happened. But then Tania reappeared in completely different clothes and on her knees, crying hysterically. She pushed herself to her feet and ran out of sight of the camera.
"What the hell?" Tony muttered just as Steve reappeared lying on his stomach and unconscious. The past Captain looked around, dazed. He sat there for a few seconds before he started talking, presumably to JARVIS. He nodded his head before rushing off in the direction Tania had gone.
JARVIS stopped the video and disabled the projection. "I thought this qualified as 'suspicious'."
"Damn right…"
"Care to explain, Stark?" Fury asked, one eyebrow raised.
Ignoring him, Tony spoke directly to JARVIS. "J, pause the video at three seconds."
"Yes, Sir." The super computer did as told.
"That," Tony pointed at the contraption, "is my dad's time machine."
Startled gasps met his ears as everyone gaped at him and the screen.
"Are you suggesting they time travelled for an indeterminate amount of time and then somehow found a way back?" Bruce asked, astonished.
"It's not impossible. I mean, look at us: a mismatched bunch of misfits from other worlds, who are mutants, who have inhuman skills, who have inhuman intelligences, the list goes on and on."
"I am confused, Man of Iron," Thor confessed, arms crossed.
"Steve and Tania must have accidentally activated the long dormant time machine my father built not long after Steve's disappearance. I never thought it would actually work, so I stuffed it in the basement. The two of them must have gotten lost or something and found it."
"Don't you think they would have told us?" Natasha pointed out.
"Depends on where they went."
"Hey," Clint piped up, "Didn't Jarvis say this was September the fifth?"
"Indeed I did, Sir."
"Isn't that the night they slept together for the first time?"
Peter wrinkled his nose. "I SO didn't need to know that."
"How do you remember that?" Tony asked, referring to Clint.
He shrugged. "Good memory."
"Jarvis," Tony called his AI to attention, "show me the surveillance from Tania's bedroom that night."
"I thought the bedrooms didn't have cameras," Natasha said with narrowed eyes.
"That changed after the whole 'Neil' incident."
"Stark…" she growled threateningly.
"Shush! Look!"
"He looks like he's apologizing," Peter observed.
"She looks relieved," Natasha pointed out.
"Aaaaaaand now they're gonna have sex. Tony, turn it off." Clint waited. The video didn't stop. "Tony!" He whipped a pencil sharpener at the inventor's head.
"Ow! Alright, alright. We'll give Capsicle and Piggy Bank their privacy. Go back to the time machine, Jarvis."
"On it, Sir."
"Zoom in on the date."
"May fifteenth, nineteen forty-five," Peter read aloud.
"That's a week after VE day," Natasha stated.
"A week after the war ended," Clint joined in.
"A week after Steve crashed the plane," Bruce spoke up.
"If this machine sent them to another time, yet the machine itself remained in our time, how did the Captain and his lady return?" Thor inquired, confused.
"Excellent question Hammer Time. That was probably a glitch on Howard's part: a one way trip time machine."
"But if Howard was the one who built it, then he could have built them another one," Bruce theorized.
"Or the same one. But who knows how long that took him. It could have been years."
"So they were sucked back into the past… almost exactly where Steve left off," Natasha mused.
"But he came back," Clint added right after.
"Why?"
"Love," Tony said like the answer was obvious.
"What?"
"It's simple, Natashalie. He loves Tania, Tania wanted to go back, or rather forward, so he followed her."
"Peggy Carter was in that timeline."
"Well obviously he chose Tania considering what happened immediately afterward."
"That must have been so hard for both of them…" Peter wondered aloud.
"Especially Steve," Bruce agreed.
"But they both seemed fine, happier even, the next morn, did they not?"
"Probably because they found a way to get back. There's no way they were there for over a year – not enough change in their faces," Natasha told them.
"Even so, why didn't they tell us?" Clint muttered, a hand on his chin in thought.
"More importantly, why didn't YOU tell me, Jarvis?" Tony looked to the supercomputer (or at least, at the table).
"Their disappearance wasn't long enough to warrant distress. I did a full body scan of both of them and they were not suffering anything serious."
"What do you mean by, 'anything serious'?" Clint asked.
"Both Captain Rogers and Miss Banks had several minor scars, scratches, and bruises as well as small signs of emotional trauma or distress, but moments later, they displayed signs of extreme pleasure and joy."
"Jarvis…" Tony said exasperatedly.
"Forgive me, Sir. I did not mean to keep secrets from you. But you did not ask."
"So let me get this straight," Fury intercepted, trying to make sense of the situation, "Stark has a fully-functioning time machine, has had one for seventy years now, and didn't know about it?"
"That is correct."
"And I don't have one anymore. It's buried at the bottom of the ocean right now along with the rest of my mansion," Tony pointed out.
"Well this is all NOT fine and dandy, but how does this help find Rogers and Banks?"
"Well," Tony said, standing up and pacing the room, "I suppose if I dug up some stuff, I can see if they interacted with my father. Maybe he had some record of some sort. It's not much, but it's something."
"I'll help," Bruce volunteered, standing as well.
"Wait, maybe I can help too?" Peter said just as they were about to leave.
The Science Bros exchanged glances. "How old are you again?" Tony wanted to know.
"Um, twenty?"
"Nice try kid."
He sighed before giving his real age.
"A teenager huh? Still in school?"
"Yeah…"
"Marks?"
"High. Honour roll high. Especially in science."
"Fine. Come along."
"Yes!"
After the three of them left, Clint and Natasha decided to go back to the theatre and interrogate the security team there, or at least the employees, to see if anyone had seen them. This too, was a long shot, but it was all they had.
Thor left to see if he could summon himself to Asgard and speak to Heimdall, who saw everything. He would have a hard time convincing his father to let him return, he knew, when it was not the designated time. He and Odin had created a very specific schedule so that Thor could spend his time on both Asgard (on which time moved differently) and Midgard equally. If he returned to his first home now, his father would wish to rearrange the entire schedule to add more time on Midgard. It was a little foolish and stubborn in Thor's opinion, but that was the way his father was sometimes. It would be hard to convince him to destroy their perfectly arranged schedule for the lives of a couple puny mortals that Odin had yet to meet, had yet to see the true value of. Still, Thor do all he could. He would not let Friend Steve and the Lady Tania suffer because of the allfather's stubbornness. He wouldn't.
Back at the Tower, Felicity was driving the others INSANE. Unable to hide the news from the mother of victim, Pepper had been forced to retell the tale to Graham, Betty, and Felicity. Everyone had been horrified except for the person who should care the most – Felicity.
She had brushed it off before abruptly leaving, angering the others. By the next morning, while the others grieved, she talked loudly on the cell phone at the breakfast table and Graham had finally just had enough,
"Would you turn that fucking phone off and leave us in peace? I don't even know what you're doing here if you don't care about us!" he snapped.
She clicked her phone shut. "The luxury of course. Why else?"
Graham clenched his fists and whirled on his mother. "You cold hearted bitch!" he shouted. "My sister, YOUR daughter, has just been kidnapped by a secret Nazi organisation that specializes in weapons and who's main goal is to get revenge on Steve through Tania, and YOU DON'T. FUCKING. CARE!"
"Graham," Pepper said, placing a hand on his arm. She shook her head at him. "Let her go."
"I want her gone!" he hissed, positively seething.
"Fine!" Felicity said, throwing her hands into the air. "I can see when I'm not wanted. I'll be where the rest of this champagne is, so if you need me, don't come there." She sauntered off while both Betty AND Pepper had to pull on Graham's arms to hold him back.
When Felicity was gone, the women let go and Graham fell to his knees, panting hard. "I can't believe she's gone – again." He was obviously referring to his sister and not his estranged mother.
Betty sat down beside him and placed a hand on his shoulder. "Don't worry Graham, I'm sure the others will get her back."
"You can't know that!" he exclaimed, pounding his fist on the floor with a grunt. "I just feel so useless, stuck here because I'm not an Avenger. Clint, Natasha, and Tony don't have anything special about them except they've been trained to use things like suits and weapons. So why can't I join them? I can use a gun!"
"I don't think it works like that," Pepper said quietly as she sat down on his other side in the lounge. "They all work for SHIELD."
"What if I joined SHIELD? Then I could help, right?"
Pepper and Betty shared a worried look. "I'm not so sure you'd want to do that," the brunette argued.
"Why not? It will be worth it if I get to help Tania."
"It's a vigorous training program and once you're in, you're stuck for life. Take it from me. Phil, Clint, and Natasha have all told me things about this kind of stuff. None of them wanted to join SHIELD. SHIELD recruited them because they had nowhere else to go and because their skills were unparalleled. It would be like joining the military."
Graham was silent for a rather long time. Finally, he sighed and rested his chin in his hands. "Gals, don't tell Tania this, but I've been thinking about joining the army for some time now."
"What?!" both girls exclaimed.
"If I did, I'd probably be shipped off to Afghanistan. But if I joined SHIELD, then I could stay here AND be in a military like environment."
"But why would you want to join the military?" Pepper wondered aloud.
"You know that the Avengers are my heroes, right? That I've read all their comic books since I was a kid?"
She nodded. "Yes, of course I do. When you first met them, you asked them all to sign your comic books."
He smiled a little in memory. "Yeah, good times. But anyway, ever since I got my first comic book, all I've ever wanted to do is be like them. Heroes. At first, it was about the glory and the fame, but as I got older, I came to realize that being hero just meant helping people because it's the right thing to do. When I was sixteen, I toyed with the idea of joining the army, fighting for my country and protecting people. But then I pushed the idea aside because I was too scared. Now that I'm older, I… I think I'm finally ready."
"But what about your dreams of being an architect?" Betty questioned.
Graham shrugged. "I'll be one when I get back."
"IF, you come back," Pepper corrected.
"Oh, I'm coming back," a grin split across his face before he remembered Tania and it quickly fell. "But I'm not deciding anything until I get my sister back."
"Well, there must be something we can do that doesn't involve joining SHIELD," Betty mused. "We're a nuclear scientist, a CEO, and an architect to be. Plus, we have a really very intelligent system." She pointed to the ceiling.
"Thank you, Mrs. Banner," JARVIS spoke up.
"As far as I know, the other Avengers have no idea where Steve and Tania have gone off to. Maybe we can put our heads together and figure something out."
"Let's go to the main lab and get to work," Betty agreed, pushing herself to her feet, soon followed by Graham.
Pepper was the last to get up, and when she did, her phone rang. "I'll catch up with you guys in sec."
"Okay," they chorused before heading to the elevator together.
Pepper answered her phone. "You've reached Pepper Potts of Stark Industries, how may I help you?"
"Pepper! It's so good to hear your voice."
The red head grimaced. This was the absolute worst possible time for this kind of thing. "What do you want Hammer?"
"Now that's not a very nice thing to say. We haven't seen each other since the gala!"
"You mean the one you crashed and ruined with your little paparazzi stunt?"
"Yes!"
She rolled her eyes. "Again, I repeat, what do you want?"
"I've been trying to contact Anthony all day, but so far all of my attempts have failed. I knew you, gracious, beautiful, elegant Pepper, would answer the phone." Pepper rolled her eyes even harder into the back of her head. The suck-up. "Where is he, if you don't mind my asking?"
"Actually, Justin, I DO mind."
"Really? Hm. Well then, can I just ask you something else?"
"What is it?"
"My, my, someone is feeling especially rude today."
"Get to the point before I hang up."
"How would you feel if I recorded this conversation and sent it to one Christine Everheart?"
Pepper's eyes widened and she gripped the phone tighter. "You wouldn't."
"Oh you're right, I wouldn't. But I could if I wanted to."
"What are you trying to say?"
"Just that you'd better watch your back Virginia. Hammer Industries' stocks are skyrocketing since your little 'incident' with the President."
"Do us all a favour and shove those stocks up your pompous ass because no one cares about your company anymore. And you know what? I don't care if you send this conversation to Ms. Everheart or any reporter for that matter. It will just show the world how much of an obnoxious dick you really are." She pressed the End Call button a little harder than was necessary and huffed, stuffing her phone in her purse before marching over to the elevator to join the others.