"TONY" Peter screamed.
Every thought seemed to vanish from Peter's head, and in that moment it didn't matter to him. He no longer cared about how his classmates were meters away from him, or how reporters stood with the cameras that would expose his secret in a second given the chance. In that moment it didn't matter that he was Spider-Man if he couldn't protect those he loved. And it didn't matter if Spider-Man was Peter Parker,
With that being the only thought in his mind. Peter double tapped his wrists, as the Iron Spider formed around him, Peter leapt off the edge of the tower, barely hearing the cries of shock from behind him.
Tony was falling at an alarming rate, too far ahead for Peter to get an accurate shot with his web shooters. Peter lowered his head, in both fear and determination. Keeping his hands close to his sides and urging gravity to let him go faster. The ground was growing larger. The screams of people from below getting clearer with every second. He was too far. He could make out the faces of people and their arms pointed up at him. Tony was going to die, and it was going to be Peter's fault.
Peter screamed again as he threw out his arm, the web shot towards the falling figure, it grasped onto him and with an effort Peter pulled back up, throwing him once more into the air. People gasped at the event, especially once they had realised that it was Tony Stark who was the one who was falling. Peter was still falling, knowing that if he tried to stick to the wall at this speed he was likely to dislocate an arm, even with his super powers.
"I got you." Came the surprisingly calm voice of KAREN. People below screamed some more as four golden arms spread out from Peter's back. They grasped to the edge of the building, scampering downwards to slow down. Peter pushed off the building, spinning his body in midair so that he caught the weight of Tony as he fell back down. Peter held onto the man tight as the spider legs moved for him, skidding to a halt on the ground to the astonishment of the pedestrians. Without even pausing, Peter lept back onto the side of Stark tower. Unable to use his webs with Tony in his arms, KAREN took over, pulling them both up the building, the points of the appendages digging into the walls. Within second they had reached the balcony and with a final push Peter leapt over the corner of the building the legs curling to resemble a spider.
Landing in his signature crouch, the golden legs retracted into the suit. Rhodes instantly rushed forward as Peter laid Tony on the ground gently. Everyone was gaping at him in shock at the revelation. Or in terms of Ned, at his new suit.
Rhodes was ignoring everyone, his fingers on Tony's neck. Relief flooded his tense features.
"He's alive." Rhodes breathed. In response to the words, the tower came out of lockdown. Several people immediately ran out but the majority of the press and Midtown students stayed behind still gaping at the scene in front of them.
"Mr Stark?" Peter murmured, tears running down the inside of his mask. Tony groaned, opening his eyes slightly.
"I told you it's Tony." He grimaced at them, attempting to sit up. Rhodes grasped his arm helping him sit up, scoffing at Tony's words. Peter however threw his arms around Tony, practically sobbing. Tony looked surprised.
"Hey, I'm fine, you saved me, besides this sort of thing happens an awful lot" Rhodes groaned.
"Those are some horrible words of comfort." Tony shifted, wincing slightly, but still managing a smirk.
Only when Helen Cho pushed past them did Tony seem to realise that they had an audience. Peter began to mutter what had happened to Tony as Helen looked him over.
"Honestly even if there is some contract or something it will be leaked sooner or later." Peter finished in a whisper.
"Head after the sniper Spiderling." Tony ordered. Peter hesitated, clearly not wanting to leave Tony. With a deep breath Peter once again leapt off the edge of the building. Despite Helen's protests, Tony stood up, grasping Rhodey's arm.
"So." Tony began, looking them all over.
"Parker's Spider-Man?" Squeaked Flash. Tony sighed, he glanced at Rhodey, they appeared to have a silent conversation with each other.
"Well it's going to get out either way." Tony muttered to himself. "Peter Parker is Spider-Man." He declared in a clear yet slightly pained, voice. "Anything else he wishes to share is his choice. Now all of you leave." The gaping students didn't move.
"He said leave." Repeated Rhodey calmly. Slowly. They all began to file out, squirming under the stare of War Machine.
"Ned, Michelle can I talk to you." Called out Tony. The two paused, coming back. In Ned's case eagerly, in MJ's oddly calmly.
"FRIDAY." Tony spoke to the air, "Activate Identity Protocol for Spider-Man."
"Right away Boss."
"Thanks,"Tony groaned, collapsing into one of the remaining chairs. "I really should stop having these near-death experiences."He ran a hand through his hair, glancing at Ned and MJ.
"You two, due to your relationship with Peter I'm going to ask you to stay here until better safety equipment has been installed in your house and school." They looked confused. Tony sighed. "Once the news tell everyone that Peter is Spider-Man, those close to him might be targeted. Sadly, Spider-Man has a lot of dangerous enemies."
"What about our families?" MJ asked accusingly. Tony grimaced again, either from pain or at the question, they didn't know.
"If they are unwilling to come stay here then I will station some of the Iron Legion around your houses. Currently FRIDAY has activated the Identity Protocol so that means some of my Security, led by Happy, are going to tell them of the situation."
"I'll take them upstairs." Rhodey squeezed Tony's shoulder in comfort before gesturing for MJ and Ned to follow, which after pausing they did. Helen glared at Tony.
"What?" Tony asked innocently. Helen scoffed, shining a light into his eyes.
-o-
MJ watched Tony Stark pace back and forth with a weary eye. The man seemed surprisingly not bothered by a sniper shooting him barely an hour ago. In fact, Rhodes seemed more bothered by it than Stark himself. MJ listened to his description of the situation with her usual bored expression. In fact, she was tuning out most of the conversation and thinking about Peter.
MJ had always wondered if Peter was Spider-Man. It was actually kind of obvious to someone who observed Peter often enough (Not that she did of course) A nerd transforming overnight into, well, a nerd, but with a crazy amount of muscles did not go unnoticed by her. Then Peter kept on disappearing when Spider-Man appeared so really, she had always known.
MJ was snapped out of her thoughts when the door opened and a sharp clicking announced Pepper Potts arrival. MJ almost went full fangirl at the sight of one of the most successful businesswomen of the century. Pepper strode right towards Stark, a worried expression on her face.
"Tony, are you alright?" She pulled Stark into a tight hug sighing.
"I'm fine, the bullet only disabled the Arc reactor which they probably did to disable my suit, so I installed a new one and all was fine."
"It's worrying how casually you say that statement." Snorted Rhodes.
"Where have you been?" Stark continued, ignoring Rhodes's comment.
"I had to deal with the press." She pulled back, suddenly stern. "They somehow knew Peter was Spider-Man. What exactly happened here?" Stark grimaced, but Rhodes instead replied.
"I think the main thing that gave it away was a teenager jumping off the side of a skyscraper after Tony."
"We initiated the identity protocol." Stark added, nodding towards Ned and MJ. Pepper turned as well.
"Hello guys, you must be Ned and Michelle then." Her tone suddenly both motherly and professional which MJ considered quite an achievement. Before either of them could reply however, there was a muffled yell as a man clad in black and tied with web was thrown harshly through the window and across the room. Ned jumped at the sudden appearance But MJ was more focused on the red and blue figure landing on the ceiling and dropping to the floor.
"Good job kid." Stark said sounding more relieved Peter was back than that the person who almost killed him was caught.
"Are you okay?" Peter asked in worry.
"All fine Pete, thanks to you of course." At Stark's words Peter swelled with pride. But the expression was quickly interrupted with Peter sharply jerking his wrist and sending the sniper, who was trying to stand up, against a wall. With that he casually strode over and took a seat next to Ned, his mask seeming to disappear as he did.
"So Peter." Stark began, sitting down in the seat opposite. "Your cover has been blown." With the realisation Peter groaned, sinking deeper into his seat.
"You could continue life as normal but..."
"No." Peter said tiredly. "It would only endanger the school if everyone knew Spider-Man went there."
"Wait what?" Ned interrupted. "You're leaving the school?"
"I have to Ned." Peter looked at him sadly. "Since people know I'm Spider-Man they could attack Midtown."
"A worrying amount of people do want you dead." Stark said bluntly.
"But what would you do?" Ned stared at Peter.
"Well several options are available for that." Stark began to explain. "Peter and I have discussed this scenario before and have already decided." Stark coughed slightly, rubbing his chest with a grimace of pain. "He will leave Midtown and come to live permanently here with his Aunt. I still need to talk with May but he will either continue education with a tutor or just continue with a full time internship for me." Ned gaped at his friend eyes wide.
"So you are becoming an official Avenger?!" All the worry replaced by longing.
"Ned I already told you, I'm the one watching out for the little guy." Peter sighed. MIchelle saw Stark smirk with pride.
"What about us?" MJ asked interrupting Ned who was attempting to go on a rant about the Avengers.
"Well once the security stuff is set up around your house and school you can go back to your regular lives." Pepper answered tapping at something on a tablet pulled from her bag. "You can come to the tower as often as you want, I'm setting up some ID cards now."
Once again the door opened this time a man in a suit who MJ didn't recognize entered,his expression was grumpy but concerned. Behind him was May Parker, looking terrified.
"Peter." She immediately cried, pulling him into a strangling hug which Peter returned unashamedly.
"I'm sorry May." He muttered.
"Nonsense. Living with a superhero was never going to be easy and I must say, living in Stark Tower will definitely be an upgrade." She said it in a voice that made MJ think she was more saying it to ease Peter's guilt than anything else. It appeared to work though and Peter managed a small smile.
"Happy, I've sent some details to you for Ned and Michelle's ID cards, they're level 4." Pepper was informing the grumpy looking man quietly. MJ smirked at the ironic nickname undoubtedly given to the man by Stark.
"As long as they actually wear the badges that's fine." He muttered, before nodding at Pepper and leaving the room.
"Tony." Peter said suddenly. "I need to get my stuff from my locker. And I have some Spidey stuff hidden under some of the lockers." At the last part of the sentence everyone looked at him curiously. Peter blushed slightly. "What? I needed a safe place to put it and the locker's are surprisingly easy to lift up." Stark snorted.
"Well because of the little incident cutting the trip short, it's only 12:45. So I'd recommend going now while all your curious buddies are in class."
"Okay." Peter nodded, heading back to the window and picking up his backpack on the way. "I will be right back." He unceremoniously emptied his backpack on the table and jumped out the window.
Stark sighed, looking at the pile of school supplies on the table.
"Honestly, that kid will be the end of me."
-o-
Peter jumped into his usual alleyway, deciding against going into school still decked out in the Spider-Man suit.
"Peter, I think I should warn you, there is only 15 minutes until the current period ends so you might want to hurry."
"Thanks KAREN." Peter sighed, the Iron Spider disappearing into his wrist bands. He quickly ran back into school, ignoring the gaping look from the security. Peter sighed.
"Guess they already know." He muttered. Peter stopped, looking at the looped broadcast on the screens around the school. "Damn they work fast." He swore as he watched the newest recording of Midtown's Student News, the words BREAKING NEWS plastered in the bottom banner.
"This week on Under the Mask, The Decathlon team experience yet another eventful field trip today. With the attempted murder of Tony Stark."
There was an awkward silence where Betty glared expectantly at Jason. But Jason looked in shock. Betty rolled her eyes and continued while the camera stayed on Jason.
"In another heroic action it was revealed that Spider-Man is in fact Midtown's own" She cleared her throat slightly, "Peter Parker."
A picture of Peter appeared with a poorly photoshopped Spider-Man suit on him. It hovered around the screen a bit before Jason spoke up.
"Really though? Peter Parker? None of us expected that."
Peter sighed, continuing down the hallway at a faster quickly opened his locker and shoved everything in, taking the pictures off the walls and the scrunches of paper from the back. Once it was empty Peter closed his locker, taking his padlock off and sliding it into his pocket. He looked around. This could be his last time here as Peter Parker. Now that he thought about it, it was his last time anywhere as Peter Parker.
Peter grimaced, not entirely sure how he felt about that. Glancing at his watch Peter grimaced again, There was 5 minutes left before the halls would become crowded once again. He lifted up the row of lockers, placing everything from his hidey hole on the floor next to him. Gently placing it back down Peter quickly put everything into his bag. From his onsie suit to his jars of web fluid. He was just standing up when the bell rang.
Peter began to move quickly, ignoring the stares from his classmates at both him and his now empty locker. Undoubtedly they had all seen the broadcast already. Or at least heard this gossip from friends. People began to cluster around him. The people who had picked on him and Ned for years. Wanting to get close, to be his friend, to be able to tell people how well they knew Spider-Man. Even Flash was there, as if his new desire for friendship washed away the years of bullying and abuse.
"Spiderman!'
"Spidey! Over here!"
"Can I have an autograph?"
"Peter! Come and say hi to me buddy"
"Want to get some ice cream?"
Peter groaned, they were blocking the hallway, he could even see some teachers wanting to get in on the 'fun'. He did not want to deal with this. He did not want to deal with people badgering him as Peter Parker's life went crashing down around him.
Peter jumped up, much to the astonishment of his former classmates, he twisted in midair and landed on the ceiling. Luckily the ceilings were high enough that the average high schooler couldn't reach him. Ignoring the cheers and shouts of the people below him, Peter quickly crawled along the ceiling. There was a hatch up ahead that led to the roof. He broke open the lock, releasing the hatch and sunlight poured into the hallway.
"Bye guys." Peter muttered. as he crawled through, closing the hatch behind him. Peter strode across the roof, double tapping the bands so the metallic shell hid Peter Parker from the world. He jumped off the edge, swinging back into the streets of New York City.
A/N:
Thanks for reading!
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