Chapter One

"I want that menace found! And I want him found now!" Fury slammed his fist into the table, shooting a one-eyed glare at the gathered Avengers.

Tony Stark glanced at the holo of the most elusive thief in all of Manhattan. "You're kidding...right?"

Captain America leaned forward, his arms crossed across his chest as he eyed the portfolio. "Perhaps we could try to talk to him..? He is known for fighting known criminals."

"I don't care what you do... I want Spiderman off of the streets, am I clear!?"

"Crystal." Hawkeye lazily spun an arrow in his hand, eyeing what little they knew about the super powered thief.

Peter winced as he ducked into yet another cold alleyway, chucking off the red mask that kept his identity hidden from the rest of the world. A frown tugged at the corners of his mouth as he nearly ripped open the small plain brown sack that he carried. Not much was inside of it, indicating that he probably shouldn't have stopped in the middle of his own robbery to stop some armed bank robbers. Especially since the throbbing in his side seemed to be almost mocking him for that decision. Honestly though... chances were no hero was going to show up to save the day. Shaking his head at that rather pessimistic thought, the teen yanked his backpack out from its hidden little hole, quickly changing out of his super suit and into a pair of ripped jeans, a red hoodie with a hole torn into it that was fraying, and a pair of worn out sneakers that were slightly too small for him. Shoving his suit and stolen goods into the beat up backpack, he holstered it onto his shoulder before making his way out of the alleyway. A quick glance at the sky was all that was needed for him to estimate that it was still early... early enough for him to make it to his first hour class... if he ran.

Hopefully no one will pay any attention to him arriving late once more...

"Parker, Peter?" Max peered over his glasses, even as the door banged open and the green eyed teen nearly fell into class, quickly waving his hand in the air to signal that he was there. "Another second and you would have gotten detention." Max marked the teen present, even as the oddly silent, though intelligent, teen made his way to the back of the class once more. Peter dropped his bag down next to his selected desk, even as he dropped his head down onto it. Sleep sounded soo good right now... everyone will either not notice or wouldn't care anyways. "Any volunteers to team up with Peter?" Max's voice cut through that thought, forcing the teen to sit bolt upright at his desk. Great... a group project. And by the looks of how everyone was already clustered in groups, he probably dozed through the assignment...again. Oops. Peter glanced around the room, not entirely surprised that no one made a move to volunteer for him to join them. His grades compared to the other nerds smart enough to attend this advanced science class was rather dismal. Combined that with one itsy bitsy fact about himself made no one really want to work with him.

"If no one will volunteer to be his partners, then I will assign him to a group." Peter vaguely wondered why he didn't just assign groups. No one ever wanted to work with him.

"Are you nuts?" A voice suddenly hissed out, even as a blonde wearing a pink tank top with a white sweater suddenly raised her hand.

"We'll take him Max." Peter stared, positive that he was imagining things. There was no way that Gwen Stacey just volunteered her own group to take him on.

The African American teen that was with her, the one that had spoken up in the first place, gestured quickly at the rest of the group. "That'll place us one over the requirement!" Peter scowled, noting that it was Miles Morales that had hissed at her in the first place... and now he was pointing out a small dilemma to her good deed.

"It is alright Miles. In truth Douglas has requested that I spend some more time with him. I will join his group since it is short one." Grady spoke up, before moving across the room to join the other group.

Peter decided not to move, to wait to see if they would approach him, or if they would make him move. He really hoped it was the former. The throbbing had gone down, but it had been replaced with an intense stinging sensation, making him very reluctant to move across the room. Gwen huffed loudly, as if annoyed by something, before grabbing Miles and Harry Osborn by the arms and dragging them across the room to him, her best friend, Anya Chaverez, right behind her.

"Okay... do you need us to introduce ourselves or do you already know our names?" Gwen semi-politely asked, her voice brisk as if she wanted to simply get this over with.

Peter nodded his head, pulling out a tattered notebook, where he quickly scribbled out the fact that he already knew who each of them were. "Why do we have to work with the mute?" Harry grumbled under his breath as he crossed his arms.

Peter glared at him, vaguely wondering if he even knew how stuck up he sounded when he said that. Anya smacked him in the head, a scowl creasing her features. "Mute... not deaf. Come on, Harry. You know what it's like not to have any friends... Peter needs friends in his life."

Yay right... Peter struggled to keep his face neutral at that thought. It was safer for everyone involved if he didn't have any friends. No one could get hurt if he kept them all at a distance after all. He glanced over at the board to quickly scan the assignment and its requirements. Uh... that actually isn't too bad. He could do that in his sleep... if he got any that is. Snapping his attention back to the others, he gestured questioningly at the board, mentally crossing his fingers that they would catch on.

"Right... Miles, Anya, and Harry can handle the design and programming. I'll put together the presentation... um... Peter? You can test it out to make sure that it works." Gwen faltered as she divided up the assignment, suddenly unsure on what part to assign Peter.

Peter glanced back at the board, turning his face away from them to prevent them from noticing that he noticed the unintentional snub. She didn't have any way of knowing that he had already created tracking devices which Spiderman used rather frequently. They could just use one of those. But then again, while he found those helpful for helping heroes and police to do their jobs, they might find something else to be of great help to them.

"Security bots? Are you even sure that'll even work?" Gwen eyed her friends nervously, she needed a good grade... and she really didn't see how that would help police or heroes.

"Yeah! It's a great idea!" Miles stabbed his pasta with his fork, a grin flashing across his features. Grady had excused himself from their group upon learning that they were intending to plan out their project... and he didn't want to accidently steal their idea.

Anya shifted slightly, worry creasing her brow as she stared at something that they couldn't see. "Um... just me or is Peter acting like he's in pain?"

Startled, the friends turned to stare at the mute who was like always eating by himself. A grimace flashed across his features as he shifted, a soft hiss of pain escaping him as he subtly reached down to press a hand against his side. "Weird... you're right. He does appear to be hurting..." Harry mused as he sat down his sandwich, staring at the friendless teen.

Gwen shook her head, pressing her lips together in a thin line. "I'll ask Dad about your idea Miles. Explain that its for a school project."

Miles nodded at that, his gaze still lingering on the other member of their group... only to flinch and turn away when Peter suddenly snapped his head up and glared at him.

Peter knew someone was staring at him... he just wasn't expecting it to be the others in his science class that were in his group. Great... a group project. Peter turned his attention away from them, a frown crossing his features. Group projects never ended well with him in the mix. Mainly because no one would let him do more than the bare minimal for them. Rubbing the back of his neck, he mentally went through his schedule to try and figure out what he needed to do... or if he could slip away for a bit to either stop some criminals that no one cared if they didn't get stopped or maybe even steal some more. Rent was coming up. He could use more cash than what he had stolen so far. Figuring no one would miss him at P.E., he decided to ditch that class again. He was terrible at it anyways.

Hank skidded to a halt, relief briefly flashing through him upon seeing that Spiderman had somehow beaten the Avengers on scene. "Hey Spiderman! What's up?"

"The sky! Or me... cause I'm ya know on the ceiling." Spiderman shot a web at one of the members of the Serpentine Society, before twisting around and dropping down next to the Avenger. "How have you been Antman?"

"Great actually." Hank dodged a shot fired from a gun that King Cobra was carrying. "Uh... the rest of the Avengers better be here soon."

"No joke. These guys are tough! I don't envy you guys at all for having to deal with them!" Spiderman gestured wildly at the team of supervillains that were getting ready to do something.