Chapter 19
"And did you see a medical professional to make sure you didn't have any further injuries? There's no telling what could've happened to you on that bridge!" Momo asks worriedly into her phone.
"I did," Peter chuckles, "Trust me Mr Stark was adamant I take any and all precautions before heading back, I almost had to fight him to not schedule a dentist appointment to check my teeth!"
"I'm glad someone is taking your safety seriously!"
He pouts, "You say that like as if I don't."
He can feel the deadpan aura when she replies, "You really don't."
Keeping in mind his battle with the Nomu as well as his haphazard infiltration of the Enforcers headquarters Peter does relent, "Ok maybe not as much as I should." He grumbles.
She giggles sweetly, "It'd be nice if you kept it in mind more often. There's plenty of people who care about you that'd want you to be alive and in their lives."
He doesn't know where he got the confidence or what possessed him to ask, "Like you?"
She's rendered speechless, her heart fluttering. Even Peer is stunned by his own words. The two were fully aware of the 'Almost kiss' they shared not once but twice. The first time, they were happy to ignore and pretend it never happened. But after the second time, it was becoming harder. The two knew there was something there between them now. Something that seems to be growing. Neither one is truly sure what it is or what it could mean for either of their futures. But they had a silent agreement that neither was ready to figure it out and did their best to keep their mind from it. Until Peter brought it to their forefront.
Much time had passed since he had asked and Momo finally remembered to breath. "O-Of course Parker-kun. You're… you're my friend."
Unknowingly they both shared a feeling of disappointment. Momo from saying it because for some reason, friend just doesn't seem like the right thing to label Peter. And for Peter, he doesn't know why being called her friend gave him that feeling of disappointment like as if friend just didn't cut it for him.
Clearing his throat, he decides to change the subject from the awkward tension. "So-So how's your internship going?"
"Oh." Yaoyorozu deflates considerably, "It's going well."
"Doesn't sound like it to me."
"It's just that, I seem to have trouble understanding Uwabami's method of teaching, but there's plenty to learn!... I-If one looks hard enough." She whispers to herself, though Peter does hear her.
"Does Kendo share the same opinion?"
"No, for some reason I can't understand she believes that our internship is a waste of time. Can you believe it?"
Peter bites his tongue as he unknowingly comes to the same conclusion as the class 1B student did, Poor girl is really deep in denial.
"By the way, I have used the scanner you've given me and it's incredible! I've been able to expand my horizons in so many different ways, I've even been able to draw up new strategies and uses for my quirk."
He grins feeling proud of himself for not only making something that works but for it to also have made Momo sound happier than she has since the festival. "Glad it's worked out for ya Vice rep!"
She giggles, "I really do appreciate it, I need to figure out a way to repay you."
"You don't have to, it was a gift!" He tries to deny but she's having none of it.
"I do though! You've already done so much for me since we've first met. It makes me feel guilty that you're always giving and I just want to do the same for you." She confides, touching his heart as she does so.
"Alright then."
She grins, holding her phone a little more tightly in excitement. "Good! I'll think of something!"
In the background Peter can hear Uwabami call out for Momo that it's showtime. "I'm sorry to cut our call short but I do have to leave now, we're about to shoot a comm- I mean go for another round of training!"
"You're shooting a commercial?" Peter asks.
"… Please just, let it go." She pleads desperately.
"Ok ok I'm sorry, enjoy your training!"
He waits until she hangs up before putting down his phone, a wistful smile adorned on his face that quickly slides away when he hears the stifled chuckles of his mentor. "H-How long have you been standing there?"
"5 minutes, I caught half of the love confession." Stark teases, much to Peter's embarrassment.
"It's not a love confession!"
"For now!"
Peter groans, rubbing his face with his hands, "Can we just not do this right now?"
"Alright alright fine!"
"Thank you, so what's the plan for today?"
"Well today I thought we'd take a bit of a break, I mean you had a really eventful first two days of internship, we can afford to whine down a bit before getting back out there." Tony explains, as he pulls up some files to work on with Peter in his personal lab. "We can just talk for a bit if you want."
"Actually there is something I've been meaning to ask for a while."
Tony turns and leans against the monitor, facing the teen. "Shoot."
"Why do you keep covering for me? I mean I know you say you wanna protect me and my Aunt from Osborn, but even before you showed up in Queens you said you kept the police off my back when I was pulling the vigilante act." Peter asks.
Tony sniffs then puts up a hologram picture of All Might, "You remember this guy right?"
"Is this a serious question?"
"Yes it is. We all know the big guy started his career in the US. For a while, just like here, his mere presence was all that was needed to keep the evil bogeymen hiding in the shadows. I mean who wouldn't, All Might's insanely powerful there's no conventional way of defeating him. And for the decade he spent in America, there's never been a greater period of peace. Till he up and moved back to Japan."
"Mr Stark, no disrespect but I-I already learned about this in history class."
Tony raises a hand, "I'm getting there just bare with me ok? Thanks. Anyway where was I before I was rudely interrupted,-"
"Sorry."
"Ah yes, so All Might leaves and soon enough everybody comes out of the wood work hoping to take advantage of All Might's 'vacation'. I'm sure I don't have to remind you how disproportionate the hero to villain ratio is in the US?" Peter nods and Tony continues, "Things went downhill pretty bad. So bad that the big wigs in Washington decided something had to be done, someone needed to step up to fill the over sized shoes of the big blonde Cheshire cat. Only problem is no one really can. Then, someone decided to make a gamble. They presented an idea. I'm sure you know what it is?"
Peter grins, "The Avengers initiative."
"That's right, government decided to bring together a group of remarkable people to see if they could become something more. So that they can fight the battles, no one hero could."
"You were a part of the team since the first roster too right?"
"Yea but that's mostly cause they need someone to foot the bill and it sure as hell wasn't gonna be the US Government." Tony grumbles with an eye roll.
"Huh."
"So, yea things started looking up, crime was going down, people weren't so afraid to step out of their houses anymore. I thought things were better than ever… Turns out, it was all the same, we were just looking at the world through rose tinted glasses." The genius seemed to have had a thousand mile away stare once again as a bad memory came back up.
Peter notices that the eccentric billionaire wears that expression frequently and he wonders just what could have gone so wrong? "What happened?"
He sighs, closing his eyes as he recounts, "One day I'm doing an interview after a big battle and this crying woman comes up and slaps me. She was lucky I had my helmet retracted but I don't think she really cared much. She looked devastated and crying. And I had to ask why? She said that all of us, we had a lot of nerve pretending like we were making a difference or that we cared so much. I mean, I may not look like it but I do care and I honestly was kinda mad and offended… until she showed me a picture of her son. Kid barely 8 years old, wearing an ironman t shirt. She told me that there was a fire at her apartment building, fire fighters couldn't get to it in time because the roads were blocked thanks to a big fight we were all involved in. By the time they pulled her out of the fire, her son was already gone."
He pales considerably, haunted by the death. A lump forms in Peter's throat, remembering the guilt he carries after what happened with his uncle. "She told me she blamed us, because we were 'too busy being glory hounds' fighting the big and flashy fight then just leaving behind the destruction in our wake. we forgot what being a hero was really about. We forgot about the little guy. Security pulled her away after that but, damage was already done. I, fell into another funk. I don't think I slept a wink at all that night, just kept checking the statistics. Seeing if she was right, and honestly, she was. Crime, tragedies, all that was still happening and we were barely making a scratch but we kept patting ourselves on the back like as if we were doing a good job. I tried to do things differently then, I did. Kept flying out and seeing if I could lend a helping hand. One day, coincidentally, there was another fire. And I thought to myself, 'this time I'll be there'. And I was, but someone beat me to it."
"Who?"
"I never learned his hero name. Not that he had one, he looked like a normal guy dressed in some kind of devil costume pulling people out of the fire. He was clearly exhausted, but he kept going, got 20 people out of there before the cops showed and arrested him."
"But he was helping those people!"
"I know! But, there are laws kid. Still, I shared the same sentiment, so I decided to contact him and provide him with the best lawyers I could get, and my reach is vast kid! He refused though, turns out he's a top notch lawyer himself and got himself out of it. I don't know how but he convinced the jury he was legally blind therefore it was impossible for him to have done anything, made them think he was the wrong guy. Fast forward to after the session, I cornered him and tried talking, ended up getting my ass torn a new one instead. Shitted on me and the 'whole system', for all intents and purposes, he said the same thing the lady told me. Called me a sell out and gloryhound. Tch, once he got that out of the system, I finally got him to tell me what made him become a vigilante." He shudders and tells Peter,
"You might wanna sit down for this part kid."
He does as he's told, a feeling of foreboding tensing his shoulders. "This guys senses are off the charts, he can hear things a dog can't, smell things better than a wolf, helps to compensate for his blindness which is actually real!" he comments, still astonished. "But, there's a dark side to it. One night he was trying to sleep in his apartment, he heard a little girl crying in a bed in the apartment across the street… her father liked to go to her room when his wife was asleep."
Peter instantly feels sick, his face twisting in disgust. "Oh god." He whispers.
Tony rubs his eyes, "Yea. He did what anyone would do. Called child services, anonymously of course. But the mom wouldn't believe it, said it couldn't be true. And the dad… he knew how to not leave a mark."
Peter feels like he was about to throw up. How could someone do something so evil so twisted? And to their own flesh and blood? What kind of monster does this?! "Did they get him?"
"… He got him. Went out, beat him to a pulp. Guy spent 6 months eating through a straw, but never laid a hand on his daughter ever again. He taught me a lesson there. All this," he gestures to his lab but Peter got the sense that there was more to it, "It's not enough. There's too many shackles. Yea we can go in take out the obvious big bads and kick ass. But so much slips under the radar. Vigliantes, they pick up the slack. And they do it knowing they'll be hated. They don't do it for the glory, they do it because it's the right thing to do."
"… Great power, great responsibility."
"That's pretty good! And exactly right. I'm stuck in this, too deep, if I try to go down that route I'll never be able to make the same kind of difference and worse, I'll probably get too many people in trouble. So, I do what I can behind the scenes, keep vigilantes on the street."
"Even though society tells you, you shouldn't?" Peter asks.
Tony smirks, "You remember Steve Rogers right?"
"The Captain who became president? Of course!"
"You remember his famous speech?"
Peter's eyebrows scrunch, "Which one? He's got a lot of famous speeches!"
"The tree one, 'Doesn't matter if the whole world decides something wrong is something right. We stand up for what we believe in, no matter the odds or the consequences. Even if the whole world tells you to move, your job is to plant yourself like a tree and tell the world, no. You move."
Inspiration swells in Peter's heart. He's heard that speech countless times and yet now it felt different. It felt like Captain America himself was speaking directly to Peter. "Do you… Do you think that's what I should do?"
"All up to you kid. I'll support you no matter what. But I know for a fact, that you and hell even your classmates from what you've told me. All of you have the potential to really change things, make a difference. Whether you do or don't, is up to you. You don't have to decide right now, in fact I hope you don't cause you're still a kid. That's too much pressure to have on your mind. But when the time comes, I have faith you'll make the decision you can be proud of."
Authors Note: Hello everyone, sorry for how short this chapter was, i just wanted to talk about a few things, next one will be up to normal length. First things first, As one person has reviewed and a few have messaged me, some were wondering if my story will diverge from canon. The answer is yes. It will. The thing is, i like to make it a gradual change, over time, Peter's presence will cause larger changes but it'llbe more apparent in the later chapters and seasons like 3 and 4. If anyone you were hoping that it would happen right off the bat, sorry but i feel more comfortable making it an organic and gradual change. IF that's not what you like or want, there are plenty of other stories you can read that most likely do so. But me i like taking my time.
Another thing i want to address is once again, there will be no fantastic four, inhumes, or mutants in my story. I've already explained why the inhumans and mutants won't make an appearance as well as already said that the fantastic four are retired and won't make an appearance bigger than a mention from time to time. This will be the last time i address this cause i dont know how else to say no without losing my cool. Asking this over and over, especially in the private messages is not gonna make me change my mind.
And i also would like to address the voice actor choices i made in my last chapter. Those were how i personally see these characters, but if you see them as they are in other media like ultimate spiderman, spectacular spiderman or whatever you had in mind, you can. Sorry if i confused anyone before hand. Whatever makes reading this story more enjoyable for you, go for it.
Also in case anyone is wondering, first major spiderman arc will start halfway into the two heroes arc. sorry if it's a long wait but that's how i planned it cause i wanted Peter to get to know the class, build relationships and friendships and what not. Next chapter will come next week and then we'll see what Osborn does with his blood. I decided to cut that out from this chapter because i needed to talk about this stuff.
I'll answer reviews in the next chapter, just not feeling up to it this time around. See ya'll next time