Sorry for the shorter chapter after so long of not posting. life this year has been way more hectic than I thought. being one thing after another after another and working three jobs with well just life... So that being said don't have a ton of time to just relax and write. As I mentioned I re wrote chapter 5 some things are the same the main different is how the fight with the Avengers went. Hopeful the next chapter won't take me as long but I am working on updating the rest of my stories as well.
"Leave Spider-man alone." Everyone turned to the voice Tony shinned his light up seeing a red clad figure standing on a shipping crate with a DD on his chest and two little horns on his head.
"Who are you?" Sam asked he was getting a bad feeling from this stranger as red-looking eyes looked down on them.
"I have heard of you I think your daredevil right?" Iron man asked the red glad vigilantly jumped down the red eyed masked glaring at them.
"Look we don't want to hurt Spider-Man we just need him—" Captain American stared to explain
"To give up his identity to give up his life?" Daredevil cut off the patriot he walked a little closer the street light now illuminated him "I will say this one more time Leave Spider-man alone, or you will have me to deal with, and I am not as friendly as him."
"Are you threatening us?" Widow asked eyes narrowing at the stranger
"I guess you could say that Spider-man is a friend of mine and you have already caused him a lot of pain and hardship and for what? He had been protecting this city better than any of you have even cared to."
"We what? No, I figured he's hurt look we didn't mean for any of this to happen we can patch him up. Get him the best medical care-" Tony gasped trying to easy the situation he was already feeling guilty about all of this the crash from where Spider-man dropped was at least 80 ft any normal person would have died. They all knew Spider-man was stronger than they thought seeing as Tony's head was still throbbing from the kick there was even a little dent in his helmet which should be impossible for most people. It begged the question if spider-man really wanted to do harm he wondered if he would not be standing right now. it was a little scary if he thought about it but also scared that spider-man was dyeing somewhere and it was somehow his fault.
"No because you would use that to get the answers you want. I will not allow that… So why don't you tell me why you are after his identity, why now?" Daredevil asked or more like demanded his tone cold and sharp not seeming the least bit intimidated to have most of the Avengers standing before them. And by the look of the he could see Spiderman defiantly put up a fight seeing as most of the Avengers here were already sporting bruises and webbing still clung to their clothes.
"Webs asked the same thing." Sam whispered to his team little did he know Matt still heard every word.
"That is classified" Widow hissed
"If you know Spider-Man so well why don't you give up his name?" Clint asked everyone tensed as the air around them thickened it was clear this vigilante didn't like that question one bit.
"What makes you think know it?" the red masked vigilantly asked in a low growl
"Well don't you?" Tony asked the same time Clint did.
"No" he stated with a tone of finality the group stared at each other wondering if Dare Devil was telling the truth or not "What is so important that you have to go thought all of this to get to Spider-man now?" the vigilante asked after few minutes when no one else spoke up.
That was a question Tony had been asking himself for a long time. Why was SHIELD so set on spider-man now after nearly four years? Why did they need the Avengers to bring him in? and his brain repeated Spider-mans words on the helicarrier 'who put you up to this?' wouldn't Spider-man already know it was Shield? Wasn't that why he was there?
"Look Dare Devil. That's your name right?" the vigilante didn't say anything "well if we can just talk this out we can get Spider-man the help he needs and this doesn't have to get any uglier… Do you know if Spider-man took anything from SHILED does he know something we don't?" Tony asked the other Avenger watched waiting for an attack for a full minute no one moved no one spoke then the lights went out when they came back he was gone.
"Well that went well." Scott spoke breaking the silence.
"The stories about that guy were true… he gives off very batman vibes. I wonder if he is a millionaire too complete with his own back cave." Tony joked a little but in reality he wasn't laughing in fact he couldn't stop thinking about the vigilante words Spider-Man was hurt he hurt Spider-Man and another thing kept bothering him, something that had bothered him from the start of this… what was SHIELD really after.
The next morning Peter woke with a start groaning slightly at his stiff body. he looked around at his surrounding trying to remember everything that happened last night. He touched his face giving a slight sigh of relief that his mask was still in place. He silently got out of bed taking note of Foggy and Carol sleeping forms in chairs posted century in the small room. it brought a small smile at his face seeing that they must have stayed up late looking after him; that thought also made him feel bad that they need to at all.
Walking out into the living room in the main apartment the window was open. "Glad to know you're up." Peter turned seeing Matt sitting at the kitchen counter still in his Daredevil suit.
"Please tell me you didn't go out last night." Peter asked in panic looking Matt up and down for injuries.
"I did"
"Are you crazy what happened to laying low what if the Avengers—
"Am I crazy? I should be asking you that what were you thinking breaking into SHIELD by yourself?" Matt cut the young hero off tossing the flash drive on the counter in front of him "was it all for this?" he finished
"Did you look what was on it?" Peter asked then cringed forgetting that Matt was blind "sorry I didn't—
"it's fine and no I don't know what's on it." he said a few minutes past either of them said a word Matt listen to the familiar comforting sound of the humming bird… no Peter's heartbeat. Strong and heathy or getting there. Matt envied Peter healing ability if he was half as hurt as Peter was when he arrived last night he would have been lucky if he was up and walking with in a couple weeks much less the next day. "Pete what is going on? You don't have to do this alone you know."
The heart beat fluttered a little fast then back into normal rhythm "I don't really know myself that is why I needed to go to the source I wasn't getting anywhere though their systems I hoped… hope whatever is on that." Peter pointed at the device "that flash drive" Peter corrected "might lead to some answers something about this isn't right. It doesn't make sense none of this has… Matt I—"
Matt moved around the counter handing the device to Peter "will you let me know what you find?"
Peter didn't say anything for a while then in a quiet voice he relented "yes"
"Your lying?" Matt said tightening his fist round the flash drive.
"I don't what anyone else to get hurt" Peter sighed now moving to closer to the window "I am tired of losing people I care about and if I had a choice or if I was in my right mind last night I would have stayed as far as I could from you."
"Why?" Matt fought his voice from breaking that one statement stung and he had no idea why.
"Because what if I accidently lead them to you what if—
"You were hurt pretty badly you could have died." Peter didn't say anything it was so unlike peter to be this quite so unlike him to be so down "what else is bothering you, is there another reason why you have been avoiding me?" again Peter stayed quiet. Matt heard the shuffling of his friends waking up in the other room
"Give me the flash drive Matt." Peter said his voice turning colder surprising Matt
"You are too young—
"don't, just don't I don't need that right now. please Matt I don't want to see you get hurt or anyone else…" he sighed "Depending on what if find I will let you know will that be enough?" Peter sounded desperate he sounded older and tired.
"Fine." He tossed the drive which Peter easily caught he turned to jump out the window but paused
"Thanks, and tell Carol thanks too for patching me up I appreciate it."
"You could tell her yourself." Matt stated gesturing his head to the room.
Peter snorted then grimaced silently which made Matt want to make Peter lay back down to have him stay until he was back to being 100% but knew if Peter wanted to leave there was no stopping him. "Yeah and get yelled at no thanks." He moved to leave again but stopped "Matt you don't have to worry about me I will be fine and thanks I will return the shirt later." And with that he was gone Matt didn't know what Peter meant about his shirt but that didn't matter.
He wanted to tell him to be careful because as he knew Spider-Man was not fine he was just a kid and he was beating himself up for not doing more to stop him hoping that his inaction didn't get his young friend killed.
Froggy and Carol were not happy that Spider-man balled without talking to them Carol ranted about giving Spider-Man a piece of her mind when she saw him again Froggy wanted the same thing but was more interested in knowing what happened last night with the Avengers and didn't believe Matt when he said they just talked. Eventually they two left leaving Matt alone to his thoughts.
He did mean what he said to the Avengers but in all honesty didn't know if he could follow though. He didn't know what really happened last night between the Avengers and spider-man but knew that if he were to go head-to-head with the Avenger without a real plan he would end up dead. He shook his head. now thinking just how far would he be willing to go to protect the young hero. To protect Peter…
SHIELD
Fury clicked off his communicator and leaded back in his chair. he hated the council meetings most of the time he had no idea what they were thinking and this time was no different.
he had no idea why after almost four years the council wanted spider-man's identity. Spider-man was a good vigilante and picked up many of the heroes' slack while they sat around waiting for world ending events Spider-man took out Supervillains every day plus still had time to stop drug dealers, gang bangers and the like. sure, he was a hero he would've liked him to be a part of the Avengers Initiative. Maybe Spider-man was the missing link that the Avengers needed, something to make them whole. of course, in all these years he didn't get much information on the web-slinger which in itself was frustrating not knowing everything. But he respected the hero enough in what he has done for the city and its people to have left Spider-man alone for the most part. As much as he would like to deny it; Spider-man was good at what he did and in many ways better than the Avengers.
He thought back to the council, who kept insisting that they get this done a soon as possible. Something about it didn't sit right with Fury. Were they up to something and needed Spider-man out of the way to do it? He didn't think they would be this much in a hurry to add someone new to the Avengers. Heck they weren't usually this much in agreement with most of the supervillains sentencing or threat level. What was so special about spider-man? Besides being a recurring headache and a problem has should have been taken care off weeks ago if not years. He sighed he had made up his mind he had to do some investigating on his own he need to find out what the council's interest in spider-man were, he wanted to know what was really going on before they pasted the point of no return...
But that hadn't exactly paned out the way he wanted it to. some how Spider-man and snuck in the Hellicarrier somehow bypassed the security and only managing to trip a silent alarm that was on a septate system then the main SHIELD servers an alarm even he didn't know existed.
Spider-man managed to take something from the hard copy archive shipment on its way to HQ but he couldn't tell what was stolen if anything was stolen at all. Only then to drop off the map after making a fool of the Avengers for the third time. Rubbing his temple, he hit a bottom on the console
"Hill has there been any word from the Avengers?"
"No sir they are still searching the docks and the surrounding areas for Spider-man." Fury looked at the clock it was 2 o'clock in the morning should he be impressed that the Avenger were still out there after almost 6 hours, where most of them probably still needed medical.
"Call them back." He ordered
"Right away sir." The connection went dead
later
"What do you mean you no longer what us going after Spider-man?" Clint asked all the Avengers were sitting in the conference room Fury standing at the head of the table, an almost exact copy of when he asked more ordered them to go after the webslinger in the first place.
Scott still looked out of it coming out of a mild concussion late last night was really the only Serious injury out of the whole group. Which was incredibly surprising seeing how much damage the helicarrier took and most of that was from the poor judgment from Clint's EMP.
"It is exactly as I said it." Fury grumbled "the council are going to send in specialists to capture Spider-man. The Avengers performance in this matter has gained to much publicity and after almost a mouth are not showing any results."
"I for one is happy we are not being ordered to go after spider-man but what are these 'specialists?'" Tony stated eyes narrowing slightly not liking the sound of who ever they were.
"That is classified even from me." Fury gave a frustrated huff it was unclear if it was because he had to explain this for the third time this early in the morning or if it was because he was also left in the dark about the council's plan for the web slinger.
"If we were having a hard time catching the spider what makes you think anyone could do better?" Scott asked they were the Avengers after all earth mightiest heroes. What did these specialists have that they didn't.
"That shouldn't concern you anymore. This meeting is dismissed." Fury stated turning to walk out of the room knowing the Avengers that they are not going to be content with that he hoped they would get to the bottom of this before it was too late because there was something rotten with this whole mess, Fury wished he saw it sooner.
Spiderman
He made it back home with minimal issue and more then a little pain. Getting inside his little lair he sat down with a heavy sigh he hated lying to Matt especially when Matt had the ability to tell when he was lying. But he got away from a lecture, one he definably didn't want or need. To him all the pain would be worth it if whatever was on this flash drive gave him some idea about what was going on… and if it didn't then he wasn't sure what he was going to do.
Peter took a deep breath and plugged the drive into his computer.
he spent the petter part of the morning trying too bypast the triple inscription sypher. He had never seen or heard about a decryption Cipher this advance in any of Starks or Shields systems. It was almost like it came from many different sources with different codes and locks to open the same box. Peter thought it should be easier than it was to find the holes in the codes a defecting in them meshing together but that was not the case. It was like trying to solve a Rubik's cube where all the size looked the same color and the cube was in some substance making it hard to turn but knowing that the Rubik's cube needs to be solved just not have access to it.
Peter leaned back in his chair he was very tired and very hungry he should have stayed at Matt's place for breakfast before jumping out the window. With his healing factor working double time on his injures form last night his fast metabolisms were demanding more then what peter had consumed yesterday which honestly wasn't much. He grounded being this hungry he felt like he was dying the constant grumbling in his stomach he could hardly think straight.
Getting up finally deciding to try to do something about his stomach he went over to his pantry and refrigerator wondering if there was anything he could munch on and get back to work. the refrigerator way depressingly empty. His pantry was a little better with three cup-a-noodles and granola bar. He sighed taking the granola bar munching on it as he watching the Styrofoam cup cook. Once he finished the first cup he ended up making the other two and eating them almost as fast before curling up in his hammock for a long nap. He would tackle his problems tomorrow.
Elsewhere
"Spider-man has gone too far he got into the archives in transit in SHIELD helicarrier hold." An older man hissed.
"Did he manage to take anything?" Another member asked
"We are still trying to determine that." The first man said sitting back in his chair
"Once again the Avengers had the bug in their sights and they still couldn't finish the job."
"Calm down all of you." A women spoke "clearly Spider-man is much more of a threat then we initially theorized the Avengers were inadequate in getting the information."
"Could they be secretly working together they are just dragging this out?"
"Doubtful this has hurt both their reputations in more ways than one. New York has already had mixed feelings about the web head but now the city is starting to turn on their beloved Avengers." A woman in green sighed seeming disinterested in this meeting.
"Yes in a way this will work for our goals" a man spoke from the shadows
"Stage three is already on its way we are ready for stage four of the plan." Someone else spoke up either not hearing the comment or chose to ignore it.
"Then if we can't take spider-man down let keep both the Avengers and Spider-man distracted enough with their hatred for each other by the time they know what is going on it will be to late." A pale faced Man spoke
"You said that at the last meeting but Spider-man is still a liability one we can't afford to make any missteps. If Spider-man did manage to get his sticky figures on some information he could find out our connection to SHIELD and could find out what our plans are."
"It won't come to that it can't. we have worked far to long in this to let it all be destroy by one bug. If the Avengers are incapable of getting what we need then we will turn to people that already have a grudge against the webslinger it will be enough to get our people in a spot to take the bug out." the first man shouted slamming his fist on the table
"Are you talking about the villains? Most of Spider-man's regulars are in prison or MIA there is no way we could get them out without much suspicion pointed at us. Not to mention all of them have gone up against spider-man and lost… repeatedly if I might add."
"You don't need to worry about that I have another plan in motion for that." He gave a wicked smile
"Is that why to told Fury to have the Avengers back off on the hunt? Wouldn't it make more sense to keep the Avengers pursuit to keep the pressure on?"
"Knowing the Avengers they will not stay quite if they are not going after spider-man they are likely to try and find out why they were sent after the Spider-man in the first place."
"That is true but this this new plan in motion the Avengers and Spider-man will have their hands full plus the Avengers might shift gears and try to protect the bug which in turn will be their down fall."
"are you going to share this plan with the rest of us King Pin" a women in a dark skin tight suit asked in a cold whisper the room fell silent
"And where would be the fun in that?" another spoke. Answering for the Kingpin the large man just nodded and sat down
"You are not in charge of the supervillain factions in our plans that is me so I demand to know that you have up your sleeves" the pail man said coldly
"Come now Tomes you were only put in charge of making some supervillains to keep the bug distracted in your own underworld dealings everyone knows that you are more concerned with your empire then this councils plans" King pin said smugly
"if that was true then I could have secured my empire but exposing your secrets long ago." Tomes shot back.
"Tomes if you were unable to make a supervillain strong enough to take out spider-man the monsters that had gotten the closest to taking out that pest had been ones you had no control over like goblin and venom which if I might point out haven't been seen or heard from since their last conversations with Spider-man and you had failed in negotiating this them to join our cause."
"I don't appreciate what you are insinuating, Mr. Hammer. I am a large benefactor to this organization and being supplying test subjects to you as well has to Hydra. All I am asking is to know the plan concerning the supervillains if you are planning on their escaper or release I would like to know so nothing messing up our plans further." Tomes said calmly eyes narrowing at one of the few none powered people in the room who fought the urge to shrink away from the ghost like glare from the man.
"You do have a point after all who can we trust if not each other." The lady in green supplied having re-joined the conversation. Now everyone turned to King Pin seeing if he would now share his plan.
"I don't trust anyone certainly not any of you. Meeting like this is already getting to risky so if you are all done trying to demonstrate how big you are can we move on to the actual purpose of this meeting." With that everyone moved topics and further plans were discussed. The horizon looked very dark for the heroes…