At the Avenger's compound, which was still rebuilt after Thano's attack. Construction sites littered the desolated landscape. Fortunately, the main Avengers have mostly been rebuilt from scratch. Spider-man, Rhodey, Bucky, Sam, and Hulk May were all laughing after how well the mission with the Scorpion went in the lounge room.
'And right when Scorpion had this big speech on how he shouted, 'I have you now, sucker! Parker had E.I.D.I.T.H. shut down all his tech right then and was like...who's the sucker now!?' Rhodey laughed to himself while the rest of the Avengers joined him.
'Got to say, kid, you did well out there. I bet Tony wouldn't do better,' Bucky praised him as he raised a drink to toast.' At the same time, Parker laughs to himself in joy.
'Yeah, well, you know, I had to step up to being an Avenger, and I step up to be Avenger, so what can I say?' Parker joked while the others laughed again with him.
'With how much you've been kicking ass lately, I think even the press will begin to like you,' Sam muttered. At that, Peter's smile became somewhat strained.
'If I'm lucky,' Parker chuckled sadly before he saw Happy, his Aunt, and Pepper approaching him. 'Speaking of which.'
The three all hugged Peter as they approached him, welcoming him back.
'Good to see you made it, my little man,' His aunt said, relieved that her nephew was all right.
'Me too,' Parker thanked back with a tighter hug.
'I have an interview already scheduled with one of the journalists in the press about the latest success of your operation.' Pepper reported. At the same time, Peter looked up at her and nodded approval.
'Oh, um, good, send them in,' Peter asked casually. Usually, in the past, he would be nervous in talking to groups of people, but now he has become much better at it. After all, it was one of the first lessons he learned when dealing with the press.
Then he looked at the reporter at the end front door of the compound, and his blood froze still.
It was J. Jonah Jameson, the bane of Parker's publicity.
'Hello, you wall-crawling menace,' he greeted the young Hero in his usual insulting voice.
The teen soon retreated from the reporter to privately talk to Happy, Pepper, and May.
'Okay, I am going to ask one question...WHY is he here !?' Parker asked, his voice strained as it oozed with contempt.
Pepper looked at him confused, Happy looked worried, and May sighed in understanding.
'He is the reporter that you are scheduled to meet today,' Pepper said plainly, not fully understanding what was happening.
'And you can't get anyone else because...?' Peter asks, leaving his question open. He was still baffled by what Pepper had done.
'Look, Parker; I know that you do not like John. A lot of people don't like him trust me. But he is the main reason your reputation is so...questionable. Even after Quentin has been exposed as a fraud. People are still uncomfortable that my husband left all his military arsenal to a...' Pepper tried to explain.
'Okay, I get it!' Peter responded quickly, feeling that Pepper was not getting why doesn't want that reporter here.
'And he is one of your biggest critics on that issue.' she added, but Parker shook his head.
'Look, Ms. Pots Jameson has been on my case long before the whole Quieten Beck thing. Even long before Mr. Stark gave me my suit, he was a guy who would twist every fact and truth and turn it into a horrible sick version of its former self, like how most people on social media often do.
'Don't you think you're overeating a bit?' The happy question as he raised his eyebrow, and Pepper was about to agree with him until May interrupted her.
'He's right,' she spoke Bluntly with not even a shred of humor in her voice.
'Are you sure?' Pepper herself asked, worried. She can take that Parker didn't want to talk to Jameson because he was biased and nervous, but if his aunt backed him up.
'I've read his articles, even those without dealing with my kid. Trust me, Pots best cancel the interview now while we have the chance,' May offered sternly, not even entertaining the idea that his nephew's meeting with the web host would go well.
'...Okay, I know the guy is an asshole; there aren't any arguments. However, this interview has to happen as it has with all the other Avengers, given that Tony enlisted a minor into a super soldier squadron. Social activists and moral guardians are already clawing at our backs for promoting a child soldier. But the public at large needs to know that the Avengers can still protect them' Pepper's eyes then became watery as she thought about her husband and then looked at the remaining crew of the Avengers. Which consisted of only Bucky, Sam, Hulk, and Rhoudy.
Parker shared Peppers's look as well...it was disheartening to see so few Avengers left after the first and second wars against The Mad Titan and his black order. Most Avengers have either been killed, retired, or are too busy dealing with other threats. Thor's hand went to space with the guardians of the galaxy, vision another A. I that Iron man created was destroyed and left Wanda's heartbroken; Natasha Romanoff, the black widow, sacrificed herself to get the soul stone. Clint, now fully retired to his family, Steve Rogers, who decided to stay in the past, is too old to be Captain America anymore, and Mr Stark...Peter saw himself die when he used the gauntlet to defeat Thanos. Never once has the group of heroes he idolized since he was a kid...could look so small.
'I was the only Avenger he could call upon, huh' Parker whispered solemnly as he thought back to when Nick Fury tried to recruit him for a mission to stop the fake elementals, and he rejected it to go on some stupid vacation. His fists gripped in hatred of his past self for doing that.
'Find, let's get this over with,' Parker announced to the group as he walked with Pepper to begin the interview.
Later in the conference room of the facility
'Alright, before we begin, I want to make this clear...as a reporter, the only thing I want is the truth. Yes, Mysterio fooled us, he fouled us all, but right now, we do not need people pointing at each other; we need answers, and such as whenever the Avengers are really in good hands when some punk kid is leading them! Jamerson introduced himself live on camera while Peter sat in two chairs on opposite sides in the compound's interview room, with Peter looking nervous at what Jonah said.
'Uh, I'm not the leader of the Avengers. Rho-' Parker begins to explain, but Jameson cuts him off.
'Was it true that the Avengers were so incompetent that one of them, even when backed up by Shield, was nearly gunned down by two-bit crook Scorpion and because you couldn't find out that he and his goons had high-powered armor!? Jamesson accused Peter. At the same time, the teen was taken aback that the reporter would take things out of context like that.
'Nick Fury never told us about the armor because he never got the information from his inside man. Scorpion and his men were too tight lip to tell anyone else outside their inner circle' Peter explain but Jameson frown at him unconvinced.
'If that was the case, why didn't you have E.I.D.I.T.H disabled the amour right from the get-go or do it the very moment you got there!? Jonah's question again. This caused Peter to growl at him in frustration at the reporter ignoring the facts.
'Jameson, the court has already ruled that I can only use E.D.I.E.T.H. under stringent circumstances and only through wireless control, while the main A. I was transferred to the central Stark international database. I could only be allow her to use her because Nick Fury approved of it, and even then, given the wireless connection, it won't be consistently stable.
'So, you are saying that Fury only approved you when the mission began, not before?' Jameson questioned again, and this time, Parker hesitated as if realizing even he did not consider that.
'And because of your utter lack of foresight, you almost led the deaths of honest-to-god men and women who gave their lives for the mission and nearly the death of one the few avengers we have left'! John further accused Peter, which caused the teen to become angry.
'Look, I was not the leader of that mission, okay!' he shouted. 'All I was assigned to do was hack into their system, download their files, and get out! I wasn't even supposed to fight anybody!
'BUT YOU DID TAKE CHARGE, RIGHT!?' Jameson shouted back with even more fury as Parker quieted himself in fear.
'Do you know what the problem is with you, Parker? The people seem flat-out ignored despite all the evidence I provided them. 'ITS BECAUSE YOU'RE A SNOT NOSE BRAT WHO DOESN'T KNOW A DAMN THING ABOUT RESPONSIBILITY!
Upon that accession, Parker froze, utterly silent at what the reporter had just said. While Pepper, Happy, and May looked at Jameson in shock, May Parker expressed utter rage.
'Tony Stark was an idol Parker one that the world loved and adored, a man that went from a hero to acceding to the statues of a saint and when he sacrificed himself not only for our world. No, not just our world but for the entire damn freaking universe! NONE OF US would be alive today if it were not for him!' Jonah ranted as his voice lowered.
'And what have you done, hmm!?.' He laughed darkly, staring hatefully into Parker's eyes. 'What have you done to honor his memory to carry the legacy he entrusted to?' Jameson asked the now teen hero, who only lowered his head in shame.
'That's right, you abused it and took it for granted. When Fury called you to deal with the elementals that WERE regarded as a threat to the world. You ghost him. The director of Shield being a ghosted by an avenger!?' The reporter shouted at Peter and then pointed his correct figure straight at him.
'And when you had E.I.D.I.T.H, the first thing you did was nearly killed your classmates with it instead of trying to make up for it. YOU HAND OVER IT TO A FUCKING PSYCHOPATH WHO WAS WILLING TO LEVEL ALL OF LONDON TO BE FOOLHARDY HERO LIKE YOU!' The Journalist roared into Peter's face and the lad's guilt poured through every core of his body with every tongue-lashing word.
John then walked out of his seat and began to step up to the petrified teen, who jerked away from him in fright.
'But do you know what I hate most about you, Parker? Do you want to know the greatest thing I hate about more than any of that!?' John spoke in an ice-chilled voice barely above a whisper, yet its scorn and viciousness felt all the more concentrated.
'It's because you suffer no consequences for your actions.' the report spoke, and with that single sentence, Peter gasped in horror.
'You know, I thought it was bad enough that you have to wear a mask to hide your identity and to avoid facing the crimes of your vigilantism, and I thought...by unmasking you to the world, showing them the true Menace that you are...I believed your days would be numbered; to answer for all the crimes you have committed,' Jameson spoke in a stern yet surprisingly remorseful tone.
'But no, they pardon you, forgave you, and still have you as an Avenger all the while you continue to make the same mistakes...as if all the horrible stuff you were responsible for didn't even matter!' at that hearing, Parker then lowered his head further not even wanting to meet the news reporter in the eye, the words... they hurt him too much.
Mr. J then smirked at the young Hero's utter silence.
'So, Spider-Man, no words to come back with? no quips, no jokes, nothing else to defend yourself with!?' John asks in a meekly harsh voice while Parker remains quiet.
The reporter smiled. Then in almost sadistic glee, he looked over at the broken teen, knowing he already won the argument. He then stares back at the camera.
'Well, there you have it folks, our next Avenger is a pitiful irresponsible child who failed as the next Iron man failed as Hero...and fails as a man. and so, my dear viewers, I will leave you with this one question.' Jameson then moved the camera towards Peter, who was on the verge of crying and trying desperately not to look at the camera.
'Do want this...boy, this punk, this Menace...to be your savior!?
Now for those of you who think that Jameson was going to all jokes and laughs...he's not. While Jonah Jameson, in most Spider-Man media, usually has Parker brushing off his criticism and only causes Peter problems when turning the public against the Hero or threatening to fire him from his job. This Jameson is a more physiological threat to Peter as he combines truth and lies to play with the boy's guilt complex so that even Spidy starts to believe him. Undoubtedly, this will have lingering effects on our Hero in the upcoming chapters. Stay tuned.