Family Tree ~ An El Hopper and Peter Parker Story

Chapter 6

Peter Parker was walking to the shelter from school that day, still miserable about the fact that he may have to move. He hoped that when he walked inside, Kiernan wouldn't call him into her office to meet this man. Taking a deep breath, he walked inside and sighed in relief when no one was seen waiting for him.

The boy walked into his room and kneeled next to his bed. He pulled out his Spider-Man suit that he had hidden under there and put it on. He then put on his mask, opened the window, and swung outside into the city. Karen greeted him and he set out to stop some crimes from occurring. Unfortunately, there was no sign on Dr. Octavius anywhere. There were no hostage situations this time, which made Peter relieved, but also upset because he needed to find the scientist to stop him.

Later that evening, Peter was sitting on the top on the Empire State Building, the place he had gone to when Aunt May was killed. From afar, he could see the old Avengers Tower, still with the logo even though it was unoccupied from the move to the compound upstate. He hadn't talked with the Avengers after the Thanos incident, deciding to give them time to mourn everyone and to give himself time. He couldn't walk in there without thinking about Tony Stark as he took a step in the halls.

Peter took a deep breath, put his mask back on, and swung down from the building. The sun had set when he arrived at the Avengers Compound. He took off his mask and slowly stepped up to the door. Biting his lip, he rang the buzzer and confirmed his name to FRIDAY at the speaker. The door buzzed and he stepped inside, not sure what to do.

"Hey kid," someone called out. Peter turned and saw Captain Marvel walking up to him. "You lost? Is there any trouble out there?"

The boy shook his head. "No, there's no trouble," he responded. "I-I'm Peter Parker. You might've seen me come back from the dust two months ago? I was Mr. Stark's intern and I'm also Spider-Man."

The blonde nodded in response. "I remember you. Tony talked a lot about you when he came back from space. You meant a lot to him. I'm really sorry that he died. He was a fighter till the end. I didn't know him that long, but I wish I did," she said.

"Thank you Ms. Captain Marvel, ma'am," Peter answered, looking down at the floor.

"You can call me Carol, kid," Carol said with a small smile on her face. "Wanna say hi to the others? They're all awake right now," she asked, receiving a nod in response.

Carol led Peter into the sitting area of the compound. The teen took a deep breath and entered the room, seeing everyone looking over at him. After the events with Thanos, almost everyone had moved into the compound. Natasha Romanov was still there along with Wanda, Sam, and a rebuilt Vision. Bucky, Stephen Strange, and Scott Lang were new in the place along with Carol. The Guardians of the Galaxy were back in different galaxies and T'Challa was still living in Wakanda.

"Hey Peter," Natasha greeted, standing up and walking over to him. Peter gave her a small smile as she gave him a side hug. "You doing any better now?"

Peter shook his head and teared up again. "Aunt May..." he responded in a quiet voice.

"We saw on the news," Bucky spoke up. "We're really sorry kid. If we had been there, maybe we could've helped."

"I couldn't even help her..." Peter whispered. "And now I might be taken away from this city. The city I grew up in. Spider-Man is supposed to help protect New York, but he can't do that when he's not even here."

"Wait, you were taken in by social services?" Sam asked. "They're trying to make you leave New York? What the hell is this shit?"

"Nothings official yet, but I'm supposed to be meeting the man who wants to adopt me soon," Peter explained. "I can't leave though. I can't be Spider-Man if I don't even live here."

Wanda stood up and walked over to him. "You know, we mostly reside in New York with our compounds and towers," she said. "But here we are, going to other countries to protect them on missions. You're still a kid, Peter, but maybe this can be a good thing for you."

"Yeah I agree," Stephen added. "It can help you learn to protect other cities and towns that aren't just New York. It's a popular place and crimes can happen here, but as long as you just focus on small crimes, you should be good."

Peter bit his lip and stared at the floor. He knew they were right about this, but he didn't want to admit it. He wanted to protect more than just New York, like an Avenger, but he couldn't permanently move to a place where the Avengers wouldn't be there to help him. Even though he ignored them for two months, he knew he needed them to help him.

Carol immediately knew what was going on in the kid's head. She left the room for a few moments and came back holding something. Tapping Peter's shoulder she handed a pager to him and smiled. Confused, Peter took it, but didn't know what a pager could do.

"After I helped Agent Fury back in the nineties, I made upgraded his pager to communicate with me in emergencies if I was across the galaxy," Carol explained. "I made a few more for the others, including you. So if you do move away, you'll have this to communicate with us. But only for emergencies. Nothing about book reports."

Peter took the pager and smiled at the superhero. "Thank you," He said. Carol pulled him into a hug, the boy gladly hugging him back. Natasha joined in and the rest of the Avengers did as well. Peter kept smiling, happy to know that he wasn't alone anymore. After a long group hug, the teen left the compound and swung back to the shelter.

...

Peter quietly snuck in through the window of his room. Making sure that no one was in there, he climbed up to the ceiling and hopped down. He took off the mask and suit, hiding it under his bed and hid the pager with it. He put back on the clothes he was wearing earlier and sat down on his bed, playing games on his phone.

A knock on the door startled Peter and caused him to sit up. He walked over to the door and opened it, seeing Kiernan and an unfamiliar man in front of him. He immediately knew what was going on before the social worker introduced the man as Jim Hopper, the chief of police in Hawkins, Indiana. Peter let them in, nervous and shaking as he sat back down on the bed.

"Hi, Mr. Chief Hopper, I'm Peter Parker," the teen introduced himself.

"Nice to meet you Peter," Hopper said with a smile. "I'm sorry about your aunt. I saw it on the news yesterday."

"It's okay..." Peter responded, looking down at the floor and playing with his hands.

"Your story reminded me a bit about my adopted daughter," Hopper started to explain. "She also didn't have a family that could raise her and she's been through a lot, just as you had. I think you two would get along great and she told me she's looking forward to having a new sibling in her life."

Peter looked up at the mention of an adopted daughter. "She's been through a lot, too? Is she okay now?" He asked.

"Don't worry, she's fine now," Hopper replied, but Peter could tell that he was thinking about something else. "She has friends and a boyfriend who I like to scare the shit out of. She goes to school and she's happy there. At least that's what she's telling me. You know, kids lying to their parents or guardians."

Peter chuckled at that remark. "Yeah..." He said, starting to smile a little.

Hopper smiled back and leaned back in his chair. "So tell me about yourself, kid. I think I'm already set, but I want to know more about you instead of a tragic backstory."

"Well, there's not much to tell," Peter said with a shrug. "I'm 15, I'm in high school, I have one friend and a maybe girlfriend. I really like science and all that stuff, but other subjects in school are kinda boring. I'm also on the Decathlon team in school. I really like watching movies like Star Wars and Disney movies. I also love memes."

Hopper chuckled at the teen and turned to Kiernan. They spoke a bit and the social worker handed the police chief some papers and a pen. Peter watched the two adults anxiously as the man signed his name on the papers and wrote some other stuff. He knew that this was it and that he wouldn't be living in Queens anymore. As much as he was happy to have a home that wasn't a shelter, he wasn't looking forward to leaving Ned and MJ.

"Well, it's official, Peter Parker. You'll be moving to Hawkins, Indiana with Jim Hopper."