The Avengers Weakness

Chapter Eight

Peter woke up early, his senses telling him something was off at the moment, even though he couldn't put his finger on it. His anxiety was building as he quickly pulled his shirt on and ran down the stairs as he pulled on his shoes, not bothering to untie the laces on them. His first thought was something was wrong with his sister, he remembered Nat mentioning something about her having trouble sleeping at times. He looked around the compound for his little sister; starting to panic when he couldn't find her shouldn't she be up by now?. In the midst of his worry he ran into Nat, almost knocking her down; he grabbed onto the woman's arms and steadied her.

"Sorry Nat." he blurted, moving around her to go find his sister.

"Where you going Peter?" she called after him.

"Have you seen Penny Nat? I can't find her," he replied.

She sighed and shook her head, "Relax honey, she's asleep in my room, long night."

Peter sighed in relief, his anxiety slightly easing off "Oh...is-is she okay?" he asked

"Yes, she is just sleeping. Tony needs to talk to you." she replied, ruffling his messy hair that he hadn't bothered to comb yet.

"Oh, where is he?" the boy asked.

"In the conference room." she replied, pointing down the hall.

Thank you Nat," he replied, quickly hugging her, "Sorry again!" he called over his shoulder as he started running towards the conference room.

"No problem Peter, you better hurry." she replied at the rushed teenager, she wasn't surprised if somehow he managed to be Tony's son with the similarities between the two of them.

Peter quickly ran to the conference room to see Tony sitting in a chair, his arms crossed over his chest, he was wearing his glasses, a sign that he was stressed. When he walked further into the room, he saw Tony sitting down with Nick Fury and a man he'd never seen before who was wearing a suit.

"Sit down kid," Tony stated, motioning for the teenager to take a seat next to him.

"Is everything okay Mr. Stark? Am I off the team?" he asked quickly when he saw the director of SHIELD sitting across from the billionaire.

"What?! No, of course not, Your great kid; nothing like that." he replied, reaching over and patting the boy's shoulder.

Peter looked over at Nick Fury, "Why is Mister Fury here?" he asked softly.

"I'm here to lay down the ground rules." the man cut in, quickly getting down to business.

"What for?"

"Your sister, kid. We need a few ground rules since she's staying here. First off, she can't go on missions or patrol; I know you like to bring the others with you, but there is no damn way you're bringing her with you. Secondly, she can't know about missions, other than that members leave on them and if she finds out, then don't give her details. If you're going on a mission, make up an excuse about it being a school trip or something for your internship, nothing about the team. Do I make myself clear?"

Peter nodded his head, signalling he understood what the man was telling him.

"Good." he replied, "Lastly, she can't know you're Spider-man, nothing about your powers or anything about the hero himself."

"Of course. I wasn't going to do it anyway...I was just going to tell her I worked on his suit." the teenager replied, knowing that while it wasn't a lie to the younger teenager, it wasn't the absolute truth either, something he could temporarily live with.