Dependence

Chapter 1

            Peyton sat on the bleachers, sketch pad in hand, as some of the girls sat talking about the Avengers in front of her. She didn't care all that much, at least not in the way they were speaking. She didn't find any of the Avengers attractive... Except maybe Natasha... She was gay so that was probably part of the reason she didn't find the males attractive, but in any case that wasn't the point; the point was she didn't care about 'Eff, marry, kill'. She was pulled out of her thoughts when she heard her brother's best friend shout:

"Peter knows Spiderman!" and one would say this was the moment things actually started to go downhill. These three words were what would send Peter to a party where he would see something he wasn't supposed to see and in that moment would begin a mission that ended in anger between Tony and the twins, a fallen building, and a lot of heartache. At the time, though, the twins were just worried about the secret being revealed.

"No, I don't. No. I-- I mean--" Peter stuttered trying to cover up for Ned's slip. Peyton put her face in her hands. She knew Ned wouldn't be able to keep his mouth shut.

"They're friends." Ned said again. Peyton gave him a look but he didn't notice.

"Yeah, like Coach Wilson and Captain America are friends." Flash Thompson, an ugly spirited, arrogant, bully who didn't have anything nice to say.

"I've met him, yeah. A couple times. But it's..." he struggled.

"Through the Stark internship." Peyton called from her spot, standing up to go stand next to her brother.

"Yeah, well, I'm not really supposed to talk about it." he said, turning to glare at Ned.

"Well, that's awesome. Hey, you know what? Maybe you should invite him to Liz's party. Right?" Flash snarled.

"Yeah, I'm having people over tonight. You're more than welcome to come." she said.

"Having a party?" Peter squeaked.

"Yeah, it's gonna be dope. You should totally invite your personal friend Spider-Man." Flash continued, begging for attention. Peyton gripped the edges of her book tighter in anger.

'Pick your battles, Pey' she told herself.

"It's okay. I know Peter's way too busy for parties anyway, so..." Liz shrugged.

"Come on. He'll be there. Right, Parker?" Flash asked. Peter didn't answer and the bell rang. As people started clearing out, Peyton grabbed her backpack and walked down to the boys.

"What are you doing?!" Peter exclaimed at Ned.

"Helping you out. Did you not hear her? Liz has a crush on you!" Ned insisted. Peter paused, clearly thinking over his friends words.

"Dude, you're an Avenger. If any one of us has a chance
with a senior girl, it's you." Ned said.

"So what? The two of you are going to go to some party and Peter's going to show off Spiderman?" Peyton scoffed.

"She's right, man, this is a bad idea." Peter said.

"No it's not! It'll be so cool! Maybe Flash will even get off your back!" Ned said. Peter, again, began to think it over and Peyton sighed.

"Do what you want, Pete, but I think it's a bad idea."

~~~

"Peter, it's nationals. Is there no way you could take one weekend off?" Peter was talking quietly with their academic decathlon teacher.

"I can't go to Washington. If Mr. Stark needs me, I have to make sure I'm here." Peter insisted. Peyton sighed. It was doubtful Mr. Stark would be contacting her brother anytime soon. Mr. Stark was just using him and Peter's schooling was going down because of it. When she mentioned this, though, Peter didn't listen to her.

"You've never been in the same room as Tony Stark." Flash called.

"Wait. What's happening?" one of the teammates asked.

"Peter's not going to Washington." another said. The team went off.

"No."

"No, no, no."

"Why not?"

"Really? Right before nationals?"

"He already quit marching band and robotics lab." MJ commented. Everyone look over at her and she shrugged.

"I'm not obsessed with him. Just very observant." she explained. Their teacher sighed and turned to Flash.

"Flash, you're in for Peter." he said.

"I don't know. I gotta check my calendar first. I got a hot date
with Black Widow coming up." he said.

"Flash, that obviously isn't true. You're gay." Peyton snapped. Okay, that was petty and not really an insult as she herself was gay, but she was so sick of Flash and his idiocy. The team laughed and Flash just glared at her. She winked at him before turning back to her text book.

~~~

Peyton sighed in annoyance, waving at her aunt as she drove away, before walking up to the party. Liz spotted her first and walked over.

"Hey, when I saw Peter and Ned I thought you weren't gonna come." she said.

"Yeah, Ned called, they thought I should come hang out." she shrugged. She was actually here because Peter abandoned Ned and Ned really didn't want to be alone and she felt bad for him so she came. She'd talk to her brother later and see what Spidey thing came up. Liz nodded.

"Okay, well, drinks and food are in the kitchen." she said with a smile. Peyton returned the gesture before walking over to the drinks. She ignored the keg and the beer bottles and snagged a Dr. Pepper.

"Peyton? Thank God you're here. Where did Peter even go?" he asked.

"Where do you think? He probably spotted some crime that needed stopping." she explained. He nodded in understanding when MJ walked over. Everyone else knew her as Michelle but Peyton had spoken to her enough that they had becoming closer. In a world full of boys, Peyton needed a girl around, and MJ was super quirky and different so it worked.

"What are you doing here?" she asked.

"Emotional support. Peter abandoned Ned." she said.

"It was really mean!" Ned exclaimed. Peyton rolled her eyes but smirked anyways. MJ just nodded and didn't say anything else. All of a sudden Flash started shouting into the microphone.

"Of course, Penis Parker failed to bring his imaginary friend tonight!" he exclaimed. The crowd laughed and Peyton's jaw clenched.

"Tell you what, let's do something fun. Are you ready? When I Say Penis, you say Parker: Penis!"

"Parker!"

"Penis!"

"Parker!"

This continued for a few minutes, Ned having called Peter and then hung up, before all of the music stopped, the sound board cracking. Flash looked up to see Peyton pick up a red solo cup up. It had been full of Flash's beer but that was now covering the DJ table.

"Oops. My bad." she smirked.

"You bitch! Do you know how expensive this thing was?!" Flash exclaimed.

"Don't worry, I'm sure your daddy will buy you a new one when you tell him a drink got spilled but you were too busy being an ass hole and screaming out harassment to notice." she shrugged.

"You little-"

"I could call the police, too, if you want." she said.

"It wasn't actual harassment I wasn't doing anything illegal." he said.

"Well, what you were saying may not be, but-" she walked over to the counter picked up an open beer bottle.

"Underage drinking, certainly is. Maybe next time you'll think about who it is you're talking shit about before opening you big mouth." with that she stomped out of the house.

~~~

"What happened? Ned called saying you went to put on the suit and disappeared. Trouble?" Peyton asked late that night when Peter got back.

Peter rambled about a group of criminals who were selling illegal weapons and how he got picked up by some super villain and dropped in water and Tony Stark sent a suit to save him and then told him to stay under the radar.

"Well, that is what you told him you'd do. Be the friendly neighborhood Spiderman. Fight for the little guy. What, did you expect him to want you doing the big stuff?" she questioned him.

"Well, yeah, but I just thought after Berlin things would be different ya know? Especially with this new suit!" he exclaimed.

"You know I support you in whatever you do, but I think Mr. Stark is right. I think you should wait a few years, build yourself up to a crazy level. Let the Avengers handle this one." she said.

"He said it was 'below their pay grade' he didn't even listen, Peyton!" Peter insisted. She sighed and sat down on the bottom bunk bed, pulling her knees to her chest.

"You're clearly not going to let this go. So, what's your plan?"

~~~

"Hey, thanks for bailing on me." Ned said the next day.

"Yeah, well, something came up." Peter said as they sat in their welding class. Peter was observing the piece of tech he had picked up the night before.

"What is that?" Ned asked.

"I don't know. Some guy tried to vaporize me with it." Peter said. Peyton grimaced.

"Seriously?" Ned asked.

"Yeah."

"Awesome!" Ned exclaimed. Peter and Peyton both gave him a look.

"I mean, not awesome. Totally uncool of that guy. So scary."

"Well, look, I think it's..." Peter trailed off.

"A power source." Peyton supplied.

"Yeah, but it's connected to all these microprocessors." Peter said.

"That's an inductive charging plate. That's what I use to charge my toothbrush." Ned said.

"Whoever's making these weapons is combining alien tech with ours." Peyton said.

"That is literally the coolest sentence anyone has ever said. I just want to thank you for letting me be part of your journey into this amazing--" there was a loud noise from the machine.

"Keep your fingers clear of the blades." the teacher called.

"I gotta figure out what this is and who makes it. We'll go to the lab after class and run tests. " Peter said.

"Let's do it."

~~~

"First, we put the glowy thing in the mass spectrometer." Peter said later.

"We gotta come up with a better name than "glowy thingy."." Peyton said.

"You're right." Peter replied. She considered for a second.

"Birds egg." she decided.

"Why?" Peter asked, scrunching his nose.

"I dunno, you said the guy had wings..." she said. Peter just nodded and then paused.

"Crap."

Suddenly Peter was ushering for them all to hide and two men came down. They began to search the place, clearly looking for the newly christened Birds egg. Once they left the teenagers came out of their hiding spots.

"Please tell me you put a tracker on one of them." Peyton said. Peter nodded.

"Yeah."