The next morning, Tony is leaning on the kitchen counter with a coffee cup in his hand and a wrinkle free suit on. Peter wonders what he's all dressed up for...besides owning his own company. He debates eating Tony's food for breakfast, but hunger pains quickly win his internal argument. There's a half full box of mildly stale corn flakes in the kitchen, which is better than nothing.
"Happy's outside waiting for you when you're ready," Tony informs as Peter is finishing his cereal. Peter nods, drinking the last of the milk from his bowl.
"Thanks, Mr. Stark! Have a good day!" Be enthusiastic, Peter. You can't drag them down anymore.
"You too. See you after school," Tony reminds. Peter quickly remembers that they start the new training today. How could he forget something like that?
"Yeah!" As soon as he agrees, he's headed down to the ground floor in the elevator. The familiar black Cadillac is waiting outside and he wastes no time in hopping in the passenger seat. "Morning, Happy," he greets, shutting the door.
"Morning." Happy eyes Peter's lone backpack. "Where's all the stuff you got yesterday?"
"Oh, I decided to leave the suit and the extra clothes here. I wanna have the backups just in case I have to stay the weekend again. That and I don't trust myself to carry around a five hundred dollar suit at school." Happy slowly nods in understanding and starts the engine. They sit in comfortable silence on the fortunately short drive to school.
"I'm picking you up after school, so don't make Tony reprimand me for you being late." Happy gives Peter a pointed look, who smiles innocently.
"C'mon, Happy, have a little faith! I'm sure I'm, like, the most punctual person you know," Peter assures him, his smile never faltering.
"Yeah yeah, get outta here." Happy shoos him away with his hand. Peter laughs and gets out of the car with his backpack slung over his shoulder. Happy adjusts his sunglasses and nods to Peter before driving off. Luckily, Peter is early enough that he doesn't think anyone noticed the Cadillac dropping him off. Shoving the earphones back in his ears, he walks into Midtown High with his head down to try to block out the rest of the world. He immediately walks to his first class, knowing that he won't see Ned until the first passing period.
Classes are as boring as always and he finds his leg bouncing impatiently until the bell rings to signal the end of class. He's one of the first people out of the classroom and walks straight to his locker. Thankfully, Ned is already waiting for him at their lockers. Peter weaves through the people in the crowded hallway and as soon as Ned sees him, his eyes widen.
"Dude!" Ned practically squeals. He grabs onto Peter's sleeve and yanks him towards the lockers.
"Hey!" Peter tries to protest.
"Where were you yesterday?! You, like, dropped off the face of the planet! I didn't have anything to do this weekend 'cause apparently Sp-" Peter clamps a hand over Ned's mouth and shushes him.
"Secret identity, remember? Ring a bell?" Peter whispers aggressively. It's a good thing the halls are so loud during passing.
"Sorry," Ned whispers. "But seriously! I was so bored and you text me out of nowhere that you've been hanging out with Tony Freaking Stark?!" He tries to keep talking, his words devolving into excited gibberish. Peter tries to quiet him down, but it's hard when he's laughing himself.
"Don't short circuit! I'll tell you all about it, just calm down." Ned puts his hand on his own chest and gets his breath back.
"I'm best friends with a superhero who happens to be the apprentice of the richest man in the world who's also a freaking superhero," he rambles quietly. "Our lives are unreal."
"Hey, you're a superhero too. You help me out big time." Peter smiles, knowing this will make his day. Ned's eyes slowly widen and he starts squealing incoherently again. Their brief moment of enjoyment is quickly interrupted by three simple words.
"Hey! Penis Parker!" Great. Peter's smile instantly drops and Ned rolls his eyes.
"What do you want, Flash?" Ned grumbles. Flash ignores him, turning to face Peter with his arms crossed.
"How's it feel to be best buds with Spider-Man now that he's a joke?" Flash antagonizes. "Assuming you even knew him to begin with."
"He's not a joke," Peter defend.
"He's not, huh? Then how come a video of him screwing up is going viral?" Oh. Peter immediately knows what video Flash is talking about. The memory of the illusion of falling debris is still way too fresh in his mind. Leave it to Flash to somehow insult both Peter and his secret identity.
"It's none of your business." Keep your cool and he'll lose interest.
"I bet it's because your bad luck rubbed off on him. I'm surprised Ned still hangs around you." Peter faces his locker to hide his clenched fists. Deep breaths.
"You really don't have anything better to do with your life than to put other people down?" Peter questions.
"Why? Scared I'm right?" Flash demands back.
"You're not even right in class, so what would make you right this time?" Ned asks with a smug expression. Peter's eyes widen in shock and he looks at Ned in disbelief. Did, did he really just say that? That was awesome!
"You're so dead, Leeds!" Less awesome! Peter prepares himself to defend Ned, but the ceiling suddenly starts shaking. What's going on? Is it an earthquake? The hall goes quiet as everyone starts to look up. Out of nowhere, large cracks start to form on the ceiling and travel down to the walls. That's when people start running and screaming. Everyone's tripping over each other trying to get out, but Peter is just trying to find a way to get into his suit without anyone seeing. He tries not to think of the fact that the ceiling could fall on them at any moment. His heart pounds at the thought, but he knows now isn't the time for PTSD. Ned stays close to him as everyone panics around them. A massive piece of concrete falls from above us and plummets menacingly towards the ground. Towards Ned.
"Ned!" Peter tackles him out of the way and prepares his senses for the loud crash. But it doesn't come. He looks behind them...and there's not a trace of broken concrete. His head whips towards the ceiling only for him to see that there isn't so much as a scratch on it. For a brief second he's confused, then dread settles in his stomach. It was an illusion. Mysterio. Why's he here?! Dammit I should've know something was off when my Spidey Sense didn't alert me! Some people stop when they notice the ceiling is fine, but everyone's moving again when the fire alarm starts to blare.
"You have to do your thing! You know!" Ned shouts over the yelling.
"Yeah, I know! Get outside!"
"Peter, I'm not leaving you alone!" Ned and Peter are the last ones in the hallway, so Peter pulls the suit out of his backpack.
"I'm not telling you to! Get outside so I don't have to worry about you getting hurt and then connect to Karen!" he practically orders. He hates telling Ned what to do, but he can't focus if he's worrying about his best friend too. If anything ever happened to Ned, Peter doesn't know how he'd make it. Ned is conflicted at first, then groans.
"Fine, but you better make it out of this or I'm going to kill you!" He runs for the front doors and by the time he's out, Peter is fully in his suit.
"Hello, Peter. Aren't you supposed to be in Biology?" Karen greets him.
"Karen, we have a bit of a situation!" he tells her frantically, his voice cracking with anxiety.
"The fire alarm seems to have been activated. I recommend evacuating the immediate area." He starts running through the halls, seeing if he can find anyone or even Mysterio.
"I need a scan of the school! Let me know if anyone's still inside!" He ignores her concerns. The fire alarm was most likely used as a distraction to get everyone out, but he still doesn't get why Mysterio would be here if all places.
"Sure thing." His interface x-rays the school, allowing him to see into the other rooms.
"Peter?!" Ned's frantic voice makes its way into Peter's suit.
"Ned! Are you okay?! Can you see anything?!" Peter rounds a corner, but hasn't seen a single person.
"Yeah, man! I'm fine! I don't see anything from out here, but I think all the teachers are out here rounding people up."
"Good! I haven't seen anyone inside, so I think everyone's out. But I haven't seen Mysterio either, so keep an eye out and stay sa-"
"Who are you screaming at?" MJ's voice asks Ned, her voice bleeding into Peter's suit.
"Uh, no one!" Ned instantly denies.
"Where's your partner in crime?" MJ asks instead, her tone unconvinced. Crap, she's too smart for our own good.
"What, what do you mean?" Oh Ned, you're hopeless.
"Peter. Your boyfriend." Peter hears Ned practically choke and he has to hold back a laugh in order to focus. Ned stammers as Peter continues to search.
"There seems to only be a single individual inside the building," Karen reports as the gray outline of a person appears in the Chemistry lab down the hall. It's not detailed, but it's definitely Mysterio and it looks like he's rummaging through the lab.
"Ned, we found him!" Peter sprints to the end of the hall.
"That's great, grandma! We're all safe outside!" Ned says pointedly. Peter's eyes narrow in confusion. Grandma? I don't even want to know.
"Just don't let anyone come inside! I don't want anyone getting hurt!" he urges.
"How am I supposed to do that?!" Ned whispers harshly.
"Uh..." Peter skids to a stop and readies his web-shooters. "Use your imagination! Karen, circulate the air that's already in my suit and filter out any toxins." He remembers Tony saying something similar when they fought Mysterio last time, so it should help with any possible hallucinations.
"I'll do my best, Peter." It's enough of a confirmation for him to feel confident enough to fight this guy head on. Mysterio is towards the back of the classroom where the storage cabinets are, which already doesn't bode well. That's where the teachers keep the more acidic, basic, and all-around dangerous chemicals only used for specific experiments. Bad. Very bad. Peter quietly opens the door and jumps onto the ceiling, crawling his way towards Mysterio. As he gets closer, he notices that the bottles in Mysterio's hands are labelled cyanide, chlorine, and ammonia. Even worse. I can't let him leave with those chemicals. Of course Mysterio just has to steal from one of the least guarded, most equipped science schools in the area. Peter carefully crawls until he's right above Mysterio, then shoots a Web Grenade. The cartridge attaches to Mysterio's armor with a ting and he immediately whips around with a flourish from his dark purple cape. The Web Grenade starts beeping.
"Hey, Fishbowl! Long time, no see!"
"Why you little-" The Web Grenade explodes, encasing him from head to toe in webbing.
"Why do people keep calling me little?!" Peter demands, offended as he pops in a new web cartridge.
"Because you're nothing but a mildly irritating insect!" Suddenly, the webs around Mysterio start to disintegrate and he easily breaks free once they're weakened. Well, that makes things a bit more difficult. Smoke begins to flow from the nozzles in his suit and he chuckles deeply. Peter swings down from the ceiling with his feet extended in front of him, ready to kick Mysterio back. Of course, he flies right through Mysterio's image and has to land on the floor instead. These illusions are ridiculous!
"What are you doing back in high school? Didn't pass the first time?" he questions as he carefully looks around. Karen turns on infrared vision for him, but the smokescreen prevents him from seeing heat signatures just like last time.
"I don't have time for your antics!" Mysterio yells back, but his voice comes from all directions.
"Awe, c'mon! Don't be ashamed! It's never too late to get your GED!" Peter sends a Net Web in hopes that he'll somehow, miraculously hit the villain? He can only do so much when he can't see. "Droney, scope out as much as you can and let me know if you can see Mysterio." Droney pops out of his chest and beeps in confirmation before flying away.
"Not so confident without all your senses are you, Spider-Man?" Mysterio's voice taunts.
"Hey Karen, I don't suppose we have a giant fan in the suit that I could use to blow away all the smoke?"
"We do not. I'm sorry, Peter," Karen apologizes.
"Of course not. That'd be too easy." Oh well, can't just stand around doing nothing. Peter runs through the smoke, avoiding desks and lab equipment. Hoping that it'll get him a better vantage point, he leaps onto the ceiling again. As soon as he does, multiple chemical filled beakers are hurled at him. "Woah!" He uses the ceiling as a platform to jump towards the ground to avoid the beakers. The glass...doesn't shatter. The beakers disappear as soon as they reach the ceiling. Crap, my Spidey Sense would've warned me about them if they were real. I need to pay better attention to it. "Don't you have any other tricks to use?!"
"Why use something new when you keep falling for the same thing?" Mysterio...makes a good point, and Peter hates it. Droney sends Peter a visual feed of Mysterio standing within the smoke as a cover, but the villain is in front of the whiteboard. Peter swings to the front of the classroom and as soon as Mysterio is in view, he shoots two webs that attach to Mysterio's chest. Peter gives them a harsh tug and Mysterio stumbles forward, slightly off balance. It's enough to give Peter an opening to kick Mysterio off his feet in one fluid motion, sending him into the whiteboard. Peter effortlessly flips out of his attack and lands with a leg extended at his side. Mysterio's collision leaves a crater in the whiteboard, bits and pieces of it cracking and falling to the ground.
"I consider myself pretty adaptable," Peter brags with the nonchalant shrug of his shoulders. Mysterio quickly recovers and pushes one of the desks forward with such force that the metal legs leaves behind black scratches in the floor. The table rockets towards Peter and he flips over it, landing just in time for his Spidey Sense to scream at him to move. Another desk flies through the air, but there's no time to duck. Instead, he shoots a web and redirects it in a circle to hurls it back towards Mysterio. The table passes through him and collides with the already destroyed whiteboard.
"No! You, uh, you can't go in there! Sir, please don't go in there!" Ned's voice comes back into Peter's suit. His Spidey Sense warns him just in time to dodge a punch and he shoots a Splitter Web into the smokescreen in hopes that they will attach to Mysterio. There's a distant voice on the other end. "Why not? Well, I saw, I saw a, uh," Ned stumbles over his words. Peter's webs connect to nothing and Mysterio reappears only to continue throwing precise punches.
"Now's kind of a bad time, Ned!" Mysterio has to have some kind of training or agility enhancement to be keeping up with me, Peter thinks as he dodges the villain's punches.
"I know your weakness, Spider-Man," Mysterio declares.
"Oh yeah? Please, feel free share it with the rest of the class." Peter webs a nearby metal stand and flings it at him. It forces Mysterio to jump back, creating a more comfortable distance between them. Still, he raises his arms outward and the walls start to shake.
"You want to save everyone." The walls start to move inward.
"I feel like that's the weakness of any decent human being," Peter banters nervously. He can't move the walls like that. It's just an illusion, Pete. Don't let your claustrophobia get the better of you. He shoots a Splitter Web that attaches to both of Mysterio's extended arms and tugs on them as a counter momentum to get himself airborne. Once he's above Mysterio, he fires a web from each hand to the floor propel himself downwards. He lands on Mysterio to drive him into the floor. When his feet make contact with Mysterio's back, the man quickly dissipates into...butterflies? This is trippy. Peter lands and darts his head around for any other oncoming attacks.
"You'll quickly learn that not everyone can be saved." Mysterio's voice is omnidirectional again. Peter just has to wait for Droney's feed again and then he'll know where the villain actually is.
"Then again," Peter continues, ignoring the villain, "I don't think you qualify as a decent human." As soon as the words are out of his mouth, his Spidey Sense explodes again before a metal cabinet is crashing into him. It should've warned me sooner than that! It sends him careening into the onslaught of desks, which all break around him. "Did I hit a nerve?" he groans, but gets up no worse for wear. When he looks up, Mysterio's boots are somehow allowing him to walk on the ceiling. "Hey! You better not be trying to steal my schtick!" Peter accuses while shooting a web at Mysterio's helmet. Again, Peter jumps onto the ceiling and uses the adhesiveness of his feet to pry Mysterio off and fling him towards the ground. Mysterio lands expertly without breaking a sweat...Peter assumes. Since he can't see the man's forehead...
"Make your jokes while you still can," Mysterio threatens, but Peter shoots a Taser Web. This time he aims for Mysterio's oxygen tanks. Without the tanks, he can't have his own air supply separate from the gases he weaponizes. The tanks burst with a sharp clang and a hiss as the oxygen escapes.
"Yes!" Peter celebrates with a fist in the air. "Try using your handy dandy hallucination gas now!" Mysterio growls in frustration before the increased smoke around them envelops him. Peter hangs from the ceiling by the fingertips of his left hand and has his right arm extended to shoot a web at a moment's notice. "Ned, how's it going out there?" Peter asks while scanning the cloud of mist. Droney can't see a damn thing because of the smokescreen. I need to upgrade him at the workshop, he makes a mental note.
"I mean, it could be worse?" Ned's already unconvinced voice answers.
"I don't wanna know, do I..."
"The police are here and firefighters are ready to go inside," he informs Peter anyways. Shit.
"Hey, could we hurry this up? I have super important hero related things to do!" Peter crawls down to the ground and webs the windows across from him to pull them open. If I can get a cross breeze, it might give me or Droney a better visual.
"Be careful what you wish for, Spider. You will regret underestimating me!" Metal beaker stands are thrown towards Peter out of the the cloud, but he doesn't move a muscle. The illusions fly through him harmlessly and he smirks, even though he knows Mysterio can't see it. Another illusion of a metal stand is aimed directly for Peter and he can't help but feel confident.
"Ha! You think that trick's gonna get me again?" The smile under his mask drops when his Spidey Sense goes off. "Oh crap." He drops from the ceiling to avoid the rocketing metal stand. It crashes into the ceiling, where he was mere seconds before, and breaks apart. "Overkill much?" He lands, only to have the familiar tingling sensation spread to his shoulders before a strong kick from a metal boot sends his flying. The wooden classroom door splinters around him and his back slams into the adjacent lockers, which crumple inward and wrap around his body. He shakes his head and blinks a few times to clear his surprise. When his eyes focus, Mysterio presses his boot into his chest, pushing him further into the crushed lockers.
"Not so witty now, are you?" Challenge accepted.
"Y'know," Peter croaks "this is taking the 'stuffing the nerd into the locker' cliché a bit too far, dontcha think?" The metal around him groans at the pressure. There has to be some kind of mechanism in his boots that repels a surface too, not just cling to one. But now's not the time to figure that out, Peter.
"I'm going to make you suffer. They won't even remember someone like you. They'll remember me." What the hell kind of drugs is this guy on?! A jagged piece of broken metal digs itself into Peter's side and he can't help the scream that catches him off guard. He hasn't felt a burning sensation like it since Homecoming. Don't panic, don't panic, don't panic. Don't think about how you're being crushed again. You can't do this right now! His breathing picks up. In a desperate attempt to break free from the crushing pressure, he grips Mysterio's metal boot on either side and squeezes. The boot whines as the metal bends around his hands and finally Mysterio pulls back. Peter pries himself out of the lockers and hops to his feet, somewhat ready to continue the fight. Mysterio's boot sparks, which apparently is enough of a loss to make him run. Peter shoots a Spider-Tracer from his wrist, but when it attaches to Mysterio's back, it's immediately zapped off. A circular hole appears in the wall and Mysterio runs through it. When did this turn into one of those weird roadrunner cartoons? Peter swings towards the hole after Mysterio, but it suddenly disappears and he lands on the wall instead. Great, should've seen that coming.
"Peter? Peter?! Are you there?!" Ned's frantic voice assaults his ears.
"Yeah, man. I'm here. Do you see anything outside? Mysterio just ran out," Peter sighs. I thought I was supposed to get better with experience! So far I've climbed the Washington Monument, broken out of a deep storage vault, held a ferry together, and crashed one of Mr. Stark's planes all for what? To let a weirdo with a glass dome get away?
"We haven't seen anything. Not even a sign of you guys fighting! Everyone thinks someone set off the alarms as a prank." As long as they don't blame Spider-Man for it, then that's fine. Peter winces when he twists the wrong way
"Alright. Can you meet me in the bathroom?" He looks down to the source of the stinging on his torso. The metal sliced right through his suit, just above his hip. Dark red blood soaks the fabric around the rip in his suit. Dark red is good. Bright red would mean he hit an artery.
"I don't think we can go back inside yet. You better hurry though, the firefighters just went in!"
"Okay, okay. I'll hide out in the bathrooms and then sneak out through one of the windows. I'll text you when I'm out. Karen, end call." Karen hangs up the phone for Peter and he swings towards the bathrooms. He webs his backpack towards him on the way by so that he can change.
"Your suit has been breached. You seem to have a ten inch laceration on your abdomen and your blood pressure is decreasing," Karen breaks the silence. As soon as he reaches the bathroom, Peter rushes to and locks himself inside a stall. He carefully pulls the top of his suit below his waist to reveal the cut. He winces again, but this time it's more at how it looks than at the pain. Luckily it's already starting to clot, but a thin line of crimson drips down his side. He takes a steadying breath and starts unrolling the roll of toilet paper next to him. "Peter, if you don't respond I'll be forced to call Tony Stark as specified in the Baby Monitor Protocol." He still has that thing on?! Oh god, if he saw me like this he'd take the suit away in a heartbeat. That can't happen.
"I'm fine! See? I've got it handled!" he quickly argues as he wraps his torso in sheet after sheet of toilet paper until there are multiple layers around it. The blood instantly soaks into the toilet paper, but it should be enough to keep the cut from bleeding onto his clothes. It'll be healed in a day, if not less. He just has to pretend that he doesn't have a cut from his ribs to his hip. Easy peasy. He takes a deep breath to compose himself before changing into his regular clothes. I can't believe it's not even safe at school anymore.
"The medical attention you provided is not satisfactory. I'm afraid I will have to contact Tony Stark if you do not receive proper medical attention," she informs as he slips on his jeans.
"Not satisfactory? Are you trying to insult me, Karen?" he teases, trying to get away from the subject of Tony.
"I wouldn't even dream of it, Peter." He playfully rolls his eyes.
"Happy's picking me up, so I'll get some help at the Tower. Okay?" Peter Parker: The Compulsive Liar.
"That sounds alright," Karen concedes.
"Sweet. Thanks, Karen." He carefully pulls his backpack onto his shoulder. How am I going to train like this?
"My pleasure." He takes the mask off and stuffs it into his backpack with the rest of his damaged suit. Before he tests his luck any further, he easily climbs out through one of the windows. He does his best to use nearby trees as a cover to make his way back to the group of students and teachers, hopefully unseen. He breathes a sigh of relief when he makes it to Ned and casually bumps into him. Ned whips around and looks at Peter with wide eyes.
"Dude, are you okay?!" he whispers.
"Yeah, I'm good. Mysterio got away though," Peter mumbles with an aggravated exhale.
"I'm glad you're okay, though. I always get more anxious when I can't help you with my laptop." Peter lets himself smile and shakes his head.
"You still helped, man. I appreciate it." He holds his hand out and Ned instinctively accepts the offer for their best friend handshake. Once they finish, MJ walks up to them with her arms crossed and eyes narrowed.
"Peter Parker always seems to be MIA, hm?" she questions while raising an eyebrow.
"Oh, well, uh, you see, he was," Ned starts.
"I went to call my aunt," Peter interjects. "She gets super worried so I wanted to let her know what was going on before she saw anything on the news." Actually, that's probably what I should do. May's gonna flip. But that's three, let's count 'em together, three lies in a row. MJ seems unconvinced, but then suddenly shrugs.
"Alright. See ya, nerds." She walks back into the crowd.
"What's with her?" Ned asks, shocked.
"Not a clue." Peter shakes his head slowly. "Hey, I'm going to text May and I guess I'll call Happy."
"Why call Happy?" Ned narrows his eyes in confusion. Oh that's right, I didn't tell him.
"Mr. Stark wants me to train with him after school from now on."
"Holy crap, dude!" All Peter does is smile before quickly sending a text to May to let her know what's going on and that Tony wants him to go to the Tower after school days for extra training. A few moments after he sends the text, he calls Happy.
"What is it?" is the first thing Happy says. Cheerful as always.
"Hey, Happy. We had a, uh, situation at school. I can swing over to the Tower if you can't pick me up right now, but I just wanted you to kn-"
"No. I can pick you up," Happy insists curtly. Where's a Staples Easy Button when you need it?
"Are you sure?"
"It's literally my job. I'll be there in fifteen or less. Everyone okay?" Peter looks around at the crowd.
"Yeah, I think so. I'll tell you about everything when you get here." Peter doesn't exactly want to relay everything, but he knows Happy is going to ask regardless.
"Sounds good. See you soon." Happy hangs up and Peter rubs his face, already thinking of better excuses before his ride arrives.
Notes:
Thank you for reading ;-;