So this was requested by @TheScarlerReader and the request was to write a one-shot about Peter sacrificing himself/saving the Avengers. I did this at 1 am, so I apologise in advance for the millions of spelling and grammar mistakes that are going to trigger hundreds of readers in the years to come. You're welcome. :) Also, just to let you know, I did copy a small scene from 'Merlin' for a part of this story and I also replicated a part of 'Spies in Disguise.' I also made a Disney reference from the movie 'Mulan.' I DO NOT OWN ANY OF THE CHARACTERS IN THIS ONE-SHOT OR PRETTY MUCH ANYTHING BECAUSE I AM BROKE AS HELL BUT THAT IS A STORY FOR ANOTHER DAY. Thought I should let you all know before I have a bunch of people screaming at me for plagiarism. :))) Also, IW, Endgame and Civil War never happened. bEcaUsE i sAiD sO. This is a lot longer than I expected it to be as well. Like, almost 4000 words. I don't know if that's a lot, but I assume it is because it is way more than what I usually write.
Peter Parker was not your ordinary 16-year-old to say the very least. Because what 16-year-old boy could say that he was Spider-man? And being hunted down by the Avengers at that.
Yes, you read correctly. The Avengers were hunting Peter down.
'Why?' you may ask. Well, the answer is very simple.
I have no clue.
Maybe it was to quench their curiosity of who was behind the mask. Or maybe they saw him as a threat. Whatever the reason, this was how Peter Parker, your Friendly Neighbourhood Spider-man, found himself hiding in a dumpster- yes, a dumpster- to avoid the Avengers watchful eyes.
Come on, keep it moving. Just walk straight past the lovely, stinky bin and let me go home, Peter thought to himself, slightly shuffling under the mass wad of garbage. It's Friday! Can't they just let me go back to my apartment and watch a movie in peace?! Apparently not.
The first time Peter had met the Avengers, he was excited beyond belief. I mean, come on, it's the bloody Avengers, for Pete's sake! The excitement, however, had soon faded into shock when Ironman tried to blast him to smithereens.
Sounds fun, I know.
Pulling his attention away from the putrid smell of garbage and his own thoughts, Peter focused on the Black Widow's footsteps becoming louder, which probably meant she was getting closer.
"Listen up, Spider-man." Peter's breath hitched in his throat. "Come out of whatever hiding space you've snuck into and take a moment to listen to me. I just wanna talk," Romanoff's voice pierced through the silence in a sharp and threatening manner.
'Just wanna talk.' Peter scoffed inwardly. If 'I just wanna talk,' meant 'I just wanna find out your identity and then pump you full of lead,' - which it definitely did mean, by the way- then Peter was perfectly fine with sitting in the trash bin for the rest of the night, he had been told that the live-action of Avatar: The Last Airbender was horrible anyway.
There was another thump and Peter heard Natasha sigh. "I just wanna talk!" The new person mimicked Natasha's voice and snorted. "Even Spidey didn't believe that." Peter recognised the newcomer as Hawkeye.
"Whatever, just help me find him. I know he snuck down here. I saw his ridiculous costume from Australia."
Peter's frown deepened. 'Not cool, Romanoff.'
"OMG, you've been to Australia?! Do they ride Kangaroos there and- oh wait. You were being sarcastic." Peter could already imagine her rolling her eyes at her partner's stupidity.
"Just have a look around."
"Nat, you've been searching the city for hours, just call it a night. Spidey doesn't want to be found and therefore, you're not gonna find him." However, Natasha wouldn't be swayed so easily.
"He's here, Barton, I know it." There was a pause. "Stark, get your metal arse over here right now."
'Oh great. Now Iron man was gonna join the party.' "Wassup homies?" And there he was. The Ironman himself. In all his stupid glory. "You called?" That was probably directed at Romanoff.
"He's escaped again."
Tony sighed. "Of course he has; he always escapes. Let's just go." Alright, this was his only chance to get away. Peter waited a minute or two before slowly opening the lid of the dumpster.
"Hiding in a garbage bin? That's low, even for you, Spiderman."
Peter slowly turned around to find Ironman standing right behind him.
Crap. Crap. Crap. Crap.
'Okay, be cool, just stay calm. cAlM dOwN. WHY AM I NOT CALMING DOWN?! Well, at least the others left, that was something slightly useful.'
"Tincan."
"It's the ugly spandex for me."
"Well, it's the unwavering arrogance for me."
Tony sighed. "You still think I'm arrogant?"
"No. More... supercilious."
"That's a big word, Spidey. Are you sure you know what it means?"
"Condescending," Peter smirked.
"Very good." Tony raised an eyebrow.
"Patronizing," Peter continued.
"It doesn't quite mean that."
Peter grinned behind his mask. "No, these are other things you are."
Tony huffed indignantly. So the guy was a smart-mouth, huh? "Alright, Spidey. Let's cut to the chase." Peter tilted his head to the side, feigning confusion. "Take off your mask, reveal your identity and then we can both part ways without any bloodshed."
Peter scoffed. "Should've tried that before your buddy shot me with one of his shock-arrows. The stupid thing burnt my suit. Also, fact of the day: it is extremely hard to find new spandex nowadays." Suddenly, his Spidey-sense started tingling.
Something was wrong. He needed to stall for time. "Did you know that 'racecar' spelt backwards is 'racecar'? Also, North Korea and Cuba are the only places in the world where you can't buy Coca-cola and the hottest Chilli Pepper in the world can kill you?! And-"
"You're stalling." Tony watched the hero tense up, one eyebrow raised as he studied the stiff Spider. He had heard of Spider-man's sixth sense. Was something about to happen?
"Am I? I just assumed that I was helping you expand your knowledge?"
Tony tapped his foot on the ground repeatedly, pinching the bridge of his nose. "Yes, you are."
"So I am helping you. I'll continue then. Fact: Bees sometimes sting other Bees. And fact: Space smells like seared steak. And fact, Buzz Aldrin was the very first man to pee on the moon, and fact-"
Tony let out a loud cry of frustration. This idiot was going to kill him. "Don't test me, Spider-man."
Before Peter could respond, a loud bang shot through the air, making him jump in fright. "Shiitake Mushrooms!"
"TONY!" Captain America- Peter recognised- yelled through the comms.
"The hell was that?" Tony spat out.
"A new Crime Syndicate," the muffled voice spoke through the small speaker. "Bring any reinforcements you can."
"How big is the group?"
"Fairly small."
"So just a bunch of amateurs?"
"I wouldn't exactly call them that."Steve sounded slightly uneasy
"And why is that?" Tony countered.
"They're enhanced individuals."
Tony sighed; what had his life come to? He turned back to Spider-man. "You coming?"
Peter thought about it for a moment. So yes, they kind of forced him to hide in a garbage bin, and yes, they broke more bones in his body than he would've liked, but he couldn't just stand around and do nothing when innocent people's lives were at stake.
Not bothering to answer, he shot a web at the building and began to follow Karen's directions towards the commotion. "Okay, Karen, what's the best course of action?"
"Karen?" Tony frowned, flying just behind him. "Who's Karen, your girlfriend?" he asked jokingly. Peter ignored him. "I'll take that as a no. Is she an AI?" Without waiting for an answer, Tony continued speaking, "If she is, you should totally change her name. Seriously, what if you're in trouble and you need help and all she can do for you is demand to speak to the manager?" Peter continued to overlook Ironman's attempt at a conversation.
"I believe a surprise attack would work best. Try to remain within the shadows and pick them out one by one," Karen suggested after Tony had given up trying to get Peter to talk.
"One by one is too time-consuming. What if I were to round them into small groups, separate them from each other, and deal with them then?" Tony flew behind the Spider and watched closely as he interacted with 'Karen.'
"That sounds effective, Spiderman," Tony decided to chip in, feeling kind of excluded.
"We'll go with that, then." They continued towards the street in silence, a tense feeling drifting in the air.
When they finally arrived, chaos had consumed the area. People were screaming and running away and loud gun-shots were being fired everywhere.
"Tony!" Steve and the other Avengers jogged up to the two. "Spider-man," he gave a quick nod before continuing. "A new Crime Syndicate is attacking. We've dealt with about 10 or so, but there are still a lot of them to go."
'You don't say," Tony deadpanned, scanning the area. "We'll separate them into small groups, corner them and then take them out. It'll be easier."
Steve nodded. "There are still about 20 of them, so we'll need to move quickly. We'll go in teams of two. Natasha and Clint, Rhodey and Tony, Sam and Wanda and Bucky and I."
"Who will Spidey go with?" Natasha asked, studying the young hero with caution.
"I'll go solo."
Steve turned to Peter. "You cool with that? We can team up as a group of three instead."
"No thanks, I'll do it myself." Steve frowned at the coldness in his voice. He guessed that Spider-man hadn't gotten over Hawkeye shooting him with his shock-arrows. Apparently, it didn't strike the man's fancy.
He'd honestly be seriously worried if it did.
With that, the Avengers and Spider-man began to fight the agents.
Drawing his attention back to Spider-man, who was currently webbing a group of agents to a wall while punching one of the men in the face, Steve noticed a few things about the masked hero that confused him.
For one, he joked and quipped a lot. Maybe Spider-man just liked to talk, but everybody knew that you weren't supposed to joke while fighting. It was just a rule of thumb.
Another thing was his voice. It wasn't a deep rumble or heavy and gruff. He sounded like a child. But surely a child wouldn't be swinging around punching bad guys in the face? Though it would explain the never-ending chatter.
Spider-man gracefully flipped through the air and stuck onto a wall, quickly climbing up towards the top of the building, probably to get a good view of everything going on. How on earth does he do that?
"Steve!" A metal arm shoved him away from a bullet that was only millimetres from striking him square in the face.
"Close one, thanks, Bucky," the first Avenger looked towards his friend, nodding his head out of gratefulness.
"Focus, Steve!" Bucky said like a Mother hen, whilst throwing an agent to the ground.
Looking sheepish, Steve rubbed the back of his neck, nodding slightly at the pointed glare Bucky was directing at him.
Recollecting his thoughts, Steve went back to focusing on taking out the group of men that they had cornered.
LINE BREAK
It all happened so quickly. One minute, they had the upper hand, but the next, the whole group was cornered, with their hands cuffed behind their backs. Spider-man was nowhere in sight.
"I bet the little backstabber staged the whole thing," Bucky muttered under his breath.
"I don't think he did," Tony disagreed. "He's probably watching from the shadows, waiting for the perfect time to strike."
"Naw, man. Spidey ran away like a coward," Clint contributed.
"Isn't it obvious? He was clearly-"
"Shut it!" one of the men roared, spittle flying out of his mouth. The group went silent.
"Now, Stark, I have a very simple question, and you're going to answer it without any complaints or smart-ass comments." The man beckoned a group of his goons over, one of them holding a black briefcase. "Resist, and there will be consequences."
"All of this for a question? You could've just called, bro." A web shot out from seemingly nowhere, gluing three of the men to a lampost.
Tony smirked at the others. I told you so, his expression seemed to say.
"Like, seriously. So counterproductive!" Spiderman's shadow flickered across the building in the dim light.
"Benjamin, get him!" A bulky agent was shoved forward by his mates and a gun was shoved into his gloved hands.
"Benjamin! What a funny coincidence! That is my middle name!" Spider-man laughed.
"Wow, what a scary name! Benjamin. I think my Bunny-slippers just ran for cover," Ironman mocked. All he needed to do was to stall for time, and then Spider-man would be able to help. "C'mon dude! If you're gonna be a stupid, evil villain, at least settle for a scary name! Or dress up as a Clown. Those creeps are almost as scary as your face."
Benjamin growled, aiming the gun at Tony, whose suit had been disabled. "Talk again and I shoot ya."
"But then how am I supposed to answer your leader's questions, Benjamin?"
Out of the blue, Tony started laughing. And not your usual 'haha, so funny' laugh, this was your full-on 'Omg, I'm going insane' laugh.
Steve looked at Tony weirdly.
"Tony... are you... are you okay...?"
"Never been better!"
"I think he's on drugs," Clint whispered to Natasha, who nodded in response.
"WHAT'S SO FUNNY?!" the leader screamed as Tony bent over in a laughing fit. "TELL ME OR I SHOOT!"
"Oh, hehe- nothing," Tony started between a few hiccups. "Just that- you know what, just look behind you!" Tony wiped a few tears from his eyes, completely out of breath.
"Huh?" the ugly man turned around to face his army to help him find the source of Ironman's laughter. "What in the-" He cut his sentence short.
Where were his remaining agents? They were behind him just a few- he saw them there- why weren't they- where had they- what the hell just happened?
" What did you do to them?!" the leader shrieked, whipping around to face Tony.
"Well, how am I supposed to know? I was too busy talking to you!"
That was the last straw for Benjamin. He aimed his gun straight for Tony's head, ready to pull the trigger.
"TELL 'IM OR I PUMP YA FULL O' LEAD!"
"Right, because even if I knew, I would totally tell you."
"Liar," he snarled. All traces of previous humour were gone. A thick silence hung throughout the air.
And then he pulled the trigger.
ANOTHER LINE BREAK
Tony didn't know what to expect. Pain? Lots of blood? Screaming and agony?
He did not expect someone to scream out "SPIDER-MAN!"
Um... excuse me?! I'm the one who's just been shot!
But didn't getting shot hurt? Because he certainly didn't feel anything. And that could only mean- oh no.
Tony slowly looked down, and there at his feet lay an unconscious Spiderman, with 4 gaping holes tearing through his suit and straight through his stomach.
There was a loud snap as Natasha broke the handcuffs tying her wrists together. Two bangs shot through the air and the last two agents dropped to the ground, lifeless. "They won't be bothering us anymore," Natasha murmured, putting the gun away. She then tossed Tony the key to unlock his handcuffs so he could assess Peter's injuries.
"Shit." Tony dropped next to the bleeding hero and tried to press his hands onto the wounds to stop the blood flow. But he couldn't. There was too much blood. "SAM, GET OVER HERE!"
Sam took one look at Peter before telling Tony that they needed to get him to med-bay as soon as they could.
OH, WHATEVER COULD THIS BE? TIME SKIPPPPPPPP.
Peter awoke to the sound of silence.
Ba-bump-ba-bump-ba-dump. The only thing he could hear was his heart beating. The rhythmic noise was calming; soothing even, helping to ease the headache that had formed from the too-bright-lights. Slightly shifting himself up on the pillows, he surveyed his surroundings. He remembered what happened, very clearly, in fact, he just didn't know where he was.
Looking towards one of the windows, Peter saw the Avengers logo on it, therefore deducing that he was in their Medical wing. Quickly bringing his hand up to his face, he sighed in relief when he found that his mask was still on. He had no idea what he would do if it wasn't.
No one else was in the room. Maybe he could leave before the Avengers came back? Stifling a groan as his stomach protested against his movement, he fully pushed himself up and swung his legs over the edge of the bed.
Peter stood up, knees wobbling as he held onto the bed-railing. Baby steps, Peter. Right foot, left foot, right foot, left foot, right foot, left- unsteady from the bloodloss, he tripped over his feet, toppling over. He would've face-planted straight onto the ground if it weren't for Tony, who had rushed into the room as soon as Friday informed him that Spider-man was awake.
He still didn't know who was behind the mask. It just felt wrong to take it off, especially since he had saved his life.
"Hey, hey, hey! Easy, Spider-man. Take it easy!" Tony huffed, trying to stop the semi-conscious hero from punching him in the face, limbs flailing weakly as he tried to pull away from Ironman.
Crap, crap, crap. Iron Man was gonna take off his mask and find out who he was and then get mad that he was only 16 and then he was gonna make Peter stop being Spider-man and he wouldn't be able to help people anymore and then Tony would experiment on him and try and find out about how he got his powers and-
"Spider-man, calm down. You're about to have a panic attack!" But Peter couldn't calm down. A million thoughts of how everything could go wrong were zipping through his mind and he couldn't make them stop. Before he knew what was happening, he was struggling to breathe with tears streaming down his face.
Pulling himself from Tony's grip and dropping to the ground, he yanked his mask off and threw it carelessly to the floor.
Panting heavily, Peter sucked in a few greedy breaths, trying to lower his heart rate.
Not knowing what to do, Tony just knelt next to Peter and started rubbing circles in a soothing motion on his back.
Peter kept his head steadfastly turned away from the billionaire, still wanting to hide his secret identity as much as possible. After a minute or two, he slowly calmed down, only a few hiccups escaping from his mouth.
If you thought the worst was over, please think again, because Peter only had a moment to breathe before he was vomiting his breakfast and lunch from the day before. Tony swore underneath his breath, manhandling Spider-man into a position that made it easier for him to throw up without the risk of choking on his bile.
Between the headache, the panic attack and the violent upchucking, Peter had fully exhausted himself. No longer prioritising his secret identity, he wiped the remaining bile from his lips before he slumped back onto Tony, too tired to be embarrassed about it.
Taken by surprise, Tony looked at the person in his lap, not entirely sure how to react to his new finding. Because Spider-man, the mysterious superhero who could lift buildings was a freaking kid. A kid. A small, innocent child who could've been no older than 16 was laying in his lap, clearly tired and scared, after just having a panic attack and upchucking his lunch, breakfast and possibly dinner.
Recollecting himself, he slowly stood up, holding Spider-man bridal style as he carried him back to the bed. The boy weakly kicked his legs, trying to get away from Tony before giving up, too drained to continue fighting him.
Tony was appalled. All this time, the Avengers had been trying to brutally take down a child, just to know his secret identity. Laying the kid down, Tony had the sudden urge just to comfort the kid- to take all the pain that he was feeling and punch it to hell. Stop being a weirdo, Tony. You don't even know the kid.
Pulling the blankets over the kid's small figure and injecting powdered benzodiazepines into his system according to the dosage amount on the bottle, Tony asked FRIDAY to call for Natasha, telling her that it was urgent.
Natasha ran in, eyes locking with Tony's before they flickered over to the boy with curly, light brown hair laying in the bed with his chocolate-brown eyes half-lidded as the medicine started to kick in. Taken aback, she turned her attention back to Tony, her eyes showing that she wanted to know what the hell was going on.
"He's Spider-man," Tony whispered to her, eyes blown open in shock.
"This little bean is Spider-man?!" she whisper-yelled. All Tony could do was nod, properly registering this new revelation.
Moaning in pain, Peter shifted on the bed, trying to find a more comfortable position, completely unaware of everything happening around him.
Natasha tutted to herself as she sat on the chair next to his bed and gently ran her fingers through his hair as she tried to help him relax. She gave Tony a pointed glare, signalling that they were going to have a hell of a discussion about why you shouldn't try to blast innocent children to pieces because "I don't care what you thought, Stark. He's a damn child and you had no right to shoot him down because look how cute he is an I can't believe you would do that to an innocent teen." Tony didn't bother to mention that she had played a part in it as well.
Perhaps if Peter was coherent, he would've realised what he was doing and he would have cared. But right now, he was confused and disoriented and quite frankly, didn't give a damn about the fact that The Black Widow was fussing over him like a mother hen. So naturally, he leaned into her touch with a content sigh, whispering a small 'thanks mum,' before falling asleep.
Natasha smiled briefly before standing up and walking back over to Tony. She studied the young boy before looking Tony dead in the eyes, her expression turning stoic.
"We're keeping him."
Okay, this took me like, forever to write. Like, so long. And I'm okay with it but not super cool about it. Anyways, remember to stay safe and...
_FABULOUSSSSSSS_
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ﾚ ノ ヽ_つ
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Hehehe.