AmandaPanda82 (comment on Zoom)
I loved this!! Can you PLEASEEEE make a part 2 in which 1) the students ask where Spider-Man is and it gets crazy or whatever from there? Or 2) one of the Avengers doesn't realize he's on a call and mentions something about Peter's Spider-Man duties in front of the class and then it goes from there? I would love to see what u do with this idea! 😀 sending love 💕
Peter scrolled through social media mindlessly as his computer connected to the Zoom audio for his first class of the day.
He consciously ignored all of the notifications in his messages and every form of social media he'd ever downloaded. It had been insane since yesterday when the whole school learned that he was quarantined with the Avengers in Stark Tower.
Honestly, he was more worried about May finding out what a disruption this all had been than anything else. She valued his education and always told him that if his internship or superhero duties got in the way, he would have to quit them. It wasn't a very serious threat, at least for the internship. Peter knew that she saw how happy he was to creatively release some of his genius under the guidance of Tony Stark, and that she appreciated all the opportunities it would open for him.
But that and making a scene in two different classes were very different things. At least the team was able to steer it back onto a somewhat educational path with their expertise in certain fields.
The PowerPoint presentation on plant phylogenies filled his screen as he joined his class. The teacher had just started calling on people to make sure that everyone was present.
She split them into breakout rooms to discuss the homework they'd been assigned the previous night. One kid in Peter's group quickly read the answers, and no one disagreed, or at least no one indicated that they did.
It would usually be silent at this point, the kids just staring at each other, tired and bored, but one of them, someone Peter had maybe spoken with once or twice before, spoke up.
"So are there other heroes in Stark Tower too?"
"Other heroes?" Peter repeated.
"Like Scarlett Witch. Or the one that's a black cat. There's also that one guy who got really big in California and the man who could do magic or something."
"Yeah," another kid chimed in, "And what about Spiderman? He's actually in New York AND he works with the Avengers sometimes. Does Tony Stark have him somewhere in there?"
The first guy gasped. "Do you know Spiderman's secret identity Peter?"
Flash unmuted himself at this point. "Of course Peter doesn't know Spiderman is. I'll admit that I was wrong about the internship existing at all, but do you guys really think that Tony Stark would let a high school student know classified information about secret identities and hero secrets and such?" He rolled his eyes. "I'm sure Peter just does data entry and gets his morning coffee or something."
Peter just bit his lip. He didn't want to feed the fire, and no matter what he said, he would just stir up more questions or a fight with Flash. It was a lose-lose situation at this point.
"I've met Spiderman before!" Flash proudly announced, trying to get some attention. It was clear that Peter's newfound popularity had been killing him. "We're friends."
"Do you know his secret identity then?" Someone asked skeptically.
"Well, I don't know his identity because he needs to keep it a secret for security reasons. Nobody knows his identity."
Peter had secretly screen recorded Flash talking about Spiderman and sent it to Ned.
"Lol. Flash always said I was 'nobody' so he's partially true."
The countdown to join the main session appeared on screen and Peter clicked on it before waiting for the rest of his group to finish their superhero conversation.
"Okay class, so to review - what is the MRCA of the circled taxa according to this tree?"
A couple students raised their hands to answer, but there was a loud noise in the teacher's house so she excused herself and told them to wait for a minute while she tended to other matters. Then her internet cut out and she was booted off the meeting.
"So you're actually friends with Spiderman?" The same kid from the breakout room took advantage of the situation to question Flash again.
MJ obviously rolled her eyes, but Flash puffed out his chest to dive back into the limelight.
"Why are we talking about Spiderman?" Someone who wasn't in the breakout room looked confused at the topic change.
Another one loudly squeaked and then asked if Spiderman had walked by in the background of Peter's video.
Completely ignoring Peter and Flash's denials that that happened, the kids became just as rowdy as yesterday. Some had even written down questions to ask Peter about their favorite hero or about what he actually did as an intern for Stark Tower.
Then a light flashed in the room and a bunch of buzzers went off. In addition to each Avenger's tracker beeping to alert them of an emergency call - JARVIS also had a system in place where lights flashed and noises blared in rooms where Avengers were present. Unluckily for Peter, Clint, Bucky, Steve, and Sam had been in the same room as him, just behind the camera.
"Peter, would you like me to connect to Karen and call your suit?" JARVIS robotically read the lines from his protocol - offering to call his suit over like he did for Tony since their suits used a lot of similar technology.
"No. JARVIS I don't -"
"False alarm! False alarm!" Tony ran in, out of breath and hair singed. "I was trying to do a reboot of the alarm system so it would send more details about the attack when you were alerted, but it triggered something."
He looked over at Peter sympathetically. "Sorry kid. Didn't mean to interrupt like that again, but don't go into Spidey mode just yet, everything's fine." Tony brushed some spot off his face. "I also may have burnt some stuff, but that's alright too. Everything is under control."
Bucky winked at Peter from behind the computer and spoke up. "Unless he wanted to skip school for a bit - would've been a good excuse."
Steve shot his friend a disapproving look, but didn't add anything to the lecture.
One of the students in his class, just barely audible, spoke: "Spidey mode."
"That's just a -" Peter was about to shut down any speculation by calling it an inside joke, but then his mask flew over and coated his face. "What the- Karen, take it off."
Tony face palmed. "That might've also been my fault with the trigger."
Peter had his whole suit on for two or three seconds before Karen faithfully disassembled.
He quickly muted. "How am I supposed to explain myself now?"
"What do you mean kid?"
"I was unmuted AND had my video on."
"What? Peter I swear I heard you say you were in the main group. Why would you be unmuted?" Sam called out from his spot in a chair.
"And you didn't turn off the microphone and the video as soon as the alarm sounded?" Tony asked as if this was a normal thing that happened and Peter had been trained in what to do.
"No. There was adrenaline and I didn't think about it."
"Well..." Tony shrugged. "I don't know. It might just be time to come out with it."
Peter nervously glanced at the screen. His sound and video were off, and people were frantically trying to get his attention. He would think Flash, with his mouth open and eyes wide, was frozen except for the movement of his curtains in the background.
"Um..."
Honestly, Peter didn't know how to get out of this one. Currently living in Stark Tower, the suit attaching to him, and being called 'Spidey' was all pretty damming evidence that he was Spiderman.
The only alternative was maybe saying that Spiderman was in the building and the suit accidentally attached to Peter instead, but that would just be admitting fault in a Stark design which wouldn't be good for Tony or superheroes, who regularly used his instruments, in general. Peter couldn't do that to them.
So, he wracked his genius brain and hatched a plan.
He opened the video and microphone and decided to play dumb like nothing had even happened. No one ever said it was going to be a good plan.
"Parker! Man what the hell just went down?" Someone who didn't have their video on called out.
Peter just rose his eyebrows in mock surprise and shrugged. "I have no idea."
Flash seemed conflicted. On the one hand, they'd just been given the hardest evidence ever proving the identity of Spiderman. On the other, that would make Peter Parker, the nerdiest, most-awkward person in school, the superhero that he had publicly adored and bragged about knowing. Which was both incredibly embarrassing for him, and created a cognitive dissonance because he could not imagine Spiderman taking punches when he could easily fight back. Or Peter not using his powers to be cooler and get girls or fame and money.
"You all really think that egghead is Spiderman?"
"What's your explanation then Flash?"
"I don't know, maybe it was a mistake? Or maybe Peter just has a high tech costume or something?"
"That's stupid. Tony Stark wouldn't let him use materials to make a costume that came when he called. And how does that explain him calling Peter 'Spidey'?"
"You all are missing the most important piece - DID HE SAY THERE WAS AN EMERGENCY?"
"...My mom is working in Manhattan." One girl's lip wobbled as she spoke up. "Is the attack near there?"
Suddenly, the kids fixated on that. They rushed to search news sites for any current disasters and openly worried about their loved ones in various areas of New York. There were many red eyes and a couple students were almost at a full-blown panic.
"Hold on. Nothing's wrong." Peter tried to speak loudly into his mic and also typed in his chat.
"The kid is right." Tony confirmed as he stepped into frame. "We were just testing the emergency system."
"Does it work?"
"That it does." Tony winked and flashed a brilliant rehearsed press smile.
"SO PETER IS SPIDERMAN." Someone yelled enthusiastically. "If the system worked, and that suit was clearly part of the emergency system, then that means it reached the intended target aka Spiderman aka Peter Parker."
Peter looked up over his laptop screen - hoping for something. But Bucky and Clint just stared back with a 'What can you do?' expression.
"Okay. So I didn't mean for this to happen, but, yes, I am Spiderman."
As soon as Peter got that resolved determination glint in his eyes, Tony had speed dialed the press - getting ahead of the situation.
He also contacted May and his own security detail with next steps.
The zoom call was eerily silent - not even the teacher spoke.
Then, "That's my boy!" broke the moment as a huge grin split across Ned's face. "Kicking ass all over Queens."
"You knew?"
"I'm his best friend. Of course I knew."
Tony rose an eyebrow at Peter - he hadn't known that bit of information.
I knew it. MJ typed in the chat. You were totally suspicious. I can't believe no one figured it out sooner.
Peter just scoffed. He thought he was pretty good at keeping secrets.
At least his reveal had been on accident unlike Tony's.
"You're an Avenger? Can I get your autograph when we go back to school?"
"That's so cool, how do you have webs? How did you even become Spiderman?"
"Wait, does that mean that Flash was friends with Parker this whole time?"
"Or he was lying about knowing Spiderman?"
Everyone was talking over themselves and it was getting hard to keep track of what was going on. Peter, not having a mean bone in his body, did throw Flash a bone and admit that he had interacted with him while in the suit, but didn't say anything about being friendly and close or anything like that.
Peter just shut his laptop and slumped over the table in exhaustion. "What am I supposed to do?"
"Don't worry kid - we'll handle it." Tony pointed at his phone. "Pepper knows how to deal with this kind of crisis. She actually does it often."
"Not by choice I'm sure." Sam side eyed Tony, who ignored the slight.
"Why was everyone so fixated on that Flash kid?" Clint was curious about the conversation, and by the micro change in her expression, so was Natasha.
Peter's phone buzzed and Ned's face filled the screen. He picked up and put his friend on speakerphone.
"Hi Ned, you're on speaker with all the Avengers."
There was silence and a bit of a squeal. "...really!?"
"Hey, kid" Tony picked up the phone. "What was up with that Flash kid? Why were people so focused on him meeting Spiderman?"
"Oh, that's just because he idolized Spiderman all the time. He claimed that they were friends and that he was the best superhero and stuff like that. Which is ironic because he always bullies Peter and-" Ned audibly clasped a hand over his mouth.
"He bullies Peter?" Steve questioned.
"Well, it will probably be 'bullied' now. I can't imagine he'll keep it up now that he knows Peter could bench press him if he wanted."
"It's not a big deal guys - I swear." Peter put his hands up, trying to diffuse the tension that had risen in the room. He already had enough to deal with right now, he didn't want to add several overprotective, over trained, vengeful superhumans to the mix.
"I'll be talking to you about this topic again Ted."
"Ned."
"Right. Ned. As soon as the current identity reveal is under control, we're coming back to what Flash did."
Peter just put his head in his hands.
—————
"Do you remember, about a year ago, there was a robbery at a convenience store a couple blocks from school?
The men wore baseball caps and knocked out the security cameras. One of them even pulled a gun and shot the woman behind the desk.
And then Spiderman webbed them up and applied pressure and basic first aid to her wound. The EMT's and hospital staff that he called were able to save her, and she made a full recovery. All of the men were taken into police custody and charged then convicted of attempted murder and assault with a deadly weapon.
That was my mom at our family store.
And I can't thank you enough for what you did. I will forever be grateful that you were there that night, that you decided to help people, and to put yourself at risk for the sake of others.
P.S. Feel free to come by whenever if you ever need anything. It's on the house of course."
Peter curled up under the blankets, feeling warm and fuzzy from the inside out.
For every couple messages with questions about his powers or knowing the Avengers or requests to hang out or get an autograph or see him in action - there was one from someone thanking him for saving them or their family member.
And that alone made it worthwhile to be a superhero.
All these stories and reminders of what he fought for were making him emotional, but he couldn't stop reading them.
Around three in the morning. He snuck downstairs and printed off copies to keep with him if he ever needed the reminder.
Because helping people was all he ever wanted to do.
***If you guys could stop reporting every comment that has a swear in it, that would be great. I get it if it's personally not your thing, but it's not against the rules, so you shouldn't be reporting it. Also, you may want to consider reading works from another author, because I do occasionally swear, and I'm not really planning on putting much effort into curbing that because I don't think it's in too much excess that it's hurting my writing or anything. Thanks.***