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Being a Stark [Superfamily]

Chapter 1

Peter never really did change his ringtone.

He can’t find it in himself to change it, mostly because it’s a little tune Gwen used to tease him with all the time. She has been the one to set it in the first place, and to change it right now would almost feel as if he would erase the memory of her.

So of course the little Spider-man tune comes out of his inside pocket the moment he slams his foot in another guy’s face. He thinks he hears said man’s nose crack, but he’s not really sure. The phone continues its happy tune while Peter drops down on the ground, a surprised grunt escaping his lips. Instinctively he reaches for the phone, remembering once more he changed the outer pocket with an inside one because he kept on losing his phone and Aunt May started to swing a wooden spoon his way – not that she would actually hit him or anything, but it’s really her only way of trying to be strict with him.

Instead, Peter just thinks she’s adorable like that.

Anyway, before he manages to take out his phone – because damn these gloves – the robber stands back up and pushes him in the back, forcing him on the ground. The air escapes from Peter’s lungs at the impact, and the phone that had finally gotten into his hands slips away.

“No!” Peter shouts in panic before pointing his hands in the direction of the device and sending a web to it in the hope that it’ll stop the fall. At the same time the goon picks him up and throws him towards the wall, causing for the phone to swing into the air and land somewhere even further.

“Ah come on!” Peter mutters out, getting himself back up and barely avoiding another blow on the head. Instead he shoots webs at the guy’s face, and pulls his phone back to him, finding it still ringing. Quickly he presses the green button, rests the phone between his ear and his shoulder, and finishes his work with the goon in front of him.

“Hello?” he asks casually, shooting a few more webs to make sure the guys stays stuck. No human being is strong enough to break out of this – at least he hopes so. With a small bow he picks up the suitcase the guy has been carrying along.

“Hello, am I talking to Peter Parker?” an unfamiliar female voice asks on the other side of the line. Peter takes a few steps away from the guy squirming on the ground just to make sure not to be overheard.

“Yes, that’s me,” Peter says, once more cursing his nonchalant way of talking. He sounds just like a messy teenager – which he is, actually, being only sixteen.

“Ah, yes, this is Linda Mayfield. I work at Oscorp,” Peter almost wants to hang up right away then, remembering his former best friend Harry, and how he has transformed into something insane enough that he would kill-

He doesn’t finish that thought, not wanting to cry again with this idiot on the ground being this close. “We’ve been cleaning up the place since Mr. Osborne’s departure, and we’ve found some journals of your mother’s in one of the old safes. Now since you’re her only son, these documents rightfully belong to you now.”

Peter frowns for a moment, only lightly recalling that, indeed, his mother used to work for Oscorp after leaving Stark Industries. She hadn’t been working there for very long, but apparently long enough to earn herself a safe.

“Uh, yeah sure, when can I come and get them?” Peter asks while clearing his throat. Above him he can see War Machine and Iron Man flying by, probably on their way to some sort of trouble downtown. Maybe he should see if he can be any help.

“You can come anytime we’re open, just ask anybody at the lobby and they’ll help you retrieve the journals,” the woman – Linda says. Peter nods even though the guy can’t see it. He clears away another lump in his throat.

“Yeah okay, I’ll see if I can come over later today, then,” Peter says. He’s wondering if he’s imagining the rumbling sound he’s hearing on the other side of the line.

“Oh my God!” Linda calls out and then she hangs up the phone at the exact time a police car arrives, which means that it’s time for Peter to leave. It’s not that the cops are actually looking for him, still, but he just doesn’t feel like talking much – especially since there’s something bad enough around that requires the Avengers to assemble – and probably at Oscorp. Of course…

So Peter takes the high ground, swinging himself up in the air and passing by building after building. He does notice Captain America driving by on his motorcycle, shield safely put in front of his steering wheel. Quickly enough he goes his way, dropping himself a few houses before him. Cap stops just in time, missing him by just a few millimeters.

“Whew, that was a close one, Cap,” Peter jokes, pretending to wipe away sweat from his face. The Captain just shakes his head and exhales the breath he had been holding.

“You are a reckless one, let me tell you that,” the man says, sounding kind of frightened. How adorable, the guy is thinking about his safety. Peter feels honored, if it wasn’t for the fact that the Captain has no idea who exactly he is behind the mask.

“Yeah, I was wondering if I could get a ride, maybe I can help out and all? Besides, I’ve always wanted to make a trip on Captain America’s motorcycle,” Peter jokes. The Captain sits up a little bit, but there’s a smirk on his face that gives Peter enough hope that he’ll accept his proposition.

“Aren’t you a bit too young to-“ the man starts, but then he sighs and shakes his head. Eventually he pats the backseat and waits for Peter to sit himself down, which he does. After that, they start driving again, this time with Peter making ‘whooosh’ noises in the back.

The closer they get to the scene, the more police cars there are showing. They appear to have made a perimeter, and there are hundreds of people standing at the sidelines trying to catch a glimpse of what is happening.

When it’s clear that there’s no way for them to get through, neither of them need to speak for Peter to know what he needs to do. Peter puts a few webs on his legs against the cycle to make sure he stays on it, and then he shoots up on a few buildings, pulling themselves upwards with the vehicle included. His muscles burn from the heaviness, but it works when they practically fly above all the people without slowing down.

When they start to lower down again, Peter unintentionally wraps his arms around the Captain’s middle in a reflex, closing his eyes as they get nearer the ground.

“Hold on tightly,” the Captain jokes, and with a loud thud and a hard shock, they are back on the ground. Surprisingly, the motorcycle is still driving forward, not even having a tiny little scratch at all.

“Dude what’s this thing made off?” Peter asks in surprise, trying to calm his stomach down. The captain chuckles and then stops right in front of another car, Peter almost flying off of it.

“Tony enforced it with some of the vibranium we collected after defeating Ultron. It can take a lot more blows now,” Steve says, getting off the vehicle and taking his shield back into his arms. “Now, I see the fight is up there.”

Cap points up towards – what a surprise – Oscorp, where Peter can see Iron Man and War Machine fighting together to hold off some strange green creature. Peter’s stomach drops then, realizing who exactly it is they’re fighting.

Harry…

“Great, the Goblin,” Peter mutters. He didn’t even know the guy got out.

“Anyway, I was wondering if I could get a lift? Can you get us up there?” Peter nods, holding out his arm to allow the Captain to grab on.

He doesn’t shout or scream when they go up, which is completely opposite to what Peter’s used to. Sure, mostly he swings with people he’s just rescued, and when they’re full of adrenaline they can’t ever really keep their mouth shut. It’s a great relief for his ears when it’s completely silent next to him.

“So, since when exactly did the Goblin escape?” Peter tries to ask the moment they touch ground on the roof. So far they haven’t been spotted yet, but he knows that it won’t be the case for much longer. As he speaks, he hears his voice shake a bit, revealing a sudden emotion he knows hasn’t subsided yet – it probably never will.

“Got the call in this morning – The Fantastic Four were planning on taking care of it but they asked for back-up about half an hour ago when he moved back to the tower,” Cap says, readjusting his helmet and taking a deep sigh before removing his shield from his back straps. Then he nods towards Peter. “Thanks for the lift, Spider-Man. Now make sure you stay out of trouble. Wouldn’t want you getting hurt.”

After that, the Captain is off, running towards the danger and the rest of his team.

Peter scoffs, thinking of how this is mostly what the Avengers keep on saying to him. He’ll show then what he’s worth; he fought off the lizard on his own, didn’t he? Or Electro? And he did that without the help of all the Avenger’s high-tech toys.

Of course, the toys would be nice to work with.

Harry’s crazy laugh suddenly fills the air, and his glider passes him by as he tries to get away from a very annoyed War Machine.

Peter lowers his head as the image of a hand reaching out to his comes to mind. He takes a few deep breaths and leans forward, resting his hands on his knees. He can do this; it’s still Harry, somehow. He needs to find a way to get his friend back without hurting him too much.

Even though when said friend hurt him real bad.

“Come on, Parker,” Peter mutters to himself, shaking his arms and legs a few times before running after the Captain. His heartrate is speeding up the closer he gets, and his fists are clenched so tight that he almost doubts there’s enough blood passing through.

He notices Harry – no, the Goblin – fishing out something out of his bag when he’s almost just behind the fighting figure of Black Widow. With a cold feeling and a shudder he senses the danger before it gets there, and so even before the Goblin can make his throw Peter throws his web to fish it out of his hand. The thing is already making beeping noises, so with the lack of another idea he throws it high up in the air. Next to him, Hawkeye seems to have noticed what he’s doing, and he sends an arrow straight after it, blowing up what ends up to be a bomb high above enough that nobody would get hurt.

“Good thinking,” Hawkeye tells him, saluting him in greeting before fishing out another arrow. Widow thanks him for the quick reflexes. Peter just shrugs, not finding it that weird for him to notice things like that so quickly.

“What was that?” Mr. Stark’s voice sounds, almost metallic through the microphone of the helmet.

“It’s me, sir, Mr. Stark! It’s Spider-Man,” Peter answers nervously. Out of all the heroes, it seems like Iron Man manages to make him nervous the most.

“Who?” Iron Man says, and Peter’s mouth falls open from shock. How could Iron Man not know him by now? Then he hears a chuckle coming from Iron Man’s suit. “Just kidding, I know who you are. Just try not to get killed.”

“Or course not, Mr. Stark! I’ll try to be very careful!” Peter returns, glad that the guy was simply messing with him. Now, Peter looks around to try and see where he can be of use.

“Okay this is getting old,” War Machine suddenly calls out, and then he lifts up in the air and starts racing towards Harry with the gun on his shoulder pointed forward. Harry hasn’t noticed yet, and Peter intents to keep it that way. The sooner he’s back into custody, the better.

“Hey Goblin!” Peter calls out, feeling a tug in his chest when he remembers once again that it’s Harry hovering there on that glider. When Harry turns his face around, Peter shoots a few webs into his eyes. It’s a simple distraction, but it’s a welcome one apparently. Harry immediately reaches for his eyes and never sees War Machine coming when the soldier slams against him – throwing him off the glider. Rhodey holds him up by his arm and throws him back on the roof, his rockets hitting the glider hard just for good measure.

Harry is slowly crawling upright again. The Avengers and the Fantastic Four are all surrounding him, but he doesn’t really seem to care about that. Peter catches him pressing a button on his wrist, and then he holds out his arms in a defensive stance.

“Spider-Man,” Harry hisses sarcastically once he notices him. There’s a giant grin on his face, and his tongue is passing over his lips quickly, “long time no see. How’s Gwen?”

Peter feels like the whole world around him is pausing. You killed her, you bastard! You were my friend, and you just dropped her! Her blood is on your hands! The thoughts keep on going through his brain, but nothing comes out of his mouth. He doesn’t even notice the remains of the glider striking his way until he’s thrown to the side and Captain America’s shield is keeping it from piercing through him. When everybody is distracted, Harry tries to make his leave, but War Machine seems to regain his attention just in time to grab him and smash him back into the ground.

“Jesus, kid, we told you to be careful,” Mr. Stark suddenly says, standing behind him. Peter doesn’t turn around, instead watching how everybody is moving around him. They don’t notice that he’s frozen in place, unmoving and shivering at the spot.

Peter sees how they pick Harry back up, how Iron Man hands Cap some sort of strange cuffs. War Machine is the one who takes him away, holding him in a strong grip as he flies up in the sky, followed by Iron Man carrying Cap in one arm.

In the end, Hawkeye is the only one remaining.

“You alright, kid?” the man asks him. Peter shakes himself out of his stupor, blinking a few times before turning towards Hawkeye.

“Why aren’t you going with them?” Peter asks once he finds his voice again, ignoring his question. The archer just shrugs and smirks at him.

“Why would I want to go to briefing right away? If I arrive late, maybe it’ll already be finished when I get there.” He fishes out a piece of candy from his pocket and props it into his mouth. “So who was that Gwen he was talking about? A friend? A girlfriend?”

Peter stays quiet and looks down to the ground. There’s an uneasy feeling going through his chest and he starts shaking his head, not wanting to think back to Gwen’s lifeless body in his arms.

“I couldn’t save her,” he mutters quietly. Then he looks up again, finding Hawkeye looking serious at him. He doesn’t say anything more, which is fine by Peter. He should better just go. Besides, he’s already at Oscorp, he might as well just come and pick up the things that woman called about. What was her name again?

“Can I get a lift down? I don’t really want to waste an arrow right now,” he says, trying to lighten up the conversation again. Peter crosses his arms and raises an eyebrow, even though Hawkeye can’t really see that.

“You could just follow Black Widow and take the stairs?” Peter suggests. The guy turns around to watch the door towards the stairwell, looking at it like it’s the first time he’s seen it. Then he shrugs shortly.

“It’s cooler to get a ride from the Spider-kid,” Hawkeye says, snorting and biting his lips as his words seem to catch his own ears. Peter, too, instantly forgets about the heavy feeling in his chest and slaps his hand on his forehead, letting out an annoyed sigh. He probably didn’t mean to make it sound so… wrong, but at least both of them could laugh about it.

“Well how do you want to do this, then? Wanna get on my back? Or should I hold you in an embrace like Iron Man does with Cap?” he jokes along, and Hawkeye, too, starts laughing. It’s a stupid comment, though, because Iron Man doesn’t hold Cap any differently than he would with anybody else. It’s just because he’s just seen it happen a few minutes ago that he brings it up.

“Nah, man, I’ll take the stairs, that’s fine,” Hawkeye says. He lifts up his hand and instantly Peter slaps a high five onto it. “You’re not too bad at this, kid. A bit more experience, and surely the team will want to make you one of ours.” Then the Avenger is going through the door, leaving Peter alone on the roof.

Tchhhh, experience… Is nobody going to mention the giant lizard? Or the big electrical guy?

Alone with the thoughts in his mind. Quickly he shakes his head, groaning as he remembers his backpack with his clothes is still in that one alley, and he can’t really get into Oscorp looking like this.

Might be better, anyway. The tower is probably evacuated during the attack – and whatever was that about, anyway? It seems a bit foolish of Harry to attack the minute he’s out, right? Or maybe they’ve been chasing him the moment he got out? He wonders if he would be allowed to join the briefing to find out, but they’ve never asked him to join; that would mean he isn’t allowed, right?

Without thinking much more about it, he starts to make his way back to that alley. Seeing as he’s done quite a distance with Cap’s bicycle, it’s a bit further away than he would have liked. That means that he’s going to have to walk all the way back.

That, or take a cab. Or swing with the bag on his back.

He decides for the cab, though, feeling a strain on his muscles ever since the fight ended. He’s sure it’s not from exhaustion since he’s fought tougher and longer battles, but it’s like he’s completely emotionally drained.

He can joke all he want, and try to put on a mask – eh, figuratively speaking of course – to hide his emotions, but he can’t deny that there are a few important questions that are hanging in the air.

How did Harry escape? Who helped him? Where was he planning on going?

There are so many more things going through his mind as he stares outside the car window, but his brain feels like mush and it doesn’t feel like there will be anything coherent coming out of there anytime soon.

The drive to Oscorp takes even longer than he would have expected, probably because of the evacuation. He can see that the people are already walking back inside, so he shouldn’t have any problem retrieving his mother’s files.

And yeah, about that… he has never really stopped to wonder what that’s all about? His mother’s journals? Did she leave anything behind in Oscorp? That woman explained that they were cleaning unused safes and that hers was one of them, but how have those not been retrieved back when she was reported dead?

It probably doesn’t really matter anyway. Peter pays the fee for the cab and then gets out the moment he’s close enough. The sky is clear, so there’s no rain or sudden alien invasion, which means that he takes his time on his short walk to the building.

He’s not really looking forward on going back inside again, remembering the last time he was there he helped Gwen escape from the security guards about half a year ago. It’s the place where Dr. Connors tried to turn everybody into lizards. It’s where he was bitten by a Spider now a little longer than a year ago, genetically engineered by his father.

Still, he does make his way inside and instantly moves to the reception. The lady behind the desk just drops down the phone when he gets to her, and her smile is bright as she looks upon him.

“Hello, welcome to Oscorp. How can I help you?” the woman asks, sounding a bit too cheerful for someone who has just been evacuated from her work building because of a maniac and a bunch of superheroes on the roof.

“Yeah, I’m Peter Parker? I got a phone call a few hours ago about my mother’s belongings?” Peter tries, resting his hands on the wooden desk and trying his best not to look too uncomfortable. The woman nods and smiles even more so.

“Ah yes, we spoke on the phone earlier,” she says. “I have the journals here in this box. There are quite a few – it’s mostly scientific research and all so I don’t know if they’re going to be much use, but it’s customary for us to ask the next of kin if they want to keep the belongings.” She rambles on as she lifts up a box that looks kind of heavy for her – man how many of those books did his mother write? The moment the box is on the counter, Peter opens it to check out its content. They look real enough to him, and when he just picks one out randomly he sees that the date indeed goes back to even before he was born.

He nods lightly, closing the lids of the box again and lifting it up without an effort.

“Thank you, I’ll just take them with me,” Peter tells her. The woman – Peter remembers that her name was Linda – nods and smiles even wider than before if that’s even possible (she almost looks like the dental-model they didn’t pick because of the most exaggerated smile).

“Alright, have a good day, Mr. Parker!” she calls after him when he already starts walking. There’s no way that he’s going to take the subway with this box – it’s only going to attract the attention that he doesn’t want to have.

So instead he waves at another cab driving by, gets ignored because apparently somebody else was first, and then he tries again, succeeding this time around. He quickly offers his address and then he’s finally on his way back home. When he checks his watch he sees that it’s already six in the afternoon, meaning that the time has flown again.

There’s still traffic – there always is – so Peter starts to open the box again to fish out a few more journals, trying to find the first one of them all. He checks the date of the first page on each of them, finally finding one that reaches back to the time she still worked for Stark Industries. Peter frowns, wondering how long she’s actually been there. She’s never really told anybody much about her time there that Peter even wondered for a while if the actually even worked there at all.

Here’s the proof, though.

So he starts to read the one he suspects is the very first of them all, putting the other ones back into the box without watching. The cap driver asks if it’s alright if he puts on some music, and Peter holds his thumb up.

There’s nothing much that she’s talking about. It’s mostly formulas and drawings, a text about how Mr. Stark accepted her request for research and offered to help her with it. There doesn’t seem anything weird about it; it’s mostly the equations of whatever formula she seems to have decided to use. Peter’s a bit confused as to why exactly it is that Mr. Stark is involved seeing as it was not really his area of expertise, but back then the guy still made weapons. Those must have been developed with the help of some scientists, right?

Peter doesn’t really want to think too much about it, instead deciding to put the book back in the box when he finds that he’s already back in Queens. He sees a few classmates in their thick coats walking on the street, currently enjoying the end of their winter break. A strange feeling passes through him then, suddenly remembering how few friends he actually has at school.

The number is close to none, except for…

Shit.

Peter pulls out some money once the car stops in front of his house, and he lets out a short greeting before fake-hauling the gigantic box out of the car. He managed to act so well that even the driver got out to help him carry it to his door.

“Aunt May?” Peter asks once he gets inside. He kicks the box into the hallway and starts taking off his shoes and jacket while he waits for an answer, but then he doesn’t get one. That’s okay, it can happen, it probably means she’s still running a few hours at the hospital.

A quick look at his watch warns him that he has one more hour left before he has to leave for the pizzeria again. He lets out a long sigh, wondering when he would ever just get some free time. With a loud grunt, he drops himself on the couch, forgetting about the box full of books and instead turning on the TV.

Like he suspected, it’s all about the Goblin’s attack. There’s some footage of him fighting with the other Avengers, and somebody even managed to get a good shot at Iron Man flying by. Out of all the Avengers, Tony Stark has always been the one that gave him the most chills whenever he talked to him. It’s probably out of a scientist-perspective, but the idea that somebody as smart as Mr. Stark would even strike a conversation with him… No, he still can’t quite fathom it.

He can remember the first time he got to talk to Bruce Banner. It’s like every scientist’s dream to get a conversation with him, and goofy Peter Parker managed that – and not even as Spider-Man, no! It had been something with school, but it was mostly before he got well known about all this… Hulk-thing.

Peter smirks at the memory of the flustered scientist. He still can’t really imagine this shy man could ever turn into such a big green rage monster. It fascinates him, especially after the Hulk has shown to be quite fond of Spider-man as well, always there to protect him if needed.

With a grunt, Peter pulls himself up again. It’s time to get changed and get ready for work. While he’s been deep into his thoughts, the time has flown by. It won’t do him good to be late again.

By the time he’s arrived at the Pizza-place, he quickly changes into his uniform and greets the boss, who only grunts at him in response. Deep inside, Peter knows he’s a good man. He just has trouble showing it, sometime.

His shift goes along well enough, going from seven until ten. It’s not much work, but at least it’s a little income he can offer Aunt May.

As he brings one of the pizza’s to a table nearby, he notices him. Again.

“Oh you got to be joking?” Peter mutters out. Laya, who passes him by with her own order, seems to have heard him.

“What’s wrong, Peter?” she asks in a worry. Of course, she’s always the first one to come at his side whenever something even seems to be going wrong. She might like his company a bit too much, but how really can he tell her to lay off when all she’s doing is being nice?

“That creep is here again,” he mutters while he takes the money from the customers. He greets them quickly and then puts the money in his pockets to bring it to the front.

“You mean the raisin-looking guy who keeps on staring at you every Friday?” Laya asks. Peter growns in frustration, hating the pattern here. But at least now he can anticipate that he’ll have to endure the guy weekly. “But who is that girl with him? She looks kind of nice?”

And then Peter notices it, too; a younger – but not that young – girl sitting there with her bright blue hair stuffed into a messy bun. Her skin is a bit darkened and there seem to be dark shadows under her hollow eyes. Her stare seems to travel from Peter to the guy, and her mouth is moving. Peter tries not to listen to it, instead turning around again to escape their gaze.

“PETERRRRR PARKEEERRRRR!” suddenly comes out from behind him, the noise filling the whole restaurant. Of course, all of his colleagues are now staring at him, making the clients in turn stare as well. Peter just stands still, knowing full well that the voice belongs to the creep.

Oh, if only he could run away, put as much distance from this creep as he can. But, he’s still at work, and ignoring a call for him – no matter how personally – could get him in serious trouble. Especially when his boss is giving him a watchful look with an eyebrow raised.

So, instead Peter sighs, drops the money onto the table along with the ticket, and then hurries to the table he’s been avoiding all evening already.

“Yes, can I help you, sir?” Peter asks, trying with all the force that he has to be polite. It’s not worth getting fired, over. Just try to look calm, don’t show that you’re annoyed as fu-

“There was a spider in my pizza,” the man says with a dark and serious voice, face dark and gloomy all of the sudden. Now that he’s seeing him from so close, Peter can get a good look at the man. He must say, all those scars all over his body and even his face… this guy must have suffered quite a lot. Maybe he got a bit crazy because of it?

“Oh, eh,” Peter already starts, beginning to take the empty plate from the table, but then the man starts to laugh like an idiot. Great, and the whole restaurant is once again looking at them. Maybe he should have just taken the job as a delivery boy, instead.

“Hah! You should have seen your face!” the guy shouts out in full amusement, hands resting on his stomach as he leans back in his chair and throws his head back in his shoulder. “No no no, I was kidding, I just need the bill, and then I want to hire you as my personal pizza-delivery boy.” That last one is said with wiggling eyebrows, and Peter knows full enough when he’s flirted with and when not, and this, right now, is the guy full on suggesting things.

“The fuck, dude?” Peter says before he can think better of it. Too bad for him, his boss had just been passing by behind him and, of course, heard the words come out of his mouth.

“PARKER!” Mr. Finelli calls out, and Peter is sure that his face has turned red. Great, he couldn’t keep his mouth shut, and now he’s going to get fired because of this idiot sitting at the table every Friday.

By the time he gets home again, he’s glad to say that all he’s got was a warning. At least it’s better than being fired, right? His arms are tired and once the door is closed behind him he leans back against it, probably able to fall asleep on the spot. But then his eyes drop back on the boxes full of books. Right, he had left them in the hallway.

Aunt May must have noticed them, right? Is she even home, yet?

“Aunt May?” he calls out, but once again there’s no answer. Peter sighs, shaking his head and standing up once more to grab the book he had selected as the first one. Then he quickly makes a search for the second one, as well. After that, he goes to bed, reading a bit through them but finding nothing really that catches his interest other than his mother and Mr. Stark apparently being good friends. That surprises him a bit, but he doesn’t dwell too much on it.

It’s by the time that he gets to the second book – yes, he’s finished the first one already – that there’s a first mention of his father, who by that time already worked at Oscorp.

Peter falls asleep by the time his mother agreed to go out on a date with his father.

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