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"Aren't you excited?" Ned asked as he and Peter rummaged through their lockers in preparation for the assembly that had been scheduled. The ninth and tenth-grade portion was meant to be taking place for the first two periods of the day and everyone was hustling to get to the gym.
"I'm excited that I don't have to go to Spanish," Peter replied, poignantly shoving his Spanish Two Workbook into his locker along with a few loose papers.
Ned paused to give his friend an incredulous look. "But you're not excited that The Tony Stark is coming to our school? Peter, that's badass," he stated in seriousness. Like the rest of the school, he couldn't think of a better way to spend half of the school day.
Peter rolled his eyes and huffed a laugh. "I literally see him every week, Ned. I have a bedroom in his penthouse. If anything him coming here is just weird," he said though he could understand everyone's enthusiasm. Had this same assembly been planned just a year and a half prior he would have been beside himself at the opportunity just to be in the same room with the man.
"But this will prove that you two know each other. That has to mean something. They'll have to believe you after today," Ned pressed.
Peter sighed and looked up from where he'd been digging around in his backpack to make sure that he'd removed all of the unnecessary textbooks. "I don't actually care if they believe me or not. The reality that I know Mr. Stark isn't provisional to a bunch of high schoolers accepting said reality. There are no such contingencies," he said with finality and then stood up to close his locker.
With a nod of his head, Ned clapped his own locker shut and lengthened his stride so that he could catch up with Peter who had already started walking off. "Okay but I can be excited about it, right?" he asked with a broad grin.
"Sure, Ned," Peter smiled back "You can be excited about it."
Getting into the gym was more of a chore than it should have been. It seemed as though all two-thousand-five-hundred-and-seventeen students were all trying to squeeze their way inside at the same time. Teachers were posted at each entrance, checking student ID's and running off the upper-classmen who just wanted to get a glimpse inside. It was a cluster of boisterous activity and Peter couldn't have been any more thankful to finally get through the doors and seated at the very top of the bleachers, away from where everyone else was clamoring to get a front-row seat.
Then at eight-fifteen on the dot, the principal approached the microphone and attempted to get the large group to quiet down. Of course, it didn't work. Everyone continued to shout, chant, and talk amongst themselves. As they did so, Peter used his elevated position to his advantage and started scanning the crowd of adults that were huddled together at the opposite end of the large room.
It didn't take long for him to spot Tony and he wasn't sure how everyone else hadn't noticed him as well. He was wearing a four-piece suit and was the only one in the room with sunglasses perched on his nose. Then he noticed some other people were milling around just outside the door that was behind the man and squinted his eyes to get a better look. He sighed when he realized who it was and fished his phone out of his pocket.
'Mr. Stark, why are Thor and Captain Roger's here with you?' he rapidly texted, knowing that even if the man's phone was on 'do not disturb' it would still ring for him. And as expected, seconds later he watched as Tony pulled out his own phone and began to read the message.
'They wanted to come,' Tony texted back, then scanning the sea of teenagers for his favorite young adult. Though that task became more difficult as he stepped forward and the large group erupted into cheers that echoed off of the walls.
Peter covered his ears in frustration before taking a moment to text back. 'I thought this was an SI STEAM thing?' he asked because he'd not really been paying much attention to the announcement and when he'd spoken to Tony about it the man hadn't mentioned any sort of Avengers involvement.
'Cap likes to color and Point Break is a physics anomaly, so there's that,' Tony shot back with a shrug of his shoulders followed by, 'where are you?'
'Very top right,' Peter sent back and waved his hand in mild greeting when his mentor locked eyes with him. That exchange was followed by another where Tony tried to convince him to come down and help with the presentation. However, much to Ned's chagrin, he adamantly declined. He was perfectly okay with being hidden in the back of the room.
It didn't take long for Tony to give up trying to lure his mentee out of hiding, in favor of taking the initiative to quiet the room himself. The principal wasn't having any luck and frankly, he just wanted to get started. With that in mind, he sauntering over towards the center of the gym to take over the microphone.
"Good morning, Midtown School of Science and Technology," he charismatically stated, opening his arms to receive the inevitable response. Then he waved his hands a bit to encourage everyone to pipe down, waiting patiently for them to do so before he said anything else.
Meanwhile, Peter was leaning against the wall watching his classmates watch his mentor with rapt interest as he droned on and on about the importance of STEAM. He'd almost dozed off to the sound of Tony's familiar voice when he heard a collective gasp fill the air around him. Upon opening his eyes he realized it was because Thor and Steve had just walked in, wearing full gear.
"I've brought a few special guests with me today-" Tony began only to be cut off when Steve stepped in front of him to get to the microphone. Clearly keen on introducing himself.
"-I'm Captain Steve Rogers and it's nice to see all of you here today," he said with a genuine smile and a pleased nod of his head before gesturing for Thor to take his place.
"Hello. I'm Thor, Son of Odin and I am enjoying my visit to your place of learning, very much," Thor said before Tony took over the mic again. However, Peter wasn't able to hear anything he said because Ned had started shaking his arm and was whisper-shouting directly into his ear.
"Peter! That's Captain American and Thor! Dude! Did you know that they were coming too?" Ned asked with absolute glee followed by a dramatic squeal. "This is the best day of my life! Do you think you could introduce me?"
"Yeah, yeah. I promise. Probably not here though," Peter replied through a lazy yawn. However, when he turned his head to the side and saw that his friend was nearly pouting at him he threw a hand up in defeat. "Look, even if they do stick around to shake hands, I wouldn't be worth the fight to get through the crowd. Besides, Mr. Stark would probably let you come with me to the tower this afternoon if I asked. We don't actually have anything planned other than ordering pizza for dinner."
"Dude, if that happened then this would definitely be the best day of my life and I could die tomorrow a happy man," Ned replied with a giddy smile.
"You say that every time-" Peter began, already reaching for his phone so that he could ask about inviting Ned over. Yet before he could even get his hand to his pocket, the hairs on his arms stood on end and a feeling of intense anxiety washed over him. His first instinct was to search the area but there was nothing there and that could only mean one thing. "Something's coming," he said, jumping to his feet as he did so.
Tony seemed to have noticed his sudden movement because when he looked, the man was staring at him with his eyes knit together in concern. Peter tried to silently convey that something was amiss and couldn't decide if he'd succeeded or not when Tony started to walk away. Then out of nowhere, there was a loud bast followed by a cloud of dust and rubble falling from the gym's ceiling.
As would be expected, chaos ensued. A third of the student body had pulled out their phone while another third stood frozen in place. Everyone else simply started scrambling towards the exits. Teachers began barking orders and Peter was left wondering what he was supposed to do next.
He wanted to help, his first reaction to any situation was to help but he wasn't in the spider-suit. It was in his backpack but there was no way he was going to be able to change into it in the middle of the gym surrounded by thousands of people without someone noticing him. Even with the distraction of what appeared to be a villain hovering in the center of the room issuing threats towards the Avengers, which was apparently why whoever it was had shown up there in the first place.
Once the dust finally cleared it was easy to see what or who had caused the damage. There was a large being that looked like a robot but it could have just as easily been someone inside of some highly technical armor. The design was seamless and it was hard to tell. It briefly crossed Peter's mind that maybe it was both. That perhaps they were dealing with some sort of cyborg. He had to quickly push down the excitement that came from that idea. Especially since the threats were starting to be followed through with several smaller explosions and tight balls of projectile flames.
At that point, anyone who hadn't already fled the scene was charging towards the door like a pack of rhinos and Peter had to use his super strength to not be pulled along with the crowd. "Go ahead and get out of here, Ned!" he shouted as the two of them became separated. "I've got this!"
'I've got this,' may have been an overstatement. He was still suitless even though he did have his web-shooters on him. He always did but they were the last resort. All it would take would be for one person to see him shooting a web and that would be the end of his secret identity. He really didn't want that. Therefore he was going to have to work with what he had. With wasn't much but he starting by tugging his hood low over his eyes to hopefully making it at least a little bit harder for anyone to recognize him.
In an effort to get towards where the majority of the action was taking place, Peter started to push his way through the pandemonium that had spread across the entirety of the gym. Students were scattering, Tony was flying about in his armor, Steve's shield was bouncing around the room and back again like a non-physics bound boomerang, and Thor using his godly strength to try and tear what looked like a series of remote-detonation bombs apart before they could cause any more damage. As if that wasn't enough to contend with, the villain charging about, setting fire to anything within range.
With a leap that was probably a bit more than an average teenager should have been able to accomplish, Peter Stood tall on top of the mountain of rubble and twisted metal and reached down to grab a large chunk of it. His intention was to throw it towards the head of the aggressor and with any luck that would cause one of two things. One, for the blow to cause a disturbance in the villain's field of vision, rendering them incapable for at least a short amount of time or two, move the attention towards himself, thus allowing the Iron Man, Captain America, and Thor to gain some ground.
It seemed like a solid plan at the time so without ever looking, Peter reached down and grabbed the first thing that his hand made contact with. It wasn't heavy by his standards but it felt solid enough to hopefully accomplish one of his two goals, so he went for broke. "Hey, Mr. Bad Guy! Over here! I've got something for you!" he shouted as he uses all of his strength to throw the object in his hands towards the villain who had just turned to face him.
"Kid! What do you think you're doing? Get out of here!" he heard Tony shout in horror at the same time Thor, shouted, "He is worthy!" but Peter was too busy trying to dodge the firey shots that had suddenly been directed towards him to reply to or question either exclamation.
Then he heard a loud clank, leading him to look up just time to see, the maybe cyborg that had been stunned by his attack being taken down by Iron Man's repulsors and finished off by a swift thwack from Captian America's shield.
"Holy shoot! That actually worked!" Peter shouted to no one in particular as he continued to gawk at the incapacitated enemy. However before he could celebrate much further, he felt his spider-senses tingle, and his reflexes took over, sending his right arm out to catch whatever was flying towards him.
It wasn't until it had landed squarely in his hand that he turned to see what it was and nearly choked on his own spit. "Oh my God, I'm holding Mjölnir," he squawked before realizing that he should probably give God Of Thunder back his weapon and began to rapidly approach the larger man and shove it into his hands. "I'm so sorry! I didn't realize that I-"
"-Don't be sorry!" Thor interrupted, taking the hammer with one hand and Patting Peter on the shoulder with the other. "You should be proud! Only those who are deemed worthy can lift this hammer," he vaguely explained but before Peter could question what exactly that meant he was being engulfed in what would have been a nearly bone-crushing hug had he not been enhanced.
"Mr. Stark?" he strained as his mentor continued to squeeze him into his still armored chest. "This is really nice and all but could you maybe let up a little bit?" he pleaded, leading the man to release his hold but only marginally.
"Christ, Kid! Are you okay?" Tony asked as he went from practically smothering his mentee to holding either side of his face and searching him for any signs of injury. Once he was sure that there were none, he retracted his armor and pulled the kid in all over again. "Don't ever do that again. You hear me!"
Peter wriggled himself free of the man's grasp and smiled widely. "I was fine, Mr. Stark. Better than fine," he swore before practically bouncing on his toes with exhilaration. "Did you see what I did?"
"Did I see you baiting a colossal robotic flamethrower without your suit?" Tony asked though he didn't actually pause for any sort of answer. "Of course I saw that. It was kind of hard to miss! And I repeat, Do. Not. Ever. Do. That. Again."
"Not that, Mr. Stark!" Peter replied, choosing to ignore the hysterically parental chastizing for the time being. "Did you see me throwing Mjölnir?"
Tony glanced towards Thor who was energetically nodding his head and back to Peter again before raising a questioning eyebrow. "I'm sorry, you what now?" he asked because he had tried and failed to lift that hammer before. All of the Avengers had and no one, save for Steve, had been able to get it to budge let alone pick it up and throw it.
"I wanted to throw a piece of the broken cement at the bad guy but I didn't look to see what exactly I had picked up, I just threw it and then I looked down to get another piece but I heard his really loud, 'bang!' and looked up see you guys finishing it off but then I could sense that something was flying towards me so I reached out to catch it and it was Thor's hammer. I threw Thor's hammer!" Peter giddily rambled as his mentor smiled softly and nodded along. "He says that I'm worthy."
"Worthy of what exactly? Do you even know?" Tony asked with a half-amused look, laughing when the teenager's face twisted with mild confusion. Though he didn't get a chance to say anything before Thor was jumping in to answer.
"Worthy to poses the power of Thor, of course," the god boomed causing Peter's face to go morph from perplexity to pure astonishment.
"I could shoot lightning!" he shouted so loudly that even Steve who was still halfway across the gym, tending to the actual job at hand, flinched.
"So the enchantment says," Thor replied with an encouraging smile. "Perhaps we could give it a try one day."
"That would be so incredibly awesome! " Peter cheered while his mentor crossed his arms firmly over his chest.
"-This is exciting to you?" Tony scoffed. "I gave you taser webs."
"And the taser webs are really great. Thank you, Mr. Stark," Peter quickly placated but he couldn't quite quell the thrill that came from hearing that he was capable of wielding not only Thor's hammer but his power as well. "-but you have to admit that being able to conjure actual lightening is awesome."
"I have to admit no such thing," Tony replied without missing a beat, and then he waved his hand haphazardly in the direction of the doors that, lead back towards the majority of the school. "Just go grab your stuff and get your worthy butt back over here. You're coming with me."
"Don't you have another assembly to do?" Peter asked as he ran his hand through his own hair causing his hood to fall against his back. It wasn't that he didn't want to go because how in their right mind wouldn't want to ditch school early? Especially at their may-as-well-be parent's insistence! He was fairly certain that the school would be upset if their speaker for the day bailed early.
With an affectionate roll of his eyes, Tony spread his arms and gestured broadly towards the entire gym. "Call me crazy- actually on second thought, don't," he said going from humorous to serious and back again all in half a second's time. "-But I'm pretty sure the rest of the assembly has canceled. Postponed at minimum."
Peter looked around his mentor's back at the still smoldering patches of debris and up towards the large hole in the ceiling and laughed sheepishly. He'd not really considered how much damage had been done to the building. Until that moment he'd been solely focused on the fact that he'd lifted Mjilnor. "Yeah I, uh, I guess that makes sense," he conceded and then smiled brightly as his thoughts turned back towards the promise he'd made to his best friend that morning. "Can Ned come to? He's been begging for me to invite him over and I told him I'd ask."
"Sure, why not," Tony sighed dramatically in order to cover up the smile that was trying to take over his features because Peter asking if he could have a friend over made him feel oddly happy. Maybe because it meant the kid felt just as at home with him in the penthouse as he did with his aunt in their little apartment.
"Awesome!" Peter shouted, throwing his fist up in the air in the process. Then he gave the man a quick squeeze around the middle and was just about to take off to go find Ned when he froze. "Uh- Mr. Stark?" he said as his eyes passed over the numerous slack-jawed faces of several teachers. In all of the excitement, he'd not realized that all of the teachers who had hung around after the fiasco in order to oversee the cleanup and keep students from reentering the gym were watching them. He hoped they didn't hear too much.
"What is it, Kiddo?" Tony said, hesitating at the end as he realized exactly what the kid was asking about. While he'd prepared for the eventuality of an identity slip, he'd not imagined that it would take place in the middle of a charred high school gymnasium. "Alright," he said with a clap of his hands. "I'm going to need every single one of you to sign an NDA. Any questions?"
"Uh, Just one, sir," one of the teachers that Peter didn't even recognize stated. "You see, I was, well, I think all of us were under the impression that you didn't have any children."
"Oh," Tony replied in utter surprise. "Actually he's-" began only to realize that apparently the teenager's vigilante alter-ego was safe after all and while that was a relief, he'd just told them all that they needed to sign NDAs. And having them sign an NDA because they'd him talking to his intern/mentee/protege didn't make any sense. However, seeing as they had all already come to their own conclusion he decided to do what he did best and just wing it.
"He's not biologically mine," he casually stated because that was one-hundred percent true. "I just help his aunt look after him," he added with ease, seeing as that wasn't a lie either. He did help look after the kid, even when he wasn't in the Spider-suit on a more and more regular basis. "But I don't need the media hounding him about it so NDAs. All of you," He finished with a zeal, almost taking pleasure in the way they were all gawking at him.
Then Tony turned towards Peter who was still looking a tiny bit anxious, smiled reassuringly, and then nudged him in the shoulder. "What are you waiting for? Go get your friend so that we can get out of here. You're holding me up, you menace!" he said with a smirk.
Suddenly realizing that Tony had everything under control, Peter nodded his head and took off towards the main building, shouting, "I'm not just any menace, Mr. Stark. I'm a worthy menace," over his shoulder as he went.