17 Chapter 16: [Change Team]

It had been a couple months since the fight with Juggernaut. Peter just got out of school, so he booked it home and got into his suit. He'd gained an appreciation for midday/afternoon patrols recently. He'd managed to shift things with MJ and Gwen enough that he felt more like himself than the old Peter. More genuine. He sped through the skies of New York, weaving lines and patchworks between buildings that disappeared minutes later. As he ran up the side of a particularly tall building, a communicator inside his mask dinged to let him know someone was trying to reach him. He put a finger up to it and pressed lightly to answer. "Yello?"

Steve spoke. "Hey, Spidey, something's come up at the Tower. Think you can head over?" There wasn't concern in his voice, per se, but it still sounded urgent enough for Peter to figure it was important.

"Uh, yeah. Be there in 5, Cap." He cut off the link and pivoted, running off the side of the building and slingshotting himself around it. He flew through the street at faster speeds than earlier, landing on the windows of Avengers Tower on the lower level. He ran directly up it, using webs to push himself up faster and faster. He passed the window to the main room and went to the roof. He hopped into an air duct and came out of a vent on the ceiling of the room, stopping himself into an upside down hanging position from a web. "I got a call. What's up?"

In the room were all the Avengers, plus, oddly, Laura and Anna (Rogue) from the X-Men. Steve spoke. "They want to leave the X-Men and join us instead." He scratched his head.

Anna spoke up, in her southern drawl. "We wanted to wait for you before we said why." Peter hummed to prompt her to continue. "Scott got worse."

"He argued with Logan." Laura added. "When we left, he was being treated for a shattered jaw."

Peter sighed. "Damn. Guess that backfired." He shook his head. "I was trying to get him to see his errors. But I guess he took it personal." He rolled his eyes. "I'm not surprised, but I'd had hope." He turned to Steve and Tony, the de facto leaders of the Avengers. "So what were you guys thinking?"

Steve and Tony exchanged looks. Tony answered. "Well, kid, we had the thought that maybe a younger branch of Avengers could be good. We've been told by the great One-Eye that we're meant to deal with big, world-threatening issues. You guys would be pretty good for street-level stuff that we generally wouldn't handle."

Peter raised an eyebrow. "So, you're above dealing with street-level stuff?"

Steve shook his head. "No no, we just don't exactly have clearance for that yet, unless something directly targets us as individuals. If you need back-up, we'll still show up, but you guys would be more reliable for it. And due to your already existing Avengers membership, you'd be leading the group."

Peter sighed and rubbed the back of his head. "Okay, but a team isn't a team when it's literally just, what, 4 people?"

Steve raised an eyebrow. "There's only 6 in the Avengers. Are you saying we're not a team?"

Peter snorted. "No, I'm saying 4 isn't a team. 4 is a squad, 6 is a team. I need two more members to be sure we have enough members for a team. There is absolutely a numbers game in fighting crime."

"More kids/teens with powers will probably show up. They'll join your team, and you'll train them." Steve shrugged.

Peter spun slowly on his webline. "Yeah, okay, but where?"

Tony snorted. "You can take the basement." Steve gave him a 'Really?' look. Tony just brushed it off. "What? We can give 'em the basement so they don't have to deal with us adults and our arguing. And they can decorate how they want."

Peter scratched the top of his mask. "You guys argue?"

Clint and Nat both rolled their eyes and laughed. "Not in polite company, Spidey. You can join them when you finish high school."

Peter shrugged. "Whatever. I have 2 conditions if I'm to be a leader of this sub-team: First, neither I nor my teammates will pay for the initial decoration of the basement. I'll write up a list of shit we need or want, with their input. Secondly, Tony, stop chomping at the bit to find my identity. Those who know my identity know it for a reason. If you don't know my identity, it means I don't trust you enough yet. Or you just don't smell good enough. Doesn't matter, you get the point."

Tony sighed, but nodded. "Fine. I can spare some money for furniture and whatever. Just drop the list off here tomorrow."

Peter nodded and turned to Laura and Anna. "Listen, I'm not gonna sugarcoat it: I will not be a very nice person when I train you. You're gonna end up on your asses. A lot. But that's a part of the learning. You'll thank me for it later." He let go of the webline with one hand and his body twisted around until he was standing. "Now let's go to the basement. I wanna scope out the space, see what can fit, and where." He led the way to the elevator and pushed a button to call it. "There are cameras in the elevators, by the way."

The two girls raised their eyebrows. Laura shook her head. "Why?"

Peter shrugged. "Gotta vet who's comin up. You think we wanna stand in front of an elevator and suddenly Juggernaut or somebody is on the other side? Safety measures are important." The elevator dinged and the doors opened.

The elevator ride down was tense, and the air was thick, both probably from Laura's hormones. Peter purposely put Anna between him and Laura. He didn't feel like being groped today.

Considering how tall Avengers Tower was, it took almost a half an hour to get to the basement. Once the elevator doors opened, Peter put an arm in front of the two bombshells with him. "Stay in the elevator for a second. Gotta blind the security department for a couple minutes." He whispered. Both girls took alarm to this for a second before he shook his head. "Nonono, that sounded bad, but that's not my intent. If I'm gonna lead a team, then trust depends on knowing WHO is leading you. I don't want the Avengers knowing my identity." He defensively whispered back.

Laura caught what he was saying and nodded.

Without another word, Peter latched onto the side of the elevator wall and climbed out onto the wall of the basement. He headed for the corners of the massive area. It was pretty much a warehouse. In each corner and at the halfway points of the ceiling were small cameras. Peter just shook his head, put his hand in front of each camera, and covered them in domes of webbing. He squeezed his hands, crushing the cameras. He knew that, if S.H.I.E.L.D was flooded by HYDRA agents like it was in the MCU, then he wouldn't allow HYDRA agents to spy. Nodding in satisfaction, he crawled into the middle of the ceiling and dropped down about 20 feet in front of Laura and Anna. "Okay, that's dealt with. Now, on to the important stuff." He knocked back his hood and peeled his mask off his face. "Ignore the fuckin mask hair. Name's Peter Parker."

Laura shook her head in disbelief. "Damn, I have even seen you on the streets. I had no idea."

Anna bit her lip for a moment. "He's hot outside of the suit too?" She mumbled.

Peter shrugged. "That's the deal with secret identities, I guess. Anyway, I only know one of your names, and it's by inference and connecting names and faces based off of other peoples' conversations." He turned to Laura. "Laura, right?"

She nodded, happy on the inside that he'd paid attention enough to put two and two together. "Yes. Laura Kinney."

He nodded and turned to Anna. "I know your codename or whatever is Rogue, but what's your real name?"

She shrugged. "Anna Marie, but you can call me whatever you want, Sugar." Her southern charm leaked through into her flirt.

His cheeks went slightly red. "Okay, well, uh, Anna will work for now." He glanced around the basement and turned away, so he didn't have to witness Laura's borderline evil glare at Anna. "Look around and find spots in the area for where you'd like your stuff to be. I can coordinate with Charles to get your belongings in here, and then Tony can help with the rest." He glanced around the room some more before he nodded in satisfaction. "Just get some mats for training, some rooms in here for each member of the team, storage for gear, a briefing room…" He mumbled his list to himself for a few minutes.

Laura and Anna ended up picking spots next to each other, primarily out of virtue of both being mutants. A few minutes later, Natasha stepped in the basement with a raised eyebrow. "Spider-Man? Why are the cameras out in here?"

He turned around to face her, his mask off. "Because only you and my team are allowed to know my identity, for now. I wasn't about to let the security guards know."

Nat shrugged. "Okay, that's fair. I'll let Tony know that you don't want cameras down here."

He nodded his thanks and glanced around some more. "I'll admit, this place is a lot bigger than I expected. And a lot emptier than I expected. I'd held my breath to have to throw out junk for a day and a half."

Nat laughed. "You got lucky. Fury had all the junk moved to a separate facility yesterday so they could watch it all."

Pete nodded his acknowledgement of the fact and headed for the elevator, putting his mask back on. "Laura! Anna!" The two mutants turned their heads to him and Nat. "Let's go. We need training mats before I can show you the ropes."

The girls nodded before heading into the elevator with him and Nat. He was so busy running his list through his head for what kinds of rooms they'd need, he didn't notice the glaring contest between Nat, Anna, and Laura.

He left the girls to their devices and went to Tony with his list a whole day earlier than Tony wanted it. Peter Parker was an agent of chaos in his personal life, what could he say? He was back in the basement about an hour later with training mats in hand. He put down a 50x50 square of training mats in the middle of the basement and then went back up, looking for Laura and Anna. On the way, he called Gwen.

"Hey, Pete! What's up?" She didn't sound like she was mid-swing, which was good.

"Hey, Gwen, uh the Avengers want me to lead a street-level team. You want in on it?" He didn't actually want to lead a team, but realistically, it gave him a reason to be in Avengers Tower more often.

"Oh, sure! Anyone else on the team?" She sounded oddly happy about the team.

"Uh, just two others. You'll recognize them." He lowered his voice. "And the team will know my identity, considering I'll be leading."

He heard her suck air through her teeth. "Okay, well, just be careful around the tower. Who knows what kind of surveillance they've got."

He hummed. "I already broke the cameras in the basement."

"The basement? What does a basement have to do with the team?"

"That's the space they gave us to operate out of. It's actually a lot bigger and cleaner than you think it is." He turned a corner into the kitchen to find Laura and Anna. Anna was sitting on the counter with her legs crossed, eating a sandwich. Laura was leaning against a counter opposite her, eating an apple. "Hey, you should head over here to meet your teammates. Be ready to fight though. I wanna run a spar."

"Okay, Petey. Be there soon then. Love you!" She added a kiss sound.

'Hm, must've picked it up from MJ.' He laughed. "Yeah, love you too." He then hung up and walked into the kitchen. "Laura, Anna, training time. Finish your food quickly. Your other teammate is on her way."

Anna raised an eyebrow. "Her?"

Peter nodded. "Yes. Treat her with respect, too. She's one of my girlfriends." He flippantly informed them, before he walked off towards the basement.

Anna and Laura were left speechless and motionless. Anna swallowed a bite of sandwich heavily, an audible gulp. "Laura, did you just hear what I did?"

Laura bite hard into her apple. "Yes." She ground the piece of apple between her teeth, a slight scowl on her face. 'I must be too late to be his first.' She took another sharp bite of her apple before she crushed the rest of it in her hand and stormed off towards the training room.

Anna didn't have such a reaction. 'Huh. So both of us could join that maybe? Guess there's plenty of sugar to go around then.' She giggled to herself and scarfed the rest of her sandwich, hurriedly following Laura, having to wait for the elevator to come back up after Laura went down.

When she left the elevator, she bumped directly into Laura's back. Moving around her to see, her head cocked to the side in interest.

They'd both walked in to find Peter in just the pants part of his suit, the rest hung off to the side on a webbing clothesline of sorts. He was running long relays across the ceiling, warming up for the training session he'd mentioned. About 2 minutes later, the elevator dinged behind Anna and Laura, Ghost-Spider stepping through and passed the two girls.

Gwen just scoffed playfully scoffed beneath her mask. "Pete! Stop showing off!"

Peter looked up...er… down, and kicked off of the ceiling, landing on the floor with a roll. "Hey!" He hugged her. "You don't have to unmask if you don't want to." He whispered.

Gwen hummed. "No, that's fine. Trust is important in a team, especially when lives are at stake." She took off her mask, kissed him lightly, and then turned to Anna and Laura. "Hi, I'm Gwen."

Peter smiled and ran a hand through her golden blonde hair softly. "Ghost-Spider is her alias when she's under the mask."

Laura hid a clenched fist and forced a smile. "I am Laura."

Gwen raised an eyebrow and turned to Peter. "So that's Laura, huh?" Peter waved the topic away for later, taking his hand out of her hair.

Anna reached a gloved hand out. "Anna. Rogue of the X-Men. But of the Avengers now, because Scott is a dick."

Gwen shook her head and shrugged. "Well, all the same, I'm happy to work with you two."

Peter looked between the three bombshells and clapped his hands. "Well, now that intros are done…" His smile dropped. "...it's training time." He moved into the center of his 50x50 square of training mats. "Here's how this is gonna work. The three of you, together, are going to try to throw me out of the square of training mats, and I have to actually land on the floor. You lose if I throw the three of you out of the square or knock you all out. Understood?"

Gwen paled a little. 'Oh god, we're doomed.'

Laura smiled and her pairs of claws slid out. Anna smiled nervously.

Peter gently stretched his arms and then put himself into a stance. "And… go."

Laura was after him almost immediately. She slashed at his face, but he batted her away from the back of her wrist, planting a kick to her lower back. She grunted and flew about 10 feet into a roll.

While he was distracted, Gwen came swinging in to zip towards him. He shot his own webs though, his superior number of strong threads wrapping around her web, before he pulled her directly into a kick to the gut. He knocked the wind out of her and she went rolling to just about the edge of the training mats. He saw Rogue running at him from the side, but he shook his head, turned in her direction, and threw her over his shoulder. He trapped her arm with his legs, took a glove off, and then basically high fived her hand. Power seeped from him for the briefest instant, his own power output negligently affected, and he put the glove back on her hand, somersaulting away.

Anna stood slowly, looking at her hands as she felt strength course through them. She looked up just as Peter came zipping in for a double-kick to her face. She ducked, her newly acquired, but heavily diluted, Spider-Sense kicking in. Newly gained flexibility sent her in a handspring backwards. Peter smiled at the results of lending her a bit of power. He spun on his left heel, his right heel coming over him in an arc to slam into Laura's jaw. She used her claws, dug into the mats, to keep herself from falling out of the area. Her jaw repaired itself from the shattering.Gwen came down then from the ceiling, aiming an axe-kick at him. He put up an arm to block it, and pushed up hard, sending her into a backflip. Mid-backflip, Peter executed a jumping spinning back kick, nailing her in the chest. He used far less strength than he did when he'd hit Laura. Gwen went flying, and was so winded, she just barely had the wherewithal to zip back into the squares, gasping for air. Rogue came in then, forcing him to jump back, away from a superman punch. Peter put his hands up, hands open, and caught her next attack, a right hook, with his right hand. He felt the force of her attack absorb into his hand, and smiled. Wrenching her arm down, he used his left arm on her shoulder to pull her arm into an uncomfortable angle to cause tension, before he brought his left knee rocketing up into her gut.

Her body was rocked upwards into a half-flip to land on her back with a gasp. Peter spun back around to find Laura charging at him. Smirking, he shot a glob of webbing at her, forcing her to use her claws to bat it away. The force, however, required both claws, and it left her open. He shot 5 threads of web to thud onto her face, and 5 threads to punch into her gut, pulling both at once. She came flying towards him, vulnerable, and ate a right crescent kick, the blade of his right foot smashing into her temple. She could have all the regeneration and healing factor she wanted, that kind of force to wobble around the brain knocked her out cold, and also sent her careening outside of the 50x50 square. Laura was out, in a surprising turn of events.

Gwen came running in, zipping up and then back down to try to use gravity to augment her right hook. He chose to actually take the punch, which genuinely threw him for a loop. Using the momentum she provided, however, he spun his body to complete the circle and his left foot came careening up and around for the top of his foot to smash into the side of her head, sending her rolling, knocked unconscious.

Rogue came in, assuming that a grounded Peter was an easy fight. She was wrong, as Peter webzipped himself between her legs and sprang backwards, two feet planting into her upper back. He oriented himself on his feet quickly and sprang back again, a pelle kick smashing into Rogue's forehead as she'd turned around. She, too, went unconscious, ending the fight in his favor.

He panted lightly before his breathing regulated. Pulling himself to his feet, he went to Gwen first to make sure she was okay. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Laura already waking up, likely due to her regeneration factor. He oriented Gwen on her side and patted her shoulder before he moved over to Rogue. The influx of his own powers would help a bit, but she'd still be out for a while.

Gwen woke up about 4 minutes later, a not-so-friendly neighborhood headache going on. She sat up with a groan, her hand on the side of her head.

Anna joined her about a minute later, a large red mark on her forehead.

Laura, who'd only taken about a minute to wake up, helped Gwen up. "He took us all out." She deadpanned.

Gwen raised an eyebrow. "You have a metal body right? Clone of Wolverine, all that jazz? How the hell did he knock YOU out?"

Laura shrugged. "He must just be that powerful. It felt like a train had smashed into the side of my face." She shook her head. "Metal skeleton or not, that is going to put me down for a minute."

Gwen shook her head in disbelief, as Anna pulled herself to her feet with a groan. "Heavens to Betsy, my head!" He held her forehead. "What the hell happened?"

Off to the side, Peter spoke up, walking towards her with an ice pack. "I kicked you in the face." He handed her the ice pack, wrapped in a towel. "You've been out for about 5 minutes." He turned towards Gwen with another ice pack, pecking the side of her head. "You've been out for 4. Sorry."

Gwen just smiled lightly and leaned into his peck. "No no, that's okay. It's a part of training." She took the ice pack gratefully. "But damn, Petey. You hit like a truck."

Laura piped up, through gritted teeth. "Or a train." Her hands twitched, itching to claw Gwen to shreds out of envy.

Gwen didn't notice this, but Peter did. He raised an eyebrow a little before he glanced at Anna, then at Gwen. He blew a breath through his nose before he stood. "Gwen and I have patrols to do." He turned to Laura. "Anna needs a little time to recover, and I'm also sending her back to the mansion to communicate with Charles for the things we'll need." He glanced at Anna, who nodded. "Laura, you're coming with Gwen and I. We're gonna show you our patrol route, so that if we get sidetracked by a bigger-scale issue, you can carry on through the route." Before Laura or Gwen could question how, he'd already turned to put his suit on.

Gwen turned to Laura. "This is news to me, but I know there's a secondary reason why you're coming with us." She stood and retrieved her mask, glancing at Laura in appreciation. She subtly wetted her lips.

Peter had already told MJ and Gwen all about Laura, and they'd come to a tacit agreement that if they met her, they'd offer her a place in their group relations, with the condition that she not get violently possessive. The ah… adventures, they'd had, had given Gwen and MJ both an appreciation for each other's bodies. That practice allowed Gwen to initially appreciate Laura's, at least via a first impression of sorts.

Laura shrugged and moved to the elevator to wait for the two spiders. Peter and Gwen joined her in just a few minutes, masked and suited up. Peter stretched to the side and yawned a little.

Once they were outside, Peter turned to Laura. "Question, are you able to climb buildings with your claws?"

Laura cocked her head in thought. "Probably, but I've never actually tried."

Peter shrugged. "Well, you're gonna try now. Your climbing and your jump distance will determine if you're able to patrol in the same way we do, or if you need a different path for the same route." He jumped and webzipped across the street, running up the wall of the building. Gwen sighed and followed.

Laura took a breath and ran across the street, leaping onto the side of the building and stabbing her claws into it. Alternately sheathing her claws allowed her to climb relatively quickly. She got to the roof of the building in about a minute, finding Peter and Gwen at the top waiting for her.

Peter nodded. "Good work. Now try to follow us without hitting the ground." He and Gwen then zipped across the next street, diagonally up, and ran up the much taller building.

Laura huffed, but stepped back to give herself a bit of a runway. With a crack of her neck, she took off, her accelerated agility and accelerated strength giving her a large boost in speed and a boost in jump distance. She managed to jump directly across, and didn't lose any altitude. She changed tactics for climbing, using her foot claws to anchor herself and then bending her knees. As she leaped, she sheathed them, leaping up the building about 20 feet. She caught herself with her handclaws, stuck her footclaws back into the building, and continued this way until she leaped and tucked into a ball, rolling onto the roof.

What she found at the top confused her. Peter and Gwen were standing beside a well-developed redheaded teen. She stepped forward a bit. "Spider-Man? Ghost-Spider? Who's this?"

MJ laughed. "Oooo, codenames?"

Peter laughed and took off his mask, which Gwen followed suit with. "Relax, Laura. This is my other girlfriend, Mary Jane."

MJ scoffed. "Just call me MJ. All my friends do." She held a hand out to shake Laura's. Laura reined in her growing jealousy and shook her hand, being careful to not crush it and cause Peter to be angry or something.

"My name is Laura." She glanced between the three of them amd cleared her throat. "I have a question, Peter. Is there a reason why she's up here?"

Peter and Gwen smirked, while MJ laughed. "I have no doubts that you can follow our patrol. Never did. The actual reason we brought you with us, was so Gwen and MJ could talk to you. Meanwhile, I'm gonna go do the actual patrol." He turned, put his mask back on, and shot a few weblines before he turned back to them. "Now be civil. See you three tomorrow. Or tonight. Whenever." He took off then, speeding through the nighttime streets.

Gwen and MJ turned to Laura and stepped towards her, as the mutant bristled a little. Gwen put her hands up. "Hey hey hey, we mean no harm. Relax. We just wanna ask you a few questions…"