Chapter 4: Hiding

Peter was lucky to find Aunt May out for tea, and Uncle Ben at work. He hastily snagged needle and thread from May's stuff and pulled up a really quick YouTube video for stitching wounds. He grunted in pain each time, and he had to stitch together 4 big-ass gashes, so there was a lot of grunting. He hastily applied whatever medicine he could find before he wrapped a bandage around his shoulder. Then, angrily, he went about sewing his suit back together. There would be no going out tonight. Midtown, much like most schools these days, had school emails, and his computer pinged to tell him he had an email. Wincing, Peter dragged himself onto his desk chair and rolled it over to his computer.

{From gwen_stacy@msd.edu (Midtown School District, I'm hoping I made that up, please don't take it seriously. I hope it doesn't actually exist ;-;): Hey, I didn't see you after Dr. Connors went lizard-y, you okay?}

Peter rose an eyebrow. If he wasn't currently in a whole lotta pain, he might've blushed at receiving any kind of contact from his crush outside of school.

[Yeah, I'm fine. I just wanted out asap.]

{Ok, yeah that's fair. Just thought I'd check on you.}

[I getcha. Thanks for the concern, Gwen. See you tomorrow or whenever we go to school, who knows if they close it tomorrow.]

She responded with a thumbs up emoji and Peter left it at that. A minute or so later, he sighed. His assessment of his performance against the Lizard was not great. For starters, he wasn't careful of the tail until after it had decked him. Second off, he wasn't being aware of or listening to his spider sense. Time to train that. He dug through his closet and found an old tennis ball with just enough bounce. He proceeded to bounce it off the ground at an angle so it bounced off of his wall. He kept his eyes closed, allowing his spider sense to advise how best to move to avoid being hit and grab the ball at the same time. It helped, for a bit, and he did get better at it, but he immediately stopped when he moved his arm wrong and winced, the ball bouncing off of his forehead. He sat at his desk just a bit longer, trying to determine some remedy for his costume constantly being ripped to shreds. The best he could come up with was some kind of carbon or metal maybe to sew into the lining, but that wasn't really possible with his current lack of money to do that with. Groaning, he went online and hunted for any job he thought he might find something to do in, and one that he found made his eyebrows shoot high into his hairline. "Stark Industries customer service? What the fuck are they selling, pocket watches?" He moved on from that, finding a mildly more reasonable one. "Avengers Tower lab assistant. Requirements: 150 or higher IQ, at least a freshman in high school. Must provide emergency contacts. Possible school credit if desired." He immediately applied.

It wasn't too big of a surprise when they got back to him, but what surprised him was HOW they got back to him. They could've just called. But noooooooo instead, goddamn Tony Stark (visually, RDJ) and Bruce Banner (Visually, Mark Ruffalo) both showed up at the door. Peter hastily slapped on his hoodie and a different pair of pants before almost tripping down the stairs with his socks on. He opened the door and an iron hand came up in front of his face, a quick scan running over him. Tony cocked his head to the side. "Whoah. If these tests from high school are to be believed, we're dealing with a 15 year-old with an IQ of about 250. Neat." Peter awkwardly welcomed them in, being very careful not to brush his hurty shoulder against either of them.

Bruce rose an eyebrow. "250? Wow, that's higher than even Reed's." They both walked in, as Peter shuffled off to the kitchen to get these scientific trailblazers some coffee. Just a bit later, both Stark and Banner both had hot coffee in front of them. "So, Peter, what made you apply for the position?"

Tony seemed to perk up a little, wanting to hear Peter's answer as well. Said teen gulped a bit. "Well, ah, school is kind of...easy. I mean, I already know almost everything they teach. It's like, once a month that I learn something I don't already know. I'ma sophomore, but I shouldn't already be able to do calculus, but I can. I need something more rewarding than sitting through classes that don't teach me anything new." He paused. "The science teacher at my school is out of commission already, thanks to the new vigilante in town, and my math teacher is a goddamn drone of a lady, I swear. If my English, gym, and elective classes stayed at the school, I'm sure I could get my schedule switched around so that my last classes are at the tower and then the rest of the day can be considered work."

Tony took a sip of his coffee, ignored the burn from it being far too hot for somebody to drink, and turned to Bruce, who was currently nursing his tongue after his own burn to it. "I don't think I've ever heard such logic from a 15 year-old. But, before we continue to talk about it, who's this vigilante you mentioned?"

Peter almost immediately began to sweat. "Well, I-I mean, he took down some big green bird dude yesterday I think. I saw it through a car window. And he was at my school today and stopped my science teacher, Dr. Connors, when he mutated into this big Lizard monster thing." Tony and Bruce exchanged another quick glance as Tony piped in again. "How exactly did he combat Dr. Connors? We heard that there was a cleanup crew to get rid of some webs."

Peter gave a super-fake shrug. "I don't know, he was shooting these sticky webs out of his fingers. Didn't make much sense to me at the time. He seemed pretty hurt when he finally left though."

Tony nodded and shrugged. "We'll call him Spider-Man, then." Jarvis, inside Tony's earpiece, confirmed to Tony that that information had been filed away for further examination. "Well, back on track, I think we may be able to sort out a position like that with your school. Tell me, Mr. Parker, do you have parents? Anybody you live with?"

If Peter was just a little dumber than a 250 IQ, he might've just gone with it. But that IQ plus his sheer knowledge of how S.H.I.E.L.D works was enough to fuel his snarky reply. "Mr. Stark, you're the Avengers. You know what a background check is. You know exactly who I live with." He crossed his arms and rose an eyebrow. "Ask questions that matter, please."

Tony balked while Bruce chuckled. "That's a fine way to talk to your potential employer." Tony snarked right back. "I just might put you on toilet duty for that if you weren't so absurdly smart." He sighed. "Ok, you'll get minimum wage. If you contribute enough to a project, I'll consider maybe bumping that up a little. But for now, you get what you get." He paused. "And if you're gonna be in Avengers Tower, you're gonna need to know how to defend yourself anyway. Your gym class will be replaced by being trained by Captain America."

Peter smirked. Not many knew that Natasha Romanoff, aka Black Widow was an Avenger, but Peter was slowly being fed information about things he probably shouldn't know. "You sure I won't be trained by Black Widow?"

Tony and Bruce both paled. "Uh...s-she's got other stuff to do." Bruce stuttered out. "Ah...we'll call you when we want you to start. Probably next week or so." He stood up.

Peter piped in again. "It's Thursday today. Does that mean I start on Monday?" He stood up and took both of their mugs. He slightly winced as he moved his right arm, but he let it pass quickly.

Tony nudged Bruce in the shoulder. "Probably. We'll let you know." He hurried Bruce out the door and Peter grinned to himself. He hid his nervousness at the talk of Spider-Man relatively well. He didn't particularly like bullshitting like that, but he figured he better get used to it.

~~~~~~~~

Tony and Bruce sat in the car for a second, both just thinking, before Tony spoke up. "Whether we want to hire him or not, we don't have a choice now. He knows Natasha exists. And he knows we watch things. He's hired. Let's try to get some extra tabs on him." Bruce nodded silently and the car drove off back to Avengers Tower.