Chapter Text
Peter asked “suit lady” where he was after he awoke, breaking out of the container, she informed him that he was in the deep storage vault of the DoDC, and the doors would remain closed until morning.
“He’s ok!” Cindy cheered.
“Well we knew Spider-Man after this, we knew he would be fine.” Flash grumbled as Cindy flushed.
“So, trapped inside the DoDC? Must have been a pain to get out of it.” Clint noted.
“Is that a wager to try break into their deep storage vaults and see who gets out first?” Natasha asked him with a grin, as Clint painfully smiled back at her. He’d love to do that, but he knew what had happened to her, what would happen when they got out of there. There was no happy ending. They had lost her, and they would lose her again.
Peter had his suit lady, who he dubbed Karen, teach him a refresher course on his webs, as well as discussing his feelings for Liz with her. Karen tells Peter that Liz will like him as he is, before he asks how long they had been there. Karen told him it was thirty-seven minutes since they arrived.
“Damn, that’s alot of web shooter configurations.” Sam remarked.
“Well I’ve got to make sure he’s prepared.” Tony argued.
“But does he need that many?” Steve wondered.
“OK, maybe I overdid it a little.” Tony admitted. “But its to keep him safe, and clearly will work once he’s properly trained and isn’t skipping ahead.”
“I’m sure he’s trained by now on it all.” Spider-Man 3 stated.
“How can you be so sure?” Tony asked.
“Call it a hunch.” Spider-Man 3 smiled at him.
“How has it only been 40 minutes? That’s no time at all!” Betty remarked.
“Time doesn’t fly I guess.” Ned joked.
Peter showed Karen they were more Chitauri devices in the container he came in, she explained it was an explosive core and with radiation, it would become a bomb. Peter tried and failed to contact Ned and tried to hack the time lock to get out of the vault earlier, saying they’d have to try every combination.
“That’s going to take far too long!” Bucky said, eyes widening in horror at what could happen.
“Relax, Buck. We know what happened, remember?” Sam tried to encourage him.
“Yeah, I just can’t get over that this kid had to deal with all of this. I feel really bad for beating him up in Germany now.”
“Please, Spider-Man kicked your asses.” Tony laughed at them.
Ned left to go to the Decathlon, pretending Peter was sick in their hotel room as Peter finally got the doors open and flew out after them, trying to get to D.C to stop anything happening. As Peter swung through Maryland and into D.C, the shot changed to show the Decathlon, MJ buzzing in to get the final question and win the Nationals for Midtown High.
“Did I ever mention how badass smart you are?” Betty asked MJ.
“No, but it doesn’t hurt to say even more.” MJ chuckled.
“At least he’s on his way to help out now.” Bruce said.
The students celebrated as they approached the Washington Monument, Flash saying how they didn’t need Peter as Abe called out Flash hadn’t answered a single question himself. MJ refused to go up, saying she didn’t want to celebrate something built by slaves, Mr Harrington telling her to have fun reading as they all headed up.
“Well, that’s certainly one reason to do it.” Sam said, frowning as he watched the screen. Monuments to that horrible time persisted throughout the States, sure, people today weren’t to blame for it, but the attitudes from those times weren’t gone, and that he couldn’t abide.
“I’m sorry, Sam.” Steve said, looking at his friend and figuring out where his brain was heading.
“It’s not your fault, Steve. But things like this, monuments built on the back of others suffering? Those things have to be reconciled.”
“Yeah, and I agree.” Steve nodded his head. “We do need to do better as a society, I think I know why future me has given you the shield. Because you’re the right man for it.”
“I know.” Sam smiled at him. “It took me a while to figure out why you wanted me, why you didn’t want the mantle to just disappear, and I didn’t get the chance to say it to you, but I’m thankful for what you’ve done, Steve, what it means, to give me this shield. Thank you.”
“Still can’t believe you thought you were the hero here, when you didn’t answer any questions.” Abe joked at Flash who glared at him.
Peter manages to call Ned, before he can explain about the core though, Liz seizes the phone and demands to know what happened with Peter, he tells her to put Ned back on and the line goes dead as the Chitauri core activated as Flash begs to be allowed to tell Peter he’s expelled.
“Hey, no expelling Peter for saving lives.”
“Damn the core is armed! Guess we know why the Washington Monument was damaged the other year now.” Bruce muttered.
Peter reaches the Monument just as the bomb goes off, MJ says her friends are up there as Peter tells her that he will save them. The tour guide tells them that their safe as Karen tells Peter that they’re all about to die, that the safety systems work as Karen says they have all failed.
“Well that inspires total confidence in government safety.” MJ dryly said.
Peter climbs to the top as he uses a recon drone to find an entrance. Peter finds it’s a small entrance though and has to swing to build momentum, as police helicopters appear, demanding he get to the ground and surrender before they shoot. As they go to shoot, he uses the helicopter to build momentum in the swing and break into the Monument.
“Nah they won’t land a hit on him” Tony insisted.
“Damn, he’s got some serious strength in him.” Ned remarked.
“Well he held up an airport bridge when I fought him....Oh God, I dropped a bridge on a kid.” Steve moaned, closing his eyes and pinching his nose at the thought of it.
Peter manages to catch the lift with Liz, Harrington and Ned still inside it, Flash having scurried to safety with the trophy before any of those three could escape.
“Our hero.” Ned spat at Flash who cringed away, looking at the floor from all the venomous looks being directed his way.
“I’m sorry, alright? I was a jerk.” Flash apologised.
He tells them to hang in and tells Ned to stop moving as Ned celebrates. Getting the lift to the top, he gets them out, facing Liz, Karen tells him to kiss her. Before he can, the web snaps and he falls with the lift, as Flash calls down to ask if Spider-Man knows Peter Parker.
“I think its safe to say he does.” Cindy laughed.
MJ could feel herself getting angry when she heard Karen mention that Peter should kiss Liz, though she couldn’t quite place why she felt annoyed at it. It wasn’t like she was even close to Peter, was it? I mean, they had barely interacted in these clips.
Cutting to Toomes, Mason explained that they had only enough alien and exotic tech to fulfill their next weapons order, but unless they got their hands on more, soon, they’d be out of business. He asked if it was time to go for the big job after all, Toomes told him to forget it and said he would kill Spider-Man for ruining them.
“You won’t be touching a hair on the kids head!” Tony seethed.
“Don’t worry, Tones, we know Spider-Man took these goons down.” Rhodey reminded him.
“I know, but seeing the kid, I feel protective of him. I’m just annoyed I barely remember him.” Tony frowned. “Glad these idiots were about to go out of business though.”
Shocker pointed out Spider-Man was in D.C, showing the footage of him saving the Decathlon team, and Toomes looking pensive at it as the scene showed all the kids reuniting with their families.
“Oh please don’t tell me he’s going to figure out Peter is in the Decathlon from them being in New York and D.C.” Scott groaned. He could tell how this is going to go.
