ʟᴏꜱᴛ ᴄʜɪʟᴅʀᴇɴ || 𝟙

ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ 23

"Um," Peter approached the mic cautiously, wincing at the feedback as it rang throughout the conference room, high-pitched and whiny, all eyes staring fervently at him, waiting to pounce on him the moment he opened his mouth.

He felt oddly naked, far too raw and vulnerable.

At school, he and Ned had always been the nobodies, the invisibles, the bottom feeders in the complex social environment that was high school, and now here he was, thrust into the spotlight in a way that he could never have predicted.

When he envisioned fully being accepted into the Avengers fold, the one constant in every scenario he would play in his head was Tony. He would be there to introduce him, to stand proudly by his side and announce that his favourite young adult would officially be joining him. Instead he had been knighted in outer space after sending one of Thanos's children into the unforgiving abyss of space, the only audience to witness his triumph being a reality-protecting wizard, as they hurtled to space to face off against a purple space Titan that was intent on cleaving Earth's population in half.

A sharp pain in his foot brought him back to reality as Happy glanced towards the eagerly awaiting sea of journalists.

"Right," he cleared his throat nervously, tapping the microphone, feedback finally receding, the only sound being transmitted was his voice, hesitant and soft.

"My name is Peter Parker, but I'm sure that most of you know that by now. I'm here today to address an issue which has been making its rounds everywhere. Obviously, I'm talking about the ridiculous accusation that I, a sixteen year old kid from MidTown high somehow swings from buildings like a modern day Tarzan in a spandex suit. That's right folks-," he clapped his hands together, mustering his best 'can-you-believe-these-guys' look.

"-I'm talking about the fact that I've been labeled Spider-Man." The air in his throat caught slightly as he denied his superhero alter-ego in front of the whole world. His hands gripped the podium, nails crushing the wood into splinters that dug into the palms of his hands.

"Now," he forced his lips into a smile, making a conscious effort not to crush the podium he was standing on to bits, while still channeling his inner snark Tony.

"Let me tell you exactly why this claim is so absurd. First off, I'm a high-schooler for God's sake. Don't you think that someone would notice if I was leaving class every 5 seconds to stop someone from getting robbed or being hit by a car. Because if you do believe that no one would have noticed that, then, dang I have to be the best multi-tasker on Earth. Secondly-," he hid his hands behind his back, feeling droplets of blood pool within the grooves of his palm.

"I understand why all of you would immediately jump onto the fact that I would be Spider-Man given the fact that I applied and was given an internship by Stark Industries. But, see the thing is, if you could kindly turn your attention to the screen,"

Happy quickly projected the video on the glass screen.

On it was an extensive vlog of Peter in Germany visiting labs, time-lapses of him writing lengthy reports, tinkering with a delicate nano-bot, finally, ending with a short clip of Tony handing him a certificate acknowledging his time at Stark labs.

The video, of course, was a huge hoax. It had taken Peter less than half a day to record himself going around the current Avengers headquarters, fiddling with random tech. The only part of the short video that was true was the ending. Turning away from the face of his mentor, he summoned a strained smile, attention back upon the journalists, some of whom were convinced.

Others, not so much.

"I mean, all that time I spent with Tony could have been easily taken, doctored and then inserted into a video clip without any form of context. I mean seriously, spandex is hugely uncomfortable and red is really not my colour," he joked, trying to ease the tension.