Spiderwebs

One.

Marina

"Dad!" I yelled from my room in the facility, no answer, "Dad!"

"What?" he yelled back.

I ducked my head, looking through my closet. "Come here! Please!"
       
"What's up, kiddo?" Dad leaned on the door frame of my room.

"Where's my suit?"
       
"You're getting a new one. It's gonna be waiting for you in Berlin."
        
"Okay." I said, grabbing the clothes I was taking and throwing them in my suitcase, "When are we going to see this kid?"
       
"Now, actually. We're late. I'll have Happy grab your bag. But right now, we need to go." he clapped.

We were quick to run out the front doors and get in the car to start the drive to Queens. When we finally arrived in front of an apartment building, we sat for a minute.
       
"Okay. We go in there, put it on, convince the kid, and then you guys are off to Berlin with Happy." Dad said.
       
I nodded, "Let's do it."

After we stepped inside, we waited for the elevator. It dinged signaling us that it was on the ground floor. Dad pressed a button and we went up to the seventh floor. Once the doors slid open, I looked for his door.
        
"Found it," I said.
        
"Perfect. Now, remember, smile." Dad said, knocking on the door. I threw him a cheesy smile, stretching my lips to show off all my teeth. He rolled his eyes. My fake smile faded to a real one as a middle-aged woman opened the door to the apartment.
        
"Oh, hello," she said.
        
"Hello." Dad took off his sunglasses, "I'm Tony Stark and this is my daughter Marina. Do you mind if we come in? I need to talk to you about Peter."
        
"Of course. I'm May, by the way. Peter should be home soon."

-x-

After we had been sitting and talking with May got about 15 minutes, the door opened, and a boy walked in. That has to be Peter.
         
"Hey, May." the boy said.

"Hey, how was school today?" May asked, looking away from us.

"It was okay. There's this crazy car parked outside," he said and turned towards us.

I tilted my head and smiled, "Hey."

"Oh, Mr. Parker," Dad looked at him.

he began stuttering, "What are you do- Hey! I'm- I'm- I'm Peter." a range of emotions crossed Peter's face. So this is the famous Peter Parker Dad was talking about. He's kind of cute.

"Tony. This is my daughter, Marina." Dad pointed at me and I waved.

"What are- What are you doing here?" Peter asked, looking at me.

"It's about time we met," Dad said.

May mouthed an 'I don't believe this' to Peter.

"You've been getting my emails, right?" Dad winked at Peter.

Peter nodded, "Yeah. Yeah." Peter lied, "Regarding the..."

"You didn't even tell me about the grant," May said.

"The September Foundation," I said.

"Right," Peter said.

"Yeah. Remember when you applied?" Dad asked.

"Yeah." Peter lied again.

I nodded, "We approved, so now we're in business,"

"But you didn't tell me anything. What's up with that? You keeping secrets from me now?" May asked, seriously.

"I just know how much you love surprises so I thought I would let you know..." Peter paused, "Anyway, what did I apply for exactly?"

"That's what we're here to hash out," I said.

"Okay. Hash it out, okay." Peter's eyes bounced between Dad, May, and me.

"It's so hard for me to believe that she's someone's aunt," Dad said. My eyebrows furrowed and my lips pulled into a grimace.

"Yeah, well, we come in all shapes and sizes, you know?" May replied scoffing. Peter frowned and gaped at his aunt.

"This walnut date loaf is exceptional," Dad said.

I looked down at my lap and sighed. "You're a liar," I told Dad telepathically.
 
"Shut up." Dad thought back.

"Let me just stop you there," Peter said, "Does this grant have money involved or whatever? No?"

"Yeah, it's pretty well funded," I said. Dad's head whipped from May to look at me.

"Yeah?" Peter said.

"Look who you're talking to." I smiled.

Dad cut us off before the conversation could go any further, "Can we have five minutes with him?"

"Sure," May said.

Peter, Dad, and I walked down the hall to what was Peter's bedroom. Dad locked the door behind us and walked over to the trash can, spitting something out.

"As walnut date loaves go, that wasn't bad," Dad said.

"Whoa. Retro tech. Where'd you get it? Thrift store? Salvation Army?" I asked.

"Uh, the garbage, actually," Peter said.

"You're a dumpster diver? That's kinda cool." I smirked.

His cheeks turned a light pink, "Yeah, I was." he cleared his throat, "Anyway, look, um, I definitely did not apply for your grant."

"Ah-ah! Me first." Dad said, sharply, "Quick question of the rhetorical variety." Dad pulled his phone out and projected a video of Peter stopping a carjacker. Peter swung in, shot a web at his foot pulling him back, then swung off. "That's you, right?"

"What do you mean?" Peter shifted his weight, crossing his arms.

"Yeah. Look at you go." Dad said. Putting his phone flat. In this video, Peter swung in stopping a car from running into a train before swinging off again.

"Woah! Nice catch. 3,000 pounds, probably going 40 miles an hour. That's not easy." I titled my head.

"That's all on YouTube, though, right? That's where you found that? Because you know that's all fake. It's all done on the computer." Peter began fidgeting with the video projection. Dad hummed letting him distract himself. I let myself dip into his mind and got what we were looking for.

"It's like that video. What is it?" Peter rambled.

"Yeah. Oh, you mean like those UFOs over Phoenix?" I nodded at the crawl space.

"Exactly," Peter said, frantically.

"Oh, what have we here?" Dad said, pushing the crawl space open with a baseball bat.

Peter ran to throw his suit in his closet. Peter sighed, leaning on his closet's door frame as Dad walked up to him.

"You're the Spider-ling. Crime-fighting spider. You're Spider-Boy?" Dad asked.

"S-Spider-Man." Peter stuttered.

"Not in that onesie, you're not." I scoffed, sitting on his bed.

"It's not a onesie." Peter defended as Dad went to pick up his suit. Peter walked up to his desk and started fidgeting with stuff on the desk. "I was actually having a really good day today, Mr. Stark. Didn't miss my train, this perfectly good DVD player was just sitting there, and Algebra test. Nailed it."

"Who else knows? Anybody?" Dad asked.

Peter shook his head, "Nobody."

"Not even your unusually attractive aunt?" Dad asked.

"Oh, God," I wrinkled my nose.

"No, no. No! If she knew, she would freak out. And when she freaks out, I freak out." Peter said.

"He's telling the truth," I said, I was still in his mind.

"How did you...?" Peter furrowed his brows. Dad shot me a look. I cleared my throat and looked down.

"You know what I think is really cool? This webbing." Dad said, tossing it to Peter. He didn't even look up and he caught it in his hand.

"That tensile strength is off the charts. Who manufactured it?" I asked.

Peter threw his webbing into the closet, "I did."

"Climbing walls, how you doing that? Adhesive gloves?" Dad asked.

"It's a long story." Peter started.

"Lordy! Can you even see in these?" Dad asked. "Oooh. I'm blind!"

I smiled and Peter took his suit, stuffing it back in his closet.

"I can see in those. Okay?" Peter defended, "It's just that when whatever happened, happened it's like my senses have been dialed to 11. There's way too much input, so they just kinda help me focus."

"You're in dire need of an upgrade," Dad said, grabbing the suit and tossing it to me.

I held it up in front of me, "Woah, yeah you are. Systemic, top to bottom, hundred-point restoration. I can do that." Peter sat next to me, "That's why we're here."

"Why are you doing this? I gotta know, what's your M.O.? What gets you outta that twin bed in the morning? Like her," Dad pointed at me, "She's my why."

Peter looked at his hands, "Because... Because I've been me my whole life, and I've had these powers for six months. I read books, I build computers. And yeah, I would love to play football, but I couldn't then, so I shouldn't now."

"Yeah, because you're different. Trust me you're not alone." I said.

"Exactly. But I can't tell anybody that, so I'm not..." Peter paused, "When you can do the things that I can, but you don't and then the bad things happen, they happen because of you."

"So you wanna look out for the little guy? You wanna do your part?" Dad asked, "Make the world a better place, all that, right?"

"Yeah, just looking out for the little guy. That's what it is." Peter said.

Dad stood and walked over to us on the bed, "I'm gonna sit here, so you move the leg," Dad sat and put a hand on Peter's shoulder, "You got a passport?"

"No, I don't even have a driver's license." Peter scoffed.

"You ever been to Germany?" Dad asked.

"No." Peter scoffed again.

I sighed, "You'll love it."

"I can't go to Germany," Peter said.

"Why?" Dad and I asked in unison.

"I got... homework,"  Peter said.

I frowned, "Did you really just say that?"

"I'm gonna pretend you didn't say that," Dad said, getting up.

"No, I'm being serious. I can't just drop out of school." Peter said.

"Might be a little dangerous. Better tell Aunt Hottie I'm taking you on a field trip." Dad said, reaching for the door handle.

Peter stood up and shot a web, sticking Dad's hand to the door, "Don't tell Aunt May."

"All right, Spider-Man." Dad said, "Get me out of this."

"Sorry," Peter said, looking for something to cut the webbing.

"This is gonna be fun." I smiled.