Peter walked up the steps leading into the base of the tower, the tall structure of glass and steel glinting in the late morning sun. He hung twards the rear of the group, half distracted as he had been to the tower so many times before. His whole class had taken a day trip to explore the avengers tower, and to see all the science and mechanics. MJ and Ned stuck with Peter, although neither of them had been to the tower.
"Yo Parker! Is this where you hang out? With that supposed Stark Internship?" Flash called out loudly and obnoxiously over the heads of the crowd.
The small sea of people laughed, bringing Peters attention to in the now. Peter rolled his eyes and continued to walk up the steps to the door, pushing through the laughing crowd. Their teacher stands in front of the pack with the tour guide who throws up his hands for silence. He catches a look at Peter and a look of slight recognition passes over his face.
"Ladies and gentlemen, I would like to ask for you to wait patiently when we get clearance to enter." He announces over the group, once again eyeing Peter.
Peter sighs and pulls out his Stark ID card, and holds it up to one of the door scanners, hiding it behind his back so no one can see. The glass door clicks open, and Peter pushes the door in, sliding inside. The tour guide looks slightly stunned before leading the group inside. The lobby is huge and open, almost devoid of people, save for the front desk clerk and the two security guards. Peter smiles at the ceiling as the tour guide starts to talk, but Peter pays no mind to him, seeing as he knows the tower inside and out by now.
"My my Peter, you certainly have brought a big group today." Friday the AI speaks only to Peter, who is standing in a corner.
"Not all of them are friends Fri. Class field trip today, remember?" Peter smiles at the AI.
"I know Peter, I controll Mr. Stark's central calendar. Mr. Stark tried to program me with sarcasm." She says back in her monotoned robot voice.
"Well, he certainly did a bang up job."
The tour guide was moving on, headed to one of the big metal elevators, and Peter and a group of others filed in. Peter, Ned, MJ, Flash and about 15 others crowd in.
"Bet this is a great new experience for you Parker." Flash's remarks cause a few snickers. Peter ignored him and waited for the elivator to move up to the 30th floor.
"Why aren't we moving?" Someone asks.
"Do we have to figure out how to make the elivator move? Is that part of the experience?" Another questions.
"There are no buttons!" Someone starts to panic.
Peter rolled his eyes, and smirks.
"Friday, can you take us up to the 30th floor please?" Peter speaks up, addressing the AI again.
"Right away Mr. Parker. Glad to see you leading the tour." Friday responds in a warm sort of way.
Peter looks back to Flash and smirks, then turns to the door as they shoot skyward. Flash's jaw dropped, revealing his tonsils. The doors opened with a ringing noise, flooding the car with light from the glass windows that made up the wall of the hallway.
"Parker, what the hell was that?" Flash asked flabbergasted.
"Friday, the tower AI system. She helps Mr. Stark and the other avengers."
Peter watched as his face contorted into confusion.
"Speaking of, hey Friday, is Dr. Banner here today?"
"Yes Peter, he is waiting in the lab to give your group a presentation." The AI spoke calmly.
They step into the hall and Peter leads the group twards the labs, being the first group to make it up to the laboratory floor.
Opening the door to the lab, they step in and wait behind the yellow and black striped line, telling them that they can not go any further.
"Peter, are we really going to meet Dr. Banner? This is so cool!" Ned squeaks excitedly into Peters ear.
"I think so, if not I will take you and MJ to meet them some other time." Peter whispers back, looking over to where MJ is looking around the lab, and at all the weird science projects.
Peter waits toward the back of the group, and makes small talk with Ned and MJ, before he hears a familiar voice speak up.
"Are you the only group to figure out Tony's elivator? How did you all manage to do that so quickly?" Bruce says.
He comes around the corner, his curly hair bouncing, and his lab coat swaying as he walked forward. He removes his glasses and stuffs them into the pocket of his purple collared shirt before coming to stand in front of the group, facing them from the other side of the line.
"Parker did it." Someone pipes up and the small crowd parts to reveal Peter standing in the back.
"Hi Dr. Banner. How are you?" Peter says casually.
"Good to see you Pete. I didn't realize we were going to be seeing you here today." Bruce responds as equally casual.
The whole lot watch on in wonder at the friendly exchange between a renouned chemist and the local high school kid. Bruce then proceeded to launch into his speech about how the towers labs worked, how the chemical and advanced equations helped to advance the world.
Bruce had been talking for about ten minutes before a call came from down the hallway.
"Bruce, why are there so many kids around?" The caller came through the lab doors and bypassed through the kids and over the line, causing Bruce to squawk in protest.
"Clint, the line! Danger!" Bruce protested helplessly.
Clint popped down onto one of the tables, and looked over at the group of kids. He gave them a slight wave, but only a few of them waved back. Most just stood there with amazed expressions as they took in the famous Hawkeye. What most people didn't know is that Clint Barton was a bit of a slob, and definitely not as heroic as some would think.
"Class field trip, here to see how the tower works." MJ pipes up from the back with her arms crossed and a scowl on her face.
Clint looks at her, and catches Peter next to her.
"Oh hey Pete. Bit early for you isn't it?" Clint asks.
"I'm part of the trip." Peter shrugs one shoulder and side eyes Flash.
"Wait, wait, wait, hold up, how and why do you know two avengers? IS THE STARK INTERNSHIP EVEN REAL?" Flash practically screams.
"The kid does good work on the internship." Clint and Bruce say simultaneously and defensively.
Bruce finishes up his presentation and the group makes it out and into the hall, just as the rest of the class emerge, frazzled from the elivator.
"How did you manage to make it up here that fast?" Someone asks from the group.
The rest of Peter's group look to him without saying anything as they advance to the next place on the list, Tony's mechanics lab.
"Kid! Friday told me you are impressing the class. Good to see that." Tony says from his perch on one of the tables.
"Hey Mr. Stark! How are you?" Peter lights up as he sees his mentor.
"Good. Now, time for my mechanical speech of madness." He says tiredly as he begins to address the class.
No one was paying attention though, their heads swimming and spinning in circles about how Tony Stark was in front of them and how Peter Parker was talking so casually to him. Tony shows them his newest suit, made of nano tech, and shows them how nano tech is being used to develop a new world, a better world. He shows them the insides and outs of the tower workshop, but keeps them out of his personal workshop. Tony points to various things, and gives his famous eye roll as a crashing noise is heared from outside the door.
The door is thrown open, and in walks tall, blond, muscular Thor, who plops his hammer down on one of the tables. Looking over the kids he spots Peter and claps a hand on his shoulder making his knees buckle.
"Ah! The tower voice lady said that you would be here! Good to see you again young Peter!" Thor exclaims loudly.
"Good to see you again Mr. Thor sir. Class field trip." Peter said back politely, trying to mask the pain radiating from his shoulder and buckled knees.
If it were not for his extra strength Peter would have probably been lying broken on the floor.
"Tony, you wanted me to be of assistance?" Thor said as he continues through the pack and goes to stand next to Tony, facing the teenagers.
"Yeah point break, but not for another hour. You might want to re check your sundial." Tony jokes, sending Thor's face into a scowl.
The group laughs at Tony's joke, but continue to try to listen to the presentation.
After about twenty minutes, the group leaves, but before Peter can make it out the door, Tony calls over to him.
"Kid, you gonna be swinging by the tower after school today?" He says raising an eyebrow.
"Yes sir Mr. Stark. Wouldn't miss it for the world." Peter says back before heading out the door.
The small group passes the large group once again, their midst buzzing with excited conversations. The small group made their way back to the elevator, which immediately started to go down to the tower court yard as they all loaded in. They would be eating in the towers staff lunchroom, which was fully automated by some of the Stark industrys robots. Peter wasn't all that thrilled with the idea, as whenever he ate at the tower it was usually the cooking of a real person, most often Clint or Steve. But he guessed he couldn't complain all that much, seeing as how he would be eating with his best friends in the entire world.
They sat in the large courtyard, the glass roof letting light cascade into the room like golden waterfalls. The tables littered the floor, each with four chairs. Some were crowded next to the large water feature in the center of the room, others were scattered around the outside of the room next to trees. Peter, Ned, and MJ took one of the tables around the outside, and Peter put his head on the table, and draped his hands over the back of his neck.
"Dude, this place is so cool. I can't believe that you get to work here every day." Ned says quietly.
"So much cool stuff has happened at this tower. Like the Chitauri, they were cool." MJ said, with absolutely zero chill.
Peter looks up at her and cocks an eyebrow, before speaking.
"Yeah, but then I go back and have to suffer through Flash's crap." He frowned as he said it.
"Don't worry about Flash Peter. By now I'm sure everyone in school thinks you are amazing." Ned tries to comfort him.
Peter nods, and they begin to eat. Although it's not great, it's still good.
"Definitely not as good as Captain Rogers's cooking, but still ok." Peter remarks as he pokes at the mashed potatoes on his tray.
"Why thank you Peter. Glad to hear someone appreciates it." A deepish voice comes from behind him.
Peter turns around to face a smiling Steve Rogers, still in his uniform, his shield strapped to his back. He points to the empty chair and asks if he can sit. The three of them nod, and he swings into the seat, removing the metal disk from his back and leaning it on the side of his chair.
"Friday told me that you were here. I just got back from a mission." Steve says, giving his shield a pat.
"Mr. Rogers, this is MJ and Ned, guys, this is Captain Rogers." Peter says, introducing the three of them.
Steve stuck out his hand and shook their outstretched arms. He made small talk, consisting of how Peter talked highly of the both of them. Peter looked around and noticed how most of the cafeteria was quiet, looking at the four of them. The high ranking Captain America talking with three teenagers.
"Uh, Captain, they are staring at us." Peter hesitates.
Steve looks around, then glances down at his uniform.
"Then let them stare. Who cares that I'm talking to you?" He says, giving the room a quick once over with his eyes.
They resume talking, but only a minute into their small conversation do they get interrupted by none other than Flash.
"Nuh uh. You can not know every single avenger. Parker, this has to be some joke, these guys have got to be actors or something." Flash stutters our his words, throwing a look at Steve.
Steve gives a little smirky frown.
"Peter, good to see you, will you be by later tonight?"
Peter nods, glancing between the captain and the red faced Flash. Steve smiles at the sitting trio and rises to his full height. The powerful blond towers over Flash, who now stands quivering at the end of the table. Steve picks up his shield and stoically sheaths it on his back holster. He hooks his thumbs in his belt and takes a breath.
"No Flash, we are not actors. We are the real deals. And yes, Peter does amazing work with Stark's internship program. He makes the world safer one day at a time, in whatever ways he can." Steve uses his best captain voice, and turns to look down on Peter, who is smiling.
"I expect to see you tonight, any requests for dinner? The whole lot is gonna be here." Steve inquires.
Peter shakes his head, and Steve nods before walking out of the dining area. Half of the eyes followed him out as he walked to the elivator that would take him to the tower gym and showers. The other half of the eyes glared at Peter and company. Flash, still standing transfixed in his position, started to sputter out words.
"Parker, that's not... Fair... What the hell is going on? It's gotta be a trick." He walked away still murmuring to himself.
The class returned to their school, and by the time they made it through the front door, everyone was abuzz with how cool it was that Parker knew the avengers personally, or how hard it was for them to get a Stark internship. Peter had to explain on multiple accounts that it was a special branch of the internship, and that even if they did apply, they would probably only get to meet Mr. Stark at best.
By the end of the day truly everyone wanted to talk to Peter, causing some very jealous looks from Flash, and some very grumpy short answers from Peter. Peter was so relieved as the final bell rang, and as he waved goodbye to Ned and MJ, he practically ran out of the building.
Hanging a right into his favorite ally, he threw on his suit and slipped his backpack back on. He released the web fluid, and snapped himself up into the air, swinging his way across the city, making his way back to the tower. As the tower came into veiw, he shot off one final web and pulled hard, sending him flying to almost the top of the tower. He flung himself onto the window, and using his sticky appendages, he clambered to his window. Climbing inside, he took off the mask, and let himself into the avengers common area, where setting the table, where the avengers.
"You did good today kid. Glad you swung by." Tony came up behind him and placed both hands on Peter's shoulders.
"Good use of puns Mr. Stark. And thank you." Peter smiles at his mentor.
"Anytime Pete. Anytime."