Peters POV

After my little 'discussion' with Medusa, I trudged up the stairs, ignoring all the pain all over my body. Medusa was more brutal than usual. Must be because she was drinking again. I took a deep breath as I opened the door to the boys bedroom. It was empty and the closet door was closed.

Good. They listened.

"Hey, you can come out now." I called out to them softly, knowing they were scared of Medusa coming in and finding them.

Mark poked his head out of the door warily, relaxing when he saw me. Opening the door completely, they flooded out of the small closet.

I am honestly still surprised they all fit in there. I feel bad they had to go in there with all the moss and fungi, but the girls' closet doesn't have a lock. Maybe I can buy one with my next paycheck?

"A-Are you okay, Peter?" The older Tom stuttered, looking at me with tears eyes. I smiled and nodded.

"I'm alright. Nothing a good night's sleep won't fix." I told them.

"B-But you're b-bleeding." The younger Tom cried, clinging to the older Toms arm.

I took a look in the mirror across the room. They were right. Blood was trickling down my face from a large gash on my temple. Damn. So the bottle hit me after all. Sighing, I pulled out a piece of cloth from a cabinet and wiped away the blood.

"I'm alright. Its just a small boo-boo." I squatted down to Toms level and pat his head. Turning to the others, I smiled weakly. "I think its time for bed. Off you go. Get out your blankets and your pillows."

Walking to the doorway, I quietly cracked it open. Looking both ways through the hallway, I checked if Medusa was in sight. The coast was clear. Opening the door, I led the girls to their room across the hall to make sure they weren't bothered by Ms. Medy.

"Goodnight, girls." I told them after everyone had settled into their sleeping places. I received a few sleepy good-nights in response though many had already began to snooze away. Flipping the light switch off, I left their room and went across the hall to the boys room.

Once I was inside, I closed the door and looked around. Everyone had fallen asleep, so I turned the light off. Dodging their bodies, I made my way into my closet. As soon as I was in there, I closed the door and flopped onto the pile of scrapped and unusable cloth I called my bed.

Laying on my back, I stared up at the ceiling. Reflecting on the day, I felt a wave of sadness crash over me. So much for having a good day Sighing, I sat up and took out the handkerchief-wrapped spider. Putting it into a small shoebox I had beside the bed, I scanned the rest of my possessions in the box.

A sketchbook lied at the bottom, collecting dust. A few pictures of the children and I were scattered throughout the box. Finally, there was my birth certificate. I didn't trust Medusa to allow me to leave on my 18th birthday, claiming I wasn't 18 yet so I could be her punching bag even longer. In the end, I snuck into her office a year ago and stole it out of her files. Now, here sat the dead spider, its legs sticking up into the air in its frozen and lifeless state. The red markings practically glowed in the dark of the closet.

I closed the box and put it back into it previous spot beside the bed. Lying on my stomach, I groaned quietly at the pain in my body. It was all over me. There was even a strange pain from inside me, burning my blood. However, I ignored that pain easily. Growing up here, I had gained an insanely high pain tolerance. Don't get me wrong, this hurt like hell, but I wouldn't be screaming in pain anytime soon from this.

Drifting off to sleep, I ignored all the pain in my body and allowed my eyelids to shut.

Tony's POV

I'm so booored. I cant believe Pepper gave me this much work to do. I know I haven't done anything in a month, but this is insane.

I dropped my head, banging my forehead onto the desk repeatedly. Huffing out all the air from my lungs, I adjusted my position so my chin was resting on the edge of the desk.

I wish I had someone do this sort of thing for me.

Just then, it struck me. The memory of Pepper yelling at me, saying something about her being short on interns.

That's it! I need an intern!

I perked up and called Pepper into my office. Within two minutes, she walked in with two cups of steamy coffee. After placing one cup onto my desk, she glared at me in annoyance.

"Would you mind telling me why you're calling me at 3 in the morning?"

I gulped and glanced at the clock. Of course, she was right. Its already that late? Damn. Clearing my throat, I sat up from my slouch.

"Well, I just realized I need someone to help me with all this paperwork-"

"Mr. Stark, I am not going to be doing your work for you. I already have enough work of my own to-"

"No, no, no!" I waved my hands in front of me to stop her from talking. "I meant I need an intern. Seeing as I remembered you saying you needed more interns, I figured we should get some."

Without warning, Pepper began tearing up. I sat there in shock. Oh, god. Why is she crying? What did I do? What do I do? What do I do? What do I do? What do I-

"You...actually listened to me. I'm so happy!" She screamed, smiling and wiping away her tears. I relaxed as I saw her smiling. Thank god. I didn't actually do something bad.

"Soooo...Where do we even find interns?" I asked, not really sure where interns even come from. Hence, my life of luxury and wealth.

"Leave that to me. Just be ready for more paperwork to finalize it all tomorrow." She smiled evilly. I groaned and slouched back in my seat.

"Fine. No interns means you can work on this all yourself." She hissed.

I immediately sat up and saluted her.

"I'll get that done in a flash tomorrow, ma'am!"

She nodded and smiled before leaving the room. I returned to slouching as I stared at the tower of papers on my desk.

Might as well get this over and done with.

Time Skip

Peter's POV

Waking up, my head felt like it was splitting open. I groaned a bit as I sat up on my little bed. Looking around, I felt something was off...Like everything's clarity had increased 500%. What's up with this? I'm not even wearing my glasses.

Standing up, I made my way to the door. Opening it, I was met with two dozen pairs of eyes staring at me.

"You're alive!" Scarlett yelled, raising her arms in the air. As if that was the cue, everyone else began to hug me, calling out my name in tears.

Okay, whats going on?

"What's wrong? Why are you crying?" I asked, trying to keep my balance.

"We couldn't wake you up! We tried everything and nothing worked. It didn't help that you were burning up, scaring the fudge out of us. You've been asleep all day." Chris H. explained. I froze.

"ALL day?" I questioned, worry dripping in my voice. They all nodded. I whipped out my flip phone from my pocket and checked the time. '5 pm, Saturday.' it read. Crap!

"I'M LATE FOR WORK!" I screamed, making many of them flinch. Running back into the closet, I quickly put on my baggy hoodie before grabbing my work bag and running back out of the closet.

"Medusa's not here, so feel free to do what you want. Don't eat her food, though. If you get hungry, eat the canned tuna in the cupboard or the chips behind them. Don't leave the building and no fighting!" I lectured as I frantically ran down the stairs and out of the house.

Sprinting, I dodged cars as I crossed streets and bumped into people. As bad as I felt like pushing them, I was in a blind panic. Crap. Crap. Crap. Crap. I'm in soooo much trouble! However, after bumping into a group of big men, I could feel this strange prickling inside my head.

It was as if it was telling me what to do...More like screaming at me to do something. After a millionth of a sec it became clear: DUCK!

Listening to the strange feeling, I ducked. I felt a breeze whiz past my head and saw a hand swing by. Did those guys just try to punch me?!? Wait! More importantly: I was able to dodge it! That's AWESOME!

"Hey, kid! Its only polite to say sorry when you bump into people." The largest man in the group growled, his voice deep and booming. Damn it. I don't have time for this!

"I'm sorry!" I squeaked before running off as fast as I could. Please don't follow me. Please don't follow me. Please don't follow me.

"Get back here!" I heard one of them yell, their footsteps coming at me like a stampede. Of course. They're following me. Just great. How could this possibly get any worse?

Suddenly, my phone began ringing in my pocket. Taking it out as I ran, I read the contact on the screen. My boss.

"H-Hello?" I answered nervously, running across the street to try to lose the jerks behind me.

"Peter. I'm afraid to have to tell you this over the phone, but you're fired."

I froze. I stopped running in the middle of the sidewalk.

"W-What?" I stuttered in almost a whisper.

"I'm sorry, Peter, but you're constantly late to work. You didn't even show up today! Your shift had started at nine for crying out loud!" He yelled, making me flinch. It felt like he has talking to me through a megaphone. I heard him sigh through the speaker.

"Listen, Pete. I know about your situation, so come by and I'll give you your final paycheck. Again, I'm sorry, but you're done." With that, he hung up.

I could feel tears stream down my face and panic started to was over me. What do I do now? No ones going to want a 15 year old working for them. How am I supposed to feed them. The money I made was BARELY enough to scrape by. If I get another job, they're definitely not going to pay me fairly. Oh god, They're going to starve.

Falling to my knees, I tried to keep myself from screaming out. Everything seemed to be suddenly 1000% more clear, 1000% louder, and the dull pain in the back of my neck was now overpowering. I shuffled my way into an alleyway so I couldn't be seen by all the people staring at me on the street.

"There he is!!!" one of the goons from earlier had yelled, snapping me out of...whatever that was.

"Okay, kid. You may be fast, but you can't beat us here. Be prepared to pay for bumping into us." One of them said, cracking his knuckles.

"Leave me alone!" I growled, earning menacing glares from each of them.

"Shut up, kid!" The biggest yelled, beginning to swing a punch at me.

However, it was like his fist was moving in slow motion. The strange pricking in the back of my mind returned, ordering me to dodge left. As I was doing just that, I lifted my leg and kicked him straight in the gut. He was sent flying back and crashed into the wall behind him, making a huge crater around him.

Everyone stood frozen. I stared at the man as he laid in the rubble, knocked out cold. H-How did I do that? Before I could even comprehend what was happening, I was running out of the alley and down the sidewalk. Luckily, the other men had stayed behind to help their leader, so they weren't following me anymore.

Running to the nearby park, I plopped myself against a tree. Surprisingly, after all the running I've been doing, I wasn't tired. Hell, my breathing was at a normal pace. God today's going to hell. I better at least go get the paycheck before my boss decides to change his mind. Trying to stand up, I realized my hands were stuck to something. Looking down, my confusion only grew. There was nothing there: just my hand. I tried pulling my hand, but it refused to move. What the hell?!?

"Stop sticking, stop sticking, stop sticking!" I repeated, talking to my own hand. I didn't care if I looked stupid or crazy; I just wanted my hand free!

Pulling frantically at my hands, I was able to pry them free with pieces of bark stuck to my hands. It took forever to pick it all off, but it was manageable. Looking at my palms, I could see extremely tiny hooks at the ends of my skin with my weirdly enhanced sight. What is this?!? Is this whats making my hands all sticky?

"Wh-What's happening to me?" I gasped out to myself in slight panic.

I then caught sight of something on my wrists. Thin strings were coming out and moving slightly in the chill breeze that passed by me. It was an almost silver color and when I grabbed hold of one, the texture was overly familiar- having lived in a closet full of spiders for years.They look like a spider's web- Oh god, Don't tell me...

Looking around, I noticed the park was empty. Turning to the tree, I carefully placed my hand on the trunk. It stuck. Taking a deep, shaky breath to steady my nerves, I let my hand relax. I pulled it back without effort.

Slowly, I repeated the process, alternating my hands as I moved up the tree. Before I knew it, I was at the very top, sitting on one of the branches and looking out at the city. This is...AWESOME! The spider experiments really did work! Oscorp has made an incredible scientific discovery! I whipped out my phone, beginning to dial the number I repeatedly dialed yesterday. Oh, man! Harry's going to be ecstatic! Harry-

I froze. The memory of yesterdays explosion finally flooded back into my mind, making me lose my grip on my pathetic flip phone. Watching it fall to the ground far below me, I frowned.

That's right. Harry... he's gone

A loud gunshot from across the street broke my thoughts. Looking down to the source of the noise, I saw a large crowd outside a small grocery store across the street.

Starting to climb down, I picked up my phone, which surprisingly survived the fall, and ran over to the crowd. As I was worming my way through the crowd, I could hear the whispers people were saying to each other.

"What's going on?"

"Oh, some maniacs decided to rob the store and are now holding hostages."

"I think I can see a child among the hostages." A kid's in there?

"How horrible! Those bastards shot the cashier in front of a kid!" I couldn't agree more, mister. Kids should never have to see that.

Finally reaching the front, I was able to see everything. Cop cars were surrounding the entrance, the cops themselves were scattered, all aiming their guns at the entrance.

Looking through the broken windows of the store, I could make out a group of men, wearing all black, surrounding another group of people who were kneeling on the ground. One person caught my eye, sending fear into my very soul. A child was kneeling in the middle of the group, tears streaming down his face.

Tom?!?