Before he could say anything else, Cloak's… cloak began expanding as he levitated higher into the air, surrounding him and only showing complete darkness.
"Woah! Woah, what the-" Peter tried to move, only finding himself surrounded by darkness.
Before he knew it? they were gone, leaving an empty warehouse behind
...
And then, he was back.
As the darkness around him began to unravel, all he could see was blinding light before feeling himself falling onto the floor.
Frantically, Peter scurried backward in pure panic while his eyes adjusted to wherever he was.
Did they just kidnap him? Was he assassinated? Was this Fury's plan all along? To get rid of him? Send him to the phantom zone? What the hell just happened!?
Taking deep breaths, Peter took in his surroundings.
Honestly? He had expected a lot of things.
The vacuum of space, a torture dungeon, maybe a volcano, or the middle of some random natural disaster.
But what he didn't expect was to suddenly find himself in an office, Fury and Cloak looking down at him.
Okay.
What the actual fuck?
Peter was on the verge of freaking out right now. He was confused, a tiny bit annoyed, nauseous, and had a bunch of other emotions he didn't really understand right now.
"Sorry." Cloak's apology snapped him out of his thoughts. "Probably should've warned you about what was going to happen, huh? That was my quirk, let's me teleport people."
"Teleport people?! To where, the shadow realm?! What the fuck was that?!" Peter stood up, holding his head in his hands for a second. "Jesus Christ, man! If you're gonna send me into a pitch-black pocket dimension, then warn me!
Jesus! This guy teleports people by like, what, absorbing them into his cloak or something? That was terrifying! Couldn't Fury have warned him about that or something?
God, he was starting to hate today.
Taking a few more deep breaths, Peter decided to wait until the room stopped spinning to speak again.
"Sorry, shouldn't have yelled at you or anything, man. I-" Peter paused, taking another deep breath. "I'm kinda stressed out right now, you know? Long day and all."
Cloak nodded, holding up his hands.
"I get it, it's super weird getting teleported the first time." He said reassuringly before turning to Fury. "Let me know when I gotta send him back, alright?"
Peter watched as Fury nodded, prompting Cloak to phase through the wall and out the office.
S.H.I.E.L.D was weird, man.
"Okay, take a seat." Fury pointed to the seat across from the desk, Peter quickly sitting down. "Let me know if you got questions, I got a lot to clear up for you."
A part of him wanted to make some snarky remark at that, but Peter felt like he shouldn't.
Looking around the room, Peter's eyes landed on a few files and folders that caught his attention.
Off to the side were some folders stacked together, with names like 'Odinson', 'Man Out of Time.', 'World Breaker', 'Binary Engine', along with others he couldn't exactly read.
He guessed it was some top-secret level stuff or something.
"Alright…" Peter began, shifting in his seat a bit before taking off his mask. "Where are we? Is this, like, your headquarters or something?"
Across from him, Fury smirked and tapped a few buttons on the table.
Quickly, a holographic projecting appeared atop the table, displaying what Peter guessed was some sort of… flying aircraft carrier or something.
"We're in the helicarrier, one of S.H.I.E.L.D's mobile headquarters. As to where we're flying right now? That's classified."
Hearing this, Peter found himself wanting to roll his eyes
Of course it is.
So, he was just in some flying headquarters thingy? And he didn't even know where that was?
Great.
Well, he might as well get to the point.
The faster he gets this over with, the faster he can go home and try to forget all about it.
"What now? What are you gonna do with me now that I'm here? Gonna throw me in a cell cause I'm a mutate or something?" Peter scowled at the man across from him, a bit of his anger returning.
On the other side of the table, Fury rolled his eye again and sighed in an exasperated fashion.
"Jesus, will you stop with that? Kid, that's not what we do. We're not gonna kidnap you, we're not gonna arrest you, okay? Unless you turn yourself into a menace, we can't do any of that."
...
That… was not the answer he was expecting to get.
"But… aren't I your legal property or something? Because I'm a mutate? That's what Tony Stark said."
Again, Fury rolled his eye.
"You're also 15, which means we legally can't touch you. When you turn 18? That's when we get full legal ownership of you."
That meant he only had about 3 years of actual freedom, just like Tony Stark said. Once he became a legal adult, S.H.I.E.L.D was in charge of him.
"What are you gonna do with me? Gonna force me to work for you?" Peter asked, tense in his chair.
Fury smiled for a second, leaning forward in his leather seat.
"No." He said simply, watching as Peter's eyes went wide.
What did he just say?
"I'm gonna talk to you, just like I said. I'm a man of my word, kid. This isn't the first time I've had to deal with recruiting an angsty teenager." Fury stood from his seat, pressing a button on the wall that opened the windows of the office.
Outside was just… sky and clouds, nothing else.
Also, angsty? He wasn't angsty!
"It's a big world out there, Parker. A lot of those things out there are bigger than you and I. And this? This is bigger than you. You have to understand that mutates cannot run around unaccounted for, hence why we're having this conversation." Fury began, hands behind his back.
Peter couldn't see the man's face since he was turned around, but he noticed how his tone grew softer.
"And at first? I'll admit I thought I was watching the birth of a danger to society when you first showed up. Some dumb teenager running around with the power to lift buses, without the responsibility that comes with it."
Hearing this, Peter looked down at the floor.
It all circled back to power and responsibility, didn't it? No matter what, he always found himself back at those words.
"You didn't know that with the things you could do came a burden, the obligation to do those things. And one day? I saw how you finally understood what that meant, to be burdened with both power and responsibility like a lot of mutates are. Not many understand that, but you do. That, Parker, was when I knew I was watching the birth of someone truly special." Fury said, still looking out the window as clouds scraped together.
Pausing for a moment, Fury continued.
"This world needs good people, kid. People who can face threats no one else can, people able to do extraordinary things. I've seen dozens of remarkable people out there, but you?" Fury looked back and smirked. "You're one of a kind.
Fully turning around, Fury stood across from Peter.
"Kid, I've watched you ever since that spider bit you. Believe me when I say that when you grow up, you're gonna be the best of us." He smiled down at the boy, Peter sitting there with wide eyes.
Walking around the desk, Fury stopped in front of Peter and knelt down to his height, putting a comforting yet firm hand on his shoulder.
"I know you'll be able to do spectacular things when you get older, I know you know that. But I also know that you can't be the best Spider-Man you can be all by yourself. Kid, you need help to fully achieve your full potential, help I want to give you."
Peter gripped the mask in his hands tightly, looking at Fury with an uncertain expression.
"When you grow up? You'll be part of my team. You'll be up there with Captain America, Tony Stark, Bruce Banner, you know? Stark already told you this, but you're gonna be one of the greats." Fury told him, giving his shoulder a reassuring squeeze.
He was right, Tony Stark already told him that. Peter knew he already said that.
But… this was different. Tony Stark treated it like a joke, as if Peter would accept to join S.H.I.E.L.D without hesitation.
Fury, though? He was treating it like… an opportunity, he guessed. He wasn't entirely sure how, but this was just different .
"I can help you become truly amazing, to reach that full potential we both know you're capable of." Fury paused, gaining a more serious expression. "But only if you let me."
Even as Peter's frustration and anger slowly faded away as he listened to Fury, he still couldn't bring himself to agree.
Joining S.H.I.E.L.D full time? That just… didn't sound right.
He just… he just couldn't.
Seeing as he simply looked away, Fury sighed before standing up and walked behind his desk.
"Okay… one year." He said simply, leaning against the desk as Peter gained a look of confusion. "Final offer."
"Wait, what? Sorry but I don't think I'm following." Peter apologized, watching as Fury rolled his eye.
Was he supposed to understand what he meant? He kinda just said 'one year' out of nowhere with no context.
"You work for me for one year, then you can decide what you want to do. You obviously don't wanna join us full-time, and I don't want to try to convince you all day." Fury said, Peter felt as if his heart had stopped. "If you don't want to join us after one year, then we'll leave you alone.
They'll… they'll leave him alone? Only one year?
He couldn't be serious! There was no way!
"Seriously?" Peter stood up from his seat, eyes wide. "One year, then I can decide what I want to do? You won't like, kidnap me when I turn 18 if I say no after one year? You won't force me to deal with you guys?"
Okay, that last bit sounded kinda mean now that he thought about it, but Peter didn't care right now.
There was no way Fury was being serious.
"Starting from September, you'll spend the next year working with us. After that? it's up to you where you go from there. We'll still keep tabs on you, and I will ask for your help on certain things if I need to. Outside of that, we'll leave you alone." Fury smirked at seeing Peter give off a small laugh, falling onto his chair.
One year.
One year, and he didn't have to deal with S.H.I.E.L.D! They'd leave him alone!
"No catch? Nothing up your sleeve if I say no to continue working with you after one year? You won't, like, kidnap my loved ones or something?" Peter asked, standing back up again as Fury rolled his eye in annoyance.
"No, we won't."
Peter found himself laughing a bit, that feeling of pure dread fading away from him as he let those words sink in.
"Pinky promise?"
"Is it a yes or a no, boy? I won't ask again." Fury replied in a way that made Peter want to sit down.
Probably should just say yes and go.
"Uh, it's a yes, totally, hundred percent. Sorry."
Fury chuckled, tapping his wristwatch a few times.
"That's what I thought. Keep your eyes open when I call, I'd prefer to not break into your house more than I have to." The man told him, Peter's spider-sense buzzed as Cloaked phased onto the room.
Reaching into his coat, the man pulled out a folder and presented it to Peter.
Wait, was he getting bribed again?
Hesitantly, Peter grabbed the folder and gave Fury a confused look. Seeing how the man nodded at Cloak, Peter grabbed his mask and goggles before slipping them on.
"Think of that as a show of good faith. Have your costume back into the suitcase before morning, we'll take care of giving it back to UA. Cloak? Send him to the coordinates I gave you." Fury informed, Cloak's cloak began to expand and envelop Peter in darkness. "See you soon, Spider-Man."
And then, all he saw was darkness.
...
As the darkness dissolved around him, Peter felt himself fall onto a couch and roll onto the floor.
Ow.
At least it wasn't as freaky as the first time, though.
Shaking his head and taking off his mask, Peter took a few deep breaths before remembering the folder Fury gave him.
Show of good faith? Felt like he was getting bribed again.
Cautiously, Peter opened the folder in his hands, seeing as how there was only a single sheet of paper inside it.
The boy slipped the sheet out of the folder, the air leaving his lungs as he read over the words at the top.
Dropping it to the ground, Peter fell backward and began to bring air back into his lungs.
No fucking way.
It was someone's full profile, including characteristics and even cause of death. And at the top, there was a name.
Mizuku Yamamoto.
Peter couldn't help but laugh a bit, a few tears rolled down his face.
He… he couldn't believe it.
He finally knew her full name.
...
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