Chapter Text

‘The Many Identities Of Peter Parker’

Peter Parker, Friendly neighborhood Spider-Man, Intern at Stark Industries and struggling college student.

Between dealing with small-time criminals and semi-dangerous villains that seemed to have a grudge against him, Peter is just trying to keep his college life from derailing. With his unexpected internship at Stark Industries and the friendly neighborhood Spider-Man somehow ending up on the Avengers’ radar, will Peter manage to keep it all from collapsing?

Chapter 1; The struggling boy, the mean criminals and the angry teacher

Peter Parker, Friendly neighborhood Spider-Man.

About to be thrown off a speeding car in New York City on a random Tuesday morning. Yeah, sure, that is normal. Why did criminals decide to try and rob a  jewellery store on a Tuesday morning? Couldn’t they do it after school hours like proper robbers?

“Com’ on, fella’s!” Spider-Man yelped as one of the armed robbers leaned out of the window to shoot him off the roof of the car. “I just need a lift, you can drop me off at the police station.”

“Get ‘em off.” The driver ordered.

Spider-Man webbed the gunman in the face and proceeded to throw the gun away, “We can talk about this.”

“You're dead!”

Webbing one of the passengers up, Spider-Man moved to deal with the other before leaning next to the driver. “Oh take a left here!” He said, pulling the steering wheel into a sharp left, 

“Fuck off, bug!”

“That’s just rude.” Spider-Man hummed, “Let’s stop here.”

Stopping the car and finally ending the chase that had seemed to last forever, Spider-Man webbed up the criminal and let out a sigh. 

Unbeknownst to him, two figures on a roof looked down as Spider-Man swung away.

—------------------------------

Peter woke up in pain.

Not new but certainly not something he expected. Why was he hurt again? He didn’t get hurt in the car incident, he didn’t remember much after that. 

Something was really hurting him. A bullet? Again, not new but Peter couldn’t just remember how it happened.

“You awake?”

What the hell?

“Yeah?” Peter gruffed. “Wha–?”

Blinking behind his mask, Peter blinked in confusion as he tried to sit up. Oh yeah, a bullet in his thigh, not a moving one but it had already healed partially.

“Damn, the guy is alive.” Another voice spoke in wonder. “You wouldn’t think that from the look of him.”

Looking down for a moment, nauseous which was typical for bullets. Biting through it, Peter understood what the guy meant– he was laying in a puddle of his own blood and had been barely breathing.

His mask was intact but he didn’t seem to have his web shooters. Lack of time? It would have been relatively easy to remove Peter’s mask but no one did. He couldn’t have been here for too long then.

Sitting up and looking around, Peter was more than surprised to see the Avengers in similar situations to his.

He was in a small cell, electrified bars and walls, no climbing for him. Captain America was in a cell right next to him, Hawkeye in the other. Tony Stark sat in the middle of a cell across from him, Black Widow next to Stark.

“Oh come on.” Peter groaned.

“Are you okay?” Captain America was crouched, looking through the bar’s, “Are you injured.”

“Not anymore.” Peter sighed, “Any guesses on who's decided to collect New York locals?”

“Unknown at this time.” Hawkeye replied, “You’re that Spider-Guy, right?”

Swallowing another wave of nausea, Peter hummed, “Yeah. Just your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man. Also, how long have I been here? Also also, where is here?”

“Like five minutes.” Stark sighed, “We’re getting nowhere here. If I need to wait for Thor to show up I will be more than upset.”

Ignoring the fact that he was surrounded by his personal heroes and zoning out as they started to think of ways to escape, Peter looked up. 

No electrified ceiling. But it was high, Peter didn’t think he could reach that high up without a boost from the wall or his web shooters.

Worth a try though.

Getting to his feet, Peter prepared to jump up, stretching his muscles and taking position. Jumping up, Peter flipped in the limited area of the cell, barely avoiding electric bars. If one toe could touch that ceiling he might just be able to move the plates and get into the hallway.

While Peter was able to jump high, he was not able to reach the ceiling. Not injured and certainly not without a wall to bounce off of.

Still, Peter kept attempting it.

“What are you doing?” Stark’s tone sounded condescending.

Rude. Never meet your heroes.

“If I can reach the ceiling I might be able to move one of those plates.” Peter mumbled.

“Then what?”

“I’ll tell you when I reach it.” Peter replied, surprisingly not in the mood to play games for once in his life.

“Need a boost?” Captain America offered, carefully moving his hands through the bar’s and cupping them.

“Hell yeah.” Peter grinned, “My personal trampoline.”

Shuffling back to the opposite edge of the cell, Peter nodded at the Captain and used the limited space for a small run-up. Jumping up, Peter was more than surprised when the Captain boosted him up with a little too much power.

Yelping, Peter hit the ceiling and barely caught himself before falling back down.

Pulling himself up fully, Peter couldn’t help but smirk as several noises of disbelief left the professional heroes. “Yeah, that’ll do.” He mused, seeing if the ceiling were loose plates or if he would have to punch his way out. 

Thankfully, it was easy to remove the ceiling and crawled into the small space only to drop back down outside of his cell.

“Alright, you guys stay put, I’m going to find a way to open those cells.”

“It’s not like we have another choice–” A deep sigh cut Stark off, “Just get us out of here.”

Now to find his web shooters.

Carefully making his way down the hallway, Peter made sure to be quiet. Whoever managed to catch the Avengers had to be a big threat. Like Avengers level threat, not your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man. Peter was likely in over his head on this one.

Help the Avengers escape, try to deal with whomever kidnapped him and get back to patrol. Easier said than done.

It was a lot easier to find a control panel than he had suspected. The downside was that it wasn't in English. 

Think Spider-Man, think. Either risk pressing random buttons, setting off whatever this console did and announce the fact that he was out of his cell or–

Well, cut the power?

Yeah, that was a pretty good idea. Why try to hack something not in a language he spoke or read when he could just mess with some wires?

Opening what Peter assumed to be a fusebox he was more than surprised to find his web shooters, some iron bracelets, a set of guns and a shit ton of knives. His stuff! And belongings from the Avengers? Better bring it along.

It was good to have the familiar pressure of his web shooters around his wrists again.

Now for the fusebox. Peter didn’t even bother trying to figure out which wires he needed to disconnect, he just ripped everything out. Immediately an alarm sounded but it was cut off the moment Peter yanked the last few wires out.

Rushing back to the Avengers, Peter yelped as he watched a group of mercenaries burst into the hallway. 

Thankfully, the Avengers seemed to have caught on that the bars of the cells were no longer electrified and the good Captain had been able to bend them enough for him to slip though. He had already freed Black Widow and moved to Hawkeye when Peter burst back into the hallway.

“Bad guy! Bad guys!” He warned, swinging through the hall and to the last cell open, using his strength to help Tony Stark out. “Here!”

Dumping the stuff he found before, the Avengers were quick to divide the weapons. Black Widow took one of the guns, handing the other to Hawkeye. Both spies took a bunch of knives too. To Peter’s surprise, Captain America took a few knives himself. Stark only took the silver bracelet and seemed as relieved to have it around his wrist and Peter had looked when he was reunited with his web shooters.

“Let’s make these guys regret trying to kidnap us.” Stark smirked darkly.

“With a fancy bracelet and the power of friendship?” Peter quipped but quickly swallowed his words as the bracelet blinked red for a few moments, then blue. From one moment to the next, the Iron Man suit broke through a wall and latched onto Stark’s wrist. “Woah! That’s so cool!”

Leaping to the ceiling, Peter readied his web shooters and fired them the moment the criminals rounded the corner, that in turn left them open for a powerful punch from the super soldier or a nice blast of Iron Man’s suit.

They worked pretty well together if Peter did say so himself. The spies were ruthless, the shots they took they hit and the knives they threw never failed to harm the criminals. Still, Peter made sure to web the injuries up– he didn’t concone killing, it was bad for his reputation and frankly not his style.

Webbing up a few criminals himself, Peter found himself growing more confident in their chances and smiled behind his mask. It was nice to have someone fighting alongside you rather than against you.

New York vigilantes rarely teamed up. They were very protective of their respective territories and barely tolerated Peter 'trespassing’ on his patrols. Peter never fought with a team. On top of that, these were the Avengers! It was so cool!

As Peter webbed up the last of the criminals he dropped from the ceiling and approached one of them. “That was surprisingly fun.” He grinned.

The Avengers were less amused and seemed to be focused on interrogating the criminals still conscious. How boring. Peter winced as Widow punched one of the criminals in the nose, he could hear it crack from the other side of the room.

Maybe it was time to take his exit. The day was saved and if the cops showed up– or worse, SHIELD, Peter wanted to be far away.

Come to think of it, there was a conveniently placed hole in the wall from where the Iron Man suit burst in. Besides, Peter had classes today.

Leaping out of the building, Peter soon discovered that he had been in one of the many unabandoned warehouses in the Bronx. Ideal place for villain business he supposed. What time was it? Peter should get a burner phone or something, going without a phone was really annoying but it was simply safer. Could you imagine a bad guy getting the jump on him and taking his phone? All his personal contacts and his name right there for the taking, not a good idea at all.

Swinging through the city, Peter groaned as he realised that he was at the other side of the city. Damn Parker luck.

—----------------------------

Peter Parker, Friendly neighborhood Spider-Man and struggling college student.

Late for a lecture, once again.

Some things never changed, he supposed. He just wanted to get some patrol hours in before class. How could he have known that a robbery in progress would mean spending half an hour chasing a car throughout the city? Certainly not him. How could he have known he would be kidnapped and knocked out for the better part of the morning? Also not him.

In all honesty, Peter had been more than lucky to have gotten away without a stray bullet hitting him. Fighting with the Avengers had been really cool but also really intense. The only thing in his favour was the fact that college lectures were less about being on time and presence but it still sucked to miss out on the lectures he was selling his organs for.

Would his organs grow back with his healing factor? Could Peter be an infinite money glitch? No it would be too suspicious even for the black market, people would think Peter was involved in more shady businesses. Besides– there was no telling what his mutated dna would do to whomever received one of his organs.

Running through the hallways, Peter brushed a hand through his sweat soaked hair and quietly groaned. Of course the one day he forgot to bring his dry shampoo just had to be the day he needed it the most.

Give it up for Parker Luck everyone.

Slipping into the lecture hall, Peter quietly sat at the back to avoid disrupting the class and tried to get an idea of what the topic was.

Was this Chemistry or Engineering?

Peter spent the entire remainder of the lesson trying to figure out that question and writing down the formulas on the board to refer to later when he would try to learn whatever had been taught that day from the many books he had to buy for these classes.

“–don’t forget to check which internship you are supposed to be at. Three days a week for a year. You can find the list for reference on your college email. If you can’t find it, check your spam, if you don’t have it, make sure to come up to me after class so I can send it to you.” Professor Ballinger scanned the room for a moment, landing on Peter and narrowing his eyes at him, “Mr Parker, see me after the lecture please?”

Yikes.

Being noticed in a college course was one thing, being singled out by name was another. Peter was not looking forward to whatever the man had to say to him. It was no secret that Peter’s attendance was not the greatest– his classmates complained about it behind his back enough for the professors to notice.

Letting his head drop to the desk in front of him for a moment, Peter groaned quietly. Then he turned to his laptop and checked for the email the professor had referred to. He wasn’t on the list. Damn it. So he would be getting lectured for his tardiness and then forced to ask about the email.

As his classmates started to file out of the hall, shooting Peter disapproving looks as they left, Peter got up and walked down to the stage.

“Mr Parker.”

“Professor.” Peter nodded at the man, “Can I help you?”

“I am sure you have noticed that your name was not on the list I sent?”

No lecture on tardiness? Suspicious but okay. “I did, Professor.” Peter confirmed.

“Well, as you know Stark Industries choses interns from our program if one stands out to them. They have chosen you.” The Professor didn’t look pleased at all. “While I warned them about your– track record of attendance or rather the lack thereof– your results don’t lie. I advise you to be on time for your internship because it will be hard to find another one at this point in the semester.”

Oh… Okay then…

Wait–

“Stark Industries?” Peter squeaked very manly, “I– I was unaware– I think it would be better for another student to–”

Professor Ballinger gave Peter a look, “Have you not been listening. They pick the intern. It is your responsibility to search for an alternative if you have some unfounded grudge against Stark Industries but I will say– your lack of respect for the hard work of your fellow students and the lack of care you have for your study is appalling to me.”

“I didn’t mean–”

“I have another class, Mr Parker, see that you are at this address next week. Be. On. Time.”

Well shit.

—-------------------------------

It wasn’t like Peter hated the idea of interning at Star Industries– hell, if he had a positive internship he could work anywhere he wanted. Star Industries only took the best of the best workers.

But it was also a commitment that Peter didn’t think he could meet. He was Spider-Man, he was needed out in the city and had the tendency to vanish at random times a day to save the city from the villain of the week. He was late all the time and people were of the opinion that he lacked the respect or the interest to come on time.

If only they knew.

Still, it was much too late to find an internship elsewhere and Peter doubted he could pull that off. Unless he asked Harry to ask his dad, but that was a line he really didn’t want to cross. He never asked Harry for such favours and he intended to keep it that way. They were not friends because of Harry’s influence or money, they were friends because they got along well and went way back.

They had planned on sharing a dorm on college campus before Peter realised he could never keep his identity as Spider-Man a secret if they would. Instead he got a crappy apartment he could barely afford and that was quite the commute away from his school.

The address Professor Ballinger gave him turned out to be one of the many SI locations in New York. It was a chemistry internship and Peter had somehow been hand picked by the supervisor he was meant to report to today.

And he was running late.

Again.

Entering the building, Peter was immediately greeted by a disapproving look from the receptionist. He must look like a mess, Peter had swung to the internship location after stopping a kidnapping and had yet to fix his hair from pulling his mask off.

“Hello, good morning,” Peter cleared his throat as he tried to fix his hair and straighten his tie. How he hated wearing ties– they were restricting and truly annoying to wear. “I am here for my internship?”

“Name?”

“Peter Parker, Empire State Uni.”

“You’re almost running late, better hurry along to security.” The lady said as she placed a badge on the counter, “This one is for the doors, don’t lose it. Check in with security and I will inform Dr. Conners of your arrival.”

Peter completely froze.

Conners?

As in– no, he was stuck in Rykers.

Because Spider-Man put him there. Because Peter put him there.

His expression must have given away his shock because the woman winced a little. “Not that Dr Conners, I assure you. My apologies, he was big in your field, right?”

Peter mutely nodded, “Thanks.” He muttered quietly as he picked up the badge and moved to the security check.

Oh man, Dr Conners, Peter had almost forgotten that whole mess. His highschool internship had been under Dr Conners. He had used Peter’s formula, adjusted it and injected it into himself in hopes of regrowing his arm.

It had worked too– until it didn’t. Peter still carried the scars the Lizard had left him with. Peter had made an antidote, but it didn’t last. His formula had altered Dr Conners’ beyond repair, Peter had been too late.

Last he heard, the scientists that used to be friends with Dr Conners were trying to find a way to help him, but other than that there was little Peter could find out about the man’s condition.

That had been one of his first big fights. A monster he helped to create. Peter had thoroughly gotten rid of the formula after that, ensuring it could never be used again. He still remembered it– he could never forget it– but no one else would ever have it again.

Shuffling through security, Peter was more than glad he remembered to make his spider gear look unalarming and got through it without difficulty. Once in the building he was guided up to the labs where he was promptly told not to touch anything.

Walking past the many workstations, Peter watched in awe as other interns and scientists worked on complex data. There were many projects on going and from the glimpse Peter got, it could change the world for the better.

“Mr Parker, there you are.”

“Dr Conners?” Peter checked, moving towards the woman who called his name.

“Indeed.” Dr Conners hummed, “Call me Liz if you want. It might make it easier for you.”

What?

“Make what makes for me, Dr Con– Dr Liz?”

“Your file says you worked with the late Dr Conners around the time he lost his human features. It must have been hard for you to see that.” Dr Liz looked sympathetic. “I was friends with the good Doctor, it is a shame to lose such a complex mind to such an accident.”

“Yeah.” Peter shrugged, his chest hurting, “It does.”

She had seen his file?! Man, all his absences were on there. Why did they pick him?

“Shall we speak in my office?” Dr Liz asked.

“I’ll follow you.” Peter nodded.

Dr Liz’ office was purely focussed on work. No personal foto’s or even her doctorate on the wall and no fun personal effects on the desk. It was well kept and organised to the point Peter feared moving something and ruining the perfection.

“Take a seat, Mr Parker.” Dr Liz nodded to the chair as she sat behind her desk. “I understand you are here for the internship spot. I must admit that I have not and would likely have not picked you. Not because you lack the talent needed or because you are below the level of chemistry we ask for but because of your unpredictable absences. Do you have anything going on we should know about?”

“I get.. sick often.” Keep it close to the truth, Parker.

“I see.” Dr Liz hummed, “Chronic sickness?”

“Not that I know of, ma’am.” Peter replied.

Dr Liz hummed again, “Well, you do seem to be able to keep a deadline at least. Say what, I will be more ‘lenient’ then I would be for the regular intern due to the fact that you chose to be honest rather than lying about your track record as long as you get the work we do give you done. You are here to learn and aid my scientists in their work, that is important. Do your work, do it well and I will turn a blind eye so long as your absences are kept to a reasonable level.”

Damn. That was more lenient than Peter probably deserved. “Yes ma’am.”

“Now, on to the more practical things to get out of the way. Your contract as an intern and the NDA.” Dr Liz placed two stacks of paper down, “I am sure you are familiar with the concepts of both so I shall keep it short. You get paid at Stark Industries plus bonuses, read through the contract carefully and fill out the forms attached to it. The NDA is mandatory and is not something to bargain about. If you do not sign it, we can not accept you as an intern however I doubt that would be a problem.”

Seems about right.

Picking up the papers, Peter scanned through them, soaking in the rules and terms of his temporary employment. It looked too good to be true. Medical insurance, a very generous student salary and even dental. Woah! With this much money Peter might actually be able to eat regularly instead of having to rely on donations from local tenders who happen to like Spider-Man. Hell, he could start paying his student loans!

The NDA was a pretty basic one all things considered. No talking about projects outside of work, no revealing names of superiors or other workers related to Stark Industries, no posting stuff on social media– yeah that checked out.

Accepting the pen Dr Liz held out for him, Peter scribbled his signature down and handed the papers back. 

They shook hands again as they stood up, “Welcome to Stark Industries, Mr Parker. I look forward to working with you.”