27Start of A/N
Hey guys, here is Chapter 3!
This chapter will be the second half of Season 1, Episode 2: Great Responsibility. If you are confused where I start off in this chapter, read below, as it's not too easy to tell in the actual story.
If you remember in the episode, there is a short part where Spider-Man and Nick Fury are talking on the Helicarrier, and Spider-Man agrees to join the team if he still gets to operate solo as Spider-Man, and then him and Nick Fury shake on it. This chapter starts during that scene, and we see what the team is up to while Fury and Spidey are talking. After that, the episode itself has a huge jump to (what I believe is) the next day, at school. So most of this chapter is in between Fury and Spidey's talk, and when Peter meets his team's alteregos.
Anyways, hope you enjoy!
Disclaimer: I do not own Ultimate Spiderman. It is owned by Marvel Entertainment.
End of A/N
Chapter 3: Great Responsibility (Part 2)
A few hours after the fight...
Ava, Luke, Danny and Sam were all hanging out in their lounge, still in costume with their masks off. Nick Fury was talking to Spider-Man a few rooms down, most likely trying to convince him to join the team. As the guys talked around her, Ava was silent, thinking about the day's events. So Spider-Man had proven her wrong, he lasted longer in the fight than all of them, and he definitely seemed like a determined leader. She couldn't believe it. More accurately, she didn't want to believe it.
"What is on your mind Ava?" Danny asked, noticing she had completely zoned out.
"Probably thinking about how she's cleaning toilets for the next month if Spidey decides to join." Sam joked.
Ava sighed, and ignored Sam, "I don't know, I feel bad. We kept thinking Spider-Man was going to be lousy on this team, but he definitely proved us wrong today."
Everyone stared at Ava silently in surprise, which didn't go unnoticed by her. "What?" She asked, in an angry tone.
"Nothing." Sam said, "It's just that you were the one who didn't want him on this team the most, and now you're defending him!"
"I'm not defending him, I'm just saying he proved me wrong! He proved all of us wrong," Ava said, annoyed. "Notice how he lasted longer than all of us in the fight? He proved us wrong because we did lousy today."
"It's alright Ava, it was our first time fighting as a team outside of the Helicarrier training room," Danny said, "We will improve with time."
"But he did so much better than we did!" Ava said, her guilt turning into anger. "He made us look like rookies!"
"I have to disagree, I don't think we did that bad." Luke said.
"Yeah, speak for yourself! I did way better than —" Sam started, before Ava interrupted.
"Will you shut up!" Ava yelled at Sam. Sam backed up a little.
"As I was saying," Luke continued, "Why does it matter if he did good today? If anything, that means we should stop worrying that he will be a bad team leader, because, as you said, he proved us all wrong."
Ava opened her mouth to say something, but nothing came out. Luke had a point. Why was she angry? After all, she wanted a team leader who could put up a fight, have their backs, and be a good leader. Spider-Man had proven himself in all of those areas. She was essentially complaining about him meeting her expectations.
"Perhaps you are upset because you have never been in this situation before," Danny said, "No one has ever left you so perplexed with your first impressions, so now you are having trouble processing your emotions."
"What are you trying to say?" Ava questioned in an annoyed tone.
"He's saying you're mad because he's better than you, and you just don't want to admit it," Sam said, in a surprisingly serious tone.
Ava glared at Sam, and everyone else stared at him in shock.
"What? That's what I heard." Sam shrugged.
Ava just pulled her mask over her head, and left the room. She was done with this conversation, she needed to clear her head. Were Sam and Danny right? After all, they definitely hadn't left her in this state of mind when she first met them. Neither did anyone else. So what was it about Spider-Man that left her like this?
"Penny for your thoughts?" called a voice from behind White Tiger.
White Tiger turned around to face the owner of the voice coming from behind her.
'Speak of the devil,' thought White Tiger.
"So, what's on your mind?" asked Spider-Man. "It was the Buckethead wasn't it?" He joked.
White Tiger gave him a dry laugh, and said nothing. Spider-Man shuffled his feet, and tried to start over.
"Seriously, are you alright?" He asked again, sounding concerned. "You seem... different than when we met earlier today."
"What's that supposed to mean?" White Tiger demanded angrily.
"Nothing! It's just that ... nothing." Spider-Man said nervously, fiddling with his fingers.
"I'm fine. Thanks for your concern though." Tiger said, not really meaning it.
They stood in silence for what seemed like hours, until Spider-Man decided to break the silence.
"This is about me joining your team isn't it?" Spider-Man said, not really expecting an answer. "You'd rather not have me on your team, I'm just imposing on it."
Ava didn't respond, mostly because she didn't know how she could respond without sounding harsh. Spider-Man gave a defeated sigh.
"Look I get it. You don't trust me, you don't play well with others. I've been there. If anything I still am there. I didn't want to be here before, just like you don't want me to be here now. But I enjoyed fighting by your side today, by all of your sides, and I'm hoping you and the others did too. So I accepted Fury's offer." Spider-Man said in a rant.
Ava stood in silence, taking in every word.
"If you don't want me to join your team, fine." Spider-Man continued nervously. "I can go tell Fury I changed my mind and go back to the solo act. But a part of me is hoping that isn't the case, that you'll give me a chance. I'm really trying here."
Ava was speechless, and felt a wave of guilt overcome her. He'd proven her wrong again, he was willing to give them a chance. Something about Spider-Man brought out the worst of her emotions. First anger in the lounge, now guilt as she was talking with him. It was like he was bringing out a part of her she'd never even noticed before. Ava was usually cool, collected, knew how to keep her emotions in check, especially in front of others. Now, it was like Spider-Man had poked a hole in a bucket of water, forcing it all out against her will.
Ava avoided eye contact with him, even though they were both wearing masks. While she didn't want him on the team, she knew he had proven himself. She knew he would probably make a good leader, but she also didn't trust him, and the thought of him leading angered her for some unknown reason. But she couldn't force him to turn down the Director of SHIELD, all because she couldn't trust him, couldn't accept him.
"Guess this is goodbye." Spider-Man sighed a bit sadly, and started to walk away, back towards where Nick Fury had been talking to him.
"Wait!" White Tiger grabbed his shoulder, preventing him from going any further. Spider-Man stopped walking, and she quickly jolted her hand back.
"I do want you on the team," Tiger started, "I just ... I... I have trouble meeting new people. I never know who I can trust, I don't like taking a chance with someone I don't know. It may take some time for me to... completely trust you out there, and for us to get to know each other. But, not gonna lie, you did well today, and..." Ava paused hesitantly, before continuing in a much quieter voice, "I was pretty impressed with your techniques during the fight."
Tiger looked at her feet, and continued. "So I'm willing to take that chance. And I know the guys are too."
"Even the Buckethead?" Spider-Man questioned.
Tiger smiled. "Even the Buckethead." Tiger replied.
Spider-Man held out his hand, she took it, and they shook on it. They stared at each other in silence for a few seconds, neither of them knowing what to say to the other.
"Guess I'll be getting out of here now," Spider-Man said a bit awkwardly. He began to walk away.
"Wait, one more thing." Tiger said. Spider-Man turned around.
"What is it?" he asked.
"Thanks for the save, during the fight." Tiger said awkwardly, in a quiet voice. "I know I said I can save myself, but... I thought I was done for."
Ava was grateful for her mask. She could feel her cheeks burning up, she basically just admitted that she felt completely helpless in the battle earlier.
"No problem. It's what we do, isn't it?" Spider-Man turned around, and began walking away from her.
Ava smiled slightly under her mask. She stayed standing where she was for a few minutes, and her smile had fully receded by the end of those few minutes.
'Why did I admit all that to him?' she thought. 'Why was I so open? I've never been this open with anyone before!'
Ava shook her head, and walked towards the training room. She was frustrated, and needed to take it out on some LMDs.
Ava had been training very intensely for about an hour, before receiving a call on her communicator from Coulson.
"White Tiger, get over here now! There's something we need to discuss with you and your team." Coulson said over his communicator.
Ava shut off the communicator, and walked towards the meeting room. When she entered, Danny, Luke, and Sam were already there, in costume with their masks off. Fury and Coulson were also there.
"What's going on?" Ava questioned the group.
"As I told you all yesterday, you are going to enrol in a high school, to get a sense of having normal lives while you are in the hero business." Fury said. "So, starting tomorrow, you will be attending high school at Midtown High."
'Midtown High?' Ava thought. 'The same school Spider-Man goes to? This isn't going to end well.'
"Wait a minute," Luke said. "How are we just gonna enrol in a high school, in the middle of the year? That isn't possible."
"I am the Director of SHIELD, need I say more?" Fury shot back. "But if you must know, as of today, Agent Coulson is officially the acting principal at Midtown. After yesterday's incident with the Frightful Four, his predecessor took some time off. Which means 'Principal Coulson' can get you enrolled."
"Is all this really necessary?" Sam asked. "I like my life the way it is right now, I don't need any 'normalcy' in it, whether you believe it or not."
"I disagree." Danny replied. "Spending too much time doing heroics comes with the risk of affecting us mentally. This will help us get away from our heroic antics, whilst also helping us expand our knowledge."
"There's one more thing you need to know." Fury said. "You are attending the same high school as one, Peter Parker."
Fury clicked a button on the remote in his hand, switching the screen to a photo of Peter Parker.
"And are we just supposed to know who that is?" Sam asked.
Ava had a solid guess as to who they were looking at on the screen.
"Of course you are, you just met him today." Fury said. "You will be attending the same high school as Peter Parker, also known as Spider-Man."
The screen switched from the photo of Peter Parker to a photo of Spider-Man.
"We've already adjusted your schedules to be the same as his. You will be sharing all or most of his classes." Coulson said.
"What! I don't get to pick my courses?" Ava complained.
"No. We already know what courses you wanted. SHIELD knows all your interests." Coulson said. "And your interests, Ava, coincide with Parker's the most, which made your schedule the easiest to make, as I'm sure you'll find out tomorrow."
'Great, as if I won't be getting enough of him at SHIELD, I'll have to deal with him at school too!' Ava thought to herself.
"All right, you can go." Fury said. "Meet in front of Midtown High tomorrow, and make sure to have a word with Parker at some point during the day."
"So that's what this is about?" Sam asked angrily. "We're going to work our butts off at school, just so that you can have someone keep an eye on Spider-Man for you?"
"Last time I checked, Nova, he's leading you and your team, not the other way around." Fury responded in annoyance. "Which means if anything, he's the one who has to keep an eye on you. Specifically, you. I'm sure Tiger, Fist and Luke are mature enough to watch themselves." Fury directly called out Sam, as the others held in laughter.
Just then, Fury got a call on his communicator. The team could tell it was important, so they stayed quiet. Fury gestured at them to leave as he took the call.
As the group left the meeting room together, Sam began to complain again.
"I can't believe this is happening!" Sam started. "We have to go to school, with Spider-Man, because apparently we don't live 'normal lives!' I swear I'm—"
"Shut up and just accept it." Ava interrupted. "If I were you, I would go get some sleep, tomorrow's gonna be a long one."
The group had reached their living quarters, and were standing outside their bedrooms.
"No way! I'm enjoying my last moments of freedom!" Sam walked into his room and shut the door.
Ava rolled her eyes, and walked into her room, shutting the door. She began to get ready for bed. As she climbed in, she wondered what the following day's events would hold.
Ava woke up the next morning, feeling extremely sore and worn out. Despite going to bed early, the previous day's events had taken a toll on her. Not only had she gotten into her first fight as a hero, she did some intense training after her talk with Spider-Man, and now, it was all coming back to haunt her. Ava got out of bed, and reached for her amulet. With any luck, it's energy would have her feeling good as new by the time she arrived at Midtown. Ava went into the bathroom to complete her morning routine, and got dressed for the day.
Ava reached into her closet, and found a backpack. She then went to her desk that was in a corner of her room, and opened up a drawer. She stuffed a binder, some notebooks, and pens and pencils inside her backpack. She wanted to be prepared for her first day of school. Ava took her now fully stocked backpack, and walked out of her room, only to discover that no one else was up and ready yet. She gave a long, disappointed sigh.
"Whatever, I'll just leave for Midtown now," Ava said to herself. "I'm not going to be late on my first day."
"Good, because personally I'm not in the mood to wait for the rest." Fury said from behind her.
"When did you get here?" Ava asked, clearly uncomfortable.
"You'll be getting a ride from a friend of mine, Coulson is already at school preparing your schedules and whatnot." Fury said, disregarding Ava's question. "He'll be waiting for you on the corner of the street, after you get off the Helicarrier. And as for the others, ... tough luck."
"Thanks Fury." Ava said.
30 minutes later...
Ava was standing outside of Midtown High, unsure if she should head inside or not. She was extremely nervous.
"Hey, are you ok?" A voice came from behind Ava.
Ava turned around, to see a redheaded girl her age talking to her.
"Yeah, fine." Ava said, trying to dismiss her.
"I've never seen you here before," the girl continued, "Are you new here?"
"Yeah," Ava replied. "I'm Ava Ayala, what's your name?"
"Mary Jane Watson," the girl said, "But you can call me MJ."
"Nice to meet you, MJ." Ava said.
"You too!" MJ said cheerfully. "Do you want me to show you around, or y'know, give you a tour of Midtown? I'd be happy to help you out!"
"Well, I need to find the principal's office to get my schedule..." Ava started.
"Go inside, take the first hallway on your left. The principal's office should be at the end of it." MJ said.
"Thanks MJ!" Ava said, but she was distracted by someone else who had caught up to her. He was a light skinned guy with brown hair, and blue eyes, and he looked very familiar to a photo of someone Ava had seen last night.
'Spider-Man?' Ava thought. 'Great, the first friend I make is already linked to him somehow.'
Ava walked inside Midtown High, and found the principal's office based on MJ's directions. She walked in, and found Coulson sitting at his desk, typing away at his computer. When she walked in, Coulson looked up from his computer.
"Ah, Ava! I see you've made it here without any trouble!" Coulson said.
"More or less." Ava responded.
"You must be here for your schedule," Coulson said, grabbing a paper from his desk. "Here you go. And if you see the others, be sure to tell the others if they're this late tomorrow, they'll be seeing me in detention."
"Okaayy." Ava said, trailing off. Perhaps Coulson was taking this whole principal thing a little too seriously.
Ava walked out of Coulson's office, while looking for her first period class, Calculus. She eventually found the classroom it was in, and the teacher was waiting for her at the door.
"You must be the new student, Ava." the teacher said. "Welcome to AP Calculus, I'll introduce you to the other students once class starts, but for now, go have a seat!"
"Thank you." Ava said. She walked into the classroom and took a seat.
Other than the teacher making a big deal out of introducing her to the class and whatnot, Calculus was pretty uneventful. She was hoping that Danny, Sam, and Luke weren't late. She wouldn't know, she definitely knew they weren't taking Calculus, which made her feel lonely, she didn't know anyone in this class. As Ava took notes, and as class went by, she realized she did recognize someone in this class. Someone with brown hair, and light skin, who she'd been told about by Fury. He was sitting a couple of rows in front of her. Ava thought about how she could strike up a conversation with him after class, but her mind was drawing a blank.
After Calculus was over, it was time for Ava's next class, Chemistry. She followed the school map that was on the back of her schedule to find the chemistry class. When she reached it, she ran into Danny, Luke and Sam.
"Hey guys!" Ava greeted.
"Hello Ava." Danny said.
"Thanks for abandoning us this morning," Luke said, "We were almost late!"
"Not my fault you boys couldn't wake yourselves up." Ava said. "Are you all in Chemistry too?"
"Sadly, yes." Sam said annoyed. "I would give anything to be going for a fly right now."
The group walked into the Chemistry class. Danny and Luke sat next to each other in the middle of the room, while Sam sat alone at the back of the room, and gestured to Ava. Ava, however, wanted to sit up front, so she sat in the second row, alone. She noticed the same brown haired boy walk into the class, and take a seat next to another brown haired boy, two rows to her right.
"All right, let's begin class." The teacher started. "As you can all see, we have four new students, I expect you all to give them a warm welcome to our school after class is done. Now, about yesterday's test, I'm disappointed, to say the least. The class average was 58%"
The class groaned collectively, and Ava was shocked.
'58%?! Isn't this supposed to be a school for smart people?' Ava thought to herself.
The teacher began handing the tests back to students, giving each one a disappointed face. All except one.
"Peter Parker, excellent job as usual." The teacher said. "The rest of you could learn something from Mr. Parker here."
Ava recognized that name, and the person who went with it. The brown haired boy, who was friends with MJ, who also went by Spider-Man in his spare time. Ava noticed that Peter let out a small smile after seeing his grade, and a blond haired guy sitting in front of him had turned back in his seat, and was glaring at him.
"Nerd." Ava heard the blond haired kid say to Peter.
"Buzz off, Flash." The other boy sitting next to Peter shot back, at Flash. Flash grunted and turned around in his seat.
"Dude, you've gotta stand up to him." Ava heard Peter's friend tell Peter.
"It won't do any good, Harry. It'll just make things worse." Ava heard Peter say to Harry. "I can handle a few insults everyday."
"We both know he does more than just a few insults." Harry muttered under his breath, but Ava still heard it.
'What does he mean by 'more than just insult?'' Ava thought to herself.
"Harry, I'll be fine," Peter assured, "I'm used to Flash and his antics."
Ava couldn't focus for the rest of Chemistry, she was too busy thinking about Peter and Harry's conversation, and how she would strike up a conversation with Peter in the first place. After Chemistry was finally over, everyone rushed out for lunch. Ava met up with the others to find their lockers.
"Ok so all our lockers are next to each other." Ava said, opening her locker, putting some extra school supplies inside, and closing it again. The others were waiting for her when she closed her locker.
"So what now?" Ava asked the others, but they seemed preoccupied with something behind her. "What?" Ava said turning around and noticing what they were staring at.
It was Peter Parker aka Spider-Man, just two lockers down from her. He shut his locker door. Ava began walking over to him, before a voice boomed through the hallway.
"Oh, Puny Parker!" Flash called from across the hall. "Locker knocker time!"
Peter just sighed in annoyance, and stood completely still, waiting for his usual beating. Ava, Danny, Luke and Sam watched on, but quickly realized Peter wasn't going to fight back.
"I saw this same guy stuff him in a locker this morning." Danny said to the others.
"Spider-Man, gets bullied?" Sam asked, clearly confused.
"More like, lets himself get bullied." Ava said, shaking her head in pure confusion. "I think we all know he can beat the shit out of this guy with his eyes closed."
"But it doesn't look like he will?" Luke said, confused as well.
Luke stepped past Ava, walking towards Peter and Flash. Neither of them noticed Luke coming up to them. As Flash was about to shove Peter in the locker, Luke grabbed Peter and pulled him out of the way, which forced Flash into Peter's locker. Peter looked up at Luke, not seeing the others behind him, with a look of shock, confusion and gratefulness.
"Wait, do I know you?" Peter asked him. Ava, Danny and Sam, stepped into view from behind Luke. "Any of you?"
"Say hello to your new classmates." Danny said. "Danny Rand."
"Luke Cage." Luke said.
Luke nudged Sam. "Sam Alexander." Sam said.
"Ava Ayala," Ava said. "Think about it."
Peter's confused face turned into one of revelation. "Huh?" Peter said.
"Oh, some idiot gave Fury the bright idea we needed 'me time' away from SHIELD." Sam explained.
"FYI, don't sweat the secret ID." Luke reassured Peter. "Code of silence, man."
Peter was so shocked, he was struggling to get words out.
"Hey, this is great. Really, really great." He managed to let out. "I just got to go talk to a guy."
Peter ran away quickly, too quickly. The others just watched as he ran away.
"Looks like we scared him off." Ava said smirking, while also feeling a little bit hurt.
"Give him time to process this." Danny said. "After all, this must be a large transition, even for him."
A few hours later...
The rest of the school day was pretty much uneventful. Ava discovered that she had two more classes with Peter, which meant he was in every one in her classes. After lunch, she had English with Peter and MJ, and last period, she had fitness, with Peter, MJ and all of the guys. Now? Ava was doing some homework in her room, but was having trouble focusing. She was thinking about the day's events. This had been the most normal day she'd had in a long time. No training, no fights, no SHIELD assignments, just her being a normal teenager and going to school, then coming back home to do finish homework. She had to admit, even though she missed training today, it was a nice change of pace. Except for one thing.
She couldn't get a certain wall crawler out of her mind.
Today, she'd learned a few things about Peter Parker. He was insanely smart, very nerdy. Top of all his classes. The last person you would expect to be Spider-Man. He pretended to be weak, helpless, almost a complete loner, let himself get bullied. For what?
'I expected him to be the most popular kid in school. He would be, if he showed everyone what he could really do.' Ava thought. 'Instead he gets pushed around by bullies and is a social outcast. Why?'
Ava's mind flipped back to when Flash was about to shove Peter in his locker. Had Luke not intervened, he would've let Flash shove him in, and probably not come out until someone else found him. Peter let himself get pushed around by bullies, the same bullies he probably saves on a daily basis. The thought of this made Ava uncomfortable, and very frustrated. He was a hero, he deserved better than bullies and torment from his peers. Why would he let himself go through all of this? Showing off a little strength wouldn't blow his cover as Spider-Man.
Ava closed her chemistry textbook, and grabbed her suit from her closet, starting to put it on. She had felt the emotions building up inside her for the past few hours, and she needed to let it out. After pulling her mask over her head, she walked out of her room, towards the training room. She walked into the training room, her mind still annoyingly focused on one person:
Peter Parker.
Start of A/N
And that's Chapter 3, hope you enjoyed!
Wanted to let you all know that Chapter 4 may not be out as fast as I uploaded the previous three. The reason for this is that I originally wrote Chapters 2 & 3 to be one chapter, but it turned out to be over 7000 words long, so I split them into two parts, as you can see now. I then decided to release Chapters 1 to 3 a day apart, but they were all completed at the same time, I'm just trying to give everyone who is reading the story enough time to give me feedback on each chapter separately.
As I'm writing this, I'm a bit into Chapter 4, but it will take a bit longer than a day for me to finish writing it. Will try to finish it within the next couple of days!
Anyways, please leave your thoughts on this chapter in the reviews! Would love to hear your thoughts so far! Also, feel free to ask any questions!
End of A/N
