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A Not So Tiny Problem

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Peter was definitely not out fighting crime past his curfew, no way. Okay, maybe he was, but there was a good reason for it! At least, Peter thought so (May probably wouldn’t agree though). The night had been quite peaceful for once, and he had been planning on heading home after helping someone find their lost pet. While swinging through the streets back home, Peter caught sight of what looked like the beginnings of a shady situation. Curiosity getting the better of him, he decided to follow behind the men who piled into the white van they had. “Hey Karen, can you tell me what they’re saying?” Peter asked.“Sure, Peter.” The AI replied and brought up the audio tracks of the men’s conversation.“Hey boss, is this buyer really so important that you’re tagging along?”“Of course they are, idiot! I wouldn’t be ‘tagging along’ if they weren’t so influential on the future of our business!” Peter listened to them talk, humming quietly to himself. “An important buyer huh? This definitely smells fishy…”“Peter, my scans do not indicate that there are any nearby fish markets. Would you like me to further investigate the smell of fish for you?” Karen asked.Peter shook his head. “No, no! Karen, it’s just a figure of speech! No need to look into it!” He exclaimed, unable to keep the smile off of his face. He couldn’t help it, Karen could be unintentionally funny. “Anyways, let’s follow these guys and see what they’re up to.”“But Peter, your curfew is approaching. Your aunt will be upset if you are late.” The AI reminded. “Right...right, right, right. Okay, no biggie, I’m sure May will understand if I’m a few minutes late. I’ll take care of these guys super fast and then go straight home!” Peter declared, using his webs to follow after the car. When the car stopped at a closed off area by a bridge, Peter used the trees to hide from their line of sight. He watched as three guys got out of the van and kept the doors of the vehicle open. The guy standing in the middle ordered something to the two beside him and Peter guessed he was the boss. Now he just had to wait and see how the buyer was.He didn’t need to wait long.A sleek black car pulled up a few feet away from the van and someone in a suit got out. He listened to Boss man and Suit guy talk to one another, confirming their deal. The two guys beside Boss man opened the back doors of the van, revealing alien technology.How did the bad guys always end up with alien technology? Why was it always alien technology?Not wanting to wait anymore, Peter dropped down the trees. “Hey, guys! Why wasn’t I invited to the party?” He asked, walking over to them.“Shit, it’s Spider-Man!” One of the men cursed. Peter grinned beneath his mask.“Don’t let him interrupt our deal!” Boss man ordered. His two lackies nodded and grabbed weapons from the back of the truck. Peter let out a small sigh as they began to fight.“Why don’t we all put the guns away and talk this out like civilized people?” The teen asked, dodging beams of energy. He jumped onto the top of the van, shooting his webs at the two men. One of his webs latched onto a gun in one of the guy’s hands and he pulled. “Or, y’know, we can fight with guns instead of words too, that works. Hope you guys don’t mind my webs.” He quipped, webbing the gun to a tree. The now unarmed guy rushed to the truck and grabbed another weapon.Peter switched his attention between the two guys he was fighting and Boss man and Suit man. Whatever that tech was, he couldn’t let this transaction finish. One of the guys came at him with some sort of weird propulsion cannon and he used a nearby tree to swing himself out of the way. Flipping over the guy, he kicked him in the back, webbing his hands together. Peter then turned his attention to the other guy, “Hey, by any chance would you be willing to tell me where guys like you got tech like this?” He questioned.The guy charged at him in response. Peter sighed, going through the same process he went through with the guy from before. However, when the guy attacked him with alien tech, he hadn’t realized the guy faked going right. He felt his spidey senses go off as he stepped left and felt something get thrown in his face. Peter coughed, whatever was thrown in his face got through his mask. He stumbled over his feet, senses flaring up as his legs were kicked out from under him.“Peter!” Karen exclaimed. Peter pushed himself up, still coughing. He saw the guys getting back into the van and Suit man getting into his car. “Karen, I need a route to go after them!” Peter replied, slowly standing.“I wouldn’t advise going after them, Peter. Whatever was thrown in your face seems to be affecting you severely.” Karen argued.“Karen, come on! Please! I’ll go right home after catching these guys!” Peter begged.“I’m sorry Peter, but there is something going on that my scanners can’t pick up. It’s against my programming to help you any further until we know what’s happening.” The AI explained.Peter sighed, frowning. “Did you at least get a picture of the license plates?” He asked, giving up on going after them.“Of course.” She chirped.“I’ll continue this tomorrow then.” Peter relented. “Good thing tomorrow’s a Saturday.”  He went to shoot his webs to start swinging home, but no webs came out. “Looks like I ran out of web fluid. Good ol’ wall climbing to get home then.” Peter said, sighing. He went to the side of the bridge where the wall was and put his hand on it, trying to climb it. When he tried to climb, he didn’t stick. “What the?” He asked, trying again. “I can’t stick to it!”“Peter, it seems something has happened to your powers. I would suggest going to Mr. Stark for help.” Karen said.“Yeah, that sounds like a good idea.” Peter agreed. “Though it looks like I’ll have to go on foot.” He didn’t like the idea of walking around with no way to defend himself though. Seemed like he’d just have to take the risk.Walking around town in his suit wasn’t as bad as Peter thought it’d be. He had been hoping no one would stop him and ask for a picture or autograph, and thankfully no one did. (It was probably because of how late it was. Aunt May was gonna be so mad.)Peter has a small idea as to what happened to him, but he can’t be sure until he’s able to run some tests. He figured it’d be a good idea to get Tony and Bruce to help him with that. Getting to the compound was going to be a challenge though. “Hey, Karen? How long would it take for me to get to the compound?” Peter questioned.“About fifty-one hours if you were to walk. If you can find a taxi to take, it should take you about two hours and thirty-five minutes.”Peter whistled, pursed his lips. “Taxi it is then…”The taxi had been a very...awkward ride to say the least. The driver kept using the mirror to gawk at Peter as he drove. Peter couldn’t blame the guy. If he were in that position, he’d probably gawk too. The driver was even more surprised when Peter told him he was heading to the Avengers Compound. Peter watched as the poor guy struggled to formulate words. After the taxi, Peter arrived at the compound. He stood at the entrance, realizing he had no way of getting in. Great. He couldn’t even climb the wall to get to Tony’s lab (Peter knows the man never sleeps, no matter how many times he, Pepper, and Rhodey tell him to) and ask him to let him in. “Karen, can you ask Friday to let me in?” Peter waited a few seconds and heard the door unlock in response. Pleased, he entered and closed the door behind him. He also made sure to lock it as well. He then headed to the room he used when he stayed over. He got out of his suit and changed into a shirt and sweats.Just as he was about to turn toward the door, it was slammed open. He yelped and jumped. “Kid, I don’t even want to know how you got inside this time but your aunt just called me. We’ve talked about this Pete, you can’t just stop by without telling her- Peter?” Tony asked, standing in the doorway.Peter had his hand on his chest, breathing a bit heavily. “You can’t just barge into my room like that Mr. Stark! You scared me!” He exclaimed. Tony raised an eyebrow.“Didn’t you know I was coming? You’ve got that crazy sixth sense of yours.”“It’s called my spidey-sense, and that’s actually why I’m here. I ran into a problem during patrol…” Peter trailed off. Tony looked at him, frowning. “A problem? What happened kiddo?” The hero asked, entering Peter’s room. He sat down in the chair by the teen’s desk and nodded toward Peter’s bed for him to sit. Peter walked over to his bed and sat down.“Well, I was out on patrol and I helped this guy find his pet. I was gonna head home after that but then I caught sight of some guys trying to sell alien technology and I figured I had enough time to take care of the bad guys and get home a few minutes after curfew. But one of them threw this grenade thing at me and all the sudden I can’t use my powers!” Peter explained, his voice displaying some of the panic he began to feel as he slowly realized just what happened to him.His mentor reached out, grabbing his shoulders, steadying him. “Whoa, whoa, kid, calm down. How much of your powers did you lose?” Tony asked.Peter fell quiet, thinking. “My spidey-senses and my ability to climb on walls were the first things I noticed that were gone. I think my senses are back to normal too, I can’t hear as much as I used to and my eyesight is starting to get blurry again?” He phrased it like a question.Tony made a mental note to get the kid’s aunt to bring him a pair of glasses. From what Peter told him, he used to wear glasses before the spider bite. “Okay, tell you what, tomorrow, we’ll get Brucie to run some tests and see if he can find out how to get you your powers back. I’ll have the others look into those guys you found. Sound good Pete?”The teen nodded in reply. Tony smiled a bit. “Good. For now, you should sleep.”“What about you?” Peter asked.“I still have work to do in my lab.” It seemed that Tony’s answer wasn’t the correct one if Peter’s small frown and disapproving stare was anything to go by.“Mr. Stark, I’ll tell Ms. Pepper. Or Mr. Rhodey.” Peter warned.Dammit.Letting out a sigh, Tony looked at him. “You win kid, I’ll go to bed.” He declared, standing up from the chair as he went to walk out of the room.“Sleeping in the lab doesn’t count, Mr. Stark!” The teen called after him, making Tony sigh. Ever since Peter teamed up with Pepper and Rhodey to get him to sleep, the kid hadn’t stopped trying. Tony would never admit it to anyone, but it did work some nights.“Night kid,” Tony said.“Good night Mr. Stark! Sleep well!”It seemed like it’d be one of those nights.

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

Peter woke up early the next morning and got up from bed, wandering into the kitchen. When he entered, he saw Tony speaking to Steve and the others. Peter walked over to the fridge, grabbing the milk and a bowl. “Morning kid.” Tony greeted once he saw Peter.“Good morning, Mr. Stark.” Peter replied as he went over to a cabinet and pulled out a box of cereal. Peter made himself breakfast as some of the other Avengers spoke in hushed voices, and because he didn’t have his heightened senses, he couldn’t hear what they were saying. He grabbed his bowl of cereal and walked over to where they were, plopping down beside Natasha. The woman glanced at him, saying nothing.“So, Peter, wanna walk us through what happened on patrol last night? Tony was explaining to us that you lost your powers.” Bruce said, looking over at Peter. The teen shrugged and ate a spoonful of his cereal before replying. “One of the guys I was chasing last night during patrol threw this grenade like weapon at me and next thing I knew, I couldn’t stick to the wall and my spidey-senses were gone.” He explained briefly. “Which reminds me,” Tony cut in, passing Peter a pair of glasses, “Here you go, kid.” He said.Peter eyed the glasses quizzically, looking at his mentor in confusion. “What’re those for?” He asked.“Your eyesight. You mentioned that things were starting to get blurry, right?” Tony answered, raising an eyebrow. “Or are you gonna pull that ‘I’m fine Mr. Stark’ bullshit with me again?” He added, ignoring Steve’s call of ‘language!’ in the background.“No uh...thanks I guess.” Peter replied, grabbing the glasses and putting them on. “Whoa, everything looks so much clearer!” He had almost completely forgotten how bad his eyesight used to be. Peter blamed his half awake mind for that one. When he first woke up he had brushed off his blurry eyesight, more focused on getting something to eat. Tony snorted, ruffling Peter’s hair. “That’s what they’re supposed to do, kiddo.” He teased. Peter playfully elbowed him in retaliation. “Oh, really now?” Tony challenged, throwing an arm around Peter’s shoulders with one arm and giving him a noogie with his other. Peter yelped in surprise and tried to pull away from his mentor, but without his super strength, he wasn’t doing much.“As amusing as this is to watch, we should probably start working on getting Pete’s powers back, Tones.” Rhodey pointed out, and Tony suddenly remembered that they had an audience. He let go of Peter and the kid straightened himself out.“Okay, so some sort of weapon took away your powers.” Bruce said as Peter nodded. “Well, we could run some tests and see if your powers are actually gone or just dormant.” He suggested.Peter finished up his cereal, nodding his head in agreement. “What if he really did lose his powers?” Steve questioned.“Let’s cross that bridge when we get to it, Cap.” Tony jumper in. No one wanted to think about what to do if that was the case. It was decided that after Peter was done eating, Tony and Bruce would run some tests with him down in the lab. The rest of the Avengers stayed in the common room, doing their normal routines. Everyone was worried about Peter though.Bruce and Tony emerged from the labs a few hours later, a sleepy Peter trailing behind them. Sam, Steve, Bucky, Wanda, Nastasha, and Thor had been watching a movie in the common room. They paused the movie when the three approached them, all attention on Bruce and Tony. “So it looks like Peter’s powers are still there, but sleeping.” Bruce explained. Everyone let out a small sigh of relief.“Now we just have to ‘wake them up’ if you will.” Tony added on as Peter went to sit on the couch, worn out from the tests. They had to do quite a few blood tests and basic tests to check his enhanced abilities.“So how do we return young Stark’s powers?” Thor asked, looking between Tony and Peter. “Haven’t figured that part out yet, Point Break.” Tony replied. “What if all of you guys just ran through different ideas related to my powers?” Peter suggested from his spot on the couch. “That might just work.” Bruce replied. “Ha! Told ya my kid was genius!” Tony exclaimed, grinning. Peter’s face was bright red in embarrassment since the teen wasn’t used to being called ‘Tony’s kid’. However, it was quite a normal occurrence when Peter wasn’t around and the Avengers didn’t comment on it. “If I may, Stark, I have an idea I can propose.” Thor said, making everyone look at him.Tony shrugged, “Sure, go for it.” He replied, not realizing his fatal mistake until it was too late.Everyone was gathered outside in the fields. Peter was wearing sweats that Tony wasn’t too happy about. He wanted to put the teen into protective gear (protective meaning armor so bulky Peter couldn’t properly walk), but Rhodey convinced him otherwise. Peter stood beside Thor, feeling a mix of excitement and nervousness. What idea did the god have? Thor looked at Peter with a smile. “Are you ready, Man of Spiders?” He asked.“Ready when you are.” The teen replied.Thor’s smile turned into a grin as he lifted Peter up. Everyone watched as Thor loudly yelled, “YEET!” before chucking Peter. Peter went flying into the air and had it not been for one of Tony’s suits, he probably would’ve broken a few bones when he landed.  “THOR!” Tony practically screeched. “What made you think chucking Peter across the field would help?!”Thor turned to look at him, looking innocent. “It’s an old training exercise we did on Asgard, it involves a young soldier’s adrenaline! Of course, we don’t do it anymore because it was banned since people kept getting hurt, but usually it works!” He explained quite joyfully.Everyone stared at him, eyes wide. Sometimes they forgot how crazy Thor’s customs were.After making sure Peter was alright, Tony sighed. He wondered how many heart attacks he’d nearly have today. “Anyone else have any safe ideas they’d like to bring to the table?”  Clint grinned. “I have one!”Clint demanded that he and Peter set up an area themselves. Tony and the others left them to work (albeit reluctantly). About ten minutes later, Clint gave them the all clear. Tony was the first to enter the room, and his eyes bugged out. “Clint, we are not going to shoot arrows at Peter!” He protested. Clint turned to look at him. “This might be the only way to bring back his powers! It could bring back his spidey-senses! Besides, the arrow heads are suction cups! They won’t hurt...much.”Tony already felt a headache coming on as he saw Peter wearing a blindfold. “Clint?” “Hm?” The archer hummed as he lined up his bow with Peter’s body. “Why is the kid’s shirt off?”Clint turned to him. “I needed a bigger target. Now hush, Stark-man. I’m trying to concentrate!” Everyone watched with bated breath as Clint shot some arrows at Peter. The kid didn’t dodge any of them. All of them hit him square on the chest.Just as Clint is readying the next arrow, Steve stopped him. “Clint, I don’t think this is working.” He said.“Well duh! We haven’t tried the other arrows yet!”“You mean the dangerous looking ones?” Natasha questioned, raising an eyebrow. Clint frowned. “I wasn’t gonna use those!” He whined. “What kind of fool do you take me for?” He murmured. While the others spoke, Tony went over to Peter, trying to pull off the arrows. He actually found that pulling off the arrows were a challenge. Was some of Peter’s powers coming back? “Pete, I need you to relax your adhesion so we can pull these off of you.” Tony said, trying to pull them off.“It’s not me, Mr. Stark! The suction is too strong! These arrows just suck!”Steve and Bucky ended up getting the arrows off of Peter in the end, after watching Tony struggle for fifteen minutes. Once Peter no longer had arrows sticking to his chest, and a shirt on, Steve made his suggestion. “Why not try taking him through a workout routine?”Tony, thinking that his heart wouldn’t give out from such a suggestion, immediately agreed. “Thank you Cap! A normal suggestion!” The man cheered. Once everyone was in agreement, Steve and Bucky led them to the gym.Once they were in the gym, Steve had Peter do simple stretches and exercises. Peter did pushups, sit-ups, planks, and jumping jacks. Then, Steve had Peter do some work on the work out machines. After he did some work for five minutes, Steve had him stop. “Alright, Pete. Ready to try some weights?” He asked.“Sure am, Mr. Rogers.” Peter replied and for some reason, Tony felt worried. Steve grabbed one of the weights and handed it to Peter. The minute Peter took hold of it, he went down, the weight in his hand going through the floor, his arm with it. “Pete!” Tony exclaimed, eyes wide. He and Rhodey went over to the boy, helping Peter up. Once Peter let go of the weight it crashed through the floors of the compound, and unbeknownst to everyone, some of Tony’s suits were activated.“Are you alright kid?” Rhodey asked. “Yeah, I’m fine Mr. Rhodey.” Peter replied, smiling at him.“Peter, are you okay?! I didn’t realize how heavy that weight was.” Steve apologized.“It’s fine Mr. Rogers! Accidents happen!” Peter answered cheerfully. He then turned to look at his mentor. “Sorry Mr. Stark, I think that weight might have crashed through more of the floors.” The boy apologized.“It’s fine, kid. Easily fixable damage.” Tony replied. Just as he was about to say something else, the Avengers heard the sound of whirring. “Tones...what’s that sound?” Rhodey questioned, glancing at him.“You hear one mechanical sound and you immediately assume it’s my fault?” Tony grumbled, frowning. Everyone gave the man an unimpressed look. Three suits flew into the room, staring at the group. Tony sighed, face palming. “Yeah, that’s my fault.” He mumbled. He had forgotten the gym was above his storage unit, where the Iron Legion was kept. The weight probably activated them somehow. “Since the weight was given to Peter by Cap, can we blame him for this?”Everyone glared (except Peter) at Tony and the man sighed. “Partially?” He asked as the Legion locked onto their targets and began attacking them. Tony groaned as he called his suit. “Or not.”It took a good thirty minutes for everyone to take care of the Iron Legion. Bruce and Peter was able to escape the room, leaving the others to take care of things. While the others were fighting, Bruce tried to run some more science related tests with Peter. None of them worked. Peter wasn’t going to admit it, but he was starting to feel disheartened. Finally, the others emerged from the gym and found Bruce and Peter in the common room, going over some stuff. “Anything new?” Tony questioned, looking at the two.“No, sorry Tony.” Bruce apologized. “Any new ideas?” He asked.Wordlessly, Sam walked over to Peter and grabbed his arm. Everyone watched as he brought the teen over to a wall of the room. “Spider-Boy, stick.” He demanded. “What is he, a dog?!” Tony exclaimed as Peter tried to climb the wall. He didn’t stick, no matter how many times he tried.Sam shrugged. “It was worth a shot.” He replied. Natasha cleared her throat, making everyone look at her. “Follow me, boys.”Natasha brought Peter to another workout room, and Tony was glad he created multiple training rooms for the Avengers. Tony and the others sat down in a few chairs in the room as Natasha told Peter to wrap his hands. Tony felt his heart in his throat as he realized what Natasha’s idea was. He wasn’t sure if it was such a good idea to have Peter spar with her when he didn’t have his powers.Once both Natasha and Peter were ready, they began to spar. It looked as if it were some sort of deadly dance at first. It seemed like some of Peter’s instincts of fighting were still with him. However, Natasha was able to beat Peter easily. Peter seemed unfazed by that, and he got back up again, asking her to fight once more.The cycle continued, and Tony just felt bad for the kid.While Nat and Peter were sparring, Rhodey leaned over to Tony, whispering, “Maybe we should have him hold a spider.”Tony looked over to his friend, frowning. “That won’t work.” Tony denied almost immediately. “It’s worth a shot, isn’t it?” Rhodey questioned, poking Tony with his elbow. “I refuse to believe that having Peter hold a spider will work.” Tony grumbled, crossing his arms.“I bet you ten bucks it’ll work.” Rhodey said with a grin.“You realize you’re betting with a billionaire, right? Ten bucks is nothing to me.” Tony replied, cheekily. “If I win, I get to post an embarrassing thing about you online.”Rhodey grinned. “I’ve got plenty of embarrassing stories about you from our MIT days. You’re on.”Tony brought everyone to his lab, directing Peter to a seat. His lab looked cluttered and unorganized. Both Peter and Rhodey made mental notes to clean Tony’s lab next time they had a chance to. “I’ve been working on this since this morning.” He said, going over to his work table and grabbing what looked like a headset. “You think a headset will help his powers come back?” Sam questioned, raising an eyebrow. “It’s not a headset, Wilson.” Tony snapped. “It’s a highly complex device that’ll stimulate Peter’s powers into waking up. I’d explain the process to you, but only few would understand.” Sam huffed in response, crossing his arms. Rhodey patted his shoulder as the rest watched Tony put the device on Peter’s head and turned it on. “What if it doesn’t work?” Clint asked.“It’ll work.” Tony replied, watching Peter. “I built it.”“Yeah, well science and technology doesn’t solve everything.” Clint grumbled, watching the teen. Everyone watched Peter, waiting for some sort of reaction from him. Peter blinked, looking around at the team, feeling the device send small shock waves, probably trying to reach his nerves or something. They waited for any signs that showed Peter’s powers returning.“Anything, Pete?” Tony asked, looking at his mentee.“Sorry Mr. Stark, I don’t think it’s working.” Peter apologized, frowning. He took off the device, handing it back to Tony.Tony took it from him, placing it on his desk. “It’s alright kid.” He said, patting his shoulder gently. “Anybody else got any ideas?” He asked.“I have one.” Rhodey announced and Tony sighed.“Come sit on the couch, Pete.” Rhodey said, as everyone filed into the common room. Peter glanced at him before going to sit down on the couch, feeling nervous. He had a feeling something bad was going to happen. There was a soft buzzing in the back of his skill.  ‘Please tell me that’s my spidey-senses.’ He hoped.“Rhodey, I’m telling you this won’t work.” Tony sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. “Besides, the kid’s afraid of spiders, why don’t we agree that your silly idea won’t work and move on?”Peter looked at his mentor at the mention of spiders. What was Rhodey’s idea? Before he could ask his question, the Colonel walked out of the room and returned a few minutes later, holding something. Peter felt his heart start pounding nervously in his chest.“Alright, Peter. Hold out your hands.” Rhodey said, standing in front of him. Shakily, Peter held out his hands and Rhodey placed something in them. Peter squeezed his eyes shut as he felt something crawling on his palm. He heard himself squeak in fear as he felt what he knew was a spider. The buzzing increased and he moved his head to the left. The buzzing felt very familiar and he was pretty sure he knew what it was. “Yes!” He heard Rhodey cheer, and Tony groaned a ‘no’.Peter opened an eye, looking at Rhodey and Tony in confusion. Rhodey took the spider (he knew it!) from his hands. “Mr. Stark?” He asked, catching the man’s attention.“What’s up Pete?” Tony asked, and Peter wondered why he sounded so defeated.  “I knew my spider idea would work! It’s time to think about what embarrassing story of Tony to share with the world~.” He heard Rhodey whispering as he walked out of the room.Peter grinned a bit. He stood up from the couch and went over to the wall. “Pete?” Tony questioned, confused. Peter didn’t say anything immediately, testing out his wall sticking capabilities. He successfully climbed up the wall and clung to the ceiling.“My powers are back!” Peter cheered happily.“That’s great, Peter!” Bruce exclaimed, equally happy. “The Man of Spiders has returned!” Thor shouted.“My dignity is going to be flushed down the drain in a few hours…”  Tony whined, Steve patting his shoulder.Peter dropped from the ceiling. “Thanks for helping me get my powers back.” He said, looking at the group.Tony’s face softened and he ruffled Peter’s hair. “No need to thank us, kid.” Tony replied. “We’re a team, we help each other out.” Steve replied with a small smile.“Now that young Peter’s powers are back, how about we do some training?” Thor questioned.“Training sounds fun!” Peter chirped.Steve and Tony shared a look. “No!” Both the team and the building had been through enough today.

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