Upside-Down

Chapter 25

"As fun as that'd be, Pete," Tony says, spinning in his chair, "I'm afraid I can't keep you for very long. Clint wants you today."

"O-oh, I forgot about that, Mr. Stark--"

"Don't worry kid. If he goes too hard on you, I'll figure out a way to lock him out of the vents."

"The vents?"

"Yeah-- weird ex-superspy-assassin-bird thing. We've got a few minutes though-- maybe we could hatch another attack plan."

"Maybe... but I should probably work on my lab stuff."

"Wow-- responsible kiddo. Probably smart-- you definitely didn't pick that up from me. Go for it."

"--Or, wait-- should I go change-- do I need--"

"Don't worry kid, they'll have some kind of training suit-- and Clint's coming to pick you up here, so just take a break-- a break from school, a break from a prank war, a break from accidently starting a relationship-- a break."

"Are-- are you sure?"

"Yeah kid. A break." He holds out the vowels, and Peter reluctantly scooched his swivel chair down to his area of the lab. He begins to piece together equipment out of several boxes-- some of them having just arrived today.

"Hey Underoos?" Tony asks, around ten minutes later.

"Yeah Mr. Stark?"

"You'd be good if I played some music, right?"

"Sure Mr. Stark."

"Play it Friday."

The familiar song starts with the high hat taps, breaking into guitar a few measures later. "I love Led Zeppelin Mr. Stark!" Peter happily chimes.

"Whoa--" Mr. Stark stops the music. "Led Zeppelin? This is ACDC."

"Are you sure?" Peter asks, convinced.

Just at that moment, the door slides open. Clint Barton stands at it's opening, shouldering a quiver. For a moment Tony and Peter just stare at him. He looks at them like they're crazy. "You ready, Peter?"

Peter snaps out of his daze. "Yeah, Mr. Barton--" he grabs his back pack of the floor and flings it over his shoulder. "Bye Mr. Stark-- see you at dinner. Have fun with your Led Zeppelin."

"It's ACDC!" Tony gripes-- "It's-- I'll tell you tomorrow," he groans, sliding down in his chair as Clint starts walking down the hall.

"uh, Mr. Barton? Mr. Stark told me I didn't need a suit or anything--"

"We have something for you-- and you can call me Clint, Peter."

"Thank you then, Clint-- also, Mr. Stark said something about vents but I didn't know what he meant--"

"Of course he'd say something about that--" Clint rolls his eyes. "Don't worry, you won't be crawling through vents. Just training-- sparring some."

"Sparring? Like-- fighting?"

"Don't worry, there's no way you'll hurt me or Nat-- even with your strength. Not yet at least." the duo start walking up the stairs that lead to the training room. "We'll get you into simulations when you get dangerous-- that's why we have special suits specifically for training."

"Oh. Okay." Peter wouldn't have called himself not-dangerous. He wasn't exactly a fluffy bunny. "Where you on a mission, Clint? That's what Mr. Stark said-- was it dangerous?"

"Well... I wasn't exactly on a mission, kid-- and it wasn't dangerous." Peter is confused by that because he has a nasty bruise on the side of his face and Clint explains "-- that was on the way back. I- uh..." he seems to be weighing whether or not to trust Peter. "Mr. Stark picked you up off the street?"

"Yeah-- and I won't tell anyone anything if you don't want me to-- you don't even have to tell me-- I'm sorry--"

"No, no don't be sorry. Everyone else knows. I- uh... I have a family. They live in a safe house a ways away... I don't get to visit them often."

"I'm sorry..."

"For what?" Clint asks, confused.

"For-- wait, is this the training room?"

The pair have just entered an open doorway, revealing a large, open room with closets lining one set of walls, and several doors on another side. There are treadmills in a row, along with several punching bags hanging from the ceiling-- except for one, lying on the floor, looking as though it had been smashed into the wall.

"Ug... Steve..." Clint groans. He walks over to the ripped bag and examines the tear at the top. "Not another one..."

"He did it again?" Nat appears behind Peter. "He only does this when he's stressed-- or mad."

"Do you think something came up about Bucky again?" Clint asked.

"Who's Bucky?" Peter questioned, confused. They both look at him, remembering he's there.

"Oh! We got to get you a suit--" Nat goes to one of the closets, opening it and scanning through it's shelves. "Here we go-- Tony ordered some a few days ago." She hands Peter a jump suit and points at one of the doors. "Go change into it-- we'll set up for training."

Peter nods slowly, then walks into the locker room, still wondering about the person who made Steve angry. He hadn't thought that was possible.

The jumpsuit is just like his Spider-Man suit-- except it had no mask-- and was completely solid colored--navy. Based off what Nat and Clint have said, his training will mostly be fighting technique, nobody can help him master his unique powers but himself.

When he walked out of the locker room the training room hadn't been changed much-- except the broken punching bag had been removed. "All set Peter?" Clint asked.

"All set."

They spent the next hour testing Peter-- first Clint told him to knock over Nat. Peter had thought this would be easy, but when he tried to knock her feet out from under her, she twisted, making him fly past her, and when he tried again she somehow managed to have him lying flat on his back.

"Most of your enemies won't be nearly adept at hand to hand combat as us-- but there will be some," Clint had said, and then told Peter to analyze what he'd done wrong.

After Peter diagnosed himself with having been to confident and having gone too fast-- and having no technique-- Nat had added, Clint told him to do it again.

They did this over and over and over-- until, eventually, the assassins decided he was done for the day. Clint helps Peter off the ground, and the boy groans, back aching. He was used to having the upper hand-- with his webs, or with his agility-- and wall climbing-ness, but his powers hadn't been allowed.

"I know you think this is useless now, but you'll thank us later," Nat explained.

Throughout all the training Peter felt that Steve had told them what to practice-- for him to become what Tony dreaded. An Avenger.

"It's okay kid," Clint smiled, "we all start somewhere."

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Ta da! A chapter.

Have an amazing week you guys!!!