The New Avenger

Together

Peter's POV:

Of course everything fell apart in an astoundingly short amount of time. Watching from traffic cameras it was obvious Percy was distracted while walking the streets of Queens. Except he didn't only look distracted. He also looked terrifying. His face wasn't one of a thug looking to rob an old warehouse. His face was one of a killer, trained and absolutely deadly. It was a face of someone who had killed before and would have no issues doing it again. It was the face of someone on a mission, a mission he didn't plan to come back alive from. At that point I should have called him out, pulled the plug on his part of the operation. But I didn't and now I'm paying for it.

Because then he went into the building.

For the first half hour I actually thought he was going to come out, come out and give us the perfect way to save my Aunt and take down Remix. But as five minutes ticked into ten, and ten to twenty and twenty to thirty and thirty to fifty the truth became evident. Percy wasn't coming out. Maybe he was dead, or captured. Maybe he was gone, a deserter. A conspirator. 

At the end of the day it doesn't even matter what's truth and what's speculation. Percy's gone and we're blind. Now I have to chose, either go in guns blazing, or do as she asked. If I sent Captain Rogers in alone Joselyn might kill him, she might torture him. But maybe he deserves that. He, and no one else, chose to imprison her for something she didn't do. Without him she would never have become any sort of criminal at all, despite what anyone might say. Sure, we're a product of of choices. But we're all victim to our circumstances. A kid who was raised by his aunt and uncle and then allowed his uncle to be murdered after receiving a spider bite which gave him superhuman powers is never going to be the same as a kid raised by his parents who only ever lived in one place who never had anything remotely out of the ordinary happen to him. The world just doesn't work like that. 

But Captain Rogers didn't mean to do wrong. He was only trying to do what was right, even though that went horribly wrong. Sometimes golden intentions mean nothing at all. Is one wrong decision really worth condemning a good man to death? Even when an innocent woman's life is on the line? 

The worst part is that if I asked Captain Rogers to go into that building unarmed without backup he'd go without a second thought. He'd know that he'd likely be killed, but he'd go anyway. He'd go because that's what he thinks he deserves. And part of me thinks that too. That's a part of me I hate. It's a part of me that I'd like to tear out, feed to the fire, watch burn. Because one life is worth no more than any other life.

Except some people sign up for this. Some people wake up every morning and decide that they will risk they're life for others, knowing that they might die, knowing the risks but taking them anyway. Captain Rogers was the one who signed up for this, not my aunt. She just wanted to raise me as best she could, no matter the cost. Somehow thought, I don't think she would have wanted to pay this.

"Peter." Mr. Stark sounds nervous. He's never nervous, but he is now, "I don't think Percy's coming out."

He says it as though I don't already know, as though I have no idea what's going on. I'm not angry at him though. Yesterday I probably would have been, I would have been because I hate being treated as a child, treated like I couldn't possible understand anything because I'm not old enough. Because I haven't seen enough of the world. But I've seen enough. I've seen enough to know how cruel the world is. How unfair and unkind and unjust it it. I've seen enough to wonder how people find the motivation to stay in it for so long. I've seen enough to understand why so many choose not to stick around. And I've seen enough to consider retiring early myself. 

Of course that's never really been an option, because I have to help others. I have to do good, have to help stop this world from completely falling apart. It does't matter that I'm simply a band-aid on a bullet hole. At least it might be slowing down the bleeding. 

"Yeah, neither do I." I finally respond to Mr. Stark's comment.

"So what are we going to do about it?" For once Mr. Stark doesn't tell, doesn't assume he know's best. For once he asks, knowing that this isn't about him. This isn't about Captain Rogers, or Percy or me or even my aunt. It's not about anyone. I don't know who it is about, but it certainly isn't any of us. Maybe it's about Joselyn and the crimes committed against her. Maybe it's about who we're supposed to be, who we should be but can't. Maybe it's about humanity on they whole, about how lost we all are. Maybe it's a quest to find or a quest to lose. Maybe this is the beginning or maybe it's the end.

Whoever this is about it isn't any of that and we all know it.

"Peter I can go in. We can do exactly what Remix said and we can get your aunt back." Captain Rogers doesn't sound afraid. He sounds resigned. But he also sounds resigned. And it's tempting. It's so so tempting. Tempting to take the easy way out. Tempting to let someone else be the hero for once. To put myself and what I want and need and can't live without first. But that isn't fair. That isn't good or right or any sort of victory. This isn't any one person's battle. This is trading one life for another.

So I do something stupid, something illogical, something that is not well thought out. Something that maybe I don't even know I'm going to do before I do it. Something that is so incredibly dumb it should go down in the hall of fame for seer idiocy. I choice something that could get my aunt killed, something that could get me and Captain Rogers and Mr. Stark and even Percy, if he's still alive, killed.

"We're going to go in." I pause, hardly knowing what I'm going to say. "We're going to go in together. And together we're going to get justice, in whatever form is truly just."

A/N

So so sorry this is late, I was working as a JC all week and didn't have wifi. I got home last night and have been working on this most of this morning. I'm going to try and give you another chapter today or tomorrow, but I'm extremely sleep deprived and still recovering from insane campers.... 

Anyhow, hope you guys are all having a wonderful summer and aren't freaking out to much about school starting soon (I am). But seriously, if you say your offering Latin and then my entire schedule is made around that and then you don't offer Latin that's not nice. And I'm not prepared for college classes I'm not ready for that I'm only in high school come on please I'm not ready for that and it isn't my fault that you messed up.