Chapter Text
Upon arrival on Earth, Peter was in awe of the amazing hidden technological powerhouse that was Wakanda. Everywhere he looked, there were weapons he hadn’t even known could be created, heroes that he had only dreamed of meeting and amazing warriors he had never even known existed. Of course, the carcasses of the weird alien dogs Thanos had brought to war littering the battlefield kind of killed the mood but still! He was in Wakanda, an infamously sheltered African Nation with the most advanced technology possible, surrounded by the heroes he idolized as they strived to deal with the aftermath of the battle. According to Colonel Rhodes who had rushed to greet them as soon as they arrived, the wild alien dogs and the weirdly named Children of Thanos started to turn to dust (actual dust!) a few minutes before they arrived on Earth.
Mr. Stark told Peter to just stick with him while he found the others and Peter was absolutely in shock and awe of the amazing heroes he was surrounded by. He couldn’t help but gape at the sight of the missing Avengers, his absolute idol Bruce Banner and the literal God, Thor. He had only dreamed about meeting them and they were actually here, in front of him with a woman who looked like she could probably be the only woman who could beat the Black Widow in a hand-to-hand fight. While the two heroes were catching Mr. Stark up on what they’d been doing for the past 2 years, the woman introduced herself and she was an actual Valkyrie from Norse Mythology! She also spoke in one of the most beautiful accents he’d ever heard before offering him a drink from her flask.
Peter was about to reach out and take the drink, unable to say no to an actual Valkyrie before Mr. Stark stopped her from giving him the flask, saying he was still severely underage and that he should not be drinking especially with his metabolism. Of course, this prompted his absolute hero and the most amazing person he’s ever been in the presence of barring Mr. Stark, Dr. Banner to ask about who he was and why he was enhanced and it was in this moment that Peter completely lost all ability to talk in the presence of such greatness. Actual God Thor was referring to him as Mr. Stark’s son and Peter wanted to correct him but he also didn’t know how to speak to an actual God.
Mr. Stark realized that Peter was severely in fanboy mode and introduced him as Spider-Man to a living, breathing God and one of the greatest scientists of all time who actually seemed fascinated at the fact that he was bitten by a radioactive spider and actually wanted to figure out the boundaries to his powers. At this point, Peter had somewhat managed to regain the function of speech, or at least enough to explain to Dr. Banner how absolutely amazing he was and how his research had managed to help him immensely in the first few days of being bitten by the spider. Dr. Banner must not have been used to praise since he flushed brightly before spluttering about how he wasn’t actually all that great before Mr. Stark interjected, telling the esteemed doctor to just accept the praise and that they can explore the limits of his powers when all of this chaos is done and over.
It was then that King T’Challa, whom Peter had briefly met during the whole Civil War debacle, made an announcement that all of the foreign heroes should congregate to figure out what had happened. Of course, Peter was slightly panicking because he would have to tell all of his idols and his heroes that he yeeted Thanos into the abyss all because of a vine. He wished the ground would swallow him up whole before the meeting was up but Mr. Stark yanked him over to one of the weird flying hovercraft thingies that was big enough to hold at least 20-30 people comfortably. Peter saw the other heroes boarding the hovercraft before being sped over to what seemed to be the Palace of Wakanda.
Wakanda was absolutely, beautifully breathtaking! Peter couldn’t believe the splendor of the most technologically advanced city, how nature effortlessly combined and worked with technology, how vibranium was interwoven into the very heart of the city with everything he saw seeming to be made of the precious metal. He couldn’t help but notice in the 10 minute ride that they had managed to keep everyone who wasn’t a warrior safe within the cities and it was awe-inspiring how they had managed to weave technology into their everyday lives but still preserve culture and traditions.
Upon arriving at the Palace, Peter was once again left star struck by the absolute magnificence that was the Wakandan Palace. It was something beyond his wildest dreams to be able to visit the most technologically advanced nation in the world and to be amongst the heroes he had idolized for so long. As they were led to the meeting room, Peter couldn’t keep his eyes focused on one thing alone because everywhere he looked there was something incredibly mindboggling and absolutely beautiful. He could feel Mr. Stark judging him for the way he reacted to the splendor of the Wakandan Palace but he had never been there before and Mr. Stark had no right to laugh at him for being excitable when he had just saved the universe!
Just as he was about to confront Mr. stark for laughing at his supposed doe-eyed wonder, they arrived at the meeting room where the rest of the Avengers were and Peter could just feel the tension in the room when he and Mr. Stark walked in but he forced himself to be cool and follow Mr. Stark’s lead to go to the other end of the table where there were more open chairs. Peter waved eagerly to the Guardians of the Galaxy who were seated in front of him who were excitedly talking to what looked like a spacepunk raccoon and a talking, moving tree who only repeated the words I am Groot over and over again but strangely enough, still made sense. It seemed as if they were the last ones there alongside Dr. Strange, Dr. Banner and Actual God Thor.
It was then that King T’Challa and the cool, amazing and fierce-looking female warriors Mr. Stark told him were the Dora Milaje made their way to the front of the room where hologram plans were laid out. They seemed to be waiting for someone and just when it seemed the heroes were starting to talk amongst themselves, the room was silenced when the door of the room burst open by a girl who seemed about his age but looked similar to King T’Challa who could only be Princess Shuri, the only Princess who shared memes and vines and had a crazy following on virtually every single social media platform out there. She was a genius and she had done so much and made so many amazing inventions to help save the world that Peter was just in awe of her.
He followed Princess Shuri in all of her social media and lowkey kept updated on all of her posts because she was so cool and so intelligent that he may have had a tiny nerd crush on her but he’d never thought he would meet the genius behind most of Wakanda’s technological advancements, one of the few people rumored to be smarter than even Mr. Stark!
“Let’s start this meeting. It seems as if we have had 2 different battles occurring at the same time and we need to go over what happened in order to understand the events that occurred this day. Let us first hear from Dr. Banner who introduced us to the threat of Thanos.”
Peter Parker was panicking. As he was listening to his hero and absolute idol in the field of gamma radiation discuss the events that had led to him crashlanding in Earth from a ship full of Asgardians, Peter’s mind was going in multiple different directions as he worried over how he was going to explain how he managed to get the gauntlet off of Thanos’ grubby paws and literally yeet Thanos into the abyss. He was half-tempted to beg Mr. Stark to tell the story but some part of him felt that he needed to explain what happened especially since it was him who used the infinity stones for the banishment of the Children of Thanos and the weird alien dogs that Thanos had an army of.
After Dr. Banner came Actual God Thor who made a bit of a segue to explain how he survived and met the Guardians of the freaking Galaxy and made Stormbreaker using literal star power with the help of an old friend. Colonel Rhodes then followed and explained what the WSC had to say and how he made the decision to contact the Rogue Avengers which led to the Captain America, the war criminal who had suddenly grown a beard and gone full lumberjack aesthetic to explain how they managed to get to Wakanda and what the battle had been like in Wakanda before the space aliens suddenly disappeared. It was then that King T’Challa called Mr. Stark up to the front and Peter’s panic, which had somewhat abated while listening to the intensely interesting things that the other heroes talked about, suddenly came back with a vengeance.
He could feel his cheeks blushing underneath his mask as Mr. Stark made his way to the front to tell them all about how Spiderman tagged along in space despite being told not to and helped save the universe along the way. He could feel the weight of the stares get heavier and heavier as Mr. Stark told them about Peter yelling a battle cry of sorts and using it to get enough strength get the gauntlet off of Thanos and how he used basic physics to gain enough momentum to throw Thanos right out of the planet with a thin atmosphere into the deep, dark recesses of space.
It got even worse when Mr. Stark told them about him being the one to actually use the gauntlet which honestly shouldn’t have happened given that the stones were incomplete but since he had what he needed to enact the change he wanted, it was easily enough done with the Space Stone, Reality Stone, Soul Stone and amplified through the Power Stone. At this point, Dr. Strange, who had finally managed to get over his weird talk of probabilities and impossibilities, interjected and said that the aliens involved would most likely have been returned to their home planets without a single idea of what happened and that thanks to his weird magic mumbo jumbo, he could sense that some things had been made as they should have been, such as the unnecessary deaths that the so-called Mad Titan had caused.
Of course, this prompted Big Peter to interrupt and ask about Gamora who Peter frankly still didn’t know enough about. Dr. Strange sighed before he did some weird symbols and chanted some weird words and told Big Peter that his girlfriend was waiting for him to pick her up at Vormir. Of course, this made Big Peter try to leave with the other Guardians to get Gamora back. This of course made the Dora Milaje angry because they were tasked to ensure that the meeting went smoothly. Not wanting another extraterrestrial conflict to arise, Dr. Strange sighed and with a wave of his hand, he made a portal to this weird looking place where a green lady assassin was seen lying on the ground, wondering what was going on. Big Peter practically leapt across the table to get to the green assassin while Dr. Strange told him to hurry up and get her through the portal before he left them there for the rest of the meeting.
Thankfully, Big Peter listened for the first time since Peter knew him and got them both through the portal before it closed since apparently, it was very taxing for the Sorcerer Supreme to hold up portals to separate planets for so long. In addition to that, it seemed as if it was a rule that to be a superhero, you had to have really bad communication skills since they’ve been here for the past 3 hours or so and they haven’t even finished with everything because everyone kept interrupting. Now, since most of the adults were incapable of proper communication, King T’Challa asked what had happened and the green skinned woman spoke of how the Guardians had split up to help Thor before she was captured by Thanos. Thanos had sacrificed her for the Soul Stone only for her to suddenly awaken back on Vormir without a clue of what happened.
This led to her asking what had happened and of course, Drax had to answer that the Other Peter, merely a fetus had bested Thanos by yanking the gauntlet off and yeeting him into the abyss. This was not how Peter had wanted his identity to be revealed to his greatest idols and to this room full of superheroes but what’s done was done even though Mr. Stark looked to be 1 second away from killing Drax right where he sat. The other heroes started to ask who other Peter was and Peter couldn’t help but feel his face redden as he raised his hand.
Unsurprisingly, the room quieted and Peter literally felt the weight of their stares bearing into his soul until Princess Shuri broke the silence by asking if Drax said yeet and of course, Mantis had to tell them what happened because she does not lie because of her weird powers so she told them that he, Other Peter had used this term as a battle cry when he was besting Thanos, saying this bitch empty, yeet. Peter wished the ground would swallow him whole right about now. He had officially embarrassed himself in front of Wakandan Royalty, the freakin Avengers, the Guardians of the Galaxy and a literal God.
Of course, fate hated Peter and Captain America had to ask what Drax meant by merely a fetus and Peter could sense Mr. Stark getting ready to start a fight so he did the single dumbest thing that he could do in that moment. He took off his mask and introduced himself as Peter Parker. The Rogue Avengers went into an uproar about fighting a minor and were starting to attack Mr. Stark about bringing him into space. Everyone was starting to scream and get louder and louder until Peter felt the edge of a sensory overload start to appear and everything was getting louder and brighter and he was starting to panic and, and – Mr. Stark yelled at the other Avengers to stop. He rushed to Peter’s side and pulled on his mask and asked Karen to adjust the settings for sensory overload.
Mr. Stark told the other heroes to shut up for one minute while he helped the kid and he helped Peter calm down by matching his breathing and getting his heartrate to subside a bit. Once Peter was a bit better, Mr. Stark pinned the Rogue Avengers with a glare and told them that they could discuss this like adults and that there was no need to raise their voices. He took his seat beside Peter and told them to ask their questions one at a time. Mr. Steve Rogers Captain America War Criminal immediately asked what a child was doing on the battlefield, fighting a battle not meant for kids.
Peter couldn’t take the audacity of that statement because he had saved the freaking universe from the giant raisin and he had the gall to ask what he was doing there? Did Captain America suddenly get memory loss or something? Spider-Man a.k.a. Peter had managed to not only get the gauntlet from Thanos and get rid of Thanos but he also managed to fix the universe all in the same day. It just didn’t make any sense for Peter and after everything he’s done, he was done with being looked down upon for being too young. Peter couldn’t let Mr. Stark fight all of his battles and he had to interject because Captain America just didn’t get it.
“This child saved the universe. I don’t know about you, Captain but I don’t fight battles for fun. I do it to help others. There’s a difference. Maybe you should learn that.”
“I know that, son but I-.”
“Don’t call me son. Don’t belittle what I’ve done just because I’m young. Don’t think that I don’t deserve to be here any less than you do because of my age because I’ve seen things that kids my age should not see and I’ve been through things that most men do not go through in one lifetime. Don’t tell me that I don’t belong here, that I’m any less of a hero because of my age. Any person regardless of age, race and gender who wants to genuinely help people is a hero but real heroes don’t leave people in need, Captain. They don’t abandon their teammates.”
“Kid.”
“I know about Siberia, Mr. Stark. FRIDAY wouldn’t tell me much but I got enough from Happy about what happened to know that he abandoned you after damaging your suit and he left you there without any way to get help. I don’t see how he can talk about who deserves to be fight for humanity if he himself can’t be humane.”
“Kid, this is a discussion for another time. We both made mistakes then. We need to focus on what happened now.”
“You want to talk about what happened now? Fine. I yeeted Thanos into the abyss after screaming a vine reference. Yes, that seems immature and dumb but it worked. I didn’t know the full capacity of my strength and I don’t use it in my patrol or in my training because I was and am afraid that I can seriously hurt someone because I don’t know what the spider that bit me did to my DNA. I used a phrase to get enough courage to pull on my entire strength and it worked. I took a gamble and it paid off. Then, they gave me the Gauntlet and all I could think about was making things right. I didn’t know if that would mean eradicating capitalism or ending world hunger, but I just wanted things to be alright. I asked for the universe to be as it should be. As you can see, nothing much has changed on Earth, but I could sense the other planets being filled again with life. I could see the lives of the people which had been restored and given back to them. Thor, your brother and the other Asgardians are alive and well in the last coordinates that they were seen. The Children of Thanos have all been given a second chance at life and the lives of the people that had been ruined by Thanos have been restored. This did not fix all of the problems on Earth nor on other planets. That’s up to us and the other heroes to do. The stones are a powerful conduit for whatever you may desire but at the end of the day, they are just stones. It’s the beings who have the true power to make things happen and the stones only make it easier to do so. Now, if we’re done here, I’m sure that you all have a lot more important things to do that to pick fights with each other and Mr. Thor has his people to rescue.”
Peter didn’t mean to be that standoffish in front of all of his heroes but he’s tired of being looked down upon because he’s young. He’s tired of people saying he doesn’t know what he’s talking about because he’s too young to know about all of this. He’s tired of people not believing he can make a difference. He’s tired of people not believing in his capabilities. That’s why he was so happy to have met Mr. Stark because Mr. Stark saw his potential from the get-go, and he helped him grow and learn to be better. Mr. Stark treated him like an equal in the lab and he always considered his suggestions. He trusted Peter with projects and he never saw Peter’s age as a barrier to the things he could do. Hell, Mr. Stark encouraged him to learn about everything that he wanted to and even took him to R&D to have them help Peter understand how things worked and in return, Peter could help them once he understood.
Mr. Stark trusted him when he assigned him to help get the gauntlet off and Peter had delivered. He wasn’t supposed to be there but some part of him had screamed out at the thought of leaving his mentor to do everything alone. After everything that Mr. Stark had done for him, it was only right that Peter helped him when he needed it. He didn’t want Mr. Stark to feel as if he had to do things alone because Mr. Stark taught him that it was alright to ask for help if he needed it and he had helped. Peter just wanted to help others because he’d needed someone to help him and he hadn’t had that when he needed it so now, he helped others when he could because he knew what it felt like to need help but not get it (see: collapsing building on Homecoming) and he didn’t want anyone else to go through it.
Peter didn’t really realize how tired he was after everything he’d been through today and it was honestly the first time ever since he got his powers that he exerted all of his effort and strength into something since he knew instinctively most people couldn’t handle his strength. After his mini-rant, King T’Challa had taken charge and discussed a few more things regarding the current actions to be taken especially since the Rogue Avengers had been utilized and the WSC was disregarded. They would have to corroborate on a story to tell the public especially since everyone in New York saw the flying donut spaceship and the fact that Iron Man and Spider-Man had both been documented to be on it.
It was decided that they would do so after resting and eating especially since the battle took a toll on most of them. Peter didn’t really care anymore about what was happening having felt the brunt of his fatigue after all of the adrenaline had faded and the mini sensory overload didn’t help either. The King ended the meeting and the heroes slowly dispersed. Some Dora Milaje led him and Mr. Stark to adjacent rooms where they were supposed to stay for a bit while they figured out what they would share to the rest of the world. Peter was told to freshen up by Mr. Stark and then they would have a quick talk about what happened in the meeting.
Peter should have known this would happen especially after his outburst toward Captain War Criminal but he, frankly, could not care less. Captain America, no Steve Rogers had hurt Tony Stark and Peter Parker had made a promise to himself after the events of Civil War, as the media had dubbed it, to always be in Tony Stark’s corner not because he felt in debt to the man but because he knew Tony would always, always make decisions for the betterment of all regardless of how he felt about it. It was why he had supported the Accords in the first place, the Accords which Mr. Stark had gotten amended and fixed so that Spider-Man could be an Avenger in training and that he would legally be allowed to help alongside the NYPD. Mr. Stark always did what was best for everyone and if he couldn’t at the moment, then he would find a way to make it better.
After Peter had freshened up a little bit and felt better about essentially killing an egotistical maniac who was hellbent on killing half of the universe, he had to face the music and talk to Mr. Stark about what happened today even if he really didn’t want to.
“What was all that, Kid?”
“That was all of my anger and resentment towards the Rogues for essentially abandoning you when you needed them the most and I know what you’re going to tell me, Mr. Stark. It’s not good to hold grudges and that it was way more complicated that I think it is but you don’t understand how difficult it was to be there and to have them blame you for my decision to fight to try and help. You don’t deserve that!”
“I know I don’t, Peter but you have to understand that we still need to work together. The world needs the Avengers to protect it and keep it safe.”
“But did they save the universe? No! I used to be the biggest Avengers fanboy in the planet because I was saved by Captain America during the Loki incident and you saved me during the Stark Expo. I defended the Avengers to everyone I knew because you would always do your best to help others. Sokovia wasn’t your fault because the Mind Stone had warped what was supposed to be the ultimate failsafe and quite honestly, no one knew what was going to happen and then Lagos happened and even then, I defended the Avengers because they were trying to capture a bad guy who planned to kill everyone there. Then I fought the Avengers and I found out that they didn’t want to be held accountable for their actions but they just wanted to be free to do whatever they wanted and that was not how the world works! I was a vigilante but I made sure to stick to the limits of the law! I studied hard before I became Spider-Man to see the grey area where I could operate. Now, I work with the police to ensure that criminals get what they deserve and that’s what they are Mr. Stark. They’re criminals.”
“You think I don’t know that? Of course I do, Pete but the safety of the world matters more than how I feel about the Rogues.”
“But don’t you see Mr. Stark? We didn’t need them to save the universe! They didn’t even do anything.”
“Just because you weren’t there for their battle doesn’t mean they didn’t have one of their own. They defended the Earth while we dealt with Thanos. It was a joint effort.”
“So they have some use but that doesn’t excuse them from what they’ve done!”
“Pete, everyone makes mistakes and I’ve made many. Some of them made the wrong decision to follow a man who they thought was perfect. I don’t begrudge them of that. They’ve learned from their mistakes if they were willing to help Rhodey. We have to learn to forgive and to let go if we want to move forward.”
“Fine but this doesn’t mean I have to be nice. I can be civil but I don’t have to be nice. They hurt you!”
“And they had karma kick their behinds. Clint hasn’t seen his family in 2 years and so has Scott. Sam has been dishonorably discharged from the Air Force. Steve has lost the support of the American People and Bucky has suffered more than enough. Natasha is weighed down by the weight of her sins. They all have been through the wringer and I still care for them enough to not to want to add to that.”
“Does this mean I have to be nice?”
“Oh come here, kid. You just saved the universe. You were under a lot of stress. It’s only understandable that you push back if push comes to shove and Steve has always been the type to put his foot in his mouth. This just means that moving forward, if you can, try to give them a chance. They’re good people. They just made a few mistakes.”
“Fine but only because you asked me to.”
“That’s all I’m asking for, kid. Good job today. I honestly didn’t know if we were going to win especially when Strange said that there was only one scenario where we won but you just keep exceeding my expectations. I’m proud of you.”
“Thanks, Mr. Stark.”
Peter felt the worries and stress of the day melt away as he and Mr. Stark hugged for the first time for real this time! He had never thought that they would ever get there but Mr. Stark had truly been like a mentor and father figure to him ever since Mr. Stark discovered who he was. He could have easily reported Peter and let the government take advantage of his skills but instead, he protected him and taught him how to be a better hero and a better person. He was so thankful for everything Mr. Stark had done for him and he couldn’t thank him enough for it all. Of course, when he said this to Mr. Stark, all Mr. Stark said was that he had saved the universe and that was more than enough.
After the moment had passed and Mr. Stark went back to being the only adult that Peter knew who couldn’t deal with physical affection, some people came to the door with some food and it was only really then that Peter realized how hungry he was. He started to eat while Mr. Stark made some calls to Ms. Pepper to clarify that he was okay and that he and Peter were both fine. After he was done eating, Mr. Stark offered to let him call his aunt and Peter suddenly remembered leaving Ned and his entire class while on a moving bus and he groaned, wondering how he would explain it.
Peter was contemplating never leaving Wakanda when Tony suddenly offered to explain the situation to May and to leave the field trip and dealing with the school to him since it was the least he could do after Peter saved the universe. This was why he was so thankful to have a da-mentor like Mr. Stark! He was always so caring and nice and he understood how Peter’s mind worked. Peter was half-tempted to hug Mr. Stark again but he would take what he could get. Instead, he thanked Mr. Stark over and over again until Mr. Stark interrupted him.
“It’s no big deal, kid. Now get some sleep before we have to head back and face the music.”
In all of the craziness that happened today, Peter kind of forgot that they would have to go back to their regular lives after and he would probably never see of the other heroes again. Some (like Captain Criminal), he didn’t mind never seeing again but he definitely wanted to have a chance to speak to one of his absolute favorite heroes, Dr. Banner. When he voiced this to Mr. Stark, all he got in response was that the world had more than enough evil that need to be stopped and that the Avengers will always work together to stop it. It didn’t really help him much but Peter could take the hint that it would have to be the adults fixing everything and that it was not something he could influence even if he did do most of the dirty work in saving the universe.
Mr. Stark sent Peter to his room to go to sleep after checking and making sure that he wasn’t injured and vice versa. Once they were both sure the other wasn’t hiding any injuries, Peter crept into his assigned bed and marveled at the softness of the mattress and the beddings. These would definitely not trigger his sensitivity which was a very much accepted happenstance given the events that happened today. He could already feel the realm of Morpheus calling out to him but one last thought passed through his mind. Today was wilder than any dream he would ever have and he still had the rest of his life to try and top that. Who knew what the future would hold? Would there be aliens celebrating his victory across the stars? Would there be civilizations he’s saved completely who made him their deity? Would be aliens out for his blood for changing the fate of the universe? Who knew? Maybe, one day, the stones would tell him.