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Peter doodles on the edge of his Physics worksheet. Ms. Warren is droning on about something Peter already know, so he zones her out. His Spidey Sense tingles. Something’s going to happen. Peter looks warily around the classroom, eyeing Flash in particular. MJ gives him a weird look.
He freezes as the hair on his neck stands up almost painfully.
“Code Green,” Karen’s voice blares from his backpack. “Code Green.” She repeats those words, louder and louder, but she doesn’t need to try to get Peter’s attention, because the whole class is staring at him.
“Mr. Parker,” Ms. Warren reprimands with an edge to her voice. “We are in class. Turn the phone off and bring it here.” She holds out her hand, palm up.
Peter doesn’t pay her any attention. He’s too busy freaking out. He digs through his backpack to get his phone, which has now shut up. The screen opens to a map, showing a blinking dot heading towards his school.
“Dude, does that mean what I think it does?” Ned asks, a little fearfully. MJ regards the two carefully.
Peter calls Tony. He presses the phone to his ear, ignoring his now shouting teacher.
“He’s coming here?” he asks. Hulk wouldn’t come to his school. Peter knows that the Avengers wouldn’t send him the alert if he wasn’t involved, which means… “He’s coming for me?”
“Yeah,” Tony grunts, breathless, “some guy that we were fighting decided to threaten you, and Hulk went a little overboard. Don’t ask how this guy knows who you are, he’s not important anymore. I’m on my way. Get to an open location, because if Hulk doesn’t find you, there might be collateral damage.”
Peter hangs up the phone. A hand grabs his arm as he stands, and he realises all eyes are on him. Ms. Warren stands in front of him with a glare.
“And where do you think you’re going, young man?”
“If I don’t leave now, you’re all in danger. I suggest you let me do my thing. Ned, can you tell Morita the situation? I need to take care of this.” He sets his jaw and looks up at Ms. Warren, his eyes hard. He has a job to do.
She opens her mouth to respond, but Flash beats her to it.
“Come on, Penis, quit making things up. Some of us want to learn. We only have two periods left, you could just leave next period, not like anyone would care.”
Peter pushes past Ms. Warren. He hears Ned rush to follow him, falling into step with a panicked look on his face. Peter tries to go for a reassuring smile, but it comes out as stressed. If he doesn’t get to Hulk in time, things won’t go well.
Peter runs down a hallway, leaving Ned outside Principal Morita’s office. He ignores a teacher shouting, instead pushes himself to stay at a human speed. He doesn’t need to give his identity away. It’s already suspicious enough that the Hulk is coming to Midtown High.
Peter hears someone scream on the other side of the school, and all thoughts of keeping his identity secret disappear. He’s on the second floor. No way he gets there in time. So, he does what Spider-Man does best, jumps out the nearest window. He snaps his web shooters on, adjusting the web fluid settings to extra strong. He hits the grass outside with a roll. He hears thrusters, and he runs toward them.
Iron Man hovers over the Hulk, repulsor aimed at Hulk’s feet. Tony looks over at Peter, and he thinks he can hear him sigh from inside the suit. So much for a secret identity.
Hulk moves towards the school, breathing heavily. He looks mad. He grabs the door with one big fist and pulls, ripping the door from its hinges. It goes flying. The screams pick up again. The intercom system activates in the school, Principal Morita’s voice telling the students to stay calm, that they’re now on lockdown.
Peter steps towards the Hulk.
“Hey!” he shouts.
Hulk turns angrily, huffing, eyes narrowed. He doesn’t recognise the small boy in front of him, but he might be a danger to the Spider, so he attacks. Peter dodges the large, green hand thrown in his direction. He dives beneath Hulk’s arm and attaches himself to his muscular back. His hands stick as Hulk tries to buck him off.
“It’s me! It’s Peter. I’m here, buddy. Nobody’s trying to hurt me, but if you keep this up, you might.”
Hulk stills. He reaches up with a gentle hand to feel for Peter on his back. He sniffs deeply, searching for the Spider’s familiar scent, and he smiles, a wide smile that shows all his teeth, when he finds it.
“Spider,” he greets, voice tilting up as he says the name. He drops his arms and leans his head back to see Peter’s curly hair as the boy raises himself up. “Hulk keeps you safe.”
“That’s right, big guy. Hulk keeps the Spider safe.” He crawls up to Hulk’s shoulders and lets himself be held by Hulk’s careful arms. “I’m safe. Do you want to go back to the Compound now? We can see Natasha. Would you like that?”
Hulk nods, his chin narrowly avoiding smashing into Peter’s forehead. Helicopters fly overhead, and Hulk looks up, anger returning to his eyes. He growls, ready to pounce. Peter grabs Hulk’s wrist and squeezes as hard as he can, which to Hulk is more of a tickle, but it gets his attention.
“Let’s follow Tony. He’ll take us back home.”
“Bad man threatened you,” he grunts.
Tony lands in front of them, faceplate sliding up to show his face. “Cap took care of him. We won’t be seeing him again, don’t worry, buddy.”
Peter glances back to the school. Where the door used to be, a dozen students stare back at him, most from his Physics class. He waves, an easy grin coming to his face. Ned waves back animatedly. Flash openly gawks.
Hulk follows slowly as Tony lifts off into the air, hovering ahead of him. Tony leads them back through the trail of destruction that Hulk left from trying to get to the school.
“Hey, Tony?”
“Yeah, Underoos?”
“Um, they might know I’m Spider-Man now. Sorry about that.”
“We’ll deal with it later, kiddo. Let’s get Hulk back to Nat before worrying about anything else.”
Peter grins.
The next day, Peter goes back to school with a new confidence. He doesn’t have to hide anymore. He ducks out of the way of Flash’s elbow with ease, pulling himself up onto the ceiling and looking down with a smile. He chuckles at Flash’s growl.
Ned tugs on his shirt, bringing him back to the ground flailing. Flash tries to steps closer, and MJ levels him with a look. He grumbles, but he retreats back to his friends. Peter takes note of the students around him staring, but he doesn’t let it get to him.
Now, Peter Parker and Spider-Man are one and the same. He likes it better this way.
Coach Wilson looks the most impressed. Peter scales the climbing rope without breaking a sweat. He runs laps around his classmates, much to Flash’s chagrin. He even does a flip to finish off his pushups.
Ned laughs at him because of that, which makes Peter smile more.
He’s happy.