In The Webs We Weave

Chapter One

Being part spider has its perks, sure. Being friends with the likes of Tony Stark and the Avengers- or at least what's left of them- definitely has its perks also. However bad things tend to be attracted to friends like these but the friendly neighbourhood Spider-Man always has back up. His favourite back up happens to take the form of a 5-foot-tall, thin and socially awkward teenage girl.

Paige Pym has been a handful over the past few months but, not a necessarily hard going handful, quick on her feet and eager to learn.
It took Paige little over a month to completely heal. (Seeing as though the spider Paige was bitten by was largely made up of red back spider DNA. Her healing was exceptionally fast, that and many of her damaged organs had already started healing, even with the venom in her system. It was a slow process but the healed parts of her damaged organs helped the process along once she was given the anti venom). Her heart, however, is still weak, the heart murmur is gone now but her heart muscle is weak. The last months of her recovery had been essentially just cardio and stamina work with Peter, trying to strengthen her muscle.

Once Paige could get up and walk around on her own she was given her own quarters at The Avengers compound it was better than the infirmary room that's for sure. For a while Paige had to fight through some legal issues about legal guardianship but, thankfully living under The Avengers roof provided some exceptions.

Other than Tony, Natasha, Vision and Rhodey, Peter is Paige's only friend. The others are more parental figures than friends. Paige considers Peter to be her best friend and although she can be difficult and annoying at times, Peter doesn't mind one bit. Paige's innocence always makes Peter smile. The first time they were outside after Paige was healed, she spotted a squirrel nearby and the young girl lost her mind over the small mammal, she had never seen one, Peter had laughed at her reaction and ever since then the teenager has often brought up the fact that she thought squirrels were adorable.

Today, Peter had invited Paige to meet his friends Ned and Michelle, two of Peter's friends. Well, it was originally Just Ned until Michelle showed up unannounced at their venue of choice; Central Park. Not exactly a private venue so Michelle had every right to be there, the only problem being that Peter wanted to introduce Paige to Ned and fill him in on all the details.

Before Peter and Paige left The Avengers compound this morning with Tony, both him and Peter agreed to let Paige decide what she was going to tell people about herself and of course both men advised against telling others about her abilities. Peter taught Paige what it meant to have a secret identity and all it would entail.

The young girl decided to tell those who asked that she never met her father, her mother died when she was young and she had been bouncing from foster home to foster home. Not entirely a lie but not the whole truth either, it was enough she thought.

That's what she tells Michelle anyway. Peter informs Ned he would get the full scoop when they were away from listening ears and judgemental looks from their odd friend Michelle.

The four teenagers had a nice time in Central Park, the spring grass provided them with a comfortable blanket to kick back and relax on. Peter has had an intense week, training Paige and helping her through all her custody stuff back at the compound, so this lazy day with his friends was exactly what he needed right now. That was until sirens blared in the distance, calling the two wall crawlers to action.