Upside-Down

Chapter 31

Peter carefully lowers himself off the ceiling to join the line of Avengers standing glumly in front of the CEO of Stark Industries. She looks... surprised. Sort of. maybe a little bit leaning toward the "what the crap happened here" side of the emotion. Not angry... but at the same time...

Peter glances behind him before he reaches the line, and he sees MJ clinging to the spiderweb, staring at the ground twelve feet away. He rushes back over, but she doesn't look away from the broken vase beneath her

"MJ?" He whisper yells, trying not to draw Ms. Pott's attention. She was really nice-- to him at least. "MJ! Just jump! I'll catch you!"

She brakes out of her stare to look at him like he's crazy. "Are you kidding me? No way! Maybe you all just lured me here to kill me this way..." Her crazy conspiracy theory doesn't seem to cheer her up this time. "Can you like... make a web ladder? Or something?"

"That'll just make a bigger mess!"

"I don't know how it can get bigger... please Peter? I'll stop saying Mr. Stark is trying to kill and experiment on you!"

Peter hears a surprised noise from behind him, and turns to see the entire group of Avengers watching. Tony looks shocked and some what offended.

"MJ, please just jump down!" Peter turns back, hand on his forehead, embarrassed.

"Please make the web! I'm not jumping, no way in--"

Tony cuts her off. "You can shoot the web, kid. She's right-- I don't see how it can get any messier." Peter nods at him, and then turns to shoot the web-ramp-ladder-thing. He can practically hear Ms. Potts glaring at Tony.

He shoots a web at a point near MJ's head, one that travels over the shattered glass, and effectively makes a ramp-thing. MJ doesn't climb down it immediately though, she stares at everyone intently, then slowly makes her way down, glancing at the ground every two seconds. After the now-everyone-realized-scared-of-heights MJ finally reached the ground, the line of Avengers-- plus Ned, Peter, and MJ, reassembles and turns back to the CEO.

Peter glances back over his shoulder before Ms. Pott's begins her lecture, and notices that the web did in fact, make a notable difference in the messiness scale. He quickly looks back at Ms. Potts though, just as she opens her mouth.

"First of all--"

"He did it--" both Tony and Pietro point at each other.

"What-- I did not do it-- I told Vision we should all play a game--" Tony starts, but the other interrupts.

"I didn't hack into his cerebral cortex or whatever and create THE FLOOR IS LAVA DEATH MODE!" Pietro argues, his sokovian accent becoming more prominent.

"Somebody did something!" Tony yells back, and Wanda Maximoff chuckles. All the heads in the line turn toward her. She's standing next to Vision, her mouth covered with her hand. She's visibly smiling though.

"Yes. Somebody did something." Pietro taps his foot from her right side, impatient. "What did you do, Wanda?"

"I..." she smiles, trying to avoid eye contact with anyone, especially Ms. Potts. "Me and Vis... may have... possibly... just planned it."

Tony looks dumbfoundedly at the pair, specifically the android. "You BETRAYED ME."

"Wait-- so their was no brain hacking involved?" Pietro asks, sounding partially disappointed and partially like he's just checking.

"No brain hacking," Wanda smiles. Peter sees Ned shudder in the corner of his eye-- though he didn't see why she was so scary.

"In my defense, Mr. Stark--"

"I don't want to hear it Vision! The only reliable person I have left is Peter!" As he speaks, the billionaire walks down the line until he's next to the boy, where he hugs the kid with one arm. "Come on Peter! We're leaving... I can't deal with anymore of this betrayal..." he starts to drag Peter away, possibly seeking escape, but Ms. Pott's interrupts.

"Nah-ah Tony! No escape today. You caused this prank war. Now there are-- almost three different teams. Wanda-- Vis, are you your own team?"

"No... we're on Pietro's-- we just wanted it to be a surprise for everyone..." Wanda mutters, looking at her feet.

"Well-- everyone is going to clean this up," Ms. Potts declares. "Except for you Tony-- you have a long press conference-- and Peter, you and your friends can do whatever--"

Pietro blows up-- "What!? They where just as much a part of this as me!"

Ms. Potts raises her eyebrow, and Peter can tell the chore wheel might be a little unbalanced for a while. "Thor is scheduled to arrive at the tower within the next four days-- if he even remembers... well! Just keep it clean for the Asgaurdian god, okay?" 

She drags Tony away from Peter, and he is dragged into the elevator. "Bye Peter!!! REMEMBER ME!!!!"

Peter can hear Nat mutter-- "he's just acting up for the guests..."

All the Avengers assemble as a massive cleaning machine, and the highschoolers scramble down the hall and escape the cleaning extravaganza. When Peter closes the door to his room, he realizes Fish had been following them, the black and gold furball twists around his legs.

MJ and Ned stare in awe at the size of the room. Peter had felt like that too, when he first got here. Now it feels like home-- or more so then it did.

After a moment of stunned silence, Ned blows up. "Peter! This is awesome! Your like-- BFFs with TONY STARK-- and you live with the Avengers-- and your probably set for life-- and THOR! THOR IS COMING TO VISIT???"

Fish mews loudly, and races around in circles.

"This is pretty sick..." MJ starts exploring the room-- specifically the mini kitchen. "Maybe he really isn't going to dissect you."

"Your like BEST FRIENDS with TONY STARK!" Ned yells again, jumping around. Fish is still acting weird-- running in frantic little circles.

"Are you okay buddy?" Peter asks, bending down to pet the creature, and ignoring Ned's fan girling. Fish has plopped down in a corner, hyperventilating.

Why? Because Thor was the only one who knew his secret-- and the only one who might be able to forgive him.

Ta-da! I hope you liked it! Have a good week everybody!