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As you sat in the SHIELD director’s office, your leg bounced. Your mind raced as you thought through every possible screw-up that could have led you to be called into Director Coulson’s office.
A month or so ago, right when school started, that you were cornered in an allyway by a 20-something woman with a choppy bob and blond highlights. The ground shook gently, preventing you from climbing away, and throwing your webs off their course.
“I’m not going to hurt you,” the woman said. “I just have some people who want to talk to you.”
You held your stance, preparing for the worst. You had been bitten by an ancient radioactive spider about a year ago, and were no stranger to superhero kidnappings. Ok you weren’t a superhero, it was a gimmick. But you had to admit, the name the public had given you felt pretty fitting: SpiderBite.
Judging by the way you didn’t put down your fisted hands, the woman assumed you hadn’t calmed down. “It’s okay. My name is Daisy Johnson, and I’m with SHIELD,” She spoke very slowly, as if talking to an upset child. “It’s a government security agency. The name stands for Strategic Homeland Intervent-“
“I know what SHIELD is.” You interrupted. “It was founded by Peggy Carter as an anti-Hydra team, and then later transitioned to combat any terrorist action committed by the enhanced, inhuman, extraterrestrial, and mutants. It’s like the CIA but supernatural.” She gaped at you. “Did I get that right?”
You never really trusted SHIELD, like any government agency. You had your doubts about the inconsistent records, disappearance of inhumans, and the big HYDRA scandal after the Sokovia Accords. You were obsessed with finding government corruption, it was your goal as SpiderBite- to take down corrupt officials, to be a hero of the people. There was no longer a Captain America, and people were letting you down. America needed a hero. Not just fighting evil or crime, but protecting the rights of people. That’s why your first big appearance in the media was after you punched a cop that was pushing civilians at a peaceful protest. New Local SpiderMan Assaults an Officer: Civilian Hero or Civil Heretic?
Daisy looked confused. You knew more than most knew about SHIELD.
“I can see that you seem to be very aware,” she said it almost questioningly. “So you probably are aware that SHIELD has a lot on our plate right now,”
“Oh sure, ‘recruiting’ teenage mutants and Hydra experiments for the good of the people,” you snapped. “I’m not interested in being SHIELD’s latest exploit.”
The woman kept pushing. “No one is trying to exploit you,” her arms slightly lowered, and you noticed the vibration did as-well.
“Then why are you trapping me with your powers?” The vibrations were making you dizzy, clouding your judgement, which you suspected was the point. You tried to lunge past her.
“Wait! I just want to talk.” She grabbed your wrist. You were scared. It must’ve showed on your face because she softened her gaze and loosened her grip. “Can we do that?” She slowly stopped the vibrations. She was still holding your wrist, and either trusted you not to run away, or was stupid enough to think she was stronger than you were.
Slowly, you nodded.
She let go of your wrist.
“Lets go get a drink somewhere.”
“I’m not 21.” You replied. She looked amused.
“Then how about a burger?”
You smiled.
“Are you Quake?” You asked bluntly. You ordered a cheesburger, fries, and a milkshake. Daisy had ordered some kind of monstrous hybrid-everything-sandwich-from-hell, but she also ordered a milkshake. You respected that.
Daisy paused her eating. “Yes.” She said after swallowing. “No, well yes. When they talk about Quake in the news, there is a good chance that they are talking about me.” She explained.
“I’m lost.”
“Quake is the name they’ve given the destructive SHIELD fugitive who can’t handle her own powers. It’s not a name or reputation that I accept.” You peered over at her.
“Oh.” She was more like you than you had thought. Confused and unhappy with her powers, but also proud. Labeled with something that you never would’ve chosen. “How did it happen?” You said quietly. You knew you were poking the bear a bit, after all, you hated your own “superhuman” story.
Daisy exhaled. “I’m an inhuman.” She almost chuckled, shaking her head like she still couldn’t believe it. “I was one of the first ones activated when the obelisk broke.” Her eyes welled up and her jaw clenched. “It was awful…”
You could tell that the “obelisk” had done something more than just change Daisy. She lost someone. Even though you wanted to know more about the obelisk and whatever made Daisy’s powers (you knew a little bit about inhumans, but not enough to understand the science behind it) you didn’t push.
Daisy moved past the topic after an uncomfortable silence. “So, SpiderBite.” She said it softly.
You had grabbed a pair of sweats and converse from your backpack stashed in an alley, shedding your mask, and covering the rest of your Spidersuit in gray polycotton. You trusted Daisy, and you knew that if she told people of your secret identity, she probably wouldn’t be believed. You were good at the whole Spider-hero secret identity thing. All those precautions didnt stop your eye from flinching ever so slightly at Daisy using your hero name so casually.
“____.” You said quietly, but firm.
“Ok. _____.” Daisy repeated. “What are the chances that you would want to help my team,”
You snorted a bit. “Yeah, the American government and I aren’t on super good terms right now,” you swallowed your milkshake. “I’m not sure if yall want help from the ‘Anarchist-Woke Vigilante Spider-Teenager of this Generation’s Communist movement.’” You smiled at the memorey of the headline. Fox news surely knew how to fearmonger.
Daisy snorted. “That’s what they called you?” She grabbed a fry off your plate, a comfortable interaction that almost felt friendly.
“On the dude-bro podcasts my name is ‘Woke Man-hating She-Devil’” you smiled.
“Jesus.” Daisy laughed. “Well lucky for you-and me,” she smiled at you. “The director of SHIELD has never listened to Joe Rogan.” You laughed. “He’s a good man. We’re trying to do good work out there.”
“I’m sure that’s what’s intended,” You were skeptical. “But that doesn’t mean it isn’t exploitive. Or harmful.” You avoided her gaze. “And besides, what do you need me for? If this work is so important, what if i let you down?”
“I bet you wouldn’t.” Daisy covered your hand with hers. It was a comforting gesture. Genuine. Like she really did believe in you. “As for your previous question,” she left money on your table and got up from the booth. “You are a lot more knowledgeable than most on national superhuman politics. And not to mention your own super…ness.” You snorted. “We’ve kept an eye on you since your run-in with Spiderman in France.”
You groaned. “I wasn’t meaning to run into him. He made the whole situation more complicated than it needed to be, and I was already communicating with Mysterio when he showed up.”
“You know SHIELD sent him there. And we were impressed with how you worked together.”
“We weren’t working together, he was in my way.”
“Ok we’ll work on teamwork.”
You stopped her. “This isn’t convincing me that yall want my help,”
“And, your Stark Enterprise internship and research paper into superhuman biochemistry interested us.”
“Did the B- I got on it interest you?”
Daisy laughed. “Can you just trust me?”
Logically, you couldn’t. But the way she had held your hand and looked at you with so much hope made you feel safe. Maybe you could help. Maybe SHEILD was the next step to making the world a better place.
The way she held your gaze- it was like she believed in you. You needed that. Which is why you (very tentatively) said, “Okay.”
The door behind you opened then closed. You held your head down, avoiding the director’s eyes.
“Agent ____.” Coulson said as he sat down at his desk across from you.
“Sir.” You replied gently.
“I’m speaking to you as Coulson, _____, not as your handler.”
You winced.
“I checked your chemistry grade.”
You winced harder. “Its not that bad,” you started.
“But its worse than when you started working here.” Coulson said, leaning back in his chair. “You have to be a teenager first, superhero second.” He looked at you with sympathy.
“I know.” You mumbled. “But a C- in chem isn’t going to ruin my future.”
“But it isn’t a good sign, ___.” He had that dad look about him. Like he was pondering if he should buy you a pony, or scold you for sneaking around with boys. Or girls. “You have to prioritize your future away from superhero stuff.”
You looked to your hands. “Superhero stuff feels more stable right now.” Thoughts of SAT workbooks, college essays, and graduation requirements made you queasy.
“I know kid.” He reached over and placed his hand over yours. “Do you need help? With chemistry? Honors classes are hard.”
You nodded gently, not wanting to meet his eyes. He had mastered his dissapointed-but-still-loving-dad look, and you didn’t want to face that right now.
“Go to FitzSimmons! They love to lecture, you know.” He said with a wink.
You made your way down to FitzSimmons’ lab (you liked calling it the Fitz-Sim lab) , your SHEILD sweatshirt protecting you against the chill in the headquarters.
When you reached the Fitz-Sim lab door, you walked in automatically, not bothering to knock, since they both enjoyed your company anyway.
“FitzSimmonssss,” you whined. “Director Dad is making you guys tutor me in Honors Chem.”
A voice that didn’t belong to either half of the science duo surprised you. “I could help you out.” A boy about your age sat on a stool next to Jemma’s work desk. He had a tube poking out of him, seemingly drawing his blood. His curly hair fell into his eyes a bit, (in a sorta mesmerizing way) and he was wearing a SHIELD sweatshirt identical to yours. He smiled at you when you walked in. The smile was crooked and endearing. You hadn’t seen him around Headquarters before, but you felt like you recognized his voice.
“W-where’s FitzSimmons?” You were caught off guard by this stranger. He was beautiful. And out of place.
“Dr. Fitz is grabbing lunch and Dr. Simmons is grabbing my lab results.” He said it as if it explained his presence perfectly. It did not.
“I’m sorry, who are you?”
He stuck the hand not hooked up to a tube in front of you. “Peter. Parker. Uh- Peter Parker.” He seemed nervous.
You shook his hand, but were still confused. His name rang a bell, but you couldn’t figure out where you knew him from.
Suddenly Jemma Simmons walked in, carrying a stack of papers, her lab goggles perched on the top of her head.
“Oh hi ___!” She placed the papers down on her desk, and made quick work of unhooking Peter from the tube prodding his arm. “Stay right there, once I’m done with Peter, I need to test you aswell.” She went to grab Peter a bandaid, but he pushed it away.
“Fast healer.” He said simply. He was right, the previously bleeding prick on his arm was now gone, as if there wasn’t a needle in there thirty seconds ago.
“Fascinating,” Jemma trailed off. Peter beamed up at her.
“Wait why do you need samples from both of us?” You asked quickly.
Jemma continued working, labelling the sample of blood she had taken from Peter, and filling out some papers. “To see if your powers are related at all.”
You gaped at her. No one outside of SHIELD was supposed to know about your second identity as Spider Bite.
Noticing your apprehension, Simmons quickly added. “Oh right. This is Spiderman.” She gestured to Peter. “He was here to check in with Coulson about a mission, and I wanted to get a sample before he left.”
You looked back at Peter. Spiderman. You hadn’t really thought about who he was under the mask. You certainly weren’t expecting the awkward gangly teenage boy sat in front of you. He gave you a little wave.
“We’ve already met, but I didn’t want to make you feel bad.” He said sheepishly.
“Right. Mysterio.” You narrowed your eyes at him. That hadn’t worked out well. And Spiderman had gotten all the credit, despite how in the way he was in your efforts.
He laughed nervously. “Uh, also we both did an internship at Stark Enterprises.” He smiled at you. It pissed you off.
Of course. Peter Parker. The kid who always got picked to handle all things Tony Stark. Of course Stark would pick Spiderman to be his prized intern. “Right. Well its good to meet you again. I guess.”
An awkward silence fell over the lab as you tried to not look at Peter’s pretty eyes. After a minute, Simmons spoke up. “Alright Mr. Parker, you are free to go.” Peter got up from the chair.
“Thank you Dr. Simmons!” He waved goodbye like a golden retriever wagging its tail. This was not the Spiderman that you had met in Paris.
“No matter how much I remind him to call me Simmons, he insists on calling me Dr.” Jemma laughed to herself. “What was it you wanted sweetheart?” Jemma asked kindly, while rolling the sleeve of your sweatshirt up so she could clean your arm before taking your blood.
“Well, Director Dad is worried about my grade in Honors Chemistry,” You flinched at the cold of the alcohol swab against your skin. “And he wants me to focus on my future outside of superhero stuff.”
Jemma looked up into your eyes. “When did you start struggling with Chemistry?” She asked, concerned.
“Its only a C-.” You blushed.
“Deep breath in.” You held her hand. “And out.” She punctured your skin with the needle. She knew that you hated that part, so she gave you a motherly kiss on the head once you were all hooked up to the tube. “Do you need my help? What are you struggling with?”
“Its just hard to memorize all the terms.” You whispered.
“We’ll make flashcards after dinner tonight! How does that sound?” The way she flitted about the lab, while still giving you all of her emotional attention, felt very motherly. You couldn’t wait until she and Fitz finally got together to get married so that they could have a kid. The way Fitz explained his programming already felt like a Dad trying to teach his kid math, and Jemma’s eternally loving touch and stern gaze made everyone her child. That was one of the reasons that you loved hanging out in the lab with them. They made you feel at home.
Simmons had finished putting away your sample a while ago, and was now bent over a microscope, with you hovering beside her, while she explained that she was looking for any sign of radiation in your blood, like she saw in Spiderman’s. Then she went on a tangent about radiation and radioactive material recently discovered on planet something-or-other. You sat quietly. With her. You both perked up when Fitz knocked on the lab glass, Pho takeout in his arms. You had a sneaking suspicion that you and Jemma perked up for different reasons. Yours having to do with your lack of breakfast this morning, and Jemma’s having to do with the way Fitz’s smile curled up more when he looked at her.
You ate lunch with them, stealing noodles out of Fitz’s bowl, and Jemma giving you the rest of hers, while they explained what they could of intramolecular forces in polar bonds.
The annoyance of Spiderman’s memory faded, but the memory of Peter Parker’s (pretty) eyes didn’t.