Chapter Text
“Fury what is this about?”
The team all looked expectantly at the man standing in the front of the conference room of the Avengers Compound, waiting for him to answer Natasha’s question.
He steeled his gaze, taking a breath like he was swallowing any doubts. “What do you know about Spider-Man?”
Everyone glanced around the room, confusion evident in their gazes as they tried to fish through their memories for information.
“He… he fought in Germany. He sounded young.” Bucky suggested, eyebrows furrowed as he tried to remember more.
“Yeah, he was freaky. Could crawl on walls and make webs and shit,” Sam grunted.
“Steve, Sam said a bad language word.”
“Shut up, Nat.”
“Focus, please. Does anyone know who he is? How to get in contact with him?”
“No,” Bruce frowned. He felt like he should remember this. “The only person to contact him was… Tony.”
The silence in the room was heavy at the mention of the name. All minds flashed to the image of the man leaning against rubble, eyes unblinking as Thanos’s armies dissipated as dust in the wind. Spider-Man seemed close to Tony, Bruce wondered how the kid took it. Somewhere in the back of his mind he saw a vague image of a blue and red figure crying as he held crouched in front of Tony.
Mr. Stark? Hey– Mr. Stark? Can you hear me? It's… Hey. We won, Mr. Stark– We won, Mr. Stark. We won. You did it, sir. You did it. I'm sorry– Tony–
But Bruce doesn’t recognize it, barely even registers it. He doesn’t recognize the voice, see the face or hear the name the hero says, like the memory is shrouded by a thick veil he can’t quite grasp. The only thing he registered was a faint clench of his heart, sharp sympathy reaching out through the veil for whoever the man was.
Steve clears his throat, snapping everyone out of their grieving thoughts. “We don’t know much about Spider-Man. Why?”
“Well, that’s precisely the problem.”
Bruce shot a confused look at Fury, as did many others.
“He is an enhanced individual roaming the streets with no way to contact him, no way to hold him accountable. He hasn’t signed the accords or attempted to make contact with us. He has unknown enhancements, unknown connections, and an unknown identity. We need to know more about him. He is dangerous.”
Bruce scoffed. “He’s not dangerous! He fought with us against…” he trailed off, realizing he couldn’t quite remember seeing the man fight in what Strange had called Endgame. “Oh! He fought against Thanos’s children when they first came to new york, right before the snap! He’s on our side!” Bruce was surprised how protective he was feeling, he didn’t even know the guy but felt like he was supposed to protect him.
Safe. Keep Spider safe. He heard a voice growling in the back of his mind. He shook it off.
“And he also fought against many of you in Germany.”
“I thought you liked the accords, Fury.”
“No, I think they’re shit. But they are still important and they’re the lesser of two evils so I accept them. Begrudgingly.”
“So, you agree with the spider guy’s side in the fight?” Sam asked, quirking his eyebrow in amusement.
“Yes. But the important thing is that he was able to hold his own against you, the Avengers. The fact of the matter is: the guy is dangerous and we don’t know how to hold him accountable if something were to go wrong. If he were to end up on the wrong side, we don’t know how to fight him. We need to learn about him and make sure he is on our side.”
“He is.”
Everyone looked at Bruce. This was the second outburst from Bruce in the meeting, despite the fact that Bruce rarely ever spoke in meetings. No one could figure out why he was so passionate about this, including Bruce himself.
“Well, Dr. Banner, as touching as your faith in the insect is, we can’t just take your word for it.”
“So what’s your plan?” Steve’s expression was hardened, already prepared for whatever mission Fury proposed.
“I need you to find him and take him in so we can learn about his powers and who he is. Then, if he cooperates, we’ll decide if we should establish him as a member of the Avengers or just monitor him.”
“If he doesn’t cooperate?” Natasha’s expression was schooled flat as always, but Bruce heard the slightest hint of apprehension.
“Well, then that’s unfortunate for him. We’ll deal with it. So, starting tomorrow, your mission is to bring in Spider-Man as soon as possible. If he doesn’t cooperate, use whatever force necessary.”
Bruce’s stomach churned at the suggestion, feeling himself going a little green. The guy was the ‘friendly neighborhood’ hero, surely they wouldn’t actually use force, right? Looking around the room, many faces shared his apprehension, some unreadable, but some had a hard glint of determination in their eyes that made him feel nauseous, something in his mind screaming that this was wrong.
He ignored it. He shouldn’t have ignored it.