It had only been around four or five days since Bruce and Tony had to suddenly dash off to a 'party'. Peter wasn't stupid, he knew who they were and what they did, so he could only assume 'party' was a code word to say they were going on a mission or something.

In all honesty, Peter didn't mind. It meant that he could run off and do his patrols more often during the day without having to worry about them making the connection. And he had time to work on his own projects; like repairing and improving his web shooters, and further developing his web fluid to be stronger and more heat resistant. And it worked fantastically, he was very proud.

But, the downside was that, after his personal projects and finishing up the ones he'd been working on with Tony and Bruce he had nothing to do, and it was frustrating. He sat down one of the chairs in the lab, having resorted to playing his phone, to finding new and awkward looking positions that were preferably upside down to think of either something to do, or yet another random position. It usually ended up being the latter.

Hours had passed by the time he'd finally started to doze off when his Spider sense snapped him out of it. But before he could remove himself from his worst (yet very comfortable for him) position, he saw Tony rush into the lab with what looked like a long staff that had a glowing blue gem at the tip. Tony rushed by Peter, probably not even knowing the teen was there, when Banner made his way into the room looking rather flustered.

Peter raised an upside down brow at the doctor who looked around the lab. When his gaze finally landed on Peter, he looked shocked to say the least.

Peter pretended not to care about his staring, obviously thinking about his position from a doctor's perspective. "Nice to see you're both alive" He greeted sarcastically, "Thought I'd be here forever with nothing to do!"

Bruce couldn't help but shake his head with a small, but amused smile. "Nice to see you too, Peter. And uhh... I'm not sure how good that is for your brain..." He said nervously, gesturing to Peter's position.

His eyes widened in surprise. He'd forgotten that he was looking at everything upside down, it was just so relaxing for some reason. In that instant he blamed his powers, but he couldn't be bothered to care too much. "Oh! Yeah, right... Sorry Doctor Banner" Peter quickly flipped himself around to sit on the chair normally.

"It's fine, and please, call me Bruce" He said with a nervous smile, fiddling with his hands again.

"Oh, well okay then Doctor Ban- I mean Bruce. So what's got Tony so interested?"

"Oh, well... You remember when Loki attacked Earth right?" Peter nodded, "Well, that's Loki's scepter. We've finally gotten it back and Thor's letting us have a look at it, but we've only got three days." Bruce explained, already walking around the lab and pulling up screens, starting programs and getting his notebooks.

"That sounds really cool! Is there anything I can do?" Peter asked, getting excited. He hoped off the chair and began walking towards where the scepter was, beginning to examine it. But unfortunately, the closer he got, the more his Spidey sense was screaming at him that it was dangerous. He gave a soft grunt of pain unintentionally, one that thankfully they didn't notice.

Bruce thought for a moment. "Actually yes, we could use all the help we can get. Tony was taking a look at it earlier and he thinks there's an artificial intelligence in the gem."

"Artificial intelligence? Isn't that dangerous?"

"Nah, if we get it right, it'll control the iron legion and much more! We wouldn't have to worry about any Earth threatening situations. So, whatcha say kid? You up for it?" Tony asked, turning towards the teen.

His Spider sense kept telling him it was a bad idea, but for once, he decided not to listen. It had been wrong before, so surely it could be now? It could still be screwy because he was so close to Loki's scepter. "Screw it, why not? It'll be fun"

Tony grinned, clasping his hands together. "Alright my compadres! Let's do this!"

Three days at the lab. At least sixty-six hours awake. Three days running purely on caffeine and basically no food. With the occasional passing out in some strange place over your work purely because you couldn't be bothered to try and stay awake any longer, only to be awoken within an hour or two by some loud noise- usually someone else collapsing or Tony getting angry at his program for not working and throwing things or blasting AC/DC until Bruce couldn't handle it anymore. Three days and the lab was a disaster. Scrunched up papers littering the floor, along with the tables that had a few useful notes. Empty mugs were scattered around the place (even the broken ones that nobody had bothered to clean up yet.

But for some reason, nobody seemed to be too affected by the lack of rest. Tony was just a little grumpy- nothing a few drinks couldn't fix. Bruce remained calm, having gotten a few hours rest the day before, used to unusual sleeping patterns from previous years on the run. Peter was tired, but if being Spiderman taught him anything, sleep wasn't the most important thing in the world anymore (much to a teenagers protests).

"Sir, you have a party to attend this evening, if you would like, I shall keep running variations" Jarvis' voice suddenly spoke out of nowhere.

Tony sighed disappointedly, looking at the time, realizing he only had half an hour before people started to arrive. "Yeah, yeah, Jarvis. Go ahead" He waved his hand nonchalantly, turning to Bruce and Peter. "So, you two ready for a party?"

Bruce shrugged, taking off his glasses and putting them in his pocket. "Sure, see you both in a bit"

"Uh, I'm not sure if I can-"

"Nonsense! Your one of us now! Science bros, that's us!" He said cheerfully, roughly wrapping an arm around Peter.

"Fine, just let me get changed. You're lucky my Aunt always makes bring an extra set of clothes" He muttered, unable to hold back the tiniest of smiles. Tony chuckled and clapped him on the back.

"Floor eighty, see ya there Pete!"

Peter sighed, gathering up his backpack and heading out of the lab and into a bathroom.

An hour later found Peter in the middle of the best party he'd ever been to. Ignoring the fact that he'd never been to a party in the first place (Birthdays and Christmas didn't count!) he was having a really good time. He'd managed to have a conversation with Thor, who'd attempted to give him some of his thousand year old liquor as he passed by, laughing as a bunch of old people instantly either passed out or got so high it wasn't even funny- well a little.

He snickered when he saw Bruce and Natasha talking, deciding not to intrude on their moment, but managing to stay in ear shot to hear their conversation. Peter had made a point to subtly avoid Steve, paranoid he'd recognize his voice or something, but unfortunately as things died down and there weren't many people left, Steve just had to notice Peter leaning against the wall on his own. So, being the good man he is, decided to start a conversation.

Peter looked up as Steve approached, smiling slightly nervously when he stopped beside him, obviously unsure what to say. They stood in silence leaning against the wall together before Steve finally found his voice.

"So, uh, Peter, is it?" He asked, turning to look at the lanky teen.

"Ye-yeah, that's me. Little old Peter Parker standing in front of his hero- wait!" Peter groaned, burying his face in his hands. Steve just laughed, amused by his reaction.

Planting a hand on Peters shoulder, he spoke up again, "It's alright, Tony's said more embarrassing things than that I can assure you."

Peter shook his head at himself, looking back up at the Captain. "Thanks... I think."

"So, what brings a young man like yourself here? If you don't mind me asking"

"Well, Doctor Banner kinda just came to my house and went 'hey want a job?' and now here we are. Apparently he liked my report on cross-species genetics"

Steve nodded, remembering when they went to his house. "Cross-species genetics? What's that, sounds like something I wouldn't understand..."

Peter chuckled, "Actually, it's fairly simple. It's just getting it to work that's the problem. Okay, so, do you remember the uhh... 'Lizard' incident a few months back?" Steve nodded," Well, Doctor Connors was working with cross-species genetics. He wanted to take the ability to regrow limbs from a lizard. He and my dad had spent years on the project, except, with spiders the first time. They'd made a spider-human hybrid where they'd be able to use the venom to cure cancers and stuff. But when my dad died, almost all their work was lost and that's why he started using lizards. Well, he ended up testing it on himself and I guess you know the rest."

Steve nodded again, noting the sadness in Peter's eyes as he thought of what happened. "Good thing Spiderman was there though"

Peter looked down at his feet, softly mumbling "He would've liked some help though..." Steve looked at him, barely having heard what he said. Why would he care so much about it? Another thing that was bothering Steve, is that he felt like he'd met the kid before, he just couldn't figure out where.

"Why do you say that?" Steve questioned, getting rather curious. But before Peter even thought about answering, they hear Tony obnoxiously calling them all over to the couches now that everyone was gone. Peter quickly complied, wanting more than anything to get out of the question.