Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Peter wasn't exactly quick to fulfill his spider-at-night scheme, with his patrol times primarily being later in the day and at night, he had limited time at the tower.

However it worked in his favor as well, because even if most of the avengers remembered that he could do those things, it should be possible to terrify them once again.

So, here he was sitting in a dark corner of the kitchen, on the roof of course, there wasn't even any guarantee one of his teammates would wander out into the kitchen in the middle of the night.

As to not be awake for no reason, Peter was using his phone to work on some coding projects, sure it would be easier to use a computer, but he could transfer the code over rather easily if he really wanted to.

And then he heard it, footsteps heading towards the kitchen, and something he had figured out just from hanging out with the rest of the avengers was how their footsteps sounded.

So of course he was grinning when it wasn't someone who would be calmer about it like Clint or Natasha, instead it was Steve.

Which made a decent amount of sense, since it wasn't truly the middle of the night and was currently around four in the morning.

Peter kept a close eye for when Steve would walk in, putting his phone into his pocket.

Steve would go for a run every morning, and it would just be earlier or later depending on if the super soldier wound up having a messed up sleep schedule.

So it would be time for a snack before the run just to make sure the man's metabolism wouldn't curse him to a life of pain, something Peter could relate to but hadn't been able to do much about for a long while when first starting out as a hero.

Shaking his head, Peter knew he needed to get back on track scaring Steve.

So he pulled his mask down onto his face, the lenses to his mask being a glowing red, something he had arranged with Karen, a new protocol he called ‘scare mode' and he had been lucky enough that Tony hadn't gotten alerted to it.

With his last few seconds before Steve made it into the kitchen, Peter strung a few webs to step on for when he needed to move in a more daunting way.

Back in the corner, he grinned when Steve walked in, the man had glanced around as if he expected Peter to be somewhere, but didn't manage to catch a glimpse of the narrowed red lenses.

Waiting until Steve was rummaging through the box of specially designed protein bars, Peter hissed in a low grumble kind of way.

Steve jumped and looked towards the corner, where he could see the red lenses.

It caused the man to take a few steps back, “jeez!-” there was a sharp intake of breath as Peter jumped forward onto a line of web, causing it to swing back and forth slowly.

With another hiss, Steve dashed to grab a protein bar before getting out of the kitchen, heading for the elevator to get away.

Dashing between lines of web, Peter landed in front of the elevator with the metal legs of the iron spider spreading outwards while Steve watched with a spooked expression.

Once those doors had closed, Peter kept his grin as he turned off scare mode and went back to his room to take off the suit and possibly get a few hours of sleep.

“Friday did you get that on camera?” He asked while pulling blankets around him on his bed.

“Of course I did, Peter” Friday almost matched his mischievous tone of voice, something that had Peter grinning once again.

“Thanks Fri!” He chirped as he laid down, thinking of all the ways he could make it more terrifying.

Those ways included utilizing different web stand points to dash and flip around, along with using his mechanical spider legs to move quicker and in a more spider-like way.

So he moved to the training room while everyone else was away, setting up some webs he started practicing maneuvering around the different lengths and gaps.

And with each time done right, he started to use more of his odd movements to get around quicker and creepier.

Once he was done with a group of webs, he'd change the layout.

Pretty quickly it became easier to tune into what everyone else was speaking about, more importantly what frantic things Steve was saying to Clint.

“I think he was trying to stab me with a mechanical leg!” Steve certainly sounded panicked.

Peter expected Clint to deny it, but surprisingly in the most calm tone of voice Clint responded with, “Spiders are territorial, maybe he was too tired to control the instincts.”

“Hell yea-” he got caught on one of the webs, maybe he should've been paying a bit more attention.

Pulling his arm free, he focused on getting back into the flow of it before listening back in.

“It was probably a one time thing” Clint was saying it still in a calm voice.

However Steve had also begun calming down, “you're right, but if it happens again I'll tell everyone.”

Peter was starting to realize that maybe Clint was helping him with the scare, because if another avenger was posing a threat, it would be the best course of action to tell everyone.

It was pretty likely Clint had immediately recognized it to be a joke, considering the man did have kids of his own who would probably also jump at the opportunity to scare the world's greatest heroes.

Another failed jump made him pay attention to what he was doing once again.

Pretty soon however, he heard someone coming close to the training room so he cleared out the webs and retracted his spider legs, walking out and heading towards his room, giving a happy smile to Steve on his way.

That night came rather quickly, and he started to set up webs to jump around, creating an intricate pattern of the different strings of the webs.

With all of it set up, he sat in a crosspoint for six of the web lines, right in the middle of the living room, high enough up to be able to hold a steady hand on the ceiling.

Right before he could continue the code he was working on, he heard footsteps, causing him to spread out the legs of the iron spider, each one touching a web.

Preparing a pouncing position, he listened to the steps. They were quiet and careful, though they weren't as quiet or careful as Nat's steps.

After paying a bit more attention, he frowned and his legs moved back into the suit, “Clint why couldn't you have been someone I could scare.” He complained as the man walked into the room and flicked the lights on, something that had Peter blinking a few times.

 “I needed to make sure me brushing off Steve's terror was the right move.” Clint looked around at what was the web for Peter to move across was, “Who knows, you really could've been trying to murder someone.”

Swinging down on a web, Peter chuckled, “I doubt I would ever do that; The worst the spider instincts have done is making me hiss at people.”

“Not even bite anyone? Because I swear my daughter occasionally just says she has the urge to bite things, so being part spider would probably amplify that.” Clint smiled softly for a moment, seemingly thinking about his daughter and her craziness.

Peter could also smile at that, before his face shifted to something a little more serious “I don't anymore after I thought I killed a guy when figuring out I had venom.” He winced at the memory just because he could feel his own panic from the experience, “The fangs aren't even noticeable until I'm actively poisoning someone!”

“Yeah I didn't even notice that those were actual fangs” Clint chuckled for a moment, “well I'm gonna go back to sleep now that I know you aren't going to accidentally kill someone” the man turned and started walking off, “don't stay up all night”

“You should know that's not happening!” Peter called back as he flipped the lights back off, sleeping wasn't going to happen until he could scare at least one more person.

Swinging back on the web with practiced ease, he spent a few minutes just mindlessly climbing along the webs, waiting for something to happen.

When he decided walking around wouldn't exactly do anything for him, he sat back close to the middle of the room and continued on the code once more, at this rate he'd have the code done before he was done scaring.

To be fair he wasn't sure when he'd stop, either when he got to scare most of the avengers, or when they just figured out it was him messing around.

Whichever comes first, he supposed.

Every hour or so, he'd move around to just stretch, even at some point grabbing a snack that he was worried would get him caught.

And after three hours, yes he was counting, he froze hearing the slightest noise of footsteps, so he stashed his phone in his pocket and tried to silently stretch out his spider legs.

The footsteps were that of a spy, so he was easy to piece together who it was, Natasha.

It would certainly pose a challenge to actually scare her, sure he had managed to startle her, but actually scaring her might not happen.

So… he decided on the backup plan, making her paranoid and occasionally looking spider-like in the limited light of the room.

She was heading towards the kitchen, so he followed, intentionally strumming a few webs along the way, causing her to look back.

Peter was silent enough to make her go back to what she was doing, but another issue appeared, she turned on the lights in the kitchen.

Which made him scurry back into the darkness, while simultaneously questioning why the hell Steve had gotten his food in the dark.

He watched from afar as she got a glass of water, before leaning on a counter while drinking it, seemingly a little on guard, with looks that he swore met his own gaze most of the time towards the dark.

But the one thing that helped him out was allies.

A grin appeared on Peter's face as the lights flickered for a few seconds before completely turning off.

And that made Nat immediately go on guard, silently she set down the mostly empty glass of water on the counter and moved to a more battle ready position.

Peter moved slowly forward, loudly hitting a web before jumping further towards her on a different web line, making her have to look around at different areas, not able to see in the dark like Peter's slight night vision.

Friday seemed to sense the vibe and made the lights flash for a second, Peter used the second to pounce forward, aiming for a closer and lower web as a way to scare Nat.

However he probably should've planned for the possibility of weapons, because before he knew it a gunshot ran through the air and his side blossomed with a familiar pain.

He didn't even need to cause himself to hide the pained sound, because that sound was a hiss, something that was likely to be creepy.

Peter had a choice to make here, stop acting spider-like because he had just been shot, or continue on as to not risk the scares.

So…

He crawled along the web once again, metal legs supporting him more when pain shot through him.

Peter knew that Friday would be quick to alert Tony he had been injured, but that still left ample time to finish scaring Natasha and getting back to his own room.

Speaking of Natasha, she had seemed to hesitate to attack again, probably realizing that even if she believed that he was completely spidery right now, she still just shot him.

The taps of the spider legs were a little more noticeable now as well, so Peter decided to just go for the more direct approach, hissing another time.

Clutching his side when a flare of pain went through him, Peter could feel the blood on his hand, and he grimaced at the feeling of the liquid.

Moving closer to Nat again, she backed up, but had put away the gun, clearly knowing that shooting him was the wrong move that had really been reflex.

It would probably confuse her if he didn't appear to have been shot in the morning.

Which obviously meant he had to do just that and act like he wasn't injured at all, which wouldn't be as difficult as it would be for most, he had to go to school injured more times than he could count.

Such is the life of a vigilante.

Attempting to wipe the tears gathered in his eyes because of pain wasn't Peter's brightest idea, as it just got blood on his face, but he'd just have to deal with it until he decided enough was enough.

The lights flickered once again for a couple of seconds, and he figured he must either look scary, or on the verge of dying, because Nat took a step back with a scared look.

Jumping down onto the ground with the spider legs catching him, the clink it made being a shock of a sound in the silent room.

The feeling of losing blood had him deciding it had been long enough, so he moved back to his room, legs clinking against the ground to indicate him leaving.

And he could hear Natasha following, so with a hiss, he shot a web to stop her and ran into his room.

Peter took a deep breath almost as soon as he was in his room, that was a mild success, but getting shot wasn't something he wanted to do again.

“Friday if you already alerted Tony can you tell him I'll be fine dealing with the wound alone?” Peter was going into the bathroom connected to his room to reach the first aid supplies he knew were kept there.

Friday was quick to respond, “he is insisting to come and make sure everything is okay”

“Tell him that I'm already handling it and that he can check in the morning.” Peter huffed, pulling out the bandages and a special device to get bullets out, something which he used hastily before wrapping the wound, “also mention that I'm about to go to sleep.”

“Tony agreed,” Friday finally said.

That made Peter smirk a bit, knowing that mentioning sleep would work perfectly, it was no secret that Peter needed more sleep, similar to Tony himself.

Pulling himself under his blankets, he sighed, “Scaring the person with weapons always on them wasn't a very bright idea” Peter tried to get comfy without aggravating the gunshot wound.

It took awhile, but eventually he could feel the pull of sleep.

Tony had made sure to fuss over him in the morning, but had promised to not tell anyone even if he found it odd.

Peter would just have to scare Tony at some point, then the man would know why he didn't want anyone knowing about the injury.

Soon after Tony left and Peter got ready for the day, he walked into the living room with the best act he could pull together considering he had just gotten shot hours prior.

And he was very glad to see his target in the room, Natasha was talking to Bruce and she had immediately glanced over at Peter with a worried look when he walked in.

He gave a happy smile and wave to them, walking towards the elevator, Peter was tempted to talk to her but he needed to act normal; so he was heading to the lab.

While in the elevator he listened to what the two were saying, Bruce spoke first “he seemed fine to me, are you sure you weren't having a nightmare?”

“I saw the blood two hours later!” Nat retaliated.

“There's no blood there now though,” Bruce sighed, “you could just ask Peter about it”

That was an interesting thing, the blood had gotten clean, and presumably by someone who would understand what could've happened, meaning Tony or Clint.

But it wouldn't really be something he would get to know unless he asked them or if one of the two brought it up.

Asking Tony might ruin the scare value though, so he went on his merry way and worked on things in the lab, starting to put that code to good use.

Peter had been working on another spy-der robot that could track, record, launch webs, and make silly little noises.

Not to be confused with Nat, the resident Spy-der.

Also not to be confused with Peter himself, the resident spider.

And if he could finish the code in time, he could use it as help to scare people, although he really only had a few people left to actually scare unless he started to do it more than once, which would work for Steve, but definitely not Nat.

Shaking the plans away, he focused back on working on the robot.

Peter had not gotten to finish the robot in basically any sense while in the lab, and he was sad he wouldn't get to use it on what would probably be his best scare.

Bruce Banner, who was currently walking towards the living room unaware of the spider waiting for him in the darkness.

It was a disappointment he wouldn't get to go all out with robots and specialized things, but he'd do the absolute best he could with what he had.

So he perched up on one of the highest webs, and waited until Bruce was well into the room before making a quiet hissing sound for a few long seconds, sounding almost like television static.

The noise seemed to put Bruce off, glancing around in the dark room, making a swift walk towards the light switch, but Peter couldn't let that happen, so he shot a web over the light switch and hoped that would do the trick.

At the prospect of not being able to use the light switch, Bruce seemed to make a consideration, looking between the kitchen and the elevator.

Peter knew not to try scaring him more at this point, he could block off the exits if Bruce went to the kitchen, so he stayed as silent as he physically could.

After another moment of what felt like everlasting silence, Bruce hesitantly walked towards the kitchen, eyes set on the light switch.

The spider let the man have a sense of security as the lights flicked on, it was something Peter had prepared for however, keeping webs clear of the kitchen light this time.

Peter was putting trust in the tower's ai, hoping she would keep the elevator closed as he webbed the stairs door to the wall, and then used a different web setting to create a quick web over the doorway to the hallways containing bedrooms.

He paid attention to Bruce once again, stalking closer on a long web, hissing quietly once again.

Bruce tensed up hearing it, glancing towards the darkness that the man wouldn't know would cover the entire floor soon.

With a loud hiss, he pounced forward at the same time as shooting a web and flicking the light off, Bruce getting to see the suit for a few moments before being bathed in shadows.

And Bruce let out a full on shriek like he was about to be murdered, stumbling backwards and away from Peter, dropping the glass he was holding, unfortunately causing Peter to slice his foot while landing.

He immediately knew that he was once again on a time limit, similar to when he needed to hurry because of Tony rushing to see why he had gotten shot, but this time it was the entire Avengers team because Bruce had just screamed bloody murder.

However he could also see the telltale signs of Bruce trying to keep calm and not get too upset, so he made an audible scuttle away and into the living room, hissing when he accidentally shattered a smaller piece of glass.

“Scared of glass?” Bruce mumbled, before Peter could hear the cabinet opening and glasses clinking together.

Peter used webs to yank the glass away, wincing when the glass shattered from being hit into a pillar, but to keep up the act and also just express his annoyance he hissed, looking similar to a bristled cat.

Of course Bruce didn't see that though, so the man, full force, probably tapping into the hulk's strength, chucked a glass right where Peter was.

Luckily Peter had a web above him and the handiest spider sense around, so he managed to jump up and snag onto the web right before the glass exploded into tiny shards.

Going completely silent, he moved across the webs, the only sound being the occasional ‘thwip of his web shooters firing and hitting walls.

Bruce stood defensively armed with a glass, looking alert and mouthing out numbers to stay calm.

Taking this time to listen to where the other avengers were, he could hear Tony telling Friday to let him on the elevator, especially because Peter was pretty sure Friday would alert Tony of him being injured even if it was just some glass.

The avengers in their rooms were getting armed, and Nat was about to get out into the hallway.

Bruce has settled a little, so Peter thought it would be time to break out the big guns, so he quietly whispered “make my lenses red”

“Color changed successfully,” Karen's kind voice said.

“Thanks Karen” he whispered in response, also letting the robotic spider legs appear from his back, walking along the web towards Bruce, tilting his head as he approached, red eyes piercing through the darkness.

Bruce, clearly off put, tried throwing another glass, but the attempt was futile as Peter dodged with ease, only furthering his prowl towards Bruce.

The lights flickered for just a moment, and then in the darkness a voice could be heard, “Fuck there's a web!” Steve had made it there first, and had gotten stuck in the web he had masterfully placed in the hallway.

Based on the sounds of it too, there were a few more people around, he could hear Tony coming up the elevator.

It was sad he couldn't gasp at the profanity Steve had used, even though the captain only cursed occasionally in high stress situations, everyone still makes fun of him each and every time 

It was time to up his act before he was revealed, Peter shrugged, turning to look at Steve, lights flickering at an appropriate time to see the robotic legs moving into a pouncing position.

“Steve, get out of that web!” Bruce grabbed another cup and managed to hit Peter with it, the lights flickered red for the few moments the shattered and flew off of the metal legs it had hit.

There was a sound of struggle as Steve attempted to get free, but Peter hissed and ran to the web Steve was trapped in, climbing on top of it with ease even as it shook.

Peter placed two metal legs on Steve's head, while webbing the man completely up, spraying a web over his mouth before getting a glass cup to the back of his head and causing him to fall forward, feeling pain blossoming from the back of the head.

“Oh crap-” Bruce had heard the thud and wasn't thrilled about actually hurting Peter as he assumed he did, he was simply trying to keep Steve alive in a moment of panic.

Nat approached slowly, Peter listened to each step, “Peter? You okay?”

Waiting a few good seconds, he jumped up and webbed Nat, hissing loudly.

He grinned at the yelps and sounds of people jumping, spider legs flaring outwards as he stops, and as the elevator doors opened and Tony ran out, his threatening shadow loomed over Clint and Bucky, both of which looked less worried than the rest of the group.

There was a faint glow from Tony's repulsor blasters as the elevator doors closed, “Friday turn on the lights”

Peter was concerned his plan would be foiled, but as the lights flashed a dim glow for ten seconds before going dark again, he grinned, turning towards Tony.

Jumping onto the webs in the air, he jumped web to web towards the man, low quiet hiss prevalent in the silence of the room.

“Tony, don't fall into your father instincts” Bruce warned, “he is eight armed and dangerous.”

Peter struggled to keep in a laugh at that, which caused his hiss to stop ringing through the room, snapping attention back to him, so he stayed there quietly, trying to push a fake recognition in his eyes.

“Peter, hey Pete, mind fixing whatever you did to the lights and retracting your legs?” Tony tried to reason with him, and Peter almost chuckled at that, but he didn't, he took a small step forward before pouncing at him.

Tony dodged and Peter jumped back onto a web, hissing loudly, spider sense warning him of something mid jump to another web.

He got another glass to his head, damn it's like they were trying to give him a concussion, Peter tumbled to the ground, spider legs helping to land perfectly but he pushed himself into a roll and when he stopped left his spider legs curled around him like a dead spider.

“Bruce what the hell?!” Tony called out, rushing over to Peter and illuminating him with the repulsors.

Peter kept his eyes closed, relying on hearing the most out of all his senses, something Matt had hard pressed into him after learning Peter just got overwhelmed constantly by only being able to control his hearing a very limited amount of time.

Friday seemed to turn on the lights at that point, if the mumbled complaints about the brightness from Clint meant anything.

Bruce seemed hesitant to replay, “I'm sorry! It wasn't like I could see where I was throwing, just the general direction” he walked over.

Steve had gotten free, “why were you throwing cups to begin with?!

“He stopped what he was doing most of the time when glass shattered-” Bruce saying it out loud kind of made it seem like a horrible thing to keep doing, “I was kind of worried about being killed, he's absolutely terrifying.”

“Well you're gonna help me get him to the medical floor.” Tony was angry, clearly “so help me Bruce after Peter gets helped I'm going to throw you out of the tower.”

“I think Bruce is reasonable for having the response of violence” Natasha sighed, “I might have shot him…”

“You're the one who?!-” Tony turned to look at her, rage boiling because of how protective he felt over Peter.

Peter chose this moment to switch to his innocent child act, groaning and putting a hand to his head, “what happened…?”

“Someone” he shot a pointed look at Bruce, “threw a glass cup at you because he's scared of spiders”

“Wow what did he plan to do after that, put a paper underneath it to catch me?” Peter joked, but still attempted to push some pain into his voice.

Which was surprisingly easy to do even if the most pain he had was an almost fully healed gunshot wound, the shards of glass in his skin was a pain that he was used to.

“We're bringing you to the medbay, we all know you joke when you try to hide things, mostly your pain” Natasha said from where she was, still trying to get off a few remaining webs.

Peter grimaced, he didn't even think about that, but if it worked on his side he guessed it's fine.

Clint finally spoke up, “is now a bad time to say I put an exploding arrow on him while he was all spidery?” The quick look Clint shoots him is enough to reassure Peter that no he does not have a bomb attached to him.

“Holy shit Clint, why would you do that.” Bucky said it in a worried but knowing way, and Peter had no idea how he had figured it out but Bucky had figured out the joke.

That or Clint told him.

“Clint where the hell did it land?!” Tony was ten times more panicked, checking over Peter as quickly as he could.

Clint simply shrugged, “it's gonna go off any second now”

“Oh my God, Clint help find it!” At this point Steve had rushed over, just as worried about Peter as the rest of the people who still believed it.

Natasha had gone silent, something which made Peter glanced at her, and she had narrowed eyes, she was about to figure it out.

Peter's robotic spider legs stretched outwards, ending the curled up position they were before, “Well if I'm about to blow up I'm going to do it somewhere comfortable like my room.”

“Peter, no?!-” Tony tried to grab his arm but Peter seamlessly flipped up onto a web line and started walking with a perfect balance.

However then the world spun a little bit and he jumped onto the ceiling to have a better balance, “buh-bye”

Peter grinned hearing Bruce gasp, “he shouldn't know that web was there! He wasn't-” and then his door closed, knowing Bruce realized that he wasn't truly consumed by instincts.

Even if he wasn't excited to probably get grounded for doing that, Peter knew he had won at scaring them.

It was a happy ending for him.

…

“Peter I scanned your injuries, you have a concussion.” Friday said, concussion he probably got falling on the ground the first time.

“Fuck.”