nexus_crossings | Doing Good

The AV field can only protect the Nexus so much.

Sure, it makes sure no one's hurt for the most part unless it's broken. And that does cut down on a lot of crime. Kinda hard to murder someone, or rob someone at gunpoint if there's no real threat to the victim. But petty theft? Pushing someone down, taking their shit, and running off? That's a huge crime problem in the Nexus. Especially with hundreds of doors to flee to other worlds and PINpoints to get back to a safe house of the thief's choosing.

And wouldn't you know it? Petty theft is one super hero's bread and butter specialty. Webbing a thief up doesn't hurt them and it keeps them from pointing away long enough to call in the sheriff or his volunteer officers to scoop up the criminal. It does leave some stolen goods unaccounted for though. Which is why there's a friendly Nexushood Spider-Man calmly walking through the plaza with a handbag and some kind of weapon in each hand. A ways back is a struggling reprobate webbed up good and snug to a tree.

Every now and then he stops and holds them both aloft.

"Hey, anyone missing these? Does anyone know who had their stuff stolen? Is there a lost and found in the Nexus?"

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Still a schoolkid, Steve concludes, looking at him, and he's not sure if that breaks his heart just a little bit? Because this is a hell of a vocation to get caught up in at a tender age. Guys like them--him, and Tony, and this kid--they don't retire or quit. Like the Jets in West Side Story, except with more neuroses and a responsibility to protect the innocent.

Steve doesn't get most of the technical terminology that comes out of Spider-Man's mouth, but the way he drops it tells him a lot about the young man. He's not, Steve thinks, even trying to talk over his head. It's the speech patter and enthusiasm of a kid talking about his favorite subject. (It also reminds him of Tony, except that Tony manages to sound patronizing a lot of the time, whether he means to or not).

"You may have one too many side-jobs to make that work already," he tells him with a little smile. "But you sure sound like you know what you're doing."

Spider-Man (boy, really) looks back up at Steve and there's a huge grin on his face now. He's excited to the point of beaming just to be able to try one of these experiments and even more thrilled for someone to find it interesting enough to pay attention to. It's a really raw deal being a super hero at this age. Wanting attention so badly but knowing you can't have it as yourself.

The anonymity is for everyone's safety, Peter reminds himself. Aunt May's. Ned's. It's better this way. But knowing that Steve Rogers--the original Avenger and super hero--thinks he's a smart cookie no matter if it's Peter Parker or Spider Man just fills him with pride. And yeah, it's probably best he doesn't tell Steve that. Man get's enough people looking up to a legend that's more propaganda than fact. But it's a lot simpler than that in Spider-Man's situation. Kid just really needs some parental figures in his life and he's not above assigning attachments to adults when they offer it.

He probably should be more careful just how many people he trusts though.

"Who me? I can multitask like a champ. But I'm perpetually late to everything as it is just juggling home life and this so...you might have a point." Speaking of points, Spider-Man hops back up to his feet from where he'd been squatting jotting down notes and takes a look around. The pen trick is pretty neat but it's not going to give him any new data. Oh! Peter rummages around in his backpack and pulls out the (slightly bruised) apple Aunt May had given him on his way out the door and gets to taping it to the back of the PINpoint.

"Okay. We're moving up to organic matter. I've got this thing set on a timer so I'm gonna hit the button and it should point right over there by that bench. You ready?"

Maybe there's a subtle ulterior motive here, too, even though Steve isn't usually prone to ulterior motives. If Tony's new protege is this genuinely interested in his friendship--and Steve would give it freely, either way--that's a sign that the bridge isn't so far burnt it can't be mended. Or at least that Tony feels bad enough about his own actions that he's unwilling to badmouth Steve's part in the falling out completely.

In any case, Steve Rogers has a heart, which he wears on his sleeve, and the obvious enthusiasm the kid has for this project touches it. No matter how uncertain he is at this point that he's a suitable role model, Steve is used to people looking at him as such. It's an honor and a privilege. He's going to do it justice here for the kid's sake, not his own.

"You still in school? That's important too. If you are." Oh, Steve is dead positive this kid is still in school. Probably high school. But if he keeps it vague enough that it sounds like he maybe thinks he's in college, maybe the 'do your homework' message will come across softer.

"One of these days I should go back to university," he murmurs, half to himself. He's got a two-year art degree and a half dozen honorary degrees from various U.S. colleges. If tomorrow the world were permanently safe and he had no further work to do, and he and Bucky could come home? Yeah, once they were out of therapy, he'd put them both through school.

Anyway. He blinks at the apple and smiles. "And if it comes out the other side as applesauce, we'll know something's not quite right? Sure thing, let's do this."

Steve greatly overestimates how much interaction Spider-Man actually has with said Tony Stark. The man keeps himself chronically busy to the point of overexertion and the most often Spidey talks to him is usually through Happy relaying a text that might hold some importance of things he's noticed while patrolling the streets. More than likely Tony watches what Spider-Man's doing much more carefully than Spidey even yet realizes, but as for direct contact?

Not so much.

"Huh? I uh--oh right!" University huh. God he doesn't even want to think about that. Sure, there's ESU and all but the amount of money it would cost even to get a four year degree, let alone a masters is enough to send a kid into a spiral of anxiety. "I am. Yeah."

He's beyond grateful for the change in subject. Thank god for science experiments.

"Yeah, something like that." Spider-Man hits the button and takes a step back away from the PINpoint and apple before it disappears in a tiny 'bip!' and reappears at the same time over on the ground next to Steve. It's no more or less bruised when Steve picks it up. Is the stem facing the other way? Impossible to tell really, maybe it's just turned slightly somehow.

He probably wouldn't be too surprised to hear that. Disappointed, but not surprised. It's struck him that sometimes Tony expresses affection for someone by studiously avoiding their presence. Platonic affection, at least. He's pretty sure he didn't dodge Pepper a lot when they were together (maybe they're back together now? that'd be good). But really, all the Avengers are workaholics. It comes with the territory. With every triumph over desperate odds, you win more and more and more fear--next time, you might not get so lucky, might watch so many innocent people die, because you failed--

Why do they do this to themselves? Steve supposes someone has to, but that a dismal train of thought.

"...what was that noise?" He asks when the apple transports over to him. He picks it up carefully, looking it over. "Does the device make a sound or was that the air displacing or something? Apple looks...okay, I think?"

He should have taken a closer look before Peter moved it. The bruises seem right, but if he'd paid closer attention he could make a definitive answer about the direction the stem should be facing in.

"It makes that noise whenever it moves something. It did it with the pen too."

Freaked Spidey right the heck out the first time but he's more or less gotten used to it. Spider-Man is quick to hop over to where Steve's at holding the apple aloft and his grin is huge underneath the mask even though it can't really be seen. The rest of his body language more than makes up for it.

"Nice! Oh man, that's so cool that it worked!"

"That's interesting...I wonder what causes that?"

He sniffs the apple delicately, as if to make sure it wasn't cooked from the inside out or anything, then grins as the kid hastens over to him. He's really starting to like him. "I mean, I guess if you want to make sure the molecular-whatevers haven't changed in it, I could take a bite for you and tell you how it tastes."

He's halfway joking, and he hands the apple right to him in any case, satisfied it isn't about to turn into a fruit grenade. "I'm impressed."

Doing Good

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Leading in to Peter's next science experiments with a certain Exo

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