League of Avengers

"A warrior faces his battles head-on," Garen declared, his armor gleaming in the tower's common room light. "Your aunt deserves nothing less than the truth, spoken with courage and honor."

Peter Parker slumped further into the couch, surrounded by Earth's mightiest heroes and their interdimensional allies, all of whom apparently had opinions on how to tell Aunt May he'd joined the Avengers.

"Right, because charging in like a Demacian always works so well," Darius scoffed from his position near the window, massive axe propped against the wall. "The boy needs strategy. Information warfare. Present the facts in a way that achieves the objective."

"You mean manipulation," Garen frowned.

"I mean victory without unnecessary casualties," Darius countered. "Unless you want his aunt to have a heart attack."

"Just be direct," Steve suggested, trying to mediate. "Tell her the truth about who you are and what you're doing."

"Yeah, because that worked so well with my 'I am Iron Man' moment," Tony countered, tinkering with what looked suspiciously like an upgraded spider-suit. "Maybe we ease into it. Start with the internship angle – technically, you are interning with Stark Industries now."

"The internship that involves fighting international conspiracies?" Natasha raised an eyebrow.

"I was thinking more the 'access to state-of-the-art labs and college recommendation letters' part," Tony replied. "We save the conspiracy fighting for the footnotes."

Sejuani, who had been quietly sharpening her flail, looked up. "In the Freljord, we respect strength and honesty. Show her both. Show her you are strong enough to protect yourself, honest enough to trust her with the truth."

"And perhaps," Ahri added from her perch on a nearby windowsill, tails swaying thoughtfully, "you underestimate her capacity to understand. In my experience, those who truly love us often see more than we realize."

"That's... surprisingly profound," Clint commented from somewhere in the ceiling vents.

"Get out of the vents, Barton," Steve sighed.

"Your ceiling passages are tactically advantageous," Darius noted, ever the strategist. "Though easily compromised in case of—"

"We're not discussing tower security right now," Steve interrupted. "Focus on helping Peter."

Garen stepped forward, resting a hand on Peter's shoulder. The gesture would have been more comforting if his armor didn't weigh approximately as much as a small car. "Young Parker, as a Crownguard, I understand the weight of duty and the price of secrets. They burden not just ourselves, but those we seek to protect. Your aunt's love for you is no less valiant than a warrior's oath. Honor it with truth."

"Or," Darius suggested, "we could send the Demacian windbag to tell her. She'll be so relieved you're not him that the Spider-Man thing will seem trivial."

"Your tactical analysis is as lacking as your honor—"

"Enough," Thor's voice boomed. "The boy needs counsel, not another Demacian-Noxian debate."

"Sir," JARVIS interrupted, "Ms. Parker has arrived in the lobby."

Peter shot up. "What? She's here? Now? Why is she here now?"

"Because I called her," Tony said calmly, ignoring Peter's panicked squeak. "Better to do this in person, and this way you can't back out. Plus, I had Happy pick her up, so she's already impressed with the corporate car service."

"I hate you so much right now."

"No, you don't. Now come on – time to face the music. Cap, you're with us. The rest of you... try not to break anything while we're gone."

"That was one time!" Thor protested as Tony led Peter and Steve toward the elevator.

"You and Garen threw Mjolnir AND a spinning sword through three load-bearing walls!"

"We were proving a point about Asgardian architecture!"

"And Demacian steel," Garen added helpfully.

The elevator doors closed on their protests, leaving Peter alone with Tony and Steve. His leg started bouncing again.

"Breathe, kid," Steve advised. "Remember, you're not alone in this."

———————————————————

May Parker stood in the private reception area, looking simultaneously impressed and suspicious. Her eyes narrowed further when she saw Peter.

"So," she said, crossing her arms. "Would someone like to explain why my nephew is in Avengers Tower instead of at his 'study group'?"

Peter opened his mouth, closed it, opened it again – and suddenly everything he'd planned to say vanished. Garen's words about honor and truth echoed in his mind, along with Darius's warning about strategy. How did you tell someone you loved that you'd been lying to them for months?

"Mrs. Parker," Steve stepped forward, every inch Captain America despite the casual clothes. "Your nephew is one of the bravest, most dedicated young men I've ever met. And we'd like to tell you exactly why."

---

Two hours later, Peter sat in the tower's main training room, still processing how the conversation had gone. May hadn't yelled. She hadn't even cried much. Instead, she'd listened, asked sharp questions, and finally delivered what might have been the most intimidating shovel talk in history to Tony Stark and Steve Rogers.

"I still can't believe she threatened to web you both to the ceiling if anything happens to me," Peter commented, adjusting his web-shooters. "Or that she already knew about the spider thing."

"Smart lady, your aunt," Tony replied, checking readings on a tablet. "Makes me glad we didn't go with Darius's 'tactical approach' or Garen's full ceremony suggestion."

"The Demacian way would have shown proper respect," Garen called from where he was setting up training equipment.

"Your 'proper respect' involves a sword ceremony," Darius retorted, adjusting a particularly nasty-looking obstacle. "The woman already threatened Stark and Rogers. Did you want to give her more weapons?"

"If you two are done debating," Natasha called from the training floor, "we have work to do."

The training room had been transformed into an elaborate obstacle course. Each section reflected its designer's expertise: Ahri's sensory challenges, Sejuani's environmental hazards, Thor's electrical fields, Darius's military-grade combat scenarios, and Garen's precision-focused drills.

"The goal," Steve explained, "is to complete the course while adapting to different team members' styles. You'll run it multiple times, each with a different partner."

"First rotation with me," Darius stepped forward, axe gleaming. "Let's see how your agility holds up under real pressure."

The next few hours were intense. Darius taught him battlefield awareness, how to read opponents' positions and exploit weaknesses. "Your strength isn't just in your powers," the Noxian commander explained, "but in making enemies underestimate you."

Garen's session focused on discipline and precision. "Power must serve a purpose," he instructed, demonstrating a perfectly controlled sword technique. "Your abilities give you choices. Your judgment determines which choice is right."

Training with Natasha taught him to move invisibly, while Thor helped master aerial combat. Bruce monitored from the control room, offering scientific insights into his abilities. But it was the session with Ahri that proved most enlightening.

"Close your eyes," she instructed. "Don't try to see me. Feel the air currents, listen to the subtle shifts."

"Like when Darius taught me to read battlefield movements?" Peter asked.

"Similar, but deeper. Your enhanced senses are like mine – they know things before your mind processes them."

The exercise that followed was revelatory. Peter began understanding his spider-sense in new ways, seeing how it connected to everything Garen had said about discipline and Darius's lessons about awareness.

"The boy learns quickly," Sejuani observed, watching him navigate a particularly complex sequence. "Perhaps too quickly."

That's when everything changed.

"Sir," JARVIS interrupted, "I've detected an anomaly in the training room's security feeds."

Everyone tensed. After the recent security breach, any anomaly was serious.

"Nature of the anomaly?" Tony demanded.

"The feeds show normal training activities, but there's a secondary layer of data being collected. Very subtle – only detectable with the new protocols."

Peter frowned, something nagging at his enhanced senses. "During the exercises, something felt off about section three. Like there was feedback that shouldn't be there."

"The Noxian training quadrant," Garen noted, sharing a look with Darius.

"Not mine," Darius growled. "But I know this strategy. Plant observers where enemies expect combat. Let them think they're seeing your tactics while gathering intelligence on theirs."

"JARVIS, full spectrum analysis of section three," Tony ordered. "Peter, what exactly did you feel?"

Peter described the resonance sensation. Tony's expression grew grim as he examined the readings.

"They didn't just bug our systems – they put physical hardware in the tower. Hardware specifically designed to gather data on enhanced individuals."

"A probe worthy of Noxian intelligence," Darius mused. "Though this technology is beyond anything in our world."

"How did they get it in?" Steve demanded.

"More importantly," Natasha added, "how did they know where to put it? That section was designed specifically for testing enhanced reflexes."

"Because someone told them," Bruce said quietly, examining his tablet. "The patterns they were studying weren't just about tactics. They were about our abilities – how different types of enhanced capabilities interact."

"Like studying how my powers work with Asgardian abilities," Peter realized. "Or how Runeterra's magic interfaces with Earth's enhanced individuals."

"Gathering intelligence for a war they haven't declared yet," Darius's voice held grudging respect. "Clever."

"Dishonorable," Garen countered, "but effective. They learn our strengths to forge weapons against us."

"No," Tony's smile was sharp. "Now we have proof of their methods. JARVIS, activate the new tracking protocols. Let's see where this little spy bug sends its data."

"Already tracing, sir. Approximately six hours to break through all security layers."

Steve nodded. "Alright, we play this smart. We let them think their hardware is still hidden, keep feeding them data, but we control what they see. Tony, Bruce – work with JARVIS on the trace. Natasha, coordinate with Clint on potential facilities. Thor, we need Asgardian perspectives on power synthesis. Darius, your military experience – what patterns should we look for? Garen, work with Sejuani on identifying any magical elements we might have missed. The rest of you, we train as normal, but we show them exactly what we want them to see."

"A counter-intelligence operation," Darius smiled grimly. "Now this feels familiar."

"Just remember," Garen cautioned, "whatever we show them must be believable. Even deception requires discipline."

"Wait a second," Peter said, landing next to Tony. "If they're studying our combat patterns... shouldn't we make them impossible to analyze?"

Tony's eyes lit up with that particular gleam that usually preceded explosions. "Kid, I like where your head's at. JARVIS, activate Protocol Party Time - but keep it subtle. We don't want them knowing we know."

The training room's next simulation started normally enough, until Thor's lightning strike perfectly synchronized with the bass drop of some song blasting from Tony's workshop playlist. The god of thunder paused mid-swing, then grinned. "The lightning, it harmonizes!"

"Really, Stark?" Steve sighed, but there was a smile tugging at his lips.

"What? The randomized patterns will mess with their analysis algorithms. Plus, Thor's onto something with that rhythm."

Darius studied the monitors thoughtfully. "Adding controlled variables to disrupt pattern recognition. Unconventional, but tactical."

Peter took to the air, incorporating just enough random movements into his web-slinging to look unintentional. Each flip and twist was precise enough to be combat-effective but just odd enough to confuse anyone studying his movement patterns.

The training session evolved from there, but with method to the madness. Ahri's charm magic made Garen's sword techniques flow in unpredictable patterns - which actually improved his defensive coverage. Thor discovered that timing lightning strikes to music created electromagnetic pulses that scrambled nearby sensors. Darius found that varying his axe techniques with different rhythms produced movement data that would be nearly impossible to categorize.

"Their system is trying to establish baseline patterns," Bruce reported from the control room, barely containing his laughter. "But between Peter's 'random' acrobatics and whatever Clint's doing in the vents—"

"It's called tactical repositioning!"

"—the AI is having a breakdown trying to categorize everything."

The chaos reached new heights when they started incorporating actual training games. Champions and Avengers alike found themselves in elaborate versions of capture the flag and king of the hill, with powers allowed but points deducted for predictable moves.

"You can't just—" Garen protested as Peter webbed past him playing keep-away with his sword.

"Strategic asset denial!" Peter called back, tossing the sword to Thor, who immediately used it as a lightning rod, creating a spectacular but ultimately useless light show.

"The boy shows promise in asymmetrical warfare," Darius noted, before Ahri's charm had him running his own training course backwards.

"Sir," JARVIS interrupted, "the surveillance algorithms appear to be attempting to recalibrate. They've run the same analysis sequence sixteen times."

"Perfect," Tony grinned. "They think their equipment's malfunctioning. Keep the energy signatures just stable enough to be dismissed as normal variance. We want them questioning their own data, not our methods."

The finale came when they staged what appeared to be a complete system malfunction. Peter "accidentally" triggered one of Ahri's illusions while Thor was charging Mjolnir, creating a cascade of effects that looked like technical glitches but were actually precisely controlled chaos.

"The spy tech is now running diagnostic sequences," Bruce reported. "They think their hardware is failing."

"Which means they'll either have to risk exposing themselves by replacing it, or trust increasingly unreliable data," Natasha smiled. "Not bad for an afternoon's work."

"I still can't believe random timing improved my strike accuracy," Darius muttered.

"Sometimes chaos is the best strategy," Clint called from above. "Speaking of which..."

A distinctive clang echoed through the ceiling vents.

"Barton," Tony pinched his bridge of his nose, "please tell me you didn't just—"

The resulting chain reaction would be forever classified in official records as "Training Incident 47-B." Unofficially, the security footage became required viewing at all Avengers team-building events, particularly the moment when Thor's enthusiasm with a lightning demonstration caused a power surge that turned the training room's gravity off just as Darius was teaching Sejuani about Midgardian combat techniques.

"This," Bruce said later, reviewing the data, "is either the most brilliant counter-intelligence operation we've ever run, or we've just convinced our observers that Earth's mightiest heroes are completely unpredictable."

"Why not both?" Peter suggested, helping Tony reset the gravity controls. "I mean, anyone who hacks this footage is either going to think their intel is completely corrupted or that we're too random to properly analyze."

"A warrior's greatest weapon is uncertainty," Darius nodded sagely, before adding, "Though I must admit, Midgardian combat styles are more... creative than expected."

As they wrapped up for the day, Peter felt a mix of pride and concern. His first official day as an Avenger had turned into something much bigger than expected. But looking around at his teammates – from Tony's technical brilliance to Steve's leadership, from Darius's tactical mind to Garen's unwavering principles, from the deadly skills of Natasha to the unique powers of their interdimensional allies – he knew they'd figure it out together.

Plus, he now had footage of Thor accidentally creating an indoor lightning storm while trying to demonstrate proper hammer technique to Garen. May was going to love this.

"Please tell me someone recorded Sejuani's boar charging through Thor's lightning field," he called out.

"Already archived under 'Critical Mission Data,'" JARVIS assured him.

Just another Thursday with the Avengers. Now with more calculated chaos.