Chapter Text
Chapter 1, Impressions
Peter stood in Director Nick Fury’s office, patiently waiting for him to arrive as he looked at the room presented to him. There was a faint smell of alcohol from the auburn liquids in the back on glass shelves, and the furniture had a thin coat of dust on it. No pictures were displaying of he or his family, though there were a few. There were framed images that stood on a small nick knack shelf including: a beautiful blonde woman in a fighter jet that made Peter feel a sense of feminism, The Avengers, Maria Hill, Phil Coulson, and an orange cat for whatever reason.. The decor looked to be designed by engineers. It was mostly matte black, with white LED lights behind glass shelves. The room felt intimidating to even be in, like it slapped peter across the face to be in here. In the corners were cabinets that looked to have not been touched in quite some time, but they had a number code meaning whatever was in there, was important.
One thing Peter really liked about this office was the view. It’s not exactly something you see everyday, or anything like it anywhere else. There was a giant window that loomed over the SHIELD facility. You could see Quin Jets landing on the docking ports, Agents socializing and walking down a walkway that travels through the rich grass, and next to the docking bay was the main building, where agents construct teams, engineers working on their projects in the lab, and friends casually having lunch together. A sense of peace washes over Peter at the glimpse of humanity. The building Peter was currently in, was for the federal government. The most boring and important building. The headquarters of SHIELD.
One thing Peter suddenly noticed was a woman’s slim figure in the glass reflection of the outside scenery. She was tall, had caramel skin, messy natural hair, and a small shocked expression upon seeing Peter.
The agent had seen this woman around quite a few times. Sometimes he would catch her in another building watching him- since there wasn’t a lot of privacy due to security reasons- and other times when she would quietly sat down next to him unnoticed by the very observant spy. He had not really talked to her other than saying “excuse me”, no introduction, and no idea who this mysterious woman was. The young woman looks to be contemplating on what to do in the glass window. To put her out of her misery, Peter slowly turns around to make himself known, making her jump slightly but recover quickly.
“Sorry, I just needed something.” The mysterious woman said casually as she cleared her throat. Peter slightly lifted his eyebrows, but offered her a small smile. Her voice struck Peter as a strong, and feminist kind of agent. The most inspiring type in his opinion.
“Don’t let me stop you.” Peter said with a friendly tone, moving out of the way for her to acquire what she needed. The timid woman walks in, and suddenly the room doesn’t make Peter feel so intimidated anymore. It was like a fluffy blanket wrapped around him, making him feel safe. “Thanks.” muttered the tall girl. Her heart rate spiked so high upon passing Peter, getting a small scent of the cologne he wore on his person. It was sweet and masculine, and very fitting for Peter in her opinion. She makes it to the other side of the room, feeling extremely nervous, and opened up the cabinet at the left corner. There was a file in there that she had retrieved. It told Peter right away that her job at SHIELD is to manage and find archives. There are three main branches of SHIELD. There are the engineers that make and dissect weapons, then the field agents- like Peter- that go and execute any threats trying not to be caught, and then the archives; they are the backbone of SHIELD. Their job is to arrange files, organize information for missions, make sure nobody steals them, and also keep very deep secrets. The file managers are usually the runts so to speak, but Peter doesn’t show disrespect to anyone working. In fact, he has many friends working in the archives.
Desperately, she wanted to just say something to Peter, or even tell him her name if it meant he would remember it.
Peter analyzed her, noticed her civil rights shirt, and her messenger bag. A file manager agent.
The girl starts to leave, and Peter wants to stop her, but he doesn’t. She seemed to be busy. As the mysterious woman passed, she gave Peter a small, friendly glance and he could feel a small spark of curiosity start to burn in his mind. She left without a word, and quickly left down the corridor, heading out, taking the feeling of security with her.
A few moments after she left, another set of footsteps shuffled in behind Peter and muted the outside chattering of the building. Tension rose in the room, making Peter feel a little unsettled.
“So,” the figure behind him had cut in after analyzing over the agent after a small second. They had the voice of an aged man. This was no doubt Nick Fury, Director of SHIELD. Peter turned his head and looked at Nick Fury, just as he closed the glass door. There was no more sound Peter could hear that well from outside of the office, meaning this was a soundproof room..
“You’re the agent everyone is talking about. Rumor has it, you took out about a few dozen HYDRA men without anyone detecting anything abnormal in their security systems, hacked into a door and gotten very valuable HYDRA information on a few of their bases and left undetected. Now at first, I didn't believe a damn thing that they said.” Fury walked in the office and circled peter and looking at his face with his one eye. A concentrated look was trained onto the agent, making him feed like he was about to be crushed like a bug. “Until I saw the footage that was on your body camera your ‘guy in the chair’ had kindly placed on your person.” His tone softened as he stopped moving when he made it behind his desk. “Have a seat.” Fury insisted and gestures for him to sit in a black chair that looks very cozy. Peter moves his body in front of the chair, gently sitting down, Fury following in suit. “I know you are wondering why you are here, so I'm going to make this plain and simple.” The director said, carefully choosing his words. “I wanna know how you did that.” Fury said, leaning in a little.
“Could you please clarify on what you mean?” Peter spoke up, his voice was unwavering. “You know damn well what I mean.” Fury quickly cut in with a stern voice. “I saw you jump across a 50 foot roof top no trouble. I saw you dodge operatives before you even set eyes on them, precision tranq shots to the side of the head- no sweat. Makes me think you aren’t all what you seem.” Fury informed and then leaned in forward.
Peter sat back and thought for a moment to think over what he would tell Fury. “A few months ago, when I went to a hydra research facility to report on what they were doing in there, I managed to get into contact with one of their experiments. A radioactive spider so to speak. It bit me because it wasn’t in its cage. I didn’t think much of it. But, that night I got pretty sick. And when I woke up I had powers. It’s a pretty lame story.” Peter said, a little awkward. “You didn’t tell anyone this. Why?” Fury asked with confusion. “Well, HYDRA keeps me on my toes. I have a lot of suspicion that some of the agents here are the enemy. They just don’t socialize right. Always watching and observing rather than being in the SHIELD culture of Engineers vs Field agents. And the archives being almost unknown to them.” Peter explained. Fury nodded along as he heard this. “Well, Parker, unfortunately I think you’re right.” Fury agreed, not confirming or denying anything.
A moment of silence passed, Fury was thinking, and Peter was wondering what was going to happen now. Slowly, Fury shifted to his coat pocket and pulled out a badge. “Congratulations, welcome to level 6, Agent Parker,” he said and handed the badge to Peter.
The newly promoted agent raised his eyebrows a little bit, but he tried not to celebrate. “Can I just say one thing?” Peter requested as he looked over the badge. Fury waited for a moment. “You really need to come up with a better way to promote someone.” Peter joked, making Fury chuckle ever so slightly.
“There’s a new assignment waiting for you with your guy in the chair down in Engineering, don’t mess it up.” Fury warned, getting up and leading Peter out of the office. The director took the same turn taken as the mysterious girl, and then Peter silently freaked out. He had not been promoted in so long. At least two years. Though, he probably should have waited till he made it down to his friend in engineering to celebrate; He turned many heads looking like a fish out of water.
And now looking at his new, updated badge- and also good looking photo ID of himself- made him really happy, like a small sense of victory and relief had sprung from his core.. Level 6 means more access to classified files, and more serious missions.
SHIELD operates in such a strange way. Recruits enter as level 1, and this determines just how many files they can see- which is close to none- and how trusted they are to SHIELD. To be promoted, you go through a very strange interview that you don’t know would happen, or would be promoted during it. As long as you follow procedure, you level up. In Peters case, he spoke up about something that was troubling him; possible HYDRA operatives in SHIELD and Nick deemed him worthy to be promoted.
Quickly, Peter walks down the hallway, quickly turning the corner and heads down the the engineering wing. He could see Ned looking at something at his desk. A file that said only level 6 access. “What’s that?” Peter asked confused, causing his best friend to jump.
“Jesus-! I get you’re a stealth agent and all, but you don’t have to sneak up on every person you talk to!” Ned said, clutching his heart. “Sorry.” Peter said quickly, failing to hold in a laugh. “I’m not sure. Director just, put it on my desk after he interrogated me.” his Asian friend explain confused. “That man is so unnecessarily mysterious, with over dramatic, yet terrifying tones.” Ned said thinking as he looked off into a different direction. Peter went to look at the file and opened. “Whoa what are you- that's illegal- are you out of your mind?” Ned whispered exasperatedly. Peter simply showed him the new badge he had gotten and his best friend gasped in astonishment. “Yoo! You look fresh dude. Not like a scared puppy anymore. You said ‘I'm going to glow up’ and then you did.” Ned said, impersonating Peter which was just a low demonic voice. Peter couldn’t help but fully laugh. After a moment, they settled down and looked at the file together.
“You get to go to London?” Ned asked in disbelief. “We get to go to London.” Peter corrected, and Ned looked touched. Not a lot of agents would dream of taking an engineer with them, but Ned is Peter’s best friend and the first person to know about his spider abilities, and his helper. Of course he was going to take him. They were in this together. “Let’s go to London.” Peter said and closed the file.