The training match the two had been going through had ended up going past the hour they'd originally intended it to be, with Peter and Steve now being drenched in sweat and covered in bruises, Peter much more so than Steve, and the other Avengers sitting around watching.

"Alright Peter, we're up to round seven and I'm not going to go easy on you any more" Steve said.

"You were going easy?" Peter asked in a terrified tone.

"Yeah, not any more though" Steve grinned "get ready for a world of pain"

"Well... the kid's fucked" Widow said with a grin.

"I think he can do this" Ms. Marvel said with a smile "Come on Peter!"

"What about you Banner?" Widow asked Bruce who was sitting with a bucket of popcorn in his hand.

"I think we're gonna be sweeping Peter off the floor in a dustpan" he chuckled.

"You know you guys aren't helping right" Peter whimpered "Except you Ms. Marvel, I like you" The blonde woman smiled at him as Widow rang the bell for the seventh round and Steve rushed over to Peter, coming out of his corner with four powerful right hooks, each one managing to hit Peter square in the face as he had become too exhausted to dodge the attacks.

"Come on Peter!" Ms. Marvel called "You can do this!"

"No he can't, don't get his hopes up" Widow laughed "Try not to break him too badly Steve" Peter was once again forced into a corner where Steve began to throw several powerful punches into his abdomen, each one sending a searing rush of pain into his stomach that made him want to throw up.

Steve then moved back, cocking his fist for the destroying right hook, but Peter was able to throw a left jab at Steve's shoulder that made his arm go slack before throwing a punch at his face and pushing him back.

"Huh" Widow said as Peter began to go on the offensive, managing to land three powerful right hooks in Steve's face before the legendary soldier ducked under the fourth one and slam a straight-arm jab into Peter's gut, clipping him in the face with a right hook and then throwing him into another corner again with a hooking motion from his left arm.

"Ugh, not this again" Peter groaned before a new series of punches, this time to the face, slammed into him with renewed energy. Peter's brain was slammed around inside his skull as his once-proud desire to keep on fighting was being rapidly stamped out by the barrage of searing pain that erupted from the vicious beating he was suffering.

"Come on Parker" Widow chuckled "Get your hands up" Peter tried his best to move his gloves into a defensive position, and upon finding that this strategy gained him no new ground he tried to push Steve back again only to have the much more powerful fighter aim two right hooks at the side of his head, one of them pushing him back into the corner and the second one knocking him clean to the floor.

"And he is down" Widow said "But hey, seven rounds isn't that bad for a newbie"

"Don't count him out just yet Natasha" Ms. Marvel said, looking at Steve who was bouncing back and forth on his heels again. But for Peter the event wasn't as pleasant as he'd imagined. In the few fights he'd had with super villains he'd been knocked around, as most people did, but he'd never been given a beating like this before.

"C'mon Pete, no pain" Steve called out, seemingly from a distance. Peter's head seemed to pulse with one of the worst pains he'd ever had, his stomach ached and felt as if it were beginning to split apart with every breath, his arms were beyond tired and felt like nothing more than two pieces of lead attached to his torso that kept him down on the floor. He felt sick to his stomach and could no longer stand.

He would've liked to have said that he tried to get to his feet, that he gave everything he had mentally but his body simply wouldn't respond but that wasn't the case.

"He's not getting up, is he?" Bruce asked, still munching his popcorn.

"Nope" Widow chuckled "Just like I said" Peter's will to fight had been completely stamped out by the beating he'd taken. All of his bluster he'd once had had vanished from inside of him and his fiery spirit had been crushed. His nerd instincts were kicking in, telling him that the best way to survive was to simply lie down and stay down, to not get up and let whatever happened happen.

"No pain!" Steve called, but Peter's mind and body were refusing to listen, instead, he merely whimpered.

"I can't" Peter moaned.

"What?" Steve asked.

"I can't" Peter repeated, louder this time.

"Are you done?" Steve asked with a raised eyebrow "You sure you can't go on?"

"Steve... I can't" Peter said a third time.

"Disappointing" Widow said with a roll of her eyes "As usual"

"Widow" Steve said sternly, pulling his gloves off and walking over to Peter "Don't feel too bad kid, I'm not expecting you to be Muhammad Ali within the first few days"

"I know that but... I just feel shit having to go through baby steps around legends like you guys" Peter said, picking himself up off the floor and leaning against the corner post "I just feel like I'm not worth it"

"And I think we've all been there before Peter" Steve said with a grin, patting the teen on the shoulder "On the first mission I was sent out on as Captain America I slipped when throwing my shield, missed the guy I was aiming for and had it come back and hit me in the face... I think it chipped a tooth actually"

"When I was first sent out by S.H.I.E.L.D, before I got my powers, I was set up as a sniper on a ridge to overlook a meeting between two warring leaders and when everything started going down I moved my position to get a better angle and didn't use the butt of the sniper to steady the shot so when I looked down the scope and fired it hit me in the eye and knocked me out for a few minutes"

"When I was given my first lab job I was assigned an assistant to help keep track of things but I told him that I was so intelligent that I didn't need him to remember things" Bruce said with a nostalgic smile on his face "I was bluffing of course and hoped that he would remember just out of decency but he never did, so when I forgot what one of our assignments was for our boss he hadn't listened either so we were both reprimanded for it"

There was then an expectant glance thrown at Black Widow, who had yet to voice her rookie mistakes but she remained quiet.

"What?" she asked after a moment of silence.

"What did you fuck up on?" Steve asked "There has to be something?"

"No, there was nothing" Widow said, crossing her arms and looking away from the others.

"Come on Natasha, tell us what happened" Ms. Marvel said with a sly smile.

"Shut up Carol" Widow growled.

"Come on, we're only having a little bit of fun here" Bruce chuckled "Its nothing to be ashamed of, spit it out" Widow glared at each one of them individually before she finally caved in.

"I... I was picked up b S.H.I.E.L.D in Russia and was sent to Moscow on a spec ops mission under strict orders not to engage in gunfights. My partner was much more skilled and experienced than I was at the time and I really wanted to impress her by doing something that I thought was 'cool', so when we were forced into a gunfight I tried to pull off a trick shot by spinning my gun around my finger before taking out the other shooter but..."

"But what?" Bruce asked.

"But... I jerked by hand out to continue the spin but with the angle the gun was at... it pushed the trigger down" Widow said, putting her face in her hands "And I shot myself in the leg and I had to be taken off the mission and out of service for three weeks until the injury was healed... happy now?" The Avengers all kept the laughter to a respectful level, nothing more than a few chuckles as they al reminisced about their own past mistakes and how they'd improved on them since then.

"What did your partner say about that?" Steve asked.

"She, uh, she refused to ever work with me again" Natasha said, sweeping her blood red fringe out of her eyes and switching the legs she had crossed.

"Awesome" Steve said with a smirk before turning back to Peter "See kid? Nobody starts off being perfect, nobody starts with skill, we may have talent, like you do, but skill is something that is only developed through hours and hours of training, you've only just started doing what you do and you've still got a long way to go before you're as good as us"

"Am I... am I at least better than Hawkeye?" Peter asked.

"Of course" Steve nodded.

"How couldn't you be?" Bruce asked.

"Why would you even ask a question like that?" Ms. Marvel asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Hey!" Widow snapped "Leave him alone!"

"Sorry, we shouldn't make fun of her boyfriend" Steve said "We know how sensitive he gets"

"What are we talking about?" Clint's voice asked from the doorway.

"Oh nothing buddy" Steve said with a grin "Just how we value you as a team mate and know you're the reason the Avengers even exist in the first place"

"Fuck you" Clint said with a faint smirk.

"Like I said, good to have you here buddy" Steve nodded "Right Parker, lets get you cleaned and patched up, can't be having the Amazing Spider-Man walking around like bruised ham now can we?" Next Chapter: A Look Into the Past Estimated time remaining: 6 Hours, 32 Minutes