Author's Note: Wrote this thing in 2 hours while listening to Heroes by Scala & Kolacny Brothers. Take it and leave me to drown in feels.
We Can Be Heroes (Just For One Day)
The plane never reaches its destination.
Happy Hogan gets the call twenty minutes after its scheduled arrival. Within the hour, teams are deployed to locate D.O.D.C.'s missing cargo, their search fruitless with almost nothing to go on.
Nothing, until one Ned Leeds manages to escape the Principal's office on Homecoming night and cycle his way to Avengers Tower with the last known coordinates of his best friend.
Toomes' lair has long been reduced to rubble and dust, but still the cleanup crew gets to work finding the agents some leads. They salvage the crushed remains of computers; they recover half burnt scraps of documents; they dig and they move and they lift, and finally they clear enough debris to unearth May Parker's only remaining family.
It had been quick, the medics tell Tony Stark later. He didn't suffer, they say.
Pepper Potts goes to bed alone for a long time after that.
There's no body to bury, at least not one belonging to Peter Parker, beloved nephew and devoted friend. Midtown School kicks off a new program on road safety. The offending drunk driver is never caught.
Crime rates and gang activity spike over the next few months across several states. New York City's buildings stay clean of sticky fluids.
In a too-big apartment in Queens, May clutches an empty web shooter in trembling hands. Ned sits pressed close to her, their Thai takeout left forgotten on the table.
Author's Note: Thanks for reading! Hit me up on tumblr at fickleminder if you wanna chat :)