Looking down at the man he had just hefted from the remnants of the super secret invisible jet that they had just trashed, Peter was doing his best to not overthink how screwed he was with the situation.
"You truly are one hell of a kid..." The comment, interspaced with the deep and pained coughs that told Peter Mr Toomes was suffering from at least some broken ribs, brought Peter from his waking nightmares of how Mr Stark was going to kill him and back to a more terrifying thought.
"Liz is going to kill me..." That comment brought a wheezing chuckle from Mr Toomes as he did his best to sit himself up, Peter using his good arm to help as it was clear the man wasn't going to try and fight him anymore.
"Ditching her at homecoming, as well as all those other times you've run off to foil me and the others? I'd be pretty furious myself for you doing that to my little girl, but if you had let me get away with this then that would have made you a man I wouldn't want her to be with anyway. You probably have time for one last dance if you head off now, though you will need to arrange some alternative transport for you both home..." And so they reached the crux of the matter, the fact that even if Peter did make it back in time to apologise and beg for forgiveness, he would have to look her in the eye with the fact that he had just gotten her father arrested and probably jailed for life.
"Why did you do this? You had that other guy waiting for me so you knew I would come after you, so you couldn't have thought you would have been able to get away with it. If Mr Stark hadn't taken my suit..."
'If you are nothing without your suit, you don't deserve the suit.' Mr Stark's words echoed in Peter's head, and he suddenly understood exactly why Mr Toomes had pulled this attempted heist.
"You couldn't give up the suit, for all the talk about doing this for your family..." Peter wasn't the most socially competent person, look at how much he had screwed up with Liz, but even he could see the resigned smile on Mr Toomes' face become a little forced and his gaze dropped away from meeting Peter's.
"Of all the people to talk to me about it, you probably understand the rush better than anyone Peter. It was, exhilarating, being able to pull one over even the great Tony Stark and to be able to make things that most people couldn't even dream about. But given how often you have ditched your 'normal' life for a chance at being the hero, I think you are learning the dangers of this kind of double life well enough."
The irony of a criminal mastermind telling him exactly the same thing Mr Stark had told him when he had been put on the backburner was not lost on Peter, and he was obviously more than a little obsessed given even Aunt May had been pestering him about it. It was the same realisation that had taken almost 2 weeks of returning to 'normal' to realise, and what had warred with his conscience over stopping this heist altogether.
Being a 'hero' had been great fun, and teaming up with the likes of Iron Man and Black Widow had been one of the most awesome moments in his life. But more and more as the days passed, Peter found that he didn't want to be 'just' Spiderman, as he had thought he wanted in the aftermath of Captain America's betrayal. He wanted to enjoy school, and all the ups and downs that such an ordinary life brought with it.
"And look where such technology has gotten us both, I will be lucky if they don't merely 'disappear' me to some remote SHIELD facility to exhaust my knowledge of Alien tech for their own use and then drop me in a river somewhere. You on the other hand Peter, will be lucky if Stark doesn't 'induct' you into the Avengers and give you some flashy gadgets, just so that he can leave you in a gilded cage and call it 'an upgrade'." Peter was about to protest, then he remembered the tracker in his suit and the way Mr Stark seemed to constantly know what was going on, and the protest died in his throat.
"I know that look kid, don't think of it as such a bad thing. Stark isn't doing what I would call a great job, but I can hardly claim 'Dad of the year' from where I'm currently sat either, if Liz had your powers I wouldn't be letting her out of my sight for a moment." Suddenly Mr Toomes had another coughing fit, and Peter knew enough from his own experiences that the wet sound meant blood or other fluid in the man's lungs.
Such injuries would not be helped by a night strung up with the cargo, as had been the original plan forming in Peter's head including sarcastic note intended for Happy, and Peter was feeling guilty despite the fact that Mr Toomes had been trying to kill him.
"Do you know a doctor we can get you to?" Given the nature of what Mr Toomes had been doing, as well as the cutting edge type of technology he and his crew had been using, Peter could only guess that they had some private doctor or medic who would deal with any injuries they gained.
Whilst it would have been easier to wait for the cops or whoever to come and sort everything out, Peter was determined that he was going to do at least one thing right that evening, and that meant that making sure that Liz would have a father still at the end of tonight. Even if he was going to be behind bars.
"I can get us to someone who can patch us both up if you still have a cell I can use kid. But I thought the whole point of this was making sure I wouldn't get away, and you would be leaving the clean up guys with no clue on what happened here..." It was surprisingly thoughtful of Mr Toomes to mention Peter's own injuries, in truth the cold and the shock meant that they had dropped to a dull ache whilst Peter wasn't moving and so had mostly slipped his mind.
But if he was going to go back to try and see Liz tonight there was no way he was going to do so covered in blood and bruises. And in regards to leaving a message for Happy and the others to follow up on, he had more than a couple of ideas...
!"£$%^&*()_+
"Ned. Where is he?" It was by and large one of the worst months Liz could remember having, even with the whole nearly dying thing being put to one side for the moment, standing almost entirely alone on the steps leading up to your homecoming dance at almost midnight tended to put a dark tinge on someone's mood.
The stress of organising Homecoming had only been made worse by preparing for the competition, and even the two upsides of winning that competition and getting asked to the dance had been short lived in each case. In both cases, the root cause of her trouble stemmed to a Junior year student that she had taken a liking to.
Peter had definitely not been the 'ideal' boy she thought she would end up falling for based on the movies she had seen as a young girl, his lack of 'coolness' not helped by Flash Thompson and his constant verbal battering, but the lack of a mental breakdown or other response in reply showed a maturity that belied Peter's younger age.
"I-I don't know why you think I would know where Peter is Liz... Did I mention how lovely you looked tonight?" That maturity and calm under fire quick wittedness did not extend to Peter's closest friend however, Ned had always been quick to fluster and easy to make talk if you knew the right tools to use.
"Ned, I've been abandoned at the homecoming dance by my date who is now not picking up his phone. And yet, despite the fact you didn't even have a date tonight and disappeared for most of the night, you are still here even after the cleaners have finished sorting the worst of the mess. Which means you are waiting for something, or someone. Where is he?" It was a little harsh, and normally Liz would have taken to task anyone who spoke to the cheery but socially incapable boy in such a way, but right now she had neither the patience or the time to let him deflect any longer.
"I-I honestly don't know where he is, he's probably run off somewhere to do something related to his internship?" Ned wasn't lying to her, she had seen his outbursts in front of pretty women one too many times to know what a gossip he tended to be under pressure, but his tone made it clear that he was picking his words very carefully.
"He told me that he isn't doing that internship anymore, and as you seem to know every dark secret of his you knew that already. Which means you know what he's really up to and aren't telling..." Liz cut off as a familiar car pulled up at the bottom of the steps, though it wasn't her father that was driving.
"Dad? Peter?" Her father opened the near side back door as a man she recognised as one of his crew jumped out to help him, and as he rather woodenly stepped out Liz couldn't help but gasp and start down the steps, Peter awkwardly shifting across to follow her Dad out of the same door.
Both of them looked like they had been through a shredder, her Dad with his left leg in a hastily made cast and Peter with his right arm in a sling. Both of them were badly bruised and cut along the visible parts of their skin and arms that she could make out. Despite their injuries though both were smiling at her, even if Peter looked guilty more than anything else.
"Hey Princess, I suppose we have some explaining to do?" Given Peter had spent the entire evening before the dance acting like her father had threatened to kill him, explaining was the very least they would need to do...
!"£$%^&*()_+
Happy had known something was wrong the moment he caught sight of the plane over the New York skyline, after all the entire point of an invisible cargo jet was for you not to be able to see it. So he had jumped aboard a Quinjet, taken command of a group of Tony's best guys as head of asset management, and made sure that they were onsite by the time the local PD started to roll up on the scene.
Looking round at the wreckage, Happy could tell that his job title was definitely at risk if not his entire employment at Stark Industries, especially given the rather obvious evidence of one of his charges being present at the crash. Thankfully, said asset seemed to have controlled the situation and prevented the theft of the planes contents, even if the would be thieves seemed to have gotten away.
Though judging by the note that one of his men was currently extracting from the rather excessive amount webbing, which had been used to cover every inch of the plane's cargo, Peter was not happy about being put on the bench only to have been proved right. As if on cue Happy's phone went off, and looking down with a hint of resignation, he found it was from the big man himself.
"Mr Stark." It was probably a sign of how bad the situation was that Happy felt the need to talk to Tony professionally. But, given how attached the man was to the young prodigy to the point of trying to be something of a surrogate parental figure, it was probably for the best.
"Happy, please tell me that the reports of the jet containing most of my best tech being blown out of the sky are incorrect? Don't answer that, it's rhetorical. Are there any casualties and how much is missing?" Tony's tone was tight and slightly angry, which combined with the use of sarcastic rhetoric and lack of his usual jokes showed how pissed off the man was, though the fact he asked about casualties first showed a level of maturity that Pepper had been beating into him slowly.
"No casualties at the main crash site, though there is enough blood to show at least two people are injured enough to require treatment. Thankfully this section of the beach was closed for clean up, after a small chemical leak up river, otherwise it could have been much worse." And if the plane hadn't banked as it did according the witness reports on it's descent then it could have been catastrophic, something that Happy knew was the kid's handywork.
"And given you aren't telling me that we have the bad guys that means they got away with some of my tech? Do I need to round up the Avengers? Don't make me text Cap." Most people would see such a response as more than a little overkill, but the whole Ultron debacle was still fresh in Tony's mind regarding what his tech could do in the wrong hands.
"The bulk of it's still here Mr Stark, there might be the odd item that has scattered with the wreckage but I have Damage Control units sweeping the area and the altered flight route now." Now was the crunch of the conversation, and Happy took a deep breath before starting the sentence that could well end his career.
"Mr... Tony, the kid was here." There was silence for a moment before Tony spoke, his voice low and serious in a manner that Happy had only previously heard used against the likes of Loki or Ultron when they threatened one of Tony's few actual friends.
"Put him on the phone." Tony seemed to have forgotten how difficult he had been when he originally became Iron Man, though in this case it was going to be Happy that would take the anger Peter's flippant note was going to generate.
"He's not here Tony, though he's left a note that..." The phone cut off, which Happy was only mildly surprised by, Tony was the type to only play 'hands-off' in a situation for so long and that time had obviously come and gone.
Looking down at the note, Happy wasn't sure whether the kid was lucky that Tony had taken his actual suit off him, the lack of a tracking chip would probably slow him down by a couple of minutes. But it also meant that Tony was going to be even more 'agitated', Tony didn't like to use words like angry or furious in relation to his young charge, when he did actually catch up with him. And given the tone of Peter's writing, the two were about to have a serious clash over the perceived handling of the kid's concerns.
'Caught the bad guy, taken him for treatment. Feel free to call me, or don't. Hopefully the signal where I am going isn't too bad, though don't interrupt me for the next few hours. Going to be busy dealing with this small issue that is beneath your notice...'
Oh yeah, the kid had definitely taken issue with how Happy and Tony had been dealing with him...
A/N: Honestly, I don't quite know where this came from as such, other than the fact I watched the movie and felt there was a universal missed opportunity for the 'good guys' at the end.
The movie itself was remarkably well done, but the main sticking point I have is that the ending felt too... resolved. By that I mean that Tony and Peter are chummy, Peter's school life works itself out other than the issue in his love life (which he doesn't seem to broken up over), and they ignore the fact that there are a group of thieves they've just sent to prison who are technical geniuses on the same level as Shields R&D team at least.
There are those that will argue that it is mostly just the one generic sciency type 'goon' in the crew (Mason), but that makes no sense given the volume of throughput that is indicated by the fact they can afford to sell these kind of weapons to your friendly neighbourhood bank robbers and hoodies looking to off someone. Other than the 'Shocker' who is clearly more muscle and the face of the crew, I think it can be assumed that at least some of the crew is supporting the manufacturing process.
So, I haven't gone into it yet, but the idea for this story would be to have a slightly more mature and confrontational relationship between Tony and Peter. As part of this, Peter pushes for the Vulture's crew to be 'employed' rather than imprisoned so that they can use their skills productively and for the Avengers. It's partially naivety and optimism on Peter's part, as the rest of the crew won't be as easy going as Liz's dad is over it all, but that's Spiderman through and through.
There will be obvious parallels between Peter's attitude and Captain America's view, which will concern not only Tony but the other Avengers, but given the battering of Tony/Peter likenesses we've already had then a bit of balance will be good for everyone.
Wow, massive A/N for what is currently a tiny story, sorry for that. Let me know if people like where this has gone thus far and want me to continue, then I can look at expanding the villain list as Peter makes himself into the 'Friendly Neighbourhood Spiderman' that most of us recognise.
Defias Out!