Set in what I'd like to think is a scene in Infinity War (no spoilers, as this is written before the movie has come out) - from the still of Peter climbing the ring while entering space.
Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Marvel characters or story lines!
"Parker! Hey, what did I tell you?! Get down from there, now!"
Of course - while fighting off these alien creatures, which completely differed from the ones that once invaded New York, Tony Stark also had to babysit.
From the corner of his helmet's viewpoint, he saw that God damned ring still in the sky, only now it was beginning to rise, climbing higher and higher into the sky, almost to the point of orbit. F.R.I.D.A.Y. had initiated the cameras in the Iron Spider suit so he could keep tabs while still fighting his own battles, but Parker was getting high - too high. If he fell from those heights, he didn't have jets. He didn't have the means to survive the fall. Suddenly, the visions of Rhodey falling from the sky and landing in a crumpled state flashed back through his mind.
"Tony! Tony, on your left!"
Stark was hit with a blow, sending him flying and tumbling across the ground. He rolled to a stop, and pushed himself back up, noting three of of his four extended back jets were now out of commission.
"Your jets are out!" Pepper gasped.
Tony eyed her photo on his operating system's screen inside his helmet, watching her face scrunch up in a grimace. Then, he whipped his head around to face his partner.
"F.R.I.D.A.Y. I need you to toss all backup power to the bottom jets. Stay off the remaining rear."
"Configuring power distribution," the female AI confirmed.
Tony watched as Pepper knocked out the alien he was fighting with one of her hand repulsors. She was using the suit he made her so many years before, finally. After their break he didn't expect her to ever suit up, but today, things were different. If they didn't take down that ring...
"Uh, Mr Stark," the teenager's voice interrupted his conversation with his fiance; he sounded concerned...scared.
"Kid, you're done!" Tony ordered, looking up into the sky. "I need you back on the ground, now."
"I can do it, Mr Stark," he argued from the spider suit. "There's a panel at the top and the electromagnetic webs might be able to short it out long enough to-"
"Parker!" Tony scolded in his best dad voice. "Drax and the...green chick-"
"Gamora," Pepper groaned, grabbing a spear out of one of the alien's arms as it charged at her; she broke it in two and kicked him down.
"Whatever," Tony dismissed. "Their ship can handle it from orbit, if they have to. Now do I have to tell you again?"
Parker's connection was silent as he ignored his mentor. Tony glared at him from inside the suit, furious with his decision. He watched as the spider launched his webs and did a free fall to attempt to use the suit's strength to pull down the levitating object.
"I'm sorry, Mr Stark," Peter mumbled as he hitched the lock and swung down hard. "I have to do this."
Spider-man shook his wrists, trying to free it from the electromagnetic grip the webs had on his suit but failed.
"I...I think it's tossing the charge back at me," he informed the two in the iron suits. "Something's...stunning me! Karen, disable webs, disable webs!"
He sounded frantic, and Stark didn't like it.
"Parker!" Tony yelled again, before powering up the jets he had left and shooting up into the sky.
He heard Pepper scream his name from the Rescue suit still on the ground, but didn't look back. Instead, he focused on the kid. He was aware she could watch him from her video connection, but she'd have to be okay. Plus, she had Hawkeye and Widow flanking her sides until Hill could evacuate the rest of the city to join Cap in Wakanda. He'd be back down with the kid, and then they could all get out of there. Alive, at least until that thing broke a portal through for Thanos to arrive.
Stark grabbed onto the Iron Spider suit and pushed back with his own suit, trying to break free of the web's pull on Parker.
"Power at twelve percent," F.R.I.D.A.Y. warned urgently as he fueled the jets on his boots. "Running on reserve power."
"It's not working, Mr Stark!" Peter complained.
"Hang tight, kid," Tony muttered, charging up a repulsor and firing at the source of it all - where the webs were attached at the top of the alien machine.
On impact, they were hit with a magnetic field rebounding back at them, tossing both of their bodies into the air. Tony gasped, winded, but focused on Parker.
"Tony!" he heard Pepper's voice again as he skidded to an up right position in the air, using the last of his back up power to stabilize himself.
"Get the kid!" he ordered.
Pepper grumbled and hesitated, knowing it was one or the other, but powered herself into the air and shot like a jet stream for the falling spider suit. He watched as she positioned herself well enough to catch the air just right so it would aid her speed, and smirked - he had taught her well. Seconds before Peter hit the ground, Rescue was under him, scooping him up and retreating back to the rest of the Avenger's position.
Then, his jets were coming on and off, sparking on whatever little power was left.
"Power at two percent!" F.R.I.D.A.Y. exclaimed, making Tony's panic worse.
"Pep," he called over the intercom. "Pep, listen to me. I need you to go with the kid. I'll meet you back at base," he lied, knowing it was either just him or everyone at this point.
"Don't you dare, Stark," she snapped.
Then, Rescue was on her way toward him, leaving Peter in the hands of Natasha below. He furiously thrashed his boots, trying to slowly level himself down, but it wasn't easy.
"One percent, sir!"
"Shit," Tony breathed, locking his eyes on Pepper as she made it to him.
She wrapped a metal arm around his torso, then glanced back down at the ground. Before she could drag him with her, though, the ring pulsated again, and once again, they were tumbling through the air after a sonic boom leveled them out.
"Pepper!" Tony growled, realizing they were too late; this thing was summoning Thanos, with or without them. "Pepper, babe, I need you to answer me!"
But nothing came; his suit's display flickered, and he called for F.R.I.D.A.Y. next, but shortly after, he was left in blackness and unable to catch he or Pepper falling back to Earth.
Eventually, Tony blinked his eyes open. His head throbbed and he was no longer in the metal suit. Instead, he was lying on his back, layed out on something else made of metal, looking up at what looked like the top of the Quinjet before it was destroyed. Groaning, he grabbed his head and lifted himself off the ground.
"Look who's up!" he heard a male voice mock from his side.
Stark blinked furiously, trying to clear his headache, then took in his surroundings. He glanced at the table next to him, where the man was standing, and instantly recognized the helmet on the ground to his side and the fiery red hair that pillowed out from under Pepper's soft, petite body.
"Pepper!" he called out, immediately standing despite knowing he was in no shape to do so.
He rushed to the table's side, gripping the cool metal that held her still and bloodied body up. There were no major wounds, that he could see.
"What happened?!" Stark questioned, calculating in his head how to fix her. "What'd you do to her?!"
"What'd we do to her?" a raspy voice asked.
Tony turned his focus to the small, walking raccoon to Peter Quill's side and stared blankly.
Rocket continued. "Well, sorry, your majesty, for saving your butt! You humans are so ungrateful..." he muttered, tossing the remaining pieces of Pepper's suit aside.
Stark winced, realizing he'd have a lot of work to do before they could suit up again. "How long was I out?"
"Ten minutes, give or take," Quill answered.
"And the others?"
Star-Lord shot him a forced smile, which told him everything he needed to know; they were either gone or still fighting.
"Hill is rounding the rest up. Earth's been compromised...except for-"
"Wakanda," Tony realized, knowing their tech was well out ranking his own, making the country the only safe place...for the time being.
He nodded an affirmative. "We'll take him down from the center out."
Tony panicked. "Where's my suit?!" He looked around the small space ship for pieces of his own. "If I can over run the main circuit board with F.R.I.D.A.Y.'s drive, I can get a better read on Pepper-"
"You mean, like this?" the raccoon asked with a cocky tone.
F.R.I.D.A.Y.'s system displayed in front of them in hologram form, reminding Tony a lot of what Jarvis used to be. He would reminisce later; now, he had to save Pepper.
"Your power's pretty low," Quill commented, shifting back to pilot position. "Think it can hold her till we get to base?"
Tony swallowed, watching Pepper with pained eyes. It was his fault. She was unconscious, and it was his fault. He should've never dragged her into battle, never went after the kid...never even asked the kid to fight, in the first place...
"So we're going back to Earth?" Tony asked. "Great. Bring on that giant purple grape. I need to share a few words with him."
They had gone into stealth mode and landed easily, their system already approved for entry to Wakanda. He immediately lifted Pepper into his arms and proceeded down the ramp to the Milano, ignoring the cultural welcoming Wakanda was known to give. He didn't know if they still expected them to be formal, but there was no time for that. Instead, he pushed past the welcoming committee until he located Banner and Romanoff in the crowd; the only ones who were closest to he and Pepper, besides the kid.
"Oh thank God!" Natasha celebrated upon seeing them, until her eyes fell onto Pepper's limp form. "Is she okay?!"
"I don't know," Stark admitted. "Get me to the lab, I know there's a lab around here somewhere. All this tech needs a birthing center."
Normally, Nat would've commented on his choice of words, but she was too stressed out about the state of the planet, and now also her friend. Banner lead the way, having studied with Shuri instead of fighting, to make sure the green guy didn't escape at the wrong time. Normally, the city would have fascinated Stark, but he was too concerned with saving his fiance at this point. Memories of Rhodey flashed back again as he strained to stay away from thinking the worst.
Finally, Banner rushed them into the submerged level of the secret space near the Vibranium mine and Shuri met them with panic stricken eyes.
"What happened?!" she asked, her accent thick and worried for the woman in Tony's arms, even though they had never met.
"I need a scan on her nervous system. All bones and muscles. And I need a heart rate on display stat. If I can upload F.R.I.D.A.Y., we can-"
"You must be Mr Stark," Shuri commented as she brought a construction table up from the depths of the floor.
Tony ignored her comment and set Pepper down, his eyes scanning her as he fought down his own fear.
"Relax," Shuri continued, typing a few things into a computer to her side. "You're not the only one with nice stuff."
The three Avengers stood in awe as a more complex screening of Pepper's vitals popped up than Stark had ever created with Jarvis or F.R.I.D.A.Y..
"Remind me we need to talk after this is all over," he muttered, scanning through the stats with his hand.
"Vitals stable," an automatic voice spoke through the lab, echoing off the empty space.
Stark smirked, realizing he still had the girl beat with his personalization skills, at least.
"No spinal damage detected," it continued. "Both heart beats stable."
Tony swallowed and blinked to clear his mind; had he just heard that right? He was frozen between two slides, forgetting to continue swiping as he focused on the screen. Then, his eyes moved between his fiance and the monitors in the air, trying to clarify.
"...Two heart beats?" Banner repeated softly, realizing the shocked state Tony was in.
Natasha glanced at Shuri, a smile creeping on her face. "Is she...?"
Raising an eyebrow, the Wakandan turned back toward Stark, inspecting his reaction. "You didn't know...?" she guessed.
He swallowed hard again, trying to ignore the feeling of the room closing in and the familiar tug at his heart. Funny, the Earth slowly being taken over by aliens didn't bother him, but the second he finds out Pepper is...pregnant...his anxiety attacks return.
"Congratulations, dad," Nat celebrated kindly, placing a hand on his shoulder.
Instantly, Stark shrugged her off and gripped his chest where the arc used to be. He gasped, trying to breathe, and realized he was too constricted in the underground room, despite how open and clean it was. Before he knew it, he was pushing himself out and toward the elevator up, noting how he was bouncing off of things in the room like a pinball game.
When he reached the top, he was finally able to breathe fresh air...the only fresh air left on their doomed planet. He collapsed onto the ground, next to the launch pad for the Wakandan ships, and tried to take deep breaths and focus on absolutely anything else.
Breathe, Stark, he told himself. It's not the worst thing in the world, right?"
After a few moments of that, his shoulder was warmed again but the soft touch of Romanoff's hand. He flinched slightly, but welcomed a friend, remembering how many times Harley had helped him the last time he had almost lost Pepper.
"Come on, Stark," she whispered softly; it was the same voice she tried to calm down the Hulk with, and it worked. "Pepper needs you."
He exhaled slowly and lifted his head from his hands, still shaking. "I can't do it," he told her.
"Do what?" she asked, willing him to go on on his own.
He shuddered. "Be a...dad," he managed, spitting out the word like it was poison.
She tilted her head, analyzing him as she helped him slowly calm down. "Tony, you're not your father. You're so much different. Hell, the Tony Stark I first met would've never committed to marriage, yet here you guys are."
For a total guess, she hit the nail on the head. He shook his head, hair tousling in the faint breeze, and looked up at her, forcing a smirk to curve at his lips.
"If we even survive till then..." he muttered, sighing. "What's the point? Bring a kid into this world just to have it all end... I can't even take care of the kid here!"
She chuckled, running her hand up and down his arm. "Tony, he's a teenager. And he's doing damn well, if you ask me. Because of you."
"Is he..." Stark began, realizing he never asked about Parker; strike two...panic, and now two forms of abandonment.
She shook her head, cutting him off before he could ask. "He's fine. A little shaken up, but fine. Barton took him to hang out with Happy."
He nodded slightly in understanding and let his shoulders relax. Then, a grin crept at his lips as he fought it back without success.
"So she's...she's-"
"Eight weeks," Natasha confirmed. "I take it neither of you were planning on this?"
"Not even in the slightest..." he told her truthfully. "Pepper's...okay, right?"
"She's going to be fine. She just got knocked out. Whatever that was charged both of you up."
"Guess my body's used to it," he responded sourly, knowing the arc must have left some sort of damage on him since removing it. "I should, uh...I should get back down to her, huh?" he asked, pushing against the ground to stand up now that his heart had slowed down.
"Shuri's watching her. How about you get some air? I'll notify you if anything changes."
Stark nodded again, straightening his shoulders. He smiled at her faintly and focused on the pathway back to the city, knowing it would be a short trek there so he could freely process the news and try to figure out how the hell to save the planet.