Peter was in shock, he didn't know how to feel, how to react, he didn't know how he should react when Liz left the car, when it was just him and the Vulture.
"Does she know?"
"Know what?"
"So she doesn't, I respect that," he looked over, after confirming Liz had already left he pressed a button, locking the car, Peter looked towards the school, but the car was moving, "I'm going to make a suggestion."
Peter was silent, still in shock.
"The first, is that you hand over that phone," he said reaching one hand back.
Peter held onto his phone.
"I don't want to repeat myself son, hand over the phone, and there won't be any trouble."
The phone was dropped into the man's hand.
"Good, now sit tight, if you behave we won't have any trouble."
"What kind of trouble?"
"What is the kind of trouble you fear the most?"
Peters mind flew to his family, to Aunt May, then to his friends, Ned. He didn't say it out loud, but he didn't need to.
"That kind of trouble."
"Sir, I know what you are thinking but… I am not..." he wanted to say, he was not Spiderman, but for some reason, he couldn't.
"Look kid, I'm not going to hurt you," the man said, "I would do anything for my family, and you saved my daughters life."
"So I can go?" Peter sounded hopeful.
"No."
Peter looked at his feet.
"I can't risk you telling somebody about my identity, nor can I risk you ruining tonight, so, I'm going to take you somewhere, where you can stay, and not cause any trouble, does that sound fair to you?" he said while glaring at Peter though the mirror.
"Y-Yes Sir."
"Good," and just as the conversation was finished, the car pulled up into an abandoned warehouse. The car was surrounded by men, all with powerful weapons pointed at the car. Peter understood that this was a trap in a way, Liz's dad, Vulture, had planned this.
Peter watched as he got out the car, not moving to try to open the door he knew was locked. Vulture handed the keys to one of his men.
"Don't hurt him unless necessary, lock him up somewhere secure, I will sort him out later."
The door was unlocked and the man gestures to Peter to get out, he did with much caution, the weapons all pointing at him.
"Hands where I can see them!"
Peter nodded, raising his hands, his eyes darted around, he saw the Vulture's armour. Peter looked over to the car where he knew his phone was, all he needed to do was text Happy, tell him who Vulture was, that was all, then he could play the Victim until the professionals sort things out, it would be what Tony Stark would want.
"Look, guys, I don't want any trouble, I'm retired, and there's this really nice girl waiting for me at Homecoming… you know how it is, right?"
The men seemed uninterested in Peters antics, so he decided to try another tactic, a cheap and unlikely to work one, he began to cough, act like he was struggling to breath, "asthma..." he wheezed pointing towards the car, "I need my medicine..."
At first, nobody bough it, but as Peter dropped to his knees, continuing the act desperately, almost to the point of believing it himself, the broke, "just a moment," a man opened the back door of the car where the medicine was.
Peter put his hands on his lungs as if they hurt, conveniently also where his suits pocket as, inside of which was an emergency web shooter, "i-in t-the..." he pointed, "t-there!"
The man began to search, he was becoming stressed, searching frantically "just get it yourself!"
Peter got up with difficulty, or at least so it seemed and climbed into the back seat of the car where he had been sat before, reaching out as if to grab something, then suddenly a single shot of web closed the door, three more shots and the car was secure, he then lunged for his phone.
A stunned moment before shooting the car, Peter meanwhile was dialling. Vulture, realizing the commotion came over running, and just before Happy picked up ordered silence.
"H-Happy?!" Peter had seriously doubted the man would pick up.
"Peter? What are you calling for? Mr Stark told you to stay out of-"
"It's important! I know who the arms dealer-"
"Peter, look, can't you phone me back, I have something important to do?"
Peter's horror filled face was enough to make Vulture feel a tinsy bit of relief.
"But-"
"No, I have to move all the stuff from the Avengers facility, nothing yo have to say is more important than that."
Peter dropped the phone after hearing the familiar sound of being hung up on. At first he was in shock because that was his last hope, then he was in shock because he knew where Vulture was going tonight, and he knew he had to think of a plan, a plan he could pull of alone.
Peter looked towards the men, the one he knew was the Vulture had opened up the boot, the only part of the car he hadn't locked from the inside with the spider glue. There was a gun pointed at Peter, but that wasn't going to stop him. He dived, throwing the man to the floor he then flipped onto his feet.
Without pausing to give them the chance to shoot he ran, sat first straight, after he heard the first shot he began to zig zag between the columns, straight for the Vulture outfit, jumping prepared to kick it in mid air, if he could just break the outfit enough…
But before his foot could touch the outfit suddenly it lit up and flew up. Peter hit the wall, bounced of it doing a flip in the air and landing facing the suit. He gulped before running left, the suit followed, destroying the pillars as it did.
As Peter ran he realized that the building wouldn't last long, but instead of heading towards the exit he headed towards the men, knowing the outfit would follow, the men suddenly panicked, running for the exit, "evacuation complete," he said with a grin before seeing the suit fly past him and to it's owner.
"Shit," he could heard the building collapsing and was running as fast as he could, the last thing he saw before the rubble was Vulture taking one last look at the kid.
"Agh!" Peter fell hard, a heavy bit of concrete pinning him to the ground.
It was dark, and hard to breath, he could heard the car alarm sounding loudly nearby, he coughed, this time for real, he looked around but could see nothing, there was so much dust in his eyes. He tried to call out, but it was pointless, there was nobody to hear him. Peter clenched his fists, god, Vulture was going to get to the plane, with all of those super dangerous stuff.
Peter coughed, he felt tears run down his face, if only he had been a bit faster, a bit stronger or a bit smarter… if only Happy had listened…. If only… Peter's eyes widened, No, he couldn't blame anybody but himself for this, he lost Happy's trust by over stepping, now he had to make that up, he had to stop Vulture on his own, without the suit, no matter what it took.
Peter took a deep breath, Peter was Spiderman, not because he had powers or a cool suit, but because people needed him to be Spiderman, the rock seemed less heavy the more determined he was to move it. And when he finally freed himself from the building, he knew he didn't have time to rest. He began once more to run, looking down at his web shooter he knew it wouldn't last.
Peter didn't use his webs, instead he just ran, he couldn't waste his web, he saw the old avengers tower, he saw the plane, he saw Vulture. He began to climb the highest building nearby, he knew Vulture could see him, he wasn't trying to be stealthy, that wasn't his intention, instead when he saw the plane take of his shot what was probably his last web at the plane, and climbing up it clung onto it.
Turning to face Vulture, he wished that the plane had noticed him and was thereby about to land, but obviously it didn't because it flew higher and higher, activating it's cloaking device. Peter swore, he had being do that a lot today, but this was pretty damn high, and not exactly slow.
Vulture flew closer, "I gave you a choice kid," justification, but clearly not meant for Peter.
"You can't do this! These weapons are too dangerous!"
"I'm sorry," Vulture grabbed Peter, intending to throwing him of the plane and to the ground, but the kid jumped up, onto the wring and then onto the plane. Being more agile then the vulture who had to move back so as to not hit the plane with his wrings.
"What if someone whom you sell one of this weapons hurts Liz?!"
The vulture ignores him, flying at top speed towards the fifteen year old who jumped of the side of the plane, grabbing hold of the bottom, thanking the heavens he had the ability to stick onto stuff, although with the wind it was becoming difficult.
"You can't do this!"
"I'm not having a kid tell me what I can!" he shot at the kid, but Peter dodged, "and can't!" another shot, another dodge, but a damaged plane, "DO!" this time Peter was hit, and hard, he couldn't hold onto the plane and suddenly he was flying towards the ground, although it seemed he wasn't the only one.
The plane was falling twice as fast, and Peter managed to grab onto it as it fell, the Vulture was still at the same heigh as before and Peter did not know what to do, he couldn't let a plane crash in New York, so he ran across it, to the engine that was not making any noise, he hit it hard, it began to make noise again, not a good noise, but something.
Peter continued to swear as he ran towards the wrings, moving them, trying to steer this way to fast plane as it got closer and closer to the ground. Thankfully Peter saw an empty beach, and knew what he had to do.
Tony meanwhile, was running towards his suit, he had been informed of trouble with the plane, and that was dangerous, and when Happy informed him of how coincidentally the boy was talking about the arms dealer, everything seemed to make sense in Tony's mind all of a sudden, "I should have never taken the suit away from that idiot..." he mumbles to himself, wishing he could just look at the tracker or phone him.
He had already tried phoning the normal mobile and there was no reply, something Tony just knew meant the kid had gotten into trouble.
Pete hit the ground hard, rolling across the sand, he was surprised he didn't break his neck honestly, and was very grateful for the numbness he felt in his body, he didn't want to know how he would be feeling tomorrow.
He had to sigh when he saw the Vulture approaching, "seriously, man, leave it! This is too dangerous!" he shouted standing.
The Vulture then pinned him to the ground, "you don't understand!" he shouted and then suddenly flew up high, giving Peter a felling of Déjà vu, but this time was different. This time there was no suit with a parachute, there was no Iron Man coming to save him. This time, Vulture had a reason to hate him, "I will do anything for my family!"
Peter looked up, and then saw something, "your suit!" he shouted, "i-it isn't safe!"
Vulture laughed, "no more tricks," he dropped Peter but he grabbed onto his feet. Then leaped, grabbing onto the back of the suit and holding on. Vulture continued to move around, and Peter held on tight, waiting, and when he saw that they were above water, he was quick, pressing the evacuate button he kicked the man, kicking him out of the suit and more importantly away from it.
Peter saw how he was flying towards the water, and that was okay, but then he looked to the ground and saw that he wasn't falling there, the kick was causing him, and the suit to fly towards the beach. And before Peter could think about what to do.
BANG!
The suit exploded, hitting Peter right in the face, and there he was, free falling towards the beach, with fire and metal all around him.
Tony who was just arriving at the location saw this, and despite his speed wasn't fast enough.
Another loud thud and bang as Peter and the suit hit the ground, and for a moment Tony was certain there was no way the kid had survived, but that didn't stop him from flying at top speed towards him, didn't stop him from kneeling down over him and covering the fragile body from any more debris that was falling.
"Peter..." he spoke, hoping to get a reaction, although not really expecting one.
"M-Mr S-Stark…?"
"Thank god," Tony closed his eyes, "hold in there kid, we are gonna get you some place safe," he picked the kid up, holding him close and was about to fly of.
"N-No… there's another… person..."
Tony stopped, he knew who Peter spoke of, he saw the whole thing, "don't worry Peter, his down, he can't steal anything now," Tony reassured.
"In water… drown..."
That was when Tony understood, Peter wasn't worried about that guy committing a crime, he was worried them dying. The fact that this boy, who had just been so close to being murdered by this guy, was now worrying about him… "seriously kid, you ain't meant for this world..." he whispered but did as the kid wished, moving him out of the way before flying towards the river, it took him no time to find the unconscious man, and bring him back to the beach, dropping him of near the plane.
By now Tony could see Happy's car arriving, could see Damage Control, they didn't need him, but someone did.
"Let's go kid," Tony picked up Peter, and took of, going straight towards the compound. Telling FRIDAY to make sure there was a room with medical equipment and staff ready for him, "we're nearly there Peter, how you feeling?"
"I-I… c-cant..."
Tony understood, entering a window he dropped the kid of on the bed, soon there were people more qualified, shouting out orders to one another and checking his vitals.
Tony didn't leave the room, just left his suit in one corner, taking a seat next to it, watching as they worked.
The next day, Tony still hadn't left the room, even though all the staff had. He was now sat closer to the boy.
"What happened?" a soft question which got Tony to look up and yawn.
"Well, you got shot, dropped from a ridiculous height, were next to an explosion, and I don't even want to know what else..."
"I meant," he sat up, "is the plane okay? And the people?"
"The guy you were fighting was arrested and had no serious injuries, the plane was secured and is now the facility."
"Good," Peter let his head rest against the pillow, "I'm sorry."
"For?"
"You took the suit away so I wouldn't do this kinda stuff..." he grinned.
"I know, but had you not done this it could have ended worse… I'd say you should have called us but… you did."
"I didn't look for trouble," Peter added, "not this time, he um… he was the dad of the girl I asked to Homecoming, he figured my identity out in the car when she pointed out how I went missing sometimes."
"I see, and he kidnapped you?"
Peter nodded and Tony placed his head in his hands.
"God, I'm sorry kid..."
"Pardon?"
"For taking the suit away, I put you in unnecessary danger, had that suit been on you… well, I could have been there faster, you would have web and a parachute… I didn't do anything to stop you getting into trouble, just made the consequences of that trouble worse."
Peter reached out a hand and put it on Tony's shoulder, "you tried, you were trying to keep me out of trouble, I know, you couldn't have seen that coming… I didn't. It was just unlucky."
Tony shook his head, "look, kid, I was wrong to ever doubt you, you did good, really good. And I know you ever had any wrong intentions, you need that suit though… or I need it so I can know your okay at least."
Peter grinned, "awww, you care?"
"Of course," this wasn't the response he expected, "you think I took the time to program all those protective stuff for the fun of it? God no."
Peter had never though of it that way.
"You don't know how scary it was seeing you, falling, you were burnt and bleeding and when you hit the ground, I was sure that was it…"
"I didn't mean to scare you..."
"Well you did, senseless in fact."
There was a moment of silent.
"Kid, just… I've phones your aunt, said you never lost your internship, that it was a problem with the paperwork and that you had to go out of state to fix it, I said you wouldn't be back till next week, gives you some time to heal. And also, some time to give you some actual training with the suit, after that we are going to talk about what you are allowed to do, and what you are not, is that understood?"
"Yes Mr Stark."
"Good… and now that you are awake… I need to go get some proper sleep myself. Rest… tomorrow will be a long day for both of us."
Just as Tony was about to leave, "M-Mr S-Stark?"
"Yes Peter?"
"T-Thank you… for believing in me."
This made Tony turn to look at him, "I'd be a fool if I didn't, after all you've done… you did amazing."
Peter smiles brightly, and for a second, Tony smiles back.
