Title taken from the song "Superheroes" by Edguy. Warning for angst.

"Boss, Spider-Man has just been spotted near LaGuardia," Friday informed him.

The new cell phone technology Tony had been working on for weeks was quickly pushed aside. Since 'retiring' from the Avengers (Tony hated the word 'retiring', it made him sound so old), he'd been an even more exemplary CTO of Stark Industries than after Ultron. Tech breakthroughs just kept coming from SI, and Pepper, the board, and the shareholders were very happy. Engineering had always remained a favorite activity of his, although it had been bumped down to second place after flying Iron Man and blowing shit up.

"Do we have visual? Cameras? Satellites?"

"Working on it, Boss."

Priorities. Tony kept Iron Man activities, or anything related to superheroes, weapons and weaponized suits, as far down his list of activities as possible, not least in an effort to discourage Ross. Spider-Man was the one exception no one knew about. Tony had never told Peter, but he was keeping an eye on him. He had set an alert for spider appearances, and, if he could, watched the video live in his bat cave. And if he couldn't get any camera feed, he'd get it in some other — possibly illegal — way. He never missed a minute.

Spider's opponent this time was a bunch of robots. It wasn't usually a job for Spider-Man, except that they were in Queens, dangerous, and too much for the local police to handle. This became evident very quickly when they turned out to not only be capable of shooting machine guns mounted on their arms, but also had a flame-thrower function and flying abilities. Tony clenched his fists against phantom sensations of repulsor thrusts.

"Have any supers been notified?" Tony asked while evaluating the technical details of what he was seeing.

"I'm looking into it. I found the police frequency for the incident."

Tony bit his lip, cop babble playing in the background. The robots reminded him eerily of Hammer tech, and the number of them was too much for Spidey to chew. Of course, that didn't keep the teen from jumping in anyway. He did well at first, too. He kept his distance, used his speed and webs to his advantage.

"Any news?" Tony demanded impatiently.

"Not yet."

Who knew who, if anyone, would be called. The Avengers were gone; Tony hadn't kept track of the X-Men's or the Fantastic Four's reaction to the Accords, so he didn't know if either one of them would be called in or enter the fight voluntarily.

Tony started pacing while keeping an eye on the screens and watching Spider-Man throw a robot onto the street from a two-story drop; that put him in the range of another one who lashed out. Peter evaded it a moment too late, and the metal fist caught him and threw him back a couple of feet into a car. He got back up, and Tony was caught between a sigh of relief and grimacing at the teen who didn't know when to stop. He could see similarities to Rogers in him. Granted, just staying down wouldn't help him.

Unfortunately, things didn't get better from there. Spider-Man was outnumbered, and his lack of training with situations such as this one was becoming incredibly obvious and dangerous. Tony had to make a decision. The police were helping, as much as they could; SWAT had even arrived, but their bullets didn't seem to have much of an impact. Hammer should still be in jail — who the hell had made those robots?

"Friday, ready my suit."

"Yes, Boss."

The metal closed around him seconds after Peter crashed through a storefront window. Tony wished he had thought to give Peter a way to communicate with him in the field. Now Peter was going to be as surprised by Tony's arrival as everyone else from the robots to Hammer to the Secretary of State. There was no time for regrets though. Screw it, there was nothing to regret.

Tony had picked the fastest suit currently functional and while the distance was too short for supersonic speed, he put in all that he had. Iron Man's arrival came in the nick of time; Spider-Man's costume, Stark tech though it was, hadn't been able to absorb all slashes, hits and burns completely. It was a lightweight version of Steve's suit, taking the teen's acrobatics into consideration and was now ripped where dark bloodstains spread. Peter was face-down on the ground, and a robot was poised to shoot him in the back with the machine guns mounted on its arms. Tony's artillery proved to be more effective than the cops' firepower and blew it to bits. The concrete cracked under Iron Man's feet, but Spider-Man didn't react. With his gauntlets, Tony had no hope of feeling for a pulse. Up close, his injuries looked worse than Tony had expected. His spine and neck looked undamaged, so Tony risked turning him on his back and found his chest moving. There, at least, the tight suit showed its advantages—life signs were obvious, unlike in the armor.

Bullets ricocheted off Iron Man. Tony didn't have much choice or time. He could extract Peter but that would leave the rest of the cops and the city unprotected. He released three of the missiles in his shoulder to shoot the closest threats, then picked Spider-Man up. The best Tony could do was put him in a more or less safe place and fight until backup arrived. So that's what he did, and the next minutes stretched into an eternity which reminded him too much of Sokovia. He missed having someone to watch his back. Tony made up for the lack with brutal attacks.

"Reinforcements are in arrival, boss," Friday informed him eventually.

"Finally!"

Tony didn't even care who it was. All he cared about was getting Spider-Man safely and alive out of here.

The teen was lying motionlessly on the office floor where Tony had put him before he jumped back into the fight, repulsors blazing.

"Friday, give me his vitals." If anyone had been listening, they would have heard Tony's voice trembling. But there wasn't; no Avengers on the other side, no Rhodey, no Jarvis; no one. Except Friday.

"Heart beat detected. Injuries put him in a critical state."

"Shit. Call Dr. Williams to come to the tower."

"Already ahead of you, Sir. Dr. Williams is in transit."

The doc arrived barely five minutes after Tony had put Peter down on the table in the Avengers' medical bay. Tony could have kissed her for that. Dr. Williams was not only Tony's physician, she had also been that of the Avengers, and she could be trusted.

"I signed another NDA for you," Dr. Williams called as soon as the door opened. "His identity won't make it out of the tower."

She practically threw the document at him, which Tony didn't give a shit about at the moment, and thankfully, that was the last the doctor said about paperwork. Tony had already cut the Spider-Man suit off where the worst of the damage was and been putting pressure on various injuries. Dr. Williams took up position on the other side of the table and demoted him to assistant. Tony had taken off the gauntlets; the rest of the Iron Man armor still weighed on him, but didn't impede him when handing over various instruments when Dr. Williams demanded it.

"Okay, you can step back now," she told him eventually. "I can take it alone from here. Sit down."

It was hard to wrench his eyes away from where Peter was still breathing. The steady beep of the electrocardiograph was now also Tony's lifeline. His hands shook as he triggered the release latches on the suit to get out of it so he could fall on one of the chairs nearby. This was Spider-Man's second time in the original Avengers' med bay. The medial recliner closest to the door reminded him of when Steve had practically dropped into it with bruised and cracked ribs after the Chitauri attack. How times had changed.

Tony knew that he should be calling Peter's aunt May, who would eventually worry when Peter didn't come home. But he couldn't think of what to say. He ached for a drink. He would have gotten one, too, if the Doc hadn't been there; she told Tony every year to drink less alcohol. Tony had also made a rule for himself not to drink in Peter's presence because he wasn't going to be like Howard. He wasn't going to give a child a glass of whiskey, and he wasn't going to impose his drunken moods on him either if he could help it. It didn't change that Peter sometimes came over just as Tony was half-way to drunk.

Finally, Williams sighed and stepped back. Peter's chest was wrapped in bandages, and he was breathing.

"He'll live, right?" Tony asked.

Dr. Williams nodded. "You did the right thing getting him out. He probably wouldn't have survived if you hadn't. I saw it on TV." She looked troubled as he glanced back at Spider-Man. Williams had taken the mask off to check his face for injuries and to give him with oxygen.

"They start young these days, eh?"

"You have no idea."

"I'm going to give you some prescriptions, Tony. For you and Spider-Man."

"Me?" Tony gave her a confused look.

"How are your nightmares? You didn't get a new prescription."

Tony was too bone-weary to deny anything.

"It's been a difficult year."

"I know, Tony."

He stayed where he was long after the doctor left, ignoring phone calls he didn't feel like dealing with. Of course they would hound him now; the press, the UN, Ross. The sun set, and Friday turned on the lights. From a distance, Tony watched Peter breathe for what seemed like forever. A clap of thunder and lightning disturbed the deadly silence, but Tony still didn't move. It was just the weather. Except when it wasn't.

"Thor has just arrived."

Tony flinched at the sudden noise. He knew he should get up and welcome his (former?) teammate, but he couldn't bring himself to do it. How was he supposed to explain to May Parker that her nephew had barely survived an attack as Spider-Man? And if he couldn't do that, how was he supposed to explain to Thor why the Avengers were scattered across the globe and not speaking to each other?

Thor came anyway, of course. He knew how an elevator worked. Thor was an alien demigod, not stupid. Spider-Man was lying almost directly between the door he had just come through and the chair Tony was sitting in.

"So this is the young warrior you teach," the demigod said instead of a greeting.

"You know then."

Thor nodded. "Yes. Heimdall sees everything."

"You wanna tell me where you were?"

"I wouldn't have been able to stop you or the others." Thor was completely calm, as if Tony hadn't just accused him of not being there when the team had needed him. Tony wished he could be like that.

"Maybe not," Tony conceded after a long pause.

"We have much to speak of. A threat is coming, and Midgard needs all of her warriors."

Tony's eyes flickered between Thor and Peter. The demigod finally approached and set a comforting hand on Tony's shoulder.

"Midgard needs all of us or it will not survive. Friend, I know you would not stand by."

"Let's go upstairs," Tony croaked out through his too dry and tight throat.

'All of her warriors' or not, Peter was out.

One more story to go. Reviews are always welcome.