"Ow, damn crab...!" Peter muttered, looking into the water as he jumped away from the crustacean that was attacking him.
Ned laughed as he watched his best friend jump around as humanly as possible, but still managed to land right next to another crab. The enhanced boy was almost positive that it was the same crab that kept teleporting where ever he landed. Were there such a thing as enhanced crabs?
He vaguely heard MJ yell something at him, but the wind, waves, and other beach sounds drowned her out. He looked at her, chuckling at how out of place yet so perfect she looked in her baggy t-shirt and shorts, sitting under the umbrella with her sketchbook. God, she was beautiful.
Wait, what?
Peter blushed darkly before a loud curse left him again as that same damn crab tried to cut off his toe. What was up with this thing?
"It's really cool that we get to be out here all by ourselves," Ned said, daring to go over to his friend. "This way we don't have to worry about crowds and noisy people to ruin our day."
"Yeah, there's less sensory overload for me, too." Peter nodded, risking a glance at MJ again, "And I'm sure she's happy with the quiet too."
Ned was silent for a second before a smirk started playing on his face. "You like her...!"
The blush was back as Peter shook his head furiously, "N-No I don't...! I don't know what you're talking about!"
"Dude, I've known you since Kindergarten, I know when you have a crush."
Peter sighed in defeat, his shoulders sagging as he looked down into the water. "Well... Maybe I do? I don't know, I'm just starting to notice it myself."
"You should totally ask her out!" Ned nudged his arm a bit, "I think she likes you too! That or she's planning your murder, but I think it's the former!"
"I-" Peter's gasp cut himself off, quickly turning just in time to get a faceful of water from a strangely large wave. Peter and Ned were both knocked over, their heads going beneath the water as they struggled to get their footing in the current-pushed sand.
Peter came up first, a dull ache in his heel from where he stepped on the shell of the crab (hopefully killing it). He ignored the pain as he looked around for his friend, laughing as he came up shortly after with his hair hanging in his eyes and covering his face.
"That-" Ned coughed, "That was so uncool..."
Peter's laughter died to a chuckle as he helped Ned up completely. "Sorry, buddy, my Spidey senses have been going off constantly from all the waves, so I've been ignoring it for the most part. That one caught me by surprise."
"It's fine," He shook his head, pushing his hair back, "I'm going to go back in, you should too soon or you'll fry."
The enhanced teen nodded, glancing at MJ. "I'll be in soon."
Peter watched as his companion made his way back to shore, stumbling from the undertow of the water a few times. Peter slowly let out a sigh as he crouched down in the cool water and let the feeling of the waves calm his mind. This new development with MJ wasn't something he expected, and he had no idea how to proceed.
There was no way he could act like he normally did, right? It took him a month to realize that he liked Liz, and then he could never actually talk with her until all that crap with the Vulture started happening; he had just stared at her like a creeper the whole time. So now what was he supposed to do with MJ?
He sighed as he started to stand up, feeling his face already starting to burn (or was that his blush?) as he made his way back to the beach. He'd figure it out along the way.
The hair on the back of his neck stood up just a second before it hit him.
The breath was knocked out of his lungs just as his head was pulled under. He could hear his muffled screams he was pulled through the water, a pain so intense ripping its way through his body.
Whatever had a hold of his leg let go, giving Peter time to stand on his good left leg and get his head above water again to take in a gulp of much-needed air before letting his scream ring out again.
Shark, his mind kept telling him, there was a shark in the water that was after him. And now all the blood that was surrounding him in the water would attract more sharks. Peter started moving towards the shore, noticing with growing panic that the shark had brought him even farther out than earlier. His foot could barely touch the ground.
His senses went off again, but Peter was unable to dodge as the teeth sunk into the same leg as before, pulling him right back under.
This was definitely not how Peter thought his life would end. He always thought it would have something to do with Spiderman, a villain getting the best of him or him falling in the line of duty to protect some civilians. Nowhere in Peter's mind did a shark somehow get mixed into any equation. Not even when he was a kid did a shark scare him out of the water.
Much good his superpowers did him now when he actually needed them... So much for his enhanced-
Enhanced...
Enhanced strength.
He had enhanced strength.
Peter wanted to slap himself if he had the time. He opened his eyes under the water, doing his best to ignore the burning of the salt as he brought his fist back and slammed it into the side of the shark's head.
The over-powered fish went still almost immediately, its grip on Peter's leg going slack and allowing the boy to swim back to the surface. He gasped for air as he did his best to stay afloat, the waves making it difficult as he tried to find out where his friends' screams were coming from. When he finally found the proper direction, he almost sank back below the water. It was so far...
He took a deep breath as he started swimming, praying that he wouldn't get to meet anymore dangerous aquatic life on his trek. His leg was in so much pain and he almost wanted to give up multiple times but pushed through when Ned and MJ started running into the water to meet him halfway.
The pair half dragged-half carried him back to land, laying him on the towel under the umbrella as he gasped and cursed through the pain. Movies didn't lie at all when depicting this torture...
"Oh God, oh God, oh God," Ned muttered constantly, in full panic mode as he frantically searched his mind for some way to help his friend.
"C-Call Mr. Stark..." Peter managed to mutter through his grit teeth.
"There's no cell tower out here!" MJ even lost her level-headedness as she stared at his leg. That definitely didn't mean anything good for him.
Peter gulped as his eyes flickered over her, knowing that she would find out his secret sooner or later. "M-My bag-" His body clenched in pain as Ned jumped up immediately and ran for his bag in the car, knowing just what Peter had meant.
"Do you want the whole suit? Don't answer that, that's stupid..." Ned came running back with the mask, MJ's eyes widening as she looked at it but didn't comment as the boy slipped it on Peter.
"K-Karen...!" He gasped out, his head starting to spin and cloud. Each second was making it harder to speak.
"Peter, what happened?" The AI asked, "You seem to be in pain."
"Call M-Mr. Stark! It's an -an emergency...!" His voice went up an octave as his eyes closed tightly, his hands fisting in the sand to try and level his head slightly.
"Mr. Stark has been notified and is on his way. What happened, Peter?" If it was any other time, Peter would have been touched by the heavy concern laced in her voice, but he could hardly acknowledge it now.
"Sh-shark, leg," He panted, his breathing becoming labored but soon cut off with a cry as the pain in his leg spiked. He moved his head to see MJ wrapping one of her towels around it while Ned tried to hold him down, muttering apologies the whole time.
"Peter, I believe you are going into shock. Please try to control your breathing, time them with my counting, alright?"
"I-I can't, Karen..." He sobbed, "It hurts...! It hurts so b-bad...!
Some lights flashed across his view, making the pain in his head skyrocket. "Incoming call from Tony Stark. Control override. Call accepted."
"Mr. Stark!" The relief he felt when he saw Tony's face in front of him was almost palatable, his mind not registering that the man wasn't really there.
"Kid, Peter, what happened?" Tony's voice was slightly higher than normal, "Karen said something about a shark?"
"Mr. Stark, M-Mr. Stark..." Mr. Stark would make the pain go away. Mr. Stark would take care of everything, just like he always did.
"Peter!" Tony suddenly yelled, Peter's body jerking slightly in response, "I need you to stay awake for me, okay? Can you do that?"
"Mr. Stark."
"That's it, kid, just keep talking and stay awake."
"It..." Why was it so difficult to talk now? "It hurts..."
"I know, kid, I know. But I nee... to... Can you... -Eter?" Tony's voice started to fade out, the blackness on the edges of Peter's vision starting to close in on him. It hurt so bad. Pain was the only thing he knew at that moment, pain and suffering - and MJ's soft voice calling to him.
Her voice was so beautiful... It was soothing. Her voice numbed his pain and made him want to be enveloped by her everything.
"Peter, please..." Her voice sobbed, "Please don't do this! Stay awake, you loser!"
She was sad. MJ shouldn't be sad. She should be happy and sarcastic and threatening anyone that was around her but really just using it as a defense against people so she wouldn't be hurt. Peter didn't want her voice to sound sad...
"That's right, Peter, if you don't want me sad then you should stay awake!"
He wasn't awake? It sure felt like he was awake, you weren't supposed to feel pain while you were sleeping - and he was definitely feeling pain.
"Peter!"
Ugh, all these voices yelling at him... Why couldn't they just be quiet for a few seconds? He just wanted a little rest; he deserved that much after what he'd been through, right?
Been though? What was it that he went through again? His mind went blank, the pain drowning out everything. Where did the pain come from? He was in the water... Fish lived in the water, was it a fish? He was supposed to go to a seafood restaurant tonight with Ned and MJ, grilled fish sounded so good... But fish are friends, not food... But the shark said that, not Peter. Peter could eat the fish if he wanted to.
Shark. Right, the shark. He was attacked by a shark and bleeding out on the beach. Why did he want to remember that again?
"Kid, talk to me, please!"
"He's been muttering nonsense for a while now, I don't know what to do!"
"He's in shock, that's almost to be expected. But it's still concerning."
Shh, why wouldn't they all just shut up? The noise wasn't helping him at all.
"Did he just shush me?"
"Glad to see he's still able to talk while unconscious though, I feel like that's some kind of plus for him."
The voices in his head were jerks. Every single one of them.
Did he have a Squip? Voices in heads normally meant there was a gray, oblong pill with quantum nano-technology CPU involved. Was the supercomputer going to try and take over his high school by using him? He wouldn't let it, he'd protect his school from artificial intelligence - no offense to Karen. Who was Karen again?
His body moved and suddenly there was someone screaming. Why were they screaming? Didn't they know that the screaming was hurting him more and -oh wait... that was him screaming. Could he maybe not scream so much?
"I'm sorry..." A voice whispered to him, "I'm sorry this happened to you, Peter..."
Peter wanted to console that voice. They shouldn't be sad, they did nothing wrong. Peter was the one that... that did something... or didn't do something? He couldn't remember, but it was Peter's fault that he was in pain, not that voice's.
Peter must have passed out at some point because the noises around him suddenly changed from frantic voices and waves to frantic voices and machinery. At least that's what he thought it was; what else has such an annoying beep to it? He really wanted that beeping to stop... It was so loud.
The more Peter thought about how loud the beeping was, the louder and faster it became. Now not only did his body hurt, but his head as well.
"Peter, are you awake?" A voice asked, adding to the pounding that resonated in his head.
A small groan left him as he cracked his eyes open, a blinding light meeting him and causing him to flinch back.
"He's definitely waking up, I need more anesthesia!"
Everything was so loud and painful, his head feeling like it was going to split in two as the noise kept building.
"Peter-"
His eyes snapped open as he shoved the hands off of him, sitting up in the hard bed that he was in. There was a loud crash followed by a string of curses that made his pain worse. He just needed everything to stop! He had to stop!
"Peter!" A familiar voice yelled, freezing Peter in his task of getting out of the bed. His head whipped around to search for the voice, knowing that the person it belonged to would make everything okay again. That voice always made everything better.
His eyes stopped at the figure moving closer to his bed, his body tensing before headphones were placed over his ears. Peter blinked, most of the sound in the room being cut off and allowing Peter a better opportunity to take everything in.
He was sitting in a hospital bed with several doctors surrounding him, Tony Stark stood in front of him with a concerned expression as he spoke to him softly.
"You good now, kid?"
Peter nodded slightly, his adrenaline starting to ebb away to reveal a new pain that was searing his right leg. His head started to turn but Tony's hand was on his cheek to keep him facing forward.
"You don't want to do that..."
Well, now he just had to look.
Oh, God.
Oooh God...
His leg should definitely not look like that...
"Damn it, kid! I told you not to look!" Tony yelled above Peter's screams as he tried to turn the boy's head again but it was almost completely useless, his head frozen like a rock at his mangled leg. Bruce came up behind them and placed a hand on Peter's shoulder before injecting a syringe into his neck. Peter flinched and nearly knocked Bruce and Tony off of him but stopped again as his vision started blurring.
Peter turned his head, his confused eyes flickering over Bruce to the needle in his hand. His eyes looked almost hurt as he stared at the doctor, his body swaying slightly. Tony caught him as he started to go down, one hand on his back and the other behind his neck as he gently lowered him down - down into the deep darkness of unconsciousness.
Peter felt like he was floating, his mind numb to everything around him and unable to feel anything but emptiness. That wasn't fun... Normally, Peter would have been terrified of the feeling, but he just couldn't find the strength to care now.
Voices filtered through his haze a few times, talking about him. They all seemed worried or sad, or both. There was one voice that was there many more times than any of the others, promising to stay by his side until he woke up.
By the time Peter woke up again, he wasn't in as much pain but he was still very fuzzy about everything.
His eyes slowly opened up to scan the area, noticing right away that he was in the Avengers' medbay (he hated the fact that he had been here enough times to tell the difference between the medbay and a hospital). Off to the side, he saw Tony Stark sitting in one of the lounge chairs that was moved into the "Spider Room" where Peter was normally treated in - too many times had they listened to Tony complain about his back before Steve moved a chair from the living room into the Spider Room. At least Peter didn't feel as guilty now that Tony stopped saying how much he hurt afterward.
The events at the beach slammed back into Peter's head, reminding him of why he was at the medbay, his eyes zeroing in on the tent under the covers where his leg was. Oh, God... Did he lose his leg? How was he going to be Spider-Man now? There had to be some way to fix this...!
"Calm down, kid. You're going to hyperventilate." Tony's voice called through the dark room, Peter's head turning to see him staring back. "Your leg's going to be fine. The tent's there just to keep the sheets from pulling at your stitches."
Peter let out a sigh of relief as he slumped back in his bed. He still had his leg... That... that was very good.
"Now, I know you are still kinda high from all the pain meds Bruce had to pump into you to get even slightly dulled, but I think I should at least tell you how idiotic you were today."
"I didn't do anything though...!"
"You were at a secluded beach with no cell service! That was so stupid! What if I hadn't picked up for your call?" Tony's voice shook slightly as he looked away, jerking his hand through his hair. "You were already in shock when I got there, you were borderline hypovolemic when the Quinjet arrived to bring you back here. You could have died today, Peter."
The boy gulped as he averted his eyes, knowing full well that what Tony said was possible. Peter remembered thinking that he was going to die when he was in the water, and now that he had time to think about it... it scared him.
Tony seemed to see the fear on his face, reaching a hand out and hesitantly patting Peter's shoulder before leaning back in his chair again. "Just don't ever do something like that again -better yet, can you just humor an old man and try not to almost die wherever you go? Think you could handle that?"
"Yes, sir..."
"Oh don't look like that, I can't stay mad at you when you look so upset like that." Tony sighed as he got up and sat on the edge of Peter's bed. "Look, I'm not going to lecture you too much this time because I know you meant well with your friends - also because your friends and May are all scheming your demise. But let me just say... next time you want to go somewhere with very little human life and almost zero cell tower, please, let me know so that I can set up something that can help, or get you a phone that works out there. Alright? I don't want this to happen again."
Peter smiled a bit and nodded, "I think I could do that."
"Good, because I'm not giving you any other choice." Tony gently ruffled the kid's hair before going back to his seat. "Now rest up, your body has a lot of healing to do."
The teen nodded as he laid back down, grunting as his leg moved the wrong way, and closed his eyes to drift into his dreamless sleep effortlessly.
A/N: pointless Peter whump after a day at the beach. My dad took me wade fishing and it's hard not to think about shark attacks when someone reels in a bull shark a mile away from you as you're chest deep in the water. Wish me luck, I'm going kayaking in alligator infested water next month.
"I can't help wondering what attracted that shark to me..." Peter started as he stared at the scars on his leg.
"Apparently, you had a pretty big cut in your foot and that's what drew the shark to you," Tony said without looking up from his StarkPad. "Please tell me that you at least had enough sense to not go into the water with a bleeding wound and had no clue that was even there."
Peter frowned as he looked back at Tony, his eyebrows furrowed in thought. When had he cut his foot-
"That damn crab...!"