Author's Note: Here we go, guys! Sorry for the wait, as usual, but we all know how life can be at times. As always, enjoy!
Peter watched Iron Man, or rather Tony, blast the walls. He knew the device was just siphoning every bit of it. "Um, do you know where Rhodey and them are?" Peter asked the still tuned in Roberta.
"They're in the compound"
"I'm gonna head over there. Thanks Mrs. Rhodes"
"You're welcome. Have fun" she called, but Peter was already pretty much out the door. He raced to the compound to find it empty. But where could they be? Both Pepper and Rhodey knew Tony was Iron Man so they probably helped him. They wouldn't do much good in the street, so they had to have some sort of HQ. He had figured that the compound was it, but no one was there. Unless….Peter pulled out his phone, "Rhodey, hey I just got home. Where are you guys? No one's here and I don't have a key to get in the house"
The teenager was hard at work swiveling round and about as he attempted to assist Tony from the armory when he received the call. "Sorry man, we're not home. Tony, Pepper, and I went to pick up some milkshakes at the diner down the road. We thought you were going to be longer"
Peter sighed. He didn't have time for this. Peter thought that maybe he could get help to Tony without revealing his identity to Pepper and Rhodey but he had no choice. They were probably inside whatever hideout they had. "I know Tony is Iron Man"
Rhodey racked his brain for a response but between putting Tony on hold and Pepper trying to communicate to their friend, it was a bit hard. "I don't know what you're talking about. Tony isn't-"
"It's okay, he knows I know. Look, we don't have much time, I think I can help"
Rhodey was in between a rock and a hard place. "Hold on" he said to the Manhattan resident. "Tony, Peter knows you're Iron Man. He says he can help"
Tony was hitting all the plausible weak spots in the bubble trying to free himself, draining his battery in the process. When he heard Rhodey say this, a huge wave of relief swept over him. "Yes. Let him help. Trust me"
Rhodey was confused beyond belief but put Tony back on hold and picked up Peter's call again. "Peter, where are you?"
"I'm outside"
"Stay there, I'll let you in" Rhodey said, leaving the chair. Pepper had been freaking out the entire time wondering how Peter knew and why Tony didn't tell them. "Hey, how did you find out?" Rhodey said opening the large door to the armory. The line dropped.
"Helped him out of a jam" Peter's voice came from beside Rhodey after a slight thud.
"How did you-" Rhodey stopped mid-sentence. Spiderman, without the mask, was standing right in front of him as he turned around.
He had gone to inspect different parts of the building for the room, hoping to save time. He suited up just in case anyone came in. "It's a long story. But right now, Tony's in trouble. And it might be my fault" Peter said.
As soon as Rhodey managed to get his jaw to stop hanging open, he nodded and led Peter into the Armory. Upon setting foot into the armory, Rhodey dashed back to the Terminal and Pepper went crazy. "Peter, how did you find out Tony was Iron- Oh my gosh, you're Spiderman?!" she said dashing over with the broadest smile humanly possible. "How come you didn't tell us sooner? How long have you known? Thank you!" she said grappling him into a hug then releasing him moments later.
"It's complicated, since yesterday, and you're welcome" he replied. His mind was still wrapping around the entirety of the armory. It was way cooler than he originally imagined it. The place was amazing. But he couldn't dwell on that at the moment. "Rhodey, how's Tony right now? "
Rhodey glanced at the screen in front of him, "not good. His power levels are dropping and fast. The more he hits it, the more it drains him."
Peter could see the various displays on the screens, "is that his power?" he asked pointing at one of the dropping levels.
Rhodey nodded, "yeah. Why?"
"It's too low. A concentrated blast directed at one point would probably be able to short out the system. But he would have to be able to hold it for at least a minute. By the rate its falling, that doesn't seem possible. Can you contact Tony?"
Rhodey nodded and adjusted some of the controls. "Rhodey! Glad you're back. What can you tell me?"
"Tony, it's Peter. A concentrated blast from your chest cannon...thing should be enough to overload the forcefield, but just for a second. You would have to hold it for about a minute. Can you do it?"
Tony glanced at his steadily dropping power levels, "no. I wouldn't be able to activate it let alone sustain it long enough for what you're suggesting. Plan B?"
"Working on it. I'll get back to on that" Peter ruffled his hair just slightly, sighing. He closed his eyes, rolling his head back to think. When he opened them, however, he had an idea. "How hard would it be to fly one of these things?" he asked, pointing at the armors that shone under the bright lights.
Pepper lit up, "you wouldn't have to! Rhodey can use the remote control the suit from here."
"Let's do it" Peter said, holding in the excitement of the invention. But he brought himself to focus again, "Tony? Hang in there, Plan B is on the way." The connection was muted to allow the three at the armory to discuss their plans. "So, Rhodey's going to remote control the suit to the city. I'll meet it over there. Keep me updated on what's going on"
"Better plan, no offense, would be for you to get in the armor. It'll be like the bus. But way cooler" Pepper suggested.
"Uh, I don't know, guys. Webslinging is pretty fast"
"But not as fast. Come on, man, Tony's running out of energy as we speak. We don't have time"
Tony was going crazy. He was now standing still in the forcefield that was levitating about four inches off the ground. So he couldn't even use the pavement to his advantage. Shrike and Unicorn were nowhere to be seen. That was both scary and a relief at the same time. He didn't know what to think. He didn't even want to theorize where those two were. It was absolutely torture to just sit and wait for whatever Peter, Rhodey, and Pepper had up their sleeves.
The red and silver armor spun into the center. The doors closed around it as it came down. It reminded Peter of those arcade games when you actually won something and waited for it to fall into the slot. The pod opened again to reveal the suit once again. Peter slid his mask on over his face and placed his messenger bag to the side.
"Okay. Here we go" Peter muttered, now inside the centurion armor. It had only been used once, back when Pepper had that run in with Whiplash. The upgraded suit, if Peter had calculated correctly, would be able to make up for the other armor's lack of power. Resisting the urge to laugh in pure excitement, Peter thanked his full face mask for hiding the huge smile on his face. He was what could only be described as fanboying. But that was just the beginning. The faceplate closed over the webhead and everything turned on. Plenty of displays popped up and different systems came to life.
"Ready?" Rhodey's voice came in through the helmet's comm systems.
"As I'll ever be" Peter said, still unsure of his decision. It was like waiting for a rollercoaster to drop down the hill. Before he could further debate his decision, he was moving. The visual grids came online and he saw the tunnels blurring past at incredible speeds. "Oh yeah!" he exclaimed as he came to the top and then blasting off to his destination. Webslinging speed had nothing on this! It was times like this that he was insanely glad that his equilibrium could handle pretty much anything. He was definitely glad Rhodey was driving. The flying position was going against everything he was used to. His Spidey Sense was going wild. But that was mainly because of the buildings that he was weaving in and out of.
Tony watched as a second suit of armor came down. "Rhodey?" Tony asked, impressed that his best friend chanced the suit again.
"Not quite" Rhodey's voice came in the comm.
"Just your Friendly Neighborhood Iron Spider!" Peter announced through the links.
"Catchy" Tony smiled.
"Let's get you out of this thing then we can switch" With Rhodey still in control of the armor, he raised an arm and aimed at the small device. However, the repulser beam just absorbed into it, a smaller field was made visible again. Peter was hoping that would be enough. Back to the original plan then. "Okay, Plan B. You're gonna have to use the last of your power. I'll supply the rest of the blast, but there needs to be some feed from the inside. Ready?"
"Let's do it"
Soon, Tony shot off both hand repulsers while Peter utilized the unibeam, as Tony had corrected him. Both high powered blasts were being aimed at the exact spot. The white field flashed dangerously then turned red about thirty seconds in. Tony's beams were losing their power but he kept them going anyway. There was a brief moment when all five people thought that the Mark I was going to give out before the minute mark was reached. But thinking quick, Tony used some of the power from his own chest implant to keep it going. When the field finally broke, Tony jumped out of the way to the field, the suit not having enough energy to fly out. That's when Unicorn and Killer Shrike reappeared.
"Two of you?" Unicorn asked, seeing the standing Iron Man and the one on the ground.
"Haha, nope" The suit opened up all the way down, revealing the arachnid-themed hero. Spiderman lept from the armor and into Unicorn before he could shoot his laser, "ta-da!" he bowed dramatically. Killer Shrike once again became airborne before Spiderman shot a web that caught around the flying villain's feet. Using that superhuman strength, Spiderman pulled fiercely and sent Killer Shrike plummeting into his grounded partner, Unicorn. As Spiderman kept the villains busy, and Peter was a grade-a distraction by the way, Rhodey used the suit to help fly Tony's nearly lifeless one away.
"Wow, you two are resilient aren't you?" Spiderman ducked a laser beam, courteous of the avian-themed villain, "seriously though, with names like yours, still not seeing how you made it past Round 1."
"Says the insect about to be squashed" Unicorn came in with a punch.
Spiderman sighed dramatically, "for the millionth time" he dodged the punch by leaping over his opposer, "spiders" he flipped around and kicked Unicorn from behind, "are not insects" he landed, watching the villain stumble for a moment then turn around. He shot webs right over the guy's face, "they're arachnids."
Killer Shrike was starting to shoot from the air again. "You know, one day I'm gonna get that on a t-shirt or something" Peter spoke casually as he dashed down the street, avoiding getting singed by laserfire. As he ran, he picked up a metal trashcan lid. Without stopping, he turned and threw the dirty silver disc like a frisbee. It hit, but it wasn't enough for more than the firing to stop just long enough for Shrike to wince. Then the heat was on again. Spiderman kept running across the street, but he didn't stop once he got to the building. It was like the construct was just an extension of the sidewalk, because the hero kept running, right up the side of the building. He was shooting webbing balls at Killer Shrike as he ran.
"Better improve your aim, Spidey" Shrike just kept the rapid fire up.
"Oh Tweety, if I was trying to hit you, I would" Peter shot webbing into the villains face, blinding him. "See? I'm just the distraction. Pretty good, huh?"
And not a second later, Iron Man came out of nowhere, and right into the flying villain. Both went into the ground hard. Spiderman came down from the building and immediately started dodging laser fire from Unicorn. The flightless baddy came charging in with superhuman speed, luckily, Spiderman was more super than human and was able to avoid most of the charge. With Unicorn now throwing in close combat moves, Spiderman did catch a few, but he definitely dealt some out himself.
Ironman was up in the air again with Killer Shrike. "I must say, this is getting really old, really fast. Beating you two up is starting to get old, don't you think?" Tony used the forcefield to deflect some of the laser fire and used the cover to get in closer. He dropped the shield and punched Killer Shrike back. "I mean, sure, we've had our laughs, but this whole running away thing, just isn't working"
The villain recovered and aimed both wrist blasters yet again on the armored hero, "oh Iron Man, if you only knew." Tony dodged most of the fire was was taking damage "then enlighten me" he growled.
"You'll see everything. Eventually. But by then, it'll be too late" the villain chuckled.
Using the ever-loved jet boots, he kicked it into overdrive and came in top speed at Shrike. This time he grabbed both wrists of the flying bad guy and grabbed hard. He transferred power into the motor functions and was able to put out enough strength to crush the wrist blasters, and by default, Shrike's flight stabilizers. As Killer Shrike plummeted, Iron Man sped up the process and slammed into the falling villain and sent him down with a crash. Tony came to land seeing Unicorn on the ground as well.
Spiderman came down from a streetlamp. "Good work" the arachnid-themed hero congratulated his armor-clad ally. Both heroes high-fived.
"Thanks for the save. I'd be a dead battery if it weren't for you"
Unicorn charged his horn and fired at the two celebrating good guys. Both jumped out of the way. Iron Man hovered into the air, ready to avoid more lasers. But Spiderman came in for the fight. Unicorn went to charge and punch again, but Spiderman came in with one of his own. It connected with substantial force right into the villain's jaw. Unicorn was down for the count. "That takes care of that problem" Spiderman grinned. Peter and Tony regrouped after they tied up the villains with street signs, thanks to the 'fully juiced' armor. That's when an explosion went off, knocking the two off the ground and sending them flying a few yards. By the time the two made it back to their feet, all they saw was an unmarked van peeling around the corner and Unicorn and Shrike were gone.
"We just let them go?"
"That was a nice punch"
"Sure was"
"Did it land?"
"Sure did"
The last punch Spiderman delivered, he held a tracking device. When the punch hit, he put the device right at the edge of the hairline with his thumb. Peter got the small tracker when the two high-fived on the street.
Tony flew Peter to the rooftop that he had the Mark I waiting on. He gave it some power from the centurion armor. It would be just enough for it to fly back. Peter loaded back in and Rhodey assumed remote control. Both headed back to the armory.