A Familiar Face

Days pass. Weeks, even.

Though however hard he may try, Peter's mind wanders back to the Time Leap Machine.

The concept is incredible, and if Bruce and Tony can successfully bring their plans into fruition, it'll be a world-changing event.

Literally.

He hasn't returned to the lab since first visiting. That place gives Peter the creeps, to be honest.

And his conflicted thoughts are unrelenting.

What if the time leap fails?

Could the world be thrown out of balance?

Are there really parallel universes?

Bruce obviously knows much more on this topic than Peter. Maybe he should pay the visit a lab.

To keep his mind off the looming subject at hand, Peter decides to test his new Spidey suit even further.

And although it may feel amazing, it certainty doesn't provide all that much new help when in battle.

Peter is learning this the hard way.

"You looked a lil' shocked, kid."

Herman Schultz. Some dude in his mid-twenties. Runs around in a cushioned yellow suit while shooting concentrated blasts of compressed air that vibrate at an intense frequency.

Basically, this dude is a nutcase, which is quite funny considering that Spider-Man is usually labelled the weirdo.

"Jus - augh - just gimme a sec," Peter breathes queasily through his strained mask, gasping for air.

The two are deep underground inside New York's snake-like tunnel system.

This entire event began when Peter intervened a bank robbery committed by Schultz and his goonies. They fled underground with a large sum of money, Peter right on their tales before landing himself directly in the middle of an ambush.

Dozens upon dozens of armored mercenaries came in seemingly unending waves, and just as Peter thought he had the upper-hand - everything went to crap.

The Shocker is being a real pain in the rear today.

"What's wrong, buddy? You have a -"

"A shocked expression on my face? Is that what you were gonna say, dude?" Peter remarks slowly, attempting to stand on his feet, ignoring the blood trickling down his left arm.

Schultz looks confused.

"Well - yeah, but-" his brow lowers, "You should stop making fun of me before I shoot another shockwave at your sorry ass."

"I'm just - nhh - getting really peeved these days. You criminals can never come up with anything original," Peter speaks, trying desperately to buy time as a plan is formed. "It's always the same insults. I just need a little variety from time to time, y'know?"

Shocker snickers. "How's this for variety."

Suddenly a dial is turned on his shocking-gloves and Peter's spidey-sense booms painfully. He leaps unceremoniously across the room, only seconds before another shock-blast erupts from Schultz. This one is around three times bigger than the previous attacks.

"And here I was thinking today would be one of those nice days," Peter mumbles numbly as he sticks to a wall.

"It's high time you started to take me seriously, boy," Herman's southern voice rings out. "Made me of laughing stock the Enforcers, and now you still think I'm just another push-over. I-"

"Shhh, dude. Give us teenagers our alone time," Peter quips, shooting a flurry of webs directly into Shocker's face while jumping from wall to wall.

This turns things from bad to worse.

Herman completely loses his already unhinged cool and goes ballistic, letting off shock-wave after shock-wave without a nick of precision.

Subway trains are obliterated, enveloping the entire underground area with fire and chaotic debris. Peter looks toward the ground and sees the unconscious bad guys, realizing they'll also die unless he gets them back to the surface.

"Herman, listen to me! Your friends are gonna die unless we-"

An infuriated screech cuts Peter off. Herman continues to blast the subway interior, and pillars quickly begin to fall in shambles.

This isn't good.

Peter leaps toward Shocker, planting a kick directly into his thick noggin.

"Please be knocked out, please be knocked out, please be knocked the heck out..."

The plan doesn't go as smoothly as that.

Herman stumbles, rips the webbing from his eyes and lays sight on Peter.

"YOU FREAK-"

Another shock-wave. Peter narrowly dodges.

"HEY! DUDE! Look at the subway! You're gonna knock the whole underground down! Stop it, dude!"

"D-don't make my decisions! I HATE YOU!"

This is going nowhere fast.

Peter plants another strikingly powerful fist into Herman's face and webs him directly to the floor.

"Now - now stay there and be a good little Shocker while I clean up your mess."

Peter turns and scans the entire vicinity, using his zooming and scanning functionalities in-built to his Spider-Visors.

Sixteen baddies, including Schultz.

Peter guesses he can only carry four bodies at a time. This won't work.

Tony's voice suddenly blares into Peter's ears, the serious tone evident even through the static.

"I'm only a few thousand meters away. What's the situation?"

"Uh, yeah - I think the subway might collapse."

"Any people down there?"

Peter nods, only to realize Tony isn't able to see him.

"A whole gang of bank robbers. I can't carry them all out before the tunnel collapses in on itself."

Tony reminds silent for a moment.

"Alright," he finally exclaims. "I'm sending some suits down there as well. Pick up as many bodies as you can and get the hell out. Leave the rest to me."

Peter does as instructed, lifting four unconscious robbers onto his back, including Shocker. He then leaps over a destroyed, flaming train which extends for around one hundred meters.

Peter also feels the walls around him shake and stir.

"You better hurry, sir. The tunnel's gonna fall harder than the Chitauri in a sec," Peter exclaims exasperatedly. "Hold on a minute... did you say suits?

Upon hearing this, Tony's faint laugh echoes in Peter's earpiece. "You're in for a treat, kiddo."

Peter continues to weave through the intricate tunneling systems, taking sharp turns before arriving back in the bank.

A plethora of S.W.A.T officers and policemen have closed the entire building, and they train their rifles on Spidey as soon as he's noticed.

"HANDS IN THE AIR! WE WILL SHOOT-"

"Guys, there's really no time for our daily scuffles. The tunnels are gonna collapse. You needa get back!"

"I SAID HANDS IN THE-"

The S.W.A.T commissioner doesn't have a chance to finish.

Several entirely new Iron Man suits crash into the bank through the surrounding windows. They lay eyes on Peter, then on the sizable hole leading to the remaining bad guys.

Suddenly they release several dozen flashbangs and blind every policeman in the vicinity before rocketing into the wall opening.

Peter knows this is his chance to escape.

Rifles are fired randomly in his direction, though blinded cops are no threat as Peter drops the unconscious robbers in a safe corner before leaping out the building through an already destroyed window.

He feels fresh New York air ripple against the suit.

His heart is pounding.

Peter then fires a web and thrusts himself toward a nearby wall overlooking the entire premises. The tunnel is finally giving in.

A pulsing explosion. The ground caves and drops. People scream, though thankfully nobody is near the crater which lies directly in the middle of the street.

He can't tell if Tony's suits saved the day, but Peter continues to scan the area for any clue.

This isn't looking good.

More explosion erupt and fire cascades from the air. Onlookers scurry as far away as possible.

Still no sign of life from the tunnels.

Finally, after what felt like hours, he sees two suits emerge from the bank with Herman's goons in tow.

But that isn't right. There should be four suits.

Alright. No more waiting around. There's lives at stake.

Peter detaches himself from the wall and swings directly into the destructive crater itself. People scream, cheer, chant and cry. Everything is in chaos.

His feet hit the ground. There's abhorrent chunks of metal strewn throughout the cave.

Peter scans his surroundings and lays eyes on a terrifying sight.

One of Tony's suits has been completely crushed by a massive hunk of debris. Next to that, the only remaining suit is supporting the collapsed roof, protecting the final group of bank robbers which lay at his feet.

That roof would weigh tons. The robot won't hold on for much longer.

Peter shoots a web at each unconscious bad guy and pulls. They fly in his direction, and he grabs each one by their appendages before taking one final leap out the crater.

Upon seeing this, the final suit nods and ceases his support on the roof. It crushes the robot instantly, surrounding the entire street in dust.

xxx

Every one of Schultz's thugs were saved. Peter should be happy, but instead he feels empty.

His actions caused abhorrent destruction to the city street. He was careless. Reckless. Stupid.

Night has fallen. The Avengers commended him on his excellent quick thinking, telling Peter that Shocker is the one to blame.

Peter nods, but hardly listens.

An hour or so passes before several Avengers return home, leaving Peter, Tony and Bruce alone.

Tony is the first to speak. "Well, if we're done here, I'll be in workshop." He stands and walks to the door before turning and adding, "You did good, kid. Swing back home whenever you're ready."

Peter almost nods absentmindedly again before his head shoots up. "Wait. You're gonna continue working on the Time Leap Machine?"

Tony nods with a smirk. "Interested?"

Peter returns the nod.

"Get changed into some regular clothes and meet me down there."

With these words he leaves. Bruce also stands, patting Peter on the back before following suit.

Entering the lab around five minutes later, now in his casual attire, Peter notices a drastic change to the machine.

It appears to be more refined, with metal insulation and an improved headset.

He realizes that Tony and Bruce have probably been working on the device daily since the last visit, which was four weeks ago.

"We've made significant progress, if I do say so myself," Bruce pronounces proudly, a beam on his face.

"But also uncovered significant limitations," Tony adds in monotone.

"Like what?" Peter questions, walking to the machine.

"The LHC is being a pain in the ass," Tony mumbles. "There's two rings inside the tube. Inside the rings is a super low temperature vacuum. Proton acceleration occurs when we activate the tube, which mean the rings gradually accelerate by our proton synchrotron booster. Finally, the rings undergo their final acceleration via the superconducting magnets spread throughout. At the end, they reach up to 99.9999991% of the speed of light."

"The LHC's dangerous, is what we're saying," Bruce smirks with another light chuckle.

"The - the speed of light? Why the heck are you trying to reach the speed of light?" Peter basically yells.

"Well, LHC stands for Large Hadron Collider. You ever heard of those in school?" Tony quizzes.

"They're popped up in a textbook or two, but other than that... no, nothing."

Tony smiles. "Hadron is the name of the particle we're trying to produce. Without compressing hadrons, the Kerr Black Holes won't produce."

"So..."

"So activating the Time Leap Machine requires the speed of light. Dandy stuff. Child's play," Bruce mumbles quietly.

Peter's voice lowers back to it's normal tone as he speaks, "Do you think you can generate the speed of light?"

"No. But I don't think we need to. Maybe producing several miniature Kerr Black Holes is simpler than a somewhat larger one. We... need to do more research before going forth."

"...Have you tried white holes?"

Both older scientists look at Peter quizzically. Tony says, "They're only theoretical. We've considered the possibility, but who the hell knows if they even exist."

White holes are basically the antithesis of black holes. Instead of sucking everything in, they push everything out.

"Well... yeah, I got nothing," Peter smirks.

"This is the only problem in our path. The machine is around seventy percent complete," Bruce speaks solemnly, mostly to himself. "The answers on the tip of my tongue, I swear."

"Don't get all angry and piss yourself," Tony turns back to the Time Leap device with a chuckle.

Bruce simply ignores this.

"So, I have another question," Peter says to Bruce.

"Ask away."

"When you activate the machine, how long would it take to send the memories into the past?"

"Ahh," Bruce's face lightens. "The longest process will be churning your 1.24 terabyte memory file into 36 bytes. Tony actually provided a solid solution."

"Who would've thought a genius like me could do something so brilliant," the billionaire's voice echoes. "I've set up 64 direct lines with SHIELD's central database. By sending all 1.24 terabytes of data into each line, the waiting time would be around twenty seconds."

That's unexpectedly fast.

But something else in that sentence catches Peter's ears.

"SHIELD?! Won't they know we've built a machine if we're connected to their database?"

"Nope. I'm secured inside that puppy already. Untraceable, baby."

"And what about when we use the time machine?"

Tony pauses for a moment. "Well, for one, I'm hoping it remains unused. And two... even if we use it, the past would've changed. The user would've sent their memories back in time. It would've never been used on that new timeline."

Oh. Right.

It is a time machine after all.

Peter's head is spinning somewhat.

"Hey, Peter." It's Bruce. He sounds concerned. "Don't worry if you don't understand everything that's going on. We're still planning. It's just theoretical right now. Honestly, our calculations could be completely off. But if everything goes to plan, we'll have built a fail-safe. No need to worry your head off."

"Go home. Get some rest. You had a big day, after all - destroying my suits, and such," Tony jabs with a smirk.

xxx

Some hours pass. Peter's in bed, back at Aunt May's home. He's restless.

Tony and Bruce hacked into SHIELD's central database. Are they careless, or could they really be untraceable?

There's so many things going on. Far too many things for a normal teenager.

Wait. That's right.

Peter Parker isn't a normal teenager.

Not by a long shot.

He's Spider-Man. An Avenger. A protector of the world.