New chapter. I hope that I can have the remainder of the story wrapped up in the next chapter, possibly with an epilogue...I dunno. The one thing I know is that I need to get this finished before I write any more of my other story because happy-ish AU vs. Endgame is not going over well in my brain, which is probably why this chapter feels off to me. Sorry if you guys don't like it, I may re-write it after I finish Iron Maiden.
As always, please review :)
Carefully easing himself through the skylight in the warehouse, Peter moved silently through the darkened building looking for Toomes. It didn't take him long to find the man standing at a table in the middle of a massive room.
His spidey sense was blaring at him and he could almost hear Kate's voice in his head telling him to back out now that something was wrong.
But he had to stop Toomes.
"Hey!" Peter called walking forward. "Surprised?"
Toomes turned around, seeming unconcerned. "Oh, hey, Pete." He said leaning against the table. "I didn't hear you come in."
"It's over." Peter said. "I've got you."
"You know, I gotta tell you, Pete..." Toomes said. "I really, really admire your grit. I see why Liz liked you. I do. When I first saw you...I wasn't sure." He shrugged. "I thought, "Really?" But I get it now."
"How could you do this to her?" Peter demanded.
"To her?" Toomes looked surprised, then shook his head. "I'm not doing anything to her, Pete. I'm doing this for her."
Peter scoffed, shaking his head.
Toomes sighed. "Peter...you're young. You don't understand how the world works." He said. "You and Kate are in over your heads."
"But I understand that selling weapons to criminals is wrong." Peter replied.
"How do you think your buddy Stark paid for that tower?" Toomes demanded, angry. "Or any of his little toys? Those people, Pete, those people up there...the rich and the powerful, they do whatever they want. Guys like us..." He motioned between them. "...like you and me...they don't care about us. We build their roads, and we fight all their wars...and everything, but they don't care about us. We have to pick up after them. We have to eat their table scraps. That's how it is." Toomes straightened a bit. "I know you know what I'm talking about, Peter."
"Why are you telling me this?" Peter asked.
"Because I want you to understand." Toomes said. "And…I needed a little time to get her airborne."
…
Kate pulled up to the tower and raced inside. She keyed the elevator, but it refused to respond, her credentials wiped from the system. "Shit." She hissed in Russian. Switching back to English, she whispered. "Okay, what did Tony say…oh right."
Looking around, she quickly hit her Widow's Bite into the panel. She had a quick second to override it while the panel was fried. The elevator doors opened. "Yes!" She said and hit the top floor button. While she waited for the elevator to reach the top, she tried to call Clint, and everyone else. "At least one person should be able to pick up their phone!"
The elevator opened and she raced out, heading for the landing pad. She didn't see Happy anywhere, but the hanger door to the plane was still open so she moved towards the ramp, heading inside the plane.
"I've got shut this thing down." Kate muttered softly.
She was almost to the cockpit when she heard a sound that she did not need to hear. The ramp was closing. "Happy wait!" It was too late; she was locked inside. "Oh no." She looked around. "Peter, I hope you got him at the warehouse."
…
Peter frantically dodged the flying suit as he tried to slice him to ribbons but missed him by a wide margin.
"I'm sorry, Peter." Toomes said after a second.
"What are you talking about?" Peter asked confused. "That thing hasn't even touched me yet."
Toome smiled. "True. Then again…wasn't really trying to." As he said that, the building collapsed on Peter. He took that moment to leave.
Peter strained underneath the concrete and steel. "Hello? Hello!" He called feeling panic setting in. "Please, hey. Hey, please. I'm down here. I'm down here. I'm stuck. I'm stuck. I can't move. I can't—" He paused for a moment as he caught sight of his reflection in a puddle of water in front of his face, his mask obscuring half of the image.
If you're nothing without this suit, then you shouldn't have it.
"Come on, Peter." He whispered to himself as he thought about Tony's words. "Come on, Spider-Man."
I need your help, but you can't do that unless you are calm and focused.
Kate. "Come on, Spider-Man." Peter said louder as he pushed the at the massive pieces trying to crush him. "Come on, Spider-Man. Come on, Spider-Man!"
Go get 'em Spider-Man.
…
Kate looked around at the containers. She went to the control panel and activated the shipping manifest, scanning for something useful. It didn't take her long to find a file labeled B.H.
"Baby Hawk." She muttered with a roll of her eyes but never being happier to see it.
Finding the container that she was looking for; she found a wonderful new bow paired with a high-tech quiver and a plethora of specialty arrows. Not that it mattered as a purple light began to form on the floor signaling the phase shifter that Peter had seen previously.
Cursing the timing, she moved back behind a crate, carefully peaking around the edge to see Toomes climb into the plane.
Where's Peter?
She watched as he moved with purpose towards the cockpit, talking to someone over a comm.
Kate carefully shadowed him, interested in gathering more information if possible before she took him out.
"Cloning transponder signal." Toomes said to whoever his 'guy in the chair' was. "Entering new coordinates."
Toomes moved back into the cargo area.
Kate took a deep breath, ready to fight when she heard a familiar ding from her phone. She froze in horror as she grabbed her phone in the pocket of her dress, silencing it. Glancing at the screen, she saw it was Clint. Looking back, she saw Toomes had indeed heard it and was turning to face her direction but before he could step forward, the hole in the floor suddenly started sucking air.
Turning to a panel, Toomes activated the video feed. Squinting, Kate could see Peter kicking at the wingsuit, which was sealed over the hole in the bottom of the plane.
She breathed a quiet sigh of relief at seeing him safe. With Toomes distracted, heading back to his suit, she took that moment to get to the cockpit and sit at the controls. Pulling out her phone, she set it down as she dialed Clint back and prayed that it went through as she worked on overriding the hacked autopilot.
"Hey kiddo." She had never been so happy to hear her brother's voice. "Dance that boring?"
"I'm sure it's to be as expected." Kate said. "Hey, random question, do you know how to pilot a cargo plane?"
The silence on the other end was deafening for half a second before the explosion hit. "What the hell did you do?!"
"Don't yell at me!" Kate snapped. "I wouldn't even be here if any of you answered your freaking phones!"
She heard Clint swear under his breath before calling. "Cap, there's a problem." He sounded a little distant. "You're on speaker. Where are you?"
"Probably close to Coney Island." Kate said as she got control of the ship. Clint gave her a few clipped instructions on how to keep the plane steady as Natasha looked for a place to land the plane.
She heard Steve tell Vision to head out. "Help is on the way." Steve said. "Where's Peter?"
Kate glanced up to see him by the window before he disappeared from sight. "On the outside of the plane fighting the Vulture guy." She said.
Suddenly an explosion rocked the plane and warning lights went off everywhere. "Oh God!" She said as the plane started losing altitude.
…
"Just a typical homecoming..." Peter muttered to himself. "...on the outside of an invisible jet...fighting my classmate's dad with my girlfriend." He looked up to see the razor-sharp wings coming at him. Dodging out of the way, his webs were cut, and he went towards one of the turbines. "Oh, God!" He quickly fired his webs, trying to not get sucked into the engine, thankfully landing unharmed against the mat of webs. "I can't believe that worked."
Spoken too soon as the whole turbine blew and separated from the plane.
…
Kate saw the bright lights ahead as the plane dropped quickly. She could see from the video feed outside that Peter was pulling on the flap on the wing. Please don't fall off Peter. She thought as she pulled on the controls with all her strength, turning with him. "Please turn, please turn, please turn!" She cried.
Thankfully missing any buildings, the plane knocked out a spire and rushed towards the beach. Next thing Kate knew, she was opening her eyes, feeling pain everywhere.
She could vaguely heard Clint's voice from somewhere, but she didn't see her phone in the immediate vicinity. Her ears were ringing, and her head throbbed. Reaching up, she felt something warm and wet trickling down her temple. Pulling her hand away, she saw red coating her fingers. Peter.Pushing herself out of the pilot chair, she moved to get out of the wrecked plane.
The minute she stepped down on her left leg, it tried to give out. She looked down and saw a jagged cut running from her ankle to mid-calf. Taking her knife, she quickly tore a strip from her skirt and wrapped the fabric around her leg, biting back a cry before moving again.
As she made her way out carefully, she saw the case with her bow and some arrows scattered among some of the other things. Grabbing it, she walked to the opening that had been blown in the side of the plane.
Quickly scanning the wreckage, she spotted Peter starting to stand up in the sand looking wobbly and disorientated. Her relief turned to panic as she saw Toomes.
"Peter!"
…
Peter sat up painfully, pulling his mask off before looking around at the fire and carnage. Standing up, he felt unsteady, his balance was off, and he staggered a bit before getting his feet under himself. It took a second for him to realize that he wasn't hearing anything from his surroundings.
Looking up, he focused on the plane, which was completely wrecked. After a second he saw Kate appear by the plane. He met her gaze, and watched horror fill her eyes. She screamed something, but he couldn't hear it.
It didn't take long to figure it out as the Toomes flew into sight coming straight for him. He tried to stumble back, his hearing coming back into sharp focus as he heard the buzz from the wingsuit, but he wasn't quick enough and was knocked backwards.
Standing up quickly, he saw the wingsuit was badly damaged but Toomes was still going to attack. Peter rolled forward, avoiding the razor wings and heard an explosion. Turning, he saw Kate fire two arrows in quick succession hitting the wings, but it was still flying.
Peter dodged out of way of the wings again before was knocked onto his back and Toomes came down. Peter cried out in pain as the talons dug into his torso and he was lifted up high into the air. He could saw Kate aiming but she didn't have a shot with him in the way. Peter gripped onto the talons and pulled, breaking them, releasing him and he dropped. He managed to catch onto the wingsuit with his webs before he landed on a heap of twisted metal and Kate fired two more arrows at the suit, aiming for the small turbines.
Peter was thrown up into the air and after a few spins he landed in the sand close to Kate. She fired another arrow and the left wing sparked up, nearly crumbling but she was now out of arrows at the suit wasn't down.
Peter shoved her out of the way as Toomes flew at them and he took the brunt of the hit. Stabbing the wing through the hood of his suit, Toomes lifted Peter up by the hoodie. However, Toomes looked past him, something catching his attention and he tossed Peter aside.
…
Kate limped over, dropping next to Peter as Toomes threw him aside, heading for a crate of Chitauri power cores. She gripped Peter's arm as they watched the wingsuit spark.
"Your wingsuit." Peter called. "Your wingsuit's going to explode!"
Peter pushed himself up and shot a web out, catching onto the crate. It tugged him to his feet, but he pulled back, trying to get the explosive cores away from the damaged suit. Kate painfully got to her feet and placed her hands over Peter's helping him pull.
"Time to go home, kids." Toomes said.
"We're trying to save you!" Peter called.
Toomes cut the webbing and they both fell backwards. They watched as the suit flew up but then failed.
Peter rolled over and covered her, both clinging together as the crate and suit dropped causing another big explosion. Rolling back, they both looked at the scene in horror.
"No." Peter said. "No!"
"Peter, wait!" Kate called as he pushed himself up and ran towards where the suit had gone down. She could only watch and wait helplessly.
After a second, she let out her held breath as she saw Peter reappear from the flames carrying Toomes over his shoulder. Peter dropped Toomes into the sand and collapsed down in exhaustion, coughing from all the smoke. Kate eased over and gently pulled on him until he was sitting up. He got up and helped her stand. He went to retrieve an arrow and handed it to Kate, who aimed at Toomes, standing guard while Peter rounded up the fallen tech.
"I hope that was all worth it." Kate said looking at Toomes.
As sirens reached their ears, Peter finished placing everything into a massive pile before webbing it up like shrink wrap and then webbing Toomes to the pile before leaving a note.
"Can you walk?" Peter asked in concern, looking at her leg.
"I'll be fine." Kate smiled but admittedly wasn't sure if she could.
Peter quickly scooped her up into his arms, her arms instinctively going around his neck. The park had been evacuated so they were able to make it to the top of the Cyclone without being spotted. They sat on the railings, watching as Happy and damage control arrived on scene.
Kate reaches out and laced her fingers with Peter's as they watched the scene below.
"Mr. Parker, Miss. Barton."
Both teens looked up startled to see Vision floating down to them.
"Viz?" Kate said quietly.
Vision looked over the two briefly, most likely cataloging visible injuries. "Clint and Natasha are on their way to take you both back to the compound." He said before looking out at the damage, seeming surprised by the sight.
True to what he said, Kate picked out a black SUV into scene and she saw her brother get out of the driver's seat with Natasha getting out of the passenger seat. He looked around zeroing in on them quickly. Clint put a hand to his ear saying something into a comm.
Kate's idle thought wondering who he was talking to was answered as Vision picked her up giving Peter instruction to wait there for a minute. Vision flew down and set Kate in front of Clint making sure she was stable before he went back up to get Peter.
"Are you okay?" Clint asked.
"Uhh…" she looked at the wreckage and then down at herself. "Sure."
Clint smirked and opened the back door. "Come on." He said helping her into the back seat of the SUV as Vision landed with Peter.
…
Kate found Peter in his room on the medical wing, both teens now showered and in clean clothes. She stood in the doorway, leaning against the frame to get the weight off her leg as she watched Peter stare outside the window at the activity going on outside as the cargo from the plane was brought in on trucks. They had just spent the last two hours going over the events at the school to the plane and Kate properly chastised the adults when they tried to lecture them since she had proof that she had attempted to call them each about fifteen times.
"Hey." She said softly.
Peter jumped and turned to face her with wide eyes.
"Sorry." She said sheepishly.
Shaking his head, Peter walked over and helped her hop into the room further. "I think you're the only one that has been able to sneak up on me." He said.
"That means I'm good at my job." She replied with a proud smile. It softened after a second as they stood together at the window. "Are you okay?"
Peter nodded after a second. "Yeah." He said quietly. "I'm just thinking about what will happen to Liz's dad now…what will happen to that family."
Kate was silent for a long moment as they stared out the window. "Peter, you know that he needs to answer for what he did right?" She said. "No matter, his reasons, he still hurt a lot of people with the weapons that he sold and not to mention he tried to kill you quite a few times."
"I know." Peter said quickly. "I know. I get it, but…"
But a family was still being ruined. Kate sighed and leaned on his shoulder carefully, his hand going to her elbow to steady her. She placed a gentle kiss to his cheek. "You're a good man Mr. Parker." She said quietly.
Peter turned more so he could hold her in his arms, supporting most of her weight with ease. He rested his forehead against hers. "How are you doing?" He asked. "Your leg…"
"I'll be fine." She said looking up at him, but his eyes were closed. "Bruce said I will make a full recovery." She furrowed her brow in concern as she watched him. "Hey…" She coaxed gently. "It's going to be okay. I promise."
Peter opened his eyes finally and looked at her. "I'm glad you're okay." He said.
Knowing that he was being serious, Kate had other ideas to get him out of his head. "I have to be." She said. "You still owe me a proper date."
Without giving him the chance to respond, she pressed a kiss to his lips before she separated, carefully hopping over to the door. "Come on." She said. "Sam made lasagna."