The portal Dr. Strange had created closed behind them. They had known they were stepping into the middle of a battle but neither Stephen nor Reed had truly appreciated the reason why Davis and Bobby's team had called for backup. They had all seen video of the Hulk over the years and in preparing for this mission they had been briefed on Abomination. Seeing him in person was completely different.
Ben, on the other hand, was completely ready for the fight. He launched himself out of the portal and entered the fray. Even with their large number, Abomination was formidable. He was, for the first time since the accident, thankfully for his rock hard skin after he took the first hit from Abomination. His rock hard skin meant that he could hit back. Which he did. Repeatedly. He was also incredibly thankful for the large number of super powered people in the fight with him. He realized rather quickly that he would never have been able to take Abomination in a fight. He waited for the lab table to drop on Abomination before following it with yet another punch.
Jean and Davis had fallen into a comfortable rhythm. Jean would levitate objects and Davis would create a portal that would drop them on Abomination. By itself it wasn't going to bring him down but it was distracting him long enough for someone else to attack. The problem was they were rapidly running out of items to drop. They were about to have to resort to throwing Bobby's discarded ice spears at him. Logan, Scott, and Bobby had all been able to do quite a bit of damage but they were all thankful when Ben, Reed, and Dr. Strange showed up. They were wearing Abomination down but it was going to take a while.
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Zeke watched Peter evaluate his situation. He knew Peter didn't have many options. "I can't believe you walked straight into me. You must have the worst luck on the planet." Zeke chuckled, continuing to watch Peter. While Peter was looking for a way out, Zeke was evaluating his target. He knew Peter's wrist was crushed but he was pretty sure he could still move fast and efficiently. No suit meant no dampeners. All he needed was to be able to land a shot and he could neutralize Peter and then they could go find Tony. He wanted to make sure Tony watched Peter die.
"Zeke, I don't understand why you hate me. You don't know me." Peter thought he could see sparks starting to flicker off of the tips of Zeke's fingers. He skirted the edge of the large room, taking inventory of his options, which were unfortunately limited. He wasn't sure what Zeke's range was, he just knew he needed to stay as far away as possible. He glanced up, the walls and ceiling were too far away which meant climbing wasn't an option.
"It's simple Peter. You have what I should have." Zeke inched closer to Peter, but not enough to make him run. He wanted to savor this.
"That's ridiculous Zeke. Killing me isn't going to suddenly give you whatever life you think you're supposed to have. From what I've seen you're incredibly smart. Use that to help people. Imagine what you could do."
Anger flowed through Zeke. "I know what I can do. I'm better than you are. Smarter, more capable." Zeke raised his hands and watched the electricity spark across his fingers. "By the time I was 14, I was designing bio weapons, not wandering off on field trips. By the time I was the age you are now, I had figured out how to upgrade myself so I wouldn't have to rely on clumsy armor. I will eventually make Stark tech obsolete, just like you and Tony already are." The sparks were growing more cohesive with Zeke's every word. "Imagine how perfect it was when I found out you couldn't tolerate electricity." The cohesive glow extended into a full energy blast. Zeke knew Peter couldn't move out of the way in time. He couldn't wait to hear him scream.
Amanda darted in front of Peter, taking the brunt of Zeke's energy blast. Dull red flames flickering across her body morphed into a brighter reddish orange as the energy was absorbed. She tilted her head and looked at Zeke. "Good thing all it does is feed my power then."
"Amanda...I always knew you would disappoint me." Zeke fired another energy blast towards them. He knew Amanda could take it but he also knew her stamina wouldn't allow her to keep it up. He, on the other hand had no such problem.
Peter watched Amanda's flame grow hotter and hotter with each barrage from Zeke. The flames that had been orangish red before were quickly turning pale white. He wasn't sure what her limits were. He glanced around the room. Right now, she was his only option and there wasn't much he could do to help. If he moved even a little he would be exposed to Zeke and getting hit wouldn't do either of them any good. He felt a change in pressure and glanced to his right as the air around him heated up even more. A grin spread across his face as Johnny landed next to Amanda and grasped her hand allowing some of the flames to transfer.
Peter glanced down at his chest as a modified nanohousing appeared and his spider suit started forming. A hand appeared, then slowly the rest of Sue Richards appeared. She smirked and tapped her com. "Tony, we've got him."
Peter could hear the sigh of relief through his com and smiled. He looked over at Wyatt who had made it over to his side. "Is there a plan to contain Zeke?"
"We're making this up as we go because someone had to go and get grabbed." Wyatt paused and grinned. "Good to see you Peter." He looked up as a whip-like tentacle sparking with electricity lashed over them. "What the hell was that?"
Peter's eyes followed the whip as it retracted and shot out again. Two of Zeke's bio enhanced cohorts had joined him, one of whom had whips extending from both arms. "What did he do, give everybody electrical upgrades?"
Wyatt grabbed his arm, "Come on. I'm supposed to get you out of here."
Peter turned to look at Wyatt. "Yeah, that's not happening." He looked at the transponder dots on his HUD. Based on their location he knew his dad and Rhodey would be there shortly. The number of transponder dots was much larger than he thought it should be. "How many people did you bring?"
"Uh..." Wyatt counted through the teams in his head. "20. Seriously, your dad is going to be pissed if you're not on the way out."
Peter tapped his com. "Dad, how far out are you and Rhodey?"
"Less than two minutes. We ran into some opposition. Why are you still here?" Tony had already run through the biometric date Karen had transmitted. He was relieved it was just the wrist. He also knew the broken wrist wouldn't be enough to get Peter to leave.
Peter could hear the sound of repulsors in the background. "The nanobots have braced it. We need to overload Zeke." He glanced at Johnny and Amanda. She was starting to look drained, even with Johnny taking most of the hits. "When you and Rhodey get here you need to come in hot and ramp your repulsors as high as they can go."
"Peter, you don't know if that'll work. His limits may be higher than our combined charge. Sit tight until your dad and I get there." Rhodey fired at the last super soldier, clearing their path.
"I'm planning on utilizing some help. Just do it. See you in 60." Peter looked over at Wyatt. "I'm not sure Amanda can take much more. I'll go high and create a diversion. Use what you have but also use them." He glanced over at Zeke and his two new friends. All three of them were putting off massive amounts of electricity.
Wyatt nodded and slipped two taser disks into his palms. He knew what Peter was trying to do. He hoped it was enough. He waited for Peter to flip up and web to the ceiling to propel him over Johnny and Amanda. Knowing Peter was combating the trio's combined forces he ran towards them. Their attention on refocusing on him, he slid between Zeke's two comrades, throwing taser disks at both of them.
Peter watched the disks land and momentarily incapacitate their targets. Taking advantage of it, Peter webbed the two whips and jerked them towards Zeke. Electricity flowing through the mechanical whip-like tentacles, they landed on Zeke, transferring their charge to him.
Recovering from the slide, Wyatt attacked the second guy from behind. His target's enhancements were a little more contained to one hand. Overpowering him he redirected the energy blasts towards Zeke.
Peter webbed the sparking appendages to Zeke, the energy flowing directly into him. Peter felt an energy blast from Zeke hit his shoulder. He was starting to wonder if Zeke even had an upper limit.
"Peter, your suit dampeners are not functioning at 100%. The last blast caused significant damage."
Zeke's blasts were getting stronger. "Karen, highest taser setting we have." He flipped out of the way, narrowly avoiding another blast. Zeke had quickly adjusted and had volleyed another blast forcing Peter to slide out of the way. He looked up from his position on his back on the floor and fired a taser web. The web landed on the back of Zeke's neck. Peter watched as Zeke's body froze momentarily, then started to turn towards Peter.
Peter readied another volley of taser webs. The temperature in the room was starting to feel uncomfortably hot. He glanced over at Johnny and Amanda. Amanda had collapsed and Sue had pulled her behind Johnny, who was still firing at Zeke. Peter looked back up at Zeke. The heat was definitely coming from him. Both hand were glowing a brilliant white. Letting loose the volley of taser webs, directed at Zeke's hands, Peter braced himself to get hit with another blast from Zeke.
A repulsor fired from behind. War Machine flew by Peter and landed in front of Wyatt and focused his repulsor on Zeke. Peter felt the floor vibrate as Iron Man landed hard in front of him taking the full blast from Zeke. Both repulsors fired at Zeke. Peter scrambled back and pushed himself up. He hadn't thought through what would happen if they managed to overload Zeke. He positioned himself between Iron Man and War Machine, ready for add tasers if needed when he saw Zeke fall to the ground.
Silence permeated the room as both sets of repulsors stopped firing. "FRIDAY..."
"All three targets have been neutralized and will require medical assistance."
Tony retracted his mask and helmet and looked at Peter. "You ok?"
Peter retracted his mask and looked at his dad, eyes freezing on the damage to the chest of the Iron Man suit. "Dad?!"
Tony looked down. The damage looked worse than it was. "The suit absorbed the energy. I'm fine." He reached over and cupped Peter's head, pulling him into a hug. "You ok?"
Peter tightened his good arm around the Iron Man suit and relaxed into the hug. "I'm good." Peter released his arm and stepped back to look at Zeke. "How are we containing him. There was no telling how much damage the overload caused but they didn't need to risk not containing him.
"SHIELD has a facility nearby already prepped." Tony stepped over one of the whip-like tentacles that had detached from Zeke when he overloaded.
Peter looked over at Johnny who had picked up Amanda. Wyatt tapped his com. "Davis, can you portal to us and then portal is to the compound?"
It didn't take long for a reply. "It's going to be a few minutes." Everyone could head the sounds of a fight. Steve's voice sounded through the coms. "Davis, we're on our way to you. Johnny, Wong is coming your way."
Peter activated his mask again. Bobby was just a couple floors up. He could be there in a less than a minute. He looked down when he felt an armor enclosed hand tap his chest and the Iron Spider suit retracted leaving only a metal brace around his lower arm and hand where the bones were broken. He looked over at his dad, "What are you doing?"
"Stopping you from being an idiot. You're going to the compound with Johnny." Tony glanced over where the portal was forming. Wong stepped through. He looked back down at Peter. "No arguments. I am too. I've got too many systems down. I think they can handle Abomination."
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Tony eased into the chair next to Peter's hospital bed. He wasn't sure if there was any part of his body that didn't hurt. Part of him would be happy to never put on the Iron Man suit again. Another part of him knew that he'd put it on any time Peter was in danger and knew if he was doing that he'd have to keep training which meant he'd have to keep putting on the suit.
It had come as a complete shock to Peter when Dr. Cho had informed him that she was going to have to surgically rebreak and then set his arm. Tony had already suspected that was going to be the case when he had retracted the Iron Spider and it had stayed formed around Peter's arm. The nanobots in both his armor and Peter's had a built in mandate to provide whatever emergency medical treatment was necessary. The spider was good, but not good enough to realign bones. It had happened a couple times before and Peter hated the process each time.
He had called Pepper and MJ when they had gotten to the compound. MJ would probably be here in the next 30 minutes but for right now he was just enjoying sitting with Peter. He turned his head when Dr. Cho walked in.
"He should be coming out of sedation soon." She handed Tony a pill and a glass of water and waited for him to take it. "Your suit did a good job absorbing the energy blast but your heart can only take so much."
Tony swallowed the pill. He was very much aware that taking the full hit of energy from Zeke hadn't been a good move for his heart but the alternative wasn't good for his heart either. He'd upgrade his suit's dampeners to the level of Peter's. He had also been playing around with reallocating the energy to the repulsors in his suit. He might be able to do something similar to Peter's, although Peter has never wanted repulsors. He'd figure something out. "How's Amanda?"
"Physically she'll be fine. Professor Xavier is talking to her now. She's had a hard life and there's a lot of damage to repair." Helen glanced down at Peter. "Call me if he needs anything. The rest of them have started portaling back in. No other serious injuries." She knew Tony already knew this because of FRIDAY. Retreating, she left Tony where she had left him multiple times before...sitting next to Peter's bed.
