Crashing into Maw was oddly satisfying. Going down together even more. Wrapping his arms tight around the alien while they fell, Peter tried everything in his power to stay close to his enemy. He couldn't afford to roll off of him or something like that. Every tiny second he needed to move was dangerous. Maw could fling him away again in the meantime. Kill one of his friends. Anything.

Like that, as soon as they hit the ground, Peter was partly upright, webbing Maw's free hand to the ground. He was too late though. Fingers moved in an upwards motion right before his web pinned them to the ground. The screeching of metal filled his ears again, the ground around them starting to rise. Within seconds, Peter felt metal scratch along his arms. If he let go...

No. No more what-ifs. No more distraction. He had to -

"Peter!" Ned's frantic voice made his head snap around, stare at his friend. The tip of the needle had started to glow while touching Ned's forehead. The face of his friend was contoured in both, pain and panic.

Metal was scratching along his shoulders. Cursing below his breath, Peter jumped to his feet. Stop the needle from killing Ned, use it against Maw. Hopefully, that would work out. Before he turned his attention fully to his friend, he took the time to web Maw thoroughly to the ground. He wouldn't have this guy escape him. Unless Maw ripped the whole ground he was webbed against upwards and floated away, he shouldn't be able to get away. Yet, Peter had seen him do just that to Stephen. Knock him out and carry the ground he was laying on around. Praying to all Gods, which wanted to listen, Peter hoped that Maw needed gestures for that crazy stuff. Turning towards Ned, he grabbed the needle

And jumped back with a scream of agony. Touching the needle had felt like grabbing a knife by the blade. It had cut right into his skin, hurting worse than he could imagine. Yet, staring at his hands there was no blood. Nothing. The pain had to be inside his head. As long as he merely touched the thing, at least. He didn't even want to know, what his friend felt. What Stephen had felt.

Taking a deep breath, he braced himself and grabbed the needle again with both hands. The pain nearly made him let go, but he didn't. Instead, he screamed like a maniac and tried to pull the damn thing away from his friend. To his horror, the needle didn't move an inch. It just stayed where it was, floating in the air and slowly moving towards Ned.

"Not with me!" Peter grunted, feeling tears well up in his eyes. His whole body wanted him to let go of the needle. He couldn't move it anyway. Yet, if he did, he would have to watch his friend get tortured and possibly killed without having done a damn thing to prevent it. He couldn't live with that. It would be worse than anything the needle could ever do to him. Pressing his feet into the ground, he tried to lean back. Pull on the thing with all his strength.

At first, it didn't help. Nothing changed. The needle simply continued to move towards a worse screaming Ned. His hands throbbed. His vision was oddly blurry. Was he crying or going to pass out? Cloak flipped from his shoulders, swished around, and pressed against his chest. Still nothing. Still only...

All of a sudden, the needle gave way and he tumbled to the ground. Without wasting a second, he jumped up again. Ignoring his throbbing body, he climbed over the still moving metal and rammed the needle into Maw's shoulder. The alien grimaced. Letting go of the needle, Peter looked around frantically, his vision getting fuzzier. They were still floating. They were all still floating. What else could he do? What else... more needles. Stephen had been surrounded by a bunch of needles.

Looking up towards their sorcerer, he could barely see a thing. Forms and colors blurring into each other. Raising his arm, he shot a web blindly, hoping he hit something useful. He pulled on the string he was still holding, getting whatever he had hit into his reach. A needle. Actually, several needles. Grabbing one of them, he didn't even flinch and rammed it into Maw's body. This time, the alien screamed. He heard his friends fall to the ground, low groans and

Blinking, Peter saw worried faces float above him.

"What happened?" he asked, trying to focus his gaze.

"You collapsed." Tony replied, knelt down, and picked him up without much of a word. Feeling his head lean against Tony's shoulder, Peter felt oddly secure. He got him away from the alien and the screwed up metal. Got him to safety. Once again, he thought of Tony as a father. Maybe he was in a way. His superhero-relative, who watched over him and tried to keep him from getting killed. A Dad did such things, didn't he?

Sitting on the ground and leaning against metal, he felt Tony's worried gaze on himself.

"How are you?"

Peter took a deep breath. How was he? "Okay, I think. My hands don't hurt anymore, but my head throbs like hell." He paused, focusing on Tony's face. "How could you touch the needles?" He would have gone insane trying to save the doc.

"My glove, I guess. I didn't touch them directly."

Ah. That made sense.

"I'll go talk with Strange. We have to get rid of it."

Rid of it? What? Oh, right, the alien. He blinked again. He didn't want Tony to leave. He didn't want to be alone right now. Allowed him to focus too much on his throbbing head. The memory of grabbing the needle. The endless pain. The fear of Ned dying.

"Okay." What else should he say? Besides, he could see his friend walking towards them. He wouldn't be alone for much longer. Ned looked good. Better than he felt for sure.

"Are you okay?" He asked the second, Ned sat down beside him.

His friend nodded. "More or less. Sure, it did hurt, but..." he paused. Peter could tell that his friend didn't tell him everything. "Thanks for saving me. I... I thought I would die."

Peter managed a soft smile. "Not on my watch." Never on his watch.

Focussing on the two adults a bit away, he frowned. Normally, he should be able to hear them if they were close by. Yet, he didn't. Maybe due to his headaches. His head felt oddly slow. Raising his hand to wipe over his face, he stopped mid-motion. There were scratches all over his arm, his clothes ripped. Had the metal scratched him there? Had to be that way. His gaze trailed along his other arm. His legs. What the heck had happened to his legs? They were covered in scratches, his jeans were spotted with red. He had been bleeding? Was he still bleeding? When had that happened?

"How do you feel?" Ned's worried voice caught his attention. Staring at his legs, he realized he couldn't say 'Fine'. He really didn't look fine. Still, he didn't feel as bad as he looked.

"I'm okay." Peter was silent for a long moment. "I'll be okay. I have been through worse."

Ned was silent for a long moment before he finally replied. "Okay." He was silent for a long moment. "No, not okay. You look like shit." Another pause. "I'm just worried. I'm sorry."

Peter smiled in response. "Don't worry." He frowned at that. "No, I want to say, it's okay if you worry. Was a bit insane what I did." A bit insane. Very much insane fit better, but he had to save Ned. And the others too, of course. Closing his eyes, he smiled softly. They had beaten the alien. No. He had beaten the alien. With a little help from cloak. "Can you watch the 'adults' for me? I think taking a nap is a good idea." Actually, sleeping for days seemed like a good idea. "If they start fighting again wake me, please. Have to keep our married couple happy." Right before he slipped into a dreamless sleep, Peter heard Ned chuckle. Their married couple.

Slipping in and out of sleep, Peter lost his feeling for time. One moment he opened his eyes and stared at a golden rune. Why was Stephen creating runes? To protect them from something? Watching the rune dissolve into golden sparkles, he drifted away again, all questions he had had already forgotten.

The next time he woke up, Tony and Stephen sat beside them, talking about something with timelines. He knew he should pay attention to that, pull himself out of his sleep. This was important. Yet again, they would surely repeat it for him once he had slept enough. Once his head stopped throbbing. Right before he slipped away, he felt something warm wrap around him. Something red appeared in his vision. Cloak?

The third time Peter woke up, he saw nothing but white. A light flash. Oh God, he couldn't handle another alien. The others would have to protect Ned and him. With Stephen awake, that should work out. Hopefully. The doc defending them and Tony making up some plans. Sounded reasonable…

For a long moment, Peter didn't know when he was. Or where. Or if at all. Then sound returned. The soft humming of the spaceship had stopped. Instead, he heard soft breathing.

"Where are we?" he tried, hoping that the others had their senses together. Only Ned replied. He was as blind as he was. If they were attacked right now, everything would be over. Partly, he expected just that. That something screamed at them, jumped at them, and killed them. Would be really easy while they didn't know anything about their surroundings.

Nothing happened though. Just silence. Tony and Stephen didn't reply. Were they okay? Then touch returned. Instantly, Peter realized that he wasn't leaning against the metal of the spaceship anymore. Instead, he felt a solid wall pressing against his back. Tiles beneath his fingers. Cloak's warm embrace was gone.

"We are back at our school, aren't we?" he asked softly, counting one and one together. Tony, Stephen, and cloak were gone. The humming of the spaceship was gone. They had to be back home. In their time.