Hello friends! Here's your Monday goodness.
I'm enjoying all of your responses to my take on CA:TWS. That movie does some things SO WELL, it's disappointing when it stumbles. But if the canon were perfect, there'd be fewer fun levers to pull in creating an AU!
I don't have a lot for tonight's chapter other than a heartfelt thank you to everyone who leaves me such wonderful comments that bring a bright spot to me every day. It means so very much to me.
Tonight's chapter's song is "Learn to Fly" by the Foo Fighters.
Enjoy!
Chapter 3: A New Revolution
When Pepper finally made her way down to the lab, she did so on her own. May had wanted to come and check on Peter, but Pepper convinced her to stay put in the penthouse.
Partially, this was because Pepper didn't know if Tony actually wanted May in his space — he was fussy about that with people, even those he trusted. But partially it was because she did not want May to see whatever Tony was getting up to this time. If it was anything like the majority of times Pepper found Tony endangering himself, May might freak out.
Pepper was better suited to yell at Tony if he was being reckless around the kid without having any authority to keep Peter away afterwards.
She and May and Bruce and Happy had gotten a short summary from JARVIS regarding what was happening with SHIELD in Washington. There was a plan, and Tony had something to build, and Steve Rogers was working with Fury — who wasn't dead, she wasn't even surprised anymore — to take out the apparently-Hydra weapons stationed at the Triskelion. Pepper had interpreted this to mean that there was about to be a very large firefight in Washington DC and promptly ordered the SI office there to evacuate under the cover of a security breach in New York.
Which was true enough, in a way.
Pepper was not surprised to hear music when she reached the lab, though it was not nearly as eardrum-shatteringly loud as usual, which she attributed to Peter's presence. The first thing she noticed was Dum-E sulking in a corner. You and Butterfingers were, of all things, spinning circles inside of shapes drawn on the floor in tape. Tony and Peter were nowhere to be found.
"Tony?" she called.
"Under here."
Finally Pepper saw a pair of legs sticking out from under a huge piece of something balanced between two work-tables. An Iron Man suit was supporting part of the weight, and Peter, she realized, was huddled under one of the tables with about three toolkits worth of stuff spread around him wearing an oversized welding mask and apron.
"What are you working on?" she asked, stepping close but not too close having learned that lesson about the appearance of safety gear and the propensity for sparks to fly — and new shoes.
"Kid, you give her the short version. And hand me the — yeah, that."
Pepper smiled at where Peter was already holding out whatever Tony had wanted. "You okay, Peter?"
"Yes." His voice was strange from under the mask. "We're combining a bunch of repulsors because we don't have time to manufacture a single large one. We need to be able to launch an Iron Man suit into orbit in…"
"Two hours and thirteen minutes," JARVIS put in.
Pepper blinked. "Into orbit?"
"Yeah. There are Hydra satellites up there that we have to take out," Peter said, "or maybe reprogram, but JARVIS says that the chances of being able to seize the network are less than thirty percent, so really we need to blow them up. One for sure, more if we can. But the biggest problem is getting the suit into space in the first place."
"Tony, you're not…" Pepper swallowed.
"No way," Tony said from underneath. "The only one going up there is JARVIS. I'm not setting foot outside the Tower."
"Oh, good." Pepper tried to get her heart-rate to calm after its sudden spike. "Is there anything you need?"
"I was supposed to get us lunch a while ago," Peter said. "But this is hard and we don't have a lot of time. But my stomach keeps making noises and Mister Stark says it's distracting."
"It is distracting," Tony said. "Not my fault your gut is pitched to sound like gold-titanium metal fatigue under pressure."
"So," Pepper said, "you two are working and there's going to be a fight in about two hours, and there's not much we can do about it? Does that sum it up?"
"Pretty much," Peter said. "Worst Monday ever."
And Pepper looked at the kid — what she could see of him under the protective gear — and at Tony's legs and hips sticking out, and she couldn't help but shake her head and smile.
I have literally never seen two people more alike in my life.
This was followed immediately thereafter by, I'm so glad they have each other. I'm so glad I have them both.
"Okay. Well, I'll work on the food thing. Peter, May just wants to know if you're okay."
"I'm great, but she should probably not come down here."
"Oh?"
"I feel like she's going to get worried, and then she'll freak out and I'll freak out and we don't have time for that. If you could keep her up there until everything starts happening, then we can all freak out at the same time."
"That's very practical." Pepper stifled a laugh. "What about you, Tony? Do you want to schedule a freak out with the rest of us?"
"No." And his voice was low and gruff, the way it was when he was deadly serious. "Because if I'm freaking out, then it means Stars and Stripes out there didn't do his job and I failed at mine, and there will be no freaking out and a whole lot of hunkering down in the safe room."
Well, that poured a cold splat of reality onto Pepper's budding cheer. She shook herself. "Fair enough. I'll be back with lab-appropriate food. Do you want me to say anything to the others?"
Tony scooted forward just enough that he could meet her eyes from under the repulsor rocket booster.
"No. Because this is going to work." He actually made a small smile. "I've got all the backup I need, and that means Fury and Cap have more backup than they know. Hydra doesn't stand a chance."
Pepper could tell that Peter was grinning behind the mask.
Good job, Peter. Thank you for feeding him courage when the world is falling apart. You have no idea how much you are helping him. Even he might not realize it.
But it's clear as day.
Rhodey has always made Tony a better person. I make him better, too.
Peter, you might make him the best of us all.
-==OOO==-
With about an hour to spare, Tony summoned everybody in the building he genuinely cared about — Pepper, May, Bruce, and Happy — to the lab.
"I know it's inconvenient to interrupt your regularly scheduled afternoon," he said as they tromped in, "but things are about to get interesting and this is the best place for you."
"Did you finish the suit?" Pepper asked at once.
"Yep, and it's on the roof awaiting liftoff from JARVIS." Tony spun on the nearest stool.
"Peter, you're okay?" May wanted to know as she joined where Peter was staring at one of the holographic readouts of the course plotted for the critical satellite.
"I'm fine, Aunt May," he said, giving her a tight smile. "It's just...a little dangerous."
Tony hauled in a breath to explain the situation in one go. "Turns out our problem is Hydra and they infiltrated SHIELD and today they're making their move, but Cap and Romanoff and Fury are fighting back and everything is about to go down, but if they fail, there's a chance Hydra can launch a weapon that will start targeting people all over the world and I don't feel like seeing any of you get shot all the way from DC, so you need to hang out down here with us until we get this handled."
May, Happy, and Bruce all stared at him.
"JARVIS, open up our little hidey-hole, will you?"
"Of course, sir."
There was a hiss as the sealed door at the back of the lab released and swung open.
"Once Cap makes his move, Hydra might come calling. Or, if they can't take down the weapons, or our launch goes bust, the helicarriers of doom might start taking shots. In there is the safest place for everybody. I built it to take anything short of a direct hit by a nuke."
"But we're not going to need it," Peter said, his face set and eyes steady. "Because Captain America won't let those things launch, and if he can't stop it, then Mister Stark will."
Tony reached over and patted Peter's back. "What he said."
"Sir," JARVIS spoke up, "I am prepared to launch the Mark 48 on your command."
Tony spun back to his interface and brought up a visual from the camera out on the landing pad where the suit waited. "Stealth enabled?"
"Fully functional."
"Good. Pete, you wanna do the countdown?"
Tony was rewarded with a giant grin. "Yeah! Ready, JARVIS?"
"I am indeed, Mister Parker."
"Okay." He leaned on the table next to Tony. "T-minus ten seconds...now. Ten...nine...eight...seven...six…"
Tony felt Pepper arrive beside him and slip her fingers into his. They were warm, and if that warmth was just a little more than normal, he knew it was because she was nervous.
He couldn't blame her.
"Five...four...three...two...one...launch!"
The light of the multiple repulsors was blindingly bright, and the suit shot into the sky at a speed that could put anybody else's rocket launch to shame.
"You ready to be the first AI in space?" Tony asked JARVIS.
"Statistically, that is unlikely if we presume that there are other such digital forms of life elsewhere in the universe. But I will content myself with being the first from Earth to do so."
"To be fair," Peter said, "you're the first real AI on Earth, too."
Tony was monitoring the suit, but he was also keeping an eye on Cap's team deploying around the Triskelion. So when Steve Rogers asked for Tony over comms, JARVIS was ready to connect them.
"How's it going on your end?" Steve asked.
"Just put the suit up," Tony said. "We should get to the problem satellite about twenty minutes before Hydra tries launching the helicarriers. JARVIS will try to infiltrate the network first. If he can't, he'll destroy the first satellite and however many he can get to after that."
"Sounds good. Try not to give us away early if you can, but crippling those satellites is more important than stealth for us. But, if you could do me a favor?"
"Name it."
"I need to get access to the public address system in the Triskelion. I know there have to be good people who aren't Hydra there. I want to tell them what's going on, maybe give them a chance to fight for us."
Tony smiled. "You got a rousing speech all ready?"
"As a matter of fact, I do."
"Gimme five minutes. JARVIS already built me a back door. I'll link through to your comms whenever you're ready." He muted the line again and pulled up a separate screen in the interface. "Pete, you keep an eye on Mark 48's trajectory and let me know if we have a problem."
"Okay, Mister Stark."
Tony smiled down at the kid. "Hey, you wanna say hi to Captain America?"
Peter's eyes went big, but just as quickly he shook his head. "I don't want to distract him right now. Maybe after he saves the world."
"After we save the world, kid." He glanced at the clock counting down to the helicarrier launch. "When that hits about ten minutes, I want you and everybody else in the safe room. Got it, Underoos?"
Peter frowned. "What about you, Mister Stark?"
"Cap might need me out here where I have systems access if something goes weird," Tony said. "The safe room is impenetrable, but that means there isn't a connection in there fast enough to use."
"Um, no." That was May. "If it's safer for us in that room, then you're coming with us." Her face was set.
Tony had a sinking feeling as he looked at the other, stubborn expressions around him.
"If you're staying out here, I'm staying with you," Happy said. "What kind of bodyguard isn't there to take a bullet aimed at the boss?"
"Me, too." Bruce quirked a shadow of a smile. "Besides, we both know there's nothing they can throw at me that will actually hurt me."
Pepper squeezed his hand tightly. "I'm with Bruce."
"No, we're not doing this." Tony turned and glared at everyone. "You are all hiding in the very safe bunker I built specifically for this. Even the two of you who think you're bulletproof."
"And you're coming with us," May said.
"May — "
May exchanged a speaking look with Pepper, then stepped up. She put her hands on Peter's shoulders, letting him lean his back against her.
"Tony Stark. Do you, or do you not, care about our safety?"
"This feels like a trap," Tony said. "Yes, obviously."
"Do you truly think we care less than you do?" She pinned him with a glare. "You promised me, Tony. Remember? When you swore to help me protect Peter?"
He remembered. "Do whatever you have to, but live for him."
"Damnit." He ran a hand through his hair. But he looked at May, unyielding, and at Peter, whose brown eyes were big and worried. "Fine. If the helicarriers are still going to go off, we'll all pile in there when they hit twenty-five hundred feet."
He didn't imagine the relief all around him. This is the problem of having a family, he thought to himself. I actually have to let people worry about me.
But at least I get to worry about them in return.
"All right. Everybody quiet. I need to break into this communications system so Cap can do his patriotic duty and incite a rebellion against an oppressive regime."
-==OOO==-
May couldn't decide from moment to moment if she wanted to hear the comms the others were sharing or not. It did her heart good when Captain America's voice rang out "Alpha locked," meaning that the first of the three flying things full of weapons had been reprogrammed. Another voice confirmed "Beta locked" not long thereafter. But, on the other hand, the sounds of actual battle didn't really encourage calm feelings.
"Sir," JARVIS spoke over the comms, "The Mark 48 has reached the satellites and gained access, but I cannot shut down the network from here."
"Will blowing that one disable it?"
"I am unable to confirm. It is distinctly possible that the others will simply compensate for the gap. Their coding is comprehensive."
"What if you gave it a virus?" Peter asked. "Or a DOS attack? Would that work?"
May watched Tony stare at Peter for one full second before shouting. "JARVIS, see if you can upload the Where's Waldo protocol into the network! You don't have to shut anything down if you can get it into the linkages."
"Acknowledged. Uploading now."
Tony hit a button on the screen. "Hill, I'm about to make those satellites useless. But there's no telling what sorts of coordinates the last helicarrier already got off them. Take it down, now!"
"Working on that," the woman called Hill replied. "Steve, do you copy?"
"Kinda busy!"
"Helicarriers have surpassed the twenty-five hundred foot mark," JARVIS reported. "Sir, I recommend you enter the safe room at this time."
"Damnit!" Tony slammed his hands on the table. "Hill!"
"One minute and counting to weapons discharge," she said, masterfully calm over the comms.
Pepper suddenly leaned forward and wrapped her arms around Tony. To May's utter surprise, she lifted him clear into the air.
Tony squirmed. "Pepper!"
"You've done all you can, Tony!" She looked over her shoulder at the others and May blinked. Pepper's eyes were glowing orange. "Everybody into that room now!"
May needed no encouragement and pushed Peter ahead of her. She could sense Happy Hogan and Doctor Banner closing in behind, as if they could protect them. Peter reached up even as he hustled across the lab and gripped May's fingers.
"Captain America is going to win, isn't he?" he asked breathlessly.
"Oh Peter." They stumbled through the narrow doorway into a space about the size of her bedroom back at the apartment. Pepper was still holding Tony, though no longer dangling him in the air like a child. "I hope so."
"JARVIS," Pepper called. "Initiate lockdown. The Tower as well."
"Confirmed, Miss Potts. I will maintain verbal contact, but that is all that will be active while in the safe room."
The door swung closed and May heard it latch with a heavy sound.
"You didn't need to do that," Tony said, shaking off Pepper's hands now that she had relaxed her grip.
"I kind of did." She glared at him. "Last time I said to run, we argued. And got blown up. Now I've learned. Run first, argue later."
"I'm with her," May added. She gave Tony her patented I'm-a-mom-don't-mess-with-me look. "I am certain that JARVIS can do whatever is needed to help the others without you. And JARVIS can take a couple of bullet holes."
Tony was angry, but May knew it was really fear — and a little bit of childish pouting — so she didn't push any farther.
They were saved by Peter, of course. "Um, Miss Pepper?"
Pepper swept her hair out of her eyes and tried to make a calm, in-control face at him. "Yes, Peter?"
"How come you turned all orangey?"
"Oh." She looked at Doctor Banner, who shrugged, then at May, who also shrugged. "Can you keep a secret for me?"
"Of course I can." Peter held out a hand to shake. "Promise."
Pepper shook his hand. "Well, you remember the Mandarin who blew up our house in Malibu?"
May's heart stuttered in worry that this would bring back other, sadder memories, but Peter didn't seem bothered.
"Yes."
"He abducted me to get to Tony," she said, "and he experimented on me. It left me with something called Extremis."
Pepper held up a hand that glowed a bright, fiery orange. The temperature in the room climbed noticeably.
"Oh wow." Peter stared. "Does it hurt?"
"No." Pepper shook her head. "But it makes me very resistant to any sort of injury, able to regenerate to a certain extent, stronger than a normal person, and with limited abilities related to heat and fire."
"Miss Pepper, you could be an Avenger with that stuff!" Peter reached as if to touch her hand, but paused. "Except, I guess you don't want anybody to know or it wouldn't be a secret."
"Also," Doctor Banner spoke up, "it's an enhancement that...well, there are people who would want to know how it works if they knew it existed. It could be dangerous."
"Oh." Peter nodded. "That's why you disappeared too, isn't it, Doctor Banner? So nobody could work out what made the Hulk and try to do it again?"
Doctor Banner blinked. "How did you know?"
"I figured it out."
"Someday," Tony said, and finally his voice was almost normal, "everybody in this room is going to stop underestimating the kid. But apparently not today." He smiled at Peter and that was a real smile. "So, yes. Between Pepper and Bruce, they're probably invulnerable to most everything, and Pepper can almost arm-wrestle Steve Rogers to a draw."
"Wow." Peter turned. "Mister Hogan, sir, do you have special powers, too?"
"Yeah," Happy Hogan said. "I have superhuman patience to put up with Tony."
May laughed. "That is the rarest gift of all."
Tony glared at her, but Peter laughed and Pepper smiled and that's all May was going for.
Quietly, May was both honored to have been told, to be trusted by Pepper, and relieved to hear about it. While she imagined that such an experience had been horrific — and made a mental note to check in with Pepper if she needed someone to talk to later — it meant that there was one more line of defense around this little family. Not just the wealth, resources, Iron Man suits, and everything else Tony could dream up. Not just the connection to genuine superheroes. Not just Bruce Banner and his chaotic green force of destruction. But someone else who could guard them, guard Tony, guard Peter, and fight back if bad things happened.
Honestly, at this point, May was ready to start building her own little army to shield Peter against the world. Even though she knew it was pointless. Even though she knew better than to try to prevent bad things rather than dealing with them head-on. Even though Peter would not appreciate it.
Peter was May's heart, all she had left, and she would guard him with anything the universe saw fit to give her. And, considering it had taken so much, she very much felt that she was owed a few tricks to keep her nephew safe.
May had no real idea how long they stood in the small, empty room. Long enough for Tony to complain about not having thought about putting furniture in here, or a fridge with snacks.
Finally, JARVIS's voice rang out, though it was oddly muffled.
"Sir, the battle at the Triskelion has ended. The Where's Waldo protocol successfully shut down the targeting systems such that the helicarriers were forced to rely on the newly integrated manual inputs rather than stored information. They turned on one another and all three crashed into the Potomac after inflicting a large amount of damage on the Triskelion itself."
"How are Steve and the others?" Tony asked. "And will you let us out of this closet?"
"Of course, sir. According to the comms, Agent Romanoff is injured, but not badly. Captain Rogers has not yet been seen after battling against James Buchanan Barnes on the final helicarrier."
The door opened and Tony was through it like a shot. "Bring up every camera you've got in the area. We need to find him, fast."
Peter looked up at the others moving more slowly out of the safe room. "Does that mean it's safe now? And we can go home?"
"I'm not sure," May admitted. "But it means that everything you and Tony did worked, and that saved a lot of lives. We'll figure out the rest in time."
-==OO==-
Peter and Aunt May ended up staying in the Tower for almost two full weeks before any decision about returning to Queens was reached. Peter didn't really pay attention to everything that everybody was doing, but he knew it was a lot.
They'd found Captain America on the side of the river, and Mister Stark pinpointed a video showing James Barnes being the one to haul him out of the water. Nobody knew what that meant, but they saved the clip anyway. They also got footage of several probably-Hydra agents trying to get away in the chaos. Lots of police and members of the FBI swarmed around the wrecked helicarriers arresting people and trying to make sense of the mess, and JARVIS helpfully sent them multiple 'anonymous' tips about possible targets.
Captain America got out of the hospital two days later and found himself having to answer a lot of questions from the government. Peter was there when Mister Stark tried to give him and Miss Rushman — no, her real name was Romanoff, he kept forgetting — advice about how to handle a Congressional hearing, and Miss Pepper had to walk in and kick him out to give them actual, useful advice instead. That was funny.
On the other hand, Peter had seen some of Mister Stark's different hearings with the Senate, and he kind of thought Miss Pepper was right. He was really bad at it.
In the end, Captain America and Director Fury made a long, complicated joint statement to the public at the same time that they released a lot of Hydra documents on the internet. Peter decided he really didn't want to know what was in them right now — maybe someday — but that led to a lot of media attention, requests for interviews, people on TV speculating, internet rumors, and everything else. Peter listened sometimes when the adults talked about whether or not SHIELD could continue as an agency or if it would have to close down, and even Mister Stark didn't seem to know if it was too dangerous to keep them around or too dangerous for them to go away.
Peter wasn't sure what he thought, either. SHIELD had tried to protect the world, but SHIELD was also the reason Hydra ever found out about Mister Stark hiding in Queens and sent bad guys after them. And that was just one tiny, personal example. He wondered how many people Hydra had found or hurt after SHIELD tried to help them. But, if SHIELD didn't help them, who would?
He didn't really think it was SHIELD's fault that everything went wrong, but he could understand that people were worried they had gotten too strong, too big, and that made them dangerous.
Peter thought that must feel awful for the people who believed in SHIELD — they worked so hard to do good things and protect people, and all that work ended up hurting people and threatening a whole bunch of lives. He wondered if that was how soldiers felt sometimes, if they found out they were fighting on the wrong side of a battle.
Mostly, Peter just felt so much sympathy for everybody. For Mister Stark and Miss Pepper and Doctor Banner who were friends with SHIELD and worked with them and had to find out they were half Hydra. For Captain America who had to fight his best friend and SHIELD. For Miss Romanoff who worked for them and probably never wanted to be a bad guy. For Director Fury who had to pretend to be dead just to survive and now got yelled at every day on TV in the Senate. For everybody who got tricked by Hydra. For everybody who couldn't trust SHIELD anymore.
It made him feel very small and very helpless. Especially because there was nothing he could do to help anybody. He was just Peter Parker hiding in the world of Tony Stark.
He played with Dum-E when Mister Stark was busy, and Mister Stark was busy a lot. He'd been right, though — the bots were awful at playing catch. They were worse at frisbee.
But Peter didn't technically break anything. That was all Butterfingers. Even JARVIS said so.
Peter liked JARVIS a lot. He was funny and knew everything and he didn't usually tell Peter that he was too young to understand something. Peter didn't always understand, but at least he could ask. Especially when everyone else was busy or having those serious discussions that stopped whenever he walked in the room.
Any time Peter asked when or if they were going back to Queens, he got complicated answers. Aunt May and Miss Pepper and Mister Stark talked about it every couple of days, but somehow it was never the right time. Eventually, Peter realized that even though they had stopped Hydra from hurting people, there were still Hydra loyalists in the world, and they probably knew about Peter and Aunt May, and therefore they might not be safe yet — and that was why nobody wanted them to leave yet.
Also, after the first week, Peter's school was on a week-long spring break, so he figured there was no real need to rush him going back anyway.
In the meantime, Miss Pepper and Mister Stark and Aunt May decided that, if they were staying here that long, they should have proper rooms of their own. Aunt May ended up taking over the second bedroom that had been Miss Pepper's when she wasn't staying with Mister Stark and Peter found himself with the whole huge guest room to himself. Mister Hogan had gathered up a lot more than clothes when he took people to their apartment, and so now he had some books and Legos and even his own comforter — not that it fit on that monster bed at all.
"You should order some stuff," Mister Stark said at the start of the second week. "Stuff you want to keep here. Posters or whatever. JARVIS, help them out."
"Does that mean we might stay here forever?" Peter asked Aunt May later.
"I think," she said, and she was smiling, "it means that Tony wants us both to have space here that we can use sometimes. Even after we go home. He's got two homes, you know. Why shouldn't we?"
"Is that really okay?"
"Sweetie," Aunt May said, "we're family. It's always okay to stay with family when they want you to. And I think Tony and Pepper will have a very hard time if we live in Queens forever and never come visit them again."
That was a good enough answer for Peter, and he and JARVIS picked out some neat things to add to his room so it looked less like the fanciest hotel room ever and more like a good place to hang out sometimes.
But, eventually, Peter knew Aunt May would want to go home. She liked the penthouse, he could tell, but she also liked her own space and her privacy and the chance to try to cook (and fail, but that was different). She liked her job and felt bad for being away for so long, even though she said her boss had given her the time due to the "family emergency." Peter could understand that. Even when he and Mister Carbonell had been making things together, he had always wanted to go scrounging for parts on his own — not that anybody let him, but he still wanted to — and he liked having his own workspace in the shop instead of always borrowing a place at the main table. Peter thought that this was what they meant by 'being independent,' that he and Aunt May both had to live in their world sometimes, not just Mister Stark's.
And Peter could tell that Mister Stark knew it, and didn't like it. Every time Peter and JARVIS ordered something for Peter's room, he looked happier — and every time Peter asked about Queens, he looked sad.
In the middle of the second week in the Tower, Peter found Mister Stark down in the lab working on new armors.
"Hi, Mister Stark," he said. Peter wandered over to the bots to give them their customary greetings as well, which had morphed into a handshake sequence that involved a lot of high fives and arm pats. "What are you building? Mark 49?"
"Not yet," Mister Stark said. "Hey, are you claustrophobic, Pete?"
"Um." Peter considered. "I don't think so?"
"Well, let's find out. J?"
"Evac Mark 1 active." Right as JARVIS spoke, an armor that was red and white instead of red and gold stepped out of one of the pods into the center of the room. It was much smaller than the normal Iron Man armors.
Peter blinked at it, realizing that it was too small for Mister Stark or anybody else. But… "Is that for me?"
"Kind of." Mister Stark ran his hand through his hair. "Look, we both know at some point you and May are going back to Queens. And I'm coming with you," he held up a hand to forestall Peter's immediate question, "but I'm not going to be around as much. Cap's talking about getting the team back together for missions and stuff."
Peter nodded. "There's still a lot of Hydra out there, right?"
"Exactly. But if they ever come calling, I can't…" Mister Stark looked away. "It was too close this time, Underoos. I almost didn't make it to you. So I need a way to help you even if I can't be there."
Peter stepped closer to the small armor. "So you made a suit for me?"
"Evac only," Mister Stark said. "If you're in real danger, you or May, JARVIS can send the suit to you, get you inside it, and bring you someplace safer. It won't have any weapons on it or anything. And JARVIS will do all the flying because that is a literal crash course I have absolutely no interest in seeing you go through."
Peter nodded. "Flying the way you do it looks really hard, to be honest."
That made Mister Stark smile. "Yeah, maybe someday I'll show you the trial and error of learning to fly. But if May ever sees it, she'll definitely never let you in one of these so…"
Peter grinned. The list of things the pair of them opted not to tell Aunt May was getting longer.
"Anyway." Mister Stark stood up and pressed a hidden release on the suit. "Step in there. I just want to know if you're comfortable. We're still doing it even if you hate being inside it, but then at least JARVIS and I can figure out how to make you feel better while he's getting you the hell out of Dodge."
Peter's heart thumped in his chest not with fear, but with excitement. The suit opened wide and Peter turned around, stepping backwards into the shell.
It closed around him and he could hear it locking. In front of his face, a screen came up that immediately turned into a camera so he could see out as if the helmet weren't solid. But there were other things on the screen, too, including a running tally of people nearby and a map showing his location and Mister Stark's.
"Greetings, Mister Parker," came JARVIS's voice, surprisingly soft in the soundproofed stillness of the suit. "I show that you have elevated biometric readings. Can you confirm if this is from panic or other emotions?"
"Peter?" Mister Stark was asking from outside the suit. "Are you okay in there?"
Peter took a breath, noticing that it smelled metallic in here, and like the lab. "I'm okay," he told them both. "It's...a little weird. But also really, really cool. I'm actually in an Iron Man suit." If he was sure he could move he might have done a little bounce.
"Try lifting your arms," Mister Stark said. "JARVIS would do the driving in an emergency, but it's good to get a feel for it moving around you."
Peter did, and he could sense a certain amount of resistance, like he was wearing the costume again, but heavier and stiffer. He brought his hands up in front of his face, staring at the gauntlets. His fingers curled around the little repulsors on his palms.
"Wow," he breathed.
"Mister Parker's readings are stabilizing," JARVIS reported inside the suit and outside so Peter heard it twice through the speakers. "No sign of increased anxiety."
Mister Stark grinned. "Knew you could handle it. Okay, hop out of there."
The suit opened and Peter blinked at the unfiltered lights in the lab. "Wow," he said again.
"Not for anything shy of a life-or-death situation," Mister Stark said. "But it's good to know it works. How do you think May will do?"
"Oh, she's going to hate it," Peter said, cheerful to the extreme. "But she'll do it because she knows you're trying to protect us." He looked at the suit. "So, if something bad happens, JARVIS will send it to us? What if JARVIS doesn't know we're in trouble?"
"Right, the other upgrade. C'mere."
Peter followed him back to the workbench. He saw one watch sitting to the side and another open in pieces. Mister Stark picked up the completed one.
"Swap this out with your current watch," he said, reaching for Peter's wrist. "That one just had a plugin to JARVIS that only went one way. This will do a lot more."
Peter couldn't really tell much difference between the two, and strapped on the new version.
"Couple of things with this one," Mister Stark said. "First, JARVIS is able to get a more complete biometric scan of you from it, and also has monitoring and recording capabilities so we don't have to hack your phone to catch people threatening you anymore."
Peter blinked. "That's how that happened?"
Mister Stark ruffled his hair. "You really think your phone just spontaneously recorded a confession from those bullies?"
Peter snorted. "Apparently not."
"Right. Also, you can talk to JARVIS directly through the watch, but only when no one can hear you. The rest of the time, just call him on your phone."
"Okay."
Mister Stark held Peter's wrist and turned it, exposing the bottom edge of the watch face.
"This is the big thing. There's a button here which is coded to your fingerprint and May's. Nobody but you can hit this, and JARVIS will know if you bump it by accident or something. But if you press it deliberately, depending on how many times, it'll send an alert to me."
Peter swallowed around a small shiver of fear.
"If you need me any time, day or night, you can call me," Mister Stark said, softening his tone. "But if you're in trouble or you need me right away, hit that button once. That tells me to drop what I'm doing and come running."
"Flying," Peter corrected him automatically.
Mister Stark gave his wrist a squeeze. "If you hit it twice, that means you need me to come right away and to bring as many people with me as I can. Like, if a herd of Hydra goons are chasing you and you want me and Cap and everybody, hit it twice."
Peter looked up at him and knew his eyes were wide. "The Avengers would come if I asked them to?"
"They'll come because I'll tell them to," Mister Stark said firmly. "Anyway. Press it three times and this suit will be deployed. JARVIS can also decide on his own to send it to you, but you have the ability to call for it. May's watch will have a fourth option that means she needs her suit and JARVIS needs to send yours to you even if you're not where the trouble is."
Peter absorbed that information quickly for a moment. He looked at the watch and that cold fear came back. "Do you really think I'll be in danger?" and his voice sounded small and thin to his ears.
"Oh Peter." And Mister Stark pulled him into a hug. "I hope not, figlio. God, I hope not. But I would rather you be safe with everything I can do to protect you and never need it than have something go wrong when I'm not there again."
Peter buried his face in Mister Stark's chest. "I'm really...I mean, thank you for worrying. It's just...scary."
"For me, too," Mister Stark said softly into his hair. "I hope you never ever have to use it. I'm going to do everything I can to make the world safe enough that you never face that kind of danger. But...I can't…"
And Peter understood. Because Mister Stark loved people fiercely, and he would do anything to keep them safe. And if he was going to be chasing Hydra down with the Avengers, he wouldn't always be here in the Tower or in the apartment in Queens. And as much as Peter was scared about being in danger, he knew it would be worse to be halfway across the world worrying.
This was as much to protect him as it was to help Mister Stark feel okay about not being there to guard them in person.
So Peter returned the hug with all his strength.
"Thank you, Mister Stark. You really are a hero. To me and Aunt May. Thank you for taking care of us."
If anything Mister Stark held him even tighter. "Oh, kiddo. Don't you know that you're the real heroes? Because you, you and May, you saved me first."