Author's Note:
A second chapter! It's a little shorter, but the cut-off point felt like it was at a good spot. Two chapters! It's not a one-shot!
P.S, reviews, including constructive criticisms and speculations for where this might go, would be welcome! Penny for your thoughts?
Disclaimer:
I covered this in the first chapter, but I'll reiterate; I own not the MCU, nor any rights to be doing anything with it.
Chapter 2:
"Whoa." Tony blinked as he found himself on his back. His HUD wavered for a brief millisecond, then righted, system warnings making their appearance though none of vital importance. Not according to him, anyway. He heard a nearby cough and instantly was brought back to the present.
Peter was on his side, clutching his ribs with one arm even as the other worked to push him into an upright position.
Tony refocused on himself for a brief moment longer, gathering the remainder of his senses. He winced and groaned, then rolled over and pushed himself up as his faceplate detracted. "Dang it." He cursed quietly. "Kid?" He looked up in his transitionally stooped position, sighted his query, found his footing and made his way over to the curled figure nearby. "Hey, you okay?" He looked him over with a hint of fear in his eyes, reaching over to give a hand up but stopping short of pulling him up like he initially wanted to, turning it into an offer only. To be honest, he was internally deliberating whether he should be keeping him down instead.
"Heh, man, that was something else..! Ow..." Peter sat up, arm still curled to his ribcage as he coughed a couple more times. Breathing heavily, he fumbled a hand up to clumsily remove his mask. "Thanks, Mr. Stark." He didn't look up to acknowledge the proffered assist and instead focused his gaze forward and down, one elbow resting on an upturned knee while running the attached hand thickly through his sweat-dampened hair. Another light cough was punctuated by the briefly more prominent puff of steam formed in the cold air in front of him, his breathing no longer diffused by blended cloth and spandex. Nearby the nighttime temperatures were offset handily by the flames.
"Don't mention it." Tony deadpanned, face taut. He stared at Peter, who was both pale and flushed in the firelight. And breathing. The last point was really what mattered most of course, but Tony's ears, tuned to hear the intricacies of delicate machinations, thought it sounded somehow sharp from more than just adrenaline. And he was sure that was not an unpained expression on the boy's face. "Did you bust a rib?" He gestured vaguely to Peter's posturing with the hand he had been ineffectually offering. He kneeled down beside him.
"What? Oh... Uh, naw, I don't think so." Peter brushed off, straightening a bit but holding back an obvious grimace at the motion.
"Your face tells me otherwise." He leant to the right to peer around Peter's back, beginning to feel around with his gauntleted hand.
"No it doesn't, I'm fine!" Peter shook his head and vehemently and quickly looked up at him, a gathered but hurried air forming. "I just got the wind knocked out of me a little, that's all. Look, Mr. Stark, don't worry about it; We've got to get back out there!" He began to get up.
"I'll be the judge of whether it's going to be 'we', Kemosabe, hold still." Tony pulled him back firmly, earning another 'ow' for which he muttered an apology.
"Mr. Stark..." Peter whined impatiently.
"Will you hush? Friday's almost finished."
"Finished with-"
"Scan complete." Friday's voice answered before the question could be completed. Tony had placed her on speaker so both of them could hear. "Boss, I was unable to communicate with either Karen or Peter's vital statistics. All Spider-Suit data is in lockdown isolation mode. I am unable to access it without a physical connection."
"Seriously?" Tony asked, somewhat incredulous. He pulled back and looked Peter directly in the eye, a mix between bewildered, betrayed and concerned.
"I told you, I'm fine! Will you just trust me?" His breath evened, while Tony huffed in exasperation.
"Not when you purposely lockdown your suit's output capabilities! Dang it, Peter, how did you even-"
"Mr. Stark, first of all, I don't know what's wrong with the suit that you can't connect our AIs, but secondly, I don't need to be babysat. I can tell you if I need help myself and I don't need you deciding for me."
"Oh really? Because you sure looked like you had it all under control a little bit ago! What the heck was that, going all radio-silence on me like that? Wait, did you black out?" He began checking his head.
"Ugh, no, Mr. Stark!" Peter took this opportunity to put his feet under him and push, though somewhat falteringly, to a stand. Tony offered his arm, bolstered on his own knee, for Peter to brace with this time instead of holding him back. "Mr. Stark, please, forget it and let's just go help whoever else is out there!"
Tony looked up at him carefully. "Peter, if you're..."
Their heads snapped towards where he was cut off by another loud explosion. All at once the sounds of bedlam around them that had filtered out into background made themselves clear anew. This one sounded a couple of blocks away, new screams of terror punctuating that there were still civilians too close to danger.
Peter gave Tony a sideways glance, a sorry look on his face. "Three more if your intel's right." He pulled his mask back on.
Tony sighed. His faceplate went back up. "You're grounded after this."
"Hey!"
"Get your web-shooters fixed now or your grounded already."
"Five minutes." He affirmed, already pulling them up to fiddle with, confident enough it would be a simple adjustment now that he wasn't constrained.
Iron Man began walking towards the most recent explosion's direction, turning backwards as he moved to speak. "And you'd better be telling the truth about being alright, Spider-Man, because we can't afford distractions if we're going to save people who need us." He turned and took off with his thrusters.
"I'm fine!" Peter glanced up briefly and yelled after him. Then quietly to himself, "I have super healing abilities. Ugh..." Yelling had been a little uncomfortable. He wrapped a hand to his ribs momentarily.
"You do understand that as a future realized benefit, that is not a sufficient substitute for being in top physical condition now." Karen supplied. Though she could not connect with Friday, she was in reality fully operational within her own offline locale. Karen pointedly displayed all vitals for Peter to take in himself.
"Karen, hush." He returned his full attention to his web-shooters.
"I haven't said anything." She insinuated disapprovingly.
"Okay, Spider-Man, let's go!" Iron Man called through the comms.
"Coming!"
Karen tried more directly, "Peter, you have-"
"Not now, Karen." Spider-Man shot a web experimentally at the ground nearby. "Yes!" he celebrated his success, braced for whatever was ahead and was off, ignoring Karen and pushing down his own internal voice telling him this might not be the best. He knew it was not. Enhanced healing capabilities would take care of that, though.
Peter rationalized it was only less than ideal.