If it was one thing that Tony hated, it was the undercover part of being an Avenger. There was nothing that he despised more than dressing up in fancy outfits just because he had to play the role of the "billionaire, playboy, philanthropist" that he always seemed to be defined as to the public. Don't get him wrong, he loved giving back to his community, hell he's even helped saved the world in more ways that he could count. He just hated people only seeing the Tony Stark that had been printed in the paper, because he was so much more than the Tony Stark people saw twenty something years ago.
Despite his highest complaints, Tony currently found himself in a scientific expo for a no name company call OSCORP, acting as a representative from Stark Industries. His part of the undercover operation had been the most natural and it was the sole reason that the Avengers were able to go undercover at the event in the first place. One thing's for sure: Tony didn't like the company at all, and it wasn't just because it was a direct competitor for his company. OSCORP had sprung up in the past few months ever since half of the world's population came back from the Snap, five years after a small inventor created a dream that quickly fell through after said inventor lost his son, and therefore lost his passion. Either way, it was impossible for the company to accumulate such a high reputation that it now held in a mere two months, and that's where the red flags rang in Tony's head. Not to mention that after doing some digging, Tony found distinct similarities between the androids that the Avengers had faced recently and the technology that had been displayed by OSCORP. So, that's how he found himself stuck in an expo along with Steve, Sam, Natasha and Bucky.
"Anyone see anything?" Steve asked over the comms.
Tony was leaning against one of the high rise tables, taking a small sip of his cocktail as he surveyed the crowd. "Nothing, and I hate it."
"You hate everything about it because you're biased," Sam muttered.
"Excuse you, I take offense to that," Tony disagreed.
"I still don't know why we all had to come in the first place," Bucky grumbled. "Couldn't this have been just a two person job?"
"We are all here because Tony found a reason to be worried," Steve reminded them. "If we can just find anything that reflects the technology of the androids..."
"I gotta say, I respect the attempt at talking science, but you are utterly failing," Tony took another sip of his drink.
"Yeah, well, maybe he shouldn't be the one talking about it," Natasha interjected. "So what the hell are we looking for exactly?"
Tony sighed in exasperation. "The androids were running on a fusion based energy source, something that is not exactly cheap to run ten hulk-sized androids in upstate New York."
"We've been here for two hours and haven't found anything," Sam pointed out. "I could be back at the compound and actually doing something productive."
"By productive, do you mean challenging Clint to a Mario Kart rematch?" Natasha snarked.
"Even Mario Kart is more productive than this shit," Sam stated proudly.
"Enough talking," Steve chided. "This is supposed to be an undercover operation. The last thing we need is to draw people's attention. If people see the Avengers then they're going to know something is going on."
"Steve's right." Tony cringed at agreeing with the super solider. Then his eyes caught something peculiar, immediately gaining his attention.
On the other side of the tower's entrance hall, a brown-haired boy was walking towards the employee entrance of OSCORP Tower, but he couldn't have been older than Peter's age.
What are you up to? Tony wondered as he snuck his way towards the kid, taking care not to draw attention to himself.
"Tony, do you got something?" Steve's voice echoed in his ear.
Tony frowned at that, "I don't know." He watched as the kid typed in a passcode, and Tony immediately pressed a button on his glasses. "FRIDAY, scan what he's typing."
Once the boy entered the employee entrance, Tony waited a few minutes before following, using FRIDAY's scan to unlock the door before slipping inside. Right away, Tony spotted a moving elevator and watched as the numbers continued to ascend before stopping at the 20th level.
"FRIDAY, how many cameras am I facing here?" Tony muttered under his breath.
"There appears to be no security cameras that I can detect, Boss," The Irish voice of his AI somehow managed to sound unsettled.
Yeah, that's not concerning at all, The alarm bells continuing to ring in his mind.
"Tony, what's going on?" Natasha's sharp voice crackled through the comms, but it was hard to make out her voice over the static in his earpiece.
"FRIDAY, what's going on?"
"It appears to be some sort of jamming frequency," FRIDAY reported. "It must be something in the infrastructure because I can't pinpoint the exact location."
"So you're saying I'm essentially entering a dead zone?" Tony clarified.
"In simple words, yes."
Tony sighed and dropped his head in exasperation. "Lovely, well let's get on with it then."
When Tony walked out of the elevator on the 20th floor, he almost turned around and immediately called it a day. It was like a scene that had been taken right from a horror movie. The elongated hallway was completely cemented with zero windows, the only lighting available was a tinged lime green glow that lined the middle of the hallway. Taking quiet steps, Tony began stalking down the hallway, a pit of dread gradually curling itself deeper into his stomach with each step he took. There were doors on either side he passed, but they were all blacked out with no signs of light. Finally, when Tony approached the last door to his left, he heard voices that made him pause.
"I don't care how you do it as long as you hold up on your end of the bargain," A young tenor voice echoed, sounding pissed off.
"I'm sorry, sir, but your father's serum was of his own creation," A older baritone voice sounded remorseful. "Even then it wasn't perfected and it killed him in the end."
A glass shattered and Tony flinched at the sound. "My father didn't die from the serum, he died because someone intentionally sabotaged it!"
"You don't know how dangerous this could be if it lands in the wrong hands..."
"Which is why I'm going to do what my father did," The younger voice swore. "Don't forget what you promised me, because if you fail to follow through you know exactly what I'm capable of."
"Yes, sir," the baritone voice sounded chastised. "I'll figure out where it went wrong this time, I truly am sorry."
Tony decided he had heard enough when he took the cue that this so called "sir" did not plan on sticking around. Hurrying back to the elevator, Tony quickly exited the way he came, entering the party as if he had never left. Expertly grabbing a cocktail from a server, Tony began talking to a random representative from some solar research company, keeping a discreet eye on the employee entrance, except the kid never came back out. Instead, two security guards entered the party and Tony immediately knew he had overstayed his welcome. He began dodging the crowd, keeping to the shadows as he made his way towards the exits.
"Time to chew and screw," Tony told them. "My cover's been blown."
"Stark, what the hell?" Sam sounded pissed. "We nearly went on a rescue mission for your sorry ass."
"Get out now," Tony ordered as he slipped out of the exit and into the humid September night air.
A few minutes later when Tony hit the skies, he knew the others got out as soon as Steve spoke up. "What happened in there? Where did you go?"
"So apparently I walked into a dead zone," Tony admitted. "Saw a random ass kid slip into the employee entrance and I just kind of followed."
"A kid?" Bucky sounded confused. "How old?"
"Maybe sixteen?" Tony guessed. "I didn't exactly get a good look at his face."
"What about a name?" Sam asked.
"I didn't get a name, but I got a conversation." Tony bit his lip in thought. "It sounded like they were working on some sort of serum, but I didn't exactly get a chance to figure out what it was. The place had zero detectable cameras so I couldn't really hack into them."
"No cameras? Well that's suspicious," Natasha noted.
"Yeah, no shit," Tony rolled his eyes.
"Rendezvous back at the compound, we'll debrief there," Steve stated.
"Will do, Cap," Tony agreed before he turned off his comm set.
Tony should've known that the night had gone too smoothly and that his luck was going to run out eventually. Oddly enough, it wasn't the sight of a random car parked at the compound's entrance that made him uneasy, but the mere sight of the entire building brought a wave of dread over him that was enough to make him shiver. Once Tony landed at the entrance to the Compound, the nanotech suit retracted into the makeshift arc reactor that rested in the center of his chest. As soon as he walked into the building, an unexplained pit of dread twisted a knot in his stomach and he knew something was wrong.
"FRIDAY?" Tony called out. "What's going on?"
"It appears that Peter is in the infirmary, Boss," Friday revealed.
Tony's heart skipped a beat at the new information and he quickly took off at a run towards the elevator. "Why the hell wasn't I notified?" Tony demanded.
"You turned off all outside communication in your suit for the mission," FRIDAY's voice traveled with him. "You did not turn it back on once you left the mission's location."
Tony skidded to a stop at the elevator door for a split second before the doors opened. "Peter has emergency override access," Tony wracked his brain for possible causes as to how he missed such a notification. "His AI should've been able too..."
"Boss, I got no notice of Peter's AI sending out an SOS beacon," FRIDAY reported.
"But his AI's fully functional, he told me he fixed it..." Tony was still confused before the idea dawned on him. His face fell at that and a spark of irritation coursed through his veins. "Dammit, kid..."
The doors to the third floor opened and Tony hurried into the infirmary wing, looking past the windowed rooms to see which room was occupied. He froze mid-step when he saw three figures sitting at the beside of an occupied cot. Tony took one glance and knew that May was there along with her husband and step kid. Peter looked clammy from what Tony could see from the outside hallway. The younger boy had a nasal cannula resting just below his nose and his entire torso was wrapped in a white bandage, fading into the grey sweatpants that he was wearing.
"It looks worse than it actually is."
Bruce's voice made Tony jump out of his skin, the older man looking over to see the scientist had come to stand beside him, looking into Peter's room through the windows.
"What happened?" Tony's voice was toneless, mostly due to him feeling like he was trapped in limbo.
"May's husband and step son brought him in about two hours ago," Bruce crossed his arms. "His entire torso was scattered with second degree burns and he was running a high fever."
Second degree burns... Tony felt a wave of nausea wash over him at that. "How high?"
"It hit 114 before Clint and I were able to bring it down," Bruce revealed solemnly. "It's been resting steady at 106 for about an hour now, but I have a feeling it'll go down more as his burns heal."
Tony shook his head in bemusement, "How did this even happen?"
Bruce uncrossed his arms and pulled out his Stark Phone from his pocket. "I don't know exactly, but I have a strongly feeling that this could've done it." He handed Tony his phone and Tony looked at the article that displayed the breaking news headline, Spider-Man Saves Trapped Civilians from Raging Fire.
"Dammit, Peter, you're not a firefighter..." Tony gritted his teeth. "What was he even thinking, he can't thermoregulate."
"You know, I almost didn't believe you at first when you said that," Bruce admitted. "It's a groundbreaking scientific phenomena to see humans who lack the ability to thermoregulate. But now I see what you mean when you said it's your greatest fear."
"His suit has protocols in place to keep this from happening," Tony was still trying to process the possibilities of what could have happened.
"His suit was pretty much in ruins when he came in," Bruce revealed. "I brought it down to your lab after he was stabilized."
"I gotta figure out what happened..." Tony went to leave, but Bruce caught him by his arm.
"I really think you should stay here with him, Tony, he was asking for you. He was out of it, he still isn't fully lucid," Bruce protested.
Tony looked over to see the full room and Tony shook his head, "His family's with him, Bruce, he's not alone."
"Tony," Bruce looked at him in disapproval.
"Bruce," Tony looked at him pleadingly. "He almost died tonight, again, because of something that I'm obviously missing. I can't... Just, please."
Bruce studied him for a moment before letting him go, "It's not your fault, Tony."
"Tell that to the person I keep letting down the most," Tony told him sadly before walking away.
Tony had spent at least three hours in his lab building Peter a new Spider-Man suit when someone finally came to find him. When Tony had initially gotten down to his lab, he took one look at Peter's ruined uniform and decided to just build a new spandex suit from scratch. Either way, seeing the singed fabric made his stomach roll and he just couldn't bear to look at it any longer.
He started with the general design, keeping the red scheme with the web outline engraved into it, but replacing the blue fabric with jet black fabric under Peter's arms down his sides and across his back. The spider emblem on the back was now replaced with a white color instead of the blue that had shone on the other suit. Finally, to top it all off, two red bands encircled the inside of the suit's elbows.
Tony kicked himself for not doing a complete remodel as soon as Peter had came back, instead he had given it zero thought and Peter had paid the price. To begin, Tony hadn't even known that the Iron Spider suit had been left in ruins and Peter had resorted to using his initial Spider-Man spandex suit. He also hadn't even thought to check KAREN's status, which apparently had been a mistake since the AI was down when Peter got hurt over a week ago. When Tony had upgraded the suit since that accident, he hadn't been able to finish brining the AI back online before the Avengers had been called on that forsaken mission. He should've known that Peter was smart enough to figure out how to get into KAREN's coding.
"How long have you been down here?"
Tony didn't spare the Captain glance and continued to wrestle with KAREN's coding. As far as Tony knew, he didn't think Peter had a background in coding, but he should've known better than to underestimate Peter's academic talents.
"That a new suit for Peter?" Steve sounded curious, but Tony knew it was a peace offering before he pried Tony away from his work.
"I upgraded his Fireproof protocol and his Frostbite protocol," Tony began absentmindedly. "Not that I expect him to go firefighting again, I'm going to have a serious talk to him about self preservation instincts."
"Bruce said his fever's almost broken," Steve offered. "Maybe you should go up and visit him."
"He's already got a crowded room," Tony brushed it off, but there was a distinct pull in his heart at the mention of visiting his intern. "Besides I need to fix this so I don't miss a notification anymore if he needs me."
Steve sighed at that, "Tony, you got to stop relying so much on technology."
That got Tony to look up at Steve, but only to shoot him an incredulous look. "I don't know if you realize this, Cap, but technology is essentially who I am. Literally."
"I'm not talking about Iron Man," Steve shook his head. "I know you care about him, Tony, more than you will ever admit out loud. You see him as a son, and Peter more than sees you like a father too. You've got to stop relying on technology to tell you that something's wrong with him."
"What are you trying to imply, Rogers, huh?" Tony raised an eyebrow at him. "Are you here to tell me I'm a crappy human being and an even crappier mentor? Yeah, I already got that by a mile."
"Then why aren't you doing anything about it?" Steve challenged.
Tony set down the tool in his hand a little too harshly on the table, "Don't you think I want to fix it? I want more than anything to show him how much he matters, but I don't even know where to start, Steve! You didn't see him when I found him on the bathroom floor a few days ago, you don't know how it felt to hear and feel him completely crumble to the ground and confess that he feels like he's suffocating under the weight of the new world. And what did I do to stop it? I did jack squat because I thought... I thought we were fine, but I just didn't see that we weren't because I was so damn blind. I don't know how to show him how much I regret not being there."
Steve's face softened at the confession and he stepped closer to lean against the table across from Tony. "We all make mistakes, it was an adjustment for all of us. I know you, Tony, I know you don't do well with change. You got used to finding ways to distract you from the painful memory of what you had lost, but now you have it back. You two would do anything for one another, you're essentially family to one another."
Tony clenched his jaw as he fought back the tears at Steve's words.
"What you can do right now? Be there at his bedside and show him you're not going anywhere," Steve said truthfully. "I think that'll mean more to him than you'll ever know."
Tony hated to admit it, but Steve had a point. He nodded tearfully and said, "Okay."
Steve smiled victoriously at that, "May and her husband took one of the guest rooms not too long ago, her step son followed soon after. He's alone right now, don't leave him like that, yeah?"
The orange sky above him was a sole reminder of the home that Peter had left behind back on Earth. That and the sand the seemed to swallow his feet every time he took a step. Quill had called the planet Titan, and its name was an eerie reminder that they were up against a mad titan himself, a titan that called himself Thanos. Peter had always dreamed of going to space when he was a kid, it was like the fantasy that every nerdy child had, especially those who would spend their days binge watching Star Wars and Star Trek after they came home from school. There was something so entrancing about venturing into an unknown universe that held so many possibilities just out of reach.
As soon as Peter crash landed on a strange planet with Tony and Dr. Strange, he quickly began to realize that space was not as peaceful at it had appeared to be from the safety of his home planet. Tony had been right, Peter hadn't fully thought about a situation like he had gotten himself into, but at least Tony wasn't alone. As long as the two of them were together, nothing could go wrong. At least, that's what Peter had always convinced himself, and it quickly got thrown out the window as soon as they faced off against Thanos. Tony had been on the verge of dying and Dr. Strange gave up their only leverage. There had been no winning situation in that moment, they lost either way. Selfishly, Peter was glad it meant that his mentor hadn't perished at the hands of Thanos.
Then something happened and people started turning to dust. He had associated the strange feeling he felt from watching Mantis, Drax and Quill crumble to ash, their remains scattering in the faint wind of the orange planet. Then he started feeling as thought his insides were slowly fading away, and Peter couldn't quite describe the feeling but it felt like his sixth sense was ringing bells in his head.
"Mr. Stark?" Peter croaked out fearfully, his eyes wide as Tony turned to face him, the dread evident on the older man's face. "I don't feel so good..."
Peter had looked down at his hands and he could've sworn he saw them beginning to blow off into the wind in small flecks.
"You're alright," Tony tried to tell him, but Peter couldn't tell if the older man had been trying to reassure himself or Peter.
"I don't... I don't know w-what's happening..." Peter began to stumble forward. "I don't know..." His feet missed a step and he fell forcefully into Tony, who had caught him. It was like his entire body was falling and a wave of fear was quickly overwhelming him. "I don't want to go... I don't want to go, sir. Please..."
The two of them were slipping to the floor, and Peter was scared to look down. He was scared to see his legs that were no doubt slowly crumbling into nothing.
"Please, I don't want to go... I don't want to go," Peter pleaded and Tony finally crumpled under Peter's dead weight and they fell the rest of the way to the floor, Peter landing on his back with Tony leaning above him. He could feel his life slowly slipping away with his body and he looked up to Tony tearfully and said, "I'm sorry," before his vision faded to white.
Peter gasped awake as he felt a pair of strong hands forcefully shake his shoulders in an attempt to bring him out of the dream that he wished would just go away. Peter quickly latched on to the person's shirt with his fist and honed in on the sound that he found himself searching for the most after a nightmare like this. When Peter found the strong heartbeat he let out a desperate sob as a wave of security washed over him. A hand gravitated towards the back of his neck and the grounding pressure along with his mentor's heartbeat was enough to ground him back to reality, reminding him that he was whole and wasn't crumbling to ash.
When his overwhelmed senses came back down, he was aware of a faint rumbling that he quickly made out to be Tony speaking to him softly, but it sounded miles away. It was either that Tony's voice was really that far away, or his brain was running through molasses with its sluggish reaction time.
Peter let go of Tony's shirt, his hands evidently shaking but managed to croak out, "I'm sorry."
Tony cringed at the words, but quickly hid his reaction behind his concerned expression on his face. "You back with him, Pete?"
Peter just nodded tiredly, his entire body shivering, but he wasn't sure if it was because of the chill of the room or if he was still shaking with the aftermath of the unpleasant trip down memory lane.
Tony, who was sitting on the edge of the bed leaned over to place a hand on Peter's forehead with a concentrated expression.
Peter watch Tony curiously before he asked, "Is this real?"
Tony frowned at that, "Is this... Why wouldn't this be real?"
Peter just hummed at that, closing his eyes against the faint blue glow of Tony's arc reactor.
"You're still burning up, kid," Tony said sadly. "You do realize you're not a firefighter for a reason, right?"
"Fire?" Peter opened his eyes and frowned. "What fire?"
Tony shook his head, "And that's the fever."
"I'm sick?" Peter wondered.
Tony looked at him with a soft worried expression and moved the hand that had been on his forehead to the side of Peter's neck. "Yeah, kid, your weird ass powers are making you a little under the weather."
"Oh," Peter replied dumbly.
"You should try and get some more shut eye," Tony patted the side of his neck.
Peter whined at that, "Don't wanna. Sleep is scary."
Tony sighed, "I'm not going anywhere, Pete. I'll keep the nightmares away."
"Promise?" Peter asked, blinking his eyes blearily. He was faintly aware of the fact that the fever he was running had to be mudding up his thoughts. He reached up blinding and grabbed Tony by his arm and pulled the older man towards him.
"Peter, not the damn stickiness again," Tony protested.
"Stay," Peter pleaded. "Your heartbeat keeps the bad thoughts away."
Tony was silent for a moment before saying, "What?"
Peter closed his eyes sleepily. "Your heartbeat makes me feel safe."
Tony chuckled under his breath, "Your powers will never fail to surprise me, kid. Okay, move over."
Peter let Tony gently move him into a position where Tony could lay down on the edge of the bed and Peter quickly curled into the his mentor's side, resting his head on the billionaires chest so his ear rested against the strong heartbeat that resided there. It took him a few seconds before he drifted off into a dreamless oblivion.
If you all didn't notice, Peter's new suit is essentially is FFH suit because I'm not creative enough to make my own :)
Also, fever delirious Peter Parker is such a soft and precious Peter Parker.
Was it good? Was it bad? Feel free to let me know!