Even though Peter tried to get Happy to tell exactly what was going on, he wouldn't say a single thing. He kept saying that he would have to come to Wakanda and then he would be told everything. This made Peter's stomach twist. Something horrible could have happened. Yeah, this didn't seem like the way Happy would break the news, but then again he did want to do it in person.
So maybe something was wrong.
But he didn't know how that would have to do with Tony. Still he had a bad feeling, even if it wasn't his spidey sense that was triggered.
Less than fifteen minutes after hanging up with Happy, a car came to pick Peter up. He barely had time to pack and to call May and tell her that he would be gone for awhile. She didn't answer so all he could do was leave a message. Hopefully she would get it soon and not worry.
He also sent a text to Ned and MJ. Ned's popped up first.
"Dude that is so cool!" Ned said in his text.
For a moment, Peter couldn't help but smile. Going to Wakanda was cool and was something he had wanted to do for years now. It just seemed… this wasn't why he wanted to go. And it wasn't how. He always thought eventually he would go with Mr. Stark who could introduce him to King T'challa and his cool sister Shuri who also liked science.
But that couldn't happen now.
When he got on the plane, he got a quick text from MJ.
"That's cool, but sucks we won't be able to hang out."
Peter nodded, but then realized he actually had to text her back. "I no but I'll be back soon."
And he would. He doubted that this would be a long trip.
"It's OK! Looking forward to seeing you again, loser."
Peter laughed. Even though normally if someone called him a loser, he wouldn't like it, it was different with MJ.
"I'll miss u 2." Peter replied.
The plane took off just as the text went through. He wasn't looking forward to this plane ride. The whole time he was going to be stuck wondering what Happy had to tell him about Tony that was so important. It had to be really significant if he would make him fly to Wakanda.
He didn't have anyone else here to distract him either since it was a self driving private plane. He was all alone. In a way that was a good thing since he didn't have his teacher falling asleep on his shoulder like when he had gone to Europe. Still, he would have liked to have someone to talk to.
Someone to distract him.
Maybe if he was normal he could have taken some sleeping medicine and just slept through the flight, but his metabolism was too fast and the medicine wouldn't work. Nope, the only way he was going to go to sleep was if he did it the natural way, and he doubted sleep would come to him.
Yet somehow it did.
He woke up just as the plane was approaching Wakanda. Wakanda was beautiful. It had a lot of green, even though it looked as technologically advanced that it was. It was crazy to think the whole world hadn't known how good its technology was until recently, and instead had believed it to be a third world country.
The plane landed not long later and Happy greeted him as soon as he got out of the plane. Peter hurried over and hugged him, even though he wasn't sure how Happy would react to that. Happy hesitated but hugged him back.
"I'm glad you came here," Happy said, letting go of Peter before Peter wanted him to.
Peter hadn't had much choice really. When he had mentioned Tony, it wasn't like he could say no. Not after all that Mr. Stark had done for him.
He still missed and thought about him all the time too. Little things would remind him of Mr. Stark. Like when he passed the pizza place they used to go to. Or when Ned talked about the Star Wars movie that Mr. Stark and Peter had watched a million times together. Or basically anything to do with Spider-Man.
But each day got less painful and easier to manage. Thinking about Mr. Stark didn't hurt as much. It had been similar when Ben had passed away.
Not when his parents had. Peter had been so young then and had mostly just been confused as to why his mom and dad weren't coming back. That if anything had been even worse.
"And don't worry, I talked to your aunt," Happy said as the two of them walked toward a car that was parked in the distance. It almost looked like the car that he usually drove him around in, even though it couldn't be since they were in Africa.
"What?" Peter asked. "But I called her."
Happy shrugged. "She didn't get the message, but don't worry I explained everything and she's fine with you being here."
"She wasn't… she wasn't worried, right?" Peter should have tried to call her again, but he had kept thinking about how Happy said this had to do with Tony, and he had been worried about what he was going to say.
"She understands. Everything is fine, kid."
Peter paused, but then he nodded. Still he didn't like the thought of his aunt not knowing where he had gone. She had been cool about him being Spider-Man, but he knew that she was still worried that something horrible might happen to him.
Horrible things had happened to him before, not that he talked about those much, especially with her. She would worry about him and he didn't want her to. She deserved to be happy.
"Thanks," Peter said, forcing himself to smile at Happy.
"No problem." The two of them got in the car, escaping the hot air. Even the inside of the car looked very similar to the one that he usually picked him up in. There were only subtle differences.
Peter looked at Happy. "So…"
"So what?"
"What do you have to tell me about Tony?" There was a lump in Peter's throat, but he did his best to ignore it. Maybe he was going to be told something good. It was just he was worried because Mr. Stark had a lot of enemies.
That was why the whole Mysterio thing had happened, not that it was Mr. Stark's fault. Mysterio had been… crazy and manipulative and cruel. Whenever Peter thought about how he had given him EDITH, he cringed and hated himself. How could he be so stupid?
"I…" He sighed and shook his head.
"It's bad?" Peter asked. "Does it have to do with one of his enemies or-"
"Nope, nothing like that, kid. Don't worry."
Peter couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief.
"You really thought it was something like that?" Happy asked.
"Sorry, kid. I didn't know that you would get so freaked out. It's nothing bad. It's just… It's just going to be a lot for you to take."
"What does that mean?" Peter asked. He had gone from feeling better to be worried again.
"It's hard for me to say without telling you what it is." Happy rolled his eyes. "I wish I could just tell you what's going on, but Fury is wanting you to sign something before you find out."
Peter cringed when Fury was mentioned. He didn't like Fury. He had been a jerk to him when he had been Europe and had basically forced him to help when he hadn't been sure that he wanted to. And then when it hadn't gone as smoothly as Fury had wanted, he had gotten angry with him.
"Don't worry, he's not going to be there," Happy said, somehow knowing what he was thinking. "He was an asshole. Actually he's always an asshole, but he was worse to you. You don't have to put up with him anytime soon. I let him know that we'd contact him instead of the other way around next time."
"Really?" Peter asked. Even now hearing something like that was so strange. He had tried so hard to get Happy and Mr. Stark to pay attention to him before the Homecoming incident. Back then he would have thought that he wanted to meet Fury.
But everything had changed since then.
"Yeah."
"Thank you, Happy," Peter muttered as he looked at his hands. "I mean it's better this way."
"Much, much better and you're welcome."
Happy turned on AC/DC after that and the two of them didn't say much else to each other. Peter stared out the window and tried his best to look at everything they passed.
"Happy?" Peter asked, finally ending his silence. He didn't look at him and kept staring out the window. "You really can't tell me what you need to tell me about Mr. Stark?"
"Nope," Happy said. "Wish I could, kid, but I can't. I just found out the other day myself. You're going to know soon enough what is going on."
Peter looked back at him and saw that Happy was actually smiling. It only lasted for a second before it vanished.
"It's good, kid," Happy said. "Really good."
Peter nodded, but he was relieved. He didn't know if he could handle anymore bad news right now. It hadn't been that long since his fight with Mysterio. Sometimes, he had nightmares when he found out that everything after leaving Europe had been an illusion.
Sometimes when he was awake he worried about this. Only for a few seconds before he told himself that it was silly and Beck was dead but still.
Peter and Happy didn't say much else to each other. Peter just tried to keep himself occupied by looking out the window at everything. There was so much to see, but it was hard to focus on anything when he didn't know why he had been brought here.
Luckily—or maybe unluckily—they eventually reached a large house that was outside of the main part of the city. The house was beautiful and looked really domestic with a white picket fence and everything.
"They're renting it for a short time," Happy said as he and Peter got out of the car.
Peter was about to ask who they are but he didn't get a chance. Morgan ran out of the house and pretty much attacked him with a hug.
"Petey! Petey!" Morgan pretty much yelled with joy as she hugged him tightly.
Even now Peter couldn't help but grin. Morgan was the best little kid. Whenever he visited her and Pepper, he would draw pictures with Morgan and read her any book that she wanted. She would also try to chase him with water guns and water balloons. He could have easily avoided her attacks, but he always let her spray him and hit him with the balloons.
It was fun, except the one time she had frozen a couple of the water balloons and hit him in the face with one that had been in the freezer. That had hurt, but he recovered fast and Morgan had seemed to feel bad.
"So glad you're here," Morgan said, still not letting go of him.
"I'm glad I'm here too," Peter said, and now part of him was, even though he was still terrified what the news could be.
"We should play water balloons later," Morgan said, her eyes lighting up. She finally let go of him.
"Okay," Peter said right away. "But you can't put any of them in the freezer."
"I won't, Petey," Morgan said, her eyes wide. Her eyes were so much like her dad's. She looked so much like Mr. Stark overall. And really she acted kind of like him too. "I'll be nice."
Peter just smiled at her.
"Peter can't play just yet. He has-" Happy tried to say, but Morgan didn't let him finish.
"Daddy can play with us too, Petey!" Morgan said, grinning just as widely as before. "We can throw frozen balloons at him instead of you."
All Peter could do was stare at her when she said that. He didn't understand. Morgan knew that her dad was dead. She knew it. He had talked to her about it. He would tell her stories about all the amazing things that he had done.
Happy cringed.
"Morgan, your dad isn't-" Peter tried to say.
"I'll make him play with us," Morgan said, taking Peter's hand.
Peter looked at Happy, hoping that he would say something. He didn't want to be the one to remind Morgan that her dad was dead.
"Daddy and I played Pretty Pretty Princess all day yesterday, but I want to play water balloon fight now."
Yesterday? Peter froze. There was just. There was no way.
But then Peter heard his voice.
"Peter, Underoos, hey," Mr. Stark said. He was standing there. Just standing there. Peter had no idea how long he had been there.
Morgan grinned and reached over and ran to her father, hugging him.
All Peter could do was stare.
There was no way this could be possible.
Peter couldn't stop staring at first. This was impossible. Mr. Stark was dead. This had to be some kind of dream.
No, it wasn't a dream. It was an illusion.
"Peter, I know that this is surprising but—" the fake Mr. Stark tried to say, but Peter wasn't about to let this continue.
"No! Stop!" Peter cried out as Morgan let go of her fake dad.
Beck was twisted. Wasn't it bad enough what he had already done? Did he have to actually have Mr. Stark show up in his illusions?
But it wasn't worse than the tombstone and Beck saying it was his fault that Mr. Stark was dead.
Just the thought of it made him shudder and his stomach twist. He was going to be sick. He was honestly going to be sick.
"No! I'm stupid. I'm not going to let you trick me again! I'm not… I know this isn't real!" Why hadn't his spidey senses warned him? He thought they were working again.
Fake Mr. Stark took a step back as if he had wounded him. Even Morgan looked hurt but she probably wasn't real either.
All fake.
"I'm not trying to trick you," Mr. Stark said. "I promise. What happened, kiddo?"
"You know what happened, Beck," Peter spat out.
"I don't… I'm not Beck." Tony said, putting his hands in front of himself. "Who are you talking about?"
Peter took a step away. He wasn't going to let them trick him. He couldn't go through something like this again. What made it worse was they had taken him out of the country. Far from home. If the plane ride hadn't been an illusion.
"Peter, this isn't an illusion from that asshole Beck," Happy said. "This is real. We can explain."
He stood there. Stunned. He wished that he could believe it. He really did. It would be amazing to have Mr. Stark back, but he was dead.
The dead stays dead.
"Yeah, I can explain, Underoos," Fake Mr. Stark said. "I promise, kiddo."
It was weird that fake Mr. Stark would call him Underoos but it wasn't that big of a secret. Not really.
Fake Mr. Stark reached out and tried to grab Peter's arm. No! Peter wasn't allowing that. He knew this was fake.
He tried again to grab him and this time he succeeded at it. For a moment, Peter could only stare at him. His hand was warm and it didn't feel fake.
But it was. He wouldn't be tricked.
He shoved fake Mr. Stark away and ran.
((AN: Thank you all for reading. Please comment. I live off comments.
blueraven1999: Thank you. I hope you liked the new chapter.
kellentia: I really hope Marvel has Happy and May end up together. They're just so great together IMO.
Alys Gaming Channel YT: I'm glad you are liking it. It means a lot to me. ))
