Peter Parker's Apartment

Queens, New York

7:00 PM

"Are you sure about this?" Ned asked, sitting at Peter's desk. The laptop is open and he's scanning reports for any criminal activity in the area.

"Yeah," Peter said, voice crackling over the speaker. "M's right. We can't have Tony Stark finding out anything about me and if I take that suit it's pretty much the same as signing over my rights. He'll know exactly who I am. I can't take that suit, no matter how awesome it probably is."

Ned looked over his shoulder at Morgan.

"It is absolutely wicked," she confirms. Morgan resumes her rough sketch of the suit she'd been helping Tony Stark work on in his lab. She didn't get to see the original blueprints but from what she helped him work on and what she watched him do, she had a general idea of the suits design. She may be able to create something similar, certainly much cheaper and nowhere near as advanced as the suit her father made, but at least Peter's identity would be safe.

"Aw man... don't tell me that," Peter groans. Morgan smirks. "I don't want to regret my decision."

"You're making the right one, don't think otherwise," Morgan said, writing out some equation in the margins. It was a line of code she'd seen in the suit. Morgan wasn't sure exactly what it was but she didn't want to forget it, just in case.

"M's right," Ned said, sounding defeated. "As much as I'd love to see the suit Mr. Stark designed for you, it's not gonna happen."

"Maybe I can make something that'll provide more protecting than your onesie, but without big brother constantly looking over your shoulder."

"How many times do I have to say it, M? It's not a onesie!"

Morgan rolls her eyes. "Keep telling yourself that. Would prefer pajama's?"

"Very funny, can we please focus here?" Peter said, sounding exacerbated. "Guy in the chair, have you found any crime for me to stop?"

"Um... let me see," Ned's voice is low and distracted as he leans close to the computer screen. "Ooh, drunk driver?"

"Sure, give me a location."

Ned quickly gives Peter the location from the police scanner.

"I still can't believe this is happening, I feel like we're a secret organization or something. Do you think we should give ourselves a badass group name. Maybe something with an acronym. Y'know like how S.H.I.E.L.D. stood for—"

Before he could start going on about what it stood for, Morgan quickly spoke. "You do remember Project Paperclip and how that led to S.H.I.E.L.D. being overrun by undercover HYDRA agents right? That was a pretty big deal. Do you really want to take ideas from a organization that was hijacked by a Nazi terrorist group?"

Ned looked surprised. "I didn't even think about that. You're right, probably not the best idea. Wait, when did you read about Project Paperclip?"

"After Natasha Romanoff leaked all those files. You really think I didn't send the next few months digging through all that data? There's no way I was gonna sit back and not look into it. My mom would knock on my door every hour to make sure I was still alive. She still claims I was lost for a month in that room."

Morgan sits up on the bed and grabs her backpack off the floor. She notices one of the front pockets had been unzipped slightly so she pushes her hand into the tiny opening, listing as the zipper backtracks. Her fingers touch something sleek and cold. It almost feels like glass.

She clasps her fingers around the thin object and pulls it from the pocket. She's surprised to find a sleek new cell phone with an unbroken screen. She flips it over and finds a familiar logo on the back. It's a Stark Phone.

By the looks of it, it's a pretty recent release too. If not one made specifically for her by Tony himself. When did he have the time to put this into her backpack? It's not like she left it out where he could've just slipped it in during their time in the lab. Morgan remembers how long it took for Tony to reach her that morning when she was outside, maybe her put it into her back before he came to talk to her?

That would make the most sense. It was the only time she wasn't close to her backpack and would've been the perfect time for him to slip something like this into her bag. She presses the button on the side, but the screen stays black. It must just be turned off.

She can't accept something like this from him. Stark Phones were pretty damn expensive, especially the latest and greatest. Morgan had a cell phone already and she didn't need him to start giving her stuff as though that'll buy a relationship between the two of them. Her mother always told her to work for the things she wanted and being given such a pricey phone was not the same as earning one.

Maybe it her mother had bought it because she'd cleaned the entire house or because she aced all her finals. Those were the sort of feats that would justify such a gift, but to be given something like this on such a whim was unthinkable. She couldn't and wouldn't take it. She'd give it back to Tony the moment she returned to the tower.

"I got the drunk driver," Peter said at last. "I webbed up his car to keep it from speeding away. The police have already gotten him out and are arresting him, but—oh! There's some sketch people trespassing at that old building that's been abandoned for, well, ever really. Wonder what they're up too? It looks like they sneaking something ins—!"

Peter's voice jumps high, he must be dodging some sort of attack.

"It's really not nice to try to shoot somebody. Not to mention smuggling is a crime."

Morgan rolls her eyes. Leave it to Peter to be a hyper, over-active superhero with a big mouth on him. Nothing to crazy seems to be happening, they can hear Peter mouthing off at the criminals. Until a loud warping noise crescendos' into a loud searing sound that has Morgan and Ned yanking their comms out. If it hurts their hearing, Morgan can't imagine what it did to Peter's.

A few moments of silence pass before Morgan cracks an eye open, her head reeling from the sound. Pain is exploding through her skull like she's been kicked a few times in the skull. She puts her earpiece back in.

"S-spiderman? You alright?" she asks, voice low and croaky.

Peter doesn't respond.

"Spiderman!?"

"I-I uh... t-think this is really bad..." Peter's voice comes in low.

Ned has put his comm back in now. "What do you mean? What happened?"

"-don't know. They had regular g-guns—" he bursts into an awful coughing fit. "-t-then they pulled out some crazy looking thing. Maybe a-alien tech? I don't know... then it started to glow and then that noise just scattered my brain. It was like I wasn't here, but everywhere... or nowhere? There's blood... lots and lots. I think I'm bleeding to death?"

"Shit... shit, shit shit! Okay, we'll be there in a minute. Don't you dare fall asleep!"

Morgan launches to her feet and grabs her back, Ned is hot on her heels as they rush through the apartment, out the front door, down the stairs, and into the chilly February night.

...

Abandoned Building

Queens, New York

7:45 PM

It doesn't take them long to find the abandoned building Peter had been telling them about. Everyone knew about it. It was sectioned off away from the rest of the buildings and as far as Morgan could remember, there's never been a business there.

The faded old bricks are crumbled on the ground, multiple holes have been blasted through the wall, showing nothing but darkness inside. Morgan scrambled up a rusted old fire escape latter and kick an old rusty door in. Old wooden crates are splintered across the concrete floor. Ned comes up behind and the two of them step down onto the ground floor.

Morgan's teeth chatter and her whole body is trembling. She hadn't planned to spend her night search for her dying best friend during a February night, otherwise she might've worn a jacket.

"A-are you in here?" she calls, quiet enough to not alert anyone else except for Peter. She doesn't know if they men he'd bee fighting have left.

"-over... here..."

Morgan and Ned hurry across the room and through the attached doorway, leading into another section of the building. The floor is glittering black liquid, which would certainly be a chilling red if the room had any light. Moonlight from the hole in the ceiling was all she had to work with.

Hurrying forward, she drops to her knees at Peter's side, Ned at the other.

His mask is still in place, but there's a gapping slash through his suit. The skin is split and blood is oozing out at an alarming rate. Without thinking, Morgan wrenches her shirt up over her head, thankful she wore an undershirt, and quickly pressed the fabric to the still leaking wound.

Peter cries out. "...stop... hurts!"

Morgan winces. "Sorry, but we have to delay the bleeding as much as possible. If we don't stop the bleeding you'll die of blood loss in no time. You're going to need a doctor."

Peter shakes his head forcefully, still crying. "N-no... can't... doctors... they'll find out... spider... changed my DNA..."

"Shit, he's right. If we take him to a regular hospital they'll notice something's off when they do blood work. Not to mention his enhanced healing."

Mind made up, Morgan looks away from Peter and focuses on Ned.

"I need you to hold this here as tightly as you can. We need to staunch the bleeding. I'm going to make a phone call."

Ned does as asked. "You can't call the hospital."

The new cell phone comes to life and Morgan quickly scrolls down through her contacts hoping desperately to find the person she's looking for. She sighs in relief when her eyes find it.

"I'm not. I'm calling my father," she said determinedly, pressing the call button.

A/N:

This isn't quite as wonderful as I had in mind, but this was the general idea. I wasn't quite sure how exactly to have Peter get injured, I figured regular bullet wounds wouldn't be quite intense enough, at least not unless it was quite a few. That's why I went this way instead.

Anyways, thanks for reading!