4/18/22
"Sir. Sir!" JARVIS said.
"Alright, kill the alarm. I got it." Tony said.
"That's the emergency alert triggered by the power dropping below five percent." JARVIS said.
Tony noticed he's flying through the snow at night, fell and crashed into the ground in the middle of a forest. Then he took off his face helmet as he lied on the ground catching his breath.
"It's snowing, right? Where are we, upstate?" he asked.
"We're five miles outside of Rose Hills, Tennessee." JARVIS said.
"Why?! Jarvis! Not my idea! What are we doing here? This is thousands of miles away, I gotta get Pepper, I gotta..."
"I prepared a flight plan. This was the location."
"Who asked you? Open the suit."
"I... I think I may be malfunctioning, sir."
"Open eject." Tony said and the suit got off him and he sat up. "That's brisk!" he said as he started to feeling the cold weather. "Maybe I'll just cozy back up for a bit."
"I actually think I need to sleep now, sir." JARVIS said and the suit lost power.
"Jarvis. Jarvis? Don't leave me, buddy." Tony said, dragged the suit to a petrol station and made a call to Pepper.
"Stark Secure Server: Now transferring to all known receivers." the computers said.
"Pepper, it's me. I've got a lot of apologies to make and not a lot of time. So first off, I'm so sorry I put you in harm's way. That was selfish and stupid and it won't happen again. Also, it's Christmas time, the rabbit's too big. Done. Sorry. And I'm sorry in advance because...I can't come home yet. I need to find this guy. You gotta stay safe. That's all I know. I just stole a poncho from a wooden Indian." Tony said and dragged the suit to an abandoned looking farmhouse then put the suit on a couch and sat next to it. "Let's get you comfy." he said and put its hand by its side. "You happy now?"
As he tried fixing the micro-repeater implants in his arm, a boy stood by the doorway and pointed his toy gun at him.
"Freeze! Don't move." the boy said.
"You got me. Nice potato gun. Barrel's a little long. Between that and the wide gauge, it's gonna diminish your FPS." Tony said and the boy pointed his gun at a glass on a shelf and shot at it, breaking the glass. "And now you're out of ammo."
"What's that thing on your chest?"
"It's a electromagnet. You should know, you've got a box of them right here."
"What does it power?" the boy asked then stood and pointed the desk light at his suit sitting on the couch behind him. "Oh my God!" he said, dropped his toy gun and took a step towards Tony. "Oh my god! That... that's... Is that Iron Man?"
"Technically, I am."
"Technically, you're dead." the boy said and give Tony a newspaper which has Tony's picture with the headline 'Mandarin Attack: Stark presumed dead'
"A valid point."
"What happened to him?" the boy asked referring to the suit as he sat next to on the couch checking it out.
"Life. I built him, I take care of him, I'll fix him."
"Like a mechanic?"
"Yeah."
"Oh. If I was building Iron Man and War Machine."
"It's Iron Patriot now." Tony said interrupting him.
"That's way cooler!"
"No, it's not."
"Anyways, I would have added in um... the retro..."
"Retro reflective panels?"
"To make him stealth mode".
"You want a stealth mode?
"Cool, right?"
"That's actually a good idea. Maybe I'll build one."
As the boy touched the suit, he accidentally snapped off one of its fingers.
"Oops!" he said.
"Not a good idea! What are you doing? You're gonna break his finger? He's in pain, he's been injured. Leave him alone."
"S...Sorry."
"Are you? Don't worry about it, I'll fix it. So, uh, who's home?"
"Well, my mom already left for the diner and dad went to 7-Eleven to get scratchers. I... I guess he won, 'cause that was six years ago."
"Mm. Which happens, dads leave. No need to be a pussy about it. Here's what I need: a laptop, a digital watch, a cell phone, the pneumatic actuator from your bazooka over there, a map of town, a big spring, and a tuna fish sandwich."
"What's in it for me?"
"Salvation. What's his name?"
"Who?"
"The kid that bullies you at school, what's his name?"
"How'd you know that?"
"I got just the thing." Tony said then opened a compartment on the suit and took out a metal object. "This is a pinata for a cricket. I'm kidding, it's a very powerful weapon. Point it away from your face, press the button on top. It discourages bullying. Non-lethal, just to cover one's ass." he said and the boy reached out to take it, but Tony pulled his hand away. "Deal? Deal? What'd you say?"
"Deal."
"Deal?" Tony said and gave the object to the boy. What's your name?"
"Harley. And you're..."
"The mechanic." Tony said and looked at Harley for a moment. "You know what keeps going through my head? Where's my sandwich?"
Back at Tony's house, which was now surrounded by emergency rescue and news reporters, Pepper stood alone and looked out across the ocean and saw one of Tony's shattered Iron Man helmets and pulled it towards her, her forehead resting against the helmet's. Then she saw a red flashing light inside the helmet and as she put it on she received the message Tony had left her earlier.
"Stark Secure Server. Retinal scan: Verified." the computer said.
"Pepper, it's me." Tony said and she gasped and smiled. "I've got a lot of apologies to make and not a lot of time. So first off, I'm so sorry I put you in harm's way. That was selfish and stupid and it won't happen again."
Come stop your crying
in Rose Hills Tony and Harley walked in town at night.
"The sandwich was fair, the spring was a little rusty, the rest of the materials, I'll make do. By the way, when you said your sister had a watch, I was kinda hoping for something a little more than that." Tony said and pulled his sleeve up wearing a little girl's pink watch and Harley laughed.
"She's six! Anyway, it's limited edition. When can we talk about New York?" Harley said.
"Maybe never, relax about it."
"What about The Avengers, can you talk about them?
"I don't know, later. Hey kid, give me a little space." Tony said and they stopped and he looked at the remains of the local explosion site that he came to investigate. "What's the official story here? What happened?"
"I guess this guy named Chad Davis, used to live roundabouts, won a bunch of medals in the army. One day, folks said he went crazy and made, you know, a bomb. Then he blew himself up right here."
Tony looked around at the remained.
"Six people died, right?" he said.
"Yeah."
"Including Chad Davis?"
"Yeah." Harley said and Tony kept looking around at the remains of the explosion site.
"Yeah. That doesn't make sense." he said and sat next to Harley. "Think about it. Six dead, only five shadows."
"Yeah, people said these shadows are like the mark of souls gone to Heaven. Except the bomb guy, he went to Hell on account of he didn't get a shadow. That's why there's only five."
"Do you buy that?"
"That's what everyone says. You know what this crater reminds me of?"
"No idea. I'm not...I don't care."
"That giant wormhole, in um...in New York. Does it remind you?"
"That's manipulative. I don't want to talk about it."
"Are they coming back? The aliens?"
"Maybe. Can you stop? Remember when I told you, that I have an anxiety issue?"
"Does this subject make you...make you edgy?"
"Yeah, a little bit. Can I just catch my breath for a second?"
"Are there bad guys in Rose Hills? Do you...do you need a plastic bag to breathe into? Do you have medication?"
"Nope."
"Do you need to be on it?"
"Probably."
"Do you have PTSD?"
"I don't think so."
"Are you... are you going completely mental? I can stop, do you want me to stop? Do you want me to stop?"
"Remember when I said to stop doing that? I swear to God, you're going to freak me out!" Tony said looking agitated and suddenly rose. "Ah man, you did it, didn't you? You happy now?"
"What did I say?" Harley asked and Tony started running off and Harley ran after him. "Hey, wait up! Wait, wait." he said and Tony stopped running and Harley caught up with him. "What the hell was that?" he asked and Tony held his face in his hands for a moment and then threw some snow at Harley.
"Your fault, you spazzed me out. Okay, back to business. Where were we? The guy who died... relatives? Mom? Mrs. Davis, where is she?"
"Where she always is."
"See, now you're being helpful."
Later Tony was walking towards a bar and bumped into a woman.
"Sorry." he said and the woman dropped something. "Lady, this uh..." he said, picked up the item and handed it back to the woman.
"Thank you." Brandt said and Tony noticed the woman had burn marks on one side of her face.
"Nice haircut, suits you."
"Nice watch."
"Yeah, limited edition."
"Oh, I don't doubt it." she said and they paused for a minute. "Well, have a good evening." she said, turned and walked off.
Then Tony entered the bar and walked up to Mrs. Davis, who sat at table drinking alone.
"Mrs. Davis, mind if I join you?" he asked.
"Free country." Mrs. Davis said.
"It sure is." he said and sat next to her and she looked at him for a minute.
"Alright. Where'd you like to start?"
"I just want to say I'm sorry about your loss. I want to know what you think happened."
"Look, I brought your damn file. You take it and go." she said and dropped the file in front of him. "Whatever was in here, he wanted no part of it." she said and he opened the file.
"Clearly, you're waiting for someone else. Yeah? Supposed to meet somebody here?"
"Yeah." she said and he looked at the file again and noticed a photo of Taggart next to the photo of Chad.
"Mrs. Davis, your son didn't kill himself, I guarantee you. He didn't kill anyone. Someone used him."
"What?"
"As a weapon."
"You're not the person who called me after all, are you?"
Suddenly a cell phone was slammed on their table.
"Actually, I am." Brandt said.
Tony looked up and it was the woman he bumped into outside the bar.
Suddenly Brandt grabbed hold of his arm and twisted it, slamming his head onto the table, Tony managed to quickly grab hold of Chad's dog tags that were on the table.
"Hey, hey, hey! What's all this about? What the hell's going on here?" Rose Hills Sheriff asked.
"It's called an arrest." Brandt said, pushed Tony to the ground and stepped towards the Sheriff. "Sheriff, is it?"
"Yes ma'am, it is. And you are?"
"Homeland Security." she said and held up her badge. "We good here?"
"No, we're not good. I need a little more information than that."
"Well, I think it's a little above your pay grade, Sheriff."
"Yeah, well, why don't you get on the horn to Nashville and uh...upgrade me?" Rose Hills Sheriff said and Tony gestured to Mrs. Davis to hide the file and she pushed it under the bar.
"Alright, you know what? I was hoping to do this the smart way, but uh...the fun way's always good." she said and Tony noticed her hand turning red hot, burning the badge in her hand.
"Deputy, get this woman and..."
Suddenly Brandt shoved the hot badge into the Sheriff's face, took his gun and shot him, Tony ran out of the bar and Brandt followed him and he turned to her.
"Hey hot wings, you wanna party? You and me, let's go." he said and as he turned to run again he saw Savin getting out of a car and walk towards him, as Savin got his gun out to shoot at him, Tony ran off and Harley threw something at Savin to make him miss Tony who stopped behind a car and saw a man hiding low on the ground. "Crazy, huh?"
"Yeah." Rose Hill Christmas Tree Shopper said.
"Watch this." Tony said and smashed into the window of a shop.
As he and Brandt fought in the shop, Tony started a fire in shop.
"You walked right into this one, I've dated hotter chicks than you" he said and put Chad's dog tags into the microwave and turned on the gas.
"That's all you got? Cheap trick and a cheesy one-liner?" Brandt said.
"Sweetheart, that could be the name of my autobiography." Tony said and quickly left through the back door.
As the dog tags heat up in the microwave they started sparking up fire, Brandt realized the gas had been left on and suddenly the shop exploded killing Brandt. Tony stumbled out of the shop as people ran past. Then a water tank fell down and trapped his leg. He found Savin had grabbed Harley.
"Let me go!" Harley said and Savin mocked him.
"Help me! Help me!" Savin said and as Tony's leg was trapped under some rubble, Savin sat in front of him with Harley sat on his lap. "Hey kid, what would you like for Christmas?"
"Mr. Stark, I am so sorry!"
"Oh. No, no. I think he was trying to say, "I want my god damn file.""
"It's not your fault, kid. Remember what I told you about bullies." Tony said and Harley used the gadget Tony gave him earlier and ran away. "Do you like that, Westworld? That's the thing about smart guys, we always cover our ass." he said and brought up his hand revealing his Iron Man suit hand.
Then he fired at Savin and sent him flying backwards. Then he made his way out of the rubble before leaving.
"You're welcome." Harley said.
"For what? Did I miss something?"
"Me saving your life."
"Yeah. A, saved you first. B, thanks, sort of. And C, if you do someone a solid, don't be a yutz, alright? Just play it cool otherwise you come off grandiose."
"Unlike you? Admit it, you need me. We're connected."
"What I need is for you to go home, be with your mom, keep your trap shut, guard the suit and stay connected to the telephone because if I call, you better pick up. Okay, can you feel that? We're done here. Move it out the way or I'm going to run you over. Bye kid." Tony said and got in his car] "I'm sorry, kid, you did good."
"So now you're just going to leave me here, like my dad?"
"Yep." Tony said. "Wait, you're guilt tripping me, aren't you?
"I'm cold." Harley said childishly.
"I can tell. You know how I can tell? Cus we're connected." Tony said mocking him and drove away.
"It was worth a shot."
It will be alright
"Harley, tell me what's happening. Give me a full report." Tony said.
"Yeah, I'm still eating that candy. Do you want me to keep eating it?" Harley said.
"How much have you had?"
"Two or three bowls."
"Can you still see straight?"
"Sort of."
"That means you're fine. Give me Jarvis. Jarvis, how are we?"
"It's totally fine, sir. I seem to do quite well for a stretch, and then at the end of the sentence I say the wrong cranberry. And, sir, you were right. Once I factored in available AIM downlink facilities I was able to pinpoint the Mandarin's broadcast signal." JARVIS said.
"What are we talking? Far East, Europe, North Africa, Iran, Pakistan, Syria? Where is it?"
"Actually, sir, it's in Miami."
"Okay, kid, I'm gonna have to walk you through rebooting Jarvis's speech drive, but not right now. Harley, where is he really? Just look on the screen and tell me where it is."
"Um, it does say Miami, Florida."
"Okay, first things first, I need the armour. Where are we at with it?"
"Uh, it's not charging." Harley said and Tony pulled over to the side of the road, heavy breathing.
"Actually, sir, it is charging, but the power source is questionable. It may not succeed in revitalizing the Mark 42." JARVIS said.
"What's questionable about electricity? All right? It's my suit, and I can't... I'm not gonna... I don't wanna..." Tony said breathing heavily. "Oh, God, not again."
"Tony? " Harley said and Tony got out of the car. "Are you having another attack? I didn't even mention New York."
Tony: "Right, and then you just said it by name while denying having said it."
"Okay, um, uh..."
"God, what am I gonna do?" Tony asked panting.
"Just breathe. Really, just breathe. You're a mechanic, right?"
"Right."
"You said so."
"Yes, I did."
"Why don't you just build something?"
"Okay. Thanks, kid." Tony said and got back in the car.
Just take my hand
Peter was walking out of an elevator holding a DVD-player and with a backpack on his shoulder. Then he walked into their apartment and May was sitting on the couch with Tony.
"Hey, May." he said.
"Mmm. Hey. How was school today?" May said.
"Okay. This crazy car parked outside . . ." he started then saw Tony and his eyes widen.
"Oh, Mr. Parker." Tony said.
"Um . . ." Peter said and took out his earphones. "What-what are you doing . . .? Hey! Uh, I'm-Im-I'm Peter."
"Tony."
"What are . . .what are you-what are you-what are you doing here?"
"It's about time we met. You've been getting my e-mails, right?"
"Yeah. Yeah."
"Right?"
"Regarding the . . ."
"You didn't tell me about the grant." May said.
"About the grant."
"The September Foundation." Tony said.
"Right."
"Yeah. Remember when you applied?"
"Yeah."
"I approved, so now we're in business."
"You didn't tell me anything. What's up with that? You keeping secrets from me now?" May asked.
"Why, I just, I just . . . I just know how much you love surprises, so I thought I would let you know . . . wh . . . anyway, what did I apply for?" Peter said.
"That's what I'm here to hash out." Tony said.
"Okay. Hash, hash out, okay."
"It's so hard for me to believe that she's someone's aunt."
"Yeah, well, we come in all shapes and sizes, you know?" May said.
"This walnut date loaf is exceptional."
"Let me just stop you there." Peter said.
"Yeah?"
"Is this grant, like, got money involved or whatever? No?"
"Yeah."
"Yeah?"
"It's pretty well funded."
"Wow."
"Look who you're talking to. Can I have 5 minutes with him?"
"Sure." May said.
When they got in Peter's room Tony bolted the door and spit out the walnut loaf.
"As walnut date loaves go, that wasn't bad." he said and noticed Peter's collection of old computers. "Whoa, what do we have here? Retro tech, huh? Thrift store? Salvation Army?"
"Uh, the garbage, actually." Peter said.
"You're a dumpster diver."
"Yeah, I was . . . anyway, look, um, I definitely did not apply for your grant."
"Ah-ah! Me first."
"Okay."
"Quick question of the rhetorical variety." Tony said and pulled out his phone which projected a video of Peter in his Spider-Man outfit. "That's you, right?"
"Um, no. What do you. What do you mean?"
"Yeah. Look at you go. Wow! Nice catch. 3,000 pounds, 40 miles an hour. That's not easy. You got mad skills."
"That's all- That's all on YouTube, though, right? I mean, that's where you found that? Because you know that's all fake. It's all done on the computer."
"Mm-Hmm."
"It's like that video. What is it?"
"Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah . . . oh, you mean like those UFOs over Phoenix?"
"Exactly."
"Oh, what have we here?" Tony said and he hid his Spider-Man suit.
"Uh . . . that's a . . ."
"So. You're the . . . Spider . . . ling. Crime-fighting Spider . . .you're Spider-Boy?"
Then Peter fouled his arms petulantly.
"S . . . Spider-Man." he said.
"Not in that onesie, you're not."
"It's not a onesie." he said as Tony picked up the suit. "I don't believe this. I was actually having a real good day today, you know, Mr. Stark. Didn't miss my train, this perfectly good DVD player was just sitting there and . . . Algebra test. Nailed it!"
"Who else knows? Anybody?"
"Nobody."
"Not even your . . . unusually attractive aunt?"
"No. No, no. No, no. If she knew, she would freak out. And when she freaks out, I freak out."
"You know what I think is really cool? This webbing. That tensile strength is off the charts. Who manufactured that?"
"I did."
"Climbing the walls, how you doing that? Adhesive gloves?"
"It's a long story. I was uh . . ."
"Lordy! Can you even see in these?"
"Yes. Yes, I can! I can. I can-I can see in those. Okay? It's just that… when whatever happened, happened . . . it's like my senses have been dialed to 11. There's way too much input, so . . . they just kinda help me focus."
"You're in dire need of an upgrade. Systemic, top to bottom. 100-point restoration. That's why I'm here." Tony said and he sat on his bed and looked at Tony. "Why you doing this? I gotta know. What's your MO? What gets you outta that twin bed in the morning?"
"Because . . ." Peter said and fiddled with his fingers. "because I've been me my whole life, and l've had these powers for 6 months."
"Mm-Hmm."
"I read books, I build computers . . . and-and yeah. I would love to play football. But I couldn't then so I shouldn't now."
"Sure, because you're different."
"Exactly. But I can't tell anybody that, so I'm not. When you can do the things that I can, but you don't . . ." he said and Tony leaned closer. "and then the bad things happen . . . they happen because of you."
Tony looked affected by Peter's words.
"So you wanna look out for the little guy? You wanna do your part? Make the world a better place, all that, right?"
"Yeah. Yeah just looking out . . . for the little guy. That's-that's what it is."
Tony slowly stepped over to Peter and his leg was stretched out on the bed. Tony looked down at it.
"I'm gonna sit here, so you move the leg." Tony said and Peter moved along and Tony sat beside him and raised his hand then hesitantly clasped his shoulder.
"You got a passport?" he asked.
"Uh, no. I don't even have a driver's license."
"You ever been to Germany?"
"No."
"Oh, you'll love it."
"I can't go to Germany!"
"Why?"
"I got . . . homework."
"I'm gonna pretend you didn't say that."
"I'm-I'm being serious! I can't just drop out of school!"
"Might be a little dangerous. Better tell Aunt Hottie I'm taking you on a field trip." Tony said and Peter webbed Tony's hand to the door.
"Don't tell Aunt May."
"Alright, Spider-Man." Tony said and they shared an earnest look before Tony returned to his usual attitude. "Get me out of this."
"Sorry, I'll get the . . ."
Hold it tight
"All right, I've run out of patience. Underoos!" Tony said and Peter shot a web, stealing Steve's shield and binding his hands. "Nice job, kid."
"Thanks. Well, I could've stuck the landing a little better. It's just the new suit… Well, it's nothing, Mr. Stark. It's-it's perfect. Thank you." Peter said.
"Yeah, we don't really need to start a conversation."
"Okay. Cap . . . Captain. Big fan, I'm Spider-Man."
"Yeah, we'll talk about it later. Just . . ."
"Hey, everyone."
". . . Good job."
"You've been busy." Steve said.
"And you've been a complete idiot. Dragging in Clint. 'Rescuing' Wanda from a place she doesn't even want to leave, a safe place. I'm trying to keep . . . I'm trying to keep you from tearing the Avengers apart."
"You did that when you signed."
"Alright, We're done. You're gonna turn Barnes over, you're gonna come with us. NOW! Because it's us! Or a squad of J-SOC guys . . . with no compunction about being impolite." Tony said and Steve looked aside. "Come on."
Then Sam radioed Steve.
"We found it. Their Quinjet's in hanger five, north runway." he said.
Steve held his hands up and Clint shot the web off.
"Alright, Lang." he said.
"Hey, guys, something . . ." Peter started.
"Whoa. What-what the hell was that?" Rhodey asked.
Scott retrieved Steve's shield.
"I believe this is yours, Captain America." he said.
"Oh, great. Alright, there's two on the parking deck. One of them's Maximoff, I'm gonna grab her. Rhodey, you want to take Cap?" Tony said.
"Got two in the terminal, Wilson and Barnes." Rhodey said.
"Barnes is mine!" T'Challa said.
"Hey, Mr. Stark, what should I do?" Peter asked.
"What we discussed. Keep your distance. Web 'em up." Tony said.
"Okay, copy that!"
I will protect you
"They're not stopping." Peter said.
"Neither are we." Tony said and everyone broke into a sprint.
Steve blocked a punch as Tony landed. Clint fired an arrow at Vision. Rhodey flew after Sam and Bucky trades blew with T'Challa. An explosive arrow hit Tony. Natasha threw Scott, as Peter swung through the air, struggling to evade vehicles projected by Wanda. Bucky landed punches on T'Challa, Clint and Natasha battle with batons. Clint pinned her down with his bow.
From all around you
"Hey, guys, you ever see that really old movie, Empire Strikes Back?" Peter said outside.
"Jesus, Tony, how old is this guy?" Rhodey asked.
"I don't know, I didn't carbon-date him. He's on the young side." Tony said.
Peter swung towards Ant-Man.
"You know that part . . . where they're on the snow planet . . . with the walking thingies?" he asked and wrapped webs around Scott's legs.
"Maybe the kid's on to something."
"High now, Tony. Go high." Rhodey said.
Peter swung around and around Ant-Man's legs as Iron Man and War Machine power towards his head, both landing blows together.
"YES! Ha ha! That was awesome!" Peter said and Giant Ant-Man toppled.
A flailing limb was catching him and knocking him flying just before Scott slammed into the ground on his back. He returned to normal size and removed the face-plate of his helmet, grimacing.
Scott Lang: "Does anyone have any orange slices?" he asked.
Then Tony landed by Peter who's in a heap. Retracting the helmet he looked concerned.
"Kid, you alright?" he asked.
"Hey! Get off me!" Peter said.
"Same side. Guess who. Hi. It's me."
"Oh. Hey, man."
"Yeah."
"That was scary."
"Yeah. You're done. Alright?"
"What?"
"You did a good job. Stay down."
"No, I'm good. I'm fine."
"Stay down."
"No, it's good I gotta get him back!"
"You're going home or I'll call Aunt May! You're done!"
"Wait. Mr. Stark, wait! I'm not done, I'm not . . ." Peter said and slumped down. "Okay, I'm done. I'm done."
I will be here
The next day he was in Tony's car. Tony reached for it in a suit and sunglasses ensemble.
"What are you doing, a little video diary?" Tony asked.
"Yeah." he said embarrassed.
"It's all right. I'd probably do the same."
"I told him not to do it. He was filming everything." Happy said from the driver's seat.
"It's okay."
"I'm gonna wipe the chip."
"Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey. You know what? We should actually... We should make an alibi video for your aunt anyway. You ready?" Tony said and took off his sunglasses, revealing a badly bruised face.
"Yeah, hold on." he said.
"We rolling?"
"An alibi? Sure."
"Get in the frame."
"Okay."
"Hey, May. How you doing? What are you wearing? Something skimpy, I hope."
He turned to Tony with a frown on his face. Tony chuckled and patted his shoulder, while his face wore an uncomfortable smile.
"Peter, that's inappropriate. All right, let's start over. You can edit it."
"Mm-hmm." he said then looked at Tony and chuckled.
"Three, two, one. Hey, May. My gosh, uh, I wanted to tell you what an incredible job your son did this weekend at the Stark internship retreat. Everyone was impressed." Tony said putting on a solemn face.
He offered the camera a wide-eyed, tight-lipped smile, trying to look innocent. Suddenly, there was a loud honk.
"Come on! It's a frigging merge." Happy said. "I'm sorry." he said to Tony.
"This is because you're not on Queens Boulevard." Tony said. "See, Happy is... is hoping to get bumped up to asset management. He was head of security, and before that, he was just a personal assistant." he said to the camera.
Still driving, Happy gave Tony a sidelong glance.
"That was a private conversation. I don't like joking about this. It was hard for me to talk to you about that." Happy said.
"No, seriously, was he snoring a bunch?" Tony asked and Happy slammed on the brakes, making the car screech to a stop.
"All right. Here we are. End of the line. Whoops."
Tony laughed and filmed Peter, who looked a bit pale.
"Happy, can you give us a moment?"
"You want me to leave the car?"
"Why don't you grab Peter's case out of the trunk."
His film finally stopped rolling and he slowly lowered his phone, shocked.
"I can keep the suit?" he said.
"Yes, we were just talking about it." Tony said and put his sunglasses back on and cleared his throat.
Through the rear window, Happy was struggling with his case.
"Do me a favor, though. Happy's kind of your point guy on this. Don't stress him out. Don't do anything stupid. I've seen his cardiogram. All right?"
"Yes." he said enthusiastically.
"Don't do anything I would do, and definitely don't do anything I wouldn't do. There's a... There's a little grey area in there, and that's where you operate."
"Wait, does that mean that I'm an Avenger?"
"No." Tony said and Happy knocked on the window and held the case up.
"This it?" he asked.
"7th floor."
"I can take that. You don't have to take it." he said.
"You're gonna take it?" Happy said.
"Yeah, I can take that."
"Thank you." Happy said and dropped the case by the car.
"So when's, when's our next... When's our next "retreat," you know? Like..."
"What, next mission?" Tony asked.
"Yeah, the mission. The missions."
"We'll call you."
"Do you have my number?"
"Yes I mean, we'll call you. Like, someone will call you."
"Oh."
"Alright?"
"From your team."
"Okay." Tony said and reached for the door but he thought it was a hug and brought his arms around Tony. "It's not a hug. I'm just grabbing the door for you. We're not there yet." he said and he awkwardly climbed out of the car. "Bye." Tony said and he and Happy drove off.
Holding his bag and the Spider-Man suit case, he grinned.
"They're gonna call me." he said and headed to the apartment entrance.
Don't you cry
He wringed his mask and water dripped from it. He was sitting on a jungle gym. In front of him, Iron Man was floating in the air.
"And then he just, he just, like, swooped down like a monster and he picked me up and, uh, he took me up, like, a thousand feet and just dropped me. How'd you find me? Did you put a tracker in my suit or something?" he said.
"I put everything in your suit. Including this heater." Tony said.
"Whoa!" he said the suit was dried instantly and steam rose from it, surrounding him. "Whew, that's better. Thanks." he said and shivered, his teeth chattering.
"What were you thinking?"
"The guy with the wings is obviously the source of the weapons. I gotta take him down."
"Take him down now, huh? Steady, Crockett, there are people who handle this sort of thing."
"The Avengers?"
"No, no, no. This is a little below their pay grade."
"Anyway, Mr. Stark, you didn't have to come all the way out here. I had that. I was fine."
"Oh, I'm not here." Tony said and Iron Man's helmet opened, revealing an empty space where Tony's face should have been. "Thank God this place has Wi-Fi or you would be toast right now. Thank Ganesh while you're at it." he said. "Cheers." he said kept talking through the empty suit, his helmet still open. "Look, forget the flying vulture guy, please."
"Why?"
"Why? Because I said so!" Tony said. "Sorry, I'm talking to a teenager." he said. (to Peter) Stay close to the ground. Build up your game helping little people, like that lady that bought you the churro. Can't you just be a friendly..." he said to Peter and heard him put something down with a clink. "...neighborhood Spider-Man?"
"But I'm ready for more than that now."
"No, you are not." Tony said and the empty Iron Man suit closed.
"That is not what you thought when I took on Captain America."
"Trust me, kid. If Cap wanted to lay you out, he would've. Listen to me. If you come across these weapons again, call Happy."
Then he heard a car engine revving.
"Are you driving?" he asked then heard Tony shut the door.
"You know, it's never too early to start thinking about college. I got some pull at MIT." Tony said. "End call." he said at his phone.
"No, I don't need to go to col- Mr. Stark-"
"Mr. Stark is no longer connected." FRIDAY said and the Iron Man suit flew off.
"That's awesome." he muttered grudgingly.
For one so small
Helicopters were still flying around the ferry. He was perching on the edge of a building, sans mask, when Iron Man flew over to him.
"Previously on Peter Screws the Pooch: I tell you to stay away from this. Instead, you hacked a multimillion-dollar suit so you could sneak around behind my back doing the one thing I told you not to do." Tony said.
"Is everyone okay?" he asked.
"No thanks to you."
"No thanks to me?" he said and angered, he jumped off the edge and approached Tony. "Those weapons were out there, and I tried to tell you about it. But you didn't listen. None of this would've happened if you had just listened to me. If you even cared, you'd actually be here." he said.
The Iron Man suit opened revealing Tony inside who stepped down from the suit and marched toward him and he backed off.
"I did listen, kid. Who do you think called the FBI, huh? Do you know that I was the only one who believed in you? Everyone else said I was crazy to recruit a 14-year-old kid."
"I'm fifteen."
"No, this is where you zip it, all right? The adult is talking. What if somebody had died tonight? Different story, right? 'Cause that's on you. And if you died, I feel like that's on me. I don't need that on my conscience."
"Yes, sir."
"Yes."
"I, I'm sorry."
"Sorry doesn't cut it."
"I understand. I just wanted to be like you."
"And I wanted you to be better. Okay, it's not working out. I'm gonna need the suit back."
"For how long?"
"Forever." Tony said and he shook his head with a shocked expression. "Yeah. Yeah, that's how it works."
"No, no, no... Please, please, please..."
"Let's have it."
"You don't understand. Please. This is all I have. I'm nothing without this suit."
"If you're nothing without this suit, then you shouldn't have it. Okay? God, I sound like my dad."
"I don't have any other clothes."
"Okay, we'll sort that out."
You seem so strong
There were grunts and cries. He was under the debris, still alive, panicked and took off his mask.
"Oh, god. Okay, ready?" he said and struggled to get up but fails. "Hello! Hello! Please. Hey, hey, please. I'm down here. I'm down here. I'm stuck. I'm stuck. I can't move. I can't..." he started and took a moment to catch his breath and looked down at his reflection on a puddle.
The Spider-Man mask in the puddle covered half the reflection, making it look as if he was wearing the Spider-Man mask on half his face.
"If you're nothing without this suit, then you shouldn't have it." he heard Tony say.
Once again, he tried to push the debris off his back.
"Come on, Peter. Come on, Spider-Man. Come on, Spider-Man. Come on, Spider-Man. Come on, Spider-Man!" he said and finally freed himself from the debris and got up amongst rubbles.
He spotted Vulture perching on top of a stripped billboard.
My arms will hold you
He rounded the corner and found Happy waiting for him in the bathroom.
"Hey, Happy. What, uh... What are you doing here?" he said.
"I really owe you one. I don't know what I would do without this job. I mean, before I met Tony-" Happy said when a toilet flushed and cut him off.
They awkwardly stood there as someone came out, washed his hands, wiped them, and left the bathroom, throwing a long, confused glance at them.
"So, uh, how long you been here?" he asked.
"Long enough to be awkward. Boss wants to see you." Happy said.
"Is he here too?" he whispered.
"In the toilet? No, he's upstate."
"Upstate? Like, upstate-upstate?"
"Yeah, let's go."
Soon they were in Happy's car. Dashboard display says: "You may take your hands off the steering wheel."
"Take a look. It's pretty impressive, huh?" Happy said.
Outside the window was the New Avengers Facility.
"They just finished remodeling the whole thing."
He studied the facility with an awed expression then saw the reflection of a Quinjet taking off.
A few minutes later they were inside the compound, he watched a Quinjet fly off with a huge grin.
"You don't see that every day." Happy said when Tony approached them.
"Oh, there they are. How was the ride up?" Tony said.
"Good."
"Give me a minute with the kid."
"Seriously?"
"Yeah. I gotta talk to the kid."
"I'll be close behind."
"How about a loose follow? All right? Boundaries are good." Tony said and playfully punched him in the shoulder, then put an arm around him. "Sorry I took your suit. I mean, you had it coming. Actually, it turns out it was the perfect sort of tough-love moment that you needed, right? To urge you on, right? Wouldn't you think? Don't you think?"
"Yeah, yeah, I guess." he said.
"Let's just say it was." Tony said, sighed and kept leading him towards a door.
"Mr. Stark, I really-"
"You screwed the pooch hard. Big time. But then you did the right thing. Took the dog to the free clinic, you raised the hybrid puppies... All right, not my best analogy." Tony said. "I was wrong about you. I think, with a little more mentoring, you could be a real asset to the team."
"To the... To the team?"
"Yeah. Anyway..." Tony said. "There's about fifty reporters behind that door. Real ones, not bloggers." he said and pointed at a door then pressed some buttons on his watch and a secret compartment in the wall opened, revealing a brand-new Spider-Man suit, the Iron Spider Armor. "When you're ready... Why don't you try that on? And I'll introduce the world to the newest official member of the Avengers: Spider-Man."
"I..." he said and chuckled, amazed.
"Yeah. Give that a look." Tony said and he kept admiring the Iron Spider Armor.
"So, after the press conference, Happy will show you to your room, your new quarters." he said. "Where's he between? He's next to Vision?" he said to Happy.
"Yeah, Vision's not big on doors." Happy said.
"It's fun."
"Or walls."
"You'll fit right in." Tony said to him.
He hesitated for a moment, then turned to Tony.
"Thank you, Mr. Stark. But I'm good." he said.
"You're good? Good? How are you good?"
"Well, I mean, I'm... I'd rather just stay on the ground for a little while. Friendly neighborhood Spider-Man. Somebody's got to look out for the little guy, right?"
Tony took off his sunglasses and stared into his eyes.
"You turning me down? You better think about this." Tony said. "Look at that. Look at me. Last chance, yes or no?" he asked pointing at the new Spider-Man suit.
"No."
"Okay. It's kind of a Springsteen-y, working class hero vibe that I dig. Uh, Happy will take you home. Yeah?"
"Yeah." Happy said. "Mind waiting in the car? I need a minute." he said to him.
"Thank you, Mr. Stark." he said.
"Yes, Mr. Parker. Very well." Tony said and they shook hands.
"See you around."
"Okay."
Then he started leaving with a spring in his step, but slowed to a stop and turned to Tony, who was putting the Iron Spider Armor away with a tap on his watch.
"That was a test, right? There's, uh, nobody back there?" he said.
"Yes, you passed. All right, skedaddle there, young buck." Tony said.
"Thank you, Mr. Stark. Thank you."
"Yeah, thank you." Tony said and he walked away.
Keep you safe and warm
Tony was knocked down by Dwarf, but was shielded by him.
"Hey, man. What's up, Mr. Stark?" he said.
"Kid, where'd you come from?" Tony asked.
"Field trip to MoMA." he said then Black Dwarf grabbed him and threw him away. "What is this guy's problem, Mr. Stark?
"He's from space. He came here to steal a necklace from a wizard.
Meanwhile Wong and Strange were fighting against Maw. Maw lifted several bricks from the ground and turned them into sharp points sending them towards Wong and Strange. They made portals and sent them back towards Maw who moved a car to protect himself, but one spike still hit his head, creating a cut. Then Wong was knocked back into rubble and a car, falling to the ground unconscious. Strange flew forward to fight Maw but was knocked back into a building, bricks trapping him.
"Your powers are quaint. You must be popular with children." Ebony said.
Maw tried to grab the amulet holding the Time Stone but jerked back when it burnt his hand.
"It's a simple spell but quite unbreakable." Strange said.
"Then I'll take it off your corpse.
Maw pulled Strange away from the building and threw him to the ground. Several wires leapt around different parts of Strange's body. One cord, was slowly tightening around his neck.
"You'll find…removing a dead man's spell… Troublesome." Strange said.
"You'll only wish you were dead." Ebony said and Strange fell unconscious as Maw moved to grab him and the Cloak of Levitation flew Strange away. "No!"
"Kid, that's the wizard. Get on it." Tony said as Strange passed through the park.
"On it!" he said and chased Strange through Manhattan and Maw attacked him, throwing him through a billboard. "Not cool!" he said and tried to anchor Strange to a lamppost, but Maw broke the lamppost, sending them up in the ship's tractor beam. "Mr. Stark? I'm being beamed up."
"Hang on, kid." Tony said and as Black Dwarf jumped towards him he was sent through a portal and Tony turned towards Wong. "Wong, you're invited to my wedding." he said and started flying towards the large ship. "Give me a little juice, F.R.I.D.A.Y." he said and his feet thrusters turn morph together into a larger one. "Unlock 17-A." said and a pod jettisons from the New Avengers Facility came. "Pete, you gotta let go. I'm gonna catch you."
"But you said save the wizard!" he said. "I can't breathe!" he said and pulled off his mask.
"You're too high up. You're running out of air."
"Yeah! That makes sense." he said and passed passes out, falling, but not before the pod reached him.
Then it attached itself to him, becoming the Iron Spider suit. Now being able to breathe, he landed on a bottom part of the ship, standing up heroically.
"Mr. Stark, it smells like a new car in here!" he said.
"Happy trails, kid. F.R.I.D.A.Y, send him home." Tony said.
"Yup." F.R.I.D.A.Y. said and a large parachute extended from the new suit, sending him spiraling back to Earth.
"Oh, come on!"
This bond between us
Tony was watching, hidden, from above when Strange's cloak tapped him on the arm and raised his hand to it, ready to shoot, but he saw what it was and stood down.
"Wow you're a seriously loyal piece of outerwear, aren't you?" Tony asked.
"Yeah, uh, speaking of loyalty…" he said.
"What the-"
"I know what you're gonna say."
"You should not be here."
"I was gonna go home-"
"I don't wanna hear it."
"But it was such a long way down and I just thought about you on the way-"
"And now I gotta hear it."
"…And I kinda stuck to the side of the ship. And this suit is ridiculously intuitive, by the way. So if anything, it's kinda your fault that I'm here."
"What did you just say?" Tony asked seriously.
"I take that back. And now I'm here in space."
"Yeah. Right where I don't want you to be. This isn't Coney Island. This isn't a field trip. It's one-way ticket. You hear me? Don't pretend like you thought this through. You could not have possibly thought this through."
"No. I did think this through."
"You could not have possibly thought this through."
"It's just- You can't be a friendly neighborhood Spider–Man when there's no neighborhood." he said and stopped. "Okay. That didn't really make any sense, but you know what I'm trying to say."
"Come on. We got a situation. See him down there? He's in trouble. What's your plan? Go."
"Um. Okay. Okay…uh…did you ever see that really old movie, Aliens?" Peter asked and the Cloak lifted its collar in surprise.
Can't be broken
Meanwhile Ebony Maw was interrogating Strange.
"Painful aren't they? They were originally designed for microsurgery. And any one of them…" Ebony said and turned to see Tony in his Iron Man suit standing there. "…could end your friend's life in an instant."
"I gotta tell you, he's not really my friend. Saving his life is more a professional courtesy." Tony said.
"You've saved nothing. Your powers are inconsequential compared to mine."
"Yeah, but the kid's seen more movies." Tony said and fired a rocket from his shoulder piercing the side of the ship and started sucking everything out.
Strange started getting sucked out, but his cape wrapped around his arm. Unfortunately, his arm slipped from it and Strange kept going so he shot a web strand at him with one hand and held onto a piece of the ship with the other. Then it broke, sending them both towards space when his Iron-Spider suit's metal arms brace him to keep him from being sucked out.
"Yes! Wait what are those!" he said then pulled them back inside just as Tony sprayed nanites onto the hole to plug it up.
Then he and Strange safely hit the floor. Meanwhile Ebony Maw was floating in space, quite dead. He stood and tried shaking Strange's cape's "hand".
"Hey, we haven't officially met." he said but it ignored him and went to Strange. "Cool."
"We've gotta turn this ship around." Strange said.
"Yeah. Now he wants to run. Great plan." Tony said.
"No, I want to protect the stone."
"And I want you to thank me. Go ahead. I'm listening."
"For what? Nearly blasting me into space?"
"Who just saved your magical ass? Me."
"I seriously don't know how you fit your head into that helmet."
"Admit it. You should have ducked out when I told you to. I tried to bench you. You refused."
"Unlike everyone else in your life, I don't work for you."
"And due to that fact, we're now in a flying doughnut billions of miles away from Earth with no backup."
"I'm backup." he said.
"No. You're a stowaway. The adults are talking."
"I'm sorry, I'm confused as to the relationship here. What is he, your ward?" Strange asked.
"No. I'm peter, by the way." he said.
"Doctor Strange."
"Oh we're using our made-up names. Um…I'm Spider-Man, then."
"This ship is self-correcting its course. Thing's on autopilot." Tony said.
"Can we control it? Fly us home?" Strange asked but Tony didn't make eye contact. "Stark?"
"Yeah."
"Can you get us home?"
"Yeah I heard you. I'm thinking…I'm not so sure we should."
"Under no circumstance can we bring the Time Stone to Thanos. I don't think you quite understand what's at stake here."
"No. It's you who doesn't understand. Thanos has been inside my head for six years…Since he sent an army to New York and now he's back! And I don't know what to do. So I'm not so sure if it's a better plan to fight him on out turf or his but you saw what they did, what he can do. At least on his turf, he's not expecting it. So I say we take the fight to him. Doctor. Do you concur?"
"Alright, Stark. We go to him. But you have to understand…. if it comes to saving you or the kid or the Time Stone… I will not hesitate to let either of you die. I can't, because the fate of the universe depends on it." Strange said with a pause.
"Good. Nice. Moral compass. We're straight." Tony said and turning to Peter, he put his outstretched arm briefly on either shoulder. "Alright, kid. You're an Avenger now."
He looked at him in disbelief, then smiled and nodded in satisfaction.
I will be here don't you cry
Peter, Tony and Strange were aboard the ship approaching the surface of Titan.
"Hey, what's going on?" Peter asked Tony.
"I think we're here." Strange said.
"I don't think this rig has a self-park function." Tony said. "Get your hand into this steering gimbal. Close those around it. You understand?" he said urgently.
"Yep, got it." Peter said.
"This was meant for one big guy, so we gotta to move at the same time."
"Okay. Okay. Ready." Peter said and the ringship was heading straight for the center of one of a colossal game of jacks. "We might wanna turn. Turn! Turn! Turn!"
Iron Man armored up as the ringship clipped the "jack" obliquely, but still losing a good third of its hull in the collision. Spider-Man threw up his helmet at the same time. Strange stepped between them and created the Shield of the Seraphim around them all, anticipating a rough landing.
The ship, now reduced to about 45%, plowed through the dirt and stopped, leaning slightly to one side. Screen title: TITAN.
Then Strange helped Tony, now de-helmeted, to his feet; they're both panting a little from the exertion of arrival.
"You alright?" Tony asked Strange. [Panting] "That was close. I owe you one." he said panting.
Then Peter descended from above in classically spider-like fashion.
"Let me just say, if aliens wind up implanting eggs in my chest or something, and I eat one of you, I'm sorry." he said.
"I don't wanna hear another single pop culture out of you for the rest of the trip. You understand?" Tony said pointing to him.
"I'm trying to say that...something is coming."
A grenade rolls into view, and Peter, Strange and Tony get thrown well back when it fires its energy pulse. Star-Lord, Drax, and Mantis appear in the doorway
"THANOS!" Drax yelled and flung a blade at Strange, who neatly deflected it with a mystical shield, and in return sent the Cloak of Levitation at Drax's face, half-smothering him and throwing him to the floor.
Star-Lord and Iron Man had a brief dogfight until a magnetic disc pinned Iron Man face-first to a structure.
"AH! WHOAWHOAWHOAWHOAWHOA! PLEASE DON'T PUT YOUR EGGS IN ME!" Peter said crawling backwards frantically from an anxious-looking Mantis.
Then he shot web at Mantis in a panic, pinning arms to her body just before Star-Lord flew at him feet-first, kicking him away.
"Stay down, clown!" Quill said.
Star-Lord couldn't quite counter spider reflexes at first; he fired at Spider-Man, who extended his spider legs and leapt away, but an electric-like cord wrapped around him and his six new legs when he tried to attack, sending him rolling across the deck.
"Die, blanket of death!" Drax said struggling with the Cloak of Levitation.
Iron Man pulled free of the magnet; the Cloak pulled free of Drax as soon as Iron Man has a bead on his opponent and a foot on his torso.
Star-Lord had Spider-Man in a head-lock, gun pointed at the smaller man's head.
Strange had a mystical shield of golden energy up, and stood ready at the third point of the triangle. Mantis had struggled to her feet behind Star-Lord, still covered with webbing.
"Everybody, stay where you are, chill the F out!" Quill said and Star-Lord powered off his helmet and aimed at Tony. "I'm gonna ask you this one time. Where's Gamora?"
"Yeah, I'll do you one better. Who's Gamora?" Tony said de-helmeting.
"I'll do you one better. Why is Gamora?" Drax said.
"Tell me where the girl is, or I swear to you, I'm gonna French-fry this little freak." Quill said.
"Let's do it! You shoot my guy, I blast him. Let's go!" Tony said and extended his nano-tech cannon, looking uncannily like an electric shark about to eat Drax's face.
"Do it, Quill! I can take it." Drax said.
"No, he can't take it!" Mantis said.
"She's right. You can't." Strange said completely deadpanned.
"Oh yeah? You don't wanna tell me where she is? That's fine, I'll kill all three of you and beat it out of Thanos myself!" Quill said. "Starting with you!" he said to Peter.
"Wait, what. Thanos?" Strange said. "Alright, let me ask you this one time: What master do you serve?" he said trying to inject clarity and sanity into the situation.
"What master do I serve? What am I supposed to say? "Jesus"?"
"You're from Earth?" Tony said getting it.
"I'm not from Earth. I'm from Missouri."
"Yeah, that's on Earth, dip-shit; What are you hassling us for?"
"So, you're not with Thanos?" Peter said sounding slightly crushed.
"With Thanos?!" Quill said indignantly. "No! I'm here to kill Thanos. He took my girl- Wai- who are you?"
"We're the Avengers, man." Peter said de-helmeted.
"Oh."
"You're the ones Thor told us about!" Mantis said.
"You know Thor!?" Tony said.
"Yeah. Tall guy, not that good-looking," Quill said. "needed saving." he said and gave him an incredulous look.
Strange paused.
"Where is he now?" he asked.
'Cause you'll be in my heart
Mantis was jumping joyfully in a low gravity spot.
"Yeah, we got one advantage. He's coming to us. We'll use it. All right, I have a plan. Or at least the beginnings of one. It's pretty simple. We draw him in, pin him down, get what we need. Definitely don't wanna dance with this guy. We just want the gauntlet." Tony said and Drax yawned. "Are you yawning? In the middle of this, while I'm breaking it down? Huh? Did you hear what I said?"
"I stopped listening after you said, "We need a plan."" Drax said.
"Okay, Mr. Clean is on his own page." Tony said to Quill.
"See, "not winging it" isn't really what they do." Quill said.
"Uh, what exactly is it that they do?" Peter asked.
"Kick names, take ass." Mantis said as fiercely as an 8-week-old kitten.
"Yeah, that's right." Drax said and agreed quietly as he settled into a stance facing the remaining Avengers.
"Alright, just get over here, please. Mr. Lord, can you get your folks to circle up?" Tony said and paused with an expression of deep hopelessness.
"Mr. Lord." Star-Lord is fine." Quill said and motioned to Drax and Mantis.
"We gotta coalesce. 'Cause if all we come at him with is a plucky attitude..."
"Dude, don't call us plucky. We don't know what it means. Alright, we're optimistic, yes. I like your plan. Except it sucks, so let me do the plan, and that way it might be really good." Quill said and Peter followed the conversation back and forth like a squash rally.
"Tell him about the dance-off to save the universe." Drax said.
"What dance-off?" Tony asked.
"It's not a... it's not... it's nothing." Quill said.
"Like in Footloose, the movie?" Peter asked.
"Exactly like Footloose. Is it still the greatest movie in history?" Quill said excited.
"It never was." Peter said and Quill frowned sadly at him.
"Don't encourage this, alright?" Tony asked.
"Okay."
"We're getting no help from Flash Gordon here."
"Flash Gordon? By the way, that's a compliment. Don't forget, I'm half human." Quill said and points at them. "So that 50% of me that's stupid? That's 100% you."
"Your math is blowing my mind."
"Excuse me, but... does your friend often do that?" Mantis asked.
Meanwhile Strange was sitting cross-legged, floating slightly above the ground, his hands poised in a mystic gesture with the Time Stone glowing brightly in the Eye of Agamotto setting. Green vapor-like energy flew from the stone, and more intricate magical energy patterned circle his forearms. The Cloak of Levitation flew behind him as if the Stone was creating a strong breeze. His eyes were closed, and his head was jerking rapidly from side to side, the motion blurring, but resembling looking for something.
"Strange, we alright?" Tony asked and Strange snapped out of his trance and fell forward, letting out a cry. "You're back. You're alright."
"Hey, what was that?" Peter asked.
"I went forward in time to view alternate futures. To see all the possible outcomes of the coming conflict." Strange said panting.
"How many did you see?" Quill asked.
"14,000,605."
"How many did we win?" Tony asked and Strange stared intently at him for a moment.
"One."
Yes, you'll be in my heart
Iron Man leapt for Star-Lord's arm, re-helmeting and leaving Spider-Man to pull off the gauntlet.
"Hey, stop! Hey, stop! Stop! Hey, stop! Stop!" Tony said to the struggling Star-Lord.
"It's coming! It's coming! It's coming!" Peter said getting the fingers completely loose. "I got it! I got it...!"
Then Thanos woke completely, now well and truly furious. He head-butt Mantis, grabbing the cuff of the gauntlet just as it was sliding off his hand, causing Peter to stumble back, and then throwing Mantis away off his shoulders.
Peter saw Mantis with far too much air under her.
"Oh, God!" he said, jumped and wrapped his arms and legs around her, extending his spider legs to form a roll cage for a safe landing.
Thanos kicked Drax off his right leg and into Nebula and Star-Lord, knocking them down. He yanked on the Crimson Bands holding his right hand to throw Strange far away, and swat away Iron Man and his repulsor shots. The remaining Guardians jumped up and charged him again, but he fired a pulse of indigo energy at them that knocked the three of them completely unconscious.
Iron Man zoomed back in, his nanite arm cannon manifested, and was head-butted to the ground. Thanos looked at him for a minute, then raised the gauntlet towards Titan's moon. Iron Man stared, aghast. Thanos used a combination of the Power and Space Stones to shatter the moon's surface, then brought the debris down on the field of battle at speed. Iron Man powered out of the way but was caught by a chunk of moon about the size of a baseball field, slamming him into the ground and the Guardians went sailing into the air from the rebound.
From this day on
On Titan, the remaining members of the Guardians and Avengers collect themselves. Mantis propped up Star-Lord, Peter helped Tony to his feet and Drax and Nebula managed to limp over on their own.
"Something's happening." Mantis said and disintegrated into ashes.
Quill looked behind him as he saw Drax disintegrate.
"Quill?" Drax said to Quill as he dissolved.
Quill stared in horror as he turned back to Stark.
"Steady, Quill." Tony said staring panicked at the slowly fading Quill.
"Aw, man." Quill said and also disintegrated into ashes.
Then Strange calmly turned to Stark.
"Tony, there was no other way." he said and finally got erased.
Then Peter realized he's fading away.
"Mr. Stark?" he said and Tony stared horrified at Peter. "I don't feel so good..."
"You're all right?" Tony asked trying to be calm, his voice shaking as he looked at Peter in terror.
Peter was stumbling and terrified.
"I don't know what's - I don't know what's happening. I don't-" he said and fell into Tony's arms, clutching him tight while beginning to cry. "I don't wanna go, I don't wanna go, Mr. Stark, please. Please, I don't wanna go. I don't wanna go..." he said and there was a short silence. "I'm sorry." he said and disintegrated into ashes in Tony's arms.
Tony fell forward from the lack of weight in his arms, before staring at his hands in disbelief.
"He did it." Nebula said to him seeing Thanos' victory.
Tony mourned silently at their failure.
Now and forever more
Tony was talking to his computer, generating a holographic model of something he's working on.
"Look at a mod inspiration, let me see what check out. So, recommend one last sim before we pack it in for the night. This time, in the shape of a mobius strip, inverted, please." Tony said.
"Processing..." F.R.I.D.A.Y. said.
"Give me that eigenvalue. That, particle factoring, and a spectral decomp. That will take a second."
"Just a moment."
"And don't worry if it doesn't pan out. I'm just kinda -"
"Model rendered."
In a complete shock of amazement, the render came back as 99.987% successful. Tony fell back, bewildered by this discovery.
"Shit!" he said.
"Shit." Morgan said hiding behind him all this time and giggled.
"What are you doing up, little miss?" he whispered.
"Shit."
You'll be in my heart
Tony was fighting some of Thanos' army. But Cull Obsidian punched him to the ground, then Giant-Man stomped him flat and Peter ran to Tony.
"Hey! Holy cow! You will not believe what's been going on. Do you remember when we were in space? And I got all dusty? I must've passed out, Because I woke up, and you were gone. But Doctor Strange was there, right? He was like, "It's been five years. Come on, they need us." And then he started doing the yellow sparkly thing that he does all the time." Peter said.
"He did? Oh, God." Tony said.
"What are you doing?" Peter asked and Tony hugged him, making him shocked, but hugged Tony back. "Oh, this is nice."
No matter what they say
The power of the gauntlet raw energy left Tony's entire right side fatally injured. He stumbled for a bit before his body collapsed besides a pile of debris. Rhodey soon flew in and went up to Tony to see his long time colleague and friend fading away. He bowed his head, knowing the damage was done. Then Peter flew in and saw Tony collapsed on the ground.
"Mr. Stark?" Peter said and ran up to him with tears forming in his eyes. "Hey– Mr. Stark? Can you hear me? It's Peter. Hey. We won, Mr. Stark– We won, Mr. Stark. We won. You did it, sir. You did it." he said and knelt but Tony was unresponsive and he broke down and hugged him. "I'm sorry– Tony–" he said and was gently led aside to grieve.
Then Pepper sat in front of the fading Iron Man.
"Hey." she said and Tony was barely able to move his head, but looked her in the eyes.
"Hey, Pep.." he said quietly.
Pepper put her hand on his Arc Reactor and he rested his hand on hers. Then she took a good look at his fatal injuries and knelt down.
"F.R.I.D.A.Y.?" she said.
"Life functions critical."F.R.I.D.A.Y. said.
Tony smiled with tears in his eyes.
"Tony. Look at me." she said and made him get a long look at her smiling face. "We're gonna be okay. You can rest now."
With that acknowledgement, his arc reactor flickered off for good. Pepper couldn't contain her grief and started crying on his shoulder. All the heroes gather, and knelt in honor of Tony.
You'll be here in my heart
Outside the cottage Pepper carried a wreath out of the house to an audience waiting outside for the intimate funeral. She laid the wreath on the lake. On top of the wreath was Tony's first arc reactor which Pepper had framed with the words "Proof That Tony Stark Has a Heart". Pepper, Morgan, Happy and Rhodey, all being joined by Steve, Peter, May, Thor, Bruce, Strange, Wong, Scott, Hope, Janet, Hank, Quill, Nebula, Rocket, Groot, Drax, Mantis, T'Challa, Okoye, Shuri, Clint and his family, Wanda, Bucky, Sam, Harley, Ross, Hill, Carol and Fury silently watching the wreath float away.
Always
Peter was at the Homeless Support building as Spider-Man in his Iron Spider suit with May on stage.
He hadn't told her about the dream and planned to keep that way.
"When I blipped back to my apartment, the family living there was very confused. The wife thought that I was a mistress." May said and the everyone laughed. "The Grandma thought that I was a ghost." she said they laughed again. "It was," she said and laughed. "it was really a mess. Thank you all for coming out to support those who have been displaced by the Blip, and, of course, thanks to our very own Spider-Man!" she said and they erupted in applause for Spider-Man.
Then she gestured Peter to the microphone.
"Thank you, Ms. Parker, for having me. And thank you guys for having me." Peter said and gave everyone a thumbs-up and they all audience cheered again.
"And thank you Spider-Man, and he'll be right back out to take photos and videos, thank you!"
"Ah, that was so cool. I was a little nervous!"
"My body was a little stiff, I felt like I wasn't in the pocket."
"No, I thought you did great!"
"Yeah, well, actually, I did think you were a little stiff." she said and he shrugged.
"I felt that, too, I felt that, too."
"It's fine, it's fine, it's fine. Did you get your passport?"
"Yeah."
"Mini toothpaste?"
"Yeah." he said and Happy entered carrying a big check for the homeless.
"Hey, sorry I'm late." he said.
"Happy, hey!"
"Oh, you look lovely." Happy said to May.
"Thanks, you too." May said.
"Thank you. New dress?"
"Uh, yeah. Yes, it is. That's a new beard."
Peter looked back in forth between the two, confused.
"It's my Blip beard, because I grew it in the blip. Blip beard." Happy said.
"I see." May said.
"Anyway, the reason I'm late is because this was misplaced at the office. Can you believe it? Because it's enormous. I mean, not the amount, the size. The amount's nice too."
May laughed.
"Oh." she said.
"The very generous Pepper Potts, said..."
"Thank you."
"...she's sorry she couldn't be here."
Peter was still looking at them in confusion.
"I think I'm going to go change the Sterno under the vegan lasagna." May said. "Spider-Man, go shake hands." she said to Peter.
"Will do." Peter said and turned to Happy as May left. "What just happened?"
"Heads up, Nick Fury's calling you." Happy said.
"Nick Fury's going to call me?"
"Yeah."
"Why?"
"Why? Because he probably has some hero stuff for you to do. You're a superhero. He calls superheroes."
"Well, I mean if it was really that important, he'd probably call someone else. Not me."
Inside Peter's bag, his phone began ringing.
"Apparently not." Happy said and Peter pulled out his phone from the bag. "No caller ID. That's him."
"I don't really want to talk to Nick Fury."
"Answer the phone."
"Why?"
"Because if you don't talk to him, then I have to talk, and I don't want to talk to him."
"Why don't you want to talk to him?"
"Because I'm scared . . . Just answer the phone." Happy said as Peter held up his phone, and declined the call. "You sent Nick Fury to voice mail?"
"Yeah."
"You don't send Nick Fury to voice mail!"
"Did you hear that? They're calling me. I got to go. I got to go." Peter said and started backing away.
"You got to talk to him."
"I'm going to call him. I promise you. I'm going to call him. I will."
"You do not ghost Nick Fury!"
"I promise you, I'll call him." Peter said and backed out of the room through the curtains. "After my trip." he whispered to himself then put his iron-mask on as he backed away, turned around to open the curtain and jumped up as he entered the stage. "Hey!" he said and waved.
From the other room, Happy got buzzed and put his phone up to his ear.
"Yeah? Hi - No, no, he's not ghosting you." he said.
Meanwhile reporters crowded all around Peter as he entered. The crowd was speaking indistinctly and he backed away, putting a hand up, so they could stay back.
"Okay, one question at a time." Peter said and pointed to the Asian woman.
"Are you the head Avenger? Are you the head Avenger now?"
"Uh, no I'm not." he said and pointed to another woman, who leaned over the crowd of reporters.
"If the aliens come back, what are you gonna do?"
Peter looked around.
"Does anyone have any neighborhood questions?" he asked.
Everyone started asking desperately and he leaned in for a man to ask a question, hoping it's a neighborhood question.
"Sean Wilford, Queens Tribune. What is it like to take over from Tony Stark? Those are some big shoes to fill." Sean said.
His question echoed Peter's mind. Everyone kept asking questions as he had time to think of his answer. Then he started having anxiety and felt like he was about to pass out.
"I'm uh- I'm going to go. Thanks so much, everyone, for coming." he said and jumped up to the roof, to only find himself on top, looking out onto the city.
His mask faded off and he breathed deeply as a large train passed by. Then his phone buzzed in his backpack and he reached to get it. He never answered and the buzzing stopped as he looked back into the city. Then he turned to his left to see a painting of Iron-Man coming right at him. He blinked as he turned away, feeling the pain and sorrow as he thought about his long-lost friend.
Always
