"It'll be over soon." Tony promised.
Peter locked eyes with Tony's, silently begging him to put him out of his misery. He sniffed hard; eyes wide full of fear.
Tony broke the gaze, unable to look into the fearful brown eyes any longer. Tony gripped his hand onto the end of his own black shirt, beginning to rip a wide piece of fabric from his side towards his back. Peter's eyes darted to Tony's hands that were now tying the piece of fabric around his arm, right above the tear indicating where the arm would have to be cut clean.
"Hold on, Mr. Stark, you really do not have to do this." He forced a little smile attempting to convince Mr. Stark. He responded with a frown and a small shake of his head.
"No, no no no no, you can't! This is-NO STOP." Peter began to scoot anywhere away from Tony who was now tying the fabric 4 inches below his shoulder. Peter only panicked more when he firmly fastened it too tight for comfort.
"That won't do much." Rhodey said hopelessly.
"It's the only thing we can do Rhodes. Who knows how much blood this will cause to-" He stopped mentally slapping himself for speaking this way around the kid who was already panicking.
"Alright, we do this quickly, Quinjet arrives, go to the facility, take care of the leg, and we're good, we're fine." Rhodey said with fake confidence.
"Right," Tony responded walking back and letting his suit enclose him.
Peter wanted to puke; he never thought this fight was going to turn into having his limbs hacked off. He wanted to scream, get away, away from his mentor and Rhodey. He felt oddly betrayed, even though he knew they were doing this for his own good. Peter wished that the woman had slammed his head a little harder into the cement. He couldn't stand the unbearable pain, only if he was unconscious things would be much more peaceful. Was he going to die from this? What if too much blood were to leave his body? Peter lingered on the thought of dying after this. He most likely wouldn't be able to be Spider-Man anymore even if he lived, he wouldn't even be a whole person anymore.
For a moment a nasty thought of death feeling more desired than surviving but being broken plagued his throbbing head. He quickly shook the thought out of his head, instead thinking of his loved ones. What were they going to say after this? How were they going to react? His violent thrashing against Iron-Man and War-Machine calmed as he lingered on the memory of May's smile, her warm hugs, and her scent of freshly baked cinnamon rolls. Ned, his best friend, would he still think of him the same? What would MJ think? He probably wouldn't be able to tell, her silence making it almost impossible to read what was going on in her head.
Tony watched Peter's glazed over eyes widen as he put a firm grip on his shoulders. The kid looked at him, suddenly his eyes filled with anger. He gave one last thrash knocking Tony off and causing Peter to tumble onto the cold tiles. He yelped in pain squeezing his eyes shut as he rolled slowly onto his back. "Don...please don't, I can't- I can't-please don't." Peter was barely audible as both Tony's and Rhodey's helmet unfolded. Maybe the sight of their faces would slightly assure the boy that it was going to be alright.
Rhodey made his way over to the left side of Peter, bending down, he held down his shoulder with his left and placed a hand on the center of his chest. Peter almost accepted defeat until he caught a blurry sight of Tony's wrist producing a long red and gold blade with a 'shnngg.'
"Oh no, oh HELL NO, NO! STOP STOP STOP!" Peter wailed.
Rhodey's grip never loosened as the boy's strength grew weaker by the second.
His pounding head begged for him to relax his muscles.
Tony furrowed his eyebrows at the sight of the teenager going absolutely ballistic. Tony didn't like this anymore than Peter did. Refusing for his mind to think about the future for Peter, he focused on setting the blade on top of the twitching arm, right where the suit was ripped.
He didn't bother to privately ask Rhodey his question over the comms. "We don't have to break his arm, do we? I don't think we have time."
"You do realize you created that blade, right? It'll cut through easy. Just hurry up before he hyperventilates or even worse, the thing expands further above the six inches."
Tony nodded, his anxiety beginning to bubble up within his throat.
'Breathe in, breathe out, breathe in, breath out.' He placed his armored knee against Peter's hand, pinning him against the floor, leaving him with no choice but to take what was about to happen.
"MR. STARK STOP! KNOCK IT OFF ALREADY!" Peter felt the cold sensation of the blade being put against his skin, threatening to break through him any moment. "THIS ISN'T FUNNY!"
'Breathe in, breathe out, breathe in, breathe out.' His fingers began to tremble, refusing to hurt Peter in any way. He tore his eyes from the screaming kid, focusing on the blade that was slightly cutting through Peter's skin.
'Breathe in, breathe out, breathe in, breathe out.' He pushed hard yet held back a certain amount of strength. Peter began sobbing uncontrollably whipping his head side to side as blood began to pour over the blade. Almost immediately Tony retreated.
"I can't...I can't do it." Rhodey nodded and let go of Peter. He stepped over the panting kid. "Hold him down." Rhodey said taking position.
Rhodey knew that he was going to be the one to do the dirty work in the end. He knew his best friend, and if there was another person that could do it, Tony would never hurt his kid, unless he absolutely had to. He looked down at the shallow slice that Tony could only manage to cut, then moved his gaze at the kid, that had only revealed his young face to him about twenty minutes ago. 'He's too young to go through this, why him? And why me? Out of all the Avengers who are much braver…' He sulked. Though this was the worst thing he was probably going to have to do in his life, he admitted that he had to get it over with before it was too late and sucked it up.
Mimicking Tony, he began pinning the limp arm, so he could cut it clean. He triggered his own blade underneath his forearm's armored plates. This time he tore the blade off harshly off himself and fiddled with it between his own hands, gathering the courage to be the one responsible of tearing this kid apart.
Tony held the kid's shoulder that was panting from struggling against them. He saw Peter's hazy glare at Rhodey who was now moving Peter's arm gently away from his body as far as he could. He rested his other hand upon the spider emblem on his chest that was rapidly rising and falling. Peter's breathing grew louder and faster by the second.
He was at the edge of hyperventilating as he could only watch Rhodey slowly swing the blade up and down in the air as if he was measuring how solid and precise the cut was going to have to be within one swipe.
Rhodey nodded to himself, he put one knee on the ground leveling himself perfectly. Sweat beading on his forehead, he prepared, rising the blade with both hands. He scrunched up his face, gathering all that was left in him to slam the blade the down.
Peter knew it was coming but was not yet ready for it. He bore his gaze on Rhodey, silently begging him to stop. 'This, is going to hurt so bad, please stop, please stop, please stop, please stop, please stop, i'll be ruined forever, please stop, please stop.' Cool armored fingers took hold of his jaw, forcing his face to look the other way, and at Mr. Stark. His face along with his attention was forced away from Rhodey, and now was Mr. Stark.
"Do you wanna grab a cheeseburger after this Pete?" Tony asked, too calmly. Peter's whole body halted all at once at the sudden question. He partly opened his dry mouth and furrowed his eyebrows in confusion. "Huh-" A swish was audible followed up with an unforgettable sound of flesh and bone slicing ringing throughout the subway station, along with the crack of tiles beneath him breaking.
Peter felt no different, the pain not hitting him yet. 'Did he do it?' Peter thought as he slipped out of Mr. Stark's grasp to take a look. Peter caught a hazy glance of his ruined arm laying abnormally away from his own body until Mr. Stark forcibly yanked his head back, keeping Peter and himself from looking. Peter didn't understand...he felt his arm, all the way up to the tips of his five sticky fingers, so how is his arm detached?
"Shit, one of them still got through. Hold him still, this is gunna hurt." Rhodey made his way to pluck a small spike out of the boy's upper arm, swallowing the urge to puke at the sight.
"As if it didn't already." Tony sneered.
Rhodey ignored his comment and continued to pinch his armored fingers and pulled the spike out of his upper arm before it could expand. Peter howled in pain almost immediately. He arched his back without realizing and began thrashing uncontrollably.
Stars swam in his vision, all he felt was fire, his arm was on fire. His body racked in uncontrollable sobbing.
The teen felt like someone had dipped his left hand into a bucket of acid, his arm slowly being eaten away. Fluttering his eyes open he settled his gaze onto Mr. Stark, looking for something, anything.
The mechanic looked at the kid with soft eyes and attempted to reassure him, something rare for the businessman to show. "It's over now Pete, remember what I promised? Told you it would be over quick, easy peasy." He forced a small smile but his eyes seemed to show a sadder expression.
Peter could barely register what he said. Instead of deciphering what the man said he instead rolled his head to his left side and swallowed dryly. Tony backed up, refusing to look at the horrific scene any longer. "Friday, how many more minutes till our heroes arrive" He said dragging the word heroes into a sarcastic remark. "Vision will approximately arrive within the time span of 2 minutes. The ship will arrive in 6 minutes, sir."
"Give me insights on the Spider-ling." Friday's voice artificially panicked.
"Boss, I suggest that you wrap his arm up around the nub of his arm." Tony looked over Rhodey who was already wrapping his own white shirt around the wound. He eyed the groaning teen. 'Why won't he lose conscious yet, damn kid is tough.'
Peter couldn't seem to be able to tear his sight from the limp arm that was just once attached to his body. Maybe it was the glaze that seemed to cover his senses along with his mind, but he wasn't capable of understanding how the limb simply laid there when Peter could still feel his arm nerves. Though it felt as if pure lava was coating it, it was still there. He made no effort to move the nub of his arm, instead he mentally begged his body to go to sleep.
Tony wasn't the biggest on providing comfort very often, especially towards Peter, he hadn't even let the boy come close to hugging him yet. But now was the time to finally comfort the boy, he needed this.
Tony walked out of his suit and towards a mumbling Peter. He bent down and cupped his hands underneath the sweaty brown curls, lifting the head up slightly to let it rest on one of his knees. He never moved his hand from being entangled in Peter's curls. Soon Peter's body relaxed in the man's grasp, yet the mumbling never stopped, he laid there rambling nonsense as blood pooled all around the two, tainting anything it touched.
The three of them waited for the rest of the gang to arrive. Within the time span Rhodey sat there, staring at the ruined bloodied arm in disbelieve of what he just did, he still didn't even know the kid's damn name! Oh wait, did Tony say Pete? Must be Peter…
Tony didn't move a muscle, he kept his position solid, still staring into Peter's doe eyes that were glazed over and staring at nothing in particular. The mechanic was practically painted with the kid's blood, he didn't care at the moment, right now his head was plagued with awful visions of the possibilities of the future for Peter. The heavy breathing along with Peter's mumbling and occasional cries surrounded the station's air, the muffled sounds of the city barely audible.
Peter began to grow numb to the pain, blood warming him from the underneath. His vision blurred with each pulse of his abnormally slow heartbeat. He mumbled and cried, unsure himself on what he was exactly trying to say. He made his way to roll his head towards the left. He ignored the protest from Mr. Stark above about moving and instead bore his gaze...at his crippled arm. He felt tears drip off the side of his nose, unaware of his body that was now convulsing with silent sobs. He only calmed down when he could feel rough hands slowly circle the top of his head, just like May does.
"James…" Both Rhodey and Tony snapped their heads towards the voice. Vision apparently entered silently.
"Vision!" Tony had never been so happy to see him. Vision calmly strode towards the small figure on the floor bleeding out, his red cape flowing gracefully behind him.
His face screwed in concern the more he twisted his head to see the clean-cut arm on the ground. Vision spoke into the mic built into his system. "Captain, would we benefit from a sample of the witch's attack mechanism?"
A static voice that belonged to Steve Rogers quickly responded. "Uh, sure…get Spider-Man on the tallest roof around, we can spot you from there. We're about two minutes away."
Rhodey stood up from the bench, ready to help in any way.
Vision crouched next to the mumbling boy, apparently interrupting his stare down with his own arm. Peter looked up at Vision's face that was merely a red blob with a yellow light to him. He dragged out the last of his mumbles with a groan. Vision slid the both of his hand's underneath Peter's thighs and back, his wound in an awkward position. Vision ignored the nub wrapped in bloody fabric that was now dripping on him. "Guh-uh!" Peter groaned.
Tony could only watch as the kid was taken from his grasp, he went to say a snarky comment, but looked at Vision roughly gripping the kid in his arms and decided that now was not the time. He walked towards the exoskeleton of MARK XLV, letting it enclose him. He stared at the arm laying on the ground, the ruined web shooter sprayed webs all around the spikes, he could no longer stare at the arm, he oddly felt grateful the Spider suit was still covering the crippled arm, finding it more disturbing if he could see the spikes protruding through the kid's bare skin. His gaze fell onto the limp arm.
Hell to the no, he would not be carrying the thing. "Not it!" He said childishly, following Vision.
"NOT COOL MAN!" Rhodey yelled. Tony grinned walking up the stairs.
"Friday, get a team down here as soon as you can to clean up the blood, wouldn't want anyone to test it and figure out our Spider kid." She hummed in response as if she had done this too many times. He heard a groan followed up by a disgusted cough from Rhodey from when he guessed picked up the arm.
Vision flew up without warning, too quickly for the still curious adults crowded around the stairs to snap a shot or get a good look at the vigilante.
"You guys are still here? Go sleep off your hangover already, jeez!" Tony quipped as he boosted his leg repulsors towards the gracefully floating Vision. He heard the gasps and yelps of the crowd below, must be Rhodey flying out of the station. He felt guilty using his arm's repulsors for some reason, he pushed the thought of Peter not ever being able to use his arm and soon his leg to the back of head.
Peter found some relief within the breeze that aired out his suit slightly. He looked around the gravel covered roof Vision chose to land on. He felt the vibration of two suits landing a few seconds after he did. Not much later he saw his mentor's suit produce a white beam into the night sky.
The shadows looming around the corner of his sight threatened to engulf his vision fully, but he refused to let it happen. He watched a too bright of a light appear in the distance and barely heard Black Widow's voice through Vision's comms.
"We see you."