Thank you all so much for the reviews and follows! - based on the comment prompt (kinda).
"It's just as good!" Peter yelled in his defence as he walked side by side with Ned down the street.
"No it's not! That one was like a hundred times better!" Ned argued, pulling his backpack up when they reached a crossing.
"Well, it's gone and my one will have to do. And I don't see what the big deal is, I used it before I met Mr Stark, and it was doing fine." Peter replied, walking when the cars stopped.
"I shouldn't have helped you mess with it. Those protocols were there for a reason, Peter. " Ned explained, looking over to his friend, who nodded in sadness.
"I guess. I don't know. I mean-"
A loud crash disrupted their conversation, and both Peter and Ned looked to their left to see people running and screaming towards them.
"What the hell." Peter said to himself, taking a few steps towards the street.
"Peter! Stop!" Ned yelled, "look at that thing!"
Peter dodged quickly to avoid a fast metal arrow. "Where is it coming from?" He yelled, stopping one of the screaming pedestrians.
"Some psychopath's shooting at people and destroying the buildings! He's crazy, come on!" She yelled, tugging at his arm in her direction and running past him.
"I have to see!" Peter turned to Ned, who nodded in discontent.
"No, you don't have to see! Look at that thing!" Ned yelled, and Peter turned to see a man covered in metal armour with the exception of his face, which was covered with a mask.
"I have to – just-here-" Peter threw his bag and jacket to Ned, who caught it in surprise, "-and run, go somewhere safe."
"What about you?" Ned said, taking a step backwards.
"If I'm one of the only ones who can stop him, I have to try." Peter said, furrowing his brows before disappearing into an alley nearby. Ned looked back at the metal arrow-man, and then back towards the alley. Within seconds, Peter was swinging up towards the target, and Ned nodded his head and ran opposite to him to avoid danger.
Peter reached the top of the building and looked ahead to see the man standing on the building opposite. He dodged another arrow while the sirens blared under them.
"Spider-Man." The man shouted from across the gap. "You think you can stop me?" He asked, shooting another arrow at a shop, which soon exploded, sending glass everywhere.
"I don't know." Peter responded, "but you have to know you'll get caught, so why-", another arrow came his way, and he nearly fell backwards, shooting an arrow at the opposite building wall to get back on his feet.
"Test drive. Destruction." The man replied, "and call me Green." He tilted his head; pointing his hand to the roof Peter was standing on and soon enough, the roof crumbled within seconds.
"What the hell!" Peter said again, flying to the opposite wall and practically hanging under Green, who would've cut him off if he hadn't swung to another building.
"That wasn't an arrow!" He yelled, looking around the corner to see Green attacking other buildings.
"There's a lot about me you don't know, Spider-boy", Green said, and Peter rolled his eyes at the last two words.
"You have laser vision, or something?" Peter asked, shooting a web at his leg and sending him tumbling backwards, but he quickly cut the webbing off and threw something Peter's way, making him gasp and practically stick himself against the wall to avoid getting hit.
"It's far too big for you to understand – stick to saving cats in trees," Green yelled back, shooting something with his bow as soon as Peter emerged from behind the corner, sending him flying back into the shadows.
Peter grabbed his chest and his eyes widened as he tried to hold onto something, eventually hanging off a balcony. He took a breath of air after what felt like an hour and looked at his hands. There was no blood, but that hurt like hell.
"-prototype works, because then within a week, I'll have you-"
"Spider-Man." Rhodey interrupted.
"No-", Tony laughed, "you can't be Spider-Man, Rhodey, think with your-"
"He's on the news- your protégé", Rhodey said, staring at the muted TV.
Tony instantly turned his chair with the solder in his hand, "Unmute the TV!" He yelled at his AI's.
"-attacking buildings and people. The supposed neighbourhood Spider-Man can be seen fighting with the metal-covered figure on top of the apartment buildings as they both move north onto taller buildings, causing destruction as they go along, with other forces unable to intervene or match their powers." The newswoman concluded as the footage covered the screen. Peter was struggling.
"His webbing's off." Tony stated, setting the solder down and grabbing the metal hand he'd been working.
"You can tell?" Rhodey squinted, rolling his chair closer to the TV. "I can't-" he turned to face Tony, who was long gone. "Great."
Peter swung up the building in sight of Green, who shot an arrow towards him. He dodged to his left and instinctively moved his hands in front of him when he saw another one coming his way.
"That's your mistake." Green yelled, standing on the roof opposite as the arrow pierced Peter's stomach and he fell backwards with a yell. "Always. You always dodge left." He laughed, "it makes you predictable." He threw a rope with something attached at the end of it, swinging across to the other roof.
Peter scrambled to the edge of the rood, one hand holding the arrow in his stomach. He swung to the wall of the other building and criss-crossed his way down and away from his attacker, who was on his tail and cutting every one of his strings of webbing right behind him.
"You weren't hard to-" he shot an arrow that exploded just ahead of Peter's next landing, "-take down." Green said, running along the edge just above Peter.
"I'm not tryna kill you, dude!" Peter hollered, turning right when he reached the end of the gap between the two buildings.
"Well, I am!" Green replied, jumping across to the other building.
He practically swung into the balcony, his head hitting the top. He webbed ahead and found one with a garden umbrella and ducked down under it, sitting against the glass while trying not to make a noise. He glanced up to see if he could see Green, which he couldn't. His hands were trembling, and he held onto the arrow as tightly as he could with both hands, closing his eyes and yanking it out. He almost screamed and covered his mouth with his right hand to stop himself.
"You'll heal. You're healing. Healing." He said quietly to himself as he smacked his head back into the glass door and clenched his jaw to control his breathing and stop himself from crying. He closed his eyes and was about to get up when something smashed above him and glass shards began falling, and Peter quickly jumped across onto the other balcony.
"Need help, Spidey?" A voice asked, startling Peter, who shot a web in front of him looked up to see Iron Man hovering in front of him. "It's just me, calm down." He reassured him, looking up and blasting at something above them, and then taking off the webbing stuck to the chest.
"Mr Stark-what-what are you-"
"Come on." Tony grabbed Peter's hand and lifted him up to the roof. "Web him from-" he stopped and inspected him, "you're hurt." He said.
Peter moved to dodge another arrow, "it's healed-nearly healed."
"Let me deal with this, kid, I'll take you-" Tony was cut off by an arrow that struck him between the two metal shoulder plates and sent him flying backwards. Peter looked back and was about to step backwards from the edge when something hit him in the head and sent him falling over the edge.
Tony regained his balance in time to see Peter fall but flew in the opposite direction when something exploded next to him. "Peter!" He yelled, shielding himself with his arms and trying to get to him, which was extremely difficult to do when he was being attacked every second and his mind was all focused on Peter and not Green. "Sir, he has around five seconds before he hits the ground", Friday said as soon as Tony saw Peter fall..
Peter woke up just two seconds later and gasped, flailing his arms and screaming. He tried shooting a web to a building but it wasn't working. I'm gonna die. He needed to stop. He tried again and struggled to focus on his vision. All he could see was his hands in front of him and brown from the apartment buildings and sometimes the road, which was nearing. He looked up at the sky and then to his right to the building, which he was close to. He painstakingly smacked his hand onto the glass, which stuck on and stopped him mid-way through the fall, and he swore under his breath, breathing loudly.
Tony watched him stop and sighed in relief, focusing on Green, who was intent on going after Peter.
Peter looked up and was about to smash the window in to get to safety when his hand slipped. 3 seconds. His head was starting to hurt from all the turning and twisting, and he was having difficulty coordinating his hands now. 2 seconds. He could hear Tony call his name, and caught a glimpse of people looking up at him from the streets. 1 second.
Tony blasted at Green and used all his power to accelerate to Peter. "Even with full power-"
"Don't tell me what I can't do, Friday, get me closer!" Tony yelled, cutting off his AI as he flew head-first towards Peter. "Peter! My hand!" He yelled at the last second. He knew he wasn't going to get him in time. He was trying to take his hand, but he couldn't. He felt his hand just scrape Peter's before the boy hit the ground with a thud. Tony was right next to him, landing on his feet and bending down next to him.
"Vital-"
"No pulse. Sorry, sir." Friday informed with regret. "There's a head injury and bleeding and several broken bones and fractures."
Tony looked down at Peter and stumbled backwards, unable to control his own breathing. "Charge-charge to-" he stammered, bringing a hand up to his head when his mask opened and looking around as he felt his heart thud against his chest, "-I can't..."
"-he looks dead!" He heard someone yell from down the group of reporters and residents huddled at the end of the street, and he opened his mask
"Sir, now or never." Friday urged, and Tony got up, charging his hand and shocking Peter's chest. "No pulse." Friday responded, and so Tony tried again, and again and repeated until the fifth time, when there was finally a heartbeat.
"Where did he go?" Tony asked, looking up at the buildings with one hand on Peter's chest.
"He seems to have gone off my radar." Friday replied, and Tony looked back down at Peter. Blood was pooling around his head.
"Doctors! I need-someone-doctors!" Tony yelled, kicking the door down with Peter in his arms.
Rhodey nearly fell of his chair at the sound of that, and looked up at Tony, who was passing him. "Shi-Tony-is he..." his voice trailed off.
"He was. He will be, again, if I don't get any damn doctors in here! Is this what I pay for? So that..." Tony yelled, his voice getting louder with every word as he made his way towards the labs. His voice disappeared down the corridor as Rhodey looked on, grabbing his crutches from the side of the table.
By the time Rhodey made it down there, Tony was standing outside the door in his suit, clenching his metal fist while looking at the door. Rhodey looked down and sighed, before walking closer and carefully taking a seat on one of the chairs.
"Really gonna make me walk all the way down here without telling me anything?" Rhodey tried to make light of the dire situation, but Tony just closed his eyes and Rhodey could tell he was about to breakdown. "Do I have to say this? Tony, this isn't your fault."
"You can say that. You're not the one who killed him." Tony shot back, and Rhodey grimaced.
"Jeez-Tony! You didn't kill him-that-that psycho did." He nodded his head and watched Tony scoff as he said what he said.
"I didn't? I took the suit. I shouldn't have taken it-I-I knew he wasn't gonna stop but I still-" he scowled and brought up his fist to punch something,
"Tony! Stop it, stop what you're doing and take that thing off before you hurt someone or yourself." Rhodey said, getting his crutches before Tony stopped him.
"Okay, okay." He replied, stepping out of the suit and running his hand over his face. "I screwed up." He stated, taking a seat next to Rhodey.
"No you didn't. You couldn't have known, Tony. This isn't on you." He tried to say, but it looked like the man was just ignoring everything he was saying.
"I should've. I never consider the...consequences." Tony responded, "and people I care about get hurt and-"
"Are we still talking about Spider?" Rhodey interrupted, raising his brows and leaning his head against the wall. "We're not." He answered himself after a few seconds of silence.
"I could've-"
"We're not doing this." Rhodey cut him off harshly, and he watched Tony mutter something under his breath and clench his jaw. "We're not gonna sit here and wallow-"
"I'm not wallowing-"
"Yes you are. You think they're sitting there-it doesn't matter. Let it go, Tony, we're doing good-"
"Let it go? Like you let it go? You got paralysed, Rhodes, so tell me exactly I'm supposed to forget all that and move on." Tony snapped, staring furiously at Rhodey.
Rhodey glared back in frenzy, and then exhaled, "I didn't say forget-"
"I don't wanna talk about this."
"No, you wanna keep it bottled up until you can't, then punch a few things and go rogue or-"
"I thought-I thought we weren't doing this." Tony interrupted sarcastically, also leaning his head against the wall and staring at the wall ahead of him. You're wrong, he wants to say, because he wants a chance to explain why moving on and 'forgetting' isn't an option. Because this feeling of waiting for something horrible to happen, but not knowing what, is something that eats at him everyday but he can't explain what or who he's waiting for. It's all tied to that day.
"Tony." Rhodey broke into his thoughts and watched as Tony ignored him, his eyes still fixated on the wall. "Tony!" Rhodey said a little louder.
"What?" Tony yelled back, looking at him in annoyance.
"He'll be fine." Rhodey changed the subject back to Peter. "Maybe I'll even see whose under that-"
"You'll see when he's ready for you to see." Tony said in a monotone voice.
"Well I'm not a doctor, in case you forgot." Tony said, earning a glare from Rhodey and Pepper.
"Sorry." The doctor apologised, and Pepper rolled her eyes at Tony, "I mean he probably won't be able to move when he wakes up and-"
"He has enhanced healing." Tony interrupted, genuinely concerned.
"I know, but it's nowhere near as high to be able to recover so quickly from injuries that could kill a person twice. His chest-"
"I don't need these technicalities, just tell me straight." Tony cut her off again.
Pepper breathed out and looked at him in irritation. "Tony-"
"No, I wanna know if he's alright, or-"
"He fell of a 30-storey building, Stark." The doctor said bluntly. "I'm saying he'll have a little trouble getting back to normal." She looked down at her clipboard and then to Pepper.
"Ok, thank you." Pepper smiled, leading the doctor away and nodding no to Tony, who was about to speak up and say something again.
"Ok then, um-where's-where's Vision?" Tony asked, vaguely looking around in his state of restlessness.
"He's handling something for me." Rhodey replied, and then looked over to Pepper, who was standing behind Tony making gestures. He reached out for his crutches, "come on, let's-"
"What was that?" Tony broke in, and he wildly pointed to both of them.
"What was what?" Pepper smiled with pursed lips, moving in front of him.
"Your-I saw that whole-", he moved his finger back and forth to mimic the exchange and then sighed. "I don't know what...", his sentence trailed off and he brought up his hand to his face.
Pepper took his hand and looked up at him. "Hey, see him first, at least." She smiled, looking into his eyes for a few seconds. "We're all here, no one's going anywhere."
He nodded and opened his mouth to say something, and then changed his mind and broke away from her. "What would I do without you." He finally said, turning to the door and exhaled, looking down and then opening the door.
"-but that's not important-well it's important, because I wouldn't be here if it wasn't-the point was that he told me to go home and he help and he gave his life to make sure I got out." Tony squinted, looking at Peter breathing through the machine. "He didn't even know me." He moved positions and leaned his arm on the side of the chair. "I haven't told anyone that. And I'm running out of stories, so wake up."
Peter groaned, turning his head and slowly opening his head. He instantly started yanking at the tubes and Tony got up.
"Hey, wait a second," Tony moved forwards and gently grabbed his hands. "You good?"
Peter nodded slightly and managed a "hmmm", before scrunching up his face and bringing his hand up to his side. He grimaced and tried to move. "Wh-where...", he trailed off.
"In the New Facility. You fell so don't try and move." Tony explained, frowning at the sight of the elevated heart rate. "Peter, calm down."
"Calm-calm down. I'm-I'm calm. May-"
"I called her. Told her you were in an accident-"
"You told her?" Peter yelled as loud as he could in surprise. May was going to kill him.
"Relax, Spidey, I said you got injured in that whole...chaos." Tony sat down on the chair and moved it closer to him.
"Why? I'll heal-"
"You fell 30 stories. Doctor said you might have trouble moving so how long were you planning on keeping that a secret from her? You live with her." Tony interrupted with a little sarcasm as he watched Peter sigh in disappointment.
"She's gonna be so mad, then she'll start crying and...", he stopped and stared worriedly at the painting on the wall opposite him with his hand on his head.
Tony glanced out the window before speaking, "she'll be more worried than mad."
"-to see him! In fact, I'm the only person who should-Peter!" May yelled walking into his room with Vision standing behind her. "Oh my g-you scared me to death." She kept her eyes on him, and Tony instantly got up from his chair and patted his shirt with his hand.
"Sorry." Peter said, and she was standing over him within a few seconds, and Tony backed away towards the door.
"Ned told me you were there and then I couldn't get you on the phone, Peter, I can't-I'm so glad you're okay. Tell me what happened." May started, and Tony quietly left the room to avoid getting sucked into the family drama, and because they needed to be alone. He'd be okay.
He closed the door quietly and turned around and jumped back at the sight of his suit. "Come on, big guy." He said quietly, and walked towards his workshop with the suit following him.
Pepper looked up from the kitchen and nearly jumped. "I will never get used to that." She motioned to the walking suit and Tony smirked, "it's like two of you." She said, putting down a glass of water on the counter.
"Friday, take it to the workshop." Tony ordered, and the armour continued walking north. He watched it go out of sight and then looked to Pepper. "He's fifteen. He'll probably have nightmares." He dropped onto the sofa and rested his head back.
"Probably, you can help each other. How are you doing?" She asked, making her way over to him.
He stiffened, "I'm not the one who died, so fine."
"Really? You're doing fine?" She questioned sarcastically.
"I am, I'm-"
"You know what I mean. After New York, and then-", she stopped herself, because she knew he didn't like talking about it. "This." She sighed.
"I'm fine." He stated.
"You're fine. Right. Why do you have to do this?" The tone of her voice rose a little and there was clear anger.
He closed his eyes and he could see it. Barely missing Peter's hand. "Why do I do this?" He repeated, almost mocking her, and she was about to leave. "I missed him by a second. I touched his hand but I wasn't fast enough. Then he stopped breathing and I-I couldn't move, Pepper." He said softly, opening his eyes again and staring at the ceiling.
"He's okay now." She said quickly.
"What if he's not? What if a few days later we find out-"
"You're being paranoid. He's alive and doing great, probably arguing with his aunt right now." She laughed a little, and he smiled briefly.
"Yeah, okay."
She got up and looked at him, "you're going to be checking up on him after this, so you'll know if something's actually wrong, Tony."
He lifted his head up and grinned, "that's true. I'm totally gonna be doing that."