Chapter One
"Good night Aunt May." Peter Parker says as he shuts his bedroom door. It's half past midnight. He got home from patrol a midnight sharp. Aunt May has been pretty strict about his curfew now that she knows he's Spiderman. He waits another ten minutes before sneaking out the window.
"Welcome back Peter," Karen says.
"Thanks, K," Peter mutters. He wants to obey the wishes of his aunt, but so many bad things happen after midnight he can't stand to sit by knowing there are people getting hurt that he could save.
"Peter, may I remind you that you need to get some sleep. You are young and it's important to get your rest."
"Thanks, Karen, but I'm fine."
"My sensors are detecting low blood sugar, malnutrition and a lack of sleep."
"You always say that."
"Its always true."
Peter smiles at the AI's caring nature, but he knows if he stops and takes a break someone will be hurt, someone he could save. The next two hours go by with nothing major. Muggers, armed robberies, and rapes, nothing he can't handle with relative ease.
"Karen, what time is it?" Peter asks after stopping yet another carjacking.
"2:49 AM." She informs him.
"Oops." He says. He meant to be home by 2. "I guess time got away from me."
"How does time get away from someone?" Karen asks. "Time is abstract, it doesn't have the ability to run."
"That's not what it means, its an expression Karen," Peter explains as he heads back to Queens.
He is almost home when he is stopped by the sound of a woman screaming.
"Help me! Someone, please!" Peter groans, he just wants to get home, but he isn't about to let a woman be raped. Stopping he jumps into the alleyway. A man is holding a gun to a woman's throat. A couple flicks of the wrist and the preditor is webbed to the ground. The entire ordeal is completed in a matter of seconds. Although, right as he is about to leave, the woman leaps toward Spiderman.
"Oh thank you, thank you!" She cries.
"No problem ma'ma," Peter says trying to sound older. The back of his neck begins to tingle, a sensation he began to experience a couple months ago. Lately, he has just now beginning to associate the sensation with danger, but there appears to be no danger here. Maybe the tingling is wrong this time.
"I don't know what I would have done without you!" The woman's soft voice cries. She wraps her arms around him. She is an average sized woman, but is bigger than Peter. An explosion of tingling erupts in the back of Peter's head. Something is wrong. His sense has never been wrong before.
"It's no problem, ma'am. I am just doing my j-" A needle is jammed into the back of Spiderman's neck. "What was-"
"Just a sedative little spider." The woman grins. Spiderman's legs buckle beneath him.
"I don't understand." He manages to whisper.
"But you will." She grins. The last thing Peter sees before falling unconscious is the evil grin of Tiffany Sherwood and a taser being brought down on him.
"This month's sales projections show an increase in investor intrest in home defense systems. I believe the best way to capitalize off this is to-" A man in a grey suit drones on.
Tony does not like coming to these meetings. Why does he need to be here anyway, it's not like the company needs his say so for every single decision. Tony invents and invests. That's pretty much as far as his involvement with the company goes. Eventually, a knock at the door interrupts his boredom.
"Boss." It's Happy, he has poked his head into the room. His face is worried. "There's an alert for you on your phone."
Pepper has started making him leave his phone with Happy during meetings due to his habit of not actually paying attention to what is being discussed, but jokes on her. He doesn't need a phone to ignore a meeting.
"I'll look at it when the meeting is out," Tony tells him. Normally he would jump at the opportunity to leave a meeting, but Pepper had been cracking down on him for walking out on them for "emergencies". Although, according to Tony, an impromptu donut run qualities as an emergency.
"Boss." Happy says firmly. "It's important."
"They all are Happy." Tony waves off, he turns away from the door and faces the bozo in the suit. "Now what were you saying about sales projections and what not?"
"Tony." At the use of his name, Tony's heart jumps. Happy almost never uses his full name, and never protests after he has been shut down. "It's code Underoos."
Immediately the air in the billionaire's lungs is sucked out and his heart quite literally stops. A cold sweat breaks out and the man's normally tanned skin becomes instantly pale. Without another word, Tony gets up and exits the meeting leaving a room of about 15 people confused.
Happy hands the phone to Tony and they walk down the hall. The alert simply reads "Connection Lost" with the Spiderman logo next to the alert.
"When did you get the alert?"
"I got just a few minutes ago." Happy answers swiftly.
"It's 4 o'clock, what's the kid doing at 4 that would cause his suit to lose connection?"
"School gets out at 3." Happy reminds him.
"Right." He mutters. "Give me your phone so I can call him. "
"You don't have his number?" Happy asks confused. The glare he receives in response is his answer. He hands his boss his phone. "Right, I'll go get the car."
Tony calls Peter at least 20 times by the time Happy comes back with the car.
"Do you have his aunt's number?" Tony asks.
"No." Happy answers.
"Why not?"
"I've never even met the woman let alone have her number!"
"Alright fine." He grumbles putting his face in his hands. "I'm sure its nothing, just take me back to the compound."
The next thirty minutes are silent, both men are worried but won't admit it. Loss of connection to the suit can mean any number of things. It doesn't mean automatically mean something bad, but still both Happy and Toby have a dark feeling. Something in their gut is telling them something horrible has happened. Tony doesn't realize he was walked out of the car into his lab on the compound until the words:
"Friday connect me to Spiderman's suit." Come out of his mouth.
His heart pounds and sweat is running down his back. After the longest 30 seconds of his life, Friday comes back with her report.
"No connection can be made."
"Last GPS location." He orders.
"South Hillary St in Queens." She answers. "At approximately 2:52 AM."
"What!" Tony jumps. "Why was it so long ago?"
"It appears Spiderman's suit shorted at that time and it took a while for a loss of connection to reach our systems."
"You have to be kidding me," Tony growls. A lump has planted itself in his throat. The situation is getting increasingly worse.
"Friday... what was... Spiderman's vitals directly before the loss of connection."
"Heightened heart rate, shortness of breath and a presence of diazepam."
The billionaire collapses into the chair directly behind him. Happy has a hand over his mouth. Nobody says anything for what feels like an eternity. Neither knows what to do. The silence is broken by Happy's phone ringing. Tony, who still has it, looks at the caller ID.
"It's Peter." A smile breaks out, and his heart is lifted.
"Petey!" Tony almost laughs as he answers it.
"No, it's May." A woman sniffs. "Is this Happy Hogan?"
"No May, its Tony." Happy swears he can hear Tony's heart literally shatter.
"Oh, Mr. Stark." Her voice cracks. "I was wondering if you had seen Peter because he wasn't in his bed this morning and his phone was on his dresser and his suit is missing. I haven't seen or heard from him all day. I've been trying to get into contact with you but I don't have your number and it's not exactly easy to get your number form anyone. I mean I tried I went to your tower, but apparently, it belongs to a company called Rand now, but-"
"Calm down May." Tony tries to calm her done. "I'm sorry I don't know where he is at, I just got an alert on my phone from his suit about 45 minutes ago and have been looking for him."
"An alert, what kind of alert!" She panics.
"A loss of connection from his suit. Apparently, it shorted out early this morning."He explains.
Instantly the woman becomes hysterical. After attempting to console the poor women Tony is eventually able to calm her down enough to tell her he is sending a car to bring her to the Avengers compound.
"What if something happened to him?" She sobs. "Oh my poor baby! Where is he Mr. Stark? He is my baby!"
Tony can't help but choke up himself. Something has happened to the kid. The stupid, annoying and needy kid that he chose to undertake. The irritating, nosey... wonderful kid.
"Mr. Stark." May breaths calmly. "Peter is all I have left."
"I know... I know." Tony whispers.
