Chapter Text
Two Years Later…
Fridays become their own little “family day,” just Peter, Steve, and Tony. They came down to Mr. Delmar’s deli and grocery, which quickly became their regular haunt, whenever Tony finished up with work in Upper Manhattan. The luster of having Iron Man and Captain America frequenting his bodega slowly wore off as it became evident that it was going to be a regular thing (enough so that Steve made sure to bring toys and catnip for Murph, the fluffy cat that perpetually sprawled across the counters).
The three of them sat outside of the deli, at the small table just on the corner of the sidewalk. Peter ate quietly as Steve and Tony discussed the merits of kidnapping Rhodey from his Vice-Presidential duties so he could attend Tony’s upcoming birthday party—and whether or not it was worth the Secret Service placing them on a blacklist if Tony went through with it, was a whole other issue.
“I’m just saying, he’s my best friend and I want him to be there,” Tony said, picking the loose pickles from his sandwich. He stared at them for a moment before offering them to Peter, who greedily accepted and shoved them into his own club.
Steve’s brows knitted together as he continued to chew. “Sweetheart, we can’t kidnap the—”
Tony cut him off. “It’s not kidnapping if he’ll have fun at the party!”
Peter snorted, hiding his grin behind his BLT. Steve threw him a look, mock offended, and rebuked, “You cannot find this funny! There’s at least five laws that we’d be violating, not to mention the kind of shit—”
“Language,” Tony and Peter said in unison, earning an annoyed fuck off, both of you from the blond.
“I mean, it’s just Rhodey,” Peter said pointedly, speaking through a full mouth. “I’m sure he’ll make time if you invite him.” He took another bite of his sandwich but stopped midchew, the hairs on his arms standing up and that ever-familiar feeling of unease in the pit of his stomach. Peter frowned to himself, eyes flickering around the block to see what might be going on.
Tony narrowed his eyes at Peter before sniffing. “Where’s the fun in that?” Sooner than he could continue with his tirade of potential treasonous adventures, loud crashes and shrill screams caught their attention. Some cabbies and bikers sped past while a host of people ran by, all hurried and scared. The three of them immediately got to their feet, abandoning their food, starting down the road where everyone was running from.
“Should we call for back-up?” Peter offered, finding his spot in between Steve and Tony.
Steve glanced at him, and then shared a look with his husband. “Let’s scope out the situation first, see if we can’t handle it.”
From the corner of his eye, Peter saw Tony toggle on his wristwatch, the nanobots adjusting to form a gauntlet around his hand. From the boys’ mirrored looks, he said in tune, “What? Don’t you get déjà vu when he’s with you?”
“Is that an Olivia Rodrigo reference?” Peter asked, hustling ahead as more blasts and crushed metal could be heard.
“Who’s that?”
“Hey. C’mon. Focus,” Steve snapped, waving the two forward. As they turned the corner, a flying cab came straight for them—and with Peter’s reflexes, he grabbed both Steve and Tony by the arms and pulled them out of the way. They watched the yellow car skid noisily on the asphalt, and Steve patted Peter on the arm. “Good lookin’ out, kid.”
Peter all but preened at the praise. “Thanks.”
Tony’s eyes were focused on the carnage down the residential street, and he nodded in the direction of three giant android-looking entities. “Purple people eaters, ten o’clock.” He crouched, followed by the other two, and tapped his glasses. “FRIDAY, talk to me.”
“I suggest taking advantage of the suit, Boss. I can’t quite get a read on their origin point, but they seem very well durable.”
“Alien?” Steve offered, shuffling closer to Tony.
“Negative, Captain. I’m sensing earthly isotopes, just not…” The AI hesitated, which made all three of them exchange a look. “…something I can find in any government database.”
Peter activated his spider suit, jumping to his feet as he questioned, “Not vibranium or adamantium, then?” His heads-up display zeroed-in on the large androids, scanning as the scope followed their movements. They all seemed determined to wreak havoc aimlessly, flipping vehicles and knocking down light poles at their discretion.
“Any idea where they came from?” Steve asked.
“No. It’s weird. It’s like they just… came out of thin air.”
The robots seemed to be wearing deep purple armor with dark blue gauntlets, faceplates, and boots. Peter couldn’t help but comment, “They look like Spongebob rejects.”
Tony deadpanned, “What.”
Peter elaborated, “You know, like Rayman.” And when neither Tony nor Steve made a face of recognition, he uttered disappointedly, “What, you get a song reference but not an iconic show? Pick a lane, Tony.”
“Can we discuss this later? We’re kind of sitting ducks here,” Steve gritted out, sneaking quickly to a nearby van.
As they creeped closer, Peter’s AI, Karen, announced, “My sensors are picking up quantum energies from their exteriors.”
Tony whipped his head to look at Peter, speaking to Karen, “If we can get closer, would you be able to cross-reference their signatures with—?”
“There is no time for science, Tony!” Steve balked, his Disappointed Captain America Frown masking his features.
“Yeah. Kick ass now, science later,” Peter agreed, his skin almost buzzing with anticipation. He stole a look to the androids before turning to Tony, asking, “What’s the plan?”
“He has no plan,” Steve answered with next to no hesitation, side-eyeing Tony when he scoffed.
“I do have a plan, thank you very much,” Tony replied petulantly, pressing the Arc Reactor housing attached to his shirt. The nanobots began to form around him like water, connecting and calibrating to build the latest Iron Man mark. Its eye slits lit up as Tony stood, towering now over Steve, and blasted the boot thrusters. “Attack.”
And he flew off towards the androids, leaving Steve and Peter behind. “Tony, we’ve talked about this!” Steve shouted, muffled by the roar of the Iron Man suit.
“Sorry, Steve!” Peter yelled as he swung away to help his mentor.
Iron Man easily caught the attention of two of the robots, shooting them with the repulsor transmitter in his palms. He hit one in the chest and the other square in the face; they caught themselves from falling, moving in unison to stare up at the suit. “Oh, that’s not ominous,” Tony muttered, avoiding their reach, and then flying up high.
Peter webbed the hand of the third robot, ducked between its feet, and then spun out to capture the other hand to immobilize it. He maneuvered around its legs, webbing it at the knees, before launching himself from a streetlight in an attempt to knock it over. The robot’s weight sent it falling, but when it strained—and succeeded—to rip out from the web bindings, Peter felt his blood run cold.
“Uhh… That’s—it’s not supposed to be able to do that!”
After Peter somersaulted onto the roof of a news stand, he landed on all fours. He slung himself up onto the side of a building to avoid being grasped by a robot, getting a higher vantage point to call out warnings to Tony. Through their comms, Peter heard Steve complain under his breath, “I wish I had my shield right about now.”
“Hey, honey, you wearing that watch I got you for our anniversary?” Tony inquired, extending an arm out to shoot flares at the robot trio.
Steve’s head popped out from behind an upturned car a few yards away. “Yeah, why?”
“Press those two buttons on the side at the same time.” Tony flew near Peter’s perch, and he grasped his wrist to lift him up—and then dropped Peter onto one of the robots when the Iron Spider legs retracted from the back of the Spider-Man suit.
“Okay, and?” Steve pressed.
Tony immediately ordered, “Shield Activation: Blueberry Pancake!”
The second Steve echoed those words (much to his own chagrin), the watch beeped twice, and a blue Energy Shield flickered out of Steve’s watch. A look of awe spread across his face as he pressed his other hand against the shield, testing the yield of the light-blue force. “Have I told you I love you lately?” he asked, a childish grin appearing on his lips as he began to run towards the robots.
“Music to my ears,” Tony quipped, shooting more RT blasts at the robots as Steve came at them with the energy shield.
They each focused on their own android—Tony flying circles around one, shooting mini rockets that seemed to do nothing more than dirty up its armor plating; Steve throwing punches and hitting their joints with the transparent shield, scratching but not denting; Peter webbing up the last as best as he could, irritated each time it freed itself.
“Guys, this isn’t working!” Peter called out, frustrated.
“They’re barely fighting back,” Steve huffed, ducking behind a parked car to catch his breath. “Why the hell aren’t they doing anything? They were destroying half the block just before—”
“Hey, watch out!” A girl’s voice cut through the chaos, and the shiver up his spine was the only thing that saved Peter from getting reamed in the head by a robot’s energy blast. He jumped out of the way, climbing up onto an awning as it zapped through the car that Steve had hidden around, scorching a large hole in the metal.
Peter searched for the source of the voice, finding a girl donning a faded denim jacket standing on a window ledge. “Uh, hey,” he said, waving awkwardly. “Let me help you get down from—” A tight pressure clamped down on Peter’s leg, and it wasn’t until he was careening through the air did he realize that one of the robots had thrown him. He slammed into the side of a lamp, denting it, before slamming into the concrete.
“Peter!” Steve was at his side in moments, kneeling above him with the shield as the robots turned their attention on them. Forceful blasts were hitting the shield, originating from the weird gauntlets they wore on their wrists.
“I’m fine, I’m okay,” Peter gasped as he pushed himself to a sitting position. He pointed to the girl, hoping Tony was unoccupied. “I just—civilian, up on the balcony.”
“Copy, I got eyes on her,” came the Iron Man voice. Tony swerved up to the window ledge, poised to shoot at one of the climbing androids when the girl stomped down on the scaffolding, emitting a blue star-shaped light, which crumbled the ledge to knock the robot back to the ground.
Momentarily dumbstruck, Tony continued to hover in the air. “What in the David Bowie just came out of your foot?”
“Tony!” Steve stood to his full height, throwing his weight against one robot as he rammed it with the energy shield. “Kinda need a hand here, sweetheart.”
“Right. You,” Tony said, pointing a gauntleted finger at the girl, “don’t… don’t go anywhere.”
“Not like I have much of a choice,” she retorted, motioning to the two robots still in their midst.
Peter shot webs at the robots’ feet, hoping to keep them stationary for Tony and Steve to attack simultaneously, but they kept on pulling free from his webs like they were nothing more than perforated toilet paper. Tony asked FRIDAY to find their weak spots, for anything to use against them, but whatever materials they were made from seemed to be absorbing their hits and throwing it back at them.
The trio were just about to call in the other Avengers when two separate rings of magic appeared out of nowhere, decapacitating the robots. They clanked against the asphalt and concrete, split clean in half, lifeless.
“I’m surprised three Avengers couldn’t take care of a couple of rogue androids,” came a familiar voice. Peter turned around, retracting his mask, to see Wong standing on the other side of a Sling Ring portal.
“I normally hate magic,” Tony started, landing with practiced ease before withdrawing the Iron Man suit, “but right now, I hate it a little less.”
Wong smirked, obviously taking the backhanded compliment. “Stark, Rogers. I’d say you were a sight for sore eyes, but considering your faces are still plastered on every magazine from here to Kathmandu, I would be lying.”
“Always great to see you too, Wong.” Steve deactivated his shield, stepping forward to offer a firm handshake to the Sorcerer Supreme. Peter noticed the girl clambering down from the side of the building, moving as quietly as possible, and decided to keep an eye on her.
“Would anyone care to enlighten me about why these—” Wong eyed the robot remains, scrutinizing over the inner workings. “—machines seemed to have popped up out of nowhere?”
Peter shrugged, saying, “Dunno, but we should definitely ask the girl who’s trying to run away right now.”
She visibly tensed at Peter’s words but continued forward, the soles of her shoes hitting the sidewalk hard. Wong let out a nearly inaudible sigh, waving his hands in a circle to create a portal which opened right in front of the girl, who skidded to a stop right in front of them.
“Who’s this?” Wong asked.
“Yeah, I was gonna ask the same question,” Tony stated, stealing a glance to Peter. Almost anticipating the move, Tony grabbed for the girl’s wrist as she tried to run again. “Hey, kid, what did these androids want with you?”
“Where are your parents?” Steve followed up, placing his hand on his hips.
The girl tugged her arm from Tony’s hold, who let it go without a fight. He raised his hands placatingly, palms out to try and calm her. “Hey, we’re not going to hurt you. We just busted our asses trying to save your life, remember?”
Peter could practically feel her anxiety wafting off her, could hear her heartbeat kick up. He thought on his feet, offering the girl a smile and a kind word, hoping she’d accept his olive branch. “Hi. I’m Peter. Uh, Peter Parker.”
She looked at him, and after a moment, Peter saw the stiffness leave her shoulders. “America Chavez.”
Steve was the next to speak. “I’m Steve, this is Tony, and that’s Wong.”
“Cool. Intros done,” Tony interjected, clasping his hands together. “So. You’ve got freaky powers—”
“—Tony, you can’t just—”
“—and those equally freaky Rayman knock-offs got me stumped. What the hell are they?”
America opened her mouth to reply, hesitated, and then settled with: “It’s a long story.”
Tony said, “We’re all ears” at the same time that Steve offered, “Maybe we should take this to the compound.”
“And leave the robots in the middle of Queens?” Peter questioned. “We can’t let the Damage Control get their hands on this.”
There was a collective agreement amongst them all, and they each turned to Wong expectantly. He took in everyone’s expressions, brows knitting together when he finally understood. “You know, I’m not a damn taxi service,” he said pointedly, annoyed. Yet, he still produced another portal, opening to the courtyards of the Avengers Compound and transporting them all the way upstate with the futuristic robots.
