Chapter Text
“Ned?” Peter climbs through his window and carefully closes it behind him. He goes to his friend, still lying on the table, and he takes the dart out of Ned’s neck. “Ned. Hey, wake up.”
Ned groans, eyes fluttering awake. He stares at the ceiling with bleary eyes before going to sit up. The entire room spins, and Peter steadies him before he accidentally rolls off the table. Ned looks Peter over-- or rather, Spider-Man.
“Dude, why are you in your suit? What happened?” Ned asks, trying to remember how he got here. Peter pulls his mask off and tosses it onto his bed.
“Uh… yeah… about that… Nick Fury tranqued you.”
“He what? I got tranqued by Nick Fury?! Awesome,” Ned whispers. He starts to get up, but the room sways again. “Oof. Doesn’t feel very awesome though.”
“Yeah, let’s get you into bed,” Peter pulls Ned’s arm across his shoulders, and he helps his best friend onto his about-what-you’d-expect-for-a-cheap-hotel bed. Ned looks up at him.
“What happened after he hit me?” Ned asks. Peter runs a hand through his hair.
“Uh, a lot. He said that there’s this mission. He wants me to help,” Peter starts to explain.
“But why couldn’t he have just like… called you or something?”
“Uh… yeah… about that. He did. I ghosted him,” Peter says sheepishly. Ned’s eyes widen.
“Dude, you ghosted Nick Fury?!”
“Yeah, not my best move. Anyway, remember how I’ve been trying to take a break from Spider-Man?” Peter asks, waiting for the confirmatory nod from Ned. “Yeah. He wants me to ‘step up’ or whatever. Something to do with the snap. Oh! Wait, dude, guess what?”
“What?”
“There’s a freaking multiverse.”
“What?!” Ned sits up, not even caring how it makes his head spin. “For real?!”
“For real. I met this guy who’s from another dimension. Apparently, I didn’t exist there, and they want to help me get him home. For whatever reason, all the other big-shots are otherwise occupied, so they want me.”
“Dude, that’s so cool,” Ned says, mouth open in awe. Peter sits down on his own bed now, picking up his mask. He hadn’t liked having to hear Karen in his head tonight. He muted her pretty early on, but there’s a reason he’d been wearing the Iron Spider suit. Karen wasn’t in that suit, and so he didn’t have to be reminded by Tony as much.
“I don’t know, Ned. I just… I don’t feel ready,” Peter sighs. He runs his fingers over his eye lenses. “I’m gonna go out for a bit. Maybe some crime fighting will clear my head.”
“In your suit? This isn’t New York,” Ned reminds. Peter nods.
“I know. They… uh, Shield… they gave me a new suit. One that they made instead of… y’know…” Peter trails off with a heavy sigh. “It’s just black. No one should be able to identify me, and I don’t intend on being seen anyway. I just wanted to check on you before I went out.”
“Okay. Well, I’m woozy, but I’m okay,” Ned responds. “Probably just gonna sleep this off. Make sure you’re back by the wake-up call.”
“I will, Ned,” Peter promises. He doesn’t move for a while, waiting for his friend to firmly be asleep before he gets up to change into the new suit. It fits well, maybe suspiciously well. Maybe Nick Fury got his measurements from To-- him. Peter wipes his eyes and pulls on the mask.
Peter’s sitting on the edge of a roof, watching the cars go by. He assumes there must be a low crime rate here, because in half an hour, he hasn’t heard a single set of sirens go off. It is a clean city in relativity to New York, he supposes. Almost too clean to be real. There’s barely a hint of trash on the streets, whereas trash is as much of the terrain as the sidewalks and asphalt in New York City. Peter’s spidey-sense-- as Ned coined it-- goes off, and it’s soon followed by a verbal “Hey.”
Peter twists around. “Beck?”
“Yeah, it’s me,” Mr.Beck says. “Mind if I join you?” Peter just shrugs, and the man sits down next to him. Neither of them speak for a while.
“Nice view,” Mr.Beck pushes. Peter looks to him.
“Did Fury send you?” He asks. Mr.Beck smirks and puffs out air through his nose in a half-laugh.
“Fury did say you were a smart one.”
“So he did.”
“He thought you needed extra convincing,” Mr.Beck explains. Peter huffs and pulls his knees to his chest, folding his arms over them. Beck looks at the teenager beside him. “You got a lot of weight on your shoulders, kid.”
“I wish I didn’t,” Peter admits. He’s more than happy to try and save the world, but this-- a multiverse? It just felt out of his league. Last time he went out of his league, someone died. If he hadn’t gone to Titan, maybe he wouldn't have died. Maybe the odds would’ve changed, and maybe you-know-who wouldn’t have done what he did if Peter was still alive. Pepper and Happy made the mistake of telling Peter that Tony was doing it for him. They thought it would make him feel better. All it did was make the kid guilty. He didn’t want anyone to sacrifice themselves for him.
“You want a drink?” Mr.Beck offers, unsure of how to otherwise take the stress off. Peter scoffs a little.
“I’m 17.”
“I didn’t say it had to be alcoholic. Come on. It’s on me,” Beck urges. Peter sighs and looks out over the square. He doubts anything is going to happen.
“Okay, but let’s stay close. I need to be able to get back to the hotel quickly if my friend calls,” Peter relents. Beck smiles and pats him on the back as he gets back to his feet.
They find a small tavern of sorts that is almost empty, and the bartender consequently doesn’t complain about Peter sitting at the bar. Spider-Man’s mask is off, but he’s in a non-recognizable version of his suit, so he’s not too worried about it. Quentin Beck orders a beer, and the bartender looks to Peter expectantly.
“Same for you?” He asks. Peter shakes his head.
“Uh, no. I’m good. Do you guys have uh… orange juice?” Peter asks. The bartender chuckles.
“Sure. Coming right up.” Peter hides his blush at being so young.
“So what’s bothering you so much? You’re a little too brooding for the reasons you gave Fury. Something else going on? Girl trouble?” Beck gives Peter a playful push on the arm.
“No! I mean… there is a girl, but..,” Peter shakes his head. He knows what his reasoning for not wanting to go on this mission is, but he realizes Beck thinks a girl might involved, and that honestly seems like a more appealing excuse. “I just want a normal life.”
“I could see that,” Beck agrees. “But you’ve been Spider-Man for a time already.”
Peter runs his hand through his hair, trying to come up with some better excuse than not being over to get over Tony. He knows he should get over it. He just can’t.
“What do you want, Peter?” Beck asks. “What makes you tick? Why are you doing this?” The words mirror what Tony asked Peter all those years ago, and Peter’s grateful for the sudden arrival of his orange juice. He takes a long sip to delay answering.
“I want to go back on my trip with my friends and with the girl that I like, and just have a good time. I don’t want to deal with all this multiverse, saving-the-world stuff.”
“But you did it all before,” Beck asks, furrowing his brow in confusion. Peter groans in frustration.
“Yeah, but that was before he- before…”
“Before?”
“Before Tony died, okay?” Peter spits out. He takes a deep breath, feeling Mysterio watch him.
“Tony?” Beck asks. “Who was he?”
“You guys didn’t have an Iron Man?” Peter raises his eyebrows. He knew Mysterio was from a different universe where Spider-Man didn’t exist, but Tony… he felt inevitable.
“Well, we have Iron Man, but I just didn’t realize-,” Mysterio rubbed his chin. “Hmmm… Tony Stark as Iron Man. Who would’ve thought?” Peter paled a little. He hadn’t thought of that. Maybe Tony kept his identity a secret in Mysterio’s universe.
“So, what? You and Iron Man were a thing? A… a duo or something?” Mysterio tries to bring the conversation back on track.
“You could say that,” Peter sighs. “More of a… a mentor… I guess. Wait.” He gets an idea. “Do you think if I came to your world, that I could meet your Tony?”
“I don’t know if that’s such a good idea kid,” Beck says skeptically. Peter ducks his head.
“Yeah, probably not. He wouldn’t know me, would he? Bad idea,” Peter sighs in disappointment, being reminded once again that Tony… his Tony, was gone.
“So, let me make sure I have this straight,” Beck takes a deep breath, turning to face Peter. “You’ve been doing this saving-the-world thing for a while, your mentor died, and you aren’t ready to get back up yet?” Peter bites his lip.
“I mean… that’s one way to put it. Not how I would put it, but sure,” Peter mumbles.
“How would you put it?” Beck asks. He puts a hand on the teenager’s shoulder, trying to give some semblance of support.
“I was dead for five years. I know it must’ve felt like forever to him, but for me… it was all the blink of an eye. Everything happened so fast. It feels like last week we were hanging out and working on updates for suits in his lab. Now that Tony’s gone, everyone… they expect me to be him . But he’s him and I’m me. I don’t know if I want to be Iron Man. This trip was supposed to be a break from Spider-Man. I didn’t even mean to bring the suit. So, yeah, I don’t think I’m ready for what comes next, whatever that is. I need more time, but I also feel like there’s this responsibility that’s being placed on me to do what he did, and I’m not sure I can handle that,” Peter rambles. Beck nods in understanding, and Peter pulls away to rub at his eyes. “God, I just wish he was here.”
“What if he was here?” Beck asks, watching him closely. Peter shakes his head. He’s had plenty of dreams about that, and they’re never real.
“He’s not here. He’s gone,” Peter denies.
“But if he was? What would you ask?” Beck questions. Peter tosses his hands up in the air.
“I don’t know… I guess I’d ask if he… if he thought I was ready. If he thought I should do this. He always understood that I struggle to keep the balance between keeping my head out of the clouds and making the best of myself.”
“Well,” Beck pats his shoulder lightly. “If it helps at all, I’ve seen some footage of you in the field. It seems like you’ve got what it takes, if you ask me. I think you’re ready.”
“Maybe,” Peter sighs, and almost all at once he remembers that Beck was probably sent here to coerce him into saying ‘yes’ to the mission. He’s heard that’s how Fury works. He finishes off his orange juice, not wanting to deal with this anymore. “Look, I gotta head back to the hotel before anyone notices I’m gone. I’ll- uh… I’ll see you around, okay? Thanks for the drink.”
Peter hops off his stool, grabbing his mask. He doesn’t wait much for Mr.Beck’s goodbye before he heads outside. He’s only moved a few rooftops when he hears some sirens. He sags in relief. Finally… he can blow off some steam.
It’s a car chase, with one black sedan swerving and maneuvering wildly with multiple police cars in pursuit. Spider-Man extends his arm and jumps off the roof, swinging after the car. He lands on the top of one of the police cars, and he hears shouts in another language, but he ignores them, rapid-firing webs at the back axle of the getaway car. The stickiness easily stalls out the car, and the back wheels can barely turn. The smell of burnt rubber fills the air as the driver tries and fails to keep the car moving.
Spider-Man flips off the now-stopped cop car, and he watches as they pull the driver out of his seat. He grabs Peter’s ankle, causing the teenager to startle and jump back. He’s screaming in French, and Peter can barely understand him. The man looks terrified, pointing past the police officers and rambling more. Peter follows his gesture. There’s nothing there. Weird. Maybe he’s hallucinating or on drugs or something? Spider-Man watches to make sure that the man is firmly in custody before swinging back to the hotel. He lands on the roof, pulling off his mask again and fixing his hair. The fire escape should go right down to his room.
“Peter.” A voice. A voice stops Peter dead in his tracks, and his heart feels like it’s dropped off the building. He knows the voice. He knows it’s in his head. He starts toward the fire escape, not daring to turn around.
“Peter. It’s me,” The voice repeats, and Peter shakes his head. A hand from nowhere grabs his forearm and spins the boy around to face its owner. Tony.