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Drumming his fingers against the desk, Peter anxiously watched the clock waiting for the bell to just ring. Luckily, there was no Decathlon practice, so he could get straight into patrol before heading to the tower to have dinner with the Avengers. He liked staying at the Tower with Mr. Stark and the Avengers. They resolved the Accords, so Tony had decided to buy back the tower. The compound was still used, but they went there when Peter had school breaks or if the matter called for it. Finally, the bell rang and the students quickly filed out of the classroom. With a quick goodbye to Ned and MJ, he bolted out of the school doors, running to the nearest alleyway. Putting on the mask, he smiled when Karen greeted him.
“Alright Karen, let’s get going.”
---
Shooting a web, Peter continued to swing through the busy streets of New York, waiting for the any more alerts. So far, he stopped a robbery, helped someone get into their car, helped an old lady get their cat out of a tree, and even got a corn dog out of it. He was a little bruised and battered, but nothing that could stop him from continuing. As he sat on a ledge, kicking his feet as he took in the sunset, Karen suddenly spoke up.
“Peter, there seems to be a mugging a block away.”
Peter focused his hearing and could already hear the threats as he swung over. Dropping down into the alley, he shot a web, trapping the mugger’s hand, “I have a feeling they don’t want to give you the wallet.”
As he took out the mugger, he approached the man who now was shaking against the wall, “You alright?”
The man nodded and thanked Peter, but Peter suddenly couldn’t focus as his spidey-sense was basically stabbing him in the neck. Before he could move, the man in front of him pulled out a syringe and injected whatever the substance was into Peter’s arm, piercing through the spandex.
“What the hell?!”
Jumping back, Peter shot a web, now trapping the other dude to a wall. Both the mugger and supposed victim were laughing in hysterics, taunting him. In a frenzy, Peter called the cops to alert them of the scene before swinging away. As he swung towards the giant tower, his vision blurred and he could no longer hear Karen calling his name. Stumbling into his room, he tugged off his mask and fell against the doorframe to the bathroom. Panting, he grabbed onto the sink and looked into the mirror, taking note of his dilated eyes. Changing into normal clothing, Peter shook his head and wandered out of his room before taking the elevator down to the common floor. As he made his way towards the kitchen, Clint came out from a vent, attempting to scare the Spider. Usually, Peter would detect Clint, but this time he jumped back, holding a hand to his heart, “Uncle Clint!” With a small laugh, Clint ruffled his hair and walked off, not questioning the kid, assuming he was just tired. Taking a deep breath, Peter continued to walk into the room greeting the team. Tony looked up from his StarkTablet and instantly got up to hug the teenager. “Perfect timing, Spiderling. Capsicle just about finished making dinner.”
Forcing a smile, Peter leaned into Tony’s arm as they walked to the table. Quickly departing to take their rightful seats. As they eat, Peter let the others talk, eating the food here and there, but was quickly full without needing to take a second serving. This was noticed by Natasha.
“маленький паук, everything okay?”
Suddenly, all eyes were on him. Peter suddenly was feeling way more sick than he was, but swallowed down the bile and smiled, “Yeah мама паук, just tired from patrol.”
He could tell she was still suspicious and knew he was partly lying, but she led it slide and let someone else talk, drawing the attention away from Peter. With a sigh of relief, Peter decided to force more food to make it seem that everything was normal. As he ate, he felt as if his vision was growing worse as he had to squint when looking up at everyone around him. As if realization hit him, he couldn’t hear the buzzing of the electricity, the bright lights weren’t blinding him, his vision was weakening, and he felt a burning in his chest that he hadn’t felt in years. Panic was suddenly blooming in his chest. No wonder he didn’t see Clint coming, he hadn’t heard him and was alerted. Peter stood up abruptly, excusing himself quietly and headed down to the training room. Peter grabbed a weight and tried to lift it, but found himself unable to do so. With panic still growing, he ran to the nearest wall and tried to climb it to no avail. Sliding down, he brought his knees to his chest as sobs started to rack his body. What if he lost his powers forever? What if Tony didn’t want him anymore because he was no longer able to be Spider-Man? Questions flooded his thoughts and they only grew to be worse. Suddenly, he felt a hand on his knee and could see a shadow looming over him. Looking up, he met the eyes of Bucky.
“Everything alright, Pete?”
With a shake of his head, he threw himself into the man’s arms. The former assassin wrapped the kid in his arms, holding him as he whispered small reassurances of the unknown distress. He knew it would get suspicious if they hadn’t returned, so he picked the teenager up and led them back up into the elevator, requesting Friday to take them to the common room where everyone was preparing for a movie night. As the elevator dinged, he walked out as the kid continued to cling.
“Bucky?”
He looked up at his best friend, “I found him in the training room. He seemed to be in distress and wasn’t verbally responding.”
“Get him to the couch… I’ll tell the others and make him Hot Chocolate.”
With a brisk nod, Bucky set the boy down on the couch, wrapping him in blankets. Tony entered the room with the others as Steve appeared with Hot Chocolate. Kneeling down, the mechanic settled a hand on the boy’s knee. “Hey Underoos… Spangles said you were upset, is everything alright?”
“I-I can’t be Spider-Man anymore.”
“Of course you can, kiddo.”
“No I can’t. I don’t have the powers anymore.”
“What?”
“Before I came here… There was this mugging, but I guess it wasn’t a mugging because then they injected me with this substance and now I don’t have my powers.”
Bruce quietly spoke, “I’ll go get the Medbay set up. If he was injected with an unknown substance, we don’t know what more it could cause.”
As he walked away, the rest comforted the boy as he continued to ramble about how they wouldn’t want him anymore. Suddenly, Sam interjected, “Oh that’s the biggest bullshit I’ve ever heard.” Most of them seemed to glare at the man, but he continued. “We don’t care if you have freaky spider abilities. We care about Peter Parker. Yeah, you being Spider-Man may have been the reason we even met you, but it wasn’t the reason we kept you in our lives. We kept you in our lives for being yourself.”
Peter peered out of the blanket with his brown-doe eyes that were rimmed red, “Is that true…?”
Tony ruffled his hair, “Every single word, kiddo.”
With that, they all helped Peter up and made their way down to the medbay where Bruce was waiting.
--
Multiple days had passed without any solution. Bruce was able to administer a cure, but his powers had yet to return. Back to wearing glasses and carrying an inhaler, Peter was beyond devastated. Bruce had written a note to keep him out of gym, but Flash’s taunts weren’t helping him. Ned kept his concern to himself as Peter seemed more withdrawn. May, who was filled in before Peter returned Sunday night, was supporting Peter as much as she could. Despite all of her shifts, whenever she saw Peter, she would shower him in love. Suddenly, Friday came around and a week without Spider-Man was noticed. Many civilians in Queens was questioning the absence of the Spider. Suddenly, as he was sitting in class, everything blew up in his face. The lights were glaring, the sounds of electricity, hushed conversations, and multiple tappings of pencils filled his ears. Peter grabbed his bag and rushed out of the classroom, ignoring the shouts of the teachers as he shut himself in a janitor’s closet. Ripping off the glasses and holding his hands to his ears, he called Tony.
“Hey Underoos, shouldn’t you be in class?”
“I-I need you to pick me up. My senses… they dialed back to eleven.”
He couldn’t focus on the man’s response before the call was ended. What felt like an eternity, but in reality was 5 to 10 minutes, Tony had found Peter in the closet. He gave the kid sunglasses and headphones to help. Having already signed the kid out, he set the kid in the car and drove back to the Tower.
-Week Later-
Peter was back to swinging around Queens. The hellish experience he went through was mind opening. It made him realize how much he relied on the abilities he received. Everyone seemed to be happy to have their friendly neighborhood Spider-Man back and he was just as glad to be back.