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Stumbling into an alleyway just outside of where the Queensboro bridge hit the Hudson, Peter could tell that nothing was, in fact, fine. His stomach burned with the familiar feeling of a stab wound, although he would argue that it wasn’t that bad.
After all, he had only been lightly stabbed.
Okay, so maybe taking on a whole gang that was involved with Kingpin’s massive underground criminal black market wasn’t the best idea in the world while trying to swing home late on a school night, but what was Peter supposed to do? Just ignore it and keep going home?
Funny.
Focusing back on what was happening now, Peter lowered himself into the alleyway, hopping down from a fire escape to slump up against a wall. This sucked. If this was rated on a scale of one to a building collapsing on top of him, he’d definitely have to rank it as a high nine.
A wince involuntarily left his mouth as he removed the pressure from the wound, seeing the blood come back on his fingertips with a color that was a deep kind of red. Okay, so maybe removing pressure was not a good idea. Placing his bloody hand back on the wound, Peter’s body almost slumped in relief (if that was what it could be called), the wound’s ever so painful throbbing easing slightly with the pressure reapplied onto it.
Karen’s warnings on his HUD flashed before his eyes, some glaring red screaming back at him that it was, in fact, bad. Her voice sounding more and more concerned with every warning (and every dismissal that Peter said to combat them), it got to a point where Peter couldn’t take it anymore. His breaths became unsteady, escalating faster and faster as the lights flashed brighter and brighter.
His eyes squeezed shut in an attempt to steady his breathing, the darkness underneath his eyes offering no salvation, the bright flashing lights from Karen’s HUD still making his head spin. The loud noises she kept repeating at him most definitely didn’t help either, the throbbing escalating as he opened his eyes again. He would have ripped off the mask- that was, if he didn’t have all of his attention focused on trying to keep the pain from his stomach from overwhelming him.
“Peter, if you do not take further medical action on the wound and the other injuries you have sustained during your patrol tonight, I will be obliged to contact Mister Stark in accordance with Baby Monitor Protocol 16,” the AI softly reminded Peter, her systems already preparing to make the distress call.
“I promise I’m getting the medical attention,” Peter lied, biting back the pain as he pushed himself out of the slouched position he held against the alleyway hall. The loud throbs of his head only increased as he tried to stand, forcing himself back down again from the amount of pain that it caused him. “I just- I just gotta get back to the apartment and-”
“Yeah, no, kid.” The familiar voice of Mister Stark echoed through his HUD, Karen contacting the man whether Peter wanted her to or not. The bright flashing red lights that Karen had once displayed calmed to a soft blue light, Peter giving a small exhale of relief as his eyes were. “You’re staying there; I’ll be there in ten. And if you move a damn muscle, I will not hesitate to tell May about your little injury and that fact that you took on six fucking gang members at once.”
Ah, so he was pissed. No surprise there.
Seeing the HUD glow fade away from the soft blue to a less aggressive red, Peter gave out a groan, mentally scolding himself for letting Karen go so far. Then, upon the realization that Mister Stark was coming to his grand locale in less than ten minutes, fear set in. Trying to stand up (yet again ) from the alleyway that he had not-so-discreetly hidden out in, Peter’s body screamed in protest, his mind blurry as he stumbled back to slump up against the alley’s wall.
Waiting here… waiting here was good, he figured. Probably the better way to get killed would to be to leave, but Mister Stark would probably drag him out from his grave and murder him a second time if he did that. So he’d face Mister Stark and the inevitable amounts of scolding that would ensue when he would arrive in whichever Queens alleyway that Peter had dropped into.
The minutes felt like hours. Peter attempted to keep the pressure steady on his wound as he tried to stay conscious, dipping in and out of the dizzy feeling that made him want to throw up. The only thing that kept him awake was the fact that Karen was blasting warnings throughout his HUD every single time he would begin to dip into unconsciousness.
When Mister Stark finally showed up, he began to regret every single decision that he had ever made, now wanting to go back to the time when maybe he didn’t wait for the billionaire.
“Mister Parker,” Mister Stark’s voice venomously spat out, although through Peter’s blurry vision, he wasn’t sure if the man was walking towards him or away from him. The suit that he had taken to arrive at his destination retracted around him as he stepped out. The Iron Man suit a shell just outside of the alleyway and classic Tony Stark sunglasses still adorned on his face, there was a deep sigh as he assessed the situation in front of him. “What kind of shitshow have you gotten yourself into this time?”
Taking his hand away from the wound, trying to focus his blurry vision on the copious amounts of slick blood on his hand, Peter pulled off his mask and gave the dopiest grin that he could give, half delirious by now. “W’ld you b’lve me ‘f I told ya’ this isn’t the w’rst it’s been?” His words slurred together, trying to ignore the pain that he was feeling. It had gotten worse in the time that he had waited, his veins filling up with something his brain was telling him was most likely not his blood.
Sighing as he walked over to the kid, Peter just a few steps away from him, Tony tried to wrap his arm around the kid’s shoulders, hoping to ease him up slowly against the alleyway wall. When he tried to do so, however, he was met with a cry of pain from Peter, and saw the boy’s eyes start to droop from the pain.
Okay, so getting him up was a no go. So how in the goddamn world was he- out of everyone in the universe- going to get the little spiderling into his MedBay back at the Facility without letting him bleed out or pass out in pain in front of him?
“Kid.” Tony gently tapped the side of Peter’s face, trying anything in an attempt to keep the kid awake. “C’mon, eyes up. You can’t give out on me yet, Pete.” Upon hearing his nickname, Peter’s eyes cracked open just a bit, gazing at Tony like he was something else, confusion lighting up his much too enlarged pupils.
Peter, looking up at whoever had just tried to get him to stay awake, realized that this person he was seeing was supposed to be dead. He had been the cause of his death and- “Ben?” He barely croaked out, seeing his dead Uncle crouched above him, a rather familiar worried look finding its way into the creases of his Uncle’s his face.
Tony’s face dropped when Peter spoke, his worry more than multiplying when he heard Peter’s confused grumble. What the hell had happened to the kid? “No, Underoos, it’s Tony,” he tried to remind the kid, turning Peter’s head so that his eyes directly faced him.
Peter’s eyes were glazed and almost glossy, half open as if the boy was trying to get a better sense of what he was seeing in front of him, the world all blurry. His heart was beating- much too fast, for that matter, everything around him suddenly heightened as if everything was swallowing him whole as he tried to comprehend everything going on around him. Tony’s words didn’t register in his brain, the boy too occupied with the overwhelming amount of pain he was feeling in his stomach, “No-” Peter shook his head, trying to focus his mind on what was in front of him, only seeing Uncle Ben, a man that he couldn’t save. “You-you should be dead Ben. I couldn’t-”
Peter stopped, feeling the familiar feeling of his stomach drop, his face falling along with it as he thought of what happened to Ben. How he had been there, watching the man who watched over him and loved him so fiercely die in his arms while he did nothing. Choking out his next words in a strained tone, he looked hurt as he spoke. “I couldn’t save you. You died .
The moment of when Ben died much too prevalent in Peter’s brain now, the boy could swear they were on that same street side again, the alleyway background fading out around him to the place where Ben had died. The drug store with dim whote neon lighting, a deli shop at the edge of the bodega, the sidewalk almost empty, save for the few bystanders watching in horror. Ben on the floor, and gunshot wound through his chest. The blood on Peter’s hands-
“Pete, I’m right here.” Tony tried to soothe the teenager, unknowingly interrupting Peter’s hallucination back to the night of Ben’s death. Taking Peter’s free hand and placing it over his heart, Tony was unsure of what else to do to prove that he was alive. “And I’m not your Uncle Ben either. It’s me, buddy. It’s Tony. Mister Stark? The one and only Iron Man?” he tried to remind Peter, getting desperate.
Forcing himself to see clearly again, Peter could faintly make out the familiar face of Mister Stark, concern in every crease of his mentor’s face. “M’ster S’ark?” He whispered, seeing the man directly in front of him, crouched down on his knees to be at Peter’s slouched sitting level.
“Yeah, kid.” Tony cracked a pained smile, dropping Peter’s hand and giving him a soft look. “It’s me. Now, c’mon, I need to get you back to the Facility so that you don’t go into shock from all of this cliche bleeding out that you’re doing in an alleyway. You couldn’t have picked anywhere else to decidedly drop into when you get injured?”
Seeing a small smile form at the edge of Peter’s lips and a chuckle from the boy, Tony assumed that everything was alright. He’d just call Cho or Rhodey and they’d be on their way to whatever Medical team was stationed in the MedBay at the Facility. But as soon as everything was thought to be okay, things got worse… much worse.
“M’ster S’ark?” Peter tapped his mentor, his eyes widening as he saw Tony before him, still trapped in that same street where Ben died, the familiar hellish landscape reforming around him. “M’ster S’ark, you’re- you’re bleeding.”
There was a wound leaking through Tony’s stomach, the man looking up at him like nothing was wrong. How could he not see ? He was dying, the same was that Ben had gone and Peter was doing nothing, just sitting there and watching as the blood poured out of the fatal wound that had struck his mentor.
Peter was stuck, just like he was with Uncle Ben, left to watch another person he cared about leave him behind, more blood on his hands after everything he had done to try and make it right. Another round of that cursed Parker Luck had hit again, striking Peter when he was just about happy again. “You’re bleeding , Mister Stark,” the boy repeated, trying to get himself to do something, anything, to help Tony.
Tony looked at the kid in utter confusion, nothing wrong with him. So why in hell was the kid freaking out about him bleeding? Turning away from Peter to not cause him any distress, Tony double-tapped his sunglasses, FRIDAY activating herself, coming to life within the small sunglasses. “FRI, what am I looking at here? Why’d the kid think I was his Uncle Ben, and why the hell does he now think I’m dying?”
“It appears that Mister Parker was given some sort of hallucination-causing drug or poison when he was stabbed by one of Kingpin’s gang members,” FRIDAY informed Tony, her screen showing what the possible poisons and drugs could be in the top right corner of Tony’s right lense.
“Shit,” Tony whispered, realizing that the situation was much worse than he had thought. “Can you let the Medical team back at the Facility know what’s going on? Loop them into what you learn as you learn it. I want them as prepared as possible for when we come in. And call MedVac if you haven’t already please, FRI. I don’t know how much longer the kid can take.”
“Will do, Boss. MedVac is three minutes out,” the AI replied, Tony turning back to Peter when he heard FRIDAY’s confirmation. The kid was bewildered, to put it lightly, his eyes filled with fear as he stared at his mentor.
“Mister Stark- please, stop moving!” Peter gasped, trying to lunge towards the man, giving a wince of pain as Tony placed his hands on the teenager’s shoulders, pushing him back against the wall. “You’re going to-” Peter stopped, squeezing his eyes shut, the memories of Ben’s death too overwhelming, causing his stomach to turn inside out, churning what felt like every organ in his body. Everything was overlapping, the events of the past and present merging, and he couldn’t take it anymore.
“Kid.” Tony took Peter’s chin into his hand, forcing the boy’s face to stare directly at him. Peter’s eyes were still squeezed shut. “Peter,” the man whispered softly, his tone filled with nothing but kindness. Seeing Peter’s eyes open just a crack, Tony almost wanted to collapse in relief. The boy’s pupils were still dilated, too much so, but at least his eyes were locked with Tony’s. “You’re going to be fine . I’m going to be fine. Everything is going to be fine .”
“But-” Peter gasped, the images of Tony bleeding out alongside Ben still fresh in his mind as Tony’s words echoed through his brain. Everything was so raw , and his heart wouldn’t stop racing at a mile a minute, his mind following the pace of his heartbeat. “But you’re-”
“We’re going to be fine,” Tony interrupted the teenager, trying nothing but to reassure him and quell all of the fears inside of his brain. “I’m fine. No bleeding to be seen here, and we’ll get you stitched up as soon as we can get Medical here.” Pulling the kid into a hug, trying not to let Peter hallucinate anything else, Tony held him there, running a hand through the teen’s messy curls until the jarring glow of the MedVac pulled into the alley.
Turning around to see Rhodey and Cho running towards Tony with a medical team, Tony gave a sigh of relief as the MedVac team approached the two heroes. Gingerly handing off Peter to Cho, he whispered one last thing to Peter before he was too far away. “See? We’re going to be okay.”
Rhodey running to where Tony was still kneeling, the man looked at his best friend, covered in blood, sunglasses still on his face even though the sun was long past gone. “This kid’s going to be the death of you, huh?”
All Tony could do was stare up at Rhodes, unsure of what to say. The situation that he had just been a part of… it had been haunting, a chilling reminder that even with Peter’s positivity, the pure amount of trauma he had been a part of could rival his own. “Probably,” he muttered, looking off at where Peter was now being loaded onto the MedVac vehicle, where inside Peter was bound to be hooked up to machines that would flush whatever the hell was in his system out, and the medical team could treat the wounds that he had. Turning back to Rhodey, there was an almost soft smile on his face as he looked up at his friend.
“But that’s why I love him so damn much.”