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Magic sucked.
Peter was 100% clear on that now. No matter how cool it had seemed before, he'd been wrong. Now, he knew better. Magic sucked, especially when the other side could do magic too.
"Shit," he panted, dodging an explosion on his side, bricks catapulted in his very direction before he spun around, shooting a couple of webs up to the ceiling. "Doctor Wizard? A little help?" he called out a bit louder.
Orange sparks opened up a portal in the very direction he was swinging, transporting him right to a spot behind the evil wizard dude. With as much momentum as Peter could generate, he shot towards the guy, feet first, and hit him squarely between the shoulders.
With a grunt, Voldemort crashed to the ground.
Not that that was his name, but Peter had no idea what the dude was called. His nose looked too normal for it to actually be Voldemort, plus Voldemort was a fictional character, but then, until not too recently, Peter had thought that magic wasn't real either and now look at him. He was practically jumping from one continent to the next as their chase of the evil wizard dude took them through portal after portal.
"On your right," Strange called out.
Just in time, Peter did a backflip, effectively avoiding a magical rope that had been heading for him. His feet had barely touched the ground when he fired another series of webs to catch the evil bastard. Just like before, he aimed for the portal that Strange had opened up for him to jump through, but unlike last time, he didn't end up jumping the main dude. What had looked like the dude suddenly shifted, Peter's senses screaming at him.
In a last-minute effort, Peter balled himself up, shooting a string of webs to his left trying to pull himself away from the blast.
#
Tony's feet landed on the sidewalk with a heavy clunk, splitting the stone plate underneath him in two, but he didn't give a fuck. He didn't give a fuck about the people who had pulled out their cell phones and filmed his landing either. With fast long strides, Tony pushed himself to hurry up the stairs of 177A Bleeker Street.
"Subtle as always," Strange mumbled under his breath as Tony pushed the doors open to his study.
"If you know what's good for you, you better not try to fuck with me right now, Strange," Tony growled. "Where the fuck is my Spider-kid?"
Strange was staring at a glowing ball of orange energy, hovering in the middle of the room. It was turning quickly, his eyes darting back and forth across the surface. "I told you. That's what I'm trying to figure out."
Tony's hands were pressed flat against his thighs to keep them from shaking. "I tweaked every system to find the suit but it's dead. None of the trackers, nothing works. I didn't even get a beacon."
"Yeah, I thought as much," Strange mumbled. "The spell acts like an electromagnetic pulse, resulting in a complete failure of any electronic appliances in its immediate vicinity."
"I know what an EPM is, jackass," Tony hissed. "What I want to know is where Peter is!"
"Well, if you'd let me work—"
"Just give me an estimate where I should be looking," Tony interjected.
Strange shook his head. "I can't. He can be anywhere."
Tony's stomach turned. He had to hold onto the table in front of him, feeling a little faint. "A-anywhere? How do you not know where he is?!"
"I can't control Mordo, Stark. That was the whole point of the mission."
With three long steps, Tony was next Strange. His hands tangled in his wizard tunic, Tony pushed him to the side, away from the spinning ball, shaking him. "And you think you could pull my kid in there?"
Before Tony knew what was happening, he was halfway across the room. Strange's rug was wrapped around his middle, pinning him against the wall.
"If you want me to find him, you'll have to let me work."
His tone was calm, lecturing. It made Tony's blood boil.
"Just..." Strange blew out a sigh. "Whatever you can think of to pin down Peter's location or... I guess any tech he has on him. Anything to narrow it down on your end. Do that."
As the rug let go of him, Tony's anger was quickly fading, replaced by dread. "What... what happened out there?"
"Mordo tricked him. He pulled open a portal that Peter must have thought was mine." Strange shook his head. "Peter was too fast. I couldn't stop him in time before the portal closed and the spell Mordo threw after him, it would have decimated anything in close proximity."
A cold chill went down Tony's back, threatening to bring him to his knees. "He's still... he's still here, right," Tony breathed.
Strange pursed his lips. "I think so but we need to find him, Tony," he pressed out. "We need to find him fast."
His mind was racing, hands shaking, as Tony sat on the thick carpet of the Sanctum floor. He had detached the control unit from his prosthetic arm and placed it in front of him on the ground. With the trackers of the suit silent, there was only one thing that might lead them to the kid. The signature vibration of the nanites Peter's suit was made of.
In 2024, Tony was not the only one who worked with nanobots, not anymore, but it was the only way he might be able to limit the scope of the search. Reading out their radiation, then eliminating everything that couldn't be Peter.
"872 locations detected, boss."
"Alright," Tony mumbled. "Let's start with the obvious ones."
He was quick to cross off every one of his own and SI's locations and research facilities. Then followed competing tech companies, car manufacturers, larger government facilities for technology and space, universities, and military facilities.
"Alright, girl, let's..." Tony he heart stuttered in his chest. There were still so many locations left. There was no way to eliminate enough of them. No way to know which one of them was Peter. There had to be something he could do to distinguish the amount of— Tony froze. He was such an idiot. "FRIDAY, calculate the exact signal strength that the amount of nanites stored in Peter's housing units would emanate. Reckon in buffered transmission."
His heart was racing as he watched the numbers roll on the projection until FRIDAY's process reached 100%, rendering every highlighted location on the map red, with four exception.
"Strange!"
He was by Tony's side before Tony had even made it back to his feet. "Brazil, Mexico, China, and—" Strange hesitated, gritting his teeth. "Fucking asshole," he mumbled. "Be ready, Stark. There'll be debris."
With a circular gesture of his hand, Strange opened a portal right in the middle of the room. Just in time, Tony had engaged the nanites on his arm as pieces of brick and concrete came crumbling through the portal onto the carpet.
"Shit," Tony cursed.
Quickly, he directed nanites to catch the falling bricks, then stabilize the pile that threatened to crumble even further into itself. His own hands were shaking, trying to hold up piece of wall.
"Pete," Tony yelled. "Peter!"
Strange's hands were gesturing wildly, swiping away the remnants of the fallen building, replacing them with orange glowing barriers on both sides and above him. Finally, among all the grey powder of crushed cement and stone, Tony saw something flash that resembled the blue and red of Peter's suit.
"He's right there!" Tony wanted to scream it but his voice broke.
Peter didn't move at all. He was hardly distinguishable from his surroundings. His face was covered in a thick coat of grey, dark lines running from his eyes along his face down to his neck, smudge trails of tears or... Tony pressed his lips shut, to keep the sob to himself. Tears of blood.
With practiced precision, Strange opened another portal. It moved with his hands, covering Peter entirely till he was simply gone.
The breath in Tony's throat threatened to choke him. "What... Where—"
Just as quickly, Strange had moved back into the room, debris, and bricks collapsing behind him. The portal hadn't even closed, allowing dust and pieces of the building to crumble further onto the carpet when Strange opened a second portal.
"The Compound," he said calmly. "Go on."
#
There was something warm on his face. Warm light. It didn't quite feel like home, but it felt like comfort. His mind felt a bit fuzzy but that was okay. Things around him were soft and cushy. Safe.
"Come on, sleepyhead. Come on back to me."
A chill went down his back, tingling along his arms into the very tip of his fingers. He knew that voice. That voice was home.
"Petey-pie, I waited long enough. I can see your face twitching."
He did? Peter tried to think, tried to remember what was going on, but then cringed at the throbbing pain in his skull. It was like someone had spent a night tap-dancing on his forehead. Slowly, he blinked his eyes open, a little at first, then a bit more. The very first thing he saw was Tony, sitting in a chair just next to his bed.
"Impeccable timing as always, kid." He leaned closer, his warm hand squeezing Peter's lower arm. "Pepper just made May get something to eat. She will be pissed."
Peter frowned. A blinding pain pierced his head at the motion. His hand shot up, pressing against his head, hoping that might stop the throbbing pain.
"You... you told May?" That wasn't their deal. The deal was not to worry May unless absolutely necessary.
"As opposed to what, hide you for a week?" Tony took a hold of his wrist and dragged it away from his forehead. Instead, he placed his own fingers on Peter's temple and rubbed soft circles into his skin.
Peter groaned at the sensation of the pain dispersing before he remembered what Tony had just said.
"A week?" He tried to get some weight on his arms, to sit up but everything was a little numb and there was something on his chest weighing him down.
"Hey, take it easy..." Tony's hand moved to his shoulder, pushing him back into the bed. "Here, drink some of that."
He angled a straw at Peter's mouth, but as his lips closed around it, Peter flinched back, then prodded the spot with his tongue. There was a large split on his lower lip.
"Yeah, you got banged up pretty good out there. Careful now." Tony moved the water a little closer, mindful to angle the straw away from Peter's injury. "There you go..."
Tony's own lips were pressed flat, non of the signature sparkle in his eyes.
"I've been here a week?"
"No..." Tony's features softened just slightly, one hand moving Peter's hair out of his face so he could place a hand on his forehead. "You'll need some time to heal though."
Peter grunted at that.
"How's the pain?"
The question was friendly enough but he knew Tony. He had probably been sitting there, thinking of what to ask Peter for a long time. Likely all night and most of the day.
"How much pain meds did they already give me?"
One of Tony's eyebrows twitched. "I asked you first."
They had given him a lot then. Possibly more than Tony left was good for him. Maybe that's why he had slept so long.
"I'm good," Peter mumbled. "Maybe... a 5..."
Tony's mouth twitched before he pressed his lips together a little firmer.
"Or maybe... maybe a 4?" Peter added hastily.
Irritation non-withstanding, the lines on Tony's face went a little softer. "I didn't ask you what you think I want to hear, buddy."
"I'm good. I'm fine," Peter mumbled again.
To prove his point, he tried to shuffle up the bed a bit once again, tried to sit up, but something was wearing him down. This time, he had the presence of mind to check and found a curled-up Morgan Stark lying on top of his covers. Like a reflex, his hand shot towards her, the brown hair silky soft under his fingers.
"She assured May that she's going to make sure you're fine while she gets something to eat."
"How long... how long was I out for?"
"Well, it's almost 5 pm now, so that'd be about 15 hours."
Slowly, he took his eyes off Morgan and turned them on Tony instead. "What... what happened?"
The crease between Tony's eyebrows deepened. "How much do you remember?"
In thought, Peter bit his lip, then flinched as the cut right in the middle of it split open once again, filling with mouth with the taste of iron.
"Jeezes, kid... Can you please just—" Tony pressed his lips shut with a huff, his tone far from relaxed. "Here, take this."
He pressed a tissue into Peter's hand, eyes never straying from his face. Peter didn't bother to hide his discomfort this time, dabbing at his lip, trying to remember.
"Strange needed help and..." Memories flash in front of his eyes. Portals. The evil wizard. Then everything went black. "Strange... he okay?"
Tony's eyes hardened pressing his hand and tissue back against his Peter's. "Alright, I want you to forget that you ever even heard that name."
"Come on..." he mumbled.
"I mean it. This... all this magical bullshit. This is not for you. Not your pay grade. Next time the wizard comes knocking, you punch him in the face."
"Tony... don't be like that." Peter's other hand was still in Morgan's hair, absentmindedly combing through it, as he stared into space, wrecking his mind for what had gone wrong. "We were chasing this evil dude and we did the thing we did when... you know..." Peter swallowed hard. "With the Guardians. So I was jumping him, trying to pin the evil wizard guy and web him up and but then..." Peter stopped himself just in time before he bit down on his lip again. "Something happened... I don't..."
"Well, the evil dude can do portals too."
"Oh..." Peter blinked a few times, not sure what to make of it.
"So you jumped through one of his instead of Strange's, then he sent some kind of detonation spell after you, closed the portal, and left you there."
"Oh," Peter said again.
Tony crossed his arms, leaning back in his chair. "Yeah, oh..."
"Where was I?"
"Harlem."
Peter gave his head a tiny shake. "Harlem?"
"Yeah. Harlem." Tony's fingers drummed against the bed frame. "Apparently, the asshole sent you to a basement of a block the city has started demolishing this week."
"Oh..." A sudden snort rolled off his tongue, much to Tony's clear annoyance. "Sorry, it's just... Mount Morris Park, right? The Historic District? I was there, last week at a protest with MJ. Should have made more signs maybe?"
The expression on Tony's face looked pained, obviously not appreciating the irony. "Well, I guess You-Know-Who knew about it too."
Peter's lips stretched into a smile, that made his lip sting. "It's fine, Tony. You can say his name."
With a shake of his head, Tony rolled his eyes towards the ceiling. "Either way, the spell he sent after you blasted out enough of the interior that it knocked you out, it seems, and buried you there. We're lucky we found you when we did." Tony rubbed a hand across his face. "Buried under a building. Again. Only you..."
"Come on, like you never had a building drop on you. It's more of an occupational hazard..." Peter cringed at the mix of horror and despair on his face. "I'm sorry, Tony..."
Those were the magic words and they worked, 87,5% of the time, this time included.
With a sigh, Tony bent forward and pressed a kiss into his hair. "You better save those 'sorry's for your aunt, buddy."
Peter groaned. "Maybe we could just pretend I died or something?"
Tony's eyes gleamed dangerously.
"Or..." Peter quickly added, cheeks heating up. He tried to think but with no luck.
"If you want to be all grown up and jump into trouble like that, you'll have to be grown up enough to stick it out at home, Pete." Tony ruffled his hair, eyes flickering up to the ceiling. "FRI, let May know he's up and talking."
Silently resigning to his fate, Peter handed over the blood soak tissue for Tony to bin, bracing himself for the agony of pampering, kisses, and scolding he would be in for for the foreseeable future.