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“Peter!”
“Peter, you need to wake up!”
“Come on Peter, I need you to wake up right now, please!”
Peter surged awake in a blind panic and tried to catch his breath. Something terrifying had happened…or rather, it seemed like he had a nightmare. Peter hadn’t been sleeping well the last couple days and it seemed that he dozed off on the bus this morning.
“Finally you’re awake!” Ned exclaimed next to him and Peter gave him an awkward smile as he stretched. “We’re almost to Stark Industries! I’ve been trying to wake you up for the past ten minutes.”
“Sorry Ned, I must have been exhausted.” Peter replied, rubbing his head. Despite finally getting some sleep, his head was pounding and his Spidey sense was giving off a low warning. He must be worse off than he thought if even his powers were acting up.
“Parker just doesn’t want to admit that he’s going to be humiliated today when they prove he’s lying about his internship.” Flash sneered from the seats across from them and Peter let a grimace slip. Flash had been relentless in the past month ever since the field trip had been announced. Peter couldn’t even look forward to the trip with how anxious he was. It wasn’t exactly like he could admit what his internship actually was and no one in the lower levels would recognize him. What he needed was a miracle to happen and Ms Potts or Mr Stark show up and vouch for him. With Mr Stark gone on a business trip, he was unlikely to have a chance.
“At least now we know why Peter decided to be unconscious. It’s better than looking at you, Eugene.” MJ sneered and Flash glared at the three of them before turning back to his own group of friends. Peter gave her a grateful look.
“Thanks MJ.”
“Least I can do for someone who is doing a good impression of a zombie today.” She replied with a smirk before her face shifted revealing her concern, “Why don’t you just rest until we get there? I think there’s still another twenty minutes left because of some accident up ahead from a bus.”
Peter nodded absentmindedly. Luckily his bad luck regarding field trips hadn’t kicked in quite yet. He didn’t think he was in the right state of mind to save his classmates if anything happened to the bus now, not that he wouldn’t try. A sharp stab of pain to the back of his eyes confirmed his thoughts and he let out a small whine of pain as he settled back and closed his eyes. The fumes of the bus and the rattling of the windows wouldn’t help but perhaps closing his eyes for a bit might help with the growing migraine…
“Peter, please.”
“You have to wake up. The bus-“
Peter woke up to everyone piling off the bus while Ned was gently shaking his shoulder.
“You sure you’re okay for this?” Ned asked, looking concerned. Peter winced as he rubbed at his temples before giving Ned a rather pained look.
“I have to go, Ned. You know how much Flash would use this against me if I disappeared last minute. Besides, what if Mr Stark shows up? He’s supposed to be back any day now and he said he would have a surprise for me when he got back. That could be anything!”
“Fine, but you need to let Mr Harrington know if you get too bad. You know your track record with field trips, dude.”
“Yeah, I know. That’s why I want this one to go well!”
The two teens got off the bus and found MJ rather quickly. She looked slightly concerned as they walked up but it quickly morphed back to her nonchalant attitude.
“Took you both long enough. Did you have enough time to make out when you were on the bus by yourselves?” She asked sarcastically and Ned gave her a solemn nod.
“Unfortunately there was not enough time to keep going.”
“Shame.” She replied with a small smirk, trying to hold back a laugh. Peter smiled weakly and the group moved forward to gather around Mr Harrington who was looking as frazzled as ever.
“Alright class, we’re here to represent Midtown and I want you all on your best behavior. No wandering off, that means you Parker, and no funny business.”
“What about serious business?” MJ asked, deadpan and Mr Harrington groaned before responding.
“If it’s my kind of serious business then let me know. Otherwise stay with the group. Or else.”
As Midtown entered Stark Industries, Peter felt a wave of nausea as his Spidey sense grew more alert, his senses dialing up as his body instinctively prepared for trouble. Despite looking around desperately, there was nothing he could see that would warrant his body to go haywire. The heightened perception only caused his migraine to get worse.
Security went by smoothly. He could see Flash watching from afar, waiting to call him out on not knowing everyone in the building. Peter only murmured hellos to the rather familiar security guards before passing through. They left him alone, seeing the teen who had grown visibly pale and sluggish.
“Are you sure you’re okay?” Ned asked, looking over Peter with a critical eye, “You look like you’ve been hit by a bus.”
“I feel like it.” Peter groaned quietly. He grabbed the badge that Ned handed him and felt nauseous as the letters swam around. It seemed that Peter wouldn’t be reading anything today.
“Maybe you should call Mr Stark?” Ned suggested, “Even if he’s not here you’ll probably be able to go up the med bay or something.”
“I don’t want to bother him. I’ll be fine. I just want to know why I feel like something’s wrong…”
“Is it the Peter tingle?”
Peter smacked Ned in the arm.
“Don’t call it that!”
“No roughhousing!” Mr Harrington called from across the lobby and the two boys grimaced.
“Sorry!” They chorused before Ned gave Peter a look.
“You think something is going to go wrong?”
“I think something is already wrong but I don’t know what. I…something isn’t right and subconsciously I know it isn’t but I can’t figure out what it is.” Peter’s head is swimming and as he glances down at his tour badge, the words seem to morph and shift as his head pounds.
“I really think you should go see someone about this but if you’re sure, I’ll stick with you the entire time.”
“You don’t have to, Ned. I know you've been looking forward to this trip for weeks!” Peter protested but Ned merely put an arm on his friend’s shoulder.
“Dude, you’re more important than Stark Industries.”
Peter smiled warmly at his friend only to hear a snort of laughter nearby. He looked over to see MJ smirking at them.
“Can I at least be invited to the wedding?” She asked and Ned nodded.
“MJ, you can be my best woman.”
“Sweet.” She smiled at them before nodding at the rapidly disappearing group, “Come on lover boys, we’re going to get left behind.”
The rest of the day was a painful blur. Going from room to room caused Peter to be in a constant state of nausea, he couldn’t read anything around him and trying to do so would only give him sharp headaches, and his Spidey sense was going haywire. Every so often, in the corner of his eye, he would see a flash of vibrant red. His instincts screamed that whatever it was, it wasn’t supposed to be here. If Peter thought he could make it to whatever it was without falling flat on his face, he’d try to find out what it was.
“Are you sure I can’t convince you to go to the medbay?” Ned whispered as they went through yet another lab on whatever floor they were on now.
“I’m sure, Ned.” Peter breathed, “I just want Mr Stark to be back so he can be the one to figure out what’s going on.”
“Are you still pretending to be sick so you don’t get caught in a lie, Parker?” Flash sneered as he walked up to the duo. Ned’s face immediately flushed in anger and started to immediately argue with the other teen. Peter tried to pay attention in case he had to step in, but in the distance, he finally caught sight of whatever was causing his body to be on high alert. It was a man dressed in what looked to be like blue robes and the vibrant red thing Peter kept spotting was his cape. His hair was brunet but was greying at the temples. Weirdly enough, his facial hair looked similar to Mr Stark’s. When the man realized he had finally been spotted, he smirked and immediately stepped into the nearby elevator which indicated he was going up.
Peter stumbled past Ned and Flash, both of whom cried out after him, for different reasons, but Peter didn’t care. That man he saw wasn’t supposed to be here and was potentially going upstairs to do who knows what. Peter practically fell into the elevator and it closed swiftly behind him.
“Peter, are you okay?” Peter glanced up from the floor at the sound of Friday’s voice and grimaced as the entire room was swimming and he couldn’t make out the control panel. Luckily Friday finally had decided to make her appearance.
“Friday, can you take me up to wherever that man went up to? He’s not supposed to be here…”
Peter trailed off as another wave of pain hit him, distracting him from what Friday said. He didn’t even notice the normal ear pop as the elevator zipped up to the penthouse as he hunched over against the elevator wall.
Finally, the elevator doors opened revealing the strange man, smirking down at him before stepping to the side.
“Mr Stark!” Peter cried out as his mentor sprinted to him from the penthouse.
“Kid! Hey, hey! It’s alright! I got you.” The inventor cooed at him as he gathered the superpowered teen in his arms and guided him into the penthouse and onto the sofa.
“It was more difficult to corral him up here. He wanted to stay buried deep.” The caped-man stated and Tony looked over at him.
“Is it more likely we can help him now?”
“Yes. Now that he’s more aware it should be enough.”
“What are you talking about?” Peter slurred, head feeling like mush. Tony turned back down to look at Peter.
“Kid, I’m not really sure how to tell you this but this is all in your head. You never made it to Stark Industries today.”
“What?” Peter murmured, frowning as he tried to remember.
“Your bus was caught up in a fight between sorcerers. You got involved and prevented your class from becoming injured at the expense of your health and identity.” The man explained, “You’ve been in a coma for the past twelve hours due to a combination of getting hit by a magical attack as well as taking a bus to the head.”
“Aunt May always said I was hard headed…” Peter trailed off, his headache worsening. At least that explained the migraine.
“That’s Doctor Strange, he’s a good wizard who took care of the bad wizards you helped deal with. He made it so we could come in your head while you’re asleep to try and pull you from your coma since it was induced by a…spell. God, I hate that word-“
“Anyways-“ Doctor Strange cut in, “I owe you a favor for dealing with the rogue sorcerers while on your way to a field trip. The least I can do is help save your life by giving you a fighting chance.”
“So what do I have to do?” Peter asked. Doctor Strange and Tony looked at each other for a moment before turning back to Peter.
“All we need you to do is wake up. We’ll take things from there.” Tony assured and Peter smiled at him weakly.
“Anything for you, Mr Stark.”
As Peter attempted to try and focus, the room around them began to look hazier, like a watercolor painting of the penthouse. Doctor Strange finally smiled.
“Alright Stark, this is all up to him now.”
Tony nodded before turning back to Peter. After a moment of hesitation, he pulled the teen into a hug.
“Oh, we’re there now.”
“Yeah, kid. We are. Now wake up.”
The two men disappeared in a blink of an eye leaving Peter alone in a world melting around him. Peter could feel his eyes drooping from exhaustion and finally just…let……….go…………
As he came back to awareness, the smell of antiseptic lingered in the air around him and the low constant beat of a heart monitor echoed through the room. Peter blearily opened his eyes to see Tony sitting next to him and Doctor Strange in a chair across from him, both seemingly waking up as well.
“Peter!” The inventor exclaimed, leaning forward and clearly wide awake now.
“Hey Mr Stark. I think my field trips are cursed.” Peter joked weakly.
“You’re officially banned from field trips. You’re only being kidnapped to go on vacation from now on.”
As Doctor Strange began to check on him using magical and mundane means to make sure he started to heal properly, Peter merely held Tony’s hand quietly. His mentor had come back for him. This field trip may have been over for him before it even started, but Peter couldn’t find it in him to regret it.