Chapter Text
Peter had no idea what to do.
"Mr. Stark?" He asked again, hands hovering over the mans unconscious body. Mr. Stark was pale and sweaty, but his heartbeat was steady and breathing even. His suit was broken, plates missing and battered. Like it had been through a tumbler. Peters own suit was better, but still singed and ripped.
They had been busting some sort of alien weapon research facility... again. It should've been easy-peasy! He had been training with the Avengers for almost a year after all. But it was everything but.
The whole building had revealed to have an additional underground floor full of dodgy machinery and security killer robots when they had only signed up to capture a dozen guards and scientists.
It had only been Iron Man, Black Widow, himself, and Hawkeye who was waiting at the jet. But it had still been going well.
Until something activated the huge machine at the center of the laboratory.
It had looked unfinished now that Peter thought. Exposed wires and missing plates, but it had worked enough to have done something huge. Like a lightning magnet it started spinning and making a terrible noise, catching everyone off guard. Everything in the room had gotten sucked in immediately.
Even the walls had been ripping.
Peter had grabbed a sticky hold on the Iron Man suit as Mr. Stark had tried to fly them out. But it hadn't been enough even with Peter using his webs.
They had gotten sucked in like everything else and he was so sure he died as he held on tight to Tony.
"It's okay Peter. His vitals are still steady." Karen assured in his ear again, startling him out of his thoughts.
"But why isn't he waking up?" He asked desperately. He himself still wasn't feeling too hot and he had his abilities, but still.
"Mr. Stark seems to have taken the brunt of the damage." Karen explained, "There are signs of severe head trauma. Injuries do not seem fatal, but I do recommend you get him to a hospital soon."
Hospital.
"Right." Peter swallowed. Hospital…
He shook out his (mildly) trembling hands and looked around. From what he could see, they had ended up at a seemingly abandoned warehouse. He heard city noise all around, witch was worrying, they had been in the middle of nowhere.
Maybe that machine had been a teleporter. "Where are we?"
"I'm sorry Peter, I am unable to connect to my servers and locate our position. FRIDAY is having the same issue." Peter turned to frown down at the Iron Man suit.
"What? Why?" He asked, confused.
"We are unsure Peter, apologies."
He sighed. "No. No, that's fine. I'll figure it out." Somehow. "Okay we need to get him to a hospital. Can FRIDAY disengage the suit?" Evidently she could as the suit started pulling back immediately with only minor concerning sounds. Within a second there was a capsule the size of a gym bag resting at the tip of Mr. Stark's fingertips.
Mr. Stark's who looked rather worse for wear. The Iron man suit was meant to protect all of him, but it seemed he'd still gotten quite a few bruises.
"Okay... could be worse." He sighed as he got up from his knees and pulled his mask on.
He picked up the capsule and webbed it to his back before carefully lifting Mr. Stark in his arms, trying to be careful about jostling him. His breathing was rather shallow and a bit raspy which didn't bode well.
He made his way out of the warehouse, having to kick out the locked door. Outside was quiet and dark. Rows of storage houses and crates sat in the dark humid air and Peter could hear the boats swaying in the waters nearby. Harbor.
"I really hope the hospital is nearby." He sighed as he headed towards the city lights.
He climbed over the chain fence after carefully moving Mr. Stark to his left arm so he could take swinging. It was awkward, but they had trained for this. Briefly. And the carrying each other was more of a tag game they played occasionally.
Peter had gotten to pick up every Avengers member and run around with them on his shoulders and he even got to princess carry Captain America! That one was definitely an awkward hold, but it was a laugh.
On he city definitely wasn't one Peter recognized. Though it wasn't like he traveled much. The architecture was odd, but he was almost certain they were still in the US. The street signs Karen kept trying to locate were in English and in a familiar signage at least. The sky was completely covered in thick gray clouds and smog, but based on the lights and city noise; it was evening, which checked out.
He got distracted from the road when two police cars sped under, heading for what Peter spotted was almost a whole block of buildings on fire. What on earth caused that? Or maybe something not from Earth. The only times Peter had seen fires that big were gas station blow ups, but he couldn't catch the smell of gasoline from this far out and the fire wasn't blooming like gasoline fumes would.
"Spider-man, on your right." Karen interrupted as he swung over a large intersection. On the right he spotted the signpost that read: GOTHAM GENERAL HOSPITAL.
"Gotham?" He asked Karen as he swung that way. Glancing back at the burning buildings. He hated to just leave, but maybe he could go back after making sure Mr. Stark was alright. "Gotham is a nickname used for New York, but I have no record of actual places called Gotham." Karen answered.
"Right," Peter hummed distractedly as he took a difficult left turn. He'd heard that sometime. Gotham General implied Gotham was the cities name, but maybe the hospital was called Gotham.
He landed on a rooftop adjacent to the big hospital.
It seemed busy. The fire must've been bad—not that it had looked not bad.
He dislodged the capsule off his back with one hand and webbed it behind the ventilation boxes. It should be safe there for a little bit.
The hospital reception waiting room was full of people. Peter could smell the blood and smoke everywhere— "Oh God another one," a young nurse breathed as she spotted him stepping in, "gurney!" she called out and jogged over from where she'd been checking another patients bloody nose.
Peter felt a bit silly with the situation (carrying a man bigger than him in one arm) as she maneuvered so she could check Mr. Stark's pupils with a small light.
"He was at the Firefly attack too? How hard did he fall?" The nurse asked and Peter faltered. The what? "Um," but she didn't seem to be expecting an answer because then the gurney was being pushed to them and she hurried Peter to lay Mr. Stark down.
The man didn't so much as twitch and she immediately dismissed him as they started to wheel him off. "Uh, wait-" but they were already out of the room and Peter was left standing dumbfounded. Most civilians around watched on curiously—or more like suspiciously.
Peter shifted self-consciously and walked over to an empty part of wall to lean on. He tapped his wrist and the holograms jumped to life. He told Karen to run a check as he tapped through to check his suits operating capacity. A whopping 30% of web-fluid left.
The connection issue could be as simple as some ripped wire. His suit was a bit roughed up and the Iron suit was definitely damaged, or they could just be too far away... but Mr. Stark had made sure the servers could be reached even in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean and North Pole.
He sighed when Karen's diagnostic came back with only local system damages, in and outgoing connections should be fine.
He put away the specs and crossed his arms, looking around. People were still looking at him and some were taking photos. Nothing he wasn't used to, but his spider senses had been continuously going off ever since they came. Like there was something dangerous behind every corner.
The constant buzz of unfamiliarity wasn't unexpected. He still had no idea what city they were in, but the people around were making it worse.
Left! Watching. Pocket. Watching. Sharp. Wary...
It almost seemed like over third of the people here had at least a pocket knife ready to strike.
"...three apartment buildings... the attack..." Peter's head snapped up to the news TV.
"...Robinson Mall is suspected to have been the target of the attack. We can only be glad he didn't make it there." The scene behind the reporter showed three whole apartment buildings blown to pieces. So it was a terrorist attack?
Peter glanced around the room sadly. Many people must've lost their homes and belongings, if not loved ones.
"The good news is that Firefly has been apprehended and is on his way back to Arkham once more. The emergency responders have finished evacuations and are focusing on containing the flames," so no work for him then. A part of him felt a bit guilty for not going over earlier. There were probably a lot of victims.
Curious. Talking.
Peter moved his attention to a pair of young boys in a corner, that were whispering and none too subtly taking pictures of him. The phone seemed old though, the picture would be blurry from that distance.
"I don't think so?" One muttered, "Maybe he's new? Or visiting." The blonde boy said, casting his suit appraising glances. "Nah," the bigger boy shook his head, "I can't find anything with the pictures."
Peter frowned. Him and Ned had played with Googles picture search a lot. It should be able to recognize him even burnt when he was just standing around. People took a lot of pictures of him on the streets in every quality and lighting.
He took a deep breath and pushed off the wall. He made his way over to a nurse that seemed to be done checking on the people. "Excuse me," he spoke quietly, "would you be able to tell me how Mr. Stark is doing?"
The nurse blinked and took a step back. "Sorry, who?"
"Tony Stark? Who I brought in?"
"Oh," the nurse glanced down at her papers. Her heartbeat was spiking in a way that had Peter feeling she was running on pure caffeine. "Let me check. It's good we got a name..." She hurried over behind the desk and Peter followed.
"You brought him um... half an hour ago?" Peter nodded. "Dark hair, average white male, unconscious," she muttered. "Tony Stark you said? Tony is his name?"
Peter shifted. "Anthony Stark." he clarified.
"You sure?" she asked as she clearly typed it in.
"Quite sure," Peter said distractedly, "How is he?"
For a moment the nurse didn't answer, glancing down at her pager, "He's stable. It seems he didn't need surgery, but he has severe head trauma." She answered generally.
"Can I see him?" Peter asked. He wondered why they hadn't already let him see him. Aunt May had been a nurse so he knew they didn't let in strangers, but everyone knew Spider-man was close with the Avengers.
The nurse looked up at him, "We can't let you in without verification." She explained.
Okay. Something was either seriously wrong or these guys were really strict.
He opened his mouth—"Peter," Karen cut in, "I do not think it is wise to argue. You can come back as a civilian." Peter deflated and sighed. But she was right, that made sense.
He forced a smile—which the nurse wouldn't see so he didn't know why he bothered—and took a step back. "Well thank you. I hope he recovers. Someone should be coming to see him." He waved as he turned and left.
He swung back on the roof where the Iron suit was still securely hidden and sat down. The concrete was cold but that was what the heater was for.
"Okay Karen, can you get connection somewhere? It might be an issue on the servers back at the tower. We need something in the meantime."
"Yes I have ben looking for networks to get into. But it is illegal so I need permission."
Peter squeezed his eyes shut. Right, that. But they weren't doing it maliciously and Karen and FRIDAY were sneaky. God he was feeling off and exhausted from adrenaline and worry. It had not been a fun turn of events. "Right… You just do that and I'll," He'll… come on.
"I have to find some clothes. Do you think they'd let me sleep at the hospital?" He asked as he looked down at the streets. Ambulances weren't speeding towards the fire anymore.
"It's worth a shot Peter."
It took him almost an hour to locate some clothes.
He'd crossed a large park that seemed to cut this part of the city in half. The hospital side had been quite hopeless for anything cheap, but past and above the park seemed emptier.
He'd found a small second hand store and dipped in to look around. He always carried some change on patrol to buy little things for homeless people and candy for kids. The 19$ wasn't much, but it'd have to do for now.
There weren't many options, but there was a rack with everything at 3$. He picked a worn dark blue hoodie and black sweats, there were some good T-shirts, but he decided to keep his suit on under. Then he still wanted a bag to hide the compressed armor, witch he found in the form of a simple black bag with a zip.
The clerk didn't even blink at him as he rang Spider-man out, all this taking almost all his money.
The sky grew even darker as he swung over the park back to the roof.
He stuffed the armor into the bag—that luckily was big enough—and pulled on his "new" clothes. He zipped his mask in the bag with the Iron suit and made his way down the fire escape. He covered the collar of the suit as best he could by pulling the hood tight; now he'd just hope no one questioned his footwear.
The hospital doors opened again to show a much emptier reception area. The TV was running more news quietly and a new male nurse stood behind the computers. When he noticed Peter his brows scrunched worriedly. "Hey kid. You need help?"
"Hey," Peter greeted as he jogged walked over, "I'm good, but is visitation over yet?"
"It was half an hour ago kid, sorry. Who were you coming in for?" He said, his expression relaxing, but Peters' shoulders slumped. "Mr. Stark," he answered.
"Ah," his lips pursed as he tapped away, "how do you know him?"
"I'm his intern." Peter answered right away.
"Hmm, we can let you see him tomorrow with some proof of identity." He looks back to Peter, "From ten to eight."
"Alright," Peter sighed and took if for what it was. He once again took his leave with a polite goodbye.
What was he to do now? The wind swept cold as he started walking down the cobbled road. He didn't know where he was and he didn't have a phone. Just two broken AIs scouring for illegal internet and no money for a hotel room. Even shelters would be closed soon. Wait— He turned right back around and walked back to the hospital.
"Where am I exactly?" He asked at the reception and the man blinked at him. "Gotham's general hospital." He answered and now he was looking Peter over again worriedly. Great.
"Yeah, but like... where's Gotham?" he asked, shifting on his feet.
"It's in New Jersey. Were you at the Firefly attack with your— mentor? Do you need a checkup?" The nurse queried.
"No no. I mean—" he scrunched his brows and took a breath, "I was with Mr. Stark and I only hit my head a little. I just haven't heard of Gotham before." Yeah, that made sense.
The nurse seemed skeptical. "Let me check you over quick, just to be sure. Gotham is a very known city." he said and pushed up from his chair.
"No no, that's fine, I'm fine," Peter said quickly and stepped back, "I should be getting home, just wanted to check in on him." He almost ran back out, but that would've been suspicious.
Batchat 3:24
Tim: Seems a new face dropped in town
Tim: [sent an attachment]
Bruce: We will look at it in the morning.
Tim: Totally👍
6:49
Tim: I can't find ANYTHING like wtf
Tim: this spider guy was sighted grappling over the highway, but nothing else. There's no previous sightings of him. Could be just a whole new guy or just a new suit on someone
Tim: even the dude he brought in doesn't match up. The hospital can't identify him even with a name, witch is Anthony Stark, and they must have run a blood test already. They've put him down as one of yesterdays victims, but I definitely didn't see this new spider guy there.
Dick: Tim you have school today.
7:25
Tim: They came from the harbor!
Dick: Get up here, Alfred made waffles for breakfast.
8:30
Babs: I'll be looking into it.