Chapter Text
Tony grinned and pulled off his sunglasses when the three teenagers that he had been waiting for approached the car he had parked outside the front of the school.
“You two got your bags all packed and ready to go?” Tony asked the teenagers that were temporarily under his care. He had rolled down the window to enjoy the spring breeze and ignored the whispers of people in awe of seeing him there despite it not being a rare instance considering how often he volunteered to pick up Peter when he wasn’t patrolling or at AcaDec.
“All ready,” Harry answered with an easy smile as he held up his large duffel bag that Tony knew costed a pretty penny considering he had the same one but in a different color.
“Oh no, I totally forgot about the bag that would contain everything I would need for the next week and a half,” Michelle said sarcastically with said duffle bag being shouldered by Peter at the moment.
“A simple yes or no would have sufficed,” Tony sassed back. At this point, Tony felt that Michelle didn’t feel so angrily towards him anymore and just did it for the appearances.
Michelle rolled her eyes with a laughing huff and slid into the car’s back seat. Harry was still outside as he handed his travel bag over to his best friend to throw in the trunk before claiming shotgun for himself. With a dull thunk as Peter closed the trunk, the super hero teenager jumped in the back seat behind Harry.
“This is going to be so exciting,” Peter beamed. After getting permission from everyone’s guardians – not like Norman needed to as he was away and said yes to everything Harry asked for over text – Peter was bringing Michelle and his two best friends on spring break with him. Tony had yet to announce to the teenagers and Morgan where they were going but he promised that it was going to be an awesome trip.
Ned, unfortunately, was going to be joining them tomorrow as his family had wanted one last night with him before sending him on the trip. The plan was that Ned’s mom would drop him off at the tower early in the morning and they would spend the day hanging out before they loaded up the Quinjet and flew to wherever they were going during the night. Michelle and Harry had gotten permission to go home from school to the tower with Peter and Tony.
“So, Stark, wanna give us a hint of where we are going?” Harry asked with a waggle of his eyebrows as Tony put the car into drive to leave the parking lot.
“If I did, Peter's scary girlfriend would figure it out immediately,” Tony chuckled.
“Oh? That is making me more interested about this trip,” Michelle smirked. She reached over to hold Peter’s hand and looked out the window. “As long as we don’t go to an island, I’m sure we are golden.”
“What’s wrong with islands?” Harry frowned and turned around in his seat to look at Michelle and Peter.
“Peter has been almost washed away alive by a tsunami wave and crushed inside an active volcano when he went on two different island trips,” Michelle answered.
“It’s really not that big of a deal,” Peter shrugged.
“Peter, really?!” Harry barked a laugh, turning back in his seat to look out the front windshield. “Does your Parker Luck hate you that much?!”
“Apparently,” Peter snorted. Leaning forward, Peter waggled his eyebrows playfully at Harry. “You wanna give it a go for a day?”
“Nah, I like living,” Harry snarked, throwing a smirk over his shoulder.
“We just have to use all of our combined luck to offset Pete’s,” Tony said and looked in the rearview mirror to wink at his pretty much adopted son. “We might have just enough where the worst thing Peter will come home with is a broken nose.”
“You think you are funny but you really aren’t,” Peter deadpanned despite Harry and Michelle laughing.
“Alright, you munchkins, it’s past your bedtime,” Tony announced with a clap of his hands.
There were four groans of annoyance that responded to Tony at that. Morgan had joined the teenagers for a Star Wars marathon – Tony was sure that Peter had the entire saga of movies memorized by this point – and he could see how she was fighting against sleep with all her might. She was leaning heavily against Michelle who had an arm wrapped around the 6-year-old.
Harry and Peter lowered their lightsabers after reenacting the Anakin and Obi-Won fight in the third chronological movie. Tony had no clue to expect that Harry would be a total Star Wars nerd like Peter and Ned. It was hilarious to see the three of them watching the second movie and copy the Obi-Wan and Anakin vs. Count Dooku fight scene.
“Awww, Mr. Stark,” Peter complained. “It’s not even that late.”
“Don’t you ‘Mr. Stark’ me,” Tony wagged a finger at his kid. “Ned is supposed to be here bright early in the morning and I’m sure you don’t want to be a bad host to him.”
“Ned would just go fanboy over Mr. Rogers and Mr. Barnes sparing in the gym for a couple hours,” Peter shot back. “He’s been over enough times that he knows how to let himself in.”
“I will give Bucky full permission to embarrass you with mission stories if you don’t go to bed,” Tony threatened, raising an eyebrow at Peter.
“What type of stories?” Michelle asked with interest peaked.
“The type that will have Peter webbing my mouth shut before I can say a word,” Tony smirked.
“And we’re going to bed,” Peter said quickly as he turned off the TV.
“Wait, I want to hear these,” Harry said as he stayed in place.
“Harry – so help me – I will carry you over my shoulder,” Peter huffed. Morgan had already passed out in the commotion so Peter scooped her off of Michelle to pass over to Tony. “You will weigh like nothing to me.”
“I don’t doubt you could considering I watched you holding a burning building from crashing in front of my eyes.” Yawning, Harry rubbed at his eyes. “I guess we should hit the hay.”
“A smart decision,” Tony chuckled. He adjusted Morgan on his hip so she was comfortable with how she was draped against his side. Peter could see a small stain of drool already formed on Tony’s shoulder.
“Night, Stark,” Harry waved to Tony as he entered the guest room he would be using for the night.
“Goodnight Harry,” Tony nodded at his rival’s son. Tony had no clue if Harry called him by his last name out of habit of hearing his father do so or if that’s how he wanted to actually do so. It didn’t bother him much as Harry had a lost less venom applied to his name than how Norman would say it.
Michelle stood up from the couch and stretched her arms above her head with a yawn. “I didn’t realize how late it got,” she said, rubbing at her eyes. “Tony is right. We should get to bed.”
“You sleeping in my room with me?” Peter asked.
“Where else would I go? Harry took the guest room,” Michelle teased, grabbing ahold of Peter’s hand. They were old enough and responsible enough that their guardians allowed for the occasional night spent over at the other’s place while in the same bed. Most of the time it was for special events like an early field trip the following day or a project that ran late where neither’s guardian wanted either of them to take the trip in the dark home.
Despite that, Tony still took the chance to tease them.
“There better be nothing that will make your parents and May mad at me, got it?” Tony warned them playfully with a finger pointed at the young couple. “I’m too young to be a grandpa yet.”
“Oh my god, Mr. Stark,” Peter groaned and dragged a hand down his face. “You are so embarrassing.”
“We aren’t going to do anything,” Michelle rolled her eyes and put a hand on her cocked-out hip.
“I know but I still have to give you two the warning,” Tony snickered and hiked Morgan up once again. For someone so little, she was heavy when completely asleep. “It’s my job as a parent.”
“An embarrassing one,” Peter murmured.
“I heard that,” Tony said.
“You were meant to,” Peter sassed and stuck his tongue out at Tony. Softly tightening his grip on Michelle’s hand, Peter pulled her along after him. “Goodnight, Mr. Stark.”
“Night, Stark,” Michelle said with a small wave.
“Goodnight, both of you,” Tony said and inclined his head to them.
Once they had turned the corner into Peter’s room and the door closed, Tony had continued on his trip to Morgan’s room farther down the hall. Her room was closer to her parents’ room seeing that she was young and still needed comfort from scary dreams that plagued her. Though, sometimes when Peter was over at the tower, Tony would wake up to find out Morgan had slipped into Peter’s bed for cuddles instead of him.
Tony had entered Morgan’s room and tucked is daughter into bed, kissing her on the forehead. She murmured in her sleep before turning to her side. Her hands patted around the bed until she found her stuffed unicorn and brought it close to cuddle, sighing deeply as she settled into sleep. Tony chuckled and drew the blanket up higher before making his way out of the room.
Unlike his charges that he had just sent to bed, Tony had no plans to sleep yet. As much Tony liked to preach to his kids about the importance of a healthy sleep schedule, he himself did not practice those values. He always had an unhealthy relationship with sleep and it was something he still couldn’t shake off.
Much to his displeasure, Peter wasn’t that far off with his Spider-Man patrol schedule. It’s why Tony enforced the curfew so hard. Peter could stay up all hours he wanted to when he was a grown adult but Tony was going to try his damnedest to get Peter to sleep as much as possible while his growing teenage body still needed it.
Making his way to his lab, Tony spied the new model of the Stark phone that he was prototyping. He dropped down into his desk chair and settled into his seat. Interlocking his fingers together, he stretched his arms out forward enough until he heard his fingers crack.
“Alright, let’s do some work before bed,” Tony smiled to himself before grabbing the work-in-progress. Tony let himself get lost in his tinkering for a couple hours before his back yelled at him to take a break. With a groan, Tony stood up from his stool and cracked his back. “Might as well make some coffee,” he mumbled to himself.
Despite preaching a good night of sleep, Tony did not abide to his own words. It was going to take an act of a higher power to make Tony go to sleep at this rate.
Dragging his feet to the kitchen, Tony made a beeline to the coffee maker that Friday already had going. The steaming brown liquid beckoned to Tony and he perked up at the smell of it. His favorite ‘world’s greatest dad’ made by Morgan with Peter’s help had already been set up. Grabbing the handle, Tony felt the tension leak out of him at the first sip.
“AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!”
Peter’s scream rang out through the residential floor. Coffee sprayed out of Tony’s mouth across the countertop. The mug in Tony’s hand crashed on the ground as he bolted across the floor, uncaring that he would have to clean it up later.
“Someone help!” Michelle’s voice screamed shrilly from Peter’s room.
Tony have never heard Michelle scream like that and it made the blood drain from his face. He put more speed into his legs to get to the room faster. Tony nearly ran into the wall as he turned the sharp corner into the hallway leading to all the bedrooms.
The door to Harry’s guest room flew open and a hand clamped on the edge of the doorframe as he swung himself out. The boy’s hair was a wild mess and he was without a shirt, only a pair of plaid sleep pants that looked rumpled with wrinkles. Tony watched Harry ran the few steps to and threw open the door of Peter’s room before running in, the sound of Peter’s screams louder now that the barrier obstructing the sound was gone.
The adrenaline in Tony’s veins grew stronger at the screams and Tony’s speed increased. A moment later, he was turning the corner into the room. If Peter’s screams were loud before, they were deafening now that Tony was in the room.
Peter was still screaming as he covered his ears, his back arched as he thrashed his head back and forth. Peter’s feet would kick out as if to fight off his invisible attacker, stiffening up for a moment before resuming their kicking. His eyelids were peeled back as far as he could and they had a faraway look to them. Like even though he was awake, he wasn’t seeing anything from the pain that seemed to assault him.
Michelle was kneeling on the bed next to him with Harry holding her back so Peter didn’t accidently hurt her, her stiff body seeming to breathe a sigh of relief when she saw Tony come bursting into the room. Her curly hair was wild from her abrupt awakening.
“I don’t know what’s wrong!” Michelle exclaimed. Her eyes were blown wide with panic as she kept staring at Peter, her hands hovering in the air above him. Harry was reaching a hand out to Peter, a short length away from touching his shoulder.
“Don’t touch him! He’ll break your hand like a toothpick!” Tony yelled, making Harry and Michelle pause before snapping their hands back from the thrashing superhero. He pressed a button on his watch and nanobots crawled out of the housing unit on his chest and down his arms to form a partial coverage of his suit.
Tony approached carefully, watching Peter’s movements. All it would take was one stray kick or thrash and it would leave Tony with a broken bone or worse. While Peter was very good at controlling his strength and pulling his punches, that control went out the window when Peter was this overcome by pain that it blocked all other thoughts.
It would do no good to have the one person that could potentially defend against a delirious-from-pain superhuman hands go down with one wrong strike from Peter. But at the same time, he needed to check on Peter and the way he was holding onto his ears. It was the only clue he had to go off of.
Right after Peter finished another stint of kicking, Tony dove forwards and grabbed onto Peter’s wrists. He started to use the strength of the partial suit to pull Peter’s hand from his ears and Peter’s growing cries of pain almost made Tony release his hold right then and there. But, he had a job to do and Tony leaned closer to look at Peter’s ears. A sharp curse slipped out of Tony’s mouth when he saw the thin trails of blood leaking out.
“Fri! What’s going on with him?!” Tony ordered his AI.
“Searching.” Friday seemed to pause as she tried to find what is wrong with Peter. “Sir, if I may, Rogers and Barnes are also experiencing an extreme reaction like the mini boss to something unknown.”
Tony furrowed his brows. “What do you mean?” He grunted as Peter tried pushing him away and curled up in a tight ball.
“They are reacting just like mini boss, just to a lesser degree,” Friday explained. “Wilson, Romanov, and Barton are currently trying to help them but cannot get too close in fear of being struck on accident. Dr. Banner has locked himself in a soundproof panic room in case whatever is happening would cause a Code Green.”
“Smart move on Bruce’s part,” Tony said. Tony looked down at how Peter kept trying to cover his ears, not seeing anything over whatever pain he was feeling. “Fri, are the super soldiers also trying to cover their ears?”
“Yes sir,” Friday said immediately. “Boss, Barton is also reporting a malfunction of his hearing aids and is relying on sign language with Romanov.”
The dot connected quickly in Tony’s head. “We’re under attack,” he said grimly.
“Excuse me?” Harry frowned. “How’d you come to that conclusion?”
“Somewhere, there are supersonic wavelengths that are high pitched enough that only our three enhanced fighters and Legolas’s hearing aids can hear,” Tony explained. All at once, Tony knew what to do. He jumped off of the bed – Peter immediately covering his ears and curling into himself – to rush over to Peter’s dresser. He had spied Peter’s specially made noise-blocking headphones on there earlier.
Swiping the headphones off the dresser, Tony returned to Peter who had fully curled into a ball while still screaming. Without a word, Tony passed the headphones to Harry. “When I give you the signal, put them on his head.”
“Got it,” Harry nodded. Michelle wrung her hands out as she watched her boyfriend suffer.
Without further ado, Tony grabbed at Peter’s hands and pulled them away from his ears again. It felt like he was trying to pick up Mjolnir with how much force he had to use, Peter fighting back as much as possible. Peter’s screeches of pain were a blow to his heart as the sound attack full force with no barrier but it had to be done.
“Now, Harry!” Tony ordered.
Harry didn’t say anything as he listened to Tony’s words and slipped the headphones over Peter’s head. It was like a flick of a switch with how Peter went limp. The screams of pain and suffering had cut out with a harsh whimper and he stopped fighting against Tony. Peter breathed in buckets of fresh air as he closed his eyes, light hands now pressed to the ear coverings of his headphones.
They all sat there for a moment, letting the silence that was only broken by Peter’s deep breathing wash over them. Somewhere down the hall, Tony could hear Pepper hushing Morgan’s sad whimpers and he remembered that his daughter’s room was just next door. Tony made a note to go check on Morgan after everything settled down.
Inhaling deeply without opening his eyes, Peter turned his eye towards Michelle’s direction. “MJ?” Peter breathed in the softest whisper, a hand reaching to her.
Michelle gasped a small sob and lunged onto the bed, pulling Peter close to her. Peter flinched at the contact as his sense were dialed up all around but the need for comfort overrode it. Peter finagled himself so that his upper body was resting in Michelle’s lap and his face was buried in the fabric of her shirt at her stomach. His arms came around to wrap around MJ’s back and Michelle hugged Peter’s head, running a hand through his sweaty curls as she whispered hushed comforting words to him.
Harry deflated, shoulders falling in on himself now that Peter wasn’t screaming anymore. Leaning back with a hand on his hip, the other pushed his sleep ruffled hair back. “Holy shit, I thought I was going to crap myself back there for a second,” Harry grumbled with a huff of a laugh. He looked over at Tony. “I don’t think I’ve heard Pete scream that loud in my life.”
Tony winced as he recalled a moment similar – watching Peter scream as Venom slowly enter and take over the teenager’s body. At that time, Tony really thought he was going to watch Peter die. Even with that, Tony was sure that Peter’s screams were louder this time around but that might be because the symbioate’s slimy body had crawled down Peter’s throat and cut off his ability to scream.
Peeking back at Peter, Tony watched for only a moment as Michelle consoled Peter before steeling himself. Standing up tall and pulling his shoulders back, Tony placed on his hands on his hips. Usually, he would have clapped his hands to get the attention on himself but Tony didn’t want to risk upsetting Peter’s senses more than they already were.
“Friday, give me a status report,” Tony said into the air. Silence greeted him despite his AI just talking to them minutes ago and Tony looked up. “Friday?”
“I think they’ve cut power to the tower,” Harry said with a flat grimace. He proved this by clicking the switch to the lamp next to Peter’s bed and it did not illuminate.
Tony groaned and smacked his hands to his face. This was just going from bad to worse. First, the three enhanced members of the team were currently down. Now whoever had launched this attack had cut power to the tower and Tony’s connection to Friday.
Tony cleared his throat and jerked his chin at Harry. “Osborn’s actually-pretty-decent spawn, you’re coming with me,” Tony told Harry.
Harry lifted an eyebrow. “What about Pete and Michelle?” Harry asked.
Tony peeked behind Harry at Peter again. “Peter is in no shape to move and I need Michelle to stay with him.”
“Shouldn’t I stay with them too?” Harry asked.
A snort broke through Tony’s nose. “I’m going to need some young bones to do some heavy lifting for me,” Tony joked but at the same time serious. “My back isn’t up to prying open lab doors for me.”
“Does this mean I’m an avenger?” Harry asked in an excited voice, eyebrows jumping up.
“Honorary avenger-in-training,” Tony said with a smirk.
“Aww man,” Harry pouted, shoulder slumping.
“I think multiple people would be pissed at me if I made you an avenger this quick,” Tony said, leaning on one leg with a hand propped on his hip. “Mainly Harley.”
“Does that mean I can be in the future?” Harry asked, eyes twinkling.
“Sure…if you get powers or become a super spy that can go toe-to-toe with a god,” Tony joked.
“What about if I get a suit?” Harry smirked.
“Sorry but that position is filled,” Tony teased.
“What about if we count how long I’ve been a part of the Spider’s Web?” Harry asked.
“We didn’t settle on that name,” Michelle deadpanned at Harry’s back before going back to comforting Peter.
“Sorry, Peter’s support team doesn’t count,” Tony snickered, padding over to Peter’s closet and opening the door. Rooting around in Peter’s closet, Tony grabbed the shirt he set his hand on ripped it off the hanger. Tony tossed it over to Harry and the teenager caught the gray tee shirt. “Ready for your first honorary avenger-in-training mission?” Tony asked Harry.
“I’ll do the best I can,” Harry nodded resolutely after pulling the shirt on.
“Good,” Tony said. He started to leave but then paused to turn around and point at Harry. “Just don’t tell your father.”