Chapter Text
BOOM!
‘Cough Cough Cough’
Peter turned around, laughter bubbling in his throat. He stared at his mentor, lifting a hand to his mouth to hide his smile. Almost half of the lab was covered in something black, and in the middle of it, was a hunched over Tony, eyes watering and coughing
Overhead through the speakers, the music changed to the next song in Tony’s playlist, changing from TNT to Highway to Hell, both by AC/DC. Great, that meant it wasn’t life threatening. Thanks FRIDAY, for not doing anything.
DUM-E lifted one of his mechanical arms to activate the fire extinguisher, and started spraying it all over Tony.
The reaction was instant. Tony jerked upwards, still coughing and eyes watering, and started to run in circles, trying to escape DUM-E, screaming ‘No, stop!’ at the top of his lungs.
Peter snorted, unable to keep his laughter down. Such snort went from a snort, to giggles, to laughter, which progressed to some sort of maniacal laughter, shaking on the floor with one arm outstretched and another around his stomach.
“DUM-E no. No! Bad robot. Put that down! I knew I sho-”
Tony paused in his reprimanding, stopping at what he heard much more clearly thanks to his own voice not being used.
Through the music, Peter was unaware of Tony staring at him, instead was too busy laughing at their misfortunes.
The music overhead changed to Thunderstruck, and Peter was calming down. His maniacal laughter started smoothing out to laughter, then giggle, then a final snort to finish it all off.
He jumped up to his feet, brushed his pants off twice, and turned back to what he was nearly finished welded. Just as if nothing happened. Which it didn't you’re imagining it.
‘Cough’
He slightly paused, but continued.
‘Cough!’
Frowning, he continued.
‘COUGH’
Peter grumbled under his breath, muttered about being nearly done.
‘COUGH!’
Dropping the welder next to the newly finished piece and whipping around, Peter faltered for a moment. Standing right there, in all of his glory, was Tony. Who also was the source of the coughs. And who also had an eyebrow raised at him.
“Were you laughing at me?” Tony demanded.
“No,” Peter replied, fake innocence somehow painted all over his face, “I was not. Maybe it was FRIDAY.”
Tony turned to stare at the ceiling.
The music paused, and through the speakers overheard the very recognisable voice of FRIDAY came out.
“No boss, I did not laugh at you. Perhaps it was DUM-E.”
Tony’s brow raised even higher, which didn’t even seem possible, as he turned to stare at DUM-E.
In desperation to defend himself, DUM-E lifted both of his mechanical arms, which were fire extinguisher-less thanks to Tony, and went a pace backwards. He then slowly, and shakily, lowered one to point at Peter, directly at the chest.
Peter lifted a hand to his chest, and in mock defeat, he leaned backwards, trusting the stickiness on his feet to keep him connected to the floor.
Suddenly there was a hand on his collar, yanking him back upright. Suddenly, he ended up being face to face with none other than Tony, again, with his brow even higher than before.
Which was even more impossible. At this point, it would be higher than Flash' s ego. Which is, saying, impossible.
“You,” Tony seemingly bit out, shaking Peter slightly, false anger dancing in his narrowed eyes, “laughed at ME?!”
He raised a hand, and stared Tony in the eyes while he started twirling it.
“And what if I did?”
Tony gasped, quickly letting go of Peter's collar and stumbled back two steps.
A hand has made its way to his chest over his heart as he faced Peter.
“That’s… that’s so mean…”
He scoffed. Tony gasped again. Drama queen. They have a project to finish anyway.
Peter stood his ground, a smirk tugging at his lips.
“Yeah, I did. Suck it up,” he paused, ignoring Tony’s undignified squawk, then continued, “besides, I’m done with the last piece. Wanna finish it now before Pepper kicks us out for something ridiculous like sleep?”
Tony’s enter demeanour changed as soon as Peter finished the sentence, dropping his hand and practically bounced over to his desk, his whole body telling excitement.
Proudly, Peter lifted the finished piece in his hand and passed it on to Tony, who in turn took it, one could say gently, and speed-walked over to the nearly finished project. It looked like a very fast waddle, which is hilarious. FRIDAY tuned out the music so they could relish the moment.
Peter watched with fascination as Tony placed it into the correct place, and listened to the soft click that was heard.
Tony raised his hands above his head, and Peter gave a whoop.
He stared at the machine, not taking his eyes off it even as Tony came over to stand beside him with his arms crossed against his chest.
“So,” Peter tilted his head to the right, where Tony was standing, “what now?”
They stood there for a few moments, the silence dragging on
Tony gave a tongue click, then he confidently stepped forward. Then paused, and Peter heard a small, almost inaudible ‘Which one again…?’ before hovering a hand over one of the many levers.
“What we do,” he gestured to the lever, “is activate it.”
Peter gasped, eyes twinkling with excitement.
“Yes! Wait- ” he turned to the ceiling for a moment, “FRIDAY, activate Dumbass did it again, please.”
“Activated.”
He turned back to Tony, who looked mildly offended as his suit slowly started to form around him.
“Alright,” Peter lifted a hand to point directly at Tony, and his other rested on his hip, “pull the lever!”
Simultaneously grinning like madmen, which they should be, ahem, Tony pulled the lever, and the machine flickered to life and thrumming.
Then a small green splotch formed in the middle, and Tony slightly faltered. Peter stared at him, feeling mystified. Well, at least the suit was nearly done forming around Tony.
The green splotch started to expand wildly, and the machine was buzzing.
“Uh…” a confused voice was heard, and it was Tony, “is that supposed to be green?”
Peter had started to gape at the machine, his spidey sense screaming DANGERDANGERGETAWAYRUN
at him.
Then he heard what Tony had said.
Slowly, he turned his head to stare directly at the man in question.
“Tony,” he said slowly, carefully choosing his words, “The portal is meant to be like looking out a window, showing you where it is.”
Tony made a small ‘oh shit’ sound, and went back to stare at the levers.
“Aw crap.”
That was when it clicked. Tony had pulled the wrong lever.
And that was also when Peter felt himself being pulled forward, towards the green portal weird thing, his stickiness doing nothing and his spidey sense’s screaming increased tenfold.
Now he was a meter away from the portal, and instead of fighting, which was useless in this situation, he turned to Tony, who was also being pulled along, his neck and helmet armour climbing.
Peter’s arm went in.
So he lifted the other, and pointed at Tony.
“wroNG,” he was pulled even further, “LEVERRRrrrr..!”
He had made it through the portal, and now was falling somewhere, only screaming the last part of ‘lever’ on the way out.
Oh right, free falling in the sky.
“ahhhhhhhhh!”
He looked down.
“AGHHHHHHHH”
He was in the sky. Free falling. Twisting his head around, he saw Tony right behind him, Iron Man suit already formed as he reached for Peter.
Behind them both, the weird, and warped, green portal closed.
Feeling the Iron Man arms wrap around his torso in a gentle yet tight grip, similar to a lioness picking up her cub, Peter let himself go limp.
He closed his eyes, waiting for Tony to land.
But they weren’t moving, and yet they were still in the air. Peter cracked open an eye, then they were both blown wide as he stared at what was below them.
A dark, grimy and obviously split city was right there. It looked like rich, poorer, and broke. Just Tony’s nightmare.
After studying it for a few more moments, Tony flew down to the nearest rooftop, which somehow had a burnt out car tire and some trash bags.
After being put down and suffering some more silent moments, Peter dared to ask the question.
“W- where are we?”