Chapter Text
Peter Parker had nearly died multiple times just a few months ago when fighting the Vulture. He had nearly drowned, nearly been crushed, and nearly been beaten to death, but it was all perfectly fine because “nearly” wasn’t the same as actually dying. So, it was all fine and Peter had basically forgotten about the whole thing at this point.
Really!
He wasn’t lying to himself!
He wasn’t.
Just because he had to keep a nightlight on in his room at night and he couldn’t bear taking an elevator anymore after the whole thing in DC didn’t mean anything was wrong. Sure, he’d had a teensy weensy panic attack or five in the school bathrooms and he was constantly hyper-aware of any potential cracks in building columns or weird noises from the roof, but that wasn’t a big deal! Those were all Peter Parker issues (not even issues actually because it was fine), but Peter was also Spiderman and Spiderman wasn’t scared of anything like being held down while his mask flooded with water and he quickly ran out of air.
Anyways, the point was that Peter had it handled on his own.
Ned had noticed something was off after Peter had a minor freak out when the school had a power outage and the lights briefly went out in their window-less cinder block classroom. The lights had only been out for a few minutes and even with the noise of all his classmates talking to distract him, Peter’s mind still conjured the sounds of the building cracking around him. The room wasn’t even that small, but he had felt like he was suffocating.
The lights had come back on and it took a full hour for Peter’s heart-rate to return to normal and for him to stop hearing the sound of crumbling concrete.
So, yeah, Ned had noticed. He’d been worried and said something about bringing it up with Mr. Stark now that Mr. Stark and Peter were meeting up regularly for lab days, but Peter had shot that idea down quickly. Iron Man was not scared of anything, and neither was Spiderman. Peter didn’t want to lose what little respect he had earned from Mr. Stark over some little panic attacks.
He was perfectly fine.
***
“What’s with the eyebags, kid? Don’t tell me you were too excited about this event to sleep.”
Peter shot Mr. Stark a grin that hopefully carried enough energy to distract from his weary eyes. “It’s the Stark Expo! Of course I’m excited. The science here is going to be awesome!”
Peter had been electric with anticipation the night before, but that wasn’t what had kept him awake. Last night had been a nightmares night, and he hadn’t been able to go more than an hour without sitting up in bed in a panic with his hands clawing at his too-tight chest while phantom dust clogged his lungs. After the second time waking up, he had just decided to give up on sleeping. He had curled up around his laptop and watched “Spiderman Saves” compilations on YouTube until it was time to get ready to meet Mr. Stark for the expo.
“You were working in my lab yesterday, Underoos,” Mr. Stark said, looking down at Peter over the top of his sunglasses. “Are you telling me that the Iron Man suit isn’t impressive enough for you?”
“No, no!” Peter said hastily. “Your lab is awesome, but c’mon Mr. Stark the whole point of the expo is to show off all the coolest new tech.”
Mr. Stark raised an eyebrow. “I know. It’s my expo.”
Peter blushed and rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly. “Yeah… sorry.”
Mr. Stark gave Peter a light pat on the shoulder. “I’m just giving you a hard time, Pete. I know you like the chemistry more than I do. Keep an eye out for the best projects so I can throw some grants out.”
“You want my opinion on it?” Peter asked incredulously.
“Of course. It’s part of your intern duties.”
The whole Stark Industries internship was still very much a fake cover for Peter’s Spiderman activities, but it had gotten a bit more real lately. Mr. Stark had invited him to the Avenger’s compound for a “science fuck-around afternoon” a weekend some time after the whole Vulture incident had settled down. Peter had been under the impression the lab visit was a one-time kind of deal as some sort of consolation prize for not becoming an Avenger, but then Mr. Stark had invited him back again the next week. One thing led to another and suddenly Peter was working once or twice a week with the literal Iron Man in a lab with enough tools and supplies to make Peter want to swoon.
Peter wondered how much of an influence May had had on Mr. Stark’s increased involvement. May had been incandescently furious when she had first found out that Peter was Spiderman, and a significant portion of that rage had been directed at the man helping enable her underage nephew to fight crime. She had eventually accepted that Peter refused to stop being Spiderman and she had given her reluctant blessing (with a long list of new rules for the vigilante), but she had only begun to forgive Mr. Stark after the lab sessions had started. Peter thought that she was just grateful to have someone else to help keep an eye on him (not that he needed it!).
The expo today was the first event where Peter was publicly attending as Mr. Stark’s intern. He had been under the impression that Mr. Stark was just tolerating him tagging along since Peter had been excited about the event for weeks, but it seemed like Mr. Stark actually wanted him to give his own input.
Peter’s life was so awesome.
“Alright, I have to give a speech in an hour, but we have time to look around before then. Where to first, kid?”
Peter hummed thoughtfully and spun in a slow circle to get his bearings. The Stark Expo was being housed in a massive re-purposed warehouse in the Manhattan area. There were hundreds of different booths and tables set up in rows that stretched nearly wall to wall. The ceiling was a vaulty few stories above their heads and the exposed beams of its supports were set up with plenty of lighting and banners that boasted of the various attractions. The event had barely started, but there were already hundreds if not thousands of people milling through the walkways and pausing at the various booths.
The lights and sounds were already becoming a bit overstimulating, and Peter’s spider-sense was working at a low buzz that had unfortunately become common in such crowded indoor spaces. It became a lot harder to determine what his super-anxiety was complaining about when every place with a roof felt like a threat.
Peter took a careful breath and forcefully shoved his awareness away from the sense making the hair on his arms stand on end. He could enjoy a day out with Mr. Stark without having a panic attack thankyouverymuch.
“That way.” Peter decided, pointing in a direction that would have been random if not for the simple fact that it was the least crowded path. “We can work our way around.”
“Lead the way, Captain,” Mr. Stark agreed without protest.
The pair made their way around a few dozen booths that boasted inventions ranging everywhere from a new air dehumidifier for drinking water collection to a building design whose rooftop sported robotic panels that expanded during the day to collect solar energy and helped shade the streets below. Peter had been especially taken with a project that was studying a spiderweb’s ability to absorb water to maximize web stickiness in order to apply a similar method to make bandages that could be applied in wet or bloody environments and not fall off. * Mr. Stark had given Peter a knowing look at his poorly hidden excitement and had passed off a business card to one of the starstruck researchers behind the booth to reach out to SI for project funding.
The hour before Mr. Stark was scheduled to deliver his speech flew by and before Peter knew it they were standing beside a temporary stage and watching the crowd grow in front of it. Peter’s anxiety had not lessened during their explorations despite his determined dismissal and for some reason his unease only grew as one of the event announcers headed up to the stage to introduce Mr. Stark.
“Hang tight here, kid,” Mr. Stark said, moving to climb the stage stairs. “I’ll be done in a minute.”
Peter’s spider-sense was growing past general anxiety to outright unease and he made an aborted movement to pull Mr. Stark back. However, he was too late and Mr. Stark strode across the stage with his CEO smile pasted on and his sunglasses glinting in the flash of cameras from the crowd. He slowed to a casual stop in front of the microphone and leaned into the device like he was about to share a secret.
“Are we enjoying the EXPO?” Mr. Stark asked quietly.
The crowd let out a deafening cheer in response and in the wings of the stage Peter flinched in response. This couldn’t just be anxiety anymore. Something was wrong. Something was going to happen.
“We’re all here to celebrate the wonderful advances in scie–”
Peter missed the rest of Mr. Stark’s sentence as his spider-sense suddenly blared in a klaxon warning. He was running before he had consciously decided on the action and tackled Mr. Stark off the stage before the man had even finished his sentence.
A mix of gasps and a few startled screams sounded from the crowd, but before anyone could do more than ogle at the abrupt attack there was the sudden noise of a mechanical whine ending in a loud popping noise. The center of the stage where Mr. Stark had stood seconds prior exploded in a spray of smoke and wooden splinters. Peter did his best to shield Mr. Stark from the debris and the flash of heat from the blast even as Mr. Stark struggled to seemingly do the same thing for Peter.
The crowd was screaming in earnest now and people were already running for the exits when that same mechanical whine sounded from the rafters above.
“Oh, god,” Peter choked out, rolling off Mr. Stark and staring up in horror. “The ceiling. It–”
“Peter.” Mr. Stark’s hands were suddenly on Peter’s shoulders and a light shake snapped Peter out of his spiral. “Help get the civilians out. I’ll take care of it.”
Peter nodded shakily and scrambled to his feet. He didn’t have his webshooters or his mask on him. There was nothing to hide the fear on his face or differentiate him from the rest of the terrified crowd. He was just Peter Parker here, but he needed to have Spider-man’s fearlessness.
“Everyone get to the exits!” Peter shouted (rather shocked when his voice didn’t betray him and crack in fear). “Keep calm!”
The order for composure was immediately useless as hundreds of people all pushed and shoved in all directions for the nearest exit. The chances of someone being trampled in the throng grew by the moment and Peter felt a flash of helplessness mix with his own fear as he found himself at a loss for how to help.
Peter spied a woman fruitlessly pushing back against the current of the panicked masses towards an abandoned stroller and he dove into the crowd towards the crying child. Peter ripped open the stroller straps holding a toddler in place and swept up the child to deposit her in her mother’s frantic arms.
The building mechanical whine from above that had been ringing in Peter’s ears for the past seconds (minute? How long had it been?) finally crescendoed into an explosion paired with the sound of rending metal. Peter looked up in horror to see a joint in the rafters break apart from its foundations and begin to sag towards the fleeing people below. At the same moment a different sort of mechanical noise rose above the renewed screams and Iron Man flew up to tuck his suit under the buckling beams like Atlas holding up the sky.
Peter knew that the only suit Mr. Stark could have on hand was his experimental nano-tech design. He knew first hand from working in the lab that that suit was far from complete and prone to shorting out at inopportune times. Peter could only hope that it would be enough now.
Peter was distracted again as a few meters away an elderly man was knocked down by a passing elbow and he dove back into the crowd to help. He rushed from person to person desperately trying to herd everyone towards the exits while the ceiling above continued to groan and the repulsors on Mr. Stark’s suit spluttered worryingly.
Every passing second Peter felt the sound of crumbling cement and tearing metal etching itself deeper into his bones. His hands felt numb with panic, but still he ran deeper into the building helping up anyone who had fallen and pointing the lost and frantic in the proper direction. He was terrified, but he refused to acknowledge that fear while there were still people who needed saving.
Finally, the EXPO that had been brimming with people just minutes before seemed empty. Peter strained his senses to make sure there was no one left behind out of sight, but everyone seemed to have made it outside.
Iron Man was still holding up the ceiling beams but the creaking noises were getting louder and even as he flew to support the sinking metal he was steadily losing ground. His left boot repulsor flickered out for a moment, relit itself, and then went out completely, and the suit dropped another foot in a losing battle against gravity.
“Get out of here, kid!” Mr. Stark’s voice echoed in the building full of brilliant inventions that seemed all too empty without their creators or admirers.
Peter’s legs twitched in the desperate desire to obey the order, but he hesitated even as the sounds of a building about to crumble became louder and a spray of dust rained on his hair from above. “How will you get out?”
Mr. Stark let out a frustrated grunt and his suit surged up a few inches for a moment before losing ground again and dropping half a foot. The second boot repulsor was beginning to flicker as well. “Don’t worry about me. Get out now!”
“I can’t just leave you, Mr. Stark!” Peter’s body wanted nothing more than to leave. He could barely breathe past the desperation ballooning in his lungs, but he couldn’t abandon Mr. Stark. He refused to let another person— another mentor– die because he had done nothing.
Mr. Stark seemed about to argue further, but before he got the chance his last repulsor flickered out and gravity eagerly leapt up to claw its prey into its arms. Peter jumped to catch his falling mentor even as the roof came rushing down in a hellish symphony of scraping, rending metal and crumbling foundations.
Peter landed back on the ground with Mr. Stark in his arms a moment before the roof rushed down to meet him.