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The air around him smelt like smoke, static electricity, and oxygen heavy with rain. Peter looks up, squinting at the darkened layer of clouds above the New York skyscrapers. It just had to rain, didn’t it? A crackling came over the intercom in his suit, snapping him back to attention immediately.
“Spider-Man, on your left!” Called out an out of breath Captain America. Peter spins around, shooting a web from his wrist and pinning one of the alien creatures around him to the side of a building.
“Thanks, Mr. Captain America, Sir.” He whooshes out, already moving to take down more of the monsters terrorizing the city. He hears a laugh, and then a casual reply.
“I thought we moved past that, Son.” Calls the blonde. Peter's mentor, Tony Stark, quickly calls out his agreement. Peter doesn’t speak up to defend himself, knowing that they were probably right. They just wouldn’t understand. Peter gets the amazing opportunity to work alongside his childhood heroes. Who the heck else gets to do that? He grins, thinking to himself.
“Hey, Kiddo, could you help with the civilians?” Tony calls out. Peter groans, throwing his head back. Why is he always on civilian duty? It's probably because he’s 15. He’s still superhuman and qualified too, the team just baby him way too much.
ᯓ★
Tony watches him swing away, knowing that he’s probably huffing and puffing. He knows that Peter gets annoyed when he’s not allowed to be involved in the fight, but he’s still a teenager. If he really needs to be Spider-man, which, don’t get him wrong, he's a great hero, who can blame him if Tony wants to give him the safer job occasionally?
He knows that the rest of the Avengers are on his side. They all adore the kid. Ever since they met him, they’ve all basically tried to adopt him. Steve loves him, Clint loves him, Thor loves him (Even if he couldn’t make it today, there being important business on Asgard), Sam loves him, Bruce loves him, and even Nat and Bucky love him. The kid is just immensely lovable. It doesn’t do bad that he loves and looks up to all of them too.
When the rest of the Avengers first found out his age, they were appalled. They had been fighting alongside a masked Peter for about half a year at that point, having already gotten close to him because of his friendly and hyperactive personality. The kid had gotten very injured, and when they got to him his mask was off, probably taken off by Peter so that he could breathe better due to the wound in his stomach. When they had rushed him back to the tower to be treated, the Avengers swarmed Tony. They were all under the impression that he was in his mid twenties. Once they saw his face, they realized that he was much younger. Tony shamefully admitted that the kid was only 14 at the time, and explained the situation. After a lot of cooling down, they understood why Tony had let him fight. Since then they had all been looking after the kid more. Peter also was able to hang around the tower without his mask on, growing very close to everyone.
He shakes his head as the kid disappears from his view, smiling fondly.
ᯓ★
Peter knows that the fight isn’t going very well. The creatures are strong, and there are a bunch of them. He can tell that the Avengers are working very hard through the intercom. He itches to join them. He’s getting fidgety at not being able to help. He’s gotten almost all of the civilians out of the area, save for one building. He swings through a window, landing on the floor. Oddly, there are a lot of people in it.
The people start to cheer, some sobbing with what looks like relief. Peter is extremely confused. Why were so many of them in this one building?
“Spider-Man!” One calls out.
“We’re saved!” Screams a different voice. He begins the torturous job of getting the citizens out of the building. He’s on the top floor now, having just swung out a little boy who had a conversation with him about dinosaurs before he was returned to his crying mom who thanked Peter profusely,
He approaches the final person that he thinks is in the building, and they look at him in admiration. The woman begins to speak.
“Y’know, when the aliens first started leading us inside and closing up the exits we were so scared. Thank you for saving us, Spider-Man.” She says off handedly. Like he was supposed to know that.
He just blinks at her, already planning to go back into the building. Once she’s on solid ground and he’s sure that all the people have gone from the area, he swings back to the building, scanning each floor and calling out for strays. That's when he notices it.
On each floor, there's a blinking machine on the ceiling. At first, he didn’t look too hard. He had believed that they were just smoke detectors or something. Upon further inspection, they did not look like smoke detectors. He switches on the intercom.
“Uh, guys?.” He calls out. “I think that there's something wrong with this building. Has anyone noticed any blinking machines anywhere else yet?”.
Nat replies cautiously. “Yeah, Parker. The aliens are planting them. They blow up after a certain amount of time. Is everything okay?” She questions, sounding bothered.
Suddenly it all makes sense. Of course the monsters terrorizing the city let the citizens to a bomb zone. And now he was quite literally under the bombs. Not too much of a big deal though. He can get out before the building blows.
“Yeah!” He calls out. “I just found a building with some planted, but I got the citizens out. They’re safe.”
“Hey, Kid. You should probably leave there now, then.” Tony orders anxiously, his voice tilting towards the end.
“I’m leaving now, Mr. Stark!” He calls out, looking around one last time. What he doesn't notice until it's too late is that the lights are beeping faster and faster. Suddenly, he’s flung downwards like a ragdoll, and everything goes black.
ᯓ★
When Tony sees the building go down, he’s only moderately worried. He knows that Peter was leaving. He clashes with another alien. The team was almost overwhelmed. He knew that if they kept up at this pace, though, they could take them out.
“Peter?” he calls anxiously over the speakers.
The other Avengers are looking towards the building at Tony's voice, some of them turning back to take out the monsters who didn’t spare time for the building that just came tumbling down.
“We need an answer, Son.” Calls Steve.
“Yeah, Yeah, I’m good. Just…” Coughs Peter.
“Just what, Peter?” Bucky demands tensely, saying what's on everyone's mind.
“I’m fine,” he rasps. “I’m just caught under a bit of rubble. I’m fine. Keep fighting. We don’t need any c-casualties.”.
Tony is not calmed by this answer, and neither are any of the other Avengers. But they know that he’s right. If he really is fine, then they have to keep fighting. Because if they stop, then civilians will likely be harmed.
“If you’re sure, Peter.” Natasha says, strained, before Tony can. “But when we’re done, you tell us where we are and we can get you out if you aren’t already.”.
And that's that.
ᯓ★
Peter had woken up at Tony's voice, completely in the dark, ears ringing. It was unsettling to be out of most of his senses. He had thought that he was dead at first. That was until he had felt it. It had only felt warm at first, but now he was panicking. It hurt. It hurt so bad. His abdomen, his leg, his shoulder, just… everything. He knew he had to respond when Steve had followed up, since he couldn’t let them stop fighting for him. If the Avengers weren’t fighting, then people would die to these creatures.
So he’d told him that he was fine. He could barely talk, every word making his ribs and his chest scream with the pressure of whatever was crushing him. He could feel something going through his shoulder too, which didn't make anything better. He felt sticky, meaning that he was probably bleeding too. Every time he shifted, his vision went white. Still he knew that he couldn’t tip them off on what was really going on.
So he painted a different picture with his barely functioning brain. He was just under a bit of rubble. He’d gotten out okay. He was fine. Fine. He could tell that the team was reluctant, but what could they do?
Then he’d felt the cold. He was very cold. Was he dying? Holy shit, was he dying? He’d remuted himself over the channel that the rest of the Avengers were on. Now, he could cry without them noticing. He’d known that he'd have to mute when he started sniffling like a coward. He couldn’t stop himself. He’d felt the tears run down his face, making him even more sticky and uncomfortable. He didn’t know if he could do this. He was really, really dying.
He’d been seconds away from unmuting and begging for help when he remembered why he was doing this in the first place. It was better for him to die than an innocent person. So he kept quiet. He was barely conscious, slipping through unconsciousness several times, but he couldn’t call for help. He couldn’t. If he needed to, he knew he would die for his cause. And that was becoming more and more likely.
ᯓ★
“Finally!” cheered Clint.
Tony rolled his eyes, but he was happy too. They’d taken down all of the monsters, with very minimal injury.
“Now we go get Peter,” instructed Captain America. Tony's smile slipped, growing anxious at the mention of the boy who’d gone mostly quiet which was quite unlike him.
“Pete? Kiddo?” Tony said over the radio, voice nearly a whisper with anxiety.
He’d heard the ding of Peter unmuting himself, and then a sniffle. His heart dropped. “Where are you, kid?” he demanded, voice hard. Then another sniffle.
“C’mon, Peter. We can come find you now. Where are you, Kid.” said Bucky, his voice wavering. They’d all gone still, waiting for a reply.
“I’m um. I’m under the building.” Peter coughed weakly.
“Not funny, Parker. Where are you really?” Natasha said, voice rough.
“I-I told you guys. Please come get me.” Spider-Man said. His voice sounded so very young and restrained, like he’d already accepted his fate.
Before they knew it, Tony was shooting towards the toppled building, and the rest of them were in pursuit.
ᯓ★
It was a tedious, difficult thing. All of the avengers were taking apart the building, constantly calling out for their dying comrade. Peter would respond occasionally, but they’d mostly hear whimpering. Tony's heart shriveled and died a little more at each sad, desperate sound. The kid, his kid. Was stuck under a damned building. And he’d told everyone that he was fine. He’d acted like we weren't being crushed by tons of rubble.
Steve was disheveled, working together with his boyfriend Bucky to throw the chunks of crushed building off of the vague space where they believed Pete to be. Nat was working furiously and tirelessly, as were Sam and Clint.
Finally, They’d made it to their youngest team member. When they’d lifted the slab that was on top of him, Tony had fallen to his knees, crawling towards his boy. Nat had covered her mouth in a silent gasp. Everyone had frozen at the sight.
Peter was laying on the ground. There was a pole going almost clean through his shoulder and the ground was covered in his blood. Way too much blood. There were tear tracks down his cheeks, and blood all over his throat and neck which meant that he was coughing blood and probably bleeding internally. His leg was bent the wrong way, and his ribs, which were visible most of the time, looked wrecked. He was barely clinging to life, let alone consciousness.
“Peter.” Steve whispered.
“You didn’t tell us!” Tony wailed, wanting to grab the boy but scared to move him. Bucky stepped forwards, eyes hard and face focussed. He’d grabbed Peter's shoulders. Peter cried out, and many voices of protest were heard. He pulled Peter off of the bar, and the boy's eyes had rolled back, eyelids slipping shut. Bucky carefully picked Peter up into his arms, bridal style, Then he’d turned to Tony.
“Go. Take him and get him back to Bruce at the tower. You have to be fast. For the kid. If not, he’ll bleed out. We’ll meet you there.” Bucky said, eyes softening as he looked down at Peter before he’d passed him to Tony. Tony quickly flew off towards the tower.
ᯓ★
Peter was in surgery. The team had united, all of them sitting in the waiting chair of the med bay. Tony had been kicked from the operating room when he lunged towards the doctor when Peter screamed, having to be led out by a horrified looking Cap.
Peter had died 4 separate times.
Finally, after 5 hours, Bruce came out.
“He’s stable. He’ll heal alright.” Bruce disclosed solemnly.
Tony wasn’t ashamed to admit that many of them had started crying. They’d entered the room to a sleeping Peter, covered in gauze and looking frail and pale. He looked so young.
Peter suddenly shot up, eyes wide and alarmed. Tony stepped forward, lightly helping Peter back into the bed cushions. “Easy kid.” He said quietly. “It’s okay, everything's okay.”
Nat stepped forwards, gently taking his hand. She’d said, voice like iron, “Never, Ever do that again. Your life isn’t worthless, Parker. If you ever try something like this again after today, I’ll kill you myself.”
Peter's eyes widened, and a few people laughed. He’d reached out his good arm and pulled Tony into a hug. Tony held him, gently, and didn’t let go for a while. Soon Natasha got a hug, and after that, Steve and Bucky. Then Sam, and finally Clint.
“You’re such a self sacrificial idiot, Peter!” Clint finally sniffled. “Never, Never ever try that again.”
And that was one thing that everyone could agree on.