Chapter 4
Down in the lab at Avengers tower, Tony is blasting his rock music while doing some soldering on the new mark 53 of the iron man suits. In this new redesign he is attempting to take the best components from his previous suits and merge them all into one high tech suit. He is currently working on creating a built in nano tech body shield that can form without the use of his hands.
Tony has been down here working for quite some time now. He’s honestly just keeping himself busy until Peter gets home and they can work on the new iron spider suit. He promised the kid they could finally get it started. He had been so overwhelmed dealing with all the Avenger’s problems after the Accords that he just never found the time to do it. But now with everything settling down a little bit he was excited to finally give the kid an upgrade he was so desperately needing.
It’s been a while since school ended and Peter should have been home by now. It’s not unusual for the kid to be late to any planned activity so Tony isn’t too concerned, although he had expected to receive at least a text letting him know he was running behind schedule.
“Maybe the kid decided to go on a short patrol today,” Tony said under his breath. He shrugged his shoulders and continued working for another half hour before he stopped himself.
“Hey Friday?” He asked, eyes still on the metal red and gold suit in front of him.
“Yes Boss,” Friday responded immediately.
“Call Peter.”
“Calling Peter Parker.” The line began to ring throughout the lab. Tony listened to the trill of the line once. Twice. Three times. And after the fourth ring, “Hello this is Peter, sorry I can’t talk right now but leave a message and eventually I’ll get back to you.” The kid liked to make jokes. Of course he’d admit to his constant tardiness in his voicemail tone. Tony heard the beep indicating the start of the message.
“Hey kid, hope you didn’t forget about lab night, call me back to let me know where you’re at.” Tony left the message and decided to give Peter another 20 minutes to get ahold of him. He decided to take this time to take a quick break and go make some coffee for himself.
He watched the coffee maker for a couple minutes, his mind reeling with why he hadn’t heard from Peter yet but trying to keep himself calm. With this kid you never know. Did he go patrolling and get hurt and he’s just too stubborn to ask for help? But he’s sure Karen would’ve alerted him. Did he get in a fight at school and maybe now he’s sitting in the principal’s office getting reamed. But no he would’ve gotten a call from the school. Whatever the reason for Peter’s delay it had to be good. Tony forced his mind away from what ifs and stay calm, he had a habit of overreacting and he was trying to get better for the kid’s sake.
He grabbed a mug from the cabinet above the counter and poured himself a healthy cup before adding a packet of sugar and just a splash of creamer. He walked back into the lab, looking around at the work he had abandoned just minutes prior. It was a mess in here. There were papers and blueprints scattered all over the various tabletops with tools sloppily tossed on top. There was dust and metal shavings coating most of the surfaces from his work on the suits. Almost every piece of paper had a brown ring on it indicating yet another place he often set down his coffee cups.
“Anything from Peter?” He asked out loud, knowing Friday would respond. He was confident Friday would have told him if he got a call, but he had to be sure.
“Nothing Boss. I can’t get a hold of Karen either, looks like she’s still disconnected from Peter’s experimenting in D.C.”
Tony rubbed his hands over his eyes, stopping his fingers to rub his temples as he looked at the ground. “I really should have reconnected those protocols as soon as I knew he had tampered with them.” He shook his head. He had meant to do it, but with everything happening with the Avengers, and Peter spending most of his time between school and patrolling, he hadn’t found the time to reconfigure the suit.
At this point, Tony was starting to get worried. “Friday, find the cameras at the school and see if you can locate him leaving at all. Maybe he had a meeting I forgot about?”
“Looking.” It was a few moments before Friday had any answers.
“Sending results to Stark pad interface.” A projection appeared on the table in front of Tony, it showed the front of the school building where the students were leaving for the day. Friday highlighted a figure walking out and there Peter was, with his hood up and headphones in, walking home. “It appears as though Peter did leave school this afternoon. Would you like me to access street cameras on his route and track his progress?”
“Please,” Tony responded, setting his coffee down on the table and leaning one arm on the desk as he watched Friday scrolling through cameras. She located one on Delmar’s deli that tracked Peter walking, and another a bit further down on the same street where he saw Peter turn into an alley. He hated when Peter took those back alley shortcuts to get home, and a sinking feeling of worry started to creep in.
A few moments after Peter entered the alley, Tony watched a large white van pull up. It was completely blocking the entrance to the alley, as well as any visual the camera might have had.
“Can you find any other camera nearby that can show into the alley?” His voice was shaking a little bit but he tried to keep himself steady. He was fighting flashbacks to his own experience in Afghanistan.
“One moment.” Suddenly the camera angle changed. He was now looking into the alley, looking down at the street. It looked as though the camera was a security camera to a back access door to whatever building it was on. It was a wide lens and Tony could see both ends of the alley from the angle. “I’ve backed up the footage a little bit.” Friday informed Tony, as he watched and waited for Peter to enter.
He watches Peter enter the alley, one earbud has been removed and Peter seems to be a little bit on edge. He holds himself a little higher than usual and his eyes are darting, scanning the alleyway up and down. His hands have been removed from his pockets. Then he watches Peter abruptly stop, ripping out the second earbud and frantically searching the alley for something, but Tony can’t figure out what it is.
Suddenly, the van comes in and makes a rather abrupt stop, blocking the entrance to the alley. Almost immediately after, he watches a second van do the same on the other side, effectively cutting Peter off from any escape route.
A bad feeling starts to sink into the pit of Tony’s stomach and his eyes are glued to the screen in front of him. “Is there any way to get audio on this Friday? I need to know what’s happening.” Tony sounds frantic and almost panicky. He’s trying his best to stay calm.
“It seems as though the camera does not have audio capabilities, and the camera quality is not good enough to try and decipher the mouth movements.”
It’s upsetting to hear, but Tony will have to make do and try and figure it out using the context of the situation. The men who have come out of the vans seem to be poised to fight, but haven’t approached yet and Tony can’t figure out why. He can make out one man in the center, seemingly talking to a very scared Peter.
The interaction seems short. Peter looks to say a few words and waits for the mysterious man’s response before he assumes a fighting stance. Tony’s heart starts to race, if they know about Peter and his enhancements, then they will be prepared for him, but will Peter out himself if he isn’t sure whether or not they know? Tony assumes not because it’s never been like the kid to do that.
All of the sudden, he sees the men form a close circle around Peter as some of them come at him in rounds. Peter manages to take out a decent few before he is wrestled to the ground. The camera footage isn’t great but he can see what he assumes to be a syringe and a vial in the hands of one of the men. Tony swallows hard, having a pretty good idea where this is going.
They get the injection into Peter and he starts to sag but his feet are still trying to move. They begin to drag him and one of the men looks at him and seems to start talking to the one holding Peter by his other arm. They have a short exchange of words before Peter is quickly injected with another dose. That seems to do the trick as he goes limp in their arms and they heave him into one of the vans.
Tony looks away for a moment, panic setting in. His breathing is shallow and rapid and his vision starts to tunnel. He leans both hands on the table and ducks his head between them, trying to catch a breath.
“Boss, I’m detecting signs of a panic attack.” Suddenly Tony can feel cool air being blown on him, as Friday had turned on a nearby fan in an attempt to cool him off and probably distract his senses. He tries to ground himself, moving his fingers systematically feeling the desktop. He notices the inconsistencies of the divots where he’s done some metal work, and feels the rough abrasive edge where he hit the table with a saw. After a few moments he pulls himself out of the attack and focuses his vision back on the camera.
“Can you follow that van? Find any street cameras that can show where it’s leading.” His voice is steady but has an edge.
“One moment Boss.” Friday is quiet for a minute before flashing several camera angles on the projection. “They seem to be taking side streets, I can’t follow the whole route but I was able to pick them up arriving at an abandoned warehouse a few miles away.”
“Send the directions to my suit, I’m going over there.” Without a moment’s hesitation, Tony calls the suit to him and as soon as it’s formed in place, he runs out to the balcony and jumps off, headed for the warehouse.
Once he arrives, he lifts his faceplate and begins to look around. He can see the two vans outside parked haphazardly, but they seem to be abandoned at this point. The hoods are cool to the touch. They have been here for some time. He cautiously enters the building through what used to be a door, but is now just a hole in the front of the building. This place seems to have taken some damage, presumably from the fight with Loki. It must have been deemed not worth enough to repair.
As he walks in, he can see the place has been cleaned out. There are piles of bricks scattered about and a couple abandoned office chairs, but that is all he sees. Out of the corner of his eye he spots a small black square tucked away under a far window. He goes and picks it up, looking down he sees he is holding Peter’s cellphone. He clicks on the screen to see the notification of his previous call, as well as a low battery warning. He tucks it away before continuing to search. It’s looking like a dead end for Tony.
“Friday, is there any way to track where they went from here?”
“It seems as though they switched vehicles. They grabbed Peter’s phone and tossed it before carrying him to a black van with tinted windows and no license plate. They headed out East, but there were no other cameras picking up their location.”
It’s unbearable news and Tony drops to his knees, looking at the ground. “Where are you kid?” He cries out.
Tony sits there for a few moments, spaced out, staving off another panic attack. He can feel himself trying to go over the edge, to just give in and curl into a ball right here, but the kid needs him and he needs to get himself together. He takes long, steady breaths and closes his eyes for a moment. He listens to the wind and the noises of the world outside. He buries his hands in the rubble feeling anything he can. He can smell the sawdust and the dirt from the upset ground beneath him. As his heart rate lowers he is able to open his eyes and focus back on the issue at hand.
The back of his head is swarming with memories and flashbacks to his captivity. He refuses to let those thoughts take root and surface, he needs to be completely focused to find Peter. The fear and memories linger though, constantly threatening to overtake him.
He finally stands up and heads out. He flies straight to the tower. Once he’s inside and the suit has been removed, he plugs in Peter’s phone and grabs his own. He looks at it before heading over to his desk and opening the uppermost drawer. Inside is the brown envelope containing the small burner phone.
He considers it for a brief moment before he opens the phone and dials the only contact in it. The line rings once.
“Tony?” The voice on the other line responds.
“Steve,” Tony pauses. “You said you would always be here for me if I needed you. Did you mean it?” Tony hates to be asking this but he doesn't know what else to do.
“Of course Tony.”
“Okay then. I need your help.” He waits for the sarcastic response but it doesn’t come. Steve has always been straight to the point, Mister Serious. But Tony always suspected there was a fun, snarky side hidden in there somewhere, he just hasn’t seen it.
“I’ll be there in twenty.” Steve replied coolly.
“I need as much help as I can get actually.” Tony sounded defeated, he hated to be admitting this but it wasn’t about him anymore. It was about Peter and rescuing him. He would do whatever it takes.
“I’ll get the team together and meet you at the tower. Are you okay Tony?” Steve sounded genuinely concerned.
“Not at all. But I’ll tell you when you get here.” Tony hung up the phone. There was nothing to do now but wait.