superposition

you know you can't hold me forever
I didn't sign up with you
I'm not a present for your friends to open

Tony leaned against the table, staring down at his clasped hands. He’s been in this position for about five minutes, his stare unwavering as he replayed the information that Clint had just told upon him. Three. That number kept playing in his head. 

There were three Spider-Men. 

It was hard not to be frustrated by the information, especially considering the lack thereof. Clint hadn’t been joking when he said that he didn’t really know the little details on how exactly the multiple Spider-Men came to be, just the fact that one moment there were three of them swinging around the Statue of Liberty and taking down a band of unknown villains, and in the next moment they were all gone. Duplicate heroes and villains alike, vanished into thin air. 

“Tony?” He was brought out of his thoughts at the sound of his name, finding Steve standing in the doorway of the room. His eyes were red and there were tear stains trailing down his face but Tony made the executive decision to stay quiet about it. 

He cleared his throat, standing up straighter and adjusting his sweatshirt, “Yeah, what’s up?” He tried to sound nonchalant but a little bit of his irritation seeped into his voice. 

Steve pursed his lips before letting out a deep sigh, “I don’t know why I thought things were just going to be fine here.”

Tony was silent for a moment, he was not expecting that confession. “What do you mean by that?”

“I…” The soldier paused for a moment, “you remember when we went back to 1970?”

He raised an eyebrow, nodding in confirmation for him to continue. 

Steve looked down, “I saw Peggy’s office and…it hurt. Honestly. Don’t get me wrong, I was focused on the mission but all I could think about was what I had lost. I-” He cut himself off, scrubbing a hand down his face. “I don’t regret anything, trust me on that but…but I thought about what it would be like if I had gone back.” 

Tony’s eyes widened slightly, “You don’t mean-” 

“ I wasn’t going to do it. I swear,” He sighed again, this time it was a little watery. “I did think about it but I honestly had no plans to go through with it. I couldn’t just throw away everything I did have for just a “maybe,” ya know?” Steve went quiet after that, his stare still fixated on the ground. 

“Steve?” He was honestly stumped as to where this conversation was going. 

The man stood up straighter, however his shoulders remained slumped and watery blue eyes met Tony’s gaze, “The Watcher said that this world was the same, and it seems like it is. For the most part. But there are things that are different, and it’s not like they’re small things. They’re important. Like what’s going on with Peter and-” He stopped abruptly, his voice dying in his throat like he could not physically get the words out. 

“And what?” Tony prodded, his eyebrows furrowed in concern. 

“I did make it back from returning the stones.” Steve admitted, “I-...apparently on this Earth, going back to Peggy was more than just a thought. I actually did it. I returned the stones and I came back, but I wasn’t me . I lived an entire life before I came back and I abandoned everyone, Tony. Bucky can barely look me in the eye.” 

Tony let out a sigh. He couldn’t blame Bucky for his hurt but this universe’s Steve and the Steve standing here now were obviously not the same. “Y’know, I’m sure a lot of it is just the shock factor of it all. Sooner or later, he’s gonna realize that you wouldn’t have made the same choice.” 

Steve stayed quiet, the kicked puppy look still on his face. 

“He’ll come around,” He clapped the soldier on the shoulder, “It’ll take some time but he will, so will Rocket Man.” At the nickname for Sam, he managed to coax a small smile out of Steve. 

“You’re right,” He scrubbed a hand down his face, “I just…didn’t expect this.”

Tony snorted, “Me and you both.” It was crazy how easy it was to talk to Steve now, considering that they had been at odds for so long. 

“Yeah…” He said slowly, “Did Clint explain anything else about the whole-”

“The whole “Three Spider-Men at the Statue of Liberty” thing?” The engineer let out a dry laugh, “He explained everything he knew, which was a whole lotta nothing. He wasn’t kidding when he said SWORD and SHIELD had that shit on lockdown.” 

“Like that’s going to stop you,” Steve rolled his eyes. “I wouldn’t be surprised if FRIDAY wasn’t already looking into this.” 

“Looking into what?” Natasha’s voice announced her presence as she entered the room. “Planning something fun without me, boys?” Behind her was Clint and Yelena, the blonde still decked out in her tactical gear. Tony wasn’t really sure what to make of her yet but decided if Nat trusted her then he would be open-minded. 

“Spider-Man.” He spoke at the same time as Steve, their voices overlapping. 

“Right,” Yelena was the one to respond, “You mentioned you know who the Spider-Man is?” Her confusion over his earlier reveal was the only one that actually made sense to him. 

“We all do,” Tony gestured between the three of them. “My question is why no one else seems to.” 

“You do know Spider-Man keeps his identity secret-”

“Obviously.” He deadpanned. 

The blonde fixed him with a glare that was a little more intimidating than he would like to admit. “Do not interrupt me. He has been very adamant on keeping it a secret since we met him.”

“How long ago was that?” Steve asked. 

Yelena and Clint shared a look, the latter running a hand through his hair. “He helped me and Kate out with Kingpin in 2024.”

“Rockefeller Center,” Tony nodded, knowingly. He had read through the theories that discussed whether or not Spider-Man had been involved, though no one could seem to have hard evidence. 

“Yes, Rockefeller Center.” Clint sighed, “He teams up with us out every now and then, but he operates mostly independently.”

“Mostly,” Yelena scoffed, though it was more in amusement. “Kate Bishop convinced him to let her patrol with him half the time.” 

“What?” Surprisingly it was Clint who expressed the confusion for the three travelers. “No one told me about that.” 

Yelena patted him on the shoulder, “No hard feelings, Clint, we just didn’t think it necessary. Besides, I am fairly sure that she is the only one to know who he is.” 

This piqued Tony’s interest, “How?”

“Why would I know, Tony Stark?” Her consistency to refer to people by their first and last names was…well, it was certainly something. “I have not had any reason to need to know who he is. He is a good fighter and he is my friend, that is enough.”

The sincerity in her words should have been enough for him too, but this whole puzzle was starting to be too much for him. He liked to solve things and quickly, this was taking too long. 

“Boss, there are news reports of an attempted robbery at the First National Bank on ninth street. Nothing has been reported missing however there is a significant amount of damage. Witnesses are saying that they saw Hawkeye and Spider-Man leaving the building.”

Tony’s eyebrows furrowed as FRIDAY’s voice echoed through his earpiece, “How long ago was that, Fri?” His query gained the attention of the other occupants of the room, but he didn’t pay them any mind.

“Half an hour ago.” 

With that piece of information, he turned his attention back to the others. “Update on our web-slinger?” Natasha asked before he could speak. 

A faint smile pulled at his lips, “Something like that.” He stated before turning his attention to Clint and Yelena, “So Kate knows the kid. If they get into some trouble, where are they going?” 

“Tony,” Clint sighed, pinching his nose.

“Look, you can either help me out or not. Regardless, I’m going to figure it out.” 

“You’re really not gonna let this go, huh?” 

“I think I just made that pretty clear,” He cast an exasperated look at Nat and Steve. “Didn’t I?” 

Yelena rolled her eyes, “Yeah, I am not getting involved.” 

“Yelena,” Nat started and by the tone of her voice, he could definitely see the big sister-little sister dynamic between the two.

“Look,” Tony said and he allowed some of his desperation to fall into his voice. “I’m not trying to cause problems for him, but something’s wrong here and something tells me that the only person who knows what that is would be him.” He chose his words carefully, Yelena’s previous declaration that she didn’t care to know his secret identity prominent in his head. 

The blonde stared at him, her green eyes sharp and calculating. She was measuring him up, in the same way that Natasha has in the past. It took a lot for Tony to earn the redhead’s trust, something told him it might take a little more for him to earn Yelena’s. 

“You knew him more than just as a colleague.” It was more a statement than a question. “You care about him.”

He found himself nodding as she spoke, “Yes. Yes, I do.” 

Yelena threw her head back with an exaggerated groan, “Fine, but no one speaks of my involvement.” She pointed to each of them, the threat evident in her words. “I am only helping because I care about him too.” 

-

The drive to the safe house was quite possibly the longest drive of Tony’s life. Clint had insisted on driving and Steve and Nat had decided they wanted to return his favor and accompany him in finding Peter. He hadn’t put up much of an argument, considering his previous thoughts of how it might be easier to talk to the kid if the other two Avengers also made their existence known. 

He couldn’t help the nerves that filled his body and even his conversation with Pepper over the phone had done little to ease his worries. His wife had done her best to sound supportive but it was evident she was still concerned over this Spider-Man-Peter-Parker situation. Tony had a feeling that if Nat and Steve didn’t back him up, she would think he had lost his mind. 

The safehouse was in some random basement in some random warehouse in some random part of Manhattan and apparently there was a hidden door that led in. Yelena hadn’t given much more information than that before she had left, not without a promise between her and Natasha that they’d see one another the next day. 

On the way there, Tony couldn’t help the way his mind ran wild. The first time he had seen Peter, the kid had been high off his ass and had brushed Tony off as a side effect of his joint. This time, he’d be sober and faced with the appearance of two other not-dead Avengers. He couldn’t decide how Peter would react. 

Once upon a time, maybe he could have. But that was a different time and a different Peter, literally.

Despite the Watcher telling them that this world was the same as theirs, it couldn’t help but feel different. Though, now that Tony thought about it, that was what the butterfly effect did. The biggest difference between this timeline and the one he was in previously was the end result of the Final Battle. Who knows what dominoes that pushed down. 

Clint parked his car across the street from the warehouse, Tony realizing that the random building was also abandoned. Who financed this? He was getting tired of having more questions than answers. 

“You ready for this?” Natasha set her hand on his shoulder from her spot in the backseat. 

" 'Course I am, Red," Tony said with a grin, though it was without substance. He drummed his fingers on the dashboard, his gaze flickering towards Clint. "So, about this safehouse..."

Clint hesitated, his grip tightening on the steering wheel. "Tony, are you sure about this? I mean, barging in on them like this..."

"We're not barging in," Tony countered, though his tone lacked conviction. "We're just... observing. Gathering intel."

Clint, seeming to sense Tony's unease, offered a reassuring nod. "Hey, it's okay to be apprehensive. This is... a lot. Even for us, man. And you guys just…multiverse-hopped.” 

“Exactly,” Steve nodded from the passenger seat, “At least we know how that happened, we have no idea why nobody seems to know who Peter is.” 

“Or that he even exists.” Tony leaned his head back with a groan, his hand covering his face. His previous search with FRIDAY continued to echo in the back of his mind. She could not find anything about Peter before he had started college, it was like any piece of information on the kid had been wiped. “Okay,” He sighed, “It’s time to bite the bullet.”

It was a silent journey to the back of the building. Clint was the one to find the cellar door, or what they believed it to be. Once lifted, it revealed a keypad and a steel door. (Seriously, who the hell is financing this?) Yelena hadn’t warned them about this, she had to have known about it yet neglected to tell them about. 

“Jesus Christ,” He muttered, rubbing the bridge of his nose. He twisted a notch on his watch, holding it in front of the keypad. A metal chip slid out, unfolding until it covered the surface of the pad and made a small whirring noise before the door unlocked. There were some things he could plan for. 

He took a deep breath, following Natasha in. The tension was palpable, none of them 100% sure what they were walking into and closing the steel door behind them left them to make their way down the set of steps in the dark. Tony only had a few seconds to worry that maybe Peter and Kate hadn’t come to the safehouse before his back slammed into the wall and his hand was suddenly connected to the wall. 

With a ghost of a smile, he recognized the familiar feel of webbing.

The sounds of struggle were quickly interrupted when the overhead lights turned on. Beside him, Steve’s wrists were caught together against the wall and in front of him sat Natasha, free from webbing but not without a small trickle of blood trickling down the corner of her mouth. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Clint on the other side of the entryway next to a lightswitch.

On the other side of the room stood Peter Parker and Kate Bishop. 

The latter stood a few feet away from Peter, her shoulders tensed and an arrow notched. She had a stitched gas on thigh and a bruise on her jaw, though besides that she seemed relatively unharmed. 

Peter…this Peter was different from the one he had seen only a few days ago, with bright eyes and youthfulness that hadn’t been lost in the middle of the battlefield. Now, without a hat and with his mask clutched between his fingers, Tony could see the brown hair that stopped just above the bottom of his ears and was left in unruly curls with the absence of hair gel. He stood poised, his weight balanced on the balls of his feet, one arm raised with his web-shooter aimed.

He was wearing his suit, but not one that Tony designed. It was still red and blue, though the colors were darker. The spider emblem on his chest was torn in what alarmingly looked like claw marks, though it was still obvious that the symbol had changed. It was almost completely different from any of the ones that he had created.

What really caught Tony’s eye was the scar on Peter’s face. It ran across his left eye, starting from a little bit above the end of his eyebrow and stopping just below his eyebrow. It was somewhat faint but the depth of the scar made it more visible as well as made his stomach churn. Peter’s healing factor was extraordinary, it took a lot to leave even the faintest scar. Tony didn’t even want to imagine what could have marked his face like this. 

Both him and Kate were staring at them with distrust, the latter with wide eyes and the former with narrowed ones. 

“Hold on!” Clint raised his hands, his eyes on Peter. “Stand down.”

“What is this?” The young man seethed and Tony was taken aback by the venom in his voice. 

Tony opened his mouth, though he found himself unable to speak. Without the redness of weed, the kid’s brown eyes were hardened and looked much older than eighteen. How much had happened since he had been gone?

“Pete,” He finally breathed out, “It’s really me, kid. Hand to God.” 

Peter’s brows furrowed, looking between the four before meeting Kate’s eyes. After a moment, Peter nodded minutely and they both slowly lowered their weapons but by the tension in their bodies stayed, they were still on the defense. 

“Holy shit,” Kate whispered, looking between them. When her eyes landed on Natasha, they widened once more, though this time in panic. “Holy shit, I punched Black Widow in the face.” 

Nat chuckled, wiping the blood off her chin, “You have a clean right hook, kid.”

“How?” Peter cut through the light exchange. “You guys are dead.” His tone was so sharp it was almost like he spat the words. 

“It’s a long story.” Steve said.

Kate glanced at Peter, seemingly taking in the rigidness of the teen’s shoulders and the tight hold he had on his Spider-Man mask, before clearing her throat, “Okay. Then give us the Sparknotes version.” 

“We’re from a different timeline,” Tony was quick to say, going straight to the truth. “Another universe.”

His words didn’t seem to take the tension from the young heroes before him, if anything, Peter’s grip on his mask only grew tighter. This wasn’t going well. Fuck.

“Peter?” Kate said quietly, tilting her head in his direction. 

“They’re telling the truth.” He muttered towards her, his jaw clenched. 

“You’re just a kid.” Clint’s eyebrows were knitted together and his eyes had yet to leave Peter. The teen in question seemed to grow frustrated by his words, if the way the muscles in jaw worked gave any indication. “I don’t know what I thought…” He trailed off. 

“Clint,” Kate whispered with a shake of her head. She set the bow down on the table beside her, returning the arrow to the quiver leaning against it on the floor. “I guess I don’t need to ask why you’re here.” 

The elder archer rubbed his forehead, “What happened, Kate?” He asked, gesturing to her injuries. 

“I don’t mean to interrupt,” Steve said, hands still attached to the wall. “But maybe we can have this conversation after we’re out of this?”

Tony attempted to pull his hand free of the webbing only to find that it was stronger than he remembered. Peter let out a heavy sigh, reaching out to the shelf behind him before tossing a vial at Clint. “Go for it.” 

He watched as Clint cautiously caught the vial, his eyes flickering between Peter and the solution in his hands. He had yet to relax his body, his stance so taut Tony was sure a vein in his head was bound to make an appearance. It was clear that Peter wasn't going to make this easy.

"What's this?" Clint asked, holding the vial up. The purple liquid inside swirled and shimmered against the white overhead light.

"Web neutralizer," Peter said curtly, his voice still laced with suspicion. "It'll dissolve the webbing. Try not to splash it on your skin."

The man nodded slowly, "Thanks," he muttered, before carefully applying the solution to Steve and Tony’s restraints.

As the webbing dissolved, Tony took the opportunity to study Peter more closely. If he hadn’t already known about May Parker, he would’ve been able to guess a great tragedy had left the kid as the guarded teenager before him. Though, he knew that there was something deeper going on here that had turned him into almost a completely different Peter Parker. There were no dimpled smiles or passionate rambling, instead there was quiet and distrust. 

“Pete,” He approached slowly, taking in the way the teen looked him up and down. “Kiddo, it’s really me, I swear.”

“Yeah, I know.” He said shortly. 

Tony blinked, he could honestly say he wasn’t expecting that blunt of a response. “O-kay,” He said awkwardly, “I think we need to talk.” 

Peter sighed, dropping his mask on the table. The distance between them was only a few feet but it couldn’t have felt farther. “How did you find this place?” He glanced over to where Kate stood by Clint, the two making eye contact in what seemed like quiet conversation once again. 

“I’m gonna kill Yelena.” Kate sighed before any of them had a chance to answer, running a fingerless-gloved hand through her hair. 

“Great.” Peter muttered under his breath, turning around to the metal shelf behind him to reshelve a first aid kit. Tony couldn’t help but notice that despite putting the medical supplies away, the marks on Peter’s chest remained. He was smart enough to keep his mouth shut. 

“Peter-”

“Kate-” 

Both he and Clint spoke at the same time, looking across at one another. This was not going in any way that he expected, although now that he was faced with the situation, Tony wasn’t really sure anymore what he was expecting. 

“ Guys, ” Clint amended, “What happened? Where’d this come from?” He gestured to Kate’s bruise. 

“I’m fine, Clint,” The young woman rolled her eyes. “It was just patrol.” 

“Uh huh,” He crossed his arms and leaned back against the wall, “And I’m just curious on what “just patrol” entailed tonight.” 

“Y’know I don’t work for you, right?” Peter scoffed, bitterness taking away from words that could’ve been taken as playful. 

“Hold on, don’t imply I work for him either.” Kate held a hand up at him, her nose wrinkling. The ease of which she was able to talk to him compared to the way Peter regarded him. 

“Nobody works for me.” Clint stated simply. “Don’t feel too special, I would ask anyone what happened.” 

There was a brief moment of silence where neither of the heroes spoke, though they didn’t look at each other either so there was no silent conversation to attempt to decipher. It was just quiet. 

“It was a bank robbery.” Kate finally spoke. 

“A bank robbery did that?” Steve questioned, gesturing between the gash on her leg and the ones across Peter’s chest. 

“Ever heard of a knife?” Kate raised an eyebrow at him, “I’m a little more concerned with the three elephants in the room.” 

Steve furrowed his brows, “Tony sai-”

“Right,” She nodded, “I heard, I believe that, but I fear I’m going to need a little more than just a multiversal explanation.” 

“You’re right,” Tony cut in before it could escalate, “You do. Actually, I think there’s a lot that can be discussed.” His eyes flickered towards Peter, though the teen wasn’t looking at him. He was leaning against the table, arms crossed against his chest with his attention towards the floor. 

Kate didn’t respond, looking between him and Tony, an indecipherable expression on her face. He found himself wondering once more just how close these two were. She seemed to recognize what was going on in Peter’s head much better than he could. 

“Peter?” The teen looked up at the call of his name, his eyes still cold. It pained Tony’s heart to see him like this, the lack of…well, anything in his eyes. He would take being mistaken as a hallucination over this. This Peter in front of him just seemed resigned. 

The sigh he let out seemed to be a full body exhale, his shoulders slumping. Finally, instead of the blankness in his eyes, there was a flash of something . “Look, I get that you wa-” 

Whatever he was going to say was cut off by the beep of a phone ringing. There was a moment of confusion before Peter reached down and pulled out a cracked smartphone from a well-concealed pocket on the left leg of his suit.

Tony watched as he scrubbed a hand down his face before answering the call, “Hey man, what’s up?” 

The volume was too low for the caller to be heard, leaving Tony to look over at Nat. The redhead gave him a nod, though after years of knowing her he was able to understand it as encouraging. If he was reading Peter’s body language as closed off and untrusting, he could only imagine what she was seeing. 

“Yeah, no, it’s cool…I get it, don’t worry about it…I hope your daughter feels better soon…No problem man, talk to you later.” He ended the call with a sigh, shoving the phone back into his pocket. It was evident that he was abandoning whatever his earlier words were going to be as he reached over for his mask. 

“Work?” Kate questioned. Tony’s face twisted slightly in confusion, in his search for Peter Parker, there was no evidence of a work history. 

“Yep.” He sniffed once, “I gotta go.”

Tony was stepping forward and reaching out for Peter’s wrist before he was even aware of what he was doing. It felt like he was moving in slow motion as his fingers wrapped around the kid - his kid’s - arm and he was struck with how he was actually holding Peter’s arm.

Peter flinched at his touch, his eyes widening slightly. 

“Wait, you can’t leave.” The desperation in his voice would’ve been embarrassing if that wasn’t exactly what he was feeling. They had been there all of fifteen minutes and Tony had next to know answers about what was going on with the kid, and now he was leaving? “We need to talk, kid. Please.” 

A conflicted look crossed the teen’s face as he pulled his hand back from Tony’s grip and he couldn’t help the hurt that pierced through his chest. “I can’t right now.” He shook his head, taking a step back. “I’m covering someone’s shift at four, I don’t have time for any of this.” 

He pulled the mask over his face and moved towards the door, silence overtaking the room. The only thing Tony could hear was his heart thudding in his ears. Something told him that if he didn’t get the kid now, it was gonna be a lot harder to track him down after this. 

“Peter,” His pleading tone stopped him in his tracks. The Spider-Man mask refused to betray whatever was showing on his face but he didn’t continue to rush out. 

“Fine.” He sighed, “ Fine . We can talk, but not now.”