Lockdown Part two
“Pete go! Get your suit on and stay in your room!” Tony frantically pushed Peter away from the window. The building shook as explosives went off around them.
Peter ran towards his room, dodging falling debris and trying to keep his balance. He could hear everything happening in the building. The bursting pipes, shattering glass. Peter grappled for the door handle, desperate far safety he knew his room alone wouldn’t provide. But there was something inside the room that may. The door was jammed and wouldn’t budge until Peter rammed his own body into it. Through the mess of the room, Peter found his suit.
He only had the mask on when another large explosion went off. This time right outside the door. It slammed shut but not before something slid in. No, someone. Before Peter could decipher what was happening, the bookshelf behind him released its load, sending textbooks crumbling onto him, knocking him out cold.
“Hey Peter. Hey it’s Nat. Can you open your eyes?”
Peter’s head was throbbing. He slowly opened his eyes and looked around the room. He was leaning against what may have once been his bed. The rest of the room was in the same disarray. Glass lay shattered around him and the walls had large cracks running the length of them.
Natasha crouched in front of him, wiping a cloth onto his head. Peter winced.
“Sorry. This is gonna hurt but you’ve got a nasty cut on your head from A.P. Gov.”
Peter laughed as she held up the large textbook. He readjusted his position and looked in a mirror that had fallen from his wall. Blood formed a dark red map across his face. A sudden realization hit Peter. He stood up quickly and grabbed a nearby surface to steady himself.
“Where’s Mr.Stark? We have to go get him.”
Peter made his way across the bedroom to his door. He tried to open it but it wouldn’t budge. He shook the handle, pushing and pulling on the door.
He didn’t stop trying until he felt a pair of hands pull him away.
“Peter it’s not gonna budge. Something fell in front of it. Just sit down and let me finish wrapping your head, ok?”
Peter pulled away from Natasha and stared at her. “No I need to get out of here. Mr.Stark is on the other side of that door and I can’t help him. I need to help him.” The teen continued his efforts at the door.
“Tony is an adult he can take care of himself. You on the other side probably have a concussion and I need to make sure you aren’t gonna pass out on me.”
Peter laughed and threw himself at the door, “adults always think they’ll be ok just because of their age, but,” he tried again, grunting as his arm hit the door, “you can’t outrun danger. You can’t always be safe. There’s nothing you can do. It’s just a fact of life,” Peter moved to survey the area surrounding the door, wondering if he could break through, “But if someone else is out there, if someone is watching your six, you have a better chance.”
Natasha’s brow furrowed and she tried again to approach the frantic kid in front of her. He needed to sit down and stop throwing himself at the wall. He’d break his arm that way.
“Ok I’ll make you a deal. Sit down and let me make sure you don’t have a concussion and if you’re clean, only if you’re clean, we can try to get out of here through a wall or something, ok?”
Peter stopped his movements and turned. He looked at Nat for a second and then asked, “why? I can figure this out myself and I have no reason to trust you.”
“You’re right Peter. You have no reason to trust me, but you can trust Tony, right? He told me to look after you. I assume he told you that I could. And don’t forget that I actually lived here for two years. I know how to get around very inch of this place. I also know the secret passage ways me and Clint insisted were put in. So?”
Peter stood still for a moment, thinking. He wouldn’t be any good if he fainted in the middle of the fight. He nodded curtly and returned to where he had been sitting.
Natasha sighed, relieved. Tony would kill her if there were one too many scratches on his kid. She knelt down and resumed cleaning off his face, using antiseptic wipes to disinfect the cut. It wasn’t deep but an infection would be painful.
“So,” Nat attempted to remove the awkward tension between them,” wanna tell me why you’re such a cynic when it comes to adults being capable?”
Peter looked surprised at the question. She laughed and added,” sorry if that’s personal. I didn’t have much training in genuine conversations. I could fake one easily but there’s no need for that.”
Peter nodded, “yeah. After SHEILD fell, I read a lot of summaries made about the info. I know your story. I mean obviously not all of it because only you know your whole story. No one else can write it quite right, right? From what I heard it sounded terrible. I’m really sorry Ms.Romanov.”
Nat smiled and grabbed bandages, “I’ve moved on from that kid, don’t worry. It’ll always be a part of me, like in how I move and fight. I don’t tell many people this but I still read back through my own file. It sounds strange but I feel like one day I’ll notice something new. A key to who I was before the red room. And call me Nat or Natasha.”
There was silence between the pair but not uncomfortable like before. No, this silence was caused by both parties being lost in thought.
After a long minute of Natasha wrapping his head, Peter spoke, “I don’t have a lot of luck in the parent figure department. When I was like 5, my parents dropped me off at my aunt and uncles house. They were going on a research trip. I begged them not to go. To stay with me. My mom insisted that they’d be fine. My aunt too. Told me they were big kids. My mom and dad each kissed my head and told me that they’d be back in two weeks. They never came back. They couldn’t control a plane crashing. It doesn’t matter how old you are, going down in a plane won’t spare you. My aunt still never let me ride in a plane. First time was going to Berlin if you could believe it,” Peter stopped and wiped a tear of off his face, it’s track clear against his dirty face. His head was bandaged, and Natasha now sat across from him, listening intently.
“Then my Uncle. Uncle Ben. He was amazing. I knew him better than my own dad. That sounds terrible but I only had three years of memories with my dad and nine with Ben. We did everything together. He took me to baseball games, even though I had no idea what was going on. One night he was out looking for me. I had snuck out to be Spider-Man. I heard screams and went to help. By the time I got there, the gunner was gone and my uncle was lying on the pavement. He bled out right in front of me, his blood staining on my hands. He was an adult. He was supposed to take care of himself. But it’s hard to take care of yourself against a gun. So I guess, yeah, I’m a cynic, but that’s just because never in my life have adults been able to take care of themselves. May I guess but it’s only a matter of time until my Spider-Manning gets her hurt. Mr.Stark is out there. No back up. I need to help him.” Peter finished and stared at the floor, his sneakers covered in dust. He blinked rapidly, trying to hold back the tears pooling in his eyes.
“I don’t know how many people I’ve killed,” Peter looked up at Nat, who was staring at a picture of New York on the wall, “I never kept track of it. My whole new life, I’ve been trying to undone all of it. I can’t bring those people back but I if I can save more people, if I can just make my numbers equal, the maybe I can find peace. I don’t deserve it, but I want it. If a teammate died or a civilian, when I could’ve saved them, then that’s my fault.”
Peter nodded and murmured in agreement. Then he laughed. Nat looked up, confused.
“Superhero’s have one hell of a guilt complex.”
Nat laughed too, “Yeah. Ok lemme check for a concussion.”
Peter nodded and scooted towards her and answered her questions.
“Name?”
“Peter Parker”
“Age?”
“16.”
“Who’s the first president?”
“George Washington.”
“Ok I think you’re good. Do you want to get up?”
Peter nodded and stood up quickly. He needed to find Mr.Stark.
Natasha stood up behind him and surveyed the room. The door wasn’t an option so they would probably have to bust through a wall. She didn’t want to risk hitting a major support beam and cripple the building any more. “Ok, you’re sticky, right?”
Peter nodded.
“Here’s the plan. I’m going to bust out that window for you. Then you’ll crawl through and see if there’s another window nearby. If there is come back and I’ll give you something to break it with. Hopefully the door out of that room won’t be stuck. Good?”
“Yeah. Ok so do you need a rock to break the wind- oh ok.”
Natasha smashed the window with her elbow and looked outside. Smoke still surrounded the compound but there was no major damage from what she could tell.
Peter came up behind her, now dressed in his suit. “Ok I’ll be right back.” He climbed out the window and moved carefully in the outside of the building. It looked sturdy enough, but looks can be deceiving.
“Hey Karen?”
“Yes Peter?” The AI in his suit was muffled, most likely damaged in the book avalanche.
“What’s the buildings integrity?”
“I’m not sure Peter. Would you like me to contact Mr.Stark?”
Of course. Just calling him. Why hadn’t he thought of that.
“Yeah.”
“Ok. Calling Mr.Stark.”
Peter continued to maneuver cautiously, checking a spot before he put his weight on it. There was a window only four feet away from his. He turned back, going to grab whatever tool he needed, when the dialing stopped.
“Hey underoos. Are you ok?”
Peter breathed out a sigh of relief and responded, “yes. We both are. Are you?”
“We?”
“Nat was trapped in the room with me. Don’t worry she patched me up.”
“Ok... where are you? You said you were trapped?”
“Oh I’m just walking on the side of the building right now.”
“What? On the side of the building? Please tell me I heard that wrong.”
Peter slipped back into his room motioned to his mask when Nat opened her mouth to speak to him. “Well I’m not anymore but we are moving to another room because we can’t leave this one.”
“No pete you can’t do that. It sounds like a fine plan but I don’t think the building is steady enough. Just wait there and I’ll come get you, ok?”
Peter nodded, but then realized that Tony couldn’t see that, “yeah Mr.Stark.”
They hung up and Peter took off his mask.
“Was that Tony?”
Peter nodded again and explained what he had been told.
Nat listened and nodded thoughtfully, “Well he knows this building better than anyone else. Now you know he’s alive and didn’t sound like he was in harms way, so can you stay here?”
“Yeah. If he’s not here within a half hour, we go though, please?”
“We’ll cross the bridge when we get there.”
Peter sat down and put his head in hands, “I was supposed to have a fun long weekend with Mr.Stark. I would do homework and he would take apart every car he owns. It would’ve been prefect.”
Nat ruffles his hair and tried to comfort him, “maybe you could go to the tower. I don’t think that one exploded.”
Peter looked up at her and shook his head, “no, he sold the tower. He doesn’t own it anymore.”
She laughed and sat down with him, “you think Tony would give up prime location in the center of New York? He did sell it, but that was just to keep the threat away from such a large civilian population. He very distantly owns it, but he controls it.”
“Oh. He didn’t tell me that.”
“Probably so he could make Happy drive you out further.”
Peter smiled, laughing at the the thought.
The minutes passed. They traded superhero stories, funny Tony moments, and even advice.
“From one spider to another, find something that makes you happy. This life is hard and lonely sometimes. You can’t always rely on other for jokes or pick-me-ups, but you need joy. For me, I do ballet. I learned it in the red room but I don’t entirely connect it with that. It clears my head and keeps me on my toes. Get it? Cause in a type of ballet you dance on your toes? Get it?” Natasha laughed at her own joke and played with some dirt on her shoes.
Peter shook his head, mirroring her reaction.
They were deep into a conversation about films compared to their books when they heard a noise at the door.
Peter and Nat stood, ready to fight anything coming in. The noises got louder, small explosions rattling the door. Peter flinched and Nat stepped in front of them both when the door itself burst open.
She pulled out her gun, preparing for battle when the Ironman armor stepped through the smoke. The suit opened, allowing Tony to step out, relatively unscathed. He immediately looked towards Peter, checking him over for any major injuries before pulling him into a tight hug.
“So you’re ok?” Tony looked at Peter as he responded, making sure it was the truth.
“Yeah I’m fine. I have a scrape on my head but it’s cleaned and I don’t have a concussion. And you didn’t sell the tower. Wanna tell me about that? I almost died for no reason? You never had to use that plain dude.” Peter asked the questions in a mocking tone as Tony turned to glare at Natasha.
“You told my kid that I didn’t seek the tower. You told the kid who kept a Spider-Man suit at school? This kid can’t keep a secret for the life of him. I wouldn’t be surprised if everyone at school knows he’s Spider-Man.”
Nat laughed and scratched her head. “Is it all clear now?”
Tony nodded, “yeah whoever it was cleared out. There are no more explosives in the building and FRIDAY is looking into their identity.”
Nat began to step over the debris and towards the door when a hand stopped her. She turned and was met with Peter looking right at her.
“Um just so you know. Thank you. Add me to the count.”
Natasha smiled at the teen and agreed. Tony and Peter watched her leave, gracefully stepping over concrete and glass until she disappeared from view.
“So I assume you two spiders got along all right?”
Peter turned to Tony and thought for a moment before asking, “what do you think about me taking ballet? I’ve always wanted to be a professional dancer.”