Chapter 1
“This is just a simple recon mission, Parker.”
Iron Man flew low to be level with Spider-Man swinging between buildings.
“I know, Mr. Stark,” Peter replied. Tony sensed a little sarcasm in his voice.
“Hey, the only reason you’re coming with me is because Romanov is in Moscow for the weekend, so don’t go getting cocky.”
Peter pulled himself higher as he swung and flipped mid-air. “That shouldn’t be a problem,” he said, laughing.
Tony rolled his eyes. “These guys aren’t like the thugs you catch after school, kid. They’re terrorists, with alien tech courtesy of your friend Toomes. Remember? The guy that almost killed you? On several occasions?”
“I can handle this, Mr. Stark,” Peter quipped back.
“I know you can, but—”
Peter started swinging faster so Tony had to speed up to stay in line with him.
Teenagers, Tony grumbled.
Peter wasn’t going to lie: he was thrilled to be going on a mission with Mr. Stark. Iron Man and Spider-Man, teaming up to take down evil terrorists! What could be cooler than that? He sensed Tony’s apprehension to the whole situation, but like he said, it was just a simple recon mission. What could go wrong?
“You’re approaching the organization’s base, Peter,” Karen said. FRIDAY must have told Tony at the same time because he began to slow down. Peter followed suit.
He saw the building up ahead and shot a web at the roof, pulling himself up to perch on the edge. Tony landed next to him, crouching down to be on the same level.
“FRIDAY, scan for empty rooms.”
“Okay, boss. The room beneath you is clear. I see a few hostiles in the other rooms of the top floor, but they’re mostly grouped together in the lower levels.”
“Alright, kid, here’s the plan. We’ll go in this window—” Tony points over the side of the building, “—and take out the guys on the top floor. Then—”
But Peter was already crawling along the side of the building toward the dirty, broken window. The hole was big enough for him to slide through but he webbed the edges of the glass to avoid cutting himself.
Peter crept across the ceiling and lowered himself to the floor, careful not to make any noise.
Tony had to open one of the larger windows facing the main street to get in and maneuver the suit to keep from breaking the jagged glass. He faced Peter with a huff of annoyance.
“Wait until I finish talking to—”
“Oh my god, Mr. Stark!”
“What, what is it?” Tony whispered, tensing up and swiveling his head to look for threats.
“This is a school,” Peter exclaimed. They looked around at the room; battered desks were stacked against the walls and a chalkboard hung at the front.
Tony relaxed a little. “So?”
“Schools creep me out,” Peter said, rubbing his hands up and down his upper arms.
Tony let the nanotech in his helmet ebb away from his face so he could stare at Peter. “Kid, you’re in a school almost every day.”
“Exactly,” Peter mock shivered.
Tony rolled his eyes before speaking. “Well, it’s abandoned now. Nothing to worry about.”
“That’s even creepier!”
Tony stared at Peter for another second before sighing and looking at the floor. “Okay, here’s the full plan, and you better not interrupt me, buddy.”
Peter held the thumb drive tight between his fingers as he and Tony stalked around the top floor of the school. His job was to find the info hub and plug the drive into their main computer. The drive would then siphon away the terrorists’ information and corrode their systems, leaving Peter with a drive full of intel and the bad guys with a drive full of nothing.
Completely foolproof, Tony had said.
The sun was setting outside, throwing orange slants across the floor as they made their way down the hall.
Peter had been joking before, but the decrepit school was actually pretty eerie. The walls were stained and moldy and there was a thick layer of dust settled on the floor. The broken windows refracted the sunlight and made weird shapes on the ceiling. He didn’t like it.
FRIDAY alerted them that there were two people in the room at the end of the hall. Tony pointed at the two sets of footprints in the dust.
“I’ll go in, blast them and give you the all clear,” Tony whispered.
“Hey, no offense, but I’m way quieter than you,” Peter replied. “Let me take them by surprise.”
Tony glared at him.
“You were the one who asked me to come, right? What am I supposed to do, stand here while you have all the fun?”
Tony studied him for a moment before conceding. “Fine. Be my guest.”
Peter smiled from behind his mask. He took the handle of the door and slowly turned, peeking through the sliver of space and into the room. The two men were hunched over a computer and speaking to each other in hushed, tense tones.
Peter closed the door and looked back at Tony.
“What are they saying?” Tony asked.
Peter concentrated. “They’re planning something big. They mentioned Toomes’ tech.”
Tony acknowledged his change in mood. Toomes was still a sore spot for Peter. He wanted to finish what he’d started and destroy the business once and for all.
Opening the door again, Peter quickly and silently climbed up the wall and onto the ceiling. The men didn’t show any signs of noticing his presence. He had had experience sneaking around like this when he would sneak in and out of his bedroom before May knew about Spider-Man. It was a talent of his.
When they still hadn’t noticed him, Peter said, “Wow, this must be a new record. I wonder how long you guys could have gone before seeing me. Guess we’ll never know.”
Before the men had time to react, Peter dropped down from the ceiling and delivered a punch to the jaw of the guy closest to him. He was out cold before he hit the floor.
Unfortunately, the other guy had time to grab a gun from his back pocket, but Peter was quick. He shot a web and pulled the gun out of his hand, then shot another to stick him to the wall behind him. The man just stared at him in astonishment.
“You know, I can almost hear the gears turning in your brain, man, that’s crazy,” Peter said.
Peter opened the door with another web and beckoned to Tony to come in.
“Nice job, kid,” he said.
Peter saluted him, then turned to the computers the men had been focused on before he attacked them.
“Looks like some kind of blueprint,” Peter muttered as he scrolled through the pages on the monitor.
“Must be the floorplan for one of the places they’re planning to hit,” Tony said, reading over Peter’s shoulder.
They looked through the plans for another minute before Tony broke the silence. “Alright, Parker, you stay here and get this info on that drive, I’ll go down to the basement and see what they’re doing, you good with that?”
Peter mumbled in agreement without turning to look at him. Tony took his shoulder and spun him around to face him. He looked serious.
“If something happens, you call me, understand?” Tony said, gripping Peter’s shoulder.
Peter stared at him for a second. Was Tony really that concerned for him? Peter knew he cared, but the look in his eyes said he was feeling something more. Like if something happened to Peter, he wouldn’t be able to recover. It made him a little uneasy knowing his life could mean so much to someone else.
“I got it, Mr. Stark.”
“Good.”
Well, that was boring. The drive did its job within a couple of minutes, and by then Peter was already itching for another fight. Why did Tony get to spy on the bad guys?
Tony had made it clear that Peter was definitely not supposed to move after he’d done his part, but what could it hurt exploring a little? He wouldn’t go too far . . . .
Peter found the staircase that led to the lower levels. Tucking the drive away into a tiny pocket in the suit, he slowly descended, ears pricked for any sounds.
“Pst, Karen, where are the bad guys?” Peter whispered.
“They are all in the basement, Peter. Tony Stark is currently looking through the offices in the back. They do not realize he’s there. Shall I alert him of your success at your part of the mission?”
“No, no, that’s fine. I think I’ll just stop in for a sec, see how things are going.”
“Peter, I would advise against it. Mr. Stark gave you clear instructions—”
“I just want to see what’s happening,” Peter said, cutting the AI off. He bounded down the rest of the stairs, not giving her a chance to argue any longer.
When he reached the door to the basement, Peter stopped for a moment to think. Maybe he should just wait for Tony to come back for him, let him finish whatever he was doing. But curiosity got the better of him and he soon found himself turning the handle of the door.
Peter peeked through the crack in the door. He could just make out the figures of several men, all the way at the back of the massive room, hunched over a crate filled with . . . something. He couldn’t see everything; a corner of the basement jutted out and interrupted his line of sight.
The corner was what Peter assumed to be the offices Karen said Tony was scoping out. The door leading in was slightly ajar, but he couldn’t see inside.
The men were all facing away from him, so Peter slowly inched out from behind the door and climbed up the wall. Wide metal beams ran along the high ceiling; Peter got as close to the men as possible before perching on the edge of one.
He was practically on top of them, but he was high enough that they wouldn’t notice. Hopefully. Peter could see into the crate the men stood over now. It was packed full of weapons; ones Peter recognized as the alien tech Toomes sold. There was a large array of frightening looking guns, as well as things that resembled brass knuckles and that gauntlet the “shocker” had used to beat the crap out of him. Stupid name, but that thing hurt.
One of the guys had a clipboard, and he scribbled down numbers as the other guys yelled them out. They were taking inventory.
Peter’s stomach flipped as he looked around at the rest of the basement. Rows upon rows of identical crates filled the space, chock full of weapons waiting to be counted.
Peter continued to watch, unaware of the man at the other end of the basement walking towards them. From where the guy was standing, he could perfectly see Peter crouched on the beam above the floor.
“Hey, you, Spider-guy!” he yelled, pointing right at him. The guys below whipped their heads up to stare at him. They looked pretty mad.
That was definitely an understatement.
Tony moved carefully in between the desks and stacks of paper scattered around the large office space as the nanotech suit disappeared into its housing unit. One of the desks, right at the center of the room, looked like it was getting the most use. Several computer monitors were set up on it, still running, and hard copy files were open haphazardly across it. He picked one up and started thumbing through.
“FRI, you taking pictures of all this?” he asked.
“Way ahead of you, boss.”
Tony nodded as he continued to flip through the documents. One was simply filled with names. Dozens of them. His stomach sank as he realized it was a list of the terrorist organization’s members. It was much bigger than he had known; he began to feel uneasy.
He picked up another file. He stared in horror at a detailed floor plan of the Avengers compound. Tony’s mind raced as he tried to piece something together. How the hell did they get this? What were they planning? One thing he did know: they were smart.
Heart racing, he grabbed another file, and almost dropped it when he saw a picture of a smiling boy staring up at him from the page. Peter. They had Peter’s picture. Tony scanned the rest of the page, his breath coming quicker. They knew everything about the kid: his name, where he lived, where he went to school, and the fact that he’s Spider-Man.
“Shit,” Tony muttered. “Shit.”
They had info on the other Avengers too, but none of them had secret identities. Peter did. This was bad.
“Call the kid, we gotta get out of here, now.” But before FRIDAY could respond, Tony heard yelling from outside the office. Sounds of fighting soon followed.
Heart pounding, Tony creeped back toward the door to the office as his suit re-formed around his body. He started to open the door, but at the same time, he heard Peter over the comms.
“Uh, Mr. Stark?” He sounded slightly out of breath. “I could use a little help out here. I mean, I don’t need help, per say—” He was cut off by the sound of a large blast.
“Kid, I swear to god—” Of course he had come down here despite everything Tony had told him. What had he been expecting? Without bothering to look through the crack in the door, Tony shoved it wide open and stormed out of the office.
There were about eight guys aiming large guns at Spider-Man, who was jumping from rafter to rafter trying to avoid the blasts. No one noticed him at first; they were too busy trying to get a good shot at Peter. He was fast, though. Nothing had touched him yet.
“Hey!” Tony shouted, pulling the guys’ attention away from Peter. Without flinching, half the men turned and trained their weapons on him instead. Tony didn’t waste any time chatting; he flew at them and knocked them across the large room, away from the kid.
Tony went to stand up but before he could, a jolt of something went down his spine, sending him back to the ground, writhing. Electricity arced off the surface of the suit as he struggled to move.
He looked over at a guy with a large gun stalking towards him, probably the one that just shot him with whatever the hell that was. He managed to rise to his feet, but something was wrong.
“FRIDAY, tell me what’s happening,” Tony said, tapping his visor as the HUD went dark. “FRIDAY?” Tony was near frantic trying to get something to work. All systems were offline; he was grounded, FRIDAY was M.I.A, his repulsors refused to fire. He resorted to banging on the metal with his fists, but nothing worked.
“Hey, Stark,” the guy coming towards him shouted. He raised his gun to fire another shot. Dodging just in time, Tony landed near another guy, this one unconscious. Out of the four he’d hit, two we’re down for the count, one was particularly dazed, and the other was currently trying to fry him.
He didn’t have much time to think as he dodged another blast from the gun. Tony glanced over his shoulder at Peter, who was still weaving between the beams running along the ceiling.
“Tired yet, Spidey?” Tony asked over the comms before he and the man began circling each other.
“Nah, I’m good!” he managed to say between pants.
Tony had to bring his awareness back to the guy in front of him. He moved until he had a clear view of Peter at the other end of the room to keep an eye on him.
“Suit not working, huh,” the guy said, smirking. “That’s all thanks to Toomes’ nerd—you know, before they got put behind bars. Lucky for us, though, we still got to keep these.”
“I gotta admit, it’s some pretty cool tech. Mind telling me what you plan on using it for?” Tony asked, playing along to stall for time.
“No, I think I’ll just shoot you with it instead,” he said.
“Figures,” Tony huffed.
At the other end of the room, Peter was using all his focus to avoid being incinerated by the scary looking weapons the men were trying to shoot him with. They kept missing, but fatigue was beginning to set into his muscles. He couldn’t do this forever, and the guys down there were working way less hard than he was. They could keep going for a while.
At first there were eight on him, but when Tony barged in that number went down to four. Peter barely had time to feel guilty for getting them into this mess. It sat on his chest, though, knowing Tony would be disappointed in him. But they could take these guys. He just needed a window to get in closer.
As he continued to dodge the blasts, Peter was able to recognize a sort of pattern; the time it took for the weapons to recharge was consistent. He could predict when they would fire. He saw his chance.
During one of the lulls, Peter shot a web at one guy’s hands, yanking him and his gun up into the air. He slammed back onto the concrete floor, the gun shattering on impact. Not the most durable of weapons, Peter thought.
In the next lull, Peter swung down from the rafters and kicked a guy right in the jaw. Instant K.O. The remaining two aimed their guns at his chest.
“Woah, guys,” Peter started, hands raised in mock surrender. “You know, I feel like we could be friends—I think we just got off on the wrong foot. We should catch a movie some time, maybe play a game of laser tag or something.”
“You talk too much,” one of them grumbled.
“So I’ve been told.” At that second, Peter’s senses started buzzing in the back of his head, more than they had been during the fight.
Before he could turn around, whoever was behind him said, “Hey, Peter.”
Peter froze. His eyes went wide and his stomach turned to ice. They knew his real name.
Completely caught off guard, he didn’t even get to see who it was before he felt the man’s fist connect with the side of his head. Peter listed and fell to the ground with the intensity of the punch. His vision went blurry, but he could still make out the gauntlet encasing the man’s hand, pulsing with energy. The other two guys just stood there, watching, big ugly grins on their faces.
Peter tried to blink the spots from his eyes and struggled to get his feet under him. He whimpered as the pain flowed from the side of his head through his shoulders and back. The men laughed and closed in around him. Peter looked down for a second, trying to focus on getting up, his heart beat rising as he started to panic.
Come on, Spider-Man, just get up, he thought. But his brain felt fuzzy. His muscles weren’t responding like they were supposed to.
Above him, the man pulled his arm back again. Peter’s head exploded in pain once more, and he was unconscious before his face hit the concrete.