The Antidote
Helen ran her hands down her face. It just didn't make any sense. The toxicology examination results showed positive in testing for parathion in Peter's blood, but Steve and Pepper's bloods showed no traces. There was no way the insecticide would dissipate quickly enough between the time Peter inhaled it and Pepper found him.
Nevertheless, the results were there. Peter's blood tested positive for the organophosphate insecticide, and there was no way the machine would lie, it was the best toxicology technology out there.
She turned to Pepper and Steve. "You two are all clear."
Steve nodded, but Pepper was still concerned. "What about Peter?"
Helen sighed. "It was most definitely parathion. I ran several trials through the machine and all tested positive for it." She turned to the cabinet and opened it.
"So you said you can cure it?" Steve glanced down at the boy he thought of as his nephew. It seemed too easy. The perpetrator going through all this effort to poison only Peter, but yet using a compound so easily identifiable.
"Yes," She held up a syringe, filled with some sort of liquid. "Pralidoxime counters organophosphate insecticide poisoning." Looking up at Bruce, she continued. "Bruce, I need you to help me monitor him. The pralidoxime injection should break the phosphate-ester bonds the parathion has formed with his acetylcholinesterase, but I want to make sure there are no complications."
Bruce gave no verbal reply, simply falling right into place beside Helen. She injected the pralidoxime into Peter's muscles, and watched the monitors with Bruce. When no alarming changes happened, she relaxed.
"Okay, I'll take another blood sample in a couple of minutes. His body should have metabolized and gotten rid of the poison by then." Pepper nodded.
As Helen continued monitoring Peter's vitals, May Parker burst through the door.
"Pepper, I'm here, what happened?" The Italian woman looked frantic, her ruffled appearance showing that she had clearly just rushed there from work.
Pepper sent a reassuring smile to the woman, placing a gentle hand on her shoulder and guiding her to sit. "We think Peter was poisoned with an insecticide," May sucked in a breath, but Pepper pushed forward, "but luckily, Dr. Cho was able to identify the chemical and just administered the antidote. Peter should be fine."
May only slightly relaxed, heart still beating fast at the thought of her baby being poisoned. "So now what, we just wait?"
A new voice perked up, "Well, that or you can give me an actual greeting."
All occupants of the room whirled around to face the hospital bed. Peter was still laying down, but his eyes were open. His lips no longer blue, they were curled into a tired smile. He seemed weak, but awake.
"Peter, honey!" May rushed to his side, but held herself back from engulfing him in a suffocating hug. "How are you feeling?"
"Tired," He laughed. "And like an elephant sat on my chest."
"You gave us quite a scare there." Helen smiled at the boy.
"Well, I'm fine now!" Steve shook his head at the kid's lack of concern that he was just poisoned.
"You're still staying here until we can make sure."
Peter pouted, but didn't say anything. He yawned and closed his eyes. May looked at him with worry.
"Pete?" she prompted.
The spider ling only groaned. "Tired. I sleep." The adults smiled fondly and let the boy drift back off.
Helen stood to grab a syringe. "I'm going to test his blood. His body should be mostly clear of the parathion by now." Drawing blood, she took the sample back over to the machine.
Steve stood up. "I'm going to go check on Tony." He walked through the double doors and set off in search of the billionaire.
May, Pepper, and Bruce remained in anxious silence for a few minutes, listening to the beeping of the monitors, before Helen's quiet voice spoke up.
"It- It's not possible." her voice broke through. All eyes were drawn to her. Her forehead was creased with worry, reigniting the dread in the others' stomachs.
"Helen, what is it?" May almost didn't want to know the answer.
"Helen." The doctor ran over to look at the monitors, where Bruce was standing, confusion also evident on his face.
"Dear god." With those two words, the other two women shared a look of apprehension. "The parathion is still there, the concentration hasn't decreased."
May sucked in a breath. "You don't mean…" she trailed off, and Helen finished her thought.
"The antidote didn't work."
Steve knocked on the door to Tony's lab. When there was no answer, he knocked again, calling out, "Tony?"
In response, a voice simply answered "Go away, Rogers."
The soldier sighed. Sure, they weren't at each other's throats anymore, but things were still rocky between him and Tony. Steve knew he had a lot to apologize for, but now wasn't the time. "I'm here to check on you. I'm just making sure you're not holing yourself up in there again."
"Too late." Steve shook his head. He looked at the ceiling. "FRIDAY?"
Without anymore prompting, the door opened. Peter and Pepper had put in a protocol that would allow certain people access to the lab for the purpose of dragging Tony out from his self-destructive obsessing. He entered, seeing the inventor surrounded by almost a dozen screens of security camera footage. They showed images from all parts of the penthouse, and seemed to be replaying countless moments from the past week.
"What are you doing?" The captain gazed, slightly awed at the videos. Tony cursed.
"Why the fuck did FRIDAY let you in?" he grumbled.
"Because she knew you were starting to obsess."
"This is my kid we're talking about here, Rogers. Someone tried to hurt him, I think I have the right to be obsessed." Tony scrolled through more footage, studying each and every person that walked through the penthouse.
"What are you looking for?" Steve stood beside Tony, figuring he might as well try to help.
"Someone who shouldn't be there." Tony's gaze never wavered from a screen. He watched the front door as a security guard came to drop something off last Tuesday. Steve turned to look at the video footage of the kitchen. Dated Wednesday, he saw the repairman that was there to fix the vent Clint broke. Just as Steve was about to turn away, something caught his eye. A strange box was in his hand, only just visible in the camera.
"Wait." Tony stopped.
"Rogers, don't try to drag me away from this. I need to do-"
"No," Steve stared, trying to figure out what the odd contraption was. It had only caught his eye due to the orange light blinking on it. "Can you zoom in on that?"
Immediately, Tony compiled, zooming on where Steve was pointing. The plain black box seemed to have nothing but an orange light on it. Just barely, Steve could see something round attached to the end. "What is that?"
"I don't know, but it shouldn't be in the vents." He tapped the screen a bunch, pulling up a different angle of the kitchen. As Tony focused and zoomed in, Steve was able to see that the odd round part of the machine was cylindrical in shape, with a knob. It almost looked like…
"A canister," Tony voiced Steve's thoughts. "That must have held the gas."
They un-paused and watched as the man held the machine close and swiftly tried to pop it into the vent. Tony growled and fiddled with the screens some more, switching viewpoints until the face of the man was visible.
Dark, shaggy hair and a pinched look on his face, the man looked as though someone had force-fed him a lemon. "FRIDAY, run facial recognition software, who is that?"
After a whirl and a boxed outline appearing around the man's face, a profile appeared.
"Gary Moore, aged 35. maintenance worker level 5. No previous criminal record, lives in Brooklyn."
Tony scanned through the profile, looking for an address. Steve looked disgusted at the thought of this man living in Steve's own home city.
When an address was given, Tony stood up so fast that Steve jumped. "FRIDAY, let's go." A suit immediately came and started to assemble around him. Steve stood and walked over.
"Tony wait." The man only gave him an exasperated look.
"Look Cap, this bastard needs to get what's coming to him, and I plan to give it to him. Don't try to stop me." Tony turned to walk away, but Steve called out again.
"I want to join you." Tony turned around, looking his friend/rival/colleague/whatever they were at this point in the eye. "If only to make sure you don't commit murder."
Tony resumed his walking, mumbling "He'd deserve it." It was just loud enough to hear, and Steve took that as his cue to follow.
The ride was silent, Steve finally having convinced Tony to forgo the suit until need be. As such, the two were dressed in casual clothes, but made sure to have any suit or weapon on hand in case things turned ugly. Pulling up in front of the cookie-cutter brown apartment building, Tony barely stopped before he was already getting out. Steve hurried after him. The billionaire was stalking to the door, and knocked so loudly that it startled the pigeons sitting on the planter nearby. Steve stood back, watching the man to make sure he made no sudden, violent moves. Tony didn't react very well when emotionally distressed (he shuddered, remembering Siberia). A minute passed, and Tony raised his hand to pound on the door again just as it opened.
A man opened the door, gazing astonished at the two in front of him. Steve recognized the dark hair and pinched face. Said face was flushed, and he seemed flustered.
"M-Mr. Stark… Captain Rogers… how-how can I help you?" Tony growled low in his throat, but a look from Steve prevented him from acting out.
Steve himself turned back to the man, stare sold as he glared at the man who had hurt his nephew. He maintained his resolve, however. "Mr. Moore," he began smoothly, trying to convey in his eyes what words could not express, "We need to talk to you."
Moore's eyes widened, and his flushed cheeks grew redder. His gaze flitted back and forth, seemingly searching for an exit or a method of escape. The captain cleared his throat expectantly, and Moore jumped.
"T-talk? About what?" He gulped. Steve narrowed his eyes.
"Confidential. Stark Industries business, can't discuss it out in the open," The soldier was all too aware of the people watching them from across the street. Moore nodded, eyes flickering around again, before he stood back to let the two Avengers in.
"Ah, yes… Come in…" With one last nervous look at the two men, Moore closed the door and walked in behind them.
He gestured to the couch. "Come, sit," He laughed nervously. Tony and Steve compiled, sitting on the couch as Moore sat in the armchair opposite him.
"So to what do I owe the pleasure?" Moore wrung his hands nervously. God, Tony thought, This guy is really not subtle. He had a better hold on his emotions now, though he still wanted to punch this idiot's teeth in.
"You know what, Moore," Tony glared ice straight into the man in the armchair. Moore flinched, and Tony saw sweat drip down from his temple.
He tried to gather himself. "I'm not sure what you mean, sir, I-"
"Cut the bullshit, Moore." Tony barked. The man's mouth snapped shut and he tensed. "You know what you did, and you had better admit it if you don’t want to spend the rest of your life at the Raft." He was exaggerating, but Moore didn't know that, and it worked.
"You don't have proof." Moore stammered, more trying to convince himself than the others. Tony smirked darkly, pulling up the security footage from Wednesday. Moore's eyes widened as he saw himself putting the odd machine into the vents. He knew there was no feasible way he would get out of this.
"Then why do we have video evidence of you placing unknown technology containing gas canisters into the vents?" Even as he said this, Steve felt uneasy. It just felt… off. This main seemed too cowardly to be the sole perpetrator, least of all the person who orchestrated this. Moore gave in too easily, there was no way this was all his doing.
"L-look, I just did as I was told." Tony perked up at that.
"Who told you, and what exactly did they tell you?" He leaned forward. Moore grimaced and shrugged in on himself. He seemed conflicted, before opening his mouth.
"They…they just told me to put the machine in the vent." he said, skipping over Tony's first question. Tony didn't miss it.
"And who is 'they'" Surprisingly, Moore only let out a timid shrug.
"I don't know, he never told me his name. He offered me a shit ton of money to put it in there."
Tony leaned back. "So, what did he tell you?"
The man breathed heavily, "He…he said that he needed revenge. He said you put his factory out of business and it cost him everything. He wanted revenge, so he told me to put the gas in the vent."
Tony stood sharply. "Revenge on me?" Moore looked startled.
"Y-yeah?"
The billionaire cursed. "So he was attacked because of me." A horrible, guilty look crossed his face. Steve, sensing where this was going, quickly interjected.
"Did this guy tell you anything else?" his gaze was still cold, but slightly less so. He still had the urge to punch this guy. Mastermind or not, he hurt Peter.
Moore thought for a second. He seemed to have relaxed a bit after realizing the men were not going to attack him. "Well, I asked him what the canisters were for, and he just said that it was some little concoctions he made in order to get his revenge." The two Avengers shared surprised looks.
"Wait, concoctions he made?" Tony repeated, bewildered. "So he didn't say he bought it?" Moore shook his head.
"No, he said it was something he worked on specifically for this task." Steve inhaled sharply, but pulled himself together.
"Is that it?" His voice was urgent now, spying the terror and self-loathing in his colleague's eyes.
Moore nodded quickly, "That's all I know, I swear."
Steve sighed, standing up. He spoke into his coms. "He's all yours, Happy, we got what we need." Moore sputtered.
"W-wait, I told you the truth! You said you weren't going to throw me in the Raft!" Tony glared harshly, and sneered.
"You're an absolute idiot if you think that you would get out of this without going to jail. You hurt my kid, you bastard."
Still stammering, Moore's eyes widened at the word 'kid'. "Kid?" he questioned incredulously, "He targeted a kid?!"
At that moment, Happy burst through the door, followed by two agents. They grabbed Moore and cuffed him. The man did nothing but stare mutely ahead, his posture guilty as, eyes bulging, he let himself be lead away. Once he was gone, Tony took off out the door, summoning his suit and taking to the skies. Steve chased after him.
"TONY!" he cried, but the man did not respond. Capsicle had the car keys, he could drive himself back. Tony, on the other hand, needed to get back to his kid, now.