Superior

Tony was frozen to the spot for a few seconds as the fake Peter swung mercilessly at him. His repulsor was still up, never fired, he couldn’t fire because JesusChristthatwashiskid. 

He snapped to his senses though, when a blow from a claw caught him across his temple, slicing at his skin. Within seconds Tony had directed his nanoparticles into the full Iron Man suit. 

“What did you do with my kid? Where is he?” He fired, aiming for the central control of the octopus limbs. 

Peter’s face smiled maniacally, dodging the shot and swiping again at Tony. “I killed him back in my workshop. You didn’t care, Stark, no one cared, because you thought it was me.” 

Oh. 

Ohgod.

In his mind’s eye, Tony saw himself carelessly stepping over the body of Otto Octavius, desperate only to get to his kid. Of course, the situation had seemed a little fishy, but Peter said that Otto had been trying to transform himself and instead was accidentally poisoned. And Tony had trusted Peter.

He looked up at what was once Peter’s face, laughing gleefully as he dealt blow upon blow, this person who had murdered his child and stolen his likeness and was laughing about it. 

And then he blasted him with everything he had. 

“FRIDAY, is he dead?” 

“Just unconscious” 

Tony pulled the harness off of his kid’s body and pressed his fingers up to his pulse. It was steady and strong. 

“Hey FRI? Unlock Mother Goose.” 

“On it boss” 

After a couple of seconds, a small vial of sedatives specially designed for Peter dropped into his hand. He injected them carefully, then picked him up and set him on a table. 

For a couple minutes, all Tony could do was stare at the kid. Unconscious, he looked like Peter, his Peter. Tony pinched the bridge of his nose. 

Couldhestillbeinthere? 

“FRIDAY? Call Bruce.” 

Tony fiddled with the device that had been sitting on Peter’s head when Tony found him. He’d collected all of the devices in that lab as evidence after the whole ordeal. 

He couldn’t believe he hadn’t studied them further, realized something was wrong, realized his kid was- 

“Tony?” Bruce stepped into the room quietly, “are you okay?” 

“What? Oh. Yeah, why wouldn’t I be?” 

“You’re bleeding.” 

Tony looked around him, at the trail of blood he’d left pacing around the room. He hadn’t realized how much damage those mechanical claws had done while he stood frozen. 

Pepper was going to kill him. 

“Against the point,” he mumbled. “I need your help.” He glanced over at Peter’s body, arms and legs bound with the restraints they’d designed to hold Steve. 

“Holy shit. What happened? Is Peter okay?” 

Tony shook his head, fighting back the prickle of tears in his eyes. It took him a while to be able to speak. 

“That’s not Peter.” 

“He used this to upload his own neurons into Peter’s brain” Tony raised the device he’d been fiddling with.

“But it’s still Peter’s brain.” Bruce reaffirmed. He was busy stitching the worst of Tony’s wounds, despite his protests. Tony had only lost the argument when he nearly collapsed onto the lab floor. “And if he uploaded them using that thing-“ 

“Then there must be a way to delete them.” 

Bruce nodded, pulling the final stitch. “Let’s get to work.”