Chapter 10
Over the last couple of days Steve had been weighing his options. He had been giving a lot of serious thought to Sam's plan involving the spider kid. Perhaps Tony HAD been in contact with Peter. Maybe the kid was the key to solving all this mess.
Deciding that he wouldn't lose anything by giving the plan a chance, Steve had dedicated the last twenty-two hours to following the kid's movements. Spider-man seemed to be the only active vigilante publicly taking care of the city, and with no other superhero in sight, Peter had taken the responsibility of ensuring the safety of NY's citizens in his own hands, making him an easy target to track.
The youngster had even made the news last night, when he had single handedly stopped a bank robbery. The locals considered him a hero, with many of them calling him Iron Man's successor. The thought brought a painful twinge to Steve's heart, he knew Tony would have been proud of the kid.
Night was rapidly falling over NY, the first stars shining through the clear sky. Steve took advantage of the growing shadows the sunset provided, he was currently hiding over a rooftop in the outskirts of the city. He had located Spider-man near a seemingly abandoned building. He could barely make out the dark figure dangling from the edge of a metal structure. The youngster seemed very interested in investigating the place, but after about an hour of keeping a watchful eye on the building, the kid made his way south and into the city's downtown.
Steve saw with awe how Peter swung from building to building, making some impressive acrobatic maneuvers across the sky. He followed him as closely as he dared, jumping and rolling along the rooftops, trying to keep a safe distance from the kid, until he saw Peter letting go of one of his webs and land graciously on top of another rooftop. Steve hurried his pace, he wanted to catch the kid before he took off again.
As he got closer, he could hear Peter talking to someone he couldn't see.
“No, I know! But I can’t just sit by and wait, I needed to do something, I know I can investigate some more if you would all just trust me…” Peter's voice seemed younger than what Steve recalled. The kid had to be still in high school at least.
“Yeah, I know I made a promise, but I can’t just…” with a heavy sigh the kid kicked a small pebble “...Alright, I’ll be careful, just, don’t tell him anything ok? I don’t want him to worry”
Steve had been inching closer while Peter had been talking, but suddenly, as if sensing his presence, Peter turned around with alarming speed, startling Steve out of his hiding place.
"Cap?" came Peter's uncertain voice, the big white lenses on the kid’s mask focusing on him.
"Hi Peter, I'm sorry I startled you, I came here to talk to you" said Steve stepping out of the shadows, making his waytowards the open space of the rooftop.
"How do you know my name?!" Peter's panicked voice could be heard even through the mask. The kid was visibly freaked out, and Steve chastised himself for his slip.
"That’s not important Peter. But I need to ask you some questions, can I come closer?"
"I... No, stay where you are"
"I’m unarmed Peter, I’m not here to hurt you" he said, taking a tentative step forward.
"Somehow, I doubt you need any kind of weapon to hurt someone Cap" The kid said with a sarcastic voice.
"Peter, I'm here as a friend, believe me. I only want to know what happened to Tony, do you know Peter? Do you know if he’s all right?" he said with as much gentleness as he could, he wanted the kid to trust him. Sam was right, it was obvious the kid was hiding something, he was like a deer caught in the headlights.
At his words something seemed to overcome Peter, the kid took a couple of menacing steps towards Steve but he suddenly halted. Steve could see the kid was almost trembling, like it was taking him some great physical effort to restrain himself, his enhanced hearing helped him make out a faint female voice that was coming from the kid's mask.
"Peter, calm down! remember your promise!"
"But I can't just not do something Karen!" Peter whispered, a tremble in his voice.
"Peter, you'll disappoint him if you do this"
Taking a deep breath, the kid seemed to regain his wits, unclenching his fists and taking a few steps back towards the building’s edge "I don’t know what to tell you Mr. Captain, but I really have to go" He said with a visibly shaking voice, as he took another step and dropped off the side of the building.
"Kid, wait!" Steve ran to the edge, but he could see Peter was gone, his super hearing letting him hear a faint trail of expletives coming from the kid, who was swinging away at great speed. Not wanting to give up, Steve gave him chase. Even with his enhanced abilities, Steve was having a hard time keeping up with the youngster. He followed the kid for several blocks, and just as he thought he had lost the spiderling, a red and blue blurry mass caught his attention. He saw Peter dropping down on an alleyway some meters to his left at great speed.
Making a final superhuman effort, Steve ran at full speed the distance separating him from the gaping whole were Peter had just dropped down, making it to the edge of the building as a bright light illuminated the alleyway bellow him. Steve stood rooted to the spot, glancing down the building as a very bright orange portal opened up right in front of Peter. The kid seemed unfaced, stepping right into it. The portal closed behind him seconds later, leaving no evidence that Peter had ever been there in the first place.
Steve was shocked, he recognized that bright light, that glow, it had been what he had seen in the bunker videos. This was what Tony had used to escape Siberia.
"Are you sure it was the same light?" said Natasha with a frown.
"Yes! I’m sure! It was a portal!!" Steve said exasperatedly. His mind was reeling with what he had just witnessed.
"Did the kid have some kind of devise that created it? Did you see anyone else with him?"
"I...no, I was too far away to see how the kid opened it, but he was alone on that alley, I went down there. There was nothing, no marks or any other sign that the kid had been there at all"
"Guys" Sam called from down the living room, but Steve and Natasha didn't seem to hear him.
"Maybe we can find if there were any security cameras around, anything that could give us any idea of what happened in that alley" said Natasha, getting her hands on her computer.
"Guys" Sam called again, to no avail.
"Yeah, that sounds like a good plan Nat, maybe we ca-"
"GUYS!" Sam finally popped his head inside the kitchen where the other two were discussing "YOU.HAVE.TO.SEE.THIS!"
‘This’ turned out to be a press conference with the last person they had expected to see at the center of it. Tony Stark himself was standing behind a podium with several microphones attached to it, wearing his trademark glasses and a designer suit framing his body. Sam would have found both Natasha and Steve's dumb smacked looks hilarious, if he wasn't so shocked with the news himself.
"Mr. Stark, can you tell us anything about your disappearance?" "Is it true you were being held hostage by another terrorist group?" "Tony, can you talk about the rumors that you spent some time in outer space?"
Question after question was fired upon the man, who seemed uncharacteristically quiet and withdrawn, a stark contrast to his usual boisterous and confident self in the presence of the cameras.
“The news of my demise was greatly exaggerated", he said with a hollow voice "I was taking some time off due to some medical problems, from which I am currently recovering"
"Mr. Stark, can you give us some more information regarding your current health?" "Mr. Sta-"
"I have an announcement to make" The man said, halting the reporters in their incessant inquiring "I have decided not to take part in any more superhero activities for the time being. I will focus my attention into regaining my full health. Furthermore, I will take the reins of my company once again. As the head of Stark Industries, I would like to announce the re-opening of SI's 'Innovative Research' branch, effective immediately"
"Mr. Stark, what does this mean for the people? will you no longer keep watch over them?" "Mr. Stark, does this mean the Avengers are officially over?"
"That would be all, no more questions, thank you!" said a heavy-set bald man, nudging Tony out of the stage, promptly ending the press conference.
The explosion of camera flashes and shouts from the reporters trying to get one last question in filled the now empty stage.