Never Too Late

(Stark Tower, Manhattan, New York City)

Pepper stepped out of the elevator with her heart firmly lodged in her mouth. She’d wanted to come visit the Keeners as soon as she heard about Harley’s sudden disappearance yesterday, but the flood of voice messages and emails left on her personal number and email account about Tony’s supposed son had left her stranded in her office until a few hours ago. She’d jumped into her personal jet with a weird sense of déjà vu. Like father like son, it seemed like Harley also had the capability of giving Pepper enough headache to last a lifetime in one day without making her care for him any less.

She couldn’t even begin to imagine how Hannah and Hailey must've been feeling right now.

Steeling her nerves with a deep breath, she called out at the woman staring out of the window, “Hannah?”

The mother whirled around to face her with a start, and Pepper winced at the sight. Hannah had bags under her eyes, dark against her too pale skin. Her hair was frizzled, and her eyes wide and unseeing.

“Hi, Pep,” she croaked.

Walking slowly so she didn’t spook the other woman, Pepper answered as lightly as she could, “You look like you could use some rest.”

She get a bitter laugh for that. “I tried, believe me. It didn’t work.”

“Let’s get you to the couch, anyway. You’re swaying.”

Hannah sighed tiredly and followed her to the couch. They sat there for what felt like an eternity, before Hannah finally broke the silence. “You know, Tony actually offered for us to stay here for a while before all of this happened.”

Pepper took Hannah’s hands in hers. “He’ll come back soon. Tony’s a father on a mission, Hannah, he’s not going to fail.”

“I know.”

“Doesn’t make the worry go away, huh?”

Hannah chuckled tearfully. “No, it really doesn’t. How did you even deal with it? When Tony was gone?”

“I’m not sure. But I can swear I stopped feeling anything after the first few hours,” she admitted.

“Cool. How do I do that?”

“Come down with me to SI’s PR department, we can work until we drop.”

They piped down once more after that, just enjoying the company despite all the worry. Pepper didn’t even realize it when a little girl poked her head into the living room. “Mommy? Peppy?”

Both of them looked at the sullen looking Hailey Keener, now hedging uncertainly in the doorway. Pepper smiled at the girl's nick-nickname for her. She didn’t have the heart to tell her that her first name wasn’t actually Pepper. Besides, she kind of liked the sound of it. She didn’t like the heartbroken look on the little girl’s face, however. That kind of sadness had no place in such a young life. She shouldn’t have to worry about her brother’s safety because some power-hungry madman decided that subtlety was overrated and bring children into his beef with Tony.

“Hi, sweetie,” Hannah said, opening up her arms for a hug.

The girl went in and hid her face in her mother’s embrace. “Mommy, is Harley home yet?” she asked in a muffled voice.

Pepper’s heart broke a little bit more. She reached out and pet Hailey’s hair when her mother could only shake her head sadly. “Tony’s on the way to save him now, sweetheart, just wait for a little bit more, OK?”

She felt Hailey melted into her touch. “Is Tony OK now?”

“Why wouldn’t he be?” Hannah asked as she rub her daughter’s back.

Hailey shrugged. “Harley said he was real sick.”

“Well, he’s all better now. Harley will be too.” Internally, Pepper debated the merit of Tony’s “Rated R for Violence” protocol. She would’ve wanted to know if the man that have been taking care of her family for 3 years almost died.

Hailey, blissfully unaware, continued to snuggle into her mother while Pepper continued to play with her hair. After a while, they heard the girl making a soft snuffling sound and smiled to each other.

“Be right back,” Hannah said as she stood and took Hailey to her room.

Alone, Pepper surveyed the penthouse. Tony’d gotten it customized even before this whole mess started. Actually, Pepper was pretty sure Tony’d cleared the whole floor for this very purpose back in 2014. Not that he would dare broach the subject to Hannah, or anyone else for that matter. Thankfully, Hannah seemed to understand the sentiment, and the insecurity behind it.

A moment later, Hannah came back in with a small glint of hope in her previously dead eyes. “What can I do to help?” she asked promptly, all traces of the despondent mother from earlier seemingly vanished.

Who was Pepper to not show the same kind of resilience in answer?

“We are working on the aftermath of all this mess.”

Hannah nodded in understanding. “About Harley being Tony’s son?”

“That. At this point we can either continue the radio silence like we’ve been doing, flat out deny the rumor, although I think both Harley and Tony would be kind of sad if they had to do that, or… well…”

“We can tell all those hungry sharks that I already put Tony as my next in line for Harley and Hailey’s guardianship. Hell, we can tell all of them how I overheard Harley sleep-talking once about his “dad.” Somehow I doubt he was dreaming about that bastard I married once.”

Hannah’s voice came out angrier at the mention of her ex-husband, so Pepper gripped her forearm in sympathy. “You know there’s no coming back from that one. People won’t just be coming for Harley, they’ll come for the whole family. They’ll call you his mistress and that you’re using your kids to get close to him. They’ll snoop around Hailey, just so they can get a snoop at her brother. There’s no privacy for anyone even remotely associated with the name Stark.”

“Then it’s time for them to learn some goddamn manners. I don’t care if Tony is the golden goose for international media, nobody deserves their privacy infringed without consent. Especially not my children.”

Pepper eyed the glimmer of rebellion in Hannah’s unflinching gaze. This is the woman who raised two of the best children Pepper had ever met, each in their own ways. She is the one who tempered the fire in Harley and taught him to be both brave and kind. She is the one who slowly eased Hailey out of her shyness and taught her that she never needed to get stuck playing second fiddle to anyone. This is a woman who took all of life’s beating and none of it’s bullshit, just like she wasn’t going to take any from some paparazzi and two-bit reporters.

“You’re ready then?” Pepper asked redundantly.

“I am,” Hannah answered without missing a beat. “Point the way, Miss Potts.”

(15 Miles Above Ross’ Safe House, Nassau County, Long Island, New York)

“You ready, van Dyne?” Tony glanced at the now battle geared Wasp.

“Ready,” she answered, standing in the doorway of the new stealth jet he designed. “Jumping down in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.” She jumped out head first, wings retracted.

Tony watched as van Dyne plummeted straight down to the earth. “5 seconds passed, you’re at terminal velocity.” he reminded.

“Deploying wings.”

“Don’t break your neck, Ladybug. Here comes the sensor range.”

“Shrinking down. And it’s Wasp, tin boy,” she snarked back, disappearing from view when she shrink down to the size of an actual wasp.

“Semantics, Tinker Bell. Mind the pigeons on your way down. ETA?”

“5 minutes. How’s the hacking doing?”

Vision, who had been silent for most of the flight, piped up, “The firewall itself isn’t too terribly complicated. However, it seems like they are using some kind of barrier to physically protect their main server.”

“Wait, what?” van Dyne asked in alarm. “May I remind you all that I’m currently falling to the ground at more than 100 miles per hour and still speeding?”

Vision quickly turned his head down and the gem in his forehead flared alive. “The barrier exists only in the server room, Wasp. You can proceed with the plan.”

Apparently Vision also had a long range energy reading device installed with the snazzy jewel. Nice.

“You think you can read the energy signature from this high up, Vis?” he asked.

Vision inclined his head at the question. “I don’t know. I’ve never attempted something like this before. If I could, it may take a while to do so.”

“Do it anyway. I’ll take care of the hacking for now.”

Tony get right back to work, suddenly very aware of what would’ve happen if he went storming in like he had intended. Ross somehow acquired a technology strong enough to resist both F.R.I.D.A.Y. and Vision’s attempt at hacking, practically overnight. Tony didn’t even meet a single shred of resistance the last time he tried to hack him.

But why now? And why here? If he really had something he needed to hide so bad, why put it right in the line of fire? What was it that Ross was planning?

“Boss, incoming call from Spider-ling.”

Tony looked up blearily. “Pick up, Fri… wait. Shouldn’t that kid be in school??”

“It’s Saturday, Mr. Stark. Tony, I meant Tony. No school today? It’s Peter, by the way. Peter Parker, Spider-Man?”

He huffed, not sure if being amused was appropriate considering the situation. “Yes, Peter. I know. What’s up, we’re kind of a few minutes away from infiltrating Fort de la Ross.”

“Oh, wait, what?? No! Mr. Stark, Tony, I just… uh… I found some more of those weapons. Those guys from last night must’ve dropped it when they ran, so me and Ned… that’s my best friend, by the way. Wait, I didn’t tell you. He found out about Spider-man last night too… long story. Anyway, we ran back to look for any dropped weapon and… Ross’ men came, Tony. They were looking for the weapons too.”

Tony let loose a very creative set of expletives. “That dickhead! Wasp, change of plan, look out for traps and some more weapons other than ye olde mounted guns. I’m about 90% sure he’s got his grubby paws at some sort of energy field containment, too. Explains why we can’t hack his server. Be careful, we don’t know how to disable this tech without blowing it up yet.”

“Roger that,” she answered curtly.

“Good job, kid. I’ll even ignore the fact that you bring your fellow fetus with you on an alien explosive hunt. For now.”

“Wait! Tony, that’s not even my fault! He followed me out, and… and…－”

“Kidding, kiddo,” he said, ignoring van Dyne’s muttering. “But seriously, get out of there. Stat. Ross’ a little testy these days, I’d stay away from him if I were an enhanced teenager with secret identity.”

Peter hesitated suspiciously. “Um… About that….”

“Kid,” Tony breathed, feeling the beginning of a headache forming already, “please don’t tell me you followed Ross’ underlings here.”

“Uh….” Peter hedged.

“Tony, I detected movement heading towards the target. I'ts Spider-Man,” Vision cut, oblivious to the pulsating vein in Tony’s temple.

He groaned out loud. “Fri, you’re supposed to be keeping tap on that kid!”

“Apologies, boss. It appears the tracker in the Spider-Man suit has been deactivated. Forcefully.”

“Kid!”

“I’m sorry! It’s just… Ned was curious, and we were just checking the code! But then I saw the protocol, I’m not a baby, Tony! You can’t just spy on me and call it 'baby monitor!'"

Damn it, his brand spanking new jet was not a good place to self-combust. “Well, apparently the baby does need to be monitored even more, so the name fits, no?? They are there to keep you safe, Peter! You can’t just…. Ugh, fine! F.R.I.D.A.Y., temporary lift on Spider-Man’s training wheel protocol. Override code, TS-435－”

“The training wheel protocol has also been forcefully deactivated, boss. Do you want me to enact the tattle-tale protocol instead?”

Tony wondered if it was possible to feel this strange combination of seething frustration and surprised delight at knowing his (admittedly handicapped) code had been hacked by a pair of high school sophomores. “For the sake of this mission, Mr. Parker, I will ignore all of your very questionable decision these past 12 hours for now. But May will know everything. Protocol tattle-tale, Fri.”

“Wait! No! Tony, I’m already grounded!”

“Then you shouldn’t have hacked a multi-million dollar suit so you can sneak around behind my back doing the one thing I told you not to do. F.R.I.D.A.Y., brief the suit’s A.I. with our game plan and make sure this boy he doesn’t get caught in the cross-fire.”

“Sorry to cut this short, guys, but you are not going to like what I just found. A few dozen EMP grenades, 10 Chitauri-augmented turrets, and at least 5 men armed to the tooth with some sort of laser weaponry. That’s just the entrance, by the way,” van Dyne reported glibly.

“Fuck. Okay, ignore that for the moment. Try and find the proximity sensor, we can’t get in with that thing on.”

Vision, still focusing his gaze downward, added in, “I believe I picked up the sensor’s location. It’s on the eastern most side of the building, third floor.”

“Copy that. By the way, tell your ward to hide for a while. I just flew by a grunt saying something about someone spotting Spider-Man.”

“Oh… alright, um…. Who is this again?”

“Code name’s the Wasp, Spider-Man. Picture Ant-Man, minus the ants, but with wings and blaster.”

“So Ant-Man but better? Gotcha. Whoops, okay, we’re good.”

Tony sighed again, this mission could not go any slower. “How’s the sensor doing, Wasp?”

“Give me a sec… alright, sensor’s down, you can jump in now.”

Finally.

“Right, Kid, you sneak in and try to find Harley while we trash he party. Do not get caught. If anyone spots you, use the taser web.”

“Taser web?!”

“One of your new five-hundred-something web combination, check A.I. for more details. Wasp, try to disable the weapons, I don’t think Mr. Secretary took basic power coupling 101 in collage. See if you can find the central switch to all those defense system.”

“I suspect the force-field to be protecting just that, Miss van Dyne,” Vision added, “and according to data, my powers could be used to disable that barrier. If I may, Tony?”

“Yeah, you go right ahead. Here, I fiddled with S.H.I.E.L.D.’s photostatic veil a little, this should make you invisible for half an hour,” he answered while tossing the android a translucent looking cape of some sort. “I’m calling it “the invisibility cloak,” as soon as I could convince Rowling to let that one slide.”

Vision simply nodded and draped the cape around him before he dropped down from the plane.

Ready or not, Teddy, here I come.

(Ross’ Safe House’s Back Entrance, Nassau County, Long Island, New York)

“Right, Karen, where do I go?”

“Spongebob… really, kid?” Tony snarked.

Peter groaned, almost missing Karen’s direction. Hacking the suit was a really bad move on his part, and the only excuse he could give to himself was that he needed the validation that Peter Parker was not, in fact, a baby. So he asked Ned to help him hack Tony’s coding. Not his greatest moment, but he felt a sneaking suspicion from the name “training wheel” that Tony intended him to maybe someday hack into the suit and unlock the full potential.

Still didn’t make Tony act any less pissy about it, though. “Tattle-tale protocol”? really? He’s in so much trouble when he got home.

“X-ray scan detects 5 armed guards, Peter. I recommend dropping on them with the taser web from the ventilation shaft.”

“Got it, thanks Karen.”

He started to crawl through the ventilation shaft, thanking DNA for his smaller stature. When he reached the metal bars of the opening, he used his fingers to pinch away the nut and bolts that held it in place, and macgyver his web to create some sort of pulley to lift it up noiselessly. He felt really good about himself when Karen congratulated him for succeeding with less than 10 decibels noise emission.

Webbing himself down, Peter took aim at the five grunts who were still blissfully unaware of the… infestation. Peter flicked the web-shooters expertly, flinging 5 strands of webs, crackling with electricity.

They all drop like Ned after a Star Wars binge-watching.

“Oh, shoot! Karen, please tell me you didn’t set the electricity to Thomas-Edison-kills-an-elephant.”

“No, Peter, I did not set it to 6,600 volts. Not that your suit produce that much electricity, of course,” she said in her perpetually cheerful voice.

“Okay, where do I go from here.”

“Head west, there’s an emergency exit that will lead you down to the basement.”

He blinked. “Wait, he put his hostages in the basement?! How creepy can this guy be??”

“I found no data regarding the quantification of a person’s creepiness. However, the general consensus on social media seems to range between “irredeemably evil” and “I can’t believe the president picked this dude as the State’s secretary.” The staircase is to your left.”

He skidded on the floor and stumbled through the emergency exit door. “Yeesh, a little warning next time, will ya? How many guards are down there?”

“Detecting 15 armed guards. Would you like to engage Enhanced Combat Mode?”

“Enhanced Combat Mode? Yeah!”

“Activating Instant-Kill,” she chirped as the HUD turned laser-red.

“No, no, no, no, no, no, no…! I don’t wanna kill anybody!” he panicked.

“Deactivating Instant-Kill.”

“Instant-Kill? Really?” he griped and shoot a web to swing downstairs.

Only to land face first on the second landing.

“What the hell just happened? What was that??”

“You jumped off the landing, and landed on your face,” she reported like she just mentioned the weather.

Grumbling a little, he looked up and tried to shoot more web to the ceiling. The web, however, came out in a burst of webbing balls instead of the usual strands. “What’s wrong with my web-shooters?”

“Rapid-fire is the default for Enhanced Combat Mode.”

“Why would I need－oh, wait. Can you make load the web-balls with electricity?”

“That combination is called stun web. Would you like to use it?”

“Whoa, Tony really overdid it…,” he breathed in reverence.

“Tony also happens to be able to hear you, Spider-Baby. How’s the infiltration doing?” the man’s voice came ringing back.

“Oh－yeah, hi…. Uh, it’s going…－” Peter cut off as he flipped through the air and showered the ground below with balls of electron-filled sticky web before landing in a crouch. “－good. Just nailed them all, actually.”

“Good job. Get Harley out of there, ASAP. I’m razing this place to the ground as soon as the weapons are down.”

Peter shot out even more webbing to the groaning men on the floor. “Uh, yeah. Cool. Let me just….” He rammed the solid metal door with his shoulder.

Ouch.

“Why is it not breaking??”

“It’s 10 inch thick solid steel door. You’ll have to create more momentum.”

Gulping, he stepped back even further and prepared to make a jump to the thick metal door. Just before he could fling himself, however, Vision’s voice came ringing from the com.

“Wasp and I have breached the force-field. All security system is down and out.”

Shoot.

“Show time,” Tony said, voice full with cold malice.

Shoot.

Peter launched himself full speed ahead.

(Ross’ Safe House’s Control Room, Nassau County, Long Island, New York)

Secretary of State Thaddeus Ross looked around at the destruction left behind by the Avengers. His lips curled in a sneer. First that meddlesome Spider sneaked around his captives, then the android and that new woman shut his place down from inside out, and now Stark turned his house into a shooting gallery?? Stark wasn’t going in alone like he was supposed to. In fact, he didn’t even deign to show himself until all the defenses are down. Coward.

He stormed ahead, fingers clutching his gun. Very well, you think you’ve won? I’ll show you, you worthless mongrel!

He stopped at the hallway leading to his basement. Spider-Man was still busy flinging himself at the door, trying futilely to break it open. Fool, he’d show that bug how it’s done. Taking aim, he shot a powerful beam of purple energy.… which would’ve hit him dead, if he didn’t yelp and jumped out of the way at the last second. As it was, the bug was only grazed before the whole section of wall and steel door behind him exploded in a wave of heat and seismic outburst.

The force of it threw the squealing pest well behind the Thunderbolt, knocking him out cold when his mask-clad face hit the other side of the room, just outside the the emergency exit. That kind of force should’ve killed a normal human, but it seemed this particular freak was hardier than the rest. So he shot down the retaining walls and ceiling all around the little spider, burying him under the weight of falling debris. Shame, he could use some more data from freaks like him. He would have to dig him out of there after he dealt with Stark, but that’s not something he should be worried about right now.

He turned around and, with a maniacal grin on his face, stepped into the newly blasted hole in the wall. Stark’s son was now cowering in the far corner, away from the bloody, mangled body of that Crowley girl. Well, it’s her own fault for walking around so close to the door, wasn’t it? He just hoped the explosion didn’t mash her brain.

“Hello there, sonny. Why don’t you come over here, nice and quiet so I won’t have to shoot your legs off and drag you myself, hmm?”

Stark junior trembled and cried.

(Ross’ Safe House’s Front Entrance, Nassau County, Long Island, New York)

If he wasn’t on the mission trying to save his kid from a maniacal villain with serious control issues and anger management problem, Tony would’ve been having fun trashing Ross’ pad. The new Mark 48 was showing off it’s prowess as his strongest ever armor (until he finished Hulkbuster Mark 2, that is) by literally tearing down the place brick by brick.

The additional arc reactors weren’t just for show; the armor is now faster and stronger than ever. He actually had to reduce the power output of the repulsor blasts to about 15% to avoid killing anyone. His new physiology made it even easier for him to do maneuvers that he couldn’t before. He even threw in some nanotech modules in the left forearm and back sections for good measure; just to see how that works for further implementation.

Tony didn’t even try to hold back the snort of amusement he got when a guard pulled out a Chitauri gun from a defunct turret and pointed it at him, only to be faced with an even bigger shoulder mounted blaster assembled by the nanites in his back plate.

“My gun’s bigger than yours,” he said, casually dropping the modulator’s output to a menacing gnarl.

The guard dropped the gun and walked backward slowly with his hands raised tentatively in the air.

“Good call,” he quipped, already training the blaster to the other remaining guards still standing.

Before he could threaten them as well, however, an explosion sounded from below him and Peter suddenly yelped through the com in panic and pain.

“Pete?!”

Distantly, he heard Vision and Wasp voicing their alarms, but his brain was filled by the sickening crunch he heard from Peter’s end.

“Peter!” Tony yelled again as a second explosion rang through the whole building, bringing down the floor and wall to the ground below. “Shit, Fri! Connect to Peter’s A.I!”

“Connecting. Heartbeat detected, boss, but it’s faint.”

Tony swore, “X-ray. See if we can blast our way there with unibeam.”

“There, 4 meters to your right, at 80⁰ angle.”

The main reactor in his chest started to glow, while the other, smaller ones in the back of his hands, his shoulders, back, and ankles relayed their power there, making the black lines connecting them all shine reactor blue. The resulting blast created a high-pitched whining sound and a perfectly circular beam of energy that burrowed all the way past the actual basement.

“That’s our way in, people. I’m gonna need backup.”

“Affirmative. Vision and me will retrieve Spider-Man, you go deal with whatever caused that explosion.”

Tony sped down the hole instead of answering, praying that his suit would be enough to keep Peter from getting crushed under the rubble. He righted himself sharply near the ground and, with a lot of difficulty, ignored the mass of destruction behind him to march right into yet another hole in the wall.

The sight of Ross holding his boy at gunpoint stopped him dead on his track.

“Hello, Stark,” Ross sneered with a crazed glee in his voice. He used both of his hand to angle a Chitauri handgun against the back of Harley’s head, showcasing a glowing wristwatch that generated an almost translucent energy field around him.

When Tony’s shoulder pad twitched in an aborted attempt to reveal the minigun hidden underneath, he nudged his gun closer still to Harley’s head. “I wouldn’t do that if I were you. I see even a single twitch in that fancy armor of yours, you can say good bye to your dear son.”

Tony growled. “Let him go, Ross. Mommy never told you to pick someone your own size?”

“Funny, I wanted to say the same to you. You’ve bitten a bit more than you can chew, Stark. And now you’ll pay for that.”

Harley, pale and trembling from fright, fidgeted against the gun. His Harley, the boy who blinded an extremis soldier with the flash grenade Tony gave him, was shaking like a leaf and crying so much he couldn't speak a single word. Tony felt his blood boil. Literally.

“And don’t even think about using whatever freakish power you injected yourself with,” Ross added hastily at the sight of steam rising from the Iron Man armor.

The silence that followed was uncannily tense. Neither Vision nor van Dyne dared to speak through the com. “What do you want, Ross?” Tony cave in finally, after a particularly miserable whimper from Harley.

“What I want,” the man snapped, “is you to call your attack dog off and get the fuck away from me. For good.”

“Let Harley go, then we’ll talk.”

Ross barked out a laugh. “As if. The boy comes with me, Stark. See it as an investment of mine. Do what I want, or else kind of situation, I’m sure you’re familiar.”

Tony gritted his teeth and snarled, “And I’m sure you’re familiar to what happened to the last person who attempted that with me.”

Ross’ answering smirk was cruel and spiteful. “Oh yeah, I am. But the last man who tried that didn’t have your son at his mercy. I do.”

Harley stilled at that. Fear suddenly was drained away from his small face, replaced with a sort of grim determination that Tony was fearful of.

“Harl, no, please,” he begged.

“I’m sorry, Dad,” Harley answered him forlornly, eyes wet with tears.

Dad…. He called me Dad, a small part deep inside his heart rejoiced.

Yet the rest of him screamed in silent pain as Harley twist around and made a move to grab the handgun trained on him.

Ross pulled the trigger, and Tony’s world fell apart as the headless body of his son slumped down to the ground.