Chapter Text
Three still figures gazed up at the hotel’s facade with grim looks. Well, Tony and Peter did; Natasha’s expression was unfailingly calm, neutral even. It was an unassuming corner hotel, with multiple international flags and gray flagstones lining the entrance. The spy brought her gaze back down to the boys and raised a single eyebrow before striding inside. Peter tossed a look at Tony, then shrugged and followed her.
Tony shook his head. “Fearless, these two.”
Once all three stepped inside the lobby, Peter noticed that Natasha had immediately wandered to the concierge, distracting her with small talk and an air of practiced harmlessness while she discreetly looked through the woman’s sign-in sheet. Tony tapped the side of his tinted glasses, subtle to any observer, but Peter knew that he was having Friday scan the interior of the building, looking for anything out of the ordinary. Peter himself gazed around intently. While he didn’t have years of spy training or fancy tech, he knew he could trust his heightened senses. The hotel was relatively empty at this time of day: it was around 1pm, in between check-outs and check-ins, so he only saw staff in the lobby: three concierges and a staffer refilling the complimentary coffee by the entrance. Peter opened his senses and listened. He could hear heartbeats… rustling, voices. People in the floors above them, not as many as he would have expected though. Natasha sauntered back to them.
“I placed your bug on her desktop, but I was able to catch a name or two from the sign-in sheet. A ‘Santorini’ actually checked in yesterday and is staying until Thursday. 3rd floor. We should head up and sweep it.”
Peter looked surprised and Tony frowned, jaw clenching. “You think that’s our guy? He’s already here?” Natasha just raised her eyebrows with a small shrug as if to say ‘maybe’. “FRI, you have your in, scan the upcoming reservations.” He murmured to his AI earpiece, then looked back to the others. “If he really is here, we should sweep the surrounding floors too. Who knows what they’re actually planning to do.”
Natasha pursed her lips at Tony with lowered lashes, like that had been obvious, before starting to turn away. “Let’s go.”
Peter moved to follow them when, all of a sudden, he had the feeling of ice water being poured down his back, hair standing on end, with a bone deep impulse screaming WAAATTCHH OUUUUTTT. He gasped, the spike of instinctual self-preservation was so powerful that he could do nothing but listen to it.
Leaping towards Natasha and pulling Tony with him, he tackled the woman, propelling the three of them about 15 feet from where they’d been, both protesting loudly with “Peter!” and “What the hell!”, before there was an ear splitting KA-BOOOOM that shook the room, making Peter’s ears ring and his teeth rattle in his head. People were screaming, concrete was splitting. “Holy shit!” he heard his mentor cry out as Natasha’s eyes simply widened in fear. The whole building was coming down around them, and suddenly the ceiling was falling. The piece of ceiling directly above where Peter had pushed them was a solid block of concrete that held wide, and with a deafening crack was now coming straight down. Unable to think of anything but saving Tony, Peter thrust his arms up to stop the block of concrete as it fell.
“Peter!” Tony cried out. The man moved to cover the teen at the same moment that Peter’s outstretched hands caught 20 tons of concrete from crushing the three of them. The boy let out a strained grunt and Natasha struggled, for once, to hide her surprise. Even Tony (who knew his kid was strong) had frozen, eyes wide with fear and awe, as Peter groaned, legs bending, arms locked above him, eyes clenched shut, as he held more than 40,000lbs of rubble at bay.
The booming, crumbling, and screeching of the building exploding and settling sounded all around them. Tony and Natasha gasped and coughed on the dust kicked up, but Peter tried his hardest to breathe in through his nose, out through his mouth. He couldn’t double over to cough, he couldn’t let go. Oh god, if he let go Mr. Stark would die. Natasha would die. Mr. Stark would die.
Trying not to let his thoughts spiral into panic, Peter grit his teeth and strained, narrowing his focus on holding up the massive slab of concrete that would have otherwise crushed them. Around them, he could hear that they were being buried, save for the space he’d saved them beneath the concrete slab, a space only as tall as he was. He tried not to think about the last time he’d been buried beneath a building. As the dust settled, there was a moment of heavy silence.
“Well…” Tony started, voice shaky.
The man was cut off abruptly when something else crashed far above him, another piece of the structure collapsing. As the rubble around them shook and shifted loudly, a shaft of cement crusted rebar shrieked as it suddenly shot out of the darkness behind them, piercing Peter clean through the leg, making him cry out in agony and drop to one knee.
“Shit! Kid?! Pete, you OK? What the fuck is happening? Talk to me!” He heard Tony shout through the din and dust of the concrete shifting, but his vision was white with pain, his ears ringing, and his thigh burned like fire. Hot tears leaked out the corners of Peter’s eyes, clenched shut, as he loudly tried to breathe through the blinding pain. In through the nose, out through the mouth. In through the nose, out through the mouth. Peter shook his head dizzily, groaning, arms still straining above him.
“It’s OK. I’m alright, I- I’m alright.” He muttered breathlessly, more to himself than to Tony. He couldn’t lose his hold, he had to get better leverage… He was the only thing keeping them alive, he couldn’t let them down… Grounding out a scream of effort, Peter stayed kneeled on one knee, but straightened his arms again, pushing the concrete away from his mentor and the spy trapped beneath until he could lock his elbows. Huffing out a breath, Peter finally glanced down at Tony and Natasha, who still lay sprawled on the floor. Neither of them seemed to be injured, but he felt like he should check to be sure.
“Uh, you guys ok?” The teen’s voice was weak, but upbeat. The two Avengers’ tight, concerned expressions melted into incredulity. The bark of laughter Tony let out in the darkness was nearly hysterical.
“Us? US?! Kid, you’re holding up who knows how many tons of concrete and I think I just heard you get shish-kabobed. Christ, Pete, are you OK?” Tony felt around in the dark, trying to make his way to Peter, and the boy realized that they must not be able to see. His enhanced senses really did come in handy.
“Y-yeah!” Peter responded brightly, trying not to sound as panicked as he felt. “Never been better, I could hold this all day guys, so, you know, we’re gonna be okay, just gotta wait for somebody to dig us out.”
“Absolutely.” Natasha immediately understood what he was doing and agreed with conviction. Despite her surprise at the reveal of Peter’s enhanced strength, she didn’t miss a beat. “You’re doing great Peter, you just keep doing what you’re doing until they dig us out. I’m sure we’ll be out before you know it.”
Peter swallowed thickly and nodded, arms shaking. “Yeah. Yeah.” He noticed Tony was still trying to feel carefully towards him. “Uh, a little to your left Mr. Stark, and like, three feet in front of you.”
The teen saw Mr. Stark go still, then roll his eyes. “You little shit. You can see in the dark, can’t you.” Peter made to shrug, then realized his position didn’t allow for such casual gestures.
“Uh, I guess. Better than you, clearly.” Tony could hear his smile and muttered grumpily, but followed Peter’s instructions, eventually bumping into his ward. Peter grunted.
“Sorry, sorry.”
“It’s... ok,” Peter assured him breathlessly.
Now that Tony was by his side, the man found the boy’s head and brushed his hair back, feeling for any head wounds. “Where’d you get hit, kid?” He asked in a low murmur, voice tight with concern.
“M-my leg. My right leg. I think, uh, I think it was metal, like rebar or something.” The super-teen grimaced and tried to even out the trembling in his voice. “And, and I’m stuck. It must have stuck into the floor, cause I can’t move my leg now.” He was trying to stay calm, really, he was. But they were buried under thousands of pounds of crumpled building and he was pinned to the ground by a metal spear through his leg. And the sounds, god the sounds around him were deafening, the dust trying to choke him, the pressure on his chest... oh god none of this was good. He felt himself start to hyperventilate distantly, despite his best efforts. Tony ran a hand through his hair again, desperately trying to calm him.
“Shh, shh, in and out kid, breathe slowly OK? In and out.” Peter nodded in the dark, doing his best to slow down and take deep breaths. Tony sighed heavily beside him. “Kid, I’m so sorry I brought you here today. I- we didn’t know. We really didn’t think-.” Peter shook his head vigorously under the weight of Tony’s hand.
“I know, Mr. Stark, I know. It’s ok, really, I’m glad I’m here. I mean… if I wasn’t… you… you and Natasha…” Tony dropped his hand to the back of Peter’s neck and squeezed it reassuringly. Peter’s mind was suddenly filled with dark and terrifying thoughts at what might have been. Tony would’ve… he’d have been alone… again.
“Breathe kid, it’s ok, breathe. C’mon, Pete.” Peter didn’t realize until Tony said it that he’d started breathing too fast again, taking short wheezing breaths that never got enough air. He clenched his eyes shut tighter and forced himself to slow down, taking shaky, deep breaths in time with Tony’s. “There you go kid, you’re doing great, you’ve got this.”
The concrete above them shifted loudly and Peter groaned, gritting his teeth and pushing upward with all his might.
“I… I can’t lose it. I can’t lose it right now. I can’t lose you, Mr. Stark. I’ve-” Peter gasped when the rebar through his leg shifted. “I’ve lost everyone else.” The boy’s voice had dropped to a whisper but Tony heard him, tears pricking at his own eyes. Natasha stayed silent, tapping at her multi-function wrist watch, giving the two a semblance of privacy for their emotional moment. Tony dropped his forehead to rest it against Peter’s temple. He squeezed the back of his neck again, his other hand coming up to grip the boy’s taut shoulder.
“I’m not going anywhere, alright kid? I’ve got you. You’re doing great, you’re going to save us. And me too, of course, I am Iron Man after all.” Peter choked out a small laugh.
“H-how?” Tony smiled and flipped out his custom Stark Phone, the screen quickly illuminations the small space as a countdown timer showed on the screen.
“Had FRIDAY put a call out to my suit and the team the moment this mess started coming down. She’s keeping track of their ETA.” Peter’s eyes lit up with hope.
“Oh.”
Her face illuminated by the pale glow of her watch face, Natasha hummed in dissatisfaction. “Well, I’m glad we had FRIDAY, because I can’t get a signal through all the concrete,” she said. Looking up at Tony, she realized she could just make out his features now in the dim light of the screens. Right, they had light now. “Tony, aim your phone at Peter’s leg.”
As Natasha moved into a low crouch in the small space afforded, Tony aimed the low blue light down and immediately grimaced, brows furrowing in concern.
“Oh god, Pete…”
Features impassive, Natasha scooted towards Peter, her eyes on the rebar that she could now see gruesomely sticking out of his leg, blood coating the pole and pooled on the ground below him. Quickly untucking her shirt, she began ripping some strips off the bottom of it.
“Peter,” she started softly, looking up at him, “I’m going to try and stop the bleeding OK?” Peter glanced down at her and nodded. She could see the vein in the side of his neck pulsing, and wondered how long he could hold the concrete before it crushed them all. Quickly putting that thought out of her head, Natasha went to start wiping away the blood around his wound. Once she’d cleaned it as well as she could, she went to staunch the flow, then frowned, confused.
“Huh.”
“What?” Tony snapped, worried and stressed.
“He’s… it doesn’t look like he’s bleeding anymore.” Peter huffed painfully above her.
“Oh, yeah, I heal really fast. Like... like super healing. I’ve probably started healing around the bar, which is, um, bad, but it’s better that it’s not bleeding, right?” Tony scoffed sarcastically at Peter’s attempt at levity, but the man’s face had paled.
Despite feeling like she was getting blindsided for a second time, Natasha recovered easily, tossing a reassuring glance to Tony. “Yep, definitely better, since we don’t want you passing out from blood loss and dropping the roof on us.”
Suddenly Peter sounded a lot more stressed than before. “Huh, uh, yeah, exactly.” Then the boy started murmuring to himself. “C’mon Peter, c’mon you can do this, you’ve done it before, you can do it again.” Natasha figured she’d try to distract him.
“So, what else can you do?” Peter's eyes dropped for a moment to find hers, wide and panicked, but she just smiled at him, so he smirked.
“Well, I can count out pi to the 506th decimal place.” He quipped. “I could probably go higher, but I just needed to memorize enough to beat Flash.” Tony chuckled and the ex-spy rolled her eyes with a small smile. She could barely believe this wasn’t Tony’s biological child.
“That all?”
“Well, super strength, duh,” he continued with a breathy laugh. “Fast healing. And, uh, I’m fast, like really fast, and agile. And, uh, I can stick to any surface that I want to.” Then, it clicked. Jesus. This kid was Spider-Man. “And I have this sixth sense, like premonition or something. Like a danger-sense.”
“Happy calls it his Peter-tingle, we call it his Spidey-sense.” Tony added helpfully, figuring Natasha had figured it out at this point. The boy beside him groaned.
“Uh- no, uh, Ms. Black Widow, Natasha, ma’am, no-one calls it the Peter Tingle. I promise.” The boy turned to hiss angrily at the man beside him. “Ugh Mr. Stark! Why! You’re embarrassing me in front of the Black Widow. It’s a danger-sense.” Natasha couldn’t help but laugh under her breath, abandoning her strips of shirt and the now semi-healed leg wound as she smirked up at the two. Then, her head cocked to the side, thinking.
“Is that how you knew the bomb was about to go off? You pushed me and Stark here, to a safer spot seconds before it happened.” The building creaked around them loudly and all three stiffened. After a tense, silent moment, Peter finally responded.
“Uh- uh, yeah. I just- I knew something was about to happen. It’s not like it tells me what, but it can either tell me where it’s going to be, or where else I should be, to get out of the way.”
“Plenty of things can be done with a few seconds of foreknowledge.” Natasha hummed thoughtfully. “That’s quite a power you have there, Peter.” The teen tried to shrug but ended up just shaking his head noncommittally.
“Well, looks like you’re saving the day again, Spider-Man.” At that, the boy’s just smiled down at her tiredly. The moment was lost when he clenched his teeth and grunted, putting all of his focus back into his arms. God she hoped the kid had it in him to keep this up a little longer. In her periphery she saw Tony stiffen.
“Alright kiddos, good news, FRIDAY just updated that help is only a minute out. I sent out an alert to the Avengers and 911 the minute this poor excuse for a hotel started coming down. Fire Department arrived about 4 minutes ago, but haven’t done shit to dig us out yet. Typical.”
“Tony!” Peter admonished breathlessly, sweat starting to drip down the side of his face. For a moment, Tony stilled. The kid never let up with the “Mr. Stark” thing and it made something in his chest clench to hear him use his first name. Not wanting to make it a thing, Tony took it in stride.
“Anyway, our super buddies are close too. So just keep it up Spider-kid, you’re doing great, we’ll be out of here in no time.” Natasha met Tony’s eyes, noticing the worry under his calm facade, clearly he didn’t know the boy’s limits either.
For the next few minutes, there was a tense, but meaningful silence, letting Peter focus on holding the concrete above them. The kid’s groans, huffs and heavy breaths were filling the space around them, but no one complained. Tony was keeping his hands on Peter, his shoulders, the back of his neck, his back, the top of his hair… just letting his ward know he was there and murmuring encouraging words to him, like “You’re doing great, kid. You got this. Spider-Man is kind of a badass, huh? We’ll be out soon, kid, promise. When we’re outta here, I’m buying you a whole tray of Five Guys burgers - your favorite.”
At the last one, Peter let out a pained laugh. “With pickles and ketchup, right?”
“Yep all the fixings, anything you want kid, you’ve earned it.”
Suddenly, Peter cried out in pain, his arms shaking violently. “There’s- There’s people, walking on top of us.” Peter felt his vision spot and for a moment felt like all he could hear was the ringing in his ears. He vaguely heard Tony hissing into his phone.
“Get us OUT of here Cap, the kid’s not gonna last much longer. What kid? PETER, what other kid do I hang around with? No- Cap- just, we’ll fill you in later, OK? FRIDAY should have sent you our coordinates, FIND US.”
Peter shook his head to clear the ringing and bit down on his lip, feeling the agonizing ache in his shoulders and arms. The tons of concrete he was holding was becoming unbearable, but he had to, he HAD TO bear it. But he had also heard something earlier in the moment of silence, something that made his heart flutter with fear. So now, he opened up his senses. Where he usually blocked out noise and light and smells so as not to be overwhelmed, he let it all in. Every settling stone, Natasha’s light breaths, ragged from the cement dust, the smell of dried blood, lead paint, rock and splintered wood, spilt coffee, human sweat, Tony’s racing heartbeat, too fast, too fast… more heartbeats, seven, he could hear seven besides their three.
“Tony.” He rasped. His mentor was still speaking hushed into the phone, but stopped and looked up at him when he heard his name, heard the desperation in the word.
“They… they have to get the others first. I- I can hold it. But there are more people trapped in here.” Natasha looked up at him sharply, shifting into a crouched position.
“Peter, what do you mean?”
“I- I can hear them. Seven, at least.” He gasped as the concrete shifted again and he fell to his second knee with a cry.
“Shit! Shit!” Tony cried, rushing back to his kid, steadying him. “Pete, you OK? Pete!”
The boy shook sweat out of his eyes and grunted, swallowing deep breaths, trying not to choke on the dust and nausea. “I’m OK... I’m OK, there’s- there’s more people on top of us now. It’s… ugh, it’s kinda shifting everything.”
“Jesus Christ, kid, OK. Cap. Cap! Wherever you are right now, stop. I think we’re right below you… ish. But Pete says there’s more people trapped in here.”
Tony turned away from the phone to look at Peter. “You said seven?” The teen nodded, eyes clenched shut.
“I- I can hear their heartbeats. One is crying.” He whispered. Tony just stared, his heart in his throat. This fucking kid was going to be the death of him. At that thought, he sobered. Maybe literally, if they weren’t careful. He turned back to the phone.
“Cap, there are at least seven more civilians trapped in the rubble, use the jet’s scanners, see if FRIDAY can see through all the rock. We’ll also try to help guide you.” Tony pressed the phone to his chest and pressed his hand to the crown of Peter’s forehead.
“Alright, kid, you’re the only one who can hear them. Are you able to… I dunno, pinpoint at all?” The boy nodded with a grimace.
“Five... five are above us. It’s hard to tell where… they’re just… up.” Tony nodded and used his sleeve to wipe some of the sweat away from Peter’s eyes.
“The other two... they’re not far. I- I saw three concierges... and a lady filling the coffee. I think… I think coffee-lady didn’t… I can’t hear her, but two of the concierges… I can hear them…. They’re close to each other… straight ahead of us, like, I dunno..” He huffed again, trying to shift his weight but it didn’t have anywhere to go. “Like 20 feet that way.” He nodded his head straight ahead. Tony nodded and squeezed the back of his neck again with one hand.
“You’re amazing, kid, don’t ever stop being you. Alright, Spangles, did you hear any of that? Yeah yeah, get the team looking at the upper floors, five survivors. And when you come to dig us out down here, there are 2 more about 20 feet, uh, FRIDAY? West, west of us.”
Captain Rogers said something but Peter was too busy listening to the two heartbeats nearby, hoping with all his power that they stayed beating. “Get the civilians first. And HURRY.” Tony finished, before hanging up. He immediately shifted his attention to the teen that was currently the only thing between them and a horrific death.
“Pete? You doin’ OK bud?” Peter clenched his eyes shut again and bowed his head.
“Yeah. Great. The best.” he ground out sarcastically. Tony chuckled.
“You know, usually I’d scold you for the attitude, but I think you’ve earned a pass. Sarcasm welcome.” Rather than laughing, Peter just started crying silently, tears making tracks down the dirt on his cheeks. Seeing this made Tony’s own eyes start to water. God he wished there was something else he could do.
“Mr. Stark?” his kid sniffed.
“Yeah bud.”
“This is really heavy.”
Tony dropped his head and nearly broke out in hysterical laughter, but managed to contain himself and keep his response light. “It is huh? Doesn’t feel heavy to me.” The kid half smirked, but the silent tears didn’t stop leaking from his closed eyes.
“You’re an amazing kid, Peter.” Natasha spoke up, comfortingly. “I can see why Tony couldn’t stop talking about you. Powers notwithstanding.” Peter cracked an eye open at the spy.
“R-really?”
“Oh yeah, he couldn’t stop going on about how great you were, so polite, kind hearted, liked school, insanely smart, really just an ideal kid.” Peter sniffed and stole a glance at his mentor, who was looking at the ground but had a fond expression on his face. “Funny too.”
Peter smiled sadly at that. “I haven’t, uh, been quite as funny recently. It’s been- it’s been hard. You know?” Natasha smiled back at him, knowingly.
“I know.” She agreed softly. She’d experienced her own fair share of loss in her line of work. It did things to you. She hadn’t had a family the way Peter had though… she hadn’t known what it felt like to lose a mother. But still, she understood. And to be honest, so did Tony, who himself was orphaned in his early twenties when…. when the Winter Soldier murdered his parents. She still found that hard to grasp. And as much as she blamed both Tony and Steve for the fight, she could understand the blind rage that he must have felt, learning about how his parents really died… seeing it. Tony had never said anything to her, but Steve had. Steve had told her everything. It still haunted him.
Suddenly, Peter’s eyes were alert, looking above them, like he could see through the concrete. He couldn't though… right?
“Mr. Stark, I can hear them digging… I think they’ve found the civilians, they sound really close.” Tony’s eyes lit up as he gripped his ward’s dangerously shaking elbow.
‘That’s great kid, that’s great. That means we’re next, OK?” Peter could only nod, and swallow thickly. After a beat, they heard the boy’s thready voice again.
“I- you know, if I had a nickel for every time I’ve had a building dropped on me, I’d have two nickels.” It almost sounded delirious. It took a moment for Tony to process the ridiculous statement.
“I’m sorry, come again?” Tony’s voice started to tremble and he gripped his left wrist tightly. “Kid…. what’s the other time you had a building dropped on you?”
Peter peered to the side at his mentor with a sheepish smile. “Uh, you remember when the Vulture stole your plane?” Tony frowned.
“Vividly.”
“Well, before he got onto the plane, I followed him to an empty parking garage, or warehouse or something, but he’d just lured me there as a trap I guess, cause he was using his wing thingies to fly around and take out all the building's supports. I thought he was trying to hit me, so I dodged each one like no big deal, but he wasn’t, he was just taking out the supports while I was distracted. And- and then, the building just collapsed on top of me, and he ran off in the other direction.” At this point, the words were just spilling out of Peter, because this was the panic attack he had been staving off since the hotel came down on them, but he didn’t know if he could ignore it any longer. The darkness, the concrete, the dust in his nose, in his throat, the creaking of rebar and beams and metal and god he was being crushed, again. He couldn’t breathe, he couldn’t get out. He couldn’t get OUT. He clenched his eyes shut and tried to breathe through it, but it was clear to both Tony and Natasha that he was struggling.
“I- I was trapped. I didn't have my suit, it was just me, and I was terrified, and alone, a-and worried that I wasn’t enough. Concrete… concrete and metal and dust and- and it was everywhere Mr. Stark. Choking me, crushing me. I- I had to lift it. I had to stop him. So, um, so I did. I lifted it.” Peter gasped here, finally catching his breath. “It was really heavy too.”
“...Wow.” Natasha said, momentarily at a loss.
Tony was pale, looking well and truly shook. But he tried to keep his composure, for the kid’s sake. They were definitely going to talk about this more later. “Yeah, uh, I bet it was, kid.” He choked out. “But you got out of that building, and you’re gonna get out of this one too, OK?” The teen nodded, eyes clenched tight again. Tony noticed that his arms had started sinking towards his chest, buckling under the weight, shrinking the space that the three inhabited. Tony bit back his own claustrophobia. If the kid could tough it out, with that traumatizing story he’d just shared, so could he.
His phone rang sharply. He fumbled to answer it.
“Cap, where the FUCK are you guys.”
“Right above you Tony, we got the civilians out first, like you asked. FRIDAY has identified your heat signatures. You three OK?” Tony looked down at Natasha, now seated, one hand on Peter’s leg, who nodded. Then he looked at Peter, who was a shaking, dirty, agonized mess, and sighed. “Yeah, we’re good, for now, but work quick. I don’t know how much longer Peter can last.”
“Hey! I’m fine.” Peter protested weakly, just as a drip of blood started to leak from one of his nostrils. Tony pushed down his bubbling panic just as Natasha leaned upwards with one of her discarded shirt strips to hold it against his face. She shot Tony a meaningful look.
“We’re on it Tony. Wanda is moving the big pieces and the rest of us are digging out the smaller ones. We’ve made a lot of progress.” Suddenly, Peter shifted and gasped, one arm buckling completely before he caught it again, but the concrete was even lower now.
“Th-they’re right above us, I think.” Peter ground out. His words were almost sobs at this point. Tony was trying so hard to stay calm and collected for the kid, but hearing him in this much pain made him want to scream. Tony couldn’t stop the tears that leaked down his cheeks as he squeezed his kids shoulders.
“I- it feels like,” Peter panted, “they’ve cleared a lot of it. I think if you guys help me, i-if they get out of the way, I should be able to push this thing off of us.” Tony and Natasha immediately protested at the same time.
“Peter, no-”
“Kid! No, c’mon you’re in terrible shape, you have a metal javelin in your leg for christ’s sake. Just let them come to us.”
“It-it’ll be faster, I can feel it.” Peter insisted. Tony wanted to argue more, but Peter’s instincts, spidey-senses, whatever you wanted to call it, were usually right. The engineer flipped out his phone and dialed the Captain.
“Tony? We’re almost there, promise. FRIDAY says we’re really close.”
“I know Spangles, that’s why I’m calling. I want you guys to stand clear, OK? Just clear the immediate area and keep Wanda at the ready to handle any really big pieces that go awry.”
“Why, what’s going on?”
“The kid says it’ll be faster if he just pushes what’s left off of us. I trust him, and so should you.”
“Tony, this is… this is easily multiple tons of concrete we’re talking about.”
“Yeah and for the last 26 minutes he’s been holding up 4 times that amount before you started digging us out.” There was a brief silence.
“OK, we’re clearing the area of Avengers and emergency personnel, give us a minute.” There were sounds of shouting, rock shifting, then he could hear the humming of the jet in the background through Steve’s phone. “OK, we’re all clear, tell your kid to do his thing.”
Tony ended the call without preamble and shoved it into his pocket, then turned to Peter, watching the kid pant and groan in pain. Tony swiped his sleeve across the kid’s brow and ran his fingers through his hair.
“Pete, they’re all clear, bud. What do you need us to do?” Peter peeked an eye open at him, the other still clenched closed with sweat and dust.
“H-help me up, please.” Natasha smiled as she crouched low to place a sturdy hand under one elbow, and the other on his hip.
“Is he always this polite, Stark?”
“Yup, always. Tried my darndest but haven’t been able to do anything about it.” Tony also leaned his shoulder against Peter’s side, then placed both palms on either side of Peter’s knee, below the injured thigh, ready to put his whole body into supporting the teen.
“On "three", kid?” Peter swallowed and nodded. Fighting down nausea. One last push, that’s all he needed, then Tony and Natasha would be safe.
“I want a chocolate shake too.” He blurted suddenly. “From Five Guys, I mean. I-if that’s OK.” Tony only stared before he barked a laugh.
“Yeah kid, that’s OK, I’ll get you as many shakes as you want.”
“Ok.” The boy’s voice was shaky, then hardened. “One… two… THREE!!” The three superheroes surged upwards, two of them supporting the exhausted limbs of an enhanced teen, the third pulling himself up off his knees to his feet and pushing with all his considerable might and willpower on the massive slab of concrete above them. For a moment, it didn’t move, and then, suddenly, it was lifting, lifting, surging upwards, flying off of them and backwards, creating the most beautiful opening into clear air that Tony and Natasha had ever seen. Natasha noticed that a red mist had immediately settled itself on the stone surrounding them, holding anything that had loosened in place. Wanda.
The moment the multi-ton concrete block had been pushed away, Peter crumpled into a heap on the dirty floor. Tony immediately dropped to his side in a panic, voice shaking.
“Peter? Peter! C’mon buddy, you gotta stay with us, OK? You gotta stay with us, bud.” The engineer had two fingers pressed frantically to the boy’s throat the whole time, trying to find his pulse. It was there, and Tony nearly sobbed with relief. It was there, but slow, thready. Tony looked down at the teen’s leg and noticed that in his upward push to his feet, Peter had bent the rebar that was still sticking through his thigh, ripping the wound jaggedly. It was bleeding sluggishly again, and still pinning him to the ground.
Before Tony could panic any further, Steve jumped down into the hole where they’d been buried and assessed the scene. Tony was covered in dust, dried tear tracks creating two clean paths down his dirty cheeks, but otherwise unharmed. Natasha was equally dusty and equally unharmed, her expression as cool as ever. Peter, however, looked rough. The boy looked ashen, face muddy from crying through the dust and dirt. His hair was matted to his head from sweat, and there was a large blood stain soaking the jeans of his right thigh, where a jagged piece of rebar was running through him at a 45 degree angle. It looked like it had come from behind, piercing the boy through the hamstring out through his thigh. The end of the rebar was buried deep into the hotel’s flooring, the other end embedded deeply in the wall that had shifted into them. There was no way to pull it out, so Steve did the first thing that came to mind.
“Tony, back away, I’m going to break through the rebar with my shield.” Tony head snapped to look at him incredulously.
“The HELL you are, Rogers. My suit will be here any second, I’ll just cut through it. Much less jarring on the kid, don’t ya think?”
Steve frowned at the tone and was about to retort, then stopped. Tony was just stressed about Peter, he wouldn’t take it personally. Especially when Tony wasn’t even looking at him anymore, instead watching Peter’s chest move up and down with shallow breaths. He took a deep breath through his nose.
“OK Tony, we’ll wait.”
Within moments, Tony’s suit had arrived and assembled around him, finally able to reach him now that the man was free of the rubble. With two careful laser beams to either side of the rebar, Peter was free. But even that much jostling around the wound had the boy groaning and panting in pain, even in unconsciousness. Tony dropped to his knees next to the kid, placing a cool metal hand on the teen’s forehead. “Shh, kid, I’m sorry, I’m sorry.”
Tony’s faceplate was open and the agonized expression he made at the sounds surprised Steve. It was just so unlike Tony to show this kind of emotion for, well, anybody. He knew the billionaire cared about this kid, he just hadn’t realized how much.
Eyes locked on the dusty, slack face of his ward, Tony carefully scooped Peter up into his suited arms. “I’m getting him to Cho.” Steve nodded but Tony wasn’t even looking as his faceplate snapped down and the man took off, repulsors already fading into the distance.
Glancing over Natasha, he finally had a chance to check on her, placing a friendly hand on her shoulder. “You OK, Nat?” She smiled.
“Yeah Steve, I’m fine, all thanks to that kid of Stark’s. Quite the day we’ve had.” She looked in the direction the two had flown thoughtfully. “I learned a lot.”
“Sounds like. You’ll have to tell me all about it. But why don’t we get out of here first.” Steve called Falcon for lift, and in moments Sam was swooping down to grab each Avenger by the wrist, pulling them out of the hole and onto safer ground. Just as their feet touched the pavement, they heard a sigh as Wanda let go of her power’s hold, loose rock and debris immediately settling into the impression left in their wake. Steve glanced around at his team, and then at the rubble surrounding them, and the emergency personnel surrounding that.
“Let’s check on the civilians and start compiling our report. I suppose we can consider this our first official re-assembled Avengers mission.”