Chapter Text
"Man, stalking bad guys is boring," Ned said.
Peter chuckled. "I know." It was the worst.
They both stared at the tracker's location on his small holographic map. It was somewhere downtown in the city, not moving for hours now.
Ned glanced at him. "You sure you bugged the right car?"
"Yeah, definitely." He had been threatened in there. The guy had pulled a gun on him. As if he'd forget that. And then, with everything that happened afterwards…
"Maybe he changed jobs?"
Peter stared at the map and hummed. The empty factory hall… him obviously going to an office… maybe more small things were doing their thing. But it didn't feel right. As if Mr. Tooms would just throw in the towel and go work in a cubicle. He had nearly killed himself not giving up back then. Those two just didn't go together.
"No." Ned was still looking at him, not convinced. "Well… If he did the bank robbers wouldn't have the crazy alien weapons, right?"
"Ah, true." Ned looked back at the tracker. "Maybe… his wife borrowed his car?"
Peter groaned. "Possible." Likely. "I'll sneak closer, okay? Get a look."
---
Hours later to his dismay, Peter couldn't believe his eyes. He was hanging in the ceiling beams of the office's car park and watched Mr. Tooms walk to his car.
If that guy was an upstanding citizen now… but no. No freakin way. He didn't believe it.
"Karen, follow the tracker, please."
"Sure thing, Peter."
He followed the car, swinging from building to building, hurrying along. Peter watched him stop at the gym, the supermarket, and then he drove home.
---
A week went by. Mr. Tooms just did the same old same old. Went to the office, went home. Day after day after day.
They spent the time hanging out together, chatting, watching movies, Peter training his magic with Ned watching in awe. He didn't have the heart to tell him the sparkles were rather useless. Ned looked so impressed.
Slowly but surely, Peter started to doubt his mind. Maybe Liz's dad had dropped the weapons business after all. Perhaps a fight with his wife had been all it needed. She didn't want to put up with all his "work trips" anymore and that was that. Maybe his old crew was doing the weapons dealing now, maybe…
But…
"He stopped," Ned said.
"Hu? Where?" Peter sat up, looking at his friend. He had been lying around on his bed, watching but not really watching a movie, while Ned sat in his chair, fooling around with his Spider-Man mask, not watching the movie either. Just background noise for thoughts. Before that he had gone through his rune motions, done some sparkles, amused by Ned's still awed face.
"At some car park in the suburbs."
Peter grabbed his holographic map, eyeing the location as well. Just a stop… But why not go home if he had to stop someplace? He was like 10 minutes away from home. No big deal.
"Karen? Can you hear me?"
"She says yes," Ned reported.
"Good. Cool. Can you get the feed of traffic cams nearby?"
"Nope."
Peter whined. Of course. "Can you ask Friday for it?"
"Eehm… She didn't say anything."
"Yeah, they are… talking. She'll get back to you at some point." Peter sighed. She'd say no, wouldn't she? Friday had declined a request like that already. As if she'd allow him to stalk people. "Tell her it's important, okay? Catching a bad guy." Maybe they could get some pity points. Or he could just call Tony and cut out the machines.
"How exactly do AIs talk with each other?"
"No idea honestly."
Another moment and Peter grabbed his phone, calling Tony. This was easier. No time to sit around.
---
"That's so cool," Ned whispered, staring at the video which had just popped up in front of his eyes. The camera feed. The video cycled through a few angles until he could see the car they had been following parked off to the side, four men talking with each other dead center.
"We have a visual."
"Really? Awesome. Thanks, Tony." A pause. "I will, no worries." Peter ended the call. "Can I have the mask?"
"Oh, yes, sure." He had gotten so used to it during the last days. Ned pulled the mask off and threw it at Peter, who caught it with ease. "Do you know the guys?" He asked the second Peter was wearing it.
"Yeah. The entire gang. Can you zoom in? Tell me what they are talking about?"
Man, he wanted to hear the reply! "What are they saying?"
Peter shrugged. "Karen said the video is too bad for lip reading analysis." He paused for a moment. "How long until I'd be there?" Another pause. Oh, come on! "Damn it." Okay, too long.
"How about a portal?" Better than staying here for sure. Ned grabbed the odd ring on Peter's desk. Hopefully, it would work.
The eyes of the mask focused on him. "I can't do portals."
"Well, you could try? Or call the doc."
Peter hummed lowly, hesitating. "I don't know."
"Eh. It's just…" Ned slipped on the ring. "drawing a circle and thinking of the place, right?"
He had watched Pete try it several times during the week. He had managed sparkles and that odd hissing sound. One time, it had been many sparkles. Like one-third of a circle. Maybe this time, he'd form the entire thing! Desperate times and all.
"I bet you can do it! 's just a damn magic circle!" He thought of one of the angles he had seen earlier and moved his hands, just to humor himself, hoping he'd make Peter laugh and give him the push to try.
---
Peter's mouth fell open when Ned drew a portal. The sparkles, the hissing, and then the circle floated in mid-air, leading to behind some cars.
Ned stared at it. "What the fuck?"
"Sssh!"
Peter hurried to the portal, stopped, grabbed the nano-tech container from his bedside table and then stepped through. "Can you close it?" He whispered at Ned from the other side. He didn't want a bunch of lunatics attacking his friend.
"I… I… I don't know?"
"Try. Please," he whispered and ducked low, hiding beneath one of the cars, praying to whoever was up there they didn't see the portal and shot at it.
"…percent ready," the second shocker dude said.
Mr. Tooms hummed. "Good, good. How much inventory do we have left?"
"Two orders. Maybe. Rather one and a half."
Had he just outsourced the villain-ing? Delegated it all to his… uh… employees?
"Well, not good, not terrible. In a week, I can break into the vault. They'll have enough for loads of orders."
Peter placed the nano-tech container on his chest, feeling the suit wrap around him.
"What if they move it earlier?" Not-shocker guy asked carefully.
"Doubt they'll deviate. It's been monthly forever now or so my new friend in accounting said."
The others chuckled. Peter could still hear the hissing. Ned's low mutterings at the portal. "Please, go away. Disappear. Vanish. Abracadabra. Simsalabim. Maan."
"Well. If you are sure."
"I am sure," Mr. Tooms replied.
"I could still work on the high vacuum seal."
Someone scoffed. "I told you we won't do that. Too much attention to rob planes."
"Come on, close!" Ned snapped.
"Did you hear that?"
Peter's blood ran cold. No. No, no, no. Steps moved towards him. Boots getting closer and closer.
"Web grenade," he whispered, aiming somewhere to the side, away from the closer getting boots and the portal behind him.
The grenade exploded, spraying its web everywhere.
The boots stopped and turned. "What the?"
Peter rolled out from under the car, threw the tiniest glance at a frantic Ned, and hopped on top of it.
"Hey, guys. Did I hear you want to rob somebody?"
"Oh, come on."
The third guy, the one he didn't recognize, pulled a funky looking gun and fired. Peter dodged the energy projectile just in time, jumping further away from the portal, dodging more shots.
"Dude, that's not cool. Didn't your parents teach you to ask before you shoot?" and went on moving, until the portal was opposite of him. Should keep Ned safe enough.
Mr. Tooms chuckled weakly. "Well, well. Who do we have here?"
"He's the spider-dude. Saw him swinging around in Queens," shocker said, the shocker now active and glowing. "Think he helped my nan once."
"It's Spider-Man, actually. And really?" Man, the world was tiny.
"Yep, thanks."
"Guys," Tooms said.
"Yeah, yeah, he's right," Peter said. The whole interaction felt surreal. "Well… If you'd stop robbing people, we can all go on our merry way. I swear, I won't tell. Not the feds or Iron Man or any of them."
Nearly all of them laughed. The fourth just looked uneasy.
"That's not how it works, Spider-Man," Tooms said.
"Yeah, that's not how any of this works."
---
Ned watched horrified how Peter got shot at, literally putting himself in harm's way to keep him safe. He had to… he… He felt so fucking useless. Sure, he had gotten him there, but... Now he made it all worse. Looking around frantically, Ned wasn't even sure what to look for. Something, yeah. Anything by now. Maybe he could shove something in front of the portal. Would look weird, wouldn't help, but maybe buy some all-important seconds. Sometimes, it came down to seconds, right? The difference between… His gaze fell on Peter's phone, which still lay where he had left it. Unlocked.
The phone.
He jumped towards it, grabbed it, went to the ground not even minding, and scrolled frantically through the contact list. Strange, Strange, come on… how could Peter have named him? No Strange, no Stephen either… the doc. He found 'doc'. Ned stared at the number for about a second, hoping it wasn't Peter's actual doctor, and typed, 'How do you close a portal?!'
---
He got shot at again. Peter dodged, jumping around, and started webbing them to the ground. Mr. Tooms just smiled, following him with his eyes. His wingsuit had to be close. Peter stopped after ensuring they were all neatly webbed and the damn gun secured, surveilling the area. The wingsuit did fly at him, but it was still ages away. He'd just web the stupid thing. Clog the turbines or web it to the ground, whatever worked. Something tiny flew at him. Like miniature metal wings. No. Four something tiny. Peter managed to web three, the last breezed right by and cut the web off the gun guy, then Mr. Tooms.
Fuck. Fuck, fuck, fuck…
More shots he had to dodge. The wingsuit rammed into him, trying to pin him to the ground. It's 'feathers' slicing into his suit, not succeeding thankfully. Karen was talking non-stop. Peter kicked at it, pushing it away, and managed to get free, shooting webs at it frantically. A shot hit his shoulder, throwing him off balance.
"Just stop, Spider-Man. If you walk away, we walk away," Mr. Tooms said. "We won't even tell anybody."
"Never."
---
Another hiss. Stephen stepped through his portal, looking at the panicked teenager and the portal behind him surprised. What the hell?
"I… I… I somehow opened a portal and Pete went through and they are shooting over there and…"
---
"Well then." Tooms pulled a glowy violet rock from his pocket. No. He pressed something small and black against it. The light got brighter instantly.
"Catch!" He yelled and threw.
Peter watched the glowing rock fly at him in slow motion. A freakin alien bomb. He raised his arms, feeling as if he was underwater, all numb, the world seemingly far away, not even real. It sure didn't seem real. Everything felt odd. As if the light had been set to too bright and he saw it for the first time. The real, real everything.
"Ricocheting web," his voice said. Even speaking didn't feel real. He fired his web. It connected with the rock, the web firing off again and hitting the ground, pulling the rock lower.
Not enough. Way, way not enough. He watched Tooms and his fellows escape with the wingsuit, vaguely aware he should run. But there wasn't anything high nearby he could use to escape quickly. Just cars and trees and houses in the distance. Even if he ran, how many steps would he get in?
A shield. He needed a shield. At least his panic should be strong enough now, he thought dryly, hoping he could find the magical energy source around him.
"Please…"
It was just there. Like the time he had been stabbed. His fingers tingled… solidify! he thought, fully aware he'd be dead if it didn't work, and thrust his hand forward.
The flimsiest shield appeared over his hand. Nearly see-through. Its runes flickered. And then the rock exploded.
---
"Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God."
His head was killing him. He had the mother of all headaches. Peter blinked, not seeing much. His vision was just blurry nothing. His ears were ringing. His back was killing him. Actually, everything was killing him.
"Is he okay?"
Wait, was he lying on the ground? (Yes, of course, he did.) When had he hit the ground?
"He is breathing at least."
Stephen? How… why… when?
"Guys?" Peter asked feebly.
"Pete!"
Someone hugged him. Probably Ned.
"How are you?" Stephen asked. All the doctor. Only now Peter was thankful for it.
"Head is killing me. Ears are ringing. Can't… no. Can see you, but it's all grainy. Like… like pixels."
"Do you remember hitting the ground?"
"No."
"Do you remember the explosion?"
Peter wanted to say yes but… but did he? He remembered the shield and the glowing rock and…
"No."
Stephen cursed. "Stay still," he said.
He raised Peter's head ever so carefully, touching it all over, pressing down at some spots. Peter whined; fully unaware he was checking for blood as well.
"Does it hurt? Worse than already."
"No."
"Good."
Good?
"Hmm-hm." Stephen carefully placed his head back down. "Don't move."
"Oh man," Ned whispered.
"For how long?"
"Give it twenty minutes or so for starters. Or if your headaches are getting better. Whatever happens first."
Peter whined again. Sounded reasonable, though. "Okay." He glanced down at himself carefully, trying not to move his head. His suit was partly gone, but he wasn't bleeding or anything. In front of him was a smouldering crater, which he stared at for a bit. He survived that.
"I'm so sorry, Pete."
"Wasn't your fault."
"I snapped at the portal!" Ned paused, then whispered, "I opened it in the first place."
"Oh, come on. That was awesome."
Ned smiled weakly.
"Who were you after?" Stephen asked.
"The Vulture guy we talked about at Tony's."
"Ah."
"Oh. Stephen?" He felt so damn proud. Funny given his situation. "I created a shield." He wanted that back pat. Only impossible when he was lying on the ground.
"Really? Good." Stephen smiled softly.
Peter managed to not grin somehow. Just getting lightly praised felt awesome.
"You did?" Ned asked, nearly sounding excited.
"Yep. Told them to solidify. I think I owe you one."
Stephen laughed.
"Hu? What?" Ned asked, looking from one to the other.
"Eh. Magic lessons. He's cryptic all the damn time."
Stephen snorted and looked at Ned. "How did you create the portal?"
Ned shrugged. "Had the ring, thought of the place, drew a circle."
"Ha."
"You should give him magic lessons."
"Maybe I will."
"Really?"
Stephen smiled one of his vague smiles and looked back at Peter. "How's the head?"
"Horrible."
---
Back in his room, his head still buzzing but not all too murdery anymore, Peter lay on his bed, eyes closed. Why did he always get hurt? Came with the business, yes, sure, but... At least he wasn't dead. Without the shield and the nano-tech suit, he'd so have been dead. Man. May would kill him.
"We could hunt the guy down together," Stephen said.
Peter carefully opened his eyes to look at him. "Really? Would you? I mean, you guys are busy too and…" and…
He paused, trying to think. His head felt more sluggish now than before. Maybe he was only now catching up to how badly he had hit his head.
"Of course," Stephen said in the meantime, which made him smile.
"You know… I kinda wanna do it alone. He's mine to deal with." Would be as if Stephen asked for help with Dor… dorma… oh, he couldn't deal with the name right now. Yet, if his family literally offered to help… "Could you talk with him, maybe? Try convince him to not be a murdering psycho who throws bombs at people?" Maybe the others could manage what he couldn't. "He has a family, you know?"
He just wanted the best for everyone. Even those sorry bastards.