Something is definitely wrong.

Tony had been sporting a worried look all day, constantly jumping at every noise, turning at every gasp, every whimper, every breath. He looked horrible, like he hadn't slept in several days, which he hardly did anyways, but this wasn't because he wanted to stay up and work on a suit design. No, this was most definitely tossing and turning and not even being able to sleep because of worry. But of course, that begged the question, what was Tony so worked up about?

Peter hoped it wasn't anything he had done wrong. Tony had said a million times that he was no longer mad about the police station accident, but Peter was still worried about it. It had been almost a month, but he just couldn't shake the feeling that Tony was upset with him for some reason.

Pepper had been around more recently, with Happy as well. For the last month or so, they had been in a conference in Taiwan, tying loose ends and rubbing elbows with some major company leaders there. At least, that's how Tony described it to Peter. And then, last night, Pepper and Happy had come home. Peter had no idea, until he walked into the kitchen to see Pepper making breakfast with Tony hugging her from behind. Happy was nowhere to be found.

"Ah, hi Peter!" Pepper turns around with a warm smile, shaking Tony's embrace off of her. "How are you?"

"Uh, I'm good. Thank you, Miss Potts." He says, clearing his throat awkwardly. "How are you?"

Pepper gives Tony a look saying, what a little sweetheart before replying that she was doing great.

"So, are you and Happy going to be around more?" Peter says with a smile as he pours his cereal.

"For a while, at least." Pepper laughs. "You'll be stuck with us while Tony's gone, which'll be who knows how long-" Tony, who had been staring at the counter and sipping coffee suddenly jerks up, his eyes wide and tries to signal to Pepper to stop talking.

Pulling him to the side, Peter can hear almost every whispered word between the two of them.

"You haven't told him yet?" Pepper hisses. "Anthony Stark, sometimes I can't believe you."

"I didn't want to worry him, Pep." Tony sighs. "You know what could happen."

"It's just like every other time you go to play superhero." Pepper says. "I don't understand why you can't tell Peter about it."

He was going somewhere dangerous. Without Peter.

"I'll come back, I promise."

"That's what you always say."

"I'll be with the guys. Between Romanoff and Captain-Stars-and-Stripes, I'll come back in one piece."

"Then why can't you tell him that?"

"He's been through enough, really." Tony says shakily.

"Tony Edward Stark, you better explain to him something. You leave tomorrow." With that, Pepper turns around and heads back into the room. She tries to smile warmly at Peter, but he can see both the worry and the discomfort behind her eyes.

"You've hardly touched your cereal, Pete." Pepper looks at him quizzically. "Is everything alright?" She asks in a sympathetic voice. Like a mom would.

"Yeah, yeah." He says as natural as possible. "I'm just not really all that hungry now. I think I'll go to my room."

"Alright, Peter." Pepper says as he leaves. "If you get hungry, you know where the kitchen is. As Peter is walking from the room, he hears Pepper hiss, "Go. Now."

Seconds after he flops onto his bed, staring up at the ceiling in thought, a small knock sounds at the door. He smiles as Tony walks into his room. He's trying to match Peter's smile, but it comes out nervous and upset.

"What's going on, Mr. Stark?" Peter whispers. "Where are you going?"

Tony takes a seat next to Peter on his bed. "Something came up in Iran. The Avengers and I-"

"You get to work with the Avengers?!" Peter cries excitedly, before looking at Tony's startled expression. "Right. Of course you get to. Sorry, continue."

"Well, we're all heading there to take a look, but it's not pretty."

"How bad is it?"

"Like, eight hundred people have mysteriously died within the last two days." Tony shakes his head. "So, we're going to figure out what the heck is even happening."

"Are you..." Peter hesitates before asking, but Tony knows what he's going to ask.

"Kid, if I'm being honest, I'm terrified out of my wits. I've never seen anything like this, and we've almost never walked into anything so unprepared."

"And you're still going?" Peter says incredulously.

"Of course I am." Tony smiles. "I have no idea what this world would do without me. I mean, they'd be pretty helpless, am I right?" He nudges Peter's shoulder delicately.

"Could I go?" Peter asks suddenly. Tony just stares at him. "Did you hear a word of anything I just said? People. Dying. Unknown. Definite no."

"But, I could help! I could be backup!" Peter says excitedly. "Plus, I could meet the Avengers!"

"Kid, it's just not safe, and having you running around an area that we're not even sure what's happening, well... it just isn't going to work out."

"I... alright." Peter says, sighing. "But you have to be careful." Tony laughs. "When am I not careful?" Peter just gives him a look as he walks out of the room.

Later that night, Peter sat awake, tossing and turning, trying to think of a way that he could go with Tony. Honestly, he was more worried than before, which he knew was why Tony didn't tell him before. But, he still couldn't shake the images of Tony being shot from the sky, or Tony not coming back at all. He could sense that Pepper was nervous, which only fueled his thoughts more.

Then, tomorrow came all too quickly, meaning that it was time for Tony to leave.

"Be safe." Pepper hugs Tony and kisses him lightly on the cheek. He whispers something in her ear, and she nods and smiles sadly at him.

"Bye, Pete." Tony moves his attention to Peter who is staring at him.

"Do you really have to go?" Peter says, his voice hardly above a whisper. He feels selfish just asking, and he knows that nothing is going to change, but it's worth a shot.

"If I could stay with you guys, I would." Tony's voice cracks with sentiment, but he coughs quickly to cover it up. "I'll see you soon, and I'll try to have FRIDAY update you guys." He smiles at both of them and grabs Peter in a nervous hug before heading out to the Quinn Jet. Peter can hear him telling Happy to set everything up, and Peter mumbles an excuse about doing homework before running off.

Once in his room with the door closed, he slips through the window and sprints towards the jet. No one is anywhere in sight, but he knows that he'll definitely be spotted if he sits in the cockpit. He looks around hopefully, trying to find something to hide himself in. There it is, an empty case surrounded by ones with the tops already on. His perfect chance, almost as if it is begging him to enter it.

He quickly moves to it and puts the lid on. He already surveyed it to make sure that there were air holes, which luckily, there were. Just in time, he can hear voices and he's suddenly picked up and being moved onto the ship. Soon, they're flying.

"What's wrong, Tony?" He can hear a voice that he thinks belongs to Bruce Banner. THE Bruce Banner!

"Aw, he's just banged up that he can't bring his little family." A woman's voice laughs.

"You have your family with you everywhere you go, Romanoff." Tony says. Peter can hear the sound of someone smacking Tony's arm.

"Barton and I are-"

"Actually legally married. A mission, and we never broke it off." A man laughs. Peter realizes it must be the man known as Hawkeye.

"YOU ARE?" Tony laughs.

"Thanks, Clint." The woman says in an annoyed voice.

"Of course, honey." Clint coos in a fake voice.

"Is it the kid you don't want to leave?" Captain America says in a serious voice. Peter's ears perk up to listen to Tony's response.

"I just don't want him to do something stupid when I'm not there to scold him for it." Tony laughs.

"Oh, please, Stark." Bruce laughs. "You're gonna be calling him every night, and showing everyone that picture you keep in your wallet of you two at the movies. Honestly, I'm surprised that you haven't adopted him officially yet."

"I don't even think he'd want to be my legal son." Tony says quietly.

"Well, with the amount you talk about him, you love him more than you love yourself." Natasha teases.

"Which is saying something." Clint laughs. Tony just rolls his eyes. Meanwhile, Peter has to shove both hands over his mouth to keep himself from screaming. Or squealing. Or crying. But, he's not even supposed to be here, so he can't really do any of those.

After a while, he falls asleep, and wakes up once the jet touches the ground. After he's sure that everyone has left, he moves the top off his case and jumps out into the ship.

Never having been in the jet, he stares around for a few seconds in fanboying thought. It's much bigger than he thought, and it looks like the Avengers have used it for hundreds of missions considering the amount of wear, tear, and random spots of blood dotting the seats. From inside the jet, he hears a loud yell coming from outside. Not necessarily a cry for help, or a scared yell, but it makes the hairs on the back of his neck raise all the same.

He bursts from the jet, moving outside quickly and glancing around. Nothing. Absolutely nothing, or no one. It's suspicious. So suspicious, that he relies heavily on his Spider Senses to find where everyone is.

He locates them in the building to his immediate right.

The Avengers jump through the doors seconds before it crumbles to the ground. The explosion that breaks the building throws Peter backwards onto his side, knocking the wind from his stomach. He takes a second to regain the ability to breath, before pulling himself out of sight of the Avengers.

Still, he peeks from his hiding place to see several men on hoverboard-like machines, hovering over the Avengers. They stand there, looking heroic, until Tony attempts to shoot a beam at them. It looks like it's heading straight for the leader's head, before it hits an invisible wall and ricochets back towards them. They roll out of the way, and the wayward beam singes the ground instead.

Peter can hear a buzzing noise coming from the men, and he realizes that he's hearing the frequency that their coms are on. He can't make out what they're saying, but it doesn't sound good as they close in on the Avengers.

An arrow. Bullets. A shield. All of them come back and almost injure someone. Looking at each other, they realize that this isn't going to work. They need to disable the shields before they can attempt to fight them.

"We need to find the hub." Tony and Natasha say at the same time. Natasha scowls at Tony, angry that they agreed on something, whereas Tony adopts a smirk.

"I'll fly to the hub and switch their machinery off." Tony announces, already doing the calculations in his head.

"And what? Fight whatever's there alone?" Captain America says, stepping forward. "I don't think so, Tony."

"Yeah, well, we don't have a better plan right now." Tony says, turning his boosters on. "Plus, I can fly. So, bye!" He flies off, ignoring Captain America's angry voice coming from his comms.

Soon, he realizes that going solo wasn't the best decision.

He's surrounded by more of the men, but these ones don't have protective shields or hoverboards. They do have both missile launchers and taser bullets. Two things that Tony is not a fan of. He fights through them, blasting and slamming them to the ground before continuing on his way.

He lands easily on the ground in front of the building supposedly their hub. He tracked the crazy energy signals emanating from it, in addition to the heat signatures of all the men around the control switch. There's no men in the first room, which freaks Tony out a little bit.

It's pitch black, and even with his flashlight, he can't see more than a foot in front of his face. The ceilings are tall and crumbling, and every so often a piece will hit the ground near Tony, making his heart jump. As stupid as it is, he can't help but think about how much better this would have been if he'd let Peter come along.

Finally, the control panel in front of him causes him to stop. He uses his flashlight to brush over the buttons, slowly realizing that the wall of buttons, switches, and blinking lights spans the entire twenty foot long wall.

Great.

He has FRIDAY run a diagnostics on it, and quickly moves to a large green button two feet to his right. Upon being informed that it will cut the men's shields, he delicately pushes it. From outside the building, amidst all the explosions, cursing, and clanging of metal shields, he can hear a single, "Hell yeah!" From Barton and then a loud explosion. It must have worked.

He flies back onto the field, scanning from above. All the men are looking at each other, watching their shields dissipate. Yet, they don't look concerned, or angry, or even scared. No, they look happy. And it makes Tony's blood run cold.

From his vantage point on a roof, Peter can see everything unfolding. The men and their crazy shields are starting to become confused, which gives the Avengers the perfect moment to strike. An arrow from Hawkeye and a shield from Captain America, two guys are on the ground, stunned. Tony flies into the air and looks at the field. Thinking that Tony will surely spot him from the air, Peter slinks behind a large container on the roof.

The Avengers continue to fight, but as each man falls to the ground, more men fly in. They are all laughing, seemingly confident, even without their shields. Something is going on, and Peter has no idea what.

He's just sitting, watching the amazing battle when his spidey senses start to tingle. He whips around to see four people on the ground, cowering against the crumbling wall of the building as a man closes in on them. Quickly, Peter swings from the roof and lands in front of them.

He has no idea what he's doing, but he shoots a taser web onto the man. He falls to the ground, convulsing before going unconscious. Wow, Peter was not expecting it to be that easy. He turns to the small family, a man, a woman, and two kids.

"Are you okay?" He asks quietly. They all give him big eyes and open mouths, but one kid steps towards him. He says something in a language that Peter can't understand, but Karen easily translates it for him.

"He says thank you." Karen says proudly in Peter's ear.

Peter nods at the boy, and swings away. A sense of pride and accomplishment wafts over him, as he swings through alleyways. He starts to search for people that are being attacked, but most of the people have been wiped out already. The rest of them have been evacuated.

He's looking behind him when he swings into something hard and lands on his back. His breath flies from his body, leaving him struggling for air. He opens his eyes to see a wall in front of him, but that's not what he slammed into. No, a man stands in front of him, a dangerous looking gun resting in his hand.

"The Amazing Spider Man." The man laughs in a thick accent. "What a pleasure it is to meet you." He grabs Peter by the front of his suit and lifts him, slamming him against a wall. Peter lifts his hand to sling a web, but instantly, the man slams something onto his chest that makes the screen in front of him go dark. He can't see anything.

He tries to talk to Karen, but she's gone. The man must have used some sort of tech dampener. Suddenly, his mask flies off and his face is exposed. He's staring into the leering face of the man who attacked him. Up close, he looks even more dangerous. The worst part is that the gun is placed right in Peter's face.

Peter makes a split second decision and throws a punch at the man. He dodges, and Peter throws another. And another. The man dodges each of them with ease, and lazily throws one back. He hits Peter in the jaw, and Peter falls backwards. His heart hammers in his chest, and he's sure that he's going to die. He's on the ground, unprotected, with no suit to help him now. Plus, no one even knows he's here. Pepper surely knows by now is most likely freaking out. Tony doesn't even know. If he dies...

Peter's eyes open wide as the man's hand shoots around Peter's throat. His vision starts to blacken, and his eyes feel as though they may pop. He claws at the man's giant hands, but nothing works. He's just too strong.

Peter can feel a wave of sleep come over him, and he quickly imagines everything that has happened in the past few weeks. It all flies through his head, and with each memory, the thought of how Tony reacted. How will Tony react to this? Finally, the last hope for breathing leaves him and everything goes black.

Tony was fighting hard. He had taken several dangerous hits to the suit, and one of his arm cannons was jammed. Not great when small range missiles would be good to use. Still, something felt... off. Like something was tugging at the back of his brain, like something just wasn't adding up.

Was it that everything seemed too easy? Or that the men weren't fazed when anything happened to their army? Whatever it was, it was seriously making Tony frustrated.

"Stark, to your right!" Clint cries, shooting an arrow off to the left. Tony whirls and beams the two guys coming at him. Then, suddenly, the rest of the men pause. Not moving, a single hand to their left ear. Then, without warning, they all turn around and fly away.

"What the heck was that?" Natasha breathes heavily.

"I don't know, but I have a bad feeling." Steve says, slipping his shield onto his back.

"I-" Tony starts to say something but quickly gets distracted as a small square appears on his screen. That only happens when he calls someone, and he surely hadn't called anyone.

A man in a mask appears on his screen. The mask only covers the man's mouth and nose, and Tony can see the goading look in his eyes.

"Who are you?" He growls into the call. The man just laughs. "The alleyway on edgeway and pine. Hurry, hurry, Mr. Stark, you wouldn't want a spider problem, now would you?" The man cackles and hangs up the call. Tony realizes, that in the back corner of the shot, he could see Peter's unmasked face.

"Stark?" Bruce says behind Tony. "Who was that?"

"No time to talk." Tony flies up into the air. "Load everyone in the ship! If I'm not back in thirty minutes, leave!" He yells. His heart hammers in his chest as he thinks about all the horrible things that could have happened by now. Gosh, of course Peter came along! How could he have been so stupid to think that the kid wouldn't jump at the chance to sneak along. His stomach drops and his heart accelerates. He has to get there fast.

He turns his boosters higher, and reaches the alleyway in a minute. He lands hard on the ground, the metal of his suit clanging through the air on impact. He sees the man from the call at the end of the alleyway, his arm wrapped around a limp Peter's chest, the same gun that all the other men trained against Peter's forehead.

"So wonderful of you to join us." The man laughs in a thick accent.

"Just let the kid go, and there won't be a problem." Tony says quietly.