Little Trouble

Chapter 36

He stood up, still recovering from the impact. Looking around, he tried to find Stephen. There were so many people and aliens on the battlefield, it was going to be hard to find anyone.  

He got up on a high point in the battlefield, and searched from there. Finally, he found Stephen, battling with one of the Black Order. Stephen was currently on the losing side.

Determined to change that, Peter ran towards the both of them, webbed the alien, and let Scott stomp him flat. 

"Dad!" he shouted, running towards Stephen. Peter realized that there was a hint of confusion in his eyes.

"Peter?" he asked. "Is that...you?"

Peter nodded, tears welling in his eyes. He just ran to Stephen and embraced him as tight as possible. They were together again. That was all that mattered.

Stephen broke from the hug just to look at Peter, tears streaming down his face. "You're...you're so much bigger now!" he said, laughing. 

Peter hugged him again. "I missed you," he said, holding him tightly.

"I did too," Stephen replied. They stayed like that for a while, letting the battle rage around them. Peter didn't care. He was at peace.

"Hey!" someone yelled, breaking the moment of peace they had gotten. It was Tony, who was running up to meet them. He saw Stephen and smiled. "Well, happy to see you two are back together again," he said. Stephen returned the smile.

"Sorry about your Cloak," Tony said. "Like, sorry that you can't use it now. We left it at home."

"It's fine," Stephen said. "I think I'm faring fine without it."

"It's gonna be so happy to see you," Peter said, holding Stephen's hand.

"You said one out of 14 million, we win, yeah?" Tony said, getting back to the situation at hand. "Tell me this is it."

Stephen only looked at the both of them grimly, as if he knew something they didn't.

"If I tell you what happens, it won't happen," he said.

Tony just sighed. "You better be right," he said.

Stephen just nodded slightly. Tony looked like he was about to say something, but then stopped, as if he was listening to something.

"You have to hotwire it," he said, to no one.

"What?" Peter said.

"Scott and Hope are having problems starting the quantum tunnel in their van," Tony explained. "We need to send the Gauntlet back in time without letting Thanos get it. Wait, you can't hear any of the chatter?"

Peter shook his head, confused.

"Tell Karen to hook you up to the comms system," Tony said. "Then you can hear everyone and know what's going on."

"Already on it," Karen said, from inside Peter's helmet.

"Mr. Stark made me this suit," he explained to Stephen. "And Karen's my own A.I."

"Just wondering how much you've spoiled my son," Stephen said to Tony, jokingly.

Tony laughed. "Don't worry, I've learned a thing or two about parenting in the last 5 years."

"Clint! Give it to me," Peter heard a tinny voice say. It was through the comms, and the display inside his helmet showed that T'Challa was speaking.

Peter started running towards T'Challa, trying to help him, but turned around to look at Stephen again.

"I'll be fine," Peter reassured him. "I can handle myself now."

Stephen smiled. "Go out there," he said. Peter smiled back and ran to help.

By the time he made it to where T'Challa was, the Gauntlet was almost in the hands of one of the Black Order. Peter was going to mess that up.

"I got it!" he yelled to the struggling T'Challa. He grabbed the Gauntlet out of T'Challa's hands, and tried to make a quick getaway by swinging, but instead, crashed to the ground, and was immediately surrounded by Chitauri. Luckily, he knew Tony had programmed the suit with a function specific to situations like these.

"Activate Instant Kill!" he yelled aloud, and Karen notified him that Instant Kill was now in use. Robotic spider arms materialized from his back, and they started stabbing the Chitauri. Peter let them do their thing, while he kicked away at the ones coming at him from the front. The whole while, he tightly gripped the Gauntlet.

A few minutes passed, which, on the battlefield, seemed like an eternity. Peter saw the mothership above them start shooting the ground below. Immediately, orange shields started forming to protect everyone from the blasts. That was the work of the sorcerers, Peter knew. But no one was there to help him.

Eventually, it was getting too hard for Peter to protect himself from the Chitauri.

"Okay, I don't got this," he muttered to himself.  "Help! Somebody, help!" he called out, hoping someone would hear through the comms.

"Hey, kid, heads up," he heard Steve say. Looking up, Peter saw Mjolnir gliding by. He shot a web towards it, which stuck on hard, and he was pulled up out of the mess he was in. Just as he was about to fall to the ground again, Pepper, in her blue Iron Man (Lady?) suit, caught him.

"Hang on. I got you, kid," she said. She dropped him on a flying horse. A pegasus. Peter had to keep his calm.

"Hey! Nice to meet you," he said to the lady flying the pegasus. She only gave him a small smile before his world flipped upside down. "OH, MY GOD!" he screamed, as he fell towards the ground.

He guessed the cannons from the mothership had shot the pegasus and wounded it, and he and the rider had fallen to the ground. Thankfully, he still had the Gauntlet, but things weren't lookin so bright. Cannon blasts bombarded the ground all around him, and he had no cover. He screamed in fear as he tried to dodge them, but they thankfully stopped. But why?

He looked up to see the ship, re-aiming its cannons towards the clouds. They all started firing rapidly.

"What the hell is this?" he heard Sam say.

"F.R.I.D.A.Y., what are they firing at?" Tony asked.

"Something just entered the upper atmosphere!" F.R.I.D.A.Y. replied.