The World I Knew [Discontinued]

Back Again

Peter wasn't sure how comfortable he should be with the robots coddling him, or if it was okay how much he was enjoying it, but he was. He really was thoroughly enjoying the fact that he didn't have to anything for himself, and that all he had to do was sleep, let the ILS's do whatever he wanted, and wake up so they could feed him whenever he got even remotely hungry, even in his sleep.

If he was being fully honest, he felt like a baby, and was embarrassed by it, but it wasn't like anyone was watching or judging him.

So, he slept off the pain of his body changing again.

In this room, there was no time, which meant the only way he could tell how long he'd been asleep was when he groggily asked the ILS's what time and day it was.

He slept on and off for two days straight, until the pain that came with waking up finally faded—fully.

*****

"Do you think he's okay?" Hope asked anxiously, wringing her hands with Ned sitting beside her.

"I know he's okay," May said from her spot in the kitchen, calmly making lunch for the two teenagers.

"Really? How? No one's seen him in two days! What if he's got hurt? He doesn't have his powers anymore, so how's he supposed to keep defending himself as easily as before?"

May glanced at Hope, then set down her butter knife with a sigh. "You wanna know a secret?"

"What?" Ned asked, frowning.

"Peter never actually left the Compound."

"What?" Both teens stood up.

"He's just been in a secret chamber in his room. Tony didn't want anyone to try and bother him, so neither of us have told anyone. He's alright, the Iron Legion soldiers are taking care of him for these past few days. We don't have a camera in the room, so we don't have real time footage, but the suits do come up and give us updates on his condition."

"Condition? What do you mean by that?" Hope asked, frowning.

May pursed her lips, hesitating for a moment. "Well, um... So, he lost his powers, right?"

"Right...?"

"Well... I'm going to spare you the details, mostly because I don't know the details myself, but Peter's powers... are coming back."

Now both Hope and Ned were very confused.

"I think the radioactive blood was, like, trapped somewhere, and then something happened, and it was released, and now he has to go through the whole physical change process. It's really uncomfortable, from what I've gathered, so Tony sent a couple Iron Legion soldiers to take care of him until he's okay again."

Ned frowned. "How long do you think it'll take?"

May shrugged. "I don't know," she sighed, "Last time, it took four, maybe five days."

"He'll be out for five days?" Hope asked, deflating with disappointment.

"I don't know. Could be less than that." She smirked. "You miss him?"

At the words, Hope blushed and looked away. "Well, y-yeah. I already haven't seen him in a week, and we just got together."

"Who just got together?" asked a tired, noticeably quieter voice. It made the trio whirl around to see Peter, leaning against an Iron Legion suit exhaustedly. He looked awful, with bags under his eyes (despite all the sleep he'd gotten), and he looked paler than usual, his nose and eyes slightly red.