INVISIBLE | P. PARKER

FORTY EIGHT

FORTY-EIGHT;
NEW PLAN

"SHOULD I WAKE HIM OR WAIT UNTIL WE FIND CASSIE?" Peter thought.

The teenage boy was pacing uncontrollably in front of the room when he noticed the young man slowly sitting straight on the white bed. He froze on the spot as he glanced inside the room from the transparent window and analyzed Charlie's movements in alert. Even though he moved incredibly normal, there was a small chance he was acting to get out of the room.

He exhaled deeply as he opened the door and walked in with his hands shaking slightly, Charlie's head turned almost instantly to him with a frown.

"Who are you? Where am I? Where's my sister?" He croaked weakly, staring into Peter's eyes, he to find out how, in a strange way, he looked somehow like Cassie.

"I'm Peter, and you're at, uh–" He trailed off, frowning. "Avengers compound." Charlie raised his eyebrows.

"Where?" He questioned.

"I'm Cassie's boyfriend." Peter widened his eyes at the realization of his words. Charlie stopped rubbing his eyes to look at him with a bewildered expression. "And she's... not here."

"Don't you say." The young man raised his eyebrows as he sat at the edge of the bed. "My head hurts like crazy."

"You've been in coma for almost a month." He explained. "Don't you remember why?"

"I think I have a memory, but it's completely blurry." Charlie said as he inspected the gloves in his hands. "Why do I have these?"

"Well–"

"I see Mr. Harding is finally awake." Mr. Stark's voice echoed in the room and made Peter flinch. "Sorry for scaring you, Spider-ling."

"A–Are you Tony Stark?" Charlie stuttered nervously. "The Tony Stark?"

"Yes, kid, it's me." The man exhaled. "But I'm not here to talk about how awesome I am, and by the record, I am." Peter had to bite his lip to not roll his eyes. "Do you know why you're here?"

"I was about to tell him when you came in." Peter muttered bitterly with crossed arms. Tony raised an eyebrow and casted him a quick glance.

"Good. I'm always down to deliver bad news." Charlie looked at the man with nervousness as he turned to meet his gaze. Tony straightened his black shirt and rested his hands on the edge of the bed. "Charles, you almost killed your sister."

"First of all, it's Carlos." He frowned. "And second, what? I would never do that!" The young man exclaimed with wide eyes.

"You were under HYDRA's control, therefore you weren't in control of your actions. Cassie tried to bring you back but you burned down the whole building."

Charlie covered his face with his hands. The memories were slowly coming to his mind like an old movie, the anger and embarrassment kicked in almost instantly. He couldn't believe it, he couldn't believe he almost killed his sister.

"But she's alright?" He asked. "I want to see her."

"You need to recover, and well... you can't see her." Tony rested his hand on Charlie's shoulder to sit him back on the bed. "She was kidnapped."

"What?" Charlie exclaimed. "And you're telling me this just know?" He stood up instantly but the sudden dizziness made him sit back.

"Mr. Stark you said we had to wait to tell him." Peter whispered at the man with worry. Tony sighed deeply and held the teenager's shoulders.

"He's been causing trouble so this is his punishment." The man said. "Don't look at me like that, it's what he deserves."

"But he just woke up from a coma. How do we know this won't affect him?" Peter whispered back.

"Stop whispering, I can hear you." Charlie said quietly from the bed. "And I know I deserve it."

+++

Peter was anxious as he felt the others looking at him with expectation, his head turned to Mr. Stark, who was standing next to him in the middle of the big living room. The tension in the air was palpable as he watched Charlie shifting on his seat uncomfortably with the twins and the others looking at him like hawks whenever he moved.

"So, Peter and I formulated a new plan to get Cassie." Tony announced. "Peter is going to use his suit to locate where the man is."

"I'm going with you." Charlie said, looking at the teenager.

"Nice try, fire-guy." Tony chuckled bitterly. "You stay with the twins, you have a lot of things to talk about while you wait here."

"Wait? So–"

"Yes, you're not invited to the party." Tony nodded and Charlie sat back on the small couch with anger.

"I'm going to do this alone. I caused this, so I'll finish it. The rest of you will be my back up team in case something goes wrong." Peter finished.

"What if he does something to you?" Wanda asked worriedly, Charlie looked up to meet her gaze. "He's crazy, he's capable of–"

"I know." The boy nodded shortly. "But what matters is that I need to get Cassie out of there, the rest it's not as important."