Spider-Man: Unmasked

Chapter Twenty-Two

He fought his way over to Steve.  "Pops!  You okay?"  He asked, webbing up robots left and right. 

Steve shook his head and then nodded, looking distracted.  "No- yeah, I'm fine, Pete.  I'll be fine."  He tightened his grip on his shield and looked at Peter.  "Duck."

Peter did as he was told and heard his Pops' shield fly over his head and turned to see a robot get decapitated by the shield. 

"Once again," Peter said, looking back up at his Pops.  "Thanks."  He webbed a robot that came to attack them.

Steve nodded and ran off, still seeming dazed.  Peter sighed and ran in a different direction to go and fight more. 

Dang, he thought, looking around for that weird girl twin.  She certainly has everyone discombobulated.

And wouldn't you know it, which mind reader chick showed up almost instantly?  You guessed it: the twin. 

He shot her a glare and webbed up her hand.  "Hey, you're magic?  That's so cool!"  He webbed up her other hand and kicked her. 

She wore a furious look on her face. She clawed the webs off, and, as Peter had begun to swing away, used her force to pull him down.

Peter landed in front of her with a grunt. "Really?" He groaned. "Again?"

The twin didn't do anything but lean over him and go to do the same thing she had seemed to do to everybody else. He squeezed his eyes shut and got ready for it to happen.

But, almost immediately after, he could hear her gasp and what sounded like pulsing. He opened his eyes and saw Clint standing in front of the girl who now had something sticking onto her head that looked like it had to hurt.

"Yeah, I've tried the whole mind control thing," Clint said, grabbing Peter by the hand and helping him up. "Not a fan."

As the girl was about to fall, her speedy brother came and pushed Clint away and into a window, making him fall into a pile of broken glass in the room next to them. He shot Peter and Clint a glare before picking up her sister, taking the thing Clint had attached onto her head off and rushing away.

Peter rushed over to Clint. "You okay?" He asked, helping him up this time.

"Yeah, I'll be alright," Clint said quietly, standing with Peter's help. "I'll be fine." He brushed himself off and spoke into his earpiece. "Whoever's standing, we got to move!"

There was no response according to Clint. Peter sighed and rushed off to find his Pops. He was surprised to find him slumped against the wall, looking dazed and distracted.

"Pops?" No response. "Pops? Pops!"

Steve looked at Peter. "Pete," he said quietly. "You okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. You're obviously not. It was that witch, wasn't it?" Peter looked at his Pops, worried. His Pops never acted like this.

"I'll be fine. Really." He stood up and quickly sat back down. "Some rest might be good, though." He leaned his head back.

Peter looked at the earpiece in his dads ear as he heard faint talking.

"Natasha, I could really use a lullaby," Peter heard his Dad say. Peter knew what the lullaby meant. Bruce had become the Hulk. The witch girl had most likely gotten to him.

Peter cursed quietly, forgetting his Pops was right there.

Steve looked at him. "Language!"

"Sorry," he mumbled, trying to listen in on the earpiece conversation.

"The whole team is down," he heard Clint say. "You got no backup here."

"I'm gonna go help," Peter decided, getting ready to shoot a web and swing to an exit.

Steve quickly grabbed him by the arm. "No, you are not. This is where I draw the line. The Hulk is not something I want you fighting. At least not yet."

Peter sighed. His Pops was kind of right. He had seen footage of his Uncle Bruce as the Hulk and it wasn't pretty.

"Fine," Peter finally said, looking at his Pops. "But could you not grab my arm? I've been grabbed there so much in the last hour I might lose feeling there. Those twins have a harsh grip."

Steve let go of his arm. "Sorry. Thank you." He looked at Pete. "You might want to give your Pops a hand with getting to the jet."

Peter nodded and helped his Pops with getting out of the ship and down to the jet. He saw Clint helping a much worse looking Natasha.

Peter sat down in the jet beside his Pops. Steve looked at Peter who was staring at his lap where his mask now was in his hands. He hesitated before saying:

"It was Natasha wasn't it?"

Peter glanced at Natasha before looking at his dad and nodded. "Yeah. She told me where my suit would be and said she'd stall takeoff."

Steve nodded. "That's why her and Bruce kept stalling." He looked down. "Look, I'm sorry about this whole thing. I honestly wanted to let you fight after a while and maybe your Dad would've let you too, but then I think what happened on the mission when we got the scepter just made his fears worse and it just sealed the deal."

Peter nodded. "I know. I get it. Has he told you what happened?"

Steve shook his head. "No, but it most likely was that girl- Maximoff twin. Maybe he'll open up about it soon." He sighed. "Jeez, this has all been so stressful."

Peter nodded. His body was just now realizing how tired he was. Could you blame him? It had been a busy and tiresome few days. He felt his eyes get heavy until he fell asleep in his chair beside his Pops.

——————

Peter woke up much later. It was dark out and they were in the air. He looked around and saw Clint driving the jet, Bruce almost asleep on the floor, Natasha and Steve sitting and Tony and Thor standing. Everyone seemed very tense, for obvious reasons.

"The news is loving you guys," the familiar voice of Maria Hill said over the radio. "Nobody else is. There's been no official call for Banners arrest, but it's in the air."

Peter looked at Bruce. There was no way they could send him to jail. He couldn't even imagine it. He shook his head a little, causing Steve to look his way.

Peter zoned out after that. Just the thought of his uncle in prison... He couldn't believe it. He looked at Steve who was looking a bit worried and distracted, as he had been ever since the witch got to him.  Peter frowned and looked away. 

The call with Hill ended and Peter watched as Tony walked over to Clint. "Want to switch out?" He asked.

Clint shook his head. "I've got it. You might want to rest, we're still a few hours away."

"And where are we going, exactly?" Peter spoke up, causing Tony and Clint to glance back at him.

"A safe house," Clint finally said, looking back into the dark, cloudy sky.

Peter did not know what was in store for the group when they would find Ultron, but he did know one thing:

It was not going to be good.