Friday shut down on Tony mid-hug.
Something had lodged itself in-between the crack of his shoulder and neck armor, sending spikes of electricity through Tony so fast that he couldn't bite back the scream.
The weight of the suit was holding him in, and he had half a second to assume that it was some sort crazy of malfunction before reality set in. In that short time-frame, Peter let out a shout before something metal landed a hit at Tony's head.
This knocked the suit over, and if Tony hadn't've added in the offline protections after last time, he would've been just as useless.
"What did I tell you, Peter!" A manic voice called out.
Tony looked down in horror, weighed down to an immovable extent, just enough to see Peter cowering back. He clicked one of the prototype buttons to get the suit off.
"This is all going to be your fault, Peter!" Tony could see what looked to be a military grade taser being pointed at Peter, "You should've listened when you had the chance!".
He was so lucky he'd kept that offline power generator in to keep storing energy. He wouldn't be awake by now if he'd taken the full hit.
The luck of that seemed to be stolen away by that of his prototype button though. The suit stubbornly creaked, remaining intact and secure.
For once, Tony wished things would fall apart.
The second the attacker's hand grabbed Peter's shoulder, Tony decided screw it, and pushed his shoulder forward.
This popped out a piece of the suit, sending the second one into his shoulder. Not enough to cut the skin, but that would be a long-lasting bruise. That was for sure.
He made no sound as impact landed, and the suit slid apart relatively easy after the 13th press of the button. The clattering of the pieces tumbling to the floor grabbed the dead man's attention.
He dragged Peter from the floor into his arms, holding the taser to his neck.
"Stark, you take a single step forward and I will—"
Tony hurled one of the chunks of metal from his suit at Skip, landing a direct hit in the face. The taser flew across the room into a pile of trash, probably never to be seen again. Skip screamed out in frustration, stepping back to put a hand to his forehead. Tony could see a large amount blood start to stream down, as most head cuts had.
This gave enough time for Tony to get Peter behind him. Peter gave no argument at that.
It looked like this was going to be a hands on fight.
Skip attacked first, bulldozing straight for Tony's head.
Tony couldn't help but being thankful for his team's urgency to at least give him a base-level fighting instinct, despite his age and technology. Face shots were the first thing to defend.
He slid beneath Skip's left hook easily, ramming into his chest to push him back. Skip grabbed on quickly though, sending them both to the floor.
They tussled for a bit, back and fourth on who'd look to be the victor.
Skip managed to pin down Stark, punching his forehead against the floor before Tony had to take a second to breathe.
Skip looked over to Peter, just visible enough by the door's light to be noticeable in the dim room.
Both of them had the horror-film worthy blood smothered all over every inch of their faces.
"Don't you see, Peter?" He cried out, gesturing to his wild grin, "we're the same!".
He punched Tony's chest.
"You and I, we were meant to be".
Tony struggled to push the larger man's weight off of him, his breath knocked out by that last hit.
"I will make sure that they will never," he struck again "ever—" and again "—take you away from me!"
Peter's eyes widened as Skip's hand found its way to one of the shards of glass scattered across the room.
Tony began wheezing. Peter felt powerless. He shuffled to his feet, slowed by his injuries. He hated this. He hated it. Tony was—he was getting hurt, and it was all Peter's fault.
Skip turned his attention to Tony, and the urgency allowed the pinned to barley hold back the blade from his throat.
"Stop!" Peter cried out, rushing towards the fight, adrenaline pumping, "please—please" he sobbed as he got closer, terrified by the sight before him.
The blade went down, avoiding Tony's neck just fine, but taking a pretty great shot into his skull.
"Dad!" Peter screamed, his fist coming into contact with Skip's face hard enough to send him flying to the wall.
He stalked after the man, who was too dazed to react.
He just—
He killed..
Peter grabbed Skip by his collar, pinning his head against the concrete.
Every strike he took felt sweeter than the last. Whoever said revenge wasn't worth it was a lying bitch. Peter couldn't bring himself to guilt over the satisfaction every hit brought him.
If Peter hadn't been a coward— if he'd just.. told someone. If he'd just listened and shut up and said something and—
"Peter!" Tony's voice snapped him out of it, his muscles going lax other than the one holding Skip in place for the strike zone.
He whirled around, wide eyes as Tony rose to his feet.
How—
The blade had missed. From Peter's angle, it looked as if the blood that sprang out was from Tony's head, blocked by Skip's sleeve to see the truth.
It'd sliced his hand on the way down, barley being skidded to the side of his neck.
He was..
Peter let Skip fall to the ground, an indecipherable sound escaping his lips as he rushed over to Tony.
"Mr Stark— I.. he—" Peter bit down on his wrist as he huddled into Tony's arms, who kept a weary eye on the man on the ground.
"You don't need to explain anything, kid. Just sit still", he said quietly.
Peter huffed against Tony's chest. It was hard to smell anything other than blood, but it was easier to manage when he at least had the comforting embrace of Tony to ground him.
It felt weird to admit, but Peter also found nice to know that not all of the blood on him was just his anymore, at least.
It was a mess though.
Tony just held Peter for some time, trying to ignore his own needs to breathe heavily and shrivel up in pain.
He didn't want anything else to ever worry the kid again. Ever.
They stood there for a long time, enough for Tony to finally trust that Skip wouldn't go for another stupid attack again. He closed his eyes and made the hug deeper, trying to be cautious of Peter's injuries, while simultaneously reassuring himself that Peter was alright.
When his phone buzzed with a call, he only moved enough to pick it up. He didn't care if Peter would overhear it. If anything, that'd be a good thing.
"I can't see you guys. Friday sent me the alert and then went radio silent. None of my tracker spells are working, Tony. Where the hell—"
"We got him" Tony breathed, clasping Peter's back harder, "he took out my suit, but we got him".
There was a sigh of relief on the other line. Tony read out the address on his phone, helping Stephen find his way. When he'd arrived, it didn't seem like there would ever be a movie scarier than the sight in front of him.
It was a bloodbath. Tony's face looked beat up pretty badly, but nothing compared to Peter's whole body. His face looked like Will's in the last scene of Hannibal, but a little more bruised up and swollen.
That's when he noticed the guy at the back of the room. The wall had literally been crushed behind his head. There was no way the skull could take that kind of pressure.
Stephen gave Tony a look to get Peter out of there. Now.
Once outside, Peter slumped against the wall.
Tony joined him not long after, leaving the door open in case Stephen wanted to slum down with the peasants like a normal person.
"That was shitty" Tony breathed, rubbing his shoulder with a grimace as he stood next to Peter.
"Truly the high school experience" he nodded, having to squint his eyes to try stop the dizziness he was getting from it.
Tony gave Peter a bewildered look.
"You and your near-death experiences" Tony grinned, just happy they both made it out alive.
"You call it a near-death experience, I call it a vibe check from god".
Tony snorted, wincing as he moved his elbow.
"You okay?" Peter peeked over at the farther end, where Tony was holding his arm.
"Me? I'm peachy. Barley took a hit" he lied, "that guy punches like a sissy. The real question is, is are you okay", he looked down to Peter.
That spoke of guilt rose back up at the sight. Peter might not be on the ground half-dead, but his wounds would definitely take longer to heal than last time.
It was even worse when he thought about Harley. Triple that on whatever Peter's reaction would be.
This was such a horrible outcome.
Peter started laughing though.
"What's so funny?" Tony asked, a hesitant smile forming.
"I didn't think it could get any worse" he chuckled, looking down.
"What do you mean?"
Peter wiped some of the itching crusted blood from his face, staring at the lake in front of them.
"Pretty sure I pissed off some sort of interdimensional being in their for doubting their powers" he flicked some of the specks to the muddy dirt not too far off from where they stood.
"Eh, I'm sure it'll be fine" Tony reached his good arm over to Peter's head, going to ruffle his matted hair up a bit.
Peter ducked away, a look of pain and regret forming as he did so. He didn't move back though, just to be clear he wasn't ready for that.
Tony nodded, masking the anger and sadness he felt that this would be how it was for some time. There was no telling what was on Peter's mind right now.
He cursed the world for it's choice of cruelty. Peter never deserved anything bad that came for him, yet he also seemed to be the jackpot for everything wrong.
Stephen came out after a moment, a grim look on his face.
"You deal with Joffrey's evil step dad?" Tony tried keeping things light hearted, referring to the shit bag inside.
The wizard looked up briefly, before nodding.
"Sent to an off-planet prison" he informed, not looking either of them in the eye as he set a spell to clean up the mess back in that room.
They gained a free military grade taser, loads of trauma, and like 6 coupons to various old lady stores across Manhattan.
"Should've been executed" Tony muttered, almost wishing they were on E'yubar (ey-youh-ber) for that very same reason.
Stephen gave Tony a tense look. Tony seemed to get the gist from that.
"So!" He clasped his hands together, "Ladies. What do we think about a self care day?"
—
This one isn't 2000 words, but I have to leave for a few hours and I wanted to post it before I go. It's only like 30 words off, but still. I hope you enjoyed this one lol
Anywhoosies, I hope you all have a wonderful day today, otherwise I am gonna drop kick somebody in through your window, causing you to have to pay money to fix it, along with cleaning up the body.
Love you all 💛💛💛
Sincerely, her mom