Peter Parker... Stark?

Hopeful Again

The other three heroes did a double take as Tony made the connection, their eyes all widening in shock. Natasha lowered her guard slightly and took a few steps back--she didn't want to fight Peter--but that was exactly what he had been waiting for.

He lunged at Natasha, and although she was fast enough to dodge the initial blow it was almost like Peter was predicting exactly how she would retaliate, and seconds later she was on the ground, her eyes closed, blood leaking from her nose.

"Pete, what are you doing?" Tony shouted. His eyes widened in fear as Peter turned towards him and dashed across the room, dodging the coffee table that Bucky threw at him. The billionaire didn't fight back as the teen attacked, just defended himself as best he could and kept trying to talk to his kid, his son.

"Peter, please!" Tony choked out as he hit the wall, Peter's hand tight against his throat. The nanotech surged to reinforce the area and better protect Tony, and he fell to the ground in a coughing fit as Steve tore the kid away. The mask had come down from Peter's face, leaving no doubt as to his identity. But as Tony caught his breath his heart sank into his stomach.

Peter had just tried to kill him.

But what scared Tony more was that when he was able to see the boy's eyes, it was as though he were staring at a corpse. There was no light behind them. They were blank, expressionless--nothing like the Peter Tony knew and loved.

"We don't want to hurt you, son," Steve tried, clumsily blocking the boy's blows and trying to hide how much they were taking out of him. Bucky jumped in as well, but Peter was holding his own just fine against the two super soldiers. None of them had ever seen him fight so viciously or hit so hard. In fact, if he weren't opposite people with strength that almost matched his own right now, Peter probably would've killed them with one blow.

Tony was about to jump in and help when he noticed the bird man flying back towards the Tower. He felt his adrenaline starting to amp up even further. With Peter being so aggressive and unresponsive, Tony wasn't sure that they'd be able to win this one if the bird man was coming in as reinforcements.

Still, Starks are stubborn. Pepper knew that better than anyone, and right now she and Morgan were in the other room depending on Tony to keep them safe. So he raised his repulsor to fire at the bird man.

He shot several times, but by then the man had landed with a thump in the room and lifted one of his wings to protect himself from the shots. Tony didn't let up, flying around the room to try and catch the bird man from another angle. Panic began to set in as Tony realized the man had moved towards Natasha and was now kneeling beside her. Tony upped his firepower, giving it all that he had when he was suddenly hit with something big.

Tony went tumbling to the ground and found himself once more staring into the scarily empty eyes of his kid. Peter raised a fist to throw what Tony knew could very well be a fatal blow to his face when out of the corner of his eye Tony saw the bird man raise one of Natasha's wristbands, the widow bites glowing blue and ready to fly. And he wasn't pointing it at Tony.

Tony lurched as far to the side as he could as Peter slammed his fist down with enough force to crack the floor, then wrapped his hands around Peter's wrist and twisted his body to throw the kid off balance. It didn't work very well, but it was the only opportunity Tony could give the man.

Peter's eyes widened as the bird man fired the device, clearly sensing the bites before they'd even left the wristband, but was only able to yank his hand from Tony's grasp before several of them made contact.

The boy seized up and fell backwards, hitting the ground hard and arching his back in pain as the blue electricity arced across his body. Tony's breath caught as Peter opened his mouth in a silent scream, his eyes clenched shut. The bird man fired more widow bites, and this time Peter made noise. The awful sound broke Tony's heart, and he threw himself at the bird man, wrenching the wristband from his grasp.