A New Home (2.0)

Chapter Twenty-Five:

THIS IS ROUGHLY EDITED. So if you see any mistakes please don't hesitate to point them out. 

Also, MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!! Ik it's not technically Christmas but I won't be online on Christmas or the majority of Christmas eve so yeah. Happy holidays everyone!!!

The city was relatively quiet. Peter was on Patrol, with Steve Rogers as his chaperone for the night. Peter was more than thankful that people cared about him enough to send someone with him, but it sometimes felt suffocating to know someone was looking over your shoulder constantly. As agreed, Steve never stepped in until he thought it was necessary. But Peter still found it somewhat annoying.

The young hero had just webbed up his third bad guy of the night, and was waiting to hear the 'good job' that Steve would give after Peter succeeded in a take down. But it never came.

"Uh... Mr. Captain America, sir?" No response. Peter easily scaled to the rooftop where Steve was supposed to be waiting, only to find no one there. Instead, there was a note.

Good job, kid. Be careful- I'll be back in a few.

-Steve Rogers

Steve had warmed up to the idea of Tony as a father. Not as much as the other's on the team, but he was more accepting of the situation than he was in the beginning. He'd no doubt noticed how well Tony was doing given the circumstances. But that didn't surprise Peter. What surprised him was the fact that Steve had left him alone to finish patrol. Minutes after Peter read the note, an incoming call popped up on his HUD.

"Incoming call from 'Dad'" Karen, his AI, announced. When he first used the suit, his AI had been the chip Tony had given him- with his mother's voice recorded. But Peter changed it out when he realized how much it distracted him, and how many memories it had resurfaced. Now, that chip sits safely in his room- and surprisingly enough Peter's okay with that. Is this what moving on felt like?

"Accept call."

"Hey, Underoos!" Tony's voice rings. "How's patrol? Capsicle being too strict?"

Tony doesn't know Steve left??? That seemed a bit irresponsible, especially for captain america. Not weirdly suspicious at all. Should Peter say something? This may be his chance to patrol solo... He can call Steve after his phone call with Tony, and find out what's going on.

"Nope. Not too strict. I just stopped a mugging so that's good."

"Good job, kiddo. Be careful, okay?"

"Okay, Tony. Trust me, I'll be fine." Peter's attention is suddenly drawn away from the phone call as he hears a scream in the distance. "Listen I gotta go, I'll call you back."

"Kid wait-"

"End call." The call cuts off and Peter takes off swinging toward the sounds of distress. As he gets closer, he hears not only one scream, but many. The Williamsburg bridge. "Karen what's going on?"

"An unknown is attacking citizens. Caution advised."

"An unknown??" Peter mumbles. What on earth was that supposed to mean? He gives on final swing and lands on the beams above, scanning the chaos. It's worse than he thought, traffic is stopped for miles, vehicles wrecked, and citizens all running from... something.

Then Peter sees what they're running from. It's big, green, and in all honesty terrifying. It's a giant Lizard, and it seems determined to hurt someone. Spider-man swings into action. First, clearing citizens from its path, and moving debris away from cars so people can evacuate the bridge. A car is thrown over the edge by this... monster, and Peter does his best to web it safely to the edge of the bridge so none are hurt.

"Hey... Mr. Dinosaur!" Peter shouts as lands in front of it. This thing is huge. Way bigger than he thought it was. The beast jumps at him, talons out and ready to kill. Peter narrowly dodges and throws a hit at what he assumes is the monsters ribs. It staggers backward, but doesn't fall.

It slashes again, and manages to claw across Peter's shoulder, tearing through his suit and leaving bloody wounds across his arm. Peter curses- a thing he's not proud of. But he can worry about that later.

The fight continues.

Dodge, punch, web, kick...

On and on and on.

The monster swings- hard. Peter tries to dodge, but misses. The boy is knocked back, flying backwards before hitting a car that had been left behind. the wind knocked out of him, and he can't breathe. It's almost like he's forgotten how. The mask certainly doesn't help things.

He can see the monster lumbering toward him, and tries to stand up.As Peter catches his breath again, he can hear it speak, saying:

"You will all of you see. The next step in evolution is here! And no one will get in my way."

Peter gathers his strength and flings a web a car door that had been torn from the vehicle, before swinging it around at the beast. It knocks the monster just close enough to the edge of the bridge. Peter gets a running start and with both feet gives it a solid kick to the chest. It tries to catch it's balance, but fails and falls into the water below.

"What in the sam hill was that??" Peter asks to know one in particular, before swinging to the nearest building. He lands on the roof, and sits with his back propped up against an air duct. Thankfully there was no one else here. The boy takes off his mask, breathing in the cool night air.

He stays there for about ten minutes, then starts the swing home. Tony had left the pent house window unlocked, thankfully. Peter climbs through to the living area and just falls onto the couch, exhausted.

"Man that was crazy."

"Looks like it." Startled, Peter nearly falls off the couch.

"Oh... hey Tony." Peter falls back against the pillow. He's aware that he's probably in trouble, but he's too tired to care.

"I would give you a lecture on responsibility and reckless decisions, but that would be hypocritical. Thankfully, you'll be okay if you clean those gashes on your arm."

"How did-"

"Friday did a scan."

"Oh."

"So what happened?"

"Oh ya know, just fought godzilla."

"What?" Tony asks, laughing lightly,

"Ten foot lizard monster on the bridge. I fought him, and I won." Peter sits up. "Why aren't you mad at me?"

"You wanted to be a hero- This stuff comes with the job. I have to get used to that."

"Fair enough."

"But I will use this as a teaching moment. Treating injuries." Tony tosses a first aid kit onto the couch next to Peter. "I think you can handle it. I want to hear more about the lizard monster in the morning."

Peter can't help but smile. Knowing his dad wasn't mad at him was like a huge weight had been lifted off his shoulders. "G'night, Tony."

"Goodnight, kid." His dad answers, before leaving to go to bed. Despite the current physical pain, Today had ended way better than Peter thought it would. But there was still so much unsolved and unanswered. Like where did cap go? What was the monster on the bridge, and why did it's voice sound weirdly familiar.

All of these were questions that could be answered tomorrow, and after a quick bandaging of his wounds, Peter saves today's problems for tomorrow, and falls asleep.