Spider-Man: Unmasked

Chapter Twenty-Four

Ah, a safe house.  How safe, how calm, how incredibly...

Boring.

When was Peter going to get the chance to get out of here?  All he was doing here was watching kids playing and adults fighting.  Neither was pleasant. 

Tony and Steve had began to fight, much to Peter's dismay.  At the moment, they were out chopping wood and arguing. Not a good mix.

Thor still hadn't come back yet, causing confusion for everyone.  Clint was spending lots of time with his family for obvious reasons, and Bruce and Natasha were doing their own thing.

Peter hated this.  Tony was still mad at Peter, whether either of them wanted to believe it or not.  He had to count on Natasha to get any information about Ultron and she didn't always come through.  He wasn't even able to contact Ned.

"Ultron's everywhere," Tony had said when Peter had asked if he could the first time.  "Who's to say he won't track you from your calls?"

If he's trying to track us, Peter thought passive aggressively.  Why wouldn't he have just tried to track the jet?  Or just our phones in general?  We're not necessarily hiding from him as much as the government because of Bruce, aren't we? Still, Tony insisted.

After Clint's daughter Lila had made Peter suffer through yet another tea party in the Spider-Man suit, he had had enough.

"That's it!" He muttered, pulling off the mask that now had tea stained on it from when Lila insisted he drink the tea with the mask on.  "I'm done!"

He was done just waiting for something. He was done hiding. And he was done with all these tea parties. He was getting the heck out of there.

Lucky for him, he didn't have much to pack. All he had brought was the Spider-Man suit.  He had been forced to wear some of Clint's son Cooper's clothes.  Yes, he was able to fit in them.

He put on an outfit over the Spider-Man suit, hiding it well enough that nobody would notice unless they were really looking. 

Just say you're going on a walk, He thought as he walked out of the house. A long, long walk.

When he got out, he saw his Pops still out by the firewood, but his Dad not there.  He frowned a little and froze a bit when his Pops looked his way.

"Hey Peter," he said with a smile that was obviously a little forced.  It most likely had to be because of the fight between him and Tony.  "Where you off to?"

"Er, off to find Dad," he lied, seeing his Dad not there.  "Where is he?"

"In the barn," Steve said, looking back at the piles of wood.  "Look.  Pete, I'm sorry about everything.  I know this must seem incredibly boring.  And I know it can't be great sharing a room with the kids but... hang in there, okay?"

Peter nodded, but there was just no way he could 'hang in there.'  "Thanks, Pops."  He put on a small smile and walked over to the barn.

Just head over in that direction, and then bolt off into the woods.  It's that easy.

But, as he walked by the barn door, he heard voices inside.  Was that... Nick Fury? He had heard Nick
Fury's voice a few times before. Enough to recognize it when he heard it in a barn.

"Look me in the eye and tell me you're going to shut him down."  Peter stopped in front of the barn door, keeping quiet.  Were they talking about Ultron?  He listened in.

"You're not the director of me," Tony said, sounding as if he was fiddling with something. 

"I'm not the director of anybody. I'm just an old man who cares very much about you," Fury said, sounding a bit sympathetic, which was a bit odd, considering it was Nick Fury.

"And I'm the man who killed the Avengers."  Peter froze and his eyes widened when his Dad said this. What on earth was he talking about?

"I saw it," Tony continued. "I didn't tell the team.  I didn't tell Steve or Pete. How could I? I saw them all dead, Nick. I felt it. Peter and Steve were gone.  The whole world, too. Because of me. I wasn't ready. I didn't do all I could."

"'Maximoff girl, she's working you, Stark. Playing on your fear," Fury assured him. 

"I wasn't tricked, I was shown. Wasn't a nightmare, it was my legacy. The end of the path I started us on."  Tony was walking around the barn, distressed.

What was Peter hearing?  This sounded terrible.  His Dad had seen them all die.  So that's what the witch had shown him.  That's what had been bothering him.

"You come up with some pretty impressive inventions, Tony. War isn't one of them." Fury stood up from wherever he had been sitting and walked over to Tony.

"I watched my friends die. I watched my family - my husband and my son, die. You'd think that'd be as bad as it gets, right?"  Tony scoffed.  "Nope. It wasn't the worst part."

"The worst part is that you didn't," Fury said knowingly. 

Peter couldn't listen to any more of this.  But he couldn't leave now either.  He just headed back to the house in a daze. 

"You okay, Pete?"  Steve said, setting down the axe he had been using for the wood.  He looked a bit worried.

"Y-yeah.  I'm fine.  Just- just need to rest a bit."  He rushed up to the empty kids room and sat on the edge of one of the bed.  A million thoughts ran through his head.

His Dad had seen them all die.  And he had been keeping that bottled up.  He had blamed himself for everything.

Man, Peter felt like an idiot.  And a jerk. 

His Dad had seen all of this and didn't say a word.  Meanwhile, Peter had to go a while without being Spider-Man and felt bored and he was whining his head off.  He was ready to run off and fight Ultron on his own for heavens sake.  There was no way he could leave now.

Why hadn't Tony told them?  That's not something you should keep bottled up.  Seeing everyone die... Peter couldn't imagine the pain and guilt that would cause.  Peter had been so rude and annoying about the subject, that he barely even noticed or didn't bother to ask what was bothering Tony or what that witch had shown him. 

No wonder Tony had wanted Peter to stop being Spider-Man.  He had seen Peter die.  Maybe he thought that if Peter wasn't Spider-Man, then he wouldn't get hurt or near the fight.  He had decided that Peter shouldn't be Spider-Man before the whole Ultron thing started and before he saw that, but the vision the witch had shown him had to help his thought process on the subject. 

Peter stared at his hands, thinking about the whole situation, until he heard a faint knock on the door.

"Meeting downstairs with Fury," Natasha told him from outside the door.

Peter nodded and thanked her before standing up, clearing his throat and his mind and leaving the room to go to the meeting downstairs with a new view on the situation and on his Dad.