Let's Begin

Ch. 8

Mentions of alcohol and drugs. Also, Peter's been kidnapped at this point so there will be abuse. Not horribly graphic, but it will be there.

If there was one thing Tony hadn't thought Iron Man would need to do, it was put out gasoline fires. He'd equipped the suit with enough firepower to take out a naval base, but apparently not enough to put out anything. After the crash at the Grand Prix, he decided to focus a lot of energy on installing fire extinguishing abilities in the suit as well as a better air filter. The smell of burning rubber wasn't something he enjoyed and burning cars on a racetrack tended to smell like it. He had almost finished installing it, too, when FRIDAY announced an incoming call from Pepper.

"Put her through," Tony told FRIDAY, switching out tools. "Hey, honey."

Without preamble, Pepper said, "Ned just called and said Peter's not at school. I told you he can't just keep skipping classes to travel the world or help with your fancy toys."

Tony frowned—still not agreeing with that particular idea—but slightly concerned because he hadn't talked to Peter since breakfast.

"I don't have him, Pep," Tony told her, swatting Dum-E away from the suit and sending him over to play with U and Butterfingers. "Haven't spoken to him since breakfast. What did Ned say?"

Now Pepper frowned. Sending her assistant out of her office, she returned to her phone and told Tony, "He just said he hadn't seen Peter since he went to talk to Mr. Patrick during lunch."

"Let me check," Tony said, wiping his hands and pulling up a nearby hologram.

At his request, FRIDAY pulled up Peter's location and Tony looked at the blinking dot in confusion. He was still at school. Behind the school, but still on campus grounds.

"He's still there," Tony told Pepper. Confused, Pepper asked what he meant so he said, "He's behind the school."

"Why would he skip all his classes to hang out behind school?" she asked.

Tony didn't know, but he was already suiting up to make sure his son hadn't come across the phenomenon that is drugs and alcohol. He wasn't stupid enough to think middle schoolers never tried to stuff, but Peter had never shown any interest in trying any kind of substance. Nevertheless, he activated an old suit since his current one was in pieces on his lab floor and decided to check things out for himself.

"I'll just run over and check on him," Tony told her. Pepper sighed but didn't try to convince him otherwise.

"Alright," she agreed, "But don't get upset if he is doing something he shouldn't."

"We'll see," Tony said vaguely before hanging up and shooting off towards Midtown Middle School.

* * * * *

Peter was pretty sure by this point that Mr. Patrick was not, in fact, a middle school science teacher. He'd only been awake for five minutes, but in that time, he'd figured that no teacher would kidnap one of their students after trying to murder them almost a decade earlier. Another thing he was pretty sure of was that teachers didn't drive like they were in a Nascar race or the Grande Prix. He'd already hit his head pretty hard on the side of the van a couple of times and the last time had woken him up. He didn't need his hands free to know there was a large bump on the back of his head now.

"Only fifteen more minutes, Peter," the man beside him cooed, "You can go back to sleep if you want."

Peter shook his head and fiddled with the ropes around his hands. No luck.

"No thanks," he replied, "I'm good."

The man sneered at him and backhanded Peter across his face. The loud smack caught Mr. Patrick's attention, but he didn't say anything.

"It wasn't a request," the man growled.

Peter closed his eyes but didn't go back to sleep. The last thing he wanted was to be unconscious in front of his kidnappers any longer than they forced him to be and right now, he was doing fine on sleep.