Lost Control

Chapter 4

When the heroes finally arrived at the Avengers Tower, Ironman insisted on immediately taking the teenage heroes to the med-bay to figure out what the ray had done to them. Tony didn't want- refused- to admit to anyone that he was completely confused about what had just happened. It didn't help that the initial reaction to the attack on the young heroes had given the crazy villainess an opportunity to escape (they'd only look away for a few seconds)!

Tony Stark was not impressed. He was a billionaire scientist with state of the art technology; he should have been able to figure out what the ray did within minutes. Instead, he was staring at a screen as it once again declared that the test results were negative. It was ridiculous. He'd run a hundred different tests and hadn't gotten a single positive result. He didn't know what was wrong with the teens; he did not like not knowing. He was also concerned that Fury might skin him alive if there was something wrong with the teens that he hadn't thought to test for. Fury was like an angry, overprotective parent at times. Tony did not want to get on Fury's bad side. Ever.

Sighing, Tony scanned over that data again before standing up and preparing to explain that he did not know what was going on in any way, shape or form.

"It is possible that there is genuinely nothing wrong with you," Tony explained. After pausing for dramatic effect he continued, "However, there could be something we missed or you could be having a delayed reaction to whatever that ray was."

Tony ignored the complaints from the teens, the nagging from the Avengers and his conflicting thoughts and ideas about what could have happened in favour of drinking coffee like his life depended on it.

The billionaire was startled by Spider-Man, Peter Parker, commenting on the data while looking over his shoulder and hanging upside down from one of his webs. He must have been really out of it if Spider-Man had been able to sneak up on him so easily. Great. One thing he did find solace in was that the teenager didn't see anything strange either. Tony noted that the original spider-themed hero's mouth had formed a straight line and his eyes were narrowed as they were directed at the screen.

Tony had a random thought about how Spider-Man always seemed so at home when upside down, off the floor or both: was part of his spidery nature or had he always been inclined to avoid standing like regular human beings. He also found it odd how he could read so well when inverted. That couldn't be normal, could it? Was it common to the other arachnid-powered heroes or unique to Peter?

He hadn't seen the others preforming these sorts of stunts as often as Peter but they had all (with the possible exception of Amadeus) seemed so comfortable in their web in the kitchen, more so than when on the ground. Maybe, they were more reserved or had better control over their instincts or it was simply unique to the eldest of their group. He would figure that out later because he had far more pressing issues to deal with at this moment in time.

The Iron Spider also inspected the results after he had downloaded the file onto his suit. He didn't find anything wrong either. Unless there was something that he did not want to vocally express, because of the face plate it was impossible to read his facial expressions. This made Tony start thinking about the Iron Spider as well.

The Iron Spider suit was one of his inventions that he had given to Spider-Man but he could see how well it fit on the younger boy. Tony wasn't sure if he was comfortable knowing that it was a 13 year old boy piloting the suit into danger but who was he to judge.

It was odd, Tony thought, that he seemed so at home with the other members of his team when he was the only one without powers. Having powers wasn't what defined a hero, obviously, but he had initially, foolishly assumed that Iron Spider would be seen as different or strange when on a team where he was the only one without powers outside of a suit of armour and his own brainpower. He was wrong. Very wrong.

Amadeus fitted into the team incredibly well and seemed to be well liked by his teammates. The Web Warriors were a family where everyone was equal regardless of their abilities, strengths and weakness. He could respect that. They were more of a family than the Avengers or the other S.H.I.E.L.D. teams could ever hope to be. Tony may even have gone as far as to say, to himself in his thoughts, that their dynamic was cute or sweat.

Despite all evidence pointing towards there being nothing out of the ordinary, there was a lot of scepticism amongst the heroes. Villains rarely did things for no reason which made it highly unlikely that whatever Lost had done didn't have consequences. Unless she had made a mistake, something that didn't seem very likely due to her level of skill, that gun had done something.

Eventually, it was Natasha that stopped the brooding in the med-bay by announcing that worrying would not help anyone and doing something else, anything else, would be a far better use of their time.

After a brief discussion about what should be done, it was decided that ordering some fast food and having a movie night would be the evening's activities. Several fanboy delivery boys later, the living room in the tower was filled with the smell of various types of fast food, flashing lights from the TV and the sound of movies playing on the large screen.

Everyone enjoyed the movies for the most part. Although the experience was arguably spoiled due to some members of the group nitpicking the movies and picking up on every instance where the laws of physics were disobeyed, no one seemed to mind- the comments lightened the earlier tension and made the experience a bit more entertaining for most people.

Some of the teens were a little put out by the Avengers banning them from patrol for the time being, however, it did make sense for them to avoid being in a potentially dangerous situation if the effects of the beam were to present themselves. That didn't mean that they had to be happy about it though.

Spider-Man couldn't ignore the way that his spidey-sense had reacted over the past few days. It had been an annoying, very early warning for a few days before visiting Avengers tower. The alert that morning had made his natural fore-warning system much more active and insistent. The alarm bells had been making as much noise as possible inside his head as he fought Lost. Then it stopped when the ray had hit them. Actually, that wasn't true, it just changed.

The sensation that had been an uncomfortable buzzing his brain and increased alertness shifted into a tingling throughout his entire body and an eerie stillness of his senses. His spider-sense was still active, jumping at all of the low level danger around him, but the way the it had suddenly quietened had been a bit of a surprise. It wasn't a nice surprise, either. If anything, it had just made him more anxious.

Peter watched as people started making their ways to bed at around 10 O'clock after one of the movies ended. Another movie was switched on and Spider-Man glanced around at who was left in the room: all of the web warriors, Tony, Steve and Natasha. An odd mix but he didn't mind, it would allow for a little more quiet.

He didn't like crowds very much due to his heightened senses overloading him with too much information. He could deal with conversations with a small number of people but the out-of-sink breathing of a group of people gave him a headache. The final movie was watched in silence because no one could be bothered to speak.

The tension gradually returned throughout the movie but no one did anything to stop it.

It was nearly midnight before the final movie ended. Everyone was getting rather tired, Amadeus and Miles had already fallen asleep with Amadeus' head resting comfortably on Miles' shoulder. Peter had to admit that it was a cute sight.

The room was silent as everyone looked around at each other, waiting to see who would talk first. Steve eventually asked about Peter's spidey-sense and the teen's shoulders slumped as he tried to explain what had happened with it. His team mates added their own input occasionally but in the end, it just led to an hour of conversation that led no where.

At one O'clock in the morning Ben and Peter silently crept over to the sleeping 13 year-olds and each chose one to carry bridal style to bed while the Avengers and Flash left for their rooms. Peter found it adorable as they both tried to reach for each other in their sleep as Ben picked Amadeus up.

After Peter had deposited Miles in his bed and entered his own room he was overcome by a sudden bout of drowsiness and he barely managed make to his bed before he passed out on top of the covers, still in his costume.