Of Choices and Tribulations

Chapter 2

"No!" Tony barely managed to cry out was he leapt forward towards Harley, but he was too far and too late. The boy dropped to the ground, but to Tony's surprise, he was not alone. Someone else had managed to push Harley out of the way. Someone with messy brown hair. Someone who wasn't any older than Harley. And someone Tony Stark knew, he could feel it in his gut. As Tony crouched down, and gently moved to the crumpled person next to Harley. The face he saw, it was who he had dreaded it would be - Peter Parker. Tell me he missed, tell me the assh*le God damn f*cking missed! No. Quinn hadn't missed. Blood came away from Tony's hands as he assessed the kid's injury. Already there was red starting to pool around Peter's body. Shit, damn it!

The bullet had struck the kid in the abdomen, and from what Tony could tell, there was no exit wound. While not having an exit would slowed the chance for the kid of bleeding out, it also made Peter vulnerable to infection. The high schooler's face was ashen white, and even then he managed the look of both surprise and happiness to see Tony. No. You should not be happy to see me, thought Tony. It's me that this psycho wanted and you became collateral damage .

"Peter," he said, feeling sick to his stomach.

"I'm okay, Mr. Stark, I'm okay. Is he... he's okay?" asked Peter, his voice laced with pain.

"Harley's good," said Tony as he glanced over at Harley who had already risen up from the ground, shock written over his face. While there was blood on Harley, it wasn't his blood, it was Peters'. Tony's attention went back to Peter, but found that the boy had started to close his eyes. No. The kid should not sleep. He needed to stay awake. Tony Stark felt the prickles of tears at the edge of his eyes.

"Peter! Hey hey, no sleeping on the job. Okay?" Peter's glassy eyes reopened and looked at him. There was a blink and then another to show acknowledgement that he was going to fight to stay conscious. Tony applied pressure against the boy's wounds, the red though just kept coming. But at least pressing on the wound jolted Peter awake. Sorry kid, better pain than death. You've got this.

"Tony, here," It was Helen Cho. She was by Tony's side, taking over adding the pressure. Tony knew the kid was in good hands. One thing good about being stuck in a lab, it was he was surrounded by medical professionals. While it was not their primary field of study, they were all trained in it at one point.

"What the f*ck!" Snapped Tony as he stood up to glare at Quinn, not caring that the gun was trained back on to him.

The man simply shrugged, "He wasn't actually my target, Tony... but I think I got my point across."

"Kid," he gestured to Harley, " get over here."

Keener stood up slowly and looked over at Tony, his eyes held no fear, as he started towards the scientist.

"Harley, stay where you are. You are not going to him," said Tony through gritted teeth.

Sharpe let out a long sigh and with no hesitation shifted his gun and fired – at Helen Cho.

***

Helen Cho

Watching the gun being aimed and fired at a child, that had been a horrible thing to witness. But to also become it's next target, that was also not something Helen expected to be a part of.

Helen for a moment was reminded of how people often said they saw their lives flash before their eyes, just before they died. Helen had thought she was going to die when Ultron shot her a few months ago. But he had been a complete stranger, an artificial life that had gone haywire. But Quinn Sharpe, he was a man that she had worked with for the past five years. They'd had drinks together, laughed and been each other's confidences. Helen had thought she knew the man. That if he chose to hurt her, shoot her even, there would have been a slight hesitance.

She was wrong, she didn't know the man at all. She didn't think anyone could shoot a child in cold blood and be so unfazed afterwards. And in that moment, Helen wished she could just rush at him, take him down somehow even as a distraction. But what stopped her was the man had the power to kill everyone in the building outside this lab.

Helen, knew though, her choices of even doing that wasn't happening. Because she was going to die. It was to her surprise though, the kid, with a grip she didn't expect from someone that had been shot, had enough strength and reflex to pull her towards him in the last second.

The shot that should have ended her life, missed her by a bare margin. The bullet instead sailed past her and struck a beaker from behind, shattering it.

Sharpe looked surprised. "Bravo, Ms. Cho, it seems like my aim has been rather poor today."

Helen was shaken. The beaker was on level with her head. It had been a headshot. This man she had worked side by side with for the past five years had attempted to kill her on a whim. As an example of how serious he was. Asshole.

"Helen, are you okay?" Tony was speaking to her, and she all but nodded, though her focus wasn't on him at all. Instead, all she could do was look at Peter, who still had an iron grip on her arm and his eyes though pained, was deathly alert. She knew that luck had little to do with her missing that bullet. This boy wasn't normal. There was no way Helen should have survived the shot. She would have to ask Tony later who the kid was because he had said the kid's name without hesitation. She hoped that Quinn didn't see that connection as well because she feared that it would be used that against Tony. One kid being taken hostage today was enough.

"Kid, as I said earlier, come here ."

Helen watched as the other boy approached the scientist without a hint of fear, even when the gun was pressed against his temple. Where did Tony Stark find these people? They were acting well beyond their age. The boy, he was at most only fifteen years old. Helen felt Peter squeeze her hand and she turned to look at the equally young kid.

"Is there another way out of this lab?" The words came out in barely a whisper.