Iron Boy [Peter Parker x Male Reader]

Chapter Forty Three

      I groaned and whined as I slowly regained consciousness and bright white light seeped into my vision.
      "Y/N?" a concerned voice said from next to me.
      "Lights."
      "What?" Peter asked.
      The bright white vanished and a soft yellow light replaced it. I opened my eyes to see Charlie standing by the door, his hand on the light switches.
      Peter was sitting next to my bed holding my hand.
      Charlie came back over and sat down.
      I scanned myself and realized I was laying in a hospital bed, my shirt was removed and suction cups and wires were connected to my skin. There was an oxygen tube resting beneath my nose, I pulled it away.
      "No, Y/N-" Peter started, as I began to remove things.
      "Peter-stop, let me-"
      "No. If Dr. Nguyen says you need this stuff, you need this stuff."
      "Peter, could you even tell me what half this stuff does?"
      He didn't say anything.
      "No. So until you're a engineering, electrical, scientific, and mathematical genius, I'll decide what to do."
      A tall Asian woman walked into the room with a white doctor's coat and glasses resting on her nose, a stethoscope around her neck.
      "Technically, you're a minor, so you do what your father says. And your father has put you under my care, which means you do what I say. Which means you listen to your boyfriend, and you put the 'stuff' back." she said.
      I groveled and began to place things back, smacking Peter's hands away when he would try to help me.
      "I'm going to be frank with you, Mr. Stark. I don't know what to expect. You may be in pain, you may experience nothing. But from what your father and I have discovered, be ready for anything. I'll leave it up your father to let you know what happened."
      She briskly left the room.
      I put my hands to my temples and began to rub them.
      "Can anyone actually tell me what happened?" I sighed.
      Peter glanced up to Charlie.
      I looked over to him.
      "What do you remember?" he said quietly.
      "I freed you guys from the bomb and then they took you. I fought off Paradoxe, and I managed to access my full powers again, but it took a lot out of me, I passed out."
      "You're close, but a little off. Paradoxe got back up. He shot you with that gun. It...did something to you. Something...terrible." Charlie choked and swallowed.
      Peter was rubbing my knuckles with his thumb.
      I reached out and placed my free hand on Charlie's. As soon as our skin connected I was shot out of my body and into an 'out of body experience' so to speak.
      I saw myself sitting in bed, my eyes glowing bright blue and energy swirling around my eyes. Peter and Charlie were frozen with scared expressions as they looked at me.
      I looked down, as if to see my body, but all I saw was swirling blue energy in the vague shape of a body.
      I looked back up to Charlie and Peter.
      I didn't know what was happening, this was new.
      I tried to speak, but nothing came out.
      "Hello, again, Y/N." a woman's voice said with a Russian accent.
      Sokolov, again.
      I still couldn't speak.
      "It seems like we've been brought close once again. I don't know why the universe insists on us staying in each other's grasps, yet here we are."
      I cocked my head.
      "Confused as to why I'm here? Let me show you."
      I felt a jolt as my body flew up and I was thrown into the sky. I could see the entire globe, briefly, then it spinned and I was thrusted down towards the land. I could see the shape of South America. After falling through the earth for awhile, I hit the ground. I pushed myself to my feet and scanned my surroundings. I was in the room that Paradoxe hurt me.
      "Time to show you the past, Y/N. You sure you're ready?"
      I nodded once.
      Several figures took form around the room. I watched as I pushed myself to my feet and turned to see Paradoxe fire his gun at me.
     The large, neon blue laser engulfed me and forced me back, into a flip and landing on the ground.
      It appeared as though I was dead.
      Then, my body pushed itself off the ground. It's limbs bent at inhuman angles and large crunches and cracks sounded. As though I was some sort of contortionist, and I am most certainly not.
      I winced and cringed at the creature like body before me, which no longer seemed like my own.
      I looked to my family.
      Pepper was sobbing. My father's eyes were wide and terrified. Charlie was screaming my name as tears rolled down his face.
      My eyes were gaunt and had changed until the entire eyeball was glowing the same color as his neon laser. My face seemed skeletal.
      The first thing of three that happened: the body began to choke and jolt. Saliva and fluid gathered at its lips and slipped down its face and chest.
      The second: Blood began to drip from its nose, eyes, and ears. It seemed as though there were chunks in the fluids coming from its ears, even from here I could see that it was grey matter. My brain.
      And finally, the third: the first part was my face. My skin fell inwards and crumbled, falling to dust. I tried to scream as I watched my body fall apart, until all that remained was a pile of blood, dust, skin,
burnt clothing, and other disgusting things.
      I glanced up to my family again.
      Pepper was on her hands and knees, vomiting.
      My father was on his knees, his butt resting on his heels.
      Charlie was slowly crawling towards my remains, sobbing.
      With a cringe, he reached into the pile. And what he pulled out almost made me fall over:
      A small wooden brain...my half of our necklace.
      I shook my head.
      He pocketed the necklace then stood up, a grave and dangerous look in his eyes as he looked to Paradoxe.
"What did you do?" Charlie seethed.
"Scrambled the time surrounding his body. The molecules 'panicked' in a sense, and destabilized. He seized, then his brain melted, then he well..."
Charlie screamed and lunged forward, wind immediately leaped to his feet and carried him to where Paradoxe was standing.
Charlie threw him up against the wall and got up in his face.
"Fix him."
"I can't do that."
"You can!" Charlie spat, "I can see it in your eyes."
"Why should I?"
"Because if you don't, I'll rip you apart limb by limb."
"I've completed my mission, I'm willing to let that happen."
Charlie spat in his face this time, literally.
"Do it!"
"...bite me."
I watched as Charlie's eyes began to glow and crackle with electricity. It danced along his finger tips.
He reached up and placed his hand on Paradoxe's head. The electricity went forward and surrounded Paradoxe.
He screamed and writhed.
"Fix him. Or it's a lifetime of this..."
Charlie removed his hand and Paradoxe fell to his knees, he reached for the gun. He played with some settings while Charlie watched, cautiously.
      "There. It's set up to fix him..."
      Charlie threw one hand to the side. Paradoxe went flying, electricity crackling over his skin.
      "...thank you..."
      Charlie picked up the gun and aimed it at the pile of dust and blood and...well, me.
      The once blue laser was now green and as it struck the pile of ashes, it began to swirl up into the air, before settling down around an invisible mold. After a flash of turquoise green light, my body was there once more.
My eyes were open for a split second before they faltered shut. My body began to fall to the ground.
Charlie darted forward and shouted my name, he caught me just before I hit the ground.
He lowered me down so I could lay, then placed two fingers on my throat.
He sighed in relief and smiled a little, then nodded at my father and Pepper.
They smiled and chuckled a little in relief as well.
      "You see? You died, Y/N. In one of the most gruesome ways I have ever seen." Sokolov's voice said.
      I knew if I could feel any real emotions right now, I would feel sick.
      "Ready to go back? To finish this chapter? To see what you're left with?"
      I hesitantly nodded, slowly.
      I got one last glance of Charlie holding my unconscious body, before everything faded to black.
      My vision appeared again, with me back in my bed. Charlie and Peter still looked scared at they watched me.
      "What just happened?" Charlie said.
      "Are you okay?" Peter asked.
      "Bowl." was all I could say.
      Peter reached for the counter and handed me a stainless steel kidney dish.
      I threw up into it, then a minute later I leaned back in my bed. I handed the bowl to Peter, and he cringed as he took it out of the room.
      Charlie handed me a towel and I wiped my lip.
      My father came into the room just as Peter left.
      "You okay? Peter said you threw up." my dad said.
      "What...did he do to me?" I seethed.
      "Did you tell him?" my dad asked.
      "Nothing, sir." Charlie said.
      "What do you know?"
      "It's complicated, but I know everything that happened. I just need a long term explanation of the symptoms and consequences."
      "Y/N, this is gonna be difficult to understand. But, you went into that building a 15 year old boy."
      I looked to Charlie confused, then nodded slowly, "Yeah..."
      "You came out..." he sighed, "...a sixteen year old boy."
      I hesitated for a moment.
      "I don't...I don't understand."
Charlie grabbed my hand as I began to panic, slightly.
"Paradoxe's gun...it 'scrambled' time around you, so to speak. But, he didn't have it narrowed down to an exact science, so when we put you back together, it advanced time slightly."
      "How-how do you know?"
      "We carbon dated you, examined several processes that went on in your body, levels of chemicals and how they changed...we're not joking, we know for sure, Y/N."
      "So...I lost a year of my life."
      He nodded.
      "What about the government? And school? And the rest of the world? What do we tell them? 'Oh by the way, we lied, he's actually sixteen'?"
      "The doctors, scientists, and Pepper and I will figure that all out."
      "How long was I out...? Not that long right? Not like last time?"
      "We left Brazil on December 2nd, right?" he looked to Charlie.
      He nodded, "Yeah, the night of the second." Charlie said
      "Today is December 11th." my dad said.
      "I was out for nine days?"
      "We had you in a medically induced coma for the most part. You might not remember this part, but you woke up on the plane ride back, you were in tremendous pain. You were screaming and crying. You passed out eventually, so we decided to keep you that way, to make sure you didn't go through it again."
      I took a moment to think everything through.
      Maybe I should take a breather...I was so caught up in all of this hero work, that I missed so much. I almost missed Thanksgiving. I missed Black Friday and Cyber Monday-although I heard the company sales were great- I got so caught up that I ended up missing a year of my life, basically. I skipped my birthday...my own birthday. Maybe this was good, maybe this will open my eyes a bit.
      "So I turned fifteen and then later that same day, I turned sixteen?"
"Yes." my dad said.
"...okay." I said.
"Okay?" Charlie said confused.
"Yeah, I mean what else can I say?"
"I don't know...I just didn't expect you to accept it this fast."
"I'm stuck with this body no matter what, and nothing's changed, I'm still me, I'm just older."
"Right." my dad said.
I leaned a little in my bed to look out of the glass doors into the room on the other side.
"So...two weeks until Christmas and I don't see a single decoration in sight."
"Um..." my dad said.
"Not a problem, we can fix that."
"We?" my dad said.
"Charlie and I. Isn't that right, Charlie?"
"Uh...sure."
"Great."
My dad chuckled and shook his head.
"Don't push yourself too hard, Y/N."
"I won't."
My dad nodded, smiled a little, and left the room.
"Come on, help me to my room." I said.
Charlie began to help me out of bed.
"Smoak?" I said.
"Hello, sir. Welcome back." Smoak said.
"Thanks. I've got a job for you, go to Amazon and order some decorations and things you think I'll like."
"Yes, sir. On it."
"You're really gonna get into this, aren't you?"
I smirked.