To Be a Stark

A Way Back

**This chapter begins on April 26, 2018, at 3 am**

"Sir," F.R.I.D.A.Y. interrupted in a sort of warning tone. Tony didn't look up from one of his suits, a hologram slowly spinning in front of him, but tilted his head to show he was listening.

"Yeah, what is it, F.R.I.D.A.Y.?" He selected an object in the middle of the suit, throwing the rest of the hologram to the side, enhancing the image. He squinted at it, turning it left and right, then sighed. He pulled up a log and started typing.

"Sir, Karen has contacted me. Peter Parker's vitals are approaching critical. His body temperature has decreased dramatically, he has lost seventeen pounds in six days, and his heartbeat has slowed to 47 beats per minute. He has suffered from two fractured ribs and a broken pinky, as well as a mild concussion. He has had all of these for thirty-seven hours and twenty-one minutes. His accelerated healing does not seem to be working. His temperature has dropped dramatically. Peter does not seem to have taken off the suit for long periods of time and has spent both days and nights in it. Karen has sent me his movements for the past six days. Would you like to virtually tour them?" Tony jumped up, forgetting his broken suit and shutting down the hologram. He closed the log that he didn't even have a chance to start typing into.

"Shit, kid, what've you been doing? No, F.R.I.D.A.Y., just get me a working suit and his location." He slid across the lab raced up the steps to the landing pad.

"Of course, sir." Tony jumped off the building, feeling the nanobots of his lastest suit glid smoothly over his clothes.

***

Tony let F.R.I.D.A.Y. fly him to where Peter was while he was simultaneously watching the Baby Monitor videos on times five speed and looking at Peter's most frequented locations. He had been going to a random spot near his school at night, seemly to spend his sleeping hours there. During the day, he had gone into the school for around an hour a day. Then he would hop all over town, which is how Tony guessed he had broken his bones and gained the concussion. The only time he took off the Spider-Suit was when he was in his school.

His suit flew closer to two buildings, and he could just make out Peter laying in a web hammock, not moving, but breathing shallowly.

"Sir, Karen has informed me that Peter needs immediate medical attention within the next six hours. If not, he has a thirty-four percent chance of falling into a coma. After that, chances of him surviving are below a seventeen percent chance. Because of his mutated DNA, Peter will not feel cold and will not shiver. He cannot bring his core temperature up to what it needs to be and the suit's heating has been fried from overworking." F.R.I.D.A.Y. informed him. Tony could hear the slight panic in her usually calm and steady voice. Peter just seemed to have that effect on everyone.

Hovering next to his kid, Tony took in what else was in the hammock. Peter's homework (which had been slightly crumpled from him laying on it), his open backpack with wrappers and empty bottles thrown inside, and a duffle bag full of various items one would need to survive.

Shocked and mostly confused, but knowing the urgency of the situation, Tony closed the backpack and grabbed it, along with the duffle bag, and carefully picked up Peter, searching the rest of the hammock for anything important. After being satisfied that he was leaving nothing behind, he told F.R.I.D.A.Y. to take them back to the Compound where he knew Bruce would be. If anyone could fix a teenage spider boy, it would be Banner.

**9 am**

It was warm. Far to warm for April in New York. Peter woke with a start and frantically looked around, not quite sure where he was. It took a minute to comprehend his surroundings before he recognized them. He was in the Medbay at Stark Tower. No, that wasn't right. Stark Tower looked different. He was in the Compound, in his own little room off of the main room, mostly because the nurses were tired of having to clean up his webs when he got startled and accidentally shot them off around the entire wing. So now Peter had his own room where the nurses didn't even bother cleaning the webs from, knowing that they would dissolve within a couple of hours.