Drowning In Oxygen [2] {Sequel}

~ Thirteen ~

Tony, Ned and Harry were worried, to say the least. Ever since Peter's run in with Mysterio, he'd been acting off.

It wasn't too much, at first. He would jump occasionally when people snuck up on him, or stare off into the distance for a while before he would jolt in his seat, as though he'd seen something he would rather not see again.

Often, Tony would sit down next to Peter and he would hurriedly move away like he expected Tony to say some scathing remarks.

Sometimes, Ned would strike up a conversation with Peter and he wouldn't respond until a few minutes later, acting surprised that Ned was there.

Once, Harry did his usual thing and jumped onto Peter's back, expecting the boy to catch him like he normally did. Instead, Peter threw Harry off of his back and jumped onto the ceiling, eyes wide.

They had tried to figure out why, but asking Peter had no effect.

("Peter, why are you acting so weirdly?" Harry asked, of course not being subtle at all.

Peter gave him a strange glance, having had a good day up to this point. "I - I'm not acting weirdly, am I?"

"No, not at all, that's why I'm asking," Harry said sarcastically, giving Peter a suspicious look.

At that moment, Peter's eyes grew wide and he backed off slowly, the moment he left the room speeding off to his own.

Harry shrugged.)

The moment Ned had finally figured out what could be wrong, they were afraid that it had already fully sunken into Peter's memories.

"Mysterio," Ned breathed, his eyes lighting up when he remembered the villain's powers. Tony and Harry glanced at him for a second before they took in what he said. "Didn't Peter start acting strange after he met Mysterio?"

Tony paused, thinking, before he nodded. "I assumed it was because his web fluid ran out and he fell off the building. The, uh, the Mysterio thing makes much more sense though."

"Well, we should try and fix it soon!" Harry exclaimed. "I know we're trying to help Pete out and all, but Gwen's still stuck with that guy, who knows what he could be doing to her?"

"We're trying our best," Tony said, narrowing his eyes, "but this guy says he'll only come out for Spider-Man, and he's definitely keeping to his word. We can't find him anywhere."

Ned rolled his eyes, snapping his fingers so that their attention would be back on him.

"Listen," he started, reading from the article he found. "'This new villain's powers are extraordinary. He has the ability to warp reality and make it his own'. He probably did that with Peter - maybe he made him see something that made us the bad guys. I don't know what we did, but it had to have been something bad for him to avoid us like this."

Tony's face suddenly went white. "He's been having more nightmares recently," he whispered. "I thought it was the near death experience that was the cause."

"What were his nightmares about?" Harry asked, having quieted down after realising that it wasn't possible to find Gwen at that current moment. 

Tony looked down.

"Wanda."

~~~

Peter knew that he was worrying his dad and his friends. He honestly felt horrible for it, but he couldn't face them, not when every time he saw them he could see them accusing him.

"You didn't save Gwen."

"If you had tried more, maybe she would be here."

"You left Wanda."