The prize to pay for the lost souls

3

"So, here's the plan. Spidey here, will sneak in, check out the area, find Dr. Doom and report back, Buck and I will be on standby and swoop in if you need us, or wait for your call and then we'll take him down. The helicarrier is floating above us the whole time, ready for us when we got him. Questions?"

"Steve was way better at this than you, but no. See ya!" And with that, Spider-man swung over the stone wall and disappeared into the shadows, immobilizing bots quickly with a tazer web as he came across them, making his way into the castle. The dude has a castle. This was a whole new level of narcissism, and that's saying something, coming from someone who has the Tony Stark as his father figure. It was a lot easier than any of them had thought. The bots didn't seem to do anything other than look kind of intimidating if you squinted, and even the smallest shock of electricity shut them down immidiately. Do these things run on triple a batteries or something? So spider-man could flick his wrist, shoot a web and hang them from the ceiling before they hit the ground. Ten years of practice has it's advantages, after all.

"I got him. No rush though. He's not going anywhere" Spider-man's voice through the comm's was relaxed and the White Wolf and Falcon looked puzzled at each other, wondering how the lanky young man in bright colored spandex could take down the self proclaimed king with experience both in science and magic all by himself.

"What did you do?" Sharing a wide eyed, sceptical look, they walked through the big gates in front of them, glancing over at robots stuck to walls or the ground, hanging from the ceiling, with sparkles of electricity, they had to admit to themselves, he was kind of imposing.

"I may have shut down his armour and trapped him in a birds cage..."

When Falcon and The white wolf entered the hall with a huge throne at the end, Spider-man was lounging in it, looking a little too bored, with a string of web attached to a birds cage hanging from the ceiling, which he used to move it around in circles.

"I'm not gonna clean up if he pukes all over the helicarrier after that. Just sayin'" Falcon pointed vaguely in the direction of the prisoner, but looked otherwise unimpressed by the whole thing. The guy didn't seem to need the ego boost, sprawled out on a kings throne, with said king safely thrown into an animal cage. Bucky on the other hand had a hard time holding in a laugh, and cleared his throat several times before Spider-man finally got up and dropped his web, sending Dr. Doom to the ground.

"oops. It's not my problem, really. Can we go home now? I have a dinner date with a certain princess tomorrow, and I promised I'd come." He casually ripped open the cage and dragged the man behind him out of the castle and through the gates of the stone wall.

*

"Peter!" A little ball of sunshine ran down the stairs of the porch, tackling the man the minute he stepped out of his car. oof.

"Hey, princess! How's it goin'?" He lifted her off her feet, swinging her around. Enjoying every second of her childish laugh, like the biggest problem in existence was getting to bed at a proper time.

"Dad said you would take me swinging through the trees today!" Peter looked into her hopeful eyes, shining in the sunlight, and turned his gaze to check with the identical ones in the doorway. Tony just shrugged his shoulders, the tiniest smile tugging on his lips.

"Did he now? After dinner, okey, princess?" He kissed her cheek, and put her down, before he followed her to the porch, where she disappeared into the house. "How you holdin' up?" Peter observed as Tony visibly shrunk into himself, and sank down in a chair, dragging his hand through his hair. Obviously not doing too well.

"I don't know, Pete. Y'know, I always thought Pepper would leave because of one of my fuck-ups. Not a random dude she happened to shake hands with. And somehow... This feels worse." A soft hum left Peter, and he furrowed his brows in thought, squeezing Tony's shoulder.