Iron Boy [Peter Parker x Male Reader]

Chapter Sixty Six

When light flooded my vision again, I was momentarily blinded until it faded and I scanned my surroundings. I was standing in an alleyway next to my father, Bruce, Lang, and Steve.
Our Time Suits dematerialized and we returned into our normal outfits. My contacts illuminated with data.
"All right," Steve said. "We all have our assignments."
      My eyes wandered up to the date on my contacts and scanned the year.
      2012.
      I looked out of the alleyway to see Thanos' Chitauri armies ransacking the city, destroying buildings and streets. I saw the original six Avengers create a defensive circle and prepare to fight back. I let out a shaky breath.
      It was strange to see the city I lived in being destroyed in such a way.
      I turned back to the others, as my Time Suit disappeared.
"Two stones uptown, one stone downtown," Steve said. "Stay low. Keep an eye on the clock."
We all turned to watch as the 2012, angry Hulk crushed a Chitauri with a car, then continued to stomp on it, before running after the next.
Bruce seemed embarrassed and covered his face a little.
"Maybe smash a few things along the way," Steve said to Bruce.
"I think it's gratuitous, but whatever," he replied, tearing off his shirt with ease and walking over to the street, awkwardly crushing things along the way.
I activated my Renegade suit as my father activated his and we flew into the air behind the buildings, grappling onto the building across from the old Stark tower.
I looked down the street to where my tower would eventually stand.
"Better hustle, Cap," my father said. "Things look like they're just about wrapped up here."
I zoomed in on my interface, scanning the 2012 Avengers as they surrounded Loki's fallen form.
"Got it," Cap said into the comms. "I'm approaching the elevator now."
My father and I flew over into the building, I deactivated my suit as he did and I bent my legs a little as we snuck around the side wall of my father's old quarters.
"If it's all the same to you," Loki said. "I'll have that drink now."
I shook my head as the Avengers stood over him, ready to fight as he stalled.
"All right, get him on his feet," my 2012 father said. "We can all stand around posing up a storm later. By the way, feel free to clean up."
Thor walked over to Loki and hauled him to his feet.
"Mr. Rogers," my father said into the comms. "I almost forgot that suit did nothing for your ass."
I stifled a laugh.
"No one asked you to look, Tony," Steve said.
"It's ridiculous," my father said, staring at 2012 Steve.
"I think you look great, Cap," Land said from my father's shoulder. "As far as I'm concerned, that's America's ass."
I watched Nat walked across the room with the long scepter, containing the mind stone.
"Who gets the, uh, magic wand?" she said.
"Strike team's coming to secure it," Steve said.
I whirled on the elevator as it dinged. I grabbed my father's arm and pulled him back around the corner, down into the living area. We crouched behind a low wall.
"We can take that off your hands," a man from the elevator said.
"By all means," Nat said, then started to walk away. The man in the suit began to touch the blade. "Careful with that thing."
"Yeah, unless you want your mind erased," Barton said. "And not in a fun way."
"We promise to be careful," the man said.
"Who are these guys?" Lang said over the comms.
"They're SHIELD," my dad said. "Well, actually Hydra, but we didn't know that yet."
"Seriously? You didn't?" I said, cocking an eyebrow.
"He's right," Lang said. "I mean, they look like bad guys."
"You're small," my father said. "But you're talking loud."
"On my way down to coordinate search and rescue," 2012 Steve said, walking towards the elevator.
Loki morphed into Steve for a moment and mocked him.
Thor put a piece of tech over his mouth and told him to shut up.
I watched as 2012 Tony Stark loaded the Tesseract into a metal case.
"Ooh. All right, you're up, little buddy," my dad said to Lang. "There's our stone."
"All right," Lang said. "Flick me."
My father flicked Lang off his shoulder and Lang landed inside the case, then began to climb up his arm.
My father and I backed up to the window and jumped off the ledge while pressing our housing units.
      My suit surrounded me as I fell through the air and we blasted back around towards the back of the building.
      We shared scans of the building as we floated.
      "Alright, Cap," my father said. "I got our scepter in the elevator just passing the eightieth floor."
"On it," Cap said into our earpieces. "Head to the lobby."
"Alright," my father said.
"We'll see you there," I added.
We flew back down to ground level and our suits dematerialized. I ruffled my hair messily and put my hand in a pile of soot and dust on the street, running it through my hair and over my clothes, making myself seem as though I was a civilian who had just come out from the streets.
I wandered into the lobby to see my father wearing the gear of a SHIELD agent, waiting by the front desk, attempting to blend in.
I stood at the end of the desk by another group of civilians and he gave me a small nod, which I returned.
I perked up at the sound of the elevator opening and saw the others, as well as several SHIELD agents come into the lobby.
I looked over to the group and data illuminated my contacts. They began to scan the group, highlighting the Tesseract in the case.
"I've got eyes on the target," I said into the comms.
"You hear that, Thumbelina?" my father said to Lang. "We've got eyes on the stone in the lobby. It is go time."
"Bombs away," Lang said, there was a brief pause. "Is that Axe body spray?"
"Yeah, I had a can in the desk for emergencies. Relax. Can we focus? Please?"
"I'm going inside you," Lang said. "Now."
Smoak zoomed in on my father and illuminated what Lang was doing inside his chest reactor.
I kept a close eye on the group as my father, Thor, Nat, and Barton ran into a group of government officials.
My contacts zoomed out again.
"Uh, may I ask you where you're going?" an official said.
"A bit of lunch and then Asgard. I'm sorry, you are...?" Thor questioned.
"Alexander Pierce," my 2012 father said. "He's the man above the folks behind Nick Fury."
"Oh."
"My friends call me Mr. Secretary," Pierce said. "I'm gonna have to ask you to turn that prisoner over to me."
"Uh, Loki will be answering to Odin himself."
"No, he's going to answer to us. Odin can have what's left. And I'm gonna need that case. That's been SHIELD property for over seventy years."
A man reached forward and tried to grab the case out of my father's hand.
My contacts zoomed in again as they began to fight over the case.
"All right, move it, Stuart Little. Things are getting dicey out here. Let's go," my father said.
"I can't find it!" Lang said into the comms.
Smoak zoomed in farther so I could see the reactor.
"Hang a left, then drop down, Lang," I said.
"Got it," he said.
There was a brief moment of silence then Smoak confirmed he was in position. He zoomed back out to normal vision.
"You promise me you won't die?" Lang said.
"Don't be ridiculous," I said.
"We're only giving me a mild cardiac dysrhythmia."
"That doesn't sound mild," Lang said.
"I assure you, Scott. It is," Smoak said.
The men swarmed my 2012 father and started to try and pull the case away.
"Do it, Lang," I snapped.
"Window's closing. Pull my pin," my dad said.
"Here goes!" Lang said.
There was a spark and my 2012 father gasped and began to choke. He collapsed and started to convulse.
Everyone backed up a little.
"Medic!" Pierce called out.
"Medic!" me and my father called simultaneously, then smiled a little at each other.
"Give these guys some help," my father called out.
I watched as tiny Lang kicked the case away, causing it to slide across the floor right to my father's feet.
He picked it up and started to walk towards the access door, I followed behind him.
"Good job," he said. "Meet us in the alley. We're gonna grab a quick slice."
I gasped as the door flew off its hinges and both me and my father were thrown to the ground. I watched as Hulk terrorized the lobby.
"Sir, we have a problem," Smoak said, illuminating the Tesseract on the floor on my lenses.
It slid to a stop in front of Loki's feet. He bent down and picked it up, looked around, then vanished into a portal.
I staggered to my feet and helped my father up.
"That wasn't supposed to happen," Lang said. "Was it?"
"Oh, we blew it," my father said.
"Shit..." I mumbled.
We all gathered back in the alleyway and began our own silent curses. My father looked around, realizing we were exposed and gestured for us to step into a discarded car. We all racked our brains for ways to fix it, coming up with nothing.
I sighed and leaned against the back of the passenger seat, repeatedly banging my head against the seat.
I heard footsteps and looked out my father's window to see Cap standing in the alleyway.
"Cap," my father said, causing him to turn to us. "Sorry, buddy, we got a problem."
Lang scoffed.
"Yeah, we do."
"No shit," I said.
I stepped out of the car and leaned against the hood, just in front of my father's door, as my father filled Steve in on what went awry.
"Well, what are we gonna do?" Steve said.
"You know what? Gimme me a break, Steve. We just got hit in the head with the Hulk."
"You said that we had one shot. This was our shot," Lang said. "We shot it. It's shot. Six stones or nothing. It was six stones or nothing."
"You're repeating yourself," my father said. "You know that?"
"You're repeating yourself. You're repeating yourself."
"Dude, come on," I sighed.
"No. You never wanted a Time Heist. You weren't on board with the Time Heist."
"I dropped the ball," my father said.
"You ruined the Time Heist."
"Is that what we did?" my dad said.
"Yeah," Lang said.
"Are there any other options with the Tesseract?" Steve interjected.
"No, no, no. There's no other options. There's no do-overs," Lang said. "We're not going anywhere else. We have one particle..."
I turned to my father as Lang ranted to Steve.
"What was that he said in there?" I said to him. "Pierce? He said...he said that the Tesseract had been SHIELD property for over seventy years. That would mean," I said.
"That would mean it's been around before 2012," he finished.
I nodded.
He continued to think until something hit him.
"Yeah, well, if we don't try. Then no one else is going home, either," Steve said.
"We got it," my father said, getting fully out of the car. "There's another way to retake the Tesseract and acquire new particles. Little stroll down memory lane. Military installation, Garden State."
Steve realized what he was talking about and my father nodded. I continued to search through my mind.
"When were they both there?" Steve asked.
My father turned to me.
"You've read through most of the documents in the Avenger's files, right? Including my father's old documents?"
I nodded.
"I used to read them when I was bored," I said.
"And you told me once that you would memorize them with your photographic memory and use the strategies in them again in real life."
I nodded.
"In my father's documents, there should have been some about Hank Pym, at the same time that there was an item of extreme importance. Can you remember any documents about that?"
I exhaled slowly and my eyes wandered the alleyway as I brought up images of the files, trying to remember what he talking about.
"Howard's files...Hank Pym...I-"
My father looked at me patiently, as did Steve. Lang seemed confused about the whole thing, his mouth was dropped open.
Lang began to pelt us with questions as to what we were talking about, but we ignored him.
I met his eyes again with a shocked expression as images began to snap into place.
"Yes. Yes, I remember. Camp Leigh, New Jersey. Hank Pym and the Tesseract were there."
"Perfect," my father said.
I nodded at Steve.
"Looks like we're improvising," Steve said.
Steve sidestepped us and walked over to Lang, handing him the scepter.
"Scott, get this back to the compound."
"Suit up," my dad said as we held up our hand GPS'
"Alright, Y/N, What's the date say on the document?" my father said.
I sighed and slowly nodded.
"What's in New Jersey?" Lang said.
"0-4," I said.
"0-4," they repeated.
"Um...0-7."
"0-7," they repeated again.
"1-9-7-0," I finished.
They both gave me looks asking me if I was sure.
I nodded and they input the data.
"Cap? Captain? Steve? Sorry. America. Rogers. Look, if you do this...and it doesn't work, you're not coming back."
My breath became shaky as he said this.
"Thanks for the pep talk, pissant," my father said.
They both looked over to me again with the same look.
I checked with my memory one last time before nodding.
"You guys trust me?" I said.
"I, for one, do," my father said. "That memory hasn't led me astray before. Let's not start now."
I looked to Steve, he nodded once.
"I do."
"Your guys' call," I said.
"Let's do this," my father said.
"Here we go," Steve said.
We all hit our GPS's and our Time Suits materialized around us with a beeping.
In a moment we shrunk down and the array of colors appeared before me briefly, before my vision went white and we appeared on the outskirts of a military base. My suit vanished and we surveyed our surroundings.
Smoak displayed the year in the corner of my vision.
1970.
I nodded slowly and scanned my surroundings. Camp Leigh. Where Steve was made into Cap.
We searched through several crates and small buildings and found some clothing to put on. Steve and I put on military fatigues and my father pulled on a suit and a long blue overcoat.
We began to walk down the sidewalk, headed towards the middle of the base.
I adjusted my green hat and pulled it lower over my face as Steve led us to where we were going.
"Clearly you weren't actually born here, right?" my father said.
"The idea of me was."
"Right. Well, imagine you're SHIELD...running a quasi-fascistic intelligence organization...where do you hide it?" my father said.
"In plain sight," Steve said, looking at two men who suspiciously entered a bunker.
I looked through the aviators I was wearing, and my contacts scanned the bunker Steve was looking at to reveal an elevator going down.
My dad did the same with his glasses, he gestured for us to follow him and we walked over to the bunker, sneaking inside.
We stood in the middle as the elevator went down. There was a short woman with tall dark hair leaning against the wall, reading a file.
I watched her as she looked at us suspiciously.
"Good luck on your mission, Captain...Cadet," my father said to Steve and I as he exited the elevator, leaving me and Cap alone.
"Good luck on your project, Doctor," Steve said.
I nodded in agreement.
I met my father's eyes once more before the doors slid shut.
"You two new here?" the woman asked us.
I looked up to Steve who had a troubled look on his face, I looked back to the woman.
I nodded, "Not entirely," I said.
She smiled a little and nodded, then returned to her file, but shot us glances every now and then.
Once the door opened we headed down the hallway and stepped into a room labeled telephone.
Steve picked up the phone and scanned the numbers, then dialed one.
I kept watch at the door, looking out the foggy glass.
"Doctor Pym?" Steve said.
I listened in on the phone call.
"That would be the number that you called, yes," he said.
I rolled my eyes at his rudeness.
"This is Captain Stevens from shipping," Steve said. "We have a package for you."
"Oh, bring it up."
"That's the thing, sir, we can't."
"I'm confused. I thought that was your job."
"Well, it's just, sir, the box is glowing...and, to be honest, some of our mail guys aren't feeling that great."
"They didn't open it, did they?"
"Uh, yeah, they did. You better get down here."
The phone abruptly hung up and I looked back out the window to see a yelling figure run past. I nodded at Steve and we stepped into the hallway.
We rushed down the hallway and stepped into his lab, scanning over all the experiments and gear.
Steve and I began to look around the room searching for the particles.
I walked to the back towards a glass case with a hazard sticker.
"Steve," I whispered.
He smiled a little as he saw them and I reached inside to grab them, handing them to him.
"Package secured," I said, smiling.
He chuckled and shoved me a little, then we walked back towards the exit.
When we stepped into the hallway we looked down it to see the woman from the elevator talking to two guards.
"And you've never seen them before?" one of them said.
"No. I've got an eye for this. The three of them looked fishy," she said.
"Can you describe them?" the guard said.
Steve and I looked down and started to walk in the opposite direction.
"One of them was way too young to be anywhere near this place, couldn't be more than a teenager, and well...one of them had a hippie beard."
"Hippie. Like Bees Gees or Mungo Jerry?"
"Definitely Mungo Jerry."
We ducked inside the closest door and waited for them to pass.
I pressed my back to the wall and sighed in relief.
We waited for a moment and were about to head back out, but I saw Steve walk over to the desk and scan the items. I watched him pick up a frame and stare at it.
"Steve, what are you doing?" I said. "We gotta roll. Now."
He turned back and looked at the name on the door. I followed his gaze and read the backwards letters.
Margaret Carter.
Peggy. His Peggy.
I watched as two people entered the office across from ours, having a heated discussion. One of them was Peggy. Steve stared at her with sad eyes, he walked closer to the window and stared at her, before she walked away.
I walked over and put a hand on his shoulder, watching him as he swallowed sadly.
"Come on, Steve," I said quietly, pulling him away.
He didn't budge for a moment, but then let me pull him back into the hallway and to the elevator.
We headed back to the surface and wandered over to side of the building, while we waited for my father.
"Are you okay?" I said, without taking my eyes off the bunker.
He sighed a little.
"I will be."
"I'm sorry."
He nodded slowly.
"It's not your fault," he said.
I saw the door open and my father as well as another man stepped out and began to walk towards the entrance to the base.
"Is that...?" I started.
"Howard Stark," Steve finished.
I gasped a little.
"My grandfather. He's...here."
Steve looked down at me.
"Are you okay?" he said back.
I chuckled a little and nodded.
My father gave Steve a thumbs up, then gave me a strange look. He waved me over and Howard looked back.
I widened my eyes.
Steve nudged me a little.
"Go," he said.
I gulped and handed him my hat and aviator glasses.
I nervously walked over to my father.
"There's someone I'd like you to meet," my father said to my grandfather.
"Oh, yeah? Who's this?" he said.
"Howard, this is my nephew...Charles," my dad said. "He's one of the reasons I'm out here on this project. I also wanted to visit him. He's a cadet here."
I reached out and shook his hand.
"N-nice to meet you," I said to my grandfather.
"Likewise," he said.
"Wow. You guys must have some strong genes, I can see a lot of you in him, Howard," my grandfather said to my father.
I smiled a little.
"Something like that," my dad said.
"Well," my grandfather said, turning back to me. "Thank you, son. For what you're doing for this country. I'm sure that one day you'll do some great things."
I smiled and blushed a little.
"Thank you," I said.
My dad pulled me into a quick hug, to my surprise.
"My nephew here was one of the reasons I was able to raise my daughter as well as I did, Howard... You better get back to it, Charles. I'll see you later. Love you, kid," he said.
I nodded and started to walk away.
"Love you too, da- Uncle Howard," I said, catching myself, then turning to my grandfather. "Nice meeting you."
"You too, kid," my grandfather said to me.
I slowly walked back over to Cap.
"Well?" he said.
"I never thought I'd meet him."
"And?"
"I-I don't know. It doesn't feel real."
Cap looked back over to them and my dad pointed to the briefcase.
I watched as my father hugged him, then began to walk back over to us.
"This might sound ironic, given the situation," my father said. "But I'm gonna tell you what he told me, Y/N."
I looked at him expectantly.
"No amount of money ever bought a second of time," he said. "Remember that."
I nodded.
"I will."
We all gathered back in the small alley and linked up our GPS' entering the coordinates and imputing the new Pym Particles. I shared one last look with my father before we pressed them and our Time Suits surrounded us. We shrunk down to quantum level and began to get thrusted through time, the colors of the molecules around me flashed by before my vision went blinding white once more.