Doomed

Chapter Fifteen

The Quinjet banked in the New York airspace, but Peter's equilibrium remained unaffected. He leaned against the turn, holding onto Carol's hand, just as he had been for the past four hours. She'd fallen asleep during his conversation with Tony, and Peter had been sitting next to her in silence since then, listening to the clicking of the oxygen tank as she breathed.

"We're here," Steve called.

Peter rose from his vigil and pulled his mask on, leaping out of the Quinjet as the door opened in the side of the plane. He sailed down into the concrete canyon, smiling despite himself. He was home.

The wind licked his cheek as he fell, and tousled the hair sticking out of the remnants of his mask. He fired a web out of his right shooter, careful not to use his left in case his arm couldn't take the weight, and swung down to the street, landing on the roof of Horizon Labs.

He crawled back through the same ductwork he'd used to escape after Doom's attack, landing in his lab. The rubble had been cleared away, and thankfully the sealed room that contained all of his different Spider-Man suits had gone undamaged. He pulled the formula out of the small pocket on the inside of his suit and started searching the room, trying to find the components he'd used previously to create the Vita Ray isotopes. He'd thought about using the isotopes he'd already made, but after a few quick calculations realized that the half-life of the artificial radioactive material was incredibly short, rendering what he'd already made useless.

Peter gathered what he could salvage into a web sack and slung it onto his back. He didn't have everything he needed, but he was sure that Tony would have the rest. The bag gave him some difficulty with climbing back through the ducts, but he managed to make it back to the roof with everything intact. He swung into the sky, the sack tied around his waist and shoulders, and bounced off one of the buildings, flipping into the Quinjet.

"You got everything?" Steve asked.

"Everything that survived," Peter replied, pulling off his mask. "Let's get to the tower."

The plane screamed over the skyline, hinging another turn toward Avengers Tower. The approach lights blinked as the side of the skyscraper opened, allowing the Quinjet access.

As the vertical engines began to lower the plane, Peter unhooked Carol from the I.V. and removed the oxygen mask, then lifted her into his arms. Steve lowered the ramp, but it moved too slowly for Peter, and he walked down the incline, maintaining his balance until he reached the floor, where Tony and Jessica were waiting.

Tony reached his armored arms forward. "You look like hell, Pete, let me…"

"Don't," Peter said, walking past them. "Did you find the chamber?"

"I did, yeah," Tony said, falling into step behind Peter. "I didn't have time to hook it into the city grid, like Dad did, but I did manage to rig something into the arc reactor in the basement." He stopped for a moment, holding out his arms and turning to the room in both directions.

Jessica knocked on his helmet. "Hey, Tin Man," she said, "You can fish for compliments after Peter saves my best friend, okay?"

"Who's fishing?" Tony asked. "I'm expecting."

"We have work to do first, Tony," Steve said, hobbling his way out of the plane.

"Holy crap, you look like crap," Tony said. "Jess, help Steve down to medical. I'll go with Peter and get everything set up downstairs."

Jessica wrapped her arms around Steve and started walking with him toward the door. "Ok, I'll meet you down there once I get Cap situated," she said.