Chapter 44: In a vent, Wow Clint should be proud (Peter)

Previously:

Peter ignored warnings to stay put, running off in the battlefield to answer a call for help. However, it was a trap, and he was too out of it to notice. Tony got his location and he, Hiccup, Toothless, Bucky and Wanda went in search for him in a large warehouse/office type building. They ran into the Thorston twins and barf and belch, then into Peter being attacked by evil Strange.

Refer to the previous chapter for Hiccup's recollection of the recent events

Now:

I wish I was conscious the whole time, because then at least I would know what is going on. But no, during the confrontation with the evil dark dr Strange I faded in and out.

Into the feeling of my throat being crushed from the inside, out to blissful unawares.

Into my body suspended against the wall so hard it hurts, out to fever dreams.

I glimpsed voices and people, at one point Mr Stark is there and I'm trying to warn him that this is the guy I tried to tell him about, but that moment passes quickly.

The next thing I know hands are grabbing at my arms and legs, I would be panicking if it weren't for the fact that my windpipes have noped out, because nobody likes people grabbing at them. The next time I fade back in the ground is beneath me and I'm gasping, spluttering, wrenching for breath on my knees. There's a comforting hand on my shoulder, a gauntlet one I recognise as Mr Stark.

"You alright kid?" Mr Stark asks.

"You have gone several minutes without oxygen," Karen informs me gently. "Your advanced healing factor has helped, but you need to understand that you're very weak now, Peter."

I massage my throat gently. "Yeah, I don't feel great." I say, responding to both Karen and Mr Stark at once, because I'm efficient like that.

"Your heart has had a lot of pressure, so be careful to avoid sudden strenuous activities." Karen continues. "Like running off and ignoring advice that would only benefit you."

"Is that—" I pause to cough, "—sass? You sassing me Karen?" I say with a grin.

"Most certainly, Peter." She responds warmly.

"He'll live. We need to get our of here," Mr Stark says, and I realise Hiccup and Toothless are in front of us. Commotion is happening behind them, and I can make out blurry figures fighting each other with magic, I think one is Wanda judging by the red.

"That way." Hiccup points somewhere, I think. I'm not sure; its all getting blurry again.

"Can you stand Spider-man?" Hiccup asks. Ehh, he's annoying at times but he just wants to help everybody and maybe impress MJ. Spider-man's a simp like that. Oh that's me, I'm spider-man. Huh.

"Nope." I say brightly. "I'm fairly certain if I try to do anything my body will give out, my guy. I feel like how Mr Stark must feel in his age."

"Is now the time? Really?" Mr Stark snaps. There's always time for a well-placed joke.

"It's not my fault you're old." I chuckle, but have to stop because of my throat.

"But it is your fault I'm getting grey hairs."

"Guys, guys," Hiccup interrupts me when I open my mouth to say something in response. "It's fine, let's focus. Toothless and I will cover you, get him up into the hole."

What hole? The devils anus? I think Thor told a story once. Something about a ship with no guns.

"What are you going to do?" I ask Hiccup, concerned, but my tongue doesn't move how I want it do and I end up saying something that loosely resembles a deflating balloon mixed with a sewer rats growl. Don't go near them, they fight dirty.

The ground falls from under me but turns out Mr Stark is just picking me up, so I manage to not panic.

Hiccup shows us something small and round, it looks sort of like a grenade, and says "Something crazy." He takes off his helmet and gives it to Mr Stark. "In case the flames reach you. It's fireproof." The next thing I know it's over my head. It's a little big for me, but it fits nonetheless. I guess it's gotta be big to fit all that hair of his.
But what about Hiccup? His head's not fireproof now!

My heart is beating loud and my stomach is in my chest, so I crack a joke to distract myself. "Smells like fish." Nobody laughs. Damn that hurts more than dying.

"Don't die or anything." Mr Stark says, not to me I think. The last thing I remember is the feeling of being in Mr Stark's arms as we fly up through a large hole in the ceiling.

When I come to, Mr Stark is half crawling, half crouching through the metal vents, half-dragging me along with him. "Ugh." I groan, blinking. Mr Stark glances down at me but doesn't stop moving.

"Welcome back, kid. Scared me for a second." He says casually. His finger taps the base of my neck almost comfortingly and I find myself enjoying the moment. Damn my stupid longing for a father.

"Hey, Mr. Stark?" I blurt before I can stop myself. I want to tell him.

"Yeah, kid?" He glances down at me and I panic. I chicken out, so I do the thing I do best.

"Uhh, I'm really sorry." I apologise. "I know what I did was stupid. You were just looking out for me but I ran off anyway, it was stupid."

"It was stupid." He agrees.

"It was reckless."

"It was reckless."

"And I should have listened to you."

"Yep, you should've listened."

"You're not making it very easy to apologise." I snap, frustrated. "I'm trying to say that I'm sorry for disappointing you, and that I understand if you're gonna take the suit away again because you were probably right the first time because even though I was just trying to help,"

"Kid." Mr Stark says but I continue anyway.

"just like on the ferry by the way, but I don't think that makes a difference because I nearly caused titanic 2.0, anyway what I did was reckless and irresponsible and now I've dragged you away from the battle which is obviously 100 times more important and honestly you can just drop me here if you want to get back out there, I'll make my own way out and maybe I won't intervene this time, maybe I'll—"

"Kid!"

I blink up at him.

"Stop talking, you'll talk yourself into a coma."

"Oh. Sorry."

"And stop doing that too," he scolds me but in the usual passive voice. "Apologies are for death beds and that's not happening."

"Sorry..." I whisper then realise. "Sorry! No, not sorry, sorry! Ugh! Oh no you've backed me into a corner, mr Stark. Sorry. Damn it!"

He has the kindness to flash me a smile, but it doesn't make me feel any better. "And for the record, I'm not just gonna leave you."

"Yeah, the place is going to blow!" A voice, shrill but rough (😎👉👉), laughs from somewhere in front of us.

"Unless you want a cool death, which I totally respect." Another voice, similar but more masculine, adds.

I give a confused squint up at Mr Stark. "Who's that?" I ask, "Who's speaking?"

"The first person who spoke is known as 'Ruffnut', her twin is 'Tuffnut' and they are from Hiccup's world, but from different timelines." Karen responds. At least my mask is still on. And so is Hiccup's helmet, matter of fact.

"I'm Tuffnut, the cool one." Tuffnut says, having not heard Karen's explanation.

"Oh yeah? Well I'm Ruffnut, the FUN one!" Ruffnut exclaims.

"That's the same thing! You can't say that!"

Well, I don't doubt they're siblings, that I can say.

The sound of punches and kicks landing ring out in the echoey tunnel.

"Quit holding up the line!" Bucky calls from directly in front of us. "You can fist fight when we're out!"

"But he totally—"

"Don't make me come up there you two!" Wanda snaps, cutting Ruffnut off, and it becomes awkwardly silent.

"Did you just... use a mum voice?!" I ask, failing to hold back a chuckle. Bad idea, everything hurts, so I make myself stop.

"Maybe I DO want kids." Wanda matters to herself, but thanks to my hearing I catch it.

"If you're our mum then can you at LEAST admit I'm the smart twin?" Tuffnut calls. "Or even that I'm the best officiate in the nine realms?"

"All of your instructors jumped off the cliff before your schooling was done! Remember?!" Ruffnut responds before anyone else can. I blink in surprise and slight fear.

"Not ALL of them!" Tuffnut denies and I let out a breath of relief. "I pushed at LEAST three." I take in another shocked breath. Oh so they're insane?

"Just shut up and keep moving, we're nearly there." Mr Stark snaps.

I think it scares the twins enough that they actually do, and the next thirty seconds is spent in silence. I'm still being carried, both figuratively and literally, so I kind of just chill in Mr Stark's arms because I don't think my body could hold itself up without giving me an aneurysm. Finally, light makes it's way into the tunnel and we cross through a window, emerging out into the city once again.

Mr Stark flies us to the ground and sets me down on some dirt. I make a vague comment about my suit getting dirty and he responds by telling me the blood covering the suit currently will be a lot more harder to get out, to which I say touché. Everyone else gathers around us, the twins flying down on a huge two headed green dragon, Wanda floating herself down, and Bucky just sliding down the side of the building using his metal arm to slow his descent.

I still feel like crap, my body sore all over and my throat on fire (probably not helped by the apology rant), but some of my mind fog has cleaned a little bit. I look around our little group.

"We made it out." Mr Stark speaks into his coms.

"Wait," I look around. "Where's Hiccup?" I don't see Toothless either. "Where's Toothless?"

The building we just crawled out of shakes as an explosion from somewhere inside it occurs, it makes me flinch and I desperately look around for Hiccup and Toothless. Surely they got out before us. I look to the twins. "Guys? Where are they?"

The twins avert my eyes and glance at each other, looking absolutely distraught and nothing short of heartbroken. No.

"No! No! We need to go back in!" I shout, trying to stand up. Mr Stark grasps at me, trying to stop me from moving. "We need to help them!"

"Don't bother."

My heart enters my throat and I spin around, defensive, because that's Strange's voice. Mr Stark steps half in front of me defensively and raises his arm, ready to blow him apart.

But then I see a red cape, and a friendly glint in the eye. It's our Strange. It's not the evil one. Oh thank god. Wait why did he say don't bother? Surely there's hope?!

My thoughts are answered when he waves his arms and a portal appears in the air, a black shape falling through it along with a giant wave of fire.

Toothless shakes his head, disoriented, but stands on his feet steadily. In his saddle Hiccup sits, shoulders heaving as he takes deep breaths.
"Hiccup?" Bucky calls.
Hiccup doesn't respond. His left arm drops what he was holding and it hits the ground with a thud, rolling across towards us until it rests at Bucky's feet. He bends down and picks it up, curious. It's Hiccup's fire sword. Or, what's left of it. Now all there is, is a charred chunk of wood with a small bit of metal poking out. I look back at Hiccup to see him still staring straight ahead at nothing, but a noise from Toothless that's probably a concerned one seems to snap him out of it, and he focuses on his surroundings.

"Mr Hiccup! I'm so glad you're okay." I exclaim happily. It takes a few seconds before he actually looks at me, and he gives a smile. There's something off about it. About his eyes. They don't look the same. They look... they look blank. Like every bit of hope has been snuffed out. I don't like it. I don't like it, I don't want to see it.

"You're looking better," he observes. I notice something orange on his head.

Tuffnut speaks up cheerfully before I can say anything, "You're on fire Hiccup."
"I don't want to talk about it." Hiccup responds. Voice even. Low.
"No. You're on fire." I chime in, pointing at his head. He notices a bit of his hair below his ear is on fire, so he reaches up with two gloved fingers and puts it out, not even the slightest bit concerned that he was on fire.

I reach up and take his helmet off, tossing it to him. He catches it one handed and slips it on his head immediately. I almost exhale in relief, his eyes now more concealed. It's harder to tell the difference now and I almost convince myself I made it up.

"What happened?" Wanda asks.

"Probably something I'll have nightmares about for the next five years." Hiccup responds simply, a small chuckle strewn throughout the sentence, but I'm not convinced it's real.

"He's gone?" I ask, hopeful. "Really?"
"He's never coming back, that's for sure." Hiccup responds, giving a firm nod.

"Good. I never want to see his face again." I exhale, then realise what I just said. I look up at Dr Strange. "Sorry! I didn't mean it like that, sir. I meant his face not your—"

He holds up a hand and I cut myself off. "I know, kid."

I look around the battlefield, spotting Captain America fighting a small cluster of robots. Everyone else is scattered around, there's only about a hundred robots and aliens combined remaining. It's almost over! They're not even focussed on finding me anymore, back to the random motions they were doing before; attacking anything that moves. Sometimes each other.

"Alright Clint, you take those aliens by the mall, I'll take the ones by the parking garage." Kate says in the coms.

"Then meet up on the ground with everyone else, looks like we're almost finished." Clint responds. I spot him perched on a street light. He gives me a salute. "Good to see you, spider-man."

"How can you see me looking at you from all the way up there?" I ask in disbelief, speaking into the coms with a finger.

He just chuckles at me through the coms and starts firing arrows. Everyone else returns to the battle, but Mr Starks stands in front of me with crossed arms, along with Wanda who stands nearby. Almost as if he expect me to run off again. Which is totally... fair. Let's be honest here.

Bucky runs off towards Steve, the twins get on their dragon and start running amuck, and Hiccup takes off on Toothless without so much as a glance at us. I don't know if it's just me, but the moves he pulls on the aliens and robots in the following seconds seem more sharp and brutal then before. Good for him, I guess.


And there we go! Hiccup survived, yay. The battle is almost over, it seems! Also in case you missed my last announcement, I went back and edited the previous chapter to demonstrate that Bucky also got out— as I accidentally forgot to describe that and ended up implying he burnt to death💀

Anyway, I'll see you next chapter with Hiccup! Or what's left of him.

Do with that what you will.

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