Ned tried to explain himself without giving anything away and was escorted out of the building, and he was sure Liz knew about it. She was probably even more hurt and confused when she found out, but there was nothing he could do.

Outside, he tried calling Happy again on his phone, now knowing the number, and, surprisingly, the man angrily answered.

"What?"

"Sir, this is serious. The Vulture-"

"Ned?" Happy says. "Again? I don't have time for this."

And then he hangs up. Again.

~~~~

Peter comes to a few moments later, knowing he should be dead when he finally figures out what happened. Then, he tries to get up, tries to chase after the Vulture, to stop him.

But he can't. There's too much weight on top of him.

Still, he tries, his panic building with every second that he can't get up. He's being crushed, and his chest constricts, his breath coming out ragged. He pulls off his mask to try to breathe better, but it hardly helps.

"Hello?!" he screams, tears pouring down his cheeks. "Hello?! Please. Please. I'm down here! I'm down here. I'm stuck... I'm stuck! I can't move. I can't..." But there's no answer.

He's going to die here.

May is going to be alone, and she'll know his secret but not because Peter told her — because they found him this suit. She'll know that he's been lying to her. She'll wonder why. She'll be hurt.

Ned is going to try to contact him, then try to find him when he never answers, and then get hurt or just feel hurt, maybe even guilty, and he'll be mostly alone too, save MJ. Liz, if she even forgives him — and Peter's certain that she's mad — will be there for the rest of the year. But it will hurt, and Peter knows what that type of hurt feels like.

Mr. Stark is going to blame himself, even when he's done all he can do. Even when it won't be remotely his fault, he will blame himself, and he will carry it with him for the rest of his life.

And Grace... Grace's worst fear will come true. And she will have no one — no one her age, no one close. No one to be there for her and hold her when Mr. Stark or Miss Potts can't or when they just don't understand. He did the very thing she made him promise not to do again, and now, this time, he's going to die.

Unless he does something about it.

He can't do that to the people he loves. He can't die here, not before he's even graduated high school, not before he gets his driver's license, not before he's said the words, "I love you," to the girl he thinks he could love for the rest of his life — and that will be a long, long time.

He steels himself, he breathes deeply. And he pushes. "Come on, Peter. Come on, Peter. Come on, Spider-Man. Come on, Spider-Man. Come on, Spider-Man!" He grunts and shouts, rising from the wreckage, getting his hands under it, pushing up.

And then he's free, and he's bleeding and coughing and tired but he is free. He takes deep breaths, then goes back and grabs his mask, swinging away.

////

Ned isn't exactly sure what he thought Grace would sound like, but it certainly isn't what he hears over the phone. Then again, it is her voicemail, so it could've been a few years ago.

It makes sense that she doesn't answer, considering it would appear to be a random number. So, Ned — now back at home after calling his mom and making up a fight that he and Liz had as an excuse — leaves a voicemail.

"Hey, Grace, it's Ned, Peter's friend. Look, Peter wanted to be the one to tell you this, but he's going after the Vulture — who's Liz's dad, by the way — and the Vulture is going after the plane that just took off from... your house? Whoa, I just realize that you actually live in Avengers Tower — that's so cool! Anyway, I tried taking to Happy, but he hung up. You can ask him. Oh, and, uh, to prove that it's really me, I know that you and Peter talk about books at lot, and, um, you were kinda mad at him for not reading The Fault in Our Stars before watching the movie. So... yeah. Call me back."

A minute or so later, during which Ned's been tracking Peter's phone to make sure it doesn't move, Ned's own phone rings, and he answers it. "Hello?"

"Peter's what?" she says immediately, and Ned's theory is confirmed — that was an old voicemail.

"He's after the Vulture, and the Vulture is after the plane with all your stuff on it," Ned replies.

"That's Dad's tech. There's-There's prototypes and-and-" she cuts herself off, then says, "Who knows what he could do with all that stuff. And Peter's running after him like an idiot. He's gonna get himself killed..."

"I mean, I wouldn't call him an idiot," Ned says. "I'd say he's pretty heroic."

"I don't- whatever. My dad isn't here. I-"

"He's not here?!" Ned exclaims, panicked.

"He took my mom on a spontaneous trip this morning; they're kind of patching their relationship up right now!"

"Well, that's kind of a problem!"

"It wasn't before!"

"You gotta tell somebody!"

"I am well aware!" Grace takes a deep breath, thinking. "I'm telling Happy. I'm going right now."

"Copy that."

"Call me if anything happens."

"If I hear of anything, I'll let you know." He declines to mention that he's not in contact with Peter at the moment, and she hangs up, quickly adding Ned as a contact as she does so.

"Happy! Happy!"

////

Peter heads for the tower, quickly spotting the Vulture near it, perched on a billboard. Peter swings up as the Vulture flies away, still unaware.

But Peter shoots a web at him and hangs on as he's carried through the air. The Vulture is speaking, but it's muffled by his mask and the wind. As they approach the plane, Peter tries not to look down.

The Vulture flies under the plane when they reach it, latching on with some of sort of device. Peter is slapped against the plane until he can stick to it by his hands and feet. He breaks the web holding him to the Vulture, who's wings fold up around him and hide him from view completely.

Peter attempts to fire a web at them, trying to get closer, but the web falls back towards him, pushed by the raging winds. His grip slips then, and he attempts to web himself to the plane, but that slips too. Luckily, he grabs back onto the plane before he falls away from it completely.

He's forced to crawl towards the attached wings, which he begins to pull on, though they don't budge. Then, suddenly, a drone pops out of them and flies ahead of the plane. Peter has to disregard it and starts pulling again, desperation beginning to set in.

He changes tactics, shifting to kick at it, his hands still up against the plane. After a few kicks, the wings thankfully come free. Soon, debris starts flying out through the purple hole that was under them — like the one on the truck in D.C. — and the wings fall fully away. Peter watches as the plane leaves them behind and crawls up to the plane's door, attempting to get inside it.

And then the Vulture's wings fly back towards him, and he ducks as they slice a line through the whole plane. Quickly, he shoots a web at them, then at the plane, as he's being pulled off by the wings — which, Peter then realizes, the Vulture is wearing — up until the webs won't give anymore.

The Vulture pulls though, and the web on the place detaches, and Peter is yet again carried off, this time towards the plane's engines. He screams, shooting webs at the blades that could cut him to pieces, then hanging onto them when they stop. The Vulture gets caught on the one next to him, the blades hitting one of his wings before the thing explodes and the Vulture is shot away.

Peter marvels at the fact that he's alive. "I can't believe that worked."

And then the engine explodes in the back, and it would've fallen away had Peter's webs not attached it to the wing. Peter reaches out and grabs said wing, kicking the engine away, seeing as he's stuck to it. Eventually, he gets free, and it goes falling to the earth.

He crawls up onto the roof from the wing, then looking back and seeing that the Vulture is flying back toward him. He flies over him, and Peter rolls, the plane now damaged where he was when the Vulture passed. Peter slides back, and the Vulture turns around, coming towards him, his feet planted on the plane, making craters in it.

His wings stab downward repeatedly, and Peter is pushed further and further back, closer to the engine on top. Eventually, he's flung over the engine and saves himself by shooting a web at the back end of the plane and hanging on for dear life.

The plane dips, beginning to fall as the Vulture seems to be attacking it, trying to get back inside. Peter sees the city getting closer and closer to them.

"Oh, my gosh, oh, my gosh, oh, my gosh- okay. This is fine. This is fine," he says, turning and shooting a web at the right wing of the plane, then getting to his feet and pulling as hard as he can, turning it from the skyscrapers — from the people — they are now right next to. "Please turn! Please turn!"

It does, narrowly missing the buildings, but then Peter's web snaps and he's flung backwards, forced to grab onto the wing as he watches their descent towards Coney Island.

////

"Happy! We have a huge problem!" A voice frantically calls, and it's just background noise in Happy's ears.

Grace, panicked, runs into the room, but all Happy can see is the plane, a little more than a spec, out of the wall of windows. It just crashed onto the beach near Coney Island, and it's on fire — that much is very evident.

"Oh, my gosh," Grace says, running to the window. There's a line of fire down the beach, leading to a large object absolutely aflame. "Is that... Is that the plane?"

Happy nods numbly. "Uh huh."

Grace's heart clenches. "Peter — the Vulture. Please tell me he hasn't caught up to him yet." But Happy can tell her nothing. Grace looks at him, then back at the plane, making a decision that seems only obvious. "I'm going. He needs help."

Finally, Happy turns to her, startled. "Grace, no-"

"What am I supposed to do?" she asks. "Sit here and hope he doesn't die? He could already be dead if he was on that plane!"

"I'm calling your dad."

"He's too far away right now to do much of anything, especially seeing as he didn't take a suit or any tech with him." It was for her Mom's sake.

Happy sighs deeply. "If you get hurt-"

"Then that's on me," she finishes. She leans forward and hugs him tightly for a moment, then turns and runs to the nearest balcony, quickly pressing the button on her bracelet.

Once inside Savior, she says, "Hey, Sai. Peter's in trouble."

"Then let's get him out," Sai replies, and Grace shoots off the balcony, heading straight for the plane.

////

Peter lost his grip on the plane as it pushed through the sand, and it took who knows how long for his ears to stop ringing. He's bleeding — again or still, he doesn't know. His limbs feel like lead.

He yanks off his mask and gets to his feet shakily, then is immediately knocked down again by the Vulture flying at him at top speed. He flips over at least twice, landing on his back. He staggers to his feet, watching as the Vulture turns, his wings going haywire.

"Hey, Pedro," he says. He flies at Peter, who ducks and rolls, but the Vulture just comes back around. Peter shoots a web at him, but misses, and the Vulture lands, planting a foot on Peter's chest, the mechanical claws digging in and causing him to cry out.

The Vulture punches him in the face repeatedly, and then lifts him in the air, dropping him, then catching him at the last second, tossing him around like a rag doll before finally letting him hit the ground.

He picks Peter up again, slams him back into the ground, then turns him over and suspends him by his hood with a wing. Finally, he drops him and moves away, toward the surviving cargo that was on the plane. Peter's halfway to unconscious, the fight drained out of him.

Then, someone shouts his name. "Peter! Peter!" He feels a hand on his back — a heavy one, almost inhuman. But the voice is very human. Familiar. "Peter!"

He tries look up, to turn over, but he can't, and soon an Iron Man suit is in his vision, this one purple and gold. The helmet opens, and Peter starts crying just at the sight of her. "Grace," he chokes out.

She's crying too, at the state he's in. "Peter... what happened to you?"

"It's a long story," he says, struggling to sit up. She helps him, her helmet coming back on.

"Scan him," she says to Sai, who does as she asked.

"A fractured rib," Sai says. "Major bruising. Fatigue. He's been through the wringer. But it almost seems as if he's already starting to heal..."

Grace is about to say something to Peter when he looks past her, and she follows his gaze.

A man wearing mechanical wings — the Vulture — is attempting to carry off a large crate, but his suit is sparking, blue light flying everywhere. It's on its last legs.

"Your wing suit," Peter says to the Vulture. "Your wing suit's gonna explode!" He struggles but lifts his hand, shooting a web at the crate, getting to his feet as he pulls it backwards. Grace hurriedly flies up to the Vulture, pulling at his legs, using her thrusters to help her.

"You seriously brought a friend?!" the Vulture shouts, trying to reach down and grab Grace.

"We're trying to save you!" Grace shouts, Peter only screaming as he pulls, his muscles far too strained.

The Vulture severs the web with his wing, his other going down to hit Grace as he flies away. She can't pull him all the way down, especially not with the sparks flying and the wing attack. Sai, knowing the danger, lets go for her, forcing her back to the ground. Peter still tries to web him down, but his web shooter locks up.

Then, Sai tensely says, "Grace, they're going to explode."

"What?" Grace asks, panic seizing her.

"The wings — they're going to explode!"

Grace quickly turns and runs for Peter, landing on top of him to shield him from the blast. Once she's sure it's over, she gets up and looks back.

They see only an inferno where the wings should've fallen. Peter is the first to staggeringly run for it, Grace behind him, shouting at him to stop. She flies in ahead of him, Savior providing decent cover from the burning flames. He follows her despite her protests, quickly crossing through the wall of fire to reach the wings on the other side. They're in a heap, the man buried under them.

Grace gets her protected hands under them and starts to lift, while Peter stupidly helps her and burns his hands. They throw the wings off, and Peter grabs the man, pulling him up. Grace helps him carry the man to safety, and he coughs, which is a good sign. He's breathing.

Peter falls to the ground next to the man, spent. Grace crouches beside him, her helmet coming down again. Peter looks up at her. "D-Don't do that. You don't need to inhale all this smoke."

"Neither do you," she replies, pushing his hair back from his forehead. "We need to get you out of here. You need medical attention."

Peter groans. "Boy, do I know it."

So, she helps him up, and they walk around the beach, putting all the surviving crates and tech in one place, then help the man sit up against one of the crates. Peter webs it all together to ensure that none of it gets away. And, though Grace said it wasn't necessary, he finds a piece of paper and a pencil in his suit and writes, 'FOUND: FLYING VULTURE GUY. SPIDER-MAN. P.S. SORRY ABOUT YOUR PLANE." He was going to put, "SAVIOR," on it too, but Grace told him not to.

Then, he insists on waiting for the authorities to find the Vulture, just to be safe, so they go to the top of the Cyclone — which, luckily, isn't currently in use — and wait. Neither of them should be seen by the public, especially not Grace.

She has Sai send Happy a message that they're fine and tells him what to expect, but then she keeps her helmet down and just sits with Peter, relieved that everything is okay now.

It's silent for a while, both of them looking at the scene on the beach and just breathing, but then Peter asks, "Are you mad at me?"

Grace quietly replies, "No."

"Oh," Peter says. "Well, that's a relief."

"You told me you couldn't stand by if you could do something about it. I get it. And, even though I wasn't sure that you would — which I'm sorry for, by the way — you came out in one piece. I just wish you would've told me sooner."

"Apology accepted," Peter replies, "even though you're part of the reason I did come out in one piece." Then, he sighs. "And I didn't want you to freak out. I hate it when you worry, especially about me."

Grace laughs a little, turning toward him. "But that's the thing, Peter: I'm always gonna worry about you. No matter what. So you might as well tell me things so I know exactly what I'm worrying about."

"Yeah, that makes sense."

She laughs again. "Yeah, I know."

It goes quiet again, Peter just looking at her. The authorities are on the beach; there's no need to keep watch any longer. But she still is. Her face is dusted with black soot, almost like dark freckles, her hair once tied back but now failing down, her bangs half plastered to her forehead and half up in the air every which way. And those same shining blue eyes, the ones he'd fight a hundred bad guys for, the ones he, for a moment, thought he'd never see again. But he's here, and she's real — so, so real — and he almost never got to say exactly how he feels about her.

"Hey, Grace?" he says.

"Hmm?" She's still looking out at the beach.

He takes a shaky breath. "I... I love you."

She turns back around to look at him, surprised. He's looking at her hopefully, his face beaten and bloody and bruised. But underneath all that — with all that — he's Peter. Her Peter.

She smiles. "I love you, too."