"Uh, Tony," Happy started in a quiet voice, "There was a problem with the jet..."

"A problem? What kind of problem?" Tony's tone was only mildly interested as he tinkered with his StarkPad. "How big are we talking about here; camera go out, bird fly into an engine, person saw it?"

"Well... A lot of people saw it..."

There was a pause as Tony processed what was said, his hands setting the pad down as he looked at the seats in front of him in his car. "What do you mean 'a lot of people saw it'?"

"Sir... the jet crashed..." Happy swallowed thickly as he took in the silence from his boss, a nervous sweat breaking out across his skin.

"I'm sorry, I don't think I heard you right." Tony's voice was clipped, something he did when he was annoyed. "The jet that I gave you control of, the invisible jet that I designed myself, that can fly on its own, crashed? Is that what you said?"

"It seems that someone was trying to hijack it. We have the guy in custody though and are transporting him to prison now, but-"

"How much of my stuff was damaged? God, this is going to be a disaster in the press... Do we know for sure that no one else was there to take anything? I'm coming in now, we need to do an inventory-"

"Tony!"

"What?"

Happy let out a sigh, "The kid is the one that stopped the hijacking."

There was another long pause as Tony sucked in a ragged breath, "What kid? Our kid -- Spider-kid?"

"Yeah... There's webs all around the guy and the boxes, and he left a note saying that this is the Vulture guy he was talking about. But, Tony... It doesn't look good here. There's a lot of blood all over the place and even though this guy was bleeding, it wasn't nearly as much as what we found on the ground."

"I'll be right there."

Tony hung up, telling his driver to pull over so he could get out and pull a case from the trunk of the car. His suit powered up and caged in around him in seconds, letting him blast off to where F.R.I.D.A.Y. told him was the site of the crash.

Tony was there within minutes, hovering over the beach and taking in the fire and wreckage before landing in front of Happy.

"Any sign of him?" Tony asked as he scanned the area, his heart beating faster than it should have been.

"Nothing yet," Happy, though worn and nervous, informed without missing a beat, "but I have groups of men going up and down the beach to look for him."

Tony nodded before taking to the sky again, backtracking in the direction of the city. "F.R.I.D.A.Y., switch to thermal. Look for traces of any enhanced humans in the area, as well as anyone that's wounded."

"Potential target located," The AI said nearly a second later. "He matches both points of interest and is the right height and build for Peter Parker."

"Good, where is he?"

"He's on top of the Cyclone roller coaster in the amusement park; he's not looking so good, boss..."

Tony turned his head, seeing the coaster from a distance and immediately flying towards it. Now that he knew where he was, Tony could faintly make out the form of the young enhanced boy at the very top.

"Hey, kid, didn't you hear the park's close because some idiot crashed a Stark Jet into the beach?" He tried to joke once he was close enough as he silently ran a damage analysis on the teen.

Peter's head lolled to the side, his split lip and bloodied face making Tony cringe in regret. He was already blaming himself for all of this.

"Mr. Stark...?"

"Yeah, kid, the one and only. Who else would be able to get into a suit and fly all the way up here with you?"

"War Machine," He shrugged with a slight smirk on his lips. Tony rolled his eyes from under his helmet and shook his head.

"Okay, just for that, I'm going back home-"

A series of pained coughs stopped Tony mid-tease, Peter gripping his side tightly with one hand and coughing into his elbow on the other arm. A violent shudder ran down his spine as he tilted on his seat, almost falling off of it if it wasn't for the gentle hand that Tony placed on his shoulder.

"F.R.I.D.A.Y., where's the report from that scan?"

"Would you like the full version or just immediate injuries listed?"

"Give me the short version of all of it."

"Peter has a concussion that seems to have come from repeated blows to the head if the gashes hidden by his hair suggests," The AI started, "four broken ribs, internal bleeding in the chest area, multiple tears in various muscles, a puncture wound in his right shoulder, external and internal burns, several broken bones, and numerous lacerations and bruises throughout his body."

"Christ!" Tony exclaimed, staggering in the air for a second as he stared at the kid in front of him that seemed to be out of it. "Kid, I need you to stay with me. I'm going to bring you to the medbay."

He went forward and gently started to wrap his arms around Peter, frowning as the boy pushed him away.

"N-no..."

"Kid, no time to fight me on this-"

"No! I don't want to!" He yelled, starting to stand up and making Tony's heart jump into his throat as he swayed on the narrow bar. "I don't want to go with you! It'll only get my hopes up! I'm tired of losing the important people in my life! I can heal on my own, I don't need you...!"

The heart that was lodged in Tony's throat was stabbed repeatedly at the kid's words. He knew exactly the role that he was playing in Peter's life, it was one of the reasons that he was trying to distance himself before. Tony wasn't a good role model for the kid, he wanted him to realize it and find someone better. But this damn kid couldn't seem to let go of him!

"Peter..." Tony dug deep into his mind to try and find the words to say, so that the kid would understand. None came to mind though and he was stuck on his own. "Peter, I realize that I might not have been... the best mentor that I could have been. That's completely on me, my bad, my fault, sorry. Let me try to make it all better now, okay? Let me help you."

Peter's face was blank as he listened to him, Tony was almost worried about not being able to get through to the kid and have to force him into a hospital. But then Peter's eyes rolled back just as his knees gave out, the teen's body falling onto the bar he was just standing on and plummeting to the tracks below.

Tony's eyes widened, lunging for his body before any more damage could come to it. He caught him just before he hit the rails, Peter effectively unconscious now and in no way able to argue about going to get medical help.

Tony adjusted his hold on the boy before flying off to the Avengers Compound upstate, hoping that the MedBay was fully operational by now.

~*~*~

When Peter woke up, he was in the most comfortable hospital bed he had ever experienced. Not that he experienced a lot of hospital beds. He wasn't constantly falling down the stairs in front of his aunt or miscalculating his webbing and crashing into the side of a building and breaking his arm while having to make up an excuse to his aunt about why he needed to go to the hospital for a cast. No, that's never happened before. He's not a reckless teen. He's a very safe and mature teen that's basically an adult.

"Mr. Parker, good to see you awake again." A kind voice said from the door. When he looked over, he saw a very pretty woman with a matching smile walk in.

"It's good to be awake, I guess? Thank you for seeing me awake though," He started to return her smile before a dark blush spread across his cheeks. "Wait, that sounded kinda wrong... I didn't mean that in any way. I just meant that- You said- I was just... Um, where am I?"

The doctor chuckled a bit at him but (much to Peter's relief) let his little ramble go, looking down at a clipboard in her hand. "You're in the medical wing at the Avengers Compound, Mr. Stark brought you in a few hours ago and we were able to treat your injuries -- most of which are almost healed already."

Peter let out a small sigh of relief, this meant he wouldn't have a lot of explaining to do to May when he got home- "Wait, you said hours?" Peter's eyes widened as he looked at the doc, "How many hours? Two? Three?"

"Five."

Peter felt the color drain from his face. Five hours? How was he supposed to explain where he was four hours after Homecoming ended? Aunt May was going to kill him... Oh man, she was going to kill him so bad.

The doctor offered a sympathetic smile as she set the clipboard down. "I can get one of the drivers to bring you home? Mr. Hogan is still at the beach overlooking the clean up of the jet, and Mr. Stark fell asleep in his lab again under the orders that I tell him when you wake up-"

"You don't have to wake him up just for me," Peter shook his head. He couldn't imagine facing Mr. Stark after what he said on top of the Cyclone... "I'd appreciate another driver though. I don't think I could walk all the way back to Queens -- not that I couldn't if I needed to, but it's just really tiring and-"

"Mr. Smith will be happy to take you back to Queens, Mr. Parker," She smiled at him, her voice light and amused as he sighed in relief.

He had another hour to think of an excuse that didn't involve something scandalous, and at least another day to avoid Mr. Stark and Happy.