Https://archiveofourown.org/works/43251883

https://archiveofourown.org/works/43251883

Poison

What will happen when Peter is poisoned with tetrodotoxin? 

TW: Poison, attempted murder, language, paralysis

Disclaimer: I do not own anything.

@badthingshappenbingo

Tony greeted Peter warmly as he and Pepper picked the kid up after school. They had made plans to try out a new restaurant that was started by a close friend of Pepper’s as that night would be opening night, and Peter was excited.

“Hey, Mr. Stark, Ms. Potts. I’ve already texted May that you’ve picked me up. I can’t thank you enough for inviting me to try out the new restaurant on opening night.” Peter said as the two adults smiled.

Pepper said “It’s no problem, Peter. Tony and I just got out of a meeting, and we have a few hours before the grand opening and people are allowed to be seated. It’s a rather formal event so we’ll have to dress up a bit. You still have a dress suit in the guest suite right?”

Peter nodded and confirmed that he still had the dress suit.

They got to the tower and Peter flocked to the guest room which was pretty much his own room with how often he’d been staying there ever since Tony had bought the tower back after the Vulture fiasco.

Peter absolutely dreaded having to wear the suit, but otherwise, he had been very grateful to have been invited to join Pepper and Tony. It would only be a few more hours until they’d leave for the new restaurant.

Peter worked on some of his homework for a little bit before getting dressed. Eventually, the time to leave had arrived.

It didn’t take them very long to get to their destination. Peter was slightly surprised as it seemed that there was quite a bit of press covering the opening. He knew that it was going to be a busy event, but he hadn’t really expected it to be that busy.

The three left the vehicle and entered the building after briefly waving to the cameras. Peter was used to having to deal with the cameras due to the public announcement of the internship a few months ago. He just wished that he had remembered to bring his sunglasses.

He wasn’t really surprised when his spider sense tingled. It tended to do that when his senses were overloading, and he could tell that it was most definitely going to be a sensory overload night. They were eventually escorted to a table in a dimmer area of the restaurant.

Tony had noticed his slight discomfort and questioned “You okay, kid? Do we need to leave?”

Peter smiled briefly and said “I’m alright. The flashes just got to me again, so my senses are a little bit off. I’ll be okay.”

Pepper and Tony both frowned as Pepper questioned “Are you sure? If you’re not feeling good, we can leave through the back where the press doesn’t have access to.”

Peter smiled and said “I’m fine. I just forgot to bring my glasses.”

Tony and Pepper nodded in understanding and reassured him that he should tell them if his sensory issues get worse.

Once most of the guests were seated, the host of the grand opening, Pepper’s friend, gave their speech of thanks and hoped that everyone would enjoy their meals as the night went on. Soon, their orders were taken.

Peter was impressed as it only took about fifteen minutes for their orders to arrive at the table. He sipped his drink as another wave of irritation hit him as his spider sense spiked while their waiter grinned at them.

Peter just took a calming breath and started eating. He hoped that his senses would calm down soon. It had been a while since his senses had been overloaded by camera flashes like that. He had thought that being inside would have dissipated the sensory overload feeling, but it really hadn’t helped.

Over time as he ate, he started feeling more and more queasy. By the time he had gotten half way through his food assortment after about twenty minutes, he was feeling awful, and his spider senses were screaming. He had a feeling that something more than just a regular sensory overload was going on.

A wave of intense nausea hit him and he gripped his stomach as he did his best not to get sick at the table. He really regretted ordering the sushi assortment. He really should have heeded May’s suspicion that sushi wasn’t safe unless it was made with fully cooked meat, but he had wanted to try something new. He was regretting that decision.

He was also startled as it became harder for him to breathe. He was confused as the feeling continued to worsen. At this point, he was doing his best to stay upright in his chair. He could hear Tony and Pepper both asking him what was wrong, but his senses were screaming at him. He could barely focus on what they were asking as he fell out of his chair.

The feeling was becoming worse. His spider sense was screaming as he could no longer breathe, and he soon lost consciousness, unaware of the terror running through Tony and Pepper’s minds.

~~~~~~

Tony and Pepper were terrified as they called Peter’s name when they noticed that he wasn’t looking too good and no longer responded to their questions.

Pepper noticed that Peter’s breathing was off and said “Tony, his breathing’s off. Is this an allergic reaction?”

Peter then collapsed off of his chair and the two knelt beside him as Tony quickly pushed some buttons on his watch to signal a distress call. They could hear people from tables around them expressing their concern and surprise, but they weren’t worried about that.

Pepper was terrified as she noticed that Peter was no longer breathing, and less than a minute later he started seizing. It most definitely was not just because of an unexpected allergic reaction.

Tony cursed as they stayed beside Peter. Neither of them were sure what to do or how to help the kid. They were both dreading the fact that they had stayed even after the kid had said that his senses were going off. They should have known that it wasn’t just going off because of the sensory issues with the camera flashes.

Pepper kept a hand on the kid’s shoulder while she listened to Tony trying to get some information from F.R.I.D.A.Y. on how to help with the situation. She checked Peter’s pulse. It was still present, and it was rapid. The kid just couldn’t breathe, and she had no idea how to help. She had no idea if rescue breaths would help at all.

She watched as Tony checked Peter’s airway for obstruction, but there was nothing. The kid’s lungs had just seemingly stopped working. They’d been paralyzed.

It felt as if it had taken hours for medical help to arrive. Tony and Pepper reluctantly stayed back as the emergency team tried to help Peter. They were both worried as they heard the word poison being discussed.

Pepper had opted to stay behind as Tony decided to go with Peter to whatever hospital was nearest. The police were already present and they were collecting possible evidence of poisoning.

Everything was a complete mess, but all Pepper could worry about was whether or not Peter would be alive by the time she would get to the hospital after notifying everyone.

~~~~~~

Dan Tong smiled as he watched the commotion. He and his partner Rick had been ecstatic when they found out that Stark and friends would be coming for dinner. They were part of a much larger group who wished nothing other than to bring the wealthiest people in America to their knees. Dan was ecstatic when he first heard that he was assigned to find a way to eliminate Tony Stark or someone close to him and another wealthy man who was a secondary target to take out later in the month.

Now had been the perfect time to execute their first strike, and it was just glorious that one of them at the table had ordered the sushi platter that included pufferfish products. It had been the perfect opportunity since Rick was licensed to handle pufferfish among many other deadly chemicals.

They would have preferred that it had been Stark himself to get the improperly prepared pufferfish products, and it was kind of a bummer that they’d likely killed a kid, but at least Stark was going to feel the pain of losing someone. He was one of their many targets, and with luck, they'd soon be able to strike the other person that they'd been observing for the past month.

Dan watched with a small smile as Potts remained standing, almost unsure of how to proceed. He soon turned back and went into the kitchen to grab something for another guest and hopefully keep his cover.

~~~~~~

Tony directed the ambulance to take them to the tower. He had the authorization to order them to go there. He knew that his medical bay would be Peter’s best chance at survival. He was incredibly worried. He was riding in the front of the ambulance, but he could still hear the people in the back scrambling to try and stabilize his kid.

It took longer than he would have liked to get to the tower. He knew that the emergency medical crew would be waiting. He had pressed his emergency alarm while still at the restaurant, and whenever that happened, his medical team went on high alert.

He stood to the side as Peter was eventually rolled into the MedBay and orders were being relayed by the doctors. He watched with worry as multiple blood samples were taken. It was times like this when he was glad that he had the best doctors in the world and iron clad NDAs.

Soon, Peter was rolled out of his sight, and he reluctantly had to stay away. He ordered F.R.I.D.A.Y. to give him updates as frequently as possible on the kid’s condition. He felt as if he’d aged twenty years already as he collapsed into one of the waiting room chairs.

~~~~~~

Helen Cho analyzed the blood sample that she had been given. She was not pleased with the results. The kid had been poisoned with pufferfish tetrodotoxin. There was no known cure in existence. She was unsure of how to proceed since the toxin was already in the kid’s system.

She consulted other doctors, and they agreed that the kid’s stomach should be pumped since the toxin seemingly came from the ingestion of pufferfish. They had already started an IV to combat the hypotension and administer something to try and get the poison out of the kid’s system faster.

She and the other doctors were highly worried as nothing seemed to be helping the kid. They just couldn’t stabilize him, and the kid’s healing factor didn’t seem to be helping the situation at all. If anything, it seemed to be making the symptoms worse.

Helen bit her lip as an outrageously odd idea came to her. She quickly approached Tony, and hoped that he at least knew what was going on.

Tony looked up at her as she entered, and she did not wait to speak.

“Dr. Stark, I’m sure you already know, but nothing that we’re trying is helping his situation. I wanted to come to you before discussing a possible solution that may give us time to find something to help him. As you know, the poison in Peter’s system right now is a type of tetrodotoxin. I started thinking about possible connections between this tetrodotoxin and Dr. Banner’s derivative called Tetrodotoxin B. Bruce changed some of the tetrodotoxin’s chemical composition, and I was thinking that we could inoculate Peter with a larger dose of Tetrodotoxin B to put him in stasis and give us more time to save him. It will appear as if he’s dead, but he’ll simply be in a stasis-like state. I need yours and S.H.I.E.L.D.’s approval to get access to the drug.” Helen detailed as Tony stared at her in stunned silence.

F.R.I.D.A.Y. was the one to answer “I have already sent the request to Director Fury, Dr. Cho. You should hear from Director Fury soon.”

Tony wasn’t sure what to say. He pulled his phone out and started dialing Director Fury. He hoped that Fury would answer even though he was notorious for ghosting the man. Tony stood up and started pacing as the phone rang. Helen waited with him, as there wasn’t much that she could do until she received authorization to access Tetrodotoxin B.

An answer finally came, but before Tony could say anything, Fury spoke “Agent Hill will arrive in your MedBay with a parcel containing Tetrodotoxin B, Stark. I’ve already assigned agents to the case, and we’ve already apprehended those who poisoned the kid. We’ll debrief later. Keep me updated on the kid’s condition. We can’t lose that kid, Stark. He’s a major asset.”

Tony furrowed his brow as he replied “Thank you for the help, Fury, but why are you so interested in my kid, and why did you already know what was going on before the request for the drugs was sent?”

Fury huffed as he replied “We got intel that someone part of a larger criminal group that S.H.I.E.L.D. has been monitoring was going to make an attempt on your life tonight. We didn’t catch the perpetrators until it was too late, and the kid ended up getting poisoned. Oh, and you know why he’s on our radar, Stark. Just keep me updated on the little spider’s condition.”

Fury then hung up. Tony was concerned that S.H.I.E.L.D. was watching Peter and that they knew who he was, but that would be something to worry about for another time. For now, he just had to worry about whether or not his kid would survive through the night.

He then cursed as he realized that he hadn’t called May. He excused himself from the waiting room and dialed May’s number.

He grimaced as she answered with a worried tone on the first ring.

“How bad is it, and what exactly happened? I was on my break when I saw footage of Peter being rolled out of the restaurant.” May worriedly questioned.

Tony took in a deep breath to calm himself as he answered “It’s not good, May. He was poisoned with tetrodotoxin, but the doctors are doing their best to help him. He’s not getting better yet, but Dr. Cho’s found a temporary solution to give the team time to find a cure.”

He could hear May sniffle on the other side of the line.

May responded “I’ll be at the tower soon. My boss just saw the footage. I think that he’s waving at me to let me leave. I’m going to clock out now. I’ll be there in a bit.”

She hung up and Tony took another deep breath. He absolutely hated that their kid was so close to death, and he could only hope that Cho’s team would find a cure before the poison could kill the kid.

~~~~~~

By the time May had arrived, Hill had dropped off the package. Cho had not wasted time when injecting the drug into Peter’s system. She knew that they’d have to watch closely to ensure that the kid was still breathing. They had intubated the kid when he’d first arrived, but with the Tetrodotoxin B, so many things could go wrong.

Tony was allowed in the room while the team monitored Peter’s vitals closely as the Tetrodotoxin B took effect. He was able to hold Peter’s hand. The kid’s heartbeat was already irregular because of the posion, but soon, his heartbeat became nearly undetectable.

Tony was soon ushered back out of the room. Cho and the team could tell that Tony was becoming more and more worried as Peter’s vital signs declined. He was aware of what Tetrodotoxin B does to people, but it was still distressing to hear and see the signs that your kid appeared dead.

May hadn’t been in the room at that point. Tony had only been allowed because he’d followed Cho, and she hadn’t stopped him. Now, Tony and May sat in the waiting room, eager for updates on their kid’s condition.

~~~~~~

Helen Cho took another blood sample twenty minutes after the initial Tetrodotoxin B injection. The good news was that it was slowing down the deadly spread of the toxin in Peter’s system. She quickly took her blood sample back to the lab for analysis, and was thrilled with what she found.

It appeared as if the Tetrodotoxin B was binding with the tetrodotoxin that had been ingested. The only problem was that the quantity of poison in Peter’s system was in excess of what the Tetrodotoxin B could bind with. She’d either need to acquire more Tetrodotoxin B or find another way to get the poison out.

She hoped that they could find an alternate cure as opposed to using more of the Tetrodotoxin B. The more Tetrodotoxin B a person is injected with, the more chance it has to have deadly side effects. If too much Tetrodotoxin B is used, it could stop Peter’s heart before the poison could kill him.

Cho and her team would have to proceed with caution.

~~~~~~

Dan Tong and Rick Wong did not have a fun time as they were forcefully escorted into an armored S.H.I.E.L.D. vehicle for transport to prison. They knew that S.H.I.E.L.D. would question them relentlessly until they gave up their leaders and ratted out the rest of their group.

Fury observed the scene as the two attempted murderers were driven away. He knew that those two definitely weren't going to have fun when the interrogations would start.

Fury glanced around and sighed as he took in the amount of press that was covering what had happened to Stark’s kid. He casually walked back into the restaurant and approached Happy and Pepper. Happy was waiting with Pepper as she had to stay back and give a witness statement even though S.H.I.E.L.D. had shown up to handle things.

Fury made no indication that he noticed Happy Hogan’s scowl as he approached the two.

He spoke “Ms. Potts. I trust that you did not ingest anything poisonous, as you are not currently fighting to breathe.”

Happy’s scowl deepened.

Pepper questioned “What are you even doing here? Why did you come? This isn’t an Avengers level threat. Oh. Oh my gosh. Was it supposed to be an Avengers level threat?”

Pepper’s eyes were wide as Fury answered “It had the potential to be an Avengers level threat. We got lucky that the situation turned out as it did. Tonight's events have allowed S.H.I.E.L.D. to catch a couple of people from an upcoming criminal group.”

Happy practically growled as he said “What do you mean by it being lucky?”

Fury rolled his eyes as he said “Calm down, Hogan. I don’t mean that it was a good thing that the kid was poisoned. I just mean that it was a good thing that the perpetrators were caught before they could kill Tony or go after another target. Though, I must admit, losing the kid would be a major blow, especially where spiders are concerned.”

After that sentence, he was greeted with surprised looks from Hogan and Potts. Fury had tried to keep it on the down low that he knew Peter’s identity until Cho needed the Tetrodotoxin B. Fury hadn’t even needed to know the specifics of the kid’s enhancement to know that someone like Spider-Man would need an elevated dose of Tetrodotoxin B for it to work like Cho needed it to work.

Fury spoke again “My business here is finished. You and Stark are free to release whatever information you need to or want to release so long as it does not mention that a new criminal organization tried to make their first move tonight. This matter became public as soon as the first reporter caught sight of my S.H.I.E.L.D. team. I do have to say that it was nice working with your friend Ms. Potts. She’s a wonderful agent, and her idea for this was brilliant to weasel the stalkers out.”

Fury then turned around and left. Happy and Pepper watched as he left, surprised looks covering both of their faces.

~~~~~~

After another hour, Pepper and Happy had made it to the tower. Pepper had regained most of her composure as she had begun to compose a press release to post on SI’s website. They were all still waiting in the MedBay. Only a couple at a time were allowed in Peter’s room at a time. It was quite distressing to see that the kid was paler than usual, and wasn’t moving at all.

They all hoped that Cho and her team would come up with something to help Peter quickly. The longer the kid was under the effects of Tetrodotoxin B, the more chance there was that the kid wouldn’t recover.

~~~~~~

Earlier the next morning, Tony reluctantly had to debrief with Fury. He was enraged as Fury gave him the full details of the situation.

“FURY! WHY THE HELL DID YOU DO THAT?! YOU COULD HAVE AT LEAST WARNED US SO THAT I COULD KEEP MY KID AND PEPPER SAFE! HOW DID YOU EVEN KNOW THAT PEPPER AND I WOULD ACCEPT THE INVITATION ANYWAY! WHY DID YOU CREATE SUCH AN ELABORATE SET-UP?!” Tony angrily questioned.

Fury calmly looked at Tony and replied “It would have jeopardized the mission. Had you known that the threat was there, you would have overreacted, and things could have gone worse. Had you known that the whole thing was an undercover operation to weed out who was actually trying to get to you, you would have gone in guns blazing and there would have been more casualties. You’re too reckless, Stark.”

Tony glared at Fury as he gritted his teeth.

He eventually replied “I don’t care what you think about me Fury, but if you ever allow my family to enter a potentially harmful situation again just so that you can attempt to subtly catch someone who’s targeting one of the team, I will not hesitate to knock you off of whatever pedestal you hold yourself on! My son is dying because of your stupid decisions! If he dies, I will have your head!”

Fury rolled his eyes as he listened to Tony’s rant continue. He knew that Stark had power, but he was pretty confident that Stark couldn’t get him fired. Even if he could, it’s not like he’s worried about it. Looking at the plan again though, it had been a bit oafish that they hadn't weaseled the criminals out quicker.

He soon started listening to Tony’s rant again once he did hear a pertinent question.

Tony questioned “Why didn’t I ever detect that someone was stalking me? Why wasn't I informed that another criminal organization had formed?”

Fury grimaced and answered “Your A.I. did have the information, but I’ve had my team monitoring your servers and I had them block that information from your access. This wasn’t just a random hit on you, Stark. They’d been tracking your moves. You may have thought that it was just some random cook who got a lucky break, and yes it was lucky that they just so happened to have the supplies needed to poison the food, but they had plans far worse than just poisoning you. They’re going to a maximum security prison because you are only one in a long line of people they had plans to execute. This was not simply just a plan for revenge, Stark. Many of these details will remain classified until we can reform the Accords and get the team back together again. S.H.I.E.L.D. has been going through hell while trying to keep track of every single threat that the Avengers used to may have handled.”

Tony stared at him with stunned silence until he growled in anger.

“How the FUCK did you ever get that much access to my servers?!” Tony emphatically questioned.

Fury leveled him with a look saying “You really have to ask.”

Tony then balled his fists up in anger as he cursed Natasha Romanoff. The traitorous woman had done more than simply betray him.

Tony knew that he’d have to rectify that later and see if he could undo any damage that the S.H.I.E.L.D. idiots may have done to any of the coding within his servers.

He leveled Fury with another angry look as he said “This meeting’s over. I’m done here.”

Tony left before he could pound Fury into the ground. His anger had reached a new level.

~~~~~~

Ming Lee sighed as she tried to call Pepper again. She hated that she had lied to her friend when it came to the true reasons why she had opened a restaurant. It was just another assignment from Fury after she'd come up with the initial idea, and she had taken it without a second thought of how it could hurt her friendship with Pepper.

Now, Pepper was ghosting her. Ming couldn’t really blame her for that very much. Not to mention, they were going through a hard time right now because the kid that always hung around Stark was poisoned.

Pepper no doubt knew that she was a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent now.

Ming was slightly surprised when Pepper answered after the fifth ring.

Pepper questioned “What do you want, Ming? Was our friendship ever real?”

Ming winced as she replied “It was real, Virginia. You’ve known me ever since you were in college. I just hid my S.H.I.E.L.D. agent status from you because I was supposed to, even after you got further involved with Stark and learned about S.H.I.E.L.D.. I’m sorry about the kid.”

Ming heard Pepper sigh over the line and then say “I’ll talk to you again eventually, Ming. At this point, I don’t even know if I ever knew you. Give me some time. I’m getting tired of things like this being hidden from me. First it was Natasha being undercover here, and now you were undercover when I thought that I was just coming out to celebrate a friend opening a new business. I’m sorry, Ming, but I need time to think about a few things.”

Ming bit her lip and responded “I understand. I hope to talk to you again later. Bye, Virginia.”

Ming turned her phone off and rubbed her hands over her tired face. Sometimes it was hard being a secret agent for S.H.I.E.L.D..

~~~~~~

It was still a waiting game as Helen was trying new methods of treatment on the blood samples she had taken from Peter. The toxin was slowly clearing from Peter’s system, but not at a rate that would allow him to recover properly when coming out of being comatose due to the Tetrodotoxin B.

Helen wasn’t about to give up. She wasn’t going to let the kid die. That kid had been through so much in just the short amount of time that she’d known him, and she was never going to give up on trying to flush the poison out of the kid’s body.

She’d known him for about five months at this point, as she’d met him shortly after the incident with the Vulture, and they’d developed drugs that would actually help dull his pain when he got injured. She’d also helped him with calorie consumption problems.

She may be a geneticist, but she was also one of the few known people that had the expertise to work with enhanced persons. She once again observed the sample of Peter’s blood.

She knew that the Tetrodotoxin B was helping, but she was unsure if she could enhance those effects to fully flush the poison out of the kid’s system. Maybe she could try to modify the Tetrodotoxin B further so that it would attract and nullify more of the bad tetrodotoxin.

She had read the unpublished research papers written by Dr. Banner ages ago when she’d first started working with Tony Stark and Dr. Banner before the whole mess with the Accords. She knew the process of how to modify tetrodotoxin. She was confident that she could do it.

She quickly got to work on isolating samples that she could use.

Hours later, she smiled as she tested her new Tetrodotoxin derivative on a sample of Peter’s blood. She was happy as when she tested it, it was ten times more efficient at detecting and eliminating the bad tetrodotoxin.

After another few rounds of testing her new derivative, she was ready to attempt treating Peter. She had already received approval from Stark to do as she needed in an effort to save Peter’s life. She and her team were soon on their way back to Peter’s room.

~~~~~~

Peter felt awful as he regained some awareness. He could smell that he was in the tower’s MedBay, but he was confused as he couldn’t even open his eyes. He couldn’t even breathe on his own.

His spider sense was elevated to a painful level. He was panicking inside his head as he took note that his body was not responding to anything he was trying to get it to do. It also felt kind of painful that he wasn’t consciously breathing on his own. He could also feel that he was connected to an IV line as cool fluid entered his veins.

He could also hear the beeping of some of the medical equipment. He had no clue why he couldn’t move. He wished that his body would at least react to his sense of panic, but his heart rate remained the same at one beat a minute.

He was eventually brought out of his spiral as he heard Dr. Cho coming into the room while directing the nurse to check his vitals again. Peter was only a little bit relieved when he could hear Tony and May’s heartbeats. He knew that they were likely watching whatever was happening from outside his room.

He then heard them talking about something called tetrodotoxin. He’d vaguely heard about that before in school. Something about it was toxic if ingested. It then dawned on him that that was likely what had happened to him. He was so confused.

Peter was zoned out from the words the doctors and nurses were saying until he felt something get injected directly into his arm instead of intravenously. It was distressing to still be able to feel things, but not be able to move.

He wished that he could lose consciousness again, but it just wouldn’t happen.

~~~~~~

Helen smiled as she approached Tony and May in the hallway.

She spoke “I’m not sure how much of an update F.R.I.D.A.Y. has given you, but I can say that I have possibly found a cure. I formulated a modified version of Tetrodotoxin B that should be working to bind with the poisonous tetrodotoxin and get it out of his system. In a way, his body will still be absorbing the chemicals, but they will no longer harm him as the Tetrodotoxin B derivative is neutralizing the poison. I project that in a matter of a few hours, the poison will be completely gone from Peter’s system. It will likely be another couple of hours after that until he will wake up, as we did have to give multiple doses of Tetrodotoxin B and the derivative dose which will keep him in a comatose or death-like state.”

May and Tony let out a relieved breath. Their kid was going to be okay.

May happily said “Thank you Dr. Cho. I can’t express how much it means to both Tony and I that you figured out a way to save our kid’s life.”

Tony nodded along with May’s statement as he stared at Peter’s prone form through the glass while smiling. Helen smiled as she left the relieved parents. She’d continue monitoring Peter’s condition until he would wake up. She wanted to make sure that the poison would be out of his system completely before she celebrated.

~~~~~~

Peter’s internal panic calmed minutely when he heard Tony and May come into the room. He could hear when they sat down in the chairs that had been brought for them. He could feel when Tony ran a hand through his hair and kissed him on the forehead while May gripped his hand and soothingly rubbed a finger over it. It was almost as if they could tell that he was conscious, but just couldn’t move.

They stayed with him for hours, and he listened to them converse. He knew that they were both extremely worried about him. At a few different moments he’d even been visited by Happy and Pepper.

Eventually, he was able to slip back into unconsciousness, hoping that what Tony and May said about him waking up soon would become a reality.

~~~~~~

Dr. Cho was in the room when Peter finally began to stir. She had recently done another check of his blood, and was happy to report that the toxin was almost completely out of the kid’s system, and that the Tetrodotoxin B would be wearing off soon.

Peter happened to begin the process of waking up while Happy, May, Tony, and Pepper were all in the room. May held his hand while Tony kept a comforting hand on his shoulder. Pepper and Happy stood at the end of the bed while Dr. Cho monitored his waking process.

Peter groaned as he regained consciousness. Helen checked his IV once more and monitored Peter’s vitals. She was happy to see that they were mostly within normal range for a mutated spider-kid.

Eventually, Peter was fully awake, and tearful as his family members gently hugged him. Dr. Cho called her team into the room. She could tell that Peter was uncomfortable. They’d have to extubate soon.

She kindly requested the family members to back up for a little bit while she coached Peter through the extubation. It unfortunately had not been the first time that the kid had ever had to be extubated.

She advised against his speaking for a little while after extubation, as his throat would be sore for a little while, and luckily he heeded her recommendation, but she could easily see the longing in his eyes when he looked towards his family.

She and her team soon left the room after taking another blood sample for analysis.

Tony and May soon flocked to one side of his hospital bed while happy and Pepper flocked to the other. Peter smiled in relief as tears filled his eyes. It was a comfort when May gripped his hand and did the familiar motion of rubbing her thumb over it. It was even more calming when Tony gently passed a hand through his hair.

Once the tears had cleared a little bit, he motioned that he wanted hugs. His wishes were granted as a group hug occurred. He knew that F.R.I.D.A..Y. would have a photo of the hug on record for future uses.

Soon, Pepper passed him a Stark tablet which allowed him to communicate with them without straining his vocal cords much. He smiled and typed out a long message.

The message was dictated by F.R.I.D.A.Y. “Thank you for staying with me. I was so scared when I got sick in that restaurant and couldn’t breathe. I was so scared when I first woke up here and couldn’t open my eyes. You guys helped me get over the panic from that and relax. Thank you for not giving up on me.”

Tony then said “We’d never give up on you, kid. You’re a part of this family. I hate that you were scared and conscious during some of this mess.”

Peter smiled and Tony hugged him again.

F.R.I.D.A.Y. then announced “Dr. Cho has done analysis of the most recent blood sample and would like me to report that all of the tetrodotoxin has been removed from Peter’s system. He will make a full recovery.”

Once that announcement was made, more hugs were shared. Everyone was glad that the kid had made it through that horrific experience.

~~~~~~

Peter yelped in surprise as he fell off his lab chair. It had been about a month since he’d been poisoned, and he and Tony were now fixated on working on strengthening Stark servers. They were going so far as to create entirely new servers and encrypt them much better than the previous ones.

Peter had fallen asleep at his bench while finishing up the last parts of the encryption on the Spider-Man files. Tony had told him about everything that had gone on that night with S.H.I.E.L.D. and how they’d basically been spying on all of them using old codes that Natasha Romanoff had given Director Fury.

Peter had been a little bit alarmed that Director Fury knew his identity, but Tony had assured him that nothing bad should come of it. Though, that didn’t stop Tony from adding more safety protocols to Peter’s suit for if Director Fury ever did try to mess with him.

Peter shook himself out of his thoughts and yawned.

He wasn’t startled when F.R.I.D.A.Y. called out “Peter, I must insist that you go to your room and sleep. Mr. Stark has asked me to warn you that he will come down if you do not agree to leave the lab. He will also tell Ms. Parker if you do not sleep.”

Peter groaned as he said “Yeah, I know. I’m going. I just came up with the last touches to finish my encryption and make it stronger.”

Peter soon made his way up to the penthouse and went to the guest room that was pretty much his own room, especially since it was basically stated after the poisoning incident that Peter was his kid in everything but blood. That had been a PR nightmare for Pepper to clean up after Tony had posted that without her reviewing it first. Luckily, since he was a minor, he was not being bothered very much.

He flopped on his bed and almost immediately fell asleep.

~~~~~~

Tony woke up as his phone pinged. F.R.I.D.A.Y. had sent him a text alert that Peter had arrived back from patrolling and entered the lab. She did not want to wake Pepper.

Tony briefly pulled up the footage of his lab and watched with a smile as Peter worked on some of the encryption data for the Spider-Man files. The kid must have thought of something to add while he was out on patrol.

F.R.I.D.A.Y. texted “Should I warn him that it is late, and that he should wait for normal hours to work in the lab with you instead of by himself?”

Tony texted “No. Let him work. If he starts to fall asleep, issue a warning and tell him to go to his room and sleep. If he doesn’t do it, send me a notification, and I’ll try to convince the spider-kid to sleep. Oh, and tell him that I'll tattle to May if he doesn't sleep.”

Tony smiled warmly. The kid was a bit too much like him when it came to how much he liked to sleep, especially when he got an idea of something to do in the lab.

Tony sat his phone back down and yawned. He was happy that Peter was doing so well after everything that happened with S.H.I.E.L.D. and the poisoning. Soon, Tony fell back asleep.

Okay fuck it if this post reaches 666k notes by the end of 2023 I'll practise basic self care

Why 666k? Because it's funny and impossible so good fucking luck

IRONDAD CREATOR AWARDS 2023 - INFORMATION POST

AFTER THE SUCCESS OF THE 2021 and 2022 AWARDS, WE’RE COMING BACK WITH EVEN MORE ENTHUSIASM.

 WHAT — Awards for fanfic and art creations and creators of the Irondad Fandom.

WHEN — Nominations for the 2023 Irondad Creator Awards begin January 1st.

VOTING - HOW — Voting date to be announced.

WHY DO THIS — We had so much fun with the 2021 and 2022 Awards and got to showcase so many amazing creators. Many of you got in touch on the voting form and on Tumblr to thank us for the awards and for bringing their attention to new creators, so we’re coming back again. We have some of the most amazing creators in the Marvel Fandom, and it’s time they got another chance to shine.

WHAT DO I WIN — We have two wonderful artists creating artwork prizes this year. @monireh has offered up her skills again, and Awards Team Member @superherotiger is going to create something, too.

MISCELLANEOUS  — If you have any questions, feel free to send an Ask or DM.

WHAT CAN YOU DO  —   Tell your friends! Tell your readers! Reblog! The more people that hear about the awards and nominate/vote, the better. We want all creators to have the chance to shine.

Organ Theft

https://archiveofourown.org/works/43224003

Will Peter Parker survive being kidnapped by someone who kidnaps people to steal their organs to use in organ transplants?

TW: Organ theft, blood, kidnapping, non-consensual drug use

Disclaimer: I do not own anything.

Thank you for reading!

@badthingshappenbingo

Peter hums along to his music as he walks to Delmar’s from his apartment. May had burned dinner again, but they hadn’t felt like Thai, so they had decided to get sandwiches. It was already after dark, as May had arrived home from a late shift.

Peter had hugged her and offered to be the one to get the sandwiches, and May had thanked him profusely. He checked the time on his phone as he waited in the small line. Ever since the shop had been remodeled, business had boomed for Mr. Delmar.

Peter eventually got his sandwiches, at a discount, courtesy of Mr. Delmar who’d known the Parkers since Peter was a baby. Peter waved goodbye to him and headed back towards his building.

He felt his spider sense go off minutely, but as soon as he walked past the alley, his spider senses screamed, and he yelled as he was yanked into the alley. He had dropped his phone in the commotion. He was afraid as arms encircled him. His adrenaline levels drastically increased and he managed to push himself out of his attacker’s arms, but then yelped as a needle pierced his skin.

He cried out for help, and tried to crawl over towards his phone, but he was feeling more and more tired as the drug entered his system. At the moment, he really hated that even with his heightened metabolism, he was still susceptible to most drugs.

He soon lost consciousness.

~~~~~~

May hummed as she tidied up around the kitchen and attempted to clean the skillet that seemingly had burned eggs crusted onto it. She glanced at her phone and noted the time. Peter had been gone for a little longer than she had expected.

She sent him a quick text, but became worried as he didn’t respond after a few minutes of waiting. She then tried to call him, but she got no answer. She then got on her tracking app and tracked his phone. It was showing up in the alleyway close to their building.

May was confused. She quickly grabbed her apartment keys and left the apartment after she had grabbed a baseball bat and locked the apartment up. She followed the tracker on her phone and cautiously called out for Peter at the mouth of the dark alleyway.

She cautiously entered the alleyway and shined her cell phone light around. She saw that there were a few things knocked around, and what seemed to be drag marks in the dust. She then located Peter’s phone and a dropped grocery bag from Delmar’s.

She was scared as she took in the scene. Her kid was missing, and his phone was in that alleyway. Her kid had been taken. She bit her lip and her hands shook as she shakily typed out Tony Stark’s emergency phone number.

It only rang for a minute before Stark answered.

“May, what’s going on? What’s the emergency?” Tony asked in a serious voice.

May shakily replied “It’s Peter. He’s been taken.”

~~~~~~

Peter groaned weakly as he began to regain consciousness. He was feeling awful. He immediately noticed that his clothes were missing. He was close to hyperventilating as consciousness slowly came back to him.

He had a headache as he opened his eyes to glance around his room. He weakly tried to move his wrists, but they were restrained and he was too weak to get out of them. Something was keeping him weak.

He really wished that he could rip the mask that was on his face off. He groaned and whimpered as he could feel pain radiating in his side. He weakly rolled his head to the side to try and see if he could look at the spot where the pain was radiating from, but he had no luck.

He was feeling so weak and the pain was overwhelming. He soon passed out again.

~~~~~~

Tony soon arrived at the alleyway where May Parker had called him from. She stared at him with fear in her eyes as he landed.

She questioned “Do you have a tracking signal for him? Did he have his suit on him?”

Tony responded “I’m sorry, May. His suit’s still in your apartment, and the other trackers are all in this alley. I’ve already got F.R.I.D.A.Y. scanning the footage from outside this alleyway in the time frame that you’ve provided, but neither of us can positively identify who took him. We just see that some guy in dark clothing took him and walked out of the alleyway while carrying him and then disappeared around the corner. We couldn’t even find anywhere where the guy may have taken him somewhere in a vehicle.”

May bit her lip and nodded. She was terrified. She had no clue how they were ever going to find Peter if not even F.R.I.D.A.Y.’s servers could find evidence.

Tony then said “I’m going to have Happy drive over here and get you to the tower after you get some of your stuff. We can’t know if this was random or targeted yet, and we need to keep you safe. I promise you that I’ll do everything that I can to get Peter back.”

May nodded and left with Tony to go back to her apartment. She knew that Tony had already contacted Happy.

~~~~~~

Peter was in vastly more pain the next time he woke. He was terrified as he opened his eyes. The pain was overwhelming as he rolled his head around and groaned. He made the mistake of trying to move his head, and he barely caught a glimpse of his now open abdominal region.

His breathing picked up and he heard someone in the room curse. Peter flinched to the best of his ability as he now noticed that his kidnapper was scrambling around while looking at him with worry. Peter’s breathing accelerated as he began to weep in pain.

He flinched away as his kidnapper rubbed his hand through his hair and tried to quiet him as he fitted another mask over Peter’s face. Peter whimpered and cried, but could not fight as the new mask was put over his face.

He could do nothing as an anesthetic gas filled the mask and his lungs.

It was no relief as the man tried to soothe him by telling him that it’d all be over soon and that he was sorry that he had miscalculated the dosage to give him to keep him out of it. Peter was too weak to rip his head away from his kidnapper’s gentle grip.

He could do nothing but cry as the man wiped tears off of his face. It was not a relief when he finally passed out again.

~~~~~~

Doctor Jeremy Tate teared up as he attempted to soothe the child back to sleep. He had never intended the poor child to wake up during the procedure. He had miscalculated how much anesthetic to administer to keep the child asleep. He held the mask over the poor child’s face as he wiped the tears away.

By the time he’d realized that his victim was a child, it was too late to back out. Plus, he needed the organs for his own patients. He hated that another child would be sacrificed, but it was a small consolation that this one child’s sacrifice could very well lead to the saving of multiple other children from his hospital. He’d been lucky so far that no one questioned how he had so easily been coming up with donor organs since he had started working at the children’s hospital.

He teared up as he removed another organ from the poor child that had woken up in so much pain. Once he had completed removal of the final organ he needed at the moment, he sewed the child back up and cleaned the area.

He took off his gloves and disposed of the surgical equipment once he secured the organs that he had taken. He really hoped that this kid’s organs would turn out to be a match with one of his patients. He would hate it if he had ended up taking this kid for nothing, though with the forged documents, the organs could be used elsewhere if not in one of his own transplant patients.

He then took out a syringe and filled it with a deadly drug that he knew should kill the child without causing him more pain. Had the child not woken up mid-operation it would have been a completely painless process.

He sniffled as he injected the drug into the IV port he had previously attached to the child’s arm. He would wait until the child took his last breath to take the restraints off and re-clothe him. Jeremy disposed of the syringe and knelt over his desk on the other side of the room as he did his best not to cry. He’d never killed a child before. It felt awful knowing that he’d made a huge mistake when choosing who to grab.

He eventually looked back over to the child and noted that breathing had ceased. He tiredly ran a pale hand through his short blonde hair as he sighed. He walked back over to the child. He gently removed the mask from the child’s face and caressed the child’s face while apologizing for the huge mistake he had made.

He removed the restraints and gently picked the child’s body up and took him to another room. He used the utmost care to dress the child in a nice set of clothing. Normally, he’d just dump the bodies in the river, but he felt horrible for his mistake. The lives of children should be valued above all, and he had just murdered one. He had taken one of his old suits out of storage. The sleeves were a bit long, as the child was smaller than he was, but the child looked nice in the old suit.

Jeremy sniffled and ran his hand through the poor child’s hair. He kissed the child’s forehead while apologizing again. He’d figure out a nice place to dump the child’s body later, but for now he had some organs to take back to his hospital for the lab to test.

~~~~~~

Sharon Jenkins shook her head as Jeremy arrived at her lab with more donor organs to test. She had no clue how he was still an employee of the hospital. Every time that he brought in organs for testing, he broke protocol by doing the removal without having prior tests done. They were lucky that the dolt hadn’t gotten them any malpractice suits yet.

This time he had two different organs. He had a kidney and part of a liver. Sharon rolled her eyes as he tried to flirt with her. She soon got the tests completed and sighed in relief as the Kidney appeared to be a match with the young teenager in their ER named Miles Morales. She was just glad that the organ was a match, and that they had just dodged an upcoming malpractice suit.

The liver piece turned out to not be a match for the patient that needed it at their hospital, but she cross-matched within their systems and located a match to someone named Cindy Moon. They’d have to call her parents and inform them that a match had been found.

Sharon reported her findings to Jeremy, and Jeremy had his team prep Miles for surgery. Miles had been a patient in their ER for quite some time. Sharon then contacted her boss and got approval to notify the Moon family that a match had been made. She wondered how Jeremy Tate always seemed to come up with so many organ donors.

~~~~

Happy held May as she woke from a nightmare. She had dreamed about looking for Peter and never finding him. She had dreamed that they had held a funeral for him. It had been dreadful. She couldn’t help but sob in fear as Happy held her.

She didn’t even notice when Tony came running into the room. He and Happy shared a glance. Happy’s worried and sorrowful eyes portrayed a silent message to Tony that he’d been up with May for a while as May sporadically woke from nightmares.

Tony sat in a chair beside May’s guest bed and took one of her hands in his own. She looked up at him tearfully.

She said “I-I’m so scared, Tony. We can-t f-find him! He’s not showing up in any footage or anything!”

Tony sniffled and said quietly “I know. I’ve called in some help though. They work discreetly, but maybe they can help where I cannot. They don’t exactly operate in the legal sense as of right now, and I’ve contacted a few other vigilantes that Peter occasionally works with and told them to keep an eye out. I’ve got people looking everywhere. We’ll find him, May.”

May nodded as she turned her face into Happy’s shoulder and continued to weep. Happy held her for hours. All three of the despondent family members stayed together as they hoped to get the kid back.

~~~~~~

Miles Morales woke up to the happy faces of his parents. He smiled as he stretched slightly. He hadn’t expected to wake up in absolutely no pain whatsoever after his operation. He had expected to feel pretty rough until his body accepted the donor organ.

Hid mother held his face and she spoke. She must have been able to see the confusion in his face.

Rio said “Hey, honey. Everything went well. Your body accepted the donor kidney quite readily. It was rather miraculous. Your metabolism increased and your healing rate increased. You don’t even need dialysis. It’s almost as if whomever donated your kidney was enhanced. You won’t need to worry about that though. Your father and I’ve had some NDAs passed around because of this unexpected turn of events.

Miles then grimaced as he lifted his hand, which was now stuck to the blanket.

The three looked at his hand sticking to the blanket and then each other’s faces.

Miles said “Huh. I guess that this means we know who donated my kidney now.”

Rio and Jefferson shared a look of disbelief. They had no idea that Spider-Man would go to such an extent as to donate an organ to save a random citizen’s life. They were amazed that their son’s body hadn’t rejected the mutant organ. They wished that they could thank Spider-Man in person.

~~~~~~

Cindy Moon woke up after her surgery to similar circumstances such as Miles. Only, she found out about her new sticky situation before her parents ever did, and no one but her seemed to notice that her hands were sticking to the sheets. She knew that she had to keep it a secret if she wanted to stay safe. She wondered why Spider-Man would donate his mutated organs.

~~~~~~

Jeremy Tate got back to his secret hideout, and was very startled to see that the door was open. He raced into what was supposed to be his hidden place and looked around. It looked like nothing had been disturbed until he went into the second room where the child’s body was supposed to be.

He was shocked as there was no longer a body resting where he had left it. Someone had broken in and taken the child’s body. He wondered if the police would be after him anytime soon. Either way, he knew that he had to pack his things up and get out of his no longer hidden surgery lab before he could be found again.

~~~~~~

Peter groaned as he woke up. Everything was hurting. It took ages for him to try and open his eyes. He could feel that he had been redressed in unfamiliar clothing as awareness slowly came back to him.

His arms and legs were twitching so much now. He was in more pain than he’d ever remembered being in before. He twitched so much that his body rolled off the cot that it had been lying on. He groaned as his body hit the cold ground.

It had hurt so much, but it hadn’t felt like any stitches had been ripped. It also helped that the incision sites were mostly healed, but he could still feel the pain from them. Peter laid there as his body continued to twitch for a while. Little did he know that he had actually died for thirty minutes before the remaining part of his liver would send out special cells to revive him and destroy the poison that had been injected into his body.

He was just lucky that no brain damage had occurred due to the temporary bodily shut down.

He was eventually able to gather his wits and shakily stand. He gripped his abdomen as he was met with waves of nausea. Partially due to the fact that he’d been unwillingly cut open, and partially due to the fact that the chemicals which had brought him back had also released byproducts which made him nauseous.

He felt ill as he stumbled towards the doorway to whatever room it was he had been in. He didn’t see any phones, so he’d just have to get out of there himself and figure out where to go from there. He had no clue how far away from home he had been taken, but he did know that he could vaguely hear noises that correlated with the city.

He eventually made his way to the door of the place he’d been held at, and he opened the door. No one came out of the shadows to grab him. It seemed as if he had been left alone in the hellhole that had housed him for the past whoever knows how long as organs were stolen from his body.

He stumbled out into an alleyway. He recognized the familiar aura about the borough as he stepped out. He was in Manhattan, more specifically, Hell’s Kitchen. He stumbled along. He was just grateful that he was still in New York City, but he had to figure out an easier way to get to Stark Tower without causing more harm to himself.

He stumbled along a little further, no one paid him any mind. A wave of pain once again hit him, and he leaned heavily against a wall and slid to the ground. He had no idea how he was going to get back home. He was in too much pain to move. The external incisions may have healed, but it seemed like the internal damage was taking its time to heal, and sending waves of agony through him as it worked.

He grunted in pain, and was slightly startled as he sensed someone coming nearer to him.

He heard a familiar voice call out “Kid? Can you open your eyes?”

He then felt the person gently grip his face. He opened his eyes again. He hadn’t even realized that he’d closed them. All he knew was that once he heard Daredevil’s voice, he knew that he was safe again.

~~~~~~

Matt was angry as he patrolled. Someone had taken the kid, and it was unknown if the kid had been taken at random or if it was a Stark or Spider-Man thing. Matt hated that he didn’t have much to go on when looking for the kid.

He was ever vigilant as he patrolled, and late into the night, he perked up as he heard a familiar, if strained, heartbeat within his range of hearing. He quickly traced a path towards the familiar heartbeat. He could tell that it was strained.

Matt grimaced. He could tell that the kid was in pain. He quickly made his way to where he knew the kid was waiting. He soon jumped down beside the kid, who made no moves to show that he knew who had arrived.

Matt knelt down to Peter’s level.

He could tell that Peter’s eyes were closed and that his heartbeat was irregular as he questioned “Kid? Can you open your eyes?”

Peter didn’t respond to him and Matt’s grimace deepened. Matt gently gripped Peter’s face, and he could tell that Peter had opened his eyes for a moment, but he was distressed as Peter closed his eyes again and practically collapsed against him.

Matt cursed as he picked Peter up. He had to get the kid to Stark Tower. Something was drastically wrong. Matt could tell that something horrible had happened to the kid. He was angry, but he didn’t have time to waste on that anger until he could get the kid to a safe place that could help him medically.

Matt was careful as he quickly jumped across rooftops and made it to Stark Tower in record time. He was just glad that Stark’s stupid A.I. recognized him as a friend now that he was one of the ones trying to teach the kid some decent fighting skills.

It had almost been as if the A.I. had seen him coming. He hadn’t had to go through any hassle as he was immediately granted passage into the building and directed by the A.I. towards the MedBay.

Matt did as directed and sat Peter on one of the medical beds as Doctors rushed in. Matt grimaced and protectively stood by Peter’s bed, but out of the way of the medical team who was working on helping Peter.

Sooner rather than later, Matt sensed the heartbeats of the kid’s aunt and Stark. He also sensed the heartbeat of Hogan and Potts. He wondered when Potts had returned from her business trip that the news had advertised.

Matt reluctantly left Peter’s bedside as the doctors worked to stabilize him and greeted the small gathering of people who were greatly relieved that the kid had been found. He made sure that none of them rushed the bed as the doctors worked on helping the kid.

He could hear the A.I. issuing status reports of the kid’s condition to Stark through an earbud. He could sense the worry emanating from all of their beings. He managed to corral the worried family to the waiting area. He could hear the updates that were given by Stark’s A.I. through the earbud, and he froze at the same time that Stark gasped.

Whatever had been done to the kid, it had caused the kid to die for a short time. There was tissue damage on a small part of the kid’s heart. That explained the irregularity of the kid’s heartbeat. The only lucky thing was that the kid’s mutated DNA was fixing the tissue. Sometimes it was a good thing that the kid wasn’t a normal human.

He continued to listen in as his fury strengthened as he heard that someone had cut into the kid and stolen some organs. There was definitely going to be hell to pay in Hell’s Kitchen when he found whomever had dared to hurt the kid.

~~~~~~

Sharon was vaguely surprised when an announcement was issued to the whole hospital that Jeremy Tate had resigned from his job and that his patients were to be reassigned to other doctors. Sharon couldn't really say that she was broken up about it. She honestly thought that his leaving was a good thing for the hospital.

~~~~~~

Jeremy Tate returned the next day to what used to be his hideout after he turned in his letter of resignation. He didn’t want to risk getting caught by whomever had come in and stolen the kid’s body. Whomever was screwed up enough to steal a kid’s dead body from an already messed up place was too messed up for him to risk encountering.

He quickly began to gather all of his forged document copies and assorted items that he would take with him. He hated that he’d have to leave. He’d owned the place for quite a while and had gained so many organs through his illegal surgeries.

He wasn’t prepared at all when the place was stormed by the police, Iron Man, and the Devil of Hell’s Kitchen.

~~~~~~

It had taken a few hours, but Peter had finally been stabilized and was awake. Everyone had been greatly relieved when the kid appeared to be in little to no pain as he greeted them with a relieved smile.

It also didn’t take Peter very long to tell them what had happened. They had already known that the kid had been cut open and poisoned, but they now had an answer as to what place and what person to look for. The kid didn’t have a name, but Matt knew that it'd be easy to track down the guy that had nearly killed the kid.

Matt was glad that the place he’d found Peter was fairly close to where Peter had been held. Matt had led the way as Tony phoned the police for backup to pick the sick guy up before either he or Matt could kill him for nearly killing the kid.

Matt wasn’t so sure that he’d let the guy live either way. It was slightly cathartic as he busted the door down to the place that Peter had told him about, Iron Man and the police right behind him.

~~~~~~

Tate held his hands up in surrender as he was surrounded by threatening figures. He knew exactly what it concerned.

He paled as he said “I’m sorry. I didn't know that he was a kid when I first took him. Why do the Devil of Hell’s Kitchen and Iron Man care about this particular kid anyway?”

Matt practically growled as he clenched his hands and got in the guy’s face as he said “Because that kid is his kid, and my mentee. We’re family, and you tried to take him away from us. The only thing keeping you alive right now is the fact that the police are here and that the kid didn’t die.”

That was news to Tate as he said “The kid didn’t die?! How?”

No one answered his questions as Iron Man then shot him with a repulsor blast and Matt viciously kicked Tate until he was groaning and whining in pain. The police soon pulled him up after the two furious men were done beating him. He was handcuffed and read his rights. Secretly, he was kind of glad that the kid had survived. He hadn’t killed a kid after all.

~~~~~~

Daredevil and Iron Man parted ways with the police. Daredevil made sure that someone else was covering his territory for the time being while he returned to Stark tower to keep an eye on the kid. Plus, the other vigilantes were looking to him for updates on the kid’s condition.

Matt did finally have enough time to change into more comfortable clothes before returning to the MedBay to sit with the kid for a little bit while his aunt took a brief break though.   Pepper had been sitting with May as well while Tony and Matt had handled finding the man that had hurt the kid.

Peter was still drowsy, and recovering, and luckily, he would make a full recovery.

~~~~~~

Sooner rather than later, word got out that the serial killer dubbed "The Organ Stealer” had been caught and found guilty on all charges, and the patrons of the Children’s hospital had been enraged to know that the serial killer had been one of the main people treating their children.

Nelson and Murdock had been very eager to represent any of the families who had felt the need to sue once all of the details were released.

~~~~~~

Peter screamed in terror as his breathing caught. He flinched slightly as he was held close by both May and Happy. They had moved into Happy’s apartment about two weeks after Peter had been kidnapped because Happy had proposed to May.

Tony and the two of them had helped him get through the worst of the nightmares that had been caused by the kidnapping. Though on nights like this, where the nightmares were particularly vivid, he couldn’t help but scream in terror.

May helped coach him through the panic attack that had followed after they had hugged him. Eventually, his breathing returned to normal and his crying turned to small whimpers of fear. He hated that even after the guy was incarcerated, and he knew that he was safe, the nightmares persisted. Not even his nightmares concerning Homecoming were as bad as these ones.

He was glad that he had a good support system to get him through the worst of things.

~~~~~~

Slowly, the nightmares had lessened. They had really tapered off after news got out that Jeremy Tate had been murdered while he’d been sleeping in his prison cell. It had been many months since the kidnapping, and Peter was back to being Spider-Man.

One night on patrol, he felt an odd disturbance in his spider sense. It was trying to draw him towards something. He could tell that it wasn’t a threatening presence. He was rather curious as he let his spider sense lead him.

He was ever curious as his spider sense led him further away from Queens and more towards Brooklyn. He continued onward. Eventually, he could feel the presence of two other people. It was quite odd. He could tell that they were like him. There were two other people nearby who shared his powers. He could feel their spider senses linking and telling them that they were allies in the tangled web that was life.

Soon, he stopped in the middle of an open area, and he stared at two other kids who looked back at him. One was a girl whom he recognized from his own class, Cindy Moon. The other was a younger African American boy.

He was compelled to take off his mask. The three shared a look. They knew that they were connected. They introduced themselves to each other. They all shared the same mutant blood now. They were each confused as they quietly observed one another and showed each other that they had similar powers.

All three of them were confused as to why they had been compelled to come together, and as if someone had heard their question, a voice answered them from the middle of the clearing.

She said “Because, young spiders, you three are vital in saving this universe. I compel you to follow me. You have much to learn. You may call me Madame Web.”

The three young spiders warily followed Madame Web. They could sense that whatever she was going to tell them or lead them to would drastically impact all of their futures and likely the futures of everyone within their universe.

Okay fuck it if this post reaches 666k notes by the end of 2023 I'll practise basic self care

Why 666k? Because it's funny and impossible so good fucking luck

Red-and-Black Spiders - Kidding Right?

Members of the spider family Nicodamidae are, like the peacock spiders (previous post), a part of the charismatic and distinctive spider fauna of the Australian region. The are frequently encountered on the ground, in leaf litter and woody debris, or under the bark of eucalypt trees. In Australia where most of the world’s approximately 30 species are found the red-and-black spiders are divided in to a total of seven different genera. These are distributed across the wetter southern and eastern part of the the continent but nicodamids, especially the species Durodamus yeni, do occur in the arid zone of the continent. All seven Australian genera end in the suffix ‘damus’ taking the root from the first described genus of the family - Nicodamus - which, of course gives the family its name.

Differentiating adult male and female spiders can be quite simple as these images nicely illustrate.The first three images all show the distinctive male palps (more correctly - pedipalps - the elaborate ball-like structures the spiders are so proudly carrying about), important in species recognition, and for the spiders, mating. Females (the last two images) clearly lack these elaborate and highly modified structures. What the females do have (but not visible in these images is the ‘lock’ which the male pedipalpal ‘key’ fits: this is the female epigyne, found on the underside of the female abdomen, its shape matching the structure of the male pedipalp to enable conspecific (same species) mating.

These unidentified specimens were found this year during Deakin University’s School of Life and Environmental Sciences student field-trips exploring the biodiversity of the Grampians and Otways upland regions. If you want to find out more about Australian spiders you should get this lovely little recent book: A Guide to the Spiders of Australia by Framenau, Baehr and Zborowski.