Pull Us Back

the rescue

Mandy hasn't been down in a while, Peter realizes. He's beginning to think a little clearer. He taps the back of his web slingers three time, automatically rebooting Karen.

"K-Karen?"

"Hello, Peter. It seems like some of my systems are not operating correctly."

"Karen, blast code Bucky Barnes."

"Okay, Peter. I'll try my best."

"Thank you."

Peter heard Mandy's steps coming down the stairs, and if she catches him talking to anyone, he's scared of what would happen.

"Alert going out in three..."

Please hurry.

"Two..."

Her footsteps are approaching the door.

"One..."

The doorknob turned.

"Alert sent."

Peter held the small button to manually turn off Karen. Mandy walked in holding another drink.

Please, Ned, please come soon.

~•~

Natasha watched Ned frantically typing on his laptop as they sat on the couch. He pulled up a program with way too many colored dots to count. He typed some more and most disappeared, but it still looked like a clown threw up on it. Especially on Avengers Tower.

"So his phone's at home, his backpack is on fifth, but where is he..."

"How many trackers do you have on him?"

Ned sighed. "Too many, Miss Widow. He's kind of a a mess."

"Agreed."

"So, he went missing at night, so he was probably patrolling. I need to search for Karen."

"Karen?"

"Oh! It's the AI me and Peter created for his suit. Peter named her."

These kids are too damn smart. Ned began zooming out, looking for Peter's, or Karen's, current dot.

"Karen must be offline. I don't see her."

Suddenly, the screen lit up red, followed by his phone and even his smart watch. The screen also lit up with silver lettering saying, "Code Bucky Barnes."

"Oh shit."

"What the hell is code Bucky Barnes?"

Ned began packing up his backpack.

"I'll explain on the way, we need to get to Iron Man."

~•~

Peter knew he had a black eye. He could feel it aching and slowly start to swell. When he refused to drink the water, Mandy slammed her fist into his eye. There was a cut at the corner of his eye because of her ring. Since it hasn't closed up yet, he's beginning to think that his super-healing was being slowed by either the drugs or the little food.

She's thrown some punches, but none of them hurt this badly. What's going on with him?

He coughed slightly, blood slowly dripping out of his mouth. What the fuck was happening?

"Oh, Petey. You thought you could out smart me," Mandy whispered, stroking his cheek softly. "If I can't have you, no one can."

~•~