Now or Never

Chapter 3 ~ Alone

"You got any plans tonight?" I ask Peter over the phone as I lay on the couch.

"I'm going to this party tonight. What about you?"

I sigh. "Absolutely nothing. Like any other night."

"You should come! It would be fun." Peter suggests.

"Yeah so someone can spot me and post about me on Instagram so I can get in trouble? No thanks." I sigh. "Wish I could go with you, Pete."

"Oh, right. Sorry." He says sheepishly.

I shake my head even though he can't see me. "It's fine. Go have fun."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes! Yes. Now go! I'll be fine." I reassure him.

"Alright. Thanks (Y/n)."

We hang up and I sigh.

'I have the whole tower to myself. What could I do?'

I get up and go to Tony's workshop.

'Let's see if there's anything I can play with.'

I walk around the various projects he's working on.

'Oh I am so gonna wear one of these Iron Man suits someday.' I smile at the thought.

I continue looking around and find something on one of the tables and pick it up. It looks like one of Tony's arc reactors... like the one he had in his chest a few years back.

'What if...'

I put the arc reactor thingy on my chest and it sticks. I look at it in confusion, wondering how it sticks.

"Okay... so what exactly is this thing supposed to do, Tony?" I ask myself. I tap the chest piece and suddenly part of an Iron Man suit appears on me. "Woah. That's cool."

'He's working on nanotechnology.'

I look down to see Tony only has part of the chest and all of the left arm done for the nanotech. I smile as I aim and charge up the repulsor but I don't shoot so I won't make a mess.

'Can this do anything else?'

I examine the red and gold suit that's covering my arm. Suddenly it changes into a sword.

"Holy schnikes!"

I start swinging the sword around.

"Little Rogers, you are getting an incoming call from Mr. Stark," FRIDAY informs me.

'Oh shit.'

"FRIDAY, do not put him through," I say to her as I try to figure out how to get the suit off of me.

"Already doing it."

"FRIDAY!"

"Hey Squirt."

I turn around to see a holographic call of Tony in front of my face.

"Hey..."

Tony looks at me with furrowed brows. "Is that my nanotech suit I'm working on?"

"No..." I say as I try to hide the left arm behind me. Tony sighs. "Okay in my defense... this is pretty cool." I say and show him that the left arm is now a sword."

"What are you doing in my workshop?"

"I'm bored." I shrug. "I was trying to take it off but I can't seem to find out how to do that."

Tony pinches the bridge of his nose. "It's the same button you pressed to get the suit on."

I look down at the chest plate part of the armor and see the arc reactor thing I pressed is still in the center of my chest. "Oh, right." I look back up at him. "But this is so cool. Like, look at this." I say and start swinging my left arm, slashing the air with the sword.

"Woah! Kiddo be care—" He stops as I swing the sword into the wall behind me and it gets lodged into the wall.

I look at him, giving him an innocent smile. Tony just sighs and pinches the bridge of his nose once again.

"Just get out of the suit please."

I nod and pull the sword out of the wall, falling back on my bottom as I do. I press the arc reactor thing in the center of my chest and all of the nanotech goes back into the chest piece. I put it back on the table where I found it.

"I can't tell if I should be more worried about you or Peter." He sighs with a shake of his head.

"Ummm... definitely Peter. I can handle myself... sometimes."

"You might have a point there. He's actually the reason why I called."

"What's wrong? Did something happen?"

"The kid almost got himself killed tonight. He got entangled in his own parachute and almost drowned in a lake."

"I was just on the phone with Peter earlier. He said he was going to a party, nothing about being Spider-Man. At least he's okay." I sigh in relief. Then a thought occurs to me. "Wait how did you know he was in trouble? Aren't you in—"

"Yeah I got an emergency alert from the kid's suit. Had to remote pilot a suit to go get him." Tony explains.

"What was he doing anyway?" I ask.

"I sent you some files earlier today. Did you read them?"

"No."

Tony rolls his eyes. "Well anyway, you know about the bank robbery from the other day, right? Well he found some intense looking weapons there and tonight he happened to stumble upon a deal and ran into this... vulture dude with wings. Said something about him being the main source and he had to 'take him down.'"

Now it's my turn to pinch the bridge of my nose. "Peter shouldn't be involved in this. I believe him, but I don't want him to get hurt." I sigh. "I would take care of it myself but ya know..." I gesture down to the cuff on my ankle.

"I know you would if you could. I believe the kid too which is why I'm making a call to the FBI, give them a lead on this."

"That's a good idea," I say and nod in agreement along with him. I look back up at him. "Tony when are you coming back?"

"About another day or two. I gotta go right now. Call me if you and Happy are having trouble with the move. And if you touch my stuff again I'll have FRIDAY notify me."

"Wait Tony I really don't want to be—" The call disconnects and the holographic screen in front of me disappears as I sigh. "Alone."

I drag myself through the empty compound, letting my feet take me wherever. When I look up I notice I'm in the kitchen.

'Maybe food will help.'

I look through the cabinets and stop when I find Tony's stash of Vodka. I grab a bottle, opening it and sniffing the drink. I shrug and down the bottle. I wipe my mouth and throw the bottle in the trash. My vision starts to become a little fuzzy and I shake my head.

I look down at the cuff on my ankle. 'Turns out I can get drunk without my powers...'

I grab another bottle and down that one too without a second of hesitation. 

—ASE715