Peter is as of now strolling through the humid desert looking for any signs of life.
But the farther he gets, all he sees is more and more sand.
Luckily, his body appears to be able to keep up with the distance as it's been at least an hour or two as he escaped the cave and hadn't shown signs of slowing down yet.
He wonders if he's just gonna die after just escaping death when his ears catches something big buzzing and looks to see helicopters flying past. Quickly signaling them, they spot him and Peter drops to his knees as he sees several troops come out of the helicopter followed by Harry.
"How was the fun-vee?" Harry asks him and all Peter could do was chuckle. "Next time, you ride with me." He states and pulls his friend into a hug.
-
At the air landing in Miami, Karen was waiting with Happy as Peter leaves the plane when paramedics come up to them.
"You kidding me? I don't need that." Peter promises Harry as he makes his way up to Karen who's happy to see him.
Peter looks and notices she's wearing the blue ruby necklace he got her for her birthday a few months ago. "That looks good on you." He commented as Karen is happy to see him as Peter noticed a few stray tears around her eyes. "Few tears for your long lost buddy?"
"I'm always gonna be happy to see you." Karen says while wiping the tears away as the two get into the car.
"Where to, sir?" Happy asks.
"Take us to the hospital, please." Karen asks.
"No." Peter interrupts. "No, I don't need the hospital. I've been in captivity for three months. I want a cheeseburger, and to call for a press conference." Peter tells Karen.
"A press conference? What for?" Karen questions.
"Hogan, drive. Get the cheeseburger first." Peter tells the driver and they drive off.
-
They stopped by and got him a cheeseburger before driving to Parker Industries where Obadiah was there waiting for him.
"We were going to meet at the hospital." Obi tells him and Peter ignores him while taking another cheeseburger from the bag. "You had to have a burger, huh? You get me one of those?"
"There's only one and I need it." Peter tells him as it seems with everything he did to actually escaped used up a lot of energy, he needs to remove the arc reactor from his chest later so his healing abilities can do what they do best on their own without his control.
They make their way inside and Peter goes up to the stand and Karen watches and sighs, having a roller coaster of emotions. The last few months have been painful for her to be apart from him this long. He was the only family she really has and is the only one who understands her. They're like siblings in a way more than they are creator and creation.
"Miss Karen?" Someone walks up to her and she sees a elder man wearing a suit.
"Yes?" Karen answers.
"Can I speak to you for a moment?" He asks her.
"I'm not a part of the press conference, but it's about to begin." Karen tells him.
"I'm not a reporter. I'm Agent Phil Coulson, with the Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division." He introduces himself and hands her his card.
"That's quite the mouthful." Karen says and quickly does a mind search through every government research she could get into quickly and sees he checks out.
"I know. We're working on it." Coulson tells her.
"We've been approached already by the DOD, FBI, CIA, just about everyone." Karen tells him.
"We're a separate division with a more specific focus." Coulson explains his purpose. "We need to debrief mr. Parker about the circumstances of his escape."
"I'll put something in the books." Karen promises.
"Thank you." Coulson responds and leaves.
They made it to the platform at the front, Peter sat down in front of the stand bit into his burger. Stane hummed into the microphone before realising that Peter had sat down.
Peter lifted his hand in the air and lowered it down, "Hey, would it be alright if everyone sat down?" The press all stared at him, believing he was joking. "Will you sit down?" They all started to sit down after realising he was serious. "That way you can see me, and I can...a little less formal…"
Stane sat down beside Peter, reached forward and clutched his shoulder, wondering where he was heading with this conference.
"What's up with the love-in?" Harry asks Karen, the only other person who knows about Karen's true self.
"Don't look at me." Karen answers, just as confused as him. "I don't know what he's doing."
"Good to see you." Peter muttered quietly over to Stane.
"Good to see you." He mirrored back to him.
"I never got to say goodbye to dad." Peter said quietly, "I never got to say goodbye to my Father." He said louder so the press could hear him that time. "There's questions that I would've asked him. I would've asked him how he felt about what his company did...if he was conflicted, if he ever had doubts."
Peter had realised in his time away how dangerous and corrupt Parker Industries had become; he wondered if Richard had known and if he did, why would he keep going?
Did he keep going with the knowledge that those around him could get hurt? He couldn't imagine letting the company carry on with its destructive capabilities, not after everything he has seen.
"Or maybe he was every inch of a man we all remember from the newsreels." Peter shrugged, as he placed the wrapper for his burger down on the floor and stared off for a second. "I saw young Americans killed...by the very weapons I created to defend and protect them." He started, "And I saw that I had become part of a system that is comfortable with zero accountability."
The press started to mutter his name; Peter gestured to a man sat close to the front who had politely put his hand up.
"What happened over there?" He asked.
Peter sighed; he wasn't going to get into that, especially about him having powers after fifteen years of keeping them a secret. "I had my eyes opened." He gently getting up as he travelled behind the stand and the crowd raised with him, "I came to realise that I have more to offer this world than just making things that blow up. And that is why, effective immediately, I'm shutting down the weapons manufacturing division of Parker International…"
Karen gasped simultaneously with the room, Stane rushed over trying to pull Peter away from behind the stand, "...until such a time, as I can decide what the future of this company will be, what direction it should take, the one I'm comfortable with, and is consistent with the highest good of this country and the world it's in."
Stane pushed Peter away from the stand and he stepped down.
"What we should take away from this...is that Peter's back!" Stane exclaimed, "And he's healthier than ever."
-
Stand told Peter it's best for him to lay low for a while, stay out of the public eye for a while and he decides now might be the best time to get rid of the arc reactor.
He sent a quick call from his workshop and asked Karen to come help him with something.
Karen comes down and sees he's hooked got the arc reactor ready to get it out of him but needs her help.
"I need you for a second." Peter says as he places the arc reactor down. "I need you to find an exposed wire, connected to the bloodstream, it's causing my arms to jaz uncontrollably every time I get it so it's not safe for me."
"What do you need me to do?" Karen asks.
"I just need you to gently pull on this wire out of my skin, and my abilities will do the rest for you." Peter explains to her.
"What abilities? What are you talking about?" Karen asks.
"I'll explain later. Just take this wire, and take it out slowly." Peter tells her and she reaches for the wire and starts to slowly pull as his arm spazes under the restraints. "Okay, just take it..slow-ahh!" He yellsas as she rips it too fast and takes apart of his blood veins with it.
"Oh, god!" Karen screams when she notices his vitals are stabilizing after a minute and he heals up quickly and Karen looks shocked and Peter laughed at her expression. "Don't ever ask me to do something like that again."
"There's no one else I'd trust more than you." Peter informs her.
"Because there's not many people around other than me." Karen reminds him as Peter gets up, ready to clean up and learn the full capacity of his abilities. "What do I do with this?" She asks, holding the reactor.
"Destroy it." Peter tells her.
"You don't want to keep it?" Karen wonders, looking at the device.
"It's something I needed to escape a group of terrorists who held me captive, I don't really want to have that around as a memory." Peter tells her and she takes it and starts leaving with an idea. "Hey, you, Butterfingers, What's all of this?" He asks Dum-E, looking at his desk while Karen leaves with the device.
-
Peter entered the Air Force Base where Lieutenant Harry Osborn works, the bunker was empty besides a few planes collected together in the middle and a few people scattered around the place all doing their own thing.
He walked over until he could catch what Harry was saying, "...no unmanned aerial vehicle will ever trump a pilot's instinct, his insight, that ability to look into a situation beyond the obvious and discern its outcome, or a pilot's judgment."
"Colonel?" Peter chimed in as they both walked into view, "Why not a pilot without the plane?"
"Look who fell out of the sky…" Harry chuckled, "Peter Parker."
"You betcha." Peter smiled, leaning forward to shake hands with the trainee pilots. "Would you fine people be okay with me borrowing him for a second? I can tell you're all bored. I'm being serious. Blink twice, if you're being held against your will and are need of rescuing."
They chuckled while Harry bowed his head into his hand while smiling, missing his friend and his quips, "Give us a couple minutes, you guys." The crowd scattered away as the two friends faced each other, "I'm surprised."
"Why?" Peter wonders.
"I swear, I didn't expect to see you walking around already." Harry replies.
"I'm doing a little better than walking." Peter shrugged. "Listen, Harry, I'm working on something big. I came to talk to you. I want you to be a part of it."
Harry let out a long sigh of instant relief as a smile grew on his face, "You're about to make a whole lot of people around here real happy, 'cause that little stunt at the press conference…" He chuckled as he shook his head, "That was a doozy."
Peter narrowed his eyes as he tried to decide the best approach, "This is not for the military…" He said, "I'm not...It's different."
"What?" Harry retorted, "You're a humanitarian now or something?"
Peter sighed, "I need you to listen to me."
"No." Harry dictated, "What you need is time to get your mind right. I'm serious. And come back to me when your head's screwed back on properly."
"Okay," Peter said defeated, knowing no words would be able to persuade his friend.
Harry stepped back, "It was nice seeing you, man." He said and walked back to his group.
"You too, Patriot." Peter jokes as he stands there, watching him leave.
-
Peter returned home and has Jarvis create a new project file indexed as Spider.
"Shall I store this on the Parker Industries central database?" Jarvis asks.
"Actually, I think we should keep this under wraps for right now. In fact, keep everything new on my private server." Peter tells him.
"Working on a secret project, are we, Sir?" Jarvis asks as Peter pulls up the mechanics and blueprints he used to create the iron suit and thinks that might be useful.
"Not really, just looking at my abilities I've been ignoring for years in a new light. Maybe I can start doing some good with them." Peter says, looking at the changes he can make to the suit and how to interpret his powers to it. "I've been seeing them as a curse...maybe they were meant to be a gift. Whatever they are, a gift or a curse, they're my responsibility."
"Then let's get to work."
-
Back in the desert, the remaining terrorists that survived Peter's attack are rounding up all of the pieces from his suit so they can put it back together.