The arm around his neck tightened, cutting off his air supply and making him choke.

"If you don't let me go, I'll shoot him in the head. I'm warning you."

Tony scowled, losing his patience for the two-bit thug that thought he could get away with threatening his kid.

"And I'm warning you that if you hurt him I'll shoot to kill. Let him go."

The idiot smiled, only succeeding in pissing off Tony even more. His arm tightened on Peters' throat and the kid's hands clawed at the limb suffocating him.

But Peter couldn't pull it away, which was strange. He should have been strong enough to break the guy's arm with one squeeze of his hand.

Peter dragged in a thin breath, head spinning. "Mr St...ark he's a...su...per."

Tony frowned as the thug laughed, the arm around his hostage's throat tightening as he yanked the kids mask off before he placed his palm on the side of Peters' head.

Peter's eyes rolled up and his mouth opened, trying to pull in any air at all as his knees buckled.

The man laughed again. "He's right you know, I steal energy and he's feeling pretty weak right now."

Tony rolled his eyes, tone mocking. "Wow, a human Nyquil. Impressive. Let him go."

The thug narrowed his eyes, unhappy to be made fun of, and pressed the barrel of his gun harder against Peters' head. The poor kid was beginning to lose the fight with consciousness, hands barely strong enough to grip the arm around him.

"You have ten seconds before I kill him."

Tony shook his head, his own gun raised but he didn't have a clear shot. He couldn't shoot the bastard without hitting Peter.

"If you kill him you have no leverage."

The man shook his head, calm and collected while Tony's heart was hammering in his chest, panic gripping his throat as tight as the arm around Peters' neck.

"I'll kill the kid, I don't care about him. But you won't let that happen. I've seen it on the news and in the papers. No one can figure out why but you seem to have a soft spot for Spider-Man. So, walk away and you can have him back safe and sound. I'll get away and throw him out the van when I'm far enough away."

He laughed. "You can scrape him off the sidewalk."

Tony could see he meant it. He wouldn't hesitate to kill Peter, and Tony couldn't let that happen.

Well, shit. He only saw one option.

He kept his voice calm and low, eyes flickering between Peters face and the glare of his captor.

"Spider-Man. Do you remember our training session yesterday?"

The arm loosened just enough for Peter to drag in one breath and he blinked at Tony, barely managing a nod.

Tony hoped he understood what he was saying. "Do you remember what we talked about? The things that we have to do in order to save the day? The things we have to sacrifice?"

Peters' eyes widened and he squirmed in the bad guys hold but Tony could see the recognition in his eyes. He nodded.

The thug smiled and began to pull Peter backwards towards his getaway vehicle. "Good. See, that wasn't so hard. Sometimes, you have to let a teammate go or know when to give up. You're a good mentor, it's a shame I had to cut your time together short."

Tony shook his head, aiming his gun as Peter closed his eyes and grit his teeth in anticipation.

"Yeah, that's not what we were talking about."

Tony fired, the bullet aimed expertly to pass right through Peters' shoulder and hit the asshole behind him.

The arm around Peters' throat fell away and he fell to the ground, sucking in air as his shaky hand came up to hold his fast bleeding shoulder.

The human Nyquil looked shocked, gun falling from his hand to clatter on the ground as he looked down at the slowly blooming blood stain on his chest. And then he dropped, body slamming to the concrete.

Tony ran over, placing two fingers at his throat as he kicked his gun out of reach. He sighed, relieved. "He's dead."

Peter let out a whimper and Tony quickly turned to him, eyes creased in concern. "You okay? I'm really sorry about that Peter, I didn't have any other option and I was hoping you knew what I meant but-"

Peter nodded, blood seeping between his fingers as he hissed in pain. "No, it's fine. I knew what you were talking about. Thanks for saving me but ugh this really hurts. Somehow I thought it would hurt less. Steve got shot on that mission one time and he didn't even notice until we got to the shawarma place after."

Tony waved a hand. "Steve's an idiot. Let me take a look."

Peter clenched his teeth and tried not to make any noise as Tony carefully turned him, making sure he hadn't hit anything vital.

"You're good. It was a clean shot. Bruce can fix you up at the compound. I really am sorry for shooting you but I didn't see any other way to save you."

Peter shook his head, trying for a smile. It came out wobbly and strained but Tony appreciated it all the same. "No, really, it was so cool. I mean, it hurts like hell and it was kind of scary but it's exactly like it happened in that movie."

Tony nodded, pressing his hand to the exit wound on the back of Peters' shoulder as he thought back to the previous afternoon. He had been trying to train Peter to use a gun properly but the kid had just babbled on about a movie he'd seen where the good guy has to shoot his friend to get to the bad guy.

"Well, thank god you watch stupid movies and that I'm a good shot. And I know it worked this time but let's never do that again. I don't think my heart can take it."

Peter nodded, face pale and looking light headed as blood continued to pour down his chest.

"Tha's a good idea. I like that idea." Peters words were beginning to slur and Tony pulled the Spider-Man mask from the ground and helped Peter put it back on.

"Sorry, but there's gonna be people coming soon to see what this was all about and we can't have them seeing your face. You good? You just have to hold on long enough to get you back to the compound."

Peter nodded, body slumping further to the ground. Tony quickly wrapped his arms around him, holding him up.

"Peter, listen to me. Your wound may hurt but it isn't fatal. You're gonna be fine just stay awake for me."

Peter only let out a moan, too tired to do anything else as Tony gathered him up in his arms, holding him to his chest. "Okay, kid. You did a good job, just let me handle it from here."

He flew him back to the tower, calling Bruce on the way and letting him know what had happened.

Peter groaned in pain when they arrived, good hand gripping onto Tony as he laid him down on the bed in the med bay. Bruce ran over, looking annoyed.

"Tony, what did you do?"

The Avenger gently pulled spiderlings hand off his shoulder to hold it instead, blood-stained fingers curling together. "It wasn't my fault! The guy was strangling Peter and he was threatening to throw him out of a van. What was I supposed to do? Besides, the kid thought it was a good idea!"

Bruce pressed gauze to the kid's shoulder before hastily yanking his suit off. "So, you shot him?"

Tony winced at the pressure on his hand, even through his Iron-Man suit. Peter definitely had his strength back.

"Technically I shot both of them so it was more of a win-lose situation."

Bruce peered at the mess that was Peter's arm, clicking his tongue disapprovingly. "Well, you didn't hit anything vital but maybe next time you could refrain from injuring your protege. I'm not happy about this, Tony. It's going to take a little while to fix and I'm not calling his Aunt this time. You can do it."

Tony groaned as he remembered. "Dammit. She's going to kill me."

Peter squirmed from the pain, blood running down his skin to stain the bed sheets as he kicked his legs against the mattress. His voice was thin with pain and still slurring with each syllable.

"Nah, I'll do it. May loves me, she won't be mad."

He let go of Tony's hand, finally allowing the blood to return to his mentor's poor fingers as he spoke through the mask he still had on.

"Karen, call May."

Tony hurried forward reaching for the mask. "No, no, no. Peter, stop!"

But it was too late, Peter sounded happy and a little drunk. "Heyyy, hi sorry I can't come home for dinner. Bruce is fixing my shoulder."

Tony reached for the mask again but Peter brushed his hands away, not pausing in his conversation.

"Yeah, I got shot but it's okay Mr Stark has a really good aim."

Tony slapped a hand over his forehead, Mays voice loud enough to hear through the mask "WHAT?! TONY SHOT YOU?!"

Peter rolled his head on the pillow, flinching away from the noise even though moving wouldn't escape it. How much blood had he lost?

"May, it's fiiiine, it was really cool and he did it to save me."

"I'm coming over there right now and you better tell that Tony Stark that-"

Peter turned back to Tony. "Um, May said to tell you that she's coming over and that you better be ready because she's going to shove her foot so far up your- May, I'm not allowed to say that. That's not very nice."

Bruce chuckled at Peters childish voice telling his aunt off and placed a needle in the kid's arm as he laughed. "You may have saved Peters life but I don't think she's coming here to thank you for it."

Tony groaned, knowing full well how screwed he was. "Give me a little sympathy here, Brucie. I'm about to be murdered in my own home."