Scars

Peter groaned from the weight of the building. His arms and legs strained from having thousands of tons of weight. The moon was high, giving no sign of the earthquake that had occurred earlier that night. Peter was doing his patrols as Spiderman when the earth shook. An office building had started crumbling. Multiple people had been beside it when it started to collapse. Unable to save them all in time, Peter had decided to catch the weight of the building so the people could escape. Once he was sure everybody was gone, he collapsed, the building with him, and Peter was buried beneath an avalanche of stone.

Tony got the alert at 2 in the morning. "SIR. AN EMERGENCY REGARDING PETER PARKER." Friday said overhead. Tony looked up immediately. He was in his lab at the Tower, adding some features to his new suit. Lamps lay broken across the floor, papers covered his desks from the surprise earthquake, but Tony hadn't bothered to pick anything up.

"Is it about the earthquake?" He asked, worried.

"YES. PETER SEEMS TO BE LOSING OXYGEN AND IS BEING CRUSHED." Friday answered. Tony leaped up immediately, taking the elevator up, which miraculously, had been undamaged. He ran for the loading pad and summoned his ironman suit, jumping into it as soon as it appeared. "LOCKING COORDINATES." Tony flew as fast as he could to the set location. "CONDITION CRITICAL." Friday said through the earpiece. Tony took no notice of the crumbling buildings he flew past. They were all empty, his primary concern was Peter. It took him two minutes to reach the site, and what he saw stopped him in his tracks. A whole building had completely crumbled down in huge chunks. Tony hadn't realized the earthquake was that strong.

"Where's Peter?" He asked Friday, dreading the answer.

"HIS SUIT COORDINATES ARE COMING FROM DIRECTLY BENEATH YOU." Friday responded. Tony dropped down, landing on the rock. There was a huge slab of stone beneath him.

"No no no no no…" Tony cried out. He blasted a hole in the rock and started digging. It seemed like an eternity until Tony saw the red cloth. He immediately pulled Peter out, struggling a little as he tried not to harm the kid. When he was fully clear of the ruble, Tony picked up the teen like a chile and blasted back towards the Tower as fast as he could, telling Friday to wake Bruce up(if he wan't up already) and tell him to prepare the med bay. He didn't even bother taking the door, just ordered Friday to roll down the window at section 17 where he flew in, the unconscious boy in his arms. Bruce was already there, though he jumped when Tony flew in.

"Holy sh** Tony, what happened!" Bruce asked as Tony set Peter on the hospital bed. He pulled the kids mask off and tapped the Spider emblem so they could look over his chest. A pool of blood was already flowing from beneath him, Tony hadn't noticed any wound.

"Building fell on him." Tony replied as Bruce checked him over.

"There doesn't seem to be any severe injuries." Bruce said, mostly to himself.

"Then where's the blood coming from?" Tony asked, eyes hard. Bruce flipped the kid over gently, only to freeze. Tony and Bruce swore at the exact same time. A large, deep, red gash ran from Peter's left shoulder all the way down to the right of his lower back. Then men got to work immediately, patching up Peter as best they could. After they were done, two hours later, Tony gave aunt May a call and she came right over. She burst into the room, eyes wide with worry.

"Peter! Oh no.." She cried when she saw him. Peter was asleep on his stomach, shirtless, revealing the still red gash on his back. "Is he going to be ok?" May asked, holding Peter's hand.

"We believe so, but the wound will scar." Bruce replied. Tony had fallen asleep in a chair next to the bed.

"Oh, my Peter…" Aunt May said again, quietly.

Peter stayed at the tower for the next week, Bruce keeping an eye on his wound, but by Sunday, he had deemed Peter fit to go back to school.

"Finally!"Peter said when Tony informed him. "I've missed so much!"

"Peter, your the only person I know who takes delight in going to school." Tony said, raising his eyebrows. "Remember to call me if it hurts."

"Sure thing, Dad!" Peter called, rushing out the door. Tony smiled faintly, he liked being called 'Dad'.

Peter arrived at school just before the bell rang. He met Ned at their lockers, where they gave each other a hug.

"Omg, Pete! I missed you so much! You still haven't told me what happened on patrol." Ned complained.

"I don't want to talk about it." Peter said, sighing. They walked to their next class, history, before heading to Phys Ed. "Are we swimming today?" He asked Ned, slightly worried about his friend. Ned was never good in the deep end.

"Unfortunately, yes." Ned groaned as they reached the locker room. Most of the class was already in there(only boys, obviously), getting changed into swim shorts. Peter pulled off his Stark Expo shirt, which he hadn't realized he was wearing. He was about to pull of his pants to put his swim shorts on, when he realized the whole room had gone silent. He turned around to see every face staring at him, even Ned.

"What? Am I not allowed to take my shirt off to go swimming or something?" Peter asked, genuinely confused.

"Pete," Ned said quietly. "What exactly happened last night?" Ned's tone was serious so Peter replied back to him,only loud enough for his friend to hear.

"I tried to save some people from a collapsing building after the earthquake. It kina landed on me and I got a big sca- oh shit." Peter said as the realization hit him. He did not want anyone to see the red scar, they would ask questions that Peter was unprepared to answer. He glanced at his back in the mirror, relieved to see it wasn't as bad as last night, more skin tone, but the damage was obvious. His life was not going to ever be the same.