[Third Person's PoV]
Peter hung upside down, his legs casually hooked onto a thick line of webbing as he stared at Tony Stark and Yinsen. Both men looked completely mortified, their mouths webbed shut and their eyes wide with disbelief. It would have been a hilarious sight if it weren't also a little sad.
Just then, Peter heard Nick's voice come through the earpiece, "Good work. We'll meet up with you when we arrive."
Peter let out an exaggerated, theatrical gasp, placing a hand dramatically over his mouth. "You just said good work... to me! I'm definitely framing this memory and hanging it on my memory lane forever."
Nick let out a long, tired sigh over the comms. "It was an instinctive response. Don't read too much into it."
"No take-backsies~" Peter replied in a sing-song voice, waving even though he knew Nick couldn't see him. "I'll be waiting for pickup right here, byyyye~"
Without waiting for a reply, Peter mentally commanded his comms to disconnect. His attention turned back toward the two captives, specifically Stark. Grinning under his mask, Peter reached out and ripped the webbing off Tony's and Yinsen's mouth with a quick tug.
Tony coughed slightly, regaining his composure before staring up at the teen hero. "You… You're that spider guy. I've seen you on the news before."
Peter grinned and made a small gesture with his hands. "It's Spider-Hyphen-Man. So... Spider-Man," he corrected cheerfully.
Yinsen, still wary, glanced uneasily between Peter and Tony. Hesitantly, he asked, "You know who this... thing is?"
"Hey! That's just rude," Peter exclaimed, pouting as he crossed his arms over his chest. Despite being upside down, he somehow still managed to look genuinely offended. "I literally just said my name, too! Come on, man."
Tony let out a long-suffering sigh and nodded. "I know of him. Don't know him personally. He's a so-called hero from New York—swings around the city, does the whole superpowered vigilante thing..." He trailed off for a moment, studying Peter. "Speaking of New York... aren't you a little far from home? What's a city hero doing all the way out here? Did you seriously come all this way just to help me?" His voice was suspicious, skeptical even. "You mentioned finding your target earlier. I'm guessing you were sent to rescue me?"
Peter flipped himself upright in a fluid, almost cat-like motion and dropped down lightly onto the ground. He dusted himself off with a casual flair. "You could say that… in a way." He looked up at Tony, his voice turning a bit more serious. "I can either be the guy who rescues you, or the guy who helps you rescue yourself."
Yinsen blinked at Peter in confusion, glancing at Stark for guidance. Tony's expression darkened with suspicion as he narrowed his eyes, scrutinizing every inch of Peter's body language. "What do you mean by that?"
Peter pointed toward a large tarp in the corner. "I mean, it looks like you were already planning an escape of your own. Wouldn't want all that hard work to go to waste, right?"
"What—" Yinsen interrupted, his voice urgent. "If what Stark said about you having superpowers is true, and you have the ability to get him out of here immediately, why delay? Why not rescue him right now?"
Peter tilted his head slightly, giving Yinsen an almost pitying look. "First of all, why are you acting like I'm planning to leave you behind? I was sent to help Stark, sure, but that doesn't mean I'm gonna ignore someone else who needs help. That's not how I roll."
Yinsen blinked, clearly taken aback. Meanwhile, Tony's hardened expression shifted ever so slightly into something more thoughtful—maybe even impressed.
Peter continued, "Second… it wouldn't sit right with me to just swoop in and ignore everything you two have fought so hard to accomplish. Blood, sweat, and tears—it matters. If you've been working this hard to escape on your own terms, then barging in and yanking you out would be disrespectful to everything you've endured."
Tony frowned, folding his arms as he studied Peter more intently. "You figured out our plan that easily, huh? How?"
Peter shrugged. "I've got X-ray vision, dude. That tarp isn't hiding shit. It's pretty obvious you're building some kind of armor under there." He grinned under his mask. "What else would you do with a huge metal suit and a bunch of spare parts?"
Tony gave a small, grudging shrug, tilting his head as if to say, Fair enough.
"So here's the deal," Peter said, his voice turning a little softer. "You get to decide. I can help you bust out of here right now, or I can help you help yourself."
Yinsen still looked deeply confused, almost frustrated. "I don't understand... why make us choose? Isn't the safest option to just escape immediately?"
Peter let out a small, exasperated breath, running a hand through his hair out of habit even though it brushed against his mask. 'I always feel like I ramble too much whenever I meet new people…'
"As a hero," Peter said, voice growing firm, "it's my job to help people. But it's also my responsibility to recognize when my help might actually hurt more than it helps. Sometimes, just doing everything for someone robs them of their strength. Sometimes they need to see what they're capable of. Right now, rescuing you might be easier, sure. But it might also mean you lose the thing you fought for—the chance to reclaim your freedom with your own hands."
He paused, making sure both of them were listening carefully.
"I save people who believe they can't save themselves. And I assist those who believe they can. You get what I'm trying to say?"
There was a long, thoughtful silence as both Tony and Yinsen absorbed Peter's words.
And for the first time since Peter had entered the cave, Tony Stark gave him a genuine nod of acknowledgment and respect.
Yinsen slowly and reluctantly nodded, his understanding of Peter's words becoming clearer despite their convoluted nature. He didn't fully agree, but he grasped the essence of what Peter was trying to express.
"You sure take this hero business seriously, don't you?" Tony asked, eyeing Peter with a curious expression. It wasn't a negative look, just one of mild intrigue.
Peter met his gaze as if Tony had just asked the most obvious question in the world. "Of course I do. Why wouldn't I? I didn't choose this path half-heartedly, with flimsy ideals. I'm in it for the long haul," he said firmly, his voice full of conviction.
Tony raised his hand in mock surrender, a serious expression replacing his usual smirk. "Alright, alright. But how exactly would you help me help myself?"
Peter's grin widened at the challenge. "I'm glad you asked." With a flourish, he slid a finger along his utility belt, pulling out a small disk and flicking it effortlessly toward the metal door. The disk stuck with a soft click, then expanded outward, the center glowing blue to signal its activation.
Peter anticipated the question before it could even form in Tony's mind. "That's a sound dampener. It means we can make all the noise we want, and it won't escape this room." He sighed heavily, glancing away. "Don't ask why I had to make it, okay?"
"I wasn't going to," Tony replied with a puzzled frown, eyeing Peter in a way that said he was both impressed and confused.
"Good," Peter shot back, his tone defensive. "...Sometimes sound proof walls aren't enough to isolate sound"
"You're giving me unnecessary information..."
"Sorry," Peter mumbled, clearing his throat. "Second thing: I'm fast."
Stark's eyebrow twitched upward in curiosity. "How fast are we talking?"
Peter shot back with a grin. "How fast do you need me to be?"
Stark's face lit up as understanding dawned on him. "Oh, I see now." He placed a hand over his beard, his voice turning thoughtful. "I think I get what you're going for. You'll give us a hand, and we'll provide the instructions. You'll use that speed to build things in record time."
Peter snapped his fingers, pointing directly at Stark. "Exactly."
But then Yinsen spoke up, his voice laced with concern. "We still have a problem with the cameras," he said, gesturing toward the distant walls. "They're recording everything we do."
Peter waved his hand dismissively. "Don't worry about them. The cameras are all showing you two working hard on creating weapons. I made sure of that when I first entered the room."
Tony couldn't help but nod in appreciation. "Resourceful," he said, genuinely impressed.
Then, with a grin, Tony moved over to the tarp and yanked it off, revealing the massive shape beneath. The Mark I Iron Man suit stood there in all its glory, bulky and imposing, but unmistakably impressive.
"I gotta say..." Peter's voice trailed off as he stared, completely in awe. "That's hella impressive." It was one thing to see it in a screen, but seeing it in person was something else entirely. He was geeking out on the inside.
Tony's grin widened. "Glad you think so." He paused for a moment, his expression turning serious. "I don't know what it is about you, but I feel like I can trust you—"
"It's called charisma."
Tony rolled his eyes but continued, undeterred. "I'm going to need you to follow everything Yinsen and I say down to the last decimal. Are you ready?"
Yinsen, although still skeptical, sighed with resignation, his face still etched with wariness. He didn't fully trust Peter, but there was a sense of inevitability in his demeanor.
Peter interlocked his fingers and cracked them loudly, his voice filled with mock enthusiasm. "As Bob the Builder once said, 'Can we fix it?'"
Tony laughed, the tension breaking as he and Peter exchanged a fist bump. "'Yes we can,'" Tony replied with a grin, clearly amused.
…
A trail of blue lightning raced around the workshop as Yinsen and Tony stood a distance away, directing Peter. The room pulsed with heat and the occasional spark as Peter zipped from corner to corner, a blur of black and blue with streaks of crackling blue lightning in his wake. His hands moved so fast they were barely visible, snatching parts from piles of scrap, welding joints with precise heat, and bolting panels together in mid-air before they even touched the workbench.
"Left hydraulic piston, 3.2 inches—cut it now!" Tony barked.
"Done!" Peter called mid-air, already welding it into the leg structure of the Mark 1.
Yinsen watched wide-eyed, flinching at the burst of sparks but keeping up. "Careful! That capacitor needs to be double insulated or the arc reactor will overload!"
"Way ahead of you, Doc!" Peter replied, leaping upside-down and webbing an extra insulator in place with pinpoint accuracy.
Tony let out a low whistle. "You sure you're not part machine?"
"Nope, just spider and raw sexiness," Peter said, multitasking as he webbed up loose wires, reinforced a chest plate, and spun a new gear out of scrap with his fingertips—all at once.
"Arc housing!" Tony shouted.
Peter darted to the side, grabbed the makeshift housing, and slipped it in with such speed and care it was like watching a time-lapse in real-time.
"Good—now bolt it down, 8 torque setting—"
VZZT-VRRRRR— CLICK.
"Boom," Peter said, holding up the drill like a trophy.
Yinsen and Tony exchanged a glance of pure disbelief before Tony turned back to the nearly finished exo-shell. "This is nuts. What would've taken me a week just got cut down to minutes."
"Just doing my part," Peter said, slightly winded but grinning under his mask. "Also, sorry about rewiring your coffee maker into an electromagnetic compression welder. It was… necessary."
Yinsen blinked. "We had a coffee maker?"
Tony just smirked, watching as Peter darted back to reinforce the helmet casing. "Spider-Man," he said, "you're slowly becoming my favorite person right now"
Peter, already halfway up the wall with the last gauntlet in hand, looked back with a wink, "Careful now the Yinsen might get jealous"
Yinsen just had a deadpan look not entertaining it.
Tony turned toward Yinsen, nodding. "Alright. With this pace, we can finish the suit by nightfall."
Peter gave a mock salute. "This baby will make the Iron Giant seem like a documentary"
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