Chapter Text
Peter sat hunched over on the rooftop of a neighbouring building as he waited for Matt and Frank to arrive. There was a slight chill in the air; he curled into his suit a little more and squinted down at the doorway. No one had entered or left since he'd got there, but there was most likely multiple entrances, and Peter's imagination went wild when it came to any hidden tunnels that may lead from the basement. He shivered. Then, his neck twitched and he glanced over to the fire escape. Matt emerged a few seconds later.
"You made it," Peter called out. "You took your time," he added with a laugh.
"Sorry. There was a case that needed to be looked at."
"It's alright. I almost cancelled anyway."
"Yeah?"
"Someone…started a small fire in the lab ten minutes before the clean up," Peter explained bitterly. "It was fine in the end, obviously." Matt hummed quietly and cocked his head slightly.
"Frank's here," he announced. Peter strained his ears but he didn't know Frank well enough to pick him out just by his faint heartbeat. So, he sat back and waited until the man appeared.
A gruff, "Red", marked his entrance as Frank clambered onto the roof. Matt nodded once whilst Peter grinned underneath his mask.
"Alright then," the young man began, "there's not much to debrief but Matt's still saying twenty guys in that basement so-"
"Yeah, yeah, I get it, kid," Frank butted in. "Let's just get on with it."
Nodding, Peter flung himself off the edge of the building (he heard Frank's heart beat quicken as he did and smiled) and caught himself on a web so that he could stick himself to the side of the warehouse. Then, he jimmied the window opened and slipped inside. As he crawled across the ceiling, the side door was shoved open and Frank and Matt stepped inside.
Sparing a single glance up at the shadowed figure on the roof, Frank lifted his rifle up. There was no communication between him and Matt before they both began searching through the stacks of crates.
"Clear," Frank muttered quietly, and glanced over at a flash of sudden movement but it was only Peter dropping down to the ground. "Jesus, kid." He grinned.
"Lets get downstairs," Matt said, ears straining as he listened to everyone downstairs. "It's going to be an ambush," he added, directing his statement towards Peter who shrugged.
"I've done worse." Even Frank could see the man's pointed look.
They piled into the lift (Matt hung back for a second) and Peter sprang up to stick himself to the ceiling. Then, he crouched down and readied himself to shoot out of the doors.
"I'll get to the back of the room," he muttered, cracking his neck. Frank glanced up at him before huffing in agreement. "We'll push into the middle."
"Sure, kid," he replied. Peter ignored Matt's silence and let the twitch in the back of his neck envelope him as the doors slid open.
Barely a tenth of a second passed before Peter shot out a web and was hurtling over the men's heads. He inhaled sharply upon the soft impact and glanced back to see Frank's gun raised. Bullets began flying a moment later.
Dropping down from his position, Peter slammed his heel into the back of a man's knee, dodging a bullet, and sprayed webs across his free limbs as he collapsed to the ground. Another shot at him and Peter barely registered the projectile before he ducked and launched himself towards the attacker. In three quick moves, the man was splayed out on the opposite wall; he struggled against Peter's restraints. In between shouts of pain and gunshots, Peter heard Matt's rapid heartbeat. Frank's had barely changed.
He knocked someones feet out from the beneath them just in time for one of Frank's stray bullets to slam into their shoulder. As blood poured onto the floor, Peter trapped them against the ground and yanked their forgotten gun from their lose grip. Now armed, he swung the weapon into a man's face, wincing at the loud crunch and spun around in a strong kick that caught the man directly in the neck. Choking, he collapsed as well. Peter glanced around and immediately yanked himself across the room with a web after he saw Matt hit the ground. Flying through the air, he grabbed one of the attackers by their jacket and flung them against the wall. With a thump, they lay crumpled and groaning.
"I'm fine!" Matt shouted as he blocked a punch that would've hit him directly in the face. Peter shrugged, knowing the man registered the movement, and shot out two webs that attached to a man's elbow and ankle. Yanking hard, Peter heard the attacker's shoulder dislocate in a sickening crunch as he smacked against a metal cabinet.
Frank had just blown someones kneecap to bits when Peter looked over, grimacing at the gore now covering the ground. But there were only three left standing.
Peter took one. The man swung a heavy fist towards his head; he crouched without hesitation and slammed his elbow into the man's neck. Not waiting for him to catch a breath, Peter grabbed the back of his head and forced it down onto his raised knee. Blood sprayed over his new suit. The man slid onto the ground where Peter webbed him down.
Then, he finally got a good look at the space they were in. The hidden room was filled with cluttered desks and computers that most likely stored a goldmine of information that probably related to the bloodied handcuffs he could see, and the stash of cocaine in the corner. And probably the small pin board that was littered in photos of young kids that made Frank's lip curl.
It was when Peter was looking over the filing cabinets that he realised his imagination hadn't been too unrealistic.
"Look," he said, almost just to himself, and pointed at a deep gouge that had been scraped into the cement. Frank wandered over, wiping blood from his face, and frowned.
"What is it? Just a wall."
"No, it's a door," Peter replied with a gleeful smile. Then, with the man still scowling at him, he pressed his back against the filing cabinet and pushed with his legs. At first, using a little amount of strength, nothing happened but once Peter put some more force into it the door began to move. Laughing, he shoved it along the ground and revealed a cramped entrance. "Tunnels!" he announced and glanced over his shoulder. Matt had his head cocked as he, presumably, listened out for anyone inside the space and Frank managed to crack a smile.
But Peter's discovery wouldn't be happy for long as Matt suddenly said, "Peter, you stay behind." His face fell.
"What?"
"We don't know what's in there," Matt explained halfheartedly.
"As if I didn't just save your ass," Peter pointed out bitterly. "I'm not a fucking child." Matt chewed at his lip but Peter wasn't going to sit around. If Matt was going to undermine him, just like Tony did, then he wasn't going to waste time proving himself when he'd already done it time and time again. With a sneer, Peter took a rifle from a desk, checked the clip, and looped the strap over his head before stepping into the tunnel.
"Look Red," Frank began to say before sighing, "he can handle himself." Then the man joined Peter and the two of them set of using Frank's weak torch light to guide them.
"Thanks," Peter muttered as they strode along, water splashing with each step. Frank huffed.
"No problem, you know what he's like about this shit. You got your shit figured out, kid," he replied roughly. "That was a good move." Peter glanced over, seeing the man's face silhouetted in the dim light.
"What?"
"With the webs. When you got his elbow."
"Oh, yeah. You saw that?"
"Your fighting style is-"
"Different," Matt supplied, and Peter jumped at his voice. Cursing him quietly, the man chuckled softly. "The tunnels are empty, but they go on until the docks."
"Great," Frank muttered. "Didn't plan to be walking."
"And there are people in a chamber right at the end, but I can tell how many just yet. If it's too many, we'll go back." Peter opened his mouth to protest. "It's not about whether or not you can handle it, it's about not being reckless for no reason," Matt said but Peter didn't say anything else.
The tunnel was completely pitch black other than Frank's torchlight, and the water reflections. But, even without the visibility, Peter could feel moss growing on the walls. How long had this been here? he asked himself. With the faint breeze blowing in from the docks, Matt could map out the puddles and the chamber they were about to breech. And, as they grew closer, he could single out fifteen people but with Peter carrying that rifle (admittedly Matt didn't actually know if the man could use it very well), he didn't say anything but the number of people ahead.
Once the light at the end of the tunnel grew large enough to not need the torch, Peter had quickened his pace slightly and was soon crouched at the entrance. He peered across the chamber.
There was a short loading bay with a dock completely covered in even more crates that seemed to be the same ones from the warehouse on the street. But there wasn't a boat anywhere in sight, so the only way for the people milling about on the dock was the tunnel that they were in. He glanced back at Frank and Matt as they surveyed the situation in front of them.
"They're human traffickers," Frank pointed out quietly. "I'm going to gun them down one way or another." Matt cocked his head before disagreeing a moment later.
"There's a boat coming," he revealed and Peter strained his ears until he also heard the faint rumble of an engine. "We either wait for them to leave and follow them, or we get them now and take the boat as well." Peter didn't particularly want to be prancing around along the Hudson River, so he chose the second option.
Frank and Peter waited for Matt's signal eagerly.
Peter launched himself over the railing and smacked someone to the ground. Bullets sprayed across the crates; he rolled and caught a woman's ankle, sending her into the water. Then he lifted his rifle and shot down three people that were on the loading bay, and launched himself over the heads of two men. As he pummelled them to the ground, Peter realised that they were missing two people from the fifteen Matt had heard. He webbed them to the ground a moment later.
"There are two missing!" he shouted, dodging a bullet that he returned without hesitation. Matt strained his ears and shifted his stance as someone ran at him. A loud splash caught Peter's attention and he looked over to see Frank standing by the water's edge. "Frank!" The man looked over. "We got two missing." He nodded once, shooting a woman's shoulder to pieces, and clambered back up to the tunnel's entrance. Catching a punch, Peter heard a few distant gunshot and slammed his fist into the man's stomach which sent him to the ground. "Were they there?"
"No," Matt gritted out. His attacker straightened up again, but not before Peter could shoot him in the leg and Matt sent a hard kick into the gushing wound. "They're hiding." Peter glanced around before realising that the boat was almost at the bay.
"They're escaping," he replied bitterly. "Frank!"
"Hold on," the man barked out as he dodged a bullet from one of the few remaining soldiers. Scowling, Peter scanned the dock but still they avoided capture.
"Where are you?" he sang out quietly. There was a soft thud as the boat docked behind him and Peter spun around, lifting his gun. The enclosed cabin made it too difficult to see if there was anyone still inside; the engine was too loud for Peter to distinguish any heartbeats. "Frank, get your gun on the boat!" he ordered. There was a bang behind him as Frank shot a man in the stomach.
Then, Matt's face fell as he heard something metallic start to whir. It wasn't until Peter shouted out for them to find some cover that he realised what it was. Bullets rained down on them as they hid behind the crates that were rapidly degrading with each round, but it gave the two remaining traffickers to leg it to the boat. Peter tried to shoot out a web and grab them, but it fell short.
But the gunning was over as quickly as it had started and the engine rumbled loudly. Before any of the men could do anything, the boat was already pulling out of the dock.
"Fuck," Frank growled out. "We were so close." Matt gritted his teeth.
"We've got enough evidence back in the warehouse; I'll leave a tip at the police station on the way home," Matt said, clearly trying to counter the failed mission but Peter scoffed.
"As if the police will do anything," he spat out. "Fucking ridiculous. Whatever." Matt sneered at him.
"You want to deal with this yourself? Fine, be my guest; cross that line you so greatly desire."
"I don't know what you're talking about," Peter muttered coldly. "It's not like it exists for you, does it?" Frank grabbed Matt's arm a moment later and glared at him. "I'm going to follow that boat and be useful before you let the police stomp their dirty fucking footprints everywhere." Matt would've said something, but Peter was gone before he could even think of an appropriate response. Frank grinned.
"He's right."
"Not you as well. The police aren't entirely useless. I work with them daily and they're-"
"Then you of all people should know what a failed system looks like," Frank butted in. "Just let Peter handle this stuff. He's an adult."
"I know that. I just…"
"What? You're too scared to fuck him up like you did to yourself?" Frank laughed.
"No." Matt glanced around at the bodies and groaning victims around them. "I know he'd be fine. I just don't want him to overestimate what he can actually do. I don't want him to die."
"But that's why we have the system, Red," Frank pointed out. "He'll call if he needs it."
"But does he know when to call?"
With a sigh, Matt turned back to the tunnel.