Chapter Text
Pierce looked at the soldier standing before him and smiled. Decades. It had been decades since the Winter Soldier had last been deployed, but clearly, cryogenic suspension had not diminished his abilities; he was Hydra’s finest asset, and still is. He has never failed a mission, making him the ideal person to carry out this one.
-‘I have a job for you,’ he said, stepping towards him. ‘Go to New York and bring that person back here.’
Winter nodded after studying the photo of his target at length, then quickly left the premises.
The past few weeks had been peaceful for Peter: Harry was spending more and more time with him and Ned, his grades were getting better and better, and his work placement was going as well as could be expected. It had been a long time since he’d felt so relaxed; the last time, if he remembered correctly, was when Ben was still alive. For the first time in a long while, things were going well.
That day, when Peter woke up, he realised he was running late and that May had already left for work. He got ready in a hurry, left without having breakfast, and rushed to the underground. He finally arrived, out of breath, at the classroom just before the bell rang. He entered the room and fumbled in his jacket pocket for his inhaler. He sat down and listened to the start of the lesson without paying much attention.
Lunchtime arrived and, to his great surprise, Harry came and sat with him and Ned in the canteen. Harry had certainly been getting closer to them for some time, but this was the first time he’d joined them. The moment Harry sat down opposite him, he felt as though his brain had turned to mush and felt the heat rising to his cheeks. He could also hear Ned chuckling beside him, so he quickly gave him a gentle nudge in the ribs to silence him
‘Do you mind if I stay with you?’ asked Harry
-‘No, no, not at all, we don't mind,’ replied Ned. ‘Right, Peter?’ he added with a sly smile, looking at his best friend.
‘N...No!’ he replied quickly, suddenly remembering how to speak. "You can sit here
Harry sat down and started chatting to them about this and that. At the end of the day, he offered to take the two boys home with him. Ned declined, claiming he had a project to finish (and not at all because he wanted Peter and Harry to spend some time alone). And so it was that Peter found himself walking alongside Harry through the streets of Queens.
The journey took place in a strange atmosphere: whenever Harry tried to strike up a conversation, Peter would stammer out an improvised reply before letting the conversation fizzle out, yet despite this, Harry kept trying to get Peter to talk; after a while, the teenager plucked up his courage and decided to reply
For most of the journey, the two teenagers talked about their lessons, Flash, and the Decathlon. In short, the usual teenage chatter.
What they didn’t know was that a figure was watching them from afar, ready to act at any moment
Tony scanned the information that F.R.I.D.A.Y had selected: Cap had asked him to look into S.H.I.E.L.D.’s latest classified projects, in case HYDRA had attempted to infiltrate one of them through spies embedded within the organisation. He was scrutinising every single file that F.R.I.D.A.Y had unearthed (which was taking a very long time) when one of the files caught his attention:
Soldier Renaissance Project
Tony opened the file and was shocked by what he saw: apparently, S.H.I.E.L.D. had attempted to replicate the Super Soldier Serum (and had even reused the name of the operation, tweaking it slightly) with the help of several scientists and geneticists, but without success. The project had ultimately been abandoned after only a few months of testing
Tony was going through the names of the scientists who had taken part in the projects to check their backgrounds and, potentially, what had become of them: curiously, he didn’t find much of interest apart from two or three suspicious individuals; nothing particularly caught his attention until he looked towards the bottom of the list
-OH FUCK !
Steve was surprised that Tony had called a meeting so quickly. It had only been a few days since he’d asked him to do some research, but he hadn’t expected it to happen so fast! However, something was troubling him: Tony looked shaken – what on earth could he have discovered?
They all arrived in the meeting room at the same time and took their seats before Tony finally arrived, looking pale and grave:
‘I won’t beat about the bush. I’ve learnt that S.H.I.E.L.D. also attempted to replicate the serum a few years ago. In my opinion, that’s roughly when HYDRA got the idea to try and replicate it too.’
Everyone leaned forward to get a closer look at the information displayed on the screen in front of them
-But that’s not the only thing I’ve discovered
He changed the image on the screen, and at that moment it took their breath away:
-WHAT’S THE HEL-
-Impossible...
-How?!
It took everyone a while to calm down. Then again, who could blame them for being so shaken ? They hadn’t expected the two names that appeared on the board in the middle of the room :
MARY PARKER, RICHARD PARKER
For the past few minutes, Peter had had the strange feeling that he was being followed; he would occasionally turn his head in a way he hoped looked nonchalant, but unfortunately (for him) Harry eventually noticed his friend’s unease:
‘Is something wrong, Peter?’
Peter jumped and turned towards him, clearly nervous.
‘Don’t you feel a bit like you’re being watched?’
‘Now that you mention it, I’ve got a strange feeling too, as if… something’s not quite right.’
Suddenly, Peter saw Harry spin round abruptly and land a blow on a man dressed in black, wearing a mask over his face and... was that a metal arm?! Whatever the case, Peter was completely paralysed with fear, not knowing what to do. He vaguely heard Harry shouting at him to run away; he blinked for a few seconds, then watched in horror as the man struck Harry violently in the stomach, sending him crashing into the wall. He collapsed to the floor, unconscious.
Peter let out a small cry of terror and saw the man charging towards him. He barely had time to take a step before he was pinned to the floor, the man’s hands clamped around his neck. Peter couldn’t scream, of course, because he couldn’t breathe, but he struggled fiercely against his attacker’s grip; he managed to tear off his mask, revealing his empty, cold gaze and impassive face. The teenager suddenly felt his strength abandon him and black spots began to blur the edges of his vision. He felt his hand slam against the ground and the world went black
The soldier watched as the boy fainted. He took care not to squeeze too hard, so as not to kill him. He eventually hoisted the teenager onto his shoulder and made his way to the meeting point where he was to join his superiors. He did not see the second teenager stirring feebly not far away
Harry watched in horror as his friend was carried away by the stranger, desperately wanting to help him but too weak to move; he felt he was about to lose consciousness again. He tried to sit up but immediately collapsed onto the ground of the alleyway
-No... Peter, no...
And he finally passed out
Peter gradually came round, groaning from a burning pain in his throat. He tried to run his hands over his neck to ease the pain, but realised his hands were handcuffed behind his back. Panicked, he tries to struggle free but suddenly feels the barrel of a gun pressed against his temple. He stops dead in his tracks, looks up and sees a man walking towards him
‘Hello, Mr Parker’
The teenager looks fearfully at the man, who is eyeing him up with a smirk
‘You and I need to have a little chat’