Chapter Text
Peter came into consciousness with a gasp, nearly shouting as he flailed slightly and sat himself up.
Dark, everything was dark. He pulled the ski mask off with one hand and started trying to look around, allowing his enhanced eyes to adjust to the darkness. As he scanned the plain, concrete room he was in, his eyes fell onto a figure in the opposite corner.
The boy scrambled to his feet, pressing himself against the wall and breathing heavily- frantically- staring at the figure. A man, it was a man.
The man was sitting on the floor, a mask covering the lower part of his face. He had dark, short hair and even darker eyes that weren’t even looking at him. Peter was worried that he was dead before he heard his heartbeat with his sensitive ears. The heartbeat was a little … off, but Peter assumed he wasn’t in danger - his spider sense wasn’t going off, after all. He took a moment to feel around his outfit to see if he still had his web shooters (he did) and his phone (he did not) before carding a hand through his hair and cringing slightly as his fingers brushed over what had to have been a bruise. Had he been hit in the head? He must have been.
What the hell had even happened?
Two months. He’d been doing this “Spider-Man” thing for two months now. He had... been on patrol, yeah. It was admittedly pretty late, but it was also a Saturday and May was out with her friends for the weekend (She’d desperately needed the break anyway. After the move from the townhouse to the apartment she’d been in such a slump. A weekend at the Bethlehem casino was a perfect getaway for her) and he could take care of himself for a couple of days. I mean, it wasn’t like mild-mannered Peter Benjamin Parker ever got up to anything, right?
Tonight was an… exception… to that rule.
He’d come across what had looked like a pretty low-grade arms deal. Just a bunch of tasers and guns. It hadn’t been the first time he’d seen something like that in Queens, and he wasn’t about to let that shit get into his neighborhood. No way.
But then, things went south.
That damned Parker Luck(™).
At some point he was knocked out in the fight, and was transported here. Though, where “here” was located remained a mystery.
“How long was I out?” he quietly muttered, slightly peeved he’d lost his phone as he fiddled around with his web shooters, checking to make sure they weren’t broken.
“Two hours.”
The boy nearly jumped to the wall and looked up at the man across the room.
“You were brought in unconscious two hours ago. It’s 2:45 AM.”
“.. How do you know that? Watch?” Peter asked nervously. The man looked over at him. His eyes were almost vacant, sending a shiver down the boy’s spine- still not setting off his spider sense, though.
“... Yeah,” the man answered, standing up.
“.. Okay.. How long have you been here?” Peter asked, looking over at the door, and then above them, where a light just barely flickered. It left the room so dark that it was only thanks to his enhanced senses he could see the man close to clearly.
“About an hour longer than you. This is the AIM facility in the Bronx.”
“Th-the Bronx?!” Peter exclaimed. “But-why??”
“.. You’re enhanced, aren’t you?”
Peter bristled slightly. “Wha- No I-”
“It is pitch black in here and you are making eye contact with me.” the man interrupted. “You were somewhere you weren’t supposed to be. Snatched up and bought here.”
“... Okay, fine. Does that mean you’re “enhanced” too?”
The man didn’t respond. Peter just huffed.
“Okay fine, whatever. How do we get out?” Peter went over to the steel door and put his ear against it, straining to use his enhanced hearing to figure out if anyone was in front of it.
He didn’t answer again. Peter resisted the urge to roll his eyes. Selective replies? Great.
He knocked on the door. The man stared at him.
“... Don’t tell me you were seriously expecting an answer,” the man stated.
“N-no! Of course not!” Peter almost shouted. “I was… seeing how thick it was.”
The man blinked. “..And?”
“Seems about .. I wanna say two inches thick? Really not that bad, one solid kick might open it,” the boy reasoned. He didn’t want to reveal anything else about himself than he needed to at this point. He’d already shown his face and his “enhanced eyes”. He needn’t make his life more difficult.
He had no idea who this guy even was.
“Are you certain?”
“About as certain as I can be, I guess,” Peter admitted. “You can call me, uh, Ben, by the way,” Peter introduced. Might as well use his middle name here.
“... Ed,” The man- now Ed- answered, coming up to the door and tapping on it.
“Think there are guards?” Peter asked.
“Probably. Can you fight?”
“Uh, I beat up a mugger earlier today for stealing a purse,” Peter nervously answered.
Ed didn’t answer that, very suddenly lifting his foot and kicking the door so hard it flew off the hinges.
“.... Nice.”
“I’m not here to rescue a child. Find your own way out.”
“Whoa whoa wait, what are you in here for? Were you kidnapped too?”
Ed looked back at him as he started to exit the room. “My ‘kidnapping’ was intentional.”
“Then what are you actually here for?” Peter asked him, one hand gripping his mask just a little tighter.
“..... Classified.”
Peter had to try very, very hard to suppress his groan. “Okay, fine, whatever, just- just let me thank you? You’ve technically saved me,” Peter pointed out. “Anyway I can make it up to you?”
“.... What are your abilities?” Ed asked. He almost sounded like some clinician.
“... Strength, reflexes, enhanced senses, I uh… stick to things?”
“... You stick to things.”
Peter huffed for what must have been the dozenth time before jumping and attaching himself to the ceiling with just his hands, dangling. It looked a bit silly but it made his point, and he came back to the floor.
“... Like a gecko.”
“... I’ll be honest I’ve never thought of that. I compare it more to a spider,” Peter admitted.
“... Sure.” Ed looked down the ominous hall. Peter couldn’t see or sense anything dangerous.
“Huh, where do you think-”
“Sh.”
They froze. Peter felt his senses go absolutely haywire and turned around, hearing footsteps.
“Someone’s coming.”
“No shit. Ceiling, now.”
Peter didn’t even respond, he just jumped up onto the ceiling, feet and hands putting him in a sitting position with his slightly askew hair hanging down.
The ‘someone’ was a heavily armed guard, running because apparently, there was supposed to be a guard there. The guy didn’t get very far once he got there - Ed just punched him in the face so hard that Peter cringed. That was definitely a broken face.
“... Did you kill him?” Peter cautiously asked, coming down from the ceiling.
“Doesn’t matter,” Ed answered. “But the way he came is the way I’m going.”
“...Well that’s probably the way out so I’m coming too.” Peter hopped down, doing his best to not even look in the direction of the maybe-dead man.
Ed looked back at him.
“Just stay out of my way.”
“Wasn’t planning on getting in your way, but sure.”
Ed didn’t look very amused at Peter’s quip, and Peter avoided eye contact.
The two took off running down the hall, Peter keeping up with Ed effortlessly - though he stayed respectfully behind him (“Respectfully” being code for “Ed can run into the trouble first”- which Ed knew, and didn’t really care much about).
A few corners later, Ed stopped short, and Peter stopped behind him.
“What? What is it?” Peter whispered.
“Shut up.”
Well, that was unhelpful. Peter rolled his eyes as Ed looked around the corner. He waited… and waited… and waited, until suddenly Ed turned the corner and left the fourteen year old scrambling to follow. Before he got the chance, his spider sense caught that he was about to get hit, and he bent backward to avoid the incoming hit. The man covered in heavy tactical gear seemed almost startled, and Peter took his chance, recovering and pushing the man away with both of his hands, which sent the man flying, and then using his web shooters - aiming a web at the man’s chest, and pulling him back for a pretty solid kick to the gut. The man fell over unceremoniously, having had the wind knocked out of him, and Peter - panting slightly from the adrenaline - felt a surge of relief.
Then he remembered Ed.
Peter looked down the hall and saw what was easily over a dozen bodies strewn along the floor, and Ed standing - seeming to be catching his breath. Peter made his way over carefully. “Wow, uh, that’s a lot.”
“Your strings.”
“... What?”
“Your wrists, what was that?”
“Wait, you had time to see me-”
“Answer me.”
Peter stared at him incredulously. “They’re my web shooters. Spider, remember?” Peter lifted a wrist to show the shooters. “Made ‘em myself.”
“Hm,” was all Ed said in response before turning his back to the boy and heading further down the hallway.
“You’re a pretty shit conversationalist, ya know that?”
“Nope, had no idea.” Ed waved his hand back at him. “Hurry up. I’m not waiting for you. You’re responsible for yourself.”
“Oh my god, you are ridiculous.” Peter quickly but carefully made his way around the bodies. “But uh, quick question… are these guys…”
“Dead. Did you not kill the man you took down?”
“I-I don’t kill people!”
Ed suddenly stopped, and then turned around. “... Are you telling me that you have super enhanced abilities and you have never killed someone?”
“Never,” Peter answered, putting all of his conviction into that single word, following it up with “I have never killed someone and I will never kill someone.”
“... Keep telling yourself that,” Ed answered. “Now, keep up.”
Peter didn’t get a chance to argue, following behind Ed as they found what looked like a control room.
“My phone!” Peter announced as he grabbed the dinosaur.
“... Is that a Nokia?” Ed asked. Peter was about to point out that it was just an iPhone 3, when he saw just a hint of a twinkle in Ed’s eye. Ed was… teasing? That was new.
“Pff, I wish it was that durable,” Peter retorted. “Just an iPhone. I’m hopin’ to save up for the new Starkphone Omegas coming out in a couple months. The tech in those is next gen.”
“The Omegas are the lower end line.”
“Take a look at this outfit and tell me I can afford the StarkPhone Prime.”
Ed did in fact look - partially because it was much better lit in the control room than in the halls or that room they’d been haphazardly tossed into.
“You look like you can’t afford a walkie talkie,” Ed commented, his hands typing away at the keyboard as he spoke. The control panel let out a few beeps and clicks before he reached into the pocket of his thick Kevlar vest and took out what looked like a USB.
“And you have a USB. What is this, 2007?” Peter quipped.
“Sure, kid, sure,” was Ed’s only response before he shut up again, and Peter was engrossed in checking to see if they did anything to his phone. It didn’t even look like it had been logged into ( as if they’d even guess his passcode and get past the extra firewall that Ned had installed). They probably just took it off of him so he wouldn’t call for help - which was reassuring. He turned on his GPS, and sure enough, he was in the Bronx. He knew which subways to take - or, more accurately, sneak onto and then swing away from - to get home from here. Living in New York your whole life was certainly a help.
He put his phone into the inner pocket of his sleeveless hoodie and zipped it up again, getting a look at Ed, who seemed to also be finishing up.
Ed put the hard drive back in his vest and glanced over at Peter before standing up straight. “There’s more guards waiting towards the entrance.”
“Uh, I’ll be real with you, I was just gonna try the air vents,” Peter explained.
“Would you know which way is out?”
When Peter didn’t answer he finally heard something resembling a laugh come from Ed.
“Just hurry up and follow, kid.” Ed headed out of the room, looking left and right before exiting.
“You know, I gave you a name, ‘Ed’”
“Yeah, I know,” he answered almost smugly. Peter just rolled his eyes again. He’d never been in a scenario like this before (and hoped he’d never be in one like it again) and wasn’t exactly sure what the protocol was - if any - for getting kidnapped with a stranger.
“So are ya ever gonna use it?”
“Not likely,” Ed answered.
“Why?”
“Cause it ain’t your real name, kid,” Ed explained. “I don’t really have much of a name so you callin’ me ‘Ed’ is nothing. But you clearly got a life of some kind.”
“... That’s super cryptic and doesn’t make a whole lotta sense.”
“You’ll understand when you’re older.”
Peter put a hand through his hair and nearly let out whatever his equivalent to a growl was. If one more adult said that to him in the next two months he was seriously going to lose it. But regardless, he followed behind Ed.
As they got towards the entrance, Peter heard voices, quite a lot of them. At least a dozen men were up ahead and they were all talking - why the hell were they all talking?
“Lot of guys up ahead,” he noted quietly.
“Figured. Stay behind for a minute before comin’ in,” Ed warned, slowing his gait slightly.
“Why?”
“Because I’ll have taken out the bulk of them by then.”
“You mean kill them!?” Peter tried to keep his voice down.
“Kid, I’m not having a moral talk about murder with you. Take it or leave it.”
Peter grit his teeth and sighed deeply, about to argue against him, but Ed had already gone ahead and around the corner on his own for the second time tonight.
Peter mentally readied himself as he heard signs of a struggle, and finally put his mask back on before shaking his hands and checking his web shooters.
He then turned the corner, just in time to see a man raise his gun to the back of Ed’s otherwise occupied form.
His web caught it before the man could even contemplate pulling the trigger.
Peter yanked the gun away before shooting another web at the man’s chest,pinning him to the nearby wall. He then turned his attention to the four or so guys still standing, the rest of the men strewn across the floor in a way that made Peter’s stomach churn.
But he had to push it down. His eyes met another man dressed in tactical gear for whatever reason, and the fight was on. Peter’s spider sense made it easy to dodge, but his complete lack of experience in actual fights put him at a disadvantage. He only kept dodging, unsure of a good, proper opening to take the guy down.
Then he spotted Ed out of the corner of his eye, struggling slightly with a man much larger than himself, and got an idea.
It took a few more seconds of dodging before he grabbed at the man’s arm and yanked as hard as he could, flinging the man at a startling velocity towards the other one, causing a mangle of limbs as his human catapult hit its intended target. The thudding of the bodies was almost funny, as the two men just didn’t get up. Ed looked back at Peter with an equally hilarious “what the hell did you just do” expression. Peter just grinned back and shrugged his shoulders sheepishly.
“Creative problem solving?” Peter offered as an explanation.
“Put that on your resume,” Ed responded. “Thanks.”
“Oh, no problem!” Peter beamed with pride just slightly, following Ed out into the alleyway.
He nearly wanted to lie down on the sidewalk and kiss it, but he was smart enough to just do a fist pump into the air. His first-ever kidnapping and he escaped! There was a sort of thrill to it.
“We did it! Ed, are you -” He turned to where Ed had been, and there was nothing but the sound of a somehow still busy street at almost 3:30 AM. Peter looked around almost frantically, before letting out a sigh.
He had to get home, that was priority right now. He had to get at least some sleep before going to Ned’s at 12. Well, maybe shower, too.
He climbed up the building next to the warehouse, and took in a deep, welcomed breath of chilled air as he gazed out. He looked back briefly, maybe hoping to see his companion, before checking his web-shooters one more time, getting a running start, and jumping into the night.
--
The lab was dark, which in and of itself was unsettling. This lab was meant to always be brightly lit, almost eye-aching. It was how Tony liked it, most days.
But then again. Tony wasn’t here.
Vision stood stock-still, hands behind his back.
“You are late.”
“.. Caught up,” Ed replied, walking in from the elevator.
“Well, I hope you understand that you being ‘caught up’ does not help either of us.”
“I got the information. That’s what matters.”
Ever to the point, Vision assumed. The man didn’t look all that ragged. A little tired, yes, but not exactly put through the wringer.
“You understand the importance of your mission,” Vision pressed.
“Yeah, I get it,” he huffed back.
If his personality allowed exasperation, Vision assumed he’d be feeling it about now.
“Not just to your … employers.”
Ed stared sharply at him. “How about you just let me sleep, hm?” He tossed the USB at Vision, who caught it promptly. “Hail HYDRA.”
“... Indeed,” Vision responded. “I will contact you when another mission is assigned.”
And with that, Vision phased up through the floor.
“... FRIDAY.”
“Yes, Boss?”
“Put the keywords “Spider” and “Webs” into Tony’s Searching Database.”
There was a pause. “Done, Boss.”
“Good. I’m going to sleep.”
“Sleep well, Boss. You will be up at 7 AM for breakfast with Miss Potts.”
“... I won’t,” Ed answered back, removing his mask and heading back towards the elevator. “Also, FRIDAY?”
“Yes?”
“Call me Ed.”
“... Sure, Ed.”
The elevator shut silently, Ed closing his eyes for a single, blessed moment of peace.