Chapter Text
Hector looked at the newest trial of the new project he was overseeing. Ever since the busted cooperation between HYDRA and that low-time gang, he had been reassigned to a new team of scientists. They had found something that seemingly didn’t belong to the planet and they had been running countless tests on it.
“Sir, it seems like the test subject isn’t going to last much longer,” one of the scientists said to him.
On the other side of the double-reinforced bulletproof glass, a person screamed as blood poured out of every orifice of their face and they pulled against their bonds uselessly. They screamed and wailed as their insides moved, giving one last scream before their body went limp on the table.
Hector clicked his tongue in disappointment, intertwining his hands behind his back. In the experiment room, two scientists in full hazmat suits approached carefully. In one scientist’s hands, they held a vial and the other released a bond to hold the person’s arm in the air. Slicing their wrist, instead of blood, a black inky substance slid out of the wound to plop into the vial. Once the black had full poured out and red replaced it, the vial was pulled back and capped.
“How many more subjects do we have?” Hector asked.
The scientist on his side of the glass tapped at their tablet, frowning under their mask. “One more sir but, if I may, I do not believe they will be a successful trial.”
Hector reached up to rub at his chin, thinking over his options. They had gone through so many subjects already and his higher ups were getting agitated by the lack of results on their end. They needed someone extremely strong, physically and mentally, to withstand the experiment. The problem was that there was not many people that could fit that billet.
Like a light bulb going off, Hector remembered a certain boy he had met not that long ago.
“He could work,” Hector smirked to himself.
Time to go pick up the spider.
Peter shivered as he climb into the plush and warm leather seats of the car Tony’s had driven to pick him up in.
“Cold, kid?” Tony laughed as he turned the heat up. Peter sighed in relief.
Winter had hit in New York City and it had hit hard. Due to Peter’s spider gene’s, his thermoregulation had been shot and extreme temperature changes hit him hard. After the latest stint of Peter nearly falling into hibernation walking home with MJ, Morgan, and Ned during a sudden cold snap, it was decided that he was no longer allowed to travel outside in the winter temperature if it could be helped.
“The heating was out in my last period,” Peter answered. Leaning forward, Peter placed his icy hands in front of the vent to let warm air brush over them. “Let me tell you, that was forty-five minutes of torture. Ned had to keep pinching me to keep me awake.”
“Kid, you should have called me,” Tony said. He put the car in drive and pulled out of the school’s parking lot. “I could have come to pick you up earlier.”
“I’m trying to save up on early dismissals and absences,” Peter said. Feeling his hands once again, he leaned back to enjoy the heated seat. “Who knows when I am going to need them for another stay in the med bay or a mission.”
“Another point in my reasoning that you should take the year off from the super hero business,” Tony pointed out. He found a nearby fast-food joint and pulled up in line for the drive-thru.
With the start of Peter’s senior year of high school, Tony had started to push for Peter to take some time off or pull back from patrol. He knew how important it was for Peter to do good in classes and have a good record to get in the college of his dream. The problem was that he had learned the hard way that Parker luck is shit and was going to get in the way of those college dreams as much as possible.
Last year, Tony had to pull so many excuses out of his ass as to why Peter was missing school because he was on a last-minute mission Fury demanded the kid be on or was stuck in the med bay. Part of the reason he thought that no one said anything was because he was Tony Stark and had donated so much money to advance the school ever since he’s taken a large role in Peter’s life.
“You know I can’t do that,” Peter whined, digging his nose into his scarf when Tony rolled his window down to order. “There’s too many people that depend on me.”
“They shouldn’t have to depend on a teenager,” Tony grumbled. Their conversation was paused as Tony placed their very large order. He didn’t even need to ask what Peter wanted anymore since he knew what the growing teenager would want. Tony didn’t even blink at the wall of text that was their order on the screen, just taking his foot off the brake when told to go to the first window.
“Yeah, but they don’t know how old I am,” Peter argued after Tony paid for their food and they waited for the person at the second window before them to move. “And I would like to keep it that way.”
“Hey, you’re doing better with your secret identity than me by a long shot,” Tony said with a hand held up in surrender. “I swear my ears are still ringing from Pep’s scolding afterwards.”
“I remember watching that video of you announcing you are Iron Man,” Peter grinned, tapping the edge of his seat as the car in front of them finally pulled away and Tony drove up to the window.
“Oh god, that’s embarrassing,” Tony groaned. He reached over to be handed the first of the many bags of steaming fast food. The worker in the window had their mouth drop open in shock at seeing the Tony Stark.
Peter cheered in joy as the bag was handed over to him, reaching in and grabbing the first burger he could get his hands on. Tony was barely handing over the second bag when Peter ripped off the wrapper and started digging in. Rolling his eyes, Tony grabbed the third and last bag to hand over to Peter. He knew that Peter would demolish the first bag on his own and probably the second bag.
“Mr. Stark, this is so good,” Peter said as he practically melted in bliss.
“Yeah, I know,” Tony chuckled and put the car in drive to leave the fast-food restaurant’s parking lot. With one hand on the wheel, he held the other out towards Peter. “Now give me one before I leave you on the side of the road.”
Laughing, Peter grabbed another burger and opened the wrapper before handing it over to Tony. Humming gratitude, Tony bit into the burger and perked up at the taste. There was always something about a good American burger that perked him right up.
Looking around, Peter noticed that they were heading away from the tower. “Where are we going?” Peter asked, digging into the bag for another burger.
“The compound,” Tony answered, taking a bite of his burger. “Aunt Hottie and Happy are going off on a spur-of-the-moment couple’s trip this weekend and I have some work that needs to be done.” He looked over at Peter with a twinkle in his eyes. “Figured no better time to get it done than with my best and favorite intern.”
“I’m your only intern,” Peter rolled his eyes playfully.
“Then you win both titles by default,” Tony chuckled, grabbing another fry. “Now, we’ve got an hour before we get to the compound. Settle in and tell me what Fred and your scary girlfriend are up to.”
Peter grinned before launching into a story about Ned – also making sure to correct Tony the multiple times he purposely said Ned’s name wrong – and Michelle in AcaDec. Before he knew it, Tony and Peter had left the city and were driving on one of the lesser populated roads towards the compound.
“So, wait, you’re telling me Flash didn’t know the atomic number for Vibranium?” Tony laughed incredulously. “How did this kid get this far in that crazy smart school of your’s?”
“That’s what I said!” Peter exclaimed, waving his hands in the air. They were approaching a four-way stop light with only one other car near them. “Like, how did he not know that it is—watch out!” Peter screamed a moment before something rammed into the side of the car and Tony’s world went dark.
When Tony woke up, it wasn’t pleasant.
His entire body ached and there was a pounding headache assaulting his senses. The ground below him was hard and if his back wasn’t already hurting, then he was sure it would a giant crick in his right now. Forcing his eyes open, Tony groaned at being met with the sight of being in a cell.
You know, it was probably concerning how often he woke up in a cell like this.
It was fairly small and barren, only the inventor in the entire space. Three of the four walls were some type of reinforced metal with the last wall being Plexi-glass. Tony knew right away that this Plexi-glass would not break under enhanced strength so without Peter or his suit, he was stuck.
Wait a second…Peter!
Tony sat up quickly and pushed back the sharp headache, turning around to see if Peter was with him. The answer was instantaneously, only Tony being in the entire room. Tony pushed himself up to his feet unsteadily, leaning against the glass wall in front of him.
Hands pressed on the glass, he leaned forward to observe his surroundings. There were numerous cells around him, the one directly across him difficult to look into with how dark it was. It seems like his cell was the only was occupied at the moment.
So where was Peter?
“Ah, you’ve woken up,” someone stated. Tony looked over to the side as someone in a suit meandered their wall down the walkway between cells, stopping in front of Tony’s. “I thought you would have been asleep for a little longer.”
“Who the hell are you?” Tony growled.
“I see the spider did not tell you about me from last time,” the man hummed, folding his hands together behind his back. Bowing his head for a moment, the man looked back up at him. “My name is Hector.”
Tony narrowed his eyes at Hector’s name for Peter. That means the man already knew Peter’s identity, which made things worse. What made Tony’s skin crawl was the HYDRA insignia displayed proudly on Hector’s suit jacket pocket.
“Where is he?” Tony asked, pressing himself against the glass separating him and Hector.
“Hmmm…do you mean the spider?” Hector tilted his head to the side. “I must say, it is so refreshing to see him up and alive again after drinking the ambrosia. I really did think that the boy wasn’t going to survive that but then again, spiders are pretty hardy.”
“Where is he?!” Tony demanded, slamming a fist against the glass. He didn’t not like or have the time for mind games. His kid was gone and this bastard knew where Peter was.
“You can calm down. He’s right over there, Stark,” Hector rolled his eyes, pointing to the cell across the hall from him. Narrowing his eyes, Tony searched the darkness. It took him a moment to see his kid but when he did, his heart dropped.
Peter was curled up in the far corner of the room, a thin layer of frost covering his body and his face barely visible from behind his arms. His eyes were closed and what scared Tony was the lack of movement from the teenager. He still had his ripped clothes from the crash earlier, a thin trail of blood that leaked from the already healed cut on his forehead dried and frozen to his face.
“No,” Tony breathed and his legs gave out from underneath of him. “No…you didn’t…”
“You’re right,” Hector nodded. “He’s not dead, just asleep for the moment. It’s so much easier to transport him and not having to worry about him fighting back as long as he’s asleep.”
“You sent him into hibernation!” Tony screamed, banging his fist against the glass in anger. “We haven’t run tests yet to see how it could affect him! You could be killing him for all we know!” They had tried so hard to prevent Peter going into hibernation just for this bastard to ruin it before they could figure out if it was fatal.
Hector gave a nonchalant shrug. “We only need him in there for a bit. In fact, I think it might be time to take him out.” Approaching the misted glass, he pressed a hand to a wall mounted sensor next to it and Tony watched as a cloud of cold air rushed to escape the opening door. The man stepped in with a shiver and grabbed Peter by the scruff of his jacket, dragging the frozen teenager out. “Step back,” Hector ordered Tony.
As much as Tony wanted to tell Hector to fuck off, he was more worried about Peter. Abiding, Tony stepped back from the glass as far as possible. Hector pressed his hands against the keypad to Tony’s cell and typed in a code before the door slid open.
Without a care, Hector tossed Peter into the room. Tony yelped as he jumped forward to prevent Peter’s head from smashing against the ground. He shivered at how cold Peter was, immediately hugging the teenager close to him. He shucked off his ripped coat to wrap around Peter, hoping that this would help.
“C’mon kid, wake up,” Tony begged, rubbing Peter’s biceps to get some warmth generated. “Please, you have to wake up.”
It fell on deaf ears as Peter stayed asleep, feeling like one giant block of ice.
“I’ll come check on your progress in a few hours,” Hector commented as he watched the father and son, the cell door closing to seal them in. Turning on his heel, he stuffed on hand in a pocket and waved the other lazily over his shoulder as he left. “Do your best to wake up the spider. I would like to hear his conscious reaction to the experiment.”
“What experiment?” Tony demanded.
Hector gave a dark chuckle but did not answer, leaving the mentor and mentee entirely alone in the room. Tony stared for a moment longer with a snarl on his lips before giving Peter his entire attention. He pressed his ear against Peter’s chest, relieved when he heard the steady but slow beat of a heart. There was also a regular intake of air, though shallow.
Tony leaned back so that he was sitting against the far wall and positioned Peter to lay between his legs with his front pressing against Peter’s back. He had his arms wrapped around Peter to pull him in close, propping his chin on top of Peter’s head. He rubbed his hands up and down Peter’s shoulders, arms, and chest to get blood circulating and to warm up.
“I swear, Pete, everything will be okay,” Tony swore and pulled Peter tighter against him. “Someone will realize something is wrong and come looking for us.”
Or, at least he hoped so before it was too late.