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If Peter had to describe it loosely, it would almost be a vacation. No, it wasn’t actually a vacation because when do heroes get legitimate downtime to relax? In reality, the team- consisting of Peter, Tony, Steve, Bucky, and Clint- were on a mission in California. They had arrived at a SHIELD compound in the mountains and been briefed about what they could expect. Peter had thought it would’ve been something about the super soldier serum or stopping a major weapons deal, and when he heard what it really was he wished for the former.
Children all over the Bay Area, ages six to sixteen, have been disappearing in the night; from as far up as San Francisco and as low as Monterey and the police had absolutely no idea how it was happening. The first three were ruled as runaways, the next few had got the FBI involved looking into serial kidnappings and possible murders, but once the number got over fifty- with literally no evidence of anything- they decided to seek alternate help.
A lot of the houses kids disappeared from had alarms and security systems, cameras watching nearly every inch of the property but there was still nothing; no alarms were set off, no strange person on any recording, not any video evidence that any kid left their house. The parents just woke up and their child was gone.
It was unsettling at best.
Peter’s stomach was doing flips through the entire briefing and he was sure the others’ were too. The whole thing felt like it just got thirty times worse with children being involved and the main target of who or whatever was the cause.
When the briefing had concluded, everyone had gotten back aboard the Quinjet, which made Peter slightly confused as to why there were leaving. He had just assumed they would be staying there while they were in California but Tony had informed him that they were going to stay in one of his many vacation houses, in Monterey. Not quite smack dab in the middle of everything but the most recent disappearances had seemed to be in that area so it was logical.
That’s why it was and was not a vacation. They had to wait until the night to see if they could actually find anything or catch the kids or perpetrator in the act. While they could go around during the day, the five of them attracted a lot of attention, in or out of costume. Until they could figure something out, Tony had sent out a number of drones to survey the area and around houses where kids had been taken.
Currently, Peter was floating in the pool and had been there for a few hours. He was surprised when Tony suggested it to him because normally he would’ve told him off, saying how they were on a mission but he nearly forced him in. It was after the first half hour that he had begun to calm, not even knowing he was in a sort of state of panic in the first place.
“You’re going to just let him treat this as a vacation when there’s so much work to be done?” He had heard Clint almost yell.
“I’m helping the him calm down.” Tony replied calmly. “He’s a jittery mess; new sights, new sounds, new smells. Kid’s senses were basically driving him to have a heart attack.”
Tony was right. Peter didn’t know how he didn’t see it when they first landed at the base. California was a new experience so of course his senses would be going into overdrive in trying to obtain as much information as they could. Floating in the water for so many hours had helped him sort of calibrate what need to be corrected. The sounds of the cars were no longer blaring, the light didn’t seem so bad anymore, not even the chlorine smell was horrible. His spider sense was still a bit off but he had chalked that up to the several dozen or so earthquakes that had been happening, even if they were so small that he couldn’t feel them.
He had gotten out about an hour before sunset and showered off before joining the others in looking over reports and information. Mainly he was watching through video footage in hope of finding something that showed anything of the child’s disappearance. Seeing as FRIDAY couldn’t even find anything he doubted he would. But, it was when he was watching the tape of a family who’s daughter had gone missing that he found something. He had paused the recording and played it back several times and there was something there.
“Guys, I think I got something.” Everyone stopped what they had been doing, Peter’s words being the first slightly positive ones of the evening. “Okay so this is from a week or so ago. I- don’t know if you guys will be able to see it but I don’t think it’s normal.”
He played the video and watched as the thing happened.
“You’re right. I don’t see it.” Bucky said bluntly.
“Here. Watch her hand.” He played it again.
“I don’t know what we’re supposed to be looking for kid.” Clint said.
“It’s very slight but her fingers move.” He played it again. “FRIDAY can you zoom and enhance on her left hand? Maybe even slow it down to half speed?”
“Certainly.”
The five men watched over the footage again. “Look. I know it’s slight but her fingers were straight then began to curl but were straight again not even a second later.”
“Kids tend to move in their sleep Peter.” Steve crossed his arms. “It might just be a glitch in the camera.”
Peter huffed but Steve’s comment got him thinking. “What’s the time stamp for that?”
“03:00:17 Mr. Parker.” The AI responded.
“Pull up another video, any other one and go to around that time.”
“What’s going on in that head of yours?” Tony asked.
“Maybe Cap’s right and it’s a glitch.” He watched a video of a boy sleeping and saw something similar. “There! Did you see that?”
“You know we didn’t.”
“FRIDAY what’s the stamp for that one?”
“03:00:26.”
“Are you gonna give us any insight into what you’re thinking right now?” Clint crossed his arms.
“There’s a glitch, or more so a few frames are missing from the recording and someone was able to put the cameras on loop.” Peter pointed out as he wrote the time stamp down. “Pull up another one FRIDAY.”
The AI did as she was told and went to the same time and yet another blip happened. “The time for that was 03:00:36.”
“So- all these tiny glitches are happening at three in the morning.” Steve voiced. “It’s not just the system acting up?”
“No, the families all have different surveillance systems and providers. It can’t be coincidence.” Tony informed him. “Are you saying we’re dealing with a hacker who sets the cameras on loop and takes the kids?”
“I’m not saying anything, just pointing out what I see… but considering that no one else saw this or that FRIDAY didn’t catch it, I mean- looping a security camera from a separate access point besides the main server isn’t all that difficult to do if you actually know what you’re doing; same with disabling alarms and security systems but doing that would leave some sort of trail. There’s literally zero evidence of anything. All the kids just seemed to vanish into thin air.” Peter leaned back in his chair and put his hand over his eyes. “I feel like there’s something else there but I don’t know what it is and I know it’s not really a decent assumption but-”
Steve clapped him on the shoulder. “You did good Pete. Don’t overexert yourself on this. You were able to find a substantial piece of information: a time.”
“Yeah, at least now we know when to look for anything or anyone. Be nice if we had a definite location though.” Clint said. “The locations are miles away from each other and would take a few hours to reach any of them yet a kid in Madrone and San Jose both seemed to up and leave at three in the goddamn morning .”
Peter knew Clint’s anger. The mission involved young kids and Clint had three himself. He could only imagine what was going through his head at that moment.
“It’s moving south.” Bucky pointed out. “But it’s not going farther than Monterey before it seems to go back to San Fransisco. It’s like on a loop.”
“FRIDAY where was the most recent disappearance?” Tony asked.
“The most recent reported was in Seaside on Broadway Avenue. The most recent video footage in the archives is from a few days ago in Marina.”
“So it’s only a matter of time before it reaches here, or it’s here already and we just need to wait a few more hours.”
“Have your drones picked up anything?” Steve asked. Tony shook his head. “Is there a map we can use to see what houses have young children? Or a map to see which houses children have disappeared from? Maybe we can find some sort of pattern through that and predict where it’s gonna happen next.”
“Please, I can do that in my sleep.” He turned to Peter. “You look like you could use some sleep.”
“I’m fine.” He retorted. “I just need a snack and I’ll be ready to look through more things.”
“I’m sure we could all use some food and rest.” Bucky said. “I vote for pizza.”
***
A few hours and several pizzas later everyone was ready to head out to see if they could find anything. The hours leading up to their departure consisted of Peter going through every surveillance video they had, looking for more glitches. Every one had something and it was never before or after 3:00am. It was a one minute time slot that it happened. So that time was their target. Tony had created several maps of the areas trying to find any sort of pattern in demographics; age, race, gender, social standing. The only substantial thing in any of them was while making the one pertaining to age, more than half of all the kids that had gone missing were under the age of ten.
They had set out at a quarter to two and canvased a ten mile area to try to find anything or even catch any kids attempting to leave. Sadly- or not- there was nothing. They stayed out until the sun began to rise but didn’t find anything. It wasn’t until they were back and it was into the regular morning hours that they saw the news; kids from the Neponset and Blanco area had disappeared.
It was- frustrating. Neponset and Monterey were only about thirteen miles apart. If they had only covered more ground…
Tony was adding the new information to his maps, Bucky was glued to the TV fuming with every child’s picture that was shown; Clint wasn’t much better. Steve was looking over the video feed they had from the night.
Peter was sitting at his makeshift desk looking at screens of information in front of him. Nothing made sense. The kids were there then they just vanished almost in a literal poof, though that would’ve been preferable because it would give them more to go on instead of them having to guess. There was still something about the video footage that didn’t sit with him but he didn’t know what it was or how to deal with it. That’s when he decided to outsource.
He texted Ned and asked for a favor. It was a little while before he got a reply but of course Ned was willing to do what he could to help. Peter had sent him the basic information and a video of the most prominent able to see glitch, according to the others. He asked if he could somehow fix the recording because if it really was hacked, there would be a corrupt file in the data or something and Ned was probably the best bet in fixing it. Besides, they could use a fresh set of eyes on things. Ned said he would get back to him in a few hours with everything he could get.
After the message was sent, Peter slumped in his chair. He was exhausted but didn’t want to take a break until he found something. His stomach sank when he heard about the disappearances mere miles from them and they found nothing. There was something else, something besides what he was having Ned look through. He had a thought that maybe it wasn’t in the video but secluded in the audio.
“FRIDAY do you have access to just the audio files of any footage?” His tone was weary and he couldn’t help the overwhelming feeling of wanting to close his eyes and sleep for days.
“Yes Mr. Parker.” The AI answered. “But might I suggest you get some rest before continuing with your search? You haven’t gotten more than a few hours sleep since you arrived.”
Though she was right, he ignored her completely. “Bring up the file from the first house with an outside surveillance system.” He slumped further in his chair as FRIDAY wordlessly pulled up the file. He plugged in a pair of headphones and listened. For hours he listened to a basic jarring silence with the exceptional car driving by. He was on the verge of falling asleep when he heard something different, low and behold, as it turned to three. It was very slight and he could barely hear it with his advanced hearing.
It was a song- or more so the sound of a flute playing a soft melody. It was light hearted and cheery and yet extremely haunting. The lyrics were… interesting. They sung of candy and sweets and most importantly, they repeated something about a three o’clock fairy.
After a minute, Peter’s senses flared to life. His eyes flashed open, he hadn’t realized they’d shut in the first place. He stood up sending his chair crashing to the ground behind him and flung off his headphones. He heaved in a breath and clapped his hands over his ears. What just happened?
“You okay Peter?” Bucky asked though Peter didn’t even seem to know the man was there. It was only when he reached out to touch the boy that he got a somewhat violent reaction. Peter whipped around, sending an arm about to strike his attacker but Bucky was able to stop it easily. “Easy kid. It’s just me.”
The boy huffed out a breath and lowered his arm. He was a bit embarrassed to see the four men staring at him. “Sorry…”
“What was that about?” Tony asked, concerned. The look of pure fear in Peter’s eyes was disconcerting. “Are you okay?”
“I- yeah. I’m good. I think I might have found something else though.” He slowly picked his chair up. “There’s a song… in the audio that I didn’t hear before.”
“A song?” Steve asked. Peter merely nodded. Steve picked up the discarded headphones and placed them on his head. “Play it back FRIDAY.” He stood there and listened to utter silence for a minute, then two, hearing nothing but the outside ambient noises of the street. “I don’t hear anything Pete. It’s not even showing up in the logs.”
“But- but it’s there.” Peter said as he looked at the screen. Though it was true it didn’t show up on the actual audio track, he knew what he heard. “It starts at 3:00am, just like the glitches.”
“Maybe grandpa’s ears are just going.” Tony took the headphones ignoring Steve’s slight glare and slipped them over his ears. After a minute he slipped them off. “Maybe grandpa is right.”
Peter took the headphones and hesitantly placed them back over his ears. The sound immediately hit him and he had to stop himself from flinging off the headphones again.
Hey look, list-en care-full-y. It’s such a sweet me-lo-dy. The Three O’Clock Fairy is call-ing out to me. Knock on the door to sleep, jump-up, wake-up, and hur-ry. To the coun-try of caaaandy we will get on the ship-
He suddenly found the headphones off his head and he was being forced to sit.
“Just breathe; deep breaths.”
Peter took a breath which was surprisingly difficult to do. He looked up to see Bucky now had the headphones and was scowling as he tried to listen.
“Pete, are you all right?” Steve asked, concern masking his face.
“Yeah, why wouldn’t I be?” Peter’s brow furrowed.
“Well for starters, you looked like you were going to pass out if you kept listening to whatever is it you can hear. Second, you started hyperventilating basically right as you put the headphones on.” Tony scowled. “What do you hear?”
He looked to Bucky. The man had taken the headphones off and crossed his arms, indicating that he didn’t hear anything either.
“It’s- a flute, or some sort of pipe. It starts of soft but gets louder and more prominent. The melody it’s playing is happy and- upbeat. I don’t know, there’s something else there- like some sort of underlying sound or something. The lyrics are singing about sweets and candy. But the actual singing…” He hung his head and placed his hands on the back of his neck. “It’s kids. There are kids singing. It sounds like something you would hear at a theme park but it just sounds so- haunting.”
There was silence for a moment before Clint broke it. “What exactly do you feel when you listen to the music?”
“It’s uh,” he took a deep breath. “It’s like I’m underwater. Everything gets kind of blurry and muffled except for the music. It makes me want to sleep but I feel like if I do, I won’t wake up.”
“Okay. I think I have an idea of what we’re dealing with.” Clint nodded. “It’s a form of hypnotism. Whoever’s doing this is most likely hiding a Mosquito in the song that’s somehow getting kids to leave.”
“What do you mean by Mosquito?” Steve asked.
“Mosquito alarm; it’s a device that plays a sound at such a high frequency that people usually over the age of 25 can’t hear it. The higher the frequency, the harder it is to hear.”
Steve nodded. “If that’s true then why can’t we hear the actual music? It’s like it’s not there at all.”
“That could just be because of the kid’s hearing. The sound could be that low and subtle that it doesn’t actually register in the audio logs even if the camera was able to pick it up… or someone tampered with them to make it not show at all.”
“So you’re saying there’s someone out there who’s smart enough to somehow hack into dozens of families security systems, tamper with the cameras, and somehow emit a hypnotic song that can’t be heard by anyone under the age of 25?” Tony summed up.
Clint shrugged. “You got a better idea? This is the only thing we have to go on right now. Besides, doesn’t it help prove the point that we can’t hear it but he can?”
The four of them looked at the boy in the chair, his elbows propped on his knees, head resting on his hands. His chest rising slowly as he took deep breaths as a sort of calming mechanism. They’d all seen it before, usually when something bad happened. Hell they’ve done it themselves. But Peter, Peter was different when it came to that. His senses were both a blessing and a curse. Most of the time they helped him fight, warned him of danger but there were times when they seemed to do more harm than good and those were the times that made him vulnerable.
“Okay I think I speak for everyone here when I say it’s time for a break.” Tony announced. “Pete, get some sleep. We’ve been here for days and you’ve gotten maybe a handful of hours.”
“But…”
“No buts. We know you want to help. Hell you’re the one that got us this far with barely anything to go on but you’re no good to us or the kids if you aren’t at full strength.”
Peter knew he lost the argument when Tony mentioned the kids. “Fine. I’ll go take a nap or something.” He stood, a bit wobbly on his feet but not enough to be concerned about. He made his way to the stairs and up to his room.
“Kid’s too pure for his own sake.” Bucky commented.
***
Peter woke up with a start. His eyes searched his room for any sort of danger but only found his phone buzzing on the nightstand next to his bed. He picked it up to see it was Ned calling and that it was 4:47pm, meaning he got a decent amount of actual sleep but his sleeping schedule would probably be messed up for the next few days.
“Hey Ned.”
“Pete I gotta tell you, this was by far one of the weirdest things you’ve asked me to look into for you. I mean I know it’s for the good of the kids and the families but having me watch footage of a like nine year old kid made me feel like such a pervert and I don’t even want to know what would’ve happened if my mom barged in.”
Peter couldn’t help but crack a smile. “You’ve only watched one video, I’ve watched dozens. How do you think I feel?”
“Don’t get me wrong, I’m happy to help but it wasn’t just watching it that made it weird. I must of dozed off like several times before I actually got done with it.”
“Were you able to get anything?” Peter frowned slightly.
“Yeah. Whoever set up the looper or whatever knew what they were doing. The thing was encrypted like a million ways and my computer almost crashed every time I tried to get into the damn thing. I don’t even know how it was possible but I was able to get the whole video done, start to finish without any difficulties. It was pretty creepy if you ask me.”
“Are you able to send the files back?”
“That’s another thing; when I was trying to delete things that were useless I couldn’t and everything seemed to automatically make a copy of itself. Are you sure you didn’t send me a virus?”
Shit. He didn’t actually think of that being a possibility and it very well might have happened.
“Uh- is there anyway you can show me what you got without sending it?”
Ned was silent for a moment. “The files had a virus didn’t they?”
“Ned please, I’ll get you a new top of the line computer, courtesy of Mr. Stark but we really need to see what you have.”
“Calm down. I’m not going to withhold any information for you. Do you have your computer? I can set up a screen share and recording so you can see what’s on mine and be able to keep everything incase there is something wrong with the files.”
“Give me a second. My laptop’s downstairs.” Peter hopped out of bed and began his trek to the lower level. “What did you find anyways?”
“Okay well you know in Paranormal Activity where the girl watched the guy sleep at night? It’s not exactly like that but it gives me that type of vibe and watching it while almost falling asleep doesn’t put anyone in a comfortable, stable state of mind. I mean seriously, it’s with a kid. That makes it like so much worse.”
“Yeah, I getcha.” Peter entered the investigation room as Tony dubbed it. Really it was the living room that had been rearranged and morphed into such. He was surprised to see it vacant of everyone but Clint. “Where’d everyone go?”
“Stark went to canvas the Neponset and Blanco area; Cap and Barnes were requested by police to talk to a family of a missing child.” Clint answered. “Who you talking to?”
“Friend of mine; he’s, uh- unofficially helping with the case.”
“Who is that? Who are you talking to? Is it Captain America? Oh man. Are you bragging about me to Captain America?”
“It’s Hawkeye. Cap’s out talking to the cops or something.”
“Put me on speaker so I can talk to him.”
“What? Ned no. Just walk me through how to set up a screen share or whatever.”
“It’ll be like I’m sitting there with everyone. I’m like a sudo Avenger. Come on.”
Peter saw Clint raise a brow in question and he rolled his eyes as he hit the speaker button. “Okay there. Now he can hear you.”
“Can he really?”
“Yeah kid. I can.” Clint responded.
“Oh man. He actually answered me. This is the best day of my life.”
“Ned focus please. How do we set this thing up?”
Ned walked Peter through the process. The whole thing only took about three minutes to complete and soon Ned’s screen was shown on Peter’s.
“You got everything? You can see me moving the cursor?”
“Yeah. It’s all there I think.”
“Okay so I’m gonna go ahead and jump to where the thing starts because I do not want to have to sit through hours of this again. The audio that went with it was also encrypted to high hell but I was able to get around that. I didn’t know what was playing at first but it sounds like maybe it’s a lullaby to help the kid sleep but it started at like the three mark and it’s just real creepy.”
Ned played the footage. Peter was thoroughly surprised he could outright basically hear everything in the video without having to strain his ears. The footage itself was normal, almost disturbing. It showed a little boy slowly sitting up in bed, staying there for only a second before flipping off his covers and walking out his door.
“Pause it.” Clint commanded. He stared at Peter, his hands were over his ears again. “You still hear the song?”
Peter nodded.
“You don’t?” Ned asked genuinely. “I mean I can make it louder if you want but I don’t know if it’ll mess with the video file or not.”
“Pull up the audio track and play the footage again.” Clint’s eyes were on the track; the audio for the song was there but he couldn’t hear it. “Is this everything you have?”
Ned paused everything. “Yeah. I mean I have the original footage but this is it. I know it doesn’t show much but-”
“No, this is good. We weren’t even sure how the kids were leaving before. Do you think you’d be able to do the same with footage from an outdoor camera?”
“Yeah but, uh, is it cool if I start it tomorrow? I mean I know this is like top priority but I don’t think I could sit through another video without like passing out.”
Clint’s brow furrowed. “Did you fall asleep while watching the first tape?”
“A few times actually…” Ned replied sheepishly. “It’s actually kinda hard to keep my eyes open right now. I think watching the tape is getting to me.”
“Ya did good kid. Don’t worry about the other tape tonight. Get some rest and get on it in the morning.”
“Wow this has been one of the coolest nights of my life. The Hawkeye actually told me I did a good job and I should sleep. Whoa.”
“You’re so embarrassing.” Peter said after his temporary silence. He picked up the phone and turned off the speaker and pressed it to his ear. “I’ll send you a file from a house with yard surveillance. Thanks for doing this Ned.”
“My pleasure Pete. There’s a reason why I’m your Guy in the Chair.”
They offered each other quick goodbyes before ending the call. Peter set the phone down and ran his hand through his hair.
“How you doing?” Clint had been eying him the whole time and it looked like he was ready to pass out again.
“The song was louder; I didn’t think you still wouldn’t be able to hear it… I can probably search to see if it’s an actual song from somewhere.”
“You don’t need to strain yourself either.”
“I’m- not?”
“Pete you look like shit.” He stated bluntly. “Whatever that song is, or the underlying tone in it, it’s messing with your head even if you think it’s not.”
He was at a loss. He had felt fine when he had woken up but when he heard the music, it was like he locked up. His senses had gone into overdrive and having his hands muffling the sound was the best he could do without actually leaving the room. The lyrics were just so unnerving.
Oh, I am just full of dreams, mint pie and apple pie. Good cake and sp-irits, cheer-full-y eating coo-kies. Licking up the prune pud-ding, eating a bit of cho-co-late, The Three O’Clock Fa-iry is watching glee-full-y.
“I’m not gonna tell you to go take a nap or something because you’ve only been up for like twenty minutes so- go watch a movie or something. We can at least wait until the others are back before continuing with anything. Hell I don’t even think we can do anything else until the others do get back.”
“Yeah, okay. Just let me send Ned another file.”
***
It was a few hours later that everyone had come back. Peter and Clint had gotten just about all the way through the first extended edition of Lord of the Rings, Peter smirking at the man every time Legolas was said.
Tony had been in a sour mood when he returned. He found nothing and had gone over every inch of the area and had gotten no more than upset parents yelling at him, saying they were useless for not bringing the kids home. Steve and Bucky were more fruitful in their outing.
“We might have gotten something to help prove your theory.” Steve said. “We met with a family who had a set of twins but only one of them was missing when they woke up. Wanna take a guess as to why?”
Clint and Tony stood silent in thought while Peter voiced his guess immediately. It was so simple it was being overlooked. “They didn’t hear anything.”
Bucky nodded. “One of them was born deaf. They’re currently the only child left on the block within the age range.”
“That definitely explains a lot. How can you hypnotize someone with sound when they can’t hear anything?” Tony rhetorically asked. “You get anything while we were on our field trip?”
“We got something all right, courtesy of a friend.” Clint eyed Peter. “We got the original unaltered footage and audio from the house. We’re currently waiting on outside footage from the same house.”
Tony stared at Peter. “You brought Ned in for this didn’t you?”
Peter smirked and shrugged. “We weren’t getting anywhere; Ned was a fresh pair of eyes and ears. If he was able to hack your tech then something like this would be no problem for him.”
“Okay I’m going to pretend you didn’t just say that my tech is as easy to hack as mediocre security cameras.”
“You let a sixteen year old hack into your system?” Bucky asked, brow raised.
“I did not let him do anything. Underoos here thought it was a good idea to hack into his suit when he first got it.”
“You let two sixteen year olds hack your system?”
“Can you just- play the footage Legolas?”
Clint looked at Peter. “You good?”
“Uh, I think I’m gonna go- get a sandwich.” The boy mumbled before leaving the room.
Clint pulled up the audio and video recording from earlier. “The audio for the song actually shows up in the track now, but I still can’t hear it. His friend could and he can. He seemed really shaken from listening to it earlier; it’s messing with his head or something. His friend said he fell asleep several times while working on it but nothing more than that.”
He played the footage and the group watched as the boy rose from his bed and silently walked from the room. They could hear the clicking of his door opening and creeping of the floorboards but other than that it was silent. They still couldn’t hear the music even though it was showing on the audio track.
“I understand the Mosquito mechanics you were talking about earlier but is it possible to do it with an entire song?” Steve asked. “I would’ve figured the audio was just tampered with so no one could hear it except for Peter.”
“If I could give you those answers I would. We can only wait right now until something else happens or his friend sends us another file.”
***
Peter was standing at the island in the kitchen eating the sandwich he made and watching the news. The anchor had currently been reporting on the most recent disappearances, saying that the police were no closer to finding anything than they were when they first started. It cut to segment of parents pleading for their children to come home; if a kidnapper had them, they would do whatever it took to get them back. It cut again to a reporter on the street asking people what they thought about the entire situation.
“I mean, it’s horrible you know? I can’t imagine what the families are going through right now.”
“Such a shame. I have a little brother in Arizona in the age range. I don’t know how I’d react if it would happen to me.”
“I just hope they catch the creep that’s doing this.”
He hoped so too. Peter couldn’t describe what he was feeling when he heard people say they believed the police and Avengers would find them. It was somewhere along the lines of pride and pity; pride because of how much the people believed in them to actually bring the kids home… and pity, because they didn’t know how much information they really didn’t have. They were able to hold onto a blind hope that their kids would be found.
He went over to the cupboard to get a glass for a drink right as it went to commercial break. He absentmindedly listened to someone saying something about an amusement park in Oakland. However when a certain tune started playing, the glass slipped from his hand and fell to the floor, shattering.
His head whipped back to the TV. The screen was showing what looked like a small amphitheater, the backdrop decorated with all sorts of toys, cakes, candies, and fairies. There were flashing showtimes for something, three o’clock being extremely special for some reason.
Hey look when- you close- your eyes, it’s such a sweet fra-gra-nce. The three o’clock fai-ry is wai-ting for me! Come on! Let’s go! To-geth-er, come on let’s go in se-cre-t. Even without mom and dad here I’m not lonely, I’m not afraid. All excited with the waf-fles, donuts any time at all! The three o’clock fairy, so what shall we do next-?
“Pete? You okay?” Bucky called as he entered the room. “We heard a crash-”
“Can you hear it?” Peter asked urgently as he pointed to the TV. “Can you hear that song?”
“Yeah…? What about it?”
Peter could help a smile creep onto his face. “Good. That’s- that’s real good. Like- whoa.”
“I’m concerned for a different reason now.” Bucky raised a brow.
“We need to go to that theme park. That’s the song that’s playing on the recording.”
The soldier’s eyes widened slightly and his tone was grim. “Are you okay? Do you feel anything?”
“Yeah- yeah I’m fine. There’s no, like, background noise or anything like there is in the recordings but that’s the song. I’m certain of it.”
He ran from the kitchen and back to the living room, Bucky following him. Peter paid no mind to the three other men that had been in the room. He went to his computer and immediately looked up the park from the TV. A webpage popped up and music started playing.
“Children’s Fairyland?” Clint read over his shoulder. “Is this like- a way to cope with everything? That music is creepy as hell.”
“You can all hear it?” Peter asked. The men all nodded. “This- this is the music that’s been playing in the videos, the exact same tune, melody, the kids singing it.”
“But listening to this isn’t doing anything-?” Steve gestured to his head.
“No. It’s not giving me any sense of danger or making me tired at all.”
“So this helps prove the Mosquito idea.” Tony clarified. “FRIDAY give me everything you can about the song and the theme park.”
“That place is in Oakland; barely even a two hour drive from here.” Clint pointed out.
“I have the information you’ve requested.” FRIDAY said. A holoscreen appeared in front of everyone.
“See if you can get any information that’ll tell us if the families have been to the park.” Tony ordered as everyone looked at the information in front of them. “Is that Japanese?”
“Looks like it was originally a Japanese song that became the park’s theme music.” Bucky said. “No wonder it sounds horribly off best and outta tune.”
“The Park was built on 1950 and has the oldest continuing puppet theater in the US.” Peter read. “That’s just creepy. Why would any one wanna go there?”
“We should pay it a visit.” Steve said. “It’s in the area where the disappearances started happening. It might even be where the kids are currently being held.”
“First thing in the morning.” Tony said. “Maybe sooner. With the information of the map, this area is due to be the next attacked.”
“What’s the plan then? I don’t like the idea of sitting around for a few hours and waiting to see if find any kids walking out in the streets going god knows where.” Clint said as he crossed his arms.
“I understand your take on everything. I do, really but this is going to be our chance to stop whoever’s doing this and actually find the kids.” Tony stated. “We patrol the area, Marina to Pacific Grove, hell- even to Pebble Beach if we have to. We’re bound to get something.”
“What about Peter?”
The question hung in the air as every set of eyes went to the boy who was now trying to make himself as small as possible. What about Peter? At that moment he was both an asset and a liability. He was the only one to be able to hear whatever music was playing and it was thanks to him and Ned that they were even able to see that there was music at all. But it affected him. Whatever was hiding inside that song was messing with his head and it could- most definitely- put him in unnecessary danger.
“I’m not sitting this one out.” Peter’s tone was firm. He could see the looks in their eyes. “I’m the only one here that can actually hear anything that’s going on and incase none of you have caught on, sound is kinda a big part in this.”
He was right and they all knew it. They needed his help.
“We’ll split up.” Bucky said. “We’ll be able to cover the entirety of the area between us and whatever bots you’re gonna have out. Someone will stay with the kid to make sure he doesn’t go wandering off somewhere.”
Everyone reluctantly agreed. It wasn’t the best plan but they didn’t have many suitable things to go on. Clint would be paired with Peter and the two of them would stay in the relative middle of where they would be scoping out. Tony would be flying towards Marina, Steve would be riding around Seaside, and Bucky would be at Pacific Grove. They would all be accompanied by a small drone to act as another set of eyes.
They had all tried to sleep if just for a few hours but it was easier said than actually done. They were all sitting in a peaceful silence, a movie playing softly in the background. Peter had noticed Tony nod off at one point, and he was sure the others noticed too but no one said anything.
When the allotted time approached everyone went outside; the drones were placed with their appropriate person and everyone took off, Steve and Tony in one direction, Bucky in the other. Peter and Clint had split up to cover a larger area. All they could do now was wait.
Peter found himself counting down the minutes as he sat in a tree. He could feel the anxiety in his chest making his heart race. Part of him wished one of the others would find something because listening to that song absolutely terrified him. It was like he was being pulled in to deep, dark water and if he couldn’t surface in time then he might not at all. He could only thank his senses for that.
“How you doing kid?” Clint’s voice rang through his comm.
“Uh, it’s quiet.” That was an understatement. “I haven’t heard or seen anything yet.”
“We still got a minute until party time. Just make sure to say something if you do get anything.”
It was like his life had a thing for dramatic timing. As soon as Clint said that, he heard something. It was a bit distant, maybe a block or so away but it sounded like an engine. Not a car or truck, it was something bigger like an RV or Motor Home but with how small some of the driveways were- even though everything was considerably bigger than New York- nowhere in that area would actually have room for a vehicle of that size.
He swung from the tree he was in to another and that was when the music hit him. It was loud, as loud as it had been on the recording when Ned had fixed them. He sent his drone in the direction of it.
“Karen.”
“The others have been notified Peter.” Her voice was a grateful snap. “Shall I play your own music to cancel out what you’re currently hearing and enable the sound cancelling feature?”
“No, just the music. I wanna find out where this is before I lose it completely.” He spoke into his comm. “I got something.”
“You and me both kid.”
Peter stopped atop of another tree when he noticed kids coming out of their houses and walking along the sidewalk, all heading in the same direction.
Play-ing as- long-as we want, mak-ing any kind of fuss, since mom and dad aren’t here, they won’t get mad, and we won’t go home-
“Peter your brainwaves are becoming erratic and unstable.”
He could hear her but everything around him was all in a blur. He barely even registered himself getting down from the tree before things suddenly went quiet and an AC/DC song started blasting.
“Ow. Karen are you trying to deafen me?”
“Well considering hearing his causing you to be in danger, I don’t think it’d be too bad if this was something you didn’t have to hear.” Her voice sounded over the music.
“Ha ha very funny.” Though he acted annoyed he was thankful Karen had chosen to blast him with hard rock rather than let him wander. “Okay let’s see where these kids are going.”
He fired a web at a nearby roof and flipped onto it. He quietly and as carefully as he could leapt from rooftop to rooftop as he followed the line of kids walking down the street. He followed for about two blocks before he saw what was making the original rumbling sound; at the end of the street was a school bus, it’s door wide open and letting kids pile on.
“School bus on Sloat and Fourth.” He called. “Kids are climbing on like it’s nothing.”
“We’re all about ten minutes out.” Tony replied. “Can you see anyone in there? A driver?”
“Yeah, looks like someone’s sitting in the driver’s seat just- waiting. There were at least a dozen kids walking down the street.”
“A few from my street too.” Clint said. “I’m coming up on you now Pete. No other kids are behind me. What’s the call?”
“Prevent them from leaving.” Steve ordered. “Do what you can to keep them here, just don’t hurt the kids.”
“Make some noise if you can.” Bucky added.
Peter had been watching as boys and girls had been filing onto the bus just like if they were going to school. He could feel the ever so slight beat of the music but was saved from becoming a mindless drone himself by the hard rock blasting in his ears. He needed to think of a plan; it was only him and Clint there for the moment and the bus was just about full, only a few more kids walking down the street.
He needed a way to prevent the bus from leaving and either keep the kids asleep throughout it all or wake them up. Making noise would be a very good thing at the moment.
He looked behind him to Clint who was just about half way down the street. “Think you can you get the tires flat?”
“I’m offended you’d even ask that.” Peter snorted at the mock hurt in his voice. “Give me a sec.”
“Karen scan the bus to see if there’s any sort of system that’s playing the music.” After a moment a diagram of the bus popped up in front of his eyes.
“It looks like there’s external speakers and hardware under the bus. What’s your plan Peter?”
“Can you get into it to get control?”
“Not without some sort of link up.”
He thought for a moment. “You can get to it through droney right?”
The drone popped out of his suit. “I can.”
“Nice. Okay, tell me when you’re in.” The drone flew off to the bus. “Are you all set Mr. Barton?”
“Ready when you are kid. Kinda like to know what your plan is though.”
“Taking Mr. Barnes’ advice; we’re gonna make some noise.” He smirked. “On my mark.”
It was another few seconds before Karen responded. “I’m currently in control of the sound system.”
“Link my music. Make it like you’re throwing a party and the cops get called.” Peter blew out a breath and jumped from the roof, flying towards the bus. “Now!”
Everything was quiet for about three seconds. The song playing from Peter’s mask stopped as AC/DC’s TNT started blaring from the vehicle. He watched as four arrows simultaneously hit every tire on the bus and it sunk to the ground.
“God that was so cool.” Peter said as he landed on the hood of the bus.
“You’re not too shabby yourself.” Clint replied.
Peter watched as the person in the driver’s seat tried to assess the situation; the kids had all seemed to be started awake and out of their trance. The older ones were getting up from where they sat attempting to open the emergency doors to get out, ushering the younger ones to follow. The few kids that were still walking down the street had stopped where they stood.
The driver seemed to be panicking, fumbling with something in their hands. Peter placed his hands on the windshield and pulled. The glass came out with very little resistance. He wastes no time in webbing up the assailant.
“Ah, ah, ah. None of that.” He climbed through the hole. “I don’t know what you’re game is but kidnapping kids just isn’t cool.”
The person said nothing. Their eyes wide with- fear, shock? One of those. Whichever it was, he didn’t care. He was just glad to finally catch them. Peter pulled them from the seat and out of the bus, forcing them to the ground.
“Shut it down Karen.” The music stopped in an instant. Peter looked around to see a number of porch and motion sensor lights had been turned on. “I think I did a good.”
“Yeah, real good kid.” Clint said as he approached with six children following him. “You saved them.”
“You helped.”
“Don’t be modest. This, all of it, wouldn’t have been possible without your help.”
A smile graced his face beneath his mask. “I’m just doing what’s right.”
He felt a tug of his suit and turned to see a little girl looking up at him. She didn’t look older than six. Her arms were reaching up for him, her face red and tears streaming down her face. He knelt down and she quickly wrapped her arms around his neck in a death grip. He stood back up, holding her in his arms as he went.
“How far out are you guys?” Clint called into his comm.
“We’ll be there in three. Cops should be on their way.” Tony answered. “Hell of a concert Underoos.”
***
Peter had somehow gotten it into his head that once they stopped the culprit of the kidnappings that everything would slowly return to normal. What he hadn’t counted on was said culprit to be a complete pain in everyone’s ass.
When the others and police arrived, they found the neighborhood in a complete uproar as expected. Clint had been getting the adults who knew some of the kids to get in contact with the parents and inform them of what had happened; Peter was sitting on the ground in front of five or six of the youngest kids, the little girl sitting in his lap, and was showing them tricks with his webs and letting them play with his drone until their parents arrived.
The police had taken the culprit into custody and had been intent of doing whatever they could to get answers out of them but they were- stubborn? Hardheaded? A total ass? All of the above was probably the right answer.
It had been a twenty-two hours since they had been brought in and they hadn’t said a word; not when the cops interrogated them, not when Steve questioned them, they didn’t so much as flinch when Bucky straight out threatened to kill them if they didn’t answer any questions.
They had gone to investigate the theme park the next day in hope of finding the kids. It had been shut down and they’d been given full access to everything there was, even the original plans but they had wound up with nothing. They were back to square one with nothing to go on.
Ned had sent them the video and audio of the footage they’d given him but it didn’t give any information they needed, just evidence further proving the culprit guilty.
It was- frustrating.
Peter had been sitting on his bed in his room, racking his brain over every piece of information they had, trying to find something that would lead them to finding the other kids. He wanted to find them, he wanted to see the relieved crying faces of the parents and siblings when they were reunited, he needed that feeling of- he didn’t even know. The little girl that had clung to him for dear life the night before, he needed to feel what he felt then when she finally let him go to run to her mother; when she ran back to him, giving him a final hug and a barely understandable thank you. That was what he wanted to feel. Empathy, relief, pity, an odd sense of pride- whatever it was, he didn’t think he could leave California until he felt it.
But he also needed a break.
He had been used to staying up until the early hours of the morning but everything that had happened had worn him down. Everything involving kids had always been so much worse and there were still just under one hundred still missing. There was a sickening feeling of dread in the pit of his stomach and it wouldn’t go away until the kids were found.
It had been a quarter after one and a few hours of mindlessly trying to sleep when he bolted up in bed. He breathed a heavy breath and smirked slightly.
“FRIDAY is everyone still up?”
“Yes Mr. Parker. Would you like me to call someone for assistance? Your heart rate appears to be elevated.”
“No, no it’s fine.” He jumped out of bed and ran from his room to the living room. Four pairs of eyes resting on him as he appeared.
“You good kid?” Bucky asked. “Have a nightmare or something?”
“We need to go back to the park.”
“Pete we scoured the place for hours.” Steve disappointedly said. “We didn’t find anything there.”
“You don’t understand.” He shook his head. “It’s not that we were looking in the wrong place but in the wrong time.”
Clint’s brow rose at the information. “We were looking during the day when we should’ve been looking at night.”
“Exactly. I don’t know if I’m right or not and it’s just a hunch but-”
“You don’t need to say anything else.” Tony cut him off. “I trust your instinct. You’ve done more than any of us have on this mission. If you think we should go back to the park then we will. Give us five minutes.”
A grin appeared on Peter’s face before he ran back upstairs to get his things.
***
It had been about half past one when they left, arriving at the destination an hour later. Peter had been fidgeting the entire ride; leg bouncing on the floor, fingers tapping against the seat. He barely registered the others asking him if he was okay but offered a nod.
“All right kid. Wanna let us in on what’s going on inside that head of yours?” Tony asked as they entered the park.
“We just need to wait.” Peter said. “Just until three and if I’m right then we should be able to find the kids.”
“O-kay, anything else?”
“Uh, maybe look around again.” That was all he gave them before walking away. The words that were said to him as he left fell on deaf ears.
He was anxious. Being there dialed his senses back up to an eleven. It’s was just- creepy. He was jumping at shadows and statues as he past, he could hear the annoying hum of the dull lighting that was around, there didn’t even seem to be any bugs making noises.
It was 2:55 when he found himself at the amphitheater.
“Karen tell everyone to come to my location. Tell them to just follow me wherever I go.”
He didn’t wait for her reply before slipping off his mask and putting his headphones in his ears. He sat on the edge of the stage and waited; one minute, two minutes, three then four. A few seconds before three hit, he played the audio on his phone, a copy of the first audio file he’d listened to. It took a bit of restraint to ignore his senses screaming danger and to not pull out his headphones. The song was still just as disturbing as it was the first time he heard it. Pretty soon he felt that same blur as he did on the street, only this time he didn’t try to fight it and it soon overtook him. He didn’t remember what happened after that.
***
Honestly if Peter could have slept longer he would’ve. It was probably the most sleep he’s gotten in days with how rested he actually felt. He almost felt like yelling at the person gently rocking him but figured there was a good reason for it. He slowly cracked an eye open.
“He lives.” Bucky said with a hint of humor in his voice. “Welcome back kid.”
Peter’s brow rose as he pushed himself up from the bench he was laying on. “Did I die?”
He took a look around to realize he wasn’t in a bedroom like he’d thought. There were police and paramedics everywhere ushering people, ushering children through the now lit grounds of the theme park. His eyes widened at the realization.
“We found them?”
“You found them.” Tony answered as he walked over to them. “Lead us to a hatch in the gardens that lead to an old war bunker.”
“I did?”
“Guess you were technically asleep for it. “ Tony shrugged. “Karen alerted FRIDAY. We found you a few minutes later wandering through the park. We were following until you eventually stopped at the benches in the garden; don’t really know how the thing opened for you but we followed you down until you went into a room. All the kids were in there just- sleeping. The paramedics have been looking over them and haven’t found anything wrong; there’s no trace of drugs in their systems and there doesn’t appear to be any trace of malnutrition or any sort of violence against them. You did good kid.”
“Kinda freaked us out when we took out your headphones and you dropped like a rock though.” Bucky added. “You’ve only been out about ten minutes.”
Peter blinked as he absorbed the information. He remembered telling Karen to tell the others to follow him but that was it.
A cheeky smile appeared on his face. “It worked then.”
“Your plan of not telling us you were going to intentionally hypnotize yourself and hope it leads you to the kids? Yeah, woulda been nice to know that ahead of time.” Tony said. “Why didn’t you tell us that was your brilliant plan? It would’ve been much simpler for everyone.”
“Uh, dramatic effect?”
Bucky smirked as Tony ran a hand down his face and sighed. “As stupid as it was, it worked. Police are looking through all the missing kids’ files and contacting parents. They asked that we all stay here to help keep them calm, and I’m certain the parents would like to thank you for finding them.” Peter opened his mouth to say something but Tony cut him off. “Don’t try to get out of this kid; you’re the one that figured out we needed to come back here and you’re the one who actually found them. You deserve all the credit for this.”
Peter’s eyes were focused on the ground in front of him. He didn’t think he deserved the credit for it, he was just doing what anyone else would’ve.
“How bout it? Wanna go bask in the superhero glory?”
He looked up past the two men in front of him. He saw a number of kids literally hanging off of Steve and Clint, the two of them smiling and trying to keep to answer any further questions from the police.
A smile crossed Peter’s face. “I guess that wouldn’t be so bad.”
***
They stayed at the theme park for hours keeping the children entertained until their parents came, not indenting on leaving until every child had been accounted for.
The police had informed them that the culprit had finally broken during the night, screaming about the children and how they needed them but the police only figured out where the kids actually where when Tony had contacted them. The culprit had been yelling about how they were their children and how they needed a good parental figure in their lives. The police had assumed the reason they did all they did because of some psychological illness or some sort of tragic family back story. Nonetheless they would be going away for a long time.
They never did figure out how the Mosquito worked with the song or how such a variety of kids were exposed to it; not even a quarter of them had been to- let alone heard of the theme park. They’d run the original audio files the culprit had through every sort of programming software they could find but had no explanation of how it worked. Tony had told Peter to send a copy to Ned to see if he could do anything to it, much to both boys’ surprise, but it didn’t do much good. Ned heard no difference in the original audio and any from house surveillance because he could actually hear the song no matter what.
Peter was once again floating in the pool at the house, only this time it was completely for his own enjoyability. He saw many happy faces in the time he was there and everyone thought it was their turn.
Tony had ultimately left the final decision to Peter: stay in California and get a bit of an actual vacation for a little while or head straight back to New York and be done with everything. Of course he had opted to stay for a few more days, at least until the police released an actual statement about what had happened.
He could hear the news in the living room as he floated. It had been three days and they were still reporting about all the kids that had been rescued and how he was the star hero of the time. He couldn’t help the smile on his face when he heard the families thank him and the kids saying how excited they were to meet him.
That was the feeling he needed to feel; the simple little thing of joy. It’s what he had felt with the little girl from the bus and it was what he was feeling now. He felt stupid for not knowing that’s what it was. Seeing and hearing the families being reunited with each other was wonderful, the feeling almost felt foreign to him. Sure, there were a lot of things he’d done in his time as Spider-Man that made him feel happy- but joy was on a different level completely.
“Come on Pete. Pizza’s here.” Clint called to him from the doorway.
“Be right out.” He called back.
Joy was definitely something he could get used to.