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Peter is exhausted and everything hurts. His suit is in tatters from all the places Norman has cut it away to get at his skin. Peter feels that he has taken samples from everywhere. His whole body stings. Peter’s not sure how many cuts litter his body, how many bruises, but it sucks.
The room is dark now. Norman’s left for the night. Or what Peter thinks is the night. He has to get out and it has to be now before he’s too injured to move.
There are restraints around his wrists, ankles, waist and chest. Peter grits his teeth as he dislocates his thumb and slips his hand out of the restraint. He pants through his nose as he uses the table to push his thumb back into its socket. It hurts, but he needs to keep going. He dislocates his other thumb to free his remaining hand.
He works to remove the muzzle first, moving his jaw around to try to soothe the ache from it being pressed closed for so long.
He glances to the side, barely making out the table with tools that Norman left close by. He reaches for it and just manages to snag a scalpel.
With his chest restrained to the table, he can’t see what he’s doing, but he jabs at the restraint around his waist, trying to find a seam, anything to get it off. He feels the knife slice into his side, and he hisses in pain but keeps going.
He pries the scalpel between the restraint and the table, sliding the scalpel along the seam where the two connect. Finally, he feels some give, and he’s able to use his strength to pry it the rest of the way off.
He does the same for the restraint around his chest, and then he’s able to sit up and free his legs.
He’s cut himself a few times with the scalpel when it would slip as he worked it between the table and the restraints, but he can’t stop.
He pushes himself off the table, looking around the room. He spots his mask lying on another table, and he slips it on before heading to the only door.
The lights are off in the rest of the building, and he continues as quietly and quickly as he can. He just needs to find a window.
Every movement hurts, and he’s leaving bloody footprints, but he can’t stop.
He doesn’t know how many turns he takes before he comes to a staircase. He hesitates. There haven’t been any cameras so far, but that’s probably because he’s down in Norman’s more secret labs. But there’ll probably be security cameras as he makes his way up.
But he doesn’t have any other choice. Peter sighs before opening the door and making his way up the stairs as quickly as he can, his eyes scanning for cameras.
He sees one when he exits the stairway, but thankfully there’s a window. Peter almost sobs in relief. He breaks the window, getting more cuts from the glass as he climbs out onto the side of the building holding on with his sticky grip. He can feel the biting wind through all the tears in his suit, but he keeps going till he makes it to the roof.
That’s when he remembers he doesn’t have his web slingers. But there’s nothing for it but to jump between buildings. It hurts just as much as everything else does, but Peter makes it several buildings away before he finally collapses. He tries to get back up. Goblin could still find him here, but his arms shake, and he collapses back onto the roof. He stares up at the polluted New York sky.
His breathing is coming slower, and he’s fighting against the urge to close his eyes when he sees something bright in the sky. It looks like a star except that it’s coming closer. Peter wants to figure out what it is, but his eyelids are getting heavier and he can’t stay awake anymore.
—--
Later Peter will wake up confused and frightened at being in an unfamiliar place. But then the Fantastic Four will come in. They'll tell him how Johnny found him collapsed on a roof, and he brought him back for medical attention.
Peter will be frightened at first, and the adult heroes wary of this vigilante who keeps his identity secret. But Johnny and Peter will quickly become friends, exchanging sarcastic comments and terrible puns.
And Peter will have someone he can rely on, a team he can call when he is in over his head, and a fellow teenage superhero who he can hang out with.
Peter won’t be alone anymore.