Chapter Text
Peter woke up to pain and whistling birds.
The only light coming into the dim room seemed to be coming from behind him. Most likely from a window. Where else would those whistles be coming from? The faint light was enough to blind him momentarily. As his eyes adjusted, he registered the origin of his pain. It came from his temple, sending pulses into his head. He could feel a few hairs sticking to his skin there, which felt stretched taught and weird. Like a face mask he'd tried with May once.
May.
He'd been in the apartment. She'd been there.. she.. where was she? His senses had gone off wildly, and he'd jumped to push her down- no, that wasn't May. Ned? Who..?
His eyes adjusted. He had to still be dreaming.
A bit to the left of him in what he discovered to be a small, bare room, were three people shackled to the wall, laid down on a large but skimpy mattress. He'd already figured he'd been kidnapped, but why would they have taken May, Ned and MJ as well?
He wanted to go to them, to check that they were okay, but he discovered himself to be bound to the wall too. There was one cuff clamped on each of his wrists, thick and heavy and digging into his skin. They were connected to the damp wall he was leaning against with, in his opinion, overly heavy chains.
He tugged at them experimentally and realized with a heavy heart that the people who had taken them knew who he was. They must know he was Spiderman, otherwise why would they cuff him with something measuring up in strength against vibranium? Hell, maybe it actually was vibranium! And the others' cuffs, they were different. Restricting and strong, sure, but not like his. The difference was visible.
Whatever confusion and drowsiness had still been there from waking up so disoriented, it sobered then.
He had been taken god knows where by people who knew about his enhancements and alter ego. His loved ones had been taken too, who knows why. His loved ones didn't know he was Spiderman.
Oh god.
He could only hope mr. Stark would be able to find him before his secret would be revealed.
But that wasn't the worst of his problems.
What if his kidnappers would hurt May? Or Ned? Or MJ? He couldn't let that happen. It didn't matter if they would resent him for who he was, or for how long he'd kept his secret. He couldn't let anyone hurt them.
It was his fault they were here. The assholes who took them, they had nothing to do with Peter's family. They only wanted Peter, or Spiderman. His blood was powerful, his skills were powerful, shit, even his connection to mr. Stark would be reason enough for people to take him. To hurt him.
He heard a shuffle. Skin moving against fabric, fastening breathing, the flutter of eyes.
"What.. Ow." it was Ned. He was slowly sitting up. Peter debated saying something, but decided he would let Ned's eyes get adjusted, first.
A moment later. "The fuck-? Oh my god. Shit, fuck, ow. Wait- Peter!? May? MJ! Jesus!"
"He isn't here, unfortunately." Peter quipped. Ned looked bewildered, moving around only to get stopped by his singular cuff that sat tight around his wrist. "Peter, what's happening? If this is a prank, I swear to god-"
"Of course it isn't! I don't know what happened, I just woke up."
Ned squinted as if he was thinking really hard about something. "So, we've been kidnapped."
"Apparently."
"Where- where were we? I remember, like, this really weird noise, like beeping or something."
Peter nodded. "I think we were at our apartment having dinner. Pretty sure May burned the apple pie."
As if summoned, it was then that May sat up. Shortly after that, MJ followed. They seemed confused, but they'd already been waking up whilst he and Ned had been talking. "I don't burn things.." May murmured faintly, disoriented.
Although they all seemed dizzy and confused, Peter felt his stomach swoop with relief when he saw none of them had blood on their face like he figured he had. He hoped he could keep it that way until mr. Stark saved them or until Peter got them out. His family: uninjured. Him: who cared?
"Fill me in, please." MJ groaned, laying back down and pressing her hands to her head as if she was already completely done with the situation. "Having dinner. May burn pie. Boom. Ouch. Kidnapped." Peter summarized.
Ned looked at him like he was crazy.
"Oh my god. Are you all okay? Peter, you're bleeding. Oh god." May sounded worried. Ned looked scared. MJ.. okay, MJ didn't look scared, but Peter knew she was.
"It's fine. Just a little bit of blood." May was still looking at him worriedly. "I promise, it doesn't even hurt!" Peter exclaimed, not even wanting to think about the possibility that May would maybe find out about his nightly activities. If she was already this concerned about a little blood..
Peter heard footsteps coming closer.
"Look, it's all going to be fine. We're getting out of here." he said hurriedly. Then the door opened.
"You have all woken up. Good." the man had an accent that Peter guessed was Russian and overly bushy eyebrows. Which was weird, because he was otherwise clear of facial hair and head hair. The guy (now called Eyebrows in Peter's head) seemed to be the leader. He was physically big, not particularly in a muscular way, but also not in an oversized way.
Behind Eyebrows stood one other guy and a woman. The guy, Peter called Twitch. He was thin and his eyes were nervous, darting around the room. He seemed like the kinda guy that would get bullied at Midtown. The woman looked ordinary, dressed in typical jeans and a shirt. Her face wasn't special, her hair wasn't anything memorable. Peter dubbed her Emma, because a really fucking basic name seemed to fit her appearance.
To their silence, Eyebrows huffed. "Scared, yes? Why are you here? Where are mommy and daddy?" he spoke mockingly, especially aiming his words toward Ned, who, as the only one, looked visibly about to crap his pants. MJ had always had a good pokerface, May knew how to stay calm, having experienced quite a lot at the hospital where she worked, and Peter was, of course, not one to be easily intimidated.
He didn't like the way the man was focusing on Ned, though. They should be interested in him. Luckily, Peter knew how to irritate and frustrate the shit out of people. If he could just piss them off enough, they should forget about his friends and aunt soon enough.
When Ned didn't respond, the man turned away from him. "Ah, you were simply.. how do you say? Collateral damage. See, I thought the boy would be alone.." Eyebrows glared at Twitch, who squirmed under his gaze, and Emma, who rolled her eyes. Apparently they had screwed that up.
Ned, MJ en May all shot him concerned looks. They were confused, he knew. Why would these three foreign criminals want to kidnap him? God, he wished mr. Stark would be able to burst into the room right about now. Peter knew Eyebrows was about to tell his loved ones exactly why he wanted Peter. Who he was.
"Why- What do you want with my nephew?" May spoke up, quite bravely, but Peter wished she hadn't. Eyebrows turned back to her. He smiled, baring white teeth. "You don't know, hm? Mr. Parker has kept a little secret." Eyebrows turned to him fully now, stepping closer menacingly and grinning.
"Why don't we show? Ira, дай мне свой нож." Emma (apparently called Ira) grumbled and reached into her pocket. Her hand came out empty, and she tried another one, patting her pockets down with her other hand to find the correct one. Twitch said something Russian, maybe trying to help, but got rewarded with a deathly glare from Emma.
"Peter, what's going on? What secret?" May whispered whilst the three kidnappers were distracted for a second. Peter just shook his head, not sure if he should tell her and unsure of what Eyebrows had meant with 'show'.
May looked distraught. Even MJ had a furrow in her brows, now.
They found out what Eyebrows' foreign Russian had meant when Emma finally produced a knife from a pocket hidden by her ankles. Ned let out a gasp, eyes widening, no doubt scared shitless. MJ seemed scared now too, and May looked tense, as if she was ready to get up and tackle all three kidnappers down despite her cuffed wrist. Peter didn't have a lot of time to study their reactions, though.
Because Eyebrows was coming at him with quite a sharp-looking knife, and he suddenly realized his biggest problem was not his friends and aunt finding out he was Spiderman. It was surviving this. It was protecting his family.
Peter struggled to get further away from the man as Eyebrows knelt down in front of him, but his chains wouldn't let him. "Hey, man, c'mon. You can show it, like, any other way!" Eyebrows didn't care about his protests (rude) and brought the knife up to his upper arm, which was exposed by the short-sleeved shirt he was wearing. "Be careful with that, dude!"
The man brought it closer, the tip of the knife pricking into soft flesh. Peter didn't dare move, scared of worsening the situation and accidentally pressing the knife into his skin. He looked into Eyebrows' eyes, who was already looking at him with dark, amused eyes.
The metal dug into his flesh, dragging down to the crook of his elbow. Blood began beading up immediately, and Peter clenched his jaw at the sting, but he didn't react otherwise. MJ, Ned and May called out, yelling at Eyebrows to stop, horrified at the red liquid seeping out of the wound.
"Shh, shh!" the man said, taking the knife away from Peter's arm and gesturing at his family to calm down. It was quiet for a moment, no one daring to speak in fear of the man hurting Peter further. Then, Eyebrows grinned wickedly. "Look! это исцеляет. It's healing, yeah?"
He twisted Peter's arm toward his family, giving them a perfect view of his skin knitting itself back together unnaturally. It wasn't fully closing, but it stopped the bleeding sooner than it should have, and everyone in the room knew it.
"Let me go, asshole!" Peter attempted to tug his arm out of the man's grip, but he knew the damage had been done. Even if MJ, Ned and May hadn't figured out he was Spiderman by now, they knew he was enhanced at the least.
"What..?" MJ muttered, sharing a look with Ned.
Eyebrows ignored them, looking back at Peter.
"Yes.. yes. паук. You will help us a lot, Spiderman." he smiled, pressing his fingers harshly into Peter's arm before standing abruptly, handing the knife back to Emma and walking out of the room. Twitch and Emma followed him, closing the door behind them, which clicked as it fell into its lock.
MJ and Ned's murmurs had gone quiet. Peter looked down at his bloodied arm, unsure of what to say.
"Oh my god." Ned broke the silence. "Damn." MJ added.
"What the fuck!?" yelled May. "You're Spiderman, that- that guy swinging around in his pajamas getting shot at everyday!?"
Peter brought his hands up to his face, rubbing his temples. What now?
"Yeah."
"Peter."
"Sorry, okay!?" Peter looked up at them. "I don't know what to say. This wasn't how you were supposed to find out." he sighed, frustrated. He didn't want to be dealing with this when the most pressing matter was getting them out of here.
"Oh my god."
"Look, it'll all be okay, alright? I'm sure mr. Stark will find us, and if not, I'll get us out. Then I'll explain everything." but he knew they wouldn't let up.
"Oh my god, you know mr. Stark because you're an avenger!" Ned exclaimed, having forgotten the situation they were in momentarily and gushing with awe.
"No, no, I'm not!" upon seeing May's horrified face, Peter stressed the fact that he was not an avenger. "Really, mr. Stark just helps keep me safe, and we have lab days together and he buys me pizza! Not avenger stuff, I swear."
May still seemed to be breathing a little heavily.
"May, I mean it. It's not a big deal, I-"
"NOT A BIG DEAL?" her voice was loud and slightly panicked. "My nephew sneaks out in the middle of the night to jump in front of knives and bullets, and the only adult who knew about this encouraged you, instead of telling me and keeping you SAFE!"
Peter winced. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry, but don't blame mr. Stark! He's kept me safe, without him I'd be going out every night with no backup, and I'd have died five times over!" this was obviously the wrong thing to say.
May paled. "What does that mean?"
"N-Nothing." May obviously didn't believe this at all and wanted to keep pressing, but Peter quickly continued. "I'm just- I'm sorry I got you all into this mess, and that I kept such a big secret, but it was to keep you safe. It was to keep exactly this from happening!"
"And yet it still happened." MJ seemed relatively calm, though her eyes were wide and she seemed as if she was looking at Peter in a whole new light.
He clenched his jaw, running a hand through his hair. "Yes." he sighed. "I don't know how. But I'm going to get you out." he tried to tug on his chains again, but it did nothing.
Ned seemed to notice. "Hey, don't you have super strength?" his voice was shaking a bit again, the shock from Peter's secret having ebbed away slightly. "Yeah." Peter grunted, pulling as hard as he could, which was quite hard, but the only thing that happened was wave of frustration and exhaustion sweeping over him.
"It's probably vibranium.." he muttered, distractedly.
"That could keep even Captain America!" Ned said, slightly in awe again.
May was frowning, not exactly knowing what vibranium was. "Seems a bit overkill."
"Not really, Spiderman is just as strong as Captain America." MJ told her, and when Peter and Ned looked at her incredulously, wondering how the hell she knew anything about it, she shrugged. "I read a superhero blog during a free period, once." she explained, sounding somewhat defensive.
They didn't get to respond to this surprising detail. "You're as strong as Captain America?" May said, sounding rather dizzy just thinking about it. "Is that how you broke the sink!?"
Peter blushed, thinking back to when he'd just gotten his powers and didn't know how to control them yet. "My powers were new to me back then!"
"How did you even get your powers?" MJ inquired, looking far more interested and curious than she had before.
"I- A spider bit me." Peter groaned when MJ laughed at this, stating how cliche that was.
The conversation didn't have the chance to continue when the door swung open once again. Through it came Emma.
Her lips were kept firmly shut as she approached Peter. She didn't react to his jokes and questions, and Peter's senses went off too late as she suddenly plunged a syringe into his arm.
Faint shouts echoed in his ears as his shackles were removed, and his useless, weakened limbs dragged on the floor as he was carelessly tugged out of the door. Emma's grip on his ankles was firm, unforgiving, but Peter could barely feel the sting of her sharp nails.
Lights flickered above him, dim and haunting in a pathetically cliche way as he was roughly yanked into the hallway, where another set of hands curled around his shoulders and he was picked up off the ground.
Head lolling, his mind began slipping. As his eyes closed, Peter could only hope that their kidnappers would not hurt May, Ned and MJ while he was unconscious.