Chapter Text
It all happened so fast.
One minute, he was there. He was fine. Everything was normal- or as normal as everything could be when he was a crime-fighting vigilante.
He was standing upright, arms out in front of him ready to defend himself against another punch. The hairs on the back of his neck were standing up too, tickling his spine as the warning alarms rang quietly in his head. He'd thought it was for another hit. He'd been so tired he hadn't even thought to check behind him before ducking back away from the fist.
One minute he was there.
And the next he was falling.
Falling fast, and through a dark, dark tunnel.
His spidey-senses were going crazy, pulling him in every direction and then back the other way. Everything around him was spinning, then still, then turning once again.
Then it all came to a halt as he fell head first into the concrete.
-
"Put another one on his left temple. Yes, right there."
Everything was a little blurry when Peter woke up again. There was a bright light just above him, so bright it made his eyes squint to try and shield himself from the beams. Whatever he was laying down on was cold, and he'd realised then that he must've been shirtless as the chill sent tingles down his skin.
Something in the back of his skull was pounding and he vaguely remembered the fall from-
From what?
He was just on patrol like he always was in the afternoons, right? It was this guy dressed in black; he'd had a gun and was trying to rob some kind of electrical store.
The guy was much more skilled than he'd thought he would be in a fight, but Peter wasn't losing!
So how had he-
Oh!
The black hole. He'd seen it from the corner of his eye as he was pushed back with the threat of a bullet. Where did it come from? Did the guy make it and send him down on purpose? How had his senses missed it? Where had he ended up?
Well, that last one was a little clearer.
He was strapped down with leather straps onto a metal table in some kind of clinic. Or that's what it looked like in his dimmed vision, at least.
Peter could feel small tabs stuck to his skin, all over his body. There were some on his forehead, neck, wrists, but there were more on his chest than anywhere else. So many more. He was practically covered in them. In the centre of each tab was a small needle that pricked into his skin, about a millimeter deep.
Beside him, there was a steady, but slowly climbing beeping which he soon managed to figure out was his heart.
It all reminded him of when he, Mr Stark, and Doctor Banner did those tests to figure out how his body reacted to the bite. Obviously, it was very late into the process, but the results were helpful in other ways.
At least he wasn't worried about dying when they happened. He couldn't say the same about when he was first bitten…
So this must be a hospital?
Had someone found him?
Maybe someone had seen him fall and-
He was dressed as Spider-man when he'd fallen through the hole (portal?). His mask was gone, he could feel the air on his cheeks, and his suit certainly wasn't on anymore if his shirtlessness was anything to go by.
Whoever was here had seen his identity.
He'd been so careful!
The panic rose up in his chest as he realised the situation, or as much of it as he could manage, and he immediately tried to sit up.
Just one small problem.
His head was strapped down too- a leather restraint keeping it back against the table by his forehead, covering the tabs as well. He couldn't even shake his head side to side.
Not a hospital.
Definitely not a hospital.
"There he is," at the sound of a low, deep voice, Peter's eyes darted over to the side to try and get a look at his captor. Two men in white lab coats were at either side of the table in seconds, and his entire body blared in warning alarms. Danger! But he wasn't in his suit. He couldn't use his strength. There was still a chance they didn't know who he was, right? He couldn't risk that. Not again. Not when he'd spent so long trying to hide it again. He'd find another way out. A safer way. "Now, everything looks to be in order. So why don't we just get started? No need to waste any more time."
Another voice, from his other side this time, "don't you want to explain what's happening?"
Yes.
Yes, please.
He wanted to find a way to stall them from whatever they planned. But there was something in his mouth, almost like a mouth guard that seemed to lock his jaw in place.
"No. Not like it'll matter in a few hours, will it?" That didn't sound very promising. Peter tugged experimentally at the straps. They'd be so easy to rip off for him, quite literally like a bandaid. But a normal person wouldn't. Is it worth the risk? His spidey-senses are saying YES! "Now, you may feel… a little shock."
Okay, that's it.
He's getting the hell out of her-
In his ear, he heard the small sound of a dial being turned just as he pulled his arm up to get out of his restraints. For a moment, nothing happened other than the distinct noise of leather ripping and he'd hoped whatever their machine to the side was had miraculously broken.
But it hit him barely even a millisecond later.
Like a million electric shocks all at once, all over his body. Specifically, from the tabs on his chest. They sent heated sparks through his skin, down into his veins, and right into his heart. It was like time slowed down just so he could feel it all. He felt the initial sparks of the shock. He then felt as it traveled down and down until it reached his vital organ.
And he'd felt as it finally crackled in the aorta.
Peter felt his entire body light up like it was being burned when he woke up again gasping for breath. The tabs were still sending the remaining sparks of the shock through his body and into his heart, crackling and fizzling and pulsing as a reminder. His nerves and veins vibrated against them, as if to fight and get out of his skin. His brain connected back to his body like a sharp snap that sent tingles down his vertebrae, but he still didn't move.
He was paralysed, and yet felt like his body was moving so quickly he just couldn't process it.
He felt cold and warm at the same time.
Each goosebump on his skin felt so raw.
His senses were screaming at him to move but he couldn't even breathe.
Everything felt so wrong.
"Ten minutes, success. Break timer started."
"Perfect. Since we have to wait, I'll explain." The voice was louder than before, but he couldn't tell if it was because he was closer, or because Peter was relying on his other senses since his vision had clouded over like when he hadn't had enough to eat. "We've been working on this experiment for a good few years, and recently moved on to the practical phase. We've tested it out on a few subjects already but they- well… they weren't suited."
Every word was like a hammer to his skull.
Just breeching the small comfort of not having to see the doctor's face, he felt the brief touch of skin against his own, sending a wave of uncomfortable nerves all over his arm. He'd tried to pull away, but a hand grabbed his wrist and he didn't have the strength to fight it.
Another leather strap began to wrap over his wrist.
"I bet if you didn't have that mouthguard, you'd be asking 'suited to what?'. I'm glad you asked, kid." He didn't want to know. Not anymore. He just wanted out. He couldn't go through that again. But he couldn't move. He could barely feel his limbs- minus the nervous system within it. "We've been working on something people have considered a little unethical… resuscitation. I know, I know- people do it all the time. But, what me and Aster here want to do, is a little harder than the usual CPR and pump."
Oh God.
Peter squeezed his eyes shut.
He knew. He knew what he was about to say.
But he didn't want to acknowledge it. Because then he'd have to acknowledge what was about to happen to him again.
And he wasn't ready.
He couldn't do it again.
The pain hadn't stopped.
"It's been done before. But no one left their research. So we have to do it all over again, hm? But we can't try anything on the real target first. We could fry them before we even get the shot. That's what you're for. We've got to figure out the right treatment plan. Unfortunately, we have to set the right conditions. And ten minutes isn't gonna do it. So we'll have to work you up. But after a while, I doubt you'll even feel it, kid."
"Break timer's up. Ready for thirty."
No.
No.
No. Please no.
"Perfect. See you in thirty minutes, kid. Or not."
There was the dial again.
And then the spark.
"Three hours, success. Break timer started."
Peter blinked harshly, his breaths more like gasps that never got enough air.
His body was buzzing with the electricity that never seemed to leave, even after the shocks ended. His heart ached with every single pulse, but this time, the monitor beeps were so much quicker than the last. He was surprised he even remembered what the last felt like. What anything felt like.
Everything hurts. It's all he could focus on.
Peter knew the laws of resuscitation. He should be brain dead by now. But every time, he woke up. In even more pain than the last. By the third time, he started to wish he was. At least in a coma, he wouldn't feel it. He wouldn't feel the sparks, or the stopping and starting of his own heart.
Or every single slow, aching pulse that came after.
Even his own heart was begging for it all to just stop.
"He's already lasted an hour longer than the others. Guess it was some really good luck or karma that left you in our alley, huh?"
Good karma?
Peter's eyes welled up with tears for the hundredth time since he'd ended up strapped down to the table. They never left to run down his cheeks, but he was tempted to let them fall this time.
It was his fault this was happening.
Of course it was.
He should've been more careful. He'd been so careless. He should've checked behind him. He should've been more focused. He should've-
Maybe it was even the fight to blame at all.
Maybe it was the karma of it all, like the doctor said.
Bad karma.
For everything he'd done.
Everything he'd failed at.
The war, Beck, college, the spell-
May…
It was karma alright.
"Break timer's up. Ready for four."
"Ready for five."
"Ready for six."
"Ready for seven."
"Ready for eig- what the fuck!"