Prey
“I want answers, Osborn. No excuses.”
If there was anything that could have made Norman Osborn’s week worse, it was a call from him . He was already stuck dealing with the loss of one of Oscorp’s most prized contracts with the Government thanks to the ever growing presence of Stark Industries in New York City when the news came in that one of his scientists found their missing test subject dead in one of the building’s public restrooms. That spider had been the result of over a decade of research and experimentation, and now it was gone, squashed beneath the shoe of some stupid girl who probably got startled by the thing running over her foot.
What’s worse is that the experiment was directly funded, and commissioned , by the very man whose cold voice now sounded over the phone. A man so powerful that Norman had never been able to figure out his name, despite the many resources that he’d put into trying to do so. A man so powerful that if Norman disappointed him now, Norman would likely be dead and his company destroyed before the next week was over.
Before now their…business… had been beneficial to them both. The mysterious man’s money helped fund some of Norman’s more questionable research, and in exchange all the man wanted was the spider-gene program to continue on schedule. Now that was ruined, and Norman had to answer for it.
“Of course. We’ve spent the past twenty-four hours since the incident figuring out what happened. Ask your questions and you will get no lies, and no excuses.” Norman replied coolly, hiding his nerves behind his usual mask of indifference.
“How did this happen! That spider was priceless! Perfect! Its progeny would have paved the way to miraculous things, and now fifteen years of waiting and funding is gone!” The benefactor’s voice was brutal, and Norman could only imagine the spittle that must have been flying from their mouth. Not that he would bother to imagine such a thing.
“From security logs we discovered that Doctor Alena had rushed through her closing procedures in a bid to get home the night before the incident. The subject’s enclosure had not been properly sealed, and thus allowed it to escape the lab, eventually making its way to a woman’s restroom on the second floor of the building.” The CEO responded, pulling up the relevant footage of Alena’s haphazard following of procedure. “Alena has already been… terminated for her failure.” He assured the man.
“Good. Now who killed it?”
That was the question of the hour, and one that Norman didn’t know yet either. His team had sent him the final report just a few minutes before the call, and he hadn’t had the chance to read it over. As such, he moved his mouse over to the report file and opened it, revealing camera stills and paragraphs of text that detailed the suspect’s every move within the building. But at the very top was the girl’s picture… and he knew her. The long brown hair, and pale blue eyes, and square glasses of the girl had sat across the dinner table from him multiple times as a guest and close friend of his son. She had killed the spider, and from the looks of the report, got bit before she did so, if the red marks on her hand shown in one of the stills was any indication. He knew what this meant. Once he told his benefactor her name, she was as good as gone. Dead or missing, it didn't matter. No one would ever see her again. Ultimately it came down to her or him, and Norman knew who he would chose. Who he would always chose.
“Osborn…” The voice growled, the Russian accent making it sound almost animalistic over the phone.
He sighed, offering a silent apology to both his son and the girl. “A fourteen year-old girl from the Midtown School of Science and Technology. She was on a field trip to my building when she entered the bathroom that the subject was in… She was bitten by it.” He supplied the answer his benefactor was looking for, knowing what the cost would be.
The man on the other end of the line was silent for a few moments. “She was bitten? Are you sure?”
“Yes.” He confirmed.
“Her name.” The demand came, just as Norman expected it too.
He looked once more upon the girl's face, before opening his mouth to throw her to the wolves.
“Payton Parker!”
Payton’s head snapped towards the front of the class, causing long brown locks to fall into her eyes. With a huff, she blew the strands of hair away. “Present!”
The rest of the class snickered as Mrs. Elling gave her an unimpressed look. “Excellent Miss Parker, now if you could be mentally present as well as physically present for the rest of class that would be wonderful. I know the day is almost over, but there is still stuff to learn young lady.” The English teacher scolded her.
Payton felt heat rise into her face in embarrassment as her classmates continued to snicker. “Yes Mrs. Elling… Sorry.” She apologized, face still flushed as she looked back down to her notebook to catch up on the slides.
Mentally scolding herself, Payton jotted down the notes she missed, and did her best to pay attention for the rest of class, ignoring the building headache from hearing the consistent heartbeats of her classmates, the scratching of pens and pencils on paper, and the giggles between two girls who were sneaking out of a classroom down the hall to go home early.
She has drastically underestimated just how overstimulating school would be for her new found powers. After being bedridden all of last week, feeling like she was dying, May and Ben had asked if she was truly ready to return to school. Of course she said yes. They are three months into her freshman year and she is stubborn. Sue her.
Now though, she was regretting it. The ceiling lights in chemistry class were blinding, the cafeteria during lunch was deadening, and each time Flash kicked her chair she snapped another mechanical pencil in half. Not to mention that her teeth and jaw ached and she couldn’t figure out why. It was just too much , and she still couldn’t wrap her head around the fact that a spider bite led to all this.
Mercifully, the bell rang and English class ended, though the bell itself caused her to flich and her ears to ring in pain, and Payton took off before Flash could antagonize her further. Maneuvering through the masses with far more ease than she would have just a week ago, Payton caught sight of Ned just a little ways away, her best friend waving back at her excitedly.
The two of them met in the middle with their secret handshake, laughing as they wrapped it up. “How was history?” She asked him, the two of them walking together towards the entrance of the school.
“It was good! Mr. Wellers actually made the class somewhat interesting, though still not as cool as Computer class.” Ned eagerly responded, practically bouncing up and down next to her. “Do you want to come over and hang out? Mom told me that the Lego Avengers Tower I ordered just arrived. We could build it together!”
Payton gasped in excitement with her friend. “No way! That’s awesome man!” She cheered, before calming down slightly. “We will have to do it tomorrow though. Ben and May want to go out to dinner and then have a movie night at home.”
“Aww man. Tomorrow is so far awayyy.” Ned complained, before the two of them began to laugh as they exited the school.
They continued talking as they walked through the city, catching up on the things they missed throughout the day. Soon enough the time to say goodbye came as they arrived at Ned’s apartment building, her friend waving goodbye to her as he took the stairs to the door two at a time.
Her own walk home was fairly boring. She pulled on her headphones just to try and block out the sounds of the city as she walked, though it didn’t seem to help. She kept getting a weird feeling in the back of her head, and goosebumps formed on her arms and neck. But nothing seemed amiss. Each time the feeling returned she looked around herself, but saw nothing, eventually jotting it down as another oddity to add to the list of resulting symptoms from that darn spider.
Finally reaching home, she gave a quick hug and greeting to May before going to her room. She had a week’s worth of homework she had to catch up on before they could go out to dinner after all. Payton spent the next few hours quietly listening to music while grounding out assignment after assignment until her wrist was sore from all the writing. But she was finished. Four days of homework caught up in just a few hours. Nice.
Quickly getting changed, Payton rushed down the stairs to find Ben and May waiting for her in the kitchen, lightly chatting over some wine, with an envelope resting on the table between them. Upon her entrance, both turned to look at her with beaming smiles.
“There’s my girl!” Ben exclaimed with open arms, allowing Payton to rush in for a hug.
“Are you ready to head out honey?” May asks, smirking conspiratorially over her wine, looking between Payton and the envelope.
“Uh, yesss?” She tentatively answered, eyes flickering between her two parental figures. “What’s going on that makes you two all giddy?” She questioned.
“Oh nothing…” May responded airily, sipping from her glass, no longer able to contain the massive smile building on her face.
“We are just excited to get to meet Stark Industries’ newest intern!” Ben announced, wrapped one of his long arms around her narrow shoulders.
“…What?” Payton breathed, heart racing as she looked between the two of them in disbelief.
Wordlessly, May handed the envelope over to her. It was already open, but with shaking hands, Payton pulled the letter out of its holder and slowly unfolded it. As she began to read, Ben’s arm squeezed her in a hug.
Dear Parker Family,
It is our honor to inform you that your niece, Payton B. Parker has been accepted to be a part of the Stark Industries High-School Internship Program (H.I.P)! The first day of the internship will be on Monday, October 26th starting at 4:30 PM at Avengers Tower. Please wear lab appropriate clothing, and bring a valid form of I.D to be given an internship security badge.
Welcome to Stark Industries,
Pepper Potts, CEO
Payton couldn’t breathe. One week. In one week she would officially be an intern at Stark Industries. Stuck in a limbo between hyperventilating and screaming, Payton ended up releasing a high pitched squeal that caused her Aunt and Uncle to laugh before they swept her into becoming the meat of a hug sandwich. Her heart seemed to be trying to hammer its way out of her rib cage, but that didn’t matter as she flung her arms around May’s torso, finally screaming in joy into her Aunt’s shirt.
“Congratulations sweetheart, you earned this!” Ben whispered into her ear, his voice choked up with emotion.
The three of them continued their hug for a few minutes, bouncing around the kitchen in celebration before they finally came apart, each member of the Parker household breathing heavily as they steadied themselves.
“Alright, we gotta get moving if we are going to make it to our reservation!” Ben announced, clapping his hands together, but also being unable to resist pulling Payton into another hug.
Nodding her head, too happy to truly speak and mouth smiling so wide her cheeks hurt, she led the way out of the house, dragging May along while refusing to let go of her Aunt’s hand.
The three of them walked, hand in hand in hand, all the way to Vinny’s Pizzeria, a nice restaurant that they could only really afford to eat at on special occasions… Like today, she thought with another smile.
Dinner itself was a happy affair, with Payton animatedly discussing her day at school (skipping over all of Flash’s bullying) as well as spewing word salad about random Stark Industries trivia that she just knew from her years of fangirling for Iron Man (though Black Widow was a close second, she had no choice but to agree with Michelle on how cool Natasha Romanov is). Ben and May sat there and listened to her ramble on with smiles on their faces, as they always did.
Of course, eventually she had to stop her word tsunami to take a breath, and Ben used the opportunity to start up a discussion about what movie they planned to watch, which quickly turned into a friendly argument as they each went to their personal favorites. Payton demanded Star Wars (for the millionth time) while May tried to argue for rom-coms (which Payton vehemently protested, arguing that those movie nights always devolved into Ben and May being ‘gross’ and ‘lovey’ and ‘stuff’). Ben butt in to Payton’s protests with the offer of the “Fast and Furious” franchise (his guilty pleasure), which turned both the girls against him as May thought they lame, and Payton couldn’t stand watching cars fly and buff dudes flexing their way out of arm casts (which makes no sense!).
The debate finally ended when Payton announced that today was to celebrate her accomplishment, and thus they would be watching Star Wars, and neither Ben nor May could argue her logic. Dinner ended with May and Ben complaining about being so full they were ‘going to burst’, and Payton marveling about the fact that she somehow ate a wholepizza by herself and still felt like she could eat more.
Payton walked alongside her Aunt and Uncle on the way home, listening contentedly to May poking fun at Ben’s love for ‘Corona, cars, and the word family’, while Ben tried to defend the movies. With a smile on her face, Payton couldn’t help but think about how today had to be one of the best days of her life.
DANGER
Her head snapped up as the goosebumps returned, and the odd feeling at the back of her head returned, this time basically screaming danger to her. Looking around, Payton couldn’t see anything… Until they turned the corner, and she ground to a halt, May and Ben continued on for a few steps until they realized she stopped, and then saw what she was looking at.
Ahead of them, leaning against a van, was a man armed to the teeth. Blue combat armor covered his entire body, with small sections of orange highlights on both the armor, and the gray undersuit. But the helmet truly caught her attention. A white mask in the shape of a skull, with two narrow slits for eyes, glowing yellow in a mockery of Iron Man’s blue eyes. Much of this man seemed to be a copy of the Avengers, Payton noted. A bow and quiver on his back, just peeking over the white cowl. A round object that seemed suspiciously like Captain America’s shield, and a series of red-orange dots that was clearly a play on Black Widow’s wrist mounted Widow Bites.
“Payton Parker… You’ve been a naughty girl.” The man spoke, his deep voice distorted by what had to have been a voice modulator.
Her eyes widened. This wasn’t just a random encounter with some villain. He was here for her, and her Aunt and Uncle knew it as well, sharing a glance with each other before looking back to her, panicked.
Ben rallied first, using an arm to push May behind him, while Payton had her view blocked as Ben took another step to be directly between the stranger and her. “What do you want! Money?!” He demanded, his voice shaky but stern.
The man laughed. “I’ve already got money chalked in. Now I just gotta earn it.” He took a step forward, causing Payton to automatically take a step back. “I’ll give you one chance to leave Benjamin . Walk away with your wife and forget I was here.”
Ben breathed in heavily. “May, Payton… RUN!”
May turned around and began running towards her, but she was frozen in place as Ben began charging towards the stranger.
BANG!
May took a few more stumbling steps before she fell face-first to the sidewalk, a bloom of red spreading across the back of her yellow blouse, and Payton felt her heart tear in two and leap into her throat.
RUN RUN RUN
Her senses screamed to flee, but she was rooted in place, her eyes flickering between May on the ground and Ben, who continued his charge in desperation, even as the Skull-faced Stranger turned his gun on him. A warning got caught in her throat, before a bright flash heralded a new mist of red spewing from Ben’s back as his charge was stopped in its tracks. The sound was muted, as if she was submerged. If May tore her heart in two, Ben tore it from her chest. The two people she loved most lay dead or dying on the street, pools of red spreading around them, and she did nothing . A choked sob was torn from her throat, but she still couldn’t move. Couldn’t speak. Their killer holstered his pistol and began to approach her and she still couldn’t move. Stuck staring at her life and love on the dirty street. Then Ben rolled over, his lips barely moving. If she hadn’t had enhanced hearing now, she would never have heard his words.
“Run”
Payton took off, turning on her heels and accelerating faster than Olympic track athletes, causing a surprised huff to come from the man (their killer ). She never had the chance to test just how much she had changed ever since that spider bite. She just got out of bed two days ago after being sick for most of the previous week. This was certainly not the way she wanted to put herself through her paces.
RUN RUN RUN
DUCK
She ducked, an arrow whistling over her head as it burst, releasing a cord that promptly wrapped around a light pole. A second later the cord started to spark with electricity that buzzed down the metal pole into the ground. Taking a harsh turn, Payton arrived in a dark alley, and ran up to one of the walls, placing her hands against the bricks, willing herself to stick.
“Come on come on come on come on!’” She mumbled, tears running down her face as she began to climb. It had originally been a pain in the ass when she first woke up, feeling like death and being unable to untangle herself from her sheets because her hands and feet refused to let the fabric go. Now it was a life saver, alloying her to scale the wall, and climb over the lip of the building. A few moments later, the man turned the corner into the alley as well, slowly stalking into the dark.
“You can’t hide for long, girly.” He mocked, raising a hand to his wrist and pressing a button on his gauntlet.
Her phone began to ring.
Panicked, Payton fumbled into her pocket to try and turn it off, but it refused. Instead, she threw it away from her, putting much more force than she expected and her phone disappeared into the night. But it was too late. The sound of a metal coil being shot from a gun reached her as a grappling hook smashed into the brick next to her hiding place. He had been tracking her through her phone. How long had he been watching her? Since the afternoon? She remembered the anxiety she had while walking home, was this guy just waiting for the opportune moment?
“There you are!”
She took off again, even as her pursuer was dragged to the rooftop to begin the chase once again. Rooftop after rooftop, down fire escapes and across streets she was pursued. Her enhancements were all that kept her ahead of him. His experience in this game was far greater than her own, and he wasn’t panicking the same way she was. No, he was mocking her, making fun of her attempts to escape and her tears.
All the while her mind screamed directions at her. Duck, left, right, run, jump. Over and over she seemed to just know what action to take to avoid his attacks, and that more than anything seemed to annoy him.
Taking advantage of this ‘sixth sense’, Payton began to gain ground, pushing herself to run faster and faster until eventually, she couldn’t hear him anymore. Finally she could take a moment to just breathe. Deep, heaving breaths worked to fill her lungs, despite her burning muscles and oncoming panic attack.
“Come on Payton, think!” She gasped in between breaths, back leaning against a dirty dumpster in the alley. Looking around, she couldn’t recognize where she was. Too far away from her normal routes to recognize this area of New York. Here she noticed what had been missing for most of the chase. People. Not many were out, but there were still some, which was more that could be said for the entire time she ran away. Somehow the man hunting her had managed to corral her through areas with nobody to see what was happening.
With a breath to steady herself, Payton left the alley, walking down the sidewalk and keeping her head down. From the looks of things, she was in a rougher part of the city, and with her brain screaming danger at her constantly, she couldn’t bring herself to approach anyone and ask for help. Instead, she wandered the streets, getting further and further away from home… away from her Aunt and Uncle who had died in the street, because of her. The man said her name, said that he was there for her . Another sob forced its way from her lungs as she hugged herself and forced the thoughts away, deep down with the other memories she couldn’t think about.
RIGHT
The warning came, but she couldn’t bring her body to respond in time. Exhaustion, both physical and mental, were beginning to take hold. A hand shot out of the alley she was walking by and dragged her in, and another grimy hand, smelling heavily of nicotine and alcohol, covered her mouth, preventing her from screaming. A couple of chuckles rang out in the alley as three, clearly drunk, men looked her up and down.
“Well -hic- what’s a young thing like you doing walking around at a time like this?” The man holding her asked, keeping one hand over her mouth, not letting her answer. His friends’ hands began to wander over her as well, causing bile to rise in her throat as one of those buried memories tried to fight their way to the surface.
Even as the fear began to claw its way back to the surface, a throat was cleared from elsewhere in the alleyway, causing the men’s heads to turn. Due to their grip, Payton couldn’t turn her head enough to see who it was, but she did see the visceral reactions of the men holding her. Their faces grew pale, as footsteps began to stop down the dark path. Each of the men who grabbed her were panicking, if their rapidly beating hearts were any indication. The new guy was calm. And armed.
“Woah man, we were just-”
“Just planning to assault a young girl?” The new man interrupted, sounding very upset.
The hands all released her, and her attacks began to back up.
DOWN
Payton dropped to the ground as three gunshots rang out, the three men around her collapsed as Payton felt a wet splatter on her face. Raising a shaky hand to her face, her fingers came back red. Red, like May and Ben. Red. Blood. Three more people dead because she did something she wasn’t supposed to. That made five in one night. Was she cursed? What did she do to deserve this? Why was she alone?
Fully enthralled in a panic attack, hands tearing at her hair, Payton lost track of the new guy until he was kneeling in front of her, hands gently prying her fingers from her hair. He was saying something to her, but she couldn’t hear it over the sound of her own heart in her ears, and the memories that were flashing through her brain. Why me? Why me? Why me?
Fingers gently raised her head from between her knees, wiping the blood from her cheek. A soothing voice speaking words she couldn’t focus on. May. Ben. May. Ben. Why them? Why not me ?.
“Hey! You are alright!” The voice spoke, loudly enough now to force her to listen to it.
She opened her eyes to the sight of another white skull (May and Ben fell to the ground, blood pooling). This skull wasn’t on his head (it wasn’t him). It was painted, sprayed onto a black tactical vest (hands all over her). She recognized it. The news spoke often of it. The trial of the century.
The Punisher
Payton fainted.