Abstract Psychopomp

Peter didn't know why Bucky was so tense on their way to the 38th precinct, and he didn't much care, as long as it wouldn't get in the way of the job they had to do.

In Peter’s perfect world, they would get to the 38th precinct and watch the entrance all night and nothing would happen and the end.

Unfortunately, the universe hates Peter and wants him to kill himself. And it's for that reason that when Bucky and Peter arrived at the 38th precinct, they heard gunshots echoing from inside.

Peter sighed and made his way inside, Bucky hot on his heels, guns at the ready.

Bucky shot out the side window, allowing Spiderman to swing in and over the gunmen's heads, with the spy following close behind.

Spiderman grabbed one of the attacker's guns, shoving the butt of it into his face and clubbing another around the head with it.

The web slinger then grabbed a nearby police officer, the woman bleeding from a gunshot wound in her side.

Spidey webbed up the injury to stop the bleeding.

“Reinforcements are on their way.” The vigilante said, sounding nothing like the fifteen year old boy he was. “Where is Justin Hammer?”

The policewoman groaned. “Cell G.” She told him. “Down that hallway and turn left. Keep going straight from there until you find him.”

“Thank you, ma'am.” He said.

“Ma'am?” She said, laughing. “I'm only 22.”

“What can I say, mama raised me right.” Spiderman responded in an exaggerated country accent, then tipped his non-existent cowboy hat.

The woman laughed again and waved as the vigilante swung away.

“Barnes! I'm getting Hammer, clear a path for us!” He yelled to his partner.

“Understood!” Bucky yelled back as he fought off five armed men in black body armour.

Heading down the path the cop sent him on, Spiderman noted that it was suspiciously quiet and empty. Bar the shooting and yelling in the background, of course.

Once he reached Cell G, he realised why.

Justin Hammer was crawled into a ball, three attackers stood over him.

One had their gun drawn, another wielded a knife, and the third wore bloodied brass knuckles.

“I told you. I didn't say anything.” Hammer said in a teary, broken voice.

“We don't believe you, Justin.” Brass Knuckles said, rolling up his sleeves. There, on his pale wrist, Spiderman would see a tattoo. It was of a lion's paw with its claws out.

“We need to be sure. Do you have any proof?” Knife asked. This was a woman, with a sliver of her neck showing. 

Spiderman could see part of the same tattoo there.

“No.” Hammer said in despair. “But I swear I'm telling the truth!” He screamed.

“You were arrested for bribing judges.” Gun said. “Your word don't mean shit.”

As he raised the gun to kill Hammer, the man on the floor began begging and pleading. And while part of him felt very pleased, Spiderman couldn't find it in himself to let this go any further.

“Three against one? That's hardly fair.” Spiderman said, his voice bouncing off the stone walls.

The three goons turned to face him, all drawing their firearms.

Spiderman flicked two of their guns into the walls with each hand before webbing the barrel of the third, all before the goons could even think to fire.

With a scream, Knife charged at the vigilante, blade raised high and brought it down in a vicious arc. Spiderman ducked and dodged and avoided the attacks, even as Brass Knuckles came at him, he evaded expertly.

One solid punch to the jaw for both assailants was enough to knock them clean out.

The third man looked at Spiderman before deciding to cut his losses and just run.

Spiderman reached down, grabbed Hammer by the collar, and hauled him to his feet.

“Let's go.” He said coldly.

Hammer could only nod frantically.

_________

Matt and Natasha arrived at the Yakuza headquarters within the hour, looking down at the frantic workers rushing around. They were shredding documents and burning boxes.

Daredevil nodded at Black Widow, giving her a series of complicated hand gestures. The woman nodded in return.

“Got it.” She said, when she realised she'd just nodded at a blind man.

Black Widow stood tall at the entrance to the sprawling mansion, wiggling her fingers in a ‘come hither’ motion.

The men came rushing at her in droves, punching and kicking wildly. The spy took them down with her shock darts two at a time.

Daredevil took the opportunity to gather the guns laying around and remove all the firing pins. Then he jumped into the fray.

Moving simultaneously, the pair worked their way through the crowd of thugs with a water-like fluidity. And Daredevil's foresight came in handy when one of the men managed to get the drop on him, pulling a gun and firing directly into his face.

Daredevil smiled and snatched the gun, pistol whipping the thug three times in the mouth. 

Black Widow finished off the last of them with a grunt, the mansion falling into blessed silence.

The two of them nodded to themselves before agreeing to look around the mansion for any files or documents which may help their investigation.

They managed to recover a fair amount, given the mass cleansing that had been happening prior to their arrival.

Black Widow told him that they'd found a full ledger of clients, customers and ‘cargo’. Meaning trafficked people.

“This is good.” Widow said. “We can track down their families and provide some sort of closure.” 

“Yeah.” Daredevil murmured.

“We do what we can. We don't focus on what we can't.” She told him, sensing his heartache. He did the same thing that Clint did in situations like these.

Daredevil smiled and nodded.

__________

“What the fuck is wrong with you?!” Hawkeye screamed, the heat of the burning Triad warehouse picking his face.

“You said that I was in charge of handling the men. They're handled.” Frank responded, voice brusque.

“They aren't handled!” Hawkeye yelled. “They're dead!” 

“What's the difference?”

“We could've questioned them.”

“They wouldn't ever talk.”

“You don't know that.”

“Yes I do. All these pieces of shit are the same.”

“What about all the evidence you flushed down the drain?” 

“Why the fuck do you need evidence? You're SHIELD, you don't give trials.”

Hawkeye groaned. “You can't just blow up buildings.”

Frank stayed quiet for a moment, then pointed to the burning warehouse. “Just did.”

“Motherfucker.” Clint was about to jump at the other man, but his comm crackling in his ear stopped him.

“Spiderman here. We have Hammer, and he's unharmed.” The boy's voice echoed.

“Good.” Daredevil said. “Meet at the rendezvous point ASAP.” 

“Got it.” Hawkeye said. “Let's go.” He growled at the Punisher.

_________

Hammer was knocked out against the chimney of a rooftop, hands cuffed and eyes blindfolded. They had all made sure that he was unconscious before unmasking and speaking about their plans.

“A SHIELD transpo will be here in ten minutes to pick him up.” Clint said.

“How do we know that you won't shove us aside once he's in your custody?” Frank said antagonistically. 

“You don't.” Bucky said in response.

“Frank.” “Bucky.” Matt and Natasha spoke at the same time.

“Enough.” Clint said. “I've been thinking. Now that we have Hammer, it might be a good time to loop in the rest of the Avengers.”

“Hell no!” Frank said.

“Hear me out.” Clint retorted.

“We had an agreement.”

“Yes, to keep out SHIELD. Not the Avengers.”

“It's the same thing!”

“It really isn't.” Natasha said quickly.

“Nobody asked you!”

“Hey, don't talk to her like that.” Bucky said, stepping in.

“Or what?” Frank shot back, taking a step towards the other man.

“Take another step and you'll find out.”

Peter quickly raised his arm and webbed both men's feet to the concrete rooftop where they stood.

“Nobody is taking a step towards anyone.” He said with the authority of someone twice his age. “Clint has a point. This is HYDRA we’re dealing with. There's more than one Avenger who'll want their pound of flesh.”

“Plus, Stark will have resources that we just don't. And it'll be easier to keep from the rest of SHIELD.” Matt said, coming to rest his hand on the small of Frank's back.

Clint raised his eyebrows at the gesture, and made eye contact with Peter. The teenager just chuckled and raised his own eyebrows.

“I cannot believe that you two are okay with this.” Frank said. 

“Do you have any other options?” Peter asked. “Where do we go from here?” 

Frank stayed quiet.

“I do have one condition.” Matt said. “Nobody else finds out who Peter and I are.”

“That's fair.” Clint agreed.

“Alright then. Let's go.”

________

The meeting took place in Stark Tower. 

To say that the Avengers, Cap and Wanda in particular, were pissed off at being kept in the dark, would be an understatement.

But when Spiderman came swinging in with Justin Hammer, gagged and blindfolded, over his shoulder. Well, let's just say that some faces lit up.

“Hahahah.” Tony laughed, rejoicing at the sight of the other man.

“You are literally pointing and laughing right now.” Bruce said, his voice low.

“You can't tell me that you haven't wanted to see this happen to him.” Tony countered. “After everything he's done to Peter.”

“Yeah alright.” Bruce conceded.

The six of them exchanged looks as Clint spoke up.

“Yeah, about that. We found out why he's so obsessed with Peter and his tech.”

“Why?” Cap asked.

“He wants to use it to modify his own research and help HYDRA make super-soldiers.”

“Son of a bitch.” Sam muttered.

“So HYDRA knows about Peter?” Pepper asked.

“We can assume so.” Daredevil answered.

“Why are you three involved?” Tony asked, pointing at the Punisher, Spiderman and Daredevil.

“Because you wouldn't have a case without us.” Frank responded.

“It's true.” Natasha said. “They got us where we needed to be to handle this.”

“And we aren't going anywhere.” Frank growled.

“Okay. Wow, no need to get all feisty.” Tony said, throwing his hands up in double peace signs.

“Tony.” Steve sighed. “Okay. So, where are we at?”

“We've taken out the Nemean, Yakuza and Triad bases in the city. We need to track down the HYDRA base, but we have no idea where it could be. We need Hammer to talk to us.” Spiderman said. 

“He won't talk.” Thor said.

“I'll make him fucking talk.” Frank responded.

“I like the sound of that.” Tony replied.

“You're gonna torture him?” Sam asked.

“Yeah.”

“It won't work.” Wanda said.

“Trust me, I'll make him talk.” Frank told her.

“You're not scarier than HYDRA.” She told him.

There was a beat of silence before Vision spoke.

“Wanda’s telepathic abilities would be able to retrieve the necessary information from the prisoner's mind.” He told the room.

“I don't know if I've mastered my powers to that point.” Wanda admitted. “I could kill him.”

“I'm not seeing any downsides.” Tony said.

“The downside is that if he dies, so does our lead to HYDRA.” Daredevil said.

“Who are you?” Tony asked. “In fact, who are both of you? Why do you and Spidey still have your masks on?” 

“A condition of their help was that they keep their identities a secret.” Buck told him.

“That's suspicious.” Tony said.

“Didn't your pet robot try to murder the planet?” Frank asked him. “Shut the fuck up.”

Tony's mouth smacked shut, and Sam chuckled slightly.

“Anyway.” Hawkeye said. “Wanda, do you think you'll be able to handle pulling the information from Hammer's mind?”

Wanda took a deep breath before answering. “I'll need to practice first. But yes. I can.” 

“I'll handle her training.” Vision said. 

“Until then, is there anywhere we can hold him without SHIELD getting suspicious?” Spiderman asked.

“Yeah, but why don't you want SHIELD involved?” Pepper asked.

“We don't trust that there still aren't HYDRA agents embedded into the agency.” Daredevil answered.

“There aren't. I handled that myself.” Steve said.

“Well we still don't trust them.” Frank retorted.

“Fine.” Steve said, defensive for some reason. “Pepper, where can we hold the man?” 

“Basement. No windows, only one door.”

“Is there a boiler in there?” Spiderman asked.

“Yes.” Pepper said, confused.

“Then it won't work.” Spidey said. “Hammer's an engineer. He could rig the boiler to explode, take the whole building down.” 

“Then, where do we keep him?” Sam asked.

“Panic room.” Tony said, snapping his fingers.

“You have a panic room in here?” Steve asked.

“Yes. I'm a very paranoid man.” Tony responded. “I'd have to alter the controls so that he can open it from the inside, but it should work.”

“Alright. Get him there, make sure he doesn't wake up before he's settled. We don't want him to know where he is.” Daredevil said. 

“Wanda, we need this information quickly.” Hawkeye said. “Can you get it done in three days?”

“Three days?” The girl asked.

“Yes.” Vision said. Wanda nodded like she wasn't sure.

“We need a plan for when we have what we need.” Thor said.

“We'll draw up a rudimentary plan, but we can't set anything in stone until we have their location.” Steve told him.

“Okay. We'll meet back here in three days.” Daredevil said.

“Three days.” Steve agreed.

_________

Peter dragged himself through his front door, backpack dropping to the ground with a thud.

“Peter.” He heard a woman's voice say.

“Aunt May.” He greeted. “What's up?” 

“Not much. How was Ned’s?” She asked.

“Fine.” He responded, trying not to let the guilt of lying eat away at him.

“Listen, honey. I was thinking about your Stark internship.” She said, trying to broach the subject gently. Peter internally groaned; he'd forgotten about that.

“I know you really like it there, but I don't know how good it is for you. With everything that's happened, Justin Hammer and the lawsuit, it just feels like it's not worth everything it's put you through.” She dropped her hands to her sides. “Do you understand?” She asked worriedly.

Peter sighed again. “Aunt May. There's something that I have to tell you.”