The Running Clock

'I could pull that move off way better than he did!' Natasha scoffed.

It was another Friday movie night and all the avengers were there: Tony, Natasha, Clint, Steve, Wanda, Bruce and Peter. They had, after a considerable amount of bickering, decided to watch the Matrix's first movie and were engrossed in watching Neo beat up agent Smith.

Soon the credits start rolling and Peter stretches, letting out a huge yawn.  'I am heading to bed. I'm drained.' he declares, standing up from where he had been sitting next to Tony on the couch.

'It's only 10 pm!' Bruce responds with a frown, 'You okay?' he asks, looking Peter up and down, as if he can look through Peter's skin to see if he is sick or wounded.

Peter rolls his eyes as he notices this: 'You would be tired too if you had to deal with the crazy patrol I had.' Peter yawns again involuntarily.

'True, he went viral again today!' Wanda mentions proudly, as if it were she who had gone viral, 'Spiderman holds up a building for an hour to let people trapped inside escape.' she quotes the newspaper headlines dramatically.

'YOU DID WHAT?! Tony cries, chocking on the pop he had been guzzling down seconds before.

'Okay, goodnight!' Peter shouts as he sprints down the hallway, laughing at Tony's spluttered protest.

'Peter Parker, come back here!' Tony cries dramatically as Peter sprints down the hallway and into his room even faster, a grin plastered on his face. He closes the door firmly behind him, locking it to keep an infuriated Tony Stark out.

Quickly he is dressed in his PJ's, yawning loudly as he slumps face-first into his bed, not even bothering to tell FRIDAY to dim the lights.

***

Peter wakes up in the middle of the night, the hair on his neck standing on end as his spidersense starts screaming at him to run.

Something is wrong. Something is very, very wrong.

Before he can even rub the sleep out of his eyes, a hand grabs his mouth, keeping him from screaming out. Peter thrashes out his feet, trying to connect them with the attacker behind him.

When that doesn't work, Peter tries something he hasn't done since he was a toddler: he bites his attackers hand just enough for the guy to let his hand go from Peter.

Immediately, Peter is out of bed, a yell escaping his lips as he punches his attacker in the face. 

What Peter however has not counted on, and his spidersense is too late to inform him off, is the second attacker.

The second attacker comes from behind him, as he is actively trying to land another punch on attacker number one's face. A cloth covers his mouth. Peter sucks in a deep breath as he prepares to jab his elbow back into his attacker's ribs.

Big mistake. Huge mistake.

His senses blur as his nose informs him a bit too late that the cloth was dosed with way too much chloroform.

Around Peter, the world grows dim as he weakly thrashes out with his legs, though he knows it will never work. Faintly, he can hear an alarm go off in the background before darkness grips him, and he falls backwards into the waiting arms of his attacker.

***

Steve wakes up with a start as an alarm starts blaring through the avenger's compound. In a flash, he is out of his bed and running towards his bedroom's door.

'FRI, what's going on!' he asks the AI.

'5 men have infiltrated the compound and are currently in Master Parker's bedroom. He seems to be unconscious. My sensors are picking up high traces of chloroform.' the AI responds, sounding slightly worried, even though she's just an AI.

Steve doubles his speed as he rushes down the corridor. On the way to Peter's room he is met by Nat and Clint, both running at top speed as well, easily keeping up with the super solider, which makes Steve frown: they will have to do a race when this is all over.

Behind him, Steve can hear Pepper exiting the master bedroom as she shouts something to Tony, but Steve does not slow down, they'll catch up.

As soon as they reach Pete's room, they find it's locked from the inside. Steve quickly kicks the door in, earning him an annoyed look from both Nat and Clint, who seemed to have been looking forward to kicking in the door.

As soon as they file into the room, walking over the slain door, they freeze in their advance.

In front of them they see Pete's unconscious body, only being held up by the crook with, very unoriginally, a ski-mask on his face. A second ski-mask wearer is holding a knife to Peter's throat.

'One more step and Spooderman gets it.' Baddie with the knife says, pushing the edge of the blade into Peter's skin, making a trickle of blood escape.

'Okay, okay,' Steve responds, holding his hands out in front of him as he makes a mental note to use that nickname for Peter sometime, 'Let's talk about this, okay?' he asks softly, in his mind smiling. 

This is not the first time something like this happens, they have protocols for stuff like this that have never failed them yet, causing for none of the trio to be very stressed: they know how to deal with things like this. After all, they are the avengers are they not?

'Steve!' Nat's warning rings through the air, though it is too late. For a split second Steve wonders what has gone wrong, there's only 2 crooks after all. Which is when he sees Nat and Clint have both been grabbed from behind, clothes being pressed to their faces.

Before he can react, someone grabs the super-soldier from behind as well, forcing a cloth in his face. Mentally, Steve could've kicked himself, FRIDAY told him there were 5 within the perimeter, but he didn't think more of it when he saw only 2.

'Peter!' he hears Clint's cry as he averts his eyes, just in time to see the first 2 crooks exit through the window, Peter draped over crook no.1's shoulder.

Steve drunkenly topples over, his attacker immediately on him, pressing a knee into his chest, cutting off half of Steve's lung capacity, forcing him to gulp in a breath.

The chloroform makes his head hurt, as a bout of dizziness overtakes him as he blinks up lazily at his attacker, faintly struggling under his iron grip.

Nat and Clint both go limp in their attacker's arms as well, and are dumped on the ground mercilessly.

His vision blurs as he feels the knee being lifted from his chest, the hand holding the cloth leaving his mouth, the cloth being left on his face.

He hears someone scream his name. The cloth being removed from his face. His neck is being held in someone's hand. Someone slaps him. Faintly, he wonders what that slap was for, before darkness engulfs him entirely and he slumps back.