Confusion galore as Peter acts weird
Peter woke up slowly, his head thumping loudly, his senses screaming in overtime. He made sure to keep his breathing stable as if asleep, a nice trick Nat had taught him.
'Little spider!' a voice hisses close by. Peter has to try his best not to cringe away from the voice, keeping up appearances of being asleep. 'I know you're not asleep, little spider. Call it a gift if you will.' the voice laughed.
Mentally, Peter rolls his eyes, focusing on the voice. Weasel, Peter decided. This guy he would nickname weasel.
Peter's spider sense flares up suddenly, giving him just enough time to open his eyes and swerve his head to the side. Weasel had tried to slap him.
Weasel was your average run-down the mill criminal, only slightly creepier. He seemed like he could be a father, which was the creepy part. Peter preferred villains who didn't look like they could possibly have a family.
Peter looks at the man groggily as he just smiled back at him lazily. Peter tugs listlessly at the surrounding bonds, already assuming he wouldn't be able to break them - the assumption being correct.
'Made out of vibranium you know. Strongest metal on this earth. Don't worry, I'll remove them in a bit. But first, a video.' Weasel says with a happy smile, gesturing to a tripod in front of him.
'What do you want?!' Peter spits.
'Well, let me tell you first then, that way you won't be confused.' the weasel says smiling. 'You are the way to destroying the avengers. You're their favourite you know, and they'll do anything to save you, which will be their downfall.'
Peter rolls his eyes: 'Look Weasel, the luring in and killing them has been tried before, didn't work.'
Weasel laughed: 'Nice nickname, kid, but partially wrong assumption.' Peter rolls his eyes visibly now. 'No, you see, they will want to find you, but you won't want them to find you.' Weasel says, his smile growing more and more intense and creepy.
Walking to the other side of the room, he grabs something from a ledge. It's a syringe. Quickly walking back to Peter, Weasel waves it in his face.
'See this?' he asks with a sneer, 'Inside this are hundreds of nanobots laced with explosives.' Weasel now explains, grinning his ugly toothy grin. 'So I inject it into your skin like so.' he continues, plunging the syringe mercilessly into Peter's skin, making him let out a small gasp of surprise and pain.
The plunger is pushed down. Peter squeezes his eyes shut: this was not going okay. This was going badly.
'Now, these nanobots are set to explode in, let's say, about 90 minutes. Might have also been 60, I quite forgot.' Weasel adds casually, as if telling Peter to add more salt to the soup, 'Now, when they explode, you'll obviously die. The question, however, is whether anyone else dies. Because that, that's up to you, Spiderman.'
Peter sucks in a deep breath: he thinks he knows where this is going.
'Now,' Weasel drones on, 'You have about 90 - or 60, who knows - minutes to get away from people. I'll do you a solid, the radius of the blast would be about half a kilometre. And hey! I'll even untie you, that is, after I send a video to the avengers. I'll play the dumb villain and call them too long so they can track me. Which would give you, like what, 5 minutes to run away from them. 5 minutes head start to get away from your friends. Or you can stay put, whatever you want: die alone, or die together.'
'You're mental!' Peter spits, eyes glaring at Weasel. Weasel just smiles.
'Now this is how it's going to go: you keep your mouth shut during the call about the nanobots, if you even hint at it, I'll slit your throat. Which would end in your friend's deaths as well, because they will obviously want to bury your body, won't they buddy?' Weasel says, his grin growing once again, 'Of course, to make it fun: you're allowed to tell them not to come, but no mention of a bomb, or you die.'
Peter nods slowly, fighting back the urge to cry: how will he ever outrun the avengers? He has to, he is willing to die for them. He needs to make sure they don't find him.
'Well, if that's clear, let's start the call, shall we Spiderman?' Weasel lisps, placing his phone on the tripod, and hitting video call.
***
The avengers are gathered in the debriefing room, or how Peter liked to call it: the skulking and scheming room.
They are all sitting. Tony has his head in his hands, as he leans his elbows on the table. Wanda is absentmindedly juggling a few kitchen knives, a dark look on her face. Natasha is trying to stop Wanda from juggling knives, and Clint is avoiding the knives being juggled that are coming mere millimetres from his face. Bruce is once again trying to track the path the kidnappers took, but keeps finding nothing. Pepper is pacing as she talks with SHIELD on the phone, Steve trying to listen in on the conversation.
'Boss, you have an incoming video call. Shall I pick up?' FRIDAY asks. The room goes silent. Pepper glances at Tony, who removes his face from his hands.
'Pick up FRIDAY and display it on a large screen, so everyone can see.'
A large screen appears, showing a grinning man looking at the camera, his hands behind his back. Wanda scrunches up her nose: he reminds her of a weasel.
Silently, the man steps to the side, showing them a tied up Peter. Wanda squeals and drops the knives. Clint and Nat squeal and duck away from the knives.
Peter's head is bowed, and he doesn't look up, even after Tony and the rest call out his name. He stays silent. Unmoving. As if he didn't even hear them.
'Good afternoon Tony Stark, Avengers.' the weasel says, nodding to Tony and then to the rest of the avengers. He smiles broadly: 'I have your little friend here, I was thinking of playing a game, will you play?'
'Let him go!' Tony yells at the man, standing up in anger, 'What did you do to him?!' he cries, looking at Peter's figure, whose head is still looking at the ground.
The weasel smiles: 'Oh, he's okay, physically. Mentally, I'm not so sure, but well, who am I to judge that?'
Wanda's eyes widen as she looks at Peter's figure. Something is wrong with him, something is terribly wrong.
'Now see, Petey here had a little chat with me, and I told him what you are: dangerous. Isn't that right Peter?' he asks, turning to Peter, 'Do you want them to find you?'
'No.' Peter rasps, looking up for the first time, 'Please stay away from me. Don't try to find me.'
The weasel smiles broadly as Tony gasps. Why would Peter say that? What had that man done to the kid?!
'What did you do to him?!' Wanda screams angrily, his fists balled at her sides. Then turning to Peter, she pleads: 'Peter, listen, whatever he told you, it's not true. Peter, it's not true! We're your friends!'
Peter just looks at her, shaking his head: 'You need to stay away, you can't come.' he all but whispers, his eyes brimming with tears, 'Just leave me alone.'
The weasel smiles: 'Well, look at the time, I am a busy man, I look forward to more video calls with you.' He steps forwards, his face filling the screen, then it goes black.
'Nat?' Tony breathes.
'I have his location Tony, it's 5 minutes away from here.' Natasha says softly, her mouth set in a thin line.
Steve brushes his hand across his face, then straightens his back: 'Suit up, we're getting Peter back.'