Cloning(?) Round 2- green sludge goobaloo
Peter
One good day, all Peter wants is one good day. But apparently that’s too much to ask for! Whatever force is in charge of Peters life, fate, some kind of god, the universe or even Wades “author”, Peter would like a word with them. Or maybe a fistfight…. just maybe.
Because Peter is officially done with this bs.
D-O-N-E! He is over this obsession of the force at large to make his life as shitty as possible!
He doesn’t get to have one nice mental breakdown with his older-younger brother! Nooooooo.
Peter has to wake up and find himself actively drowning.
Not in normal water either at that!
It’s some disgusting green slurry that burns and gnaws at his lungs and throat.
He has to get out. He refuses to die in some fucked up Mountain Dew tank. Not happening.
But Peter can’t think straight. No scratch that, he can’t think period. All that he processes right now is anger. Like he physically needs to hurt something or someone, that kind of anger.
He doesn’t understand what’s happening. He’s normally in better control of himself. (Kinda necessary when you’ve got enough strength to level a city block)
But right now he can’t.
Right now everything is green. He sees it. He breathes it. Feels it all around him.
And he needs out.
He feels glass shatter before he realizes he threw the punch.
The ground is cold and wet. Glass crunching under his hands and knees. Peter falls into a violent coughing fit, his body hacking and shaking to expel the air out of his lungs.
Before he can catch a proper breath, he hears glass breaking behind him.
Close
….familiar
Hi! Cluster!
Peter whips around before realizing who his spider sense is reacting. Relief washes over him, even if he can’t help but cringe in sympathy for his brother. The green tinge to his vision lets up slightly along with it.
Ben is in the same spot Peter was seconds ago. Shaking in a coughing fit and gasping for air.
….
Ben looks younger than he did last(?) night (Peter doesn’t know how long he was unconscious actually). His brother hadn’t looked this young since he first met him….when they were both 14 (well since Peter was 14)
This can’t bode well for either of them can it?
“What in the actual f-“ , Ben doesn’t get to finish his sentence, interrupted by another coughing fit. He meets Peters eyes instead.
From the look on his brothers face Peter gets the slight impression he is in the same predicament as his now way-younger brother.
“Let me guess, I look like I barely hit puberty too?”
“Too? What do you- oh come on!”
Despite the situation Peter can’t help the chuckle, that escapes his mouth at Bens horrified expression.
“This isn’t funny you punk! I was just old enough to finally get to drink and now I’m a fucking kid again!”
Now that Peter was finally able to breathe properly again (sweet oxygen how he missed it), the boy could start to think more clearly. Despite the burning green rage that edged on his mind and vision, demanding pain and retaliation for something Peter didn't even know.
Peter took to assessing where exactly the spiders had landed. There were windows anywhere and the only source of light a couple of emergency lamps over the doors. Without enhanced vision Peter wouldn't have been able to see much at all. But thanks to the mutation he could make out the lab equipment and papers strewn about the room. Everything is covered in a fine layer of dust. This place had been abandoned but not for long.
He turns around to look at whatever it was they just broke. Its some sort of giant tube half-covered in a (now shattered) glass panel. There was still green liquid inside of the machine, glowing in that same toxic color that tinges his vision periodically.
Peter can feel the vibrations Bens feet make, as the other moves about the room. Rummaging trough whatever he found on the opposite site end of what is obviously some type of laboratory.
Now he might have not been an expert but looking at these tubes....well he had a suspicion. And it was definitely not a good one.
"Benji?...can you come over here for a second?" He didn't need to be louder than a whisper for Ben to catch what Peter's telling him. Which is good because he doesn’t want to risk drawing attention to the two of them right now.
In his experience people with creepy underground labs filled with suspicious machinery and evil sludge rarely have good intentions.
“This seem…. familiar to you too?” Peter hopes that this isn’t what he thinks it is, but with Parker luck the chances are slim.
“Fuck. Not again.” The resignation in Ben’s voice tells Peter everything he needs to know. It’s either a cloning device or something very similar.
Shit. Fucking shit. That makes them both clones doesn’t it? Are the originals still out there? Is he just a copy? Or did their original bodies get destroyed?
The panic in Peter rises, as his mind goes faster and faster trying to assess the situation. But the more panicked he becomes the more he feels the unnatural rage claw at him, rearing it’s head like an angry beast.
It makes it hard to think. Whispered violence slowly replacing his thoughts.
!Right! Catch!
His hand shoots up to grab whatever just got thrown at him.
Peter blinks at the bag he’s suddenly he holding. Isn’t that his bag? How’d that get here??
“Is that-?”
“Yep, all here apparently, dry too.”
“Must be our lucky day…” Peter scoffs dryly.
!!Get out!! Coming closer!
The spider sense snaps Peter out of whatever episode he was currently starting. He whips around, extending his sharpened senses, feeling Ben do the same next to him. There’s a couple heartbeats coming closer.
“You just had to jinx it didn’t you?” Ben whispers next to him. Peter doesn’t answer, trying to focus. He can make out three different heartbeats above them.
Bad rhythms
His spider sense hisses and Peter is moving within seconds. Searching for a vent of some kind.
But there are none. There’s no other exits either.
There’s just the one door on the other side of the room. The whole lab suddenly feels a lot more like a cell.
Peter slings the bag over his shoulder and moves towards the door. It’s heavy, made from metal and will no doubt be loud as shit when opening.
No way that will open without alerting whoever is coming down here.
Peter looks to Ben, who's now crouching next to him. He meets his brothers green(?? they were definitely not green before) eyes, seeing them widen for a moment, before Ben shakes his head slowly. Peter nods up to the ceiling.
-----
It feels like hours but the three heartbeats are almost at their door now. They're clearer now without thick layers of metal between them. One of the heartbeats is weaker, fainter than the other two.
When the group makes their way past the door Peter tenses up, holding his breath. Time seems to slow, Peter fearing that they'll open it and catch the spiders on the ceiling.
But they walk past them and the brothers let out a sigh of relief.
Metallic screeching echoes from the hallway, high pitched and painful. It’s a headache inducing sound, the irritation doing nothing to assuage the anger simmering beneath Peter’s skin.
(Just what the hell is wrong with him?? he’s never felt this easily irritated before!)
From the sounds of it however, it seems he wasn’t the only one the sound riled up. The fainter heartbeat picked up in speed and the owner seems to be struggling against the other two.
It takes every bit of self control Peter has left to stop himself from jumping into action; when he hears the low thump and pained hiss as the other captive is being shoved to the ground.
The other two people seem to have locked the door and are now moving through the hallway, back to wherever they came from in the first place.
Peter and Ben wait for a long time before they’re confident that they won’t be heard when opening the door.
It takes a couple tries but finally the metal unlocks and slides out of the way.
The corridor is just as window-less as the previous room. Supports the theory of some underground facility that’s forming in the back of Peter’s head.
He’s convinced this will all make sense if he can just find the right way for the pieces to fit together.
While he tries to do that, Ben begins walking. Sneaking along the walls of the dimly lit hallway.
Peter hurries to catch up, but stops and looks back at the door next to theirs.
He turns around and makes his way over. Refusing to turn away when he could be helping. He’s got a duty after all.
Ben
Ben’s more than aware that Peter won’t let that other idiot in the cell next to theirs behind. He also knows his brother well enough to be sure Peter will charge in without thinking.
So he resigns to secure the corridor. Looking for guards or cameras.
He finds neither. “So either these asshats are very confident their little experiments won’t get out or they’re just very stupid.“
Probably a mix of both. It usually is.
To an outsider Ben might appear calm enough, maybe apathetic even. But he’s honestly just too tired to have a freak out at the moment.
He thought he was finally getting over the whole “clone /existential crisis” issue. Just to not only be cloned again. But to wake up a teenager again.
He was so close to finally be legally allowed to drink and finally out of the short awkward teen phase.
He wants to punch someone so badly right now.
An angry growl leaves his throat and his fist connects with a wall. For a second the whole world is tinged in that angry green again.
Taking a deep breath, Ben turns back to his brother. Readjusting the two bags that had started to slip from his shoulders. He hopes the dent in the solid metal won’t be noticed too soon as he makes his way back to Peter.