Without a Trace
Ned walked home alone, heading to the Parker’s house first to check on Peter. He had heard nothing from Peter since they walked home yesterday and it definitely was odd, but he figured he got sick and had been sleeping like a bear the whole day. Honestly he most likely just forgot to charge his phone he thought. Ned walked up the stairs to Peter’s apartment and May opened the door surprised.
“ Hi May! Is Peter here?” Ned asked, peering into the apartment. May looked confused.
“ Is he not with you? I thought he left for school early because he wasn’t at home when I got back from my shift.” she questioned. Ned shook his head.
“ No he wasn’t at school today.”
“ Huh. Well come in, maybe Happy picked him up and took him to Tony’s.” May said as she headed into the kitchen to get a glass of water for Ned. Who was now sitting on the couch looking through his phone his face confused on the matter at hand. May grabbed her phone which was charging on the counter and walked back into the living room hanging Ned the glass of water. Where could he be, thought May as she dialed Happy's number into her cell phone. After waiting with the constant buzz in her ear for Happy to pick up she heard him.
" Hey May, how's it going? Happy began.
“ Hey Happy, it’s May. Umm did you pick up Peter today or is he at Tony’s?
"No he's not with me or Tony. Why would he be with us? We just got rid of him. Why would we want him back?" Happy said laughing thinking she was joking.
May made her tone sound more serious "Happy this isn't a joke, I'm not sure where he is. Text and ask Tony".
" Shouldn't he be getting home from school about now?"
" He should, but one of Peter's friends, Ned, came over looking for Peter saying he wasn't at school all day."
" Stark just texted me back, he didn't kidnap the kid."
" Wow that was a quick response, where could that boy be?"
" Are you sure he's not running around the city as spiderman? "
May quickly ran into Peter's new room, still full of boxes. She caught a glimpse of both Peter's suits sitting on the floor. " No, both of his suits are still in his room. So he couldn't be out running around as Spiderman."
" Hmmm, well I'll stay on the lookout and see what I can do to find the kid. I'm sure it's nothing, Peter probably missed a train and will arrive home soon safe and sound. Or he ditched school for today and is hanging out with some new friends." Happy said, trying to reassure May.
" Are you sure?"
" Oh yeah, I used to sneak out all the time when I was a kid to get into trouble, Peter is just probably going through that phase. “
" Ok that makes me feel a little better you might be right. But let me know if you hear anything from him.”
" Ok I promise I will, bye May."
" Bye, Happy." May hung up the phone looking worried. She went back to his room and his backpack was still there as were both of his spiderman suits. But the most concerning thing was his phone was still lying in the middle of his bed. Like every other teenager in the world he never went anywhere without his phone. This was odd. Where could he be? He wouldn't just run off like this. Plus both of his suits were still in his room so he couldn't be out playing super hero through New York.
“ I texted MJ and he’s not at her house and I dunno where else he would go…” Ned said worried. Trying to think of anything suspicious Peter had said or done yesterday that would warrant him just vanishing. May shook her head.
“ He’s probably just…” she trailed, not wanting to worry Ned who had a concerned look wash over his face. May unlocked the phone with facial recognition she had made Peter put in after Tony gave him a new phone, and began searching through contacts, last calls, and texts or any clue to where had gone to, a growing knot of worry in her stomach.
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“ You’ve been asleep for a while, little bug.” echoed a feminine voice as Peter slowly opened his eyes into a blinding light from above him. Where the hell was he? He felt groggy, whatever they had put in him had made tired, confused, and with a blinding headache.
“ Wh-where am I?” Peter asked. As he glanced, he got no answers from the shadows that lingered around him. All he could see was a blinding light in his face and his hands- his hands are tied down as well as his legs to what is it- a table? A metal table? His bare back felt cold against the metal surface as he tried to shift his body. He looked down confused and realized he was shirtless, only wearing a thin pair of some kind of light blue hospital sweatpants. His chest was full of sticky square patches that had wires connecting them to bigger and louder machines in the distance making constant beeping noises. Oh no. Peter struggled but he felt very weak, like he could barely move his arms.
“ Oh yeah honey I’m afraid you can’t get out of here.” said the woman laughing. “ Nice try though.”
“ What do you want bug eyes?” Peter said, referring to her huge glasses with frames that resembled octagons. He had to act tough, if he showed any weakness they would exploit it. Although he wasn’t sure who ‘they’ were.
“Fair question. Well what I want is for you to… help me and my friends out a bit.” she said. Peter narrowed his eyes.
“ Define help.”
“ Oh you don’t get a say. You are my little puppet now” she said. Peter could see her more clearly now that she stepped into the light. She had a mess of hair in a messy bun on top of her head that was brown laced with purple strands. She was also wearing a lab coat with a symbol on the pocket that looked strangely familiar. The woman set down her clipboard.
" Screw you guys!' Peter erupted in anger at the very sight of her. ' You will be very sorry when I figure out a way to get free. I'll-I'll-".
“ Blah blah blah, yeah kid I've heard those same words a hundred times from hundreds of people and I'm quite sick of hearing them.” The woman said as she stared into Peter
“Ediki, get over here.” She called, gesturing to another shadow in the room and the man who stepped forward Peter had seen in the alleyway, and he was now moving in Peter's direction.
Peter felt his spider tingle again and realized he must be strapped to the table like a psych ward patient for a reason. Ediki came over to the left side of the table with a blank expression on his face as he eyed Peter down. He was wearing sunglasses, so Peter couldn't see his eyes. Peter hated that he couldn't see his eyes, he wanted to stare into the eyes of the man who shot him and brought him into all of this mess.
Peter was so captivated in thought that he was caught off guard when Ediki held his head down against the metal table and forcefully opened his mouth and stuffed a rag in it. He tried to struggle to move his head out of the way but it was no use. The woman smiled like a psychopath herself as if she should be the one strapped to the table, not Peter. Peter tried to spit out the rag now tied around his head, or to loosen his hands or feet. But nothing worked. Where was he? Where is Mr.Stark? He said nothing bad would happen. Panic set in and a few tears slipped out.
“ Sorry little spider, but for us to see eye to eye on our current problem I feel like we need to start off on a clean slate,'' The woman said, brushing his now messy hair out of his face with a small smirk emerging from her lips.
“Wipe him.” she ordered and a huge, loud, metal machine with tubes and wires coming from all sides of it came down from the ceiling, ascending over top of Peter.
He thrashed as hard as he could but it didn’t work, he was stuck. Wipe him? Like a computer? What does she mean "Wipe him?" He wanted to scream but he couldn’t as a searing hot needle was placed in his forearm and the machine was lowered enough so that Peter could clearly see what appeared to be an oxygen mask hissing with gas with some kind of a helmet attached to the back of it, assenting closely over his face. Wipe him… wipe his memory? Wipe his memory! They were gonna wipe his memory! Peter frantically moved his head side to side to try and avoid his fate. As he caught sight of the woman coming closer to him.
“ I wish you and I could have chatted longer but we are running short on time. Goodbye Peter." she said it in a way that made Peter’s skin crawl as he fought with all the energy he had left to free himself. Ediki pinned Peter’s head down and the contraption was placed on his head with the inside of the helmet having what felt like a million tiny needles and a green gas slowly seeping into the oxygen mask. There was one blissful second as Ediki and the woman backed away before he felt like his head was splitting in two. It hurt more than anything had ever felt in his entire life, like a million bullets hitting his head at once, like someone was hitting him over and over again, like a match ignited an explosion of dynamite in his brain. Peter bit down hard on the now wet rag still inside his mouth and let out a horrendous blood curdling scream.
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“ And then I saw a shark, it was soooo big. Daddy look, look it was so big!!’” Morgan held out her arms to indicate the size of the shark she had seen at the aquarium. Tony smiled but he couldn’t focus on the shark story right now as he looked through a typed out police scanner of two nights ago. The last time Peter was seen. It hadn’t been that long to be fair, yet something felt wrong. Peter wasn’t the type to just skip school for two days and never say anything.
“ Daddy…” Morgan tugged on Tony’s shirt and pushed her shark stuffed animal into his face.
“ Morgan I saw the same shark as you yesterday, I understand it was very big.”
“ You aren’t listening to meee-”
“ If you give Dad five minutes of quiet time I’ll get you an ice pop.” Morgan raised her eyebrows at that offer. She nodded and sat quietly by his feet.
“ Tony I thought I asked you to put on some boiling water…” Pepper walked downstairs and furrowed her eyebrows as she looked at what he was doing. “ What’s going on?”
“ May said he still hasn’t turned up at the apartment.”
“ Oh,” Pepper put her hand on his shoulder and crossed the other over her waist “ That’s very unusual. What do you think-”
“ I don’t know Pep.” Tony looked up at her “ It could be nothing but… I mean his phone was on the bed his suits are away. I don’t know it’s weird.”
“ Daddy has it been five minutes?”
“ No.” Tony ruffled her hair. “ But good enough, right? I’ll be right up why don’t you go choose your flavor.”
“ Okay,” Morgan stood up and ran up the stairs. “ I’m gonna get one for my shark too.”
Pepper smiled and ran her finger through Tony’s hair. She could see the stress forming in the two coffee mugs and the constant tapping of his finger. Disappearing like this was too much like before for his mind not to go there. He had talked about it rarely afterwords, she couldn’t imagine it, someone slipping to dust…
“ Look at me,” she tilted his chin so that his eyes met hers “ He’s a teen. They all do something crazy, maybe he just went to meet up with a girl for a day.”
“ We all know he’s not like that Pep,” Tony sighed “ And for once I wish he was some sort of crazy partier…because then this wouldn’t scare me as much.”
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“ I’ve been looking at this footage over and over again and I just-” Tony sighed, rubbing his face with his hands. Him and May were in the lab looking over security footage from May’s apartment. They see the curly haired teen come in with a pizza box looking perfectly fine, enter the apartment, and then nothing. No sign of where he went. He had checked every alleyway camera, every way out of the apartment and he couldn’t see how Peter could just disappear. May let out a small sob into Tony's shoulder.
“ Where could he be?” she cried out as she fell into a chair, tears streaming down her face. It had been one of the longest weeks of Tony’s life as he checked every nook and cranny for any sight of the kid. Nothing. He found nothing. May had talked to police and her, Tony, Pepper, Ned, MJ, and Happy put up Missing signs all over New York and besides for a few prank calls they had no real leads. Most missing cases are solved within the first seventy-two hours, after that… Tony told himself to snap out of it as he turned back to the screen replaying the footage of him walking in again. He noticed every detail. The kid was wearing a red rain jacket with a blue stripe across it, blue jeans with a small rip in the knee, and one of his Nike shoes was untied. The pizza was from Pizza Hut and Tony had already talked to everyone who saw him there. No one said anyone was following him or he looked scared.
“ Hey May…” Pepper entered the lab holding two cups of coffee and wearing a sympathetic expression. May looked up and grabbed a cup before giving Pepper a watery smile. Tony drank his in a minute and set it down before beginning to trace all of the old footage again. Maybe there were clues?
“ Tony.” Pepper said sternly. Tony ignored her, he knew what she was gonna say.
“ Tony.” she said again, this time softer. Pepper gave him a hug from behind resting her chin on his shoulder. “ You need to sleep Tony. You haven’t slept in two days.”
“ Not true, I passed out this morning in the chair.” Tony said as he continued to search through all the footage on Peter’s baby monitor protocol from after the blip but he hadn’t gone out much as Spiderman except for the final battle. A lump formed in his throat when he saw the recording of their reunion. He quickly turned it off.
“ Why don’t you take care of May and I’ll be in when I’m done.” Tony whispered. Pepper let go and grabbed his chin to look him in his eyes.
“ And when will that be?” Pepper asked with a sad smile.
“ When I find him.” Tony said stubbornly. Pepper didn’t have the heart to argue and led May to the main house leaving Tony tired and sad as he pressed play and watched the teen enter the building again.
---- ------ ------ ----- ---- ------- ----
The boy began regaining consciousness, he noticed a big bright light shining down on him through his eyelids. He didn't feel right, he felt sick to his stomach. He realized he was soaked in sweat, but why? What the hell happened? He slowly opened his eyes to see a woman standing over him holding a syringe full of blood. She smiled maniacally.
“ Finally my little spider you are up..” she said, smiling at him. Something was off, where was he? How did he get here? He tried to get up and move his head to see his surroundings but immediately realized he was clamped down to a metal lab table. He had a massive headache.
“ Can I ask you your name please?” the woman asked. The boy just stared at her. Confusion settled down upon his face. What was his name? He had no recollection of ever being given a name. In fact, he had no memories whatsoever. He was perplexed by this sudden realization, how could this have happened? The confused boy met her eyes and stared blankly back at her.
“ Oh well silly me. Hi, my name is Olivia but my friends call me Liv. Now what is yours?” the woman asked again. The boy thought hard. How did he not know his own name? He didn't know why this was such a hard question to answer. This is something he should know. He shut his eyes and hit the back of his head against the table to try and jump start his brain. Nothing worked, the only thing that did was make his headache worse making it harder to focus. What was his name? How did he get strapped to a table? Who was this woman? Why does his head hurt so damn much? What's even going on? The woman stared at him with a clipboard now in hand waiting patiently.
His thoughts were interrupted.
“ PETER!!!” a woman with long brown hair laced with gray yelled at him. He looked up and she smiled. “ I was calling for you sweetie, you must be really into your home
work.”
“ My volume was all the way up.” He said taking out an earbud.
“ You know that's…”
The flashback stopped and he was snapped back into reality. Who was that woman? Was that a memory? He wanted so desperately to go back and finish that memory, to see how the story ended. To maybe get some answers to more questions. Then it dawned on him, that woman said his name. Peter. Peter was his name. Deep down he knew that label fit for him like a lost piece in a puzzle finally found. It was a big relief lifted from his chest. Somehow he knew that the woman in his fractured memory was someone he trusted.
“ Peter.” He finally said with a small smile emerging from his lips. "My name is Peter".
Liv frowned, writing something into her clipboard. The room suddenly bursted with life as a variety of different people in lab coats and suits emerged from the shadows. They all started saying different things and glancing at the boy stuck to the table while they all gave Liv an angry stare.
Out of all the ruckus a voice shouted " Well now what do you expect to do? This has been going on for too long Subject WS-7624 is our only ticket and you still haven't gained full control over him, you better know what you are doing doctor-".
" I have this under control. He's not as clueless as the other subjects we have tested, so this is to be expected. He's a strong kid and apparently so is his mind. Which will work in our favor in the future. We will have to wipe him a few more times than usual to completely make him a blank slate. It shouldn't take much longer". she said, gesturing to Peter and then the ceiling.
Peter's mind was filled with panic as he blurted out "Wh-what do you mean wipe me, what the hell is wrong with you people?" interrupting the woman, as he started struggling in his restraints. The room fell silent as what felt like hundreds of eyes stared at Peter all at once.
" Quiet now kid adults are talking". Liv snapped at Peter who was still struggling with his restraints, breaking the awkward silence in the room. She shifted her focus back in the direction of the voice. "If you trust my opinion you will know I always make the right call, and I am willing to take my time on Subject WS-7624 to get the results we need". Liv said with a hiss in her tone, angry that someone was doubting her decision to take on such a project.
"You better have him under control soon your deadline is coming up. The conference is tomorrow evening and you better have full control over him before then otherwise your funding goes out the window." The voice replied back.
"Yes I understand, and I will have full control over him. I was considering another optional method to help give his brain a little nudge in the right direction. It would be a risky surgery but my team and I have weighed the options and it seems worth it. We have never dealt with an individual like Peter before, where their DNA is already mutated. So there have been many curveballs along the way, his mind is very strong and surgery to help correct it. It's possibly our only option to give his brain the last push it needs to fall in line." Liv finished soundly, seeing all eyes in the filled room come upon her, making her feel a little self conscious about her idea.
The distance voice scoffed from the crowd, " Do whatever is necessary to gain control over him. And can you wipe him already? He's giving me a headache with his thrashing body constantly pounding on that damn table." The voice said, anger raising in its tone.
Liv gestured towards a tall man in the corner of the room who began marching in Peter's direction, and all of a sudden a metal machine ascended from the ceiling.
" No! No no! Wha-what is that! What the hell is that!" Peter screamed struggling even harder to break free, terrified of what his fate might be. He used all the strength he could muster to break free and with this struggle came a scream of anger and fear. If he was going down he was going to go down fighting.
BOOM! His right arm broke through the restraint that bonded him to the table. Before he had time to react there were four figures on top of him and his free arm. He
screamed. A blood curdling battle cry came out of his throat as he struggled against the people holding him down. He was able to push someone off of him and partially sit up, then squirmed his right arm free and collided his fist into someone's face. When all of a sudden he was slammed back onto the table with full force making him wince in pain.
"Stop moving you brat! You'll only make things worse!" The tall young man who was from the corner said as planting his hands on top of Peter's chest forcing his back against the table.
Another figure grabbed and held down Peter's free arm with the full weight of their body. Peter glanced over with pain as his arm felt a warm fluid seep into it. An IV was pumping some sort of clear liquid into his right arm and it stung. Peter looked back over top of him and the machine from up above came closer to his face. Peter thrashed, kicked and punched to gain an advantage in the situation but nothing worked. The people on top of him were prepared for anything he tried to do. He needed to make one final push when they least expected it. In a last ditch effort to save his strength he completely relaxed his whole body at once. His body felt the full weight of the three people pushing down on him.
Peter's sudden willingness to just let everything happen caught everyone off guard. One minute he was fighting for his life and the next his body just stopped. The boy looked content with himself and the event that was happening. Since Peter was no longer struggling the three people holding Peter down didn't have to use as much force anymore to hold him down. Giving Peter the exact outcome he was hoping for.
Peter closed his eyes and focused, he needed to wait for just the right moment and it was approaching fast. He focused on his strength, his mind, and his blurry past. These people were crazy and he would not let them win, he just needed to play his cards right. They had taken parts of his past from him and he was determined not to let them take his future. A sudden flush feeling filled his mind as his brain played what felt like a movie in his brain.
“ Queen’s needs a Spiderman. Especially now. Nothing bad will happen to you I promise.” said a man with one hand on his shoulder and brown hair with a goatee. Peter trusted this man…
The memory stopped, and Peter was filled with determination he couldn’t understand. He could hear the sound of hissing gas from above him and he knew it was time to strike. Peter opened his eyes to see a mask with a helmet attached to it, inches from his face hissing with green gas. Without a second of hesitation he easily pulled his arm free and grabbed the oxygen mask in front of him. Then he yanked down on it as hard as he could, the tubes that connected it to the ceiling ripped in half with the mask falling to the floor.
With ease he broke through the rest of his restraints and pushed the remaining two people off of him, sending them falling backwards into the crowd of other people in the room who were observing.
Everything happened so fast no one had time to react. It was like Peter was moving in his own time frame, being perfectly calculated as he made his decision. Peter was now standing up on the metal table he was once attached to consider what to do next. The room was filled to the brim with doctors, scientists, and other people in black suits. There didn't seem to be an easy way out, with the people in the black suits drawing their guns on Peter. Everyone else in the room slowly moved closer to him standing on the table looking like a pack of wolves converging on their prey.
Liv launched herself into Peter's legs making them buckle and he fell off the table on top of her. Liv wrapped her arms around Peter's throat putting him in a chokehold making him gasp for air. She squeezed as hard as she could and kept pressure on him to hopefully make him pass out. Liv couldn't help herself.
" Go to sleep you little shit." Liv said into Peter's ear as he continued to struggle. Liv felt her long hair get pulled down hard and both of Peter's hands grabbed chunks of it and wouldn't let go. The pain was terrible, Liv felt like her scalp was being ripped off from the pressure and she reluctantly released her grasp around Peter's neck. He let go off her hair and swiftly leapt back onto the table scanning the room.
Peter caught sight of something that gave him hope, it was an air duct vent on the ceiling. It vent looked just big enough for him to slip through to escape. Distantly he could hear people yelling orders but his mind was too focused and calculating to understand the word. The sound that did catch his attention was the sound of a bullet escaping the chamber of a gun. In a moment of what felt like slow motion to Peter, he jumped up into the air sticking to the ceiling, barely escaping the bullet's path. The sound of more gun fire followed by screams and yelling from the people in the room. Peter's hand found the vent cover and he yanked down, breaking the screws attaching the vent cover to the air duct. Opening a big enough passage for him to slip inside and quickly crawling away further into the complex of whatever building he was in.
--- ------ ------ ----- ---- ------- ----
“ Mr.Stark?? Tony help me!!! HELP ME!!! They got me. I don’t know what to do, HELP MEE!!! YOU HAVE TO HELP ME!!!!” Tony was standing in complete darkness. Where was the kid? He needed his help. Tony started running following the voice.
“ I promise I will help you kid but where are you?” Tony cried out. Peter let out a high pitched scream.
“ HELP ME!!! WHY AREN’T YOU TRYING TO HELP ME!!!” Peter screamed. Tony’s heart was racing. He had to find him. Crying out for Peter he ran around the pitch black room helplessly. He fell to his knees. Where was he? As Tony put his face in his hands a light appeared showing Peter completely unharmed. The spotlight followed the kid and he walked up to Tony. Tony stood up staring, there was dust coming off of the kid. The kid’s expression suddenly changed to one of pure fear as he ran forward into Tony’s arms gripping him tight.
“ I don’t wanna go Mr.Stark, please, please I don’t wanna go…” Peter begged as Tony held him and they fell to the ground. Peter began to cry…
Tony woke up suddenly drenched in sweat. Pepper turned over in their bed taking the blanket with her. He looked at the clock, it read one thirty in the morning. He went to bed at eleven thirty and was honestly surprised he got any sleep at all. It was hard to sleep anymore, he just went to bed to get Pepper off his case. He snuck out of bed, careful not to wake his wife, and grabbed a hoodie and slippers. Tony glanced into Morgan’s room where she was sprawled out on her bed hugging her unicorn plushie. The man smiled softly before walking downstairs to head out to the lab. As he grabbed a water bottle he stopped and looked at a picture by the sink. The picture that gave him any hope to go back in time at all. Tony grabbed it off the shelf and stared at it.
“ Say cheese.” Happy muttered, snapping another photo of Tony and Peter in front of the Stark Industries board. This time they went with bunny ears. “ Great. Are we done?”
“ Someone’s not very happy.” Tony said playfully as he went to look at the photo on the phone. Peter followed like an overexcited puppy, peering over Tony’s shoulder. “ This one is a keeper.” Tony said smiling. “ Now we have a good alibi for your aunt.”
“ Yeah! Thanks Mr.Stark!!” Peter said happily.
“ Yeah, yeah.” Tony said, waving his hand at Peter and smirked. Happy continued to complain as he gathered their suitcases and put them in the trunk before getting in the front and driving off, with Peter and Tony in the backseat.
The memory made Tony smile sadly as he sat the picture back down. He itched his beard that had become a bit unkempt as Tony’s mental health went down the drain. The billionaire had been searching for the missing teen for five months and they still weren’t any closer. He had reached out to Sam and Bucky with no leads from them. Tony had tried to contact Wanda but she must have gone off grid because no one had seen her since Westview, and Bruce tried to help but with his injury and other pressing matters he wasn’t able to do much, leaving Tony alone to track down the missing kid. He walked towards the lab, enjoying the fresh night air as he slipped into his lab door quietly. He asked FRIDAY to turn on some music before getting back to work. Teenagers don’t just disappear into thin air, there has to be a clue. He decided to look into the alleyway behind their apartment. Tony hadn’t glanced at that footage for a while. He played the footage. Nothing. Frustration built in him. How could he just be gone? Tony threw his water bottle against the wall causing it to split open.
“ COME ON WHERE ARE YOU?!?” He screamed to no one in particular. Grabbing a whiskey glass he poured himself a glass of scotch and downed it in one gulp. He poured another. It helped numb the panic that seemed to be constantly in him. He was honestly terrified, Peter wouldn’t just run away. Even if they found him the odds of him being alive…
To drown out that thought Tony downed the second glass. And a third. A fourth. A drunken peaceful haze came over him as he grabbed the bottle taking a huge swig before throwing it against the wall.
“ Take that you stupid-stupid-” Tony said slurring his words. “-stupid wall.”
He let out a maniacal laugh before grabbing a wrech and tossing it up in the air. As he tried to grab it as he fell, he burst out laughing and fell down on the floor. He laughed again as he rubbed his head.
“ Dang that kinda hu-hurt didn’t it Fri?” Tony said as he laughed again. He tried to grab the table to get up but grabbed the toolbox. A rainfall of nuts, bolts, and hammers fell on him and Tony passed out in the middle of his lab.