Explosive
Everything was foggy and blurry for Peter as he climbed through the vent system of whatever big building he was trapped in. He had just escaped what felt like his doom but he wasn't out of the water yet. He still had so many questions but no answers to them. What was this place, who were those people, why did they want him, what was he going to do? Those questions repeated in he's head over and over again as he continued to crawl deeper through the vent system. It was very dark with limited visibility, he tried to be as quiet as he could while crawling through the vent, but he felt like every noise of movement he made was amplified ten fold. The cold metal creaked and screamed under his weight as he crawled. It would only be a matter of time before they found him, he needed another way out.
He came upon a vent cover that shined a bright light through it, Peter only peeped his head over the vent opening before retracting it back into the darkness. He heard a crowd of people below the vent marching with some women yelling orders at them. Peter became a statue as to not make any noise and listened in.
" Subject SW-7624 aka that brat that escaped, is somewhere in this complex, and it is your jobs to find him." The woman sizzled out like a snake at the group of men in suits below Peters.
" But ma'am this complex is huge, where do we even start?" one of the men asked.
" Good question, start from the bottom floors and work your way up, and then order the rest of your men who aren't searching to secure every single exit. We will not stop searching until that brat is found, do you all understand?" The woman said.
The whole group stomped their foot in synchronization, " Yes Ma'am."
"Then move!" The woman yelled and the group headed down the long hallway splitting off into teams to look for Peter.
Peter sat still in the vent holding his breath, with a thick silence filling the air. Reality began to set in, and it set in hard. Those people were looking for him and weren't playing around, he needed to find some way to get out of this place… but how? This all didn't feel real, it felt like a fever dream that he wasn't waking up from, but he desperately wanted to. The question of why, kept picking at Peter's brain. Why did these people want him? What did they have planned for him? Peter remembered that a woman with purple hair named Olivia said that he was going to be her puppet. What did that mean? Peter still had so many questions but shook his head to focus again.
Right now he needed to focus, the hallway below was very quiet. The group of men and the woman had all left, going on their quest to track Peter down before he could make his great escape. Peter yanked on the vent cover but it was screwed in, so Peter looked down through the vent to double check if the coast was clear. No one was in sight so Peter yanked harder on the vent cover and completely ripped it off. Making just a big enough hole for him to slip through and fall quietly onto the floor. He stood up looking around to see a dead hallway in both directions, he remembered the men heading down the right side of the hallway so he began heading left instead. The last thing he wanted right now was to make new friends in this house of horrors he was trapped in.
He kept heading down the hallway with ever so often hearing the rush of footsteps in the distance making him almost jump out of his own skin. The hallway was very plain and empty,it had bare white walls and ceiling, with a dirty gray flooring. Every so often there would be a door on either side of the wall. Most of the time the door was locked, except for one time where Peter didn't dare to open it. As he walked closer to the door he heard faint screaming coming from the other side. Peter was terrified to see what was on the other side of the door, getting closer he could make out it was a woman screaming a blood curdling scream. Peter's hand was shaking so badly as it hovered over the door handle, debating whether or not to open it. A distance rush of footsteps came down the hallway and Peter retracted his hand from the door handle and made a run for it. He was too scared of being trapped and whipped himself around a corner barreling down another empty hallway with the rushing footsteps coming closer.
Another doorway appeared on the left side of the wall and Peter rushed towards it. He needed to hide, he needed to just barge into the room prepared for anything. He stopped in front of the door and grabbed the handle and the door surprisingly swung open. Peter ran in and shut the door behind him. With relief filling him he leaned up against the wall and let his back slide down against it as he sat on the floor. Taking in a deep breath he scanned the room he was now in. It looked like some sort of break room, with a few tables and chairs scattered around the middle of the room. A big white refrigerator against the wall along with a white countertop, with a sink full of dirty dishes. And a single microwave plugged into the wall.
"Ok," Peter said aloud to himself, " Let's see what I can work with." He got up and began ransacking the entire break room kitchen. Opening every cupboard and every drawer to see what he had to work with. At the end he had made a big pile of an array of things that might be considered useful. The pile consisted of a bunch of metal silverware, a roll of duct tape, a small camping propane tank, tin foil, a big steak knife and a chicken sandwich he stole from the fridge. Peter stared at the items in front of him trying to think of something to do. Looking at the small propane tank gave him an idea. He grabbed the propane tank and the tin foil, then began to wrap the propane tank in the tin foil. Once he was done with that we ran over and unplugged the microwave from the wall and plugged it back into another outlet right next to the door.
Peter then ran back and pulled two tables next to each other before turning them over on their side. To create a barrier he could safely hide behind. Peter took in a deep breath and went over his plan to himself out loud. " Ok, I got this. Just don't die. I'm going to first bang on the door and that will hopefully get those guys in the hallways attention to come and get me. Then I'm going to throw that propane tank into the microwave and turn it on. Then run like hell behind the tables and wait for it to go boom. Hopefully those guys will be on the other side of the door when that happens and will go boom as well. So I can run past them no problem and that makes a big distraction with the fire and everything to hopefully help me escape. I just can't mess this up. I totally got this, I got this, let's do this." Peter said, trying to hype himself up for what he was about to do. He was still optimistic about the idea of creating an explosion, it would be killing two birds with one stone. He could get rid of some of the guys chasing him and cause a big distraction while doing it.
Peter walked over to the door and grabbed the handle, hesitating for a moment hearing footsteps and chattering right outside of the door. Someone from the other side grabbed the handle and tried to open the door but thankfully Peter had locked it. The person from the other side furiously continued to try and open the door, making Peter take a step backwards. He accidentally ended up kicking into the microwave on the floor making a lot of noise. The people on the other side must have heard the noise too because Peter began to hear more noise.
" He's in here! We have located him, call her down to let her know we have the boy's location." Said a man on the other side of the door.
Who the hell is her? Peter thought to himself before placing the propane tank into the microwave. He shut the door and his finger hovered over the start button. This is a terrible idea. Peter thought to himself, but he had no other options. He pressed the start button and bolted behind the tables. He scrunched up behind the wall of tipped tables and waited for the explosion. The sound of banging against the door intensified, it sounded like multiple people were trying to break down the door. Peter could hear arguing and yelling and more footsteps outside the doorway, just praying his plan would work out.
BOOM!
The whole room lit up like a firework as bright as the sun. As the propane tank wrapped in tin foil inside the microwave blew up it created an explanation that completely obliterated the entire microwave. Blowing a gigantic hole through the door and part of the wall. Sending a fire ball through the air into the hallway of men. The force of it all sent most of the men on the other side flying, and shards of metal and plastic flew through the air colliding with everyone in some way. And the smoke from the explanation reached the fire alarms activating them sending a ringing of loud synchronized beeping throughout the building. Setting off the sprinkler system makes it start to rain indoors.
The force of the blast sent the table Peter was hiding behind back a few feet with Peters being pushed to the floor. He quickly got up from the floor and headed towards the door. The entrance was such a smokey bloody mess that Peter didn't dare to look at the floor. He hated himself for what he did but he didn't feel like these people gave him much of a choice. He stumbled through the doorway and ran past everyone down the wet hallway. The facility felt like a maze, Peter would hear people approaching and he would take a turn in the opposite direction but he felt like he was going in circles. He would take a left then a right then another and another than a left,and over and over and over again until he felt like he was going mad. He couldn't find a doorway out of the hell hole he was trapped inside. He kept trying to unlock every door he came in contact with but all were locked. At one point he got sick of it and kicked in one of the doors, only to be met with a bunch of angry men with guns who chased him down for a while.
This all felt like a sick game of cat and mouse to Peter, where he would think he found a way out to be home free. Only to be met with a locked exit or more guards blocking his pathway. And it didn't help that the lingering thought of there still being a fire in the building somewhere kept popping up in his mind. Not knowing if it had been put out or gotten out of control, or if the fire department was here to put it out and be his ticket out of here. That's all he could ever hope for now, that someone would come. His memory was foggy but surely someone would come…right? The Avengers…
" Shit." Peter said quietly to himself, stopping dead in his tracks. Stuff was coming back to his brain, quickly now, like the effects of whatever they did to him were wearing off with time.
The floor underneath his feet began to faintly shake for a huge thud in the distance. He was trying to push his feelings back down to focus on the very important matter at hand but it felt like system overload. His spidey sense was warning of imminent danger but he felt his feet stuck to the floor. Peter looked up and from the distant shadows he saw what looked like an eight limbed monster barrel down the hallway towards him at full speed. That sight was a great motivator for Peter to get himself together and run the opposite direction of whatever that thing was, now chasing after him making up for quick ground. Peter just ran, not daring to look behind him and he heard the loud BOOM of the monster's footsteps behind him coming terrifyingly closer with every step it took.
Peter lifted his foot up to run another step but felt a cold metallic device wrap around it and yank his leg the complete opposite direction. Peter ended up colliding face first into a wall before being dangling upside down in front of what he thought was a demon monster but it wasn't what he expected to see when he looked at it. The monster wasn't a real monster from outer space, it was that Doctor named Liv. She was suspended mid air by these giant four giant metal arms which seemed to protrude out from underneath her lab coat from her back. Three of the metal arms were suspending her in the air while the fourth was holding onto Peter's own leg dangling him upside down like a play toy.
Peter met Livs devil's expression with a scoff of disgust, a look he had picked up from Tony awhile back.
Liv bangled him closer to her own face and began, " Well well well, looks like I've caught myself a little bug." She said with a manipulative smile.
Adrenaline filled Peter as he quickly reached out his hand to grab her face, but a second metal arm quickly wrapped around the rest of his body pinning his arms against his own sides. Beginning to slowly squeeze him like a snake. Peter wrestled and squirmed to break free but all that did was make the arm tighten around his own body more. " Let me d- down," Peter groaned out.
Liv only smiles more, " I don't think so my friend you have caused way too many problems already today. And I'm sick of picking up after your mess."
Peter chuckled, " Well let me go and you won't have to deal with my shenanigans anymore. Simple solution and both parties get what they want."
Liv looked back astonished and intrigued, " You've got your spunk back. It's only been a few hours since your last incident of you running off after a mission and me catching you. Then me having to try and wipe you again to set you back to level zero again, then you break free of your restraints. Wow, your mind has come back to its senses that quickly, to get your sense of humor back." Liv was quiet for a while thinking to herself, making the space between them very awkward.
Peter was confused about everything she had just mentioned, had he just done all of that? And from the way she sounded this wasn't the first time he had tried this… how come he couldn't remember some of that stuff? Peter put on his tough face before speaking again. " You see, you guys just can't handle me. I'm just too good, that you can't contain a kid. You guys just must suck at your job. And don't get too comfortable with me because- because the Avengers are looking for me… Tony Stark is looking for me. And let me tell you there will be hell to pay when he finds out all you've done to me." Peter said with a snap hoping to strike some fear into the woman holding him captive.
Liv broke her train of thought to look at Peter, and she burst into laughter so hard. She couldn't contain her laughter she couldn't breathe because of how much she was laughing. All the while Peter looked back confused on why she was laughing. Liv finally began to compose herself, " Ha good one kid. 'The Avengers are looking for me'". Liv said back, mocking Peter.
" Shut up! They are looking for me!"
" Oh my boy," Liv said as she pulled her metal arm holding Peter captive close enough so she could gentally touch his face with her own hand. Peter tried to move his face away but couldn't because the metal arms hand grabbed his hair and pull on it tightly so he couldn't move his head. Liv gently placed her hand on Peters red hot checks clearly filled with anger at the situation. " Peter my boy, they aren't looking for you." She said with a bitter sense of power.
" You don't know that!" Peter snarled back.
" Oh as a matter of fact I do. You have been here for almost five months my friend. And I am happy to say that with every mission we have previously assigned you on, there has been no Avenger interference with any of them. Not even Tony Stark. Tony Stark hasn't been in the media at all lately, he has isolated himself from the rest of the world. No one knows what's happened to him and frankly nobody cares. So it's safe to say you're stuck with me for now because there is no way out for you. Especially because we got the OK from the head of the board to go forward with our next procedure on you. And let's just say it's going to help you become, how do I put this, more obedient." Liv finished with a manipulative smile, knowing she had hit Peter where it hurt. Leaving the kid with no words for a while, Liv pulled back her hand from his face and just let him sulk in his own thoughts for a while, not wanting to add anymore to it because she had already done the best she could. So she was just waiting for his inevitable response and she didn't care how long it took him to respond.
Fear and adrenaline filled Peter, he couldn't believe what he had just heard. He didn't want to believe it was all true. Peter didn't directly respond to Liv, instead he just started to mumble and ask questions aloud to himself because he felt his whole world crumble down around him. " N-no no no no, that's not true. That's all a lie. Almost five months…" Peter said, staring off into the distance his voice very shaky taking in deep breaths.
Liv pushed out her lower lip to make a sassy sad face at Peter, and with her metal arm turned his face towards her, forcing him to make eye contact. " I'm sorry little Spider but your stuck with me."
Peter looked back and took in a deep breath to calm himself down a bit before speaking. " You know what, screw it. If I'm going to be stuck here I'm going to make your life hell, just like you're making mine. I'm going to be loud, obnoxious, disobedient, difficult, and so much more till you go crazy." Peter said in as serious as a tone he could muster.
Liv only snickered at his remark and made the metal arm squeeze around him tighter making him wince in pain as she spoke. " I don't think I'll have to worry about that too much." Liv said, patting the top of his head before pulling the metal arm back. Liv grabbed a walkie talkie from her lab coat pocket and began talking into it. " I've located the Wolf Spider, and have him restrained. Gather up the team we are going through with the procedure tonight."
A static voice answered back through the device, " Are you sure you want to do that? The risk is very high and we still aren't completely sure if it will work."
" YES. I am confident in my decision. I will start making my way to the designated OR room so by the time I get there with the boy I want most of you to be there ready."
" Yes Doctor, I will call the rest of the team up, give us five minutes and we will be ready." The static voice replied.
Peter overheard the conversation and became frightened and couldn't stop himself from blurting out, "OR room?! What do you mean by Operating room? No no no that's definitely not happening." Peter said, trying to break free of the metal arms grip, to no avail.
Liv began casually walking down the hallway without a care in the world, bringing Peter along with her for the walk. " Oh you bet it is boy." She snapped back laughing.
" No there is something wrong with you people you are sick."
Liv turned around walking backwards and shrugged her shoulders at Peter, " Maybe. But we are risk takers exploring new lengths of science. You're a smart kid you understand that. Heck you created your own little explosive back there and took out a bunch of those guards. You should be proud to be a key part of this new age of science."
"Oh sure," Peter snapped back sarcastically. " If only I wasn't being used as a lab rat… Why are you doing this to me, you've messed with my head enough, why aren't you satisfied you sicko?"
Liv turned back around and continued to walk, she spoke out load but didn't face Peter as she did. " Well I guess your not going to remember any of this so why not tell you huh. Have someone in the room who's actually interested in my ideas and thoughts-"
"Pshh sure," Peter interrupted.
Liv whipped her head back at Peter, " It's rude to interrupt boy. Anyways let me put it this way. Your body and brain are different from a normal person because yours mutated in a way. So most of the normal tests and procedures we do on normal test subjects don't work the same on you, your body and mind react differently. For example your mind is a lot stronger and difficult. The normal mind wiping process that would usually be permanent on a normal person is only temporary on you. So this procedure we will be commencing on you soon will help give your brain that little extra push. So you stay my obedient little puppet." Liv chuckled at Peter's horrified face, " Doesn't that sound like fun?"
Peter's face was shocked, feeling the blood drain from his face from what he just heard. "You-you people are sick. What is wrong with you people?" Peter said, horrified and trapped.
Liv pushed open double doors to a big white room, " I guess you'll never know."
Peter looked into his new environment and it was an operating room. The room was filled with big machines attached to the wall. With about eight to nine people all dressed up in light blue scrubs from head to toe. They all work blue surgical masks and blue hair caps so all he could see were their eyes descending on him. In the middle of the room lay a large metal operating table with big lights above it. The two metal arms holding him hostage, moved through the air and placed him against the metal operating table. The metal arms let go but quickly before he could even attempt to escape each one of his separate limbs were being pinned down by one person each. While two other people began permanently securing is limbs to the table with what felt like leather belts attached to the table.
" I would double up on the restraints on him," Liv pointed out to the group of doctors. " Peter broke through solid metal ones a few hours ago, so I would advise you to be quick with it all and get him under anesthesia." Liv finished.
A male doctor chuckled and chimed in " Yeah the sooner the better, this boy sure has caused a lot of trouble today." The male doctor said as he grabbed Peter's arm to find a vein to stick in a IV.
Peter tried to struggle but he was already double strapped down to the table and could barely move his body. None the less he still tried to break free. " And I'll do it again. You guys will have hell to pay for all of this I swear-." Peter said in a huff of anger and desperation to get out of the whole situation.
Liv looked at Peter, strapped to the table and realized she wasn't needed anymore. " Ok everyone, get him sedated soon. I'm going to go out and get changed into scrubs and I'll be back in about five minutes to assist in the procedure." Liv finished and everyone waved goodbye to her and she left the room.
Another shorter female nurse came over to the side of Peter and gently placed a reassuring hand on his chest. She drew in Peters attention as she spoke sweetly to him. " Oh sweetie you'll be alright, there's nothing to worry about. We aren't going to hurt you, and you won't feel a thing I promise you that. We just want to help you take a quick nap, that's all. You look very exhausted anyway it would be nice to take a load off for a bit wouldn't you agree?" She said back to Peter, smiling underneath the surgical mask.
She had grabbed all of Peters attention, so much so that he forgot about the male nurse inserting the IV into his left arms vein. Her kind voice reminded him of May, and he felt his eyes well up with tears as his memories flooded back. He couldn’t focus as he felt his emotions overwhelm him, about to be stripped of his life with no way out. Plus the room felt hazy, like every breath stripped him of his strength. To be fair it probably did.
There was other chatter around the OR from the other doctors and nurses but the woman made sure to keep all of Peter's focus on her. Her plan was working, she was keeping Peter calm and compliant while the rest of the medical team prepared him for surgery without him even knowing it. " I'm glad you agree with my Peter, if anything you're the lucky one in the situation. I wish I could take a nap right now. I've had to deal with four other patients today, but now I'm getting a nice little break to help look after you right now. So for what it's worth little man thank you for being the highlight of my chaotic day." The woman said calmly to Peter who was captivated by her not fully realizing what was going on around him.The other medical staff were just about ready, the anesthesiologist had hooked up a big thick syringe full of the medicine Diprivan, a medicine used to put people under general anesthesia once the medicine was injected into their body's putting them in a sleep like stae during surgery.
Peter saw the woman look past him for a second and his eyes wanted to follow her gaze but she looked behind him where he couldn't turn his head. He wanted to fight, so badly but his whole body ached and the drugs were making his brain fuzzy, and the woman’s eyes looked exactly like May’s. In his head he screamed to run but he knew he couldn’t, he failed and apparently had failed for months, and the explosion had rattled his body. The squeezing from Liv made his lungs feel heavy, and the scary thing was he didn’t know where to run. Liv was smart and one step ahead of him, and this woman was so nice. Even is she was trying to brainwash him. As that thought passed through his brain he felt himself gradually getting weaker, something in the air of this room made him feel weak…
" You're going to feel a kinda cold chill in your other arm here in a second. It won't hurt at all but you can squeeze my hand if you would like to make yourself feel more comfortable. Just down pay attention to it and just look and talk to me."
Peter didn't dare too look down at his other arm as he felt the inside of his arm feel weirdly cold. It was such a strange feeling and he squeezed the nice woman's hand with his own. He felt like the energy in his body was leaving him and he couldn't hold up his own head anymore and let it lie back down on the metal table. Only staring at the bright lights that lingered above him, trying to think of how in the world he got himself into this situation in the first place. The lights eventually became too bright for his eyes to handle and he slowly closed them feeling himself drifting away.
The last thing he heard before completely drifting off into unconsciousness was the loud double doors opening up with a woman's voice.
" Alright everyone I'm back. Once he's fully unconscious we can begin this long procedure. We need to get this done right. I have a conference meeting with the heads of Hydra later tomorrow where I'm supposed to showcase the 'Wolf Spider Project' so I will need all of this to go smoothly. So first off we need to…" The woman's voice trailed off further and further away as Peter found himself becoming engulfed in total silent darkness.
--- ------ ------ ----- ---- ------- ----
“ - I dunno how long, Happy can you pass me a wet rag?” Tony barely opened his eyes to see a concerned Pepper kneeling down by him. She gave a tight lipped smile to him, she looked like she had been crying. Tony tried to sit up but failed as a horrendous migraine overtook him. He laid back down in the mess of tools surrounding him. Pepper didn’t say anything as she grabbed a wet rag and pressed it to Tony’s forehead. As she placed the wet rag he noticed May standing in the corner by the door clutching a water bottle. She looked like she had been crying as well.
“ Tony how did this-” Pepper whispered, brushing the hair out of Tony’s eyes. “ How did this happen?”
“ Well I think I got drunk and passed out when the toolbox fell ” Tony said pointing to the toolbox on his leg. Pepper sighed.
“ Why were you drinking at nine in the morning?” Happy asked, sounding sad.
“ Oh, I wasn’t drinking at nine in the morning… it was probably closer to two in the morning.” Tony said as his head pounded. May looked at Pepper as she gently helped Tony into a chair and placed an wet rag on his head. Tony groaned as his head throbbed.
“ Why were you in the lab so early in the morning?” Pepper demanded, her voice hurt and tired. May crossed her arms, her bottom lip trembling.
“ I wanted to throw a party.” Tony scoffed. Behind him he could hear Happy sigh.
“ Tony.” Pepper said with an air of finality on her voice. “ Answer the question.”
“ I-” Tony looked at May who bit the inside of her cheek. She looked tired, her brown hair in a messy braid and wearing a stained hoodie that seemed like it was from the bottom of her closet. Her eyes scanned him, and the bags underneath them told Tony she understood. The feeling was mutual. “ - couldn’t sleep. I thought maybe I would work on something.”
“ You were drunk.” Pepper furrowed her eyebrows. “ This self destructive behavior has got to stop. Now. I know it’s hard Tony, but I mean you’re relapsing and you can’t, I won’t let you.”
“ It was one time, Pep.” he didn’t mean to sound aggressive but he couldn’t hold in his anger anymore. “ I can’t sleep anymore because people don’t just disappear. The stones are gone, he shouldn’t just be gone.”
“ Stark he needs you to be strong.” May spoke up. “ He needs all of us to be, and if you spiral and stop fighting then he is gone. Because I love him so much but when he said he would do this you-” she pointed directly at Tony “-promised he would be protected. This isn’t your fault but you understand ths stupid superhero shit. I don’t. You’re his best chance.”
Tony gave a small nod, his face tense with emotion. He’d tried so hard, not wanting to scare Morgan because he couldn’t let this fear consume him, but the drinking, skipping meals, and constant distractions he had at all times had to stop. It was hard though, anxiety has always had a grip on him and this time it was drowning him. He would pay any amount to have Peter safe again.
“ You’re right. I’m an asshole, and I’m scared-” Tony swallowed. “- but I’m trying so hard, May. I promise you, I-”
“ I know. I’m not mad, it’s hard and I mean you’ve seen and dealt with things I’ll never get. I’m just so scared-” May covered her mouth as she let out a small sob. Happy walked over as she collapsed into his arms. She stifled sobs into his shoulder as he rubbed her back, his eyes red as well. Every second that passed made it less likely they were gonna find him.
“ I’m sorry Tony. He’s a good kid.” Pepper’s voice cracked. “ But you’ve-we’ve learned that we have to just keep going.”
.
--- ------ ------ ----- ---- ------- ----
“ Beginning training in three...two...one.” said a voice from the speakers. Liv stood behind a one way mirrored window, overlooking the training floor. The Wolf Spider project has been going very well, better than anyone else expected. The newly Wiped boy stood his ground gripping his knives in both hands. A black gaiter mask covered his mouth, nose, and neck. Wearing a plain black long sleeve shirt and overtop he wore a black and grey bullet proof vest with a symbol spray painted in red in the corner. He also was equipped with a leather belt with many pockets and holsters that were home to the knives he was wielding. A man entered the room smiling, he was a good foot taller than the boy, and definitely bigger. He grinned wide. The man ran at him with a long knife and the boy stood still. As the man was about to stab him the boy grabbed his arm staring at him with a dead look in his eyes. The man’s smile faltered as the boy twisted his arm back, breaking it with little effort. The man cried out in agony as he fell to the floor. The boy spun a knife in his fingers as the man struggled to get back up and without blinking an eye stabbed the man through the throat and removed the knife, wiping the blood on his sleeve.
“ This is too easy for him,” Liv said quietly. “ Put the whole squad in there.”
“ But Doctor he just had a tough mission yesterday, I thought we were keeping training light today?” replied a woman with curly red hair in a ponytail in the base of her neck.
“ Did I stutter? I know what our little spider can handle. Let’s keep him on his toes.” Liv said
"Fine, but it will take a minute to reset the training scenario".
The woman was about to say something into a microphone into the overhead speakers but Liv quickly stood in her way so she could deliver the message instead. "Alright Lyco take five, we have to gather another squad so we can restart the training. In the meantime stay clear of the clean up crew coming into the ground floor to clean up your mess you made. Liv said from the overhead speaker.
The boy nodded slightly and gave a quick thumbs up to Liv's overhead voice through the speakers, knowing that she was watching him from somewhere and she would see his gesture.
" What did you just call him?" The woman said in confusion.
" Hm? Called who?" Liv responded quickly.
" The Wolf spider. You called him Lyco, why?". The woman said, gesturing towards the boy on the trailing floor grabbing a quick drink of water.
" Oh I've been calling him that for a while now."
" You've been calling him Lyco? What does that even mean?"
" Well his original code name is Wolf spider and I have had to yell at that boy so much over these past weeks that I've kind of gotten sick of that name. I had to come up with some other short nickname because Wolf spider doesn't really roll off the tongue all that well. Especially when you have to keep saying it every five seconds. So it got me thinking, Wolf spiders are members of the family Lycosidae, from the Ancient Greek word "λύκος" (pronounced Lykos) meaning wolf. So Lyco is short for Lycosidae, it feels a lot better rolling off the tongue. “
" Really, you went through all of that for a silly nickname?" she narrowed her eyes in confusion.
" The boy doesn't seem to mind, I think he likes it. He knows I'm referring to him when I say it. And it helps him forget about his old name Peter, if he knows I have already given him a new name he'll forget about his old one." Liv said, peering into the one way window at the boy now moving towards the middle to the training floor.
" It does roll off the tongue better," said the woman. Then getting a notification on her screen the training session has been reset and they have a whole squad waiting in the wing ready to fight.
The woman got in front of the microphone, " Alright Lyco get ready we are sending in a whole new squad in, in three, two, one." She clicked a button on her desk and a
giant metal door opened on the training floor releasing the squad of men.
Liv noticed the woman used the boy's nickname and smiled in her direction. The woman looked at Liv and began, " Well the whole facility calls you Doctor Liv instead of Doctor Olivia, so it only makes sense to call your little spider protege by his new nickname." They both looked at each other and shared a smile, before their attention was quickly drawn back to the one way mirror. A man from the other side was flung into the window and bounced off, hitting the ground with a loud thud. Liv grinned as she watched Lyco knock another man to the ground with one punch, breaking his nose.
After a while of overlooking the training session the door from the observation room swung open. A younger woman with brown hair and a single pink streak in her hair opened the door while looking down at her phone.
"Hey Ediki, I have the harddrive from my last mission if you want to-" the young woman looked up from her phone realizing she opened the wrong door. " Oh shoot, sorry, wrong room. By the way do you know where Ediki is? He told me to meet him around here and he's clearly not here-ahh that man sucks at giving directions."
Liv stared back at the young woman at the door. The young woman was wearing a thick leather jacket that buckled at the top to secure it. The jacket was a mix of Black and silver with a hint of dark purple at the cuffs of her long sleeves and the back of her hood.
" Um, no sorry we haven't seen him lately." Liv replied observing the young woman who looked very impatient. " May I ask you your name?" Liv curiously asked, this woman looked way too young to be working for Hydra and it seemed odd.
"Psh, wouldn't you like to know" the young woman said as she crossed her arms and leaned against the doorway.
Liv was taken aback by the woman's rude remark, here everybody revered here." Young lady I will have you know I am one of the leading scientists here at Hydra, so you better watch your tongue. I wasn't just asking for your name, that was an order." Liv said in a monotone voice to try and intimidate the young woman. She didn't even seem fazed by her words.
The other woman in the room in front of the microphone sighed and began " Her name is Leslie, Doctor Liv, she is a class Delta Assassin."
" WHAT THE HELL WILLOW! Why in the world would you just say that? That's not your information to give out." Leslie said while she marched out from the doorway towards Willow who was still sitting in front of the microphone overlooking the training floor.
Liv was intrigued by the remark, being a class Delta Assassin was not heard of often. "So, Leslie you're a class Delta Assassin huh, you must be very good at your job to get that title. I think I've only met a handful of other Assassins that have been able to acquire that difficult title. And I don't think any of them were even close to your age when they got it."
" You are overreacting, it's not that big of a deal people make it out to be." Lesile said as she leaned up against the counter, her back facing the mirrored window.
" Why didn't you want me to know your name Leslie?" Liv asked curiously.
" I don't know, you are clearly a scientist with your lab coats on and I know what kind of messed up stuff you guys do. So I don't want to be associated with you guys that much, let alone giving you my personal information. Because lord knows what you will do with that." Leslie finished smiling saracsticly at Liv, who only met Leslies response with a smirk.
" We're not all that crazy, I'm hurt that you would think of me like that." Liv finished lightly.
"Well you can never be too carefu-" Leslie was cut off by a sudden THUD on the glass behind her. She immediately turned around and grabbed her gun out of her holster on her hip and aimed it at the glass, ready to fire. She slowly lowered her aim as she looked out the window down on the training floor, where a boy was fighting a group of men.
Liv walked beside Leslie, whose face was filled with confusion. " Sorry about that, we have our own little Assassin in training down there. He's been out on almost a dozen missions now and is proving to be very reliable. You better watch out, he might be coming for your job." Liv finished with a bit of a laugh, both of them still looking out the window not making eye contact.
Leslie smacked her lips, still captivated by the boy on the training floor below. " He's sloppy, mediocre at best; he's lucky he hasn't gotten hurt on those missions with his fighting style." Lesile said as she put her pointer finger against the glass, pointing at the boy.
" Excuse me?" Liv said, taking offense from the remark. " I would like to see you try and best him in a fight." Liv said with a smile, fully knowing no one would have the guts to challenge her opinion.
Leslie let out a laugh " Try me bitch."
"LESLIE!" Willow yelled, " You can't talk like that in front of one of the heads of Hydra!" Willow crossed her arms like an angry mother.
" Oh no, it's fine Willow, '' Liv said, looking down at Leslie. " She thinks she has the guts to take down the Wolf Spider, by all means let her." Liv replied as she walked towards the door to guide Leslie to the entrance to the training room floor. Leslie swiftly followed behind as they both reached the door and walked into the training room.
Leslie took one look around the room with a slight smile, she squared up her body for a fight in the middle of the training room floor ready to fight the boy staring back at her. The boy ran full speed at her with his fists balled up. Leslie didn't move, she stood planted on the floor waiting. The boy swung a fist at her but she crouched down to dodge it and kicked out her leg to sweep the boy's feet out from underneath him. The boy fell to the ground and Leslie threw her body on top of his, wrapping her legs around his chest and putting the boy's head into a headlock.
" Wow kid, that was so pathetic, how are you still alive if you fight like this on missions?" Lesile said laughing, squeezing hard around the boy's head making him start to gasp for air. " That was such a simple scenario and you messed it up." Leslie paused for a second as she saw the boy gasping for air. " Fine I'll let you go if you say Please. Ha say it damnit." Lesile said in a burst of laughter with the boy still struggling underneath her.
" That's enough!" Liv called out for the side of the room looking at Leslie with angry eyes. Lesile met Livs eyes and let loose of her grip around the boy's neck, with him crawling out from underneath her gasping for air on his hands and knees.
"Hey I'm just teaching the kid a lesson." Leslie shrugged off what just happened.
" You almost killed him dammit!" Liv argued back, stomping her foot on the floor.
" Let me rephrase that, I'm teaching him a lesson he won't forget. It's better to teach him like that here. Before he's sent out on a mission and doesn't return because he gets bested in a fight for not knowing how to fight." She said back putting her hands on her hips before turning around to face the boy who was now back on his feet, staring blankly at her as she walked closer.
" Hey kid what's your name anyway?" Lesile asked as she sized up the boy standing still in front of her.
"Lyco" Liv and the boy said back in sync.
Liv felt a smile creep up her lips at the very sound of the boy confirming his new name. She walked over beside him and put a hand on his shoulder, " That's right your name is Lyco."
Leslie looked back a little confused on what just happened but shrugged it off. " Ok then, if you're ok with it Liv I'm going to make sure Lyco knows how to properly fight
and doesn't die on a mission. By the way, when is his next mission?"
" It's tomorrow evening."
" Well shit we have a lot to learn and not a lot of time.'' Leslie walked over to the side of the training floor and met Lycos blank eyes. " Come on over here Lyco and square up, I want to see your fighting form."
Lyco looked over his shoulder at Liv with a confused look, not knowing if he should obey this new lady's orders in front of him.
" You're fine Lyco, she's going to help you. Take everything she says like it's coming from me, pay attention and follow what she tells you to do. Ok?" Liv stopped as she saw Lyco nod his head at her. " Good now go" Liv said as she gave Lyco a little push in Leslies direction, who was tapping her foot against the floor.
Liv walked back up to the observation room overlooking the training floor as Leslie made many little adjustments to Lycos' fighting stance.
" We'll that went well" Willow said as Liv walked into the room.
" I guess so, that girl Leslie sure was one hell of a surprise. I didn't realize how sloppy that kid was at fighting until she took him down in three seconds. I'm so used to him just punching his way out of things with brute force that I forgot that you really need to take in and use the environment and a proper fighting form to help you win a fight." Liv said while taking a seat in her chair. Looking down at Lyco now lying on the floor in pain, Leslie had punched him in the stomach to show him his form was still incorrect . “ That was sloppy on my part.”
" Huh work smarter not harder." Willow responded still captivated by the training floor.
" Right, hey get me all the files on Leslie. I want to see her records on missions and what her next assignment might be."
" Sure coming right up," Willow said, digging into her computer.
--- ------ ------ ----- ---- ------- ----
“ Your target is on your left, Wolf Spider.” said a voice through an earpiece in the boy’s ear.
He was now out on a patrol mission looking for intel. This was a regular ordeal, he had been doing similar missions like this one for the past weeks. He was once known as Peter but, this boy now had no recollection of his past life. All he knew was his code name was Wolf Spider, his real name Lyco, and he was given a duty to carry out dangerous missions. Lyco had no free thoughts or memories to compare anything else to, in his blank canvas of a mind this was merely what he existed to do.
He broke into an old factory window and was immediately surrounded by a group of over 20 people pointing guns at him.
“ You are gonna give me the file, or you aren’t gonna like how this ends.” Lyco ordered in a monotone voice.
One of the men trembled slightly, they had heard about a boy with superhuman abilities called the ‘Wolf Spider’. The boy's eyes looked dead, it was the most disturbing thing. All of his moves were correctly calculated; he never made any mistakes and had no mercy. It was like he was being controlled like he had no emotions.
“ Listen you aren’t gonna get the file over my dead body.” said a tall, muscular man closest to him as he aimed the gun to the boy’s head. The teen didn’t even look scared.
Lyco merely grabbed the man's gun with his left hand pushing it to the left so when the man frantically pulled the trigger the bullets hit the wall and not his chest. With his right hand swiftly grabbed a knife from around his belt and the man was able to gain control over his gun again pulling it out from Lycos grip then pulled the trigger with bullets flying everywhere.
The man couldn’t believe his eyes as the boy quickly stuck to the wall running across it to escape the path of the bullet with ease as the man's magazine ran out of bullets.
Lyco stood still for a second, no discernable emotion written on his face. Then jumped from the wall knocking the man into a wall across the room with the wall cracking from the force making the man fall limp to the ground. Everyone in the room began to fire and Lyco began jumping around, sticking to walls to dodge the bullets. He looked so effortless as he dodged the bullets. Lyco quickly swiped one of the men's legs out from underneath him, then flipping onto the ceiling, running across it to escape another bullet. He quickly threw one of the knives from his belt, colliding with the man's chest who was stumbling to his feet then fell lifeless on the ground. Acquiring the dead man's gun he easily shot the 18 bullets out of the pistol's mag, not one of the bullets missing it's target.
With only three enemy's left he quickly picked up one of his bloody knives off the ground and threw it across the room into one of the men's backs. While quickly jumping up and running across the ceiling with a trail of bullets following him from the two men still alive on the ground. He pounced off from the ceiling then kicked one of the two remaining men's heads into the cement floor with his left foot.
Leaving just Lyco and the last man alone. Lyco slowly walked over to the last person as the man dropped his gun and begged for his life. But the boy heard none of his begging, his only thoughts were to complete his mission. He grabbed a knife that was stuck inside a lifeless body on the ground and swiftly stabbed the knife piercing into the man's stomach. Lyco quickly retracted the knife out with a trail of blood following the knife as the man's blood splattered all over his chest and arm. Then he watched as the lifeless body dropped to the floor.
“ Nice work Lyco. Now grab the file and head back.” said the voice in his ear and the boy nodded.
Walking towards the back of the crumbling warehouse. He had no thoughts in his head, no feeling at all, all he knew was his mission and that was it. A familiar numbness filled him as he approached a big vault. Lyco ripped open the vault door with a little effort before walking in and grabbing a file on the shelf. A siren began sounding as he picked up the file and stuffed it into his pocket, making him jump in surprise. A surge of mild annoyance ran through his mind as he knew he would soon have company to deal with. He ran up the wall out of the broken window he entered from originally. Running up the wall towards the roof he glanced down seeing a squad of police arrived. He saw a white truck sitting by the other side of the street. That was his ticket out of here. He ran and jumped off the roof sliding down the wall to get to his ride.
A single police officer started yelling as he spotted the dark shadow of a person ascending from the wall. Alerting the other officers who had their guns loaded surrounding the figure.
The boy stood still, his back facing the officers so they couldn't see his face while the officers swiftly cornered him against a wall. He slowly put his hands up and started to laugh.
"You think this is funny?" One of the officers yelled.
"It's going to take a lot more than a few guns to take me down." Lyco snarled back as he quickly ran up the wall in front of him. Pushing off the wall into a flip, he reached out his hand which wrapped around the hand of an officer and slammed the man's head into the ground. The other officers opened fire as the boy grabbed the dead officers gun which flew up into the air and started to return fire.
--- ------ ------ ----- ---- ------- ----
Tony looked up from a police report he was reading, hoping to find any possible sighting of a teen with brown hair who looked homeless or out of place at all. May was right, he was Peter’s best shot. The police report he was reading was merely a summary of everyone found in Westview after Wanda left, none of them Peter. Tony’s phone started ringing, a call from Rhodey. He hesitated for a second before answering.
“ Hey Tony, are you at home?” Rhodey asked tensley.
“ Yeah. Why?” Tony asked, mildly concerned.
“ Look there’s some incident going on downtown in New York and I’ve heard multiple reports of it involving some sort of super soldier…”
“ What about Sam?” Tony asked mildly annoyed because lately it seemed like Sam had been the one dealing with this.
“ Look Tony he’s not available right now-just please check it out. I know your tied up right now and I wouldn’t ask you if I didn’t have to but someone needs to just deal with it.” Rhodey practically begged.
“ Fine, give me a minute.” Tony replied before hanging up. He hesitated before he grabbed his nanotech suit from the lab bench and walked outside into the cool afternoon air. Tapping the arc reactor in the middle of his chest he flew off towards New York. Adrenaline flooded his system, he hadn’t done this much lately.
“Friday, where's the problem?” Tony asked the AI as he arrived near the area Rhodey had said to go. He looked around for any sign of a problem.
“ Just up Market Street. There appears to be fifteen police officers they’re fighting an unidentified person. Twenty three bodies appear to have been found in the building next to them.” Friday informed Tony as he arrived at the scene. He landed next to a terrified police officer hiding behind his squad car frantically loading his gun. As the unidentified person smashed another police officer into a telephone pole and twisted their arm back with a sharp crack. They moved with superhuman agility, jumping higher than should be possible. The person’s movements were obviously calculated, a great fighter. Tony knew he had to play it smart.
Tony quickly blasted the person, putting them off balance to bring the attention to him and allow the police officers to either call for backup or leave. The person turned to face him. A black gaiter covered most of their face as they stared at Tony, their eyes quickly looking Tony up and down, obviously considering what to do next. Tony pulled up his blaster and demanded that they back down but they ignored him and jumped, colliding with Tony's chest and pushing him into the building behind him cracking the building structure. As the shady figure rushed towards him raising their arm up with a knife Tony blasted them away but something caught his eyes. The person’s eyes were dead looking, almost like they weren’t alive. The person fell to the ground from the blast but quickly pushed themselves to their feet, a piece of their brown curls falling in front of their empty eyes. Tony felt like his heart stopped as he recognized those soft brown eyes.
“ Peter.” Tony felt the name slip out of his mouth as he quickly opened his face plate to stare at the boy in front of him with his own eyes. The boy looked at Stark with a blank face as he fidgeted with the knife in his hand, hesitating for a second.
For a second Lyco swore he recognized the name ‘Peter’ like it was his, for barely a second he had wanted to run up to the man and hug him. As quick as the feeling came it was gone as the boy gripped the knife and ran at the man who flew up in the air in surprise to evade the attack. Lyco threw a knife in the metal man's pathway of flight in frustration but it missed.
“ Kid I don’t know what the hell is wrong but you need to knock this off!!!” Tony yelled as he swore again, swerving in midair as Peter catapulted off a car into the air and threw another knife barely an inch past Tony’s head. Tony watched as the kid looked up again and held a finger to his ear, listening to an earpiece. The kid nodded without a moment of hesitation, ran through the crowd of shambling police officers, tackling and throwing them out of his way as he ran towards a white truck. Gunfire erupted as he leaped over the last batch of officers barely ten feet from the truck as he faltered. Stark flew down hovering near the kid, as the boy pushed a dead body from off of him and exposed a gun wound near his calf. Peter grinded his teeth and looked at Stark with an expression of pure anger. His cold dead angry eyes staring into Tony's soul. The boy was in pain-his kid was in pain. Before Tony knew what he was doing he flew barreling towards the kid grabbing the kid and heading up into the air.
“ Peter, come on, snap out of it!!!” Tony yelled trying to meet the kids' furious eyes. In response the kid swung around a knife as Tony tried to evade it. The the white truck was following him from the ground below at full speed.
“ I don’t know who the hell Peter is!!!” Lyco yelled, grunting in pain, looking at what appeared to be a powersource in the middle of the man’s suit, a glowing blue hectagon. His head hurt so much there was too much information coming at him at once, with people screaming for him to get out of there in his earpiece and his senses feeling like they were dialed to eleven. Peter reached into his toolbelt as the man gripped him tight, barreling through the city. In his left pocket his hand found a time bomb. He slammed it on the blue hectagon and pressed start, a loud one minute timer beginning. He saw the man lift his faceplate and look down in shock and betrayal. The man let one hand go of Lyco and grabbed the bomb now on his chest plate. With only one hand holding him Lyco reached for his last knife and screamed as he stuck a knife in between the sockets. The man grunted in pain, losing his grip and let go, sending Lyco barrelling to the ground. He jumped up onto the nearest rooftop, rolling into a ground roll over to break his fall and stumbled towards his getaway truck, his mind completely numb and his calf bleeding profusely.
“ Oh no. How the hell does this come off? ” Tony said as he fumbled for the bomb on his suit frantically trying to remove it. With fifteen seconds to go and no way to get it off Tony swore loudly and commanded his A.I to make a safe descent towards the ground and eject him from his suit. His suit opened up over a small dirty pond, he fell into the water.
Swimming to the surface he watched his suit explode up in the air. For a minute he sat there in the water still processing what just happened before heading up to the shore. He looked around taking in his surroundings, he must have been in a warehouse district with all the abandoned factories around every corner. He thought for a second. His suit was wrecked, he was soaked, no phone, and his kid had just tried to kill him. His day was going splendidly, he thought sarcastically, as another waterfall of swears came out of his mouth. Had Peter tried to kill him? He hesitated for a second but nonetheless the kid had strapped a bomb to Stark’s chest. With a groan of pain Tony sat up and walked towards the sidewalk, looking to borrow literally anyone's phone. He saw a shadow appear from the corner of his eye.
“ Stark! What in the name of tarnation where ya doin jumpin into my pond.” said an older man walking out of one of the factories.
“ Does anyone watch the news anymore?” Tony scoffed, running his fingers through his hair, this predicament reminding him of Christmas in the middle of Tennessee.
“ Damn you and yer stupid friends runnin around tryin to fix everything.” the man growled with anger.
“ Look, I just need to borrow your phone if that's no big concern.” Stark said as he felt his breathing begin to become difficult. The older man sighed and waved his hand for Tony to follow him. He followed the old man inside where he motioned to an old flip phone sitting on the table in the broken down office. With a grateful smile he grabbed the phone with shaky hands, thankful he remembered Happy’s number.