III
A few days later, during one of their training sessions, Matt asked if he would want to shadow Jessica for a couple days to watch what she did as a private investigator and as a neighborhood vigilante type of person (She violently objected to being called a hero). Peter, of course, enthusiastically agreed to this so now he was all set to meet up with Ms. Jones at 9AM the next morning. After stopping some petty crimes on the way back to Queens, he finally managed to wolf down some very unhealthy but high calorie foods and pretended it was the chicken alfredo he had helped Foggy make. That had been the best meal he’d had in a while. Maybe he needed to get injured more often so he could show up at Matt's place to eat his boyfriend's cooking. He fell asleep on the couch, listening to the news channel his neighbors had put on.
He woke up at 7:30, grateful for the people next door for waking him up by making pancakes for their kids at this ungodly hour of the morning so that he wouldn't be late to meet Ms. Jones. Matt had said street clothes today, so he threw on some jeans and a black AC/DC t-shirt that reminded him of Mr. Stark with a flannel over it before wiggling into his very beat up Nikes Mr. Stark had given to him for his birthday a while back just before walking out of the apartment. He still couldn't get himself to call it his apartment, it felt too weird to not be living with May anymore.
Ms. Jones' office turned out to be an apartment, but instead of a living room there was a desk and chairs set up. The walls were covered in what looked like recently patched up bullet holes and a guy was setting down a can of paint when he looked up and saw Peter.
“Hi I'm Malcolm. I’ll go get Jessica for you,” He said, then he walked off down the hallway. A few minutes later, Jessica Jones trudged down the hallway behind Malcolm, once again looking like she hadn't slept in days but she smelt a little less like alcohol, but he assumed that was only because it was 9AM.
“Hey kid”
“Hi Ms. Jones,” Peter responded, semi-enthusiastically.
“Don't call me Ms. Jones, I'm not eighty. Call me Jessica.” Peter nodded along and Jessica continued. “My client's daughter went missing a few days ago. The police say she's probably a runaway, but all her friends and family say she never talked about running away. Her girlfriend is devastated as well which leads me to believe this girl, her name’s Abigail by the way, has been kidnapped. I've been following a trafficking ring that operates on the edge of Hell's Kitchen and yesterday I found a connection between them and Abigail, which brings me back to why I asked Matt to lend you to me for a few days.”
“What does a human trafficking ring have to do with me?”
“Nothing yet, but a seventeen year old wandering into their territory by himself? They won't be able to resist taking you too, especially if you look lost and turn on those puppy dog eyes you're hiding,” Jessica told him.
Malcolm drew the line at that. “You want this kid to get himself kidnapped by a human trafficking ring on purpose just so you can find them? That insane Jessica, even for you.”
Jessica just shrugged. “Peter can handle himself in a fight pretty well. He’ll be fine. Plus, I’ll be following them from the rooftops.”
“Malcolm, I’ll be fine. This is not even close to the most dangerous thing that I’ve ever done,” Peter replied, but somehow that didn't make Malcolm feel any better.
“What have you done that is more dangerous than being willingly kidnapped by a human trafficking ring?”
“It's a long story”
“That's not an explanation”
“Never claimed it was, but i'm not giving you a play by play of my life right now, we’ve got a trafficking ring to take down”
Malcolm threw his hands up in defeat and looked towards Jessica, who just shrugged. “I'm quitting,” he said as he walked out.
Peter turned to Jessica, but she did not seem too concerned that who seemed to be her only employee had just quit. When she noticed his confusion, she just told him that Malcolm wasn't actually quitting, he just didn't want to deal with her today.
—-------
Jessica had walked him to where the traffickers' territory started before doing a big jump (could she fly?) and followed him the rest of the way from the rooftops. Peter was in the heart of human trafficking territory now, so he just walked around aimlessly, waiting to get kidnapped. Sure enough, after an hour of walking around, he heard himself being followed and just barely resisted the urge to look up towards Jessica's perch on the roof. He slowed his pace a little bit, since he had subconsciously sped up due to his spidey sense going crazy from all the potential danger around him. After a few deep breaths, he was able to remind himself that though he had super strength, he couldn't use it here. Three men stepped out in front of him, and another three from behind while a van pulled up alongside them. Deep breaths Pater, he told himself, you're not actually in danger, you're Spider-Man. The men closed in, and he allowed himself to be taken, pretending to pass out when they injected him with something.
When they arrived, he was shoved out of their van and into some kind of warehouse. He couldn't say anything, as they had gagged him and bound his hands on the way there, but he made sure to observe everything that was going on from the amount of vans (5) to the crates of guns/other weaponry (23) and when he was finally shoved into a room with who he assumed where other victims of kidnapping, he counted how many there were (36). He didn't include himself in that number, he wasn't really a victim here. He felt like he was on an undercover mission, which he kind of was. He ripped off his hand bindings and his gag before taking off everyone else's. He was about halfway through everyone when he heard gunshots. Had they found Jessica? It was difficult for him to believe that though, she was stronger and faster than all of them. The gunshots continued, but once he listened a little more carefully, it sounded more like one shooter. The traffickers didn't know who it was, and apparently some of them were dead now. Who was shooting? Jessica didn't carry a gun because she claimed she didn't need one.
Peter addressed the group. “Untie everyone else but stay here when you're all free. Do you understand? Do not leave this room, I’ll be back in a few minutes to get you guys out of here ok?” All he got in response were terrified nods and a few meek ok’s from those he had already de-gagged. He broke the handle to the door since it was bound to be locked and headed out into the fray. Jessica was fighting with the traffickers and there was a sniper somewhere taking them out as well. Peter started out by tackling the guy closest to him who had his gun pointed towards Jessica. They rolled, and Peter ended up on top, punching the guy hard enough to knock him out but not quite hard enough to cause permanent damage. He sprung up and took out several other guys in this fashion before the rest really noticed him, but by then, Jessica and the mysterious sniper had taken out most of the other guys. Peter only got a few more good hits in before all the traffickers were unconscious because of him or Jessica, or they were dead courtesy of the sniper.
“Frank you can come out now, they're all done for,” Jessica called into the darkness.
Frank? As in Frank Castle? The Punisher? Sure enough, the Punisher dropped down from somewhere in the ceiling and started walking towards them.
“For the record Peter, I didn't know Frank was going to be here,” Jessica told him. “Are you hurt at all?” She then asked, to which Peter shook his head. “Good, go get the people who were kidnapped while I call the police.”
Peter walked back into the hallway and opened the door to the people who had been kidnapped. “You guys are safe now, and the police are on their way. Follow me.” Everyone in the room just looked numb at this point, and followed him out into the main area. They did a double take at seeing Jessica Jones on the phone with the cops and Frank Castle looting guns from the traffickers' supply. When the police got close enough to hear, Jessica got up and addressed the group of victims.
“Alright, we're leaving, and if any of you have warrants or are here illegally, you might want to leave as well. If you don't, I would recommend you stay so these people go to jail when you testify. Is there an Abigail here?”
“Yeah, My names Abigail”
“Good, your dad hired me to find you. Your girlfriend is very worried about you,” Jessica told her before grabbing Peter and doing one of her fly-jumps out of there, meeting Frank on the roof. “Peter, you can go home now, I know it's late and you'll probably want to do some patrolling of your own before it gets too early.”
“Yeah, I’ll go. This was cool though, and I got to meet the Punisher! If you need help again Ms. Jones I'm in!”
“I told you not to call me that kid.”
“Sorry Ms. Jessica!” he yelled as he raced off over the rooftops. He needed to get home and change soon if Spider-man was going to make an appearance tonight.