brooklyn
Kate and Peter had become good friends.
Peter had shown her the ins and outs of his fighting style, which was basically just ‘quip and web.’
It was still pretty effective.
They’d met up randomly once on a Saturday, and Kate had left just to come back with a laptop and they’d started watching videos trying to guess which celebrities could be Spider-Man and ‘the new Hawkeye.’ Peter’s sense had gone off right before they’d shone Kate Bishop on the screen, and sure enough, she’d gone bright red. Peter had laughed until his eyes hurt, something that he could only do around Kate these days.
Some nights, when they were bored, they’d make bets on who could get the best dumpster tech. Peter had taught her the basics of it, and so she wasn’t allowed to say that he was lying when he said he won. She didn’t seem to grasp that bigger didn’t always mean better. It was also pretty nice, because Peter had always assumed that the rich were all complete snobs. Mr. Stark had been a superhero, so Peter had never counted him, but Kate was just like anyone else. Well, besides the superhero part.
Kate had gotten her friend that made her suit to make Peter a new suit. She’d also writtendown links to youtube videos on how to sew, since he had only ever given her the number of a flip phone. (His real phone was for when he felt like crying and only then.)
He’d followed her back to her apartment once, but after taking one look at it he decided that he wanted to stay away from her part of the city. It was too fancy for him.
Peter had landed himself two jobs, so far. The first was selling pictures of himself (and the occasional one of Kate (with permission)) to the Bugle, of all places. The other one was… not as on the money. Every other night, he’d work at a bar for mercenaries. He tried not to help them out too much, and sometimes went as far as arresting them the next night as Spider-Man. At first he hadn’t wanted to stay, but there had been a moment that had set it in stone for him.
Clint Barton and a blonde girl Peter didn’t know had walked into the bar and had ordered drinks.
“That’s a child, Lena,” Clint whispered.
“We can’t get distracted,” ‘Lena’ retorted.
“But he’s working at a bar. For mercenaries. Shouldn’t we be worried about that?”
Peter smiled and allowed himself a small victory. Kate had told him about Yelena Belova, Natasha’s sister. Now that he had both of their real names, he allowed himself a little fun.
“Your drinks Ms. Belova, Mr. Barton. Let me save you the trouble and say that if anyone’s planning anything they’re going to be near the exit or a wall, and definitely not near an 18-year-old.”
He smiled at them cheekily and then retreated.
He revelled in the skips in their heartbeats.
The Bugle was just a job Peter took because it was the only place he could take a job as a photographer. He tried not to read the articles his photos were in, or watch the videos his footage was playing over, because he wanted to pretend that he wasn’t hurting his reputation every single day.
Touching down on what had quickly become their roof, or Hawk Roof, as Peter liked to call it, Peter waved at Kate.
“Hi’ya Spidey!” She greeted. “Going to tell me your name today?”
Peter laughed. “Not a fucking chance.”
Kate sighed and drooped dramatically. “Why do you get to know mine if I don’t know yours?”
She had known his name, was the problem. Peter was just… never going to tell her about that.
He is starting to get tired of this game.
How bad could one lie be?
“My name is Ben. You happy?”
Kate beamed.
It had been a normal night.
Kate had gotten Mcdonalds for them to eat on a (this time) random rooftop. The deal had finally passed and so Ben couldn’t get free food anymore. It was also, partially, because the girl had nearly gotten caught in the act and had finally realised that she was probably giving way too much. Which, obviously, they’d known that they should be paying using real money but Ben never bothered to point this out to xem.
Ben had taken one of Ketchup packets on a dare and was in the middle of swallowing pure ketchup when there was a light thud of boots and the sound of metal folding.
“Spider-Man,” a man’s voice greets.
“Hi Captain Amer- Wilson!” Ben greets.
“Not going to say hi to me?” Kate asks.
Captain America shakes his head. “Don’t call me Captain Wilson. It makes me feel old. I’ve been looking into something. I was on my way to Brooklyn and I spotted you. And honestly, I have no idea what to call you because I sure as hell ain’t callin’ you Hawkeye.”
“What’s happening in Brooklyn?” Ben asks.
“Human experimentation on the sick,” Captain America says solemnly. “Takes people who are on the brink of death, or just people who are always losing fights, and does some shit to them. If they survive it, they come out of it with a random superpower. A lot of them are Hulk-esq, can’t control it. They’re calling it Oscorp, or ‘project O.’ If we let it keep cooking we might have an Avengers-level threat on our hands. I’m not sure the team is still going strong enough for us to win another one of those.”
Ben nodded. “Neither of us can get to Brooklyn tonight. Ka- Hawkette, can you change up your schedule a bit so that we can meet in Brooklyn tomorrow? I’ll text you an address. Wait, what area of Brooklyn?”
“There’s multiple addresses.” Captain America pulled a notecard out of his pocket. “Find a spot near here. I’ll find you.”
“Not if I find you first,” Ben replied cheerfully.
“Alright, Spidey.”
Huh, so he didn’t know Spidey’s name either? Strange.
Once Cap took off, Kate turned to Ben. “He sounded like a transformer when he landed.”
Ben laughed. “Oh, definitely.”
When they found Captain America, he was with the White Wolf, standing over a sewer.
A sewer.
“I know, it ain’t gonna be fun,” Captain ‘call me Sam’ America sighed.
“And we’re sure that there’s a Project O lab down here?” Ben asked.
“We don’t think it’s finished yet. There’s only been one or two heat signatures in there, and we were scouting it out last night,” White Wolf supplied. “I think it’s still being set up. It might be Project O, or it might be someone who has been through Project O’s trials. Whatever it is, they’re one of those Hulk-esque guys Sam mentioned last night. We don’t think it’ll be a problem.”
“Just don’t die,” Sam outlined helpfully.
“Yeah, I already knew that,” Ben sighed.
Ben popped the sewer lid off and without thinking, Kate gazed inside. The smell hit her all at once and she flinched back.
White Wolf chuckled. “Just like Clint,” he mumbled.
There was a large space in the sewers, like Sam had explained, that had a few machines dotted about. On the floor were a few scraps that could have been bandages (and kind of looked like Ben’s webbing), but could also have been torn fabric. Kate wasn’t sure.
Most notably, though, was the giant fucking lizard in the middle of the room.
When Ben’s head perked up, Kate had already figured that something was off. But the way he froze when he saw the lizard was petrifying. She’d never seen him so scared before.
White ‘Jesus, kid, you can call me Bucky’ Wolf and Sam were both preparing for a fight.
“Ah, I was wondering if I’d be the lucky one,” the lizard said (what the hell that is a giant talking lizard ) in a British accent. “Welcome, Avengers! You like what you see?”
The lizard turned and smiled at them before his face turned into a snarl and he lunged at Ben. “See if you can find any sort of serum!” Ben yelled as he kicked the lizard. “It’ll probably be in a giant needle. If not, it’s gas. And if any gas is released, hold your breath and – ACK – get the hell out!”
How Spidey knew all that, Kate wasn’t sure, but she still dashed towards one of the tables. There were blueprints hastily on regular pieces of paper that she folded and shoved into her suit. She promised herself she’d get paper sleeves so that nobody else would need to touch them.
“Project O is a permanent sort of thing,” Bucky yelled. “We won’t find any of that!”
“Just trust me!” Ben boomed. The lizard slashed, leaving claw marks on Ben’s chest, and scratching his spider-emblem.
“I thought your suit was nearly impenetrable!?” Sam exclaimed.
“This one’s new!” Ben shouted.
Ben sent out a line that attached to the Lizard’s face, and then he yanked it downward. The lizard went crashing to the floor, hands reaching for its face. Ben webbed his left arm to his side and his right hand to his face and then let out a deep exhale.
“Did anyone find anything?” Ben asked calmly.
“Just a bunch of blueprints,” Kate admitted.
“I found a bunch of empty containers and test tubes and shit like that,” Sam said.
“Same here. Though I’m not liking the look of that ‘microwave.’”
Ben nodded and walked towards it, his hands starting to wobble. “My tingle isn’t liking it either,” he said.
Kate barked out a laugh but then zoned to attention as he clicked the button and the door swung open.
Instead of being a normal microwave, there was a foam wall that held three vials containing some type of green liquid.
“The lizard serum,” Ben breathed. “I knew it.”
“How did you know it?” Sam asked suspiciously.
Ben took in a shaky breath and let it out before answering. “There was another lizard like him at the liberty fight. He wanted to turn the entire city into lizards. Crazy shit.”
“Jesus,” Bucky breathed.
“Luckily, that means I already know the materials I’d need to procure a cure. I just need to save up some money for them.”
Bucky tilted his head. “I thought you worked with the Starks?”
Ben sulked and took a little to respond. “Not anymore. How far along are the efforts to rebuild the compound?”
“We’re going to have the living quarters finished in a few months,” Sam said. “After that is the training area. Once that’s done we’ll have a big enough space for us all to hang around there if we need.”
“Great,” Ben said softly.
The next space was a little more exposed, and definitely further developed.
Sam and Bucky had opted to walk in wearing their civvies, and the footage they got before being found out as not one of the employees was pretty horrifying.
There were so many small rooms, each with their own set of torture devices inside.
There were two cabinets completely filled with shock collars.
In a room neither man dared enter, screaming could be heard. It was horace, as if whoever it was had been screaming for hours. Maybe they had.
But the worst thing they found were the suffocation tanks. There was a control panel, that was the only thing that gave away what it did. It limited the oxygen of whoever was inside until there was hardly anything left to breathe, and didn’t let up until there was almost no oxygen left inside the tank.
The problem was it was made by people with powers for people with powers, so shutting it down without someone getting taken was going to be tricky.
Coming back to her apartment, Kate couldn't help but sigh, feeling like she didn't deserve to live here.
She didn't really want to, anymore. It didn't feel right to live in such a big space by herself.
Sighing, she flipped on the tv, which was playing a re-run of a cartoon that had started right before the blip and had just announced their next season.
Kate didn't even like it, but she watched anyways.
She wondered, distantly, how Ben was fairing. He hadn't seemed too good the last time she'd seen him. In fact, he looked on the verge of a panic attack.
Oh.
Kate picked up her burner phone and sent out a quick text.
Hawkette: ben?
u ok?
She waited, but she never got a response.