chapter 10
“Get on your knees. Now Spider, don’t test us.”
Those words played over a faint ringing in Peter’s head. He felt like his heart suddenly weighed a tonne, standing felt like a chore. All he wanted was to feel safe, he wanted Tony and Bucky and Steve to come and deal with this for him. A nasty voice in the back of his mind told him that this weakness came from not staying with Hydra, if he hadn’t left he wouldn’t be so weak that he needed someone else to deal with his problems for him. He couldn’t let these goons or any of his classmates know that Hydra agents breaking the door down and aiming guns at his head was anything other than a mild inconvenience. He had to act as if this was in the same level of missing the bus.
“Come on Parker, we’ve been looking for you since you betrayed Hydra, don’t drag this out any longer.”
Peter had to play this as an insufferable cocky bastard.
“Damn, all of you got tasked with finding little old me? And it took you this long to manage it? Bet that made you feel real important. Bet that’s even make the headlines if Hydra had a newspaper, just think of the title, ‘five grown men catch a teenage boy after like a year!’”
Peter paused for a breath as he drank in their expressions. They were all either embarrassed or enraged.
Peter innocently asked “do you think you’ll get a raise for completing your mission with such haste? I’m assuming u only had to find me and not catch me, cuz if you have to catch me then, I hate to break it to you but, you’re never getting pai-“ then he heard it.
The familiar clacking of leather boots with heavy soles. He could visualise the woman before she even opened the door.
“Pytor.” A thick Russian accent absolutely butchering his name. “Stop playing games.”
If that’s what she wanted, then sure, he could show her just how much he’d learned from his time in that hell. He shot webs at the group of goons, pinning them to the wall before crouching into his classic spiderman pose. He really hoped his classmates had had enough sense to get out the way. He looked into her eyes before he pounced on her and was thrilled to see fear in them. Perhaps she expected him to see her and decide that he actually loved his time at Hydra. She was a fool for believing that his loyalties were ever with her or anything she stood for.
He flew into the air, landing a flying kick to her jaw, knocking her down. He heard a faint “Peter no!” right before he tore his flick knife out of his sock and tore it across her throat. The screaming of his classmates barely reached him, all he could feel was free, even when the blood soaked the only hoodie he liked, even when he felt Bucky pull him off her, when he had Steve and Tony yelling, he just felt relief. She was gone now. He didn’t bother to try and distinguish any words from the yelling, he probably couldn’t do it even if he tried.
The three of them dragged him up the stairs and threw him into the training room. Their mouths were still moving but if there was noise coming out he could barely hear it. Growing slightly, Peter tried to work out what was going on. That’s when he noticed his hands trembling slightly, his eyes tearing up, the shaky, uneven breathes that didn’t seem to be taking in any oxygen. Fucks sake, not here, not now.
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The kid was pale and shaking. How had Hydra even gotten into the building? How had everything gotten so bad in like five minutes? Tony was very confused. All they needed to do was calm Peter down. The rest could be figured out later. He’d locked the building down, sent Bruce down to calm the rest of Peter’s class down, sent Happy to get the body out of the hallway and sent Nat and Clint to check the rest of the building was safe. The only thing they could do now was get Peter to explain what was going on. He was the only one who had all the facts. Him and Bucky, they knew something the rest of them didn’t and that didn’t sit right with Tony. He was going to find out what happened, one way or another.
After five minutes of Bucky cradling Peter, they both got up and Bucky walked back to the adults, leaving Peter alone leaning against the rope around the fighting ring.
Peter exhaled, only slightly shakily, and asked “can we get everyone together so i don’t have to explain myself over and over?”
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Peter felt sick and feverish, he was physically fine but he was so afraid his body must’ve thought he was seriously ill. He saw Tony nod to Steve and they all left to go talk to his classmates. At least they we’re working with him but what on earth was he going to say? It was a lot to tell everyone, they’d all freak out and they might tell everyone. This could go wrong so easily. Peter barely noticed when his classmates anxiously filed into the gym and sat down in messy rows. The reality of it hit him when he heard Bucky call out.
“Pete, we’re ready when you are.” The encouraging smile made him chuckle a little but he didn’t feel all that reassured.
He looked out and saw all 30 of his class and 5 avengers and Happy, Jesus Christ, now or never. Why explain when you can just show them. Peter let his cocky personality fall over him again before smirking and telling them to keep their questions for the end.
He shot a web up to one of the struts and swung close to the group. Maybe a brief explanation would suffice.
“Right, so obviously i’m spiderman-“ the class gasped at that, if they were already so shocked then they were going to lose their damn minds by the time he was finished. “and I’m spiderman because Hydra took me when i was ten and did whatever to make me like this.” His class all
looked solemn, the avengers looked vaguely surprised and Bucky just looked absolutely miserable. Peter needed to lighten the mood somehow.
“Yeah anyway, that’s how i met Bucky, hey Bucky!” He waved with an fake amount of enthusiasm. No one looked particularly cheered up but he supposed not all news needed to be rainbows and sunshine. “I escaped about a year ago and I guess they finally tracked me down. That’s all there really is to know, any questions?”
30 hands went up. Peter supposed he shouldn’t of offered to answer their questions if he wasn’t ready for there to be so many of them. Almost all the questions were just a general “what?” apart from Flash who had asked if ‘he was even safe to be around people’ to which Peter had taken several steps forward and responded with
“ask me that again and you’ll find out.”
That pretty swiftly put an end to question time.
Tony called out from the back “kid I’m not going to put my hand up like a child so I’ll ask any I have later. That’s assuming you still want to stay?”
Peter nodded vigorously, trying not to tear up.
Tony still wanted him to stay, even after it all.