Chapter 11
All he could feel was pain. Even breathing hurt.
Peter had no idea where he was, it was dark, he was strapped down and he was in pain. No matter how hard he tried to get out he couldn’t break the restraints, the skin on his wrists torn from him trying to break out of them.
He could hear the people outside, there was only one voice he could recognise. Norman Osborn.
Peter had done what he said, he’s listened, he had obeyed and done exactly what he wanted, why was he here? Where even was he?
The door behind him opened and two men came in, Norman was one of them, of course, but the other man Peter didn’t know. But although he had no idea who this man was part of him knew that he should, he knew to be scared of this man.
“Ah I see you’re finally awake Peter,” oh how he wished he could punch Norman in the face, “This man with me here, well does the name Strucker ring a bell?”
Strucker?
At his name Peter remembered a conversation he had with Wanda.
“So, you’re telling me you got your abilities from a rouge, radioactive spider? On a school trip no less?” Wanda asked him after she’d finished laughing at him, the amusement clearly apparent on her face. “That has to be the best way to get your powers.”
“I mean it was either right place at the right time or wrong place at the wrong time depending on who’s looking at it. I mean it did make me really sick for a few days so that part sucked.” Peter laughed back. “So, how’d you get yours?”
“I got mine in a very different way to yours. Me and Pietro we lost our parents to a bomb when we were 10 by one of Stark’s bombs, we resented him for a long time and a couple years later we were recruited by a man named Strucker. He used the Scepter on us and I got my powers and Pietro got him. We worked with the wrong people to get them, we thought we were doing what was right but in the end we weren’t. Strucker saw our grief and our resentment and wanted to use it, we let him.”
“You’re Hydra?” No, no this isn’t good, he did what Norman wanted why was he here?
“So, you are smart enough to connect the dots?” Strucker mocked him, “Well I mean you weren’t smart enough to tell all of the Avengers what was going on. They have no idea where you are, or where you’ve gone. They don’t even know you’ve been taken.”
Peter knew part of that was right, for now they didn’t know but what about when the communication stopped? I mean yeah, he took a month a month to get one to them last time, but they wouldn’t wait forever, would they?
“It’s time to do some tests Mr Parker, see how greatly that spider bite actually changed you.”
Wait what?
Peter didn’t get much time to think before he felt a scalpel cutting open his chest.
“Let’s see how long you take to heal.” Strucker smirked at him, which turned into a smile the moment Peter began to scream.
They were in the meeting room when it happened. They were discussing how to get Peter back, or at least how to find him.
Then Wanda’s cup smashed on the ground. Followed by Wanda herself, screaming.
The second the cup hit the floor Natasha was out of her seat and she only just prevented Wanda from hitting the floor, but she had to sink down with her.
Wanda’s sobbing scared all of them, Natasha could see it. The last time she had been like this was when Pietro died.
No.
“Wanda, hey, hey I need you to look at me okay. I need you to tell me what’s going on.” Clint tried to coax out of her, kneeling down in front of the two of them but all Wanda did was grip Natasha tighter, “Okay everyone get out. Give them space.”
Watching her team leave Natasha wrapped her arms around Wanda as tight as she could, the fear pulsing through her causing her to need some kind of grounding.
“Wanda what happened? What did you see? Natasha pleaded to her.
Please don’t be dead.
“They – they got him Nat, they got him.” Wanda sobbed out. Her eyes glazed over but still shining red.
“Who got him? Where is he?”
“They got him.” She continued to mumble, “They got him.”
“Wanda! Who?”
Suddenly Wanda spun around in her arms and the only thing Natasha felt was her hands connecting with her head before the image was placed in her mind.
Peter.
Peter strapped down to a table.
Peter screaming.
Peter being hurt.
Coming back out of Wanda’s head Natasha abruptly stood up, Wanda watching her from the floor unable to stop the tears streaming down her face.
“Nat how did Hydra get him?” Wanda choked out, “How did they find him?”
Natasha just continued to pace back and forth. The one thing she didn’t want, the one thing she hoped wouldn’t happen is happening right now and they couldn’t stop it.
“Do you know where they are?” She finally asked Wanda.
“No. Just some dark room, that’s all I could see of the room.” It was then that her eyes burned red once again, Natasha froze at that, waiting until Wanda’s eyes changed again. “I know who has him. Get the team back in here Friday, please.”
“Of course, Miss Maximoff.”
It took less than a minute for the full team to stream back into the room, as soon as they were all sat down Wanda just blurted it out.
“He’s been taken by Norman Osborn and Strucker. So, Hydra. Hydra has him.”
Oh god.
Natasha was trying her best not to think, after the meeting she’d gone down to the training room, where still was, and just continued to punch the boxing bad that was hung up in the room.
Despite her best efforts all she could hear was Peter’s screams and so she continued to throw one punch after the other. The skin on her knuckles splitting, the pain didn’t reside in her head though, too busy trying to get the images of Peter and his screams out of her head that she couldn’t feel it.
That was until Bruce walked in, he wasn’t truly a medical doctor but somehow, he had become the doctor of the team, Friday notifying him as Natasha continued to punch the bag.
“Natasha you need to stop.”
“Why?” She didn’t want to stop. She wanted to find the bastards who took her son.
“Because this isn’t going to help. You needed to wrap your hands but since you didn’t do that now you need to clean them up. Natasha, I get it, you’re scared and you’re angry, but this isn’t going to change anything. So, go clean your hands and then get back up there and help us find out how to get him back.” Was all he said to before leaving the room.
He was right and god she hated that. She’s punched her way through a lot of things, but she couldn’t punch her way through this. Eventually she went to medical and sorted her hands out before going back to the group.
The instant she walked through the door she regretted it though, as all eyes turned to her all she could see was fear.
“What happened?” She hated that look. That look meant things got worse, how could things have gotten worse?
“We got a message.” Tony whispered to which she cocked her head. A message? “From Hydra, they sent us a voice message, we haven’t played it yet, wanted to wait for you. Whatever is on it can’t be good Nat.”
Sitting down next to James, without even asking he grabbed her hand, offering her the only sense of comfort that he could.
“Play it.”