You Don't Understand What's Happening...
The lights burned his eyes even though they were closed. He turned his head but no matter where he faced the light shown on him. He finally opened his eyes to see bright neon lights above him. He tried to lift his arm to rub his sore eyes. But, he couldn’t. He looked down and saw his wrists strapped to the sides of the table with thick leather straps. His chest was also strapped down. His ankles were the same. He tried to break free. He struggled and tugged but he couldn’t break through. This was troubling since it looked like regular leather.
“Hey!” He screamed.
He was back in the lab he had been in with Gwen. He thought for a moment if this was her plan all along. The thought made his blood thin.
“Hello?” He shouted. The door opened and in walked Gwen.
“Peter I need you to relax okay? Struggling will only hurt you,” She said, collecting a few things from her desk.
“Gwen you gotta let me out. Mr. Osborne is torturing those kids. He’s experimenting on them.”
She shook her head. “There’s a lot of things happening here that you don’t understand.”
“I understand that experimenting on kids is wrong. He’s killing them, Gwen. I saw it.”
She hesitated but eventually made up her mind.
“This’ll sting a bit,” She said as she stuck the needle into his arm.
“Why are you doing this?” He asked.
“If I don’t, all those kids will die. Millions of people will die. Hydra is trying to become the most powerful terrorist group in the world. If they kill every enhanced, all the Avengers... They’ll get what they want. Do you really want that?”
“There are better ways. You need to let me and the kids go. Mr. Stark will make the cure.”
“Where will the kids go? They’ll be back on the streets. At least they have a home here.”
“They’re dying. Whatever experiments Mr. Osborne is doing to them, it’s killing them,” Peter tried to reason.
“You don’t understand what’s happening, do you? You don’t get that 15 million lives are on the line. You don’t know those kids. I do. If you can help create the cure you shouldn’t keep that to yourself. I can help make it. But, I need you here.”
Peter shook his head. “Why do you think I came here in the first place? I want to help. But, I can’t do that if Mr. Osborne is using kids as test subjects.”
Gwen was about to respond. But, the lab door opened. Mr. Osborne strode in. He was grinning ear to ear.
“I’m sorry about the hospitality Pete. We just couldn’t risk you running.” He said, messing with some empty bottles on the desk.
“So what now? I’ve seen your backroom experiments… You gonna kill me?” His tone was meant to be unafraid. But, the slight quiver in his voice betrayed him.
Osborne laughed. “Not at all. You’re a one-man cure factory. We gotta keep you safe. Wouldn’t want hydra to find you. Or Stark. You’re too valuable. We need to take special care of you. This is your new home,” he replied with a wink.
Peter tugged harder against the restraints with a shout.
“That wasn’t the deal Norman…” Gwen said from behind her desk.
“Gwen, don’t you understand what this means? We can cure whoever we want. We can save the kids.”
Gwen shook her head. “But what about the others? There’s millions of them.”
“There won’t be enough for everyone. We are going to have to make some choices. The virus will only affect the ones we don’t need. The Avengers… Well…”
Gwen’s eyes flicked to Peter.
“Gwen you can’t,” He pleaded.
Gwen poured something into the vial of blood and spun it slowly. It turned yellow. She handed it to Osborne with a defeated sigh.
“Thank you, Gwen,” Norman said. He put his hand on her head and pulled her close. She leaned into the embrace with a smile. “I’m so proud of you.”
Gwen’s ears reddened slightly as she walked out. She tried to hide her grin with her hand. But, Peter saw it. It made him feel queasy.
“See Pete, Stark couldn’t have dreamed of the cure in half the time that I created it,” Norman said, holding up the vial of orange liquid.
“You don’t know if that works.”
“I have a room of enhanced and full-term samples of the disease… C’mon Pete, I thought Gwen said you were smart.”
Peter continued to struggle. Even though he knew it was absolutely useless. “You’re disgusting.”
Norman laughed. “But soon, I’ll be the most powerful person on the planet.”
He grabbed the tube that was attached to Peter’s arm. He twisted a nob and it began to siphon blood again.
“Just relax Pete, you’re gonna be here a while.”
Peter ground his teeth. He hated the way Norman called him Pete. It reminded him of the vulture. So much of Norman reminded him of the vulture. It was driving him crazy.
“What’s going to happen to the kids?” Peter asked. “What happens when the cure doesn’t work? What then?”
Norman chuckled. “It will work.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Friday still hadn’t found anything. It had been an hour since Peter’s call and nothing. The lump in Tony’s throat grew bigger and bigger with every minute.
“Tony, what if he’s just at school? What if the guy was one of his teachers?” Bruce suggested.
“No, Peter wouldn’t have called from school. There was something wrong. I could hear it in his voice.”
“Well listen to the call again and see if you recognize the voice.”
“Fri, play the call,” Tony said. He knew it was useless though.
The call began. Peter was panting. He said Tony’s name and then the man spoke. This time it sounded familiar. He wasn’t sure how though.
“Fri play again!” Tony said.
“Is it a teacher?” Bruce asked.
“No… It’s Norman Osborne…” Tony said.
“Why is Peter with Norman Osborne?”
Tony shrugged. “Friday call Happy.”
“Will do boss,” The AI said.
“Hey did you send Peter down yet? I’m tired of waiting.”
Tony’s stomach dropped. “He never even got to the car…”
“Tony? You there?” Happy asked.
“Friday pull up all security footage of Peter this morning.”
A bunch of screens appeared in front of him. They all showed Peter walking through the halls of the tower. One screen however was more interesting. A girl approached him. Peter turned around quickly and the girl grabbed him by the sleeve and pulled him into the elevator. The view in the elevator showed her pressing the emergency stop button and they talked for a moment. Tony kicked himself for not installing microphones in the public elevators. That was next on the list. Right after finding Peter.
The two of them exited the elevator and left the building together. He went willingly. Tony was confused. What could she have said to him to make him go willingly?
“Fri facial scan the girl Peter was with.”
“Her name is Gwen Stacy. She’s working here for high school credits. She’s been working here for a month. I’ve also found a record of her working at Oscorp for the past year,” Friday explained.
“Shit…” Tony whispered. “Norman has him. He knows about the cure somehow.”
“Tony it’s ok. We’ll get the team together and we’ll find him ok?” Bruce reassured.
Tony nodded. Though he wasn’t 100% sure if it was possible.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Peter felt like he’d been in that lab for hours. He’d given up on fighting to free himself a long time ago. He had no energy left. But, he was afraid if he fell asleep they would experiment on him. Even though he wouldn’t be able to stop them if he were awake.
And that begged the question. How could he not break the bonds? They were leather. He was Spider-Man. How could he not break them? He looked around for something to cut the straps. But, even if his chest was free, he wouldn’t be able to reach across the room to get to the desk. Great. He was stuck forever. Literally. They were going to keep him there forever. The reality of his situation hit him. He’d never see May or Ned or MJ or Mr. Stark ever again. He blinked hard. He suddenly found it hard to breathe. As hard as he tried, he couldn’t seem to release the air in his lungs. He tried to convince himself that he still had Mr. Stark. And the Avengers. They would find him and everything would be fine. Right?
He had called Tony. He probably knew Peter was in trouble. He hoped.
Then, everything went dark. The low buzz of the neon lights vanished along with Peter’s sight. For around ten seconds everything was quiet. All he could hear was the pounding of his heart. Then a loud siren went off. Peter would’ve covered his ears if he could. The lights flashed red.
“Intruder alert. Intruder alert. Full lockdown initiated.” A robotic voice spoke through the com system.
The air finally released from his lungs. It was Mr. Stark. At least he hoped it was. He began fighting to free himself again. He froze when the door slid open. Norman Osborne ran in and shut the door behind him.
“We have a few guests,” He panted. Norman must’ve noticed the glint of hope in Peter’s eyes. “Don’t worry. I’ll keep you safe.”
He snatched something off the table and shoved it into Peter’s mouth. It was a rag. Peter hoped it was clean at least. Norman pulled out an ID card and scanned it on the table Peter was attached to. The table began to roll. Peter hadn’t noticed it was on wheels before. They were far from shopping cart wheels though. No matter how hard Peter struggled, the table never waivered.
“Relax Pete,” His grin spread further across his face.
The cart rolled along behind Norman as he calmly walked down the long hallway. Everything looked different with the flashing red light. It looked more like a nightmare than a laboratory. Peter couldn’t hear much over the alarm. But, he could hear gunfire a few floors below. They were close.
Peter used the bit of leverage from his shoulder to pull the rag out of his mouth.
“They’re gonna find me,” He said after stretching his jaw.
If Norman had heard him, he didn’t show it.
“You won’t be able to stop them.”
“Shut it.”
“They’re not stupid. They know I’m here.”
The table stopped the moment Norman halted. He spun to face Peter. “You know I don’t have to keep you conscious. I could keep you in a coma for the rest of your life. I could make every moment of the rest of your life painful. So shut it.” Something changed in Norman’s eyes. He wasn’t the cocky ‘i won’ guy anymore. He looked unhinged. Something had snapped.
Peter decided to relax after that. That didn’t stop Norman from shoving the rag back into Peter’s mouth.
“Now... stay quiet,” he said. He was back to his cocky persona. But, Peter could see the insanity in his eyes still.