#21--May 4, 2019
Prompt: In the middle of an Avengers’ meeting, Tony gets a call from Peter’s phone. He thinks nothing’s wrong until another man answers, demanding he pay for the family he lost. There’s a gunshot and Tony is immediately suited up and in the air towards Peter’s last location. When he returns to the others, he’s holding a bleeding Peter in his arms. Severity of the shot and Avengers’ reactions vary.
Peter blinks blearily as the rough fabric of the sack is pulled off of his face, scrunching his eyes up at the pain the bright lights bring him. He can feel the presence of a lot of people around him but his vision is so blocked with black spots that he can't see them. What he can see, though, is the red blinking light of what appears to be a camera when his vision adjusts to the bright lights.
He looks around him dazedly and in confusion, eyebrows scrunching up as he looks around him. Peter tenses when he feels hands grab at his arms and a hand in his hair, wrenching his head upwards. Suddenly, everything isn't so confusing anymore. He doesn't know where he is, yes, but what he does know is that he wasn't brought here willingly.
"Le' go o' me," he slurs, pulling at the arms holding onto him. The hand in his hair tightens and he takes that as his cue to stop moving.
"Hello, Tony Stark," one of the men from behind him say loudly towards the camera. Mr. Stark? Peter's eyes lock onto the camera lens, a big sense of oh no filling him. "We have something of yours, as you can see," the man tugs on his hair a little more, practically baring his throat at the camera, "and I'm pretty sure you'd like him back. So here's the deal, we'll send you a location and in turn, you'll drop off three million dollars. Cash."
Peter mentally scoffs. No way in hell will Mr. Stark do that. "And if you don't?" the man continues. "We'll give you a little motivation." The man jerks at Peter's hair again, knocking him down on his butt before wrenching him up to stand. Peter stumbles and wavers from side to side before forcing him to stand up. Still, he doesn't remove his eyes from the camera lens. And he hopes Mr. Stark can see what he's telling him. Don't you dare do it Mr. Stark.
Peter's wrenched away from the camera after a few more moments of the man spouting nonsense Peter hears the man mention something about Mr. Stark but his hearing is all fogged up. He's dragged down a long musky hallway with one lonely light swinging back and forth. He can swear that it's creaking, mocking him, reminding him of all of those horror movies that he watches... Peter's cut out of his thoughts when one of the men pull open a very creepy looking metal door and he's thrown into it.
Peter winces as his elbows bruise against the rough dirty concrete floor, his mind still a little foggy but clearing up as the man blocks the light from coming into the small room. Peter looks up at him with a small glare. "'e won' do it," he murmurs out, looking the man in the eyes. "He won't. He'll find you."
The man does nothing but look at him with a malicious grin. "He'll do it, kid. Eventually."
The door's slammed in his face.
Tony gets the video two days later, but there's another one attached to it. The team were in the middle of a conference meeting when Friday informed Tony of a video from an unknown source. "Boss, it appears that two videos from an unknown source has been sent to you."
All of the speaking in the room halts as Tony looks upwards in confusion. "You can't trace where they're from?" Tony questions, frowning and sharing a look with Rhodey.
"No, sir," Friday says, and then, "They appear to hold sensitive information pertaining to Mr. Parker's whereabouts." Tony sits up straight at that. He hadn't known the kid was missing. May hadn't messaged him about Peter though she could have thought that Peter was with him. They were known to spend a few days together white forgetting to inform the other of where the kid was.
"What do you mean that it holds 'sensitive information pertaining to Mr. Parker's whereabouts'?" Tony asks, a sinking feeling settling in his stomach. His eyes flicker over to Rhodey's and it appears that he holds the same thought as him. "Friday, play the videos."
The hologram screen lights up and the video starts off dark but then there's a flash of light, déjà vu hitting Tony in the chest. Five men are surrounding a strangely familiar figure who sits in a kneeling position, a dark colored sack covering his face from view. It's not long until the sack is ripped off of the figure's head, revealing that it is in fact Peter.
Tony's face pales as the men begin to talk. His eyes don't leave Peter's as they stare unblinking at the screen. "Hello, Tony Stark," the man says with a suspiciously familiar accent. "We have something of yours, as you can see," the man pulls at Peter's hair, making Tony narrow his eyes in anger, "and I'm pretty sure you'd like him back. So here's the deal, we'll send you a location, and in turn, you'll drop off three million dollars. Cash." Tony can see something flash in the kid's eyes at that. "And if you don't? We'll give you a little motivation."
Tony's knuckles are white when the man pulls his kid up by his hair roughly, making him stumble in the arms of the other two men. "Now, Tony Stark, this seems a little familiar, does it not?" the mystery man says, making Tony clench his teeth because of course he finds it familiar. "The sack, the disorientation, the video?" The man lets out a wry grin and suddenly Tony recognizes the man. He was in the Ten Rings. And now Tony's face pales even more and he can see Rhodey's face on him because Rhodey saw the video, too. "I'm sure you know what comes next, don't you Stark?"
Tony's fists are suddenly shaking as the video clip ends. Friday immediately starts the second video and Tony's breaths are labored. The kid is kneeling before a tub of what he's sure is water and he looks almost as disoriented as last time, though his eyes are holding something akin to fear.
Tony's breaths are coming in pants and his chest is heaving and he's shaking and oh god he's there again, he's shaking in the cold before the water, and god doesn't Tony remember that. There were a few different sessions of Tony being waterboarded, not just the one before the video. They did it after the video, too, just to get their point across.
Tony can hear muffled voices in the background but all he can see is Peter's head dunked under the water, his body writhing under the grasp of the men and he should be able to get out of their holds. The voices of his teammates flood through his ears, but he can barely make them out, and he flinches when someone places a hand on his shoulder because he thinks that they're going to dunk him in the water again.
"-ony," he can barely make out. "-ony it's okay... your okay." He's gasping and he can hear Peter gasping and god why is he so cold? "Tony, it's okay. It's all okay." The words are beginning to make sense again. And that voice is familiar. "Tony, listen to me. You're at the Avengers Compound in Upstate New York. You're safe, you're not in Afghanistan, do you hear me? You're not in a cave, you're not getting waterboarded. You're in a conference room in Upstate New York. Tony--"
Tony cuts him off. "Rhodey?" he chokes out, his chest still heaving as his heartbeat begins to slow. "Rhodes..." He shakes his head back and forth, eyebrows furrowing as he looks around him. He's no longer sitting in his chair, instead he's on the floor, Rhodey in front of him and the concerned expressions of his team surrounding him. "God, Peter..."
Rhodey's face softens. "It's okay, Tony, we're going to get him back. We're going to get him back." And Tony nods because of course they are. They have to. But first, he needs to call May. She needs to know what's up with her kid.
Peter awakes shivering on the cold concrete floor, his clothes still damp from this morning's waterboarding. It's been going on for the past five days and all Peter can think of is how cold and hungry he is. These men don't know that he has a heightened metabolism, they don't know that he can't thermoregulate properly. If Peter were able to look at his fingers he's pretty sure that they would be blue at this point.
He flinches as the door leading to the cellar slams open. He pulls himself onto his feet, falling into the wall with a groan, before pushing himself to his feet. He can feel himself becoming weaker and it's no help that the men are keeping him drugged. He can feel the places where the drugged needles must have stuck him even though his accelerated healing--despite the exhaustion and the lack of proper nutrients--has healed them.
The door barges open open and Peter fights against the hands grabbing at him despite knowing that it's no use. The three men drag him down the hallway as he yells at them. Instead of going to the room with the freezing water bucket, however, they drag him into a different room. They push him into a chair, struggling as chains are locked around his arms and ankle. Peter pulls against them but he's too weak to break the chains. Must be reinforced, he thinks dully.
"Now," the man in charge says, sitting across from him. "Stark has yet to drop off the money and you're going to give me some information about him." Peter narrows his eyes at him, scoffing.
"Like hell I am," he snarls out, tugging against the chains. "I'm not tellin' you anything." The man narrows his eyes at him before smirking.
"Like I said, you will," the man says, pressing a button. Peter's eyes widen and his hands pull upwards in an attempt to cover his ears. He curls his head downwards in an attempt to block them from the ear-splitting sound. He scrunches his eyes shut, whimpering as the noise gets louder and louder. After about thirty seconds, the noise stops and Peter slumps in his chair. "Now, what do you know about Tony Stark?"
"He's Iron Man," Peter mutters weakly, head rolling on his shoulders. "He likes coffee and--" The high pitched ringing starts again and Peter curls in on himself in pain. God that hurts.
"Tell me how to get into his AI," the leader says after a few seconds. Peter chuckles weakly at that, lifting his head just enough to give the man a raised eyebrow and a sarcastic look.
"D'you think I know how to hack Friday?" he asks sarcastically. "Tony Stark made her. There's not way that I can hack into her." The man presses the button again and Peter whines, unable to hold it in. Waterboarding him? Fine. Beating him? Okay, yeah. But using his senses against him? Yeah, that's a hard no.
The man opens his mouth, no doubt about to say something else before a thunking sound from above can be heard. The man looks over at his two cronies and nods towards the door. The two leave silently and the man turns back to Peter. "What did you do?" he snarls at him and Peter gives him this look that says What d'you mean? I've been here the whole time. "Tell me, kid!" the man yells, leaning over the table and grabbing the collar to Peter's shirt. "What did you do?"
"It wasn't me who did it!" Peter says, his heightened hearing--despite how battered it now is--picking up the familiar sounds of fighting. "You're the one who sent the videos to Mr. Stark." The familiar whirring of Mr. Stark's suit repulsers making him slump against the chair because he's here. He's finally here.
Peter grins at the man and the man snarls at him. "What are you smirking at?" he asks, jerking Peter. Peter drops the smile but doesn't stop making eye contact.
Right on time, the door blasts open, startling the man so hard that he falls backwards, scrambling from his gun. A perfectly aimed repulser blast knocks the gun away and Tony knocks the man out before rushing over to Peter who suddenly feels a little more tired. Tony rips the bonds off him and Peter can hear him say in a relieved voice, "I got him. I'm taking him to the jet." Despite his protests, Tony pulls Peter into his arms, sprinting through the corridors before taking to the air.
Peter curls up in a ball as Tony flies into the jet, setting him down on a cot. Bruce immediately rushes to him, eyes widening as he sees the kid. He looks up at Tony worriedly as the man steps out of the suit, gesturing for his suit to go help out with the cleanup. He touches Peter's arm and swears at how cold it is, immediately setting himself beside the kid and wrapping his as Bruce brings him a few thermal blankets.
It's not long until the rest of the group jump into the jet, Natasha informing them that her and Clint are going to stay behind to talk to authorities. Tony just nods, keeping an eye on the kid as he shivers in his grasp, teeth chattering and eyes drooping. "Hey, hey," Tony says softly. "Don't go to sleep, okay, bud?"
"But I'm tired," Peter whines. Tony looks over at Bruce sharply.
"He should be fine," Bruce says. "He has a mild case of hypothermia but it's lessening quickly. So long as we wake him up every fifteen or so minutes, he should be fine. He's got some bruises and a few bones that are in various stages of healing, but overall, he's fine."
Tony sighs in relief and cards his fingers through his kid's hair. "Go to sleep, Pete," he whispers. Go to sleep."
End of Peter Parker's kidnapping