Voices in my head
Peter had begun swinging away from the rooftop confrontation, he felt bad about leaving that man back there.
But Peter honestly didn’t even know if there was a man left or if it was a corpse that the Symbiote had been possessing, he couldn’t help but shudder at the thought of being a host to that thing.
Peter couldn’t think about that right now because as it turns out, one of the helicopters had decided to follow him.
Peter’s Spidey-sense went off and He instinctively dodged to the side just as a tranq dart flew by his head, “Holy shit.” He squeaked and before he knew what was happening there were now two helicopters on his tail as well as at least six black vans below.
“Well you done screwed up this time Parker haven’t you?” He cursed himself as he continued swinging through the city, his heart thumping like a rabbit in his chest.
“Oh god don’t have a panic attack, Peter come on.” He growled out, but it was hard to ground yourself when your feet literally weren’t even on the ground.
That’s when Karen spoke up, “Mr. Stark is trying to call you, would you like to answer?”
“Yes- I mean no! NO! Karen don’t do tha-“ but it was too late and Tony was now visibly in a lower part of Peter’s vision.
“Oh- H-Hey, what’s up Mr. Stark?” Peter asked trying to sound casual.
“Is that him?” He heard a voice, Bruce question.
Peter quickly drew his attention to the lower part of his HUD and saw Tony nod his head to Bruce who was out of the frame.
“Wanna tell me why you are currently being chased by, three helicopters?” Tony asked raising a brow.
“There’s three?!?” Peter asked his voice embarrassingly going more high pitched as he took a sharp right around a corner letting out a “Holy crap.” As he nearly swung into a tree, his Spidey-sense warning him last minute. He let himself fall too the ground below doing a quick roll before shooting out webs from both hands, catapulting himself forwards.
Tony was about to say something but Peter beat him to it as his Spidey-sense went off and he looked to his side to see one of the drones diving straight for him.
“Oh no.” Was all Peter managed to get out before it crashed directly into his chest, a small explosion caused Peters web to snap.
Peter let out a yelp both of surprise and pain as he fell down into an alleyway, he was only able to half stumble to his feet before a van appeared at the end and multiple people formed out.
“Oh shit..” He whispered, his web shooters had been obliterated from the explosion. Peter put his hand on the wall of the alley to ground himself as his vision was still blurry as we’ll a split his hearing as he vaguely made out threatening tones.
”Get us out of here, Spider.” a voice said, except this one was much more clearer.
“Woah...” Peter said stumbling back as he desperately searched for the speaker through unforgiving eyes.
That’s when Peters Spidey-senses blared for him to run, but he was still trapped in his daze and nothing made sense as he felt something prick him in the arm.
Peter groggily looked down to his arm, there sat a tranq dart, “That probably isn’t so good.” He breathed out as he staggered backwards falling onto the hard floor of the alley as it instantly took effect.
Groaning lightly as he began hearing the sound of familiar repulsors. Had Tony come? He must have.
Peters eyes fluttered as he fought to stay conscious, merely recognising the voice of Tony from a few metres away as well as the blaring sounds of helicopters departing rapidly.
“-he Alright?” He heard his mentor ask as his eyes began closing.
“-eah I think s-.” Came Clint’s voice as his hearing dipped in and out.
Finally he let his eyes close before feeling hands- Clint’s gently placing his head in his lap. Since when had Clint been there?
“Cmon kid, stay awake for a bit longer.” He heard him say, it was clearer now that he was closer to Peter and he could feel Clint’s fingers running through his hair.
Peter whined, twisting slightly as Clint tapped the side of his face to keep him from crawling into the darkness that threatened the edges of his vision.
But it was too difficult, and then everything went dark.
—————————
Peter knew he was horizontal... okay.
He was in what felt like a... bed?
What had happened?
He hadn’t remembered going back to the tower?
That’s when the memories came rushing back in, the alien creature, the helicopters and blaring sound.
The... voice? He must have been hallucinating.
Then he remembers tranqs and other..different voices. Where was he?
Instantly Peter realised he wasn’t restrained and wasted no time in shooting himself off the bed and onto the ceiling. His heart thumping as he looked around the room, blinking a few times before realising where he was and who he was with.
Oh.
There all looking wide-eyed up at him was Tony, Bruce and Clint.
“Well someone likes to jumpstart their mornings.” Tony smirked.
“If only it was morning.” Clint retorted bitterly.
"Wait, what??" Peter hissed.
"It's 1:00 pm on Monday." Clint shrugged, "Hey, you gonna come down or are you just gonna chill up there?" He added on sarcastically.
Peter only stuck out his tongue as he let go from his position on the ceiling, landing back down onto the bed and sitting in a crossed-leg position, glancing around the room he recognized he was in the med bay. Before realization hit him like a bullet train.
"Crap, I missed the first day back at school." He groaned, shoving his head into his own lap.
"Yep, you sure did," Tony smirked, Peter couldn't believe it, on all the nights to nearly be kidnapped it had to be on a school night.
"Don't worry about it, it was probably just revision from your recent semester," Bruce said as he made his way over where a desk sat in near the bed, its computer screen facing away from Peter "Oh.. huh.." Bruce said furrowing his brows as he began looking closer at the screen before looking up at Peter before looking back down at the screen again. "Peter, how do your ribs feel?" Bruce asked with a raised brow.
"Uh.. they're bruised? It doesn't hurt that much though it'll go away within the next twenty-four hours." He shrugged.
"Yeah... that's not what I'm worried about, Peter you came in here twelve hours ago with four broken ribs," Bruce said, his tone didn't hold any anger or accusation to Peter's relief only confusion.
Then came everyone else's confusion, both Peter and Tony gave out a "What?" simultaneously. They knew Peter had advanced healing but broken bones took at least seventy-two hours to heal, and that was when the break wasn't even that bad.
Bruce nodded slowly, letting the information seep into everyone in the room, "Maybe they were just fractures?" Peter asked, confused.
Bruce shook his head "No, they were definitely broken." He confirmed.
Everyone in the room suddenly had a thoughtful look on their face before both Clint and Peter shrugged it off, "Well since they're healed can I go get food, I'm starving... and nauseous." He said with realization as he stood up, his head felt light and the room felt warmer than what it should.
Peter shook his head trying to shake it off, he didn't get sick anymore, not since the spider-bite. What on Earth was going on?
"Woah, you okay kiddo?" Clint asked in a worried whilst Bruce shuffled over in case the kid needed help standing. Tony quietly bit the inside of his cheek but luckily no one noticed his nervous tick.
"Uh yeah, just stood up too fast." He murmured as he gathered himself, 'C'mon Parker just get something to eat and you'll be fine.' He thought quietly to himself. "Alright go eat as much as your weird metabolism desires," Tony says dismissively, the frown still visible under his now neutral expression. "Oh, and Peter come and check in with me in a couple hours!" Bruce added as Clint led him out of the room.
Another realization hit Peter, he was still in his suit. He grimaced before looking back up to Clint, "Imma go change, I'll meet you in the kitchen." He said before beginning to walk down the hallway, trying to hide his small stumbles.
Man, what the hell was wrong with him.
Peter sighed as he pushed open the door to his room, flopping down on his bed with a huff before rolling over onto his back as he grabbed his phone from his bedside table.
Smiling as he read a bunch of missed messages from Ned and MJ, aww she did care.
Unholy Despacitos
GuyInTheChair: Yoo Peter, you late on the first day?
GuyInTheChair: Peter?? Its first period where you at dude?
M fucking J: Oi loser, where you at?
M fucking J: Guess he died.
GuyInTheChair: Not funny MJ...
Peter sighed as he shot back a quick reply, telling them that he would explain at school tomorrow. Huffing he hopped to his feet as he increasingly became more nauseous, 'C'mon Peter just get changed and get some food.' he thought calmly to himself.
Quietly he walked down the hallway to the kitchen, extending his senses out to hear who was inside at the time. Clint, Scott, Tony, Bruce, and Cap as well as being able to smell a lot of pizza, late lunch, thank god.
Peter quietly found himself moving into the kitchen taking a glance around before half stumbling and walking to the table before plopping himself down.
Steve cocked his head, "You alright kid?" He asked raising a brow as he reached for another box of pizza.
"Uh yeah, I think I have a concussion or something, it should pass in a couple hours," Peter replied dismissively, quietly hoping it was true as he took his own box of pizza. At this point, The Avengers didn't react whenever Bucky, Steve and Peter all ate more than average considering their metabolism by now.
The conversation had continued on as normal, with Clint and Scott butting in with their idiotic jokes that got a laugh out of Peter.
What he didn't realise that in that time he had eaten five pizza's, the best at the tower was four by Bucky. Peter only realised this as he finished the last one and so did Tony it seemed.
"Woah kid, trying to put shame to Bucky there?" Tony had asked sarcastically, hiding the worry that was clearly working its way through his brain.
Peter only grimaced as everyone else turned too face him, Steve being the one to speak up, "You sure you're alright kid, I mean you haven't even told us why you were getting chased by helicopters in the forst place?" He hummed and everyone else gave a silent nod of agreement.
"Oh right..." Peter began, "Well I was patrolling when I saw this huge thing jump between two buildings and it was huge!' He began before getting cut of by Tony.
"Please don't say you followed it."
"I followed it." Peter shrugged and Tony only facepalmed in frustration as Peter continued, "and it was this big black thing, and it had like eighty sharp-pointed, ugly looking teeth, and its breath smelled like, ew..." Peter trailed off before his face lit up again, "And it could grow like black gooey stuff from its body, it was kinda weird if I'm being honest, and then these helicopters showed up out of nowhere playing like really loud sound frequencies and the things started screeching and jittering around on the ground, and then I heard them making plans to contain me!" He exclaimed with utter disbelief and by now the whole table was looking at him with the same disbelieving look.
"So I took off and next moment there are helicopters chasing me." He finished looking around the table, shuffling uncomfortably at the silence.
"This... giant, black, many-toothed, gooey thing? What is it?" Clint asked raising a brow.
"Okay so in like the forty seconds I had to put together a theory, so basically on the side of the helicopters was written 'Life Foundation' and you all heard the wide-spread, half rumours half-facts that they had come into contact with alien life called symbiotes and that they need to bond with a human host to be able to survive and like lots of people died during their testing? Which all sounds crazy ridiculous by the way! But I think that's what it was." Peter explained, barely taking a breath.
"Woah, first of all slow down, and yeah that would actually make sense. I mean it's not like we have a certain alien prince on our team." Cap spoke up, "Not to mention that yeah, things were leaked in the media about those alien things, I remember briefly skimming it over in the newspaper." He added causing everyone to roll their eyes
"They also did human experimentation before that." Bruce added, "Their company has dropped rapidly and I'd say they are barely making enough income anymore."
Everyone let out a silent nod of agreement, leaving it at that. Peter groaned as he leaned back in his chair, he was really regretting those five pizzas. "I'm... gonna go lie down for a bit." He murmured as nausea suddenly came back to him as he stood up, silently he began half stumbling back to his room, feeling everyone's gazes on him as he did so.
His mind fogged a bit as he finally made it into his room, god it was hot, "FRIDAY, blast the AC." He mumbled as he made his way into the bathroom. Enjoying the coolness of the tiles as he walked over to the mirror, holding back a yell of surprise as just for a second, a second his face seemed to morph and flicker into that of the alien he came face to face with last night, he stumbled back a bit, maybe a bit too fast as his stomach didn't agree with the movement and pretty soon he found himself retching into the toilet.
Coughing and sputtering as the violent convulses finally stopped. He scuttled away from the toilet and putting his hands into his hair and running them through, God what was wrong with him?
He could feel himself slide down the wall until he was in a curled up position on the floor, the darkness threatening to pull him under.
"Rest child, we will have work to do."
Peter only mumbled a response, not bothering to look or find where the voice came from as he slipped away once again.
-------------------
Eddie recognised the second Venom left him, his only thought was to run. He hated the truth but without the symbiote, he was helpless aside from a few martial arts moves. He rolled away out of the blinding lights of the helicopters as their noises were no longer a pain to hear.
Quickly, he slipped down the side of the building, using ledges and indents as grips, trying not to look how far away he was from the ground. Grunting as he landed in a small back alley. He looked up to see the helicopters still hovering, well one of them. "One of them must have followed Spider-man." He said out loud, expecting Venom too reply before realising the Symbiote was no longer with him.
He hoped Venom was somehow okay, God knew how empty and alone Eddie felt already.
Eddie shook his head, he would find Venom, but for now, he had to get out of here. Taking a quick glance around before ducking into a backdoor that was in the alleyway, Finding himself in a cramped hallway with dim lights. The place seemed relatively empty as he cautiously took a couple more steps before sliding collapsing on to the floor, hands in his hair. "Oh, God.." He muttered, leaning back against the wall.
What the hell was he supposed to do now?
"Okay Eddie, don't have a panic attack you stupid fuck." He breathed. "Okay, just pull yourself together you ass.." He grumbled as he composed himself, pulling out his phone, tapping the password in as he opened his contacts, his breaths shuddering as he tapped on Anne's name.
"Hey, Anne... I-I know that it probably isn't a good time but... I..." Eddie trailed off, fiddling with his hands, he honestly didn't know what he was expecting to get out of calling her.
"Eddie, slow down, what happened?" She asked, concern lacing her voice as it came out through the speakers.
"Venom's gone, Anne." He said quietly after a few short moments that felt like an eternity.
"Where are you right now?" She asked softly.
Eddie paused for a moment, "Anne.. I-I mean.."
"No, Eddie, tell me your location right now or I will hunt you down myself." She hissed.
Curse this woman, Eddie really didn't deserve her in his life.
"Ah.. y-yeah, I'm in uh, New York." He muttered wincing at Anne's murmured "Shit." on the other end of the line.
"Alright, Eddie, I'm buying you a plane ticket back here and we are gonna sort this out, okay?" She said reassuringly.
"What? No no Anne, no, I have to find Venom." He stuttered, there was no way he was letting her buy him a plane ticket.
"Too late Eddie, Dan is already getting you one, he has the website open now. As for Venom, we will find him but you can't find him whilst you're in this headspace, okay?" She said and Eddie could hear Dan quietly murmuring a question to Anne, she must of nodded as Eddie didn't hear a verbal response.
"I, uh okay.." Eddie murmured.
"I'll message you the details." She said, now in a much more cheery voice.
"Hey Anne.." Eddie began.
"Yeah?" She said softly and he could hear her switch the phone from one ear too another.
"Thanks." He said softly, hoping she knew how much he meant it.
"Anytime Eddie." She replied before the line cut off, symbolising the end of the call.
-------------------
Peter gasped awake as someone was shaking him, he instinctively went to push himself away before realising he was in a corner, his eyes instantly darting up to see who was crouched in front of him, instantly relaxing when he realised it was Steve.
Groaning he pushed himself up into a sitting position since when had the floor been so cold. In fact, when had the air been so cold? He shivered as he instantly developed goosebumps.
"Fri, turn the AC up," Steve said, even the super soldier looked cold and uncomfortable in the room but it seemed he only noticed it just now. "Jeez kid, its practically one degree away from being a freezer in here."
"Heh... yeah. Uh, wait, what are you doing here?" Peter asked, cocking his head to the side.
"Oh, uh, dinner is ready," Steve said shrugging as he stood up.
Peter only nodded looking down at his hands, "Oh... whats the time?"
"It's 8:00 pm," Steve answered. "So, you gonna tell me why you were passed out on your bathroom floor?" Steve asked curiously, hiding the worry that was every present in his eyes.
"Er... I dunno, it was really hot, I had a fever I think... I'm not sure...pretty sure I threw up..." Peter murmured in thought.
Steve let out an exhausted sigh, "and you didn't think to tell anyone? Kid how long has it been since you got sick because y'know usually people tell others when they aren't well." Steve asked, looking down at the kid with a raised brow.
"Mm, haven't gotten sick, not since the spider-bite.." Peter murmured, wearily looking up from his hands and up to meet Steve's gaze.
Steve only huffed, "You're almost as bad as Tony." He muttered before holding out a hand to help the kid up, pulling him up after a few moments when Peter finally decided to take up on the offer.
“Uh Steve, can we maybe not tell Mr. Stark about the whole... sick thing..” Peter said, waving his hand dismissively as he straightened up.
“Jeez Kid, okay. But if he asks I’ll have to tell him.” Steve agrees.
“Thanks! Uh I’ll come out to dinner in a couple minutes.” Peter beamed, watching as Steve left muttering something about ‘God Damn puppy dog eyes.’
”You don’t want them too worry?” a dark voice said.
Peter yelled in surprise, his eyes darting wildly around the bathroom, “Uh, Fri, was that you?”
“Was what me, Peter?” The AI asked, sounding genuinely confused, her reply causing Peters stomach to drop.
“Great now I’m hearing voices in my head.” Peter muttered.
”I can assure you that you aren’t.”
Peter jumped before once again he couldn’t help but look around the room, “Ok who the heck is that?” Peter hissed.
No reply.
Peter let out a bitter laugh murmuring “God I really am going insane.” As he made his way towards the dining area, maybe the fever wasn’t gone completely yet?
Yeah, that made sense.
What didn’t make sense was that the reflection Peter missed in the mirror as he walked out was not him, but rather the black alien Symbiote he came across less than twenty-four hours earlier.