Both a Little Scared, Neither One Prepared
Tony’s POV
“Come on guys!” Tony yelled, “How hard it is it to track a video file?”
Steve placed a hand gingerly on Tony’s shoulder.
“They’re trying Tones,” he whispered, “These guys are good. They set up too many firewalls and stuff.”
“Even I can not access where the file originated,” Vision said.
Tony groaned and slammed his head against the desk.
It was absolutely hopeless. Peter could be bleeding out right now, and he was nowhere near a lead or anything.
It drove Tony crazy to not be in control. Bad things happened when he wasn’t. His parents died, and he couldn’t do a thing about it. That was probably why he enjoyed his projects so much. When he put together the mechanics of a machine, he was in complete and total control. But this? This whole situation was driving him crazy. He kept thinking, “Oh, I’ll call Peter and see what he thinks!” But then he remembers.
And then he cries. Small tears, that he brushes away, hoping no one will see them.
He sat down at a computer and started typing away, scanning through recent police records in Orlando, hoping someone had reported something.
He was about to click to the next precinct when his phone buzzed. There was a photo file linked in an email from an unknown sender.
“Hey, I got a picture from that sender,” Tony yelled, voice wavering slightly.
Heads turned as Tony projected the file onto the screen and opened it.
Another collective gasp flew around the room.
The picture was dark, and the quality blurry, but they could still make out the image.
Peter and Shuri were curled up close to each other, asleep. Shuri had her right ankle sticking straight in front of her, as though she was trying to keep it stable. Her hands were resting on top of Peter’s shoulder.
Shuri’s face was scrunched up. T’Challa recognized the expression as the same one she displayed while having a nightmare.
He remembered running into his sister’s room after hearing her cries. He’d rub gentle circles on her back, and hold her close until she fell asleep again, muttering about Killmonger, or their father.
T’Challa wanted so badly to reassure her, but instead he was stuck with a still image.
Peter’s grimace was visible through the poor quality, as were the tear tracks that cut through the dirt on his face.
They knew it was only a picture, but the way that the teens figures just… sat there made them look dead.
Tony began to hyperventilate, and Steve rushed towards him, turning off the screen as he went.
“Tony, you gotta breathe,” he murmured as he lead the engineer to a couch.
T’Challa was comforted by Wanda, who looked like she could use a hug herself.
“Maybe we should just give in,” Tony muttered.
Sam frowned.
“You know we can’t do that Tone. We all love Peter and Shuri as much as you guys do, but if that tech falls into the wrong hand, lots of innocent people will get hurt. That’s not what the kids would want either. We’ll get them back, but without giving in to what they want.”
Agreement rang through the room, but T’Challa shook his head.
“I just can’t see this playing out well,” he said, “Peter and Shuri are already hurt, and it’s only going to get worse the longer we make them wait.”
“Listen, they’re resilient,” Clint said, “They’ll be okay, just like they always are.”
Tony felt a tear slip down his cheek, but he brushed it away quickly.
Would they be okay?
“I think my favorite villain would have to be… uh, probably Hades,” Shuri said. “Who’s yours?”
The teens had begun talking about anything and everything to avoid the silence that filled their cell. It wasn’t the best coping method, but at least it kept them distracted from the pain. Shuri had messed up her ankle again, and Peter’s shoulder throbbed painfully.
Peter shifted his body with a grimace before answering.
“I mean, Mother Gothel, probably.”
Shuri gasped.
“Ew, why?”
“Uh,” he said, raising his good hand to run through his hair, “Actually she kind of reminds me of Tony. Just because of how crazy protective they both are.”
“Oh yeah! I totally see that!” Shuri laughed, “Remember how freaked out she was when Rapunzel left?”
Peter nodded and sighed, falling silent.
It hit a little too close to home.
“Do you think they’re close to finding us?” Shuri whispered.
“I hope so,” Peter replied.
They fell silent after that. Sitting together on the cool dark floor with minimal lighting, they waited.
Until finally, the door opened.
A man walked in, carrying nothing but his iphone.
“Well,” came his gruff voice, “It seems your heroes don’t care about you quite as much as we all would have hoped. So I guess it’s time to make a new little video for them.”
Peter moved so he was in front of Shuri, who in turn pushed him away so that she could lean in front.
“Cute,” the man crooned as he stepped forwards.
“Now, today I thought we’d try something a little bit different,” he said. “Peter, I want you to stand up.”
The boy obeyed with a cautious eye, hopeful that this meant Shuri wouldn’t be hurt.
He was the furthest thing from correct.
The man adjusted his phones grip before continuing.
“Kick her.”
Peter looked confused.
“What?” he asked.
The man rolled his eyes from under his black ski mask.
“I said, kick her.”
“No! I won’t do that!” Peter cried, still looking befuddled.
The man nodded.
“Okay then. You can do this instead.”
He reached out his other hand, producing a taser from his pocket, and he plunged it into Peter’s side.
He fell to the ground with a shout, and Shuri crawled over to him as fast as she could with her broken ankle.
“Just do it Peter. I’ll be fine,” she whispered urgently as another man walked into the room, and hauled Peter to his feet.
The first man spoke up again.
“Kick her.”
“No.”
Peter fell again, clutching at his shoulder, which was bleeding again after being reopened by his fall.
He was almost entirely leaning on his captor now.
Shuri was in tears.
“Peter just do it. It’s okay. I’ll be okay,” she yelled, hoping Peter could hear in his half-conscious state.
The cycle happened twice more after that, until finally the men gave up, leaving Shuri crying on the floor, and Peter passed out on the floor, his stomach covered in burn marks.
As he slept, Shuri ripped a strip off of the bottom of her shirt, and tied it around Peter’s shoulder to try and stop the bleeding. She didn’t mess with the burns, as she didn’t have enough knowledge. She didn’t want to hurt him even more than he already was.
If they were in Wakanda, she’d know how to help him. But they were stuck with nothing but the clothes on their backs, and no one seemed to be coming for them.