Peter Parker
"Two days left. Only two days." Potato head whispered as he walked out of the room. I was able to gain some self-control over the crazy act. I explained to MJ everything I saw and thought. Unlike before, she didn't cry. She just looked at me as I made a fool of myself. After I was finished she placed a hand on my shoulder.
"Me too, Parker. Me too..." The morning was silent. We sat with one another, staring at the dead bodies. This went on for at least two hours. That's when I realized something.
"There's seven," I said.
"Yeah. I can count." MJ retorted.
"There should be eight. If they take two people at a time. One is missing." MJ took in a deep breath. When she released it, I realized what she was trying to say. "Or... seven are missing." We pondered what I had just said. "Those missing cases. Those seven found dead. They were victims of potato head."
"Yeah... I know one thing Parker, If we get out of this alive... I'm never going to see Mr.Potato head toys the same way." We both chimed in laughing. We laughed and laughed and laughed. We laughed so hard we were rolling on the floor. Some may say we went crazy. I say we were making the most of our problem. And boy, did we have a problem!
Tony Stark
The woman had brought every single paper she could scrap up. I looked over all of them and knew I could get the tracker to work. The first thing I did was call the hospital that MJ (that's what her mom called her) was born at. They were able to tell me that if I did restart the chip, it could hurt her if not done properly.
I assured them I had the best doctors and technicians around. Me being those technicians. They sent me everything else I needed to know. "FRIDAY. Send Dr.Cho down here. Tell her to bring a nurse she trusts."
"Yes, sir." A brief pause. "Dr.Cho and Dr. Spite will be down in a few minutes." Moments later the male and female doctor entered the room.
"Mr.Stark?" Dr.Cho called. I was at my computer typing in some codes to bypass the security.
"Over here!" I waved. "I need you two to help me. We have to get this tracker in MJ's arm to start working again. I don't know how to determine if I'm hurting her." The nodded slowly at me and followed my lead. "I was able to bypass and add some stuff. Right now I can see her brain pattern. I think I can set this up so we can hear everything that's going on."
"Can you even do that?" Dr.Spite asked.
"Doing in right now. I just have to plug in this code and... done! In two minutes we'll hear what she's hearing. That screen right there shows her brain pattern." I watched as Dr.Cho and Dr.Spit frowned upon the screen. "What is it?"
"Tony... these brain patterns are similar to someone who is going insane. Like mental hospital insane." I sighed heavily. We sat in silence for what seemed like forever. It was only three minutes. FRIDAY interrupted that silence with the news.
"You can now listen to what MJ is hearing, sir." I nodded and told the AI to turn it on and turn up the volume. The first thing we heard was something that sounded like a waterfall.
"That's her blood flow. The device is on her arm." We waited for a little until we started hearing muffled laughter. After a couple of minutes, it was more clear. It was pure laughter. I recognized Peters and the other laugh must have been MJs. "You said they were going insane, right?" Dr.Cho nodded. "I believe it." I huffed.
After a couple of minutes, they abruptly stopped. We heard a faint squeaking noise. Then a slam.
"Hey, Peter?" I girls voice said. "We're not getting feed today, are we?"
"No. To be honest you weren't supposed to be feed at all." We heard some shuffling on a hard surface.
"You mean to tell me... you agreed to go back in that torture chair for me?" Why?"
"Because... you're my friend. And I couldn't bear the thought of you going hungry." There was an awkward silence for a while. Then Peter started talking again. "I never want to go to another concert again!" He randomly yelled. They started laughing again.
"Or look at baby dolls!" More laughter.
"Yeah! And never again will I ever recite a nursery rhyme."
"Yeah. Those make you scream." More laughter. "No for real... you scream something awful when they make you put those headphones on."
"I do?" Peter whispered.
"You don't realize, do you?" I flinched. The rest of the time they were silent. Ocassionly one of them would randomly scream. I'm pretty sure it was Peter every time. MJ's brain patterns didn't change. I had FRIDAY turn it off, but record everything that happened.
Hours passed before we even had a plan on what to do. Time ticked past us fastly. By the time we were finished, it was 10 pm at night. The tracker took 24 hours to turn on, so we couldn't find their location until tomorrow at 10.
Dr.Cho and Dr.Spite left me to be alone. I turned the sound back on to hear more painful screams and crazy laughter.
"MJ?" There was a brief pause. "Do you think I'm going crazy?" Peter asked her.
"No, Peter. I think the world is going normally."
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"I don't know. Maybe we're both going crazy." I leaned forward in my chair. Their conversation was starting to make tears well up in my eyes.
"I see things, MJ. I dream them too. Demons crawling out of the bodies." The bodies? What bodies? "I hear the voices of the teenagers crying and screaming. Just like the soundtracks. I can't sleep either. I try, but I'm wakened up at the-"
"I know Peter. I have dreams too."
"Not like mine. You haven't been put in that chair. The lights. The sounds... It's horrible. And-and when I first came, before you were here..."
"Peter," I could picture the tears flowing down her cheeks. The lump in her throat preventing her from talking. "Peter. You need to calm down. Think of happy things. You're freaking out. You're starting to rock again and-and shake! Peter, don't do this again. Please!"
"I can't control it! I can't... I need to go back in the chair."
"WHAT?"
"Please put me back in the chair!" There was some sort of movement, followed by intense screams and cries. The screams came from Peter. The cries came from MJ.
I sat still after I turned it off. I had no words. No expressions. I felt emotionless. I hate this feeling so much. No matter how much I should feel... I had nothing. I heard some breaths coming from behind me. When I turned Pepper was standing in the doorway.
"They... um. They told me you found a way to-" She couldn't finish her sentence. Tears of sorrow escaped from her eyelids and made a path down her cheek. The lump in her throat was preventing her to complete her sentence. I stood up and rushed to her. We embraced one another and she let everything out.
Her cries and her wailing could be heard from the roof. I opened my eyes slightly. Through a blurry tear, I saw a figure sitting on the steps to my lab. She had tears running down her face, not running out of her nose. Her hair was in a messy pony-tail. She let her arms sag by her side. Her back hunched and dropped down as low as possible. May Parker looked miserable. We all did.
Samuel Barton
The kid was screaming his head off. One more torture and we could get the brain-washing done. Since he's already gone crazy, it'll be easier. After an hour of "the chair", me and my step-dad walked into the room. "Come on kid let's get this over with. I hate this just as much as you."
"Then why do you do it?" The girl whispered.
"Come now. Let's get this over with, Peter." I walked to him and unlatched the chair. Micheal, my step-dad, picked him up with his massive arms. Peter let us drag him out. Unlike the others, he was cooperating. Maybe it was because he had gone insane. I'll never know.
I slammed the door and locked it on the screaming girl. They loved one another a lot. It made me kind of sad to do this to him. But I had to.
We were almost to the prep room when Peter shoved Micheal down to the floor. Micheal hit his head. He was out cold. "You really think I'm crazy? I've got more sense than you! You really shouldn't leave tally marks on how many procedures you gave to the others." I pulled out the needle with the serum. I lifted my arm in the air and jabbed it down to where the teenager stood. He jumped over me and kicked my back, causing me to fall on my face.
He was kind of sluggish but ready for a fight. "Kid. I'm doing this for the world. It's better this way." I kicked out at him but he caught my leg. "Let go of me, monster!"
"Now I'm the monster? You murdered 14 innocent children! You're crazy! Please, let us go. We can help you." I pondered this for a moment. Was I crazy? Could they help me?
"No! You're the creature that wants to take over the world! I'm the savior of this nation!" I jumped up and threw the serum at him. He slid to his left easily avoiding it.
"Look, we could do this all day, but I have somewhere to be. Sorry, about this!" He jumped on the ceiling, clinging to it like a spider. I looked behind him to see Micheal was up. He picked up the needle and threw it towards the ceiling. The kid dodged it but lost his grip.
As he fell to the ground. I snatched the needle from it's hiding place. The boy was still on the ground when I approached him. "Good night boy." The needle easily slipped under his skin. I pressed down. The ejection was complete.
MJ
They took him. They took Peter Parker away from me. They think we're demons trying to take over the world. I was kicking at the door, trying to bust it down. I had to get to them. I had to save him. But how? What could I even do? Peter is already half mad. He wouldn't be any help.
I couldn't stand it anymore. I needed someone to talk to. I needed to announce how I felt. So, I started saying everything Everything that happened in detail. "I was taken. From my home, the safest place to be has become the easiest target in this world. A man with a sack over his head stood at the end of my bed as I turned off my alarm clock. My parents weren't home. They're never home. I screamed and I ran. But the potato head grabbed my hair and pulled me down. He whispered 'Tag, you're it' over and over again. It didn't take long for him to carry me out unnoticed. We went on the roof, and then in a plane. I could feel every movement and hear every sound."
Tony Stark
MJ was telling her story to no one since Peter was taken out of the room. Happy, Vision, Rhodey, Pepper and I sat in my lab listening. It was almost midnight, marking a new day.
She started her story in a whisper but eventually started to scream it. We listened as she continued.
"When I was shoved into the room the only thing I saw was Peter Parker. He was beaten to a pulp with blood dried to his clothes and on the floor. There was something else too. I discovered that was puke when Peter sat up. He whipped himself as much as he could. His hands were bound in ropes and his feet in chains. 'MJ?' he called. He crawled miserably to me. He took off the gag that kept me silent." There was a sniffle.
"I asked if he was okay, but he immediately brushed himself aside and held me up. My face was in his hands as he inspected to see if I was hurt. I wanted to kiss him. I wish I would have. I may never get that chance again. He dropped his hands when I said something. I observed the room. He tried to prevthing from looking to my right, towards the door. When I did... I saw an image I will never unsee. Seven naked dead bodies sitting at a table together. The bodies were just starting to turn to dust. They looked as if they were badly preserved. One, in particular, caught my eye. It was a dead body of a younger girl. A child. A child! I screamed. Peter pulled me closer and took me to the wall. He sat closer to the bodies. He placed me where I wouldn't see them."
Pepper looked at me in horror. Rhodey had his arms crossed. Happy kept his eyes on the ground. "FRIDAY... turn it off. Record it." I said tiredly
"There's nothing else we can do. We need to get rest. Tomorrow we find them. We save them." I stood up forcefully and left.