I love you guys TuT
Peter glanced away from the other heroes, refusing to meet their eyes, "There's not that much to explain that he hasn't already told you. I was bitten by a radioactive spider that gave me superpowers. The spider was a result of my late father's work. Apparently, now I have alien DNA in me. It also seems like fate is a cruel mistress, seeing as I got these powers sooner then I was supposedly supposed to." Spider-Man wasn't entirely sure if it was bad the Avengers knew this, though he doubted they could figure out his identity from such little information.
"Your dad, did he ever mention this... symbiote to you before?" Tony asks.
"No, not that I remember. He never really talked about his job at home." At least Peter didn't think he had. The teen couldn't really remember much about his father, but he couldn't let the Avengers know that. It was yet another clue to his age.
"So we're dealing with the unknown here." Natasha stated bluntly as she checked the stability of the wall connected to the chains. No give.
"Well, it might have been a little less of a mystery if we were free. I could have examined Spider-Man's blood for that alien DNA. We may have been able to give ourselves the advantage." Tony recalled despairingly. "All we con do here is sit on our butts until something happens."
Spidey shivered. He wasn't comfortable with the thought of Tony messing with his DNA, but if it was the only way to gather information on the threat... Peter was glad that decision was taken out of his hands.
"Hey, kid," the smirk on Hawkeye's face told Peter he probably wouldn't like what the elder was about to say. "That guy said something about you living with your aunt until recently. Don't tell me you mooch off old ladies. What, do you live in her basement or something?" Clint snickers. He imagined the spider as a stereotypical fat old man who played video games all night and hissed at the sight of daylight.
The teenager cringed, "Something like that..."
It wasn't exactly that far off to say he had lived in the basement, though it was only a couple of times. On brutal nights, his aunt would shove him down the stairs and lock him in the basement until morning. Some days she had forgotten him down there and he stayed for more than twenty four hours. Sure, he could have broken down the door, but that would have jeopardized his secret. It would have also made the woman furious. The basement was anything but hospitable. There was poor insulation, so at nights it was freezing down there. In the winter Peter could see his breath. Luckily for the boy, the furnace was also in the basement. It was the mechanical warmth that had kept him alive on the worst nights. Maybe that was why Peter enjoyed tinkering so much? When Peter's aunt was feeling particularly sadistic, she would turn off the power breaker in the basement. The boy would huddle to the furnace, staring out into nothing but black all night. The dank room got so dark it was almost tangible. Sometimes Peter swore he could just reach out and touch it... grab at the suffocating dark and tear it away like it was just a sheet someone had put over his head. But no matter how far he reached he could never grasp the dark. Peter wasn't brave enough to leave the safety of the furnace so he could reach out further. The thought of just fumbling blindly in the dark convinced him to just stay put and wait it out like he always did.
"And she chased you off, huh? Her nagging for you to do something useful finally get to you, bug-boy?" Clint was full out laughing. He wasn't looking at Spider-Man, he was so creased. Peter supposed it would have been kinda funny in a sad way if he were a vigilante who's only job didn't actually pay and he was living in his surrogate parents basement. It was almost comical, how he imagined what Clint must have thought he was. Peter couldn't blame the archer for laughing. People seemed to do that pretty often anyway. The child subconsciously withdrew in on himself, as much as he could, with the restraints on him.
Natasha kicked the archer in the shin as hard as she could manage with the bindings, which, by the way, was still very hard.
"Ouch!" Clint exclaimed, "What the hell was that for?!" He glared at the red-head next to him. She requited the glare ten-fold and gave a short nod in the direction of Spider-Man.
Hawkeye spun his head towards the vigilante. His glare quickly faded and was replaced with a tinge of guilt when he saw the kid visibly making an effort to hide and avoiding looking at any of the heroes. Tony and Steve were both looking at the bird hero with eyes that said, 'Seriously?'
'Fix it.' Steve Rodgers mouthed.
"Uh, hey kid, I was just kidding around earlier." Hawkeye awkwardly apologized. "I'm sure whatever beef you've got with your aunt wasn't your fault, and will clear up soon."
"Thanks." Peter knew the archer didn't know what he was talking about, but appreciated the effort.
The tension in the room didn't clear much even after the accepted apology. That hardly mattered, though. There would be much bigger issues to deal with very soon.
Bruce was worried. He clutched the teacup slightly tighter that was probably safe. The danger being for the cup, of course.
It had been almost eighteen hours since his teammates and Spider-Man had left for that Hydra base. The scientist hadn't slept all night. It was now 8:00 AM and they still hadn't returned. The radio silence did not help matters either. Bruce had already tried contacting his friends several times, but there was no answer.
Banner didn't know what to do. Should he go looking for them? What if they were in trouble? But what if they weren't? Perhaps Bruce was overreacting and there was nothing wrong. Unless there was. What would he do if there was trouble? He didn't know where the others were, for one. For two, if something was able to take out four Avengers, what could Bruce do to help? Even with the Other Guy's help, he probably wouldn't have enough power to save his friends. Not where the rest of them together had managed to fail.
Banner would need help, but where would he get it?
The man considered contacting SHIELD. No, he would wait a little longer before doing that. Bruce was pretty sure there was a twenty-four hour wait rule before reporting missing people. Did that apply here? Were any rules unaltered when the Avengers were involved? Well, either way it didn't matter. The scientist didn't like SHIELD all that much and would really just rather avoid them if at all possible. No, SHIELD would only be a last resort option.
Who else could he tell? Bruce didn't have the means to contact Thor. The Asguardian was rather exclusive in that way... He didn't know how to get ahold of Sam Wilson either. Not that Bruce wanted to interrupt the vacationing hero anyway. Bruce didn't know who else he could call. He wasn't the most social. He didn't have many friends, or any for that matter, outside of the tower. That left his list of allies to call rather short...
Well, unless he sought out Bucky.
Bruce didn't want to do that. Ever since the other brunette had moved in, Bruce had felt the tension levels spike. Nobody, himself especially, had really known how to act around the Winter Soldier, nor what their place was with him. He was always silent and serious, and slightly angry. Not the best conversationalist. Though maybe Bruce was just being hypocritical. If anyone was secluded and has severe anger issues, it was himself.
But even Clint and Tony are oddly silent around Bucky, so maybe it wasn't his imagination. The two most talkative and immature members of the team seemed to also sense the awkward uncertainty surrounding the reformed Hydra operative. It wasn't that the rest felt a particular resentment towards him. It wasn't that they thought he was dangerous, either. If Tony was worried about that, he wouldn't have agreed to let Bucky live in the tower. They didn't exactly trust Barns either, though.
No, the only reason the Avengers could peacefully coexist with Bucky was one Captain America. If it hadn't been for Steve vouching for the soldier, he wouldn't be here. Really, it was only Rodgers that could actually interact with the former criminal normally. The two weren't exactly the friends they used to be either, but they were working on it. One step at a time. Bruce supposed this was the reason that the old friends were the only two that could actually really communicate without painfully large amounts of awkward silence.
But he digressed. Should Bruce try to talk to Bucky? Surely the former assassin had already realized his friend was missing. But then again, he hadn't approached Bruce about it either, so maybe not.
The doctor sighed. Why must this be so hard?
The whole situation might have been avoided if The Hulk had been with the team in the first place. Bruce was still selfishly glad Steve had him stay back anyway. He knew the captain knew how much Bruce hated going green. It was why every mission they had, Steve would say specifically if he though Hulk was absolutely necessary or not. An unspoken reassurance passed between the two every time.*
Anyway, Bruce hoped the situation would solve itself. His team were big boys and girl. They could hold their own. If they hadn't come back within the next six hours, he would call Fury.
Bruce wasn't religious, but he prayed it wouldn't come to that.
Spider-Man couldn't tell the time, but he was pretty sure it wasn't until a few hours later that something happened.
It wasn't a good something either.
Jacobs, the man who had led the attempt human trafficking of yours truly and was also involved in that helicopter chase, stumbled in. He was gasping for breath, as if he had run all the way here. His clothes and hair were in disarray, and his movements were panicky. The stiff muscles and wild eyes told he was coiled, ready to spring and lash out at any threat. It was a shock to the system for Peter to see the composed, confident man looking like this.
The strangest thing of all though: he was covered in blood.
"You-You have to help... it's gone rouge!" Jacobs cried desperately.
"Calm down. You need to tell us what's happening." Captain America's voice was placating, yet urgent.
"The symbiote... we told it we have its host, Spider-Man. It-It attacked. It betrayed us! We thought we were prepared for a situation like this, but we were wrong. It's sabotaged all our equipment." He explained hurriedly. Jacobs pressed a button on the inside of the door threshold, and to the surprise of the heroes, their bonds were released.
"You have to stop it. It's already killed Smythe and most of the others working on this. I don't know where it is anymore." As he finished his sentence, an alarm began blaring, and flashing red lights could be seen from the hall.
"Lockdown initiated. Please enter safe rooms. Repeat: lockdown initiated." An electronic voice came from the speakers.
"We'll need our gear if we're going to stop this." Tony directed at Jacobs.
"Third door to the left. It's all there, and all intact."
"You said Smythe is dead." Spidey started,"He said he knew the symbiote's weaknesses. Did he tell anyone what they were?"
"It was no secret. Every one around here knew. Sou- oh no." Jacobs cut himself off to stare in horror at his hand. Some kind of black substance was oozing off it. The moment he screamed, it reared up and lunged. The stuff hardened to a point and stabbed through his chest. Once inside, the goo expanded, displacing Jacobs blood and organs and causing them to burst out of his body. The Avengers plus one were far enough away not to be in the blood shower, but nothing protected them from the show. Spidey gave a horrified gasp. The others had grim faces.
The black slime, what Peter realized was likely the symbiote, crawled (slithered?) out of the cavernous hole in the Man's chest. It reared up, and to the surprise of the group spoke.
"Spiderrrr..." It hissed.
Captain America sprung to action. "Hawkeye, take Tony and get our gear. Widow, you stay with me here. We have to keep that thing away from Spider-Man at all costs."
The Avengers did as their leader ordered, and just in time to. Steve was barely fast enough to punch away the symbiote, which had made a lunge for the arachnid. Tony and Hawkeye used this opportunity to escape to the hallway.
"Stay back, Spider-Man. We'll handle this." Natasha insisted as she stepped between the teen and the symbiote.
"What? But that thing is after me! I can't just sit back while you risk your lives for me!" Spidey exclaimed.
"You can and you will. Giving this thing what it wants is the last thing we should do. We aren't dismissing your skill, Soldier, but right now it's best you fall back. We're the Avengers, we can handle ourselves." The super soldier explains.
Spider-Man reluctantly obeyed, slowly backing away.
Steve smiled, "You don't need to prove yourself strong, kid. You do that every night already."
The words gave the teen a sudden rush of pride, but it was short-lived. He had to focus on the symbiote, which was rearing itself for another attack. This time it jumped at Steve, latching onto the soldier. The man growled in frustration as he tried to tear the thing off to no avail. The thing was strong and incredibly flexible, so no matter how far he pulled it wouldn't tear off. The symbiote too the form of a fist and decked the Avenger, similar to how a rouge, extra limb would. The symbiote began covering his body, but before it could cover Steve's face, Natasha darted forward and kicked the alien. Captain America was strong enough to absorb the shock of the woman's kick, but the symbiote pulled back in on itself. The heroes may have counted it as a win, had the symbiote not immediately recovered and latched onto Black Widow's foot. The assassin scowled as it began climbing higher up her leg. She was missing her Widow's sting right about now.
A repulsor blast hit the symbiote and it jumped off with a hiss.
"Don't you know it's impolite to touch a lady without permission." Came Ironman's smug voice.
"Never stopped you." Hawkeye, with his newly found bow and arrows, jokes.
"Hey, I've never done anything illegal." Tony defended. "Here, Capsicle, catch." He threw the captain's shield to him. "Can't be America's most patriotic man without your fancy food bowl."
"Hilarious," Steve rolled his eyes. Meanwhile, Hawkeye gave Natasha her stingers.
"So how exactly do we plan on taking this out?" Hawkeye asked as he shot and arrow at the symbiote. The alien swallowed it up. The archer blanched.
"Depends on whatever it's weakness is." Ironman shot another repulsor at the symbiote, but this time it dodged. "Quick bugger."
"Oh yeah. What was that again?" Clint reaches for an electric arrow.
"Before Jacobs died, he said something about sou-." Natasha answered and shot with her stingers at the symbiote which had jumped at Steve, who had been preparing to block it with his shield.
"A sow? Like a female pig? Are we planning a sacrifice? A Spider-Ham instead of a Spider-Man?" Hawkeye snorted. Spidey glared at the archer for that wisecrack.
"No, he wasn't saying a sow, he said said sou- and then cut off." Widow elaborated as Hawkeye shot his electrarrow at the symbiote. This time when it swallowed it the alien gave a slight jolt, but nothing more as it continued to attack.
"Yeah, that makes more sense. But what was he trying to say? South? Sour? Soup? What starts with sou-?" Clint babbled.
"Sound?" Spidey suggested from where he stood aways behind Natasha.
"That would make sense. This is an alien after all, and since sound doesn't travel in space it wouldn't be exposed to it." Tony agreed. The symbiote shot towards Spider-Man, but Widow stopped it with her stingers. It screeched at her.
"Sound? But we're talking right now and it doesn't seem in pain. Hell, those stupid warning sirens are way louder that us it it's just fine!" Hawkeye disagrees, shaking his head.
"Not casual sound, we aren't loud enough. I think Jacobs was talking about sound vibrations. Loud enough noise sends shockwaves through the air, the louder the noise, the bigger the waves. I'm betting what they figured out with the symbiote is these foreign sound waves destabilize its molecules, causing liquefication and, considering its and organic and sentient being, pain." Peter explained.
"So where are we're going to find a noise maker that big?"
"Well, Jacobs said they were prepared for something like this to happen, meaning they had something on hand. If we can find and fix it, I bet that will do the trick." Spider-Man glanced between each of the heroes.
"Good thinking there, kid. Guess college actually is useful for a couple things. Now there's just a couple problems: finding the machine and getting the symbiote there. I'd say getting the thing there is the more pressing matter. I don't know about you guys, but grabbing space boogers in not something I want to cross off my bucket list." Ironman shot another few repulsor blasts at the symbiote, which seemed to be getting fed up. The alien rushed Steve, but at the last second pivoted sideways where it landed on the unsuspecting Clint. "Hawkeye!" The archer cursed as it covered his body to fast. "Not again." Were the last words they heard before there friend was completely immersed. Clint became a more demonic version of himself, covered in the black symbiote. His eyes were all white and teardrop shaped, and his mouth was far to wide to be natural with jagged teeth. The new creature screamed in anger. "I am venom! I want Spider!"
"Okay, we need to move. That alien just got some serious fighting advantages with a host." Ironman flew over to Spider-Man and grabbed the teen's arms,"Come on, kid we're going on a trip."
"Could it be in our favorite rocket ship?" Spidey jokes.
"That was terrible."
"Aww, come on, alien? Space? Rocket? Get it?"
Ironman flew from the room with Spidey in hand, Widow and Captain America close behind, with the symbiote controlled Clint.
"Will Clint be okay in there?" Steve asks Tony with a worried glance back at their teammate.
"Should be, as long as this 'Venom' creature doesn't deliberately try hurting him."
The four heroes were racing down the main hall. There were plenty of side doors and halls, but it wasn't worth checking them. Whatever it was they were looking for would probably be in the center of the whole operation. Speaking of center, the hall suddenly ended in a large, dome-shaped room. Several monitors and machines bordered the walls. Bodies, who knows if they were alive or dead, littered the floor. In the center sat a large machine that had a drill-shaped nozzle that looked like whatever the machine was for, it would come out of there. The thing looked like it was ready to use, but nobody had used it. Several of the screens had an image of the same machine on them, one of the screens labeled it, 'Sonic Wave Simulator'.
"Huh, well that was easier than expected." Tony commented with a smirk. He dropped Spidey next to the device. "JARVIS, scan for complications."
There was a brief pause as Stark listened to his AI's observations.
"Okay, JARVIS says the machine is in working order, but its powers source was disabled. I can reroute all of the power from the suit into the machine to make it work, but you'll need to distract Venom while I'm hooking up. I'll also be defenseless. I'll need to open the ducts between my suit's armor pieces to allow natural air filtration instead of artificial filtering. If that alien gets in my suit, I'm a dead man, so I'll need defense. Once the machine starts working, someone will have to get the symbiote under the beams blast range. Until than, just play with it or something. I'll get to work than." As Tony's explanation ended, venom finally caught up to them.
"You heard the man. Spidey, stay by Tony. Widow and I can keep Clint busy." Captain America directed, cutting off the venomized Hawkeye who had made a beeline for the young vigilante.
"You can't stop Venom! We will be one!" The monster shrieked furiously as it made to hit Captain America.
Steve blocked the blow with his shield and threw a fist at the creature, but withdrew when a spike of black shot out of it's stomach and attempted to stab the soldier. Steve grabbed the dodged limb and heaved the creature over his shoulder, throwing it further away from the genius and vigilante.
Venom prepared to charge back, but was stopped by Natasha who ran at him and kicked off the thing's chest, launching herself in the air. While Venom stumbled back a little from the blow, Widow preformed a mid-air flip and landed on the alien symbiote' shoulders. She wrapped her legs around its neck and threw all her weight back, bringing the monster down. Before she could get crushed under its weight she twisted her body to be on top of the falling man, and by the time he had hit the ground she had Venom in a chokehold.
The symbiote gave an enraged roar as he struggled out of Widow's grip and attempted to kick her away. Natasha dodged the leg, but unfortunately did not account for Venom's ability to create trendils. A black, vine-like limb shot from the side of Venom's still extended leg and wrapped itself around the assassin. Before she could slip out the symbiote brought down it's leg, which also threw down the Avenger with it. Widow was briefly disoriented, so when Venom used the trendil to throw Natasha across the room it was all she could manage to stop from smashing her head in on the wall. She managed to buffer the crash with her feet, but the loud crack her body made when she hit, and her body crumpled to the floor was unsettling.
The symbiote looked at the slumped woman, his face suddenly turning to one of shocked remorse, "Na... tash..." The rest of the name was cut off by a growl as Venom's face turned back to rage. "No. Get Spider!"
Venom was kicked in the back of the head by Steve, who had rushed over when he saw Widow being grabbed. "Come on, Clint, I know you're in there. You don't want to hurt Natasha. You don't want to hurt me or the rest of your team. We're friends." Captain America reasoned.
"No! Not Bird! Only Venom!"
The symbiote punched at the super solider, but his fist intercepted with the circular shield. Venom expected this and wrapped his fingers around the shield to hold it in place. The alien pulled it towards him, and with it Captain America. Simultaneously, Venom clenched did other fist and brought it crushing into the soldiers gut. Steve grunted in pain and doubled over just slightly, but it was enough for Venom to grab him and throw him to the ground, pinning down the Captain.
"Need... Spider..." The symbiote substance around Clint's body seemed to be convulsing, as if unstable. Venom seemed to be focusing on maintaining the form, but was unable. The creature glanced back at Spidey. It's eyes darted between its prey, and the silent Ironman. The eyes finally settled on the billionaire and narrowed.
In that moment, Peter realized two things: one, Venom couldn't use just any body for long periods of time due to lack of compatibility. If Venom got on Spider-Man, there was no telling how long he would be trapped in there. It would most certainly hurt, and likely leave lasting changes since Venom would not only be able to bind to his outsides, but his insides, his DNA, and very being as well. He might not even be able to come back ever. The second thing he realized was Venom knew exactly what Tony was doing, and knew exactly how to stop it.
When Venom suddenly separated, leaving a boneless Clint collapsed on Captain America and darted with surprising speed towards a defenseless Tony, Peter knew he had a choice. It was him or Tony. The couple of seconds it would take for the symbiote to take Peter would be enough for Tony to finish and Steve to recover enough to haul ass and assist Ironman. But who knew how long it would take to get the symbiote off? It might be to late. His second option was to let the symbiote get to the elder hero. Peter would be safe.
Honestly, was it really even a question that had to be asked?
Spidey tackled the moving blob of space goo. It's first reaction was to attack, but upon realizing who it was, the symbiote gave a pleased purr. Peter shivered at how creepy that was. But as long as the alien's attention was off Tony, it was alright. Peter could serve as a distraction.
The symbiote latched onto Spidey's hands, slowly encasing the teen in the substance it spread silently over his body, and the boy allowed it to happen. As the creature began sliding over his face, he saw Captain America running over to him out of the corner of his eye. He vaguely heard someone call out for him, then a different voice exclaimed, "finished!" But that didn't matter to him. Nothing did. All his senses, everything that was him was slowly being smothered. And then came the pain. Peter was pretty sure he was screaming. It felt like something was tearing into him, shoving into every pore on his skin and ripping him apart from the inside. In a moment of pure craziness, he almost laughed. Strangely, it felt exactly felt like that time. But that time felt so long ago, surely this pain couldn't be exactly the same, like he seemed to think it was. Could it? Yes, yes it could. This is the same. That man and the symbiote were both the same. They violated Peter. They got in him. Got into his head and just tore, ripped him to shreds. They were both selfish, hurting Peter for their own gain, taking him, taking what wasn't theirs and using him. Deep down all the bad guys were the same. Everything they wanted was the same. What was worse was Peter was always the same too, because just like last time, the first time he was violated in this way, he was acting the same. Once again he would just lay there and take it. He wasn't fighting back. He just took what he deserved. The only difference was this time, there were a lot less tears. That, and this time, he didn't know if he would wake up again. Did he want to wake up again? Maybe. But Peter didn't know if he had what it took. Did he have the strength to rise the broken? Perhaps he did, perhaps he didn't. He could figure it out later. For now, he would just sleep.
Peter wondered if the Avengers would save him.
Peter wondered what it was he wanted the Avengers to save him from.
Peter wondered what that sound was, and why it seemed to hurt us so much.
...
Wow, I was not expecting that, and I wrote the damn thing. Longest chapter so far. By the way, how was the big fight? Honestly, I hate writing the big fight in the story. It's too hard, and I don't know how to write fighting. I just wanted to get it over with. It is a worse foe than writers block. It wasn't too bad was it? Any issues? TnT
BTW, did any of you notice that Astrid (*) near the end of Bruce's part? Last chapter, RubyBabyDragon pointed out to me that when Steve was debriefing the team on who would go, the captain kinda sounded like an asshole towards Bruce. I agree, that tone was not the one I was going for. Bruce and Steve are buddies! This paragraph is here so I could explain the interaction without needing to go fix it, because honestly, I'm a lazy prick. I'm sorry.
But, thank you all so much for the wonderful comments! You are all beautiful and thank you for being here and liking my stuff! It was thanks to the 23ish of you who commented that this could be made so early, I mean for gods sake, I'm posting not even 48 hours later. Digital cookies for all, my lovely bits of inspiration! Seriously though, thanks. Couldn't be here without you. I'm a selfish bastard who feeds off attention. I need to lay off the Tony Stark fanfic. I think he's infecting me. Until next time! (Who knows when that'll be) Jaggy is out.
~Sayonara
