More than anything in the world, Peter wishes he had a re-do button. A little red one he could press to restart his day. Hell, maybe his entire week if he could. He could try and prevent Aunt May's heart attack and, on a more selfish note, maybe not get kidnapped. Because let's face it: this is absolutely positively terrifying. He is not a fan. He hates this so much that he'd rather an eternity of school where Flash bullies him nonstop if it meant this never happened. But, sadly, Peter does not have a red button or a time-turner or Doc Brown's Delorean. Nope, all of his powers are useless as he stares up at the grim ceiling of what he guesses is some sort of storage space. He's not quite sure. He does know that trying to ignore his kidnappers in the room is not making them go away like he hoped. So Peter changes tactic.
He returns his gaze to Doc Oc talking with Electro while holding the beaker of living goo like it was a trophy. Peter gets the chills just by looking at it.
"Call Osborne. Tell him to get over here. The cure's done," Oc orders, still studying his new creation fondly. Peter feels exactly the opposite about it.
"When are you trying out the monster mix?" Max questions, pausing from walking away, presumedly, to make the phone call. Wait, what monster mix? Please don't tell him it's that black goo.
"When Norman comes over, we'll give him the 'cure'. We watch him transform, let him and Connors wreak havoc and then give Spidey here his own 'cure'." Peter senses their heads readying to turn to him. And he can see the small movement as if it were in slow motion. So, as quick as his reflexes allow him, he closes his eyes and makes sure he's as limp as could be. Aunt May never buys it, but maybe they will?
"Good morning, Spiderman," Doc Oc greets him. So much for being asleep. Peter opens his eyes to see both Electro and Oc leaning over him. "I'm afraid that your brief moment of consciousness is over for now. Can't have you awake for when my partner comes over." Peter watches, terrified, as Doc Oc's metal arm moves to reach for the syringe next to the table he's cuffed to.
"Who? Norman Osborne?" Peter manages to say through the terror. "Because you're going to try and 'cure' him?" Oh God, he cannot be asleep for it. He has to try and help Mr. Osborn before they kill him or worse. That's his duty as Spiderman. Guess that's his cue to rip off these cuffs. Now's as good a time as any.
"Something like that," Doc Oc smiles before inserting the syringe and releasing the liquid into his thigh just as Peter rips his right arm out of the metal cuff. And he's pretty proud to say he comes up swinging, getting a nice right hook at Otto's greasy face.
After that, he manages to get his left arm out, but he's sluggish in sitting up. Which is really, really not good. His next swing is at Electro since Doc can't handle a full force punch from Spidey - admittedly, he did feel the man's bones breaking. And Electro wastes no time in sending a bolt of electricity towards him, causing his body to seize and fall back down onto the metal table. And even worse, he feels the tug of the sedative pulling him back under. Again, this really sucks.
Steve was really pissed. Peter was kidnapped after he dropped him off. This whole mess falls on his shoulders. If he had stayed just a little longer, or maybe brought the kid up to his door, then Peter would still be with them. He'd be sitting at his aunt's bedside or going to school with his friends. He certainly wouldn't be a human guinea pig right now. And if he was, then Steve would have the satisfaction of knowing he tried. But what did he do? Drop the kid off at the freaking front door. What responsible adult doesn't walk the kid all the way to his apartment? Although, he does give himself a tiny bit of leeway of this New York being so different from his New York.
So he's probably excused for destroying four perfectly good punching bags while he waited for Tony to find the kid. There wasn't much Steve could do, anyway. He didn't know technology that well and he's even less familiar with New York. Honestly, him staying out of the way is best for everyone. Let them actually make headway. But once the team gets called in, oh he's gonna be like a whirlwind, throwing punches and kicks in every direction until he has Peter safely by his side.
What he was mostly upset about besides the obvious, was Tony's suggestion of reconnaissance first. They apparently needed to scope out a few buildings to find out where he was. So that meant he, Nat, and Clint were up. He was happy to be doing something to help rectify his mistake but was utterly displeased with having to keep distance. It was smart, yes, but if Peter is in one of these, Steve's throwing caution to the wind. He's getting his kid.
So, yes, he was grumbling about it as Nat tried to case the perimeter. It was the second building after all, and the previous had no signs of life for a few months. Why Osborne kept it, Steve didn't know.
"Cap, I think we've found something," Nat breaks the silence and his internal frustration. "I see a car parked at the south entrance. Black Mercedes. No driver. They're probably inside. Even better, it could be Osborne."
"Are we going in then?" Steve asks, only to hear screaming coming from inside the warehouse. Loud, painful screaming. God, please don't let it be Peter.
"I'm taking that as a yes," Clint says over the comms and Steve can only agree. Steve watches as Clint enters the building through the ducts and assumes Nat's already in. So he quietly enters through the closest door. And he absolutely did not need his super hearing to know the screaming started again. But he made his way towards it, trying to stay out of sight.
He found the source of screaming and thanked God that it wasn't Peter. No, instead, Norman Osborne was collapsed on the ground, his muscles spasming under his green tinted skin. Oh good Lord, they're not trying to recreate the Hulk, are they? Steve maneuvered himself behind a wall near the doorway, his head poking out.
"Max, start the Venom project. Keep him on the table. I'm staying with Osborne," Doc Oc announced. Steve watched as one of the men, Max, he'd guess, walked away into a back room.
"I'll follow him. Clint, Steve, stay with Osborne. If he hulks out or anything, keep him contained and call Stark for the Hulk Buster," Nat quietly says over the comms. Probably best. She'd be noticed least, but he can't help but wonder if the Venom project relates to Peter. Wait, is Peter even here?
"Clint, any sign of Peter?" he asks ever so quietly over their comms.
"Not yet, Cap. He might not even be here. There's another warehouse on the list. But Osborne's here, so..." Clint trails off, the question unsaid between the both of them. Is Peter dead?
Steve's focus gets pulled to Osborne once more when he starts yelling, his clothing beginning to tear and his skin becoming even greener.
"Clint, call Stark," Steve manages to get out as Osborne's yelling increases. Osborne seems to be growing, his green body bursting out of the restrictive suit. He watches in disgust as his nails yellow and lengthen, as his ears enlarge and end in a point, as his forehead gains devil horns and bumps. It's out of this world and Steve may or may not have said a mental prayer as the new monster roars, rising off of the floor. God, why can't people stop messing with science? What's wrong with normal humans?
Steve gets ready to fight, but watches in amazement as the monster doesn't try to attack anyone. It seems to be submissive? Actually, it seems to be under the man-with-the-metal-arms' control. That must be Doctor Octavius.
"Rise, Osborne, rise! You are cured, all thanks to Spiderman." Cap's ears perk up at that. Spiderman? That means they had Peter. "And he will be joining us soo-".
A large crash cuts off Dr. Octavius' speech. And it came from the backroom where Natasha is. Oh crap.
"Clint, find out what that was," Steve orders.
"On it, Cap. Stark's ETA is 7 minutes," Clint replies before another man leaves the room.
"Cap! Get in here too!" Nat yells over the comms. With one last glance at the evil mastermind and his Frankenstein monster, Steve makes his way to the back areas without being seen.
And suddenly, he wishes he wasn't seeing this. Peter is unconscious, cuffed onto a metal table. And Nat and Clint are already fighting the one man, Max, and the notorious Lizard monster, Doctor Connors. Steve doesn't take another second before storming into the fight. He sends his shield straight at the Lizard's face, seeing him as the bigger threat. The Lizard snarls before roaring, probably alerting the entire warehouse. Damnit. They won't have much time before Osborne and Dr. Octavius and the other man barge in here.
Steve rushes in with Nat, trying to subdue the creature while avoiding claws. It's a game of dodging and him punching the Lizard's snout a few times before Nat can get a clear shot using her widow bites. But Steve's jaw drops when the taser disks simply bounce off the reptile's skin. Those were made by Stark. They really should've made a mark on the creature.
He recovers in time to give her a boost off his shield to jump over the Lizard's head and onto its back where she begins to strangle it with an extra large wire, groaning as he tries to throw her off.
Steve turns to find Clint stuck in hand to hand combat with Max. Steve rushes over, taking Clint's place of dodging and giving punches. Not a few seconds later does Clint yell, "Cap! Down!" before an arrow whizzes over Steve's head and lodges into Max's shoulder where it leaks blue electricity into the man. Thankfully, Steve stays trained on the man.
"What?" Clint shouts in disbelief as Max stays upright, completely unaffected by the electric shock. Steve barely has time to raise his shield to block whatever Max throws his way. Which is the wrong decision by far. Steve's grip tightens of its own accord as the electricity flows from his shield and into his muscles and nerves, causing him to fall to his knees. He can't move his head, but he hears Clint shoot arrow after arrow at Max until he's distracted enough to throw electricity at the arrows rather than Steve.
Able to move once more, Steve scans the room. The Lizard is unconscious, but probably not dead. Either way, he's a heap on the floor. Pete's still cuffed and knocked out on the table. And Nat is occupied with green Osborne and Dr. Octavius.
"Tony!" he yells into the commlink, "We could really use that back up now!"
"I know, Cap," he replies as Steve joins Nat, trying to destroy Dr. Octavius' metal limbs. "I'm going as fast as the suit can possibly go. I'm 3 minutes out."
"Make it 2," Steve replies, sending his shield towards Otto's raised limb. It rips through the metal, causing the claw end to fall from Otto's suit. Steve runs to catch his shield, dodging the falling limb in the process with a classic baseball slide. With it sliding to perfectly fit onto his forearm, he sends a strike at Oc's metal suit body, making sparks fly from the back. Coming to his front, Steve gives the man a good Captain America punch to the schnoz, which Steve belatedly realizes, already looks quite abused.
The hit to the suit and face, and whatever hit the man before Steve, makes Octavius temporarily immobile. Done, Steve scans the room again. He forgot about the second normal man, who probably isn't that normal. Searching for the God-awful stripes, Steve berates himself. How could he be so stupid? Until he finds him. Standing over Peter's unconscious form. Steve sends his shield right at the man's head, hoping to knock him out in one clean blow. But it never hits. The man's head suddenly turns... to sand? Holy shit.
"What?" Steve asks mostly himself as he catches his shield, still running toward the man. He winds up for a punch, not expecting to hit flesh but to keep the man distracted from Peter. So, as expected, his hand goes right through sand. What he did not expect was his arm to get caught in the man's sand torso. And that was his problem.
The man throws punches at Cap's face, eventually making his nose bleed (although not nearly as bad as Oc's). He's relieved when the Lizard's roar causes the sand man to pause, because he slams his shield into the man's flesh face, taking him entirely by surprise. Dazed, he falls to the floor as a solid heap, not as sand. Steve turns towards where the roar came from to see the Lizard and Goblin teaming up against Clint and Nat. Wait, where's Sparky?
Whipping around to face Peter, Steve finds the electric man holding a beaker of dark liquid that seems to be a little more sentient than one would expect. With a kick, Steve sends the man flying back, the beaker falling and shattering. Steve does feel a little relieved that the goop is on the floor, wasted rather than in the beaker, ready to be used on Peter.
With Max dazed as well, Steve quickly breaks all the metal cuffs around Peter's limbs with his shield. But before he can even lift Peter up, he gets a strong punch to the jaw from Sandman. So Steve whips his head back, abandoning his current hope of removing Peter from the building. And let him just say, trying to land a punch on a guy made of sand is hard enough. But then Sparky had to come and gang up on Steve too. 2 against one, great. And Max seems really really pissed.
"It's working!" they all hear Oc shout (a bit nasally) from his broken suit. Following his gaze for a brief moment, Steve sees the black goo that was spilled on the floor, encompassing Peter. The liquid is wrapping around the kid's arms and torso and snaking its way down to his toes. And it's traveling up his neck, encompassing it like a choke hold and seeping onto his face. The liquid pushes its way into Pete's mouth and up his nostrils, eventually snapping the kid awake. Breathing heavily, Peter manages to look Steve straight in the eyes until they too are covered in the living black. Steve watches helplessly as it fills his ears and slicks back his hair, covering his scalp. To his ever-growing horror, the black suddenly creates white markings on Peter's torso and face, covering the teenager's with an alien-like mask. And a tongue, disgusting and animalistic, sticks out of its mouth before screeching.
"Lady and gentlemen," Doc Oc announces with great pride. I give you the newest member of the Sinister Six! Venom!" And Peter - no, Venom lifts himself off the table and pounces towards Steve just as the window shatters from what sounds to Steve like an Iron Man suit blast.