Here it is! The undercover operation we've all been waiting for! I'm sure Peter is psyched to go escapading through the NY sewers :) Have fun with the chaotic trio!
No TW!
Have fun and stay safe ❤️️ 💛💚💙💜
Chapter Fourteen: Super Secret Sewer Spectacular
"Iron Boy, this is Solid Snake coming in. Overprotective Dad and I have procured vital information regarding Jar Jar Binks," Ned informs in his deep "hacker" voice. His intention is most likely to imitate Snake, but it falls a bit short. Peter is moments away from screaming for Scorpion to come take his best shot and Tony couldn't be more confused if he tried.
"Really, man?" Peter all but whines as he attempts to make progress on their mission. "You could've had any code name and you picked Solid Snake?" At this point, he's done questioning the necessity of code names and has moved on to critiquing them instead.
"Overprotective Dad…?" Tony adds in a confused utterance. The words sound foreign to his own ears. Well, maybe not the "overprotective" part if he's being honest with himself. He wouldn't be here if at least that part weren't true.
"Um, excuse you," Ned surges forward, not having heard Tony, "Solid Snake is, like, the sneakiest guy there is. He's the best choice." His argument is confident and well thought out, but unconvincing nonetheless. Peter also ignores Tony, but that's after his face burns up with hidden embarrassment.
"But then shouldn't I be Solid Snake? Since I'm the one, y'know, sneaking?" Peter points out. Luckily one of them is focused; Karen. She switches Peter's HUD to night vision to combat the darkness and pulls up a map of the sewer system. Much to Peter's annoyance, the place is like a maze. If Scorpion is navigating this place with half his sanity, then more power to him. "And if anyone's Iron Boy, it's you. You're the only one who still freaks out," he adds.
"We all know that's not true," Tony chimes back in, the smirk seeping into his voice.
"Yeah, sorry. You're a total fanboy," Ned agrees without hesitation. Peter lets his head drop in defeat, knowing he can't disagree. Not unless he wants Ned to prove it by sending Tony pictures of his room full of Iron Man merch.
"Traitor," he grumbles, then sobers as he remembers what they're actually trying to do. "But what was it that you guys found?" As Ned pulls up everything on his monitor, Tony starts them off.
"If we're looking for a base of operations, like you were saying the other day, then we can find it if we take into account the equidistance of all the attacks to find an epicenter," he reasons aloud. Peter nods in agreement as he cautiously progresses. Everything's quiet so far, save for the sounds of traffic above him and water trickling.
"That'd make sense since there weren't any sightings before the attacks. He just appeared, so he had to already be close," he further proves Tony's hypothesis. If they're right and Mac is actually in the sewers when he isn't wreaking havoc, then they have to be even more on guard. Just to be safe, he lets Droney loose as an extra pair of scanning eyes.
"Like how he was at the boardwalk super fast! One second he wasn't, and the next second bam!" Ned adds. As he chimes in enthusiastically, he shares the tabs he has open to Tony's computer so that they both have a copy. "So far we only have the Daily Bugle's building and the boardwalk, but only a specific series of tunnels can get you between the two." On cue, one of the paths lights up on Peter's HUD, directing him which way is their best bet. Hopefully. He doesn't know whether to hope they're right or wrong. If they're right, then they're making progress but they also run into Mac. If they're wrong, then he won't have to fight with stiff, cold limbs but they'll be at another standstill. He subconsciously rubs his upper arms to generate some heat. It's freezing down here.
"Hm, nifty," Tony comments, looking over the findings. "Lookin' good, Pete. It can't be anything within three miles of the Tower. Everything there is monitored, so that'll narrow it down more." At his helpful conclusions, Peter narrows down the map's field of view.
"Okay, we're looking mainly at Brooklyn then. With a direct path to the Tower," he figures thoughtfully. Droney flies a few feet in front of him, making sure the sewers are safe as they scope it all out. "I'm not seeing any other signs of him, though. He wasn't really that hurt after the fight, but his suit wasn't looking great. Maybe I can keep an eye out for pieces that've fallen off?" It's a bit of a stretch, even by his standards, but they don't have much else to go off of. Either that, or wander aimlessly through miles of sewers.
"And totally insane," Ned adds. "All his screaming and freaking out was kind of hard to miss." That's what piques Peter's interest and gets the gears in his head turning. When he's quiet for too long, only the echoing of damp footsteps reaching the comms, Tony breaks the silence.
"Speak up, kid. I might be a genius, but that doesn't make me a telepath." Peter lets out a breathy chuckle while Ned's imagination goes into overdrive.
"Dude, that would be so awesome…" Ned thinks aloud.
"I was just…" Peter lowers his tone enough to be hidden amongst the ambient noise as he voices his internal dilemmas. "Karen said that Scorpion's scans showed mutagenic treatments, right?"
"That's correct," Karen confirms.
"But where did it happen?" Peter proposes to the rest of his team, hoping to get them on the same thought process. Tony opens his mouth to effortlessly respond, but then comes up empty. He pauses and reconsiders the question.
"I…don't have a clue," he slowly answers.
"Aren't the Tower and, like, MIT the only places around here that could do something like that? And MIT isn't that close," Ned asks as he furiously types across his keyboard with surprising speed. A few results pop up on both his and Tony's screen and the teen begins to read them aloud. "Center for Data Science, Academy of Sciences, CUNY Advanced Science and Research Center," he lists off. Regardless, Peter shakes his head.
"There's no way they'd get clearance for human experimentation and we already know Gargan was a criminal way before he went to jail. That means there has to be someone behind the scenes." The other two seem to accept the logical conclusion.
"So then the question is: who?" Tony catches the kid's train of thought. Peter shrugs his shoulders, trying to also focus more on the sneaking part of their mission. He distantly wonders if he has an undiscovered, echolocating superpower along with everything else or if Karen has a radar. It's doubtful since in any other instance, it would be useless compared to his Spidey Sense.
"Ned?" he prompts.
"Your Guy in the Chair and honorary member of Team Spidey are on the case!" Ned instantly assures, back to typing. The first thing he does is search for all the employees, especially those laid off or fired. Villains always have a pattern, he's learned.
"Thanks, guys. You're the best," Peter says gratefully with a small smile hidden behind his mask. It feels weird to not have the usual banter, which has since died down, but this is serious. Scorpion has already caused way too much damage. "I have a bad feeling though. And no, not Spidey Sense related, just…bad. If no company or, or university in their right mind would let something like this happen, then it had to be done somewhere no one knew. And it's not easy stuff, it had to be someone who knew what they were doing. Sometimes the most simple answer is the best one," he half rambles, half presents. They're onto something, and he knows it. Tony sighs, hating the notion but aware that Peter is most likely right.
"Then there's pretty high chances that whatever they were doing, they were doing it down there," he agrees with clenched teeth. Why is the kid always in the middle of it all? "Shit, be careful, alright? Mac hasn't reared his ugly head, meaning he could be down there with you. I don't like those odds, kid." There's mild concern in his voice as his heart races and eyes dart over the monitor. He's gotta learn. He's his own hero. He's great at it. Lord, this is nerve wracking.
"I will be, Mr. Stark. Promise," Peter reassures, quickly catching onto his unease.
"Iron Boy! Use the codenames!" Ned doesn't hesitate to lecture. "You never know who's listening!" Why did I think it was a good idea to have these two both on the same call? They're already bad enough together in person, Peter absentmindedly notes.
"Do you really think-" He comes to a sudden halt when his Spidey Sense pings. Not the "move or you're going to die" kind of warning, but more so a "something weird is going on." And man is it weird. When he turns, he comes face-to-face with an enormous hole carved out of the wall across from him. Bricks lay strewn across the muck-covered ground, some broken into pieces while others completely decimated. The painfully unnatural opening is lit by Droney's small spotlight, but even Peter's night vision can only see endless darkness.
"Talk to us," Tony prompts. His heart jumped at the kid's abrupt silence, but he knows he would've heard a lot more if there was an ambush. "You good?" he questions hesitantly.
"Yeah, yeah…" comes Peter's distracted answer. His lenses are wide in both wonder and shock. "But…what the hell happened?" It's pretty self-explanatory that Scorpion would…hopefully, be the only one possible to make something that large.
"Karen, can you transfer the suit's feed to us?" Ned requests since Peter isn't exactly being descriptive. The compliance is almost instantaneous, but doesn't come without a remark.
"Your question isn't a matter of can I, it's more a matter of will I," Karen points out in an overly pleasant tone. She doesn't appreciate being underestimated, especially by Ned.
"I swear I don't program them with sass. It's hereditary," Tony feels the need to defend. As he speaks, the promised feed covers both his and Ned's screen. They immediately understand why Peter is so shocked. It's difficult to see how far the tunnel goes, but the term "decimated" doesn't remotely do it justice. "Looks like our already upstanding citizen decided to do some remodeling," he adds in a mutter.
"That's not on the schematics," Karen helpfully points out.
"What do you think's in there?" Ned asks hesitantly, his eyes glued to the screen. Peter's gaze sweeps across the opening, tapping into his senses for anything to sway his mind, but there's nothing dangerous down the passage. At least, nothing he can sense. That's always a nice sentiment.
"I dunno, but there's only one way to find out." With that, he soundlessly jumps to the dirty, grime-ridden ceiling and starts crawling into the darkness.
"Um, I don't even have a Spidey Sense and I know this is a bad idea," Ned points out, shivers creeping down his arms. "I don't know about you, but I don't want to die before Christmas, dude." Nevertheless, Peter makes his way forward, Droney lighting the way. He watches the corner of his HUD as his marker disappears from the mapped out route.
"We have to get an edge over this guy somehow. He's gonna just keep kicking our collective ass if we don't do something about it. If we're right, this place has answers," he vehemently counters. His best friend's words don't deter him from his goal. Tony would have reprimanded the kid for his language if it weren't for the fact that he's distracted by making sure his suit is prepped in case anything goes wrong. At the slightest hint of something going south, the suit will be flying him there within mere seconds.
"But, I mean, the internet has answers too," Ned counters, his nervousness showing. "That's what I'm here for! I find out that stuff so we don't have to go looking in super dark and scary and gross places like the sewers. What kind of self respecting villain picks the sewers as their hideout anyways?" His frantic ramblings go over Peter's head as he tunes into his Spidey Sense, but Karen is always there to respond.
"It sounds like you might be afraid," she suggests in a lighthearted tone.
"I'm not afraid!" Ned protests. He momentarily pauses his typing to think. "Okay I'm afraid, but like! Villains are scary!" Karens's robotic voice seems to emulate a chuckle and Ned isn't sure if he should feel insulted or not.
"Focus, you two," Tony finally interjects. "We have to get a lead if Pete's tunnel to Wonderland doesn't pan out." He subconsciously gulps despite the lack of tension. Sure there's some risk, but everything's been smooth sailing and Peter's senses appear to be stable. Well, according to the vitals, which he definitely didn't pull up.
"Wait, I think I see something," Peter whispers cautiously. He slows his pace to the point where his movements are silent.
"Define 'something,'" Tony practically demands when he can't see anything on the feed. Ned searches his monitor too, but can't find what Peter is referring to.
"There's a light up ahead," Peter answers. A very dull, flickering light, he notes in his head, knowing better than to say it aloud and worry them. They'll see it in a second anyways.
"Peter." Tony warns him to be careful without having to say anything else, and Peter gets the message. The kid carefully creeps forward, his eyes scanning, and the tunnel opens up into some sort of…makeshift laboratory.
"Woah…that's badass…" Ned gapes as everything comes into view. Peter carefully peers into the dimly lit space; the rubble of crushed brick turns into a concrete floor, severed cables spark from the ceiling, water pools at corners of the room, and seemingly important equipment lies scattered across the floor. The various wires and equipment appear to be slashed, which pretty much nails Scorpion's MO. Not sensing any danger, he drops to the floor and crouches near some of the nearly destroyed equipment.
"He isn't here…but then where is he…?" As his question hangs in the air, he inspects some of the machinery to hopefully make this trip worth it.
"Don't know, don't care. Hurry up and do what you need so you can get out. The last thing we want is a fight on his turf," Tony attempts to lighten the serious atmosphere. He's here to support the kid and keep him ground. He knows first hand how stressful this line of work can be. It gets inside your head, and Peter already had enough of that with Toomes and Beck.
"'Turf?' Have you been looking up slang terms again?" Peter can't help but snort.
"Hey, I'm the adult here. That means you have to listen to me. That's how the rules work. Ask Pep."
"Well, technically, you're an honorary member of Team Spidey. And Peter's the leader of Team Spidey, so…" Ned draws out, letting Tony fill in the blanks. While the two debate semantics, Peter looks at some of the tattered papers on a half collapsed table. Some of these equations… he starts thoughtfully, then trails off as his eyes dart over the pages. They're cancer equations? Why were they worrying about tumors?
The term pETg+T represents the Michaelis-Menten increase of immune system cells in response to tumors.
"Droney, can you scan as much as you can and send it all to Ned and Mr. Stark, please?" Droney beeps in confirmation and seems to nod at him before racing off. That gives Peter more time to search the equipment. There are scattered pipettes, culture incubators, a dented FPLC, ultraspeed centrifuges- "Oh my god, is that a Lab 20L Jacketed Stainless Steel Centrifuge XTC?! And it's just lying on the ground?!" And to think he spent all those years dumpster diving when insane, high tech lab equipment was simply under his feet.
"Dude, are you serious?!" Ned joins him in freaking out. "That costs, like, twenty thousand dollars! By the way, I couldn't find any fired or laid off employees. It looks like they're breaking the mold this time," he informs, somewhat impressed. Well, that's one possibility out of the way. Still, the lab is high tech and specialized, so someone had to know what they were doing. They're looking for someone experienced.
"Turns out they know how to keep themselves anonymous." Tony reads through the new information before continuing his train of thought. "So far, what your drone sent us doesn't have any names on it. Just equations and notes and theories and bull. What were these idiots thinking trying to mess with cell function?" The question is more rhetorical, but Peter shrugs his shoulders anyways. He tilts his head in thought, looking at the slashed equipment curiously. He must've been really mad. The whole place is a wreck. His fingers lightly touch some of the jagged tears in the metal, which were obviously caused by Scorpion's claws. And he thought he was turning into a monster, going completely nuts. Maybe this isn't a hideout.
"Hey guys," he starts putting his thoughts out there, "what if he came back looking for whoever did this to him? Remember how he was saying Mr. Jameson ruined his life?" However, Ned shakes his head.
"Yeah, but that guy works at a newspaper place. He's not a mad scientist. Or a scientist at all, I checked already, man. He didn't study anything sciency." He thought of the possibility too, but came up empty. As Peter is about to voice his next best theory, a paper beneath a flipped desk catches his eye; mainly because of the giant header "Project Scorpion." He easily lifts the crumpled mess of a desk and further inspects the paper. The more he reads, the wider his lenses become.
Project Scorpion
Dr. Stillwell
Test Subject: MacDonald Gargan
Sex: Male
Age: 38
Symbiote: Rejected
Treatment: Over a short period of time, the subject was exposed to various degrees of scorpion DNA directly into the host's cells. Ideally, this exposure causes the cells to mutate and take on the characteristics of the previous host.
Findings: No phenotypic change. So far, the subject has experienced increases in speed, strength, reflexes, speed, durability, stamina, etc.. Current side effects appear to be a slight decrease in mental status and irritability. Otherwise, the subject is A&Ox4.
Notable: Subject seems to exhibit a precognitive Scorpion-sense, mirroring that of Spider-Man's. He will later be fitted for the cybernetic prosthesis.
"Please tell me that doctor had it wrong…" Ned is the first to speak, his jaw going slack in shock afterwards. Peter, however, can't bring himself to speak. He has a Spidey Sense like me…? Is that why I can't land a good hit?! That's not fair, that's cheating! "This is so giving me SCP: Containment Breach vibes." Tony's fists clench at the words and his jaw tightens. How could something like this have happened? There's practically a spider-killing machine on the loose.
"If Gargan didn't kill him, I will," he grits out. However, something catches Peter's peripheral vision that makes him freeze and go pale.
"Uh…I think someone already beat you to it…" Partly hidden by the darkness of the room's edge is the body of who he assumes to be Dr. Stillwell, if the embroidered lab coat is anything to go by. It looks like Scorpion's claws did a number on him…
"Well shit," Tony curses under his breath. "So much for that lead." Peter somehow tears his eyes away from the mutilated body.
"That's, that's how he knew I was at the boardwalk. The suit wasn't bugged, he sensed me," he suddenly realizes and Tony lets out a string of curses under his breath. It's all moving too fast for Peter. Scorpion Sense and the only dude we've found is dead. This mission sucks. As if the universe were listening to his thoughts, his impeccable senses hit him with full force. He almost stumbles forward from their abrupt alarm, but instead bends backwards as a blurred mess of green swipes mere inches above his nose.
"I knew you were working with him! You'll all die!" the gravelly voice of Scorpion threatens as claws go to dig into Peter's side. Peter sees it coming from a mile away and uses a web to pull himself away from the extended razor blades to a large pane of glass.
"For Christ's sake," a quiet, frustrated murmur comes through the comms. "I'm on my way," Tony says louder, his decisive tone not allowing arguments. By the time he's up, the suit is already constructing itself around him.
"I got this, Mr. Stark!" Peter assures, though he knows it won't stop the man. The glass beneath his feet looks over an observation chamber, but he has more important things to focus on. "Y'know, most villains work up to the death threats instead of opening with them," he starts off with a quip. There's always room for humor in life-or-death situations. Scorpion picks up one of the massive pieces of lab tech and hurls it at startling speeds. There's only enough time for Peter to extend his arm before the mass of metal slams into his chest.
The glass shatters beneath his back and painfully cushions his fall to the hard, tiled floor. Ceramic cracks beneath him and the equipment lands heavily on his chest, but he's quick to push it off to avoid being used as a landing pad for Scorpion's own descent. Instead, the villain's metal boots smash the machinery apart, sending miscellaneous pieces flying off in all directions.
"What do you need me to do?!" Ned questions, desperately wanting to help in some way.
"Uh, have Droney scan as much as he can?" Peter answers unsurely. Regardless, Ned doesn't hesitate to get to work. All the while Tony starts his flight to the scene. As he dodges Scorpion's powerful tail and ignores the nonsensical accusations, he tries to use anything they've learned to make this fight go better than the last. Angry. Make him angry. He can't focus if he's angry.
"You dunno what it's like to have your life ripped away from you! I'll make you all suffer! Just like I did!" Scorpion screams, his voice reverberating in the small space. Okay, yeah, he already seems pretty mad, Peter notes. He uses the small space to his advantage and jumps as fast as he can from wall to wall, hoping that it'll disorient Scorpion.
"Have you considered anger management? Or maybe a therapist? Psychiatrist?" he offers, avoiding punches as he does so. Scorpion growls in frustration and yanks his fist out of yet another hole in the wall.
"He turned me into a monster! Look at me! You both did this! You all did! I'll rip you to shreds! There won't be anything left for them to bury!" While he spits out the insults, Peter manages to connect a web to the cybernetic tail. The hero starts wrapping the end of the tail in his webbing, hoping to at least momentarily jam it.
"Wow, that was direct. Words can hurt too, y'know." His banter is cut short when his still winding webs begin to melt and smoke. Dammit, I really need to make that new web fluid. Plan B time…why do I always say that without having a Plan B?
"Fri, track Peter's suit and get me there now," Tony's voice orders as Peter decides to take things from a new angle. The teen takes in his surroundings, avoiding Scorpion's whipping tail as best he can, and notices some oxygen tanks scattered in one of the corners. Found plan B! he triumphantly thinks and rockets off the ceiling towards the canisters, narrowly missing the high-speed whip of the tail. When he lands, he puts his new plan into action as fast as superhumanly possible. The O2 tanks are pressurized, so if I just…
"Peter," Karen speaks up out of the blue.
"Kinda busy, Karen!" Peter dismisses as politely as he can. This has to be fast. He turns on his heel, pointing the flat end at the irate, charging villain, and breaks off the nozzle in one fluid motion. In the blink of an eye, the canister shoots out of his arms and rams into Scorpion's chest with a resounding clank. Scorpion takes the full brunt of 2000 psi with an enraged shout and is forced back, giving Peter more time.
"Sweet!" he exclaims.
"Dude, that was wicked!" Ned congratulates, having the equivalent of a front row seat to the action. Peter quickly turns back to the remaining two canisters in hopes of getting the same result. If I'm lucky, maybe they'll disorient him or even knock him out. Then-
"Peter," Karen tries again, "I scanned Gargan again for trending data and have detected uncontrolled cell division." This halts Peter's efforts in an instant as her words wash over him. It doesn't make sense.
"He has cancer?" he asks, almost disbelieving. His brief yet detrimental beat of stunned silence costs him. In less time than it takes him to blink in shock at the realization, he's clobbered into the cold ground. With a gasp, his head painfully ricochets off the floor as he's pinned between unforgiving concrete and Scorpion's armored knee. Metal digs into his back, pressing him further down and constricting his lungs. He struggles as the panic sets in. The lack of air. The burning throughout his chest. The trickle on his forehead. And suddenly, he's back there.
Let me know what you thought of the new plot info! Look I know another cliffhanger BUT I technically had to wait over a week to finish the chapter when I wrote it, so I felt your pain already👀
Thank you for reading! ❤️️ 💛💚💙💜
If you'd like to keep up to date on upcoming fics and get sneak peeks, feel free to follow one of my accounts!
Instagram: kevy_fanfics
Tumblr: kevyfanfics
Twitter: Kevy_Fanfics