Prompt number: 29: "back up!"
Fandom: Spidey/Avengers
Rating: Teen and Up
Warnings: None, except a minor mention of blood and injury.
Note: This is a sort of sequel/follow-up to my Fictober19 Prompt 31 from last year. You can find it in my collection from last year titled 'Sticky Situation'.
It was just after midnight when they arrived. The thick fog around the area didn't help the bare visibility of the night any. The abandoned office building loomed in front of them, ten stories high. Most of the windows were either broken or completely missing and the front door hung from only one hinge.
There was a desolate feel to the place, more than the obvious.
Bucky risked a glance to his left but not carefully enough when a scowl was sent in return.
"I'm fine, Bucky." Steve said without looking away from the building. Where Peter was, probably.
"You sure? Cause if it were my kid and husband….I wouldn't be."
He watched Steve close his eyes as he no doubt remembered how they found Tony. Barely conscious on the floor and blood everywhere, flowing freely from the wound in his neck.
He could barely open his eyes, let alone speak, but he'd tried anyway only succeeding in a broken and gurgled version of their sons' name.
It wasn't until they asked JARVIS for footage of the attack, that they realised Peter wasn't taken. No, he had been the one to attack Tony.
"If you're not up for this-?" Bucky said, trying to pull Steve back to the present but Steve was not having it.
"No, I'm not leaving. I need to be here."
"We have no idea what we'll find, who we'll find." Cause they had all agreed on one thing. That wasn't Peter, or at least Peter wasn't in control of himself. The kid would never intentionally hurt any of them.
"That is exactly why I need to be here. Peter deserves at least one of his dads there."
And Tony was definitely out. Even with the surgery a success, he wasn't going anywhere for a while. The blood loss alone had been dooming?.
"Alright, Clint and Nat are ready at the side door -they'll start from the bottom while we'll start searching from the top- and Thor is close in case we need back-up. You ready to do this?" It felt strange to take the lead like this, but Steve had insisted. He refused to be benched but he was aware that he wasn't in any state to lead the team. Bucky had been with the avengers for a while now, they were truly a family, but it was still odd to be the one in charge and have them all willingly follow him.
"Let's go get my son back."
The building wasn't very high, not by New York standards anyway and neither was it large. It didn't take too long to search each room, floor by floor, especially the top two which were still one big, open floor plan.
Apparently construction had been halted mid-project for legal reasons and no one had deemed the place worth the effort of fighting the red-tape. Thus it had been abandoned and left to fall in disrepair before ever having been in use.
Halfway through the seventh floor Bucky pulled him to a stop. "Did you hear that?"
They both stayed perfectly still and quiet, trying to something, anything. The building occasionally groaned but other than that there was nothing. Except there was.
The faintest, muffled sound echoed through the seventh floor. After a few more seconds listening, honing in on that sound, they figured it out.
Someone was yelling.
"Peter!" Steve dashed down the corridor leaving Bucky to chase after him, while silently cursing. Now was not the time to risk getting split up.
Bucky fumbled with the comm unit on his shoulder while running after his best friend. "Clint, Nat? We might have something on the seventh floor."
Not two seconds later they replied with 'copy that' and a promise to head their way as fast as possible.
Bucky briefly lost sight of Steve as he rounded a corner and sprinted that much faster. He had a bad feeling about this place and Steve was clearly not paying attention.
He almost collided with him in the next hallway where he'd stopped in front of one of the more functional doors on this floor. And from behind it came the obvious distressed shouts of Peter.
"Someone! Please, I'm here! I'm in here! Is anyone out there?! Please, please can anyone hear me?!"
"Peter! Peter, I'm here!"
"Pops!? Is that really you?!"
"Yes, Peter. It's me, I'm here, son!"
"Please get me out of her. Please, please…"
Before Steve could answer Bucky stepped forward. "Peter, it's Bucky. We're going to get you out. Are you near the door?"
"Uncle Bucky? You came for me too?" It was said through sobs and stuttering breaths. How long had the kid been in here?
"Peter, I need you to back up. I'm going to kick in the door. Alright?!"
"Please get me out of here! Please, please…"
It didn't bode well that Peter didn't answer him. The kid sounded absolutely wrecked. What had they done to him? Or perhaps….a terrible thought took root in his mind. Peter sounded like his old self, free from whatever was done to him. But, did he remember what he had done? That would explain the growing hysterics.
"What are you waiting for, Buck?" Steve cut through his thoughts. Right, time to bring Peter home. With a strong kick he broke open the door and together they moved into the room.
It was bare except for a single table in the middle of the room. Peter was nowhere to be found. On the table was a laptop with a familiar device beside it.
The tracker Tony has secretly put in Peter's suit, just in case. The same tracker they had followed here once they got a ping from it.
His bad feeling grew.
Steve approached the laptop and hit a button on the keyboard. Instantly the device came alive with a live feed and sliding into view was Peter.
"Hello there. Fancy meeting you here, pops." The kid was dressed in civilian clothing, the same style he always wore, but the smirk on his face was completely alien.
"Peter?"
"Oh I'm sorry, were you expecting someone else, pops?" He appeared to take great pleasure from Steve's demoralized presence. "Since you are here, mind telling me how dad's doing?"
Bucky shoved Steve out of the way, all but growling into the mic. "Enough! Let him go! Whatever was done to him...Let. Peter. Go!"
The smirk vanished. Instead he looked almost angry when next he spoke. "Who says anything was done at all? I'm just Peter."
"No, you're not. Peter would never hurt his family and you can't convince us otherwise."
"And we're not leaving without him, you!" Steve cut in.
That smirk came back, his eyes almost gleeful. As if he was hoping for exactly that. Clint's voice broke through a static connection, voice filled with a sense of alarm.
"Guys, we found explosives! The place is rigged up! We have to get out, now!"
It was a trap. The tracker luring them there, the live feed to keep them distracted.
"Shit!" He grabbed Steve just as the building shook with the first explosion. Seeing no other way out and taking into account both of them being super soldiers, Bucky steered them towards and through the window while the building went up in flames behind them before crumbling into nothing.
fin
