Recap: Peter had snapped and ended the war, killing Thanos and his army. His powers saved his life along with 11 hours of surgery by Dr. Strange. Tony wants to see him but Strange won't let him. (Remember that this is before FFH)
Chapter Two
Tony was about to punch Strange in the face, "Let. Me. See. Peter. Now." This was not a request, this was an order.
Strange was genuinely scared. He had never seen this side of Tony.
"He is still in a lot of pain," he tries. Strange remembers just how much pain he saw in Peter's eyes, how afraid he looked. Tony just glares daggers at Strange and says nothing. Although he's worried about how Tony will react, Strange takes his hand off Tony, and sighs, "Room 12." He looks down as Tony and Happy walk by. Then he turns and follows them.
Tony pauses at the door, Strange opens it and pokes his head in. "Peter?" No answer. Strange turns back to Tony, "He's asleep right now." Tony pushes past him into the room. Happy follows.
"WHAT THE HELL" Strange hears Tony yell.
He comes bursting out of the room and pushes Strange against the wall. "WHERE IS PETER?" Strange looks at Tony confused.
"What do you mean?" Tony is about to burst with fury.
"HE'S GONE" Tony yells. Strange pushes Tony off and goes into the room. He turns to the bed, the blankets are on the floor and the pillows askew, Peter is nowhere to be found. Then he notices the window open. Only it's broken. From the outside.
Peter woke up to glass breaking and falling on the ground. He opened his eyes and saw someone standing over him. A shadowy figure. It was still dark out, around 4:00 AM, Peter guessed.
That means he had been sleeping for about 1 hour before the stranger broke in. At least Peter thought it was a stranger. Before he could get a good look at them, a bag soaked in chloroform went over his head and he passed out. He grabbed his web-shooters, which had his suit inside of them, a split second before the bag went over his head.
When he woke up again, he was being carried. Hung over the stranger's shoulder. The bag over his head didn't smell like chloroform, It was making them dizzy so they changed it, he thought. It felt like the person carrying him was running. They don't know I'm awake, he realized, I'll wait until they stop to rest then I'll make a run for it. But, the stranger ran for at least an hour straight before stopping by a river.
Peter only knew it was a river because he could hear the bubbling of the rapids. But there aren't any rivers by the Avengers HQ, where am I? The stranger set Peter down on the ground, not trying to be gentle. Peter landed on his right arm and had to bite his lip so he didn't scream out in pain, I'll give them a good punch before I leave, or maybe a kick.
"I've got him, I'm sending you my coordinates now. This bounty seems too good to be true, are you sure it's real?"
The stranger's voice was raspier than Peter would have expected. It sounded like they were talking on a phone and Peter could faintly hear the response,
"He said 20 million if we got the kid. Do you want the money or not? Stop asking questions and just bring him."
Bounty? Why would anyone want me that badly? How could they know where I was? The stranger was still distracted. Now's my chance, he decided.
He slipped his web-shooters onto his wrists, his right wrist was bandaged but it still hurt when he put it on. Half of his face was also bandaged along with his neck and his entire arm, it was hard to move that half of his body. Peter double taps the shooters and his suit starts encasing his body. Fortunately, the stranger's back was turned so they didn't notice anything. When the suit had covered all of him he ripped the bag off of his head and jumped up.
The stranger whipped around and Peter saw that it was a man, although his face was covered. Peter also noticed that they were in a forest, he used this to his advantage. He started running towards the stranger at full speed and at the last second he shot a web into the air and lifted off the ground, kicking the stranger in the face before swinging away.
When Peter looked back he realized that he had knocked the stranger out cold. I should figure out who he is and who he's working for. He turns around mid-air and swings back to the stranger.
Strange runs out of the room. Straight towards the intercom and says into it, "Lockdown! Lockdown now! No one gets in or out! Secure all exits! Five-mile perimeter search!" He looks at Tony, who's fuming.
"Tony, I had nothing to do with this, I swear to God."
Pepper stands up."What's going on?"
Tony storms to the exit, he double taps his chest and his suit starts forming around him. "Peter is gone." He says to Pepper.
"Oh no." Pepper responds. Strange looks at Happy, who's standing there in shock.
I'm going to kill the one who took him, Tony thinks angrily as he flies away right before the metal wall closed over the door. But why would someone take him? Then he pieced it together, there's a bounty. He's dealt with this before. But who set it? Nobody knew where Peter was except for the Avengers, any one of them could have done it, but why?
"F.R.I.D.A.Y. tell Happy that someone on the team is a traitor, he'll know what to do." He says.
"Yes, sir."
Could it be Happy? Tony squashed the thought, Of course it's not Happy, he cares about Peter just as much as I do. Tony starts searching for Peter, going ten miles instead of five.
"Happy, someone on the team is a traitor." F.R.I.D.A.Y.'s voice says into Happy's earpiece.
He's in the sitting room with the entire Avengers team, Peter and Tony excluded of course. Everyone is still shocked by Peter's bravery the previous day and exhausted from the fight, no one would have thought the kid would be the one to save the day.
All of them seemed to be talking at once.
"Why are we on lockdown?" Quill asked.
"Where's Tony?" That was Scott.
"Is Peter alright?" Shuri said, which surprised Happy, but, if he thought about it, Shuri did worry about Peter a lot. Oh Peter, good luck with that, Happy thought. Then he remembered this is serious, someone in this room is trying to hurt Peter.
But who would do that? He's just a kid. He looked around the room, at the people that Peter had trusted with his life, every one of them. That kid really does have trust issues, Happy stops himself again, this is serious.
"Ok, everyone," they all stop talking and look at Happy, "Peter has been kidnapped."
The eruption of noise almost made Happy panic too, but he forced himself to stay calm. He's a tough kid, he can handle himself. But the other half of him argued, he was hurt and didn't have his suit, for all we know he could be- he cut himself off, not able to finish the thought.
"Guys! Guys listen!"
They calm down enough to look at Happy again, "The people in this room are the only ones who knew where Peter was."
He looked at everyone individually, right in the eyes, "Tony is out looking for him right now. I'm going to question each one of you alone. If any of you know something, speak up now."
The room stayed quiet. "Well then, we'll go alphabetically, made-up names, as Peter would say. Ant-Man, you first."
Scott walks up and follows Happy to Tony's office. They sit down, Happy in Tony's chair and Scott across from him. To Happy's surprise, Scott speaks first.
"Do you really think I would hurt that kid? He looks no more than 17 for God's sake." Scott looked genuinely worried for Peter.
"He's 16, actually." Happy says back.
"Jesus," he heard Scott say under his breath. "Poor kid. He's too young for this superhero stuff." Scott looks down at his hands, which were on the desk in front of him.
"Damn right." Happy agrees. They both sit there for a moment, not saying anything.
"Ok, I think you're fine. But don't go anywhere." Happy finally says. Scott gestures to the windows, metal walls on top of them.
"How can I?"
Peter had tied up the stranger and was watching him from a tree.
"Karen, turn off my suit tracker," he whispers. Nobody can know where I am. Not even Mr. Stark. His arm is bleeding, he can see it through the bandage, which is dirty and loose.
Peter can't believe how much thinner his right arm is from his left. He thinks about how so much has happened in less than a day, 18 hours to be exact. How he woke up after supposedly being "dead" for five whole years then to go immediately into a deadly battle and save the entire universe only to be kidnapped not even the next day with a bounty on him that was set by one of the people who he trusted the most.
He looks down at the stranger, who's finally waking up after three hours. Peter stays in the tree and waits until he's fully awake. Then he swings down right in front of him. The stranger looks scared for his life.
"Who are you?" Peter asks. The stranger says nothing.
"Who are you?" He asks more sternly. Still nothing. Peter thinks for a moment, "You're not going to say anything, are you. Fine then."
He shoots a web straight up and goes back into the trees. The sun is just rising over the horizon when Peter realizes how incredibly tired he is.
He makes sure he's secure in the tree, looks down at the stranger again, then falls immediately into a deep sleep. When Peter wakes, stars are just beginning to shine, he goes down to the stranger before he wakes up. He activates Instant Kill and stares at the stranger. With the help of his suit's night-vision, Peter is just realizing what he looks like.
He has short, brown hair and is very muscular, with a sharp jawline and broad shoulders. His nose was very crooked. Like he had broken it and done nothing. The stranger stirs, and squints to make out Peter's figure.
"I'm gonna ask you again. Who are you?" The stranger is quiet but still looks worried. Peter takes a step forward and he flinches back.
"My name is Rodney Cayson!"
Peter wasn't expecting an answer, "W-who set the bounty?"
"I don't know his name but he promised us 20 million if we brought you to him!"
Peter narrowed his eyes, "Who's 'we'?" Rodney goes pale and looks at the ground.
"Who's 'we'?" he said louder.
Rodney glances up then looks at the ground again. Peter lifts his left arm to him and webs Rodney's head to the tree so he can't look at the ground.
"Maria Hill!"
Peter is very confused, Why does that name sound familiar?
"Is that who you were talking to back at the river?" Rodney shakes his head.
"Who was it, then?" Rodney scowls and clenches his jaw. Peter sighs and continues. "Ok, where are we?"
Rodney looks at Peter, "Well, assuming we're in the same place as where you attacked me, about 20 miles northeast of the Avengers H.Q." Peter looks up in the sky, then back at Rodney.
"Who told you where I was?"
Rodney shrugs, "Hill did but I don't know who told her."
They have a spy, Peter realizes, but who's they? He points at the webs that bind Rodney to the tree.
"Alright those will dissolve in two hours." Rodney's eyes go wide.
"Wait you can't just leave me here! Hold on a second! Get me out of thes-" Peter shoots a web over his mouth and swings away. Peter goes to the top of the highest tree he can find and looks around.
Everywhere he turns there are trees. He sees something in the distance off to his right, above the treeline. It was flying. To Peter, it was a speck, but when he looked closer he realized it was a person. Mr. Stark, Peter wants so badly to go to him, he's looking for me. I can't trust anyone anymore. I can't go to him.
End of Chapter 2