Chapter Three

Tony had been searching for over 5 hours. I have to find him, he kept telling himself. I have to find him and take him home. He's being held captive. Unless he escaped. Tony thought about that for a moment, Doubtful, he decided, he's hurt. Does he have his suit? He figured it was worth a try.

"F.R.I.D.A.Y., track Peter's suit."

"Sir, his suit tracker has been deactivated," Friday said with, surprisingly, worry.

Great, just what I need, Tony thought with sarcasm.

"Well, where did it stop tracking?" He figured he would at least be going the right way if he found that out.

"10 miles northeast." F.R.I.D.A.Y. directed.

"Holy shit," Tony said under his breath. How did he get so far? Tony was already about 10 miles away from the compound. This made him wonder how long ago Peter had been kidnapped. How could I be so stupid? He had been so worried about finding Peter that he forgot to check the security tapes. As he starts flying northeast, going as fast as his suit will let him, he tells F.R.I.D.A.Y. to open the security footage from 7:00 pm to 8:00 am last night.

"Searching for footage," she says. He's about halfway to where Peter's tracker had disconnected when F.R.I.D.A.Y. finds the tapes.

"Don't play them yet. Wait until I land." He doesn't want to miss anything while he watches them. Tony flies or a few more minutes before goes down between the trees. He's eager to watch the videos.

He touches down on the ground, "Lights, camera, action." F.R.I.D.A.Y. rolls the tapes.

The timestamp is 2:01 AM. Tony flinches at seeing Peter. He looked miserable. His right arm, even though it was bandaged, was thinner than his left. He had cuts and scrapes all over him and had bags under his eyes.

"The gauntlet burnt the skin and most of the muscles in his arm." Dr. Strange was standing with his back turned to Peter, talking to a nurse.

"Poor kid," Tony heard her say, "he's been through so much." They both look at Peter over their shoulders.

"Too much if you ask me. Especially for a kid his age." Strange says with a sigh. They both walk out of the room. Tony watches the tape for a few more minutes, but it's only Peter sleeping. He looks so peaceful, Tony thinks, so innocent. He fasts forward to about 3:55 AM. He notices a dark shadow in the window above Peter's bed.

"Are you sure this is the right place?" a raspy voice asked. Tony couldn't hear the response. "Alright, if you say so."

There's a crack as the figure hits the window with a bat. They hit it again, another crack. Then again, it shatters onto the floor. Tony sees Peter's eyes open as the stranger climbs through the window. Peter grabs the web-shooters that were on his bedside table right as a bag goes over his head. The stranger lifts Peter out of the bed and hangs him over their shoulder then they climb out of the window, into the darkness of the night. Tony fasts forward again.

He watches himself freak out at Peter being gone. Then Dr. Strange coming in and running back out. Strange is out of the question. One down, 35 more to go, Tony thought to himself. It was getting dark Tony turns on his night-vision and keeps looking.

Back at the compound, Happy is still questioning the team.

"Bruce, your turn." Happy yelled standing in the doorway of Tony's office that F.R.I.D.A.Y. had turned interrogation mode on in. They walked into the room. The second they sat down, Happy started, "Would you ever hurt Peter?" he asks with a serious face.

"Of course not! He's just a kid!" Happy looks him straight in the eyes. Bruce's gaze goes everywhere but Happy's. Why does he seem nervous? Like he's hiding something.

"Bruce, do you have anything that you want to tell me?" Happy leaned forward across the desk knocking his elbow into one of Tony's NAE Awards. Bruce doesn't answer. "Bruce?"

After a minute or two of silence, Bruce looks up at Happy.

"Can I go now?" he asks. Where can he go? He thinks to himself. The metal that protects the base was made of Vibranium. Donated by T'Challa and imported from Wakanda. Even the old Hulk couldn't break, or dent it.

"I guess so." Bruce jumps up and rushes out the door. What is he hiding? Happy follows Bruce back to where the rest of the team is still sitting.

Tony had been walking around for about ten minutes. Heading north away from the compound. He was beginning to get worried. What if I can't find him? What if it's too late? No, no I can't think like that. He came around a corner and noticed something on the back of a tree.

"What the hell?" he whispered. As Tony got closer he saw that it was some kind of string. No, not string, webs. Peter was here. He walks slowly to the other side, not letting his guard down. As Tony gets closer he realizes it's a person. His head was hanging like he was asleep. He had half dissolved webs clinging to his face. He seemed vaguely familiar to Tony. Then he remembers.

"Rodney?" His head jerks up and he looks around. "Cayson, what the hell are you doing here?" Rodney's gaze settles on Tony, he looked tense and scared. Struggling to see him in the dark. Tony had met Rodney when he was a part of S.H.I.E.L.D. He had struck Tony as the 'Strong and Silent' type. Tony had never heard him speak.

"Stark?"

That voice, Tony knew immediately, he took Peter.

"Yeah, who else would it be? What are you doing here?" He decided to play it cool.

"Uh, that's confidential." Rodney looked nervous. "Of course it is. You work for S.H.I.E.L.D. right?"

"Yes."

"Huh, thought that was done for, with Hydra taking over and everything."

"We're a small organization now. Fewer people to question loyalty."

"Oh, that's good to know. So you must be here on superhero business, right?"

Rodney is silent for a moment then changes the subject. "What about you, what are you doing here?"

Tony looks around and starts walking around the tree, "Well, you know, nightly stroll in the woods, calms me down. Your turn."

"Long way from the compound for a stroll, don't you think?"

Tony stops and looks at Rodney, "And how would you know where the compound is?" Rodney's face looks panicked for a moment. "Uh, S.H.I.E.L.D. knows everything regarding the Avengers."

"Only Nick Fury and Maria Hill know where the Avengers Facility is. Besides the actual Avengers that is. So I'm going to ask you again. How do you know where the compound is?" Rodney doesn't respond. "Alright you have 10 seconds to answer or I might just make you part of the tree instead of stuck to it. If you get my drift." Tony starts walking, "Ten." Nothing, "Nine." Still no answer, "Eight."

"Alright! Alright, I'll tell you!"

"Wow, you really aren't good under pressure, are you? Cough it up then."

He still looks hesitant, "Someone told me."

"Thanks, Captain Obvious. Who told you?" He's quiet again, "Seven." Tony continues

"I'm so going to get fired for this," Rodney says under his breath.

"Six."

"Maria Hill told me, now is that all or do I have to go through two full interrogations today." Tony stops walking again and stares hard at Rodney. At least Peter was smart enough to get some answers before he left. "Maria Hill?" Tony wasn't all that surprised.

"Yes, but I have no idea who told her what room the kid was in."

"Someone on the team told her. Why'd you take him?"

"Honestly, I don't know why we needed him. They ever tell me anything. I don't even know what his name is."

"Well, you shouldn't, he's about the only one on the team who still has a secret identity. Hey, after he beat your ass which way did he go?"

"South, I think."

"Hm, how long ago did he leave?

"About an hour, I don't know."

"You're not very helpful, are you? Doesn't matter, are you ready?"

Rodney looks very confused, "Ready for what?"

"Your trip back to the compound. Where you'll be questioned again then get a pretty little room in our underground prison. Although it was sort of destroyed when a sixteen-year-old kid saved the universe."

"He's sixteen? Geez, you guys let anyone join the team nowadays, huh?"

"He's not just 'anyone'." Tony takes the webs binding Rodney to the tree and breaks them apart. "Buckle up." He grabs Rodney and lifts off the ground. Then starts heading back to the compound.

Peter had been traveling for hours. He was exhausted and could barely move his injured arm.

I'll just rest for a few minutes. He swings down to the ground and walks over to the biggest tree. He falls asleep almost immediately, careful not to let his guard down completely. Every noise made him jump.

When dawn finally comes, he starts out again. Peter couldn't even move his right arm, and when he did, he had to sit down and take a breath. It was agony. He'd been heading to his apartment, knowing the only people he could truly trust were May, Ned, and MJ. I hope they're okay. Peter couldn't stop worrying about them.

As he got into view of Queens he tried to go faster. He was so close. By the time he got to the main city, he decided to go through an alley and take a back way to get to his apartment. Peter climbed to his bedroom window and peeked inside.

Seems empty, he thought. He couldn't see anyone. Most of his stuff was in boxes and his bed was gone. I wonder if Aunt May is even here. With that thought, he slid the window open and climbed through.

Tony was back with Rodney in handcuffs. All of the entrances to the compound were sealed off.

"F.R.I.D.A.Y. tell Happy I'm back, and I have a surprise."

"Yes, sir."

Happy was in the middle of questioning Bucky when he got the message from F.R.I.D.A.Y. Since they were going by made-up names, Bucky was the Winter Soldier, and one of the last to be grilled for information.

Happy made his way to one of the outside entrances. He entered the new password Strange had set up immediately after Peter's kidnapping. He and Happy were the only ones who knew it. The door opened to Tony in his suit with an unfamiliar man in his arms.

"What took you so long?" Tony said as he squeezed by Happy and into the compound. Happy turned and followed.

"I've been questioning the team," he informed Tony as they walked. "None of them seem guilty, or even capable, of hurting Peter."

Happy wondered if he should tell Tony about Bruce's interview, and his suspicious behaviour. He decided against it.

He glanced at the strange man Tony now had hung over his shoulder. There was a blindfold over his eyes.

"Uh, Tony?"

"Yep, still here." Tony responded but kept walking.

"Tony." Happy said more sternly.

"Hap, I can't stop." Tony explained, "This is the guy who took Peter and, as you've probably noticed, Peter isn't here. This sorry excuse for an agent is our only lead. That kid's out there, injured, and by himself. I know he's figured out we've got a traitor so he's obviously not going to come back."

Tony quieted for a moment, then stopped abruptly in the middle of the passageway. Happy almost ran into him.

"He doesn't trust any of us…" Tony looked down at his feet, "he doesn't trust me."

Happy had only ever seen Tony this distraught once. When his parents were killed.

Happy walked around Tony and stood facing him. He placed a hand reassuringly on his unoccupied shoulder.

"We'll find Peter, we will." He searched his friend's face but Tony was still looking at the ground. "Come on," Happy takes his hand off of Tony and points at the man hung over his shoulder, "he's not going to interrogate himself." Then turns around and keeps walking.

They walk down the corridor in silence for a few seconds, then Happy turns his head and looks over his shoulder at Tony, "Who is that guy, anyway?"

"Rodney Cayson, he works for S.H.I.E.L.D., I met him a while back."

"S.H.I.E.L.D.'s still a thing?"

"Yeah, I guess. He says it's pretty small now, though."

"Did he tell you where he got Peter's information?"

"Apparently, Maria Hill has something to do with it, but, like we thought, someone on the team told her about Peter."

Tony was falling apart, but he knew he had to stay strong for the team, for Peter. That was part of the reason he was crumbling. He couldn't, for the life of him, figure out why someone would kidnap Peter.

He first thought they did it for the money, but Rodney would've left a ransom note. Could it be one of Peter's old enemies? Tony thought about that for a moment, but every one of his past villains were either in prison or dead. That kid's a damn good hero. He pushed the thought to the back of his mind, he couldn't focus on it right now. Tony had to find his kid.

"Tony we got a probl-" Steve started but stopped at the sight of the man draped over Tony as they walked into the common room. "Who's he?"

"Someone." Tony said and kept walking towards what was left of the interrogation room. He wasn't about to give away information to anyone unless he knew for sure he could trust them. This is going to tear the team apart.