The Experiment Chapter 3

Bucky groaned, squeezed his eyes shut, and leaned forward to hold his throbbing head. "This is a new kind of torture," he complained.

"I do this kind of thing in school, like, every single year," Peter grumbled.

Bucky threw a pity-filled look to Peter and whispered, "You brave soul‒"

"Pull yourselves together," Steve commanded, interrupting Bucky's charade. "Reading and doing some silly math problems is not life-threatening. Better this than the maze."

Each of the three was chained by the ankle to a desk that was bolted to the floor. They were arranged in a neat row with Steve in the middle, and they faced a floor-to-ceiling one-way mirror that displayed nothing but their reflections. The extremely small room also had white walls, gray floors, and lights as blindingly bright as those in a department store. As usual, there were no windows and the single door was behind them.

Their kidnappers had given instructions for these experiments. They were given exams that tested various mental proficiencies such as memory and logical reasoning. Before, during, and afterward, their pulses were measured through their wrist bands and brains scanned through the technologically-advanced one-way mirror.

Steve wasn't sure what their captors were looking for. If these were tests then the maze running must have been some sort of test, too.

Steve sighed. At least these exams were easy. Even if the tests were hard, he would still be grateful because Peter was back. Spider-Man or not, Peter was just a kid; Steve felt that he and Bucky needed to do a better job watching out for him.

Many tests later, the three were beginning to feel the effects of continuous mental effort without rest. They had stopped talking very much between exams, preferring to close their eyes until the next paper booklet was placed in front of them.

This time, however, the man who came in did not bring booklets. He instructed, "Answer the questions that will be presented on this screen by clicking one of the three buttons on these devices." He motioned to the mirror-screen behind him then placed a clicker with buttons on each of their desks. "With each wrong answer, you will be punished. Talking his prohibited. Sharing answers by non-verbal communication methods is prohibited. Turning away from the screen is prohibited. Refusing to answer a question is prohibited. Violating these rules will result in punishment."

Peter wasn't sure what sort of "punishment" these guys were referring to, but he didn't want to challenge the people who succeeded in kidnapping a couple of Avengers. Even if it was just a dose of that poison, he wanted to avoid it at all costs.

Unfortunately, after a few warm up questions, the questions were timed and grew increasingly difficult. Steve was the first to miss a question. It turned out that the result of the wrong question was a shock from his wrist device. It wasn't major but it was significant enough to rattle him. Both Peter and Bucky had instinctively turned to their friend, resulting in a shock from their own devices. Steve warned his friends too late, "Don't look at me!" which resulted in a second electric pulse. Then all three missed the question on the screen, resulting in yet another shock to each wrist.

Now that they were all shaken up and tense, it was even more difficult to answer the questions correctly.

It continued until the questions were too complicated to answer in such short time, and all three were getting punished after every question for what felt like an hour. At one point, Peter gave up and tried to put his head down, but got an electric pulse for turning away from the screen.

Eventually, the questions stopped coming, but no one dared to look away from the screen or say a word.

Just as the man from earlier entered the room, their wrist bands had them gasping for breath and falling into unconsciousness.

When they woke up, they were picking their heads up off their desks back in the classroom. Peter felt less tired, but he didn't feel truly rested. He assumed that they were given some sort of nutrients somehow because he wasn't starving. He tried to look at his friends but was immediately reprimanded by his wrist device.

The man came in again to give them the clickers, and the questions started from the lowest difficulty once again. Like last time, they were stopped when they could no longer answer any of the questions correctly for a long time. Again, they were then knocked out to be refueled.

For the third time, they greeted consciousness in the classroom. And then again. And again. And again. For so many times that Peter lost count.