Ultimate Avenging Alliance Chapter 3 The Devil Who Dares

"Got a firm grip?"

"Yeah. You wedged securely?"

"I am. When you're ready. Pull."

Peter let his stickiness anchor him, and pulled on Matt's ankle chain. Matt had wedged himself in the bathroom to give Peter a chance to break the chain. It didn't seem to be working.

Peter grunted, his arms and hands aching. Mat was trembling with the effort of staying put, and…

Peter hissed, and let go. Matt scurried over. "Blood?" he asked.

"Chain cut my hands rather than break," Peter muttered. "Did the cuffs cut you ankles, or…?"

"No, they're padded," Matt said. "Let's…wash that blood away."

Peter stuck his hands in the sink, letting the water clean his hands. "It's not too bad; it should seal up in a few minutes," he reported. "How's the smell?"

Matt had sat down with a bit of tissue to clean his chain. "I'll be fine, it just surprised me," he dismissed. "So we can't break the restraints."

"We can't break the restraints," Peter confirmed, sitting next to him.

"Can we smash the door?"

"Let's try that later."

They were silent for a minute.

"How'd they catch you, Horn-head?"

"Well, Web-head," Peter smirked at the nickname, "there was a mugging, I saved the girl, and she dropped me."

"You didn't hear it coming?" Peter asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Your senses didn't warn you of your ambush," Matt muttered.

Peter tried to come up with a come-back that wasn't lame, overly-prickly or a blind joke (because Matt's the only one allowed to crack those), and failed. "Okay, I take your point," he muttered.

"The prosecution rests," Matt smirked.

"The hypothesis is still unproven," Peter countered.

Matt groaned. "If I don't try to out-lawyer you, could you nor try to out-scientist me?"

Peter frowned. "Then what can we talk about?"

"Well, I could go through all the legal precedents that say I should have taken action to keep you home the moment I realised you're a minor," Matt offered.

Peter made a face. "Not my fault I was bitten at fifteen," he muttered sullenly.

"I was blinded at nine," Matt reminded him. "Actually, why don't you tell me about that research?"

"Uh…you're not a scientist," Peter pointed out.

"I know the basics," Matt retorted. "And if I don't get it, you can explain it to me."

"We can try that," Peter agreed. "They're theorizing that the spider that bit me had a retro-virus in its venom, which then basically re-wrote my DNA, so as old cells died and were replaced, the new ones were exhibiting more…spidery characteristics. Which makes sense, I suppose. Dad started the research, and he encoded it all to his own genes, so it would explain why I'm the only one it seems to work stably on…" he trailed off.

"Er…the spider changed your DNA, and it worked because it already had a lot of your genes?" Matt hazarded.

"Close enough," Peter agreed. "They seem to be wondering what will happen if they give me more of the retro-virus – ah, the DNA changing thing."

"If it's a matter of a one-time change, surely more retro-virus wouldn't change anything?" Matt asked.

"That's one possibility," Peter nodded. "There may be other traits that are still dormant. It might enhance the ones I've got. It might send me from being a slightly spider-y man to a slightly man-ish spider. Might poison me, but we think we know how the spidey-sense is responding to potentially fatal injections."

"Oh, so they're just going to stick you full of stuff until they work out what it does," Matt snorted.

"Pretty much," Peter shrugged. "Then they want to give me anti-virals."

"Delightful." Then Matt groaned and leant is head back. "I've just remembered. I'm meant to be in court next week."

Peter winced. "Can your partner handle it without you?"

"Probably, but judges don't like it when attorneys don't show up," Matt fretted. "Plus we tend to need Daredevil to ensure we don't have witnesses change their stories or go missing or anything."

Peter winced. "I hope it works out."

"So do I; we can't really afford to ruin any cases," Matt said gloomily. "Are you missing anything much? Other than classes."

"I can catch up on most of it," Peter dismissed. "Not necessarily the Spanish. There's a class test…tomorrow? Tomorrow, I think."

"Having problems?" Matt frowned.

"It doesn't come easily, and I tend to be pretty busy," Peter said defensively.

"I did Spanish at college, you know," Matt said. "If we get bored, we can see what we remember."

"Maybe," Peter allowed. "I tend to get mixed up with the verb endings."

"That's just a matter of practise and memorization," Matt assured him. "Shouldn't be too hard to-"

The door opened, Matt and Peter sprung to their feet, automatically going into defensive crouches. Bee One and Two entered. "Murdock, your turn," Beet One announced.

"I don't feel like it," Matt said flatly. "I think I'll stay."

Bee Two hefted his rifle. "It wasn't a question."

Matt snorted, then fell forward into a handspring. Peter leapt straight for Bee Two, spotting Matt give Bee One a hefty double kick. His spidey-sense tingled, but he couldn't dodge the tranq dart. The more powerful sedative all too soon overwhelmed him. The last thing he saw before his eyes closed was Matt being pinned.

AN: Can't be bothered with somethimg clever. See previous chapter. Katara.