Audacity

As expected, Gwen came back to Peter. In the midst of his despair she decided to show her face again. But that meant nothing to Peter since she wouldn't stay to help. Her only purpose to be there was to taunt him.

"Peter," her soft voice sounded.

Peter heard this, but didn't want to look up. He knew she was there.

"Peter, you'll die in here," Gwen continued.

Her lack of encouragement didn't surprise Peter at all. In fact, he agreed with her.

"I know," he dully replied in a gruff voice.

"The same way I died."

"I . . . know."

After a moment of silence passed, Peter thought she was gone, but she was actually there the whole time still. These were some pretty odd hallucinations, he thought. They happened quite frequently these past few months, but as of now they were quite unusual as of their typical behavior.

"But you need to get up," she sternly demanded. Her tone went from that of ethereal to that of someone meant to lead.

The change took Peter off guard. He looked up this time, and into her eyes, even though she wasn't really there. He didn't understand.

"You need to get up for me. For my father."

Now he understood very well. But what also occurred to him was that this wasn't a paranormal entity standing before him. This wasn't anything of the supernatural, only what was in his head. It was after all a hallucination. His mind was speaking to him, through Gwen. This realization enlightened him. He had the answer to his problem all along. His own conscious was enough to guide him. And now it was time to follow through.

But was this hallucination merely inside his head? Was there nothing more powerful at work here? He didn't understand how he could have found the answers like this. It made no sense that his subconscious could tell him everything he did not know. Though, as a science geek himself, he knew this was plausible. The subconscious was a gateway to people's hidden thoughts and desires. Maybe the other side of him – a side he has yet to discover – knew something he didn't.

The growing surge of enlightenment made Peter feel powerful. Invincible. He yet again pulled at his chains. Nothing. But he kept pulling. He was determined. He kept on pulling. Nothing again. He did it once more, but this time something felt different. Peter felt as though his muscles grew twice their size as he pulled again. This was enough to keep him motivated to pull once more. He didn't know if he was actually making any progress, but to him the chains felt as though they were loosening a lot more than they were initially.

At that point, to which he had no clue how he could tell, footsteps were sounding outside of his room along the halls. Through the concrete walls that separated him from the outside it would be impossible for him to tell in other circumstances, but for some reason he could tell. He just knew it. He could sense it. With that, Peter put aside what he was doing and relaxed himself completely, knowing they were to enter through the door. As if on cue, they did. Two men wearing black uniforms as though they were the S.W.A.T. team came through the door, one armed with a rifle behind his back. They shut the door behind them. Their faces gave a cold expression, to which Peter returned. They both approached him, feeling powerful as they did so upon the sight of him chained to the metal chair.

"There's been a change of plans," the guy without a rifle spoke. "Your wills of resistance have proven to be inconvenient for our operation." Good, Peter thought. "However, the boss has a different approach."

"The boss?" Peter said.

"HYDRA Director Baron von Strucker wants to meet you personally," the man replied. "What a privilege."

"I bet," Peter sarcastically responded.

As the other soldier with the rifle made his way behind the chair, he took note of the chains themselves. They didn't appear as constricted as before. It seemed as if they were pulled at, like there was a struggle of some sort. Not only did they seem a lot looser, the metal itself appeared to be more-

In the blink of an eye, Peter pulled his wrists apart with immense force, snapping the metal in pieces. The pieces flew in opposite directions very quickly, hitting both sides of the wall. Releasing the chains for Peter was like ripping sheets of paper. Immediately taken off guard and with no time to react, the soldier standing in front of Peter clutched at his eye as if it were his only child as his face was met with a piece of the chain swung into his face by Peter with full force. Knowing the other was to pull out his rifle and fire and fire away, Peter extended his leg backwards, raising it high enough to kick the taller man with astounding flexibility directly in his chest. The kick was strong enough to knock the soldier at least six feet away while scraping across the floor. Peter then turned his attention back to the other soldier. Without having to turn around first, he flipped effortlessly in the air, turning his body with enough momentum to kick the soldier on the ground. The blow was enough to assure that he wouldn't be getting up anytime soon. With that being taken care of, Peter climbed onto the metal chair again, his left foot planted on the seat, and flipped over it completely, while grabbing the top rail. Once he spun completely forward and his feet planted back onto the ground, physics took over and gave Peter ability to throw the chair at the last soldier lying on the ground, for sure keeping him down.

The sound of the impact resembled that of rusty metal clanking and a few fractured bones. Peter wasn't even acknowledging his own strength at the moment. He just acted. Everything was by impulse. He didn't even care if he killed the soldier or not.

Also through his spider senses, he could tell there was someone else about to enter the door. Peter did what he normally would do in this type of situation, that that's happened many times before. He leaped to the ceiling and crawled over above the door so that he would be invisible to whoever stepped through. As the intruder kicked opened the door, two guns pointed and ready to fire, the wallcrawler dropped down ready to attack from above and put them to sleep, only to halt himself at the last minute by sloppily turning himself out of the way at the sight of Natasha. Though, he would have missed anyway as the spy effectively rolled out of the direction of Peter's stealth attack, following with a swift jerk in his direction with the guns aimed right on him, easily able to land a clean shot. But upon sight of Peter, she lowered the pistols out of utter relief and surprise.

"Peter?" Natasha said first. "How the hell are you free?"

Peter took note of her dressed in dirty jeans and a black tank top, covered in several blood stains.

"Does that answer your question?" the boy responded as he motioned his hand towards the two unconscious bodies lying in the middle of the room.

Natasha took all of this in and was even more shocked.

"It wore off that fast?" she questioned.

"Apparently, but right now let's focus on getting the hell out of here," Peter protested.

It was the first time the spy ever heard him swear, so that alone was enough for her to comply and agree with him immediately. She quickly nodded then cautiously approached the door. Before stepping out completely, she peeped her head to check both sides of the hall, keeping her hands clutched firm and steady onto her handguns. Scanning the halls, she then drew herself from the room and into the halls, aiming the guns upwards.

"There's no one there," Peter said as he went ahead of her. "But they'll be here soon."

"They had to have heard me when I fired the pistol earlier," Natasha spoke, but half-muttered.

Now Peter's senses were awakening by nearly every step he took. Whatever effects the drug had on him before, they were surely wearing off now. He approached wall beside him, placing his hands against its cold exterior and drawing his ear to it, almost touching it. Natasha was almost amused by this, despite knowing most of his enhanced abilities, but right now she was worried about not getting caught. She quickly checked their backs to make sure they were clear and then turned to see Peter again, except this time he was slowly moving forward along the wall.

"This way," he said, hyper-focused.

Natasha trusted him and followed him along the hall (It's not like she knew her way around any better). The entire structure of where they were was foreign to both of them. They had no clue where they were, but Peter could sense a path leading to the outside. He could tell they were underground. Something about that spoke to him the moment he awoke in this place, but he was never certain. Peter kept following the path along the wall, his hands stay planted on it as though he were a lizard or a spider himself. Then Natasha started hearing footsteps from the other end of the hall. It was a far way down, but it still made her just as anxious. For some reason, it appeared as though Peter was more confident than her at this moment. She didn't understand why.

The wallcrawler kept leading the way until they reached two double doors, neither of which had windows. It was blocked by a chain and a lock which required a key. Miles must have figured that it was necessary to take extra precautions in case they attempted to escape. The footsteps grew closer, indicating that they were now on the hall just perpendicular to theirs. Natasha told herself screw it, and fired at the lock. At the risk of making more noise and alerting the enemy nearby, the chain fell apart, and the door was unlocked. Peter and Natasha knew now that all that was left for them to do was to run like hell. They bolted through the double doors, not bothering to anticipate what was on the other side and proceeded to dart forward. It was only another hall, except this time it was a little brighter. With still no enemies in sight, the two raced forward almost forgetting to check the halls before proceeding to dart forward. At this point it was less like a maze and more a clear-cut path to follow. Peter's assistance was no longer needed. There was only one way to go.

As they turned to the next hall, two guards armed with rifles standing by the door, appearing as though they were waiting there for them, aimed their rifles at both of them. Natasha thought quicker. She impressively shot down both of them at the same time, amusing Peter yet again with her ruthlessness. Since Peter got ahead of her again once they reached the door, he swung through it violently as if he were a football player. What followed next was something neither one of the two expected, though it simply occurred as something in a perfect unison. Peter first passed through the door, showing himself to the various HYDRA soldiers on guard at the exit – a caged elevator – along with Miles who was just about to leave, turning to face Peter over his shoulder in disbelief. Then out of instinct, instead of racing forward, Peter slid across the floor to the side towards a HYDRA soldier, both kicking his weapon out of his hands and tripping him onto the ground, while Natasha stormed through and viciously sprayed bullets all about. Neither one of them planned on that to happen, but neither did they question it.

Once Peter tripped the HYDRA agent, he took their rifle and threw it at another, hitting them across the head and laying them down onto the ground. Two guards were wiped out by Natasha's bullets, while Miles and a few others swept out of their path. Miles pulled his Glock out of his holster in a heartbeat, but that wasn't quick enough before Natasha rushed his way in time to kick the gun right out of his hands. Before she could shoot him down, Miles swiftly disarmed one of her handguns with lightning speed and attempted to fire her own gun against her, but Natasha was quick enough avoid this while the bullet swept by and hit the wall ahead. Not able to land a hit on Natasha, the other two HYDRA soldiers aimed nervously and frantically as they tried not to hit Miles. Their efforts were soon averted by Peter as he darted their way, easily dodging every single bullet that was fired at him. He flipped over the spray of bullets and planted both of his feet on one of their faces, then cartwheeled in the opposite direction of the other soldier, sending Peter's feet sweeping in the air and knocking the rifle out of their hands in the process. As the soldier attempted to pull out his pistol from his holster, Peter leaped towards him, planted one foot on his shoulder, then backflipped off of him, kicking directly below the chin as he did so with his other foot.

Managing to keep her gun gripped tightly in her hand, Natasha continued to stand off against Miles, though he was taking the upper hand due to his absence of a weapon in his hands, allowing for there to be less of a distraction in his hands. He was deadly when it came to free hand-to-hand combat, even deadlier than with a gun. Natasha tried shooting him at point-blank range, but Miles simply disarmed her other hand as well and kicked her in the gut, making her stumble backwards and let out a slightly painful grunt. Miles never saw it coming when Peter kicked Miles directly behind the knee, causing the man to drop down on his left leg, and continued by spinning into the air directly over his right knee and launching his foot directly onto his face. The HYDRA agent was almost unconscious as he received a broken nose rushing with blood.

Peter looked to Natasha to make sure she was all right, which she was despite holding her hand against her stomach from Miles' kick. Both of them were panting violently, but still not caring to stop from the adrenaline pumping through them. Miles was squealing in pain from Peter's blow. This relieved Peter on the inside. He really wanted to kill Miles right now. After the bastard put him through all of that torture, he had no sense of remorse for anything he might do next.

"Maybe I won't have to repeat myself this time," Peter said as he leaned down towards Miles' face. "My name is Peter Parker."

At that moment, Peter used enough force to break Miles' leg as he kicked Miles while he was down, which followed with another shriek of pain from the HDYRA agent. Natasha didn't even bother to stop him this time. Miles deserved it, and Peter deserved his revenge, knowing that he must have tortured him as they did to her. Then Natasha turned her attention back to the situation at hand, remembering that there were agents heading their way still. Peter didn't forget this, as he could sense their direction farther than Natasha could.

"Let's get going," Natasha said, snapping him back to reality.

They both entered the elevator and Natasha stood with her guns still aimed towards the open door ahead, expecting dozens of agents to appear before them. But they didn't, and the elevator's caged doors closed. They ascended, and Peter could tell they were on the verge of reaching the surface.

After what seemed like minutes, the doors opened again, and the two were met with a night sky. They exited the elevator only to find two HYDRA guards standing on opposites ends of the elevator the entire time. They were easily dealt with. After running low on ammo, Natasha decided to take one of the agents' pistol, and the two of them continued make a run for it. Observing the environment, it became clear to Natasha that they were on a base of some sort. It was a HYDRA base. She didn't know exactly where they were, but she knew they couldn't be close by the island of Manhattan.

They took cover behind a guard tower, which was guarded by an automatic turret, though they were out of its line of sight.

"Something tells me we're not entirely on land," Natasha whispered.

"Me too, I can feel it," Peter replied.

"If we're surrounded by water then we'll have to take a boat in order to escape."

"Sounds like a plan."

"That is the plan. The only trouble is not being seen."

"Nothing we can't handle, right?"

Natasha wanted to smile at Peter's newly adapted confidence in his espionage capabilities, but the circumstances at the moment were too dire to be humored by anything at this point.

"I can get us to where we need to go," Peter stated more serious this time. "My senses can guide us again."

Natasha nodded. For once this time she didn't feel the urgency to protect him as much. Instead, it was more of her dependence on him to keep both of them safe. While she could have snuck out of this entire base herself if she really tried, Peter's assistance made it that much easier. Thank God for him, she thought.