Chapter 2

When Steve got the call from Natasha, he was relaxing in Stark tower with a book, not realizing his day was about to be tossed upside down. He answered the phone on the third ring, and the sound of gunshots had him on his feet immediately.

"Steve, we have a situation." Natasha's voice had a chill going down his spine and not because of the usual chill to her voice, but because of the cold rage underneath it.

"What's going on?"

"We've got a paramilitary group that broke into Midtown." she didn't need to specify that she meant Peter's school.

"Where's Peter?" he demanded, already running to the elevator and heading down to the lab. He listened to the sound of gunshots and Natasha's breathing, the sound of her fighting filling his ear as he stepped out of the elevator and into his husband's lab.

Tony looked up the instant Steve walked in and the stricken look on his face had him standing immediately and moving closer, wary as his partner pulled the phone from his ear and put it on speaker to reveal the sound of fighting. A moment later, Natasha spoke, and Tony realized just why Steve had run down in such a state.

"They've taken Peter, and from the looks of it, that was there objective all along. Most of them had already cleared out by the time I got here." she informed them, and Tony's attention caught on her words.

"By the time you got there? How did you know to get there?" he demanded, and had to wait as Natasha shouted out orders for the men who were left behind to be taken in for questioning.

"Peter called me. One of the men had grabbed Gwen and he was going to fight him." before either men could protest, she pushed on. "We all know he's perfectly capable of taking on a single man. We've trained him to be capable of defending himself, and you know he wasn't about to let his girlfriend get hurt." the sharp words had Tony glaring, but he bit back his anger. "He called me because he knew I would be able to act immediately without panic, as you two are currently doing." there was a pause and she huffed out a breath, sharp tone softening. "Suit up, get down here. You're both going to want to take a look at this. In all honestly, I think the purpose of this was to draw the two of you out."

"Well, then they'll get exactly what they want." Tony growled out, moving immediately to don his suit. Natasha didn't respond except to hang up, and Steve was quick to follow Tony's example, hurrying to dress in his own armour.

"Tony-" Steve began, but Tony cut him off with a grim smile that said the other was feeling the exact same pressure in his chest, the exact same fear.

"Don't worry," the mask came down making the voice of his husband that much more sinister. "We'll get him back, and they'll wish they never took him in the first place." Steve nodded, mounting his motorcycle and starting it up even as Tony shot off in the suit. Steve was quick to follow, but he couldn't shake the feeling of foreboding. Peter had never been threatened before to get to them, and he was worried that this might be more than to just draw them out. The Avengers had made a lot of enemies over the years, and there was no shortage of enemies who would hurt or kill to try and get back at them. The thought sent a wave of anger so overwhelming through him that it nearly took his breath away as he weaved through the streets of Manhattan. He shook his head, clearing the anger. Tony was right, they'd get Peter back, and whoever had taken him would regret it.

Peter woke up spluttering after a bucket of water was dumped over him. He groaned, his head pounding, but he was fairly confident that it would fade quickly as most headaches tended to do. He looked up at the man who'd dumped the water over him but found himself once again faced with the masked men that had raided his school. Taking in his surroundings, he noticed the room was fairly sterile in a creepy mad scientist sort of way that gave him chills. On the wall facing him was the one way glass, but with barely any effort he could hear at least a handful of men watching on the other side. In the room with him were six of the military men, and he glared defiantly at all of them.

"Well, you managed to get me here. Now what do you want? Because I can't imagine that I'm here just for my charming personality." he quipped, and he didn't even try to resist when the blow caught him across the face, splitting his lip. He licked the blood off his lip, annoyed, but he needed to know why he was there, and better yet, what they were planning on doing with him.

"You sir, hit like a girl." he mentally apologized to his aunt who he knew could hit a hell of a lot harder than most of the assholes in the room. "I'm surprised they let you into their super secret military group." he was rewarded with another punch to the face, and boy did it ever hurt. He could actually feel the bruise starting under his skin. "That one was slightly better, I'll admit. But hitting me won't get any of us where we want to be. Why am I here?"

"Why do you think?" The voice that posed the question came from beyond the glass, and Peter turned his attention in that direction. His eyes measured the pane of glass, and he figured it was probably bullet proof, but even that could only withstand so much. His brain started whizzing with the calculations while his mouth responded to the question.

"Well gee, I'm not quite sure. I'm not exactly someone of importance, so why don't you tell me?"

"Son of the great Tony Stark and Steve Rogers, also known as Iron Man and Captain America – and you don't think you're someone important? Well, at least we know your fathers arrogance hasn't rubbed off on you."

"Well actually I definitely have his arrogance and I actually do hold quite a bit of worth in myself. Just needed to be sure they were the reason you guys were stupid enough to grab me." he was rewarded with another hit to the mouth and this time he spat out the blood that pooled from where the inside of his cheek was sliced against his teeth. "Man, you guys really need to work on your manners." Again it earned him another punch in the face, and really his jaw was beginning to ache. Rather than speak this time, he turned back slowly to look at the man who'd been hitting him, and he let his anger into his eyes. There was a reason he wore a mask, and one of them was because he knew he wouldn't be such a hero if people saw the darkness that lurked in his eyes. He'd seen too many innocent people injured not to have that darkness lurking. The man seemed to pause, but then he punched Peter again, and really, he was getting tired of this. His wrists flexed in the cuffs, and he knew he could break them, but he wasn't stupid enough to think he could make it out without any knowledge of where he was and without any certain idea of how many enemies he was facing. The man pulled back to punch him again and Peter braced for it.

"Enough." Peter looked back at the glass, and his eyes narrowed when it became transparent and he saw a bunch of men in white lab coats lined up behind another man dressed in the military gear, though this one didn't have his mask on, and Peter realized he recognized him, though vaguely.

"Since when did S.H.I.E.L.D. agents take to kidnapping the sons of their super team?" Peter asked, and the man lifted a brow, clearly impressed that Peter had recognized him.

"Well, it goes twofold really. On one hand, I would actually have to give my allegiance to S.H.I.E.L.D. for it to matter, which I don't, and on the other hand, if you want to cripple a superhero, you hit them where it hurts." Peter felt the hairs on the back on his neck begin to stand on end, his stomach twisting in a knot. He had a feeling he knew where this was going and he didn't like it. "You being the son of our target will hurt them in a way you couldn't even imagine, and this way if they try and screw us over on our demands, we have someone to test our theories on." his stomach dropped and he couldn't tell if the bad taste in his mouth was from the blood or the growing fear.

"Well, that would be assuming that my parents would allow you to completely disregarded my autonomy for my own body, which will never happen." he knew his voice was sharper than it needed to be, but he supposed it couldn't be helped.

"What they will or won't allow is irrelevant. Let's just hope they give us what we want without a fight. Otherwise, using you as a lab rat will be next on our to-do list."

"Right after pissing off the Avengers you mean." he called them by name and watched some of the lab coats flinch. "Not very clever of you, really. Even without Iron Man and Captain America as my dads, I also have the Black Widow, Hawkeye, Thor, and the Hulk as my uncles and aunt. Do you really think they won't come after you for taking me? And if you experiment on me, do you really think they'll let anything stop them from finding you?" Peter gave a laugh he didn't feel, but it was clearly believable, because the lab coats were frowning and exchanging glances. "You clearly weren't around for the battle of New York because if you were you'd know they don't let anything go without a fight." he forced himself not to flinch at the memory, because in all honestly he'd been there too as Spider-man, and it had left him still having nightmares. Of course the apparently-not-a-real-S.H.I.E.L.D.-agent didn't even blink.

"The Avengers initiative isn't a threat. Our base isn't somewhere they would be able to find easily, and by the time they could, well." he let the sentence cut off, a clear threat, but Peter didn't allow it to scare him, instead he just scoffed.

"Well, if that's all you think is stopping them; you wouldn't happen to still have my cellphone, would you?" There was silence, and Peter allowed the grin to split across his features. "I really hope for your sake you ditched it, or destroyed it, because otherwise they're already on their way here." The man looked about ready to hit him himself and the one who'd done the beating so far made sure to deliver the blow in the man's stead.

"Knock him out. It's time to move." they reached for him and he decided it was now or never. With a yank he broke the chain of the cuffs and was moving, rushing the soldiers but careful not to use his abilities. He let himself move just that little bit faster, but no faster than his aunt would move, and he was careful only to use moves his family had taught him. Regardless of his situation, he'd undoubtedly be in even more trouble if they discovered he was also the masked vigilante. Of course, without any protection, they got their own blows in. He'd managed to at least knock them all of their feet just as the door opened and he'd made a run for it, but the instant he got past the guy in the door he was caught by a tazer against his side. He made a noise of pain, jerking away when the electricity stopped flowing, but surprise had been one of his only advantages, and with the few seconds delay to recover from the electricity, he lost it. He was tackled and while he managed to fight it enough to almost get free, the blows then rained down on them, and he could help but cry out when he felt one of his ribs crack.

"Enough!" Next thing he knew he was jabbed with another knock out dart, and he was out of it. The last thing he thought before his eyes slipped closed was that he wished his dads would find him.