It's 3 AM on a work night and I am feeling it.
I want to apologize to those of you who have been waiting for the next chapter. More will be detailed below at the end of the chapter for why this one took so long.
Peter's Mindscape (Ernst's Memory)
Seeing a middle-aged silver-haired man dressed in matching colors to the transport truck –silver and black– he was driving was not what Peter was expecting to see. 'I know Charles said that he'd be showing me their memories but just dropping us off into the thick of it seems a little dramatic.' Peter looked around taking in more of his surroundings. He was floating off to the side of Ernst's left as he drove down a gravel path towards a gate with a guard post, Charles was also next to him watching Ernst.
"Why didn't you just show me their memories of planning this?" Peter asked.
"I could have, but our contractor's plan didn't go as planned so it would take more time. While I can slow the passage of time as we view it compared to outside, it is draining for an adult and even more so for a child. Combined with your physiological state as is, you will be immensely tired afterward."
Peter hummed in reply as Ernst arrived at the guard post. Of which the guard looked uncomfortable and occasionally groaned as he held his stomach before making his way over to Ernst.
"Aerid eamalak. (State your business)." The guard tried to say intimidatingly, his slightly hunched-over stance didn't sell it though in Peter's opinion.
'Wait how do I understand him? Is that Arabic?' Peter thought, but decided to wait and see what happened before voicing any questions.
"Taslim juz' liqism handasat altayarani. (Part delivery for the aero-engineering department.)" Ernst stoically replied as he handed the guard a clipboard with what looked like a bill receipt attached to some type of form.
Groaning the guard made to reach for the clipboard before his stomach gave a loud rumble and he bent over leaning on the side of the vehicle.
"Gottverdammte (Goddammit)" The guard groaned.
Ernst's knuckles on the steering wheel tightened. He then asked, voice tight "Hal kulu shay' ealaa ma yurami? (Is everything okay?)"
Waving his hand in a shooing motion the guard nodded his head. "Naeam , adhhab faqat. atabae alasharat. (Yes, just go. Follow the signs.)" Before power walking stiffly back to the guard post and pressing the button to open the gate and headed to a door behind the desk slamming it behind him before a sigh of relief could be heard.
Smirking Ernst drove onward as the gate opened.
Turning to Charles, Peter asked, "How can I understand both of them perfectly?"
"We are in Ernst's memory so we gain his knowledge as he knew it through his senses. Combined with his knowledge of multiple languages, of which Arabic and German are a part of, we can understand what is going on."
"Oh. And the guard? I'm guessing either he got lucky or they somehow drugged his food or coffee?" Peter asked.
Nodding his head Charles responded "Yes. Black Fox and Walter quickly made connections with the grunts and lower staff on base and arrived here earlier in the day, dropping off a meal for the guard and coffee. Both of which were drugged with a strong laxative."
Wincing in slight empathy, if only because having the runs was just not a good time for anyone, Peter nodded in reply. 'I'm guessing he gets to skimp out on the action moving forward.'
Taking note of the road leading towards a simple and plain-looking compound that belied the atrocities stored likely within Peter waited for something of note to happen. If the plan wouldn't go to form he would expect it to happen on their way to their destination.
Unfortunately for Peter, he waited for nothing. Ernst following the signs labeled "Aero-Engineering" in Arabic continued with no obstacles.
'Hell, he didn't even think of anything on the way here….presumably. Not sure if Charles included his thoughts on the way here.'
Calmly parking the truck near the garage, Ernst exited the van and headed to the back opening it. "Itt voltak. (We're here.)"
At those words, Peter saw a multitude of men exit the back of the truck. Each carrying a rifle, side-arm, headphones ("That is ear protection Peter.") and wearing body armor. Not what he was expecting for a sneak attack on a Hydra base.
"Mindannyian ismeri a támadási pontjait. Megy. (You all know your points of attack. Go.)" Ernst commanded as he reached to accept his equipment.
Men cordoned off into pairs, a noticeably large group of them headed for the spaced-out domed buildings by the airstrip.
'With this, our mission has started. Eagle should be in a position to provide covering fire.' Ernst thought to himself as he moved alone towards what looked like the main building.
Moving forward to the surprisingly empty building at least from the outside Ernst started to hear the sound of weapons firing back towards the garage. An alarm sounded. 'It's started properly then.'
Explosions erupted from the domed buildings as the alarm rang out. As calm as one can be when they know they are about to enter a combat situation, Ernst opened the double-sided doors leading to the main building and immediately began firing upon the group of helmeted figures in front of him using his rifle as the doors opened before taking some cover. Three of the men fell quickly as they were the ones to take most of the hail of bullets.
Ejecting his magazine and swiftly reaching for another one Ernst strained his ears to listened in case any of the remaining men dared to move. One man decided to yell and rush Ernst, perhaps trying to cause Ernst to panic and freeze up while his compatriots screamed at him to stop. Hearing the man rush his position Ernst waited till he saw the man's body barely pass the doorway.
Throwing a kick at the man's knee he heard the snap as it gave way and used his right elbow to slam into the man's jaw as he fell to the floor before turning to quickly fire off a couple of rounds to keep the rest back.
Not seeing any movement Ernst grunted before doing a quick assessment of the knocked-out man and noticed a couple of flash grenades. Smirking to himself, he grabbed one and tossed it into the building making sure to bypass the pillars jutting from the walls that were nearest to the entrance.
Moving back into cover he heard the two remaining men shout before the flash-bang went off. Rushing in as he heard the pained yells, Ernst noticed one man flailing about and quickly shot him before peeling his eyes around for the last man.
Reaching the opposite jutted pillar of the now dead man he noticed the last standing man holding his ears huddled in the corner rapidly blinking his eyes. Quickly shooting the man in the head as well Ernst made his way back to the knocked-out Hydra goon and shot him in the head to make sure he wouldn't be a problem later.
'Six down, Fox and Cat both said the path towards the records room was this way.' Ernst thought to himself as he continued his path onward.
Surprisingly, he didn't come upon any more Hydra members on his way. Opening the door he found out why, as the partners, he and his team were paid to protect and serve as a distraction for were surrounded by a group of 12 men. Dead men that is.
They were also, pointing their weapons at him.
Ernst lowered his weapon. Slowly. Before raising his hands above his head and trying to speak.
"Pl-"
"Für wen arbeiten Sie? (Who do you work for?)" Mary interrupted him in a commanding tone.
Sighing internally he tried speaking again.
"I speak English." Ernst began. "My company, Wild Pack, has been contracted to attack this base as it has been slated to be Hydra controlled….It's sorta what we do."
Mary narrowed her eyes and re-centered her aim on Ernst.
'I guess to be fair, that doesn't necessarily make him friendly.' Peter thought to himself as he watched the memory play on.
Richard though frowned before lowering his weapon and turning to whisper in his wife's ear. She nodded at whatever was relayed before turning his head back to Ernst.
"Why come to this room exactly? Alone at that?"
Not seeing any reason to lie Ernst answered, "My intel said that this was their records room. I was personally coming here to search for the man responsible for my wife's death."
Seemingly satisfied with what was said Richard gently pushed his wife's hands down. Causing Ernst to sigh in relief. And Mary to huff at her husband before settling for staring intently at Ernst.
Waiting for any sign of a threat.
"What's his name?" Richard asked as he stepped towards the computers a couple of steps behind.
"Ivan Trevkov."
Richard nodded his head and began typing on the computer. Leaving Ernst with nothing to do except wait and look anywhere but at the female watching him.
Moments later Richard made a small sound of satisfaction before inputting and extracting CDs. He grabbed a marker nearby and wrote over them before securing them in some plastic containers near the desk. Again making a small satisfied sound, he handed over the CDs to Ernst.
Ernst accepted the discs and glanced at the titles given. 'Genesis Corp., and Hydra…' Nodding his head to thank Richard, he made to leave.
'I'll make my way to get a vantage point over their movements and provide covering fire as needed. My men should be moving towards our designated extraction point. I'll do the same when I know they are safe.'
Giving one more nod, this time to both of them, he exited the door. And made his way out towards the hangar area.
'Eagle and the pack should have made their way towards our planned extraction point. There's nothing left now but to ensure that they both make their way to their jet and leave safely. We've taken out their AA guns so as long as Fox and Cat have ensured no sabotage has happened it should be smooth sailing.'
Coming upon the hangar Ernst stepped inside before choosing a vantage point for over-watch.
'And now we wait...They should be clear inside the base. It's a straight shot to here if they know the way.'
He didn't have to wait long as they both exited the doors cautiously. Richard was carrying a bag on his shoulder though he seemed to have gained a head-wound in their short time away as his wife helped him. 'A straggler or someone else? And he's probably carrying the hard disks of those computers.'
As the couple made their way across the empty stretch between the base and the hangar Ernst let himself release a sigh of relief. That is before he felt a warm metal barrel of a gun touch his head.
'Well, shit.' Ernst thought with an internal sigh. 'At least he's an amateur in how you hold someone up.'
Before he could start planning on what to do Richard and Mary were suddenly accosted by a red-skinned man in front of his eyes.
'Double shit.'
The distinct 'click' of an empty weapon greeted his ears before a growl came out of the man behind him. Ernst couldn't help but again let out a small sigh. 'Too close.'
The feeling of a separate pair of arms wrapping around his throat jolted him into action and he proceeded to try and flip the man over him.
Tensing slightly at seeing this all play out Peter instinctively jerked in an attempt to help, before stopping himself. 'This is all a memory I can't change any of this.'
Peter waited with bated breath for a winner to be decided, before everything froze.
"At this point, I had to use Mr. Wilson's point of view to get a clearer picture of what happened. As you can see Mr. Sable was a little preoccupied fighting off his attacker and your parents needed help after they were done." Charles relayed to Peter before the image faded to one of a hill overlooking the compound about 200 meters away as a man walked closer to the top carrying a case.
Behind the man were 5 bodies strewn about with either slit necks or bullet-ridden chests.
'This looks like a good spot.' Wade thought to himself as he opened the case showing a partially assembled DMR. And a lot of ammo.
'They did not skimp out on the equipment.' He finished thinking to himself, as he assembled his weapon before moving to a prone position to look over the compound.
'Hmmm looks to be about 200 meters out to the wall and from the plans we got of the compound it should be about another 100 meters from the wall to the hangar garage.'
He finished setting up the rifle before activating his radio. "I'm in position."
With that, he waited for Ernst's van to appear within his sight range. Trusting their plan to work smoothly so far, as there was only a guard as a single possible point of failure for now since he took out the nearest patrol.
A bead of sweat trailed down his cheek from the heat before he absentmindedly wiped it off using the back of his hand. 'Thank God we're in Algeria and not somewhere more north like Russia or I'd be freezing my ass cheeks off. Instead, all I have to contend with is sweating my balls off.' The better scenario in his opinion. Bundling up to keep warm is not the same without being next to Vanessa.
''Ness…' Wade thought to himself somberly thinking of his fiance. 'No, not right now. I can let her know once I get back.'
Confused Peter turned to Charles.
"I believe Mr. Wilson is alluding to him having cancer. He accepted this job before he found out so I would assume he hasn't told her about it and decided to leave for the Weapon X Program."
Not having to wait much longer Ernst appeared in his scope driving along towards the hangar garage.
'Show time~'
Watching as Ernst exited the van and relayed orders to his men Wade readied himself again. While his job was to provide covering fire when he sees any of his allies in trouble his other job was to sow discord in their ranks by killing any of the Hydra members who look like they are a leader.
'Off he goes to get whatever it is he was aiming for…' An alarm sounded from the base as a multitude of men ran out. Grunting in annoyance Wade waited for the crowd to inevitably separate into different sides.
Not having to wait long, he noticed a man start directing other groups of men before reaching for his radio.
Aiming center mass to at least ensure he hit something, Wade fired. In a blink of the eye, the man's right arm flew away from his body as the 7.62x51mm round must have impacted the humerus and ricocheted off as it snapped the bone, causing Wade to mutter in slight exasperation as the men scrambled away from the now screaming and bleeding out man in fear.
'I just can't help but give myself more work.' He thought to himself as he looked around for another target. One that was not running around like a headless chicken. Not waiting long he took his time and fired again. This time watching as the man's chest blew out and his compatriots scattered further.
Satisfied now with how his weapon performed, Wade continued sowing chaos and discord among the Hydra ranks. Surprisingly, no enemy fire ever made its way to him.
After 20 minutes or so Wade received a transmission from his radio just as he needed to reload.
"Eagle. Are you still alive? Over." the voice of one of Ernst's men called out to reach him.
Finishing his reload he reached his hand over to press and hold the Push-To-Talk button whilst aiming at another target that just moved into his sights. "Alive and kicking. Over."
"Excellent. We are pulling back now that we've completed our objectives. Please meet us at the extraction point. Over."
"Sure, I'll start heading that way soon. Over." Wade replied, before firing at the last target he could currently see.
With that, Wade stowed his weapon and made sure he had a few more mags ready to be swapped out just in case, before moving down the hill towards the compound; due to it being the quickest way of reaching their proposed extraction point.
Unfortunately, there were a few stragglers left as he came upon the small wall that separated the compound from the stretch of land outside. If they were not taken care of, they would make his path moving forward more dangerous than needed. Stopping to crouch behind a jeep that moments ago he fired upon, the driver was still slumped over the steering wheel, Wade set his sights upon the nearest grunt.
'Annnnnnd now.' He thought as he fired at the man who was searching his dead compatriots' corpses. Probably for any survivors. The man's right pectoral and shoulder flew away in a splatter of gore.
Cries in German reached his ears at this distance and the last of the men tried going for cover. One of them, unfortunately, made it inside the hangar as he scrambled away, his weapon noticeably covered in muck, and Wade tsked in response as he fired again at one poor soul's foot that stuck out behind the sheet of metal he was hiding behind.
Screaming out in pain as he lost said foot, the man fell to the side out of the cover he was behind and Wade promptly fired again, this time taking the man's head and putting an end to his screaming.
The spark of a shot ricocheting off the hood of the jeep was all Wade was able to see before he ducked for cover.
Peter himself flinched before remembering this was a memory.
'Fuckers are going to make me late.' Wade thought in irritation. His mind trying to assess where the shot could have come from.
Sighing at not knowing where the shot could have come from, he steeled himself to peek from a different direction before looking at the dead driver in the jeep.
Grinning to himself because of the absurdity of his improvised plan, he deftly pulled the corpse out of the seat and huffed in exertion. 'Dude was certainly dressed for combat.'
Bug-eyed, Peter stared as Wade tried making the corpse stay upright before aligning the head with his weapon. Satisfied at the alignment Wade then raised the corpse up, to which it then promptly was shot in the head and fell back away from the jeep.
Humming to himself Wade pulled the corpse to him to examine the now new head wound. 'Angled to left and slightly high. Another one made it to the hangar?'
Shrugging, Wade waited another minute before moving into motion. Quickly moving his weapon into position of the approximation of where the shot came from, he noticed two men, one of which was grinning at the other and laughing in what appeared to be relief.
'Sorry buckaroo should have waited to confirm before firing.' Wade thought before he squeezed the trigger and watched as the man's head became mist. His friend then screamed before passing out. At least that is what Wade assumed before shaking his head. Not willing to make the same mistake as his now dead target Wade waited for a couple more minutes and made to move to a different position to continue watching where the man fell.
Before he could do so he noticed a man wearing Ernst's group uniform walking toward the hangar. Puzzled he aimed down his sights to confirm as he climbed the stairs towards where the man passed out. Guilt and fear seized him as he confirmed it was a friendly now near a potential hostile.
Pressing his radio button Wade made to speak before he noticed two figures cautiously make their way to the hangar as well, one was helping the other. Exasperated now, Wade made to confirm the two new unknowns before they were set upon by a man with red skin. Who looked livid and injured.
Though not too heavily as he looked more out of sorts. He had a weird-looking weapon on him too. Looking through his scope Wade confirmed the unknowns were friendly, 'Huh they aren't gone yet,' Wade thought before moving his scope to cover the red-skinned man's head.
'Oh look the dude decided to monologue, heh. These Nazis sure do make a lot of mistakes.' Wade thought before he fired and once again turned another man's head into mist. The couple flinched before the man dropped the disks and grabbed his wife and brought her to the ground.
'Oof,' Wade winced, half due to guilt at scaring what he assumed was a decent couple, and half in sympathy as he assumed that was some sort of data collection the man just dropped 'good instincts at least.'
He then made to aim where the man in Wild Pack colors was before he saw the man finish stabbing the man in the chest and throat.
Sighing in relief and now grinning Wade pressed his radio button to reach out to the man and let him know their path should be clear.
"Hello there! Glad to see you made it out in one piece. I was going to let you know about the straggler but too many things happened at once... Over"
Wade continued grinning as he waited to hear a reply but received none. 'Don't tell me…' Wade thought before he switched his channel.
"Ernst?" Wade asked over his radio foregoing proper protocol before seeing the man move to reach his own.
"Eagle? Is that you, I have to thank for saving the VIPs? Over."
Back to grinning Wade replied "Yep, and sorry for letting you deal with the straggler. Was dealing with a few of them before you showed up. The last one must have passed out or something and I was waiting for him to pop his head up. Over."
A grunt was heard over the radio as Ernst responded "That explains why you aren't gone at the extraction point already...Speaking of which hold on."
Wade stowed his weapon away again as he made his way towards the hangar.
He noticed now that the couple were warily waiting near Ernst as he spoke to them.
"...with that, I'll let you two be on your way." Ernst finished before noticing Wade and waving him over.
As they both made to leave with Wade himself making to wave goodbye to the two strangers their radio came to life.
"Repeat. Changing to other friendly channels, Eagle and Wolf. We need to fall back. We cannot hold the exfil anymore. Confirm over?" One of Ernst's men called over the radio.
Sighing in frustration Ernst responded. "Confirmed. I am with Eagle, we will try to make our way to the 2nd exfil and meet you back at base. Confirm over?"
"Negative, these Nazi bastards started swarming in and we were able to overhear their comms, sir. It's about to be hornet's nest here soon they've already cordoned off our planned exfils. Can you or Eagle think of another way to extract? Over."
Ernst cursed before rapidly speaking in his language to discuss exactly what his men overheard.
Wade snorted in derision at the situation before glancing at the jet and at the couple who were now staying in silence watching him and Ernst.
"Soooo…got room for two more on the jet?" Wade asked without any tact.
Grimacing as she overheard the radio Mary made to speak to try and let the man know the jet barely had enough fuel for two to make it back to the states before Richard spoke up. "Sure, just need to help me jury rig a pipe to feed it fuel on the way."
Aghast Mary turned to her husband. To which he chuckled with a grimace and tried explaining "I know it's not safe but we just need it to be secure enough to give the jet fuel. Shouldn't be too much."
Exasperated and perhaps her conscience pushing her to try she nodded. To which Wade grinned and tapped Ernst on the shoulder who was still in a heated discussion over the radio before pausing to look at Wade.
"Got us a way out of here. Got us first-class tickets on the Escape Express." Wade said before gesturing toward the jet.
Confused at Wade's statement before the gesture helped him understand what he was alluding to. Ernst looked towards the couple of which Richard nodded with a smile that turned into a grimace and Mary who looked to her husband in concern before nodding as well.
"Understood. I'll notify my men." Ernst then quickly radioed in, to his men their plan of escape before turning back to the group.
"So I assume it has enough fuel then for 4 people?" Ernst asked.
"Nope," Richard responded with a small shake of his head. "We need to jury rig a pipe to feed fuel from the inside of the jet to the container.
Ernst paled "We what?" He asked rhetorically.
"Haha don't worry about it there Wolf. I've been on tons of rides where the vehicle was not in tip-top shape. This has got to be better than the time I had to lay on the hood of a jeep and feed it fuel directly as we drove away." Wade said to calm the man down. Of which he only got looks of fear from everyone else. Causing him to shrug.
Shaking his head Richard continued, "Anyways, I'm sure we'll be able to find everything we need in here. We don't have much time though so if you'll all hurry when I ask for something…"
Time seemed to speed up to Peter, as the memory fast-forwarded to the finished product Richard came up within such a short time.
"Well, it's not as nice as the one Peter and I thought of but it should work," Richard said with a grimace, his head wound now causing him to feel a little woozy at standing up for too long.
Everyone made their way inside the jet with the jury-rigged fuel line as secure as can be. Mary moved to the pilot seat and after turning on the jet and confirming they were fine for now. Slowly moved it out of the hangar before activating its comm system to let the men know to buckle up.
Shortly thereafter they felt the pull of gravity fight their vehicle before it lost and were in the air.
Thankfully no pressure seemed to be seeping out and Wade pat the fuel canister that was next in line to be hooked up to give them fuel.
"So...anyone know any good Yo Mama jokes?"
Peter's view then switched to the expanse he was used to from his time with Charles. He then turned to question Charles.
"That was…certainly adrenaline-inducing," Peter stated. Still processing what happened during his parent's mission.
"That it was. I hoped that this was a more satisfying way to know what happened. After all, I don't foresee your parents informing you of their whereabouts, and just knowing they are safe and sound is well and good. It doesn't hurt to know exactly what happened partly to save curiosity, but also to allay any concern from being essentially kept in the dark."
Peter nodded in agreement. "Yeah, I can see your point. Thanks for this...it does help."
Charles nodded with a smile. "Of course, now I think it's best we return to where our bodies reside. Yours still can't handle too much exertion right now."
Again Peter's view shifted to that of the backseat of his Uncle's car. He then let out a yawn as the anticipated wave of tiredness hit him. Confident in his Uncle's driving he slowly drifted to sleep. Thoughts of being able to hug his mom and dad, and picking up Teresa filled his mind.
Presbyterian Hospital – Veteran Ward
Peter woke up feeling warm and safe. The sound and feel of a heartbeat against his right ear was the source of feeling safe, while the arms wrapped around him helped with the warmth. It was honestly a struggle wanting to wake up. Moving around so that he could try and see, thank goodness the sun seemed to be out, and coming in from the window, he noticed that his mother was the one holding him. In a reclining chair next to a hospital bed that held his father. Who, other than the bandages wrapped around his forehead, looked no worse for wear.
Taking a look further around the room he noticed it was pretty sparse. A clock hung above his father's bed, while a mechanical stand and a drawer lay to his left side. There also seemed to be a small couch off in the corner for extra guests. And two doors, though one seemed to be connected to what could be a restroom for a patient.
Aware of his surroundings now, Peter debated trying to fall back to sleep or finding something to do to pass the time. 'Though, it doesn't seem like there is anything to do…' But before he could try settling into his mother's arms to fall asleep a gentle knock came from the door before it opened slowly.
"Psst, is anyone awake," May whispered as she opened the door with a grin, a large bag in hand that had the most wonderful smell wafting off from it. Ben was tip-toeing behind her with a tray of food, but with a noticeable frown on his face before reaching behind to close the door.
As May set the food down she noticed Peter was the only one awake and grinned even more if that was possible before moving to gently take him out of his mother's arms. "Looks like someone is the early bird today~" May whispered in Peter's ear as she moved him to the couch before grabbing 2 sandwiches from the bag.
Peter for his part tried not to get flustered at his Aunt's doting mannerisms and accepted the sandwiches. Which he now noticed were English muffins with sausage and egg between the slices. 'Must be from a small restaurant. Almost like McD-'
"Peter, do you know what time your parents went to sleep?" May whispered while sneaking a glance at Ben who laid down the tray of food on the desk while looking on at his brother in contemplation.
He shook his head. "No Aunt May, I woke up a lil' while ago."
She hummed in reply before moving to gently shake his mother awake.
It didn't take long before Mary groaned and stretched out in the chair as she woke up.
"Wakey wakey sleepyhead." May whisper-sung as she grabbed more of the sandwiches to give to Mary.
"Morning...What time is it?" Mary asked rubbing her eyes, before accepting the offered food.
"Mmmm, it's about 9:00 am now," May responded as she sat next to Peter and silently offered him another sandwich.
Sighing Mary nodded her head before giving a greeting to Ben who sat against the desk next to his brother. "Morning Ben."
"Mornin' Mary," Ben replied with a small smile. "You holding up any better?"
Taking a bite of her sandwich she nodded her head. "Yeah, I'm glad to finally feel everything start to settle."
Ben just hummed in reply.
And for a time, Peter's family just relaxed as they either ate or waited in silence. Content to just let the moment be.
'This is nice.' Peter thought with an internal smile. Sure he couldn't predict what could take his parents away now. But statistically speaking they should be out of any
As Peter finished the last few bites of his sandwich his mother asked, "Did you get to use the restroom yet sweetie?"
Peter shook his head no.
"Hm, well you can use it first then. I can wait." Mary said with a smile while gesturing to the restroom door.
"Okay mom," he said before moving towards the restroom.
Once inside Peter locked the door just in case, before setting the seat down. After which, before he could get started he heard hushed whispers but nothing intelligible, and moved towards the door.
"Can you at least tell me what happened, now that Peter is away?" Ben whispered.
"Ben, I know that we didn't get to sit down and speak much about this yesterday, but can we wait to speak on this for when Richard wakes up?" Mary whispered back in slight exasperation.
Mary received a hum in reply.
Sometime later
Exiting the restroom, Peter's mom scooched past him for herself, he made his way to the couch again to sit by his aunt. His uncle sat by his father's bed with concern now etched onto his face.
'He has been asleep for a while. Hopefully, he wakes up so-Well then.' Peter smiled as his father's bleary eyes blinked open.
"What's with all the racket?" Richard asked Ben with a smirk. Though it came off as more of a lopsided grimace with the bandages wrapped around his father's head and his voice sounding like he was woozy.
"We had to make sure you woke up somehow Dick," Ben replied with a more watery smile.
"Well, felt that I got enough beauty sleep as well. Now, where's my wife and children?" Richard said without any tact for who was around him.
May paused in her eating to stare. Ben looked shocked as well. Before asking confusedly "Children?"
Richard just looked back at Ben, confused as well. "Well yeah, I have Peter my oldest, and Teresa, my youngest."
Peter only noticed due to his seat placement, but his mother opened the restroom door with a hand over her face in exasperation.
"We were going to tell them later Richard," Mary said before moving to her husband's other side to rub his face. "How are you feeling though?"
Giving a dopey smile he responded, "Like a third of a million bucks."
"Only a third?" Mary asked eyebrow raised.
"Excuse me," Ben interrupted "Are we just going to brush over you both having another kid?"
"Well yeah, I don't have my two kids in my arms as well, Mary," causing May and Mary to awe. He then turned to Ben, "And uh surprise, Ben?" he finished with a chuckle.
"Can we go get her then?" May immediately jumped in.
"Uhhhh…" Richard looked to his wife in an unasked question.
Shaking her head she replied "No, but if you wanted to, you can go to our house and grab some baby stuff that we have there for her. So we can keep track of her from here at the hospital when I have time to go pick her up. It kind of has to do with our job."
"Sure. I'd be happy to go." Ben offered. "Maybe later though? We kinda did just get here."
"Of course," Mary said with a smile. It wasn't like they were going to be able to leave anytime soon to pick up their little girl. So waiting to get the baby food, blankets, and other materials was fine to put off for now.
"Great! Now then, little brother," Ben opened with a tight smile "mind explaining to us exactly what has been going on? You both were still so busy yesterday that Charles and his nurse were only able to say they wish you the best."
Richard chuckled while trying to reach behind his head before wincing. "Yeah sure, Ben. Ask away."
While his parents were still under their NDA's, and probably would be for the foreseeable future, they did their best to explain their time in the C.I.A.
"Wait, what do you mean, you were spying on Nazis?" Ben cried out.
Hours Later
The sensation of having your hair combed through was heavenly and could not be understated. Especially when you were already relaxed and waking up. Causing Peter to burrow into his bed, causing his bed to giggle and caress his head gently. 'Whaaa' Were Peter's thoughts as his body began the stages of waking up as his mother continued rubbing his head while he rested against her shoulder.
"– so would that be fine?" Ben asked.
"Sure! I'm sure Peter would love to go on a play-date." Mary said whispered excitedly.
'Wait whaaa, play-date?' Peter thought as he rubbed his eyes before yawning. "Wassat mom?"
"Oh. A playdate honey, just a way for you to make some friends." Mary said to her son before kissing him on the cheek as he woke up. "Did you sleep well?" She continued before setting him on his father's hospital bed. Who was also asleep.
Peter nodded his head before yawning again. "Yeah, it was nice." A quick glance to see any changes in the room also showed that May was asleep on the couch.
"Hey there champ!" his Uncle said beaming. "You want to help me go get your sister's baby stuff so that your parents can just go straight to picking her up tomorrow? Your parents tried explaining to me where it was but it'll probably be faster for you to just show me where all this stuff is held."
It took a bit for his Uncle's words to register in his mind before he nodded his head. "Sure Uncle Ben."
"Cool, we'll leave right now and be back in time to wake up your Aunt."
Peter nodded in affirmation before making his way to use the restroom.
On his way out, he again caught the tail-end of a conversation.
"–ome diapers, her blanket, and some baby wipes. That should be enough for the few days we have to stay here." Mary listed off to Ben.
"Got it. Still don't know why they won't just let you both leave if Richard's wound wasn't that serious but it's probably some spy-related reason." Ben said sighing before shaking his head.
"You ready Peter?" Ben asked already making his way to the door.
"Yeah Uncle Ben."
Hugging his mother as she kissed his forehead Peter left waving goodbye as he and his Uncle left the room. His mother sat back in the chair and waved goodbye.
As the uncle and nephew exited the room into the hallway Peter noticed that it was surprisingly empty except for a few doctors and nurses walking through the hallway.
"How are you feeling Peter?" Ben asked as he held his nephew's hand and lead them to the intersection of the hallway that housed elevators.
"I'm doing fine Uncle Ben. I am a little worried for my dad, but he's pretty strong so I'm not worried." Peter said.
And in what was quickly becoming Ben's new way of communicating when worried, he hummed in reply before giving a quick squeeze to his nephew's hand.
As they then entered the elevator they passed by a middle-aged man wearing all black except for his shirt which was a mute grey, with an eye-patch over his left eye and brown hair barely beginning to silver from the side, holding a folder who eyed them both before giving a nod to him and his uncle. Moving into the hallway towards where his parents were held.
'So that's how Fury looked when he was younger…' Peter thought to himself as visions of how Fury looked later when Peter became Spider-man entered his mind. Mainly a more wrinkled face with silver hair. Culminating in how he looked after the Infinity Formula was drained from his body and his son took over S.H.I.E.L.D. which is to say someone who wouldn't look out of place in a retirement home.
Sighing Peter just added another thing he would have to see about helping solve. 'I know the guy is a bit of a hardass he doesn't deserve to be whittled away to that state.' Which brought Peter down the line of thought again on trying to fix everything. 'I wasn't expecting it to be easy, but I'm not an adult with a lot of time right now. Plus… that...I'm going to need Strange's help for that.'
As he and his Uncle continued onward to the hospital parking lot, bypassing a family where a blonde man in a doctor's coat was trying to fix his bow-tie as his wife handled their children, Peter asked his Uncle a question. He always valued his Uncle's words of wisdom, not only as a father figure but as Peter's hero growing up. Which, now that he thought about it, his father may sit there as well eventually, so he might ask him as well after.
"Um Uncle Ben," Peter started, gently tugging at his Uncle's hand to get his attention.
"What's up Peter?" Ben asked as he grabbed his car keys and began opening the door making sure to put Peter in the back and buckling him up.
"If you had the power or ability to help a lot of people, but not a lot of time to do it in, how would you go about doing it?" Peter finished nervously.
Ben, who just started the car, took a look back to see his nephew's face after hearing a question that serious. He noted the look of anxiety over his nephew's face and the way his hands gripped the side of his pants. "Is this about your dad Peter? You're just a kid, the doctors will take care of him. He's got some of the best here in the hospital helping him."
Peter shook his head. "No, just…" Peter looked out back toward the hospital as the family he noticed earlier now leaving to enter the parking lot as well, passing by their car and moving behind them. "after seeing the work the doctors in the hospital do I'm feeling overwhelmed. I know you all like to say I'm smart and could probably become one if I wanted when I grow up. But how could I help a lot of people in such a short amount of time?"
Ben breathed sharply as he digested what Peter said. His first thought and worry were if they were already putting too much pressure on Peter to start thinking of what he could do to help utilize his talents for either society or himself. His second was that it was Ben's responsibility to assuage any concerns his nephew had and help him. 'How to word it correctly…'
Ben hummed in thought as he started to drive out of the parking lot. "Well Peter, I think if someone had the power to help a lot of people but not a lot of time to do it, he shouldn't beat himself up about not reaching everyone." Ben started, trying to tackle what he assumed was Peter's guilt or worry about not reaching everyone. "While it's a great responsibility to help people, it's an equal responsibility to help yourself as well. That said, I think that this person should maybe try and take a step back to try and plan out what would be the best way to help everyone as best as they could."
Stopping at a red light he continued "I know you said this person doesn't have a lot of time to help everyone, but taking the time to plan is probably some of the wisest advice I can give and is still applicable. Going in headfirst and tackling problems sporadically is not only stressful for yourself, you might get into what we call 'hindsight is 20/20' where you notice something you could have done better."
As Ben finished he mentally shook his head 'What am I doing, I know Peter's mature and smart for his age, but it's so easy to forget he's just a kid. I hope that didn't confuse him more.' Deigning to take a quick look behind him, Ben noticed that Peter now had a look of contemplation on his face. The anxiety or fear was still there behind his eyes but his nephew was seemingly processing the information well enough.
'This is all stuff I knew what to do thanks to Charles helping me somewhat before, but that was in regards to my parents. Can I put that into practice, but on a larger scale? Do I have the time? I know Johnny and Sue lose their parents soon. Should I just not worry about it since I can't do anything?' Peter thought to himself. He maybe should have worded the question differently. He can understand the logic behind what his Uncle said, even agree with it. But he couldn't help but feel turmoil at knowing so many tragedies may happen. 'I'll ask him again later. I think I made him worried with the question.'
"Mm, thank you, Uncle Ben," Peter said as the light turned green.
"Any time Peter," Ben replied with a small smile before driving forward. A muffled pop and screeching was heard to their right and Peter stared as the lights of the car shined through the door opposite him before his world shook, his head hitting his side of the car door, consciousness fading to black.
Aaaaaand that's all for now. I know, ending on a cliffhanger again after the last chapter kinda doing the same thing kinda desensitized the feel of this one. Or maybe that's because of how long this chapter took to write. If any of you have been checking my profile for updates I will say that it was 100% true for the state of the chapter. My excuses, or reasoning for taking this long boil down to a few things.
I'll be honest, procrastination was probably my biggest issue in this chapter combined with the first half of this chapter. This combined with my writer's block (which I'll get into what was my issue) is why this took uh *looks at last update date* Jesus almost 5 months to update. I don't think of myself as that great of a writer and so am appreciative of any views this story gets honestly, but I know myself that for writers of stories I enjoy I don't like long periods of no updates (wanna chime in this is why I update my FF profile with an update of where I am at with the chapter so anyone who wants to know of where the next chapter is at they can view percentage progress) I wanna say once again I will try to do better with my own personal discipline to writing more consistently.
Writer's block was another major issue and combined with my laziness affected the speed at which I wrote this chapter, when story-boarding the story out as a concept I thought I would be done with Peter being a biological child by now. Yet we're at 3 chapters now where he is not in a state to do anything (not including the first chapter) and there is a noticeable lack of Spider-man action or him personally doing anything but setting things in motion. This is a point I am struggling with still. I personally don't like stories that focus on other parties a majority of the time and not the protagonist. And being limited to what a child with no powers can believably do is making me feel like I have to explain (or over-explain IMO) the changes it can cause and making me view myself as a hypocrite. It's why I've tried to limit this to a 3rd person limited, with the occasional 3rd person omniscient POV. But this chapter was a struggle for me. I've only written one chapter where Peter was Spider-man in full. So focusing on his parents surviving Algeria, while important and needed to be written so that no one could point to this story and say Peter's parents still should have died, did cause me to be stumped. Mostly because the first half of this chapter went through 4 revisions due to me failing my own standards. (the 1st was too wordy and too detailed about firearms, 2nd too generic and cartoony in fight descriptions, 3rd too clinical, I think you all get the point) Now, that said, I think I'm fine for now as the next time something like this should happen Peter will either be a part of the action or it'll be happening in tandem with Peter fighting a villain.
Next (you thought those were the only things that affected my writing schedule) I won't shill for myself here but I have gotten into streaming on twitch when I decide to play some video games and with an insane amount of purchases of said video games, my time was spent doing that. But, I think I've gotten this type of balance down now so it shouldn't affect my writing as much anymore.
Lastly, this is just a question that came to me. I mentioned in my 3rd paragraph here about trying to limit myself to a 3rd person limited POV. Should I just stop trying to limit myself and go 3rd person omniscient when needed (because it would make things a lot easier IMO)? That I feel would be the closest to reading it how a comic or manga would present its story but I don't know if the tone and flow of the story will die because of it.
That said, thank you as always, for the read.