Search for the Soul Gem

Chapter Fifty-Two

"Stark?" Steve called.

"The Stone is gone," I said, my voice weak. I stood up slowly and looked over at the four across from me. Their faces all fell.

"It is what," Thor asked.

"It's gone. The box is shattered and the Stone is gone, what's so hard to understand about that," I snapped back.

"How?" Nat asked.

"Still working that out," I said, suddenly distracted. The blood that I had followed led out the door and down the hallway toward the stairs. Rounding the counter, I followed the trail to the door of the stairwell. The team fell behind me and followed. I pushed the door open to find small clusters of blood droplets and thin streaks of blood from a hand. It was as if her hand was covered in blood and she fell. Or was pushed.

"God," Clint breathed from behind me. I descended the stairs, following the drops of blood on the cement and the small streams of blood against the railings until we reached the 92nd floor. I followed this trail down the hallway, finger trails and handprints of blood against the wall. against the wall, there was a sudden explosion of streaked blood along with small pools. It was like someone had gotten into a fight in that one spot. I forced myself to continue on down the hallway until we got to Banner's lab.

"Oh my god!" Steve said in complete shock. Banner was tied to a chair, blood dripping from his nose into a puddle in his lap and blood running down his leg from his knee where a bullet hole was.

"Bruce!" I rushed over to him and started working on the knot on his wrists. He let out a small moan of pain. Natasha knelt down in front of him as Clint came to work on the knots on his feet.

"Bruce, wake up. Bruce!" she encouraged.

"Nata-sha?" he muttered, his voice a small croak.

"Banner, what happened to you?" Thor boomed, bringing Banner more into reality. Banner brought his head up and looked up through hazy eyes.

"To-Tony," he croaked out. I dropped the ropes and came around to kneel in front of him.

"What is it, Bruce?" I asked.

"Pe-Peter," he brought his shaky hand up to point toward the back cabinet. I looked over at where he was pointing. The lab was a disaster the further in you looked. I stood up and strode over to where Banner pointed. Hidden behind the counter Peter lay in a crumpled heap. There was a small pool of blood around his head and blood smeared across the floor around him. I scurried over to him and knelt down next to him.

"Parker! Parker, wake up," I urged, rolling him over to his back. Blood caked the side of his face and his nose had grown a slight purple. "Peter, wake up," I murmured frantically. He finally started coming to, his eyes fluttering slightly. As soon as he started coming to, he scurried back away from me. He was manic as he was trying to get away from me.

"Hey, hey! Easy kid, it's me," I assured. He finally looked up at me and relaxed.

"Mr. Stark," he breathed a sigh of relief.

"Peter, what happened here? What happened to you?" I asked. His chest was rising and falling frantic, as if in a panic.