Reticent Monsters (Ultimate Spider-Man - Cartoon)

Chapter 27: File: Subject Alpha S (Part 2)

File: Subject "Alpha" S 

Date: 9/26/2017

The room was bare and completely white. Nothing of life nor color was inside, with the only disruption being a small cot that protruded from one wall. For several minutes the picture was of a lifeless cell. Then, something hissed, and a far corner and the room began to split, opening wider and wider as if folding in on itself.

Two hydra guards marched inside, hefting something small and limp between their arms. They dropped the boy roughly on the cot and, without a pause for breath, left the room.

A white straitjacket was pulled tight over the boy's thin frame, binding his arms to his back with thick, mechanized clamps that constricted all locomotion. Brown, sweat-lagged hair became a colorful beacon compared to the, otherwise, starch walls, but what distracted from that limp mop was the swollen and beaten face of one Peter Parker. Deep, boding bruises stained his jaw and cheeks, as bold as spilled ink, while one eye was almost swollen shut, a string of blood hung past his split lip and a  sprained nose which had been hastily fixed up with a small, butterfly bandage.

For several minutes, Peter was a motionless sack on the cot, completely unmoving aside from the stuttering rise and fall of his chest.

Then his eyelids began to flicker and consciousness lurked beneath the surface, while his face twisted into a pre-pained grimace. With a soft miserable groan, one eye slit open, only to clam back shut with a pained hiss. This time, he blinked rapidly to adjust to the new lighting, though his swollen eye was slow to the movement. Peter groaned throatily and stared at the ceiling, then dropped his head to look to the side, eyes pinching as if to discern this new place. Lips curving into a frown, he pitched forward to sit up, only to convulse and collapse. A queer look crossed his face as he looked down, finally noticing the straitjacket, and his eyebrows pinched with a million thoughts swimming through his irises.

Perplexed, Peter twisted himself to the side and on to his knees, intending to get a better look at his surroundings, only to gasp as his body convulsed again with sharp, slashes of pain that made him slump back down instead. Sweat already peppered his temples, and as if coming to a decision, he sagged against the white sheets and stared up at the ceiling. After a few minutes of being stuck to his thoughts, the reality of what happened seemed to strike him like lightning. His eyes stretched with panic and his arms shifted under the jacket as hard. Breathy rasps crumbled past his throat as his arms began a slow tug that pulled inside the jacket, but when it didn't break, he struck out in wild movements.

However, the straitjacket kept a steady hold over him, too stubborn to be broke, driving Peter to the point that a scream came crawling up his throat. But before it got past his teeth, he clamped down, jaw set in childish determination, and eyes sturdy through the wet layering of gloss. After minutes of a fruitless, teeth-gritting struggle, he huffed back on the bed with a grimace, no doubt feeling the afflictions of his body.

However, while his body stilled, his heavy breathing didn't subside, and Peter squeezed his eyes shut. His lips moved in utterance as if whispering a mantra to appease the aches of his body, and after a moment of dwelling in his chant, his face smoothed from its bristled edge and his breathing fell back on pace. It took him a few minutes more of forced tranquility before he reopened them, but something sad and hurt remained. His lips soured and he looked sick, giving the impression that if there was anything in his stomach, it was in danger of resurfacing. Despite that, a thought crossed his queasiness, and a slow, easy smile upturned his face; one of loyal confidence.

"They'll come for me though," he whispered with a self-assuring nod. "They won't abandon me. They'll...they'll be here soon."

With those words of pure faith, he turned over in the cot and closed his eyes.