Reticent Monsters (Ultimate Spider-Man - Cartoon)

Chapter 28: File: Subject Alpha S (Part 3)

Her hands fell in her lap. The video was over, but Peter's face still haunted the screen. He lay frozen, trapped, inside the laptop, huddled on the cot with a momentary ease that blended too perfectly with his faith, but the blotchy bruises were like mistakes on a canvas and stood out boldly with their obvious truth.

May couldn't quite wrap her head around it. Her brain replayed the time he woke up and tried to sit normally, only to end with him writhing in pain, then it restarted over and over and over again. Those monsters put her boy in a straitjacket. They beat him. Hurt him. The grimace on his face had been the only tribute to his injuries beneath the white jacket, but she was just as certain they were there as Peter's faith in being rescued.

Slowly, May leaned back and tilted her head, staring at the ceiling as she sucked in a deep breath, but the barrier blocking her throat made it hard for any air to truly reach her lungs. She managed to keep her face clear for just a few seconds before her chin began quivering and her brows crushed her eyes, and that was when the tears finally broke. Her hands went up to cover her misery, causing the laptop to slid off her legs and hit the ground.

How could they do that to him? He was just a boy. Just her little boy.

How was she supposed to protect him from that? What could she possibly do to help?

The poison of uselessness consumed her earlier determination, and all that remained was the shriveled and sickly remnants of what could've been hope. This was just one of the videos, the earliest in date, in fact. There was no telling how worse it got from there.

"Ben," May sobbed miserably, "I can't do this anymore..." If Ben survived, none of this would be happening. Peter loved him like a father and there was hardly anything that they didn't tell each other. Maybe then, Peter wouldn't have kept his superhero life a secret for so long. Ben had always been good with Peter, he had known all the right things to say. Both he and May had been new to the parenting gig, but Ben's ability to adapt so quickly was what got them through the first few years. May promised herself during his funeral that she would do everything in her power to protect Peter, and just a few measly years later and look at what their family had become.

The door slid open, but May didn't care enough to see who it was. The bed dipped underweight and remained there patient and waiting. It took her several minutes to find the gall to look up, but Dr. Connors wasn't even looking at her, instead, he was staring blankly at the wall with his hands limp in his lap. His eyes were red and wet, and his shoulders sagged under an unseen weight of exhaustion. May slowly sat up, wiping her nose on the sleeve of her jacket, before wrapping them around herself with a determination to be unswayable.

It took a moment before Connors' spoke, but his voice was so soft and strained that May had to lean forward to pick up his words.

"You saw the videos?"

May sniffed again, but straightened her back and squared her shoulders. She wiped a few stray tears strongly and met his gaze. "Yes," she said. "One. But don't you dare say-"

"It's horrible." Connors whispered, words falling past his lips as soft as ash,"The things they did to him." May found the rest of her defense falling down her throat, and it was then that she noticed the way his hand shook, and how his shoulder sagged with more than just physical exhaustion. His eyes couldn't stay pinned to one place, and the slow, hard actions of his Adam's apple when he swallowed resembled trying to swallow a brick.

"I...I never expected they'd ever actually get him." Connors admitted, " Peter...he was always so quick on his feet, and smart - really smart. No one has ever managed to pin him down for long, not even Director Fury." His fingers twisted a knot into his white lab coat. "I don't even know how Hydra did it. I mean, what did Otto do? What was so different this time?" His words trembled and he looked down, running a hard hand over his face.