SPIDERMAN | Shattered

Chapter Five ~ (Rewind) Steve Rogers

ONE WEEK EARLIER

"This is the place." Steve stood back, his forehead creased as he looked up at the enormous warehouse. Steve wasn't going to lie to himself, he didn't want Peter to be found in that. "I hope Peter didn't spend a month in that pile of metal. It's practically falling apart."

Tony, in full suit, hovered a few feet from the ground, staring silently at the building. He did not acknowledge whether or not he had heard Steve's words. "Peter couldn't be in there." Tony choked.

"I guess it wouldn't surprise me, no one would think to look in there."

"Except us."

Steve nodded. He and Tony cautiously approached the building. They stopped in front of the rusted iron door, staring at it.

"What if this is an ambush?"

"There's no other heat signatures detected for miles, let alone the one here. But It could very well be. Just stay on guard. ."

"You think they've abandoned would have abandoned Peter?"

"Maybe. Just be on guard." Tony paused. "Steve, you check the door, I'll be out here waiting for Bruce."

"I hear a car." Steve pulled out his shield.

"That should be Bruce. He's bringing the medical equipment. Go in, I'll be there in a minute."

Steves nodded in answer and walked over to the rusty iron door. He looked it up and down, examining it. He held his shield with one hand and tried the doorknob with the other.

The door swung open.

Steve stepped back, blinking. Hopes of Peter being held here sunk in his chest. They wouldn't have left the door unlocked.

Steve stepped inside, examining the inside up and down. It startled him how well the inside was structured. While the outside had every appearance of a run-down warehouse, the inside was built like a facility. It surprised him, how well the inside was structured. While the outside had all the looks of being weather-beaten and half-collapsed, the inside was structured and sound. It had been redone and sectioned off into dozens of rooms.

And it was quiet. Too quiet. The place had the sort of silence in a horror movie that sets you on edge right before the jump scare.

Steve began to search behind the many doors, discovering the rooms nothing but neat and abandoned. Not a trace of anything, let alone evidence of Peter.

"Did you find anything?" Bruce's voice came from behind him, a tinge of hope in his words.

"Not yet-but I haven't tried all the rooms." Steve turned to Tony. "Tony, where's the-Tony, you listening?"

Tony blinked, appearing startled. "What?"

"Where's the heat signature detected?"

Tony rotated in a full circle. "There." He gestured down the hallway, walking toward one of the doors. He stopped in front of one. A dark, silvery metal door. "This one." He reached for the doorknob, his hand hesitating just as he touched it. Tony drew his hand back, pulling away from the door. "It's probably locked."

Steve said nothing. He understood. He slowly extended a hand, turning the knob.

And, by some miracle, the door opened.

Steve was the first person to step inside.

Tony followed.

It was dark inside the room. Terribly dark.

Tony held up one of his hands, the reactor in the palm of his suit casting a glow over the small room.

There was a figure curled up against the opposite wall, hands secured tightly behind his back.

He lay limply on his side, unmoving, barely even breathing.

"Oh my g-it's Peter." Tony paled, taking a step back, hand over his mouth in horror.

Bruce and Steve rushed to Peter's side. Bruce briskly opened his medical case, his face grim.

"Tony, give me a reading if you can. Steve, turn him to his side-gently now."

Steve placed a hand on Peter's back, slowly and carefully turning him to his back. Peter wheezed in a raspy breath, choking out a gasp.

"...Dehydration, malnutrition, loss of blood, cracked ribs..." Tony's voice faded away. That was barely half of the reading.

Bruce sighed wearily. "It's incredible that he's still alive. But he's going to need immediate help. With the insane traffic at this time of day, we'd never get him home...on time. Tony, You'll have to have one of your planes pick us up. I brought enough equipment to expect bad, but not like this. The plane's bound to have a few more things than I do."

Tony nodded, evident that he was barely hearing Bruce's words.

Peter's chest rose, and another soft groan escaped his lips.

Bruce's tone lowered, speaking only to Steve. "He's alive for now, but I'm not certain how much longer he can hold on. Tony's plane better get here fast."

Peter wheezed in another stream of air and began to shiver uncontrollably.

"I think he might be half-aware we're here. He may think we're the people...the people that tortured him."

"It looks bad." Steve stared at Peter's face. The long cuts that ran down his forehead and cheeks. The bruises that colored his face and around his eyes.

They had left the door unlocked, that's what he could hardly believe. How

Bruce pulled a needle from the case. "It might be best if we sedated him for the way or at least something to calm him down a little-"

Peter choked out a gasp, struggling to move, to fight them.

"Hold him down!" Bruce quickly filled the needle as Peter struggled against Steve's grasp.

"I'm sorry, Peter," Steve whispered, holding him steady as the sedative was injected.

Peter trembled as it started to take effect. After a few short moments, Peter's struggles grew weaker and weaker until his body fell limp.

"Now he's breathing slightly better." Bruce stared at Peter's pale face, making sure Tony was out of earshot before mumbling under his breath. "It's an absolute miracle how he's still alive. I tell you, I never expected to find him alive."

Steve's eyes darted towards the door, where Tony was leaning against the doorframe, a hand over his eyes.

"Tony will break if Peter dies like this."