Wanda and Vision were floating by the Chrysler building. Wanda had just finished telling Vision about her life since they'd broken up, minus Peter being Spiderman.
"You still haven't answered my question" Vision said.
"What?" Wanda had been deep in thought when Vision had spoken.
"Are you okay?"
Wanda chuckled sadly. "Not even close. I'm basically on trial for murder."
"That's not what I'm talking about."
"Then what are you talking about? Because I'm pretty sure that's the main problem in my life at the moment."
Vision gazed out at the horizon. "I believe the definition for your situation is being oblivious to a situation that all others around you are painfully aware of" when she looked at him with a confused expression he tried to put it more plainly. "You want something that you don't even know you want. Or rather someone."
"If you're trying to get back together then-" Wanda was cut off as her cellphone rang.
Seeing that the call was from Stark she answered. "Is it already time?"
There was a pause as her face went slack. "He's what?" another pause. "We'll be there." Wanda hung up.
"I'm detecting elevated levels of anxiety in your voice. Is something the matter?"
"We need to get back to the tower, now."
They flew off together.
In the laboratory the Avengers were all arguing heatedly while Shuri and Peter worked frantically.
"Would you all please, shut up!" Shuri shouted, using her kimoyo beads voice amplifier function to be heard over them. "We already told you what happened and there will be time to argue and throw a fit like little children later. For now we need to fix this!" she pointed at the vibrainium cage where Flash was being housed. His body was still grotesquely warped to have reptilian attributes. And despite the fact that he couldn't escape, it hadn't stopped him from continuing to beat at the bars while throwing menacing looks at everyone.
The Avengers went out into the hall to discuss what had happened.
"How could he have been so careless?" Tony asked the room at large.
"He's your intern" Natasha commented.
"Not after this he's not!"
Steve was looking through the glass at the teens working. "It's lucky that Shuri was able to contain it. Without that cage it could've been a lot worse."
Natasha was glaring in the same direction. "If we hadn't sent him there none of this would've been necessary. Now things are going to get even worse."
Bruce was examining a tablet. Scrolling through data from Peter's experiment. "I'd like to know how he did this at all. Maybe that's the answer to Mr. uh" he glanced at the screen. "Thompson's problems" maybe even my own. He thought to himself.
"I don't doubt that's what he's doing right now."
Everyone turned to see Norman Osborn heading for the lab.
Tony pointed at him accusingly. "Did you know about this?!"
"Yes, I did. And I was under the impression that Peter wouldn't take the dose because of the danger inherent to the unfinished product. And before you decide to jump down my throat because of my past mistakes, remember that he was likely only trying to impress the Wakandan princess on your orders."
No one had a response. "Now, I'm going to go in there and see what I can do to help. If you all were any kind of heros, you'd find a way to do the same."
He brushed past the others and went into the lab.
Norman approached the two teenagers. He realized that technically there were three of you counted the lizard one.
"Why isn't he changing back? The effects are temporary."
Peter glanced up, grateful that someone else who understood this so well was here. "He ate the whole supply at once. So I don't know when or even if he'll revert on his own."
Norman nodded. "Too many variables in the equation to be sure" he gave Peter a sideways look. "How on earth did you survive?"
Shuri smirked. "I made the cage using a vibrainium specific technique. It is stored in a smaller form and expands to envelope the target."
"Very useful" Norman commented.
Shuri glanced at Peter. "Honestly, I hate to admit it, but I don't think either of us would have survived if Peter hadn't already taken a dose of the gas himself."
Norman eyed Peter sharply. "You used it?" his voice was quiet but he was clearly somewhat afraid and angry.
"Well...kind of" Peter replied, which was sort of true and a lie.
Norman regained his composure. "How did you manage to maintain control over that form?" he pointed at the lizard.
Shuri looked at Norman with a confused expression. "He wasn't like the Thompson boy at all. He looked perfectly normal. In fact he was more agile than the other one. I thought this was a bad reaction, like an allergy?" she looked at Peter.
Peter knew he was screwed. He'd need a cosmic miracle to get out of this explanation.
Then the door opened. Tony strode in, ignoring the Lizard and Peter blatantly. "Princess, your family is here. Along with half the UN. It's time for the meeting."
T'Challa was waiting for the Avengers in the oversized assembly room. Stark had clearly gone all out to tailor the space for this occasion.
When at last the Avengers entered the chamber he spotted Shuri and went to check on her.
"Are you alright?"
She nodded. "Luckily" she glanced at Peter, who'd entered last and looked like he wanted to be anywhere else in the universe.
Shuri saw T'Challa watching Peter and shook her head. "Don't blame Peter. I have the feeling that he'll do that enough on his own. Not to mention the other Avengers doing it for him."
Then T'Challa saw another face of significance. "That's her, next to the Parker child, isn't it?"
Shuri glanced over to see Wanda sticking incredibly close to Peter. "Yes, I believe so."
"She looks frightened."
"That explains why she's so close to him. I'd stick close to him too in her shoes."
T'Challa looked puzzled. "What can that boy do to protect her that she cannot do for herself?"
"That isn't exactly what I meant, brother. But after what I saw today..." she considered how Peter had been accused of faking the enhancement and then how Dr. Osborn had claimed that the gas should have changed Peter. "Let's just say that nothing would truly surprise me about that boy."
T'Challa watched as his father took the podium. Listening as he spoke.
"I welcome all of you today. The reason we are here is very tragic. But we may come through it better and stronger than ever before. I know you who posses remarkable abilities are just as scared as those without. But people like you must not be allowed to run rampant. We must be held responsible."
There was a general murmur of consent throughout the crowd.
The king continued. "I've been approached by a man who, like many of you, had been forced to deal with not only power, but with its great and terrible cost. Mr. Osborn has requested that to put the minds of those who wish to be our heros at ease, we give them a choice. To be held accountable and remain as part of us. Or to be forever lost to the pages of history. In exchange for your former free rein we will vote on whether or not to grant you amnesty."
The audience wasn't all murmuring in agreement this time. It was almost an outright riot.
Peter realized that meant a chance to keep Wanda safe. But he couldn't help wondering if that could also mean a legitimate way for him to be Spiderman.
Wanda was thinking along the same lines. She took Peter's hand and squeezed it tightly.
The king waved his hands for silence. "My people were hit hardest recently by the actions of these enhanced individuals. Why, only just an hour ago my own daughter was put in harms way by such an individual. One who made a mistake and turned another into a monster."
Peter shifted uncomfortably. Wanda gave him a reassuring look.
The king spoke over the muttering this time. "This young man is only a child to us. And yet he possessed the means to make something very dangerous at a high school science fair. Many would have fled the scene to avoid the consequences. And many did flee. But this young man aided my daughter in correcting his mistake. He was even injured in the same incident that took the life of our ambassador and his family. And yet he dedicated himself to finding the truth and doing what is right. What more can we ask?"
Peter was trying not to be embarrassed. Some of what the king was saying didn't really fit the truth.
"To do nothing means that nothing is done. Perhaps we would have no monsters. But there is no right way we have found to stop everything. And so we must keep trying our best. None of us are innocent. But we cannot remain ignorant. We must face the truth and take responsibility for what we do."
There was scattered applause for the king's words. Though not everyone looked happy about it.
Peter was anxious for many reasons. One that was less obvious to others was that his spidey senses were going crazy. He knew that something was up and tried to let Wanda know, but she was too engrossed in the proceedings to notice him.
Then someone bumped into them. It was a man. He seemed to be whispering an apology to Wanda who's expression went from upset to oddly serene. The man looked familiar to Peter. He was wearing an odd symbol on his jacket. But he couldn't recall where he'd seen him before and he was too nervous to focus.
What was he supposed to do? Tell everyone that he had a bad feeling about the assembly? They'd shush him and say he was being ridiculous.
Then, his senses shot way off the charts. Grabbing Wanda, he pulled her as he leapt backwards through the air as a deafening blast tore through the area.
T'Challa held his father's body. He was devastated by his death. Had he only moved faster...or if his father had still been the Panther... T'Challa cursed their politics bringing them here. He cursed their traditions making it so that only he bore the power of the Black Panther. And he cursed the people responsible.
Peter's ears were ringing. In fact most of his senses were a total wreck. Despite that, he felt Wanda tug away from him roughly. He tried to see what was happening but his vision was too blurry to make anything out accurately.
After a moment, he'd recovered his ability to perceive the world around him. But it was almost better not to. Smoke filled the air and stung his eyes. Screams and moaning were the most common noise people were making. Some were crying.
"Wanda?" Peter glanced around, but couldn't see her. "Wanda? Wanda, where are you?"
Peter was already on his feet. While most of the guests were panicking and dazed, Peter's senses had recovered quickly as always.
He had a bed feeling beyond his spidey senses, which were still going haywire. Where was Wanda? Why had she pulled away from him? Was she okay?
He didn't get much time to think about that though. As people dressed in combat gear were emerging from all corners of the room. Taking advantage of the chaos. Attacking the guests and targeting the Avengers as well.
Peter knew what he had to do. He hid behind a partition and prepared himself to test out a new prototype. Tapping his web shooter watch, Peter flinched as a layer of incredibly thin fabric spread over his body. The nanobots were similar to Stark tech, but Peter hadn't figured out how to use them as an actual suit on their own and instead kept an ultra thin version of his own himself at all times.
Swinging out from behind the partition, Peter began fighting the soldiers. Soon though he noticed that they weren't very strong. In fact the Avengers were making short work of them even in their state of disorientation.
"Spiderman!" shouted an unpleasantly familiar newspaper editor. "I knew I'd find you here terrorizing the-" he got a web to the mouth for his troubles.
But the damage was done. Others were now paying attention to his presence. He fled before the Avengers could give chase.
Unfortunately, he wasn't the only one. A more competent Hydra agent was running ahead of Peter up a stairwell. So Peter followed him, intent on catching the man. If he could turn over a Hydra agent with some skill maybe he could get them to listen to him.
Peter focused on his senses. The man was incredibly fast. Peter had to make a real effort to keep up with him. To make matters worse, he kept shedding gear and throwing it back with uncanny accuracy. Then, the man made a sharp turn into the smaller conference room. Peter ducked in after him.
"It's over" Peter was panting, exhausted from the events that had preluded the chase. "You're under *huff*... you're coming with me."
The agent in question finally turned around. Peter saw that the man had long hair and a dead expression on his face. His eyes were the worst of it. Completely devoid of human emotion. The man had removed his shirt to reveal a metal arm with a red star on the shoulder.
But Peter soon saw something more alarming. Standing next to the man was a familiar face.
"W-Wanda?"
She looked at Peter with muted hatred. Her appearance was different now.cher fingertips were blackened like she'd been working in a mine or gotten some horrible disease. Her eyes were sunken in and shadowed heavily. And her veins stood out grotesquely. She said something in Russian and the man responded. Then Peter's senses went off.
Wanda used her magic as the man moved with lighting reflexes towards Peter. Who was dragged right into the path of the man's kick and sent flying into the wall.
Half buried in rubble, Peter struggled to get unstuck from the wall. "Wanda, what the hell are you doing?!"
She didn't respond but used her magic again, pressing Peter deeper into the wall. He tried to use his web shooters but the webs were being shredded by magic. His body contorted painfully and all he could do was scream as he felt his bones snap one by one until something in his back snapped and he blacked out.
Once the area had been secured, the Avengers were working fast to figure out what had happened.
Tony had a 3d rendering of the scene set up for everyone to examine. Clint was scanning the security footage alongside Vision. Meanwhile Natasha and Steve examined the actual crime scene. Bruce was helping Dr. Cho with the injured. And Thor and Sam were flying overhead, searching for anything that might be visible from above. And Norman was missing and presumed dead since he'd been right by the king at the time of the explosion. No one had thought to look for Peter.
Pepper Potts was making her way down the hall, looking for an empty room to use to take a minute and calm down.
She reached the smaller conference room and decided that it would suffice. She could take calls and even video chat via the screen in there.
Walking in, Pepper was shocked. How had the blast affected such a distant area of the building? There was a gapping hole in the wall and a shattered window. It didn't make any sense.
She crept towards the hole to examine it and almost fainted at the carnage inside.
Calling the medbay, Pepper managed to convey what she was seeing without too much stuttering. On a whim, she removed the suit, knowing what it meant but not ready to deal with it just yet.
Within minutes there was a team comprised of construction workers and medical practitioners trying to extricate the boy from deep in the wall's interior.
Tony had come up to the cradle when Pepper called him, refusing to believe what she'd said. Several other Avengers were already there, staring in silence at the mangled body in the cradle. Barely recognizable as Peter Parker.
Bruce was examining Peter's chart, grim faced as Helen Cho talked to him about the various injuries he'd suffered.
After a while he turned to the others as Dr. Cho went to work on the boy before them. "He might make it. But he'll probably never walk again. Or do most things right" Bruce said, heavily.
Tony shook his head automatically, not even trying to process the information. "This can't be happening. He's just a kid."
Clint was trying to grasp the circumstances. "How did this happen? The room Pepper found him in was nowhere near the blast."
"He was there before. I remember seeing him next to Wanda. So it must've happened after the initial incident" Natasha speculated.
Steve was assessing the grisly sight. "Wanda said he was tough. Guess she wasn't kidding. He made it through being pancaked by a building. He'll pull through."
"Pull through? Pull through?!" Clint shouted. "He's not a solider, Cap. He's a nerdy high schooler who now looks like a butcher's leftovers!" he was imagining his own kids and the thought made his stomach turn.
Bruce turned to Vision. "Are we missing anything? There's got to be an explanation. If we know how it happened, then maybe" Bruce couldn't finish his thought. He couldn't see how anyone could come back from this, cradle or no.
Vision didn't say anything for a moment. "I've been debating saying anything about what I've discovered."
The others all turned to face him. Tony spoke first. "What is it? Do you know who did this?!"
Vision nodded stoically. "While I was standing here I accessed the security cameras and played them within my retinas, scanning what occured in that room."
"Come on, don't keep us in suspense" Sam said.
Vision have them an almost pained look. "I'm afraid that you wouldn't believe me if I told you the culprit's name. But I will play the footage for you. I must warn you that it's rather disturbing on a number of levels."
The others were getting concerned on a whole new level. Vision was never this emotional about anything. What had happened in there?
While Vision played the footage, Peter was semi-conscious. His brain was drifting between reality and memory.
Oh the irony, Peter thought. Not long ago he had been in this tower after an attack with shrapnel in his side. Back then Hydra had taken them all hostage and been clearing out the supersoldier related work. Now here he was after another attack.
Peter's heart almost stopped. A thousand things clicked into place at once in his frazzled and weary mind. The day he'd been here the soldiers were wearing gear, gear he'd had to borrow when he'd been under the impression that Hydra was still in control of the building. That'd led to him being mistaken as a Hydra grunt in the first place. But the thing that he was focusing on was a symbol they'd all worn. A skull with tentacles. He'd just seen that same symbol in the assembly room. The man he'd seen bump into them had been wearing it. Peter recognized him. But from where? And why had he bothered to apologize to Wanda after bumping into her only to blow up half the building?
He thought about the man. Where had he seen him before? Peter realized that he knew the man who'd been next to Wanda in the small conference room. He'd sort of met him at the same time as the other mystery man. Right before Aunt May had found out about his internship being fake. He'd run into them both! Had they been following him?
Another thought hit him like a train. They were Hydra. He'd been accused of being part of Hydra for months now. What if they were just as angry about being falsely associated as he was? This might all be part of some kind of revenge!
His mind went to a darker place. Wanda had been taken by Hydra for years. Was she secretly one of them? Was anything about their friendship ever real? Had she been in control of herself when she attacked him?
Peter's agitation was visible on the machines. His fingers were twitching. Then, he opened his eyes wide. Pepper Potts was sitting next to him. Looking down at him with tender concern.
"Hello, Spiderman."