"I feel like you deserve a better name than Tombstone," Peter said, observing the man in front of him carefully. "I don't know, it just doesn't suit you."
Tombstone just raised an eyebrow, not attempting to do anything.
It was okay. Peter was shackled to the walls, he couldn't do anything.
"... I know!" Peter cried out a second later. "Gary! You suit a Gary. I'm calling you Gary now."
Once again, Tombstone barely had a reaction, this time clasping his hands together and leaning back against his chair.
"Anyway, back to, you know, actual business," Peter said, his eyes hardening suddenly, "why am I here? What do you want with me? I understand why Toomes wants me here, but you're apparently the head of the operation, not him. So why?"
Once again, Tombstone said nothing.
"Like, I admit, I kinda ruined Toomes' life, I get it and I'm sorry, but I haven't even met you before. It took me a moment to remember your name, so you know... Help me out here by answering my questions, please."
Peter, once again, tried the puppy dog eyes (they'd worked on the guard, why wouldn't they work on Tombstone?).
They didn't work.
"Woah, okay, that was just disrespectful. Absolutely disrespectful. Do you hate puppies or something?"
No response.
"Why are you keeping me here?"
No response.
"What did I do to you, exactly?"
No response.
"Well, I'm done with this. If you wanna be silent, be my guest, I'm capable of annoying anyone. It's my talent."
Still no response.
Peter would have been certain that Tombstone had fallen asleep if it wasn't for the lack of closed eyes.
Maybe he had the capability to sleep with his eyes open?
He didn't even know if that was a thing.
"So, uh, how's life?"
Okay, Peter really needed to think of better conversations starters. His current ones were horrible.
"Tell me again, please, why I'm in here."
"Experiments," Tombstone finally spoke. "You have spider powers, we want to test them."
"... Dude, I thought you fell asleep or something," Peter said, raising his eyebrows. "So, anyway, why do you want to test them? Why not just watch me being awesome on the TV? You know, like normal people do?"
"We don't know your limits, Spider-Man," Tombstone spoke, crossing his arms across his chest. "We need to. We can tell that you're special to the Avengers, and that may be our advantage. The only way to use it, however, is to find out your weakness."
"Too bad," Peter sneered, rolling his eyes. "My only weakness is - hold up, let me think - oh, I know! Evil megalomaniac villains who try to kill me every day! But I've kinda grown used to them now, sorry."
It was clear by the expression on Peter's face and the sarcastic tone that he used that he was not sorry.
"The first test will be happening soon," Tombstone spoke, pretending that Peter hadn't said anything before. "Prepare yourself. It will not be easy to face."
"What is it, a mirror? I hate to say it, but I've faced that every day for most of my life, I've just about got used to my ugly features by now."
Despite the fact that Peter felt utterly hopeless (he had almost gotten out, he should've been quicker, why wasn't he quicker, he could be with Tony right now) he was still able to make jokes.
It was the only way he'd be able to stay sane in this place.
"The first test, huh," he said, pretending to think about it. "Well, as long as it's not a math test, I think I'll be good. I think I flunked math, actually. Probably because I'm too busy fighting you guys."
He needed to get out of here soon.
These tests, however much he made a joke about it, weren't going to be fun. He could tell that by the underlying tone of happiness in Tombstone's voice.
And, in all honesty, Peter was scared.
He knew he shouldn't be, he was Spider-Man, he'd be fine, he always got out of tough situations, but this time?
He feared for his life.
~~~
"Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god, oh my -"
"Shut up, Ned, you're being unholy," Harry said, shoving him as they walked into Stark Industries. "Besides, it's just a sciencey place, it's not that exciting."
Next to Harry on his other side, Gwen was looking around with awed eyes.
"This place is so cool," she breathed, enjoying the sights, even though they were only on the first floor and hadn't really been anywhere yet.
They all jumped - excluding Bruce, who, of course, lived here - when a voice spoke up, surrounding them.
"Welcome, Mr Banner. There are three unidentified guests, should I alert Mr Stark?"
"No, no, it's okay, FRIDAY," Bruce assured her, smiling up at the ceiling, "they're with me. We're going to Tony."
"I will tell sir that you are on your way."
"Thank you, FRIDAY," Bruce said, walking past the security checks when the guards realised who he was. "Ignore them," he said to them when they took notice of the three teens, "I'm showing them the lab."
The guards took a step back, going back to their stations by the security checks.
"That FRIDAY thing was pretty cool," Harry admitted. "You're saying that Tony Stark created that himself?"
"There was JARVIS before FRIDAY," Bruce said, before wincing. "But there were some... problems."
Ned nodded, understanding.
Vision.
("Tony still feels close with Vision," Peter had told Ned confidentially, "but Viz doesn't feel the same way, because he's not the same person anymore. It's hard sometimes, but I just make them spend time together, and they're fine.")
"I heard Tony's making some glasses as well," Bruce added thoughtfully. "I wonder how he's going to do them. He said they're going to be even more advanced than anything else he's made - a last resort, of sorts."
"That's awesome," Gwen whispered, smiling at all of the things around her.
She felt at home.
They all did - even Harry, who had never been one for tech and science. His father had put him off of it even more since he became... Yeah.
"Come on, guys, hurry up!" Harry spoke suddenly. "Stark's not gonna hang about for long, we've gotta tell him our information about Pete before it's too late!"
Harry neglected to say whether it was already too late.
~~~
"The first test," Tombstone spoke, his voice echoing throughout the room that only held himself and Peter, "is to see how resistant you are against electricity."
Peter gave him a questioning look.
"I've already been electrocuted a bunch of times since I've been here," he said quietly, not able to muster up any jokes. "Haven't you seen enough?"
The light in Peter's eyes was slowly dying out, Tombstone realised. He gave an evil snarl.
"Yes, well, we didn't use all the power in those tests. They needed me to be here, me to oversee this all. Toomes was just a colleague looking over it for me, which I thank him for greatly."
"Wait - wait, wait, wait, there are, like, settings for this?" Peter whispered in horror. "From one to ten, or something like that?"
"Incorrect, Spider-Man," Tombstone said, giving him a small downturn of his mouth before he grinned manically. "One to twenty."
"Oh god," Peter mumbled, looking down as he readied himself.
He wasn't going to live much longer, was he?
*Torture scene begins here, sorry guys, but I had to*
"Let's begin on setting one, shall we?"
It was a curious feeling. Small electric shocks were travelling all over his body, yet they weren't powerful enough to do any damage.
Compared to the other things he'd had to face recently, this was a walk in the park.
"Now onto number two."
The feeling barely changed, although it was like the shocks had gotten... faster, somehow. Travelling across him in speeds he wouldn't be able to dream of.
"Number three."
Peter felt that once he showed an outward reaction, Tombstone would keep it on that setting for a while before turning it up.
Maybe he should have faked a reaction then. He probably should have.
But no. He had too much pride for that. After all, it was all he had left. His dignity was gone, he had barely any pride to begin with, yet he refused to lose it.
"Four."
That was when it started shocking him a bit harder, more furiously. He could still handle it, however. He'd dealt with worse things, after all.
He was just afraid of what the next few would feel like. If number four was like this, what would number ten be like? Twenty?
"Five."
It felt almost the same as four, almost as if Tombstone was attempting to lure him into thinking it wouldn't be that bad.
No. He couldn't believe him at this point. Not after everything Tombstone had done - and said so far.
"How about we skip a few, huh?"
Peter was dreading the next number. What would he do? Go to number nine? Or number seventeen?
He was closer with the latter.
"Fifteen."
Complete and utter agony was all he felt at that moment.
His senses couldn't do anything but feel the pain - he could feel the blood dripping down his nose, and he threw his head back, trying to stop it as best he could.
His legs were shaking, he vaguely realised throughout the pain, but there wasn't much he could do to stop it.
Please turn it off, I beg you, please, please, please.
"Eighteen."
His mind felt like it was slowly going insane.
Who was that person screaming? Were they hurt? He needed to get out of here, he needed to make sure they were okay.
(He didn't realise that the person screaming was himself.)
"Stop, stop, stop! I can't do this anymore, stop, please!"
And, to his surprise, Tombstone stopped.
He looked unimpressed - disappointed, almost.
"You should have been able to take twenty," he said, shaking his head. "Well, I suppose I'll be able to improve that. The second test will be in two hours. Be ready."
And with that, Tombstone left him there, attached to that machine, blood still dripping out of his nose, legs and hands shaking uncontrollably.
He cried.
*Mkay it's over now, if you read that then congrats :) now onto happy times*
~~~
Bruce had left Harry, Ned and Gwen in the lounge, saying that he needed to explain everything to Tony before he brought three random kids into his tower.
(Although he'd already done that, but Ned knew that he just had to make sure that Tony knew not to blow his cover.)
He came back soon, Tony following close behind, an expression of hope on his face.
"Is it true?" Toby whispered, his face pale but his eyes excited. "Do you think you have a lead on Spidey?"
Ned vaguely wondered why it was so easy for Tony to say Spidey rather than Peter, but figured that since they were the same person that it was really no different to him.
"Well, yes. I think," Harry said, stepping forward when it seemed his friends wouldn't. "Ned and I made a tracker-" Ned elbowed him, "okay, Ned made a tracker, and Gwen fixed it up a bit, and it's found our friend, Peter Parker, and we think Spidey will be there too."
"Can you tell me why you think that, before we go? I'm not saying I won't go if I don't think Spidey's there - it's clear that we're the only ones that can look for your friend - but just tell me why?"
It was Bruce who spoke. Tony felt a bit emotional at that point and refused to face them until he was certain he wasn't crying.
"- and when we realised that Peter and Spidey had been taken around the same time, the pieces clicked," Ned explained, Tony tuning into the conversation near the end. "Please can you help us, Mr Stark?"
Tony faked thinking, before a massive smile grew on his face.
"Of course I will."
Woah, a good thing finally happened, yay!
(Sorry this is at a later time than I usually post it, but it's my brother's birthday tomorrow and I've been planning ideas for his card- its gonna be hilarious - and it takes my time)
I hope you enjoyed this!
I've written down a summary of most of these chapters, up to nine (it's not finishing on nine though) and I lost the book and panicked. It's okay though. It was underneath a bunch of other books. Its all good.
I'm actually so thankful to CEM0414 right now, because she's helping me write Tombstone because I suck at it, and its just really helpful :)
Also to Gwenyth_Stacy because if it wasnt for them, I would have absolutely no clue about how to get Peter out of wherever he is :)
Love you guys (and all of you who read this - THAT INCLUDES YOU, AVNI, WE LOVE YOU)
And, as usual, my catchphrase.
See you next next Thursday my young Wattpadians!
- WriteCrazyForLife
🕸🕷Until next next Thursday🕷🕸