Peter loved swinging around the city, stopping crime and helping people out. He hadn't been able to anywhere near as much with the secret search for Maria and helping his mum cope but Wanda said she'd take care of Natasha for the day so he could go out and be Spiderman. The Avengers didn't know his secret identity, other than Wanda, so they said he was going to his friends house.
He was swinging around in the suit he'd made in Tony's lab - very high tech - and enjoying the feeling of falling when he saw a group of men, armed to the teeth, harassing a young woman. He swooped in and got the girl out but was slowly loosing to the men.
"Karen, call Wanda." The AI in his suit immediately dialed his sister's number.
"Peter?"
"Hey, so, I need help but no-one else knows who I am." He said, not beating around the bush for maybe the first time in his life.
"Where are you?" Peter jumped ten foot in the air and checked the sign across the street.
"Corona Avenue, perpendicular to 99th."
"On the way, I'll be there soon."
Wanda didn't get there soon enough, she walked down the street and found his mask and web shooters in a pool of blood but nothing else. She realised that he got rid of the things that could end up being weapons for the other guys.
How was she going to explain this?
(☉｡☉)
Peter woke up to a dark room and a pressure on his wrists. He tried to pull away but couldn't move. Slowly he opened his eyes to find himself tied up in ropes, dangling in the air with no shirt on and only his boxers covering him up. Oh yeah, I was spidermaning. Tugging at the ropes cutting into his wrists, he ended up spinning around, making him notice he wasn't alone.
There, tied up and half way dead, was Maria Hill.
"Maria?" The boy gasped. "Maria! Wake up!" Groggily, the brunette turned to look at the noise.
"Who's there?"
"Maria? It's me, Peter. Are you okay?" It took Peter a moment to realise why Maria couldn't see him - it was dark, pitch black, no-one would be able to see without night vision goggles, or Spider powers.
"Peter? What are you doing here?" Her voice was hoarse and raspy, like she hadn't used it for much more than screaming for a long time - Peter guessed that was probably true.
"Some guys set me up and kidnapped me. How long have you been here?" He asked, if she'd been moved there was little chance they were going to be moved again, but if not they had a larger chance of a window of escape.
"I don't know, a few weeks?" Unlikely to move again then, unless she didn't know how long she'd been gone.
"You went missing two and a half months ago, have they moved you from one facility to another?" He pushed, he needed as much information as he could if he was going to get them out.
"Peter, I don't know, you need to get out of here." She told him, sounding more like the Maria he knew.
"Not without you." He swung his body up and stuck his bare feet to the ceiling, untying the rope from the structure on the ceiling before dropping down and untying his hands. His mother had trained him since he was young, he knew to use anything he could as a weapon, and rope was certainly a useful tool. Maria was strapped to the chair with metal restraints, leaving Peter to wonder why when he had super strength, but Maria didn't, they were tied up the way they were. He broke the bonds easily and picked her up, sitting them both on the floor behind the chair, giving them a little shelter from the door.
"Maria?" He tried, but the woman was already asleep again. "Right, getting out, okay. I can't leave you here, god you look bad. What did they do to you? It doesn't matter right now, another time. So I have to take you, but carrying you means I can't fight. I could tie you to my back, but what if you fall? I could fireman carry you, but I don't know the damage done, that seems like the best option." He gently threw the older woman over his shoulder, legs over one, arm over another, other arm dangling by his back; rope in hand. But before he could go anywhere beyond the chair, light flooded the room and agents stormed in, guns aimed at him.
"Put her down." Peter slowly lowered the unconscious woman to the floor behind the chair, giving her protection.
"What do you want with her?" He growled, getting defensive.
"We just want information."
"On?" As soon as he knew what they were looking for, he could tell the Avengers.
"A woman named Natalia Romanova, we hear you're close to her?"
"Who the fuck it that?" He tilted his head, glancing at Maria quickly before looking back at the men with guns. He recognised the name, but couldn't pin where from.
"That's what we want to know kid, if you tell us, we'll let you go."
"And her?" He gestured to the woman he thought of as a mother.
"She won't be so lucky." He knew they wouldn't let either of them go, Maria would likely be tortured for further information and he would get a bullet to the brain - better to stall and hope for the best.
"Then I won't tell you anything." He knew he shouldn't engage unless absolutely necessary, or he needed information but he classed this as the latter - or he would when giving the report to SHIELD when they escaped.
"I was hoping you'd say that." Peter heard the gunshot before he could react. The bullet went straight through his thigh and out the other side, splattering his blood everywhere including on Maria's pale face.
"You can break my soul, take my life away, beat me, hurt me, kill me; but for the love of God, don't touch her." He spat when they moved to shoot her.
"Oh, we're going to do exactly that." They grabbed him, he knocked out six guys before they electrocuted him and dragged him off, he could only hope they left Maria alone.
(☉｡☉)
He'd been hanging by his ankles for days. There was stab wounds all over his body, but his toe hurt the most. They'd pulled out the nail with pliers, leaving blood dripping down his body and pained gasps escaping his mouth. He focussed on the feeling of a drop of blood trickling down his thigh and collecting on his blue-gone-redish-brown boxers.
Maria was tied up on the other side of the room, Peter didn't know why they kept them together but he was sure it wasn't as innocent as letting them suffer together. She was beat up really bad, starved and weak. He hated seeing her so defeated; he knew her as a confident, cocky, competent leader - but now she was barely holding on. She hadn't spoken since she told him to get out, but he saw the looks she sent his way when they came.
"Maria?" She nodded her head. "I have a plan, but I need you to not argue."
"That depends on how much danger it puts you in." She told him. She'd been conscious for nearly an hour, so he assumed she could stay awake this time.
"Not much. They bring food every other day, right?" She nodded again. "Spider's can go four to eight weeks without food depending on the species, I don't want to risk it too much, but you should take my food. Get your strength up." He told her, struggling against the chains around his wrists and ankles.
"Peter, your enhanced metabolism." Maria reminded him, he hadn't forgotten but knew she needed it more.
"I know, Wanda and I have actually been testing theories. I can lower my metabolism and activity rates to effectively hibernate. You get my food, I lower my metabolism. It isn't good long term, but it should be fine for a week. On the sixth day, I'll eat my bread. This way you can get stronger, you'll need to be stronger if we're going to escape."
"Peter, that's dangerous, what would your mum say?" Peter didn't miss a beat.
"You are my mum. And mama would be proud of me using my resources." His innocence made her want to smile, but the urge dropped quicker than lightning.
"Peter-"
"Maria, I've made up my mind. Wanda and I have tested it before, I can last two weeks without food, however with how little they give us, I'll need to replenish in between. Maria, if we're ever going to see them again, we have to do this." He knew she knew he meant Natasha and Wanda.
"I can't put you in harm's way." Her protesting like a mother made him chuckle but he knew what he needed to do.
"You won't be."
"If you don't eat, does your healing factor work?" This was one of the few times he knew he needed to lie.
"Slower than normal, but faster than the average human." He lied as easily as any SHIELD agent - it worked slowly, far slower than an average human, but Maria couldn't see him so hopefully she wouldn't know if he was hurt or not, as long as he hid his pain effectively.
"Okay. Okay, fine. But you promise you'll be okay?" She knew he was right, and he knew she knew.
"Promise." She smiled slightly, the only emotion Peter had seen on her face other than defiance and fear in the last few days. "Who is Natalia? Because this is a lot of trouble to go to for someone I don't know."
"The less you know the better." She said, imagining Natasha's disappointed face for keeping him out the loop. "But you know her very well." He gasped.
"Wanda?" Maria sighed. Peter is a smart boy, there's no way he hadn't worked it out, she figured he was playing dumb - he was.
"No. Just forget it and don't tell them anything." He nodded and dropped it. They were silent for a while. Just as Peter heard Maria's heart rate start to slow in a way that indicated she was about to sleep, he spoke up.
"Maria?" His voice was smaller than minutes ago.
"Peter?" The commander questioned.
"I promise to get you out of here." Peter told her defiantly.
"Let's not make promises we can't keep." She whispered, more to herself than Peter.
(☉｡☉)
The next day men came in, let Peter down and gave them food. Once they were gone Peter gave his bread to Maria, it was surprisingly fresh but his enhanced senses nor his Spidey sense picked anything up, so he deemed it safe and let Maria eat it.
They sat for a while, Peter fixed up some of Maria's more pressing wounds by ripping strips of her tank vest off and wrapping them, ignoring his own. She weakly leant against a wall and winced when he tightened his make shift bandage.
"Who are these people?" He whispered, careful of the people he was sure we're watching them.
"I think it's the KGB." She answered just as quietly.
"They sound like Disney villains." Maria laughed, the boy had a special ability to make every situation seem brighter.
"Yeah, they do." They sat in silence after that, Maria's head on Peter's shoulder - they no longer kept either tied up other than the zip tie hand cuffs both could break out of but didn't.
The men stormed in hours later, wanting the answers Peter was denying them.
"Where is Natalia?" He demanded, voice gruff and dominating.
"I told you already, I don't know who you're talking about." Peter stood and moved towards him, hands up.
"She does." The guard tried to push past Peter, who was now stood protectively in front of Maria, but he stood his ground - didn't budge an inch. "Really kid? You're gonna protect this filth? You could be so much more if you stood on the right side of this war." He growled.
"I am stood on the right side of the war. You think torturing kids is right? You think killing civilians to draw attention to yourself is right? Wrong!"
"And the Avengers? Are they different?" Peter hesitated. He knew they tried to prevent it, but innocent people often died in their battles.
"Yes." He growled. "Because unlike you, the Avengers care about those that get hurt in their battles. They care and try to make amends - you kill more and more to please your sick desires with no remorse." Maria was proud of Peter - more than he would ever know
"Do they? Because you'd think a man as smart as Stark would figure out a way to protect civilians. Is he really any different if he doesn't try?"
"Go to hell." Peter spat in the guards eye.
"Now you're going to get it!" He punched Peter in the stomach, but the boy dodged and kicked his leg out making the guard go flying out the room. Before anyone else could come in, he slammed the door shut.
"Now we have a gun." He turned to see proud Maria's face as he picked up the dropped gun from the floor.
"You really are Natasha's son." He smiled and stuck the weapon to the ceiling (grateful he was sticky enough to do so without his webs) so they had it when they needed it, but he wanted answers before they left.
(☉｡☉)
Peter hated the electric chair, it was the worst of all their techniques. The way it made him jump and writhe reminded him of a dying spider - and that made him all the less comfortable. But he didn't let anything loose. He'd worked out a couple days in that Natalia must be his mother's name from Russia, but remained openly confused, even to Maria in case they were watching. She knew what he was doing, that he was smart enough to work it out. She knew he also didn't say anything that could give away his plans for the same reason, but she knew he had one that he wouldn't share. He never sat too close or offered affection (bar the time he wrapped her wounds) so the guys that had them didn't know how close they were, but always stood protectively in front of her - often taking beatings so they didn't touch her. She knew he was slowly gaining information from them, information he didn't tell her. She knew he knew what he was doing, she had helped train him after all. But she couldn't work out his play, and that terrified her.
Maria knew everything there was to know about the boy. Knew his routines and his schedules. Knew his fears and anxieties. Knew his dreams and his nightmares. But most importantly in this situation, knew his training and tells. So the fact that he could hide everything from her - someone that knew his so well - scared her. Maybe they'd trained him too much? Maybe he was becoming like them? She wasn't sure she wanted him to be like her.
But she trusted him, and that's all that would matter in the end.