Chapter Text
“Stand clear of the closing doors.” Droned the firm voice of the NYC subway warning system. It was late evening and Peter and Morgan’s car was nearly empty, save for an old woman knitting in the corner.
“Petey,” Morgan whined from the seat next to him, tugging on his sleeve, “How much longer?”
“Not much, Mo, only five more stops” Peter answered. She’d practically begged Tony and Pepper to let her on the subway, but it seemed to have gotten old after the first few stops. It was now well past her bedtime and she was quickly running out of patience. Luckily, they were only about fifteen minutes from their stop.
He’d taken her to spend the day in the city. Apparently, there’s only so much time a five-year-old can spend cooped in a remote cabin before they started to get antsy, even if that cabin was designed by the Tony Stark, and therefore full of things to do. Plus, the Starks needed some time to themselves without the kids around, so it was a win-win.
They’d been extremely reluctant to allow Morgan out in the city with such little protection, but caved under the logic that Morgan wasn’t particularly recognizable since they’d kept her out of the public eye as much as possible, and a little kid surrounded by a pack of bodyguards would draw much more attention than one just walking with her older brother. And of course, the fact that Peter was quite literally a superhero definitely helped their cause.
The doors opened with a ding, and the elderly woman got off.
Four men got on.
Alarm bells started ringing in Peter’s head. There were multiple things wrong with this picture. First, each man was wearing sunglasses and a hood, despite the fact it was both nighttime and late July. Second, despite seeming to be together, the four men sat separately, each in a seat closest to every door. Third, and probably most alarmingly, his spider-sense was screaming at him.
They needed to get off this subway now.
Peter tugged Morgan closer, getting ready to pick her up and run for the doors at the next stop. He’s Spiderman, he could slip by some random guy, right? He pulled his phone out to shoot a quick text to Happy.
“Potential trouble on train, four stops away, update soon.”
It wasn’t the most grammatical text he’d ever sent, but the next stop was coming up and he knew Happy would get the message.
Morgan, always too smart for her own good, seemed to have picked up that something was wrong, even without spider senses. She clung to him tighter and looked up nervously.
“It’s going to be okay, just trust me and hold on.” He whispered gently. She nodded and wrapped her arms around his neck. He could feel the four men eyeing him, and he hoped he was being inconspicuous enough that they didn’t expect him to run.
Maybe this had nothing to do with them. Maybe it was just four kind of shady guys taking the subway, and they could get off, take the next one, and everything would be fine. His intuition told him they wouldn’t be nearly that lucky.
The subway began to slow, and Peter prepared to run. A ding alerted him that the doors were about to start opening.
He jumped to his feet.
He seemed to successfully take the men by surprise. Shouting filled the car, and the man closest to the door he was running for lept out of his seat just as Peter crossed the threshold.
For a second, he thought he made it.
He was suddenly yanked back into the car by the collar of his shirt, hard enough to cause him to fall backward. He clutched Morgan tighter as he fell, spinning to avoid hitting her on the floor and landing on his side. He darted back up, Morgan still in his arms, but he was surrounded.
“I’m pretty sure it said to stand clear of the doors,” He huffed. The men didn’t seem amused. In three more stops, Happy would be waiting in the station. He just had to hold out for three more stops.
“Hand over the kid and we won’t have to hurt you too badly,” The tallest man, seemingly the leader, stated. He could feel Morgan shaking, and she burrowed her head deeper into Peter’s shoulder.
“Not happening,” He responded. They’d have to kill him before he’d give Morgan over to these psychos.
“Have it your way,” The man shrugged. His spider senses alerted him to a hit coming from behind and he ducked, spinning and throwing a punch with the hand not holding Morgan. The man stumbled backward and Peter turned again, aiming a punch and the one who’d spoken. It landed, but he recovered quickly and charged at Peter. He threw himself sideways, out of the tall man’s path, but straight into another guy’s chest.
This man was smaller, having only a few inches on Peter, but he grabbed his wrist with surprising strength, wrenching his arm behind his back and attempting to grab Morgan with his other hand. Peter landed a backward kick to his stomach and sprung forwards, spinning rapidly to locate his opponents.
The door dinged again, and Peter made a break for it.
The tall man dove in front of Peter and shoved him back again with more strength than he should have been able to. Please don’t let him be enhanced, he thought as he stumbled back upright.
Two more stops.
The fourth man lunged forward and grabbed Morgan’s hair, causing her to cry out.
“Hey!” Peter yelled, grabbing the man’s wrist and twisting until he let go. The man cried out and stumbled back. Peter was pretty sure he broke his wrist, but he couldn’t find it in himself to feel bad.
The smaller man grabbed him from behind, throwing him sideways to the floor. He twisted mid-air in an attempt to keep from landing on Morgan, but the angle caused him to smack his own head on the hard ground. He was definitely going to feel that later. He was dazed for just a few seconds, but that was all it took for the fight to change hands.
A foot connected with his back and he wrapped his arms tighter around Morgan, trying to shield her as he was attacked from every angle.
Morgan screamed as she was ripped from his arms.
By the time he stumbled back to his feet, the tall man was holding her firmly, one arm wrapped around her chest with both hands holding her wrist.
“Stop,” The man said threateningly, “Or I snap your little sister’s arm.”
He must have read the shock in Peter’s expression, because he smirked ever so slightly.
“That’s right, I know all about Tony Stark’s secret love child. The two of you put together are gonna make sure me and my guys live out the rest of our lives very rich. Now, why don’t you start cooperating, that way little miss princess can make it home with all of her fingers.”
Fuck.
The man was a little off with the whole ‘secret love child’ theory, but he was still basically correct in principle, and relieving him of this notion didn’t accomplish anything except for making Peter more disposable, so he kept his mouth shut.
He scanned the subway car, desperate for a way out, but found nothing. The other three men were still surrounding him, and even though he could probably take them, he wouldn’t dare try anything with the fourth man ready to snap Morgan’s arm.
The man knew he’d won, and his smirk grew. Peter gave a small nod.
“Don’t hurt her.” He said, somewhere between a warning and a plea.
The man behind him kicked out the back of his knees, causing him to fall with a barely contained grunt. Morgan whimpered at the sound. There were silent tears streaming down her cheeks, and Peter decided that his top priority had to be making this as minimally scarring as it possibly could be for her. Even if that meant cooperating with kidnappers.
“Here’s what’s going to happen; at the next stop, we’re all going to get off this car, walk out of the station, and get into the van parked just outside. If you try to fight or draw any attention to yourself, I will break your sister’s arm. Understood?”
A small voice in his head told him never to let them take you to a second location, but a much bigger voice told him to protect Morgan at all costs. Peter nodded again.
“I said, ‘Understood?’” The man shouted, causing Morgan to release a poorly stifled sob.
“Understood,” Peter repeated, and the man nodded. Two of the other men grabbed him by the arms and hauled him to his feet as the subway doors opened. The man with the broken wrist followed behind.
It felt as though every cell in his body was screaming at him to fight back, but Morgan was counting on him to keep her safe, and there was no way in hell he was going to let her down more than he already had.
The station was deadly quiet, save for the batter of heavy rain that must have started falling when they were in the subway. Even with it totally abandoned, he didn’t dare make a sound as they were led up the stairs.
They reached the van, and the man not holding either of them stepped forward to open the back doors.
“Get in.” He commanded, and Peter obeyed, climbing up into the van. The leader tossed Morgan in after him, and he scrambled forward to catch her before she could hit her head on the floor.
“Peter,” She whimpered, as he pulled her into his lap and wrapped his arms around her.
“I know,” He soothed as best he could, “I know this is really scary, but you’re doing amazing. Just let me handle it and everything will be okay. Okay?”
“Okay,” She whispered.
“I’m not gonna let anything happen to you, I promise.”
You can’t keep that promise, you’ve already let her be kidnapped.
He squeezed his eyes shut in an attempt to block out the very negative and unhelpful voice.
Two of the kidnappers stepped into the back with them, while the other two shut the doors and presumably went to the front to drive.
“Time for light’s out, kid.” One of the men announced.
Peter barely had time to ask what that meant before a needle was shoved into the back of his neck, and his vision went black.