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“Bye, Aunt May! I’ll see you tonight!” Peter shouted as he darted out the front door and into the apartment hallway. Between Spider-Man patrols and some intense studying, he’d stayed up just a teeny tiny bit later than he’d meant to. As a result, he’d slept through his first alarm and part of his second one as well. That had led to a frazzled rush, as he only had about fifteen minutes to get out the door before he risked missing his usual public transportation schedule.
He ran down the sidewalk and arrived at the station with barely a second to spare. His train was already there. In order to catch it, he skipped the steps and with a running start, hopped up onto the railing instead. He slid down, shouting “Sorry!” to the glaring security guard, and landed smoothly on his feet.
He managed to skid onto the train just as the doors were beginning to shut. With no seat available, Peter clutched one of the poles and pulled his phone out of his pocket. He managed to catch a glimpse of his reflection on the darkened screen and wrinkled his nose at his disheveled appearance. His clothes were rumpled, and his hair was slightly askew but he supposed it could have been worse. At least he’d thought to shower the night before. He ran his fingers through his hair, attempted to smooth the wrinkles out of his t-shirt, and fished his earbuds out of his hoodie pocket.
Once he’d finally reached his destination, Peter happily disembarked and hustled his way to the surface level. He took a deep breath of the cool early morning air and started toward his school. He could have taken a bus, but the weather was nice and walking was a far more pleasant option.
For a few minutes, he carried on, placing one foot in front of the other until his school came into view. Then all of a sudden his spidey senses flared, giving him pause. He stopped in his tracks, tugged the earbuds out of his ears, and carefully surveyed the area. Initially, he saw nothing. None of the handful of people around him appeared to be in any kind of distress, and he couldn’t hear anything in the distance. He narrowed his eyes, wondering if he should duck behind a dumpster to change into his spider-suit. Clearly, something was very wrong. He just couldn’t seem to put his finger on what it was.
Ultimately, he decided to keep moving, but he didn’t let his guard down. He stayed alert, his eyes locked on his destination. As he approached a nearby alley, he overheard men whispering things like, ‘Brown hair. Brown eyes. Heading right for the nerd school,’ and ‘I’m telling you that’s the kid we’re after.’
Seeing as there wasn’t really anyone else around, Peter sighed. He didn’t know why he was being kidnapped but apparently, that's where his day was going. His plan was to allow it to happen. Primarily because he had no idea if they were after Spider-Man, Peter Parker, or someone else entirely. He wouldn't want to inadvertently give away his secret identity if he didn’t have to. Although it became abundantly obvious very quickly that they did not know he was enhanced. The moment he reached the mouth of the darkened alley and he was abruptly hauled into it by two fairly average looking men.
“Geez! Do you have to be so rough?” he shouted, as his phone was yanked out of his pocket and his backpack was pulled aggressively off of his shoulders.
The larger of the two men shushed him while the other forcefully seized his hand and jammed his thumb up against the sensor on his phone.
“Hey! That’s all private information, and I didn’t give you permission to go through it,” he glowered. The larger man simply scoffed and began to attach a thick rope around his wrists. He winced slightly as the course fibers scrubbed against his exposed skin and had to resist the urge to instantly break himself free. Instead, he asked, “Do we have to do this today? I mean couldn’t we have at least waited until after school? I have major tests in my second and fourth-period classes today. I don’t want to have to make them up. The make-up tests are always harder, which seems unfair when you think about it. It’s not like people intentionally get sick or, you know, kidnapped to get out of it! They should really-“ he said, cutting himself off when a fist smacked up against his jaw.
“Dude!” he exclaimed, then experimentally opened and closed his mouth. It hurt but he wasn’t bleeding and nothing appeared to be broken. Although he was convinced it would eventually bruise. “That’s definitely going to leave a mark,” he mumbled while glaring daggers between the two men.
“You better shut up, Kid. Before I shut you up myself,” the larger of the two captors said, then looked toward his partner. “Good God, he’s as bad as his father.”
That got Peter’s attention. His only living relative he had left was his Aunt May. He didn’t have time to question it. Suddenly his backpack and phone were both being tossed into a dumpster. “Are you serious right now?” he shrieked. “My aunt is going to be so mad when she finds out I need another new backpack.”
The larger man held up a fist and shook it warningly. “What did I just tell you, Kid?”
Peter shrugged his shoulders but opted to remain quiet. At least for the time being.
“That’s what I thought,” the man grumbled, then hauled Peter to his feet and dragged him towards a stereotypical unmarked work van. Peter rolled his eyes as he was shoved into the back. He was barely situated before the doors slammed shut engulfing him in darkness.
Not being able to see, Peter lay on his back and closed his eyes. The van took three lefts, followed by a right and another two lefts. There were a lot of traffic signals and sudden stops before they made one last turn onto a gravel road. Peter could smell factory smoke and hear boats in the distance, giving him a decent idea of where they’d arrived. It was odd, actually. He’d assumed they would have at least taken him all the way out of the city.
As the van doors opened up, the morning light flooded. Peter rapidly blinked trying to force his eyes to adjust to the new light level. He wasn’t able to see much before a burlap sack was shoved over his head. “Not cool, man,” he grumbled. “Do you have any idea how long it takes for me to gel my hair back like that?”
“Shut up, Kid,” one of the men snapped as he prodded Peter forward.
Peter huffed and allowed himself to be blindly guided into a building, down several hallways, and through a narrow door. Once inside, a hand pressed heavily onto his shoulder forcing him to sit in a hard wooden chair. Immediately after, his wrists were untied and jerked behind his back.
“You’re going to stay in this chair and keep your mouth closed. Are we clear?” the larger man gruffly demanded.
Peter scoffed.
“And if you're a good boy,” the other man tauntingly added.”Your daddy will be here soon to get you.”
“Really?” Peter huffed. “That sounds like a neat trick. How are you planning on achieving that?” Suddenly, the bag on his head was removed, and one of the men was leaning in, entirely too close to his face.
“Well, first we’re going to make him sweat, not knowing where his precious little darling is,” the smaller captor smoothly explained. Peter scrunched up his nose as the man’s bad breath assaulted his nose. “Then we’ll call the number you so helpfully provided us with and collect our ransom.”
“Oh, cool,” Peter said, once the man had backed up and the air had cleared. “How much do you think you’ll get for me?”
“None of your business!” the larger man snapped, then grabbed his partner by the arm. “Come on, Man. Leave the brat alone. We’ve got other matters to attend to.”
“Yeah, yeah,” the smaller replied, but not before giving Peter one last solid slap to the cheek. “Be good.”
With the bad guys out of the room, Peter decided to take stock of the environment. There were four walls made of cement and rusty corrugated metal. No windows. One door. The floor was covered in dust and debris, but none of it was large enough to be of any sort of assistance. The ceiling was at least three meters above his head and within it, there were two decently sized skylights. It wasn’t difficult to deduce that he was being held in an abandoned warehouse. Probably right beside the Hudson River.
Resigned, Peter leaned back in the chair and tapped his foot as best he could through the bindings. He didn’t have time to be sitting around doing nothing. He really needed to get to school. “Hey! Bad guys!” he yelled. There was no reply.
“Hey! I’ve got class! How long is this going to take?” he tried again. Nothing.
With a grunt of frustration, Peter took another look around the room. There were no visible cameras and as far as he could figure, no one could hear him. It seemed safe enough to go ahead and take advantage of his enhancements. So, he quickly yanked his hands apart, snapping the ropes with ease. He did the same with his feet and stood up to spread his arms over his head.
“If you guys don’t mind, I’m just going to go ahead and let myself out!” he shouted. Predictably, there was no reply.
“Awesome,” Peter said to himself. “Guess that’s my cue to get the heck out of here.” He quickly scaled the wall and climbed across the ceiling to the nearest skylight. There was no hinge or lock. It wasn’t meant to be opened. That was no problem. He had super strength. All it took was one swift punch and the thick acrylic cracked right open. He carefully climbed through, trotted across the roof, and hopped down to the ground. “Easy Peasy,” he said, as he took off towards the main road.
It didn’t take him long to jog the distance between the warehouse and the alley where his things had been abandoned. It was easy enough to grab his backpack from the top of the dumpster. Finding his phone required a little bit more digging. Once he’d retrieved them, he dug through his bag to find a can of spare deodorant. “Bingo,” he quipped as he hurriedly sprayed himself and his backpack down. Then he took off at full speed toward the school.
By the time he’d arrived at Midtown, the second-period bell had already rung. Peter skidded down the empty hallways and pushed through his classroom door just in time for his teacher to casually hand him his test packet.
“How many tardies is this for you now, Mr. Parker?” the teacher asked.
“Including this one?” Peter asked. The only reply he received was a deadpan look. “Two? Three?” he questioned more so than stated. He wasn’t actually sure.
“Try four,” the teacher blandly replied. Peter winced slightly. “I should be giving you detention.”
As the teacher walked back to the front of the room, Peter sighed in relief and buried his head in the test.
The remainder of the day went by in a completely ordinary fashion. He went to class, nailed both his tests, and ate lunch with Ned. At the end of the day, he went to his locker to make sure he had everything he needed to do his homework, talked to MJ for a few minutes beside the water fountain, and walked out the back door.
When he was convinced no one was watching, he jumped the tall rod iron fence, landing gracefully on his feet. Then he jogged into a nearby alley where he gave his surroundings one cursory look, before swiftly changing into his spider suit. It was Friday afternoon and Fridays were always spent at the tower with Tony.
“Hey, Mr. Stark!” Peter called out as he climbed through the lab window. “I’m here!”
Tony paused his work, looked up, and smiled. “Hey, Kid. Have a good day at school?” he asked.
“Yep,” Peter replied while shucking his backpack off of his shoulders. A few seconds of rummaging later, he pulled out his discarded jeans and science pun t-shirt. “Pretty good. Aced those tests I was studying for.”
“That’s great, Bud. I knew you could do it,” Tony replied, clapping Peter on the shoulder as he walked past. “Anything exciting happen?”
Peter halted in his steps and thought. The school day had been pretty ordinary. He’d completed the mundane assignments, eaten the mediocre cafeteria food, and observed an average amount of pubescent drama. He and Ned hadn’t had any exceptionally fascinating conversations and no one had given him any sort of a hard time. There was a niggling in the back of his head telling him he was forgetting something, but he couldn’t fathom what it could possibly be. As far as he was concerned his school life was exceedingly boring. “Not really,” he ultimately answered. “Just really normal high school stuff.”
Tony hummed neutrally and turned back to his project. “Got any homework?” he asked over his shoulder.
Peter cut his eyes toward his over-stuffed bag and sighed. “Yeah,” he said, fully resigned. “I guess I should hurry up and change clothes, so I can get started on that.”
Once the spider-suit had been folded and set aside, Peter carried his schoolwork over to the table across from where Tony was working. He started by going through his Spanish flashcards, then moved on to his reading assignment, saving his calculous homework for last. It wasn’t much. Just a few equations the teacher had wanted them to go through on their own. Technically he could have completed them in class, but he’d chosen to spend that time passing notes with Ned instead.
Tony continued to work on his prototype while Peter worked his way through a stack of books and papers. Periodically, he’d look across the table to see what the kid was working on. For whatever reason, he was eager for him to finish up.
“You about done, Kiddo?” he asked as Peter placed the majority of his school supplies into his bag.
“Yep. All I have left is math,” Peter replied, already thumbing through his textbook.
Tony nodded and went back to his tools. It didn’t take long for him to regain his focus. He’s started some preliminary wiring and that was always a delicate part of the process. He’d just gotten everything appropriately lined out when FRIDAY announced that an unknown number had rang through on his private line.
Tony looked up too, but only for a split second. “I’m a little busy, Darling. You think you could screen that one for me?” he asked, grunting as he tried to pull a misplaced wire loose.
“I already have, Boss,” FRIDAY directly replied. “They insist they have urgent business to discuss with you.”
“Odd,” Tony mused aloud, using a tiny set of pliers to scratch at the back of his head. “Did you get a name?”
“They did not share that information with me,” FRIDAY answered. “Would you like for me to try again?”
“Nah,” Tony sighed. Only so many people had access to his actual phone number. So, whatever it was about, was probably important. “Go ahead and put it through to my cell phone.” A short beep to indicate the call had been transferred, prompting him to bring his device up to his ear. “This is Stark,” he said, tucking the phone between his chin and his shoulder.
His greeting was met with a great deal of rustling noises before a muffled voice said, “Listen up, Stark. I’m only going to say this once.”
Tony abandoned what he was doing and raised a single brow. He had no idea who he was talking to, but he could surmise that it wasn’t going to be a cordial conversation.
“We’ve kidnapped your son,” the voice continued. “And if you want to ever see him alive again, you need to-”
Tony’s brain stalled for half a second. He didn’t have any children, illegitimate or otherwise. That he was aware of. Although he was having a hard time believing that a kidnapper would find out he had son before he did. Even if his lawyer hadn’t contacted him right away. News of that nature would spread fast. Especially through the tabloids. “Now hold on just a minute,” he casually interjected. “I have a son?” he questioned. “Why am I just now hearing about this? This feels like something I should have already known.”
The caller faltered, puttering a sting of broken syllables before attempting to clarify. “We have a teenager with brown hair. Goes to Midtown High School? He’s wearing a science pun t-shirt,” he said, sounding slightly confused and considerably miffed.
“Oh,” Tony replied, leaning back in his chair and kicking his feet up onto the desk. “You mean Peter. Yeah, he’s not my son.”
“He’s not?” the voice asked, pausing briefly before adding, “Are you sure?”
“Yep,” Tony replied, momentarily meeting eyes with Peter. “Pretty sure.”
There was another short stretch of silence followed by some more rustling noises. “Well, either way, we’ve got him locked up,” a new, deeper voice snapped. “Do you want him back or not?”
Tony looked again at Peter and shook his head. “What are you talking about? Peter’s right here in front of me doing his calculus homework,” he incredulously replied, then paused. “Actually, hold on,” he said as he motioned for FRIDAY to trace the call. Once the AI had blinked in response, he sat up and leaned forward onto the desk. “Hey, Pete? Did you get kidnapped today?”
Peter's forehead creased with thought, then his eyes doubled in size. “Oh, yeah!” he blurted out. “That’s what I forgot to tell you!”
There was a curse at the other end of the line, right before the call abruptly disconnected.
Tony set his phone down and reached up to pinch the bridge of his nose. “Really, Kid? You forgot to tell me you were kidnapped?” he asked. “You have got to be joking.”
“No seriously, Mr. Stark. You don’t understand. It was so uneventful!” Peter defended. “Like I wasn’t even really kidnapped, I was only sorta kinda kidnapped. I mean, they took me, sure. But I just walked, well, crawled right out of there and went to school.”
As Peter spoke, Tony blinked back at him. “So you just broke free and left?” he asked, and Peter nodded. “Do I need to be worried about your secret identity?”
Peter shrugged his shoulders. “They weren’t even watching me. They tied me up and left. There weren’t any cameras or anything,” he replied. “Worst kidnappers ever. Zero out of ten. Would not recommend.”
Tony scoffed and glanced toward the ceiling. “FRIDAY? Did you get a location for me?”
“Of course, Boss,” the AI smugly replied. “Would you like for me to ready the mark forty-seven and set a route?”
“Yeah, no. Inept kidnappers are a little below my pay grade,” Tony returned with a roll of his eyes. “Send the coordinates and all relevant information to local law enforcement.”
Seconds later FRIDAY confirmed that the information had been received and that there were several units en route. Tony nodded his head, satisfied, and narrowed his eyes toward Peter “Okay. Now that that’s taken care of,” he said, followed by a deep sigh. “Do you think that next time you decide to get ‘sorta kind of kidnapped’, you could maybe call and give me a heads up? Or at least, I don’t know, remember to tell me that it happened.”
Peter shrugged his shoulders. “I guess.”
“Great,” Tony replied, even though he wasn’t really all that reassured by the response. But rather than push, he swayed his head and said, “Sounds like a plan.” He knew the kid could hold his own. He was quick, smart, intuitive, and had the strength of twenty raging elephants. But he maintained that a heads-up would still be nice. If for no other reason than to keep his sanity intact.
Hey, Mr. Stark,” Peter asked, pulling Tony from his thoughts. “Are you going to tell Aunt May?”
Tony blanched at the thought. “Absolutely not,” he quipped. “I still have tinnitus from that time you snuck out of school to fight that enhanced cosplayer that was going around calling himself ‘The Rhino.’ If she was willing to blame me for that, there’s no way I’m telling her you got kidnapped because a couple of dinguses thought you were my son.”
Peter shrugged again. “Yeah, but I was fine, Mr. Stark. And I only missed the one class.”
“Oh,” Tony replied, a smirk crossing his lips. “So, you're going to tell her then?”
“No!” Peter squeaked.
“That’s what I thought,” Tony chuckled before going back to his work. Peter, in turn, went back to his work as well. And the rest of the evening went by as if nothing had happened at all.