Chương 13: Wild Goosechase
"Hey Pete," Gwen said as she leaned on his shoulder, they were both sitting in his warehouse hideout as they watched TV, they both loved watching old movies and were currently watching 'Singing in the Rain' one of their personal favourites.
"Yeah, Gwen?" Peter asked as he basked in her presence, having her warm body against him. Ned had cancelled on them as his mother was holding a charity event at their church so tonight it was just them.
"You look tired have you been getting enough sleep... you haven't been fiddling in your lab again all night have you?" She asked as she turned her head and gave him a mock glare. Peter chucked as he rubbed his eyes "I am fine Gwen just a bit sleepy," he replied.
"Maybe you should give the lab a break for today, I'm sure we can figure out something fun to do without syringes and glass beakers," she said as she got up on her knees and kissed his cheek.
Peter smiled as he grabbed Gwen onto his lap "Maybe you're right... I could use a break," he said to her as he hugged her close to his body as if she would disappear, his eyes started to close as the warmth from her body combined with how tired he was made him start to drift off.
"It's time to wake up Pete."
"Pete you have to wake up."
"PETER!"
...
Peter coughed as he gasped for air, he lifted his mask and spewed up blood onto the ground next to him, he was currently in a burning building something that wasn't uncommon but it seemed this one was specially made for him, he'd been given a false lead to Taskmaster that lead to this old condemned building in Harlem that had been boobytrapped to explode. Peter knew that Taskmaster had gotten him good, there were still people in this building and he couldn't leave them.
Peter pushed himself up from the ground, the right side of his costume was burnt off by the explosion and he had 2nd degree burns across the exposed area. Peter coughed as he held himself up by the wall, he strained his ears as he tried to pick up any people still in the building. Peter pushed himself off the wall, he was in one of the apartment buildings at the moment so he rushed towards the door to the hallway and barged through it sending the door off the hinges.
*Buzz*
Peter jumped to the right as another explosion went off sending him through the window at the end of the corridor, he felt the cold air of New York hit him, it felt good against the burns he'd sustained. In the corner of his vision, he could see the large crowd that must've gathered when the first explosion was set off as well as the police and fire department. His Spider-sense went off again, he looked ahead and saw the large chunk that had been blown off the building and was heading right towards the crowd.
Peter sobered up immediately and sprang into action flipping midair and shooting a web at the large chunk of debris and then one at the opposite building, using the momentum from the explosion he swung himself backwards and used his left arm to swing the debris just over the crow and onto the street behind them.
*BOOM*
Another explosion went off, Peter let go of both webs before shooting two new ones and slingshot himself back into the building crashing through a glass window and then flipping onto his feet "IS ANYBODY HERE!!!" He shouted as he ran through the corridors, the fire was getting out of control now and he could feel the floor starting to give way. On the edge of his senses, he could hear the sounds of crying so he shot down the corridor and to the door he heard it from breaking it down.
Inside the apartment was a woman with a gag in her mouth and a bomb strapped to her chest, next to her on a pillow on the ground was a baby. On the wall was a message 'Soon.' Peter cursed but put it to the back of his mind for now, he rushed towards the woman and moved the gag from her mouth "Don't worry everything will be okay," he said trying to sound convincing.
The woman was hysterical "Por favor, mi bebé sálvalo! (Please, my baby save him)." She begged as she grabbed onto Peter's hand. Peter cupped her face "Los salvaré a ambos señorita (I will save you both miss)," Peter said before looking down at the bomb that only had a minute left on the countdown.
'Shit I've never seen this configuration before,' he thought to himself as he looked at the different pieces of the bomb, he could hear the baby crying start to get weaker and narrowed it down to the smoke inhalation though the baby would have more than that to worry about if Peter didn't deal with this bomb.
Peter quickly figured out that he couldn't do it, he didn't have enough time to figure out how to disarm it, maybe if Ned were here he'd be able to but this wasn't his area of expertise he'd only recently learned about bomb defusal, he didn't want to run a current through it in case there were any failsafes 'Shit!' He thought as the counter just went under twenty.
"Okay Fuck it!" He shouted before grabbing the bomb and ripping it off, in the next half a second he grabbed the woman and shot a web sticking the baby to the pillow, he kicked the table that was next to them through the window and threw both the woman and baby out of it. However as half a second turned into one the bomb beeped and then exploded sending Peter out the window with them, he grit his teeth as he felt shards of shrapnel tear into his back as well as his skin burning off. He focused on the two in front of him who would be torn to pieces by the debris if he didn't do anything, he shot a web at the table he'd kicked out of the window and pulled it towards him flipping over it and pushing off of it grabbing the woman with one hand and the baby with the other.
He shot a web at the opposite building to break their fall but let go before they could swing into it. He landed on an ambulance that was parked just next to the building, he quickly jumped down and let the woman down before tearing the web off and giving her the baby. She started speaking so quickly that Peter wasn't sure what she was saying though it was possible he had a concussion.
The cheers of the crowd made his head pound, he needed to get out of here "Sir! Are you okay!" One of the paramedics said with concern in his voice, looking over his shoulder he could see why the paramedic sounded so panicked. The rearview mirror gave him a view of his back and saying it didn't look good was putting it lightly "No need to worry about me, I heal fast," he said laughing nervously before saluting the paramedic he then jumped up and shot a web-swinging away from the scene. M
Peter landed in a nearby alleyway where he promptly fell over lifted his mask and threw up on the ground. He looked down and saw the only thing that came out of him was blood 'Force of the explosion must've damaged me internally,' he theorised as he pulled his mask down. This was the third fake lead he'd been given this week and if Peter wasn't sure what was going on before he was now. This was Taskmaster softening him up, from what Peter could guess Taskmaster had no powers he was just at the peak of human ability, in a straight-up fight he'd lose to Peter and he knew that. Peter needed to figure something out soon otherwise he'd be at a disadvantage.
"Peter!"
Peter froze as he heard the voice of a girl shout at him from behind, this wasn't good he was already losing his awareness of his surroundings which was something Taskmaster would take advantage of. Going back to the voice there were only two people who knew his identity of Spider-Man and one of them had no business being in Harlem. Peter turned around to see the unhappy face of Jessica who stood a couple of metres away from him, she had her arms crossed and her eyes looked a bit watery.
"Hey Jess... funny running into you here," Peter said as he laughed nervously. Jessica just continued to look at him with an unimpressed almost seething look.
"Listen... I have been pretty busy these past few months, I'm sure you've been pretty busy with school and everything" Peter continued, though it was to no avail as Jessica didn't say anything.
"I'm just gonna go..." Peter said before walking backwards, his spider-sense then went off and he sidestepped Jessica who lunged at him.
"You fight Tombstone!!!" She said as she threw a punch at him which he ducked under making her fist go through the brick wall.
"You make me think you're dead!!!" She continued as she tried to hit Peter kicking out at him, he jumped and backflipped out of the way and onto a garbage bin, her kick hit the bin which dented the metal.
"And when I find out you're alive YOU DON'T EVEN TALK TO ME!!!" She said as she grabbed the bottom of the garbage bin and threw it half a dozen feet in the air flipping it. Peter jumped off of it and landed back on the alley floor just in time to be hit in the face by one of her punches which got him straight in the jaw.
Jessica finally calmed herself down as she noticed that she'd accidentally knocked him out, she took a flask out of her jacket pocket and took a long sip of the drink inside before wiping her lips. She then walked over to Peter "Come on you idiot let's get you home." She said as she put her jacket around him and lifted him before going to the fire escape and climbing up it with Peter on her shoulders.
———————————————————-
*BOOM*
The crowd gasped as they saw a woman and her baby thrown out of the window along with Spider-man, however, they cheered and whistled when they saw him catch both of them and land on the ambulance with them both unharmed. None of them cheered louder than Max who was shouting and applauding as loud as he could, though he felt his heart go into his mouth when he saw how injured Spider-Man was and he started making his way through the crowd and to the ambulance to help but in a typical Spider-Man fashion he shook it off and saluted them before jumping up and swinging away.
'He's so amazing!' Max thought to himself as he looked at him swinging away in awe. He then took his notebook down and started writing down the details of this incident, he made sure to stand close by and listen to anything the police or the firemen said and note down anything of importance. After getting everything he could he put his notebook away and started heading back home, he made sure his headphones were connected to his police scanner that was in his backpack he couldn't risk missing out on any big Spidey action.
As he walked home he started reading through all his notes he'd taken since he met Spider-Man, he couldn't help but think something big was at work, something that Spider-Man couldn't do alone.
*We need more people like you*
'People like me,' he thought as he remembered the words Spider-Man had said to him, no one had ever truly seen him before apart from his Mom, so he had to help Spider-Man no matter what.
Max finally got home and he carefully unlocked the door to his house as he tried not to make any noise, though it seemed that the hinges on the door needed oiling as it made a loud squeaking noise.
"BOY!!!" He heard his Dad scream from the living room.
Max grits his teeth and steeled himself, Spider-Man risks his life every day for people so he has to at least be brave enough to face his Dad otherwise Spider-Man might not want his help anymore. He walked into the living room though with every step the pit in his stomach seemed to only get wider and wider.
"Where have you been boy I've been trying to call you for hours now!" He shouted making Max flinch slightly.
"I-I w-was j-just-"
"I don't give a fuck!!!" His Dad said throwing his empty beer bottle at the wall.
"Your crack whore mother hasn't done any shopping, go and get me another twelve-pack!" He shouted before going back to watching TV.
Max for the first time in a while felt his anger overcome his fear and without thinking he spoke "Don't call her that!" Max shouted at his Dad. The room then dropped into an eery silence the only sound being the TV, his dad slowly got up and walked to Max dwarfing him with his larger frame.
*Crack*
Max fell to the ground after being bottled by his father, his vision was blurry but he still tried to crawl away from his Dad, that was at least until the first kick hit his stomach. Then he collapsed on the floor gasping for breath.
"DON'T!"
"YOU!"
"EVER!"
"TALK!"
"BACK!"
"TO!"
"ME!"
"AGAIN!"
With every word he kicked and stomped on Max thought it wasn't for long as he started breathing heavily and had to sit back down leaving Max on the ground curled up in pain.
He was drifting in and out of consciousness, though he managed to gain some awareness when he heard the door bang. When he saw his Mom come in he felt a lot better, that maybe she could make him feel better and help him, but it seemed such a thing wasn't meant to be as she walked past him without even sparing him a glance.
Max felt tears edge down his face even though he tried so hard to hold them back 'I'm sorry Spider-Man... but I'm scared,' he thought to himself as he quietly sobbed on the ground clutching his stomach in pain.
———————————————————
"You really are an idiot aren't you!" Jessica said sternly for what seemed like the hundredth time, she roughly yanked a piece of shrapnel out of Peter's back making him hiss in pain "Hey Jess I know you're mad but could you maybe be a bit more gentle." He asked.
"No," she replied bluntly as she yanked another piece out. Truthfully she felt like crying, seeing Peter in such a state reminded her of the time she saw him finish off Tombstone in that explosion, she thought for sure that he'd be dead. So she wasn't sure whether to cry tears of joy or sadness at seeing her friend look so broken both in body and mind.
"Look I'm sorry Jess... I just wasn't... am not ready to go back to being Peter," he said solemnly, for Peter even being in his old warehouse that Jess had been living in was bringing painful memories back to him. "I've made a lot of mistakes and before I can go on with my life I need to fix them," he continued.
"You mean the kids?" She asked as she removed the last of the shrapnel and poured some rubbing alcohol onto the wounds on his back making him hiss. Peter nodded "I've been making some headway in finding them but there are still a lot unaccounted for," he explained.
"From what I've heard from the kids those who weren't bought by predators get taken to a place they call the White Room, though not many of them like talking about what happened there." He continued as he started to clench his fists.
Jessica frowned "What happens to them once they get there," she asked.
Peter took a breath before answering "They're given a course of different treatments in conjunction with a form of 'therapy' to awaken any latent mutant gene," he said through gritted teeth. Jessica felt her blood boil at what Peter told her and she unintentionally crushed the tweezers in her hand.
"I'm getting close, once I find Taskmaster I'll be able to find the location of the white room and get them out," Peter said as he got up from the sofa.
"I won't let you do this alone Peter," Jessica said as she stood up folding her arms.
"You're not the only one who's been involved who's been investigating the missing children, it's bad Peter there are some pretty powerful people that must be involved in this," she said with concern in her voice.
She led Peter over to her bedroom where she opened the door, the first thing Peter saw when he walked in was how messy it was, and the second thing was the massive wall of evidence she'd gathered.
"Don't you think it's strange how such a large group of kids could go missing, for such a long period of time and yet be investigated so little?" She asked as she looked at Peter who was scanning every bit of evidence on the wall. And what he was looking at did not look good, in fact, he was starting to think he might be in way over his head.
"Fuck..."
(AN: So that's it for this chapter, a bit of a time skip as it would be pretty boring if I wrote the lead up to Peter hunting down Taskmaster, I mean obviously he'd be hunting him down. Anyway things will be getting interesting soon and there will be more fighting and stuff. Hope you enjoyed the chapter)
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