Secret Identity

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"Here's how this is gonna go," The dude standing in front of Spider-Man says as he walks slowly towards him, "You are going to make a video telling everyone your secret identity."
"Yeah, sure. Do you want me to buy you a diamond too?" Spider-Man smirks, "It's just you and me here. You're cornered and I have super powers. Guess what happens now?"
"What happens... is that you're going to take a step back." He replies, and despite his disadvantage, he sounds smug, like he knows that Peter will do what he says.
"Why don't you make me?" The kid says coldly, and as he takes a step toward him, he realises why the man is so sure of himself. He pulls out a device and a small projection appears above the screen. There's a boy chained to a wall, his knees tucked up into his chest and his hair in his eyes. And Peter wishes that this was a nightmare... because he knows exactly who it is. Ned.
Peter's shocked, but he keeps a still face as his eyes darken with anger.
"Let him go."
"Only you have the power to make that happen, Mr. Parker." How the hell did he know this?
"I don't know what you're talking about." Spider-Man lies, tapping his watch to send an alert to the team.
"Oh I think you do. Midtown High? The bullied kid and his best friend? Peter Parker and Ned Leeds? Is this ringing any bells?" He asks with a grin on his face. "You can call me Scorpion, I was in jail with your old pal, the Vulture. He told me all about you." He looks like he's enjoying this as he continues to speak. "One word and I can make your 'best friend' cease to exist."
"Alright!" Peter takes a deep breath. "Alright... I'll do it. But you gotta let Ned go first. I'm not doing anything until I know he's safe."
"That's not how this works, kid. Here." He says, brandishing a syringe with yellow liquid in it. "Stick your arm out and I'll inject you, then... and only then... will I let your friend go."
"Not happening."
"Fine. Gary, kill the friend." He says, holding his finger to his ear piece.
"No!" Peter yells, he puts his hands up in surrender as tears build up in his eyes. "I... yeah... I'll do it." He sighs, praying that Tony got his alert and he's on his way. "But you gotta let him go if I do."
"Oh, I promise. Get over here." The man smirks. And Peter does, he takes a small step toward him, fear building in him as he gets closer. His heart starts to beat faster as he sticks his arm over to the man. The prick of the needle stings his forearm, and his head gets dizzy almost immediately.
"What... what is this?" His words are slurred and his pupils are enlarged. "What? W... what did you do to me?"
"Don't worry about it, kid. You'll wake up in a while and everything will be okay." The man smiles, he presses a button on his earpiece and continues speaking. "Bring the van around." That was the last thing Peter heard before passing out. He wakes up a while later, feeling groggy and sick but he gets to his feet as fast as he can, after all, he might need to fight.
"Hey... you okay?" A voice behind him asks, the kids startled and practically falls over his own feet but Ned catches the top half of his body before he hits the ground.
"Ned! Shit... are you alright?"
"I asked you first." Ned replies with a small smile on his face.
"Look, I'm fine. But we gotta get outta here, I sent a code to the Avengers, they should be on their way but they want me to take off my mask for the world to see." Peter says quickly, he's beginning to panic, he really thought they would've let Ned go, how stupid of him. But his best friend just stares at him.
"Hey..." Peter says softly, "are you alright?" He only now notices the red mark on Ned's cheek, he'd obviously been hit a few times.
"Peter... I... I don't know how to do this, okay? I'm not a super hero, I'm scared. I'm so scared and I... I..."
"It's okay, I promise you, we're getting out of here." Peter says, "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry. If it wasn't for me, you wouldn't be in this mess." The sadness in his voice is abundantly clear as the kid blames himself for everything.
"If it wasn't for you, I wouldn't be happy." Ned replies simply, smiling at him with teary eyes. Peter pulls him into a hug and the two embrace for a moment. A brief moment, as the door swings open and the two jump backwards, arms still wrapped around each other.
"How sweet..." The man says sarcastically, "Well, shit. And to think that I thought the 'Spider-Man' was some hardcore super hero. But..." We walks towards them, as Peter uses his arm to shield Ned. "You're just a child."
"You said you'd let him go if I did what you asked." Peter says, a hint of embarrassment in his voice as he hears his own stupidity out loud.
"And you believed me?" The man asks rhetorically. "Now, what you're gonna do here, is stick this around your hands and we can get started." He pulls out two weird-looking cuffs, they're metal and a light flashes a deep red at their sides.
"Let him go and I will." Peter says, fake confidence in his stance as he gets up slowly. "I will fight anyone who comes near us, but if you let him go, I'll do whatever the hell you want."
"Little spider, you are quite the fighter, huh? It's adorable, really. But uh..." He pulls a gun out from his back pocket. "You're gonna do whatever the fuck I say." He aims it at the young boy standing as a shield in front of his friend. Peter stays strong, just stares him down and remains motionless. But the sound of a gunshot going off startles the two of them, the echoes bounces off the walls and Peter's super hearing goes crazy. He had shot the ground by Peter's feet. The ringing in his head is so intense that he can't even see, he collapses to the ground in a heap.
It takes a good minute before he can process his surroundings again, by the time he can comprehend what happened, he's already got the cuffs clicked close around his wrists.
"You okay?" Ned asks nervously, "Peter."
And just as the kids about to reply with a 'yes,' a shooting pain flies from his wrists to his chest, it's like a fire in his body. He thrashes on the ground for a few seconds as he tries to regain control of his convulsing body.
"Stop! Stop it!" Ned shouts at the man holding the remote, but he can't reach his friend either, his hands are still chained to the wall.
"You keep your mouth shut unless you want me to press the button again."
And despite how much Ned wants to scream at him for causing his friend so much pain, he does what he's told, he can't be the reason that this happens to Peter.
"Now let's see that little face of yours, Spider-Man." He spits out with venom in his voice as he pulls the mask above Peter's head, tossing it to the floor beside him. "You really are young, aren't ya?"
Peter doesn't say anything, he can't risk them hurting his best friend, so he just looks at him with vengeance and anger in his eyes.
"Let's get this party started!" The man smiles happily as he pulls a phone from his pocket, "You're gonna say your name and tell the people what you are."
"And what am I?" The kid retorts back.
"You're a freak..." The man explains a look of disgust takes over his face, "A mutant... A stupid little kid who is the farthest thing from a hero..."
"You're wrong!" Ned yells from behind Peter, his fear is nothing compared to the anger he has at the words being used. The man snarls at him and walks forward, Peter puts his hands up quickly, ready to fight if needed. But the man just presses a button that has a searing white heat take over his veins and he can't seem to breath as he falls straight down. The man walks past him, not fazed at all, and punches Ned across the face, leaving him gasping on his side as his nose starts to bleed. Peter can still barely see but he gets to his feet and lunges at the man, "Don't touch him!" He yells, but he doesn't even get close before the man presses the remote again.
Too much happens in the next second for anyone to process, Peter's convulsing on the ground, screaming out in pain, Ned's vision gets blurry from the force of the punch and the wall in front of them crumbles as the ceiling tiles start to fall off.
"You're alright. You're okay. I got you, kid. It's okay." Reassurances come quickly as Tony kneels down beside the kid and takes his head into his hands.
"M...Mr.... Sta..." Peter continues to shudder as he lets out another cry.
"It's okay. It's okay." His father figure whispers to him, he cradles him lovingly as Rhodey breaks the cuffs around Ned's wrists.
Peter's breathing finally starts to return to normal as he calms down in Tony's arms. "Mr. Stark." He mumbles, his voice muffled through Tony's shirt as he pulls himself closer to him.
As the feeling comes back to him, and his sight returns, he's met with at least a dozen agents standing by the broken wall, two of them holding the man who had done this to him. Scorpion.
"Do what you will," He says, making Tony's head snap back angrily to face him, "but I know your secret, kid. I'll tell the world and there's nothing you can do about it." He smirks, he looks ecstatic to see Tony looking so mad. "What? You'll kill me, Stark? Do it." He snarls at them, struggling in the agent's grip.
"I'm not gonna kill you," Tony says, trying to stay collected, "I won't kill you because the kid doesn't agree with it. But you'll be left in isolation until the day you die. You'll speak to no one. And you'll have nothing."
That wipes the smirk of the man's face, as the agents drag him out towards the secure cell on the quinjet.
"Let's get these off you." Tony mumbles, basically to himself as he gently removes Peter's cuffs.
"Thank you, Mr. Stark. You saved us." The kid smiles up at him, "I was worried."
"You saved yourself and Ned, kid. You sent me the alert and you did what you could to ensure they wouldn't hurt your friend. You're a true hero." Tony replies, helping him to his feet and putting his arms around his shoulder. Peter turns though, towards his best friend and pulls him into a hug.
"You alright?" He asks softly as they continue to hold each other.
"I'm good, Peter. You saved me." Ned replies in a whisper, his body still trembling from fear. "You're a hero, Peter. A real hero."

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