Ghost Widow

Tape

Bruce woke up and noticed the two women staring at the tape. He eavesdropped on their conversation for a while, when he realised they didn't notice he was awake. The man caught on to what they were saying and had an idea.

He got up which startled the assassins and began rummaging around in a box under one of the desks. The man began frantically searching and the pair looked at each other, concerned.

"Hey, Bruce? What are you looking for?" Yelena walked over her friend and knelt down beside him.

Bruce continued searching, flinging bits of old tech around the room, "I need a VHS player. Help me find one."

Yelena pulled out some boxes and started looking; Ana did the same. There was a bunch of junk mixed up in wires that Ana untangled.

"Ah ha!" Yelena produced the item from a pile of scrap and held it in the air.

Bruce took it from her hand and plugged it into the computer. Then he stalked over to get the tape and stuck it in the VHS. On the computer appeared a box of code which the man scanned through and entered some of his own. A command box popped up and Bruce turned to Ana.

"What did you say it said on the tape?"he asked.

Ana repeated what she said earlier, "Ghost."

He entered the english and a video file became available.

"F.R.I.D.A.Y, call a meeting right now." Bruce announced.

The man grabbed a laptop and the VHS and ran out of the room. Yelena and Ana looked at each other and followed him upstairs.

Everyone congregated quickly, including Tony. Pepper led him to the meeting to make sure he got there safely. He was wearing sunglasses and a thin robe. A grey stubble had grown and his eye bags could been seen through the glasses.

"What do you want, Banner?" he asked bluntly and Pepper whispered something to him sternly.

He looked around the room and smiled at the twins, "Ana and Yelena helped me decode the tape we found."

Bruce tapped on the keyboard and up came the video file. He took a seat and pressed play.

Peter flashed up on the screen. He was bloody and bruised. There was someone off screen holding a gun to his head but he was too out of it to keep his head up so he let it flop forward.

The screen changed to a view from a camera in the corner of a dark room. Peter was strapped to a table and had a needle stuck in his arm. Green liquid was running through a tube into his bloodstream. The boy screamed in pain and tried to escape. A few of the Avengers adverted their eyes but most of them continued to watch.

The video changed to see Peter with the gun to his head again, but this time, there was someone speaking Russian in the background.

"Этот мальчик - Человек-паук. Мы усилили его новыми способностями. За него возьмем 20 миллионов рублей. Внутри ленты есть визитка с подробностями о том, как его купить." a distant voice spoke. (This boy is the Spiderman. We have enhanced him with new powers. For him, we will take 20 million rubles. There is a business card inside the tape with details of how to buy him.)

Then the tape cut out and the Project Enlightenment symbol was pasted on the screen. All the attention gradually turned to Tony who stood up abruptly. He walked over to the side table and poured himself a large scotch. The man took a few gulps and laughed.

"This is all your fault." Tony gestured at Ana who shrank down in her chair.

Yelena looked at Tony with fury in her eyes but Natasha shook her head as if to say 'it's not worth it'. The blonde stood down but was still fixated on him.

Tony continued, "You came to us and we fixed you. And this is how you repay us? By luring your organisation to take Peter."

Steve stood up and took the drink from his hand, "Tony, stop. I think you've had enough."

"Ooooh the courageous Steve Rodgers. How can you be on her side? She is the reason they have him." Tony said with a tear in his eye.

Ana quickly stood from her seat and left the room.

"Yeah, you go back to your family and tell them to give my kid back." Tony shouted after her.

The rest of the team followed the girl out to leave Pepper to deal with Tony. Ana ran into her room and locked the door behind her. Natasha was about to check on her but thought she would probably want to be alone.

The red head found the team in the kitchen sitting in silence trying to process what happened. Sam left the room to go order some pizzas to cheer everyone up.

Nat sat next to Bucky and he nudged her, "Is she okay? Tony was way out of line."

Natasha shrugged, "I don't know. I think she just wants to be alone. She feels guilty enough already."

Bucky nodded and saw that everyone was listening in on their conversation.

He sighed, "So what are we gonna do about the kid? If they plan on selling him, we need to get to him before he ends up completely lost."

Clint stood up, "I'll go get the business card they were talking about in the tape."

The team waited for him to arrive back and Sam rejoined to group.

"What do you think they were injecting him with?" Bruce asked.

Sam spoke, "Well they said it was gonna give him more powers. But is that even safe? And it was green."

Thor made himself known, "Green is a good colour. Better than red. Red means danger."

Everyone looked at him confused and turned to Clint when he re-entered the room.

"Guys, the card's gone. Someone got it already."