Heads or Tails

Mismatch

Project Insight, a plan formed by Hydra to decimate the world. It would have worked if not for Captain America and the Black Widow. Because the Black Widow had dumped all of Hydra and Shield's data onto the web, Tony Stark had the opportunity to learn more about Project Red. It had begun nearly eighteen years years before Project Insight and had paused when the subject had gone missing five years after the project had begun. Tony had a feeling the subject was still running around, they were the product of an enhanced super soldier and a black widow. Natasha had given little information about her time in the red room. And now that she was in the wind with Steve and Sam, Tony could not ask. He was alerted to the news broadcast playing before him on the holo screen in his workshop.

While the threat of Hydra was slowly being diminished, a new villain by the name of Mismatch has emerged. They surfaced two months after Peter's friend's home burned down. His main focus of victims were those in the area at the time of the fire. Fire Fighters, News People, and Social Services to name a few. Though they had been let off with some cuts, scraps, and rope burn, their stories were all the same. A masked male with a distorted voice, crimson hair, peaking out from under a hood. But no one had seen their face, a plain white mask blocked them from getting a proper identification of them. One thing also never changed, two glowing eyes, one that was green and the other blue. Tony huffed at the blurry image of Mismatch. A blob of blacks, grays, and whites. Two glowing orbs of green and blue where the face would be. Tony took a look at the photo of the five year old child in the Project Red file. Red headed, different colored eyes. But without further evidence, Tony could not be exactly sure.

Tony closed the news feed, going back to working on Peter's suit. "Hey, J? Collect more info on our mystery friend here, let me know if you find anything else of interest." Tony motioned to the file before falling into his work. Jarvis gave his acknowledgment. Friday continued helping Tony with Peter's suit. Peter sat in his room, staring at the wall across from his bed. It has been almost a year since Haytham's disappearance after his home burned to the ground. Peter fiddled with a pen, trying to remember Haytham's face. The blues of his eyes always sparkling in the sunlight. Peter sobbed, curling up and laying his forehead on his knees, wrapping his arms around his legs. Peter should have stayed and walked home with the red head. Given Haytham a reason to stay. Now the other was out in the wind and probably in danger or dead. Peter fell to lay on his side and fell into an uneasy sleep.

Peter swung around New York with a clouded head. His thoughts raced as he landed on the roof of a small building. What tugged him out of his thoughts was the sound of a coin being flipped. He looked around, before looking inside the building. His eyes widened at the crime taking place, and who the crime involved. Mismatch, the newest villain to grace New York with their dark presence. Before them sat a man who looked nothing like their normal victims. Mismatch was talking, flipping an object in their left hand. They were seated backwards in a wooden chair. The man before them was wailing with pleas for mercy. Mismatch tilted their head to the right. Showing off a half burnt coin. Letting the man choose between heads or tails. Peter entered the building and quietly approached the two. Mismatch flipped the coin into the air. Catching the coin in their left hand. "Now remember, Mr. Myers, if you lose you die." They said while placing the coin on the back of their right hand. They slowly revealed the coin, resting on heads.

Mr. Myers wailed and Mismatch simply shrugged. "Looks like whether you tell me what I want to know or not, tonight is your last night alive, Mr. Myers." Mismatch held up a gun in their left hand. Pocketing their coin and aiming it at the man's head. "Okay! Okay, I'll talk! Just please, spare me!" Mr. Myers sobbed as he tried to hide behind his bound hands. Mismatch slowly lowered their gun. Peter breathed a sigh of relief. Mismatch slowly tilted their head and put the safety back on. "If I don't like your answers, your fate will be sealed. If I do, we'll try again, Mr. Myers." Mismatch uttered quietly. The man nodded with a sob. "I was hired to set the fire! If I didn't, then they would burn my home down and ruin me! I never wanted to hurt anyone and they promised no one would be home!" Mr. Myers shouted with hysteria. Mismatch clicked their tongue. "Too bad for you, all but one person had been home at the time." They growled. Mr. Myers' eyes widened and the stench of urine filled the air.

"You're HIM! You're Haytham!" He cried with crazed realization. Peter's eyes widened and dread filled his gut. Haytham didn't answer as the older man laughed madly. Only taking the safety off his gun and slowly aiming it at the other. The older man went quiet, fear catching his tongue. "And now, I can't let you live. After all, how do I know you won't go spilling your guts to some poor policeman?" Haytham said and Mr. Myers started to plead for his life once again. Silenced a moment later by a single gun shot to the center of the head. The body slowly slipped to the side. Peter just barely held in the shout building in his throat. He covered his mouth behind his mask. Haytham's mask was spotted with red. The glow of the eyes vanishing for a few moments. Peter's mind clicked, those were not the mask. They were Haytham's actual eyes. Haytham used Mr. Myers' shirt to wipe the blood from his mask.

"That was disgusting." The teen muttered. Peter slowly made his presence known. Mismatch looked at him and waved, not really trying to hide or run. "Spider-man, I assume?" He asked and got a nod in return. "Why did you kill him?" Peter asked with barely a shaky voice. "Mr. Myers here was responsible for the fire that burned down that orphanage almost a year ago. Now i just need to find out who hired him to do the deed." Mismatch said with a motion of his hand. Peter swallowed and got ready for a fight. "Sorry, but I'm gonna have to turn you in to the police for this." Peter watched the ease leave Mismatch. Then the tension came back. "Sorry. But you'll just have to accept that I'm not going with the men in blue today." The distortion of his friends voice made it difficult to tell whether Mismatch was being serious or sarcastic, but Peter knew Haytham. He knew that Haytham was never sarcastic unless he was pissed or irritated.

That meant Mismatch was being serious. He wouldn't be going with Peter willingly. "Please don't make me fight you. I don't want to hurt you." He tried to plead with Haytham, get him to come with him and prove he was still the same friend he knew and not some murdering psychopath. "Sorry, I'm afraid you'll have to." Mismatch got ready to attack, but the sounds of sirens made both teenagers pause. Mismatch looked at Peter and tilted his head. "Let's play a game, Spider-man. If I win, you have to let me leave. If you win, I go with you to see the men in blue." Mismatch pulled out his trusted coin and held it up for the masked hero to see. Peter supposed this was a good alternative to fighting. He nodded, "Okay, I choose heads." Peter said with the hope that he would win. Karen would have to handle the rest. "Alright. Heads says you win, tails says I win." Mismatch said before he flipped the coin. It landed in his left hand and was slapped onto the back of his right hand. Tails laying face up.

Mismatch slowly looked up at Peter and shrugged. Pocketing his coin and already moving for the fire escape above them. "Sorry, Spider-man. It would seem you won't get to walk with me to the men in blue." Mismatch said as he vanished into the shadows of the night. Peter quietly held in a sob. And he, too, vanished from the building to let the police department deal with the corpse. When Peter got home he asked Jarvis to take him to Tony or Loki. The god of Mischief had long since changed and healed from the effects of the mind stone. Jarvis took Peter to the raven. When Peter and Loki met eyes, Loki waved the boy over. Peter sobbed and slammed into his dad's chest. "It's Haytham!" He cried into his dad's chest and recounted the events to Loki. Loki himself grew ill with the knowledge that yet another young life would be stained by blood so early. "It will be alright. We'll figure something out, my little spider." He tried to soothe.

Peter cried himself to sleep, knowing his friend would continue killing until he found out who hired that man to burn down his home and kill his family. Loki looked to the camera he knew Jarvis would look through, and quietly asked him to start looking for that information the less violent way. Hoping they could save Haytham from anymore killing and bloodshed.