A Different Kind of Family

Chapter 12: A Visit

Peter couldn't describe how bored he was, or how the never ending silence was slowly eating away at his sanity. The Avengers had gone out on another 'mission' and before they left Tony made sure that Peter understood that he was not to leave the Tower or do anything stupid. He couldn't help the eye roll that followed his lecture; Tony gave him this spiel every time they left, which was pretty much every day now and it was starting to drain on him. Pepper would come down from her office or meetings every once in a while to keep him 'company' but he knew Tony was just making sure he hadn't snuck out. Today Peter found himself laying on the couch like he did every day he was alone. Every since everything that had happened to him he started to realize how much he hated being alone. Nothing could distract him from his thoughts, his reality. He sighed and aimlessly clicked through the channels on TV, nothing caught his attention. Why have so many channels if none of them are good? Peter groans after flicking through literally hundreds of news casts and lets the remote plop to the ground. He lays there like that for a while, his arm hanging over the couch and his body taking up as much of the couch as he can until he hears a ding. Was it already one o'clock? Without even moving from his spot he slightly turns his head to project his voice better to the elevator, "Hey Pep, how's work going?" But he heard no reply. "Pepper?" 

"Pepper's not here right now." That voice. It sent shivers down his spine and made his hair stand on end. How did he know that voice? His mind couldn't place it but every sense inside of him was telling him to run, to hide, do anything to get away from this person. Peter jerked into a sitting position on the couch and he saw the mysterious person. The person stood as tall as Steve, and he looked to be around his late twenties or early thirties. Peter never had been good at guessing ages. But he knew he was dangerous, he had infiltrated the Tower and reached the living quarters after all. The man smirked and grabbed the control panel of the elevator. With inhumane strength he tore it from it's sockets and threw it to the ground. The shocks and electricity seemed to do nothing to faze the man. His face only widened more in a sickening smile, "Wouldn't want to be interrupted now would we?" He took a few steps forward resulting in Peter jumping from his spot on the couch and taking a few steps back. "Gotta say, didn't expect you to be a kid. But..he's not complaining.." The man shrugged as he continued to approach Peter. His stare, the hunger in his eyes, the sickening smile, everything about him had Peter freezing in fear; he knew he should run and get his suit but yet his legs wouldn't move, nothing would move. The man stopped just out of reaching distance of Peter. He slowly played with his arms, cracking his knuckles and rolling the kinks out of his neck, "Got nothing to say kid?" Peter just continued to stare helplessly at the man, the sweat slowly forming on his brow. What was wrong with him? His silence only caused the man to frown, "Aww come on at least make it fun," and before Peter could blink the man swung his arm and he watched in horror as his arm was swallowed up by a black ooze extending his reach all the way to Peter. The mass twisted and formed a tentacle like arm. It smacked him straight across the face and boy did it hurt. It hurt worse then when Captain had dropped that plane bridge on him. He could already feel the bruise forming, even a warmth slowly trailing down his face. But he had no time to see how bad it was, the tentacle was coming at him again. He quickly stepped back and ducked, trying his best to get to the hallway. The black was always moving, like it couldn't decide on what shape to hit him with. The man continued to swing his black mass back and forth as Peter ducked and weaved from the hits. All the while the man was smiling and laughing every time his arm contacted with Peter, and Peter had to admit, he was in no condition to fight. He had just finally gotten his appetite back and his sleeping pattern was still irregular. No matter what he did the nightmares always came. So the constant dodging of an arm that was attached to a man who seemed to never tire was draining Peter's energy quickly. He needed to reach his room and he needed to do it fast. As he sidestepped another punch he saw his chance to sprint for his room. It seemed that the man wasn't aware of his strength and his failed punch ended up trapping his black like mass in the wall. Peter knew it would only take him seconds to get it free but he wasted no time as he sprinted around the corner and literally slid into his room. He slammed the door and quickly went about changing into his suit. He barely had time to put on his mask before the door flew open. Peter had to cover his face from the drywall and dust that was flown at him. The man casually walked in, the black tentacles were coming from all over him now. They wiggled and snapped in the air looking for a target to hit, looking for him. "There's the suit we remember," a barge of tentacles race towards him. With his web shooters now at his disposal he goes about webbing up anything that dares get close to him. Which is a lot. It was like the tentacles were endless and every time he stopped one three more would rush at him, and needless to say he only had so much web fluid. Peter flipped over another tentacle sticking to the ceiling and went about webbing it up to stop it from moving before barely escaping two more. Seeing no other solution Peter did the one thing his whole body was screaming him not to do. Peter launched both of his webs on opposite sides of the man and flung himself straight towards the man. The man had not been prepared for that as Peter kicked him straight back into the hallway, the force ripping the tentacles he had webbed up free of their prison. But Peter didn't stop there he charged at the man ready to web him to the wall but before he could the tentacles wrapped around the knocked out man and began to twist and wiggle. What Peter saw stopped him right in his tracks, his spine stiffening with fear. The black mass completely swallowed up the man and formed into the monster he always saw in his dreams. The red slitted eyes focused right on him and it smiled it's big toothy grin before charging right at Peter with a sickening screech.

Pepper wasn't sure what was happening. At first she was in a meeting with a very stubborn politician and suddenly the power was out. She brought her Stark watch to her face and pressed the button that connected her to Friday, "Fri? What's going on we've lost power up here." But the AI didn't respond. "Friday?" Now the panic that her employees were feeling was finally creeping up on her. Her inner boss quickly kicked in and she put demand in her voice, "Does anyone know what the Hell is going on in here?!" She quickly scans around the room looking for anyone who might have a clue as to what Hell was going on. Her eyes quickly spot a girl slowly making her way over to her.

"Ma'am..?" she frantically taps on her tablet, "the whole building is down.."

"What?" Pepper quickly takes the tablet from the shaking girl, "How is that possible..?" she trails off as her eyes scan across the tablet. Every power system in the tower was flashing red, along with the alarms on the first and second floor. The only possible way for this to happen was if someone did it. The Tower has been broken into. "Get the Avengers on the phones immediately!" Pepper tried to hide the panic in her voice but she was pacing back and forth now. She wasn't worried about the Tower or Stark Industries blue prints being stolen, what she was worried about was Peter all alone on the 27th floor.