Let's Begin

Ch. 7

From here on out, the story involves kidnapping, so just be aware of that.

"So this is from a car that exploded?" Ned asked, holding a piece of blue scrap metal in front of him.

Peter nodded, having just finished telling Ned the story behind his souvenir.

"That's awesome," Ned breathed and Peter had to agree. After all, none of the other souvenirs Peter had brought had been that cool. Even Michelle had agreed it was a decent souvenir, so Peter figured he'd have a hard time one up-ing it on his next trip.

"I still think the leather would have been cooler," Michelle said, glancing at the scrap metal in Ned's hand.

Peter rolled his eyes, not bothering to tell her (again) that it wouldn't have been possible. The only reason he had the scrap metal was that Iron Man managed to snatch it up in the midst of pulling drivers out of crashed cars and putting out the fires. Technically, he wasn't supposed to have it. Fortunately for him and Ned, he doubted anyone would tell Iron Man to give back a piece of scrap metal.

Not for the first time during their lunch period, the three were interrupted by Mr. Patrick approaching them.

"Mr. Stark?" he asked, tapping Peter on the shoulder.

Peter jumped and spun around in his seat to face his homeroom teacher. As soon as he looked up at him, he remembered he still hadn't talked to him about whatever Mr. Patrick needed him for. It had been more than just the weekend, too.

"May I have a word with you now?" Mr. Patrick asked. He raised an eyebrow at Peter and Peter nodded quickly.

Excusing himself from the lunch table, Peter followed Mr. Patrick out of the cafeteria with a hundred apologies already on his lips.

"I'm sorry, Mr. Patrick," he said, following after his teacher. "I forgot to talk to you before I left and then I forgot this morning."

"Oh, don't worry about it, Peter," Mr. Patrick said, opening his classroom door and letting Peter walk in first. "It won't take that long. Please, take a seat," he said, motioning to a desk.

Peter sat at the desk and Mr. Patrick sat at his own desk directly in front of Peter.

"Am I in trouble?" Peter asked warily. He wasn't sure what he would be in trouble for, but it wouldn't be the first time a teacher had gotten upset with him without his knowledge.

"No, of course not."

Peter nodded. That was good; he wouldn't be going home with a note for his parents. That never really ended well on the teacher's part, and Peter often felt bad whenever a teacher received his parents' wrath.

"I just wanted to ask you about your childhood," Mr. Patrick said. Peter frowned in confusion, looking up at Mr. Patrick with his head tilted to one side. "When you were four, your father adopted you, yes?"

Unsure where Mr. Patrick was going with this conversation, Peter nodded slowly. It wasn't uncommon knowledge that Peter was adopted at four, he'd just never been confronted by a teacher about it.

"Your mother was murdered by a man you put in prison, yes?"

Alright, Peter thought to himself, that wasn't common knowledge.

"Um, how do you know that?" Peter asked.

Mr. Patrick ignored him, looking towards the back of the classroom briefly before continuing. "Do you remember that man?"

Peter didn't respond. The less he said at this point, the better it would be.

"James Richie was his name," Mr. Patrick said with a slight scowl, "He's dead now, thanks to you and your father getting him arrested. There were a couple of others with him though, that one day when he was in the Stark Tower with you and Miss Potts."

"I'm gonna go," Peter said softly, slowly standing up.

Before he had fully gotten to his feet, Mr. Patrick firmly grasped his shoulders and forced him to sit down. Peter's eyes widened and he looked around for something to throw at Mr. Patrick if he didn't let him leave soon.

"We were imprisoned, but we're out now," Mr. Patrick said, glaring at Peter who was too distracted to notice more people had entered the room. "We're out, and we haven't forgotten how you ruined our lives."

When Mr. Patrick glanced away from him, Peter scrambled out of the desk and raced towards the pencil jar on Mr. Patrick's desk, but he was grabbed from behind. With a yell, he struggled to escape his attacker but was met with Mr. Patrick shoving something in his mouth to quiet his screams.

"The van's out back," a man behind Peter said.

Mr. Patrick grabbed hold of one of Peter's arms while a third man grabbed his other one. His hands were roped together behind his back and he was practically carried out through the emergency exit in Mr. Patrick's classroom. Peter tried to kick the man holding his legs, but he couldn't get his legs loose.

Peter was dropped in the back of a van and a strange man used more rope to tie him to a seat so he couldn't escape. The other two men and Mr. Patrick piled into the van after him. Seconds after Peter was secured and the other man clambered into the van beside him, they sped out of the parking lot. They were nearing the highway when one of the men injected Peter with something and after blinking twice, he fell asleep.