Caught In A Web

Chapter Two - Radioactive

I'm waking up, I feel it in my bones

Enough to make my systems blow

Welcome to the new age, to the new age

Welcome to the new age, to the new age

-"Radioactive," Imagine Dragons

- - -

Tony woke up to pain, searing pain shooting through his body. He woke up panicked, confused, searching. To his relief, Peter was still right next to him. To his horror, he was wearing a shock collar and was crunched up in pain. That's what the pain was from. They were both wearing them.

Where were they? From what it looked like, they were in some sort of glass cell within a larger concrete room. There were no windows, no sunlight. Within the cell there was just a cot with creaky springs and a thin mattress. 

Tony dropped to the floor to help Peter up.

"Hey, Pete. Come on, let's get you up. I have a feeling we're going to have a visitor."

Peter groaned and took Tony's hand, using his help to stand and then sit on the edge of the cot.

"Hey, Mr. Stark. Yeah, I have that feeling too."

Just then, a metal door opened in one of the concrete walls of the larger room, and in walked a well-dressed man followed by several muscular guards in tight shirts. The well-dressed man (who wore a white button-down, black tie, black dress pants, and black dress shoes) stopped a few feet from the glass and stared at the two prisoners. Peter felt like he was some exhibit at a zoo or museum with all of the glass, and he was immediately uncomfortable. Tony held his hand when he felt the boy tense next to him.

"So, we have our mutant-child Spider-Boy and his biggest fan, Tony Stark. The Iron Man." The man spoke with a voice laced with contempt. "Bug Boy and Tin Can. Two of New York's greatest defenders. Now, disappeared off of the face of the Earth."

"What do you want from us? How did you get to us? Who are  you?" Tony shot out all of these questions angrily, hand clutching Peter's tightly, defensively.

"Hush. I do the talking here." Tony released Peter's hand as another shock from his collar coursed through his body. "I don't want you, Tony. I want the mutant, and you happened to come attached. The name's Stryker, Reverend William Stryker if you must know. And as for how I got you here... Well, I had some help."

Stryker smiled and flashed to them a red book with a black star on the cover.

"Mr. Bucky..." Peter murmured without thinking. "No, he wouldn't... I thought he was past that.."

And then he cried out as he got shocked again for speaking out of turn.

"Whoever fixed that problem apparently didn't do as well as you hoped," Stryker continued. "But he's but a gamepiece. The least of your worries. Dealt with. Onto more important matters.

"Our Bug Boy here is a mutant. An abomination. And you support it, Tony. I'm disappointed. He deserves to be put out of his misery" here Tony held Peter close and shook his head "but there are so many things to be learned from him. Tests to be done. And you, Tony, are the perfect control group for comparison. Let's begin."

And with that, Peter was ripped out of Tony's arms and they were taken separate ways. Before they got far, they were both dealt jolts powerful enough to knock them out.

-

Tony woke up with a dull ache through his body, feeling barely rested and extremely stressed. Where was Peter? He looked around, but he was alone in his cell, which was very similar to the one they woke up in at first, except the walls were opaque and the cot had a thin blanket on it. The room felt colder now that he was alone, and Tony realized just how thin the clothes they had given him were.

Upon inspection of the sleeves of his shirt, he noticed a crust of blood along the hem of his left sleeve. He pulled the sleeve up to his elbow and grimaced, seeing the hole where an IV had been inserted into the crook of his elbow and several thin, shallow cuts running down the length of his arm. His right arm had similar cuts.

"Mr- Mr. Stark?" Tony could hear Peter's voice coming from a speaker above him.

"Pete? Peter, are you alright?"

But Peter couldn't hear his voice. He was in a cell right next to and identical to Tony's, except that the walls were clear glass. He could see Tony sitting on his cot, looking at his arms, and he knew something was wrong when Tony looked at the ceiling after he spoke. He saw Tony's mouth moving, but couldn't hear his response.

"I can't hear you, Mr. Stark. I'm sorry. You can't see me, can you?"

Tony shook his head. He stood up and spun around, trying to guess which wall Peter saw him through. After a moment, Peter caught on. 

"Okay, keep turning, keep turning, stop. I'm on the other side of that wall."

Tony couldn't see Peter at all, but hearing his voice comforted him a bit. He placed his hand on the wall, hoping it would help Peter feel like he wasn't alone.

And even though Tony couldn't see it, Peter placed his hand against the same spot.

"It's going to be okay, Mr. Stark. Someone's going to find us."

Tony lowered his hand, his heart panging for the innocence of this kid. Tony knew that nobody ever came to save you, that either you help yourself or you die. He wasn't planning on letting Peter die, so he gave the wall a little sad half-smile before sitting on his cot again.

"I sure hope so, kid."