Finding Their Way Home

Chapter Seven

"Well if it isn't my favorite pirate!" Tony called as he waltzed into the meeting. The other Avengers rolled their eyes at Tony's antics, meanwhile Tony watched with glee as Fury's good eye twitched in irritation.

"Stark!" he snapped. "You're late!"

"Or you're just ridiculously early," Tony countered, sliding into a chair. Clint snickered behind his hand. Fury looked like he wanted to say something more, but he knew better than to fight a losing battle.

"You're here because we have a new mission for the Avengers." Fury said instead. Everyone leaned forward, interested in what he had to say. It had been a really long time since there was a mission specifically for the Avengers as a team.

"What is it?" Steve asked.

"As I'm sure you've heard, there is a new vigilante operating in Queens." Fury said. "He goes by the name 'Spider-Man' and S.H.I.E.L.D can't get a single thing on him."

"Wait, you mean to tell me that a literal spy organization can't figure out one single guy's identity?" Tony laughed. Fury growled.

"Whoever he is, he has very good evasion techniques," Fury said. "It's like he can sense whenever someone is tailing him. And we can't get close enough to do a scan of him for a reference age or body type. The only thing we know for sure about him is that he's male."

"That's it?" Clint asked with a frown. "That's practically nothing. We can't search for him with such limited information."

Fury grinned. (Well as much as someone as grumpy as Fury could grin) "That's why you're not going to search for him." he said.

"Come again?"

"You're not going to search for Spider-Man." Fury said. "You're going to recruit him."

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"Беги, паучок! Я не могу их долго сдерживать!" 

"Волк!" 

Shouting. Grunting. Pain. Agony.

Run!

Runrunrunrunrunrunrunrunrun.

Run from what? Who am I running from?

"Пойдем со мной Эксперимент 2176." 

Him. Run from him.

"Давай сейчас, Питер. Ты не можешь спрятаться от меня навсегда." 

Runrunrunrunrunrunrunrurnrun.

"Please ...please...please no...."

"I will always find you, 2176. You can run, but you'll never escape me!"

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Peter woke with a hoarse scream.

He was sitting upright, his body rigid. It took him a few seconds before he could let go of his death-like grip on the sheets. He shivered as the open window blew in a light breeze. He began to tremble as his heart pounded frantically against his rib cage.

What was that?

That dream-memory was the worst of all of them. It even trumped the one he had the very first night in the tower. It was long and he suffered from several flashes, but it was never clear where he was or who was speaking.