Winter break ended, and the new semester began.
Peter and Felicia went completely public with their relationship. Harry flayed him with jealous looks every day, but Peter did not care at all. The two spent all day exchanging flirtatious glances in class, leaving their classmates stunned.
Aside from that, Peter finally went to take his driving test. Since he was only fifteen, it only counted as practice, but getting his hands on the wheel still made him pretty happy.
After school, Peter arrived at S.H.I.E.L.D.'s underground base. Natasha Romanoff was sitting in the conference room with two folders in front of her.
"You caught a drug lord and filmed it?" she asked without preamble.
Peter tossed his bag onto the table. "In my defense, I didn't know Davis was going to make a deal with Marcel. I was just passing by and happened to drop in to say hello."
"Didn't think to call the police?"
"I was afraid Davis would run."
"And the recording?"
"Evidence. In case Fury tried to back out of our deal."
"And you dragged your girlfriend into it?" Natasha raised an eyebrow.
"...I admit, that part was for fun." Peter chuckled.
Natasha rubbed her temples. "Fury was very angry about your little stunt. He demoted the technician who helped you identify John Travis."
"So Fury was... furious?"
"Shut up." Natasha slapped one of the folders onto the table. "You wanted a mission, didn't you? Fury thinks you're ready. Take it."
Peter opened the file. Several children had gone missing in the West Bronx, mostly homeless children or children from poor families. The targets were between twelve and sixteen, mostly girls.
"Are you coming with me?" Peter asked.
"No. This is a solo mission."
"Meaning you'll watch from behind to make sure I don't screw up?"
"Find the children, rescue them, detain everyone involved, then call S.H.I.E.L.D. Understood?"
"Can I use any method?"
"Within reason. No posting it online."
Peter put away the file and took off his jacket. He pulled off his shirt, revealing the inactive suit underneath. Putting on his mask, he pressed the Arc Reactor on his chest. Black nanowebbing rapidly spread to cover his entire body.
"I didn't expect you to crack Stark's technology." A flicker of surprise crossed Natasha's eyes.
"I finished it last December."
"He won't be happy if he finds out."
"Will he sue me?"
"No. He'll just have a breakdown because a fifteen-year-old cracked his technology in a month."
"I stole a reactor from a Justin Hammer drone. That helped a lot."
Natasha said no more, turned, and left.
Peter hurried to the Bronx. Night fell, and the city's dark corners stirred to life. He stopped a robbery along the way but did not dare linger.
He reached the eight blocks where the disappearances were concentrated. The area was rundown, and the residents' eyes were wary. Peter activated night vision and moved between the rooftops.
He heard all kinds of sounds. A father swearing as he beat his son, a mother crying, a boy screaming.
Peter had intended to endure it, but the screams grew increasingly piercing. When the father chased the boy out the door with a belt, Peter finally could not hold back.
He leaped down from above and landed between them.
"Hey!" Peter barked.
The man turned, and Peter casually punched him in the stomach. The man instantly had the wind knocked out of him and fell to the ground, dry-heaving.
"I'll bring him back," Peter promised the mother before charging into the alley after the fleeing boy.
He found the boy deep in the park, but a white van was already speeding away. The kidnappers had succeeded.
Peter jumped onto a utility pole and pursued relentlessly through the shadows. The van drove around the city for over an hour before finally stopping outside a building disguised as a warehouse in Hunts Point.
The garage door opened, and Peter saw fully armed men dressed in black inside. This was definitely no ordinary kidnapping.
The building was three stories tall, its windows all blacked out. Peter climbed onto the roof but could not find a suitable vent. He crawled down the wall and found a women's restroom window that smelled of urine and cleaning products.
He laid a thin film of webbing over the glass, then applied force with his palm, slowly increasing the pressure. The glass shattered silently, its fragments held firmly by the webbing. He pulled away the webbing and slipped inside without a sound.
Ten minutes later, a woman in high heels walked in. She had blonde hair, blue eyes, and a weary expression.
Peter darted out of a stall, sealed her mouth with webbing, and gripped her throat with one hand, lifting her off the floor.
"Tell me everything you know. If you lie, I'll know. Understood?"
The woman struggled in terror. Peter's gaze turned cold. He grabbed the marble sink with his other hand and applied pressure, instantly reducing the hard stone to rubble.
"I can kill you without hesitation. Talk!"
The woman stopped struggling and nodded frantically. Peter threw her into a stall and dissolved the webbing with a solvent.
"What is this place?" Peter lowered his voice.
"I... I don't know! We were hired by a big company. We only do testing!"
"Testing on children?"
The woman went deathly pale.
"I didn't know! We were just refining the formula! When I learned the truth, I wanted to quit! But they threatened my family!"
"Tell me everything, and I'll stop them. Tonight, I'll get all the children out, including scientists like you who were forced into this."
"You can't save them!" The woman suddenly broke down sobbing. "Because you can't save the dead! They're all dead!"
Peter's pupils contracted sharply.
All the children... were dead?
"Monsters," he spat through gritted teeth.
"We are." The woman did not deny it.
An intense wave of guilt rose in Peter's heart. If he had discovered this a day earlier, he could have saved one more child. He thought of the mother he had promised to bring the boy back to. At least he could still save one tonight.
"Tell me everything." He softened his tone.
The woman's name was Betty Cooper. She and geneticists from other top universities had been recruited to replicate a genetic enhancement formula. They had succeeded two months earlier, after which the children had been brought in.
"They made us inject the children with the formula, trying to make them more than human. But... something went wrong. They all died."
"Why didn't you fight back?"
"Because they threatened all of us."
Peter took a deep breath. "How many guards are in the building?"
"Ten on each floor, thirty in the basement."
"What's in the basement?"
"A gas chamber. The formula has to be dispersed through the air. The children... are in there."
"Betty, I need your help. I need you to get the experiment files as evidence. Help me, and you'll be helping yourself."
Betty hesitated for a long time before a glint of resolve finally flashed in her eyes. "I'll do it!"
Peter kicked open the stall door. "Come on. Let's save that kid."
They slipped into the laboratory, and Peter downloaded the building plans into the Scanning Adapter. They split up, with Betty heading to the data center and Peter going to the basement.
Three guards stood in the corridor with their backs to him. Peter leaped up, kicked the middle one flying, smashed his left fist into the face of the man on the right, and shattered the last man's nose with his right knee.
He stuck all three firmly to the wall with extra-strong webbing. His phone rang. It was Natasha.
"Wasn't this a stealth mission?" Natasha's voice came through.
"Now it's a basement speedrun." As Peter spoke, he took down two more guards with webbing and rushed into the elevator.
"Spider, is there anything you'd like to explain?"
"Tell the director he should've sent someone when the children first started disappearing. Someone's conducting mutation experiments on children. The scientists were all forced into it. Only one child is still alive, and I will not let him die."
"You should wait for backup."
"No. There's no time to lose. Sorry, Black Widow, but I'm not the kind of person who sits and watches children get killed. Bring people to my location. Don't hurt the scientists. Hit the guards all you want."
"All right. Don't die."
"I promise."
The elevator doors opened. Before the two guards could react, Peter dragged them inside and gave them a thorough beating. When the doors opened again, only Peter walked out.
He made his way to the end of the basement, where the door had a digital combination lock. He took out the Osborn decoder he had confiscated from Rhino and pressed it against the lock. A few seconds later, the door opened.
The room was filled with instruments and screens. In the central glass chamber, a boy lay unconscious, covered in tubes.
A veteran in a full suit of armor, fitted with a mechanical right arm, stood on a raised platform, roaring at a group of scientists.
"When will it be ready?!"
"Just... a few more seconds, and the success rate will improve by twelve percent..." a frail scientist said, trembling.
"Twelve percent? I want results! Start the experiment immediately! Want a taste of what happened to your predecessor?"
"Yes! Charles, activate the equipment! Begin experiment thirty-two!"
"Wait!"
Peter shouted and emerged from the shadows. Everyone stared at him in shock.
"Nice weather today, huh?" Peter offered an awkward greeting.
"Spider-Man?!" the veteran roared. "Open fire! Kill him!"
The guards snapped out of their shock and sprayed bullets wildly. With his Spider-Sense fully active, Peter easily dodged the bullets and headed straight for the glass chamber.
"Bet you can't hit me!" he taunted.
The guards focused on him, bullets pouring out. Peter dodged nimbly, and the bullets shattered the glass chamber.
"Thanks! I was just wondering how to open this thing!" Peter laughed and jumped onto the wall.
But he had not paid attention to the angle of fire. A bullet pierced a nearby pipe, and green poison gas gushed out, instantly engulfing Peter.
His vision blurred, and he lost his balance. Peter hit the floor like a fly.
"Idiots! You've killed us all!" Dr. Langer shouted as he led the others in fleeing.
Peter's head spun. The poison gas was leaking, and it would kill the child.
He forced himself to his feet, seeing double. Raising a trembling hand, he shot out webbing and tightly sealed the leaking pipe.
"Impressive." The veteran's voice came from the platform.
Peter looked up, barely managing to focus.
"You didn't run like a coward." The veteran smiled. "People who inhale that gas die within seconds, but you survived. You're very valuable to my employer."
"Sorry, I'm nobody's asset, especially not a child killer's." Peter spat.
"Sacrifices are necessary." The veteran removed his armor, revealing muscles even more exaggerated than Thor's.
"I'll give you a chance, Spider-Man. Join me, and we'll save the world together."
"Not interested." Peter gasped for breath.
"Then I'll extract your secrets from your corpse!" The veteran's right arm transformed into a huge metal blade and slashed straight at him.
Peter had no time to waste fighting him. He raised his hand and fired a repulsor blast, blowing the veteran's metal arm to pieces.
The veteran swung the remains of his severed arm, only to find he could not hurt Peter at all.
"How is this possible..."
Peter shot a strand of webbing over his mouth, grabbed his collar, and slammed him hard against the wall, securing him tightly with webbing.
"Simple." Peter turned and walked toward the boy, who was waking up. "I'm Spider-Man."
He hoisted the boy onto his back and entered the elevator.
Back at ground level, red and blue police lights flashed. Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. were arresting the scientists and guards. Nick Fury stood at the front, watching him with a raised eyebrow.
"I thought we wouldn't meet again." Peter smiled weakly. The effects of the poison gas were surging back.
"Neither did I. Thirty-two children were kidnapped for experiments, and we had no idea."
"Thirty-one." Peter handed the boy to a female agent. "His home life isn't very happy. Remember to beat up his dad when you take him back."
The female agent looked at Fury, who sighed and nodded his approval.
"Are you here to fire me?" Peter leaned against a utility pole.
"Why?"
"Because I didn't wait for backup."
"You did what you had to do. The intel was wrong. That's not your fault." Fury rubbed his eyes. "I'm here to congratulate you on a successful first mission."
"Talk to Betty Cooper, the blonde. She has all the experiment files. It's a good starting point."
Fury nodded. "You look like you're about to collapse."
"I inhaled some poison gas. My blood's special, so I won't die, but I need some sleep."
"You need a doctor."
"You'll draw my blood while I'm asleep. No thanks. Call Susan Storm. She knows my blood data best. Call her now."
"All right. Anything else?"
"Get me another combat suit. A women's one. Don't ask why."
"I have a bad feeling about this." Fury sighed.
"Yeah, you..." Before Peter could finish, his legs gave out, and he hit the ground hard.
Fury's anxious shouts came through his helmet, but Peter no longer cared. He closed his eyes and sank completely into deep darkness.