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Peter was having a good day, Tony had finally let them do an all out training session. Him and Bruce were standing at the side for advice and medical (and because bringing missiles or the Hulk into an indoor training session is so very much not a good idea), but everyone else was in the room.
It was each man (or woman) for themselves. So far Clint had been taken out by Sam, who was then taken out by a brief alliance between Nat and Peter. Right now Nat and Steve were fighting, as were Peter and Bucky.
Peter didn’t have much attention to waste on Nat and Steve, Bucky had a lot of training and no small amount of super-soldier serum in his veins, even if it wasn’t Erskine’s formula. Guns had been banned for obvious reasons but Nat and Bucky had managed to argue for knives, so Peter was using his agility to its full extent in order to stay out of range. He’d set a personal challenge to not use webs, to help prepare for any eventuality – it was a training exercise after all – but he was using his gravity defying sticky skills to their full extent.
Standing on the wall Peter ducked under Bucky’s metal arm to send a punch into his other armpit – causing him to drop the knife. In a split-second decision Peter decided to throw the blade away as he’d rather go without a weapon than risk Bucky getting it off him again.
As he threw the knife into the opposite wall Bucky’s punch to his chest knocked the wind out of him, he quickly jumped off the wall and spun over Bucky. Sending a sharp kick to the back of Bucky’s knees Peter used his strength and put him into a chokehold with his metal arm pressed against his own throat. Bucky tried to buck him off by throwing him over his head, but Peter instead went with it flipping Buck and landing on his feet. As he held the hold he checked on Steve and Nat’s fight, so he’d be more ready, soon Bucky reluctantly tapped out.
As soon as he felt those three taps on his arm Peter dropped Bucky and sprinted into the other fight. He spun past Natasha throwing a foot out, so she dropped to the floor, jumping over the shield Steve threw at him he threw a foot square into the centre of Nat’s back as she tried to flip herself up sending her skidding a few feet.
Nat had clearly lost her knife in one of her fights so Peter didn’t need to worry about that, but he did need to worry about Steve as he didn’t know who if anyone he would help. Dealing with the person in front of him first he sent out a sharp jab to Nat’s stomach as a feint to cover the change in stance that meant he could send a jumping kick to her head.
Nat caught the feint and his foot, but the momentum from his jump put her off just enough that Peter could yank his foot out her hold just before he landed. Immediately moving forward Peter sent out a flurry of punches and kicks that Nat could – and did – block easily, but they were all at super strength tiring her out and adding a series of bruises to her forearms. Finally when Nat shifted her weight and threw a kick Peter ducked once again and spun his own leg out at the single leg now supporting her.
Nat went down with a “thud” knocking the wind out of her, Peter used that as an opportunity to put his foot against her neck in a technique she had shown him where a single twist of his ankle would snap he neck.
Nat indicated her surrender and Peter looked up at Steve who had not interfered and taken the time to gather his breath. Now Steve was refreshed with a large vibranium shield; and Peter had just taken out the world’s two most dangerous assassins back to back. Needless to say, there was a slight difference in energy levels.
In this fight Peter didn’t have the strength advantage, him and Steve were almost completely matched but Steve did have the weight advantage and was surprisingly swift on his feet. All Peter had was his agility, flexibility and ability to stick to walls, unfortunately, they were in the centre of the room and Steve’s shield would get him before he ever reached a wall if he was going to stick to his no webs rule.
Steve charged him suddenly, knowing that any delay just gives Peter a chance to conserve his energy. He went in with a swift sequence of blows, much like Peter did with Natasha but with the added advantage of height and had Peter mentioned the large vibranium shield Steve had.
Focusing on removing Steve’s “weapon” like he had with Bucky, Peter ducked and jumped and rolled to avoid blows and when he couldn’t avoid them, he tried to take them on less vulnerable body parts. Finally getting Steve to throw the shield Peter caught it and threw it straight up to embed in the ceiling where Steve couldn’t retrieve it no matter how the rest of the fight went.
Unfortunately, the time Peter spent doing that meant he couldn’t block the next punch Steve sent him. Hitting him in the centre of his sternum Steve’s fist was unforgiving, as Peter curled in on himself Steve sent a kick to his head he barely managed to duck and then swept his legs out from under him.
In breaking his fall Peter had left himself defenceless lying on his back and Steve took the advantage. He pinned Peter to the mats kneeling on either side of his hips squeezing his legs so Peter couldn’t wriggle away.
And then Peter wasn’t in the compound, he wasn’t 17, he wasn’t Spider-Man, it wasn’t Steve on top of him and this wasn’t a training exercise. First Peter shut down, he couldn’t tell you for how long or how many blows Steve might have landed in that time. Then Peter screamed, he was nine again and Steve was Skip and this wasn’t happening again.
“No! NO! Please! Please stop!” Peter could barely breathe between the pleads. The reaction certainly got Steve to stop attacking but he didn’t move unsure if this was a ploy to trick him because of the lack of any obvious bodily harm.
“Please Skip stop! I don’t want to! Please stop, please, please, please! It hurts! Go away, please!”
If it was the tears that had started running down Peter’s face, the angry red scratches he was leaving on Steve’s arms with his nails or the desperation in his voice that convinced him Steve stepped away. Tony was already heading to Peter equally as unsure of what this was.
Still lying on the floor his eyes squeezed shut Tony tentatively shuffled up to Peter and put a hand on his arm. Peter’s eyes flew open and recognised he wasn’t pinned anymore, he scampered back to the nearest wall and pressed himself against it, staring around the room desperately trying to get his bearings again.
Sam and Clint were very confused, they hadn’t been paying much attention to the fight, but Clint looked to Natasha and saw her face and came to a terrible conclusion. Natasha had been looking and listening and recognised the look on Peter’s face from too many of the women she had helped in shelters in her many attempts to clear the red from her ledger. She had heard his screams and his begging and recognised them from the alleys she had left men beaten to pulps in as she helped women limp outside. Clint saw the look on her face, the ashen colour and the pure indescribably terrible sorrow and rage in her eyes and understood.
Bucky was standing not ten metres from Peter, his face so eerily similar to Natasha’s but so, so different with his shaking hands and knees. The sorrow was there, the pain for Peter’s pain but where Natasha’s features were twisted in anger and rage against the world; Bucky’s knees shook from a visceral fear. His face was blank, mind spinning through flashes of memory and pain and horrible, horrible recognition.
Tony was scared, he didn’t understand any of this, or why Peter had flinched so hard when he had touched him. Beside Tony was Bruce, resigned to the knowledge that his med kit couldn’t help Peter today and carefully, oh so carefully, pulling back from himself, studiously ignoring Bucky and Natasha and keeping the green below his collar.
Just as confused Steve racked his brains through the fight and stumbled on a name, looking for answers he asked FRIDAY.
“FRIDAY search for information on a Skip in relation to Peter?”
“Searching databases now Captain, would you like me to display any information found?”
“Yes please.”
There was a small pause, but Tony’s machine was good, and before Bucky could remember himself enough to warn against it FRIDAY began displaying files on the wall above Peter’s head and reciting information.
“Skip is the nickname for Steven Westcott. He is 27 and living in Washington. He was in prison for 4 years for the molestation of Peter Parker aged 9. The abuse continued for 6 months before police were notified. He was released early for good-”
“FRIDAY mute.” The Green on Banner’s neck had made its way to curl round the bottoms of his ears, but he had noticed how much harder Peter’s shoulders started to shake as soon as FRIDAY said “molestation”.
Tony dropped to his knees in shock. Sam cursed as the information sunk in. Clint started restringing his bow as soon as he heard “released”. Natasha calmly strolled over to pick up her knife as FRIDAY spoke and horrible police reports scrolled over the wall. Steve recoiled as he realised exactly why Peter had reacted him to that. Staring at the scratches on his arms he slowly looked up at Bucky, remembering waking him from nightmares, his screams so terribly similar to what Peter had been saying.
Bucky’s shaking arms, rising as if to comfort Peter but then withdrawing to protect himself and the awful tears collecting unfallen in the corners of his eyes made Steve’s world collapse.
As this was happening Peter was still waking up to the real world, his tears and shaking slowed and his hoarse voice stopped begging for mercy. Looking up he met Tony’s eyes, Tony on his knees a couple of metres in front of Peter.
“Can I hug you buddy?”
Peter’s nod was shaky and hesitant, but he melted as soon as he felt Tony’s arms around him.
“Right, what’s the plan?” Sam looked every inch the military man he was and the cold in his eyes reminded Bruce that he had seen more military action than any of them except Steve and Bucky.
“We end him.” Clint did indeed look ready to do just that.
“I get him for a couple hours first though.” As far as Nat was concerned spilling a rapist’s blood helped clean out her ledger and a paedophile’s was even better to get the red out.
“We can’t just kill him, we need justice, we need to frame him for something, leak everything, ruin his life.”
“No!” The watery fear and hint of desperation in this person’s voice suggested Peter but he was still silently curled into Tony and the group turned in shock to Bucky.
“We end him, we destroy him and his life and everything he has ever built for himself, but we don’t tell the world. We don’t tell anyone what happened to Peter. Nobody gets to know that, nobody gets to…” Running out of breath Bucky’s words spill into one another.
“Buck’s right, we ruin him, end him if we need to but Peter doesn’t get involved.” Steve looked at Bucky and saw the silent recognition. With a single piece of eye contact he showed that he knew, that if he could he’d kill every bastard that did that to Bucky again – slowly - if he could.
“Pete, Peter, what do you want?” Finally calm enough to speak again Bruce was gentle.
“I- I don’t care. I want him gone, I- just don’t tell me.” Peter’s voice was muffled by Tony’s shirt, but the message got across.
“I’ll suit up now, Nat have the quinjet running in five minutes.” Tony made to pull away from Peter, but Peter held on tighter.
“No, not you. I nee- I- I can’t.”
“Ok, ok, I’m here, not going anywhere.” Tony looked up at his team. “Get him, and come back when it’s done, I’m needed here.”
“I can’t come with you, I’ll need to take a sedative when I leave this room anyway and the Hulk can’t tear up Washington without raising questions.” Bruce walked out the room and did indeed go to a crash room and take one of the small red pills he kept on himself at all times.
Steve took command. He led the group away from Peter so he wouldn’t have to hear it and so Tony could get him what he needed.
“I’ll call Rhodey, tell him the bare minimum, won’t say anything about Peter but get him to move this guy to a more secluded location for us. Nat you get him first, tell us what you need us to do or get you for this to work. Sam work on his life, erase it if you can, destroy it if you can’t. Clint you’ll fly us in. Buck, you want to finish him?” Despite the air of giving orders on a battlefield Steve’s voice softened when he turned to Bucky.
“It would be my pleasure.”
The group filed out, getting what they needed and a few extra knives - because this was a special situation.
At the end of the day they came back and found Peter passed out on the coach still curled into Tony, a film silenced in the background and Tony working on upgrades to the Spider-Man suit on a tablet beside him. Steve nodded when he made eye-contact with Tony.
That night Clint called his wife and asked about his kids for reassurance. Natasha didn’t mind washing the blood off her skin and clothes. Bucky slept safe with Steve knowing if he woke up screaming, he’d be safe. Sam and Bruce stayed up the whole night together talking and planning for what therapy and a safe, trigger-free environment would look like for superheroes with terrible pasts, especially those who were young with secret identities.