Hanging by a Thread 🕷 Peter Parker

fourteen

Peter

Two and a half hours earlier

The sewer was cold and it smelled bad. Peter wanted nothing more than to get back to the surface and fight Doc Ock on his own turf. The night vision was helping, but Peter was still having trouble guessing Doc Ock's next move. So far, he had been flung across the sewer twice and each time resulted in him slamming against the brick walls. It hurt. A lot.

Peter groaned as he got back to his feet, raising his fists in a weak attempt to defend himself from the doc's next blow that sent him flying. Peter landed in the sewer water, and damn it all if that didn't hurt. Not only was it shallow, so Peter hit the concrete below the water anyway, but the water itself was freezing cold and disgusting.

Spider-Man reminded himself to never fight an enemy below ground ever again, because this had definitely been a stupid idea. Dammit, Alex, why didn't I listen to you? Peter thought miserably. He shouldn't have been so snappy with her or Ned, it wasn't their fault that Peter had failed time and time again to bring down Doc Ock. It wasn't like that was their responsibility. It was Peter's. He was the one swinging around Queens stopping the bad guys, not them.

Hell, they weren't even supposed to have gotten mixed up into this crazy part of his life anyway. If only Peter hadn't been so reckless, if only he'd kept this part of his life a secret.

Peter shook his head, shooting a web up towards the ceiling and flinging himself out of the freezing cold water and back onto the concrete floor. "Th-that the b-best you've got?" Peter quipped, and then silently cursed under his breath. Shivering while trying to deliver a one-liner definitely did not make him sound badass and scary.

"I've got this," Doc Ock replied. He shot one of his arms at Peter, wrapping it around his ankles and hoisting him up off of the ground. "I honestly expected you to put up more of a fight," Doc Ock admitted as Peter thrashed around in his grasp. "Perhaps Spider-Man isn't as impressive as I originally thought."

Peter struggled to get out of his claws, punching at them, which really hurt his fists more than it was helping him. But he refused to give up, he had no way of contacting his friends, and they had no way of knowing if he was all right or not. What if they decided to come looking for him? That definitely wouldn't be good!

"I suppose I'll have to test you, little spider," Doc Ock said, and before Peter had the time to even think about what that meant, he was met with a metal arm to the face and his world turned black.

🕷 

As he regained consciousness, Peter groaned, sitting up. The first thing he noticed was that his wrists and ankles were bound together by chains. Great, Peter thought miserably. Peter looked around, he was still in the sewers, apparently. Okay, so Doc Ock hadn't taken him very far. Or, he hoped not at least.

The second thing that Peter noticed was when his hands flew up towards his face and he discovered that his mask was still on. He sighed in relief, and then began to wonder why Octavius wouldn't have taken it off and found out who he was? Whatever his reasoning, Peter wasn't complaining.

"All right, time to get out of here—" Peter said to himself, looking down at the chains wrapped around his wrists. Thanks to his super strength, Peter was able to rip the chains off with ease. This all seemed too easy. Why would Octavius kidnap him and then make it so easy for him to get away? This couldn't be a mistake.

Despite his suspicions, Peter got to his feet and decided to try walking around, see what he could see. Karen, however, had other ideas. "Peter, you appear to be slightly injured," She said. "I would suggest taking a moment to regain your composure."