Project Alpha

Ch. 15 - Something to Fight For

It doesn't take long for Peter to remember his tracker. Sure, he had removed and deactivated it long ago before he arrived at the tower, but Hydra might have been able to get a small signal.

Peter was a little worried, if he was being honest, that he would be thrown in another cell by his new family if he admitted the truth. The horrible, ugly truth that Hydra was coming for them. They would have no mercy upon any of them, especially the traitors.

That's why it took Natasha an entire day to coax it put of her son. She had known immediately that there was something he hadn't told them, Natasha was a spy after all. In fact, she had also been slightly nervous to find out, because what if it was something extremely bad, aside from the obvious?

"What's wrong, паук?" The team as a while had spent awhile bonding with what some considered, their newest member. Natasha, being a spy and all, recognized the signs when spending time with her son. That's when she finally cracked and asked him herself.

"I- I just..." Peter trailed off while absentmindedly twiddling his thumbs. He wondered about how he could break the news of 'hey guys, Hydra's coming to kill us' in the nicest way possible. "Okay, so hypothetical question-"

"How hypothetical  is this question?" Natasha intervened, fearing the worst.

"Not important. What would you say if... HydraisprobablycomingbecauseIhadatracker?"

Natasha barely understood what he said, but luckily, all her experience with Clint's rambles about absolute nonsense came in handy. "When did you remove it?"

She was also already up on her feet, motioning for Peter to join her as they made their way to the usual debriefing room. There was where she might be able to disrupt the signal, with enough information on the tracking device.

"Er- maybe 24 hours ago?" Peter said in a quiet voice, which was surprising seeing as he was almost always talking with a louder volume, "I'm really sorry I didn't say anything sooner. I understand if you want to lock me away and-"

Natasha froze from her hacking and pivoted to face him. Then, she crouched down to eye level. "Is that what you think? That we're going to do that to you, Peter?"

"Well, yeah. That's what Hydra did. Therefore, it has reason, right?" The rules within the base had messages that were very clear. This was one of the most important when it came to brainwashing.

"Hydra is the bad guy in this situation. Nothing they do has logic backing their stupid and cruel decisions, okay?" They both blinked tears from their eyes; both had been trained from a young age not to show weakness and emotion, so it was just an old habit. "We won't ever do that, we are not and never will, be Hydra."

Peter thought back for a moment on what his mother said. She wouldn't lie to you, says the voice in the back of his head. It was also being yelled up from the nagging feeling in the brunette's stomach. Hydra was a bad guy, he kept forgetting that. But now, Peter clinged to that thought like his last lifeline.

"What can you tell me about this tracker of yours?"

"It was white and clipped onto my ear. I had to remove it with a knife," Peter briefly explained. He had managed a not so shoddy procedure on his ear to unclip it shortly after his shopping trip to the mall. Then, he dropped it into one of the store's potted plants after crushing it underneath his boot. "I broke it, but they might've gotten a read off it."

"That's why we're gonna make the first move," Natasha exclaimed calmly, her eyes not even leaving the computer screen. With the little amount of information on the device, she averted her attention to local Hydra bases. "Jarvis?"

"Yes, Miss Romanoff?"

"Tell the Avengers to assemble, and to prepare for the fight of our lives."

Peter gulped rather loudly. How was she so confident in this situation of do or die? Life and death? As if reading his thoughts, Natasha's lips twitched upwards into a smile. "We have an advantage that they definitely don't have."

That's when it hit him. Peter returned a grin with his mother and said, "We have something worth fighting for."

One more chapter left! If you enjoy my not-so-awful-maybe-I-don't-know-anymore writing, then feel free to check out my Clint Barton fanfic.

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