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."

Peter shook his head. He had to find a way out of here and get back to Ned's place. "Karen, how long have I been down here?" He asked.

"Two hours and forty five minutes," She replied.

"What?!" Peter exclaimed and then groaned. "Great! Alex and Ned are definitely losing their minds—" He began walking, hoping to find a way out of the sewers. "Karen, can you locate the nearest exit around here?"

"There appears to be a manhole cover about a half a mile from your current location," Karen replied. "If you turn to your left and start walking, you should reach it."

Peter nodded and did as she said. He limped along, using the wall to lean against. He couldn't wait to get the hell out of the sewer before something else went wrong. "Peter, I think there's something we should discuss," Karen tried, but Peter waved her off.

"Can it wait, Karen? One thing at a time."

After that, the A.I. was silent. Peter walked for a few minutes silence, until he heard a blast and a beam of light shone down into the sewer. He pressed himself up against the wall and held his breath. Peter guessed that it was Octavius returning from wherever he had gone, and now that Peter was free, he would be able to fight back. Doc Ock had no idea that he had gotten free. This would be the perfect ambush opportunity.

The footsteps got closer, Peter tensed up his body, preparing to attack. When the footsteps were just around the corner, he sprang into action. Peter launched himself onto Doc Ock's shoulders and tried to hit him. One of Doc Ock's metal arms wrapped around his wrist and yanked him off, holding Peter up above the ground.

He kicked and fought back. He wouldn't let Octavius get away with this! Whatever this was.

"Kid, calm down, it's me!" Peter immediately ceased his trashing when he heard the familiar voice of Tony Stark. Peter looked up and suddenly realized that the arm he believed to belong to Doc Ock actually belonged to the Iron Man suit.

"M-Mr. Stark?" Peter stammered, blushing furiously beneath his mask. "What are you doing here?"

The face plate of the Iron Man suit slid up, revealing Tony Stark. "What does it look like I'm doing? I'm here to get you," He replied. "Honestly, kid, you've been missing for almost three hours—what did you expect me to do?"

Peter was honestly shocked, he had no idea what to say. Tony set him down on the ground. "I— how did you—?" He trailed off.

"Find you? Your friends, Ned and—there was someone else—I'm bad at names—"

"Alex?"

"Yep, her." He nodded. "They called Happy worried about you, and then they talked to me, and I came to get you."

Peter sighed. So they had called Mr. Stark even after he'd asked them not to—he didn't know why he expected Alexandra to listen to him. She never listened to him, or anyone, for that matter. She was too stubborn. "Mr. Stark, I'm sorry you had to come all the way down here to get me, I'm fine, really."

"Really? Cause FRIDAY says otherwise," Tony replied. "Sprained ankle, minor concussion, and a... wow, fractured ribs? What the hell happened, kid?"

"Uh—Doc Ock happened."

"Okay, so I wasn't hearing things when your buddy said that earlier," Tony said. "Doc Ock? Really?" Peter shrugged and blushed. Mr. Stark sighed. "C'mon, kid, let's get you out of here."

Mr. Stark helped Peter out of the sewers and then called Ned and Alexandra to inform them that he'd found Peter, and was taking him to the nearest hospital—which wasn't exactly ideal, considering Peter's enhanced healing factor, but it was what they had. 

Alexandra had then demanded which hospital and wouldn't take 'don't worry about it, he'll be back home in a few hours' for an answer.

"You should probably just tell her," Peter told Mr. Stark as he slipped out of the Spider-Man suit in an ally and into a spare change of clothes his mentor had provided. "She never takes no for an answer—" He winced as he pulled the Black Sabbath ("Really, Mr. Stark?" "Hey, Black Sabbath is cool.") t-shirt on over his head.

So, Mr. Stark told them which hospital he was taking Peter to. When they got there, Mr. Stark got Peter checked in and had the doctors look him over. He was fine, apparently, nothing too major—which he could have told them himself. 

The ribs that were cracked were already healing themselves, and the doctors were, quite frankly, perplexed. Mr. Stark told them that if they said anything to anyone about this, he would make it his personal mission to destroy their careers.

That seemed to keep the doctors' mouths shut.

When Alexandra and Ned finally arrived at the hospital, Alexandra basically stormed passed the front desk as soon as they gave told her where Peter was (he was waiting in the emergency room, his injuries hadn't been bad enough for him to need to be checked into a room). Ned offered the nurses a sympathetic smile. "Sorry, she's just worried about our friend," He said and then quickly followed her.

Alexandra saw Peter and then stormed over to him, basically ignoring Tony Stark. "Peter Benjamin Parker!" She exclaimed. "What the hell were you thinking?!"

Peter glanced back at Ned with wide eyes, but Ned only shrugged. "You're on your own this time, dude," He said.

Peter and Mr. Stark shared a glance before Peter looked back at Alexandra. "I—wasn't?" He replied, and that was true. He hadn't been thinking when he had gone down into the sewers, he had only been thinking about stopping Doc Ock.

"Yeah, no kidding!" Alexandra snapped. "You just vanished for what, two and a half hours, and nearly got yourself killed, again! It's lucky Mr. Hogan let us talk to Mr. Stark, because if he hadn't this—" She gestured to Peter. "—could have been a lot worse!"

Peter would have usually been flinching away from her scolding, but for some reason, he was glad to hear her voice, even if it was her yelling. For a while there, he hadn't been sure if he was ever going to hear her voice ever again. He wasn't sure if he was going to hear anyone's voice ever again. 

"Yeah, you're right," Peter agreed. Alexandra looked slightly surprised. "I shouldn't have run off on my own like that, it was stupid. I'm sorry I didn't listen to you guys."

Alexandra hesitated, but then nodded. "Thank you."

"Thanks for coming to get me, Mr. Stark." Peter turned to his mentor.

"Don't mention it, kid," He replied. "Just try to stay out of trouble next time, okay? I know you can handle yourself."

Peter felt his chest swell with pride.

"Though, rolling up on you with multiple broken ribs isn't exactly something I'll ever get used to—" He sighed, shaking his head. "Now, why don't you guys tell me about this 'Doc Ock'?" Mr. Stark asked. "Also, what the hell kinda name is 'Doc Ock'? Who came up with that?"

"Thank you," Alexandra said, glad that someone finally agreed with her.

Ned sheepishly raised a hand and laughed a bit. "Uh—I came up with the name," He said. "Super villains gotta have cool nicknames!"

Tony looked at him and then shrugged. "Can't argue with ya on that one, kid," He said. "But seriously, Doc Ock?"