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𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝟕
𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐖𝐀𝐒𝐇𝐈𝐍𝐆𝐓𝐎𝐍 𝐌𝐎𝐍𝐔𝐌𝐄𝐍𝐓

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When Alex finally came around from her forced nap, she found herself still in the back of a truck with a pounding headache. A small sigh passed over her lips as she slowly sat up to find an unconscious Spider-Man. The Easton girl didn't hesitate to race to his side. A wave of panic washed over the redheaded girl as she stared at the unmoving boy before she started tapping his cheek without thinking. It wasn't long after that when the Parker boy let out a small groan.

"Oh, my head," Peter muttered under his breath as he slowly sat up, causing Alex to move back a bit in order to give him some space. The speedster watched as he clutched his head and got to his feet while looking around at his surroundings. Another moment passed before the redheaded girl began to wonder if the boy in front of her had any clue she was there. Peter began to look into a few of the metal crates surrounding them before he continued speaking. "Hey, so where am I right now?"

"How am I supposed to know?" Alex responded, making Peter jump and spin around to face her, "I don't even know how long we've been unconscious."

"I, uh...I wasn't talking to you," the brunette boy stated while awkwardly rubbing the back of his neck then he continued speaking, "what are you even doing here? I told you I didn't need your help anymore."

"Ned sent me. And considering where we are, you definitely need help. Everything might've turned out differently if you asked sooner," the redheaded girl responded before a confused look appeared on her face, "wait...if you weren't talking to me, then who were you talking to?"

"Uh...the suit lady?"

"The what now?"

Just as Peter was about to answer her question, he froze as if he was listening to someone speak. Alex stared at him with uncertainty on her face before she remembered the communicator in her ear. While the Parker boy continued to have his one-sided conversation, the speedster attempted to contact Atlas, only to receive nothing but silence coming through her earpiece. An annoyed sigh passed over the Easton girl's lips as she leaned back against the metal crates behind her. The longer Alex sat in silence, the more she regretted agreeing to help Peter. All she wanted at that moment was a warm bed and a slice of pizza.

Her thoughts continued to bounce around in her head until they were interrupted by a faint shuffling. When Alex turned her attention toward the sound, she found Peter twirling around in a panicked frenzy. The Easton girl just stared at him for a long moment then she opened her mouth to speak, only for her words to be cut off before they even came out.

"Wait a minute. They must've hijacked the truck and taken us to their evil lair. Okay, suit lady...and Alex, we're gonna have to fight our way out of this one," the Parker boy said with determination in his voice as he turned around to face the other end of the truck, "three, two, one!"

The second he finished counting, Peter sprinted forward and slammed into the container's doors. The impact instantly caused them to break off the hinges before the brunette boy tumbled across the concrete floor. Alex just stared at Spider-Man for a long moment then she got to her feet and exited the shipping container. Even though the speedster wasn't expecting to go head-to-head with the villains in an evil lair, she was still surprised when she saw where they were.

They were surrounded by concrete walls on all sides of them and there were numerous shipping containers stacked on top of each other. Alex turned in a full circle before her eyes landed on letters and numbers painted onto one of the walls. As soon as she realized what they stood for, her blood ran cold. They were trapped in one of the Department of Damage Control's vaults.

While Peter raced forward to try and pull the large doors open, Alex sat down and leaned against one of the shipping containers. Her mind was on overdrive as she tried to figure out a way for them to get out of their current predicament, only to fail just like Peter. When the Parker boy finally realized his efforts would get him nowhere, he gave up and jumped back down to the ground. The speedster watched as Spider-Man stared at the doors for a moment longer before he turned around and began walking toward her. After he stopped a few feet away from her, Peter stared down at the redheaded girl, his mask covering the angry look on his face.

"I bet this is exactly what you wanted," the Parker boy stated, earning a confused look from Alex before he continued speaking, "I bet these guys work for HYDRA and are allies of yours. Your plan was probably to trap me here so they can do evil stuff."

The Easton girl just stared at the boy in front of her as an awkward silence surrounded them. What felt like an eternity passed before Alex finally opened her mouth to speak. "What exactly did Charlie tell you about me?"

"Honestly, nothing at all. She said that it wasn't her story to tell. But I was able to piece it all together."

"Well, you're definitely missing a few pieces," the speedster told him, earning a confused look from the Parker boy before she decided it was time for him to know a little more about her. After letting out a long sigh, Alex sat up a little straighter and rolled up her sleeve to reveal the glowing veins on her left forearm.

"My parents worked for HYDRA, not me. I was forced to be their lab rat when I was six. They were trying to replicate the supersoldier serum...again. And this," the Easton girl said as she gestured to her glowing arm, "this is a result of their failed experiments. Their serums never did anything noticeable to me, but they surprisingly ended up saving my life when Strucker decided to make me the first test subject of Loki's scepter."

Alex paused her story and forced herself to look away from her glowing veins to meet Peter's gaze. Even though he wore his mask, the Easton girl knew he had a shocked expression on his face. Another moment of silence passed before the speedster let out another sigh and continued her story. "I never wanted any of this, Peter, but I was only a child when they first started. I never had a say in how my life played out until I met Charlie. So if you really wanna hate me, that's fine. Just please use something else to use against me because being a test subject for HYDRA was always out of my control."

Before the Parker boy had a chance to respond, Alex got to her feet and sprinted to the other side of the room. The second she knew she was out of sight of Peter, the Easton girl leaned against one of the shipping containers and slid down to the floor. The agonizing memories of being tested on flooded her brain as she stared at the blank wall. However, despite how much she wanted to cry and scream, Alex refused to let her emotions show. She wouldn't let another tear fall for what she went through. They didn't deserve it.

She made it out of HYDRA alive and that was all that mattered.

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Alex didn't know how much time had passed when the silence was finally interrupted by Peter's shouting. Even though she wanted nothing more than to stay in her lonely corner of the storage vault, the Easton girl got to her feet and raced back toward the Parker boy. When she found him, the brunette boy was hanging upside down in front of a black box on one of the walls. The speedster just watched him for a long moment before deciding he suffered long enough.

"What was all that screaming for, Spider-Boy?" Alex called up to him, causing Peter to stop what he was doing and jump off the wall to stand in front of her.

"We need to get out of here now," the Parker boy told her, only to receive a confused look from the speedster, "look, remember the glowy thing? Well, Karen said that it's actually an explosive Chitauri energy core."

The Easton girl stared at Peter with an emotionless look on her face before she opened her mouth to respond. "Who's Karen?"

"That's not important right now! What is important is that we've been carrying around a bomb!" Spider-Man explained while doing his best to keep his emotions in check. As soon as he saw the look of realization forming on the speedster's face, Peter pointed to a black box high up on one of the walls. "We have to figure out how to override that time lock. We're gonna have to try every sequence."

"And how exactly am I supposed to get up there?"

"Yeah, you might not like the answer to that."

Before Alex had a chance to respond, Peter grabbed her around the waist then he used his webbing to bring them up to the black box. The Easton girl forced herself not to panic as the Parker boy positioned them in front of the black box. After letting out a long breath to calm her nerves, the speedster began typing every possible code into the calculator Peter hooked up to it and a lightning-fast speed. That continued for only a few minutes before the doors slowly opened on Alex's 247th attempt.

"It worked! It worked!" Peter exclaimed as a small smile slowly formed on the Easton girl's face.

It wasn't long after that when the brunette boy swung himself and the redheaded girl out of the vault despite the latter's protests. Peter didn't stop his actions until they landed on top of a truck before they laid down as flat as possible to avoid being seen. They stayed on top of that vehicle until they reached the freeway and jumped onto a truck carrying construction equipment. Alex situated herself inside one of the cement tubes and tried to call Atlas on all her devices while Peter did the same with Ned, only for them both to come up short.

"Karen, you have to get us to the Decathlon as fast as possible. It's right across the street from the Washington Monument," the Parker boy declared before trying Ned one last time, just to be greeted by his machine once again, "Ned, call me back! The glowy thing's a bomb!"

"I know how we can get there fast, but you're probably not gonna like it," Alex stated, drawing Peter's attention toward her before a wave of realization washed over him.

"No. No way. Not happening."

"Hey, you forced me to swing around with you even though I didn't want to," the Easton girl argued while Spider-Man continued to stare at her with his white eyes slightly smaller than usual, "plus, it might be the only way to reach them in time."

Silence surrounded them for a moment as Peter tried to find another solution to their problems. When he came up short, he let out a long sigh before looking back at the redheaded girl. "Fine. Just don't run too fast."

"No promises," Alex responded with a smirk then she grabbed the Parker boy and sped them toward their destination.

The Easton girl didn't stop running until they reached the walkway that led to the Washington Monument, where they knew the Decathlon team was thanks to Atlas. Peter didn't hesitate to web his backpack to a tree before the two of them ran at a normal pace toward the monument When they finally came to a stop, they looked up at the memorial after watching pieces of the tower begin to crumble.

"No, no, no. Karen, what's going on up there?" the Parker boy questioned, only for him to wish he never asked after receiving the news.

"What'd she say?" Alex asked while keeping her eyes glued to the Washington Monument.

"The glowy thing exploded and damaged the elevator," Peter responded, simplifying what Karen really said before they caught movement out of the corner of their eye.

"My friends are up there!" Michelle exclaimed as she pointed to the top of the monument.

"Uh, don't worry, ma'am, everything's gonna be okay," the Parker boy told her in a fake deep voice.

Before Alex had a chance to ask him about his plan, Peter ran toward the Washington Monument and started climbing up the side of it. The Easton girl just watched him for a moment before sprinting into the memorial and running up the stairs as fast as she could. When she finally reached the top of the tower, Alex spotted a few security guards sitting on top of the destroyed elevator to help the occupants out.

Right as Flash's head appeared from out of the emergency escape, the whole elevator shook and went down a foot. Alex immediately ran forward and pulled the security guards off of the elevator before rushing back to help the Thompson boy. As soon as she got Flash to safety, the Easton girl sped back to the elevator to help the rest of the occupants to safety. However, the moment she stepped back onto the elevator, the entire machine shook. Alex made eye contact with Atlas just as the wires gave out and they began freefalling towards the ground below.

Just as the Easton girl began to think she was about to meet her end, a string of webbing appeared out of nowhere and attached itself to the elevator. The machine was instantly brought to a stop, causing Alex to look up to see Peter struggling to hold them up. The weight soon became too much for the doors to bear before they broke and sent them all falling once again. The elevator got stuck on a broken beam for a moment before Peter slammed onto the elevator's floor. The impact instantly made them resume their freefall.

The next thing Alex knew, Peter shot another string of webbing and it stuck to the ceiling. That immediately made their ride come to a stop. Spider-Man didn't hesitate to reassure everyone that everything was okay as the elevator continued to sway. While the Easton girl let out a long breath to calm her nerves, Ned began jumping around and cheering, making the entire elevator shake.

"Hey, hey, hey, hey! Big guy, quit moving around!" Peter shouted, causing the movement to stop entirely before Alex heard the Leeds boy mutter an apology.

The Easton girl sat on top of the elevator while the Parker boy pulled it up until they reached a set of doors. Without thinking twice, Alex carefully jumped down into the elevator before helping everyone out. Atlas sent her a grateful smile and slowly made his way out of the elevator. However, right as the speedster helped Liz out of the elevator, the piece of metal Peter was using to hold them up broke.

The elevator instantly began freefalling once again as Alex jumped up to grab the Parker boy's hand, only to miss it by a few inches. The world around her seemed to slow as she began falling down the elevator shaft before she heard Atlas calling out her superhero identity. Just as she thought all hope was lost, Peter shot a string of webbing at her before it wrapped around her hand. The Easton girl forced herself not to scream as she stared into the white eyes on the brunette boy's mask.

"You're okay. You're okay," Peter said in a reassuring tone as he carefully pulled on the web to bring the redheaded girl toward him.

Once she was close enough, the Parker boy wrapped his hand around hers and brought her closer to the door. Atlas and Ned didn't hesitate to push through the crowd before grabbing Alex's other arm to help her onto solid ground. After letting out a shaky breath, the Easton girl turned around to face Peter and sent him a grateful smile. The brunette boy just stared at her for a long moment before his webbing gave out and sent him freefalling down the elevator shaft.

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