Michelle didn't do drugs, okay? She valued her brain too much and besides, she'd never found the idea of it appealing. She'd tried alcohol before but promptly decided it was not for her. After reaching for the wrong brownies at a party their senior year, she'd also scratched weed off the list of potential interests. All in all, she tended to avoid the whole "drugs and alcohol" scene in favor of a book or some Oreos. In her opinion, both were fairly reasonable substitutes.

That being said, Jelly Man and his fellow kidnappers had clearly not gotten the memo. Whatever they'd used to knock her out resulted in a banger of a headache before she'd even opened her eyes.

With a groan, she rubbed her forehead and kept her eyes firmly closed.

When it became clear that her headache was going nowhere, Michelle risked opening her eyes. Squinting into the dark room, she wasn't sure if she should be more surprised or annoyed that Jelly Man and his compatriots had mastered the stereotypical "kidnap the superhero's girlfriend" vibe.

Her designated cell was small, but not without every classic trope she'd seen in the movies. Brick walls, a single light bulb, and rusted shackles hanging in the corner. She supposed she should be grateful they hadn't chained her up, but with the headache their drugs had given her, she wasn't feeling inclined to be grateful for anything.

"Have you at least got a camera somewhere?" she asked the room, checking the corners for something small. "You've nailed everything else. It'd be a shame to miss out on this."

There was no response, but Michelle got the answer herself. In the far left corner, the furthest away from the single light bulb, a little red light flashed every other second.

Michelle smirked. "Found you."

Again, there was no response, but there was some satisfaction in knowing she'd found their poorly hidden camera so quickly.

"You gonna come talk to me?" she asked the camera. "Maybe bring me some water? I've got a killer headache, you know, and it's kinda your fault since it was your drugs that gave it to me."

The lack of response wasn't surprising, but she waited what she assumed was several minutes before asking about the water again.

"At the very least," she mused, "you don't want to dehydrate me. Dehydration is a bitch to deal with and can lead to death which―if you didn't know―would make me much less likely to cooperate."

There wasn't so much as a crackling from some hidden speaker.

With another groan, Michelle brought her knees up to her chest and laid her head back against the cold brick wall behind her. Closing her eyes, she decided to at least try and sleep off the headache. With any luck, she'd get whatever drugs they'd used out of her system by the time Peter showed up.

* * * * *

Convincing Peter not to throw on his suit and start searching all of Cambridge was more difficult than Tony had initially thought. The kid was vibrating angrily despite the tears in his eyes and it took much more than a few words to convince him to think this through instead of reacting.

"FRIDAY can search through traffic cameras," Tony told him, gently pushing Peter to sit on his bed. Prying MJ's phone out of Peter's fist, Tony said, "In the meantime, I want you to tell me what's been happening. This isn't out of the blue, is it?"

Peter shook his head, wiping a hand across his face as he did so. "She was followed at the store on Sunday, but we didn't think he'd followed her all the way home."

"Did she tell you what he looked like?" Tony asked, joining Peter on his bed. "The guy that followed her?"

"No." Peter wiped at his face again. "She didn't really see him, I think."

"Alright, that's okay," Tony assured him. "We'll just have FRIDAY look, alright?"

Peter nodded numbly.

Getting up from Peter's bed, Tony flicked his phone towards Peter's desk to project a screen for FRIDAY to work on.

"Run facial rec for Michelle Jones," he told her. "All of Cambridge. Last two hours."

As FRIDAY began to run the scan, Tony turned back to Peter, catching a glimpse of Ned's awestruck face. Even though both of Peter's friends had been upstate to the Compound lab multiple times, Ned's awe had yet to go away.

"Help her out, would ya, Ned?" Tony said, gesturing to where FRIDAY was flicking through security footage at a dizzying pace.

Ned nodded eagerly, dropping into the single chair by Peter's desk.

"Alright, Pete," Tony said, reaching for Peter's suit. "We're gonna make a plan, okay? We're not diving into this head―"

Something fell out of Peter's suit as he pulled it from the dresser, floating to the ground as both Tony and Peter stared at it.

"―first," Tony trailed off.

Bending down, he picked up the paper the had fallen out of Peter's suit and unfolded it. He almost expected it to be from MJ herself, but the handwriting didn't match and the message was less than encouraging.

"What?" Peter asked, jumping to his feet. "What is it? Tony?"

Peter tore the paper out of Tony's hands before he even realized the kid was standing in front of him.

"Peter―" Tony reached back for the paper, but Peter had already skimmed it.

"What is it?" Ned asked, looking away from FRIDAY.

"A threat," Peter growled. He crumpled the note and threw it at the nearest wall before rounding on Tony and lunging for his suit. Tony jumped out of the way, holding Peter's suit out of reach as the kid reached for it.

"Pete, hey," he said, putting his hand on Peter's chest. "Breathe, kid."

He knew the kid didn't mean to hurt him when he grabbed Tony's hand and shoved it off his chest. Snatching his suit out of Tony's hands, Peter jumped up to the corner of his ceiling to avoid Tony's frantic attempts to steal it back.

"I'm not staying here!" Peter refused, shedding his shirt and staying just out of reach. "They could―They'll hurt her, Mr. Stark!"

"We have time, Peter," Tony said, watching as Peter somehow pulled off his jeans and slipped into his suit.

"I don't care!" Peter cried. He dropped his jeans onto his bed and crawled towards his window.

Tony slipped in front of him, blocking the window exit and holding his arms out towards Peter as he yanked his mask into place.

"I need you to listen to me, Peter," he said calmly, "This isn't my first rodeo, okay, kid?"

The Spider-Man mask blinked at him and Peter rubbed his face through the mask, but Tony didn't move from in front of the window.

"You gotta trust me here, Pete," Tony said. Peter blinked in response. "Just one hour, okay, kid? Can you do that for me?" Tony asked softly. "Wait one hour and if FRIDAY doesn't find anything, I'll suit up and we'll raid Cambridge together, okay?"

Very slowly, Peter lowered himself from the ceiling to stand in front of Tony. With a small nod, he pulled his mask off to reveal red eyes.

"It'll be okay," Tony promised, pulling Peter in for a hug. "We'll figure this out."