18

Chapter 18: the technicalities of breaking lawsNotes:

1) Okay, a few more chapters and then we start on the Infinity Stone arc!

2) Most of the backstory in this chapter is researched and probably altered to fit into this fanfic so it might not be completely correct.

3) EDIT: here's the Ultimate Spider-Man crossover I created!

bruised being, healing heart

4) Enjoy the chapter and leave a kudos and comment!

(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)

Chapter Text

A couple of months had passed since Christmas, January passing by in a blur of tests and exhaustion.

One of the internship days had fallen within February half-term, so Tony had invited him to the Compound to stay for the weekend and they had continued his skills training for Friday.

He knew Wanda and Vision had stayed in the Compound since the whole Accords mess and had met them both briefly a couple of times in the kitchen, mainly when he was getting some water before he returned to his room to complete some homework.

Then Tony had invited him to the training area and he had changed into some of the spare clothes he had brought with him and left in the drawers before going and warming up for a few minutes before Tony arrived and they had started.

He sighed as he managed to place the chest weight back on the bar, grinning when Tony told him he had lifted about 30 tons. His arms were burning with the strain and he gulped down some water before Tony had offered him a towel.

"Damn Underoos, that's a massive improvement. Certainly more than what's approximate to how much the average human could improve by in a few months," Tony said as Peter wiped his face with the cool towel. His speed on the treadmill had increased to 40 miles per hour and he had lasted about 20 minutes longer than last time.

He wasn't sure how he had improved so quickly but it was comforting to say the least. He hadn't focused on improving his body as much last time since he had been learning how to be a vigilante and surviving getting attacked by villains every few weeks. Then he'd had to fight Thanos, Beck and finally the multiverse villains, so no one could really blame him for focusing on survival rather than his body.

However, he didn't expect to be able to increase his skills so quickly! Sure, he had aimed to be that little bit faster when chasing a criminal or had tested the boundaries of his strength when he had free time. Perhaps now that he had a bit more of a clue of what he was doing he could improve to the point he could face Thanos and not fail as badly as last time.

"C'mon kid, I have a surprise for you today." Tony gestured to where the sparring mats were on the right side of the gym as he stood up and they started walking towards there.

"What do you mean?" He asked as he draped the towel around his neck. "It's not like Christmas when you gave me the hologram?"

"Nope. Arguably, I'd say it's better."

He turned to Tony, noting the billionaire's smug grin before raising an eyebrow. "Am I meeting another Avenger?" His voice rose with excitement as he guessed who it might be if he was right.

"Yep."

His eyes widened with realisation a couple of seconds before the door opened and he swivelled around to see Natasha Romanoff enter the training area.

Instead of her hair being long and red like he was used to seeing -with the exception of what pictures were used at her funeral- it was short and blonde. She was wearing a grey t-shirt, black jogging bottoms and trainers and disbelief ran through him as he realised Tony had managed to get her to teach him again.

He knew Natasha had taught him before but that had been after the summer of 2017 when they trusted each other more and she had been free after the mess of the Red Room and Dreykov's demise - he didn't feel guilty about hacking into a couple of databases to find that out. No one had told him if Natasha was okay after the airport battle and he had wanted to find out, so he did.

Unfortunately, she was still a fugitive in the eyes of the law. He knew that and more importantly, so did Tony. He had either pulled a few strings to keep her presence in America quiet or somehow she had escaped the American government's radar and honestly, he wouldn't be surprised if she had. She was a world-class spy and could get away with several things if she needed to.

She had trained him for a few months until March in 2018 when she had gone on a long-term mission, simply wishing him well for the future before she had gone. He had missed a lot of their spars -Natasha's technique was unique and always a challenge to him- and the moments they had shared whenever they were in the Compound at the same time.

He hadn't seen her afterwards and with Thanos and going all the way to Titan before turning to dust and then fighting in the final battle after she had died for everyone to come back…

All of it had been too much but he had missed her. A smaller funeral had been held for her despite how crucial her role was when bringing back everyone who had died in the Blip. He hadn't understood why considering she was one of the main six Avengers and had influenced some of his life whether it was the Battle of New York in 2012 or training him or bringing everyone back.

He suppressed his grin for a couple of seconds before the traitorous part of his brain that fanboyed with little regard to how uncool he looked in front of two Avengers -though Tony was more of a guiding figure in his life than an Avenger at this point- won and he started rambling. God, he didn't have that much self-control, did he?

"No freaking way!" He murmured as she walked towards them. "I- um- hi Ms Black Widow!"

Part of him wanted to curl into a ball and die for how embarrassing that sentence was. He knew he was overdoing it and from the sound of Tony's chuckling and Natasha's smirk, they did too. His face flushed and he fought the urge to bury his face in his hands so he could quickly compose himself.

"Hi Spider-Man," she replied, huffing amusedly when his jaw dropped slightly. Internally, he felt as if he had just been dropped off of a cliff. Of course Tony would have told her about his identity! Why would she train him otherwise?

Before, he had simply introduced himself as Spider-Man because he was an idiot and had trusted her because she had been on their side during the airport battle, then, when they started sparring together, she had explained she had worked out who he was from his fighting style.

This time though…he didn't want too many people finding out his identity. Obviously he trusted most of the Avengers he had met but with how last time had turned out with Stephen having to cast a spell and nearly eliminate the knowledge of existence from the whole universe, he didn't want too many people finding out who he was.

"How did you find out?" He asked meekly. "Did Tony tell you?" In his peripheral he could see him smile as he finally hadn't said 'Mr Stark' and then had to correct himself.

She nodded. "But your voice is recognisable without the mask. It isn't too difficult for an enemy to recognise you if they pay attention." Fortunately, most of his enemies were idiots or in prison.

He had debated using a voice distorter before deciding not to since his main purpose was to protect New Yorkers from danger and his interactions with them relied on him being seen as a friendly figure, not someone threatening to them. His enemies on the other hand…

"Um, okay."

"So, I've asked Natasha if she can train you and she agreed. It'll be interesting to see how two spiders get along," Tony said as excitement flowed through him. He would finally spar with Natasha again!

"I figured a spar would help identify some weak spots and we can work on them from there. Does that sound good?" She asked.

"Yeah, sounds good!" He smiled as she nodded at him and tied her hair back before gesturing to the mat. Tony had moved a few metres away to watch as he periodically glanced at his StarkPad, occasionally typing something in -maybe he was working whilst supervising training- before he turned it off and started to watch.

He knew Natasha specialised in close combat, often winning through using her martial arts skills -from what he could remember, she had mastered at least seven styles- and her weapons. He wouldn't want to cross her in any instance except training.

"You can attack first," she said calmly as she walked onto the mat, prompting him to step onto it as he quickly thought of a strategy. He didn't want to give a false idea of his strength and skills since he wanted to improve so he could fight his future enemies but he didn't want to have to answer any awkward questions.

Screw it. He could make up something dumb like he watched videos on YouTube on self-defence and acrobatics before he incorporated them into his fighting style when he didn't have a choice other than to fight his enemies in close combat.

He didn't have his webshooters so he couldn't use some of his fighting moves like yank her towards him or flip her in the air like he did with Goblin -not that he needed that much force in this instance- and honestly he thought she would be able to use his moves against him if he used them enough times.

Natasha Romanov was a woman he equally respected and feared. She could kill him if she wanted to but she was training him so he needed to be serious.

He sprinted forwards, throwing a punch at her jaw as he kept his other hand above his side in case he needed to block one of her hits. She immediately caught his punch and countered his other hand as he went to punch her stomach before everything spun as she flipped him onto his back.

Rolling backwards to give himself some space to recover, he went in with a kick and twisted when he saw her hand go to grab onto his ankle. From there the fight dissolved into a series of punches and kicks as Natasha tirelessly blocked him until he accidentally gave her an opening and he was forced to move backwards to give himself some space.

In the other timeline she often ended their spars with a variation of her signature move: she would use a scissor leg takedown around his neck, either by climbing on his back or getting a running start before jumping into the air to get him.

He had learned from several mistakes to watch his back and never give her enough time to prepare this attack until he faltered, but obviously she didn't use it to kill him, otherwise she would use her thighs in the attack. Instead, she used her ankles with a lesser amount of power.

Using her attack with particular enemies after she had taught him the non-lethal variation -she and Tony knew he didn't aim to kill and wasn't likely to unless it was a life or death experience- was good in most cases but he couldn't use it in his first spar against her without raising suspicion.

In the few seconds he had thought about ending the fight, Natasha had used one of her non-lethal takedowns to keep him pinned to the floor and the air was knocked out of his lungs, harshly bringing him back to the present. He tapped out, relieved when she stood up and offered a hand to help him stand up.

He gratefully took it, panting as he wiped the sweat from his brow. He had a lot to learn and it was evident from how quickly he had been taken down.

Tony whistled, clapping him on the back before handing him his towel back. "Not bad kid. I didn't expect you to last that long."

"Is that meant to be encouraging?" He panted as he went to collect his water bottle. "Because it sounded pretty backhanded to me – no offence Ms Black Widow. You're a very scary opponent."

"It's fine if you call me Ms Romanov," she replied coolly as she stood near Tony.

"Ah, okay, cool." How much more embarrassment could he stand?

"Your spar lasted for four minutes and ten seconds." He shot Tony a slightly puzzled look at the preciseness of his answer. "That's much longer than what her usual opponents last for."

"Don't most of them end up dead?"

"Well yes, but I'm sure Natasha has no intention of killing you."

"I wouldn't have that intention at all," she replied. "Your defence needs work. You leave yourself often and block a few seconds too late."

"It's something I'm working on," he groaned. "I did the same thing against Shifter and took too many hits."

"Shifter? The guy with the Megamind gauntlets?" Tony asked. Natasha raised an eyebrow at that but didn't comment on it.

"Yeah, him." He turned to face Natasha as he placed his bottle of water against his neck, relaxing slightly as the coolness of the plastic fought the heat radiating from his neck. "How can I improve my attacks?"

"You have a mixed style that focuses on acrobatics, don't you?" He nodded, "Using a mix of off-the-wall attacks would help but in your case, jumping off an enemy would help."

The next 45 minutes were spent showing him what he could do with his enemies, ranging from jumping off of them and knocking them into each other to throwing them into the air without his webs.

At some point Wanda had entered the training room and observed as Natasha taught him before he practiced against her. He didn't consider Wanda a threat – truthfully, she was an amazing person.

She had changed sides many times but had settled in the Compound to be with Vision, though he wasn't sure how long they would stay. Judging from Tony's conversations with Vision that he had overheard -mainly because his enhanced senses had let him, not because he was eavesdropping- he knew she and Vision might leave America to settle somewhere else.

When he had first heard that she and Vision had plans to move away, he had almost panicked and called Stephen to make sure they had a way to remove the Mind stone if Vision moved somewhere undetectable. Then he had forced himself to sit on the ceiling to calm down and think everything through.

Stephen and Ned were both sorcerers -well, Ned was a sorcerer in training but he had opened a portal within his first few tries apparently- and could locate Vision and Wanda if they needed to. Tony could probably contact Vision if there was an emergency and when he and Stephen found the right time to tell Tony about Thanos and the Infinity stones then he could contact Vision and help to sort everything out.

Everything would work out. They would make sure of it.

He didn't want what happened in the previous timeline to happen again. Pepper had told him after the funeral that Wanda had needed to kill Vision to destroy the Mind stone before Thanos had turned back time to bring Vision's dead body back and rip the Mind stone from his head in front of Wanda. Then she had been dusted and then brought back for the final battle and nearly obliterated Thanos, causing him to order his warships to rain hell upon the battlefield.

He could understand where her rage came from during that battle and during whatever massive event happened in the months after Tony had died. His grief had reordered his priorities, especially with him and May trying to get their home back after all the confusion with the Blip before his disastrous trip to Europe happened and his life went downhill from there.

All he knew was that Wanda's grief had caused her to do something terrible and she had done something that had hurt a lot of people. Stephen wouldn't tell him what even when he had asked, saying it was in the past now and they needed to stop the catalyst of all the suffering, meaning they needed to stop Thanos.

The thought was always in the back of his mind but he doubted he would find out any time soon. Maybe if they won their first battle against Thanos and prevented the Blip then Stephen would tell him what happened.

Panting as he stood up after Natasha had made him attack her again, he gave in and called for a break, making sure to drink as much as he could as Wanda and Natasha started talking about something. He couldn't make out much as the roaring in his ears drowned out the conversation, though he doubted he needed to know.

"Hi Wanda," he greeted after his heartbeat slowed down to something normal, smiling when she smiled at him. They hadn't talked too much but neither of them considered each other a threat after the airport battle – well, he hoped she didn't. He would need to regain her trust again if he had the time to.

"Hello Peter," she replied kindly. He finally registered she was also wearing a faded red sweatshirt and some black bottoms before remembering that Tony had installed a room where Wanda could safely practice her magic. That must have been what she and Natasha were talking about!

"Boss, the time is 6 PM," FRIDAY announced as he hid a flinch. The time had flown by and the last thing he expected was a time reminder despite Tony telling him about it so they would eat on time.

He hadn't noticed how hungry he was with how fast-paced all his lesson had been but his stomach felt like a pit and he quickly realised he should have brought a protein bar with him.

"Thanks FRI," Tony replied. "Kid, what do you fancy for dinner?"

"Um, I'm happy with whatever's in the fridge," he replied as he caught Natasha smirking at Tony even though he hadn't realised. What had she noticed that he hadn't?

"Leftovers it is! Why don't you take a shower and I'll sort that out."

"Cool. Oh, um, thank you so much for teaching me, Ms Romanov!" He smiled in a vain attempt to hide his nervousness. He knew she didn't trust easily and rightly so, but he didn't want his first impression of her to end badly.

"No problem, маленький паук." The corners of her mouth lifted up at his and Tony's confusion before continuing. "I'll see you next week." And with that she walked away with Wanda after the witch had waved goodbye to him.

A month and a bit had passed since his first training session with Natasha and he had improved significantly since then despite sticking to his generally mid-to-long range combat style when fighting lower level criminals.

Most of the time he stuck to using his webs for combat but decided to practice whatever moves he learned in training on the enemies who refused to stay down during a fight, namely Fisk's drug dealers whenever they operated in Queens.

He knew Daredevil kept a tight leash on them in Hell's Kitchen but Fisk had decided to move more of his operations around and was paying the price if he thought Peter would avoid messing with his deals. He had done it in the previous timeline after the Blip and hadn't expected him to catch on so fast once he finally went out as Spider-Man again, albeit in the Iron Spider suit instead of the one he had now.

He would admit that using night time as a cover was a smart idea. It really was because criminals were less likely to be spotted by cops in damp alleyways at the end of March. Hell, some even chose particular shops because they knew he was swinging around and knew he had a reputation for making sure drug dealers ended up in the Raft if he had some sway over what their charges would be.

Unfortunately for these drug dealers, they hadn't been careful enough and one of them had lit up a cigarette as he had swung past, successfully catching his attention and causing him to video their whole conversation.

Now it was time for him to ruin their days.

Crawling to the end of the alleyway where the two drug dealers were after setting up a couple of trip mines at the end of the alley where the criminals could escape if he made a mistake, he observed the two men.

One looked as bland as anything with pasty skin, dark clothes and a deep voice. Most of the conversation had come from him trying to negotiate a lower price for the drugs the other man was offering.

The other man was much more interesting; he had his black hair tied in a man bun and wore mainly black clothing with a familiar looking leather jacket to match. His build was much bulkier than his customers and he had a faint European accent, though it sounded like a mix of a Russian and Turkish accent from what he could make out.

He could have sworn he had seen the guy before, even if it was in passing. He hadn't asked Karen to use her face recognition programme because he was too close to the guys to say anything without them hearing but he would ask her once he reviewed the footage.

Silently dropping into the alleyway was a breeze but the second he stood up, he realised he had a gun to his face.

The black nozzle pinned him to the spot as the processed the European guy was pointing it at him -he doubted pasty guy would hold a gun considering how shaky his voice was- and he tilted his head slightly as the European guy spoke lowly.

"If you move I will shoot," he threatened, the gun moving closer to his head.

"Yeah, how about no? I'd rather go home unholy than holey if you get what I mean," he replied lightly, watching as confusion flashed in the guy's eyes before he made his move.

Adrenaline surged through him as he grabbed the gun and aimed it at the sky as the guy pulled the trigger, the gunshot partially deafening him as smoke wafted from the nozzle. He kicked the guy in the stomach and took advantage of his shock as his grip on the gun loosened and he yanked the gun from his opponent's grasp before webbing it to a wall.

A high pitched scream came from the other side of the alley as one of the red dots on his HUD flashed green and he grinned as he realised the pasty guy had been caught in one of his traps before he ducked as the man who he first attacked lunged towards him.

Lifting one arm to catch the man's punch, he kicked him in the stomach again before dropping lower and swinging his leg like Natasha taught him to unbalance the criminal before he used an impact web to stick him to the wall and adding a bunch of extra webs for good measure.

"You'll pay for this," the man growled as he struggled against the webbing.

"Nah man, I'm pretty sure you will. Have fun in prison!" He exclaimed as he jogged down the alleyway and pocketed his other trip mine, sighing when he saw how frightened the pasty man looked.

"Look dude, maybe the police will let you off lightly if the evidence isn't stacked against you. This is a pretty good reminder not to do drugs if you ask me." He shrugged, smiling slightly as he heard police sirens nearby. "Bye Mr criminal!"

He shot his webs at a lamppost outside of the alley before perching on top of it as the police car parked about a metre away from the webbed up criminals; two police officers stepped out, one of which he recognised.

"Hey Officer Davis!" He waved as the man in question waved back at him. "The two guys webbed up are there for drug dealing. See what you can do."

"Will do Spidey," Officer Davis replied as the other officer looked at him warily before disappearing as he checked out the alley. "You haven't happened to meet my son Miles, have you?"

"Miles…oh yeah, I have!" His eyes widened as he realised Miles, Jefferson and Aaron were all related. "He's a cool person, I met him a while ago."

"I figured since he showed me a selfie with you in it." Internally, he quashed down the anxiety swirling in his chest as he remembered his whole reason for being there. What had Miles told him? More importantly, what had Aaron told him?

"Jeff, two criminals are webbed up to the wall. There's also a gun?" The other officer announced as he emerged from the alley before turning towards him. He tentatively opened his mouth before asking a question. "Which one had the gun?"

"The guy with the man bun," he replied smoothly. "I'll send the evidence in once it's converted. Bye officers!"

He leaped off of the lamppost before shooting a web at the corner of a building, running along the pavement for a few seconds to gather momentum before swinging along the street.

Back in the alleyway, Dmitri glared at Officer Davis as he read out his rights. Unfortunately, neither of the officers were aware of the tracking beacon in his pocket nor were they aware of the two men quickly locating Dmitri's location.

Notes:

Which setting is better for a fight for an Infinity Stone: Vormir or Titan?