Chapter 28- Meeting the In-laws

POV- Peter Parker

I'd been begging to be proven wrong, but after following him from Liz's house to a dingy, out-of-the-way factory, that was surprisingly noisy for this time at night. Using the top side windows, which during the day would have let the light in as a vantage point, I began sneaking around the site, placing small cameras to record as much evidence as I could, making sure to capture footage of each individual, and using my suit's access to Karen, the A.I, I recorded their information down separately as proven accomplices of the Vulture. Including the asshole calling himself 'The Shocker.' 'God, that's a terrible name. Like Mr Fantastic, or… Actually, most bad guys and heroes had pretty decent names. Even on our Vought squad, there wasn't one that seemed awful. I could have made a joke about Leviathan becoming Levi, but I get Spidey all the time, so I guess it's about the same.' A shifting, grinding sound came from the side as a van filled with three of the goons, including The Shocker, slipped into traffic, marked only by the drone and tracking device I shot with a web combination to the side of the van.

Looking back inside, there were only three members left, including the Vulture, and he hadn't put on the giant metal wingsuit yet. Part of me wants to fight him while he's wearing it, to further distance the man I see from Victor Toomes, but Nathan and Hawkeye's words are resounding in my head. "We are not noble knights Peter, we are heroes. We put an end to villainy, and protect the innocent, even if it means fighting a little dirty.

Crawling to the roof, I completely sealed the roof hatch shut, emptying one of my web canisters before switching for new ones. 'If he can't fly properly, then the wings are a cumbersome inconvenience rather than a mode of escape.' The wings were still bladed, but the most annoying thing about flying opponents is that they can fly. Now moving to the only other 'large,' exit, I use the other half-empty canister to seal the door shut. Sneaking through the small door, I spot the two goons, one of which was repairing, or rather crafting the alien hybrid tech weapons, while the other sat on his phone not even 15 feet in front of me. Switching to combat webs, I release a rapid series of webs to the engineer, trapping his hands to his body and his body to the wall behind him, the following web grenade securing him as I not so subtly deck the phone-focused guard in the jaw, slumped to the ground.

A rapid set of footsteps were followed by the whirring of the robot wings' engines. "Well, well, well. If it isn't Spiderman."

"Please don't resist Mr Toomes, just deactivate the wings, and I'll bring you in unharmed. We can still do this peacefully. Lighten your sentence."

Mr Toomes stood still for a moment, well, hovered slightly is more accurate. "And how abd would my sentence be exactly? As all I did was steal waste material and associate with some violent ruffians and arms dealers."

"And steal from government facilities, and kill quite a few people," I added.

Sucking in a breath of air, Mr Toomes let out a quick scoff, "So a pretty bad sentence huh? I guess I better just get out of here then." Activating something on his arm, the roof begins making some horrific creaking sounds but remains firmly shut. "Ohh? A clever little bug aren't you?"

"Arachnid," I corrected.

"I guess I'll have to kill you first," he said, and all of a sudden, he wasn't Mr Toomes, but the Vulture, his mask shut over his face and the wings' blades outstretched to catch me as he flew by. Placing a few web grenades on a manual detonation sequence, I stuck them to the pillars that hold up the roof. 'If he hadn't been wearing the wings, he could have used them to crash through the pillars and expose the sky, but the impact would pretty much guarantee that he would cripple himself if he did. Switching to combat webs, which couldn't be cut, I targeted the large fans that provided both lift and thrust through the wings design, though I suspected at least SOME alien tech was used to assist in its incredible flight capabilities.

Diving backwards, I flip over another swipe at me from the really quick, flying kitchen knife of death, spamming another multi-shot of combat webs into the leftmost fan. With a stuttering sound, Vulture steers into a pillar, slamming full-speed into the reinforced concrete, only to be tightly bound still by the combined activation of four web grenades, preventing him from falling, injuring himself further, or doing much more than wriggling around a bit as I sent off a call for Hawkeye, so the weapons and resources aren't immediately found on the black market, or hoarded by idiots in the government who think they should have access to everything they cannot POSSIBLY control. 'Bunch of useless chodes that all look like the fat old guy from an NTR manga.'

Waiting for Hawkeye took forever, but the plus side is that in the 25 minutes, it took for them to gather up and get here, the original Stooges showed up.

POV- 8 minutes ago, when the Vulture's friends showed back up.

The sound of a loud motor engine followed by panicked shouting informed me of the stooges' return, and climbing up to a now open window, I watched the scene play out.

They'd driven up to the electric side door, but found it utterly webbed shut, their shouted voices of confusion and alarm echoing through the street. Curious as to what the Shocker could actually do, I chose to deal with his amigos first. Sneaking my way out of the window and along the wall, I sidestepped the parked van, Shocker and a guy called George were busy inspecting the webbing and trying to call Vulture. 'Shame he's a little tied up at the moment,' I joked to myself. A smaller bald Asian man was sitting in the back of the truck, dispatched with a quick shot of webbing to the face followed by a flying knee to the nose.

Dropping the unconscious and bloodied Voldemort look-alike to the van floor, I flip up onto the roof of the van. All pretence of stealth was lost the moment the shmuck with the crushed nose groaned and fell to the floor. 'Good thing I won't be needing it.' Using a taser web on the other NPC, as Kate had started calling weaker members of the criminal world, fell to the floor after screaming in pain. Mr Barton had told her off for the choice of words, as it would portray the team as being 'insensitive,' to the lives of others. 'Good thing they don't know about Nathan's meal plan.'

"Shit. It's fucking Spiderman," Shocker said, pointing out the least shocking information as his bulky gauntlet devices glowed with blue energy. A tingle shot through me and in response, I leapt from the van, jumping over the Shocker onto the still-shut garage door. The glowing blue gauntlet sent the onto its roof, as he had uppercutted the front end of the vehicle. 'Wow. Not much speed or power, but a regular person would be finished after getting hit by that.' Shocker spun, facing me as he squared up ready for a fist-fight.

"You know guns exist, right?" Shocker was seemingly more annoyed by my suggestion he was less useful with the gauntlet than a gun than he was about me beating up his associates. "They're faster, more powerful. Longer range too. All without wasting alien tech on a stupid looking knuckle-duster." He was pissed now. Charging at me like a wild bull, he slammed his fist into the wall I was sitting on, my reflexes the only thing stopping me from falling to the floor with him. Using his delayed reaction caused by the falling rubble of broken wall, I leapt from the wall before it completely collapsed, spinning briefly before planting both feet directly into Shocker's face, throwing him against the upturned van. Webbing him to the van, I rip the gauntlet from him, removing possibly the only interesting thing from the man's life.

POV- Nathan Cross

Answering my phone at 4 in the morning, my second day back at work had me considering a change in occupation, but I saw Peter's name and knew what the call would be about. Still half-asleep, my voice came out slurred as I picked up the call.

"Whazzup Pete?"

"YOU KNEW I WAS DATING HIS DAUGHTER?!"

Pete's obnoxiously loud voice woke me completely, but I didn't get why he was so annoyed. 'It's not like SHE was a criminal. And considering my current training coach/fuckbuddy, I couldn't judge anyway.'

"Why didn't you tell me?" he asked, somewhat quieter, but no less intent on getting answers.

"Pete, just know, if you shout again, I'm just going to hang up." I could hear him mutter something about coming to the tower to kick my ass, but ignored it. "And yes, I obviously knew you were dating his daughter. I didn't tell you his identity because you genuinely liked a girl for the first time. And you were dating and I didn't want to put you in a weird spot by killing him, but I realised he needed to go."

"And it's not going to be awkward with her when she finds out I arrested him?" he hissed with a voice loaded frustration.

Thinking about it, it really wasn't much different than if he was a cop and found her dad smuggling weapons. "Probably, but if she's really as smart as you keep making her out to be, she'll understand he was a violent and dangerous guy, despite how good of a father he was."

Peter's voice turned soft, seeming both tired and afraid. "She'll hate me, Nathan. She loves her family, or at least, the family she knows about. And the guilt will continue to eat at me while we date until she knows and forgives me." I let out a small sigh of my own. 'All of this is true, and there's the possibility that she will do as she did in the films and skedaddle out of town with her mom, but he needed to be the one to bring him down. His first big arrest by himself, and without someone stepping on his toes and arresting his girlfriend's dad. Additionally, no one can question his sense of fairness, seeing as even his would-be in-laws are just as at risk as everyone else of being taken down by Spiderman.' "What do I even do now?"

"Comfort her where you can, and wait. If finding out her dad was a villain is too confronting for her, or she decides to move away and change her name, she wouldn't have lasted long with you anyway. I know you love her…but this life isn't for everyone. Everyone we love needs to accept a shade of moral grey, and risk being outed, hounded and hunted at all times. If her father, the man she loves and trusts most can't make her forgive and accept him, then neither could Spiderman." Peter doesn't say anything for a few minutes, but I can still hear his breathing through the phone. I hadn't meant to deal with his emotional, romantic issues, or get involved with them at all, but Pete needed to deal with the Vulture himself. The only reason he hadn't had him arrested already was due to his time being taken up with training, solo heroing, team jobs, schooling and dating. 'Honestly, I'm not sure how he gets so much shit done in a day.'

"You're saying I should break up with her?"

"I'm saying to be there for her for a few weeks and see how well she accepts her new reality. But I'm not going to lie and say that it will be fine, or she'll completely understand because she won't."

"You never did like her anyway," he said with a small tinge of humour in his voice, but not quite enough to hide his fear and guilt. "One day Nate, you're going to start dating, and I hope her parents are supervillains so you understand how awkward this situation is."

"As long as her mom looks good in tight leather I'm down," I respond quickly with a smile on my face. 'Mmmm Super Milf. Evil, violent, crazy MILFs…I'd have to kill the dad and take his spot in the family, that's like my ideal woman, so long as she has a soft side.'

"You are impossible," Pete groaned. "Whatever, when you finally care about a girl, I'm going to comb through her family history and make you arrest them all for even the smallest of crimes." I was glad he was distracting himself through his ridiculous ideas, even if I knew that the moment the phone call ended, he would be back to moping around. 'Though he could cool off on the girlfriend talk. It's bad enough getting it from May whenever I go over and see her.'