Peter found himself counting down the minutes as he sat in a tree. He could feel the anxiety in his chest making his heart race. Part of him wished one of the others would find something because listening to that song absolutely terrified him. It was like he was being pulled in to deep, dark water and if he couldn't surface in time then he might not at all. He could only thank his senses for that.

"How you doing kid?" Clint's voice rang through his comm.

"Uh, it's quiet." That was an understatement. "I haven't heard or seen anything yet."

"We still got a minute until party time. Just make sure to say something if you do get anything."

It was like his life had a thing for dramatic timing. As soon as Clint said that, he heard something. It was a bit distant, maybe a block or so away but it sounded like an engine. Not a car or truck, it was something bigger like an RV or Motor Home but with how small some of the driveways were- even though everything was considerably bigger than New York- nowhere in that area would actually have room for a vehicle of that size.

He swung from the tree he was in to another and that was when the music hit him. It was loud, as loud as it had been on the recording when Ned had fixed them. He sent his drone in the direction of it.

"Karen."

"The others have been notified Peter." Her voice was a grateful snap. "Shall I play your own music to cancel out what you're currently hearing and enable the sound cancelling feature?"

"No, just the music. I wanna find out where this is before I lose it completely." He spoke into his comm. "I got something."

"You and me both kid."

Peter stopped atop of another tree when he noticed kids coming out of their houses and walking along the sidewalk, all heading in the same direction.

Play-ing as- long-as we want, mak-ing any kind of fuss, since mom and dad aren't here, they won't get mad, and we won't go home-

"Peter your brainwaves are becoming erratic and unstable."

He could hear her but everything around him was all in a blur. He barely even registered himself getting down from the tree before things suddenly went quiet and an AC/DC song started blasting.

"Ow. Karen are you trying to deafen me?"

"Well considering hearing his causing you to be in danger, I don't think it'd be too bad if this was something you didn't have to hear." Her voice sounded over the music.

"Ha ha very funny." Though he acted annoyed he was thankful Karen had chosen to blast him with hard rock rather than let him wander. "Okay let's see where these kids are going."

He fired a web at a nearby roof and flipped onto it. He quietly and as carefully as he could, leapt from rooftop to rooftop as he followed the line of kids walking down the street. He followed for about two blocks before he saw what was making the original rumbling sound; at the end of the street was a school bus, it's door wide open and letting kids pile on.

"School bus on Sloat and Fourth." He called. "Kids are climbing on like it's nothing."

"We're all about ten minutes out." Tony replied. "Can you see anyone in there? A driver?"

"Yeah, looks like someone's sitting in the driver's seat just- waiting. There were at least a dozen kids walking down the street."

"A few from my street too." Clint said. "I'm coming up on you now Pete. No other kids are behind me. What's the call?"

"Prevent them from leaving." Steve ordered. "Do what you can to keep them here, just don't hurt the kids."

"Make some noise if you can." Bucky added.

Peter had been watching as boys and girls had been filing onto the bus just like if they were going to school. He could feel the ever so slight beat of the music but was saved from becoming a mindless drone himself by the hard rock blasting in his ears. He needed to think of a plan; it was only him and Clint there for the moment and the bus was just about full, only a few more kids walking down the street.

He needed a way to prevent the bus from leaving and either keep the kids asleep throughout it all or wake them up. Making noise would be a very good thing at the moment.

He looked behind him to Clint who was just about half way down the street. "Think you can you get the tires flat?"

"I'm offended you'd even ask that." Peter snorted at the mock hurt in his voice. "Give me a sec."

"Karen- scan the bus to see if there's any sort of system that's playing the music." After a moment a diagram of the bus popped up in front of his eyes.

"It looks like there's external speakers and hardware under the bus. What's your plan Peter?"

"Can you get into it to get control?"

"Not without some sort of link up."

He thought for a moment. "You can get to it through droney right?"

The drone popped out of his suit. "I can."

"Nice. Okay, tell me when you're in." The drone flew off to the bus. "Are you all set Mr. Barton?"

"Ready when you are kid. Kinda like to know what your plan is though."

"Taking Mr. Barnes' advice; we're gonna make some noise." He smirked. "On my mark."

It was another few seconds before Karen responded. "I'm currently in control of the sound system."

"Link my music. Make it like you're throwing a party and the cops get called." Peter blew out a breath and jumped from the roof, flying towards the bus. "Now!"

Everything was quiet for about three seconds. The song playing from Peter's mask stopped as AC/DC's TNT started blaring from the vehicle. He watched as four arrows simultaneously hit every tire on the bus and it sunk to the ground.

"God that was so cool." Peter said as he landed on the hood of the bus.

"You're not too shabby yourself." Clint replied.

Peter watched as the person in the driver's seat tried to assess the situation; the kids had all seemed to be started awake and out of their trance. The older ones were getting up from where they sat attempting to open the emergency doors to get out, ushering the younger ones to follow. The few kids that were still walking down the street had stopped where they stood.

The driver seemed to be panicking, fumbling with something in their hands. Peter placed his hands on the windshield and pulled. The glass came out with very little resistance. He wastes no time in webbing up the assailant.

"Ah, ah, ah. None of that." He climbed through the hole. "I don't know what you're game is but kidnapping kids just isn't cool."

The person said nothing. Their eyes wide with- fear, shock? One of those. Whichever it was, he didn't care. He was just glad to finally catch them. Peter pulled them from the seat and out of the bus, forcing them to the ground.

"Shut it down Karen." The music stopped in an instant. Peter looked around to see a number of porch and motion sensor lights had been turned on. "I think I did a good."

"Yeah, real good kid." Clint said as he approached with six children following him. "You saved them."

"You helped."

"Don't be modest. This, all of it, wouldn't have been possible without your help."

A smile graced his face beneath his mask. "I'm just doing what's right."

He felt a tug of his suit and turned to see a little girl looking up at him. She didn't look older than six. Her arms were reaching up for him, her face red and tears streaming down her face. He knelt down and she quickly wrapped her arms around his neck in a death grip. He stood back up, holding her in his arms as he went.

"How far out are you guys?" Clint called into his comm.

"We'll be there in three. Cops should be on their way." Tony answered. "Hell of a concert Underoos."

AVENGERS

Peter had somehow gotten it into his head that once they stopped the culprit of the kidnappings that everything would slowly return to normal. What he hadn't counted on was said culprit to be a complete pain in everyone's ass.

When the others and police arrived, they found the neighborhood in a complete uproar as expected. Clint had been getting the adults who knew some of the kids to get in contact with the parents and inform them of what had happened; Peter was sitting on the ground in front of five or six of the youngest kids, the little girl sitting in his lap, and was showing them tricks with his webs and letting them play with his drone until their parents arrived.

The police had taken the culprit into custody and had been intent of doing whatever they could to get answers out of them but they were- stubborn? Hardheaded? A total ass? All of the above was probably the right answer.

It had been a twenty-two hours since they had been brought in and they hadn't said a word; not when the cops interrogated them, not when Steve questioned them, they didn't so much as flinch when Bucky straight out threatened to kill them if they didn't answer any questions.

They had gone to investigate the theme park the next day in hope of finding the kids. It had been shut down and they'd been given full access to everything there was, even the original plans but they had wound up with nothing. They were back to square one with nothing to go on.

Ned had sent them the video and audio of the footage they'd given him but it didn't give any information they needed, just evidence further proving the culprit guilty.

It was- frustrating.

Peter had been sitting on his bed in his room, racking his brain over every piece of information they had, trying to find something that would lead them to finding the other kids. He wanted to find them, he wanted to see the relieved crying faces of the parents and siblings when they were reunited, he needed that feeling of- he didn't even know. The little girl that had clung to him for dear life the night before, he needed to feel what he felt then when she finally let him go to run to her mother; when she ran back to him, giving him a final hug and a barely understandable thank you. That was what he wanted to feel. Empathy, relief, pity, an odd sense of pride- whatever it was, he didn't think he could leave California until he felt it.

But he also needed a break.

He had been used to staying up until the early hours of the morning but everything that had happened had worn him down. Everything involving kids had always been so much worse and there were still just under one hundred still missing. There was a sickening feeling of dread in the pit of his stomach and it wouldn't go away until the kids were found.

It had been a quarter after one and a few hours of mindlessly trying to sleep when he bolted up in bed. He breathed a heavy breath and smirked slightly.

"FRIDAY is everyone still up?"

"Yes Mr. Parker. Would you like me to call someone for assistance? Your heart rate appears to be elevated."

"No, no it's fine." He jumped out of bed and ran from his room to the living room. Four pairs of eyes resting on him as he appeared.

"You good kid?" Bucky asked. "Have a nightmare or something?"

"We need to go back to the park."

"Pete we scoured the place for hours." Steve disappointingly said. "We didn't find anything there."

"You don't understand." He shook his head. "It's not that we were looking in the wrong place but in the wrong time."

Clint's brow rose at the information. "We were looking during the day when we should've been looking at night."

"Exactly. I don't know if I'm right or not and it's just a hunch but-"

"You don't need to say anything else." Tony cut him off. "I trust your instinct. You've done more than any of us have on this mission. If you think we should go back to the park then we will. Give us five minutes."

A grin appeared on Peter's face before he ran back upstairs to get his things.

It had been about half past one when they left, arriving at the destination an hour later. Peter had been fidgeting the entire ride; leg bouncing on the floor, fingers tapping against the seat. He barely registered the others asking him if he was okay but offered a nod.

"All right kid. Wanna let us in on what's going on inside that head of yours?" Tony asked as they entered the park.

"We just need to wait." Peter said. "Just until three and if I'm right then we should be able to find the kids."

"O-kay, anything else?"

"Uh, maybe look around again." That was all he gave them before walking away. The words that were said to him as he left fell on deaf ears.

He was anxious. Being there dialed his senses back up to an eleven. It's was just- creepy. He was jumping at shadows and statues as he past, he could hear the annoying hum of the dull lighting that was around, there didn't even seem to be any bugs making noises.

It was 2:55 when he found himself at the amphitheater.

"Karen tell everyone to come to my location. Tell them to just follow me wherever I go."

He didn't wait for her reply before slipping off his mask and putting his headphones in his ears. He sat on the edge of the stage and waited; one minute, two minutes, three then four. A few seconds before three hit, he played the audio on his phone, a copy of the first audio file he'd listened to. It took a bit of restraint to ignore his senses screaming danger and to not pull out his headphones. The song was still just as disturbing as it was the first time he heard it. Pretty soon he felt that same blur as he did on the street, only this time he didn't try to fight it and it soon overtook him. He didn't remember what happened after that.

AVENGERS

Honestly if Peter could have slept longer he would've. It was probably the most sleep he's gotten in days with how rested he actually felt. He almost felt like yelling at the person gently rocking him but figured there was a good reason for it. He slowly cracked an eye open.

"He lives." Bucky said with a hint of humor in his voice. "Welcome back kid."

Peter's brow rose as he pushed himself up from the bench he was laying on. "Did I die?" He took a look around to realize he wasn't in a bedroom like he'd thought. There were police and paramedics everywhere ushering people, ushering children through the now lit grounds of the theme park. His eyes widened at the realization. "We found them?"

"You found them." Tony answered as he walked over to them. "Lead us to a hatch in the gardens that lead to an old war bunker."

"I did?"

"Guess you were technically asleep for it. " Tony shrugged. "Karen alerted FRIDAY. We found you a few minutes later wandering through the park. We were following until you eventually stopped at the benches in the garden; don't really know how the thing opened for you but we followed you down until you went into a room. All the kids were in there just- sleeping. The paramedics have been looking over them and haven't found anything wrong; there's no trace of drugs in their systems and there doesn't appear to be any trace of malnutrition or any sort of violence against them. You did good kid."

"Kinda freaked us out when we took out your headphones and you dropped like a rock though." Bucky added. "You've only been out about ten minutes."

Peter blinked as he absorbed the information. He remembered telling Karen to tell the others to follow him but that was it. A cheeky smile appeared on his face. "It worked then."

"Your plan of not telling us you were going to intentionally hypnotize yourself and hope it leads you to the kids? Yeah, woulda been nice to know that ahead of time." Tony said. "Why didn't you tell us that was your brilliant plan? It would've been much simpler for everyone."

"Uh, dramatic effect?"

Bucky smirked as Tony ran a hand down his face and sighed. "As stupid as it was, it worked. Police are looking through all the missing kids' files and contacting parents. They asked that we all stay here to help keep them calm, and I'm certain the parents would like to thank you for finding them." Peter opened his mouth to say something but Tony cut him off. "Don't try to get out of this kid; you're the one that figured out we needed to come back here and you're the one who actually found them. You deserve all the credit for this."

Peter's eyes were focused on the ground in front of him. He didn't think he deserved the credit for it; he was just doing what anyone else would've.

"How about it? Wanna go bask in the superhero glory?"

He looked up past the two men in front of him. He saw a number of kids literally hanging off of Steve and Clint, the two of them smiling and trying to keep answering any further questions from the police.

A smile crossed Peter's face. "I guess that wouldn't be so bad."

AVENGERS EPILOGUE

They stayed at the theme park for hours keeping the children entertained until their parents came, not intending on leaving until every child had been accounted for.

The police had informed them that the culprit had finally broken during the night, screaming about the children and how they needed them but the police only figured out where the kids actually where when Tony had contacted them. The culprit had been yelling about how they were their children and how they needed a good parental figure in their lives. The police had assumed the reason they did all they did because of some psychological illness or some sort of tragic family back story. Nonetheless they would be going away for a long time.

They never did figure out how the Mosquito worked with the song or how such a variety of kids were exposed to it; not even a quarter of them had been to- let alone heard of the theme park. They'd run the original audio files the culprit had through every sort of programming software they could find but had no explanation of how it worked. Tony had told Peter to send a copy to Ned to see if he could do anything to it, much to both boys' surprise, but it didn't do much good. Ned heard no difference in the original audio and any from house surveillance because he could actually hear the song no matter what.

Peter was once again floating in the pool at the house, only this time it was completely for his own enjoyability. He saw many happy faces in the time he was there and everyone thought it was their turn.

Tony had ultimately left the final decision to Peter: stay in California and get a bit of an actual vacation for a little while or head straight back to New York and be done with everything. Of course he had opted to stay for a few more days, at least until the police released an actual statement about what had happened.

He could hear the news in the living room as he floated. It had been three days and they were still reporting about all the kids that had been rescued and how he was the star hero of the time. He couldn't help the smile on his face when he heard the families thank him and the kids saying how excited they were to meet him.

That was the feeling he needed to feel; the simple little thing of joy. It's what he had felt with the little girl from the bus and it was what he was feeling now. He felt stupid for not knowing that's what it was. Seeing and hearing the families being reunited with each other was wonderful, the feeling almost felt foreign to him. Sure, there were a lot of things he'd done in his time as Spider-Man that made him feel happy- but joy was on a different level completely.

"Come on Pete. Pizza's here." Clint called to him from the doorway.

"Be right out." He called back.

Joy was definitely something he could get used to.

Weeeeee okay. There it is.

I know it's a bit lack luster but this is the best way I could think of ending it without actual magic involved because whoa that would be a whole other can of worms I'm not ready to open yet. I hope I've cleared up any loose ends.

For the question of Is this before or after infinity war, really that's for you to decide. I'm living in my own world where it never happened and everyone's happy and living together like I wish they would.

Please point out any grammatical or spelling errors I've missed so I might fix them in the future! Leave a review so I feel like I'm loved and wanna post more stories!

Hope ya enjoyed it! See ya in the next one!