This is an Avengers/Amazing Spiderman/ Sherlock crossover.

Okay this is a little bit of a crazy idea but I tried writing nonetheless. It came to me because of the fact that Sherlock refers to Moriarty as a spider and my mind sort of jumped to Spider family! So in this Moriarty and Black Widow are Peter Parker's parents.

Tangled Webs

Peter Parker was devastated. He'd made a discovery. One he wasn't quite sure what to do with, and he honestly wished he could just forget all about it. If only his brain would have just let it rest.

It was after the whole incident with Dr. Connors and Oscorp had been settled, and his life had returned to a semi-normal routine. He'd finally had time to sit down and really examine his new DNA, in between his nightly activities as Spiderman of course. It was then that he discovered something that he really should have noticed earlier. But to his defense it wasn't something that had ever really come up before. He'd never needed a blood transfusion or ever taken the time to catalogue his own blood.

Peter's blood type didn't match his parents. So that either meant his mom hadn't exactly been faithful to his dad or he was adopted. Peter hadn't really known which one he would have preferred when he finally worked up the courage to ask his Aunt May if she knew anything about. Despite already having proof that his parentage was different than he thought it was he still wasn't ready for the story that Aunt May told him.

Peter was adopted. Richard and Mary Parker had adopted him while at a conference in Paris, France. Apparently they had run into his biological mother quite by accident. They'd gotten to know one another, and she ended up letting it slip that she was looking for a family to adopt her baby. She was young, the father wasn't in the picture, and she wanted to continue her ballet career or at least that's what his parents had told his aunt and uncle. They came to an agreement, and when Peter had been born his biological mother had signed over her parental rights to Richard and Mary. They returned to America, and his mother went on her way.

"What was her name?" Peter had asked in a daze.

"Talia Rochefort," Aunt May had answered.

She had been so supportive, and done her best to soften the blow. Peter had asked her next why she hadn't told him. Apparently his parents had left him instructions in their will that a letter was to be delivered to him at eighteen with the truth of birth, and his Aunt May and Uncle Ben hadn't wanted to go against his parents last wishes. But since he already knew Aunt May had decided to tell him what she knew.

After that painful conversation Peter spent the next couple of weeks soaring through the city as Spiderman to work through the sudden revelation. He spent a lot of time talking it through with his girlfriend, Gwen Stacie. Peter didn't know where he would be without Gwen. She was always there to talk through things with him, and really helpful with getting him through the initial shock. She even encouraged him to look up his birth mother. He didn't have to run off and meet her but maybe it would help settle his mind about her.

Peter did just that, and it hadn't gone like he expected it too.

"This can't be right," Peter mumbled to himself.

He'd done every type of search he could think of to find Talia Rochefort. Some that were probably not quite legal. He narrowed the results by narrowing down the age parameters, location, and profession. But there weren't any Talia Rocheforts that met the right requirements. Frustrated he flopped back on his bed. Well, there was noting a little time swinging through the city couldn't cure.

Peter eagerly changed into his red and blue suit before slipping out his window, and heading into the city. He swung for a few hours taking care of two muggings, and one drug store robbery. Inevitably Peter swung by Avengers Tower. Sometimes, when nights were slow, Peter would sit on an opposing building and watch what went on in the Tower. He felt a little bit like some creepy stalker but he couldn't help it that he was a tiny bit of a fan of the Avengers. After the first big alien invasion led by Loki, they'd all gone their separate ways for a year or so. Now they were all back, even Thor, and they all lived in Avengers Tower, and no matter the time of night they always seemed to be doing something crazy. It was like watching a free movie.

It did make Peter a little envious to see the way they all got along. They had each other's back on and off the battlefield, and Peter liked that. Of course it was his own fault that he didn't have anyone. SHIELD had tried numerous times to talk to him but Peter had avoided them at all costs. Peter was still wary of sharing his true identity with anyone. He also thought that they might protest his nightly activities if they found out he was only seventeen, and Peter didn't want to stop. He liked being Spiderman it made him feel useful that he was using his abilities in a way that his Uncle Ben would approve of.

Peter couldn't help but wonder if SHIELD could help him find his biological parents. He shook his head. Peter didn't need to find them. He'd had two sets of great parents. The only reason he might have needed to find them was for medical reasons but now that he was Spiderman he couldn't imagine him ever having any medical problems. Or at least that's what he kept trying to convince himself. A small part of him still wanted to know. Just to know who they were, and what kind of people they were.

Peter shoved the thought away, and focused on watching the scene in the penthouse common room. It looked like tonight was movie night. All of the Avengers, and their various friends were there. It looked like tonight's movie was part of the on-going Star Wars marathon. They were slowly working their way through all of the movies, and Peter settled in to watch a little bit with them.

Half way through the movie the wail of sirens had him regretfully jumping from the side of the building to follow them. The Avengers didn't really deal with the small time stuff, which was fine with Peter. Sometimes Captain America do a bit of patrolling and they had run into each other a couple of times. It had taken Peter some time to get over his hero worship to actually work with him but once he had he found that Captain America was just as awesome as everyone said he was.

After stopping a late night bank robbery Peter decided to head home, sore and tired but feeling a bit better about his personal problems. He fell into bed, and didn't really think any more about it.

The next morning was a Saturday, and he and Gwen headed over to a café Gwen liked for a late breakfast. The two of them commandeered a corner booth and set up shop. They did their homework between a discussion of Peter's night and his unsuccessful search for his mother.

"Maybe we could run your DNA through the Oscorp database?" Gwen offered.

"With my DNA I better not risk Oscorp getting their hands on it," Peter replied.

"Too bad we didn't have a sample from before you became bug boy," Gwen teased.

"Yeah, yeah joke all you want about my emotional trauma," Peter grinned.

"I am sorry that you couldn't find her, Peter," Gwen said softly.

"Hey, it's okay, it's not a big deal," Peter shrugged.

"It is a big deal, Peter, I mean these are your biological parents. Aren't you the least bit curious?" Gwen asked.

"Sure, for scientific reasons but Richard and Mary are my parents. Even Aunt May and Uncle Ben are more family than some unknown man and woman who just contributed their DNA," Peter glanced away.

"You're right, I'm sorry. Maybe we can—" Gwen was cut off when her phone rang. "And that would be my mother."

She answered, and it was her mother asking her to come home to watch her brothers. Gwen sighed and made her goodbyes. Peter should have gone with her but he felt like being alone for a moment because Peter had lied to her. He was curious about his biological parents. He wanted to know what they looked like, and what their interests were. Peter always thought he got his scientific mind from his dad but that wasn't the case. He didn't even think he wanted to meet them he just would have liked someone to give him a comprehensive file on their lives just so he could learn about them.

"Well, don't you look deep in thought. It's nice to see the younger generation so focused on their studies. Maybe there is hope for the future after all," commented a lilting voice.

Peter looked up to see a pair of brown eyes looking down at him. The man was in his mid-thirties with short, slicked back black hair, and a high forehead. He was a little on the short side, shorter than Peter, but the way he carried himself made him seem bigger than he really was. It was his confidence Peter thought. He wore a suit that wouldn't have looked out of place on Tony Stark, which meant it was probably worth thousands of dollars.

Peter gave a nervous chuckle. There was something about this man that had his spidey sense tingling in the back of his head. It wasn't reacting as harshly as it normally did when he was danger. It was more a muted hum in the back of his skull. It was as if it couldn't decide if this man posed an immediate dangerous or not.

"Yeah, uh, I like math," Peter replied lamely.

"Me too," the man enthused, and without an invitation he seated himself in Gwen's vacated spot in the seat across from Peter. "I was a math professor once. I couldn't stomach it for very long. The idiocy of my students made me want to blow things up," he told Peter blithely.

"Oh, well, idiots will do that to you," Peter sent him a forced smile.

The man, who could possibly be dangerous, just smiled and snatched Peter's unfinished math homework away from him. He began perusing the problems that Peter had already finished with an intense interest. When he was finished his intense brown eyes locked on Peter's for a moment before a huge, teeth bearing grin stretched across his face.

"Well done. Your work is flawless," the man sounded abnormally pleased by it as if he had personally taught Peter how to complete the equations.

"Thanks, so what's your name?" Peter asked even though he wanted nothing more than for the man to leave. Maybe then his spidey sense would go back to normal. It was beginning to give him a headache.

"Jim. Hi," the man, or Jim, waved.

"Nice to meet you, I'm Peter," Peter gave another awkward smile. "What brings you to New York?"

"Ah, what gave away that I wasn't a native? Was it the accent?" Jim teased.

"Something like that," Peter chuckled.

"I'm Irish, and I'm here for a little bit of business but mainly I came to meet up with some old friends of mine," Jim informed him.

"So what sort of business does a retired math professor do?" Peter questioned his gaze flickering over the man's perfectly ordered appearance. Something was very wrong about him.

Another shark-like smile stretched itself across Jim's face.

"You'd be surprised. But to be honest I came here to see you, Peter," his dark eyes were locked intently on his face all the while he toyed with Peter's pen.

Peter's eyes immediately darted towards the exits while also scanning the crowd in the café for possible threats.

"You're a smart boy, Peter. I'd say you get it from your father; although mummy was no dunce either," the man practically giggled. "But you don't have anything to be afraid of. I'm not going to hurt you. I'm going to give you the answers that you so desperately want about your birth parents."

Jim pulled several files of papers from the inside of his jacket. He set them on the table in front of Peter.

Peter glanced at them briefly before looking back up at Jim.

"What do you want from me?" Peter snapped.

"Nothing, my dear," Jim gave him over the top innocent look.

"Really? Then why would you just give me this information? How do even know about any of it?" Peter demanded.

A pleased look entered Jim's eyes. "I've been looking for you for a long time, Peter. I never wanted to give you up but your mother never gave me the chance. I know it will take a while for you to accept me but once you do realize the truth I would like to form a relationship between the two of us."

Peter felt dread fill the pit of his stomach. "Who are you?"

"Jim Moriarty, but you can call me daddy or dad if you prefer. You are almost eighteen now," the man grinned, and it really unnerved Peter the way that his grins never quite reached his cold, dead eyes.

"You? You're my biological? How?" Peter asked in disbelief.

"It's all in the file. Your mother was a spy for an unsavory organization. I myself was charge of my own unsavory organization. She was sent to eliminate the competition. I was able to deceive her into believing I was just a toady but that I could lead her to my boss. She pretended to be interested me, and I pretended to be interested in her. You were accidentally conceived. She ran from her organization and me. She left you with the Parkers in an attempt to hide you from my people and the people she worked for," Jim explained calmly.

Peter could only stare at him in utter shock.

"It's a lot to take in. When you're ready to talk more here's my number," Jim passed him a business card as he got smoothly back to his feet.

He shocked Peter further by leaning down to kiss Peter's forehead. "Daddy has a few things to take care of but we'll be seeing each other soon, Petey," he sing-songed.

Peter watched him go completely confused by the turn of events. His mind was racing with possibilities. Who was Jim Moriarty exactly? The business card in his hand read Jim Moriarty: Consulting Criminal with a number below it. Consulting criminal? What did that even mean?

Peter snatched up the files Jim had left, and he got out of there as fast as he could. Only once he was home did he do a search on Jim Moriarty. He found a bizarre story about a brilliant detective named Sherlock Holmes. He jumped off a roof after Jim had convinced everyone he was a fraud. Jim was apparently the leader of a vast underground criminal empire stretching across most of the world, and had wanted to get rid of Sherlock for solving all of his crimes. Of course all of this had only been discovered after Sherlock Holmes had committed suicide. But according to the article Jim Moriarty had shot himself in the head. He looked pretty alive to Peter.

His next job would be to tackle the file that Jim had given. He just wasn't sure he was ready to learn about his mother yet. What type of woman could she possibly have been to be an assassin for a criminal organization? She had cared enough to get Peter out of that lifestyle and give him to loving parents. But the important question was if she was still an assassin.

/

SHIELD was in a flurry of activity. Apparently there had been a sighting of someone from their top ten most want list in the city. Or least he had been until he'd been declared dead. But his walking around in broad daylight had disproved that. He'd already been apprehended and was being brought in to the Triskelion but Fury was briefing the Avengers anyway as something didn't quite seem right about any of this. Natasha Romanoff also known as the Black Widow waited calmly for the Director to give them the information.

"A little over an hour ago James Moriarty was apprehended leaving a café in the center of the city. For those of you who aren't familiar with Mr. Moriarty, he was the leader of a criminal empire that stretched to unknown corners of the world. His IQ is off the charts. He likes making games of killing people, and helps other people get away with murder. He's cunning, he's unpredictable, and he's ruthless. And we caught him far too easily. I don't like it," Fury muttered.

"Why are the Avengers being brought in on this? He's not a supervillian. He doesn't have superpowers or does he?" Stark asked.

"He was in charge of the largest criminal organization the world has ever seen before. Before it was dismantled after his supposed suicide. As far as we know his empire has just gone underground when he faked his death. He has nearly unlimited resources and manpower at his disposal. He's supplied weapons to terrorists, planned assassinations of key government officials, and funded serial killers for fun. Supervillian or not this man is not someone to take lightly, and we just caught him in our backyard," Fury growled.

"Why are we just hearing about him?" the Captain asked sternly, clearly already strongly disapproving of Moriarty due to his association with terrorists.

"Until now Moriarty has been strictly a European problem since that was his main base of power. Then a little over a year ago it was believed he blew his brains out on a rooftop in the effort to thwart a man who challenged him. I had it from a reliable source that he was in fact dead. We don't have any idea how he's alive," Fury explained.

"Sir, they're here," Maria Hill suddenly pointed out.

Fury switched on the screen and the Avengers watched the criminal being escorted down the hall with a bit more interest than they had before. After all the man had an impressive record even he had a rather forgettable face.

Natasha, however, would never forget that face. She just hadn't realized he was connected to the name Moriarty. She recognized the man, and he was someone who should have been dead for eighteen years now.

I was kind of going with the idea that Moriarty was a mutant with regenerative abilities which is how he faked his death since he would have been able to survive a bullet wound to the head. Also Moriarty was posing as his own underling and Natasha was sent to get close to him in order to get close enough to his boss to take out the competition, not really knowing that Moriarty was in fact the boss. So yeah its a little strange but I might add more to it at a later date. Or I might try a different approach.

For those interested I have decided to continue Incendio, the first one, you can find it on my profile. It will be a two part story and half of it is already completed.

And these stories have been adopted:

The Black Secret has been adopted by Polaris Aries Black and it is under the same title

The Reluctant Lycanthrope has been adopted by I am Sirius and it is under the same title

Along Came a Spider has been adopted by robert32514 but it has not yet been posted