The next night Peter tried to be more cautious on his nightly patrol, as he knew the Avengers wouldn't stop until he joined them. But even with all his efforts he still found himself cornered by Captain America at 3am.

"I saw you save that girl from her attacker," he said from behind Peter.

"I already told Stark no." Steve came up and sat beside him.

"You fight well and with a bit more training you'd be a great addition to the team, Spider-Man," he said hopefully. Peter stood up and glared at him.

"Thank-you, but just because you compliment me a couple times doesn't erase how you've treated me in the past. The answer's still no, Mr. Rogers." Steve frowned, but didn't argue as Peter jumped off the roof. The Avengers were going to become a real problem if they kept approaching him every night. Peter shook his head as he swung towards the sound of sirens. He'd fought alongside the Avengers a couple times, but he mainly fought against them. It was usually a case of; oh, this bad guy robbed a bank and instead of sending him to jail, we'll just kill him. And, Peter just couldn't accept that. So he fought them and that's how he got his reputation as a vigilante. But, as much as he hates the Avengers, he can't say he hates them when they're themselves. When they're not playing their superhero roles. Peter had accepted an internship at Stark Industries almost a year ago and had worked his way up to become Tony Stark's personal intern. And, to be truthful, Mr. Stark wasn't a bad guy. It was when he put on the Iron Mansuit that whatever humanity was in him just seemed to disappear.

"Peter," his AI, Karen, snapped him out of his thoughts. He stood on top of a three story building, looking at the scene unfolding below. It was your classic bank robbery. Two bad guys, one getaway driver. The bank robbers are idiots and trip the silent alarm, they wave around guns, yada yada. Should be easy to round them up. Peter shot a web down at one of the guys guns.

"Nice gun dude!" he yelled as his web flung it upwards at him. He caught it and smiled. The two guys yelled out in surprise. Peter jumped down from the building and landed lightly on the concrete.

"Aw, two against one? Not fair," he complained, as he kicked one of the guys legs out from underneath him.

"Never skip leg day," Peter taunted as the man scowled at him. The other man pointed his gun at Peter's forehead.

"Come on man, it's not fair to bring a gun to a web fight," he said, easily swatting it away. The man rolled his eyes and dove for the gun.

"You bad guys and your guns, it's ridic-," he stopped himself mid-sentence as pain blossomed on his lower back. Peter let out a cry as he fell forward onto his hands and knees.

"Never bring webs to a knife fight," a new voice said from above him. He felt one more stab of pain, before he finally heard the screech of car tires then it was silent. Peter cursed silently. He had been stabbed multiple times. It was too much to fix up himself, but he couldn't go to the hospital.

"Ned," he muttered to himself, before slowly attempting to stand up. Peter winced as he covered as much as he could of his back in webbing.

"Peter, you should not be swinging right now. You need a hospital," Karen said worriedly.

"I'm fine, Karen," he said, swinging up onto the building beside him. Other than the fact that he almost swung right into most buildings he passed and he fell over on every one he attempted to land on, Peter thought he actually did okay getting to Ned's. He knocked loudly on his friends bedroom window.

"Please be awake," he muttered under his breath. The window opened and Peter almost collapsed inside.

"Peter are you- OH MY GOD!" Ned yelled.

"Ned shut up," Peter said, slurring his words slightly.

"Peter, you have four stab wounds in your back," Ned said, his eyes wide. Peter waved a hand.

"I'm fine. Can you fix me?"

"You need to go to the hospital, Peter," Ned said seriously. Peter glanced at him, seemingly fully aware.

"No hospital," he said, before promptly passing out.