Disclaimer: Characters belong to Marvel comics. I am not for profit.
"Hey, Toomes! Who is the guy who visits you every day? Is he reliable?"
Gargan was already getting suspicious, or maybe he was just being curious. The fault of this was Peter Parker, who had locked him up and was not happy with it and since he was the ex-boyfriend of his daughter Liz, he went to visit him every day when he left school. Something that not even his own family did, because they had cut off all communication with him and moved to Oregon. He never thought it would be like this, that Parker would become his only constant. If that kid wasn't Spiderman, he might even like him.
The inmates had taken him for an informant when they learned that Toomes had no sons, they mistakenly believed that Parker was their contact abroad and that he continued with the arms trade. In prison everything revolved around Spiderman and any news, rumor, photo, of the vigilante was paid at a good price. Gargan was obsessed with Spiderman since he locked him up. They all assumed that it was someone who was adult, responsible, of legal age. Nobody imagined he was Parker and Toomes was not willing to reveal that information to anyone, not even for favors, because he knew that if he did, the boy's family would be in danger, just like Parker. As a family man who put family above anything else, Adrian was unwilling to pay that price. It was one thing for him to fight the boy, something he detested and considered ridiculous, but he could control the force of his blows and thus prevent Parker from getting into trouble with people more dangerous than him. He would never let Parker find out about this, for Parker, Adrian had given everything in the fight they had on the coast.
Sometimes he and Parker would talk about the life of the vigilante. That is how Adrian had found out that Iron Man had recruited Spiderman to go fight Captain America. Adrian was stunned by fury as soon as Parker told him. He was really pissed off at how low Stark had fallen. Because, let's face it, Stark had always fallen low, but this was a new level. Even he, when he faced Spiderman as The Vulture, had warned Parker, several times, to stay away from his business, his family and him, to avoid a confrontation, because Parker was only fifteen at the time. He had done everything he could to dissuade him. But Stark was worse. Because Stark had personally come to the boy's house, knowing that he was a fourteen-year-old boy, to recruit him and fight against super soldiers, trained military personnel, who had weapons that they would use without hesitation, because Stark had had a tantrum and Rogers was not intimidated for him. All this without him answering Parker's questions, blackmailing him into telling Aunt May, giving him no information about why the conflict was, and leaving him no options available. The child could have died and Stark would have washed his hands because no one knew Parker was there! Because Parker shouldn't have been there! Parker could have been paralyzed like Colonel Rhodes! Having been frantic for Peter's safety, Adrian had been gathering information. He knew everything that had happened in the battle and who fought on which side. If Adrián had been free, he would have prevented the boy from attending, although he would have had to dress up as The Vulture and intervene in the fight. All the heroes needed a lecture on responsibility if they were to be in charge of an irresponsible boy hero.
Adrián did not know that a person could fall so low. Even he remembered when Uncle Ben died, Norman Osborn had always been there for Parker, being his father figure. But Adrián will never forget having attended the funeral and comforted him, attended the parents' meetings at school and talked to May. Adrian was never Parker's mentor, although Parker will always be like a son to him. What Stark had done to him was unforgivable!
The worst part was that after using him, Stark had thrown him away as if it was worthless. Although it was something that Adrian expected because he knew Stark and as much as he disguised himself as a hero and called himself Iron Man, he had not changed and would never change.
A suit does not define the man.
The problem was that Stark had become the idol of children and adolescents, including Parker. Adrian wasn't sure if Parker's idol was Iron Man, Captain America, or another of the Avengers. What he was sure of was that Stark had tricked Parker, because he had seen Parker tirelessly call out to Stark during the fight on the ferry, and even before, but Stark never responded.
Never meet your heroes, because they can disappoint you. Parker was checking it out personally, even though he was still in the denial stage.
Adrian didn't know why Parker visited him every day, but he wasn't going to complain. Sometimes Parker would send him cakes, letters, or other things that he might like. He never showed up empty-handed. The time Parker was with him, he was away from Stark and his irresponsibility. Parker was much better off without the Avengers and it was wise to get him away from them before they filled his head with their false morality about sacrifice. The boy was already walking in a Halloween costume in the middle of the street, solving crimes and getting involved with dangerous people, instead of leaving the job to the police!
The world was much better before The Avengers, if they continued without them, Parker could go back to a normal adolescence. How many children in the next few days, months, years, would imitate Parker if he found out that he is just a teenager, supported by Stark, fighting organized crime, the mafia? The child soldiers would return and Adrian would have to wonder every time he fought someone if he was a child or an adult.
Adrian knew what the government had done with The Black Widow and the Winter Soldier, just as they did with the Red Guardian. All of them heroes. All discarded when politics changed, norms changed, or when they no longer mattered. But Parker didn't see that, he only saw the heroics they had accomplished. The Vulture would never let Spiderman suffer the same fate as those vigilantes. It was Adrián's responsibility to protect the boy and for him to return to being a normal teenager now that he was still alive and living in freedom.
When Adrian escaped from jail with a plan that he and Gargan had worked out, that same night, he attacked the Avengers Tower, he knew that Spiderman would go to stop him as soon as he found out. He didn't mind fighting the Avengers. He didn't care that the world, including his family, knew it was him. He never imagined that the anti-avengers would applaud him. He wasn't representing any movement when he did, he was just protecting a child. But, apparently, he had left the message that the Avengers had enemies who were not afraid of them.