Chapter Thirty-Five: Peter Discovers That Walls Freaking HURT (And So Do Small Armies)

As the long metal spear displaced the air over him with a frighteningly fast swish, Peter had to wonder about the why of this fight. Even as he flipped back to his feet with a rapidly executed back walkover, his mind analyzed the angles. Kraven was one to hunt, hence the title of "the Hunter," his whole deal was killing endangered and rare species. Which, one, man, not cool, and two, he seemed to consider spider-human hybrids within this category. So not cool. Long story short, a bank robbery was not his usual scene. But here he was, trying to skewer himself some Spidey and further decorating his poor, beat-up costume in rips.

"Hey!" the hero yelped as the electrified spear caught on the fabric of his upper arm. The energy sent an unpleasant tingle down the limb, but the scratch wasn't enough to warrant any major concern. "I just fixed that tear! C'mon, man!"

"Hold still, spider!" was Kraven's only angry reply. The thick-built man whirled around with his weapon, leading Spider-man in a rapid dance across the front of the bank. The money laid forgotten near the doorway and cemented the hypothesis that the shirtless man wasn't there for the cash at all. "I will have your head!"

"No, I still need that!" the youth shot back. The spearpoint shot towards his goggles and almost nicked their glass before he was able to slide fluidly out of its range. A glob of webbing made itself known over Kraven's eyes while a line attached to the flying spear, swinging it around blunt-side first towards the ridiculous lion-skin vest he sported. Unfortunately, there was a reason the Hunter was so hard to beat, a fact that became apparent as he ripped the webs from his face and caught the pointed pole with his other hand. Solid metal boots shuffled into a ready position as Kraven faced Spider-man again. "So, Krav-y, what's up? Why ya want me here so bad? Aww, did you really miss me that much?"

The older grunted like the animals he took so much joy in killing and Spidey took up his own stance, lighter, balanced on the balls of his feet. "I have not missed you or your mouth, pest." The spear was planted firmly in the concrete and two feet were meeting a scrawny chest before Spidey could heed his spider-sense or move more than a foot down out of the way. As it was, he was struck in the chest instead of the head, flying back with the force and through one of the columns that supported the front roof of the building.

"Owwwwww…" The groan trailed off as the teen opened his eyes – when had they closed? – to stare up at two feet amidst the pieces of light stone from the pillar his body had just obliterated. "Oh, hey."

The Black Widow stared back down at him with one climbing eyebrow. "Hey yourself."

If the boy squeaked as he scrambled to his feet, none of the other gathered Avengers said anything. "Sorry Ag—I mean, Black Widow. Sorry."

"You said he had this handled?" Iron Man said from her right, boots meeting the ground with a clank.

"I did!" Spider-man snapped around to him. "You just came in during the bad part."

"Uh-huh?"

"Ya-huh." From the corner of his eye, the arachnid could see movement from his opponent and suddenly slung a web-net at Kraven, wrapping him up like a Christmas present. The man almost faceplanted on the ground before he could free himself with his spear, rushing at his prey in a rage. Though, what else was new? "Welcome back to the party, Kraven, enjoy your break?" Duck under the kick, deflect the punch, sweep of the legs, and uppercut! "You're not gonna get another one!" Still reeling from the superpowered hit, Spidey was pretty sure he hadn't even realized that Hawkeye had snuck up behind him with an arrow nocked. Captain America had disappeared somewhere with Iron Man and Thor, Hulk hadn't been there in the first place – which was very good for everyone, Kraven especially – and Widow was standing there with… uh… that was Kraven's spear…

Spider-man was now very afraid for Kraven's life.

He parried one more hit away from his body before getting the heck outta Dodge as the hawk's blunted arrow struck the back of the hunter's head in the same moment that the elder spider decided to show off just how well she could use a spear. The result, entertainingly enough, was that the well-built man's body made an abrupt pivot so that it was parallel with the ground, causing him to smack his head on the ground. Reluctantly, the boy stuck Kraven to the ground securely with a double layer of spiderwebs just to be safe. "It's a shame, it would've been fun to watch him get beat up some more." The dark-haired man just groaned defiantly. "Dang, man. How are you still conscious?"

"Kraven will not be beaten by you, spider, or some woman."

Webbing effectively blocked any more conversation as Spidey sighed. "How 'bout you keep your sexist mouth shut?"

"Defending my honor?" Widow smirked. "How gentlemanly."

"Preeeetty sure you don't need it, but you are welcome." He gave a little bow at the waist, smiling under his mask as Hawkeye retrieved his arrow from where it fell, polishing the head on his pants for a moment. Glancing around, the teenager found that the Captain had been communing with the police squad that had showed up. Tony Stark ambled around outside of his suit, looking bored out of his mind and alternately kicking pieces of broken pillar and adding what must have certainly been snarky comments to the discussion. Coming out of the bank was Thor, who was talking animatedly to a crowd of kids, illustrating something that included a loud explosion. "If you don't mind me asking, why are almost all the Avengers here? Couldn't be for little ol' Krav-y."

"Contingencies, just-in-case situations, and whatever other reason Cap' could come up with," the blonde with the bow put in. "I kinda think he was just bored."

"Old men have their hobbies," Spider-man consoled with a wider grin and a pat on his shoulder as he walked past. With the man's snickering following him, the younger approached the police officer, who seemed quite starstruck to be talking to Captain America. "Ahoy there Cap'n!"

"I think you have the wrong type of captain, Spider-man," he answered, but not without a small smile.

"How are things, officer?"

"G-good, Spider-man." The poor guy looked like he was about to pass out from superhero-exposure. "We'll have Kraven in custody in minutes. Nothing was stolen."

Spidey's previous grin shrank a bit at the reminder of the mystery of the crime. "And therein lies the problem," he mumbled to himself.

"Huh?"

"Nothing." It was short and out of character and he knew they both were looking at him oddly because of it, but he swung away anyway with an almost casual yank of his arm. Shooting a glance backwards, he almost met Kraven's eyes as the criminal watched him go with a razorblade gaze. Something was off about the whole situation and it was sending shivers of anticipation up his spine. Almost his spider-sense, but not quite. The boy wheeled around in the air to head towards an empty alley, landing on the wall a few feet above the ground to let out a deep breath. Almost immediately after he'd done so, a resounding clap rang around him like a gunshot, startling him off the wall in a flurry of motion. Instinctively, Spider-man flung out a clenched fist towards the culprit that stopped not a centimeter away from a delicate nose as he abruptly realized the person's identity.

Hiro's leafy eyes peered around his hand at him and he carefully raised one eyebrow. "Hullo." At the singular word, the New Yorker jumped back into a much less aggressive stance and yanked his arm back to his side, flustered.

"Dangit, Hiro! You can't just do that!"

"Sor-ry!"

"It just—it sounds like a gunshot! Like a freaking gun!"

"You're the one who's all jumpy!"

"I should be jumpy! I'm the one who gets shot at daily!"

"Okay, okay!" the raven-haired teen placated with both his hands raised. "I'll work on it! I don't know if it's possible, but I'll try!"

"Good!" They looked at each other, one in a colorful vigilante's garb and the other hiding beneath his own hood, clothed in greys and blacks. When the corner of Hiro's mouth began to twitch upwards in an involuntary smile, neither could hold in a round of quiet chuckles. "Sorry."

"Eh, it's alright," Hiro waved off, shrugging.

Peter ran a hand through his hair and sighed. "It's just this thing… with Kraven. It's weird. He's 'the Hunter'…"

"And he's not the type to go robbing banks willy-nilly," the other finished frustratedly. "You did say he was dab hand at the hunting thing, so why would he change?"

"Yeah, and I know from experience." The brunet purposefully ignored the darker expression that overcame his friend's face at that statement. Hiro himself chose to occupy his hands by tapping his center finger rapidly against his thigh, finding a less destructive method of getting the energy out than tracking Kraven down and punching him in the conk. Which would've been extremely satisfying for the magical teenager. "The only reason I can think of is funding, if he ran out of money to buy… whatever it is he needs… to hunt things…" his words petered out at the end as the superhero lost what he was saying.

"Hunting supplies? Traps and such?"

"Yes, that! But… then that whole theory is debunked by the fact that Kraven didn't even take any money. Just kinda blew a hole in the wall and started fighting me."

"And the Avengers," the boy wizard added, and his nose twitched like he had an itch he refused to scratch. Which was probably one of the most adorable things in the world, according to his friend. "What were those nutters doing there anyway?"

If Peter had been drinking anything, he would have spit it out. "Did you just call the world's premier superhero team crazy?!"

"They're the world's only superhero team." Hiro paused, considering something. "Well, there's you too, but you're also a nutter."

"Hey! Wait, but doesn't that also make you crazy for hanging around me?"

"Well, yes, but we already knew that."

"… point."

"You sound like Stark, but speaking of points, back to mine," he reminded the other boy.

Peter clapped his hands together. "Right. Hawkeye said something about Captain America being bored and just-in-case scenarios, but I'm not sure. I mean, I believe the just-in-case part – even though I'm kinda-sorta offended at their lack of faith in moi – but other than that, it was just Krav-y."

"Plus you, plus explosives," the Brit counted on his fingers before looking up. "And thanks to that crusty old newsreader Jameson, you don't have the best reputation for being able to handle things."

"Aw, you'd think they'd trust me after the Battle," he pouted. Hiro just smiled at him.

"You're a lot more talkative as Spidey, you know that?"

"Maaaaybe."

"Hmm."

"Okay, maybe more than maybe." Hiro's nose twitched again, this time accompanied by him pressing his lips together in a familiar motion of suppressed laughter, and Peter scored a point for himself in his head. In the alley, the two stood alone in the "silence" of the city, that being the usual buzz and hum of everyday people going about their everyday lives. It all blended together into background noise uninterrupted except in their backstreet bubble where they spoke to each other and… a tapping…

To the right…

And the left…

"Something's coming," the spider bit out, his hand suddenly grasping the mage's arm. A switch was flipped in both of them, eyes that once sparked with humor and their companionship now sharpened, focused into awareness of a fight and protection. Companionship to protection. It wasn't an overly large leap, more of a slight, serious transfer. Spider-man let go of the arm as both sunk into stances, his fists up and the black-haired boy's hands loosely aimed.

"Where?"

"Left, right, everywhere."

"How many?"

"Can't tell."

A clink… clink… clink echoed through the alley from the left opening and two heads whipped around to see Kraven the Hunter strolling down the asphalt like he hadn't just been arrested. The tip of his spear went from touching the ground every so often to dragging with a soft rrrr sound that set one's nerves on edge.

Spidey lifted a gloved hand to point at the large man. "Didn't I just beat you up? This feels like déjà vu…"

"Ah, spider," came the accented greeting. "Just like cornered prey to stall their coming death." The hunter's eyes halted on Hiro. "And you've found a friend. This will make things much more interesting."

Behind the goggles, brown eyes narrowed as he shifted in front of his aforementioned friend, who seemed slightly affronted but allowed it. "What was that about my coming death, Krav-y? 'Cause I think you're just headed for another beatdown."

"Not this time, spider," Kraven assured him as his ugly grimace turned into a malicious grin. "Not this time."

"Okay, the first time you said it, it was just like all the other bad guys I end up beating anyway, but the second time it was just creepy." Something scuttled on the edge of his senses. It was metallic. It was getting closer. Behind him, Hiro tensed, then – in a burst of motion – ducked around the costumed vigilante and flung a red-colored beam of light at the villain in front of them. It was right on target – until it wasn't, and it hit a metal figure that had dropped before Kraven not a second too late.

A robot.

Of all things, a robot. The form was entirely metallic, though not huge enough to overtake the man it protected. It was still taller than both the teenagers, with empty eye-sockets and wires running inside the metal layers of its limbs. And it wasn't alone. More emerged, running in vaguely jerkily from the ends of the alley or jumping down from the rooftops around. They were rapidly surrounded. Well, at least now he knew what the tapping was from earlier, the random sounds he heard in the background of the background noise.

"Dammit," Hiro growled. "They're mechanical, stunners won't knock them out."

"Yep, got that," Spider-man murmured back. "Now what?"

"You die!" Kraven yelled and launched himself at them faster than his mechanical compatriots could react, though they weren't far behind. As he flew towards them as a lioness on her prey, the humanoid pieces of tech ran forwards like a wave, both parties intent on the two boys in their midst. Though, they weren't exactly willing to go quietly.

At the same moment that Spidey shot his first webline, a different colored spell jumped from Hiro's waiting fingertips in a sharp, thin swath that scythed through the first line of 'bots. Ten fell down, cut cleanly in half, and he whirled around to put a hole through the processing core of another while his brunet vigilante friend finished untangling his hand from where it had gotten stuck in a form's spindly ribcage, fist full of wires. It was a blur, occasionally interrupted by the all but forgotten Hunter's spear, though the man himself was nowhere in sight, that almost stuck one of them through the stomach, but more often than not took out one of the robots instead.

The third time the metal rod flew in from out of the clear blue sky – though the actual sky was more smoggy than blue – Spider-man had practically fallen off the mini-mech he was riding in order to tackle Hiro out of the way. The fourth time, it missed entirely and impaled a twitching technological minion to a solid stone wall. The fifth time, he noticed the widening of Hiro's eyes before his spider-sense could even begin to give him another headache. That time, he knew it was too late.

He had a half-destroyed 'bot wrapped around one leg.

His hand had gotten stuck in another one, again.

He couldn't move fast enough, and he knew it.

"Protego Maxima!"

Thunk. Clank! Whump. CLA-CRUNCH.

But it seems he didn't have to.

Though this was a really awkward position…

Even with his goggles shoved halfway-too-far up his face and forcing his eyes shut, Peter could make a pretty good assumption as to what had happened: Hiro casts weird magic spell. Weird magic spell stops spear. And… well, he wasn't sure what those third and fourth sounds had been, but he was on the ground now. He tried to pry his arm out of whatever was holding it down to no success. A different hand came up – fingers still thin, skin still callused, but in different places – and lifted his lenses at the bridge of his nose, poking his eye in the process. "Hey!"

"Sorry!" Hiro's voice came filtering back, and Peter relaxed a little. He allowed his friend to gingerly replace the upper part of his disguise over his peepers before he dared open them. When he did… at least now he could see why his arm was stuck. His raven-haired buddy was laying on it, though to be honest, it looked like he was more on top of Hiro than Hiro was on top of him. His black-clothed legs were on the other's back and his arm was stuck under Hiro's stomach while the rest of the half-blind Englishman was buried under what appeared to be a passed-out Kraven the Hunter. Littered around them and the alley were the carcasses of robots, most of which seemed to have been previously webbed, magicked, or just ripped/punched/kicked apart, but a few that looked like they'd been squished between the building's wall and an invisible wall that was now… gone. Weird.

"Is Kraven out for good?" was the first question out of his mouth.

The other teenager huffed in a way that reminded Peter of when he was a cat. "Thank you, Hiro. I'm so glad you were here to save me from that spear, Hiro. I'm sorry for yelling at you earlier, Hiro."

"Come on, you said we were good!"

"…"

"Okay, thank you. And I'm sorry. Happy?"

"Quite chuffed, actually. Our mutual friend is indeed out for the count. Now, can you help me get this bloke offa me? He's bloody heavy."

"Hmmm," the arachnoid hummed smugly, "I don't know, I'm pretty comfy where I am." With Hiro practically on top of his chest? Yes, he was going to savor this for as long as possible before they went back to "friends-who-share-the-same-alley-at-night" and he was forced back to the occasional glance and half-side-hug. "You make a wonderful footrest." But apparently, Peter's brain was not connected to his mouth at the moment.

"Well I'm glad my back is such a lovely place to stick your dirty shoes," he grumbled. "Now, in the eternal words of Ron Weasley: Geroff!" With quite a bit of shuffling, and probably an excessive amount of awkwardness, they managed to untangle themselves from each other and as Peter shoved the Hunter limply off Hiro, the two stood up practically nose-to-nose. The raven was the first to move away even as Peter gave him a strange look, then started to web up all the robots, giving Kraven an thicker cocoon than he had the last time at the bank. A wood-ish sounding clatter led Hiro to his somehow unbroken stick, though his tinted glasses had a spiderweb-crack arcing across one of the lenses, and of course he saw the irony in that description. The fractures didn't impede his awful vision anymore than usual, so he placed them back on the bridge of his nose and squinted through them at a nearby, disembodied robot arm. "Care to explain perhaps why we were ambushed by bloody robots and Kraven the Hunter?"

Peter grunted through his facemask as he shifted a robot with a fist-shaped hole so it looked like it was sitting against the wall, catching Hiro's strange – and most likely unflattering – hissing language in the background after he kicked one with a resounding clang and a muffled yelp of pain. "You good?"

"Yeah, yeah."

The brunet stood up with a sigh. "I don't know. But somebody else has to have built those 'bots. Kraven definitely couldn't" He could feel the shorter of the two drifting up like a breeze over his shoulder, but he still flinched when the hand fell on his arm.

"That complicates things. If they're after Spider-man…"

"We might have to lay low for a little."

"Can't get much lower than the streets."

Alternately titled "Natasha Romanoff Is A Badass And Everyone Knows It."

Also, I am very, very sorry for the terrible fight scene I wrote in the alley. It was awful and everybody knows it. But I think a terrible update is better than none, yes? And this one contains plot elements, ooooo!

In other news, HOLY FLARKING CANNOLI! 236 reviews, 582 followers, 423 favorites, over 86,600 words as of this chapter, and 98,502 views! That's almost 100,000 views! I never expected anything like this when I began posting. I expected a couple people, not this absolutely stunning response! I cannot thank all of you enough!

But in all seriousness, I have to apologize for disappearing on y'all. This is why I use phrases like "should" instead of "will" when talking about my schedule. Unfortunately, I have some not-so-great news for you readers. You all know how my updates went from twice a week to once a week. Now, I'm finding that I can't keep up with a once-a-week schedule and the only reason I could even last this long on either schedule is because I had a bunch of pre-written chapters. Like, twenty-ish of them and then I wrote more even as I posted.

I could give you so many paragraphs of excuses about how I haven't had as much time to write and how life is conspiring against me (IT IS I SWEAR), but I'll just give you this:

I will NOT abandon this story. I will NOT discontinue this story. It WILL finish, it just might take longer because I absolutely refuse to give you guys a rushed or cruddy chapter (or at least not cruddier than usual). You do not deserve that.

I can't apologize enough that I have to do this, but I'm out of both options and chapters. I literally just finished this one not an hour ago. I know I'm a slow and occasionally terrible writer, but I do my absolute best with everything I write. There might be weeks or even a month in between chapters, but I will continue to update, just not on a solid schedule.

Once again, I am so, so, so unbelievably sorry for this. As I said in my previous A/N, I truly don't deserve your support, but it makes me so happy to be providing something you all enjoy so much.

I'll see you next time with another chapter, I promise. Thank you all for your continued support. (Sorry for the super long A/N as well)

Lucky

To ellainaparker: Aw, so much misplaced confidence! But thank you, I try my best.

To twilightserius: Hope that wasn't too anticlimactic for you, but hey, Pete and Hiro made it first!

To winfield56: Hey! XD But you're welcome, though I must thank you for reading!

To Merlin (Guest): Okay, sorry for that. The Avengers know Spider-man (but not Peter Parker) and Hiro (as a cat and very briefly as a magic British boy with a shorter haircut who showed no signs of having eyesight issues). Now they're met with Peter Parker (who shows no real connection Spider-man) and Harry (who has a new haircut and is half-blind with glasses and a walking stick). They haven't yet made the connections that Peter is Spidey's secret ID and that "Harry" is actually "Hiro." I know it's a stretch and I'm not the best with this, but the Avengers basically are unaware of the all the secret ID shenanigans that are going on right now. They'll get it eventually…

To Silvermane1: No, unfortunately not right now… =( But I was considering having him play a role in the future… we'll see. Tell me what you think.

To Sly the gratsulover117: Thank you! This is why my Spidey doesn't follow one canon background, so that I can pick all the pieces out that I want to add to the story and not have to worry about any extra details that don't jive with the story. It gives me more freedom as a writer, which is always fun to play with!

To Lockolocka: Oh gods of Olympus, you have no idea how happy these things make me! You're amazing and funny and yes, your reviews are still too long for the email! And really, I found like one or two short oneshot-ish stories with the Peter/Harry pairing and then I was like "This needs better representation, it's adorable and has so much potential" coupled with some fangirl cooing on the background… because, well, me. Honestly, most of my reason for writing this story is to write cute moments and comfort moments and all the fun Avengers-in-the-Tower stuff you don't get to see anymore because the fandom dissolved into sad things after Civil War and Infinity War and Endgame. I'm in flarking love with it all. Hope you liked more BAMF Natasha in this chapter! And yes! OSP is the one YouTube channel I follow consistently, and have you seen their Redbubble merch site? It rocks! (Redbubble's just a site where people can sell their art and/or fanart on stuff like shirts and stickers and junk if you didn't know, look it up. I have way too many shirts from them, including a Midtown Tech shirt from Homecoming.) Anyways, thank so much once again!