Sorry for the mixup with chapters.

That night, Peter tells Darwin all about what happened to him after he left the party, and Darwin finds himself wholeheartedly agreeing with Stark.

'Oh, please stay away from the flying Vulture guy,' Darwin thinks as he watches Peter slip the damaged weapon into his backpack the next morning, 'You should not be getting involved in this. You chase car thieves and stop muggers- you're not ready for this!'

Despite agreeing with Stark on this matter, he also feels the man is slightly to blame for this happening. He gave the suit to Peter to protect him, but in doing so he also legitimized his Spider-Man activities so now the boy thinks he's some sort of young Avenger instead of a teenage vigilante with hardly any experience. He has no business getting involved in tracking down weapons dealers, especially not alien weapons dealers.

But what can Darwin do?

The dog watches with anxiety tugging at his heart as Peter disappears into school that day. He spends the next few hours in a constant state of worry, pacing around.

'They don't know what that thing is, they shouldn't be messing around with it!' Darwin thinks, 'It smells wrong! It looks wrong! It-'

At least Peter doesn't feel like he's in any danger throughout the school day. Curious and suspicious, but none of the emotions he feels when he's about to go into a fight.

The bell suddenly rings and a wave of students exit the building. Darwin jumps up onto the concrete railing he sat on the first time he followed Peter to school. He peers over the heads of students, a few of which pat him on their way out, but he can't spot his boy. Thirty minutes go by and soon there are only a handful of students lingering around. Still no Peter. Through their bond, he can feel the boy lingering inside of one of the classrooms.

Darwin is about to hop off the railing when he spots two suspicious-looking men in the parking lot. They're obviously not students nor the parents of some and they glance around furtively to see if anyone is watching. Darwin frowns and hops off the railing, quietly approaching them as they walk towards the back entrance of the school.

"You sure it's here, man?" One of them asks, "It's a high school."

"It's where the readings led me," the other grunts. He's holding some sort of device.

Darwin stalks silently behind them as they enter the school. He cautiously sniffs the air and his eyes widen. 'They smell like the weapon! They must be the dealers Peter is looking for! I need to find him, that weapon is gonna lead them straight to him!'

The two men turn down another hallway and Darwin follows, keeping a safe distance between them. His bond with Peter starts to become more faint, so he knows the boy must be close. The men pause, glance down at the device that one is holding, and then enter a classroom. Darwin waits a moment before following.

There are stairs leading down into a basement-looking area full of engineering equipment. 'This must be Peter's shop class,' Darwin thinks, peeking his head into the room. He watches from atop the stairs as the two men begin rummaging around the room.

A tug on his tail nearly has him flinching out of his skin. Whirling around, he sees Peter staring at him with wide eyes.

"Darwin!" He hisses almost inaudibly, "Get out! Go away!" He tries to push past the dog, but Darwin stubbornly stands in his way.

'I won't let you get yourself killed!'

Peter begins to grow angry with him and wraps his arms around him, ready to heave him away, but the voice of one of the men has them both freezing.

"Can you imagine what the boss would say if he knew where we were?" One man says.

The other replies as he waves the device he's holding over the table, "It's saying there was an energy pulse right here."

Darwin blinks, and the next thing he knows, Peter has slipped past him and is down the stairs. 'Peter!'

The boy slips his backpack off and crawls under a table.

"There's no sign of the weapon," the first man says, "And even if it was here, now it's gone."

"So are we," the second man says, turning towards the door.

Darwin pulls his head back quickly and holds his breath. 'Please don't find Peter, please don't find Peter, please don't find Peter,' he thinks.

There's a moment of silence, and then Darwin hears the click of a gun holster. Heart leaping to his throat, Darwin hops into the room and lets out a bark.

Both men flinch and stare at him. One has his hand on his gun attached to his hip.

"What the fuck?" One man says.

Putting on his best innocent expression, Darwin trots down the stairs and stops in front of them. He sits down and scratches his ear with his hind leg.

"It's a dog," the first man says.

"I know what a dog looks like, Randy!" The man with the gun snaps. To Darwin's relief, he takes his hand off the weapon. "I'm just surprised there's a dog in a goddamn high school."

"Maybe it belongs to one of the kids."

There's a flicker of movement and Darwin glances to the side to see Peter clinging to the underside of a table. His wrist is out and the dog watches as he shoots a tiny robotic spider at one of the men's shoes.

'A tracker,' Darwin thinks.

"Let's get outta here, man."

The two men quickly leave and Peter lets out a sigh of relief, crawling out from underneath the table.

"That was way too close," he says. He then frowns and glances at Darwin. "Wait, why were you following them in the first place?"

Darwin lets his tongue loll and tilts his head innocently.

Peter fills in Ned on what happened as they walk back to the apartment. His friend listens with wide eyes and grabs Peter's arm.

"Dude!" He exclaims, "Dude, he could be, like, your spy dog!"

Peter blinks. "What."

"A spy dog!" Ned repeats, "I mean, he's already like crazy smart for a dog, and nobody would suspect a dog to be a spy- you said those guys didn't try to hurt Darwin or anything. If you ever need to spy on someone, you could, like, send Darwin after them with, like, uh, a recording device or something, and even if he's spotted, no one will suspect a thing!"

He seems proud of himself, but Peter doesn't look impressed.

"Ned," he says, "I don't need a dog to spy on people, I already have tracking devices." Ned's face falls and Peter adds, "Besides, that was way too close. I don't want to put Darwin in any more dangerous situations." He puts his hand on the dog's head and Darwin wags his tail, licking his hand reassuringly.

It's Friday, so May lets the boys stay up late. They spend the night keeping an eye on a hologram, displaying a map of the city and where the tracking device is going. It goes for a few hours and Darwin begins to feel less anxious.

'Maybe if they go far enough, Peter won't be able to go after them,' he thinks.

He puts his head on Peter's lap as the boy does his homework at his desk. Eventually, though, he's finished with that and is looking for something else to entertain him. Usually, he spends a few hours after school patrolling before doing his homework, eating, and then going to sleep. He didn't patrol today, however, so now he has extra time on his hands.

Eventually, he settles for curling up on the bottom bunk with Darwin, tapping away at his phone. Darwin sighs happily, breathing in his boy's scent as he rests his head on his chest.

'This is nice,' he thinks, 'With Ned finding out about Spider-Man, Liz's party, and now this weapons dealer stuff, it seems like Peter has barely had any time to cuddle with me. He must be so stressed.'

Lifting his head, he gives the boy a big wet lick on his face. Peter grimaces and pushes his muzzle away with a snort.

Suddenly, Ned says, "They stopped."

Peter perks up and peers at the hologram. "Mayland?"

"What's there?" Ned asks.

"I don't know. Evil lair?"

"They have a lair?"

Peter gives him an incredulous look. "Dude, a gang with alien guns run by a guy with wings. Yeah, they have a lair."

Ned nods, pleased. "Badass. But how are you gonna get there if it's, like, 300 miles away?"

They both turn and look at an Academic Decathlon poster. Peter smirks, fueling Darwin's anxiety. "It's not too far from D.C."

"Think they'd let you back on the team?" Ned asks.

Peter shrugs and replies, "It's not like I ever quit, I just said I wouldn't be able to make it to the competition. I could just show up tomorrow and see if they'd let me come along."

"Yeah," Ned says, "The competition's on Sunday, so once everybody's settled down in the hotel on Saturday night, you can sneak out and check out these bad guys."

Peter agrees, then glances at Darwin. "I'm not sure if they'd let me bring Darwin," he says, "I mean, it's a school trip. It's a long bus ride and I don't know if the hotel is dog friendly and then I'm gonna be going out as Spider-Man and-"

"Relax, man," Ned reassures him, "You two can spend a weekend away from each other."

Peter looks less confident. "I don't know, I haven't really been apart from him ever since I got him. What if he freaks out while I'm gone?"

"Then it's a good thing it's the weekend and May will be home."

Peter hesitates, looking down at the dog. Darwin gives him his best puppy eyes and thinks, 'Please, don't leave me.'

Sighing, Peter looks up at Ned with a determined expression.

"Alright, let's go."

'Crap.'

Darwin considers following Peter and Ned to DC, but that plan is ruined when May tells the boys, "Oh, don't worry about Darwin. We'll be having fun all weekend long! Isn't that right, baby?"

Despite the stream of curses in his head, Darwin licks her hand in response.

'Okay, this isn't ideal, but this isn't awful,' he thinks after Peter leaves the next day, 'They're only going to an Academic Decathlon competition while carrying an alien weapon core and running a side mission of tracking down arms dealers. What's the worst that could happen?'

Apparently, the worst that could happen is the weapon core exploding in the Washington Monument.

Of course, the news anchors don't mention the core being the cause of the explosion, but he knows that Peter's team was going to go there after their competition, so it must be the cause. Spider-Man isn't far behind, and Darwin watches with anxiety as the vigilante climbs higher and higher before breaking into a window at the top and slipping inside. Many tense minutes later, the news anchor announces that Spider-Man saved an Academic Decathlon team from Queens.

Darwin isn't the only one riddled with anxiety. May watches the news with tears in her eyes, frantically calling the school and Peter repeatedly. Once she gets word of their safe return to school, she grabs her keys and her purse and says, "Let's go, Darwin!"

It took awhile for the bus to drive the team back, so when they arrive at the school it's night time. All around, families are reuniting with their children, worried parents weeping despite their children being okay. Peter repeatedly reassures May that he's alright, but he feels exhausted and conflicted. Darwin pads up to him and licks his hand and the boy hugs his head.

"Mom," someone says behind him and he glances over his shoulder.

A few feet away, Liz is being embraced by a woman, her mother presumably. A moment later, a familiar face appears and Liz smiles. "Hey, dad."

Mr. Toomes hugs her and Darwin wags his tail. He looks different since the last time they saw each other. Older, of course, given that it's been a few years.

'I wonder if he'd recognize me,' Darwin thinks.

"C'mon, bud," Peter says, snapping him out of his thoughts. Darwin turns around and follows him back to the car, getting ready for the drive home.

Later, once they're back in the apartment and Peter is in bed, he whispers excitedly to Darwin about what happened.

"I've totally got it figured out, buddy," the boy whispers, "The guy with the wings must be stealing stuff from Damage Control to make the weapons. All I gotta do is catch him and Mr. Stark will definitely make me an Avenger! And since he's moving the base upstate, I can kiss high school goodbye!"

Darwin gives a low grumble in response. It definitely doesn't sound positive, but somehow Peter takes it as a sound of agreement.

"Don't worry," he says, "I'll definitely bring you with me."

'Of course you will,' Darwin thinks, 'I let you out of my sight for one day and you go and blow up the Washington Monument! Sheesh! And, yeah, you can kiss high school goodbye when you get expelled for ditching the decathlon nationals!'

Peter doesn't get expelled, but he does get detention when he goes to school on Monday. Darwin waits outside, wondering what's taking him so long, but Peter eventually returns with a disgruntled look on his face.

"Sorry I'm late, 'Win," he says, "Got detention, but I snuck out. C'mon, I've got bad guys to catch."

Darwin stares at him incredulously. 'Is this how parents feel when they realize they've raised a delinquent?'

May's not in the apartment when they get home, which pleases Peter. He goes to his room and puts on his Spider-Man mask. Despite Peter having mentioned Karen the night before, Darwin is still surprised to hear a small voice coming from the mask.

"Listen, I was wondering if you could help me," Peter says, "I'm trying to figure out who the guys under the bridge were that night, but I mean, I can only kind of remember part of the license plate."

Karen responds and Darwin watches them converse for a few minutes. He snorts at the 'Baby Monitor Protocol' and Peter's impressions in the mirror. He remembers Peter doing them on one Saturday morning when May wasn't home. It seems like ages ago.

"Aaron Davis, huh?" Peter says, "Let's pay him a visit."

The sound of keys jingling in the front door startles them both. Peter whips off his mask and winks at Darwin. "Tomorrow, then."

"Peter! I'm home! And I'm gonna take another shot at making fish!"

Peter groans and Darwin gives him a smug look. 'Serves you right.'