Disclaimer: Everything you recognise here either came from the MCU films or the original Marvel comics, but I hope you enjoy the results anyway

Feedback: Feel free

AN: This part borrows more from canon, but I hope you enjoy the results as Peter's life more significantly diverges from what happened to him originally…

The Legacies' Triad

The moment that Peter arrived at Liz's house party, he wondered what he was even doing here. When Ned had talked him into this, he had allowed himself to give into the temptation of indulging the part of himself that still wanted to be part of the popular crowd, but as soon as he arrived at the party he soon realised that he had no idea why he had bothered to come along. Ned aside, he didn't really know anyone here as more than passing acquaintances, particularly after he'd had to drop most of his old clubs to give himself more time for his Spider-Man activities, and he just felt increasingly out of touch with the rest of the students.

He wanted to enjoy this chance to see Liz Allan's house and be at a party with the popular crowd (even if he wondered why anyone would a glass wall that size facing outwards), but at this point it seemed like he was just going through the motions of this part of his life. He missed hanging out with Ned or Kate at the weekends, but he had the chance to make a real difference as Spider-Man; it just felt selfish to think about what mattered to him when he could help so many other people.

As it was, he had taken care to keep White Widow's pager on him just in case something came up, even if so far they hadn't managed to find anything new about the weapons. The blonde at least understood that he needed time to himself each day rather than insist that he devote himself to the current job full-time, but Peter was starting to wonder how long it would be before he had to make a clean break with 'Peter Parker' to make Spider-Man the priority. The party was already rather loud and he'd just walked through the front door; if he hadn't spent the last few months working on his senses, he'd just be in even more trouble…

"Can't believe you guys are at this lame party," a voice broke into Peter's train of thought. Turning around, he was surprised to see Michelle spreading jam on a slice of toast as she leaned against a counter.

"But you're here too," Ned pointed out.

"Am I?" Michelle said, taking a bite of her toast before she walked away.

"Oh my gosh," Liz said, drawing Peter's attention to the dark-skinned senior in loose blue clothes before he could work out what Michelle had been trying to imply. "Hey, guys. Cool hat, Ned."

"Hi Liz," Peter said, briefly aware of Ned doing the same beside him even as he looked at Liz with a new sense of ambiguity. He was aware that a few months ago he would have given anything to get Liz's attention, but right now, he found himself thinking of an older woman with paler skin and fairer hair-

Bad Peter! he scolded himself as Liz offered pizza and drinks before the sound of breaking glass drew her somewhere else. He was just relieved that he was able to keep track of Liz's words well enough to be sure when he should say goodbye as she walked off to make sure nothing important was broken.

"Dude, what are you doing?" Ned looked urgently at him. "She's here."

"I… I'm not sure," Peter said, lost for anything better to say that wouldn't admit he'd been thinking about a hot older woman he definitely shouldn't be thinking about that way (if he even was thinking about her that way). "I mean, what do I even say to her? Should I just… be myself?"

"Peter, no one wants that," Ned sighed.

Somehow, the straightforward way Ned pointed that out hurt more than anything else he could have said. Peter might be having trouble working out how important his life as Peter Parker should be at this point, but the idea that his best friend thought that…

"That was- God, Pete, I didn't mean-" Ned began, regret clear on his face.

"Never mind," Peter said, turning around to walk away, fighting down the initial bitterness he felt at that declaration. Ned had been his friend for years, and if even he felt that nobody really wanted Peter Parker here…

Feeling a need to get away from people for a moment, Peter headed for the back door of the house, took a glance around to be sure he was alone, and jumped up to the roof. Crouching down, he stared at the city around him, struck by the thought of just how far his life had come since he was bitten by that spider.

He knew that he could never be normal, but this was the first time he'd really found himself thinking about how he'd changed from the people around him. He still cared about May and Ned and some of the others (even if he wouldn't be that bothered if someone like Flash suddenly left school), but when he looked at what his life had become… when he thought about the way White Widow-

He forced that thought down before it could go further, and was grateful when he saw a bright blue explosion off in the distance. Whatever that might be, at least it was something he could handle as Spider-Man rather than worrying about questions regarding his life as Peter Parker. Shrugging off his regular clothes to reveal his Spider-suit underneath- he wondered how Mr Stark kept his armour available if he had to change in a hurry- he hid the clothes under an overhanging bit of roof, paused long enough to send a quick message on his pager about a potential deal in this area, and leapt off, firing a webline to latch on to the nearest tree.

Swinging down the street, Peter flipped off a couple of roofs, keeping an eye out to be sure he had something to swing on or jump to as he moved; he was too used to being in New York that he had to be careful not to take it for granted that there'd be something nearby for him to swing on. At one point he had to run across a golf course to keep a direct eye on the site of the initial explosion, but a few jumps meant that he crossed the area relatively quickly.

After a few moments of rapid movement, Peter reached an old bridge and saw a van on the road underneath it, alongside a parked car, with blue smoke emerging from a pile of metal that looked like it had been another car before whatever happened happened. Getting in close, Peter saw a man holding a large gun with something on the end that actually looked like a hand of some sort, held by a man in a dark jacket with dirty yellow sleeves and a thick beard on his chin.

"Now," the bearded man said, "this is crafted from a reclaimed sub-Ultron arm straight from Sokovia. Here; you try."

"Man," a dark-skinned man said as he took the offered weapon, "I wanted something low-key. Why are you trying to upsell me, man?"

Peter chose to take that as both a good and a bad sign; the idea of people selling parts of Ultron after what that robot had done to Sokovia was definitely bad news, but at least it sounded like he was dealing with somewhat ethical criminals at the moment.

"OK, OK, OK," the bearded man who was apparently selling the weapons said, walking back to the van which had a load of other things in it Peter couldn't quite see at this distance. "I got what you need, all right? I got tons of great stuff here. One sec."

In a secure position, Peter watched as the man opened up the van, revealing a collection of machinery and weapons that were almost certainly part of the same array of weapons that had put him in touch with White Widow in the first place. This was still most likely a dealer rather than the man behind everything, but hearing the man talk about black hole grenades and Chitauri railguns at least assured him that he hadn't made a mistake calling her for help. Peter vaguely heard the dark-skinned man comment that he was just looking for something to stick up somebody rather than the more elaborate weapons being discussed, but Peter's musings were interrupted when a yodelling ringtone came from his phone.

Cursing himself for forgetting to put the phone on silent, Peter pulled it out long enough to confirm that it was Ned before he terminated the call, put the phone back in his pocket and leapt down; this was at least one occasion where Spider-Man's priorities definitely surpassed anything Peter Parker could have to deal with. He managed to fire web-lines to pull the guns currently on display out of the hands of their current wielders, subsequently pinning them to the bridge above with the same strands of webbing.

"Didn't your mothers ever teach you it was rude to point hi-tech weapons at strangers?" he began with a grin, only to be blown back by another weapon (the guy with yellow sleeves must have grabbed it from the van) that sent him crashing into the side of the bridge. Peter just managed to get back to his feet (taking knocks from White Widow had definitely helped his endurance) as the van drove off with the dealers inside, giving him time to launch a tracer with one hand and fire a web-line at the rear with the other, before he found himself being pulled after the van. He tried to trigger his abilities to hold himself to the ground, but the van was moving too fast for his feet or his free hand to get a good grip on the road before he saw one of the men in the van aiming another weapon at him.

Aware that there was no way White Widow could be here to provide back-up, Peter did his best to manoeuvre around their attacks without releasing the webbing on the van. One of the van doors was blasted off by the weapon currently being fired at him, but Peter managed to keep hold of his target before he finally caught a break when the van hit a road-bump, jolting the passengers so that the man firing at him blasted a hole in the van and then lost his grip on the weapon.

For a moment, Peter allowed himself to hope that he could actually stop the van now that nobody was firing at him, but then the van took a sharp corner and the wall-crawler was rammed into the side of a parked car and dragged through a line of garbage bins. The impromptu 'trip' came to an end when Peter found himself slammed into a brick wall, sending him to the ground surrounded by bricks. Quickly pulling himself back together, Peter tried to launch another web-line, but the remaining door was torn off by the webbing, already strained by the blasts it had taken during the earlier escape.

"Great," Peter groaned, aware that there was no way he could launch another web-line from this distance. "Looks like I'll be taking a shortcut."

Turning his attention to the surrounding buildings, Peter jumped over a gate and slid over a parked car, waving at a couple of people playing ping-pong before tossing a ball to distract a playful dog in the next garden. He spent a few moments enjoying the sensation of swinging through the branches of surrounding trees, but his rapid progress was interrupted when he latched on to what turned out to be a treehouse, pulled down the small building and then fell into a shed when the treehouse wasn't strong enough to take his weight (he chose to be grateful he'd done that now rather than some kid tip the treehouse over while they were inside it). Relieved that nobody could see that particular moment, Peter managed to find the door and get out, leaping over a nearby fence and just managing to avoid landing on a small toy car. Jumping over a soccer net up ahead, Peter managed to jump over a hedge, only to find himself landing beside a man having a barbeque.

"Smells really good," he waved politely to the man at the grill, before he jumped over the hedge and found himself skimming over a pool in the middle of a party. He tried to ignore the splash he caused as he leapt over the patio and into the next garden, only to crash through a set of fairy lights and land in front of a tent. The impact must have dislodged something in his mask because his lenses glitched for a few moments, clearing up just in time to reveal two little girls in the tent.

"Oh… hey guys," Peter said, only to be left in the awkward position of having two girls scream at him before they tried to 'escape' the other way.

Putting that embarrassment moment out of his mind, Peter gave his mask a final whack to get it back in order and then leapt over the next fence. He was pleasantly surprised to see the van he'd lost moments ago, smoke now billowing from its back. Leaping up onto a nearby roof with the goal of cutting over the house, Peter tried to keep up even as he felt the slates becoming loose under his feet, but it was easy to keep up a good pace; he was still amazed at how much he'd been changed by that bite even beyond the more fantastical talents.

"Thought you got away from me, didn't you?" he said, glad that this particular chase would soon be over as he saw the van basically travelling alongside him on the road. "I got you right where I want you-"

Just as Peter leapt towards the van, another figure swooped in from behind and flew him up towards the sky, leaving Peter to scream in shock at the rapid ascent. He had thought about asking Mr Stark for a quick flight somewhere on Iron Man's back at some future point, but there was a difference between a willing flight and being attacked by something with sharp metal wings and freaky green eyes in its face (that was definitely some kind of helmet).

Lost for any better ideas, Peter tried to kick out at his attacker, but suddenly something began to beep on his back before he felt himself get forced out of the other thing's grip and be sent 'flying' back down through the air. Spinning awkwardly in the sky, Peter realised that he was attached to some kind of parachute, but he could barely see anything going on around him; the cloth was blocking his view and he couldn't see anything he could use to catch himself-

When his fall was halted, Peter found himself floundering desperately in some kind of lake, dragged down by the wet parachute cloth as he tried to find some way he could orientate himself. He could feel himself sinking, but even if he got out of this thing, he was turning around so much that there was no way he could know what way was actually 'up'-

When something else grabbed him and pulled him up out of the water, Peter was briefly confused at the sudden return of fresh air, but relaxed when he realised that he was being carried to safety by Iron Man. He had no idea how Mr Stark had found him this quickly, but right now he wasn't going to complain about it…

Still reeling from the near-drowning, it took Peter a moment to properly collect his thoughts, and by the time he was sure of what was going on, he'd been released from the suit's grip and placed on top of a small jungle gym in a park. A quick glance suggested that he hadn't gone that far, as he felt like he recognised this area from when he'd been swinging by earlier, but the voice coming from the armour floating in front of him reminded him he had other issues right now.

"OK, kid," Mr Stark's voice asked (Peter noted that the armour seemed to be a model that he hadn't seen before; the upper torso and part of the arms were red and the mask was gold, but the rest looked like it was silver), "care to explain how this happened?"

"Well," Peter said, mind already made up that he wasn't going to mention White Widow right now, "I was at a party with… friends… and when I went up to the roof to get some air I saw some kind of explosion happening further away, so I went to check it out, and I saw these guys with all kinds of weird guns like what I told Happy about- from that robbery, you know?"

"Yeah, he mentioned there was this matter you dealt with involving thieves using high-tech weapons to break into ATMs," Stark observed, shaking his head in the helmet. "Seriously, people do that kind of thing in real life?"

"I'm pretty sure they just got the weapons from someone else, which is why I was trying to listen in on the deal when I got there and see if I could find out where everything was coming from," Peter explained, as he took off his mask (he was fairly sure nobody would be in a park at this time of night) and tried to squeeze the water out of it; at least he could let his hair dry before he tried to work out how to deal with a wet costume without embarrassing himself. "I was listening in but then… they spotted me- I didn't do anything, they just looked up at the wrong moment- and while I was chasing them, this winged guy showed up and then he just, he just, like, swooped down like a monster and he picked me up and, uh, he took me up, like, a thousand feet and just dropped me. How'd you find me? Did you put a tracker in my suit or something?"

"I put everything in your suit," Mr Stark replied casually. "Including this heater."

"Whoa!" Peter said, the suit suddenly dry and steam rising from it. "Whew, that's better; thanks."

"What were you thinking?" Mr Stark said sharply.

"The guy with the wings is obviously the source of the weapons," Peter clarified. It was a guess, but it made sense that whoever was creating this stuff would keep the best equipment for himself. "I gotta take him down-!"

"Take him down now, huh?" Mr Stark said. "Steady, Crockett, there are people who handle this sort of thing."

"The Avengers?" Peter perked up.

"No, no, no," Mr Stark said, raising one arm as though he was trying to point something out. "This is a little below their paygrade."

"Anyway, Mr. Stark," Peter continued, suddenly feeling defensive of his own abilities (how could something be below a hero's paygrade?), "you didn't have to come all the way out here. I had that. I was fine."

"Oh, I'm not here," Mr Stark's voice said, before the helmet opened to reveal an empty suit rather than the face of the first modern Avenger. "Thank God this place has Wi-Fi or you would be toast right now. Thank Ganesh while you're at it. Cheers. Look, forget the flying vulture guy, please."

"Why?" Peter asked, as the suit raised an arm as though it was holding a glass.

"Why?" Mr Stark repeated sharply. "Because I said so!"

The suit seemed to bend as though it was picking something up (Peter guessed that it was responding to whatever Mr Stark was doing wherever he was) as Stark apologised for talking to a teenager before his attention returned to Peter. "Stay close to the ground. Build up your game helping little people, like that lady that bought you the churro. Can't you just be a friendly neighbourhood Spider-Man?"

"But I'm ready for more than that now," Peter protested

"No, you are not," Mr Stark countered as the empty suit closed its helmet.

"That is not what you thought when I took on Captain America," Peter protested.

"Trust me, kid, if Cap wanted to lay you out, he would've," Mr Stark said (Peter would not admit that he was right about that; White Widow had given him a few knocks in training and she didn't even have powers). "Listen to me. If you come across these weapons again, call Happy."

"…Are you driving?" Peter asked as he heard the sound of a car revving through the suit.

"You know, it's never too early to start thinking about college," Mr Stark added, apparently ignoring his question. "I got some pull at MIT."

"No, I don't need you to- Mr Stark-!" Peter began.

"Mr Stark is no longer connected," a female voice said before the suit flew upwards, leaving Peter to stare up after the disappearing armour.

"That's… cool," he muttered, even as he couldn't stop himself feeling put out at the way Mr Stark had just dismissed him like that. He understood that the Avengers had to focus on protecting the world, but when he had Black Widow's secret sister already helping him on his current problem, was it asking too much to expect another hero to take him seriously?

"Good."

"GAH!" Peter practically jumped off the jungle gym, pulling his mask back on and turning around mid-air to land back on the frame, now on his feet, only to find himself looking at White Widow as she smiled up at him, twirling a thick tube with glowing purple rings around it in her hands. "Do you have to sneak up on me like that?"

"I was testing your reflexes," the blonde looked up at him with a half-grin on her face. "What happened to you?"

"I saw something that turned out to be a new arms deal for more of those weapons, but then… well, they called down this guy in some kind of winged suit and got away while he was attacking me," Peter explained, hoping that didn't sound as lame to her as it felt to him.

"Which is when Stark rescued you?"

"You have to know that I didn't call him in-!"

"I do," White Widow nodded in acknowledgement, before she held up the glowing tube-thing that Peter was now fairly sure had been the weapon that was being fired at him earlier. "I found this while I was following your chase."

"This fell out of the truck?" Peter took the object from her and studied it for a moment. It wasn't hard to see that this was just part of a larger object, so the weapon must have been damaged when its user dropped it, but the glowing inside was definitely some kind of power source. "OK, this looks promising…"

"Because it is still active?" White Widow asked.

"Oh yeah," Peter nodded at her. "Everything we've got so far was pretty much drained or damaged by the time we got our hands on it, but this is pretty intact and it looks like it's still got a good bit of charge in it… maybe I can find something more if I take a better look at this in a lab…"

"I have scientific equipment in my safehouse that you could use," White Widow said.

"Your safehouse?" Peter tried to stop himself sounding too eager as he looked at her. "As in I can go there?"

"You are part of this case; if we are going to find the dealers, we must share all resources," White Widow nodded.

"That's so- wait," Peter stopped himself as a thought occurred to him. "How did you find me this fast?"

"I was in area following up on lead on the arms dealers when you sent your message," White Widow explained with a shrug. "You were lucky enough to find it first."

"…Fair enough," Peter shrugged. He didn't like the idea that she'd been that far ahead of him on their current 'mission', but it made sense that Black Widow's sister had contacts he didn't, considering all those people James Bond was able to track down in the films. "Just let me make one quick call."

"To who?"

"A friend," Peter said as he took out his phone and dialled it. He wouldn't say any names at this end, but he had a feeling he knew Ned well enough to know what to say without attracting too many questions. "I was out for the evening and had to run out; I should let them know I won't be back."

White Widow nodded in acknowledgement as Peter pulled up Ned's number and pressed the green button, turning around and lowering his voice. So far White Widow hadn't given him a reason not to trust her, but at the same time he felt as though he needed to draw a line somewhere…

"Peter, where are you?" Ned said, sounding dejected as he answered the call. "The hat's not working, and as for Flash…"

Even over the line, Peter could hear Flash rapping something about 'Parker' to the rest of the attendees, but he could already guess that whatever Flash was saying wouldn't be friendly.

"Yeah… sorry about that," he said, glad he could at least offer a half-truth. "I really was planning to stay, but something came up with a project at my internship-"

"Again?" Ned said, dejection shifting to incredulity. "Something came up now?"

"Mr Stark's always busy, so as his intern I'm pretty much on-call whenever anything comes up," Peter said, glad that he could at least be reasonably honest about this. "Again, sorry I had to cut out, but this is really important."

"…I get it," Ned said, sighing slightly at the other end. "For what it's worth… seriously, Peter, I don't know if I've already said this, but nobody deserves that kind of opportunity more than you do."

"Thanks, man," Peter smiled. "I'll… talk to you tomorrow?"

"Yeah, sure…" Ned said, hanging up the phone. For a moment, Peter looked at the screen that had just displayed his friend's name, but shook the thought off; it was safer to keep Ned out of this part of his life, just like it was easier on Aunt May if she didn't have to worry about him.

"Is everything well?" White Widow asked as Peter turned back to look at her.

"It's… yeah, everything's fine," Peter nodded, flexing his shoulders and looking at her with a curious smile. "So where's this safehouse of yours?"