So, the Avengers got off of Wade's back. They weren't all warm and fuzzy about it, and they mostly took the form of just ignoring him when they didn't have to communicate, but at least they didn't try to kill him (not that it would have worked) or chase him from the tower. In fact, and Peter was above ecstatic about it, Thor took to hanging out with Wade even more than he had before. Thor was a sweetie, and since he had forgiven Loki so often, even when it was revealed that Loki wasn't Thor's blood brother, it shouldn't have surprised Peter that he would give Wade a no holds barred second chance, and watching the two chat calmly put a much needed smile on Peter's face. Such a smile could not even be diminished when Wade told him that Thor had taken to gracefully pointing out wrong from right in almost any hypothetical decision he could think of. Wade thought it was hilarious, since Peter had done pretty much the same thing when they had first started dating. Pointing out situations where he might be thrown for a loop and laying out precisely what could be done to keep him in the right.

While Thor was the easiest to bring around, it didn't take much for the others to follow, though, as was predicted, they didn't all necessarily seem to like it. Bruce had apparently convinced himself that it was his duty to try and bring Wade back into the fold, so he too had taken to talking to Wade during lunch (which was every bit as awkward as when he'd first joined, or maybe more so). The lunches were stiflingly awkward, and often made Peter want to run for the hills. Thor and Wade were the only ones who seemed comfortable, and they kept up a steady conversation, while the others mainly talked quietly amongst themselves, sometimes bringing in Peter, and occasionally glancing at Wade to make sure he wasn't doing anything stupid. Bruce would sometimes try to converse with Wade as well, but he looked so nervous doing it that Peter wanted to laugh. Bruce just couldn't get it in his head that Wade wasn't going to snap. He stepped so lightly around the ex-mercenary that the conversations soon petered out into nothing.

Clint mostly ignored Wade, though when he did talk to the man he wasn't hostile. He seemed neutral, willing to wait for a final verdict without picking a side in the debate. Natasha was back to being a hostile creature of dampened fury and stilettos that could kill. She was mostly horrifying. Steve was proper with Wade, would talk to him, but made it very clear that they should only interact within a business capacity. They weren't friendly towards each other. (Wade was friendly towards Steve, but Steve reciprocated with only the barest civility). Tony treated Wade like he would gladly repulsor his skin from his bones, but since Wade seemed to actually find it amusing, Peter didn't try to put a stop to it. Wade was content it seemed. He smiled just as much as he always did, and they went on more dates because being with Wade was what made Peter happiest, but really, he should have known that it wouldn't be that easy.

It never was.

To be honest, the Avengers actions towards Wade since the incident had lulled Peter into a false sense of security. It wasn't until the next battle that Peter fully understood the consequences of…well everything that had happened.

It was…

You know, Peter would love to explain what was happening even to himself, but he really couldn't. He'd been chilling in his apartment, waiting for Wade to come home when a shot of electricity raced up his spine.

It was his Spidey sense, but less tingly, and more whoa this is suddenly really bad and really close and why is all of this feeling amped up for no reason?

Peter's head twitched to the side and his left hand started shaking, and he didn't even realize he had moved from the couch until he felt himself swinging out the window. He must have pulled on his suit while in a daze because yep, he was definitely wearing awesome clingy cloth, but had no memory of pulling the red and blue on.

He shot a web at the Daily Bugle while smoothing down the edge of his mask.

At least he had remembered his mask.

It took only two more swings for the sounds of screaming and sirens to permeate his brain, and soon enough he was upon the wreckage.

Buildings were flattened, debris piling up in the streets, and people in clothes too ripped and dirtied to be recognizable clothing screamed and cried as they rushed along the ripped up asphalt, tripping and pulling each other along with them, as they ran away from whatever it was that had done this.

Peter did not take the time to gape at the street that had been whole and fine yesterday, or wonder which shop had been crushed into an unrecognizable pancake. No, he took in the screaming people and the ruined street in a glance and then swung around to face the thing that had done this. It was a…

Yeah, Peter still couldn't explain what it was…

It was a giant furry thing. Peter couldn't see its eyes or mouth or ears. It was a long oblong thing, covered in dense, matted fur, and the back of it moved side to side on the ground, flattening first one side of the street and then the other as it squirmed, like those weird coin machines at carnivals or arcades. You know, the ones where there's a weird sweeper thing, and you drop a quarter in, and it pushed is back, and your hope is that your quarter will cause the sweeper to push a whole bunch of other quarters towards you so you can win lots of 25 cent coins? Yeah, that one. The thing's tail was like that, only Peter hadn't even put a quarter in, and based on all the destruction, he wasn't going to be getting any money out of this. Probably the opposite. You know how bad taxes get after an alien/monster invasion? It's a surprise anyone other than Tony Stark can even afford to live in New York.

Ridiculous.

Peter would have liked to swing to the top of a building and decide his actions from the relative safety of the sky, but none of the roofs were actually any taller than Peter at the moment, so he settled for landing on the ground behind the weird… Peter decided to call it a mouthless-bear-slug for lack of a better name.

It was only then that he noticed (and you know what? Peter isn't even going to concern himself with the lack of observation he's been dealing with. It's been a hectic few days and he deserves something happier than a mouthless-bear-slug) the Avengers. They were standing in a loose circle off to the side of the road, out of the bear-slug's way, strategizing. Neither Bruce nor the Hulk was to be seen. Wade was standing with them, oddly silent, and a little back, not completely part of the circle.

Peter's hands squeezed unbidden into tight fists, causing the spandex in his gloves to squeak.

Could he punch them now?

(No.)

First stop mouthless-bear-slug from destroying more of Manhattan, and then make arguing faces at the Avengers.

"Sup, guys?" Peter called over and swung his way to the circle of super heroes. "What a co-inky-dink meeting you guys here. Come round these parts often?" False joviality was a necessary evil, Peter had learned long ago, and he hopped it would work in this situation.

Instead he got a deadly looking arrow pointed at his face. Peter raised his hands above his head.

"What are you doing here?" Hawkeye sneered.

Peter nodded at the mouthless-bear-slug. "Uh, monster destroying the city? Kind of my job."

"I'm not sure if a small fish like you could help out," Natasha said in an emotionless voice. "That's what we're here for. Why don't you go back to your own pond and leave this thing to us?"

Peter barred his teeth, though it couldn't be seen beneath the mask. On a good day Natasha was scary and Peter wouldn't go up against her if paid. On a bad day she was terrifying and Peter would actually pay to stay away from her. Today was a bad day. But, it was a bad day for Peter too, and he must have lost any self-preservation he'd ever had because he actually turned his own sickly-sweet voice on Natasha and said, "Ouch. What a cruel thing to say, one arachnid to another. Well let me tell you something, buddy, you might hate me right now, though I could care fuck all about it, but that really shouldn't matter more than the weird thing smashing up what used to be a really sweet Mexican joint." ("WHAT?!" Wade wailed in the background, and fell to his knees in dramatic agony) "So, Black Widow, I'm going to let you and your weird, reverse harem super clique get back to figuring out how to airlift this puppy somewhere safe, and I'm going to go shut his ass down, like an actual super hero."

Peter didn't even wait to see if any of them would react before he was swinging after the mouthless-bear-slug.

Perhaps he shouldn't have gone off on Natasha like that (Natasha of all people! She was going to skin him alive), but he was starting to think that maybe being Spiderman around these people would require tougher skin. At the very least he shouldn't have yelled, "Buuuurrrnnn!" back at her as he webbed his way towards the mouthless-bear-slug.

He shot a web at it.

Nothing.

Literally nothing, the web disintegrated.

"The fuck?" He muttered and tapped a fingernail against his webshooter.

"Yeah," Iron Man's metallic voice rumbled next to Peter's ear, and Peter flinched away into a back flip, landing on his toes a few feet away.

Peter looked over at where Iron Man was standing with his arms crossed over his chest.

"Yeah, what?" Peter asked, sounding not nearly as perturbed as he felt.

Iron Man didn't answer but blasted off only to land on the back of the mouthless-bear-slug and start punching it in the back.

"What he meant, puny spider," Thor boomed from somewhere above Peter, causing Peter to look up, "is that nothing but physical action seems to have any effect on the creature."

Thor too soared off to begin physically attacking the creature, hands and feet pummeling the beast only to be cushioned by the thing's thick hair.

Wade snuck past Peter without acknowledging him, which sent a chill down Peter's spine. Yeah, they'd agreed (he'd told Wade) to stop interacting as their superhero alter egos to keep the Avengers off their backs, but it still hurt that Wade hadn't even waved to him or given him a cocky smile, or tried to stuff his hand down Peter's pants.

Wade started slicing at the creature's tail (which looked similar to what Peter assumed was the creature's head. In fact, if the mouthless-bear-slug hadn't been moving in a continuously forward direction, Peter would have no idea even to assume that one end was the head and the other the tail) with his Katana.

Peter shrugged off his hurt at Wade ignoring him and said, "Well, when in Rome," and leapt into the fray.