Peter would have liked to have been able to avoid the Avengers for even longer, but after an afternoon spent in an awkward silence with Bruce, without even being able to see Wade first, on his way home Peter got that tingle of familiar energy that he called his Spidey-sense.

Something was happening by the shore.

After a quick dive into an nearby alley to reevaluate all of his life choice as he stripped down to spandex next to a decomposing raccoon, Peter was on his way, swinging from skyscraper to skyscraper trying to get to…oh dear. Doctor Doom had really let himself go.

The Doom bots were spasmodically attacking the building along the shore, but they weren't doing much damage, as Doom himself was barely paying any attention to the bots he was controlling. On a good day, Peter had seen the insane scientist level a three-block radius in under five minutes, but this was doing nothing.

Swinging closer, Peter could see part of that might have been because he was being attacked on all sides by the Avengers.

Oh goody.

Captain America was trying to lay his hands on the Doctor in order to pummel him into the sand, Iron Man was flying loops around the man's head, blasting at his metal-covered body with repulsor blasts almost continuously, and Thor was sending lightning Doom's way on a regular basis. Thor was multitasking as well, trying to destroy as many bots as possible with mjolnir as he tried to fry doom. Hulk was doing that smash thing he was so great at, Clint was shooting arrows straight through the bots' bodies, and Natasha was jumping from robot to robot, ripping through their wiring with her bare hands and the help of a trusty little knife Peter had seen her sometimes pull from her boot.

Wade was nowhere to be found, probably not yet back from his solo mission.

Peter found himself frowning even as he jumped into the fray with the rest of the Avengers. Wade had better not miss movie night. They were going to watch Driving Miss Daisy. Peter had been looking forward to it.

Making quick work with his web-shooters, Peter strung up one of the bots and had it hanging from a lamp post before he'd even thought about it twice. Green-tunic-ed buggers.

With a startled zap from his spider-sense, Peter rolled to the side, just in time to avoid Natasha's lethal heels (seriously, how could anyone fight in those? He was going to have a talk with SHIELD if that was mandatory assassin-wear). He looked up at her and she gave him a cocky smile as she brushed a stray strand of hair from her face. She didn't even look winded. "I still find it suspicious, little spider, that you show up much more readily now than you'd done before."

Peter shrugged. "What can I say? I just can't avoid a good fight."

He jumped in time to avoid a bot hurtling at him, and Natasha took the opportunity to detach the bot's head from the rest of it.

Thor's voice boomed down at them from where he floated in a maelstrom of spiraling wind and pieces of torn green cloth. "Man of Spider. I find it most displeasing that you now follow the Water of Death even after we have insisted upon the separation."

Peter peered around him in a theatrical show of looking for Wade. "That's strange, because unless I'm much mistaken, Deadpool isn't here at the moment." His expression turned from wide-eyed to unimpressed (and it was not the first time Peter wished that his mask allowed for more recognizable facial expressions. How did Wade do it?). "As much as you hate me for what I consider to be none of your business anyway, don't think that I'd continue calling myself a superhero if I was just going to avoid fights where Wade might show up, in worry of damaging your delicate sensibilities."

Thor yelled and threw Mjolnir straight through a Doom bot. "Are you telling me that you are indeed not here for the Water of Death?" He didn't sound convinced.

Peter rolled his eyes and let out a big sigh as he jumped to piggy-back a passing Doom bot and twisted off its head in a move he might have accidentally stolen from Natasha. "Again, since he isn't even here, I'm going to have to say that the alternative is definitely the correct choice. I'm not showing up at these fights to get into Deadpool, or anyone else's, pants. You guys might not like me much," (here he sent a stink eye at Clint who wasn't even in hearing distance) "but it is still my duty to protect New York, same as all of you. So leave it alone, yeah? If it'll make you feel better, I won't even interact with the guy if he shows up, this fight or any ones after."

Peter webbed a net between two buildings and caught three whole flying doom bots in it like they were flies. Peter wondered vaguely if, to finish the analogy, he'd have to eat them, because he didn't think he could do it. Metal was bad for his intestinal tract.

Peter jumped slightly when Thor landed next to him with a sharp crack of thunder. He looked up into the Norse god's face and saw a small strain of remorse. "If you are truly here to fight beside us then I would apologize for my treatment of you during our last battle."

Something inside Peter that he hadn't even known was there uncoiled and he let out a long breath. And then he smiled and patted Thor's giantly muscled arm. "No worries. Friends are important. Protecting them is important. Just, ah, next time maybe do some fact-checking? A complete misunderstanding, no worries."

Thor nodded and opened his mouth to say something, but before he could speak a word Peter gave a quick salute and jumped backwards onto the back of Doom bot that was flying by. He rode it a few blocks, dodging it's attempts to shake him off of it, before ripping its head off.

Very cathartic, killing Doom bots. Peter would have to think of that next time he wanted to let off a little steam.

In escaping the vicinity of Thor and Natasha, Peter had accidentally thrown himself into the section of fighting that had been commandeered by Clint and Hulk. This was perhaps not the best idea, Peter thought to himself as Clint ignored his very existence and the Hulk waved at him emphatically with the mangled remains of three interwoven Doom bots.

"Oh dear," Peter said and hurled himself at a bot. Worried or not, he still had a job to do, after all.

Webs were interesting things, or at least, Peter's webs were, because while they were sticky and strong, sometimes bots still managed to get out of them, and Peter was in no mood today to be testing his own webbing skills against the annoyance that was Doctor Doom and the bots (he should start a band). Instead he focused mainly on decapitating as many as possible, and using his webs to swing others in the direction of the Hulk, like some strange version of baseball that was unsafe for everyone and everything around it.

Clint was being not as much as an ass as he could have been, but it was a small success since Peter was pretty sure the only reason Clint wasn't shooting more arrows at Peter was because he was a little busy with the humanoid robots trying to wreck all of the hotels and buffets Peter assumed were there but had never actually visited because he wasn't some rich guy who could go on vacations to the shore. And really hadn't even wanted to. Whenever Aunt May and Uncle Ben would take him on vacation they'd always go far away, go fishing or down to Florida or visit the Grand Canyon. Well, they hadn't actually made it that far, but that was the sort of stuff they liked.

Peter had to twist his body tight against the remnants of a bot head in order to avoid getting skewered in the leg by one of Clint's arrows. The arrow did actually end up severing a passing bot's…spine? (could Peter call it that if it wasn't, you know, human?), but the point was that Clint really needed to let up on Peter with this almost trying to kill him shtick, because Peter's spidey-sense was only minimally trying to help him out here and one of these times he wasn't going to notice quick enough and then, splat, he'd be spider-on-a-stick like some rare exotic cuisine or a Jeff Dunham puppet guy…Peter needed to watch more TV.

Peter sidestepped a bot and ripped its head off as the Hulk tossed one of the lifeless metal bodies into the air with a gleeful growl. Clint picked off two more that were advancing, and Peter began to feel a little better about defeating these guys. It was taking long enough, especially with Iron Man, Captain America, and Thor fighting the real Doom (or the hopefully real Doom. He always looked a little too much like his bots for Peter's liking), but at least the bots were slowing down. Peter and the Avengers were taking them down and it was beginning to look like there were no more to replace the fallen ones.

"SPIDER!" Hulk roared from behind Peter, and Peter turned just in time to see green fill his vision as the Hulk pushed him to the ground.

The giant green not-doctor-Banner had knocked the breath out of Peter and for a second all was still as Peter tried to force oxygen back into his body and figure out why a giant green half-naked man was crouch over Peter and staring into his eyes with—was that worry? Actual worry? Actual, Me Hulk, Spider Friend worry?

The Hulk's large hand descended on Peter's head and he once more found himself the unwilling recipient of infant-level petting. "GOOD SPIDER. NO ONE HURT SPIDER. POINTY ALMOST HURT, BUT I SAVE. SAVE SPIDER!"

The Hulk was making sentences that were a lot longer than Peter had been led to believe he could make. Peter patted the Hulk's elbow (the only place Peter could really reach from his position) and said, "There, there, big guy. Pointy" (whoever that was) "didn't get me and I'm all safe and sound. Want to let me up now?"

Peter had never been claustrophobic before but he thought he might develop it if the Hulk didn't get off of him and stop pushing his head down with the Hulk's enormous hands.

The Hulk lifted himself slightly and took in his surroundings before cautiously getting to his feet. In one fluid movement Peter was once more bipedal and shot out a web to catch a bot that was zooming towards them. With less grace, the Hulk shot out his fist and hit the bot straight through the chest. Like, legitimately, Hulk's fist went right through the bot and out the other side, so it looked like the Hulk was wearing a very gaudy Doom bot shaped bracelet. The Hulk swiveled to catch another Doom bot, and finally Peter knew why the Hulk had pushed him to the ground, he could see what the Hulk had been protecting him from.

Out of the Hulk's left shoulder blade stuck one of Hawkeye's arrows. Peter glanced up to see a motionless Hawkeye sitting on the edge of a tall building far above them. His face was pale and drawn into an expression of shock.

Peter glanced back at the arrow sticking out of a green and bleeding shoulder and could feel his face morphing into something awful and ugly. He saw red.