A/N: Hello, and welcome! This is the sequel sequel-threequel? In the Homo Arcaea series, which follows the events of both Avengers: Infinity war AND Avengers: Endgame. Ooooh boy. This also follows the events of both How to Shed and Exoskeleton and The Dangers of Molting, so if you're here and haven't read either of those yet, make sure to check them out, or parts of this won't make sense. Thanks! Here we go!

—-

The whole Art History class got to go to the MoMa that day, which was a welcome change from the usual school day droll. Katya'd been talking his ear off all morning as they ate their bodega bagels, while the bus was getting ready to load up, about what she was most excited to see.

"I think the Van Gogh's nature pieces are going to be beautiful, though I do love myself a good Monet-"

Peter grinned at her excitement, but said nothing, much more interested in watching her face light up with every painting she mentioned.

They were herded onto the bus, Ned sitting in front of them, his head already buried in his Nintendo Switch. Wordlessly, Peter offered Katya one of his ear buds, which she plugged into her own ear as she continued to talk. "-But Rousseau's mastery of realism-"

"We haven't even learned like half that stuff in class yet," Ned piped up, turning around to face them. "How do you know all of this?"

"I like to read," Katya bucked back almost defensively, "there's no rule about skipping ahead in the textbook."

Ned laughed to himself and shook his head, before holding up his Switch so Peter could see the screen. "Just killed the dual bosses, I'm already on level 93 dude!"

"No shit, really?" Peter sidled up to the seat in front so he could see better. "How?" Ned had been complaining about that level for a long time.

As Ned sprang into explanation ("The trick is you kill the big one first, and then gather his weapon to use against the fast one-") the bus loped its way into city traffic which, it being rush hour in New York, meant it was barely moving at all. Peter briefly thought about how much quicker it would be to websling over there, but it's not like that was a realistic idea. The only two people who knew Peter was Spiderman were right next to him.

The first fifteen minutes were filled with adamant talking, but by the next fifteen a general hush had fallen over the students, most absorbed on their phones or quieter conversations. Ned had turned back to his game and Katya was going through the playlists on Peter's phone, choosing their music for them, which Peter only got to hear in 30-second blips before she'd change her mind as she explored, but he didn't mind.

"Nothing's gonna change my world; images of broken light, which dance before me like a million eyes, they call me on and on, across the universe…

. Peter leant his head on his arm against the seat in front of him, beginning to lose his half-assed battle of keeping himself awake.

"Thoughts meander like a restless rain inside a letterbox; they tumble blindly as they make their way, across the universe…"

She'd chosen what was probably the most relaxing Beatles song he owned. He planned on sleeping, so he wasn't going to complain-

Suddenly, the hairs on his arm stood up- and almost immediately next to him, Katya stiffened.

"Something's wrong." She voiced what both of them were thinking, and Peter glanced out the window. Near - or more, directly above- midtown, there was a huge, black, donut-shaped object of some kind- was that a fucking spaceship?!

Katya glanced outside too and immediately ripped the headphone from her ear, replacing it instead with a comms device she'd dug out of her jacket pocket. She'd clearly taken to carrying them around everywhere, just in case, and Peter couldn't blame her- his Spiderman suit was always in his backpack. She shoved one into his hand, which he fastened in place, before reaching forward to tap Ned. He got him on the face a few times before he finally turned around. Before he could speak, Peter pointed out of the window. "Ned, I need you to create a diversion."

Ned's face lit up as if he'd been waiting for this moment his entire life and glanced out the window, eyes wide. Without hesitation shot up from his seat and began to yell, "Aliens! We're all going to die!" He rushed to the back of the bus, where the rest of the students followed, allowing Peter time to web open the emergency exit window and for the two of them to slip out of the bus entirely. Once on the roof, he gathered Katya to him- there was no time to ask if she'd brought her gauntlet- and stuck a web to the bridge's infrastructure above, swinging them across the bay and into the city.

—-

Everything south of 43rd street was chaos. Cars were flipped, or driven into streetlights and mailboxes- people were screaming, running for the nearest indoors. Peter and Katya landed just as Dr. Banner- when had he come back?- fell through some kind of sparkling orange portal, into a grassy area. In front of them was Mr. Stark, in full Iron Man suit, battling against a giant alien thug armed with- was it a hammer? Or no, he had an axe-wait, shit he had both-

Mr. Stark was blasted across the intersection, then- Peter didn't see him land, but it was towards Washington Square Park. Katya had already started to sprint in that direction, and Peter followed.

"What the hell are we looking at?" She shouted to him, over the sounds of chaos and the slapping of their feet against the ground.

"I've got no idea, but clearly Mr. Stark needs our help!"

They rounded the corner, leaping over debris and dodging crashed cars, until they could see the expanse of green ahead of them. Peter could just barely see the top of a tree topple over-

Mr. Stark was engaging directly with Big Axe Hammer Man, but his repulsors didn't keep him safe from a swift blow to the side, sending him to the ground. Peter flung into action whilst the alien had both of his hands close together and leapt forward to grab them. "Hey, man!" He called to the alien, before throwing a greeting over his shoulder, "What's up Mr. Stark?"

Mr. Stark's voice sounded flabbergasted behind his suit. "Kid, where'd you come from?"

Katya, who'd taken a flying leap to avoid a swing of the hammer, landed directly next to Mr. Stark, almost on top of him. "Field trip to the MoMa-"

If she said anything after that Peter had no idea as the Alien threw him across the lawn, sending him hurtling towards the main fountain. He recovered, and shot two webs at one of the Alien's fists in an attempt to detain him. "What is this guy's problem, Mr. Stark?!"

Through comms that apparently their suits were connected to, Mr. Stark replied as he got himself back up, shooting his repulsors to detain the alien as well. "Erm, he's from space, he came here to steal a necklace from a wizard."

Peter had so many follow up questions to that, but he trusted Mr. Stark. The alien grabbed him in a metal vice and swung him around. "Oh yeah?!" He challenged, despite not being able to see straight. He was flung into the air, and managed only to stabilize himself by webbing himself to a nearby abandoned car. Over comms, he could hear Mr. Stark say "Friday, get KMS24 here immediately." At first Peter was going to ask what he meant, but then remembered that Friday was Tony's AI. Peter didn't have time to wonder, either, as he dodged another attack from the Alien, throwing himself to the ground before rolling back up immediately to avoid the giant, veiny fist- or were they veins? He also kind of looked like he was made of rock-

Across the battlefield, over where Mr. Stark was now taking the brunt of an attack on his suit's shield, he saw Katya, who'd set herself into a low crouch, stumble back in confusion as something metal landed on her chest. She tried to wipe it off, but it stuck fast.

"Press it!" Mr. Stark yelled, grunting with effort of keeping the alien at bay.

She did so and immediately a gunmetal grey suit unfolded around her- not an Iron suit, more like a typical Widow's, flush to the body, and two battle batons appeared crossed behind her back. She grinned. "This is so-Agh!" She cut herself off with a yelp as the Alien used the hand he wasn't using to attack Mr. Stark with to lash out his chained hammer at her. She leapt out of the way as gracefully as Peter had anyone ever seen anyone dodge a hammer, but still seemed frazzled.

Suddenly a figure in a red cloak shot by, the fabric rippling in the wind, though the figure seemed to be constrained somehow. "Kids!" Mr. Stark called- now that they all had suits they had to all be on the same comms- "That's the wizard, get on it!"

"On it!" Katya replied, and immediately deployed her grappling hook to the nearest tree to swing after them. Peter did the same with his webs, the two dodging the bent streetlights and the destruction that covered the ground. Following them and the Wizard was another alien, a smaller, lither one, who seemed to float on a wave of broken asphalt.

The Wizard, who Peter could see now was clearly tied up, hit a lamppost, but his cloak managed to fly away as if it were sentient. It had to be a trick of the wind- he shot a web at the wizard. "Gotcha!"

A blue light materialized behind him, just as Katya had scaled the lamppost herself to try to start working on the restraints, but by the look on her face she either didn't know how or they weren't budging- or both. The energy from the blue light sucked up the Wizard's seemingly unconscious form, Katya clinging to his back, still pulling at whatever was binding him. Peter shot a second web at them out of desperation- he didn't know here that blue light was headed, but it couldn't be anywhere good- and grabbed on to the nearest streetlight to keep him grounded. He strained, trying to pull the two back, but the energy from the blue light was intense-

And then the streetlamp simply detached from the ground for some reason, and he had no choice but to keep hold of the web. "Erm, Mr. Stark? We're being beamed up-" It was just like in every alien movie he'd ever seen.

"Hang on, Kid!"

Hang on?! Like, to the wizard or wait for a signal?

The spaceship continued to hurtle higher, into the upper atmosphere, and the Wizard was pulled inside. Katya lost grip on him and fell, and for one terrifying moment Peter realized he might not be able to catch her-

But he did, through both their efforts, as Katya managed to hook herself to part of the ship with one of the curved edges of a battle baton. Peter grabbed her and pushed her underneath him, between him and the ship, as they both hung on to the side. He had to save the Wizard, but no way was he going to lose Katya in the process.

"Friday, unlock 17A," Peter heard Mr. Stark call through comms. Or at least, he thought he did- his brain was getting fuzzy, and it was getting harder to breathe-

"Pete, you gotta let go, I'm gonna catch you." Mr. Stark came in through comms. Peter was panting at this point, sucking in every bit of oxygen he could- let go?! And leave Katya to hurtle to the-

"Katya's fine, her suit's already got oxygen-" Mr. Stark told him as if reading his mind. His fuzzy mind, which was going blank-

"But you said save the Wizard!" He panted, "I can't breathe-"

"We're too high up, you're running out of air."

Peter nodded as if Mr. Stark could see it. "Yeah, that makes sense-"

Whether he wanted to let go- which he didn't- or not, he soon slipped, and found himself hurtling through the air as things were beginning to darken-

"Pauchok!" Katya's voice came in through comms, terrified.

Something metal slammed into his chest then, unfolding much like Katya's suit had, into a new, sturdier Spiderman suit. He scrambled to keep hold of the ship. Now able to breathe, he balanced himself on the space ship so he could stand up. "Mr. Stark, it smells like a new car in here!"

Mr Stark had managed to catch up to the ship by that point and leveled with him, keeping himself aloft by his repulsors. "Happy trails, kid- Friday, send them home."

"Yep!"

Before Peter realized what was happening a parachute deployed from his suit, tearing him off of the ship and into the abyss of the last of Earth's atmosphere."Oh come on-!"