Disclaimer: If you recognise it, it came from the films or the comics, even if I flatter myself that I've put my own spin on things.

Feedback: All constructive comments or appreciative observations are welcome

The First and the Last

As much as Peter was coming to accept that he enjoyed being Spider-Man, he wondered what it said about himself that he was more comfortable actually fighting people. He wanted to tell himself that he wasn't a violent person because he didn't enjoy fighting in the sense that he deliberately sought out people just to beat them up, but right now he was feeling frustrated at how long he had been left waiting for some new clue about his latest target. The new gun he'd seen that man using during that aborted robbery was probably a small thing in the big picture, but Peter couldn't shake the idea that there was more to it than one potential thief getting a lucky break.

Even with the Accords basically defunct, Peter had no idea if he had the authority or the right to basically make a deal with potential criminals to let them go in exchange for this kind of information, but it wasn't as though he was just letting them off because he felt sorry for them. After making it clear that he'd be keeping an eye on this particular trio and directing them to one of the post-Snap shelters for additional support, he'd persuaded the guy with the gun to direct him to where he'd actually met the man who'd sold him the weapon.

Staking out a particular block without being spotted had been a tedious business, but he'd been given a few pointers from Black Widow about being stealthy during a past visit to the Avengers compound. Even if he wasn't sure about full-time membership right now, he wasn't about to pass up that kind of instruction from an established hero like the Widow. This particular work might be a bit boring, but if he knew where he had to wait, he had to focus on the final result. Once he reached the address, he set himself up on the edge of a building corner overlooking the relevant street corner, high enough not to be obvious to the people on the street below without being so high up that he couldn't see what was going on down there himself.

He had thought about bringing his iPod to give himself some music while he waited, or maybe even something to read, but he had reminded himself that he couldn't let himself get distracted in case he missed the crucial moment. He kept himself occupied by going over a few films and TV shows he'd seen in the past in his mind, as well as pacing carefully around the edge of the building to avoid getting stiff, even as he kept an eye out for his target. The city was still so quiet post-Snap that few people were even in the streets at this hour, and anyone who was out this late was generally in a hurry to get to their next destination.

He wasn't sure exactly how long he waited, but eventually, just as the thief had informed him, Peter saw a man in a dark suit that put him in mind of those old Al Capone movies, sitting in a car parked on the street corner. Peter used his suit to take a couple of photos of the men who came to the car and walked off with new weapons in their hands, but he reminded himself that following them right now wouldn't accomplish anything. Tracking those men could wait a day or two; Peter's target was the man in the car and whoever was supplying the weapons.

Once Peter was satisfied that the man in the suit wasn't going to look up and none of his 'customers' had spotted him on the roof, he leapt from his current perch to the opposite building. Carefully crawling down the side while trying to stay in the shadows, he fired a tracer at the car below once he was close enough, taking a moment to confirm that the tracer had made contact before he crawled back up the side of the building. Doing that kind of thing backwards was tricky, but he had to be sure he got the faces of everyone buying a gun now so that he could deal with them later.

Once the last sale of the night had been made and the car drove off, Peter waited for a few moments before he began to swing after it, following the tracer in his suit's HUD. He was briefly worried that the tracer's signal might get lost, but told himself not to worry about that. He might be building these things himself now, but Mr Stark had designed the originals, and Mr Star wouldn't make a mistake like that.

Even in the darkened streets, web-swinging was still an enjoyably relaxing activity, and Peter genuinely lost track of how long he'd been swinging before he confirmed that the tracer had stopped. He put on a quick burst of speed once he realised the vehicle must have parked somewhere in case it turned out that the driver had moved on elsewhere, but he soon reached his destination. Finding the car parked outside a building with a sign on the door advertising itself as a 'gentleman's club', Peter did a quick discreet loop around the building until he found a suitably open window on one of the upper floors. Pushing the window up just enough, Peter confirmed that it led into what looked like an empty sitting room before he moved carefully inside and crawled along the ceiling. He took a moment to check around for any convenient vents, but finding nothing, he dropped to the ground and moved towards the door, shifting the suit's HUD to thermal vision to confirm that there was nobody on the other side.

Once he had left the room, Peter jumped back up to the ceiling and resumed crawling along, keeping an eye on the surrounding doors. There was the occasional camera on the walls as he made his way along, but since they were always pointing downwards at the floor it was easy enough for Peter to avoid them. The current floor seemed to be basically deserted, with no lights behind any of the doors he passed, but when Peter found a lit staircase he hopped down to the next level and made his way further in. The sound of people moving around further in the building at least gave Peter a target to focus on, even as he kept to the ceiling.

"…guys still aren't sure about all this, boss," Peter heard someone say as he approached a half-open door. Checking the suit's thermal HUD, Peter found that there was a group of people on the other side of this door, including one man who seemed to have something strange about his head. "I mean, we got a lucky break with that raid, and now you're just… giving this stuff away?"

"Long-term investment, Mitch," another voice replied, with a deep edge to the words. "Just keeping the guns to ourselves would be nice, but it means we do all the work and makes it easier for people to find us. Selling them out like this means other people cause the problems, so we can just step in once everyone else is worn out and take it from there."

"It's brilliant when you think about it," a third voice put in with a smug tone. "Other people take the risks and we reap the benefits."

"So long as we keep the good guns to ourselves," the man who Peter guessed was the boss said. "Finding that old SHIELD depot was a stroke o' luck, but this only works if we keep the biggest guns to ourselves."

"Hey, we're not idiots, boss," the first speaker (Mitch, apparently) said defensively. "I'd never give away the best stuff; I just wanted to be able to assure the guys we've got a plan."

"And someone had reason to think I didn't?" the leader said, his already deep voice now acquiring an edge of malevolence. "Don't think this head means I'm thick in the negative sense, y'know?"

As the man who was apparently Mitch began to stammer desperately in apology, Peter decided that he'd heard enough. If stealing SHIELD weapons and distributing them to cause chaos wasn't a serious enough threat to merit Spider-Man getting involved, he wasn't sure what was. Dropping to the ground, he gave the door a dramatic kick- if he was going to do this he might as well make an impression- and then leapt inside.

"Hi there," he said with a cool grin under his mask as he took in the group of people before him. There were about a dozen men in the large room- Peter guessed it had been some kind of dance hall before this building became a criminal base- at least half of whom were wearing business suits that put Peter in mind of something from old gangster movies, but they were all holding high-tech-looking weapons in a manner that made it clear they knew how to use them. "I think you've been giving away dangerous toys? I'm here to request a recall."

"Spider-Man?" one of the men yelled, aiming his gun at Peter. Reacting on instinct, Peter leapt up and out of range of the gun before he fired a strand of webbing to pull the gun out of the man's hand. Webbing the gun to the wall behind him, Peter fired a quick series of further web-lines at the weapons in the hands of the other men even as he leapt around the room. He noticed a large wardrobe-like object up against one wall that seemed to be a kind of armoury, with several weapons inside it, but he leapt over to slam the doors closed and web them shut before he moved on to his opponents. With the gangsters still apparently shocked at him appearing here in the first place, Peter managed to disarm at least half the men present with his webbing before the rest could start trying to properly shoot at him, and at that point it was easy enough for him to jump into the middle of the group.

With the wall-crawler now directly among the criminals, none of them were particularly eager to start shooting, which left him free to focus on taking them down. He knew that he was still pretty basic when it came to his hand-to-hand skills, but with everyone around him a criminal he could pretty much focus on hitting out and taking them down before he had to move on to the next one. After a sweeping kick knocked the remaining guns out of the grips of their owners, one man fell after a punch to the face, a kick to the stomach took down another, a swinging blow-

Peter couldn't stop himself letting out a pained yell as his fist struck something hard enough to leave him feeling like he'd punched something before he got his powers. He was left staggering back as he clutched at his aching hand, only to get grabbed from behind as he was just a fraction too slow to respond to the latest warning from his enhanced senses. By the time Peter had overcome the pain, he had two men holding each arm and a sense at the back of his skull that suggested someone was holding a gun up against his back, a sixth figure standing in front of him.

"How 'bout that?" the man in front said, his accent revealing that he was the gang's apparent boss. Looking at the speaker as his mask adjusted to the surrounding light, Peter could only stare incredulously at the large man with a muscular physique, wearing a dark old-fashioned suit. The suit itself was just odd, but the strangest thing was how the top of this man's head was completely flat, and even seemed to expand out a bit in a manner that Peter was sure wasn't normal. "So we finally get the attention o' someone interesting."

"And you don't qualify?" Peter countered, looking the man over and trying to sound confident despite his aching hand. He wouldn't do himself a favour if he kept fighting with an aching hand, and the people holding him down seemed to just be normal humans, so if he gave himself a couple of moments to let his hand get over the damage…

"Hey, I'm a professional exploring a niche; I'm allowed to have my quirks," the man grinned, reaching up to tap at his skull. "Which includes this little bonus."

"Bonus?" Peter repeated, before his HUD display answered a question he hadn't even thought to ask. "You have vibranium in your skull? Who came up with that?"

"Treatment from a past accident," the man shrugged, even as he gave his men approving nods. "Don't know where the doc got it from, but it has a few advantages in a fight, like surprising certain people who think I'll be an easy mark."

"How'd the guy even find us, anyway?" one of the other men said, looking critically at Peter even as they kept tight grips on his arms. "You watchin' us or something?"

"You do get that giving away SHIELD-issue weapons for free was going to get back to you guys at some point, right?" Peter replied, hoping that he was keeping his voice deep enough to avoid a repeat of that embarrassment that was his first interrogation during the hunt for Liz's dad. He just wanted to avoid people having reason to think that Spider-Man was just some teenager in a suit; after going into space, he liked to think he'd earned a better reputation than that, but sounding like a kid wouldn't help that. "Did you honestly think that nobody would notice?"

"Eh, we weren't expectin' to fly under the radar forever," the flat-headed man said with a smirk. "I just figured you and your colleagues would be more busy dealing with the big-league stuff; whole reason we were stayin' discreet."

"And that's your problem," Peter said, pointing at the flat-headed man with his index fingers and a mocking smile. "You didn't realise that nothing is too low-key for an Avenger."

Satisfied that his hand was back to normal, Peter flexed his arms and managed to knock the men holding him off-balance. They had briefly overwhelmed him while he was distracted by his injured hand, but with the pain now gone it was almost too easy for Peter to send all four of his would-be captors falling backwards into each other. Before they could get away from each other, Peter grabbed two men by the backs of their heads and slammed them into each other, lightly enough by his usual standards but with sufficient power to leave them both unconscious.

The other two men had recovered enough to try and rush him while he was distracted, but Peter just jumped up and let them crash into each other. He landed back on the ground as the dazed men collapsed in front of him, not quite unconscious but obviously in no position to keep up the fight. Some of the other men had tried to retrieve their weapons while Peter threw off his captors, but by the time they were ready to shoot at him Peter had fired webbing to block off all their weapons before they could fire. The men threw their guns away and tried to attack him with their bare hands, but after Peter knocked the first couple of men to the ground, the others exchanged glances and stood back, even if the way they glanced at their boss made it clear they weren't ready to try and run off yet. Following their anxious glances, Peter was able to focus his attention on the man with the flat head, flexing his shoulders as he grinned at the other man's suddenly apprehensive expression.

"So, Flathead," Peter grinned under the mask, "care to show me the advantages of that skull?"

"It's Hammerhead, bug," the man scowled in response, even as he also shot an angry glare after his associates.

"Seriously?" Peter took care to exaggerate his distaste for that particular alias as he looked the man over. "You name yourself that and you don't even commit to the theme? I mean, the gangster look isn't bad, but I already fought two guys with wings and-"

Letting out a roar of rage, the man lowered his head and charged towards Peter, only for Peter to easily jump over the other man. After some of his training sessions with the Avengers, Peter had enough experience in fights to know when he had to get out of the way, but he doubted that the other man had any real idea how to handle a superhuman opponent. Judging by the way he had turned back to glare at Peter as he raised his arms in a defensive posture, Peter had a feeling that this guy could do some damage even without the skull-

Skull…

Hoping he wasn't about to make a new kind of mistake, Peter leapt towards Hammerhead as the gangster began to lower his head again. Ready for that particular tactic this time, Peter not only jumped upwards to avoid the second attempted head-butt, but timed his move to kick out at the man just as Hammerhead ran underneath him. As Peter had hoped, his foot struck the other man in the side, causing a bone to shift at the point of impact and sending Hammerhead to the ground with a pained yell. Peter was briefly concerned as he landed back on the ground, but a quick check with his suit's HUD confirmed that he had just dislocated Hammerhead's hipbone rather than outright breaking anything. Before the man could try to get back up or push his leg back into place, Peter had fired a few extra strands of webbing, basically pinning the man's limbs to the ground. The man was stronger and faster than the average crook, but Peter was fairly sure he wasn't strong enough that he would be able to get back up from that.

Satisfied that he had stopped that particular fight, Peter turned his attention back to the other gangsters who had been watching the fight, using his webbing to remove any guns they still had in their hands and then jumping into action to take down and web up the rest of them. He thought that the numbers had dropped since he started this fight, as though a couple of people had run away after seeing him defeat their boss, but Peter chose to believe that was because they had decided they weren't committed enough to this guy to stick around. A quick scan with Karen allowed him to confirm that all the guns he'd webbed down at the start of this fight were still here, and the closet containing the rest of the guns was still sealed up.

"And that is how you stop arms dealers!" Peter grinned as he looked around the room, taking in the unconscious or trapped gangsters. Karen had already sent a signal to the police alerting them to everything he'd found basically as soon as he'd started the fight, and Peter had to appreciate the show of faith in his abilities; it was as though the suit's A.I. had basically taken it for granted that he'd beat these guys…

"Ya think this changes anything, you stupid insect?"

"Firstly, arachnids aren't insects; if you're going to call me stupid maybe don't make that kind of mistake yourself," Peter countered as he turned back to Hammerhead, the flat-headed criminal gritting his teeth from the pain of his leg even as he glared at the younger man. "And secondly, you and your gang are going to be off the streets and your guns are going away as soon as the cops show up; I'd say that's progress."

"Ya really think it's that simple?" Hammerhead smirked briefly at him despite a pained wince. "We were just the first to act; the way the world is after the Dusting, it's only a matter of time before someone else takes a stab at this sorta thing! I was just ahead o' the curve; when this is all over, I'll still be here, I'll find some way outta this crap, and I will come after you-"

Peter wasn't even aware that he'd moved before he was literally standing on Hammerhead, crouching on the larger man's chest as he looked the gangster in the eyes.

"I fought Thanos twice and I'm still here; do you really think a gang war can scare me?" Peter stated, giving the man a moment to process that before he continued. "I will stop whatever's going down… and you are going to help Wakanda with their inquiries about where your skull came from."

To Hammerhead's credit, he still glared back at Peter despite the sense of apprehension in his eyes at the reference to Wakanda. Peter doubted that Wakanda would do anything too serious to Hammerhead- he liked to think nobody would advocate basically ripping the vibranium out of this guy's skull when there was no sign he'd done anything to the country himself- but he had to admit that it would be interesting to find out what they actually did with him.

"Seriously, though," he said as he stood up and pretended to 'dust off' his hands, "credit to you for making the weird weapon work… in its own weird way."

With the police sirens coming closer to the building, Peter jumped towards the nearest window and began to swing away, wondering if it was weird to feel disappointed at just how straightforward it had been to take down that particular enemy. The vibranium skull was an unexpected touch, but he was fairly sure that the guy didn't have any other enhancements. He'd been tough enough by most standards, but Peter had a feeling even Black Widow could have beaten this guy in a fight if she could avoid being rammed by that skull, and even if she was really cool she was the physically weakest Avenger.

And Carol would have kicked his ass without even breaking a sweat…

Peter pushed that thought down; he was working on acting alone, he couldn't think about the other Avengers that often, especially when the one he had been closest to wasn't here any more. He was getting a better sense of what he could do in an actual fight beyond 'web them up and/or hit them a bit', and that was important; every other Avenger could act on their own, he had to do the same…

"Spider?"

"Ca-aptain?" Peter remembered not to say Carol's first name in public as he looked up to see her flying down alongside him, her mouth in a grim line under her helmet. "Are you all right?"

"Just…" Carol began, before she shook her head and adjusted her position to fly up behind Peter. He didn't even realise what she was doing until she had grabbed him from under his arms and flown off towards a nearby rooftop to a dimly-lit skyscraper. As she touched down on the roof, she released her grip and let Peter get down himself, looking at her in surprise so obvious that he was sure it was clear even when he was wearing his suit.

"Sorry," she shrugged at him, reaching up to take the helmet off. "I just thought it would be easier to talk this way."

"Uh… sure," Peter said, taking off his own mask; it wasn't exactly likely that anyone would be looking for them at the top of a building that looked like it wasn't in regular use right now. "Is something wrong?"

"I just…" Carol groaned as she leaned against a vent. "It probably sounds pathetic, but I just had the worst date ever and I wanted to vent."

"Oh," Peter said, ignoring the part of him that wanted to wince at the idea of Carol on a date and focus on her being upset now. "What was it?"

"Maria set me up with this guy she's worked with, but the man was… OK, he's probably a good soldier, but he was just such a goddamn tool," Carol shook her head in exasperation. "I get that he has a good reputation, but the man just kept going on and on about himself, and never seemed to think about the fact that I'm a bit more than someone he can brag about himself to…"

"…That sucks," Peter said, lost for anything better to say.

"Anyway," Carol gave him a slightly forced grin, "how are things with you?"

"Just… tracked down and caught this guy who was setting up a gang to give away stolen SHIELD weapons to a bunch of common crooks," Peter said, hoping it didn't sound like he was bragging.

"You caught a gang?" Carol looked at him with a smile.

"Well, most of them were just standard crooks; it was just this one guy in charge who was a bit more than some street thug…" Peter shrugged.

"Hey, don't put yourself down like that," Carol smiled. "The shape society's in right now, stopping any kind of gang taking advantage of this chaos has to be a good thing. It doesn't all have to be big cosmic stuff to matter, you know; I felt like more of a hero when I saved a shipful of refugees on Earth than when I believed I was protecting an entire planet before I knew that I was just being manipulated back then."

"Thanks," Peter smiled back at her, flexing his fingers as he glanced at his hand. "I guess there's something to be said for that Act of Random Kindness thing…"

"Mmm?"

"Just something from a film I saw a while back," Peter shrugged. "This guy was making a whole ark in the modern day on orders from God, and God explained that sometimes the best way to help people is just with acts of random kindness…"

"Good message," Carol smiled at him, before she shrugged and looked out at the city before them. "I guess that's one of the problems with doing things my way; when you're going all over the galaxy, it's hard to keep track of what kind of impact you're making beyond 'people aren't dead'."

"We have the most rewarding but exhausting job in the world…" Peter sighed with a smile.

"Yeah…" Carol gave him a smile in agreement, before turning to him with a wider grin. "Let's go somewhere."

"Huh?"

"Well, things right now might be rough, but maybe we deserve a day or two off to see what we're fighting for?" Carol explained. "I've been away from Earth for a while, it sounds like you haven't had much time to travel around here; maybe we could go somewhere we haven't been before and remind ourselves what's good about Earth?"

"That… That sounds good…" Peter said with a thoughtful smile, before he looked curiously at her. "You… why me?"

"Instead of the other Avengers?" Carol observed with a slight smile. "They're OK, but most of them… well, no offence to any of them, but I like you better."

Peter refused to do anything to embarrass himself, but the knowledge that he had made that kind of impression on Carol Danvers almost made him feel even better about himself than stopping the gang leader.

"I'm up for that," he said, hoping that he wasn't about to embarrass himself with his next words. "I mean, I'd need it to be a weekend, what with school and everything, but… yeah, I could take a trip."

AN: I have a destination in mind for their holiday, but feel free to make suggestions; maybe someone will inspire some future storyline for this fic.