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

There were times when Peter wondered if it had been Mr Stark announcing himself as Iron Man that made the world so much crazier than it had been before that, or if the first modern Avenger had just given people some kind of permission to acknowledge how nuts it had always been. The idea of superheroes inspiring supervillains was a bit depressing in one regard, as he liked to think he was out here making things better, but with the metaphorical genie out of the bottle it wasn't like the villains would go away if the Avengers stopped going out themselves.

Of course, when people talk about the world going crazy by adding supervillains to the equation, I wonder if anyone thought they'd be this crazy…

"Look, pal," Peter said as he vaulted over a punch from the latest aspiring bank robber he'd found himself running into on his latest patrol, "you do get that most banks handle things electronically these days, right?

"Which is why I'm going for the banks that still hold some cash!" the man countered, his silver armour at odds with the purple that covered his upper arms and legs. "It's not even really stealing; half of the people that money belongs to are dead-!"

"And you deserve it?" Peter countered, urgently waving a nearby couple back as he leapt back over another punch.

"Why not?" the man retorted, removing a large gun from his back and pointing it in Peter's direction. "After I found the most potent natural source of power left in this universe following the destruction of those stupid stones, I was the one who harnessed that power to put it to practical use-!"

"Robbing banks?" Peter stared at the man incredulously. "You seriously think that is a productive use of your time?"

"In a world where we can lose half the world to a purple genocidal maniac, what's the point in doing anything but looking out for Number One?" the man retorted, aiming his gun at Peter as the wall-crawler landed on the ground. "And now for you…!"

Peter was prepared to leap out of the way and fire his webbing to deflect the latest attack from his strange foe, but was left surprised when he didn't become aware of that tingling sensation in the back of his head that indicated he was dealing with a dangerous situation.

I have a superhumanly strong lunatic pointing a gun at me and I'm not in danger? Peter thought in surprise, only for that surprise to falter as he saw the man squeeze the trigger and the gun did nothing.

"Uh… is something supposed to happen here?" he said at last, looking uncertainly at the criminal. "I mean, if you made that thing-"

"And I know exactly what my Sookie needs to channel her power!" the man yelled at Peter, one hand still adjusting the trigger even as he reached up to caress the large rock with the other. "She just needs a little time to warm up; it's all been a busy few days of training-!"

"Hold on; 'she'?" Peter cut in. "You're talking about that rock?"

"Don't talk about my darling that way!" the man yelled indignantly stopping his attempts to pull the trigger to cradle the gun in his arms, his hands on either side of the rock as though he was covering a baby's ears. "She gave me her power and I help her unleash it; she's… she's just a bit tired right now!"

"Uh… you do realise how crazy that all sounds, right?" Peter looked uncertainly at the other man, wondering just what had made a man this completely deranged. "You're talking to a rock-"

"Don't insult her!" the man yelled once again, brandishing the gun in Peter's direction. "You may have interrupted me this time, but the Looter will not countenance any insults to his beloved!"

"Looter?" Peter repeated, struggling to comprehend how a man could fall this far and not have been sent to some kind of hospital ages ago. "You seriously call yourself-"

"You dare to criticise my power!" the self-proclaimed Looter yelled, once again trying to fire the gun at Peter, only for him to start desperately patting the green rock in the gun when nothing happened. "Come on, Precious; I know you can do this; you just need to concentrate-!"

"Shut up!" Peter yelled, leaping over to slam the palm of his hand against the other man's chest, knocking the strange gun out of the Looter's hands and into Peter's own hands. "Seriously, there is nothing in this stupid rock! It's just some lump of… stuff; what are you even-?"

"You dare belittle my Snookie darling?" the Looter yelled, lashing out with a kick that at least showed some kind of superstrength behind it. "She gave me my power, and I will help her unleash her own on this world-!"

"Yeah, if that thing gave you any kind of power, I'm pretty sure that was its last gasp, and that's assuming that gun thing actually works," Peter countered, tossing the weapon away and ducking under another kick before he leapt backwards to perch on a nearby wall. "But seriously, even if it did have power, you know the Infinity Stones channelled so much energy they basically killed most people who even tried to use them? If you honestly think this thing-"

"SHUT UP!" the Looter yelled, diving to the ground to grab his weapon from where Peter had left it earlier, desperately pulling the trigger only to be met with no response.

"OK," Peter said, jumping down from the wall to kick the other man in the head. "This is just getting embarrassing for both of us; please stay down from now on."

To Peter's relief, the man stayed on the ground after that last kick, groaning in pain even as one hand tried to reach towards his fallen weapon. Lost for anything better to do with this guy, Peter applied a few layers of webbing to keep the man's hands pinned to the ground while he picked up the gun himself. He was fairly confident in his assessment that whatever the rock in the middle of this gun might have been before, it wasn't any kind of power source now, but he would prefer to check this thing over in a lab before he committed himself to anything.

He briefly regretted that he had to do this himself, but he quickly forced that thought down. Even if Mr Stark was still alive (and would that thought ever stop being painful?), he couldn't expect his old mentor to basically drop everything to spend however long it would take to analyse some strange rock taken from a relatively small-scale bad guy like this one, so it would have been up to him to analyse this thing anyway.

Of course, given how this thing performed so far, I'm probably safe leaving it until tomorrow when I already have plans this evening…

Sitting in the cinema, Peter wished that he could turn off his mind enough to focus on his date rather than wonder how the entertainment industry was coping with the post-Snap world.

He could at least assume that most TV shows and movies set in the present would find some way to incorporate the Snap into their narratives (like that early Dr Who episode where that London soap made reference to all those 'ghosts' showing up all over the world before the Doctor confirmed they were actually Cybermen), but there were so many movies that had been in production that were going to be abandoned or at least delayed until the survivors could work something out. It even got him thinking of that Imaginarium film that had to come up with some way to accommodate the death of one of their leads by having him change his appearance in some dream world…

Get over it, he reminded himself, looking over at the girl sitting on his left. The idea of a date hadn't been something he was thinking that much about since Liz left the city and Michelle/MJ was lost in the Snap, but it wasn't as though he could stay single forever. When the Snap meant that so many schools had been left short of pupils, a decision had been made to bring together some of the smaller 'surviving' schools into one institution to give the surviving pupils more social opportunities and make it easier to keep track of their academic prospects (or something like that; Peter had been a bit busy to keep track of the actual reasons before everything happened).

Peter still missed MJ, Ned, Betty and the rest of the Decathlon team- there were times he even missed Flash, even if that was only in the same sense that you got used to the annoying way the door creaked once someone fixed it- but it was kind of nice to be able to re-invent himself even a bit with all the new pupils. He wasn't going to do anything drastic like join the basketball team or something that would have been wildly out of character for his pre-bite self, but everything that had happened since the Snap at least gave him an excuse to let Peter Parker be a bit more confident in himself.

Debra Whitman had been one of the new students sent to Midtown, and she and Peter had hit it off quickly enough. He'd noticed that she talked around the subject of her past when the topic of their pre-Snap lives came up, but considering that he didn't exactly share everything with her either he wasn't going to force her to talk. They'd ended up working together on a few projects, and one thing led to another which led to them going out to the cinema a couple of times. Peter had appreciated having a reason to get out as Peter Parker rather than as Spider-Man, and Debra was good company when she made the effort, but as a date…

Peter was satisfied that Debra wasn't a bad person in herself, but there was still something about the way she kept talking around her past. He appreciated that he kept some secrets from her about his own background, but there was a difference between him avoiding anything that might hint at his role as Spider-Man and the way Debra was so uncomfortable sharing her own history. He was fairly sure she wasn't hiding anything Avenger-related, and he definitely didn't think that she was hiding any criminal activity, but her lack of confidence in herself made it clear that she had issues.

And it's those kind of issues I can't help with…

Maybe it was unfair of him to avoid that kind of 'responsibility', but while he thought of Debra as a nice enough girl, and he'd help her if she asked for his help, but he didn't feel up for trying to make her talk about something she clearly wasn't prepared to talk about herself. She was friendly enough, she wasn't stupid, and she had this aura about her that made Peter want to help her at least, particularly when she talked about how stupid she felt at times when Peter could see that she was bright enough, but he wasn't sure if he was ready to commit to doing anything more for her. He had so many responsibilities as Spider-Man and his academic career right now, he didn't think he could give Debra the kind of attention she needed to properly get over her personal issues.

He'd give this another couple of dates before he officially let her down in case she was getting the wrong idea, and he'd do his best to make it clear that he wasn't doing this because he didn't care, but Debra deserved to find someone who could give her the time and support she needed.

Peter knew that nobody could replace Aunt May, Mr Stark or Ned in his life, but if he was going to move on himself… even if it sounded a bit selfish in his head, he wanted to find someone who could be there for him as well, rather than someone who needed him this much. Debra deserved someone who could help her deal with whatever was bothering her, but Peter didn't think that could be him.

Frankly, the way things had been lately, maybe it was time for another break… and he knew just who he wanted to have that break with…