Disclaimer: Everything you recognise here either came from the MCU films or the original Marvel comics, but I hope you enjoy the results anyway

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The Legacies' Triad

If there was one thing to be said for being a teenage vigilante, it was that it gave Peter interesting opportunities to see places he'd probably never have gone on his own. Admittedly he hadn't been able to see much of Leipzig when Mr Stark took him along to try and capture the 'rogue' Avengers (and he was getting increasingly uncomfortable with that as he realised he'd probably have chosen a different side if he'd had more time to do his research), but the principle was valid. Philadelphia might be a shorter distance than Germany, but it was still nice to see somewhere other than New York, and he had enjoyed the chance to walk around the city with Kate for a short while.

OK, he had known from the beginning that the goal had to be to keep an eye on Betty, but once they had followed the tracer signal to where Betty had parked the car, and confirmed that Betty was still inside (via Kate taking a look through a window with Susan), Peter had left his suit's mini-drone outside the house to alert them to any change before they left. Peter had faith that Mr Stark's tech would let them know once Betty left the house, and Susan was tuned in to local police broadcasts in case anything came up involving Gargan, which (hopefully) left him and Kate free to enjoy the sights for a few hours. History wasn't one of Peter's particular passions, but he could still enjoy the chance to visit the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall, and there was something to be said for having a cheesesteak sandwich in the town where they had been created in the first place.

The thing that 'troubled' Peter the most (if that was the right term for how he was feeling right now) was how… easy… it was to be this casual with Kate. They'd hung out in the past before that spider bit him, and they'd obviously been training since they each learned about their association with Yelena, but there was just something about the way they were able to talk now… even with Ned and May, Peter had to watch what he was saying these days in case he let something slip about his actions as Spider-Man, and Mr Stark and Mr Hogan weren't exactly available for 'hanging out', but with Kate…

The only part of this day that felt a bit off was how he found himself sometimes searching around every time they went into a new place for more than just the obvious things like the faint chance they'd find Gargan. He didn't know why a part of him kept looking out for a flash of blonde hair or listening for that distinctive Russian accent, but as much as he liked hanging out with Kate like this, it felt a little… odd… to be doing something like this without Yelena present as well. He knew that they'd only worked together to find Liz's dad, and he'd been happy enough dealing with street crime when it was just him and Kate, but something this big…

Ultimately, Peter pushed those thoughts down to focus on the more important matter when the time came for him and Kate to go and find Betty as the sun began to set. They had managed to find a public restroom they could use to change into their costumes and hide their bags (Peter keeping his senses alert in case anyone else came by while they were changing), and subsequently gone back to the house where they'd found Betty earlier, Kate hanging on to Peter's back as they went through the air (and Peter did not think about how nice Kate's chest had felt against his shoulders).

The drone's transmissions confirmed that Betty hadn't left the house yet, so once he and Kate reached their destination, all Peter had to do was run a quick scan of the house with his suit to confirm that Betty was alone in the house right now before he took the next step. Moving carefully towards the window closest to Betty's location, Peter waved Kate over to join him, climbed up the wall, and knocked on the window of the relatively empty room, just a couple of chairs in the otherwise empty room. Betty started at the sound, and then showed new shock when she saw who was outside the window, but hurried over to open it anyway.

"Y-you… you're…" Betty began, stepping back as Peter and Kate climbed in to the relatively empty room.

"Miss Brant," Peter said, recalling his lessons in putting on a slightly deeper voice to hide his identity, "I assume you know who I am?"

"Y-yeah," Betty nodded, before looking at Kate with a mix of confusion and fear. "But… I mean-?"

"Call me Kestrel," Kate said with a cool shrug. "I'm new; Spidey's showing me the ropes."

"Kestrel?" Betty repeated, still clearly confused, before she noticed the quiver on her back and nodded in understanding. "OK, so more like Hawkeye than Falcon?"

"The name sounds good," Kate said, her tone calm before she gave Betty a pointed stare. "However, what we want to know right now is what you have to do with Mac Gargan."

"Mac-" Betty began before she groaned in realisation and her shoulders slumped. "So that's his name?"

"You didn't know his name?" Peter looked at her in surprise. "Why would you be driving him anywhere?"

"I was… I had to…" Betty began, looking awkwardly between the two before she sighed. "It was Gordon Savinski."

"Who?" Kate asked, only allowing herself a brief glance at Peter to confirm that he didn't recognise the name either.

"He was… well, he was one of my brother's friends from college," Betty began, lowering her head and blushing slightly as she looked at the two heroes. "He was a freshman when Bennett started, but he dropped by for a few meals while Bennett was coming home for the weekend, and… I mean, he seemed really nice at first…"

"You dated this Gordon guy?" Kate asked, adding a probing edge to her voice even as Peter guessed she was trying not to come across as overly judgemental. "Correct me if I'm wrong…"

"Yeah, he was a bit older than me, but he was… like I said, he was really nice at first, and it was… I mean, when someone like that pays attention to you at that age, you just get caught up in the thrill of it…" Betty shook her head, her eyes glistening with unshod tears as she looked around herself. "And then he… when he asked me to…"

"You don't have to-" Kate began, as Peter was already starting to wish he hadn't brought this up.

"It was never- he just wanted photos, but that was… he said he wanted to see more of me, but I wouldn't…" Betty shook her head, now looking desperately between the two of them. "I never took them; I'm not that kind of-"

"We believe you," Peter said, holding up a hand to stop her having to say more. "I… good for you for not doing it, anyway; people can be… that kind of thing can be hard to deal with in your situation."

"Especially when it's from someone you previously cared for," Kate put in, reaching over to place a brief but comforting hand on Betty's shoulder in a show of female solidarity before she stepped back. "But I take it your brother remained in contact with Gordon?"

"More like Gordon's the reason Bennett met the people who got him into trouble," Betty clarified with a bitter glare. "I don't know what Gordon told Bennett about the break-up- I didn't want this to turn into a 'he said she said' thing- and Bennett seemed fine just leaving it as a messy break-up without telling our parents anything, but then I found Bennett stealing money from Mom's purse one night, and he revealed he'd become part of some… underground gambling ring."

"So how does that lead to this?" Peter asked.

"Gordon… I'm not sure how, but he had connections to a few criminal gangs," Betty explained. "He convinced Bennett that his contacts could deal with Bennett's gambling debts in exchange for Bennett's advice on a few things."

"Advice?" Kate asked.

"Bennett's studying law."

"Gotcha," Peter nodded in tentative understanding. A law student might not be a qualified lawyer, but with the right training he could see how Betty's brother might still be able to offer a criminal gang a few useful suggestions about what to do in certain situations. "So they keep Bennett as a source of legal knowledge, and you do a few extra 'favours' for them to make sure your parents don't find out anything?"

"Yes…" Betty nodded, a shameful expression on her face.

"So why would these people want Gargan?" Kate asked. "I get that he worked for the Vulture, but he struck us as more of the enforcer type than anything else…"

"From what I heard, Gargan's old boss was developing something specifically for him before… well, before you arrested Liz's dad," Betty explained as she turned back to Peter. "Bennett's main criminal contact, Blackie Gaxton, was arrested a while back. From what I've picked up, the idea is that Gaxton's men helped Gargan get out of prison in New York, I provided low-key transport to move Gargan to Philadelphia after he'd collected his equipment, and then Gargan would break Gaxton out of prison so they can… get on with things."

"In other words, Gargan's going to use the tech he received from his old boss to work as an enforcer for the mob?" Peter asked.

"Seems a bit convoluted," Kate noted.

"I heard that Gaxton has connections to someone bigger back in New York, but… well, they don't exactly talk business when I'm there; I only even know that much because they were making it clear that it would be a bad idea to try and get out of this," Betty shrugged apologetically. "Bennett's been visiting Gaxton in prison acting as his lawyer while wearing some kind of camera to help pass information back to Gaxton's gang; we're meant to meet… somewhere… later tonight once Gaxton's out so that everything can be finalised…"

"Which you're hoping includes clearing your brother's debt?"

"I… I know it's not likely, but… what choice do we have?" Betty shrugged, before she looked at Peter and Kate with a new sense of hope. "But… if you're here…?"

"We'll be keeping an eye on things, anyway," Peter nodded reassuringly at the girl who had no idea she was a friend of the man behind the mask. "You'll be meeting with Bennett and the gang later?"

"I'm… basically meant to be the driver for the last leg of the journey, anyway," Betty conceded. "It's meant to just be Bennett getting his final orders from Gaxton, but… Can you…?"

"We'll be there," Kate said firmly, walking forward to place her hands on Betty's shoulders as she looked the other girl in the eyes, even behind her new glasses. "Just stay calm until we get there. Whatever Gaxton's like, we have to assume that whatever Gargan received from his old boss is dangerous, but we don't want to provoke anything if the exchange is going… well."

"As well as anything could right now, huh?" Betty gave a weak smile. That exchange made, Peter and Kate gave the blonde a final encouraging nod before they returned to the window, Kate taking up position on Peter's back as he climbed out of the window and up the outside wall. There was a water-tower a short distance away that would provide a good place to keep a discreet eye on things until Betty had to leave, and from there, it just depended on where this meeting was going to take place.

A part of Betty desperately wanted to know how Spider-Man and his new partner had found her so quickly after everything that had happened with Gargan, but the rest of her didn't really want to worry about that kind of thing right now. Her brother had spent the day going over things in some other house before the big meeting this evening, and if everything had gone as planned Gargan should have got Gaxton out of prison already, so that meant…

Here goes nothing, Betty thought to herself, as she walked out to the car and drove off, just as instructed by Bennett's contacts. The first stop was picking up Bennett from a different safehouse (Betty had been clearly told the day before that this was just where she was to meet Bennett rather than where he'd be for the rest of the day), and while she was glad to see her brother standing outside the house, she was less pleased to see his companion.

"Gordon," Betty said, her tone neutral as she looked at her ex as he climbed into the passenger seat.

"Betts," Gordon smiled at her, with that cool smirk that had once made her feel special and now left her feeling like he was picturing what was under her clothes. "You look-"

"Let's go," Bennett cut in from the back seat, shooting an apologetic glance at Betty as she met his gaze in the rear-view mirror. Betty allowed herself a brief smile back at her brother, glad to see that he was at least still apparently in good shape, before she started the car and pulled out onto the road. She wasn't sure if Spider-Man and Kestrel were already watching her or if they'd planted some kind of tracker on her somewhere (there were all kinds of rumours about how Spider-Man in particular hunted people), but right now she just had to trust the two heroes and hope for the best.

After driving for another hour or so, following Gordon's occasional instructions and making sure nobody else on the road paid any particular attention to her (Betty really should have found some way to confirm that Spider-Man and Kestrel were following her), she parked the car in front of the docks, noticing a couple of vaguely familiar faces gathered around the ramp leading up to a particular ship. She wondered if she would be expected to wait outside, but Gordon's firm hand on her shoulder made it clear that she was expected to get out as well.

Fighting the urge to scream or cry from terror, Betty tried to stay close to Bennett as Gordon led the Brants up the ramp. She told herself that these people weren't going to just shoot her for no reason, but it wasn't as though she had any personal experience with criminals (Liz's dad didn't count; he'd obviously been putting on a front when he'd met her and the rest of the decathlon team on past visits).

"Best we could do, huh?" Gordon said to one of the men around the ramp as they boarded the ship.

"The launch is coming to take us somewhere better," one of the men said with a shrug. "Gaxton's just getting changed."

Betty opened her mouth to ask for more information, but a new hand on her shoulder prompted her to glance over at Bennett, who shook his head slightly at her to keep quiet. Fighting down her fear, Betty followed them into another room with a larger group of men already inside, loosely gathered around an older man with thick black hair and a moustache that put Betty in mind of a meaner version of Richard Burke from Friends.

"B-Blackie?" Bennett said, his words slightly stumbling over themselves even as he tried to adopt a more confident posture while looking at the older man.

"Bennett," the moustachioed man said with a firm nod. "Nice job giving them the plans."

"I just- you know this was just- can't we just-?" Bennett began.

"It's over when I say it's over, kid," Gaxton said, before he turned to look at Betty with a smirk. "So this is the sister you mentioned?"

"Hey, I'm still in high school, creep!" Betty countered, hoping she hadn't crossed a line when the older man gave her a brief glare, but Gaxton ultimately nodded at her with a slight smile.

"Respect," the criminal said with a brief nod. "Don't worry, kid; we're professionals, not perverts."

Betty decided not to bring up anything about her past with Gordon; her ex had been close enough to her in age that it wasn't that creepy at the time, even if he'd been a bit of a jerk towards the end…

"Bennett, on the other hand," Gaxton continued as he turned to look at her brother, "you're still a useful asset."

"I'm not going to leave-!" Bennett began.

"Trust me, you're more useful back here," Gaxton cut him off, even as he gave her brother a warning glare. "We've got a few contacts who'll be staying put; my boss should be getting in touch about a few details…"

"Any chance we could get some more info about that?" a voice said from the door. As the assorted gangsters spun around to look at the source of the voice, Betty fought the urge to smile in relief as Spider-Man and Kestrel stood at one of the cabin doors, Spider-Man's arms raised in a defensive manner while Kestrel had drawn her bow and an arrow was ready to fire.

"Well well," Gaxton smirked at the two young heroes with a confidence that just left Betty feeling even more worried. "Bit earlier than I was expecting, but I was prepared for the idea of dealing with the likes of you…"

"And that's where I came in," another voice said. Turning around, Betty fought down the urge to scream as she saw Mac Gargan, now wearing a complex-looking dark green suit with a long tail sticking out of the back and two large gauntlets on his hands that looked like pincers.

"Gargan?" Spider-Man looked at the new arrival with what Betty hoped was exaggerated surprise, the lenses in his mask widening and contracting as he assessed the other man. "OK, that's… different."

"I liked the idea of having some extra kick," Gargan said, his voice becoming more menacing as he looked at Spider-Man. "And when I did a quick check on a spider's natural enemies, this seemed like a good design."

"You designed your whole suit to fight Spider-Man?" Kestrel said with a sceptical tone even as she kept her bow raised. "That's a bit-"

"Yeah, nobody cares what you think, archer," Gargan said, raising his tail to aim it at the woman in purple. "Just get out of the way-"

Spider-Man suddenly dived forwards, striking Gargan with such force that both men were thrown out of the cabin even as the door was practically torn from the wall. Betty wasn't sure what she expected from Kestrel, but she was relieved when the woman in purple fired an arrow at one of Gaxton's men, leaving the man with an arrow in his shoulder before Kestrel dived into action.

Betty didn't know much about hand-to-hand combat, but it wasn't hard to see that Kestrel was good for her size. The woman used her smaller size and the confined location to her advantage, ducking around Gaxton's men as they tried to attack her while staying in close enough that they couldn't use their guns without risking shooting their own men. Betty was suddenly reminded of a line she'd read in a book she'd found in the library once; something about four-on-one being a disadvantage because the four were hanging back in the belief that the other three could take the risk. As the student watched, Kestrel pulled out a couple of arrows to use as improvised daggers, even stabbing a couple of Gaxton's men in the arms so that they couldn't use their own weapons against her. Betty thought there was a certain caution in the blows at first, as though Kestrel was trying to choose when to act, but told herself that this was probably because of what the woman in purple had mentioned earlier about being 'new'.

As the fight continued, Betty winced at the sight of arrows piercing people's limbs, even as she reminded herself that these people were criminals who were willing to blackmail her brother and threaten their lives, but her train of thought was cut short when Bennett suddenly moved to stand in front of her and then fell to the ground clutching at his shoulder. Even as Betty fell to her knees to check her brother, she could see that Kestrel had grabbed Gaxton's hand and forced it off to the side as he had fired a gun, but the bullet had still hit Bennett in the chest.

"NO!" she screamed, frantically examining her brother's fallen form, trying to work out how badly he'd been injured even as she knew she knew far too little about biology to do anything about it. She was only vaguely aware of the fight still being waged around her, just alert enough to know that she was relatively safe right now even as she tried to focus on her injured brother…

When something grabbed her shoulder, Betty didn't even stop to look back, just slamming her elbow backwards; at this point the only person in this room she'd trust to grab her was Kestrel, and the fight still going on behind her made it clear that Kestrel was still occupied. Glancing back, she allowed herself a brief smile as she saw that Gordon was the one who'd tried to grab her; she wasn't comfortable with any of these people, but she wasn't going to deny that it felt particularly good to have a reason to hit her ex. Focusing her attention to trying to keep pressure on Bennett's wound, she looked up as the sounds of fighting ceased, smiling in relief as she saw most of the men lying unconscious or clutching injured limbs as Kestrel ran out of the room. Betty would have called after her to get help, but another glance around affirmed that Gaxton wasn't among the group of men who'd been knocked out, which meant it was good odds that Kestrel was after him in particular.

"Hold on, Ben," she said, turning her attention to her brother, hoping that none of the other gang members left here were going to regain consciousness before Spider-Man or Kestrel came back to help her. She couldn't do anything about what was going on outside, but she had to have faith that the two heroes would deal with things outside, so her priority had to be to make sure her brother's injury didn't get any worse…

The only reason Kate wasn't swearing even in her own mind as she tried to chase after the escaping Blackie Gaxton is that she was fairly sure Avengers shouldn't swear in public and she didn't want to risk falling into that particular habit. The fight against the other crooks had been exhilarating at the time in its own dark way, and she had definitely appreciated Yelena's advice about using arrows for close-quarter combat, but right now she was trying to focus on catching Gaxton and not think about the sounds of battle behind her. Peter was obviously facing the bigger problem going up against Gargan in that scorpion suit (and was with that gang and animal-themed suits?), but Kate didn't know if she could do anything to help against that situation while Gaxton was still someone she could theoretically deal with on her own.

The problem right now was that Gaxton was getting too far ahead while weaving around the vents and bollards and everything else on the decks to stop her getting a clear shot. Kate did her best to chase after Gaxton and try and take a couple of shots with the arrows, but she knew that she wasn't practised enough at shooting while running yet to do it properly. She'd managed while on patrol with Peter by getting a clear line of sight at her targets in a reasonably open area, but right now the environment just wasn't letting her line up for a good shot. Seeing him run down a ramp, Kate put on a quick burst of speed as she ran along the deck, lining up an arrow-

The sound of a strangled scream of pain from behind her drew Kate's attention in the other direction, but her blood ran cold when she saw the source of that scream; Peter, his head trapped in Gargan's claws and Gargan's tail at the very least directly over Peter's chest. Peter's arms and legs were flailing against Gargan's armour with clear intent, so at least Kate knew he was still alive, but the idea of someone doing that to her friend…

Any thought of targeting Gaxton abandoned, Kate practically spun around and fired her arrow at the back of Gargan's suit, hoping that her vague memory of Peter's analysis of the Vulture suit would apply to this design as well. As the arrow struck a point just below Gargan's shoulders, just managing to miss the tail, for a moment Kate worried that she'd wasted the shot, but then Gargan's tail jerked away from Peter's body and Gargan let out a shocked yell. With the main force against him now gone, Peter shoved his opponent further away from him, following it up by raising his legs and delivering a sharp kick to the man in green armour.

"Yes," Kate whispered in satisfaction as Gargan was sent staggering towards the edge of the deck, Peter shifting into a combat stance despite the torn material on his chest. Kate had just drawn another arrow and was preparing to aim it at the criminal when Gargan turned around and leapt over the edge of the deck, leaving Kate to hurry over to the side of the boat to try and see what he was up to. She kept the arrow raised and ready to shoot, but she had to acknowledge a guilty sense of relief when she saw Gargan on a boat that must have pulled up earlier and was already some distance away. It was just far enough that Kate might still have been able to shoot an arrow at Gargan or someone else on board, but she also knew that she wouldn't be able to actually catch up with Gargan or his allies afterwards even if she hit him. She even thought she saw Gaxton standing near Gargan on the deck of the smaller vessel, but at this distance it could have been some other guy in a similar suit.

Resigning herself to the fact that their enemies had made a getaway this time, Kate turned around and hurried over to where Peter was kneeling on an upper deck, hand over his chest and swaying slightly as his damaged suit tried to knit itself back together.

"Are you…" Kate began, only to stop herself from finishing that sentence; even with limited medical knowledge herself, based on the way blood was leaking from the wound on Peter's chest he was definitely not 'all right'.

"I'll live," Peter said, trying to shrug and wincing as the motion moved the wound on his chest. "Damn…"

"How are we going to-?"

"I'll… hold off on swinging for a bit once we get home," Peter cut Kate off, as though he already knew what she was about to say. "If I'm careful… give myself a break… May shouldn't notice…"

"Hey!" another voice called out from further along the ship. "Is anyone there?"

"Betty?" Peter said, moving to adjust his suit before he sighed and looked down at himself. "This… isn't going to give her confidence; could you-?"

"On it," Kate nodded, indicating the coast. "I'll tell Betty you're making sure nobody else is around here, and then Susan can call help."

Peter gave a nod before he hurried towards the edge of the boat and jumped off. Kate tried to ignore the way Spider-Man was swinging away at a notably slower speed than usual, reminding herself that he was going to take time to rest and heal once they were back in New York, while she reached up to activate her equipment.

"Susan," she said as she hurried back to the cabin where she'd left Betty and the rest of the gang, "get the police and an ambulance here as fast as you can; we've got at least one gunshot that needs treating and a bunch of crooks to take into custody."

"Of course, Kate," Susan's voice responded over her headset as Kate reached the cabin. "I am already leaving an anonymous tip; you can remain or leave as you wish."

"Thanks," Kate said, lowering her voice before she entered the cabin and winced as she saw Betty kneeling over her brother, her hands stained red from pressing down on his injury.

"He-" Betty began, looking anxiously over at the sound of someone entering the room, only calming when she saw it wasn't another criminal. "They just- he was protecting me- they're all-"

"Everyone else is fine," Kate said, hoping that Betty would take that as a good thing as she crouched down beside the other girl, already feeling so much older than this person who had to be around her age after her second major event since Yelena had entered her life. "Spider-Man's dealing with some stragglers, and I think it's safe to say that nobody's going to try and use your brother again after what just happened."

"R-really?" Betty said uncertainly.

"Really," Kate nodded, glancing around the room at the unconscious criminals. "After this kind of arrest, I can't imagine the gang that would want to take the risk of making contact with him again. If you're careful, you can probably spin this any number of ways to make Bennett's association with them just him being drawn in because of a run of bad luck, and from there… maybe he can make some kind of deal to go into protective custody while they're putting the case together?"

Even as Betty nodded cautiously, Kate hoped she wasn't giving false hope. For all that she'd read up on Clint Barton's career since the Battle of New York, the Avengers didn't exactly tackle street-level crime like this on a regular basis, and she was making a few guesses based on crime dramas she'd watched in the past. She didn't doubt that some of these guys would be facing jail soon enough, but if she could do more…

As she stood up to assess the room once again, her eyes fell on a phone that had been left lying in a corner of the room. She would admit to herself that she hadn't been keeping track of everything during the fight, but a discreet check of Susan's visual records (evidently the glasses doubled up as cameras among their more esoteric functions) was enough to confirm that this was the phone Gaxton had been using earlier.

Kate was aware that taking evidence from a crime scene would put her in a legally tricky position, but if nobody knew the phone was there… and when she had access to a Tony-Stark-designed-A.I. to run a few searches…

By the time the emergency services arrived at the boat, Betty Brant was alone with her brother and a group of unconscious criminals. None of the police present were aware of the unregistered vigilantes watching the boat from a nearby rooftop, and the vigilante in red and blue was unaware of the phone tucked in the pocket of the young woman in purple sitting alongside him.

Kate wasn't sure what her next move would be, but she was already making a few plans for how best to make a more positive impression on Peter and Yelena; if she wanted to show that she was serious about this, she'd need to track down Gaxton herself…