Peter raced through the halls of the school until he nearly slammed into the row of lockers where he hid all of his extra supplies. He quickly lifted the lockers up with one hand while his other grabbed his spare suit and web-shooters.

"Hey!" Thalia called from down the hallway. She had probably followed him out of the gym after he ran out. She jogged up to him, taking in his disheveled look and the suit. "What are you doing with that?"

"Liz's dad is the Vulture," he informed her grimly and she took a sharp breath in disbelief. He scoffed. "Yeah, I couldn't believe it either. But that's not all. He's going to rob Stark Industries. Tonight."

"We have to stop him," Thalia said, determined.

Percy shook his head. "We can't do anything. This isn't like the normal stuff we face. This guy is a mortal. We can't charge in there, swords swinging. You wouldn't be able to use your powers either. I have to be the one to stop him."

Thalia huffed in annoyance. "I hate when you're logical. Fine, I won't come with you. What can I do?"

"Talk to Liz?" he asked sheepishly. Thalia raised an eyebrow in response. He sighed. "Don't give me that look. I really like her and I feel bad about ditching her, especially because the guy I'm going after is her dad."

"Fine," Thalia acquiesced. "What do you want me to say to her?"

"I don't know, but I'm sure you'll come up with something," he said. Thalia opened her mouth to say something but Percy cut her off, "And no, you can't use the Mist on her."

Thalia pursed her lips in displeasure but nodded nonetheless. "Fine. Good luck, Percy. And if you need help, don't be a Kelp Head and call me, okay?"

Percy nodded, mostly to appease her. He would call her, but only if there was no other option. He was about to leave but turned around at the last second. "I need to borrow your phone."

Thalia furrowed her eyebrows in confusion and pulled it out of her jacket pocket. She warned, "You better not break it."

"No promises," he said quickly. Percy turned and ran towards the back of the school. He managed to get changed as he was running, months of quickly getting changed in alleyways finally proving useful. He had just made it to the parking lot when his spider-sense went off, a large buzz in the back of his mind screaming at him to duck.

He managed to do so, narrowly dodging an attack from behind him. He slid roughly against the pavement and scrambled to get up, only to get knocked in the stomach by the man he had dubbed Shocker in his mind. He flew back, slamming into a school bus. The impact of the hit caused his web-shooters to go flying, leaving him weaponless.

"He gave you a choice, you chose wrong," the Shocker said menacingly. The man hesitated, taking in Peter's suit. "What's up with the crappy suit?"

Peter doesn't respond, taking the time to get back up and reorient himself. The shock itself didn't hurt that much, it was weaker than Thalia's by a considerable amount, but his back was stinging from the pain of hitting the bus. He was starting to regret his decision to tell Thalia to stay behind.

"Guess we're doing this the old fashioned way," he thought. He rolled his shoulders, squaring up in a defensive position.

He stayed on the balls of his feet, expertly dodging the incoming punch from the Shocker and ducking behind him. His goal was to get to his web shooters before going on the offensive. The gauntlet slammed into another bus, the metal warping underneath it and the glass shattering into tiny shards before falling to the ground.

"I wasn't sure about this thing before..." the man trailed off.

Percy took whatever time he could to assess his opponent's weaknesses. The man was reliant on his weapon, and it took a few seconds to charge between every use. Percy grinned wolfishly. He could use that.

He waited until after the Shocker had attempted to punch him again, this time causing a bus to go flying across the parking lot, to make his move. In the few seconds that he was charging his weapon, Percy flipped over his head, causing the other man to spin rapidly. The slight whiplash was all Percy needed to land a good hit on him, sending him reeling.

Unfortunately, he quickly recovered, wiping at the blood under his nose. He shot Percy a glare before getting ready to attack again. He lifted his gauntlet in the air, and it started to glow brighter as it charged. Percy was about to try and punch the man again when a web attached itself to the top of the gauntlet. He looked over and saw Ned standing there, holding the web shooter awkwardly. He quickly grabbed the string and pulled the device out of his friend's hand. He ripped the gauntlet off of the Shocker's hand and webbed him to the side of the bus.

The man started struggling and yelling which Peter fixed by shooting another web against his mouth, effectively preventing him from speaking.

He ran back to Ned. He briefly considered telling him to go back to the dance before he remembered the phone in he had planted in the car. He wouldn't be able to track it and go after Toomes. He swiftly explained the situation, "Liz's dad is the guy with wings. I need you to go and get on a computer to track my phone. We have to catch him before he makes it out of town."

"What? Are you going to be okay?" Ned asked worriedly.

"I'll be fine. Now, go!" Peter reassured him. Ned nodded and hurried back inside the school.

Percy grabbed the gauntlet off of the pavement and started running for the other side of the parking lot. He let out a shrill whistle, hoping that his friend would hear him. He stopped underneath a lamppost. He took a moment to concentrate and stuffed the gauntlet into the Duat until he could deal with it later.

There was a flapping of wings above him and Percy turned his head towards the sky. A familiar silhouette briefly covered the moon before descending.

"Hey Boss, long time no see," Blackjack greeted him. "What's with the stupid onesie?"

Percy grimaced. "It's a long story. And I'm sorry for not staying in contact. I was dealing with... everything. We can talk later though. I'll promise you two dozen doughnuts if you can give me a ride."

Blackjack huffed indignantly but nonetheless let Percy climb onto him back. He took off roughly, jostling Percy around. He eventually leveled out, wings beating steadily. Percy pulled out Thalia's phone and dialed Ned's number. His friend picked up after the second ring.

"Go for Ned."

"Hey, I need you to track my phone for me, I left it in Toomes' car," Peter informed Ned, getting straight to the point.

"Genius move. Okay, he just passed the GameStop on Jackson Avenue," Ned said after a minute of typing. Percy cursed in his head. Blackjack had been heading the wrong way. He quickly adjusted their flight path.

"Wait, Jackson Avenue isn't on the way out of the city," Percy voiced his thoughts out loud.

There was a moment of silence before Ned spoke again," It seems like he's heading to the old industrial park in Brooklyn."

Percy was about to respond when the line suddenly clicked and the connection went dead. He waited for a few minutes before Ned finally texted him.

"Got caught by Mr. Harrington"

Percy cursed again before he tapped out a quick reply, "It's okay, I'll be fine. Let my cousins know where I am if I don't text in two hours."

Ned sent a thumbs up emoji back within a few seconds. Percy safely stowed away the phone and focused on safely flying. The silence only lasted a minute before Blackjack started a conversation.

"So, boss," he started, "Who're you going to stop this time?"

"This mortal, he has a pair of wings like Daedalus and is selling weapons to dangerous criminals," Percy told the pegasus.

"What else?" Blackjack asked.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean," Blackjack clarified, "that there's always a catch with you, boss. This can't just be some random criminal."

Percy huffed before grumbling, "He's my date's dad."

Blackjack snorted in amusement at Percy's predicament. "Only you boss."

Percy didn't have time to retort as Blackjack descended, quickly landing in front of an old decrepit building. Percy said goodbye to his friend and climbed up the side of the building. Once he got to the roof, he opened one of the many skylights and slowly lowered himself down. The room he landed in was surrounded by computers, each of them holding blueprints and schematics most likely related to the heist.

To his right was a pair of large metal wings. Just looking at them caused a faint ringing in his ears. His instincts were screaming, "danger!" He shot two small bursts of webs into the blades of the machine. Hopefully, that would prevent Toomes from using them.

He walked past the wings, venturing further into the building. Toomes was in the back of the warehouse, watching him as Peter walks towards him. He stopped about twenty feet away from Toomes. They were having a silent standoff. Peter moved first, webbing the other man's hand to the table he was leaning against.

"Hey Pete, didn't hear you come in," Toomes said. He chuckled when Percy stayed silent. " You know, I gotta tell you, I really admire your grit. I see why Liz likes you. When you first came to the house, I wasn't sure. I thought, "Really?" But I get it now."

Peter could hold it in any longer. "How could you do this to her?"

"To her? I'm doing this for her. You're young, Pete. You don't understand how the world works," Toomes said condescendingly.

Peter gritted his teeth. He had been in two wars, he knew exactly how the world worked. "I know that selling weapons to criminals is wrong."

"How do you think your buddy Stark paid for that tower? Or any of his little toys?" Toomes asked. "Those people, Pete, the rich and the powerful, they do whatever they want. Guys like us, like you and me, they don't care about us. We build their roads and we fight all their wars and everything, but they don't care about us. We have to pick up after 'em. We have to eat their table scraps. That's how it is. I know you know what I'm talking about, Peter."

"I do know what you're talking about," Percy admitted, thinking of Luke and how he felt used by the gods. "But, people like you, you just add to the problem. It's a never-ending cycle. Someone gets jealous of the guys at the top, so they start taking shortcuts and doing whatever it takes to 'survive'. In the end, you're no better than the guys in those skyscrapers."

Toones growled but didn't say anything. Peter had a split-second warning, in the form of an intense ringing in his ears, before he instinctively jumped up, narrowly escaping getting killed by the wings.

The wings flew in circles around him, each time just missing hitting him after it swooped down. After a minute, there was a lull in the attacks. Toomes was staring at him, something almost like remorse shining in his eyes.

"Sorry, Pete," he apologized.

"What for?" Peter asked, a growing well of dread in his stomach. The base of his neck thrummed with the familiar warning of his Spider-Sense. "You haven't even hit me yet."

Toomes shrugged. "True, wasn't really trying to though."

Peter watched in horror, frozen to the spot as the wings destroyed the last of the support pillars surrounding him. The ceiling started to crumble before large chunks of rock rained down on his head. He tried running through the falling debris, but a piece of the ceiling fell and hit him directly. He barely had time to register the pain before he closed his eyes and let unconsciousness take over.

Wow, who else is depressed from Endgame? I haven't decided if I want to included Endgame in the story yet, so we'll see how things go. Let me know what you think of the chapter.

<3 S