The clock ticked by as Ruby dried the dishes alongside her mother and, as the last cupboard door shut, she rounded on herself quickly and picked up her bag from beside the door.

"I'll be back soon, mum!" She called into the apartment, probably too loud for the moment and her neighbours likely heard her.

She sprinted through the streets of Queens, nearly missing the cyclist ringing their bell behind her. The boy jeered back at her and shook his head while she motioned overdramatically to her hearing aid, perfectly on show now she had her hair up in a ponytail.

The encounter had slowed her down and, upon checking her phone, she could see it was 8pm and she had one unread message from Peter.

People have arrived, can't see your Dad

She sent him a response before setting off in a sprint once again:

Don't do anything until I get there.

There was a buzz in her pocket, no doubt Peter questioning whether she should really be coming but it wasn't even a question anymore. If she could stop her dad before he fell any further into this wormhole of villainy, she would.

The bay was one block away, she knew that much and, upon seeing Mr Radcliffe's workmate's car parked in the near-empty parking lot, she put on a fresh burst of energy and sprinted through the gate. As she passed through shadows cast by the buildings and broken lamps, she could see men stuck to the walls with webs and wondered how many people had gathered here before Peter apprehended them. There was a regular shotgun on the ground beneath one man and she hesitantly picked it up, holding the weapon with her shirtsleeves over her hands and gripping the handle only. She didn't want to use it, but she would if she was forced to.

The wind carried voices down the pier as one man yelled at another and she dropped to a crouch, peering around corners and humming a stealth tune in her head as though she was in a movie. The final building before the pier stretched out over the water was a carnival stall that sold hotdogs during the day. Its sign was still out and she risked exposing herself by running up behind it to hide. Here, she could tell they were talking by the humming on the air but could hear no words.

A body moved above her and she looked up in time to see Peter sign 'be quiet' to her. He then sprung through the darkness to land behind her, up close she could see that his suit was much more advanced than she'd initially thought. The spider at his chest, for example, was hovering nearer the group like a drone and there was a small spider-shaped cavern in his chest where it had once sat. He was perched on his toes, balanced by one hand rest against the stall next to them. Ruby felt horribly exposed in comparison and kicked herself for not thinking this through.

These men handled alien technology that could collapse a building and she was wearing running shorts and a long-sleeved bed shirt. The plan was to be in bed before anyone could say she'd been out long enough to be anywhere near here but she could see the flaw in that plan now.

She tried to sign these concerns to Peter but he shook his head.

"I learned a few phrases when I got home," he spoke quietly and leaned into her good ear so she could hear before resuming his spying. Ruby couldn't risk talking as she knew her voice was now much louder than she herself could comprehend. Instead, she nodded in acknowledgement.

In a blur, the area lit up blue and a large bang echoed in the air. Her hearing aid screamed feedback in Ruby's ear which made her knock over the sign as she tried to fix it. There was a regular gunshot and Peter leaned forward to snatch the bullet from the air and stand in front of her. He stood up straight and dropped the bullet to the ground. Staring at it, Ruby finally fixed her hearing aid and stood up behind Peter, propping the gun it how she had when her father had taken her to the range one time.

Peter was quick. He snatched the alien tech from one hand and threw it behind them and down the boardwalk before springing into action.

Ruby's breathing was heavy, she wasn't sure what to do as no one was bothering with the seventeen year old girl wielding a shotgun like an amateur. Peter was flitting back and forth between the group of men, disarming them and kicking them to the ground. One man fell over the railing and landed with a splash while the other found themself stuck to the railing with webs. And she was following him with the gun, expecting to be the one to save him if anything happened.

"Ruby!" Her focus turned to her father, who was stepping out of the shadows behind her. He must have slipped away during the chaos of the start of the fight. "Put the gun down."

"Stay away!" He continued to advance on her while she continued to back towards the violence on the pier. "You didn't put it down." She could remember, now that part of her memory had been a blur no matter how many times Zoe had asked her what the gunman looked like. "It was you, outside the shop." He stepped closer. "No! You killed Reggie."

"Oh, please," he scoffed, lunging for the gun and knocking it from her weak grip, "you really think I meant for that to happen?"

"You meant to kill Spiderman with that weapon. And you meant to run away from my shop when you knew I was on shift."

"Oh, come on, Ruby. You know I wouldn't do anything like that."

"Stop lying!" Her voice was getting louder as her temper grew. Her breathing was heavy and, feeling how fast her heart was beating, she ran around her father to put distance between her and anyone else. He called after her, dropping the gun and sprinting down the boardwalk to her. When his arms enclosed around her shoulders and he tried to reason with her she struggled, telling him to let go quietly at first until her hurt, anger and desperation rose until she broke. "Let GO!"

Her voice released as a scream, the lamps swaying to the noise like leaves in the wind as she fell to her knees with a sob.

She knew. It was right there in the back of her mind the minute her father's arms had slipped limply from her shoulders what she had done. Her mistake. Crawling away, she tipped her head forward and pressed her forehead into the gravel as her shoulders shook. This was how she stayed for a while, crying into the floor as a cold breeze swept over her.

Peter, having wrapped up his end of the fight, came swinging to her aid. He paused, a few feet behind the scene. First, he saw Mr Radcliffe's body crumpled on the ground, one lip held up by the floor and blood streaming from his ears. His leg was bent unnaturally under him and Peter had to look away else the image be ingrained in his head anymore. Further down the path he could see Ruby hunched over in a circle of light under a bent lamp post.

He ran to her, making his steps loud so she could hear him and knelt in front of her.

Removing his mask, Peter reached out, holding his mask lowly so she could see it was him before resting a hand on her shoulder.

"Ruby," he spoke hesitantly, feeling her body heaving as she breathed, "you couldn't help it." She moved so suddenly he jumped back. For a moment, she was simply clawing at her head but then she scrambled with the hearing aid, tearing it from her head and launching it towards the water.

Peter was quicker, though, and caught it with a web and handled it carefully.

Ruby looked up at him scornfully, eyes red.

"Damn you," she said, her voice hoarse and keeping her quiet.

Above them, the sky lit up and Peter was the first to recognize it and closed his eyes in anticipation. He slumped down beside Ruby as Iron Man landed in front of them.

Tony Stark stepped out of his suit, a scowl on his face which became horrified at the man behind him. The usually short man towered over the teenagers like a teacher over their students.

"Mr Stark, this isn't what it looks like!"

"No?" His eyes looked so tired, so disappointed that he didn't need to frown through his goatee. "You didn't explicitly go against my advice to let me handle this and in turn drag in your new girlfriend and kill someone." Peter hung his head, slipping the hearing aid back to Ruby, who sniffled and picked web fluid off it. "Because this is exactly what it looks like. And now I have to clean this up before the news gets their hands on it."

"Mr Stark, I'm-"

"What's that? You're sorry? Tell that to the man who's dead, Pete!" Ruby stood, her knees trembling and the hearing aid on her ear despite some web fluid still sticking to it.

"It's my fault." She said, possibly too loud after not adjusting the hearing aid properly. "I told him where they would be and he's," she glances over her shoulder but barely catches a glimpse before looking back, "he's my dad." Biting her knuckles, she crumples back to her knees again, stomach in knots.

Peter watches Tony Stark assessing the scene as SHIELD vans appear down the boardwalk. Director Fury rushes from one before it even stops and halts beside the Iron Man suit.

"Stark!" His words falter when he spots Ruby and then Mr Radcliffe, who he knew to be her father. "What the-"

"These two are coming back to the compound with me-" Peter begins to process what he said but Tony holds up a hand before he can speak. "No 'buts' or I tell May!" This promptly shuts Peter up.