I'm sorry y'all I got such bad writers block doing this one 💀
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Peter's in the middle of the chaos.

Tony definitely told him not to do this. He was most definitely supposed to be away from it all, but he got roped into it somehow.

Now, he's dangling from the ceiling of an abandoned building, flinching and pulling his knees up to his chest as at least twenty of these ravenous dog-like experiments snap at his feet.

He feels bad for them because as terrifyingly extraterrestrial they look, they're almost cute. Maybe it's the fact that they run on all fours and have a snout that has Peter hesitating to protect himself, but the bigger issue is, there's hundreds of them roaming around the city and they're absolutely rabid.

When one of them leaps and bites down just an inch away from his toe, Peter jolts and climbs further up his web. He manoeuvres himself to the side and kicks open the fragile ceiling above.

He climbs through before falling onto his back, chest heaving.

That was really, really close.

Tony's gonna be so pissed.

He pulls himself up into a sitting position, looking over towards the fight. The avengers are struggling- bad. A lot of the time, it feels like these missions are relatively minor. Destructive but not extremely life-threatening. Manageable. Though, that could be because those are the only missions Peter's allowed to help with.

His eye catches onto Steve's form, struggling with one of these creatures. He cringes when he pushes it off himself, hitting it with his shield until it stops moving.

He's to empathetic for this. When the adrenaline wears off, he'll probably cry. This isn't fighting some robot. These are alive- or, brought to life with whatever lab equipment or witchcraft or whatever that Oscorb has access to.

Steve stumbles back from the lifeless body, shakily reaching for his com.
"Guys," he he pants shakily. "We have to retreat."

"What?!"

"Steve, what are you talking about."

"That was an order! Retreat! We can't handle all of these right now. The people in the city are evacuated we have to regroup!"

Peter's jaw drops. This hadn't happened before. Steve never gave up.

He swings towards the roof of a building where the others are meeting.

Steve fiddles with his watch before faltering,
"Um."

Tony blinks,
"What?"

"This isn't good."

"Steve, what?"

"Power's down. Everywhere. The, uh, things... destroyed a lot. I can't reach Fury."

"Fantastic. Just great! And I thought this couldn't get any worse," Tony snaps. "Goddamn Oscorb."

Natasha groans and sits down, pinching the bridge of her nose.
"So what do we do? I'm out of ammo, widow's bites- I need to restock or i'm not much help."

"Same. I'm almost out of arrows."

Peter glances down at his web cartridges. The new screen they'd added just weeks ago blinks red.

Crap. At least he isn't finding out mid-fight anymore.

"I'm... almost out of webs," he says shyly.

Tony glances at him and back to Steve.
"So, how do we get back? I can fly back- Sam could too but there's only so much we can carry. And I have no idea where Nat keeps her stash."

"He's right he won't be able to find it."

"Can't you just tell me?"

"No."

"Nat."

"It's fine. We can... we can find another way." Steve looks around, his eyes seemingly brightening as they connect with an object. "Sam, do you still know how to drive a boat?"

He scoffs, "Obviously."

"Alright!" He claps his hands together, "Avengers boat ride! Think of this as a bonding exercise."

Peter looks over, realising the only intact motorised vehicle near them is a little boat.

The others groan.

~~~~~~~~~

They're fighting again, but this time, the anxiety of their lack of protection kicks in. These things have some kind of weird venomous bite- that's all they know because luckily, they'd yet to be bitten but they had gotten their hands on Oscorb's report on their creation.

That might happen now though because they're practically fighting them with their fists, struggling to get away and make a run for the boat in the distance. All they can do it hope it still works. Though, even from far away Peter could see how disheveled it was.

If it doesn't work, they're kind of screwed.

Majorly screwed.

Peter kicks the creature off himself, scrambling back. As he moves, he tries shooting a web at its face but he's fully out of webs now.

"Shitshitshit," he exclaims, smacking the device with the palm of his hand. It leaps at him, mouth open to attack. Peter holds out his arms, ready to take it with his bare hands but the sound of Tony's repulser sounds from a distance.

The creature is blasted away, bowling into a group of others. The Ironman suit suddenly flies above him before diving down and grabbing his hand. He gasps as he's lifted into the air.

"I've got you, kid," he shouts. "You ok?"

"Um, yeah. Yeah, just... ran out of webs and almost died."

He's suddenly dropped onto the boat. Tony's faceplate flips up to reveal his grin,
"Like I would let that happen."

"Uh, yeah, it did almost happen."

"Right. Yeah. I might as well bring an extra bag for you, huh? First aid and a ton of extra web cartridges."

"Please don't."

"Right. Stay here while I help the others. Seems I'm one of the only one with any protection right now."

As Tony flies away, Peter tries to make himself useful and begins searching for the key. He luckily finds it quick, tucked into a compartment near the dash.

He grins at the sight.

He doesn't exactly know how a boat works but he makes an effort with what he does know, untying the rope and sticking the key in the keyhole.

It doesn't start.

It just makes a weird choking noise.

He turns the key again, looking back and forth between it and the rest of the avengers running towards his location. The experiments are at their heels so it's this or nothing.

They're all gonna die.

He turns it harder and the damn key breaks.

"Shit!" He scrambles around the boat, looking for something he can fix. "Uh-uh- oh!"

He knows how to hot wire things.

The com in his ear runs static before Tony's voice rings in his eardrums.
"Kid! What are you doing we're almost there!"

"Plan B!"

Peter's lucky he's a fast worker because as soon as they leap over the dock, it finally starts. Sam lunges for the wheel and pulls out just as experiments reach them. Most fall off the dock and the ones that make it to the edge of the vehicle are kicked off.

The avengers, despite being squeezed together on this little boat fall to the ground, panting.

Their heavy breathing turns into laughs. Clint's head falls back against Tony's chest.

"Jeez, that was close. Why couldn't we get Thor here? He would've destroyed those things."

"Asguardian holiday. Biggest one of the year, apparently."

"Oh, nice," he says, "wish we were there instead of dealing with this shit show."

"Agreed."

There's suddenly another choked noise from the engine.

Crap. That didn't last long.

The whole team whips their head around, watching in horror as the boat slows.

And comes to a complete stop.

"What just happened?"

"Oh my god," Peter mutters.

"What'd you do?!"

"You guys are the ones that picked a crappy boat! It wouldn't have even started if I hadn't jump started it! We'd all be dead!"

"You jump started a damn boat with just wires?! Don't you need a battery? The whole thing could have caught fire," Sam shouts.

"I saved you guys! You should be thanking me!"

"Thank you, Peter, for stranding us in the middle of the New York Harbor on a boat that will probably sink because there's too many of us."

"Sam," Tony snaps, "What else would we have done? Fended for ourselves against those things with no weapons? Leave the kid be."

They go silent.

Peter continues to glare at Sam a little longer before looking out onto the water.

The boat rocks back and forth under the weight of them, crashing into waves. It was old and beat up and it wasn't going to hold, like, nine people.

Now that he thinks about it, the water seems a little high up.

Oh god they're gonna sink-

"Uh, guys," Peter mutters, eyes wide.

"Yeah Pete."

"Is now a bad time to tell you I can't swim?"

Sam groans, "Yes. A horrible time! You can't swim?"

"I never learned!!"

Water splashes and trickles into the boat.

"Well," Clint mutters, a small grin on his face "There's no better time than the present."

"That's not funny."

Tony stands on the bow of the boat,
"Ok, guys- Chill! I'll just... gimme the rope I'll fly and drag us there."

"Oh my god we're gonna die," Peter whispers.

"Kid, stop, we're not gonna die."

"I'm gonna die!"

"I'd like to reassure you on that but I'm still stuck on the fact that spider-man's one weakness is water."

"And peppermint."

A few of them stumble as Tony begins to pull at the rope. Peter grips onto the moldy seat he's currently occupying. He hates this so much. He'd only ever been on a boat once- a little wooden one with Ben for a day of fishing. He hadn't enjoyed himself but he didn't want to hurt his uncle's feelings. At least then, he'd had the comfort of a life jacket.

"Hey Pete," Nat calls, throwing something towards him with a grin on her face.

He catches it and looks down.

Oh. A dirty life jacket.

Um, actually he'd rather drown than wear this in front of the avengers.

"No, I'm fine," he says, rolling his eyes.

"You look like you're gonna pass out."

"Why is everyone attacking me today?! Oh my god??"

He compromises by holding the life jacket to his chest. Yes, this is definitely better.

Just as he's starting to enjoy the breeze, the boat comes to a halt.

Tony lands next to Fury who's standing at the dock.

Steve's jaw drops,
"Fury?! How'd you-? I couldn't contact you."

"I have tracking devices on everything you own."

"Oh."

"Um-?"

"C'mon. To the tower. You all need to figure out what you're going to do next."

They're all walking now, looking completely drained. Peter can't believe they have to go back to fighting within the hour.

Ugh.

Tony glances down at him, smiling.
"Uh, kid."

"Yeah?"

"You don't need that anymore."

He looks down to see he's still holding the life jacket. He grimaces and throws it away quickly.

"Right, yeah. Uh.."

"You actually can't swim? We have, like, seven pools at the tower."

"I mean I- wait, actually?"

"No. We have four."

"Jeez. Um, yeah I... don't want to talk about this anymore."

"I'm not making fun of you," he laughs. "But next training day, you're learning how to do that."

"Aw, what? Why?"

"Because I'd rather you not have one of your enemies find out and drop you into a small body of water."

Peter raises a brow, unamused.
"I feel like you're making fun of me."

"I'm not. It's my job to keep you safe, you know. Teach you stuff. Comes with the whole mentor thing."

"Yeah, whatever."

"Ok," Tony pats his back and begins walking a little faster, "Let's grab our crap and let Steve give one of his pep talks."

Peter groans.

His pep talks take forever.

It's going to be a long night.