✧─── ･ ｡ﾟ★: *.✦ .* :★. ───✧

SWINGING AND FLYING to the Staten Island Ferry was an easy task, though the ferry was already leaving the docks by the time they got there, but it wasn't difficult for them to follow after it. Peter carefully crawled on the side while (Y/N) was still using her powers to keep herself up, both sneaking up to see the inside through the window.

"Okay, Kai, activate Enhanced Reconnaissance Mode," (Y/N) ordered the AI, as Peter did the same thing from beside her.

The image inside her mask lenses zoomed in to see two men sitting on the back seats of the ferry, one giving the back to the other as they tried to not seem suspicious.

"He's up front, main deck," one said.

"I hate this guy." the other breathed out with an annoyed tone.

"It's the guy from the bridge remember?" (Y/N) nudged Peter's arm to inform him, and he looked at her with squinted masked eyes.

"Yea, but who's that other guy?" Peter questioned.

"Just keep me posted," one of them stood up from his respective seat and walked away without sparing the other a glance.

"There's not a record of him in the criminal database," Kai's robotic voice cut through (Y/N)'s ears and she tried to get a better look on the man but wasn't able to. "Incoming call from Kiara Schmidt, would you prefer — "

"I'll call her back later," (Y/N) shrugged it off and turned to Peter, who seemed to be still staring ahead with his own AI.

The small drone with the spider emblem design popped out of Peter's chest, the drone hovering right between (Y/N) and Peter as it looked around to scan its surroundings.

"Hey, dronie, keep an eye on that guy. We can't let anybody get away this time," Peter said and the small drone flew away from sight, towards the other side of the ferry.

"You named it?" (Y/N) asked incredulously.

"It needed a name, right?" Peter responded.

The two got to the highest point in the ferry, trying in not getting caught by the civilians and by the people they were there to find. As (Y/N) was finally able to get low on the roof of the boat, Peter was leaning on the edge to get a closer look.

"Who's that guy on the left?" Peter muttered.

"Mac Gargan. Extensive criminal record, including homicide," Karen informed. "Would you like me to activate Instant Kill?"

"No, Karen, stop it with the Instant Kill already," Peter complained and heard the soft laugh that belonged to (Y/N) behind him.

The dark skinned man from before came into view, joining a group of other men who were leaning back to act normal, before he spoke up. "White pickup truck."

This made them smirk and one of them decided to walk forward into the space where they kept all the cars stored inside the ferry, not daring to look behind him as the others chuckled.

"Dronie, scan the ship for a white pickup truck," Peter said under his breath.

The small drone did as it was told, flying back to get a better look at all the vehicles stored in the ferry and did a scan, spotting the white pickup truck among them. Inside the truck sat one man, who got out when he spotted the other coming his way and opened up the bag with the weapons.

"This is too perfect," Peter told (Y/N). "We got the weapons, buyers and sellers in one place."

"Yeah, but — " she tried to protest, when the robotic voice in her ear spoke once again, this time alarming the both of them.

"Incoming call from Tony Stark."

"No, no, no," (Y/N) was able to decline, though Peter wasn't so lucky, taking in the risk in having to lie to him about their whereabouts.

"Mr. Parker. Got a sec?" he said. "(Y/N) declined my call, which is strange, since she's always with you."

"Uh, we're actually at school," Peter choked out, locking eyes with (Y/N) to tell her to back him up.

"No, you're not," Karen cut in.

"Nice work in D.C.," Tony continued. "My dad never really gave me a lot of support and I'm trying to break the cycle of shame."

"Uh, I'm kind of in the middle of something right now," Peter tried to end the call but was interrupted.

"Don't cut me off when I'm complimenting you. Anyway, great things are about to — "

The loud horn of the ferry cut him off this time, breaking in the call and making Tony's eyes to widen and frown in suspicion.

"What was that?"

"Uh, I'm at band practice."

"That's odd. Happy told me you quit band six weeks ago. What's up? Does this have to do with (Y/N) not answering my call?"

"Hey, bug boy. We gotta go," (Y/N) tried to be as quiet as possible to not make herself known, but she would've been way too lucky if it went that way.

"Hey, is that — "

"I, uh, I gotta go. End call," Peter managed to cut the call short and could already tell that Tony was angry, but he didn't care about that in the moment.

"I'll take those!" Peter aimed a web at the men exchanging the weapons and tugged on it, receiving strange looks from the men below.

He landed on the ground with the thieves and dangled the weapon in his hand. "Hey, guys. The illegal-weapons-deal ferry was at 10:30."

(Y/N) joined him below and formed two spheres of energy in her hands. "And you missed it."

Peter fired his webs at the two men standing closer to him, pulling on the webs harshly to get a bigger impact. (Y/N) hurled her energy spheres directly at the ones remaining, lifting them in the air before throwing them back to the ground, receiving a few groans.

A man with a shocker in his hand tried to aim a blow at her from behind, but Peter reacted quickly and shot a web at him, slamming his head against a tube. The others who he'd taken down before were already recovering from the hit and tried to stand up, but Peter fired three different webs at them to stop them from moving.

"Spidey, that was a little hard," (Y/N) pretended to act offended, and he seemed to follow on.

"I'm sorry, my bad," Peter faked an apology and turned to the man with the shocker. "I gotta say, the other guy was way better with that thing."

"I'm honestly, how do you say it, Blue?"

"Quite shocked?" she replied, hearing a man charging at her from the space where the cars were parked. She used her powers to lift the person from the ground and push him back against one of the spare cars.

The sound of someone slamming something against the side of a car was what alarmed both Peter and (Y/N), being able to get a look on the man that was on the inside of the ferry. He seemed much older than the rest, and he looked to be quite proud of what he was doing.

Before either of them could take one step towards the man, many voices stopped them both in their tracks and (Y/N) was able to see a group of men aiming their guns from above.

"Freeze! FBI."

"Don't move!"

More men barged through the doors and aimed their guns at Peter and (Y/N), who raised their hands above their heads and shared a look of confusion at the unfolding scene.

"Get on the ground."

"FBI."

"What do you mean, FBI?" Peter asked.

"The FBI is the Federal Bureau of Investigation," Karen replied.

"I know what the FBI means, but what are they doing here?" Peter frantically responded.

More men piled up around and in front of the two, not letting their guard down for one second or moving their gaze away from Peter and (Y/N) until a loud whirl distracted them. A few feet away, the mechanical wing of the Vulture broke through the inside of the van and prepared itself to charge, the powered up weapon in hand.

"Get out of the way! Get out of the way!"

The FBI men kept firing and ignored the teens' command, not having time to dodge or run in time when the Vulture grabbed a car with the wings and threw it directly at Peter.

"Look out, look out, look out! Move, move, move!"

(Y/N) and Peter were able to pull the men away from the car in time and dodged more of the Vulture's attacks, who was now flying above the ocean with the weapon still in hand.

"Get to the top deck. We're getting out of here," the Vulture ordered his men, who followed the command immediately.

(Y/N) wrapped one of the closest cars to her in blue mist and hurled it at the Vulture, who managed to aim a blast at it before it managed to hit him. At the same time, Peter shot a web that got stuck in his leg, using all his strength to stop him from flying away.

The Vulture blocked the shots from the FBI and directed the purple light weapon at the ferry, breaking through the walls and making people cower back in fear at the blasts. (Y/N) formed a blast of energy and aimed it at him, succeeding in making him stagger back in the air as Peter kept pulling on the web, sticking one to another car to have a more stable grip.

The grip on the car didn't last long and Peter was suddenly pulled into the air along with the Vulture, who was trying to fire at (Y/N) as she continually blocked the blows. Peter swung himself back to the dock of the ferry and shot another web, this time aiming for the weapon in hand.

"Activate Taser Web!" Peter yelled and the web traveled an electric wave towards the other end, which made the Vulture loose his grip on the weapon.

The purple lightened weapon hit the ground but kept on firing all around it, and Peter reacted quickly and covered it with all the webs he could until the weapon stopped moving.

"You're messing with things you don't understand," the Vulture spoke up before turning back without sparing another glance behind.

The weapon on the ground lightened up again and (Y/N) stepped up, forming a protective dome around it so the blasts didn't escape, lifting it into the air to prevent it from causing damage but didn't seem to notice how close it was to the upper level of the ferry, causing an explosion.

Purple rays and smoke cut through the middle of the ferry and (Y/N) froze in her spot, her eyes seeing with terror the damage she had caused. The explosion managed to cut through the floor of the ferry, water escaping right through it and flooding the space in a matter of seconds.

(Y/N) could feel her knees began to buckle as she heard the loud screams and shrieks of fear coming from the civilians on the floors above, but was suddenly grabbed by the shoulders by Peter.

"Hey, hey. Don't give up on me now, Blue. We can still fix this," Peter said confidently before he stared forward to speak to the AI. "Karen, give me an x-ray of the boat and target all the strongest points."

Peter jumped into action as (Y/N) stayed behind, raising her shaky hands once again to wrap the collapsing ferry in a protective shield and try to pull it back together as Peter tried to web it back together.

"Web grenade. Web grenade," he muttered. "Splitter web, go."

(Y/N) groaned but didn't dare to move a single muscle as the blue mist escaped her fingers and attempted in protecting the ferry, using all the power inside of her to at least pull some parts back together.

Peter swung and jumped through the middle of the damaged ferry, moving from clouds of smoke and fire all around as he aimed more webs that could held the place afloat. He panted after he finished, kneeling on the side of the ferry.

"Great job, Peter. You are 98% successful."

"98?" Peter frowned.

The webs began to snap and break in half, causing the people trapped inside to yell out and huddle all together as the ferry resumed on its collapsing, causing both Peter and (Y/N)'s eyes to widen.

"No, no," (Y/N) heard Peter yell and jump back into the damaged area, grabbing onto the snapped webs and holding the ends of two of them, trying to pull the ferry back together.

The water kept on flooding in, taking in the cars and smashing them all against the others, the alarms blaring loudly through the air. (Y/N) was still trying to protect the ferry as Peter wanted to pull it back, when he noticed that the boat was closing in faster than before and the weight he had in his arms was loosing up.

"What the hell?"

Peter joined (Y/N)'s side as she dropped the shield around it and saw the figure they were dreading to see in the window.

"Hi, Spider-Man and Blue Dame," Tony Stark's voice said with a tone of mockery from behind the armored suit. "Band practice, was it?"

Small pieces of his gadgets flew right after him and placed themselves all over the boat, which pushed the damaged ferry back together with not much effort. The water was coming down and disappeared from the underneath of the boat. Once the boat was finally able to stay afloat, the Iron Man armor gave (Y/N) and Peter one last look before flying off from the window.

"Yeah, Iron Man!" people began clapping and cheering.

Peter used a web to swing after him as the Iron Man suit was still closing off the edges and the broken parts of the ferry without paying him no attention. (Y/N) was following after them with an uneasy feeling in her stomach.

"Hey, Mr. Stark, could we do anything? What do you want us to do?" Peter asked.

"I think you've done enough." Tony said before flying off from the scene.

✧─── ･ ｡ﾟ★: *.✦ .* :★. ───✧

THEY BOTH WATCHED from afar how more boats approached the damaged ferry and helicopters tried to get a closer look, supposedly pulling the civilians away from the danger and into the city safely. Neither of them knew it was going to end this way.

(Y/N) had her head resting on Peter's shoulder, staring down at her hands with much fear and disgust as Peter leaned his head above hers. The silence was comforting, but it was drowning at the same time.

"It's not your fault," (Y/N) spoke up for the first time after the accident, grabbing his gloved hand in hers to give it a squeeze.

"It's not yours either," Peter replied. "You did nothing wrong, I did."

"Peter — "

Her words were cut off by the familiar noise of the Iron Man suit approaching, and (Y/N) lifted her head off Peter's shoulder to have a better look at how armored suit lowered itself onto the ground close to them.

"Previously on Peter Screws the Pooch," Tony said. "I told you to stay away from this. Instead, you hacked a multimillion-dollar suit so you could sneak around behind my back doing the one thing I told you not to do."

"Is everyone okay?" Peter asked without looking behind.

"No thanks to the two of you."

"No thanks to us?" Peter's head snapped up after hearing that sentence and decided to get up and walk up to the suit. "Those weapons were out there, and we tried to tell you about it but you didn't listen."

(Y/N) was following behind him, wanting to protest and defend herself and Peter but decided against it, knowing what Tony was going to say.

"None of this would've happened if you had just listened to me. If you even cared, you'd actually be here," Peter scoffed.

The armored suit opened up and out of it came the one and only Tony Stark, his angry look being directed at the boy in front of him. Peter backed away and grabbed on (Y/N)'s hand out of instinct as Tony walked forward.

"I did listen, kid. Who do you think called the FBI, huh?" Tony questioned. "Do you know I was the only one who believed in you? Everyone else said I was crazy to recruit two 14-year-old kids."

"We're 15," Peter replied.

"No, this is where you zip it, all right?" Tony raised his voice. "The adult is talking. What if somebody had died tonight? Different story, right? Because that's on you. And if either of you died. . .I feel like that's on me. I don't need that on my conscience."

"Yes, sir. I'm sorry. I understand."

"Sorry doesn't cut it."

"I just wanted to be like you," Peter's voice cracked.

"And I wanted you to be better."

The look that Peter had on his face when he said that made (Y/N) snap, carefully stepping in front of Peter and standing right in front of Tony, not being afraid of what he might say anymore.

"Okay, you know what? You don't get to come here and point out our mistakes when all you did was sit back and ignore the problem," (Y/N) began, pointing an accusing finger at him.

"Don't even get me started on you," Tony hissed.

"What is that supposed to mean?"

"You were the one who kept on encouraging him to get involved in this, you were the one who caused the explosion back there," Tony said. "I've had a familiar situation to this before, and it did not end well."

(Y/N) already knew what he was referring too but didn't stop, since she was too angry to care. "And what are you gonna do? Lock me in a cell too?"

"It's not working out. I'm gonna need the suits back," Tony pretended to act naturally after hearing her say that.

"For how long?" (Y/N) crossed her arms.

"Forever," Tony continued after Peter and (Y/N)'s eyes widened. "Yeah, that's how it works."

"No, no. Please," Peter pleaded.

"Let's have it."

"Please, this is all I have. I'm nothing without this suit," Peter begged.

"If you're nothing without this suit, then you shouldn't have it. Okay?" Tony said. "God, I sound like my dad."

"I don't have any clothes."

"Okay, we'll sort that out."

✧─── ･ ｡ﾟ★: *.✦ .* :★. ───✧

(Y/N) TUCKED HER hands close to herself as her and Peter walked into the apartment building with hesitant steps, the two of them being changed into different clothes after leaving the suits behind. (Y/N) was the one who got lucky, having a hoodie and baggy sweatpants while Peter had a t-shirt and Hello Kitty pijama pants.

Before (Y/N) could make her way towards her door, Peter grabbed her hand to stop her, he was staring down at the floor, like he was dreading this part of the day.

"We can't keep being partners," he said.

(Y/N) didn't believe her ears. "What?"

"You heard what Mr. Stark said, you continue to get pulled into problems because of me," Peter followed on, a part of him begging to stop talking.

"That's not true. I chose to continue investigating on the whole thing. Forget everything he said," she said. "It's always been like that."

"But if something bad happened back at the ferry? If you got injured, or worse, I — "

"Peter," (Y/N) cut him off.

"I can't do that!" he exclaimed, his hands coming to tug on his own hair out of frustration. "I wish I shouldn't have told you."

This made (Y/N) raise an eyebrow. "Shouldn't have told me what?"

"All of this. It would've been a lot easier. You wouldn't be in the way."

"You're saying I'm the one that caused all of this to happen?" (Y/N) asked incredulously, her tone getting louder. "I'm the reason this all happened?"

"Yes!" Peter snapped.

(Y/N) wanted to leave the scene as soon as possible, yell at him more for his hurting words, but she was in too much in shock to do do.

"Fine," she said. "I guess I should leave then, that way I won't be able to screw your perfect life, Parker."

"Fine." Peter replied, watching how she stormed off to her own apartment without looking back.

A loud groan escaped his throat after she disappeared out of his sight, regretting everything he said the moment he heard it in his own ears. He knew what he did was wrong, but it was the only way to stop her stubborn self from joining him again in following after the Vulture.

(Y/N) didn't want to cry, she felt like it wasn't worth it. She picked the lock of her apartment door and already could sense the tense atmosphere all around, no sign of anyone near her until someone coughing alerted her.

"Three times. Three times I called you in all day," Kiara began, her arms crossed in her chest.

"Where's Stephen?" (Y/N) tried to ignore her words and wanted to ease down her mood.

"He left. Thanks for the concern," Kiara snapped. "Cut the bullshit. Where were you?"

"I already found out that you left detention, I know that you weren't there on the day of the Decathlon, and I hear you sneak into the house every night from god knows where," Kiara ranted, a hand caressing her hair.

"We agreed in no secrets," she continued. "Is there something you're not telling me? It's just you and me, (Y/N). You're my girl, I need to know."

(Y/N) sniffed. "I got in a fight with Peter. I lost the Stark Internship."

Kiara's eyes softened. "What?"

"I thought it was going well, but I had to screw everything up. As usual," (Y/N) sat down on the couch. "I'm sorry I'm such a bother. It all seemed so easy at first."

"You're not a bother. You're figuring out your life along the way," Kiara kneeled down in front of her and wiped her tears away. "Friendships can have their up's and down's all the time, but if you fight for it, then that means it's truly worth it."

(Y/N) shook her head. "I don't know."

"Mmm," Kiara hummed and kissed her forehead. "You'll know what to do. Now take a shower, please. You smell like you were born in a dumpster."