“Nice work, kid!” Iron Man praised.
When Ant-Man had shown up just now, Stark thought for sure they were going to lose the shield.
He hadn’t expected Peter’s reaction time to be so fast.
“What on earth was that?
Is it actually a bug?
What kind of picture book did he crawl out of?” War Machine fired off a rapid series of questions.
“Cough, cough.
I’m not a bug.
Allow me to introduce myself: I’m Ant-Man,” Ant-Man grumbled as he slowly dragged himself up from the ground, casting a deeply aggrieved glare at Peter.
“Kids these days have zero respect for their elders.” “I’ll respect you when you’re actually old, Uncle Ant,” Peter shot back—when it came to running his mouth, he had never lost a banter match in his life.
Ant-Man snapped back in annoyance, “I’m not an ant, I’m Ant-Man!
You…
spider!” “I’m not a spider, I’m Spider-Man—” Seeing the two of them about to engage in a long-distance shouting match, Iron Man cut them off.
Through the thermal imaging built into his suit, he had already located the rest of Cap’s team.
“Two of them on the tarmac.
One’s Wanda—I’ll handle her.” Cap reached out a hand toward Peter, asking for his shield back.
“Kid, can I get that shield back?” Peter gave the shield a quick spin in his left hand, flashing a grin under his mask.
“Sorry, it actually feels pretty comfortable in my hands.
How about I hang onto it for a bit?” *CLANG!* Mid-sentence, he dipped his shoulder slightly and raised the shield.
An incoming arrow bounced cleanly off the vibration-absorbent metal.
“Good job,” Iron Man offered another quick word of praise before turning to fly off toward the tarmac.
“Rhodey, you handle Cap.” Rhodey replied, “Two inside the terminal: Wilson and Barnes.” “Barnes is mine!” The moment Black Panther heard that, he sprinted decisively toward the terminal building.
Cap’s expression tightened.
Realizing he wasn’t getting his shield back anytime soon, he hesitated no longer, turning to chase after Black Panther.
Barnes was his friend; he couldn’t just stand by and let Black Panther target him.
Without his shield, however, Cap was relying purely on flesh and blood, rendering him no match for Black Panther.
He quickly found himself at a distinct disadvantage.
Had Black Panther not been holding back from using lethal force, Cap likely wouldn’t have lasted more than a few exchanges.
“Guess I’ll go meet the famous Winter Soldier then,” Peter remarked, glancing at the action below.
Seeing that he wasn’t needed here for the moment—and noticing Black Widow was already trading blows with Ant-Man while everyone else paired off—he decided to move on.
Shooting out a web-line, he swung directly toward the terminal.
It didn’t take long for him to spot two figures running through the second-floor concourse.
One of them sported a distinctive silver metal arm on his left side.
With a mark that iconic, he had to be the Winter Soldier!
Peter swung the shield, using its rim to smash through the glass window before vaulting inside.
“Whoa, what the hell are you?” The Winter Soldier was startled by the sudden entry.
Falcon dropped into a fighting stance.
“Does everyone have to have a gimmick these days?” Peter glanced at Bucky’s arm and emphasized, “Looks to me like he’s got a pretty good one himself.” The Winter Soldier stared at the shield in Peter’s hand.
“You sure you want to block our way?” “Just following orders,” Peter shrugged.
The Winter Soldier offered no further words—he wasn’t much of a talker to begin with.
*BOOM!* Bucky swung his metal arm, throwing a heavy punch straight at Peter.
Peter raised the shield and blocked the blow with ease, barely feeling any force transfer through to his arm.
“Whoa, so this is a Vibranium shield?
Cool!” Right at that instant, his Spider-Sense flared a warning.
Exerting a burst of power through his legs, Peter leaped straight up.
*Whoosh—* A figure shot through the space right where he had been standing a split second before.
Had he not jumped, he likely would have been grabbed and carried straight out the window.
His heightened visual processing allowed him to clearly track the figure’s identity in mid-air.
It was Falcon!
Now in full combat mode, a pair of metallic wings extended behind his back.
“Whoa, he’s got a metal arm, you’ve got metal wings, and you two still have the nerve to call me flashy?” Peter aimed at Falcon’s back and shot out a strand of webbing.
With a nimble weave, Falcon dodged the web with ease.
He immediately retaliated by launching a cluster of micro-missiles back at Peter.
Straightforward attacks like these posed no real threat to Peter.
He simply pretended to step to the side, casually avoiding the barrage.
Yes, pretended…
Based on the intensity of his Spider-Sense and his quick mental calculation of the missiles’ trajectories, those mini-projectiles were never going to hit him in the first place—they were nothing more than a warning shot.
Sure enough, everyone seemed to share a silent understanding that they were just “playing around”…
Naturally, Peter was more than happy to play along with them.
*Thwip—* Another line of webbing shot forth.
Once again, Falcon evaded it smoothly.
Peter scratched his head, looking down at the shield in his hand with a touch of frustration.
If he had both hands free to shoot a double-web burst, he could have pinned Falcon’s escape routes and made it far harder for him to dodge.
As it turned out, Spider-Man really wasn’t meant to use a shield.
Peter’s eyes darted around under his mask.
“Catch!” He flung the shield with force, sending it hurtling toward the Winter Soldier down below like a spinning disc.
Bucky caught his breath in surprise, raising his arms to catch the shield.
The sheer impact knocked him back several paces before he regained his footing.
Having successfully rid himself of the shield, Peter turned back to engage Falcon in earnest.
The concourse area was spacious enough for an agile individual like Peter.
For Falcon, however—encumbered by a wide mechanical wing rig—the indoor airspace felt far too constrained.
Many of his aerial maneuvers were severely limited as a result.
Peter picked up on this flaw immediately and put it to work.
Timing his move as Falcon veered to avoid a heavy structural beam, Peter predicted his flight path and fired a web-ball directly into the power gears of Falcon’s wing pack.
*Click, clack.* The gears ground together a few times before getting completely jammed by the tough, sticky webbing.
Falcon lost all lift and dropped straight out of the sky.
Peter instinctively considered leaping down to catch him, but realizing the fall wasn’t high enough to cause serious injury, he stayed put.
Hitting the ground, Falcon quickly scrambled back up, extending his arm to attack Peter with his wrist-mounted gear.
Peter, however, had already anticipated the move.
*Thwip, thwip!* Two quick web-lines shot out left and right, pinning Falcon’s wrists securely against the safety railing.
“Are your wings made of carbon fiber?
No wonder the stiffness-to-elasticity ratio is so good.” “Does that web come out of you?” “Uh, of course not!
Though I kind of wish I could spin silk organically—that’d be way more convenient, so I wouldn’t have to sneakily during class—cough, cough,” Peter caught himself, offering an awkward defense.
Falcon was entirely lost for words.
“Kid, have you ever been in a fight before?
We usually don’t talk this much trash during a fight.” “Nonsense!
Of course I’ve been in fights!” Peter recalled his battles in Spider-Man Noir’s universe, suddenly realizing the core difference between then and now.
Back in that world, he had been a fused consciousness with Spider-Man Noir, making his actions far more decisive and his mindset significantly more mature.
The version standing here right now was his true, unmerged self.
The reason he was running his mouth so much wasn’t for any grand reason—he was just…
nervous!