At Cap’s order, the six members of his team stepped forward in unison.
It was a stride that signaled their unshakeable resolve.
In response, Peter and the others advanced at a slow walk under Iron Man’s lead.
Walks turned to quick paces, and quick paces broke into an all-out sprint!
Moments later, the two sides collided.
Right off the bat, Ant-Man singled Peter out.
“Hey, you’re the spider, right?
I’m the ant—does that make us practically related?” Ant-Man rattled off, whipping a sweeping leg kick toward Peter.
Peter reached out to block, leveraging his grip to slam Ant-Man straight onto the pavement.
“Even if we’re both arthropods, we’re completely different species, Mr.
Ant.
So no, I don’t think we’re related.” “Man, that hurts my feelings,” Ant-Man whined, shrinking down to microscopic size an instant before hitting the ground.
Tracking him with the naked eye became nearly impossible, but through his Spider-Sense, Peter could still faintly pinpoint Ant-Man’s presence.
“Kid!” Ant-Man launched a sneak attack from behind, letting out a loud shout right as he swung, clearly trying to startle him.
Instead, Peter spun around on a dime and discharged a glob of web-fluid.
“What?!” Ant-Man gasped in shock.
He couldn’t wrap his head around how Peter kept pinpointing his location time and time again.
Did this kid’s suit come equipped with thermal imaging or something, just like Iron Man’s or Falcon’s gear?
*Splat!* Ant-Man was glued flat to the pavement by the webbing.
He hurriedly enlarged himself to burst free from the restraint.
By the time he broke loose, however, Peter was already gone.
Over on the other side, the Winter Soldier had closed in on Black Widow.
Though enhanced by a super-soldier serum variant, Nat lacked any tool that could outright block Bucky’s metal arm.
She was forced to weave and duck, relying purely on her agility to dodge his unrelenting attacks.
“Hey, long time no see!” Swooping past, Peter shot a web-line onto Bucky’s metal arm right as he swung a punch, using the momentum to vault over his head.
“You again, kid!” Bucky yanked hard on his arm, attempting to drag Peter down via the web-line.
Taking advantage of the opening, Black Widow closed the distance and clamped onto Bucky, executing a fluid Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu takedown that threw the Winter Soldier hard to the ground.
“That move was awesome!
Can you teach me?” Peter landed nearby, firing off a continuous burst of web-pellets to pin Bucky firmly to the concrete.
“Sure thing.
Once this mission is over, if there’s time, I can teach you a few combat techniques,” Black Widow readily agreed.
*Thwip, thwip—* Two arrows shot in from a distance, slicing cleanly through the webbing.
Seeing his chance, Bucky rolled over and bounded back to his feet.
Hawkeye had noticed their struggle and rushed in with cover fire!
Hawkeye eyed Peter with a touch of hostility.
“Kid, you’re just a little boy.” “Uh…” Peter froze for a second.
“I’m a grown man!” “You sound like a little girl to me!” Hawkeye let fly another arrow, surging forward alongside Bucky to double-team Peter.
*BOOM!* Just then, Black Panther’s swift form blurred into view, tackling Bucky head-on and sending them both crashing outward.
The two tumbled onto the ground, locking into a fierce, close-quarters scrap.
Peter caught Hawkeye’s arrow out of mid-air in a single fluid motion.
Just as he opened his mouth to talk trash, his Spider-Sense went wild, blaring like a siren.
‘Danger!’ He immediately tried to toss the arrow away.
It was too late.
*BOOM!* The arrowhead detonated.
Peter’s head rang with a deafening buzz.
Fortunately, Hawkeye had exercised some self-restraint; the explosive payload on the arrowhead was kept minimal, dealing little real damage—otherwise, he wouldn’t have shot it directly at a person in the first place.
Black Widow glanced over at Peter, then turned to Hawkeye, her voice laced with anger.
“Clint, were you trying to blow him up?!” Hawkeye felt a wave of awkwardness.
He had only intended to use the shockwave from a distant detonation to rattle Peter and teach the kid a small lesson.
How could he have known Peter would catch a flying arrow with his bare hands at such close range, only to hold it up right next to his head to show off?
Hawkeye was at a total loss for how to explain the absurd blunder.
Checking on Peter once more and seeing he was largely unscathed, Black Widow charged straight at Hawkeye.
Peter patted his head a few times, waiting for the ringing in his ears to fade.
He realized he had just paid the price for his lack of combat experience.
The incident was a valuable lesson.
Even though he possessed Spider-Sense—and even though it had been strengthened after fusing with Spider-Man Noir, eliminating its old unreliability—there were still clear limits.
As far as he could tell, it could only sense active, targeted threats directed at him in the moment; it couldn’t detect latent dangers before they were triggered.
Case in point: Hawkeye’s explosive arrow.
Before it was activated, it was just an ordinary arrow flying through the air.
It only turned into an explosive the moment the trigger went off.
This time, because they were all on the same team, Hawkeye hadn’t meant any real harm.
If he ever ran into a real enemy using a trick like that, it would be downright lethal!
Once his senses cleared, Peter realized he was temporarily out of the fight.
He took the opportunity to survey the battlefield.
Up in the sky, Vision and Wanda were trading magical blasts and beam attacks.
Their exchanges were flashy, setting off a continuous stream of bursts, though anyone could tell neither was going all-out.
Meanwhile, Falcon and War Machine circled each other, locked in a dogfight.
On the ground, Iron Man had given up his long-range advantage, engaging Cap in close-quarters hand-to-hand combat inside his armor—perhaps still trying to talk sense into him.
To the side, Black Panther and the Winter Soldier were tearing into each other.
Unlike Peter, who preferred using agility as his primary weapon, both Black Panther and Bucky were masters of close-range martial arts.
They were evenly matched, trading heavy blows that rang out punch after metal-crunching punch.
Black Widow and Hawkeye were similarly engaged in a fluid back-and-forth duel.
Overall, however, Iron Man’s side seemed to be holding the upper hand.
‘Wait, where’s Ant-Man?’ Peter scanned the area, trying to spot his “relative.” Instinct told him that a guy who could shrink down to microscopic size had to be hiding somewhere, cooking up a sneak attack—just like when he tried to snatch the shield right at the start!
Just as Peter was searching for Ant-Man, the tide of battle shifted abruptly.
It was Wanda!
She, too, had realized her side was losing ground.
Without warning, she surged her energy output, blasting Vision backward with a powerful burst.
Next, she struck Iron Man mid-fight with a shockwave that sent him flying, then snared Black Widow’s arm with a whip of red energy, flinging her across the tarmac.
Turning her sights on Black Panther, she conjured a massive mass of chaotic energy, swaddling T’Challa completely and slamming him into a shipping container dozens of meters away.
Wanda’s sudden burst of power left everyone on the field stunned.
When everyone else had been “playing around,” someone suddenly taking things seriously made her stand out instantly.
Hovering in mid-air, Wanda looked down over the field, enveloped in a swirling aura of red hex energy.
“There’s no need to waste time fighting them,” she said coldly.
“We have a mission to complete.” “She’s right.
We need to focus on what matters,” Cap agreed with a nod.
“I’m afraid I can’t let you do that!” Iron Man flew back onto the scene in short order, but as he raised his arm to fire a repulsor blast, the weapon sputtered and misfired completely.