Chapter Text
An explosion resonates in the air.
Beams of light reflect off the Iron Man armor as it hovers soundlessly in the sky, repulsors locked onto the swarm of doombots in the distance as he blasts them into an inferno of ash and molten metal.
Tony drops into a free fall before he swoops down, flying in a low arc through the raging fire, FRIDAY’s calm voice echoing the next destination in the suit.
Clint is perched on high ground, a hidden ledge on a rooftop overlooking the city, eyes unblinking in concentration as he stares through the scope on his bow.
One by one, the explosive arrows light up the street in a timed manner, exploding bodies of the robots thrown into the air and falling like confetti made of metal shards.
Tremors from the blasts reverberate across the ground making shallow cracks form on the concrete, nearly knocking everyone off their balance.
Bucky glances at Steve and Natasha as they dash around in tandem, fighting off the bots with a flurry of high kicks and heavy handed punches.
While the red haired woman hurls one away by the heel of her foot, another’s about to jump onto her back and Steve isn’t close enough to help fend off the assault.
Bucky watches intently, preparing to snipe it at the right moment when he notices the bot fall to the ground before Natasha could turn back, a stun arrow impaled on its abdomen.
“You good on your own, Hawkeye?” Bucky asks as he presses the button on the comm in his ear. “I’m gonna head down. I’ve had enough of these shitty bots already, they need some punchin’.”
“Or more like you just wanna punch them,” Clint snorts. “But yeah, go ahead, I’ve got it covered up here.”
At the confirmation, Bucky slings his sniper rifle across his back and jumps down from the balcony onto the roof of a broken car, the frame bending underneath his feet.
He casually walks into the road towards Steve and Natasha when a robot charges at him, and he crushes its head in his metal fist, flinging it to the ground where it shatters into pieces, exposed wires sparking and fizzling out.
The sunlight casts a flying shadow onto the buildings as Sam glides past, weaving in and out between the skyscrapers while surveying the area from above.
He’s reporting back the team’s locations and extent of damages to the others situated in the Tower when he comes across an alarming number of doombots scurrying off into the inner city, where the civilians had been evacuated to the disaster shelters.
“Shit, that’s not good. Iron Man? I could really use some of your help here, these damn bots are escaping.”
“Uhh yeah- no can do Birdie, I'm a bit occupied right now,” Tony grits out, the sound of his repulsor blasts echoing through the comms.
Sam sighs, spreading his wings wide open as he descends and shoves past a cluster of bots. One of them grabs onto his leg but he rapidly shoots it off, sending it crashing to the ground below. “Okay, is anyone else willing to lend a hand? I’m heading East.”
Natasha moves gracefully, her fighting style reminiscent of a feline as she fades past the bots, twisting her limbs and wrangling them within the entrapment of her thighs before flipping her body over and frying the bots’ internal circuitry with her widow bites. “Sorry Falcon, same here.”
“Me too,” Steve intones.
“Me three, would give ya' a hand but I'm kinda using it right now,” Bucky says, giving a sharp left hook before lifting his muscular leg high up, swooping it around in a 360 degree turning kick to take down the surrounding bots.
He looks at their deformed metal bodies with satisfaction. As much as he’s skilled at marksmanship, Bucky does find close quarter combat more rewarding on occasions like this one.
Screw these doombots.
They were having a perfectly relaxing day before they showed up and started wreaking havoc.
“Ha, good one,” Clint sniggers, as does Tony.
Steve mutters quietly in the background, voicing his concern and Tony has to fight the urge to roll his eyes. “Oh c'mon, Steve, a little mid-battle banter too much for you to handle?”
“Saying this yet again, code names during battle, Iron Man. And no, I'm just saying we should stay focused. This is the largest number of doombots we've ever faced, and the last wave a few months ago wasn't even half this size,” Steve expresses, tossing his shield like a glorified frisbee to cleanly cut through the robot's body before it bounces off the wall, Steve jumping up and grabbing it out of the air.
“Hah! I knew I wasn't going crazy,” Clint remarks. “There’s definitely a lot more of them this time around. Where’s that asshole Doom anyway? That guy’s got way too much time on his hands to pull a stunt like this.”
The battle continues on steadily and Sam tries to shoot at the bunch of withdrawing robots but some of them keep slipping through and getting further away. He groans loudly. “Seriously? You're all busy?”
Bruce makes a nervous noise from where he’s standing inside the Quinjet, watching everything play out through Red Wing’s live video feed.
Hulk fight yet?
“Uh. We’ll see about that, bud.”
Aw.
“Um- Is it Code Green now? Should I bring out the big guy to help you, Falcon?”
Before Sam can reply, a familiar red and blue clad vigilante swings down and webs up the stray enemies, successfully trapping them.
He lands on top of a lopsided truck in his signature landing pose, white lenses narrowing as he tilts his head up, vision focusing on the sight in front of him.
“Need some help?” Spider-Man asks.
A chorus of voices ring out at the same time.
“Spidey!”
“Nice of you to join the party.”
“God, yes. Thanks for that, Webs,” Sam breathes out, relieved by Spider-Man's arrival. “Could you clear up the rest by the perimeter for me? They're trying to escape. I'll handle the ones here.”
Peter swings in between the buildings, "Gotcha. I wasn't that far away in the neighborhood, and I heard about what was happening so I quickly came to see if I could make myself useful," he explains.
"Well, your assistance is much appreciated," he sees everyone wrapping up. “I don’t think Code Green is needed anymore, Bruce. Battle’s almost over.”
Bruce sighs in relief. “Okay, that’s good. FRIDAY’s bringing the Quinjet down to your location now,” He’s at ease knowing that the team has grown in size since the New York Invasion.
Even though Hulk’s been trained for the field and listens to commands, no longer as reckless and trigger happy as he first was, Bruce preferred to keep him as a last resort if his teammates are still able bodied.
Which Hulk didn’t exactly agree with- he liked being out and about, smashing things- and pouts at the back of his mind when Bruce doesn’t give him that luxury.
Once all the doombots had been incapacitated, destroyed and gathered up, the group of superheroes make their way to the centre of the road that's littered with rubble and debris.
"These things annoy the hell out of me," Tony complains, flying downwards to land his armour on the ground, kicking a decapitated doombot head away like it’s a pebble on the sidewalk. "They're like ants, crawling about everywhere, it gets on my damn nerves."
"Don't let Scott hear you say that now, Tony," Sam snorts from above.
"Eh, Stuart Little's fine with it," the billionaire shrugs. "I think. Anyways, this took way longer than necessary, and it looks like a certain spider's saved the day, yet again."
As soon as Tony said that, Peter thwipped a web to land beside the man, color rising to his cheeks. "O-oh, it's really nothing. I was just doing what I can," he replies nervously. Seriously, he didn’t even do that much!
Tony's faceplate lifts up to reveal his face, and he raises an eyebrow. "Really, you’re too modest for your own good. Learn to take the credit for once, Spidey.”
“Boss, you have set a reminder for the next time you meet Spider-Man that he has been invited over to movie night.”
“Oh shit, you’re right,” Tony murmurs. “FRIDAY just reminded me, you wanna join us at the Tower later on tonight? It's designated movie night, and we have them every Friday. I’ve been meaning to ask you but it either kept slipping from my mind or you kept slipping away. You definitely live up to your name cause one moment you’re there and the next you’re gone. So what’s up with that, Webs?”
At this, Peter blushes even more. Ah, so it was obvious that he'd been actively avoiding them at some point…
He didn't really mean to, but he supposes his agitated and anxiety-ridden self kept telling him to steer clear of the big leagues, afraid to do something wrong or to get in their way. He’s too scared that he’d fuck up big time or make a fool of himself somehow.
But after many praises and reassurances that consisted of everyone telling him that he's fine and that he should 'Relax, Spidey. None of us are going to be taking you away and locking you up for your not-quite-legal arachnid activities, okay?' Peter heaved a massive sigh of relief, and was seen more frequently with the Avengers.
They've fought numerous battles together now, too many to count. Sometimes he still can’t believe that he fights alongside them.
Shaking the thoughts from his head, Peter turns around and stares straight at Tony, his jaw agape, white lenses widening. He points to himself.
"W-What- really? You're inviting me?" He's been to the Tower many times before obviously, usually for debriefs and business as such, but has never been invited like this, and for things like this.
'This' being a freaking movie night with the Avengers, oh my god.
"Of course. Not to mention you did a real good job today."
"I agree. You've fought hard, Spider-Man, and helped us a great deal," Steve walks up to the pair. “…like you always do.” he says a bit more quietly, as if an afterthought spoken out loud.
Natasha and Bucky are seen not too far away, scouring for any more of those pesky robots while Sam lands carefully on the ground in front of them, his wings folding away into the pack on his back.
"Wait, what's this I heard about movie night?" Sam questions the group slowly gathering together.
"Oh, Tony was just inviting our Spidey dearest here if he wanted to join us for the movie marathon tonight," Clint informs him, picking up his arrows. "Which I'm all in favour for. You gotta be there, man!"
"Ohhh! So that's what it is, in that case, yeah! It would be a lot more fun with you there." Sam says, smiling.
But Bucky steps forward, resting his hand on Sam's shoulder with an eye roll. "Sam. Why is it that you're a pain in the ass to everyone but Spider-Man? Don't think I don't see the favouritism."
Sam elbows him in the side, grumbling.
"And actually- Webs, you might want to run away as far as you can, since sometimes these movie nights are a complete disaster-"
"Well maybe because a certain someone decided to burn the whole floor down by testing their cookie baking abilities- I mean seriously, how the hell did that go wrong?" Clint accuses, staring right at the person in question.
Tony gapes, looking scandalised. He puts his hands up. "Hey! That was only one time!"
"Oh no, it was three consecutive times, Tony," Nat reminds, smirking in amusement. "I've been keeping count."
"Great, of course you have,” the billionaire groans. “Well I'm terribly sorry for wanting some cookies to snack on while we're watching-"
"You should've let Bucky make them instead, his are the absolute best- hmm I'm so hungry now, just thinking about those orgasmic double chocolate chip cookies-" Sam cuts off Tony, his voice fading off into the background as Steve walks closer to Peter.
"Just ignore them, Spider-Man," Steve sighs exasperatedly, but hint of fondness is evident in his tone. "The offer is still there, if you'd like to join us."
Peter is standing there motionless, as if trapped in a daze, but soon returns back to his senses. "O-Oh wow, um of course! I'd love to come, if you're sure I wouldn't be an intrusion or anything."
"You're never an intrusion," Tony states firmly, standing next to Steve. "Know that the Tower is a home to you, as well."
Peter grins, and even though his face is covered, everyone is able to feel his beaming smile. "Thank you, Mr. Stark."
"Once again, it's Tony. And it's not a problem. So, you returning with us, or...?"
"Ah, is it okay if I come over in a bit? Got some things I need to sort out first," Peter hastily replies, getting ready to swing away.
Tony gently smiles. "That's alright. See you in a while, then."
"Bye Webs!"
A few other 'byes' are heard as Peter flips away into the air, smoothly gliding past the high rise buildings. His body may be a tad bit sore from the battle earlier, but all that he can feel now is excitement bubbling in the pit of his stomach.
Oh man, he's never been so thrilled in his entire life. Personally invited to an Avengers movie night? Peter swings all the way home with the giant smile from earlier still plastered over his face.