Chapter Text
Cassie Lang took so long for her to convince her mom and step-dad that she could finally walk back from school on her own like the big girl she is. She had to reassure them that she wouldn't get lost, and that she knew not to talk to strangers, and that she knew how to properly cross the road. After a month of just bringing it up over and over again, they finally caved in, and she was allowed to walk on her own or with her friends every Friday after class.
She has honestly never encountered any type of danger during those walks.
But this one particular day was just a bad day.
It was one of the rare days she walked back alone. She skipped down a sidewalk in New York, thinking about what their dinner would be and all the homework she would have to do right after.
She was so deep in thought that she accidentally bumped into someone's leg. She stumbled back to the ground and yelped. She looked up to apologize quickly, but she was suddenly unnerved by how the man smiled down at her.
"Hello, Little Girl." He greeted casually, "Would you like to come with me?"
Cassie's face soured. "I'm not allowed to go with strangers, sir." She was always a brave girl, so she had no problem talking back. "I'm sorry for bumping into you, but I need to go now." She quickly stood up and started walking away.
But the man had suddenly grabbed her by the arm, the grip hurting a bit. "Your daddy said you should come with me."
The girl faltered at the mention of her father. "How do you know my daddy?"
"I'm a friend of his." The man answered.
Cassie was still suspicious. Last time she was attacked by a scary looking guy in a black and yellow suit, and she almost lost his daddy that time too. "Can you maybe call daddy first before I come with you?"
The man frowned at her answer, but he dialled his phone nonetheless and called. His grip tightened on her arm though, and it was making her uncomfortable.
Cassie already had a bad feeling about the whole situation. She looked around and they were surrounded by people. She could make a fuss and they would help her. At least she had a plan.
But suddenly she was pulled closer to the man and this time, his grip was straight up painful, she couldn't help but yelp.
"Look little girl, if you cause a scene, then I will not hesitate to hurt everyone around us. They'll get hurt because of you. Do you want that?" The man whispered threateningly.
Cassie felt her blood run cold. All her bravery left her then and there, and she just wanted to cry and scream, but she also knew she couldn't do that.
The man took her silence as compliance and grumbingly went back to his phone call and said, "Target acquired. Pick-up required at alleyway 3 at street 47." He then started pulling her into an alleyway, taking them away from the public eye.
Cassie was already tearing up. She was going to be taken and she couldn't do anything about it. "I want my daddy." She whimpered.
The man just clicked his tongue. "If he loves you, he'll come for you, in exchange for the Pym particles of course." He then pocketed the phone and started walking farther into the alley. "If you're a good girl, you won't get hurt. But if your daddy is being difficult, then… no promises."
The little girl prayed that her daddy would appear out of nowhere just to save her, or maybe even Hope, or Captain America or Ironman. Someone, anyone.
"Excuse me."
Cassie and the man flinched and turned behind them only to find a brunet teenager, standing at the opening of the alleyway, fiddling with the sleeves of his oversized sweater. "Thank you for finding her," he smiled nervously, "I was supposed to pick her up but she wasn't at the school when I arrived." He then carefully walked over to them.
Cassie was sure she has never met that boy in her life, but she rather go with him rather than the guy who wants to hurt her and her daddy.
The man's expression morphed to anger. But he still kept that smile, but it looked more manic. "Oh- of course. I hope you don't mind me just pulling her out of the streets. Can't have a girl walking on the street alone." He reached into his coat, and Cassie could hear something being clicked.
"Y-yeah, you're right. Thank you, really." The brunet still walked closer, and he even reached out for Cassie's free arm. "I'll take her now, sir."
And as soon as he touched Cassie's arm, it all happened too fast.
The man pulled out a gun and aimed it to the boy's head. The boy moved faster. His hand slapped the man's wrist upward, causing him to aim at the sky. He then quickly grabbed his wrist, and then squeezed it. The man screamed, and it caused him to let go of Cassie. The brunet boy then scooped her into his arms and started running.
The man roared at them and aimed at their direction.
"He's going to shoot at us again!" Cassie shrieked.
And when the man did, the brunet boy quickly dodged it and escaped to the left entrance.
The man pursued them. They were still shot at from time to time. The boy tipped over trash cans and actually moved dumpsters -full dumpsters!- to block the way and get more distance in between them. The kidnapper seemed to be used to it though because it didn't evade him for too long.
They couldn't keep running.
At one point, they managed to get a far enough distance between them, but they could still hear the distant sounds of gunshots and screams. Peter kicked open a metal door to an abandoned building and he dropped Cassie inside there, closing the door behind them. They were safe- but only temporarily. "You have to stay here. I need to deal with him."
Cassie was crying at this point, and she was scared. "What are you going to do? You're just a kid like me! And he's a guy with a gun! You're going to get hurt if you face him!"
She felt gentle hands land on her cheeks, and thumbs wipe her tears away. She looked at the boy in front of her and he still had a smile on. She looked at her as if everything was going to be okay, and Cassie thought it was believable.
"Hey- trust me okay?" The boy said, "You want in on a secret that'll make sure we'll get out of this safe?"
The girl nodded. The brunet grinned, leaned in to her ear, and whispered, "I'm Spider-man."
Cassie looked at him wide-eyed. "You are?!" She never expected Spider-man to be a kid. He was fighting along with the Avengers and he probably still had school and homework like she did.
The brunet hushed her and continued. "I am, and you know how the news says I always beat up the bad guys, right? Well this guy is no exception, okay?"
The light hearted mood was ruined when gunshots and screams were heard. "Where are you, you little brats!?"
Cassie whimpered and hid her face in the teen's chest. "I'm scared."
He patted her head and hushed her again, "I promise I won't let anything happen to you. But I need you to stay here and stay hidden while I handle him. Can you promise me that?"
The little girl hesitated at first, because she really didn't want to be left alone. But she understood what heroes needed to do. So she nodded. "Just promise me you'll come back for me."
The brunet nodded back and patted her head again. Cassie watched as the teen pulled out his mask from his backpack, left it for her to guard. The metal door was shut close and she hid behind it. She just cuddled the bag as tight as she could when she heard the fight start up.
Cassie could hear curses, and gunshots, and were those laser beams sounds?! She heard Spider-man confirm that it was in fact laser beams and how it was overkill to bring something like that to a kidnapping- but kidnapper figured that he was currently facing a mutant, so might as well bring out the big guns.
The fight continued and Cassie couldn't tell what was happening anymore. She heard zaps, she didn't know if it hit Spider-man. She heard grunts. She couldn't tell if it was from the hero or the villain. There were a lot of crashing sounds, probably someone falling on trash cans and dumpsters, and a lot of loud thumps, probably someone hitting the wall.
There were constant sounds of thwips of webs, then- silence.
Cassie slowly moved out of her place, trying to determine whether or not it was safe for her to go out, check if Spider-man was okay and if they were safe.
Then the door slammed open and she just squealed, scurrying to the farthest part of the room, and hiding behind Spider-man's backpack.
"H-hey, it's fine. It's just me."
She only looked up when she was greeted by the familiar, safe, voice. It was Spider-man who got out of that fight a winner.
But he didn't get out of it unscathed.
His suit was ruined- it was burnt and cut everywhere. His mask was half burnt and it revealed his mouth. There were a lot of burnt holes now, and he was definitely covered in dust and trash. He absolutely didn't smell good, that's for sure.
But Cassie couldn't care less about that. "Is the bad guy gone?"
Spider-man just leaned on the door pane and smiled sheepishly. "He's uh- hanging out there, all webbed up and ready to be picked up by the Avengers. Which by the way we have to call. I don't think the police should handle this guy."
He walked towards the girl and that was the only time she noticed that he had a limp, and that he was holding the seared wound on his side. He was doing a great job pretending he was all good, until he just collapsed right in front of the girl, making Cassie get all concerned.
"Spider-man!" She cried and went to his side. She didn't touch him because she was afraid to make everything worse.
The boy put it upon himself to make the situation seem lighter than it should be though, by half joking half actually groaning and make a quip accompanied with a smile. "There's a reason charred Spiders aren't on any menu in the world. I really did not expect Mister Criminal to have a laser beam."
Cassie couldn't help but smile at that. "Daddy has… very high tech enemies."
That caught Spider-man's attention. "Daddy? He kidnapped you because of your dad?"
The girl nodded. "Yeah, my dad is Ant-Man.",
"Oh! I work with him. You must be Cassie then. He talks about you all the time." He was smiling so brightly, it seemed as though he wasn't injured at all. "This makes this a whole lot easier. We can call the Avengers and get you home safe. Do me a favor? There's like this emergency watch that the Avengers gave me. It's in my bag, you can't miss it- it has that huge A in the middle- can you press it so they know to come?"
Cassie chuckled at how the guy rambled. She did as she was told. She looked over the contents of the hero's bag. She was also amused that they almost had the same contents - papers, pens, books, and even an I.D. She couldn't help but read his name out loud.
"Peter Parker?"
Cassie felt Spider-man flinch from her position. Her eyes landed on him, and she found him being unable to look at her.
"That's your name?" She asked.
Spider-man hesitated in answering. "I think you're a smart girl, so if I told you I stole that backpack, you wouldn't believe me." He then sighed and stared at the ceiling. "Yeah, that's my name."
"Oh." Cassie looked at the I.D. once more before putting it back inside and retrieving the emergency watch. She then pressed the button. And put it back, moving closer to Spidey. "I pressed the button." She said, and a bit awkwardly added, "Also, it's nice to meet you, Peter."
Spider-man, or rather Peter, looked at her and gave a small smile, "Nice to meet you too, Cassie. But uhm… can you do me another favor?"
"Sure." She nodded.
Peter slowly sat up, and that was the time Cassie decided that it was okay to touch him and help him up. "People aren't supposed to know who I am, so if you could keep my name a secret." He turned to her and the concern was evident on his face.
"Even from my daddy?" Cassie asked, and the hero just frowned at that.
"I'm sorry, Cassie."
It was a moment of silence between the two of them. Peter was actually concerned that the girl would say no. But to his surprise, she placed her hand over his, and when he faced her, she gave him a gentle smile. "You saved me so it's the least I can do."
She then gave him a hug. "Thank you, Peter." Peter was also not expecting that, specially with the filth he was covered in, but she thanked him so sincerely that he couldn't help but hug back.
"You're welcome, Cassie." He patted her back for a moment, then pulled away just so they could see eye to eye. "Let's go wait outside for your daddy, hm? Also if you want, you can throw trash at the jerk who tried to hurt you. I have gloves from Chem class in my backpack."
"That's disgusting." The girl squealed in delight, "Let's do it!"
------
The whole team went to the location Spider-man pinged them and they really didn't know what to expect from a call that came from an alleyway. They figured it was a normal alleyway mugging, or a brawl, because that was what Spidey usually handled, but it was peculiar that he'd use the emergency call. They thought it might be more serious so just in case, everyone available came.
They did not expect to see the vigilante with a kid, throwing tin cans at a webbed up bad guy.
"What's going on here?" Iron man spoke up, removing his face plate to reveal a confused Tony Stark.
Spidey looked at him and smiled sheepishly. "Hey there Mr. Stark, Captain America, Black Widow, Hawkeye, and Ant-man." He then waved timidly.
"Hi Avengers!" Cassie greeted happily as well, waving more enthusiastically than the hero had.
"Cassie?!" Ant-man ran his way towards the two, all the while retracting his helmet, and it revealed a concerned Scott Lang.
"Daddy!" The girl ran towards her father, and midway they capture each other in an embrace.
"What are you doing here, pumpkin?!" He pulled her away and looked for injuries frantically, then pulled her back immediately, looking at Spidey, "What happened here?"
"Baddie right there tried to take her away," The hero pointed at the webbed up man, "Wanted your Pym particles."
"But Pe-!" Cassie spoke but suddenly covered her mouth, turning to the vigilante who held a finger to his lips. The little girl cleared her throat and continued, "I mean- Spider-man saved me, so I'm okay now."
"Oh God- I-" Scott's expression just showed pure raw gratitude. "Thank you so much, Spider-man. I- I can never repay you for this."
"All in a day's work, Mr. Ant-man." Spider-man answered. He then moved towards Cassie and patted her head, "Cassie's a sweetheart too. I wouldn't want anything bad happen to her."
The little girl just beamed at the compliment.
After the exchange, the vigilante had picked up his bag and adjusted it on his back. The Avengers took that sight in. The vigilante looked a whole lot younger with his bag behind him, almost like a student.
"I need to get to patrolling now." Their observations were interrupted with Spider-man speaking up, "You guys are gonna handle this, right?"
"Are you sure you don't want to come back with us, Spiderkid?" Iron-man offered, "You're looking a little charred there."
"Hah. I already made that joke earlier, Mr. Stark." The vigilante snorted, "But yeah, I'm fine. It's just the suit now, my enhanced healing already dealt with the rest."
"You plan in patrolling with a damaged suit made out of spandex?" Black Widow pointed out.
"Yeah, at least change." Hawkeye added.
The colorful spider hero just shrugged. "Crime doesn't stop just because I need to change."
"New York wouldn't burn to the ground either." Captain America pointed out as well. It just earned him a shrug from the young vigilante again.
"I'll see you guys later. Hopefully you'll ping me when you need me!" He shot a web to the next building and pulled himself out of sight. He didn't hear what Tony had to say.
"Hopefully you'll do the same." He just shook his head and put on the faceplate. "Okay everyone, let's clean up Spidey's mess."
"Y-yeah," Scott answered, but he looked hesitant. He didn't want to let go of his daughter unless he was sure she's okay.
Luckily Captain America saw right through him. "Go back to the Quinjet, Scott. We got it from here. Make sure your kid feels safe."
Ant-man just smiled in gratitude and did as he was told. Chattering between father and daughter could be heard while the rest handled the situation.
"Dad, I know I said you're my favorite hero, but I think I really, really like Spider-man now too."
"You know what, pumpkin? I think I like him more now too."