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Tony had very deliberately avoided telling Peter about the plan for the new Avengers mission. As much as he expected that the kid might be a bit annoyed about it afterwards, he refused to risk the safety of both Peter and the success chances of the mission by getting him involved.
Not that he thought Peter was incompetent- he was a good kid, but Tony thought that maybe he should stick to the 'friendly neighbourhood stuff' for now. Taking down an operation where Hydra was buying trafficked mutant children was a bit out of his league.
For all these reasons, Tony made extra sure to avoid letting Peter know about this mission. All the briefings were done during his schooling hours, and each of the avengers had been sworn to secrecy.
This is why Tony was more than a little shocked when his team arrived to see Spider-Man already stationed on the roof that the team had been planning to group together on, strategically chosen for its position near to the warehouse that the deal was expected to take place in, without being in its direct line of sight. Upon seeing this, Tony froze for a second, before rushing over to chastise the teen, who turned around quickly having heard the loud, clunking footsteps of a furious, suited up Tony.
"Pete, What the hell are you doing here? This is big leagues stuff- how did you even find out about this mission?"
Peter held up his hands placatingly, the moving lenses on his mask wide open in an expression that couldn't be anything except for genuine shock.
"Mr stark! I- uhm" He glanced backwards towards another roof also nearby to the warehouse. Tony followed his gaze, but saw nothing unusual there, quickly re-focusing on Peter with a disapproving gaze he was sure Peter could feel through the suit.
"Explain."
"Well, I'm not here for avengers stuff" He crossed his arms, having quickly recovered from the unexpected approach from his mentor. "We're in Queens. This is my neighbourhood."
"I get that kid, but this is a level above your pay grade. Do you even know what's going on in there?"
"Mutant trafficking. I know. We were going to interrupt the handover today, and listen, I know that you all-" Peter gestured loosely to all the avengers gathered silently behind Tony "-probably think you're better equipped than us to deal with this, I can promise this is not our first time taking down one of these rings. We've got it all planned out."
"Uh-huh... and who is 'we'?" Tony asked, crossing his arms. Peter stuttered for a moment, clearly not having realized he was using collective pronouns when he spoke.
"Uh… the, um-" He cut himself off with a sigh. "Okay, I'm sorry for not telling you earlier, but I knew that you'd find out eventually, so I'm just gonna say it." He took a breath, preparing himself to speak. "I'm working with Daredevil and Deadpool."
Tony froze.
He blinked slowly.
"Kid, you can't be serious. Daredevil?! Deadpoo-"
"-Listen, I'm sorry you had to find out this way, but we-"
"-No- Kid, YOU listen. I don't know why you think-"
"-TONY!"
The use of his first name out of Peter's mouth shut him up very quickly. It was the first time that Tony could remember where Peter hadn't called him some stupidly formalised version of his name.
"Listen. I get that you're unhappy-" Peter was speaking slowly and firmly, his tone sounding like one that would be used with an unreasonable toddler. "-But we're on a time limit here. The three of us have experience with this exact kind of thing, while I know you all definitely don't. The guards are doing radio checks in less than a minute, so I don't have the time to argue with you right now. Unless we get into big trouble, stay here. All of you. I don't want to risk the children's lives because you're all too proud to let us handle this. Please."
"Peter I'm not gonna let you-"
"-Go on, Spider-Man." Clint spoke up from behind Tony to interrupt him, earning him a very dirty look from the Billionaire, who immediately tried to step forwards and interrupt, but got pulled back by Natasha
"Go on, Peter," She said.
Peter nodded at Clint and Nat gratefully, swiftly moving away to the other end of the roof. Tony tried to follow him, starting to say something, to argue against him, but was quickly pulled back by Natasha a second time, who gave him a glare deadly enough to quiet him
"He's stubborn Tony, you know this. If he's this set on his plan, we're not going to stop him by arguing with him, and rushing the warehouse now would just put the children in danger, as he said. You can send a drone out to follow him, and we'll be ready to join the attack once he's outnumbered, but until then, all we'd do is scare Hydra and make them more likely to kill someone innocent"
"If he's outnumbered" Clint mutters petulantly under his breath, just loud enough to be heard, but no one bothers to acknowledge him.
Tony's not happy about this. Not happy at all, but he didn't dare try argue against Natasha, and, as much as he hated to admit it, she was right. He'd only be making Hydra more likely to panic by making a dramatic entrance to stop Peter.
He looks back at Peter, but quickly realises that he'd already left by the time Natasha was done with her speech. He grumbled under his breath, but released a small drone, made to look like a housefly, from under one of his shoulder plates, lifting his arm to allow his wrist's hologram tech to project the image from the drone for everyone to see.
Peter was hiding behind an irregularly shaped outcrop on a roof just across from the warehouse. He sat, tense, head slightly tilted as he listened for something. After a few moments of waiting he clearly heard it, because he suddenly sprung up and twisted around at unnatural speeds, holding out his arms and firing a quick succession of webs towards the roof of the warehouse.
As Peter then ran towards the edge of the roof, preparing to leap over, the drone picked up what he'd just managed to do. A group of three gunned guards stood on the roof, one of which now had his mouth webbed shut and hands webbed over his radio (which he had apparently been putting away as Peter had attacked) in a way that meant that he couldn't move his hand enough to even press the buttons on it to alert anyone.
The other two guards quickly looked over as they heard the muffled cries of their colleague, but as soon as they turned to face Peter, they each received a web to the face and to their guns, which Peter used to yank them towards him and our of their hands, before giving them both the same treatment as the original guy once they tried to reach for their radios.
This entire process took around five seconds. Tony heard the gasps from around him as Peter expertly subdued the three guards without raising any alarm whatsoever from anyone on the ground.
Tony noticed at this point, that the guards on the ground were suddenly also missing from the drone's footage. Directing the drone to fly down to investigate, he just about managed to catch the tail end of Daredevils own efforts to drag the now unconscious guards into a nearby dumpster.
It took Tony by surprise how polished the entire process seemed to be. Judging by whatever Peter had been saying beforehand, they'd specifically chosen to do it right after a radio check, probably to give them the most time until anyone inside noticed the guards absence, and they'd managed to completely silently take down the guards in a matter of moments. In the time it took for the drone to then fly back up to Peter's position, he was gone, with the guards left cocooned to the floor, and an opened vent in the ceiling to indicate where he'd gone.
Getting the drone to follow him in, Tony was greeted by the sight of Spider-Man stuck to the ceiling, looking down at the hordes of gathered criminals, who were encircling a few caged and restrained children, with two distinct clumps of men arguing next to them.
The sight made Tony sick.
He'd sat in all the briefings, he knew what he should expect to see inside of that building, but knowing and seeing are two very different things in this case.
The children were tiny. There were eight that Tony could see, with the oldest being around thirteen, and the youngest looking no more than four. They all looked terrified, covered in blood and bruises. They were all restrained in some way, with some having heavy looking shackles and chains, and with a couple even being inside of literal cages.
As the two groups of men argued, Tony managed to pick out a few words that gave him just enough context to understand that they were arguing over price.
One of the youngest children, a little girl who was probably around five, tried to reach through the bars of her cage to touch the hand one of the other children who was close by, but was immediately met with an angry shout from one of the men closest to her, likely someone tasked with watching the children, who then violently lashed out using a baton, forcing her to wrench her hand away with a cry.
It was horrific.
Tony wasn't the only one to think so, judging by the number of gasps from the avengers surrounding him.
He wanted nothing more than to go, attack these people and make them pay for treating these children so awfully, but remembering what he'd agreed to, he instead takes a deep breath before resuming to watch the screen.
Peter looks up from the scene taking place below him making eye contact with the drone for a split second, before he looks back at the vent in the ceiling, reaching out a gloved hand, which is quickly met with another.
Wordlessly, Peter pulls Deadpool down into the building, dangling him by the hand while continuing to stick to the ceiling. Its a bizarre sight, but one that Tony doesn't get long to process before he hears Peter whisper.
"We're all set up Daredevil. How many guns do you count?" He pauses, and after a brief silence, nods. "I didn't miss any then. I'll point them to Wade, then we go on your signal."
Peter pulls the mercenary up towards him with deceptive ease, holding him close enough to see when Peter points to a number of seemingly random people across the room. Deadpool nods and gives a thumbs up, mask scrunching in a way that suggests a wide grin.
They fall into silence, with Deadpool fidgeting with a gun he'd just pulled from his holster, while peter remained completely still, head cocked ever so slightly to the side. With no warning he then, launches from the roof, firing a web to swing the pair down at safer speeds. He drops Deadpool before firing another web that redirects him to the other end of the room, before dropping down himself.
They both make quick work of incapacitating the people who Peter had pointed out earlier, either though webbing, or non lethal (much to Tony's surprise) shooting. They'd both dropped down in areas that had enough empty space to allow them to make the majority of these attacks before the crowd began to swarm at them, but as they were rapidly approached, both of the vigilantes quickly took to their own methods of crowd control, with Peter swinging and flipping around people until he could safely web them to a floor or wall, while Deadpool utilized the dual katanas he usually kept strapped to his back.
Throughout this entire scene, Tony noticed that although the two red-clad vigilantes were having no issues keeping themselves safe from the crowd, a few unsavoury individuals had chosen to forgo attacking them in favour of reaching the defenceless children left in the centre of the room.
Right as Tony was about to suggest going in to protect the children, he spotted Daredevil quietly pulling one of these men towards the cages, one arm wrapped around his throat and the other covering his mouth. Once he'd pulled the man in between two of the larger cages in a way that obscured them from the view of the majority of the other people in the room, Daredevil pulled out a billy club and knocked him unconscious with a sharp hit to the side of the temple, swiftly moving back out towards the other approaching men.
With the majority of people in the building going after the two far more visible attackers, Daredevil was able to take out the stragglers aiming for the kids without drawing much notice.
Tony begrudgingly admitted to himself that he was impressed. The three clearly knew what they were doing.
The fight lasted for no longer than five minutes in total before every person involved in the deal lay strewn across the floor. The three vigilantes then each wordlessly moved away to deal with the aftermath.
Daredevil picked his way through the criminals on the floor, occasionally picking one up and moving them across the room, with no obvious pattern as to why, except for a one of the groups he'd formed in a corner of the room, which contained the people who had made it out of the fighting in the worst condition (usually the victims of Deadpool), who were quickly provided with enough first aid to keep them alive until professionals could arrive.
Deadpool had tossed a small black box to Peter, and then made his way to the triple locked and chained warehouse door that must've been the main entrance, that was closed off to try to prevent the deal being interrupted. He was methodically picking each of the padlocks with a small set he'd pulled out of one of the pockets on his belt, the case of which was identical to what he'd just thrown Peter.
Peter, in question was talking to the kids, quietly comforting and joking with them as he also picked the locks on their various restraints. They all seemed shaken up by the fighting, but Peter did an admirable job of keeping them all calm.
Once all three were finished with their respective tasks, they regrouped near the kids in the centre of the room.
"This is Deadpool, and this is Daredevil. They act scary so bad guys are afraid of them, but they're actually really nice, I promise!" The kids all seem somewhat comforted by Peter's introduction of the other vigilantes, but all still noticeably hovered around Peter, who, Tony supposed, was likely the most familiar figure to them all.
Once the police and ambulance are called and show up, Tony expects for the three to immediately leave, but they stay for a while to explain everything and help clean up.
It turns out that Daredevil had sorted the most high up criminals and the ones most in need of medical attention, which made the police's job significantly quicker.
Through the groups interactions with the officers, its obvious that this isn't their first time working together. They all greet each other by name, and act friendly, if a little tense.
Its only after the criminals are all either in handcuffs on on a stretcher, and the children are all checked over and safe, with their parents being either being located or contacted, that the three finally leave the scene.
By the time this is all over, the gathered avengers are sat down in a huddle on the roof around Tony, silently watching the footage. None of them had spoken much since Peter had first left.
As the drone showed the trio approaching the roof that they were sat on, Tony cut the feed and stood up, vaguely processing everyone around him doing the same as the drone nestled itself back underneath his shoulder plate.
"Thanks for not interfering." Peter said simply, as the vigilante trio jumped to be on the same roof as the avengers, standing in a loose triangle with Peter front and centre.
"That drone, however, was very irritating." Daredevil grumbled, earning him an amused look from Peter
"There was a drone?" Deadpool asked, bringing his arms up around his mouth to mime an exaggerated gasp "The avengers wanted to watch little old me fighting? Wowza, I'm so honoured!"
Daredevil threw a billy club at him without looking, hitting him dead on the side of the head and making Deadpool stumble, almost off the edge of the building, just about managing to catch himself before he would've fallen off the edge.
Peter didn't look away from Tony, resolutely ignoring what was happening behind him. The two stared wordlessly at each other for a long moment, before Tony finally decided to break the silence.
"This is real serious stuff you've gotten yourself into Pe- Spider-Man. "
"They know my identity Mr Stark. You can use my name"
"You're avoiding the topic."
"I don't know what you want me to say. I'm the friendly neighbourhood Spider-Man. This is my neighbourhood. I'm just trying to protect Queens."
"You're supposed to stop bike robbers and help old ladies cross the street. Leave the big stuff, like this, to the avengers."
"The only reason you were here for this was because of Hydra. I've seen and taken down at least a half dozen of these mutant trafficking rings, and I've never ran into you all before. Big stuff doesn't only happen when Hydra's involved."
"Listen, Pete, we all-"
"-No. Stop. Stop talking. Let me talk." Peter took a deep breath, not breaking eye contact with Tony.
"I protect the people of Queens from kidnappings, from murder, from rape. I'm the reason that women feel safe walking alone at sunset, the reason parents let their little kids go to the shops alone. I appreciate the work you all do, really, I do, but you're not the ones who protect the little guys. That's what we do." He gestured back at the now more serious looking Daredevil and Deadpool. "Vigilantes as a whole, not just us. I get that you want to keep me safe, Mr Stark, but someone needs to protect the people, and the avengers definitely aren't going to."
Deadpool immediately burst into a dramatic round of applause, before quickly being silenced by a hit from Daredevils second billy club.
"Peter… I-" Tony began slowly as he tried to figure out how to respond, before quickly getting cut off by Deadpool
"Boooo!! Boring!!! Petey Pie can we gooo I'm hungry" Deadpool whined the last words, falling dramatically against Peter's shoulder. Seriously, everything this man did was dramatic.
Peter looked down at Deadpool, stepping away and making the man, who had been putting all his weight on Peter a moment ago, fall down to the floor painfully.
"Can we finish talking later please, Mr Stark? We normally eat after missions and Wade's gonna get cranky if we don't go soon. I'll meet you all at the tower tomorrow."
Without waiting for a response, he leapt off the roof, firing a quick web and swinging away, promptly followed by Daredevil leaping across the roof in the same direction. Deadpool, who was still on the floor, gracelessly scrambled up and jumped off the building, letting out a loud yelp which was accompanied by the metallic clang of whatever he'd managed to land on.
Tony stood dumbly, staring at the street that the trio had just ran off into.
"What the fuck."