A/N: AAHHHH! We have reached 2.5K!!!!! Thank you all SOOO much! Now onto the story!

I turn around to see Captain America, Hawkeye, and Black Widow again.

My eyes widen, "Guys, now is not the time. It's even worse than last time."

They look at me, their eyebrows scrunched together, "It doesn't matter, we need you to come with us. We really don't want to have to fight you."

My anger gets the best of me for a moment, "Yeah, well, I don't want to fight you either. But keeping the people around me safe means more to me than that. And if you guys would even care about what happens in this city, you would know that it does matter right now. My job isn't done here yet."

They look around and their faces grow more puzzled at the chaos.

Greg, who had quietly excused himself to talk to a police officer who had run up to us with a panicked expression, runs in-between me and the Avengers, panic flashing across his face.

He turns towards them and bluntly states, "Now is not the time guys. Go play in your Tower and stop coming into a scene with no info and risking people's lives by doing so."

Shock illuminates the Avengers' faces before Greg turns to me, the panic evident on his face only for someone who knows him, "Spider-Man, he moved the time table up! He's going to kill them all in ten minutes." Greg pauses and his eyes grow slightly distant. Knowing him, he's listening to someone on the other side of his comm. Because of how much I respect him, I make an effort not to listen in. His eyebrows bunch together, "Spider-Man, he's asking specifically for you to come in. Do you have any idea why?"

Confusion fills me, "I doubt I know him personally. I mean, I guess it makes sense if he's doing so because he wants a hero or somebody of importance to come in and save the day. But somehow I doubt that."

Greg nods, "I'm glad we're on the same page."

I hear Captain America politely clear his throat behind me. Oh, yeah. I had forgotten about them.

Me and Greg turn to face them. I glance at Greg and see a question in his eyes. I know him well enough to understand that he is asking if he should let the Avengers get involved and help me. I hesitate for a minute and silently ask him if he really thinks that that is a good idea, that the Avengers could help. He nods slightly. It takes me a moment before I make up my mind and nod at him.

We turn our attention back to the Avengers, who seem puzzled about our little silent exchange.

Greg faces them full-on, and his natural commanding manner slips back into place, "Okay Avengers, there are still hostages in the building. Spider-Man has gotten about half of them out without complications. Now we need to get the other half out, but they're with the active shooter who just moved our time table up. We have about..." He checks his watch, "eight minutes till our time runs out. Spider-Man knows what he's doing. You all are going to follow him for now."

Hawkeye opens his mouth but gets cut off by Greg, "Nuh uh uh. I won't hear it. You three need to put aside your opinions and listen to Spider-Man."

Black Widow looks annoyed before nodding along with the other two.

Greg nods his head once in affirmation and looks back at me, "Okay, you're up."

I smile at him and turn towards the Avengers, "I just cleared out all of the hostages from the back room. There's a guard immobilized outside the door of where the hostages were kept. I need you three to go in through that back door quietly to catch the robber off guard where he is weakest. Since he wants me, I'm going to go swinging in through the front door. We don't know for sure why he asked for me specifically, so I'm going to try to figure that out."

Black-Widow opens her mouth to speak, but I hold my hand up to stop her (I just cut off the freaking Black Widow! Ahhhhh! I hope she won't take it personally. I like living), "I am not done yet. The hostages are the priority here. If you have to choose between them or me, which should hopefully not happen, choose them. I need you guys to listen to me on whatever I ask in there. Us conflicting will just hurt everyone in there."

Greg steps in, "And remember, we don't have any reliable information anymore other than what Spider-Man has given us. So tread carefully and listen to him. He won't ever steer you wrong. Oh, and Avengers," he adds, "Try your hardest not to hurt anyone. I know Spider-Man will."

With that said he walks away to where he is most needed.

"Okay guys," I clap my hands together, "I will be waiting for you in there."

After saying that, I walk towards the main doors. They're made of glass, so I just punch my hand through and unlock them. I step inside and am immediately met with the end of a gun. Great.

I follow the arm grasping the gun to see a grizzled face, "I need you to come with me Spider-Man," he growls.

I sigh, "Everyone seems to be saying that these days. Can't a guy just catch a break?" With that said, I jump into action, kicking the gun out of his hands.

The guy yelps in surprise and starts to attack me in a sloppy manner. I swipe his legs out from under him and web him to the wall. I walk out into the large room right when I hear the three Avengers rushing down the hallway.

I pause and count all of the hostages left. Fifteen. Then why do I hear twenty-four heartbeats? Mild horror runs down my spine when I realize I can't see those other five people. They're not hostages. So what are they? What if they are here for the Avengers? Did I just lead them into a trap?

"Wait!" I yell, jumping towards the Avengers, who are just appearing from out of the hallway.

They slide to a stop and look around.

"Stay there!"

Black Widow looks at me with her gaze full of suspicion, but other than that, they stay rooted to the spot. I give them a nod of appreciation and glance around. Fifteen hostages. Fifteen. Then where are the other-

My eyes widen, cutting off my own train of thought as a new idea pops into my head. That robber didn't know the Avengers were here. He wanted me!

"Everybody out!" I scream, jumping into action.

Just as I do that, a side door bursts open and five men with masks covering the top half of their faces and heavy guns emerge, running straight towards me. They start shooting and I dodge, my Spidey Sense going crazy.

The Avengers start to run towards me to help, but I quickly correct them.

"No!" I shout, halfway through a flip to dodge another bullet, "Get the hostages out. They're the priority!"

Their faces pull into a slight grimace, but they change the direction they are going, moving to protect the hostages so that they can safely make it out.

I scream as a bullet tears through my arm, thankfully passing all the way through. I shouldn't have taken my concentration away from these guys.

All five of them are much better trained than the robber I took out and I struggle avoiding all of their bullets. By the time I disarm all of them and web them to the floor I have a bullet stuck in my abdomen and another one that grazed my leg. I hiss in pain and look up, relief filling me when I see the Avengers rushing the last hostage out.

I limp towards them, "Thank you guys for listening to me. Without that, we would have had even more injuries."

"No proble..." Captain America trails off when he sees me, "You're shot!"

"No duh," I say back, my voice laced with sarcasm and a hint of frustration.

I start to limp outside when I hear one of the men I fought laugh.

"He's BaAAcCkK." He says maniacally, "Why do you think we went after you? He sent us, that's why."

I whip around, "He?"

"Ohh, one of your old friends. You and him had a lot of fun times together. He gained a lot of knowledge from all of those sessions."

I reel back in shock, bumping into Black Widow, who stiffens in surprise.

"No," I whisper.

"It can't be him. He's dead!" I shout at the guy.

"Oh, I think otherwise. Your friend told me a message that I'm supposed to pass on to you," The man's smile grows wider, "He loved learning more about how you tick."

With that familiar sentence, I start to hyperventilate, "No. No no no no no!" I yell.

My body halfway gives out, forcing Black Widow to prop me up.

"Spider-Man, what's wrong?" Genuine concern lines her voice.

"He... he... no..." I can't seem to breathe. I push myself up and stumble out of the door. Needles. Pain. Knives. Pain. Tick. Carve. Pain. Pain. No, stop. Stop! No. Hurts, no nonononono!

I feel hands trying to help me, but I push them away, only one other thought in my head.

"Greg!" I shout, tears threatening to fall as my breathing picks up, "Greg!"

I keep weakly shouting until he appears. Once he does, I latch onto him desperately. I start to unwillingly cry, "Greg... he's.... no...."

Once I am supporting myself on him, I hear him yelling at the Avengers, "What happened? Why is he like this?"

Hawkeye answers in a frantic voice, "We don't know! He was fine until one of the guys who attacked him told him that an old friend was back or something!"

Black Widow quietly speaks up, "I believe what set him off was when the man gave him a message."

In between talking to me in soothing tones, Greg asks, "What was the message?"

"I believe it was 'he loved learning more about how you tick.'"