A/N: hi!

we are back with another chapter into infinity war and today we are going ALL IN. this is how it all begins and things will never be the same again.

you guys this the last chapter for a while where they're all together. it's so sad 🥺

no tissues needed (yet!) but i can't say you won't need them soon ;) also this is an extra long chapter, almost 4,000 words bc i'm still on a high from the first book hitting one million views. i'm still processing it, in case anyone was wondering

alright, infinity war here we GO!!

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I do not have herpes!"
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TWO WEEKS LATER

"MoMA here we come, am I right guys?" Mr. Harrington said excitedly. No one else on the bus matched his enthusiasm.

"I would much rather literally be abducted by aliens," Flash grumbled and a couple of kids agreed with him, laughing. Adelaide rolled her eyes. He was such a killjoy sometimes.

Adelaide turned to Vivian who was sharing the seat with her, "I hope he does get abducted by aliens." Vivian chuckled.

"They'd send him back for being annoying," she joked back and Adelaide grinned.

"Thank you, Flash for contributing literally nothing positive to the group once again," Mr. Harrington sighed.

"Except for herpes," someone mumbled from the back of the bus and Flash whipped around angrily.

"Hey! Whoever started that rumor was wrong! For the millionth time, I do not have herpes!" he argued, but everyone was too busy laughing to listen to him. Someone (definitely not Peter) had started the rumor months ago when they came back for the spring semester that Flash had gotten herpes over winter break and it spread around the school like wildfire until almost everyone thought Flash Thompson had herpes. And no matter how much he argued against it, no one believed him.

But herpes or no herpes, it was always funny to tease him about it. He always got so worked up.

"Anyway," Mr. Harrington continued, trying not to laugh himself. Even their bus driver was laughing. "Make sure you have your name tags on before we reach the museum. I don't need any of you getting lost. Let's just hope there's no more earthquakes this time."

"Five bucks something goes wrong," Vivian said to her.

"Something always goes wrong," Adelaide mumbled, twisting her songbird necklace around between her fingers, "These competitions are cursed, I swear. First the Washington monument. Then the earthquake. And I don't even know what it is this time but I hope we get away with something easy like Flash getting bit by a dog."

"It's his turn to take one for the team anyway," Vivian agreed and Adelaide nodded. "Where are Ned and Peter?"

Adelaide shrugged, looking around. She spotted Peter's arm on the head of the seat behind her and she frowned, wondering what on earth he was so focused on. She turned around in her seat and reached up to trace the vein running down the back of his hand with her finger. This made him look up, confused for a moment before his eyes met hers and he smiled warmly.

She was one of the only ones who could actually catch him off guard— his body didn't consider her a threat. And so she always tried to use every possible opportunity to abuse her power, whether it be throwing stuff at him randomly and wondering if he'd catch it or just running up to him from behind and jumping onto his back. So far, she'd learned that he did not consider bread to be a threat (she threw a piece of toast at him once and it ended up tangled in his curls) and he always, always caught her when she jumped him. Which she was duly grateful for.

Adelaide put her chin down on the seat, just beside his hand and looked down at him and Ned. Vivian joined her, frowning at their boys.

"Are you guys studying?" Vivian asked when they saw the flashcards and notebooks in their laps.

"Nerds," Adelaide teased and Ned gave her a look which made her grin.

"Just going over some flashcards, babe," Ned said, making a point of ignoring his best friend and Adelaide rolled her eyes at his childishness.

"Hey, so what do you guys think is gonna go wrong this time?" Adelaide asked with a grin, looking between the two.

"What do you mean go wrong?" Peter frowned.

"You know, elevators, earthquakes, every time we go to these competitions something goes wrong," Vivian explained, "So what do you guys think it will be this time? I think it's gotta be something else that starts with an 'E'." (A/N: extraterrestrial threats for 500 please, alex)

"My money's on Flash getting bitten by a dog," Adelaide and Peter high-fived her.

"Nothing is going wrong this time," Ned said, looking at the two of them disapprovingly, "We need to stay positive."

"Just like Flash's herpes test," she said, making them all laugh.

"He totally had that rumor coming," Peter said to her, "He kept acting like he had some rights over Ada or something. It was so annoying."

"Somebody's jealous," Ned mumbled. Peter gave him a look.

"Yeah, as if I have anything to worry about," he said and Adelaide grinned at him, "I actually think Flash is Spider-Man's number one fan. Have you guys seen his locker? I think I saw a shrine in there."

"Hey, you never know. I might just dump you for Fl— nope, can't even finish that sentence," she said, shaking her head and making him chuckle. He had a point. There was no way she would ever go for Flash, no matter how much he buttered her up. Even the thought of it made her shudder.

Vivian poked Ned's cheek playfully. "Come on, babe. Just guess something that'll go wrong," she said and Ned sighed.

"Fine," he mumbled, "I think that..."

Suddenly, Peter felt the hairs on his arm raise and he immediately looked out the window of the moving bus.

His brown eyes widened. It was some kind of donut spaceship looking thing. Or maybe it wasn't a spaceship. He didn't know. It didn't look like it was from this world, though. Without looking away from the donut spaceship, Peter blindly searched for Ned's shoulder beside him to get his attention.

"Ned, hey!" he said urgently, "I need you to cause a distraction. Now!"

Adelaide, Ned, and Vivian all followed Peter's gaze outside the bus and all three pairs of eyes widened simultaneously.

"...Holy shit! We're all gonna die! There's a spaceship!" Ned shouted loudly, terrified. The entire bus exploded with noise as everyone scrambled to an open window to see for themselves.

Using their distracted state, Peter quickly jumped into the aisle and Adelaide followed him. She looked over her shoulder to make sure Ned and Vivian were okay. They were against the windows, wide-eyed and terrified of the spaceship. In that moment, she had this strange feeling, but she knew she had to keep moving.

Peter pulled open a window on the opposite side of the bus with his web shooters and pulled his mask over his face. He held his arm out for Adelaide and she held onto him tightly as he swung both of them out of the moving bus.

Even after swinging around with him all this time, it never got any easier, but she knew that Peter would never let her fall.

She hid her face in his shoulder just in case anyone decided to take pictures and see Tony Stark's daughter swinging around with Spider-Man. Also because she didn't have a mask on  like Peter did and the wind made her eyes burn.

"There!" Peter shouted to her over the noise, "I see Mr. Stark!"

She peeked out from his shoulder to see Tony in his Iron Man suit in the park, fighting some weird, wrinkled creature. He was definitely an alien if she'd ever seen one.

Right as Peter's feet hit the ground, she transformed herself into the Blue Phantom and let go of her hold on him. Tony had figured out how to compress her hoverboard into a keychain that could expand when she wanted it to so pulled it out of her pocket, smashing the button. Her nerves were rushing with power and adrenaline as she ran towards Tony, everything else blurring out. She leaped in front of him, blocking the alien with her full-sized hoverboard. Not a scratch.

Peter knocked out the alien by swinging into it and they both let out a breath, turning to the billionaire, who just nodded at them. Recruiting a couple teenagers wasn't such a bad idea after all.

"You two following me?" Tony asked and opened up the mask of his suit. Adelaide rolled her eyes, tossing her hoverboard on the ground and stepping onto it.

"You wish," she mumbled.

"We were on our field trip to MoMA when we saw the donut in the sky," Peter said. Tony nodded. Suddenly, the alien jumped up again, knocking Peter into a tree.

"Whoa! What's this guy's problem, Mr. Stark?" he asked as he swung away before it could hit him again. Tony's mask covered his face again and he flew up, shooting beams at the alien.

"He's from space. He came here to steal a necklace from a wizard," he said. Adelaide flew up with him, shooting at the creature. Even though, months ago, Tony had told her she could bend reality, she had never been able to actually do it. It was like there was a circuit breaker in her powers that kept her from overpowering herself. So, at the moment, the most she could do was shoot bullets at the alien which didn't seem to be doing much at all.

Suddenly, she felt the temperature around her drop a few degrees.

Tony and Peter both noticed but they were occupied with the alien to do anything about it. Adelaide thought she was imagining it until spots in her vision slowly began turning black. She blinked, looking around. It was the strangest sensation. She spun around, her eyes trying to find where this was coming from, but the black spots in her vision began to grow larger and larger until...

Her whole world turned black. And silent.

She thought she had passed out. She looked down at her hands and realized she couldn't see them. She couldn't see anything at all. It was as if she had closed her eyes. The familiar anxiety that she always got whenever it was dark began to build up again. She clawed at her throat, feeling like her windpipe was closing in on her. No, she wasn't unconscious. This was much more different than that. She was awake and she was aware, too aware, of the maddening, deafening silence all around her.

Was she...dead?

"Tony?" she whispered, too scared to do anything more. "Pete?" She listened carefully for them.

Nothing.

Panic began to settle in just as she heard quiet laughter echoing from the depths of the darkness. It wasn't coming from any one place. Rather, it was coming from everywhere. It was like she was forced into a nightmare while fully conscious.

"Pete?" she tried again. There was no light. Nothing terrified her more than the absence of light. Her powers were useless without light. She was totally defenseless.

"Tony!" she shouted, fully panicking now. She was too afraid to even move a muscle. Adelaide closed her eyes shut, covering her ears to stop the laughter from pouring in. It did nothing.

"Scared?" someone whispered in her ear. She felt the puff of air against her earlobe, cool and close. She jumped, turning towards the sound. Nothing was there. But she felt a presence. Like a ghost, or a whisper.

"Wh-Who the hell are you?" she said shakily. The voice laughed and it surrounded her once again like the waves in the ocean during a sea storm, trying to drag her into its dark depths.

"I'm Ghost," he chuckled in her right ear. Adelaide jumped again. His voice was haunting.

"Where am I?" she asked, looking around even though she couldn't see a thing.

"You're in my playground," he smiled and this time, his voice seemed to be coming from everywhere. Chills went up her spine and she shivered involuntarily.

"Whatever you're doing, stop it," she snapped.

"As you wish," he said.

The darkness around her began flickering until she was back in the park again. Peter and Tony and the alien were nowhere to be seen. Adelaide looked down, seeing her body and feet on the ground. She was completely out of breath. And he hadn't even touched her. Who the hell was this guy?

"Over here," he said.

Adelaide snapped her head to the right where a man was standing. He looked about thirty or so. Pale, brown hair, black eyes, decked in black from head to toe, a jagged scar on his neck, and a twisting tattoo running up the length of his arm. He was smiling as if he knew everything about her.

"Ghost," he smiled, cocking his head to the side, "Nice to make your acquaintance." Both of his eyes flickered black before turning back to brown again. He did look ghastly.

And Adelaide didn't trust him at all.

"Let's get this over with," she mumbled, bringing her powers to her fingertips. The wisp of familiar white light began to twist through her fingers.

Ghost curled his lips into a cocky smile.

Suddenly, the light in her hand flickered off.

Adelaide looked down at her hand in surprise. What the actual hell? She frowned, slowly bringing the light to her fingers again. It stayed there, but a moment later, it flickered off again. She began to panic. What the hell was happening to her?

Ghost laughed, making her look up at him again. He hadn't even lifted a finger.

"What are you doing to me?" she snapped angrily, suddenly feeling very exposed and defenseless. She swallowed, trying to keep her composure. She couldn't let him see how scared she was.

"This is fun," he chuckled, stuffing his hands in his pockets, "I've been waiting to do that for a while. Your reaction was priceless."

"Who the hell are you?" she asked, refraining from taking a step back. Where was everyone else? Why did she have to fight this guy alone? Was he one of the aliens from the spaceship? But he looked so human. Except for the ghastly black eyes.

"Told you, I'm Ghost," he grinned, throwing his hands up in the air. He was wearing several silver rings on his fingers. "Now that introductions are out of the way, let's get this over with," he said, rubbing his hands together.

"Hesitating, Phantom?" he asked with a grin awaiting to take over his lips.

"No," she finally said, huffing, "I'm not."

"Good," he smiled, cocking his head again, "Shall we?"

Adelaide squared herself, ready to fight him even though she had no idea how she was going to do this. She swallowed. She froze her image and reached for the gun strapped to her leg with an invisible hand just before everything around her dissolved into the darkest black she'd ever seen. Dark like the void of space. Dark like things would have looked before there was any light in the universe at all.

The first hit came to her gut and she doubled over, clutching her abdomen in pain. He had knocked all the air out of her in the first try. Swallowing, she slowly pulled herself upright again. She heard his echoing laughter from her right ear.

Without thinking twice, she spun around and shot two bullets in that direction. For a moment, it was quiet.

Then she heard him laughing from farther away. She shot at him again. It was like trying to aim while blindfolded. It was totally useless. But she kept trying because there was she didn't have any other tricks up her sleeve. And because every time he laughed, it infuriated her and made her a flailing target as she blindly shot at nothing, her each attempt becoming more and more pathetic.

"Many men have tried to kill me with a bullet," he smiled, "If it were that easy, they would still be alive."

Adelaide gritted her teeth, shooting at his voice again. He chuckled teasingly from the other side. She was becoming irritated. This was starting to feel impossible. She looked down at her hands even though she couldn't see them and tried to bring her powers to her fingers again. She tried as hard as she could, focusing all of her energy into her hand, but nothing appeared.

She couldn't create light. She could only manipulate it. And without light, her powers were completely useless.

"Come on, Phantom," he laughed from above, "I thought you would fight harder than this."

She shot at him again, twice. Not surprisingly, she missed. She cursed under her breath, pocketing her gun. It was useless as her powers. She still had no idea how to even fight the Ghost, let alone beat him.

"Give up?" he grinned teasingly into her right ear.

As quick as a reflex, she whipped the knife from the strap on her leg and stabbed the place beside her. The blade went through air.

Ghost laughed, clearly enjoying this. Adelaide gritted her teeth in anger, heaving. She was so annoyed. This guy was infuriating.

Suddenly, someone grabbed her waist and pressed hand over her mouth. She crashed her back against his chest. Adelaide immediately knew who it was, and she stayed silent, going completely still. She looked up, feeling the Ghost's presence circling around her in the air like a hawk.

"You know," the Ghost said into her left ear, "I've heard a lot about you, Phantom."

Quickly, Peter shot a web to his right

The darkness around them immediately flickered back to light. Adelaide bent over and let out a breath of relief, looking around. To her right, the Ghost was standing there, his wrists webbed together. He looked angry for a moment until he looked down at his hands and then he laughed.

"I've heard about you too, Spider-Man," the Ghost grinned and then looked at Adelaide, "Smart boyfriend you got there."

Adelaide gritted her teeth. She wanted to put a bullet through that irritating smile of his. As if sensing her anger, his grin widened.

"It's too bad you couldn't fight me on your own," the Ghost continued, "Not strong enough, I suppose." He knew exactly what his words were doing to her, but after being in complete darkness while he messed with her head, all she could feel was white, hot anger towards him.

Adelaide jumped forward at him, ready to tear the pretty little smile on his face right off, but Peter pulled her back by her hand. The Ghost laughed.

"I had fun," he grinned, looking at her. He balanced a smirk on his lips. Adelaide looked down at his wrists webbed together. On the arm without the tattoo, there was a black mark on the wrist. She narrowed her eyes at it to read it, but he twisted his hand away when he saw her looking. She caught his eyes, which were brown again for a moment.

"I'll see you around," he grinned and then disappeared into a tornado of darkness, swirling up into the air until they couldn't see him anymore. Adelaide let out an angry breath.

"I'm gonna kill him," she huffed.

"Who was he?" Peter frowned.

"Said his name was Ghost. My powers were totally useless against him," she sighed. Suddenly, she looked up.

"How did you catch him?" she asked. Peter grinned, tapping his forehead.

"Spidey sense," he said. Before she could reply, they heard a loud commotion and then spotted Tony a few yards down in the park, still fighting the alien. That thing just wasn't dying.

"No, stay here," Peter told her, "I'll go."

Before she could argue, from the corner of her eye, she saw a flash of red.

"That's the wizard," Tony told her through her comm system, "Get on it."

She nodded, hopping up on her hoverboard again and flying after him just as Peter went back