章 2142: 10
Chapter 10: Interviews or Feeding the VulturesNotes:
Yo! And keep in mind that just cause Tony thinks something is the situation doesn't mean that's actually the dynamic happening. Cause he's got the social skills of a shiny rock.
And on Daisy's age like the show is weird about it. Cause like there's no way she's out of her teens in season 1. Liked kids with shit experience in the foster system like her do not cling to the fairy tale their parents are out there that hard that long. Like just... there is a streak of idealistic naivety in some ways with Daisy. One which is tempered as the show goes on, but she's way too wide eyed and bushytailed for her background to not be a teenager in s1. Also then in s2 she's like 'I'm 25' which bullshit. Then in s7 they're like she's thirty. But that's not possible with the timeline?! Like unless the stuff in space between s5 and s6 took like four years. Because s4-s5 takes place over the course of four months. Then s6-7 is what a month? And I'll give you s3 might have been six months...maybe. If you really squint and then maybe six months between the end of s2 and start of s3. But frankly it's bullshit and they're just trying to make Daisy's age match the actresses which is dumb and doesn't work. So I'm saying Daisy was late 17 in the beginning of s1. Because it makes more sense dang it.
Chapter Text
Tony knew his Spawn was plotting. He hadn't known Darcy long, and honestly had only interacted with her a half dozen or so times. But he knew when a Stark was up to something. It was an expression he saw in the mirror frequently. And it was… he didn't know how to feel about it. "She's up to something Pepper."
"She's kept you from signing anything binding or supporting terrible laws." Pepper replied, her eyes not coming up from her emails. "I like her."
He ran a hand through his hair. "I have to do something! Why can't you see that?"
"No one is saying you shouldn't do something. Darcy and I just agree that you need to be careful about what that something is." Pepper looked up. "You're just a man Tony."
Tony turned sharply. "No! Don't you get it? If I could have stopped it and people still got hurt then it's on me."
A voice cleared from the doorway. "You need therapy Poprocks."
"Spawn." His jaw tightened, he just...he couldn't take more people judging and criticizing him when he was trying to protect them.
Darcy looked at him. "You're a good guy Poprocks. And I have something you can sign on and support." She brandished a packet of paper. "It's basically a resolution and congressional bill for enhanced individuals to be held accountable for their actions. It also has a minor expansion of good samaritan laws and legal requirements for insurance companies to cover damages caused by aliens, enhanced, Nazis, evil scientists, and all things weird and freaky. And it paves the way to building a system of checks and balances for enhanced individuals. Your legal team recommends our first case is once Capsical finds his boyfriend Barnes."
"Steve won't agree to that." Tony took the resolution that could very easily be turned into national law. But as he skimmed he felt something...unclench. His Spawn wasn't siding against him, not completely. She was at least listening. "And this isn't enough."
Darcy rolled her eyes. "Duh. But good legal code isn't shoved through in a week. It takes years of careful work. We need legal checks and balances but we need to avoid turning into a police state. Which is why this is a solid start. I mean did you build your suit in one go? Or are you on like the n'th version?"
"Alright." Tony read through the legal notes on the probable legal affects. It was something. Not enough, never enough. But it was something. "And Steve? Because he won't agree to this." Resentment sharpened his tone.
Darcy passed a second, and significantly fatter copy, to Pepper. "We stick Quake on him. And I talked to Mrs Gonzalas from legal and she's pretty certain we can get Barnes off with mandated metal help. So it shows even the Avengers aren't above the law, and sets a precedence of enhanced being held accountable for their crimes."
"Steve won't listen to compromise." And didn't that hurt. That Steve wouldn't even get off his high horse to listen to him!
Darcy looked positively feral. "Quake can punch some sense into him. And if he wants one of the best hackers with SHIELD's full backing to help him, he'll listen to her. She's got the time since you fired her. Besides, he's not totally wrong. If you two would just compromise I could have finished my Spidertasers already."
"I'll sign onto this. Hell I'll support it. But kid I don't think that's going to get through his thick skull." Tony was going to have to see what else his Spawn was working on. And he refused to accept only the babysteps she was offering. But he'd take the support where he could get it.
Pepper smiled, stepping over and hugging Darcy. "I knew unleashing you on legal was a good idea. Now why are you here instead of just emailing this to us?"
"You should turn on the tv in two minutes." His Spawn had managed to move within touching distance of him and bumped her shoulder against him. "This bill isn't the only thing I put into motion."
Tony looked at the screen. "FRIDAY turn on the news."
They watched as the news anchor straightened the papers on his desk. "And now we have Amira Ahemd with Quake and Spiderman."
The screen changed to a familiar looking reporter. Tony was mostly positive this was one of the reporters who'd been in the middle east reporting on the Ten Rings. Amira was sitting across from Quake. Spiderman perched on the back of the couch behind her.
Amira gave that banal reporter smile meant to put a person at ease. "So first of all I think the most popular question for you two is if how long have you been a couple?"
"Partners." Quake laughed. "But his face gets real red and adorably cute whenever he sees the Spiderquake tag, so please keep it up. It's hilarious, untrue, but totally makes my day."
Amira gave Quake and the slightly shifting Spiderman a look. Which point. But the reporter kept going. "You worked for SHIELD?"
"I was recruited a year before Hydragate." Quake answered. "And I didn't have powers when they recruited me."
Amira's pen touched her notebook of questions. "Why recruit you then?"
"When I was sixteen I ended up involved with the cyber terrorist organization the Rising Tide." Her lips pulled up slightly. "This is all available in the data dump. But I'd been following internet chatter about a super soldier experiment in LA. The SHIELD team investigating black bagged me and I got the choice idiot teenagers involved with terrorism get. I could join SHIELD or be prosecuted."
Amira hummed. "Correct me if I'm wrong, but this was two weeks before your eighteenth birthday wasn't it?"
"It was." Quake laughed. "I mean I managed to be kidnapped/held hostage four times before I turned eighteen."
Amira's eyes lit. "Let's talk about that. According to the data dump, and most of the details have been scrubbed, you were put into foster care to hide your Inhuman status?"
Tony's knuckles turned white as he listened. Christ, Quake was still just a kid. And damn it all he could see why his Spawn wanted him to see it. Because this was her telling him what would happen if he supported the more useful laws. It would make horror stories like the one being painted by the reporter a reality for anyone who was enhanced. It didn't change the fact it was necessary. But not everyone would understand that people like them were dangerous.
He mostly blocked out the story being gently pulled out. Most of it still classified, but before her powers Quake had been a loyal agent. And it was painting the fact most of her missions had been protecting the enhanced from the world. Not the other way around.
"What was your worst injury you received while with SHIELD?" Amira asked, she clearly already knew the answer to that.
Quake seemed to pause. And then she reached up unzipping the front of her suit. She was wearing a black tank top underneath. Rolling her tank top up a few inches showed what was clearly two gut shots. "I was shot twice. I think I flatlined sixteen times?"
"This was still when you were eighteen?" Amira prompted. She continued after Quake nodded. "And why were you shot?"
Quake's face twitched ever so slightly, she seemingly didn't notice that Spiderman's hand was on her shoulder. "As bait to find an alien drug, but also because I'd found the enhanced agent who was being turned into Deathlock against his will."
"And despite nearly dying, your heart physically stopping multiple times you stayed with SHIELD after Hydra." Amira led.
Quake stilled in a way that screamed silently. "It didn't change why we did it. Being an agent of SHIELD means something. It still means something to me."
"But you left?" Amira challenged.
Quake brushed some hair behind one ear. "A mission went wrong. And that is classified. But Director Mace and I have an agreement. I'm technically an independent contractor for SHIELD. It sounds kinda bad, but really it's just they can call me in if they need me. I'm not the only Inhuman with that deal either."
"So you support SHIELD?"
Quake huffed. "Yes. Although chances of me arguing with the director about individual policy is pretty high. Any superior who's had to work with me can tell you I can be the worst." Her lips pulled up in amusement.
Spiderman outright snickered, only to be whacked in the gutt by Quake.
Tony turned to look at his kid. "You're framing her as a good person, protector of normies and enhanced alike. And she's got enough trauma to endear her and other Inhumans to the public." He snorted. "And give SHIELD more legitimacy so they can be turned into a police force for enhanced. Impressive kid. But what are you going to do when an Inhuman like your friend kills hundreds?"
"Let the system arrest, prosecute and deal with it. Also encourage Quake to punch them in the face a few times." Darcy looked at him. "Poprocks no one can prevent all crime."
On the screen behind them Quake was saying how New York was Spiderman's city, not hers. It would be some nice soft balls about the city to close up now. Which, he should have expected his Spawn would be good.
////
Daisy rolled her neck. God she needed to punch something after that interview. She accepted it needed to be done, but she was not a fan. "It wasn't the whole story."
"I can tell." Wanda replied from where she was leaning against the shipping container. "But it was still true."
She smiled tightly over her shoulder. "Well the mind control and being turned into a weapon against my team doesn't play well in the press. And I doubt they wanted to know about how I was involved with my SO, the psychopathic Hydra agent from hell." Her teeth clenched.
Wanda had that look that said she was getting more than Daisy was saying and was curious about that. It was a fairly peculiar expression. "I don't know. The media would like that I think."
"Yeah apparently I'm too damaged to know that Spiderkid's my soulmate." Daisy couldn't help the snigger at that. "There's fanfic."
Wanda's brow pulled slightly. "What is fanfic?"
"Oh I'm going to blow your mind with that after this." Daisy adjusted her gauntlets. "First though let's work on you containing explosions."
Wanda paled, but braced herself seriously and nodded. "Alright."
"So I generate vibrations, but they can be used as shock waves. And I need to work on channeling vibrations without my hands. So I'm going to generate vibrations, you're going to contain me." Daisy stretched her arm across her chest while walking out into the open.
Wanda followed. "If I can't, is this area safe?"
"It's safe. Like as safe as we're going to get in the city." Daisy rolled her other shoulder. "We stuck a half dozen of Darcy's shock absorbers into the ground so I can't start a massive earthquake."
Wanda seemed to relax, wisps of red flickering around her fingers, her eyes red. "Alright, let's begin then."
Daisy closed her eyes and felt the air around her and it began to shiver. She could feel as Wanda's energy surrounded and contained the vibrations, reflecting them back into her.
Her teeth rattled in her head, but she could feel it. The vibrations were a part of her. And she commanded them outward. Forced them faster and faster. Shoving them out, her own vibrations rocking off of themselves harder and harder into themselves. Her entire being was nothing but the power she was commanding.
And then everything exploded outwards.
Gasping for air she slumped to the ground. Daisy laughed breathlessly. That was awesome. She hadn't known she could do that. Rolling onto her back she panted. "Wanda?"
"Ow." Wanda's voice came from further away than it should be.
Daisy's head lolled to the side. She blinked as she saw Wanda slumped against the side of a shipping container that had been twenty feet closer last she'd checked. "You hurt?"
"How powerful are you?" Wanda hissed.
Daisy lolled her head back to the sky. She reached up touching her nose and pulled her fingers away. Yup, that was a bloody nose. "I don't actually know. Simmons thinks my powers are growing though. And channeling them too much shatters my bones so…"
"Are you ok?" Wanda sounded alarmed.
She considered her body. "Nothing's broken." Daisy sat up and climbed to her feet. "That was super trippy. Ready to go again?"
"You're not serious?" Wanda asked.
Daisy wiped the blood off her lip. "Try standing three yards farther back from me this time. You need to know what the distance limit is for you to contain explosions. Once we have that we can have you work on launching me while I'm mimicking an explosion."
"That's…" Wanda looked at the cracked and dented concrete.
Daisy bounced on her toes. "Come on!" She raised her hands and beckoned Wanda forward.
"I did not know I could do that." Daisy laughed, dropping a juice pouch into Wanda's shaking hands. "You threw me and then the vibrations...super cool."
Wanda stared at the juice pouch. "Thank you."
"Anytime." Daisy nudged Wanda's shoulder. "So the kid should be here soon. Ready for joining me on video?"
Wanda curled slightly, and then sipped from her juice pouch. "This shouldn't be public."
"It shouldn't be. But do you think you can find every person and apologize individually?" Daisy sighed. "I don't like wasting time on public opinion. But Darcy's not wrong."
Wanda nodded, she turned to look at Daisy properly. "She's not wrong a lot is she?"
"Well she did suggest we kidnap a journalist. So she's not always right." Daisy laughed at the expression on Wanda's face. Her eyes teared up slightly. "I'm not even kidding. She's been talking about time travel so she can bitch slap Tony's dad for fucking him up. The rage is amazing."
Wanda sighed, shaking her head. "I like you all, but you are also very confusing."
"Well after the video you can help us with the gauntlet." Daisy adored the obstacle course she'd made for Peter. She ran through it while he was in school sometimes. It was a genuine challenge even before you added in humans with paintball guns and not just trip wires and motion triggered mounted paintball guns.
Wanda looked at her with far too much suspicion. "The gauntlet?"
"So the kid is too young for proper field experience right?" Daisy really liked the damn thing. It'd been a lot of work. Incidentally, she did not handle being bored well. And Melinda May's lessons on securing a location had fun applications.
"It's not that half of the shipping yard you warned me not to go into is it?" Wands just...she sounded tired.
Daisy grinned. "Of course! Can't have you setting off the traps. It takes an hour to reset everything."
"Of course." Wanda let out a huff, her lips pulling up. "You are a ridiculous person."
Daisy hummed, sipping at her own juice pouch. "You're invited to dinner by the way. Aunt May wants to meet you since you're training with us now."
"Aunt May?" Wanda raised a brow while looking at her.
Daisy knew that Wanda had some empathic abilities. Keeping secrets from her had been pretty doomed. But it didn't mean telling her everything. Like that she and Darcy lived with the Parkers. At least not right away. "Spiderman's Aunt. She worries about him."
"Ah." Wanda looked out over the pretty wrecked section of the shipping yard. "What is the plan exactly then?"
////
Peter landed next to his sister and pulled his mask off. "Hey guys, gals...should I say gals? Or is it sexist to say gals instead of guys?"
"Either one is fine." Daisy's smile was slightly punch drunk and absolutely thrilled looking.
He looked between the very dusty Daisy who was half slumped against the shipping container she was using as a backrest. Her nose bleeding sluggishly. Then there was Wanda who looked like she'd been wrung out and was equally as dusty. Also they'd clearly gotten into the juice pouches because there were a half dozen empty pouches scattered around them. He slowly looked at the training yard. It was...it looked like multiple bombs had gone off.
Peter's voice pitched high. "WHAT HAPPENED?!" He dropped in front of Daisy, his hands on her upper arms. "Are you ok!?"
"Totes, Wanda can contain an explosion for a distance of 100 meters." Daisy raised her hand.
Wanda's eyebrow raised, but she did high five Daisy.
He yanked the first aid kit off of his belt and pulled out some gause and dabbed at Daisy's nose. "I should call Aunt May. Or Darcy? Do you need the hospital?"
"I'm fine." Daisy waved off, but she let him inspect her face. "We'll have to work on redirecting explosions next time."
Wanda spoke up. "We are both mostly uninjured. Though I am very bruised."
"We have bruise cream?" His fingers twitched. Nothing was pinging his spidersense. But that didn't mean something couldn't be wrong.
Daisy reached out and ruffled his hair. "Kid it's alright. If I was actually hurt I'd tell you. I promised you and Aunt May no more hiding fractures remember?"
Peter sighed. "Right, but maybe I should be here next time you two train?"
"Your sister is the one whose idea it was to be a stand in for a bomb." Wanda replied dryly.
Daisy's head snapped towards Wanda. "You knew?"
"I can feel your bond." Wanda looked at their surprised faces. "It is...new but the texture is familial, not romantic like everyone thinks. It was the most likely conclusion."
Peter rubbed at the back of his head. "Oh wow...uh. If you could not tell Mr Stark though? I'm not sure I'm ready and I don't think Daisy is to tell him."
"Wait…" Wanda's eyes widened. "You're all Stark's kids?"
Peter shared a looked with Daisy. He held up his hands in surrender. He hadn't meant to! She rolled her eyes.
"Stark is a manwhore. And both of our mothers were married when we happened." Daisy's eyes narrowed. "It is… complicated."
Wanda clearly felt something and then laughed. "Please let me see his face when you tell him. I owe him for locking me in my room."
"Deal." Daisy shook Wanda's hand.
Peter sighed in relief. "So...we doing the video thing today? Cause if not I wanted to work on the new goggles with the electronic microweave Darcy requisitioned at SI."
"Excuse me?" Daisy's eyes were bright as she looked at him with mocking outrage. "I see how it is. I can't compete with a fully stocked lab."
He pouted. "Daisy!"
"Weeks of paintball all for nothing." She grinned at him. "I see where I rank."
Peter groaned. "You're the worst."
Wanda broke out into laughter. She smiled at them before speaking. "Thank you, both of you. But let's do this shall we?"
"I got the burner phone." Peter pulled out his phone for Spidervids only.
Daisy leveraged herself up to her feet. She held out her hand to Wanda. "Let's do this then."
"What happened is something no apology can make right. I know what it means to be the collateral in some else's war."
"If the people of Lagos ever need or want my help I will do whatever I can."
"I've spoken to the Wakandian embassy with a friend Quake introduced me to. An amount of six million is going to be donated to the reconstruction and aid."
"I know it is meaningless, but I am truly sorry. I will ensure I learn more, get better so that something like this doesn't happen again. Though I know that is a cold comfort."
Peter hesitantly stepped towards Wanda. "Do you need a hug? I uh..I'm going to hug you now. So please don't mind voodoo me." He winced. But wrapped his arms around the woman all the same.
She was tense as he patted her back fairly awkwardly. But she didn't pull away, so win? So he kept hugging her. Because she reminded him of Daisy when she'd first showed up. And Daisy needed all the hugs a person could stand. So that meant Wanda probably did too.
"Let's go get milkshakes and ruin our dinner." Daisy's hand settled on the middle of Peter's back. "I think we all need the comfort food."
Wanda finally took a step back. "That sounds good." Her voice was suspiciously thick.
"Cool." Peter's hands dropped back to his sides, fingers twitching slightly. "So uh… maybe make tonight a movie night?" He perked up looking at Wanda excitedly. "Have you seen Mean Girls?"
Wanda blinked. "I have not?" Her eyes moved to Daisy in question.
Daisy snorted, throwing an arm over Peter's shoulders and steering them towards where she'd have parked the car. "Don't worry, the kid and I'll get you caught up on movies. Probably chick flicks mostly till your brother is back."
"How is he doing?" Peter grabbed the conversational life line. Movies! He could talk about movies! And siblings, he could apparently talk about that now.
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