Chương 2154: 22
I live! And as of friday I have internet again. I am now a haunted villager. Because apparently the town has less then six hundred people in it making it a village. Also it's hilariously creepy. I'm talking air raid siren that just goes off every night, a rich history of businesses burning down regularly for the last hundred years, legit being called 'Hell on Earth', name of the town actually meaning 'cursed or evil place'. I cannot even with how ridiculously over the top this place is. But I'm back and updates shall resume. Also I love my tiny new house.
Chapter Text
Daisy dropped onto a fire escape. She blinked as she saw what was definitely a kids birthday party going on inside the apartment. And it looked like a small army of elementary school kids were staring out at her. She held up a hand. "Sup?"
The squeals started then. A beleaguered and vaguely exhausted looking father came skidding into the living room and spotted her.
The two of them made eye contact. Daisy accepted what was about to happen as the father stepped over and opened the window. He cleared his throat while waving his hands at the kids to get them to quiet down. "Quake, uh..do you have time to have some cake?"
She softened at the expression on the birthday kid's face. "How'd you know cake was my favorite?"
"Thank you, my daughter is a big fan." He stepped back, leaving the window open.
Daisy climbed in and spotted the girl with the tightest braids and a party cone hat on. "I'm guessing you're the birthday girl?"
"Hi! I'm Diamond and I'm six!" The girl was practically vibrating.
She smiled and held out her gauntleted hand for a fist bump. "Nice to meet you Diamond. So, are we playing birthday games?"
"We're playing Just Dance on dad's Wii!" Diamond excitedly exclaimed, every first grader in the room anxiously waited for her response.
Daisy was eating cake when one of the kids hopped up next to her on the couch. "Do you think I'll have a Spiderman someday?"
"What do you mean?" Daisy looked at the gap toothed girl in pigtails.
Diamond eagerly spoke up. "He's your Prince Charming right?"
"Ah." Daisy set her paper party plate to the side. She was fairly sure the dad was still filming his daughter's birthday party. And god she didn't want to fuck this up. "Spiderman and I aren't together like that. We're partners. I trust him and he trusts me. But we're not in love. I know there's some photos that make us seem like we are."
A boy with face painted stars on his cheeks spoke up. "But you held hands!"
"We did." Daisy smiled. "I was very worried because the villain we stopped was very dangerous. I don't know about you but I like hugging my friends."
A little girl with pigtails actually teared up. "But love!"
"Just because Spiderman and I aren't in love doesn't mean love isn't real." She reached out and gently bumped the girl's cheek. "One of my best friends crossed the universe to rescue his girlfriend from another planet. He believed she could be saved when all of SHIELD had given up."
Daisy looked around the spellbound little kids. "Love is complicated and sometimes it is big and epic like in the stories. And sometimes it's not and we get it wrong. Which you should never feel bad if you ever fall for the wrong person. You just have to remember you deserve someone who you can trust, depend on, makes you laugh, and who treats you like a princess or prince."
"Like how Anna loved Hans but then loved Kristoff?" Pigtails asked, her face scrunched slightly.
She smiled. "Yeah exactly like that." Her voice was serious as she looked at all the kids. "And I'm a superhero right?" Daisy waited for the awestruck eyes to nod. "So if anyone tells you you are weak or silly for loving a Hans you tell them even heroes like Quake make mistakes."
"But you've got powers." Facepoint boy protested.
Daisy nodded. "Everyone makes mistakes. So you just have to remember to get back up and keep trying." She looked around at the kids. "Besides you've all got a few years before you start finding your prince charmings and princesses and stumbling on a few Hans'."
"But I want to fall in love." Pigtails sighed dramatically. Several of the little girls nodding in agreement.
She laughed at the kids. "Just because you're not old enough for romance doesn't mean you're too young for love yeah? I mean don't you all love your friends, your parents?"
The dad beamed at her and handed her another piece of cake. "You're pretty smart there Quake."
"I try." She laughed. "Now, at least two of you haven't kicked my butt at dancing games yet."
Daisy tossed a beer at Hunter. "Sup, Darcy in?"
"Yeah." Hunter popped the cap off the beer. "You hear Bobbie's working as Potts's new secretary?"
Daisy grinned. "That's amazing." She looked at her friend. "We should all go get a beer some night."
"Sounds good Tremors. And for what it's worth, I like that your new dad is just hiring us all instead of trying to kill us. It's a nice change of pace." Hunter knocked back his beer.
She rolled her eyes and moved into the lab past him. Daisy took in the small army of tiny robot roombas. "Planning on vacuuming the entire tower?"
"Preparing for Tony's revenge. He's still trying to get the suit to stop playing Baby Shark." Darcy's voice was muffled, her entire top half inside the car she was doing...something.
"I have the new suit pics as my screensaver." Daisy leaned against the car. "So what's the car do? Cause this thing looks like it should be space worthy."
Darcy's voice came from the depths of the vehicle. "I'm retrofitting it as a manned probe for sticking through man controlled wormholes into space." One of Darcy's legs kicked up slightly as she grunted. "Well it'll be mice and shit first."
Daisy blinked. "You know your science has gotten ninety percent more terrifying since you got a budget."
"Thanks, I've had ideas but never been able to actualize them." Darcy wiggled her way out from under the hood. She grinned. "So what brings my little sis all the way to the Tower?"
Daisy shoved her hands into her pockets. "Work done, phone alerted me to a car chase which car's don't really run me over. Then when leaving the scene I got abducted by some adorable six year olds and I think I gave them a morality lecture on love using Frozen as a template. So I needed some pain killers, cause quake powers. But Peter's still in class, May's working, I don't have another class at the gym till tomorrow… Need me to blow some shit up?"
"Want to help write a program for the roombas? I'm planning on making them little claw arms. They'll be my adorable army of minions." Darcy grinned.
She considered her sister. "So what's the real reason we're instigating a full scale prank war between the Avengers?"
"We need them focused on something that isn't arguing over civil rights and the logistics of policing enhanced. Besides Clint and Natasha have totally been sneaking out and doing something with Hill. Like I wouldn't notice that." Darcy scoffed.
Daisy grinned. "I talked to Coulson, you were right. SHIELD's had twenty inhuman recruits in the last month. And I may not like the media stuff, sets my teeth on edge really, but it's helping."
"Told ya. All you spies and corporate goons are missing the point. It's not about intel. Its giving your enemies to the vultures and dumping out a metric ton of happy nothing to satisfy any questions aimed at us." Darcy waved a hand airily. "There's too many Spiderquake memes, Spiderman tricks vids, interviews with innocent inhumans, soon to be added to with a deluge of Avengers prank videos. Top story if you google Tony is his mystery new kiddo. Meanwhile the military and our government keep having expose after expose on corruption and human experimentation and Hydra infestation."
"I am kinda terrified of you and I make earthquakes with my hands." Daisy was only partially joking. "I'm pretty sure Director Mace would have killed to have you help him with his stupid PR campaign."
Darcy hummed. "He was doing a pretty solid job building up public relations post Hydragate."
"Hey, he's grateful to be alive and on seizure meds." Daisy hugged her sister. "You did the right thing, he's alive because of what you and Tony did to the framework. He sent you a fruit basket, remember?"
"Yeah." Darcy hugged her back before stepping back with a slightly shaky breath, a slightly plastic looking smile on her face. "I'm kinda awesome."
"The awesomest." Daisy agreed carefully. "You're coming home tonight. I'll fly us there."
Darcy groaned, visibly relaxing as they moved past Mace's trauma from dying in the framework. "I love you, but traveling by quake is literally worse than being swung around by Peter. And Peter transport feels like being a ping pong ball."
"Well Peter is spending the night at Ned's. And I'm harder for the paps to trace, also we can leave from the helipad and no one needs to know you left the tower at all." Daisy grinned, it was hilarious how loud Darcy screamed. "And I love you too." Which...yeah she really meant that.
////
Tony was feeling maudlin, which wasn't like him. But for the first time leaving for Malibu didn't feel like a breath of fresh air. "What are those kids doing to me?"
"More proof Tony Stark has a heart." Pepper stepped to his side and pressed a kiss to his temple. "They're good kids."
He poured himself some scotch. "I don't know how to deal with the kid."
"Peter?" Pepper pulled out her evening lotion. Which, it was going to be an early morning then. "Have you considered a board game night?"
Tony blinked at that. "I could build a game room. Kids like games."
"That's not...sure Tony. Just try not to go too overboard." Pepper stole his glass and took a drink before handing it back. "Maybe ask Clint what his kids like?"
Tony scoffed. "Please, birdman's kids are tiny and live on a farm. They're homeschooled nerds. My kids are way more awesome."
"They're certainly all brilliant." Pepper agreed.
He stared out the window. "They're smart in different ways than me. Think differently."
"I don't know, Darcy certainly is a lot like you." Her hand pressed to his back lightly before she moved away to the bed.
Tony shook his head slightly. "She sees machines as easier to piece together people. And she cares about people, understands them better than I ever have."
"She'll certainly be a better CEO than you were." Pepper replied dryly from where she was carefully lotioning her legs. It was just part of her routine, and one he wasn't going to interrupt tonight.
Setting his glass aside he made his way to the bed. "They're all brilliant, which is to be expected as my offspring. But I still want to protect them. Maybe a new AI to help them out?"
"They are doing a pretty good job of protecting themselves, and they've called you when they needed help. The good sense genes clearly skipped you but not them. They got your height for sure though." Her voice was full of gentle teasing.
He chuckled lowly as he climbed into bed. "I don't know, I picked you, so I'm doing something right. And ow, I'm above average with the height. They're lucky they got my genes."
"Charm will get you nowhere tonight." But she smiled as she set her bottle of lotion aside and joined him in the bed.
Tony laid down staring up at the ceiling. "Have you ever thought about kids?"
Pepper took a second to reply, and then her voice was cautious. "Yes, not seriously for a while now. With everything with SI, you, it just never seemed like the time."
"I never wanted kids. Didn't want to fuck them up like Howard fucked me up." Tony couldn't bring himself to look at Pepper's face, not when he knew it would be full of sympathy he didn't want right now. "But maybe...maybe it won't be so bad."
////
Yuri wanted to bang her head against her steering wheel. She hadn't realized Spiderman was a talker...but oh god he was a talker. Also the city was just full of crazy, fuck fullmoon shifts. Volunteering for this was a shit idea. But hunting a werewolf wasn't exactly going to get done by anyone else.
-"This is awesome! I haven't gotten to do this much stuff in one shift of heroing before!"- Spiderman chirped over comm he'd handed her before zipping off to do circuits of the neighborhood. -"Spidercop is on the job!"-
Yuri let her head thunk against her steering wheel. "Please stop."
-"But Spidercop is awesome! And I stopped a mugging, a car theft, and got that lady safely back to her apartment."-
How did Quake put up with this? "No voices, just no voices. Did no one teach you to only comm for relevant information?"
Yuri slapped a pair of cuffs on her second streaker of the night. "If you pee in the back of the cruiser, I swear to god."
Streaker giggled. "I'm a legend!"
"You really aren't." She steered him towards the car with a hand on his disturbingly sweaty shoulder. "They'll have pants for you at the station."
Yuri gave his shoulder a shove as she opened the back of the car. God she was seeing so much more of this man than she ever wanted to. "Just get in."
Streaker just kept giggling.
She clicked her comm back on...oh god he was still talking.
-"The streets were rough but Spidercop was there."- He was ridiculously trying to make his voice deeper.
Yuri climbed into her squad car. This was the actual worst.
The radio crackled to life -"I've got a 10-91 at the bodega on Jackson Ave."-
She hit her comm. "Spiderman, we've got an animal report on Jackson. I'm heading there now, come in from the north. Hopefully we'll catch it."
-"Oh wow, yeah no I'm going. We're going to catch a werewolf."-
Yuri flipped on the siren. She glanced at the Streaker in the back. "We're making a pit stop." And then she hit the gas.
////
Peter stuck to the side of a building. His goggles switched to night vision as he looked at the alley. He squinted his eyes. "Got something in the alley behind the apartments past the bodega."
-"I'm two minutes out."- Yuri replied.
He jumped to one wall of the alley. "Sup, you're looking a little hairy over there?"
The lurking shape looked up.
"Oh yeah.. That's a werewolf. Hey sir! You a murderous and animalistic werewolf? Or just a murderous werewolf?" He yelped and jumped to the other wall, barely missing the flash of claws and slobbering teeth.
Peter grabbed onto the brick and scrambled up. "Oh just total murderous rage. Cool cool cool cool cool cool."
The werewolf snarled, slobber flying from its mouth. It leapt, claws digging into the brick. And jesus it was able to crawl up the walls.
"Oh that's some Night of the Living dead A reel stuff." Peter webbed one of its hands...paws? to the wall. "Stay puppy."
It threw its head back and howled. And then ripped it's hand straight through the webbing.
Peter threw himself into a summersault over the head of the grey blur. "Knuckle buckets!" He scrambled up the side of the building. "YURI! It's very fluffy and very angry!"
-"I have a tranq gun and dog pole!"-
"Come one wolfy, I'm not tasty." He dived over the edge of the roof and rolled to his feet, just missing the wolf slamming where he'd just been.
He hopped backwards shooting webbing at the wolf. Kicking off, he swung around the wolf, wrapping the werewolf in webbing. "Please work!" Peter landed on the roof again.
Peter felt a flash of fear as the wolf snapped his webs like they were made of string. "That's not good. Have you considered anger management? I hear it works wonders."
"Bad Doggy!" Peter punched the werewolf in the face.
It's head snapped to the side. Then it snarled and struck out.
Peter cried out as he went flying off the roof. His webs hit the side of the roof. "Oh you are not happy!" He didn't release the ends of his webbing though. Letting it stretch taunt and then snap him back towards the werewolf foot first.
They both went flying off the roof. The wolf grabbed Peter's leg, claws digging into it.
"NO!" And then the air was whistling past them. Peter managed to block a swipe for his chest, and then punched the werewolf in the face. Which is when they crashed through a car windshield.
Peter felt sick as he wheezed, rolling off of the glass and onto the concrete. "Ow."
A gun went off three times. "You doing ok Spiderman?"
"I'm so grounded." He groaned. Peter rolled over and started to crawl back to his feet.
Yuri grabbed the back of his suit and hauled him the rest of the way up. "Come on. We've got a werewolf to stop."
"He's kinda Furryious." Peter winced. He was so dead when Daisy and May found out about this… he was gonna have to steal Darcy's apartment in the tower.
Yuri let out a sound of deep resignation. "How old are you?"
"Look out!" Peter yanked Yuri out of the way of a blur of angry fur and claws.
She twisted and shot off another shot.
Peter switched his web cartridges to the net cartridges. "Hey Wolfy! Over here!"
"What are you doing that for?" Yuri snapped.
He noted that was very much not a tranq gun...oh goodie their werewolf could survive being shot by real bullets. "We can't let it run off and get the munchies."
"Right, keep taunting the werewolf." Yuri brought her gun up to bare on the creature. "Hamper it."
Peter felt shaky, his leg throbbing. "I can do that." He started firing nets made of web fluid, while jumping up. Spinning he arched over the creature, web one leg, web the other. Web them again, and again, and again even as he went flying back over the werewolf.
He grinned as he webbed the wolf's furry arms to its sides. Raising his arm he meant to hit it again when he saw the bike messenger. "Woah! STOP!" Peter launched himself, switching cartridges on one hand, he webbed a trashcan and yanked it.
The can crashed into the bike messenger, sending them both flying out of the way of the werewolf. Unfortunately that left him immediately in front of the werewolf, who had just ripped his arms out of the single web net.
Peter choked as a furry hand grabbed him by the throat. "Good Puppy?"
"SPIDERMAN!" Yuri yelled, running for them.
He slapped his web shooter against it, and the dendrotoxin dart went in. Peter choked as claws ripped into him. "Ow." And then he hit the ground.
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