Jennifer Walters/She-Hulk
Well, Nat and Thor, now that you’re all caught up on the story, ya freeloaders. (“Another coffee, please.” “Here you go, Thor.”)
Frank and I got to talking about the scene.
“You said you had to prosecute a bank robber, right?” Frank looked up at me. “That guy give you any tips?”
“Well, what you said got me thinking. About this place being cleaner than you thought?” I looked around. “Normal bank robberies work off Occam’s Razor. It means-”
His eyes widened. “Lex parsimoniae, right. Simplest solution is the best.”
“Uh, yeah. Kinda didn’t expect you to know about it.”
He smirked. “What, you thought I was just some jarhead?”
“I once saw you take a knight in Rio out with a catom ax.”
“And you’re eight feet tall and green, I don’t insult your intelligence.”
Fair enough. “Well, in the case of a robbery, the question is, ‘how do I get the goods without ending up in pain?’ You go for the simplest way from there. So the first step is information. And the best way to do that easily in a bank is to just to act like a customer.”
The rough soldier nodded, looking around the room full of cops. In my mind's eye, I could imagine the place as it was before. A clean and orderly bank, with tellers and customers. I imagined one of them walking around and carefully eyeing things.
“Sometimes though, it’ll be someone on the inside,” I could picture a teller carefully noting things down. “Either way, they’ll keep track of things. Figure out the shifts of guards, the way police patrol the neighborhoods, work or come in late to find out how many people are likely to be around at night.”
“Basically the same thing army intelligence should do.”
I could hear a bit of annoyance in his tone. “Should, do?”
“Bad experience with a fuck up of an intelligence agent,” Frank smirked. “Punched his eye out.”
“And I’m supposed to be the scary one,” I mused to myself. I looked around a bit more, still thinking. “They needed intel. Once they had it, they enter… where? From the back door? No… An employee entrance. Nobody said anything about any doors being broken down other than this bad boy. They must have found a way in. And then there’s no reports on any camera catching them.”
“A hacker, maybe?” Frank asked.
“Hacking isn’t as easy as pop culture makes it out to be. Someone hacking the cameras would require a huge amount of skill. Banks can’t allow themselves to be robbed. Not because of their money, that’s insured. But if a bank gets robbed, it ruins their reputation. So cybersecurity has to be strong. That’s just logical sense, especially for a big one like this,” I waved around at the pretty place. “Hell, I think these desks are mahogany or something. At least, they were,” I kicked one of the random pieces of wood, sending it scattering across the floor.
“Okay, they get the intel,” Frank said. “They enter the bank, head straight to the vault, open it with super-strength, run out. Nothing super complex then. And no evidence other than we’re looking for someone who’s got bigger hands than you.”
“Not that much bigger,” I grumbled to myself.
“We got something!” someone said in the back. Frank and I turned to see someone waving from the back. Hurriedly we followed them, Perez joining us. Once we got there, the crime scene tech led us to an employee exit, Frank and I sharing a look at that. Outside, we walked down the street for a while before reaching a section where an officer was guarding one of the yellow lines. There, just on the ground near a dead tree, one of those planted on sidewalks to give a bit of life to the city, was half a bootprint.
It was pretty damn big. Bigger than my own feet. Of course, size wasn’t any measure of strength. I mean, Fasttrack is a pretty normal sized alien, but he can lift a hell of a lot for his size. Still, this was pretty ridiculous.
“This is perfect,” Perez said, kneeling down as the tech began preparing a mold. “We finally have something.”
“Then you better tell me about it,” we turned to see a woman standing there. She was about waist height to me, which made her a few inches shorter than Frank. She had long black hair, green eyes, and the looks of a supermodel. She knew it too. Even under her black jacket with the proud block letters displaying a familiar FBI, she wore a tight orange t-shirt that displayed her midriff, a tight black skirt that stopped at about mid-thigh, and a pair of black high heels, the tattoo of a chain around her left ankle. She looked like a high school student fantasy of an FBI agent. “Agent Ananastasia Rinaldi, FBI.”
“...Ananastasia. Not Anastasia?” I asked hesitantly. Seriously, spellcheck hates that name. Has a red squiggle under it and everything.
She smirked, cocking her hip and placing a hand on it. “What, did I stutter?”
“What is the FBI doing here?” Perez said, sounding annoyed.
“Asking why you’re letting this freak and her friend intrude on my investigation,” she glared up at me. “We don’t need some dumb strongwomen trampling around our evidence.”
Okay. Bitch.
“It’s not ‘your’ anything,” I growled. “This is a BRIDGE case. Or you haven’t seen the fact that someone who can toss around cars is involved in this? You planning on taking them down with a gun?”
“Oh? So you’re just here as dumb muscle?” she chuckled. “That makes sense. In that case, why don’t you let the professionals handle this, and we’ll call you when someone needs to throw a punch.”
“Not happening,” Frank stepped up next to me, growling. “This isn’t a debate. I haven’t memorized the rules or anything, but as far as I know, any superhuman activity means BRIDGE has jurisdiction.”
“Then prove it,” Ananastasia sighed. “I mean, are you two even certified for this kind of thing?”
Damn it. She finally had a point. Frank and I weren’t actually investigators or detectives or anything. Where the hell was that BRIDGE agent who was supposed to be helping us?
Perez looked between us awkwardly. “Maybe one of you better call your superiors so I can figure who exactly I’m supposed to kick out.”
“Good idea,” the smug FBI agent flipped her hair.
“I’ll call command,” Frank looked at Ananastasia (stupid damn name) like she was scum on his foot. “In the meantime, if you touch any evidence-”
“What, you’ll pout at me?” she sighed, walking up to press a finger against his chest. “You’re cute, but not that cute.”
She ran that finger along his chest in one of the most blatant attempts at seduction I’ve ever seen. Perez and I shared a look of surprise. Frank, on the other hand, was unfazed.
“No. I’ll break your fucking arm,” Frank growled, slapping her hand away. He turned away without another look at her, raising his phone up to his ear.
She looked startled. Then pissed off. When she saw I noticed, she quickly hid it. “If I see a single green handprint in there, I’m going to be speaking to your superiors.”
“If you talk to me like that again, I’m going to shove your heels up your ass.”
Ananastasia didn’t seem to know what to say to that, so she just huffed and turned away. Perez and I were left behind with the crime technician, who was desperately trying to ignore the world around her while making a mold of the bootprint.
“...As soon as we’re done measuring dicks,” Perez said, looking as annoyed as I was. “I’m gonna suggest you head to the hospital to talk to the security guard. He hasn’t woken up yet, but-”
“It’ll be worth a shot,” I agreed immediately.
“Is she right?” Perez asked. “I mean, I know the FBI usually has sole jurisdiction among federal law enforcement agencies to investigate bank robberies, but BRIDGE should be able to take over when there’s evidence of superhumans.”
I crossed my arms and sighed. “I’m pretty damn sure that FBI chick doesn’t have a leg to stand on. But it’s more than possible someone up the ladder is trying to take the case from us, so we still have to make a stand. It’s bullshit, but bullshit we have to shovel.”
“I hate politics.”
So does everyone in the universe.
------
May 20, 2014
Thor lowered his coffee and frowned. “Hmm. I have never had to encounter such a situation. Is it really so complicated?”
“I guess as the crown prince, ya never had to deal with that kind of stuff,” Mahmoud said. “Either you had jurisdiction or you were too damn strong to stop.”
Thor chuckled embarrassedly. “Well, I have always been asked for help. I never had to worry about this organization or that deciding I wasn’t allowed to aid the people.”
“Whatever the case, she had no right to interfere,” Natasha leaned back in her chair, placing one leg over the other. “We do have some joint FBI and BRIDGE operations, but nothing close to a problem of jurisdiction ever pops up.”
“Yeah,” Mahmoud rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly. “I mean, the FBI is usually damn good. I’m supposed to head to one of their profiling conferences actually. But they don’t have guys who can punch superhumans out just yet. Which doesn’t make them useless or anything.”
“Of course,” Natasha replied. “But it does mean that we’re supposed to aid them. Imagine if the FBI had to hunt down a killer with an Omnitrix of their own.”
Mahmoud gave her a look that told me he’d had that worry once or twice, a sad and morose look.
“What happened to the agent who was supposed to help you, anyways?” Natasha asked.
“Well, Frank found that out pretty quick,” I got up. “Come on, I wanna grab a drink. I’ll tell you the rest in the rec room.”
------
May 18, 2014
When Frank came back after fifteen minutes on the phone, that Ananastasia chick had disappeared at some point. Which, seriously?
“She’s just gone?” I asked Perez as we stood in front of the bank. “She decided to leave after demanding we prove we have jurisdiction?”
“That’s what our officers say they saw her do,” Perez looked as frustrated as I was.
“Well, what did BRIDGE have to say, anyway?” I asked Frank.
“That we have jurisdiction, and Ananastasia’s superior is gonna give her a dressing down,” he said simply.
“Fan-fucking-tastic,” Perez shook her head. “I’m so happy we could waste our time with all this then. First we have a robber stronger than fucking She-Hulk, now this...”
She turned and walked away fast, clenching a tanned fist as she did. I gaped at her.
“Stronger?” I growled. What the hell? Because this thief had bigger hands and feet!? Goddamnit, I could toss tanks, why was I feeling like I had to prove myself?
“Also, we aren’t getting backup,” Frank said with some frustration to his tone.
“What?” I asked.
“The BRIDGE investigator is working on another case, one that takes priority,” he shook his head. “We’re supposed to stand down for now.”
“Seriously?”
“Yeah,” Frank looked frustrated. “We aren’t investigators, so we’re just waiting on them to find someone else. We’re to collect the evidence and coordinate with the NYPD if needed, but we’re basically just going to sit around with our thumbs up our asses for now.”
“...Who says we need someone else?” I asked. See, this is where I got reckless.
Frank cocked his head to the side, but didn’t say anything. I spoke quickly.
“I mean, we aren’t investigators, but we do have some evidence, right? And we know that a security guard was sent to the hospital. He’s gotta know something. I mean, if he knows even the hair color of his attackers, that can be useful,” I looked around. “Come on, Frank. You really wanna let this go?”
“We were told to,” he scowled up at me. “Why the hell are you suddenly invested?”
I hesitated for a moment. I’ll be honest, I wasn’t sure why at first. But then, I had to remember just what kind of day I’d had.
Perez being so nervous around me as well as doubting my strength, that FBI bitch. After so many years of proving myself in every conversation, showing my father, my fellow lawyers, every criminal, cop, and client that I was more than just a mousy girl, that I was strong and smart enough to take on anything that came my way, I’d gotten used to proving myself.
When I became my bodacious green self, I hadn’t needed to do that anymore. All the Avengers were respectful of me, Matt and Foggy treated me like what I was. A sexy, smart, super-strong lawyer.
But now, in the streets of New York, I was feeling that same urge I once had. People didn’t think I could step up. Ananastasia didn’t think I was smart enough. Perez thought that the robber was stronger than me. I was feeling the burn anyone does when a challenge pops up. The burn to beat something.
Yeah, see. I knew you three would understand.
Frank looked more annoyed than anything. “Ms. Walters, the only interrogations I’ve ever been involved in involved a lot more violence than you might like. What do you want us to do when we get to the hospital, ask nicely?”
“We aren’t ‘interrogating’ anyone, remember? This guy got beat to hell, and we’re gonna beat up the people that did it to him. You don’t have to convince him to tell us anything. We go in, ask him some questions, go out.”
He glared up at me for a long moment. He looked left, then right. “Yeah. Yeah, okay. Why not?”
“Yes!” I wrapped an arm around his shoulder, having to bend over to do it, and grinned at my sour ally. “You won’t regret this, Frankie.”
“Get off of me,” he growled.
“Ah, don’t be so grumpy. This will be fun!”
------
“I take back everything. This sucks,” I said as I stared out at a sea of reporters in front of the hospital.
“I already regret this,” Frank growled, glaring daggers at a young man shoving a microphone against the window. We were sitting in a taxi, slowly rolling along while people were shouting at us. Dozens of flashes were going off all around, cameras getting thousands of pictures. Seriously, I was literally just sitting in a cab, what were they hoping for?
The taxi driver, an older Haitian man in his forties, looked back at me. He had a cool accent, a 43CX almost smooth. “Ms. Walters, I’m really honored to drive you and everything, but these people aren’t letting me go any further.”
“It’s fine,” I grinned at the guy and got a bashful smile back. “Thanks for everything, Samuel.”
“Call me Sammy, Miss,” he said with a kind smile. Then he looked around. “...Will you be needing a ride after, Miss? I can pull the car around back?”
“You sure about that?” I asked.
“Of course, Ms. Walters,” his smile became a bit softer. “You Avengers have been protecting us. I don’t mind driving ya.”
I tell ya, that made me feel warm inside. I nodded at him, then looked at Frank. “Okay. We run for the entrance?”
“Yeah,” he said, shaking his head. “Damnit, I miss being able to shoot things that annoyed me.”
We shoved open the car doors. I tried to be gentle, but I still ended up sending a few people flying back.
As soon as I stood out of the car, I towered over the crowd. For half a second, they finally quieted down. Then they started shouting questions.
“Jennifer! Who’s that guy that was in the car with you, a new boyfriend!?”
“Any truth to the rumours that you’ll be modeling in Victoria’s Secret next week!?”
“Are you dating Brad Pitt!?”
“What’s your favorite pizza!?”
“How was breakfast!?”
“Why aren’t there nude photos of you online!?”
“What’s your favorite movie!?”
I pushed through as gently as I could. Some guys tried to get in my way. I picked up two men and placed them gently aside while speaking. “I’m here for a job. Just get out of the way.”
The sheer amount of people ended up slowing me down. When I finally reached the entrance, Frank was there with some of the hospital's security guards. They stopped the reporters from entering at the doors, shoving them back. “How the hell did they know I was here!?” I yelled, annoyed as hell by now.
“If it wasn’t for the stupid questions they were asking, I’d think someone knew we came for the security guard,” Frank said.
That… was a good point. No one seemed to know that I was here for an actual mission. Just that I was on my way here. Actually, there were a lot of paparazzi at the hospital too. More than should be here considering I didn’t even know I would be at the hospital until about thirty minutes ago.
Before I could think any further on that, a nurse came up to us. He was a short man in blue scrubs, with large forearms and a tight beard. “Ms. She-Hulk? You’re here to speak to Mr. Romero?”
“Yeah,” I said immediately, recognizing the last name of the security guard. “Is he awake?”
“He just did,” the nurse turned and started walking quickly. “He was pretty beat up, but the guy is damn tough. He’s ready to answer any questions you guys have. Honestly, I think he’s half-ready to just go out and beat people up himself.”
“My kinda guy,” Frank said with a smirk.
“As long as he’s good to talk,” I said as we strode down the hallway. We entered an elevator and stood there for a bit. The nurse kept looking up at me as we waited. I looked back at him, curious.
“Sorry, it’s just… never seen a superhuman before,” he said nervously. “You’re really tall.”
I smirked. He blushed, and looked relieved when the door snapped open, rushing out.
Frank and I followed, heading down the hallway together. We passed a man in a doctor’s coat and finally got to the end of the hall a little after that. As we came close, a loud pitched whining sound could be heard. I was confused as to what it was at first. The nurse, on the other hand, cursed and ran forward. At the end of the hall, two police officers were standing nearby in horror as some nurses and a female doctor were working around a man dying on his bed.
“Code Blue!” someone yelled.
“What the hell happened!?” the nurse shouted as he ran in.
“We don’t know, he just started coding!” the doctor shouted as his patient was dying.
They got to work around the man on the bed, desperately trying to save him as Frank and I watched. I stared at them for a moment, thoughts swirling through my head.
Our one witness dying before we could get to him. Paparazzi outside, gathered early. Like someone had been…
“Oh no,” my eyes widened in horror. “Someone did this.”
“What do you mean?” Frank asked, looking up at me. Even as he asked, I saw him come to the same realization.
“They were trying to keep us from finding them,” I looked around. Nobody was looking guilty. Except… What the hell was a doctor doing going for an elevator when someone was dying?
If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
“Come on!” I shouted at Frank, rushing for the elevator as fast as I could. I kicked my shoes off to sprint as fast as I could. The elevator was already closed. I didn’t let that stop me.
I stopped in front of the doors and slipped my fingers in between them, shoving the metal doors apart with a loud whining sound. I could see the elevator going down below me. Without hesitating, I leaped down the dark shaft, wrapping a hand around one of the metal cables. I could feel the metal wire trying to scrape the skin off my palm, but thankfully I was too tough for that. I fell towards the elevator below as it came to a stop and quickly squeezed down on the cable in my hand, braking myself just over the elevator. I landed a bit heavily on the elevator, the whole thing shaking under my bare feet.
“Fuck!” someone shouted from inside. I leaned over and grabbed the door on top of it, pulling hard. The metal crumpled like paper under my fingers. I ripped it off more easily than I expected, stumbling back onto my ass with a yelp.
“Holy fuck!” someone shouted again. The doors for the elevator dinged open under me.
“No, no, NO!” I got up and leaped down into the elevator car as the fake doctor rushed out. I leaped forward and grabbed his coat, only for him to slip it off and keep running as I stumbled. “You son of a-!”
I ran after him as he sprinted for the doors. I smashed through the hospital doors in a shower of glass. He screamed.
And someone came out of the skies to kick me in the stomach. I gasped in pain, the booted foot shoving me back.
Pain filled me like nothing I’ve felt since I first went green. I went bouncing across the hospital floor, flipping over and over, until I crashed into a wall behind me.
“W-What just-” I gasped, coughing as I grabbed at my stomach. I looked up at the doors. A redheaded giant with long hair was spinning around to run away as well, disappearing around the corner.
“Walters!” Frank shouted as he came from the stairs. “You good!?”
“No,” I snarled, snapping to my feet and rushing forward. I ran outside and spun my head left and right. Nothing. They were gone.
“Goddamn it!” I roared, more glass shattering behind me, and slammed a foot into the ground. Some car alarms began to sound while the ground shook, a series of cracks under my feet. I breathed hard, glaring at nothing while people screamed.
“...Walters,” I spun around. Frank was there, holding a pistol in his hand. He was staring at me like he was deciding whether to point it at me or not. “...Come on. We’ll track them down.”
Still panting, I looked around. Some paparazzi were headed towards us, confused by the ruckus. I turned and walked inside, trying to hold my anger back. But it was getting harder and harder.
Mr. Romero had died. And I wasn’t even able to stop the people who’d done it.
I reached into my pocket and pulled out my StarkRigg phone.
“Who you calling?” Frank asked as people started coming over curiously.
“A friend,” I waited for barely a moment before the line picked up.
“Hello, Ms. Walters,” a British accent said. “How may I be of assistance?”
“Jarvis,” I looked behind me. “I’m gonna need you to help me track someone done. Might need to hack some cameras.”
“Simply inform me of where I should start,” he said smoothly.
------
May 20, 2014
“Red-haired giant?” Mahmoud asked calmly as we finally reached the rec room. He went to the bar and grabbed a bottle of vodka, tossing it to Thor, who grinned at him while Mahmoud went to the fridge and started pulling out ice cream.
“Pass me a bowl of rocky road?” Mahmoud gave me a grin and a nod, looking over at Nat, who shook her head. “And yeah. That was all I saw at the time though, just a nine-foot tall redhead. The bitch suckerpunched me,” hard to hide just how much that still pissed me off. “Later I learned her name.”
“Mary. Mary MacPherran. And it turns out, she had a lot on her mind at the time.”
------
May 18, 2014
Mary MacPherran
Mary ran into the car and looked back at the hospital. “Go, go, go damnit!”
The driver smashed down on the accelerator, spinning off. She looked out of the back of the car window and had enough time to see that green bitch coming running back out of the doors before they disappeared around the corner.
“That bitch is alive!?” the idiot next to her shouted. He was wearing a doctor’s coat and looked absolutely freaked out.
“She’s an Avenger you idiot, of course one hit didn’t take her out!” Mary shouted angrily, smacking him in the face with a casual wave. He screamed in pain as his nose broke. “Why the hell did you let her look at you?”
Blood poured from his nose. “You fuckin-!”
“What?” Mary grabbed his shirt and pulled him close. “I fucking… what?”
He stared at her, tears in his eyes. The driver said nothing, focusing as hard as he could on the road.
God, that was delicious. The fear in his eyes as blood poured from his nose. Mary pulled him closer, pressing her other hand to his neck. She forgot her anger. Instead, she began to squeeze. A sense of ecstasy filled her when his eyes widened. She could feel him begin to struggle.
She brought him closer, pressing his forehead to hers and breathing deeply. He coughed, a bit of blood landing on her face. “Why did you let yourself get seen? You made me do this.”
You made me do this. She’d heard people say that to her all her life. Her step-father first.
Saying it now, as a weak pathetic person clutched and pulled at her arms, crying silently, her hand squeezing, made her feel so perfect. She finally had power.
She let him go. He breathed in, gasping. Then she clenched her hands hard. She felt flesh give way under her hands, felt something rip. He tried to say something, but the blood had begun to pour over her fingers.
That feeling was something she clenched to. The power over someone else’s life. She slowly pushed him back as he died.
“I’ll burn the car when we get home,” the driver whispered.
“Good,” Mary leaned forward in her seat and pressed herself to the back of the driver’s. She brought her right hand around to press an index finger against his chest. For a moment, she hesitated. The driver was cute, but she’d never gotten used to flirting with people.
Then, the thought struck her. If he refused, why would that matter? She could do whatever she wanted.
She smiled. Just like her stepfather would. “Come to my room when you’re done.”
The driver nodded quickly, swallowing. Mary smiled and ran a finger along his chest, knowing she could rip him apart in seconds.
Knowing that an Avenger was after them made her feel much less confident, but killing the man had her on top of the world once again.
------
Interlude: Kids
Queens
Peter Parker/Nothing Yet
“Okay, put that piece there!” Ned said loudly. Peter leaned over and gently put in the lego piece, Ned holding two others apart to let it fit. If either of them had been doing this alone, they would have had some trouble with it, but together, Peter was able to get the job done.
When the piece finally clicked in, Ned and Peter shared a sigh of relief before grinning at each other.
Ned Leeds and Peter Parker. Friends for life. Ned Leeds was a slightly overweight young man with dark tanned skin, who’s smile tended to spread across his entire face. Peter, on the other hand, was almost painfully thin and pale. When he smiled, it was usually very nervously, as though someone would wipe it off his face at any moment.
Peter leaned back in his seat. They were sitting in Peter’s room after school, working together on their latest project. A Lego model of the Firehouse from Ghostbusters. The two thirteen year olds had had to save for months together to get the box, but they were having a lot of fun putting it together.
“It looks great!” Ned grinned at Peter. “I can’t believe we’re almost finished.”
Peter grinned right back at his friend, leaning back further, only to yelp when he almost fell backwards. He’d never had the best sense of balance. “Yeah. We should probably decide how we’ll carry it to your house.”
“You sure man?” Ned said nervously. “I mean, it’s already here, we can just leave it?”
Peter shook his head. “It’s okay. I want you to have it. I don’t have a place to put it anyways.”
That was true. Peter’s room was sadly a bit sparse, looking more like an unlived in college dorm room than something a teenage boy would live in. Besides, Peter felt a little guilty taking the Firehouse from Ned when his best friend had paid so much for it.
(Peter ignored the fact that he’d paid as much as Ned had.)
“Well, thank you, man,” Ned said with a smile. Then his phone beeped a notification. Grabbing it, he raised it up before laughing. “Ha! Look!”
He showed it to Peter by tapping the screen, a blue beam coming from a section of the phone. The new StarkRigg phones had the ability to pop up holograms of whatever their screens were showing. The feature took a lot of power from the phone, but it was so useful nobody minded.
The hologram was a picture of Tony Stark rolling his eyes sarcastically at Chernobog. On the image was a caption saying ‘yeah, he’s not evil at AAAAAALLLLL’. The dark god was roaring maniacally.
Peter laughed. As much as the Russian government had tried to highlight that the Winter Guard was a force of good, they couldn’t hide Chernobog. Not when the literal dark god had access to the internet.
“Look at this one!” The next picture had the caption ‘When People Rant About Demons Online’. It showed Chernobog sitting on a throne with a tub of popcorn, a shit-eating grin on his face.
“Are you following him?” Peter asked Ned incredulously.
“Yeah, he’s really funny!” Ned said with a grin. “He says he’s going on a trip to visit America soon. He wants Netflix to do a documentary on it.”
“Seriously?” Peter said incredulously.
“Oh, here’s your favorite again!” Ned turned the phone to show Tony Stark in his armor with Dial, in Diamondhead form, Thor, and the Hulk, the four laughing together as bullets bounced off of them. ‘When you and the homies have bulletproof opinions.’
“Well, he’s really cool,” Peter mumbled, getting a grin from Ned. Honestly, that was just part of why Peter admired Tony Stark so much. Peter could still remember being a kid, standing in front of a giant one-eyed robot. He’d been wearing an Iron Man mask and glove. He was so scared. All he could think to do was to use his toy glove to shoot it. It was dumb. The glove was just a toy. The robot had pointed a gun at him. He closed his eyes.
For a moment, when he heard a repulsor blast, Peter had the crazy thought that his glove had worked. His eyes snapped open.
The robot was gone. And Iron Man stood there. Tall and proud, his red and gold suit almost glowing in the light. Peter, for the rest of his life, would remember the sight of Iron Man’s blue eyes looking down at him.
“Nice work, kid.”
Then he took off into the sky.
After that, how could Peter not think Iron Man was the coolest hero ever?
“Hey boys,” a man came up to the door, smiling down at them. A warm feeling came over Peter when he saw the man. “I think it’s about time I drove Ned home, don’t you?”
“Sure thing, Mr. Parker,” Ned said with a smile.
“Uncle Ben, can you help us carry this?” Peter asked.
The man stepped in to look over the Firehouse. He had thick brown hair similar in color to Peter’s, and light blue eyes, a short beard about his chin. He gently picked it up in strong hands, looking it over carefully. “Yeah, I think we can carry it out, Petey.”
Uncle Ben smiled at Peter Parker. To Peter, that meant the entire world.
------
Jersey City
Kamala Khan/Nothing Yet
“Kamala! Dinner!”
Kamala winced in front of her computer. The young girl was reading a fanfic on freakingcool.com, a website for nerds like her. She’d only recently gotten into it, and was quickly becoming obsessed with the stories on there.
Though she had to hide some of the guilty pleasure stories from her parents. She was only 12 after all, they’d freak if they found out that this site had shipping stories. Er, the sexy kind of shipping, not the literal one.
She giggled just a bit at the latest story she was reading, a funny one where the Avengers were dropped into a magical world and fought against demons. She’d spent some time playing with her best friend, Bruno, where they’d play out that exact scenario!
It was so much fun! She played She-Hulk and he would play Captain America, and they’d beat up demons. Or aliens. Or HYDRA. A couple of times though, she’d play Dial.
She-Hulk was her favorite Avenger. A tall, powerful, pretty woman, who was always confident and spoke her mind, and just did whatever she wanted.
But Dial was… well, he was Muslim. Like her. He spoke about it sometimes, real casually. He was pretty cool too. He could turn into all sorts of different aliens and fight bad guys all over New York! He was someone who looked like he could be her brother, who was also a world famous superhero.
She wanted to be like She-Hulk and Dial and Black Widow. She wanted to be an Avenger.
Which was why it sucked that her parents wanted her to be a good wife.
“Dinner time, beta,” a Pakistani woman walked into Kamala’s room. She was in her early thirties, an older version of Kamala, with the same long black hair and bright chocolate eyes set into light brown skin, some small wrinkles in the corners of her eyes. Kamala had her back turned to her, so she missed the warm smile her mother had as she stared for a moment at her young daughter.
By the time her daughter had turned around, her mother was frowning just a bit. “Beta, that doesn’t look like your homework.”
This gentle admonishment was met by a wince from Kamala. “I’m only reading a bit! I’ll do my homework soon!”
“After dinner,” Muneeba Khan told her daughter, getting a groan from her.
“Okay, ammu… can I visit Bruno later? We’re supposed to watch Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles together!”
“Beta, it’s almost night time,” when Kamala pouted cutely at her mother, Muneeba hesitated. “You can call him on my phone and watch it with him on the photo-call.”
“You mean video-chat,” Kamala corrected immediately, before grinning and rushing towards her mother, hugging tight around the waist. “Thank you, ammu!”
Muneeba smiled down at her daughter as she rushed away. She turned to look about the room.
Recently, Kamala had become obsessed with the Avengers. So it was no surprise that she had bought a lot of action figures. They were placed haphazardly all about the floor, on the bed, and in the closet. On the table was a figure of She-Hulk, her fist raised in a pumping motion, placed prominently in the room Muneeba pursed her lips thoughtfully.
She wasn’t sure how to feel about her daughters obsession. She was a good, smart girl, if a very energetic one. Maybe she would grow out of it?
Then she noticed one of the figures. Dial. In his human form, wearing green and black armor, resting on his back with legs and arms spread awkwardly.
Dial hadn’t realized it, but he had a mixed reputation in the Muslim community. He proclaimed his religion, but no one ever saw him go to prayer. He openly dated a non-muslim woman and had been seen partying with men and women who had been drinking.
Yet, he did not drink himself. He was well known for his work as a superhero, had been seen literally killing evil jinn and protecting people across the world. He was a complicated subject all around.
Muneeba hesitated before finally closing the door. When she got downstairs, she took a look at her family. Yusuf, tired from work, smiled at his daughter as she excitedly talked about her latest obsession. Her son, praying piously before the meal would begin, his beard just barely coming in. Yusuf noticed her standing there, and looked up, his eyes warm. Even after all these years, he still made her smile.
The mother and wife joined her family for dinner, and all was right with the world.
------
Montana
Humberto Lopez/Nothing Yet
In the desert of Montana, in the early morning, Humberto Lopez played with the small rock he’d found, looking it over, his blue eyes full of wonder. It was shiny and red, looking almost like a jewel. “Mom, look!”
He ran over to his mother, who was patiently brushed at a fossil embedded in the dirt. She had dirt all across her face and arms, her jeans dusted a light brown. She looked up at her son, the ten-year-old waving the red rock in his hands happily. “Look what I found!”
“Oh?” she looked up from the stones and leaned back to sit on her heels. Her son passed her the red stone, which she gave an interested look. “Wow, that’s really cool, mi vida! Where did you find it?”
“In the dirt over there!” he pointed at a random section of earth. “There was a black light, and then I found it on the floor!”
His mother frowned at the rock, then at where Humberto was pointed. “A black light? Mi vida, light can’t be black.”
He blinked at her. “Well, that’s what I saw.”
She looked a little skeptical, but finally smiled and handed him the jewel. “Well, it’s a heck of a find. You might have a real talent for this,” her smile became a bit teasing. “You sure you want to do this forever though? Hang out with your mom and dad in a bunch of old rocks?”
He pursed his lips thoughtfully, then nodded. “Yeah! Dinosaurs are awesome, mom.”
She chuckled. “Sweetie, you know that paleontologists can find more than dinosaur bones, don’t you?”
Humberto scowled, the way all children did when they thought an adult was saying something unreasonable. “But dinosaurs are-”
“You know Megaladons are sharks the size of a small bus?” his mother said, passing him back the stone.
“...I guess those are cool,” he said reluctantly.
As his mother laughed, neither noticed the red stone glow for just a moment. Soon, it would awaken.
In the distance, an old woman with fur across her body watched the mother and son work together. She raised her staff and disappeared in a flash of black light.