THERE WAS SOMETHING about the New Avengers Facility that felt familiar to Kaelyn. Not necessarily familiar, but part of her seemed to just belong there. She was glad they chose to train there even though Mr. Stark had yet to complete his move there. Walking into the bright facility where there were students milling about and tons of young people with bright ideas was much less daunting than if they were training somewhere like Stark Tower. Despite the warmth and familiarity, Kaelyn was scared. Well, she didn't know if scared was the right word. Maybe it was nervous. Her emotions were muddled enough already so she gave up on trying to differentiate them. She had no idea what Mr. Stark had in store for her with this "training" as he called it. Despite all these uncertainties, though, she had Beth by her side so she knew she was going to be safe no matter what. 

"What do you think this like training thing is gonna be? Are they just gonna throw shit at you? I hope they just throw shit at you. I love you, but I'm gonna film it if they do."

"This is an extremely high tech facility with lots of new technology the world has never even heard of, I highly doubt they're going to train me by, as you put it, throwing shit at me," Kaelyn scoffed.

So, as it turns out, Tony's method of training was throwing shit at Kaelyn. He put her in a room with one window and padded walls while he and Beth stood on the outside. It had the same design as a recording booth except it was a recording booth of death. 

"I like the padding, real psychiatric ward chic," Kaelyn retorted, knowing Tony could hear her. His disdainful expression made it clear he heard her comment and was not happy with it, which made her giggle. 

She watched as Tony pressed down on the microphone button, his voice ringing through the speaker in the corner of the ceiling, "You say that but wait until one of these blasts throws you against the wall. Then you'll be thankful."

Although he was probably right, she just shrugged, "Whatever let's just get this shit going before I lose this energy because I had about three Redbulls today and I am very close to crashing."

"This is why I don't work with teenagers," Tony sighed into the microphone. Kaelyn made eye contact with a giggling Beth who was sitting in a comfy chair in front of the window. Since she was so tiny she was completely curled into the chair and Kaelyn, who was bracing herself for whatever Tony was going to throw her way, was jealous of how comfortable she looked. "We're going to start off slow. At first, we're just going to track how you absorb impact, okay? We've got a camera that will track every movement so we can see how different areas are affected by different things. This might hurt, but considering Peter told me you stopped a bullet with your hand, I'm not too sure you'll feel anything. Don't flinch, just let it hit you so we get the most accurate readings, got all that?"

"You're gonna throw shit and I can't flinch, got it!" she repeated back the basic idea, giving Tony a thumbs up. Laughing, she watched as Beth blew her a kiss and then gave her a thumbs up. She didn't know how she would get through something as insane as training her superpowers at the New Avengers Facility without Beth by her side. The girl had been thrown into another universe in a matter of days where her world changed, but with Beth by her side, it still seemed like the same world the two had always known. It was their world, always. 

After she gave Tony the thumbs up, she watched carefully as he pressed a button. She didn't know what she was expecting, but a typical dodge ball that looked like something from any high school coming straight at her was not it at all. Now, of course, her instinct was to dodge it. It's a dodge ball, it's in the name. As much as she tried to keep herself glued to the floor and unmoving, she instinctively ducked and the ball missed her. 

"Oh, shit, whoops, all right number two let's go!" she exclaimed, trying to ignore Tony's "what the fuck was that" expression. All she could do was offer him a sheepish grin. 

Without saying anything, Tony pressed another button and another ball came flying at her. This time, she managed to not move and it nailed her in the shoulder. She felt no pain, but her shoulder did jerk back with the impact. After the ball bounced off of her and onto the padded ground, Tony spoke into the microphone. 

"What did that feel like?" 

"Nothing, it just felt like a ball hitting me," she shrugged. If she were being honest, she didn't know what Tony was looking for. She wasn't going to be totally invincible. She knew she wasn't. However, the more she thought about it, she couldn't remember the last time she got a papercut or scraped her knees after a fall. This was not something she enjoyed thinking about, there was nothing special about a girl like Kaelyn and she had gone through her life being okay with that. Why did that have to change? 

"Are you ready for the next one? Just warning you, it's a lot worse than a dodgeball."

"Hit me, I stopped a bullet why not just throw a nuclear blast at me and see what happens," Kaelyn offered. Although the statement was meant to be joking, the lack of humor in her tone was startling. Maybe she didn't like training as much as she wanted to. Maybe it was just the oncoming Redbull crash. 

Tony pressed the button. There was a brief moment where she didn't know what was coming at her. Then she realized they were small blades. She wanted to run, but everything in her made sure her feet stayed glued to the ground. This wasn't going to hurt her. She knew it wouldn't. Flinching was useless. A blade bounced off of her cheek. Another off of her stomach. One grazed her ear, but no blood dripped onto her shoulder from a passing cut. It was an eerie feeling. Simply knowing that if anyone else was standing in this room like she was they would be bleeding and in severe pain, maybe even dead. Yet here she stood. Squatting down, she picked up and observed one of the blades. They were about three inches in length and as thin as a pencil. Sliding her finger across the edge, it was razor sharp along the sides and sharpened to a point. No blood was on the finger she used, no cuts or anything. Taking the tip of the razor, she pressed it into her forearm using as much force as she could channel. It bounced off. Not even the thinnest layer of skin was broken. Kaelyn wasn't sure how she felt about this. 

"You good?" It was Beth speaking into the microphone now. Kaelyn got out of her squat and sat down, staring at her unharmed arm and the blade in her hand. She looked up at her best friend, defeated. She shook her head. In moments, the door opened and Beth was walking over to her. 

Sitting down next to the redhead, Beth left about a centimeter of space between them, not sure the girl wanted to be touched. 

"Talk to me, Kae."

"What the fuck is wrong with me? I-I was a normal teenage girl. I was the pretty cheerleader everyone wanted but couldn't have, the girl who was a little dumb but was popular so she got by. Now, I'm just a freak. I just want to feel something, I don't want to be unbreakable. I don't want to be weird or have superpowers or be a superhero, I just want to be normal." She wiped a tear she didn't realize she had.  Leaning into her best friend, Beth put an arm around her shoulders. 

Beth thought for a moment and the girl had a feeling she was figuring out what she wanted to say. Kaelyn's situation wasn't exactly something you were able to give easy advice about. After a beat of silence, the girl began, "Being normal is fucking stupid, Kae. You wanna be a cheerleader who peaked in high school? Because you are destined for so much more than that, it's painfully obvious. Sure, this is definitely not the future you expected, but no matter what comes your way you're going to have me by your side to support you. Now, you've even got Peter. I don't care if you've got some funky superpowers or not, you're my best friend, I love you, and nothing is going to change that. Besides, your superpowers are so fucking cool I mean what if you have super strength or something like one of the football players can slap your ass and you can just slap them into the next dimension how sick is that?"

A minuscule laugh escaped her lips, "I don't think I have super strength."

"Well, we're not gonna find out if you do or not if you give up now, are we?"

"I guess not." 

"All right, then let's get this shit done, Kae. You're tough as nails, I know you got this."

Beth stood up and held out a hand which Kaelyn took as the girl hauled her off of the ground. As soon as they were standing, the redhead pulled her into a hug. 

"Thank you," she whispered into the crook of her neck.

She smiled, "Any time."

i love when i make my peter parker fanfiction more about strong femal friendships than the actual romantic part of the story