36 || the "talk"

"You're declining the offer to be an Avenger?"

Midtown High School, Queens, New York, October 2016-

Alison's life had quieted down after the Vulture incident. Granted, it was only the next day, but with Adrian Toomes now in federal hands, she didn't have to think about a villainous crime boss. Or the fact that he was just another pawn in the plan that Absinthe was setting up for her.

She was just a regular teenager in Queens, trying to get through her sophomore year. And that was the thing that Alison enjoyed the most. She loved going out and saving people, and the rush of adrenaline she got from it, but having less responsibility on her shoulders was a gratifying thing. Just trying to get from class to class with her best friends was an amazing thing that she actually appreciated now.

The end of the school day was fast approaching, and her last class bell rang like the sound of freedom. Instead of bursting out the door like Peter would to fight crime, or try and be the second or third out so Alison could get Charles, Ali took her time, walking with Skylar to place their books away again.

"So, you look like you've been thrown in a blender, gotten out, and sewn back into a million pieces after what happened last night." Skylar remarked, leaning up against the locker right next to Alison's. "You not have too much fun after the takedown of our flying metal friend?"

Alison sighed, shutting her locker door shut with a close. "No, I was literally asleep on top go the Cyclone building with Peter until 3 AM." She replied, letting her backpack hang over her shoulder with a sigh. "And no, don't give me that look. It wasn't like that."

Skylar threw her hands up with an innocent look, wiping the look that had been on her face seconds before. Her lips were tightly pursued, trying to contain the smile peeking through her face. "I didn't say anything. You can't accuse me of saying anything-"

"I know what you were implying." Alison interrupted, starting to walk towards the stairs to get home. Almost laughing, she shook her head as she started to scale the stairs two by two."And besides, I was only up there because I was literally exhausted, burned, bruised, and without my superpowers."

"Wait, wait, wait. You lost your powers?" Skylar whispered, looking at Alison as she ducked her head down lower to try and stop anyone from overhearing their conversation. "How? Who? Why? I need explanations."

"This." Alison tartly explained, rolling up her right jean jacket sleeve and holding up a still semi-bandaged hand. There were still some areas of her hand that were still burned (regenerative cells weren't always the most reliable, especially when there was no way she could use her powers) but the thing that stuck out was the blue wrist device still glowing on her hand. "Not the best fashion accessory, it doesn't go with anything."

Skylar, with disregard for the stairs they were scrambling down or for the injuries her friend still had, took hold of Alison's hand, inspecting the device that was clearly charred from the incident the night before. "Okay, first," She gasped, looking at the device. "How did he design this? Second, what tech did he-"

"First off-" Alison finished for Skylar, wrenching her hand away. "Ouch, and second off, the design didn't come from him. Our very great friend Abby designed this and gave him the tools to build it." She sighed, giving a huge and final stomp at the bottom of the stairs.

"Okay, and this is when I'm going to advise you to talk to my dad about this." Skylar's tone returned to its normal tone, and she gave Alison a pointed look. Alison returned her with a protest that started to shape at the edge of her lips, but Skylar spoke again before she could complain. "Come on, you know you're going to have to at some point, sooner or not he's gonna call you in after last-"

"Oh hey, perfect timing, I was just going to find you girls." A voice called from the hallway the girls had just turned onto. Interrupting their conversation was a clearly awkward Happy Hogan, Peter right beside him. He gestured for the girls to follow him towards the exit from the stairway, already annoyed. "Come on Skylar, you gotta go home. And Alison, boss wants to see you."

"Told you so." Skylar muttered under her breath to Alison as they joined the small group that Peter and Happy had awkwardly formed. Alison just offered her friend a soundless scoff, walking towards the doors to what she was sure was another lecture from Tony Stark.

The facility had been remodeled since the last time Alison had gone there. It had only been a few weeks but the whole floor looked almost brand new, with things still being brought over in shipments from Avengers Tower.

Peter looked like he was in paradise, looking around and posing semi excitedly in front of the Avengers logo, resisting the urge to have Alison or Skylar take a picture of him in front of it. Alison and Skylar just kept walking with Happy, trying not to look around and gape at the news sights around them.

A quinjet took off in front of the huge glass windows that covered one side of the Facility, allowing the crew of three teenagers and Happy to watch the plane takeoff towards some probably exotic location. "Don't see that everyday." Happy remarked, looking at Peter's gleeful face.

Alison looked pretty amazed too, with Skylar giving a "meh" face at the takeoff, used to seeing many quintets take off everyday. Alison, seeing Skylar's neutral expression, shoved her friend with a small snort. "You are so lucky you live here." Alison whispered to her friend, her eyes still trained on the horizon in front of them.

"Ah, there they are." Tony remarked, walking up from behind the group. Almost in unison, Peter, Alison, Skylar, and Happy turned around to see the billionaire mentor (and father) striding towards them. "How was the ride up?"

"Just fine. A little bumpy-" Skylar glared over at Happy, who just gave her a cold stare back. "But just fine Dad. Thank you for asking." She walked over to her dad, who just gave her an amused look back.

"I was talking to our little Queens friends. I do love you Skylar, but, the superheroes have to talk and you will get a very specific talk about stealing my stuff later. For now, it's time for you to work on your homework." Tony gestured to the hallway where Skylar's room was located. "Come on, move the feet."

Skylar rolled her eyes, almost offering her dad the middle finger. She waved goodbye to Alison, slinging her backpack over her shoulders and running off towards the hallway. "Try not to murder my friends while they're here!" She hollered, sliding down into her room.

A small snort escaped Tony's nose, turning back around to face Happy, glancing over at Peter and Alison. "Give me a minute with the kids." He smoothly stated, giving Happy a pointed look of seriousness.

"Seriously?" Happy deadpanned, looking at Alison and Peter quickly before facing Tony once again. "You wanna talk to the kids?"

"Yeah, I gotta talk to the kids." Tony fired back, still not removing his tinted sunglasses. He nodded in agreement to the words he was speaking, not breaking eye contact with Happy as he did so.

"I'll follow close behind." Happy tried to compromise, scrunching up his face as he gave the offer. Why he wanted to listen in to the conversation was a mystery, but it was assumed he still wanted to do his job and watch over Peter.

"How about loose follow?" Tony offered, finishing the conversation for Happy. "Alright? Boundaries are good." He then turned to where Peter and Alison were standing, placing a hand on Peter's shoulder. "Miss Marnell, you stay here. I'll talk to you as soon as I'm done with Parker."

Alison stopped walking with Tony and Peter, instead heading back to where Happy was. "Now you're going to have to watch over me and not trail, huh?" She quipped, sitting down on a sofa that was randomly placed in the hallway.

Happy shrugged, sitting down next to Alison. "I mean, I'll listen in on your conversation, so I'm still going to be trailing someone." His eyes were trained on Tony and Peter, who had made it to the end of the hallway. The glass doors opened for them, and Alison quirked an eyebrow.

"Wonder what he's showing him." Alison remarked, her eyes now looking at the two. Tony and Peter blocked the view of whatever they were looking at, and so the young teenager had no clue what Peter was gaping at.

"From what I know about whatever Tony has planned, it's a new suit, and, well, the other part I will keep to myself." Happy finished, his voice fading into a mutter as he spoke. Oversharing was uncommon with the driver, but sometimes happened when he was anxious or nervous, like he was right now.

Alison looked over at Happy, a curious look on her face. "Okay, but for the record, I'm going to pretend that I'm not super interested in whatever you just said." Her eyes turned from looking at whatever Peter and Tony were doing to the glass window of the Facility, which showed a peaceful view of upstate.

Happy nodded, his eyes still intently watching Peter and Tony. When Peter exited the room, looking quiet joyous and confident, Happy stood up. Straightening his suit, Happy tried to look as formal as he could when Tony walked out of the room right behind Peter. Tony gave Happy a small signal to bring in the next teenager, and Happy obliged.

"Your turn." He nudged Alison, who stood up rather klutzily. "Now do me a favor, I gotta take this kid back to the car." Happy gestured for Peter to hurry up and get to him as quickly as possible, already annoyed with being the babysitter of two teenagers. "Please don't screw up again."

Alison gave Happy an annoyed look, telling him with one glance that she wouldn't. "Miss Marnell?" Tony called from his spot, summoning her to his spot. "If you could super speed your little way over here, that would be great."

Nodding, Alison started to jog over to Tony, but stopped to talk to Peter when he was at the same spot that she was at. "How bad is the lecture?" She whispered to Peter, pausing for a moment to glance at Tony before looking back at Peter.

"From what I experienced, nothing. Just don't do anything stupid, cause I'm pretty sure this is a test." Peter whispered back, pausing in his place to talk with Alison as well. Looking over his shoulder, Peter saw Happy gesturing even faster for him to get to his spot. "Look, I gotta go, but, just, tell Mister Stark about what happened in your apartment, okay? He'll be able to help with everything."

Peter left Alison in her spot, jogging over to meet Happy. Alison sighed as she walked over to Tony, many thoughts racing through her head. Everyone wanted her to tell Tony or some experienced superhero about Absinthe, but she was hesitant about telling someone with such experience. What if it just widened the target on her back? What if it widened the target on Charles' back? Alison dismissed the thoughts with her final decision, finally making it to Tony's spot.

"Took you long enough." Tony remarked, double tapping his watch so that the schematics for a new (more like modified) Breakout suit would appear as decorations for the side of the room and the Breakout suit would be loaded into the suit display. "You lose your spunk?" He opened the door to the room, letting Alison go into the decked out room before him.

"Anything from it." Alison replied back, turning around to see Tony catch up with her. Sighing, Ali pulled up her jacket sleeve once again. "Vulture had this nice device last night that took them from me." The blue wristband glowed more dimly in the bright light of the Avengers Facility, but was still noticeable among the bandages on her wrist and hand.

Tony, with the same curiosity as his daughter, looked down at Alison's wrist. However, he had a little more caution than Skylar, and looked at it from a distance. "Mind picking up the wrist so I can look at this thing? Might be useful for other things in the future."

"Like what?" Alison asked, obliging to Tony's request and picking up her wrist. Tony took ahold of her wrist, letting it rest in his palm somewhat delicately. "Stopping another super villain? I don't think we will have any more of those after the Vulture." She smoothly lied, trying to keep her face as blank as possible.

Tony looked up from inspecting Alison's wrist to look at her face. "One can never be too prepared, you should know that out of all people. I'm surprised you don't carry around pepper spray by this point to keep yourself from getting kidnapped by another Avenger or getting hurt in any other situation."

Alison rolled her eyes, taking her wrist out of Tony's palm. "Okay, so do you have anything to say other than scold me for ditching clean up duty? Because, if not, I'm going to go work on homework with Skylar. I'm here anyways."

Tony picked himself up from the tangent that he was going off on about tech with grace. "Yes, actually, I was here to thank you and- Mister Parker down there." He gestured back towards where Peter was waiting. "You messed up- majorly. But you fixed it, and you even stopped a crime boss while at it! Although I'm sure that my daughter gave you back your old suit, because there was literally no other way for you to battle, you did good, kid." He patted her back, a proud look on her face.

Tapping his wristwatch once again, the newly refurbished Breakout suit rose up from its place into the room. "That's why I want to introduce you, Breakout- nice name by the way, glad my nickname stuck with you- as the newest Avenger." The suit was beautiful, the design Tony had once made no longer there, all of the yellow accents now replaced with gold accents, every thing having a more metallic and shimmery look than before. "Looks good, eh?"

Alison looked at the suit with shock, her eyes showing all the emotion that was needed. "You mean after messing up at least seven times, sneaking off with your suit to fight crime, being on Captain America's side during that airport battle, you want me to be an Avenger?"

Tony shrugged, looking at the suit for a moment, before training his eyes back on Alison. "Superheroes don't always have the best backstories. I mean, I was the merchant of death. Your friend Peter over there, well, I don't know the full story but what I do know is that nothing comes easy for that kid. And besides, you've done your job as a hero. That's all I can ask for."

Alison looked at the suit once again, then back at Tony. "Uh, I mean-" Her mind flashed back to the conversation with Scott, and the words lay low sticking in her head, and Peter's warning of this being a test. "It's a wonderful offer, but I think I'll pass." Ali decided, looking back at Tony. "I mean, it's a really nice suit, and the offer to be an Avenger is amazing, but I'd rather lay low and fight the smaller crimes."

"Really?" Tony questioned, shaking his head at the fact that both Peter and Alison had declined his offer. "You'd pass up the chance to be an Avenger, just like that?" He snapped his fingers, his face one of shock.

"Yeah, the stress of being an Avenger isn't something I want on top of AP classes, exams, and trying to survive high school." Alison shrugged, looking at where Peter was with Happy, a smile coming to her face. "Besides, Spider-Man needs his partner."

Tony sighed, giving up on the idea of having two new Avengers on the team. "Suit yourself. I'll have Happy take you and Mister Parker back to Queens, and you can keep my suit that Skylar stole from me and gave back to you. And here." Tony threw a small device to Alison, who barely caught it. "That should take the device off, it looks to be staying on your hand by- you know what, it's too complicated. Just click the button and it'll come off, but give the device back to me."

Alison nodded, slinging her backpack back over her shoulder. "Thanks Mister Stark," She smiled, turning around to walk out of the door. "And I'll see you around sometime, if you can catch up to me." Pushing open the glass door, Alison jogged over to meet Happy and Peter, grinning as she did so.

Tony sighed, shaking his head, looking at the Breakout suit with a slight smile. "Teenagers." He muttered, watching Peter and Alison walk towards the exit of Avengers Facility, the two discussing something together. "What would life be without them?"

<~*~>

oh look I got out another chapter before I leave for camp

I'm very happy this was really fun to write

the end might be really choppy but whatever I'll fix it tomorrow morning

alrighty guys I'm gonna be gone for a week starting tomorrow at 10 AM PST and I won't be back until Saturday 8/4. that's two days after my birthday btw

also a new book will be released at 25K

I think that's it so until then, readers!

anyways I hope you all enjoyed and I'll see you in the next one!

bye

:))