20|| confrontations and a call from an avenger

"Why are you calling me again? I'm on a field trip."

Bus to D.C. , October 2016-

Ali's mind was racing. Walking all the way to the back of the bus, Alison nestled in a seat all by her own. Deciding to take action sooner rather than later, she dialed Skylar's number.

"How does Peter Parker know my secret? Did he see me under the mask?" Alison exclaimed, on a call with Skylar. "Did you tell him?"

"No!" Skylar relied, shocked by Alison's quick accusation against her. "Why would I tell him? Do I even talk to him anymore?"

"That's true." Alison sighed, leaning up against the window. "So how would he have figured out?"

"I don't know Alison, but you're on your own for this one. My dad's breathing down my back already right now, what with Spider-Man's major screw up the night of the party."

"Wait what?" Alison exclaimed. "Spider-Man got in trouble with your dad?" She shifted her position in the booth

"Yeah," Skylar sighed, rolling her eyes. "He's off in India, and I have Ms. Momster Pepper Potts watching over me."

"Fun." Alison teased, her smile growing tight. "Anyways, try and find out how he knew, and work your little techie magic for me."

"Ok Alison," Skylar pulled her laptop up. "I'll text you if I get anything." She began typing away at her laptop.

"Alrighty," Alison nodded. "Bye." She hung up on Skylar, pressing the red end call button on her iPhone.

It wasn't long before the group passed by a sign showing how far away Baltimore and Washington DC were, and Liz caught Alison's attention.

"Alright everyone, our next topic is the moves of Saturn." Liz smiled, holding up the cards.

It wasn't long before a small Asian girl whose name Alison couldn't recall answered the question Liz asked. "The second law of thermodynamics!" She exclaimed.

"Next question!" Liz pepped up the team, the teacher warning her not to overwork the decathlon members.

"Who was Cynthia McMurrey married to from 1998-2000?" Liz asked, reading off the next flash card.

"Frank Sinatra!" Another kid piped up, ringing his bell. Alison arched an eyebrow. These kids were good at this! And probably better than she would ever be.

"Alright then," Liz flipped to the next card. "Which fort bombing inspired Francis Scott Key to write our national anthem?"

Flash dinged his bell in an instant. "Fort Sumter." He though aloud, looking confident in his answer.

Abraham dinged his bell. "Flash is wrong," He laughed, a wide smile on his face.

There was an awkward pause that spread throughout the room, no one else remembering the tiny details about the War of 1812. It was such a small war that no one remembered anyways.

"Fort McHenry." Alison nodded at Liz, looking up at her with acknowledgment. "And it was a poem before it got turned into the song that became our national anthem."

Ned turned around at Alison. "Dang girl, you're good at this." He gave a small bro nod of recognition.

Suddenly all eyes were on Alison. "I'm just a history buff, jeez." Alison muttered, embarrassed by the attention.

Ned just shrugged and turned back to the questions. "Ok guys let's focus, next question." Liz drew the attention back to the front.

"What specific metal is Captain America's shield made out of? List the full name." Liz read aloud.

Peter dinged his bell surprisingly fast, "Uh- Stratum Barium Vibranium."

"Very good Peter." Liz said modestly, barely staring Peter in the eye. "It's nice to have you back."

"I'm glad to be back." Peter nodded, a love struck look in his eyes. Alison rolled her eyes, turning her head back to the window.

No sooner did all interactions end, Alison's phone went off with a strange caller ID reading "Superhero father." Mentally smacking herself for the stupid name she had given Tony in her contact book, she picked up the phone.

At the same exact time, Peter Parker got a call, and scurried to the back of the bus by Ned. Not really caring what the two dorks did, Alison ignored the two, and greeted the phone.

"Yello?" Ali said casually, tilting her head up a slight bit. "This is Alison Marnell speaking."

"Hi Alison." Tony said tentatively. "Yeah, this is Tony. Would you mind telling me why you left New York without telling me?"

"Oh. Oh!" Alison exclaimed, actually smacking herself this time. How stupid could she actually get? "I'm supervising a trip to D.C. for academic decathlon. And taking pictures for yearbook, no biggie."

Over in the seats across from her, Peter was saying about the same thing. "Nothing. Look! It's just academic decathlon. It's no big deal."

"Ok," Tony sighed, "You're good to go kid. Oh, and did you get that check in with Spider-Man last night?"

"No..." Alison trailed off. "I was out for a run, and I had a study session later that night. I was super busy. Why? Was he supposed to be at my apartment or something?"

"Yeah." Tony admitted, "And you were supposed to be home! At least from what Skylar had told me."

"Sorry." Ali sucked in a breath. "I was out. I should of texted Skylar or something." She looked up at Liz, who was still grilling the kids. "Look I gotta go, we're heading into a place with bad connection." Alison lied.

"Kid, be safe. And don't pull the connection thing on me-" Alison hung up on Tony, cutting off the last words of his sentence.

By that time Peter was already done with the call. "And who was that?" He asked Alison, gesturing to the phone.

"No one you should know or care about nosy," Alison shot back, pocketing her phone, the screen still on.

"After all Parker," She rolled her eyes. "You don't need to know my whole life. You aren't my supervisor or guardian or anything."

"Actually-" Ned began, almost revealing something important. Peter gave him a cold stare, silently asking him to shut up.

"Anyways," Alison titled her head back to Peter. "I have unfinished business with you." She looked at Peter, a pissed off glare in her eyes. "But he-" Ali gestured over at Ned. "Can't be here."

"Why not?" Peter fired back. "He knows too." He leaned in closer. "That you're Breakout."

"That's so badass." Ned nodded, butting into their conversation. Alison about had the nerve to smack the poor guy in the face.

"What the hell?!?" Alison exclaimed, about ready to let loose a string of profanities. "Did you tell your neighborhood Spider-Man friend too!?" She gestured wildly, her oversized grey sweater flailing along with her.

"N-No," Peter stuttered, staring directly at Alison, his voice getting more nervous. "W-why would I tell him?"

"Wait." Ali sighed, "I actually don't even care. Just, don't answer me. I'm going up front. You dorks are just too much."

Alison stood up from her seat, her phone dropping out of her pocket. She began to slowly make her way down the aisle, trying not to ruin the quiz Liz was giving them.

Peter grabbed Alison's phone, looking at the recent calls. "Superhero father, eh?" He asked curiously, Alison turning back around in a start.

"Dude, give that back!" She exclaimed, quickly swiping the phone with her powers. Ali knew it was cheating, but at this point she didn't care. But by the time Peter realized what she was doing, Alison was still in her original position.

Ned looked at Alison with wide eyes. "That's still so cool." He whispered in awe. "I can't believe it."

With a prompt cold stare, Alison gave Peter the middle finger, turning around to walk away. "Oh yeah, and Penis Parker? Don't tell anyone. Or you're as good as dead in my book, kay?"

And with that, Alison Marnell walked away from the two dorky boys who were still in awe.

"So she beat you up?" Ned nudged Peter after Alison had left. When Peter didn't give an answer, Ned took that as a yes, muttering the words once again.

"That's so badass."

Once the team had registered at the hotel, everyone was given their assigned rooms. Alison was given a room with Liz, and the two settled into their room quite quickly.

Liz left in a hurry, saying that she had to make sure that everyone else was setting in ok. On the way out of the hotel room, Alison tossed Liz a hotel key, and her Midtown mustard yellow sweater.

"Don't take candy from strangers !" Alison joked, Liz rolling her eyes as she slammed the door.

"Alone time for me." Alison smiled, turning on the TV. She brought out some mixed candy bars and sour gummy worm packs from her maroon backpack.

Plopping into the bed, Ali turned on the TV in the small hotel room, searching the channels for a good movie. When she decided on one, Alison settled in for a good movie.

As she was choosing the movie, Alison got a text from an unknown number.

unknown

answer the Skype call in 30. it's an old friend. pick up Ali.

READ 4:54 PM

Alison was confused. Who would text her that? I mean, Tony would have the guts to pull a prank like this, but he wouldn't go to these lengths. Maybe it was just a prank caller? Ali decided to just turn back to the movie and enjoy it while she could.

Not even ten minutes later, Liz came busting through the door. "Hey Ali!" She smiled, bringing in some of the other girls. "What are you doing?"

"Watching a movie." Alison gestured to the TV, the Star Wars movie playing softly in the background. "You guys wanna join?"

"Sure!" One of the girls exclaimed, sitting down on Liz's bed. "Which movie?"

"Uh...." Alison checked the guide again, seeing the movie title pop up. "Its Star Wars. The Force Awakens. " she added in.

"Sounds good to me," Liz nodded, sitting down in Alison's bed, letting the other girls take over hers.

"Here," Alison threw some candy bars at Liz and the other girls. "I brought some candy of my own. Feel free to chow down. These aren't eleven dollars like the ones in the mini bar."

One of the girls laughed. "I'm Rebecca. It's nice to meet you Alison. Good job at correcting Flash earlier." The girl looked slightly overweight, and her curly long hair was pulled up into a ponytail.

"Thanks." Alison smiled brightly. "It's nice to meet you too Rebecca." She took a bite of her candy bar. "Now let's get watching this movie."

The first twenty minutes of the movie were great, with Rey and Finn escaping the First Order in the "garbage" Millennial Falcon. People who hadn't ever seen the franchise were firing questions at Liz and Alison, who had seen the movie before.

Not after answering a question about when Han Solo was going to come into the movie, Alison's phone went off.

"Hey guys, I gotta take this," Alison rushed out, looking at the Skype call. "I think it's my brother, I'll be right back." She lied, hopping off the bed and walking out of the room.

Shutting the door quietly, she answered the phone, staring at her reflection as the call went through the line. "Hello?" Alison asked, the camera fuzzy on the other side. "Who is this?"

"Oh. So you actually listened to me this time." The camera cleared up, and showed Clint. His face was molded into one of a surprised look. "That's a first."

"Clint!" Alison exclaimed loudly, looking at the camera more closely. "It's you! I thought-"

"You were in prison?" Clint interrupted. "Yeah, I get that a lot. We got broken out by Cap." He gestured to someone behind him.

"We?" Ali asked Clint, straining her eyes to see who was behind the archer. "Who would include that we?"

"Me of course." Wanda swiped the phone, her hands shaky with the phone. "Hi Alison." She flirted her fingers in a small wave.

"Hi Wanda." Alison waved back, her shocked expression still lingering in her face. "I can't believe that you guys got out of there?"

"We can't either." Clint agreed, his cold stare braking slightly. "It's kind of nice to not be stuck in a prison cell."

"And how long have you guys been out of the Floatey Ocean Prison?" Alison made a small gesture with her hand, trying to come up with a name for where the gang had been stuck.

"About as long as you have. It was literally a day after you left that we got broken out by Steve. We've had to stay low and find a good place to hang our heads low while all the commotion dies down." Clint explained, looking back at Wanda. "This one had been wanting to call you since the first day we got here."

Wanda shrugged. "What? I needed my other girl on Team Cap to talk to. No one else can relate to being on you bitch week when you're surrounded by only guys."

"That's true." Alison laughed. "No guy can ever relate to what is girls go through." She joked, running a hand through her hair.

"Anyways," Clint pulled on a flannel top over his white t-shirt, "What have you been up to while you've been up and about?"

"Uh," Alison thought for a moment, trying to think of a way to edit out her superheroing around Queens. "School, and I'm in D.C. right now, supervising an Academic Pentathlon field trip."

"That's boring." Wanda scoffed, sitting down on the sofa by Clint, moving the phone down to a coffee table below them, presumably.

"Yeah well," Alison shrugged. "That was the whole idea. Keep it on the down low, don't do anything stupid." She chuckled a little bit at the last remark.

"You always do something stupid Alison," Clint laughed. "I remember when you were a kid your mom had me over once, and you ran your head into a coffee table."

"Oh yeah!" Alison exclaimed, rubbing her head. "I still have the small scar from doing that. It hurt." She winced, remembering how much it hurt when she was a kid. "But we're getting off track. How are you guys?"

"Surprisingly bored." Wanda sighed sarcastically. "There's only so much you can do in a safe house with two people. But Steve said that the world is dying down a little bit." She shrugged. "So maybe I can come pester you soon."

"Oh god," Alison laughed. "That would be great. Then I would have my younger brother on my back as to why I have a superhero in our living room."

"That would definitely be amusing." Wanda agreed, giving a small chuckle. She pulled some hair out of her face, leaning back in the sofa. "I would like to meet your brother sometime."

"That'd be nice." Alison smiled, looking fondly at Wanda through the camera. "It'd be weird, but definitely nice." She laughed.

Liz opened the door to the hotel room, and Alison pocketed her phone. "Hey Ali," Liz nodded. "If you could wrap up your call, the girls and I were planning to go sneak down to the pool and raid the mini bar."

"I would love to, definitely." Alison smiled. "Just give me five more minutes?" She asked, flashing Liz five fingers.

"Yeah, of course." Liz began to close the door. "But five more minutes, no more, no less." The door quietly shut, and Alison pulled her phone back out.

"So duty calls, eh?" Clint joked, suddenly sipping a cup of coffee. He definitely looked like a hipster or a farmer with the plaid and coffee.

"Duty calls." Alison laughed. "Anyways, call me soon, ok? I'd love to see your faces again." She waved at the camera. "Gotta go!"

"Bye Alison." Wanda smiled cheekily. "Don't get into trouble, we will call you again soon, so don't be afraid of a Skype ambush!" She teased, laughing.

"Alrighty. See you around!" Alison gave a smile goodbye, and hung up on the two avengers. It was good to see their faces again.

She'd have to call them again soon. But for now, Ali had a pool to sneak into with her Academic Pentathlon friends.

<~•~>
A/N:
ugh shitty writing? ya. so sorry this took so long, I hate writing filler. next chapter will be better, way better I promise.
and it'll also be longer.
Happy New Years Eve! I'll probably fix this chapter later, but whatever. I'll try to post again by midnight PST. hope y'all enjoyed, and thx for 3K. ily guys!

word count- 1,422