29|| scolding sessions

"Remind me again why you thought that any of this was rational, Alison?"

Fitz Apartment Building, Queens, New York, October 2016-

DAYS UNTIL HOMECOMING: 6

The day was a Saturday. Normally, one would assume that a Saturday is the best day of the week, as you have the luxuries of the weekend laid out in front of you, and worrying about school seems nonexistent. However, in the Anderson-Marnell household, the day was anything but pleasant.

Stress levels were off the charts, with Jackie currently sulking in her office and Charles right by Alison's bedside. Charles hadn't really strayed from his position by Alison's side since she had brought to them, unconscious, the night before by Skylar Stark, who explained in a frenzy everything that had been going on in the past month. And while Charles' fantasies about his sister's escapades became a reality, Jackie Anderson was furious, furious enough that no words could describe her anger.

Long story short, Alison was in big trouble. From the arguing that could be heard in the hall between her brother and Jackie, the faint consciousness working in the back of Ali's head was screaming at her the something was wrong, and that she had to wake up. Of course, if Alison did so, she would have to deal with the repercussions of her actions the day before, and then some. And of course, the fact that she was always unconscious one way or another after a big fight. It was kind of dumb, of course, but maybe there was a scientific reason that Charles would ramble on about with Tony Stark later.

Ah yes, Tony Stark. In Alison's perfect conscience, she had forgotten all about the millionaire who had busted the two teenagers at work on that ferry. But slowly piecing her mind back together in her conscience, she quickly realized that in everything she had done in the past month, she was so screwed. On the home front and the Stark front. And that little fact made Alison really not want to wake up at the moment.

So Alison's slumber continued, and Charles and Jackie went at it again. The yelling and defending sides finally ended when the doorbell rang, and the voices of the two remaining people in the household subsided.

When Jackie opened the door, she found a meek Peter Parker standing outside of the door. "H-hi." He stuttered, looking at the rather upset woman in front of him. "Is this the Anderson-Marnell household?"

"Yeah, it is." Charles piped up from behind Jackie, finding his voice to talk to the teenager. "And you are?" He asked, inspecting the teenager from the doorway. Charles thought he seemed okay. Not really superhero material, but maybe okay boyfriend material.

"He's a friend." Another voice interjected, slapping the uptight Peter on the back. When the person finally came into view, Jackie and Charles saw the familiar face of Skylar Stark. "This is Peter, he's in a lot of Alison's classes, and he's a friend of ours." Skylar smoothly lied, just trying to get in through the door.

"Y-yeah." Peter agreed, wearing his Midtown sweater quite awkwardly. "Uhm, we just wanted to check in on Alison and give her these." He held out a small bouquet of colored daisies, which Skylar had basically commanded him to buy. Peter did kind of get Alison into this mess, after all.

"That's very kind of you." Jackie took the flowers from Peter, handing them off to Charles. "Put 'em in a vase, okay? Then you can leave them on her nightstand." Charles nodded at his cousin, and ran off to put the flowers by Ali's side.

"Now, thank you for the flowers, but I do believe that it is time that we get some rest. If we want Alison to wake up within this century, we are going to have to do a lot more than just let her sleep there." Jackie cut off the teenager's time, and their plans to try and wake Alison up to warn her of... the repercussions of Spider-Man and Breakout's actions.

"Okay." Skylar nodded, knowing that there really was no way to win the fight against Jackie. The woman had a pretty firm opinion and say, for once it was set, it couldn't change. "My dad said that he would swing around in an hour, and that if Alison wasn't awake by then, he'd move her to the Facility." She added before the door would slam on the teenagers.

Jackie nodded at the daughter of Stark, and gave a polite smile to Peter. "Well, it was nice meeting you Peter, and thank you for the flowers, and the information." She began to close the door, leaving the two teenagers awkwardly standing there. "Good day."

When the door finally slammed shut, and Peter glanced over at his old friend, he gave her a nervous expression. "Did that go.. well? Or did it go bad... Miss Anderson seemed a little..." Peter searched for the right way to say what he meant without seeming rude.

"Cold?" Skylar suggested the word, walking down the hallway with Peter. "Don't worry, that's her at her worst. She never really expected kids, so when she's arguing with one and the other is unconscious, it makes for a tricky situation."

Peter nodded. "I just wish we could of warned Alison of what is going to happen to her with Mr. Stark, erm, your dad." He corrected himself, still the seemingly awkward kid that Skylar remembered.

"Don't worry." Skylar reassured, clicking the elevator button to leave the building. "I'm sure that, even unconscious, Alison knows that she's probably going to be grounded for life." And as the two unlikely heroes walked together into the elevator, the only thing that the two of them could feel was a sense of dread sweeping over them. Whatever happened next would leave all three of the teenagers involved in the whole mess very screwed.

Alison Marnell woke up at around 15 minutes after the two teenagers known as her friends had left. Which was, of course, great for Jackie, and for the arriving Tony Stark, but awful for Alison herself. There was enough time for each of them to lecture the girl, and they didn't even have to transfer her to another facility!

By the time the clock had reached 4:45, fifteen minutes later, she had already been informed by Jackie that she was basically screwed, but she wasn't grounded for life (surprisingly). All that really mattered to Jackie in the end was that Alison was safe, and that she didn't lose her only Marnell cousin left. It was an almost bittersweet moment, but the tone in the house quickly shifted as Alison realized the one lingering question in her brain.

If Jackie wasn't grounding her for life, then what kind of evil mastermind plan did Tony Stark have up his sleeve?

That was the question on hand as Tony walked into the apartment that Saturday evening. He looked like he was fresh off the lecturing teenage children boat, and he was about ready to board that boat again.

Alison had taken 15 minutes to prepare herself for the onslaught of disappointing "dad glares" and lectures that Tony Stark would bring into the apartment, but that was nothing compared to what she got.

When Tony Stark and Jackie both walked into the room, Alison found out that he wasn't alone. That was the first problem of many.

The second problem, of course, was that the person who walked into the apartment with him was outside, and she was pretty sure whoever it was wasn't good....

"Remind me how you thought this was a good idea." Jackie sighed, finally getting the summary from the kid in front of her. "Remind me how you thought going out into the streets and playing vigilante would do you any good."

"I don't know." Alison sighed, for once at a loss for words. Although she had prepared herself for every possible situation, having a mystery person outside her door and Jackie inside the room with Stark was not one of those situations . "It was a spur of the moment decision that turned out to be a great night, which led to a string of nights when I went out to play hero."

"And why couldn't you just leave it to the police to clean up?" Her cousin asked, still trying to wrap his head around the whole predicament. "Or for that little Spider-Boy that Stark recruited to clean up the messes."

"Nope." Tony interjected, ruining the family scolding Alison was getting from her cousin for the second time. "We are leaving that little troublemaker out of the conversation. He already screwed the pooch." His eyes hardened as he recalled the rather poor memory of scolding the young Peter Parker and taking his suit.

When Jackie gave Tony a skeptical look, Tony answered it with a "I'll tell you later" glance that summed everything up. With that final glance, the conversation turned back to Alison. "Because, after fighting with people like Captain America and Scarlet Witch and getting beat up in a prison like a bajillion times, I didn't want to be the bystander. I didn't want to be the girl that was on the sidelines, just staring as everything unfolded in front of me."

"Although, to interject, that kind of ended up happening." Tony interrupted, doing one of his signature scolding gestures in that snarky Stark tone that Alison was all too familiar with. "And, for one, you didn't bother telling me the truth on about fifty percent of the questions I asked you."

"Well, I didn't want to come straight out and say it. You would have taken the suit back in a heartbeat." Alison fired back at Tony, trying to somewhat reason out her actions. Although this arguing was getting very repetitive and going no where.

"And I should have." Tony sighed, looking at the girl in front of him. "Cause if I did, I bet you half of whatever has happened in the past month would never have happened." He gave her a look that showed the true qualities of the guilty and tired man he was after having to lecture three teenagers. "And that's on me."

"But me falling in DC, me going to DC, that was all me without the suit. You can't stop everything, Stark, not everything is in your control, especially not others lives." Alison snapped, getting tired of the pointless arguing. "So just lay down the punishment. Whatever needs to happen, let's make it happen. I'm tired, and I just want this to be over." Ali's temper had clearly been lost somewhere in the conversation, along with her patience.

Jackie leaned back in her seat, waiting to hear the punishment Stark had come up with for Alison's irrational and stupid behavior. "First off, and I think the most obvious one, I'm taking the suit."

Alison wanted to mouth some kind of protest, but by the glare that Jackie gave her, it was apparent that she had to shut up and listen. So Alison kept her jaw wired shut, and just nodded at the punishment.

"Second off, you're stuck on bedrest for the next 5 days. You messed up by even standing up out of your chair yesterday, and that could of messed up the whole healing process of your back." Alison couldn't argue with that point. Although she hated the idea of staying in bed for five days on end, it was better than some of the other punishments that Alison had anticipated.

"And third and foremost, no Homecoming." This punishment earned a very vocal resentment from Alison, with a tone and a string of words that were spoken so fast no one could hear. "You and Skylar will clean up the Avengers Facility as we ship all of the rest of the things from Avengers Tower over there."

"I'm stuck on cleaning duty too?!" Alison scrunched up her nose in annoyance. "But how will I do that if I'm stuck on bedrest?" She questioned Stark's punishment, and the illogical thinking behind it.

"If Homecoming is in 6 days, and you're on bed rest for 5, I think you would be able to walk by then. The scans that we took of your back two days ago showed that it was almost healed, although didn't mean you could go out and play hero the very next day." Jackie explained, letting Stark take a break from the talking.

"Now that's the deal, and you're going to have to live with it." Tony finished, standing up from the seat that he had by the foot of Alison's bed. "As for the guest who wants to see you, I believe that it is our turn to leave." He placed the chair back into its original position, patting Alison on the shoulder. "Cleaning Day starts at 4PM sharp!" Tony reminded Ali, walking out of the room.

Jackie soon followed the millionaire's actions, instead giving Alison a kiss the forehead before putting her chair back and walking outside of the room. "She's ready for you." Jackie told the person waiting outside the door, gesturing for the person to walk in.

The person nodded, walking into the room to reveal the face of an old friend.

<~*~>

A/N:

another chapter down for the books! two chapters of breakout in a day!

that means that I have written over 7,000 total words today for my books!

it seems that state testing doesn't drain me of my writing power after all...

except this last chapter was a bit choppy,probably cause I wrote it on late night raspberry milk tea boba energy lol

anyways, I hope you enjoyed me whipping out two chapter as I type away (for one of the first times) the end to the chapter on a laptop!

I hope you guys enjoyed reading and I'll see you in the next chapter!

:))