dakota, despite not wanting anything to do with superhero business at the moment, knew that it was nearly inevitable that she would. first of all, she did love and respect nick fury, even if she didn't act like it. second of all, it was her job, no matter how often she wished it wasn't.

after steve rogers and james rhodes had, rightfully, stood up to secretary ross in fighting thanos, the sokovian accords were pretty much a thing of the past. now, the superheroes were back to obeying rules only made by fury, and this included kodie. she looked up to the man and trusted his judgment.

however, this? dakota didn't quite know what she was. she had the same superpowers as iron man.. a suit, sarcasm, and a bit of intelligence. but, other than those recycled powers, she wasn't really a superhero. so, why did nick fury want her help with some monster? he must be extremely desperate, she thought.

nick fury was so desperate, in fact, that he kept calling. every time, dakota would roll her eyes, mumbling a few words to j.e.e.p. - just expect every possibility (her ai that she'd resorted to now that f.r.i.d.a.y. was temporarily offline for modifications), and turning her phone off in annoyance. his calls were persistent, and very frustrating.

dakota didn't have anger issues, or so she thought. but she swore that, if her phone rang one more damn time, she'd break it in half with her bare hands. somehow.

the phone screen then lit up, but kodie was surprised to be met with the name of her boyfriend, rather than the "No Caller ID" she'd gotten used to seeing in the past day. she grabbed the phone, answering peter's call and holding the phone to her ear. "hey! how was the first day? italy, right?" she asked with a smile.

"have you.. not looked at the news?" he questioned on the other end of the line, though he could assume the answer from her lack of interrogation on his well-being. 

"no, i've been avoiding fury. what happened? are you okay?" she stood up a bit straighter now, nibbling on her thumb nail as she often did when nervous.

he had been sending her photos all day; various selfies of him in front of some building or other, photos of ned smiling and giving a thumbs up, photos that he deemed "aesthetic" of every single food item he had found, and even portraits of birds (that he captioned with names). he had stopped sending photos halfway through the day, but dakota hadn't thought much of it. she now wondered if he'd been hurt or if something awful had happened.

peter cleared his throat. "well, i'm fine. but there was this water monster.. thing. it destroyed a lot of property, a lot of national monuments. but there was this guy. he had like.. a fishbowl head. and he could fly! he was helping me defeat the guy. do you know who he is?"

the stark girl blinked as she tried to keep up with his rambling. she googled photos of the event that peter was describing, biting her lip as she remembered the very strict 'don't ruin property' laws of the sokovian accords.

"no, pete, i don't recognize him. must be someone new." she told him, taking the phone off of speaker to hold it back to her ear. "i'm glad you're okay though. did you end up bringing your suit then?"

"no, i just put on a masquerade mask."

dakota furrowed a brow, which peter could practically see through the distance. "for the whole 'having a secret identity' thing, you really are awful at having a secret identity." she informed him, shaking her head fondly.

he chuckled on the other end of the line. "oh, i wanted to ask. are you going to be able to make it to paris?" he asked hopefully.

her eyes widened as she realized that she hadn't made a single plan to meet him in the destination. "yeah, yeah i should be. when is that again?"

"next week." he replied quickly.

peter, unbeknownst to kodie, had everything all planned out. he had bought her the most gorgeous locket necklace he could find, stuffing in his favorite photo of them. he had then planned out his ultimate feat: tell her he loved her at the top of the eiffel tower, and give her the necklace. it was going to be the most cinematic thing anyone had ever experienced, and he couldn't wait. it was going to be perfect.

"okay, next week. i'll be there." dakota replied, quickly jotting it down on a post-it note. "let me know if anything else weird happens, i think this is the same thing fury's been contacting me about."

peter nodded even though she couldn't see him, smiling a thin-lipped smile. "yeah, i'll let you know. talk to you soon. bye!"

"bye."

man, it sucked not getting to say i love you.

⎊‎⎊‎⎊

"stark left these for you." nick fury told peter, handing him a small black case. the two were on a small boat, floating into what peter could only assume was some sort of secret hideout. the boy opened the case with a concentrated face, shocked when to see a pair of thick rimmed glasses in the velvet-lined case. "uneasy lies the head that wears the crown." fury said, looking down at him. "stark said you wouldn't get that because it's not a star wars reference."

peter smiled at the joke, looking at the glasses with admiration. of course, tony's death wasn't as hard on him as it was on dakota. it surely wasn't easy, either, losing the man he looked up to. he ran his finger along the velvet inside of the box, smiling.

the two then walked into what peter could only describe as a secret underground base. fury turned to him, gesturing to his full spider-man costume. "you can lose the mask." he told him. "everyone here's seen you without it. you'd only be feigning anonymity and breathing through spandex for no good reason." once peter took off his mask, fury led him through the base. "over there we have maria hill." he gestured towards her, but the s.h.i.e.l.d. agent barely turned in response, focused on a screen in front of her. "that is dimitri." the tall and mysterious man cocked the gun in his hands, and peter's eyes widened in intimidation. "and this is mr. beck."

the tall man turned around, and peter recognizing him as "mysterio", the man who had helped him earlier that day to fight the water monster.

"you can call me quentin." beck said, holding out his hand, smiling as peter shook it. "you handled yourself well out there today." he complimented with a welcoming smile. "i saw what you did with the tower. we could use someone like you on my world."

peter smiled, his last words not registering in his mind yet. "thanks." then he realized the absurdity of what beck was saying, shaking his head in disbelief. "i'm sorry, your world?"

"beck is from earth. just not ours." dakota spoke, emerging from the darkness in her black s.h.i.e.l.d. suit, hair pulled up into a ponytail, strands already falling out to frame her face. "turns out i was able to book an early flight." she explained to peter, the two smiling at each other.

beck seemed to get stiffer, colder, even, as dakota came into view. he turned away from her, looking back to peter. "there are multiple realities, peter." he explained casually. "this is earth, dimension 616. i'm from earth 833."

peter looked around, excited by the possibility of it all. "i'm sorry, you're saying there's a multiverse? 'cause i thought that was just theoretical. that completely changes how we understand the initial singularity. we're talking about an internal inflation system. and how does that even work with all the quantum--? it's insane--" a majority of the group turned to him, clearly unamused, but dakota smiled fondly. "s-sorry. it's really cool."

"don't ever apologize for being the smartest one in the room." beck told peter, who smiled. the table the group was crowded around showed a hologram, and dakota eyed it as it displayed the elementals. "they were born in stable orbits within black holes. creatures formed from the primary elements: air, water, fire, earth. the science division had a technical name. we just called them elementals."

hill nodded, looking to the group as she spoke. "versions of them exist across our mythologies."

"turns out, the myths are real." beck said.

"thor was a myth, and now i study him in my physics class." peter said, making dakota chuckle a little.

"they first materialized on my earth many years ago." beck continued. "we mobilized and fought them, but with each battle they grew- got stronger. i was part of the last battalion left trying to stop them. all we did was delay the inevitable."

hill looked to peter, much less emotional about the situation than beck was. "the elementals are here now, attacking the same coordinates. our satellites confirm it."

"so thank mr. beck for destroying the other three." fury said to peter. "there's only one left: fire."

beck suddenly appeared uneasy, looking down. "the strongest of them all. the one that destroyed my earth. it's the one that took my family." peter noticed him stroke a wedding band, and felt a pang of sympathy for the man.

"and it will be in prague in approximately 48 hours." dakota finished, much less remorseful, her arms crossed over her middle.

"we have one mission:" fury said, "kill it." he turned to peter. "and you're coming with us."

peter's eyes widened as he let fury's words sink in. "i'm sorry. did you say prague?" he laughed nervously, not knowing how to comprehend everything he'd just been told. "mr. fury, this all seems like bigtime, you know, huge superhero kinda stuff. and, i mean, i'm just a friendly neighborhood spider-man, sir."

fury sounded exasperated. "bitch, please. you've been to space." dakota stifled a laugh.

peter walked towards him, desperate for a way out of this. "i know, but that was an accident." he insisted. "sir, come on. there's gotta be someone else you can use. what about thor?" peter continued naming superheroes, only for each idea to be shot down. "sir, look, i really wanna help, i do. but if my aunt finds out that i left my class trip, she's gonna kill me. and if i'm seen like this in europe," peter gestured to his suit, "after the washington monument, my whole class will figure out who i am and then-- and then the whole world will figure out who i am, then i'm done."

fury seemed to understand, giving up on trying to convince peter. the boy turned to dakota, not wanting her to get into this fight either. "what are you gonna do?" he whispered to her, the two teens in a corner now.

"i'm gonna fight." she said simply. "not sure how it'll go, but i'm at least going to have to try to do something. fury called me here for a reason. it'll keep me distracted, at least." she reasoned.

peter's brows furrowed; he didn't want her to be distracted, he wanted her to be looking forward to paris, where he would tell her he loved her. "well, will you still be able to make it to paris?"

she nodded her head yes, though she didn't entirely know. "i'm going to prague, defeating this thing, then i'll be finished in time to get to paris. easy." she reasoned.

not entirely convinced, peter nodded. "okay. please be careful. please. these things.. they're not fun." he warned, worried about losing her.

dimitri escorted peter to his hotel after he had said goodbye to everyone, wishing them all luck in whatever endeavor was to ensue. little did peter know, his trip was about to go off the rails.