MAXWELL PARKER'S DAY WENT FROM BAD TO WORSE AFTER HE SAW THE STALKERS FACE. He was used to creepy people, sometimes being one himself. But this dude? This wasn't like last time, Scott's Lang's demented buddies who chased after him thinking he stole their doughnuts (which he did not, a girl and a rather chubby boy did, which he could swear was familiar). This guy was Nick Fury.

Max didn't even look to where he was running, only things he needed to know: No alleys, stay in Queens, don't bump into Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

And of course, he took a wrong turn in an alley in Manhattan (how the hell did he get so far?) and of course, Fury was casually leaning against a dumpster.

Great.

"Mr. Parker..." Fury fixed him with a stare much like a cat eyeing its prey. And Max wasn't in the mood.

"I didn't do it." He immediately said, knowing it would be about that fire... The one in Sofia.

Fury snorted and rolled his eye. "I've noticed...a bit hard to get from Europe to New York in one day. Unless you're Peter Maxwell, Tony Stark, or Carol Danvers."

Max knew the street non-humans' guide of survival, which got popular a few years back after a certain guy almost ate his math teacher (Max didn't blame whoever that was, as fascinating as math was, math teachers usually sucked).

Rule one: Stay away from the government, unless you wanted to end up in prison, in a lab, or as an Avenger.

Rule two, keep a low profile.

"Recently... They've been a large amount of fire-powered individuals running around."

Make sure you're hard to replicate, and hard to be framed. The harder its to see you, the harder it is for them to find you, simple.

Fury's eyes locked onto his. "The Avengers are gone."

Completely off topic, which took Max by surprise.

The pyrokinetic nodded. The sad, depressing truth. "Disassembled."

A ghost of a grin appeared on Fury's face. "I take you've missed them."

No. He didn't miss Tony calling him kid every five seconds, he didn't miss getting poked by Bruce's tests.

Maybe. He missed Rhodey trying to teach him and Peter how to fly a plane, he did kinda miss Romanoff grinning and ruffling his and Peter's hair much to his irritation.

Yes. He missed having a purpose, he missed having a team, a family, people different from him and yet the same, and he missed the Avengers movie nights.

He shrugged, trying to look nonchalant and probably failing.

Fury's eyes glinted. As if he knew the truth as if he knew Max missed them so much more, especially after what happened with Peter.

"Well, then Mr. Parker... I've got a job for you..."

Ramiro's idea of fun wasn't watching Turning Red again with Morgan, but he humored her, the six-year-old singing along with the panda he twisted a wire, small sparks flying from the motherboard, for some reason, and his armor conveniently broke down before the Stark-sibling bonding time.

"Did you try the pink wire?" Morgan stole a glance at Ramiro's project, her answer for everything was the pink wire. Which unfortunately did the trick. Morgan grinned and punched the air while the red panda posed for a picture with a blonde girl.

"I don't remember how you learned that gesture." Ramiro frowned as Morgan began to get a squeaky rendition of 'We are the Champions.'

"Oh no, did she start again?" The strawberry-blonde CEO of Stark Industries came in, cringing as Morgan hit a high note. Ramiro nodded mournfully at Virginia 'Pepper' Potts, probably one of the only stepmothers in the world that weren't evil.

"It's or Queen, or Disney," Ramiro tucked the board in the dismantled chest of the Iron-Tech suit, blue, black, and the arc reactor glowing its classic light blue. "Yesterday it was that one from Aladdin, and she wanted me to call Peter and make us be Jasmine and Aladdin." He shuddered, Pepper have him a sympathetic look.

"What the flying carpet?" She asked, a hint of humor in her tone.

Ramiro clicked the chest plate of the armor back in place. "This..." He gestured at the suit, and Pepper turned to shake her head at Morgan who was humming along to the soundtrack.

The doorbell rang, and Pepper sighed, even in the Stark Eco-Compound people still showed up, even after Morgan crashed Caption America's shield into Sam Wilson (who did not appreciate his shield being used as a sled) and after Ramiro and his sister 'accidentally' dropped and threw Bucky Barnes up and down, using the trick Rocket had taught him.

"Morgan! Get the door." Pepper ordered, Morgan sighed as if she was tired of her being the sole breadwinner of the family, shut off the TV, and dashed to the door. Pepper sighed and ran her hand through her hair. "Ramiro... Did you know that...That Iron Heart?"

Ramiro frowned, but before he could respond, Morgan's voice cut him off. "RAMIRO! A GUY THAT SAYS HIS NAME IS ANGRY WANTS TO SEE YOU ABOUT SOMETHING WITH S SHIELD!"

Of course, it took one glance between Ramiro and Pepper to know who it was, what they wanted, and what he'd say.

Ramiro trudged to the door and smiled half-heartedly at Nick Fury. He leaned against the doorway. "Is this about the Protectors?"

Fury seemed perplexed. "How-" He stopped and sighed. "Mist?" He guessed. Ramiro nodded.

"Mist." He confirmed, scarier and colder as Mist might have been, she still told the Starks about it, as well as made sure Morgan wasn't going to watch Pitch Perfect, which, according to her, had already brainwashed a certain Agent Robin.

"Told them to keep quiet," Fury muttered darkly. "I'm also assuming you've made up your mind?"

Ramiro nodded slowly, and Morgan frowned. "What did Elizabeth say about protecting people?"

"She said that I might work with a team to protect people," Ramiro explained, the girl seemed to understand, declare the subject boring, and rushed inside, asking Pepper for cheeseburgers.

Fury grumbled and raised an expectant eyebrow. "So?" He prompted. "I've already got one smartass waiting in the car, can keep a Parker waiting for long."

Parker?

Oh, not Peter, Peter wasn't a smartass. Max? Maybe. Since May was most definitely not joining Avengers 2.0.

Ramiro gave him a dry smile. "Awesome, you're gonna have two smartasses to drive back to S.H.I.E.L.D then."

After the five-minute explanation about the Protectors. Max was tempted to run off but changed his mind after Fury promised that if he still wanted to quit after a week, he could happily do so.

"Another one Fury?" A blonde said with a sigh, Ramiro snorted, but Max didn't. Something about her, maybe the all-leather outfit, maybe the dark of her eyes, maybe the gun strapped to her leg, something about her radiated 'Don't mess with me...or you'll die' vibes.

"Yes." Fury had an irritated face once more, like when Max asked if he'd get paid if he joined the team. "Mist, we've got more to get...three-"

"Two." A male agent groaned, he glared down at a writhing bag, a pair of teenage girls had tired but proud expressions.

"We got the hoodie boy." One of them said, the other was blushing furiously. "He was so distracted by a -"

The blonde coughed, cutting them off. "I don't think Fury needs the whole story."

"Agreed." The male agent nodded before nudging the bag, which shouted something about gremlins.

Fury sighed dramatically, which seemed to be his new favorite hobby. "These are"

"Noah, Noah Rodgriguez." The man said with a smile, he looked nice enough, and the two girls also smiled.

"Giselle Winters," The one with darker hair introduced, she pointed at her friend. "And Brooklyn."

"Agent 32 of S.H.I.E.L.D." She said proudly. The blonde raised an eyebrow, her eyes turning colder than an arctic winter. Ramiro had an uncomfortable look.

"Elizabeth," He looked at her cautiously. She nodded, her eyes falling onto Max. 

Immediately, it was like Max had spider senses, all his imperfections seem to become so obvious, and everything he considered a gift of his dulled. 

"Mist," Fury snapped. She looked back at him. "Enough." He ordered.

Her expression didn't change. "Elizabeth C. Mist, agent of S.H.I.E.L.D."

"Ramiro Stark-Ramos."

"Max, Max Parker." The pyrokinetic looked down. 

Giselle seemed to catch onto his mood. "Come on Max, I'll show you around."

Which Max translated to: Come on man, I'm gonna save you from Mrs. Mist lady 'cause she creeps you out and from Fury 'cause he's a massive pain.

"Okay," He put his hands in his pockets following the sixteen-year-old around the base, once, the S.H.I.E.L.D base in Manhattan (always Manhattan) was...just a S.H.I.E.L.D base, but they rebranded it, making it also the Protectors headquarters, about a quarter of it still had its original purpose, aka fancy S.H.I.E.L.D stuff. But the rest was gyms, planning rooms, bedrooms (Max appreciated the fact they weren't plain and white, and that they opened by password), and different things to accommodate the team.

"What's...what's Mist's deal?" Max mumbled as they passed a willowy blonde woman who was being followed by a brown-haired pair, both snickering and teasing her. 

Giselle considered it. "She's kinda...um...she's got a few issues." 

Which was probably an understatement.

"Yeah...she used to date someone before the snap...and then she waited for than five years," Giselle blinked, pulling out a pair of thick-framed dark glasses "something happened, something big, nobody is sure, but after year four of it, she went cold, the guy came back, and broke up with her right after Tony Starks funeral." 

The young girl looked up at him through the glasses, they reminded Max of the F.R.I.D.A.Y glasses somehow. "At least...that's what most people think is to blame." She said darkly.

"I'm...not a genius," Max said slowly. "But-"

He was cut off though, a man and a woman came out of another hall, arguing loudly.

"Hill, you can't possibly try recruit a pair of-"

"Kemp! You don't order me-"

"-highly unstable individuals, one of which has-"

"-around! I'm the one in charge-"

"-burnt down almost an entire city-"

"KEMP!" The woman shouted. To Max's surprise, it was Maria Hill, he almost didn't rezgocnice her, the man looked...like a movie star, or like Superman. 

If Superman wore things that looked from the victorian times.

Giselle had a look like she wasn't sure if she was supposed to cower, bow, or crack up. She coughed gently in time to cut off Hill's angry rant.

"Ah." Hill seemed embarrassed, the man though, didn't, he smiled at Max gallantly.

"You must be Mr. Parker." Defenilty British. The man reached to shake Max's hand, which he did.

"Max." 

"Earl Kemp," The britt presented himself. "Agent Kemp...but I doubt you'd call me that, most people nowadays only call agents if they think it's their first name."

Max cracked a smile. He was interesting.

A maniacal laugh suddenly began, Hill cursed, Earl sighed, and Giselle stared at them, before tearing off in that direction. Since the last evil laugh wasn't a sign of luck and prosperity, Max followed the girl.

He expected some massive giant, or an orc, or a guy dressed in scaly green armor, but all he saw was a sack. And Brooklyn guarding it.

"Who- Who's doing that?" Giselle panted. Brooklyn pointed at the bag, clearly disturbed. Which laughed again. 

"What's in there?" Max demanded. "A clown? A demon?"

"I've got no idea..." Brooklyn narrowed her eyes at it. Probably thinking along the same lines as Max. Giselle shook her head.

"No-" But it was a bit late since Brooklyn peeked in the bag.

"It's...empty?" She frowned. The laughter coniniuted. 

"Maybe it's a bug. Or a mic." Max suggested, Brooklyn unraveled the bag, which was a mistake Max should have seen coming.

Whatever devil that was, Brooklyn fell over as if shoved, the sack suddenly lost its volume, and Giselle tripped. Max sighed though.

"Anyone got flour?" He asked, Giselle and Brooklyn both shook their heads, staring at him as if he were mad. 

Max shrugged, not even thinking too much before lighting the bag on fire, burning it in a second, and then snatching the ashes, throwing them around.

A shilohete was exposed, and the guy froze. "Well...shit." It decided.

"Show yourself!" Brooklyn jumped to her feet. Giselle groaned.

The kid laughed again. His voice squeaky. "Seriously? You're quoting Frozen 2? God, you guys are pathetic."

Max didn't hesitate, throwing some more ashes, feeling a bit lame, and also like Hill would make him clean the room.

"Okay okay, knock it off." The boy reapeared, it wasn't with a pop, it was like... a paintbrush just regave the kid all his colors back. Strawberry blonde hair, bright blue eyes, cream skin, dark blue jacket, white shirt underneath, blue jeans.

The vanisher grinned roguishly. "So...what does a mutant around here get to do to get a cup of hot chocolate?"

GRACE
Not much action, but Morgan and the three rules of how to survive as a superhuman on the streets set the scene...as does Fury being an evil genius. And Elizabeth is...um...not really warm and fuzzy.
Next update? Wednesday. I'm a bit behind on the pre-writing chapters, but I'll catch up!
Okay, important question: Longer chapters and I update only once or twice a week or shorter ones with updates more often?
I'm okay with both honestly.

Any other opinions? Requests on scenes? Villan suggestions (yeah yeah there's a main villain...but there's also gonna be side villains)? Grammar Mistakes?