Chapter Text
“Sure thing Robin Hood, just make sure to press the right button this time,” Tony grinned. A race was the perfect (if not a bit inappropriate) opportunity to lighten the mood a little. Tony wasn’t sure what he would have done had he been forced to actually take the kid to her parents – or aunt, he supposed, with slight distaste. Was he curious? Yes. Was his passion for avoiding any sort of emotional scene stronger than his curiosity? Also yes.
For now, that was. He was also hoping that Natasha might offer to handle it for him, but has soon as he thought it he regretted it. That girl – kid – had saved his life, and he had somewhat forgotten. Most likely due to some subconscious effort to erode his guilt, which never actually worked, so he could only curse his brain for trying. Who was he to intrude on her life, though? Maybe… in return for saving his life Tony could cut the kid some slack.
A race might just do them both good, and the smile on Piper’s face only encouraged Tony’s thoughts. He didn’t even notice the scheming twinkle in her eye.
Bruce waved a hand in exasperation, “Does she even want to race?” He turned to Piper, “Do you?”
“Yeah, it’s Awesome,” Piper bounced her head gleefully, “I’ve gotta’ put my suit on, though.”
Bruce shook his head in disbelief, muttering to himself. “I’ll be in my office until you guys are done. I can’t watch this,” he excused himself and trudged out of the room. He could only hope that some good came out of Tony’s idea this time.
Tony unstrapped his watch from his wrist, nodding as he did so. “See you later, Bruciebear. And I think Nat put your suit in that torn up bag of yours,” he relayed without much of a second thought, setting his watch down on the table. It was rimmed with gold, the inside giving way to silver hues, and Piper was sure that it was worth more than she’s spent in her entire life.
“Oh,” Piper pulled the freshly cleaned piece of fabric from her bag on the table – noticing with some concern the anxious look on Captain America’s face – and hoped to thank the Black Widow personally when she returned. The assassin was probably speaking to SHIELD, and Piper felt a little bad about causing so much trouble, but her guilt was lessened immensely when she remembered just how she had gotten here in the first place.
Still, she thought it wouldn’t hurt to express some form of gratitude next time she saw her. Which, hopefully, wouldn’t be anytime soon if luck was on her side.
“Tony,” Steve called with warning. “Do you really think this is the time? You said it yourself, we should be contacting her parents.”
The man sighed exasperatingly as if he’d already heard this exact thing a thousand times.
Not to mention the kid didn’t have parents.
“Lighten up a little Steven, she already said her aunt knows. I’d also like to prepare a little bit, you know, if I do decide to tell her aunt that we kidnapped her child. I’m sure you see the problem with that, and – pretty sure you should be the one doing the talking in that case. Considering she has the hots for you,” he remarked snidely, smirk falling into place naturally. He was also very smoothly avoiding the whole dead parents issue.
Tony didn’t want to drag out any more sentiment than he had to.
Steve clenched his hands on the edge of the kitchen table, and Piper balked at the comment about her aunt. “W-what do you mean my aunt has the hots for him? I never told you that,” she stuttered in confusion.
“Don’t worry about it,” Tony waved his hand apathetically and turned to Steve seriously this time. “The kid lives with her aunt, and other than her ridiculous vigilante thing everything is basically sorted out. Nat’s going to handle Fury, and then we can handle the rest. How’s that for a plan?”
“I’m just not sure this is a good idea…” Steve murmured. He was trying to convey the seriousness of the matter, but he couldn’t deny that there wasn’t much else to sort out. The only real issue they had was how absolutely young she was, and there was no way they were going to just let her leave knowing that. He supposed... the kid did seem excited about racing, and it’s not like she’d be going anywhere with all of them watching her. He caved, “I suppose I won’t stop you.” If he did, Tony would probably be giving him disappointed looks for days.
Clint whooped, “Now, let’s go before Nat comes down here, because she’ll kill me first.” He was unbelievably glad that the assassin had left before she could hear Tony’s proposal, but he also knew that her abrupt exit – though unnoticed by the others – could only mean that SHIELD had come calling. Deciding to ignore the unnerving realization, the archer clapped Steve on the back, shoving him around the bend of the kitchen island and in front of the stationary form of Spidergirl.
Piper was just trying to figure how they seemed to know about Aunt May’s celebrity crush on Captain America.
“You can get changed, kid. When you get out I’ll even help you kick this guy’s butt,” Clint jabbed a thumb over his shoulder at Tony with a lopsided grin. “Sound like fun?”
Piper’s question was forgotten as soon as the hero started talking to her, and she felt a little like she was dreaming. “Yeah,” She grinned shyly and secured her suit in her grasp.
Tony started in fake alarm, “Hey! No cheating. You can’t challenge Ironman and get away with it, Robin Hood.”
Piper stifled a giggle as she grabbed her bag and approached the bathroom, hearing the archer’s reply even as she went in and closed the door.
“Tell that to Bowser in World Seven.”
“Fictional characters don’t count!”
“But you not being able to beat him does.”
Piper wiggled into her suit, surprised to see the web shooters still attached. They must not have noticed them.
She snickered happily at her turn in luck, mumbling quietly to herself, “Awesome! Now I just have to win a race against ironman,” she paused. “Or not….” She dug through her bag and found her pencil case, ripping out a sticky note and pencil from inside the dusty carrier.
Smirking, she began to scribble, tucking it away safely in the pocket where her suit held her phone once she finished. She stepped out of the bathroom, surprised to see
Hawkeye's and Tony Stark’s argument still going, except somehow it seemed to have shifted to a different genre of videogames.
“That’s nothing like real archery! Give me Zelda’s bow in real life and we’ll see how Gannon likes it,” Clint grumbled and Tony smirked haughtily.
“It’s the fact that you can’t beat him that’s real,” he mocked.
“Alright, Alright,“ Steve interrupted. He gestured with a tilt of his head to Piper, “let’s go.” The super soldier took the first steps towards the elevator, not caring as Tony strode past him quickly. They all rode the elevator up, albeit a bit awkwardly; considering Piper felt totally out of place and did her best to stand as far away from them as possible.
They said something about the race and a roof top, but Piper was more focused on getting out of the elevator.
She let loose a breath as they came to a stop.
The top of Stark Tower was higher than she had ever been, and it had her wondering what falling from here would be like. There was one of those air ventilation things on top, and Piper noticed it was much smaller than any one she had seen. Perhaps because it was made of a more refined technology. Steve and Clint stood off to the side of the building as Tony called his suit: Piper made a show of tossing her bag to the ground as he did.
“Already, Kid,” the iron hero glided over to her side, “You know where the New York Museum of Heroes is? Just five blocks from here?”
She nodded, remembering with embarrassment just how many times she had been there.
“Good.” The iron mask slid shut, and Piper wondered if he expected her to run there. When she had said that she could beat him in a race, she had really only meant without the suit. There was quite possibly absolutely no way she could win, because even with the use of her web shooters his suit had far more power than her legs.
It was a good thing winning wasn’t her plan - At least not fairly.
“So, the rules are,” he began, “ - No rules – Who needs them? But Cap and Birdbrain here have your stuff. Also, Clint will only stop the time once one of us makes it back here.” Tony didn’t think the kid would have the nerve to try anything, but Natasha would kill him if the kid left. Though he sort of wanted the kid to make a break, because it’s not as if they couldn’t sort things out without her. Sure, it might take a little more coercion, but not much.
The poor kid had been through enough already.
Piper looked through the corner of her eyes to see the super soldier grab her bag, though she had already guessed that he would. It only lowered her success rate by a notch or so, and she could work with odds like that. She bounced eagerly from foot to foot, looking at her hero with mixed emotions.
She kind of did want to race him… but – no. She couldn’t stay here and be patronized all day when she had far better things to do.
“You ready?” Tony asked, standing relaxed and poised.
Piper nodded, suit lenses narrowing. “Yep!”
“You got this Spidergirl!” Clint called through the swift and inconsistent winds, waving his hand encouragingly.
Piper could only wave back as Ironman began to count.
“On your mark, 3…2…Go!” The Ironsuit’s blasters flared to life in a glow of blue light, and Piper sped off after him – jumping from building top to building top – which was drastically harder in Brooklyn.
Tony looked behind him to see her on his tail, and he figured it wouldn’t hurt to speed it up a bit. He gained distance, and Piper took that as her Que.
She sped towards the next gap between skyscrapers, and instead of leaping, she stepped right off; catching herself once she was out of view with her webs. She knew she didn’t have much time, so she quickly dropped down to the streets and swung low amongst the groups of people walking, shouting greetings to them as she made her way in the direction she came.
“Hey, what’s up?”
“Nice hat, dude!”
“Ouch - Sorry!”
Piper grimaced and looked back apologetically at the guy stumbling back to his feet and cursing his muddy pants. She may have gotten a little carried away, but before she could even think about buying the guy a new pair of pants, she was faced with the Tower’s bold face again. She swung smoothly through the air and latched onto its side.
Through the bustle of people beneath her, she could hear some people marvel at her in curiosity, but she didn’t particularly care about what the magazines concluded about her here. It would most likely blow over within a week or so. She scurried up the building, feeling like an animal of some sort whenever she moved on all fours like she was, and slipped over the edge. She noticed that Captain America was standing exactly as she had left him, and Hawkeye just looked plain bored.
They started once they realized she was there.
“Hey, Guys!” She shouted quickly, “So Mr. Stark wanted me to tell you guys that he needs one of you to send him another suit. His broke down, and I think it was probably because of when I tore out the front of it…” Piper rubbed the back of her neck nervously, though she was hoping it looked more sheepish than anything.
Steve furrowed his brows, “You mean he actually took that suit out before it was fixed?”
Piper tried to act casual about it, “I don’t know… he just wanted another one sent.”
The soldier nodded, realizing that the girl wouldn’t actually know whether or not Tony did something like that or not. He sighed, giving Piper’s bag to a grinning archer and turning back towards the elevator. “I’ll go send one.”
Clint only laughed in reply, looking at Piper in amusement. “Tony’s going to be so pissed when he gets back,” he plopped himself on the ground in an unruly fashion. “Everyone’s already freaking out because you’re just a little kid.”
Piper huffed at the comment, crossing her arms and standing in front of him; eyeing her bag carefully. “I may be young, but I haven’t been a kid in a long time.”
The archer looked up at her funny, and Piper almost cried for joy when he set her bag beside him, but then he kept talking. “Why’s that?”
Piper shrugged, sitting down briefly beside him. She pulled something out of her pocket and stared at it for a second or two before replying, “I don’t know, I guess I just grew up faster.”Before he could say anything, though, she held out her hand to him. “Can I give something to you?”
Clint, blinded by her innocent tone, agreed thoughtlessly. “Sure, what is it?” He watched as a folded piece of paper was dropped in his hand, and before he could ask why he looked up and the girl was gone, bag swept away from him mercilessly.
“Give that to Ironman, Please! And thanks!” She called, already swinging out of sight by the time Clint cambered to his feet.
He paled, mouth agape. “That little shit,” he muttered breathlessly, gripping the paper in his hands. What had actually just happened? One second he was holding what seemed to be a nice conversation, and then she was flying off of the roof with webs that Natasha had supposedly taken away. He remembered because she said something about it when they were packing the vigilante’s bag that morning.
“Can you take off the shooters before you put the suit in the bag?”
Clint grunted a response as he dumped what appeared to be two months’ worth of granola bar wrappers into the trash. “How much does this girl eat?” he commented off-handedly.
Natasha sighed, collecting a few documents in her hands and turning to leave. “Did you hear me, Clint?”
The archer nodded distractedly, “Yeah. Suit – Bag. Got it, Snoochems.”
The assassin shook her head, swaggering out of the room before she decided to hit him.
Yeah, it was safe to say Clint had absolutely no idea how Natasha could have left something so important in the bag, but he knew it was pointless fretting over now. He heard the thrusters of Tony’s suit approaching and he looked up in time to see him arrive.
So she had completely fooled them, huh? Clint found it kind of funny – the kid was good.
As the suit peeled away from the billionaire, the other member of their group rushed out of the elevator as soon as the doors opened. He looked frazzled, jogging up to Clint and Tony with a panicked look on his face. “She lied,” he stated disbelieving.
Tony eyed them warily, “What do you mean? Did she make it back already?” He hadn’t seen her at all on his way back, so he could only assume that maybe he had gone a little too fast.
A short laugh had Tony and Steve glaring at Clint, wondering what exactly was so funny. He was looking into his palm as if he’d never seen it before; and before anyone could ask, he explained. “Yeah, we’ve been had,” Clint informed, unable to contain his amusement.
“What do you mean we’ve been had?” Tony asked, though he already knew it meant that Piper had… left. Escaped might be a better word.
Steve sighed and ran a hand over his face: realizing just how dumb he was for not thinking about any of this sooner. “She came back not two minutes after you left and said your suit broke down. I went to send you another one, and then she must have gotten the better of Clint. I only realized the problem when I saw your other suit on the floor of the lab.”
“She just grabbed the bag and left!” Clint complained airily, “Also, she somehow had her web things. It’s not like I had anything to shoot her down with either, but…” he looked at Tony with a knowing look on his face. “She left you this.”
The billionaire received the small paper with a raised brow, unfolding the dirty sticky note and chuckling as he read the scribbled handwriting.
“What is it?” Steve inquired.
Tony looked up with a shake of his head, “It’s a rain check.” A brazen one at that, he noted with some appreciation. The super soldier took the note with a confused look on his face; bringing it closer to his face to read it.
I win! :P - Spidergirl
Steve looked at his friend. “That’s hardly a raincheck, Tony.”
“Oh,” the billionaire grinned, “Believe me. It is.”
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“Piper! Hey, dude! Did you come over to work on the new Lego bot you promised to-“
“Let’s go inside!” The enhanced teenager promptly shoved her best friend inside his own house, pulling him up the blue carpeted stairs and into the second door on the left. Ned stumbled behind her in perplexity, slightly concerned when she dropped onto her back on his bed and threw her limbs around randomly. He noticed that she left her suit hanging out of her backpack – again.
“Ned – Ned,“ She slapped her cheeks, rolling back and forth on the bed in a hysterical fashion. “Ned, Ned, Ned - Dude, oh my – you are not going to believe what happened. I think I died – I – I don’t even know if I’m alive right now.”
“What do you mean? What happened, dude? Are you – “
Before he could finish his sentence Piper bolted upright again, facing him with an out-of-it look. Ned stood worried, but not surprised by his friends jitters as she sputtered things he was sure nobody else on this planet would have been able to make out.
“I was kidnapped -”
Ned’s eyes widened and he took a step forward.
“-By the Avengers.” He stopped abruptly, wondering suddenly if he couldn’t understand his best friend’s gibberish after all.
“What?”
Piper took a breath, waving her hands to demonstrate as she recounted the past evening. “I was just on patrol – minding my own business, you know? – and then there’s Ironman.”
“Wait, the Ironman?” Ned squeaked, flopping down beside her with an equally bewildered look on his face.
Piper nodded frantically, not even taking a breath. “Yeah, the Ironman. And he was like ‘come with me or I have to arrest you’ and then I was like ‘What? Why,’ and it turns out they thought I was super dangerous or something – well, according to Black Widow –“
“What!?” Ned interrupted again, “What do you mean Black Widow? As in the Black Widow? She was there?”
Piper stopped, shaking her head to clear it. “Well, yes, just not then. Because I was like ‘No thanks, Ironman’ even though it was so totally awesome, and being chased by him was also pretty freaking amazing, and then –“
“You ran from Ironman?”
“Yes, Ned. He was going to arrest me.”
“Why would he do that? He’s a hero and so are you.”
Piper groaned, “I know, right? I’m getting to that. But then he was chasing – “
“-Maybe you should have just talked to him. I mean he is Ironman, he probably didn’t want to just arrest you,” Ned reasoned easily.
“See, that’s what I thought too! But my sense was going off –“
“Your Spidey-sense.”
“Yes, my Spidey sense. And it was going off, so I couldn’t just ignore it or anything. Plus, I didn’t want them to see my face or whatever.”
Ned nodded with a hand on his chin. “So, like, he chased you? Then what?” This was the most excitement either of them had had since… ever!
“Right! This is where it starts to really suck, because I was just running and stuff, and then I slam into a wall! Or at least I thought it was a wall, but it was actually Captain America. And he is n-“
“Captain America!?” Ned exclaimed eagerly at the mention of his favorite hero. “He was there?!”
“Yes, Ned. He was most definitely there, and incredibly heavy. So like I had to run from him too, and that was going okay, because he’s strong – stronger than anyone else I’ve faced – but,” and Piper was surprised at her realization, “he wasn’t like super strong. Like I could have thrown him off of me I think.”
“Was he on top of you or something? - And why didn’t you? Although I guess he is Captain America, hero of all of the U.S.A,” Ned began to mumble incoherently.
Piper stumbled over the events, trying to sort through the fuzzier moments. “Well, he was on top of me at the end - I think. But I couldn’t really move, and I think it was because they drugged me with these darts,” she spaced her fingers according to their size as she could remember. “Like three of them or something, and then the next thing I know I’m waking up on a couch and Bruce Banner – Yes, ned. The Bruce Banner – Is there, and he’s asking me about my arm-“
“-What happened to your arm?”
“Oh, Mr. Stark slammed me into a building and then I almost killed him by accident – but I didn’t! I caught him before he fell… after I pulled the wires from his suit…”
Her best friend gaped at her and grabbed her shoulders, “What do you mean you almost killed Ironman?!”
“He was the one who threw me against a building in the first place! It was an accident, and my shoulder hurt so bad I couldn’t even think properly.”
Ned’s gaze softened and he looked at both of the shoulders he was holding in sudden panic, “Are you still hurt?”
She shook her head with a grin, “No. Apparently I fixed it, and then my healing took care of the rest.”
“You don’t remember healing it?” Her friend visibly relaxed, though still enthralled. He was happy she wasn’t hurt.
“No, I think it was ‘cause they drugged me,” she shivered, shaking her head in disbelief again. “And like, I woke up, right?”
Ned nodded encouragingly.
“And then the Hawkeye and Black Widow were there! And Hawkeye was actually a pretty cool dude, but I think he ate all the bars from my bag,” she frowned lopsidedly. “And then they all wanted to ask me a bunch of questions!” Piper flopped onto her back, ruffling her hair as she came to the climax of her story. “And now all of the Avengers know who I am! And that they think I’m just a kid! It was so lame, Ned. They treated me like some sort of baby after they found out,” she groaned miserably.
“They know who you are? And you are a kid.” Ned looked down at his best friend in concern, knowing full well the efforts she took to keep her identity a secret. If it were Ned with the powers, then the whole world would know who he was.
She sighed quietly, “Yeah.”
He blinked, breathing out in incredulity, “You were actually kidnaped by the Avengers?”
She sighed again, “Yeah.”
“Holy Shit.”
“I know.”
“What the fudge!”
“I know.”
Ned let himself fall into place beside her, staring up at the ceiling – but not really seeing it.
“This is crazy,” he finished.
“Super crazy.”
Ned looked over at Piper, suddenly aware that being kidnapped was no ride in the park. “You okay? I mean, I can go beat them up for you. I don’t know how well that would go – well, terribly – but I’ll do it. I’ll get MJ and she can beat them senseless with words.”
Piper giggled and turned to face him. “What if I said yes?”
He paled dramatically in response, “Well, uh - the Avengers better be ready catch these fists!” He punched the air for enhanced effect.
“I think hacking their AI is a better plan, but if you decide on fists, I’d wait for MJ to do a number on them first,” she laughed earnestly. Piper punched Ned’s shoulder in a loving manner from where they were lying next to each other, “Don’t worry, I won’t ask you to beat up the Avengers in my honor.”
The teenager slumped in relief; fully prepared to keep his word, only not so keen on having to do it. He didn’t want to go out so young.
“Besides,” Piper shrugged and sat up, “I don’t think they’ll give it out to anyone anyways.” She could only hope they left her alone from now on.
Ned sat up when Piper did, “They are heroes.” He shifted a concerned gaze to his friend, “and they did let you go, so that’s a good sign.”
Piper shifted as he said it, focusing on a Star Wars poster Ned had on his wall.
Panic flared in Ned’s gut as he took in his friend’s actions – he knew them all too well. “They did… let you go, right?” He gulped comically.
“Um,” Piper started, and Ned’s jaw dropped before he even knew what happened, “Well, not exactly. Mr. Stark challenged me to a race - to pass the time - and he never put a time limit on how long I had to finish it, so….”
“Oh my gosh,” Ned held on to his cheeks in a panic, “Oh my gosh.”
“It’ll be fine!”
“You’re running from the Avengers!” Ned shouted, completely aghast.
Piper tried waving her hands in a calming gesture, but her nervous laugh betrayed her. “They probably won’t even care.”
“Bu-“ The door to Ned’s room opened, and Piper was suddenly reminded of just how terrible Ned’s mom was at knocking.
“Ned – Oh - Hi, Piper.” The woman, brunette and curvy, spoke warmly to Piper. “I didn’t know you were here! I was just going to make lunch, will you be staying?” She smiled, “We love it when you stay.”
Piper’s heart always ached whenever Ned’s mom spoke to her, and she completely forgot about her previous conversation. It was so reminiscent of what she thought her mom sounded like, and she couldn’t help but feel warm inside every time they spoke. “I’d love to Nadia, thank you!” Piper cringed at the ache growing more and more unbearable in her stomach, “I’m actually starving.”
“Perfect!” she grinned in delight, “We’re just having soup. Oh, and Ned? Don’t forget about your laundry, okay?”
Ned affirmed with a sluggish bounce of his head, “Okay. We’ll be down there soon.”
Nadia nodded and waved to Piper before she closed the door. Piper was going to mention how much she adored Ned’s mother when he threw his hands into the air, again.
“What are we gonna do?!” He exclaimed anxiously, looking to his best friend for the answers; though he knew it was unfair to expect them of her.
Once again, Piper could only shrug and laugh it off. “I’ll just wait and see what happens. I don’t have a bad feeling about it.”
“That’s crazy.”
“I know.” It wasn’t as if she had much else to do, though. She could go back… but she wasn’t doing that until she visited Aunt May, and she wasn’t doing that until she ate something, and by then it would probably be pointless.
“This is insane,” Ned shook his head profusely, “and so totally awesome.”
Piper grinned as he looked at her, and they both burst out laughing. Ned choked on his words in between laughter, “Our lives are crazy freakin weird.”
“Super,” Piper sighed giddily. Their lives were indeed pretty freakin’ weird, but she couldn’t imagine it any other way.
Lucky for her, SHIELD was too busy dying to change it.
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The three heroes left the roof top begrudgingly, knowing their more sensible partners were going to murder them when they delivered the news. They had just let a fourteen year old vigilante slip from their grasp.
Tony and Clint were happy for the kid, but Steve was just plain worried.
In the kitchen Natasha was waiting for them, and it took them only one look at her serious expression to know something was wrong. Clint assumed she had found out about their mistake.
“Listen -“ he began, only to be cut off by the stern voice of the assassin.
“ - We have a problem,” she gripped her phone tightly in one hand, trying not to show her nerves. “Forget about Spidergirl.”
Steve balked, “What?”
Natasha looked them all square in the eyes, understanding every emotion that danced in them. Unbeknownst to them, it would be the last time they understood each other for a long while, because after this moment; none of them would look at each other the same.
“Fury’s dead and the United Nations want to speak with us.”