Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

It’s been almost three years since Carrie’s life changed for the better and every day she thanks God for answering her prayers and gave her the best life she deserves. She is now 17 years old and going on 18 this year.

She got adopted by two people that love her and became like family to her, made some new friends at her new private high school where she only went for her senior after she left her old high school after she finished her Junior year there, she graduated from that new private school she transferred to and went to Charles Xavier’s school for the gifted as a college. Although, she can stay there as long as she liked since Professor X always wants to help his students improve.

She learned to have better control over her powers and has also developed some confidence in herself. Before her confidence was lower than almost the center of the earth and although she’s still working on it, as of now she’s a bit more confident than she ever has before and it made her feel like an entirely different, brand new person on this journey of her self love. 

While she has been going to school 5 days a week, sometimes on Saturdays, Nat helps her how to learn fighting techniques and moves when she’s not busy with missions or errands, of course obviously at first Carrie was weak at it but as time went on, she improved a bit. Sometimes Carrie would even practice with Tony and she ends up kicking his butt, although she does feel bad about hurting him in practice, he’s always proud of her and her progress and even gives her his praises, which is something that she needed growing up and is now getting.

Lately, there have been talks about letting her become a member of the Avengers but since she's been through so much and needed to adjust to a new enviroment, they’ve decided to let her make her own choice on whether to join or not. She told them that she doesn’t feel ready to yet, so they respected her choice. She wanted to go find herself more as a person first and wanted to enjoy being a teenager for a bit first and they highly respected that too. 

Nick Fury believes that the young girl has potential of becoming one of the Avengers seeing how strong her powers are shown to be but she made her choice to wait until she’s ready for it, that doesn’t mean she isn’t passionate about joining the team in the future though. She will be ready for it when the time comes.

In fact, last year on Christmas, Tony surprised her with her own hero suit that he’s been working on for a month since November as a very special Christmas gift, he finished it a week before Christmas and surprisingly, he was good at hiding the gift until Christmas came. Carrie absolutely loved it and told him it was one of the best christmas gifts she’s ever received.

It was put up in Tony’s lab for later just in case she decides to make her debut as a hero to the public soon.

So it just sat there, waiting for Carrie to wear it when she finally goes on the battlefield in the future but little did she know, that time will soon arrive for her sooner than she thought and least expected.

Chapter Text

Thursday 

“Bye Carrie!” One of her friends waved as Carrie was leaving the school. 

“Bye, Jubilee!” She waved back. “See you tomorrow!”

Carrie hopped in the car and it drove away from the school. 

“Hey Happy” She greeted him with a smile.

“Hey kiddo! How was school?” He asked.

“It was great as usual” 

Every day at Xavier’s school was great. Besides the private high school that she transferred to only for her senior year, everyone at Xavier’s school treated her so well and that was another huge breath of fresh air for her.

“Is Tony home yet?” She asked. 

“Nope, still away on a mission”

She slightly frowned in disappointment, “Oh. Well, when will he be back?” 

“Not sure, I would say call him but he’s probably busy at the moment” 

“Figures, but understandable”

Tony went with the team out of the country for a huge mission 2 days ago and Carrie was left by herself at home. Well, not exactly “by herself” since she was going to be with Pepper the whole time, but even she had some work of her own to do, so Carrie just stayed home by herself until she got back from work. 

But on some days, Pepper just worked overnight. 

Tony had left her one of his credit cards just in case she wants to buy some clothes or if she gets hungry, buy something to eat while she’s home so she didn’t have to worry about starving or anything. She was obviously still underage so she couldn’t have her own until she was about 18.

The one thing Tony told her is to use money wisely and not spend it on people who want to use her money to buy things for them. Luckily, Carrie’s friends weren’t like that, they liked her for who she was and not who she has connections to or how much money she has.

Although, Carrie did volunteer to treat her friends at some point but that was because they didn’t have enough money at the time and she wanted to be generous but she still remembered what Tony had said to her and she hasn’t forgot to look out for those type of people who only want to hang out with her for money. She was blessed enough to not come across those types of people.

“So how is your day going?”

He shrugged, “Eh, Same old, same old” He then sighed. 

“Bad day?” 

“I wouldn’t say I had a “bad day” but not the best day I would say” 

“Oh, I see” Carrie decided it was the perfect opportunity to cheer him up a bit, she has never seen him smile, but then again, no one has because he rarely does. So why not give it a shot?

“Hey, um, Happy?” 

“Yeah?” 

“Wanna hear a joke?” She asked with a smile. “I heard it from one of my friends back at school” 

“Sure, go ahead”

She sat there for a minute and tried to remember one of the jokes she heard until it finally hit her, “ A lot of people cry when they cut an onion.”

“Well, that’s not always true, I mean”  

“The trick is not to form an emotional bond! Get it?” She finished the punchline and giggled. “I heard that one from one of my classmates, Bobby” 

“Hm, yeah that was a good one i guess” 

“Another failed attempt to make Happy laugh and smile, yet again” She thought.

“You don’t get it?” 

“Oh I got it, I just didn’t find it that funny” 

Carrie smirked and chuckled, “One of these days, Happy, I will get a smile or a laugh out of you, Happy” 

He scoffed, “Yeah, good luck with that, kid” 

As soon as they drove into Downtown, they then saw someone in a red and dark blue suit swinging from building to building and doing flips in the air. 

“Hey look, it’s Spider-Man!” Carrie pointed with a smile.

Carrie admired Spider-Man alot, always saving folks left and right. She remembered the first time that she met him. 

She was walking down town with a few friends of hers and minding their business when all of a sudden, she tripped in the middle of the street and a truck was getting ready to hit her.

Spider-Man swooped down and saved her just in time before she almost got ran over.

“Wow, thanks so much for saving me!” 

“No problem!” Spider-Man told her in a cheery voice. She remembered how young he sounded, like it wasn’t the voice of a grown man like his name said but the voice of a young teen boy. 

“I’m glad you’re safe, oh and next time you should really tie your shoes next time” He pointed down and saw one of her shoes untied. She looked down at them then looked back at him, blushing in embarrassment. 

“Oh, I didn’t even notice. I guess it was my fault”

“Hey,” He touched her shoulder sympathetically, “don’t beat yourself up over it, just be careful next time, okay?” She couldn’t see his expression behind his mask but she had a strong feeling he was smiling. 

“I’d love to stay and chat but I gotta go! Take care of yourself!” With that, he shot his web shooters on one of the buildings and swung away. 

She had heard awful things some people said about Spider-Man but that was from some people didn’t really like him, especially J. Jonah Jameson who hated his guts and she didn’t know why or what he even had against him. From that one experience, she certainly thought Spider-Man was very nice and truly cared about people.

Sometimes she wondered who he really was behind the mask. 

“Hey Happy?” 

“Yeah?” 

“How come some people hate Spider-Man?” She asked. “Because one time I had an encounter with him and he was very nice.”

“Well, I have heard that some people don’t like him because they feel like he’s taking police’s jobs but I highly doubt that was his intentions to do that”

“How do you think he deals with people like Mr. Jameson who say terrible things about him that aren’t true?” She asked.

“Well, he knows he’s a good person and who he is, so I believe he doesn’t let some of those negative comments that people make about him get to him” 

Carrie thought about this for a moment, she was bound to become her own hero any time when she’s ready but she realized, like Iron Man, Spider-Man and sometimes the whole Avengers team, she was bound to get some criticism despite the fact that would be saving people’s lives with them. It wasn’t fair 

“I see” She said. “Do you think Tony lets those comments get to him once in a while?”

He shrugged, “Probably not, I mean, as he always says, I’m Tony Stark-.”

“I know, I know, genius billionaire playboy philanthropist” She finished, rolling her eyes. She couldn’t count how many times he has said that, so many times that she can memorize it from heart. 

“I always says that occasionally, so I know” Carrie told him.

“Yep, that’s Tony for you”

She chuckled, “Tell me about it”

She looked out the window and sighed when she spotted a Baskin Robbins ice cream shop. 

“Wait!” 

“What is it?” 

“Can we stop at Baskin Robbins? I really would love some ice cream” 

Happy sighed, “Yeah sure but please don’t take too long this time, remember last time?”

She giggled. “Don’t worry, I won’t. I’m gonna get vanilla ice cream with sprinkles with a cherry on top this time.” 

He sighed in relief.  “Good”

Chapter Text

After Happy dropped her off at the house from school and for a stop at the ice cream shop, she went inside and was greeted by JARVIS.

“Welcome home, Carrie” he said. 

“Hey JARVIS” 

“How was school?”

“Great” She nodded and smiled, putting her backpack on the couch. 

“School is great everyday for you, anyways” 

“You have no idea. Is Tony busy right now?” She asked.

Lord knows how much she missed him even though he’s been away for like 2 days.

“Would you like me to get in contact with Mr. Stark to see if he’s available to talk to you?” He asked. 

Carrie smiled and nodded, “Oh yes! I would love that a lot” 

“Very well” he said.

 It took 3 minutues for JARVIS to get in contact with Tony, but yet unfortunately, no response again.

“I’m sorry, Carrie, Mr. Stark is busy at the moment” He told her.

She sighed in disappointment. “I knew it. Well, we might as well wait till later on when he’s on a break or something” 

Her phone then began to ring, she pulled it out of her pocket and answered it. 

“Hello?”

“Hey Carrie” 

“Oh hey, Pepper. I made it home safely if you’re wondering”

“That’s good, I’m happy to hear that, how was school?”

“It was great” Carrie smiled.

“I’m happy to hear that! Hey, listen, I won’t be home tonight, I have a shift. Do you still remember what we had talked about the other day?” 

“Yeah, I still do and I remembered to lock the doors and don’t open the door for any strangers”

“Alright good, are you sure you’re gonna be okay home alone tonight?” 

“Yeah, I’ll be completely fine” 

“One hundred percent?” 

“Yes, I’m one hundred percent sure”

“Like how sure are you, really??”

“Really! I’m perfectly and completely sure that I will be fine, Pepper” She had almost snapped at her right there but she managed to keep her cool. 

“Alright then, just checking in because I don’t want anything bad to happen to you, you know I love you so much” 

Carrie knew that Pepper was gonna be protective rightfully so she understood her concerns. Hell, she wouldn’t be surprised if Pepper walked out in the midde of her job just to check up on her to see if she was in any kind of trouble but seemed to forgot that Carrie can take care of herself since she had her “secret weapon”.

“I love you too, but I think you forgot one thing? I have telekinesis, I can protect myself from anything or anyone that tries to hurt me”

“Sweetie, I’m very proud that you can defend yourself, but still, you’ll never know what kind of enemies will come around there and try to hurt you, Just call me if you need anything, Carrie and be careful”

“I understand, call you later”

“Love you, Carrie”

“Love you too, Pepper” 

With that, they both hung up. Carrie sighed, and slide down the couch. 

“I wish she would understand that I have everything under control” 

“Not trying to be rude here, Carrie but you’ve seemed to forgot that you’re, how do I say this? Inexperienced in battle? I believe that’s part of the reason she worries so much for you and your safety” 

Carrie groaned in annoyance, “Did you have to bring that up as if I didn’t know that, JARVIS?” 

“Why yes, yes I had to because it seems that you forgot that” He snarked. 

Carrie loved the AI like a dear friend but sometimes she wished that JARVIS had an off switch somewhere so he wouldn’t have to annoy her at certain times. 

“And I don’t need to be reminded, thank you very much” She snarked, rolling her eyes and crossing her arms, annoyed.

She hasn’t realized this yet but at times it felt like one of Tony’s traits from his personality rubbed off on her. Even JARVIS noticed this but doesn’t really bring it up but one of these days, he might.

A few hours later, after she was done doing homework, she went on to watch some Netflix, then her stomach began to grumble. She looked at the time and it was 7pm, which was time for dinner. So she ordered a pepperoni pizza. 

While she waited for it to arrive, she went downstairs to Tony’s Workshop to take another look at her costume which was sealed behind glass. 

She put her hands on her hips and smiled proudly, she thought once she puts this suit on and make her debut out to the world one day, she will be proclaimed a hero. At least one day when the time comes.

She walked closer to it and gently placed her hand on the glass case. “Someday”

Her smile then faded, she looked down and sighed. Sitting down the stool near the table, just not keeping her eyes off of it. She’s also been thinking again and asking herself multiple questions.

What kind of impact would she make if she ever stepped up on the scene?

What kind of impression would she have on people once she debuts herself to the world?

Would she be a new target of J. Jonah Jameson’s constant bashing like Spider-Man is?

Would she be a good member of the Avengers team?

And more importantly, Will this put a lot of pressure on her about what kind of hero she should be?

Before she could ask more questions about this, her phone began to ring. She looked at the caller I.D. and grinned with joy knowing who it is. 

“Hello?” 

“Hey Care bear! What’s up?” 

“Hi Tony! I miss you sooo so much! 

He chuckled, “I could say the same for you, kiddo. To be honest. Sorry I haven’t called you since I left.”

Carrie nodded and smiled , "It’s okay, I know you had to focus on your missions". 

“Just being an concerned father here, how was it for the last 2 days you’ve been home by yourself? No dangers come by you or anything” 

“It’s been fine, a bit boring. I’ve been home alone since you left due to Pepper’s job but I’ve been talking to JARVIS to keep me feeling a little lonely and there were no serious dangers that came to me so far, hope it stays that way too.”

“Awww isn’t that sweet of you JARV” Tony teased but was genuine about that.  

JARVIS sighed in annoyance but in a way, felt flattered.

“When are you coming back from the mission?” 

“Ehhh, well, I don’t exactly know when but when everything is resolved and the mission is complete, I’ll let you know.”

“Oh um okay, no problem. So how’s the mission? Did you find the guys yet?”

“Not yet unfortunately. We’re at Paris, France right about now and we assumed that’s where they’ve been hiding, the bad news is we lost track of them after looking for these dudes for the last 2 days. I guess you could say they’re champs at this little game of hide and seek”

Carrie could hear the tone of his voice and he already sounded exhausted but knowing him and his team, he wasn’t gonna give up that easily.

“Are missions always this difficult?” Carrie asked.

“Well I never said they were a piece of cake, now did I? Trust me, Care bear, once you get on the team until you’re ready, you’ll understand what it’s like to be in our shoes”

Sometimes Carrie did imagine what it would be like being with the Avengers, although it looked cool to join them, she knew there were difficult obstacles that came with it when it came to being on their team during a mission. It most certainly wasn’t a game.

“To be completely honest with you, Care, I don’t know what these guys are doing right now but right now they haven’t made their move on planting the bomb yet but when they pop up back on our radar, we’ll be ready”

Carrie’s facial expression as now formed into a worried one.

Bomb.

When she heard that word, she knew that mission they were on was seriously dangerous. Even though she had powers and a team who would have her back, she still would have been terrified if she went on that kind of mission. A bomb could be planted anywhere at anytime, and she didn’t want any of the Avengers, especially Tony, to get caught in an explosion by one of them. 

“Please you all be careful” She told him.

“Carrie, sweetheart, listen to me, I promise that we’re gonna be okay. I’m gonna be okay” He reassured her after hearing the worry in her tone. “If I could make a iron suit from scrap and nothing and escape from being held hostage, I can handle a couple of idiots who think they know what to do with a bomb”

She smiled at bit after hearing that, that was the truth, she remembered him telling her one time about being held captive at some point and how he escaped from it. That was a while back before he met and adopted her.

“Feel better?”

“Yeah, I feel a bit relieved now”

“Sooo what are you doing right now?”

“I ordered a pizza and I’m waiting for it to arrive, so I’m just trying to pass the time” she told him.

“Ah great taste!” He said. “What kind of pizza did you order?”

“Pepperoni”

“Nice! Nice! A classic! I’m getting hungry just thinking about it” He chuckled.

“Oh, I meant to ask, how is it in France? Is it as romantic as everyone says?” Carrie asked, she remembered how people in her history class used to talk about France, about how beautiful it is. She never been there but she seen pictures of it and she finds it to be such a gorgeous place. 

“Oh, it’s beautiful over here, except I went to this restaurant and I asked, hey do you guys serve snails? And they were like ‘no sorry sir’, ” He did a ameteur impression of a french accent. “ , ‘We no long serve that here’ And I said to myself, hm wow guess they want ‘fast’ food now” 

He then burst out into a laughter at his joke, “You get it? Fast food? Snails are slow? Oh man! I crack myself up sometimes” 

Carrie cringed at his “joke” but she pretended she found it funny as she awkwardly let out a fake chuckle. “Yeah I get it”

“Glad your developing a sense of humor there, unlike my team, when I first told them this joke they were like ‘Tony that isn’t funny’ “  He then scoffed , Carrie pictured him rolling his eyes after telling her that. “

“I was like awww come on, you guys don’t get it? and they were like Oh we get it, it’s just that we don’t find it funny. Jeez some people need to get a sense of humor”

He then let out another scoff, “Anyways, enough about me, how was school today?”

“It was great as always” She told him. 

“How’s you and Kuuurt?” He teased her. She groaned in annoyance ever since that night Carrie went on a date with Kurt a little while back, he just couldn’t help but tease her about it to this day even though he knows they only like each other platonically.

“For the hundredth time, we are just good friends!”

“Good friends, huh? Okay then, Care bear…. Oh I know you guys are great friends, I’m only kidding! Come on, give me a break will ya? I can’t help if you guys look adorable together”

Carrie rolled her eyes in response. 

“Okay, I’m sorry, Carrie. I won’t tease you anymore about it if you don’t like that. Matter of fact, let’s talk about something else, shall we?”

Just then, the doorbell rang. 

“Sorry, I hate to interrupt this charming father/daughter conversation” JARVIS said, “But the pizza man have arrived”

“My pizza is here!” Carrie told him. “I will talk to you later”

“Alrighty then, kiddo! Later! Love you!”

“Love you too, Tony!”

“Oh and try to save a slice for me when I get home” He chuckled. “But seriously, Carrie, please save me a slice, I haven’t had pizza in a while”

Carrie giggled, “Okay, I’ll make sure of that”

With that, they hung up and Carrie went to go get her pizza because she was absolutely starving right now.

Chapter Text

After she had gotten finished talking to Tony, Carrie had found herself watching the news over dinnertime since there was nothing else on TV she found interesting to watch right now. 

The first story was about a 7 year old little boy who got cured of cancer, which she found to be very heartwarming, she was really happy for him, now he can go on and grow up because no child deserves to go through something like that.

Another was about a 23 year old woman who raised 100,000 dollars for sick children at a children’s hospital. What an amazing woman, she thought. 

And last but not least, a story report about Spider-Man. Tonight he just saved an infant from a burning building and returned it to it’s mother when he got out. 

Carrie smiled as she heard this news, the fact that he would risk himself to save people’s lives no matter how dangerous the situation is or no matter how high the circumstances were really made her admired and highly respect him.

To her, he’s one of the most interesting heroes she’s ever seen and couldn’t wait to have a full conversation with him one day as he was interesting to her. She wanted to ask him what it was like being a hero, what it was like to fight crime and what was it like to receive unfair criticism from other people who couldn’t stand him for some odd reason.

She watched as the woman hugged him and thanked her for saving her child, he tells her, “No problem ma’am, I’m glad this little guy is safe and not hurt. It’s miracle that he came out with no injuries, you were so brave, weren’t you, little guy?” 

This definitely put a smile on the telekinetic’s face as she thought this was really adorable that he also loved kids as well. She still didn’t see a reason anyone would hate him.

After they had showed Spider-Man on TV, J. Jonah Jameson, much to her disgust. She watched him rant and bash Spider-Man calling him a fraud, a menace, claims of him “making it difficult” for police officers and their jobs, calling him a criminal and all these awful names. This was usual and typical for him to do this so it was nothing new.

Carrie didn’t know why she was still watching this man right now, he was just spewing hate and toxicity out of his mouth over someone who’d risk his life and bust his butt to save other people’s lives no matter how what the circumstance were. She thought his hateful obsession with Spider-Man was ridiculous, so she immediately changed the channel to something else, not wanting to hear his nonsense anymore. 

She just didn’t understand what did Spider-Man do to make Jameson have so much hate towards him.

Honestly, if she was him, she would give him a huge piece of her mind but he seems to not Jameson no mind.

“Are you alright, Carrie?” JARVIS asked.

“Yeah, I’m okay” but she obviously wasn’t. 

This was another thing she was afraid of when thinking of becoming a hero like Spider-Man, people like J. Jonah Jameson constantly bashing her no reason other than for doing her job, accusing her of such things that is far from who she is, like when he called Spider-Man a “criminal”, which made no sense to her because last time she checked, criminals breaks laws and hurt people and that’s not who Spider-Man was.

“I don’t know if this is the case but it seems that the things that Mr. Jameson has said on television has upset you”

“Yeah, something like that, I will admit. He does seem to be obsessed with hating Spider-Man to the point where he has to spread lies about him and I will never understand why because there are actual criminals in New York doing actual horrible crimes, making it harder for people to feel safe. Why isn’t that all that hate he has towards Spider-Man going towards them? It doesn’t make any sense”

“Unfortunately, I don’t have the answer to that either, I suppose you have to go up there to his office and ask him yourself?”

“Maybe one day, but I have much bigger things to do than to waste my time with him”

She remembered she was supposed to call Tony back after she was finished dinner. She picked up her phone and dialed his number, it rang a few times but switched to his voice mail.

“JARVIS, could you get in contact with Tony?”

“He seems to have left his phone in his room” He told her, Carrie then got really worried.

“What? Then where is he?! What is he doing?”

“He’s busy playing pool with Rhodey and Steve downstairs in a room while the rest of the team is at a bar”

Carrie sighed in relief that nothing happened to Tony nor the team but she was a bit disappointed that he forgot that he was supposed to talk to her later on.

“What? I thought he was asleep, he sounded exhausted when I was talking to him on the phone”

“Well, he doesn’t seem to be exhausted now. Would you like me to try other ways to-”

“No, I mean…. No it’s okay, I don’t want to bother him, so I might as well just wait till tomorrow to talk to him, I mean, it’s a school night, right? He would want me to be in bed at this hour, so I might as well just do that”.

Carrie then found herself to be yawning, it was getting pretty late and she couldn’t just stay up late on a school night.

She understood that Tony wasn’t always gonna answer his phone, especially on an important mission and being with his friends but it hurt her that he was so busy hanging out with them at this time that he forgot to she was supposed to call him. 

Hopefully tomorrow he’ll be able to talk to her when he’s not busy on the mission but since it’ll be all day tomorrow, it was gonna take a while for that to even happen.

Meanwhile back at the hotel, Tony and his team were head to bed, as they also had to get up early in the morning to get back to work on the mission. 

Tony had then realized that he forgot his phone in his room and Carrie was supposed to call him after dinner, so he ran to his room faster than the others did and checked his phone, she had called him hours ago and he didn’t even answer. He looked at the time and saw it was 12:00am in the morning. She goes to bed at 11pm since it was her curfew and a school night, so she’s fast asleep by then and he didn’t wanna wake her up from it. 

He felt horrible that he didn’t answer her call to him sooner and hoped that she isn’t mad at him about it nor left her worried, So instead he texted her to let her know that he was alright and that he was sorry for not answering her call to him.

Knowing Carrie, she’s probably the most forgiving and understanding person he’s ever known, so hopefully she’d understand more when she sees his text in the morning. In the meantime, he had to get some shut eye so he could wake up in the morning to find those two idiots that him and his team are hunting down and stop them from succeeding from their plan. 

Chapter Text

Friday

Last night, Carrie had a dream that she debuted herself as a new superhero, she had saved the whole city from destruction and everyone loved her and they cheered her name even though she didn’t have a code name for her alter ego yet but that was okay because the good she did was what matters the most. Tony told the whole world that he as Iron Man and people still loved him any way. 

However, that dream turned into a nightmare when Chris Hargenson, her old bully from high school, and her gang, Tina, the twins, Nikki and Lizzie, Heather and even Chris’ good-for-nothing boyfriend, Billy Nolan showed up and came back unexpectedly strong with super powers of their own, they were committing crimes and even destroyed some buildings along the way for their own enjoyment, causing them to get people killed. 

She wanted to stop them, she really did but she was trapped in a glass cage, she banged on the glass and even tried to break it with her powers but it was no use, there was nothing she could do but just stand there and watch in horror as the gang was causing havoc left and right until they got what they wanted.

The scenery changed where she was no longer in the glass cage but in the middle of the street where people were all around her, they were angry and holding up signs that horrible things on them.

Carrie Stark is no hero!

Kick the charity case Stark out of the Avengers!

Carrie Stark =/= Failed Avenger 

And the crowd yelling cruel things at her over it didn’t help either.

“You’re not even Tony’s real daughter!” One lady yelled, “You were just a charity case with his last name slapped into your first name, and he thought he could make you into the hero he thought you were gonna be but turned out to be a total failure”

A couple condemned her and blamed her for their child getting killed, they even showed her the child’s lifeless and bloodied up body in their arms, and she was absolutely horrified and heartbroken at what she was seeing. The mother’s crying uncontrollably mixed with anger and hurt. No matter how hard she tried to apologize, despite the fact it wouldn’t bring their child back, they still screamed and cursed her, telling her that they hope she rots in hell. 

Another person angrily came at her telling her that his wife and three children are dead due to the chaos that happened and he’ll never see them again thanks to her not protecting them and stopping the destruction.

Everyone demonized her telling her how she failed them all and how she let their loved ones die because she didn’t save them in time and let those team of criminals destroy and take almost everything, including people’s lives. 

She felt overwhelmed and felt so vulnerable that she burst into tears, run through the crowd. She then bumped into Tony, whom she thought he would defend her from this crowd that was against her. Unfortunately, she thought wrong because he, along with the Avengers team behind him was as angry with her as the crowd was. 

The people she called family, the people who had saved her from her own hell she once lived in had all had turned on her, including one of her heros that she looked up to and inspired to be like, Spider-Man, who had told her that she disgraced the whole city but what really broke her heart is when Tony told her that adopting her and taking her in as his own daughter was a mistake and should have left her in that town. 

“How could you say such cruel things like that? You don’t mean that!” She yelled, tears streaming down her face.

She then looked up at the big screen on the building and saw that J. Jonah Jameson was ripping her to absolute shreds, even more harder than he does to Spider-Man. He called her every name in the book that even Chris Hargensen didn’t even hadn’t even crossed the line to call her. 

When she turned back around, the Avengers pointed their weapons at her, preparing to kill her as the crowd chanted them to get rid of her. She cried and begged for them to let her live but they ignore her pleads and glared at her with the most hateful expressions on their faces, it was so unlike them. 

She felt that her entire world was falling apart and cried to God to get this all to stop.

That’s when she then woke up 3am in the morning, screaming “STOP! PLEASE!” Only to look around and saw she was back in her bed safe and sound. 

Thank God it was just a dream, but it was more like a nightmare more than anything else. It felt so real to her and it was bizarre. 

JARVIS asked if she was alright and told him that she had a nightmare about everyone turning on her, including the Avengers. Since all her friends were asleep at the time, she didn’t wanna disturb her with her nightmare problem so she talked to JARVIS instead about it, whom made her feel better after she talked to him about what had just happened.  

She eventually went back to sleep and the nightmare never came back again. Thank God!

At school, the nightmare started to bother her again, she couldn’t focus in certain classes and didn’t interact with her friends like usual. They asked Carrie what was wrong and she said “Nothing, I just need some time to myself, I’m fine” but that would be a lie.

Professor Xavier noticed this and called her in his office to talk to her about what has been going on with her all day. She tells him about the terrible nightmare that she have had last night and ever single detail about what happened in it..

He sympathizes with and comforts her as he’s discussing with her about it, telling her that she has a fear of failing as a hero and disappointing everyone around her, which is why all those worries she had swirling through her mind molded into a nightmare that she had that night.

He tells her that it’s normal to feel like that way and then gave her some words of wisdom that somewhat helped her with how she was feeling. 

He told her not to let those fears and worries control every bit apart of her, otherwise, it’d be a huge setback for her that she might never get out of, and he as absolutely right about that. Though it was gonna be hard to not let big fears like that and one nightmare let her stop her from going to the next big step that was coming to her soon in life.

She got Tony’s text when she woke up this morning, she replied with a smile face emoji and told him that she accepts his apology. 

Thank God it was Friday, which means she could spend her free time doing whatever over the weekend. She was thinking of finishing the book she got from the library the other day, it was a Harry Potter book and she thought it was such a great book. Her mother, Margaret would have never let her read something like that, she would have forbid it since she thinks magic is “the work of the devil”.

Happy had just picked her up and they were riding through the city, she looked over at the ice cream shop and saw a sign where it said they had a new flavor ice cream that just came out, it was Caramel Balsamic Swirl ice cream with blueberry and raspberry toppings, it sounded delicious and she was eager to try it. She begged Happy to stop at the ice cream shop until he agreed and dropped her off there and she told him that she wouldn’t take too long.  

When she got in, she walked up to the counter where she was met with a female employer who had a joyful smile on her face. Carrie could feel the positive energy from her.

“Hello there Carrie!” She said in a cheery tone. “Nice to see you again”. 

It was obvious most people were gonna know who she was because of her last name and who’s she’s adopted by but she was glad people like this woman treated her like a regular person and not just a “daughter of a celebrity”.

“Hi, Penelope” She smiled back.

“Are you looking forward to trying our new flavor, Caramel Balsamic Swirl ice cream? We just came out with it today and so far people are saying they love it!” 

“Yep! That’s why I stopped by here! So can I have a Caramel Balsamic Swirl in a cup?” 

“What toppings would you like on it?” Penelope asked. 

“Blueberries and raspberries, it was on the sign”

“Okay, one Caramel Balsamic Swirl with blueberries and raspberries in a cup coming right up!” 

“Wait! Hold on! I’ll have the same” A young teenage boy’s voice came up from behind her. She turned around to see a boy her age with short brunette hair. 

“Alrighty then, Peter! Two Caramel Balsamic Swirl with blueberries and raspberries in a cup coming right up!” 

“Oh! Hey Carrie, didn’t expect to see you here”

“Hi Peter, I could say the same for you” She giggled.

She had already met Peter before, it was about last year in October. She remembered that she went downstairs to Tony’s lab to ask him about something and that’s when she saw Peter downstairs in his lab with him working on his science project. That’s when Tony introduced him to her. Although they haven’t really gotten the chance to hang out or get to know each other due to their own lives and problems they were busy with.

“So, uh, how’s it going?” 

“It’s alright, Tony and the team left out of the country on a mission a couple days ago, so it’s just me and Pepper. And if Pepper isn’t home and is at work overnight, it’s just me”

“Oh, so what’s it like to be home by yourself, at least?” He asked. 

They were interrupted for a second by Penelope announcing that their ice cream is here, they both paid for it and took the ice cream. 

“What’s it like? Well, It’s peaceful, but of course when JARVIS isn’t annoying me with his snarky comments, but overall it’s peaceful, but sometimes it gets kinda lonely. I miss Tony alot”

“I don’t blame you” He reassured her, taking a bite of his ice cream.

“But don’t worry, I know he will be back safe and sound” She smiled. 

“That’s good, I mean, if I was home alone for a couple of days, I’d feel lonely too to be honest but I’m glad you’re doing at least okay” Peter then slightly yawned. 

“You seem very tired right now”

Peter chuckled after he yawned, “Yeah, I… had a long night last night and had a long day so I’d definitely should get some rest when I get home”

“Do you want a ride home? Happy will drive you, he just picked me up from school”

“Sure! I would love that! Better than waiting and taking the bus or train”

With that, they left the shop and hopped into the car.

Chapter Text

Throughout the whole car ride, even through slightly rough traffic, Carrie and Peter unsurprisingly got along well, they just clicked just like that just like last time when the first time they had met. They discussed their likes and dislikes, what their favorite kind of music was, their favorite movie, their experiences with having connections with Tony Stark and other things.

They found that they enjoyed each other's company and became fast friends. They even exchanged numbers with each other and told each other if they weren't too busy, they would hang out with each other sometimes. Carrie thought Peter was cute, friendly, intelligent and easy to get along with, while Peter thought Carrie was down-to-earth, kind, interesting and honest.

You would think since she would be stuck up and spoiled due to being under the wing of Tony Stark, but after getting to know her more, she was far from it, although, he did hear some people make judgemental comments towards her, now he can prove them wrong since he’s friends with her now.  

As for Carrie, she didn't really get a glimpse of his personality, she just saw him briefly when he was working with Stark as an intern, but she was glad that she got to know him more because he was one of the sweetest people she’s ever met.

She didn't really go in detail about her former life and how she got adopted in the first place, she never really does and doesn't feel the need to, Peter respected that, all she simply said that her old life is that it was complete hell for her, that she was bullied and that her mom mistreated her badly, and that was enough for Peter to know had much of a hard life she had. Peter apologizes for what she went through, she thanks him for his sympathy but reminds him that she has a great new life now and doesn't have to worry about those same people that hurt her now that she has a great protection and strong support system behind her.

Peter never brought this up but he felt a bit jealous of her in a way, he would literally do anything to be not only be around Tony Stark 24/7 like she did but he would died to also have connections from the Avengers and everyone from S.H.I.E.L.D. as well. She had everything he would dream of having, don't get him wrong, he loved being Spider-Man even though he was stressing at times, loved his aunt and friends, and loved being the intern of Tony Stark, he was grateful for all of that truly, so he couldn't really complain but he would have loved to be in her position. He thought her new life was so cool from what she told him and he thought she totally she deserved it after everything she went through.

When Carrie started talking a little bit about Spider-Man, it got a little awkward for him but he tried not to make it clear and give his identity away, at least not yet. He felt that it was too soon to tell her just yet, if he told her then and there that he was Spider-Man, it would get even more awkward for not only him but for her as well since one of her inspirations was right there in front of her.

After Peter was dropped off to his home, he told Carrie if she isn't busy, she could Facetime him sometime, she happily agreed to and left it at that.

Shortly after, Carrie was dropped off at her home and as usual, she was greeted by JARVIS, he asked the usual question about her day at school. She had texted Pepper and said she was home safe and sound, if she didn't, she'd get super worried.

Out of the people who were the most protective of her such as Tony, Nat and Steve, Pepper was the most protective of her and it was so obvious when she hated the idea of leaving Carrie in the house by herself while she was at work and Tony was away on a mission. Pepper had her to text or call her every 2 hours after Carrie would get home from school to ease her worry and wanted to know if she's okay. So yes, she was definitely the most protective of her.

Carrie couldn't complain though, she was grateful that someone would love her enough to worry about what's going to happy to her whether she could defend herself with powers or not. At least there was no violence or being thrown in a dirty small closet being involved. Just communication...... and getting frequent calls and texts but it's all out of love.

Later on.......

Carrie peacefully sat in her room reading the rest of her book from the library that said told herself that she was going to finish before the deadline, while she waited for Pepper to come home, she had texted Carrie that she would. Hopefully, they would have a little girls night in since it's been a long while since they've spent time together for once.

"Ms. Potts has arrived, Carrie" JARVIS announced.

"Okay, thanks for telling me, Jarv" She said, smiling.

"My pleasure" He replied.

Jarv. She's never called him that before, she must have picked that up from Tony since he calls Jarvis that from time to time.

She ran downstairs to meet Pepper there, whom seemed exhausted from work.

"Hi, Pepper" Carrie hugged her. "How was your day?"

"Hey sweetie, it was fine" Pepper went over and slumped on the couch, sighing. "How was yours?"

"It was pretty good, but hey, um, can I ask you something?"

"Sure, what is it?"

"Since, um, it's Friday and we haven't spent time with each other for a while, is it possible to have a girls night in? Don't worry, we don't have to blast music and dance or anything since you seem tired from work"

Pepper smiled, how could she possibly say no to her? After all, it has been a while. She agreed to do the girls night in thing with Carrie.

That night, they had ordered pizza for dinner, did each other's hair and helped themselves with choosing to watch a chick flick together, they were watching 13 Going On 30. They shared laughter and even made some commentaries on what was happening in that movie, such as how Jenna's love interest, Matt looked just like Bruce and whatnot. 

Carrie had wished she would have had these types of girl time with her mother, Margaret, but she would totally forbid it and would have considered things like this a "sin" just like everything and everyone else around her so it wouldn't have happened anyway.

Even though Pepper wasn't her biological mother, She appreciated and loved these mother and daughter times with her.

After the movie was over, the news had came on, it was about Spider-Man again, who saved the day, or in this case, saved the night by stopping another robbery that had happened downtown at the bank. She smiled at this, she couldn't wait to one day team up with him when her big debut will eventually come and it will before she knew it.

That smile faded when she saw J. Jonah Jameson pop up next, getting ready to talk more shit about Spider-Man yet again, she groaned and rolled her eyes. She didn't know how this man was still on the air because he spits nothing but toxic negative venom out of his mouth about a man who risks his butt to save others lives and make the city safe to live in. It wasn't fair, it wasn't fair at all to Spider-man at all because he didn't deserve any of that vicious slander. 

"I wish he would shut his mouth for once and leave Spider-Man alone" Carrie said, "I can't stand him"

Pepper made a disgusted expression, "Ugh, me neither. Want me to change the channel?"

"Yes! Please!"

The channel was changed to something else more lighthearted. 

She was so sick of hearing that man bash Spider-Man all the time, she didn't know what his hateful obsession with him was all about, it needed to stop. But she knew she had no control over what he says, just how she reacted to it.

She sighed again, got up from her couch and walked off.

"Carrie? honey, are you okay? Where are you going?" Pepper asked concernedly.

Carrie went downstairs to the lab to look at her suit again. This time she sat on the stool and looked up at it, those thoughts in her head started to come to her again. Those same thoughts telling her that she would screw up, those same thoughts telling her she's not good enough to join the team, those same thoughts trying to convince her that it's never too late to back down from it.

They would come up every time she would hear Jameson say those awful things about not only Spider-Man, but other superheroes as well who were rightfully doing their job and putting their lives on the line.

What would have happened if you didn't save everyone and made the mistake of accidentally getting someone killed while saving? Can answer me that, Carrie?

Remember, once you step into the scene as a superhero, there's no turning back, Carrie. Everyone will be counting on you and if you fail, that would be it! Your reputation will be tarnished and you'll go back to that same girl from a small town in Maine, hated by everyone. You might as well just stick to being in Stark's shadow.

Do you really think you have the potential to become an Avenger? You are still a child! Why would they want mere child on their team? You'd make them look like they're babysitting you! You aren't ready for this, Carrie

These kinds of thoughts going around her head would say to her. She kept reminding herself that everything they were saying we entirely untrue and tried not to let them discourage her of her growing confidence.

"Carrie?" Pepper softly called her name. She turned around and saw her, she looked worried about her. "Why are you down here? Is everything okay?"

"Oh, um, Yeah I'm fine" She lied, she actually wasn’t fine. "I just wanted to go look at my suit again"

Pepper walked up to her and rested her hand on Carrie's shoulder, also looking up at the unused suit just sitting there in the glass cage. "Wow! Can't believe it, you're bound to be a hero soon. You know, you've come a long way since last year, how do you feel about that?"

Carrie looked up at her adoptive mother and smiled, "I feel pretty good about it actually, I never thought I would see the day where I'd go from such a horrible town to end up here where I feel protected, validated and loved, and with a new family that loves and cares for me, I have to admit, there's nothing else I'd ask for. I'm pretty much happy and grateful for everything that I've been blessed with"

"And I'm so happy to hear all of that from you, honestly. I am so glad that you're blossoming into a confident young woman that you are today. I mean, look at you right now, you've made some friends, you've been coming out of your shell more, and you're learning to control your powers. I mean, wow" She sat next to her. "I have to say, I am extremely proud of you"

Carrie loved hearing other people tell her that, the words ‘I’m so proud of you’ but to hear it from her adoptive parents meant so much more. Before, nobody else, not even her own mother Margaret, would tell her that, it's always been things like:

" Carrie you're so stupid!"

"Can't you do anything right?"

"You eat shit!"

"You're such a freak!"

"You're the devil's child"

"Freaking loser!"

"Nobody likes you, Carrie"

And all those hurtful things, no type of praise that she got. The first few times she got praised for the first time, she wouldn't believe any of it, she still felt like a burden. But now every time she would get some, she would feel really good about herself because it reminds her that none of those things those people in that horrible small town in Maine were true. 

She isn't a freak, she isn't stupid and she definitely isn't a loser. 

She was a sweet, intelligent, quiet, kindhearted girl who never deserved any of that unforgivable mistreatment to begin with. Tony knew this and Pepper knew this, which is why they praise her when she does something good and Carrie appreciated it a lot.

Carrie smiled and blushed in response.

"So, have you figured out a name for yourself yet?"

"What do you mean?"

"You know? Like a code name, superhero name I mean, you know like Iron man, Black Widow, those types of names"

"Oh! No not yet, I haven't thought about it but Tony once suggested a name once, it was ridiculous" She chuckled, shaking her head.

Pepper chuckled as well, "Oh boy, what was it?"

"His first name suggestion for me was Mind Sushi" She laughed.

Pepper cringed first then laughed, "Oh god, that one is awful, of course he would suggest something like that"

"Wait! Wait!" She had to catch her breath first, "There's more! Another he had in mind was Queen Kinesis! Like just no!" She burst out laughing again.

"Queen Kine- what?" Pepper wheezed then laughed some more."I swear, that man can be ridiculous sometimes"

Carrie loved moments like this with Pepper, sharing laughs, cracking jokes, making fun of Tony and having a good time spending time together like a mother and daughter relationship should be like.

They stopped laughing to take a breath, Carrie changed the subject.

"Hey Pepper?"

"Yeah?"

"Do you think.... I'll be a good hero? No matter what people like Jameson might say about me?"

"Sweetie, listen to me, no matter what that loud mouth asshole or anyone else has to say about you, you're a good person with a big heart and with those traits, and a lot of the potential that you have, you'd make a damn good superhero!"

"You think so?"

"I know so, and so does everyone else who support and love you as much as I do. You're gonna do great, Carrie, I promise"

"Thank you, I'm so lucky to have you, mom"

Pepper gave her a look of surprise and Carrie herself was just as surprised at what she just had called Pepper. She always called her by her first name and seen her as a mother figure but never had she referred her to "mom" because she felt like she didn't need to but this was the first time she's ever called her that, and Pepper, in a way, felt really special about being referred to that title.

"Carrie, I- wow"

"OH! I'm so sorry, that must have felt awkward for you! I didn't mean to, I mean, it just slipped out and-"

"Oh no honey, don't apologize! Come here" She hugged Carrie in embrace. Pepper felt her eyes almost tear up, "If it makes you feel any better and less awkward, I'm happy to say I'm lucky to have you as my daughter and I wouldn't trade you for the world"

Carrie smiled in their hug, at that moment she felt closer to her than ever before and she was the best mother she could ever asked for and ever wished for. She was the kind of mother that Margaret thought that she was, she could have never even if she tried. Pepper couldn't imagine hurting this sweet girl, never in a million years.

Pepper chuckled, "Sorry, that got a little emotional there" She wiped her eyes.

Carrie chuckled also, "It's okay, there's nothing wrong with being emotional. It's actually good to let everything out" she remembered when professor X had told her that.

To break the moment, Carrie changed the subject, "So, do you wanna go back upstairs to watch more movies?"

"Yeah, sure, what do you wanna watch next before we go to sleep?"

Carrie shrugged, "Hmm, I don't know, whatever our hearts desire"

With that, the two went back upstairs to watch one more movie before they go to bed, the old 50s movie they watched was Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, staring Marilyn Monroe, it was the first time Carrie had watched it and she absolutely enjoyed it. Both girls shared laughs as they watched it together until they eventually fell asleep on the couch in the middle of the movie.

This was probably the best girls night in she's ever had and she hopes to have it again with Pepper the next time. 

Chapter Text

Saturday

Carrie had pretty much spent the day by herself in the house, she just didn’t feel like hanging out with people that day nor feel like going outside. Almost all day, she was reading her book that she was almost done with, binge watched her favorite shows on Netflix and even facetimed some of her friends, including Peter, which only lasted about an hour though.

Pepper had to work late again so Carrie had the whole house to herself once again. She still checked up on Carrie every two hours as usual and like always, she always told her that she was okay and that she was safe.

Rhodey had even stopped by for a little while to see if Tony was back but he really wasn’t, he was still on the mission and lord knows when him and the team will be back. Carrie prayed every night that he would return safe and sound, unharmed. Rhodey and Carrie had a nice little chat for a good one hour and even talked about her suit when he said he wanted to go downstairs to check it out. 

The outfit was a pink vest under it was a black long sleeve turtleneck, a white and gold belt with a red skirt that stopped at the top of her knees and under it was black leggings with three rips in it (She found it fashionable so she added them there), and combat boots. Her extra accessories were special earrings and silver mask to hide her identity.  

The white and gold belt wrapped around the red skirt was remade with vibranium from Wakanda, if she presses the gold metal part in the middle of the belt, a blinding light will come out and will aim at her enemies eyes, slowing them down while they shout about how the light hurt their eyes. 

The red gloves had a few things installed in it, the first thing that was in it was a taser used to shock her enemies, leaving them shaking for a few hours. Another thing that was installed in the gloves was that it could put up a force field up to protect herself. One last thing is that they could turn into iron so she could either knock out her enemies or to break things when needed.

The earrings will help Carrie hear from afar and conversations, will also help her get in contact with her teammates and speak to them or speak to JARVIS. 

The silver mask that only showed her eyes, nose and mouth were to help her locate people or see through things. She would have to press the left side of the mask where a small button was, indestructible lenses would come down for it to happen.

And last but not least, the pink combat boots were to help her fly into the air with the help of the engines installed in there. Also, she can be able to stick on walls and ceilings, or run on them if she wanted to. 

The outfit was literally perfect and she couldn’t ask for a better one. With everything that she needed on there, she’d be able to not only protect herself but the citizens as well. 

Rhodey had been seeing this girl’s growth over the few years she’s been around and he had no doubt that she was gonna be a good addition to the team one day.

“Well, Carrie Stark,” He said, “I cannot wait to see how you go out there with the team! You’ll be a force to be reckoned with” 

She already had worn tested out the outfit before after Tony was done installing some things in there, she practiced learning how to use it in the training room until she eventually got the hang of it. 

After she learned how to use it properly, Tony had once told her that her enemies are gonna “shit in their pants” and “cry home to their mommies” when she surprises them with her first appearance to the public. 

No doubt she would be a threat to villains and criminals when she makes the scene and Carrie couldn’t deny that, why wouldn’t they? She was a girl with strong telekinetic powers and wouldn’t hesitate to use it on them when they piss her off. 

On top of that, she had a whole team of superheroes behind her who had her back if someone ever messed with her or hurt her.

“Hey, just so you know, if there’s any trouble or chaos that might happen around you at this time, never hesitate to give me a call” Rhodey told her, She nodded and told him that she appreciated him looking out for her. She was Tony’s only daughter and one of the most important people in his life, he wouldn’t forgive himself if something had happened to her and he wasn’t there to protect her even though she felt that she was old enough to defend herself.

After Rhodey had left, she watched the rest of one of her favorite Netflix shows and even had a commentary with JARVIS about it, they shared both criticisms and laughs about it. She even told him that if Tony was here watching this show with her, he would have been more harsh about it than they did but his comments would have been hilarious at the same time. 

Carrie had been in the house all day and she wanted to get some fresh air for a few hours and wanted to be in the zone. She didn’t want to bring Happy all the way down here at night just to drive her and drop her off downtown, so she had a better option. 

She began to smile as she had an idea on how to get there. She went downstairs to the lab and took another look at her suit that was proudly sitting up in the glass cage. “Hmm, okay, maybe I’ll just use this one time but only for some fresh air”

Ten minutes later……..

"WOOO! THIS IS AMAZING!" Carrie gleefully shouted, the cool wind blowing in her face as she was flying in the air through town. 

She had put her suit on just so she could use the boots to fly around in the sky near downtown, although she also felt that she used the "fresh air" excuse to wear her suit out into the public to see what it was like to fly around in it like a superhero. To her surprise, she enjoyed it a lot and so far there were no crimes or chaos that has happened so she had nothing to worry about. 

New York from above was absolutely beautiful from the way up, she never realized it until she looked down from the sky. She took a break by sitting on top of a building and watched as the cars rushed by to get to whatever destination they wanted to get to. She looked over at the large screens on the buildings that were either showing coca cola ads or the news that was reporting next week's weather. 

She then looked up at the pitch black sky where the stars were twinkling. They were stunning and she could look at them all night if she wanted to. It looked like one of those famous paintings that she saw in a museum once but she forgot the name of it and who the artist was. 

She began to think, think about Spiderman and the Avengers. While she did love the idea of being apart of the team, she wondered what it would be like if she was a solo hero like Spiderman. 

Now that she thought about it, Spider-Man was known for being, well, the friendly neighborhood Spider-Man, he was his own hero in his own right and as for when she joins the team, she didn’t know if she was just her worrying again but she had a feeling that would probably their shadow since she was new and everyone was used to only Iron Man, Black widow, Thor, Captain America and Hawkeye, the original five that everyone knew. 

She felt that she would have been the "Avenger" people keep forgetting is there until someone else reminds them that she's there. But of course, they wouldn’t let that happen, right? On the other hand, she couldn’t control if people didn’t think she held up to be part of team.

If she goes solo, she’d just be a hero on her own without worrying about being in someone’s shadow or be only known based on who she has connections to, she’d be a hero in her own right and that wasn’t a bad thing. She wouldn’t worry about being the “forgotten one no one talks or gives a crap about”.

The thoughts and worries began to swirl around in her head again.

What if people won’t like me on the team?

What if people aren’t impressed with me?

Why am I thinking about this? 

Am I truly ready for all of this? 

How can I be ready when I’m still worried about what people will think about me? 

There’s no way I can do this!

Is it true? Will I be the one member who’ll nobody will give a damn about and well be a burden?

Then she remembered what Professor Xavier had told her.

“Carrie, I know it’s difficult for you and I completely understand, but you must not let those fears, thoughts and worries control you. Otherwise, you’ll never be able to overcome them if you don’t face them" 

If she were to let these thoughts control on her choices forever, she would never will be able to grow as a person later in life, they’d be her personal setbacks and she would be letting those insecurities and fears win. Besides, just because she was having some of those worrying and negative thoughts, doesn’t mean they might come true, right? 

She remembers the quote Logan once told her when she was still having this issue, he said something along the lines of, “Kid, I may not always have the best advice, but I will say this, you tell those damned negative thoughts or whatever to screw off and go out there and kick some ass, show them who’s boss! You understand, kid?”

“Umm, Yes, I understand” 

She realized even though both responses were worded differently they both had the same message that she understood. Maybe she should just pay those thoughts any mind and just go out there into the battlefield and see what happens? It couldn’t hurt to try, right?

A ring coming from her phone pull her out of deep thought, it was Pepper calling her to check up on her to see if she’s okay or not. 

“Hello? Pepper?”

“Hey Carrie, I’m so sorry I forgot to call you hours ago” She apologized, “It’s just that I had so much to do and-”

“I understand, it isn’t your fault. I am doing okay though”

She sighed in relief, “That’s great, thank God! I was worried”

“Now you don’t have to anymore because you know I’m fine” Carrie giggled. 

Pepper did the same, "So what are you doing now on your free time?" 

"Oh, um, I'm….. " She looked down from the building. "Sitting outside getting some fresh air"

"Oh okay, well, make sure you go back inside shortly after this because it's late and you'll never know what kind of creeps will-"

"I understand, I'll be fine I promise"

"And make sure all the doors around the house are-

"-locked and do not answer the door for anyone unless it's someone we know. I remember" Carrie finished the sentence, smiling and rolling her eyes.

"Right! Glad you remembered, I’ll see you tomorrow, alright? Love you”

“Love you too” With that, they hanged up on each other. 

She couldn’t tell Pepper that she was outside sitting at the rooftop of a huge building, she would have a complete heart attack but at least she couldn’t tell that she was slightly far away from the house. At least Carrie didn’t tell a lie, she actually was outside getting fresh air and technically, she was being honest about it, sorta. 

“Hey JARVIS! What time is it now?” She asked him through her earrings.

“It is about 11:50pm” He told her. 

She gasped at what he just told her, she wasn’t supposed to be up this late and it was way past her bedtime. When she was flying into the sky enjoying herself for what it seemed to be like for hours, she forgot what time it was. 

“OH NO! I have to get home! It’s way past my curfew! Why didn’t you tell me it was this late?” 

“Technically, you didn’t ask” He said. 

“Technically, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t have reminded me it was almost midnight!” 

“Wow, I’m starting to sound like Tony” She thought, his snarky remarks and comments were rubbing off on her and it shows every time. 

Before she could take off and be on her way back to the house, she heard people screaming going on in downtown. 

Chapter Text

Carrie’s POV

Just before I can rush home, I heard the sounds of frightened screams of people downtown. I got extremely concerned and decided to look down to see what was going on down there. 

I pressed the left side of my mask to zoom in what was going on and I saw what it seems to be a man with four mechanical arms. I think? I have no idea what they basically are but I saw one of them grab Spider-Man and throw him towards a building. It was obvious they were in a fight.

“JARVIS! I’m not always up to date with criminals but who is that?!”

“I can confirm that is Otto Octavius, also known as Dr. Octopus or ‘Doc Ock’ as others call him. One of the most dangerous and notorious criminals in New York” He told me.

I saw him quickly get up after being thrown on a building and fight this Doc Ock guy back by retaliating with some kicks, punches and webs being thrown at him, meaning that he’s fine and will eventually win this fight like he always does when he gets involved in things like that.

At first I thought to myself, no, I shouldn’t get involved, Spider-Man can handle this himself. 

Besides I’m not ready to show myself to the public nor did I feel like it was the right time.

But I then learned that what I thought meant nothing at that moment because I then saw Spider-Man down there being strangled around his neck, the mechanical arms were holding down his arms, hands and legs, so he couldn’t try to escape. There was nobody else around to help or save him, not even the Avengers so all the people could do is watch in terror as this was happening.  

Something in my gut strongly told me I should go down there and help him. At that moment, I forgot my worries about other people’s opinions about me, my curfew, and what I had said and thought earlier about him not needing any help, Spider-Man needs my help and I couldn’t just sit here and watch him lose his life right in front of everyone.

So without a second thought, I swooped into the town, I can see and feel video cameras from people but that wasn’t my main concern right now. The only thing that was on my mind was saving Spider-Man from getting killed.

I can hear Doc Ock laughing and mocking Spider-Man, telling him that this will “finally” be the end of him. That is until I had something to say about it.

Well, not say but I threw a huge piece of concrete from the ground at him with my telekinesis to get his attention off him and on me, causing him to drop Spider-Man on the ground and letting him go.

“Hey! Leave him alone!” I shouted at him. I flew over to Spider-Man to make sure he was okay, he held on to his throat trying to get some air after almost being strangled to death.

“Are you okay?” I asked him, helping him up. 

“Y-yeah I think so-” He looked at me confused, he didn’t know who I was so of course he was going to be. “Who are you? Where did you come from?”

“I- Um, well”

But before I can explain myself, Doc Ock had interrupted us with a dark chuckle. I’m not gonna lie he was very intimidating up close, “Well, Well, What do we have here? A new superhero trying to get in my way of killing the spider?”

I couldn’t introduce my name because I didn’t have one, not that it mattered at this time though but still. 

“Don’t worry about who I am, all I know is you’re going back to prison where you belong and leave this city alone!”

“Yeah! What she said!” said Spider-Man.

“Aww isn’t that cute!” He mocked us, UGH! I hate this guy already! “Well, I don’t know who you are, little girl but you made a HUGE mistake stopping me from killing my arch nemesis! Now, I am going to kill both of you now”

Before we knew it, his mechanical arms charged at both of us but of course we dodged them. I flew towards him, punching him in the stomach and roundhouse kicking him in the face (I have to thank Nat for teaching me that roundhouse kick), then one of his mechanical arms snuck from behind and grabbed me from behind and started strangling me. He looked deep into my eyes with an evil glare and a sadistic smile.

“Again, I do not know who you are but I am going to make sure that know one knows either once I am-”

He was cut off by one of Spider-Man’s webs shooting at his face, causing him to let me go and him to stumble back. Spider-Man then struck him with a kick to his body, making him fly and crash into the building.

“Thanks Spidey!”

“No prob! So are you gonna tell me who exactly you are?”

“I-” Before I can answer, Doc Ock came out of nowhere and swung his mechanical arms at us, sending us flying into the ground.

We groaned in pain as we slowly tried to get up. This guy just won’t give up will he?

He’s strong and these were the kinds of people I was going to face in the future.

He laughed and said, “You thought you two children will get rid of me? Well think again!”

His mechanical arms darted towards us, trying to crush us but I used my gloves to activate the force fields to protect us then dashed outta the way.

“Okay! Now THAT is super cool!” Spider-Man complemented.

A car had flew at us and again, we jumped outta the way and hid behind in one of the turnt over cars.

“Okay, got any plans?” Spider-Man asked me. “This guy isn’t gonna go down by any means”

I didn’t know what plans I had at this point, like I said he’s strong and it seemed that there was no way to defeat him. So I thought.

But then, something had popped up in my head and boy, did I like what I came up with. “I have an idea!”

“Which is?”

“You distract him while I get behind him, okay?”

“What exactly are you trying to do?”

“Just do it!”

“I- Oh alright! But this better work!” Spider-Man jumped from behind the vehicle we were behind and shot his webs at three cars, pulled them by the spider webs like ropes and swung the around until they hit Doc Ock until he didn’t know that I was gone from his sight.

I climbed on top of one of the buildings above him where he couldn’t see me and he was fighting Spider-Man. I pray to god that this plan works.

“Aww where’s your little girlfriend, Spider-Man? Did she abandon you?” He mocked him. I couldn’t help but blush, but I was also irritated at his childish comments. 

“HEY! She is NOT MY GIRLFRIEND! I don’t even know her!” Spider-Man screamed at him as he kept dodging Doc Ock’s attacks.

I shook it off and thought of what I was gonna do, I looked at my belt and then looked at my gloves. The belt can shine a light into enemies eyes until they can’t see a thing and my gloves have built in tasers in it. I then thought of my telekinesis and put all three of them together and came up with how to take him down, I absolutely loved it!

I flew behind him while he was distracted and used my telekinesis to lift him off the ground, “HEY! Who is doing that?”

“It’s me!” I shouted to get to his attention.

“PUT ME DOWN YOU WITCH!”

“No I think I like you better this way!” I aimed my belt at him and shined a bright light in Doc’s eyes, making scream in pain and tears fall from his eyes. Don’t worry, I didn’t permanently blind him, the effect wears off after a couple of hours.

“WOAH!” Spider-Man exclaimed, astonished at what he just saw just now.

“SPIDER-MAN! NOW! YOUR WEBS!”

“You got it!” He shot his spider webs around Doc’s body, making sure he doesn’t break out. That’s when I grabbed two of his mechanical arms and activated the tasers in my gloves, shocking him thats caused him to let out a scream, finally knocking him out and making him fall to the ground. I used my powers to tie up his mechanical arms like a pretzel, he looked kinda funny and I couldn’t help but let out a chuckle but also sigh in relief that he’s finally defeated.

People began to cheer in victory that the chaos was finally over, I have to admit I was a bit surprised at myself and my performance out there.

“Dude! I mean um, nevermind! We were great out there! Especially you with her powers and gadgets and all” 

“Thanks, that means so much to me, and you weren’t so bad yourself” 

Crowds of people came up to us with phones recording us and praising us for our heroic actions but most of them came up to me. 

“Oh my god! You and Spider-Man were bad ass out there!”

“Yeah! Who are you?! You’re awesome!”

“I wanna know too!”

“Yeah me too! Are you a new superhero or something?”

“Do you work with the Avengers or are you solo?”

“Where did you come from?”

“What’s your superhero name?”

So many questions and so much praise was…… overwhelming. I couldn’t answer them all but I did one question from the girl with the black hair about my superhero name. 

I didn’t know how but it just came to me but I think it fits me perfectly.

“Okay guys! One at a time, one at a time!” I chuckled, “You guys really wanna know who I am?”

“YES!” They all shouted in sync.

“Well…… It’s Psystorm. Just Psystorm” I confirmed.

“PSYSTORM? That’s so bad ass!” One guy told me.

I smiled and said, “Thanks”

“Wait! You’re name is Psystorm?” Spider-Man asked, “That’s like the coolest name ever!”

“Yep! Psystorm!” It then hit me, I was PASSED my curfew! Pepper must be worried sick. I was so busy in my first fight that I forgot about home and calling her. “Hey do any of you have the time?”

“It’s 12:45am” Someone told me, I panicked and said, “OH NO! Listen guys! I would LOVE to talk to you guys some more but I have to get home! ASAP!”

With that I flew into the sky and said bye to everyone for now. How am I gonna explain to this to Pepper about why I have called or was late? I hope she’ll understand when I tell her what happened. 

On the other hand, I CAN’T BELIEVE what had just happened! I was seriously fighting side by side with Spider-Man and it was my first fight with an actual villain and not a fake one I had to work with in a training room back in Professor X’s school. This is one moment I’ll never forget.

Chapter Text

She couldn’t believe what had just happened back there, one minute she’s on top of a building, enjoying the view of the city and the next thing she knows, she swoops down there out of nowhere to the public and helped Spider-Man defeat one of the most dangerous criminals in the city and finally, she blows up overnight after making her unplanned and unexpected debut to the public.

Well, obviously not her as Carrie Stark at least but her alter ego whom she named at the last minute, Psystorm, was the one who blew up overnight, with all the people’s cameras on their phones that were recording her and posting her all over social media, making her go viral everywhere, even the news, she knew that was gonna happen, but how was she gonna explain all this to Tony when he gets back? 

Was she gonna get in trouble? Of course not, what kind of question is that? it’s not like he told her that not to touch the suit and not to go out there. After all, she was the one who told him and the team that she was gonna go out there when she’s ready and gave her that choice to make. So it wouldn’t make sense for him to be mad at her. 

Was he gonna be proud of her? Hell yeah, he was! Once he finds out that his daughter did a heroic act for the first time and with Spider-man, he’s gonna be over the moon about it and even brag about it nonstop to his teammates until it drives them crazy. She could see it now and she couldn’t help but laugh at that thought because that’s exactly what he would do.

The other Avengers members, You bet your ass they’d be proud of her, there’d be so many praises she would lose count. Of course, they would super supportive of her and her heroic actions despite it being her first time doing it and succeeding it perfectly. They totally see a lot of potential in joining them soon in the future.

Pepper? It was no doubt she would probably have mixed feelings if Carrie told her what happened last night, first she would probably lecture her but out of fear, worry and overprotectiveness, she would have been worried that Carrie could have gotten killed, then hug her and tell her how proud she is of her for saving other people’s lives from the danger of a notorious and dangerous criminal.

Carrie got home safely after that huge fight though, she was exhausted when she got home and wanted to do nothing but get into that bed and recharge her batteries. She was probably gonna go call Tony and explain everything that happened last night if he’s not busy on his mission. 

She was sure that she was now on Doc Ock’s shitlist since she, with Spider-Man’s help, pretty much humiliated him in front of the entire city. Soon, he would probably break out of prison to find and get revenge on her and Spider-Man. It’s pretty funny though, not just the way they defeated him but how he basically just got outsmarted and beaten by teenagers. Carrie couldn’t help but laugh at how she used her telekinesis to twist his mechanical arms like a pretzel, that is something that she’s definitely not gonna forget. If it ever randomly popped up in her head, she’s gonna try her best not to bust out laughing in public but if she did, she would apologize and say she just thought of something funny.

She was genuinely surprised at the public’s reaction to her last night when she was met with praises and attention. It was slightly overwhelming, it was going to be of course, but also gave her a feeling of relief that people actually really liked and admired her for what she did and thought she was cool. 

Cool

Now that’s a word she didn’t think in her life would ever describe her. Well, Psystorm basically but it’s still technically her and she was fine with that either way because she saved other people’s lives last night and defeated a dangerous criminal and it was something that she never knew she was destined to do in her bright future until now.

She wasn’t sure if she was going to reveal her true identity to the public just yet, Tony did but that’s different in his case. She also wasn’t gonna be sure if she was going to end up being in his shadow since she was the adopted daughter of a famous billionaire. That was going to be something she was going to think about and decide for herself to do. Although, she does need to talk to someone like Professor X or Happy or anyone that’s really close with her about it though.

All she knows now is that she’s a new superhero and it was for sure going to be more life changing for her.

Chapter Text

Sunday

When the next morning came, it was no doubt that Carrie or should you say, Psystorm in this case, was all over the news. Not just the news but on social media, especially Twitter where she was the number one trending topic on there, same with Tumblr, Instagram and any big popular site and each of them were talking about her, she had truly blown up and went viral, it was insane!

She didn’t really tell Pepper where she really was last night because she didn’t want her to overreact about her putting herself in that type of danger where she could have gotten seriously hurt, but she knew somehow Pepper was going to find out about it and have tons of questions and possibly a few lectures but she wasn’t going to yell at her or berate her or anything like that. And she did tell Carrie that she can come to her about anything and wouldn’t judge her for it, she kept her word, she always did, so Carrie wasn’t too scared of telling her sometime this week when she felt good and ready.

She sat on the couch watching this while eating the waffles, steak and eggs that she had ordered from a breakfast restaurant with a glass of orange juice on the living room table.

The reporter talking about what had happened last night then interviewed a few people who witnessed the whole thing to hear their whole thoughts about it, mostly about the “mysterious” new superhero that came out of nowhere and helped Spider-Man defeat Doc Ock. 

She interviewed one woman who looked to be in her early 30s with short blonde hair.

“I don’t know where she came from but she is absolutely incredible! I’m pretty sure this is her first time showing herself to the public since I’ve never seen or heard of her before but I know one thing, for a first timer of a hero, she did a damn good job saving the city from the octopus freak! Hopefully we’ll see her again in the future if she ever appears again!”

Another person who was interviewed was a man who looked to be about in his early 20s. He had long brown hair with glasses and a leather jacket on.

“That Psystorm chick was so badass with her telekine- tele- whatever they’re called, powers! I’m still not over the fact that came in out of nowhere and teamed up with Spider-Man the way she did to defeat that doc ock dude! And her suit?! Don’t even get me started on that work of art! Psystorm if you’re watching this, I want you to know that you ARE THE SHIT!” 

The man passionately praised her after snatched the mic away from the interviewer, looking straight into the camera as if he’s telling “Psystorm” this in person. 

Carrie couldn’t help but smile and blush at this, the guy seemed pretty odd and it did seem he had too much coffee but he meant well and his heart was in the right place.

One interview was that of a little girl who looked to be about 7 years old, she was absolutely adorable. Her mother was there with her during the interview so she wouldn’t feel uncomfortable and out of place.

“Psystorm is my new favorite girl superhero!” She said with a happy smile.

“And can you tell us why she’s your favorite superhero? What do you like about her?” The interviewer asked kindly.

“Because she’s brave, strong, cool and sooo beautiful! I wanna be just like her when I grow up!”

The little girl then stretched her arms out in front of her, ran around the front yard, and pretended that she was flying like “Psystorm” by making whoosing sounds, it was literally the cutest thing Carrie has ever seen. That one interview actually warmed her heart and obviously became her favorite one so far, it was sweet that the little girl looked up to her as a role model and wanted to be just like her, that was what was expected as a hero, young children looking up to them and she thought it was one of the great pros of being one. 

All smile was plastered to her face the whole time as she was hearing all the comments made about her on the news were mostly positive so far and she was enjoying it and appreciating it as much as she can before eventually the negative ones will start to come in. She tried not to think about it or worry about it as much since she knew she did nothing wrong to deserve them, especially when she went out there and help stop a known villain from harming others.

She knew she felt love ever since the day that the Avengers decided to take her in and look out for her, and Tony adopting her and planned her first birthday party she’s ever had but this kind of love she was getting from this many people right now? Overwhelming but in a good way. Way too good to be worrying about negative critics. Well except for J. Jonah Jameson but so far she hasn’t seen him comment on last night yet but she knows eventually he will.

Overall, the praise that she was getting actually made her whole Sunday and put her in a good mood. 

In fact, she felt so motivated by all the love that she decided that she was going to show up again in public but when was that gonna be? Unless there was another serious crime like what happened last night going to happen later on today (hopefully not because she was enjoying her Sunday right now relaxing), until then she doesn’t know when Psystorm will be appearing again. 

Who knows? Maybe sometime this week since she’s all the rage at the moment. Everyone wants to know who Psystorm is and there was no way it was going to die down unless she makes another public appearance.

And when she does appear in public again, it’ll be great, the same as last time because from the heroic act that she pulled last night, this was just the beginning of Psystorm and she was just getting started.

Chapter Text

Later That Sunday Day

She didn’t really do anything too fancy for the rest of the Afternoon. All she did was read the rest of her book that she finished then watched a flick or two, safe to say she had a pretty nice Sunday. She was wondering if Tony was going to call her and give her an update on how he and the other members were doing on their mission. She missed them and she felt a bit lonely without them, staying home was nice and relaxing but it was getting a bit boring lately. 

It would be nice if she would just get a call from one of them even if it wouldn’t last for hours. She would at least know that the team is okay on this mission and come back home safely hopefully. 

She did get a few calls from Pepper as usual but luckily she didn’t mention the whole Psystorm thing to her. Same old, same old check up calls from her as usual and each time, Carrie was fine. Pepper was always relieved when Carrie answers her calls, that way she knows nothing terrible has happened to her and if something did, she would straight up drop everything and put whatever she was doing on hold to be there by her side to make sure she wasn’t hurt or in any danger. 

It was a strong motherly instinct thing that some people might not understand, some would have probably claim that she was being too overprotective and “worried too much” but with some of the crazy things that happened over the past few years before she and Tony adopted Carrie, it was completely understandable.

Eventually, Carrie got bored of being in the house all day and decided to, well, let’s just say she liked being in the suit for the first time and wanted to be in it for the second time, then went straight to the city to sit on top of the building just to check out the sunset. No, so far there was no crime today, there hasn’t been all of sunday morning or afternoon and no she shouldn’t be wearing the suit if there were no crimes happening but she was really bored and wanted to go and get some fresh air so it wasn’t like she was wearing it irresponsibly.

Tony had a talk with her about the suit a while back, telling her that it isn’t a toy for her to wear anytime that she wants unless she was saving people and things relating to that. He didn’t want her to make the same mistake he did. For example, like that one time he wore the Iron Man suit at his own birthday party, used it irresponsibly and recklessly such using the repulsor blasts at a watermelon, and even got drunk in it and man, that was not one of his best moments. He cringes at the memory of it actually. Luckily, Carrie wasn’t around in his life to see it because honestly, she would have hid in shame seeing him act that way. Now that he’s a father, he wanted set a good example for her the best he can and honestly, she can tell because she sees it every single day.

Anyway, she from the building she was sitting on the edge from as the cars drove by and the birds flying past her. She had to be honest, it was a nice view from high up and no one even noticed that she was there, at least not yet but she doubted it since it was a good spot to sit on and nobody would even think to hang out or come around there.

She then felt her phone vibrate and ring in the pocket of her pink vest, she took and out to see who was calling her. A big smile spread across as she saw who was coming in contact with her. It was none other than her dear old father, Iron Man.

Thank God he was able to call her, which means he’s okay so far. He was just in the Hellicarrier with the other members. 

She immediately tapped on the answer icon. “Hello?”

“Hey Care bear! How’s it going?” 

“Hi Tony! I’m so happy you called! How’s the mission going?” 

“Yeeeah that’s what I wanted to talk to you about, Care.” 

She began to frown, the feeling of joy turning into concern. 

“Why? What happened? Please tell me you’re all not seriously injured!” 

“Oh! No, sweetheart we’re not! It’s just that….. well, it turns out that this mission is gonna be more longer than we thought it would be. The assholes changed their plans and somehow escaped to another country and now we have to track them down to god knows where they could be”

“WHAT? But how- I- How long are you guys going to be gone for then?” 

“Unfortunetely we don’t know yet but it’s probably gonna take a long while for us to find them”

Carrie’s heart dropped, she was so sure that the mission wasn’t going to take that long but the fact she won’t see Tony for a while just left her in a pool of disappointment and added more worry in her.

“I’m sorry Care bear, I know you were looking forward to me coming home but I’ll tell you what, after this mission is done asap, I’ll make it up to you”

“You promise?”

“I promise!”

Carrie smiled, “Okay, that’s good”

 “Sooo how were you these past couple of days?”

“Oh! They were fine, I had some pizza, me and Pepper had a girls night out, I finished my book and…… went out yesterday on Saturday and did alot of fun things” Now that last part can be seen as her “lying” to him but technically she wasn’t since she was actually out on Saturday.

“Hm, seems that you’ve been doing good by yourself but you didn’t go out with any friends or anything like that?”

“No, they were busy, but I did hung out with one person for a little while” Again, not technically a lie since Spider-Man was the person she kinda somewhat hung out with, so she guesses that he counts as someone she hang around with.

Tony then started to snicker, “Let me guess, you hung out with Kuuurt?” he teased. 

Carrie rolled her eyes and chuckled, shaking her head. “You’re never going to let that go, are you?”

“Hey! Just kidding! I know you guys are just friends….. Or are you?”

“Aw Tony! Please no” Her face turned slightly cherry red, covering half her face with her one free hand. 

“Sorry! Sorry!” He chuckled, “I’m sorry I can’t help it because you guys are just adorable together”

“Riiiiight”

“BUT as friends! I totally understand that, Care”

“Well thank you for that”  There was a bit of sarcasm in her tone.

“Sooooo what are you doing now?”

“Oh, I’m outside right now, I’m in the city and-”

All of a sudden there were screams in the background, Carrie looked down and saw that there was a bus zooming past the streets through traffic. She didn’t know what was going on there but all she knows that she couldn’t just stand there on top of one of the buildings and let this all happen. 

“And what?” asked Tony, raising an eyebrow.

“Aaaaand I’ll call you back because I really have to go do something important! Love you! Bye!” 

“Bye?” 

With that, Carrie had immediately hung up on him. He raised an eyebrow as he was confused on what could be the most important thing she had to do that she had to cut him off in the middle of a conversation, he knew she could handle herself but still, he couldn’t help but become concerned and worried for her. 

After hearing the conversation, Clint put his hand on Tony’s shoulder in reassurance.

“Hey, you okay?” He asked.

“You know, this is the first time I’m actually separated from her for this long, more longer than just a couple days and I know Pepper is always keeping her company but she’s not always going to be home and I know that Carrie has these powers and all I get but-”

“But you’re worried about her still, I get it, that’s totally normal for you to feel that way when you’re not around to be there for your child”

Tony chuckled, then smirked, “Huh, three years of being a father and never in a million years would me of all people would have thought I would even think or feel like this”

“Trust me, Tony, It’s part of the father instincts. But who knows, maybe she’ll even call back to let you know she’s alright after doing whatever she had to go finish doing”

“I hope so, hey thanks for having a word with me about this” 

“No problem, I have two kids myself, so I know exactly what you’re feeling.”

Tony chuckled and smirked, “Glad someone here at least understands where I’m coming from. I just hope she’s fine over there because it’s just the way she just cut me off like that like there was something wrong, I can tell from the tone in her voice”

“Hey now, I get your concerns but I promise you that she’ll be fine, Tony. Besides, what’s the craziest thing she could be doing that she had to go so quickly?”

“I don’t know, but right after this mission is over, I’ll have to find out for myself and check up on here on the way back home”

Chapter Text

After Carrie, or in this case, “Psystorm”, reappeared to the public again and stopped the runaway bus, which turned out to be jacked by a couple of desperate robbers who robbed a bank, stealing over 2,000 dollars and held the passengers hostage just to escape from the police. Little did those two morons know that it wasn’t the police that they were going to deal with here but a new young female hero with telekinetic powers and boy were they not ready for that. 

Once again, Psystorm saved the day, in fact, twice in one weekend. After she stopped the two robbers, all cameras from people’s phones were on her once again. 

Not that it was going to be any use because she’s already wildly talked about in the media but she said nothing to the crowd this time and flew away back home. Again, she couldn’t believe she just did that twice, not the weekend she was planning for at all and she still couldn’t process all that happened for those last two days. 

She had to admit it was a bit overwhelming for her even though no one knew who she was under the costume. After she went home, she took a nice bath after fighting crime again and tried to let it calm her nerves and muscles. 

From fighting Doc Ock with Spider-Man and the robbers, she can confirm that so far what she learned from being a superhero is absolutely no joke despite the fact she felt good that she saved people. 

Carrie sighed as she sat in the bathtub, letting the warm water and bubbles soften relaxed on her muscles, she deserved this, she deserved a rest after what’s been going on with her this weekend. She eventually was going to have to tell Pepper because she’s all over the media as the hottest topic right now and she can obviously be notified about it.

Pepper is a busy woman but that doesn’t mean she wouldn’t find out what’s going on in the news lately if it’s important and once she sees a video of “Psystorm” that everyone has been going on and on about and recognizes the suit, she would already know who’s inside it. Nothing really gets past her honestly.

“Should I tell her, JARVIS?” Carrie asked him. “I mean, I don’t know how she’s gonna feel when she finds out what I’ve been up to this weekend”

“I’ve known Ms. Potts for years, I’m sure things will be fine” 

“I don’t know if she’ll be feeling fine when she realizes I’ve fought a dangerous criminal yesterday and almost gotten seriously hurt because of it”

“Alright then, you might get a few lectures here and there….. And MAYBE she might get bit upset with you since you DID put yourself in danger, frankly I wouldn’t blame her if she did”

Carrie sighed and frowned, “Thanks, I feel a whole lot better” but she meant that sarcastically.

“But I will tell you this, Carrie, it would be from a place where she was concerned for your safety, if that makes you feel any better”

She shrugged, “I guess so. It does makes sense since she’s protective of me. She would never do or say anything that would hurt my feelings”

“When are you going to tell her? I would recommend early this week because when she sees ‘Psystorm’ on the news and recognizes the suit, you’re going to have a lot of explaining to do”

“You’re right, there’s no use hiding secrets, it’s pointless actually, so I suppose I could tell her tomorrow after school”

“That’s the spirit!” JARVIS said, “I’m proud of you for willing to tell the honest truth rather than hide it”

Carrie smiled, “it’s just the right thing to do, you know. Although, she might go a bit overboard with being protective and hide the suit from me so I won’t go out there doing the hero stuff on my own until I’m 30” she joked with a giggle. 

“I’m sure Mr. Stark would object and wouldn’t allow that”

Carrie laughed, “I don’t think I want to see her reaction if he does that”

“Another question for you, do you want me to back you up tomorrow when things with Ms. Potts gets a little out of hand? Or do you want me to stay out of it?” He asked.

“Honestly, I think I would be able to handle it on my own but thank you anyway”

“Very well, I will stay out of it but call my name if you need me”

With that, Carrie got out of the bathtub. It was probably the best bath she’s ever had in a while and she honestly needed it as much as she needed that conversation with JARVIS. She can honestly say that he is one of Carrie’s closest and best friends even though he’s an AI, not that it ever mattered anyway. 

Later on, Carrie got dressed and ordered something to eat and watched a movie, wanting to avoid the news talking about her alter ego and that was pretty much good for her right now until she comes clean to Pepper tomorrow. That way, Carrie wouldn’t become stressed for nervous before Monday comes tomorrow.

Chapter Text

Monday had finally come, and Carrie was back to her classes at Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters. For such a two-day weekend, she certainly felt like it felt more like a Spring Break week. Maybe this is how the Avengers feel when they come home from a really long mission. She bets it feels like years to them after they come back.

There was some talk about “Psystorm” between some of the students but Carrie stayed out of those conversations and even when one of her friends brought it up at lunchtime she only said, “Yeah she is pretty cool I guess”. Honestly, she still couldn’t believe how big of a deal everyone is making about her alter ego and she’s still surprised it went on for this long. She’s pretty sure “Psystorm” is going to be an ongoing topic for the next couple of weeks unless she makes another public appearance because people want to know who she is and where she came from. Still, she wanted to wait until she got certain things out of her way, like letting Pepper and Tony know what she’s been doing over the weekend.

During lunchtime, she used some of the time she had and made a quick call to Pepper, telling her that she needed to talk to her about something and asked if it was okay for her to stop by after school of course, Pepper said of course. However, that did have Pepper worried that something must have happened to Carrie over the weekend so of course she would drop some things at the moment to see what was going on with her to the point she had to call her to tell her something important.

Professor Xavier had noticed that Carrie was acting a bit off, as if something was bothering her so he called her to his office. At first, she thought she was in some sort of trouble but she wasn’t, and thank God that she wasn’t because she is generally a great student who always stayed out of trouble. Professor Xavier asked her if everything was okay with her because he was concerned for her well-being, he is one of the most important people in her life who is there for her whenever she was feeling down or hopeless. She knew she could come to him about anything without his judgment.

Carrie had brought up the Psystorm situation and spilled the beans about how she was really Psystorm, what happened last weekend, and how she was feeling overwhelmed about it even though nobody knew her true identity, she also told him how she was nervous about telling her parents about it, Pepper mostly because she knows that Tony would be instantly proud of her.

Professor Xavier told her that he was proud of her for her heroic act but understood how she was feeling overwhelmed about the whole thing and talked to her about it about how to deal with it healthily. He gave her a piece of advice about how to tell Pepper and felt less nervous about telling her the truth about what happened, such as while Pepper might get rightfully protective, Carrie can also calmly explain to her what happened and Pepper possibly will understand.

He had also told her that just because her dad revealed to the world that he is Iron Man, doesn’t mean that she has to do the same, especially since there will most likely be twice as much pressure on her to be the perfect hero and also perfect public figure as a member of the Stark family but he left that choice up to her if she wanted to reveal her identity to the public. For Carrie, she would much rather keep it on the down low by keeping her alter ego identity a secret, that way it wouldn’t have serious consequences on her later if she ever makes enemies of her own in the future, not counting her past bullies from Chamberlain, Maine because well, they’re all in prison.

Carrie had felt better after talking to Professor Xavier about what had been going on, she felt like a weight was lifted off of her back that had been bothering her for about two to three days. She always appreciated Professor Xavier being there for her when she needed someone to talk to about certain problems.

After school was over, Happy picked her up from school, he asked her the same old “How was your day at School, Carrie?” question as usual and she replied, “It was good”. Her days at Professor X’s school were always good considering she was around a bunch of mutants who relate to her and understand her referring to her telekinetic powers. Not to mention that it reminds her that she’s not alone in this. To her, it was like a safe haven.

Little did she know, there was a surprise waiting for her when she got home…….

30 minutes later (due to traffic), she was met with a wonderful surprise. Standing outside the Stark Residence was none other than Tony Stark himself, a Genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist, and her loving adoptive father, and he was back from his mission.

A smile on Carrie’s face lit up when she saw him standing there with a huge smile on his face and back home safe and sound.

“Tony! You’re back! You’re okay!” Carrie smiled and ran into his arms. She was literally over the moon that he was back here with her and unharmed from the mission.

“Hey there Care Bear!” Tony chuckles and hugs back his adoptive daughter, “Of course, I am, why wouldn’t I be?”

They break the hug and she looks up at him, the look on her face tells him that she is genuinely worried “Because that mission seemed dangerous and I thought something bad would happen to you”

“Hey kid, I get it but you’re talking to the guy who made his first battle suit out of scrap metal and machine parts in a cave” Tony chuckled. “I always find a way to make it out alive, kid!”

“I know, I know, I’ve heard the story before a million times but you aren’t wrong though” Carrie chuckles along with him after he tells her that. She remembers him telling the story about how he made the first original marksman suit a way, way back before she came into his life, she was amazed at how he took all those useless parts and made them into a battle suit the way he did, but she always wasn’t surprised. This WAS Tony Stark after all who did make billions from being a brilliant genius, so it made sense that he would think of a way to pull through a sticky situation.

After the duo reunited and shared a little laugh. At dinner plus Pepper, of course, Carrie recapped all about what had happened while Tony and the team were gone, from relaxing and reading her book, enjoying her time at Charles Xavier’s school, her girl’s night in a sleepover with Pepper,

Carrie eventually told her parents about what she’d been up to last weekend, that she’d been doing superhero business, on her own, by herself without any backup from a team. She even mentioned her first fight with Doc Ock, a whole supervillain, with Spider-Man himself.

Words cannot describe how ridiculously proud Tony was of Carrie for coming out of her comfort zone and going out doing what she did, she truly has come a long way, she went from a helpless, shy girl from Chamberlain, Maine, to a whole superhero that helped the city for a whole weekend. He describes the whole ordeal as “the ultimate character growth” for Carrie, and it’s understandable why.

However, Pepper had a different reaction from Tony’s, she was stern with Carrie and told her that she could have been hurt, how it was dangerous for her to do something like that, how she was “too young” to be doing superhero work, and so on. She didn’t even agree that she should join the Avengers because she felt that it was way too early. It wasn’t because she was trying to control her or tell her what to do, but it was out of her concern for her wellbeing.

Carrie didn’t blame her for her reaction and her feeling that way, superhero work is a very dangerous job, especially when you are basically putting your life on the line and almost risking your life to protect humanity. Plus, she had recently come out of an abusive environment and household and believed that she needed to focus on herself and healing before thinking about doing that full-time.

“Come on, Pep. She faced down Doc Ock! That’s not just some kid stuff, that’s real hero work. She’s ready for this.”

“Tony, she’s 16. What if something happened to her? You know how dangerous this world is—she's barely had time to adjust after everything she’s been through.”

Carrie saw both sides to be completely honest, while she understood Pepper’s concerns and saw where she was coming from, she also agreed with Tony that she might be ready for it despite Pepper feeling that it was too early for her to do superhero work.

They both had their opinions but neither of them asked what Carrie wanted, they realized this and they let her speak to see how she felt about it.

“I understand where you’re both coming from. I know it’s dangerous, and I know I’ve just started figuring things out, but I’m not helpless anymore. I’m not the same person I was back in Maine. And I want to help people, just like you do, Tony. It makes me feel like I’m in control of my powers, not the other way around.”

Tony sat back, a proud grin spreading across his face, clearly impressed by Carrie’s confidence. He exchanged a glance with Pepper, who looked torn between concern and admiration. For a moment, the room was silent, the weight of Carrie’s words hanging in the air. Pepper took a deep breath and reached out to gently place her hand on Carrie’s.

“You’ve grown so much,” Pepper said softly, her voice filled with emotion. “I just want to make sure you stay safe. But I can see this is something you truly want and you’ve thought it through.”

Tony nodded, his smile never wavering. “You’re right, Care Bear. You’re not the same girl from Maine. And if you want to help people, we’ll make sure you’re ready for it. You’ve got more power than you realize, and with the right guidance, you’ll be unstoppable.”

Pepper, though still visibly concerned, gave a small nod of agreement. “We’ll take it one step at a time. No rushing into danger, okay?”

“Okay, I remember that, for your sake and my sake”

Carrie smiled, feeling a sense of relief. They had heard her, and now they were ready to move forward together on her terms. However, that didn’t mean they weren’t going to set any boundaries.

She was grateful that they both trusted her enough to let her move forward. But she knew that this new freedom came with responsibilities. Pepper was the first to speak, her protective instincts still kicking in.

“I’m glad we’re on the same page,” Pepper said gently, “but there have to be some boundaries, Carrie. You can’t just dive into fights with supervillains on your own. Even Tony doesn’t work alone.”

Carrie glanced at Tony, who shrugged with a grin. “She’s right, you know. I usually have a backup, whether it’s the Avengers or my tech. It’s never a solo mission, and you’re no exception.”

Carrie nodded, understanding. “I get it. I won’t go out there alone again. I didn’t mean to before, it just sort of happened.”

“We know,” Pepper reassured her, squeezing her hand. “But moving forward, if something like that comes up, you’ll call us. Or better yet, you’ll have someone with you. You’re not ready to handle everything by yourself just yet.”

Tony chimed in, leaning forward with a more practical tone. “And let’s not forget, no all-nighters. You’ve got school, training, and time to grow. We’re not throwing you into full-time superhero duty. You need balance. How about this if you want to go out as Psystorm, you clear it with one of us first, at least for now?”

Carrie hesitated for a moment, realizing that while these boundaries might feel restrictive, they were also meant to protect her. “Okay,” she said after a pause. “I can live with that. No superhero missions without telling you first, and I’ll always have someone with me.”

Pepper smiled, relieved. “And promise me you’ll be honest about how you’re feeling, okay? You’ve been through so much, Carrie. If things ever get overwhelming, whether it’s superhero work, school, or anything, you’ll talk to us.”

Carrie felt the warmth of their concern and smiled softly. “I promise.”

Tony tapped the table lightly to break the serious tone. “And let’s not forget, fun is allowed, too. You’re a teenager with superpowers. That’s got to come with some perks, right?” He grinned. “Just no blowing up cars, okay kid?”

Pepper rolled her eyes with a small laugh, but Carrie chuckled along with Tony. The mood lightened, but she knew they were serious about keeping her safe.

As the evening wound down, the conversation shifted to lighter topics like school, upcoming projects Tony was working on, and a little teasing about Carrie’s superhero name. But the serious undertone remained, unspoken but understood by all three of them. The boundaries were set, but it wasn’t about control, it was about trust. They trusted Carrie to make the right decisions, and she trusted them to support her every step of the way.

Later that night, as Carrie sat on her bed, staring out the window into the starry sky, she felt a strange sense of peace. She had come so far from the frightened girl who had been trapped in Chamberlain. Now, she was a hero, Psystorm, but she was also just Carrie, figuring out her place in the world with the people who cared about her the most.

A knock on her door broke her thoughts. “Hey, kid,” Tony said, peeking his head in. “Just wanted to say goodnight. You did great today.”

Carrie smiled softly. “Thanks, Tony. For everything.”

Tony winked and gave her a thumbs-up. “Anytime. Now get some rest—you’ve got school tomorrow, and we’ve got a training session lined up after. Gotta keep sharpening those superhero skills, right?”

Carrie nodded, feeling both the weight of her responsibility and the excitement of the future ahead. As Tony left and she curled up under the covers, she realized she wasn’t just a girl with powers anymore. She was part of something bigger.

And with Tony and Pepper by her side as her support, she knew she was ready for whatever came next.

It also wasn’t long until the next day when Tony informed the other Avengers about Carrie’s superhero weekend escapade, while they were impressed and proud of her for her heroic actions, they also agreed that she was too young to join their team right now, so they thought it would be a great idea to wait until she was 18, and her birthday was coming up very soon this year. She was happy that she didn’t have to wait for years for that opportunity to finally come.

Standing on the balcony of Stark Tower, Carrie looked out over the city, the lights twinkling like stars. Beside her, Tony and Pepper stood close, their presence grounding her in a way she never thought possible. She wasn’t alone anymore—she wasn’t that scared girl from Chamberlain. She was Carrie White-Stark, a hero in her own right, ready to face whatever challenges lay ahead.

The future was uncertain, but for the first time, that didn’t scare her. She had found her place in this world.

Her world.

With a deep breath, she smiled. She was ready. The world was ready for Psystorm.

And she couldn’t wait to make a difference in the same world that she had to survive in before.

Her new life was just beginning.