Author's Note: I'M BACK! And so is Piper Parker, so yes this is the sequel to Great Responsibility. I have been contemplating this one for a while now and there will be some major changes to the show here, as there was last time. But we are continuing with her story. I own nothing.
Great Power
1 Fatal Field Trips
Piper loved school, she really did. She was good at it too, so smart she should really have advanced several grades in a year, but she'd refused the offer when it was given. But field trips weren't something she looked forward to. If she was honest she hated field trips, they never went well. Something bad invariably happened to her. Last one she'd been on she'd fallen out a fifty-story window and found out that her best friend was, at the time, being used as a host by a parasitic symbiote that had some kind of connection to her, along with a mile-long grudge for not letting it take over her mind and turn her into a roaring monster. The time before that she'd been bitten by a spider, gotten so sick she'd passed out in her level of Stark Tower and woken up to find that she was strong beyond belief and could stick to walls. Ok so that one had ended up working out in the end, but it didn't mean the experience itself had been any fun at all. Having your DNA broken down and rewritten really, really hurt.
But she hadn't been able to find a way to weasel out of this field trip, so she'd resolved to stay at the back of the group and draw as little attention to herself as was humanly possible. But at least the subject matter was interesting. Principle Coulson was leading this trip, why no one really knew but Piper had the suspicion he was here to make sure nothing went wrong like it had last time, and she was perfectly ok with that. But that didn't mean she trusted him. She followed the group as they followed Coulson through the museum's large arched doorways. She had problems trusting anyone from SHEILD these days, the only exceptions were her team, her Auntie Tasha and Uncle Clint. She knew they hadn't had anything to do with her parent's deaths. But the rest of SHEILD… Well she just wasn't sure who she could really trust anymore.
That thought sent a pang through her heart as she glanced around and frowned to herself. It had been nearly two months since the Venom incident, when Harry had been fully taken over by the Symbiote and tried to kill her. Since the world had learned that Tony Stark had a child, though luckily no one had figured out yet that she was that child. The news still liked to talk about that though, and Harry hadn't been back to school since. He'd finally made contact with someone from their class the other day, that someone being MJ. He'd told her that he was fine and that he would hopefully be coming back to school within the next few weeks. Hopefully. He'd made no mention of Piper or of the symbiote or if he remembered anything. It set Piper on edge just thinking about it, she just hoped he was really alright as the school group made their way into the Norse 'Mythology' exhibit. The quotation marks had been added to the name of the exhibit after Thor had landed on earth.
Piper couldn't help but laugh to herself at this exhibit, she had never been to Asguard herself, but Thor loved to tell her stories and there were so many inaccuracies in the information around her that it made her smile, just a bit. She leaned against a pillar as Principle Coulson, who had to be laughing in his head at this, spoke about the Norse Rune Stone in the display case. He had been the first SHEILD agent to make contact with Thor, not that anyone but her and her team knew that of those gathered here. But there was a definite smile on his face as he spoke about the mighty Thor.
Danny, Ava, Sam and Luke were towards the front of the class, right next to the case with the stone. The rest of the class dispersed to finish off their worksheets about this section of the museum and Piper noticed her team draw closer to the stone. Danny spoke as Piper stepped closer to them. He seemed to be translating the text on the stone, which really didn't surprise Piper. Danny was the mythology and spiritual expert of the five of them.
"Warrior be afraid of the coming winter?" Then the stone started glowing, a blizzard rising from the display case and Piper swore. She glanced around and tossed her bag to Eddie Brock who caught it with little surprise on his face. He'd found out that she was Spidergirl about two months ago, he'd grown used to the fact that trouble seemed to find her like metal filings found a magnet. Coulson called out to the students.
"Buddy system! No one gets left behind! Out now!" He nodded to the five teens in the small corner the stone resided in. Their backs were to the wall, the blizzard between them and the door. The case shattered as snow blasted around the room and the remaining students ran screaming from the room. Eddie nodded to Piper and pulled the doors shut behind him, Coulson helping him. Coulson had been beyond angry when he'd discovered that Eddie knew Piper's secret but upon finding out that she hadn't told him anything he was considering training the boy as a SHEILD recruit. The snow swirled and coalesced into a large figure that filled the room nearly to the ceiling. Piper flipped out of the way of the large club made of ice it was carrying which crashed into the floor leaving the tile shattered. She landed next to Danny.
"You had to read the ancient stone, didn't you?" Danny blushed slightly before falling into a fighting stance with the rest of them. Piper pulled off her shirt as Ava did the same revealing their respective costumes. She pulled her mask out of her pocket and pulled it on as Ava dove at the blue giant. She was trying to remember what Uncle Thor called these things, she'd heard so many stories about Asguard and the other realms that it all blended together after a while. She flipped out of the way of another swing of the club. Nova slipped his helmet out of his bag and took off blasting at the large blue man. Then it blasted ice at Luke and it clicked in Piper's mind.
"How the hell did a Frost Giant get here!" The others glanced at her, confused but then they seemed to remember that she'd been living with the Avengers since she was eleven and would clearly have better knowledge about their respective villains than almost anyone else. She swung at the thing and kicked it hard in the chest sending it stumbling but it batted her out of the air before she could get out of the air. The others cried out as the frost giant squeezed her hard. She groaned and managed to flick a switch on the hidden belt she always wore under her costume. The webs on her suit began to heat up.
"Hasn't anyone ever told you I'm too hot to handle?" She quipped as the webs burned hot and the giant screamed and dropped her. It roared and struck out at her. She dove to the side as Nova blasted the thing backwards. Tiger landed on its back, claws digging into blue skin drawing blood. Iron Fist and Powerman swung their fists in unison finally knocking the thing off its feet. Its club shattered and it roared but before it could rise a bolt of lightning arched into the room through the domed ceiling. Thor materialized from the lightning and the team backed off as he brought his hammer down on the frost giants head. There was a mighty crack and the giant moved no more. Piper pulled off her mask a frown on her face.
"You didn't have to kill him! He was down!" Thor frowned at her slightly as she and the other teens began to change into their street clothes.
"I am sorry this upsets you but Frost Giants are monsters that must be put down. It would have gotten back up and done far more damage had I not intervened." Piper stepped up to him with a frown etched onto her face.
"We had that handled." Thor's frown wavered slightly.
"You and your compatriots were doing well young Lady Piper but you would have not prevailed against the Frost Giant. This foe is beyond any of you." Piper rolled her eyes. This was why despite all the interesting things she'd learned from Thor he would never make favorite uncle in her book. The others were looking star struck and she could tell that Thor was loving that. He loved being one of the Earths greatest heroes, but the problem with Earths greatest heroes was they tended to forget that there were other people doing this just as well as they did, a fact she was happy to remind almost all of them of. She reminded Thor of this now as she stuffed her mask back in her pocket. He had the gall to laugh.
"You may yet be one of earths greatest champions but you are a long way away from that goal." She stepped back as the door to the rest of the museum creaked open and Thor turned to the body of the giant. Principle Coulson and Eddie were the first people to stick their heads into the room but that wasn't what had Piper's attention right now. Her Spidey sense was going crazy, she whirled trying to find the source of the danger and spotted Thor reaching for the strange stone on the frost giant's chest.
"Thor! Don't!" But it was too late. A green cloud of lightning and smoke exploded from the stone and Piper felt herself scream even as she heard cries of pain from her team and her uncle. Then everything went black.
Eddie shouted Piper's name as the room was filled with green smoke and lightning. Then in a flash of blue white light it cleared and MJ screamed. The room where Piper, Sam, Ava, Danny, Luke and Thor had been was now empty, six scorch marks all that was left of the teens and the Avenger.