This was written for the Fall Fandom Free-for-All over on livejournal

Prompt was River and Peter have a conversation about big brothers.

Author's Note: Fic is set post-BDM with mostly-healed but still powerful River. For Heroes, fic is set when Peter had multiple powers at once. This is a blend of the verses; it's set in the 21st century but Danko et al are called "the Alliance"

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"I know exactly what you mean," River said as she nonchalantly acrobated her way through the security force on the ground floor, "Older brothers think they know what's best for you. It's like they can't accept that you're not a little kid any more!"

"Exactly!" Peter said, as he tried to impress her by waving his hand to make the guards believe neither of them were there, "It's like they think you would be so much better off if you'd just let them stow you away and protect you from the big bad world."

"Totally! They think it's their job to save you or something! Which is ridiculous!" River said as she turned the corner, found another three Alliance officers waiting, and kicked them unconscious.

"I know! And we don't need them to save us!" Peter said as they stepped over the unconscious men, "I mean, sure there was that one time with the nuclear reaction.."

"Yeah, and okay, one time I was kind of in bad shape," River added.

Peter continued, "And okay, I followed some bad advice a few times maybe, maybe trusted the wrong people..."

"And that one time I was almost burned as a witch," River mumbled.

"But basically, I can totally take care of myself!" Peter asserted as he telekinetically flung another team of approaching agents into the janitor's storage room and locked them in.

"Absolutely! It's like, they're taller and older, so they forget that we are WAY more powerful!" River griped.

"That is very true," Peter said, "It's like Nathan thinks of me as some helpless naive kid and he just wants to take care of me!"

"And Simon thinks I'm just so fragile! No matter what I do, he's afraid I'll break if he says the wrong thing!" River said as she breezily shot her way to the central offices.

"And if you even think about telling THEM what to do or think?" Peter muttered as he froze Danko before he could shoot them.

"I know, it's like they can dish it out but they can't take it!" River said as she set an explosive under the central tracking machine.

"They're so overprotective!"

"And bossy!"

"And they think it's their job to sacrifice everything for us!"

"But we just want to see them happy!"

"But they're only happy if they're meddling!"

"Yeah. Big brothers have MAJOR control issues. That's why they choose jobs where they get to tell people what to do with their lives!"

"Totally!" Peter agreed.

"They need therapy or something."

"Yeah. Or maybe they need to get lives of their own."

"Maybe they need to get laid more often or something."

"Heh. Yeah, or they just need to remove the stick from their asses."

"Ha! Definitely! So... what's the evacuation plan?" River asked.

"Huh?"

"You have one right? To get people out of here before we blow the place?"

"Um... I just thought we'd use our powers."

"Use them how?"

"Um..."

"Peter. You said you had planned dozens of assaults on Alliance facilities!"

"I said I had led dozens. I never said that they involved planning.... Why are you looking at me like that?"

"Because you're an idiot. So... let's think of something."

"Yes. But we are NOT calling our brothers," Peter asserted.

"Definitely not. Because we don't need their help any more."

After a long pause, Peter said, "I think I'll call my mother."

"I think I'll call Zoe and Mal."