Chapter 2: Happy Fourth of July

NEW YORK CITY
JULY 4, 15:38 EDT

"Web-head, watch out!"

Brittany Summer was not having a very peaceful day. At all.

"Thanks for the tip, Spider-Girl!" The red and blue figure of Peter Parker à la Spider-Man, and his trusty partner, Spider-Girl, were in the midst of getting their butts kicked by a very vexed-looking group of Kingpin thugs, who were conveniently holding a plethora of dangerous weapons, one of which, happened to have a fully loaded rocket launcher.

"I'm really starting to think we should've stayed home today!" Peter exclaimed, quickly dodging the rocket launcher's line of fire, nearly getting blown into smithereens in the process. "Jeez, that was close!"

"Hm… you think?!" Brittany retorted, running along a thin steel beam, avoiding the oncoming thugs that were hot on her tail. "Aunt May's making buffalo wings and potato salad tonight! I at least wanna stay alive for that!" The young blonde hastily dodged a flurry of oncoming bullets from more henchmen that had pulled up to the scene.

"Great," she groaned irately, "there's more of them now." Two henchmen began charging toward her small frame, but she, fortunately, flipped out of the way in time, simultaneously webbing them both to a large stack of crates. "Can we please call for backup now?!"

"Fisk's gonna have ya heads on a platter for interruptin' his plans, ya punks!" A rather large brute of a thug threatened the two webslingers, only to make Peter chortle.

"Ah. I'm sure Mr. Fisk would love that!" Peter quickly swung down from his position underneath a metal platform, landing right in front of the loud-mouthed thug, quickly snatching his weapon away from him, using all of his might to drag him across the ground, and then proceeded to kick the man into unconsciousness as he did a backflip.

"Spider-Man!" His younger protégé scolded him for the sheer amount of theatrics, whilst simultaneously dealing with her own guys.

Before he could make a comment, more henchmen started pouring into the compound.

"Spider-Man, can we please call for backup?! Now?!" Brittany pleaded, punching a thug across the face, however, her form was quickly getting sloppy and her body was getting exhausted easily. "I don't think I can hold out for much longer! I haven't taken my second dose of meds yet!" Now, this was usually when the job got difficult.

"No need to worry, webs!" The older Spider yelled, shooting lines of web fluid in pretty much every direction there was that included a person working for Fisk. "I buzzed the line for help a while ago, she should be here any minute!"

"Wait—who is 'she'?!" Brittany asked incredulously.

Before her partner could answer, a burst of gruff laughter erupted from one of the other brutes of Fisk's henchmen. "HA! No one's gonna come save ya, kids! Y'all better—" THUD.

A momentary pause caused both spider vigilantes to freeze in their places, wondering what had just made the man stop talking and crash to the ground.

"'Y'all better' what, huh?" A familiar female voice echoed throughout the complex; a glowing figure clad in a tight Green Lantern suit was slowly descending from above, floating in mid-air. On their fist was a glowing green light emanating from their power ring, surging with sheer willpower. "Yeah, that's right. Stay down."

"Tash! You're here! Oh, thank god!" Brittany breathed a huge sigh of relief, quickly webbing a thug's mouth closed so they couldn't speak.

"Hey, don't thank God! Thank me! I'm the one who called her!" Peter yelled, knocking out a guy with a single kick.

"Oof! Nice K.O., web-head," Tash complimented the younger hero, forming a green bo-staff from her ring.

"Thank you, Natasha. At least someone," Peter stared pointedly at his partner, "appreciates my effort."

Brittany scoffed and rolled her eyes at her smart-mouthed cousin. She was grateful she was wearing a full-face mask, otherwise, she and Peter would probably be the ones fighting instead of Fisk's men. "Can we just please get this over with so we can end the physical exhaustion and go home?"

"You kids ain't goin' nowhere!" A thug began rampaging in the direction of Brittany, however, Tash was faster.

"Double negative, asshole!" The older girl called out, performing different maneuvers with her bo-staff, all while doing direct damage to the dumbstruck man. She pushed him to the ground in no time, knocking him out in one last hit with a baseball bat she'd quickly materialized. After a few seconds, her breathing became even again and she blew a lock of hair out of her face. She looked up to see the remaining Fisk cronies either webbed up or completely passed out.

"Huh. If you could handle all the bad guys yourselves, why'd you feel the need to call me?" Tash folded her arms, walking up to the worn out figures of Peter and her little sister.

"Er…" Peter scratched the back of his neck nervously. "…contingency?"

Brittany swung her head in Peter's direction; he knew what that look meant, even with her mask on.

"So… I'm just a contingency now, am I?" The eighteen-year-old raised her brow disappointedly.

"No! That's not what I—"

"Tash, I haven't taken my second dosage of medication today, and if it weren't for Spider-Man's request for your intervention earlier, this fight would've finished much later and I would probably be in an ambulance by now," Brittany explained in one go, her shoulders sinking as she spoke.

"Oh, shit," Tash's form relaxed, as she went up to Brittany, placing both hands on her sister's shoulders. "Are you gonna be okay? When was the last time you took your meds? And why the hell are you here of all places?" She gestured toward the now decrepit construction site they were standing in; the sun slowly setting as the afternoon went by.

"I… I took my pills at around nine this morning and… Spider-Man and I have been investigating cases of missing S.H.I.E.L.D. tech and paraphernalia. The trail we followed led to one of Wilson Fisk's construction sites, which is here, so—"

"Wait! Spider-Girl, shush!" Peter put a hand over Brittany's mouth, carefully using his spider-sense to locate a row of vehicles nearing the construction site. "Guys, we need to get out of here. Now."

"Good plan," Tash quipped, quickly facing Brittany again. "Can you stand? Are you guys okay to get back home or what?"

"Tash, I don't think I can stand for much longer." Brittany was now breaking a cold sweat under the skin-tight expanse of her suit.

Peter was starting to fidget with his hands the more anxious he got about the oncoming vehicles, and Tash could clearly see it. "Come on, I'll take you guys home. I came here via Zeta Beam so I, unfortunately, don't have my car. We're gonna have to fly."

"Whoa, seriously?" Peter gushed excitedly. He loved the prospect of trying out other superhero things that weren't his normal powers.

"Yes," Tash said, slowly losing her patience.

"Holy shit…" Peter quietly muttered under his breath, both he and Tash each taking one side of Brittany to carry for the ride home.

Once the three of them were stable enough, Tash fabricated a giant glowing green sphere around them to avoid any accidents from happening on the way back. "Hold on to your butts," Tash casually instructed, pursing her lips as they began to lift off.

The sphere began floating higher and higher into the air, gaining altitude as they went into the sky. They didn't go high enough to reach the clouds, but anyone could tell Natasha had experience with navigating the skies.

"Oh, my god. I can't believe we're flying. And I haven't even been in a plane before!" Peter enthused, gently letting go of Brittany since it was safe enough to lift her weight off for a bit.

"Wow, really?" Tash asked with genuine curiosity. She knew the Parkers weren't really the type of family to just up and spend their money on vacations, but she at least thought Peter would have been on an airplane, even if it was just interstate. "Huh. I'll have to take you some time. Flying's awesome."

Peter chuckled awkwardly. "If I'm being quite honest, flying in the air with a full-fledged Justice League member is awesome enough, in my books."

Ah. The thing. The thing that Tash had been wanting to avoid since earlier that afternoon.

"Oh," the older hero said nervously, busying herself with looking down at the bird's eye view of the city. "Um… well… it's, er… it's certainly a story, alright, but…" She paused. "Look, I'm just gonna say it now so we don't we don't have to pick up on the topic later, but… the League members who were at the Hall with their protégés, as well as me, had a bit of a falling out with Roy, and… he ended up leaving. The League got called up for an important mission involving Wotan and then you called me asking for backup later on. So, here I am. An unofficial Justice League member, I guess."

Tash's power ring glowed malevolently as various emotions ran through her mind, making her wish she didn't say anything to Peter and just lied. But, she wasn't that type of person.

"Oh… I'm really sorry to hear that you and Roy—and everyone else—had a falling out," Peter bit the inside of his cheek, not really knowing what to do. "That sucks."

Tash smirked at his reaction. "It's alright, Pete. You don't have to feel sorry for me. If this is what being an adult is like, then I guess I better get used to it sooner than later." She gave the boy a smile before checking their location. "Hey, we're almost at your apartment." She looked next to her to where she was still holding up her weakened sister. "Hey, Britt, you alright? You're really warm through that mask."

"Yeah…" Brittany replied softly, standing almost completely limp against her sister's shoulder.

"Come on, we're almost there," Tash murmured, gently patting her shoulder.

Eventually, the three young heroes landed on the rooftop of the apartment building; the green sphere evaporated at Tash's will, leaving them standing in the late afternoon sun.

"There," Peter spoke in a hushed tone, not wanting to bring any unwanted attention to them. "We have a duffel bag full of clothes we keep up here so Brittany and I don't have to go to the trouble of sneaking into our rooms to change into civvies."

"Huh. Resourceful. I like it," Tash replied, dematerializing her Green Lantern suit, revealing her normal clothes. She carefully set Brittany down, seizing a skirt and a turtleneck from the bag for her to wear. "Come on, sis. You just have to get changed and then we'll bring you back to Aunt May and your medicine."

Brittany delicately took the clothes from Tash and shuffled to a shadowed corner where she wouldn't feel so exposed. "I hate tight clothes…" she murmured, sluggishly changing tops whilst Peter was adamant about looking away and being the chivalrous gentleman he was.

"Doesn't everyone?" Tash asked rhetorically, checking her back pocket for her phone, which had been switched off unbeknownst to her. As the two web-heads got ready to switch back to their 'normal' lives, Tash turned her phone back on to find she had about five missed calls; three from Roy and two from her brother, Joseph, as well as a bunch of unread texts—also from Roy and Joseph.

What did these two want to talk about so much that they had to leave so many calls and messages behind? She thought to herself, her brow furrowed deeply. She'd find out soon enough, but for now: dealing with the young ones plus Aunt May.

"You guys done?" She sighed, shoving her phone in the back pocket of her jeans.

Peter looked over at the lithe figure of Brittany, who'd just finished putting her shoes back on. "Yeah, pretty much."

"Alright. Let's skidad, kids," Tash sighed wearily, her heeled boots impacting the concrete roof as she made her way to the door. "Wait," she stopped, her fingers just touching the handle, "do people think it's normal when you guys come through from the roof? Is this door even open?" She jiggled the handle to find out that it was indeed locked.

"Yeah, we usually have to use our wall-crawling ability to scale down the building until it looks like we were just walking on the street, then we just go through the front entrance like normal," Peter put his hands on his hips, looking back and forth between sisters.

"Huh," Tash nodded slowly, slightly impressed by the duo's ability to be covert, but was also stunted by the thought of not being able to climb walls as they could. "Well, you can take care of Brittany going down the building if you can, and I think I'll just discreetly fly down, or something."

"It's not like we were just flying in a big green bubble in the sky or anything a few minutes ago. But, okay, you do you." Peter did a two-finger salute before proceeding to give Brittany a piggyback whilst he carefully scaled down the side of the apartment building. "See ya there." And like a ninja, he disappeared.

"Cool," Tash said to herself, bringing out her power ring again. "Hopefully I have enough charge left for this." And without further ado, Natasha had materialized a lasso of green rope and got to work, abseiling as quietly as she could until she reached the deep pit of a dark alleyway. "Ew, this place is manky as fuck…" She muttered, the rope evaporating from her hands, leaving the only light in the dark to be her ring's glowing light. She quickly ran along the almost-decrepit alley and found herself in a softly-lit street where the rest of civilization was. Thank God.

Tash found no one standing outside the apartment building's entrance, meaning Peter and Brittany must have already gone inside. Once she'd made her way in, she went up a couple flight of stairs until she reached the number of the Parkers' apartment. Being the polite, courteous young woman she was, she lightly knocked on the door to get greeted by a frazzled May Parker.

"Tasha!" May greeted, pleasantly shocked to see her unofficial niece at her doorstep. "Long time, no see. It's so good to see you!"

"Hey, May. It's good to see you, too," Tash flashed a toothy grin, getting dragged into a tight embrace by the energetic woman. She quickly took this opportunity to look past May's shoulder to see a pale, limp Brittany lying on the couch with a damp cloth draped over her forehead, while Peter was busy rummaging through the bathroom's medicine cabinet for Brittany's antiepileptic medication.

"Oh, honey, I've missed you so much. Kat and Joe, too," May pulled back, getting a good look at her eighteen-year-old 'niece'. "Oh, my god. You've grown up way too fast. Come inside! We'll talk more." Tash stepped inside, closing the door behind her. May started bustling about the apartment, making sure everything was ready for Independence Day celebrations, probably.

Tash started to think that Brittany being on the brink of passing out from the lack of a good medication schedule was probably a regular occurrence in the Parker household, since May walked right past the blonde girl, and went straight to the food she'd been preparing earlier in the kitchen. "Dinner will be ready in about an hour, Tasha. You're more than welcome to stay and eat and watch the fireworks with us."

At that point, Peter had already given Brittany her medication and left her poor body to rest on the couch.

"Hey, May, did you need some help with those potatoes?" Peter offered, strolling into the kitchen only to have his aunt point in his direction with the knife she was holding. In a joking manner, of course.

"Peter Benjamin Parker, the last time you tried to cook with me, it ended up with the entire building needing to evacuate because there was so much smoke in the air. It could've been the Burning Man festival," May threatened sternly, while Peter slowly backed away, signaling his surrender. Tash couldn't help but laugh at their little antics. Sometimes she envied having a cute family like this, even if they weren't perfect all the time.

She took this time to quickly check her phone again. She didn't want to be that person who took five years to reply to their messages.

First, she thought she should reply to her brother since she knew she'd be scolded later on for not replying fast enough.

It read:

From: Joe Summer
July 4, 14:23 PM

Joe: Hey sis, can you please explain to me why Nick Fury is at the X-Mansion telling me that Wilson Fisk is threatening to kill our family?!

Tash widened her eyes at his message, before reading his next one:

From: Joe Summer
July 4, 14:24 PM

Joe: Anytime soon would be nice! :(

The eldest Summer sibling suddenly felt a pang of guilt at the fact that she'd turned her phone off without even checking to see if anything important came up. She'd have to call him back as soon as possible, but not before seeing what Roy had to say to her, as well.

From: Roy Harper
July 4, 14:45 PM

Roy: Hey

From: Roy Harper
July 4, 14:45 PM

Roy: I'm sorry for speaking to you and the others like that at the Hall

From: Roy Harper
July 4, 14:46 PM

Roy: I didn't mean what I said but I hope you can understand that I was just upset. I hope you can call me back

Tash didn't get anything else from him, aside from the three calls she'd missed. She put her phone down and sighed lightly, rubbing her eyes, realizing how exhausted she actually was. After dinner, she'd have to take a raincheck on the fireworks and head home to sleep through the Fourth of July celebrations.

Whilst Peter and May talked animatedly to each other about the last time Peter tried to be a chef, Tash couldn't stand the thought of any more time passing by without checking on the people who needed her, so she got up and headed for the one room in the apartment that no one would dare go into without knocking. "Hey, May, is it alright if I use your room to return a few calls? Joe will kill me if he gets perpetually ignored."

"Oh, yeah, of course, sweetie. Take your time," May obliged, glazing a tray of chicken wings, as Peter carefully attempted to stack pringles on top of Brittany's forehead while she slept.

"Thanks, May," Tasha smiled, shaking her head at Peter as she entered the room, gently shutting the door behind her.

May's bedroom was of course, tidy and very feng shui if she did say so herself. Deciding that it was better not to risk Peter using his spider senses to hear what she'd say, Tash went ahead and opened the bedroom window to go outside to the fire escape. She sat on the metal steps of the platform and dialed the first person she needed to speak with.

After a few dials, Joseph finally picked up the phone. "Hello?"

"Hey… it's me. Sorry I didn't answer any of your calls or texts."

Joe pre-emptively sighed. "It's alright. I'm sure you had a good reason."

"I did, trust me. I think Brittany almost died." She immediately regretted saying those words as casually as she did. "But—she's fine now!" She laughed nervously, trying to ease the tension.

Joe wasn't amused. "Just please tell me that you guys are okay, now, at least?"

"Yes, of course, Joseph. I'm at the Parkers' apartment."

"Tasha, listen to me: Professor X and I conferred with Fury, and we've all agreed that the best option for us is to leave New York."

Well, that was a bomb and a half. The eldest Summer found herself unquestionably dumbfounded by the information that her younger brother had just dumped on her.

"I'm sorry… beg your pardon?" Tash's eyes were wide open, as she sat on the edge of the steps.

"Don't make me tell you again. You know what you heard. Get Brittany, and get the hell out of New York while you still can."

"Wait, wait, wait—Joseph, what the fuck?!" Tash was now standing, utterly bewildered by this sudden revelation.

He sighed again, as doors could be heard slamming and heavy footsteps filled the background. "Look, just promise me that you and Britt will make it out of New York by the end of tonight, okay? You need to get back to Coast City with Hal where it's safer and you need to take Brittany, as well, alright?"

"Jesus Christ, you sound more like an adult than I do," Tash dragged her face down as she face-palmed in distress. "This is all happening so fast, what the hell…"

"Yeah, well, that's what having no parental figures for your whole life does to you, Tash."

Yikes. That certainly strung a chord.

Wanting so badly to say, 'I know', Tash opted to say instead, "Well… what about you and Kat? Is she still in Gotham? I haven't called her yet, today. The both of you should've been here in Queens. I just happened to get called here early by Peter when he asked for backup against a bunch of Fisk's dickwads."

"Kat's still with Selina, but I called them and Selina's decided to shack her up with someone she trusts."

"And you trusted Selina to make that decision?!" Tash asked panickily, knowing too well that Selina Kyle was the type of woman who had proven herself to be nothing but a flight risk. For all Tash and Joe knew, Kat could've been shipped off to a sloppier part of Gotham where no one would find her.

"Look, I can't say who Kat is staying with right now since I haven't left the mansion yet, but I will as soon as I know I won't get eavesdropped and YOU and Brittany are safe."

Tash began to retort, "But—"

"I'm truly sorry that you had to find out like this, Tash, but I really gotta go. I'll call you as soon as I make it out of the city and somewhere safe. Love you, sis." And the line ended.

Tash was left completely speechless.

There were literally no words that she could use to fully comprehend the terror and worry that she had been feeling at that very moment. Was her family really being threatened to die at the hands of New York's Kingpin of Crime, Wilson Fisk? Did they really have to vacate the city before the end of the night? What was going to happen to Brittany's life? What was going to happen to everyone else's if even Kat had to be shipped to god knows where? There was only one way to find out, and that, unfortunately, meant having to miss out on a homecooked meal by Aunt May as well as watching the annual Fourth of July fireworks over the riverside.


Finito!

I hope you liked it! Please don't forget about my three R's: READ, REVIEW & REMEMBER!

Happy Reading! ;)