Author's Note: I'm glad everyone seems to be grooving on Piper's newfound power. We'll be finding out more about it soon. But first Ava! I own nothing!
9. Overheard
Lunch at Stark Tower was never really a quiet affair, especially not since Piper's team moved in. Sam was making what he called SamCakes, trying to teach the others as Luke fixed himself a smoothie to go with his lunch and Danny dressed his salad. Piper was sitting on the ceiling munching on her third sandwich. Pepper always made sure that there was enough food, either made or ready to make to, feed an army. Having so many people with faster than average metabolism under one roof required a lot of food. Piper snagged one of the finished SamCakes with a well placed webline and smirked at the boy as he glared at her. He shook his head.
"Why are you always on the ceiling?" Piper shrugged.
"It just feels right. Like you know how some people wander when they're on the phone or always put their feet up? It's kinda like that." Sam rolled his eyes. Danny nodded.
"It makes sense." Piper raised an eyebrow at her friend. He nodded as he sat down at the table below her.
"You are in touch with your powers, with your animal side." Piper stared at him. He kept talking.
"There are many types of beliefs around the world that every human has an animal spirit as well. In some it can manifest. Others are chosen by animals or fate to bear a resemblance to theirs. You are very in touch with your Spider side, you trust your spider sense implicitly, you even developed a way to be more similar to the spider." Danny said gesturing at her wrists. She was wearing her old webshooters, the ones that looked like bracelets. Piper shrugged and bit into the SamCake. It was actually pretty good.
"Does that mean that Ava's is a tiger?" Danny nodded. "So can you like see spirit animals or whatever?" He shook his head.
"I have a keen sense of the mystic but it is said that only the holder of the spirit animal can see them and even then only their own." Piper shrugged.
"Cool." She snagged another sandwich as she finished off her stolen SamCake. The door to the kitchen opened and they all glanced over to it and froze. Ava stood in the door. Her hair was an absolute wreck. She stretched like a cat and Piper winced as her back cracked. Ava didn't seem to care. She stepped over to the fridge and pulled out a gallon of milk. She twisted the top off and chugged the whole thing as the others blinked at her. She belched loudly and dropped the empty gallon into the nearby trashcan. The others blinked at her. She stepped over to the kitchen island which was neatly arranged, stacked high with food. She snagged a few chicken fingers, stuffing one into her mouth, not bothering with a plate. She scratched her head and walked out of the room without a word. The team all stared at each other for a minute. Piper was the first to speak up.
"What the fuck?"
Glen frowned at the sample Dr. Connors handed him. It was a clear viscous liquid in a small vial. A set of six sat on the table in front of him. He raised an eyebrow at the doctor as Abe stuck the slide he'd been given under the microscope.
"Um. Doctor Connors can I maybe know I'm working on this, instead of the gene therapy, like Abe." Dr. Connors nodded.
"That is an excellent question Glen, but you can't tell anyone the answer." Glen perked up. "This is a favor for Mr. Stark. The Avengers have run across a… creature that produces this venom and would like to know what it does. Dr. Banner is in Italy at the moment with Mr. Barton and Mr. Odinson so we're their best bet. You're tests show you're more adept at identifying toxins than Abe. As soon as you're done you can jump back on our main project." Glen raised an eyebrow.
"Is it life and death?" Dr. Connors shook his head.
"No. The … creature isn't a threat, but they want to be safe." Glen nodded and turned back to his work. It was an interesting venom. Several tests later showed that it wasn't deadly, but paralytic. Small doses of the venom would render the victim numb, large doses would cause immobility for at least a few hours. But there was something else. The venom seemed to have been treated with radiation. There wasn't enough there to be a problem, it was harmless really but it was odd. Glen brought his findings to the doctor and waited while he spoke on the phone.
"Yes Dr. McCoy. That would be lovely. Tomorrow? Excellent. Thank you. I'll meet you there. I'll see if I can't talk her into coming too. Thank you Dr. McCoy. Goodbye." Dr. Connors hung up his phone and slipped it back into his pocket before turning to Glen. He smiled.
"That was quick." Glen smiled, he'd always been good with bio chemistry, he wouldn't be here if he wasn't. He handed over his notes and the doctor looked them over.
"Fascinating stuff. This is excellent Glen. Would you mind if I share my discoveries with a few others?" Glen shook his head. Dr. Connors smiled at him.
"Thank you. You have quite a lot of potential Mr. Stacy." Glen beamed. The door to the lab opened and Piper Parker stuck her head in. She glanced around and spotted Dr. Connors. She slipped in, hurriedly pulling on a lab coat over her jeans and t-shirt. Glen couldn't help but grin at the shirt. It was bright blue with a cartoon bowl of salad on it and the white words 'Lettuce, the taste of sadness' printed around it. She grinned at him as she stepped up to them. Dr. Connors smiled at her.
"Miss Parker! I was just about to call you actually. Our mutual associate has agreed to a meeting and was wondering if you'd like to join us. We're meeting at his… house tomorrow around nine." Piper nodded.
"Sounds great, have you seen Dad or Uncle Rhodey? I need to get into a file." Dr. Connors shook his head.
"Not since Mr. Stark called me up to the lab." Piper frowned and nodded.
"Thanks anyway." She made to turn away then paused. "Actually maybe you can help me." She grabbed an empty chair and pulled up a screen Glen had never seen before on one of the computers. Her fingers flew across the keys and in minutes a locked screen blocked her. Glen could just see the faint outline of the SHEILD logo over her shoulder. He frowned. Dr. Connors leaned closer to Piper, obscuring the screen for a moment as his hand flew across the keys. Piper nodded and thanked him. Glen stepped to the side as Piper pooled the files into one and transferred them to her server. He caught a glimpse of what looked like White Tiger's mask before the screen returned to normal. Piper stood back up and nodded to the Dr. He smiled and held out the sheaf of paper Glen had given him to her. She took it and skimmed the contents. When she was done she looked almost relieved. She grinned at Dr. Connors.
"Thanks Doc." He shook his head.
"Don't thank me. Glen did the work on this one. Abe's working with the gene therapy. I'm putting Glen back on it too since he's finished with this." Piper raised an eyebrow at Glen, looking impressed.
"That's pretty brilliant Glen. Good job." Piper took the papers with her as she left the lab level. Glen frowned after her. She seemed to have more to do with this little side project than Glen had guessed. He pushed the thought aside for the moment as Abe called him over to look over his math, Dr. Connors had impressed upon them that they should always double check themselves and have someone else look over their work just to be sure.
