I am finally back after much procrastination on my part. I had written it all down in my notebook, but then I got lazy and decided to not type it up and write something else. Guess what it was? The first chapter to the sequel! So whilst I was getting all cozy with Peter Parker, you guys were waiting for the next chapter, which wasn't fair to any of you. So here we go!

Last time on Wither Wings.

"If it is nowhere you are going, take Max," Tony put his hands on Max's waist and pushed her up towards Pepper and Natasha, her feet almost sliding out from under her on the hardwood flooring.

"And the Historia is…?"

"Lots of dancing, lots of booze, and lots of boys,"

"From beneath you it devours."

Max took the steps down two at a time and practically ran after him.

She never even made it to the alley.

Tony Stark was currently not a very happy man, and when Tony Stark was unhappy, Tony Stark tended to go on a very Stark-like tirade.

"What the hell happened?"Stark clenched his jaw as Natasha carried Max's limp form into the room and set her down on the sofa, bits of his face twitching as he struggled not to bite her head off like a pre-pubescent great white shark. "I told you to give her a taste of normalcy, not to get her knocked-up in an alleyway by a rapist!"

"Relax, Tony," Natasha replied in her typical jaded voice, grabbing a blanket from the foot of the couch and spreading it over Max. "She didn't get knocked up. We were at a club and she went out to get fresh air. I don't know much past that, but she wasn't robbed, she wasn't kidnapped, so she's fine." Natasha glanced down at Max and tucked a piece of her hair behind her ear, smoothing down the blanket.

"Relax?" Tony threw his arms into the air in exasperation. "How can I do that when I have an adolescent bird kid passed out on my couch?"

"She's a big girl, she can take it," Tasha reasoned, standing up from her perch on the edge of the cushions. "Call me when she wakes up." Natasha breezed past a sputtering Stark before disappearing into her bedroom.

"What's the commotion?" Banner asked, popping his head out from the bathroom, a toothbrush dangling from the corner of his mouth.

"Max is unconscious again," Tony sighed, rubbing his temples.

"She tends to do that a lot," Bruce replied, spitting out the toothpaste and setting his brush on the corner of the porcelain counters.

"Yeah," Tony scratched the back of his neck as Banner kneeled next to the sofa, checking her vital signs. "She's a weird kid."

"Hmm…" Bruce frowned, moving his fingers to the other side of her neck. "That's strange." He pulled out a light from his pocket and waved it in front of her closed eyelids. "There's no head trauma."

"No head trauma?" Tony echoed.

"It's like she wasn't even hit unconscious in the first place," Bruce's brow knitted together as he observed the planes of Max's face further. "It would have appeared that she just fallen asleep in the middle of the sidewalk, but in Max's mind she's still awake."

"If she had collapsed it could have been a remote brain wipe," Ton pulled up a chair. "But who would have the tech to do that?"

"Someone who obviously has her DNA on hand," Banner checked underneath her right eyelid, the pupil dilating, but that's when all hell broke loose. Max's body convulsed, her mouth spitting out groans and moans.

Banner and Ton flinched before Bruce pinned her arms to her sides, instructing Tony to do the same to her legs.

"It's some type of seizure," Banner struggled against her enhanced strength. "We're just going to have to ride it out."

Tony grimaced. "Let's hope whatever happens isn't permanent."

"Max!"

A small, fluffy projectile was launched into her arms and buried its head in her shoulder. Max stepped back in shock as the blonde head lifted to reveal Gazzy with a smile the size of the sun.

"We've been waiting for you to visit, Max!" He wriggled out of her arms and set his feet down on the floor.

She blinked, looking from right to left with only the snowy expanse of the white room from her meeting with Nudge greeting her, before looking back at Gazzy's smiling innocent face.

"But," she managed to stutter out, the hot prick of tears clouding her eyes. "You – you're dead…"

"It's okay, Max," Gazzy wrapped his arms around her waist in a hug. "Nudge told us you wouldn't understand."

"Wait," Max pushed Gazzy's shoulders back enough so she could see his face. "Us? Are the others here?

She stared into his eyes, her vision flickering between his saintly face and bright eyes to his last moments in that smoky security room.

"Max, what's happening?!"

Gazzy laughed. "Of course there are others!" He was happy…too happy.

"Iggy!"

Gazzy's terrified voice stabbed through her memory, the flames licking at the sides of the hallways rippling across the scene before her, the white room coming back like a holograph or wisps of steaming vapor.

"I'm here," a hand landed on her shoulder and she twisted around, sensing danger in this seeming utopia. Iggy was the one behind her, his face blank, almost peaceful looking, but it was overlaid with his over wrought and petrified expression as the flames separated them back at the lab.

"MAX."

"Is something wrong Max?" Iggy asked. His voice was strange, different, clean almost. Like someone had scrubbed it free of sarcastic indifference and replaced it with amicable monotony.

"This isn't real," Max attempted to stay strong, but her bottom tip was trembling. The only thing worse than her Flock being dead, was being teased by imposters. She backed up to the point where she could see both of them, slipping into a defensive stance as they came closer.

"But we are real, Max," Gazzy and Iggy said in unison, an almost robotic tinge painting the edges of their voices.

"Shut UP!" She covered her ears as they continued to talk. "Shut up, shut up, shut up, shut up, shu–"

She gasped awake. No ghosts, no Gazzy, no Iggy, no nothing.

"Welcome back, Max," Banner smiled weakly.

Steve sat a cup of tea down in front of her and she wrinkled her nose, but he cocked an eyebrow and she immediately took a sip against her own instincts.

"What happened?" She asked, sitting down in front of her along with the other heroes, making her feel like she was on some sort of tribunal. Granted, Clint was half asleep, but it was a tribunal-ish she was ever going to get.

"What?" she asked innocently, taking another sip of tea with wide eyes.

"To your family, fledgling," Thor answered. She was surprised to see him here, considering he had no concern in her well-being beforehand, but he was nonetheless a part of the Avengers, and so he was included in all of their meetings.

"Why would I tell you?" she got quippyer, more sarcastic with each sip of her tea. What did Steve even put in this thing?

"You were talking about them in your sleep," Natasha gave her a pointed look. "Please tell us. We can't help you if we don't know what happened."

Max rolled her eyes, as if it was all so silly, but took another sip of tea and, with shaky fingers, allowed it to slip back down onto the coffee table.

"We were going to infiltrate an old lab building. It was supposed to be abandoned, btu I couldn't remember why we were even going there in the first place," Max hiccupped, wiping the corners of her mouth with the end of her sleeve. "Isn't that weird? It was the mission that got them killed and I can't even remember what it was about." She drew in a breath, playing with her fingers in her lap. "Anyway, Gazzy had hooked up all of the surveillance cameras to work again and I watched, acting as a backup. He was a genius, that boy. Him and Iggy. He was only eight, but he could make everyone pop up on the screens like that," she snapped her fingers with a tiny smile.

"But then something went wrong. There was smoke and scientists pouring in from everywhere. I took Gazzy's hand and we ran, all the way down the hallway until we found Iggy. Now Iggy, he was Gazzy's best friend, a partner in crime. He was blind since he was little, but he could see better than the rest of us. He was supposed to be in a group with Fang but…but he told me Fang had d-died," Max took in a huge sniffled, wiping at the tears that had fallen from the corners of her eyes. "Fang…He was my best friend. He was amazing. And…he was dead…" He voice broke on the last word, but she continued.

"Whitecoats had cornered us; we had no choice but to run and try to find the others, but the infrastructure of the building wasn't very good and something had caused a spark to light. All of a sudden I was separated from the boys by a wall of flame. They told me to go on, to find Nudge and Angel, but I wasn't quick enough," She was handed a tissue by Natasha and blew her nose. "I could hear their screams as the whitecoats killed them."

"Five minutes later I had found Nudge," The tissue was crumpled in her left palm as she told the tale, clutching it every other minute or so. "She said that Angel was missing. Angel, my," Max hiccupped. "My baby…She was only six years old and they murdered her. But Nudge and I had to keep going, we were the only ones left, until the ceiling collapsed." Max drew a shuddering breath. "It was quick for her; her body was cold before I had even realized what had happened. Nudge was the last and then she was gone. Oh Nudge, you would have loved her," she chuckled along with her sobbing, a nostalgic smile on her lips. "She was a talker. Talk, talk, talk, she could do it for hours, but then she was silenced. Forever."

"So I had to get out," Max picked up the mug of tea, her tears near dry. "I ran away and never went back."

I am not completely satisfied with Tony's characterization in this, but oh well. I can always fix it when I edit the entire story in a few months. I also feel as if every chapter is becoming a big Max confession-fest and then everyone just ooh-ing and aww-ing to comfort her. Must. Stop. Chapter. Formulas. Hopefully you guys haven't given up on me yet, even if this chapter is less than satisfying. THE NEXT ONE SHALL BE GREAT AND CONTAIN MUCH BUTT KICKING.

But ooh, ghost dreams, what do you think of that?

And the question of the day is…

What (or who) is controlling the ghost dreams?

Review with your thoughts!

-Acca

Next time on Wither Wings.

"It's Christmas!" Steve said in awe, looking up at the city's decorations.

"Yeah, I was never one for holidays,"

The ice broke, sending shards every which way and Max saw a figure slump next to her.

"Tony!"