"You should have told me you were gonna show up in a limo," Peter laughed when I stepped out of the back, waving slightly to those left inside. "I feel a bit under dressed," he looked down to his jeans and hoodie.
"Oh stop," I shook my head. "You make me feel normal, I feel ridiculous dressed like this."
"You're very sparkly. We should have come on disco night," he joked and I glared at him. "They would save a bunch on disco balls if they just hung you up there," he said when we walked inside and pointed to the middle off the lanes to where they'd suspended a large, mirrored ball.
"You're actually the worst and you need to stop," I said and he laughed as we went to rent our shoes.
"Hey Bonnie, Peter, haven't seen you kids in a while," Joe, the old guy who owned the place greeted and I smile. "New hair, I like it."
"Thanks Joe," I smiled. "It's been too long."
"Usual sizes?" He asked and I nodded.
He handed us our shoes and we paid for our usual lane, three game special as always and I felt more normal than I had in such a long time. It was like we were kids again and I wasn't living in Avengers tower and I wasn't a veteran. I went over to the racks with bowling balls on them and picked out the red one that was the right weight for me an grabbed Peter's usual blue one.
"Prepare to go down, short stack," he grinned devilishly at me.
"Oh yeah?" I quirked a brow and smirked at him.
"Yeah," he nodded, proud of himself and then swinging his arm back. "I've been working on my swing game." I rolled my eyes as he got a spare.
"It's actually been years since I've done this," I commented, thinking about how the war didn't leave much time to go bowling.
"Don't think that means I'll go easy on you," he teased and I swung my arm back, watching the ball roll down the wooden lane. "Not that you'll need it," he commented as I managed to knock down seven pins in my first swing.
Peter beat me for the first time in a long time and he walked over to the counter feeling like a million bucks. I smiled as I walked behind him, getting a couple of copies of the score sheet printed out. Peter said something about having it framed and I rolled my eyes. He was never a sore loser but boy, was he an annoying winner. I climbed up on the stood beside him and he waved down the server. I rolled my shoulders, letting loose some tension and stretching out my legs a little, heels now put back on and bowling shoes returned at the rentals counter.
"Chilli cheese fries for the lady and a New York dog for the gentleman," the server handed us our food and gave us out sodas as we sat chatting about normal things for once. About school and boring homework and the outcome of Friday's game. I felt like me again and I didn't have the whole world riding on my shoulders.
"So Stark designed me a new suit," Peter said as we wandered over to the arcade machines.
"Bet you still look like a dork though," I joked, pulling out one of the guns attached to the hulking machine. It felt good to be able to hold a plastic rifle and shoot virtual bullets instead of knocking nazis from trees.
"Hey," he sounded scandalised. "I've seen your suit, Miss America, and it sucks."
"Screw you mine's awesome," I shook my head and focused on the game.
"Yeah, keep telling yourself that," he smiled, taking one of my targets from me.
"Keep to your side, bucko," I growled, sniping my next target.
"If you've got to have sides you're not good enough," he responded and I slammed my hip into his, bumping him out of the way to take down some of his targets. "Cheater!"
"If you can't handle the heat, Peter," I grinned and he growled.
The machine spat out tickets and we walked over to the basketball shooter. He was showing off with his Spidey skills and I rolled my eyes, using my own sportsmanship to score goals without the need for trick shots. We got an even score with that and more tickets spat out and we went around, versing each other until we ran out of petty cash.
"Where are you going?" I asked and he tugged me over to a claw machine.
"Remember when we were thirteen and we were down at the lake again and there was that dingy old claw machine with the gremlin toys in it and you won one but it broke down?" He said putting in his last quarter.
"Yeah and I never got it out and I was salty about it for the rest of the summer?" I asked and he nodded.
"Well," he smiled, leading the claw over to the studded mogwai plush. "I promised I'd get you one and I've been practicing with this thing all week while you were gone."
The claw slid down and gripped hold of the stuffed plush and picked it up out of the pile, carrying it over to the hole and dropping it down into the shoot. He slipped his hand in the door and pulled it out. He grinned at me and then handed me the stuffed toy and I smiled at it, feeling a bit teary eyed.
"Peter, you didn't have to do this," I looked affectionately down at the plush. "It's been years.."
"But I never forgot," he gave me his goofy, sweet grin and I held the toy close.
"This is really sweet," I smiled and slammed myself forward into his chest, knocking him a step back. I wrapped my arms around him in a thankful hug.
"Your welcome," he smiled down as me as I pulled away.
We walked up to the prize counter to cash in our tickets and combined we had enough for the tiny little hot wheels key chain. He handed over our tickets and valiantly leant over and presented me with the keychain. I smiled and took it from him, holding it close to my chest.
"Oh Peter," I said dramatically. "It's exactly what I wanted, how did you know?"
"Man's intuition," he joked and I snorted as we headed out of the bowling alley, evening now set in and the sky and dark blue.
"What's your man's intuition say about tonight, hmm?" I asked as we walked closer to the subway entrance. "Any crime out?"
"Well we can always find some," he replied.
"Lets go home so I can change into something more normal and we'll go crime fighting like we used to," I suggested and he nodded smiling. We used to have such a good time before things got all complicated.
We rode the subway like old times and headed back to Forest Hills now my house was bug free. We still had to work on Peter's place but I'd get Steve's help with that. I wasn't sure I needed it, but I felt better having it. I liked Steve's help. Even if he let Stark make me into a Barbie.
"I hate all these sparkles," I said as I walked through the hallway, headed towards the stairs.
"The house is looking better," Peter commented.
"Yeah Steve came over to help clean the place up," I explained as I walked up the stairs. I quickly changed into my old clothes that I'd all but abandoned since moving in with Stark. I pulled on a black v-neck shirt with longs selves and a black jacket. My jeans were already black, then I pulled on a pair of black socks and an old stuffed up pair of sneakers.
"Now you look more you," Peter commented as I came out of my room, his taller lankier frame towering over me.
"What, now I'm dressed like a criminal?" I replied laughing at my all black and non reflective outfit while he was dressed head to toe in his Spiderman suit.
"Now you're wearing your own clothes," he responded and we climbed out my bedroom window, running over the rooftop and jumping onto the next one until we got closer to taller buildings. When we did, he wrapped an arm around my waist and I wrapped my arms around his neck. We swung from building to building, swinging through alleyways and looking for people up to no good.
We spotted our favourite guy in purple and and Peter dropped me down gently on a fire escape before swinging in front of Batroc the Leaper. I watched him halt the villain as I pulled my hood over my head and slid on a black costume mask we'd picked up over a year ago. I crouched, stepping closer ever slightly to the edge, waiting for Peter to lead Batroc closer to me. Picking my moment, I jumped over the edge of the fire escape and landed on top of our assailant, tackling him to the ground and pinning him.
"It isn't over Spider-man," Batroc said in typical bad guy fashion and I rolled my eyes behind my mask.
"You always say that," Peter replied, probably also rolling his eyes. I heard movement behind me but before I could do anything about it Peter went to shoot webs behind me.
"Not today Spidey," the person behind me said. I heard the click of a gun behind me and I gulped quietly. Peter knew I was carrying, if he thought what I was thinking and used his webs to pin Batroc at the same time as I jumped up, I could theoretically dodge the bullets aimed at me and take out this new guy.
"Who are you?" Peter asked, sounding slightly amused.
"I'm Boomerang," he responded and we both snorted.
"Isn't that a comic book character?" Spider-Pete laughed. "Shouldn't you be off fighting Batman?"
"I'm called Boomerang because my expert marksmanship," he replied. "Not after the comic book character Captain Boomerang."
I saw through my peripherals, that he was distracted by Spiderman's taunting and not noticing Peter edge closer and closer. I slowly slid my hand into the back of my pants and gripped the hand gun beneath my fingers. I looked the other way for conformation from Peter, he gave what looked like a brief nod and I leapt away from Batroc the Leaper, moving to tackle Boomerang while Peter pinned Batroc to the ground with his webs.
I kicked Boomerang's gun out of his hands and pulled mine out from my pants, clicking the safety off and pointing it at him. He was then pinned to the ground and tied with Peter's webs, as Peter pulled out quarter and walked over to a nearby payphone and dialling 911. He left the phone off the hook and I clicked the safety back on my gun and put it back behind me. Peter wrapped a hand around my waist and shot off a web towards a nearby building. We swung out of the alley and out of the way before the Police made a move to come get the villains we'd just caught. Although, I made a note that we'd essentially just tied up people who had committed crimes before, this time we hadn't actually caught them doing anything.
I wonder if this was why J. Jonah Jameson thought Spiderman was a menace. I laughed quietly to myself as we swung our way around the city and eventually back to my parents' old place. We climbed back in the window and got changed back into our clothes, Peter in street clothes and me into my glitzy, glamour stuff. Peter was waiting in the hallway when I came out of my room and we walked down the stairs together, laughing about something stupid.
When we got to the bottom I noticed a human shaped figure standing by the kitchen, I went to scream at the same time as I pulled out my hand gun and Peter went for the lights. By the time the lights were on and I chased after the fleeting figure they were long gone and I sighed. I put my gun back in my pants and listened to see if I could find any ringing noises in the house. I checked for any new or moved objects around the house and then held up a flash light, looking around like Coulson had taught me, for any reflections of light. I didn't spot anything and I leaned back against the wall with a sigh.
"Who do you think that was?" Peter asked, coming up to me after having a look around the rest of the rooms.
"I have no idea," I replied, thinking about every detail I could remember about the guy I saw. I went to the table by the stairs where the phone sat and I pulled a notepad out of the drawer, scribbling down everything I could recall from what had just happened and then I took the notepad and the pen with me. "Right," I sighed. "I'm going to call the Tower," I sighed.
"We're so boned," he said and I shook my head.
"We don't have to tell them we were off fighting crime," I replied. "We were upstairs and then when we came downstairs there they were," I explained.
"But what were we doing, aren't they going to ask why we were here?" He asked.
"This is my house, I have every right to be here," I responded. "We were up stairs, laughing and joking and when we came down stairs into the dark there they were. You went for the lights, I went for my gun but they got away."
"See, this is why you went back in time and I didn't," he replied and I laughed.
"The best lies are adaptions of the truth," I responded. "Tasha taught me, actually, it's something Bucky said to me as well."
I pulled my snazzy, Stark brand cellphone out of my pocket and dialled Tony, him picking up almost on the first ring. I explained that I needed picked up for my old place urgently because we'd just found someone inside my house and he went from cheery to serious real fast. He sent Happy my way and I could hear clattering in his lab. Less than five minutes later I could head a thunking metallic clank and a knock at the door.
Peter went to open it and I slid my head round to look out the window, I gestured to him and he unlocked the door, letting in Iron Man decked out in full suit.
"You check the building?" He asked, voice coming out a little weird. And I nodded. He walked outside and went to do a perimeter check and came back with nothing.
"It was really weird," I commented. "Can you do a bug check with your suit, we haven't been able to do it the natural way."
He had Jarvis use his suit to run a scan through the house as he walked and picked up nothing. I wondered if that's what the figure had been there for and we'd just interrupted them.
"Happy will be here any moment," I started. "Peter and I can stay here, could you check Peter's house?" I asked and Tony agreed, face plate of the suit shutting and he left the building, going down the street.
Happy pulled up in a sleek looking sports car and Peter and I climbed in after I locked up the house. Pocket Jarvis connected Tony to my headphones through his suit and I was able to talk to him on the way back.
"I've put Jarvis in one of the bugs to see if we can track where the signal is being sent to, but I haven't deactivated them yet, that way they won't come down here," he said and I nodded, forgetting he couldn't see me.
"Where's Steve?" I asked.
"He's on his way back from a mission, he'll be at the Tower by the time we get back," he responded.
"Good, he'll want to hear about this," I said and Tony agreed.
"You know, you'll want to think about installing some Stark security when you and Capsickle are renovating that place," he said after a moment. "Regular security measures like door locking mean nothing to the trained criminal."
"We have to pull off the wall paper inside anyway, you might as well start before we paint the place up all nice," I suggested, giving him the go ahead to install Stark security at my parents' house. I lay my head back on the headrest clutching the mogwai plush Peter had won me and thinking about if I could have seen the figure before.
I gasped and sat up straight, grabbing my note pad as a flash of metal spun it's way through my memory. The guy with the silver glove from before I went back in time when Tony tried to give me his shit version of the serum. From memory I tried to sketch out the guy I'd seen, but it had been years. Luckily about that time was when I'd taken the S.H.I.E.L.D issue memory enhancing drugs so my memory of that day was probably a little better than it should have been after all this time.
I then sketched out an image of what I thought the guy looked like tonight. I hummed and then remembered the camera in the hairlip Stark had given me.
"Jarvis?" I asked.
"Yes ma'am," Jarvis responded through my headphones.
"Can you pull up the video footage from when we came down the stairs tonight and send it to Tony back at the tower?" I asked. "Try and search for a clean image of the figure we found."
"Yes ma'am, right away," he replied. Tony was no doubt home by now since he could just fly around in the Iron Man suit and ignore traffic laws.
