The two barely heard from Tony after that. They watched the news, they knew he was dealing with the new Sokovia Accords and the switch from Avengers Tower to the new compound. Neither of them talked about him much, but each was harboring their own wounds at not being contacted. There was a space in both their lives for a father figure and although neither would admit it, they both, for a brief moment, thought Tony could possibly fill that role. When he didn't, both were disappointed.
Then Peter heard from him after his stint with the weapons dealers, but Evan heard nothing. He took Peter's suit and Evan heard nothing. Peter almost died, was almost crushed to death under a building, which was still something that kept her up at night, and Evan heard nothing. When she found out that Tony had given Peter the chance to be on the Avengers permanently, and she was left forgotten, she was heartbroken. After Peter had told her what had happened, she had to hold back tears. Hatred grew in her for Tony Stark. He had forgotten her. Had given her a fancy suit and thrown her aside. Even though he disagreed, Peter had done the same thing. He was blinded by the same things she was and he had been willing to leave her in her rotting two-bedroom apartment with her deadbeat father, alone. And what was worse was that he knew what was going on. He knew what it was like for her, and he still was willing to leave her. He told her that it was only a matter of time before Mr. Stark asked the same of her, but Evan didn't believe it.
She had always felt as though the two of them were a team and now they were being separated. Evan was being forced to come to terms with the fact that she wasn't as impressive as her counterpart. That she wasn't worthy of the attention that Peter was getting from Stark.
Things were even worse at home. Despite her newfound super-strength, she couldn't find it in herself to use it on her father. If he found out about her super strength and accelerated healing factor she knew he wouldn't hold back. She couldn't risk it. Some days were better than others, like the days he drank so much that he didn't even get off the couch, but most days were worse. Sometimes when he got angry it was because of something stupid like she was making too much noise when the TV was on, or she had burnt the dinner they were having. Sometimes it was because she was in a bad mood that day and she snapped at him without thinking about it. She couldn't really remember a time before he was like this, so this was the only home life she knew. Her mother had left before she was old enough to remember her. Still, things were worse than she was used to. She was being thrown around so much on patrol that it was easy to hide the remnants of her father's anger from Peter, but still, she could tell that he was getting worried.
She had her own fair share of run-ins with bigger criminals and lately, she was becoming more and more reckless. She was aware it was happening, but she couldn't find it in her to really care. No one was watching out for her; no one cared if anything happened to her. Deep down she knew that Peter would mourn if something happened, even with how distant they had been lately, but she was angry and she didn't like to think of Peter anymore.
She knew that Mr. Stark was tracking her. After he had given her the suit, she took the time to examine it and its features and it wasn't long before she realized that there were hundreds of capabilities that had been blocked off from her. She had only been scratching the surface of what the suit could do in Germany. It took her a while, but eventually, she broke through the protocols that Mr. Stark had put in place and unlocked the features, now able to use the suit to its full potential. That was when she was able to see how much information Mr. Stark was actually receiving from her. She was shocked to find that he was not only receiving her location, but her health stats, audio feed, and video feed from the suit. For some reason Evan couldn't quite explain, this information only made her feel more abandoned by Tony. He had access to all this information, had seen every time she was at her lowest, and had either never watched it, or had blatantly ignored it. She had wondered if he could see her even when she wasn't wearing the suit, and she truly hoped he couldn't. Not because she was ashamed of her home life, but because if she knew that he was able to see what was happening to her every day and he ignored it, she wasn't sure that she would be able to stand it.
She learned how to disable these features with a closer examination of the suit, but decided to keep them on, with the knowledge that she could turn them off if she needed to. She was sitting on top of an apartment building, watching the people and traffic below her. Listening to the car horns and occasional yells of the cars and people underneath her. Her mask was off. She liked the feeling of her hair brushing around her face from the wind. It tickled her cheek and made her smile. She could hear her A.I., which she had named Eleanor, analyzing police radio, social media, and websites to find any crime in the city that needed her attention. It had been a bad week and she had been itching to get out of her dingy apartment. She hadn't seen Peter in a couple of weeks now and at first, it had freaked her out. They tended to do patrols together most nights but lately, she found herself doing them alone. When she texted him, he gave her a vague excuse that she knew meant he was upstate. Now she was less bothered by the lack of his presence. It felt good to not have to talk to anybody. She could go for days only talking when necessary. It was strange, days like those.
It was hard for her to picture life any different than the one she was living right now. School for her was less of a way for her to move forward and more of a way for her to distract herself. She was incredibly intelligent, but that doesn't matter when you don't have the appropriate resources behind you, or at least that's what she told herself. Even if she could get a scholarship or some sort of financial help, she would have to work relentlessly just to be able to pay for the basic amenities once she got there. She went to a public school in New York City, which meant almost no attention from any teachers or other students. It was full of students just like her; kids who went home to worse situations than she did. If it didn't do anything else for her, at least it gave her perspective. She didn't have the connections or resources to be able to go to a school as Peter did. So college was never something she had ever thought about. The ironic thing about Mr. Stark showing up at her door was that she probably could have gotten more out of a real Stark internship than she did in Berlin. All she got was facetime with heroes who wanted to kill her, a near-death experience, and some painkillers. With an internship, she may have gotten some money, an academic opportunity, anything. Sometimes she liked to imagine what her life would have been like if that had been the reason he was there.
"Shots fired seven blocks from here. Looks like an armed robbery and possible hostage situation." Eleanor's voice broke Evan from her trance.
"Got it. Are the police there yet? It would be great if I could get there before them. Dealing with cops is such a nuisance." She quickly gathered her hair into a long braid and tucked it into her mask. She stood, surveying the city below her. She extended her arms, feeling the electric pulses of her wings as they fired up. She could feel the connection was complete and her wings were extended. She felt the wind tugging against them, pushing her toward the edge of the roof. Finally, she let the wind take her and jumped off the roof, soaring into the night below.
