Rhea sat with her Uncle Vision and Uncle Rhodey watching the Justice League movie in the theatre room. Rhea liked this movie for one main reason, Jason Momoa. She had met him, the luck of being a Stark, and had loved every moment of spending time with him.
"You'd think that they got enough of this in real life." Rhodey commented.
"Yeah." Rhea shrugged catching a piece of popcorn in her mouth.
"I find that it is a coping method for the things they see in life. This way they can analyze it and separates themselves from the events of their real life." Vision commented casually, Rhea and Rhodey glancing at him form the corner of their eyes.
"Right." Rhodey drew out.
"Wish we had an Aquaman." Rhea commented.
"I wouldn't say no to a Wonder Woman myself." Rhodey nodded.
"Don't let Auntie Nat hear you say that." Rhea pointed out with a smirk that turned into a frown when she remembered her family's situation. Rhodey and Vision looked at her in concern knowing that this separation amongst them was taking a toll on her.
"Hey Rhea?" Rhodey spoke up.
"Yeah?" Rhea glanced at him.
"Not that I don't like spending time with you, but why don't you ever go out and hang out with kids your own age?" Rhodey asked.
"Because my grandfather is Iron Man and has protective issues." Rhea said nonchalantly. "Plus the whole vetting thing, who wants to know me compared to those who want what I have through me."
"Good point." Rhodey frowned.
"But it's not all bad. I have a good friend named Shuri that I talk with over the internet, Peter and Ned are well on the way to becoming friends with me and then there's Michelle who seemed really cool. I'm getting there, no worries." Rhea glanced down at her phone when it started to buzz urgently. Eyebrows furrowing she rocked to her feet and headed down the hall furiously typing away on the screen. "I got to take this, be right back."
"Perhaps Rhea would be more apt to making connections with people of her age group were she to attend school." Vision mused as Rhodey nodded.
"I'll talk with Pepper and see if we can't team up against Tony on this." Rhodey proposed.
-0-
The phone to Peter and Ned's motel room rang out causing them both to jump. Glancing at each other Peter slowly picked up the phone clearing his throat before answering.
"Hello?" Peter asked.
"Do you know how lucky you are right now?" Rhea asked, an electrical sound in the background.
"Uh...I don't know…" Peter glanced at Ned.
"I had to do some freaky fast and creative hacking in order to incept the fact that you hacked your suit before Grandpa found out." Rhea told him bluntly. "What the heck is going on Parker?"
"I'm going after the vulture guy, I need to stop him." Peter told her.
"I'm sure that there are people taking care of this Pete, no worries." Rhea tried.
"I can't sit by and do nothing, I can do this." Peter argued and Rhea let out a long suffering sigh.
"Fine, but you better not get killed or worse." Rhea muttered.
"What could be worse than dying?" Peter asked.
"Grandpa finding out and killing both of us." Rhea answered dryly.
"I'll do my best." Peter promised, then she heard him talking to someone. "Ned says hi by the way."
"Tell him I said hey back." Rhea smiled. "Oh and ask about the death star lego set!"
"Guys, I would love to be the go between on your conversation, but I have a bird to cage." Peter pointed out.
"Right, nice euphemism by the way. Adam West Batman would be proud." Rhea smiled with a chuckle. "Good luck Peter, you'll be great."
"Thanks for believing in me Rhea." Peter replied.
"What are friends for?" Rhea ventured carefully.
"Really?" She heard Ned over the phone. "We're friends?"
"Is that's ok with you and Peter?" Rhea bit her lip.
"Of course it is." Peter answered right away.
"We should all totally go hang out after all this." Ned cheered.
"Sounds great." Rhea was practically bouncing. "I'll catch you guy's later, bye."
"Bye Rhea." They both said before hanging up. Rhea let out a happy cheer as she fist pumped and jumped around her room. She spun around stopping short and almost falling over when she saw Pepper standing in her doorway looking amused.
"Good news I presume." She commented.
"Yeah, I just made friends with Peter and his friend Ned." Rhea ginned.
"That's great Rhea. He's the Spiderboy Tony's been working with right?" Pepper asked.
"Spider-Man, but yeah, that's him." Rhea nodded.
"Right, Spider-Man." Pepper took note of the way Rhea's cheeks pinked. "Mind if I come in?"
"Sure." Rhea nodded gesturing to her couch where Pepper took a seat, Rhea taking a seat at her high-tech drafting desk. "What can I do for you?"
"I was talking with Rhodey and Vision, we were wondering if you'd like to attend school here on earth." Pepper offered and Rhea felt her smile double in size.
-0-
Rhea whacked the ball as hard as she could letting it hit the wall and ricochet at her opponent. Racquet ball was one of her favorite sports, but she took it to a whole other level. One of her grandfather's suit returned the ball smacking it hard. She ran out the wall and kicked off allowing her to leap into the air to hit the ball again, but the Iron Man suit was quick to return, hovering up into the air to hit the ball. Rhea sent a blast of magic down to propel her into the air to make her hit when AL stopped the game shutting down the suit.
"What gives AL?" Rhea landed with a pout.
"You better see this." AL brought up some screens from the suit and Rhea's eyes doubled in size upon seeing the news report on trouble on a ferry saying that Spiderman was present on the scnene.
"Oh…" Rhea ran out of the room running as fast as she could down the halls straight into Tony's lab. "Grandpa!"
"What's up kiddo?" Tony looked up from his work at her.
"Trouble in the harbor, Peter's there and reports just came in about a flying bird man." Rhea said quickly.
Tony muttered a curse under his breath calling his suit to him while laying out a plan with Friday before taking off out the window with Rhea right behind him, snapping her fingers forming her Hex suit. They came on the scene just in time to see a blast of purple light cut the boat in half. Tony called up some back up with rockets that pushed and help hold the ferry together.
Rhea jumped to into the ferry grabbing up people before they could fall into the gap and using her magic to help Tony seal it all back together. She looked up and could see Peter following Tony around as he worked trying to make up for what had happened.
"AL, talk to me, how many more civies in trouble?" Shaking her head she concentrated on the people that needed her.
"You're good kid, everyone is safe and sound." AL replied. "Friday says your gramps is calling for you though."
"What's up Gramps?" Rhea asked over their comm.
"Stay with the ferry, make sure it gets to harbor ok while I deal with the kid." Tony ordered.
"Hey Grandpa, maybe go easy on him." Rhea said hesitantly.
"Rhea, he nearly got everyone on this boat killed." Tony grit out.
"I know, I know that, but he's new to this whole thing, maybe he needs some one on one training instead of just letting him go loose." Rhea offered. "I could help a bit, maybe bring in Uncle Rhodey or Uncle Vis…."
"No, no more chances, this is too big." Tony was really angry. "As soon as that boat is safe you get home, got it?"
"Yeah Gramps, see you later at home." Rhea gave in knowing it was no use.
"Civvies might be safe, but I think that hero of yours is in big trouble." AL commented.
"Al, he's not my hero." Rhea blushed.
"Keep telling yourself that kid." AL mocked.
-0-
Rhea walked toward where she knew her grandpa was hanging out, working out his frustrations over Peter in his lab. She was once again wishing her parents were there to give her some advice, but Asgard was facing some serious trouble that needed their attention, apparently her Grandfather was MIA and her Uncle Thor was off on some sort of quest. Rhea typed in the lab code and walked in, the loud sounds of ACDC filling the room up.
"Hey Friday, can you lower the volume?" Rhea requested as loud as she could to be heard.
"Gladly." Friday replied and the music turned down.
"Hey." Tony glanced up from his work.
"Hey nothing, you're going to blow your eardrums young man." Rhea came over taking a seat across the work table from him. "I don't know what your generation is coming to."
"Oh you know, drugs, alcohol, heavy metal…" Tony shrugged glancing over at her. "So is this social visit or…"
"I think you should give Peter another chance." Rhea came straight out.
"Not happening." Tony said shortly.
"Grandpa, it was a mistake, he thought he was doing the right thing." Rhea tried.
"He could have killed a lot of people Rhea." Tony set his tools aside.
"I know, but it really wasn't completely his fault." Rhea pointed out and nearly wilted under the look Tony leveled at her.
"Excuse me." Tony straightened up.
"Well he's had no training and half the time no one is even listening to him. I mean Happy is a great guy, but he ignores Peter and hardly even answers his calls." Rhea took a deep breath. "And don't take this the wrong way, but you're pretty paranoid."
"Paranoid? I'm trying to protect him." Tony argued. "He's not ready."
"Grandpa, you're so worried he'll make the mistakes that you made that you act like we already made them." Rhea leaned forward. "You should have told him that you had set up a sting operation just to let him know that you were taking him seriously? As far as he knew the information he gave was ignored and not taken seriously, he thought nothing was going to be done about it."
"Rhea, Peter put himself and the people of that boat in real danger." Tony said seriously. "You just don't understand that kind of pressure."
"You don't think I understand about pressure?" Rhea tilted her head to the side, her eyes flashing.
"You don't get what it's like to have the whole world on your shoulders and if I struggle with it there's no way a kid his age can handle it." Tony said and Rhea felt something in her snap.
"Really!? Try having two worlds on your shoulders." Rhea crossed her arms.
"Rhea, this is not about that, you don't really have to worry about protecting earth or asgard." Tony waved her off and that was the exact wrong thing to do.
"Oh no you did not." Rhea stood straight up, her chair falling behind her. "I don't have to worry? Me? Worry is all I get to do half the time." Rhea shook her head. "You just do not get it! Do you have any idea what it's like to be me or Peter?! To be able to do what we can at our age?!"
"Don't give me that 'you don't understand my generation' excuse." Tony cut in. "You're not the only one going through what you're going through."
"Oh really? Is that so? Well let's think about this. I am the daughter of immortal mutant superhero Vanessa Stark, who is the daughter of billionaire genius Tony Stark aka Iron man, and my father is Loki, Norse God of Mischief, and the man who under mind control tried to take over the world, one of my uncles is the Norse god of thunder and the other is an android, my grandparents on my father's side are the Odin and Frigga, the King and Queen of Asgard, oh and let's not forget that my fraternal grandparents were the freaking King and Queen of Jotunheim! Not to mention my extended family which is the assemblage of earth's greatest heroes!" Rhea really started to lose it as she went on, all of her pent up feeling come out in one giant burst.
"Rhea…" Tony tried, but she was too far gone into her rant.
"I am an heiress on earth, a princess of two worlds, part jotunn, part human, part Asier, demigoddess, teenage girl who wants nothing more than to have a taste of a normal life, to escape all of the pressure of having to live up to all that was set before me!" Rhea slammed her fists down denting the metal table. "But instead I'm hedged in, always told it's too dangerous for me. I can't go out shopping or eating or to make friends because on Agard they're wary of me and on earth I'm nothing more than Iron Mans granddaughter." Rhea looked up at Tony. "People like me and Peter, we have these abilities, these hopes and dreams, but no one to listen to us or take us seriously then when everything goes to heck we take the blame instead of those who should have been helping us. What's going to happen to the world when the old generation of heroes are gone and the new generation are not ready?"
Rhea shook her head turning on her heel and left a stunned Tony behind her.