A/n - Hey guys! much love for the reviews, I do so love to see the feedback. I'd apologize for the long gap between chapters but ... life really is crazy and I'm an anxious mess. So... here it is. Please enjoy! I'll TRY to get the next one up sooner, but no promises.
Chapter 90: Natural Reactions
With focus on and around Avenger's tower, it was simply too hot for the young heroes to get out and enjoy a little time to themselves without risking being 'unmasked'. Even during the week. So far, only James and Rachel had been outed, but now that the press had two private names and faces to go with their heroic public names … they were looking for more.
But that meant that it was just too hot for the kids to hang around anywhere close to the tower. Their parents had hoped that would get them to lay low, but that was never going to happen when they had the rare opportunity of a day off with no extracurricular activities on the board.
So it was just fate that Kate had found a large group of high schoolers gathering for the group to use as a good time and hide in plain sight. The only unfortunate thing was that the party was in Jersey, a point that Nate had to give her a hard time over - even if Billy and Tommy didn't seem to mind in the least. It was plain that the boys needed something to lighten them up after details on the attack on James made it back to Wanda and Vision.
No one in the Maximoff or Summers household was amused. At all. The poison used on James had turned out to be a terrifyingly simply concoction that could have been used by at least three or four individuals, and the only saving grace they had was that it wasn't one of Viper's complex, horrifying layered poisons, so they were reasonably sure that at least she wasn't on the list of people actively pushing to kidnap or kill the kid. But that didn't mean that a repeat of the same toxin wouldn't kill one of the others if they came into contact with it.
They needed a break. All of them. And a river-side warehouse party seemed like just the ticket. How Kate had heard about it, no one really knew, but … she knew about it, and she was more than ready to make friends on the other side of the river just as a change of pace. And they were all relieved to see that yes, Kate was right.
The party was big enough that they could wander, mingle, dance, and even grab a corner to hang around and chat while watching their peers live it up without much in the line of worrying about reporters overhearing them or stalker-y adults creeping around.
It was the kind of vibe they could catch at Xaviers, if not for the following they had there that wanted to know all about being X-Men. Or the stalker Billy had that was getting more and more forward.
Music was playing and one of the local kids was actually a promising young underground DJ. Almost everyone was into it in one way or another but very few of them were actually dancing. But those that were happened to be entirely too enthusiastic.
Kate, however, was in her element, and she was more than happy to pull Nate into the middle of the random groups of dancing teenagers to try and get him to loosen up - and then she fell apart laughing when Nate did his finest to make a fool of himself for her entertainment. It only lasted for a minute or two, but Kate needed to be held up by the time she got to full amusement, and Nate was more than happy to take that moment and shift it into stolen kisses between giggles.
He loved it when she let loose like that … and he didn't mind doing whatever it took to get her to grin like that.
Tommy looked almost like he wanted to do the same, but … he would have rather stuck close to Mia. And America was quick to call him out on it.
"How many times have you texted her already?" America teased. "Can your service even keep up?"
"No, it can't, thanks," Tommy said with a smirk. "But who said I'm just texting? I can get there before the text does anyhow."
"It's important to breathe, too," Billy said, one arm over his chest and a drink in his opposite hand.
"Like you'd be worrying about breathing if you could have gotten James to come out," Tommy shot back. "Come on. You'd be hiding somewhere making up for lost time or something."
"So not the point," Billy said, rolling his eyes because … well, he hated to admit when his brother was right. And he wasn't about to start now, either. But he didn't have time to retaliate before Kate and Nate bounced over, grinning and laughing the whole way.
"See?" Kate said. "I told you we could find a party."
"No one doubted that," Nate said, grinning as he wrapped her up from behind. Because you are the party, gorgeous.
I love that you know that and can admit it, Kate replied. But we have some moping friends we have to stop from moping.
That's my girl. Always trying to be the hero.
There's a nature versus nurture argument to be made here about my parents being Avengers…
Yeah, and mine's not trying to carry the weight of the world on his shoulders ever.
You turned out pretty normal.
I should be insulted.
Okay. I'll make it up to you later, Kate decided, and Nate laughed.
"What did we need to celebrate again?" America called out, breaking up the obvious telepathic flirting and kicking herself away from the booth she'd been leaning on.
"Um … we're almost done with my last ever fall semester in high school," Kate said, emphasizing every word.
"So … you're planning to celebrate our senior year by making it the all-Kate, all the time celebration for the next six months?" Tommy said, looking entirely amused.
"I can share," Kate said magnanimously. "You wanna pick the next place to party?"
"Only if I can pawn it off to America and ask her to kick us a hole in a dimension that rocks."
"I can," America said, grinning lazily. "And I'll make sure to snag Billy's poor downtrodden hunk on the way." When Billy turned red, America grinned even harder. "What, those were your words, weren't they?"
"Not… exactly…"
"I must have missed some of those when you were describing how hot he is…"
"America, why are you like this?"
"You tell me," America replied, grinning at her own inside joke, since a version of Billy had, in fact, created her universe.
Billy shook his head at her and then turned toward Kate. "Tommy has a point, though."
"And like I said, I can share," Kate said, both hands on her hips. "And you two need to get out more. Tommy's busy playing spy for 'Ro half the time trying to stay ahead of threats on the school-"
"-you make that sound like a bad thing-" Tommy tried to put in. "-when I'm really just being the best hero ever-"
"-and you've got that stalker," Kate continued, ignoring Tommy. "C'mon. Tell me it doesn't help to get away from him."
"Um… excuse me," a voice called out, barely breaking into the teasing and merrymaking, though they all spun to see who it was. "Hi." The young woman was brown-skinned, with shoulder length dark, flowing hair, and deep, wide brown eyes. She waved the tips of her fingers as she looked among them. "My name is Kamala. Hi."
"Hi, Kamala!" Kate said brightly, grinning as always before she introduced the group - by first names only. "What's up?"
The girl looked both ways, then lowered her voice more as she leaned toward Kate, though they all sort of leaned toward her, too. "I was just … I overheard you and your friends, and um … I'm sorry, but are you Hawkeye?" The last word was whispered, and the girl looked like she was hoping they weren't overheard. Or offended.
Kate's lips parted slightly, and then, she broke into a grin despite herself, already telling Nate mentally that she had this handled. "What makes you think I'm that awesome?" she asked - not outright denying it, especially since she had grown up with Avengers who were regularly called Hawkguy and Miss Widow by their neighbors.
Kamala bounced from one foot to the other. "It's just - well - I've seen a lot of the news footage of the new X-Men and the younger Avenger members, and you…" She gestured to all of Kate in one sweeping gesture. "You kind of act and sound and look like her, you know."
Busted, Nate projected, leaning over Kate's shoulder.
Oh, hush. It's not my fault I'm too amazing to be contained, Kate replied, though she smiled at Kamala. "Wanna join us?" she asked.
Kamala looked like her eyes might pop out of her head. "Really?"
Kate nodded. "You're smart enough to figure out who I am, but maybe don't try to guess on anyone else here. I'm well-known enough because of my parents that some big bads already spoiled my identity, but everyone else…?"
"Right, yeah. I get that," Kamala said, nodding too many times before America laughed and pulled Kamala into the seat next to her.
"Chill out, chica. No one here bites," America said, and Kamala flushed and nodded some more.
"No one here, anyway," Tommy said - and Billy kicked him.
Kate grinned and leaned toward Kamala. "So, cool as it is to be recognized for being one of a kind, we're really just here to have a normal, good time."
"I won't mess that up," Kamala promised quickly, both of her hands raised.
"Wasn't saying you would," Kate said, mirroring Kamala. "Just setting ground rules."
"The Purple Wonder over here is trying to act like she's the only one graduating high school this year," Tommy put in.
"You're still in high school?" Kamala asked, her eyes wide.
The other kids shared smirks. Kamala looked to be around fourteen, and they could all remember how much older seniors had seemed when they were freshman. Being mistaken for college kids was kind of nice, actually.
"Started young," Kate said.
"Yeah, some of us were born with expectations," Tommy said - and kicked Billy.
Billy rolled his eyes. "Ignore him."
"It's okay. I know who you two are, too," Kamala promised, though her level of awe didn't seem to wane. If anything, she looked a little more wide eyed as she took in who was who. And started making guesses on the others mentally.
"Well, yeah, but that's because the Dead Guy Formerly Known As Magneto Formerly Not A Terrible But Not A Great Grandfather insisted we didn't do masks," Tommy said, and Billy groaned.
"Really, Tommy?"
"You're right; I could have added a few more titles in there."
"Why are you like this?" Billy complained.
"One of us had to be the cool one," Tommy replied with a grin that had Kamala both relaxing at seeing how normal they could be while simultaneously only partially controlling her excitement.
"So, um, how did you even hear about this party?" Kamala asked after the twins had bickered back and forth a little bit. "I was under the impression that you guys stuck mostly to the other side of the river."
"Well … that's not really accurate," Nate said, though his tone was slightly different than Kate had heard in a while. He was obviously being cautious about his identity in spite of his very vocal insistence that they be allowed to de-mask before they were all 18.
"Well no," Kamala agreed quickly. "I just … I guess I just assumed you were either living in New York or … um … well… maybe in like … Salem Center? Maybe?"
"We live all over," Tommy replied with an easy grin. "And Kate has a fascination with Jersey for some reason."
"It's because we always have fun when we go to Jersey," Kate sniffed. "And we've spent a lot of time here lately."
"That's true," Billy agreed since many of the calls the team has responded to had been out of Jersey in the last month or so. "And I do like the view from the river."
"See? I knew you'd love it here," Kate said brightly, though that had Kamala puffing up too, since this was her city.
The group chatted for a few minutes, and before much time had passed them, all of the kids on the team were engaged and delighted with Kamala. So much so that when she accidentally saw the time on her watch and startled, all of them were concerned for her as she panicked.
"Are you alright?" Nate asked.
"Oh… I am just … in so much trouble if I don't get home like … right now," Kamala said, bouncing in her seat. "But … I … is there any chance I could get a selfie with you guys?"
Nate shook his head, already knowing that if there was any chance his face would be out there next to Hawkeye, his dad would hit the roof, but America took charge and put her arm around Kamala to pull her into a quick selfie with her and Kate as soon as they were on their feet - and once they were partially away from the table, Billy and Tommy were happy to take a similar picture with Kamala grinning broadly between them.
But that might have been a mistake too, because as soon as the picture was done, and they straightened up to say their goodbyes and move on, two other teenagers came over with their phones out asking for pictures too … and that quickly snowballed until the group was surrounded by people trying to get their pictures with the young X-Men.
There were a lot of ways it could have gone - Tommy could have zipped them out, Billy could have wished them out, or Kate could have talked them all into forming a line, but what happened instead was everyone at the party outside of the young team themselves very suddenly froze.
"What just happened?" Tommy asked, turning toward his brother. "Are we all moving this fast now? What did you do?"
"Nothing!" Billy insisted.
"I did it," Nate said, his eyes glowing as he floated about a foot off the ground. "We should go. They won't realize what happened."
"Did any of them get a picture of you?" Billy asked since out of the group, he was becoming more and more attuned to how careful the Summers kids had to be.
"No," Nate said, looking out over the crowd as he scanned their minds. "But they got Kate. Cat's out of the bag, beautiful. A few of them already posted to social media. If I'm in the background, none of them knew it - not like it'll matter when it hits the school anyhow. Speculation…"
"Yeah, you're probably busted by proxy. What is it with you and your sister letting other people bust you out?" Kate asked as they navigated between frozen teenagers.
"Hey. She busted herself out."
"But that only happened because she was with your brother," Kate pointed out. "You're suckers when you're around the people you love."
"Oh, like you're one to talk."
"I am," she said primly. "And I'm gorgeous, too."
"One of a kind," he teased her, just because she was in such a good mood.
"And you know it."
While the rest of the team was acting their age, James was working on advanced levels of paranoia. Sure, he'd played the whole poisoning incident off at the time when it came to his family - he didn't want them worried more than they would be on their own, after all. But when he wasn't trying to shield them from all of it, James was honestly on edge. He still hadn't figured out where he'd been hit with that elephant strength version of haldol, but he was sure that if anyone else had been hit with it, they'd be dead.
So, in a bit of paranoid caution, James scoured the newspapers for obituaries of anyone connected to the college. It was morbid but he was alone for now. Franklin only had a few lecture dates left on his schedule before Christmas break, he was due back from space any day… and James found himself effectively alone in the Cambridge house. Sure, Bobby had been hanging around, but he wasn't actively staying there.
And though James really wasn't used to being entirely alone … there was a certain peace that came with solitude that James had never really been able to experience thus far. The house was quiet … save for the ticking of a clock in the living room and the kitchen sink dripping. He could hear the reporters and fans outside mulling around and speculating with each other. And a little closer to that was something scratching at the back door.
James turned his head toward the sound, then followed with his entire body before he started to move in that direction. When he looked outside, he didn't see anything at first, and when he finally did see the source of the noise, he let out a heavy sigh as his shoulders dropped.
The cat Natasha had mentioned on her sweep of the house was sitting on the garbage can near the back door, curiously staring at him through the window with big, bright green eyes. Which was when he'd realized he knew the cat. Well … sort of.
The boys had been leaving scraps out for the little animals after having heard one of their neighbors cursing and shouting at the strays, and though Franklin hadn't been on board at first, after seeing how skinny some of the animals were there in town, he had felt sorry for them too … and the boys had silently agreed to try and help them a little.
By the time they really got going, it was really more Franklin's project than it was James'. Franklin had much more time while he was there, and since it was really just a few lectures every week; the rest of the week had been open for him to explore … and to pick up plenty of treats for the animals and make friends.
But James realized that when Franklin left … the animals would still be looking for handouts. So, on thinking it over and counting out how long Franklin had been in space … he realized the little black cat had to be starving. And because it had been a while, James didn't bother with cat food or even table scraps … and instead, he cracked open a can of tuna and brought it out to the skinny stray. As soon as the cat saw him step out, it jumped off the can and snaked its way around his ankles, purring and mewing until he set down the offering … then kept purring as it let James stroke its fur.
He sat on the back step for a long while, watching the cat until it was finished, and then, surprising him, the little cat kept purring as it jumped up on his lap and got comfortable. James didn't think about it as he made friends with the cat, and he wasn't paying attention at all to much beyond his immediate surroundings, though he did look up just before a camera clicked and a reporter looked surprised that he'd been caught. As the guy started to ask questions, James got up and took the cat inside with him. She was friendly enough … and he decided he could use the company to distract him.
By the following weekend, James was ready to fall back into a schedule of school, the house in Cambridge, then 'home' to the tower on the weekend where he planned to pack in two days full of tinkering with Tony and seeing his family as well as a session with Craig on Saturday. He was holding tight to the recommendation that he avoid Brooklyn and the school just to be on the safe side. Which he was fine with. It was a good chance to catch up with Tony - and a chance to actually do a few missions if they came up. It wasn't like he could do his work on the weekend like any other student when all the limitations were still in place.
He was helping Dani Cage with her algebra assignment from her college courses with Luke Cage carefully watching from a few arms' lengths away - still not over Dani stealing kisses over tutoring. Even if Luke knew perfectly well that James was dating Billy.
It was an odd day anyhow. While Tony and Natasha had shifted their focus from tinkering and hunting down every sin Emma Frost had ever considered to hunting down whoever was responsible for drugging James, Jessica Jones had taken the distraction and the rush of news to turn her focus to Emma. So there were quite a few very busy heroes - leaving Luke in charge of helping the kids that still went to the tower. And he was a little resentful that algebra wasn't one of the things he could help with - so he'd grudgingly agreed to let James help her … as long as he could keep close watch.
Dani was finally getting into the groove when Craig came in and paused when he saw the tutoring session in play. He'd come prepared to take an hour with James to check in on how he was handling the circus going on around him now that he was freshly an adult, and freshly attacked by some yet unknown entity. But seeing him explaining advanced mathematical terms and functions in a way that Dani could easily relate to was good. And about the only good thing Craig could put on the list of things he needed to talk to James about.
Craig waited for what looked like a natural break in the tutoring session to catch James' attention. "When you're done there, it's overdue for us to have a little chat," Craig told him, and for just a moment, James looked up at him with the most unamused, neutral expression Craig had ever seen from him.
"We'll see how it goes," James said, not really in the mood to go along with anything even close to talking about ay of the crap from the past week.
"Actually, I think I'm good," Dani said, then smiled at James. "You can go ahead and get it over with."
"Great, let's head to your lab, then," Craig suggested at the same time James muttered 'thanks' through clenched teeth to Dani and Luke's absolute amusement.
Before they could make it all the way down to the lab though, Steve shouted for James to stop … because for the first time in months, James was in the tower when a call came in that suited the young group of Avengers already gathered up and finishing up their homework.
And to James' total relief, Mia had been studying with Leslie Ann, so she was close by and ready to play. But James still had to smooth it over. A little anyhow.
"You needed to talk to Tony too, right?" James asked Craig with half a grin as he started half-jogging backward toward Mia.
"Well yes, but -"
"Great. We're just going to Jersey. Won't be long," James promised. "Probably be back within the hour."
"Please wait if we run over," Mia called with a bright grin before she took a hold of James' arm and the two of them disappeared.
When they reappeared just in front of the locker room, James kissed her cheek. "Thank you. I really need to get out and do something."
"I know," Mia said with a grin. "And it's been too long, so … let's go see what we can do to stop some idiots in Jersey."
James nodded and the two of them parted company to get changed, and though James was the quicker one to be ready, he waited to put the cowl on until he was in the hall again - which was how he discovered that the team had officially grown a little while he was at school.
"There's a look I haven't seen up close," May Parker said from where she was leaning against the wall. "Sooner or later, you'd have to end up going with me on a run, right?" Her tone was bright and she was smiling with her mask in her hands.
There was just a split second where it was clear that James hadn't expected to see Mayday in a uniform… she'd always been clear she was going to join the team as soon as she was old enough, and he knew that Steve had given her permission to join, but he didn't realize she'd already gotten through Steve's hoops to run missions. "Mayday," he said, giving her his best smile without thinking about it "Finally talked the old man into going along with things?"
"He had to back off eventually," May said with a grin before she awkwardly reached out to lightly tap his arm. "Haven't seen the up close, finished version of this."
"I've been busy," he said, turning to start toward the jet and resolutely not commenting on May's reimagined Spider-Girl uniform while May almost skipped to catch up. They were almost to the end of the hall when Mia appeared a few paces in front of them in a poof of purple-pink smoke, looking like she was up for trouble.
"Hi, May," Mia said before she glanced up at James. "She was done before me - Steve said she cleared her training already, so … it's really just a two-person run … "
"So it'll be perfect for one to tick down my list of required trainings!" May said enthusiastically.
James caught on to what May was blatantly ignoring though and took a hold of Mia's hand. "If we're both going to be on the same team, we're going to have to at least try to get along," he told her quietly. "I'm fine. She … is trying to be fine. So let's just go do what we do, huh? I need this run before I jump off the tower - and I'd appreciate it if you went with. Just in case this is bigger than we think."
Mia smiled and nodded. "You make a solid argument. That's happened a few times, too - the whole bigger than we expected thing."
"Just once or twice," he agreed, then gestured to the cockpit. "I know you haven't cleared the tests yet because my brother hogs the stick, but ... "
"Ooh, yes," Mia said, bouncing for a second before she teleported into the pilot's chair and James took the co-pilot. She looked at all the dials and screens, then let her shoulders drop. "He has it on auto, doesn't he?"
"Yep," James agreed. "We can step in if there's a reason to, but yeah. It's all remote."
"Darn." Mayday was standing between the two of them, one hand on either chair. "Can we take it off of auto?"
"No," James said, already shaking his head. First mission without an adult and she was pushing. He wasn't exactly surprised.
May frowned at his reaction, but stepped back to take a seat, then pulled her mask on, loosely crossing her arms and falling into silence. And while they headed off, James started outlining what the details on the mission were for the girls, who were otherwise occupied. May was checking her web shooters and triple checking her cartridges and Mia was looking over the streets and the known trouble zones before they got into it.
They were really just going in to help SHIELD discreetly crack into an abandoned school building that was supposed to be a pick up point that a freedom fighting group used to get kids out to the X-Men, but it looked to be surrounded by AIM - and AIM was fighting back. As they circled the approach, both James and Mia started to take in a few details that they'd need to know about the layout of the school - going over the scans that James had going of the building itself, the SHIELD personnel, and the AIM soldiers defending … whatever it was they were defending. The fact that it was an old school had both James and Mia a little on edge.
"That's a lot of AIM morons," Mayday said. "Why don't we have a full-blown Avenger with us?"
James and Mia shared a look, but James refused to rise to Mayday's incorrect assumption. "Steve gave us the assignment," Mia said. "Are you going to say that Captain America got it wrong?"
"I just-"
"Uncle Steve, who made sure we all knew how to handle fights and make the right call and planned battle strategy and who also snuggled us when we were kids," Mia continued. "Are you going to say that he would send us into unnecessary danger that we can't handle?"
May faltered, then shook her head. "No. I just …"
"Then you're saying that Captain America, a bonafide national treasure and genius tactician is wrong on his assignment of who should take this mission?"
"No!"
"Just stay close to one of us," Mia said as they headed toward their target in silence. The flight was incredibly short and quiet after that before the plane went in to land behind SHIELD lines. When they got out, the lead Agent in charge came up to meet them, and the three of them stayed close to hear the most recent updates - quickly discovering that the reason Steve had picked the three of them was because all three of them were able to get into places without detection, and all three had a stellar reputation with kids …which the lead Agent thought was an important factor.
"Historically, kids don't react well to the black combat fatigue look," Agent Coulson said with his usual dry humor that most people had to pay attention to catch. "Superheroes though … lot better outcomes."
"So when do you get your spandex bodysuit?" James asked, earning a loud snort from one of Coulson's team members.
"Just as soon as they get tired of looking at yours," Coulson shot back, which had a new wave of snickers from his team as he tried to redirect them. "Once your team gets inside, we won't have reliable eyes on you."
"I can fix that," James said as he made his way over to the bank of computers Coulson's team had set up. He took over on a laptop that was showing the drones footage that they had inside already, and after a few lightning fast pages of code flew by, when James was done, there were three more camera options on screen - all of which were currently showing the SHIELD agents and Coulson himself. "Your security tap for these cameras will be good for an hour, then they reset to something else."
"Then I guess you have an hour," Coulson said. "Try not to do anything that'll have your family breathing down my neck. Any of you."
The three teenagers shared a look and with a nod, Mia took a hold of both James and May then disappeared, leaving Coulson's team wondering if they even had a plan.
From Coulson's viewpoint, it was a little hard to see what was going on and why … Mia's camera kept fuzzing out when she would teleport and Mayday's was enough to make a person seasick by the angles and sweeps that happened as she swung or crawled … James' was the most steady, but considering how the kid moved, he wasn't too concerned with camera angles. But … between the kids and the drones, they got a complete story. The girls were deflecting back to James' judgement the closer they got to the action, though both Mia and May were doing fine work webbing or teleporting foes out of the way as they came across them. SHIELD had never gotten such an easy job since Mia would teleport them directly into the holding cells in the mobile units. Clean up and picking up webbed up footsoldiers was also a great way to spend the day as far as most of the SHIELD agents were concerned too…
And there was a solid wake of opponents, until someone tried to take a shot at one of the girls. Coulson couldn't tell for sure which one it was since there was a splatter of webbing that went by Mia's body camera, and after some shouting, what looked like a tackle, and a snarl that they heard all the way outside, both Mia and May's cameras went fuzzy as Mia teleported them both out for a moment.
Both girls looked a bit frazzled and Mia blinked at May for just a second before she disappeared in a swirl of smoke to go back and help James with whatever it was that he was doing … his camera was nothing but one soldier or another fighting at that point anyhow. At least, until it very suddenly wasn't.
Rapidfire teleports around the building were visible from outside and Mayday was bouncing on her toes to go back, but Coulson and his team wisely restrained her as Mia and James started really working on things … but then everything went quiet, and when Mia came back, she handed Coulson's tech guy three flash drives.
"You can go get the bad guys now," she said. "We kinda got carried away, but no one in there will bother you."
"Where's your last Avenger?" Coulson asked.
"Oh. You were right, there were kids, too … he's bringing them out." She smiled, then disappeared to go back, and a few minutes later, James was walking out with Mia. Mia had a little boy in her arms who was beyond thrilled at her soft, fuzzy fur and James had a little one on one hip with another holding on to a leg and another still holding his hand - which at least explained why they were taking so much time getting out. He had his cowl off - as he often did with kids, and the little girl holding his hand was wearing the cowl, holding the nose of it down as she clung closely to him all the way out.
May slipped by the SHIELD agents and managed to get the kid that was riding James' foot to go to her, though they were most of the way taken care of by then, and the three Avengers stuck around just long enough to make sure the kids were safe and comfortable before they headed back to the tower. They were barely in the air though before May decided to let her opinion be known.
"I so called it," she said triumphantly as she crossed her arms looking entirely too smug.
James turned her way with a frown. "What did you call?"
"You. I told you that you'd be an amazing hero. You should have just listened to me from the start. All this good you've been doing - and you don't even think about it when you do it, do you? It just … you're a natural. This is what you're supposed to do!"
"Mayday, honey, I don't know what planet you're on right now, but I've been doing this for a while now," James said patiently.
"I know, but I never got to see how you operate! I know you've been doing stuff like this - and the fact that you have been for so long with no trouble is proof that I was right!" May was looking more smug by the second and James and Mia weren't sure which path she was taking.
"May," Mia said, trying to get her to refocus. "We all said he'd be good at this … and all of us are, so … we're all right?"
"Yeah, but his excuse was that he couldn't because of some fictional boogeyman," May said, then held up both hands when both Mia and James straightened up and looked ready to argue. "But I'm glad to see you got over that, James. Really. We never would have had to break up though if you'd have just gotten with the program."
James was stunned but ready to correct her, a breath away from a growl when instead, Mia spun toward her and teleported within an inch of her nose. "Let's get something straight, Spider-Girl," Mia started out glaring hard with a growl lacing her tone as she stuck a finger in May's face. May startled backward, but Mia didn't let her get much breathing room.
"You have so much wrong with your story," Mia said in a commanding tone that had May reevaluating and James watching the show. "If I ever hear you try to downplay how bad the department is, or how bad those weapons programs are - that want to brainwash and control our friend and who were probably the ones that poisoned him on his birthday - I'll 'port you into the Hudson River. You have no idea what it's like to have to hide your whole life just so someone doesn't attack you or throw you in a jail cell!"
"He's not even wearing a mask," May argued weakly. "That's not hiding - especially when he's openly Tony's little Simba!"
"That was tactical!" Mia shouted. "You weren't there, you didn't see it when whole futzing platoons of special forces came to try and kidnap the Summers kids! They wanted to take all of us! They would have locked us up and used us! You have no …I" She let out a frustrated sound as lightning flashed in her eyes and thunder rumbled overhead, though Mia didn't seem to realize that part at all. "I was there when Billy got the mind control thing out of Tyler's head! They poisoned James last week! You have no clue!"
But that was when James intervened, resting his hands on Mia's shoulders to pull her back, and half leaning away from her when he saw the flashes of lighting still in her eyes. "I'll make sure she gets to read the right files, Mia," James promised, then waited for Mia to go back to the cockpit with her tail twitching irritatedly the whole way.
"Wow," Mayday said thickly. "What crawled up her-"
"Just don't," James said, turning back to Mayday. "I know you have a burning need to be right about everything, but you really need to lay off. She's right. You don't know half of the crap that's gone on, which is insulting when I think about how much of it I've been right about since I've been on the teams."
"James, I just-"
"May, no." He was trying hard not to glare or growl or do anything else even remotely aggressive, though that was hard to do when she was doing her obstinate routine. "I want to make this very clear, so please, listen to me for once in your life. I want to be able to work with you on a team, I do. You have a great heart and I know you want to make a difference in the world, but Mayday? You can't possibly understand my decisions any more than you can understand what life has been like for Mia. You've never had to hide who you are. You don't know what it's like to wake up in the middle of the night from something crashing off a shelf only to panic and wonder if it's soldiers coming to drag you out of your bed. Or to find yourself in a bad fight and see those soldiers coming toward you with their weapons trained on you. You haven't had to deal with anything even remotely like that, and I honestly hope you never do."
May for the first time was quiet as James let that soak for a moment. When she finally spoke up, it was with a quiet apology to Mia, who was still irked at her. "Sorry, Mia…"
"One more thing, Mayday, I think you're a little confused on how things ended," James said, his jaw half locked into place.
"I'm the one that ended it," she said, one hand on her hip. "I know how it ended."
"Yeah, but you sound like you forgot the why."
"Um … no?"
James nodded as he drew in a deep, calming breath, but after not having gotten a chance to actually deal with this particular rejection until now, that wasn't the easiest breath to take. "Okay let me rephrase it. From day one, I let you make all the calls, every step while we were dating. I never crossed you, never made demands or even suggestions. Is that fair to say?" She thought about it for a moment then reluctantly nodded. "The only thing I ever told you no over was this." He rested his hand on the torn fabric over his chest. "That was when you got tired of me."
It was clear she was running it over in her head, frowning deeply, and when she realized his viewpoint and how that had to have felt to him, she paled. "But … I didn't think … I thought we agreed on everything ...you had so many rules your dad made you follow …"
"It wasn't just rules," James said. "That's how he kept us alive. There is no way in hell that I'll ever apologize for following Dad's rules when that was literally what kept us from being killed or kidnapped as kids. Even when that meant I lived in the tower away from my dad and siblings."
"It's just … hard to believe that's actually a thing that happens to people still."
But that had James' eyes flashing because it was a measure of how much she still didn't listen to him on anything or believe him. "Try paying attention to the news," James half growled out - which was when May suddenly got exactly how mad he was with her. And yet, she still tried to be glib.
"Why? To see more footage of you?" May asked with her hip cocked out and her chin up.
"Wrong stories," James said before he closed his eyes and then gestured toward the cockpit. "You should go sit with Mia and see how the landing works."
"I thought you were copilot."
"Just … go." James watched as she headed up to the cockpit and sat down, only letting out his breath when he heard May apologize to Mia, then he took a seat behind May so she couldn't look at him as they made the approach, stewing and irritated the whole while.
Once they landed, he waited for both girls to pass him by before he got up and followed Mia out, though he did make a point to take a hold of her arm and pull her into a quick hug. "You know, you're my favorite X-Man, right?" James told her quietly.
"That's because we get into the best fun," Mia said, then smiled up at him. "I'm not sorry for anything that I said."
"You shouldn't be, either," James said as they headed for the locker rooms. "You're my hero, Mia. Love you."
"Love you too," she sang out before she teleported into the ladies' locker room and gave him a chance to clean up and get changed. Craig would be waiting for him, after all. And if he had to guess, Steve and Tony, too.
But knowing they were there and waiting wasn't exactly calming to James. In fact, the more he thought about it, the more irritated he was. So when he got up to where Tony, Steve, and Craig were, James was in a mood.
"We saw the whole thing," Steve said as James came to a stop facing all three of them - half squared up and ready to fight.
"You did good work," Tony said, then tried to lighten the mood. "I especially enjoyed that snuggly little kid jungle gym look. All the kids accounted for?"
"According to SHIELD," James answered with a nod.
"Great. Well. As much as I would like to play, I'm pretty sure doc here wanted a word or two."
"I can wait a little while," Craig said when he saw how riled James still was. He wasn't being a jerk, he was just … his body language was screaming with minute cues: how tense he was, the fact that his jaw was still locked down tight - something he'd picked up from Scott - and the wicked glare that went with an otherwise stony expression. For a teenager it was miniscule, but Craig had known James well enough to know that for him it was akin to screaming for everyone to back off. That disposition was no way to start a discussion.
"I don't think you understand," Tony said, drawing not only Craig's attention, but James' glare. "Once we get started in the lab, you'll be hard pressed to get him to take a breather all weekend. He can outlast me without breaking a sweat. I can promise you he'll outlast you, too."
"Or redirect you," Steve said, getting James to fully spin is way with a look of pure betrayal.
"I'm fine," James insisted with a touch of a growl lacing his tone. "The mission went well. What's the problem here?"
The three men were silent, though they shared looks for a long moment until Steve broke the ice. "When we installed those body cameras, Tony made sure that no one wearing them could turn them off," he said slowly, with Tony nodding slowly beside him. "And you know it's our practice to leave them on even in transport."
"And," James said, honestly not bothered or surprised by that one bit.
"We heard everything on the way back," Steve said.
"So," James said, not blinking as he held eye contact with Steve.
"So … if nothing's wrong, then you should be able to calmly take your session with Dr. Hale," Tony said. "Had mine while you were out."
"If you had yours while I was out, how did you listen to everything?" James challenged.
Tony blinked at him, caught in his white lie. "Watching you do the hero thing is therapeutic for me," he said. "Nice to see the next gen holding up extraordinary standards like it's a hat trick."
James scrunched his nose at that, but the statement seemed to slow him a little bit. "That's …"
"The truth," Tony said, which seemed to take James down a little further. "Go on. We don't need to debrief because we saw everything."
"I'll make sure Mayday gets the full rundown on everything she should know and everything she missed," Steve promised. "I honestly thought she was smart enough to just listen to what was going on around the tower and understand."
"As much as I love her, she doesn't easily absorb facts if they contradict her point of view," James said, but that only had Steve smiling because he didn't know if James had gone entirely the other way and hated May Parker.
"Then we're free to have a little talk," Craig said. Normally, he would have guided one of his patients to whatever room he wanted to use, but in the tower, and with James in the mood he was in, he elected to let James pick his own direction. But he wasn't expecting the kid to pick Tony's office. "No lab views?"
"If we go in there, everyone will take it as their personal invitation to stick their nose in and I know you have a lot to get off your chest so ... " James gestured behind the desk. "There's still a view. If you need it."
Craig smiled at that and took a seat. He waited for James to do the same and was rewarded by a very age-appropriate drop into his chair that perfectly communicated that James felt as if he was there against his will. "First of all," Craig said in his warmest, deepest tone. "I'm proud of you for standing up to May Parker. I know that wasn't easy for you to do seeing as she was your first love. But the way you handled the conversation was very mature. There are adults that couldn't even begin to approach someone that hurt them that deeply, let alone keep their emotions in check while they did. Steve filled me in on everything your conversation missed. He did so hoping that you'd have more support by my knowing."
James kept his gaze on his hands, though Craig could easily see that it still stung, which only made it that much more impressive that he hadn't had an outburst like May had.
"James," Craig said, waiting for him to acknowledge him before he continued. "I'm glad you're starting to see your worth, your value, and I'm glad that you're standing up for yourself. We do need to talk about everything that's happened since the last time I saw you, but before we get there, I need to emphasize how important it is for you to believe that you are so loved. For as long as I've known you, it's been easy to see how unimportant you think you are in your family. I need you to start looking at the evidence that you're loved instead of all the reasons you think it should be easy for them to leave you behind."
For a long moment, Craig actually thought they were making progress, too. James was quiet, his focus still on his hands as Craig hoped he was just … processing. It was a lot to absorb - genius or no.
"Are we done here?" James asked, instantly reminding Craig that regardless of how grown James looked and acted, he was still just barely a legal adult.
"No," Craig said, "I really wanted to check in with you about how things are going now that you've been attacked away from family and friends that love you and want to protect you, too." James drew in a breath and Craig cut him off before he could say anything. "And if you tell me you're fine, you and I are going to have a real problem."
At that, James let out a hollow laugh. "What else am I supposed to say?"
"How about the truth?"
"Okay … what choice do I have other than to be fine?" James countered. "I can't back down, I can't give up, and I can't let it affect me. Sure, someone took a shot, but they missed. I'm fine. I was fine when I woke up the next morning and I'm still fine now."
By this point, James' eyes were flashing, and had Scott been there, he could have warned him that any attempt at reason now was pointless. And that could possibly extend to forever regarding this subject. Like his father, James had made his mind up and trauma or no, he was going to stick to that decision come hell or high water.
Craig shook his head. "You're so much like your father, you know," he said, then quickly held up a hand. "Scott, I mean. I didn't know your biological father well enough, even when he was here, to say whether or not that's true of him. But I can tell you now that I hear his excuses and insistences every time you say you're fine. And I'd hate to see you coping as poorly as he did when he first came to me." He raised one eyebrow. "It's alright to let it affect you in private, James. It's alright to be shaken. I'd be shaken. Your family is shaken. It's okay to be afraid of those with nefarious intent - fear keeps us alive."
"That's more or less what Dad's said for as long as I can remember, and you know what? That's not living. That's surviving. And I'm really damn sick and tired of just surviving - so no. I'm not shaken. I was confused right after it happened, and I don't really remember any of what Billy and my family told me happened, but I'm not letting any of those creeps shake me." He gestured openly. "Not that easy anyhow."
"You can't just ignore what happened, James," Craig said seriously, shifting his tone to counter James' temper. "You can't let yourself slide and just … wait-"
"I'm not saying that I'm just moping and sitting around waiting for something to happen," James clarified. "I'm still operating under the pretense that I can do the things I want to do while being prepared for the worst. That's part of giving those idiots the finger - by not letting them impact me. I know you're telling me it's healthy, but I can't afford to be shaken right now."
"You can't prepare to fight someone when you don't know what exactly they want - or how far they'll go to get it," Craig said. "I've seen the reports from Steve. Some of these people are just … they have no humanity, and it sounds like they'd want you to be the same way. You can't see yourself the same way they do."
"I know who I am, and I know what people like that are capable of," James said evenly. "I know what they expect from me and what they want from me. I've tried very hard to show there's more to me than what they think. But that goes against their prejudices, so I doubt that matters." He let out a sigh as he centered himself and tried to refocus. "No matter what anyone says or does, I'm still going to do what I was born to do, one way or another. If something happens to me while I'm trying to get there, I won't know the difference, but I'm very sure whoever it is won't survive it. Not after taking out Tony's pick to replace himself."
"James, leaving aside the assumption you're working with that you will die -"
"I won't die," James said easily in such a candid tone that it took Craig back a step. "They wouldn't want that. I'm no use to them dead." When Craig frowned, James elaborated. "They might destroy my mind, but they won't kill me."
"How is that better?" Craig challenged, then again held up one hand to try to continue. "That is also something the entire population of heroes has been trying to prevent your whole life. And no amount of distance on your part will undo the love your family has for you. They will never be truly prepared for losing you, so stop trying to prepare them for it! Instead fill your time with them with good memories they can hang onto. If you're distant now, you won't dull the pain. You'll only cause regret. They will always look back and wonder what they could have done if they were closer, if they'd been there. Even your father still thinks that way sometimes and he was there. Having actual distance won't solve that."
James looked ready to respond, eyes slightly narrowed in an aggressive gesture Craig hadn't seen before, so Craig was sure to try and make his other point before James could tear into that. "And besides, if you truly believe your death or mental death is inevitable, why on earth wouldn't you want to live the life you have to its fullest? Love deeply, leave no regrets."
James leaned forward though, as if imparting a secret. "I am. I'm not trying to prepare them for anything bad. They know the risks without me hand holding. I'm trying to prepare myself to be ready to take down as many of those idiots coming after me as I can. If I go down, it'll be swinging. In the meantime, they're living their lives too. I'm not going to interrupt when they're all doing well."
Craig paused because this … was nothing like Scott or Tony. Or anyone else he'd spent time with while he'd been around the Avengers. "I think you're focusing on the wrong thing, here."
"Yeah? How about a little exercise, doc? Put yourself in my shoes and tell me what you'd do, because if you allow time to be shaken, or look for trauma, or whatever - that gives them an in. They get an opportunity to come after you. I don't have time for that. I've only had time for trying to live … which is what I've been doing."
For a moment, Craig was stunned. It seemed as if James had already thought through every response, every concern Craig had wanted to discuss and had more or less torn it down one point at a time. The boy was obviously either in deep denial, or in a mindset that really shouldn't have been something that James should have been capable of. His reactions were more like that of seasoned soldiers or ex-special ops. But smarter.
And he'd been so reasonable up until this session. But then, Craig thought it over and he realized this was the first session they'd had since James had finally become an adult. Which … he had to try one other topic before they called it for the day - and he knew he wasn't going to get anywhere with the other topics.
"Then … maybe you can just tell me how hings are going with the press, or the attention at school…"
James arched one eyebrow and tipped his chin down, wearing an expression Craig had seen Logan wear in their limited encounters. "They don't know what happened, so they're still focused on my social life. Thanks for asking."
Craig finally smirked as he looked down at his notes. "And how's that going?"
"Disappointing, considering," James replied straight-faced, then shrugged when Craig looked up, concerned. "We can't do anything. His family's paranoid because of the attack on me - my familiy's paranoid as always, and all the adults in our lives are overly concerned that we're not acting like ourselves while actively telling us not to act like ourselves or do the things we like to do to cope. And no, I'm not talking about sex, so don't ask."
"Not planning to," Craig said, but now at least, James sounded more like himself with the softer subject. So he'd continue their talk for a while longer to see if he could cover a few of the things that Annie had been concerned over, too.