Bucky Barnes ducked as a hail of bullets sailed over his head, and not for the first time, he wondered how he got himself into situations like these. "Sam, I'm pinned down on Park Avenue, can I get an assist?"
Sam dodge an rpg that flew into the side of some corporate offices. "On...shit, on my way."
Plenty of gangs had decided to start some chaos with half of the population suddenly returning after five years. New York was no exception. Within a matter of days, major cities had turned into war zones, and it seemed like the whole world was in need of the Avengers.
Sam had been doing his best, trying to fill Steve's role, but the toll was apparent. Bruce and Scott were trying to handle LA and San Francisco, Clint was up in Chicago with Wanda. Everyone everywhere had problems that needed fixing, and the Avengers were simeltaneously blamed for them, and yet required to fix it. Carol was trying to smooth things over with the United Nations, and Rhodey was with her, and Pepper, god bless her, had dedicated resources to the team, because that was what Tony would have wanted.
Bucky ducked again, the impact of bullets against the concrete where his head would have been getting on his nerves once more. "SAM!"
The call came just in time. As another round fired from the thugs' machine guns, Sam dropped out of the sky, the shield protecting the two men from the bullets. The clang of the impact rang out, and the assailants backed up in shock.
Sam stood up, and his wings spread out in a threatening manner. "Now, I'm gonna say this once; put down the guns, and go home."
One of the stupider-looking thugs shouted back "Or what?" A few racial slurs were also slung at Sam, which was also not a first since he took over as Captain America. Bucky clenched his jaw, and snapped. He placed the muzzle mask on his face, and swung over the barricade that was hiding him from the shooters. His metal arm glinted in the sunlight, and his gun was gripped in his other hand.
He landed with a heavy thud, in front of Sam, and began walking towards the shooters, his gun raised, and a look of pure murder in his eyes. He was tired of this. Apparently that was threatening enough, because the thugs tripped over themselves, running from the Winter Soldier.
Bucky fired off a shot, intentionally missing the head of one of the punks, and they all ran faster back to whatever hole they crawled out of. He smiled, and removed the mask, and turned back to Sam, who was also smiling.
"Or you deal with him." Sam whispered, but Bucky caught it. He couldn't help it, the sniper started laughing. Sam grinned, and patted the sniper on the arm, and the two of them turned to go stop some more chaos in another part of the city.
Over in Queens, in a classroom in Midtown High, the senior chemistry class of fourth period was abuzz. The permission slips for the class trip had been handed out, and everyone was excited by the prospect of going on vacation for spring break.
As they broke for the end of class, Peter and Ned led their newfound friends to Peter's apartment, where the teens had taken to hanging out once in a while. MJ helped herself to a soda in the fridge, while Miles, RiRi, Harley, Khamala, and Sam settled around the couch in the living room. May was at work, having taken to volunteering at a shelter over the past five years.
Peter dropped his backpack off in his room, and went to go rejoin his friends. "So, MJ...what part of the trip are you really looking forward to?" He was trying to make conversation with her, especially over the past few weeks, having developed a slight crush on the activist.
The girl shrugged, and said "I dunno. Probably Germany, and see where the Berlin Walk used to be?"
Ned blurted out "Peter's been to Germany!"
Peter shot Ned a look, and Ned covered his mouth, realizing that he had probably said something he shouldn't...again.
"Really, Peter? What was it like?" Khamala asked, interested.
Peter coughed, and said "Well...uh, I didn't get to see much of it, because I had my internship to do, but it looked really cool."
"Woah, dude, you got an internship in Germany?" Miles exclaimed.
"No, no, no, the internship was in New York, but we did a business trip to Germany."
"Wow, that's really interesting. Who was the internship with?" Khamala asked.
Peter tensed, and looked down. "Sta...It was with Stark Industries. Working on their R&D department."
Harley shot Peter a knowing look, but the tone of the room got really quiet for a moment. Most of the teens in the room had respected Tony Stark, and after the man died, it still hurt talking about him.
"Did you ever get to meet...y'know, him?" Miles asked, tentatively.
Peter bit his lip, and nodded. "Yeah, uh, we worked closely together on a load of projects. He even wrote me a recommendation letter to get into MIT, in their biochemistry department."
Miles, Sam, and RiRi all sat up in interest. "Did you ever see the suit, the Iron Man suit?" RiRi asked. She'd been fascinated by the suit, and was trying to build her own at home, not that she'd ever told anyone that.
Peter smiled. "Yeah. It was amazing. Operating it was even cooler."
RiRi's mouth dropped in shock. "You've PILOTED the Iron Man suit?"
Even Harley was interested now. Peter nodded, and RiRi pulled her laptop out. "What was it like? What did the HUD look like? Did the internal pilot cradle adapt per pilot?" The questions kept coming, and Peter and Harley were stunned by her questions.
Finally, without answering any, Peter pulled out his phone, and opened his contacts. Finding the number he was looking for, he stopped RiRi, and said "Okay. I can't answer any of those questions."
The girl looked disappointed, but Peter continued. "But I can give you the number of someone who can." RiRi looked at him in confusion. Peter read off the number and she wrote it down.
"Who's number did you just give me?"
"Hold on, there's a second number I want to give you." Peter read out that one, and then cleared his throat.
"Now, you can not give those out to anyone okay? Promise?" She nodded, and then Peter said "Okay, the first number is for Friday. She's the AI that was intergrated into the latest suit models. She's be able to answer most, if not all, of the technical questions you ask, just say that I gave you her number. Okay?"
RiRi looked down at that number like it was a diamond, and then said "And who does the second number belong to?"
Peter showed her the name of the contact, and RiRi helped in shock. "You gave me WarMachine's cell phone number? You KNOW WarMachine? Holy crap, I can call WarMachine? Are you serious!"
She leapt over and almost crushed Peter in a hug, and then packed her bag back up. "I'm sorry, I have to go, I have a lot of work to do. Peter, thank you so much, I will pay you back somehow. Oh my god, this is amazing."
She ran out of the apartment, and the door slammed behind her. The remaining teens stared after her in shocked silence.
Khamala finally broke the silence. "You wouldn't happen to have Captain Marvel's number in there too would you?"
The teens laughed, and Peter chuckled too, knowing that he did in fact have Carol Danvers' number in his phone. Miles chimed in. "Or Spider-Man's?" The laughing continued, but a knowing look passed between Peter, Harley, and Ned.
Peter's phone rang, cutting the laughter off, and the teens quieted, and Peter picked up, not looking at the caller id?"
"Hello?"
"Peter, hey, it's Happy. Do you have a minute? I'd like to chat for a minute."
A lump formed in Peter's throat. "Uh, yeah. Sure. Where do you want to meet?"
"You know the cheeseburger place on 73rd? Stan's? Can you meet me there in say...20 minutes?"
Peter checked the time, and said "Sure. I'm on my way."
"Great, see you then." Happy hung up, and frowned.
"Who was that?" Ned asked.
"It was Happy. He wants to meet." Peter mumbled, suddenly getting a bad feeling.
"Go." Harley said. "We'll head out. Plus, we all have to study for the history exam on Monday."
The teens collectively groaned, but collected their bags. Ned hugged Peter, and Harley patted his shoulder as they left. Miles nodded, and Sam and Khamala smiled. MJ flung a peace sign over her shoulder, and Peter watched her leave.
Making sure that they were all gone, Peter beelined for the window in his bedroom, and used the fire escape to climb to the roof. He activated the Iron Spider suit and began making his way to go meet Happy.
In a makeshift workshop inside a small apartment only a few blocks away, RiRi Williams hung up from what might have been the most important phone call in her life. On the computer screen in front of her, displayed completed schematics for a brand new Iron Man suit. She smiled to herself, and saved the file under the name "IronHeart_Mark01". Above in Valhalla, Tony smiled down at her. He approved.