the strongest avenger

eighteen

Her eyes snap open, vision blurry, gasping for air. She can barely make out two red figures up in her face. She blinks, trying to clear her eyes.

Talia coughs, and then looks around wildly as blood sprays on her chest. She looks up, still gasping, and sees Tony and Spiderman looking down at her. The former having a look of horror on his face.

She tries to sit up, but cries out at the pain in her torso. She looks down and sees her suit torn open, exposing a nasty and gory gash all along her side, gushing blood.

"Don't move, don't move you'll be fine. You're fine Squirt."

She looks at the boy. "Spi—Spidey, super...healing." He cocks his head to the side. "Skin!" She gasps out. "I need...to touch your skin!"

He lifts the side of his mask up and Talia reaches out to touch his neck. She focuses in on his super healing ability, not the others, and tugs on it, like pulling a string.

Immediately she starts to feel better, she holds it, a yellow glow spreading from his neck, to her fingers, then into her body.

She takes a deep breath, her lungs clear, the metallic taste of blood in her mouth. She feels the inside of her body warm as it heals.

Talia pulls back from the boy's neck as she feels most of her torso heal. She looks down and notices that the bleeding has stopped.

"Sorry," she says to the boy. "Usually I would ask, but I just didn't wanna die so...also you might feel a little tired, but otherwise you'll be fine."

Tal leans her head back against the ground and gulps, grimacing at the taste of her blood.

"Hey dad."

Tony chuckles, a tear falling from his eye. "You don't know how happy I am to hear you call me that."

"I don't think I've ever seen you cry."

"Of course that's what you noticed." He sighs and then turns to Spiderman. "Happy has a car at the front of the airport. I'll let him know you're coming." He looks down at Talia. "Carry her please."

"I can walk. I'm good man. I'm peachy. I feel like I could run a marathon." She says while sitting up, only wincing slightly at the soreness of her stomach.

"Nope." Tony says.

She sighs as Spiderman leans down and hooks his arms under her knees and around her waist.

"No wandering hands." Tony says before taking off into the opposite direction.

Talia shakes her head. She looks up at the boy. "You're kinda strong for a skinny dude. Do you work out?"

"Not really." He keeps his gaze straight ahead as he carries her. Talia rolls her eyes at the boy as she realizes he's making his voice deeper.

"Do the webs come from you?"

"No."

"You were really talkative the other night Spidey. What happened?"

"Just tired, that's all."

"Liar. And stop making your voice deeper. I heard you talk earlier, you have a higher voice."

She feels the boy tense.

"You know you're gonna have to take that suit off eventually? I'm gonna find out who you are."

He still doesn't talk.

"Fine. I'll talk then. My name is Talia James—hmm. It was my mother's name but uh, apparently she's not my mom and is just, well not a person at all. So I guess I'm just Talia. I am a sophomore in school, and I've been homeschooled my entire life—oh that's a lie. Let's see New York was in 2012...so I've been homeschooled since 2012 and then started actual school this year in February. Hmmm what else? I like to read and I hate Algebra. I'm actually really dumb, in school terms I mean. All my friends are probably going to get arrested and I'll never see them again. So that's nice. I mean I have like two friends at school, so at least I have them."

Tal pauses, resting her head against Spiderman's chest.

"My friend Ned, we were supposed to have a Harry Potter marathon, but I was in London and then I was in Bucharest, and then I got arrested and then now we're here. I don't even know where my phone is, oh he definitely thinks I'm ignoring him. Shit, I need my phone."

"Who's the other friend, you said there were two?"

"Oh, thats Peter. When I first met him he was only my friend cause he had to be, but I think he considers me a friend now. So that's good. Oh shit! We were supposed to get ahead and do our experiments. We have this project and it's super important for our grade, and we were gonna meet and do our second and third experiments. I'll have to ask Happy for a phone, then I could text Peter and let him know that I'm not ditching him. He's really sweet. I had to leave school super early the other day and he was texting me all day, asking if I was okay. He's great. He, uh, he kinda reminds me of you to be honest."

Talia furrows her brows as Spiderman tenses once again.

"Put me down."

"What? No. Mr Stark said to—" the boy begins.

"Mr Stark isn't here. Put me down."

Spidey's grip tightens against her as he shakes his head.

"You fell from...I don't know how many feet but it was a lot. So no."

"Put me, the fuck, down."

Spiderman stops and huffs. He carefully sets her down on her feet, opposite of him.

Talia takes a second to look him up and down.

"Take your mask off."

"No." She can hear the slight panic in his voice.

"Take it off."

"N-no." There it is. The stutter.

"Do it or I'll make you take it off."

The boy must have heard the threat in her voice. He sighs and looks down at the ground. The boy reaches behind his neck and tugs off his mask, exposing his face.

Talia gasps, even though she guessed it, it's still a shock.

"PETER?"