Spiderwoman

34

"Alright." For once, in an argument, Tony conceded. "Come on we've got a situation." He pointed downward to where Dr Strange was being tortured. "See him down there? He's in trouble. What your plan? Go."

Quickly assessing the situation, Dani wracked her brain before coming up with something that just might work. "Okay, Do you remember the movie Alien?"

She explained her plan and looked at Tony's reaction. "So?"

He nodded and looked at her. "Do you think it'll work?"

Dani quickly ran the numbers in her head and nodded with as much confidence as she could muster. "I do." She looked at him with hope and apprehension. "Do you trust me?"

He rolled his eyes fondly at her. "Of course kid. But if I get killed, I'm gonna haunt you forever."

"You have the comebacks of a 12 year old."

Tony just shrugged and flew down to start executing their plan.

Strange was floating in the air, with hundreds of floating needles surrounding him, Maw taking a sick pleasure in the anticipation of it all. "Painful aren't they? They were originally designed for microsurgery. And any one of them..."

Hearing a noise, Maw turned to see Tony standing there, hand repulsors ready to fire. "Could end your friend's life in an instant.

"He's not really my friend. Saving his life is more a professional courtesy."

"You saved nothing. Your powers are inconsequential compared to mine."

"Yeah. But the kid's seen more movies." He blasted a hole in the side of the ship, and due to the fact they were in space, everything started getting sucked out. Dr Strange started to go with it, but Dani shot a web at the wizard and the weird spider legs Tony had weirdly insisted on adding to her suit managed to prevent her from being sucked through the hole herself, and she jumped back to pull Dr Strange back in.

Dr Strange landed on a platform next to Tony as they closed the opening. "We gotta turn this ship around."

Tony scoffed. "Yeah now he wants to run. Great plan."

"I want to protect the stone."

"And I want you to thank me, now-"

"Thank you for what? For blasting me into space?"

Tony was clearly getting irritated. "Who just saved your magical ass? Me." Dani refrained from mentioning that it was actually her plan that saved them.

"It's a wonder how you fit your head into that helmet."

"Admit it, you should have ducked out when I told you to. I tried to bench you, you refused-"

"Unlike everyone else in your life, I don't work for you-"

"And due to that fact, we're now on a flying donut, billions of miles from earth, with no backup."

"I'm backup."

He pointed at her in frustration "You're a stowaway."

Dani scoffed. "Tony, I'm an avenger. You made me an avenger, because you saw my potential, you saw what I can do.  An avenger's job is to defend the earth and from where I stand, this Thanos guy seems to be endangering the earth. I may be young but I'm not stupid and I'm not weak. You've known me for the past two years and you know that I can help! After all the training I've been through, you can't- you can't just bench me before the big game!" She calmed down a bit and grinned sheepishly. "After all, can't be friendly neighborhood Spiderwoman if there's no neighborhood, right?"

Tony sighed. "Alright fine, but I'm not explaining to your aunt that you died because you were too stupid to follow a simple instruction."

Dani let out a small smile. "Don't worry. I'm a big girl, I can handle it."

"Where'd you get the sports analogy from anyway? You hate sports."

Dani suddenly looked everywhere except Tony as she mumbled her answer. "Well, MJ's really into-"

"Ohhh, MJ, huh? Say no more."

She hit him on the arm as he smirked at her. "Shut it, Stark."

"Look, I'm just saying, you bring the girl for dinner-"

"And I'm just saying, for the millionth time, we're just friends! Also, do you really think the best time to discuss my dating life is on a spaceship headed God knows where?"

Dr Strange looked between the two of them curiously. "What's the relationship between you two? Is she your daughter?"

The two laughed. "As if! I could not put up with this guy for 17 years."

"I'm her boss."

Dani clicked her tongue. "Well..."

He glared at her. "You're my intern."

She shrugged. "And also the heir to the company, but let's not get caught up on the details."

He nodded. "Yes I remember, I saw your press conference in the news. I'm Dr Strange."

Dani smiled at him. "Dani Parker. In this get up, people usually know me better as Spiderwoman. Are you actually a Doctor? Or is it just like a name thing?"

"I'm a neurosurgeon."

"Oh cool! And the magic, were you born with it or-"

"We'll get into that later."

"Right. Cool, cool, cool." She turned to Tony as he led them over to the control panel. "What's the plan Tin Can?"

He gave her a look. "Calm down Dr Seuss." He looked at the ship's course and frowned. "This ship is self correcting its course. Thing's on auto-pilot."

"Can you control it? Fly us home?" Tony didn't say anything.

"Stark. Can you get us home?"

"Huh? Yeah I heard you. I'm thinking I'm not so sure we should."

"Ah yes, let's go further into space."

"Under no circumstances, can we bring the time stone to Thanos. I don't think you quite understand what's at stake here."

"What? No. It's you, who doesn't understand that Thanos has been inside my head for six years, since he sent an army to New York and now he's back. And I don't know what to do. So I'm not so sure if it's a better plan to fight on our turf or his but you saw what they can do. At least on his turf, he's not expecting it. So I say, we take the fight to him, Doctor."

Dani stood and began to wrap her head around everything going on.

"Do you concur?"

Tony was standing directly opposite Dr Strange, and there was a clear hostility between the two of them.

"Alright Stark, we go to him. But you have to understand, if it comes to saving you or the kid or the time stone, I will not hesitate to let either of you die. I can't. Because the universe depends on it."

"Nice." Tony broke the seriousness of the conversation and tapped Dr Strange on the chest. "Good moral compass. We're straight."

"I'm not." Dani offered as a reflex response, causing Tony to roll his eyes.

He looked at her with pursed lips. "Kid. No more funny business. You ready to be an avenger now?"

She nodded. "I'm in all the way, Tony."

"Good." He looked at the controls again and saw someone was approaching the ship. "Cause we've got company."

A/N: posted this to celebrate 100k reads!!! thanks y'all sm <33