Gangster Child

Web Shooters and a Letter

"Hey Sadie, come on out here, I want you to meet the aliens!" I huffed from where I was carefully positioned, working on the new time machine that Tony had designed. Looking up however, I quickly became much more invested in the blue female robot and walking raccoon that had just entered the building with Tony walking by their side.

"Who are they?" I asked, nodding to the aliens as I hopped off the platform I was helping to assemble. The raccoon looked me up and down and scoffed before turning to Tony.

"This is the kid you wouldn't shut up about? She doesn't look that important." I glared at him and thrust my wrist out, a familiar web shooting out and enveloping the raccoon from head to toe.

"Nice to meet you too Jackass." Tony and the blue lady were smirking as they watched him curse me out loudly and struggle to free himself while I introduced myself to the woman who told me her name was Nebula. She was reserved, murderous, and part robot. I think I found my new best friend.

"Did Peter leave you a dissolver for the webs in that gift of his?" Tony asked as Rocket continued to fight against the webs.

"No." I said with a fond smile. "He thought I'd use it against Pietro or Bucky and he knew I'd enjoy watching them try to figure out how to free themselves." Tony snickered and ruffled my hair before I walked back over to the platform I'd originally been working on with a reminiscent smile. The web shooters were what had been in the box Peter left me by the way. They were spare ones that he told Tony to give me if something happened. Ever since I opened the box, I had worn the shooters every day because they made me happy. The letter however... that was a different matter. Reaching into my pocket, I pulled out a neatly folded piece of paper and smoothed it out to read Peter's elegant script.

Dear Sadie,

You probably already know this if you're reading this, but I don't think I'm going to be able to make that visit to San Francisco. I really wanted to, but I saw the space ship and I just had to help Mr. Stark and then I ended up in space, and now I'm sitting on a rock on another planet waiting for something to happen, surrounded by aliens and a wizard named Dr. Strange. I really hope you're ok right now. Nothing might be happening in California, but I'm still worried about you. That's why, if something goes wrong, and I can't make it back, I told Mr. Stark to give you the other web shooters. Then you can have something to protect you and Cassie with. Also, there is no web dissolver, so if Bucky and Pietro swing by, you can watch them struggle for hours. I really think that Cassie will especially enjoy that what with her being your evil mastermind in training in all. Anyway, if you read this, don't cry. I love you and everything's probably going to work out exactly how it's supposed to.

-Peter Parker (Your Amazing Spiderman)

I sniffled as I refolded the paper and jammed it back into my pocket, my eyes blurring over with tears as I mulled over the words he had written. If this worked... If everyone came back, nothing would be the same. But that's not what we were focusing on right now, was it? All we could see was that we had a chance. And we were running with it.

"Aw, Kiddo, are you crying over me?" My head shot up and I couldn't hold back a grin as I saw Clint kneeling down in front of me. I squealed happily and knocked him over in the tightest hug possible as he laughed and kissed the top of my head.

"You Asshole!" I exclaimed, punching him in the chest. "You never called me!" Clint ruefully rubbed his stomach but he kept hugging me, which I was grateful for.

"I was on house arrest for a little while," he reasoned. "The Missus said we needed real family time anyway, so it was fun. Then all this shit happened, and I kind of went on a killing spree of all the bad guys who didn't get snapped."

"Yeah I can tell," I said with a smirk as I looked up at him. "Love the hair by the way. You look like this dick of a twelve year old I knew in sixth grade. The tattoo's cool too." He rolled his eyes and mussed up my hair.

"What would you have done if your family disappeared?" He asked with his hands on his hips. I paused and pretended to think.

"You mean what would I do if a major crisis happened and every single one of you didn't try to reach out and then kept silent for five years? Well I suppose I'd cry and hope I had a really good coping method Clinton Francis Barton!" The man shrank under my anger as my eyes seemed to spark almost.

"Yeah, my mistake," he mumbled.

"Why'd you leave me?" I asked, my voice breaking. "I've asked everyone and all they give me is some bullshit answer about wanting me to be safe."

"What more do you want?" Clint asked tiredly "Shit was happening in New York and California is on the other side of the country and you had a very nice family that you had just gotten settled into. There isn't always a great option for everyone, but this was the best at the time. And yeah it's stupid, but we thought that if we limited contact that maybe you'd have a normal life and forget about this stuff as much as possible." Tears were now streaming down my cheeks which Clint quickly brushed away before pulling me back into a hug.

"We have to fix this," I mumbled.

"We will. We have a couple geniuses and a time machine, what could go wrong?"