[BOOK 2 OF THE HAVOC SERIES]
❝i don't like you because
you're spider-man. i like
you and you just happen
to be spider-man.❞
in which lena santos just
wants a break, but nick
fury has other plans for her
and her friends.
[ spider-man: far from home...
┌────── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ──────┐ chapter twenty THE FACE BEHIND THE MASK └────── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ──────┘
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───── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ─────
NEW YORK PASSES BY in the form of blurred streaks of color while Lena sits in the passenger seat of the car. The windows are up and the air conditioning is on full blast to combat the extraordinary heat blazing from outside. The sunlight is nearly blinding, but she continues to stare out the window with her chin propped up on her hand.
Pepper Potts is driving with Morgan in the back seat of her car. The ride isn't silent — Pepper is playing music and Morgan is humming along — but Lena doesn't process any of it. She is merely filled with a conflicting mess of both excitement and dread. She's going to be visiting the lab she and Tony had used for the first time in over five years.
She'd just finished her first therapy appointment. It had gone well, though the session had been more of an introduction than an in-depth explanation of her problems, so she can't say it had made her feel any different yet. Maybe, if she'd had an opportunity to release some of the pent-up emotions inside of her, she wouldn't feel like a kettle that's billowing too much steam right now. Her leg bounces restlessly and her index finger taps her chin in even intervals.
Shuri had asked if she'd gone to the lab yet, but Lena hadn't been ready until now. Hopefully she and the princess can make more progress on stabilizing her powers now that Lena will have her own equipment to work with. Better yet, maybe Shuri can make a trip over here to check out exactly what she and Tony had been doing.
"Lena?" Pepper calls. The girl zones back into her surroundings, blinking and turning toward the woman in the driver's seat. "We're here."
They exit the vehicle and step into the intense summer heat. Lena is grateful that she'd chosen to wear a tank top; any type of sleeves would have been absolutely hellish in this weather. The concrete doesn't help. It traps the warmth, making her sneakers feel like miniature ovens within seconds of standing.
Pepper had taken the rest of the day off to pick her up from therapy, so she's dressed in a casual outfit as opposed to her usual business attire. Her strawberry blonde hair is tied back into a neat bun at the nape of her neck, not a strand falling out of place even as she bends down to help Morgan out of her car seat.
The building Tony had chosen for their lab is nondescript and somewhat on the outskirts of New York City. From the outside, it merely looks like an everyday office building. Nobody would expect two Avengers to be testing unstable energy powers outside of the Compound— and that's exactly why he'd chosen this location. One, it helps keep everything secret. Two, the entire Avengers facility wouldn't be destroyed in the event of a catastrophe with her powers.
