《CHAPTER FOURTEEN》
*roughly 12 months since Carter's first training session*
CARTER WAS TOLD to wait outside a large auditorium. Tony was in there, making some kid of speech. She was immensely bored, due to the fact that she had been waiting there for well over an hour. She had ussd the time to practise with portals, moving herself up and down the corridor. She also practised the stair portals, hoping to improve on them in case she needed them any time soon. He technically hadn't made her wait right there for him, but she had no idea when he would be finished and he said to meet him there when it was over, so she just waited.
When he finally exited, he came across her, a sad and distant look on his face.
Carter immediately appeared right in front of him when she saw him.
"What's so important that you made me waitt here for two hours?"
He shook his head, breaking himself out of whatever thoughts were previously going through his head.
"Follow me."
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Tony had gotten on his suit and flown Carter to a doughnut store. Of course, Carter didn't know what a store or doughnuts were, but he explained everything as they walked in.
"Well, kid, since we don't know when your birthday is, I thought we'd choose a random day. So congratulations, you're officially ten today!"
"I still don't get what 'doughnuts' or 'store' has to do with this."
"Gee, kid, can't you just be grateful for once? Doughnuts are a delicious sugary food, stores are where you buy things."
They reached the counter. "I'll take one of each."
The man behind the counter's eyes widened when he saw Tony. "O-of course, sir."
When the doughnuts were ready, Tony took the boxes and flew them back to the avengers facility. Before taking off, Carter noticed many people holding strange contraptions that produced bright lights were pointing at her and Tony. They were asking a lot of questions, such as "what's the real story of what happened in Sokovia, Mr Stark?", "is it true that you're the result of countless deaths?" And "is this your daughter?"
But Tony just shrugged them off, saying "I've got no time for autographs today, fellas." and took off.
When they got back to the avengers facility, they went into the kitchen. Tony took the boxes to the big table in the middle, opening them.
"Take your pick, kid."
Carter looked around at them before picking up a doughnut with what looked like white icing and black crumbs.
Tony was watching her expectantly, which kinda freaked her out. She took a bite into the doughnut and as soon as the taste filled her mouth, her eyes widened. She then proceeded to eat the rest of it in about ten seconds.
Tony chuckled at her reaction, picking up a doughnut for himself. Carter was licking some of the icing off her fingers when Tony said "You can have another if you want."
"Really!?"
She then proceeded to pick up another doughnut, this time one which Tony explained was chocolate with 'sprinkles'. She had had chocolate a few times before in the past year at the avengers facility and she loved it.
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Carter sat in the kitchen, watching Vision cook. Or, at least, try to cook. She was perched on top of one of the high seats at the counter. She loved getting to try new foods. In the lab, she was only ever given the thick grey glob. She never even knew what it was, only that it tasted disgusting. But since coming to the Avenger's facility, she had gotten to try all kinds of new foods. Her favourite by far however, were Oreos. They were the most amazing food to ever exist in her opinion. But she still loved other things like apples, Pringles, toast, chicken and tons more that she was still learning the names of.
Carter liked Vision. He usually seemed to be in a good mood and was quite funny.
As he added something into a pot, a confused expression on his face, the woman that Carter still didn't know the name of, walked in. Despite the fact that she had been there for ages, the two were trained separately and the older female seemed to be more secluded. As Carter liked to wander around the facility and discover its secrets, the woman seemed to spend a lot of time in her room.
"Is that paprikash?" She asked in a thick accent, though Carter wasn't sure which accent it was.
"I thought it might lift your spirits and because she enjoys watching me cook," he answered, pointing at Carter.
The woman's attention was brought to Carter.
"Hello," she spoke.
"Hi. I'm- I'm Carter."
"My name is Wanda."
Carter nodded. "I like your hair."
Wanda smiled. "Thank you. Yours looks nice, too."
Carter smiled.
Wanda then walked towards the pot, getting some food on the ladle, blowing on it so she wouldn't burn her mouth, and then tasted it.
"Spirits lifted," she said with a forced smile on her face.
She then looked across the counter at Carter. "Do you want to try some?"
The youngest nodded eagerly. Wanda got some on the ladle for her before passing it across to her. Carter repeated the action of blowing on it so that it wouldn't be too hot, before placing it in her mouth.
She made a face as it touched her tongue. This was definitely not her favourite food. Her expression earned a laugh from Wanda.
"In my defence, I- I actually haven't... eaten anything before, so I--"
"May I?" Wanda cut him off.
"Please."
Vision walked around the kitchen area as Wanda tried to improve the taste of the food.
"Wanda?" He asked.
"Hmm?"
"No one dislikes you, Wanda?"
The woman looked up, a confused expression. "Thanks."
Carter looked between the two adults. This was getting awkward, even for her.
She muttered a quick "bye." Before using a portal to appear outside.
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Carter was with Tony outside of an apartment building in Queens. After much convincing, he finally agreed to let her come, knowing that she would probably follow him anyway.
"Okay, see that window up there? The open one? When you can come up, I'll wave out that window. Until then, you stay right here, understand?"
The girl nodded.
"Good. And you better keep that promise or there'll be no Oreos for a week."
"What?!"
"If you're not gonna break that promise, you don't have to worry about it."
Carter crossed her arms, a scowl appearing on her face.
Tony turned around, about to head through the front door, when he turned to face her again. "Hey, wanna zap me up to that floor?"
Carter glared.
"I'll let you have what you want for dinner tonight."
A smile creeped onto the young hero's face as she outstretched her arms, a portal appearing under Tony.
She kept her eyes set on the window that was high above, waiting for the signal.
The two were here to recruit a new superhero, although Tony wouldn't tell her why. She didn't even know who the new person was. She was excited to find out.
When the signal finally came, she quickly made a portal, appearing at the other side of the window.
She was inside a bedroom. A very small one, but a bedroom nonetheless. The walls were painted blue and there was a lot of technical devices on a desk in the corner, the bed parallel to that. She stood at the wall by the window, Tony a little bit in front of her and a boy stood a few feet away. He jumped when Carter appeared, stepping back a little. He only seemed to be a few years older than the young girl herself.
"Hi."
"Woah, y-you were on- you were on the news! You're the girl with the portals!"
"That's correct," interjected Tony, "but we're not here to talk about her, she just begged me to come. We're here to talk about you. Quick question of the rhetorical variety: that's you, right?"
He held a device in his hand, the screen projecting an enlarged version of the video right in front of Tony. The video was shot in an alleyway, a figure in red and blue swinging around and tying up a guy in black. The image paused, showing an up close, but slightly blurry, picture of the guy in red and blue.
"Um, no. What do you- what do you mean?"
"Yeah? Look at you go." He now showed a different video of the same figure in blue and red in a different alleyway, tying up someone else with what looked like webs.
Another video of the same guy stopping a car from crashing into a bus. "Wow! Nice catch. Three thousand pounds, forty miles an hour. That's not easy. You got mad skills."
"That's all- that's all on YouTube, though, right? I mean, that's where you found that? Because you know that's all fake, it's all done on the computer," argued the boy.
"Mmm hmm."
"It's like that video. What is it?"
Tony wasn't completely paying attention to the boy, instead looking up at the roof at some sort of small door.
"Yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, you mean like those UFOs over Phoenix?"
As he spoke, he lifted up a broom to open the small door. Carter caught a quickly glimpse of red and blue before the boy jumped at it, stuffing it into his wardrobe.
"Oh, what have we here?"
The boy turned around, folding his arms and leaning against the wall. "Uh...." he released a puff of breath, nodding his head slightly.
"So," began Tony. "You're the spider-ling. Crime-fighting spider. You're spider-boy?"
"S- Spider-Man."
"Not in that onesie, you're not."
Carter let out a quiet chuckle, but immediately returned stone faced when Tony shot her a look. However, even though he looked stern, it also looked like the corners of his mouth were about to turn upwards.
"It's not a onesie," defended Spider-Man, who had sent a slightly hurt look at the young girl, "I don't believe this, I was actually having a really good day today, you know, Mr Stark. I didn't miss my train, this perfectly good DVD player was just sitting there... and Algebra test, nailed it."
"I never liked Algebra," piped up Carter.
"You do Algebra?" Asked the boy.
"Not anymore."
Tony sent her another pointed look so she shut up. "Who else knows? Anybody?"
The boy shook his head. "Nobody."
"Not even your unusually attractive aunt?"
"No. No! If she knew, she would freak out. And when she freaks out, I freak out."
"You know what I think is really cool? This webbing."
Tony threw a small vial at the boy. He managed to catch it, even though he wasn't facing Tony and he wasn't prepared.
"That tensile strength is off the charts. Who manufactured that?"
"I did," answered the boy, throwing the vial into the open wardrobe.
"Climbing walls, how you doing that? Adhesive gloves?"
"It's a long story. I was--"
"Lordy! Can you even see in these?"
Tony held the goggles of the boy's mask up to his eyes.
"Yes, I can," he muttered, snatching the suit from Tony who was saying "Woah, I'm blind!" In a high voice, causing Carter to laugh yet another time.
"I can see in those. Okay? It's just that whenever whatever happened, happened, it's like my senses have been dialled to eleven. Theres- there's way too much input, so they- they just kinda help me to focus."
"You're in dire need of an upgrade. Systemic, top to bottom, hundred-point restoration. Thats why I'm here."
"Hey! How come he gets a suit and I don't!?" Asked an incredulous Carter.
Tony shot a quick "because I said so." At her before once again speaking to the boy. "Why are you doing this? I gotta know. What's your M/O? What gets you out of that twin bed in the morning?"
The boy, who now sat on his bed, stared at his hands as he answered. "Because...," he made an exasperated noise, presumably not knowing how to phrase his thoughts. "Because I've been me my whole life and I've had these powers for six months. I read books, I build computers. And- And, yeah, I would love to play football, but I- I couldn't then so I shouldn't now."
"Sure, 'cause you're different," agreed Tony.
"Exactly. But I can't tell anyone that so I'm not." He took a pause before adding "Look, when you can do the things that I can, but you don't, and then the bad things happen, they happen because of you."
Carter looked at Tony. He looked deep in thought, as if he had taken the boy's words to heart. She had to admit, those words also applied to her, too. A quick stab of sympathy for the boy shot through her, though she wasn't sure why. "So you wanna look out for the little guy, you wanna do your part. Make the world a better place and all that, right?"
"Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Just... looking out for the little guy. That's- that's what it is."
Tony stood up from the chair he was previously occupying, walking towards the bed.
"I'm gonna sit here, so you move the leg." Then he turned to Carter. "You go back to the facility."
Carter opened her mouth to protest, but before she could get any words out, Tony repeated "Back to the facility. Now."
Carter shot him a quick glare before she made a portal, appearing in her own room in the Avengers facility.
AUTHOR'S NOTE
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Wow this chapter is all over the place. Just to clarify, I wanted Carter to meet Peter as early as possible as their relationship is gonna be important. Tony doesn't want her getting involved with the whole Cap vs Tony thing so he sent her away before mentioning anything about Germany to Peter. I hope that sorta helps if anyone's confused.