Chapter 25
Jessica Montrouge’s list of requests for designs were swamped, from Gates to Kardashian to Zuckerberg to Windsor. She smiled. This was her big break, and she was not the type of person who waste it.
Times Magazine Special Edition: President Julia Brant’s Inauguration and Ball
The cover featured a photo of the woman herself, in her dress at her inauguration ceremony, her hand on the USA’s law book.
Julia Brant’s election: Facts and Statistics
Dudley Dursley: What We Know about the Ambassador to Asgard
Teddy Stark and Betty Brant: The Rise of the Next Generation
Asgard: What Do We Know?
The Best of Julia Brant’s New Traditions
The Full List of Accomplishments of Julia Brant
The Marine Biologist President: How it Happened
Julia Brant elected into the Oval Office with a unanimous vote for the first time since George Washington
Julia Brant’s Inauguration Ball Speech decomposed
And the list went on and on.
Betty handed Teddy the copy of the Teen Vogue Magazine. There they were, looking every bit the celebrity teen power couple, smack on the cover, the biggest headline reading: The Power Couple of Teddy Stark and Betty Brant
“Well, blinding success, don’t you think?” He asked, as they linked hands and walked into school.
As soon as they entered, and someone whispered pointed it out, a blanket of silence spread through the school, gathered for morning announcements, like a blanket of fog.
Principal Morita entered, clearing his throat. “Ahem… Um… Mister Stark, Miss Brant. Students, there are no pertinent announcements for this morning, you can stay here until you head to class.”
“Ugh, really. Why is everyone making such a big deal about this?” A dark haired (because that was all Teddy could see through the crowd) freshman asked.
“He's literally an Avenger and Brant lives in the White House. Don't ruin it for all of us.” Another freshman hissed at her, but everyone heard him through the silence.
Teddy walked through the crowd to the first freshman, and the crowd parted like the Red Sea to let him pass. He looked the dark-haired freshman in the eye and she met his right back. Her eyes met his in defiance and then she raised one eyebrow after about ten seconds. He shifted his eyes to yellow car-eyes. She didn't blink.
“I like you.” He said.
“Of course you do.” She said right back.
“Humble, eh?”
“Like knows like.”
He patted her on the shoulder. “Someday, that smooth tongue of yours will get you places.”
“I'm already places.”
“You're a freshman.” He said, satisfied he had the last word.
“And you're 16.” She said right back, and he knew it would look absurdly petty to have the last word now. Internally, he smirked. That freshman would go places, if he had anything to say about it.
But right now, he has class.
Congress voted unanimously to allow Dudley Mason Dursley as the ambassador to Asgard.
Exiting the Capitol Building and the hall the confirmation was held in, a reporter asked him, “Mr. Dursley, how do you feel about this?”
“I feel like I just won a bet. My cousin didn't think I'd get approved unanimously, so considering we were raised just about as siblings, I always love to win at a good round of one-upmanship.”
“Mr. Dursley, how were you sure you were going to win?”
“President Brant recommended me personally and spoke in my favor to millions of people who absolutely love her and trust her word. If they trust her as much as I do or even more, they'd vote for me as well. And since the vast majority does, it wasn't a question of if I get approved but how.”
“What are your plans for going to Asgard?”
“The send-off will be public and the details have been published the moment the session confirming me ended.”
He then walked out of the Capitol Building, giving reported and fans alike a smile, a wave, and no answers to any questions thrown his way. He was a career politician, even if he was better than most, or so he prided himself on being. Being complicit to the various things Lilith did didn't help but nobody knew so he was perfectly good thank you very much.
Peter Parker was ecstatic. “Ned, like how awesome is this? Our History teacher was basically with the Avengers, and both Teddy Stark and the President’s niece go to our school!”
“I know, right? Awesome!” Ned fanboyed right back.
As they walked into their history classroom and saw Mr. Barnes teaching, their fanboying leveled up a notch.
The bell rang, announcing the start of class. A very loud clap came from Mr. Barnes. “Alright, I get that half of this class will have watched the live show of the Inauguration ball last night.”
“Make that the whole class.” Ned piped up.
“Alright. I’m usually a pretty relaxed teacher,” he said, sitting on his desk, “But two ground rules. I don’t care what some news reporter said, I have jet lag from being in Washington DC last night, so no autographs, and no mentions of my gramps unless you want to write a full essay, graded as an exam, about how much better I am than him.” He swept his gaze around the room, and the students decided they wanted to do no such thing, because he could very well make them. The school actually preferred he give out extra essays as punishment rather than having to pay him overtime for watching detentions, and essays worked a lot better anyways.
“Second rule: no gossip. You’re right, yesterday was a historic event and even today is,” he said, taking out his phone, “since Dudley Dursley was just confirmed as the Ambassador to Asgard by congress 15 seconds ago. Unanimously, dammit, now I owe Barton a hundred bucks.”
The class chuckled. “Go ahead, laugh it up. I bet on that one senator from Arizona being too much of a traditionalist to vote for. Go ahead, have a class discussion about how world-changing this is. Keep to the ground rules, and I get a day off, not having to grade your homework.”
“No homework?”
“I really have better things to do.” Bucky said, leaning back in his swivel chair, feet up on the empty desk.
“Mr. Barnes, have you ever met the Avengers?” Ned asked.
“Sure. Barton’s an asshole everyone seems to like, mostly because his kids are cute.”
“He has kids?”
“Yeah. Can’t tell you anymore, shit’s classified.”
“What about Marvel?”
“Colonel Danvers doesn't hang out around Stark Tower much ,she and Rhodes are still very high up in the Air Force hierarchy, army business a lot of the time. Though I got to tell you, the Avengers are a lot more likely to be jet lagged and over caffeinated than kick-ass.”
“Awesome.”
“Kids, don’t be like the Avengers. Do you know how much life insurance costs when you start to? Or any insurance for the matter. Car, property, considering how likely either of those is of getting blown up while Stark tests new Iron Man blasters or the like.”
“Are you an Avenger?”
“No, kid, if I was, I wouldn’t be here.”
“So the Avengers don’t have day jobs?”
“Sure they have day jobs, Runshman is Stark’s PA, Rhodes and Danvers are in the army, Banner does research fitting for his 8 PhD’s, and Barton is a Hollywood stunt double.”
“Really?”
“No, he’s a stay at home dad, his wife works. And then there’sRogers who can live off his army back pay for another century or si, given if you read your textbooks, which I don’t doubt you didn’t, you’d see how many politicians used raising Captain America’s salary as a publicity stunt.”
“Are you enhanced?”
“A little.”
“What can you do?”
He didn’t answer, he didn't have time to. “Down!” He yelled as the students dropped down to the ground, as bullets started raining in. They managed to crawl out of the classroom, as the guns seemed to be aiming at him. He used literally anything he could so as to not get him, do as to now show anything but enhanced reflexes. He just hoped the kids got out, because he was about to go in full winter soldier mode. As soon as they did, he threw some Peruvian Instant Darkness powder, Lilith supplied the whole team with the miracle chemical, as he couched a bit to show he had escaped, and pressed the small button that would activate his Winter Soldier gear, recently upgraded by Tony Stark to go hidden under his clothes and then spread over him in seconds when necessary.
It did, and he took out half the gunmen, shooting the sniper on the rooftop across the street when he realized the other half were down as well. He shot them for good measure.
“You killed them!” A voice exclaimed. Spider-Man, now confirmed to be a kid.
“And what would you have done?” He asked, thankful for his voice modulator and scanner in his goggles. Peter Parker was more than he seemed, it turned out.
“Webbed them up, turned them over to the police.”
“You won’t be able to tell, but see the lack of logos? Those are professionals, kid. They’ll be out of the police cells before anyone can even file the paperwork they were there. I would have done the same.”
“Are you a criminal?”
“Are you?” He sighed. “Get lost kid. You know who I am, I know who you are, and you really need to get yourself a voice modulator.” He said, as he made a little wind so the instant darkness powder, which also blocked cameras for a good amount of time, spread over him, as he sprinted to the edge, and walked out as Mr. Barnes, History teacher.
Peter Parker had a dilemma. There were three Avengers at his school, for all one of them denied it, and neither one of them would be willing to help him join, or even just get a better grasp of how to manage his powers. He pushed it aside, instead, swinging out over the city on his daily patrol.
He caught a familiar glint of silver, and swung up to the corresponding rooftop. “Mr. Barnes.”
“Kid, you’re lucky I blocked the cameras here.” Bucky said. “I’m not taking my mask off and neither should you.”
“Can you help me?”
“Help you with what, kid?”
“I got these powers about a year ago, but I can't really manage them that well. I thought the Avengers could help, but there’s no way in.”
“Of course there isn’t.”
“And it’s not like I can walk up to Teddy Stark and ask, and I didn’t know about you until today.”
“Kid, swing up to the roof of Avengers tower at noon next Saturday. You can’t skip on school like that, and you’re drowning under a lack of time”
“But I can help, so I gotta!”
“Kid, shut up and listen to me. Nobody is a full-time superhero, and nobody expects you to be one. Even a loved one beyond the grave.”
“How would you know?” Peter asked snidely.
“Kid, I’m not going to tell the Avenger’s secrets to you, but trust me when I say that there are things you don’t know that change the whole game.”
“But you can help me, right?”
“Sure kid. Jut don’t do this full time, and I’ll help you. If you do this spidering thing for more hours than you’re legally allowed to have a job, I’ll stop coming.”
“Yes sir,of course sir.”
“Codename’s the Winter Soldier, kid.”
“Do I call you that?”
“No, you can call me James.”