Next Generation
The cloth scratches at her nose. She wants to rip it off, but she knows that her father will be disappointed with her, although he would never say this out loud. Her ears are straining, trying to compensate for the lack of sight, and she feels the air move beside her.
Lunging, she dodges out of the way of Bucky’s attack. She spins, trying to orientate herself to her surroundings, and carefully avoids colliding with a training dummy strewn across the floor. Bucky is behind her now. She can feel the movement of the air and the mechanical whirring of their prosthetic arm. They attack again, but she kicks out, hitting one of their kneecaps.
They grunt and fall to their knees.
“That’s what you get, Oldie!” she says triumphantly, before being flung backwards into the padded wall of the training room. She slides down the wall and groans, coughing and spluttering, before wrestling the blindfold from her to see who the mystery assailant was.
Daredevil.
“Dad, you told me it was just me and Bucky!” Ellie says with a snarl, wiping the sweat from her forehead.
Matthew Murdock, dressed today in his classic Daredevil suit, shakes his head at his daughter, “You need to expect the unexpected, Ellie. You can never rely on the information your opponent has given you.”
“Ugh, why do you always have to do this to me? Why can I never win?” Ellie asks as she moves past her father to grab her gym bag from the floor.
“Because I don’t want you to end up dead,” Matt says simply.
“Sorry, Kid, but he’s right,” Bucky says to her, before heading towards Matt to help him out of his suit. They unzip the back for him, and Matt thanks them by planting a gentle kiss on their forehead.
Not wanting to see this intimate moment, Ellie turns away and says, “I’m going to school. Love you, see you later!”
As she charges down the corridor of Stark Tower, struggling to shrug on her hoodie, she wonders if any other kids at school have this sort of start to the day. First, she must train for an hour every morning, especially if she wants to go into business like her parents. Then, she must endure the grossness of her dad and his numerous partners. She’s never even been kissed, and her dad is gallivanting around with three long-term partners. It just doesn’t seem fair to her.
Ellie pulls on her boots before saying goodbye to JARVIS. The AI is one of the best things about living in Stark Tower, because she never feels truly alone, even if her entire family is out winning cases in court or fighting supervillains. JARVIS is always there to keep her company.
The streets of New York are busy, as usual, but Ellie navigates them easily, squeezing between people and hurrying along, trying not to take up space or bring attention to herself. Two years ago, she could have walked the streets without having to worry, but now she’s been on the cover of nearly every newspaper.
Her dad was unmasked, live on camera, and her entire world turned upside down. He had been captured by some enemies of the Avengers, and they streamed his unmasking to millions of people. The people of Hell’s Kitchen were shocked – how could a mild-mannered and blind lawyer be Daredevil? It didn’t make any sense.
But that wasn’t the worse part. Then the press delved deeper, finding out that Matt is trans and polyamorous, and they absolutely vilified him in the papers. How could this man be a protector of the people, they asked. How can they trust heroes if they are hiding everything about themselves?
Then they found out about Ellie, and she was all over the news. When it came out that Clint Barton was her father, the press vilified Matt even more, claiming that he was cheater, a whore, and that he was hell-bent on breaking up Clint’s marriage. Obviously, this was all untrue, but that didn’t stop the newspapers from printing it.
Ellie had to stop going to school for a couple of months, simply because the harassment was too much, but now things have calmed down. Matt, Karen, Foggy and Clint have all done press conferences and interviews regarding the situation and explained their relationships to each other. Ellie has posed for photos with both sides of her family and had numerous comments on what she thinks about being an Avenger’s baby.
People started throwing rocks through the window of their apartment, and so they all had to move to Stark Tower. This didn’t bother Ellie, mainly because it’s an incredibly cool place to live and all her favourite aunts and uncles are around, but she sometimes wishes that she could have started high school as a normal teenager, and not as the daughter of an Avenger.
Ellie walks into school, and is greeted by her best friend and confidant, Josh. He’s leaning against her locker, airpods in and listening to cheesy nineties pop, judging from the way he’s dancing on the spot.
“Oh wow, can I have your autograph!?” Josh says when he sees her, and she smacks him on the arm before taking out his airpod to see what he’s listening to.
“Ugh, I don’t get how you can listen to this stuff. Surely your brain is soup by now?”
“Which would explain my poor taste in friends,” Josh responds smoothly, linking her arm with hers as they stroll through the corridors. “Anyway, how was training this morning? Is Bucky still training you?”
“You’re just asking because you have a crush on Bucky,” Ellie responds with a giggle. “Which is gross because they’re old enough to be your dad, plus they’re dating my dad.”
“But have you seen the pics when they were young? Or when they were in the war?” Josh bites his lip. “I do love a person in uniform.”
“Gross, you’ll be telling me you want to bang my dad next.”
“Which one?” Josh asks with a cheeky smile, and Ellie groans in response as they enter their classroom.
Some of their classmates openly stare at her, but she’s used to it, so simply moves through the rows to reach her seat. Josh sits beside her and flashes the middle finger at a couple of girls who wont stop gawking, before unpacking his bag.
“Honestly, people have no respect,” Josh says loudly as he opens his notebook.
Thirty minutes later, class is interrupted by an explosion nearby. The windows rattle in their frames, and Ellie instinctively ducks down to shield herself in case the glass shatters. There are shocked gasps all around, and everyone is glancing at each other, speechless.
Ellie immediately goes for her phone. There’s an emergency alert, asking everyone to stay inside, and she wonders what sort of attack must be in process. Her mind flits automatically to her parents, but she pushes that thought away, otherwise she would be constantly paralysed with fear.
A knocking sound interrupts her thoughts, and she glances up to see Spiderman attached to the window. Miss Leach, her history teacher, is staring and pointing with an open mouth, but Ellie simply moves past her to unlatch the window.
Peter swings into the classroom, landing gracefully onto the floor. He’s got a bag in hand and throws it to Ellie without a word. She frowns at him before unzipping it to reveal the shimmering purple suit that she had been designing with Tony for months now.
“What’s going on?” Ellie asks Peter as she strokes the soft material of her suit.
“Alien attack. Everyone is needed, even you.”
“But I’m not ready! My dad kicked my ass just this morning.”
Spiderman shrugs, “Your dad kicks everyone’s asses. You need to get ready and we need to go.”
“I don’t even have a name!” Ellie says in exasperation. She knows this is a silly thing to be focused on in the moment, but she can’t help but panic over the idea of going out as a superhero for the first time without a name.
A hand closes over hers, and she turns to see Josh giving her an encouraging smile.
“El, you need to go,” Josh says. “If you don’t put on this amazing suit, then I’ll steal it from you and go myself, and you know I’d be dead in a minute.”
“What if I’m not ready?” she asks him.
“Of course you’re ready, El,” Josh says to her with a sweet smile as he squeezes her hand. “You’re Devilhawk.”