Chapter 2
Ashley was feeling rather riled up after her encounter with the web-slinging superhero. She didn’t class herself as a superhero or even as a masked vigilante. She just used the gifts she had to help others and kept herself out of the spotlight where possible. But tonight, she had been careless. Spider-Man was very much in the public eye and that was a place she did not want to be.
She landed in the woods behind the school field and crawled back into her tent. It was getting close to midnight, so she didn’t want to get to bed too late. She changed into some pyjamas that were sadly rather on the short side and weren't in the best condition. She had had the same pair for the last four years, despite the shortness of them exposing her stomach and the numerous holes that had frayed in the material. She got into her sleeping bag – she had bought this along with the tent on the cheap with the little savings she had saved over the years. Her grandparents used to give her an allowance, which she hid inside some old socks. When they died last year, she didn't get any more money, so she saved what she had until now. She pulled the sleeping bag around her tighter and drifted into a fitful sleep.
Ashley shot up awake in her sleeping bag early the next morning. Beads of sweat clung to her pale skin and a freezing shiver curled down her spine. She felt worse when she woke that morning than when she had gone to sleep the night before. For starters, she was unbearably cold. There was a dull throbbing in her head and aches in the back of her neck and shoulders. Getting dressed was a chore that day. She tucked her long, messy locks into the back of her hoodie and pulled the hood up to provide some kind of protection against the harsh morning sun.
She took a slow walk towards the small lake in the woods, (well, it was more of a pond in reality) and washed her face in a desperate attempt to clear her of the sticky sweat that clung to her skin. She felt a little more awake after splashing the cold water on her skin, but it didn't rid her of her headache or the dull pains in her muscles. Ashley tried to shake off the tired feeling and walked back to her tent to pick up her school bag before setting off for school.
Her morning classes of English and Maths passed by in a hazy blur. As she left the Maths class at the beginning of lunch, she was stopped by MJ, who blocked her path to get out of the classroom. MJ had an unimpressed look on her face, but Ashley couldn’t see the hint of concern reflected in almond eyes.
“-ley? Ash!” MJ had asked her something. Her eyes had grown uncomfortably wide as she tried to recall what MJ had just said. Coming up blank, she had no choice but to ask her to repeat. “I asked if you wanted to hang out at lunch.”
“Oh, um, sure...” Ashley regretted the words as soon as they left her mouth. Clearly, she wasn’t thinking straight, otherwise she would have come up with some excuse as to why she couldn’t sit and eat lunch with her friend.
As if MJ knew what was going on in her friend’s head, she grabbed tightly onto Ashley's arm and essentially dragged her into the canteen. The quartet of Ashley, MJ, Peter and Ned were queueing up for food, with two of the group in a deep animated conversation regarding whether Spider-Man or Captain America was the strongest enhanced individual. It was a fairly innocent conversation to most, but Ashley’s mind couldn’t help but wander back to the previous night and her brief encounter with the masked vigilante. She knew of course what he could do, which included but was not limited to lifting buses full of people in the middle of a busy freeway. But he came across as rather a bumbling buffoon when they met the previous night. She had an inkling then that just maybe, Spider-Man wasn't the grown-up Avenger most believed him to be.
Ashley was soon distracted from her musings when fingers snapped in front of her face in a crude attempt to capture her attention. MJ was standing in front of her, sketchbooks grasped tightly in hand, and an angry expression on her face. Peter and Ned were stood rigid under the glare, whereas it was one that Ashley was rather accustomed to. Growing up, that look was usually reserved for when MJ found out that Ashley's parents had done something particularly cruel, such as not letting her eat or locking her in her room for the whole weekend, while her parents took her little brother to visit the theme park. MJ's glare was particularly good at getting the truth out of an otherwise tight-lipped Ashley.
“What's going on with you?” MJ's tone was accusing. “You’re acting like more of a space case than usual.”
Ashley shrugged her shoulders, idly staring at the cheesy sludge on display in front of them that the school were calling pasta bake. She was actually glad she had no money for food – it didn’t exactly look appetising. Knowing full well that MJ wouldn’t drop the subject, she tried to quickly come up with an excuse. “Sorry, I’ve just been studying a lot recently, so I'm kind of tired.” Just to prove her point, she let out a loud yawn.
She stood quietly in the queue behind MJ, who was hesitantly loading her tray up with vegetarian lasagne. Ashley’s eyes skipped right by the mains on offer for lunch and settled on a basket by the till. After MJ had paid for her food, she picked up an apple and banana from the dinner-lady and joined MJ at their usual table at the back. She took a bite out of the apple and was so very glad for the school's healthy eating promotion.
“Is that all you're eating?” MJ asked, the concerned gaze from earlier returning to her eyes.
Ashley nodded as she swallowed her bite. “I'm not that hungry and that-" She pointed at the tray of food in front of MJ, “looks like a week's worth of regret and suffering on a plate.” MJ snorted at Ashley’s fairly accurate description of her lunch.
Peter and Ned joined them at the table a few moments later, now having a very serious debate about who would win in a fight, Luke Skywalker or Thor? It was a question Ashley wasn't sure she needed answering, but she was sure she would get an answer by the end of their lunch hour regardless. She finished her apple as she listened to the boys continue to argue and took out her homework to get a head start. She was distracted about ten minutes later by a sharp poke in her side from Peter.
“Hey, we still need to work on our Computer Science project.” Ashley stared at him blankly, waiting to see if he was going to elaborate on the obvious fact he just stated. “I asked Mr Stark, and he says you can come over to the tower with me after school today.”
Ashley continued to stare at him, but this time a look of disbelief on her face. She never doubted the fact that Peter had an internship at Stark industries – he was just that clever. If anyone from school was going to get an opportunity like that, her (extremely small amount of) money was on Peter or MJ (although she didn’t doubt that Ned could easily get an apprenticeship at Microsoft or Apple). But the idea, that he had asked the Mr Stark if he could bring another student to the Stark Industries to work on a school project seemed ludicrous. At a loss for words, she simply nodded her head.
***
Peter was practically bouncing in his seat during his Chemistry lesson that day. It was his last class of the day and he was excited to spend the weekend at Avengers Tower. Aunt May was working overtime, so Mr Stark had offered to have him for the weekend, so they could work in the lab together. Before lab work though, he had to make sure his school work was done, so he asked if he could bring Ashley over to the tower with him to finish their project. The last fifteen minutes of the lesson were completely lost on Peter. He had no idea what the teacher had said and by the time the bell rang, Peter wasn't even sure what lesson he had just been sitting in.
Peter was out the door as soon as the first bell had rung and rushed over to the art block to find Ashley clearing up after a painting session. Peter caught a glimpse of her canvas as she hung it up to dry. The painting was done with watercolours and charcoal, the charcoal standing out bold against the violet hues of the water colour. The charcoal lines were drawn into a figure. At the very bottom of the canvas was the silhouette of a girl, curled in a tight ball and seemingly holding herself together. But more interestingly was the pair of black wings towering over her, stretching out from the figure's back. Peter reckoned it was some kind of symbolism, but his mind couldn’t help but drift back to the girl from his patrol the previous night.
Ashley slowly walked out the classroom, feet stumbling over air a few times. Peter frowned as he took in the dark circles and sunken cheeks of his friend. Her tired emerald eyes met his and she cracked a small, fractured smile.
“Hey Peter,” she greeted him as she left the classroom. Her voice was quiet and slightly hoarse. Peter remembered their first day at school. They had both been awarded scholarships to Midtown for their remarkable grades and high IQs. He remembered that Ashley was rather timid and was intimidated the first time they met and that hadn’t really changed all that much, but Ashley had made an impression as the first person that had addressed MJ as such and not Michelle. The two were inseparable with one rarely being seen without the other. They both joined the Academic Decathlon team together and after that, MJ had started hovering around Peter and Ned before finally becoming friends with the two boys. All four of them were Mr Harrington's star pupils and spent a lot of time studying together, but shortly after Peter and MJ had started dating, Ashley stopped hanging out with them.
It started a couple of weeks ago when she stopped joining them for lunch, choosing instead to study in the library. Now that Peter thinks about it, it was around that time that she started to look tired and sad. Peter wondered if he had perhaps done something to upset her. Did she feel he had taken her best friend away? Peter's mind reeled at the thought as they walked out of the school.
Waiting outside in a sleek black Audi, was Happy. Peter grinned, forgetting his previous reverie and opened the door to let Ashley in. She stumbled in her steps as she climbed into the luxury car.
“Hey Happy,” Peter greeted. He shut the door behind him and pulled out his phone to let Aunt May know he was on his way to the tower.
“Hey kid, good day at school?” Over the past few months, Happy had developed more of a tolerance for Peter, even going as far to having a liking for the boy. A lot of that had come from spending time with Peter's Aunt, who absolutely adored him.
“Yeah it was pretty awesome! I got full marks on my Biochem test last week. Oh, Happy, this is my friend Ashley, we're working on a computing project together.”
“Hey kid,” Happy greeted shortly, his attention focused on the road. Ashley stuttered a muffled ‘hi' and turned to stare out the window as they drove through the crowded New York streets.
Peter fished his phone out of his pocket. With the New York traffic, it was sure to be a long drive, so he found one of his inspiring, feel-good playlists and hit shuffle. He detangled the wires of his earphones and put one in his ear, offering the other to Ashley with a light tap on her arm. She gave him a short smile as she took the earphone, her smile growing slightly as she heard the familiar tune of a Muse song.
The two sat in a fairly comfortable silence, something Happy never thought possible with the spider-boy. Around half an hour later, he swung the car round into the garage underneath the tower. All three of them hopped out and Happy led the two teens into the elevator, pushing the button for the penthouse on the top floor.
As the elevator started to rise, a loud female voice spoke, startling Ashley. “Welcome back Happy. Welcome back Peter. Who's your friend?”
Peter shot Ashley an apologetic glance after she shrunk back into the corner of the small area. “Hi FRIDAY. This is my friend Ashley. We're working on a school project together.”
“Hello Ashley, it’s nice to meet you.” The shrill voice boomed in Ashley’s ears. Peter didn’t miss the flinch or the way Ashley's brows knitted together in a pained expression.
“H-Hi FRIDAY. It’s nice to meet you too.” Ashley of course knew all about FRIDAY, the AI that Tony Stark had built into his life. She was particularly fascinated by what she had read about FRIDAY being a near-enough sentient being, who could learn and think. She hoped one day to create something even half as amazing as FRIDAY.
About ten minutes later, they had passed over fifty floors before arriving at the penthouse. As the metal doors opened, Ashley was greeted with a bright space overlooking New York City. The large room was walled head to toe with glass windows. The afternoon sun brightly lit the large space, reflecting off of the shiny kitchen surfaces and the gigantic flat screen TV mounted on one wall. The sheer size of the screen easily rivalled the cinema screens that she had watched a couple of times with MJ over the years when they were celebrating birthdays. There were several pieces of furniture, including some fancy plush sofas and some bean bags, which took away from the posh atmosphere that Pepper Potts had no doubt tried to create.
Standing at the far end of the room, tablet in hand reviewing Iron Man specs, was the genius himself, Tony Stark. He looked up from his work as the two teens stepped out of the elevator and wandered into the large, open space – one teen at a considerably faster pace than the other. As Peter approached him, the man embraced him in a tight hug, clapping him on the back lightly before letting go.
“Hey Pete, how was school?” Peter began to launch into a detailed recount of his school day, including the results of his test from last week, while Ashley continued to tiptoe further into the room, eyes darting to stare at the artwork and furniture filling the space. Tony seemed to notice the girl's daze and smirked to himself proudly as he walked up to her. “You must be Ashley. Peter has told us a lot about you.” Ashley froze at being addressed directly by Tony Stark. She glanced at Peter briefly, eyes wide and too scared to reply. Sensing the unease, Tony continued speaking, trying to lighten the atmosphere. “Pete says you’re the smartest kid in school, which is saying something...”
“I-I'm not...” Ashley stuttered out. She nervously picked at her finger nails as she spoke, refusing to meet anyone’s gaze. “Peter is definitely the smartest... and MJ and Ned are smarter than me anyway.”
“That's not true!” Peter yells, and even Tony cringes from the volume. He brings his hand up, mimicking turning a dial down and Peter seems to get the message as he lowers his voice. “You've constantly got either the same grades or higher than me. Plus, MJ and Ned aren't on full scholarships like we are.” Peter blushed slightly with the end of his sentence.
Tony rolled his eyes at the two teens. He put his hands up, standing between the two teens. “As entertaining as this ‘argument' is, I’m gonna have to end it. Now, I believe you kids have a project to be getting on with. If you guys knuckle down for a few hours, I'll order some pizza later and Ashley can stay for movie night, if her family is okay with it.”
Ashley visibly froze when Tony mentioned her family. She couldn’t exactly tell him that she could be dead for all her family cared. She shook her head, declining Tony's offer. “Th-thank you Mr Stark, but I don’t want to outstay my welcome.”
With that, Ashley moved to sit on one of the bean bags, shrugging her tattered rucksack off her shoulder. She pulled out the school laptop she had borrowed (with permission of course) and turned it on to load up their project. Peter shrugged his shoulders, disappearing quickly to the lab to pick up his own laptop (courtesy of Mr Stark) before sitting down on a bean bag next to Ashley.
The pair worked together in relative quiet, only briefly discussing ideas or brainstorming how to fix any bugs. Three hours passed by without them getting up from their seats, and by the time they stopped, the sky had been dark for some time. Neither teen had noticed that there were more people in the room than when they first got there, sprawled out across the sofas in the middle of the room in front of the large TV.
“I think we just need to do a couple of test runs and smooth out any remaining bugs next week,” Peter commented as he turned off his laptop. Ashley hummed and nodded as she packed her laptop back inside her backpack. When she sat up again, she then noticed the three extra heads that had joined Tony on the sofas.
Cuddled up beside Tony was a woman with burning orange hair, which could only belong to Pepper Potts (although it was rumoured she would soon become Pepper Stark). She was watching the two teens with a small smile on her face, along with another red head. The other woman had more fiery hair and her gaze was fixed on Ashley with a calculating stare. The man that was with them was sat a few meters away from Tony and they were having an animated conversation about suit mechanics, and not paying the teens any mind. He was dressed in fairly plain jeans and hoodie, compared to Pepper's business suit and Natasha's tailored dress. But Ashley's gaze fixed on him for a long minute, staring at the braces on his legs. Everyone knew that James Rhodes, or War Machine, had been injured in Berlin on ‘Avengers business', but she hadn't realised it was to the point where the man could no longer fully use his legs.
Ashley's gaze was drawn back to Pepper when she stood up, five-inch heels clicking on the wooden floor as she walked over to them. Reflexively, Ashley stood up, just as Pepper came to a stop a couple of feet away from her. “You guys have been working hard over here, haven't you? You didn't even notice when we came in.”
Peter didn’t miss the slight stumble as Ashley hurried to stand up to greet Pepper. He instinctively moved closer to his friend, worried she might fall over. Ashley introduced herself to the CEO, stammering over her words as she spoke. “H-hello Miss P-Potts, it’s a pl-pl-pleasure to m-meet you.”
Pepper chuckled lightly, finding the girl in front of her quite endearing. Being surrounded by outgoing and outlandish personalities all day made this a nice change of pace for her. “It’s lovely to meet you too. Ashley, wasn’t it?” Ashley nodded her head, finding her throat closing up as she stared at the amazing woman in front of her. “You two must be starving after all that hard work. Why don’t you both go sit down? Pizza will be here soon.”
Peter was absolutely thrilled to hear that food would be arriving soon. He was starving and couldn’t wait for a slice or twelve. His glance fell sideways, and he noticed Ashley looked rather nauseous in comparison. Her face was pale with a slight green hue. If it weren’t for his enhanced senses, he might not have noticed the thin sheen of sweat on her forehead. Peter was about ready to drag her across to one of the sofas when Ashley spoke up, her voice barely more than a whisper, reciting the words she had said to Mr Stark earlier.
“I should get going – I don’t want to outstay my welcome.”
A small frown crossed Pepper’s features, and Ashley wondered for a minute if she had accidentally offended her. But truth be told, she just felt so tired and wanted her sleeping bag.
“Nonsense!” Pepper’s voice was commanding, but it still had that soft lilt to it. It reminded Peter of how May used to scold him if he didn’t eat enough. When Peter first got his powers, he felt guilty about needing to eat so much food in order to keep up with his metabolism. But when May found him swaying on his feet after patrol one night, she made it her mission to force feed Peter if necessary. “You’re not outstaying your welcome and there will be more than enough pizza to go around. Some of our friends are busy, so there’s only a few of us tonight. As long as your parents are okay with it, you can stay for as long as you want. We’ll make sure you get home safe.”
There was a conflicted glance in Ashley’s eyes. Her eyes seemed to be searching Pepper’s, possibly looking for confirmation to her words. As if sensing this, Pepper grasped the girl’s hand and led her over to the sofa, Peter following the pair closely behind. Ashley sat down hesitantly next to Pepper, who resumed her seat tucked into Tony’s side. Peter sat on the adjoining sofa on Ashley’s other side and greeted Natasha with a brief hug.
There was an awkward pause that lasted about thirty seconds, where nobody really knew what to say. Rhodey decided he would be the one to break the silence. “So, is there anyone else joining us tonight? I assume there’s no Thor.”
Tony cleared his throat and smiled, clearly glad for the small talk. “Yeah, Thor’s off-world. Barton is farming, like a peasant; Cap is off gallivanting with Bird-man and the Manchurian Candidate; and Banner’s probably holed up in his lab somewhere. Wanda and Vision should be joining us though.”
Ashley let out a slight giggle at Tony’s blasé description of the Avengers. The sound came out breathy and strained, but Tony smirked slightly at the reaction he got. He could tell Peter’s friend was nervous to be around them, but Tony didn’t think it had much to do with them being the greatest assembly of superheroes (or at least that’s what he thought). She reminded him so much of Peter. The girl was clearly intelligent – he had listened to her and Peter working, and her gifts were clearly in the realm of technology and coding. He could maybe use another intern…
A ‘ding’ sound brought everyone’s attention to the elevator at the other end of the room, where Vision and Wanda were stepping out. Wanda’s hand was tightly encased in Vision’s as they walked out to meet the group. Wanda’s hair was hanging in loose, chestnut waves past her shoulders. She wore a pair of ripped black skinny jeans and an oversized burgundy sweater. Vision was wearing a pair of grey slacks and he had a white shirt on underneath the olive jumper he was wearing. They would look like a fairly normal couple if it wasn’t for the crimson hue that was Vision’s skin and the glowing yellow stone in the centre of his forehead. Both of them stopped in their tracks once they realised that not only was everyone looking at them, but there was a pair of unfamiliar eyes staring at them both.
“Who is this?” The slight undertone of Wanda’s Sokovian accent caused her question to come out more intimidating than she had meant. She was starting to sound more like a native to New York as the days went by, but she hadn’t lost the accent of her homeland completely, and she vowed that she wouldn’t, in order to remember her brother, if nothing else.
Peter jumped up from his seat and rushed over to meet Wanda and Vision, embracing them both in a strong hug. He then bounced back over to the sofas, clearly demonstrating that he had far too much energy. “Hi guys, this is my friend Ashley.”
Ashley stood up to greet the two Avengers, not wanting to be rude. In a quiet murmur, she spoke: “H-Hello, it’s nice to meet you.”
Wanda seemed to pause in thought for a second, before she broke out into a wide smile. She stepped forward and embraced the stammering girl before her in a quick hug, not missing Tony’s warning glance as she did so. She knew she was being warned not to go sneaking inside the girl’s head, and she had learnt her lesson from doing that very quickly. There was something about the girl that drew her in though, and Wanda felt oddly comforted by the brief contact.
As Wanda stepped back, Vision spoke up beside her. “It is a pleasure to meet you Miss Ashley. I am Vision and this is Wanda. Although, you may know her as Scarlet Witch.”
Ashley sat back down, feeling a little dizzy from the crazy event that she had found herself in. Her heart was hammering in her chest as she watched Wanda and Vision move to sit next to Rhodey on another sofa. She was just starting to calm down when a familiar loud voice echoed overhead.
“Pizza’s here, Boss.”
“Thanks FRIDAY,” Tony shot back as he got up and walked over to the elevator to go and meet the delivery boy that was waiting in the foyer downstairs.
Ashley rolled her eyes as she realised that agreeing to stay for the evening might just end up giving her a heart attack. As they waited for Tony to return with food, she couldn’t even begin to imagine what the rest of the night had in store…