Chapter 2
Walking through Avengers HQ is a surreal experience even when you’ve walked its halls before. On the way up to it, Hawkeye had told me about what Black Widow had learnt from the man in the mecha. He’d gotten the mecha from a supplier in Great Britain. A complete back ground check and deep dive on the supplier known as John Galvon found that he had connections to HYDRA. As to what connections, no one could be sure. Which is why Tony had called a mission. Entering a conference room, I saw Spider Man, Fe, Black Widow, Vision and Scarlett Witch sitting around the conference table while Tony was looking at the big screen. Missing from the group were the two new protégés of Vision and Scarlett Witch and Black Widow’s own pupil.
“So nice of you to join us Slingshot, Hawkeye,” Tony greeted.
“Traffic was killer okay. Some of us don’t have private jets we can use,” Hawkeye said in reply.
“Can we just get on with the brief?” Black Widow asked. Tony nodded.
“Meet John Galvon – small time arms dealer and CEO of a small weapons company in London,” With a flick of Tony’s hand Galvon’s picture appeared on the big screen “We know that Galvon was the one who supplied our Mecha Man with the Mecha and we know he has HYDRA connections. Our mission is to find out what his connections are exactly. To do that we need to go undercover at a charity gala. I already have an invite, but I need back up on the inside as well as the outside to pull this off. Which is why I’ve created four fake identities with the help of Black Widow. Hawkeye and Slingshot will be Clarissa and Dante Grey. Dante is the owner of a multibillion hunting supplies business. Clarissa is his daughter and the heir to the business. Spider Man and Fe will be the other two going in. Mark and Phoebe Harrison are a brother and sister duo who between them have amassed $1 billion. They too have business that sells things. It’s all on your dossiers,” Black Widow handed out four files to Spider Man, Fe, Hawkeye and myself. I didn’t bother opening it to read it as Black Widow continued the briefing.
“Tony is going to come in through the front door and give the paparazzi all the front-page gossip they want while everyone else is entering through the back door. Hawkeye and Slingshot will enter first and head up to the second floor of the gala building. This gives Tony, Spider Man and Fe cover from the high ground. Tony will enter after Hawkeye and Slingshot which will also give Spider Man and Fe cover to enter. Being teenagers with $1 billion will draw attention to you two so try not to make any scenes,”
“So, we have our mission, any questions?” Tony asked
“What are we going to wear?” I asked, “Some of us aren’t… well… you,”
“Already sorted – Black Widow helped with that one. Your dress, as well as Fe’s, will be in your rooms,”
“Why dresses?” Fe asked “Wouldn’t it make more sense if we wore suits? After all we would be able to hide our work suits in case we got in trouble,”
“As much as that would make more sense and be safer for the two of you, going undercover often means that you are put in situations that make you uncomfortable because you need to blend it,” Black Widow said “While women in suits are becoming more popular, these sorts of events often come with a strict dress code. This gala is no exception,”
“We’ll make do. Don’t tell me there’s going to be extra tight security so no weapons,” I said.
“There’s security so I don’t advise any obvious weapons,” Tony said “Good we’re done. Go get ready,”
Despite the fact that I wasn’t actually an Avenger and rarely visited the base, I still had a room in the dormitory wing of Avengers HQ. As Tony had said, a dress and a pair of shoes were waiting for me. The dress was navy blue and had silver beads creating a x shaped belt design on the front while similar beads adorned the straps of the sleeveless gown. The heels were wide fit and had a small heel. I quickly changed from my superhero suit into the dress and heels. I was about to head out the door when I remembered something I had left in my room the last time I had been at Avengers HQ – a necklace with large round marbles had sat on the desk of drawers for a few months. I put it on and grabbed one of a few slingshots I kept in the room. Remembering that I didn’t have any pockets, I rummaged through the drawers to find the small holster I had gotten made especially for my slingshots. I put the holster around my leg before sliding the slingshot into place. It was weird having the extra weight around my leg, but it was possibly the only way for me to get a weapon into the gala. No one would want to check under my dress. Then I remembered my new hoverboard. I took it out of my school bag. Making sure that I had everything else, I took my blazer off the bed and put it on, so I could keep warm during the flight. Hawkeye was waiting for me outside my room when I left it. He was wearing a black suit, dress shoes and a dark purple over coat. His tie and pocket square were the same shade of navy blue as my dress.
“You look wonderful Abs,” Hawkeye said.
“Thanks Clint. You dress up nicely as well,”
“I have something else for you. Tony designed a pair of earrings for all the ladies if they were needed for a mission like this. They act as both an accessory and a com,” Hawkeye pulled out a small box from one of his dress coat pockets. He gave it to me and I quickly opened it. The earrings were the most beautiful I had ever seen. The stud part of the earrings were a little bow and arrow. Hanging off the ends of the bow and the fletching of the arrow were three small chains that held three small arrows; the chain coming off the fletching being the smallest.
“They’re beautiful,” I said, “I’ll put them on in the jet,” I closed the box as Hawkeye nodded.
“We should get going,” He said, “We don’t want to keep the pilot waiting,”
Hawkeye and I had been at the gala for 15 minutes when Iron Man came through the front door. Hawkeye was sipping at a small glass of champagne with his back to the back door. I had my own glass, but I only pretended to sip it every now and again. My back was to the front door so that I was the first person with eyes on Spider Man and Fe when they arrived. When we had arrived, we had taken a small two-person table near the balcony that overlooked the main floor of the gala. It was one of the most perfect spots observing.
“Iron Man has entered, waiting on Spider Man’s and Fe’s appearance,” Hawkeye said through his com.
“We’ve arrived,” Fe’s voice replied back. I looked over to the back door to see two teenagers walk in surrounded by three bodyguards. The female teen was wearing sleeveless teal blue floor length dress while the male wore an unimpressive black suit.
“I see you,” I informed Fe and Spider Man. I kept my eyes on the pair who continued to make their way to centre of the ground floor. Despite the far distance, I could have sworn I recognised both Spider Man’s and Fe’s civilian identities.
“Are you okay?” Hawkeye asked, cutting through my train of thought “You look concerned,”
“Not concern per se, just wondering where I’ve seen Fe and Spider Man before. Their civilian identities obviously,”
“You don’t really need to be thinking about that right now. Save it for the flight home when we’re all sharing one jet,” Hawkeye said, “Right now we’ve got company,” Hawkeye tipped his glass towards the front door. I casually brought my glass of champagne to my lips and turned my head to look towards the front door. I watched as John Galvon walked in, flanked by two security guards.
“Suspect has arrived,” Hawkeye informed the rest of the team.
“We see him,” Spider Man’s voice came in reply.
“I see him too,” Iron Man said.
“Tony, stay focused. We want him alive, so we can question him further,” Black Widow reminded Tony of our mission.
“We will, let me go talk to him first one former CEO of a former weapons company to a current CEO of a weapons company,” Tony said.
“This oughta be good,” Hawkeye drunk the rest of his champagne.
It wasn’t long before Iron Man caused a scene. From the looks of what was going down, Galvon had seen right through Iron Man’s playboy persona for his true intentions. Guests ran in terror while some security guards stayed behind. I touched my implant to conceal my identity before taking off my necklace and laying it on the table. I bent down and retrieved my slingshot. Standing up, I took one of the stone marbles off the necklace and I loaded it into the slingshot. I aimed at Galvon’s bodyguard on the left and let my shot go. My shot made its mark and the bodyguard fell. The bodyguard on the right also fell. I looked over to Hawkeye. He’d drawn one of his crossbows.
“Smart move, using your ammo as a necklace,” Hawkeye said, firing another arrow. I picked up a second stone and loaded it in.
“Thanks. I got the idea from a book. Even with Tony’s degree in fashion and design, he couldn’t even add pockets to the dress,” I fired my shot. It hit Galvon in the side. He looked up and saw Hawkeye and me.
“Oops,” I said, following Hawkeye out of sight from Galvon. We found our way to the hidden staircase and ran down it
“He was bound to find us sooner or later,” Hawkeye told me “Besides this is why we have overwatch,” Hawkeye and I were exiting the staircase when Black Widow, Scarlett Witch and Vision appeared.
“What happened to taking Galvon down quietly?” Black Widow asked, firing one of her stingers in time with an arrow from Hawkeye.
“Tony happened,” Spider Man, Fe, Hawkeye and myself said.
“Of course,” Black Widow said
“Not my fault, he saw straight through me before I even got started,” Iron Man said, firing a repulsor beam.
“Either way, we’ve got him,” Fe said
“If he’d just stand still, I could just web him up. But he can’t seem to stay still,” Spider Man said, firing another round of webbing. Unlike me, Spider Man and Fe hadn’t donned their face marks. Being this close to them meant I got a closer look at their faces. I recognised them as Peter Parker and the new girl from my study hall earlier in my day. Not having time to think about that any more, I reloaded and fired my own shot.
Eventually, we got Galvon. After loading him up in the cargo hold on the jet, I managed to find Fe and Spider Man. They were sitting in one of the private rooms aboard the jet. I closed the door to the room behind me.
“Okay how the how is Peter bloody Parker freaking Spider Man?” I say. Peter and Fe jumped at the sound of my voice. I touched my implant to deactivate my glasses.
“Wait a minute…” Peter said, “You’re Abigail Jackson from my history class,”
“What’s going on?” Fe asked, “How do you two know each other?”
“Peter and I share a last period study hall on Fridays. In fact, so do we Fe or whatever your name is,”
“You go to Midtown?” Fe asked, “How is that possible?”
“Don’t ask me,” I said, shrugging “I’m still confused as to how Peter is Spider Man,”
“You’re just as confusing Abigail,” Peter said.
“Maybe we should start from the beginning,” Fe said, “My name is Stassia Smith and I’m the person behind Fe,” She held out her hand. I took it and shook it.
“Slingshot, but my friends and family call me Abigail Jackson,”
“Nice to meet you Abigail,”
“You too Stassia. Did I say that right?” Stassia nodded.
“This is so cool,” Peter said, “We could start our own small Avengers team,”
“Yeah, nah, let’s not do that,” Fe said
“I kinda have to agree with Fe… sorry Stassia, on this one,” I said, “When we go back to school on Monday, nothing has changed. You guys do your stuff with your own friends and I do my own stuff with mine. It would be a little weird if we started hanging out together,”
“I guess you’re right,” Peter said, “But you guys are more than welcome to hang with Ned and I at any time,” There was a knock at the door.
“Come in,” Peter said. Clint opened the door and came in.
“Just letting you guys know that we’re about an hour out from landing. Natasha wants us all to talk about what’s going to happen next,” He told us, “Be there in five,” Clint left the room and closed the door behind him.
“I don’t want to keep Natasha waiting, so I’m going,” I told Stassia and Peter. I left the room.