Chapter 3
My weekend was spent at Avengers HQ bounced between watching Natasha and Steve interrogate Galvon with Clint, tinkering with new crossbow bolts and slingshot shots and playing video games with Stassia and/or Peter in the common room. My parents thought that I was in the Rockies for the weekend, so I couldn’t really go home and turn up unexpectedly. I assume that’s why Stassia and Peter decided to stay; they knew I wasn’t going home until Sunday. In the parts of interrogation that I watched it seemed that Galvon wasn’t going to talk. It was almost unsettling to watch Galvon just sit there and smirk while Natasha and Steve tried every single trick in the book. By the time midday Sunday came around, Clint and I left the base and were at my place in time to have a dinner with my brother and parents. Monday morning came like cat running across the road. It was off to the bus stop to catch the bus, my school bag unzipped and slung over my shoulder. I’m pretty sure I had forgotten something, probably my notes for maths, and there was the possibility that some of my loose paper had escaped my bag. Once I got off the bus at school, I felt a lot more relaxed. I followed the rest of the students go through into school.
It was my lunch that I had forgotten to grab off the kitchen bench. Walking out of fourth period history with my friend Lara, I told her I’d meet her and the rest of our friends that I’d meet them at the usual spot on the quad as I had to go buy lunch. Lara didn’t mind and only told me to hurry up other wise I might spend my entire lunch time in line. Walking towards the cafeteria, I came across Stassia. She was sitting next to a bunch of lockers alone. I knew that along with Peter we’d all agreed that we wouldn’t really interact with each other at school. But she looked lonely.
“Hey Stassia,” I said, stopping my her.
“Oh hey,” She replied, “I thought that we weren’t going to you know, do this,”
“Well you look alone – have you made any friends yet?”
“Well besides Peter and you, I don’t actually know anyone here well enough to call my friend. I don’t even know you well enough,” I sighed.
“Well consider me your friend. Come join me and my friends for lunch today. See how you like it and we’ll go from there,” I held out my hand to pull her up. Stassia grabbed it and together we got her off the ground.
“But first I have to go buy lunch,” I told her “You don’t mind waiting in line with me, do you?”
“No, I don’t mind,”
Because I had stopped to make friends with Stassia, the lunch lines were long. Waiting in line meant that Stassia and I could get to know each other better. I learnt that Stassia and I shared French, World History, Gym class, English and several study halls together. She learnt that I had a younger brother whom I hated and who hated me. Stassia didn’t have any siblings but felt that Peter was the closest she could come. Stassia took Computing and Engineering when I had Spanish and Classics. We both had maths at the same time but were put in different classes because mine was too full. Eventually I made it to the front of the line and brought a ham sandwich and a chocolate chip cookie. As we walked towards the spot I sat with my friends, I had a chance to warn her what my friends thought I had been doing all weekend.
“Clint and I were meant to spend the weekend in the Rockies on a hike. I told my friends as such,” I explained “They might be a little surprised to learn what their friend really does,” Stassia laughed a little.
“Do you and Clint often go on trips together?” Stassia asked. I nodded.
“Clint has essentially become my second dad. My dad is usually never home when I am, and neither is my mum. They both work long hours. Clint kinda fills the parenting gap. Not that he needs to. He’d never replace my dad or my mum,”
“It’s almost a similar story with me and Tony. But he’s more of the fun uncle than father figure to me,”
“Cool,” Stassia and I reached a natural lull in our conversation as we approached my friends.
“Took you long enough Abs,” Lara said, “Who’s the new girl?”
“I’m Stassia Smith,” Stassia introduced herself.
“The introvert has picked up a new stray. About time Jackson,” Harriet, one of my other friends, said.
“How did you two meet?” My third friend Freya asked.
“Her uncle knows my Uncle Clint from work. We went hiking with them over the weekend,”
“I thought it was just going to be you and your uncle hiking,” Harriet said, confused
“I was wrong,”
“It was a last-minute thing,” Stassia said “My parents had to unexpectedly leave, and my uncle needed to get out of the city. Mr Barton didn’t mind us tagging along. I hope you don’t mind me tagging along for lunch,”
“Oh, that’s no problem Stassia,” Freya said, “We could also do with another best friend,”
Stassia and I had French 5th period. We would have enjoyed the lesson (we were making crepes) but we were called out of class twenty minutes into it. Happy Hogan was waiting for us in the school reception.
“Hey Happy!” Stassia said “Why are you picking us up early?”
“A few of our college aged interns had to go home early. We need some people to continue their work. Parker’s meant to be with you two. Where is he?”
“I don’t know,” Stassia shrugged.
“Stassia and I had French last. Don’t know what Peter had,”
“Sorry it took so long Happy – had to make sure Ned didn’t blow up anything,” Peter said, appearing in the other reception doorway.
“Come on then,” Happy sighed “The car’s out front,”
Happy drove us to out to one of the many private airstrips that Tony Stark had brought in case of an Avengers’ emergency. He told us to find one of the quinjets in hanger 6. The Avengers were waiting for us. I told Peter and Stassia to go on ahead of me – this was a mission for Slingshot, not Abigail. After a quick bathroom break to change, I found hanger 6 and the quinjet. Inside the quinjet was Spider Man, Fe, Black Widow, Gecko and Hawkeye.
“Glad you could join us Slingshot,” Black Widow said, “Wondering when you might turn up,”
“Ha ha Widow,” I rolled my eyes, “You know as well as I do that I rather not share my identity with just anyone,”
“That’s true,” Widow smiled “Take a seat. Gecko’s going to inform us on what Galvon was really trying to hide from us,” I sat down in between Spider Man and Hawkeye as Gecko stood up.
“For the past two weeks, I’ve been undercover in England at a prep school known as King’s Station College for the Privileged. Located near King’s Cross Station, it’s a school where, as the name suggests, the privileged children of rich people go. As you know John Galvon was recently captured and has failed to comply with our questioning. What you don’t know is that Galvon has a family. Using some of my own connections, I found that John Galvon is just an alias he uses to hide his illegal actions from them. John Galvon’s real name is Jonathan Greenberg. He runs an accountancy business out of London. His wife, Juliana Greenberg, is a world renown botanist. Rumour has it that she helped design the flower arrangements for a few royal weddings, but I have yet to confirm said rumours. They have two children – a three-month year-old Cynthia and a seventeen-year-old Blake,”
“What’s up with big age gap between the two children?” Spiderman asked.
“Blake is what people used to call a bastard son. Juliana and Jonathan were 16 when Blake was born. When Juliana and Jonathan were 20, they took a three-year split before finally marrying each other. But careers took priority over continuing their family until just recently,” Gecko explained, “Blake lives and studies at King’s Station for nine months of the year. I made… friends with him during my stay. He’s Galvon’s connection to HYDRA. The current leader of HYDRA, Harper Hayes, has his own son attending the school under an alias. Much like his father, Joseph Hayes is HYDRA and Joseph is very, very convincing. All of Joseph’s friends, including Blake, are budding HYRDA agents. Blake is really the head of the Galvon empire. His father is just the scapegoat if Blake is ever caught,”
“Damn,” Fe said, “That’s some crazy messed up story you have there, Gecko,”
“I would make some comment about how teenagers shouldn’t be involved in this sort of thing but I’m not in a position to say that with a clear conscious,” I commented “So are you back? You usually never leave an assignment early – at least not since I’ve known you,”
“I never left Slingshot,” Gecko glared “My assignment came here. Joseph and Blake are planning something here in New York. Probably New York City itself given its reputation,”
“Well that’s just great,” Spider Man sighed.
“Any chance you know they are planning?” Hawkeye asked. Gecko sighed.
“Not even a chance. Blake keeps a lot of secrets secret. Even from the love of his life,” Gecko sounded almost heartbroken. If I knew any better, which I probably didn’t, I would say that Gecko had developed feelings for her assignment. My train of thought was interrupted when the quinjet’s alarm system started blaring. Black Widow and Hawkeye pulled up the closest hard light screen to see what the fuss was about.
“We just found out what Blake and Joseph are up to,” Black Widow informed us, “They’ve planted a bomb somewhere in New York City in retaliation for Galvon’s arrest,”
“Well of course it,” I muttered under my breath.
“We need to get out there now,” Fe said “Start coordinating search grids with the other Avengers for the bomb and a search for Blake and Joseph,”
“Don’t worry – the other Avengers are already on it. Red Bolt and Ligero are also coming to help,” Hawkeye continued “Slingshot I want you and Fe to meet up with Iron Man and Vision. Spider Man you’re going to help Ligero, Red Bolt and Scarlett Witch. Black Widow, Gecko and I will meet up with Captain America,”
“I got dibs on the mini jet,” I called out “Fe has her suit, so she can fly herself,”
“You’re really going to let me fly in the cold by myself? I thought we were friends,”
“Oh we are – but the mini jet only fits one person,”
“Spider Man can catch a ride with us,” Black Widow said “You better disengage the mini jet Slingshot before we take off. We’ll upload Iron Man and Vision’s coordinates to your hub screens,”
Iron Man, Vision, Fe and I had a small section of city near Midtown High. When I say small, I mean at least 50 city blocks. In those 50 blocks, somewhere, was my family’s apartment. I hoped Iron Man or Vision didn’t ask me to look in that particular direction. My parents, or my brother, didn’t know what my night job was. Usually I wouldn’t mind passing my home, but both my dad and brother were home, sick, and Mum was taking care of them. Even I couldn’t risk the slight chance that they would recognise me. So, besides my home, the 50 blocks contained a small skyscraper with some cheap 13th century gargoyle knock offs. I was sitting on one of the gargoyle heads, waiting for Iron Man and Vision to finally make their mind up on the best way to search our small area. Fe, sick of waiting around, had left 15 minutes earlier to scan the south end of our search area.
“Someone needs to go with Fe – we were split into these group for a reason Iron Man,” Vision said, “I will go,”
“Yes finally!” Iron Man proclaimed, “I was trying to get you to agree with that idea for 10 minutes,”
“Well I’m glad you finally made your minds up – we need to get going if we want to stop the bomb threat or Blake and Joseph,” I said, standing up “Vision, Fe went southwards,”
“Thank you, Slingshot. I shall go catch up with her,” Vision lifted off the ground and started flying off.
“Well that leaves you and me Slingshot. Let’s take the north, shall we?” I nod and bring out my hoverboard. I activate it and step on. The hoverboard strapped my feet in. I lean forward to make it go forward. Iron Man followed me.
I started to recognize streets and buildings as we continued to go northward. We were about a city block length from my home when the bomb exploded. I watched as my apartment building, among others, get consumed in flames and crumble to the earth below. Sirens started sounding. Any other time I would have flown towards the damage, but I’d just seen my neighbourhood blow up, catch fire and crumble. I was thankfully hovering only a few inches over a different apartment building. I felt myself lower the hoverboard and set it down on the rooftop. I felt myself deactivate the foot straps and take a step onto the rooftop. I was shaking head to toe even with all the extra reinforcement that my suit had. I could barely stand, and it hurt to move any further than I already had. I never saw or felt Iron Man land on the rooftop. I only just felt him catch me as I feel to my knees; my body no longer able to hold me up.
“Slingshot – are you okay?” I didn’t reply. “Abigail, what is wrong with you? Did you get infected with something?”
“No,” Was all I could muster as I starred at the location of what had been my home. I faintly heard Iron Man call for Vision and Fe. All I could do was just stare as burning red flames started turning to grey smoke. I heard Vision tell Iron Man that my file indicated that I lived in the explosion area. There were multiple curse words uttered by the person inside the suit.
“They’ll probably be looking for her at school,” Fe said “I’ll take her there. Someone get Hawkeye,”
As Fe picked up my hoverboard, Iron Man helped me to my feet.
“Just pretend that everything is okay. Let the school find you and act like you never saw this happen,” He told me. I don’t think I really took in what he was saying. Fe, with my hoverboard now gone, took me from Iron Man and hugged me close as she took off. Eventually I remember seeing the alleyway I had used on Friday to change as Fe and I landed. Happy was waiting for us there. He gave Fe my school bag. She helped me get out of Slingshot’s costume and into being Abigail again. She had to deactivate my glasses for me.
“You remember what Tony said? Pretend you didn’t just see your home get destroyed,” Fe said. Handing my backpack to me, Fe hugged me tightly one last time.
“I’m sorry,”
I was still in shock when I walked back into school. Only half an hour had passed since Happy had picked me up with Stassia and Peter. I was walking towards last period Spanish when I heard my name being called over the loudspeaker.
“Abigail Jackson, please report to the front office,” I guess the school receptionist hadn’t made note that Stassia, Peter and I had left. Instead of going to Spanish, I went to the front office. Before entering I made sure that I looked like I didn’t know what I was about to hear. The receptionist told me that the building that I lived in had been caught in a blast explosion and that anyone in the building was more than likely dead. She also told me than they hadn’t been able to get in contact with my parents, so the school had called my emergency contact, Clint Barton. The receptionist gave her apologises and told me to sit in the office waiting area for Clint to show up. Even hearing the receptionist tell me that my family was more likely than not dead didn’t make it feel any realer. It also didn’t help with the shock. I waited ten minutes before Clint showed up. He looked awful; almost as bad as I felt. It was either because he’d been helping rescue services rescue anyone still alive before he realised exactly which building it was or because he too was in a state of shock. I didn’t wait for anyone to tell me what to do. I was on autopilot as I ran over to him and encased him in the biggest and longest hug I could give him. I never wanted to let go of my only family left. Clint held me just as hard. Knowing that I was safe I let myself cry and mourn. The hot tears flowed down my face and onto Clint’s hastily put on long sleeved shirt. Clint just whispered kind words and held me closer. Between the gasp for breaths, I told him what had happened. I don’t know how long we were like that before I finally let go of Clint and let him sign me out of school and take me to his pickup truck.