Chapter 10
“This is Fe, checking coms,” I heard Fe say over coms. It was an hour before Hamilton’s campaign opener and I was getting ready for my night out in the city.
“Gecko checking in,”
“Spider Man is all in the clear,”
“Red Bolt reporting in,”
“This is Ligero speaking, I’m here,”
“And Slingshot is rounding out the role call,” I said, “Does everyone know the plan?” Everyone sounded off a yes. I took in a deep breath.
“Then I’ll see you all tonight – remember we do not tell each other’s secrets to the rest of the team. I do not want to hear who you guys are because I don’t want your families to be put in danger,” I heard rounds of agreement from my team. My com went dark and I finished getting ready for the night’s job.
Gecko had told me to meet her at her home address. Clint drove me around in his pick-up truck. When we pulled to the side of the road to park, Clint laughed a little.
“Of course, Joy’s daughter got involved.
“You know who lives here?”
“I cannot deny nor confirm,”
“That’s my trick,” Clint smiled and got out of the car. I undid my seat belt and carefully got myself out of the car. Before closing the door, I picked up my purple clutch that contained my phone, some cash and a few other things. Clint and I crossed the road and walked up the stairs to the doorway of 73 Burwood Street. I knocked on the door.
“All you had to do was drop me off Clint. You didn’t have to walk me to the door,”
“I was going to do that, before I realised who you were going to meet,” The door opened. On the side was women with brown skin and long black hair.
“Clint Barton?” She said, “What are you doing here?”
“Good to see you too Joy,” Clint smiled, “I’m just dropping Slingshot off,” Joy nodded.
“Megan! Your friend is here!”
“Coming Mum!” I heard Gecko’s familiar voice call out.
“I’m Joy Greenwood, nice to meet you Slingshot,” Joy said.
“Call me Abigail Mrs Greenwood. It’s nice to meet you too,”
“Dad! I’ll be back later tonight. And no, I won’t be bringing back any boy!” I heard Gecko call out as she came to the front door. A girl with the same skin tone as Mrs Greenwood came to stop on her side of the door. Her black hair was tied into a pony tail. She wore a single strapped golden dress with matching earrings and necklace. The girl looked super familiar. Fiddling with her earrings, she hadn’t looked up.
“Megan don’t forget to be home by one. Otherwise we will ground you,” Mrs Greenwood said
“Don’t worry Mrs Greenwood, the event is over by midnight according to all the articles I’ve read in the past 12 hours,” I reassure Megan’s mother. Megan looked up and made contact. And I instantly recognised her as Megan, the girl who had turned up at school almost three months ago and then disappeared on a family holiday overseas two months ago.
“Oh my gosh,” Megan said, “You really got to be kidding right? You can’t be Slingshot,”
“Actually, I can be thank you very much. Midtown has a serious young hero crisis,”
“Let’s just get this over with,” Megan said “The uber I called is going to be here in a minute,”
“I’ll see you when I get home Clint,” I told my guardian, “It was nice meeting you Mrs Greenwood,” Megan walked out of her house and down the stairs to the road curb. I followed her down. Together we watched a car pull up to the curb and we got in.
“Um Hi, we’re two of the interns from Stark Industries,” I said to the receptionist lady when Gecko and I got to the New York City Hall.
“Yes… I assume you two must be Misses Jackson and Greenwood,” The receptionist said. Megan and I nodded.
“Mr Parker and Miss Stephens are waiting around the corner for the rest of your group. Keep these passes on you at all time and when the rest of your party arrives you will be taken to your table. Enjoy your night,” The receptionist handed us our passes and directed us to our teammates. Waiting for us was Spider Man and Red Bolt. Spider Man was wearing the suit he had been wearing on our Galvon mission while Red Bolt was wearing a hot pink thigh length, single strapped dress with silver heels. I should have realised when the receptionist said Miss Stephens that Red Bolt was Darcey Stephens, the military brat in my last period on a Friday study period. This meant that Gecko and Red Bolt’s reunion was not going to be good. As Gecko and I approached, I reminded Spider Man and Red Bolt of what we were there to do.
“Don’t forget – mission first, people behind the masks second. We can talk about who we are tomorrow,”
“Trust me, I will be talking tomorrow,” Red Bolt says, glaring a little bit at Gecko.
“Where are Fe and Ligero?” Gecko asked in a whisper, ignoring her friend’s glaring.
“Fe said they’d be here any minute,” Spider Man whispered back. A pinging sound was heard from Spider Man’s direction. Spider Man pulled out his phone and checked it.
“Actually, they’ve just arrived,” Spider Man corrected himself.
“I hope you’re putting your phone on silent,” Red Bolt said, “I don’t want to be embarrassed because the person I’m sitting with forgot to turn their phone off,”
“Okay, okay I will,” Spider Man said, turning his phone off.
“Hey guys!” I heard Fe’s voice call out. We all turned around to see Fe walking confidently towards us with Ligero almost hiding behind her.
“Hey Stassia,” I say, “Looking beautiful,”
“Thanks,” Fe said, “Have you guys meet Alyssa yet? She’s one of the new interns at Stark Industries,” Fe stepped aside to allow us to see Ligero clearly. Like with the rest of my team, Ligero went to Midtown. I recognised the name and face of Ligero as the girl I had sat next to while waiting for Mrs Abernathy when I first went back to school.
“Hello,” Ligero said, rubbing her hands.
“Nice to meet you Alyssa, I’m Abigail,” I said, “That’s Peter, Darcey and Megan. You go to Midtown, right?” Ligero didn’t have time to answer me as one of the security guards came over to us.
“You kids the Stark interns?”
“Yes, we are,” Peter said, “Is it time for Mr Hamilton to speak?” The guard nodded.
“If you’d follow me, I’ll show you to your table,”
Tony must have pulled a lot of strings as we were given a table next to Hamilton’s which was right by the stage. At Hamilton’s table, there were two spare seats; Blake and Joseph were nowhere to be seen. Waiters and waitresses glided throughout the hall, offering drinks and small deserts to the guests. Noticing that we were all minors, one of the waiters asked if they could get us anything that was non-alcoholic. Gecko ordered a plain water while the rest of us order a fizzy drink. I personally ordered coke while Spider Man and Red Bolt ordered Sprite. Fe chose to have Fanta, leaving Ligero to choose. In a rushed reply, she ordered the same drink as Fe. The waiter left and later returned with unopened cans, glasses and an ice-cold pitcher of water. Enjoying our drinks and food, we listened to one of Hamilton’s sponsors.
“Hello and welcome to tonight’s campaign announcement!” The sponsor said, “I’m Todd Godward and I have the pleasure of announcing the possible future mayor of this great city. Now I’ve known this man for a very long time and thoroughly enjoy his company whenever we both have time to meet. I’m sure you’ll love him to. So, without further ado, here’s the man you all are here to meet – Hayden Hamilton!” Being a polite member of the audience, I clapped for the man walking on stage. Hamilton waved to the crowd of people who had come to his launch. Eventually everyone stopped clapping and Hamilton was able to speak.
“Good evening everyone, I’m sure you’re all having a great time,” Hamilton said, “I know I am. Now tonight is meant to be the official launch of my campaign for mayor, but I think that this event should also be a sort of get-to-know-me event. For some of you, you’ll probably never have heard or meet me before. So, let me introduce myself. My name is Hayden Hamilton. I actually grew up here in New York City with my late younger brother and my wonderful parents who couldn’t make it to this event tonight due to their prior commitments with their country club,”
“Asking for the sympathy vote with the whole late brother story,” Gecko whispered.
“I’m a business man who started out in corporate law and ended up in the political circus. I wouldn’t be here without my darling wife and our two sons. My wife, Hailey, is here with me tonight but unfortunately our sons, Joseph and Blake had to finish some homework for school. My sons are such dedicated students. Speaking of dedicated students, it’s my pleasure to have six high school interns from Stark Industries here tonight. I will admit that I was surprised when Tony Stark approached me, asking if I had six spare seats for a few on his interns to attend tonight, but I’m glad that these young people have showed up. It goes to show that we really shouldn’t underestimate the young generation that these interns are in. It’s thanks to these young folks and their peers for our changing political landscape. It also reminds us what we should really be focusing on – providing the best environment we can for the future generations that arrive after we leave. However, we cannot have a bright future for the generations to come if we do not make today easier. In this wonderful city so many of the young adults in our communities are struggling. Although rates of those out of work have dropped, most of the work young adults is only part time work. One of my main goals that I would hope to accomplish as your mayor is to create a group dedicated to finding ways of providing more full-time work that pays a living wage for not just young people, but for everyone…”
Hamilton continued to talk about the policies he hoped to implement as mayor. He mentioned everything from gun reform to immigration. Had I not known who Hamilton really was and I was actually able to vote, I would probably vote for Hamilton. He knew exactly what the younger generations wanted and how to appease them in order to gain their votes. Being sabotaged at every turn would probably make the young voters more sympathic towards Hamilton. I voiced my concerns to my team.
“I mean you’re not wrong Abigail,” Spider Man said, “Full time work with a living wage sounds really good,”
“And so does gun reform,” Fe agreed
“Hamilton has done his research,” Gecko said, “But that doesn’t matter, we have to take him down,” We all stopped our talk about the mission when Hamilton walked towards us.
“Thank you all for coming tonight,” He said, “It means a lot to me to see such young people getting involved in politics,”
“Thank you, Mr Hamilton,” Gecko said, “It was a pleasure to be here tonight,”
“Oh no, the pleasure is all mine,” Hamilton said, “When I was looking at the names Tony Stark gave me, I noticed that a Abigail Jackson was among them. That wouldn’t happen to be the Abigail Jackson whose family was in the apartment building collapse a few weeks would it?”
“Ah… yes. My family was in the apartment building collapse,” I said.
“You have my full condolences Miss Jackson. How is the custody battle going? – I’m assuming there is one,”
“There was, but it’s sorted now,” I said, “And thank you for the condolences,”
“We really should talk at a later time Miss Jackson. I would like your opinion on a few things surrounding New York City’s position as the mostly highly attacked city by villains and the influence of the Avengers has had,”
“I’d gladly like to talk about this at a later time Mr Hamilton,” I said, taking my phone out of my clutch. I turned it on to check the time.
“Oh, would you look at the time,” I said, “Megan, we’ve got to get going if we’re to get back to your place on time. I’m so sorry to cut our time short Mr Hamilton, but Megan and I have to get going. It was very nice to be able to hear your story and your plans,”
“That is okay Miss Jackson. Have a safe journey home,” Hamilton said, “I’ll probably won’t have time to see you all again tonight, I wish you all the best,” He walked away from the group.
“Meet on the roof of Midtown tomorrow at 3. Bring some food. We’ll debrief there,” I whispered to my team.
“See you guys later,” Gecko said. Together we both walked out of the hall.
“Have you given any thought to my idea Megan?” I asked as the uber pulled up to my apartment building.
“I said I’ll think about it. I’ll let you know when I come up with a definitive answer,” Megan replied
“Good night Abigail, I’ll see you tomorrow,”
“Good night Megan,” I said. The car stopped, and I got out of it.