Cue Lightsaber-Wielding Aunt May
Bucky flips through the channels, going through them with only a few seconds in between.
“Wait,” Gretchen says when a picture of her flashes across the screen.
Bucky pretends to have not heard her.
“Go back.”
“Okay,” he says, but only goes back one.
“More. I saw a picture of myself.”
“Gretchen, it’s just the media.”
“James, I want to see it.”
“They’re twisting what happened.”
“Please.”
Her tone of voice is steady, but her eyes plead.
“I’ve been there,” Bucky says. “The media is corrupt.”
“I need to know.”
Bucky reluctantly goes back to the correct channel, where a newswoman is discussing her acts.
“…Now known as Madame Soldat only said that she does not remember her name, and that she is from Germany. Reports say that she slayed the beast, and then escaped after the Avengers arrive. Witnesses say that she might be running from the team, perhaps because she is not a U.S. citizen. Many fear that she sent the monster. Madame Soldat is nowhere to be found, but officials are still searching. If anyone has any information about the woman known as Madame Soldat, NYPD requests that you reveal it to the police as soon as possible. Police also say that if you see the suspect, please do not engage, as she is armed and dangerous. She-“
Gretchen quickly and calmly leaves the room.
~
Bucky finds her twenty minutes later staring at a laptop screen in her living room.
“Are you all right?”
“Soldat.”
“Du bist- Gretchen, du bist nicht nur ein Soldat,” Bucky responds in German.
You’re not just a soldier.
“Madame Soldat. Madame Soldier. The Experiment. Experiment 346. And now I am Madame Soldat.”
“Your name is Gretchen.”
“If you didn’t know who I was, what I was, and you saw me out there, what would you do? If you saw me destroying that machine. When I fight, I destroy things, people, that get in my way. I was trained to do it, and everyone say it. HYDRA knows it.”
“HYDRA already knew that you can fight. It’s-“
“I’m a weapon.”
“You’re human, not a-“
“The people, those reporters, know that I am not to be trusted.”
“They didn’t trust me.”
“But they do now, James.”
“So, they needed time. It will take time for you, too.”
“For what? For them to find me? You heard them. I am not a legal citizen of the United States of America.”
“We can take care of that.”
“James, I need to be alone.”
“I’ll be in the gym if you need me.”
Bucky doesn’t leave until she nods, and then she watches him go, steady in her resolve.
~
May Parker looks out the window for her nephew, tapping her coffee mug’s rim in anxiety.
May Parker likes to think of herself as a patient woman when it comes to certain things. Whether or not that is true is another thing.
One of the situations that brings out the impatient May is when her nephew was supposed to be home over forty minutes ago. Three more minutes, and she’ll call Stark.
When she sees him swing in from the open window of his bedroom, she sighs in relief.
Until a woman is climbing in after him.
Cue lightsaber-wielding Aunt May.
The swing would have/could have taken off her head if it wasn’t for her ducking, kick, and her pin.
Ow.
“Wait, that’s my aunt!” A frantic Peter yells.
The woman releases May’s neck and arm, letting the lightsaber fall to the floor and May to cough.
“Are you okay?” Peter asks his aunt.
“Who is that?” May coughs out, her eyes watering.
“Gretchen,” the attacker answers.
“You’re-“ May starts, finally able to get a good look at her. “That young woman on the news!”
“Hello.”
“Peter Benjamin Parker,” May begins.
“I can explain, I promise!”
~
Earlier...
Peter walks home from school, taking his time. The subway ride was long, and he resisted the urge to just don his suit and swing home, so he’s going to take his time to clear his head.
Once he gets home, he’s going to get a snack, start on homework, and then he has to patrol. The time for thought is now.
Of course, his thoughts are interrupted by the sound of pained cries.
The high schooler looks down a nearby alleyway, and spots a bunch of women surrounding a man who is promptly knocked out, held up by two of the six women.
“Aw, come on.”
One woman holds up a sharp blade, about to stab his heart—what is this, a cult?—and, with no time to waste, Peter dives into the group, grabs the knife, and throws it.
Now Peter’s without a mask, in the middle of a bunch of women with knives.
Yeah, that wasn’t the only knife.
Peter dodges stabs and jabs, grabbing a knife as it comes at him, disarming the woman before she can do anything, but other women are attacking, the two unarmed women are still conscious, and they’re all mad.
Another woman drops down from the three-story building to his left, and the alley is filled with unconscious people, Peter, and the surprise woman in four seconds flat.
“Whoa,” Peter utters, looking around.
The woman checks for the unconscious man’s pulse, standing up once she finds it.
“Is he okay?” Peter asks, anxious.
The woman nods.
“Hey, aren’t you the lady that was on the news?”
She doesn’t answer.
“You are! The way you took that robot out was so cool! They even gave you a cool name already! Madame Soldat sounds better in German than English, in my opinion. Not that it wouldn’t be sweet, but I just think that it sounds like a better name.”
“My name is Gretchen,” the woman mutters more to herself than him.
“Gretchen? My name’s Peter,” he exclaims, holding out a hand to shake, but she turns around and starts to walk away.
“Wait!”
She halts, turning back around like a soldier given an order, and then she cringes.
“Uh, you don’t have to, sorry. I just wanted to talk to you.”
“You have questions?” She asks.
“I mean, yeah, but I wanted to say thanks for taking care of them,” Peter says, gesturing to the women that cover the alleyway ground.
“You are welcome.”
Gretchen takes off her bag, opening it to pull out zip ties, quickly securing the women’s wrists together like handcuffs.
While she took them out, Peter got a look in her bag, noticing the clothing, nonperishable foods, and first-aid kit. She closes it to bind the women, but he got a good enough look.
“We need to get him to a hospital,” Peter says, starting to pick up the unconscious man.
Gretchen notices that he’s trying to act like it is difficult, but his muscles do not strain when he lifts him.
In any case, she takes the load off.
“Thanks.”
“You did not need the help,” she says.
“What do we do about these ladies?” Peter asks, looking at the women scattered on the ground.
“After I leave, call the local law enforcement.”
“Wait, you’re leaving?”
“This man must go to the hospital to treat his injuries. There might be internal bleeding.”
“Oh, um, I’ll go with you!”
She stares at him.
“I mean, uh, I just got in the middle of what looked like a cult murder in an alley! I might be traumatized! Someone should make sure that I get home.”
“The police can,” Gretchen adds.
“But what if I shouldn’t be left alone? What if- Uh, I could go into shock!”
She knows that it’s an excuse, and she knows that it’s fake, but she lets Peter tag along anyway.
“Call the officers,” Gretchen say as she starts to walk, the man being held in a fireman’s carry. “If you do not want to be traced, go into that shop and ask to borrow a phone. The boy running the register will not care.”
“How do you know?”
“I just do.”
She checked out the place twenty minutes before. No cameras, little security, and no chance of being exposed. She was planning on spending the night there.
“You’re going to wait here, right?” Peter asks before he tries to go into the shop.
“I will wait in the alley,” she says, and then turns and enters in.
This counts as leaving him alone, but she’s curious. The boy obviously has strength, and he covers it up? What would compel him to do such a thing?
Two minutes later, Peter comes back.
“What if they wake up before the police come?” Peter asks as they head towards the hospital.
“They will not wake before they reach their cells,” she answers.
Peter does not stop talking until they reach the hospital.
“I told them the victim would be dropped off in a few minutes,” he said before they reached the doors, so Gretchen did so, and then left Peter there before he could follow.
She did follow him, though.
She watched him walk home, intending on making sure that he made it home okay.
Until he went in a tall building, and a man in a red suit came swinging off it.
A quick sweep of the building later, and Gretchen knew that the man in the suit was Peter.
The boy went back in his suit to check on the women she knocked out, so she found him speaking to a police officer.
After the police left, Gretchen jumped down from a rooftop as he turned around. She dropped her backpack to give him warning, but he already knew.
“Uh, hi,” he says, pretending to not know her.
“Peter,” she says calmly.
“Uh, who?” The boy squeaks out.
“Any other person might not catch it, but I was trained to look for weaknesses. Your acting needs assistance.”
“What do you mean?”
“Don’t try to pick up people who are twice your weight unless you really need to. That gave away your strength.”
“Oh.”
“You are young,” she states.
“I’m not that young!” Peter exclaims, his voice squeaking once again.
“I was younger,” Gretchen says, turning to look at the alleyway. “I see that the law enforcement cleared out the enemies?”
“Uh, they took them to jail.”
“Go home.”
“You aren’t going to tell anybody, are you?”
“Your identity is still safe,” she says as she picks up her bag. “I will walk you home so that you get there.”
She starts to walk in the direction of his apartment, but Peter stops her.
“How do you know where I live?”
“It is on the if found tag on your backpack,” she says.
“Oh. I need to get that.”
Peter had stowed his bag behind a dumpster on the way back to the alleyway.
“We can stop by the bin.”
“Uh, is there anything you need?”
“Why?”
“I saw what was inside your bag. It didn’t look like a lot.”
“I am fine.”
“Since you already know where I live, I might as well help. I already have to explain why I’m late to come home from school, so having a witness would help.”
Honestly, having a witness might keep him from being murdered by his aunt.
Might.
~
“Sorry, but at least I have an excuse!” Peter finishes the story with.
“I apologize for disarming you,” Gretchen says to May.
“I’m sorry for almost hitting you with a lightsaber,” she calmly replies. “As for Peter being late, he has a reason. The jumping into a fight happens more than I would like. Peter, why would you not put on your mask?”
“I’m sorry, Aunt May! I didn’t have time!”
“We have to figure out a way for that to not be a problem.”
“I could go home as Spider-Man every day?”
“You have as much of a chance of that as I do being a cat.”
“What if you were bitten by a radioactive cat?”
“I am not going to Oscorp, if that’s what you’re saying.”