Chapter 1: Avengers Tower
Chapter Text
Kate Bishop grew up alongside the Avengers, they weren’t exactly comforting but they were consistent. There would always be a new threat and they would always neutralize it. She remembers when she was 5 watching the news when Tony Stark revealed he was Iron Man. She was bickering about something-or-other with her sister when she heard her mother gasp, Kate, her dad, and her sister ran to the T.V. room to see why. Kate had heard her cousins talking about Iron Man but she didn’t know much about him herself. In the weeks that followed it was all that anyone could talk about, her and her friends watched as more superheroes arose, with Iron Man came Hulk, a big green guy, maybe an alien? no one was really sure what Hulk was, then Thor, a literal god, then an extremely observant facebook user found Captain-Freaking-America in the background of someone’s selfie with Elmo in Times Square. Everyone she knew either wanted to be a superhero or marry one, but at this point in time they weren’t called heroes, they were known as “Menaces”, J. Jonah Jameson's favorite word apparently. After a couple of years, everyone basically forgot about superheroes, they weren’t bothering us, they weren’t in the limelight anymore, except Tony Stark, they were hardly celebrities anymore. That is, until New York.
Kate Bishop was 9 when the Chitauri invaded New York. Her 3rd-grade teacher shouted to stay under the desk when she left her spot to observe the window. From the grimy catholic-school window she saw figures, albeit blurry ones. She saw creatures that looked like the Wendigo from the “Scariest On Recorded Supernatural Sightings 2011!!! #36” youtube video that gave her nightmares for weeks, and in a blink-and-you-miss-it moment she saw the particular alien she was focusing on stop suddenly. It had keeled over and fell to the ground, that’s when Kate saw the arrow in his neck. In the days after the invasion, when she was watching the news coverage her eyes did not focus on the man in a red, white, and blue catsuit, or the giant green smash-y guy wearing jorts, or the literal Norse god. No, her eyes always found their way to the two on the ground, the “Black Widow”, and “Hawkeye”. She hadn’t seen anyone with the grace that they did outside of the Nutcracker. Not only did they move gracefully themselves but the way they moved around obstacles, aliens, and each other was absolutely mesmerizing. And to pile on Kate was already an archer, and she knew that day from the windowsill of Saint Joan d'Arc Catholic Elementary and High-School that all she wanted was to be like Hawkeye.
When Thanos snapped Kate was 15 years old and in her first class of the school day, Latin III to be more exact. There were 38 seconds until the end of the period when Mrs. Crawford stopped in the middle of her sentence, Kate looked up from her notebook. A sudden shock hit the entire class when they realized that Mrs. Crawford was no longer there, and where she stood, a pile of ash. A girl stood up to check the scene when she vanished before the class’s eyes. Suddenly everyone stood up, one by one their classmates dematerialized until there were only 4 out of the 26 students left. Kate and her remaining peers stood in shock. Kate could feel herself start to hyperventilate but tried as much as she could to breathe shallowly, in fear that the lingering dust would enter her lungs. Some of the girls ran out the door, a few broke down at their desks, a few huddled together, Kate did none of those things. Tears running down her face Kate turned back to her desk and packed up her bookbag, hands shaking, she slung it over one shoulder and slowly walked out the classroom into the halls. It was chaos, girls, nuns, and teachers ran through the halls worrying, wondering, needing to know if their loved ones had been spared. Kate took her phone out of her bag, put in her earbuds and pushed through the mayhem and stepped outside and watched the frantic streets while “The Swan” by Camille Saint-Saёns blasting as loud as possible, covering the sounds of cries and screams.
It was 1 A.D. when Kate turned 16 and when her sister, Susan, got married. A.D. being the term used sarcastically by people worldwide meaning “After Decimation”. That’s what they were calling it, “the Decimation”. By this point everyone had given up all hope, it was common knowledge that the Avengers had too. It was Susan’s wedding day and Kate couldn’t help but feel uneasy. She was a bridesmaid and the dresses were… thin. It was the least amount of clothing Kate had worn since Central Park, but she heard that a lot of strippers had had stuff like that happen to them too so perhaps it would be therapeutic, right now she’ll say anything to make herself feel better. She had the dress on now anyway, there was no backing out. And she handled it, there were a few times where she found herself hugging her chest or hips but she was in a Catholic church, God was watching. Or maybe not. Who knows anymore, maybe Thanos was god, maybe this was the rapture or another Noah’s ark of sorts. That’s what the nuts with the pamphlets saying things like “Have you lost hope? Don’t worry this is all part of God’s plan.” who set up shop at nearly every street corner said at least. Susan and her soon-to-be husband were about to seal the deal with a kiss when five men who were in attendance pulled out machine guns. The attendees froze not knowing whether or not to run. Kate was the only one who wasn’t completely frozen in fear. The guests stood in their places nervously eyeing the men’s guns when four people in costumes burst through the roof. Every person ducked down and tried to shield themselves from the falling glass. The second group of wedding crashers looked like superheroes but… shorter. They were obviously untrained but doing their best. Kate felt trapped and helpless, a feeling she was not unaccustomed to but one that was unbearable to her, so when a freaking ninja star (ninja star? Who were these guys?)slid in front of her feet she did what felt right and picked it up. Only when she felt a strong hand on her waist did she feel real fear. Not even the cold steel pressing against her head could scare her like that, not the lingering smell of gunpowder or the cries of her sister’s bridesmaids in the background. “Ladies and Gentlemen! We didn’t come here to kill anyone… but we will if we have to.” Kate started to take stock of her surroundings, I’m in the church. There are superheroes and gunmen here. Susan won’t shut the fuck up. Jesus, she cries loud. And I have a ninja star in my hand. The short superheroes and the gunman were arguing about something, “Hey, the police didn’t endanger the hostages and set the place on fire. We did that.” the one in the cheap Thor costume said, “Your friend has a point there.” The gunman said, “So do I!” Kate said. She had been waiting for a cool moment to make sure she didn’t die, she exposed the ninja star that the guy dressed like a 4th of July themed P.T. Barnum act had dropped. She fought, she quipped, she felt like part of the team that was made up of people she had never met before.
2 years after “The Decimation” 17-year-old Kate stood outside the old Avengers tower with Cassie, Billy, Teddy, War Machine, and Captain Freakin’ America. Currently, the building is a storage unit and the place where the “Young Avengers” had broken and entered. The whole idea started after the kids realized that at least one of their outfits tore beyond wearability each fight. The need for a solution was finally acknowledged when Billy had been fighting a corner store robber whose weapon of choice was a knife, which besides leaving a gnarly scar also happened to tear the side seam of one of his pant legs leaving him wearing, on his right, a pant leg, and on his left, two flaps of fabric barely connected at the hip. They assumed that the abandoned Avengers tower had little to zero security and plenty of gear in it so naturally, the teens decided to have a heist. Their plan was as follows:
Kate enters the building because she’s the tallest/oldest looking with pin-sized Cassie on her shoulder
Kate tazes/fights the front desk person with assistance from Cassie, steals their badge and uses it to unlock access to the elevator. Once this has happened she texts the group chat. Billy and Teddy come in. All go in the elevator.
Billy ‘magics’ the elevator into letting them access all floors and they enter the storage floor. Cassie goes into the electronic lock and with Teddy’s help bypasses the security (Teddy gets really high grades in AP mechanics), and opens the door.
They loot!
Go home and enjoy the plentiful bounty.
It would’ve been great if things worked out like that. Because Tony Stark had basically disappeared and no one really seemed to be running Stark Industries and the Avengers were no longer doing their thing the Young Avengers assumed that no one would care about old tech junk and strong fabrics, but apparently they do. The first two steps went great, everyone piled into the elevator, and things were on their way. Unfortunately, navigating a girl who was now roughly the size of thumbtack around a mechanical lock that you weren’t able to specifically study and also can’t see is a lot harder than Teddy thought it would be. Everyone was starting to get impatient until Teddy had the genius, at the time, idea to punch in the door. This, of course, set off all sorts of alarms leaving the kids limited time to grab their stuff. Kate, with Cassie’s help, managed to break the lid off of a container that had a prototype of Hawkeye’s bow and Billy found a spare cape. That was when the security alarm was getting louder.
“Let’s vamos guys!” Teddy said, only slightly panicked. They ran to the elevator only to realize that that was no longer a viable option because apparently part of the lockdown protocol is to make elevators lock. “Stairs!” Cassie yelled, pointing to the door that led down to 18 flights of stairs. “Too long! Window?” Teddy suggested, obviously that idea was quickly shut down until they had been bickering for far too long. “Okay, what if I get really wide so all you guys can get on me and then Billy does some spell to make the impact less?” Teddy asked
“That’s fucking stupid!” Kate shouted.
And then they did it.
When they landed they felt extremely melancholy.They had outsmarted Tony Stark’s security, when he’s been missing for three years. They stole Avengers tech, which was a cape and a bow prototype. Basically the mission kind of sucked. As they started to get up and dust themselves off they heard a loud voice say
“Who are you and what the hell are you doing?”
Kate looked around and then looked up. “Guys…” she trailed off pointing to the sky. There was a suit of gray armor, presumably with a person inside, who, presumably, was James “Rhodey” Rhodes AKA War Machine. The rest of the Young Avengers followed her gaze and gasped. War Machine looked below him and to the left and said “Thanks for the tip man,”. The Young Avengers then al glanced to their left, a tall man with blonde hair, wearing jeans and a sweater replied “No problemo…” the man was Steve fucking “Captain America” Rogers.
Everyone basked in an awkward silence for a moment until Teddy shouted “HOLY SHIT!” Billy elbowed him in the rib and give him a look that said ‘Whaat the fuck, love you man but be quiet we’re literally in front of a man wearing a weapon!’
HOLY SHIT HOLY SHIT HOLY SHIT was all that went through Kate’s head.
That is until War Machine said “Do I have to repeat myself?”. Everyone was incredibly star-struck. Kate wasn’t. She had met Tony Stark at some gala and he had been kind of an asshole, ever since Captain America, War Machine all those who had been big players in the “Civil War” between the Avengers failed to impress her. Kate stood up, cleared her voice and said as calmly as carefully as she could :
“We’re the, uh, w-we’re a group of kids that have powers or skills?” Kate stumbled through her words and hoped that that explanation would be sufficient for the superheroes. They both looked at her incredulously. “Okay… and why did you just break into Avengers tower?” Captain America asked. Cassie raised her hand and Rhodey said “You, go” she then had the audacity to say “Our clothes kept ripping…” causing Rhodey to say “Are you serious?!” and Steve Rogers to sigh and facepalm. Rhodey finally landed and went over to talk to Steve. It was a very animated conversation, with several points to the kids sitting on the curb and the tower. After what felt like forever the two men came back there was a moment of silence until Rhodey said “Okay so let me get this straight, you all have superpowers and have been illegally using them to, what, fight crime? And also break into the only other group of people with powers’ old base because your clothes kept ripping?” “Well, it sounds bad when you put it that way” Cassie quipped, “Shut up, Cassie!” Kate hissed. Steve blinked and opened his eyes in realization he tapped Rhodey’s shoulder “...daughter...if…Lang...suit” is all the Young Avengers could hear but they all knew what this meant. “Cassie doesn’t your costume seem a little... I dunno, derivative? Of Ant-Man? Do you know him by any chance?” Cassie tossed a panicked look at Kate. Kate whispered “Just go with it, there’s no use in lying at this point” Cassie looked down, “Yeah, he’s my dad…” “Well that 100% makes this our responsibility-” Rhodey cut off as Natasha was in his earpiece, “Hey, what’s going on?” Billy quickly conjured “IwanttohearthemIwanttohearthemIwanttohearthemIwanttohearthem”
“Just a group of kids with powers it’s fine”
“I’m sorry what? Is it okay? Do you need backup? I know that Jess is heading over there. Should I come down the-”
“Nat, it’s okay. Steve and I are here and they aren’t doing anything. “
“If they stay that way come to the compound, I need to talk to you two. Bring the kids.”
“Roger that.”
Billy raised his hand. Rhodey sighed, “What?” “Was that Natasha Romanoff, the Black Widow?!” “Yes?” “Ohmygodohmygodohmygodohmygodohmygod.” The Young Avengers whispered amongst themselves scared, well in Billy and Teddy’s case excitedly. Billy said “I can’t believe Black Widow wants to meet us!” Rhodey looked at him, “How did you hear that?” “Shit- it’s part of my, uh, powers? Like I can make things I want happen..”
“I’m sorry what the fuck is this?”
Everyone turned to view someone standing behind the kids. She walks through the small partition between Cassie and Billy. The woman walks up to Rhodey and says “Who the fuck are these kids?”. Kate gasps “HolyshitHolyshitHolyshitHolyshitHolyshit!” the adults looked at her weirdly. “What’s wrong with her?” The woman asked the kids, Kate’s eyes widened “Guys,” She whispered, “She’s Jessica Jones!” Kate squeaked out. All of the Young Avengers heads whipped around and took a closer look. “Ohhhmygod you’re right!” Teddy wheezed. The teens were overwhelmed by meeting this many of their heroes and were having trouble focusing while they were being questioned. Jessica walked over to Billy and squatted down “Okay, kid, when you say you can make things you want happen can you control people?”
“I dunno man. Why would I wanna do that? That’s all sort of messed up,”
Jessica breathed a sigh of relief “...Okay, so what exactly can you do?”
“I can fly, I can make illusions, I can teleport, I do force fields… What else?” Billy turned to Teddy. Teddy responded “Dude, Demiurge!”
“What’s Demiurge?” Rhodey asked.
Kate leaned over “Do you really think it’s wise we tell them that?”
“Kate, they're the Avengers I think they’ll get it,” Teddy responded
“The Demiurge is like this god kinda guy who’s gonna ‘rewrite the rules of magic’ or something. Loki told us about him, he’s a big deal in our friend America’s dimension. I’m him.”
Rhodey, Jessica, and Steve all looked at each other. “We need to get them to the compound. It’s not safe for them to be here.” Rhodey said Jessica gave him a look “You heard what the one in the cape said I think they're plenty safe,”
“He’s not talking about them…”
Jessica glared at Rhodey “No fucking way! They're kids!”
“And how old were you when you started? Think about what you did!”
“Don’t you dare.” Jessica spat out the words angrily.
“What if he turns into him!” Rhodey said gesturing to Billy, “What then Jessica?”
“Rhodey, no. Don’t even think about that.” Steve jumped in.
“Go fuck yourself, Rhodes.” Jessica walked up to the kids and turned back to glare at Rhodey.
Kate stood up, she probably should’ve thought about it at first but she was wildly defensive especially when it came to her friends and she knew exactly the ‘he’ they were referring to. “Come on guys we’re leaving.”
The adults turned to look at her “No you’re not.” Steve said, not as a command or anything but as a fact.
“Yes. We. Are. We are not going to be kidnapped by some superheroes who truly think that that idiot is going to turn into a murderous rapist. That’s not okay. We are leaving, we aren’t going to quit this hero thing and we’re just as good as you are, probably even better.” Kate said it with all the false confidence in the world.
“Billy, Teddy c’mon let’s get outta here!”
“Kate it’s The Avengers, we’re teenagers…” Billy said.
Kate glared at him“I don’t want to go with them.”
“I don’t either but we don’t have a choice.”
Kate had expected her friends to back her up and fly her out of there so she didn’t have to think about the Central Park incident in front of the Avengers. She didn’t really want to sit next to the rest of the team so she sat in front of Jessica Jones pretending like she wasn’t afraid of Jessica kicking her across the street.
They waited for a while.
Jessica, Rhodey, and Steve where all huggled whispering until Jessica let out a loud groan and turned to the teenagers. “C’mon I’m driving.” She started to walk away and turned back to the motley crew, “Are you coming?” and the team hurried after her.
After cramming into her car and enduring the awkward 2 hours they had finally arrived at their destination.
When the kids and Jessica landed at the compound the kids had a lot of questions.
“This is where the Avengers live?”
“Is Tony Stark here?”
“Do you live here?”
“Are we in trouble?”
“If they like us do we get to be Avengers?”
“Is Daredevil your boyfriend?”
“I thought Luke Cage was her boyfriend?”
“Are we gonna be taken into custody for not signing the accords or not? Because I know Black Widow is a bit flip-floppy on that topic. Also yeah I thought you were dating Luke Cage?”
Everyone turned to Kate, which was fair considering the question was a little offbeat. “What? Did you guys not think of that? Why else would they want us here instead of just taking our stuff away and telling our parents?”
Billy, Cassie, and Teddy’s faces turned pale, they all looked at Jessica with scared eyes. “Ha! Like anyone cares about the accords anymore! Who my ‘boyfriend’ is is none of your business. And it is definitely not Daredevil. I doubt they’ll let you become Avengers, no matter how much they like you or how few they are remaining. Yes, you are probably gonna get yelled at. I don’t live here. No Tony Stark is not here. Some of them live here.”
“Are they gonna tell our parents?” Cassie asked.
“Let’s hope not, for your sakes.”
After that the group fell silent. When they reached the front doors a disembodied Scottish woman's voice said “Hello Miss Jones. Are these children with you? If not, I'm sorry children you will be denied entry. If you do not leave the property within 3 minutes you will then be immediately term-``''They’re with me F.R.I.D.A.Y., Jesus.” The teenagers gave each other looks.
The doors opened and Jessica walked in with the kids warily following. They walked through long corridors and large open concept lounges until they reached some kind of strategy room with a desk in it. And at that desk was “Black Widow OhMyGodOhMyGod!” As Kate put it. “Hey Natasha I got the kids,” Jessica said, Billy thought she was being too casual considering she was talking to one of the original six Avengers but that’s neither here nor there. Natasha Romanoff looked up at the four, filthy, tired, bruised, starstruck, overwhelmed teenagers in front of her and immediately softened. “They are… young,” Natasha loved kids, unfortunately, she didn’t really know how to interact with them, at least not teenagers. “are you hungry?” They all knew they were but didn’t really want to ask the Black Widow to make them a sandwich, but also didn’t want to be rude so Cassie finally spoke up and said “Kinda,” “Okay let’s go to the kitchen. I know how to make PB&J and… well, that’s about it.” Natasha stood up and led the kids and Jessica to the kitchen.
They all sat at the breakfast bar while Natasha made 5 sandwiches. “So, what’re your names?” she asked as she spread peanut butter.
“I’m Hulking.”
“I’m Stature.”
“I’m Wiccan.”
“I’m… Kate?”
“First of all I meant your real names, and I need to know what you do second of all, Hulkling?”
“Oh. My name’s Teddy. And I can shapeshift at will but when I do I turn green. Unless I'm shapeshifting into a person.”
Jessica and Natasha looked at Teddy and then each other. “He did it in the car. It’s weird” was all Jessica had to say.
“My name’s Cassie. I can grow and shrink.” “Like Ant-Man?” Natasha asked. “...No?”
“My name’s Kate, and I’m good at archery and martial arts. That’s all.” “Archery?” Natasha murmured.
“My name’s Billy and I can do basically everything and also when I get older I’m gonna turn into a god-like mage who can change reality even more than I can now and will be able to see through time.” “...How do you know that?” “It happened for like, a minute, also Loki told me.”
Natasha was, reasonably, alarmed. “How do you know Loki?” “Oh, he joined the team for a bit. Same year America joined.” Billy responded nonchalantly. Jessica held up a finger “Hold up, you mentioned this America person last time you talked about the Demiurge. Who is that?” Kate perked up “I can handle this, America Chavez AKA Miss America is, amongst other things, a member of the Young Avengers, a super strength possessing, flying, portal opening badass. Who is also gay and happens to be single at the moment and would be ecstatic if either of you wanted her number.” Jessica and Natasha had, yet another exchanging of looks, “Um. Okay.” was all Natasha had in response. “Well your sandwiches are done,” Natasha gave them each plate containing one perfect PB&J “Now to the serious stuff. You're not the Avengers, you're not the Young Avengers-” “Well th-” “Let me finish. You are a group of seriously untrained kids running around fighting crime and going against the Sokovia Accords and causing more trouble for me and people I work with. We are doing the best we can to keep peace, and it's hard. And you guys are gonna make my job harder. I’m sorry but you guys need to lay low, at least until you turn 18. Keep training, keep all this under wraps, maybe just forget about it. Just, please”
“Bu-” Teddy started to argue.
“No.” Natasha replied.
Aggression Cassie didn’t know she had finally released “No? No, you! I am Cassie Lang! My dad died because of the Avengers, my dad practically was one! And you have the audacity to say no to me? to all of us? If anything I'm more prepared to be a superhero than he was, considering I don't have a criminal record and I actually have powers! We worked with Loki. We have ways to contact him. We can start New York invasion 2.0, we combined, are much, much more powerful than the Avengers that are left. We have shit under lock. Kate is an Olympic level archer, Billy can create and destroy realities, Teddy can go undercover deeper than anyone, his DNA even matches the thing he’s shifting into! We are more powerful than you know. But sure, no. Fuck you. You were at his funeral, you cried. You owe it to him and Hope, and Hank, and Janet. Let us do our thing or at least train us because we can start wreaking havoc as quickly as you can say no.”
“Jeez, Cassie!” Billy said squeaked.
Natasha’s blood was boiling. “I have been keeping up the appearance of being calm and composed since half of the fucking universe was snapped out of existence and I am going to keep it now despite the fact that there is a fucking bratty 13-year-old making demands of the Avengers. So here’s what’s going to happen: You’re going to be driven home, your parents will be told everything, you will never come back here again, if you are caught doing anything criminal again and you will be kept in the basement of this compound which will act as a makeshift holding cell considering we’re the only people enforcing the Accords.”
Cassie looked dejected and angry as she gave Kate a look that said ‘What the fuck are we going to do about this’ and Kate returned it with ’ I don’t like it but she has the position of power right now considering she’s an Avenger and we’re in the Avenger’s compound.’
On the silent drive back the Young Avengers stewed in the anxiety of knowing that their parents would know what they had been getting up to in their free time.
The first person to be dropped off was Cassie her eyes wide open in fear and her hands and knees shaking terrified of what her mom and step-dad would think of her extra-curricular activities. When Jessica stepped out of the car Cassie grabbed her arm and whispered something. Jessica nodded and watched as Cassie walked up to her grandmother’s home and opened the door. From their view, in the car, they saw Cassie’s grandma open the door and look at her costume confusedly. Cassie said something with tears in her eyes and they embraced. Jessica got back in the car and asked “So who’s next?”
Teddy knew his house was closest but whispered something into Billy’s ear. Billy’s eyes widened and he whispered back. This went back and forth until Teddy and Billy nodded at each other and Billy whispered to Kate “We need to get out of here, we can do it the hard way or we can get America.” Kate nodded back and pulled out her phone
Me: SOS
America:
Location?!?!??
Me:
Katie has shared her location
Kate eyed the screen nervously and looked up to see if Jessica had noticed anything was off. In front of the windshield, she saw a bright light and a figure falling in front of the car
“Shit!” Jessica exclaimed as she slammed the breaks.
As the figure who they now recognized to be America Chavez stood up in front of the car entirely unfazed she took note of Kate and waved. She came around to the side of the car and opened the locked door on Kate’s side. “Is that Jessica Jones?” She asked wide-eyed, head craning to the woman in the front seat who hadn’t entirely taken everything in.
As Billy, Teddy, and Kate filed their way out of the car America went to Jessica’s side of the car and knocked her hero’s window. Jessica rolled down the window “Who the f-”
“America Chavez, big fan. Hope we cross paths again.” She responded as suave as she possibly could. “Anyways we’ve got to be going” she continued and gave her a two-finger salute as her friends huddled around her and a light in the shape of a star broke from under her feet and they fell through the road.
“What. the. fuck.”
Chapter 2: My friend is a superhero
Summary:
After an exhausting amount of time, Kate finally caught a break. The ‘perp’ tripped over a raised part of the sidewalk.
Kate wondered to herself if she was official enough to call him a ‘perp’. Especially considering she didn’t know what he had perpetrated.
The per-...bad guy tripped and fell on his face and by the time he started to get up Kate had her boot on the small of his back.
“You’re under ar-uh, citizens arrest. For… something.”
Notes:
(See the end of the chapter for notes.)
Chapter Text
“You guys are so fucking stupid! I swear to god, I am up to here with you little shits” America sighed as her idiot teammates dusted off.
“Mer, come on! How were we supposed to know the Avengers would be all up our asses?”
“Maybe the second you decided to steal from the fucking Avengers Kate?”
“Dude, we didn’t think that they would, like, take us all the way fucking upstate or anything. How were we supposed to get away?” Billy rebutted.
“You have superpowers!”
“Y’know what that’s fair, that’s fair,” Was all Billy had to say as Teddy patted his back.
After their run-in with the ‘authorities’, the team decided to lay low and definitely not steal anything else from the Avengers or any Avenger-affiliated groups. At least not on purpose. So they stuck to petty crimes.
One day after school Kate decided she wanted to do some patrolling, it had been a while since Hawkeye had been seen out and about. Luckily, her dad was out of town so no one would care if she wasn’t home that afternoon.
Once Kate had gotten herself all suited up and the stupid amount of arrows she had t0 shove into a tiny quiver were shoved into said quiver she was on her way.
Kate didn’t patrol very often because unlike most vigilantes she doesn’t have extensive parkour training, flight or super-jumping, or a general knowledge of or connection to crime in any of the boroughs. Basically she was shit outta luck unless she ran into some other vigilante who needed help. So usually what she did was just kinda walk around in alleyways and wait for some crime to happen and hope she got there in time.
It wasn’t very effective.
On that particular day, Kate had been walking around Union Square and felt pretty good about herself, she had stopped mugging, helped an old man carry his groceries to his house, and some lady had told her that her look was “Fierce and I’m loving it,”. So a good day.
Kate had stopped into the nearest corner store to get a granola bar when she saw some guy booking it down the street with several other dudes and some girl behind him. She grabbed her credit card out of the reader and ran out the door, hot on his tail.
Kate realized that she actually had no idea what was going on so she turned around and asked: “Wait- why are we running?”
The two dudes who wear running definitely seemed like they weren't with the woman behind them but more trying to get away from her which was confirmed when the woman yelled back “I'm trying to get these douches, kid,”
“Oh, okay,”
Now, Kate was in great shape, don’t get me wrong, but cardio wasn’t really her thing and they’d been running for like 5 blocks. 5 New York blocks. It’s like 3 normal city blocks plus New Yorkers who wouldn’t move out of the way if Jesus came down from heaven to take those who were without sin up to heaven.
After an exhausting amount of time, Kate finally caught a break. The ‘perp’ tripped over a raised part of the sidewalk.
Kate wondered to herself if she was official enough to call him a ‘perp’. Especially considering she didn’t know what he had perpetrated.
The per-...bad guy tripped and fell on his face and by the time he started to get up Kate had her boot on the small of his back.
“You’re under ar-uh, citizens arrest. For… something.”
In the distance, she could see the brunette who had been chasing those guys tackling them.
And some cops talking to her, and arresting the bad guys.
The brunette was jogging towards her.
“You can let him go, the PD’s got th-Aren’t you one of those idiot kid ‘vigilantes’?”
And of course, with Kate’s luck the brunette is Jessica Jones.
Kate shrunk “I mean I don’t know if the air quotes where necessary,”
“Yeah you definetely are, I would recognize that stupid outfit anywhere,”
“Hey!”
“How do hip holes give you a tactical advantage?”
“They're just cute! Why does literally everyone give me grief about the fucking hip holes!”
It was a touchy subject for Kate.
“Anyways, I’m gonna need to call your parents so…” Jessica said as she pulled out her horribly cracked phone.
Kate laughed “Yeah… No. That’s not happening.”
Jessica turned her head, her mood souring “Just a reminder, you’re a child and I’m me. Also, I have the fucking Black Widow on speed-dial.”
“I don’t think speed-dial is a thing with smartphones. Right? Cause it’s like when you press the button and it automatically starts ringing someone? I didn’t really grow up with non-smartphones, Apple released them when I was like 4 so I could be totally wr-”
Kate paused when Jessica put her finger to her lips.
“Stop. I don’t know why I let you talk that long. I thought maybe you’d find a point.”
Ouch.
“So, tell me your parents or guardian's number or I’m telling those cops you're a runaway,” she said pointing her thumb over her shoulder towards the cops arresting the perps.
“Okay, so, Ms. Jones. My family situation is a little messy. Basically, my dad’s out of town right now because he’s always out of town, and my mom’s dead. And my dad probably ki- and I don’t have any aunts or uncles, and I made my dad give the au pair her retirement because she was like 80 and desperately wanted to go back to her family in Brazil and I was 13, like, I didn’t need an au pa-”
“Jesus, Okay,” Jessica sighed, “Well I don’t have time to babysit some kid so let me call you a cab,”
“Fine.” Kate grumbled.
-----------------------------------------------------------
A few weeks later Kate was back in the swing of things. She was back in costume and she was back in the same 4 block radius aas she was when Jessica caught her, which probably, was not wise. I say that because Jessica caught her again, like, 10 minutes in.
“Are you trying to get caught?” Jessica groaned as she held her hand in a fist of fabric in between her collarbones, leading the teenager.
“No, I just happen to be very purple,”
“God, I hate children,”
“You know, if we teamed up we would be so badass like I go high you go low type thing,”
“I can fly, wouldn’t I go high?”
“That is something I was unaware of, my daydreams have to be recalculated,”
“You’re so weird,”
A loud alarm rang out and the heroines' heads snapped towards the source of the sound, a small apartment building across the street. Jessica and Kate ran to the building and simultaneously asked a woman running down the steps “What’s going on?”
The woman coughed and said “I-I don’t know the alarm went off and it smelled like smoke, i’m on 2nd floor so I don’t know,”
Jessica nodded and said “Okay, thank you. Do you need help?”
“No, I’m fine,” The woman responded.
Kate had walked away when Jessica had asked the woman if she needed help. Jessica hadn’t noticed. Kate was talking on the phone,“Who you talking to?” Jessica asked her. Kate said into the phone “One sec- “ and turned towards Jessica "So, the fire department and ambulances are on their way but i’m just letting people know so they can come by if they’re in the area so- Yeah i’m here just come by Ames, we both know it’s not difficult for you to get here or anyth-”
And in a small flash of light America Chaves, basically, Kate Bishop’s entire world appeared.
“Just because I can come, doesn’t mean I don’t have a life that prevents me from coming, or that I simply don't want to,” America explained to deaf ears.
“A life? Don’t kid yourself. Anyways, let’s go kick some butt or rather, save some people from a tragic fire,” Kate responded walking towards the building, followed by America and Jessica, who asked, “So who exactly are you?”
“She’s my best friend, also the coolest person in the galaxy. I say galaxy because she’s from space,” America groaned, covering her mouth as the trio headed through the door of the apartment building, “I’m also your only friend, dummy,” Kate elbowed her friend in the ribs“Hey! It's true but you shouldn’t say it,” which she punctuated with a cough.
Jessica covered her mouth with her t-shirt and mumbled “Shit. It’s really smoky in here, let me call backup”
Kate gasped “OhMyGod! Are you gonna call someone cool?”
“I don’t know anyone cool.”
Jessica, Kate, and America decided that they were all adept enough to go on their own way so they split up. Kate took floors 3-6 (Because, well, the whole ‘no powers’ thing), America took floors 7 and 8 and Jessicac took the 10th floor and would work her way down to the 9th.
Kate got to the third floor which was thick with smoke. People were running out of their apartments with shirts covering their mouths. There was an apartment where the door was closed but under the door, there were people walking around. Kate knocked three times and waited when no one answered she tried the door knob, luckily enough it was unlocked. She stepped into the doorway and rasped a “Hello?”. She walked further into the apartment and saw a woman holding a baby. “Ma’am do you need help?” she asked as she cautiously made her way towards the woman she now saw was crying.
“I don’t know where my son Charlie is, I went to the store and he was playing in the hall and now he’s not here,” the woman sobbed.
“Okay, my friend is a superhero and she’s here so I’ll call her, okay?”
Kate pressed America’s contact and anxiously waited as it rang. America picked up after what felt like ages.
“Hello?”
“There’s a woman and she lost her son, his name is Charlie. If you see any kids can you let me know,”
“Kay,” and America hung up.
Kate turned to the woman “Ma’am she’s looking for him and I will be too, but you have an infant and the best thing to do for both of you is to go outside,”
The woman nodded solemnly and Kate led her out the door. As she walked into the hallways she realized that the whole floor had evacuated in that time. She walked the woman to the stairway and walked up to the 4th floor, which she found was empty as well. She walked up to the 5th and 6th floors and they were both empty.
“Well, shit,”
Kate had simply no idea what to do now. She made her way up the stairs again and every floor she would check every apartment and every floor they were empty. She assumed that America had gone upstairs to help Jessica so she made her way up in case they needed help. On the 8th floor she stopped to make sure everyone had evacuated.
The fire was worsening and the building was becoming hot and claustrophobic. She walked down the hallway poking her head in the doors. She was becoming lightheaded. She walked into an apartment and set someone’s foot. She stepped inside and saw a blonde man lying passed out on the floor. She walked up to him and he was wearing odd tactical gear and sporting a plethora of injuries.
She studied him trying to find out the best way to hoist this grown adult, pretty muscular man on her kind-of muscular teenage body. She started to grab his shoulder when the man winced and opened his eyes wide in fear. He tried to say something but all that came out was a coughing fit, he then tried to sit up but his eyes rolled into the back of his head. She started to hoist him on her shoulder and walk out the door.
Why did he look so familiar?
Holy shit.
Notes:
Hey gang :)
I know that this is progressing kind of quickly, and that was not my original intent. But, quarantine really has my patience running thin so we're gonna get into the action a bit quicker. Leave comments if you liked it and have nice whatever time it is when you're reading this!
Chapter 3: Clint-Hawkeye-The-Goddamn-Fucking-AVENGER-Barton
Chapter Text
When Kate came to she grumbled and sat up on the cold pavement and took stock of her surroundings. To her left, she saw America and Jessica Jones. Jessica Jones? Oh yeah, Jessica Jones. Wild. and to her right, a blond man who also apparently found comfort on the concrete. Then it all came back.
“Wait a fucking second!”
America and Jessica’s head whipped towards Kate.
America ran over, “Thank god you’re up, I hate ‘diplomacy’!” she hugged her best friend.
“Diplomacy?” Kate responded groggily, turning over her shoulder to look at peacefully passed out on the pavementClint-Hawkeye-The-Goddamn-Fucking-AVENGER-Barton. “I thought he was dead…” She groaned.
“Yeah, apparently he’s been up to some bad stuff. We’re trying to figure out whether to notify the A-team or not.”
“Or not.” Clint wheezed out.
Kate felt like she would pass out again, this time not from smoke inhalation.
Jessica strolled over and crouched down beside the superhero. Well, maybe just a hero. She stuck out her hand to shake, “Hello Mr. Barton, pleased to make your acquaintance. You’re a wanted man.”
America straightened “He is?”
Kate’s eyes widened “I told you he was that fucking samurai douche”, she caught his eye “...Sir.”
“I don’t do that anymore…”
Jessica rolled her eyes “You can’t exactly undo all that murder. ‘Samurai douche’,” she chuckled
Clint coughed. “It was a phase… Also, look who's talking,”
Jessica fake swooned “You’ve heard of me? My-oh-my!”
“So are we turning him over or what?” America interjected.
“You don’t need to, they already know, at least one of them,” He groaned as he struggled to get up “Ergh-Fuck,”
“Why were you in some random apartment building in Brooklyn then, you know there’s a compound, right?” America inquired.
“I own it-Gahh,” He had finally managed to sit up.
“Why does an Avenger own a random apartment building in Bed-Stuy?”
“Depression,”
Kate had kind of zoned out and hadn’t really taken everything in. She looked back out at the apartment building, there were firemen running in and out. Fire-people? Her hands and suit were covered in soot.
“-how do you not know if they were Russian or not?”
“Do I look like a linguist? They were vaguely-”
Somehow it hadn’t really hit her until just then.
“You’re Hawkeye!” She jumped, eyes wide at Clint.
America, Jessia, and Clint and gave her a stare.
“We kind of established that…” Clint said confused, looking at Jessica quizzically.
“Hey, are you feeling okay?” America asked, crouching down to eye level with Kate.
And everything went black for the second time in a day.
“-strategically placed smoke bombs?”
“Well, there was fire but only in a couple of trash cans throughout the apartments,”
Kate’s eyes fluttered open. “America?”
America looked down at Kate “Hey Princess, can you stand?”
“Stand?” Kate looked down “Oh,” America was holding her fireman-style.
“Er, probably,”
Kate stood tentatively, leaning on America. “Is it safe to be in the apartment building?”
The firefighter explained to Kate as she had to America, Jessica, and Clint that there had been a minimal fire and it looked as if it had been made to look a lot worse than it was.
“So...Can you all get out of my apartment building?” America, Jessica, and Kate gave him an incredulous look.
“You know we have to high-ground here, right? Jessica knows the Avengers. And you’re kind of an outlaw,” America said, crossing her arms. “It would be a lot cooler if you guys wouldn’t turn me in, I’m kind of going through stuff. Y’know working through some personal stuff, plus all this stuff from the tracksuit mafia. Also, the Yakuza miiiight be after me. So. Full plate.”
“God, you’re so much lamer than I thought you would be,” Kate groaned, pinching the bridge of her nose. Kate started leaning on America a little bit harder. Turns out smoke inhalation and not having breakfast don’t mix great.
“Are you feeling okay?” Jessica questioned as Kate groaned.
“Just a little faint, again.”
America looked at Clint expectantly “I don’t even know you guys!” He exclaimed, exasperatedly.
“Don’t be a dick,” America glared.
“Fine!”
Clint led the girls into his apartment, and Kate hobbled behind him. She scanned his apartment and realized that Hawkeye was not living the glamorous-superhero life she had expected. His apartment was…depressing. There were water stains on the ceiling, coffee stains on...pretty much everything, and trash everywhere. There was, though, a cheerful dog wearing a cone sitting expectantly by the door.
“Hey Luck,” He grumbled and patted the dog on his head. Kate stumbled onto his nasty couch, America sitting next to her. Clint and Jessica stood in front of them and the four sat in awkward silence.
Clint was studying the two on his couch. First of all, they where fucking kids. Children. No older than 19. Which isn’t exactly children but when you’re old it definitely is. They were no older than half his age, yet he could tell they’d been through just as much as he had. They lacked a softness people their age had. They’d felt extreme loss, which these days isn’t uncommon. He looked at Kate, he felt as if he could really see her, the little scars on her chin and calluses on her hands, her nose which had obviously broken and set a little crooked. She had the bags under her eyes of someone who hadn’t slept in their own bed in a while.
America was strong. He could tell this immediately. Besides her biceps and scars, which were comparable to his, she looked as if she was searching for something she hadn’t found. He recognized the look from when he was younger when all he longed for was a family. She was wearing an over-the-top patriotic outfit.
Now that he thought of it, they both were dressed oddly. America in her daisy dukes and Star-spangled high tops, and Kate in her patchwork athletic-wear.
Goddamnit, they’re ‘superheroes.’
“Soooo, are we just gonna sit here or-?” Kate muttered uncomfortably.
“Where are your parents?” Clint questioned, “Dude, I’m an adult,” America said, raising her hands defensively. Kate punched America’s shoulder, “Dude, we’re both adults,” she said, her voice rising in pitch.
Jessica rolled her eyes, “Uh-huh.”
Clint was worried. “Seriously, how old are you guys. What are you doing running around saving people from burning apartment buildings?”
“Wait- was your dog just in here during the fire?”
Clint’s eyes widened, “Oh, um. Probably not? He comes and goes as he pleases. He seems fine? Right, Lucky?” Lucky sat on the floor happily.
The four stared at Lucky. Lucky sniffed the air.
“Yeah, he seems fine!” Clint decided, “As I was saying, what is your deal? Why are you dressed like that? Please don’t tell me you’re ‘mini-Avengers’ or something,” Kate and America looked at each other and giggled, “They actually call us the Young Avengers…” Kate mumbled.
Clint sighed harder than he’d ever sighed, “Oh dear God,” he sighed. Waved a pointed finger at America and Kate, “So what’s your guys’ deal, though. Why are you dressed so dumbly,”
Kate glared at him “Pretty bold of you to say we’re dressed dumb when the first girl on the Avengers’ signature outfit was a black catsuit with the zipper pulled down. That serves, like, noWiccan and I can change. But T-Hulkling and Kate have powers/skills similar to Avengers, so.” She defended.
Clint groaned “There’s more of you?”
“Yep, Wiccan/Asgardian can make spells or something. It’s kind of hard to define. And Hulkling can turn green and shapeshift. They’re pretty cool.” Kate grinned.
“So what’s your power?” Jessica asked.
“I don’t have any power-type-thing, but I’m pretty good at Jiu-Jitsu, Karate, Krav Maga, and am pretty fucking killer at archery, not to toot my own horn,” She said, definitely tooting her own horn and pointing to her bow.
Clint’s eyes bugged out of his head, “Is that my bow?”
Kate blushed, “No?”
“How did you get one of my bows?” He demanded.
“Er, we got bored. And the Avengers tower doesn’t have that much security these days,”
“I would just like to point out I had nothing to do with that,” America intervened.
“I would just like to point out that you fell out of the sky and took your friends out of my car so that they wouldn’t face the consequences for their actions” Jessica glared.
“She’s so cool,” Kate laughed.
Clint was in disbelief, this was a lot for him. He had a lot of questions about, well, kind of everything. He was much younger than them when the Swordsman manipulated him, but he couldn’t imagine really choosing that kind of life.
“Do you guys have training?”
“What?” Jessica questioned.
“Do you have training? Are you prepared for what you’re doing?” He asked, his voice cracking a little bit.
“Yes, of course. It would be irresponsible not to.” America replied a little too quickly.
Kate softened, she saw his concern and glared at America. “No, we don’t. I’m the only one with formal training. And that’s definitely not enough.” Kate replied.
“Why do you care?” Jessica implored.
“I’m going to train you.” Clint decided.
“What?” America and Kate questioned.
“Why?” Jessica asked.
He faced Jessica, “You know they aren’t going to stop, and we should at least make sure they’re safe,”.
Jessica crossed her arms, “Not to burst your bubble or anything, but Natasha doesn’t want them doing this, you don’t want to give her anything else to worry about. Plus, I’m taking you to the compound,”,
“No, you’re not. I am doing what I need to. The Avengers are broken up, we haven’t been on good terms since Sokovia. I can take care of Brooklyn,” He said, forcefully.
Jessica furrowed her eyebrows “So you’re just shirking all of your responsibilities? You don’t just un-become an Avenger, man. Plus they’re fucking kids you can’t train them to put their lives on the line,”
“Honestly, I agree. You are an Avenger, you need to be an Avenger.” America
Clint deflated.
“Jessica Jones, you were literally a superhero. Now you’re an alcoholic who has, like, 20 open assault cases. I don’t know if you can talk” Kate reasoned.
“But I wasn’t a symbol, I wasn’t part of an organization!”
“You entirely underestimate your power, every fucking superhero is a symbol!” Kate argued.
“Why are we even arguing this! I’ve made a decision, I have no duty to the Avengers. We broke up, people are dead and they could care less about what their bow-and-arrow guy does,”
“So you’re actually gonna train us?” Kate said, looking up at Clint.
“I sure am.” Clint gave a cheesy smile. America groaned.
Shanejayell on Chapter 1 Wed 12 Feb 2020 02:25AM UTC
Comment Actions
Sadboi_loki on Chapter 1 Wed 10 Jun 2020 01:14AM UTC
Last Edited Wed 10 Jun 2020 01:14AM UTC
Comment Actions
harpy (Guest) on Chapter 1 Tue 12 Jul 2022 06:20AM UTC
Comment Actions