Chapter Text
Carol was listening to Kamala — someone who admired her so much as to take a name in her honor — unloading on her an...idea, as Nick once put it.
The plane's cockpit was too small, Carol knew, for all the concepts Kamala was putting into the warm Louisiana air. She should feel claustrophobic, scared for Kamala, like she did about failing Monica. But she was seeing, thru the young hero’s eyes among so many others, that that was a choice. That she could choose different.
So, as Kamala was winding down, Carol thought thru the idea. Kamala’s "So...what do you think?" came thru a smile as bright as a re-ignited star. A smile where everything was both hope-filled and tentative, all at once.
It only took a moment, in a jolt of light, for the woman once known as Avenger, to grasp how to handle this moment.
"It's not a horrible idea. I mean, it was both good and a little weird to find my callsign be a rallying cry for...all this, when I came back." Carol shifted in the cockpit, looking at Kalama more intensely. "But you have to get your parents to buy into it. And Nick. Nick has to agree, too."
"Oh, of course!" Kalama's smile dimmed, ever so slightly. " I mean...I think my Mom might not like it, but she's starting to understand! She's gotta see I can be safe and save people, right?"
Carol soaked in Kamala's hopeful gaze. "Right. But you still live with them, too. School comes before work-saving." Kamala nodded at that. "And...and trust me, you don't want to lose track of your family." Carol leaned back, eyes unfocused.
Kamala took Carol's hand, holding it in a beam of sunlight. "Monica is coming back. I know it. Or we'll find her. "
Carol smiled at the teen. "Thanks. I'm just...well, you saw."
Kamala turned away, slightly. "I did. I'm sorry!"
Carol turned Kamala's head to look right at her, holding it gently. "None of that was your fault, Kalama. But yeah, no more hiding ourselves, especially to our families. OK?"
Kamala nodded, jarring Carol's hand from her face. "OK! After all, I can't be a hero if I'm hiding stuff. No more hiding for me!"
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"But Fury, I told Carol I won't hide stuff!"
Nick's back was acting up, so even leaning over the table was a pain. He opened his one good eye wide to match the teen. "This isn't hiding, kid. It's...drama, yanno? Acting."
"But...I can't start a relationship with a lie! That's not fair to the team! They won't trust me!"
"Kamala Khan. There is no one — NO ONE — who talks to you for more than 5 minutes, and doesn't trust you!"
Kamala fairly vibrated in her seat. "But I'm not the spy type, nick! I just wanna save people and make things better. I don't need to be all mysterious to do that!"
Nick pinched the bridge of his nose, breathing out slightly as Kamala went on. The kid had heart. Another, more cynical version of himself would have maybe been tempted...but he wasn't that person, anymore.
Instead of interrupting, Nick pulled up the file. Once Kamala winded down, one finger pointed at a key passage on the screen. "Kamala. Just. Read. That."
"Sure! Um....'Kate Bishop's personality seeks danger. She is addicted to heroic activities and actions, and is especially pulled in by things she does not know, desperate to understand the world she lives in post-New York Invasion.''" Kamala paused, then said "Um...what does that mean?"
Fury tilted his head. "In short? Kate loves a mystery. You want to hook her into your little group? Be mysterious."
"Ohhhhhhhh. I can do mysterious! I'm totally good at stealth when I gotta be! Did I tell you..."
Nick put a hand up, and Kamala stopped. "I know. And I know how you can approach her; no lies or anything."
Kalama smiled, and pointed to her lips. Nick nodded, and she said "Wait. You're gonna teach me spy stuff! That's so cool! I mean, I still don't want to lie, but I can be a kick-ass secret agent and find stuff and save people, right?"
Nick leaned back. "Well....we'll see about all that. For now, let me tell you about the time I broke into Tony Stark's house-"
"OH! This is the Avengers Initiative speech! I totally have it memorized from when Tony Stark said it on Letterman!"
Nick groaned. "It's a good thing, maybe, you never met Stark. He messed up...well, that’s another story.” Nick sat up a bit, eye wide with ideas of his own. “But no, Kamala — Tony lied about what I said. I had that speech shi...stuff all worked up; how I was gonna pitch it, what I needed to say to hook him." He leaned forward again. "And it'll work for Bishop, too. They a lot alike."
Nick smiled as he tapped the screen, pulling up an file he'd not seen in a long time. "Let me read it put to you, first, and then we'll talk tactics." He remembered a time that felt too long ago, and like yesterday: "'I am Iron Man.', I said to him. Told him 'You think you're the only superhero in the world?""
Kamala was on the edge of her seat, hanging on every word, every pause of Nick's. Well, he thought to himself, that's one way to get her to focus. He chuckled quietly to himself, and kept reading.
Things have been tough, last few years. But they might be looking up.
After all, the pain in his back was gone.