Chapter Eighteen

Carissa was panicking. She didn't know where she was. She'd blasted her way through the maze. 

"Stupid bitch." The now familiar voice said. It belonged to Beck; she'd figured out. 

He hit buttons, pulling the drones back up. The illusion illuminated around her again. She shied away from it the best she could, tossing herself around. They were everywhere. 

They stopped suddenly as the doors closed in front of her. She was on a train. She looked around. 

This wasn't New York, she knew that. Man, Fury was going to kill her. The train keeps going, tunnels occasionally. Before one tunnel, the train jolts. 

"What the hell?" The girl wonders out loud. She was in an empty train car until the doors opened. She heard grunts and groans as someone landed a few seats behind her. She felt betrayal enter with the person. She was curious, standing to see if they needed help. Peter laid on the seat in front of her. 

"Parker?" She whispers. His face is cut and bloody as she reaches to stroke his cheek. She hesitates. Was this even real? She wasn't sure what real even meant right now. 

She sat in the chair beside him. He was passed out and it wasn't long before she fell asleep right beside him. 

Peter was snoring loudly in the cell as Carissa laid against his shoulder. His head jolted forward, waking him. He sat up abruptly. He looked around the room at the men by him. He also noticed the girl laying against his chest. He looked down, and orange shirt laying on his chest. He pulled it off, wrapping an arm around Carissa. 

"Where am I?" He asked. Riss stirred. 

"Municipal holding facility." One of the guys answers Peter.

"They said they found you unconscious in the holding facility." Another told him. "Very dangerous." 

"And we gave you the shirt because you seemed a bit cold. We didn't have one for your girlfriend." A third guy told Peter.

"Thanks." He said. "You guys are nice. You speak really good English." 

"Welcome to the Netherlands." They all greet him.

"I'm in the Netherlands right now?" Peter asks.

"Yep." They confirm.

Peter shakes Riss lightly. She sits up. Peter jolts out of the chair, pulling the girl along. He groans, his right leg shooting pain through it. 

"Morning, sunshine." Riss greets.

"Guard!" Peter yells at the cell. 

"Guard is on a break." One of the guys tells the pair.

"Break it." Riss tells him.

Peter reaches his hand around, pulling the lock off. The pair walks off. Peter stops suddenly, seeing the guard wearing his mask. 

"Parker." Riss harshly whispers to him. 

"Why are you here?" He asks her. 

"Hi to you, too. I haven't seen you in a while, I've missed you. I heard you needed my help and I dropped everything to show up." Riss replies.

"Hi." Peter says, not even bothering to look at her. 

She scoffs at him. "Whatever, Parker." 

Peter limps away, asking a man to borrow his phone. He looks down at it before turning to her. He'd typed in Tony's number. Riss pulls the phone from him, putting in Happy's number. 

"Thank you." He whispers to his best friend. She doesn't reply as he lifts the phone to his ear, begging for him to pick up. 

He asks the man where we are. He replies with gibberish to Riss, but Happy gets it. She follows Peter out to a field. It was beautiful and everyone was nice here. Parker was being a dick. The plane lands in the field, Happy walking out. 

"Peter? Are you okay?" He asks. "Carissa?"

"Happy, is that you?" Peter asks. He'd seen it, too.

"Yeah, of course, it's me." Happy replies. 

"Stop!" Peter yells. "Tell me something only you would know." 

"Only I would know. Uh...Remember when we went to Germany? You pay per viewed a video in your room? They didn't list titles but I could tell by the price it was an adult film." Happy answers. "And you didn't know how I knew..."

"Okay, fine! It's you." Peter stopped him. 

"Wait." Carissa says. "I don't-"

"Come on, Peach. It's me." He says.

Riss sighs, relieved. She leaves Peter's side, crashing into Happy. He held her close to him as she cried lightly. Peter watches her, unsure of what to do as the realization hit him. She'd seen him, too. 

Peter limps over to Riss, hugging both of them at the same time. The three stood there for a moment. 

"It's so good to see you." Peter said. 

"You two are gonna have to tell me what the hell is going on here." Happy tells them. 

They sat on the plane as Happy stitched Peter up. 

"Okay, hold still. There we go." Happy mumble to himself. 

"Ouch." Peter whines. Riss offers her hand but he shakes her away. She knows he instantly feels bad for being so cold to her. 

"I thought you had super strength." Happy says. 

"It still hurts." Peter replies. "Happy, come on." 

"All right, relax." Happy tells him. "Just a few more. There we go." 

"Oh, my god." Peter exclaims. 

"Parker..." Riss starts. 

"Relax." Happy repeats. 

Peter stands. "Don't tell me to relax, Happy! How can I relax when I messed up so bad? I trusted Beck, right? I thought he was my friend. I gave him the only thing Mr. Stark left for me." Peter admits. Carissa's face contorts with anger at the boy. 

Peter sits, head in his hand. "I'm sorry, Happy. I'm sorry. Carissa. I shouldn't shout." He says as tears form in his eyes. Carissa slides out of the seat, sitting on her knees. "I just really miss him." Peter says. Riss wraps her arms around her best friend, holding him close to her as her own tears began to fall. "And I missed you." He tells her. 

"Yeah, I miss him, too." Happy says. 

Carissa cries softly as Peter rubs her back lightly. 

"Everywhere I go, I see his face." Peter says. Carissa knew how that felt. She, too, had that issue. She saw her dad's face all over New York along with Nat's and Tony's. She was getting the compound rebuilt, dedicating a wall to a mural of the three. When the rest of the original six pass, they will be added. She was proud of who they were and proud she got to know them.

"The whole world is asking who's gonna be the next Iron Man... And I don't know if that's me, Happy. I'm not Iron Man."

"You're not Iron Man." Happy states. Riss glances over at him, hoping he had something better than that. "You're never gonna be Iron Man." He continues. Riss's jaw drops. "Nobody could live up to Tony. Not even Tony. Tony was my best friend. He was my Carissa. And he was a mess. He second-guessed everything he did. He was all over the place. The one thing that he did that he didn't second-guess was picking you. I don't think Tony would've done what he did if he didn't know that you were gonna be here after he was gone. Now, your friends are in trouble, you're all alone, your tech is missing. What are you gonna do about it?" Happy asks. 

Peter lets go of Riss, stading up. "I'm gonna kick his ass." Peter replies. 

"That's my boy!" Riss claps. She sits across from Happy.

"I mean, right now. Specifically, what are we gonna do? We've been hovering over a tulip field for the last fifteen minutes." Happy clarifies. 

"Right. I can't call my friends because he' tracking their phones. Give me your phone." Peter answers, 

"My cell phone?" Happy asks. 

"Yeah." 

"Okay. Here." Happy says, handing it to Peter. 

"What's your password?" Peter asks. 

"Password." Happy says. 

"Yeah, what is it?" Riss asks. 

"Password. The word spelled out." Happy says. 

"Head of security, and your password is password?" Peter asks.

"I don't feel good about it." Happy replies. 

Peter taps away at Happy's phone, soon getting their location. 

"I need a suit." Peter says. 

"Yeah, you can't kick ass like that." Riss confirms. 

"Suit?" Happy asks. 

Carissa smiles as the door opens in the back. Peter makes his way back there, taking in Tony's tech. Carissa's breath hitches at the sight. 

"Bring up everything you have on Spider-Man." Peter asks the tech. He walks forward, scrolling through. 

Riss looks back at Happy as they watch him. It was like Tony was still here. He picked right. Nobody else could do it like Peter. Happy places a hand on the girl's shoulder. Peter looks up at them. 

"What?" He asks. 

The two shake their heads. 

"Nothing." Happy says. "You take care of the suit; I'll take care of the music." 

Carissa smiles as Back in Black plays through the speaker. 

"Oh, I love Led Zeppelin." Peter says. 

"How do you put up with him?" Happy asks. 

"I learned how to tune him out." She replies. "How's my sunflower?" 

Happy nods. "She's okay. As okay as she can be. How are you, Peach?" 

"I'm fine." She answers. "I'm fine." 

"How's Mr. Barnes?" Happy asks with a suggestive face. 

Carissa raises an eyebrow at Happy. "He's great." 

"The ring's beautiful, Riss. Congratulations." Happy tells her. "They's be happy." 

Riss's smile fades. "Thanks." She replies. Peter looks over at his friend. He hadn't seen her ring, nor has he checked on her. He hadn't asked about Bucky or anything. 

"How's the compound?" Happy asks. 

"You'll see." She replies. "Are you gonna call Fury?" She asks. 

"Oh, right." Happy pulls his phone out as Riss stand to go to Peter. 

"I missed you." He blurted out. They hadn't talked since the funeral. "Thanks for dropping everything to save me." 

"I'll always come save you." She replies. 

"Congrats, Riss." Peter told her, pointing to her hand. 

"You will make the perfect Iron Man, Peter." She tells him. "Would you be interested in moving into the compound? Now under new management." She asks. 

He looks over at her. "It was destroyed." 

"Now under new management." She repeats. 

"He left you the compound?" Peter asks. Riss nods. "Let me think about it."

"Okay, Fury's got the coded message." Happy announces. "Your friends are at tower bridge." 

Peter turns to Carissa. "Go home." He told her. "Go home to Bucky." 

"I came to help you." She argues. 

Peter turns back to Happy. 

"We're close." Parker repeats from Happy. 

The suit was almost done as Peter pulls a necklace out of his pocket. 

"Before you go, if anything happens to me, could you please give this to MJ?" Peter asks Happy. 

Riss smiles at him. 

"You're gonna make it back, you'll give it to her yourself. You got this." Happy tells him.

"I got this." Peter says. 

"Walk me through it." Happy tells him. 

"I know it's illusion tech. All I have to do is get on the inside of the illusion, then I can take it down, find him and he's just a guy." Peter says. 

"Just a guy in a fake suit." Riss says.

"Right, but last time you got hit by a train." Happy tells him.

"He was trying to kill you." Riss says.

"He didn't try to kill you?" Peter asks. Riss shakes her head.

"I have a sixth sense." Peter tells Happy in regards to the train.

"Spider Sense." Riss says.

"The Peter-tingle." Happy says.

"I'm sorry, what?" Riss asks.

"That's what you're talking about, right?" Happy asks. "It's not working though."

"Your Peter-tingle's broken?" Riss asks. "Do you need a doctor?" She mocks.

"It is working. I don't know if it's working..." Peter answers.

"Parker." Riss says.

"You got the Peter-tingle. That's the plan." Happy states. "I'm gonna go get your friends. You get that Peter tingle back online."

Riss follows after Happy, deciding this was something Peter had to do on his own. He could do this, she knew it. She's always known he could do it.

She was still wearing the suit from this morning. It was the one thing of the day that was real. Or yesterday, she guessed. She had no idea what day it was anymore. She didn't know what time it was in New York.

Peter held onto the outside of the plane as Happy drove to the illusion Beck had made.

"Peter, you sure that's not real?" Happy asks.

"It just looks real." Riss tells him. "It all looks so real."

"It's just 100 times bigger than I expected." Peter admits.

"He has a queen to impress." Riss replies.

"We need to get high enough so Beck doesn't see me coming." Peter tells Happy.

"Copy. Stay sticky." Happy replies.

"Hey, Happy?" Peter asks as the plane goes up.

"Yeah, kid?" Happy replies.

"We need to have a serious talk about you and my aunt!" Peter says as he no longer sticks to the plane.

"You're in trouble." Riss teases.

"You didn't tell him you were engaged. I'll just remind him of that." Happy shot back.

Riss and Happy carry on, Riss playing with an earpiece.

"Fury?" She asks. She waits.

"Rogers?" Fury replies.

"Surprise." The girl replies.

"Where the hell have you been?" He asks.

"It's a long story. We're getting Parker's friends." Riss tells him.

"Copy. It feels good to answer the earpiece with 'Rogers'." Fury tells her.

"It's good to hear it, Nick." She replies.

Riss put all of her faith on Peter. Happy watches Flash's live, finding them. Happy lands and they rush out.

"Ned!" Happy yells.

"Happy!" Ned excitedly exclaims. "Carissa?"

"Ned." She replies, nodding.

"I gotta get you out of here." Happy says. "Get on the jet."

"Who are you guys?" A girl asks.

"I work with Spider-Man. Get on the jet." Happy replies.

"I'm an Avenger. Get the fuck on the jet." Riss says. Now wasn't the time for stupid questions.

"You work for Spider-Man?" Flash asks.

"I work with Spider-Man, not for Spider-Man." Happy clarifies.

"Happy, jet, kids, fucking now." Riss snaps.

The jet blows up behind them as she finishes her sentence.

"For fuck's sake." The girl mumbles. Her hand reaches the earpiece. "Jet was blown, new plan." She tells Fury.

"Take the kids-" He begins but she stops him.

"No, my rodeo now, thanks, Nick." She replies.

"Into the tower." Happy says. He turns to Riss.

"Go, go." She orders.

They rush into the tower, being chased by drones. Riss stops, lighting her hands up and throwing them.

"Who's she?" MJ asks.

"She's the daughter of Captain America." Ned whispers.

Carissa turns around. "I'm Carissa, you must be MJ." She smiles slightly before rushing them off. "Vault, now." She orders.

"Go!" Happy yells. "Take cover!"

Carissa lifts her hands again, spreading them to make a shield of red. She held it for as long as she could before she ducked behind the casing with the rest.

"Too much." She told Happy. The panic of everyone around her was filling her up like a water balloon. "You guys need to relax." She says.

"Relax?" Happy asks.

She nods. The drone makes its way down the aisle. Carissa tries to spark up, but she can't. MJ grabs the mace that's by her. The other two knock down a body of armor to create a distraction. MJ takes her chance.

"Nice." Riss whispers.

"Your powers are cool, too." MJ replies.

"Thanks."

"Everyone move." Happy says, grabbing a shield from another suit of armor. The drone frantically spirals as it shoots. Happy throws the shield as Flash shuts one door. Happy grabs the other.

"How does Cap do that?" Happy asks.

"Super Soldier serum." Riss replies. "And dad's was a hell of a lot lighter."

The drone cut at the vault door.

"Carissa..." Happy calls.

"I know, Happy. I'm trying." She replies.

"So, what do you do?" Flash asks.

"I light up, I break shit and I read minds." She answers. "I'm engaged and you're underage, stop thinking of me on my knees." She tells him. MJ laughs at Flash's reddened face.

Riss tries to flash the red between her hands. She grows frustrated, wishing it would just fucking cooperate. Now was not the time to be stubborn.

The drones beat on the door more.

"Are we gonna die?" Ned asks.

"Nobody dies on my watch." Happy replies.

"I've wasted my life playing video games and we're gonna die." Ned says.

"I have a fake ID and I've never used it." The blonde admits.

"I post stupid videos daily for people to like me." Flash says.

"Hey, if it wasn't for those stupid videos, Spider-Man would've never found you." Happy tells him.

"Spider-Man follows me? I saved us, guys." Flash says.

"No, we saved you." Riss corrects.

"If you saved us, why are we about to die?" MJ asks.

"I'm working on it!" Riss replies.

"MJ, stop it!" The blonde exclaims.

"I'm sorry, okay? I'm obsessed with telling the truth even if it hurts other people's feelings." MJ admits. Were they all sharing?

"I'm in love with Spider-Man's aunt." Happy admits. "we're sharing, right?"

Riss drops her hands. "In that case, I lost my virginity to a 100 year old man. I'm now engaged to him." She says.

"You win." MJ tells her.

Riss sparks at her hands again. Nothing happens. She thought of how Bucky was probably at home, sprawled out in their bed, asleep. Or maybe he was draped over the couch, shipping Hyde and Jackie. She missed him.

Res took over her hands. She smile, lifting her hands to her face. "Happy!" She calls.

He sees her hands glowing red. He sighs, relived. Just as she gets it, they back off.

"You're fucking joking." She mumbled.

Peter had done it. The boy had saved them all. Tony would've been proud of him.

The vault was opened, them all tumbling out. Riss stood by Happy.

"We gonna go get our boy?" She asks.

"Just a second." He tells her. She smiles. It was necklace and MJ time. Riss walks out, parting ways with Happy. She watches as Peter gets his kiss with MJ. She notices Fury with Happy.

"I guess the coded message worked." She heard Happy say.

"Appearances can be deceiving. I'm surprised you didn't just wink in the camera." Nick replies.

"He was tempted." Riss says. Fury faces the girl, followed by Maria.

"It worked." Happy said.

"Because I had serious doubts about Beck from the beginning." Nick replies.

"Not true." Maria sells him out. "He had zero doubts."

"Where's Parker?" Fury asks.

"He's with a girl." Happy answers.

"I need to speak with him." Fury says.

"He'll call you." Happy replies.

"He'll call?" Fury asks. He turns to Maria, laughing. "Okay. Great. Well, he better. Or it's your ass. And don't even think about ghosting me." Fury tells Happy.

"Nick?" Riss asks. "Walk with me."

Fury turns to her, eyebrow raised. "Are the kids in control now?" He asks, joining her anyway.

"I had a Beck run in." Riss explains. "The morning after you called me. He told me I could've changed the outcome of what'd happened and this other shit but something else stuck with me."

"Which was?" Fury asks.

"He knew about Candace." She answers. "He knew I wanted Nat's suit and he brought it. I'm wearing it, Nick. He knew about the compound being left for me, which was the first thing That seemed off. He'd asked about blueprint plans like you'd care."

"How?" Fury asks. "You were ever a target."

Riss looks over at Fury. "I have the compound and the tech." She explains.

She was also put down as Morgan's legal Godmother.

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