Spidey and the Iron Girl: Vol. 1

#1: The Boss's Daughter

The day Collin Stark met Peter Parker, she was where she usually was in the Avenger's Training and Research Compound: the lab, working on a truth serum with Bruce Banner. Was this where she wanted to be? Would she not have preferred to be, oh, maybe doing some combat training in their state of the art battle-simulator? Learning to fly in one of her father's Iron suits? Or, you know, literally anything other than putting the final minor tweaks on a serum she'd never get to use because her father didn't let her help out with the Avengers?

The answer was yes. Yes, she would have preferred being actually useful instead of treated like a fragile canary locked away in a cage of glass vials.

"You're being a little dramatic, don't you think?" Bruce couldn't help but smile even as he rolled his eyes, listening to her rant. She was perched on the lab table next to his microscope while he peered at the serum's molecular structure. It was very important that the two carbon molecules were flanked evenly by hydrogen, or the whole thing would probably end up being... explosive, to say the least.

"Maybe," she sniffed, crossing her arms. "But Bruce... you get to go out in the field sometimes..."

"I also turn into a giant green monster sometimes. What's your point?" He straightened from squinting at the serum sample to go rummage among his cabinet of supplies.

"You don't think it's unfair-- nay, sexist that I don't get to go out in the field?" She posed her question wheedlingly as the man returned to his microscope.

"I don't think your father keeping you here has anything to do with the fact that you're a girl, Collin, and has everything to do with the fact that you're his little girl," He murmured, only half-way paying attention. She'd had this conversation with him at least a hundred times in the past month since she'd graduated high school, like he might put in a good word for her with her Dad and convince him to let her join the Avengers instead of going to college. He knew the likelihood of that was nil, so he only entertained it to prevent her from sneaking off and causing trouble.

She hopped off the lab table and started pacing frustratedly.

"But I'm not a little girl!" She seethed, "Nat's been training me in hand-to-hand combat since I was five--!"

"For self-defense," Bruce cut in. She steamed on, ignoring him.

"And I got five bulls-eyes in a row with Clint during target practice last week--!"

"Once again, for self-defense..."

"And Sam was able to take me up to the edge of the troposphere in the Iron Suit yesterday!" She finished, planting herself next to Banner. "Are you going to tell me that all that training has just been for self-defense? Really? I could be out there! Helping people!"

"Or getting hurt," He shrugged. "Collin, you know it really isn't up to me. I don't know how many times I have to tell you your father won't budge on this."

"But, Bruce--!" She was about to make her next convincing counterpoint, but the glass doors to the lab slid open smoothly just then. Her eyes snapped to the two people who walked in-- her father and... wait, was that Spider-man?

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Peter tried not to freak out when Tony brought him to the Avengers Training and Research Compound for a tour. He'd been to Stark Tower in the city several times already, but this was going to be the first time he'd seen where the Avengers were really based in upstate New York. The drive was beautiful, the gray city-scapes giving way to a more rural, rolling landscape the farther they went. He almost didn't see the complex when they first turned onto the drive-- it was built so it looked like it was part of a large hill-- but he'd felt the tell-tale tingle down his spine that always let him know when something was up. His Peter tingle, as Aunt May called it. He was really going to have to find something else to call it, though, something that wouldn't make him shudder every time he thought about it.