Us Against The World ｡ Peter Parker [2]

15 - A Change In The Universe

One thing I had managed to grasp about life, about relationships, was they tended to change. Even when deep down, you wished things could stay the same forever. But that was how the world worked because everything changed and sometimes, nothing could stay the same. 

"--by stabilising the arc reactor, we were able to power nearly the entire city." Poppy Thayer stood at the very front of the pack of interns, discussing Tony Stark's crowning achievement. As much as I tried to pay attention, my mind kept drifting back to Cindy Moon. Days had passed since the words had passed through my lips, telling Peter that I believed our poor Cindy, was in fact cursed with her own set of powers. It didn't take long for him to quickly piece together the puzzle and now, we were burdened with talking to her about it all.

Michelle was sitting beside me, her wild hair covering half her face as she nodded along with the presentation. Honestly, Poppy was delivering an oscar worthy speech informing us how Tony had turned the very thing that had been killing him, into something that powered most of Manhattan with clean energy, but my mind was too clouded to care today. "Okay, but if all the clean power energy comes from this tower, what happens to the city if it's attacked again? I mean, the city would be completely blacked out, correct? We would be vulnerable, which would make an attack on New York extremely likely?" Words tumbled out of Michelle's mouth, her hand sticking up in the air with the question. I blinked a few times across at her, shocked she had voiced her opinionated question with such confidence. "If I was planning an attack, I would simply wipe out Avengers Tower. Then the city falls very quickly." she added in after a second, giving her shoulders a quick shrug while pressing her point. 

Darcy Lewis was perched on a bench beside Poppy, chewing on the straw of her soda. As her boots hit the ground with a thud, she let out a low whistle. "Damn, should have brought some popcorn for this debate." 

Poppy sent her friend and colleague a frown before addressing the small group of us again. I watched her face, wondering if her calm expression would break with such a heavy question. But as it seemed, Poppy Thayer had a pretty impressive poker face. "It's a fair point, absolutely. Years ago, Mr. Stark was purely using his arc reactor technology to power this building alone, that was the first step. Since then, we've been able to adapt the idea and wire in countless of other buildings in the city. This means generally, half of the city's power sources are linked, yes. In an event of an another attack though, we can simply disconnect from the mainframe. Which means a city blackout is unlikely." 

"A city attack is unlikely too." A new voice sounded from behind the group, all attention falling to Tony Stark himself, who was smugly resting against the open doorway. Tinted glasses covered his eyes and his suit was crisp. With a little smirk, it was clear he had been listening to the whole conversation. "Come on, kids. Don't you believe in heroes anymore?"

Michelle wasn't finished though, her eyes calmly staring down the man who had granted her an internship in the first place. "With all due respect, the Avengers are over, Mr. Stark. Half of your team are in hiding and well, you can't protect the whole world by yourself, let alone New York City." A terrible silence fell upon us all. "Who would protect the city if you were not around?"

Tony stepped forward slightly, a tiny smile resting on his lips. His gaze fell upon me and I was wiggling in my chair with his heavy gaze. "I wouldn't say the city is not protected. Heroes are everywhere, Miss Jones. A few actually in your very own backyard of New York. Some climb up walls, some wear devil horns. Don't rule out the little guys."

Despite my best effort, my lips were turning up with his statement. Michelle was turning her attention to me, noticing how Tony's gaze had rested on me a little too long. But before she could mention anything about it, he was clapping his hands together. "Alright. That was fun but alas, we're out of time. Next week we can show you the basement levels and maybe tinker around with reactor technology, how exciting." Students were quickly packing up their belongings with his words, "Poppy, Darcy, care for a little chat?"