usm . story dump

Clues [ ]

i could feel the weight of my sins and all the existential dread crawling all over me. please help,,

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Ava Ayala

When Ava first met Spider-Man, it was no surprise that she expected an older leader. Someone who could really lead a team and has had a lot of experience in life itself. And she felt it was a little unfair that she and the rest of the team had to reveal their own identities when Fury kept his a secret, but she could understand it: identities are important, including when it comes to protecting your loved ones.

It was no secret that protecting your true identity was important: everyone has to have a break from life sometimes, and one can't do that if there's a bad guy trying to hunt them down like it's just another Tuesday.

But today, Ava thought that chasing after the Frightful Four would be the weirdest thing to have ever happened in her life, especially after picking up this whole hero thing, but what she never expected was the aftermath of that day. It was just another afternoon after school, having transferred to Midtown a few weeks ago.

Why? No one has any idea.

All Ava knew was that training felt especially hard today. Really felt like those robots were wiping the floor with the team.

Exhausting...

"You all performed better last time," Fury spoke, voice sounding as monotone as usual. It's left to anyone's imagination as to what he's thinking, "take a break here. We'll resume in five minutes."

With that, the black clad SHIELD director turned around before exiting the room. Spider-Man leaned against an old fallen over robot, before taking off that mask of his. She could feel the team's eyes collectively widen when they saw the youth dripping off him.

For the longest time, Ava had always thought that Spider-Man would be older than any of them: how else would he have gotten into SHIELD? Perhaps he wouldn't be as old Fury or most of the staff here. Maybe in college? But no, he looked like some regular high school student. Though... that would explain some behaviour.

"Hey. Bucket Head! Over here!" the team collectively turned their heads, seeing a red-and-blue flurry of colours swing past them as a pie flew straight into Nova's face. The younger boy recoiled, but too late before the cream hit part of his face, only just missing his mouth. The group busted into a fit of laughter, watching as Sam stomped off. Perhaps to wash the pie off.

That was just a single instance of Peter acting outside of usual college student behaviour. And to be fair, the team were still teenagers. How were they supposed to know?

"Uh, why're you all staring at me like that?" Spider-Man asked, drinking a bottle of water put aside a little earlier.

"Webhead..." Nova started, hovering toward the other, pointing at his face.

"What? Did you expect me to look older?" he questioned, looking about the urge to break out a laugh.

"You know, we thought you were probably in college," Iron Fist was the first to admit, Spider-Man chuckling at the sentence.

"That's pretty flattering," their leader admitted, "gotta say, wasn't expecting that."

Just as it looked like he was about to say something more, Fury entered the room again. "Good to see you've been acquainted with Peter Parker. Back to training, everyone."

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FictionFanTeen Sorry if it's a lot shorter than usual and not what you were looking for, but writer's block and online classes (and my chronic procrastination habit that I need to yeet down the drain, I had to rush this entire thing because my constant guilt to complete commissions quickly is slowly driving me insane. Might make a slightly revised version if writer's block stops) decided to not leave me alone. Hope this was something close,, (':