18 || check-in calls and exposing superheroes

"How'd you know?"

Queens, New York, October 2016-

It was a pretty chilly day for New York, one that wasn't common in the middle of October. Today was the kind of chill down to your bone kind of day. That was one of the many things that began the bad day for Alison.

The next problem came as she walked to school, her phone buzzing, an unfamiliar AC/DC tone blasting through her earbuds. When she pulled out the phone to see who the hell burst her eardrums, she saw the familiar jokester ID- "I am Iron Man."

Knowing that this was probably Tony, Alison picked up the phone, hearing the line connect. "Hello?" She asked, slightly irritated already. It was too early in the morning to deal with the egotistical billionaire known as Tony Stark and come up with decent comebacks to his snide comments.

"Morning sunshine." A familiar voice from the one and only Tony Stark came though the phone. "How's Midtown treating you?"

"Honestly?" Alison asked, trudging through some crisp autumn leaves. "Not as horrible as I expected. I've made five friends, one of them being your daughter."

"Ah, Skylar. She's a good kid, but a troublemaker." Tony laughed. "I swear, if she had superpowers, I'd probably go crazy!"

"Yeah," Alison said blatantly. "I bet so." She shoved her hands into her jacket pockets, trying to keep warm in her hoodie and oversized sweater on underneath.

"What else has been going on within the Midtown community?" Tony asked, shifting the phone to walk over to a counter of some sort.

"Homecoming is soon, so I guess that's cool," Alison shrugged, and her bored tone could be heard through the phone. "I'm not sure I should go."

"You should," Tony pressed. "It only comes up once every year, and you only get it three times ever. You should go. I didn't when I was in high school. And it's a decision I deeply regret." He paused for a moment.

"Anyways," Tony commented in his signature tone, "I was also calling to see if you had seen the Spider-Man around your neighborhood at all."

Alison looked around her, trying to find the swinging spandex hero anywhere in sight. "No... why would I even see him around?"

"No reason." Tony smoothly lied, reminding himself to scold Peter later on not doing one of his assigned jobs.

"Anything else that's something that I need to know?" Tony asked, hinting at something maybe bigger than just Alison's boring normal life. But then again, Alison never knew what Tony was hinting at. Ever.

"My grounding got lifted," Alison walked to the crosswalk by Mr. Delmar's now broken Deli shop. "So I guess that's cool. A new girl superhero is in town," Alison perked up slightly, remembering the adrenaline rush and the great feeling of rescuing people two nights before.

"Is it you by any chance?" Tony asked, beginning to google some small news articles on the new girl superhero.

"Nope," Alison laughed. "I'm not someone to go out and play hero. I'd much rather be a civilian, and be the one who needs saving."

"Interesting, considering you fought by Cap's side in that airport not long ago." Tony almost chuckled, surprised by the words that came out of the young girl's mouth.

"And your point is?" Alison asked dryly, not amused by the remark. "I thought this was a check in call, not a talk show where we catch up on my daily life."

"Alright kid, I'll back off." Tony sighed, and exasperated tone evident in his voice. "I think that about wraps up what I needed to do with you today. Thanks Alison."

The beep of a disconnected line rang through Alison's earbuds ended the call. "One problem down, and only a billion more to go," She muttered, looking up at the school looking before her. This would be a great day, that was for sure.

<~•~>

The girls were hungover, that was for sure. By the time Alison had made it to her locker, Jess hadn't jump scared her, their morning tradition. That was the first thing that was wrong. The next was how dead tired the group was, the chatter of the friend group nonexistent.

Well, except for Drew. Drew was still talking, keeping the group positive like always. It still baffled Alison how strong Drew was, and how she could not drink at a party and still be buzzed. That would be one of life's greatest mysteries.

Moving down the hallway, her books and binder clutched against her chest, Alison made her way down to her first class, math.

The class was easy, as usual. Throughout the entire class, Peter Parker looked unusually antsy. His feet were bouncing underneath the desk, the noise making Alison irritated with the constant tapping on the tile. Alison just shook it off, continuing through the lesson.

Chemistry. The one class that Alison had with Tara. She had no time to waste trying to find out what Parker and his buddy Ned were doing, as she was trying to keep Tara from passing out. Sighing, she wished that Tara had stayed home, along with the rest of the girls.

Next up, history. This class was great for the day. Skylar had come back from being sick, with stories of her father ranting about Spider-Man.

Throughout the whole class they were giggling about the random things Tony Stark had said, and his failed attempts at making soup for Skylar. The teacher had told them to quiet down during class work on the Sokovia Accords, but that just made the girls giggle louder.

Lunch break was a bore. Tara and Jess were half asleep, Drew talking their ears off. So it was just Skylar and Alison, chatting away about the trivial things, like superheroes and what they did for the Earth.

"So-" Skylar started. "I heard that my dad called you this morning." She leaned in closer. "Tell me, did he go all superhero father on you?"

"Surprisingly, no." Alison shook her head. "It was more of what's been up, and if I had seen the Spider-Man." She whispered the last part to Skylar, keeping her voice down. "What's up with that?"

Skylar shrugged. "Honestly? I don't know. Dad keeps a lot from me when it comes to superheroes, since, you know, I'm not one. But I'll try and see what's up." She glanced over at Peter and Ned.

"What's up?" Alison looked at Skylar, concern creeping into her face. "Is it Peter again?" She asked, worried for her friend.

"He's just been really distant. And I dunno what to do about it." Skylar sighed. "We were best friends in middle school, and freshmen year. I wonder what's up."

"I'm sure that whatever happens, you'll resolve it." Alison reassured her. "After all, it's probably just teenage hormones." She joked lightly.

"Ok," Skylar gave in. "I'll just give it time. Hopefully that's all this needs." She picked at a french fry, dipping it in some ketchup.

"Yeah," Alison agreed, looking over at Drew blabbering at Jess and Tara. "That's what everything needs. Time."

<~•~>

It was a hasty decision, but one that was pretty well made on Alison's part. After all, it had only been a day and a half since she had decided to go and play hero, and Breakout needed to make another appearance.

The clock read 4 o'clock, school just barely thirty minutes out. It was the perfect time to go out and play hero, right?

Making sure that her door was locked, Ali shimmied into the suit, making sure that it fit properly. Looking in the mirror, the suit looked fine, Alison's eyes glowing with excitement.

Her mind was racing about what excuse to leave her cousin. Should she put she went out for a study session? No. Alison was bringing her phone, so Jackie would know she wasn't chilling with her friends in a study session.

Ali's racked her brain for good excuses, before her mind finally came on one. Scribbling down a note, she left it on her bed, slapping it down on her comforter.

Hey Jackie-
Went out for a run,
wanted to clear my mind
and stay in shape.
yes, I used the fire escape,
I didn't want to disturb you.
Make sure Charles gets
some comics while I'm gone!
xoxo,
Alison

Giving a small sigh, Alison grabbed the visor and gloves off of her desk. She quickly laced up the gloves, and clicked the visor into place.

Ali grabbed her phone and one of her cousin's formal Bluetooth call things to act as a comm. While Alison was plugging the small earpiece into her ear, Ali realized that there was no place to put her phone Oh well, she'd find a place.

She slid open the window to the fire escape, creeping out and sliding down the stair rail to the bottom floor. When Ali got to the bottom, she pulled out her phone, dialing Skylar's cell.

"Hello?" Skylar asked, tucking the phone between her shoulder and her ear.

"Yeah," Alison hopped off the final stair, landing on the ground. "It's Ali." She connected the Bluetooth call device to her phone, the call going through the formal earpiece.

"Yeah, and this is Skylar." Skylar shot back loudly, her voice ringing in Ali's eardrums. "I know it's you Alison, get to the point."

"You know how I snuck out the other night and played hero?" Alison began to slowly warm up, gradually using her super speed to run down the busy Queen streets.

"Yeah, What about it?" Skylar's tone got slightly nervous. "Ali are you out and about saving people again?" Her voice got sharp, flustered and frustrated. "I thought I warned you not to do that again! There's only so many times that you can slip unnoticed using that suit."

"Well," Alison laughed softly, "I thought that you knew by now that I don't listen. But, I'm straying away from the point. I need you to be my guy in the chair."

"Guy in the chair? What the hell is that? You're making me anxious to see you back at school safe already." Skylar sighed, rubbing her temple.

"You tell me where to go, where the crime's at. You know, like the tech person?" Before Skylar could protest, Alison continued. "I know you're good at this stuff Sky, you take the computer elective. Come on, you've gotta help me."

"Fine." Skylar caved in, sinking into her bed. "Lemme grab my laptop." There was some rustling over the line, and Skylar came back about twenty seconds later. "So-" She began typing away at the keyboard, the clacking coming through the phone line. "Let's go, Breakout."

<~•~>

Peter wasn't happy. Getting a mouthful from his "superhero guardian" Happy wasn't great, especially about watching over the new girl at his high school, Alison.

So instead of chasing after the vulture guys, or tracking them with Ned at May's apartment, he was out here, at the edge of Queens, checking in on the girl.

Swinging his way through the buildings, he made his way to the fire escape to where Alison lived. He scrambled up to the eleventh floor, webbing himself down for a quiet and careful landing.

Looking at the girl's home, Peter could see that the window was wide open, fresh air blowing through the room. The curtains were blowing with the wind, softly rising and falling.

Alison was no where to be seen in the room. Sighing, Peter realized this may not be a quick job like he had hoped. So, he hopped into the room, and sat on the bed, mask still on.

Maybe this way he could confront her in a semi causal way, without giving the girl a heart attack. Scratch that, he was definitely gonna give the girl a heart attack.

Jumping slightly on the bed, bored already waiting for the girl to come, a note jumped up out of the comforter.

Curious, Peter picked it up, reading the note. So the girl wasn't even home. Then why was he here? Sighing, Peter began to walk out of the room, headed for the window.

Then, a small glint of metal caught his eye. The moon was reflecting at the perfect angle, showing the glint of a metal briefcase much like the one that Peter had gotten his suit in.

Creeping back into the room, Peter picked up the poorly hid briefcase from under Alison's desk. Opening it up, there was a card stock note carelessly thrown inside.

Peter picked up the now, assessing the font and what the card said. The font was familiar, and so was the signed name at the bottom. The card was in a familiar tone as well! He checked gem card one more time, reading the words aloud.

"Remember-
Only for emergencies
Miss Breakout
-T. S."

"TS?" Peter muttered, skimming over the other important parts. "Why would Tony Stark give this girl something?"

Finally, something in his mind clicked. The name Breakout. The new girl superhero in town. This was where the name came from, this was the girl who was the speedster Breakout.

Alison Marnell was Breakout.

<~•~>
A/N:
so surprise? so sorry that this took a little while, been running my roleplays and trying to write. if you're one of my roleplayers and you're reading this, I'm so sorry! so a bomb was dropped this chapter, and its a pretty big one. reactions? tell me below! god I sound like a YouTuber. also, on regards to stark-11-industries 's character Skylar, I made her not a superhero and a techie. why? cause not to be selfish, but this ain't about Skylar having powers. this story is about Alison. sorry! especially you, ciera. luv ya. thx for letting me use her in my book!
oh yeah, I've finally hit 20 actual chapters beside the prologue!!! anyways, I hope you enjoyed and I'll see you at chapter twenty-one! bah-bye guys, see y'all soon!

word count- 2,352