"I'm just saying," Michelle said, feet on the dash on the quinjet, "if Doc Ock had been for real, wouldn't he have wanted to use more progressive technology? Something a little less old-fashioned and more reliable?"

Peter snorted and her lips twitched in a grin that he couldn't see. Half a mile away and hidden somewhere just outside Hydra's newest not-so-secret lair, Michelle was left to listen from afar.

"Don't we not want the bad guys to use something more reliable?" Peter replied. "That defeats the whole―"

"Hey, Spider-Man?" Stark's voice echoed in her comm. "How are we looking?"

"All good!" Peter said. His voice didn't echo in her comm, though.

"Your comm is off, tiger," Michelle told him with a smirk.

There was a muttered curse that only she could hear, but a second later, Peter's voice echoed through the comm in her ear for the rest of the team to hear.

"All good!" he repeated with the same energy. "Nothing on my end."

"Keep the comm on, Pete," Stark said in her ear. "Not all of us have spider-hearing."

"I resent that," Peter said.

Michelle grinned. With her comm still off, she told Peter, "They're just jealous. You're the only one that gets to hear my amazing one-liners."

"They're not all amazing, Em," Peter said, dutifully keeping his comm on as requested.

"MJ, comm," Stark ordered. "Quinjet duty or not, we can't have you whispering sweet nothings into Peter's ear on a mission."

Michelle and Peter both groaned and while Peter whined about Stark making it weird, Michelle turned on her in-ear comm. She'd come to appreciate the way she and Peter could mutter to each other across the field, comm or not. While she tended to run intelligence from the quinjet―she refused to swing from webs like a certain someone―she was always expected to stay on the line.

"I could actually use you, MJ."

Michelle sat up straighter at the sound of Natasha's voice in her ear.

"Yes, ma'am?" Michelle asked. Peter snorted and she scowled in the direction she knew he was in. "How can I help?"

"North exit," Natasha told her. "I'm about to make a real loud exit."

"You got it."

Michelle was out of the quinjet before she'd even finished speaking. She could hear Peter snickering, not even trying to keep it from coming through the comm, but she didn't grace him with a retort.

Just as she came to a skidding stop outside what Peter had dubbed Exit: Get Lost in the Forest and what the rest of them had dubbed the North Exit, there was a wailing of a siren and what Michelle hoped was a very loud gun and not a bomb.

Natasha appeared a second later.

Michelle had always had a bit of a hopeless celebrity crush on her, but the fact that the Black Widow was now her trainer was a bit surreal. No matter how often Peter teased her about it, Natasha Romanoff would always be her first superhero crush. It also had maybe―just a little―had a direct influence on how often she helped the Avengers.

"Take this." Natasha tossed her a flash drive and Michelle managed not to fumble it. "Go."

"Can't I hit, like, one person?" Michelle asked. Peter snorted in her ear. "I ran here."

With a small smile, Natasha nodded which was excellent timing as a hoard of guards appeared right behind her at that minute.

"Oh shit!"

It took Michelle a second to stuff the flash drive in her pocket, but Natasha had only knocked down two of the guards by the time Michelle dove into the flurry.

Peter pulled his punches when he fought, but Michelle didn't. It was perhaps a bit of the reason why she didn't accompany Peter on patrols (along with the fact that she absolutely refused to swing around in spandex), but it was a little liberating too. Plus, Natasha always looked impressed when Michelle managed to leave a human-sized hole in the nearest wall without necessarily trying.

"You weren't kidding about the loud exit." Stark's voice echoed through her comm.

Instead of rolling her eyes, Michelle sent a guard flying over her shoulder. He hit a tree and it fell with him, making Michelle grimace a bit. She'd have to set a reminder to plant another later.

"Jesus Christ, MJ!" Peter laughed. "Did you just knock over a tree?"

Of course Peter had heard.

"I'm busy!" she snapped.

Peter's laugh echoed in her ear, but there was a thwip from afar followed by Stark giving instructions through the comm and Michelle knew Peter would be too occupied to keep teasing her.

Between Michelle and Natasha, they cleared the forest of Hydra's pursuit guards in record time before zigzagging their way through the forest and back to the quinjet. Over the commlink, Peter and Stark both bickered and managed to communicate at the same time, arriving at the quinjet just as Natasha brought it back online and ready to go.

"I can't believe you threw a guy into a tree!" was Peter's opening line as he jogged into the quinjet, pulling his mask off as he spoke.

"Shut up." Michelle rolled her eyes but as Peter dropped into the seat beside her, she reached for his hand.

"Explosives are set for fifteen," Stark told Natasha, walking toward the front of the quinjet.

Natasha hummed and as the quinjet lifted off, Stark wobbled. With a bit of a scowl, he grabbed onto the pilot's seat to steady himself and turned to look at Michelle.

"You're a real hazard, you know that?" He gave her a pointed look and Michelle raised an eyebrow. "I thought Underoos here had a problem with the phrase 'damage control', but I finally understand where he got it."

"I'm strong," Michelle reminded him with a shrug. "You wouldn't tell Hulk to worry about damage control."

"Yes," Stark argued, his hand out in protest, "I would. I do."

He looked fully prepared to argue further―to really scold her for knocking over a single tree in a forest―but their fifteen seconds were up.

There was a deafening boom that had both Peter and Michelle jumping in their seats despite knowing the explosion was going to happen. Peter's hand squeezed hers and Michelle could almost imagine the heat of the explosion below.

The quinjet continued on steadily even as debris momentarily blocked their vision. They rocked once, but Natasha held firm on the controls and Stark didn't wobble again.

When the air around them settled and Michelle's neck no longer prickled, she glanced at Stark and said, "I think a single tree falling is less problematic than a whole ass bomb."

"You're incorrigible," he muttered, sitting in the seat beside Natasha with a shake of his head. "A patented nightmare."

Hardly fazed by Stark's grumblings, Michelle leaned back in her seat and let her head fall against Peter's shoulder. She may not tag along for patrols or necessarily go on team missions, but when it counted, she was always down to cause Stark minor headaches. If she got to work with her actual superhero crush along the way (and, sure, her boyfriend), it was just that much better.

The End