𝐏𝐑𝐎𝐋𝐎𝐆𝐔𝐄
𝐆𝐄𝐑𝐌𝐀𝐍𝐘, 𝐌𝐀𝐘𝐁𝐄?
𖥔 ݁ ˖.☀︎ ݁˖.𖥔

"Sandwiches?"

Ella didn't need to look at the person next to her to know who it was, smiling brightly as the two stepped out of Midtown High School's front doors. "You know it. I can't hang, though. Told dad I'd go grocery shopping with him."

Peter chuckled, plucking an earbud from his right ear as they walked towards the city bus stop, "Did you take Harren's Algebra 2 test today?" Ella scoffed as the two boarded the bus, "Yeah, what kind of shit was that? I'm not even 100% sure we learned half the material on the damn thing." Peter chuckled at that, both of them gripping the same bus pole as the bus began moving. "I think Harry flunked it, poor guy was sweating and stressing the whole hour."

Peter laughed with a nod, "Yeah, math's always stressed him out. He's a science guy."

The two friends chatted the entire bus ride, before hopping off a block away from their favorite sandwich shop; Delmar's Deli.

"Oh, did you sign up for that college prep class?" Ella mumbled as they approached the deli. Peter shook his head, opening the door for Ella. The cool deli air flooded around her, and she began fishing around in her backpack for her wallet. "No, I figured I'd sign up next year. Hey, Mr. Delmar."

"Ah, my favorites!" Mr. Delmar smiled as he leaned against the counter. Ella smiled widely at the man as she found her wallet and pulled out a 20 dollar bill. Peter pulled out his wallet, but Ella shook her head and wiggled the bill in his face, "On me. I don't have any smaller bills." She smirked at his shocked expression as she turned towards Mr. Delmar, "A number 5 with pickles, smushed real flat. And a number 7 with banana peppers and chipotle sauce, smushed real flat." She smiled at the sandwich maker behind the counter and gave him a thumbs up before passing Mr. Delmar the bill and placing 2 bags of gummy worms and a bag of potato chips on the counter.

"Cómo está tu papá, Fiorella? Hace semanas que no viene." Ella smiled up at Mr. Delmar and shrugged, "Él está bien. He estado ocupado con el trabajo. Le diré que pase por aquí, si?"

Mr. Delmar smiled and tapped the counter, "Por favor, hazlo!"

Mr. Delmar handed the two their sandwiches and the teens waved at the man, "Be safe, kids!" He shouted, Peter and Ella smiling as they exited onto the busy Queens sidewalk.

"Alright, I'll see you later, yeah?" Ella mumbled to Peter, walking backward in the direction of her apartment, "Are we still going to Ned's tonight?"

Peter nodded, walking backward as well, "Yeah, I'll meet you on 6th and we'll walk together!"

She nodded with a smile and gave him a thumbs up, before turning forwards and walking towards home.

☀︎

Ella inhaled the smell of cooked potatoes as she entered her home, a smile breaking out on her face. "Hola, papa! Are you making patatas bravas?" She shouted into the apartment.

She tossed her backpack onto the couch and kicked off her shoes, before rounding the corner into the kitchen, her nose following the smell.

"Hola, flower! Come here!"

"I thought we were going-" She paused as she stepped into the small kitchen, eyes widening at the man sitting at her dining room table. "What—" A nervous giggle escaped her, brain going shell-shocked as she met eyes with the smirking billionaire superhero.

"I thought we didn't keep secrets from each other, amore?"

That snapped her from her daze, eyes widening like a deer in headlights as she looked up at her father. He knew what she had been doing. Play it off Guilty until proven innocent. "S-Secrets? What—" she cleared her throat, "What secrets?"

"Why didn't you tell me you applied to Stark Industries for a pre-college internship?" He beamed at her, her head tilting in confusion as she looked back over at Tony Stark, who was casually eating a spicy potato off a fork. "T-the internship..." Mr. Stark winked at her, and she looked back at her father, "Right!" She laughed off her nervousness, "Right, the internship! I didn't, um, I didn't want to tell you if I didn't get it! Don't wanna get too many hopes up...right?"

"That's amazing! When were you gonna tell me you got accepted?"

She bit her lip, racking her brain for an excuse, "I...didn't know?"

"We accept all of our interns in person, Mr. Vasquez. It makes it special. We only have a few spots open a year." Her father laughed and wiped his hands on his apron, "I'm so proud of you, amore." He leaned down and kissed her on the forehead.

"Do you mind if I actually speak to Fiorella privately? About going forward with the internship?" Her father nodded, "Absolutely!"

Mr. Stark smiled and popped another potato in his mouth, before standing and walking up to Ella. The teen girl nodded cautiously, before slowly guiding the man towards her bedroom down the hall.

Once inside, she quickly closed her bedroom door and spun towards him, "Listen, Mr. Tony Stark—Mr. Stark? Ironman?" He raised his eyebrows in surprise at her rambling, "Tony is fine."

"Listen, Tony. I didn't sign up for an internship. Although it's really cool, and I totally wish I did, but I couldn't even if I wanted to. I have school, and...extracurriculars. I don't have time for an internship across the city. I'm sorry."

"Yeah, yeah, that's cool. Um, quick question, Miss Vasquez, is this you?" Tony lifted a device, her eyes going wide as it began to stream a video of her, dressed in her uniform and mask covering her face, using her abilities to drag a gas station robber across the cement. Ella scoffed and shook her head, trying and failing to awkwardly shake off her obvious lies, "No, that's not me. That-" She wiped her lip and pointed at the video, "That's Solar Flare. She's...suuuuper cool. Definitely not me-"

"It's definitely you."

She sighed in defeat, dropping her head to stare down at her converse, which had doodles drawn in pen on the rubber, "It's definitely me."

Tony chuckled, plopping himself down on the edge of her bed, "What's your suit made of, anyway? It looks different in almost every video." Ella sighed and looked up at her ceiling in embarrassment, "Listen, Mr. Stark, I'm not exactly sure how you found out it was me—"

"It was pretty easy, actually. Security cameras around the city, all of which I hacked into, plus the times you are usually active, plus your hot spots in the city, and then...well I'm a genius, so." The man shrugged with a smug look, and Ella groaned, "Do you need something from me? Seriously, you took time out of your day to come down to Queens and tell a 15-year-old...what? To stop what I'm doing? 'Cause I won't."

Tony paused and smiled up at her, before patting the bed beside him. Ella rolled her eyes, crossing her arms across her chest and plopping down beside him. "You're a smart kid, with a bright future, that's easy to tell; 4.0 GPA, top of most of your classes at a school for educationally gifted kids, perfect school attendance. Why risk your life for a gig where no one knows your name?"

Ella sighed, looking over at him. Tony Stark up close was an insane experience. She'd worshipped the man since she could speak. His academics, his business, his suits and technology. This would be a dream for her if he wasn't currently exposing her deepest secret. "My birth dad died in a car accident when I was a baby, and my mom died a few years ago—cancer—" She sucked in a shaky breath and stared down at the chipped red polish on her fingers, "I don't know why I have these abilities, or where I got them from."

"But when I see those people out there getting hurt, losing their lives. I can't help but think about my parents, and the pain I feel from their deaths. And knowing I have the power to stop that pain, to prevent people from losing their loved ones, and not doing anything about it. It keeps me awake at night. I have to help them."

Tony nodded, "Do you want to help me save a lot more people, then?"

"How?"

"I got a gig for you, in Germany. It's a big deal and I could really use someone with your abilities on my side." Ella scoffed with a raised eyebrow and shot up from her bed, "Mr. Stark—Tony—I can't go to Germany! My dad would kill me! And I can't miss school. I've never missed school. I went to school last year with a 103 fever so I wouldn't miss a calc test. I just can't." She huffed out a breath, turning to face the man who looked amused.

"I can call your school, tell them it's funded by me and that it counts as school credit."

She furrowed her eyebrows, "You can do that?" Tony chuckled and stood to his feet, "Yeah. Yeah, I can do that."

𖥔 ݁ ˖.☀︎ ݁˖.𖥔

Ella was overwhelmed by the excitement of the trip, staring up at the private jet in awe. "That's so cool." She giggled.

"Yeah, so cool. Come on, please. We're on a tight schedule." Ella looked over at Happy, the plump, permanently irritated man in a suit that had arrived to pick her up from her apartment. "Oh-" She shut her mouth as she attempted to keep up with the man carrying her bag, getting hot on his tail as she boarded the jet.

Once inside, it was like a new world. Seats spread apart enough for leg room, private windows, reclining seats, folded blankets. Definitely not the economy she was used to. "Holy shit-"

"This is so cool!"

A voice came from the back of the plane, Ella turning towards Happy with a confused expression. "Am I not the only one Tony recruited?"

Happy sighed, almost a tone of disappointment on his face, "No. He got that Spiderman kid too-"

"He got Spiderman? Am I about to meet Spiderman? How do I look?" She fluffed her hair, anxious to meet the other hero she had met behind masks on a few occasions throughout the city.

"Happy-"

Ella turned with a bright smile, before her face immediately fell in awe. "No way." She mumbled, pointing an accusatory finger at Peter, "You're Spiderman!"

She felt surprised, for sure, but she felt angry, that's her best friend! Why wouldn't he tell her!

Peters face fell, and he pointed his own finger at her, "Why are you here?" Happy groaned, "Spiderman, meet Solar Flare."

"You're Solar Flare!"

Ella groaned in frustration, dropping her backpack onto a seat and stomping towards her best friend, "Why didn't you tell me you were Spiderman! When the hell did that happen?" Peters eyes widened, "Why didn't you tell me you were Solar Flare? Ella, we've gone on patrol together—" Peter paused before looking past her in thought. Then suddenly his gaze shot back to her, "Movie nights! You said you had movie nights with your dad and every time you said that I saw Solar Flare on patrol. Was movie night a lie?"

Ella gaped at him, mouth so wide in surprise she could catch flies with it, "They weren't...a complete...lie...exactly." She groaned, before using the back of her hand to slap him in the stomach, "I wish you would've told me."

"I wish you would've told me!"

"I wish you would both shut up, please." The two teens shot their gaze over to Happy, who had taken a seat and put an eye mask over his eyes, "This is a long flight and I need my full 8 hours or I get cranky."

Ella and Peter glanced at each other, before breaking into a fit of giggles and sitting down in seats across from each other to talk.

𖥔 ݁ ˖.☀︎ ݁˖.𖥔

The sky was dark, nothing but clouds and the moon filling the girls vision. The events of the previous two days replayed in her head like a bad movie.

She fought, and she fought hard. And she had no idea why until just a few moments ago. The Sokovia Accords. A peace agreement for the Avengers that stated they would work under the government from now on. No movements taken by the superheroes unless agreed upon by a group of US officials. Tony, along with her and Peter, as well as Black Widow, War Machine, the King of Wakanda, and some red guy named Vision, all signed the accords. While Captain America and his friends; Hawkeye, Falcon, the Winter Soldier, some guy named Scott that somehow got really small and really big, and Wanda Maximoff all refused to sign the treaty.

If Ella was honest, had she been able to choose a side, she would've chose not to sign the accords. And she'd be locked up somewhere right now for treason. But she didn't, and the accords went into works.

She thought it was ridiculous the worlds greatest heroes couldn't answer a cry for help unless some asshole US officials gave them the okay. A call for help was a call for help; it didn't matter whether some old man with security clearance deemed it worthy of helping.

And now here she was, sitting in Tony Starks private jet with a black eye and split lip, awake with her thoughts, while the billionaire and his personal driver sat asleep in their chairs.

She wasn't fully sure Peter was asleep yet, but the boy across from her had been slumped in his seat with his eyes closed for the past hour without moving. But she knew how he slept, and if the kid wasn't snoring, he wasn't sleeping.

"You should get some sleep, Ella."

Thats what she thought.

"I'll be fine." She huffed, slumping in her seat and stared back out at the sky. "We have school tomorrow and you need sleep." "I said I'll be fine."

Peter opened his eyes and leaned forward, speaking in a whisper, "What's wrong?" Ella glanced over at her friend, debating whether or not to tell him her mental hurdle she's been trying to jump over; did she make a mistake saying yes to Tony?

She smiled meekly at him, "I'm super tired, Pete. I just got my ass handed to me by a hot old guy with a metal arm and a hot chick with powers similar to mine. I'm just ready to get in my bed."

Peter nodded, believing her lie and leaning back in his seat with his eyes closed. Suddenly, they shot back open and he leaned forward again, "You thought they were hot?"

Ella giggled and nodded, "Obviously. The Winter Soldier is a cutie, Pete. Especially for a guy that's almost a century old. And Wanda?" Ela dramatically blew air into her cheeks, "Total hottie. I almost thanked her for kicking my ass. You know she said sorry to me after slamming me into the ground with her weird telekinesis? She told me to keep up my good work and that I'm pretty good. I'd pay money to be trained by her."

Peter scoffed, rolling his eyes and leaning back with a smile, "Go to sleep. You're getting delusional."

Ella giggled again, closing her eyes and leaning her head back in an attempt to get some rest.