Redefine Reality

‘You can see yourself out, right?’ 

Jason had agreed, of course. He could totally see himself out! And he would. Just.... not immediately.

He had been left unsupervised in the Avenger’s headquarters and he wasn’t about to pass up the opportunity to scope out their digs. He settled his helmet back on his head as he walked around the seemingly empty building. Faith knew who he was, but he wasn’t about to advertise his real identity to the rest of this good squad.

Also his helmet had a camera that he set to record immediately, Babs wouldn’t believe him when he said he got into the Avenger’s tower unless he got video proof of it.

Jedi briefly looked up from her work when she heard the door to the shop opening, watching the kid walking in. She tilted her head at the sight of him, what would a kid like him be doing in a store like this? He certainly didn’t seem like the edge-y goth kids who sometimes dropped in. Oh well, it wasn’t up to her to judge. She had to smirk, this was going to be fun, the store was pretty cluttered with display cases, and sometimes, it was hard to spot someone if they were crouching down somewhere in the store. Which was what she was doing, restocking one of the bottom shelves of a display case. 

Her smirk widened, this was going to be fun. The slow days were the most boring ones. And those were the days she just had to provide herself with some kind of entertainment. And what better way than to mess with customers a little? She set the box with ethereal oil bottles down on the ground, watching the kid as he opened up a book and then going to another shelf. She crouch-walked around the display cases, quietly walking up behind him as he started to look at the gemstones and rocks. Okay, so this was likely going to require some clean up, depending on what his reaction was going to be, but it was going to be fun regardless. Jedi snuck up behind him, standing just out of arm’s reach. “Can I help you?” She asked kindly, struggling to stop herself from grinning. 

With his earbuds in and his music going, Peter didn’t hear the woman speaking to him at first. He weighed two stones in his hand and replaced on in the basket he’d pulled it from. He counted his pile quickly, and did a mental calculation of the price. Okay, yes, this would be plenty. He scooped up the pile, then turned and his eyes went wide as he almost stepped into a person.

Flailing a little, he flung the rocks up into the air, then his hands snapped out to catch them before they could fall too far. Cheeks flushed red and he tugged the earbuds out of his ears, letting them fall forward over the front his shirt. 

Backpack slung over one shoulder, Peter hummed along with the music being pumped through the earbuds that were snaked beneath his shirt as he walked into the store. He'd never been into one of these new agey witchy stores, and his nose twitched a little at the odd smell he couldn't place.

redefinereality​:

With Great Power || Matt & Peter

Matt had been perched on the edge of a building, ears tuned into the sounds of the city, on alert for something out of the ordinary. That’s when the van drove in, the sounds of the hysterical girl it was carrying letting him know something was amiss. Rooftop to rooftop, he approached.

Noting the appearance of someone who could only be the infamous Spider-Man, as the media dubbed him, he paused, hovering above the alley. The newest vigilante around town obviously hadn’t picked up on the unofficial hero rules. You stay in your zone. Matt never went down to Harlem to intrude in Luke’s zone, but here was the Spider coming to the Kitchen. 

Regardless, it wouldn’t be the worst thing to introduce himself. He didn’t truly like working with others, but he could admit it’d could be helpful, as proven by his short stint with the Defenders. And the man was winded, breath coming out just a touch faster. He’d probably chased the girl in the van all the way from his home turf. Matt could respect the dedication, even if it made him uneasy to have a stranger in his neighborhood. 

Matt was almost amused, listening to the panicked cursing of the would be sex traffickers, until his hearing tuned into Spider-Man’s heartbeat, fast and light and young. He was young, so very young. It sounded like he’d barely made it through puberty, if he had at all. And his voice was higher pitched than a grown man’s would ever be. 

Tilting his head at the strange thwip noise he heard, he presumed that must be the web that the media spoke so much about. He hovered, uncertain, suddenly far more invested in the boy’s safety now that he knew it was a boy under whatever colorful mask he was wearing. And he was right to be. The next flurry of activity he picked up proved that the boy couldn’t fight worth a damn, not really. 

Descending a fire escape, Matt dropped down just in time to catch another brutal swing of that tire iron with his baton. That would have been at the boy’s head. He’d didn’t speak at first, efficiently matched the man with the tire iron blow for blow, head half tilted back towards the truck where two others were piling out of it, warning, “Watch it!” 

Hearing the thunk of tire iron hitting something solid, Peter turned and his eyes followed the baton up the arm holding it, to the man’s masked face. “Woah! You’re Daredevil! Hi!” he exclaimed, his voice almost a squeak in his excitement. That let him know where he was, at least. He’d made it all the way to Hell’s Kitchen. That wasn’t good, he’d never been to this part of town before, and he wasn’t sure how he’d make it back home.

The warning, however, pulled him back into the moment, and the fight that was happening. “Right!” He turned to look at the men rushing at him, shooting out strings of webs from each hand to attach to their chests, yanking them forward so they toppled over onto each other. “Ha!”

Hoping forward, he focused on restraining the men, using his webbing to stick the first man’s hands to the ground, when the other man lashed out, catching his ankle with a steel-toed boot. Pain shot through his leg and he hopped away, tripping over his own feet to fall heavily to the ground in a pile with the men.

thatslayer​:

                                Faith’s entirely listening. No, really. Just not to Elektra. She absently catches her parachute in one hand and re-focuses her attention on whoever’s in her com, finger pressed against the piece in her ear, “Psh, you know me. Safe as houses.” as she watches the first of them take a dive out of the plane, “Turns out? Be back on the ground sooner than I thought.”

She pulls the com out of her ear and stows it in the only zippered pocket in that skin-tight Avengers thing Tony printed for her under protest. Spiderman suddenly in her face and running on three of his four tiny cylinders. She can’t help but smirk a bit at his enthusiasm, “You get used to it.” which is an understatement.

              She waits her turn, vaguely wondering what Elektra’s gotten them all into. All she heard was ‘dragon bones’ and her lizard brain agreed before her adult, human brain (what little of it there is) considered any implications in that. She’s not sorry, either. Being tied down’s doing nothing to expend her energy and it takes all her focus to wait the count of five after Peter follows Elektra for Faith to pursue the way she always does when diving out of a moving plane — standing back tuck extended over the floor’s edge, because it’s no fun if you don’t barely miss the fucking wing of the plane.

next: @gloriousxdarkness​

               The wind whips and swirls around the moment she’s free falling, but it feels more like flying. Weightless. A surge of adrenaline spikes throughout her body in a heady rush, and she can see for miles around as the thick leafy canopy rushes up to meet them. She waits a little longer than she should, a little too close to the ground, before pulling the ripcord and feeling torn backwards for a moment as the parachute ejects.

Her descent slows and she doesn’t really bother guiding it much; so long as they don’t land in that fat brown river snaking through the jungle it’ll probably be fine. Her parachute snags on the branches of the trees and Elektra’s content to cut herself free and leave it there. Her hands tremble from the overkill of energy burning in her blood. It isn’t the first time she’s skydived, but it never gets old.

                 Plunged into darkness, the translucent trickles of light streaming through are almost creepy. The ground is soft, the humidity oppressive. The air is alive with insect buzzing and the scent of decay. Elektra shakes out her limbs, a small smile on her face, and turns her eyes up to scan for where her compatriots have been caught, if they need help. Unlikely.

next: @redefinereality

As he reached terminal velocity, Karen automatically deployed his parachute to slow him down, and he enjoyed the sensation of rushing through the air, the mass of green below slowly turning into individual trees. He popped out his arms and spread his legs, fabric stretching between them to form a wingsuit, and he let out a hoot of sheer excitement as the parachute broke away and he was left to glide through the air.

He circled over the trees, taking his time, then finally plummeted into the canopy close to where Elektra had disappeared. Branches whipped by, one smacking his hand and sending tingles up his arm, before he tucked and roll and came to a stop a short distance from the older woman.

“That was so awesome!” Peter shouted, unable to contain his enthusiasm as he hopped to his feet and practically skipped over to the woman. “I’ve never jumped out of a plane before, that was so much fun!” He bounced on his toes, grinning widely behind his mask. “We should totally do that again!”

@devilknown​ gets Spider-Baby

Peter was in over his head. Way over. He’d only had these powers for a few months, had barely started helping out around his neighborhood, and he had no idea what he was doing, but he knew he couldn’t just let these douchebags take that girl. So he had followed the gross panel van halfway across the city, far outside of the neighborhood he knew and loved, and finally they pulled to a stop in an alleyway. 

Swinging between the buildings, he landed on the roof of the van with a heavy thud, shooting out a bit of webbing at a man’s face as he piled out of the van. “Ha!” he said with a grin as the man stumbled back, only to feel something around his ankle. Looking down he saw a hand wrapped around his leg, and his eyes went wide. “Oh cr-” he started, but his words were cut off as it was yanked out from beneath him and his head quickly met with the roof of the van, causing his ears to ring before he was ripped off the vehicle and slammed into the ground.

Okay, that was bad, but he wasn’t about to slow down. He had a girl to save! Pressing his hands to the ground, he quickly jumped to his feet, and swung his fist at the man. Sadly, fist fighting was not his strong point, and he soon found himself struggling to stay on his feet as one of the man pulled out a tire iron and clipped his shoulder with it.

Bucky didn’t answer at first, and let Peter continue. Mysterio had come across Sam’s radar, but not until after the majority of it went down. By the time any of them would have gotten involved, it seemed that Peter had had it mostly handled, and Fury wanted the teen some room to find his style. Sam hadn’t been so sure on the judgement call, but Steve, who still occasionally came in for consultation now that his body couldn’t handle fieldwork, wanted to give Peter a chance. They still looked to Fury to call the shots, and he had decided to keep an eye, but let Peter handle it; he had been doing it long enough.

As Peter spoke, Bucky led him into the interior part of the building to the kitchens. Wanda had made cookies that morning, and he knew she wouldn’t begrudge Peter a few. He busied himself getting a plate and setting it down at one of the tables, taking a seat.

❛ He mentioned it but didn’t go much into it. It felt like Fury was pretty confident that you handled it, as well as you could. But we didn’t get a debrief on the outcome, just that there was someone who was trying to trick you outta tech, ❜  he said, pushing the plate of cookies toward Peter.  ❛ What happened? ❜

Later Peter would have to think about the fact that Bucky Barnes, the Winter Soldier, the White Wolf, Master Assassin, was taking care of him and feeding him cookies, but for now he was too deeply wrapped up in his own thoughts to realize how nice the man was being to him.

“He did. He got it. I messed up,” he said, leaning an elbow on the counter and resting his jaw in his palm. “Tony... he gave me these glasses, with an AI. He said... ‘for the next Tony Stark’ and... that’s not me, that’s definitely not me. But Beck... Director Fury and everybody trusted him. He stopped all these monsters. He was nice. He seemed like the right choice, so I gave him the glasses. But that was wrong,” he said, picking up a cookie but not eating it.

“I realized later that he wasn’t who he said he was. He was just a guy, and he was making up all the attacks to make himself look good. He wanted to hurt people. So I came back to stop him.” His eyes went unfocused for a moment as he remembered the illusions that Beck had projected around him, just how fucked up they all were... he still saw them in his nightmares sometimes. He shuddered, and shook his head, forcing himself to focus.

“Hey, now.” he argues in a teasing tone, “Hero was a solid tune, ok?” Yeah, that’s a thing he probably should’ve kept to himself. If he’s lucky the big request he’s got will erase that part of the conversation from her memory. But when is he ever lucky?

Bruce is silent for a time while he thinks of just the right way to put it so that he doesn’t come off as a creeper. If he wasn’t sure the woman was dangerous he wouldn’t bother digging deeper into her past at all but after their encounter in his lab he wonders how safe Faith is around Elektra.

“It’s not small. It’s probably gonna be hard. I need everything you can dig up on Elektra Natchios. Finding anything on her the conventional way just isn’t hacking it. It’s almost like her records were sealed, burned and thrown off a cliff or something.”

Barbara arched an eyebrow at that, already starting to type. “How do you spell that?” she asked, letting him spell it out before her fingers were flying across the keyboard, starting to search for any information on the woman.  “I’ve yet to come across anybody I couldn’t find something on.”

Peter plastered the flyers all over the Avenger’s tower. He’d had a small party with his normal friends, the ones who didn’t know he was a super hero, but he’d wanted to celebrate with the rest of his friends, too. He couldn’t exactly have Captain America and Black Widow showing up to a thing with his school friends, so... that meant separate parties!

The day of the event, Peter had decorated the Parker apartment with dollar store decorations and streamers, there was pizza, and chips, and he’d even convinced May to buy alcohol for the guests who preferred that, and were of legal age.

Wearing his cap, the gown open over a pair of jeans and his favorite t-shirt, Peter bounced around the apartment as he made last minute adjustments to the decor, turning on his favorite playlist, and making sure the ice bucket was full of beverages.

𝒴𝑜𝓊'𝓇𝑒 𝒾𝓃𝓋𝒾𝓉𝑒𝒹!

Why: I survived highschool!! When: Friday, June 19, 5pm Where: My place! Snacks and drinks will be provided, no rsvp required.

🕷      🕷      🕷      🕷

Wanting to celebrate with the friends he can’t admit to the world he knows, ones who know just how stressful the past few years of his life have been, Peter has thrown himself a graduation party specifically for the Avengers. 

It was late, and if he didn’t get home soon Aunt May was going to yell at him, but as he made his way home, swinging over alleyways, something made the hair on his arms stand up. He came to a quick stop on the corner of a rooftop, scanning the area. Turning, he spotted a struggle in an alley nearby. As he focused, the AI system in his suit zoomed in, a blonde woman being attacked by three rather large men.

“Karen, text Aunt May and tell her I’ll be late,” he requested, then shot off a string of web, latching it into the edge of a building as he swung down and around to land in the alley, ready to save the woman.

    This wasn’t how he ever wanted to appear to Caroline. Years had passed since they parted and while life had moved on, a part of Klaus always thought that there’d be a time for them in the future. He’d sweep her off her feet and whisk her away to faraway countries ; she’d down up on his doorstep out of the blue, that dazzling smile in place. Of all the possible scenarios – unable to stand on his own, bloodied, beaten, and broken was not how Klaus planned their reunion. Insult was added to injury as he pushed the thoughts from his mind, keeping himself focused on the present. He nodded at Caroline’s words and gestured towards the far wall.  ❝ There’s a drain tunnel just down there. It leads outside of the city. ❞  It was dirty and a few inches of water flowed through it, but now wasn’t a time to be bothered by grime, he decided.

Gathering all of his strength, Klaus used Caroline to lean against as he led her towards the drain tunnel. With a party going on above, he knew it would be some time before his escape was discovered.  ❝ How did you find me ? ❞ he asked, not aware of the power he had to reach into her mind. Everything was a blur and he couldn’t sift through the reality and the hallucinations.  ❝ Have you had word from Hayley ? ❞  Getting to his daughter would be his first priority, having no idea how much time had actually passed.

Caroline kept an arm around Klaus as they walked, grateful her vampiric strength meant it wasn’t hard for her to support his weight. She didn’t think now was the time to explain why she’d come looking for him, especially since she barely believed it herself. She hadn’t told Elijah or Haley about it, either. None of them needed to know that, she would explain it to Klaus when the time was right.

Sensing a break in the crowd, and after making a show of swinging his cane in the empty space, giving him reason to know the break existed, Matt gestured for her to go ahead. She’d obviously been looking to go that way, and no reason to stop up the flow of foot traffic by loitering in the middle of the room. 

“That I am.” The Fisk case had done wonders to bringing publicity to Nelson and Murdock, and even now, years later, it was the thing most people recognized about them. It was always a bit grating to be acknowledged for that instead of all the tenement and social work he and Foggy had done to improve the lives of citizens in Hell’s Kitchen. Grating, but expected, so he did nothing but smile serenely, if a bit apologetically as he continued, “I must admit, I recognized your last name but not you specifically.” He imagined she must get that near as often as he got to hear Fisk’s name thrown around. 

Approaching the refreshments, he inhaled the scent of food that was probably far more expensive than it was worth. He nodded a silent thanks to the person manning the table when he offered a glass of champagne, accepting it and turning back to Barbara. “What brings you here? Looking for a good piece of art or supporting the cause?” 

Barbara pushed her chair forward, her eyes flicking over Matt for a moment to see if he’d be able to follow her through the crowd. “My father is police commissioner of Gotham City,” she explained. “He’s in the news a lot. Unless you’re thinking about the frozen fish company, but that’s Gorton, not Gordon,” she added with a laugh, taking a glass of champagne and sipping lightly.

“And, I’m here for the cause. The Avengers, and others like them, they mean to do good but... a lot of them get caught up in the big picture and forget about the little people along the way. It’s a big problem in Gotham,” she explained, flicking her eyes over the heroes who were here for photo ops and interviews. They weren’t bad people, just sometimes a little blind to the havoc they caused.

“You’ve done a lot of good work for the people in Hell’s Kitchen. They’re lucky to have you fighting for them,” she said with a smile, turning her attention back to the man next to her.

There was no two ways about it - Bonnie had to ask the pretty librarian for help. She bit her lip as she gazed down at the books she had gathered in an attempt to come up with something fun for the class, considering how heavy a topic the Civil War could be. None of them had really been much help. If she were honest, they just made her angry, and that was not what she needed right now.

Gathering them up, she began to put them back where she had found them, trying to calm her nerves. It was just the librarian. The redhead was a person, just like Bonnie was, and so what if she was sure to trip over her words because Bonnie was a mess around attractive new people? The other woman would surely never see her again.

Yeah, that was not helpful either. But the books were out of her hands, and she was running out of time. Steeling herself, Bonnie made her way over to the table where the redhead was situated. “Hi,” she started softly, smiling as she tucked a strand of hair behind her ear nervously. “I was wondering if you could help me out with something?”

@redefinereality​ gets a group starter!

Barbara looked up as the woman approached, a wide smile spreading across her pale features. “Of course,” Babs said easily, tucking away the book she had in her hand before turning her chair to face the woman completely.

She had seen the woman around a few times, and checked out her books, but it was hard to talk to people at a library. The most she’d ever done was said hello and goodbye, nothing more than small talk.

“What do you need? I’ll do my best,” she added cheerfully.

❛ Well, we wouldn’t be the Avengers, kid, if we didn’t mess up at some point or another. You just earned your first stripe, ❜  he responded, a slight grin on his lips as he tried to make his expression less “murder” and more “comfort.”

❛ Shit has gone down. OK. Can you try explaining it to me from the beginning? Who’s died? ❜  he asked, his mind trying to calculate when the rest of the team would be back. It wasn’t as if Bucky knew the whole PR situation. Tony had been the one with that down, and Pepper was assisting the group on the field, strictly backup if it was needed. So long as there wasn’t someone knocking at the doors of Avenger HQ, Bucky figured they had some time to lay low and come up with a plan.  ❛ You’ve got a Grade-A major fuck up in your corner, and I’m still here.” He racked his brain for something to distract Peter’s panic reaction. “Um…want a cookie? ❜  He knew sugar was good for blood sugar, so maybe that would help.

Peter wasn’t sure this was a stripe he wanted to earn. He didn’t like mistakes, especially when those mistakes meant people died. Even if he was an evil person who was trying to kill a bunch of people. He swallowed hard at the offer and nodded weakly. “A cookie would be nice,” he agreed quietly, feeling exhausted now that the initial panic was starting to fade a little.

“Did, um. Did you hear about Mysterio?” he asked, ducking his head. If he were in street clothes he’d be fidgeting with his cuffs, or picking a loose thread, but in his Spider Suit all he could do was awkwardly rub his fingers together.

probably shouldn’t be doing this ♠ oracle & bruce

@redefinereality

Awful day. Cloudy and overcast while simultaneously being so hot it’s hard to form coherent thoughts. It was supposed to rain, whatever happened to that? There’s a buzzing and static before Spotify cuts out to Bruce’s voice, “Sorry to interrupt your, uh… Nickelbacking, Babs.” he teases with a chuckle, “I know you get cranky when I steal Kroger’s thunder like that.” He fiddles with the frequency and hones it in making his voice clearer, “I wish I could say this was a social call but I’m kinda strapped for time. How do you feel about doing a little digging for me? Personal project.”

An eyebrow shot up as static interrupted her music and she was ready to get on the phone with one of her brothers to chew him out when an entirely different voice came through her speakers.

Bucky looked at the teen through the fringe that fell in his eyes. He wore his hair much shorter now, but the front was still just a tad long, a style that when not plastered with sweat harkened a little bit back to before the war. He didn’t stay anything at first, unwrapping his right hand from the wraps he used when doing intense boxing against the heaviest punching bag.

❛ The best pizza was in Brooklyn. But that closed down long before you were an idea. ❜  He wasn’t sure what had gotten into the teen. Ever since he’d been retained to the Avenger’s HQ, Peter had seemed to take an interest. It reminded Bucky of a puppy, trying much too hard to get the attention of likely the least worthy person in the room.

The corner of his mouth upturned slightly as he pushed his hair back, grabbing a water bottle.  ❛ What, your pie place run out of toppings? ❜  The tone didn’t nearly hold the bite of the words, and was more teasing than critical.

“Pizza from a hundred years ago doesn’t count,” Peter protested, hopping onto a stool at the counter, grinning widely as he watched the man move around the kitchen. He wasn’t bothered by the teasing, he was always very aware when Mr. Barnes was upset with him. Some people were good at hiding it, or at least tried, but the Sargent always made it real clear when he’d pushed things a little too far.

He snagged the first slice of pizza, folding the triangle in half lengthwise. “And no. But cheese is a classic,” he said easily, waving the slice around, gesculating with his hands as he spoke. “Plus I didn’t know if you were some sort of pepperoni hating weirdo. And they don’t do half-toppings. So better safe than sorry, right?” he asked with a wide grin before taking a big bite of the pizza, waiting for Bucky to do the same.