November 2012-

"Happy birthday, Peter!" Uncle Ben hugged a young Peter who was still on his pj's and jumping around the room. Peter's eyes gleamed behind his glasses, a huge smile spreading across his face. May laughed, watching them as she had a small cupcake in her hand with a candle.

"Make a wish, Pete," May sat on Peter's bed next to her husband.

"Woah, cake for breakfast?" Peter asked, excitedly as he closed his eyes, blowing the candle. Wishing the hell out of his one and only dream: To be a superhero.

"What did you wish for?" Uncle Ben asked as Peter shook his head.

"Nope, it's a secret! If I tell then it won't come true," Peter answered as Ben laughed but reached over for a wrapped box. Peter's eyes lit up as he hopped anxiously watching the box.

"Open it!" Ben grinned as May sent his nephew a smile and a nod. Peter didn't fail to quickly rip off the wrapping and open the box, inside there was an Iron Man toy mask. Peter squealed and thanked them as he ran around the apartment with the mask on.

As soon as Angela hopped to the back of the car she rested her head back, man, was she tired, not only physically but emotionally. And she had to keep it all to herself, everything she wanted to talk about, she just had to keep it like another secret. But right now? She just wanted to lay down and cry, no, it couldn't be, her mother was alive, deep down she knew it, but deep down she feared Dr. Weiss had said the truth. She hugged her backpack tight, everything in her body hurt, not to mention the pain that her arm was facing. Tears wanted to come out straight away, but she fought them back and faked a very convincing smile, even though her heart was pounding. The blood was passing through the clothes, but of course, she'd need to cover that up before Tony or Pepper could even smell it. Tony was glancing at her from the mirror as she had a guilt glance splattered on her face. She stared out the window, watching the cars pass by, she didn't want to be questioned.

"Did you have fun?" Pepper asked, causing Angela to turn to her, smile and nod as an answer.

"Yeah, we watched a movie and ate a lot of candy," Angela answered with a grin, still watching the city. She wasn't lying, technically.

"So, were you guys alone?" Pepper asked with a smirk, as she turned to Angela, realizing only then that the teenager looked different. "Are you wearing black lipstick?"

"Hm?" Angela's eyes widened. Fuck. She had made sure to cover up her wound but not take off her freaking lipstick. Only then had she realized how impractical her whole outfit had been, she'd need to work on it, or even create one from scratch. "Oh, um, I bought it for my costume yesterday but didn't get to use it," Angela excused herself. "But, um, no we weren't alone, another friend, Ned, was there."

"So...you were alone with two guys?" Tony finally asked, as his eyes widened and he eyed Angela from the mirror. Great, at least Tony was concerned about that and didn't even suspect anything else. At least for now, course.

"I mean, yeah, but-"

"AND YOU HAVE A CRUSH ON PARKER DONT YOU?"

"Wait, What?" Angela scowled as Pepper rolled her eyes and glared at Tony. But she had to play along, better talk about embarrassing stuff like guys rather than 'why do you seem tired and sad?' "Who... why would you think that? Where did that even come from?"

Tony blinked, she hadn't denied it. "So you do?"

"Never said that," Angela cleared her throat. "But, at least for now, dad he's just a friend," now she had lied. Ish. She wasn't sure what Peter was to her, yes he was a friend, but she didn't expect to see him just as a friend. But guys weren't going to be on Angela's mind at least, for now, she had just found out about Sanders. Sanders... at least from midtown high it didn't sound familiar so she could scratch that off. Well, her mission hadn't been a total failure, she had learned about Doctor Weiss working for Sanders, and that the kidnap wasn't the original plan. Except, she hadn't figured out just yet what the original plan was.

Pepper rubbed her temples, way to go Tony. Pepper was amazed by how both Tony and Angela were so equal, sometimes their way to socialize wasn't the right one, and when it came to bonding with each other foul points would often be hit.

"So, who is your crush?" Tony asked trying to sound as nonchalantly as he could, failing completely of course.

"Why do you expect me to have a crush?" Angela frowned. "I'm going to school to learn."

This made both Pepper and Tony laugh, causing Angela to scowl confused.

"What?" Angela asked, faking dementia.

Tony chuckled. "You seriously expect me to believe you're trying to learn?" Tony chuckled as Angela raised an eyebrow. "Please, my angel, with the education you've had you could be in any college by now."

That was true, Angela twisted her mouth as she crossed her arms. Yet she wasn't.

"And I'm not in one because?" Angela asked.

"Because you've never been exposed to the real world," Pepper answered. "Look, this decision was to help you learn how to... socialize with the real world."

"So, it was just for me to blend in? Huh," Angela frowned but then chuckled.

"Unless of course, you want to be already in college," Tony glanced at her. "I have a pull at MIT. But I guess you haven't even thought about what you'd be majoring in and-"

"Actually I have, major in mechanical engineer and minoring in brain and cognitive sciences at, indeed, MIT," Angela answered, as she bit her lip, trying to find a comfortable posture that wouldn't hurt her arm, Orthrusa's teeth had managed to bury deep inside her skin. Both Pepper and Tony stayed quiet, they hadn't expected her to know already what she wanted to study, but it was a relief for Tony to know that his daughter was sure to follow his path to study and it was a relief that if something ever happened to him, Angela would be ready to inherit Stark Industries. "But, I think I'd like to stay here in Midtown, at least for a month more, get to know more people, have some more friends. " Angela answered.

Tony glanced at his daughter from the mirror, he saw her eyes, they were teary, he didn't want to ask right now, maybe Pepper could talk to her, or maybe him, later, at least. Tony didn't know how to deal with a teenage girl shit, but he knew that Angela wasn't feeling well, yet it was too risky to ask. Besides, he didn't expect her to be 100% happy a day after her kidnap.

"When were you planning to tell me about your phone?" Tony finally asked after a few minutes.

"Wait, what?" Angela scowled.

"I know you don't have it with you," Tony answered. "I just expected you to tell me they had actually taken it off. But before we deal with that, let's go get a hamburger."

"I'm starving," Angela muttered.

Pepper scowled as she looked at both of them, knowing that the only reason they were hungry was because they had a crisis. She had gotten used to Tony asking for a hamburger after some serious fight, or Angela opening up a back of gummies each time she was feeling anxious.

The shit she was going to deal with by getting in this family.

Spider-Man had felt guilty that he had just left the girl all alone, but he didn't have time to figure out who the hell this Hummingbird girl was, or maybe he was too scared to find out about her. He was now on top of a building watching the city, seeing how peaceful Queens looked. It was now dark, and the lights were spreading all across the city, he couldn't help but smile, gosh, he loved New York. He had just stopped a guy from assaulting a small bakery shop and stopped a guy from stealing a car, it wasn't even a good car, man, the criminals weren't even trying. Ned had called him and Peter hadn't doubted when telling everything about Hummingbird, from how she had covered her face to the way she was controlling people with her mind to the way she had let fire out of her bare hands.

"Did she have super strength?" Ned asked, excited. "I'm sorry, man, but it's so cool that there was another superhuman like you."

"No, she didn't have super strength," Peter answered. "Not that I saw, I think... BUT, she could fly, and it was amazing like, okay I was kind of scared, because I think she's never been to a fight before, but I mean, with time maybe she could even help me, not that I need help of course."

"Dude, you should date her," Ned suggested with excitement.

"No."

"How cool would it be if two superheroes dated," Ned continued.

"No."

"Oh, right, you have yourself your own crush," Ned teased laughing.

"Ned, no."

"Lil' Stark, huh?" Ned laughed.

"Ned, no," Peter finally cut him off. "I have no time for girls, or crushes or dating, I need to prove Mr. Stark that I'm good, and I mean taking down whoever is after his daughter-"

"His daughter and your crush," Ned insisted.

"His daughter is going to prove that I'm actually a worth superhero," Peter nodded.

"So you gonna tell about Tweety girl to Stark?"

Peter laughed, Tweety. "Er, I think better not."

"So you're gonna pull the whole credit?" Ned inquired. "Peter isn't that..."

"It's not getting the whole credit, but I really think I should find out more about her before I go and tell Mr. Stark, she did claim she was one of Angela's friend, maybe we could ask Angela?"

"Sure, Pete, ask Ang about the girl you fought along, she won't suspect anything, please Pete, be rational, you can't ask her about Tweety without blowing your cover."

Peter sighed as he swung to another building. "Look, man, I don't know, I'll find a way."

"And what if she doesn't want to tell you about it?"

"Maybe not Peter, but she might talk to Spider-Man," Peter answered convinced as he saw some smoke coming out of a building. "I'll call you later, mate."

He hung up and went to the rescue. It hadn't been that big of a deal, just a fire started up by someone who wasn't the best cook, but Peter had managed to get everyone out, thank you very much.

The firefighters had arrived just in time for Peter to give them the finger guns and jump off to the building and back to his apartment.

Peter climbed back into his room and plopped on his bunk bed.

Meanwhile, far away from them, Angela Stark was dealing with her not so pleased father, who was making her dizzy from all the speech he had given her after her hiding of her lost phone, apparently he had noticed it because Friday have told him that someone in Queens had tried to hack her phone and then he realized she didn't have her phone with her. He asked her how she had done it, and of course, she had not answered and claimed she hadn't even managed to track it down, lying apparently had been the one thing Angela had learned to do right her entire life, not that she was proud, of course. Tony, however, knew about Angela's lying abilities and therefore didn't buy it and Angela was grounded, eventually.

Tony was now preparing himself to figure why the heck his daughter's phone was in a theatre on Broadway. He just wanted to send a suit after it but he knew it was too risky, maybe it was all a setup, after all, the one with the phone had to know that he could easily track it down. Especially, if it had been tried to be hacked the phone had most likely sent an alert, because gosh, Tony had never thought his own daughter would try to hack her own phone after it was stolen. Smart move, Angela.

Tony rolled his eyes as he prepared some coffee, he was going to track down the phone all night.

Angela was in her room, bored, grounded, without even a book, she was just pacing around her room, which wasn't exactly as bad as Tony had planned it would go, For she had washed up her wound.

Angela got in her bathroom watching the water run as she covered up the marks that Orthrusa's fangs have made. It hurt, but she could deal with it, at least for now. She was staring back at her reflection and she had to accept it. There were no chances of meeting her mother, not anymore, but maybe there was a chance to avenge her.

If Weiss had said the truth then, maybe she had nothing to fight for. Fight for? She laughed, only then did she realize the delusions of grandeur she was presenting. However, she, more than anyone knew that gifts were given to share, and if she had such great powers, she'd have to use them for good, not for evil.

She didn't even know what she was trying to prove, who she was trying to prove herself to. She had just been selfish, everything had been for Angela, Angela, Angela, and only Angela. Right now, as she was staring at her own reflection she was disgusted, she had been way worse than she had ever imagined. So vain, so selfish.

She had only used her powers to help herself, and then, there was her hero: Spider-Man, saving people selflessly. And her, only rage and being a stupid teenager. What was the point? She stared down at her reflection for seconds more just to grab her backpack, she took out the clothes, and then grabbed the few snacks that remained. For a reason, she was hungrier than usual. She wondered if it had something to do with the accelerator formula, which had her just dizzy right now.

She laid down on her bed and took out her special investigation binder, she read through all her annotations from this whole week, from her mother to the formulas, to Spider-Man, to OSCORP, to Dr. Weiss... And back to her mother. She took another blank page, only to add up the name "Sanders". She started to look up at her notes, not a single name, or last name. Sanders was new.

It was just too much to take in, and she had to swallow it all up. She had ruined her father's day, again. Today he was going to start planning his wedding and she had just decided to hack her phone, dammit Angela.

Tony spent the night watching the location of the phone and he saw how it went from Broadway straight to the Manhattan bridge, and then, it was in the water and the signal was lost. Tony sent a mini thruster in search of Angela's phone as he rested back on his chair tired, rubbing his left arm. He went to the kitchen, ate a sandwich and passed out, tired on a couch near the kitchen. He couldn't deal with his daughter right now, she had been acting so mysteriously.

Sunday passed not so different from that, with Tony working on a suit and on a new phone for Angela, and he flew to Los Angeles for a meeting of sorts, Pepper planning the wedding and taking care of some issues that had to do with Stark Industries, after all, she was the CEO and she needed to keep the company afloat; and Angela locked up in her room, doing homework, and trying to convince herself to use her powers to help people, making a plan to execute the very next day, oh, New York, you'd have to be so ready. However, she still wanted to investigate Dr. Weiss and Orthrusa, they could be a treat and whoever they were working for wanted something from her father or from her. She wasn't sure what they were looking for, but she was sure that it could be an imminent threat to her or even the Avengers. (Even though you could say it was below their pay rate)

She wondered if she could ever be as powerful as her dad. So she found herself all day investigating stuff about her and realized she was nothing more than 'Tony's daughter'; thing which concerned. She wanted to be The Angela Stark, just as her father had become The Tony Stark, and not Howard Stark's son, Tony had managed to make his father just a part of his biography. Angela wanted to do that, not to erase her father, but to make her name big enough just to encourage herself. She was a dreamer, aight?

However, it wasn't that simple, for her father had managed to be himself by being visionary and vicious, but also for realizing stuff. But he had realized the damage he had done just after becoming someone, and Angela had realized it very early when she was basically no one.

But, she'd have to figure it out, eventually. And all she wanted and she needed was to rest, but she also needed to heal the hell out of her arm, and now that Tony wasn't home, she could have some time to sneak into a lab and just try to heal it.

She was wandering around the facility as she bumped into Fury, who wasn't exactly pleased to see her. Angela sent him a polite smile as he watched her leave.

"Miss Stark, may I have a word with ya?" Fury asked as Angela pursed her lips and clinched her fists, thing which wasn't well received by her aching arm.

"Yeah, sir?" She turned around quickly, to face te man with the eyepatch who had his arms crossed.

"I wanted to ask if you were fine," he commented as the Stark girl hid her arms behind her back. "However I can see you've inherited your father's lack of worry, since you went yesterday to your friend's house."

"Oh," said Angela, and nodded. "Well, er, Ive been locked up my entire life, I wanted to spend some time with my friends, and besides, the guy I visited was there in the kidnap as well."

"And will you be returning to school tomorrow, even after the circumstances?"

"I will, sir, thought I believe my security will probably be... more intense," Angela reckoned. "Though I can defend myself."

"Yet you were kidnapped, you see, kid, don't think that only for being the daughter of your father and your mother things'll be easy, you still are human and not invincible."

"I'm aware of that," Angela answered truthfully holding her pounding arm.

"Just take care, don't go around playing the hero," Fury said before walking away, leaving the black haired Stark confused. Did he know about her powers?

Angela ran over to the medical room and got sure no one was watching her, she grabbed the first things that came to her mind to heal her wound, eh, at least cover it up. She didn't want anyone at school asking about it, so she'd need an allaby. Oh, school, that was another thing she'd have to solve. She had completely forgotten about the gossip that will soon be heard around Midtown high.

Peter Parker had arrived early to school in the sunny Monday, he wouldn't admit but he was feeling rather more excited for high school than any other day of his life, he felt as if the whole world was shining up above him, and he wasn't quite sure why. Though as he was making his way to school he couldn't help but smile at everyone just as he hopped into the train. Music was feeling his ears, and his playlist wanted to make him dance, though to be fair, he couldn't just dance away his feelings. He didn't want to be the freak with earphones who strolled by dancing, so he kept his energy low key as he was just prancing through the football field to walk into the school.

Just as he stepped into Midtown high he felt a few stares coming his way, making him feel slightly conscious about everything. He saw how a few grownups, probably juniors stared at him and started to whisper, Peter's joy faded away as he walked through the hallway, blush filling his cheeks. Some other girls smirked at him as they walked past him, causing Peter to clear his throat and blush even harder. He ignored everyone, and got his music volume higher, trying to cheer himself up. He arrived to his locker and took out a few books, deciding whether or not he'd go to Angela's locker, he took out his phone just to check if he had received any single text from her, though it would be impossible because she had no phone. Peter dug his head into the locker just as someone approached him.

"Hey, Peter!" A girl, Betty Brant, had walked over to him, she had her blonde hair tied in a bow and her black clothes were showing a little bit more cleavage than allowed in the dress code.

"Ah, hey Betty," Peter greeted the girl confused, she had never talked to him before, or maybe just once asking him for a pencil. She was one of the popular girls, and she ran the school news to be more exact, so Peter was amazed that she even knew his name.

"How are you?" The girl smiled at him, leaning casually against the lockers.

"Spectacular," Peter answered confused staring around. "You?" Peter was sure the girl was probably ask him for a homework.

"I'm great," said Betty with a higher pitch trying to get Peter's attention who was clearly not interested on engaging any type of conversation with her. "So, Peter, what've you been up to these days?" The girl asked, closing Peter's locker door, causing him to stare at her with a raised eye brow.

"Not much," he answered.

"Heard you had fun at Flash's party last Friday," she grinned. "Though we didn't even get to spend time together!"

Peter blinked, what? "Uh, no offense, Betty but we barely talk to each other, so forgive me if I didn't spend any time with you."

Betty let out a laugh, casually bumping Peter's shoulder. "Well, we should then talk more!"

"Uh, sure," Peter answered running a hand through his face, biting his lip.

"So, you and Angela Stark seem to be close, huh?" Betty inquired. Whoop, there it was.

"I guess, we're friends," he shrugged as he stared around, thankfully saved by Ned who just walked over.

"Hey, dude," he patted his back and raised an eyebrow at the blonde. "Hi, Betty."

The girl smiled at Ned politely before looking back at Peter, "Well, we'll catch up later, okay, Pete?" She winked at him before walking away.

"Did Pretty Brant just wink at you?" Ned asked confused as Peter shrugged. "Did you take off your shirt or...?"

"Hi, Peter," other two girls waved shyly at Peter as they passed by, leaving Ned and Peter confused raising eyebrows at each other.

"Did you say anything about-?" Peter frowned.

"No, I would never!" Ned defended himself as they started to walk through the hall, feeling a few other stares coming to them. "Wow, this must be how Angela feels," Ned commented as some people were whispering as they passed by, other people waved at them and smiled at them. "Oh, I think I know what's up here," Ned smirked and let out a laugh.

"What?" Peter asked as they were walking by inertia to Angela's locker.

"I'll tell you when you're older," Ned laughed, as they had arrived to Angela's locker hallway. And there she was, as usual, like every single morning surrounded by a group students in which, for Peter's surprise, was missing Shawn Ford.

Peter stared at her, her silky hair was falling through her right shoulder, her gray eyes were gleaming as she smiled at the students who were with her as she listened to them passionately. That was something Peter and Ned admired, she would always listen to any students, from girls trying to ask her about her fashion style, to freshman students asking her out, to others trying to impress her in order to meet her father. Even if it was annoying, she would listen, and sometimes Peter could sense she was feeling insecure or anxious, yet she'd just give them a smile and excuse herself.

Peter and Ned watched her with awe, they would be lying if they said they weren't still star struck, even though they had been with her on the weekend it was still something exciting to have Stark's own daughter at their very same school.

Angela finally looked up as she was pushing back some hair from her face, Peter noticed she had a bandage around her arm, he frowned but made no comment or reaction. Angela sent him a smile, and that was a genuine smile, not the one she gave all the other students, but a smile that could be treasured.

The girls that were currently with her turned to look at Peter and then stared between them just to then give a knowing look, as if they had just connected a few dots.

"We will let you be, Angela," one of the girls snickered as they giggled passing by Peter.

"Hey," Angela greeted them, "Sorry for that," Angela apologized. "But I guess you're already facing the consequences from Friday," she chuckled.

"Consequences?" Peter chuckled. Ned rolled his eyes, laughing as he smirked at Angela.

"He isn't old enough to get it," Ned explained as Peter frowned watching them.

"Get what?" Peter asked.

"Get that every single girl is staring at you," Angela chuckled. "Since I spent the '7 minutes in heaven thing'," she usedfinger quotes "with you, you probably became more attractive to about 70% of the school's population."

"Oh," Peter finally understood,

"Yeah, sadly you get that connotation, and apparently I heard some girls whispering that I was 'easy', huh, gotta love double standards for men and women," Angela frowned. "But Hey, congrats, you scored with me," she chuckled sadly.

Peter frowned as he leaned against the locker. "That's not fair, I could always tell the truth."

"And ruin your reputation?" Angela shook her head, clacking her tongue. "Don't worry Pete, enjoy it."

"What about your reputation? I'm a nobody and I can stay being a nobody," Peter argued and Angela turned to him with a neutral face. Ned looked between them awkwardly.

"Well then, what do you suggest?" She asked. "We can't go on and tell the truth because either way my reputation would be screwed, in one scenario I'm apparently a slut, and in the other one I'm a weak damsel in distress who got herself kidnapped on her first week in this world."

Peter and Ned stayed quit watching her, defeated.

"You guys could pretend you're dating," Ned smirked before letting out a mischevious giggle.