Chapter Text
Kate balanced a pizza slice and her bow in one hand as she opened the door to the flat with the other hand.
So far, the superhero gig wasn’t too bad. She’d stopped a couple muggers today, and had gotten some intel from a guy about a drug run that was going down that she needed to tell Clint about, see what the procedure for dealing with that was-
There was a strange girl in her house. Sitting in her chair. Facing the door that Kate had just walked in through.
Yelena had said something about the Red Room training up young girls to be assassins, because no one would ever suspect them.
“…Hello.” She waved when the girl didn’t immediately jump forward to kill her.
“You thought you were the only kid superhero?” Strange Girl asked, standing up to approach her. And wow, on closer look, she was really young. Or maybe just really short.
“I’m twenty three.” Kate told her mildly.
“I know.” She grinned brightly, holding up a transparent tablet, “Have all your info here, Ms. Bishop, protégé of Hawkeye.”
“What do you want?” Kate asked, still not understanding why they were having this conversation.
“I’m Ms. Marvel.” She introduced herself, hopping a little on the spot as she said the name, “And I’m here to invite you to a team.”
“You and who?” Kate asked warily.
“Ant-Man has a daughter.” Ms. Marvel pointed out, and gave the tablet another wave, “Plus everyone in this tablet below the age of… let’s say twenty five.”
“So you’ll kick me out after two years?” Kate joked.
Ms. Marvel shook her head quickly, “Oh, no, no, no, I just meant, we’ll all be older then, right? It’s only twenty five for now. If you say yes.”
Kate thought on it for a few seconds, “You know what? Sure. But I want a name first.”
“Yes!” Ms. Marvel took a moment to fistbump before fidgeting awkwardly, “It’s Kamala. Kamala Khan. I have your email, so I’ll keep you updated on the recruitment process, okay?”
“If you have my email, you have my phone. Just text me.” Kate insisted. Kamala took a moment to nod at her, before jumping out of the window and sliding away on a… purple-y crystal ramp. Kate stared in shock after her as the mysterious girl wove through the buildings of New York.
Holy shit. Guess she should begin to get used to that now. How many more super-powered kids would she be working with? Would there even be any non-powered people beside her there?
Not just that, but who was funding this? How did they know all this about her?
Only after the girl had left, Kate finally thought to pause and ask: what the hell?
Someone knocked at the door.
Cassie was sprinting to open the door before her mother even had to ask. Her dad was meant to be visiting today, to pick her up for his week. And after the five years he was gone- she had learned to treasure those times.
Her dad was not at the door. It was a girl about her age, but Cassie didn’t remember seeing her anywhere around school. Not that she knew everyone in her school.
“Um, hi, Cassie Lang?” The girl asked, and there was hero-worship in her voice that Cassie had only ever heard directed at… oh dear.
“Scott Lang mentions you on his podcast all the time.” She confirmed Cassie’s fears. Fuck, fuck, fuck. A superhero fan had stalked her for being Ant-Man’s daughter. That was so creepy.
Cassie made to slam the door in her face, but a small, glowing purple crystal appeared in the doorway, stopping it from shutting completely.
The girl’s hand was glowing, showing that she was the one who made it.
Not just any fan, a superpowered fan. This was getting creepier and creepier.
“Hey, hey, hey, I don’t want to freak you out!” The girl dithered, casting a glance around, “Can I come in? There’s a lot to explain. I would’ve broken in, actually, but your dog-sized ant freaks me out.”
“That’s the point.” Cassie replied through gritted teeth, still not loosening her grip on the door, “Tell me why I should let you explain anything at all.”
“I’m starting a kid superhero team.” The girl burst out, “Hawkeye’s already in it.”
This was so surprising that Cassie let the door close, letting her fall inside, “You know that Hawkeye’s a thirty year old man, right?” She checked.
“Not that Hawkeye. His protégé, Hawkeye. She’s twenty-three.” The girl continued, “And I know that isn’t a child per se, but she’s on the younger side, don’t you think? Anyways, she was the closest to my location. There will be others closer to our age, and I’m sure they’ll say yes!”
Huh. That was… a lot. Cassie had to take a moment to process that, before finally asking, “And what about you? What have you got going on?”
“I’m Ms. Marvel – don’t worry, I asked her, she’s fine with it – and you’ve already seen my hard light powers. That’s… that’s my thing. And sometimes time travel? That’s only happened once, though, so let’s hope that never happens again.”
“And why do you think I’ll be a good addition to the team? Because I’m Ant-Man’s daughter?” Cassie challenged, just to see how much this girl knew about her. God knew how she had found out this much about Cassie in the first place.
“You know S.W.O.R.D. keeps a close eye on anyone experimenting with enhancing their own body, right?” Ms. Marvel pulled out a glowing, transparent tablet to show Cassie her own information.
“Your exposure to Pym particles is recorded here. And the powers that it gave you.” Ms. Marvel explained, “Can you really shrink and grow how you want?”
“Yup.” Cassie agreed, feeling a little shy as she pulled into herself a little, shrinking nearly three feet down. Ms. Marvel gasped, looking ecstatic. Cassie smirked as she returned to her regular size, “Impressed?”
“Very. You’re so cool. Please say you’re joining.” Ms. Marvel begged her.
“I’d need a costume.” Cassie mused, “And my parents can’t know until I make a name for myself.”
“Done!” Ms. Marvel agreed immediately, “Think up some designs, pick a name, and then we can work on bringing it to reality.”
“Really?” Cassie breathed. This was happening. Woah, this was happening.
“Yeah. Hawkeye’s loaded. She has the funds to make a suit if we beg her for it.” Ms. Marvel promised her, “Now, I gotta go, because San Fransico is a five hour ride from Pasadena and I told my parents that I was going to visit Caltech. Bye, I’ll text you!”
And then she was rushing out.
Wait, what was her actual name?
“Cassie, did someone come by?” Her mother called from upstairs.
“Yeah!” She yelled back, “Just a classmate!”
Given one word to describe Kamar-Taj, America would say: Peaceful.
It was very peaceful. Quiet and sedate in a way that America hadn’t experienced since…
Since she lost her mothers. Since she had begun jumping from world to world, each crazier than the last, a never-ending rat maze that she was running in circles in.
Compared to all that, Kamar-Taj was a welcome change of pace.
“Hey!” A voice whispered into her ear, in the middle of a meditation session. It was loud, energetic and so sudden she nearly punched the speaker in alarm.
But she managed to restrain herself at the last moment, cracking her eye open to look at the fool.
It was a girl, slightly older than her, and taller too, smiling at her with barely suppressed excitement.
“…Hey.” She replied, uncertainly.
The girl was dressed in jeans and a merch t-shirt featuring… Captain Marvel? Must be a TV show character from this universe. Or maybe a hero. Seems like people enjoyed putting real people on shirts here. But it wasn’t something you saw much in Kamar-Taj.
“I’m Kamala Khan. And you’re America Chavez. But I also go by Ms. Marvel. Do you have a hero name?” All of this came out in a sharp rush.
“No?” America replied, not sure where this was going.
“Well, you should think of one.” Kamala told her, “Because you can jump dimensions, right? It’s a good superhero power. And I’m putting together a team, and everyone knows we need a magic user.”
“I’m not a magic user.” America told her, before she could continue with this impression that she had of herself, “Training to be one, but so far… even the jumps aren’t that reliable.”
“And we’ll help you train!” Kamala told her, brushing the worries aside, “The question is: do you want to be a superhero? Save the world? The little guy?”
America thought it over. Okay, she didn’t hate the idea. She had saved the multiverse, after all. And it had felt good. Maybe having a team with her would make it easier to do that, the next time the world was in danger. Because judging by the history books she’d read, this world was in danger every other year.
And Stephen Strange had helped them, even though it wasn’t a magic issue, so that meant it should be fine if America were to do that too, right?
“I’d like that.” She admitted, stiffly, “Guess you can call me if you ever need help.”
“Great!” Kamala cheered, “Any ideas for a hero name?”
“America.” She replied blandly.
“No, I mean, like-” Kamala broke off, thinking on it for a second, “Actually, that has real Captain America vibes to it! Yes, go with that!”
She paused to look around shadily, “Okay, I gotta get out of here before Wong realizes I snuck into the Sanctum Sanctorum to use its portals, bye!”
And then she was dashing away. What a whirlwind.
Kamala jumped from the roof of the Kamar-Taj, helping herself down using her crystal platforms.
Success! America Chavez had agreed!
This was the third person she had tried, and so far, they had had a hundred percent success rate. This recruitment drive was going so well!
She couldn’t wait to hop home and start squealing to Nakia about the overwhelming success. It was like all her thoughts were ending in exclamation points, even more than usual. Her nerves were electrified, making her jump up and down in the middle of the freaking street.
Actually, it was getting pretty late now. She needed to make a break for it before her parents started getting on her case about being in the city after sundown.
She ducked away to change into her Ms. Marvel suit, which gave her the freedom to start putting up her platforms to start lilypadding over the roads and towards the bridge. (Hey, she had more faith in her powers, but not that much faith.)
Cons about being in costume, when she heard a scream, she had no excuse to stop and help.
Mugger. Nothing too different from Jersey City. She could deal with that.
But before she could extend her hands out with crystalline projections, the hand the mugger was holding his gun with was glued to the wall with a… white substance of sorts?
Spider-Man.
Kamala immediately fell silent, watching from the roof she was standing above as the man, the myth, the legend, did his thing.
Being the very first boots-on-the-ground, small-time hero to ever make it big, Kamala looked up to the guy, alright? It wasn’t weird. He’d been doing a lot of strange stuff recently in Europe, but had been strangely quiet in recent days. She’d wondered what he had been doing since then.
She had been hoping to recruit him into her group, but even S.W.O.R.D. didn’t have any way to contact the guy. No phone number, no email, not even an address. And they had three different addresses for her.
In the alley, a figure in red and blue spandex landed cleanly, full superhero pose, hands outstretched towards the mugger, in case he tried anything.
“Hey, guys. Rough night for you, huh?” He asked, his voice way higher than she’d thought it would be, “Think you could just let me web you up for the police, or are we fighting now? Because I don’t really want to fight you.”
The guy considered if for a few seconds, before his shoulders slumped, “Yeah, okay. As long as you don’t hurt me.”
“Thanks, man!” Spider-Man nodded, “You should probably go, citizen. And call the police, too.”
The bystander nodded, looking terrified as he began dialing a number on his phone. Spider-Man took a moment to put a sticky note next to the mugger’s head and putting another web to suspend his other hand to the wall.
Then he was flipping up the wall, and onto the roof of the building next to the alley. Right across from Kamala. His head raised up slightly, and white lenses fixed on her. Kamala froze. Spider-Man froze.
They stared at each other.
Kamala’s brain synapses were firing at double speed, making connections. This was Spider-Man. One of the very first superheroes whose identities remained unknown.
And he was young. Everything from his voice to his stature, and general height, it all meant that he was way younger than any other Avenger.
“You should join my team.” She blurted out. Spider-Man jolted in alarm.
“Uh… what team?”
“I’m recruiting for a team.” She started running through her pitch, “I’m Ms. Marvel. And I’ve gotten a group of young superheroes together, in case of an Avengers-level event happening because…” here she trailed off, depressed by the truth of current events, “Because there aren’t any Avengers anymore.”
Spider-Man nodded slowly, “Yeah. That’s- that’s clever.” He took a shuddering breath, “You know what? Sure. I’ll join these… Young Avengers, then.”
Kamala made a face, “‘Young Avengers’? We’re workshopping that name.”