stark, peter parker

v. wow, somebody needs a happy meal

with tony stark now dead, dakota had a lot of new responsibilities that were slowly beginning to dawn on her. for one, she was now in charge of most everything related to tony's tech. pepper, of course, had access to all of the stark industries files and work, since she'd been named ceo years prior. however, tony, in his will, had given every single piece of technology down to the only person who would appreciate it as much as he did: kodie.

now that she was in charge of all of this, it gave her a lot more pressure than she'd ever dealt with before, not to mention all of the hassle it was to organize all of the miscellaneous gadgets she and her father had built throughout the years.

she'd been cleaning up the avengers tower for a few weeks when she finally picked up on nick fury's job for her, thinking that it probably was in best interest for her to get involved in something superhero related again. she loved to help out in any way she could, even though she was insanely busy. once she turned eighteen, she knew that all of the responsibilities of stark industries would additionally be placed on her shoulders, and she'd need to get all the experience with multitasking that she could.

dakota would be lying if she said she didn't miss being an active shield agent. she loved creating and designing new suits of iron, of course, but she also loved getting to work in the field and behind the scenes. she also thought that the all black shield suit looked fantastic on her, but that was besides the point.

hanging out with nick fury in prague wasn't as fun as she'd hoped it would be. he was extremely cranky and paranoid of everything, and was not pleased with any of the undoubtedly hilarious jokes that dakota made. "wow, somebody needs a happy meal." she had said when he had ignored another one of her priceless punchlines. he only glared at her in response, making her chuckle. "come on, you know it's funny, fury. you know you wanna laugh."

but, despite the pure boredom of waiting for the fire monster thing to arrive, prague was beautiful, and she was glad to be there. she couldn't stop thinking about the accords and the potential damage that this fight would have on the gorgeous location. she tried not to dwell on that, though, thinking instead of peter.

she felt extremely guilty that he had been forced away from his classmates and away from his school trip. she couldn't stop herself from wondering, if she had simply agreed to help fury in the first place, if peter would be back with his classmates. the other part of her, though, knew that if she was involved with the fight, peter would be, too.

kodie now stood in a dimly lit room with maria hill, nick fury, quentin beck, and peter parker. "that thing is going to be here in a few hours." hill informed the group.

"are we boring you?" fury suddenly asked peter, who had been slightly staring into the distance.

"he's not bored." beck replied. "he's thinking about how you kidnapped him."

dakota thought that that was the least idiotic thing he'd managed to say the entire time, and tilted her head as if to agree with his statement.

"he had obstacles." fury retorted simply. "i removed them."

"they still won't evacuate the city." hill, who had been trying to get in contact with the city's leaders, informed fury and kodie, who were standing nearest to her.

dakota chuckled lowly under her breath, shaking her head. "idiots."

"so, what's the plan, parker?" fury asked, trying to make sure that peter had been listening despite his brief glance into space.

"i will be in the cathedral tower, keeping watch for the fire monster." peter recited. "when that shows up, i will radio you guys, and then mr. beck, kodie, and i will-"

"my name is mysterio." he cut in, referencing to the name that peter's classmates (and the news) had been calling him.

peter smiled a little. "that's when mysterio," he corrected, "kodie, and i will move in."

"peter, listen to me." beck said, completely avoiding dakota, as seemed custom with him. "the best hope you have, the only hope, is to stop it here now, no matter what the cost." he explained. "maneuver it away from civilians if you can, but most important, keep it away from metal. if it gets too big, it'll draw power from the earth's core. after that, there's no way to stop it."

dakota raised a brow in his direction, slightly confused by what he was saying. "is that what happened last time?" she asked, trying to think about the logistics of the situation.

"yes." beck replied, the lost puppy dog look evident in his eyes again. "when i lost my-"

"your family, i know." she interjected. "i'm just thinking, because this monster thing... how can it drain power from the earth's core beyond geothermal energy? and if it can drain power that way, then why wouldn't it just.. you know.. grab onto something metal at a metal shop? why prague, why somewhere so visible and so metal-lacking?"

fury was eyeing her, slightly nodding his head. part of the reason he'd brought her here, she reasoned, was because dakota stark's true super power was being the world's greatest bullshit detector. and she could definitely tell that something here wasn't adding up.

"have you not listened to what i've been saying?" beck raised his voice slightly, moving closer to her. "this thing is dangerous. i can't explain what it is, or why it is. i just know what happened from my experience fighting it before."

she nodded her head with a classic 'i don't care' smile on her face. "yeah, and i know how science works from my experience with mit, which i graduated from at the age of fifteen, just like my-"

"your father, i know." he cut her off, glaring at her.

peter cleared his throat awkwardly. "hey, my friends are here." he said, catching the attention of the room. "i can't help but think we're putting them in danger."

"you're worried about us hurting your friends?" fury retorted. "you, who called a drone strike on your own school tour bus?" peter looked down, suddenly guilty. "stark gave you a multibillion-dollar ar tactical intelligence system, and the first thing you do with it is try and blow up your friends. it's clear to me that you are not ready for this."

"fury." dakota warned, seeing the evident hurt in peter's eyes. fury looked over his shoulder at her, letting out an annoyed grunt as he walked back towards hill to analyze the screens before her.

peter, upset, silently left the room. dakota made a move to follow him, immediately getting cut off by beck, who held a hand out to stop her. "i'll go talk to him." he said, looking down at her. "it's a guy thing."

her blood boiled as he gave her the most apprehensive look of all time before turning and following peter out of the room. a guy thing? she quickly practiced one of the breathing exercises that her therapist had taught her, thankfully managing to calm herself down.

dakota thought that the cause of peter's disappointment about having to do superhero things right now was that he wanted to be with his classmates, and spend time as a normal kid, without a superhero girlfriend, or insane responsibilities.

what she didn't know was that peter was, as he confessed to beck, crushed at the idea of not being able to tell kodie he loved her. he felt like the trip continuing to go sideways was just a metaphor for their relationship, and he felt like he had to say the three magic words at exactly the right place and time for them to make up for all of the times that he hadn't said it.

"i think you should definitely do it at the tower." beck said. "i mean, daughter of a billionaire, right? she's gonna want you to say it somewhere special."

peter nodded. "yeah, yeah, i guess." he was hoping that it wouldn't matter where, and that she'd appreciate it anywhere, like ned had said. but beck's words got in his head, and made him more nervous. "i just.. i just want to be able to be with her. like a normal guy, who doesn't have all of this.. this stuff going on." he explained. "and i know she is already in danger enough as it is but with me being.. this, whatever i am," he held up the black mask of the new suit in his hand, "this only puts her at more risk, in more danger, because of me."

"that might be true." beck agreed. "but all things come with a cost, right?"