I Am Karen - Spider-Man / Peter Parker [1]

Chapter Thirty - To Catch The Others Up

With the eight hours time difference (made into two by the high speed quinjet), Maria found herself with time to spare. Rhodes and Bruce had left her to her devices when she had turned away from them and buried herself into her computers and the new suit that they had noticed her wearing. Finally having the time, Maria studied the suit and its components. She removed the suit which formed back into a pod in her lap.

The suit was created for protection that was for certain. Tony had made the suit incredibly impenetrable; it could take great damage before the wearer was in trouble - Maria noticed that even the Iron Man suit was not so strong in its defensive capabilities. There were even protective shields that could form around the wearer along with small beads that could be ejected from the suit to form shields around anything within a two-metre radius of the bead. With the sonic pulses from the wrist bracelets, Maria could also fire energy blasts from her palms like her father could but that was all the suit had for offensive purposes. Maria wished it had a few more weapons especially considering the threat on its way. Hacking into her father's Iron Man logs she had been able to find his nano codes and quickly transferred them over to her suit, giving her suit the ability to form different shapes such as arm guard blades to appear. She needed a way to fight if it came to that.

As she worked, her mind was fixated on Thanos and what was coming. It was a nightmare waiting to happen. She could even see the slight shake in her fingers at her future, she really questioned how long she had left to live.

"Miss, your family has arrived" FRIDAY suddenly informed her with her Irish lilt, after all she was the main system in the Avengers Compound. The AI had returned to the Compound when Tony had flown out of reach as was her programming. Hearing the news both made Maria smile and brought her dread. On the one hand she was finally seeing her family again after two years of being apart but on the other hand, their arrival meant the battle was drawing ever closer.

"Thanks FRIDAY" Maria mumbled as she finished her work on her suit and programmed the device to form its small pod. She realised she needed a way to carry it around. With a few choice words to KAREN, Maria watched as the black metallic pod suddenly moved into a chunky slip-on bracelet around her wrist. That would work.

Knowing she had to find Rhodes and Bruce, Maria shut off her computers and pushed herself out of the computer chair and to her feet. Leaving the safety of her computers Maria began to walk through the quiet compound, her trainers barely making a sound yet filling the silent void clearly. As she ventured further into the compound, Maria noticed Rhodes' voice along with someone else's but it wasn't Bruce's coming from the holographic room.

"Still no word from Vision?" someone asked. As she heard it again Maria suddenly recognised the voice, a voice she greatly detested. It was the Secretary of State, Thaddeus Ross.

"Satellites lost him somewhere over Edinburgh" Rhodes answered. Maria was closing the distance between herself and the holographic room. She was aware that the government buildings used the Stark technology so that holograms of themselves could be projected around the world when needed. It was a huge pain for when she walked around one of her homes and ended up turning a corner to see Ross' annoying face. He was an arrogant man who had caused far too many problems for everyone she loved – hunting Bruce down, bringing about the stupid Accord's and going after the Avengers even when the world was falling apart. After the news of Tony's disappearance and the aliens appearing once again in New York there had been a gradual and general panic beginning to set in. It was like everyone knew something bad was coming.

"On a stolen quinjet with four of the world's most wanted criminals" Ross replied just as Maria came out of the corridor and into the large room that had a glass walled closed off section exclusively for the holographic computer technology.