Pressure // MARVEL // PETER PARKER

CHAPTER 14: sike

EVEN THOUGH IT was still winter, it wasn't that cold outside, because there was no wind and the sun was shining. It was the middle of the day, around 1 PM. Morgan and her dad walked outside in the knowledge that Steve was still at S.H.I.E.L.D. HQ to arrange a few things about the "Ellie situation". Morgan looked down at her fingers, already disliking what her dad was going to say.

'So, how'd the bad news conversation go?' Tony broke the awkward silence.

'Well,' Morgan answered while they walked through the park, 'Peter and I aren't on speaking terms. I haven't really talked to Shuri. Oliver now hates Ellie and I'm not really sure about Miles, really. He and Oliver held another joke contest right after I told them.'

'You chose some really weird friends,' Tony responded.

Morgan glanced over at her dad. 'So we're just going to ignore the fact that you're friends with a god, two assassins, an AI, a girl with magic powers, a scientist who can turn into a monster and are married to a guy who took super drugs and then slept for 70 years? Fine.'

'Well, you know what they say. Like attracts like,' Tony smiled.

'Dad!' Morgan exclaimed laughing.

'So, back to the topic again,' Tony told his daughter, becoming serious all of a sudden. 'Your dad and I decided to indeed homeschool you. It's the second time a disaster happens. We're going to move to Malibu this Saturday. It's really pretty there, you know?'

Morgan stopped walking and looked at her dad. A second ago they were still laughing, but now she felt a heavy emotion in her stomach pulling on her. She couldn't name it. It just felt as a heavy magnet while the ground was another one. It didn't feel like sadness, but more as anxiousness. It felt like a mild version of the breakdown she had the other day back in the schoolbus.

'Getting me from school is fine, really, I get it and I already expected it. But moving to the other side of the country?' Morgan didn't finish.

Tony sighed. 'I know, but we just want to protect you. You didn't mind it last time, though.'

'That's because I didn't have friends there!' Morgan exclaimed. 'Dad, now I have Oliver and Miles-'

'One of your friends is a superhero, how safe can that be?'

'Are you kidding me? We're not- I don't know what we are, but I don't think I'll be around him anymore. And you're a superhero, just like dad! Are you dangerous to me? No, you're not. I thought you supported Peter,' Morgan told her dad with a mixture of anger, desperation and upset in her voice.

'That was before your best friend attacked us!' Tony told his daughter strictly. She got quiet. 'She didn't just attack our house, Morgan. Ellie didn't just attack our family. She attacked our home. That's something different. And now our home got taken away the second your identity got revealed.'

Morgan's eyes widened in disbelieve. 'That's the problem? Dad, I thought you knew that home isn't one specific thing. To me, you're home. Dad is home. Oliver and Miles are home. Your home shouldn't be New York, it should be your family.'

Father and daughter stared at each other, too stubborn to agree with the other while still being insecure about their own arguments. They were really something. Then they heard a cough, so they looked up, only to see a tall man with a little beard and a red cape. Behind him there was a "hole" in the air, surrounded by yellow sparkles.

What the-

'I didn't want to interrupt your little argument there, but, Mr. Stark, we need your help,' the unfamiliar man introduced himself.