Noelle - Day 36 (Finale of the R.M.S. Marathon!)

HELLO PEOPLES!!!
How are you today!?  As you can tell from all the exclamation points, I am, as usual, uh-maze-ing!  Why, you might wonder?  The is the grand finale of the R.M.S. Marathon (read more here).  It's not the finale of the story though - once this is over I will have to take some time to 'catch up', i.e. actually write more!  There will be more parts though.

Anyway, click on the link below (R.M.S. , and I am outta here!

Random Marvel-based Story (Parts 16, 17, and BONUS!!! 18)

“I don’t want to hear about it, Danny,” Jess said after the doors had closed behind them.

“The fact that you work with the Avengers is not worth talking about to you?”  Iron Fist stared, shocked, at Jess.  She kept her eyes locked ahead of her and didn’t look at him.  “Isn’t this something that you should have shared with the team?”

Jess shook her head, as if in deep thought.  Was she making a decision?  “No,” she said slowly, “This...this won’t be shared with the team.  They’re not ready yet.”

“Ready for what?  The truth?”  Danny grabbed her shoulders to stop her from moving and forced her to look at him.  “You don’t think we’re ready for the truth?”

Jess’s fists clenched and she brushed him off easily.  “No, you’re not ready for the truth,” she said in a hateful, cold voice that in the year Danny had known her he had never heard before.  “You may have been catching villains way before me, but I have problems that I can  guarantee are way bigger than yours.  If I don’t want to talk about those problems, that’s my issue, not yours, or Spider-man’s, or anybody else’s!”

She kept walking.  “Now, we can agree to disagree and never talk about this ever again, or I can drop you off at Parker’s, and I quit the team.  It’s not something I want to talk about, and if you have a problem with that, then I’m leaving.”

Danny blinked.  Jess was dead serious - not at all her joking self.  “We can agree to disagree, if that’s what you want,” he said flatly and walked on.

*******

They took the S.H.I.E.L.D. teleporter down to Midtown High.  “So...you live close to Midtown then?”  Danny said, suddenly hit by the realization that he didn’t know how Jess got to school.  “Do you walk?”

“Nah...if I’m going to do something, I’m going to do it with smile...and a bit of Stark tech.”  Jess grinned, breaking the stoney silence that had followed them from their conversation in the helicarrier.  She whistled a long, piercing note and waited.

Whatever Iron Fist was expecting, a shiny hotrod-red and gold motorcycle, driving itself at highway speeds towards them though on-coming traffic was not it.  “That...that’s a nice ride,” he said slowly.

Jess grinned and jumped onto the fitted leather seat.  “C’mon, hop on, we have some more errands to do.  And also, never, ever call my JACKIE just a ride.  She’s done everything with me, not to mention that she can do a lot more than drive people places.”

Danny nodded.  “It looks like the spider-bike crossed with an iron man suit,” he said, climbing on.  “Though why the name Jackie?”

Jess revved up the engine.  “That’s exactly what it is.  Tony Stark was bored two weeks after S.H.I.E.L.D. made the spider-bike.  And it’s JACKIE - Jess’s Awesome Cool Kick-Butt Incredible bike-with-an Engine.  Stark let me name it, in case you didn’t notice.”

They took off, skimming along the crowded New York streets.  Jess didn’t seem to particularly care about traffic laws, or safety, or anything really, so soon they were going so fast that Danny had to hold on for his life!

“Slow down!”  He had to scream to hear his own voice.  “You’ll kill us both!”

Jess must of heard him, because they did slow down - only to jump the curb, raced along the sidewalk for a few moments, then slide onto the wall next to them.  Just like Spider-man’s bike, JACKIE could ride on any surface, any angle, with ease.

“Do you always go that fast?”  Danny said into Jess’s ear.

The part of Jess’s face that Danny could see smiled.  “Yeah,” she yelled over the wind.  “I need some thrill in my life sometimes, because fighting villains secretly by night and working for S.H.I.E.L.D. as a teen agent isn’t enough of a thrill for me.”

They had been riding along the wall without event, but Jess had suddenly pulled back out into on-coming traffic to avoid a window-washer, darting around cars and ignoring the blare of horns.  She made an impossibly sharp turn, and came to a skidding halt before the gates of the fabled Avengers tower.

*******

Iron Fist stared up at the golden tower, the huge shiny A glimmering in the sunlight.  “This doesn’t seem like a place where you would live,” he said dubiously.  “But is it?”

Jess typed a password into a hidden panel.  “It’s not,” she said with a shrug, “But that doesn’t mean I don’t spend time here.  I need to find decent sparring partners somewhere!”  The gate opened automatically.  They slipped inside, leaving JACKIE parked out front.

“Doctor O’Connors said that you go on missions with the Avengers,” Danny said as the walked up to the door.  He noticed that Jess’s fists clenched, so he hurried on, saying, “You ride high-tech bikes and live what Americans call ‘the high life’, but you don’t want to talk about it at all.  This confuses me.”

Jess snorted, opening the door and walking in without even knocking.  “You think I live the high life?  I know all about your father’s empire, the business that he has.  If anyone was born with a silver spoon in their mouth, it’s you.  I, on the other hand, work three jobs, 24/7 and I’m still a grade ahead in school!”

They walked down an empty corridor in an awkward silence.  Jess seemed to know her way around the maze of corridors.  A voice came over the intercom, saying, “Now that your conversation is over, Miss Clara, would you like to meet Natasha for training?”

“No JARVIS,” Jess said, completely ignoring the fact that she had just been called Clara.  “I’m here to talk to Tony.  Tell Widow that sparring will have to wait.

“Tony!  Are you unfolding the physics of the universe again?” Jess said as they walked through a sliding glass door.

This was obviously Tony Stark’s personal lab.  Between the tools, coffees, papers, and junk metal lying around, it was hard to navigate over to where the famous hero...slept.

Stark yawned and stretched, showing off his arc reactor glow.  Danny said quietly, “If he’s tired maybe we should...come...back?”  He puttered off lamely at Jess’s glare.  “From where I come from, sleep is sacred and not to be disturbed, ok?”

“Tony, wake up,” Jess said, waving Danny’s words away indifferently.  “Oi!”

Iron Man groaned at Jess and muttered, “I’m awake now just leave me be.  Coffee?”  He cracked his eyes open and looked at Jess hopefully.

“Judging by the looks of you lab, you’ve had enough caffeine.  Up, now.  I need to talk to you about something.”

Tony stood sleepily up and blinked.  “Oh, hi Jess!”  Finally awake, he added, “What’s up?  What, did you crash JACKIE again?”

“Stark!”  Jess’s frown deepened.  “A) I’ve never crashed JACKIE, B) I never will crash my baby, and C) quit the jokes and listen to me.  We need to talk.”  Turning to Iron Fist, who was standing awkwardly behind her, Jess added, “Stay here, would you?  Not for your ears.”

“Make yourself at home,” Iron Man added, “Just don’t touch the cross-dimensional teleporter.”