Chapter Text
Day One
The van smelled like Sam’s body spray, something so aggressively artificial it made her teeth ache and nose scrunch, marketed to teenagers who wanted to smell like adults but couldn't afford the real stuff, and Danny's cologne, which was definitely the real stuff and probably cost more than Ava's entire wardrobe. Underneath it all was the stale, sour note of the coffee Luke had spilled on his shirt that morning and hadn't bothered to clean up.
Ava sat between them, her knees pressed against the seat in front of her, her amulet warm against her chest beneath her jacket. The amulet was always warm. That wasn't unusual. But this was a different kind of warm. Not the steady, familiar heat of a tool waiting to be used. Something sharper. Something waiting.
The city scrolled past the tinted windows. Brooklyn gave way to Queens. Bodegas and laundromats and bodegas and more bodegas. A man selling fruit from a cart. A woman yelling at someone on a fire escape. Kids on bikes weaving through traffic like they had a death wish.
New York.
Ava had grown up in New York. Not this part though, her New York had been different, before. Before the amulet. Before S.H.I.E.L.D. Before she learned that the city had teeth.
Sam was talking. He hadn't stopped talking since they left the Triskelion.
"-and I'm not saying I was the best team lead," he was rambled, arms crossed, jaw tight, his leg bouncing with nervous energy. "I'm just saying I was good. I saved lives. I made calls. I kept everyone alive, didn't I? That counts for something."
Luke was sitting across from them, his broad frame taking up more than his share of the bench. He didn't look up from his phone. "You were adequate."
"Adequate?" Sam's voice cracked on the word. He was fifteen. He hated when it cracked. "I saved your life twice."
"Three times." Luke finally glanced at him. "And I saved yours three times. We're even."
"That's not- that's not the point."
"Then what is the point?"
Sam opened his mouth. Closed it. Opened it again. "The point is I was team lead. And now I'm not. And nobody told me why."
Danny was pressed against the window on Ava's other side, his forehead almost touching the glass. He'd been like that for the last ten minutes, watching the buildings blur past with the kind of focused attention he usually reserved for meditation or sparring. "This city is louder than I remember."
"You've been to New York before?" Ava asked.
"Once. For a layover." He paused. "The airport doesn't count, does it?"
"No."
"I thought not."
The van hit a pothole. Everyone jolted. Sam grabbed the ceiling handle. Danny's head bounced off the window. Luke didn't react at all.
Ava's amulet pulsed.
She pressed her hand against it through her jacket. The warmth was spreading now, radiating out from the small jade pendant, seeping into her chest like water through cracked stone. It wasn't painful. It wasn't anything she could name. It was just... there. A presence. A warning.
Not now, she thought at it. Not yet.
The amulet didn't listen. It never did.
The doors opened. Sam jumped out first, eager to prove something. Luke followed, steady and unhurried. Danny hesitated on the steps, looking at the crowd like it might bite him.
Ava stepped out last.
The cold morning air hit her face. Normal. Fine.
Then she walked through the doors.
The hallway was a wall of noise and bodies and smell. Cheap perfume, sweat, cafeteria food from somewhere down the hall, the sharp chemical tang of markers from a nearby classroom. Her senses tried to process all of it at once, and for a second, she was overwhelmed.
Then something else hit her.
A prickle. At the back of her neck. A warning.
Her hand went to her amulet. It was warm, warmer than it should be.
She stopped. Scanned the crowd.
Students pushed past her. A boy with purple hair. A girl in a bright yellow jacket. Teachers with coffee cups. Lockers slamming.
Nothing stood out.
But the prickle stayed.
“Ava?” Sam had turned back. “You good?”
She forced herself to move. “Yeah.”
They walked down the hallway together. Sam was talking again, something about their schedules, who had which class, how stupid it was that they couldn’t all be together. Ava wasn’t listening.
She was watching.
Every face. Every shadow. Every doorway.
The prickle followed her like a hand on the back of her neck.
---
First period was history. Ava sat near the back, her notebook open, her pen uncapped. She wasn’t writing. She was watching.
The teacher, Mr. Harrison, according to the whiteboard, was droning about the Cold War. Ava’s eyes moved across the room, cataloging exits, windows, students who sat too still or moved too fast.
Most of them were nothing. Normal teenagers. Bored. Tired. Hungry.
Then her eyes landed on a cluster near the middle of the room.
Harry Osborn. She recognized him from the briefing photos, his father’s face was everywhere in New York, second only to Stark, and Harry had the same sharp jaw, the same careful smile. He was leaning back in his chair, confident, like he owned the room.
Next to him, a girl with red hair and loud posture. Mary Jane Watson. Her file said she was opinionated, outspoken, ran a popular blog. Ava could believe it. The girl hadn’t stopped moving since class started, tapping her pen, flipping her hair, whispering something to Harry that made him laugh.
On Harry’s other side, a blonde girl. Gwen Stacy. Prettier than the photos, quieter than MJ. She was taking notes, focused, calm. The kind of student who actually wanted to be here.
And next to Gwen-
Ava’s eyes caught on her.
Brown hair. Long sleeves. Head down.
She wasn’t talking. Wasn’t looking up. Wasn’t doing anything that would draw attention. She was just there, a space in the group where a person happened to be sitting.
If they weren't sat so close Ava doubted she would've even thought they knew each other.
Ava watched her for a full minute.
The girl didn’t move.
Nothing unusual, Ava told herself. Just quiet.
She looked away.
The prickle faded.
---
Lunch was chaos.
The cafeteria was a sea of noise, trays slamming, chairs scraping, a hundred conversations layering on top of each other until they became one solid wall of sound. Ava stood in the doorway for a second, her senses struggling to keep up.
Sam pushed past her. “Table. By the window.”
They sat. Sam immediately started complaining about his morning classes, something about a pop quiz, something about a teacher who wouldn’t stop talking about something. Luke was listening with half an ear, eating an apple he didn't seem to be particularly enjoying. Danny was staring at the lunch options like they’d personally offended him.
Ava wasn’t paying attention.
She was watching the cluster again.
Harry, MJ, Gwen, and Parker.
They were sitting at a table near the back. Harry was talking, gesturing with his hands. MJ was laughing at something on her phone. Gwen was nodding along.
The girl was eating a sandwich.
Slowly. Methodically. Like she wasn’t hungry.
Like she was going through the motions.
Ava’s amulet pulsed.
“What are you staring at?” Luke asked.
She didn’t look away. “I’m not staring.”
“You’ve been looking at them for ten minutes.”
Danny leaned forward, following her gaze. “Osborn?”
“And his friends,” Ava added, it didn't make too much sense to her own ears but she couldn't bring herself to care that much.
“Do you know something?”
She didn’t have an answer. “Something’s off.”
“Off how?” Danny asked, proded more like.
Ava watched the quiet girl take another bite of her sandwich. Chew. Swallow. Her eyes never left her plate. She didn’t look at Osborn when he spoke. Didn’t look at Watson when she laughed. She was there, but she wasn’t there.
“I don’t know yet,” Ava said.
The prickle returned. Soft. Warning.
She looked away.
It faded.
---
After school, the team ended up standing outside, watching students stream out. Sam focusing on looking at his phone, clearly expecting more direction.
"So what's the play? We just... pick someone and follow them?"
"That's literally what Fury said to do." Luke responds, though the sentence comes out more as impatient than anything.
"I thought we were looking for a person of interest."
"We are." Sam retorts. "We just don't know who."
Ava was watching the doors. The cluster was exiting now, Harry Osborn, Mary Watson, Gwen Stacy.
Penelope Parker.
The words slip out before she realizes it, "Harry Osborn."
Sam looked up. "The rich kid?"
"He's connected. His father knows everyone." She paused. "And his friends might know something."
Sam snorted. "You want to follow a rich kid because of a hunch?"
Ava spares him a glance before her eyes return to the group. "Yes."
Luke shrugged. "She's usually right."
Danny nodded. "The amulet has no need to lie."
Sam groaned, shoving his hands in his pockets. "Fine. But when this turns out to be nothing, I'm saying 'I told you so' for at least a week."
They started walking.
---
Sam followed Osborn. Luke took Stacy. Danny trailed Watson.
Ava watched Parker.
She was at the back of the group, as always. Not lagging, exactly, just separate. A shadow that didn't quite attach.
Ava fell in behind her.
The group walked for two blocks. Harry was talking about something, Ava couldn't hear what. Gwen laughed. MJ checked her phone. Normal. Ordinary.
Then she stopped.
Not abruptly. Not like she'd been startled. She just... slowed. Her head tilted slightly. Then she turned down a side street. Not even a goodbye to her friends.
Alone.
After a shared look with the rest of her team, Ava followed.
The side street was narrower than the main road. Older buildings. Less foot traffic. A bodega on the corner with a flickering sign. Laundry hanging from a fire escape. Parker walked with her head down, her hands in her pockets, her backpack shifting with each step.
Ava kept her distance. Fifty feet. Then forty. Then thirty.
She turned another corner.
Ava followed.
Empty.
The street was empty.
No one. No movement. No sound except the distant hum of traffic and a dog's barking.
Ava stopped. Turned in a slow circle.
There was nowhere to go, a brick wall on one side, a locked gate on the other, a few doorways that led nowhere. No fire escape. No open windows. No alleys.
The girl had vanished.
Ava's heart pounded. Her amulet was cold, not warm, not hot, just cold. Like it didn't know what to tell her.
Then she felt it.
A prickle. At the back of her neck. Soft. Warning.
Someone was watching her.
She spun around.
Nothing.
Just the empty street. The bodega sign flickering. Laundry swaying in the breeze.
But the prickle stayed.
"White Tiger." Sam's voice crackled in her earpiece, startling her. "We're regrouping. You got anything?"
Ava didn't answer. She was looking at the rooftops. The windows. The shadows between buildings.
"White Tiger?"
She forced herself to breathe. When did she stop? "Nothing," she said, though even to her own ears the word came out forced. "I lost her."
A pause. Then Sam "Lost who?"
Ava turned away from the empty street. The prickle followed her.
"No one," she said, slowing her breathing. "Let's just regroup."
She walked back the way she came. She didn't look over her shoulder.
She wanted to.
---
That night, they stood in Fury’s office.
Sam did most of the talking. “Harry Osborn, typical rich kid. Friends with normal students. Nothing suspicious.”
Fury sat behind his desk, one eye fixed on Sam, the other somewhere else. “And the others?”
“Mary is loud. Gwen is popular.” Sam glanced at his notes. “There’s a fourth girl. Penelope. We lost her.”
Fury’s eye betrayed nothing. “Lost her?”
Ava stepped forward. “She didn’t run." Eager to defend herself, "she just… wasn’t there anymore.”
“Name?”
Sam checked. “Penelope Parker. Friends call her Penny.”
Fury was silent for a long moment. Then: “Keep watching.”
Sam frowned. "Why? We aren't even doing anything," he raised a brow "is the mission just for us to make friends or something? 'Cause you could've just said that"
Fury didn't answer. He just looked at Ava, held her gaze, then turned back to the team.
"Keep watching," he said. "Dismissed."
That's it. No confirmation. No denial.
Just... nothing. Ava is left wondering if she imagined the look. If Fury was testing her. If he already knows something he's not saying.
---
Day Two
Ava passed Sam in the hallway between second and third period. He looked lost.
“This school is huge,” he said. “I got lost twice.”
“You have a map.”
“I don’t need a map. What I need is better signal.”
Ava almost smiled. Almost. Then the prickle returned.
She looked around. Students. Lockers. Fluorescent lights.
Nothing.
“You good?” Sam asked, his voice cautious but nothing in his frame showed anything. Not the body tense readying for a fight. No, she'd know what that was.
He was looking at her, like nothing was wrong, like they weren't sent on some long term mission with no known end date, like he hadn't just got demoted from team captain for someone they hadn't even met.
“Fine.” She walked away.
The prickle followed.
---
Ava’s second period was chemistry. She sat near the window, her notebook open, her eyes on the door.
The Parker girl walked in.
Ava’s amulet warmed.
Penelope Parker, Penny, moved through the room like water. Silent. Unobtrusive. She sat at a lab table near the back, pulled out her notebook, and started writing. She didn’t look at anyone. Didn’t acknowledge the students who sat down next to her.
Ava watched her hands.
Long sleeves. Even in the warm classroom. Even with the sun streaming through the windows.
What are you hiding?
The teacher started talking. Moles. Stoichiometry. Ava wasn’t listening, too focused on the reflection on her pencil case aimed at Parker.
She just wrote. Fast. Efficient. Her pen moved across the page like she wasn’t even thinking about it.
Ava turned the case to look at her face.
Blank. Empty.
The prickle intensified.
Then the quiet girl looked up.
Directly at Ava.
Exactly at the case.
For one second, maybe less, their eyes met.
The girl looked back down at her notebook. Like nothing had happened.
The prickle vanished.
Ava’s hand went to her amulet.
---
Lunch was the same as yesterday. Same table. Same cluster.
Ava watched her eat her sandwich. Slowly. Methodically.
Then a younger student approached the table.
He was small, younger than the others, maybe fourteen, with dark hair and bright eyes and the kind of confidence that came from being the smartest person in every room. He walked up to her like he belonged there.
He said something. Ava couldn’t hear what.
The Parker glared at him.
He sat down anyway.
Watson rolled her eyes. “He’s obsessed with her.” Ava could barely hear over the lunch rush.
Osborn laughed. “Can you blame him? She’s the only one who can keep up with him.”
Stacy smiled adding, “she hates it,” as a stage whisper. That got Parker to look up to glare at her friends.
She said nothing. She just kept eating.
Ava’s amulet burned, then faded.
---
Sam found her in the hallway after lunch.
“I saw that kid. Amadeus Cho.”
“And?”
“He’s fourteen.”
Ava waited.
“And he’s in all the advanced classes. Younger than me. Smarter than everyone.”
Ava raised an eyebrow. “That bothers you?”
“No.” Sam crossed his arms, looking away. “It’s just… interesting.”
Ava didn’t call him on the lie.
---
After school, they tried again.
This time, Ava watched Parker directly.
The group turned a corner. Osborn, Stacy, Watson, all visible. Parker at the back.
Her head tilted. Just slightly. Like she was listening to something.
Then she stepped behind a parked van.
Ava moved to follow.
She was gone. Again.
Not around the van. Not down the street. Not through a doorway.
Gone.
Ava stood there for a full minute, her heart beating too fast, her amulet cold against her chest.
---
That night, Fury listened to their report.
Sam was frustrated. “She keeps disappearing. It’s like she knows we’re watching.”
“Maybe she’s paranoid,” Luke offered.
“Or maybe she’s trained,” Danny said.
Ava was quiet.
Fury looked at her. “White Tiger.”
She met his eye. “She looked back. Today. Before she vanished.”
Ava closed her eyes, searching for words she knew she had but somehow had trouble saying. “Like she heard something. Or felt something. Then she just seperated and went I followed, she was gone.”
Fury was silent for a long moment, eye scanning them. Then, “don’t lose her again.”
One clue, considering how they had one lead, it was probably pity. Ava knew missions took time, so there was no need for him to give something up so easily.
Thinking back, she didn't actually know much about the mission. Fury had sent them to some nowhere high school to do what? Dilly dally?
Considering Coulson was apparently being transfered as principal it couldn't have been nothing.
But then why wouldn't he just say something? Was Parker just some agent stationed to test them? But then how long was this planned? She clearly had a network of people who knew her, so she wasnt put there recently. Unless she was trained since young? If so, she couldn't have been their age.
Wouldn't Fury have said something? Most kids their age would love a friend going through the same thing they were, so Fury obviously would've made them train together or atleast have some overlap in learning. Ava was sure she would've remembered if another girl their age was with S.H.I.E.L.D.
She just hoped there wasn't some obvious bright neon sign she was missing.
---
Day Three
The hallway was crowded. Ava was walking to third period.
Then she saw her.
Parker was coming the other way. Close. A few feet apart.
Ava’s amulet screamed.
She stopped. Turned.
Parker was already walking away. Head down.
She didn’t look back. Like she didn't even know her. Like she hadn't been avoiding Ava and her team for the past few days.
Ava stood frozen in the middle of the hallway as students flowed around her.
---
Lunch was different.
The team sat together, again, but no one was eating. Sam was scrolling through something on his phone. Luke was watching the door. Danny was picking at his food.
Ava was watching.
“So what if she is hard to follow?” Sam said finally. “That doesn’t make her a person of interest.”
As if the four of them weren't S.H.I.E.L.D trained heros.
“She knew we were there,” Ava said, a soft defense.
“That’s not proof.”
“What would be proof?” Danny asked.
Silence.
“We follow her,” Ava said. “Not the group. Her.”
---
So they did, after school. Making sure to find her before she even left the school's premises.
And it was just her.
She walked alone today. No Osborn. No Watson. No Stacy. Just some girl and a backpack that looked too heavy for her shoulders.
She walked to a sandwich shop. Went inside. Put on an apron.
Ava watched through the window.
They watched Parker work for hours. Efficient. Mechanical. She smiled at customers and prepared their orders. Not a glance their way.
Sam shifted next to her. “She’s just a some chick with a job.”
“Maybe,” Luke said, slow, like he was waiting for her to slip up.
“Or maybe she’s hiding in plain sight,” Danny added, his tone mysterious, even if Ava was sure he didn't know much more than the rest of them.
Ava didn’t say anything.
---
After the shift, the Parker walked home.
The team followed. At a distance.
She didn’t look back. Didn’t react. Just walked, through the streets, past the bodegas, past the laundry mats, past the old apartment buildings with their fire escapes and cracked stoops.
She entered a building. Disappeared inside.
Sam let out a groan. "That was anti-climactic."
"That's the point," Ava said, sharper than she meant to.
She turned to leave, then stopped. Her fists were clenched. She hadn't noticed.
Why was she so on edge?
Because she'd felt it again. That prickle.
That warning.
Right before Parker disappeared.
Right before the street went empty and the amulet went cold.
Because she'd been wrong before. Her instincts weren't infallible. Sometimes a feeling was just a feeling.
But this didn't feel like just a feeling.
"Ava?" Luke was watching her. The team was watching her.
She unclenched her fists. "Fine."
She wasn't fine. She was frustrated, at herself, at the mission, at the girl who kept vanishing like smoke through her fingers.
Tomorrow, she told herself. Tomorrow I'll figure it out.
She walked walked away with the others trailing behind her. The prickle followed.
It always followed.
Her amulet burned.
She looked up at the building.
A curtain moved. On the fourth floor.
Someone was watching.
---
That night, Fury listened.
Sam talked first. “She’s nothing. Just some girl.”
“She’s not nothing,” Ava defended herself.
Sam turned to her, accusatory. “How do you know?”
Ava could feel her fists clench. “Well I can’t explain it." She looked at Fury. "But I know.”
Fury looked at her for a long moment. Then at Penny’s file on his desk.
"Keep watching," he said. "All of them."
Ava hesitated. "Sir... is there something you're not telling us?" If he had given them a hint before then maybe..
Fury's eye didn't waver. "There's plenty I'm not telling you."
"That's not-"
"That's the job, Cadet." He stood, walked to the window. Looked out at nothing. "I can give you answers. Or I can teach you how to find them yourself. One makes you informed. The other makes you useful."
Ava said nothing.
Behind her, Sam shifted his weight. She could feel him wanting to speak, to push and to argue, to demand the answers Fury was withholding. But for once, he stayed quiet.
Luke's arms were crossed. His face was unreadable, but his jaw was tight. He didn't like being kept in the dark any more than the rest of them. He just knew better than to show it.
Danny watched. That was all. His head was tilted slightly, his eyes moving between Fury and Ava like he was trying to solve a puzzle with half the pieces missing.
None of them spoke.
Fury turned back to face them. "You felt something," he started, looking directly at Ava. "Something you couldn't explain. That's data, one more useful than you know. You just don't know how to read it yet.
"Keep watching. Keep feeling. And when you figure it out, come tell me what you've learned. All of you, this is still a group mission."
Ava nodded slowly. "Yes, sir."
Followed by whatever murmurs of agreement the rest of her team said.
She turned to leave.
"And White Tiger?"
She paused, looking back.
"Trust your instincts. They're better than you think."
---
Later, alone in her room, Ava sat on her bed.
The amulet was still warm against her chest.
She closed her eyes. Remembered.
The prickle. The warning. The way the girl had looked at her, just for a second.
She knew.
Ava opened her eyes, slowly, focusing at nothing.
“Who are you, Penelope Parker?”
The amulet pulsed.
No answer.