Queens
Peter Parker/Nothing Yet
"Okay, put that piece there!" Ned said loudly. Peter leaned over and gently put in the lego piece, Ned holding two others apart to let it fit. If either of them had been doing this alone, they would have had some trouble with it, but together, Peter was able to get the job done.
When the piece finally clicked in, Ned and Peter shared a sigh of relief before grinning at each other.
Ned Leeds and Peter Parker. Friends for life. Ned Leeds was a slightly overweight young man with dark tanned skin, who's smile tended to spread across his entire face. Peter, on the other hand, was almost painfully thin and pale. When he smiled, it was usually very nervously, as though someone would wipe it off his face at any moment.
Peter leaned back in his seat. They were sitting in Peter's room after school, working together on their latest project. A Lego model of the Firehouse from Ghostbusters. The two thirteen year olds had had to save for months together to get the box, but they were having a lot of fun putting it together.
"It looks great!" Ned grinned at Peter. "I can't believe we're almost finished."
Peter grinned right back at his friend, leaning back further, only to yelp when he almost fell backwards. He'd never had the best sense of balance. "Yeah. We should probably decide how we'll carry it to your house."
"You sure man?" Ned said nervously. "I mean, it's already here, we can just leave it?"
Peter shook his head. "It's okay. I want you to have it. I don't have a place to put it anyways."
That was true. Peter's room was sadly a bit sparse, looking more like an unlived in college dorm room than something a teenage boy would live in. Besides, Peter felt a little guilty taking the Firehouse from Ned when his best friend had paid so much for it.
(Peter ignored the fact that he'd paid as much as Ned had.)
"Well, thank you, man," Ned said with a smile. Then his phone beeped a notification. Grabbing it, he raised it up before laughing. "Ha! Look!"
He showed it to Peter by tapping the screen, a blue beam coming from a section of the phone. The new StarkRigg phones had the ability to pop up holograms of whatever their screens were showing. The feature took a lot of power from the phone, but it was so useful nobody minded.
The hologram was a picture of Tony Stark rolling his eyes sarcastically at Chernobog. On the image was a caption saying 'yeah, he's not evil at AAAAAALLLLL'. The dark god was roaring maniacally.
Peter laughed. As much as the Russian government had tried to highlight that the Winter Guard was a force of good, they couldn't hide Chernobog. Not when the literal dark god had access to the internet.
"Look at this one!" The next picture had the caption 'When People Rant About Demons Online'. It showed Chernobog sitting on a throne with a tub of popcorn, a shit-eating grin on his face.
"Are you following him?" Peter asked Ned incredulously.
"Yeah, he's really funny!" Ned said with a grin. "He says he's going on a trip to visit America soon. He wants Netflix to do a documentary on it."
"Seriously?" Peter said incredulously.
"Oh, here's your favorite again!" Ned turned the phone to show Tony Stark in his armor with Dial, in Diamondhead form, Thor, and the Hulk, the four laughing together as bullets bounced off of them. 'When you and the homies have bulletproof opinions.'
"Well, he's really cool," Peter mumbled, getting a grin from Ned. Honestly, that was just part of why Peter admired Tony Stark so much. Peter could still remember being a kid, standing in front of a giant one-eyed robot. He'd been wearing an Iron Man mask and glove. He was so scared. All he could think to do was to use his toy glove to shoot it. It was dumb. The glove was just a toy. The robot had pointed a gun at him. He closed his eyes.
For a moment, when he heard a repulsor blast, Peter had the crazy thought that his glove had worked. His eyes snapped open.
The robot was gone. And Iron Man stood there. Tall and proud, his red and gold suit almost glowing in the light. Peter, for the rest of his life, would remember the sight of Iron Man's blue eyes looking down at him.
"Nice work, kid."
Then he took off into the sky.
After that, how could Peter not think Iron Man was the coolest hero ever?
"Hey boys," a man came up to the door, smiling down at them. A warm feeling came over Peter when he saw the man. "I think it's about time I drove Ned home, don't you?"
"Sure thing, Mr. Parker," Ned said with a smile.
"Uncle Ben, can you help us carry this?" Peter asked.
The man stepped in to look over the Firehouse. He had thick brown hair similar in color to Peter's, and light blue eyes, a short beard about his chin. He gently picked it up in strong hands, looking it over carefully. "Yeah, I think we can carry it out, Petey."
Uncle Ben smiled at Peter Parker. To Peter, that meant the entire world.
Jersey City
Kamala Khan/Nothing Yet
"Kamala! Dinner!"
Kamala winced in front of her computer. The young girl was reading a fanfic on , a website for nerds like her. She'd only recently gotten into it, and was quickly becoming obsessed with the stories on there.
Though she had to hide some of the guilty pleasure stories from her parents. She was only 12 after all, they'd freak if they found out that this site had shipping stories. Er, the sexy kind of shipping, not the literal one.
She giggled just a bit at the latest story she was reading, a funny one where the Avengers were dropped into a magical world and fought against demons. She'd spent some time playing with her best friend, Bruno, where they'd play out that exact scenario!
It was so much fun! She played She-Hulk and he would play Captain America, and they'd beat up demons. Or aliens. Or HYDRA. A couple of times though, she'd play Dial.
She-Hulk was her favorite Avenger. A tall, powerful, pretty woman, who was always confident and spoke her mind, and just did whatever she wanted.
But Dial was… well, he was Muslim. Like her. He spoke about it sometimes, real casually. He was pretty cool too. He could turn into all sorts of different aliens and fight bad guys all over New York! He was someone who looked like he could be her brother, who was also a world famous superhero.
She wanted to be like She-Hulk and Dial and Black Widow. She wanted to be an Avenger.
Which was why it sucked that her parents wanted her to be a good wife.
"Dinner time, beta," a Pakistani woman walked into Kamala's room. She was in her early thirties, an older version of Kamala, with the same long black hair and bright chocolate eyes set into light brown skin, some small wrinkles in the corners of her eyes. Kamala had her back turned to her, so she missed the warm smile her mother had as she stared for a moment at her young daughter.
By the time her daughter had turned around, her mother was frowning just a bit. "Beta, that doesn't look like your homework."
This gentle admonishment was met by a wince from Kamala. "I'm only reading a bit! I'll do my homework soon!"
"After dinner," Muneeba Khan told her daughter, getting a groan from her.
"Okay, ammu… can I visit Bruno later? We're supposed to watch Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles together!"
"Beta, it's almost night time," when Kamala pouted cutely at her mother, Muneeba hesitated. "You can call him on my phone and watch it with him on the photo-call."
"You mean video-chat," Kamala corrected immediately, before grinning and rushing towards her mother, hugging tight around the waist. "Thank you, ammu!"
Muneeba smiled down at her daughter as she rushed away. She turned to look about the room.
Recently, Kamala had become obsessed with the Avengers. So it was no surprise that she had bought a lot of action figures. They were placed haphazardly all about the floor, on the bed, and in the closet. On the table was a figure of She-Hulk, her fist raised in a pumping motion, placed prominently in the room Muneeba pursed her lips thoughtfully.
She wasn't sure how to feel about her daughters obsession. She was a good, smart girl, if a very energetic one. Maybe she would grow out of it?
Then she noticed one of the figures. Dial. In his human form, wearing green and black armor, resting on his back with legs and arms spread awkwardly.
Dial hadn't realized it, but he had a mixed reputation in the Muslim community. He proclaimed his religion, but no one ever saw him go to prayer. He openly dated a non-muslim woman and had been seen partying with men and women who had been drinking.
Yet, he did not drink himself. He was well known for his work as a superhero, had been seen literally killing evil jinn and protecting people across the world. He was a complicated subject all around.
Muneeba hesitated before finally closing the door. When she got downstairs, she took a look at her family. Yusuf, tired from work, smiled at his daughter as she excitedly talked about her latest obsession. Her son, praying piously before the meal would begin, his beard just barely coming in. Yusuf noticed her standing there, and looked up, his eyes warm. Even after all these years, he still made her smile.
The mother and wife joined her family for dinner, and all was right with the world.
Montana
Humberto Lopez/Nothing Yet
In the desert of Montana, in the early morning, Humberto Lopez played with the small rock he'd found, looking it over, his blue eyes full of wonder. It was shiny and red, looking almost like a jewel. "Mom, look!"
He ran over to his mother, who was patiently brushed at a fossil embedded in the dirt. She had dirt all across her face and arms, her jeans dusted a light brown. She looked up at her son, the ten-year-old waving the red rock in his hands happily. "Look what I found!"
"Oh?" she looked up from the stones and leaned back to sit on her heels. Her son passed her the red stone, which she gave an interested look. "Wow, that's really cool, mi vida! Where did you find it?"
"In the dirt over there!" he pointed at a random section of earth. "There was a black light, and then I found it on the floor!"
His mother frowned at the rock, then at where Humberto was pointed. "A black light? Mi vida, light can't be black."
He blinked at her. "Well, that's what I saw."
She looked a little skeptical, but finally smiled and handed him the jewel. "Well, it's a heck of a find. You might have a real talent for this," her smile became a bit teasing. "You sure you want to do this forever though? Hang out with your mom and dad in a bunch of old rocks?"
He pursed his lips thoughtfully, then nodded. "Yeah! Dinosaurs are awesome, mom."
She chuckled. "Sweetie, you know that paleontologists can find more than dinosaur bones, don't you?"
Humberto scowled, the way all children did when they thought an adult was saying something unreasonable. "But dinosaurs are-"
"You know Megaladons are sharks the size of a small bus?" his mother said, passing him back the stone.
"...I guess those are cool," he said reluctantly.
As his mother laughed, neither noticed the red stone glow for just a moment. Soon, it would awaken.
In the distance, an old woman with fur across her body watched the mother and son work together. She raised her staff and disappeared in a flash of black light.