...Like Daughter

"So how does this even work? I mean I get that spiders can stick to walls but how do we do it?" Ava asked as she crawled on the ceiling of the kitchen similar to how a newborn would. Down on the ground Jason was looking at his daughter with his mouth agap. His wife on the other hand clasped her hands together excitedly, a look of pride in her eyes as she looked at her daughter.

She elbowed Jason, knocking him out of his trance, "W-Well I think it has something to do with our electronic attraction." he said, making Ava pause to look down at him strangely. Jason let out a short laugh, "Um, you know how magnets work? You have a positive charge and a negative charge? Same idea, only we can change our charged to stick to walls." he explained more simply.

Ava dropped to the ground, stumbling to her parents who caught her in their arms. The girl was giddy, and she was never giddy, she was happy sure but never this happy. "This is so cool! What's next?" she asked, looking up at her father excitedly.

"What's next is that we're going to sit down to eat breakfast." he said, pulling out a chair and sitting down to his plate with food.

Ava looked at her father strangely before Akiko put a hand on her shoulder. "What your dad means is that right now, we should relax and let your powers come naturally. Besides adjusting to them might be…..difficult." she explained, making Ava look at them strangely.

"The day I first got my powers? I walked out into the middle of the street without looking and almost got hit by a car. I jumped out of the way and I jumped three stories." he explained, making Ava's eyes widen. Jason quickly added, "I was fine! But the point is, it took me time to control my powers, I broke a bunch of places the same night when I tried to catch them from falling." he explained.

Ava smiled, reaching over she pecked her father on the top of his head affectionately. "Daddy relax, I'll be fine. Besides I got you to help coach me through this." she said leisurely as she grabbed her chair to pull it out, only to yank it off the ground entirely as she started to sit down.

Ava fell flat on her but. "Ava!" Jason cried out in fear as he ran to his daughter's side. The young girl waved him off as she got back up onto her own two feet.

"I'm fine! Fine, perfectly fine. Just…...plopped my butt down when I shouldn't have." she admitted sheepishly. Jason smiled at her knowingly, "So…...any chance you can teach me my powers today?" she asked sheepishly.

Jason looked at Akiko who simply smiled at him, "Don't look at me, this is your department." she replied before he could say anything. The father looked down at his daughter, part of him wanted to have her ignore this side of her life and hope that it'll eventually go away. But Ava had her mother a stubbornness, and his will, it was gonna happen.

"Get some old clothes sweetie and we'll head out right away." he said, making his daughter jump onto her feet and bolt upstairs towards her room, leaving him and Akiko alone in the kitchen. He gave her a saddened look, "Are we doing the right thing?" he asked.

She reached her hand over and cupped his cheek affectionately, "Tiger how many times have you asked that?" she asked, her husband smiled a little, "Then you and I both know that she's going to be perfectly fine." she said confidently, leaning in to peck him on the lips.

The two broke apart when they heard splintering wood. "Uh…...dad…...I think my strength kicked in….and my door is kinda….."

"I'll fix it, just wait outside." he called up, heading the sound of Ava coming down the stairs and walking to the door. This time the girl opened the door very carefully with two fingers. Jason turned to look at a smirking Akiko, "You're enjoying this aren't you?"

The redhead have a sly smile, "I don't know what your talking about, I'm just happy my daughter and husband are spending quality time together." she responded, Jason giving her a dry laugh as he opened the door and shut it behind her. Akiko meanwhile walked to the window and watched as Jason opened the door for Ava to get in so she wouldn't break the handle. "Ok I'm enjoying this a little."

(000)

As the car pulled to a stop, Ava leaned towards the window of the car up at the old warehouse they parked in front of. Well it looked abandoned, the broken out windows and faded paint being any indicators. Opening her door she stepped out, she wore her training gear for power ball, tight pants that stopped at her caves that were colored dark blue, white sneakers, and a red hoodie covering a matching top for her shorts.

"So what's with the warehouse? The place looks…...grimey." she observed as she followed her dad to the front doors of the building.

Jason chuckled, "Trust me, this doesn't even make the top ten grossest places I've been." he explained, making his daughter blanch at the thought. Jason pressed his hand up against the large door and pushed it to the right, sliding it inward without much stress, making Ava's eyes widen.

"Dad…..you're strong." she noted as Jason turned to look at her with a knowing smile. A realization dawned on her, she had to be somewhere around that strong. "Oh my god dad, how do you not like, crush mom when you hug her!" she asked as she followed Jason into the warehouse.

"Mainly practice. Which is what you're going to go here today." he stated, Ava's eyes adjusted to the lighting if the interior she saw a only storage house. It was mostly empty, a few shipping containers, and the the front of a semi truck. "Now what helped me find out how strong I am was when I found my upper limits. So to do that I found the biggest thing I could and hit it as hard as I could." he explained, walking over to one of the containers.

The man quickly pulled his fist back and throw it forward at full force into the side of the container. Ava jumped in shock as he pulled his fiat out if the newly made hole in the metal, her father shook his hand a little bit, "Mmh, that may be little easy." he muttered.

Ava looked at him with her mouth agape, "A-A little easy?!" she asked, shaking out of her stupor she followed her dad to the semi. She looked between him and the truck, realization dawning on her.

"You want me to punch that?!" she asked disbelievingly.

"What?! No of course not. I just want you to try and lift it up." he replied simply, making Ava do a double take. The man put a hand on her shoulder, "Look it's ok to be little nervous, just try your best." he said encouragingly. Ava looked a little unsure but stepped forward all the same. Grabbing the front bumper, she took a deep breath before lifting up.

The semi creaked as the front of the vehicle lifted up into the air from Ava pushing it up, much to her own amazement. "Holy crap….oh crap this is still heavy." she said, her voice straining slightly. She could lift it up onto the rear wheels but not off the ground completely.

Jason joined her and helped lower it back down to the ground safely, "Ok well it looks like your about as strong as I was when I was your age. So….about ten tons is your baseline." he sad, making Ava look at him in shock.

"Ten tons! That's more than our car weighs!" she shouted disbelievingly. She would have to have to have muscles the size of propane tanks to lift a fraction of that!

"Well we have proportionate strength of a spiders, so given your weight-"

"Dad, watch it." Ava stated in a warning tone.

Jason smirked as he ruffled her hair, "You're maybe just as strong as I was, maybe not, it is just your second day with your strength. So honestly you could get stronger as time goes on." he said, patting her shoulder. "Now, to make sure you don't accidentally use that amount of force to do something trivial like open a door, you gotta get used to how to use the right amount of strength." he explained.

Jason led her away from the semi, "But it's not just your arms, your jump last night? That wasn't even half of how high you can jump at full strength." he explained.

Ava's eyes widened in excitement, before he could stop her, she crouched down and leapt up, last night she jumped over three feet into the air, this was triple that. Unfortunately she was standing directly below one of the metal beams supporting the roof. Her head made a loud clink against the metal beam, she covered her head as she fell, her father jumped up and caught her in his arms before landing on his own two feet, "Sweetie are you ok!?" he asked with concern.

"Yeah, yeah, ow. I'm fine dad I just bumped my head on something." she stayed, rubbing a now sore spot on her head. As Jason set her down on his feet, he turned away and ran his hands down over his face.

"This was a mistake." he said, making Ava look at him with concern. Had she done something wrong? Jason looked back at her and saw the look of hurt in her eyes, the young woman looked down, dissapointed with her actions. Jason walked over and enveloped her in a hug, "No baby it's my mistake….god I wish you didn't have my powers." he admitted.

Ava looked up at him as he pulled away, his hands still on her shoulders. She couldn help but smile, "Daddy why would you want that? I mean I bumped my head, it was a accident." she said simply, not wanting her dad to beat himself up over it.

Her father shook his head, "Ava ever since I got my powers I wished I didn't get them. And now that you got them-" he started before the paid heard a beeping coming from Jason's hip. "Uh, one second honey." he said apologetically as he under the hem of his shirt and pulled out a one of Tobi Statish's inventions, a Pager.

They worked similar to how the Avengers ID cards did, when they needed to get together a alarm went out over the ID's. The pager was a more local version of that, picking up police broadcasts and translates it into text for him to discreetly read.

'Rhino at third and Queens.' it read, making the father sigh.

"Of course. Why not?" he asked, making Ava look at him strangely before he put his device away. "Look Ava I hate to do this to you, but I have to go." he said as he rushed towards the entrance of the warehouse. Ava trailed right behind him.

"Woah wait! What do you mean you have to go?" she asked confused by her dad's sudden need to depart. Jason slowed down and turned in his heel, "Ava look, there's a big dumb stupid supervillain I need to take care of a few blocks away and you need to do the responsible thing, and wait in the car." he said, pointing to the car.

"Wait what!?" she asked before shaking her head, "Dad you took me out to help me get ahold of my powers…...so why don't I-"

Jason's eyes widened, he grabbed Ava by the shoulders and looked her dead in the eyes, "No! No no no no no no no! Aside from the fact that what I do is stupid and outright dangerous, it will be a ice cold day in hell before I let my baby girl go out and do the aforementioned dumbass things I do! Understand?" he asked.

Ava was standing still in shock, her mind still processing over everything her dad just said. He lifted her up the ground and shook her to get her out of her stupor, "Understand?!" he repeated.

"Yes! Now quit shaking me dad!" she yelled out as her father put her down on her own two feet.

"Sorry, I just had to nail that home sweetie. So stay in the car, I love you." he said overly sweetly, making Ava snicker at his behavior. Jason turned around and leapt to the arch over the door and climbed up onto the roof. As Ava reached the car, a shadow passed over her head, she looked up in time to see her dad, completely in full costume shot a web to one of the buildings ahead of him to use as a anchorpoint to swing him away.

"...oh I am so not staying in car." she muttered as she closed the door and ran in the direction that she saw her father swing off to. When she reached the building that she saw her father swing to, she leapt up towards the side of it and stuck to the wall.

When she reached the ledge, Ava climbed onto the roof and took a moment to look around. She never even got on the roof of her own house and now she just scaled a five story building with her bare hands. "Man that's so cool." she said with a smirk as she turned and looked around.

She saw her father swing up from the streets onto the air, towards that mall that was getting a new wing added to it on Queen's Street. Ava broke into a sprint towards the other side of the roof, "Ok I can do this, I got this, I got this, I got this-" she repeated over and over, psyching herself up for her next jump to the building across the street.

Ava jumped, "-I don't got this! I was wrong!" she yelled out, realizing she was going to come up just short of the roof. She held her hands and feet out in front of her as she fell towards the wall, landing on the wall, she looked up and cra laws up towards the ledge.

Reaching the new rooftop, she hung by the side, catching her breath, "Hooboy…...well at least I'll never be late for school again." she said with a shrug as she pulled herself up. One block down, give more to go.

(000)

When Ava reached the mall, she began to doubt her sanity. [So to recap, my loving dear dad took me out to get a basic understanding of my powers, he got a call about something or someone called the Rhino, dumb name by the way, and told me to stay in the car. Now my dad just said not to got out and punch bad guys. But he didn't say anything about WATCHING him.] she thought as she pulled her hood up and leapt from the building onto a street lamp and sprung off it towards the gaping hole in the side of the mall.

Her hands touched the top of the hole, swinging her feet forward she flung herself inside. "I'm going to pulverize you wall crawler!" Ava winced at the loud voice as she landed on a top shelf of an isle.

"You know how many times you told me that threat over the years? Fifty six. I kid you not, you have said that exact same thing to me almost sixty times." she heard her father reply. Ava jumped over an isle onto another top shelf. Looking down she saw why her dad wanted her to stay back, a man in a gigantic metal looking suit in the shape of a Rhino.

"I now regret my decision. I'm so stupid, why would I do this?" she asked herself in a harsh whisper, watching as Rhino threw a punch at her father. Spider-Man dove towards the punch, meeting it head on. Just as it was about to connect, Spider-Man reached forward and grabbed the knuckles, swinging himself feet first get the hand he drove his feet into Rhino's face, making him stumble back as Ava's father landed on the ground.

"Woah….dad kicks ass." Ava said in awe as the villain grabbed a desk display and chucked it at Spider-Man, he easily dodged it by getting down on a knee and hand, the desk going over his head and crashing into the shelves behind him. The same ones that Ava was on top of, "Aw crap!" she helped out as the platform she was on tilted back. She jumped off to the ceiling at the last moment as her father looked back.

"I could have sworn-" he started before his spider sense rang out in his skull, he turned in time to backflip over Rhino's fist that slammed into the ground he was at a second ago. The villain responded by headbutting the hero in midair, thankfully for him he was hit with the blunt side of the horn, and not the sharp and dangerous tip of it.

It didn't stop Ava from winching when she saw her dad hit the ground.

Crashing into the ground, Rhino walked over and raised both his fists into the air above Spider-Man. Ava's eyes widened, "Screw it!" she proclaimed, punching off the ceiling and kicking her feet out before landing on top of Rhino's head, the force of which making the man's head plow into the ground.

Jason's lenses went wider than his dinner plates, "Uh….hi." Ava greeted sheepishly as the villain below her lifted his head up and swiped his arms out to try and hit Spider-Man. The father and daughter jumped away towards the store exit. Exiting into the long hall that held a number of stores.

Jason leapt up to the stone walkway above them, Ava following right behind him as he crawled up over to the level above. As soon as Ava was on solid ground, her father grabbed her by her shoulders, "WHAT THE ACTUAL HELL ARE YOU THINKING!?" he yelled at the teenage girl.

Ava held her hands up, "You were gonna get smashed and you were on the ground and-" she started before her father grabbed her and leapt aside as Rhino's hand broke through the ground and tried to grab one of them.

"You need to go! Now! Right now!" he said, shooting a webline and carrying Ava down the hall to an intersection where the mall branched out. "Ava you need to leave, if something happens to you-"

"And what if something happens to you?!" she shot back, making her father recoil back. Ava had picked up her mother's rage, and like with Akiko when Ava got angry all you could do is sit back and listen, "I nearly just saw my dad get turned into street pizza! I get it, I'm your little girl and you want to protect me? Fine." she continued, Rhino busting through a shop about forty yards down the hall they came from.

"Ava-" Jason started.

"But I can take care of myself! I know I just got my powers but I know how to throw a stupid punch!" she yelled out, Rhino was charging at them. Jason reached out for Ava but she backed up, "Look I know you want to protect me and I understand it but-hold on." she stopped abruptly as Rhink came up behind her as her dad crouched, ready to strike.

Ava spun in her heel with a fist cocked back and swung with all her might, uppercutting rhino in the jaw, making the villain's head snap back and stumble. Jason pounced, spraying webbing into Rhino's face as well as double kicking him in the gut, knocking the air out of him. When he landed, Jason charged forward towards Rhino's foot and grabbed it as he plowed forward, pushing forward and up.

The sudden change in balance caused him to fall forward as Ava jumped and swung her foot up into Rhino's jaw once again, a small crack being heard as he hit the floor. Ava was breathing heavily, slowly she realized what she just did in the past ten seconds. "Oh. My. God…..That was Awesome! I just whipped your but!" she said, pointing at the downed supervillain. "Oh yeah! That's right! Who's the champ!? Me!" she yelled out, back flipping out of joy.

She turned around to find her father standing with his arms crossed over his chest….and she was just now noticing how the eyes of his mask make him look angry…..

"I'm grounded aren't I?" she asked, bowing her head slightly as she tucked her shoulders forward and leaned back, trying to make herself as small as she could.

"Yeah. See, grounded implies that you will at one point, not be grounded. What you are now? Well I can't think of what to call it yet, but give me time." he said, using his dad voice to convey his message.

By the time the cups arrived at the scene, Rhino was suspended in the air by a webline a good fifteen feet in the air, and the father and daughter gone.

(000)

The silence in the car ride home was unnerving to Ava. Her father hasn't spoken a single word to her since the mall and she felt like he was going to snap at her any moment now. Like a snake ready to bite. So Ava kept her eyes on the dashboard and didn't even dare look at her dad during the car ride.

She honestly meant what she said back there, but the time and place could have been much better. But she meant it, her dad always went out of his way to jump in whenever she did something that could hurt her. Riding a bike? He made sure she wore pads until she was fourteen. Learning to swim? Wore floaters until she was right.

Hell the day she decided to join the powerball team? He was strongly against it, that was until her mother convinced him that it would be good for her. But this was vastly different from any of that, this was dangerous, and there was a real chance she could get seriously hurt or possibly killed because of it.

As soon as the car pulled to a stop, Ava looked up and paled. Her mother was in the driveway, and she was not happy. It was one thing to get her dad mad, he wasn't mean to her when he got mad he simply let it go with her.

But her mother? That was like kicking a hornet's nest, they don't stop stinging you until you learn your lesson.

However as soon as she got out of the the var, Akiko was cupping her cheeks, looking her over for any injuries? "Did you get hurt? Where does it hurt? What do you have? Scratches? Cuts? Bruises? Broken bones? What!?" Akiko asked worriedly as she looked over Ava.

"Um…..nothing…...I mean I'm a little hungry but-" she started before her mother glared at her, making her shut up.

"Get a snack, then up to your room." Jason said firmly, pointing to the house. His tone of voice leaving no room for any reasoning. She only nodded and began to sulk towards the house, leaving her parents to themselves. After getting a snack consisting of an energy bar and glass of milk, she went up the stairs and entered her room, pressing her back against the door as it closed, she slid down the wooden door to the ground.

"I blew it."

(000)

Jason closed the door behind Akiko as she walked in, he ran his hands down his face and sighed. "So on a scale of bad to totally screwed, how bad is it?" Akiko asked, sitting down on the couch. Her husband plopped down on the spot beside her, Akiko scooted close to him, resting her head on his chest and listening to the almost hypnotic thumping of his heartbeat.

"It's not so bad. She didn't get hurt, and she obviously feels bad about going against our wishes…...but…" he trailed off, thinking about what she had said, he was overly protective of her, he knew it. But every time she was out of his sight he felt a ball of worry creep up his gut. Akiko told him it would go away after she shows she can take care of herself.

And honestly? After seeing how she handled herself? "She took down the Rhino faster than I did first time I fought him." he commented, making Akiko smile with a bit of pride.

"Well she does have me in her." she joked weakly. Her smile fades as fast as it appeared, "And she has you….god Jason she's gonna do it eventually isn't she?" she asked.

Jason sighed, "Maybe….but God damnit if it does happen. I'll make sure it's nothing like I went through. I promise." he said, reaching over and taking her hand in his.

Akiko sighed, "So…...what do we do?"

(000)

It was fifteen minutes, fifteen long, mind numbing minutes until the door to Ava's room opened and her father peeked inside, "Ava, come on, I wanna show you something." he said, his voice didn't show anger but was instead calm. That was a good thing right?

Ava got up from the bed and followed her father with her head bowed down in shame. They were in the car and driving back out towards the city in minutes. Ava simply watched as the cityscape passed outside her window. She accepted that going against her dad wasn't the smartest decision ever, but she would do it again in a heartbeat.

As soon as the car stopped she looked out the windshield and she swore her hear skipped a beat.

A graveyard. Her dad brought her to a graveyard. "Ok I swear to god I'll never disobey you again I swear!" she yelled out in fear.

Jason looked at her strangely before looking at where they were then at her. He realized how this may look, "Oh no! No! No no, god no." he laughed out, finding the situation quite funny. "Sweetie I'm not mad. But there's something I need to show you." he explained as he opened the car door.

Ava stepped out and followed him onto the property, as she followed her father, she couldn't help but notice how he simply strode onward. As though he's been through here a million times.

When he slowed to a stop, she walked up beside him, in front of them was a gravestone. And when she saw the name on it, her heart leapt into her throat. "Ava…...this is my mom." he started, kneeling down in front of the grave, "Ava…..when I first got my powers, I let a man with a gas can walk by me in my apartment building." he started.

Ava felt her heart grow heavy, "Dad…"

"Later that day my mother died because I failed to act. And I learned that with great power, there must always also come great responsibility. And since that day I've been trying to live up to that ideal since then. I was around your age then." he said before standing up.

He turned to his daughter and looked her in the eyes, "Back then. It was just me, I was all alone for months until your mother found out and I could confide in her. And even then it was just me out there." he said, putting a hand on her shoulder. "Ava your not gonna stop. I know you won't, your my kid for god's sake." he said, making her smile with pride.

"So I'm going to make you a deal. If you want to do what you did today. Help people, not just me with your powers, then you can." Avs's eyes widened at his words. "But I'm going to train you three times a week, you're going to show up, and then I'm going to teach you how to do this. But until I say otherwise, you keep it small, no supervillains, period." he said.

He held out his hand, "Deal?"

Ava looked at him disbelievingly then at his hand before shaking it. "Deal." Jason pulled her into s hug that she returned. Wrapping an arm around her shoulder, he led her out back towards the car, "So that's why you named me Ava." she noticed.

"Yeah. Was the first name that came to mind when we were thinking of girl names." he said as they walked. Ava looked back at the grave and smiled sadly, "Mema." Jason said.

"What?"

"She would have wanted you to call her Mema. Was the first thing she said after she gave me the 'talk'." he said, shuttering a little along with Ava. "Now come on, you mom should be done by now." he said as the exited the cemetery.

Ava looked at him questionably, "Done with what?"

(000)

As Ava walked into the living room, she expected her mother to still be angry. She would have understood of course, but when she was standing at the ready, smile on her face, with a box in her hands. "Just so you know, I'm still a little peeved that you did what you did, but if I had a yuan for every time I was mad at your father? We'd be living in a mansion." she said.

"Wait you've been peeved at me? What for?" Jason asked as Akiko handed Ava the box. Although the girl was more interested in her parent's conversation at the moment.

"Remember when we went to that one festival and they had doughy versions of the avengers? And you goaded me into trying one of them? And you stood there and laughed while I tried to make sure it didn't dribble out of my mouth?" she asked.

"...oh yeah you were super pissed at me for that." he muttered before looking over at Ava, whom was trying not to smile but failing. "Oh just open your present." he said.

Ava opened the lid, and she gasped. Reaching in she grabbed the fabric and pulled it out. "I actually made this year's ago to give your father a heart attack. But then he did something super sweet and I didn't have the heart afterwards." Akiko explained.

Ava looked over the suit, the Mask was like her father's, a spiderweb starting between the white eye lenses that stretched out across the red of the suit. A large spider was in the center of the chest with it's two upper legs going over the shoulders and connecting with an identical spider on the back.

The arms, legs, and bands were black, with red webbing pattern on the fingers and outset sides of her legs. There were also two silver bracelet looking things on her wrists and palms of the gloves. "This is so cool." some muttered as she looked up. "Can I go try it on!?" she asked excitedly.

"Ava it's your first superhero costume. Yes go out it on!" Jason said, ushering her up the stairs as Ava excitedly squealed. Jason turned back to see his wife smiling,

"You know…..this may actually be fun." she said, walking over and wrapping her arms around her husband's neck. Pecking him on the lips they both smiled at one another.

"Um…..guys….how do I look?" The two looked over at the base of the stairs to see Ava in full costume. And it wasn't until this point Jason reakized his terabyte daughter was wearing spandex.

Akiko smirked as her husbabd's face scrunched up, he looked over at her, "She's a teenager. You didn't mind me showing skin at that age." she said.

"GAH MOM / AKI!" the father and daughter yelled out at once, making the mother laugh.

AN: And another one bites the dust! Till next time guys!