“Hey, Jessica. Have a seat. How’s the new suit?” I asked her, gesturing her to the chair across from me.

She looked quite nervous as she drifted down and sat across from me, flying under precise control as was her mandate inside the facility. She was always nervous, having self-esteem problems around the others... except for Richie. Richie was driven and committed, but he definitely wasn’t that much more impressive than her. They kind of clicked, actually.

Her new suit crinkled a bit. She was still getting used to wearing it, but she’d had it on all day, so it was doing better. “Still getting used to it, but it moves remarkably well.” She kind of grimaced as she lifted her hands to the breastplate, and the rather obvious curves there. “I... isn’t this... kind of bad for armor?” she asked carefully.

I rolled my eyes on her behalf. “Yes. Guess who went with the chainmail bikini mindset of power armor makers.”

She didn’t have to think about that, and sighed. “Tony Stark made this.” It wasn’t a question.

“Correct. I asked him for some design recommendations, and he went promptly nutso that I’d asked him for anything. Before I could dare critique it, he put the whole thing together and shipped it over.” I just sighed. “Saved about five million dollars for SHIELD. Did he give you a decent specs file, at least?”

“He, uh, used a lot of words I didn’t understand.” She looked hugely embarrassed, and I just slapped my head.

“I’ll rewrite it for you. Idiot genius,” I muttered. I pointed at her breastplate. “He’s being cute. The defensive force field’s strongest point is right along the lines of your cleavage. In essence, just like his little uni-beam circle on his chest, he’s giving them a nice target to shoot at or punch, right where you’re most capable of taking it.

“Is that thing interfering with your kicking at all?” I asked sharply.

She floated up, and extended her leg up full extension forward, and then counter-posed behind, hooking her armored foot up to almost touch her shoulder. We’d been doing a LOT of work on her flexibility, since she didn’t get it automatically like us Spider-Totems did. The meshwork below the armor plates wasn’t interfering at all, it looked like.

Which, since he was using one of our unstable molecule polymer blends, was only right!

“I can hit things a lot harder with the reinforcement,” she admitted, clenching her fist, and turning sideways to kick out precisely. “Didn’t realize what a difference it could make.”

“Good. And I saw you had no trouble with the web launchers.” I gestured her back down, and she resumed her seat. “Stark also sent over a bunch of older modular attachments he doesn’t use on his suit, but, uh, Peggy isn’t really enthusiastic about you being issued firepower for public use yet.

“You’ll get to practice with them soon.” Her eyes lit up despite herself. “They like being able to look at Stark’s weapon systems, too,” I half-coughed, and she smirked in understanding.

“How am I doing overall?” she asked, somewhat urgently. “The others have been very mixed, and Peter was moping like someone threw away his first chemistry set. Cindy and Gwen are just acting weirdly excited and depressed at the same time...”

“It’s because they are being forced to grow up, something you’ve already been confronted with. It sucks, but they have it much easier than you had.” I inclined my head.

“Oh! Oh...” She thought about that for a moment, lowering her eyes. “No, that still isn’t easy...”

“You’re super-powered teenagers. You want to hold on to what it means to be a teenager, namely having fun and not having much responsibility. Then the real world comes crashing in and you realize that the fun part of life is gone, and its all about responsibility. You either shirk it or you grow up.”

“What, what hit them so hard?” she had to ask.

“There are things you don’t repeat to others who don’t need to know. This is one of them.” She nodded quickly, as keeping your mouth shut was a required part of this business. “Cindy, Gwen, and Peter don’t just share powers, they are Spider Totem Warlocks. Yes, Totem Warlocks, much like the Tribes have.”

“Wow?” she managed, blinking. “Aren’t there... lots of them?”

“The Spider Totems tend not to have so many Warlocks, and they tend to impose the Pacts, rather than respond to solicitations for them. So, there aren’t many of them.

“But, what it does mean is that just because they are what they are, they’ve inherited a whole bunch of enemies that want to do nothing more than lay eggs in them, eat them, and then kill them, among other things.” Jessica blinked in shock. “So, they better get to it, or a Wasp Totem might come down out of the sky, poison them, and fly off with them to incubate babies in.”

Jessica made a face. “That sounds horrible...”

“It’s a growing-up moment. The girls also get to come to the Baxter Building. Then they realized it meant working for me, and I don’t take goofing off when on the clock. They are going to have to learn to be much more productive while they are talking about music and kids at school, and fashion trends of the insufferably egotistical.”

“And Peter?” she asked carefully.

“I made him aware that everybody knows he isn’t trying, in addition to that. It kind of came as a rude shock to him that we weren’t underestimating him, he was underestimating us.”

“He can be so totally dense about some things,” Jessica sighed.

“It’s more a case of him overloading himself with information, instead of dismissing it all to focus on the now.” I snapped my fingers repeatedly. “Peter, focus. Peter, focus. Peter, focus...” I drawled, and she laughed despite herself.

Her mood had improved, and she looked more confident now. “How have I done, then?”

“You showed the greatest improvement out of all of them,” I said in a satisfied voice, and her delight radiated from her. “Technically, you and Richie were about the same, but when we shifted your training to Abuse Flying, it was impressive how much better you were in all other areas. You finally got to stand somewhere and shine on your own, and it really helped you.” I gave her a thumbs-up, and she practically glowed at me. “The Shields really liked having to innovate a training regimen for you, especially one with so much footwork.”

“I never knew dance lessons could be so applicable!” she admitted, extending one leg en pointe.

“Dance and fighting are very closely entwined,” I nodded. “Now, for the future, two things, both related.”

“Okay?” she nodded, leaning it.

“First, social. You’re going to be helping Richie out some.” She blinked. “You’re the only one he can really relate to in the group, although he gets along with everyone. He’s about to start a conditioning regimen that involves hooking himself up to a fusion reactor and getting energy pumped into him.

“It’s gonna be hard, painful, and exhausting. It’ll help a lot if he has someone to lean on. I want you to be that person.”

She was confused why I was getting into something so personal. “Aside from any social implications, the second reason is important. I want you to watch what he’s going through, because of all goes well, you’ll be doing it at some later point.”

She blinked. “What?”

“Richie’s suit and powers come from an ancient alien civilization on the planet Xandar. Very humanesque, don’t worry about it. You are also eligible for gaining such a suit, and the powers that go with it. They probably won’t look at anyone else on the team.”

She was a little wide-eyed. “Why not?”

“Because they don’t want the suit-wearers to be exceptional people,” I stated firmly. “They want people who are like ninety percent of others, just average folks trying to get by.” I lifted an eyebrow at her. “You’re on a team with an athletic genius, a martial genius, a computer genius, a biochem genius, and a world-class genius. This has to be incredibly daunting for you.

“Well, guess what? They aren’t going to be eligible to become Novas like Richie is, either. And Jessica, the high end for Richie?” I pointed upwards. “Sitting up there with the High Guard as an equal.”

Her lips pursed in shock. “Richie?!” she asked, stunned.

“Richie has an energy core inside him the size of Hudson Bay. It has, like, a gallon of water in it.” She blinked, sort of pictured that.

“Wow!” she uttered.

“So, we’re going to start filling it. That... is going to be very painful for him... and for you, if you make it to Xandar with him and want to try for that.”

“Wow,” she said again, blinking. “Both of us like that?”

“And nobody else. Think you can help Richie through this? The first few times will be the worst.”

She nodded quickly. “I’ll be happy to help!” she agreed promptly.

“Good show!” I smiled, having set her foot on a good road for her.