Archive of Our Own ^beta

Audio Part 1:

https://app.box.com/s/u3n4tmns2hojcyvw2vei6a3hey9t0tw5

Audio Part 2:

https://app.box.com/s/dwoc7slzj9zfmuh6nxai1isrxwxw1o4f

Parker Robbins sighed heavily, leaning back into the shabby couch he sat on, wrinkling his nose slightly at the musty smell of it, but otherwise not responding to the odor as he had become quite used to it. John was a bit of a slob even after cleaning himself up, as old habits died hard. His cousin had just left to get some smokes, something Parker felt he really needed right now.

He reached up and ran a hand through his dark brown hair, frowning as his mind ran along the usual paths it did when he was alone. It had been two weeks since those shitty little brats from the Avengers Academy had jumped him, beaten him and forced him to become compromised on camera to everyone with access to social media.

Being depowered had been a major blow to his ability to keep up with the position he had claimed as a kingpin among some of the strongest powered criminals there were, but being trumped on camera by a bunch of wannabe hero upstarts had completely blown any chance of him reclaiming his once glorified title to any degree.

He needed power. His fists clenched on his lap as he thought about this, a mantra he told himself over and over more and more often these days. If he could find a way to get himself powered again he could rise to his former stature through force despite the blow to his reputation. He found himself wishing he had found a way to hold onto the Norn Stones.

More than anything though he felt a wash of helplessness, because he didn't know the first thing about what he could do to balance the scales back to what he had once had. He was so lost in thought that he didn't see the shadow flicker across the wall in front of him as Tigra sat next to him upon the couch. He reached for his gun, belatedly realizing that she had already snatched it and now smiled at him, her face scant inches from his own.

"How are things, Parker?"

He tried to jump up but her arm was already roping around his slender form, tying him down to the couch as she held him tightly. His teeth gnashed as he growled at her, glaring, "What the fuck do you want?"

Tigra smiled even wider at him, apparently pleased with his irritation, "I felt I should come see you, seeing as you so recently had a run in with some of my students that went so poorly, though I'll admit I'm rather surprised to see that you are still living in your cousin's apartment, the same place you were when they filmed you."

There was a clacking sound as Parker ground his teeth together at the memory of what the junior Avengers had managed to record. They had utterly humiliated him, recording not only their physical assault on his person where they used power and superior numbers to easily topple him, but also his degrading surrender to their demands for a public apology.

She went on, bringing one clawed finger to her lips as she did so, "You are very much supposed to be in prison, Parker… so the fact that my kids took video of you being here and the fact that you are still here doesn't make much sense. Do you want to get caught by the police?"

Parker tried and failed again to stand up, barking his answer into her face, "Why the fuck do you care, bitch?"

Tigra only shrugged in response to that, her face passive, "I suppose I felt some obligation to make sure that my students didn't really injure you in some illegal way, but you seem fine."

Parker Robbin's eyes drifted to the door and she followed his line of sight with her own gaze, suddenly rising from the couch and moving to the door to lock it.

She wheeled on Parker before he could think to stand, smiling down at him, "John King just left for those smokes, so I imagine that he will be gone a while longer than it will take to decide what to do with you."

Her nemesis gulped, eyeing the surrounding room for anything he could use as a weapon against her, but unless he wanted to try to murder Tigra with a couch cushion, he was shit out of luck. He doubted sincerely she would allow him to actually lift the coffee table before striking him in ways that his unpowered form would not recover from.

Was this where he died? She had made that speech about making him suffer with his sins before, but had that all been baloney? Her face suddenly cut into a wide grin as she watched him squirm on the couch, "I know that you have a double on the inside; that's why no one is looking for you. As far as that prison is concerned you're still in custody."

"Which also means that no one is going to miss you if you suddenly disappear. I know exactly how many friends and how much family you have, Parker, and no one is coming to save your ass."

He gulped again; this was it. She had clearly changed her mind and decided to kill him. And why not? He himself had told her that letting him live was a stupid move. He found himself regretting the prideful arrogance that fueled his decision to tell his enemy that she should actually kill him rather than allow him to live to threaten her.

She grabbed him and Parker cried out, fully expecting to feel her claws dig into her jugular at any moment. He was totally outclassed, and he didn't even try to fight, instead putting his hands up in a defensive position. But she wasn't going for the kill, and a few seconds later the floor, walls and ceiling were spinning deliriously around Parker's head.

She was carrying him, tucked under her arm like a large football, still smiling as she leapt through the door and vaulted onto the nearby building with him in tow, "I'm going to keep you, Parker. I've always wanted a pet, and if I'm going to hang around long enough to make your life the hell you deserve, I'd rather it was at my place."

With feline accuracy and speed she powerfully vaulted from one rooftop to the next, making Parker cry out in fear reflexively as the city spun circles around his head. One familiar sight after the other floated to him in the chaos of their travel. At first he tried fighting her, but her grip was strong, and the forceful changes of direction made swinging on her effectively impossible.

Also, fighting her only hastened his getting motion sick from all of the jostling and changing of direction. The spinning scenery around him quickly made his stomach tighten and he had to simply hold on for fear of losing his lunch, which had been Taco Bell. Why the fuck had he eaten so much Taco Bell today? It proved a terrible decision.

Finally though the crazy turnstile travel ended and Parker was dumped unceremoniously onto some blissfully soft grass, and Parker crawled awkwardly for a moment, terribly dizzy from the jaunt she had taken with him. It was everything he could do to get his bearings, and Tigra stood nearby with her hands upon her hips, watching his recovery patiently.

Perhaps she enjoyed watching his reel like this, which gave him more incentive to focus on recuperation. Parker growled as he glared at her, willing three Tigras to turn into one, "You fucking cunt… where have you… this is an Avenger building, I've seen it before. Is this the Academy you work at? Why the hell would you bring me here?"

Instead of answering him Tigra snatched hold of his cloak and hauled him to his feet, Parker struggling frantically to get his wayward legs to adjust enough to keep him upright. His head was finally clearing enough not to spin, but he still felt shaky. Before he could manage to assert more control of himself Tigra tugged hard and pulled him along after her.

A few steps across the courtyard that opened up right after the large open entrance to the compound saw Parker and Tigra standing in front of a large building which she waved her hand at. In response to that motion the door slid aside with an airy electronic hiss and she then continued to drag Parker along beside her as she entered, "Home sweet home."

She gave him a shove and Parker once again found himself sprawled out on the floor. This time though instead of rich grass to dampen his fall soft thick carpet rose up to shield him from the otherwise brutal trip. He was back in charge of his own bodily resources now, though, and no sooner than that he hit the ground he rolled himself to his knees and sprung up again.

With every ounce of strength he had Parker flung himself across the room towards the fireplace across the way, his eyes narrowing as he focused on the fire poker that was his goal. He never got near it, though, as a strong hand snatched his billowing cloak and hauled him backwards to slam him onto his back on the same rug, the wind rushing from his lungs with the impact.

He was still gasping for air as Tigra roped a leg over him, straddling him as she smiling evilly down at Parker. "Why are you even still wearing this thing, Parker? You don't have any powers, all this big red badge of embarrassment could do for you now is get stuck in an escalator or a revolving door. Why not just ditch it?"

He growled in response, but before his mouth could form the words 'Fuck you' she snatched the cloak even harder and hauled at it as she stood up. This particular cape was a knock-off of the one he had worn previously, which he had lost when Dormummu had been expelled from it, destroying the once powerful magical relic.

Still, he hated hearing the sound of the clasps that fixed it to his jacket tearing free as she ripped it unceremoniously from him, Tigra's grin making it clear that she did enjoy seeing its removal. "Stop!" He tried to wrestle it back from her but she muscled it away from him easily, one orange-furred hand pushing Parker hard enough to seat him heavily onto the nearby couch.

Then with only a moments strain and a terrific ripping sound she sundered the red garment into two ragged halves, glaring defiantly at Parker Robbins the entire time. She threw the now ruined pieces to the floor with more than a little contempt as Parker's furrowed brow agonized over the expensive tailor-made replica he had paid for.

More than that he mourned the symbolism behind what she was doing, as it was not at all lost on him what she was trying to convey in shredding his iconic red drape; she had declared the Hood ruined and gone. Being as he had no powers, dwindling resources and now extremely negative street cred, the saddest part was that he had no ground to stand on in the argument.

She set her hands on her hips, watching how Parker had just sort of sagged into the couch, staring at the red blanket that he had thus far been wearing simply for the comfort of remembered securities. Now he looked defeated, his face harrowed by her swift and final pronouncement. Even his follow up curse was half-hearted, "Fuck you Tigra…" he whispered.

Tigra frowned, almost discouraged by his seeming lack of enthusiasm now; she had expected it would be harder to break Parker's considerable will, but she supposed he had been going through a rather rough run of failures that likely all pointed to him being weak and powerless these days; at least, according to the way he would see it. She sighed.

This wasn't how she was supposed to be feeling about this arrangement either, she thought morosely; she was supposed to be enjoying his misery more, but he was so pathetic now she almost felt bad for him. Almost. With a strong resurgence of determination she reminded herself of why she was doing this, her two strong reasons.

She snatched him from his reverie and hauled him to his feet as he blinked at her in surprise, "Get up. Now that the Hood is gone we need to deal with Parker Robbins. I told you before that I'm a cop; I did my homework and found that you were cheating on your pregnant girlfriend with a whore, which came as no surprise from a dirt-bag like you."

His teeth clenched and his eyes flashed and it was clear that he was going to respond to that, but Tigra kept going, cutting off whatever his reply was going to be, "Your dad worked for Kingpin, so it's really easy to see how you had crime in your blood, but nothing explained why you kept seeing your mom after she went catatonic."

He closed his mouth tightly then, stifling whatever it might have been that he was going to say. She watched him a moment and went on, "You've been visiting her consistently for a long time according to the staff at the mental ward she was committed to, and though she isn't capable of speaking herself, you've been reported to have long conversations with her, in which you are downright kind."

Parker looked away but Tigra was intent on seeing his eyes when she asked her questions, so she reached up and grabbed his face, holding him so that he had to look at her as he growled in annoyance again. "Was your mom really good to you, Parker? Does she represent everything that hasn't yet gone black inside of you?"

Her own anger resurfaced again as she brought her fanged countenance closer to his, yelling her frustration directly into his face, "If your mother was that important to you, where did you get off threatening mine!? Were you projecting there, in attacking the one thing which happened to be important to you, or did you wish your own mother dead? Would that make it easier for you?"

Rage supplanted common anger in Parker's eyes and he shouted back, "You leave my mother out of this!"

She grabbed him with her other hand and shook him bodily, lifting him an inch off of the ground as she did so, "You are the one who started attacking families!"

Parker's anger faded quickly, his brow knitting as he took the opportunity to look away now that she wasn't holding his face in place anymore. Tigra saw something that looked like earnest regret in his visage just before he did, "I… I was bluffing. I wanted you and the others to think we were that hardcore, to scare you into submission. I don't think I could have actually done it."

Tigra huffed, setting him back down and putting her hands on her hips as she kept glaring at the reticent Parker Robbins. "Well try to remember we were perfect strangers the first time you jumped me, so I had no reason not to believe the maniac who had just broken into my home wielding guns in my face. Would you like to know the greatest irony in it?"

Parker finally glanced up into her irritated mien, "Uh… no… what?"

She stabbed a finger into his chest, her natural strength still nearly enough to bowl him over even with that simple maneuver, "I had just gotten off the phone with the brass that day; they were going to move me! I wasn't even going to be there if you had bothered to collect the intel!"

He frowned, "Huh?"

Tigra crossed her arms over her chest, nodding, "That's right; the same administration that let you know where I lived through the registration act also had elected to move me because it had decided that there were too many powered people in this city."

Parker looked away again and Tigra scoffed, "Can you at least manage eye contact for a bit, or does me constantly bringing up how reckless and stupid you were being causing you to have trouble facing someone who knows how simple you are, despite your attempts at appearing smart?" His eyes came to hers again in anger then, "That's better."

"You're resourceful, Parker; no one can deny you that, but your bold plans concerning your little criminal group have in almost every case been ill-thought schemes with no real sustenance. You just wanted the others to think you were more cunning than you actually were. Which is too bad, because a few of those guys could have given good advice if you were the type to take it."

He frowned, "Are you actually giving me advice on how I could have better managed my criminal empire?"

She shook her head in response, "Yes, but since you don't have and never will again have a criminal empire, that is sort of moot."

Parker clenched his hands into fists as she trampled on a sore point for him, "I'll get it back some day…" he started.

Tigra took a step forward, growling menacingly, and Parker backed up so quickly at the sudden aggression that he tripped over the couch behind him and fell back onto it.

She smiled then, an angry smile devoid of actual humor or mirth, "No, you will not. How many lucky breaks do you think will be afforded you in one life time? Also, you had better believe we are all aware of how resourceful you are by now, Parker. You will be watched carefully, and never allowed anywhere near an opportunity to empower yourself again."

Parker glared but remained tight-lipped as she mentioned this, and Tigra watched him for a moment before biting her lip and making the decision on how she wanted their conversation to progress, "So as far as I see it you are at a crossroads, Parker. Either you follow the example of your departed father, or you do what your mother told you is best."

She narrowed her eyes at him, "I suspect that your mom would not have approved of the man you've become, or the things you've been doing. Would your mom be proud if she heard that you ran around threatening the family members of people who are trying to clean up the streets of the sorts of folks that prey on others?"

"Further, would she be positively impressed that you routinely had released said criminals into the streets just to get yourself a little street credit? Have you ever thought about the sort of damage doing that has inflicted that you can't see? Every thug you've released went right back to doing the murderous things they did before you released them, making every kill they counted after your fault."

Robbins snarled, "That's not true! I'm not their damned keeper, you can't pin what other people do on me!"

Tigra snarled back, leaning down menacingly enough that Parker actually shrank back into the couch on reflex, "Maybe not entirely, but they wouldn't have done harm from behind bars!"

He went quiet again, clearly understanding that what she said was in fact true. It didn't matter that Parker himself didn't condone reckless violence against innocent people; he could think of a number of guys he had released who did not have anywhere near that sort of code or inhibition. The fact that so many were downright psychotic was a constant issue.

In fact, it was the primary reason he had started making his plans so hardcore to begin with, targeting families and whatnot. He had been trying to convince the most depraved among their number that he, Parker Robbins, was even more depraved than they, so that they wouldn't think to betray or double-cross him.

Fear had been instrumental in controlling that mob along with the perks he had been offering them to join his club. He had accidentally killed a cop early in his career, but otherwise most of the people he had actually shot down with the two pistols he fancied had been other street toughs and powered people too unstable to serve his cause.

Even after everything that had happened, Parker didn't really see himself as a psychotic monster that might hurt average people, but what Tigra was saying wasn't something he could really refute. He ground his teeth together and looked hard at the floor as he thought on how he really was responsible for things he hadn't even considered.

His brow furrowed as he thought on this, but Tigra didn't give him much more time to ruminate before she interrupted his contemplation, "So which will it be, Parker Robbins? Are you serious about not being the kind of guy that does those kinds of things or are you ready to finally turn off that road that leads to places like where Jigsaw is? You want to be like him?"

That was an easy question to answer. Jigsaw, the man whom Parker had hurt Tigra for, was a real monster; a crazy killer who was erratic at best and dangerous at worst even as an ally. There were quite a few men like him in Parker's roster, and he wasn't even the worst of them. Tigra was only asking a question he had quietly asked himself numerously.

Where did the buck stop? How far was he going to take things before his efforts as a stage performer blurred and the act wasn't an act anymore? When he had watched the video he'd made of his assault on Tigra he had thought that it would make him as happy as the others; they had cheered at the sight of that violence.

But it hadn't. It had made him feel a little dead inside, and a small voice at the back of his mind had begun to nettle him over the sort of person it was that he saw attacking that woman on the screen so viciously. He couldn't tell Tigra, but his mother would have cried to see the sort of things he was now capable of.

That thought bothered him then and it bothered him now, but he didn't see any other way to get what he wanted, "What the hell do you want from me? To become a clerk at a local seven-eleven? I don't have any college or experience, even if it wasn't for the fact that my criminal history downright flat-lines my ability to get a real job."

Tigra was surprised; she could tell by his tone and the set of his jaw that he knew these things from experience, "You tried to get work?"

Parker leaned back into the couch, staring hard at the floor, "Yeah. I've gotten pretty fucking desperate to go from crime lord to scrubbing floors, right?"

She sat down next to him, "So you got something?"

He shook his head in answer, "Nah. I had something temporary for a bit, under the table. But I couldn't hold it for long since the guy who gave me the job bothered reading up on me and let me go because I'm 'dangerous for his rep'."

She pushed her tongue into her cheek, curious and surprised that Parker had gone so far as to try his hand out at being legit, "I must admit I didn't see that coming… didn't you have money put away from all those heists and whatnot that you and your boys pulled off? I thought you and your cousin were filthy rich; I thought him being in the ghetto was a personal choice."

Parker let out a breath, "Nah, nobody lives in the projects because they like it there. I have money, but I use it to…" He glanced at her and then went quiet.

Tigra had heard enough though to guess what he had been about to say, "You use it to pay for the bills that take care of your mother."

The fact that Parker Robbins did not object or rant was all of the answer she needed, his silence a clear statement that she had guessed correctly as to his anonymous payments of his mother's hospital bills, "You've been fronting the money for a long time, haven't you? It would have been a relative fortune to a kid with essentially no parents."

He folded his arms over his chest and continued not to look at her as she continued her assessment, "You were young when she got real sick, had to drop out of school and felt that you didn't really have a lot of options for paying those bills back then so getting into your father's line of work seemed like the only real choice didn't it?"

"From there did you keep up the larceny because you felt it was the only thing you could do as a high school dropout, or did you just get in too far to feel like you could back out safely? Maybe once you had been doing it a while you got cocky like a lot of kids your age and thought you were suited to it, that somehow you could beat the system?"

That last guess got him to shift slightly on the couch and she knew it was closer to what she was looking for, even if it might have also been a splash of the others as well. Which made sense. She smiled, "Yeah, that's you; cocky Parker Robbins, cheats on his girl with a whore and rides around with his cousin addicted to the thrill of thinking he'll never get caught."

Parker glared at her then, "No. I knew it was entirely possible I could get caught. I was really careful back then; I didn't cheat on Sara for the thrill of it…" He looked away again, clearly ashamed, "…it wasn't even really about the sex. You wouldn't understand."

Tigra scoffed, "Oh man if I had a dollar for every time a teenager told me I didn't understand…"

Anger flashed in her eyes as she got his gaze again, "I'm not a fucking teenager; I'm in my twenties!"

She flashed his brooding look a toothy smile, "I did my homework on you, remember? You're exactly twenty, you were a teenager less than a year ago, and on top of that you act like one plenty enough to still earn the qualification, kid."

He growled at her but huffed and went back to trying to ignore her besides sitting right next to each other, clearly deciding that she was baiting him, and that he wasn't going to rise to the prodding, "Most of the time I went to talk to Gro; we didn't even fuck half the time I saw her. She'd just kind of… listen. She never replied so I never felt judged."

Tigra frowned, "So you basically used her to unload about all the things you did that made you feel guilty, like lying to your girlfriend and taking things that didn't belong to you?"

Once again she was rewarded with complete silence, which again answered her question better than any words he could actually say. "Okay, so I'm starting to see enough of a pattern to get a profile on you, Parker." He shifted again, clearly uncomfortable with her psychoanalyzing him, "You started because you had to, and felt guilty, maybe a little stuck… then what happened to keep you in?"

Parker blew out an angry breath, "Why are you pretending to care? Why don't you just tell me why I'm here? You… you plan to kill me after all don't you? Gonna bury me out back where the cops would never think to look?"

She laughed in response, "Parker this is a public Avengers compound, and people likely saw me carrying you into it. If I was going to murder you I would have done it back at that rat's nest your cousin calls a home. I brought you here because I have yet to decide exactly what I'm going to do, though I've starting forming up some ideas."

He squirmed in the couch again, clearly distressed by his inability to guess her plans for him.

Tigra patted his arm, "I threatened to kill you once I know; I was in a very bad way back then, no thanks to you and your threats, regardless of whether you meant them or not, a stipulation you are still going to have to prove to me. You put another asshole in prison in your place and I'm not in a hurry to let him out, plus…"

She eyed him sharply for a moment as he looked over at her solemnly, "I have a feeling that if I actually put you into prison you'll just have your cousin bail you out again with what remains of your fortune. I'm not so naïve as to think it's not possible to grease the palms of the slimiest of lawyers, judges, and parole boards."

"Of course, that would still be really expensive, and if your funds are as critically low as you are telling me they are, you might run out of money completely shortly afterwards, and then have scramble to come up with the cash needed to take care of your mother's hospital bills."

Parker's mouth became a tight, angry line, "I've always managed to get the money in the past; I'll make it work."

Tigra nodded, her expression showing that she didn't doubt this, "You have proven a very resourceful person in this even before becoming an adult; I believe you. I'm sure you don't want things to become that hard, though, so why don't you go ahead and answer my questions and we can explore an option B, huh?"

For a long moment he just glared at her, but finally he gave a resigned sigh and leaned further into the coach as he answered, "What changed was that I finally got my break. John had heard about a warehouse where some deal was going down that could really pad our pockets if we could lift whatever was being traded."

He shook his head, "I think the shit-for-brains had the wrong warehouse, though, because there was almost nothing inside when I broke in, and some creature from a horror flick jumped me. I reacted like I always do when something springs out of nowhere to end my life; I riddled it with bullets. It went down, and I took its fancy red cloak mostly just so I could show it to John."

"I put it on as a lark; was gonna jump out of the shadows at John with it, ya know, to prank him. I didn't know it was going to give me powers, but when it did… well, my whole world changed. At first it was a novelty, a fun thing. I… uh, I snuck into a women's shower to see if the invisibility would hold up…" He noted the look on Tigra's face and laughed.

"Oh calm down; I didn't do anything weird, just wanted to see if I could maintain that power under stress of getting caught…"

Tigra huffed at him, her expression showing that she didn't buy that as the only explanation for his actions, "And to get a good look, you pervert."

He shrugged, "Hey, I was a nineteen year old dude who just realized he could turn invisible…" he smiled mischievously, "It was only natural. Anyways, after the initial thrill wore off I finally started thinking a little bigger picture. I realized I could walk into banks unseen, pick pockets and get away with it even if the mark noticed…"

She sighed, looking away and shaking her head, "Of course you started applying your powers to criminal thinking; most people would have considered it at some point, but being as you were already in the business…"

Parker shrugged again, "Yeah, so it was natural too. Needless to say we got rich quick."

Tigra frowned at him, "So who did you rob?"

He waved dismissively as he spoke, "Only those who had more than they needed; I took the personal contents of bank deposit vaults by standing next to the sobs while they input their precious passcodes. I even walked into the vault for a casino boat once, cleared them out… I mean, if the people there wanted their money, they wouldn't have been gambling it away."

Her tone was derisive, "How convenient that you came upon that line of reasoning. I'm sure you fabricated lots of stories to yourself on why the people you stole from didn't deserve their money more than you, isn't that how it usually is?"

Parker growled, "Look sometimes we have to take to survive, isn't that the law of the jungle, cat lady?"

Tigra glared at him, pointing a finger his way, "The law of nature you are referencing talks about real need, and something tells me that you took considerably more than you needed to survive, Parker Robbins. Don't try to justify your greed by comparing yourself to an animal that doesn't understand the implications of what it does."

He only huffed in response, rolling his eyes at her, "Yeah, whatever. Anyways, that was what changed; I finally had a shot at being something bigger even than my old man; a real kingpin. So I started brainstorming what I could do to lift me and John up, and then I thought even bigger picture than that. I had been given the opportunity of a lifetime, why squander it?"

She raised an eyebrow at Parker then, "So you are feeling trapped by success? I suppose you are going to have to choose which path your parents laid out for you to take then, Parker. Your father showed you a life of wealth built on the backs of others, which ultimately lead to his own death. Yeah, I read the case file."

Parker grunted angrily, "It isn't as simple as all of that! Life isn't all black and white, that's what my old man showed me, anything else is just naïve. Mom was a good person and she did the best she could, but the life she had was 'built on the backs of others', as you said it. She just didn't know it. And…" He frowned deeply.

"And what…?" Tigra asked, curious.

He ground his teeth together as he glared at nothing in particular, "And she wasn't strong like dad was, okay? He died and she started to fall apart… then she learned about what kind of man he'd been behind the curtain. She couldn't face the truth, the hard realities of life, and it drove her insane."

Her voice was a little softer this time when she replied, "I think everyone has a breaking point Parker, and finding out someone you truly love has been lying to you all along must have been devastating coupled with the loss of that same person."

Parker shouted at her, his eyes shaking with pent up emotion, "You don't think I know that?!"

Keeping her tone even Tigra gave his angry stare a resolute look of her own, "The world isn't painted in black and white, you are right and it isn't simple. But that only means that we each paint the world in the colors we want to see most. I think you stuck by your mother because deep down you know that she was right no matter how conflicted you feel on it."

With a huff Parker stood, giving her an annoyed look, "I'm not conflicted. I'm not my mother; I decided to pull myself together and do what needs to get done to put one foot in front of the other. If I have to step on someone else to make sure I don't fall down, so be it. They would have likely done the same to me given the chance anyways."

Her brow drew down angrily again as she realized that Parker wasn't simply going to be talked down, despite the vulnerability he had shown moments before. He had his fool head wrapped around the ideology his father had taught him and he was too stubborn to let it go. She stood up suddenly and his eyes widened in surprise.

Maybe Parker had planned to try to simply walk out, feeling that he had made some sort of universal truth known to the Avenger, but clearly Tigra did not agree, though she didn't say anything else, only grabbing Parker by the arm near the elbow and dragging him along with her as he cried out in alarm to the sudden forced movement.

He struggled against her, trying hard to pull free from her grip, but just as it had been when she had taken him for that rooftop stroll, Tigra's raw strength was far more than Parker could account for, and his feet only dragged uselessly behind on their heels as Tigra pulled him along, all while she herself appeared to do so with ease.

Parker's rapidly growing irritation quickly rose to the surface, "W-what the fuck are you doing?" His eyes widened in shock and confusion as he both realized she was dragging him back into her own personal bedroom and felt the impact of Tigra setting herself down heavily to sit upon her bed with him held tightly in her lap.

As her hand ran down his back and gripped Parker's pants, pulling them down with one strong tug, her other arm roping around his chest to secure him tightly to her side, it was all too clear what her intent was, especially as the hand she had used to pull down his trousers lifted high into the air. Parker shouted, "A-are you fucking crazy?! Let me go!"

He now redoubled his efforts, perhaps straining harder than he had ever pushed himself physically in his entire life to avoid what was quickly turning into an encounter of the most humiliating kind, but no amount of twisting or struggling produced even the slightest amount of leverage for him to escape through.

While Parker flailed to win free, Tigra's hand came down hard, the clap of its impact filling the room with its noise as she then continued hitting him, her flattened palm catching the underside of his posterior again and again in a cadence of degradation. Parker let out one frustrated shout after the other, roaring his displeasure.

Only now did Tigra deign to reply, a satisfied smirk on her face as she watched Parker twist in vain against her ministrations, "I gave you the adult route plenty; we've roughed you up and sent you to prison again and again, but you just got yourself back out again, usually on account of that 'leave no thug behind' policy you started with your gang."

"That was clever, really, but it removed the option for me to submit you to justice as our courts see it, since you'll just loophole out or get busted out. So then I tried to talk to you like two civil people, hashing out our differences until we can come to a mutual understanding, but the problem is that you already understand."

"Even with me pointing out some things you might not have thought about in your reckless actions, you'd still prefer the train-wreck logic that got you here over becoming a better person your mom might have been proud of. So, I'm done treating you like an adult; you're a selfish, entitled brat with little consideration for others though you should know better."

Parker couldn't believe this was happening, it all felt so surreal! He glanced back over his own shoulder and sure enough, there was Tigra, her open palm pummeling his ass at a disturbingly fast rate given the power that her swats held. Each hit was more than enough to send Parker surging forward in her lap; if it wasn't for her own grip on him he'd go flying!

It took a moment just to find the words to object to such brazen and unorthodox behavior, even from Parker, whom had always prided himself on reacting quickly to the unexpected, "This is fucking nuts! You can't be serious!" He tried again to pull away from her in some way, any way that might be possible, but her grip was like iron shackles on his person.

Her eyes narrowed at him and the barrage of slaps seemed only to intensify, "I am dead serious, Parker Robbins! You pretend at outrage like that but it's me and the other Avengers who don't understand how you haven't managed to learn anything from everything that's happened to you. You've been beaten repeatedly and depowered, but you refuse to grow up!"

His teeth locked together as he growled at her, "Fuck you, lady! You think you've got it all figured out?! You're just like every other fucker who ever doubted me; I've shown you all that I can play the game, and I'll show you all again! You think just because I'm down on my luck that I won't pick myself back up? News flash for you; I've done it more than once!"

Tigra only shook her head tiredly at him upon hearing this, and the volume of pain she dealt out again increased, sending Parker squirming in her grip as his eyes widened to the realization. Every swat she delivered hurt more than the last, and it was only ever getting worse as his ass became sorer to the punishment.

When she finally spoke, her voice shook with vehemence, "You still just don't get it, kid. You're fighting for the wrong side, for all the wrong reasons, I think because some part of you doesn't want to accept the fact that your dad was wrong…"

Parker interrupted her with a wrathful cry, "Fuck you!"

This only caused her to hit him even harder though, in punishment for his sudden outburst of insult, and she went right on talking, "…I'm trying to point out something that has been pointed out to you already in one staggering defeat after the other, not to mention it's something that history has proven since time immemorial."

She stopped slapping him for just a moment, and Parker turned his rage-filled eyes back on her as her own steely gaze fixed with his, "The bad guys always lose, Parker. You can tell yourself whatever you like, but your dad died for believing he was going to be different than all of the thugs before him, and at the rate you are going, so will you."

With a roar that vented a small portion of his considerable pent of fury over what she did to him, Parker backed and kicked against her with renewed vigor unmatched by any of his previous attempts at freedom. Sadly for him though his wiry brawn was not nearly enough to overpower a person as empowered as Tigra, even if she didn't have leverage over him.

So with each twist of his waist and shout of his lungs he only drew himself closer and closer to the very brink of exhaustion, until at last he could not spare the energy to scream his impassioned anger in her face anymore, only panting tiredly as she continued delivering the justice she had set out to mete to him within that room.

He could no longer summon the rage that kept the humiliation and deep sense of hopelessness at bay, both concerning his physical state and the way that Tigra continued to mock his efforts in general with her talk about his continued defeat. Defeat that was all the more close to him now that she held him in such a compromised state.

His ass burned terribly, and he could not imagine that the rapidly smoldering embers of his hatred for how she treated him would long stand against the growing sense of frustrated desperation that he felt boiling up within him at each stinging swat that she administered. Soon nothing would remain but his hollow misery.

So he tried with all his might to stoke his anger, to remind himself of all the reasons he had to rail against her, but it only got harder the more he thought on it, the more he listened to her words. Here was a woman he had brutalized and scarred, a woman he had pushed to the very brink. Here was a fight he had started unprovoked.

He had no grounds for righteous indignation under the power of her own rightful scorn. She had all the reason to do whatever she did to make him suffer as she had, at least in some degree. The things she said were not untrue but rather her convictions, regardless of what he might have decided to be the way of the world, and her vision of things made him feel…

Guilt. What she made him feel with every fiber of his being was profound loss, not just the loss of control he felt in this circumstance. That was a terrible thing, that spiraling chaos of inability to direct his own future as he thought he should, as he thought he deserved to. He felt guilty because he couldn't tear the words from his head now.

Those words concerning his mother, and how she might think of him now, were she sound of mind. If she were to suddenly get better tomorrow, what would she think of his shattered legacy and lofty ideals of self-promotion that had nonetheless put him right back in the gutter. He was poorer than he started and now he'd hurt people… killed people. That cops' face returned to his tormented mind's eye.

It had been an accident… that was what he had told himself. He'd been surprised by the police officer and reacted as he always did; he'd shot without even considering the consequences. For the first time though the results of his actions lay at his feet; the man was dead. Having been riddled with bullets there was no chance he would survive.

Still, some small part of him had held out hope that he would pull through, maybe once the ambulance got him to the hospital, maybe the doctors could save him with some quick surgery. They tried really hard with cops, he knew. When that small part of him had spoken these strong desires into his mind he knew that he wasn't really a killer.

This was further verified by the terrible feeling that washed coldly over him when Sara had informed him in conversation that the cop he had shot had died at the hospital. She had no way of knowing why Parker's face had so suddenly fallen and she had been worried, asking if he was okay. Parker hadn't even been able to answer.

His throat had felt like it was clogged with the intense clenching he felt in his stomach at the news, and John had bailed him out, distracting Sara so that he wouldn't have to continue to try to find words when he felt like there were none to have. He had since executed other people, usually criminals whom he justified the world would be better without.

Then he had beaten her, and that small part of him had recoiled again at the man he had become. He had thought that he had left that inner voice behind, that he had evolved into something more than what he had been, pushed past the moors of his guilt. But the guilt was only stronger now than ever, pounding away at his resolve.

The stinging pain didn't help, each swat she delivered cementing the core beliefs that drove the woman to punish him like this, and worse, concreting to him that she thought he was a spoiled brat to treat him in such a way. He shook free the last of his angst at being degraded so, giving one final desperate cry of anger and indignation.

It was an inarticulate thing, devoid even of the usual 'Fuck you!' that might have accompanied it. Then he slumped down within her grip upon her and the soft bed they lay upon, too tired and soul-sick to fight anymore, drained of the last of his energy to resist. He lay like that with his mouth tightly clamped and trembling for some time.

His eyes were likewise tightly closed as his fingers dug into the sheets of the bedding, the terrible slaps she delivered getting only ever harder to endure. His entire body shook with the effort of receiving it as the small muscles of his back grew weary from arching and the large muscles of his glutes trembled with exertion, locked tightly together.

The sardonic smile that Tigra had thus far been wearing finally began to slip at this point. Parker was giving up at last, and there wasn't anything left to feel so smug about when she could see plainly that all he had the capacity to feel anymore was his pain, guilt, and sorrow. She simply watched him at this point, waiting to see what would happen next.

He continued to take it, his knuckles white as his fingers dug into the bedding, his teeth and eyes remaining clenched as occasionally breathy hisses of indignation and humiliated pain floated up to her from his lips. Once in a while she would catch the now welted and bruised underside of his ass hard enough to make him grunt softly.

Other than the greatly uncomfortable and displeased look on his face though, Parker made no further moves to resist, his feet occasionally kicking up when her swats proved intense enough, but otherwise he remained perfectly relaxed and still, clearly not having the will or the strength left to oppose her anymore.

Tigra thought then, trying to decide what came next. Parker might catch on that she was winging this whole thing if she didn't come to a good idea on how to proceed soon, as hitting him was quickly losing its thrill now that he had more or less submitted to the punishment. Had he had enough? Her brow drew down.

A part of her told her that he could never have enough of what she had to dish out for shooting and beating her that night, for the events that had led to that tape getting posted to the public so that the whole world could see the most traumatizing humiliation of her life. But that was the animal side of her, and she had learned to resist it.

He had become more docile because the punishment had worked, which meant there was another route for her to travel now. She really had been keen on getting Parker to abandon his criminal ways, and she wasn't going to lose sight of that just to enjoy sadism, regardless of whether or not he might deserve it.

When she had discovered in her investigations that Parker had an entirely different side to him, that there was something there to redeem, she had thought long and hard and ultimately told herself that the most just thing she could do which would satisfy her need for closure in the long term was to heal herself by helping him.

He was just a kid. Her hand stopped its motion and she rested it palm down on the small of his back, watching as Parker took shuddering breaths, trying to recover from whatever physical and emotional turmoil her words and actions had managed to stir up within him. His body still trembled, and he lay perfectly still now.

She watched him carefully to see if he would suddenly try to launch himself from her lap or otherwise make more trouble for her, but he didn't. Rather, he only continued to lay there doing nothing as he slowly got his breathing under control, giving her the clear impression that he wasn't going to be fighting back anymore.

Parker really was young, she thought, looking at the slender outline of his body as he huffed, taking in the narrow contours of his face. It wasn't too late for her to turn him around, despite how stubborn he was, if she was already making progress in getting him to sit still a minute. "Ready to listen to somebody else for a change?"

Tigra raised an eyebrow as Parker turned to look over his own shoulder scornfully at her. Was it a trick of the light, or were his eyes a little damp? His mouth made a tight line of intended silence and he looked away from her again, in this way at least defying her. She just shook her head at the fact that he was still so willful.

"You have only ever taken your own council, right? Never even occurred to you with your gang to allow anyone else in on the actual plan making… just wanted to be the one to make all the decisions, call all the shots. Rather foolish of you not to realize that a little humility can be super useful; many in your crew had years of experience."

"Have years of experience," Parker corrected.

She brought her hand up from where it had rested at the small of his back and brought it back down in a flash, the swat she delivered ringing out loudly in the silence that had fallen between them. Parker hissed his pain and annoyance.

"HAD," she said, growling the word loudly, "Those guys would never accept you back after the fall your reputation has taken even if you somehow found a way to restore your powers despite me and the rest of the Avengers, which you won't. You are done with them and they are done with you; the sooner you accept it the sooner you can move on."

He seemed to realize the implied threat of her smacking him again for daring to argue, that he was still vulnerable to further punishment and the fact that she kept him laying over her knee was for ease of access. So he didn't try to refute her, only turning his head to look away as he growled his annoyance deep in his throat.

Tigra went on, satisfied that there wouldn't be any further interruptions, "Your opportunity to learn from those guys is gone, but it's no great loss; they had little good to teach you anyways. They are a long list of failures and they could ultimately only teach you to land prison or a coffin just like they inevitably will."

Parker just growled again by way of reply, and Tigra shook her head, giving him another light swat across the backside to show him what she thought of his continued belligerence, "All right then; I have decided to keep you here at the Academy until such time as you have shown the necessary reform to let you go, just like any prison."

His head jerked around to look at her with wide, surprised eyes, "What?"

She only nodded to his shocked expression, "Well, I just went over how pointless an actual prison would be for you, and this method will further help by removing the option for you to converse with other lowlifes. You don't need that kind of influence anymore, either for them on you or you on them; it's time you benefitted from some positive education."

Parker's face screwed up at the mention of education, "What, like you are going to add me to the school roster here?" He began to laugh at her and she quieted him down to a hiss with another loud swat to his still exposed backside.

"Exactly. I'm aware that you dropped out of school in order to help pay the bills after your mom got really sick. Your dad had died and there was no money coming in so you did what you had to and that's really admirable. But since then you've gained the opportunity to finish your education and never even bothered to try."

He shook his head, giving her an incredulous look, "I don't need to go back to school, I…"

"Know everything there is to know?" She cut him off, giving him her own sardonic look, "Yeah see now that is exactly the mentality I was just talking about. You thinking you know everything about everything is part of why you're lying in my lap right now."

Parker's face darkened as a deep frown settled over it and he turned away again, but he didn't try to object this time, so she continued, "We're going to start by getting you a G.E.D., and then we can decide what sort of actual life skills you might have or pursue to become a functioning member of society just like the rest of the world."

He scoffed again, "What not going to put me in the Avenger's Academy general class? Should be a riot what with my last interactions with your 'noble' students."

Tigra shook her head, overlooking his sarcasm, "You don't have any powers and never again will, so there is no reason for you to train in most of the courses they train in."

She surprised him then, "But I do think that a number of the ethics lessons that they are taught here might be good for you, in addition perhaps to some of the more general education lectures and of course P.E."

Parker blinked at her, wondering if she was joking, "Seriously?"

Tigra grabbed ahold of Parker then and hauled him to his feet as she stood from the bed in one smooth motion, "Seriously. I already have a line-up of teachers that would do you some good, too, though they aren't retainers here at the Academy so I'll have to outsource a little to fill out our roster to where I'd like it to be for you."

He couldn't believe his ears, "You plan on getting other Avengers in on this nonsense? You do realize that what you are doing is highly illegal, right? I'm supposed to be in prison and you're basically guilty of kidnaping."

She cocked an eyebrow, "Admitting that you're a kid, brat?"

Before his teeth could clamp too tightly she laughed and responded, "The system is convinced they already have Parker Robbins; we can always clear that mess up later. As far as kidnapping you…" She leaned in with a fanged and toothy smile as she practically whispered, "Are you going to tell the authorities how I abducted and spanked you?"

Parker's face twisted in an expression of humiliated surprise and her smile broadened, "Yeah I didn't think so. So here is the plan; I will give you a list of things to do each day and you damn well better do them, or else we're going to have a repeat of this fun little experience." She gave him a moment to let that sink in, enjoying his frown.

"On top of that there are going to be rules, just like with any school…"

He interrupted, "Don't you mean prison?"

Her eyebrow quirked but otherwise she ignored his comment, "…Rule number one is you don't get to skip school; any attempt to leave the premises without both permission and an acceptable escort with leave you butt-hurt."

She held up a hand with two fingers extended so that her claws grazed his chin, "Rule number two; you have to actually do your list of chores, regardless of how simple or meaningless it might feel to you. No one gets to sluff off in the Avenger's academy, and you won't be an exception to the rule. Try this rule and you'll be sore."

Parker's frown just kept getting deeper and his face darkened over both her ultimatums and the punishments via humiliation she continued to promise if he didn't submit to them. She held up three fingers then, "Rule three; You must follow the commands given to you by any member of the Academy staff, no exceptions, or I spank you."

He huffed irritably, "If the threat for non-compliance is the same for all of them why not just…" his words ended as she put a long slender finger to his lips, silencing him. "Ah-ah… no interrupting. That pertains to Rule number four; no backtalk! I'm stressing how I'm going to tan your hide repeatedly so you get how serious I am about it. Don't make me force you to cry, Parker."

This earned her a snarl, which only made Tigra chuckle again, patting Parker patronizingly on the arm just below the shoulder, "Like Steve would say, 'Buck up, champ'. It's not like you don't have the option to avoid this terrible and most ultimate of humiliations…" she held up a finger, winking at him, "…all you have to do is follow the rules."

Parker looked away from her with a most dour expression on his face and she could practically see the gears turning in his head; he was already brainstorming how exactly he was going to escape from the Academy despite the risk implied. Tigra couldn't read minds, but she was very good at profiling, so she didn't foresee him surprising her in this.

The hand that had patted him tightened around his bicep as she turned and yanked him along with her rather abruptly. Parker made a small grunt as he was tugged along, Tigra still smiling, apparently enjoying this entire experience, "Let's go see your new room shall we? We have several guest rooms in this house that Hank afforded us, and…"

She gestured grandly with the arm that was not locked onto her unwilling tour-mate, indicating a room that was only just across from the large room that Parker had guessed to be her own room. "…I chose this one, since I wanted you as close as possible to me and Hank. The baby is on the other side, so you shouldn't have to worry about his crying waking you…"

He blinked at her, "You had a baby with Hank Pym? Wait… you brought a known criminal into some sort of house arrest situation in the same building that you are keeping your baby?"

Her hand let go of his arm and suddenly latched itself around his throat, startling Parker into a panicked cough as he realized that he could no longer breathe.

Both of his hands shot up to his neck, trying to pry her slightly oversized feline clawed hand from him, but even with just her hand her grip was downright impossible to break, like an iron vise had secured itself to block passage of air into his lungs. His face quickly turned red as his wide and frightened eyes took in the dark look on her face.

Tigra's smile was gone entirely, in its place a cold look like that of a viper deciding whether or not to strike. Her eyes told him that he had fucked up in even implying that he might be a threat to her son, and she backed that up with her words, "You won't touch William. You won't go near him without permission."

Parker's desperation to breathe grew greater as his hands clawed at hers, his head nodding as he tried hard to rasp out a reply in the affirmative, "Yesss….."

She watched him a moment longer as he started to look a bit purple in the face, his eyes going bloodshot, "You wouldn't want anyone hurting your kid, Parker; and you should know better than to be threatening family by now."

He tried his best to nod acknowledgement, a fearful part of him wondering if he had pushed the wrong maternal instinct buttons in a woman clearly given to very strong instinctual response. Was he going to die because she went a little too savage? His eyes began to roll up in his head as his mouth gasped at precious air he could not swallow.

Just before the curtains of blackness that had begun to develop on the either side of his field of vision began to close toward the center of inevitable unconsciousness and presumably imminent death via asphyxiation, Tigra finally released her stranglehold upon his neck and Parker fell to his knees upon the floor, gasping raggedly for air.

Fear of how close he'd just come to being murdered thrummed through him like a cold knife as he slowly stood, one hand clutching at the bruises on his neck that her hand had left. He stared at her wide-eyed, wondering how aware she was of the wild look that had just suffused her for those moments when she had threatened to end him over a comment.

Her countenance seemed to have returned to normal for the time being, though, as she visibly shook herself, clearly reasserting control of her incredibly strong matron response to his veiled or implied threat to her baby. She licked her lips and an awkward silence descended between them for a few moments.

Shit, she thought. I took that farther than I intended; he started talking in that same tone he used that night he attacked me and I snapped there. I don't actually want to terrify the kid; I should try to de-escalate this situation a bit. She put her hands on her hips and did her best to assume a neutral stance, "Just don't make me think you're going to try anything funny, okay?"

Parker nodded slowly, gulping through a pained throat, still rubbing at a raw jugular. He supposed he should have known with powers like hers, a name like hers, and an outfit that was entirely fur, claws and fangs that Tigra would be a bit animalistic. And it wasn't like he wouldn't have freaked out if someone had threatened Brianne.

Given that they were still bitter enemies, he decided he should keep the death threats she had made to him back at the police station in mind and not flippantly run his mouth in a way that might remind her of his terrible behavior when he had assaulted her in her flat. As a person who felt a strong sense of such values, he could understand her fear and why she might lash out at implications against family.

It took a few moments, but he finally found his voice again, though it came out a bit raspy and hurt a little at first to talk as the internal parts of his throat sought to realign to where they should be, "I wasn't saying I would… I got off on the wrong foot with that comment… I- I'm sorry?" He met her gaze for a moment and then looked away, embarrassed to find himself apologizing.

Tigra simply nodded to his apology, seeming appeased, "Good. I didn't think you would be threatening my William, and I think by now I have made it abundantly clear that you won't be doing much of anything unmonitored. This room might look normal enough but this house was built by Hank Pym; your door won't open unless one of us opens it."

Parker frowned at that, "Oh, lovely; a gilded cage."

She shrugged in reply to his statement, "Has to be better than the shit cage you have that dude wearing your face sitting in, right? We have Netflix here; you think he's got Netflix?"

He blinked at her, "You're going to let me watch T.V.? What, like I can just hang out on your couch?"

Tigra shook her head, holding up a finger, "Not unless you are done with your tasks for the day, only when supervised, and you will not be in control of the remote."

Parker's brow knitted as he considered what she said, feeling conflicted and confused as to why Tigra would give him so many privileges beyond what he would find in prison.

After thinking on it for a moment he queried, "So what is all of this sudden reformation crap about? Do you actually feel… regret for what your students did or something? Is this all to ease your conscience about them taking matters into their own hands and doing to me what I had done to you? I'm sure you've seen that video by now."

She nodded an affirmative to his last statement, "I did see the video; I made clear earlier that I knew exactly what they did to you, and no, I don't think that what they did was the same as what you did to me at all." She glowered at him, "You'll recall that they only demanded your apology, and did no lasting damage to your person."

Tigra went on, "Also, they did not threaten your family in any way, nor did they hurt anyone other than you, the person who deserved the treatment he was getting. They were acting out of outrage to what you did to me, driven by a strong sense of justice, while what you did was nothing more than a power play rooted in greed."

He clearly didn't like having her use a word like 'deserved' concerning the experience her students had given him, his eyes tightening and his frown growing deeper, but Parker didn't raise his voice against that descriptor, either, since deep down he couldn't help but agree on at least some level that he had earned that 'justice' she hinted at.

She kept talking since he didn't object, taking note of his darkening countenance, "So no, Parker, I do not feel even the slightest shred of guilt that my students decided to pay you a visit and deliver to you some of the very same medicine you had dished out to me. I do not fully condone their actions, as they were against the rules, though."

That last bit got Parker's attention, and he gave her a curious look. Tigra smiled, glad to see that she had surprised him with that; apparently Parker still thought she was all hellish fury and vengeance. He should know that she had a reasonable side too, "I punished my students quite severely; Avengers need to be above petty vengeance."

Parker smirked, "Oh yeah? Well I have it under good authority that you took on some rather personable vendettas against my boys after what I had done to you. Kind of hard to preach such classy virtues when you're running around being a hypocrite, right?"

Her own smile had turned into a frown, "Yes, I'll admit to being human and desiring revenge, though I assure you I arrested those men in a humane fashion."

She gave him a rough push towards the door and he nearly tripped over himself trying not to fall from the sudden movement, "I subjected each of them to justice, even if my motivations were tainted by fear and hatred. Tell me, Parker Robbins; how reasonably would you have acted if someone had humiliated you publicly, shot you, beat you, and threatened your mother?"

"Hey!" Parker cried out as he was shoved again, pushed down the adjoining hallway towards the front of the house where they had entered. He had to admit, at least to himself, that he would probably have acted very similarly to Tigra if someone had done to him what he'd done to her. In fact, he likely would have murdered those men instead of arresting them.

Tigra pointed at the large room that were currently standing in, a spacious area with a matching set of couches and a huge entertainment stand that sported a television that spoke of the money being an Avenger had supplied to Tigra… or should he be considering this place Hank Pym's? Pym was a man Parker knew to be very wealthy.

Wealthier even than Tigra, being as he had been a very successful scientist and government researcher even before his radically advanced technology had landed him a preeminent spot on the Avengers team. Now that they were together he supposed they must be rather comfortable; he had seen Tigra's flat back when he had attacked her, and she had already been rather well off.

As she pointed she explained, "This would be the living room; you will be allowed to venture here from your room assuming you are both reflecting good behavior and under supervision. As expressed earlier, don't expect to be in control of the remote; you're still a prisoner here, so this isn't the Holiday Express where you get to kick back and enjoy yourself."

Parker rolled his eyes, "Yeah, I figured."

She nodded curtly, "How astute of you. Behind us is the dining room area followed by the kitchen…"

He interrupted her, "What, not going to walk me back there?"

Tigra put her hands on her hips, "I'm not a hostess, Parker. You can see the dining room, and you'll have no need to ever go in the kitchen. Go in there and I'll kick your ass."

Parker's lip curled but he didn't argue; it only made sense that she wouldn't want him going into the kitchen area. While it was entirely possible she was being a control freak who simply didn't want him to be able to snack at will, it was far more likely she wanted him to stay away from whatever cutlery existed within.

He folded his arms over his chest as she drew her finger at him sharply as she stalked past, "Come." Parker didn't much care for heeling like some sort of servile pet, but his cheeks still burned with remembrance of what had happened the last time he had refused her, so with a grumble he finally obliged and followed.

A dozen steps led them out past the front porch and into the yard outside. Parker had been carried through here when they had arrived so his view had been erratic and difficult to follow, but now that he was standing on the front lawn he could see that there was a sand box and several large colorful objects that could only be the toys of a very small child.

Those didn't seem to be what Tigra had brought him out for, though, as she pointed out across the compound, "There is the lecture hall, where you will be required to take a few general courses with the other students, and over there is the gymnasium and field for physical education, which you will be granted a special instructor to oversee you for."

Parker huffed, his arms still crossed defiantly across his chest as he rolled his eyes, "Look, lady, I was never really the track and field kind of guy; P.E. just isn't my thing."

She glanced at him then, pausing to run her eyes up and down the length and breadth of his body, "Yes, I can see that."

He growled, leaning forward as he dropped his hands down into fists, "What the fuck is that supposed to mean? I'm fit enough; I got my physical education on the street. I sure as hell kicked your ass didn't I?" Just as quickly as he had advanced he backed up a few paces as she charged forward, grabbing his collar and putting her snarling face nose to nose with his.

Her voice was furious as she spoke, "Are you really sure you want to bring that up? I assure you that there's a big difference between sucker punching someone from hiding and attacking them with weapons than actually kicking someone's ass, or do you want me to give you a very real demonstration of what that looks like now?"

Slowly Parker put his hands up palm forward in a classical gesture of surrender, swallowing both his fear and his pride as he gulped, knowing that he didn't stand a chance against Tigra in a real fight. She might not know it, but his ancient magical relic had been giving him strength he otherwise did not possess too, further widening the gap in strength between them now that he didn't have it.

If they fought now she'd turn him into a rude smear on the grass and Parker had definitely had more than enough humiliation for one day, so he was going to have to opt for the lesser evil of feeling the chagrin that came with letting her bully him into submission with her threats again. He looked away, feeling her heated gaze still locked on him.

For her part Tigra returned her hands to her hips and sighed at Parker, noting that his bluster had fled from him like air from a punctured balloon, "Well if you ever decide you're feeling froggy you just let me know little man and we'll see how me on you plays out when I see you coming." Another sigh followed the first as she turned away.

"You know, Parker… sometimes I still wonder why you targeted me. There were plenty of other Avengers out there that you had beef with, so why me? We had never even met before that day." Parker cleared his throat, still looking away from her, his gaze wandering out to look over the other buildings arranged in a semi-circle around the entrance to the compound.

"I, um… that day you and Jigsaw had butted heads earlier in the evening. I had your info gathered from public records due to the Registration Act, and of all the guys present that night, his enemy was the one I could reach immediately." She crossed her arms over her chest as she glared at him, taking in his face as her eyes narrowed.

Tigra had quite a bit of experience feeling out perps on the street, and Parker was actually easier to read than many she'd analyzed, likely on account of the fact that he was still young. When he ducked his head a little and knitted his brow as he continued to avoid eye contact, she recognized all the classic signs of guilt.

Not only that, but she was fairly certain that he wasn't faking it either. Parker had gotten used to literally being invisible, hiding his face under a shadowed cowl when he wasn't. While he showed some predisposition to bluffing that he was a hardass, which every kid that grew up on the street learned, he didn't have any reason to be especially good at faking remorse.

"So I guess I was just unlucky then, huh?" she huffed.

Parker grunted, "Stupid, more like. I'm not sure how you and every other powered person who signed up for Registration didn't see the giant target you were painting on your own backs."

She snarled in response, "Some of us weren't criminals, and couldn't afford to become such."

He took a step back as she casually took one towards him. She wasn't doing anything overtly threatening, but he felt threatened anyways, "It really sucked that Stark and the government did that, and we agreed that it was stupid, but a lot of us chose to try to have faith that we could make it work anyways, because we didn't really have a choice. I wasn't about to hide to protect myself."

Parker blinked at her; he'd never really thought about what it might have been like for people working legit jobs trying to hold their lives together during the Registration Act. Her viewpoint gave him a little perspective he'd never bothered to have before, so he looked away from her again, nonetheless unwilling to admit he might have been wrong.

Tigra shook herself of the fog that seemed to have descended between the two of them while speaking of the Registration Act; a thing that both of them could agree had been bad for everyone involved. She gestured to the house in a way that insisted he get moving, "Let's head back inside. I've got calls to make to get you set up."

He frowned, "What if I want to stay out here and get some more fresh air?" She didn't miss a beat; Parker was prodding the limits of what he could reasonably request, seeing where she would draw her lines. She thought on it for just a moment and decided where those lines needed to be for now.

"Get to your room; you aren't allowed outside unsupervised."

His jaw worked to show his displeasure, but Parker was far from surprised with her decision. She could probably easily enough watch him from a window, and if he ran he wouldn't make it far before her superhuman speed overtook him, so this was just her telling him that his freedoms and rights were, quite simply, none.

Parker only grunted in an annoyed but obliging fashion as he made his way back towards the door that lead into the house, Tigra following on his heels. She hadn't just told him to go inside, he thought, she'd told him to 'go to his room'. In the context of how she had treated him during her 'punishment', he found this intentional and demeaning.

He wasn't actually in a position to do anything about her demands, though, an infuriating but nonetheless true fact. So with head down and feet shuffling in despondent rhythm he made his way back to the room that was to become his cell in the gilded prison that Tigra had arranged for him, wondering what was going to come next.

Parker had imagined many scenarios, but he had to admit he had not expected this one. Tigra had spent much of the evening speaking on the phone the prior night, presumably to other Avengers she hoped to rope into her little game of 'Imprison the Hood.' Parker had tried hard to listen from the door to his room, but had been unable to make out anything.

Her tones had remained conversational, but he suspected from the number of times he heard changes in the conversations after what he assumed to be pauses where she redialed for a separate phone exchange, quite a few people must have turned her down. At first he found the notion hilarious and took humor in the thought of her failure.

Now he wondered if it might have been better if she had succeeded in getting her first picks, those that she would have thought the best supervisors for him. As it was, the person he now stared at, whom was apparently in command of Parker's P.E. class, was not a person he would have ever expected to be hand-picked for him.

As Luke Cage commanded the other students to line up Parker frowned deeply, thinking that this was a mistake in an assortment of ways. Setting aside the fact that he and Cage had fought bitterly in every encounter they had ever had before, the young students that the huge Avenger assembled before him were more than known to Parker.

The three of them stared at Parker in equal surprise to be seeing him there, but since Cage was not reacting to Parker's presence negatively they said nothing despite their wild looks of confusion. Luke turned to Parker, "What are you waiting for, kid; I said line up! Right there next to the others, and we'll get this show on the road."

With some amount of uncertainty but at least able to revel in the fact that these kids are just as surprised and maybe indignant to see him here, Parker shuffled forward to line up with the others. Apparently this was too much for them to not question, and the kid Parker knew as Striker stepped up, "What is the Hood doing here?"

Another student, Hazmat, also chimed in, "Yeah, isn't he still supposed to be in jail? I mean, the fact that the three of us are the only ones you asked out for this special practice is also highly suspect…"

Parker had considered the same thing; there was no way the three kids from the Academy whom had assaulted him would be presented this way accidentally.

As he glared at them and they returned the favor, Luke Cage finally spoke up, standing before them all with his thick powerful arms crossed over his chest, "Yeah so it's obvious, what with your shared history, that we're gonna need to get your four to some kind of terms if you are all gonna be sharing the same class halls."

Parker had known this was coming, of course, and could only smirk to see the reactions in the kids when they paused to consider this news. Striker's face twisted into an angry scowl, "What?! This is the prick that assaulted Tigra! What are you just letting anyone who applies in the front door? What the hell is going on here?!"

Luke held up a hand to silence the angry youth, "Slow your roll, big guy; you are all here as special cases considering each of your unique pasts, and Parker Robbins here is no exception. Besides, it was Tigra herself that is the person responsible for having him enrolled in the Academy in the first place. Today we're gonna resolve our differences, at least enough to get along."

The other two kids were clearly shocked into silence, likely by the notion that Tigra would have had anything to do with bringing Parker into the school. Striker, however, seemed unable to let it go at that, "I don't know what's up with that, but there is no way we are going to 'get along'. This guy is a walking mistake and I'll have nothing to do with him."

Parker bristled at the insult, stepping forward from the line-up to move closer to Striker as he also balled his fists, "Yeah I bet you feel pretty high and mighty being as the three of you jumped me in a very similar fashion to how I did her. Did it never occur to you that you were actually doing the same thing as me, or do you usually copy people unknowingly?"

It didn't take much to provoke Striker at this point, and he bowed right back up to Parker, his own countenance becoming even more irate as he closed the distance so that the two of them were very close, "What's that, douchebag? Need another ass-whooping to set you straight? Tigra is obviously pulling some kind of PR move but I think you don't belong here!"

Cage folded his arms around himself tightly and stepped back, saying nothing. Hazmat gestured at him, "Are you going to put your two cents in on this? These two are about to duke it out on Academy grounds! Striker, if Tigra wanted him here I don't think she'd want you to fight him…"

Striker only replied by yelling into Parker's face, "Screw this guy!"

Luke shook his head, if anything a slightly amused look crossing his features as he gestured back at Hazmat in a manner that implied he thought she should back away from the man and teenager whom were glaring so fiercely at each other, "Actually Hazmat, I think this might be a good way to clear the air. You two go ahead, just keep it fair, so no powers, Striker."

The younger man looked over at Luke Cage in surprise, obviously caught completely off guard that the tall Avenger was encouraging violence, but Parker was ready and willing to capitalize on Striker's moment of distraction. He lashed out immediately, his fist driving into Striker's face as he followed the vicious blow with several more while the youth backpedaled.

Striker shook off his surprise and snapped into a fighting stance after taking Parker's third swing, his face reflecting how much damage Parker had managed to do in that short time with a grimace. Parker saw that he had collected himself, though, and while Striker was obeying Luke's order not to use his powers, Parker seemed to have no inclination towards fair fighting.

The older man's hand whipped into the soft soil at their feet as he ducked down and he threw the dirt into Striker's face, launching himself at the teenager in to wake of the blinding barrage and driving the smaller youth to the ground with a shoulder tackle. Parker knew this kid was trained, and he had no intention of letting Striker react.

As soon as the two of them hit the grassy turf Parker quickly moved to concrete his position over Striker, leaping up to straddle the slightly smaller youth and flailing his fists into Striker's face, making it impossible for Striker to do anything other than guard his face from Parker's repeated punches, his arms curling up to block himself.

This went on for a few moments, Parker raining blows on Striker a while longer before Cage's voice could be heard from behind, "All right; that's enough." Parker gave Striker one last hard punch that caught the youth solidly in the jaw and then stood up, backing away a step as Striker quickly rose to his feet, wiping at his bruised jaw.

Luke chuckled, "All that punching, Parker, and you were mostly just wearing yourself out… but that bruise on Striker's face will hopefully remind him that youthful arrogance doesn't actually equate to fighting ability."

Striker huffed, irritated, "He doesn't have any ability… he cheated!"

Cage folded his arms again and gave Striker a severe look, "There isn't much 'cheating' in a real fight; he wasn't doing anything you couldn't have done, and what he did was certainly something you could have countered. Parker is a dirty fighter, and his style is actually a great lesson for all of you; sometimes skill can be overpowered by resourcefulness."

He shook his head then, "That said, you have a lot to learn about fighting, Parker. If Striker knew how to fight from the ground he would have reversed your little bit of advantage easily, and might of figured it out anyways if I'd let that go on. Then you would have been hurting, because you wouldn't be surprising him with your aggressiveness anymore."

The expressions of both men dictated that neither was happy with the outcome given Luke's appraisal of it now, Parker's momentary surge of victorious triumph crushed because he knew Luke was speaking from a wealth of experience, and his assessment sounded about right. It was more than a little humiliating that he was so outclassed by a teenager. At least he had won this time…

Luke pointed at Hazmat, "You want to fight Parker too, or can we all set old grudges aside long enough to actually train here?"

Hazmat held up a hand and let out an annoyed breath, "Whatever. Kicking his ass isn't going to make me feel any better. I'd rather know why he's here; he doesn't even have any powers…"

Cage waved off what she said dismissively, "Tigra's reasons should be clear; it isn't like we haven't taken in a host of guys and gals that did some sorted shit in their past before. Hell, I'm an ex-con, does that mean I don't deserve to be here? As far as the powers thing, I think you are letting that go to your head a little, or have you forgotten that Tony, Steve, Hank, Clint, and a slew of others don't have powers?"

This caused the assembled youths to go quiet, though Striker continued to glare with the utmost enmity at Parker, whom responded with an equally ugly glare. Luke shook his head and waved a hand dismissively, "All right then, since this is probably as friendly as it's gonna get, let's get started on our actual training."

Luke Cage had the three teenagers and Parker begin doing things that seemed to Parker out of place in a school designed for people with crazy powers. They did pull-ups, push-ups, jumping jacks and a great deal of running around a track that ran the width and breadth of the complex. Parker had never enjoyed P.E., and he found that had not changed over the years.

To make matters worse, he was the absolute worst at each item they undertook. He wasn't weak or slow, or at least, he hadn't thought he was. But when he found himself next to those three kids he was constantly made to feel awkward, uncoordinated, slow and clumsy. They burned through obstacle courses as he carefully picked his way through.

When he tried to push faster so that Striker's smiling punk ass wouldn't lap him, he failed entirely and often fell on his face. He would grit his teeth to get past the humiliation of being shown up by everyone else present and keep pushing, knowing that they would only be too happy to see him quit. He might lose, but it wouldn't be because he gave up.

Apparently, Luke seemed to pick up on his frustration and overall mentality, perhaps from the way he grunted angrily every time Striker lapped him. "You know, Parker, this is training, not a race. There's no finish line, only building a better body and a bit of discipline. So you might want to ease up; push too hard day one and you won't make it through day two."

Parker ignored him, continuing just as he had been; if nothing else, he'd prove that bald asshole that he was wrong. Parker wasn't about to slow down because he'd been asked to. Of course, that idea began to become very unpopular with Parker's body as the day went on. It seemed that the Avenger's P.E. wasn't merely some hour long jaunt.

When Luke went right on demanding more exercises back to back, and even Parker could tell that far more than an hour had passed, he realized that this whole thing was much more akin to a marathon than a sprint. Even the others were getting winded now, and Parker was dead on his feet. He ended up slowing down because he couldn't keep up the pace.

As Cage watched them and finally brought his wrist watch up to his face to let them know they were almost done for the day, Parker was struggling just to stay on his feet. They were doing a tire obstacle course now, and he kept tripping, desperately flailing to stay upright, because he knew if he hit the ground now he might not be able to get back up.

He pushed with all of his might, now completely sure that he should have listened to Cage earlier; with the pain in his body now, a similar training session tomorrow was going to be the very physical definition of hell on earth. But he had to keep going to the end, so he kept it up, collapsing to a seated position in the grass when Luke told them to break.

Striker was too tired to mock Parker, or perhaps the fact that Parker had tried so hard had earned some form of grudging respect. Or, Parker thought darkly, the kid had lapped him so often that he could only see the older man as a pathetic creature not worth the time. But regardless of why, all three of his previous attackers filed away wordlessly.

Cage walked over and sat next to him, "Good way to start the day, right?" Parker wanted to groan, but suppressed the desire due to not wanting Luke to have the satisfaction of hearing him complain about the obviously designed to break him drill. It was rough to think that this was just the morning routine. Seeing that Parker wasn't going to respond he went on.

"You've got a few ethics classes to attend with the others in about an hour and a half. I was told that you'd be going to the study room to work on general education stuff until then. We don't really have teachers here for that kind of stuff, but if you ever feel you need help with anything, feel free to bug Hank… academics was never really my thing."

Parker narrowed his eyes as he glanced over at Cage, leaning back on his arms for support. He was pretty sure he's fall over if he didn't lock his arms that way, and it was an extreme effort to get words out as he huffed in an attempt to get his breathing back on track, "What exactly do you have in all this? Why do you want to 'help' me?"

Cage laughed at him, a deep, throaty thing that carried well over the grassy knoll they sat on, "You think everybody's got an angle, huh? That kind of thinking can keep you safe in prison, but do you really think that everybody's out to get something from you? Maybe we all have reasons for everything we do, but they don't always have to be selfish, right?"

The younger man rasped at him tiredly, clearly reluctant to believe what he was extolling, "So you came here to manage a bunch of annoying kids and an illegally imprisoned escaped convict out of the kindness of your heart? Bullshit."

Luke frowned at Parker, "I did it because Tigra asked, and because she thought I was a good pick."

It was Parker's turn to frown; he had been pretty sure that the massive Avenger had been a very poor match for him, and had assumed that he had been some sort of last resort alternative pick, "And exactly why is that?"

Cage shrugged, "Probably because I'm an ex-con. She wanted you to see that your past doesn't have to limit you."

Parker huffed, irritated beyond measure, "How fucking cliché. I bet both you dipshits actually buy into that garbage, too. Weren't you actually framed for what put you in the pen, anyways? You're about as hard as a wet marshmallow."

Luke raised an eyebrow at that, "Oh well lookie here, someone did some homework. And what a creative insult."

Suddenly Cage's hand lashed out and Parker's vision dulled as the ground suddenly rushed up into his face. The mountain of an Avenger stood behind him now, holding his head into the dirt, "This is about how I would of reacted if some punk kid liked you had spouted off like that back in the yard. Feel more like prison now?"

The much smaller man struggled in vain to push off the ground for a moment before giving up, trying his best to blow the dirt out of his nostrils as grit filled his mouth upon speaking, "Okay, I get it! Jeez, you Avengers are fucking violent!"

Cage released the back of his head and Parker scrambled up, spitting over and over in an attempt to clean the dirt from his mouth as he wiped at his face. He shot Luke an ugly look as he sat up again, noting that Cage was still completely calm; trouncing Parker into the dirt had been a run of the mill action for him, nothing exciting at all.

Luke gestured towards him and then poked a thumb behind himself instructionally, "You should watch what you say and do around here; this place is full of violent Avengers who are just waiting to put you in line. You look rested enough; pack it up and get your ass a shower then head over to the Study Hall so you can use the computers to further your education."

Parker stood but his face belied that he thought the idea of doing what Luke was telling him to do was ridiculous, "What's the point? You're an ex-con, you should know by now that even if I get my G.E.D. it won't mean jack for getting anywhere. I could have graduated from Harvard with flying colors and I'd still get blackballed."

Cage just stared at him, impassive, "It's true; there aren't a lot of opportunities out there for an ex-con to get employed. A whole lot of folks don't follow the law when it comes to that, and even more simply can't believe that a convict might actually want to start over. But few opportunities doesn't mean no opportunities; you saying you wanna give up without trying?"

That wasn't what Parker was saying, was it? For a moment his eyes locked with Luke's, and he had to at least consider that he might be trying to take the easy way out to avoid doing something hard. Parker frowned, "Why do I have to take your stupid ethics lessons? I probably know more than whoever is teaching it; I've read Nietzsche."

Luke rolled his eyes at Parker, "Yeah, and I'm sure that makes you an authority. You sound just like every other arrogant prick I've listened too who thought his education was better than everyone else's. Look man just go to the class and listen; maybe you'll learn something. If not, fine, but I'd say that if you had a firm lock on ethics you wouldn't be a wanted criminal."

Parker scowled but offered no further argument, seeming to prefer to simply walk away from the serious expression that was leveled his way from Luke Cage's way. He moved quickly towards the gym for a shower, his speed spurned from his desire to be away from Cage's preaching. After cleaning up, he moved toward the building that had been pointed out twice to him now as the 'Study Hall'.

He slowed down significantly now that he was out of earshot of any further attempts by Luke to 'educate' him, largely due to the pains that had started to accumulate in his tortured legs. The worst part had been all of that incessant running; who the hell needed to train by running laps over and over? When would that be useful?

The interior of the Hall was entirely deserted, and Parker was pleased to see that the quiet there was not disturbed as he looked around, almost expecting someone to round a corner and give him the next set of grief scheduled for today. But no one presented themselves, and it quickly became clear that he had the place to himself.

No one to look a gift horse in the mouth, Parker started to give himself a small tour of the place, seeing what exactly was in the building. Apparently not much. A large number of classrooms of various sizes filled with desks facing old school blackboards and projection screens alike, a couple auditoriums, and several rooms filled with computers.

He quickly passed over the classrooms and auditoriums, heading into the computer room closest to him. He tried a door just inside labeled 'servers', but it was unsurprisingly locked, much as he would expect a janitor's closet to be. He was supposed to be using one of these computers to study, but no one was here to tell him what to do.

Not that Parker was in a hurry to actually do the nonsense busywork Tigra had dictated for him, but he found it surprising that with all of her planning that she would just let him run loose at this stage of it. Parker was no hacker, but he had plenty of savvy with computers, and he couldn't help but wonder what he could get into from here.

His aspirations were crushed immediately, of course, as he sat down to find that the computers all had the same login screen, and that the things were more automated than manual. As soon as he was in front of the screen a red light flashed near the upper right side of the screen, and an electronic voice buzzed out at him in a monotone just loud enough to be heard.

"User identified: Parker Robbins. Opening introductory coursework and optional user interface utility guide."

Parker frowned to see that what little he had access to was all gated behind remote or programmed materials. He sighed; so much for digging around.

Irritated that there wasn't anything obvious to allow him to get at whatever data might be in the computer, he tried seeing if there might be another option, "Computer, let me have Admin privileges?"

The metallic voice came back, this time distinctly sounding of sarcasm, "Right away Parker Robbins; please allow me to pull the Pentagon's intel up for you while I'm at it."

Parker rolled his eyes. Great, even the computers were going to give him a hard time here. He pushed himself away from the desk and stood. The tinny voice from the machine sounded out immediately when he did so, "0% of today's scheduled coursework completed. It is advised that you continue your studies before next class, Parker Robbins."

He didn't bother looking back at the machine as his instead flipped up a middle finger, which he extended in the general direction of the computer as he walked back out to the door that led out of Study Hall. He cracked the door open, and making sure that no one was watching, he slipped out and started to make his way toward the compound entrance.

It was a relatively short walk, despite the large size of the college grounds, due to the fact that the walkways between buildings had been planned to allow people traveling from one place to another to go there in as direct a line as possible. City planners could take notes on this, Parker thought, considering how jacked roads were back home.

Once he arrived at the open gate to the compound and started to take his first step out toward the pavement that lead to freedom, wondering why the Avengers didn't have some fat donut eating gate guard, he suddenly ran into something he couldn't see and tripped up before his face smacked into some sort of invisible barrier.

Rubbing his nose with a confused look on his face, Parker glanced up to see a device that looked like a roundish camera lower itself from the arch that spanned over the gate to the city outside of the Academy. That same tinny voice from the Study Hall rang out, "0% of today's scheduled coursework completed. It is advised that you continue your studies before next class, Parker Robbins."

His face crinkling in annoyance and intrigue at the same time, Parker kicked at the empty space in front of him, cringing as his foot bounced off of something solid that he could not see, "What the hell? Is this some kind of force field, like from Star Trek or something? Is this thing stopping everyone, or is it calibrated just to me?"

Clearly he wasn't going to be getting answers from the device, as it merely swiveled directly toward him and repeated, "0% of today's scheduled coursework completed. It is advised that you continue your studies before next class, Parker Robbins." Exasperated he rolled his eyes and turned away from the annoying machine, heading back out to the grassy field.

Still moving a bit stiffly due to the extreme exhaustion he had yet to recover from since the rather grueling exercise regimen that Luke Cage had enforced on him and the three young Avenger trainees, Parker glanced around to make sure no one else was around and then sat in the shade of a solitary oak tree, resting his back against it.

Taking a deep breath and seeking to bring his thoughts into order, Parker closed his eyes and tried his best to find that calm part of himself that was confident that it could think its way out of this whole mess. How best to escape this place? He opened an eye and glanced at the walls of the compound; they looked high and lacking in handholds.

Parker had some skill in climbing in an urban environment that living an illicit life on the streets had taught him. Climbing through windows and over roofs was a useful skill in both breaking and entering and avoiding the law. But this place was built like a damned fortress, and he didn't see himself finding a safe way over walls like those.

He closed his eyes again and allowed his thoughts to move inwards. That machine that had been up on the arch over the exit; had that been the device that was controlling that crazy wall of force that had blocked him from leaving? It had spoken at him, so it was possible that it wasn't even related, maybe just a fancy intercom.

Parker let out a slow breath, trying to breathe his frustration out with it so that he might think more clearly. Even if that machine had been tied to the force field, as far as Parker could tell it was on the other side of it, meaning that he had no way of destroying or tinkering with it to get it to drop the field so he could pass anyways.

As he allowed his thoughts to swirl around freely on the subject, trying to think on everything he had seen and heard since he had arrived at the Avengers Academy, Parker kept posing the question of whether each bit of information might be useful in finding an escape route. The answer continued to come up no.

After that he went further, letting his subconscious mind play with the same items all over again as he relaxed himself and tried his best to let intuition lead his conclusions. This was a trick he had found useful over the years for disseminating information and coming up with a plan for it, so as to be as creative as possible.

It really did pay to think outside of the box, he had always found, but in relaxing his mind he inadvertently also relaxed his body a bit too much, and since his eyes had already been closed, Parker didn't even register the threat of his impending lapse into unconsciousness until it was too late, and his tired body won out, his head dipping as he fell asleep.

Parker startled awake suddenly, perhaps because he had started sliding a little across the tree he leaned on, or perhaps because his internal clock was telling him that a fair portion of time had passed. Maybe it was just an effect of the noon day sun heating him, but whatever it was, it certainly wasn't because he felt rested enough.

He groaned a little as he slowly righted himself and just as slowly rose to standing. He worked his shoulder around in a slow circle, his hand massaging his arm as his aching legs sought a careful balance so as to put less stress on stiff muscles. He blinked as he glanced around the empty field, taking a moment to remember what he had been doing.

With weary eyes that felt heavy still with the recent effects of the lethargy that comes with recent waking, he took in all of the various buildings that encompassed the totality of what lay within the high walls that ran the perimeter of the Avengers Academy compound. None of them bore any sort of sign indicating what they were.

Well, he thought, that wasn't very convenient; now he was going to have to physically investigate each building to see what it was and of what use its contents might be in his mission to escape the personal hell that Tigra had consigned him to. Since he had literally taken a nap out here with no one bothering him, he assumed he had free reign of the place.

The arrogance of those in power, he thought to himself. They didn't think much of Parker, and assumed their crazy force field was going to be enough to keep him in here. A thought that he was going to be working very hard to disprove now. Since he'd put himself to sleep trying to brainstorm a solution with what he did know, he decided to learn more about his surroundings.

Risky perhaps, but nonetheless Parker had no better options, and he certainly wasn't going to look for his next 'Avengers class', so he trotted to the nearest building. The action made him sore but he pushed himself, both in the hopes that doing so would loosen his stiff muscles, and because the day was waning and he didn't want to push his luck.

Who knew when Tigra, Luke Cage or someone else would actually come looking for the errant unwilling student, and Parker intended to be gone by then if at all possible. He tried the door to the first building but it was locked, so he grunted in annoyance, and after checking to make sure there were no other entrances he continued to the next building.

He immediately passed that one by on realizing that it was where he was actually supposed to be, or at least he was fairly certain it was where he was now supposed to be, assuming he hadn't entirely missed the ethics classes that he was supposed to be attending. He instead moved on to the following building and then the one after that, but they were all locked.

Parker frowned. Were they usually locked like this, or was there some sort of automated system that kept buildings locked that weren't supposed to be in use, or perhaps they were locking specifically in response to his attempts to open doors to places that he wasn't supposed to be in? He wouldn't be terribly surprised.

At least, not given how automated the place seemed to be so far. That particular thought sent a chill down his spine, as he thought of the fact that maybe we wasn't as unwatched as he had originally assumed he was. He glanced around worriedly, for the first time concerned about dozens of cameras perhaps, or maybe spy drones.

He didn't see either, but that didn't mean they weren't there. With the crazy tech he had witnessed in this place already, he wouldn't put microscopic cameras past the Avengers. He hurried back to the only building he could actually enter, or at least the one he was supposed to be in, but he found that even this one was locked when he tried the door.

Parker frowned; he must either be late for class and therefore locked out, or missed the entire class, putting it in lockdown. Or maybe the fact that he had been playing hooky had locked every door possible to him. That thought made him sweat a little; they could have had this place pin him down so that Tigra could come 'scold' him.

It was a bit late to be doing so, but it was at this point that memories of what she had said concerning her elected punishments for not doing what he had been assigned to do came flooding back. Forgetting his soreness in his mounting anxiety, Parker hurried back to the building that he had started from in the morning; Tigra's place.

He was actually a little surprised that the door actually opened for him, and not entirely sure whether the fact that it did made him feel relieved or not. On one hand he felt like there was an option of somewhere to go, but on the other the sense that he was trapped did not diminish; in fact he felt like he might be intentionally cornering himself.

Glancing around with more than a little paranoia, Parker skulked into the house and scouted whether anyone was home. To his temporary relief he found that he was the only one there to his knowledge, though he didn't push his luck by trying the baby's room or Tigra's personal quarters. Instead he took another shower in the bathroom, mostly to try to relax.

Low on things to do he moved to the entrance to the kitchen, glancing around again to ensure that he was alone before passing into it. Tigra had made a big commotion about him not being allowed in here, but Parker felt like having a snack, and it might be nice to arm himself with a knife or something if that crazy bitch tried to assault him again.

Except that the moment he tried to step through the threshold of the kitchen a small machine suddenly zipped up in front of his face, blocking his way as it hovered before him, "You have been instructed that the kitchens are off-limits, Parker Robbins," rasped a familiar metallic voice. "You have missed your Ethics Classes and are still at 0%..."

Parker had heard as much as he was willing from this machine as it once again tried to remind him of the work he had no intention of completing. "Fuck off!" he yelled as he reached out to grab it, but the floating device easily dodged his efforts, continuing its mantra of how he hadn't finished his homework even as it did so.

After the drone had moved to avoid him Parker rushed past, intent on finding a suitable weapon; there had to be something here he could use like an improvised club to smash this thing so it would stop impeding and spying on him… but he had barely made it two steps before his body suddenly locked up as a jarring sensation swept through him.

He gasped, unable to say anything as the drone hit him with some sort of taser, the electrical current running through Parker's body quickly rendering all of the young man's muscles exhausted as he collapsed to the floor in a fit of spasms. He couldn't do anything but lay there as his body refused to cooperate, shocked into noncompliance.

His body continued to spasm and jerk sporadically as the machine took hold of him by the cuff of his pants and began to drag him back out of the room he wasn't allowed access to. After that it just kept dragging him, and Parker gave out an inarticulate, muffled shout of dismay that was supposed to be an inquiry of some kind.

Except that his tongue and jaw still refused to work properly even after the current had ceased to flow through his body. He was only just starting to get painful working order of his various parts and limbs as the machine finished dragging him down the hall and into the room that Tigra had designated as being his.

He was grabbing ahold of the bed and shakily regaining his feet as the machine floated to eye level again and gave off a mechanical beep, "You are instructed to remain in detention here until administration can address your delinquency, Parker Robbins. Any further attempt at destruction of property or trespassing shall result in further discipline."

Parker ground his teeth at the irritating machine, but aware that it was likely ready to tase him again should he reply the way he wanted to, he instead just grated out an angry verse, "Fuck you, tin can. You'll get yours soon enough." He stared into the glass-covered ocular port of the machine, "You all can't keep me here forever…"

The machine responded by turning and suddenly zipping away through the door, which slid shut immediately behind it with a hiss. A sinking feeling crept into Parker's chest at the sound of that hydraulic hiss and the sturdy look of the metal door. He had no doubt it wouldn't be opening for him, "You can't keep me forever!"

It had been a few hours, and Parker had grown tired of pacing the room. There was a small bookshelf, but Parker wasn't really interested in any of the titles available as they all seemed to intentionally be geared towards the exact material he had been avoiding in skipping out of his GED practice and ethics classes.

Bored and with nothing else in the room he had laid himself out on the bed, thinking to sleep to pass the time, but that had also been a no go, as adrenaline over recent events apparently still pumped through his veins. With actual sleep being impossible, he tried to at least rest, but even this was out of reach, as he found his irritation over current events made each minute more annoying than the last.

There was nothing to be done about it, though, and as time ticked by he was put into an at least somewhat quiet state of brooding rest as his mind eventually settled on the fact that he was helpless to change his state through anger alone. When the door did finally hiss open Parker practically jumped, having been so used to the isolation.

Luke Cage stepped through, his towering frame barely fitting through the door that was clearly designed for persons of more normal stature. Ducking slightly, the dark-skinned behemoth took two steps inside and sat on the bed, his doing so nearly enough to shift Parker where he sat despite the fact that Luke did so gently.

Must be hard being so fat, thought Parker, a mean assertion and unjustified he knew; even through Luke's clothes Parker could see that the Avenger known as Powerman was anything but fat. Tightly corded muscle stretched over every inch of what was most certainly a Herculean body that the Greek gods would have been jealous of.

Luke put a fist on one knee as his own brown eyes took in Parker's brooding ones, "So it looks like not only did you skip those classes, but you didn't even try to get any of that GED work done. I was fairly certain we had at least some sort of understanding when we talked after P.E. on how important it's going to be for you to get educated."

Parker tsked angrily, "Give me a break; like you twats give a fuck about me, my education, or my future. Why exactly would any of you be invested in me?"

Cage blinked at him, as if he didn't understand how Parker didn't already understand, "I already told you, kid; I'm here to help you because Tigra asked me to do it. That's enough reason for me."

The younger man rolled his eyes, clearly thinking that this was a lame reason to be wasting time at making sure Parker went to P.E., "And what the hell is Tigra getting out of this? Did your dumb ass never bother thinking on that little tidbit? I can tell you she certainly isn't doing it out of the kindness of her heart."

He went on, "You really think Tigra wants to rehabilitate the guy who put her through Hell? Have you even seen the video I made of me smacking her around?"

Parker's smile shattered as Luke drove his fist into the side of his face, sending the young former kingpin slamming sideways into the wall next to his bed.

After ricocheting off the wall, Parker lie still on the bed, his eyes wide as he seemed to be considering how much he wanted this level of violence to continue. Luke leaned in, growling at him, "Listen you little punk, you want your stay here to hurt less, I suggest you never brag about that shit again; any mention of it should evoke fear in what's left of your heart."

Luke Cage leaned back again, "Look kid I can't begin to tell you the exact reason that Tigra decided to bring you here, but in my experience with her, that cat has been nothing but cool on keeping with the program, ethically speaking. Maybe she does have an agenda besides getting your ass back on track, but ultimately that would just make her human."

Cage grabbed ahold of Parker and easily lifted the lightly framed youth to sitting again, taking a moment to straighten Parker's shirt. "I really don't think that would be unfair, given that I have seen your shitty little video, you pissant. If Tigra wants to make this a living hell for you, more power to her. So the question I should probably ask is, how hard you want to make this on yourself?"

Parker looked away then, his lips sealed in a tight line in what was an apparent relinquishing of his high-and-mighty attitude to both men. He wasn't stupid, and realized that he was outclassed, trapped, and surrounded by nothing but enemies. Continuing to play the antagonist would only bring him pain without end.

Cage sat back some more, settling as he gave Parker a flat look, "So now that that's settled, I suppose we should get to the part of why I'm here."

The other man's eyelids fluttered, as he took a nervous gulp, "Uh… what? I thought you were here to give me a pep-talk about how I needed to work harder tomorrow maybe?"

Luke shook his head slowly, "Nu-uh, son. We're past all that. You've been acting the fool all day and I think we are well into the time for an active ass-whoopin' to get you some of that perspective that can only be gained post fuck-up. Tigra is preoccupied, so she asked me to come here and spank your ass right and proper."

Parker's mouth dropped open, as he fully absorbed what it was that Luke was talking about, "Ah… wha…?" Caught completely by surprise by the twin facts that not only had Tigra shared what she did to him with Luke but also that she asked him to participate, Parker was shocked speechless, and did not immediately react as Luke reached out to take hold of his arm.

Once he felt Powerman's fierce grip on his bicep, though, Parker snapped out of the dazed state he was in and properly resisted, going so far as to punch and kick savagely at Luke as the other man drew him across the bed. Cage grunted as a foot struck his face, but Luke's powers enabled him to take a tire iron to the skull without much effect; Parker certainly wasn't hurting him.

With an annoyed sigh Luke threw Parker over his lap and yanked the younger man's pants down immediately, all in one smooth motion, "Did you fight like this when Tigra did it? Whew boy, I can see the damage she did back here; she tore your ass up. Too bad the lesson didn't stick, huh? You really aren't a fast learner, right?"

Parker's face flushed red as Luke mentioned what Tigra did, both in fact and extent, his bringing it up only realizing Parker's suspicion that she had told him she'd spanked him in addition to asking him to do the same. Of course, Luke could just be making an educated guess, based on what Tigra had requested and the state of Parker's rear.

As Cage lifted his big ham-sized hand to start swatting him Parker's eyes bulged as the fact that this was all happening became all too real, "W-wait! Stop!" His words had no effect, though, as Luke's hardened, calloused palm came slamming down upon Parker's already tender cheeks without further bluster on Cage's part.

The sound of Luke smacking his ass hard filled the small room quickly, seeming to drown out all else to Parker, as he grunted and hissed in pain, squirming in the larger man's grip. He couldn't believe this was happening! "What… what the fuck, Cage!? I thought you solved your problems with your fists! Why the hell are you doing this?!"

Luke raised an eyebrow, continuing right along with the swatting he had started without pause as he spoke, "I already told you before that all Tigra has to do is ask for me to help her out. It's called friendship; you should try it out sometime. You see, you build this relationship with a person based on mutual trust and respect…"

"Fuck you, Cage!" Parker screamed, trying as hard as he could to reach behind himself and strike the other man. Luke rolled his eyes and simply started hitting Parker harder, which caused the other man to stop trying to swing on him in order to grab the bedding in a pained reflexive state, Parker's eyes widening again at the increased force.

Cage raised his voice a little to be heard over the sounds of his own slapping hand, wanting to talk but clearly not interested in bringing the punishment level down to do so, "Look, man, you know that even if you score a hit on me it isn't gonna hurt. And the stuff I'm talking about you could learn from; when's the last time you trusted one of your 'friends'?"

"Yeah, sure, I usually like to duke it out with my fists when some snarky little shit like you gets out of hand, but I can't blame Tigra for wanting to see you in this position. From the way your flailing around it looks like it's really embarrassing ya, and maybe that's what you need what with that big head you've luggin around lately."

Parker looked like he wanted to send another set of curses flying at Cage, but Luke seemed to sense the volley of swears was coming and responded with a preemptive volley of his own that left Parker gasping instead, "Y'know, kid, this might also be perfect for you because of how damned immature you are, too. Tigra might be on to something with that."

"Anyways, I should probably repeat it so it isn't missed that the reason you're finding yourself over my lap right now is 'cause you've got some issues with authority that Tigra mentioned you knew was gonna leave you butthurt if you didn't address. She said you already know not sticking to the program gets you licks, so this shouldn't even be a surprise."

Parker squirmed hard against the ceaseless onslaught, already pressed quite hard against the limit of what he could take pain-wise. Tigra was super strong and had been more than a little ruthless, but something told Parker that Luke wasn't even aware of his own strength; perhaps fighting super-powered foes routinely had cause Cage to forget what 'average' was.

In any case, as embarrassing as it was to admit as much, the entire bed was rattling with the spanking administered, and Parker just had to say something, "W-woah, man! P-please remember that I'm not fucking the fucking Colossus, here! You're g-gonna break my fucking hip or something, you fucking meat-head!"

For all of the insult that traveled along with the request, Luke none the less slowed his hand, decreasing the power of his blows as he seemed to realize that he was in danger of hurting the much smaller man, "My bad, little guy. I was told to tan this hide of yours well, but no, I'm not actually trying to break bones or nothin."

Still the pressure of the painful swats did not cease, though, as Luke went on, "Still, you'll keep right on getting what's coming to you in the future if you can't get your shit straight. Tigra wanted me to make that clear for you, that you can expect plenty more of this if you don't straighten up. Also, gonna need an apology for fucking up."

Parker couldn't believe what he was hearing. Not the bit about Tigra wanting him to know she intended him more harm for noncompliance; that part was practically a given what with how hard she had brow-beaten him with that spiel the last time they'd talked. No, he was stricken that she was having him apologize through Luke.

Was the apology something she asked Luke to get, or was that Powerman demanding his own particular form of submission to the program? He had mentioned Parker's need to apologize separately from his statement about her wanting him to know what was coming… did that mean that Luke Cage himself wanted an apology?

It sort of made sense; after all, Luke had been the one to tell him what was next on the agenda only just a little earlier that day. Luke might just feel personally slighted by the fact that Parker had ignored him to go about on his pointless quest to find some sort of exit to the compound that had not in fact existed, trapping him with the consequences for that failure.

Consequences that he had not allowed himself to consider before but which now blazed like each freshly blooming stinging pain that Luke's descending hand created. Parker gripped the sheets before his snarling face hard and considered telling Cage and therefore Tigra as well to go fuck himself, but despite how natural a reaction it was to do so, he simply couldn't.

After all, bringing himself to such a state of rebellion would only make things worse for him, a maddening thought that his frightened and entirely too rational brain kept throwing in front of his usual impulse to rage against his oppressor. If he told Luke to go fuck himself the forceful Avenger was most certainly just going to hit him even more.

As much as he would love to just give into a fit of righteous anger against the asshole who presumed to treat him like this and the woman whom had sent him here to do it, Parker just couldn't get the lump in his throat to recede enough to allow him the voice he'd need to do so, as that fearful part of his reasoning kept right on closing his throat.

A similar feeling of dread caused his stomach to twist into knots even as the rest of him kept twisting in Luke's unshakable grip, because if he wasn't going to tell the large Avenger off, and even if he didn't actually apologize, he was still in some way acknowledging what Luke was saying without disagreeing, which might actually imply agreement.

Not that this part mattered, his panicked mind shouted at him; the pain kept right on getting worse. If it was going to actually end then he was going to have to yield… again. This time to Luke Cage, though he'd be yielding to her as well vicariously through him. He gave out a manic shout as his will slowly eroded with each terribly painful stinging swat.

After that Parker didn't last much longer, and in no time he could his own strained voice give out the white flag of surrender, "O-okay, shit, please… I-I'm sorry…" he mumbled.

Apparently that wasn't nearly loud enough for Cage, as the big man put one hand to his ear, "Gonna have to speak up Parker…"

Gnashing his teeth together in irritated humiliation, knowing full well that Luke had heard that apology just fine and that the Avenger just wanted to grind his heel in a bit, Parker spat out a more contemptuous statement, "I'm fucking sorry, okay? I… I messed up, and I'm man enough to realize it, so let me up already!"

The dark-skinned, bald Avenger shook his head, his hand continuing without fail to deliver the exact same upon Parker despite the surrender, "Uh-uh. That first one was to soft; didn't ring of conviction, and that sad follow up was even worse. You sounded about as sorry as a snake right there, and this don't work if you aren't really sorry."

Parker let out a frustrated cry of anger and pain, both because the swatting continued to test his already exceeded threshold, and because he couldn't stand how Luke stubbornly insisted that he prostrate himself in the most humiliating extent before he was to be allowed away from that swatting. "F-fine! I'm sorry! I'm sorry, okay?!"

This continued for a while, Parker's expression and voice becoming more and more panicked as Cage still yet refused to loosen his grip on the younger man or cease in his relentless tide of slaps. Parker Robbins squirmed again as he let out yet another apology, at his wit's end on how to say it more convincingly.

Then, thankfully, Luke suddenly stopped, apparently having decided that Parker had gotten enough of what was coming to him. Parker still trembled, his legs jumping a little as his muscles spasmed from the extreme duress that Cage had put him through. His breathing was ragged as he struggled hard to get his breathing under control.

Luke pushed him up to sitting again then, as Parker numbly moved to right himself on weak limbs as he reached a shaking hand back to awkwardly pull his pants and underwear back up to cover himself once more. Cage regarded him coolly for a moment, and then suddenly clapped him on the back, nearly bowling Parker over.

"Good that we seem to have come to an 'understanding'. I probably don't have to tell you this, but Tigra wanted me to be extra clear with you on the fact that you can expect a whole lot more developments in the art of 'coming to an understanding' if you can't use this one to get your head right. You were pretty thick after she did it, but you should have gotten it for sure this time, right?"

Parker didn't answer this question. After all, what kind of reply was going to fit a statement like that one? His face heated with humiliation so that it was nearly as warm as his tortured ass cheeks, he instead just allowed his mouth to turn down in a pout as he stared at the floor ahead of him, not wanting to give any response at all.

If Luke was bothered by the fact that he had gone silent he didn't show it, and thankfully didn't pressure him further about it. It was bad enough that the Avenger had forced an apology from him through violence, much like those kids had done but in a fashion far more shaming. Cage stood and moved to the doorway.

"You hang out here, kid. I'm sure that Tigra will wanna have words with ya when she gets back from doin whatever it is she's out there doin. I'm gonna go to the living room and watch the boob tube." With that the larger man disappeared from view as he headed down the hall towards the living room, leaving Parker's door open.

Parker didn't kid himself; he was fairly certain that this was not an opportunity for an escape attempt. Cage had left the door open because Parker wasn't going to be getting past him. Even if Parker did by some miracle find a way past the seasoned Avenger, he would then still be stuck within the walls and force-field.

So with a defeated sigh Parker allowed himself to shift and fall over onto his side on the bed. He didn't want to lay upon his back; his ass was so sore right now that might actually hurt. He glared at the wall as he brooded, trying to think of how in the world he could possibly elevate himself out of this terrible position he found himself in.

No matter how hard he thought on it, though, he saw no exit strategy for his situation as it was now, and had even less hope of receiving help from outside of the Academy. Most of those that might actually try to bust him out, like Masque, wouldn't even have any reason to know that he was actually here.

He had done a little too thorough of a job of hiding his location from others, he realized. No longer being with John and with his cousin not knowing where he went off to left him lost to everyone that might have mattered. Not that many did; a fair number of those he had worked with before would just as soon frag him now.

After all, he had no powers and therefore could no longer intimidate the others into following him. He let out a long, breathy sigh. He had not realized how long he had been contemplating this when a voice at the doorway to his room made him jump at its sudden intonation, "Well, Parker Robbins, I hope you are ready to explain yourself."

Parker's head whipped around to take in the sight of Tigra, standing in the frame of the door with her hands on her hips, a displeased frown upon her feline face. Parker sat up immediately, and just as immediately regretted it, as a bolt of pain shot up through his ass, making him flinch. He licked his lips as he look at her.

"Tigra! Cage… uh, said that you would want to talk to me…"

She raised an eyebrow at him, "Oh, are you going to play the role of the suddenly reformed? I have seen footage of you walking around campus flagrantly ignoring my instructions for what you are to have been doing today."

"In addition to that, you tried to leave through the gate, you attempted to enter the kitchen after I very specifically instructed you not to enter, and you even had the audacity to assault Hank's favorite drone! Not to mention that you ignored the very good advice Luke gave you after your P.E. lesson and avoided even attempting to do something productive."

Parker's teeth gnashed each other as he pointedly looked away from Tigra, doing his best to reign in his humiliated fury at being admonished as if he was some sulky teenager being drilled by his mother. His fists remained tightly clenched where they rested on his knees as he choked back his pride and avoided saying something he would regret.

He had paid the price several times now for letting his anger and impulsive nature get the best of him, so for once he was doing the very best he could not to earn another troublesome spanking. Tigra folded her arms across herself in his peripheral vision, and he could hear the quiet thunk of her foot tapping the floor.

She was waiting for him to speak up, he thought. He bit his tongue as he thought on what to say. It was painfully clear that she obviously wanted some kind of apology, as if he was actually a delinquent student who needed to confess his mistakes and beg forgiveness from teacher. His ears heated at the mere thought.

Finally though reason won out over impudent emotional response, if only because Parker was sitting on his ass, and could still feel what Luke had done there to cement his memory in what occurred when he tried to buck the system. With a heavy heart full of chagrin he worked out the words as he stared at the floor.

"I'm sorry, Tigra. I should have done what you asked, and I fucked up trying to get out of here. I should have known better, and you were right." His hands were clenched so tightly now that he could feel his own fingernails biting painfully hard into his palms, "I had a talk with Cage and he has convinced me to get serious."

His stomach churned at the words spilling out of his own mouth. It was lip service, and from her demeanor Tigra also almost certainly knew that, but it was the only somewhat certain way he had available not to make an already terrible situation worse. He needed to put the brakes on this and de-escalate, and fast.

She dropped her hands and glared at him, "Are you going to at least look me in the eyes while you feed me rubbish about how sincerely penitent you're feeling, Parker?" He glanced up at her and then immediately looked away again; yup, she was completely unconvinced. He realized he was trembling a little; was she going to make this worse?

Tigra shook her head at him, a look of disgust on her face, "You may never learn at this rate; you seriously need to stop thinking you can smooze your way out of trouble by saying the right thing. This time I'm going to let what you did ride on the correction Luke already doled out, but if you mess up like this again you can expect me to reinforce it when I get home."

Parker squirmed; was she saying that she was going to double up any spankings that she ordered via Luke? That was so unfair! Why the hell did he have to get punished twice?! Of course, he wasn't exactly in a position to argue, either, so other than to shift uncomfortably with a sour expression on his face he offered no reaction.

At least it seemed that she was 'letting him off the hook', though even that thought riled him a little given the context. He let out a sigh and Tigra suddenly instructed him, "Go get a shower if you haven't already and get ready for dinner. Hank insists that we feed you despite your attempt to bash a multi-million dollar droid."

She turned and moved across the hall to enter the door to her own room, closing it behind her and leaving Parker to let out a sigh of relief. He hadn't realized until that moment how tense Tigra's mere presence had been making him feel. He supposed that given how their encounters had all gone lately, the feeling was merited.

He didn't really need another shower, but as it would likely be a soothing experience to luxuriate under some warm water, because he didn't want to be in that room any longer, and because at least in the bathroom he was fairly certain he had some degree of privacy, Parker made his way there quickly, shedding his clothes and bathing himself.

Parker spent far more time than needed showering, not at all concerned about running the hot water out; if he managed it he would be surprised. Hank probably had the water heater attached to a nuclear reactor or something… but if he did manage to turn the water cold and that made Tigra uncomfortable, that was a win.

After a long shower that did make him feel better, Parker got out and went for his clothes only to discover that they were missing. "H-hey?! Where are my things?" He walked out into the hallway wrapped in a towel and scowling, and glanced toward the dining room where Tigra was leaning against the island counter that led off to the kitchen.

She relaxed back to standing, raising an eyebrow at Parker, "You weren't seriously going to put those nasty clothes bad on were you? The drone took them off to be laundered. You'll find new clothes in the drawers or your dresser in your bedroom. You know, you should look around to see the toiletries and such we put in there for you too."

Parker pouted, grumbling as he turned away from her to head down the hall back to his room. He didn't appreciate having his stuff moved without his approval, and he didn't like how Tigra practically always talked down her nose at him, like he was stupid for not knowing all of that, but it was hard to be upset at the idea of fresh clothes.

He felt a little anxious concerning the nature of these clothes she had promised, as he was fairly certain that Avenger taste in outfit was going to suck and hard. Once in the room he threw the towel on the bed and began rifling through his new drawers. Sure enough, there was a large variety of clothing, as well as bags of various toilet items like deodorant and toothbrushes.

To his relief, there were plenty of clothes that weren't actually lame, and he pulled on a form-fitting simple white t-shirt, as well as a pair of plain black slacks that fit rather well. He was actually surprised that so much of the clothing seemed to be exactly his size; when the hell had Tigra had the time to get his measurements?

He pulled his mind back to thoughts of dinner as he pulled on some plain white socks and stepped from the room, his nostrils flaring as he smelled the aroma of cooking food. It smelled great! He wasn't sure exactly what he was smelling yet, but he could tell right off that it was a complex mix of spices; far from the usual take-out garbage he usually consumed.

In fact, it had been forever since the last time he had eaten an actual home-cooked meal; had it been with Sara, back before she had decided she was well and truly done with him? That thought soured his mood, and his steps slowed as his original excitement about eating home cooking was dulled with reflection on painful memories.

As he approached the dining room Parker was surprised to see Cage was there, his massive frame barely fitting in Hank's regular-person-sized dining room chairs. Hank Pym himself was there, of course, giving Parker an awkward wave as the escaped convict took stock of the arranged table, the food upon which looked amazing to his hungry eyes.

His depression was quickly forgotten in the face of such a spread, and his mouth began salivating immediately as he stared the plates with an eagerness he didn't think to hide. He was brought back to the present when Hank chuckled at him, "Well don't just stand there, kid. Have a seat." Parker shot him an annoyed look.

He didn't appreciate being called a kid, even if Hank Pym was old enough to be his dad. With a disgruntled noise he shifted closer and nonetheless took a seat. He didn't have to like Hank to enjoy the man's home-cooked food. There was an entire turkey, several sides like mashed potatoes, okra and steamed greens.

Everything smelled strongly of spices and gave off an aroma of warmth, freshly made and ready to be consumed. As Parker glanced at a small tray of little cakes off to one side of the turkey he couldn't help but wonder if Pym and Tigra didn't have Thanksgiving practically every day, if this was the sort of spread they considered normal.

It niggled at his mind that he would never have a meal like this in prison where he was supposed to be, and Tigra's words concerning his life here being better than it could be drifted back from the depths of his memory. He pushed that aside, though and started helping himself to the food provided as the others did the same.

Hank, Luke and Tigra spoke amiably to one another as they ate, and gradually Parker relaxed at the prospect of being among them as he ate, highly satisfied with food the likes of which he had not had in a very long time. He would never admit the actual notion of it to his waking mind, but some part of Parker accepted that he could get used to this.

The company he was in was part of it; Luke, Tigra and Hank were all so open and considerate of each other, and Parker hadn't felt the sense of community that they exuded personally since he had been with his mother as a child, back when she had used to take him to church. That congregation had been friendly, and the sense of unity had been all but forgotten by him.

Now though it was impossible to ignore, and he frowned as he brooded on the conflict of interests and mixed feelings that were created within him. Thankfully none of the others spoke to him, seeming to sense that he would rather just eat and avoid conversation, all the way until he had completely finished his meal.

He started to get up and Luke shot him a glare as he started to quietly turn to leave, "Hey man, you just gonna eat and run? At least say thanks before you dip out. But seriously, it would show way more respect if you waited until the host is done eating. Not like you really got anywhere to be anyways, right?"

Parker grimaced at the annoying sentiment, but seeing as how he'd just finished eating a delicious dinner, even his irritation with Cage and Tigra wasn't enough to make him not feel a twinge of obligatory social guilt and peer pressure to remain, so with some grumbling done very much under his breath he allowed a quick thanks to Hank.

Having done that he quickly retreated to his room, as ready as he could be to be away from Luke and his baleful glare. What was up with that whole needing to be excused from the table nonsense? It wasn't like they were the Brady Bunch up in this house. They were all adults here, Parker should be able to leave whenever he wanted to…

Of course, thinking on that topic only made him consider how often those here reminded him that he did NOT have the freedoms of the average adult. They have drilled it into his head a number of times now, and he couldn't help but cringe over the fact that they were right; this wasn't a vacation, this was a different looking prison.

And the things that he had been instructed to do, he supposed was something like enforced community service, or prison work force concerning how hard P.E. had felt upon his body. He had been looking at it all wrong thinking he was an unwilling guest in someone's house. Wil a force field up and the strongest wardens on the planet…

Parker sighed as he slowly sat down upon the bed in his room. He was in the most maximum of maximum security prisons that could possibly exist on the planet. He lay back and let this thought bounce around in his head as he tried to consider how it made him feel that no matter how hard he resisted, he was stuck here.

Face it, Parker, he told himself, you've got no powers, no allies, and no options. This unhappy state of mind continued until eventually his brain decided to call it for the night, allowing his tired body to rest as he completed his first full day of Avengers Academy hell. He was woken the next day by a loud alarm, and flailed a bit in disarray.

What the hell? He looked around, taking in his surroundings and remembering where he was, along with all of the other unpleasant memories that came along with that. With a groan, Parker got up and trudged from his room, glancing over to the source of the noise, which was that irritating drone he wished he had smashed.

A yellow light flashed on its head and the annoying claxon that it was sounding finally stopped, "Attention, Parker Robbins. It is time to get up and begin your day. Start with breakfast in the dining room if you are hungry, then hygiene in the restroom area followed by a collection of your school materials and a trip to meet with Mr. Cage for morning physical education."

A dark expression immediately feel over Parker's features as he took in the little spy drone that continued to help make his life an annoying mess. He scowled but decided that it wasn't worth it to cuss out an unfeeling machine, especially seeing as he knew for a fact that the infernal thing was actually recording everything he did.

All that throwing a fit at the robot would do was give Tigra and friends more things to mock him over or worse, find reasons to punish him for. As a sort of mild fuck-you to the machine's instructions, he did things out of order, taking a shower and brushing his teeth before getting his breakfast, and not bothering to grab the school supplies before leaving.

Not that it mattered, he thought. He doubted there was anything in that bag that he actually needed, though not grabbing it was just as pointless as the rest of his actions; it wasn't as if the drone could or would take offense. Hell, the machine might not even have noticed that he wasn't following the instructions it had given.

P.E. was just as hard as the morning before. Harder, really, he thought as he struggled to skate through it with minimal effort put into each exercise. Trailing far behind the others in pretty much everything, he was still just as maxed out and incapable of continuing at this end of this exercise as he had been at the end of the previous one.

Luke congratulated him for his efforts, and Parker was entirely too knackered to give him a snarky reply. He just nodded tiredly and sank onto the grass as he had the day before and quietly died a miniature death until his body was ready to attempt anything that required physical motion again. He hated to admit it, but Luke had been right.

Their P.E. class was much more like a marathon than a sprint, and Parker was going to have to keep pacing himself if he was going to last until the end of the week. Already he could tell that his body was having trouble keeping up with what all he was doing to it following Luke Cage's intensive exercise regime.

From there he went to the study hall again, except this time he actually studied, and from that place he gravitated to the next hall where the dreaded ethics lessons were held. To Parker's surprise, he actually enjoyed the debate in ethics, and even participated when questions were posed to the class. In this way the day passed on quickly.

Not just that day, either. Soon, weeks had passed and not only was Parker nearly finished with obtaining his G.E.D., a process he found far easier than he had expected it to be, but he had already aced entrance exams to college (as if that was going to happen) and had at last gotten comfortable with Cage's ridiculous exercise program.

That didn't mean he was pulling anything more than last place, but despite the fact that he was always struggling just to bring up the rear behind the three young people, they seemed to have started affording him some sort of grudging respect. Even Striker had ceased the scathing glares that had consistently been sent his way before.

Luke kept congratulating him, which was humiliating since he never did as well as the teenagers he was training with, but Parker couldn't fail to admit to himself that he kind of liked the praise, too. He had been largely without such positive encouragement as a kid and some aspect of himself reveled in having someone appreciate his efforts.

In fact, Luke's words often drove him to work harder, despite himself. Every day he told himself in his own mind that he would be putting forth the absolute minimum effort possible to get through his training, and every day he found himself exhausted after going the extra mile to the tune of Luke's mild encouragements.

Tigra was apparently surprised with his quick progress in all fields, especially with his sudden liking for his ethics classes. Unbeknownst to Parker, Luke had used his comment about having read Nietzsche against him, and Parker's ethics teacher, the mutant known as Quicksilver, had brought it up quickly in the first lesson he attended.

Pulled into one philosophical discussion about human morality after the other, Parker had been roped in hard before he consider that it had been a trap. By the time he thought of the fact that Cage had most likely talked to Quicksilver it was too late and he was invested wholesale into the debates that had followed in the wake of the first one.

After quietly watching him attend P.E. and actually follow Luke's commands to push himself harder, then skulking around while Parker squinted into the testing computer and focused hard, acing his G.E.D. with flying colors, and finally tracking him into his ethics classes to watch Parker speak with his teacher as the only student who wasn't actually bored, Tigra retreated.

Back in her room she sat upon her bed, thinking. It hadn't really been long enough for Parker to have fully rehabilitated like that, had it? She had seen the way that he had moped and done small things to rebel in the early parts of the first week, but he had changed his tune, and suddenly he was an entirely new man.

She worried; was this all a ruse? She had noticed, alarmingly, that Luke also seemed to warm up considerably to Parker. She knew it was because Parker was actually impressing the Avenger with his dedication to practice, and the fact that he wouldn't quit. Quicksilver might also be warming up to him, with how avidly the mutant spoke to Parker, but with Quicksilver it was hard to tell.

Then she heard a noise that send her heart racing as her eyes widened and her body reacted immediately. She threw herself out of the door and into the hallway, the wood floor squeaking loudly with the force of her bare feet tearing along at a pace that would put Olympic sprinters to shame as she hauled herself to the baby's room.

No one was supposed to be in there. Hank was out doing some job or the other with Tony Stark and wasn't supposed to return until tomorrow, and the one room the droid that served their family was not allowed to go into was William's. Her heart hammered against her chest at the thought of one of her enemies reaching her child.

But when she rounded the corner all she saw was a surprised Parker Robbins, with baby William giggling happily as he bounced on Parker's belly. The ex-con was laying out on the baby's play mat, allowing William to wrestle and stomp on him as the toddler pleased. She stabbed a finger at Parker and then gestured away "Out!"

Parker scrabbled to gently pry himself free from the baby and obeyed her directive immediately, perhaps terrified by the look that filled her face after the sudden surge of adrenaline had coursed through her in thinking her child was in danger. As he moved away from the door she closed it, wheeling on him.

"You are not supposed to be in there… I told you not to ever, ever go in there! Do you remember what I said I'd do if you went into William's room?!"

Parker put of both hands palm forwards as he backed away, his eyes wide and round, "Woah, hey, y'know I kind of forgot about that…"

He backed away a little quicker as she stomped towards him aggressively with his hands balled into fists, and in his haste to retreat Parker failed to compensate for the living room coach and tripped, falling backwards against it, which stalled him enough so that Tigra trapped him there. Her face glared down at him as she stood over his bent frame.

Panicking and feeling like he couldn't get up to get away from her, Parker just kept his hands up defensively and spoke faster, "…I was just playing with him, I swear! The door was open and he looked real lonely like in his play pen so I let him out for a minute… I was going to put him back in just a moment, really!"

Tigra's expression faltered. She didn't see any hint of deception in Parker's face, despite the fear that still thrummed through her. It was hard to set aside the things this man had said concerning her family, but the fact was that Parker had never moved against Tigra's family, nor anyone else's. As far as she could tell he was just playing with her baby.

So carefully she rescinded the bulk of the aggressive fury which she recognized as having been spurned from her misfired maternal instincts. As a creature very close to her animal impulses, it was harder for Tigra than most to push such incredibly strong feelings aside. But push them she did, in the sight of Parker's terrified gaze.

He was probably expecting that she would be at the least spanking him for disobeying the spirit of her command upon the first day of his arrival in her house. For a moment she considered punishing him out of principle, but she a huff of air that released the rest of the adrenaline-fueled feeling she had been feeling, she let that notion go.

She was now convinced as she relaxed and he slowly let his hands down in the awkward silence between them that he was telling the truth, and had really only been pulled into her son's room by a desire to be kind. To that idea she did not know how to react, though, so she pointed a finger, her tone perhaps still a little too much.

"Go to your room," she said. Parker didn't have to be asked twice; he scampered off to do as she had told him immediately. She sighed again at the sight of his retreating form. How the hell was she going to handle him wanting to help with William? She realized with growing clarity that she had not actually made plans for success.

Tigra walked over to the living room couch and sat heavily upon crossed legs, her hands dropping down in her lap and her head hanging as she stared at those hands, lost in thought. She hadn't really been prepared for Parker to actually change. When she had started this, she had told herself it was reformation she wanted.

But upon further analysis this was just her justification for what she had really been doing; punishing him for humiliating her. For hurting her, and threatening the things she held most dear in life. Maybe she wanted her students see her providing a good example in how she dealt with the convict, but she hadn't truly expected him to change.

People rarely changed, and Parker was a willful person. Her brow furrowed as she thought. It had been there the whole time though, hadn't it? The little clues that she dredged up that maybe he could change, the ones she didn't actually buy into, Parker had taken to them. He had done it, really, after all, no one could change a person from outside of themselves.

Parker had decided to apply himself and give it all a shot. She had seen it these last few weeks as his performance and his attitude had gradually improved… so what was she supposed to do now? She hadn't actually planned on a next step; she had assumed he'd just be their prisoner indefinitely until… until she didn't know what.

He was in his room for only ten minutes when Tigra shadowed his doorway. Parker instinctively stiffened at the sight of her; oh man she had been so mad when she had caught him in William's room! It was true that he hadn't meant the baby any harm, and honestly what Tigra had told him the first day he arrived had slipped his mind.

After all, they had all sort of relaxed, including him. When he, Hank, Tigra and sometimes Luke gathered at the table for dinner together that sense of comradery had downright seemed to include Parker, and when Tigra spoke to him these days it was completely without that manic malice in her eyes that had been there when she'd taken him from John's place.

So Parker had started feeling like they were friends, he realized. As he had sat there on his bed pensively waiting for Tigra to decide how to punish him for breaking one of the cardinal rules, he had to admit to himself that it was what he wanted. How far things had come in only a few weeks of mundane life. But in truth, this was what Parker had been missing.

Normalcy. Ever since his father's death and his mother's subsequent madness, Parker's happy family life that the two of them had been granting him had been completely disrupted, and he had fallen into the dark world of hard choices that had followed. But with the happiness he witnessed between Hank Pym, Tigra, and their baby… '

Hell, even the genuine friendship that he saw those two share with the other Avengers that worked within or visited the Avengers Academy was something he realized he'd been missing. Sure, he and John had always been friends, but honestly, John was a shit friend, no matter how honest his cousin could at times be.

And the thugs and criminals that Parker had made ties with after claiming power in the underworld had been even shittier 'friends'. He might have called his girlfriend Sara a friend at one point, hell he might have actually even redeemed his ability to enjoy true companionship through her, but he had gone and fucked that up royally.

Now though he had been forced to slow down, and had his choices reduced to sitting tight and doing a lot of thinking while he observed what real friendships looked like… and what real love was again. He had kind of forgotten, but when he saw Hank and Tigra share sweet, simple moments together his heart ached as he was reminded of his parents before all of the pain.

But now she was mad with him, because he had been stupid and forgotten that not so long ago he had made the worst threats a person could make to another person. Just a few months ago he had threatened to harm the most important things in Tigra's life, and that had to be what she remembered when he had handled William.

It made him feel sick, imagining that he had been stupid enough to think that he was a part of this family somehow. As if simply being here had somehow made him one of them instead of what he was; a washed up convict with no future and a sorted past that should keep any decent person at arm's length from him.

He was a prisoner here; he didn't deserve to be wrapped in the bubble of affection that these people shared with their friends and family. Yet when Tigra showed up in his doorway and found him sitting on the bed, when he looked up into her eyes full of regret, fear and hopeless sorrow, his eyes were full of the near-tears that he fought to keep back.

She saw the emotion in his face before he could avert his gaze at the realization of how miserable he must look, and as he flinched as she strode across the floor to him, expecting her to administer the corporeal discipline she had promised, she reached out and snatched him to herself, hugging his head tightly to her belly as she leaned into him.

Parker's eyes flared open in surprise as the sudden gesture of affection, and his mouth dropped agape at the feeling of her tender embrace as she bent at the knees to hold him more completely. Her head rested atop of his, her cheek nestled among his hair as she pulled his cheek to her breast, at last speaking to the surprised convict.

"I'm sorry." She said it simply, in a voice that assured to him that she meant it whole souled. Her hands wrapped around him tightly, making the hug she gave him even tighter as Parker sat there rigidly uncertain of what was happening, so surprised was he with this outcome. At last though he began to relax, even reaching up to hug her back.

She brought one hand up and stroked it through his hair. He was a kid, she told herself again, except this time her mind was ready to accept it for all that it meant. Parker was a boy who had been made to grow up too fast, who still longed for the compassion of a mother lost to him too soon, and the guidance of a father removed.

Her conviction was proven right as Parker's reactions followed the course of what she knew of him, his hands grasping her tightly now as he whispered one apology after the other, perhaps still afraid that she was mad about him going into William's room. He was so earnest and penitent, and Tigra could feel his desire not to disappoint her.

Tigra let out a long sigh, and with it the last of what resentment her heart had felt towards him that might hold her back. She would never forget what he had done, but maybe she could learn to forgive him. She tenderly kissed the top of his head as she felt him shudder in her grip with the tears he had finally allowed to silently fall.

"You may play with William. I want that. Hank was planning on building a sandbox outside for him… do you want to me get it started? Afterwards we can play with the baby…"

Parker couldn't believe his ears, as he pulled back to lock his wet eyes on Tigra's whose own orbs were also filled with ill-restrained, powerful emotion. They shared a look that transcended any feeble attempt to convey feeling through mere words, and he nodded, his mouth a tight line as he trembled at the prospect of what she offered.

Here it was, in the most unlikely of places. His life was just as much a mess as he had made it to be, but despite all the fuck ups here stood a woman who could see past all of his terrible decisions to the scared boy who had just wanted to find his way in a world that seemed to no longer care. Here she offered him what he had been secretly craving.

Not money, not power or fame. Just somewhere to lay his head and feel truly at peace… home. People who actually gave a damn… family. He was too choked up to speak, but he didn't have to, a nod was sufficient to show her that he was agreeing to her suggestion to something much vaster than constructing a play area for William. With this act, they were building a future together.