01: You Don't Have a Supervillain Name? That's so Lame!
"Come on, come on, come on—"
She checked behind her, watching the shadow of the unknowing security guard stretch and distort against the wall as a flashlight flickered on and off being moved from left to right. Strange would have had a conniption if he ever found out what she'd used the sling-ring for tonight, but Holly couldn't find it in herself to care.
"Come on, come on, come on!" She whispered, sifting through the files and skimming through the names labeled on each of their sides. Ward Meachum may not have been the most organized of people, but Holly was thankful that at least his assistant, Katie, had had the mindset to make things at least a little bit easier to find.
Holly just wondered why the thought of alphabetizing had never come to her mind. Why did she, in all the systems there were available to her, have to sort these based on how beneficial they were to Rand Enterprises?
How the hell was she supposed to know where Roxxon was located in that food chain? Seriously?!
There was squeaking. Her eyes widened.
Holly flicked her fingers faster as her eyes scoured through the drawer. She moved to the next pile, not caring that something may have looked out of place, and threw caution to the wind as she continued.
She just needed one goddamn file.
Footsteps got louder—tapping against the linoleum as whistling bounced off the corridors to some random tune. It was oddly familiar, but she couldn't quite place it. Something Wong once played in the library as she read The Enchanting Tragedy of Alaude and Roisin, maybe?
Holly tackled the last pile and almost shouted in relief when she saw it—all in capital letters, hiding just behind the folder labeled the Osborn Corporation.
She pulled it out and got to her feet.
Biting her lip, Holly took one last glance at the opened drawer before activating her sling-ring and jumping over the glowing orange portal into the cul-de-sac outside. The security guard was getting too close for her to do anything about the mess she'd made.
Hopefully, Katie would think that Ward just had a bit of a late night. but she'd deal with the consequences at a later time if she had too.
Holly got what she needed—that was all that really mattered. She wasn't going in blind anymore.
With her back against the wall and the file in her hands, she slid down to the floor as the portal closed to her left. Holly curled in and tucked herself behind one of the bigger dumpsters; ignoring the putrid smell of rotting food—eyes too focused on the jumble of words and letters running across the page.
The Rand-Roxxon Settlement of 1993.
She would have flicked to the next set of pages, but alarms started blaring—the building behind her suddenly sounding off with sirens as lights began to turn on in the higher floors. Holly cursed under her breath.
She hadn't expected the security guard to go checking into the offices himself. Did he stumble across the files? Damnit!
She hugged the file close to her chest, too paranoid to set it down, as she broke into a run and sprinted towards the direction of the closest, but seediest, place that she could think of. She needed both hands to activate the sling-ring, and to do that Holly first had to find a secluded enough area that no one could stumble upon by accident.
Dark streets, flickering lights, and alleys with possible thugs hiding in the corners underneath cardboard boxes were dangerous, but they were her best shot. No one entered one of those deliberately unless they were looking to get mugged.
So she pushed her legs forward to go faster.
She took a left, then a right, then jumped a manhole that wasn't covered. Behind her, sirens were blaring as she assumed the cops had finally showed up to deal with the triggered distress call. Holly cursed, wishing that she'd had the foresight to wear something with a hood, but scurried off to flatten herself against the nearest wall on the likely chance they decided to hunt the perpetrator down in vicinities surrounding the tower.
With her chest against concrete, Holly started scooting—inching herself slowly towards the little gap between the two buildings she'd seen out of the corner of her eye. Again, it wasn't ideal
But she really didn't have a choice.
She was barely a stone's throw away—mere inches from successfully getting herself out of sight—when something sprang out and kept her in place; sticking her to the patch of course building that she'd clung to for dear life.
The corner of the file was digging into her ribs.
Behind her, someone whistled.
"Please tell me you're not drunk." That same person called out. "Cause, like, your sneaking screams bad guy trying to get away, but so did the other guy and he just had one too many shots of tequila so—"
There was a pause. Mystery guy cleared his throat.
"I mean, ugh, freeze?"
Holly groaned. She had so many questions. Who the hell was this guy? How the hell did he find her? Why in blazes name did she have such rotten luck? But, mostly, what the hell was this—was it some sort of webbing?—made of and why wouldn't it budge?!
"Let me go!" She shouted, shimmying and trying to get herself loose. "What the hell?!"
"Okay, what part of freeze wasn't clear to you?"
"I don't know?" She rebutted sarcastically. "The part where it was against my will?!"
Holly strained her neck to try and sneak a peak at him, but the stupid, sticky, thing that was keeping her glued to the stained cobblestone was making even that an impossible task to do. It wasn't helping that the pages from the files were beginning to slip and slide down her torso either.
She tilted her hip to prevent them from falling all the way down. "Let me go, asshole!" Holly practically begged. "You have no idea what you're messing with!"
"Yeah, that's not gonna happen bad guy—."
"I'm a girl!" She protested.
"Oh, ugh, sorry? Bad girl? Wait, no, that sounds—" He stopped himself again. Holly could imagine him shaking his head. "Not the point! I've obviously got no clue who you are or what you did—but they triggered that alarm for a reason, so I'm guessing whatever it was? It's pretty big—so, no."
Holly felt frustration begin to bubble in her chest; an intensity flaring at the bottom of her gut—getting stronger and stronger with every second that seemed to pass. It was overwhelming, almost like a house fire that was slowly swallowing her whole, but also addictive.
Honestly? It was beginning to feel really close to an adrenaline rush.
It made her snap.
"Look, douche canoe, I don't know who the hell you think your are or what the fuck you think you're doing, but I have actual shit that I need to be focusing on, so let me go and no one has to get hurt."
Stranger scoffed. "I don't really think you're in the position to be making threats."
The feeling didn't go away—if anything, it blazed and blossomed further underneath her still simmering anger. Holly had no idea what was going on—she'd add it to the growing list of already pre-existing questions she needed answered— but it was making her feel a sort of confidence that she was sure she never had before.
"Oh," She whispered—smirking. "Am I?"
When she tried to turn her head around this time, some of the weird stringy substance gave, She heard the guy take a step back.
"What the hell?"
There was something—something oddly different resting just underneath the surface of her skin. Holly flattened her palms against the wall and pushed. The webbing began to snap one by one.
She groaned; closed her eyes.
Her blood pulsed and surged—Holly could literally feel the crimson flow towards the tip of her fingers. It was warm—the comforting kind—progressively getting hotter as it began to build. When she blinked back to reality, her hands were glowing a bright yellow-green.
Holly mustered up all the strength in her body and forced herself away from the building. The sticky string gave with a bright flash and a scream.
The papers fell and scattered to a pile on the ground.
She couldn't find it in herself to pick them up; staring, instead, as the light moved in circles around her arms before fading away and leaving a trail of white smoke behind—a smoke that was, somehow, coming off of Holly in puffy clouds as she heaved.
"How did you do that?!"
She tried to put a hand to her chest, but found her arms staying stubbornly limp at her sides. They felt like cylindrical pieces of industrial concrete; heavy and useless as they hung off of her shoulders like dead weight.
Turning, Holly finally got a better look at her assailant. He was oddly familiar with his red and blue get up—black rimmed, cloth covered, eyes comically widening as he gaped, well, he looked like he was gaping anyway; she couldn' really tell through the mask? or was it a cowl?—at her.
He took another step back when she fully faced him, lifting his arms in front of his face. Stranger in the odd jumpsuit looked like he was preparing for a fist fight.
"Who are you?"
She needed to think. Whatever bravado had built up inside of her had evaporated along with her biceps and triceps, and Holly doubted that this guy was going to go down just because she asked him nicely. Given her current state, there was no way she was getting out of a brawl without losing—seeing as her fingers had also become inactive for the foreseeable future, the sling-ring was out of the question too.
Explaining would take too long; plus, his affiliations were currently unknown. Holly didn't want to attract the attention of groups like The Avengers, and if she remembered correctly, the reason this man in blue and red was getting more familiar by the second was because she'd seen videos of him in the middle of a desolated airport in Berlin.
She wasn't willing to risk that exposure.
But there was no way she was just walking away from this little encounter either, was she? It didn't matter that her flight response was kicking in to overdrive.
So, Holly needed to think. Fast.
He was already fidgeting, focused on every muscle twitch and reacting with a flinch of his own. She tried sliding her foot slightly towards the little gap she'd been trying to get to earlier to see just how small of a chance she had at running away. He caught the movement so fast that Holly thought he was going to shoot another one of those web things at her ankle.
It didn't look likely.
The sound of fluttering paper took her by surprise. Holly's eyes widened as she bent her neck and saw pages upon pages escaping from the file that she'd worked so hard to get. It sprung her to action—bending down to sit on the cream-colored folder to keep it shut.
She groaned as she watched some of the sheets move like tumbleweeds across the sidewalk.
"Oh my god. Oh my god." She whispered. "You have to get those pages!"
"I don't have to do anything." Stranger responded. "And, hey! I asked you a question first! Who are you?"
"That doesn't matter! Fuck!" Holly practically yelled, trying to inch forward—folder still trapped between her ass and the ground—and reach for one of the closer pieces of paper. "I need those!"
"What are these anyway?"
He relaxed his stance and walked over to the spot she was trying to get to; probably figuring out how immobile she really was based on her pathetic attempt to salvage all the information she'd stolen. She watched him pick up one of the papers—"Hey! Don't read any of that!"—and tried to kick at his ankle.
He avoided it without even looking.
"The Roxxon Corporation?" Stranger read outloud. "Wait, didn't you take this from Rand Enterprises? Why the hell would you break into a completely different company to get information on another one. That doesn't make a lot of sense."
She tried to kick him again. He got away without even sparing her a glance. Again. "I fail to see how that is any of your business."
He shrugged, setting his arm down to glance at her.
"And I fail to see how you can just sit there and act all tough when you can't even move your arms." The man—boy, hell what did she know?—crouched down to be at eye level with her.
The black on his mask slit; making him look considerably amused. Holly wanted to bash his face in with a mallet or something.
He poked her on the shoulder. She almost fell back. The stranger laughed out loud as he got up, piece of paper still clutched in his hand, as he perched on top of the roof of a red Toyota Camry.
Correction: Holly wanted to introduce his skull to the strength of The Immortal Iron Fist.
"This the third time I'm asking, but who are you? Why'd you break into Rand? Why are you looking for information on the Roxxon Corporation? What's your deal? Who do you work for?"
Holly scoffed and crossed her arms petulantly. Sirens still blared in the distance, but they sounded like they were heading in the opposite direction.
That was a relief at least.
"You seem to be under the impression that I'm gonna blurt out my life story to you just because you fucking asked." She quipped.
He shrugged. "Haven't you seen a Bond film before? Or, like, any film where there's an evil organization? It's kind of what villains do."
"I'm not a villain!"
The mask wasn't capable of rolling eyes, but was it a far stretch to say that she could see him do it anyway?
"You broke into a building," He started, raising his index finger before doing it to another. "You stole a file in the middle of the night, you were running away from the police, and you have a weird glow-y power that can destroy my chemical webbing. Sure. Not a villain."
Holly glared—open and hating. "I already told you, you have no idea what you're dealing with."
"Explain it to me then—" He switched to sitting criss cross applesauce. He put his chin in his palm. "—we've got time, not like you're going anywhere. Let's start, for the fourth time now, who are you?"
Something vibrated in her chest. The familiar heat was rising as she felt her fury begin to build again.
She saw a sparks fly out of her fingers.
He noticed it too, quickly raising his arm and blasting her with another batch of his stupid sticky string; effectively binding her already lifeless arms to her sides. There was barely any space left for her chest to expand when she breathed.
Holly groaned and fell to her side. Thankfully, the file stayed put underneath her. "What the actual fuck?!"
"Sorry!" He called sincerely. "I didn't mean for it to get that tight, but you kind of freaked me out!"
"Get me out of it!"
"What? No way! Get yourself out like you did last time! I'm not risking you burning me to crisp!" Stranger squinted, leaning forward. Holly kind of wished that he'd lose his balance, tip over, and fall off the roof of the red sedan altogether.
"How'd you do that anyway? The fireworks thing?"
Holly didn't know how. Holly wasn't sure she wanted to know how. Holly didn't even know what the fire was and why it was fucking green. She kind of just filed it away with the other questions again—thinking that she'd get her answers at the Sanctum Sanctorum library as she usually did.
She didn't want him to know any of that though, so she just pulled a trick out his hat and shrugged.
"Wouldn't you like to know?"
He huffed. "Fine, keep it a secret. Who are you?"
"That's five now." Holly retorted. Unlike him, there was nothing to hide her exasperated eye-roll. "Are you dense or are you just pretending to be that big of an idiot? Take a hint asshat. I'm not telling you who I am."
"You curse a lot for a girl."
"You talk a lot for a superhero."
He laughed. "Yeah, I get that a lot."
"But, seriously? Do you not have a supervillain—"
"I'm not a fucking supervillain, oh my god!"
"—name or alias or something? Not even a bad rip-off, like, Fire Princess or Mother of Dragons? That's kind of lame. Are you even trying?"
Had she not been on her side in the middle of some dirty Manhattan pavement, tangled in some web made out of super-super glue with arms that felt like twenty-five kilogram weights were tied to them, she would have whooped his ass to next Tuesday.
Wu Xiao Fei-shifu would have been proud to call Holly her protege. Doctor Strange would have marveled at how many pressure points she'd managed to hit in the span of a couple of seconds. Wing-sensei would probably have chewed her out and kicked her to the curb though—something to do with rei; bushido and all that.
Would have been worth it though.
"Do you ever just shut-up?"
He laughed again. "I get that a lot too!"
Holly didn't doubt that. She would have said so—taken his ego down a couple of notches—but something penetrated the air between them and began making a very familiar whizzing sound. Her eyes widened.
Oh shit. "Hey! HEY!" She called out—stopping the guy in the costume midway through his one-sided conversation—("Khaleesi would probably a cool fake name though. You should consider it.")—to make him look at her. "Is there an orange ring or something starting to grow under me?"
He looked down. His eyes comically widened. It was enough of an answer. Holy fuck.
"What the hell?! How the—"
She didn't hear the rest of his outrage—falling (file and all) into the portal with an embarrassing squeak and an audibly loud oomf! Her ass made contact with the hardwood floor of the New York Sanctum.
Strange, Wong, Colleen and Danny were all standing over her. Her teacher glaring as he had his arms crossed with the Cloak of Levitation billowing behind him for dramatic effect. Holly gulped; trying her best to hide the file from their sight.
"Uhm," She started lamely. "Hi?"
She was inside a cave; red eyes staring at her as she found herself frozen in place. Holly tried to twitch her fingers or her toes—start with something small before even trying a whole limb—but none of it worked.
It was almost like she was lulled into a state of cryostasis; but was fully conscious despite of it.
Holly watched as the crimson orbs stared at her, gaze running up from the tips of her feet to the crown of her head before going back again. She tried to make eye contact, but the bright scarlet lights in the heavily dark interior refused to meet them.
Then it blinked.
Holly felt shackles tighten around her—chains clunking as they wrapped around her in a full body bind and squeezed as tight as they could; practically breaching and tearing the surface of her skin.
Had she been able to, she would have screamed.
But even her lungs and her diaphragm seemed frozen and frigid—useless despite being functional.
"Stop fighting it, child." A voice said in her head—a female voice that sounded neither menacing nor compelling. "Fighting will only make it worse."
Fuck off, she'd wanted to tell it. Why shouldn't she fight? She wasn't weak. She was trained a pupil of the Order of the Crane Mother, for crying out loud! There was no way she was giving up without a fight.
At the same time, however, it confused her.
Her body was betraying her, going against her wishes by staying still at the feel of adversary. It wasn't that she did not want to fight—it was that she was unable to do so.
What had the voice been talking about?
The chains tightened even further, no longer feeling like they were digging into skin—but rather more like an overwhelmingly torturous sensation that was taking over her entirety, squishing her organs and compressing her body until it submitted.
The voice spoke again. It sounded amused.
"You don't feel it," She started, chuckling slightly before continuing. "How deliciously peculiar."
They tightened again, but still not a peep. Her stomach felt like it was going to give in and collapse in on itself; her ribs slowly sinking as they threatened to pierce her lungs and drown her in her own blood.
What wasn't she supposed to be feeling? Pain? Holly would have scoffed. She felt agony as the chains somehow kept getting tighter—literally squeezing the life out of her. Was it because there was no reaction? Because her body had somehow decided to stay still?
Was that why the voice was assuming she didn't feel a single thing?
"Amazing." It echoed again; not bothering to hide how delighted she was.
"Truly spectacular!" She added, the chains beginning to glow as something slowly began to slither around her neck—coiling around her nape and jugular before settling like a choker just above her collarbones.
Was it going to strangle her?
"Marvelous!" The voice finally concluded; a snap in the distance echoing in the emptiness as the red eyes continued to watch—not blinking once since the chains somehow appeared. "So, so marvelous!"
The chains on her neck began to glow a smoldering lime, too bright as she closed her eyes and waited.
No tightening came. Not even a little.
But her lower half felt like it was going to be forcefully twisted into separation from her shoulders.
Finally, her mouth opened—releasing an ear piercing scream as she heard more than felt the bone snapping from her arm. The voice chuckled.
"Soon, my child." It said delightedly. "Very soon."
Oow!
"Oh my god, Holly, get up."
Did Gwen really have to kick her though? Like, was that absolutely necessary?!
She sat up from behind her laptop screen and tried to hide how groggy she was at the sudden interruption to her much needed nap. She was greeted by the sight of her obviously flustered best friend—blonde hair up in a ponytail with full bangs hanging over her forehead; blue eyes widened to the size saucers.
Mister Warren, stood upfront with his arms crossed and his glasses a bit fogged, just shook his head as he turned to her friend.
"Thank you, Miss Stacy." He said kind of sweetly, returning to Holly with click of his tongue. She tried to look sheepish, but must have clearly failed; seeing as her teacher's glare hardened as he dragged his finger across the surface of his desk. He flipped to a different page of the open book he'd been using as a reference.
To Holly's defense, it really wasn't her fault that Biology just happened to be one of the few things that could effectively lull her to sleep even on a good day.
Mister Warren cleared his throat, keeping his eye on the textbook as he finally spoke.
"Now, Miss Hunter, seeing as you've obviously covered the course material enough to think it is okay to find yourself asleep in the middle of my class, would you mind, kindly, explaining to the rest us the idea behind why male Calico cats are extremely rare?"
She gulped—uh oh—and turned to Gwen. Help!
Gwen gently tried to slide the book over for her to see the page number, but Mister Warren tsk-ed and approached, hand on his hips as he effectively stared her friend down to stop her from doing so.
Holly sighed, resigning to her fate. "I don't know."
This time, Mister Warren hmm-ed.
He leaned across their desk, towering over both her and Gwen, as he rested his elbows on the table top and looker her in the eyes; chin propped on the palm of his hand. His glasses had cleared up, but it just added to the twisting feeling that was making Holly uneasy.
"I'm not one to conclude that I know a person just based on how frequently I see them, Miss Hunter, but this is the sixth time this year that I've caught you sleeping in my class."
His gaze hardened, but she could have sworn the corners of his mouth twitched up. "Make a seventh attempt and I'm going to have to practice some sort of disciplinary action. Do I make my self clear?"
She swallowed the lump in her throat. "Crystal."
He nodded his head and slid back, making his way to the front of the room as he instructed everyone to turn to page 95 of their text book. Gwen sighed.
"He really has it in for you, doesn't he?" She said.
Holly would have ignored it on any other day, but given what just happened? She couldn't help but agree.
"It is kind of your fault though."
Suddenly, it was Gwen's turn to start thinking oow.
Class went by in a blur of x-chromosome this and y-chromosome that and genetic modifications blah, but Holly just decided to stare out the window for most of it. Mister Warren didn't call on her, and Gwen poked her whenever she thought that Holly was getting drowsy again, so by the time the bell rang to signal the start of lunch—she hadn't really learned anything new, but she'd at least managed to stay awake.
She packed up her stuff—putting her laptop in its sleeve before zipping up her kanpsack and slinging it over her shoulder. Gwen was already done when Holly had looked over at her, so she didn't even bother calling out to her and headed straight for the door.
Her best friend huffed, but followed suit.
"You know," The other girl started, hugging a couple of text books to her chest as they both made a beeline for their neighboring lockers. "One day, I'm going to get sick and tired of you and then where would you be?"
"Asleep in Biology." Holly didn't miss a beat. "Spending time in a more interesting place than Mister Warren's classroom."
Gwen shoved her. They both laughed.
They took a turn, avoiding a hoard of Juniors that were already dashing towards the cafeteria—It was Pizza day today—and stopped when they made spotted two girls idly chatting, propped up against the wall beside the girls' bathroom. One of them had paper-white skin and jet-black hair that faded into waves of silvers and grays as they reached the tips just below her waist. Her icy blue eyes were mischievous as she began poking and prodding at her friend's—who had skin the color of warm caramel and curly brown locks tucked sloppily into a loose bun—cheek.
"Admit it! Admit it!"
"What's going on?" Gwen asked, bypassing them to get to locker F12 to start spinning her combination to swap out her stuff for the second half of the day. Holly did the same—except hers was F13.
"Did Mitchie—"
"Call me that one more time, Stacy! I swear to god I will mess you up!"
"—do something?"
Holly snorted. "Did she give hear someone defending the stupid Kendall Jenner commercial and go into a rant about the Black Lives Matter movement again?"
"That happened one time!" Michelle protested. "And they deserved it, okay? You can't go around capitalizing on a very serious American issue!"
"I'm not disagreeing with you," She answered, taking out today's module for Sci-Tech-Soc and replacing it with her Ad-Tech text book from earlier in the morning. Holly shut the metal door and leaned against it, turning to her friend with a smirk.
"Though, the face that guy pulled? Priceless."
"Seriously though," Gwen piped up, taking out a replica of what, looked like, the Palace of Versailles from her locker before closing it with her hip. Holly decided against asking. "What does Michelle have to plead guilty for this time?"
"She totes likes someone from her AP Pol-Sci class and she won't tell me who it is!"
"Felicia!" Michelle exclaimed. "It isn't like that!"
Felicia huffed. "Right, totally, you—Miss I am a Feminist and need no man to do my bidding because I am strong and independent—obviously just lets any random guy carry your books to your locker. That's totally not suspicious at all."
Gwen and Holly shared a look. Felicia had a point.
"I had a lot of stuff!" The other girl defended, putting her hands on her hips. "And he offered!"
"NO MAN!" Felicia yelled right back.
Michelle rolled her eyes.
"Anyways, are any of you going to Kenny Kong's party this weekend? Flash just wouldn't shut up about it at Decathlon Team practice the other day. Apparently, it's gonna have—and I quote: enough booze to get even Captain America drunk."
"Ugh, I don't think so." Holly responded. "I'm grounded for the foreseeable future—or, until I've reflected on my actions as Colleen put it."
"What did you do this time?" Michelle asked, quirking an eyebrow in judgement.
"Are we literally just gonna let her get away with that topic change?!" Felicia exclaimed. "This is an outrage! A scandal!"
Gwen gave her a small smile and shook her head, all of them beginning the short walk to the cafeteria.
"I might." She offered in reply. "I kind of have to make sure that it doesn't get too wild and cause a fuss. Student Council tries to involve itself in outside school activities too."
Michelle nodded. "Will your dad even let you?"
Gwen shrugged. "He's gonna have to."
"AM I REALLY THE ONLY ONE CURIOUS ABOUT THE MYSTERY BOY?! HOLLY!"
"It's not like we can force her to talk if she doesn't want to, Felicia!" She answered back; getting closer to put her lips just beside the other girl's ear.
"Besides, we can just snoop on our own."
Felicia's lips spread to a cheshire like grin—high-five-ing Holly as she nodded and tried to keep a squeal at bay. "This is why you're my favorite!"
She pushed the double doors to the canteen open, holding it steady until Gwen passed by with her project before letting it swing back and shut itself. They headed to their regular table—a little secluded circle at the corner of the room just underneath a small window—and took their regular spots.
"How about you, MJ?" Gwen asked. "You planning to go? You used to attend the ones that Liz Allen threw, right?" Michelle nodded.
"Yeah, but Liz always made sure it never got out of hand!" She added: "I don't think Kenny Kong, of all people, is going to care if people are sneaking in E and Coke to his party, Gwen."
The blonde bit her lip. "Point taken."
"Sounds like my kind of party!" Felicia butt in.
Michelle looked like she wanted to say something to that, but just shook her head and dropped it. Holly wanted to commend her choice; knowing that it was futile to try and make sense of what Felicia had meant by the comment.
The three of them excused themselves to go line-up and get lunch. Holly nodded, taking out a tupperware of fruit and a thermos of oatmeal from her bag as they chatted along and walked away.
She'd never been one for the cafeteria food.
Looking out the small window, she noticed that rain clouds were beginning to form in the distance. The sunshine from earlier this morning was beginning to fade, making her frown as she tried to remember if she packed an umbrella before leaving the Sanctum. She vaguely recalled Wong telling her to; whether she did it was a totally different question.
She'd just have to check her locker later then.
The chatter of the students around her faded into the background like white noise as she allowed her mind to start drifting. That dream—she didn't even bother going there for now, shaking her head and putting her face in her arms as she thought back to the events a couple of nights ago.
Who was that guy—Spiderman (according to the internet)—and did he bother picking up the pages she'd accidentally left behind? Did he read them? She had the rest tucked underneath her underwear in a drawer, and from what she'd gathered; a good chunk of the details she needed had been lost to the mouthy vigilante.
Additionally though: What was that green flame from that night? It hadn't surfaced since then.
How could she dig around the Roxxon Corporation deal without Danny, Joy and Ward finding out? How the hell was she going to brown nose Colleen into letting her have her weekends back?
So many questions. Not enough answers.
She sat up and opened the tupperware to plop a raisin into her mouth. It was sweet, but also a bit tart. She sprinkled a couple into the oatmeal along with a few banana slices and macadamias before taking a spoonful and shoveling it into her mouth.
"You can't keep doing reckless stuff like this, Holly!" Colleen had told her. "You broke into a company!"
"My company!" Danny had added with an exasperation that had her feeling guilty. She really hadn't meant for them to find out. "Why are you so obsessed with this Roxxon deal anyway?!"
"I'm not training you in the mystic arts for you to go around the city like some masked vigilante from Hell's Kitchen!" Strange had concluded; giving his own two cents as he tsk-ed and took away her sling-ring.
Wong had probably been the most sympathetic towards her; sneaking her a carton of Cinnamon Captain Americapple Pie after her guardians had returned to Chinatown and she'd been sent to her cot for the night to—as Strange had put it—meditate and clear her mind.
There had been a note stuck to it too.
It was an Adele quote: Hello from the other side.
A tray was suddenly slammed to the table; pulling her out of her reverie. Holly looked up to find Felicia practically steaming. She bit her lip, wondering if she should ask, but spotted movement just behind her and decided to peer over her fuming friend instead.
Cropped blonde hair, a jawline that could cut glass and shoulders broad enough to rival the likes of Michael Phelps. The News Editor of the Midtown Herald (also known as Holly's editor) was staring straight at them.
"What did Eddie Brock have to say to you?" Holly backtracked, shaking her head. "Wait, before that, how do you even know my editor from hell?"
"Reasons."
"Now who's being evasive?"
Felicia took a violent bite of her Hawaiian slice. She didn't acknowledge Holly's quip, but did make sure to toss her a quick look as she plopped a pineapple square into her mouth. Holly fake-barfed.
Gwen was the next to get back, offering an excuse about Michelle running into people from her Decathlon team and staying back to talk about some team-building session that they were apparently supposed to have. She had NY Classic (with extra pepperoni) on her tray.
"What did I miss?"
Holly was about to speak, but Felicia beat her to it. "Nothing. Holly's eating vomit again."
She put a hand to her chest. "Okay, oatmeal is delicious you pineapple eating piece of uncultured swine!"
Gwen guffawed.
Chatter between them stayed neutral after that. Holly didn't bring up the weird interaction between Felicia and Eddie Brock, and Gwen didn't push and pry about why she'd ended up grounded—"Don't think I forgot about that, Holly Hunter!"—either.
She was just about to answer a question that Felicia had thrown at her about why she preferred Spanish or Latin American artists like Salvador Dali, Pablo Picasso and Frida Kahlo when Michelle returned.
Felicia jutted her bottom lip out in a pout. Gwen gave a welcoming smile, waving. Holly turned to have a look at what had caught their attention.
Apparently, MJ had dragged a couple of boys back alongside of her.
"Petey!" Felicia called petulantly—teasing with that glint of mischief back in her twinkling icy eyes. "You never texted me back!"
The skinnier boy with wavy brown hair stood to Michelle's right blushed to the roots of his hair and to the base of his neck.
Michelle rolled her eyes and placed her Seafood—("Am I the only real normal one?" Holly heard Gwen whisper to herself. "Felicia and pineapple, Mitchie and anchovies.")—on the table before plopping down beside Holly. Gwen scooted to make space for the bigger boy who looked a mix of excitement and disbelief—Felicia tugged 'Petey' down to her side.
"Conquest?" Holly whispered towards MJ.
"Nah," She answered. "Felicia just likes to tease him a lot. Likes how he blushes or something like that—it's actually kind of funny."
"Spare me their weird mating ritual."
Michelle snorted.
"Anyways, that nerd—" She pointed to the guy beside Gwen. "—is Ned and you already know Petey—" She gestured with her head to where Felicia had her arm wrapped around the poor guy's elbow. "—they're from the Decthlon team and have decided to crash our table for the day."
"You used to sit with my and Peter all the time!" Ned protested.
"I didn't have friends then!" She was quick to retort.
"Don't listen to her," Gwen cut-in with a sigh. "It's not a big deal. It's nice to meet you—I'm Gwen Stacy."
Ned blushed. "Yeah, we know you."
Holly snorted. "Yeah, Gwen, the entire Freshman batch knows you. You're our Student Council representative, remember?"
Gwen kicked her under the table. She kicked back.
"And that's Holly Hunter." She continued. "She's not half as mean as she thinks she is, but she'll pretend to be anyways."
"Excuse you!" She mock-gasped. "I am so as mean as I think I am. I am badass!"
"Language!"
"Hey Gwen, Captain America called." Holly retorted with a whine. "He's coming out of hiding, he said you stole like seventy years of his life!"
Ned laughed. Then he stopped when they turned to him. Holly was suddenly made aware that there was a red brighter than fire engine.
"You're an embarrassment." Michelle whispered, taking a bite of her pizza with a shake of her head.
"Anyways," Holly spoke, giving him a smile (maybe smirk?) of her own. "Yeah, I'm Holly Hunter. I'm on Varsity Debate and—"
"YOU!"
"Huh? What?" Holly turned, coming face to face with an outraged looking Petey trying to pry himself away from an amused looking Felicia. Michelle quirked her eyebrow and Gwen looked confused.
He turned to Ned and tilted his head. "What?" Ned asked back, sounding equally astonished.
"You know Holly?" Felicia asked—her voice pouty and whiny. "Are you cheating on me, Petey?"
Petey's eyes were wide as he openly stared at Holly, seemingly biting on his cheek as his mouth open and shut. His finger hovered in the air, pointed and accusatory. He looked like a fish out of water; gaping and unable to formulate a single thought as he tried to remember how to breathe.
Holly tilted her head to the side; getting a a bit irate. "Uhm, excuse me?" She finally stated.
It snapped him out of whatever trance or daze he'd found himself in. Fully, he separated himself from Felicia and coughed—clearing his throat as he (tried to appear the he was) casually tried to gather his bearings.
No one was fooled.
"Pathetic," Michelle commented—not unkindly but seemingly a bit exasperated—this time around.
"No, ugh, I mean—yeah, you! Like you!" At this point, even Felicia looked completely lost.
"Me?"
"Yeah! You!" He shook his head and started looking around, swiveling his gaze from left to right as he stuttered. "Uhm, people used to, ugh, ask if I knew you! Right, that's why! Cause of our names!"
Holly looked skeptic. It seemed to click for Gwen though, cause she snapped her fingers.
"Oh yeah, I think I remember that!" She exclaimed. "Miss Robertson, right? She made a comment about how there was a Holly Hunter in one class and then a Peter Parker in ours?"
"Right!" He agreed a bit too loudly. "Right! Miss Robertson, yes!"
Holly didn't buy it for a second.
She eyed Petey—well, Peter—and watched as he kept fidgeting under her gaze. He was fiddling with his fingers, gnawing at his cheeks and seemingly looking for the quickest way out of the cafeteria save jumping out the small window that he would never fit through. Ned and Michelle shared a confused look beside her, while Felicia's smile stretched wide.
Something was building in her close friend's head, but she was a bit too distracted to try and figure it out.
Holly kept her focus on Peter—trying to think back to the encounters she'd made in school. Had she seen him around? Not really. He didn't look that familiar. Had Michelle talked about him before? Maybe, but that would mean she'd be the one recognizing him, right?
In fact, the only reason she even felt like there was something off from his reason was because of his voi—
But, seriously? Do you not have a supervillain name?
Holly's eyes widened. She stood, pointing at him.
"Oh my god." She said. "YOU!"
GINNY'S NOTES
Ahoy-hoy! What's up? You clicked on my story? OMG. I'm so flattered.
Thank you so much for choosing mine when there are so many others to choose from!
Anyways, what did you think? Obviously, first chapters are meant to set the scene, but, well
I've never been that great at beginnings. HaHaHa! So, share your comments with me if you want, kay?
Like, there's no pressure, feedback is just a good way to keep track of what readers are thinking.
ANYWAYS. Things should be clearer as we progress, obviously.
To those that haven't watched the Marvel Shows though, fair warning. You may end up confused.
Like. A LOT CONFUSED. I kind of wrote this story focusing more on the TV and NETFLIX shows.
The AVENGERS and stuff will make an appearance, sure, but yeah. Hopefully you guys don't mind.
I don't have a lot to say right now, ask me what you want to know and maybe I'll answer.
So long as, you know, they aren't spoiler-related. HAHAHA!
BTW: I tagged this under Comics because there is no MCU tag? But this is set within the
established Marvel Cinematic Universe (give or take a few alterations of course).
SEE YOU IN THE NEXT CHAPTER!