AN: So this is another Spider-Man fic, it is separate from my main Mercury. Here, we follow the story of Persephone/Perse Perez (nickname pronounced like Percy). This will be totally MCU centric (will include the TV shows in passing as well but they won't be prominent and the TV show timelines might not add up with the movie storyline), and starts up about a year before the events of Civil War. The title "The Woods Look Lovely" is actually from Robert Frost's Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening, the original line being "The woods are lovely dark and deep." I love poems and it has been a while since I've actually shown them some love, I don't know why. I hope you guys enjoy this story!
The sunset painted the sky with vibrant hues of pink and orange, the clouds acting as a canvas. The Sun itself struggled to stay above the water, its final rays striking against the waves before being blanketed by the creamy night. The waves crashed against the rocky shoreline, seemingly unaware of the peaceful background.
Persephone Perez managed to capture all of this in her sketchbook using watercolor. It was her first time trying out the artistic style, so it wasn't as refined as it could be, but then again Persephone wasn't known for being refined. She sat on a bench, soaking in the last bits of daytime as she hurriedly tried to finish her painting. The lamppost acted as her only source of good lighting once the sun finally went down. Once she finished, she put away her brushes and paints into her bag with little care, but gingerly held onto her sketchbook. It was worse for wear, so Persephone had to learn to be more gentle with it. She was always in a hurry these days.
It was the end of the 8th grade as of today. Perse had told her parents, Al and Jimena Perez, that she was attending a sleepover tonight. This was a lie. Perse would always fake sleepovers or after school clubs as a chance to be able explore the city at night. A fourteen year old wandering New York City didn't seem safe, but Perse is no ordinary fourteen year old girl.
She slung her bag over her shoulder as she got up from the bench and started walking more towards the bustling civilization of Lower Manhattan. She was certainly far from Queens, but she was also far from her new school that she would be attending this fall: Midtown High. Her parents had submitted her into the lottery and she won. She was far from happy at the prospect. She wanted to stay in public school. She wanted to stay with her friends. But her parents wanted better for her. So Perse decided that she would try to spend as much distance as she could from Queens.
Al and Jimena had adopted Perse after being her foster parents for two years. While she didn't feel entirely comfortable calling them Mom and Dad yet, she did consider them to be her parents. She even asked to take on their last name. They chose her and she in turn chose them. She didn't like to dwell too much on her life before the Perez's. Which is why she didn't put up much of a fight when they secretly submitted her for the lottery. And it might be cold, but Perse decided to use their guilt of them ripping her away from her friends by saying that there was a "farewell sleepover party" in Perse's honor so that she could run off and do her own thing.
Finding a quiet and secluded alleyway, Perse looked both ways to make sure there was no one passing by. Once she knew the coast was clear, she closed her eyes and focused. Within moments, her whole body was as dark as the night sky and her typically grey eyes turned into a bright blue. Perse floated up to the top of the building and landed gently on the roof. She placed her sketchbook and bag down as the darkness started to retract, almost like a fog, until it disappeared and her frizzy brown hair and tan skin returned, along with the blue dimming back to her grey eyes. She opened the bag and took out her all black outfit to change into. It wasn't anything special, just black leggings and a black long sleeve. She just never wore her usual bright clothing because it would look strange if she did so while fighting crime. But one thing Perse didn't change was her black Chuck Taylors. She couldn't dare part with those.
Now in her "disguise", Perse changed back into her mysterious form. If one were to pay attention closely, they would realize that she didn't turn into a black void, but literally the night sky. A very dark shade of blue.
Perse had always been this way, for as long as she could remember. Which, to be fair, there wasn't a lot of remembering for Perse. Everything before the age of 10 was blank for her. She could vaguely remember small snippets of her childhood, but none of it was coherent to her, she didn't understand what little she did remember. Perse just always knew about her powers, though. Even with the memory loss, she understood her powers and how to control them…somewhat. It was like muscle memory, but she was still training herself.
Perse jumped off of the roof and dove straight down before shooting back up into the sky, whooping as she did so. That always gave her a thrill. She once even jumped from a forty floor tall building. She hadn't started her crime watches until recently, though. Perse was not sure how or why she had these powers, but she wanted to put them to use. And for good use at that.
She started her "shift" of exploring Manhattan, but she mostly stayed on top of various buildings and watched, waiting for something to happen. Flying too much would tire herself out quicker. Oftentimes, not a lot happened. No aliens coming out of the sky, no green rage monster trashing Harlem, no mysterious hammer; all things she learned in class that had happened in recent years but she had no memory of. She wished she had been a part of those events sometimes, standing side by side with the Avengers.
But no, Perse mostly stuck with giving tourists directions, stopping muggings, and occasionally creepy men in creepy alleyways. There was one time she stopped a bank robbery. It wasn't pretty and Perse had been sloppy, but her technique had improved much. Especially after taking some fight classes when she told her parents that she was attending Chess Club. Tonight was one of those quiet nights, but Perse didn't mind it. She quite liked doing the "mundane" aspects of crime fighting. It was no Avengers-level life saving, but she would help at least one person and that was enough for her. That one person made an impact.
Perse returned home early in the morning, eyes bloodshot and tired out of her mind. Jimena was already gone for work, but Al was enjoying a nice day sleeping in. Jimena Perez is a police officer, and has been serving the city of New York for about a decade. Al is a data analyst, working the typical boring 9-5 job.
When Perse was first brought into the Perez household, she had been very shy and sometimes outright mean to them, but she quickly came out of her shell when Jimena came home one day in her uniform. It awed Perse, and Al quickly tried to gain the little girl's favor by bribing her with sweets or making up outlandish stories how he's actually a super secret spy.
Perse smiled fondly at the memory as she passed by her parent's room. While so much has changed, Perse herself hasn't. She's still very much a standoffish child but Al and Jimena created this new, warm side of her that only they are truly privy to.
She plopped down her bed in exhaustion, staring up at the ceiling that was littered with the glow in the dark stars. Perse's room was mostly bare. She had her bed, her closet, and her nightstand. Al always tried encouraging her to hang posters up on the wall or to get decorations, but Perse never got around to it. Maybe it was because she was so accustomed to not being able to personalize a room that she stayed in. But she recently made the first step with the glow in the dark stars. They were comforting at nighttime.
Despite how tired Perse was, she couldn't fall asleep. She was already thinking about how she would spend her summer taking on the rats of New York. She wasn't going to be restricted by her school schedule and that excited her, to have all of that free time. This was going to be the best summer yet.
A month had passed since her last day of school and the city was quiet for the most part. But this afternoon was far from quiet.
Perse had not been far away when she heard the explosion. She quickly changed into her all black clothing and became engulfed by the darkness again in a restroom inside McDonalds. She certainly got a lot of weird and terrified looks when she exited the bathroom but she paid them no mind as she had raced towards the sound when she heard yet another explosion. The whole side of Jerry's Pawn Shop was gone, rubble everywhere and the ceiling integrity not looking so good. She stepped inside the shop, tentatively.
There were still some customers inside, too afraid to try to escape. She motioned for them to be silent, which wasn't a problem when they saw her come in. Perse had the special ability of naturally instilling fear into the hearts of her enemies. Like in the wild when prey can start to sense that a predator is nearby, so did the people inside Jerry's upon Perse's entrance. But she could also send out calming waves, and she did that for the people inside so as not to fear her as much.
Perse ventured forwards some more, going deeper into the store until she reached the back, where she could see the robber waving the weapon wildly in his hands as he demanded all the money in the safe as well as the more expensive valuables that was kept behind the counter.
"Come on, old man, I don't have all fucking day!" The robber spat vehemently, starting to get more worked up by second. It was then, that he suddenly froze. He could sense Perse.
Perse had tried to control the initial fear factor that people felt around her. The blood running cold sensation. But it was difficult to control in high stress situations such as this one.
He suddenly whipped around, the gun now pointing at her. And the weapon in the robber's hands glowed and hummed, looking ominous as ever. Perse momentarily thought to herself how it had all led up to this moment, from when she first heard the blast. God, she just wanted to get some new paints today.
"What the fuck are you?!" He exclaimed, finger shaking against the trigger.
Perse fought against her own fear, trying not to balk. She put on a brave face, smirking at the robber. He was too focused on her bright, glowing blue eyes that he didn't notice the flick of her wrist as the black mist starting emanating from her hands. "Oh, didn't you know? I'm your worst nightmare."
Before he knew it, the fog covered his eyes and Perse quickly dodged out of the way as he screamed out and set off a shot. It went clear over her head and she turned behind her to make sure no one was injured. People cried out in fear, but everyone was okay.
"Everyone, go! Get out!" She exclaimed, trying to wave them away. Thankfully, they did as they were told, the idiots.
Perse then pounced forwards before the man could fire another shot and ripped the strange gun away from his grasp. Perse was also stronger than any average person, much stronger. She opened her hand and a fog formed before solidifying into a dagger, which Perse brought up to the man's neck. He was still screaming and Perse gew annoyed by his wails.
"Shut up!" She growled, and lessened the fog's grip over his eyes. He whimpered out in response, but then remained quiet. "You're done. You hear me? You're done. You're gonna sit here on the floor and wait for the police to come get you. Or else." At that last part, Perse strengthened the fog to scare him straight. Her victims saw images that they thought were real, even if it was irrational.
"Okay." He said, crying now. "Just please stop."
"Sit." She demanded, making her dagger disappear. He did as he was told and Jerry finally emerged from the behind the counter from when he hid during the accidental firing.
"Thank you." He quivered. Even while being thankful, he seemed fearful of her as well as he quickly made his way out of the shop while calling the police.
Perse made the fog around his eyes go away, but they were still glazed over, haunted by what he had seen. Maybe she had gone a little too far. But at least he would be staying put. She went out the way she came, not wanting to be around when the police showed up. She always narrowly missed the cops. She always feared that one day they would arrive on scene and it would be Jimena. That would be awkward for Perse, even if Jimena wouldn't be able to tell it was her adopted daughter, it was still a situation she wanted to avoid. When she stepped out, she immediately heard the distinct sound of someone taking a picture on their phone.
"Are you serious!" A boy groaned, sounding like he was chastising someone.
Perse turned her head to see two teenage boys around her age. There was one holding his phone out stupidly while the other tried to drag him down the alleyway and away from the scene.
"You're the Shadow Lady." The one that had taken the photo breathed dreamily. Perse tilted her head to the side, unsure as to what was happening.
"Dude!" His other friend exclaimed, seeming fidgety, but not because of Perse's abilities. He was just naturally fidgety it seemed. Perse could start to hear sirens in the distance.
. "Can I have your autograph?" He asked, ignoring his stressed out friend.
Perse couldn't help but laugh at that before she flew away. She really needed to get out of there.
"Dude!" He repeated again. "Are you crazy?!"
"Shut up, Peter. I just got a cool picture. I wonder how much this could sell for? I don't care, I'm going to keep it for myself."
Peter knew that they should have left the pawn shop right when the first explosion happened, like most did. But his friend Ned wouldn't budge and then the second explosion happened and they were both too afraid to leave. And that's when she came in and saved the day. The news outlets had different names for her: the Shadow, Nightmare, or menace as a certain reporter liked to call every masked vigilante in the city. Although, after seeing her up close, Peter wasn't so sure anymore that she was wearing a costume. It seemed like it was her actual face, but it was hard for him to focus on her strangely enough. Whenever he did look at her face, the blackness would be so consuming and her face would distort. Not to mention her eyes, the most captivating thing.
As much as Peter was mad at Ned for risking their lives, he couldn't lie to himself that it was pretty cool to see a superhero like the Shadow in person.
Perse's adrenaline was still pumping. Once she was a few blocks away, she landed on a roof and turned back to her normal self. She had ditched her clothes and wad of change at the McDonald's, which she figured the money would be gone by now. She went down the fire escape and at the last rung, she left herself hang before letting go and bending her knees as she landed on the ground.
She saw the police cars race by to the scene as she walked out onto the sidewalk and made her way back to the McDonald's to retrieve her clothes before heading back home. Despite the high of stopping a robber with a crazy weapon, she felt sour by the fact that now she isn't able to pick up fresh paint.
When she got the McDonald's, she was right. The money was long gone. And so was her jeans. Did they really have to do that? That's just rubbing salt on the wound for Perse.
Once Perse got home, she was greeted by Al.
"Hey kiddo!" His deep voice always made it seem like it reverberated across the room.
"Hey, Al." Perse sighed, plopping down on the couch next to him. He quickly put his arm around her shoulders, amusement glinting in his eyes.
"What happened to you getting paint?" He questioned.
"I lost the money." She lied breezily. "I think it fell out of my pocket on my way there." Al laughed at this, despite the glare that Perse gave him. "Not funny."
"You're just so scatterbrained. How about this: this weekend, I'll take you to the store myself and I'll get you the paint." He offered.
"Thank you." Perse whispered, a little bit ashamed that Al had to even offer in the first place. It still felt weird for adults to be caring about her and paying for things for her.
"It's no problem." He kissed her forehead, to which Perse wiped away his slobber. Al knew that she was just trying to act like she didn't like displays of affection but he knew she secretly loved it.
Al turned his focus back to the TV and Perse did as well. Perse's mind was elsewhere, though. While they sat and watched a rerun of Fresh Prince of Bel Air, she couldn't get her mind off of what she did today. She saved a pawn shop full of people. More than that, from a man who had a weird glowy weapon. She also smiled to herself when she thought about the two boys she encountered. She had met her first real fan today! He was awestruck at seeing Perse. She didn't like being called Shadow Lady–that sounded incredibly lame–but she'll take it.
Night fell and Jimena came back home from work. She looked exhausted, but still kept a smile on her face as she greeted her family. They ate Chinese takeout as they watched an action comedy film. This right here is home, Perse thought to herself. The apartment is just a place, she didn't care where they stayed at, but the act of spending time together was enough for her. A part of her felt guilty for hiding her powers and late night activities from them, but she didn't want to ruin what she had going with them. Not after they've come so far as now being legally seen as a family. Deep down, Persephone feared that if they found out, Al and Jimena would become afraid of her and try to take her back into the system.
After the movie ended, Jimena and Al called it a night. Perse retreated to her room as well, but not to sleep. She waited two hours to make sure both of them were asleep before she changed into her all black clothing and transformed into her dark form. Perse admired herself in the mirror before leaving out the window. She truly is a terrifying sight. Being practically all-black, and her frizzy hair just made her look all the more frightening and ethereal than the normal brown hair did, not to mention her eyes. Perse wasn't sure why her eyes turned blue. An electrifying blue at that. They would appear anytime she used her powers, not just when she transformed. She smirked and then flew out into Queens, starting her shift.
She landed on a residential building a few blocks away, not wanting to fly too much. She just watched the quiet street. Occasionally someone passed by in a hurry, a few cars here and there, but nothing. She moved on twenty minutes later, over to the next block. Everything seemed okay, until she sensed something was off.
A young woman passed by, and Perse could sense the fear radiating off of her in waves. She was clutching her purse tightly, and taking large quick strides as she walked down the street. Unbeknownst to the woman, Perse was right above and following her, walking along the edge of the buildings and gliding over to the next.
When they got to the intersection, the woman paused for a moment and looked around her. Perse did the same, and there was not another soul in sight.
But then a moment later as the woman hurriedly crossed the street, Perse sensed another person with fear. But this fear was different than the woman's. No, this was an exhilarating kind of fear, nerves that kept the adrenaline pumping. A man had been very loosely following the woman, but he was so far away and remained hidden so well that the woman couldn't see him. Nor could Perse sense him until he got a little too close for a moment.
Perse kept her focus on the woman, not wanting to pounce at the man just yet. She found her opening when the woman rounded a corner. She stayed crouched on the edge of the building, and waited for him to start to round the corner as well. When he neared, Perse extended her hand towards him, and a dart of blackness shot out. It landed on his shoulder. A small amount of blood started seeping through the wound, but that wasn't the scariest part about the weapons Perse was capable of making. It was the fact that the blackness started to spread through his veins before disappearing.
The man stopped in his tracks, and his heart rate increased at an alarming speed. Perse jumped off the roof and landed a bit harshly on the ground, but the impact didn't hurt her. She just wanted to get another scare at the man at witnessing a female creature survive a jump like that while also landing on her own two feet.
"You're gonna leave her alone." Perse said simply, hands on her hips.
The man, whose eyes were now bloodshot, wildly tried to take a swing at Perse. She easily dodged the first swing, but took a hit at his second. He put his all into it, and it did sting, but that was all.
"What are you?" He wailed, now falling to his knees as the vision he was trapped in worsened.
When someone was stuck in their own personal nightmare, they could also still see reality–it was just a warped version of it. Perse had never tried to go so far as to someone losing their touch on reality. This was mostly because she worried that if she tried to, it might result in death. So he could see Perse's figure perfectly, as well as the fact that he was on the floor of the sidewalk.
Perse ignored his question, repeating herself again. "You're going to leave her alone, you sniveling little loser. You're going to leave every woman alone. You got it?"
"Yes! Yes, I promise! I am sorry. I'm so sorry. Please, God, make it stop." He was crying so hard that snot came down like a river. Perse was disgusted. She let go of her mental grip on the man, his mind now clear of her images, but the fear still present as ever.
"Go." She ordered. He shakily got up and started to run off in the opposite direction, too scared to look back as he tripped over his feet at times. She chuckled, eliciting a small snort, letting her guard down and being her usual self again. "Loser."
"Oh my God." Perse heard behind her. She whipped her head around, standing awkwardly as she noticed that the woman was there. "You saved my life. He-he was following me ever since I got off work 6 blocks ago." The woman rushed up to Perse and embraced her, which took the latter aback.
The woman instantly recoiled, to which Perse felt guilty for. In this form, touching her was an easy way of getting panicked.
"Sorry." Perse said, and sent out calming waves to the woman. She couldn't exactly calm a person down completely, but she could lessen the anxiety by a lot.
"How can you do that?" The woman asked, not scared anymore, even her own personal fear. She sounded curious and amazed.
"I-I don't know. I just can." Perse replied weakly. Being herself was always difficult. Being her alter ego…The Shadow or Nightmare as some called her, was a lot easier. Her alter ego had quips, threatened scumbags, and stood tall with her chin up. Persephone Perez never knew what to do with her limbs and often tripped up on her words.
"Well, keep doing it. Thank you, again." The woman smiled, actually staring Perse in the eye. Perse could notice the struggle that took, since Perse's face is literally hard to look at in this form. "Could you actually…could you walk me the rest of the way home?"
Perse nodded tentatively, a small smile coming out of her as well. "Yeah."
It was a strange sight to witness at 2 o'clock in the morning: a cosmic-looking figure and a thirty-something year old woman walking side by side, while the latter talked her ear off to the figure. Perse really appreciated this, never having communicated this much with someone she saved before besides earlier today with the two boys. And she wasn't really doing much of the talking anyways, but she didn't mind. Perse was always the listener type.
The rest of the night in Queens went smoothly, and in Brooklyn as well. As the dawn started to steadily approach, Perse made her way back home. She slipped inside her room just as she heard Jimena bustling around the apartment getting ready for an early shift at the station. Her hours were always odd, but she never let that get in the way of taking care of Perse. Perse always considered her a superhero, but not just because she's a cop. She also had the energy to be a provider for a teenage girl as well. That was no easy feat.
Perse changed into an old t-shirt of Al's that looked more like a dress on her and fell on the bed. She didn't even bother to cover herself in the blanket for warmth because she was too tired. Still, there was a smile on her face as she slipped into dreamland.
AN: Okay end to the chapter! I hope whoever is reading this enjoyed! This is very different from my other story and I've been thinking about doing this for a while, but wanted to work on Mercury some more before I started this.
We saw a little snippet of Peter Parker (Tom Holland version, since I'm having this story be completely 100% MCU), and this is before he gets bitten by that ever-so-famous radioactive spider. This is roughly six months before he gets bitten, and I estimate that because I think Civil War happens six months after he is bitten.
I don't want to spoil too much, but a certain Avenger will notice Perse's exploits and an interaction may ensue…
Also, if anyone is curious as to how I envision Perse, I will provide a link of a drawing I saw on Tumblr of the artist's page and also a website that she sells the prints on because it is glorious (and also the fact that she did a Nyx rendering so it's fate):
people/elisebrave/works/31420143-nyx?asc=u&c=585805-mythology-collection&SSAID=389818&utm_source=shareasale&utm_medium=affiliates&utm_campaign=banner&sscid=41k3_8ic1b
In Mercury, I like to have incorrect quotes so I'm going to continue the trend here:
Perse: Today, I played Slenderman for the first time. It was terrible. I cried twice.
(I first saw this on Tumblr, which was a screenshot of a tweet. Love that.)