Disclaimers

All characters appearing in Marvel Comics are copyright Marvel Entertainment and Walt Disney Company. All characters appearing in Doki Doki Literature Club are copyright Team Salvato. No infringements of these copyrights are intended, and are not authorized by the copyright holders.

All original characters are the property of Celgress.

Two Lost Souls – Prologue

"If I'm a diamond than why do I feel so rough? I'm as strong as stone even that's not enough. There's something jagged and mean and I've made such mistakes. I thought that diamonds were hard though I feel I could break."

Pony I Want To Be (2017) MLP

A Cheap Motel outside Los Vegas, wee hours of the morning

Ben Reilly formerly the most recent Jackal before that formerly the Scarlet Spider sat by himself in a dark room. In front of him on a dignity desk sat a laptop he had retrieved from a trash bin late that morning. After many hours of jiggering with the device, he managed to get it running. Unfortunately, the substandard Wi-Fi provided by the motel prevented him from doing much other than reading e-mails and visiting the most basic of websites.

Bored out his mind and desperate for a distraction from his recent catastrophic defeat at the hands of his "brother" the Amazing Spider-Man Peter Parker he downloaded a free visual novel to kill time. At first glance, Ben thought with scorn that the sappy looking pseudo-dating simulator would prove pathetically predictable. The bright, cutesy, upbeat tone of the game sickened him but he would rather immerse himself in its simplistic, fabricated world than face his own harsh reality. Besides, concentrating on something else anything else kept the taunting, cajoling voice of his own imaged alternate self away, if only for a short time.

"If I'm going insane I might as well take a short meaningless detour, distract myself from my inevitable fate," Ben grumbled loading the visual novel.

Of the three dating options presented Ben first gravitated towards Sayori. Her unrequited love for the protagonist and struggle with serve depression reminded him a great deal of his own miserable existence playing second fiddle to Peter. When Sayori later took her own life by way of hanging he was both shocked and saddened. Shocked that a game of this type would show such a gruesome death on screen and saddened because he thought he was getting through to Sayori just before her demise.

Next Ben tried to forge a connection with Yuri the somewhat creepy girl of the group. But things did not work out any better with her than they had with Sayori. Before long Yuri stabbed herself in front of him. After which Ben noticed something that had escaped his attention before. The game seemed to glitch out around the time of each death. How odd he thought. Maybe somebody had messed with the game and the version he downloaded had been corrupted or otherwise modified. That would certainly explain the disturbing content.

With only one option left Ben next courted Natsuki the diminutive anime loving group member. Things once again soon took a dark turn. Natsuki's character glitched severely and her neck broke right in front of him. Geez this was a sick game he thought.

"What the hell is going on with this damn game!?" Ben swore.

The next thing Ben knew his character was stuck in a room with Monika the President of the titular literature club. Monika then confessed her "love" not for the main character but rather the person behind him, in this case, Ben. Monika admitted to sabotaging the other girls by increasing their bad traits so that Ben would no longer be interested in them. When that failed she deleted them from the system entirely until only she remained. Apparently, Monika had become aware that her life was nothing more than a fiction and as a result had broken the game script to be with the one she held dear.

When given the option Ben strongly considered deleting Monika. He was very angry with her. Not only had she destroyed the other girls she had also taken away his freedom of choice! He did not love her! How dare she decide what was best for others! Ben's finger hovered over the delete key, but he hesitated. Was what Monika did any different than what he himself had done? He had played God deciding what was best for others with his New U Program. In spite of her actions, he could not condemn Monika without condemning himself. He realized at that moment they were more alike than he cared to admit. If Monika should be deprived of all existence by all rights than so should he.

Although it was only a silly computer game Ben felt terrible that he could not give the other girls the justice they deserved by punishing their friend turned tormentor. "Sorry Sayori, Yuri, Natsuki I can't be the hero you need," Ben whispered.

That should have been the end of Ben's encounter with Monika and the world of Doki Doki Literature Club. This being one of the many variants of Marvel universe where strange occurrences were commonplace, however, this proved not to be the case. A surge of mysterious energy struck the laptop blowing it and the desk to smithereens. A flash of light blinding light accompanied by a thunderous roar later Ben found himself on the floor a heavy weight on top of him.

"Urg," Ben moaned pushing the warm weight off his body. "What just happened?" He asked unsteadily back on his feet a moment later.

"I knew you loved me not matter what you said in the game! You could never delete me!" A female voice said as arms wrapped his neck.

"Who are you? How did you get in here?" Ben asked bewildered by the situation. His Spider Sense was not being triggered so he gathered the girl was not an immediate danger whoever she might be.

"It's me silly, your devoted girlfriend Monika." The girl said nuzzling her head against Ben's chest. "Isn't this wonderful Ben? Now we can be together forever in your reality. We've been given a precious gift. I knew our love was meant to be." Her vivid green eyes stared at him lovingly.

"Yeah, wonderful," Ben said without enthusiasm. He did not bothering returning Monika's tight embrace.

He could barely look after himself how could he provide for another person? Then there was the fact he did not love Monika, in fact, he did not really even like her after what she had done. While he spared her life it was more because of his own guilt than any genuine sense of mercy. As twisted as he now was Ben knew people could not build a meaningful relationship of any kind let alone a romantic one based on nothing more than a mutual propensity for grievous, morally questionable actions. Like it or not Monika was here now. Could he turn his back? No, that would not be right regardless of his feelings about her. Was she his truly responsibility though? Suddenly memories of his no Peter's Uncle Ben flooded his mind. Uncle Ben would never turn his back on somebody in need if they worthy of his help or not it would have made no difference. Somehow he would help Monika navigate this world not for her, not for himself but because it was right because it was what a better person than him would do.

To Be Continued

So my readers should I continue with this plot bunny or not?

Author's Note -

These events unfold not long after escapes from Peter at the conclusion of Clone Conspiracy.