Chapter Twenty-Five:

The girls were spread about the area of the kitchen. Gwen, Jean, Mary Jane, and Kitty were spread out a little bit. May in particular was talking on the phone with Theresa Pryde, more ore less to verify that she was okay with her daughter staying at the Parker Residence. Jean, Kitty, and Mary Jane were sitting at the table, Gwen was hanging out by the counter. Harry was currently in Peter's older room, to clear out the boxes, and make sure it was livable once more. It had been doubling as a Storage Room since they converted the business into a suite. That was a very long time ago.

"Your mother said that it was okay, dear," May said, the moment that she got off of the phone.

"Oh, that's good," Kitty answered. She was kind of in a funk to be honest. Jean reached forward and put her hands on Kitty's shoulders lightly. She lightly massaged them in an attempt to keep the brunette girl calm and collected.

"It's okay," Jean whispered in her ear in a soothing manner, rubbing her shoulders gently. "Everything is going to be okay, trust me on that one."

Kitty looked over her shoulder. She might beg to differ whether or not everything was going to be okay or not. She still ran through her mind. Today was an eye-opener of how dangerous her powers could be if they weren't trained.

"I'm not certain what happened, but I'm sure that if we talk it out that…" May started. She paused when she could see that the attention of all four girls were diverted off of the conversation at hand.

It was obvious to see why after a moment. Harry stepped into the room wearing a pair of snug jeans and an equally tight t-shirt. It was pretty much an undershirt that did a pretty good job of showing off his muscles extremely nicely.

Harry slipped over towards the counter where the coffee machine is. He went to grab a much. Only for Gwen to slip in and steal a quick kiss to him. Harry accepted the kiss and returned it with equal intensity. It was then where he poured himself a coffee.

May shook her head and returned to look at Harry.

"Did Kitty's mother say it was okay for her daughter to stay here?" Harry asked her.

"Yes, she said that it was okay," May confirmed for him. "She seemed to trust your judgment. I'm not really sure all that much about the events leading up to it, only something traumatic happened to her daughter."

"Yeah, it's not something that's easily explained," Harry told her.

"She's willing to allow her daughter to stay here until the end of the summer," May informed Harry. "And then afterwards, we'll see what comes next."

Kitty sighed and she gave a smile. Harry placed his hand on the back of her neck and smiled. She returned the smile. It might be weaker than normal, but it was the same as the haunted look.

"Figure this out, one step at a time," Harry told her. He took the seat next to Kitty, and Gwen made her way on their other side.

"Don't worry about it," Mary Jane said. She shifted herself next to Kitty. "Harry will figure out everything, he's pretty good at doing that."

"I guess he is," Kitty agreed. There was something a bit happier about her tone. She didn't have much of an appetite still, though.

"You better eat though," Harry said. She was about ready to protest. "You need your strength because of your powers and it won't do anyone any good if you pass out."

Kitty once again tried to protest that she was fine, but May smiled at her. "Harry's right, dear. You wouldn't want anything to happen."

With that all settled, the group settled down and ate dinner. Overall, all of them were famished after the day that was. The adventure at the Mansion had caused them a lot of stress.

Kitty in particular was glad that Harry was there to help her explain this in detail and perhaps soften the blow just a little bit. No matter how many times she washed her hands, she felt that the blood was still staining them. It was practically alarming to put things bluntly to have that much blood on your hands.

It was later that night. Jean was sharing a room with Kitty. Despite the fact that she was here under the pretext of visiting her parents, Harry knew better. Her relationship with them was fairly strained and it had been strained since she got her mutant powers. Everyone who was in the know, like Harry and Ororo, knew that it was an excuse to get away from the mansion.

Gwen and Mary Jane were downstairs in Harry's room, having an impromptu slumber party there, for lack of a better term. As for Harry, he decided that he was going to crash on the couch. The only problem was that he didn't crash that hard.

It was odd, really, because the couch was fairly comfortable, it was just that it was borderline difficult for him to really get any sleep on it.

There was someone on top of him, straddling his waist. Harry looked up with a smile and Mary Jane was on top of him, straddling him. She looked like a vampire almost in the moonlight, due to the fact that it was making her hair shine crimson and she was a bit on the paler side of things.

Mary Jane bent down, and took his hands in hers. She leaned down and kissed him extremely deeply, which was a gesture that was obviously returned. Mary Jane took a chance to break the kiss and started to slowly trail kisses along his jaw, until she finally reached the neck.

She bit him, extremely hard enough at that. It was almost hard enough to draw blood. She sucked on his neck with a smile and then slowly began to trail her lips down his chest, until she reached the paradise below.

She took Harry's hand and guided it to the back of her head. Harry decided to guide her down to him.

His pants were undone and she fished him out of his pants. She leaned down, opening her mouth wide for the delight that was about to come.

Kitty slowly watched the scene before her unfold. Her eyes widened when she viewed every single moment of it, with eagerness. She was feeling an uncomfortable dampness between her legs and her breathing heightened the more that she soaked in everything with her eyes.

She was only intending to come down stairs for a drink of some sort, but she ran into so much more. The brunette realized that if she isn't careful, she would have been seen. So she slipped off into the night without another word.

"It was a dark and stormy night….no actually, it was a fairly sunny later afternoon, but I find that a dark and stormy night sets the tone much better for dramatic purposes."

An individual stepped forward into the shadows. He was wearing black and red, with a trenchcoat and fedora.

"Oh, that description, really? We can do better than that," the individual in question answered. "There I was, arriving at this pier. I was wearing a skin tight black and red bodysuit that fit around my figure like a glove and showed up my tight ass of steel. My cup size is unknown, because I'm not a chick and even if I was, it's really none of your fucking business, is it? Of course, a lot of my figure was lost because of the trench coat and fedora. I was wearing a pair of glasses as well, because that's a fairly effective disguise. Just slap on those glasses and your secret identity is safe."

He snapped his fingers in response.

"And there are a pair of Katanas strapped to my back," he added, when he continued with a smile. "That kind of spits into the face of the entire, I'm incognito thing, but there you have it. I've also devolved into Buffy speak,apparently. Go me, it's my birthday."

The man in question pumped his fists into the air, with a yeah.

"Anyway, there was trouble brewing on the horizon," the man in question responded. "Was it the kind of trouble that you want? I would find out soon. For those of you who aren't in the know and what kind of rock have you been living under if you aren't, my name is Deadpool. I'm the Merc with the Mouth, one tough cookie. And the reason I'm here is that someone contacted me with a job offer. Normally, I wouldn't take such deals, but the amount of money made me interesting."

'Did you ever occur to you that this was way too easy,' one of the voices in his head piped up.

'IT'S A TRAP!' one of the voices inside of his head thought.

'Thank you Admiral Ackbar,' another voice commented. 'Hey, it's now raining, and it's almost night, so I guess the dark and stormy night part is pretty accurate now.'

Deadpool turned around.

"And there I was, looking at the end of the street," he narrated. "I see him right there, at the end of the pier. My benefactor, he's standing there waiting for me."

The benefactor stood plainly in the light where anyone could see him. He held an umbrella with a metal briefcase dangling from his hand.

"Yes, he stands plainly in the light, just like that," Deadpool continued to narrate. He snapped his fingers for some added bonus emphasis.

Deadpool walked up. It was the one and only Donald Menken.

'You know, he looks much better when he isn't shitting himself in terror,' one of the voices in Deadpool's head commented.

'Pretty nervous looking guy though,' another voice repeated.

'Well you would be nervous as well if you had to bask in our awesomeness,' another voice replied, this one with a more surfer dude type accent.

Menken was in the process of launching into a spiel about something or other. Deadpool realized that he had been listening to the voices inside his head way too much and not focusing on the jackass at hand.

"Could you repeat that one more time?" Deadpool asked. "I wasn't really paying all that much attention, because I was thinking of the Star Wars Christmas Special."

'Or the Golden Girls Rule 34 that you were fapping to earlier,' another voice replied in response.

"I'm offering you a lot of money to do what you do best," Menken said. His tone was patient. One could get the impression that he would nothing better than to strangle Deadpool where he stood, but there were far more important things on his mind. "And you are the best in the world at what you did."

"Hey, that's Logan, not me," Deadpool said. "But I am that damn good….no wait that's some guy with a big nose and a sledgehammer. But if you're offering me a lot of money to kill some guy or gal, because I don't discriminate, I'm your number one guy."

He patted Menken on the shoulder and gave him a toothy grin in response, as only Deadpool could give.

"Even if it kind of difficult to see it with the mask on," Deadpool said. "I know, buzz kill but….with the deal in place, it's a perfect time for us to fade to black."

Harry, Jean, Kitty made their way through the hallways of Frost Industries. Jean's eyes shifted over towards Kitty in half amusement and the other half was slight annoyance at her milking it just a little bit.

Kitty had latched onto Harry's arm the moment that she walked into the door. Jean decided that it was best to grin and bear it. Even though, it was pretty obvious that Kitty was really milking things out that moment.

The fact that Jean had ahold of Harry's other hand made things a bit more acceptable, at least they did to her.

'So, exactly why are we here to see Emma?' Jean asked her. She wasn't too happy about this fact.

'Well, it's due to the fact that Emma has training in Psychology since that's what she studied,' Harry thought. 'You know in addition to business.'

'Yeah, yeah,' Jean thought.

They made their way to Emma's secretary. Harry leaned over towards the young female that was at the desk with a smile.

"Hello, I'm here to see Miss Frost," Harry said with one of his winning smile.

The woman nearly sat up straight and was surprised to see Harry there, only not really.

"Of course, Doctor Potter, sir," she answered with a smile on her face. She buzzed Harry into the office. "You can go on in."

Harry, Jean, and Kitty all made their way into the office. Emma was on the phone, with her feet propped up on the desk. She was pretty much in the process of wrapping things up when they entered the office.

"Yes, I know, yes, that's all in order, yes, I know….it will be done, trust me on that," Emma said. She said her goodbyes. The woman's eyes drifted on Harry and she smiled. Her smile turned a bit sour when she looked at Jean.

One look from Harry caused Emma to fall into line and smile at Jean. Jean returned the smile a bit forced. The two of them locked eyes with each other.

Kitty was watching the byplay between the two of them in a bit of confusion. It was like watching a tennis match between the two of them.

Emma decided to make her move. She dropped the file on her desk and moved over. Her actions forced Kitty to finally detach herself from Harry. Emma's arms warp her.

'So, what's the deal here?' Emma asked, her eyes darted towards Kitty.

Jean and Harry explained the encounter at the mansion to her.

'I know that you'll able to emphasize with what happened,' Jean concluded.

'Oh, I've missed your wit,' Emma replied to her. 'But, I can see what I can do to help the girl through things. But, you know, if I do this, you owe me.'

'Of course, you do,' Jean thought. She mentally rolled her eyes at Emma. It was the same old Emma, she never really changed to be honest.

Harry shook his head. 'What do you want, Emma?'

'Oh, nothing too big,' Emma said. 'I just figured that we could have some time together.'

'So, you're using this to angle for a date,' Jean thought.

'You know, how about we make a night of it,' Harry thought. Jean was about to protest, that was until Harry added in. 'All three of us.'

'It's just as well,' Emma thought. She would make the best of this situation.

'I don't have to tell you how delicate a situation this is, do I?' Harry asked to her. Emma shook her head in response.

'I perfectly understand where you're coming from,' Emma repeated. She frowned deeply. 'So, I guess that we need to get started.'

Kitty was looking at them all in confusion. She just had a feeling that she was missing something big between the three of them, and she didn't understand what.

"I believe that we have a conversation that we need to have," Emma answered. "And I need you to explain to me how you're feeling about what happened and don't hold anything back."

Jean looked at the younger girl and gave her an encouraging smile.

"Don't worry, you're in capable hands," Harry replied. He smiled when he looked at the brunette. "I've got someone that I need to check in with, but I'll be back later."

'If you two kill each other, I'll be very disappointed,' Harry mentally added to the bond link to Emma and Jean, which caused them to protest. No sooner did Harry say that, he was completely gone in a flash.

Mary Jane and Gwen made their way through the bullpen of the Daily Bugle. Since Mary Jane was back in the city, she wanted to check in to see if they need her for anything.

'And now I can hear voices in my head,' Mary Jane thought. 'And it's not a sign that I'm losing my mind.'

'You're not losing your mind any more than I'm losing my mind,' Gwen piped in.

Mary Jane folded her arms and scowled. 'Wonderful, you don't even want to know how reassured that I'm feeling right now.'

'I have an idea,' Gwen answered with a grin. 'The bond is created with all of the girls that Harry had relations with, and you can shut it off when you want to. It's a really simple process, really….'

The ranting of J. Jonah Jameson cut them off. Mary Jane frowned; it wouldn't really be a visit to the Bugle without everyone's favorite loudmouth popping off about something or other.

"And now, the gang war has kicked up, and where are we even?" Jameson asked. "We don't even have any recent photos….photos of Spider-Girl!"

Gwen shook her head. Someone had a bit of a fixation.

Jameson was on the war path. The thing was that he was just getting warmed up. In fact, he was fairly docile all things considered and not ranting. He turned to Foswell.

"Is there any information on the gang war?" Jameson asked.

Foswell responded with a shrug. "The Russian Mafia is getting more active with things and the Big Man is making a power play as usual, but that's all that I've heard from my contacts in the NPYD."

Jameson was about ready to respond. He stopped when he noticed a red dot in the center of Foswell's forehead.

"GET DOWN!" Jameson yelled. He jumped out from behind his desk with a surprising speed. "Everyone get down!"

As a newsman, even a technologically challenged one, Jameson recognized a laser dot when he saw one.

His timing was pretty perfect, and it was a near miss. A bullet was fired from the rooftop across the way.

Everyone scrambled for chaos when several more were fired through the windows at rapid succession. It caused the glass around them to all shatter and everyone was ducking and running for cover.

Deadpool looked down the sniper rifle.

'You know, our marksmanship might need a bit of brushing up,' one of the voices in his head commented.

'Yeah, law of averages, I'm bound to hit someone eventually,' Deadpool argued with one of the voices in his head. He kept firing in a rapid and erratic manner, emptying the clip into the office at a rapid rate.

He was about to reload. A line of webbing shot out and latched onto the rifle. It caused Deadpool to nearly spiral ass over tea kettle to the ground. He turned around.

"Hey I was using…"

Spider-Girl flew out of nowhere with a drop kick to the head. That sent Deadpool flying backwards.

"And that was a cheapshot," Deadpool complained. He turned his head around with a sickening snap. "But it really got the kink out of my neck."

He rushed towards her, but she dodged the attack. The two of them nearly attacked each other. They ended up on the other end of the roof.

"Just who the hell are you supposed to be?" Spider-Girl asked. She tried to web him up. He did a cartwheel to avoid it and threw a series of marbles at her.

"Ha, and here people were saying that I lost these years ago!" Deadpool shouted. The marbles exploded on the rooftop and caused her to stagger back. Deadpool rushed at her and impacted her chest with a series of rapid fire punches, doubling her over. "And don't you read the Internet? I'm the king of memes!"

"Yeah, you're the king of something alright," Spider-Girl said. She tried to attack him, he dodged it. "Hey, watch where you're throwing those things."

A grenade was thrown in the air and it nearly exploded to take her out. She dodged the attack, the breath nearly being taken out of her body.

"Although given the rate that you're throwing these things at me, I don't need to worry all that much," Spider-Girl said. She sent the grenades flying back at him like they were soccer balls. They kept flying through the air and they landed.

"Oh, a fan of soccer or Football as the rest of the world call it," Deadpool said.

"Played for years, and did I ever mention how grating your voice is?" Gwen asked.

"Hey, people can get in the mood at the sound of my….mph, hmm, hph, mph, mmm, mph."

That was the sound of Deadpool's mouth being webbed shut. He tried to pull it off. He continued to try and talk to the web gag, even though it was hard for anyone, much less Gwen, to understand a word that he said.

'And I can't believe that it's possible, but he's even more annoying with his mouth sealed shut,' Gwen thought. She pulled herself up to a water tower.

"Sounds like you need a cooling off period," she responded. She could hear his muffling sound and she busted the support beams from the tower.

The water tower fell over, landing on the top of Deadpool's head with a huge smash. He wouldn't be kept down for long, but indeed, he was shut in temporary.

Gwen allowed a breath to escape her body. She paused suddenly and heard her spider sense going nuts. It kept blaring in the back of her head and would not leave her alone.

The reason for it was clear when Fancy Dan showed up and threw a small explosive device at her. The Enforcers were back in the house. They were wearing high tech body suits. Spider-Girl recognized Fancy Dan and Ox. She saw a third man show up and he was a man with a flattop haircut with dark hair and scars all over his arms. She did a double take when she realized who she was dealing with.

It was Hammer Harrison, the former heavyweight champion, and he appeared to be subbing in for Montana. The reason was that someone had to be driving the helicopter.

Another explosive device was launched on in, and Gwen pulled Deadpool out of the way. Even though he was a jackass, it would not be good form to see him die.

"Get him!" Harrison yelled. He rushed forward and tried to punch Deadpool's lights out the old fashioned way.

The Merc with the webbed up mouth dodged the attacks. He smashed him in the back of the head.

Gwen closed her eyes, mentally calculating the potential collateral damage that would be caused. It wouldn't be anything good to be honest.

She tried to put herself in the middle of the fight and keep them from tearing them apart. It was easier said than done, especially considering that Ox in particular as about as big as three or four of her.

The good thing was that she had a pretty good idea how to disable someone like that. Gwen webbed him up. She had experience fighting big guys like him by now.

It was now down to her against Fancy Dan and Harrison. Deadpool was right in the middle as well, and that wild card.

Another explosion rang and Gwen had to throw herself out of the way. There was a lot of smoke and debris that was flying. The web slinging heroine blocked the debris, webbing onto it and preventing it from falling into the crowd of unsuspecting people, who were too busy watching everything transpire from up above.

Gwen coughed. There was some bad news, some horrible news, and some worse news.

The three sides had been separated after the battle. The Enforcers in particular had gotten away again.

Her costume had been shredded once again as well. That was the bad thing. That seemed to be a recurring thing. She had a few more bumps and bruises to go along with the bumps and bruises that she had previously.

Harry sat himself down in the chair outside of the office. He was waiting to be let inside to see someone.

Normally, Harry wouldn't have to had to wait too long to see this particular person. The problem was that the Secretary was rather new and the person in question was in the middle of an extremely important conference call.

Honestly though, he was in no particular hurry, so Harry could wait. He was fairly patient like that.

He waited for a bit and the call ended. A variety of suits came out all at once. They didn't really say or do anything other than that.

A fairly beautiful red head was the last to leave the room. She had her hair tied back in a ponytail. She was wearing a fairly nice custom made female business suit that fit around her like a glove. The stockings fit nicely around her long and lovely legs and she wore a pair of high heels. Stylish glasses rested on the bridge of her nose, with shining emerald green eyes that was the same shade of Harry.

The secretary got up and faced her. "There's someone here to speak with you, but they didn't have an appointment."

The woman in question arched her eyebrow in response. She was extremely curious to see what happened and she turned around, her attention was firmly on Harry. She was surprised to see that he was there and quite pleased.

The beautiful woman cleared the distance between the two of them, looking like she literally teleported to get there. She wrapped him around in a tight hug with an equal amount of intensity.

"Oh, Harry, what are you doing here?" she asked in an extremely posh English accent. "I wasn't expecting you, if I knew that you were coming, I would have taking some time to clear my schedule. The girls are going to be excited to see you, and I missed you so much."

She was practically rambling. It looked like she was almost embarrassed at how much she rambled.

"I missed you too, Rose."

To Be Continued on March 28th, 2015.