CHAPTER 16: Detective MJ

MJ P.O.V.

Okay, time to start from the very beginning.

The last day of summer, our last date in the summer took place on top of a building. I thought he was going to swing me around New York City, we would look scope the new sights and he would swing me back home. He decided to do something different.

He gave me a web shooter and we were swinging on the rooftop together, side by side. He had a different look in his eyes. Like everything in his life was at the highest level of happiness. Then, our first day of senior year started and he had to fix the multiverse.

He went to that science building, saw Kingpin, the Prowler, Miles, and along the way we kept arguing about my safety.

Then we learned about the portals. More and more are coming into the universe. Black globs, purple clawed guys, and more are expected to come soon. Getting Miles home and fixing the world's problems made Peter worry, but he wasn't really spiraling at the time.

Just to make things clear, I'm drawing this out in my sketchbook. It's time for me to go back to doing what I'm good at, and that's detecting so everything can make sense. Anyway, back to my investigation.

Peter saw Venom and that's when everything went out of control. He was disappointed in himself, and I offered to stay with him to help him. That was a good night, until the dreams started. After that, he falls asleep, he doesn't even eat half of his sandwiches at lunch, and he's shutting me out so he can work on the machine. It doesn't take a computer to know what Peter is going through right now.

He has anxiety, he's stressed, but he could possibly develop some serious disorder that he may not know he has. Now he wants to stop Kingpin and go through something he may not come back from. He's an extremely big guy.

I have to go back to that building. Anytime Peter tries to leave, I'll leave. That's what I did in Europe, and I got all the answers I wanted. He admitted that he was Spiderman, and I'm gonna make him admit that he isn't telling me everything that's going on.

I would tell Ned to pick me up just for transportation, but this is something I need to discover on my own. I just need to make sure I'm focusing in school because that's really important too. I guess.

I have to go to bed. I need a lot of energy for tomorrow.

7:00 AM

I've brushed my teeth, I've gotten dressed, and now I'm going to walk to school. No way I want my cousin to take me anywhere.

I take a mixed berry muffin and I eat it as I'm walking the streets of New York. It's great that school isn't far from here because I'm already sick of it. The noise this city makes is ridiculous.

I finally get to school and I walk straight to class. I have to find a way to not make everything awkward or like I'm plotting something. When Peter was quitting a whole bunch of his clubs, I was brilliant at keeping it on the down low. Now that we're a couple, I can't be as slick as I had hoped, but I can make it work.

I'm sitting in class, still working on my plan to get to that science building without Peter finding out that I'm there.

Peter and Ned are walking into class. When he sees me, he looks relieved. He's looking at me like he dreamed that I died in my sleep. Another sign, he's mixing everything up with his reality.

"Hey Peter, hey Ned. How was the Star Wars episode?" I ask them, knowing that Peter was certainly at Avengers Tower working on the machine.

"Well this one was doing his really cool superhero stuff so I decided to wait until he wasn't working on it for once." I didn't even think Peter would show up to school today because of that thing.

"Well, Happy forced me to go to school while I was trying to test the machine out. I'm really close to getting Miles home and getting all these portals sealed, and this place is getting in the way of everything." School is getting in the way? Yep, he's heading towards insanity. I flip the page in my book and I write down his words so I can look back on this.

"What are you writing down?" Peter asks.

"Nothing you should worry about Parker. You're already doing a lot." I say as I put the pencil down. He's just staring at me and he looks very confused. He won't be for long.

Not until I go see him fighting Kingpin."You always look so confused and scared about everything Peter. That look doesn't look good on you."

"Damn, tell him what's up MJ." Ned says and I just smile. Not only that, but I'm really starting to feel like myself again. No more sappy I care about Peter a lot and all of that crap. I mean, those things are true but just because he has a lot on his plate I'm not going to make this easy on him. He should've told me the truth.

When the first class is over, to make everything normal I go for Peter's hand. He looks up at me and smiles, gladly taking my hand as we're walking into the hallway."So you missed decathlon training yesterday. You're smart and all, but you need to be prepared. I'm the captain, you go to drills when you're suppose to."

"I will go to all the drills from here on out MJ. I can work on the machine after practice." I could even tell by the tone in his voice that it killed him to even say that. He isn't only anxious, but he's getting obsessed too. Let's see how he does with drills.

DECATHLON TRAINING

"Parker! Haven't seen you here in awhile. Are you quitting permanently this time?" I should make Flash stay for more practice because that's what he deserves. Incredibly annoying.

Mr Harrington was writing extremely fast on a piece of paper. He's been stressing out because of Peter. If only his stress could match Peter's.

"Michelle, is everybody here today?! I told everyone to not miss drills! Especially not this year."

I look around to see that it looks like everybody is here. If Peter is, I assumed that everybody else should be."Yes Mr. Harrington, everybody is here." He still looked at me with panic written across his face. I roll my eyes."Peter is here and he's sitting next to Ned."

"Oh thank you sweet Lord! Let's get everybody started. Everyone to the stage!" Everybody starts running to the stage as they usually do. I always walk because running isn't for me. Not in these types of conditions at least. Running away from robots, somebody might offer me a track scholarship.

"Okay everyone, these past couple of practices have been rough, considering the fact that everybody hasn't been here."

"I'm sorry Mr. Harrington. I just had a lot of things going on and I couldn't be here yesterday, but I will be here from here on out." I look at him intensely as he's freaking out by my stare. Glad that I saw that.

"Thank you Peter, and it's great that you aren't because if anybody does, you can't go on the Senior Trip." Everybody starts to gasps. Here we go, Mr. Harrington probably manipulated the principal to make that happen. There's no other way that could've worked.

"Mr. Harrington is that even possible?" Ned asks."Yes, because the principal agreed to make it a rule. You signed up for this, not me. Between the Blip, my wife pretending to Blip, and any kid missing these practices, I cannot handle all the stress in all these months!" Nobody can, but I was right. He went to the principal.

"Anyway, back to practice. Michelle, take it away with the drills." I get up from my chair and I go to the ridiculous podium the captains have to go to ask questions.

I remember when Liz use to be the captain of the team. She was really smart and it always flowed easily. Hated the part when Peter would stare at her like she was the machine he's building right now. I always texted him saying how creepy it was for him to stare at her like that, but just imagine me standing at this podium, and how much has changed since then.

Lying to him is becoming second nature ever since 10th grade, but I'm not letting it slide. Not again.

"Okay, first question. What is the most powerful element in the universe?"

I keep looking at my cards as somebody hits their bell."Gamma rays." I don't have to look up to see who answered the question. I can tell when it's Peter.

I clear my throat."Next question. What would happen if mitosis became uncontrollable?"

Another bell rings as fast as a wink."The cell cycle would stop functioning properly and it would form tumors in the body." Peter again. What is up with these questions? I'm the captain and I'm getting bored. I still don't look up from them though.

It's hard to look at Peter when everything between us is very momentary. One day we're arguing about Spiderman stuff, and the next we have a night like our swinging date or when we were sleeping next to each other in bed. Which relationship are we suppose to have? Everything in his life isn't certain.

"Are these the only questions we have?" This new kid who is a freshman asked. The only reason why I know who they are is because she walked up to me over the summer talking what seemed like forever about the team. She was already annoying, but the tone in her voice made me want to let her have it.

So I will, except I'm going to remain calm because that's how I am."No, but maybe you can answer some instead of complaining about how many there are." Everybody starts saying their oos and laugh. I say what I have to say.

"Next question." As I'm still looking at the annoying freshman girl, I look over at Peter for the first time. He's looking at me in a way I haven't see before. Not to me at least. He's looking at me they way he used to look at Liz, but way more than that.

Why is he trying to do this now? Is it because I'm tearing into him too much about his stress? Or is he still thinking I'm going to die? Whatever it is, I can feel that he's trying to memorize everything about my face. My eyes, my cheeks, my lips.

We can always go back to that, until he tells me the truth. Until I go to this building Kingpin is at and I can see what's really going on with him.

Because if not, he'll lose in another way.

NIGHTTIME AKA MJ'S TRUE DETECTIVE SKILL TIME

My plan to get there is simply taking my cousins car. She was able to fix the major stuff with the car earlier this morning so I should be able to make it there and back. As long as robots don't try to crash the car I should be alright.

Since she isn't here she can't tell me I can't go. Even if she did, it's not going to work. I grab the keys and I get into the car. Good thing that I'm an amazing driver.

I make my way over to the place as I remember Ned getting the address from Peter the last time we were coming to this creepy building. I realized that the place has been rebuilt and it's a completely different model. How were they able to do it that fast?

Turns out that the pathetic minions of this Kingpin guy are a lot more prepared than they were the last time. Guards are standing around the building so I certainly have to change my entrance plan. I need a space that isn't too far, but one that's good enough to hide in so Peter doesn't see that I'm here.

He'll be able to tell that it's my cousin's car. It's not like I care if he sees me because he'll assume that I don't trust him. In this situation I dont, but I don't want him to try to save me 24/7. I'll take the pressure off by fending for myself.

I drove to the left side of the building and the guards didn't even see me. Idiots. I slowed the car down to see if I can scope the area for a good spot. I quickly look over to see that these people really built a garage for this place. I've never seen a lab look like this.

I look around more to make sure somebody isn't coming or somebody hasn't been watching me this entire time. Even if it was a possibility, I at least have my mace.

I drive a little bit faster and right when the garage opens I go in and I park the car. I don't care to check if it's perfect, I just needed to get in. I don't care to lock the car because if I did the guards would be able to hear Detective MJ and detectives aren't suppose to get caught. Not this early when Peter probably isn't here yet.

I close it quietly and I see that there's some stairs leading up to another floor. I just needed to make it up to those stairs and see if Peter has already made it with the rest of his spider gang. I plan on calling them that now.

As soon as I try to make it to the stairs, a long annoying scratch going across the garage door and the door to the stairs closes automatically. I don't even care to cover my ears and stand there like all the other idiots in movies who stand there and don't run, shoot, or move. I grip my mace with both hands tightly and I quietly run over to the back of the two cars that are in the garage.

A good view to see if somebody is about to come into the garage. I see fingers cramming under the garage door, and they slowly crushes it and lifts it up. It's the Prowler.

I really wish I didn't throw that trash can top at him a few days ago because when he sees me I have no idea what he's capable of doing after that. He starts walking into the garage and I can see the advanced vision he has to see if anyone is in here.

He walks slowly and moves his head at the same speed. I slowly scooch to the side of the really nice looking Jeep because he's getting closer to where I once was. As I keep scooting, I see a really complex looking gun that I'm about to hit.

I have no idea how to use it, but you always learn best when your life is on the line. For just a second, I slowly put the mace in one hand and I put the creepy gun in the other, two weapons I can use to get this cat like man off my back. Well, Miles's uncle.

I'm realizing that I can't hurt him, but it looks like he didn't even think to listen to anything Miles said to him the day he attacked Peter and I. That's screwed up.

All of a sudden he pops out from the back of the car and his claw is going towards me, but I duck and I use the gun to knock him off the car. He didn't expect it from me so he flies to the garage wall and his whole back gets slammed.

I run from the back of the car and he catches up with me really quickly. I try to duck his next attack but this time he goes for my left leg. It hurts really bad and I'm tempted to let my knees hit the ground and yell in pain, but I'm doing this to help Peter so I have to be stronger than that.

Instead, I swing the mace with my right hand and I knock him over to the side. When he's tumbling outside of the garage I use that as the opportunity to get to the stairs. I bust through the door and I start running up, but my leg is starting to give out on me. Crap.

The Prowler is starting to come for me as I was only able to make it up 10 stairs versus the other 30 I'm suppose to run to get to the other room. The Prowler grabs my legs and starts dragging me down them. Smart to use the leg he didn't try to scratch off.

I kick my bad leg at his hands constantly until it hurts him and he lets go. When he finally does I shoot the gun at him again, but this time he just flies backwards. I get up and I try to run up the stairs again but he grabs me by my shirt and holds me up.

"This isn't where you belong girl!" He says loudly. Neither is he, as he has a nephew that looks up to him."You shouldn't be here! Miles would be crushed."

"He would if I wasn't doing this! You don't know anything about my family." I look up and I saw a little piece of the building sticking out, Maybe if I ruined this new building a little bit, he'll care for it. I use the gun and I shoot at it.

Prowler looks up in shock and as he's doing that, he drops me on to the ground which makes my leg hurt even worse. The piece of the building is about to land on both of us. I slide myself over to the floor and with a really bad leg, I start hobbling up the stairs.

I'm finally able to get to another room that looks a little bit less harmful, but also because I couldn't go up another flight of stairs as my leg is starting to bleed horribly.

At least he's a person with claws that doesn't carry a disease.

Peter P.O.V.

"What was that?" I ask as I see a piece of the new building starting to fall from the ceiling.

"Probably somebody who's already trying to do damage. Okay guys, we have to get that particle for the machine. Miles, you know what to do. You have the chip?"

"No. Peter has the chip."

"Prepared for this huh?" Gwen looks over at me."Spider people have to be prepared. Hurry, we don't have time to waste." The three of us starting swinging to the building as we were coming from another.

It's really cool that I'm not only working with one Spider person but I'm working with two. Never thought this would happen but with the multiverse, there could be a Spider alien or a spider pig that exist too.

The three of us stick to the building but I see that there's a little door window that the three of us can easily climb into. All three of us are kind of tiny.

I start banging my fist on it and I let Miles and Gwen go in first. I go after Miles and what I didn't realize is that we're already climbing upside down. I shouldn't have eaten a lot of Indian food with May before this. The food was really good though.

"Okay, one of us has to go to the particle accelerator and put the chip in to make it stop. Then, we can look for the purple glowy thing for the machine." Miles explains.

"I got it. Make sure nobody else is coming." I start crawling towards it and it's even brighter than before. Kingpin was plotting while I was working on the machine.

As I get to the particle accelerator, it's just as complicated as before. Which slot is the damn chip suppose to go in?! Suddenly I can sense that something is coming and I see that Gwen and Miles sensed it as fast as I did. This can't be good.

The worst thing had to come from the walls. Venom.

He's so big and terrifying I gulp down a humongous lump that formed in my throat. He was coming closer. Slowly and creepy."Peter! You gotta go!" I hear Miles scream. As fast as I can, I shoot out a web and I'm going to the other side of the building. I know he can't fly across the air like me, but this thing can climb.

Damnit, why does he have to be good at climbing? He's pounding his fist into the ceiling as I keep using my webs. I can't keep this up forever though because they'll run out, and that's totally a waste of my webs.

Miles and Gwen start swinging over and they both start giving him a couple of hits. Okay, I need to stop being a baby and get this guy once and for all.

Think about the dream. Think about how he was about to kill your girl. You don't want that to happen. Let him get what he deserves.

I close my eyes and I jump from the side of the building and I go for his head. I swoop him off the wall as my legs are wrapped around his neck. I use one hand to keep us in the air and the other to punch his face 10 million times, and it feels really good.

"Hey! I'm sure you care about this girl don't you?!" I stop punching and I look over to see Kingpin. Kingpin holding MJ up in the air. My whole body goes into fear and shock.

"Peter, don't-"

"MJ?!" I say extremely loud and I don't care how loud I am. Why the hell is she here? How the hell is she here? The worst part is that all these people are in the same room as MJ and I feel sick. Then the particle accelerator starts rumbling and it grabs all of our attention.

Suddenly I see a whole bunch of orange and red light. Kind of like it's flowing through the air and I can't even begin to explain what it could be or what it indicates. Then it makes perfect sense as it comes into full effect.

"DR STRANGE AND SCARLET WITCH?!" I scream even louder than the first time.

Oh. My. God...