"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life." - John 3:16

Five people are inside of a shuttle bus. A very strange bus. There are no overhead compartments, windows, tvs, none of that. Only seats. Enough to hold about 50 people. The entirety of it is covered in a weird dark gray metal. Dozens of lines of various patterns are deeply carved into the metal of this peculiar ride. The peculiarity does nothing to peak any of the five people's interest though. There was a strong sense of emptiness among them. None more than Mary-Jane Parker. Her head is leaning against where a window would be. Concealer would normally be covering the darker bags under her eyes, but not today. A few strands of her frazzled red hair stick out from under her blue beanie. The bus comes to a slow stop and Mary Jane adjusts her neck to look up at one of the numerous mounted cameras. A bell rings from the overhead speakers and a deep pleasant male voice begins to speak.

"Welcome, everyone. If this is your first time visiting The Cathedral, I would like to inform you that we are approaching The Breach. The turbulence you are about to experience is perfectly normal and there is an extremely small chance of you being harmed. Please strongly grasp the handles in front of you for the next 15-23 seconds. May God bless you."

Mj grabs hold of the handles and after a few seconds of nothingness, the bus begins to violently shake. During the shaking, the engravings faintly glow variants of yellow, blue, red, and green. One of the other women on the bus begins to whimper, but as soon as the shaking starts, it's over.

SIlence.

The bus door opens and a woman in a dark blue security uniform steps on. She takes a quick glance at the tablet.

"Parker?" MJ stands up, "When you step off of the bus, you will remain on the platform where you will be scanned for any electromagnetic or radioactive anomalies. When you're given the go-ahead, you may proceed into the Cathedral." MJ gives her an affirmative nod and then walks off the bus onto the platform. The metal platform emits an electronic hum and various rays scan her body. The security agent reads MJ's scan off her tablet.

0.001 Electromagnetic Signature

2.7% Radioactive Signature

Safe for passage

"You may enter, Ms Parker." MJ steps off the platform and makes her down a dark walkway. The walls and the ceiling are clearly the same odd metal material that the bus was made out of, but the ground is nothing but dirt. MJ awkwardly treks herself towards the entrance of the Cathedral, then opens both doors. There are 10 long pews on both sides of the Cathedral with ten foot candles surrounding all of the pews and the large platform at the very center of the Cathedral. A cloaked figure sits in the closest pew to the left. No words, no movement. MJ sits on the opposite side of the Cathedral and nervously removes her hat. She takes a deep breath.

"This is stupid…..I never really prayed before. No, that's a lie…see I'm lying in church…this is bad." MJ closes her eyes and takes another deep breath. "I prayed a lot when I was younger. When my dad would hit me. Every night, I'd say a simple prayer to God. I just wanted him to be nicer to me. He was never nicer. After a while, I stopped praying and I just waited for better days to come. I prayed for Peter a lot too. God please let him make it back home. After a while, I stopped. I didn't have that same fear of him not making it home. I just knew he would…he was amazing. Now, it's bigger than just us."

"We've been in tough spots before. The war about registration, a million goblin attacks. We always got through it. This just feels different. I never listened to…any of the bullshit that people said about mutants. It didn't matter. Peter can toss a car down the block, but it's different because he wasn't born with it? The whole thing was stupid. Some of our closest friends were mutants and they've saved my life plenty of times. But the attack on Washington….and then Tony invading Utopia…killing mutants, locking them up. No more Avengers. It's too much," On the verge of tears, she takes a second and exhales, "Maybe it's just the world starting to make sense. Living in a world with superpowers and aliens and killer robots and all of this shit is …..is not normal. We accepted it as our normal, but it's fucking crazy. A monster could literally come from another dimension right now trying to eat Harlem and the next day, I still have to worry about my electric bill or a car payment or…

Mary Jane throws up in a toilet.

"Diapers, " MJ exhales, "Peter doesn't talk too much about any of it. We'll be ok, we always are is the best that I can get out of him. Spiderman is still around, swinging, and joking. And Miles is an absolute blessing for him. But…I shouldn't feel like this! I've been with Peter nearly 20 years and known him for longer than that. It didn't take me long to say "This is the love of my life." And it didn't take much longer after that to say "Having a family with Peter is everything I want in this world." But I don't think in this world…..I need a sign. I need to know that this is the right thing to do and we'll really be ok…or if I need to do something. Maybe, it's just not the time. I don't know. But I need to know. Please."

Mj wipes tears from her eyes and puts her beanie back on. She starts to walk towards the Cathedral exit and

"Do you.."

The cloaked figure says to her with a bass-filled English accent too low for her to understand. She looks toward them with a mix of fear and confusion. The cloaked figure turns to her, a dark skinned man with glowing golden eyes.

"Do you want to know what you're having?" He says to MJ. She looks down for a hot second then shakes her head at him. "I'll pray for you," he says. MJ walks out of the Cathedral.

The cloaked figure looks back towards the platform.

Towards the figure that MJ prayed to.

Towards the figure they all pray to.

The weapon of the lost Avenger.

Mjolnir.

END