Peter's eyes widened. "Fury?" he whispered. "I told you to stop-"
"I know what you told us to do, so we found your new phone number and did it anyway," Fury said. "Maybe you should listen up. I wouldn't be calling you all the way out there just to ask how May's doing."
Peter started running, faster than the average human, down the sidewalks and into an alleyway. "Alright, but make it quick; I still haven't installed-"
"This connection is airtight," Fury said, half laughing. "A few people are trying to hack us now and we're overriding their displays and keys with pictures of Gabe Newell's face."
"Alright, that is funny," Peter said quickly, "but what's the emergency?"
"Another hero just attacked you," Fury said, "would you like to know why?"
Peter was quiet for a few seconds. "Yes."
"You've never heard of the Global Justice Network either, and it's good that you haven't," Fury said. "They stayed away from us for a long time, but attacking you may have started something that can't be stopped." Fury began telling Peter what Betty told Kim from an opposite point of view, but the objective of detaining and possibly slaughtering mutants stayed the same. "Peter Parker considers Kim Possible as his friend," Fury said, "but Spider Man cannot as long as she is working for the G.J.N and they will kill you. However, she is a free agent, so she can be convinced to join our cause. Stay safe and watch your back, Parker," Fury said, "the hand of the G.J.N has gripped the west so tight that not even our stations in California can overtake them. It has spread like a shadow over mutant kind, and should they ever rise against us, thousands would be subject to things unimaginable. Got it?"
Peter's eyes narrowed and he nodded.
"I'm going to assume that your silence means 'yes,'" Fury said, "In a couple months, I will send a couple actives to case out any potential stations in northern Colorado. Know that anything to the west of Kansas City is their territory. Good luck."
He hung up and Peter shoved the phone back in his pocket. He power walked back onto campus and to Kim's building. A short and scrawny boy with spiky black hair coming from the elevator opened the door. "Do you live here?" he asked.
"Sure," Peter said with a grin, walking into the building. The side door by the parking lots flew open and Bonnie came in, carrying a tall stack of boxes with an overstuffed backpack. She had several garbage bags full of more belongings on her arms and around her waist, hiding her legs completely.
Bonnie peaked past the boxes and already saw Peter walking toward her. "You. Help. Now."
"I was going to let all of your belongings crush you, but because you said something," Peter said.
"Oh, shut up," Bonnie grunted. Peter took the boxes with little to no effort and held out a hand, gesturing for more stuff.
Bonnie gawked at the bespectacled boy in preppy clothes and a jacket that made him look skinny carrying around 130 pounds of stuff. Peter's eyes widened and he quickly acted like they were just barely enough for him to carry. He made his best straining face and walked into the elevator with the brunette behind him. He set them down and pretended to rotate his shoulders from the stress. "What floor?"
"Floor eight," she said.
Peter realized Bonnie and Kim were on the same floor and he chuckled a little to himself. He pressed the eighth button and waited. He winced, feeling the side of his head. "Wow, she has strong legs," he muttered to himself as the door opened.
"What?" Bonnie said.
"Nothing, just, bruise, it hurts," Peter trailed off. "Do you need me to take any more of your belongings?"
Bonnie gave him another weird look. "I don't think you can."
But he could, he could take much, much more. "Alright then," he said, picking up the boxes and walking down the narrow, white hallway. He weaved through the people and boxes until he saw the familiar flowing red hair. "Hey, Kim."
"No way," Bonnie said, dropping all of her things and looking at the number of the room with the names "Bonnie" and "Kim" under it. "Oh. My. God. You have got to be freaking kidding me."
"Look, Bonnie, I've already had a long enough day, can you wait to whine about this until after I've napped?" Kim turned around, seeing Peter next to the pile of boxes. "You helped her?" she said, her voice slightly irritated.
"Yeah, so what?" Bonnie said. "He did like anyone would do, but if you offered I wouldn't want you touching my stuff."
"Oh, how mature," Kim said, rolling her eyes. "You know they say that high school never ends because of people like you?"
"High school won't ever end for you because of your 40 year old male fanbase, Kim Possible," Bonnie snapped.
"You're also forgetting about One Direction, Alicia Keys, Ellen, Beyonce, and Kanye West," she snapped back. "What megamillion celebrity contacted you recently?"
"A tweet from them saying 'thank you' does not count," Bonnie said with a smirk. "I at least have Kendrick Lamar and Amber Rose following me on Instagram."
"Ooh!" Kim said, throwing up her hands in a sarcastic manner. "Whoever runs Amber Rose and Kendrick Lamar's Instagram account is a perv! Look at me, I'm Bonnie-"
"Shut up!" Bonnie barked.
"Yikes," Peter said under his breath, deciding he should say something. "There are only 119 days, maybe living with each other might change your relationship."
"I don't think I could stand one day," Bonnie said, moving into her room. Their room was of a similar setup as Peter's. Kim had already taken the top bunk. "At least we can agree on that," Bonnie said.
"Oh god," Kim groaned, "you're not going to-"
"I won't tell you," Bonnie spat, sticking out her tongue.
"Is it over?" Ron asked, peeking out of the room.
"What did you say, Bonnie?" Kim snarled.
Rufus chittered nervously. "Right," Ron said, slipping out of the room. "Kim, I'll pick you up at six?"
"And Peter," Kim said.
"And Peter," Ron said, glancing at the New Yorker. "Alright. See you later!" he exclaimed, going down the stairs next to the elevator.
Peter noticed the piles of boxes sitting outside the girls' room and he started carrying them, four and five boxes at a time. "You don't have to, Peter," Kim said, although her arms did burn from earlier.
"It's the least I could do for what your dad and brothers did for May," he said. The trio carted at least thirty boxes into the room and the girls started unpacking. "It's four o'clock now; I should probably go now to catch your mom and meet you back here at five fifty,"
"Cool," Kim said. She suddenly stood up. "Wait, my mom?"
"Aw," Bonnie said, "he's meeting the parents already? Can he beat up freaks in costumes too or is he going to be the damsel in distress?"
"When you had left from dinner that night," Peter said, "I let her know about my lab experience and she thought I would be a good apprentice for her."
Kim shuddered, remembering all of the nights the dinner conversation would start with "that stupid apprentice." Her mom was a tough grader and moreover her mom, so she could never imagine what it would be like taking a class with her let alone be in a lab with her for hours on end. "She said that?"
"I was pretty surprised myself," Peter said, wincing again as he set his jaw.
"Could you two talk about Kim's mom somewhere else? I'm trying to ignore you and you're not helping," Bonnie said, continuing to unpack.
Kim walked past Peter to put a few toiletries in her drawer. She noticed the small but dark bruise right under Peter's right temple. "Oh no, Peter! How did this happen?"
"I fell running up the stairs when the monstrous cretins decided to make their surprise visit," he said while blushing. "It wasn't one of my finest moments."
"It might not be your dullest moment either," Bonnie said under her breath.
"Sit on the bed, I'll be back with an ice pack," Kim said.
"I have to go-"
"Sit down," Kim said sternly, leaving the room.
Peter sighed and sat down on the corner of Bonnie's bed. "Get off," she said bluntly, starting to fix it up with her bedding.
Peter stood up and looked around the room for a desk chair. "Do you mind if I take off my jacket? It's getting a bit stuffy in here."
"Then open the window," Bonnie said dismissively, "you can put your jacket on Kim's-" she glanced at Peter's arms as she saw him stretching out of his jacket. He put his jacket over Kim's desk chair and went over to the window. She watched his back muscles contract as he pulled the sliding window open and her jaw dropped again. He turn around and skipped forward on a small box. His glasses flew off his face and onto the ground and Bonnie got to see Peter's blue eyes sparkle as the sun hit the sides of his eyes. "You can sit right here," she said in a cheerier tone, unpacking even faster now. She only had three boxes to go.
Kim returned from the kitchen on the first floor with a small ice pack. She saw what Bonnie saw with Peter's broad chest and blue eyes. This was unprecedented considering his demeanor. She immediately pressed the pack to the side of Peter's head and Bonnie watched Peter awkwardly sit on the bed not knowing what to do with his hands. Kim stared at the bruise quizzically for a brief moment. "Wait-"
"He can probably hold it himself," Bonnie said.
Peter slowly took the ice pack and continued pressing it to the side of his head. "Thank you so much, Kim," he said, standing up and putting on his thick-rimmed glasses and his jacket one arm at a time, "but I really must go. I'll see you later on, alright?"
"Don't be late," Kim said, watching Peter race out of the room.
"Your new boytoy is kinda cute," Bonnie said with a smirk.
"He's not my boytoy, oh my god," Kim said, "he's from New York and I'm just helping him around."
"Sure you are, Kim," Bonnie said, laughing at Kim's scowl. Kim's communicator, her "kimmunicator" as she dubbed it, beeped.
"Here we go again," she said, quickly changing into a purple shirt, black pants with a purple line on the sides, and tight grey gloves with black shoes and a yellow tool belt. "Ron," she said in the pager. "We have another one."
"I never want to see that much of you ever again," Bonnie said.
"Oh, shut up," Kim said, pulling a pair of grappling claws from her closet and leaping out of the window. She landed gracefully on her toes and started running toward the glade. Ron landed less gracefully but landed nonetheless. She saw Peter walking toward the city wearing a professional black suit and tie. "That was fast," she thought, giving the Parker one more curious stare before heading in another direction toward her objective.
Peter glanced over toward the glade and chuckled at Kim racing toward another mission. One of the perks of being a secret was that no one could contact you whenever they wanted to. Free time shouldn't just be a concept; heroes too need that three week break to Fiji. He walked into a wide building with "MIST Applied Life Science Museum" etched in the white marble pillars with a folder in one hand carrying a hefty resume. He entered the building, taking in the museum smell, and he walked up a flight of stairs to the offices looking down on all the exhibits of the museum on the first floor and several sub-levels. He went down a skinny hallway and turned right, seeing two benches facing each other in front of a door labeled "Dr. Possible, Md in Neurosurgery, PhD in biochemistry and biophysics." Sitting on one of the benches was a tall, beautiful blonde with tan skin and piercing blue eyes and pouty pink lips on top of a slender and curvy body. She wore a gray suit and tied her long hair in a loose bun. Her heel tapped the floor anxiously. Peter sat down on the other bench and looked over his resume once more.
The door opened and a short Asian man with slick black hair stomped out with a scowl. "Vivian Porter?" Peter heard Kim's mom say.
The blonde took in a deep breath and showed her best smile which was a perfect, pearly white grin. She stood up and walked in. "I've heard so much about you from my husband's lab," Ann said, closing the door.
Twenty minutes later, the door opened again and Peter was called in. He shook her hand and sat down in the seat next to Vivian in the cramped office. It was a standard interview, Peter thought; all the general questions were hit and then he was subject to a pop quiz on the subject matter he'd be researching. Ann looked at the two quizzes and chuckled. "Wow," she said. "Two perfect scores. Vivian, I think you may have found your partner."
Peter turned to her and grinned, extending his hand. "I can't wait to start working with you."
Vivian blushed. "That only means one thing in this context."
"Yes, I know," Peter said, staring at her puzzled.
"Oh, sorry," she said, "guys usually think I'm too pretty for science."
"They're too stupid for science," Peter said bluntly, "please tell me these people aren't also scientists."
"See, you two are getting along already," Ann said, ushering them out of her office. "I want to see you both on next Monday in lab appropriate wear. We're jumping right in. Welcome to the forefront of humanity."
"So you're the biophysicist?" Peter asked.
"Indeed," she said. "I worked in her husband's lab before this; I was a spring admit from last year, so I know a little bit about how she works and what to avoid."
"You worked in Mister Possible's lab too?!" Peter exclaimed. "If you have the time, I'd love hearing about it."
"You live in the units, yes?" she asked.
Peter nodded.
"I live in Priestly so we can just walk together," she said.
"Awesome!" Peter said, happily listening to stories of one of his favorite scientists from a student of his. He had always loved to hear about research and he wondered what kind of super genius she was if she got to work with him as a freshman. Yeah, he was getting a position too, but he had already made Ann and James like him.
They made it back to the dorm complex within a few minutes and stood in front of Vivian's building. "Hey, um, do you want my phone number?" Vivian asked him. "Considering we're going to be working together a lot?"
"Oh, yeah," Peter said, quickly pulling out a tiny, outdated smartphone. He traded it for her slim new I-Phone and they added each other's numbers and emails. They traded back and Vivian turned around, heading toward the building.
"See you later, Peter," she said, entering the building. Peter looked down at his phone, seeing two new Facebook notifications. He opened it while walking back to his building, seeing friend requests from Kim and Bonnie, the latter he found very strange. He accepted both and received a message from the latter a few seconds later. He blushed and opened his contact info again, adding her number as well. Twice in a row would never happen in New York. He rushed to his room where Gil was absent, probably still hanging out with his friends, and he changed back into his school pride outfit… with his spider suit with the sleeves rolled up underneath just in case. He felt like this wasn't going to be the last time he'd have to go to blows with Kim Possible... not that he was worried.
