Michelle "MJ" Jones

Ned and I went back to his home, using a portal to do so. Once we were there, Ned looked at me.

"You want to watch The Daily Bugle?" he asked. "They'll probably cover what's going on at Hammer Industries."

"Sure," I said as I walked up to my phone. Honestly, I hated watching Peter and my friends in the midst of battle. I know they can handle themselves in a fight most of the time, especially when they were together. That didn't change the fact that I worry for them. There was also the part about me not wanting to contribute to The Daily Bugle's streaming revenue. Despite that, though, I wanted to make sure that everyone makes it out okay.

I picked up my phone from the coffee table and took a seat. I checked it. The first thing I noticed was the three missed calls. I checked to see who they were from. All three of them were from my dad, with the last missed call being from a couple of minutes ago.

"Um, Ned, give me a minute," I said as I stood up from the sofa. I called my dad back. After a couple of rings, my dad picked.

"MJ, where are you?" he asked.

"I'm at Ned's place. I just saw your missed calls. Is everything okay?"

"I'm not sure. Look, there's an agent from the Department Of Damage Control here – an Agent Cleary – that wants to speak with you. It's in regards to that whole incident at Midtown with The Friends of Humanity. So, I need you to come here as soon as possible."

"…I'll be home soon. Bye dad."

"Bye, Mich'."

I hung up my phone and looked at Ned. "I have to go home. My dad needs to speak to me."

"Is everything okay?" he asked.

"Yeah, it is. Just…" I trailed off for a moment. I felt a part of me get annoyed at the fact that I was about to hide something major from Ned… again. I shook my head. "Look, don't freak out or anything, but there's an agent from the DODC that wants to speak to me.

Ned's eyes widened. "MJ, that is serious!"

"I know. I know." I took in a deep breath and blew it out through my lips. "Normally, I'd say keep me posted on the fight since I need to know if I have to kick Peter's ass for being reckless, but I'll just check Twitter later on or something. For now, though, let everyone else know not to contact me about X-Men shit and explain to them why. For all I know, my phone could be tapped."

Ned nodded. "Okay. Please be careful. I don't want you to get arrested and get transported with a bag over your head."

I smiled wryly. "You think a government agency would abduct me? That never crossed my mind." Ned glared at me. I glared back. "I'm being sarcastic."

About fifteen minutes later, I was back at home. After unlocking the front door, I stepped inside. In the living room was my dad, along with a few DODC agents. My eyes landed on one of them. It was at that moment that I got a memory flash. The room changed. I was no longer in my living room. I was in an interrogation room. Sitting at the table was the same agent my eyes landed on. I blinked once and was back in my living room.

I realized what Mirror MJ was trying to tell me. I met this agent before… prior to The Spell. He was the one that interrogated me, Peter, Ned, and May, if I remember what Peter told me correctly.

Said agent stood up. "I take it you're Michelle Jones," he said. He walked up to me and stuck his hand out. "I'm Agent Cleary of the DODC." I looked down at his hand before I looked back at him. My expression was blank, but I was pretty sure my eyes told a different story.

"Now, Michelle, no need to be rude," my father admonished.

"I'm not one for fake pleasantries, Dad," I replied as I looked towards him. "You know that." I looked back at Agent Cleary. "Do you mind if we cut to the chase?"

Agent Cleary cleared his throat. "Okay, since you want to play it that way, young lady. The reason why we're here is because we have questions about what happened during the aftermath of The Midtown Incident. I'd like to talk about this while we're sitting down, if it's all the same to you."

I narrowed my eyes. I wanted to be snide, but something told me that a caustic tongue wasn't going to do me any favors. So, wordlessly, I walked over to the sofa and took a seat on the far left cushion. I kept my eyes on Cleary as he sat on the opposite cushion.

"As you know, The Department of Damage Control deal with law enforcement in matters regarding enhanced individuals," Cleary began. "As you can imagine, we've been pretty busy as of lately, especially since Spider-Man decided to align himself with the X-Men. As such, we've been assisting Justin Hammer and, lately, Kraven, in the apprehension of the X-Men, Spider-Man chief amongst them."

"And what does this have to do with the Midtown Incident?" I asked, trying my very best to keep my tone neutral.

"Well, we've been reviewing all of the legible footage we have of that incident. We didn't get much footage of what happened in the library. All we have are eyewitness accounts. From what I understand, Spider-Man checked up on you before he went on a rampage." Cleary raised his eyebrows briefly. "You know, I didn't think shattered testicles were a thing, so reading that medical report was a bit of a revelation. Anyway, while we didn't see the fight proper, we found some rather interesting footage." Cleary raised his right hand. One of the agents walked up behind him and handed him a black folder. Cleary placed the folder on the coffee table and opened it. He spread the papers out inside of it. "These are stills from the footage we got. Looks familiar?"

I stared down at the pictures for some seconds. Of course I recognized the picture. It was when Peter, dressed up as Spider-Man, walked me across the court of Midtown's gym to Coach Wilson's office.

"Yes it does," I said simply. "Spider-Man was taking me to Coach Wilson's office to apply some first aid for my lip."

Cleary tilted his head briefly. "That… would be a likely story. The problem I have with this story is that there were ambulances already outside and ready in case anything happened to you and/or any other hostage. I would think that would be something the average person would know, let alone a known vigilante." He shook his head as he gestured to the pictures. "See, these pictures of you walking hand in hand with Spider-Man during that time makes me wonder a few things," Cleary mused.

I narrowed my eyes. "Things such as…?"

"Well, I wonder if you have a more… intimate relationship with Spider-Man than the average New Yorker."

"Mr. Cleary," my dad spoke up. "Are you implying that my daughter is in a relationship with Spider-Man?"

Cleary looked at my dad. "I wasn't going that far, but since you brought it up…" He looked back at me. "You want to explain what this was about?"

"Spider-Man was showing me the joys of frolicking," I deadpanned.

"Michelle, please take this seriously. Right now, the capture of Spider-Man and the X-Men is a huge priority. I would hate to have to take you into custody for withholding information about them."

I furrowed up my eyebrows. "I'm not withholding information."

"But we have reason to believe that you are." He beckoned towards the pictures. "Do you always hold hands with a stranger?"

I fought the urge to glare at him. "No, I don't."

"So what made that day so different?"

I took in a breath. Cleary was right. I did have an intimate relationship with Spider-Man. But he didn't know that. That wasn't the only thing he didn't know. He didn't know that, at the time, I was having conflicting emotions I was trying to sort out. He didn't know I was stuck between feeling sorry for Peter for what he went through and being livid over Peter not keeping his promise and allowing me and other people close to him to walk around with memories of him being forgotten.

Yes, I was holding his hand, but it wasn't because of intimate feelings of any kind.

"I want you to imagine something, Cleary," I began. I didn't even bother keeping the venom out of my voice. I wanted to him to know how much disdain I had for him. Cleary raised an eyebrow. "Imagine you wake up one morning. You think it's going to be a normal day. So you go to the bathroom to brush your teeth, take a shower, and the like. You get dressed, you go to school. You go to the library to meet with your club. Everything is just typical." I furrowed up my eyebrows. "And then it isn't.

"That's what happened to me, Cleary. I was in the library at Midtown, meeting with the Academic Decathlon Club. That's when we heard it. We heard the yelling. We heard the gunshots. They ran in and held us hostage. Do you know what it's like to be held hostage?"

Cleary swallowed. "I'm not the one being questioned here," he said gruffly.

"I'll take that as a no. See, me and everyone else there were worried that it was going to be our last day in the land of the living. During that, one of them… one of those Friends of Humanity assholes… they said some rather racist shit to my friend Ned. I knocked one of them on their ass and I get hit in the face with a rifle in retaliation and got a busted lip and a headache for my troubles. And then I find out what this group is about. They want the release of Graydon Creed, their leader of their mutant-hating organization, made of up of members of groups who hate people like me." I paused for a moment. I had to close my eyes and take a deep breath. I was still angry over that day. "I wasn't even sure anyone would show up for us, especially since Spider-Man was nowhere to be found after he and Frictor battled Scorpion. But then he, along with Shadowcat and Cyclops, showed up.

"After the three of them took down the Friends of Humanity, Spider-Man took me to Coach Wilson's office by hand. He gave me pain pills out of the office's first aid kit. He put an ice pack to my lip so it could stop swelling and even hugged me." I scowled. "You want to know why I held Spider-Man's hand? I held it because I wanted and needed all the comfort I could get and Spider-Man provided what he could."

Cleary took in a breath. "Spider-Man is a criminal, Michelle. He's violated The Accords over and over again without consequence. Don't get me wrong, I'm happy you're okay. But that doesn't change the fact that he's a lawbreaker."

"Maybe he wouldn't have to break the law if the government spent less time worried about those with powers and more time worried important things like an actual hate group that's willing to hold a school hostage for their backward cause." I shook my head. "Honestly, do you get off on trying to get underneath the skin of a victim?"

Cleary didn't say anything for some seconds. He looked like he wanted to say something, but he didn't. Apparently unable to ask a question, he stood up. "We'll leave you alone for now. But don't think this is over. If we have to pay you another visit…"

"You won't be contacting her without her attorney present," my father said as he stood up. "You may leave now."

Cleary nodded. "Fair enough. I hope you two have a good rest of the night."

I watched as my dad escorted him and the other agents out of the door. Once they were gone and my dad locked the door. I let loose a breath and leaned back in my seat. I closed my eyes and shook my head.

I hated this whole situation. I hated how, slowly but surely, this whole business with The Accords were seeping its way more and more into my life. It was already bad enough that I had to deal with it at school and at work. But here it was, at my home. Did I have any safe space for myself? What made it even worse was that Cleary had no idea how close I am with Spider-Man. I was just a girl who just happened to be holding hands with him. That was all they seemed to care about. They didn't care about the fact that I was held hostage. They didn't care that I was being held hostage by people who believed I was less than human. They didn't even care about the fact that I was gun-butted and left with a busted lip and a hurt head. No sympathy, no empathy… nothing. I was just a possible lead.

I felt an arm around my shoulders. Without opening my eyes, I allowed myself to be pulled into a warm body.

"I'm sorry, Michelle," my dad said. "…I shouldn't have let them talk to you without a lawyer."

"It's not your fault," I said as I moved in closer to him. I wasn't only saying it to make him feel better. Somehow, I had a feeling that I would've ended up running into Agent Cleary one way or another. I didn't get a response. Instead, we just sat there for a while in silence as my dad held me. Slowly, I started to feel my anger dissipate.

"…So, Spider-Man really did that for you, huh?" my father asked quietly. "I mean, he did his best to patch you up?"

"Yeah, he did," I replied. "…Spider-Man is not the bad guy people try to make him out to be. He really does have a heart for people."

I heard him sigh a few seconds later. He didn't say anything more. Instead, he continued to hold me. Realizing I still had my shoes on, I used my feet to take them off. I then brought my legs on the sofa and leaned further into my dad.

I must've dozed off. When I woke up, I found myself lying on that same sofa with a blanket over me and one of my bedroom pillows underneath my head. I smiled slightly before I closed my eyes and went back to sleep.