I wasn't sure if I was ready for this, but I knew that it had to be done. I needed to tell someone the truth and maybe just maybe I had gotten close enough to them for them to believe me. It wasn't like I was ashamed of it, but I had a feeling that they would think of me differently after they knew. I wasn't sure if I wanted to ruin things. I was probably most worried about ruining things with Tandy, even though I didn't know what I had with Tandy. We had just kissed each other and I wasn't even supposed to do that.
"So let me preface this by saying that this is going to sound insane." I commented. "I haven't told you everything about me and there have been some good reasons for it, but I think I'm ready. This is probably going to change what you think of me."
"Did we know before this?" Tyrone asked. I shook my head. If I ever did get to tell Ned or MJ, that would be really awkward.
"No." I answered. "Well you did who I was. Everyone knew who I was, but we had never personally met. It all started when I met Mysterio. He wanted to make himself out to be a big hero but all he really wanted was revenge on my father. I don't know if he knew about that."
I could tell that the spell only seemed to affect the living, so he probably still remembered who I was.
"I guess I was right to not trust him." Tandy replied. "I am really bad at trusting people, which makes me a bit surprised that I took quite a liking to you."
"Wait did something happen between you two?" Tyrone asked. I was surprised that he didn't know we kissed.
"I caught them making out with each other." Kate commented. I really did not want to talk about that right now.
"Can I continue?" I requested with a blush on my face.
"Yes." Tandy remarked. She gave me a look of remorse. "Sorry."
"So anyway, before he died, he sent an edited video to The Daily Bugle which exposed my identity to the world." I added. "Once I was resolved of any legal issues, I wanted to fix things and make things like they before…so I went to Dr. Strange to see if he could help."
"Dr. Strange? Did you know the Avengers? Do you know Hawkeye?" Kate asked me. I still was surprised by how much she liked him.
"I don't anymore." I declared. "The only one who remembers is my father and I don't even know if that was really him or just my subconscious using him or something."
"Can we let her finish? I want to hear this." Tandy remarked. Was I really falling in love with her? I did not want to fall in love with her. I was supposed to be with MJ, but I couldn't stop feeling things for Tandy.
"I wanted to make it so everyone forgot my secret identity, but I realized everyone would include even the people who already knew, so I tried to fix it and inadvertently caused a dimensional rift. People who knew other versions of me from other dimensions were brought here and so were those other versions of me. This resulted in my aunt being killed, but if it remained the way that it was, it would have resulted in something much worse that could have ripped apart the multiverse, so I asked Dr. Strange to do a new spell. This one made everyone forget not just my secret identity, but who I was in general. It saved the multiverse, but it also had an unintended side effect of me." I answered. The tears were flowing as I told the story. I tried to wipe them only to see black water. Oh right, my makeup was running.
"What happened?" Tandy asked. I really didn't want to tell her this, but we had gotten so far that I didn't have a choice.
"It turned me into a girl." I stated.
"What?" Kate asked. I could tell that all three of them were shocked by that.
"Please don't hate me." I declared. I couldn't lose the only friends that I had right now. At that point, I couldn't take it anymore. I couldn't take the silence. I just walked off to my room.
I didn't know what to expect next. I thought about just leaving. I probably shouldn't have been surprised who the first one to talk to me was.
"Antonia?" Tandy asked. I turned to look at her. "Or would you prefer I called you something else instead? How about we start by you telling me what your name was before?"
"It was Peter but I think I'd prefer if you called me Antonia." I admitted. "I chose the name to honor my father, but I didn't even know he was my father at the time."
"I get it." She said. "I grew up idolizing my father after he died. Then I found out he was abusing my mother…not that I'm saying that your dad was like that. I'm just really confused. I thought I didn't like boys anymore."
"I shouldn't have kissed you. I had a girlfriend." I said as I put my hand on hers and then I saw bite her a little. "Did you see something?"
"I did." She stated. "I saw us. You were introducing me to your sister and her mom. Do you love me?"
"I don't know. I like you." I admitted. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't. I'm not even sure why I do."
"The thing I've never felt anything like when I'm around you. I can't see why anyone would like me. Part of me wondered why I came back at all. I thought I would at least see my dad, but heaven doesn't exist." She said. From what I understood, it wasn't that we were dead, we trapped in some sort of pocket dimension like a stasis or something. I couldn't say that there wasn't an afterlife, but no one affected by the blip went there. "Please don't leave me, Antonia."
"I'm not going anywhere." I assured her as I hugged her. I didn't even know if it was a good idea for us to date. It seemed like we both had a lot of issues.
"I don't mean to interrupt whatever you have going on here, but we've got a lead on the Tracksuit Mafia." Kate replied. "Do you think that you can help us?"
To be honest, I could really use an opportunity to let out some emotions. I liked being a superhero because while parts of it really sucked, it was also a huge adrenaline rush.
"Yeah, just let me get me suit." Tandy remarked as she wiped her tears. It was at that point that I realized that I should probably do the same.
I grabbed my suit and changed into it in the closet. I probably shouldn't have been afraid to change in front of Tandy, but I was. I was not good about changing in front of anyone.
After a few minutes, I noticed the three of them were all dressed. Kate was wearing an all purple outfit, while Tyrone was wearing black with a cloak. I suppose that was why he was named Cloak. Of course, my eyes were once again draw to Tandy. She had a white leather jacket with a pair of white leather pants that accentuated her butt. Damn it, what am I going to do?
"So where are we going?" Tyrone asked. I supposed his teleportation would be the fastest way to get there. How was Kate able to find out this information anyway?
Kate gave us the location and I couldn't believe it. The tracksuit mafia was right near Aunt May's apartment building. I hoped that they weren't planning on blowing it up. Why were they there anyway? What could they be after? Tyrone transported us and I was a little dizzy. It might take me some time before I got used to traveling like that.
"Why are they here?" I asked.
"This is where my mom lives." Kate said. Had she really grown up in the same building as me? I was pretty sure that she hadn't gone to my school at least. "Well one of the places."
At that point, I noticed a bunch of men in tracksuits. I sensed some bullets and started to dodge them. While it seemed like there were a lot of them, they were really were no match for us. Three of us had superpowers and Kate seemed to be very good with her bow. We were on top of the building when suddenly, I couldn't help but feel some sort of dark energy. What the hell was going on?
"Something isn't right here." Tandy remarked. At that point I heard a bit of a laughter.
"What do we have here?" A man with black skin and white hair replied. He wasn't African-American though. I'm talking pitch black.
"Who are you?" I asked.
"Who do you think is in charge here?" The man asked. "You know you're all very gifted. My powers only work on humans, but fortunately, that doesn't apply to all of you."
At that point, Kate's skin turned black just like his and her hair turned white. She grabbed her bow like she was in a trance. She shot at Tandy and I rushed over and grabbed her. She kept firing at us as the man disappeared.
"What's going on? What did he do to Kate?" Tandy asked.
"I don't know. He's controlling her somehow." I stated. "We need to find a way to sever his control."
"Do you think that this was the guy that was controlling that man who attacked the coffee shop?" She asked.
"Maybe." I replied. The only problem was I didn't want to hurt Kate. At that point, I noticed that she was out of arrows.
"Kate. I know that you're in there. We don't want to hurt you." I told her. She looked at us like she had no will of her own. At that point, she went to the side of the building and jumped off. Tyrone raced into action and caught her before she hit the ground. Unfortunately, that didn't help as she started to fight with him. "We need to get down there. Hold on tight."
She got on my face and I would have probably been turned on if not for the fact that Kate's life was in danger. I shot a web and we headed down. At that point, someone threw this red thing that seemed to electrocute her and suddenly Kate returned to normal as she became unconscious.
"She's still breathing." Tyrone declared. Well that was a relief. Of course, that brought about the question of who had thrown such a thing. I sensed a presence and started to run towards it. I didn't want to leave Tandy and Tyrone, but I felt I was the only one who would be able to catch them.
I started to run and swing as I continued to feel the presence. I felt it getting closer. I shot out a web and caught the person in it. It was woman with blonde hair, who looked like she was not much older than me and also not much taller.
"Who are you?" I asked.
"I do not have time for this." She said as she started to cut herself free. She had a Russian accent "I have to find Hawkeye. The real Hawkeye."
"Look, I just want to talk to you." I stated. "Who are you?"
She managed to cut herself free and threw a smoke bomb. That was a disadvantage of not having my mouth covered. Did I need to cut my hair or something? I could tell that she managed to escape while I was coughing. I had no choice but to head back. I needed to check on Kate anyway. She was still out when I got there.
"She got away." I remarked.
"Who was it?" Tyrone asked.
"I don't know. I just know that she's blonde and she's very skilled." I explained. "We should get her home."
Tyrone transported us back to the hideout and we laid Kate down. Her pulse and breathing seemed to be fine. I decided to throw some water on her to see if that would get her to wake up. It seemed like we had a big problem. She woke up with a gasp.
"What happened?" She asked. "Why am I on the couch?"
"What do you remember?" Tandy inquired. I supposed that it would be useful to find out what she knew. Maybe it could be used to find out who the hell that was.
"I remember seeing that weird guy and then nothing." Kate replied. "What happened?"
"He was controlling your mind." Tyrone stated. "You looked just like him. You tried to kill us and then yourself."
I knew that I needed to find out who that guy was. He said that he was in charge of the Tracksuit Mafia. I was also wondering who that blonde girl was. She said that she was going after Hawkeye. What did she want with him? I figured that she wanted to kill him.
At that point, Kate stood up and nearly fell over. I managed to catch her before she did. She seemed like she was dehydrated or something.
"We need to get you something to eat." I stated. I was quite hungry myself but her wellbeing was probably the most important thing.
"What the fuck happened tonight?" Tandy asked once we were in our room.
"I have no idea." I stated. "I'm just glad that everyone is alright."
You know I couldn't help but think that the mystery man looked kind of familiar, but I couldn't quite place it.
"So Tandy, as much as I don't want to admit, I am attracted to you. I might even love you, which I know I shouldn't. I think we need to see where this goes. Maybe we can go get lunch somewhere tomorrow."
"I thought you had to go babysit your sister tomorrow." She told me. I didn't think that I needed to since it was the weekend.
"It's the weekend. Mrs. Stark should be home." I stated. Part of me thought that I should call her Pepper since she was my stepmom, but I didn't know if I could do that. I didn't even know if I would be able to call him Dad to his face. "So do you want to go on a date with me?"
"I haven't been on a date since I came back to life." She admitted.
"But is it a yes or no?" I asked.
"Okay. I guess I can do it." She responded. "Just so we're clear, I'm sorry I messed things up."
"Messed it up?" I repeated.
"I mean you were supposed to be talking to your girlfriend." She pointed out.
"MJ doesn't even know that I exist." I stated. "For the most part anyone. I still kind of don't exist. Mrs. Stark was supposed to be getting me a license. She doesn't know that she used to be my girlfriend. It's not your fault that I fell for you."
"I guess I am kind of awesome like that." She joked. I smiled.
"Now we should probably go to bed." I stated. I hoped that the bad guy wouldn't be able to take over Kate again without being near her.
"What are we going to do about Mr. Negative?" She inquired.
"Why did you call him that?" I replied.
"Because he looked like a negative photo and so did Kate when he was controlling her." She explained. "We can call him something else if you want."
"Let's just go to bed." I suggested as I went to clean my face.
I laid in bed for a minute thinking. I felt good telling them but I still couldn't believe that I had fallen for Tandy after just a few days. She wasn't even the type of girl that I usually crushed on, but there was just something about her that drew me to her. I then fell asleep.
Sleep wasn't great. In my dreams, MJ was expressing disappointment about how I liked Tandy. I had to try to tell myself it wasn't real. I woke up gasping for air. I headed to the living room where I found that Kate was still awake.
"Couldn't sleep either?" She asked.
"Yeah. I had some bad dreams." I explained as I took a seat across from her. I wondered if I should tell her.
"Me too." She admitted. "I know I wasn't in control of myself, but I'm sorry that I tried to kill you."
"Don't be." I assured her. "We weren't prepared for what we were facing. There was no way that you could have known about it."
"So what were your dreams about?" She asked.
"Because my old girlfriend found out about Tandy." I answered. "It feels like I'm betraying her, but I really like Tandy."
"It's not fair for you to hold out for someone that might not even like you back." Kate told me. I supposed it was true. MJ might not like me as a girl. As far as I knew, she was straight. "You know I do think that you two look cute together."
In the morning, after breakfast, I started to prepare for my date with Tandy. She had taken Tyrone with her shopping. I supposed it was okay. It would probably feel more like a date if the two of us weren't going together. I decided that since it was a date, I should wear a dress, which I was starting to get used to. It was black with long sleeves. I even didn't mind wearing tights.
When I got to the restaurant, I found Tandy was wearing a white sweater over a black turtleneck dress and tights of her own.
"You look really pretty." I told her.
"Thanks. So do you." She retorted. "Is it weird if I say that to you? I know how you used to be and…"
"Tandy. It's fine." I remarked. I was just glad that she complimented me. It was then that I saw a familiar head of blonde hair. "Oh my god. It's her."
So a lot happened in this chapter. First Antonia came clean both about what happened to her and her feelings for Tandy. Second Mr. Negative made his first appearance. Third Yelena is here. Will she be able to help the Young Avengers defeat Mr. Negative? Please don't forget to review