The day that Peter decided to skip getting his coffee from Peter Pan Donut & Pastry Shop, the day that Peter met Elsa, someone seemed to be missing him.
Michelle was refilling napkin containers, shoving the rolls of white paper into the black boxes for customers. She was stuck in a routine, trying to phase out the rest of her shift.
He didn't come today. Just like yesterday. Two days in a row. She paused, setting the napkin dispenser down. He could just be busy. Life was like that.
Michelle gathered the napkin dispensers and then put them on the tables. Over at the window, she couldn't help look out onto the street. Looking for him, and from inside the shop, she saw Spider-man, briefly. Swinging through the buildings rapidly.
The door jingled, and she rubbed her arm, a furrow on her brow as Ned came in. His smile was blinding against his M.I.T. Sweater. "Did you see that?"
"Yeah," She shrugged, then started back to the counter.
Ned chattering about an apparent robbery and how some people have started downloading police scanners to see if they would catch sight of Spider-Man.
Michelle shook her head briefly at the idea. "Why would you do that?"
"I didn't say I was," Ned said, sliding into one of the stools.
"No, but you were thinking it," Michelle replied.
The last thing Spider-Man needed was people rushing towards him while he was trying to save others from poor choices and a pistol. Hero worship split between the anonymity that Spider-Man inspired in so many people was a poor combination, Michelle hardly paid too much attention to it, but she didn't envy him.
"My Lola would kill me." Ned said, disturbed by the idea as he wasn't one to run into danger, "but I have so many questions, and it's not like we'll have ample time to look at him when we go to M.I.T."
Michelle nodded and looked out the window again. "You're right. Maybe we should enjoy the hero while we have him."
Ned sighed, then looked around the cafe. "So, how's your regular?"
"Wouldn't know." Michelle busied her hands, grabbed some of the beige plastic mugs, and put them in a cupboard. "He didn't come today wither."
Ned pursed his eyebrows, "That's the second time in two days. That's odd."
Michelle shrugged it off like it was no big deal. "We're not the only coffee shop."
"So, disappointed?" Ned prompted.
Michelle sighed exasperatedly. "Nope. Why should I be?"
It went like that the entire day. She kept waiting, excepting him to show up. She didn't even know why, but every time she sees him, she gets a flicker of déjà vu. Like she's supposed to know him.
But she's sure that if she met someone like that, she wouldn't have forgotten him. She remembers everyone she meets if she wants to or not. But whatever, it was nearing the end of her shift, so she just needed to finish up and got ready to take out the trash.
Gathering the bags, she lumbered her way over to the back door, opening it with her hip and propping it with her foot to open it.
The alley wasn't exactly clear. Pallets, trash compactors, and the business next-door neighbor's old Honda was sitting back here, so she tried to be more alert when she was doing this task. Things were getting crazy in the city since the five supervillains tried to kill Spider-Man and there were the three reported Spider-Men.
Michelle thinks it was just some fake news that Jameson is trying to spread to cause people to hate Spider-Man more. Why? That man has a passion for hating Spider-Man. It's like a flame that won't die out.
That, and followed up with whatever happened at the Rockefeller Christmas tree. Apparently, Hawkeye and a new apprentice of his were fighting off this group of thugs called the Tracksuits.
Michelle had to walk a little bit away to get to the containers, trying not to slip on any ice or snow. Twisting the bags in her hands, she walked over and tossed them into the bins. They made a terrible racket, and she didn't appreciate the smell.
But then there was like this giant glowing light in the middle of the alley, and she jumped automatically — a human reaction. The light then dimmed, and she hears something fall onto the snow.
She looked down the alley but didn't see anything. Not that it mattered, she'd check it out because why not add something else to her plate.
She bit the inside of her cheek, then left to grab the stun gun she recently was given. Just for security. Something weird might be happening. She didn't wait for a response, just went back to the alley.
"Hello?" She called out. No other sound filled the air, save for her heavy breaths. She took a moment to even them out. "If someone's over here, do you need help? 911?"
There was nothing. It could have just been her mind playing tricks on her. But she had to be sure. Michelle swallowed hard, walked past the pallets, and froze.
What she saw was a woman in what looked to be a gown you would wear for a funeral. At least if you were living in the 1800s.
"Who are you?" Michelle asked her.
"I'm...I'm Anna." Anna introduced herself as she looked around in fear. "Where am I?"
Michelle quickly texted Ned and asked him to meet her back at the shop to discuss what she currently has discovered. She brought Anna inside and gave her an outfit that she was able to get warm in.
This consists of a plaid button-up shirt someone left behind, but the buttons were missing. A pair of jeans, she has no idea how someone just left those behind. And a black shirt underneath the button-up that had the message of: "finish each other's" And the text was inside a sandwich.
The shirt was Michelle's, something she kept in case she spilled coffee on her shirt and needed a change.
The two just sat in the chairs, waiting for Ned to arrive as she had no idea what to do with her. Her story sounded insane, she somehow arrived from the 1800s, she had just lost her parents, and she was pulled from the halls of her home and dropped off here.
Oh, and according to her, she's the Princess of Arendelle.
Honestly, if Michelle didn't watch her fall from a giant sphere of light, she would believe she's crazy.
Michelle listened to Anna's story and couldn't help but feel a little sorry. Being closed off from the world for some unknown reason, her sister shutting her out for some unexplained reason. Over the years, she tried to repair their relationship, but her sister didn't seem to care enough. Taking it up with her parents, they just said it would all make sense one day.
At least that's from Anna's POV. Michelle had to guess there was more to it with her parents' comment.
Again, if she didn't see the ball of light, she'd assume she was crazy.
Ned finally arrived and knocked on the door as Michelle left Anna flipping through the channels on the store's tv, never seeing a device like this before.
Michelle opened the door and allowed Ned inside and quickly locked it behind him. "Hey, what's going on?"
"That," Michelle said as she looked towards Anna. "We've got a visitor from the 1800s."
"What?" Ned questioned, shocked to hear this girl is somehow from the past. "A time traveler?"
"I thought so, but then I discovered she doesn't exist," Michelle said as she showed him the results that she found on Arendelle's history. "She doesn't match anyone documented."
"Okay." Ned started to see that was a bit weird and looked over to her again. She stopped channel surfing and came across a report from the Daily Bugle.
"That's right, ladies and gentlemen! Spider-Man abuses the homeless!" Jameson cried as he showed someone's footage of when Peter was saving Elsa. The only thing was she was huddled up in a corner and hid her face so nobody noticed her. "This footage was taken just moments ago showing Spider-Man abusing these innocent people!"
Michelle rolled her eyes, for some reason always ignoring anything that Jameson said. For some reason, she never believed anything he said. Even when that video of Mysterio warning the world that he was attacked by Spider-Man and tried to attack the trip she and her friends were on in London. She for some reason immediately knew that it wasn't true.
Grabbing the remote, she flicked channels to some show that was on and saw that was at least better than listening to Jameson's lies. The last thing she needed to deal with was a more-than-already confused princess.
"So...what do you want me to do?" Ned asked him.
"I don't know. Help me see if she exists anywhere else? Maybe find where she came from?" Michelle asked, no real idea of what to do. This is the first time she's dealing with something like this.
But she couldn't help but feel like there's a coincidence between her mysterious customer and this supposed princess.
While they were doing that, Eddie Brock had just arrived in New York and exited the bus he took to make it. Looking around, he fixed the jacket he had bought at one of the few stops he took to get from Mexico to New York.
"Great. Now we just need to find this Spider-Guy." Eddie muttered to himself as he fixed his winter jacket and hat.
"Finding one person in a city of eight million." Venom commented in Eddie's head. "Do you actually have a plan?"
"Yeah," Eddie confirmed as he looked up to the skies and the skyscrapers covered in snow. "You."
As their plan was coming together, Peter and Elsa made it outside the building and saw Kate Bishop was outside waiting. Peter walked up and greeted her as she returned the wave and saw Elsa.
"Hi, I'm Kate Bishop." Kate greeted Elsa as she held her hand out to shake. "You must be Elsa."
"Elsa Oldenburg." Elsa introduced herself to her.
"Great. Now we have that out of the way, why don't we go check the place out?" Kate asked as she took them to the elevator.
Once inside, Elsa was still getting used to the moving boxes that remind her of a dumbwaiter of sorts. When they arrived, they immediately made it inside her home and looked at the place.
There was a spiral stairway that led upstairs to the bedrooms, to the left is the living room with several couches and a tv on the wall the size of the wall itself with the dog on the couch, the right had a dining room and kitchen. To their left and right beside the elevator door, there were a few closet doors, one of them being a bathroom, and another of the upstairs doors being a second bathroom.
"Wow," Peter admitted as he didn't expect a place this big. "I can see why you don't want to live alone. Might get lost in a place this big."
Lucky got up and happily barked when he saw Peter and raced over to lick Peter. He reached down and pet the dog and rubbed his back.
"Hey, Buddy." Peter greeted Lucky.
"Peter, you already know Lucky." Kate said as she looked to Elsa. "Elsa, that's Lucky. Don't worry, he's friendly."
Kate then walked to the kitchen to drop off a few things she was carrying with her. Lucky looked up and stuck his tongue out as he looked up at Elsa.
Elsa looked down and tried to pet the dog when Peter saw that they could practice things with her powers by starting with the glove problem.
"You should...try it without the gloves," Peter said, knowing they were going to have to ease into everything.
Elsa stopped and looked over to Peter. "What?"
"If you want me to help you control these powers, I need to know exactly what you're afraid of," Peter explained and saw this as a good point of trying. "Pet him without the gloves. See how it goes."
Elsa started to worry a little and decided to trust him and removed one of her gloves. Peter wanted to see if she would be able to go through with it or to see how far she would be able to go.
She slowly got up and moved up to remove one of the gloves, trying to remember her father's words...but then thought of it and decided to forget them. Try to stop concealing her powers and just let it go.
Removing the glove for the first time in forever, she slowly lowered herself down again as her hands trembled. She placed her hand against the dog's head and earned happy breathing as the dog sniffed her hand and licked it.
Elsa laughed at the licking, this again being the first time she's feeling anything in years with her bare hands. That's when Kate came back and they saw that she shed her winter clothing and put them on the dining table.
"If you guys want to, you can take your coats off and start to look around." Kate offered them as she gestured to the bedrooms up the stairs.
Peter started to take off his coat as he looked down to see Elsa was rubbing Lucky all over his back and he was kissing her face all over.
"Looks like someone made a new friend," Kate commented on their interaction and decided to leave her be and let her catch up.
"Yeah, she never really had pets growing up," Peter informed her. "She grew up with overprotective parents that rarely let her out after an... incident."
"Trust me, my mom was the same way," Kate informed Peter as they made it up the spiral stairway. "After the Battle of New York, we lost my dad and she kept me on a short leash. My activities didn't exactly help that."
Peter could've guessed exactly what activities those were as the whole stairway had medal after medal on martial arts, archery, fencing, and a lot more.
Talk about built-in security.
"Sorry to hear about your dad." Peter apologized as he remembered that dark moment in his life. "I lost my parents in that battle."
"Sorry for that." Kate apologized in return. "Seems we all lost something in that battle."
"You're such a good boy!" Elsa said as the two looked as she had stopped petting him and got back up. She then started to take off her coat and was on her way to join them.
After having a quick tour of the place, Kate explained the history of it. Explained how the building was made by her great, great grandfather and how she tried to swing from the chandelier as a kid and broke her arm.
Peter and Elsa liked the bedrooms and she saw that the room was almost a little bigger than the one she used to have in the castle. The company seemed to be friendly and the building had good security so nobody could just come in. With that sorted out, they decided to move in and Kate was happy to see they liked it.
Kate explained how she would usually work from home and would need to go into the office physically at least once a week for meetings and stuff like that. This is what happened when you take over your mom's company that used to be a front for the Kingpin.
Peter said that he usually would work at nights (and by work, he means pose for selfies) but would also need to be on the move if he's ever called out by Jameson during the day. That would be a good excuse if anything were to happen during the day and allow him to get out at night.
But also said that he would take Elsa out from time to time as he didn't want her to be confined to the building. He wasn't going to keep her locked away as her parents did. That's when Elsa accidentally let it slip, she had never actually been to New York or seen anything.
"Wait, you haven't been anywhere in New York?" Kate asked as they were eating pizza for lunch.
"I only arrived yesterday," Elsa confirmed.
"Well, that's something that we gotta fix when you guys finish moving in," Kate stated with a smile. "The whole New York welcome. The Empire State Building, Statue of Liberty, Time Square. Ohh! Have either of you seen Rogers the Musical?"
"Only by build boards," Peter answered as Elsa has never even heard of musicals.
"That's a definite stop!" Kate said, getting giddy at the ideas coming and Peter enjoyed it.
All of this is a lot better than being in his old apartment eating a few day-old leftovers, sitting alone watching late-night television. Kate's a more energetic person than Peter's ever met, almost reminded him of Ned a little.
"We are on the scene, Jameson." Someone said as the three of them turned to see what they were talking about. "There have been reports of...what witnesses are describing as an alien made out of black goo."
The camera then went off of the reporter and revealed a photo taken of Venom snarling at the helicopter that was snapping photos of him.
Peter looked at the creature and listened to the description and immediately remembered what one of his alternate selves said.
"I fought an alien made out of black goo once." The oldest of the Peter's remembered as his weirdest villain.
"I wanna fight an alien." The Peter that was younger but still older than actual Peter complained.
Peter seems to have met his universe's version of that alien made of black goo. But then he looked over to Elsa and started to question if this creature was from this universe...or from another, another, universe.