Michelle "MJ" Jones
It was one week since the last time I saw Peter. I couldn't bear to see him like in the state he was. I've seen Peter injured before, but it was always something that he could sleep and/or laugh off. This was different. He was never injured to the point where he had to be hospitalized. Even if I did want to visit him, that would have been a whole process. Technically, I didn't even know where he was. The one time I did visited him, Ned opened up a portal to that location for me. That's how everyone was seeing Peter. That was under Scott orders.
"Plausible deniability," he explained.
Cessily aside, I kept my distance from everyone else. If it wasn't anything school or work related, I didn't want much to do with it. I was just trying to keep myself busy. The way I figured, if I was distracted enough, maybe I wouldn't have to worry about how fucked everything was. I guess if there was one upside to all of this, I didn't have to worry about slacking in the classroom. I also figured that things couldn't get much worse. There was a voice in the back of my head telling me different.
The voice was right.
"MJ, you scrub that counter any harder, you might start a fire," Cessily quipped. I briefly glared at her from behind the counter as she mopped the floor.
We were nearing the end of our shift at Peter Pan. My boss was in an extra bitchy mood that day for reasons I neither knew nor cared about. I was glad that Cessily was working with me. With the mood I was in, I thought it was going to be the day I'd finally fight my boss. Needless to say, the end of my shift couldn't come fast enough.
"I just want to go home," I said. After a few seconds, I gave up on the stain on the counter and tossed the rag aside.
"I can't say I blame you. The boss was a bit much today, wasn't he?"
"That's an understatement."
"Yeah… yeah it is." Cessily stopped mopping and looked at me. "You want to grab something to eat after this?"
"…Not really. I just want to go home and sleep."
"You're still beating yourself up over Peter?"
"…A bit." I paused for a moment. "I can't help but wonder if things would've happened differently if I didn't start that argument with him."
Cessily shook her head. "Don't do that."
"But…"
"Michelle." I raised my eyebrows, a bit surprised by the stern tone she was using. "I understand you feel bad about how things ended up the last time you two talked, and I don't want to kick him while he's down, especially since he saved our bacon when we were trapped on the You-Know-What of the You-Know-Where days ago. But, argument or no argument, he made the decision to engage with that woman knowing full well what happened the last time he did. No one should be blaming you for his bad decisions, so, I'm not going to let you blame yourself."
I wanted to retort, but I had nothing. "I guess you're right."
Cessily smiled slightly. "I am every now and again. What did you two argue about in the first place?"
I shook my head. "I don't want to talk about it. It was over something stupid and the way I handled things was even more stupid."
"…You might want to see that therapist you were talking about."
"Once again, an understatement." I nodded. "I guess I should call him today."
"Well, we got a few minutes until we close. Nobody else is here, and we got everything wiped down. All we have to do is throw out the donuts… or give them out, lock up the register, and lock the door on our way out."
It was this point that I heard the bell of the door. I had to suppress a sigh as I turned and walked up to the register.
"Welcome to Peter Pan," I said almost automatically. "We're about to close, so what he have available is pretty…" I trailed off when I saw who actually entered the shop. "…sparse."
Of all people to walk into this place, I didn't expect to see Quentin Beck standing there. I closed my eyes and rubbed them with the index finger and thumb of my right hand, hoping I was seeing things. But when my opened my eyes, Beck was still there. As I looked at him, memories of Europe flooded my mind.
What the fuck?
Quentin was looking rather… unkempt. His hair was a bit of a mess. His skin was a bit pale, except for the skin around his eyes, which looked kind of grey. He also had this five o'clock shadow on his face. He looked like he hadn't slept in days. I stood there in shock. I was barely able to notice that he wasn't alone. All of them were dressed in all black and had their faces covered with ski masks. One of them took a moment to flip the Open/Closed sign. I wasn't too surprised by Beck making his presence known. It was only a matter of time. I guess I was expecting him to do something big – some kind of spectacle announcing to the world that he has come back from the dead. I didn't expect him to be just stroll into where I worked at.
Somehow, I felt like I would've preferred the grandiose option.
"Perhaps you can make time for an old friend," Beck said with a smile and jovial tone. The combination of both of those things was enough to make my skin crawl. I wanted to lie and say that I never saw him before. I had a feeling that wasn't going to work. "How you been, MJ?"
I sneered at him. "You don't get to call me that!" Maybe it wasn't the best time to fret over that. But people like him don't get to call me that, circumstances be damned. One of the men stepped up, prompting me to lock eyes on him.
"I don't remember Mr. Beck asking you for your naming preference," they said. I narrowed my eyes at the masked person. Why did he sound familiar? It was at this point I heard footsteps. I then saw Cessily in my peripheral.
"Is there a problem here?" Cessily asked. I glanced at her for a moment before I looked back at Beck.
"Now, now," Beck chastised as he looked at the man. "Let's not escalate things." He looked back at me as the masked figure took a step back. "Please forgive my subordinate. He takes my wellbeing very seriously. I'm only here to talk."
I scoffed. "And why should I want to talk to you?"
"Because it involves your little friends – that is, the X-Men, Ned and Betty." My eyebrows rose up briefly. I then scowled.
"What do you want with Betty and Ned?" I demanded.
"You see, it's a long story. Your boy toy, Peter… he left me for dead in London. Still, I had one more gift left for him." He started to walk around. I turned and kept my eyes on him. "If I was going to die, I figured I should at least be known as a hero… even if it meant destroying poor Spider-Man's reputation." He moved past Cessily. Cessily eyed me. It took a moment to get that she was asking me something nonverbally. Realizing she wanted to make a move, I shook my head. I brought my attention back on Beck as he moved behind the counter. "But, funny thing happened. One moment, I was dying on a bridge. The next moment, I was waking up in a facility ran by a geneticist and his rather gracious benefactor. While there were people who still hated Peter because of my alleged murder by his hands, there were still people who supported him. But what was odd to me is that not only did people not know that Spider-Man is Peter Parker, he's also now rolling with a group of criminals known as the X-Men."
He stopped in front of the donuts and eyed them as if he was pondering his choices.
"Is there a point to all this?" I deadpanned.
"There is, Michelle. You see, all I wanted to do was become a hero that the world could flock to. And for a bit, I was that. And then Peter took it all away." The fact that he lied so blatantly was already bad enough. But what made it worse was the fact that he made his choice for which sweet he wanted. He opened up the racks and grabbed a very specific donut – the MJ donut. It took all of my willpower not to attack him right there and then, especially when he turned towards me and took a bite out of the pastry. Still, I couldn't help but sneer. He chewed and nodded in approval. He swallowed before he continued. "But, it seems things have taken a turn. I'm here with a new lease on life… after a lengthy recovery, of course. And Peter… Spider-Man… as well as Frictor are out of the picture for the time being after they have bitten off more than they could chew with my cohort."
…Cohort?
My heart sank. Beck and that fiery woman were working together? What the actual fuck? As I thought about it, it made too much sense. But what was her deal in this? Well, that was question for another time.
"So what, do you want, from me?" I demanded. I was about ready to just put my hands on him, potential consequences be damned.
"It's not good to be impatient with someone who can have you arrested for working with those who violate the Accords." He smiled at me. "I guess this is a good time to state that I'm working with the good ol' USA. With just a word, I could have these men take you away in an instant. But, I'd much rather not do that. Instead, I'm going to give you a choice." With his free hand, he reached into his jacket. I tensed up. He then pulled out a card and extended it out to me. I looked at the card, then back at him.
"What the hell is this?"
"It's simple, MIchelle. On that card is a phone number. You have until two weeks from today to call it so we could set up a meeting. During that meeting, you will tell me everything you know about the X-Men – real names, occupations, where they live, where they work, etcetera etcetera."
"And if I don't?"
"Then I'll have you, Betty, and Ned arrested. I'll have your respective families and those close to you detained and interrogated. I'll make sure that your arrests will be made public to everyone. Even if you three somehow manage to beat the allegations, I'll see to it that your reputations are forever stained. No college would want to even touch you and I'll make sure you guys won't even be able to get a job working for a fraudulent call center. If you decide not to take this card, if you rip it up, or you or your friend here decides that violence is the way to go, I'll automatically assume you refuse to comply and I'll have you arrested on the spot."
Once again, I thought about attacking him. I was sure I can take him. The problem was the men that were with him. I had no idea what they could do. Even with Cessily with me, I wasn't so sure the two of us could walk away from this situation unscathed. Plus, there was the matter of Beck apparently working with the government. Maybe he was lying. But after seeing who the government has been employing the last couple of years to take down Spider-Man, Beck being on the government's payroll wouldn't even make it to the bottom of the list of things I'd find farfetched. If Beck was truly here on government business, no doubt there are people who know where he was at this very moment. No matter how much I tried to think of a way out of this situation, it led to the same conclusion.
I was stuck.
As much as I didn't want to, I took the card without incident.
"Now, see, that wasn't too hard, was it?" Beck asked in a gentle tone that sounded so sincere yet so fake at the same.
"Get the fuck out before I risk it all to crack your jaw!" I growled out.
Beck chuckled. "As you wish. Just remember – two weeks. I trust you'll do the right thing." He turned and walked away. I eyed him as he made his way from behind the counter and towards the door. As he walked out of the door, his entourage left with him. There was one that paused at the door and looked back at me. We locked eyes for a second. I could barely see the color of their eyes. For some reason, they looked familiar to me. Even weirder, they seemed to carry some kind of emotion I couldn't quite put a finger on. Before I could ponder it further, they left.
I stood there for several seconds. There were so many emotions going through my head and I wasn't quite sure how to process them. I wanted to cry. I wanted to scream. I wanted to just wreck everything in this shop. But what was the point? It wasn't going to help anything. So I just stood there, doing everything I can to keep it together.
"Call your parents," Cessily said.
I looked at her and narrowed my eyes in confusion. "Why?"
"You're not going home tonight. I'm taking you to my place. From there, we'll reach out to Scott."
"Um…" I nodded slowly. "Okay."
"Call them now. And sit down. I'll take care of closing."
I ended up doing just that. I ended up explaining to my parents that I was going to sleep over at Cessily's place. They had questions, and it got to the point where I put Cess on the phone with them. It was funny. At any other time, I'd be annoyed by that. But at this moment, I was just happy to be reminded that they care. Once everything was squared away, I made sure to tell my folks I loved them before I hung up. After that, I just sat there and waited for Cessily to be done. I tried to offer to help, but she glared me down. When she was done, she let loose a breath.
"Come on, let's go," she said.
About an hour or so later, we were at her apartment. I didn't even take time to take in my surroundings. I barely even removed my shoes when Cessily gently grabbed my hand.
"Come on, I'll run you a bath."
I let her guide me to the bathroom. Once we were inside, she let me go and beckoned towards the toilet. I took a seat and watched her as she started to run the bath. While the water ran, she moved to the sink, kneeled down in front of it, and opened the cabinet underneath it. She then pulled out a canister of what looked like green bath salts.
"I like to use this for stress relief," Cessily explained. "Hopefully, it works for you." She smiled at me. I forced a small smile. My mood was far from good, to say the least. But I did appreciate what she was doing for me. So, I continued to watch her as she poured some of the bath salts into the tub. After she was done running the bath, she shut off the water and turned towards me. "Take as long as you need. You can use my towel. My roommate did laundry while I was gone, so it's clean."
"Thank you," I said in earnest.
"It's what I'm here for. Go ahead and soak. I'm going to talk to Scott."
I watched her as she walked out of the bathroom. She closed the door behind her. I looked back at the tub. I inhaled, taking in the scent of eucalyptus, citrus, and mint. After exhaling, I took my clothes off. Once I was bare, I left my clothes on top of the toilet seat after bringing the lid down. I then stepped inside of the tub slowly. The water was hot, but not too hot for me to adjust to it. I slowly sat down, submerging myself until just my head, neck, the top of my shoulders were above water. I stared ahead for a moment, recounting everything that happened the last several days. I then sighed as I closed my eyes and leaned my head back.