Michelle "MJ" Jones

I don't think I was ever more thankful for a Saturday.

I didn't have to worry about class or work. Beyond doing homework, studying, and eating, I didn't spare any time for anything except for gathering up the things I figured I'd need for the night – a notebook, a few pens and pencils, a fresh sketchbook, and the business card I found when Betty, Cessily, and I searched the fake crime scene. It wasn't much. But maybe it was a starting point.

When five o'clock rolled around, I left the apartment and made my way to an alley. Once I was there, I texted Ned, telling him discreetly to open a portal to the Bunker for me. A minute later, a portal opened up to his apartment. I stepped through it before I stepped through a portal leading to the Bunker. I heard the portal close behind me. I ended up in the main room of the Bunker. A bit to my surprise, Betty was already there. There were quite a few plastic bags on the table, along with what looked like a stack of documents.

"You're here," Betty said.

"I am," I replied as I walked over. "What's all this?"

"Something told me that it's going to be a long night, so I got a lot of food. I brought what I have as far as information on what Alias is doing for Luke Cage."

I took a seat at the table. "Are any of the others here?"

"Kitty and Kaine was here some minutes ago. Apparently, they picked up a lead on where Craig is."

I raised my eyebrows. "Is that so?"

"Yup. You know the bar where Kaine works at? Well, apparently one of the patrons was hitting the liquor too hard last night and let slip a few things. So, Kaine got a hold of him and contacted Kitty. After a 'talk' with said patron, they're making their way to Boston."

I smiled. "I hope it works out. We could use some good news." I then nodded towards Betty. "You had a busy day or something? I'm just wondering why we couldn't meet earlier."

"Last night, I was with David. We were running an errand for Scott to pick up somebody from Jersey to help Peter out." I didn't say anything. I really didn't want to talk about Peter at the moment. Betty raised an eyebrow. "What are you planning?"

"I don't know yet. All I know is that I want to take down Beck, especially after he showed up to my job and threatened the wellbeing of my family. I just figured if we can connect some dots, we can get the drop on him or something."

Betty tilted her head. "…I know this is extremely rich coming from me, but shouldn't we let the X-Men handle this?"

I scoffed. "As much faith as I have in Scott, I'm on a bit of a time limit. I can't just sit at home and do nothing, especially considering that Beck has been able to move underneath the radar for so long. Even when Scott discovered that he wasn't dead and buried, Beck was able to stay out of the public eye until he wanted to let his presence known to me. He's kind of pulling the strings here, and I just feel like we need to do something that at least shakes his confidence, if only for a little bit."

Betty blinked slowly. "And how would any of this help?"

I sighed as I stood up and turned away. I walked a few steps. "I don't know." I stopped in my tracks. I really thought about it for a moment. "If we can figure out how he's operating, maybe we can get the upper hand."

I turned around and looked back at Betty. She stared back at me. I knew she was thinking things over. After some seconds, she nodded slowly.

"Okay," she said. She stood up. "Let's go to work."

We found an empty wall to use as a board of sorts. During the next couple of hours, we were arranging pictures, notes, and other items on it. We used pieces of yarn that Betty brought with her to establish connections, with different colors reflecting the strength of those connections (i.e. whether the connections are really established, if they're just speculated, etcetera). It took a lot of brainpower. On more than one occasion, we took breaks for the sake our sanity. Once we were done arranging everything, Betty and I took time to eat some of the food she brought, which was Chinese. Once we were done eating, Betty and I stood in front of the wall.

"Okay," Betty spoke up. "Let's see what we have so far." She walked up to the wall and pointed to a picture of Beck. "Beck is back in the picture." She pointed to the picture up above his – the coat of arms for The United States Federal Government. "Allegedly, he's on the payroll of Uncle Sam. All we have is his word, but considering the government's track record in whom they've been employing for the enforcement of The Accords, the possibility of Beck telling the truth about that is extremely high, despite himself." She then pointed to a picture of Justin Hammer, which was to the right of Beck's. Both pictures were connected by a string. "Considering that Justin Hammer's been the face of the pro-Accords side in New York and that he has worked with the likes of the fake Scorpion and Kraven, we can't discount the possibility of them working together."

"Understatement of the year, I'd say," I commented. Betty chuckled shortly before she moved on, stepping to another cluster of pictures, which was connected to Hammer's picture by string.

"So, right now, Luke Cage and Jessica Jones are incarcerated. Cage is arrested for the robbery of an armored truck that was transporting gold bars." Right below his picture was a still of a video of the alleged robbery. "Jessica, who was actively in the process of gathering evidence to clear his name, was accused of physically assaulting Justin Hammer while he was in the middle of a board meeting." Once again, there was another still of a video, this time of Jessica's alleged assault on Hammer. "While there's video footage of the event and the crime scene was supposed to be active prior to you, me, and Cessily infiltrating Hammer Industries HQ, the three of us found the crime scene completely clean."

"Almost completely clean," I reminded her. "We did find a business card for New U Technologies." I looked at the card that was taped underneath the still under Jessica's picture. There was also a question mark written on it with a black Sharpie. "I haven't done much research into the company. The only thing I know is that it exists. I don't know if that'll lead anywhere."

"It's worth exploring," Betty assured. "But moving back to Beck, we also know that he's working with that woman in flames whose name on one knows." Said woman's picture was right next to Beck's. Betty eyed the picture before she pulled a Sharpie out from her pocket. After taking the cap off, she started writing on the picture. "You know what? For the sake of simplicity, we're going to call her Firestar." After that writing down that name, she put the cap back on the marker. "So far, she's taken down Craig, who is still MIA since his abduction, and Peter, who is currently in a medically induced coma. According to Peter, she made it clear that her issues with him are rather personal. And as for Craig… well, this is speculation on my part, but I think she took him down to send a message." I saw her tilt her head. "I feel like we're missing a few things."

I thought about it for a moment. I then walked up to her side. "We are," I confirmed. I held my hand out towards her. "Marker please." Betty handed it to me.

"What's up?" Betty asked.

"So, in regards to Craig, Buford indicated that Craig sent him two messages on the night he was taken down by FIrestar. One was his location, and the other a string of letters and numbers." I took the cap off of the marker before I drew a short diagonal line towards a spot that was bottom left of Craig's picture. I then wrote the words "Texts to Buford" in that same spot. "Ned also told me he's been trying to use his Sling Ring to open up a portal to Craig. Each time, though, the portal would open up to some random location."

From the corner of my eye, I saw Betty nod. "So that means Beck must be working with someone who knows a thing or two about magic." I looked at her. She looked at me. "I'm assuming that Kitty and Kaine will find Craig soon, but if they don't, we might have to find that person."

"If worse comes to worst, I'll go to Clea. But you mentioning that brings up another point – there has to be even more people working for Beck."

"Was he working with a lot of people back then? Back during the trip to Europe, I mean."

I took some time to think about the question. I started thinking about what happened in Europe and all the times the so-called "monsters" showed up while Peter was on the scene. Plus, there was the matter of the video that was sent to The Daily Bugle after Beck supposedly die. I tilted my head briefly.

"He had to have worked with a crew," I concluded. "I never saw any of them, but the scale of his operation is way too big to be a one person job, even with him being very smart… and unhinged." I paused for a moment as I continued to remember what was going on in Europe. "Tony Stark's death was still fresh in everyone's minds. Almost the entire world – universe even – hails him as a hero and martyr to this day. I'd imagine that he'd have at least a handful of people who shared his hatred for Tony."

Little did I know at the time, I was undershooting by a lot.

"…You think Beck would work with the same people as before?" Betty asked.

"There's a decent chance," I replied. It only made sense. People would prefer to work with those they are familiar with. "Why do you ask?"

"Kraven's main gripe with Tony was his family losing money due to Stark pivoting away from making military weaponry. I'm wondering if there are other people that was, or possibly still are, working within the company that felt a type of way about that change in business model, or even about any other kind of policy change, or even felt jilted by Tony one way or another."

"…Looks like we got some tasks to do." I nodded. "Okay. Here's what we'll do. I'll call up Buford to get that message Craig sent to him. You, meanwhile, call up Pepper and see if you can get a list of any and all employees that were fired between the times of Stark Industries pivoting away from military weaponry and the date of The Spell. We'll need that for Kitty."

"Why for Kitty?"

"If what Beck is saying is true about being on the government payroll, then people working for him are probably on the government payroll as well. We can have Kitty hack the systems of the banks their accounts belong to and check their transaction history."

Betty nodded in understanding as she smiled. "…That's a great idea."

I smiled slightly. "I'm good for that every now and again."

We finished for the night. After eating the rest of the food, we went home, using Ned to open up portals for us.

The morning after, I called up Buford to see if he was working today. He told me he wasn't, but then asked him to meet him at this greasy spoon diner in Manhattan. I agreed and met him there around one. Once I arrived and went inside, I found Buford sitting in a booth in the back corner.

"Howdy," he greeted as I sat across from him.

"Hey," I replied.

He beckoned towards the menu in front of me. "Order what you want. I got you."

"Thank you." I picked up the menu and looked it over. I wasn't in the mood for anything too out of the ordinary. Within seconds, I decided to go with the chili cheeseburger. I put my menu down. "I hope I didn't ruin your day off."

As he looked over his menu, Buford scoffed. "Hardly." He set his menu down and looked at me. "I didn't really have anything to do, so I just figured I'd take time to relax, maybe even watching something on Netflix and the like."

I frowned. "Sorry for calling you."

Buford shrugged. "No harm, no foul. But what can I do you for?"

I took a moment to move some strands of my hair out of my face and tuck them behind my ear. "Do you still have that message from Craig?"

Buford narrowed his eyes. "I do. Why?" I hesitated for a moment. "What are you planning on doing?"

"Betty and I… We're trying to come up with a plan to get the drop on You-Know-Who, and for the time being, I'm trying to focus on Firestar."

Buford raised his eyebrow. "Who?"

"Firestar. It's a name Betty decided to call the woman in flames. Anyway, she has a vendetta against Spider-Man. Betty even thinks there is a possibility that Firestar tried to take out Frictor to send a message to Peter." I raised my eyebrows briefly. "I'm thinking there's something in that message."

Buford nodded. "I've been thinking the same thing. The problem is that I've been kind of stretched thin at work. With Luke Cage out of the picture for the time being, people have been eyeing Harlem like coyotes seeing an unattended henhouse. Because of that, I haven't been putting as much thought and effort into that message as I want to." He reached down below the table. I realized he was reaching into his pocket. He pulled out his phone and went through it. Once he found what he was looking for, he held the phone out to me, showing the screen. "This means anything to you?"

I looked at the screen. It was his text message conversation with Craig. I looked at the last text. "You mean the one at the bottom?" I looked at Buford. He nodded. I looked back at the screen and read the last text from Craig.

B/W 135

"I don't know what it means," I admitted. "But there has to be some meaning to it."

"I wish I knew what it was." He put his phone away. "I don't know much about the boy, to be honest. I even tried asking Scott and Kitty, and they couldn't figure it out."

I sighed. "If only we could read Frictor's mind."

Buford gave me a look. He then smirked a bit. "Maybe we can."

I scoffed. "What? You have that ability?" I was being snarky.

Buford chuckled. "I almost wish. But we can do the next best thing."

"And that thing is?"

"Let's just worry about eating for now. But when we're done, we're going to head over to Scott's place."

I was about to ask why until I saw a waitress walk up to the table. Deciding to leave it alone for now, I got ready to place my order.