Michelle "MJ" Jones

Scott and Buford stood in front of me. They were both staring at me intently. I wanted to feel some type of way about that, but I couldn't really blame them, I guess. When Buford got Scott into the room, I told them both who I believed Firestar was. I guess what really got them quiet was when I explained my relationship with said person. Still, I wished someone said something. The silence was starting to get to me. After some more moments of rather grating silence, I got my wish.

"Okay," Scott said. I could hear it in his voice. He was trying to wrap his head around all of this. "…Forgive me if I'm making you repeat yourself, but I really need to make sure I understand everything correctly. You're saying that this fiery targeting Peter… Firestar… is…?"

"Liz Allan," I finished for him. I still couldn't believe it. Well, maybe I could but just didn't want to. I wanted to be wrong. The more I thought about it, though… well, Occam's razor was definitely carving an engraving.

"And this Liz Allan is a close friend of yours?" Buford asked. I nodded.

"This is a very heavy allegation," Scott pointed out.

"I'm well aware," I replied in a clipped tone. I felt bad for sound upset, but this wasn't conclusion that I was happy about.

"We don't mean to insult you," Buford said gently. "But this is something major."

"Okay, let's just start from the beginning," Scott suggested. "As you said, Liz Allan is a close friend of yours. Why would she have a beef with Peter?"

I took in a breath. "So, first and foremost, Liz Allan's father is Adrian Toomes – The Vulture." I saw Scott's jaw clenched. I figured he wanted to say something. He didn't. "On the night Peter took him down, Peter was supposed to be Liz's date for Homecoming. Ned, Liz, and I even saw him outside of the door before he ran off. After Peter's identity got exposed by The Daily Bugle, Liz got interviewed for an article. She didn't have anything nice to say about Peter. Even after The Spell, she felt some type of way about Spider-Man." I left out the part where Liz broke ties with me and Ned altogether. Ned took only a little offense to it – his friendship with Liz wasn't that deep, I guess. However, Liz and I got into a whole argument over the phone before she told me I was dead to her. I was hurt by it. Liz was really the first friend I made at Midtown. She was the reason I started slowly opening up to the others. Looking back at it, prior to her leaving, Liz was my best friend. She was the one I outright hung around with the most.

After… that incident, she was the only person at Midtown I trusted for a while.

So, when she cut ties with me, I was torn between feeling sorry for her and being angry with her. The arrest of her father had to be something major she needed to come to terms with. Her whole life hot upended because of it. But while I felt sorry for her, I couldn't ignore the reason her father got arrested. The Vulture was stealing extremely dangerous weapons – weapons that could literally vaporize a person – and selling them to the highest bidder. Even if he did do it support his family, having someone out there on the street would have been dangerous, and not just for "normal" people.

"Okay, so there's a possible motive," Scott acknowledged. "But why her?"

"Craig did send me that message," Buford explained, causing Scott to look at him. "'B/W 135', to be exact. We got reason to believe that the message is in reference to a particular Pokémon of a particular iteration of Pokémon games."

Scott tilted his head. "In what way?"

"Basically, every region has its own regional database where the Pokémon of that region is listed," I said.

"And the Pokémon we're referencing is a baby vulture that evolves into a larger vulture. Considering that Liz is the daughter of Adrian Toomes…" I trailed off for a moment, letting Scott fill in the blank from there. "Plus, Liz didn't return to New York until very recently." Scott looked at me. He looked a bit apprehensive. "…You don't believe us, do you?"

"It's not that I don't believe you," Scott replied. "What you both say make sense. However, we have nothing concrete to go on. Craig is smart, but I never seen him express knowledge about Pokémon to a degree of knowing every Pokémon down to its… number." He shook his head. "I want to really make sure."

"Then let's make sure," Buford said simply. "We can have someone tail her and –"

Scott shook his head. "Absolutely not. Knowing what we know about Beck, there's a good chance he's keeping tabs on the people he's working just in case. With Peter and Craig out of the picture for the time being, I'd much rather act like…" He paused for a moment. He then shook his head. "Well, it wouldn't an act. We are licking our wounds. But I'd much rather he keeps on believing that." He looked at me. "…I'm sorry for asking this, but I really know if you're sure about this."

"…I'm not 100 percent sure," I admitted. I shook my head. I started to get a certain feeling in my stomach. I almost wanted to throw up. "I really don't want to believe this. Liz is someone I hold dear, so the thought of her working with Beck just makes me sick. But I can't ignore my intuition. I'd much rather be wrong about this sooner than be right about this later."

"She has a point there, Scott," Buford said. "If we look into this, the worst thing that can happen is that we're wrong. However, if we don't, it could come back to bite us in the worst way."

Scott looked away, gazing off to the side for some time. He had to be thinking something over. After some moments, he reached into his pocket and pulled out his cellphone. I tilted my head curiously. Was he about to make a call? After he tapped the screen of his phone a few times, he tossed it towards me. Not seeing it coming, I was barely able to bring my hands out to catch it. After a few moments, I got a hold of it. I gave Scott a slight glare.

"Text Kitty Liz's full name and her relation to Toomes," Scott ordered. "Let her know that I want her to check Liz's bank accounts, financial records, and the like." I looked at the screen to see that he already had Kitty pulled up. I was about to ask why I couldn't just text her from my phone, but I didn't bother. Scott was never one to do something unorthodox without good reason. I typed up the message to Kitty and sent it. I then tossed the phone back to Scott. Scott caught it. "We'll wait a day to see what Kitty has to say. Right now, she's looking into another matter – that is, Craig's whereabouts. So, at the very moment –" He stopped talking. He looked down at the phone in his hand. He looked back at me. "Excuse me." He checked his phone. His eyebrows rose up. He looked back and forth between me and Buford. "I have to go. There's a matter I need to attend to." He looked back at me. "Keep me posted if anything comes up, and I'll do vice versa."

I nodded. "Okay," I said.

Scott gave me a smile. "Things will turn out okay."

I scoffed. "And how do you know that?"

There was a flash of red light behind his glasses. "…Because it has to."

Buford and I left. As Buford drove me home, I stared out of the window. Inside, I was stewing over the fact that there was a good chance Liz was actually working with Beck. The more I thought about it, the more I started to think back to the day Peter saw me with Brad. Liz met me afterwards. When I asked where she was, she told me that she was making a few phone calls. At the time, I had the urge to press her on it. Against my judgement, I didn't. Mostly it was because I really wanted to go home and sleep off what had become a very bad day. But, partially, it was also because I didn't have a good reason to think she was lying to me. But looking back at it now, I wondered if it was Beck or his people who was checking in on her.

Or maybe both.

I really wanted to be wrong on this. I really didn't want to come to terms with the fact that my trust was betrayed by someone I was really close to.

…Again.

"You okay there?" Buford asked.

I slowly turned my head away from the window and looked at him. "I'm peachy," I deadpanned.

He nodded. "I guess that was a dumb question. Look, cheer up. Maybe things aren't exactly how they look."

"What could be the alternative?" I looked forward. "It's hard for me to believe that I'm totally wrong."

"Maybe not, but this is Beck we're talking about here. Assuming that Liz is Firestar, maybe she's being manipulated somehow. After all, he did mislead Peter."

I took in a breath. "Be that as it may, it wouldn't change the fact that she's the reason Craig and Peter are hospitalized… assuming that she is Firestar, of course." It also didn't change the fact that she was hiding the fact that Beck was targeting me. I shook my head. "Whatever. If she is, indeed, Firestar, she better have a fucking good reason behind her actions."

When I got dropped off at my building, I went straight to the elevator. There wasn't really anything I could do at the moment regarding the current problem. As far as I was concerned, the quicker I can get into bed, the better. I could sleep this day off before I meet up with Betty tomorrow to talk about what happened today. That was the plan.

But, you know what they say about the best laid plans of mice and men, right?

"Screw this day," I said to myself when I finally reached the door of my home. Really, the elevator ride wasn't too long, but it felt a lot longer, probably because of the mood I was in. "I just need to go to bed." I pulled out my keys and used my house key to unlock the door. I then opened it and stepped inside.

"I'm –" I called out before I cut myself off. I saw my mom and dad sitting in the living room.

With Liz.

"– home," I finished.

"Hey Miche'!" my dad greeted. "Liz is here."

"Why didn't you tell us she's back in New York?" my mom asked. I looked at Liz, who smiled and waved at me.

I smiled slightly as I waved back. While I was putting up a front, there was a swirl of feelings and emotions inside of me. There was panic from the fact that Liz was in my home near my parents. There was anger over the fact that she could act so casual when there was a huge chance she was working with Beck of all people. And there were darker thoughts about how I could handle Liz when she's not looking – and things that I rather not state.

"It must've slipped my mind," I said, looking at my mom. "I've been having a lot going on with school and all. You know how that is."

"MJ is nothing if she's not on her P's and Q's," Liz added. She then looked at me and smiled. "I just wanted to check up on you. We've both been pretty busy, so I figured I'd take time in day off to come and see you. Are you good?"

Well, I didn't know audacity was back in season, I grumbled internally. If I had a nickel for every time someone who was targeting me and my friends showed up in a place I worked or lived at… well, I'd have three nickels… which isn't a lot, but that's still three more nickels than I would like to have in such a scenario.

"Thank you," I said. "I'm good, really, all things considered."

Yeah, I was good, alright. My friends' lives are in danger because Beck is targeting me, Peter, Ned, and Betty. Craig is MIA. Peter is hospitalized in a SHIELD facility that's location somewhere I don't know. Peter and I are not on good terms and I made things worse before he was taken down. Oh, there's also the small matter of whether or not Gayle is ready to make nice with my parents.

Yup, I'm not just good – I'm fucking spectacular.

I nodded towards Liz. "Now that you mention it, though, you never told me about that new job of yours."

I saw her eyebrows rose a bit. Was that a hint of surprise I saw? "Oh… I-I didn't?" There was a slight stutter. Yeah, she didn't expect me to ask about that. "Yeah, sorry about that. But I got a good reason for not saying anything. I've been brought on to help with a startup. I can't say much about it since I signed an NDA. But what I can tell you is that what is being worked on is huge."

I raised an eyebrow. Gee, I wonder why it's huge. "That's interesting. By any chance, are they accepting internships? I figured I could use one when I start Empire State or MIT."

Before she could answer, my mother spoke up. "Perhaps we can talk it about over food. If you don't mind, Liz, I would like you to stay for dinner. We haven't seen you in a while, so I figured it'd be nice to catch up."

Liz turned to face my parents. "I… I don't know if I should…"

"Stay," I urged.

A part of me wanted to let her go. I wasn't comfortable with her being in my home and around my parents. I wanted her as far away from here as possible. A small part of me – the part of me that wanted to believe that my intuition is wrong about her – was thinking I was a bit too harsh. But like I told Scott before, I'd much rather be wrong about her sooner than be right about her later. Hell, I wasn't so sure this wasn't a ploy by Beck to intimidate me – the only thing keeping me from really believing that was the fact that Liz seemed to want to keep her (alleged) fire powers close to the vest. However this would give me a chance to needle her and see what I could find out about her. Of course, I needed to be careful. After all, my parents could be in danger. Still, if I could find one meaningful crack…

"I'm sure there's a lot more for us to catch up from the last couple of weeks," I added. "Besides, when one was the last time you ate today?"

Liz looked at me for a few moments. I could see the gears turning in her head. All the while, internally, I was begging her to take the bait.

"Well… if you all insist," Liz finally said.

I smiled. "Good," I replied.

Score.