LIAR, LIAR. Peter Parker

six. mendax

Training day hasn't happened for her ever since.

The extent that she knows of as of the moment is pain: lots of pain. Nina knows that she can use this to kill Spider-Man instantly, but Illiana had persisted in it upon her to make it hurt. Drag the pain and suffering — torture him until he's be begging her to kill him.

A bit too morbid and dramatic, even for Illiana. It makes her wonder what the masked hero has done to her mother to make her act that way.

"Not at school today?"

Nina is thrown out of her thoughts at the sound of her oldest sister's voice. Samara walks in the kitchen with that stupid angelic grin of hers, pouring herself a cup of coffee as she did so.

"Aren't you supposed to be at Columbia?" Nina shoots back, taking another gulp off her overly sweet coffee, just how she liked it. Samara was majoring in Public Health and minoring in French and Romance Philology — a weird combination that Nina never understood. "Miss your little sister too much, eh?"

"Actually, mom made me stay." With that, Samara grabbed a bag and pulled a clear folder out of it, sliding it next to her sister. "She's fixing your schedule. I'm here to relay some details."

That's how Nina spent her morning, listening to the obscene plans that her mother had laid out for her. Despite Samara's calm and soothing voice, she felt like she was going to melt under the heat and the pressure of the overwhelming emotions going through her head - not like she'd admit it.

First of all, she was angry. The girl stared down at the white paper - horrible sketches of her costume and the big, bold letters taking most of the paper's space.

MENDAX = NEW YORK'S NEWEST HERO

"No way," Nina shakes her head violently, her heart rate increasing. "No fucking way. I'm not a hero. Nope. No. Fuck that."

"It's what mom wants, Nina." Samara persisted, eyes wide as she watched Nina pace around the kitchen.

Suddenly, she stops walking in circles. "No."

Soon enough, Nina found herself standing in front of her mother's workroom. She felt the heat of anger rise within her body, slamming a clenched fist against the wooden door. She repeated this action multiple more times and bellowed for his mother to come out.

Nothing happened.

"You'll do it, Nina." Her cold voice is muffled, but it doesn't fail to send a shiver down her spine. "Honestly, after all I did for you, you threw it all away, and then— after I go through all this effort to make things right, to give you another chance, you're complaining?"

"I don't want them to think that I'm a hero!" Nina yells back, too clouded by anger and frustration for reality to kick in, the reality that she was out here, screaming and yelling at the only woman - scratch that, the only person she's ever feared. "Mom! Cmon! Mendax? That's such a stupid name!"

As her hands come up to the door to thump the wooden door once again, it swings open.

Nina is pissed. Normally, her head did all the thinking, but there was nothing she despised more than superheroes: which, by the way, was Illiana's fault. As a child, Illiana showed her children what superheroes really were; adolescent male-centric, predominantly white, escapist entertainment that causes most of the problems they're facing - she certainly didn't want to be associated with them.