Searing pain. It was tearing me apart at the seams as I tried my hardest to keep it all in. I knew that I was laying curled up on the floor, but I couldn't remember when I fell to begin with. Time was beginning to blend together as the pain made it feel as if I had been screaming out in agony for hours. Whatever the Doctor did to me felt ten times worse than whenever I experienced my first headache at Peter's school. And this time round I was certain that I most likely had thrown up from the severity of the experience.
I could hear a voice around me but my wailing was drowning them out. Even with my eyes closed I could tell that the mirror dimension was illuminating a bright blue light that was coming from my body. Ansel was right, I was deemed to explode.
Through the pain, all I could think about was Peter. I was letting him down. If I had told him what was going on, the Doctor probably wouldn't have kidnapped me during Liz's party. Peter would've known what to do. Why did I have to hide it from him? What a mess.
But this is what the Doctor, Aloysis, and Ansel wanted me to do. They wanted me to release the electricity so everything would go back to normal, but this was worse. This was going to kill me. I couldn't handle it for much longer. I tried redirecting the pain but I was starting to become numb to it all. I couldn't tell where it started or when it would end.
It reminded me of when I was young. Gouging out fragments of metal from my wounds with my sharp, tiny fingers, all alone. There would be days where I would see nobody. Not even be given anything to eat until I was deemed useful or needed to be tested on again. Both scenarios ended with me in writhing pain. No one knew the limitations to my capabilities, nor did anyone care about how much my little body could handle.
I was a survivor. Born with the abilities already in my dna, as I've recently discovered, but I figure that was unknown at the time. They had injected others, but their bodies couldn't keep up with the strength of the serum. I just so happened to be the first one to take it and evolve into what they wanted: a weapon.
There were tests where it was discovered that I couldn't completely control what I possessed. It was as if my abilities were overwhelming my frail body. They would always stop it before it spiraled more out of control, but they are no longer here. He isn't here anymore to give the orders to shut me down. To knock me out and lock me back up for days, all alone, until he felt it was time to try it again and to go farther than before.
I am no longer their puppet, but why do I feel so lost without them?
The Avengers accepted me for who I was. I am a killer, they understood that. However, they have given me too much freedom. Their affection wasn't a reward for obedience, it was a constant emotion that I received. Stark accepted me as one of his own. He had legally made me a child of his. Is that why I no longer have control?
No. I have died. I, the killer, was killed for killing my killer's mother. My mother. My mind was possessed for killing the person that threatened to murder Peter right in front of me.
Peter. This all comes back to him. He is in danger. I am his protector. He sees me as a friend. I have affection toward him that is constant. I have to save him. I must live.
I need to end this.
I continued to scream as I tried to make myself rise to my feet. I got to sitting on my knees when another wave of pain shot throughout my entire body. I wasn't going to be able to stand and stay conscious the entire time. I shot out my arms and pointed my index and middle fingers as I forced my eyes to open. I could sense all the pain redirect itself through my arms as I channeled out the electricity and watched as it escaped through my fingers.
All that could be heard was the crackling of the bolts as I was now sobbing from the intensity.
I collapsed onto my back once all of the electricity exited my body. I could hear the panic in the Doctor's voice as he came over to me and knelt down in front of my face, but couldn't make out exactly what he was saying to me. I stared at him as his muffled questions kept getting drowned out by my crying.
I wasn't dead. I was still alive. My heart was still beating. Half of my crying was from the fact that I survived.
He glanced down at my hands and went silent as he quickly looked back at my face. He stood back up and casted some sort of spell that levitated my body out of the mirror dimension and back into the real world. I was gently placed back onto the floor as I could hear him running around the room away from my line of vision.
I tried to sit myself up but winced when I lifted my arms. Something didn't feel right. I continued to wince as I lifted up my hands and I let out a scream once I saw what had happened.
Both my hands were now a dark purple with deep red veins lining them. Both were dripping with fresh blood, but my left hand was worse. The tips of my index and middle fingers looked like bloody stubs. It was as if they were ripped off.
My hands fell to my chest as the Doctor came back to me with white bandages. He gently wrapped them around my forearms and fingers as he tried to ask me a few questions.
He sounded as if he was speaking to me while I was underwater. I kept asking him to talk louder but nothing was happening. He stopped wrapping and motioned for me to sit up. I slowly did and immediately fell down onto my right side. All of the motion was making me light headed.
He grabbed my ankles and stomped my feet against the floor. I jumped as a small amount of vibrations danced throughout my body and then stilled.
"My feet!" I yelled out, "I can feel my feet!"
He stomped them again and stronger vibrations bounced back to me. I shot up and looked him in the eye.
"Senses! I can feel the room!"
He smiled as he rose to his feet. I could barely hear him.
"See if you can stand, Alger."
I asked him for help and he wrapped his arms underneath mine and lifted me onto my feet. The moment he let go I started to cry again. I could sense vibrations again.
"You okay?" He asked.
"Why can't I hear you that well?" I shouted.
"The electricity must've affected your hearing," He told me loudly, "It's probably temporary."
I nodded as I looked at my bandaged hands. "This too?"
"I don't know," He admitted, "Those scars will probably be permanent."
"Yeah," I agreed, "But I don't care."
"I apologize for kidnapping you," He said suddenly.
I nodded. "Just take me back to Peter."
He spun his right hand in a circular motion and a ring formed beside us showing the outside of Liz's house.
"Thank you," I said to him.
"If you so happen to see your sister before I do," He said, "Tell her that I'll be awaiting for her arrival."
I nodded. I turned toward the portal and took a deep breath. I climbed through and stared at the booming house from the front yard. Why didn't he take me back to her back porch? All the moving around in the house was setting off constant vibrations in my feet, which was a sensation that I had been longing for.
The closer I got to the house, the more powerful the vibrations were. The seismic waves danced throughout my entire body as I stood at her front door. I grabbed the handle and immediately pulled away when I felt a pop go off in both of my ears. It was as if something was taken out from them, for the sounds of the party amplified.
I swung the door open and quickly closed it behind me as I took in the scenery. Everything was the same as I had left it; music still loud, people everywhere, and everything was still uncomfortable to my liking.
I started to weave my way through the crowd when I was pulled aside by a frightened looking Ned.
"Hey! Where the heck have you been?" His eyes grew wide as he looked at my appearance. "What happened to you?"
"Ned, where's Peter?" I asked loudly.
"I don't know! I've been trying to call him, but he won't answer his phone," He leaned closer and continued in a hush voice, "He went to go 'suit up' but he never came back. Maybe he accidentally stuck himself to the wall with his spider web? Can that actually happen?"
I ignored his questions as I started to frantically tap my foot as my eyes searched around the room.
Considering my body wasn't quite used to the intensity of my seismic sense, all I could receive from the large crowd was a uncoordinated thumping of heartbeats and people moving around. I was in no condition to have the ability to pinpoint where Peter was in the large house. That only left me with one possibility: something happened and he's gone.
I cursed under my breath as I focused my attention back on Ned. "Could he have left?"
Ned gasped too excitedly. "Do you think someone threw up the Spider Symbol in the sky and he had to leave to save the day?"
"The spider-? You know what? Never mind," I sighed, "How long has he been missing?"
"About twenty minutes. You've been gone for longer," He said, "What were you doing anyway? Did you get into a fight? Is that why your hands are wrapped up? Did you kill somebody?"
I glanced at my bandaged hands and shook my head out of agitation. Peter was missing and Ned could only think about what I had been up to.
"We need to find him!" I yelled.
"Well, he isn't here!" He went quiet for a moment as he studied my face. He probably noticed that I was upset about Peter's disappearance. "Hey," He said softly, "Maybe he went home? I doubt anything bad has happened to him."
"Nothing bad better have happened to Peter or I swear I'll-"
At that moment, feedback from speakers rang throughout the house as Flash started to speak.
"Hey! Wasn't Peter's best friend supposed to come to this party? Where is he? Yo, you around here Spider-Man?" He held his hand to his ear as he laughed. "No? That's what I thought."
"Oh no," Ned shook his head, "This isn't going to end well."
"That's a real shame," Flash continued, tauntingly, "I was hoping to get a selfie with the guy. Where you at, Peter? You too embarrassed to show your face, Penis Parker?"
"Idiot," I seethed.
Ned grabbed my shoulder as I started to head toward Flash.
"Wait! Peter wouldn't want you to hurt him, Alger."
I lifted his hand off me as Flash and the crowd started to chant Flash's nickname for Peter.
"This disgusts me," I told him, "Something needs to be done."
"I'll try calling Peter again."
He lifted up his phone to his ear and let out a small gasp when he received an answer.
"Actually," Ned said painfully to Peter, "I was calling to say maybe you shouldn't come. Listen to this." Ned pulled his phone off his ear and raised it into the air so Peter could hear the chanting.
He put it back against his ear after a few seconds and sighed. "Sorry, Peter. I guess we're still losers. I'll see you tomorrow."
He hung up and looked at me. "He's okay and on his way home. I can walk you back to his apartment?" He offered, "It's a long walk, but I figure that you'll be able to protect me."
"Yeah, I can definitely keep you safe now."
He cocked up an eyebrow. "Could you not before?"
"Let's just get out of here before I rip Flash's head off."
"Good idea!"
____________________________
The walk with Ned was surprisingly a pleasant one. As expected, he asked me hundreds of questions about my past and my experience as an assassin, but there was one question that threw me off.
"This will seem weird, but I have to ask you this," He said as we both waited for the light to change at the crosswalk.
I nodded my head for him to ask as I watched New York boom around us after dark; cars driving, people having loud conversations and not caring what time of the night it is, the smell of fried food and motor gas filling the air. It definitely was a distracting scenery.
"Has something serious happened between you and Peter?" He continued.
It was as if the city around us went silent as I heard the question. I was almost left behind as the light had changed and Ned was already halfway across the road. I quickly jogged up to him as I still pondered on the question.
"What do you mean when you say 'serious?'"
"Well, you two have kissed. And even before I met you as 'Allison', he constantly mentioned this girl that he had met through the Stark Internship. Even after I found out who you actually were, Peter still talks about you all the time."
I could feel my face getting hot. I was glad that he was too focused on seeing where he was going that he wasn't paying too much attention to my reaction.
"W-what does he say?"
"For a while it was always about your eyes and how blue they were and-" He stopped and stared at my face as he gasped. "Hey! Your eyes aren't blue anymore!"
"What?" I lifted my hands to my face.
"Yeah! They're just brown now."
"I didn't know that," I said quietly.
We continued to walk a little bit further in silence until Ned started up again.
"So, are you going to answer my question?"
"What was your question again?"
"Did you and Peter ever like-like each other?"
"A crush on him?" I asked.
"Yeah."
"I do, yeah," I admitted.
"You do?" He asked, shocked, "As in right now?"
"Yes."
"Oh man! That's...not good," He laughed sheepishly.
"Because of Liz?" Saying her name alone made my heart drop.
He turned to me. "You know about that?"
I sighed. "Of course I know. He doesn't hide it."
"I'm sorry, Alger. I didn't realize-"
"It's okay. Don't worry about me," I cleared my throat as my voice cracked at the end of my sentence.
"I think you two would be good together," He said suddenly.
"Good together?" I asked, "I'm sorry, but I don't understand some teenager phrases."
"Yeah! As girlfriend and boyfriend. Dating. Liz is hot, don't get me wrong, but she's a Senior."
"And what am I?"
"You're you."
That didn't seem like a good thing to be.
"Oh," I replied.
"There's nothing wrong with that! You kick butt! That's awesome."
"Oh! Well, I suppose so."
"And you are pretty," He added, "So I can see as to why Peter is so obsessed with you."
"Pretty?" I asked, feeling my face slightly turn red again.
"Do you not know what that phrase means either?"
"I do, but I've never heard it used in that way before."
"There is a first time for everything." He stopped and pointed toward Peter's building. "There's his place. He's on the sixth floor with the door that has the name 'Parker' on it."
"What about you?" I asked.
"Oh, I live not far from here. I'll be fine getting there on my own."
"You sure? You wanted me to protect you."
"I'll be sure to scream loud so you can come to my rescue."
I frowned. "That's not funny, Ned."
"Really? Cause it kinda is," He smiled widely, "Have a goodnight, Alger. Thanks for walking."
"Thank you, Ned."
I watched him walk away and then made my way to the front door of Peter's building. I knew that I got my seismic sense back, but what about the rest? How could I sneak into the apartment without being able to not be seen? What if I couldn't phase through the door?
I went around to the side of the building and down the alleyway where Aloysis dropped me off the first time I came here. I put my hands to my chest as I started to shake. Why was I so nervous? I looked up to Peter's window. It was illuminating, so that meant Peter made it home. I placed my hands on my sides and took a step back. I lifted up my arms and thrusted them down as a gust of wind threw me up into the air several feet and let out a yelp as I landed back on the ground on my feet. That still worked!
I did it again with the intention to reach Peter's window. I thrusted my arms downward and flew back up into the air. In a second I was right at his window and without thinking, I phased right through and fell onto his carpet on my stomach. Exactly like the first time I entered his room.
And like the last time, Peter let out a shriek once he saw me.