Peter and Rose followed Fury into the basement of a building, where a new temporary base was set up. Fury introduced them to some of the agents around, but notably Mysterio stood in the centre. Peter took off his mask, although Rose left hers on.
"This is Mr. Beck," the director said.
"Just call me Quinton," Quinton replied, his glass helmet was off revealing short brown hair and a short beard in matching colour, "You fought well out there, we could have used someone like you on my world."
"Your world?" Peter questioned before Rose did.
"Beck is from Earth, just not ours."
Rose just watched as Peter broke into rambling about multiverses and how the existence of them changes everything... or something like that. Instead she took out her knife and began to spin it around, making sure Quinton knew she could probably kill him with it. The group turned to another 3D map of the globe, with different points marked.
"There are beings that were made from the four different elements," Quinton began as the screen changed to show a hologram of the water and air creature, "Back on my word we called them Elementals."
Fury stepped forward, "They have been appearing on the same coordinates, the next one will be in Prague."
"The others have been taken care of, except fire," Quinton added on, "That's the one that destroyed my world... and killed my family."
He touched a ring on his finger, the atmosphere of the room grew dim. Something about all of it felt off to Rose, specifically Mysterio. She didn't say anything though, continuing to listen.
"We will be going there as soon as possible and putting a stop to it before it has a chance to grow more powerful," Fury explained.
Peter backed up and shook his head, "No do you know how much trouble I would be in if my aunt found out I ran off to Prague."
Rose stood next to him, "I'm out as well, but for a different reason."
"What reasons could possible justify not helping to stop a world ending threat?" Fury looked ready to punch them.
Peter awkwardly looked back and forth, "W-well I would probably be grounded by my aunt if she found out I ran away from my trip, and there's this girl..."
Rose stepped forward and pushed the other teen back, "Shut the fuck up Parker you sound like an idiot. Fury I can give you a better reason, Mr. Beck would you allow me to ask you a few questions?"
Quinton nodded, "Of course."
"What colour is my hair?"
Quinton squinted his eyes, "What?"
Rose sighed, "I'm sorry Beck are you colourblind? What colour is my hair?"
"Blue," he answered, although clearly on edge for some reason.
"What's her name?" Rose pointed across the room.
"Maria Hill."
"Where are we?"
"Venice."
"What's your favourite colour?"
"Kid you are wasting-."
"What's your favourite colour?" Rose repeated.
Quinton took a deep breath, "Orange, I guess."
"Is your favourite colour green?"
"No, it's orange."
"How many fingers are on your left hand?"
"Five."
"What is two plus two but don't give me the right answer."
"Six."
"Tell me the sea is red."
"The sea is red."
"What happened to your family."
The room went silent for a second, Quinton touched his ring again before answering, "They died."
"Which elemental destroyed your world?"
"Fire."
"What was the elemental in Mexico?"
"Air."
Rose and Quinton kept their eyes locked for a second, before the Avenger put space between them. She turned to look at Fury, who was watching curiously.
"I don't work with liars, especially when the stakes are supposedly so high," Rose pulled out her ponytail before redoing it to be cleaner, "So either Beck can stop fucking around or I'm out."
"You're calling me a liar?" Quinton seemed quite offended, "I lost my entire world, and you call me a liar?"
"When you lie your eyes dart to the right for a split second, most people wouldn't even notice," Rose thought to herself, "Your eyes darted when you said you family died and the fire elemental destroyed your world."
"I don't get it," Peter mumbled.
"And I understand a white lie here or there, but when you claim our entire world may be coming to an end I don't take kindly to it."
Quinton shook his head quickly and looked back at the hologram of the globe, "Fury I know you said the NA and Spider-Man are the best you can offer, but neither of them trust me or want to help. It would be better if I just went out alone instead of wasting my time with children."
"Y'know you two are right, this doesn't concern you," Fury waved them off, "Go head back to the hotel."
Peter furiously nodded and spun on his heels to walk away, "Thank you, and sorry sir."
Rose was not in such a rush, glaring at Beck for a minute. Eventually she only shook her head and walked away with disappointment.
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Rose walked along a sidewalk, she had taken off her mask and thrown a sweatshirt over her sleeveless NA uniform. She could have caught up to Peter, but the fresh air was nice and she wanted to enjoy it. As she walked a woman ran up beside her, instantly Rose felt a gut feeling something was wrong. The woman had long hair that was black at the top but faded to a bright orange towards the bottom. Her skin was darker than Rose's, she had one green iris and one brown so dark it looked black. She was shorter than Rose, actually almost by an entire foot.
The woman leaned closer to Rose to whisper in a french accent, "There's a man following me."
Rose glanced behind them, sure enough someone was trailing them.
She nodded before putting on a fake smile, "Oh it's been a while since we've spoken, did your aunt get better?"
The woman seemed relieved and played along with the lie, "Oh yeah, the surgery went well and she's recovering now. Did your job interview go well?"
Rose groaned, "Apparently dyed hair is too unprofessional for them, when I said I refused to dye it a natural colour I failed on the spot."
The man stopped following them, turning around to leave. For some reason the pit in Rose's stomach only grew heavier, something wasn't right here.
"Thank you so much," the woman walked in front of Rose, "I couldn't lose him and it was freaking me out. My hotel is right around the corner, I should be fine from here."
The woman stepped closer so the two were face to face, she smiled.
"It's..." Rose's instinct was screaming to put her guard up and get ready for a fight, "...nothing."
The woman reached her hand out for a handshake, so Rose extended her's to do the same. Something about this woman was off, maybe she was just on edge from being followed? Rose learned quickly that wasn't the reason, and it came in the form of a smack to the head.
"I'm sorry," the woman whispered, "but I was paid to do this."
The woman flung her hand up instead of accepting Rose's, the base of her palm hitting Rose's forehead. Normally it would be easy to dodge, but from Rose's perspective it seemed like the woman had many different hands all moving at different speeds. Once their skin had contact, searing hot pain flowed through Rose's head. It felt like someone was in her brain throwing boulders around trying to shatter the skull from the inside. When she opened her eyes everything was spinning and yet somehow still, blurry and yet somehow blindingly clear. It hurt, it genuinely was some of the worst pain Rose experienced in a long time. Probably not ever, but definitely top five. Before she knew it, Rose felt her palms meeting concrete and vomit rising to her throat. She looked around for the woman, but she was gone. How? They were alone a straight road next to a canal, there were no alleyways for one to hide in. Or maybe she was right there, Rose's vision was so horrid at the moment she couldn't count how many hands she had. If she always lived her entire life like this, she may have thought she had twenty. Black dots began to appear in her vision, not stopping until all she saw was darkness.
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"Hey loser, wake up already."
Rose shot awake, looking around in a slight panic. There was no headache threatening to turn her brain into liquid, in fact she was in the hotel room somehow. She passed out on the concrete early that morning, but now she woke up like nothing happened. Perhaps she dreamt it? MJ was standing with her suitcase packed, she was clearly getting impatient.
"We are all getting on the bus today remember? Wake up and pack your shit, and do it quick," MJ walked out of the room.
Rose climbed out from under the sheets and looked in the mirror hanging in their room. There was no mark on her head, which there would have had to be one with how much pain she felt. Maybe it was all a strange nightmare, or perhaps a better label would be a normal nightmare that average people get where it doesn't make much sense but is scary anyways.
Rose's eyes drifted away, and for a split second she saw something attached to her skin. When she looked up she saw a thin red string coming out from her skin, it floated into the air and seemed to fade out into nothing. She reached up to touch it, but when Rose blinked it was gone. Her fingers felt for the string, but it was not there. She must have just been seeing spots in her vision, like how after getting punched sometimes she would see dark purple or blue dots drifting in her peripheral. Maybe she was so tired from running around Venice the previous day that she didn't remember walking to the hotel room? Yeah, and then she started having weird dreams. Her mind was satisfied with such an explanation, allowing her to her to quickly pack her backpack and run out to join the rest of the class.
Given the way Peter's gaze stops on Rose, followed by an awkward nod, the night with Mysterio was definitely real. Spider-Man seemed convinced that Fury was going to let them have the rest of their trip, Rose knew the director better than that. The old man was planning something, but she made sure to promise to hold her ground. Mysterio was lying about something, maybe there was something about the Elementals he didn't tell them, or possibly his world fell to a completely different threat. Whatever it was Rose didn't want to fight alongside someone who kept very important things to themselves, if the world could be ending they needed all the information they could get. So Rose climbed onto the bus, put her backpack at her feet, and prepared to continue the vacation like nothing happened.
"Psst."
It was right in her ear, and yet when Rose looked around, no one was there.