Flash just stares at them. He still doesn't say a word. When Peter looks at MJ, she also looks at Peter. Neither say anything, but they both know what to do. They have to kidnap Flash and let Bruce and Shuri wipe his memory. Oh, if this went wrong...
As soon as Peter, MJ and Flash have returned to their Decathlon team (who are on floor 18 at the swimming pool), Flash walks away. Peter hears some people whisper about Flash's blank stare. That's good, that means at least something went like it was supposed to go.
Even though they were gone for way longer than Peter said they were, no one questions them. No one, except Ned.
'Tell me everything. Why did it take you so long? You were supposed to be back within 20 minutes, 30 the absolute max! You were gone for exactly 72 minutes!' MJ and Peter look at each other. Why did Ned keep an exact track of time?
'Okay, Ned, we can tell you, just not here, we must get out of here, maybe to a bathroom?' Peter says to his friend, who looks like he didn't even put one toe in the water. 'Ehrm, Monique? Can Ned, MJ, Flash and I go to floor 21? MJ, Flash and I have to change into our bathing suits.'
Monique, only half aware of Peter, obviously says yes. It looks like Dell and Harrington don't even care, they both are reading a magazine and just wave in approval. It looks funny. They're in perfect sync.
Ned puts on a shirt as fast as he can, MJ walks to Flash and drags him along with her, and Peter observes his classmates. They look so carefree, very different from at school. Usually, when Peter observes with MJ, everyone is stressed. Either about school or things with friends, they're just always stressed. Now they're not, and Peter's glad they enjoy the tour. It was his intention when he helped to make it: a school trip to relax but learn. It works.
When the four kids walk to the elevator, Flash's stare is almost just as intimate as Bucky's. Ned is almost jumping of excitement, probably thinking about how Peter and MJ just skipped an hour and twelve minutes of the tour and now even managed to take longer off. While FRIDAY takes them up the kids still don't speak. Peter sees the confusion on Ned's face, but he's happy he hasn't asked anything yet.
They reach floor 97, Peter and May's apartment, while Peter said they were going to floor 21. 'Just follow me this way, it's not far. Don't peek anywhere. Stay quiet, don't draw any attention to yourself, just in case someone's here. It's not worth it, you only get questions none of us want. Understood?' Peter whispers with authority. Flash follows him immediately and in silence, so do MJ and Ned.
When Peter hears there are no other people on the floor, he stops whispering and walks to the kitchen. MJ already took Ned and Flash to the living room, and when Peter walks in with hot chocolate the three take it gratefully.
'So, Ned, you want to know what happened. We have to take you back three hours. Flash, if you start?'
Flash's POV (monologue about what happened)
'It all started around three hours ago. I heard ms. Maximoff in my head. She freaked me out, so I ran away. I wasn't looking where I was going, but I took the stairs because physically running away is better than using an elevator.
I walked into two security people, which wasn't what I meant to do, and because I stood there in shock they caught me. They wanted to throw me out of the building, literally. Then there came a third one, and he did something to me. I don't know what it was, but he did something to me. The next thing I remember is standing in the elevator, FRIDAY was taking me up. I remember feeling the urge to bite someone, but no one was around.
I had to pack my stuff, I remember that. I did. All my stuff was in my bag when I heard Peter and MJ talk. Neither had seen me yet, but I did see them. I also heard half of their conversation, from the moment MJ said: 'I mean, you did put SM instead of Peter in the team, and everyone saw that. Just like everyone sees how ripped you are, even though you "aren't great at PE". You need to know you must be more careful if you don't want your secret out there.'
I still felt the urge to bite someone, and now Peter and MJ were there that urge only got stronger and stronger. I jumped to them, in silence. I wasn't thinking. Biting was the only thing on my mind, so I jumped forward when Peter and MJ looked at each other. I bit her. I bit MJ. I don't know what happened to her, she's gonna tell that later, but I do know I fell unconscious.
Then Peter woke me up, something had happened to him, and to MJ. She sat ducked, and it looked like she was having a medical attack or something. I didn't feel like biting anyone anymore, but MJ was having a hard time and it didn't go well with her.
I think this is the time where Peter talks, because I don't know what really happened either.'
Peter's POV (continuation of the monologue)
'When Flash was unconscious, MJ sat ducked. I went to check on her, because it's not normal that she sits like that and I was worried. Flash bit her, after all.
When I got close to her, she turned around and stood up. She used some weird powers on me, which made me fly against the elevator doors. She was powerful. Her eyes weren't brown, but light yellow. I had to wake Flash up before MJ did something worse. It obviously didn't go well, because he didn't wake up.
I shook him hard, using my Spider powers - which he knows about by the way - so I shook him really hard, and then he finally woke up. I had to have him help me.
The two of us agreed to Flash distracting MJ so I was able to hold her. That went well, but now the talking part came in. "MJ, you're not a villain. You're Michelle Jones and I love you for you, and you cannot change because of a bit". I had to repeat that about fifty times. Fifty darn times. It took around ten times for MJ to stop moving. Another ten for her to be completely silent. Twenty for her to listen to me and the last ten for her eyes to open and return to brown.
She was calm, back to her normal self, with sometimes, around every 10 seconds, yellow sparkles out of her hands and in her eyes.
When she spoke again, the first thing she said was: "I'm inevitable," which gave me some weird feeling of dèja-vu, but at least she was able to speak again.
Then she started to say nonsense, babytalk, but eventually after a couple of minutes, she was her normal self again. Wanda has told me a lot about her process of controlling her powers, so we did the basics and now MJ can call her powers if necessary. Did I miss something?' Peter asks, looking at Flash and MJ.
'You didn't miss anything. But right now we need Wanda, Tony and Strange. And Nat. Flash, it's not for the best if you get them, let just Peter go," MJ says when Flash gets up to get the people she just mentioned.
'Oh, alright, that's fine. See you later, Peter,' Flash says like he always calls Peter by his real name.
'Oh, yeah, bye guys! I'll be back asap,' Peter says, walking to the elevator.
Peter's POV over
'So, you know it too,' Ned says to Flash, looking like Flash just murdered Peter. Then he averts his gaze and looks at MJ. 'MJ! Bite me, please, this is the second-coolest thing that ever happened to me! Please, I want powers too! It's not fair, why do you and Peter always get the amazing things?!'
'Oh, trust me, this isn't amazing. "Hail Hydra" is constantly on my mind. Try to deal with that. A part of me is evil. I'll be evil until the sentence is out of my head. That reminds me, I have to do something,' MJ says. Flash is silent, and so is Ned, while MJ grabs her phone and types in some number. Her phone rings a couple of times, but then the person she's calling picks up.
'MJ, WHERE ON EARTH HAVE YOU BEEN? YOU, PETER, NED AND THIS FLASH DUDE HAVE BEEN GONE FOR HALF AN HOUR! TELL ME WHERE YOU ARE RIGHT NOW, OR YOU'RE..'
'Shuri! Sush. Now. Go to Peter's floor. We're here waiting for you,' MJ says right before she hangs up the phone. 'What, you never heard an angry Shuri before? This isn't the worst reaction she gave me, trust me!'
When the boys still don't say a word, she's sure they lost their minds. 'I'm out of here, you two, don't touch anything!' MJ says before walking to the kitchen. She grabs a bar of chocolate and unwraps it, when she hears the bell of the elevator.
'MJ!' Shuri's voice yells through the apartment. 'I'm here, calm down,' MJ says with her normal voice. She's not surprised when she sees Shuri less than a second later. 'You could've been dead! Why didn't you take me with you? What happened in the 72 minutes you were gone? Yes, Ned told me about that,' she says, panicking.
'Don't worry, I'm fine now. I'll explain what happened when the others get here. Chocolate?'
'What do you mean, "others"?'
'You'll see. Just take the chocolate. I know you want to.'
The girls eat and sit in silence, and five minutes later the bell of the elevator rings again. 'Well, duty calls. Are you coming, Shuri?'
1704 words
I'm so, so sorry for not updating this book for about a month! I'm going to irl school again and everything is super exhausting and I'm so tired all the time, I barely have any time to write. I'll try to update again soon, but I have.... let's see, finals starting June 29..? I'm not sure, but school is being a bitch. I love it. But it's so tiring! Plus, I have a little... virus? right now and my head feels like it wants to explode, while my throat is killing me slowly. I don't think it's Covid, because I did a test and it was negative, but it still sucks.
Thank you for your patience!
-Eskimo
Date of publication: Sunday June 13 2021