(A/N just got back from church where my pastor told me that I "needed to look more like a girl because boys won't like me if I dress like a boy and have short hair" and I thought to myself "well good thing I lean more towards girls then" :) so anyway... how's your day/night?)
*HARLEY'S POV*
My whole life is falling apart...
I'm in a S.H.I.E.L.D. containment facility for something I didn't even do! I'm just so confused... how could someone look and talk exactly like me? I don't have twin or anything.
Peter thinks I'm a criminal. He thinks I hurt him. I would never hurt him! I love him more than anything.
Tony thinks I'm bad, too. Everyone does. My whole reputation as being "the nice guy" is gone. My whole future... gone in a flash. And it's not even my fault.
I have to get out of here.
"HEY!" I screamed. I just need someone, anyone, to come in here and listen to me. "HEY!"
The door handle turned slowly, then Natasha poked her head through. "Sup, H?"
"I need to get out of here. Please. I didn't do anything, you have to believe me!"
"Honestly, kid," she closed the door and sat down backwards in a metal chair. She scraped it across the tiled floor to be closer to me, and she lowered her voice. "I don't think you did it. I think you're innocent."
"Oh my God," I breathed a huge sigh of relief and fell back against the cold wall. "Thank you, thank you, thank you. I needed someone on my side."
"But listen," she gave me a warning look, "they aren't going to believe you just because you say that you didn't do it. You have to give them proof."
"How? What proof do I have?"
"Uh," she thought for a minute. "Where were you when the most recent attack happened? The one here in the city?"
"I was with Peter when it started. He swung off to help fight because apparently he had his suit on underneath his clothes," I smiled, then remembered this was very serious. "So then I took his clothes to his Aunt May and then went back to my apartment."
"Okay," she nodded along, putting the pieces together in her head. "Can Peter back that up?"
"Yeah, he was there except for the last part because he was fighting."
"I'll bring him in, along with Tony and Steve. Okay? I'll be back in a minute." She started to walk out but I stopped her.
"Nat..."
"Yeah?"
"How could there be two of me?" My voice was barely above a whisper. The question sent a shiver through my bones.
"Harley... there's lots of things you don't know. About the world, about the universe..." Then, she just left.
I huffed and put my head in my hands. I remained like that until Natasha came back, along with Peter, Steve, and Tony.
Peter didn't look at me as he came in. He just walked through the door and sat down in a chair at the side of the room, his head down and his hands folded neatly in his lap.
Steve and Tony on the other hand, basically examined me. They walked as close to the bars as you could get and just... stared at me. Tony was looking me directly in the eyes while Steve was looking at my feet for some reason.
"Natasha says you have something to tell us," Steve said after he was done analyzing me.
I glanced at Natasha, who winked at me to continue. "Um, yeah. I wanted to tell you the story," I coughed. "The truth," I added. They sat down and Tony propped his feet up. "Truth away," he motioned with his hand for me to start.
"Okay, so during the attack on the city, I was walking home with Peter. We both heard chaos downtown, like people screaming and stuff. So, Peter stripped off his clothes and had his suit on underneath. He took off to go help and I picked up his clothes and returned them to his Aunt May. Then, I went back to my apartment. Until," I emphasized, "I called to see if Peter was okay and you told me to come to the tower. Then I came over here and all of this started to unfold. And now I've been locked up for crimes I didn't commit."
Tony and Steve were nodding along the whole time, whereas Peter kept his head lowered and didn't say a word. He didn't even move.
"Peter?" Tony asked. "Do you have something to say?"
Peter nodded his head no, but then quickly changed his mind. He finally lifted his head, glanced at me, and sighed. "He's telling the truth. I heard the commotion while I was with him."
"So everything started while Harley was still right beside you?" Steve questioned.
"Yep," Peter confirmed.
"Well then it couldn't have been him," Tony concluded. "If Harley was there with Peter when they heard the screams downtown, then Harley couldn't have done it. He can't be in two places at once."
"Well, at this point, I'm not so sure anymore," Peter scoffed. "Apparently we have two Harley's on our hands."
I facepalmed. "Peter," I whispered harshly and gave him a menacing look.
"There are two of me! Or more! There must be... I can't be in two places at once but apparently I have been. While some other guy impersonating me was in this jail cell, I was taking a taxi to get here. He must have escaped pretty quickly. Maybe you should up your security," I muttered.
"What was that?" Tony glared at me.
"Nothing, nothing."
"Peter," Steve turned to Peter, who was sniffling softly like he was crying. My heart ached. I just want to give him a hug...
"Go call your Aunt May and ask her if Harley really did return your clothes to her. If she confirms it as true, then we'll really know that this Harley is telling the truth because that was in the middle of the chaos."
He nodded and left the room, scrolling through his contacts list on the way out.
Three minutes later, he walked back in and sat down. We all looked at him eagerly.
"So?!" I asked with a little aggressiveness. I just wanted all of this to be over as soon as possible.
"She said yes, he did come over to drop my clothes off. He stayed and talked to her for a while because she was worried sick about me and he assured her that I'd be fine." He said it with bitterness, like he didn't believe it for a single moment. "And then she went on a long rant about how I'm 'so irresponsible' and how I'm going to be grounded for 2 months."
Tony snickered and Peter glared at him.
"See?" I gave everyone except Natasha a look that said "I told you so!"
"Okay, fine. You're innocent," Tony unlocked the cell and let me out. "I didn't really think you were guilty but... all of this is just so weird."
"Yeah," Steve agreed. "We still have the conflict of who was impersonating Harley, how they did it, and where they are."
I smiled and mouthed the words "thank you" to Natasha. She smiled back and gave me the thumbs-up.
"Let's call Fury," Tony said suddenly. Everyone in the room became a little more concerned. "Does it really call for that?" Natasha asked. "I think it does," Tony answered. "We don't have answers so let's contact someone who might." Steve and Tony looked at each other nervously for a few seconds, silently debating at who was going to call.
"I'll do it," Natasha scoffed and walked out of the room.
"She's so badass," I said and everyone nodded.
We all followed her into the hallway.
I never want to go into that room again.
She had a muffled conversation with Fury through the phone at the end of the hall. After 5 long minutes, she came back. "Helicarrier on the roof. 10 minutes. He'll be here."
"Wow that was easy," Tony smirked, "maybe we should just get you to call him every time we need him."
"I'm a good negotiator," Natasha smirked back.
We took the elevator to the roof and walked into the semi-chilly New York air. My eyes immediately landed on the spot Peter and I always used to come to, where we'd sit for hours and just talk. That's how we already know each other so well. I could tell Peter was thinking about it too.
I heard the faint buzzing noise of a helicarrier from a far distance. The sound got stronger and stronger as it got closer, until it was right above us, landing on the landing pad. As soon as it landed, a hatch opened and Nick Fury himself stepped out.
"What is it now?" He asked with sass as he followed us back into the tower. "And who are you?" He nudged me.
"Um, H-Harley Keener, sir. Intern here at the tower. Pleasure to meet you."
"Nice to meet you too, intern H-Harley," he smiled and laughed.
OH MY GOSH, IT'S REALLY THE NICK FURY! I CAN'T BELIEVE IT.
We piled into a conference room a few floors down from the roof. "So, we got a situation," Tony said slowly, with great care. "I already know that, Stark, that's why I'm here. Tell me what your situation is."
Tony cleared his throat nervously.
Hm. I've never seen Tony Stark nervous before. Guess there's a first time for everything.
"So he," he pointed to me, "is one of my interns. But we're close. Long story, happened years ago when he was only a little kid. And him and Peter," he pointed to Peter, "are..." He intertwined his hands together and pulled them apart to make a heart. I mentally facepalmed and continued watching.
Fury looked done with Tony's bullshit. "Okay, and?" "Well," Tony continued, "long story short, we finally caught Electro with the help of Thor and Electro turned out to be Harley," he motioned back to me, "but, here's the weird thing. There seems to be two different Harley's. His story checks out. Peter and his Aunt May are both witnesses to where this Harley was at the time that all of us were fighting Electro. So obviously he didn't do it. But someone that looks exactly like him did. I'm talking picture perfect resemblance here."
Fury thought for a moment. "So you," he turned to me, "didn't do it?"
"Nope, no, nooo sir." I almost had a heart attack.
"But someone that looks like you did?"
"Yes, yes sir, that's it."
"I know exactly what's going on here." He groaned and stood up. "Have any of you ever heard of the Skrulls?"
We all shook our heads no, except Natasha, who kept quiet.
"Natasha?" He asked.
She looked up. "Well, yes. I have."
"How?"
"Carol Danvers, sir. We've become a lot closer since she joined the team."
"Ah, Carol," Nick chuckled. "She's a beast. Anyway, the Skrulls are an advanced species of alien-like creatures from the planet called Skrullos in the Andromeda Galaxy. They have technology way too advanced to even wrap your heads around. That's probably how he escaped the facility with such ease. Now, here comes the major part: the Skrulls are also shapeshifters. They can turn into anything they want to. I'm assuming a Skrull came down to Earth, wreaked havoc among the big cities of the world here, and pinned it all on poor H-Harley," Fury smirked as he mocked me for stuttering again, then continued, "right now, a civil war is going on between the Skrulls. Part of the civilization wants to completely cut out the violent aspect of their nature and live in harmony with the other planets in the universe. However, the other half wants to continue to destroy planets and their people, in order to conquer them and become the most powerful species of all. I'm assuming the kind that came here, the one you encountered, was a bad Skrull."
My mouth was hanging open at all of this mind blowing information all at once.
"A-Aliens?" I asked with fear.
"You sure do stutter a lot don't you?"
"Not usually," I mumbled but he didn't hear me.
"Yes, aliens. I know it may be hard to retain all of this-"
"Ya think?" Tony yelled. "I just had an alien in my tower pretending to be a human! What the-"
"Where did you learn this?" Steve asked Fury.
"Carol Danvers," Fury smiled at Natasha. "Also known as Captain Marvel. She's human, but from a different planet. She has spent most of her life in different galaxies. Until she came to Earth and we met. Now she lives here."
"I know Carol but... I just..." Tony was speechless.
Peter stood up suddenly and faced me. "If you're the 'real' Harley, tell me something only my Harley would know."
I inhaled. "You love dark chocolate but hate milk chocolate, your favorite fruit is strawberries, you wish you had a lizard but you can't have one because your aunt thinks you're too irresponsible to have a pet, you would name your lizard Remington if you could get it, your best friends at school are Ned, Michelle, and Betty, you had a crush on a girl named Liz last year but her dad turned out to be a maniac villain called the Vulture who you landed in jail so Liz's family had to move to Oregon and now you feel really bad about it, you made a B in chemistry and you were really pissed, even though a B isn't even that bad, your favorite color is blue but you really like red too, which is why your suit colors are blue and red, you-"
"Okay, okay," he sighed but smiled at me. "I know it's you."
Then, as I smiled back at Peter, a revelation hit me like a truck.
"So there's an alien out there pretending to be me?!" I threw my arms up.
"Calm down Goldilocks, he's most likely returned to his planet right now, which means he's returned to his alien form." Fury explained.
"Will he come back?"
"Bitch, how am I supposed to know?" He scoffed, "Damn, y'all think I know everything..."
"Well... what if he does? Am I safe? Why does he hate me?"
"Look Corn Pop, I don't know why he doesn't like you," he put a hand on my shoulder and looked me directly in the eyes, "but you'll be safe if he comes back. I think he's finished with Earth but even if he's not, you've got the Avengers to protect you. Don't worry."
I nodded and took a deep breath. Maybe everything will be alright after all.
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(A/N hey everyone! thanks so so much for reading this chapter and, as always, don't forget to vote, comment, and follow meee! also, if you didn't read Nick Fury's lines in Samuel L. Jackson's voice, then I don't know what you're thinking.)
bye for now✱
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