Jessica had been staring at the same part of the wall for the past two hours now. She kept trying to visualise how the events of earlier on had played out, where she'd gone wrong.
"Maybe going to MJ so soon was the problem. Maybe going back at all was the problem..." She thought to herself sadly.
She got off her bed and looked at the view of Manhattan from her room in the Ultimates base in the Triskilian.
"I thought my life as Peter Parker sucked sometimes..." she said gloomy. "I could really go for someone to beat up right around now..."
She left her room in search of the S.H.I.E.L.D officer that was facilitating the part of the building she was staying in.
"Hey, is it ok if I take off for a while?" she asked him when she found him after about 15 minutes of searching the maze like building.
"General Fury said I'd have to clear anything you do with him before I give you permission so I'm afraid not kid." he told her.
Jessica rolled her eyes. "Well... Can you ask him then...?"
He shook his head. "No can do, General Fury's a busy guy as you know. He's briefing the Ultimates on their current mission so I can't disturb him at the moment."
"Terrific..." thought Jessica.”Alright, thanks for your help." she told him as she headed back to her room.
"No way I’m staying in here all night! I need to get out of my head or I'm gonna go insane..." she thought.
She took her newly tailored costume out of her duffel bag. "Permission or no permission, I'm outta here."
She clung to the roof, using her spider-sense to get past any of the S.H.I.E.L.D agents she came across. At last she came to the entrance of the building. She managed to use her agility to get past the last of the guards and reach the exit.
"Much better...now to find someone I can take my frustration on."
However, half an hour later, she was still searching. Even so, just being out in the open was helping to take her mind off things. Another half hour passed before she started to feel like heading back to her temporary home. On the way back however she found what she was looking for.
"...Is that who I think it is...?" She thought looking down at two familiar figures, one looked like he was wearing a green bird costume and the other looked had gauntlets that he was using to fire air blasts at other cars as he was being driven away from the chasing police cars. "Shocker and Vulture, perfect, just what I was looking for, two idiots that are begging for a beatdown. Looks like Shocker's trying his hand at yet another bank job..."
She swung down effortlessly from the top of the skyscraper from which she was observing them down to the ground level. She broke her web and did a backflip to land perfectly on a nearby car. She jumped from car to car until Vulture's legs were within range. With precise aiming she managed to catch his left leg. She then proceeded to yank him towards her.
"Hey bird-brain!" she said as she felt his jaw crumble against her fist. She caught him with her web and flung him onto the street just before he hit a cab. "Last thing people wanna here are New York cab drivers moaning about the amount of bald eagles landing on their cabs..." she quipped. She quickly webbed up Vulture up before proceeding to catch up with Shocker. "That should take care of him till the cops pick him up... again...”
After a few minutes she caught up with his car. He was shouting stuff back at her but she couldn't quite make out what he was saying. She dodged his air blasts until she was just a few cars away.
"Who the hell are you???" He shouted back at her.
"Me? I'm your friendly neighbourhood Spider-woman of course!" she replied as she lunged at him.
"Spider-woman??? How many of you Spider-people are there??? Why can't you kids just leave me alone!" He screamed at her as she continued to evade him.
"But then who would you play with then? Surely not bird boy back there?" she retorted. She could see how angry he was getting. He'd always been somewhat of a joke villain to her when she was Spider-man and he'd always been easy to wind up. "Woopsie, you missed again!" she exclaimed as he came close to hitting her. As she moved in to attack him, he quickly dodged and managed to get a shot on her. She fell back on top of the roof of a car and continued to free-fall for a few more moments before recovering.
"Ouch... I still shouldn't underestimate him. Even if he is an idiot, he's still a decent aim..." She quickly caught up with him again.
"Back for more eh? This time I'm gonna kill you, just like that other loser!" This struck a bit of a nerve with Jessica as she flung herself at him, not bothering with quips to taunt him anymore. She effortlessly dodged his blasts once more before getting in close. He fired a few more concussion blasts at her but it was easy to dodge at this range.
"What are you, his sister? Some freak government experiment?" he asked. She kicked his legs from underneath him before stopping him from falling off the car.
“I-already-told-you, I'm Spider-woman, now make sure you say hi to your green pal in prison, chump!" she said before knocking him out with a single well placed blow to the head. She climbed over the roof of the car before knocking at the side window of the car. The distressed driver looked out the window to see Jessica waving back at him.
"We can do this the easy way or the hard way. I'll advise the easy way 'cos it involves you keeping most of your teeth, now pull over!" she said while carrying Shocker over her shoulders. Reluctantly, he pulled over. "Now out of the car!" she demanded.
"I surrender, I surrender!" he whimpered. The cops soon caught up. She watched them take Shocker and his get-away driver away before heading back to the Triskilion base. She easily snuck back in and changed into her pyjamas, thankful that she'd had that distraction to keep her occupied.
The next morning she was woken up to the sound of banging on her door. "Who'z it?" she asked sleepily.
"It's Fury, open the damn door Jessica."
She made her way over to the entrance of the door, opening it for Fury to come inside.
"What's the matter?" She asked innocently.
"You know damn well what's wrong, kid. You left without my say-so."
Jessica looked irritated. "I didn't realise I was under house arrest..." she retorted.
"No one's placing you under arrest, but you have to understand that being seen out like you were last night is gonna raise questions, questions that I'm gonna be forced to answer." he told her.
"Sorry, I guess... Hey, I caught the bad guys though, didn't I?"
Fury grimaced. "I gotta give you that one, didn't look like New York's finest were gonna catch those two fools."
"You really outta look into that Shocker guy, I've caught him like 6 times in the last year, or I mean, Peter did..."
Fury nodded in agreement. "Alright kid, I'll let you off the hook this time." He then turned his back to her for a moment. "I heard yesterday didn't go so well after I left." he stated.
Jessica climbed on top of her bed. She got back to staring aimlessly at the celling. "You could say that I guess." She replied eventually.
Fury sighed. "So did either of them take it well?"
"Aunt May was kinda weirded out at first - who wouldn't - but she was ok after a while. Mary Jane... Mary Jane was a different story."
Fury moved towards her bed, crouching down to get some eye contact with her, but she just continued to ignore it.
"They're hurtin' right now, you know that. The fact that you didn't give your aunt a heart attack was a minor victory in itself. That Watson kid really loved Parker. Give her a while and she'll come around."
She nodded. "Thanks again Fury." she said. He nodded as he started to leave. "It's weird, I never would have guessed you'd have this side to you..." she continued. He was just in the doorway when he turned back to her.
"What, loyal? Guess I'm suprisin' everyone then, huh?" he smirked.
"Oh wait, Fury?" she asked.
"Hm?"
"Have you guys got any more leads on Ock?" she asked.
He shook his head.
"I promise you, you'll be the first to know. In the meantime, try and focus on sorting stuff out with your family. I'll check up on you in a couple of days. Good luck, Jess"
He closed the door and Jessica returned to starting into space.
"Tomorrow... I'll go back tomorrow..." she thought to herself before slipping back under her duvet and going back to sleep.
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