Chereads / A Hero's Journey / Chapter 39 - Shocker

Chapter 39 - Shocker

But as I approached them I saw Peter had one arm that seemed weird. The one he had raised to wave at me was fine, but when he lowered it back I saw something strange, as if he was restrained.

As I arrived I frowned and asked" Peter, are you alright?" The girls tilted their heads, not understanding, But Peter looked at me stunned. He asked" What do you mean?"

I pointed at his arm and asked" Your arm. You're hurt? What happened? Is it bad?" He touched his arm and said" Yeah, yeah I'm fine, but how did you know… Did Professor Octavius tell you?"

I sat down and said" Then you got hurt at the lab. He didn't tell me anything, it's just that your arm moved unnaturally." He looked at me dumbfounded, so I turned to the girls and asked" How are you doing? Enjoyed the trip to the West Coast?"

MJ nodded with a smile but Liz looked at Peter and asked with a frown" Why didn't you tell me?" Peter looked at me dangerously but still said" Not much, it doesn't hurt. I just hurt myself a little at the lab, but nothing important. I won't feel anything anymore before Monday."

Liz took his hand and said" Be careful there, okay?" He nodded but I was shocked. The two got together. MJ, seeing my face, said" Surprised? You know, if you hadn't disappeared for two months you would have known."

I looked at her and said" Excuse me?" MJ rolled her eyes and said" Yeah you don't want to talk about it?" I looked at her and asked" I disappeared for two month?"

She looked concerned as she said" Are you alright Mason?" I smiled and replied" Yeah, it's just that I thought you were awkward around me and thus didn't call me. It seems it was one big misunderstanding. I was surprised Peter would call me."

But that was a lie. I asked in my head" Dumby, what happened?" Dumby sighed [I knew it wouldn't take long before it would happen… Well long story short, the holidays seemed awfully short because you changed your memory. You erased two months, and changed some facts and conversations as to not make anything seem strange.]

I asked alarmed" Why would I do something like that?! What happened?" Dumby replied [Unfortunately we share the same memory.]

I clenched my fist and told him" You're telling me that two months of my life just disappeared? And how can you know that? When was it?" Dumby replied [We may share the same memory, we do not share the same mind, so because it is the memory associated with your mind, you dd not realize. But I am more of an external source on your memory, so I could see that something had been altered.

As for when, it happened between the moment you got fired from Oscorp, and when you called Otto for that job at Stark. You couldn't see it coming but because I appeared after those events and first as an omniscient being, I saw it.]

I asked" But how is that possible!" Dumby simply replied in the most annoying way, using logic [Now that you are aware, think! You may be the worst in relationships, you're not an idiot. So you met Susan for the first time at a park and talked to her for less than ten minutes.

Next time you see her, you go take her directly at her house and you take her to a famous restaurant and to the cinema, and you almost got her. Seriously your charm isn't that good and you know it.]

I modified my own memory? What did I do to erase my own memory? I stopped my inner conversation and looked at MJ, and asked" So Drama queen, what d I have missed?"

MJ put on a thinking pose and replied" Well there was a giant god that attacked us…" I looked at her threateningly and she just laughed. I sighed at my misfortune in having such weird friends.

MJ said" In truth not much, well Peter and Liz got together, but other than that not much. We have not seen Harry for quite a long time, too busy with his job…" She looked at me guiltily but I just waved to say it was fine.

She continued" Well today the movie I starred in will get released in theaters. So that's where we are going." I smiled and replied" I knew where we were going…" MJ smiled and replied" I know you don't, you just accepted without knowing."

I scratched my head embarrassed and replied" Caught…" I looked at her and I could see there was something she wasn't telling me, she was hesitating. She looked briefly at Peter but he shook his head. What may it be?

A waitress came to me and I ordered a cafe. I looked at the two lovebirds and asked" When are we going?" Peter looked at a newly brought watch and answered" When you finish your coffee we will go to the bank and then directly to the theater."

I nodded and relaxed in my chair. [That asshole Harry, if he hadn't done what he did it wouldn't be so awkward. It's going to be funny when you go to school…]

I frowned and asked MJ" Say, with his new job, will Harry come to school again?" She shrugged and replied" I don't know, but I would say no seeing how busy he is. But I don't really understand why he always stay there."

I raised an eyebrow, and asked" Why? CEO is a tiring job contrarily to what most people may think. At least it is when you lead your company well." MJ sighed and replied" To be honest he isn't doing that well. There is a new Board of Directors, but they are only people ho curried favor with him.

So none of them dares to go head to head with him. Since he has fired you the company is losing money everyday. They went from one of the top companies in the world to a quite good one in the country in only two months.

Oscorp is now nothing more than a shadow of it's past. But what I don't understand is why he stays there when he has hired five secretaries to do most of his job." But it was obvious she had some serious doubt about him.

That can be understood, seriously it's obvious. Even if you're a CEO you don't stay all day at work. He is obviously avoiding MJ, and the reason is certainly those 5 secretaries. But it's not my place to point this out.

I took her hand and said instead" I'm sure it's fine." She nodded but she didn't believe me. I wouldn't either. My coffee arrived and I quickly began drinking. After a moment of silence Peter asked me" What have you been doing those past two months? Oh and that reminds me, I still haven't thanked you for the job with Pr. Octavius."

I shook my head with a smile and replied" You don't have too, I was sure you would be able to help hi, you're smarter than you think. As for what I did… I met someone, and did a lot of other things."

MJ poked me in the side and said with a giggle" Our Mason has met someone! Is she a goddess, to have passed your test?" I rolled my eyes and asked" What test? And we are only friends, calm down."

Liz snorted and said" What test? Seriously you can be so cold with girls. At the end of term in only one week you could have get laid five times every day if you wanted. But no, none of them was good enough."

I looked at her and said" They were all too superficial." MJ shook me and said" Who is she? Do we know her? How is she?" MJ bombarded me with questions, enough to overwhelm me.

I finished my coffee and replied" You don't know her, you will meet her if fate wants it. Now let's go to the bank quickly and then go see that film. I'm curious how our favorite redhead performed."

The others stood up and MJ said with a laugh "Favorite redhead, more like only one you know." I smiled and avoided her scorn by going pay the bill.

Now that I think of it they really are quite weird here, to sell coffee at a fast food, but it's not my problem, their coffee is good.

I joined the others outside and we walked to the bank. The reason we would go there is that Liz insisted to pay the places, but before that she needed to get money at the bank.

Peter was the most reluctant one, he wanted to pay himself, manly pride I guess. As we walked Peter slowed down a little and joined me in the back, leaving the two girls chatting ahead, and whispered to me" Now that we are between men, tell me, who is it?"

I rolled my eyes and replied" Why so curious? She is called Susan, she is in her last year in University, she recently had her exams." Peter looked at me impressed.

But at the moment I said that something came back to my mind, memories about Susan and I. I had brought her to her exams, and she would receive her results tomorrow. I asked in my head in alarm " Dumby, what is this? Is this a memory I had erased?"

Dumby replied [It seems to be… Mason, I think we were wrong, you didn't erase your memories, you sealed them. And it seems you would need a certain stimuli to unlock them. But I don't understand why you would do that.]

I replied to him" I think we were half right, maybe certain memories were erased for some reason, and that the others were sealed only to make the thing appear less stranger… No it doesn't make any sense…"

I looked back at Peter and said" Enough talking about me, how long have you and Liz been together?" Peter showed a bright smile as he replied" 23 days." I nodded and replied" To think you would be the first of us two to have a girlfriend, I am disappointed in myself."

Peter shook and asked unsure" Am I really that bad?" I put an arm over in shoulder and said in laughter" I'm joking Peter, chill. But you need to be a little more confident."

Peter nodded with a smile and we had finally walked to the bank. We all walked in and saw there was quite a crowd in there. We went to the end of the queue and began waiting. We lowered our voices as we were in a bank, but still continued, much to the displeasure of the people in front of us.

Grumpy elderly. Ten minutes later, still in the queue, Peter told us" Guys, I'll go to the toilets. I'll be back." I rolled my eyes and said" Good quote Peter, after Star Wars you turned to the Terminator?" Peter smiled and said" Only you understands me."

He bowed a little and went to the toilets. Once he got in I said to Liz" You have opened him, he is in a better shape then before, more confident, although not that much it's still better." Liz smiled and said" It's because I'm awesome."

I smile and was about to add something when several shoots were heard. We turned to look and saw a group of demon masked people shooting at us to get down on the ground. They were 13, but most surprisingly none of them had any gun.

12 of them were wearing the same tuxedo, with different demon masks, but one of them was different from the others. Instead of the black tuxedo, the demon mask and the sword, he was clothed strangely.

His clothes were of a deep yellow and deep red, a mask integrated to his suit, and finally he had two iron gauntlets.