-Midtown High the next day -
As the morning sun painted the New York skyline with hues of orange and pink, Peter Parker stood in line as their teacher called the students one at a time to get on the school bus.
School.
God, Peter hated this part of his week.
Today more than most. Not to mention that one annoying bug that just kept buzzing around since his apparent social isolation blew over. Now he was back to being the same old Peter Parker, only gloomier and broody.
Today was no ordinary day for Midtown High School students; they were about to embark on a field trip to the unveiling of Stark Tech's latest innovation in education – the Virtual Reality Augmentation for Student Learning program. Disappointingly Tony Stark wouldn't be there in person, it wasn't surprising, he rarely was at those events unless it was an Iron Man thing.
Peter was a fan of the guy, ever since he saved his life at the stark expo a few years back. Iron Man may be the only hero he wouldn't mind not having any beef with, Stark network being one of the few networks that were the hardest to breach without being traced or leaving any digital signature behind said something about the guy's intelligence.
Tony Stark may be a self-righteous egoist who played at being a hero but smarts were still smarts and at the end of the day, what he did was actually pretty heroic regardless of his personal reasons.
Peter could work with smart.
On the plus side, this trip would bring him close enough to the Stark Building under the raider, and maybe help give some clues to Iron Man's adaptive firewalls without being suspicious. Stark network's weird flow of data and adaptive security algorithm almost seemed alive. It piqued his interest: Techno's simulation led to some interesting results-possible living machine kind of interesting. Peter didn't want to interact with Stark Network long enough to leave traceable evidence to be tracked.
The first time he got lucky, Shield was unprepared and inexperienced to deal with someone with powers like him, he had a feeling Stark Enterprising wouldn't be that easy. He steered clear of anything that might have a possibility of leading back to him in a while.
Excited murmurs filled the air as Peter boarded the bus, but his anticipation was tinged with a hint of apprehension. Flash Thompson and his gang were already seated near the back, casting smirks and whispers in Peter's direction.
"Hey, Emo Parker, ready to embarrass yourself in VR too? Huh, you're already an embarrassment enough as it is. " Flash taunted, earning chuckles from his cronies.
Ah, there it was again, that damn buzzing bug.
'Maybe I should stomp it?,' he mused to himself, keeping his ever-present blank look. He was getting too comfortable with his fool's mask.
Peter kept his hands in his pocket, biting back a retort as he searched for a vacant seat. No, muscle-headed stupidity, sadly wasn't a legal crime. He was an anti-hero, not a murderer and his cover still had to be maintained until he finalized his exit school plan. It won't be long now, some fake but virtually solid emancipation documents here, some fake school transfer and acceptance documents from a fake school there, a fast-track exam around the corner, and then goodbye to Midtown High.
Just then, a voice cut through the tension.
"Leave him alone, Flash. You're not impressing anyone with your Neanderthal routine back there, I think everyone's seen enough of your junk to last a lifetime," Felicity Hardy, the newest member of Flash's group, spoke up with a hint of teasing. Felicity turned back to him with a wink and an obviously coy smile.
Apparently, the dick pic prank went viral and what's more surprising is that Flash bounced back in a week, being rich really had its perks, maybe he'd try it out sometime soon. it was only a matter of time now.
"You looking for a seat Parker, got a free one right here." She said to Peter patting the free sit next to her. She had a weird fascination with him and talked him up whenever she had she had the chance. She seemed to think they were alike in some way, kindred spirits or something from what she told him in class.
Peter's stared at her blankly surprised, not accustomed to the kind of attention she was giving him.
"Sorry can't, buddy's only for the trip" He offered a nod before taking his seat on the opposite end of a bus, furthest from her.
"Suite yourself, muscles, You're gonna regret missing out on all this" Felicity teased, gesturing to all of her as if she were serving out a dish.
"Keep dreaming weirdo, I don't do sloppy seconds," Peter retorted.
"Now who's dreaming? Flash couldn't touch this even if he tried, this is a fine premium cut you're looking at nerd. Keep playing hard to get all you want, it only makes me want you more, platonically speaking of course. Gotta take me to dinner before you can enjoy dessert, Pete." She shot back with equal flavor.
"I'd rather skip dinner but thanks for asking" Peter replied.
'Weirdo...' He thought to himself, it's like all the girls in his life were unreasonably attractive bitches, had a few screws loose, were some supernatural cosmic entity, superheroes, or just plain weird. Why did they have to be so beautiful though, damn Parker's luck.
He wasn't stupid, he was still a teen and he knew attractive when he saw it. Looks didn't affect him as they used to, not anymore, not since Techno's passive enhancements and the fool's mask. Even so, it was common knowledge, you don't stick it in crazy.
He decided to get some shut-eye for a few minutes, not enough sleep since last night was the crazy rollercoaster ride it was. After a talk with Yuri, she made her way back to the hospital via police escort. The cops and media chalked her actions up to hysteria, confusion, and trauma.
A soft tap on the shoulder and a feminine yelp woke him up thirteen minutes and 32.56 seconds later. Right, he kept forgetting about the machine part of Techno that was all him, he was still adjusting to that bit.
As the bus rumbled to life, Peter's drowsiness faded slightly, replaced by a dare he said bubbling excitement for the day's event. Little did he know, his journey was about to take an unexpected turn.
"Sorry didn't mean to wake you, Peter, right, I'm Jean, Jean Grey" For a moment Peter almost mistook the speaker for Mary Jane Watson. It was her hair he noticed. Watson didn't wear thick-rimmed glasses.
As fate would have it, Peter found himself paired up with Jean Grey, a transfer student from the School of the Gifted Outreach Program. Their meeting was awkward, to say the least, with Peter's attempts at small talk met with Jean's polite but distant responses.
Jean had long vibrant strands of red hair that fell below her waist, clear green eyes, and a heart-shaped face. She was dressed modestly for someone who won the lottery in the genetics department. He was wrong she looked nothing like Mary Jane Watson, She had a confidence to her that most teens lacked as she held his gaze after introducing herself. Most teens couldn't do that, not anymore, not for very long. His glasses helped to hide that.
She was no Watson alright. It was like a bobcat and a lion-Jean was the lion.
Watson was a bobcat with the presence of a tiger- attractive and outgoing with a flare for social life. Jean was a lion with the presence of a cat- calm, tame, and reserved but with barely contained fire hidden under the surface that could burn stars when pushed.
'Possible hostile, imagine breaker active(1.343 seconds) when in physical contact, likely human mutate, possible mutant, possible meta-human, unknown, more data required. Name: Jean Grey, 5'6(1.68), 130lbs(58.97), Only child, Student, Registered: Xavier's School for the Gifted, Boarding School, Social Security Number: **********, Contact: *******, Compiling bio-data,-" Techno hummed in his mind's eye, Peter shut tunned him out to the back of his mind.
Talk about Parker's luck and it shall strike. Damn, Parker….Parker shit.
"It's all good, I wasn't really sleeping anyway" Peter replied with a stretch. 'Redheads, were they all just born attractive is that it' he thought. They sat in silence for a few as their teacher went over the rules of the trip per usual.
"So, Jean, excited about the VR demo?" Peter asked, trying to break the ice.
Jean offered a small smile, adjusting her glasses. "I am. It might be fun, I'm more used to a different kind of augmented reality."
Peter blinked, momentarily confused, before realizing Jean's reference to something else. "Oh yeah, what's that?."
"Trade secret I'm afraid, If I told you I'd have to kill you," Jean chuckled softly, the tension between them easing as they found common ground in their shared awkwardness.
"Meh, you'd be surprised, I'm pretty hard to kill you know," Peter joked, he and Jean settled into an enjoyable conversation after that.
As the bus rolled on toward its destination, Peter couldn't shake the feeling that this field trip might just be the start of something good. Will be as good as any relationship between an anti-hero and a possible human mutate would go.
He was beginning to wonder if random super people showing up at inconvenient places was going to be a thing now.
On the bright side a certain spider-powered girl not being here gave him some room to breathe, wherever Gwen ended up, if what the old mystic said was true then she'd be back by tomorrow. They'd sort themselves out then, nothing he could do about it now.
Might as well just enjoy the day.
-Chapter End-
Sorry for the delay folks, Amma is pretty busy this week and in the coming weeks, so updates might be a little slow. Two chapters a week for now. It could be three if I get some free time.