five. embrace for impact

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"NINE DEAD IN NEWARK, NEW JERSEY

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"NINE DEAD IN NEWARK, NEW JERSEY. Police in the area say that they believe loose criminal Illiana Viotto and her accomplice, Samara Viotto, started a bloodbath by killing three off—"

A loud click echoes throughout the living room, stealing Nina's view of the brunette going into vivid detail of her ex-mother's murder with a perfect smile on her lips and replacing it with an old re-run of Spongebob episodes.

"I was watching that." Nina sneers, grabbing a her second sandwich of the day, feeling her chest warm up the slightest bit when she recalls her conversation with Mr. Delmar. He had told her that his youngest daughter had a recent obsession with her alter ego, and hearing the stories of a eight year old girl running around their apartment pretending to be her took away Nina's annoyance towards her father - who had forced her to stay home instead of going to school.

"Ajak is a minute away, and trust me when I tell you that she'd be upset if she hears the news," Druig decides to turn off the T.V all together, grabbing a sweater from one of the spare chairs. "I'll meet her downstairs. Behave."

When he leaves, Nina grabs a tissue when she begins to cough violently, cringing at the sight of blood. It had been going on since last night - she'd emerge from sleep, cough up chunks of blood, and go back to sleep.

When Druig goes down to meet this mysterious Ajak (who she still knows nothing about), the bored girl takes it as her time to spam the groupchat she shared with Alaska and Betty with messages; multiple pictures of her bandage, all in different angles, and a bunch of obscure stories about her time as Mendax to the general public: like that time one guy who was probably ten years older than her trying to hit.

He currently doesn't have the ability to talk. It may seem like a very severe punishment in hindsight, but the man had sputtered out very inappropriate comments and she took care of it.

Now being aware of her alter-ego, Betty had told her that the whore ordeal had made a lot of sense: the sudden disappearance after school, the rooting for Mendax's early days when she was a Sophmore, the random injuries that would appear out of nowhere.

The three of them talk for a few minutes - Alaska spamming them with a variation of "my gf is so cute" messages, before the conversation goes radio silent - Nina assumes it's because their Calculus teacher caught the two of them again.

There was just something so... comforting, now that Alaska and Betty knew that she was Mendax. She haw always kept things in - she couldn't complain to how hard nights were to Peter, since despite both being vigilantes, he had a bigger advantage on him: his super strength and his healing. If she was to complain about rough nights, the girl was a hundred percent sure that Peter couldn't relate to her problems, all because his physical advantage was bigger.

So it lifted a certain weight off Nina's shoulders that she could finally complain about her nights on patrol, feeling relief that she didn't have to hide from her two best friends anymore.

LIAR, LIAR. Peter ParkerWhere stories live. Discover now