Us Against The World ｡ Peter Parker [2]

26 - Mixed Signals

The days dragged on a little bit after the night we had shared our somewhat complicated story with Ned Leeds, who thankfully, took the whole thing quite smoothly. He was like a child in a candy store, wanting more, wanting every little detail that we could provide for him. Even when the night was over, the end of the story already told, he came back the following day, and the one after that with many more questions. Can you summon an army of spiders? Do you lay eggs? Do the visions show the future or snippets of the past? Do you think you could predict my future? The questions were never-ending, but it was quite nice to have one more person we didn't have to lie to now.

With the weather changing in the city, things stayed mostly the same. I hadn't really spoken much to Peter about my theories about his best friend, it was something he was pretending wasn't remotely possible. Although our important conversation hadn't really occurred, he was always dodging that subject with how crazy it had been the night Delmar's Sandwiches shop had been ruined with some high powered weapon in the hands of some thugs. It was an issue that wasn't on my mind with my own mountain of homework and assignments that needed to be perfect to bring my grades back up. With my own stressful life, my journal was always the very last thing that I read over before my lamp was switched off and my head hit the pillow. The visions had calmed down, the pain nothing but a memory now but the things that flashed behind my eyelids always swirled around in my mind. I was struggling quietly to figure out what each scene represented, what it could mean in the likelihood that it played out in my life. Nothing had cleared though, the only snippet that seemed to make much sense was the green hand, something I had labeled with Green Goblin and his broken son left to clean up the mess. Sadly, the hours spent staring down at my scribbled words had proved nothing. Until something clicked in my mind one night before bed. Something that seemed so obvious now.

"Pete, hey." My boyfriend was giving me a sheepish smile, looking a little tired from staying out late and most likely doing Spidey things last night. Right now, we were wearing the Midtown matching gym clothing and waiting for the coach to start class. I had managed to drag him away from Ned and Harry, needing a little second of privacy. "I think I figured out one of my visions."

That grabbed his attention, "Really? Which one?"

I glanced over my shoulder, noticing Ned watching us, a little bummed out he wasn't being called over for a super secret conversation. Nobody else was paying us any attention, everyone standing around and chatting mindlessly. "Well, I'm not completely sure because these things can be so vague, but the red horns." I paused, letting him catch on. He wasn't spending every night staring at the clues, which meant it could have slipped his mind. "Who do we know that wears horns?"

Peter gave me a little look, "Um. I had a really long night and my mind is lagging. A little hint, please?"

"Come on, somebody who used to run around Hell's Kitchen and fight against bad guys in the dark hours of the nighttime." I hinted quietly, a little excitement in my voice. Peter's eyes snapped open with my words, already I could see that familiar intrigue.

He moved in closer. "You're having visions about Daredevil? That's so cool."

The whistle from Coach Wilson sounded and the chorus of groans sounded through the gym. I was giving him a little smile, quite pleased that something had finally clicked into place again. Although, the vision was vague, only showing red horns, it could only be him. It was still a mystery though since the city hadn't seen or heard from the Devil of Hell's Kitchen in weeks, many claimed he had gone underground, but it was the only lead I had right now, and a shaky lead was better than no lead at all.

After a long and rather outdated video featuring Captain America himself about our upcoming fitness challenge, we were paired into twos and set out across the gym to work through stations. With Mary Jane as my partner, we went through the stations half attempting to make an effort, even with our shameless fits of giggling and complaining, we were doing better than Michelle Jones, who was reading a book the entire time.