CHILD'S PLAY, quentin beck

IV. SPIDER-GANG

'So,' Josephine whispered. 'Who was that?' She looked from Peter back to the television a few times, thinking about the mystery man who had saved the day a few hours ago. She didn't recognize him and neither did any of her students, meaning that he wasn't an Avenger she had somehow never heard of. It was strange. Nearly all of her students were obsessed with superheroes, especially those in America, but none of them knew who the man on the television was. Maybe Europe did have some superheroes as well.

Peter shrugged. 'I don't know.' 

The hero, who had been nicknamed Mysterio by the media, was the talk of the day among the students. He had already been compared to Thor, as well as Iron Man. Even Flash had to admit that, while he was no Spider-Man, he was pretty cool. After all, he did defeat a giant monster.

It was getting late. All of the students had already gone to bed, apart from Peter and Ned. They were still sitting in front of the television, discussing the events that had happened that afternoon. Josephine's colleagues, Roger and Julius, had gone to bed as well. 

Josephine sat down in front of the two boys when they called her over. 'Don't you two think it's time to go to bed? We have to get up early tomorrow,' she told them.

Ned shook his head. 'No way, not when we still have so much to talk about,' he said. 'Okay, so, I was thinking, right? We now have a teacher who knows about the whole Spider-Man thing,' he whispered before looking up at the woman in front of him. 'Which is you, obviously, you're the teacher,' he explained. 'You could, like, cover for Peter if he needs to do something heroic during school, or this trip. And for me, too, of course, because I'm his guy in the chair. And now she's on the team as well, right Peter?' Ned laughed. 'We're like the spider-gang.'

'Right,' Josephine said, slightly amused. She noticed Peter glancing at her with an apologetic look on his face. As if he was sorry for dragging her into all of this. 'Great. Aside from the covering for you two, that's not going to happen. It's 11 pm, guys, just go to bed. I guess we can talk about this another time.'

Josephine didn't wait for a response. She was tired and needed to get some sleep as soon as possible. If Peter and Ned wanted to stay up even longer and talk about more superhero stuff, she wasn't going to stop them from doing just that. 

3:14 am. Josephine had been lying in bed for four hours, wide awake. Despite her being tired, she was unable to fall asleep. She refused to get out of bed, hoping that she would soon drift away and get some rest. After all, she did have to wake up at 7 am. 

A few minutes had passed and Josephine finally decided to get out of bed. She grabbed a pair of jeans and put on a jacket over her pajama top. Maybe a short walk would help clear her mind. Josephine left her hotel room, trying to be as quiet as possible. It was a short walk from her room to the front door. Josephine opened it and walked outside, the chill air hitting her as soon as she set a foot out of the building. It was quiet outside. Of course, everyone was asleep. Except for her.

Josephine decided to walk towards the same place where she had been this afternoon, where all of that crazy stuff had happened. She was curious to see what it would look like. The creature had left such a mess, there was absolutely no way all of that would have been cleaned up by now. 

And she was right. It was still a mess. Most of the debris had been cleared away, but the buildings around the water were practically destroyed. It was a sad sight and Josephine couldn't help but feel bad about it. 

'Give it a week. It will look as beautiful again as it did before,' an unfamiliar voice spoke up from behind Josephine, startling her. 

She turned around, looking at the man behind her. The, surprisingly not destroyed, street lights illuminated his face. Josephine recognized him. The mystery man. The man who had defeated the creature earlier, the man who had been on the news all day long and the man who her students had been talking about ever since they got back to the hotel. 'Oh, right,' she mumbled. Josephine wasn't sure what to say. She had never met a superhero before. Apart from Peter, but that was different, he was her student. 'I wish I could be here to see it,' she eventually said.

The man chuckled softly, amused at the surprised look on her face. 'I saw you, earlier today,' he said. 'It was very brave of you to stay and get those teenagers to safety.'

'They're my students,' Josephine answered. 'It's kind of my job to keep them safe.' She had a smile on her face while she spoke. 'Besides, you're the one that fought that thing, right? I'd call that pretty brave, too.' 

He laughed softly. 'Still,' he said. 'I'm Quentin, by the way,' he introduced himself while holding out his hand. 

Josephine shook his hand while still smiling. 'Josephine,' she introduced herself before letting go of him. She noticed that he was wearing the same armor as he was earlier today. Her students were right. He did look like Thor and Iron Man rolled into one, but she would never admit that out loud, especially not to a bunch of teenagers. Josephine also noticed that he sounded American. She was a little curious as to why he would be fighting creatures in Europe, but she decided not to pry.

'It's very nice to meet you, Josephine.'

They hadn't talked much after that. Josephine decided she should probably get back to the hotel. Hopefully, she would be able to get some sleep. So, she had said goodbye to the mystery man, who had introduced himself as Quentin. A part of her didn't want to return to the hotel, it wanted to stay and talk a little more with him. 

Josephine knew it was the right decision to leave, even if it meant she would never see him again.

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So sorry for the slow update. My birthday was this weekend and I didn't have any time to write. But I'm back with a new chapter. And they finally met! I'm so excited for the rest of this story, I'd love to hear what you guys think.