CHILD'S PLAY, quentin beck

VI. PRANK CALL

'Who is this?' Josephine asked, thinking it was some kind of prank call. The voice sounded like it belonged to an older man, and Josephine doubted any sane adult would participate in prank calls. But you never know these days. 

The man was quiet for a few seconds. 'My name is Nick Fury,' he said, as if Josephine was supposed to know who that was. 'As I said, we need to talk. It's urgent.' His voice was stern and Josephine had a feeling that he meant business. She assumed he knew about Spider-Man's identity, why else would he call her about him? 

Josephine scoffed. 'Right, okay. Is this some kind of joke? Because I am running on two hours of sleep and I am not in the mood for jokes, alright?' She contemplated hanging up, but something told her not to do it. This man, Nick Fury, sounded serious. What if something was about to happen that had something to do with Peter? If something happened to him, she and her colleagues would be held responsible. 

'I assure you that this is no joke,' he said. 'You can meet me in the building behind the cafeteria. Your bus driver will not leave until we have spoken.' And with that, Nick Fury hung up. 

Josephine looked around before glancing at the bus driver. He had been staring at her this entire time. Did he have anything to do with this Nick Fury guy, is that why Peter seemed so anxious when he saw the new driver? Josephine started to wonder if this travel upgrade really came from the agency itself, or if someone else had anything to do with it.

Against her better judgment, Josephine made her way towards the building Nick Fury talked about. There was no one around. If this was some kind of trap Josephine was about to walk into and she would get murdered in a few minutes, it would take everyone a long time before they found her. God, the things she would do for her students. 

Josephine waited outside for a little while before opening the building's door. She could hear multiple voices, one of them sounding awfully familiar. It wasn't the voice of the man she had just spoken to, it was a different voice. Without knocking, Josephine opened the door and walked inside, receiving many stares from the people inside. She wasn't in the wrong building, was she? That would be awkward. 

'Miss Colby, how nice of you to join us,' a man said. Josephine looked to her right and saw him standing there. She recognized the voice, it was the man who she had spoken to on the phone. Nick Fury. He had an eye patch. 

Josephine didn't say anything in response. She just looked around at the people inside. There was a younger woman standing right next to Nick Fury, a few people working on computers. All of them in uniform. Josephine's eyes eventually landed on someone familiar. Someone she had met hours ago, in Venice. Quentin. Or, as the media had dubbed him, Mysterio. Josephine wondered what in the world was going on. 

'Hello, Josephine,' Quentin said as he walked up to her. He had a smile on his face, it was almost apologetic. As if he was sorry that Nick Fury had decided to drag her into this mess. 

Josephine wasn't given a chance to greet him back or ask him any questions, because Nick Fury started talking to her once again. 

'I'm sure you're wondering why I called you. Let me explain,' he started. 'For the past few days, we have been dealing with a threat. Mr. Beck over here,' he said while pointing at Quentin, 'has been a lot of help. However, we could use the help of another superhero. We need Spider-Man.'

The teacher stared at him in disbelief. 'What does any of this have to do with me?' If he needed the help of Spider-Man, talking to his teacher wasn't going to do him any good. Did he think that Josephine would convince Peter to put on his suit and fight some kind of monster? If anything, she should convince him to not fight any monsters and look the other way, like any sane teenager.

'He wants you to talk to Peter,' Quentin interjected. 'To convince him to help us.'

Josephine was a little surprised when she heard Peter's name. She still wasn't used to her student being a crime-fighting superhero and she didn't know that so many people already knew about his secret identity. 'I'm not doing that,' she said while looking at Quentin. 'Forget it. He's sixteen years old, okay? If you need his help, talk to him yourself. And if he says no, leave him alone.'

'I don't think you understand the gravity of the situation,' Nick Fury said. 'You saw what happened in Venice. It will happen again, in Prague. That is why we need Spider-Man's help.'

Josephine crossed her arms. 'Were you behind the travel upgrade?' She asked, catching him slightly off guard. He nodded in return. 'Correct me if I'm wrong, but you knew that some kind of creature will be attacking Prague and you decide to send a bunch of kids there? Unbelievable.' After a few seconds of silence, Josephine decided that she didn't want to stay in here any longer. She turned around, walking back towards the door and getting ready to leave when she felt a hand wrap around her arm.

'Can I talk to you?' Quentin asked her as soon as she looked up at him. Josephine hesitated, but nodded eventually. 'Let's sit here,' he said, guiding her to a corner. He sat down on one of the few chairs and Josephine did as well. 'Look,' he started. 'I understand why you don't want Peter to get involved in all of this. He's a kid. If I were in your position, I would have talked him out of it as well. I won't ask you to convince him to help us. But I will ask you to talk to him and let him make his own decision.'

Josephine sighed. 'I'm supposed to look after him, you know, during this trip. His aunt would kill me if anything happened to him,' she said. She wondered if his aunt knew about him being Spider-Man. Being a superhero didn't seem like something you could easily hide from your family. 'Fine,' she mumbled. 'I'll talk to Peter. But I'm not going to be happy about it. And if he doesn't want to help, he doesn't want to help.'

Quentin smiled at her. 'Great,' he said. 'Thank you. And if Peter doesn't want any part of this, we will have no choice but to respect that.'

'God,' Josephine mumbled. 'You should be some kind of motivational speaker, or something.' She got up from the chair and looked around. Everyone seemed to be too busy with their computer screens to notice her and Quentin. 'Good luck, I guess, with fighting monsters.'

He chuckled. 'Good luck with your students,' he said. 'And I'm sure we'll be seeing each other again soon,' he added. They both smiled at each other, as if that was their way of saying goodbye.

Ignoring the weird feeling building up in her stomach, Josephine left the shed and walked back towards the bus where everyone seemed to be waiting for her. Time to go to Prague.

─

In case anyone likes the show Gotham and is interested, I've published chapter one of my Jerome Valeska fanfiction. The story is called 'Mad City' and you can find it on my profile. Anyways, sorry for the slow updates on this story. I've been at work very often lately and I haven't really been feeling the motivation to write after coming home from work. But I'm doing my best, so I hope you enjoyed this chapter!