Light & Shadow Extras

So, My Best Friend's A Superhero?

MJ's POV

I blink and Lia is gone. I hold the—what I assume is a piece of machinery—in my hand, and if I didn't know better, I'd swear it was growing heavier by the second. This is just weird. I mean, Peter being Spiderman was pretty obvious. He always seems to disappear with lame excuses as the spandex clad hero shows up.

Lia though? I had no idea.

I mean, obviously, she's been hiding something. She's always been so closed off and would brush off any and all questions about her personal life. I just figured maybe she was ashamed of something or didn't want anyone to know much about her. But her being Phantom, one of my all time favorite heroes?

Yeah, I didn't see it coming.

I shove the machine part in my bag and head back to the hotel. Everyone's bound to be freaking out with everything going on. Mr. Harrington is probably already crying like a baby, and Mr. Dell will probably be ranting about witches—again.

It's still a lot to process. Phantom—the badass superhero that's known kicking butt in the most epic ways—has been my best friend for years now, and her boyfriend is also her superhero companion.

I swear, if Ned's a superhero, I give up on life.

The rest of my class—minus Peter—is all clustered in the lobby with varying ranges of panic and indifference, and just as I predicted, Mr. Harrington is already stress crying as he rounds everyone up and tries to reassure whoever's on the other side of the phone—probably all of our parents.

No one seems to care as everyone goes their separate ways to pack up. My fingers slip into my bag, wrapping around the machine piece to reassure myself it's there—that whatever is going on is real.

Even if I have no idea what's going on. I know it's important. Especially if it was enough to bring Lia out of whatever hiding she's been in.

God, I wish she hadn't made me promise not to tell Peter. He hasn't seemed the same these past few months, and it's pretty obvious it's because he misses her. Maybe I can find a way to say it without breaking my promise.

I pace around my room, glancing back at my bag like it'll kill me the first chance it gets. How did I get myself into this mess? Better yet, how did Lia and Peter get into it?

Peter's voice echoes from the hallway, and I move to open the door. After all, I promised Lia I'd show this to him the first chance I got. So I immediately open up my door to see him moving to head back to his room. "Hey," I offer him a half smile as he turns around, "do you wanna—um—go somewhere? For fun, I mean. You know since the trip is pretty much over, and we didn't really get to do anything here."

He hesitates, fist tightening and loosening around the strap of his backpack as he thinks it over. "Uh—yeah, sure. I'll meet you outside in ten minutes?"

"Meet me outside in five minutes." I tell him and close the door. Now comes the hard part, showing him this thing without letting it slip that I saw Lia—no matter how much I want to. I'm pretty sure it would only make things worse if he did.

Peter's already waiting when I meet him the lobby. "So, where do you wanna go?"

"Who cares?"

"Okay, cool." He says as we head out in an awkward silence. I'll admit—I might not have thought this entirely through. Going on a walk—alone—with my best friend's boyfriend that I vaguely consider a friend is way weirder than I thought it would be.

We make it on to one of the old bridges before I have to fill the awkward silence and say the first thing that comes to mind. "You know they used to execute people on this bridge. They would like put them in a basket, and they would drown in the water." I look down at my feet. "Sorry."

"It's okay." Peter sighs and stops. "Uh. Look, there's this thing I've been wanting to talk to you about for a while." I look back at him, and even though I have a fair idea of what he wants to talk about, I let him continue. "It's our last night in Europe, and it's—it's a long story but I had this plan to find--well, to tell you that—"

"—I'm Spiderman." I finish for him, after all, I have to keep up the charade that I don't know Lia's actually missing.

"What?" He questions with wide eyes.

"That's what you were gonna say, isn't it? That you're Spiderman."

"No, I'm not Spiderman."

"And Lia's not Phantom?" I ask before I think better of it, and I swear his eyes practically bug out of his head. "C'mon, she's my best friend and you're her boyfriend. I've been trying to figure it out for a while now. It's kind of obvious."

"I'm not Spiderman, and she's not Phantom. What would make you think that?"

"Peter," I look at him incredulously, "Washington?"

"Yeah."

"The fact that both of you disappear out of nowhere for like no reason."

"I was sick remember, and she was with the others the whole time. Remember?"

"What about tonight? You took off and fought that thing. I saw you."

"You can't have seen me because I'm not Spiderman." His voice starts getting squeaky like it does when he gets nervous or panicked. "Also, on the news it was the Night Monkey."

"The Night Monkey?"

"Yeah. That's what it said on the news, and the news never lies."

"Night Monkey, okay." I whisper to myself as I take off my bag to get the machine part, which is luckily still covered in his webs. It helps save me making up a better lie on why I have it and am showing it to him. "Well do Night Monkey and Spiderman use the same webs?"

"I mean maybe. Maybe he's a Spider Monkey. Who knows?"

Why can't he just admit it already? Lia was pretty adamant that he needed to see this for some reason. "Look, the truth is—" I don't get to finish as the thing comes to life and projects something. I guess Lia wasn't kidding when she said this was part of something much bigger.

"What was that?"

"I—I don't know." I brush my hair from my eyes and stare at the thing in horror. "She didn't tell me about this."

Even in the middle of our panic, Peter doesn't miss a beat. "She--she who?"

I pretend not to hear him to keep my promise to Lia. "What is it, some kind of projector or something?"

"Yeah, but it's really advanced. How—how did you get this?"

"I found it when I was watching you fighting with Mysterio against that monster."

"Then who were you referring to?"

"It doesn't matter. Why—why did it look so real?"

"Yeah, really real." He mutters as he starts to get lost in thought.

"Wait does that mean—?"

"The Elementals are fake? That doesn't make any sense. Because we were there, right?" Okay, so this is way bigger than I thought, and Lia wasn't exaggerating when she said this was dangerous and urgent. "There was fire and destruction and—who would do something like that?"

The thing comes to life again and projects the same 'Elemental' with—"Mysterio." I whisper as it all clicks into place.

Peter turns around. "I am Spiderman, and I really messed up."

"Wait, you're—you're being serious right now?"

"I know you have a lot of questions, but look, we really have to get out of here, okay?"

"Okay. Okay." I try to process it all as I follow him back. Peter is really Spiderman, which means Lia's really Phantom. Also, Mysterio is a fake?

Seriously, who else is hiding something major? Is Ned secretly the Hulk or something? Are all my friends superheroes? If so, I'm seriously gonna protest—once I make them tell me everything, that is.