Chapter 5
Ashley relished in the feeling as she soared high over the skies that evening. She had spent most of her afternoon asleep on Matt’s surprisingly comfy couch. After a long nap, she had felt much better than she had in days, and Matt had also forced her to take a shower before she headed on her way. Matt was a good friend to her, offering her a place to stay whenever she needed for however long she needed. There was a part of her that was so very tempted to take him up on the offer on a more permanent basis, but she didn’t want to burden him. And although she had accepted another sandwich from him before she left, she couldn’t pay him for feeding her all the time.
Despite the small wound in her side, that was currently stitched up and bandaged, this was the best she had felt in the last few weeks. So, regardless of Matt’s warnings of rest, she took to the skies, stretching her wings out. The breeze was particularly chilling where the feathers had fallen out and were exposing the bone, but the bullet hole wasn’t causing any huge discomfort.
She decided to do a lap around the city before turning in for the night. She was still injured so she didn’t want to risk making it worse, but she really wanted the freedom that only flying high above the city gave her. As soon as she had entered the district of Queens though, she felt someone following her. One look behind her at a trail of sticky webs on buildings she had soared passed gave her a pretty good idea of who it was that was following her. He wasn’t exactly subtle…
She tried to shake him off, but the little Spider was fast. She didn’t have the energy to out-fly him, so she gave up landing on a rooftop nearby. She turned around to confront the vigilante, who had landed a few metres behind her, arms crossed over her chest. She was determined to do anything she could to get him to leave her alone.
“Why are you following me?” She tried to sound nasty, but even to her ears the tone fell a little flat. God, MJ was so much better at this.
Ashley mostly tuned out when Spider-Man started rambling. However, when he mentioned the bank robbery and the ‘awesome job they did together’, she bristled. She hadn’t asked for him to intervene and she certainly didn’t want to make it a regular thing.
“I had that handled on my own, thank you.” Leave me alone, she begged internally.
“At least give me your name. You know who I am after all.” His voice cracked at the end, pleading with her. This guy couldn’t even pretend to be an adult if he tried…
“I don’t have a name…” She sure as hell wasn’t going to give him her real name. This kid was clearly still at school and possibly might even go to Midtown. Although, Ashley found that unlikely - this guy didn’t seem like the sharpest tool in the shed. “And I’m not a superhero or some vigilante either. I’m just…” what? What was she? Someone looking to let off some steam and use the gifts she had to help others. They sure as hell hadn’t helped herself. She might be a freak, but she didn’t want to be a monster. She didn’t want to be the monster that had chased her family away.
“Looking out for the little guy, right?” Spider-Man had finished the sentence for her, and maybe he wasn’t so dumb. It was a description that seemed to fit her motives. Or at least the motives she had when she first started flying over the city. “That’s what I’m doing too.”
She had to hold in a snort at that. “Is that before or after fighting Captain America and the other Avengers in Germany?” Her question had come out snarkier than intended. Maybe she was finally picking up some things from MJ.
“Th-That was a misunderstanding…” Spider-Man’s voice had softened considerably, his head tilted down looking almost bashful. The sudden mood switch from the cocky, overconfident teen was rather left field from where Ashley was standing. She waited for him to continue, suspecting he had more to say, but was instead surprised when he suddenly took off from the roof, webs flying in all directions as he weaved through the tall buildings.
At first, Ashley was content to just leave it and retreat home. But then she heard the sirens. It sounded like half a dozen emergency service vehicles in the distance. She could leave it – Spidey probably had it covered. But his words echoed in her head. Looking out for the little guy… There could be innocent people getting hurt and she could do something about it.
“Dammit,” she cursed softly before taking off again, wings stretching wide. She caught a flash of blue and red in the distance and fixed her sight on it, following the spandex superhero closely. It wasn’t until she caught a silver Mercedes being tailed by four police cars that she realised what was happening. Clearly the police wanted the driver and his reckless speeding around the crowded New York streets was easily going to get someone killed. She took off into a dive, getting closer to the ground when she passed Spidey and couldn’t resist making a quip.
“Come on Spidey, I could use your help.” The vigilante took off again, swinging close behind her. Ashley had an idea, but she needed to make sure she could protect the civilians. “Spidey, can you get everyone clear? I’m going to stop the car.”
Spidey nodded and took off towards the ground, yelling at everyone to clear out of the area. Ashley meanwhile sped off down the road before landing at an intersection, blocking any traffic from going further. What she was about to do required concentration, which was more focused if she wasn’t also flying. The Mercedes was speeding towards her now, less than half-a-mile away. She closed her eyes, letting her energy focus on the speeding car. As she visualised the inside of the car, purple tendrils reached out, flooding the area. She could see the people that were in immediate danger and could tell when Spider-Man had managed to move them out of harm’s way. With her energy, she applied pressure to the break in the car and it instantly started to slow down. The criminal panicked and turned the wheel, repeatedly pressing his foot on the gas, but Ashley concentrated harder forcing the car to slow, as safely as possible. The car swerved and forced her to dive to the side in order to avoid getting knocked by the bumper. The car finally came to a stop in the middle of the intersection and was immediately surrounded by police.
Spidey landed beside her and extended a hand to help her up. As she stood, she winced, clamping a hand over her left side. The lenses on Spider-Man’s mask expanded, in a rather comical shocked expression. “Hey, you okay?”
“Yeah… yeah I’m fine. Just pulled my side.” She waved him off, although she was fairly certain she could feel blood trickling down her side. Well that was just perfect… She’d torn her stitches.
“That was awesome what you did there! Whoa, we really do make a good team!” Spider-Man was clearly very ecstatic about what had happened. While Ashley was happy that they had stopped anyone getting hurt, she wanted nothing more than to get away.
“No. There’s no team – there’s no we. This was a one-time thing, Spidey.” Ashley became aware that people were starting to gather now, phones out taking videos and photos. “Your adoring fans are here. I think that’s my cue to leave.” Without any further comments from the vigilante, she took off high into the black sky where she could blend in and escaped back to Manhattan, landing by her tent.
She stripped off her clothes and packed them in her school bag, making a mental note to wash them in the gym’s changing rooms after school. She pulled back the gauze over her wound and sure enough there was a steady drip of blood underneath. A couple of the stitches had torn, but the gash hadn’t opened all the way. She sealed the gauze back over her side and practiced some of the meditation poses that Matt had taught her, which should help with healing.
***
Peter was very surprised when Tony was on the phone to him at eight o’clock on Tuesday morning. He was riding the subway to school when his phone buzzed, lighting up with Tony’s name.
“Hey Underoos, get up to anything exciting last night?” Tony’s voice carried a heavy tone of sarcasm.
“I went on patrol last night.” Peter’s voice was quiet, so as not to attract any unwanted attention.
“Oh, I know. You’re all over the news this morning. So, are you going to introduce me to your new friend some time?”
“Ah, about that…” Peter started. “I don’t think she likes me very much.”
Tony sighed deeply on the other end. “There's a lot of people wanting to know who she is, myself included.” There was a long pause on the line. “Just be careful please, kid. She might be dangerous.”
“Of course Mr Stark, but I don't think she's dangerous.”
“Just humour me, kid. You want to swing by for a lab-day after school tomorrow? You can bring Ashley as well if you want.”
That put a huge grin on Peter's face. “Awesome, I can’t wait.”
Tony didn’t bother saying bye before he hung up the phone. Peter was feeling very happy as he met Ned by his locker that morning. He couldn't wait to tell his best friend all about the encounter the previous night.
“Dude!” Ned greeted him loudly just as Peter finished putting his books into his locker ready for the afternoon's classes. “You're all over the TV this morning – everyone is talking about it! Who was that?”
“Ned, keep your voice down,” Peter whispered. He kept his voice low as he recalled the previous night's events. “I don't know her name... She said she didn’t have one. I’m guessing that means like a superhero name, right? I saw her last week stop a bank robbery, which I helped with and then I saw her again last night and started following her, although she didn’t seem to like that very much, but she stopped and then...”
“Dude, take a breath.” Ned held up a hand to briefly silence Peter before he continued his ramblings.
“Yeah, thanks... and then I heard sirens and the police radio, a shooter was trying to get away from the police, so I went to help them catch the guy – turns out he didn’t actually hurt anyone, but he did steal a bunch of cash – and she followed me and told me to clear everyone out the way and then she just stopped the car! There were like these weird purple ropes coming out of her – like smoke and lightning – and she just forced the car to slow down.” By the end of his rant, Peter was a little short of breath. Ned was staring at him, eyes wide in awe as he took in Peter’s story. He had so many questions, but MJ had interrupted them before he could ask a single one.
“Hey losers.”
Peter nervously pecked MJ on the cheek, as despite weeks of dating, the pair weren’t quite sure how to act in public still. Ned grimaced lightly in disgust as they made their way to their first class of the day – Maths. When they got to the classroom, Ashley was already sat in her seat and looking like she was about to murder her desk partner, Flash Thompson. She was scowling at the boy who was taunting her for how ragged her school books were, the edges of the old text books frayed and the corners torn. As soon as MJ had entered the room, Flash was quick to shut up though, because even he knew better than to bully MJ’s best friend in front of her.
As MJ took a seat on the desk next to Ashley’s, she addressed her friend. “Hey, are you feeling better today?” Ashley simply nodded in reply, the teacher choosing that moment to step into the classroom.
MJ didn’t pay much attention in class at all that morning. At first, she sketched her stressed out Maths teacher, but even that was starting to lose its appeal. So, she searched for a new muse, her eyes landing on her best friend. It wasn’t exactly a sketch in ‘crisis’, but it was certainly going to be an emotive one. Her friend was hunched over in her seat, leaning slightly on her right side. MJ delicately sketched out the lines where her friend’s skin was stretched over her face and the near constant furrowing of her eyebrows that seemed to mar her complexion lately. She gently shaded the dark circles and the hooded eyes and the cracked, dry lips. The more MJ studied her, the more she wanted to cry, and it wasn’t long at all before a stray tear smudged her drawing.
Her best friend was wasting away in front of her eyes and MJ hadn’t done anything. She hadn’t even noticed until it had gone too far. After everything Ashley had done for MJ over the years, and she couldn’t even protect her in return. Ashley had been the first person in class to speak to MJ when she transferred to a new school and she had been the first to invite her to play. Ashley had been the first person not to call MJ weird, or call her a nasty name. In fact, she had been the first person to call her MJ and it had stuck ever since, but the name was only reserved for those deemed worthy.
The worst part was MJ knew things had escalated at home for Ashley the past two years. The first time Ashley had showed up at MJ’s front door for a sleepover with bruises, she knew. Even though she hadn’t said anything and in fact insisted one of the kids at school had tripped her up, MJ knew. MJ knew an adult had caused the purple rings that wrapped themselves around Ashley’s wrist and the dark, fist-shaped patches across her arms and legs. MJ knew that sometimes Ashley’s mother slapped her and pushed her around a bit, however this was completely new territory. But while Ashley stuck to her story, MJ felt powerless to help her.
Maybe, if she had spoken up, Ashley wouldn’t be sitting in their Maths class right now looking half-dead.
As the bell rang, MJ closed her sketchbook and quickly tucked it away in her bag. She followed Ashley, Peter and Ned out of the classroom to their lockers, glad that the four of them were so close together. She needed to do something, and maybe with Peter and Ned there too, MJ could find some courage to speak up. But the words died in her throat when Peter spoke first.
“Hey Ashley, how are you?” Peter asked, dispensing his Maths books into his locker in favour of the Biochem report that was due in that day.
“I’m okay, thanks.” Ashley’s voice was quiet as she switched out her Maths books for her Biochem books.
“Cool, um, so… Ashley?” Peter was stuttering over his words, which MJ would have found endearing if she weren’t so confused. What on Earth could Peter be trying to say?
Ashley closed her locker and turned to face Peter, who was starting to go red in the face. She quirked an eyebrow at him in a playful expression. “I already know. I got a text this morning.” Ashley pulled out her flip phone (all three of them were still surprised the decade-old relic got any service) and showed the text she had received that morning from none other than Tony Stark himself.
Iron Man: Lab day tomorrow after school. Happy will pick you and Peter up. Stay for dinner.
MJ sniggered lightly, reading over the text a couple of times. Only Tony Stark could get away with ordering a couple of fifteen-year-olds around and somehow still sound endearing. MJ wondered how Ashley was going to run this one by her parents, when it had been a battle trying to get them to allow her to do Academic Decathlon practice after school. She still remembers the bruises and tired look in her friend's eyes when she came into school the day after she told them. MJ had expected her to say she wasn't going to be able to go, but Ashley's eyes lit up when she told her best friend that they would be joining the Academic Decathlon team together.
“So, are you going?” MJ asked hesitantly. It was a bit of a shock when Ashley simply nodded, a hint of a smile gracing her pallid features. There was no delay, no worried looks and no crestfallen expression. This somehow worried MJ more.