𝐝𝐞𝐣𝐚 𝐯𝐮, peter parker

lxv. how to change fate

chapter sixty-five
how to change fate

"THE DAILY BUGLE Breaking News! I'm now joined by supervisor Walter Burke, who was at the scene of tonight's disturbance. Mr. Burke, you're saying you saw Spider-Man, with your own eyes, destroying multiple power lines?"

"Uh, Yes. Yes, sir, he did."

J. Jonah Jameson sat up straighter in his seat on Ned's laptop screen. He gestured to the camera. "There you have it, folks. Firsthand, from an unimpeachable witness, the Teen Terror attacking our electrical grid."

"Uh... Yeah, he was talking to the Dirt Man."

"Beg your pardon?"

"Yeah, he was talking to the Dirt Man before▬uh▬they worked together to make the Power Monster disappear with what appeared to be a sparkle web. Uh, yep. Thank you very much."

Jameson pursed his lip on the screen. He twiddled his thumbs, not so sure about his 'impeachable' witness anymore. There was a long, awkward pause. "Well ..." he said at last, "... that." He cleared his throat. "We'll have to▬uh▬circle back and confirm this, folks. And I'll talk to my producer to see if we can find out what's in Mr. Burke's thermos... But the fact remains!" He pointed a finger at the screen. "Spider-Man is a menace!

"We'll be right back after a brief word from Daily Bugle Supplements. The only other daily fix you need. Coming up next, Why Does Spider-Man Hate National Landmarks?"

Ned groaned, annoyed and got out of the tab on his computer.

They had to stay at the undercroft overnight. MJ managed to come up with a pretty good excuse to all of their parents that they were all staying at Peter's for the night (or Happy's), and since both May and Happy had an idea of what they were doing, they could cover their backs. Nina didn't like to lie to her parents, especially after all that had happened, but she had a feeling that if she had to tell the complete truth to them, that is what will surely break her. Felicia brought them actual dinner, this time, and Ned tried to figure out if there was a way they could feed their prisoners (since none of them had any magical abilities to put a hole in the magical barriers to slide food through). In the end, Nina found out that the barriers were one-sided. Confused and wondering how any of this was abiding by any laws in science, she handed out takeaways to the supervillains. She didn't exactly know what a giant Lizard ate, so she gave him the honey chicken. When she passed fried rice to the Sandman, Nina felt a breath of sympathy when she watched his hand pass right through the container▬and sand poured around the plastic and onto the ground.

"Oh," she murmured, suddenly feeling a little inconsiderate. "I'm sorry. I didn't think."

"It's okay," muttered the Sandman in a gruff tone. "I'm used to it. Good thing my appetite disappeared when my stomach became sand, too."

Nina stared at him. She couldn't help it. She has never seen him in her dreams of these other realities. Unlike the Lizard, Doc Ock and Electro, Nina held no memories and no recognition. He was a complete stranger. And perhaps that was why she felt a little bit more comfortable▬and yet it scared her at the very same time; she was in a limbo of confusion, curiosity and hesitance. "How ... What happened? If you don't mind me asking?"

"I ..." he hesitated, watching her with the same curiosity behind eyes that were made up of grains of sand▬just like everything else about him. "I fell into a particle accelerator experimenting with sand while it was on ..."

Nina's breath hitched in her slight awe. "Somehow it bonded you with sand at a molecular level ..." she shook her head, unable to believe it. "That's ..."