Spider-Man: Duty and Loss Chapter 24: Revelation

(Present)

"Hey Jean, why that happy face?" A brown haired boy wearing red sunglasses asked the girl sitting next to him. "I'm just remembering some of the memories from my childhood, Scott." Jean, a red haired girl with luscious locks, turned from looking out the window to look at Scott.

Both of them were riding in a car as Logan took the wheel, both being 16 they didn't have a license and couldn't drive themselves. A girl, with brown hair and a small streak of white going through the middle, sat in the front passenger seat and had ear buds in, drowning out the sound around her.

"How long did you live in New York?" Scott who was interested in Jean, in more ways than one, tried to keep the conversation going. Jean gave Scott a smile he didn't think he had ever seen before and started to reminisce. "I lived here for a few years when I was a child; I gained my powers around when I was 10…" her mood turned sad as she remembered something sad. "After my parents accident I had to leave."

Realizing that he had hit a sore point Scott was at a loss for words. "Hey, I'm sorry I brought up such a sad memory." After a little while of depressed sadness Jean shook her head. "No it wasn't your fault." A small smile came back to her lips. "I'm just glad I get to see my best friends again. It's been so many years."

Call it paranoia but Scott felt something was off when she mentioned her 'best friend'. Having certain feelings for her, Scott decided to dig for more information. Jean who was in a happy mood again started to blather on about her childhood and all the adventures she went on. The car continued to close in on New York.

Crystal gave her equivalent of a frown as she looked over her logs of the previous encounter with Jarvis. The created AI of Tony Stark and part of the main security and network of stark industries, by her calculations Jarvis shouldn't of been able to detect her intrusion, unless he was given another 23 hours of upgrades and adaption time.

Either her calculations were off, which they were very rarely, or really never. Or something had accelerated his growth. Mulling it over for a few milliseconds Crystal lamented the fact that she was caught. But way of proxy, being caught hacking their systems while they were following Natasha Romanov, suspicion would be placed on Peter.

Their intervention into his life at such a volatile time would be unsatisfactory. Running a diagnostic on her code and all available facts, Crystal quickly determined that she was in need of immediate upgrade to deal with the increase in Jarvis's protocols.

Crystal always had to stay ahead of the game and upgrade her code continuously, In general this situation would never be a problem, but Crystal hadn't updated her code in a few weeks as she was concentrating on Peter. In such a volatile emotional state, Crystal focused most of her processing power on Peter; the likely hood of a negative outcome was too high for crystals tastes.

Creating a small copy to assist Peter while she updates her code, she estimated the time till she was finished, 8 hours for a full upgrade, and then went about her work. (Project: Butterfly almost complete) The small reminder that she set herself came up just before she started the upgrade.

If it was possible the biggest grin would be plastered on Crystals face at that moment. After that moment passed, Crystal was back to business and commenced her upgrade.

The quiet atmosphere was palpable as Jean, Scott, Logan and Rouge looked at an abandoned home. The suburban house didn't look like it had been lived in for a long time. In front of the house was a small 'for sale' sign, that sent Jean's heart into despair. The happy mood she radiated only moments earlier had completely died out.

She looked around the neighborhood and noted all the things that were the same, her house, the front yard, the small things that only kids would notice while growing up. She felt her eyes tear up slightly as she realized that she wouldn't be able to see him, possible ever again.

Noticing how sad Jean was, Logan walked up from behind and placed a hand on her shoulder. "Sorry kid, doesn't look like your fiend lives here anymore." Doing that Logan walked away and began to make preparations to book a hotel.

Rogue looked around the area in slight interest, while Scott tried to console Jean. "Sorry Jean, I know how much you were looking forwards to seeing your friend." Jean wiped her eyes slowly. "He was there the day I gained my powers; he helped me deal with what I was becoming…." He voice choked up slightly. "I-I didn't think that he would have moved, his family lived here for so long."

"He sounds like a great guy." Scott, almost choked out the words as he said them. Jean cracked a smile. "Yeah, Tiger was a great guy." Scott was confused, that couldn't be his name. "Tiger?" Jean gave a light laugh. "Oh sorry, that's my nickname for him. His name was Peter, Peter Parker. I've known him since I was 5, I'll tell you about him later."

The melancholy started to set in again as Logan finished their arrangements. Rogue got into the car and Scott and Jean made their way over. Just as they were about to enter, the small voice of an elderly woman came from behind. "Jean is that you?" Jean turned around in surprise. "Miss Yates?! Its soo good to see you!"

The old lady that had talked to the duo split a smile as she looked at Jean. "Ohh I knew it was you, never seen someone with such bright red hair and green eyes." The old woman sported a huge smile as she talked to Jean for a short amount of time. Finally though it was time to go, Jean's mood had improved after talking to someone she knew from such a young age. But what Miss Yates said next stopped Jean in her tracks.

"I guess you heard about young Peter and his aunt. Poor kid I hope he's doing all right." Jean almost tore her neck off with how fast she turned. Deep in her eyes a small red glow started to burn as she stared at the woman before her. Her voice stayed calm even though her mind was in utter turmoil.

"What about Peter?"

Chapter end