Spider-Man: Duty and Loss Chapter 41: Awakening Part 2

The pain in Jean's head got worse as time went on, and so did the brightness in her eyes. By now it was easy for Peter to tell that something else was happening. People's eyes didn't just glow like that!

Clutching her head in pain Jean heard Peter speak from the side. 'What do I do? Jean needs help! Should I call an ambulance! Aunt May. Maybe Crystal knows what I should do! This all doesn't make any sense! Why are her eyes shining?

"Peter would you please stop talking." Jean groaned out after a few seconds, the non-stop talk from Peter was starting to get to her. 'What is jean talking about, I haven't said anything.' "Yes you have. You keep talking about what you should do." 'OMG did she just read my mind!' Hearing what Peter said this time, Jean finally looked at Peter again.

'No that's not possible.' Jean's eyes widened as she looked at Peter standing next to her. He hadn't opened his mouth when she heard that. 'It's not scientifically possible right' 'But that would be soo cool.' While Jean's eyes were still wide trying to come to terms with what was happening, Peter started to come up with multiple theories into how this was happening.

He wasn't a genius for nothing. 'Ok if you can really read my mind, Remember that one time I came to play over at your house…" A few seconds later. *Smack* Peter rubbed the side of his arm and had an apologetic face. "That was my favorite doll!" Jean shouted in indignation at Peter's omission. She had wondered where it had gone.

"I'm really sorry! But this proves you can read my mind! That's soo cool!" Jean just pulled a strained face. "Maybe not…Urgh." Her head was still throbbing in pain. Soon it wasn't just Peter's inner voice she could hear, she started hearing even more people.

The voice kept talking, thinking, going on and on. Peter noticing that Jean was in even more pain and kept trying to think of a solution, but that made the problem even worse. After another few minutes, finally the pain in her head died down. Jean let out a sigh of relief as the burning pain stopped, but there was a problem.

She could still hear the voices!

Trying to explain the situation to Peter, while she was distracted by the voice, finally a lightbulb went off in Peter's head. It wasn't a guaranteed method, but it was worth a shot. He remembered a documentary he had seen just recently on TV.

The voices where starting to overwhelm Jean at this point, so Peter quickly ran down the stairs and grabbed a foil of aluminum. It was a long shot in Peter's head but he was smarter than the average 10 year old. He reckoned that Jean was now able to either pick up or project a type of energy. And the documentary the other day, about UFO's detailed why people wore aluminum foil hats. It was supposed to block the energy used to probe minds.

Now for an adult it may seem stupid to even consider that idea, but Peter was 10 years old, and had enough know how in science to make the plan, and was young enough to believe something he learned on late night television.

Running back up the stairs, almost tripping over, he burst into the room and quickly started to roll out the foil. Wrapping it around her head like a bandage, before covering the top; surprisingly it worked!

The voices in Jeans head started to calm down before finally disappearing. The fever that she had was almost completely gone and she wasn't sweating anymore. The pain in her head was gone, so whatever had caused Jean to be sick, stopped once she started reading minds.

Even her eyes had returned to their usual green color. Peter wasn't 100 percent sure that the change in eye color had caused what happened, but he did have his suspicions. He didn't want Jean to have to go through something like that again, so he promised himself, that he would try and find a way to help her, with whatever 'that' was.

Of course it was later that they both found out that what Jean went through, was possibly the awakening of her Mutant powers. And because mutants weren't a rare occurrence, though mostly hated by the general public, Peter scrapped the idea to help her. Once her powers were awakened, it shouldn't cause her problems in the future, or so he thought.

Finally with the voices out of her head, Jean let out a smile and relaxed. Sufficient to say aunt May was very surprised when she got back and saw that Jean had made a full recovery. She still insisted she stay in bed all day, and take more medication, but nothing else happened.

At the time Both Peter and Jean stayed quiet about what happened. They knew it wasn't normal to be hearing people's voices, or having glowing eyes. They kept it to themselves, a secret between the two. What was concerning was the foil hat. Jean had it on the whole time after Aunt May got back. She didn't ask why and assumed it was something the kids were messing around with.

The problem was, she couldn't keep it on forever, and if she took it off, it was certain she would start hearing voices again. For the rest of the day, the 2 started to brain storm ideas, to solve the problem. Peter being the genius he was, started to consult Crystal and the internet for solutions.

Chapter end