Spider-Man: Duty and Loss Chapter 44: Control Part 2

(1 Day later)

Jean stood in Peter's bedroom with her eyes shut tight. In her hand she clutched the ear piece she had taken out 1 hour ago. Off to the side Peter was typing on his computer and thinking to himself. They had tried a few things after she arrived, but nothing had worked.

Just a few minutes ago May and Ben left the house to go shopping. Both of them wouldn't have noticed if May hadn't barged into the room, looked at them funnily for a few seconds, before informing them. Jean's face had gone bright red for a few seconds after that incident, but had gotten back to trying to control her powers soon after.

Peter racked his brain as his thoughts were all over the place, ever now and then he would type into the computer asking Crystal for ideas, she was crunching numbers and coming up with ideas just as fast as he was, but Crystal also discounted 90% of them if they weren't plausible.

For the time being the both of them had only come up with a dozen methods they could try. This had included them looking into psychic techniques online and some research done by governments, that Crystal had hacked into.

Rubbing his eyes in a tired manner, Peter couldn't help but think how hopeless the situation was looking. 'Is it really impossible? Will she have to have the ear piece all the time' As soon as the thought passed through his head, he grimaced and looked at Jean.

She had frowned and was looking in his direction, it was trying for him to keep his thoughts too himself and he didn't want to scare her. Peter reckoned with enough time he might be able to block telepathic intrusion if he trained his mind right. But it would take years. It was much simpler to create a device to keep people out. Plus he was sure if they were powerful enough it wouldn't matter how much he tried.

Stretching his body and telling Jean to take a break for a second, which she happily took, he looked over at the old radio that sat on one of the shelves in his room. It belonged to Uncle Ben, but had been broken for years. When he was younger he had fixed it for fun.

Starring at it as if in a trance, a thought suddenly popped into his mind. Thinking for a few seconds he finally shook his head. 'It couldn't be that simple right?' Typing a small set of words into the computer, Crystal only took a few seconds before she replied. 'It is feasible.' Looking at the words for a few seconds, Peter shrugged, it was worth a try.

Jean was sipping on a cold drink that had been placed on the desk when Peter turned to her. Raising an eye brow at his expression, she finally had to ask. "What?" Peter gave her a small smile. "I have an Idea." Jean groaned for a second at the look on his face, but in the end decided to get it over with.

Though she really didn't want to take the ear piece off for a while. Seeing the painful look in her eyes Peter guessed her thoughts. He spoke up, his smile turning gentler. "This will be the last one ok. After this we'll leave the ear piece on for the week and try next weekend. We can do something fun after this." Jean perked up with his words and without further prompting took out the ear piece.

Wincing as the voices flooded her head again, she focused on Peter. Looking at each other she concentrated on his thoughts. 'Ok Jean, I want you to focus only on my voice.' She nodded her head squinting her eyes. 'Now think of my voice as music coming from a radio. As if it was coming from a speaker, an ear piece. Imagine that and then think of the volume, imagine that it's turned all the way up. And slowly, ever so slowly, turn it down.'

Inside Jeans mind she thought of the dial, the speaker, the sound. A black space surrounded her as she heard Peter's voice speak. In front of her was the dial. Raising her hand and reaching out she grabbed a hold of the dial and turned it down.

Slowly Peter's voice started to fade from her mind before finally it disappeared. With that done, the other voices that plagued her came back and surrounded her. Her image kneeled in pain as the sound bombarded her. But even as she winced in pain, a new dial appeared before her. Gripping it with both fingers she twisted it as fast as she could.

The voices that plagued her finally dissipated and she let out a sigh of relief. The black space disappeared as she opened her eyes and looked up into the eyes of Peter. He had a worried expression on his face, as she had stopped talking a few minutes ago and her body had started shaking. He thought something had gone wrong.

Seeing his expression she smiled and pulled him into a hug. "It worked! They stopped!" A relieved grin broke out on Peter's face as he grinned back. Both jumped in joy from the news, when Jean suddenly winced again.

The voices had returned! 'But why?' Jean nearly had a mental breakdown as the voices returned; she thought she had finally gained control of her powers!

Peter frowned as Jean became distressed once again, but after a few moments of thinking, the smile returned. Reaching down to where she had placed the ear piece, he reached up and placed it in her ear. Jean had a teary face as she looked at Peter for answers.

Peter only nudged her in the shoulder. 'Why the glum face. It was like I said, it's like a muscle, and it'll take time to control. But now we know you can! We can practice later." Peter's smile was infectious and hearing his words, soon jean was also smiling.

'Yes' She thought. 'It wouldn't take long before she could control her power. And then she would know whoever Peter was lying.' A mischievous smile appeared on Jean's face that sent a small chill down Peter's spine, but he brushed it off.

For the rest of the day they stopped training her abilities and focused on what fun things they could get up to. They were both smiling ear to ear as the day finally came to a close.

Chapter end