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“She’s been searching for one word,” Yelena paused for dramatic effect, “V-max.”
“V-max?” Peter knew that, “like the Pokémon cards??”
“The what?” Yelena questioned.
“Pokémon?” Peter remembered spending countless hours playing the video games and hunting cards with Ned, “Pocket-Monsters? The game.”
“Sad man what are you talking about?”
“It’s a card game,” Peter then realized that Jean Grey was most likely after Pokémon cards, “you know what, it doesn’t matter. Thank you for your help.”
Peter shifted to get out of the pool. What an office this was. He stepped into the locker room to dry off.
After exiting the room, he saw that Yelena was still sitting there waiting for him.
“Is there something else?” He questioned, confused.
“No Spiderman, go handle your small potatoes,” Yelena smiled, “and go make some friends so you’re not so sad yeah?”
“I have friends!!!” Peter snapped back.
“Sure you do,” Yelena smirked, “do you play your little card games together?”
“Uh huh bye Yelena.”
Peter grabbed his suit and walked out the door. What could V-max possibly mean? Jean couldn’t be after Pokémon cards; or could she? Maybe she was the greatest evil of all: a scalper.
Peter quickly shook off that train of thought. She had literally taken people’s minds over. He had to stop her; and stop thinking about Pokémon.
————————————————————
After getting out of the hospital, Peter made his way back to his apartment. Even with his sluggish movements and labored breathing, he was glad to be free. Away from the many people that could see his face.
As he walked, his thoughts began to wander. He thought of Frank and how he’d fired that shot. Peter honestly didn’t blame him. He saw a threat, he tried to fight it; Peter just stood in the way. He thought of Ned and MJ who were caught in Jean’s weird mind freezing stuff. He wondered what it was like for them. Did she make them relive memories or did their brains just stop?
His train of thought eventually wandered to Jean herself. He hoped she was okay, wherever she ended up. He’d saved her life and she’d saved his.
Finally making it to his building, Peter sighed in relief. He was safe here. Safe from everyone but himself at least, and, for now, that’s all he could ask for.
After entering his room and plopping down on his couch, Peter saw his phone screen light up. He glanced at it to see an unknown caller id. Weird, Peter didn’t usually get spam calls. Something was telling him to pick this one up.
“Peter?” A female voice called from the other end of the line.
“Jean??” Peter cried in response. How had she gotten his number???
“Peter!” She sounded a lot happier now, “sorry to scare you, your number was kind of just circulating in your head so I remembered it.”
“I- it’s all good Jean, what’s up?” Peter sighed. Why couldn’t his life just be normal for once.
“I just wanted to make sure you’re okay and wanted to let you know I’m okay.”
“I’m as good as I can be right now,” Peter rubbed the back of his neck. He could still feel the wound as if it was fresh.
“I’m sorry,” Jean blurted out, “I’m so sorry for everything I did. I know it was wrong, but I was just so broken. I’d lost everything and all I wanted was my sister back. We just wanted to live normally and be free but then she was just gone and you got shot and I just-“
“Hey,” Peter cut her off, “Jean it’s okay. If I had to take that bullet a million times over, I would.”
“Why.”
“Look Jean, I’m not gonna sugar code it. You’ve done some pretty terrible things. You’ve hurt a lot of people. But a lot of people have hurt you too. The pain you carry, I get it. I get wanting to burn down the world.
“After Aunt May died, I was in a dark place. I almost killed the person responsible in cold blood, and it took another version of me to help me snap out of it. I believe that this doesn’t define you Jean. You’re not a bad person. You’re living in a world that’s so against you without any support. If I can make a difference in that, why shouldn’t I?”
“What if I don’t deserve it?” Jean’s voice was small.
“You absolutely deserve it.” Peter left no room for argument, “someone once told me that with great power comes great responsibility. If you are making a change to understand and live by that, why shouldn’t you deserve that chance to do good?”
They sat in silence for a few minutes as Jean took the time to think over what he said. Peter didn’t really know what else to say. The poor girl was going through so much at such a young age. Peter really wanted to help her.
“Hey,” Peter said, wanting to make Jean feel better, “you wanna know something?”
Jean hummed in response.
“When I first talked to Yelena about you she told me you were looking for V-max,” Peter really hoped she’d be okay talking about this. He hadn’t really thought this through.
“It turned out to be a fucking vent,” Jean growled, “the last fucking thing my sister saw.”
Peter felt less sure about what he was about to say but he’d already brought it up, so he kept going.
“That’s awful.” Peter was trying hard to tread lightly, “honestly, when I first heard about it, I thought you were searching for Pokémon cards.”
Jean suddenly burst out laughing, “Pokémon cards??? Of course you did you nerd.”
“Hey they’re super popular!!” Peter defended, but that just made Jean laugh harder. Hey! He was allowed to like Pokémon!
“Oh Sara would’ve loved that,” Jean managed to get out as her laughing died down.
“She sounds awesome.”
“She was,” a pause, “you actually remind me of her a little.”
“Really?”
“Yeah, you’re both protectors and always looking out for others.”
Peter sat with that for a moment. That was probably the highest honor Jean could bestow. Peter was so glad that everything worked out.
“Alright I’ve gotta go,” Jean cut in after another minute, “thank you Peter.”
“Anytime Jean.”
“I’ll be sure to get you Pokémon cards next time I see you.”
“Yeah? Okay Jean,” Peter rolled his eyes, then added, “stay safe.”
“You too spidey.”
Hanging up the phone Peter let out a loud sigh and smiled. He finally had people to talk to. He got to hang with Ned again, even if Ned didn’t know it was him. He was at least cordial with MJ. He had Frank, and now Jean. His life was finally looking up.