Chapter 9: Chapter 9
If anyone reading this story lives in New York or Hell's Kitchen, please note that I'm not actually hating on either of them irl. I love NY and Hell's Kitchen is actually very nice. In Marvel, that is not the case. It's basically the Gotham City of Marvel. Just wanted to put that all out there…
Anyways, enjoy the chapter.
Ch 9:
–Shadow–
It's amazing how much a single day can change your life…
Shadow thought about that as she sat next to Satsuki while they rode the train to Queens. They were on the way to purchase a PC for Satsuki that Shadow had found on Craigslist.
If someone had told her a few days ago that she would suddenly have a new friend and roommate, she would not have believed them. Shadow could admit that she had not been in a great place mentally. She put on a happy/tough front for her new roommate. Only Shadow knew how close she had been on the verge of breaking down mentally. She had been utterly alone for 2 months, resorting to stealing just to survive. She couldn't even make friends with any other street kids because they were all too afraid of her powers.
The first person to not be afraid of her powers and actually call them "cool" was Satsuki. The younger girl would never know how much that single statement meant to Shadow.
The night that Shadow met Satsuki was eerily similar to the very first night on the streets after she had been kicked out by her parents. It was a night that she would never forget, it was the night that she became a killer for the first time…
Her parents had just thrown her out with nothing but the clothes on her back. Those clothes weren't much. She remembered that she was borderline freezing, wandering the streets looking for anywhere warm. She remembered being absolutely terrifying when two scary men jumped out and grabbed her out of nowhere! She could barely scream before they covered her mouth. They forcefully dragged her into a dark alley while laughing to themselves about all the horrible things they were going to do to her.
Had Shadow been any other girl, that might have been the end of her own tragic story. It was ironic then, that the very powers that had caused her predicament in the first place ended up saving her. Shadow didn't have very good control of her powers back then. She remembers lashing out at the two men with everything she had.
She remembers almost vomiting as she watched dark tendrils spring forth from every nearby shadow, and proceed to violently tear the two men apart…
She remembers digging through the remains of the two men and pulling out their bloodied wallets. The cash inside, that wasn't stained in blood, allowed her to get a cheap hotel room and a hot meal to survive the freezing night. That night, it had been well below freezing in the city, and she was sure she would have died otherwise.
Other people might hate their own powers. Shadow did not. She actually loved them. They allowed her to survive in this world. They also allowed her to meet her new friend currently sitting next to her on the train. Even before becoming a mutant, Shadow had never quite fit in or clicked with other kids. She found that with Satsuki, they connected almost instantly.
"So what type of pizza do you like?" Satsuki asked her, dragging her from her thoughts.
"I like Hawaiian pizza." Shadow told her. She laughed at the gagging face Satsuki made. She didn't care about other people's opinions. Hawaiian pizza was good! She loved the sweet tanginess it had!
"Ew…Pineapple and pizza do not go together! It's wrong!" Satsuki proclaimed indignantly.
Shadow scoffed playfully. "Whatever… What type of pizza do you prefer then?" She asked Satsuki. Shadow realized that she didn't actually know that much about her new friend, and needed to do her best to rectify that. Pizza preferences were always a good place to start.
"Meatlovers is the best! Pepperoni, bacon, ham, sausage, steak! There's no better toppings in the world!" The younger Asian girl declared.
Shadow scoffed playfully. "They might as well rename Meatlovers to Gout-lovers. That's what you're going to get from that much meat!" She said with a grin.
"Gross, Shadow! Don't put that image in my head and ruin my favorite pizza!" Satsuki replied with a grimace.
Shadow smiled. The past two months of her life hadn't been great, but right now she could admit that she was having fun. She reached over and playfully shoved Satsuki who laughed and shoved her right back.
…
–Satsuki–
I took a second to stretch after we hopped off the train. It wasn't a long ride, but the train car was incredibly bumpy and I was pretty skeptical on how safe the tracks in this city actually were. The city lost millions of dollars in business whenever the trains had to be shut down. Because of that, they only were repaired whenever they broke down and had to be.
"Do we need to call a cab, or can we walk from here?" I asked Shadow. I had gotten a good nap earlier and I didn't mind walking if it wasn't too far away.
"We can walk. The pizza place is only three blocks from the train station." Shadow told me and I followed after her.
My first impression of Queens in this Marvel Universe was that it was a lot nicer than Hell's Kitchen was. The streets were a lot cleaner and the people walking them looked like they had a lot more disposable income. Obviously there were plenty of businesses in Hell's Kitchen–how else would I have gotten my new clothes? The businesses in this neighborhood just seemed to have a lot more customers comparatively.
Shadow and I reached the pizzeria, which seemed more like a family restaurant in my opinion. The parking lot was full of cars and I could see numerous families eating inside. We walked inside and looked around.
"Hi, girls! Welcome to Cecily's! Table for two?" The hostess asked us.
"We're actually meeting someone here. Can we get a booth?" Shadow asked.
"Certainly! Right this way." She led us inside.
Shadow and I sat down on one side of the booth and the waitress handed us menu's with a smile. We could order wherever we were ready.
Shadow actually looked like she might have been drooling a bit as she stared at the pictures on it. "Oh my god, Satsuki! It's been so long since I've had actual good food! I hated being broke so much!" She lamented.
"I'll be making it my personal objective for us to never be again. There's plenty of criminals in this city and I have no qualms about relieving them of their ill gotten money." I explained. There was just something so satisfying about taking down those thugs earlier and taking all their money. It was almost like playing Skyrim in real life now that I thought about it.
"You have to have amazing luck or something." Shadow stated. "I told you that I've been picking pockets for weeks now and never got even close to the amount of money you got in only one day."
"Maybe I'm just one of those people who's destined to live in interesting times. I think the trouble is going to find me regardless of what I do from now on." I said with a shrug. I was starting to think that was the case more and more actually. I had been in this world less than two days and already so much had happened to me. It couldn't have all been a coincidence, could it?
"Is that so? Have you fully committed on becoming a 'hero'?" Shadow asked me as she set down her menu on the table.
I shook my head. "I was never planning on becoming some flawless comic book hero. Not that I'm planning on becoming a villain either." I told her. "I don't think I could ever go out of the way to harm innocent people, but I also don't think I would be willing to risk my life for people I don't know either. I'm not sure I would have saved those kids had I not actually known them personally…" I said. Did that make me a bad person?
Shadow read the expression on my face and smiled at me. "Not wanting to risk your life doesn't make you a bad person. Just because you've been blessed with powers doesn't mean you have to use them for other people either. I told you that I tried to be a hero, and that it didn't work out like in the stories. The people you save are not always grateful to you."
"Well, the kids were definitely grateful to me and Elektra at least." I said with a smile. Emily and the other foster kids ended up going with Elektra when we split up earlier. The older woman claimed to have the connections to find a safe place for the children. She also told me that she would handle Ruth and any police if Ruth had even bothered contacting them about me. That was good news for me. It meant that there wouldn't be a warrant for my arrest–at least anytime soon. Who knows what the future would hold for me?
"That's good." Shadow said to me before her phone dinged. She had connected it to the restaurant's wifi so she could get emails. She glanced down at it. "Our guy is here. Over there." She pointed towards the front of the restaurant.
I saw that two teenage kids around my current age and an older man chaperoning them had just walked in. One of the teens was holding a PC in his arms–although he looked to be struggling with its weight. The other teen was a girl with blond hair and wearing glasses. She was staring at her phone. She glanced over towards our table after Shadow messaged where we were. Shadow waved their group over towards our table.
The three of them walked over towards us.
"Hi there!" The girl said to us. "Are you ShadowStalker5567?"
I snickered at Shadow's online username. She pouted at me.
"Yes…that's me." She said with a slight blush of embarrassment. "You can just call me…Amy." She told them in almost a mumble.
Amy? Was that her real name? I glanced at her curiously and the red tinge on her cheeks told me that yes–that was her real name. Such a cute and innocent sounding name honestly didn't fit her in my opinion. I could understand why she preferred to go by her other name.
"Hi Amy, I'm Gwen. This is my friend Peter. It's his computer you're buying actually. Oh, and this is Peter's Uncle Ben." Gwen told us.
Get the fuck out of here…
How…?
No, seriously! How!! I met Elektra earlier this morning and now Peter Parker and Gwen Stacy somehow are the ones showing up as the sellers from a random Craigslist ad that Shadow found!? The odds of that are astronomical! Something strange is definitely going on with my new life! Interesting times indeed…
Gwen Stacy was not aware of the existential crisis I was currently having and continued talking. "Peter's Uncle is here to make sure the two of us don't get robbed or murdered because he doesn't think Craigslist is safe for people our age." Gwen told us with a smile that did not match the words she just said. This girl was a bit mischievous.
"Gwen! Don't just tell people that!" Peter exclaimed in embarrassment.
Uncle Ben sputtered when Shadow and I stared at him after Gwen's comment. "I–I didn't mean it like that. I wasn't expecting the person buying Peter's old computer to be two younger girls… I'll just go sit at the bar and let you kids work out your own stuff." He said with a sigh and walked off to get a drink. Despite our actual abilities, Shadow and I didn't look remotely threatening.
Gwen slipped into the booth seat across from us. Peter sighed and sat next to her. His PC was sitting on the floor next to our table. I glanced down at it. I didn't recognize its brand, it was some brand that was clearly specific to this world.
"Hi again! Like I said, I'm Gwen. I don't recognize either of you two. Are you from Queens? Do you go to Midtown high like us? Peter and I are Freshmen. We're both 14." Gwen said with a smile.
"Hello, I–I'm P–Peter Parker…" Peter said to the two of us with a small stutter. His eyes glanced at Shadow before settling longer on me for a moment. He quickly glanced away when I noticed him staring at me.
I wondered what that was about?
"Awe… Someone has a little crush on you." Shadow whispered in my ear with a giggle. "How cute."
Wait…? Seriously!? I glanced at Peter Parker again and noticed that he still wasn't meeting my eyes. He was acting…pretty much like a typical shy teenager with a crush actually. I think Shadow might have been on to something.
Oh right…
With everything that had happened, I had somewhat forgotten that I was now a very pretty 14 year old girl. If there was one thing Uchiha's were known for, it was our looks after all.
Not that I would ever willingly change my new circumstances, or want to go back to my old life! If I had a choice in being a beautiful mutant with awesome powers in the Marvel Universe or being a mundane corporate wage slave in my boring old world then of course I'd pick the first option every time!
Gwen Stacy noticed as well and was smirking at Peter next to her. He shrunk down a bit in his seat from having three girls all staring at him.
I decided to do the mature thing and pretend like I didn't notice his crush. If I don't acknowledge it, then it doesn't exist! Romance was the last thing on my mind right now, let alone teenage romance…
Shadow gave Peter some pity and went back to talking with Gwen. "I'm Ami and this is Satsuki." She introduced the two of us again. "We don't live in Queens or go to Midtown High. We're actually from Hell's Kitchen." Shadow told them. Maybe she shouldn't have in hindsight.
They both suddenly looked at the two of us with pity and it was a bit offensive. "Oh…Hell's Kitchen? That's nice…" Gwen said with a forced smile. As the daughter of a police officer, she'd probably been warned by him to stay away from our neighborhood. "Anyways, why don't we get back to why we're all here? To make a sale! We brought the PC, do you two have the cash?"
"Of course, we've got it right here…"
XXX
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