章 308: Arc Eleven. Chapter Three-Hundred Eight. Stoned Out Of His Mind
Peter ignored the glares he was getting from the Shield HQ staff as he once more walked its corridors. He was used to it when he was a student, and right now he didn't give a crap about what any of these assholes thought of him.
After introducing himself, the receptionist outside Coulson's temporary office motioned for Peter to sit, and he frowned as looked at his phone. He was on time and giving Coulson the benefit of the doubt, he sat down.
After five minutes he stood and shook his head at the receptionist, who just sneered at him but rather than leaving he just barged into Coulson's office.
As she followed him, stuttering apologies for the interruption, Coulson raised a hand,
"It's fine Kate. And took you long enough. Fury and I figured you'd just kick my door down." Peter shook his head as he sat in front of the sparse desk.
"Budget cuts?" Peter joked as he saw the desk was a simple office desk, a phone and a laptop,
Coulson snorted, "Doesn't help when Red Hulk smashes up your office. So Peter, how do we do this?" Coulson asked as he pressed the phone, "yeah two coffees please."
"Do this? Do what? I'm not doing anything." Peter was keeping his senses locked in tight, whatever Coulson was planning wasn't going to be good.
Coulson looked up at the ceiling, stretching his neck, and sighed, leaning forwards.
"It's all been swept under the rug. With Trask's suicide, it was all pushed on him, just like Osborn. The Sentinels were defective, and he pocketed the cash. So now we're left with you. We might not have the proof you're Venom but it doesn't matter. Enough people know, and the people in charge don't like a loose cannon walking around doing whatever it likes."
Coulson slid over a file filled with papers on Peter's powers and the medical data they had managed to collect.
"Your lawyers are good, but it won't save you. When you killed Shaw, and we guess it was you, you got the big boys scared. We can only guess, while you're not the only one who had reason to, you were the only one spotted at Shaw's restaurant the day before the massacre happened."
Coulson paused as the secretary brought in a tray and placed it on the desk, adding sugar and milk to Coulson's but leaving Peters black, "Oh we know the deaths weren't you, not your style but Shaw, yeah nobody would leave someone like that alive once they knew."
"I don't care. If they're scared then good. People who wield power should be, if they are scared of losing it then they don't deserve it. Charles just proved there was someone who could take it away without lifting a finger."
Coulson frowned and sipped his own coffee, "but that's the problem. When they get scared they like to make everyone else scared." Peter shrugged and lifted his coffee, as he sipped it, at least it wasn't poisoned. "You and everyone else are making waves big enough to drown everyone. The Sentinels were on a burner, never to be used until you showed up, and Hammer's drones, and Ultron, and every other idiot with a pen and executive authority."
Peter leaned back in his chair, "So? Then let them do some actual work. Sentinels? Great, but how about not using alien tech to build them. Drones are great, stop letting assholes live test them in a major city. Stark and I might have had our differences, but we didn't start shooting missiles in population centres. That's on the bad guys, you can't pin this on us."
Coulson laughed, "We can and we have. ARCA is being re-written, and Xavier is making sure it's fair, but Enhancements and Augments are different things. All Enhanced will be coming under military jurisdiction, all armour suits will be too. The time of vigilantes is over."
Peter shook his head, "So Stark was right. You want the pie and aren't willing to share."
"It's bigger than that Pete. The US has the biggest collection of known powered individuals, and while other countries are building their teams, they're screaming hell at us as we keep making waves. ARCA was supposed to deflect that, and well, you and Charles took that apart as well."
Peter shrugged, "So we paid for their ineptitude, but all your going to do is make it harder for people like me to live a normal life if they want one. These people have families Coulson, and having your name anywhere linking you to a power puts them at risk. If it was just me, I wouldn't care but you went after my mom. You dragged her into a fight that was nothing to do with her, to get to me, and I can't forgive that."
Peter touched the side of his head, connecting his earpiece, "Do it."
Coulson froze for a second, and as Peter waited he counted down. The monitor on Coulson's desk froze for a second before it crashed and then rebooted.
"Well, while I am sorry the Sentinels failed, it does seem wrong of you to blame me. I mean, just because I use a harness, and Liv worked for Oscorp doesn't mean we had a hand in the destruction."
Coulson blinked a few times as the halo of yellow light circled in his eyes and then faded. "Of course. It was just a formality. We know Trask was contacted by an unknown, we think it was Ultron, but nothing leads to you. The warrants were issued by mistake, but we know Pepper took care of all that."
Peter stood and shook his hand, smiling, "Well, while things aren't great, we might still be able to work with Shield and Sword."
"I think we can work with that, it was good to see you again Peter. Maybe next time we can have a chat under better circumstances." Coulson stood and offered his hand to Peter, who shook it and smiled,
"Sure. Let me get back to you on that," and Coulson nodded as Peter left the office.
He kept everything on his surroundings, making sure he wasn't being watched or followed. Nothing could go wrong with this part, and if it did, it would go wrong in a big way.
As he entered he found the girls, plus Emma, all sat around the breakfast table. Liv was leaning over a laptop, while Emma and Jean were holding hands and the Mind Stone floated between them.
"How did it go?" and the pair floated back down, while Liv nodded,
"Nobody remembers. We found and took care of anyone who knows your Venom, and knows about our identities," Emma said as he looked over,
"Liv?" he asked Liv who was sat next to Ivan and several laptops.
"We got into every file. You'll still have conspiracy nuts comparing you to him, but most files are gone. We did the hack before Emma and Jean so while someone will know it was done, the information regarding it is gone. Nobody knows who we are, except the ones sitting here right now."
Peter sighed a breath of relief, "so now, the Stone." and Emma looked over at him shocked,
"What no, you can't possibly. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity, we could-" but Peter raised his hand,
"We could. But we just screwed with the entire planet. We just attacked the minds of the world and then hacked ourselves into the clear. That's not a good thing. Nobody should have this power, and it's too much of a temptation."
Emma crossed her arms and huffed, "and I suppose you trust me to remove the knowledge of the stone?" but Peter shook his head,
"No. We need it. We erase its location. We had it but now it's gone. There are six of these things, and we have three on Earth. We might need them. I want you to take that knowledge and lock it away, on everyone, even you, and then we leave a trigger."
Emma nodded, "and even with all this power," she said as the Stone floated back over to Peter, "you trust us?"
"Because I have to trust you, just like I trusted her, just like everyone else sat here. " and Peter shrugged, "I love Jean and part of that is trust."
Emma fake fanned herself, "Is that a confession darling, and here's me, my heart all aflutter as such a romantic proposition." and the others laughed to themselves,
"Yeah. there goes the champagne, chocolates, and hour-long hot oil massage then" and Emma frowned and smirked,
"Seriously?" but Peter just grinned and shrugged. Emma tutted, "The champagne was half decent I suppose, and chocolates? How cliche."
Felicia coughed, "I uh, ate them anyway." and the small gathering looked at her, "what, Huntress was hungry, and they were good,"
Peter went pale, "they were about a hundred bucks. So yeah, and a favour to Wanda, which you now owe her." but Wanda scowled,
"You promised. So no, you owe me too." but the group now looked confused,
Wanda tutted. "I have learned to make a portal, Stephen thought it would be good practice." and Wanda showed them her sling ring.
"You can make a portal. That's. Interesting," Liv said but Wanda sighed
"Magic allows a sorcerer to manipulate reality, and yes, I can make a portal," and as she brought her hand around in a circle they were shown the inside of Peter's bedroom. "As long as I can see where I am going I can make one, even if I have never been there before." and Natasha laughed,
"You've definitely been there," but Wanda tutted and cancelled the spell. "So, where else?" and Wanda looked over at Peter who shrugged.
He took a breath, "the champagne was from France, the steaks I bought Gwen were from japan, the chocolate was Belgian. Those wieners we enjoyed were German and the pasta I brought Liv was from Italy."
Gwen put down her cup and frowned, "So what you're actually saying is you went shopping across the world and didn't tell us." Peter hesitantly smiled and nodded.
"Wanda, thank you for the wonderful gifts. Emma, thank you for saving Peter, and Peter." Peter's shoulders slumped as he recognized the tone of Gwen's voice, "thank you for being you." and he sighed, "still in deep shit though, shopping in Italy without us. MJ?" and as he looked at MJ she was frowning
"I would have liked to see the latest fashions."
Nat piped up, "Russian caviar."
Liv "Oh, and Vodka, Ivan did help analyse that metal. Personally, though, I always did want to see Ayers rock."
Carol shrugged, "I don't care, I spent enough time off-world-" but Gwen balled up some webbing and threw it at her,
"Stop being a bore," and Carol laughed.
"Fine, fine. Barbeque, Texas barbeque. Seeing as you're all picking on him."
Peter raised his hands in surrender. "Okay, okay, I get it. Peter bad man. But really, you're asking a lot of Wanda. I don't know magic, Stone or not. I didn't even know it existed until recently."
"It is fascinating though, can anyone learn?" Liv asked and Wanda nodded.
"Learning magic requires focus and dedication. Magic is like anything, if you have no desire to learn you will not." Wanda explained.
"I think I'd still like to learn though, it does seem intriguing," Liv admitted,
Wanda nodded, "I can ask Stephen, I do not think he would like me trying to teach others while I am still a student myself."
"It's fine dear, any time. We have enough of a mess to clean up anyway, and while Pepper is still working the rest of us are staying out of harm's way. We also need to make sure nobody who works for us was affected, and if they were to, make sure Pepper knows about it. Cindy was fuming once they let her go, as was your mother."
He knew. Cindy wanted compensation, which she was told was her job and Matt would be filing harassment charges against the soldier, but his mom hadn't decided what she wanted to be done.
He would have to pay her a visit, as the Mind Stone should have altered both her and Curt's memories as well. She would have forgotten he was Venom, and he decided that while that was okay, letting her forget he had powers wasn't. It would let Curt off the hook about his collar, and Gwen and Liv about their work,
"If you want something to think about Liv, how about this. We know there are six stones right?" and Liv nodded, "and with each one, they manifest a portion of the universe,"
"Yes yes Peter," and he just smiled,
"So if the Mind Stone can be used to create mind control, and the Reality Stone alters the fabric of reality, we can assume that the Space Stone allows the manipulation of space. Then the Time Stone," and he paused to let Liv figure it out herself,
"Time travel? You are postulating that time travel exists because the stone does." and he nodded. "You are a bad man. Sorry Wanda, If that is true then." and she trailed off as her mind began to work, "oh damn you, Peter. Now I have to solve it."
Gwen stared for a moment, "Yeah, I think I'd like to learn though. After my formula days, and everything else, a distraction would be good. Especially if nobody can take it away from me." and Wanda nodded, "Does alchemy exist? I mean, can I make gold?" and Wanda laughed before she stopped and gave Gwen a serious look.
"No making gold."
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