But… It’s me! The real Spider-Man!

Eventually, after learning the details of what was going on, Mary Jane expressed a desire to go to Parker Industries with me. I mean, she herself was sure that it was entirely her own wish. I did not intend to persuade her otherwise, for by doing so she had made my plans much easier. This way it would be easier for me to protect her, if necessary. As they say: he who prepares for peace, prepares for defeat. In fact, the question was very much on my mind, and I was well aware that it might be a problem if M. J. disagreed with me on the matter. Fortunately the girl was reasonable, though something tells me that curiosity and a desire not to be the last to know the truth, rather than safety concerns, influenced her decision far more.

We climbed out the window, following an established tradition... I went down first, just jumped to the ground from the second floor, now that I didn't have to hide from M.J. When the girl sat on the window sill, her legs dangling into the void, I silently gestured for her to do the same, spreading my arms out, hinting that I could catch her.

"I can go down myself," Mary Jane said, a little embarrassed.

"Come on, it'll be more fun," I encouraged the girl.

M.J. looked around feverishly, as if she were afraid someone might see her. As if she was about to do something embarrassing... though I guess she was, but who cares about the boundaries set by others, I can see that it's still the same Mary Jane I knew in my world. Finally, she jumped.

I picked the girl up lightly in my arms, and instead of lowering her to the ground, I held her close to me and kissed her.

"You make me feel so weak..." she whispered as we pulled away from each other.

"You mean beloved?" I smiled back.

After another brief kiss, we headed toward the car we'd left in the backyard-where I'd once encountered first the ambush of Bobby and her companions and then the ridiculous attempted robbery.

"I thought I wouldn't see you today," Wanda smiled at us with a sly smile as she blew a cloud of cigarette smoke in our direction.

"It was a long talk," I said as I opened the back door of the car for M.J.

The girl looked at me a little sideways, but didn't say anything. She blamed all my weirdness on the fact that I was an alien from another reality. That wasn't what I wanted when I opened up to her, but I couldn't complain. Another girl in her position could have thrown a tantrum, or not believe me at all, or just break off the relationship, after all. As it was, it was pretty peaceful. In fact, Mary Jane took the shocking news even more calmly than the others. "So that's why you were always getting involved in all this superhero stuff," she said when I was done pouring my heart out.

"We know that kind of talk," Wanda went on, insinuating that we weren't talking there at all.

"I mean it. Mary Jane knows everything now," I said as I settled down next to my girlfriend and put my arm around her shoulders. M.J. nodded in acknowledgement of my words.

"Oh..." Wilson shook her head with a flick of her cigarette butt on the sidewalk, "I didn't think you'd really tell. So what have you decided? What are your plans for the future?"

"The same," I shrugged, "we're going to the lab. M.J. will be under my protection until the apostles' problem is solved."

"Makes sense," the mercenary agreed, and started the engine.

"Is your mom okay with that?" Bobby glanced anxiously at Watson.

"I left her a note..." M.J. replied with an awkward smile, "By the way, Peter didn't mention that... did you find Sarasti? Our physics teacher."

"The one who got into a fight at school," Bobby recalled, "she's weird. I wanted to treat her wounds, you know, with a symbiote, but it turns out she was already starting to heal on her own. I don't know what she is, but she's definitely not human. Also... I'm not quite sure what this means, but Venom says she thinks... strangely, not like a human or any other known intelligent creature."

Hmm, a known intelligent being? Interesting, since I've never asked Venom about her home galaxy, what creatures live there besides her kind. I'll have to correct that omission when I have some free time.

"Fury was talking about this woman," Bobby continued in the meantime, "They tried to ask us about her in the Shield, too..."

"Isn't she an agent herself?" wondered Wanda sincerely, drawing everyone's attention to herself, "I asked Captain Stacy about her, she was taken from the hospital before she regained consciousness... I thought: that's because she was an undercover agent."

"I didn't look for information about her specifically," and this is actually a significant oversight on my part, "but she was in the same complex as you. Also in a special cell, but I don't know more than that..."

"So we don't know who she is or why she was trying to protect you?" Wanda summed it up.

"Well, I wouldn't say she was protecting anyone," I tried to remember the events of the day in as much detail as possible, "the sleeping gas had no effect on her and that's how she attracted the attention of Daisy - that was the name of the commander of the attackers - and then she was just protecting herself. She didn't make a single move to protect any of the students... unless she was running away from the kids so no one would get shot, I don't know if she did it on purpose."

"So she could be an accidental victim..." Bobby frowned, "just like us, just in the wrong place at the wrong time.

"It looks that way," I agreed.

"And now the Shield has her."

***

By the time we arrived at the Parker Industries building, it was well into the evening. During my absence, the company, with my last name in the name, had grown noticeably more solid. I could see it right away: even the security post had grown bigger. Where previously a couple of OzCorp security guards had been bored, there was now a full-fledged checkpoint. Connors and Osborne have not ceased their activities in my absence. Though with Norma, we shouldn't let our guard down. I have no idea how reliable the compulsion is or how long it will last, but for now I can only rely on the sensitivity of the infiltrator symbiote left in the woman's body.

The guards wouldn't let us through. Wanda was the only one of our group who had a clear pass into the building-Bobby had only been here with me, and she hadn't issued her own pass, and I didn't want to reveal myself yet. In the end, we had to distract Karen from her work so she could personally order us not to be detained.

By the way, Professor Connors was surprisingly calm about Wanda's call and didn't even question why Wilson brought Mary Jane and an unknown guy with her. Seriously, she didn't show an ounce of surprise or doubt, as if she'd been expecting something like this all along.

Damn, how much has changed around here in this time. It's not Stark Tower yet, or even OzCorp headquarters, but the solidity and high-tech luster are apparent from the first seconds you' been in the main office of the building. Well, someday all of this will really come in handy. I mean, for now, the building is off-limits to outsiders. I insisted on that at the very beginning of the planning process, because too many stories started with someone breaking into OzCorp, pretending to be a loitering gaper or an admiring student or some other journalist... and I've done that myself, and not once, and not without good reason. I hope I don't have to hide as many dirty secrets under this gloss as I did at OzCorp.

At least the internal staff is familiar to me, I noted with some satisfaction. Given the importance of our developments, Connors has to be very careful about the loyalty and suitability of our employees. And yet, both the Shield and the Apostles have managed to send their spies to us and bribe some of the workers, some of whom I even know by name... but there's nothing I can do about it - if I fire some of them, others will come to take their place - all in good time. For now, it remains to use my knowledge to control the activities of the residents themselves, and in vain to dream of such a multifunctional assistant as Stark's AI assistant, who could replace entire departments of potential defectors. No, I'm certainly not paranoid, but having looked at the process from the other side, having seen the surveillance material with my own eyes, it's not pleasant...

We found Karen in her office. The woman looked tired and exhausted, which made me feel a prick of conscience. I had promised her patronage of the lab-a place where she could devote herself to research-and instead Connors had to take over my work. But I've got a good excuse... I was practically killed.

"I see your search was successful," Karen said, turning to Wilson and giving Bobby a quick look over her glasses... the kind of big boss look that knew all your transgressions, even the ones you didn't know about or hadn't committed yet. She's clearly getting into character.

"Even more than that, Prof." Wanda unceremoniously sprawled out on the sofa against the wall, like an audience member waiting for a show, and she was looking at me, which didn't escape Connors' attention... oh, do I have to go through this again? Shit.